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Richard Perle

  • By David T. Cook

Richard Perle, a member and former chairman of the Defense Policy Board and Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration, was Tuesday's guest. Here are excerpts from his remarks:

On what should happen at the CIA because weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found in Iraq:

"Heads should roll, not in a punitive or vindictive way. But when you discover you have an organization that doesn't get it right time after time, you change the organization, including the people.... I would start with the head. George Tenet has been at the CIA long enough to assume responsibility for its performance."

On criticism of Ahmad Chalabi, a leader of the Iraqi National Congress:

"His detractors, by and large ... are the people who know him least, and his defenders are the people who know him best.... The CIA has been engaged in a character assassination of Ahmad Chalabi for years now, and it is a disgrace."

On the kind of foreign policy John Kerry would follow if elected president:

"My worst fear is that ... he will behave as president the way he talks about the issues today. It will lead to a weak and indecisive policy - a policy animated by what appears to have been a searing experience in Vietnam."

On whether Perle has been questioned by the FBI in its investigation into the leaking of the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame:

"I have not been questioned about it, and I wish whoever is putting this out would cease and desist and [reporters] not be such willing consumers of that kind of information."

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