In Brief

In Brief

On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 12:43:15 -0700, "S. O. Damocles" <so@damocl.es>
wrote:
Vox Populi/Karma Kop/Lilith/SOD/Vox Dei/etc. is an America-hating
misanthrope who whould move to Canada.

OXO wrote:
Or exterminate the murderous fascists

In Brief: Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they
opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal
is global empire. We Economic Hit Men failed to bring Rolds and Torrijos
around, and the other type of hit men, the CIA-sanctioned jackals who were
always right behind us, stepped in.
Deceit and dollars: U.S. foreign policy secrets
By Laurence Washington, Special To The News
December 10, 2004
Staring into the smoldering hole of twisted metal; John Perkins tried to imagine
people rushing out of the collapsing tower, firefighters running inside to
rescue people. It's November 2001 and Perkins felt compelled to visit ground
zero, the former site of the World Trade Center towers.
All Perkins could imagine was Osama bin Laden accepting money and weapons from
men like himself - an Economic Hit Man (EHM).
In his gripping tell-all book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, a
guilt-ridden Perkins explains in amazing detail that EHMs are hired guns,
employed by consulting companies under contract to the United States government,
who loan shark billions of dollars to third world countries to develop their
infrastructures.
MAIN, a low profile international consulting firm, recruited Perkins out of the
Peace Corps to join its EHM ranks and travel to Indonesia, South America, Saudi
Arabia and Iran to dole out billions of dollars in loans.
The money is then funneled back to U.S. companies, through massive engineering
and construction projects. The EHM's job is to saddle these countries with so
much debt that they can't possibly repay it. And there's the rub. The U.S.
dictates repayment terms - a military base here, a UN vote there or access to a
debtor country's natural resources.
Perkins writes, "I visualized myself as a dashing secret agent, heading off to
exotic lands, lounging beside hotel swimming pools, surrounded by gorgeous
bikini-clad women, martini in hand. Although this was merely fantasy, I would
discover that it held elements of truth."
Perkins dramatically unveils many recent events where the U.S. called upon EHMs
to lend a hand, such as after the 1973 oil embargo. Perkins says Washington
began negotiating with Saudi Arabia, offering to take them into the 20th century
with technical support, military hardware and training, in exchange for
assurances that there would never again be another oil embargo.
"My job was to develop a forecast of what might happen in Saudi Arabia if vast
amounts of money were invested in its infrastructure, and map out scenarios for
spending that money," Perkins writes. "In short, I was asked to apply as much
creativity as I could to justifying the infusion of hundreds of millions of
dollars into the Saudi Arabian economy, under conditions that would include U.S.
engineering and construction companies."
Perkins' primary objective was to assure that a large amount of petrodollars
went back to the U.S., and Saudi Arabia's economy would become intertwined and
dependent on the U.S. Presumably Saudi Arabia would then become more westernized
and sympathetic towards the U.S. system. However, the modernization infuriated
conservative Muslims and made its neighboring countries, especially Israel, feel
threatened.
Perkins writes that Saudi Prince W. felt the U.S. had the same objectives as the
crusaders a millennium earlier. Perkins concedes the difference is a matter of
degree. The Catholics wanted to save the Muslims from purgatory. The U.S. wanted
to modernize and reshape Saudi Arabia in its own image. However, both he writes,
were primarily seeking to expand their empire.
Prince W. did not want Saudi Arabia to follow Western commercialism. But Perkins
exploited the prince's weakness for blond women, and procured, out of his
expensive account, an ongoing rendezvous with the promiscuous wife of an airline
pilot whenever the prince visited Boston. It demonstrated "how far I would go to
complete my mission," writes Perkins.
The money laundering caused the U.S. to turn a blind eye as the Saudi government
bankrolled Osama bin Laden's fight against the Soviets. The Saudis later became
the epicenter for financing terrorist organizations including Al Qaeda," Perkins
writes.
"My country was thinking about revenge," Perkins writes back at ground zero. "It
was focusing on countries like Afghanistan. "But I was thinking about all the
other places in the world where people hate our companies, our military, our
policies and our march toward global empire."
Perkins came to the attention of MAIN because of his proficiency of dialects
along the Amazon, a skill he acquired while serving in the Peace Corps. That
proficiency came into play a year before the oil embargo, when Perkins met with
Panamanian President Omar Torrijos, who wanted the world to know that Panama
stands not against the United States, but for the rights of the poor. Torrijos'
story provides another example of the less-than-savory behind-the-scenes
workings of American foreign policy.
Torrijos knew foreign aid was a sham and that MAIN receives most of its work by
inflating the size of projects.
"This time it's different, though," Torrijos said to Perkins. "Give me what's
best for my people, and I'll give you all the work you want."
"By the time I left him," Perkins writes, "we both understood that MAIN would
get the contract for the master plan, and that I would see to it that we did
Torrijos's bidding."
Perkins writes that he made sure his studies were honest and that his
recommendations took into account the poor. Torrijos and Perkins became friends.
This didn't bode well for either of them: There were complaints from Perkins'
superiors that his forecasts were not up to their usual inflated standards; and
because Torrijos had forced the U.S. to relinquish the Panama Canal and was a
constant thorn in the side of Ronald Reagan, he had a vision that his plane
would one day drop from the sky in a gigantic fireball - which came true in
1981.
Perkins says Torrijos' death had all markings of a CIA assassination. He was
replaced by U.S. friend (at the time) Manuel Noriega.
Feeling depressed, guilty and caught in a money trap at MAIN, Perkins quit MAIN
and started an alternative energy company which he eventually sold and began
working with environmental movements to preserve the Amazon rain forest from oil
companies.
Despite bribes and threats from international consulting companies Perkins' has
worked for, Sept. 11 convinced Perkins to write about EHMs and the insider
events of American's recent foreign policy.
Confessons of an Economic Hit Man is a numbing unveiling of the Ugly American,
an awakening of why people in the Middle East and South America hate U.S.
policies and corporations. Perkins reveals how the U.S. machine works behind
closed doors and how America has exploited others for its own needs.
After Sept. 11, Perkins' initial question is the one that looms most ominously:
How many other places in the world hate us? And what, if anything, are we doing
differently to change that

Who gives a FUCK about what the "world" hates us .

Who gives a FUCK about what the "world" hates us .

"S. O. Damocles" wrote:

Talk much, eh Neanderthal?