Richard Perle

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Richard Perle
Perle in 2009
Chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee
In office
2001–2003
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
1st Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs
In office
August 5, 1981 – May 8, 1987
PresidentRonald Reagan
Preceded byOffice Created
Succeeded byRonald F. Lehman
Personal details
Born
Richard Norman Perle

(1941-09-16) September 16, 1941 (age 82)
New York City, New York
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Leslie Joan Barr
​
(m. 1977)​
Political scientist

Richard Norman Perle (born September 16, 1941) is an American political advisor who served as the

Senate Armed Services Committee in the 1970s.[2] He served on the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee from 1987 to 2004 where he served as chairman from 2001 to 2003 under the Bush administration
before resigning due to conflict of interests.

A key advisor to Secretary of Defense

Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
.

Early life and education

Perle was born in

Rand Corporation
).

Perle earned a

International Politics in 1964 from the University of Southern California. As an undergraduate he studied in Copenhagen at Denmark's International Study Program. He also studied at the London School of Economics and obtained a M.A. in political science from Princeton University
in 1967.

Career

Office of Senator Henry Jackson

From 1969 to 1980, Perle worked as a staffer for Democratic Senator Henry M. Jackson of Washington whom he met through Albert Wohlstetter. Perle recalls his early involvement with Wohlstetter: "Albert Wohlstetter phoned me one day. I was still a graduate student at Princeton ... and he said, could you come to Washington for a few days and interview some people and draft a report on the current debate shaping up in the Senate over ballistic missile defense, which was a hot issue ... And he said, I've asked somebody else to do this too, and maybe the two of you could work together. The someone else was Paul Wolfowitz. So Paul and I came to Washington as volunteers for a few days, to interview people, and one of the people we interviewed was Scoop Jackson and it was love at first sight ... I was there for eleven years."[2]

As a staffer, Perle drafted the

Reagan administration) Perle acquired the nickname "The Prince of Darkness" due to his hardline opposition to any arms control agreements,[12] which has been used both as a slur by his critics and as a joke by supporters (Time, 23 March 1987, "Richard Perle: Farewell Dark Prince"[13]). However, he has been quoted: "I really resent being depicted as some sort of dark mystic or some demonic power. ... All I can do is sit down and talk to someone. ..." (The New York Times
, 4 December 1977, Jackson Aide Stirs Criticism in Arms Debate, Richard L. Madden)

Opposition to nuclear arms reduction

Perle was considered a hardliner in arms reduction negotiations with the

Carter administration
had to do with his view that the U.S. was giving up too much at the negotiation table and not receiving nearly enough concessions from the Soviets. Perle called the arms talks under negotiation in the late 1970s "the rawest deal of the century".

Perle's objection to the arms talks between the Carter administration and the Soviet Union revolved primarily around Carter's agreement to halt all cruise missile development. Perle is widely credited for spearheading opposition to the treaty, which was never ratified by the Senate.

Perle, with fellow

neoconservative Paul Wolfowitz, played a supporting role in the ballistic missile defense project that was launched in the 1980s called the Strategic Defense Initiative.("Star Wars") [2] Perle was influential in creating several organizations and think-tanks in order to pressure public opinion and sway policy makers on ballistic missile defense.[2] During the second Bush administration missile defense programs saw dramatic budget increases under the direction of Perle as chair of the Defense Policy Board.[2]

In 2010, Perle voiced opposition to the

INF Treaty when it was initially signed, calling it "flawed enough to require renegotiation with the Soviets" and arguing that "the treaty does not do many of the key things the Administration says it does."[14]

Transition into neoconservatism

Perle is a self-described neoconservative, like several around Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson, as he told Ben Wattenberg in an interview specifically about him becoming a neoconservative.[15]

Ben Wattenberg: Now, Scoop was surrounded by people who then and certainly now are called neoconservatives. It's become a fashionable word now thanks to you and your colleagues because you're all categorized that way. How did that come into your life, that whole school of thought?

Richard Perle: Well, I think the term has something to do with the sense that those of us who are now called neo-conservatives were at one time liberals, and in this ...

Ben Wattenberg: Irving Kristol said a neoconservative is a liberal who's been mugged by reality.

Richard Perle: Right. And I think that's a fair description, and I suppose all of us were liberal at one time. I was liberal in high school and a little bit into college. But reality and rigor are important tonics, and if you got into the world of international affairs and you looked with some rigor at what was going on in the world, it was really hard to be liberal and naïve.

External videos
video icon Presentation by Perle and David Frum on An End to Evil, January 9, 2004, C-SPAN
video icon Booknotes interview with Perle on An End to Evil, March 7, 2004, C-SPAN

Perle's book

holocaust."[2]

Neoconservative leadership

After Dark on 10 June 1989: Britain - Out on a Limb

Over the past few decades, a tight-knit group of neo-conservatives have had a significant impact in the carving out of American foreign policies, especially those concerning the Middle East. Arguably at the helm of the neoconservative movement is Richard Perle. He has been aided by other prominent neoconservatives, including Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith.

Members of the Neocon core have been interrelated for decades through positions in government, think-tanks, business corporations, and even family ties. As journalist and writer of neoconservative ideology Jacob Heilbrunn states: "neo-conservatism was turned into an actual movement by Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz. Even today, the neoconservative movement is best described as an extended family based largely on the informal social networks patiently forged by these two patriarchs."[2]

Members of the neoconservative movement are also leaders of many influential "letterhead organizations" (LHO's) and think-tanks such as the

sociologist who examined the memberships of such neoconservative organizations ultimately concluded that "the activities of fourteen organizations were coordinated by individuals who comprised a web of interlocking memberships."[2]

From 1981 to 1982, Wolfowitz was appointed head of the policy planning staff in the State Department.

9/11, including heading the Office of Special Plans
.

War with Iraq

Pre-2003 invasion

Like many in the

John Bolton. The Project culminated in a letter sent to US President Bill Clinton calling for the military overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime.[2] Prior to and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Perle held several exclusive meetings in his home where he discussed issues regarding American foreign policy on Iraq.[2] In an effort to help fund their goals, Ahmed Chalabi an Iraqi-born businessman and founder of the Iraqi National Congress, helped Perle secure millions of dollars from the U.S. government in 1990.[2] Chalabi was one of the key figures driving the war in Iraq and helped transmit important "information" to U.S. Congress and the public that would successfully help sell the war effort.[2] Moreover, Perle and Chalabi also had very similar motives: they both wanted the Hussein regime deposed and Chalabi elected president.[2]

In 2004, the FBI investigated Chalabi after U.S. intelligence sources revealed that he was working as a

British House of Commons that the U.S. would attack Iraq even if UN weapons inspectors didn't find anything.[2] Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that Perle was "making remarks as if he were an official inside the U.S. government."[2] In countries like Germany, France, Britain, and Japan, people perceived him as a government authority whose knowledge and clout on U.S. policy appeared legitimate.[2]

Perle argued that what he referred to as terrorist

Northern Alliance against the Taliban.[18]

Iraq policy and Bush criticism

The

Al Qaeda which were not validated by U.S. intelligence units.[2] Since this scandal, Perle has made several attempts to reduce his alleged involvement in the war efforts stating: "Huge mistakes were made, and I want to be very clear on this: They were not made by neoconservatives, who had almost no voice in what happened ..."[2] In an interview he gave Vanity Fair that was excerpted in an article appearing in the 4 November 2006 Los Angeles Times
, he denied having a role in the planning of the war. He is reported to have told Vanity Fair, "I'm getting damn tired of being described as an architect of the war." This is not congruent with his signing of the PNAC letter in 1998. "I was in favor of bringing down Saddam. Nobody said, 'Go design the campaign to do that.' I had no responsibility for that." The same Los Angeles Times article reports that Perle now believes that his advocacy of the Iraq war was wrong.

Perle expressed regret of his support of the invasion and faulted the "dysfunction" in the Bush administration for the troubled occupation. "I think now I probably would have said, 'Let's consider other strategies for dealing with the thing that concerns us most, which is Saddam supplying weapons of mass destruction to

terrorists'. The decisions did not get made that should have been. They didn't get made in a timely fashion, and the differences were argued out endlessly. At the end of the day, you have to hold the president responsible."[19][20][21]
Nevertheless, Perle vociferously defended the war in Iraq, arguing to the wife of a deployed soldier in a 2007 PBS film that to end the war now would be to dishonor those who had already died in the cause.[22]

Disputed role in Bush administration

New York Times article, Brooks wrote that; "There have been hundreds of references ... to Richard Perle's insidious power over administration policy, but I've been told by senior administration officials that he has had no significant meetings with Bush or Cheney since they assumed office. If he's shaping their decisions, he must be microwaving his ideas into their fillings".[23]

On Iraq Study Group proposals

In a December 2006 interview with Die Zeit, Perle strongly criticized the Iraq Study Group proposals, saying: "I have never seen such a foolish report. ... A report that begins with false premises ends with nothing."[24]

Other views on foreign policy

United Nations

Perle is a frequent critic of the United Nations, stating that it is an embodiment of "... the liberal conceit of safety through international law administered by international institutions. ... "[25] He has also attacked the United Nations Security Council veto power as a flawed concept, arguing that the only time the U.N. utilized force during the Cold War was when "... the Soviets were not in the chamber to veto it".[25]

Furthermore, shortly after the invasion of Iraq, Perle stated that; "in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing".[26] He also argued that there was "no practical mechanism consistent with the rules of the UN for dealing with Saddam Hussein". At the time, these comments provoked controversy among critics of the war, who argued that they contradicted the U.S.'s official stance on the legality of the invasion.[26]

Israel

In 1996 during the Clinton administration, Perle lead a study group with

Palestinian society", and working more closely with countries such as Jordan and Turkey. It also stated the removal of Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq should be a key objective for the Israeli state, advocated armed incursions into Lebanon, and suggested Arab states should be challenged as undemocratic. Moreover, Perle personally delivered the report to the incoming Likud-led government in hopes of influencing the new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
.

Defense

Perle advocates

pre-emptive strikes, such as in Iraq, as an extension of America's right to self-defense. For example, Perle has expressed support for a theoretical first strike on North Korean and Iranian nuclear facilities.[27]

Business interests and controversies

Bribery accusations and alleged conflicts of interest

Perle has on occasion been accused of being an Israeli agent of influence. It has been reported that, while he was working for Jackson, "An FBI summary of a 1970 wiretap recorded Perle discussing classified information with someone at the Israeli embassy. He came under fire in 1983 when newspapers reported he received substantial payments to represent the interests of an Israeli weapons company. Perle denied conflict of interest, insisting that, although he received payment for these services after he had assumed his position in the Defense Department, he was between government jobs when he worked for the Israeli firm."[28]

From 1981 to 1987, Perle was

New York Times article, Perle was criticized for recommending that the Army purchase an armaments system from an Israeli company that a year earlier had paid him $50,000 in consulting fees. Perle acknowledged receiving the payment the same month he joined the Reagan administration, but said the payment was for work done before joining the government and that he had informed the Army of this prior consulting work. Perle was never indicted for anything related to the incident.[29][30]

In March 2004, another New York Times article reported that, while chairman of the

Defense Policy Board, Perle had contracted with the troubled telecommunications giant Global Crossing to help overcome opposition from the FBI and the Pentagon to the sale of its assets to Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa. Since the military employed the company's fiber optics network for communications, the brass argued that sale to a foreign-owned, especially Chinese, corporation would compromise national security. Perle was to be paid $125,000 to promote the deal, with an extra $600,000 contingent fee on its approval.[31] This controversy led to accusations of bribery, and Perle resigned as chairman on March 27, 2003, though he remained on the board.[32]

Perle is also known to have demanded payment for press interviews

Defense Policy Board, a practice that has raised accusations of not only ethical but legal impropriety.[34]

Unresolved legal issues

In 1978, while working with the

Washington Post
.

Perle has served as a Director of

Hollinger International submitted the 512-page Breeden Report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC). In the report, Perle is singled out as having breached his fiduciary responsibilities as a company director by authorizing several controversial transactions which diverted the company's net profit from the shareholders to the accounts of various executives. Perle received over $3 million in bonuses on top of his salary, bringing the total to $5.4 million, and the investigating committee called for him to return the money.

Top Hollinger executives dismissed the report and have filed a defamation lawsuit against the head of the investigating committee, former SEC chairman Richard C. Breeden. However, in 2005, Perle publicly acknowledged he had been served a 'Wells notice',[36] a formal warning that the S.E.C.'s enforcement staff had found sufficient evidence of wrongdoing to bring a civil lawsuit.

Seymour Hersh and "Lunch with the Chairman"

In July 2001, George W. Bush appointed Perle chairman of the

Trireme Partners LLP, which he claimed stood to profit from the war in Iraq.[37]

That same day, Perle was being interviewed on the issue of Iraq by CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Shortly before the interview ended, Blitzer quoted the aforementioned news article and asked for Perle's response. Perle dismissed the premise of the article and argued that it lacked "any consistent theme". Added Perle: "Sy Hersh is the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist, frankly."[38]

On March 11, Perle told the

libel cases in England, and that therefore made it a better location. In the end, Perle did not file any legal case. Instead, on March 27, 2003, he resigned as chairman of the Defense Policy Board, although he still remained a member of the board. [citation needed
]

Adviser to Muammar al-Gaddafi

As a member of the

Muammar al-Gaddafi in 2006.[40] "Perle traveled to Libya twice in 2006 and met with Vice President Dick Cheney after the trips."[41] According to Monitor documents, Perle traveled to Libya with several other advisers to hold lectures and workshops, and promote the image of Libya and its ruler.[40]

Iraq oil deal

In July 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported that Perle had made plans to invest in oil interests in Iraq, in collaboration with

Iraqi Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq (Iraqi Kurdistan).[42]

Works

Perle is author of many articles and three books:

In 1992 he produced the

PBS
feature The Gulf Crisis: The Road to War.

In 2007, Perle presented the documentary "The Case for War: In Defense of Freedom", articulating his view of the challenges facing the U.S. after

9/11, and debating with his critics including Richard Holbrooke, Simon Jenkins, and Abdel Bari Atwan. The film was broadcast by PBS in their series America at a Crossroads, which generated considerable controversy.[43]

References

  1. OCLC 1150934651
    .
  2. ^
    OCLC 1151240244
    .
  3. ^ "Protester throws shoe at Richard Perle". Associated Press. 18 February 2005. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  4. ^ "Perle says he should not have backed Iraq war". Los Angeles Times. 4 November 2006. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  5. ^
    S2CID 154946276
    .
  6. ^ Hersh, Seymour M. (4 May 2003). "Selective Intelligence: Donald Rumsfeld has his own special sources—are they reliable?". The New Yorker. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  7. ^ "Richard Perle: The Making of a Neoconservative". PBS. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  8. ISBN 9780801854460
    .
  9. ^ Jews in American Politics By Louis Sandy Maisel, Ira N. Forman, Donald Altschille via Google search, Google Books
  10. ^ "PBS: Think Tank: Transcript for "Richard Perle: The Making of a Neoconservative"". www.pbs.org.
  11. ^ "Richard Perle's Nuclear Legacy". The Washington Post. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
  12. ISBN 978-0-7391-2883-1
    .
  13. ^ "Richard Perle: Farewell Dark Prince". Time. 23 March 1987.
  14. ^ a b Chait, Jonathan (2010-12-20) Perles Of Wisdom, The New Republic
  15. Wattenberg, Ben J. (14 November 2002). "Richard Perle: The Making of a Neoconservative". Think Tank (TV series)
    . Retrieved 30 October 2008.
  16. ^ Kamiya, Gary (30 January 2004). ""An End to Evil" by David Frum and Richard Perle". Salon.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2008. Retrieved 30 October 2008.
  17. YouTube
    . Go to the 1 minute 10 second mark to hear Richard Perle make the Osama-Saddam connection five days after 9/11.
  18. ^ Corn, David (10 May 2002). "The Prince of Darkness Explains Iraq". AlterNet.
  19. ^ Rose, David (3 November 2006). "Neo Culpa". Vanity Fair.
  20. ^ "Former hawks now say they wouldn't back Iraq war". Reuters. 4 November 2006.
  21. ^ Borger, Julian (4 November 2006). "Neocons turn on Bush for incompetence over Iraq war". The Guardian. London.
  22. ^ "America at a Crossroads . The Case for War: In Defense of Freedom | PBS". www.pbs.org.
  23. New York Times
    .
  24. ^ "Perle: US needed 'Iraqi De Gaulle' for invasion" (PDF). Gulf News, reprinted at www.liberalgrace.com. 14 December 2006.
  25. ^ a b Perle, Richard (21 March 2003). "Thank God for the death of the UN". The Guardian. London.
  26. ^ a b Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger (3 November 2003). "War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal". The Guardian. London.
  27. ^ James, Barry (12 April 2003). "A strong warning to Syria – Perle, a Pentagon adviser, sees more preemption in future". International Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on 2 December 2003.
  28. OCLC 20189732
    .
  29. ^ Gerth, Jeff (17 April 1983). "Aide Urged Pentagon to Consider Weapons Made by Former Client". New York Times.
  30. ^ Editorial (21 April 1983). "On buying weapons and influence". New York Times.
  31. ^ Labaton, Stephen (25 March 2003). "Democrat Seeks Inquiry on Bankrupt Firm's Adviser". New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 May 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2007.
  32. ^ "Top Pentagon adviser resigns under fire". CNN.com, March 28, 2003. Archived from the original on 10 September 2006. Retrieved 17 April 2007.
  33. ^ Berman, Ari (18 August 2003). "Payments for Perle". The Nation.
  34. ^ Section 5 CFR 2635.807 Code of Federal Regulations, Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch
  35. ^ Blumenthal, Sidney (23 November 1987). "Richard Perle, Disarmed but Undeterred". The Washington Post.
  36. ^ "Hollinger Director Warned". New York Times. 24 March 2005. Retrieved 6 November 2006.
  37. ^ Hersh, Seymour (9 March 2003). "Lunch with the Chairman". The New Yorker.
  38. ^ "CNN Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, Showdown: Iraq (transcript)". CNN. 9 March 2003.
  39. ^ "Suing over New Yorker Article". Adam Daifallah, Staff Reporter of the Sun, The New York Sun, March 12, 2003, Section:National; Page:2. Archived from the original on 24 November 2006. Retrieved 6 November 2006.
  40. ^
    Politico
    . Retrieved 21 February 2011.
  41. ^ Elliott, Justin (2011-02-22) Richard Perle: Libya lobbyist, Salon.com
  42. ^ Schmidt, Susan; Simpson, Glenn R. (29 July 2008). "Perle Linked to Kurdish Oil Plan". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 28 July 2018. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  43. ^ Jensen, Elizabeth (1 April 2007). "PBS Buys a Lot of Arguments for $20 Million". New York Times. Retrieved 22 May 2010.

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