Richard Perle's Lunch With the Saudis
Posted by Lakshmi on March 14, 2003 @ 4:14PM
A New Yorker article on Defense Policy Board chairman and unofficial godfather of the neocon hawks Richard Perle is creating waves inside the beltway. Titled "Lunch With the Chairman," Seymour Hersh's article provides stunning details of a private lunch between Saudi industrialist Harb Saleh al-Zuhair and Perle which took place in France earlier this year. The meeting was brokered by none other than Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi playboy and arms dealer extraordinaire, best known for his starring role in the Iran-Contra scandal.
While Perle claims the meeting was set up on Zuhair's behest to discuss the future of Iraq, there was a second more important item on the agenda: "to pave the way for Zuhair to put together a group of ten Saudi businessmen who would invest ten million dollars each in Trireme." Perle is a managing partner in Trireme Partners L.P., a venture-capital company whose main business is to invest in companies dealing with homeland security and defense.
What's wrong with this picture? First, there is the serious conflict of interest between Perle's position in Trireme and his affiliation with the DPB, which advises the Pentagon on policy matters. An unnamed DPB member said he was unaware of the Trireme connection: "Seems to me this is at the edge of or off the ethical charts." And at least Kashoggi seems to think there is a direct connection between Perle's financial interests and his hawkish position on Iraq:
As Khashoggi saw it, Trireme's business potential depended on a war in Iraq taking place. "If there is no war," he told me, "why is there a need for security? If there is a war, of course, billions of dollars will have to be spent." He commented, "You Americans blind yourself with your high integrity and your democratic morality against peddling influence, but they were peddling influence."
Then there is the matter of Perle using his influence over the Bush foreign policy (which has mirrored his agenda since 9/11) to secure investment from the Saudis -- whom Perle has vigorously attacked in his public comments, calling for regime change in the country. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Ambassador to the United States, told Hersh, "There is a split personality to Perle. Here he is, 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' -- as I have been informed by participants in the meeting."
So how has Perle responded to Hersh's article? He called him -- you guessed it! -- "a terrorist."
<A HREF="">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http://archive.jab.org/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
