(Richard) Perle Linked to Kurdish Oil Plan

[sabra]

Source: WSJ


Iraq War Advocate
Denies Taking Part
In a Consortium


Influential former Pentagon official Richard Perle has been exploring going into the oil business in Iraq and Kazakhstan, according to people with knowledge of the matter and documents outlining possible deals.

Mr. Perle, one of a group of security experts who began pushing the case for toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein about a decade ago, has been discussing a possible deal with officials of northern Iraq's Kurdistan regional government, including its Washington envoy, according to these people and the documents.

It would involve a tract called K18, near the Kurdish city of Erbil, according to documents describing the plan. A consortium founded by Turkish company AK Group International is seeking rights to drill there, the documents say. Potential backers include two Turkish companies as well as Kazakhstan, according to individuals involved.

AK's chief executive is Aydan Kodaloglu, who, like Mr. Perle, has been involved with the American Turkish Council, an advocacy group in Washington. She didn't respond to requests for comment. Phyllis Kaminsky, who identified herself as the U.S. contact for Ms. Kodaloglu, said she herself was aware of the drilling plan but referred questions about it to Mr. Perle.

"Richard would know the most," Ms. Kaminsky said. "He is involved, I know that."



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121729971113092303.html...

[Arctic Dave]

1. Well, well, well. Just when you thought the

stink from this corpse couldn't get any worse. If this didn't come from the WSJ I would have assumed it was from some kind CT website.

[Loudmxr]

6. Well of course Richard Perle would be involved.

He is one of the most effective behind the scenes guys since Kissinger. He loves power, influence, and money. In that order.
He could not pick a better spot either 'cause once we leave the Kurds are gonna make like Slovakia and Czech out. They are forming their own country cause they have their own oil, their own land, culture and language. What else do you need except foreign moola to prime the pumps? b-)

[sourmilk]

13. "What else do you need except foreign moola to prime the pumps?"

Ummmm...Protection from the Turks, perhaps?

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Off topic but... what is a a "security expert" exactly?

>>>>Mr. Perle, one of a group of security experts who began pushing the case for toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein about a decade ago, has been discussing a possible deal with officials of northern Iraq's Kurdistan regional government, including its Washington envoy, according to these people and the documents.>>>>>

And how does one become a "security expert", exactly. Let's not get Orwellian about this. It would appear, from his wiki blurb, that Perle's expertise rests in the area of *insecurity*.


Re. involvement in Iraqi oil theft, it's more than likely true as it's very much in character. People like Perle can rationalize anything to their own satisifaction. He's been trudging thru the muck for years.

From wiki:


>>>>Bribery Accusations and Alleged Conflicts of Interest
From 1981 to 1987, Perle was Assistant Secretary of Defense for international security policy in the Reagan administration. In a 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. (New York Times, 17 April 1983, "Aide Urged Pentagon to Consider Weapons Made by Former Client", Jeff Gerth. See also New York Times, 21 April 1983, "On buying weapons and influence", Editorial.).

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. <13> This controversy led to accusations of bribery, and Perle resigned as chairman on March 27, 2003, though he remained on the board. <14>

Perle is also known to have demanded payment for press interviews<15> while he was the chairman of the Defense Policy Board, a practice that has raised accusations of not only ethical, but legal impropriety. <16>


Unresolved Legal Issues>>>>>>

[Judi Lynn]

3. And we thought he was just in this for the suffering and unending grief he could cause other people.

He's a man of many talents, isn't he?

It's so soothing to learn he has found a way he can reward himself even more.

[susu369]

9. Those photos

I just lost my breakfast.

Important story.

[LeftishBrit]

4. Wow. And there are still people who say it isn't a war for oil.

[harmonicon]

5. it isn't

It's a war for the sake of war, because there is far more money to be made up-front that way. If they had just wanted the oil, it would have been easy enough (compared to what we've got now) to actually topple the government in a more stable way and/or win an outright war and take control of the oil. In one sense it's a war for oil, because these folks didn't own oil wells in Iraq, but they owned plenty of oil in other places. They've certainly benefitted by having the price of oil multiply 4 times, and the never-ending war has played no small part in that.

[MetaTrope]

7. American Turkish Council?

Now where have we heard that name before?

[Dystopian]

16. thank you. great find. n/t

[cascadiance]

31. And AIPAC too, just like many others in this cabal!

http://zfacts.com/p/137.html

Just like other folks like Brent Scowcroft, who also serves in the ATC and AIPAC, and is on the board of Qualcomm, who "conveniently" hired Carol Lam VERY quickly after she was fired as U.S. Attorney in San Diego, before some could get her to consider her even coming back an finishing up the indictments she made against Dusty Foggo, Brent Wilkes, etc. as an independent contractor.

These lobbyist organizations AIPAC and ATC, shouldn't be looked at as solely lobbyist groups for Israel and Turkey exclusively. They REALLY are lobbyist groups for our military industrial complex, plus interested recipients in those countries of such aid they get. That's why groups like AIPAC heavily lobby for an attack on Iran, when most Israelis in Israel DON'T want it!

[leveymg]

8. Would love to hear what Sibel and Luke have to say about this.

.

[annabanana]

10. ding ding! . . . . .n/t

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

11. It's All About Oil for Israel...

... when the Shah's government in Iran collapsed, the Ayatollah shut off the oil pipeline to Haifa, Israel. Once you grasp that, you can appreciate Israel's rancor towards Iran. And perhaps visualize just what Israel was doing to prop up the Shah, so it goes both ways.

[bdamomma]

12. what else is new?

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. What a despicable piece of shit

You hear that, parents and family of The War Dead?

The guy who told you that "freedom isn't free" and that your loved one's death will be "worth it" is wheeling and dealing for Tract K18 of the Erbil Oil Fields!

Roger that?

[LynnTheDem]

15. “And a year from now, I’ll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad

that is named after President Bush."

-Perle the Dick, 9/22/2003

Coz they ain't never wrong, them neocons.

[Dystopian]

17. KandR n/t

[madrchsod]

18. throw in denny "the fixer" hastert

in this pool of slime.....

[pattmarty]

19. I'm shocked, shocked, I tell ya. Who would have thunk.........

........that he would advocate policies that would enrich him?

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. Shameful, shameful, shameful.

[redqueen]

21. Someone who pushed for this war, profiteering? You don't say! (nt)

[Supersedeas]

33. will he get a tanker named after him too -- like lil' Condi did -- the lil' Pearle

[Supersedeas]

34. Bush's boys, Pearle and Hunt, have decided they are not waiting any longer for the promised

political success the surge/escalation was implemented to obtain.

The surge ain't no success without an OIL DEAL, so they are grabbing what they can get.

While Condi grins, as only she can.

[redqueen]

37. Why not?

Might as well... doesn't seem like too many 'murkins have a problem with it.

[LesserFool]

22. Bush's record of reading souls spot on

Looks like Bush's record of reading into the soul of people (e.g. Putin) contains its abysmall track record.

Everyone Bush trusts turns out to be a failure, a traitor or a swindler.

But, as is the Shrub's way, he's probably preparing to give Mr. Perle a medal of honor for his service to the nation.

Putin. Chalibi. Wolfowitz. Perle. The list goes on.

[benld74]

23. They're just like mold, unless you use bleach and get all of em,,,

[stubtoe]

24. Recommending. n/t

[whistle]

25. Well, neocon Richard Perle promoted this $3.5 trillion war and overthrow of Iraq

...along with the concept of permanent occupation and Big Oil colonial control of Iraq's oil resources leaving almost nothing for the Iraqi people. That makes it alright and worth the cost, right? WRONG America!

This proves that Bush and Cheney and the rest of the BushCo administration were nothing but lackeys of the neocon thugs overthrow of the U.S. Republic and Americans will pay for this deception for decades or perhaps forever.

[Wetzelbill]

26. This is no surprise at all, Sy Hersch had this dude nailed 5 years ago

Trireme was cashing in on potential conflicts while he was chairman of the Defense Policy Board.

[Joanne98]

27. Gotcha!

[Octafish]

28. Of course.

I wonder how his "Trireme Partnership" is working out?

[starroute]

29. Committee for the Liberation of Iraq

Perle has always been looking for ways to make a buck off the invasion of Iraq -- but he's not alone.

http://www.nndb.com/people/354/000022288 /

Perle was also on the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI), a "grassroots" group that lobbied for American intervention to bring about regime change in Iraq.


http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1458.html

Although the CLI's advisory panel included several hardline Democrats such as former Rep. Stephen Solarz and former Sen. Robert Kerrey, it was dominated by neoconservatives and Republican Party stalwarts like Jeane Kirkpatrick, Robert Kagan, Newt Gingrich, Richard Perle, William Kristol, and James Woolsey. Serving as honorary co-chairs were Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and John McCain (R-AZ).


http://presentdanger.irc-online.org/papers/libiraq.html

The "Committee for the Liberation of Iraq" is setting up offices on Capitol Hill this week, according to its president, Randy Scheunemann, Lott's former chief national-security adviser who last year worked in Rumsfeld's office as a consultant on Iraq policy. The chairman of the new Committee, Bruce P. Jackson, is a former vice president of Lockheed Martin who chaired the Republican Party Platform's subcommittee for National Security and Foreign Policy when Bush ran for president in 2000. . . .

Scheunemann told FPIF that they are still recruiting members for the Committee's board of directors. So far, however, former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey, and ret. General Wayne Downing, a former lobbyist for the Iraqi National Congress (INC) who worked as Bush's top counter-terrorism official on his National Security Council staff until he unexpectedly resigned last summer, have all signed on.

Like Downing, Scheunemann has long-standing links to the INC, a very loose coalition of Iraqi dissidents and opposition groups headed by the controversial Ahmed Chalabi. Chalabi and the INC have long been championed by the neoconservatives around Rumsfeld and Cheney but disdained as ineffectual and possibly corrupt by regional specialists at the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the uniformed brass, including ret. General Anthony Zinni, who served as commander of the Pentagon's Central Command in the late 1990s.

In 1998, Scheunemann, who was then working for Lott, drafted the "Iraq Liberation Act" that authorized 98 million dollars for the INC, only a fraction of which was spent by the Clinton administration, largely due to opposition from State, the CIA, and Zinni. The Pentagon recently took control of the bulk of the unspent funds to begin training various INC factions.

[happydreams]

30. K&R. He held seminars in the run-up to the war on how to profit from it.

I'll dig around and see if I can find more on this.

[happydreams]

35. Here it is....

Perle in War Profiteering? (May, 2003)
From the LA Times via MSNBC

Pentagon adviser Richard Perle briefed an investment seminar on ways to profit from conflicts in Iraq and North Korea just weeks after he received a top-secret government briefing on the crises in the two countries, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.
Perle, who until March was chairman of the Defense Policy Board, a group of outside advisers to the Pentagon, also serves on the board of several defense contractors. The revelation raises concerns about conflicts of interest.
The Times reported that Perle attended a Defense Intelligence Agency briefing in February and three weeks later participated in a Goldman Sachs conference call in which he advised investors in a talk titled “Implications of an Imminent War: Iraq Now. North Korea Next?”


http://www.command-post.org/archives/006830.html

[happydreams]

36. Here some more stuff with other fascisti cited.

...Another circle of beneficiaries may be referred to as the “policy profiteers”: individuals who advocated for the war with Iraq at the same time that they stood to gain from it. Chief among these were Bruce Jackson, R. James Woolsey, and Richard Perle. Jackson, a former vice president at the world’s largest weapons contractor, Lockheed Martin, co-chaired the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an advocacy group which closely coordinated its pro-war messages with the Bush administration. He had previously served as chair of the foreign policy subcommittee of the Republican platform committee at the party’s 2000 convention. Both Woolsey and Perle served as advisors to then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as part of the Defense Policy Board. Both men used their posts as official advisors to the Pentagon to beat the drums for war, and both simultaneously ran investment funds that were receiving money from major contractors like Boeing that have profited mightily from the Iraq conflict. In addition, Woolsey is an executive at Booz, Allen and Hamilton, a consulting firm that has given seminars on how to get Iraq-related contracts.

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5254

[robinlynne]

32. surprise!!!!!!!!!!!!