Has Perle Gone Too Far in Antagonizing the CIA?
If Perle’s slick dealings aren’t enough to end him, the fallout of his small war with the CIA and State Department just might do the trick. Everyone knows that Perle and the neocons, including Vice President Cheney’s office, have long detested the “weak” CIA and State Department. They have philosophical differences-literally with the agency’s “unimaginative” methodology, and they have made Colin Powell’s tenure as Secretary of State a thwarted, humiliating tragedy. Still, Perle cannot seem to go one peroration without attacking either or both bodies. As he recently told the Christian Science Monitor about the CIA: “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.” Perle and his gang loved it when the much-maligned CIA d
