Richard Perle
If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy, but just wage a total war... our children will sing great songs about us years from now.
Richard Perle, qtd. in John Pilger, Two years ago a project set up by the men who now surround George W Bush said what America needed was "a new Pearl Harbor". Its published aims have, alarmingly, come true.
"Buttressing Wolfowitz on the far right is Richard Perle, another Vulcan cold warrior and a former assistant Secretary of Defense. Within the Reagan administration, Perle earned the nickname 'The Prince of Darkness' for being so hard-line. He is credited with bringing to the Pentagon a number of staunchly pro-Israel activists who dramatically increased weapons sales to Israel. In 1996, Perle gained the distinction of simultaneously advising both the Dole campaign in the United States and the Netanyahu campaign in Israel. He was the principal author of 'A Clean Break,' a widely circulated policy paper published by the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (Jerusalem) that advised Netanyahu to cancel the Oslo accords concluded with the Palestinians. During the recent Camp David negotiations, Perle came under serious fire for advising the Israeli delegation to prepare to walk out, lest it become a pawn of Vice President Gore's campaign. Perle's statements drew a harsh rebuke from the White House, which criticized him for injecting politics into international diplomacy. The Bush camp quickly disavowed the remarks, claiming that Perle had been 'speaking for himself.' For Wolfowitz and Perle, US might is best asserted with an iron fist, without the velvet glove usually donned by the Baker-Haass wing." -- Rogues' Gallery: Who Advises Bush and Gore on the Middle East?
Black threatened board members: Hollinger adviser (CBC News, 20 Feb 2004) New inquiry examines Hollinger bonus plan (Times Online, 19 February 2004)How in hell's name can Richard Perle fulfill his promise to sue Seymour M. Hersh for libeling him in The New Yorker with the Hollinger International scandal widening and sucking up his time? The Times of London reports today that the internal investigation of Hollinger "is said to be now looking" at Hollinger board member Richard Perle's alleged failure to disclose to shareholders $3 million worth of bonuses for running a Hollinger investment project. One of the beneficiaries of the Hollinger investments was Trireme Partners ($2.5 million), the venture capital firm managed by Perle and probed by Hersh in his New Yorker feature. Another was Onset ($3 million), where Perle sits on the board of directors. Cambridge Display Technology, a company in which Perle reportedly holds a stake, received $14 million from Hollinger.
Richard Perle Libel Watch, Week 45 (Slate, 15 January 2004) New Questions Over Bonuses Hollinger Paid To Executives (New York Times, 12 January 2004) Perle Article Didn't Disclose Boeing Tie: Pentagon Adviser Lauded Plan to Lease Air Tankers (Washington Post, 5 December 2003)RICHARD PERLE, the former US Assistant Defence Secretary and Hollinger International board member, is under investigation for allegedly failing to disclose bonuses worth about $3 million (£1.6 million) which he received for running an investment scheme, The Times has learnt.
Mr Perle, a vocal supporter of President Bush, was awarded the money as a reward for investing Hollinger shareholder funds in a series of separate businesses. Mr Perle also held a stake in some of those businesses. While the scheme put Hollinger International shareholders' money at risk, it was never disclosed to them.
Is "Prince of Darkness" Richard Perle About to Go Down in Flames? (Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Jan/Feb 2003)Pentagon adviser Richard N. Perle coauthored an opinion piece this summer praising a Pentagon plan to lease tanker aircraft -- which had the potential to steer billions of dollars to Boeing Co. -- 16 months after Boeing committed to invest $20 million with a venture capital firm where Perle was a principal.
"It takes a special government green-eyeshade mentality to miss the urgency of the tanker requirement," Perle and a coauthor wrote in the Aug. 14 article in the Wall Street Journal. The piece did not mention Boeing by name or Perle's firm -- Trireme Partners -- and its business relationship with the giant defense contractor.
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Perle also serves on the board of directors of Hollinger International Inc., the media company whose chief executive, Conrad Black, resigned last month after disclosures that he and other executives collected millions of dollars payments the company's audit committee determined were unauthorized.
Hollinger disclosed last month that it has invested $2.5 million in Trireme Associates. A special committee of Hollinger's board is examining that investment and others involving company insiders, a source close to Hollinger said yesterday.
Disinfopedia: Richard N. Perle The gathering storm around Richard Perle (Salon.com, 26 November 2003)Perle is seriously mixed up in the problems of Hollinger International and its founder, Sir Conrad Black, who gave up his Canadian citizenship to accept a British peerage. Black's publishing empire includes the British Daily Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post. In his original incarnation as a Canadian wheeler-dealer, Conrad Black gobbled up most of that country's daily newspapers. At one time, in fact, he had the fastest growing newspaper business in the world, according to the Nov. 18 Financial Times. He ingratiated himself with conservative elites such as Margaret Thatcher, Henry Kissinger (who also is on the board of Hollinger International), and William Buckley. A glance at Hollinger's board and executives might give an impression that it was the Israel Lobby personified. Richard Perle is a board member of Hollinger International.
According to the Nov. 19 Washington Post, Hollinger's tangled corporate structure paid Black and his close associates $200 million in salary, management fees and "non-compete" compensation--while the conglomerate itself made only $23 million in profit.
Now the Securities and Exchange Commission has issued subpoenas to officials of Hollinger International. The SEC is looking for unauthorized payments by Black to current and former company executives. According to the Nov. 20 Washington Post, "The regulators are likely to shine a brighter light on the actions of Black, the company's auditors and its other directors, who include Henry A. Kissinger and Richard N. Perle, the former chairman [and still member] of the National Defense Policy Board."
According to the Post, Perle heads Hollinger Digital, which put $2.5 million into a venture capital firm called Trireme Partners that aimed to cash in on the huge post-9/11 U.S. military and homeland security buildup. Coincidentally, Trireme's managing partner is Perle himself--who, from his position on the Defense Policy Board, pushed for just such a military buildup.
Gerald Hillman, managing partner of Hillman Capital, received $14 million from Hollinger, according to London's Financial Times. Hillman also is a Trireme partner. The Dec. 10 Financial Times reported that a minority invester in Hollinger International is taking steps to file a lawsuit against its management and current and former board members, including former Illinois Gov. James Thompson and "defense adviser" Perle.
Boeing, the American aircraft manufacturer, gained access to Perle's Defense Policy board in 2002 by "taking a $20 million stake" in Trireme, according to the Financial Times. Boeing said it made the investment as part of a "broad strategy" to invest in companies with "promising" defense-related technology.
This past August, according to the Financial Times, Perle co-authored an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal arguing in favor of a controversial deal in which the Air Force would lease from Boeing one hundred of its 767 aircraft refueling tankers. Perle did not disclose Boeing's $20 million "stake" in Trireme, and Boeing said it had no knowledge that Perle had advised the company on the leasing arrangement.
Hollinger brass out in payout scandal (Chicago Tribune, 18 November 2003)D.C.'s "Prince of Darkness" has prospered in the shadows between the Beltway and big business -- but the latest scandal threatens to bring him down.
Nov. 26, 2003 | Storm clouds are gathering around Washington's "Prince of Darkness," Richard Perle.
An influential über-hawk who enjoys close ties to the top of the Pentagon's civilian leadership, Perle got his wish earlier this year when the United States launched the preemptive war against Saddam Hussein that he'd spent a decade lobbying for. A private businessman who once worked for an Israeli arms manufacturer, Perle maintains a public platform through the Defense Policy Board, a civilian advisory group stacked with hawks -- including James Woolsey, Newt Gingrich and Henry Kissinger -- who supported a war with Iraq.
U.S. Can't Rule Out N.Korea Strike, Perle Says (Reuters, 11 June 2003) Advisors of Influence: Nine Members of the Defense Policy Board Have Ties to Defense Contractors (Center for Public Integrity, 28 March 2003) Oil deals for Halliburton's subsidiary are 'wider than first declared' (Independent.co.uk, 8 May 2003)Press baron Conrad Black resigned under pressure Monday as chief executive of the company that owns the Chicago Sun-Times, felled by disclosures that he and other top executives had pocketed millions of dollars in unauthorized payments.
The company, Hollinger International Inc., also said it would put the Sun-Times and its other newspapers up for sale. The decision likely spells the end of the global media empire that Black had created through Chicago-based Hollinger, including the Daily Telegraph in London and the Jerusalem Post.
"A Pentagon adviser, Richard Perle, briefed an investment seminar on ways to profit from conflicts in Iraq and North Korea just weeks after he received a top-secret government document on the crises in the two countries. The revelation yesterday provoked new concerns about conflicts of interest. Mr Perle also serves on the boards of several defence contractors."
Consulting and Policy Overlap: Advisor Perle has given seminars on ways to profit from possible conflicts discussed by defense board he sits on. (Los Angeles Times, 7 May 2003) Report: Pentagon adviser in Iraq flap: L.A. Times: Perle gave advice on making profit from conflicts (MSNBC, 7 May 2003) Richard Perle: Relax, Celebrate Victory (USA Today, 2 May 2003) Minister Without Portfolio (The American Prospect, 1 May 2003) Pentagon adviser berates Moscow and Paris (Times Online, 22 April 2003) Watchdog Group Asks for Perle Investigation The Prince of Darkness resigns: a look at the controversial businesses dealings of Pentagon adviser Richard Perle Perle pays the price for business controversiesRichard Perle: "I am beginning to think that people who have been saying on the internet that I am part of a small neoconservative cabal who runs the world actually believe what they are saying."
Perle Resigns as Pentagon Panel Chairman: Facing Conflict-of-Interest Questions, Adviser Says He Doesn't Want to Be a Distraction Key Rumsfeld Adviser Perle Resigns Post Code Pink disrupts Perle Democrat Seeks Inquiry on Bankrupt Firm's Adviser [Richard Perle] Ducking the First Amendment: Richard Perle's Planned Lawsuit against Seymour Hersh Perle Threatens Lawsuit Over Hersh Article In New Yorker Seymour M. Hersh: Lunch with the chairman: Why was Richard Perle meeting with Adnan Khashoggi? (The New Yorker, 17 March 2003) Richard Perle: Thank God for the death of the UN: Its abject failure gave us only anarchy. The world needs order Richard Perle on Iraq Democrat Seeks Inquiry on Bankrupt Firm's Adviser Richard Perle: It Pays To Be the Prince of Darkness Senior War Lobbyist Richard Perle is Forced to Resign"Last week he reportedly took part in a Goldman Sachs conference call to advise clients on investment opportunities arising from the war, and its implications for confrontation with North Korea."
Former Pentagon official Richard Perle resigns as key Rumsfeld adviser Hugo Young: Blair has not been a poodle, but poodleism still beckons: America's hawks are obsessive in their pursuit of warAmir Taheri: Perles of Wisdom: An interview with Richard Perle. Perle: U.S. also seeks regime change in Iran, Libya, Syria Perle, Colbert, Fairbanks, Feith, Loewenberg, Wurmser, and Wurmser: A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm Eric Boehlert: The armchair general Ewen MacAskill and Edward Pilkington: UN inspection team 'cannot prevent war' (Guardian, Wednesday November 13, 2002)"Over Iraq, though, there is a difference of context and it is potent. Britain contains few open war hawks: a few media voices, perhaps, but not a single politician. Here the hawk lobby is centred on the Pentagon, led by notorious names such as Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith. These people actually want a war. They favour the militaristic solution to the Saddam problem. Their most vocal public voice, William Kristol's Weekly Standard magazine, has been arguing for it since 1997. They fervently hoped Saddam would be idiotic enough to reject the UN resolution, and thus bring down the righteous fire of a large coalition against him."
Jude Wanniski: The Prince of Darkness (Memo to Henry Kissinger) Edward Pilkington and Ewen MacAskill: Europe lacks moral fibre, says US hawk (Guardian, Wednesday November 13, 2002)"I absolutely believe in assassinations. I have always thought an absolute prohibition was unnecessarily inflexible and the easy argument is that it would have been right to assassinate Hitler."
Brian Whitaker: US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy (Guardian August 19, 2002) Current Concerns: Rumsfeld and His Crew Kathy Kelly: An Open Letter to Richard Perle, chairman, Defense Advisory Board Interview with Richard Perle, 30 March 1997 Statement of Richard Perle on Patriot and SDI before the Committee on Armed Services U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C., April 16, 1991