Iraq-invasion advocate resigns from panel

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- Richard Perle, one of the most outspoken advocates for invading Iraq, has quietly resigned from the Defense Policy Board, an influential bipartisan Pentagon advisory group.
Perle informed Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld that he was quitting the board in a letter dated Feb. 18, although a week later a Pentagon list of board members still included him. A copy of the letter was obtained by Knight Ridder.
Perle's resignation comes as President Bush, who had hoped to ride popular support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to a second term, finds his administration facing a growing number of congressional, legal and internal investigations into dubious prewar intelligence on Iraq and lucrative contracts for Iraqi reconstruction.
In his letter, Perle said he was resigning after 17 years on the board so that the Bush administration and the Department of Defense would no longer be associated with his outspoken views on Iraq and other matters.
Cites campaign
"We are now approaching a long presidential election campaign, in the course of which issues on which I have strong views will be widely discussed and debated," Perle wrote. "I would not wish those views to be attributed to you or the president at any time, and especially not during a presidential campaign."
Perle didn't return a telephone call seeking comment on his resignation, and a Pentagon spokesman would confirm only that he had resigned.
In recent weeks, Perle has called for the resignation of CIA Director George Tenet, criticized Secretary of State Colin Powell and other current and former senior U.S. officials as "soft-liners" and urged the Bush administration to consider pulling out of the United Nations if the agency doesn't legalize pre-emptive attacks on states that harbor terrorists.
Perle also is a prominent supporter and close friend of Ahmad Chalabi, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council who's the subject of a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into exaggerated and fabricated intelligence about Iraqi weapons programs and ties to Osama bin Laden.