arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Perle, meegereisd met de Amerikaanse president Bush, zei tijdens een lezing in het Londens Instituut voor Hedendaagse Kunst dat "de internationale wetten deze keer in de weg stonden van de juiste daden". Hij voegde er aan toe dat de VS volgens de internationale wetten Saddam Hoessein had moeten met rust laten. Volgens Perle, die lid is van de Defence Policy Board die adviezen verleent aan minister van defensie Rumsfeld was dat de schuld van Frankrijk door wiens koppigheid de oorlog geen goedkeuring van de VN kreeg.

Richard Perle was lange tijd voorzitter van de Defence Policy Board, maar nam eind maart van dit jaar ontslag nadat enkele kranten hadden geschreven dat hij zaken en politiek vermengde. The New Yorker Magazine had aan het licht gebracht dat Perle in Marseille had geluncht met de Saudische wapenhandelaar Khashoggi en de industrieel Harb Saleh Zuhair met het oog op investeringen in de firma Trireme Partners waar Perle grote belangen in heeft. Perle deed een stapje opzij als voorzitter, maar bleef wel zetelen als adviseur. Hij wordt ook wel eens de prins der duisternis genoemd. Die naam dankt hij aan zijn periode als vice-minister van defensie onder president Reagan toen hij één van de grootste voorstanders van de wapenwedloop was.

De uitlatingen van Perle staan in schril contrast met de woorden van Bush en Blair die altijd beweerd hebben dat de oorlog wel wettelijk was. Beiden vonden dat de aanval op Irak in overeenstemming was met de regels van de VN die het recht op zelfverdediging toelaten. Dit is iets wat zelfs door de secretaris-generaal van de VN Kofi Annan wordt tegengesproken.

Bron: The Guardian

Perle:

"...international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone", and this would have been morally unacceptable."

"I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."

War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1089158,00.html

Text from Perle:

Thank God for the death of the UN
Friday March 21, 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,918812,00.html

Perle recently in the news:

"Richard Perle, the former Pentagon official and an architect of the Bush administration's strategy to topple Saddam Hussein, said President Bush should consider bombing North Korea's nuclear production facilities if diplomatic efforts fail to convince Pyongyang to disarm."
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0603/12perle.html?urac=n&urvf=10627689621820.6599218263879352

Richard Perle Libel Watch, Week 34
http://www.newsfrombabylon.com/article.php?sid=3420

11/01/2003
"Meanwhile, Senior Pentagon advisor Richard Perle said Russia "should be excluded" from the Group of Eight (G8) industrial nations for its arrest at gunpoint of its top oil baron, in an interview published Thursday in the business daily Kommersant."
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1012709/posts

Perle Cleared of Conflict of Interest Allegations

Nov 17 (MASNET & News Agencies) - Richard Perle, a top Pentagon adviser, has been cleared of conflict of interest allegations that prompted him to step down in March as chairman of an influential civilian Pentagon advisory board, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.
http://www.masnet.org/news.asp?id=679

SECRETARY RUMSFELD STATEMENT ON RICHARD PERLE
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2003/nr20031116-0645.html

As war loomed, Iraq offered deal

"But the messages from Baghdad raised enough interest that in early March, Richard Perle, an influential adviser to top Pentagon officials, met in London with the Lebanese-American businessman, Imad Hage. According to both men, Hage laid out the Iraqis’ position to Perle, and he pressed the Iraqi request for a direct meeting with Perle or another representative of the United States. ‘‘I was dubious that this would work,’’ Perle said, ‘‘but I agreed to talk to people in Washington.’’ Perle said he sought authorization from CIA officials to meet with the Iraqis. Perle said that the CIA officials said they did not want to pursue this channel and indicated they had already engaged in separate contacts with Baghdad. Perle said the response was simple: ‘‘The message was, ‘Tell them that we will see them in Baghdad.’’’
http://www.iht.com/articles/116629.html

"IN 1959, RICHARD PERLE was just another California high-school kid struggling to pass Spanish. But even then, the future Pentagon adviser and TV pundit was gripped by subjects far weightier than the next sock hop. Albert Wohlstetter, a classmate's father, had written an article in Foreign Affairs entitled ''The Delicate Balance of Terror,'' and Perle found it riveting. When they met poolside at the Wohlstetter family home in the Hollywood Hills, Perle says he was dazzled by the older man's ''uncontrollably analytical'' mind. ''Maybe if I hadn't been seduced by the discussion about strategic policy, I might have passed Spanish,'' he says."
http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:nOR-Tjh0su4J:http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2003/05/18/the_analyst/+IN+1959,+RICHARD+PERLE+was+just+another+California+high-school+kid+struggling+to+pass+Spanish.&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

The Delicate Balance of Terror

Albert Wohlstetter

P-1472

6 November 1958
Revised December 1958
http://www.rand.org/publications/classics/wohlstetter/P1472/P1472.html

The Strategist and the Philosopher Leo Strauss and Albert Wohlstetter

By ALAIN FRACHON and DANIEL VERNET June 2, 2003

http://www.counterpunch.org/frachon06022003.html