Another Spooked-Up BushCo Crony Dabbling in Kurdistan

It was bad enough that PFIAB member and Bush uber-donor Ray Hunt was doing business in Kurdistan. That put one of the President’s top private advisors on intelligence, someone who has access to a great deal of classified intelligence, and someone whose privately held company evades all kinds of public scrutiny, setting up shop in Iraq and potentially contributing to its destabilization.

But now we learn that Richard Perle has joined Hunt in the oil rush in Kurdistan (h/t egregious).

Mr. Perle, one of a group of security experts who began pushing the case for toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein about a decade ago, has been discussing a possible deal with officials of northern Iraq’s Kurdistan regional government, including its Washington envoy, according to these people and the documents.

It would involve a tract called K18, near the Kurdish city of Erbil, according to documents describing the plan.

It’s bad enough that the former Defense Policy Board Chair and one of the big champions of the war is looking to get rich off of Kurdistan’s oil. More troubling, though, is that he’s doing so via a company that seems to be the pure incarnation of the kinds of dubious Turkish ties that Sibel Edmonds has talked about.

A consortium founded by Turkish company AK Group International is seeking rights to drill there, the documents say. Potential backers include two Turkish companies as well as Kazakhstan, according to individuals involved.

AK’s chief executive is Aydan Kodaloglu, who, like Mr. Perle, has been involved with the American Turkish Council, an advocacy group in Washington. She didn’t respond to requests for comment. Phyllis Kaminsky, who identified herself as the U.S. contact for Ms. Kodaloglu, said she herself was aware of the drilling plan but referred questions about it to Mr. Perle.

"Richard would know the most," Ms. Kaminsky said. "He is involved, I know that."

Without going too deeply into Edmonds’ allegations, let me just say by far the best treatment I’ve seen of it is Chris Floyd’s piece seeing the murky relationships that Edmonds reported to be an outgrowth of (I’d say a reincarnation of) the amorphous networks of influence, money laundering, legally sanctioned covert ops, illegal ops, and arms deals normally referred to as BCCI. I’ve seen evidence (regarding Brewster and Jennings) that seems to refute some things Edmonds has said; I’ve seen reasons to believe she was describing an entire world as viewed through one slat of the blinds on a picture window; and I’ve seen Chuck Grassley, a champion of whistle blowers, move on from Edmonds’ case. Which suggests many things. But all of it still means that Perle’s ties to the Turks are a quasi-spooky nexus of power and influence.

And now, courtesy of the well-connected Richard Perle, the Turkish company AK Group is now dabbling in Kurdistan, the home base of Kurdish forces that–Turkey insists–are a threat to Turkish security.

It does make you wonder whether the State Department, while still ostensibly discouraging deals with Kurdistan, is helping AK Group find deals like they were with Hunt Oil? It almost makes you think the Bush Administration is encouraging these kinds of deals, doesn’t it?

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  1. DeadLast says:

    Chris Floyd has one of the best blogs, and I try to visit it every day. Yours, however, is always the first one I visit each day. I do wonder, however, if your blog would be as enjoyable if we had good news each day. I really hope we can do that soon. The occasional sports smack is a welcome diversion.

    BTW, thanks for tending the fire on these important issues.

    • bmaz says:

      Fear not. America is a behemoth, whether it be local, state, national or international, there is plenty of poo to keep EW busy.

  2. skdadl says:

    EW, I try to follow Turkish politics with a great deal of sympathy for some forces there and next to none for others. The thought that Richard Perle is mucking about with that very complex situation is disturbing to me, but I’m not figuring out very fast how he is likely to / intending to muck things up for them. Do you think that BushCo have unhappy plans for Erdogan’s opening to the EU?

    Sheesh. Even Conrad Black had to fire Richard Perle.

    • emptywheel says:

      I’m not sure–we’d have to figure out which faction of Turkish politics this company was aligned with.

      But if I had to guess–based on the ties Edmonds talked about being behind ATC–I’d say that this venture is designed to give Israel and factions of Turkey sympathetic to Israel an intelligence and power foothold among the Kurds. Now, remember that Sy Hersh has said Israel working in Kurdistan several years ago. BUt I think these early oil deals are attempts to make intelligence/money sharing deals with the Kurds as we go forward, which presumably will be in place regardless of what happens to the rest of Iraq.

      • brendanx says:

        Kurdistan was the original neocon foothold. Getting the no-fly zones established as a response to the Kosovo-like humanitarian catastrophe (at least that’s what they showed me on tv) of the post-Gulf War period was the first step towards “regime change”. The “humanitarian” wing of the neocons have always publicized post-Saddam Kurdistan out to be a shangri-la and its advertised democratic success has always served them as an implicit argument for partitioning Iraq when our plan A of “democratizing” the country fails.

    • brendanx says:

      from today’s coverage:

      The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, immediately denied responsibility and attributed Sunday’s attack to “dark forces” — Turkish nationalists who allegedly seek to foment chaos to strengthen the political influence of the military.

      He’s the Prince of Darkness himself!

      • skdadl says:

        That’s such a terrible story, isn’t it? I’m tempted to believe the PKK’s denial, but what do I know. I agree with your assessment of the way the Kurds have been exploited by the neo-cons, but again, that kind of intervention just augurs more mess for everyone over there imho.

        And thanks for those links, MinnesotaChuck @ 11. I shall read.

  3. Minnesotachuck says:

    and I’ve seen Chuck Grassley, a champion of whistle blowers, move on from Edmonds’ case.

    According to Jeff Sharlet, Grassley is very tight with The Family. Maybe he got the word from someone in his prayer cell to he back off.

    Asia Times last week had a couple of interesting pieces on Turkey. First EeyoreSpengler had his usual gloomy assessment of the direction of the conflict between the Islamists and the secularists. A few days later Ghan Akya offered a somewhat more detailed evaluation.

  4. stryder says:

    Sometimes your posts shoot through me like bullets.
    This is that grey area where international slush funds,private militaries and private intel agencies poke their ugly heads up for a brief glimps of their methods,tactics and purpose.They are the new tools of the superclass.
    I truly believe that these are the reasons their was such a sense of urgency in the Plame affair.
    Syriana gives you a glimps of the same tactics
    good stuff !

  5. WilliamOckham says:

    I have a question for anyone knowledgeable about Turkish sociopolitical and economic affairs. Are any of the groups mentioned in connection with Perle associated with the Suzer group? I’ll try to google this when I get a chance, but was hoping somebody might know.

    • bobschacht says:

      I’d like to help you, but I can’t do anything except to offer encouragement. I’ve driven through Turkey from Edirne to Ararat in both directions, several times– but not for decades. The important thing to remember is that 100 years ago, Turkey was the Ottoman Empire, and one of the world’s major powers. When you’ve got that kind of history, things are going on below the surface that don’t happen in other countries. So, please sleuth on!

      Bob in HI

      • readerOfTeaLeaves says:

        Bob, lookee here: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020902/vest/3
        Re: A subgroup connected to an outfit in which Richard Perle has been very influential incuded (surprise!) Cong. Curt Weldon:

        And the Congressional Missile Defense Caucus and Osprey (or “tilt rotor”) caucus are represented by Representative Curt Weldon and Senator Jon Kyl.

        Hmmmm… Weldon…? The former congressman ‘Weldon’ indicted for working on behalf of Russian mobsters international business outfits…?

    • readerOfTeaLeaves says:

      Not knowlegable about either, WO. Wish I were.
      I don’t think even my affinity for Orhan Pamuk’s literature is going to assist, though I can highly recommend “Snow” re: ’sociopolitical’. The Christian Science Monitor does some interesting things, and you might search the Economist website, as they’ve done some longer pieces…
      My first ’suzer’ google hit was interesting: http://www.turkofamerica.com/i…..Itemid=167

      Sorry not to offer better assistance.

      Re: “Perle”, however, Leen left links on a prior thread (”Aspens”) that were published in the Nation in 2002. Quite jaw-dropping reading them in 2008 (and feeling quite the dolt to be so late connecting dots).

      One of Leen’s links includes this gem:http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020902/vest

      “…[Perle active with] the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) and the Center for Security Policy (CSP). And just as was the case two decades ago, dozens of their members have ascended to powerful government posts, where their advocacy in support of the same agenda … support for national missile defense, opposition to arms control treaties, championing of wasteful weapons systems, arms aid to Turkey and American unilateralism in general–into a hard line, with support for the Israeli right at its core.

      This article also mentions Perle’s involvement with an Israeli arms dealer “Soltam”, but that’s too far from “Suzer”, methinks.

      Strange to realize how many people have known about these connections for many years; they’d have had to in order to function in biz or gov’t. Yet these things never get covered on the MSM. Perhaps the MSM thinks anything scarier than Britney’s parenting is too much for us, eh?

  6. ralphbon says:

    I’ve seen reasons to believe [Edmonds] was describing an entire world as viewed through one slat of the blinds on a picture window

    Nicely put. Perhaps unfairly, because I haven’t delved, that’s been my feeling about the Edmonds business. Reminds me a bit of the Christic Institute distractions during Iran Contra. Originating in fact but stretched unreasonably far, like (Turkish?) taffy.

    • kspena says:

      The secrecy and injunctions in the Edmonds saga tell us that ’something’ is there; no matter what it is, I would like to see it brought to the light of day. If the ‘government’ can blow the cover of a NOC and Brewster-Jennings for private gain, it can blow the cover of the Edmonds accusations for public gain.

      • ralphbon says:

        I share your interest in whatever it is she’s got. But umpteen breathless Kos diaries notwithstanding, something tells me that this lone former FBI translator may possess something short of the Unified Field Theory to all Bush-Cheney scandals.

  7. stryder says:

    This is Chris Floyd’s piece that Marcy linked to,

    Lukery also zeroes in on this telling revelation:

    “The Times article then notes something that I reported 18 months ago. Immediately after 911, the FBI arrested a bunch of people suspected of being involved with the attacks — including four associates of key targets of FBI’s counterintelligence operations. Sibel heard the targets tell Marc Grossman: ‘We need to get them out of the US because we can’t afford for them to spill the beans.’ Grossman duly facilitated their release from jail and the suspects immediately left the country without further investigation or interrogation.

    “Let me repeat that for emphasis: The #3 guy at the State Dept facilitated the immediate release of 9/11 suspects at the request of targets of the FBI’s investigation.”

    Downright fucking amazing

  8. Mizgin says:

    And now, courtesy of the well-connected Richard Perle, the Turkish company AK Group is now dabbling in Kurdistan, the home base of Kurdish forces that–Turkey insists–are a threat to Turkish security.

    Actually, KDP and PUK peşmerge are not a threat to Turkey and haven’t been ever. In the 1990s they fought alongside Ankara against the PKK, which is more of a threat politically to Turkey than anything else because the Kurds in Southeast Turkey (the majority of the world’s Kurds) are overwhelmingly in support of PKK.

    I am not at all surprised that the KRG is cooperating with the Deep State in this matter. . . and others.

    Believe me, none of this will benefit the people of South Kurdistan.

  9. Leen says:

    The gathering storm around Richard Perle

    D.C.’s “Prince of Darkness” has prospered in the shadows between the Beltway and big business — but the latest scandal threatens to bring him down.

    By Eric Boehlert

    “Though he was forced to give up the board’s chairmanship when some of his private defense-contracting clients were revealed, Perle maintains a unique position as a shadowy Beltway operator who blurs the line between private business and foreign policy. He’s been making lots of noise — and news — lately, and his critics are asking questions about his intentions.

    It’s too early to tell how the accumulating controversies will affect Perle’s role as a pro-war spokesman. In the past though, despite a history of missteps, Perle has managed to prosper. Or more important, to maintain the loyalty of senior administration officials (”the string of Perles”), many of whom he’s cultivated for years and who find his pro-war bravado helpful.”

    http://archive.salon.com/news/…..index.html

    Perle seems to be able to skate right out of any storm that he helps create.