Chapter 4, Part 3 Summary

Some war advocates in the administration had a personal stake in seeing an Iraq conflict happen. Richard Perle was the Chairman of the Defense Policy Board, but he was also managing partner of a company called Trireme Partnership. Trireme was a homeland security company started two months after 9-11, with the thought that fear of terrorism would fuel demand for its services. The company actively pursued investors like notorious Saudi arms-broker Adnan Khashoggi, who had allegedly been involved in sordid activities since the 1970s—particularly Iran-Contra. The question of ethics was raised because Perle was Chairman of the Board for Trireme and capable of helping himself financially through his federal position under Donald Rumsfeld. Perle also served on a British company under contract with the U.S. federal government for homeland security.

Perle was seen as having the ability to greatly...