[Oldeconomybuyer]

Misleading headline and story. Richard Perle is a former US official who currently works in the quasi-private sector.

[Ranger]

Once the conflict begins it really won't matter if Saddam uses surrogates or terrorists traceable to him. One thing he does need is to make this conflict look like a war between the U.S. and pan-Arab or Islamic forces. To that end, al-Qaeda terrorist actions made all the more dramatic by the use of WMD provided by Saddam is very plausible. If you look at Uday's (Saddam's son's) statements of late, he is trying to frame the pending conflict as one against all arabs instead of one against Saddam and his cronies. Saddam may also be considering using al-Qaeda and others to destablize Saudi Arabia or Egypt to throw the U.S. off balance and buy more time for his sorry regime.

[swarthyguy]

"Richard Perle, chairman of the Defense Policy Board, said."

Or quasi-public - The DPF is an office within the Pentagon; an advisory board to RumsfeldWolfowitz et al.