England- If the Alex Polier story is true, then Sen. John Kerry can pretty much kiss the White House goodbye. According to a story in the British tabloid The Sun, Polier recorded an interview in December in which she gives all the details about her affair with Kerry in the spring of 2001.
According to The Sun story, Polier taped a talk with a US TV network at Christmas although the network isn’t identified. The channel is, allegedly, sitting on the tape until it has enough evidence to back her story. Meanwhile, The National Enquirer has pretty much stayed away from the story.

As reported in The Nation out of Africa: The young intern at the centre of a furore involving United States presidential hopeful John Kerry is hiding out in Kenya.

Alex Polier, 24, has been in the country for the past few weeks visiting her fiancee, Mr Yaron Schwartzman, who works with FilmStudios, along Nairobi’s Ngong Road.

Ms Polier, who could end Senator John Kerry’s hopes of becoming the next president of the United States, is alleged to have had a two-year affair with the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

“This is not going to go away,” one American friend of Ms Polier said yesterday. “What actually happened is much nastier than is being reported.”

The allegations come at a crucial time for the senator. Polls showed him leading Mr Bush by 52 per cent to 42 per cent, and aides will be anxious to see if the apparent scandal affects his standing among voters.

Ms Polier, a former intern who also spent some time in 1998 doing work experience at the Houses of Parliament in London, is in Kenya staying with Mr Schwartzman.

It was not immediately clear what Mr Schwartzman does at FilmStudios. Efforts to contact the family home in the leafy suburb of Lavington were fruitless.

Miss Polier and her fiance were believed to be hiding at the Nairobi home of Mr Schwartzman’s parents, who moved to Kenya from Israel.

Mr Joseph Schwartzman is the chairman of the H Young group of companies. His wife, Hannah, is described by friends to be a devout Jew who was hoping to see her future daughter-in-law convert to Judaism before the wedding ceremony planned for some time later in the year.

The Nation has established, however, that the couple were students together at Columbia University in New York.

Both have refused to make any comment on her alleged links with Senator Kerry, who is married to Teresa Heinz Kerry, heiress to a food empire.

Senator Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran dubbed the new JFK, has vehemently denied any relationship with Miss Polier and shrugged off allegations that he had a two-year affair with her from 2001. He said: “I just deny it categorically. It’s rumour. It’s untrue. Period.”

Mr Kerry flatly denied swirling rumours about an extramarital affair, assuring backers that his campaign was not vulnerable to a sudden sex scandal.

Mr Kerry, married once before, was something of a playboy after his divorce, dating starlets Morgan Fairchild and Catherine Oxenberg.

Mrs Heinz-Kerry, who has been a fixture on the campaign trail, is no shrinking violet. She once told a writer for Elle magazine that she would jokingly warn her first husband that if he ever strayed, “I’ll maim you. Not kill you, just maim you.”

Mr Kerry, 60, has won 12 out of the 14 Democratic primaries and has looked all but certain to seal the nomination to take on President George W. Bush in November’s elections.

His aides have blamed a dirty tricks campaign for bringing the allegations about Miss Polier into the public eye; they first surfaced last week on a right-wing internet site, the Drudge Report, which famously first broke the news of Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Ms Polier’s parents, Terry and Donna, from Malvern, Pennsylvania, added fuel to the fire by claiming that Mr Kerry did pursue their daughter.

Said Mr Polier: “I think he’s a sleazeball. I did wonder if she didn’t get that feeling herself. He’s not the sort of guy I’d choose to be with my daughter. John Kerry called my daughter and invited her to be on his re-election committee. She talked to him and decided against it.”

The Drudge website also quoted retired Gen Wesley Clark, one of Mr Kerry’s rivals for the nomination, as having told journalists off the record: “Kerry will implode over an intern issue.”

Mr Clark later dropped out of the race and endorsed Mr Kerry.

Miss Polier, a journalist who once worked for Associated Press, apparently met the senator as she was beginning her media career.