It's always fun to catch up with former Bush White House neocons because they're usually still doing awful things. Politico's Laura Rozen found some dirt on Richard Perle who, it turns out, is part of Muammar Qaddafi's image makeover team.

Perle is a resident fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute and was one of the main architects of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. You can always count on Perle to be right at the nexus of business and human catastrophe. In the years after he served as chairman of the Defense Policy Board under George W. Bush, it seems Perle did some traveling overseas:

Perle traveled to Libya as a paid adviser to the Monitor Group, a prestigious Boston-based consulting firm with close ties to leading professors at the Harvard Business School. The firm named Perle a senior adviser in 2006.

Perle was visiting Libya as part of a team called "the Project to Enhance the Profile of Libya and Muammar Qadhafi," which also featured the world's preeminent racist Middle East scholar, Bernard Lewis. They'd visit Libya and then come home to tell everyone how wonderful and business-friendly the North African nation had become and that really, Brother Leader isn't such a bad guy after all!

"In coordination with the [Libyan government] Monitor briefed officials and various agencies of the United States government. Monitor continues to advocate on Libya's behalf with a range of leading individuals. Many of these individuals have indicated a willingness to engage with Libya and visit in the future."

As advisers to George W. Bush, Perle and Lewis both pushed hard for the invasion of Iraq, so of course they'd be good at helping Muammar Qaddafi throw a smoke screen around his image as a maniacal dictator. Now that the whole world is watching as Qaddafi massacres his own people it'll be interesting to hear what Perle has to say about his work for Brother Leader, though we won't hold our breath for any hint of regret.

[Image of Perle via Getty]