Is âPrince of Darknessâ Richard Perle About to Go Down in Flames?
By Andrew I. Killgore
Richard Perle has played the American political system like an orchestra. In Tehran in 1973 he informed this writer that it was Sen. Henry (Scoop) Jackson of Washington state, for whom Perle was administrative assistant at the time, who got him interested in the Middle East. This was surely a prevarication since, from all indications, Perle has always been a fervent Zionist, a dyed-in-the-wool Israel-Firster. (Regrettably, he did not reveal the source of his fascination with the south of France, where he maintains a second home.)
The âsenator from Boeingâ and his assistant had come to Tehran as part of a congressional delegation, and it was as a member of the U.S. Embassy staff that I had breakfast with the pair. Despite the Zionist lobbyâs intensive efforts to promote Jackson for president of the United States, the campaign sputtered out because of Jacksonâs flat personality.
Perle has been in and out of the governmentâand always active in Zionist organizationsâsince he first joined Jacksonâs staff in 1969. His most important assignment was as assistant secretary of defense for international security policy from 1981 to 1987, during the Reagan administration. In the first year of the current Bush administration, Perle was named chairman of the Pentagonâs advisory Defense Policy Board by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. In that capacity Perle arranged for a nonentity, Rand Corporation analyst Laurent Murawiec, to make a speechâimmediately leakedâdenouncing Saudi Arabia, the neoconsâ favorite target.
While the Prince of Darkness may be best known as a Zionist idealogue, on occasion he also has attracted press notice as a man interested in making money (after all, those French villas donât come cheap). Finally, however, in mid-November, his desire for profit may have gotten the better of ideology.
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. Blackâs 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 countryâs 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 Hollingerâs 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, Hollingerâs tangled corporate structure paid Black and his close associates $200 million in salary, management fees and ânon-competeâ compensationâwhile 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, âThe regulators are likely to shine a brighter light on the actions of Black, the companyâs 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.â
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, Triremeâs managing partner is Perle himselfâwho, 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 Londonâs 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 âdefense adviserâ Perle.
Boeing, the American aircraft manufacturer, gained access to Perleâs Defense Policy board in 2002 by âtaking a $20 million stakeâ in Trireme, according to the Financial Times. Boeing said it made the investment as part of a âbroad strategyâ to invest in companies with âpromisingâ 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 Boeingâs $20 million âstakeâ in Trireme, and Boeing said it had no knowledge that Perle had advised the company on the leasing arrangement.
Boeing chief executive Phil Condit recently âstepped downâ following allegations of misconduct.
Is the Teflon Perle also about to get caught in the web he so artfully has woven?
Andrew I. Killgore is publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
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