Perle Resigns

Richard Perle is vice-chairman of Conrad Black's company Hollinger Digital. Perle has been accused of conflict-of-interest for not disclosing to the Hollinger board that he had a financial interest in Cambridge Display Technology while representing Hollinger in deals with the Cambridge.

Another part of the Hollinger investigation concerns Executive Compensation that was allegedly funneled thru the Caribbean branch of a Canadian bank, and then to Barbados, to avoid shareholders & the IRS being aware of its existence.

This is not the first conflict-of-interest claim against Perle.

Previously, scandal-plagued Global Crossing corp. paid Perle $125,000; to persuade the Pentagon to allow the Global Crossing to sell-itself to the Chinese satellite-maker Loral. The Defense Department and FBI had been in opposition to the sale because Loral had previously given secret American military rocket technology to China. ( Global Crossing promised Perle an additional $500,000 if the deal went thru.)

Fellow members of the Defense Policy Board have criticized Perle for his dealings-- in early 2003-- with Saudi arms-dealer Adnan Khashoggi (who financed arms shipments to Iran's terrorist mullahs during Iran-Contra.) Perle met overseas with Saudis under the auspices of his private role as head of Trireme Partners; and the Saudis offered Perle $100 Million to use his government position to broker a deal to not invade Iraq. Perle did not disclose this interaction to his peers on the Defense Policy Board; and was pressured into resigning as the Chairman of the board when the story become public.

Perle has been also been faulted for not disclosing that Boeing committed $20 Million to Perle's venture capital fund; at a time when Perle was officially advocating that Boeing be the recipient of an $18 Billion Pentagon contract.

All the way back in 1989, Perle formed International Advisors Inc.; which lobbied Washington for Turkey's government-- which was too-close-for comfort to Perle's official role advising the government on policy toward Turkey.

And in 1984; as an Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security under Ronald Reagan, Perle was criticized when he wrote a memorandum urging the department to consider buying equipment from a company that had paid Perle a $50,000 consulting fee.

Apart from all this business-stuff; there are all Perle's public statements:

Before the invasion, when asked to provide evidence of Iraq's WMD, Perle told a reporter "Trust me."

Perle said Iraq would be "easy" and a "cakewalk".

Perle has also been at-odds with the President in denouncing Saudi Arabia's government.

It is Clintonesque to say the War in Iraq was "easy", "a cakewalk"-- and that the Aftermath is the only hard part.

Our 130,000 troops over there know they're still in a war.

But, apart from arguing what the definition of "is" is, your claim that "Perle was perfectly correct" isn't accurate. In 2000, Perle told Congress that We need not send substantial ground forces into Iraq when patriotic Iraqis are willing to fight to liberate their country."

And in 2002, Perle said Iraq would only take 40,000 ground troops.

Perle was way off the mark.

You are right-- the Hollinger investigation is underway; and Perle hasn't had his day in court yet.

However, if Perle is totally innocent-- then he's doing a terrible job of defending his good name: Perle firmly denied that he received $5 Million from the Hollinger excutive compensation scheme; but then refused to comment on whether he received $3 Million. The implication is obvious. And SEC rules require any compensation over $60,000 to be reported.

Perle HAS said that he will sue for libel in response to charges made by Rabbi Seymour Hersh, regarding Perle's alleged Trireme Partners/Defense Policy Board conflicts of interest. In fact, Perle called Hersh a "terrorist" in response to the exposé. Perle has 13 days left in-which to file his suit; before the satute of limitations expires.

But, as for the other accusations in my previous post-- I am not aware of Perle challenging them. Some accusations, such as the money he received from Global Crossing to advocate in the Pentagon on behalf of the Chinese rocket-technology thieves at Loral-- come directly from Perle's own sworn testimony. He ain't gonna sue himself.

And Perle's conflict-of-interest 'rap sheet' goes further-back than I listed previously.

In 1987, the Pentagon's Office of General Counsel opened an inquiry into whether Perle's attempts to write a fictional novel based on classified intelligence information were a conflict of interest. At the time, Perle was offered a $300,000 advance for the novel, titled Memoranda.

Odds are Perle won't be suing anybody over that old stuff now.

What my previous post failed to say was-- that none of this business-stuff; or even Perle's pre-Iraq-invasion quotes-- may be the reason he has now resigned the Defense Policy Board.

It's just as likely that Perle is quitting the Defense Policy Board because of his widely-reported recent comments pointing the finger at Tenet and the CIA for Iraq intelligence failings. It's unseemly for Perle to have championed the war so absolutely. (Saying "trust me", when asked for evidence of WMD)-- only to shift blame to the CIA now.

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