World Raper : Richard N. Perle
06/04/03

INTRODUCTION

You’ve got to hand it to a guy like Richard Perle. He is a man who knows how to work the military-corporate-government system by whatever means necessary to achieve the end goals of his vision of a better world. But his vision for a better world is our nightmare of a war-torn planet. Just who is Richard Perle and how did he come to wield so much power in the inner circles of the current administration? Such questions have been analyzed in thousands of articles. There is a strong PR component to his game plan, so he willingly participates in many interviews to sell his agenda. His philosophy is a matter of public record. His name and exploits as the architect of the war on Iraq have been everywhere of late, with good reason. Recently, he wrote in the Spectator:

“This new century now challenges the hopes for a new world order in new ways. We will not defeat or even contain fanatical terror unless we can carry the war to the territories from which it is launched. This will sometimes require that we use force against states that harbor terrorists, as we did in destroying the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The most dangerous of these states are those that also possess weapons of mass destruction. Iraq is one, but there are others. “

Richard Perle’s resume and inner circle of friends includes a staggering list of the most neo-conservative institutions, lobbying groups, think tanks, international financiers, media and political strategists, research centers, financial gurus, corporate boardrooms and even watering holes. These affiliations are stunning for their transparent support of a need to “re-arm America.” His political enemies have labeled him the “Prince of Darkness", while his friends claim he is one of the "best strategic brains" in Washington. Both sides agree that Richard Perle is one of the key players in President George W. Bush's global strategy to clearly lie out a plan for a bold new American Empire. In our eyes, Richard Perle has more than earned the title of “World Raper”. To find out why…

RICHARD N. PERLE “World Raper”

Perle himself says he got into politics by accident. As a grad student in 1969, he was invited to Washington to participate in strategic policy debates and to write a report about the defense debate that was shaping up in the Senate. During that week in town, he was introduced to the very hawkish late Senator from Washington, Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson. Perle recalls, “… we hit it off instantly, and he said why don't you come to Washington and see what the real world is like.” The young New Yorker became Jackson's chief assistant from 1969 to 1980. Now, decades later, his ability to impact what has become our real world is a study in power politics of the worse kind.

Years before the Sept. 11 attacks, Perle along with his like minded allies including Dick Cheney, US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol, and Bill Bennett hatched a plan to get Saddam Hussein out of power. In 1997, under the guise of the Project for a New American Century they mapped out their plans. They went about promoting their agenda behind the scenes in the Pentagon, the Defense Department and the White House. One of our own village forum members states, “People need to understand where this group is taking us as a nation. It's very different from the reasons they gave for invading Iraq. They were going to do it even if Saddam was no longer in power. Important stuff to know…” We agree.

Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, appointed Perle to the chairmanship of the Defense Policy Board. The advisory members serve on invitation only, with no pay. In a March 7, 2003, affidavit, Mr. Perle said, “As the chairman of the Defense Policy Board, I have a unique perspective on and intimate knowledge of the national defense and security issues that will be raised….” Under Perle’s leadership, the policy board has become increasingly influential. He has used it to advocate the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the use of preemptive military action to combat terrorism. There was resistance from the State Department but a former high-level intelligence official confirmed in numerous interviews that Perle’s ability to “radically change government policy”, even though he is a private citizen, is an impressive achievement.

As the world watched the American military “pre-emptive” strike on Iraq, described as a reign of “shock and awe,” we here at VoiceYourself received midnight emails from eyewitnesses who described it only as “ terror and misery.” Since Desert Storm, Perle has been obsessed with Iraq war policy as evidenced by his 1996 authorship of the "Clean Break" policy paper for Netanyahu that among other incriminating maneuvers mapped out war against Iraq, Syria, and Iran.

The role Perle played in the execution and aftermath of this “regime change” clearly illustrates how our own policy soldiers were eager to step in to take what they believed was their right to take. Among the war booty for these guys was the lucrative contracts for rebuilding a country whose entire infrastructure had been destroyed. Just how this inner circle goes about their business continues to be the subject of daily articles and media debates.

Although Perle remains on the board to date, he was recently forced to resign as chairman. A cloud of suspicion rose over his powerful influence and his conflicts of interest since he and many of his closest chums capitalized on the rebuilding of war torn Iraq for their own private financial gain. This was the subject in an expose by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Seymour Hersh, who reported in the New Yorker that in January, Mr. Perle met with two Saudi businessmen, including arms dealer Adnan Kashoggi in Marseilles, France, to secure their investment in Trieme Partners LP, a company in which Perle is a managing partner. Trieme Partners LP was created to "invest in companies dealing in technology, goods, and services that are of value to homeland security and defense". Mr. Perle claimed that the meeting was convened only to talk about a diplomatic alternative to war. According to Hersh, when asked about Trieme’s potential business depending on war in Iraq, Khashoggi responded, “If there is no war… why is there a need for security? If there is a war, of course, billions of dollars will have to be spent. You Americans blind yourself with your high integrity and your democratic morality against peddling influence, but they were peddling influence.”

Shortly after this expose the New York Times reported that Perle was also taking money from Global Crossing, a bankrupt telecommunications company caught for shady accounting practices reminiscent of the Enron and WorldCom scandals. Perle was to lobby the Pentagon to approve his clients' dealings with Hong Kong and China. The Defense Department and the FBI had objected citing national security and law enforcement concerns. On the heels of that story The Guardian revealed that Perle has a financial relationship with yet another anti-terrorism firm… a British-based company called Autonomy.

Of course he is not alone in personal gains. The Bush administration has numerous cozy relationships with the weapons, engineering, construction and oil companies that will reap enormous profits from war contracts. According to a new report from the Center for Public Integrity, nine of the Defense Board’s thirty members, have ties to defense and security-related companies that collectively won more than $76 billion in US defense contracts over the past two years.

His call to arms continues with amazing consistency. On March 19, Mr. Perle was involved in a conference call sponsored by Goldman Sachs in which he advised participants on possible investment opportunities arising from the war in Iraq. The conference title was “Implication of an Imminent War: Iraq Now. North Korea Next?”

It comes to no great surprise that Perle himself publicly declared these conflict of interest claims to be false and filled with innuendo. Furthermore, Perle does not enjoy the attention he has drawn to Rumsfeld's board. He bitterly attacked Hersh as a "terrorist" and was visibly upset (good to know the pressure gets to him) when a Code Pink activist disrupted his March 25th talk at the American Enterprise Institute, another think tank he calls home. We understand that Perle quickly recovered. After the woman was escorted out, he declared that the US campaign in Iraq underscores his argument that democracies don't start aggressive wars. He claimed, "Dictatorships start wars because they need external enemies to exert internal control over their own people".

Before we dropped the bombs to achieve the goal of “regime change”, we have found evidence in print that Perle acknowledged the inhumanity of the decade long sanctions the U.S. imposed on the people of Iraq. Kathy Kelly, director of Voices in the Wilderness (the first U.S. grassroots organization to bring activists into Iraq to witness the effect of sanctions and to educate the U.S. public) addressed an open letter to Perle: “We must open our hearts to the cries of people across the world who feel we treat them as dust beneath our feet. At its core, war is impoverishment. War's genesis and ultimate end is in the poverty of our hearts. If we can realize that the world's liberation begins within those troubled hearts, then we may yet find peace, and a renewal of the courage and vitality you so passionately desire.”

As long as Richard Perle and his cronies on the Defense Policy Board continue to guide our administration’s “war for resources” agenda, one wonders how we will ever find peace.