Eden Hill Journal

Ramblings and memories of an amateur wordsmith and philosopher

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Location: Maine, United States

Friday, May 11, 2007

French Alibi

Richard Perle who was chairman of the Pentagon Defense Policy Board from July 2001 to March 2003, writes in a Washington Post column today that he couldn't possibly have said what former CIA chief George Tenet claims in his new book that he said on September 12, 2001. Perle couldn't have said it because he wasn't in Washington on September 12, 2001 as Tenet claims in his book. He was, according to William Kristol, stuck in France until the 15th. He couldn't get a flight to the US.
So Perle had an alibi, a French alibi no less, on 9/11.
Now I don't know about you. Everyone's entitled to his or her own opinion about things. But I couldn't understand why President Bush just sat in that Florida classroom while terrorists crashed airplanes into New York. I can't understand why the chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board would sit in France for three or four days after the attack.
Of course if you think about it without giving it any thought, you'd probably remember that there weren't any commercial flights in the US for several days after the attack. But that's commercial flights. Perle isn't an average Joe like you and me, nor is he a simple millionaire who vacations in the South of France. He's a Pentagon insider. The US government was still flying. I have no doubt that the government was still flying government and military executives wherever they needed to go. The very idea that nobody in the Pentagon could have flown Perle from France to Washington if he had actually wanted to get to Washington seems ludicrous to me.
But that's Perle's alibi and he's sticking to it.
But France of all places?
Perle chalet in the South of France:
Seymour Hersh March 17, 2003 The New Yorker
Hmmmmm....
This 2003 Hersh article brings up a fascinating facet of Perle's position as head of the Defense Policy Board. It would appear that by 2003, Perle had found a way to capitalize from the (still in the future) Iraq War.
No conflict of interest there:
Trireme Partners LLP - Perle's Homeland Security technology company
Wikipedia (Boeing $20 million invested)
Boeing? Is that the same Boeing that contracts with the Pentagon for billions upon billions of dollars?
Nope, no conflict of interest there.
Does the term "Military Industrial Complex" ring any bells here?
French alibi indeed...

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