Charles R. Smith
Monday, March 24, 2003

Now, Perle is firing back. In an interview with NewsMax, Perle has rejected claims he has inappropriately used his position as an adviser to the Pentagon.

Perle’s latest “crime” is that he was hired by Global Crossing, the bankrupt communications giant that has laid a worldwide fiber optics network.

According to a recent editorial by New York Times columnist and full-time Bush-hater Maureen Dowd, Perle may have a conflict of interest in that he is a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Advisory Board.

Perle called Dowd’s claims a fabrication. "Absolutely, categorically untrue," he said.

"Maureen Dowd's view of this is very misleading. Ms. Dowd's recent editorial suggested that I was retained to 'help overcome Pentagon resistance' to the proposed sale of Global Crossing to Hutcheson Whampoa. That is not why I was retained," Perle asserted.

"I have not been retained by Hutcheson Whampoa, nor have I been retained by Global Crossing to represent them in any way with the U.S. government. I have been retained by Global Crossing to help them put together a security arrangement that is acceptable to the U.S. government.

"I don't believe there is a conflict because I am not representing the company to the U.S. government," he said.

Perle has become the focus of stepped-up attacks by the left as it became clear the president was indeed going to remove Saddam Hussein.

In a recent edition of the New Yorker Magazine, investigative reporter Seymour Hersch claims that Perle has been improperly representing Saudi Arabian interests. Perle, in turn, has vowed to sue Hersch and the New Yorker for libel.

Perle has not been on the “A” list for liberal media types for a while.

Before his stint as an adviser to the Defense Department, he was credited with being the key strategist who successfully implemented President Ronald Reagan’s policies that led to the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union.

During the Reagan era, he was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, among other U.S. government inter-agency groups.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
NewsMax Scoops

Bush Administration

Global Crossing Scandal

Media Bias

Saddam Hussein/Iraq

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