| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:57 am Post subject: Richard Perle: An unsavory character on Bush team |
| JAMES O. GOLDSBOROUGH
An unsavory character on Bush team
THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
September 13, 2004
Richard Perle, a foreign policy guru who has oozed his way through Republican administrations for two decades making a fortune as he went, has met his match in Conrad Black, the former head of Hollinger International, the U.S.-based newspaper conglomerate. Black stepped down as Hollinger CEO after being accused by shareholders of being a crook.
As Black goes down, Perle, who worked for the Bush administration and deserves as much credit for the Iraq war as anyone, is going with him. A special committee investigating Hollinger's financial losses accuses both men of corruption.
Perle is an important figure for he stands at the nexus of power and money. More than most, he has advocated policies that would make him money.
Perle, along with Henry Kissinger, serves on the Hollinger board of directors, as well as on the board of the Jerusalem Post, part of Black's newspaper empire. The Hollinger committee accuses Perle of "flagrant abdication of duty" and of "putting his own interests above those of Hollinger's shareholders," and called on him to return $5.4 million in pay. It wants $200 million back from Black.
Perle, who served as chairman of the Bush administration's Defense Policy Board until being forced out in May because of other conflicts of interest, initially defended Black against the charges brought by the shareholders. Now, however, from his summer home in the South of France, Perle says Black "misled" him.
Black, in turn, accuses Perle of "nest-feathering, dissembling and obfuscation."
A center of ethical controversy as long as he has been in Washington – twice in the 1980s over perceived conflicts of interest with Israel – Perle has survived because of powerful patrons like Kissinger and Black, whose wife, Barbara Amiel, also serves on the board of the Jerusalem Post. Black's Hollinger holdings include some 200 publications, including conservative newspapers such as the Chicago Sun-Times, London Daily Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald and Jerusalem Post.
Perle turned down an appointment in the Bush Defense Department in order to take the position as chairman of the policy board and continue his business interests, which center around Trireme Partners Ltd., a company that invests in defense and security companies and has Kissinger as one of its advisers.
Perle was forced out of his Pentagon position when it became public this year that Global Crossing was paying him to lobby the Pentagon at the same time he was heading the Pentagon advisory group. His resignation came two weeks after allegations by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker that Perle used his position as Pentagon adviser to try to profit from the war in Iraq.
In the Hersh article, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador, accuses Perle, a longtime critic of Saudi Arabia, of trying to blackmail his government. "Here he (Perle) is," said Bandar, "on the one hand trying to make a hundred million dollar deal, and on the other hand there were elements of the appearance of blackmail – if we get in business, he'll back off on Saudi Arabia."
Perle used his Pentagon position to lobby both for war and for turning postwar power in Iraq over to Ahmad Chalabi, the long-time Iraqi exile. Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, chief war supporters in the Bush Pentagon, had sponsored Chalabi since he set up the Iraqi National Council in 1992 to lobby for war.
Chalabi received $27 million from Congress for the express purpose of lobbying the Clinton administration – unsuccessfully – to go to war against Iraq. Chalabi and Perle got their war with Bush, though Chalabi was cut off by the Pentagon last May when it was determined the information he provided was both misleading and useless.
Perle's conflicts of interest and "nest feathering" have been known in foreign policy circles and pointed out in the media for years. Thanks to his official protectors, however, he has survived and thrived.
Last April, even after resigning his Pentagon post over conflicts of interest, he was invited by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to testify as an "expert" on Iraq. According to Juan Cole, professor of history at the University of Michigan and a leading expert on Iraq who was also on the panel, Perle used his time "flacking for Ahmad Chalabi." Perle was added to the panel at the last minute, says Cole, "and it is mysterious why he was there, since ours was supposed to be an 'expert' panel."
With these latest charges, even people in the foreign policy establishment can see Perle for what he is: a sleazy, self-interested operator. Leslie Gelb, a former colleague of both mine and Perle's and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, says Perle was "seduced by money."
Black, says Gelb, "thought Richard Perle was the font of foreign policy wisdom. Once that happened, Black and Perle figured out how to work together to make more money."
How comforting to know U.S. foreign policy – especially the war power – is in the hands of such principled people. If Bush is re-elected, rest assured Richard Perle will be back.
Goldsborough can be reached by e-mail at jim.goldsborough@uniontrib.com. | |  | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 6:29 am Post subject: AIPAC's Power, or America's Cowardice? |
| AIPAC's Power, or America's Cowardice?
http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=3551
by Charley Reese
It was 1996, and Bill Clinton was president. To give the rascal his due, he
was laboring mightily to make the Middle East peace process work. That same
year, three American neoconservatives produced a policy paper for the newly
elected Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The neocons were Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser. Their
policy paper recommended to Netanyahu that he abandon the peace process,
reject "land for peace" and strengthen Israel's defenses in order to
confront Syria and Iraq. The document said, "This effort can focus on
removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq – an important Israeli strategic
objective in its own right." It also recommended that Israel use pretexts
for preemptive attacks.
Now, if all of this sounds familiar – and it should – that's because Perle,
Feith and Wurmser joined other neocons in the Bush administration. Perle was
especially vocal in pushing the war on Iraq. They had two pretexts: the
attack of Sept. 11, even though Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with it,
and the mythical weapons of mass destruction.
Netanyahu, by the way, did abandon the peace process. And, at a cost of $200
billion and nearly 1,000 American lives, Israel did achieve its "strategic
objective in its own right" – removing Saddam from power. Unless Perle and
his buddies were paid for their advice, it didn't cost Israel one shekel or
one life.
Furthermore, if you stretch your memory, you will recall that until Iraq
blew up in its face, the Bush administration was laying the groundwork to
attack Syria, the other country Perle and his crowd named as a target for
Israel. It has already imposed sanctions on Syria despite the fact that,
according to our own intelligence people, Syria had been cooperating with
the war on terror. The other target of the Israelis – excuse me, the Bush
administration – is Iran.
If you want more details on these neocons, I recommend Secrets and Lies,by
Dilip Hiro, a distinguished Middle East scholar, and James Bamford's A
Pretext for War.
When President Bush first started talking about terrorism, he use to say
"terrorists with global reach" to distinguish between al-Qaeda and strictly
local outfits with local agendas. That did not suit the Israelis and their
American supporters. They wanted Israel's enemies to be our enemies, and so
the distinction was soon dropped, and Israel's enemies were added to the
official list of terrorist organizations.
The problem is that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are Palestinian organizations
fighting for independence. True, they have used terrorist tactics, just as
the Jewish organizations – the Stern Gang and the Irgun – did when they were
fighting the British occupation of Palestine. But their target is the
Israeli occupation, not us.
Hezbollah is a Lebanese organization that has also used terrorist tactics,
including attacks against Americans in Lebanon, when it figured we were
helping the Israelis in their occupation of Lebanon. But there again, its
quarrel is with Israel.
I have long since given up the hope that Americans would wake up and resent
the manipulation of their government by a foreign country. The Israeli lobby
has been so successful in labeling any criticism of Israel, no matter how
justified, as anti-Semitic that most Americans prefer to stick their heads
in the sand. For sure, American politicians and much of the media seem to be
terrified by the Israeli lobby, which says more about their cowardice than
it does about the power of the lobby itself.
So, suit yourself. Go ahead and spend American blood and treasure for the
benefit of Israel.
Just remember, the United States has one, and only one, legitimate interest
in the Middle East, and that is buying oil that everybody who has it wants
to sell. It doesn't matter whether we buy it from a dictator (we bought
plenty from Saddam) or from a democratic government. It doesn't matter to us
if the country that sells us oil likes or hates Israel.
This whole mess, including the war in Iraq and the terrorist attacks, is a
result of the American government's involvement with Israel. It's a
dangerous and unhealthy state of affairs that will not be cured until
Americans find the courage to have an open and honest debate about our
foreign policy in the Middle East. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 4:56 am Post subject: New Poll Shows American Suspicious of AIPAC Status |
| New Poll Shows American Suspicious of AIPAC Status
PRESS RELEASE
Council for the National Interest [US]
September 14th, 2004
Contact: Terry Walz
A new Council for the National Interest/Zogby poll commissioned after the publication of reports that AIPAC was being investigated for espionage shows that Americans of all backgrounds and ages strongly believe it acts as a foreign agent for the Israeli government and should be registered as a foreign agent and lose its tax exempt status.
The poll found 61% "strongly or somewhat agree" that AIPAC should be asked to register as a foreign agent and lose its tax exempt status, while only 12% strongly or somewhat disagree that it should. 27% were unsure on the issue.
A majority of people within almost every subgroup agrees. This includes 77% of 18-29-year-olds, 72% of Hispanics, and approximately two-thirds of independent voters, 50-64-year-olds, residents of the West region, Catholics, single adults, parents of children under 17, and men.
15% of Jewish Americans "strongly agreed" and 15% "strongly disagreed" with the statement that AIPAC should register as an agent of a foreign government and thereby lose its tax exempt status. However, 60% were unsure. Three times as many "Born Again Christians" agreed with the results than disagreed, with almost one-third unsure. These are the traditional pro-Israel bases of the Republican Party.
On August 30, it was reported that the FBI interviewed members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in connection with the passing of classified material to the government of Israel by a Pentagon analyst working in the office of the Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith. Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan) subsequently called for opening hearings into the leak to investigate whether the Larry Franklin, the Pentagon analyst, was "acting at the behest of his superiors" and whether a "rogue element in the American government may have been working with a foreign government."
Said Eugene Bird, president of CNI, "The poll shows serious doubts that Americans have about the activities of AIPAC. They strongly endorse the position that we have long held, that AIPAC should register as an agent of a foreign government and lose its tax exempt status. For years, Congress has been duped by their illegal activities."
The complete statistics are available upon request. Call 202 863-2951 or email count@igc.org.
Council for the National Interest
1250 4th St SW
Suite WG-1
Washington, District of Columbia 20024
United States
http://www.cnionline.org | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
