Richard Perle

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Richard Perle is a former neoconservative pentagon policy advisor who was chairman of the Defense Policy Board for 17 years[1]. Perle served as assistant secretary for defence under Ronald Reagan, during this time he was known as "The Prince of Darkness"[2]. Seymour Hersh described Perle as "one of the most outspoken and influential supporters of the war in Iraq [3].

Controversies

Hollinger International

A report by the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commision Richard Perle served as the enabler for Conrad Black to "improperly take hundreds of millions of dollars", Perle was singled out in the report for having conflicts of interest [4]. Richard Perle denies these allegations and asserts that he was misled by Conrad Black[5].

Selling the Iraq War

Richard Perle was closely linked to Ahmad Chalabi who was the source of much of the questionable intelligence on Iraq which was passed to Washington before the war[6].

Donald Rumsfled asked Richard Perle to chair the Defense Policy Board in 2001[7]. While chairman of the Defense Policy Board Perle worked with Devon Cross who lobbied to sell the Iraq War to the UK and Europe through the Policy Forum. The Policy Forum claimed success in selling U.S. foreign policy to the British Media, Claiming:

"The media response, has been both prompt and enthusiastic, editors of The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The London Times, The Economist, The Sun and The Spectator have all participated in our discussions"[8].

For these lobbying efforts, at the end of 2007, the US Department of Defence paid the Policy Forum around $80,000 which was paid to Devon Cross[9].

While Devon Cross was successfully selling the war in Iraq to The Telegraph in the U.K., Richard Perle was on the board of Hollinger International who owned the newspaper. At this time The Telegraph also accused prominent anti-war MP George Galloway of being in the pay of Saddam Hussein,profiting from the oil-for-food programme and using the Mariam Appeal for personal enrichment. Galloway successfully sued the paper for defamation and received £150,000 in damages. [10]

Business Links

Perle was named in an internal investigation into Hollinger International, Perle was investigated for receiving $3m in bonuses from Hollinger some of which went to Perle's own company Trireme. Boeing invested £20m in Trireme shortly before Perle advocated a pentagon scheme for leasing Boeing tankers to support the Iraq war, Perle denied any conflict of interest[11].


Affiliations

Notes

  1. ↑ Julian Borger, Pentagon Hardliner resigns from post, 27-February-2004, Accessed 15-May-2009
  2. ↑ Julian Borger, Pentagon Hardliner resigns from post, 27-February-2004, Accessed 15-May-2009
  3. ↑ Seymour M. Hersh,Lunch With the Chairman, The New Yorker, 17-March-2003, Accessed 15-May-2009
  4. ↑ Stephen Labaton, Perle Asserts Hollinger's Conrad Black Misled Him, The New York Times, 06-September-2004, Accessed 15-May-2009
  5. ↑ Stephen Labaton, Perle Asserts Hollinger's Conrad Black Misled Him, The New York Times, 06-September-2004, Accessed 15-May-2009
  6. ↑ Julian Borger, Pentagon Hardliner resigns from post, 27-February-2004, Accessed 15-May-2009
  7. ↑ Seymour M. Hersh,Lunch With the Chairman, The New Yorker, 17-March-2003, Accessed 15-May-2009
  8. ↑ Policy Forum, About Us, Accessed 08-April-2009
  9. ↑ Jim Lobe, Is the Pentagon Policy Shop Funding Likudist Fronts?, IPS, 18-March-2008, Accessed 08-April-2009
  10. ↑ Chris Tryhorn, Galloway wins libel case against Telegraph, The Guardian, 02-December-2004, Accessed 14-May-2004
  11. ↑ Julian Borger, Pentagon Hardliner resigns from post, 27-February-2004, Accessed 15-May-2009
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