Bill Safire’s column today advances the case that UN official Mohamed ElBaradei has attempted to influence an American election by circulating false or misleading information. (Whether he succeeds or not remains to be determined.)

Money quote: ElBaradei “has long known about the presence of ‘nuclear trigger’ explosives (evidence of Saddam’s nuclear ambitions?) in one of Iraq’s thousands of ammo dumps. But, The Wall Street Journal reports that with exquisite political timing, on Oct. 1 ElBaradei sent a ‘reminder’ to a Baathist science minister renewing the U.N. interest in these particular explosives. That produced a dutiful letter from the Iraqi bureaucrat to the U.N. nine days later that was promptly leaked to CBS News, which apparently turned to the more credible New York Times to do most of the reporting.”

Also: Safire observes that bin Laden, in his most recent tape, appears to be asking for a truce – a clear sign that he has been severely weakened, that he needs time to rest and re-group. That’s an achievement.

But someone should ask Michael Moore and others on the Left what they think of that offer. Over the summer, I spoke at a very left-wing conference at the University of Colorado at Boulder. (I was one of a sprinkling of conservatives brought in to give the appearance of ideological diversity.) I was making the case that just as we would not consider negotiating with bin Laden, Israel should not be pressured to negotiate with Hamas or Arafat for that matter.

To my immense surprise, a member of the audience shouted out: “Why shouldn’t we negotiate with bin Laden? Of course we should.”

Others agreed. Yes, this is the view of many on the Left.