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Tue 29 Jul, 2008 08:54 am
Ex-Pentagon Official Perle Linked To Iraq Oil Deal
July 29, 2008
The Wall Street Journal reports that neoconservative war architect Richard Perle is getting back into Iraq:
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.
Think Progress remembers that Perle "resigned from his position on the Defense Policy Board in an attempt to 'defuse a controversy over charges he stood to profit from the war in Iraq.'"
Iraq War Advocate Denies Taking Part In a Consortium
Perle Linked to Kurdish Oil Plan
Iraq War Advocate Denies Taking Part In a Consortium
By SUSAN SCHMIDT and GLENN R. SIMPSON, Wall Street Journal
7/29/08
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."
People with knowledge of the discussions said they involve Alexander Mirtchev, a Washington consultant and adviser to the government of Kazakhstan, and an associate of his, Kaloyan Dimitrov. Mr. Perle has attended events promoting the interests of Kazakhstan, an oil-rich nation whose ruler, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is involved in a long-running U.S. investigation of 1990s-era oil-company bribery. Mr. Perle has publicly lauded President Nazarbayev as "visionary and wise," according to a publication distributed by the Kazakh embassy in Washington.
Mr. Perle said by email that Mr. Mirtchev is a friend of his who once spent a night at his vacation home in France. Mr. Perle said Mr. Mirtchev is "justly...proud of his influence on the liberalization of the Kazakh economy."
Asked about pursuing oil concessions, Mr. Perle said, "I am not involved in any consortium involving Mr. Mirtchev or Mr. Dimitrov, nor am I 'framing plans for a consortium'" involving either one. He declined to elaborate.
Brian Shaughnessy, a lawyer for Mr. Mirtchev, said his client "is not working on oil related projects in Kazakhstan or Kurdistan with Richard Perle, nor have they done any business deals of this nature." A lawyer for Mr. Dimitrov didn't respond to questions about oil discussions.
A spokesman for Qubat Talabani, the Kurdistan regional government's representative in the U.S., confirmed that the envoy had been approached by Mr. Perle. In a statement, Mr. Talabani said "one of my duties...is to seek out potential investors for our new, growing economy in Iraqi Kurdistan as well as respond...to all legitimate requests for investment information."
Kurdish authorities have been granting oil-drilling contracts even though Iraq's central government and the Bush administration want them to hold off until a national oil law is passed.
The K18 concession, which is estimated to hold 150 million or more barrels of oil, would potentially be operated by Houston-based Endeavour International, according to documents and people familiar with the discussions. A spokeswoman for Endeavour said, "At this point we wouldn't have anything definitely going on, and we wouldn't comment on anything that hadn't been publicly announced."
Mr. Perle also has explored obtaining an oil concession in Kazakhstan in tandem with a northern Iraq deal, according to people familiar with those discussions.
Mr. Perle, who was an assistant Defense secretary in the Reagan administration, is known for his strong support of Israel and hawkish views on arms control. In the early days of the Bush administration, he was one of the most influential proponents of U.S. military action to oust Iraq's President Hussein.
Mr. Perle was chairman of the Defense Policy Board, which advises the Pentagon, but resigned in March 2003 amid criticism of his role as an adviser to a telecom company that was seeking U.S. government approval for a sale to Asian investors. He is a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute think tank.
And if he is, so what?
Your own links call him an EX-PENTAGON OFFICIAL, so are you saying that he shouldnt be allowed to make money now that he is a private citizen?
Obviously he wanted us into the war so he could retire from the pentagon and make a load of cash in the now lucrative oil fields of Iraq. C'mon MM, this is basic stuff here! He probably had this all panned out before the first Gulf war knowing that Saddam would eventually be eradicated.
Another capitalist pig!!! String him up and shoot him for wanting to make a buck.
BBB is the queen of mindless pasting of anything she can find in the media that denigrates those whom she opposes in politics. Notably absent from any of her posts is any comment or coherent argument on her part or, more importantly, any comparative analysis of relative differences between those whom she admires and those she opposes. Instead she simply looks for what appears to be dirt on those she opposes and posts it here -- no matter how meaningless it may be or how distorted and partisan the real author of the material himself might be.
In the case at hand she faults Richard Pearl, a former Defense Department official, for his apparent association with a petroleum development venture in northern Iraq. (Incidently this is the same development project for which President Chirac of france signed a development deal with Saddam Hussein in 1990).
Meanwhile BBB ignores the fact that former German Chancellor Schroeder, who bitterly opposed U.S. policy in the Mid east & Persian Gulf region took a job with Putin's Gazprom to lead the development of a gas pipeline under the Baltic to bypass Poland and deliver gas directly to Germany from Russia. He is still in their employ four years later.
Any comments on former Chancellor Schroeder BBB?
georgeob1 wrote:BBB is the queen of mindless pasting of anything she can find in the media that denigrates those whom she opposes in politics. Notably absent from any of her posts is any comment or coherent argument on her part or, more importantly, any comparative analysis of relative differences between those whom she admires and those she opposes. Instead she simply looks for what appears to be dirt on those she opposes and posts it here -- no matter how meaningless it may be or how distorted and partisan the real author of the material himself might be.
In the case at hand she faults Richard Pearl, a former Defense Department official, for his apparent association with a petroleum development venture in northern Iraq. (Incidently this is the same development project for which President Chirac of france signed a development deal with Saddam Hussein in 1990).
Meanwhile BBB ignores the fact that former German Chancellor Schroder, who bitterly opposed U.S. policy in the Mid east & Persian Gulf region took a job with Putin's Gazprom to lead the development of a gas pipeline under the Baltic to bypass Poland and deliver gas directly to Germany from Russia. He is syill in their employ four years later.
Any comments on former Chancellor Schroeder BBB?
Maybe she just didn't know about that.
As for Perle, he wouldn't be under such suspicion had he not vehemently denied having anything at all to do with the oil business in Iraq; and had the white house not denied having knowledge of the deals he's doing.
When those who started the Iraq war take steps to make large personal profit off of it, it is correct to question the appropriateness of their actions.
Cycloptichorn
georgeob1 wrote:Meanwhile BBB ignores the fact that former German Chancellor Schroeder, who bitterly opposed U.S. policy in the Mid east & Persian Gulf region took a job with Putin's Gazprom to lead the development of a gas pipeline under the Baltic to bypass Poland and deliver gas directly to Germany from Russia. He is still in their employ four years later.
Any comments on former Chancellor Schroeder BBB?
Schröder never got a job with Gazprom but is chairman of the shareholders committee of Nord Stream AG (A Swiss-registered limited, 51% of shares owned by Gazprom, the rest by EON and Wintershall [Germany]) ... and since last year N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie.
(The managing director is a former Dresdner Bank manager, btw.)
Cycloptichorn wrote:
Maybe she just didn't know about that.
Then she is ignorant of salient facts related to the absurd material she so mindlessly pastes here.
Cycloptichorn wrote:
As for Perle, he wouldn't be under such suspicion had he not vehemently denied having anything at all to do with the oil business in Iraq; and had the white house not denied having knowledge of the deals he's doing.
When those who started the Iraq war take steps to make large personal profit off of it, it is correct to question the appropriateness of their actions.
Cycloptichorn
Your comments here suggest that you too don't know the facts about the matter. Pearle has been out of office in the Administration for several years now. There is nothing that prohibits his associations with an international business venture such as this -- if indeed it is really happening. As you will note in the pasted material above, these are all second hand inferences and accusations that may or may not be true. No conclusive facts were presented.
Finally you should know that petroleum policy is indeed a contentious matter in the EU, and the Gazprom pipeline project in the Baltic was bitterly opposed by both Poland and France. Schroeder's actions are known facts and they directly involved contentious political matters he dealt with as Chancellor, just days before he took the job as Putin's toady -- a far more significant conflict of interest than that of which Pearle is apparently accused.
The truth is Richard Pearle is one of the designated Boogeymen of the loonie left and - for them - no detail is too small, trivial, or false to be used in their somewhat continuous paranoid diatribes against him. I suspects he finds it all a bit amusing.
georgeob1 wrote:Cycloptichorn wrote:
Maybe she just didn't know about that.
Then she is ignorant of salient facts related to the absurd material she so mindlessly pastes here.
Cycloptichorn wrote:
As for Perle, he wouldn't be under such suspicion had he not vehemently denied having anything at all to do with the oil business in Iraq; and had the white house not denied having knowledge of the deals he's doing.
When those who started the Iraq war take steps to make large personal profit off of it, it is correct to question the appropriateness of their actions.
Cycloptichorn
Your comments here suggest that you too don't know the facts about the matter. Pearle has been out of office in the Administration for several years now. There is nothing that prohibits his associations with an international business venture such as this -- if indeed it is really happening. As you will note in the pasted material above, these are all second hand inferences and accusations that may or may not be true. No conclusive facts were presented.
Finally you should know that petroleum policy is indeed a contentious matter in the EU, and the Gazprom pipeline project in the Baltic was bitterly opposed by both Poland and France. Schroeder's actions are known facts and they directly involved contentious political matters he dealt with as Chancellor, just days before he took the job as Putin's toady -- a far more significant conflict of interest than that of which Pearle is apparently accused.
The truth is Richard Pearle is one of the designated Boogeymen of the loonie left and - for them - no detail is too small, trivial, or false to be used in their somewhat continuous paranoid diatribes against him. I suspects he finds it all a bit amusing.
Okay, I agree with you that Schroeder is doing bad stuff.
But it's difficult for me to understand your defense of Perle. He's not a 'boogeyman,' he was an architect of war. He pushed for war and was intimately involved in the administration's web of lies which led to the Iraq war. The idea that just b/c he's been out of the Pentagon for a few years, there's no reason to question him profiting off of the war he helped start? Ridiculous. A few years is nothing.
While there may not be laws against what he is doing, it provides further evidence forwarding the argument us dirty f*ckign hippies have been making all along - the war in Iraq was all about profit and zero about helping the Iraqi people.
Cycloptichorn
I certainly don't think it was good idea that Schröder took that job: it's hard to believe it being only a ceremonial "work".
But a few weeks ago, a state minister in Chancellery changed her employer from (literally) one day to the other: she became CEO of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries on July 1, 2008 .... something which was part of the duties within her department. (She's a conservative, like her boss, laid down her mandate as member of parliament only a few days ago.)
Walter Hinteler wrote:Cycloptichorn wrote:Okay, I agree with you that Schroeder is doing bad stuff.
Why is that "bad stuff"?
I think anything connected to Putin in any way is Bad Stuff.
Cycloptichorn
Cycloptichorn wrote:
While there may not be laws against what he is doing, it provides further evidence forwarding the argument us dirty f*ckign hippies have been making all along - the war in Iraq was all about profit and zero about helping the Iraqi people.
Cycloptichorn
Then we agree there is nothing illegal in what Pearle is accused of doing. Again I note that the article contained only second hand and unverified insinuations. No facts or even assertions of fact: just accusations and inferences.
While you may not like the prospect of Pearle involving himself in a profitable venture that is related to things he dealt with several years earlier while in government office, that same standard applied to Democrat politicians would yield some results you may not like -- they would involve former president Clinton, former VP Gore, and numerous former Cabinet officials. The fact that you don't continuously read of such things is reflective of both bias in the media and the rather odd paranoid proclivities of the loonie left.
Finally, I believe you would have a very hard time defending the truth of the proposition with which you ended your paragraph above.
georgeob1 wrote:Cycloptichorn wrote:
While there may not be laws against what he is doing, it provides further evidence forwarding the argument us dirty f*ckign hippies have been making all along - the war in Iraq was all about profit and zero about helping the Iraqi people.
Cycloptichorn
Then we agree there is nothing illegal in what Pearle is accused of doing. Again I note that the article contained only second hand and unverified insinuations. No facts or even assertions of fact: just accusations and inferences.
While you may not like the prospect of Pearle involving himself in a profitable venture that is related to things he dealt with several years earlier while in government office, that same standard applied to Democrat politicians would yield some results you may not like -- they would involve former president Clinton, former VP Gore, and numerous former Cabinet officials. The fact that you don't continuously read of such things is reflective of both bias in the media and the rather odd paranoid proclivities of the loonie left.
Finally, I believe you would have a very hard time defending the truth of the proposition with which you ended your paragraph above.
Funny, I went on a pretty long tear about President Clinton doing exactly that earlier this year. I'm not partisan when it comes to denouncing corruption.
If you can find evidence that former Clinton officials started a war and went on to personally profit tremendously from it, I'd like to see it.
Cycloptichorn
Cycloptichorn wrote:
If you can find evidence that former Clinton officials started a war and went on to personally profit tremendously from it, I'd like to see it.
Cycloptichorn
Well, I suppose something could be made of the fiasco with the missile attacks on the aspirin factory in Sudan and the subsequent behavior of some in the Clinton administration. However, far better Democrat examples can be found with respect to the wars in Korea, Vietnam and of course the two World wars in the 20th century. The first of these - Democrat Woodrow Wilson's war - involved NO real interests of this country. Our involvement in it merely spawned a series of disasters ranging from the Bolshevic Revolution, to the destruction of the Ottoman Empire & the Moslem Caliphate, and the subsequent rise of German militarism and revenge under Hitler. We are still dealing with the fruits of European imperialism and deceit in the Middle East and Moslem world generally.
georgeob1 wrote:Cycloptichorn wrote:
If you can find evidence that former Clinton officials started a war and went on to personally profit tremendously from it, I'd like to see it.
Cycloptichorn
Well, I suppose something could be made of the fiasco with the missile attacks on the aspirin factory in Sudan and the subsequent behavior of some in the Clinton administration. However, far better Democrat examples can be found with respect to the wars in Korea, Vietnam and of course the two World wars in the 20th century. The first of these - Democrat Woodrow Wilson's war - involved NO real interests of this country. Our involvement in it merely spawned a series of disasters ranging from the Bolshevic Revolution, to the destruction of the Ottoman Empire & the Moslem Caliphate, and the subsequent rise of German militarism and revenge under Hitler. We are still dealing with the fruits of European imperialism and deceit in the Middle East and Moslem world generally.
So, we are agreed then, that those who start wars in order to profit off of them are not Good People, no matter what party they are in?
The war in Iraq was no less removed from our national interests then the Korean war was. The thread had to be created in order to get approval, and that's
exactly what Perle did - he and other Neocons manufactured a threat, to scare the American people, and it was all built on lies. That's why he is under special scrutiny at this time: not just b/c he was in the Pentagon, but because of what he did there, which I do not believe you are looking to defend... ?
Cycloptichorn
The fact is the media and the public treat liberals and conservatives very differently in these matters. Consider, for example, the differences in the careers of Robert MacNamara and Paul Wolfowitz in the World Bank. Odd isn't it that the author of the Vietnam war and the grotesque statistics associated with it ("body counts") came out far better with this institution than did Wolfowitz whose actions with respect to wars were relatively puny in comparison.
These facts and comparisons aren't often noted in the media. One must read, reflect and think about the matter to discover them. That is often the difference between media parrots and those who really gather information and think for themselves.
I think you grossly over simplify: people are neither "good" nor "bad" - we are much more complex than that. Wilson probably truly believed he was doing the right thing in involving us in the meaningless slaughters in Europe during WWI. However history has shown conclusively that he was wrong. Britain & France merely removed 700,000 troops from the Western Front as the 1.1 million American arrived and transported them to Iraq to complete their destruction of the Ottoman Empire and sow the seeds for our difficulties today. Later they imposed a vengeful peace on Germany that merely reignited the conflict twenty years later.
The verdict of history is not yet clear with respect to the war in Iraq.
I think the people of South Korea would disagree with your judgement about the ultimate worth of our war there.
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