Perle Asserts Hollinger's Conrad Black Misled Him

Last fall, as the board of Hollinger International prepared to oust its founding executive, Conrad M. Black, the director most protective and supportive of him turned to a friend and balked.

"This is a kangaroo court," a person recalled the director, Richard N. Perle, as saying in defense of Lord Black, who had been accused by investors of improperly siphoning millions of dollars to other companies he controlled.

But last week, Mr. Perle's view of Lord Black changed. Issuing his first public statements since being heavily criticized in an internal report for rubber-stamping transactions that company investigators say led to the plundering of the company, Mr. Perle now says he was duped by his friend and business colleague.

Mr. Perle, a top Pentagon official in the Reagan administration, wielded considerable influence in foreign-policy circles as recently as 2002 as an intellectual parent to the neoconservatives. He was named to the Hollinger board in 1994, joining other like-minded men selected by Lord Black, a self-made businessman from Canada who surrounded himself with conservative thinkers. He particularly did that at Hollinger, a global media company whose holdings at the time included The Chicago Sun-Times, The Jerusalem Post, The Sunday and Daily Telegraph and The Sydney Morning Herald.

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/politics/index.html

"I've been misled. I'm the victim of cruel circumstance."

This guy would have been a laugh riot had he been in the dock at Nuremberg.

Seems like they'll believe any con artist who comes their way.

"Mr. Perle now says he was duped by his friend and business colleague."

Perle saying this is like Mengele saying Hitler duped him. Perle, Black, Kissinger, etc are creeps of the lowest order. It looks like Perle is feeling the heat, GOOD!

money back, and Black is under investigation, isn't he? Well, he may just have to prove that oneday. And I don't think that anyone will be willing just to take his word for it.

Couldn't happen to a 'nicer' guy.

Obviously Perle hopes we don't read the special report issued last week by Hollinger International. It's over 500 pages so I bet Perle is hoping we're all put of by the page count. Fortunately, the report writers were kind enough to put all the information about Perle's dereliction in his duty of care to the other shareholders in a few pages of the report. Here's a few juicy bits starting on page 482 of the report. The complete report can be found on the SEC website. Search Edgar for Hollinger International's filings and view exhibit 99.2 to the Form 8-K filed on August 31, 2004.

The Board made another obvious mistake by allowing Perle to be the Executive Committee’s only non-Ravelston member, because Perle was not independent. Although Perle was not employed by Hollinger when the Board appointed him to the Executive Committee in early 1996, he became Hollinger Digital’s CEO in mid-1996, a position he maintained until 2003. Thus, by late 1996, Perle had become dependent on Black and Radler for his Hollinger Digital compensation. He thus was saddled with a conflict of interest that eliminated his independence as an Executive Committee member. As soon as Perle became a Hollinger Digital employee, he should have resigned from the Executive Committee, or the Board should have replaced him with a truly independent member.

It is, of course, possible for a conflicted board member to act at least somewhat responsibly. As a conflicted Executive Committee member, however, Perle did not. Rather, his Executive Committee performance falls squarely into the “head-in-the-sand” behavior that breaches a director’s duty of good faith and renders him liable for damages under Delaware law.

Perle’s own description of his performance on the Executive Committee was stunning. He informed the Special Committee that he considered the Executive Committee to be only a means of facilitating paperwork that would eventually be presented to the full Board. He could not recall the Executive Committee ever meeting in person. Rather, from time-to-time, Perle would simply receive a package of Executive Committee consents or resolutions to sign. Perle regarded these documents as mere formalities and signed them all since they appeared to be routine business of the Company. He said that he never discussed any of the consents with Black or Radler before signing them. In fact, he admitted that he generally did not even read them or understand the transactions to which they applied.

It is difficult to imagine a more flagrant abdication of duty than a director rubber-stamping transactions that directly benefit a controlling shareholder without any thought, comprehension or analysis. In fact, many of the consents that Perle signed as an Executive Committee member approved related-party transactions that unfairly benefited Black and Radler, and cost Hollinger millions. The most significant of these transactions are discussed below.

here's some more Perle info:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1066113923328&p=1008596981749

Oct. 14, 2003 16:15 | Updated Oct. 15, 2003 13:30
Pentagon official: US may take action against Syria
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Pentagon adviser Richard Perle said Tuesday that the recent Israeli attack on an alleged training camp for Palestinian militants in Syria was long overdue and that he would not rule out U.S. military action against the Arab state.

Perle, a close adviser to U.S. President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, spoke at a Jerusalem conference of conservatives from the United States and Israel.

"President Bush transformed the American approach to terrorism on Sept. 11, 2001, when he said he will not distinguish between terrorists and the states who harbor them," Perle said.

...more...

http://www.benadorassociates.com/perle.php

Richard Perle

Richard Perle is a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI). His research areas are defense, intelligence, national security, Europe, Middle East, Russian region. He has previously served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for international security policy (1981-1987), and on the U.S. Senate staff (1969-1980). He received his M.A. in political science at Princeton University, and his B.A. at the University of Southern California.

Mr. Perle also presently serves as Chairman of the Defense Policy Board, Department of Defense, Chairman and CEO of Hollinger Digital, and Director of The Jerusalem Post.

Mr. Perle has written articles for the New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, U.S. News & World Report, Wall Street Journal, Evening Standard (London), Times Literary Supplement, and Jerusalem Post. He has appeared on television on ABC's Nightline and This Week, CBS's Face the Nation, NBC's Meet the Press and Today Show, and PBS's NewsHour. Mr. Perle also produced PBS's The Gulf Crisis: The Road to War (1992)

Mr. Perle has testified before Congressional committees and Geneva summits under the Reagan administration.

Mr. Perle is the author of Hard Line (1992), and editor of Reshaping Western Security (1991).

...more...

http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/personinfo/FromPersonIdPersonTearsheet.jhtml?passedPersonId=222534

Richard N Perle

Co-Chairman of Hollinger Digital Inc. and Director at
Hollinger International
Chicago, Illinois
SERVICES / PRINTING & PUBLISHING
Director since June 1994

61 years old
Princeton University Master of Arts in Politics
University of Southern California Bachelor of Arts in International Relations

Mr. Perle has served as a director since June 1994. Mr. Perle has served as Resident Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research since 1987. He was the Assistant Secretary for the United States Department of Defense, International Security Policy from 1981 to 1988. Mr. Perle is Co- Chairman of Hollinger Digital Inc. and a director of Jerusalem Post, both of which are subsidiaries of the Company. Mr. Perle served as a director of GeoBiotics, Inc. from 1996 to 2000. Mr. Perle currently serves as a director of E.Certify, NAPRO Biotherapeutics, Inc., a United States public reporting company, and Autonomy, Inc., a United States public reporting company.

...more...

(edited to repair link)

and thanks for posting more on Perle. I think after these latest disclosures, Perle has no business advising on anything.

Here's some samples of his powerful intellect:

"Perle is said to be the person behind the US policy on Iraq (see also: U.S. plan to invade Iraq). He believed that Saddam Hussein's control of the government was weak, and that an invasion of Iraq would remove Saddam from power within weeks.

In an interview for "Saddam's Ultimate Solution", the July 11, 2002 episode of the PBS series Wide Angle, he said:

Saddam is much weaker than we think he is. He's weaker militarily. We know he's got about a third of what he had in 1991. But it's a house of cards. He rules by fear because he knows there is no underlying support. Support for Saddam, including within his military organization, will collapse at the first whiff of gunpowder. Now, it isn't going to be over in 24 hours, but it isn't going to be months either.

Perle advocated invading Iraq with only 40,000 troops, and complained about the calls by then Gen. Eric Shinseki to use 250,000 troops. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13098

When discussing his new book "Battle Ready" co-authored with retired general Anthony Zinni, author Tom Clancy stated that he almost came to blows with Perle. According to Clancy:

"He was saying how (Secretary of State) Colin Powell was being a wuss because he was overly concerned with the lives of the troops," Clancy said. "And I said, 'Look ..., he's supposed to think that way!' And Perle didn't agree with me on that. People like that worry me." http://edition.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/books/05/25/author.and.the.general.ap/


http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/R/Richard-Perle.htm

"High-risk gamesmanship on other people's dime, cutting ethical and legal corners, blaming it on someone else when the racket goes south ... Sound like anything else Mr. Perle's been associated with recently?"

and there's more in the entry about this article-

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_09_05.php#003435

Who else could we apply this to? Good article - thanks for posting.

ROTFLMAO!!!!!

Pull the other one, perle!

and this is not the first NYT article on this mess. Perle has stepped into it very deeply this time.

Lessee if Ashcroft or the SEC have the balls to drop these investigations in the face of some VERY pissed off investors and Lord Black hisself turning on his old buddy.

(Who would have liked to be in on some of Corzine's phone calls in the past couple of weeks?)

I thought it stood for Piece of Dung. Either one works, though.

that was the stupid greed he had

It seems unlikely, but we can dream.