In this issue:

'Clean Break' Author Perle Named in Multi-Million-Dollar RICO Suit

Is Cover-Up Under Way of Rumsfeld-Cambone Role in Torture?

British Troops Tortured, Killed Iraqi Detainees

Turkish PM: No Difference Between Israel's Actions and Terrorists

Israeli Pilots Try To Block Top General's Promotion

Clinton Denounces Unilateralism as 21st Century Policy

From Volume 3, Issue Number 22 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published June 1, 2004
Southwest Asia News Digest

'Clean Break' Author Perle Named in Multi-Million-Dollar RICO Suit

Richard Perle, the neo-conservative warmonger and former adviser to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, has recently been doing his utmost to defend his old friend, and operative, Iraqi National Congress's Ahmed Chalabi following the May 20 raid upon Chalabi's home office in Baghdad. But, Perle himself is in deeper and deeper financial difficulty. The May 24 Business section of the Washington Post devotes two pages to an article called "The Ultimate Insider: Perle Exemplifies Washington's Revolving Door" which contains extremely important details about the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) suit that has been filed against Perle's boss at Hollinger, Inc., Lord Conrad Black, and his cronies on the Board of Directors, for fraud.

Perle is one of the major drivers behind the lies and fabrications that led to the Iraq war; it was the fulfillment of a plan that he co-authored for then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called "Clean Break: A New Strategy for Security the Realm." In "Clean Break," Perle called for total war against the Palestinian Authority, and regime change in Iraq, Syria, and Iran.

In the lawsuit, some $3.1 million in bonuses paid to Perle, who is the chief of Hollinger Digital, is part of the money that the stockholders of Hollinger International Inc. are trying to recover from Black and his cronies.

In reporting on the suit, the Post provides timeline of Perle's activities; highlights of that timeline include:

* 1987. Perle leaves the Defense Department where he had served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security since 1981, and he joins the Defense Policy Board (DPB), a DoD advisory body.

* 1989. Perle becomes a highly paid consultant to International Advisers, Inc., "to assist the efforts for the appropriation of U.S. military and economic assistance to the Republic of Turkey"—the firm's sole client. His boss is Douglas J. Feith, now Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, who had previously served under Perle at the Pentagon. During roughly the same period, Perle lobbies Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Ozal on behalf of FMC Corp. in a $1.1 billion deal to sell armored personnel carriers.

* 1994. Perle joins the board of Hollinger's predecessor company American Publishing. He later became a member of Hollinger, Inc.'s International (HII) Board of Advisers, and when that was terminated, joined the triumvirate executive committee with Conrad Black and F. David Radler. Both Black and Radler—but not Perle — are defendants named in the HII RICO suit that seeks payment and damages of $1.25 billion.

* 1998. Perle becomes chief of Hollinger Digital LLC, which is named in the RICO suit for having received investments and other disputed funds decided on by Black and Radler.

* 2001. Hollinger Digital invests in Cambridge Display Technology via an investment fund led by Gerald Paul Hillman. The investment fund, Trireme Partners LP, has both Perle and Hillman on its board, and includes Black and Henry Kissinger on its advisory board.

* 2001. Perle is made chairman of the Defense Policy Board, in a neo-conservative takeover of the Pentagon, and he recommends Hollinger crony, Gerald Paul Hillman to be appointed to the Board.

* 2002. Trireme, citing Perle's and Hillman's positions on the DPB, solicits major aerospace defense contractor, Boeing, which commits to invest $20 million in Trireme; at the same time, there is a controversial plan to lease Boeing tanker aircraft to the Air Force; Perle later supports the tanker plan in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

* 2003. Hollinger, as part of a larger investment commitment, invests $2.5 million in Trireme Associates LLC, general partner of Trieme Partners LP.

Perle receives $3.1 million in bonuses from Hollinger from May 2000 to January 2001, the RICO complaint reveals. Although he had been a member of the Defense Policy Board for 17 years, he resigns as chairman in March 2003, after the New York Times and New Yorker magazine reveal his role as a consultant to Loral Space and Communications Ltd. and Global Crossing Ltd., on matters pending before the government. In February 2004, he resigned from the board altogether, claiming that he did not want his strong views on terrorism and Iraq to become a factor in the Presidential campaign.

Although he denies that these and other deals involved influence peddling, Perle told the Post, "Was that a result of my influence? Yeah, it was. It was a result of the fact that they, the people I went to, knew me so they took my phone call."

Is Cover-Up Under Way of Rumsfeld-Cambone Role in Torture?

Reviewing the various military investigations underway into the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse and torture scandal, the May 27 Washington Post notes the gaps and limitations of the various probes, and it notes that none of the inquiries is designed to provide a complete picture, and notes—for the first time—that the probes will not address "the suspicions of a top-secret intelligence-gathering operation that may have helped to set the stage for the misconduct."

The Post adds that "some defense experts suspect that the Pentagon may be trying to prevent investigations from exposing the possible existence of a secret intelligence-gathering effort that either overlapped with some of the publicized abuses or operated in the same combat zones." The Post specifically cites the Seymour Hersh article in a recent New Yorker, which described a "special access program" for capturing and interrogating "high-value" targets in the war on terrorism.

The Post quotes former Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre as saying that he can't tell whether the strategy of the Pentagon investigations is "to have lots of activity going on around the center of this thing, without probing the center itself." Later, in the context of the Hersh article, Hamre says: "Every intelligence operation has a breakaway point, where you try to protect the organization with a cover story.... What some people are saying, is that the Pentagon is still trying to keep the breakaway line at the rogue-soldier level."

One investigative track would involve the still-classified debriefing of Col. Thomas Pappas, the military intelligence chief at Abu Ghraib, who said that the commanding generals in charge of the prison interrogations approved using unmuzzled dogs and other torture methods against prisoners. Pappas's interview with Gen. Antonio Taguba, who investigated the abuses for the U.S. Army, is reported in the Washington Post of May 26, where Pappas says that he had met personally with Gen. Geoffrey Miller (visiting from Guantanamo in August 2003), and had discussed the "technique" of using dogs without muzzles as "effective in setting the atmosphere" for interrogations. There was at least one case in which a dog bit a detainee. Miller was tasked to go to Abu Ghraib from Guantanamo by Under Secretary of Defense Cambone's deputy, Christian fundamentalist Islam-hater, Gen. William Boykin.

British Troops Tortured, Killed Iraqi Detainees

Charges that torture of prisoners in British custody in Iraq was carried out by a number of British soldiers will go before the High Court in Britain, reported the London Independent May 23. Five Iraqis arrested with a Basra man who died in detention after three days of beatings at the hands of British soldiers have given detailed witness statements, which were leaked to the Independent and Amnesty International. Amnesty says that the beatings were done in the presence of officers, "and in some cases officers actually took part." British officials have acknowledged that three other possible murders are also under investigation.

Turkish PM: No Difference Between Israel's Actions and Terrorists

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told visiting Israeli Infrastructure Minister Yosef Peritzky, that although Turkey also suffered from terrorism and was fighting it, he did not see a difference between what terrorists were doing, and Israel's demolition of homes, and attacks on civilians, in its bloody operation in Rafah, Gaza. The statement was reported in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz on May 26. Peritzky said that Erdogan also criticized Israel's assassination of two Hamas leaders, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in March, Abdel Aziz Rantisi in April of this year.

"The Prime Minister was very unhappy, to say the least," said Peritsky; "he claimed that the activities of the state of Israel do not promote peace ... [but] he was willing to offer his services to mediate, negotiate, and bring peace to the area."

Then, on May 26, Turkey moved to recall its ambassador to Israel for consultations, given its objections to Israel's brutal anti-Palestinian operations. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told reporters, "We are interested in the peace process and are following it closely in order to try and revive it.... In order to make a proper assessment, we may recall our ambassador for several days for consultation, after which he will return."

Turkish sources were quoted saying that the government might upgrade its diplomatic links to the Palestinian National Authority.

Israel has also come under severe criticism in the Turkish Parliament with Speaker Bulent Arinc accusing the Israeli Defense Forces of perpetrating a massacre in Rafah. Arinc also led the opposition to the Iraq war. There are demands within the ruling Justice and Development Party for the government to take measures against Israel, because of opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policies.

Israeli Pilots Try To Block Top General's Promotion

Ten Israeli air force pilots, who had signed a letter refusing to serve in the occupied territories, are mobilizing against the appointment of Air Force Commander Gen. Dan Halutz, one of Ariel Sharon's coterie of generals, to become Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli army Ha'aretz reported May 24. Halutz is responsible for having a one-ton bomb dropped on a Gaza house, in order to kill Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh. The bombing killed 14 other people, most of them children. Halutz cold-bloodedly told Ha'aretz afterward that the only thing he would have felt, had he been the pilot, about dropping a one-ton bomb on a residence ... is a slight jerk of his F16 when the bomb was released. He also said he had no regrets about the outcome.

The petition to the Supreme Court was filed because of Halutz's role in the bombing and states, "Halutz is responsible for one of the most grave acts in the history of the Israeli Defense Forces." It further calls for a criminal investigation into the bombing, before Halutz's appointment comes up for approval. Should Halutz, the most extremist general in the high command, become Deputy Chief of Staff, he is likely to become Chief of Staff next year.

Other petition signers are former Minister Shulamit Aloni, former Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair, and Hebrew University professors Ze'ev Sternhell and Yaron Ezrahi, and other leading academic and literary figures who are members of the Yesh Gvul anti-war group.

Clinton Denounces Unilateralism as 21st Century Policy

Speaking in Brazil at the inauguration of an institute sponsored by former Brazilian President Cardoso, former President Bill Clinton said that George W. Bush should have allowed the United Nations inspections in Iraq to continue, rather than go to war without UN support, and added: "I don't think Iraq was about oil and imperialism, but it was about unilateralism over co-operation as a way to shape the world in the 21st Century."

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