Key Pentagon Advisor Richard Perle Resigns Post as Head of Defense Policy Panel
<snip>
A Defense Department adviser who is considered a major force behind the U.S. decision to go to war in Iraq has resigned from a Pentagon board he had served on for 17 years. Richard Perle announced his resignation in New York.
Mr. Perle says he quit the Defense Policy Board to avoid becoming a burden to the Bush administration during an election year.
He says U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld turned the Pentagon's advisory board into a high profile institution. As a result, the Bush administration is being asked publicly to support or disassociate itself from Mr. Perle's hard-line statements.
Mr. Perle made his remarks at a news conference in New York, but he submitted his resignation to Mr. Rumsfeld last week. "We are going into an election campaign and, as you will have noticed, I have said several things this morning that would not please the Administration," he said. "So I did not want to put them in a position that they felt they had to respond to the things I said by virtue of my membership on the Defense Policy Board."
<snip>
more at
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=871735D0-D787-48C5-BD862440127A4465&title=Key%20Pentagon%20Advisor%20Richard%20Perle%20Resigns%20Post%20as%20Head%20of%20Defense%20Policy%20Panel&catOID=43879419-898F-4DFC-B1165AF4FAB530EE&categoryname=Iraqi%20News