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Trireme Partners LP is a limited partnership venture capital company that invests in technology, goods, and services related to homeland security and defense.

Company chairman is Richard N. Perle while Henry Kissinger is a member of its advisory board. Trireme Partners LP was registered in Delaware in November 2001, two months after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Boeing is one of the investors in Trireme.[1]

The name "Trireme" is taken from a Greek warship with three banks of rowers.

Trireme also has Hollinger's Conrad Black on the board of directors, and was set up by Perle's Defense Policy Board pal Gerald Hillman (CDT, Cambridge Display Technologies), which Hollinger also invested highly in. [2]

An early version of the a similar company with the same players called Argo Century was circulated as a prospectus to investors, It was incorporated in Delaware prior to the September 11th attacks. It was renamed Trireme and retooled to focus more on homeland security after the attacks.

Asked about Hersh's article when appearing on CNN, Perle defended his dual roles. "I don't believe that a company would gain from a war. On the contrary, I believe that the successful removal of Saddam Hussein, and I've said this over and over again, will diminish the threat of terrorism. And what he's talking about is investments in homeland defense, which I think are vital and are necessary," he said. [3]

Perle then went on the attack. "Look, Sy Hersh is the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist, frankly," he said. "A terrorist?," CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked. "Because he's widely irresponsible ... Because he sets out to do damage and he will do it by whatever innuendo, whatever distortion he can -- look, he hasn't written a serious piece since My Lai", he said.

External links

• Seymour Hersh, "Lunch with the Chairman: Why was Richard Perle meeting with Adnan Khashoggi?", New Yorker, March 17, 2003. (The article was released ahead of the cover date).
• David S. Hilzenrath, "The Ultimate Insider: Richard N. Perle's Many Business Ventures Followed His Years as a Defense Official", Washington Post, May 24, 2004.
• Wolf Blitzer, "Showdown: Iraq", CNN Late Edition, March 9, 2003.
• Lakshmi, Richard Perle's Lunch With the Saudis", AlterNet.org, March 14, 2003.