--- Begin Message ---
-Caveat Lector-
Frank Gaffney Joins Perle In Lobbying For Chinese Control Of US Military
Communications
"Hawks" Loyal To Israel Seek To Undermine US
3/28/03 1:10:23 PM
Asia Times
Washington, DC -- [LSN: Perle's resignation has not stopped his lobbying.
Note that this same crowd has also advocated war with China -- after they
advocated giving China control of our military. Why? Because they have
one
overriding perogative -- a desire to destroy America.]
http://atimes.com/atimes/China/EC25Ad04.html
Perle: 'Prince of Darkness' in the spotlight
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Is civil war about to break out among the neo-conservatives
who have championed the imperial trajectory of the Bush administration's
foreign policy?
It's still too early to tell, but analysts are raising eyebrows over news
that Richard Perle, the single most powerful hawk outside the
administration,
has been retained by Global Crossing to help ensure that Hutchison
Whampoa,
widely regarded by his fellow hawks as a front for China's People's
Liberation
Army, can buy a majority share in the bankrupt telecommunications company.
It's the latest in a series of revelations of Perle's business dealings
that, at the very least, make clear why he decided against taking an
official
position in the administration of President George W Bush. It seems that
Perle, for all his hawkishness, wants to get rich in ways that government
service may not permit.
Those business dealings, which include interests in companies selling
advanced computer eavesdropping systems and other "homeland
security"-related
systems to foreign intelligence and security agencies, have raised ethical
questions about whether he is using his unpaid position as chairman of the
Pentagon's Defense Policy Board (DPB) for personal gain. While the latest
disclosure about his relationship with Global Crossing also raises ethical
issues, the fact that China is involved - Beijing being considered by most
neo-
cons the power most likely to challenge US regional dominance in Asia -
makes
the case even more remarkable.
According to a notice submitted by Global Crossing, Perle would be paid
US$726,000 by the company, including $600,000 if the sale goes through.
Whether it will remains unclear, however. Both the Defense Department and
the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have raised some "national security"
problems with the deal because it would put Global Crossing's global
fiber-
optics network, which is used by the Pentagon itself, under Hutchison
Whampoa's control.
What is particularly remarkable - not to say mind-boggling - is that one
of
Perle's closest neo-conservatives proteges, soulmates and veteran
collaborators, Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy (CSP), has
been
screaming about the dangers posed by the Hong Kong-based company to US
national security ever since Panama awarded it a 25-year renewable
contract to
lease and operate the ports at both ends of the Panama Canal Zone in 1997.
Gaffney began working for Perle way back in the 1970s when they were both
on the staff of Washington state senator Henry M "Scoop" Jackson, the
"Senator
from Boeing", devoted to derailing detente with the Soviet Union. Their
bureaucratic machinations with then defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and
another Perle protege, Paul Wolfowitz, to frustrate a new arms-control
agreement negotiated with Moscow by secretary of state Henry Kissinger
earned
Perle his famous nickname, the Prince of Darkness.
Under president Ronald Reagan, Perle became an assistant secretary of
defense and named Gaffney as his deputy. In the 1990s, they worked
hand-in-
glove - Perle at the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI),
and
Gaffney at CSP. Perle serves on CSP's board of advisors; they serve
together
on the boards of the US Committee for a Free Lebanon and the Committee for
the
Liberation of Iraq, and several other neo-conservative-dominated interest
and
lobby groups.
Gaffney, who warned that the Panama leases would put Beijing in a position
to cut off the canal to US warships, if not take control of the strategic
waterway altogether, led a bizarre campaign backed by extreme
right-wingers in
Congress and former defense secretary Caspar Weinberger to force the
Panamanians to cancel the deal before the canal reverted to Panamanian
sovereignty on January 1, 2000.
As recently as last August, Gaffney was insisting that Hutchison, which is
owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, is simply a cat's paw for
China to
further its strategic designs against Washington. In addition to the
Panama
Canal leases, he wrote in the Washington Times, Hutchison "is currently
hard
at work acquiring a presence for China at other strategic 'choke points'
around the world, including notably the Caribbean's Bahamas, the
Mediterranean's Malta, and the Persian Gulf's Straits of Hormuz. At a
moment
inconvenient to the United States, such access could translate into
physical
or other obstacles to our use of such waterways."
But while these geostrategic maneuvers were worrisome enough, the main
point of Gaffney's article last October was precisely to point out the
threat
posed by Hutchison's purchase of a 61.5 percent majority interest in
Global
Crossing, the winner of a 10-year, $450 million contract to operate a
high-
speed classified research network for Pentagon scientists.
Gaffney had a message for those who would support the deal going
through. "Trade uber alles means, by definition, subordinating national-
security considerations to the ambitions of those who seek profits through
commerce. In a time of war like the present," he warned, "we simply cannot
afford to pursue such a policy to its illogical, and potentially highly
destructive conclusion."
Yet it appears that Perle has been retained to achieve precisely that
result.
The deal adds to the growing perception that Perle is using his position
as
DPB chairman, and possibly his longtime friendship and influence with
Rumsfeld, to further his own financial interests. Rumsfeld appointed him
to
the post within a few months of the administration's inauguration, and he
has
used it as a platform for almost continuous public exhortation for
Washington
to invade Iraq as a first step in transforming the entire Arab Middle
East.
Perle's private interests first came to light in a controversial New
Yorker
article this month by veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. He
reported that Perle met with Saudi businessmen, including Adnan Khashoggi,
in
Marseilles two months ago as part of an effort to raise investment cash
for
Perle's Trireme Partners LP, a company specializing in homeland security
and
defense. Perle denied that the conversation had anything to do with
Trireme
and called Hersh a "terrorist".
Last week, The Guardian of London reported that Perle was also a director
of a UK-based company, Autonomy Corp, with an option on 75,000 of the
company's shares. The company, according to the Guardian account, is
selling
advanced computer eavesdropping systems to intelligence agencies around
the
world. Perle told the newspaper that he advises the company on market
opportunities but that he has no input into specific procurement by US
agencies, a point he also made with respect to the Global Crossing
arrangement, which was reported by the New York Times on Friday.
The Times also reported that Perle participated last Wednesday in a
conference call sponsored by Goldman Sachs on the subject of "Implications
of
an Imminent War: Iraq Now. North Korea Next?" which apparently discussed
investment opportunities. It did not disclose whether Perle was paid for
his
participation or made specific recommendations about companies in which he
has
an interest.
As DPB chairman, Perle is not formally part of the US administration, and
is thus not required to divest himself of commercial interests. But his
influence and power with the administration are well known. Not only does
he
have a long-standing relationship with Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, but he also
has
worked closely as a lobbyist for Turkey and the Israeli arms industry with
Douglas Feith, the Pentagon's Undersecretary for Policy, as well as other
senior Pentagon officials.
Perle himself has strongly denied that he was using his influence as DPB
chairman to help Global Crossing. He told the Financial Times that he was
only
advising the company on the approval process and not lobbying on its
behalf.
But a number of analysts say the contract's fee contingency, which is
unusual in the Washington legal community, suggests that lobbying is
precisely
what Global Crossing had in mind. "The fee structure is especially smelly
because $600,000 of the windfall is contingent on government approval of
the
sale," wrote the Times' Maureen Dowd on Sunday.
"This is a conflict of interest," Larry Noble, director of the Center for
Responsible Politics, told the Financial Times. "He's using his position
on
the board to win business."
But to Gaffney, who has yet to be heard from on the issue, and his fellow
members of the anti-China "Blue Team", Perle's role in expediting the sale
of
Global Crossing to Hutchison must come as a major disappointment, to put
it
mildly.
After all, it was only three years ago that Perle joined with Gaffney and
15 other anti-China hawks from the Project for the New American Century in
calling for unequivocal support for Taiwan in the event of a Chinese
attack.
And in another public statement that could have been written by Gaffney,
Perle charged that Beijing "is laying the foundations for an aggressive
claim
to preeminence in the Pacific. It ought to be very clear that this is a
catastrophe for all of us, and could foreshadow a Cold War as bad as the
last."
Of course, this is the same Richard Perle who recently called for
Washington to pursue a strategy of "containment" against France but has no
intention of giving up his summer home there.
(�2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact
[EMAIL PROTECTED] for information on our sales and syndication policies.)
Libertarian Socialist News
ATTN: Bill White, Editor
Post Office Box 12244
Silver Spring, MD 20908
http://www.overthrow.com
(check out our messageboards -- discuss this story on-line!)
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http://archive.jab.org/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http://archive.jab.org/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
--- End Message ---
