PERLE'S LATEST PRATFALL
Poor Richard. Richard Perle is a right-wing neocon theorist who wants to be taken seriously as both a governmental and corporate insider...but he keeps taking highly-public pratfalls that would be absolutely comical, if they weren't so ugly.
Perle, who's tight with Dick Cheney and Donnie Rumsfeld, was one of the main architects of George W's disastrous policies in Iraq. He was the chief proponent of the fanciful notion that our invading troops would be greeted by a grateful people tossing rose petals at them. Instead, angry Iraqis are tossing bombs – and more than a thousand of our troops are dead.
Richard is not doing any better in the corporate world. His latest pratfall is as a board member of Hollinger International, a media conglomerate that owns such papers as the Chicago Sun-Times and Jerusalem Post. The head honcho of Hollinger, Lord Conrad Black, now stands accused of having looted some $400 million from the corporation. Perle was not merely on the board, but on the executive committee, with a direct, fiduciary responsibility to protect the interest of the shareholders. But this supposed watchdog was Lord Black's lapdog – Perle admits that he personally rubber-stamped stacks of financial documents involving Black's looting, signing the papers without even reading them.
One reason that Perle was so head-in-the-sand irresponsible is that he was enjoying the corporate gravy, too. In a sweetheart deal, he directed a Hollinger division that let him pocket three million dollars – even though this division lost $49 million on Perle's watch.
But Richard now claims that he's a victim! After Lord Black's corporate kleptocracy was exposed – and after an internal report nailed Perle for his "flagrant abdication of duty" – Richard loudly proclaimed to the media that he had been duped by his former friend and benefactor.
Poor Richard. I guess he was duped into putting those millions into his own pockets, too. Maybe he'll pay the money back – do you think?
Jim Hightower
Perle, who's tight with Dick Cheney and Donnie Rumsfeld, was one of the main architects of George W's disastrous policies in Iraq. He was the chief proponent of the fanciful notion that our invading troops would be greeted by a grateful people tossing rose petals at them. Instead, angry Iraqis are tossing bombs – and more than a thousand of our troops are dead.
Richard is not doing any better in the corporate world. His latest pratfall is as a board member of Hollinger International, a media conglomerate that owns such papers as the Chicago Sun-Times and Jerusalem Post. The head honcho of Hollinger, Lord Conrad Black, now stands accused of having looted some $400 million from the corporation. Perle was not merely on the board, but on the executive committee, with a direct, fiduciary responsibility to protect the interest of the shareholders. But this supposed watchdog was Lord Black's lapdog – Perle admits that he personally rubber-stamped stacks of financial documents involving Black's looting, signing the papers without even reading them.
One reason that Perle was so head-in-the-sand irresponsible is that he was enjoying the corporate gravy, too. In a sweetheart deal, he directed a Hollinger division that let him pocket three million dollars – even though this division lost $49 million on Perle's watch.
But Richard now claims that he's a victim! After Lord Black's corporate kleptocracy was exposed – and after an internal report nailed Perle for his "flagrant abdication of duty" – Richard loudly proclaimed to the media that he had been duped by his former friend and benefactor.
Poor Richard. I guess he was duped into putting those millions into his own pockets, too. Maybe he'll pay the money back – do you think?
Jim Hightower
posted by R7 | 9/29/2004 11:07:00 PM
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