who is this richard perle guy anyway?
March 10, 2003 6:55 PM   Subscribe

who is this richard perle guy anyway?

is anyone else a little concerned with some of his views and associations being one of the top advisors to our current administration?
posted by specialk420 (32 comments total)
 
Ask Richard Perle himself!
posted by thatweirdguy2 at 8:06 PM on March 10, 2003


Perle can really be summed up by how he responded to that Hersh article when asked by Wolf Blitzer on Sunday...

PERLE: I don't believe that a company would gain from a war. On the contrary, I believe that the successful removal of Saddam Hussein, and I've said this over and over again, will diminish the threat of terrorism. And what he's talking about is investments in homeland defense, which I think are vital and are necessary.

Look, Sy Hersh is the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist, frankly.

BLITZER: Well, on the basis of -- why do you say that? A terrorist?

PERLE: Because he's widely irresponsible. If you read the article, it's first of all, impossible to find any consistent theme in it. But the suggestion that my views are somehow related for the potential for investments in homeland defense is complete nonsense.

BLITZER: But I don't understand. Why do you accuse him of being a terrorist?

PERLE: Because he sets out to do damage and he will do it by whatever innuendo, whatever distortion he can -- look, he hasn't written a serious piece since Maylie (ph).

BLITZER: All right. We're going to leave it right there.

....

So we're now equating terrorism with bad press? A quick Google search shows that in 1979, in his bio of Kissinger, Hersh implicated Perle for feeding NSC data to Israel, so it looks like there's some bad history between the two. In any case, Hersh's allegations deserve more of a reply than a "terrorist!" smear campaign--and resorting to such tactics can't help but make you wonder if he knows there is a real ethics problem....
posted by jbrjake at 8:09 PM on March 10, 2003


good catch jbr. really unbelievable.
posted by specialk420 at 8:21 PM on March 10, 2003


disturbing stuff. why the media aren't pouncing on these sorts of conflicted interests ... sickening.
posted by donkeyschlong at 8:51 PM on March 10, 2003


I'm just glad that this guy is on OUR side...heh...

No, really.
posted by davidmsc at 9:09 PM on March 10, 2003


so... to recap.
Cheney's company Halliburton had 73 million dollars in contracts with Iraq in the late nineties.
A subsidiary of Halliburton, Kellogg, Brown, and Root, has won a major contract for rebuilding oil fields.
And now Trireme partners will fund border security for the saudis against the Iraq-friendly Yemens, in the event of a war.

Is anyone making a list?
posted by condour75 at 10:01 PM on March 10, 2003


There are times I'm convinced that there are two worlds.

There's the one that people like you and I inhabit, in which we go to work and pay our taxes and try to make ends meet. We live modest little lives and are of no consequence to this world. And we're not all that much different from the poor schmucks who do the same thing in France, India, Iraq, or even the darkest jungles of New Guinea.

And then there's the world of those who run the world. They have almost all the money and power. They make decisions that help us or harm us or even kill us. War with Iraq has been in their plans for years. They've played their roles to ensure their continued rule, and created their companies to profit by their decisions.

The poor schmucks will, of course, pay for it.

American schmucks are going to see a majority of their tax money siphoned off to the war machinery instead of going toward helping their own.

Iraqi schmucks are going to be blasted to bits for the grave sin of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Other schmucks will be killed by other schmucks who think they're influencing the powers that be by strapping bombs to their chests and heading into nightclubs. They are, of course, perfectly wrong.

And most of us schmucks won't be affected all that much at all. We'll continue to work and pay taxes, continue to grumble about our lousy elected leaders, and mainly remain blithely unaware of the real power brokers.

Ce la vie.

I just wish they were a little less efficient at tranferring schmuck-money into their own accounts. If they weren't sucking away all that tax money, I wouldn't be paying an effective 30-odd% tax rate. And with the extra money in pocket, I might be able to go on vacation. Ah, well: the power brokers do need new shoes.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:33 PM on March 10, 2003


jbrjake

thanks for the link. Blitzer was really priceless. Jesus Christ. The man should just resign and go work _officially_ for Ari Fleischer -- he's already doing that in disguise, pretending to be a journalist
posted by matteo at 12:47 AM on March 11, 2003


Richard Perle, while not as far as I know being a member of the Administrtaion, appears on British TV with such regularity that many people here get the impression that he's Vice President or something. Maybe he is.
posted by skylar at 1:03 AM on March 11, 2003


who is this richard perle guy anyway?

All you never wanted to know about this treasonous man.
posted by nofundy at 5:07 AM on March 11, 2003


There are times I'm convinced that there are two worlds.

only times? then i submit the rest of the time you are in deep denial.
posted by quonsar at 5:39 AM on March 11, 2003


Five Fresh Fish - That comment of yours could be the kernel of a rousing speech, "The Two Worlds" speech - remembered by historians of the future along with Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" speech, Eisenhower's "Beware the Military Industrial Complex" speech.......

I'm sure your sordid "Tale of Two Worlds" is, to an extent, timeless but the "Two Worlds" were very much in place prior to WW2 when US financial interests were underwriting the rise of Hitler (as a bullwark against Socialism, out of sympathy with his racialist, eugenicist agenda, and merely as a great -and deeply cynical- investment opportunity) You've probably run across this material, but here it is again Tons 'O US-Nazi ties (financial, Bush links, Postwar...)
posted by troutfishing at 6:48 AM on March 11, 2003


skylar - I recently saw Perle on TV debating Dennis Kucinich....They both looked like aliens.

Kucinich's face was far too flat, his eyes too tiny, his forehead too enourmous for him to be truly human.......

But Perle!....massive and squat like a troll, he has a HUGE head, a truly massive head which, I was convinced, was merely a rubber mask concealing the scaly, grotesque lizard-alien head of one of our reptilian overlords

Then again - alien reptilian overlord vs. a human Perle.......would it really matter?.....no, I suppose not ....
posted by troutfishing at 6:58 AM on March 11, 2003


Another profile of Perle.
posted by Ty Webb at 8:33 AM on March 11, 2003


Right on! The truth is out there! But geez, no mention of the Trilateral Commission? Nary a word about the Group of Thirty, the WTO or the WEF? Hell - you didn't even bring up the Bohemian Grove! C'mon guys, you're losing your touch.
posted by MidasMulligan at 8:38 AM on March 11, 2003


Up next: Midas complains about being singled out for personal attacks.
posted by Ty Webb at 9:07 AM on March 11, 2003


Fortunately, however, Ty, who follows Midas around like a ferret latched onto his thumb, preempts it by singling Midas out by name. Interesting tactic.
posted by MidasMulligan at 9:15 AM on March 11, 2003


Wow, I'm following you around, yet I posted before you. Amazing. Reminds me of that Dennis Miller quote: "I'm so paranoid, I think the guy in front of me is following me the long way around."
posted by Ty Webb at 9:24 AM on March 11, 2003


Midas,

your anti-commie humor is as usual very funny, but you haven't enlightened us: Hersh's charges are pretty interesting, why don't you comment on those (unless you're on the "Hersh is a terrorist" party line.
We all know you're a pro-business, loyal, red-white-blue-blooded True American, but don't you find interesting how mr. "nuke'em-all" Perle seems to be making -- ahem -- a killing off this Iraq Attaq thing? Is it an example of capitalism at its best or insider trading? Is Adnan Kashoggi a nice bedfellow?
We all know that Whitewater + Oval Office blowjobs were the worst crimes of the last 2,000 years and dignity has finally be restored, but isn't this Perle thing pretty embarrassing for the "Bring Me the Head of Saddam Hussein" crowd?
posted by matteo at 9:48 AM on March 11, 2003


Perle is obviously an evil guy, but this is the government we're talking about.
posted by cell divide at 10:06 AM on March 11, 2003


Stop ruining the war with your facts, investigations, and documentation!

Not to worry, those who dare will be dealt with.
posted by homunculus at 10:07 AM on March 11, 2003


George Bush's top security adviser last night admitted the US would attack Iraq even if UN inspectors fail to find weapons.

Dr Richard Perle stunned MPs by insisting a "clean bill of health" from UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix would not halt America's war machine.


One wonders what it would take to stop war, given the mindset of people like Perle.

MR. PERLE
: Yeah, but you are creating a climate in the world in which anybody who wants to grab territory, dismember an independent U.N. member state can do so and get away with it, and nobody does a damn thing, and in that climate, there will be others. I can't tell you who they'll be, but there will be others.


Wow, the guy's prescient if nothing else, eh? Who'd have thunk it....a certain country preparing to dismember an independent state...in this day and age. Out of the mouth of babes....

Right on! The truth is out there! But geez, no mention of the Trilateral Commission? Nary a word about the Group of Thirty, the WTO or the WEF? Hell - you didn't even bring up the Bohemian Grove! C'mon guys, you're losing your touch.

MidasMulligan, your explication or argument in support of Richard Perle amounts to....what? Noting that other posters didn't use the same logical fallacy that you yourself just used? That's bound to be effective. May I respectfully suggest that in the future you point the gun at the argument you wish to criticize, instead of your own lower extremities. You're the one continually having thin-skinned little tantrums about what you call "trolling" in threads, particularly labeling such when (as so often happens) people merely point out the weakness in your arguments. Please explain how your own whining shouldn't apply to your own posts.

~chuckle~
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 10:40 AM on March 11, 2003


It's erroneous and misleading for the Daily Mirror (they're Brits, we'll get over it) to call Perle "George Bush's top security adviser". That job belongs to Condi Rice. Perle has an influential position overseeing broad defense policy issues, but it does not include daily breakfast briefings with the President. This is an important distinction.

He's left free to make comments in the European press, playing a kind of bad-cop role, but he is generally kept on a shorter leash for the American media.

As for Hersh, it's worthwhile to realize that while he plays the crusading investigative journalist, Hersh is not really an outsider; as a member of the Beltway media corps for decades now, he is instead a consummate insider. He often reveals the workings of things in the defense establishment that are hidden, and this is laudable, but one must always keep a grain of skepticism, because much of his information comes from leaks -- which are notoriously both unreliable and biased. (His article on the ground war in Afghanistan, including a dramatic account of the first airborne sorties near Kandahar, was allegedly riddled with out-and-out never-happened stuff, to the extent that it appeared as if he had been deliberately burned by certain sources.) In other words, Hersh often gets trolled.

Add in a 20-year feud with Perle, and the fact that Perle is a notorious asshole, and you get exchanges such as the CNN interview above. Since Perle is (as the Slate profile notes) not above such tactics himself -- to say the least -- this is something to watch with detachment and amusement. It's almost certain, for instance, that much of Hersh's sourcing for this article came from fellow Defense Policy Board members who may be hoping to succeed Perle, jockeying for position, or just probing for weakness.

trout, do keep in mind that the Nazis weren't that much worse than many other European governments of the day, until they started invading neighbors and gassing Jews. One sincerely doubts that US financial interests foresaw anything much different than an ongoing relationship with the vibrant German economy at the heart of Europe. It's all too easy to judge with hindsight.
posted by dhartung at 3:20 PM on March 11, 2003


dhartung - there's quite a bit more to the tale than that! though........no time to have at it now.....Oh, heck, here's a good tidbit (link to story much more interesting material in that tale. Here's a good vein too [ quote from 2nd link : "Friedrich Flick was the major co-owner of the German Steel Trust with Fritz Thyssen, Thyssen's long-time collaborator and occasional competitor. In preparation for the war crimes tribunal at Nuremberg, the U.S. government said that Flick was `` one of leading financiers and industrialists who from 1932 contributed large sums to the Nazi Party ... member of `Circle of Friends' of Himmler who contributed large sums to the SS. ''

Flick, like Thyssen, financed the Nazis to maintain their private armies called Schutzstaffel (S.S. or Black Shirts) and Sturmabteilung (S.A., storm troops or Brown Shirts).

The Flick-Harriman partnership was directly supervised by Prescott Bush, President Bush's father, and by George Walker, President Bush's grandfather.

The Harriman-Walker Union Banking Corp. arrangements for the German Steel Trust had made them bankers for Flick and his vast operations in Germany by no later than 1926."
]

Quote from 1st link:"At about the same time the Du Ponts were serving the Nazi cause in Germany, they were involved in a Fascist plot to overthrow the United States government.

"Along with friends of the Morgan Bank and General Motors," in early 1934, writes Higham, "certain Du Pont backers financed a coup d'etat that would overthrow the President with the aid of a $3 million-funded army of terrorists . . ." The object was to force Roosevelt "to take orders from businessmen as part of a fascist government or face the alternative of imprisonment and execution . . . "

Higham reports that "Du Pont men allegedly held an urgent series of meetings with the Morgans," to choose who would lead this "bizarre conspiracy." "They finally settled on one of the most popular soldiers in America, General Smedly Butler of Pennsylvania." Butler was approached by "fascist attorney" Gerald MacGuire (an official of the American Legion), who attempted to recruit Butler into the role of an American Hitler.

"Butler was horrified," but played along with MacGuire until, a short time later, he notified the White House of the plot. Roosevelt considered having "the leaders of the houses of Morgan and Du Pont" arrested, but feared that "it would create an unthinkable national crisis in the midst of a depression and perhaps another Wall Street crash." Roosevelt decided the best way to defuse the plot was to expose it, and leaked the story to the press.

"The newspapers ran the story of the attempted coup on the front page, but generally ridiculed it as absurd and preposterous." But an investigation by the Congressional Committee on Un-American Activities - 74th Congress, first session, House of Representatives, Investigation of Nazi and other propaganda - was begun later that same year.

"It was four years," continues Higham, "before the committee dared to publish its report in a white paper that was marked for 'restricted circulation.' They were forced to admit that 'certain persons made an attempt to establish a fascist organization in this country . . . (The) committee was able to verify all the pertinent statements made by General Butler.' This admission that the entire plan was deadly in intent was not accompanied by the imprisonment of anybody. Further investigations disclosed that over a million people had been guaranteed to join the scheme and that the arms and munitions necessary would have been supplied by Remington, a Du Pont subsidiary." (8)

The names of important individuals and groups involved in the conspiracy were suppressed by the committee, but later revealed by Seldes, Philadelphia Record reporter Paul French, and Jules Archer, author of the book, "The Plot to Seize the White House." Included were John W. Davis (attorney for the J.P. Morgan banking group), Robert Sterling Clark (Wall Street broker and heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune), William Doyle (American Legion official), and the American Liberty League (backed by executives from J.P. Morgan and Co., Rockefeller interests, E.F. Hutton, and Du Pont-controlled General Motors). (9)
"

posted by troutfishing at 7:41 PM on March 11, 2003


The machinations of the power-hungry are truly scary.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:23 PM on March 11, 2003


Right on! The truth is out there! Buy Lotto tickets!
posted by y2karl at 10:35 PM on March 11, 2003


It's erroneous and misleading for the Daily Mirror (they're Brits, we'll get over it) to call Perle "George Bush's top security adviser". That job belongs to Condi Rice. Perle has an influential position overseeing broad defense policy issues, but it does not include daily breakfast briefings with the President. This is an important distinction.

You only wish it were so. Technically, the job of President belongs to George W. Bush.

And it's Perle who whores himself out as His Masters' Voice (those masters being Bush, Sharon, but mainly Perle himself) to spread the party line to any media organisation willing to have its pages or airwaves polluted with his bile. Alas.

trout, do keep in mind that the Nazis weren't that much worse than many other European governments of the day, until they started invading neighbors and gassing Jews.

Er, no. The Nazis were much worse from the moment Hitler took the chancellorship. Who are you making comparisons with? Mussolini? Stalin? Not Stanley Baldwin and Eamon De Valera, I hope. What a pathetic smear.
posted by riviera at 3:46 PM on March 12, 2003


Flash! - Sy Hersch talks about Perle, Kashoggi, et. al on WBUR's "On Point" radio show wednsday nite! (wbur.org will get you there)
posted by troutfishing at 4:36 PM on March 12, 2003


[WBUR's shows get archived for public re-listening.]
posted by troutfishing at 4:38 PM on March 12, 2003


pat buchanan on related subject matter the axis of ego article by novak is worth a read as well...

thanks for the wbur heads up trout.
posted by specialk420 at 5:02 PM on March 12, 2003


Apparently Perle is suing Hersh in Britain.
posted by homunculus at 7:52 PM on March 12, 2003


Richard Perle is a grandstanding pantywaist. Entertaining article from Slate.
posted by Vidiot at 11:33 AM on March 14, 2003 [1 favorite]


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