The web of operations is quite large and, through offshore fronts and charitable fronts, involves fed agencies, wall st, weapons mfgrs...etc:
Seymour Hersch reminds us that Adnan Khashoggi was a middlemen between Oliver North and the mullahs in Iran and that Khashoggi claimed to have lost million of dollars that he put up to obtain embargoed weapons for Iran which were to be bartered, with Presidential approval, for American hostages. A congressional investigation revealed that Khashoggi had actually borrowed much of the money for the weapons from the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (B.C.C.I.). BCCI went belly-up in 1991 after defrauding thousands of depositors.
Hersch says that in January 2003, Khashoggi was attempting to broker another deal. He claims that Khashoggi arranged a "private lunch" to which he invited the Chairman of the Defense Policy Board, Richard Perle and Saudi Industrialist Harb Saleh al-Zuhair.
Hersch tells us that Perle is a managing partner in a venture-capital company called Trireme Partners L.P.. Trireme' s main business "according to a two-page letter that one of its representatives sent to Khashoggi last November" is investing in "technology" companies and companies offering services that are "of value to homeland security and defense". The letter argued that "the fear of terrorism would increase the demand for such products in Europe and in countries like Saudi Arabia and Singapore".
Hersch informs us that Richard Perle, seeing he is the Chairman of the Defense Policy Board, is considered a "special government employee" and therefore he is subject to a federal Code of Conduct. A "special government employee" is barred from participating in an official capacity in any matter in which he has a financial interest.
In March of 2003, Richard Perle announced his resignation as chairman of the Defense Policy Board. He said he was quitting because he was hired to help bankrupt Global Crossing win approval from the Department of Defense to sell the company to billionaire Li Ka-Shing and Hutchinson-Whampoa Ltd.. Senator/Astronaut John Glenn, during the Thompson hearings, pointed out that Li Ka-Shing had strong investment ties to Henry Kissinger, George Bush and Oliver North. Ka-Shing, as it is, controls four of Panama's ports via Hutchinson-Whampoa (post-Noriega) and was a shareholder in BCCI.
Back to Perle and Trireme; Hersch adds that Adnan Khashoggi and Harb Saleh al-Zuhair told him, at their lunch meeting, that they understood that "one of Trireme's objectives was to seek the help of influential Saudis to win homeland-security contracts with the Saudi royal family for the businesses it financed". According to Hersch, Trireme apparently turned to Adnan Khashoggi for help. |
