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Perle, an assistant defense secretary in the Reagan administration, is close to many senior officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who appointed him to lead the policy board in 2001. Though the board does not pay its members and is technically not a government agency, it wields tremendous influence in policy circles. Its chairman is considered a "special government employee," subject to federal ethics rules, including one that bars anyone from using public office for private gain. Perle and his lawyer said Thursday that his involvement with Global Crossing did not violate the ethics rules. According to lawyers involved in the review and a legal notice that Global Crossing is preparing to file soon in bankruptcy court, Perle is to be paid $725,000 by the company, including $600,000 if the government approves the sale of the company to a joint venture of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., controlled by the Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, and Singapore Technologies Telemedia Pte., a phone company controlled by the government of Singapore. Lawyers said Thursday that Perle had been helping Global Crossing for several weeks. They said he was brought in as a prominent Republican with close ties to current officials. He has taken on a particularly important role, they said, since the company recently pulled back its request for the government to clear the sale in the face of opposition from the Defense Department and the FBI. Those agencies have said the proposed deal presents national security and law enforcement problems, because it would put Global Crossing's fiber-optic network - one used by the U.S. government - under Chinese ownership. Perle and his lawyers were preparing to file an affidavit dated March 7 and a legal notice dated Thursday, that said Perle was uniquely qualified to advise the company on the matter because of his job as head of the Defense Policy Board. But after a reporter raised questions Thursday about whether Perle was using his job at the Defense Policy Board for the benefit of a client, they said the references to his job should not have been in the legal papers and would be deleted before they were filed in the bankruptcy proceeding. Perle said that he was not engaged in lobbying with senior officials at the Defense Department and that his role was to advise Global Crossing on the process of gaining approval. Copyright © 2002 The International Herald Tribune |