Neocon Perle seeking Iraq oil deal?

Richard Perle. Chicago Tribune photo by Chris Walker.)

by Frank James

Richard Perle, a leading neocon who argued forcibly before the Iraq War for the invasion and ouster of Saddam Hussein, looks to be trying to get in on the action when it comes to oil in Iraq and Kazakhstan.

It's the Iraq part that sentence that is bound to fuel a lot of war critics' resentment towards Perle, which is already high to begin with. It's likely to give renewed impetus to the claim that Iraq was a war of choice for oil.

As The Wall Street Journal reports:

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. 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.

The story goes on to report this:

People with knowledge of the discussions said they involve Alexander Mirtchev, a Washington consultant and adviser to the government of Kazakhstan, and an associate of his, Kaloyan Dimitrov. Mr. Perle has attended events promoting the interests of Kazakhstan, an oil-rich nation whose ruler, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is involved in a long-running U.S. investigation of 1990s-era oil-company bribery. Mr. Perle has publicly lauded President Nazarbayev as "visionary and wise," according to a publication distributed by the Kazakh embassy in Washington.

Asked about pursuing oil concessions, Mr. Perle said, "I am not involved in any consortium involving Mr. Mirtchev or Mr. Dimitrov, nor am I 'framing plans for a consortium'" involving either one. He declined to elaborate.

Perle's tight, legalistic language doesn't appear to rule out that he isn't seeking oil concessions, period, just that he's not doing it in a consortium, current or planned, with the men. For instance, there could be other people he's working with to get the oil concession.

Presumably, there's a lot of money to be made with the Iraq oil in the northern Iraqi oil field in question, which as the story says is thought to have 150 million barrels of oil.

That's more than $18 billion worth of oil, based on the price light crude closed at today -- $122 a barrel -- on the New York Mercantile Exchange today.