The Secret History of the American Empire
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THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE ECONOMIC HIT MEN, JACKALS, AND THE TRUTH ABOUT GLOBAL CORRUPTION BY JOHN PERKINS Contents Acknowledgments A Note from the Author Prologue Part 1: Asia i Mystery Woman of Jakarta 2 Pirating Lepers 3 Geishas 4 The Bugiman 5 A Corrupt and Brutal Country 6 Sweatshops 7 United States-Supported Slaughter 8 Tsunami Profiteering 9 Fruits of Corruption 10 Attacked and Beaten in Indonesia 11 Don't Become a Buddhist 12 Biological Imperatives 13 Dictatorships of Finance 14 The Quiet Giant Part 2: Latin America 15 Hired Guns in Guatemala 16 Obsessed with Anger 17 Recruited as President of Bolivia Power 18 Maximizing Profits in La Paz 19 Changing the Dream 20 Venezuela's Chavez 21 Ecuador: Betrayed by a President 22 Bolivia: Bechtel and the Water Wars 23 Brazil: Skeletons in the Closet 24 The Beautiful Carioca 25 Taking on the Empire 26 Kindred Spirits 27 A History of Assassinations 28 Lessons from Latin America Part 3: The Middle East 29 A Bankrupt United States of America 30 King Dollar 31 Manipulating Governments 32 Lebanon: "Stark Raving Mad" 33 USAID Speaks 34 Egypt: Controlling Africa 35 Infidel Dog 36 Iran: Highways and Fortresses 37 Israel: America's Foot Soldier 38 The Iraq-Iran War: Another EHM Victory 39 Qatar and Dubai: Las Vegas in the Land of Mullahs 40 Into the Abyss Part 4: Africa 41 Modern Conquistadors 42 Sitting in America's Lap 43 A Jackal Is Born 44 The "Non-Peoples" of Diego Garcia 45 Assassinating a President 46 The Highjacking of an Air India 707 47 An Environmentalist Is Executed 48 The Least Understood Continent 49 NGOs: A Stake in Keeping Africa Poor 50 Laptops, Cell Phones, and Cars 51 Ex-Peace Corps Volunteers Offer Hope 52 Resolved: To Turn Things Around Part 5: Changing the World 53 Four Essential Questions 54 Change Is Possible 55 Modern Minutemen 56 Changing the Myth 57 The New Capitalism 58 A List of Grievances 59 Facing Our Fears 60 Changing Wall Street Through Financial Leverage 61 Buying Off Third-world Debt 62 Five Commonalities 63 Times of Opportunity 64 The Most Important Question of Our Time 65 Today Is the Day Appendix A: Organizations Described in This Book Appendix B: Entry Points for Living Democracy Appendix C: Recommended Reading Notes About the Author Acknowledgments This book would have been impossible without the courageous men and women who stepped forward from the ranks of economic hit men and jackals to share their stories; in doing so they took personal risks and were forced to confront the darkest aspects of their lives. I owe them my deepest gratitude. It could not have been written without the people who envisioned and manage the NGOs that are changing corporatocracy policies; they, their staffs, and volunteers light a path for the rest of us to follow. Some play a prominent role in the pages of this book, but many remain anonymous—as do those who donate their money to these important organizations. I thank all of them. And also the people around this planet who stand up to the corporatocracy, the few whose names make the news and the many who walk the picket lines, hang banners, speak out, send e- mails, run for office, vote for positive change, and shop consciously. They are the true heroes of the history that is being written today. Without Paul Fedorko's encouragement, neither Confessions of an Economic Hit Man nor this book would have been published. In addition to being my tireless agent, Paul has "watched my back," been my confidant and sounding board. Emily Haynes, my editor, has been a tenacious advocate, helping me transform a raw manuscript into a book aimed at honoring the request expressed by World Bank officials and their children to expose The Secret History of the American Empire and propose solutions. In addition to her, I thank all the committed people at the Penguin Group, especially Brian Tart, Trena Keating, Beth Parker, Lisa Johnson, and Melanie Gold. A special word of gratitude to Peg Booth, my publicist, Debbe Kennedy of the Global Dialogue Center, David Tucker of The Pachamama Alliance, Llyn Roberts of Dream Change, Steve Pier- santi of Berrett-Koehler, Stephan Rechtschaffen of the Omega Institute, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, Sabrina Bologni, Jan Coleman, Josh Mailman, Richard Perl, Howard Zinn, John Mack, and so many others who have dedicated themselves to getting the word out and making this a stable, sustainable, and peaceful world. My deepest appreciation goes to my family—Winifred, Jessica, and Daniel—for their support, inspiration, and love. And to a cat, Snowball, who takes some of the loneliness out of writing. xiv A Note from the Author The people and incidents in this book are real. I have made every effort to present them as accurately as personal records, notes, letters, e-mails, memories, and published documents permit. In some cases I have changed names and details for the sake of anonymity—an important condition for many of the people I interviewed—or combined dialogs to facilitate the flow of the narrative, but only where this does not threaten the book's integrity. Whenever I discuss historical events, I am guided by an obligation to provide as accurate a record as possible, sometimes augmenting a speaker's words with source materials referenced in the endnotes. However, this does not include altering or verifying details behind personal stories; when individuals describe their roles in highjacking a commercial airliner, invading a country to assassinate its president, bribing heads of state, profiteering from natural disasters, seducing and extorting democratically elected officials, and conducting other clandestine activities, I feel that I forfeit my rights to interpret their observations. I do want to emphasize that every major event I participated in has been documented by other authors, historians, and journalists, or within the archives of organizations like the World Bank; the story may be mine, but the episodes are a matter of record. XV Prologue This book takes up where Confessions of an Economic Hit Man left off. Back when I finished writing that book in 2004, I had no idea whether anyone would want to read about my life as an economic hit man (EHM). I chose to describe events that 1 needed to confess. Subsequently, traveling across the United States and to other countries, lecturing, fielding questions, and talking with men and women who are concerned about the future, I have come to understand that people everywhere desire to know what is really going on in the world today. We all want to be able to read between the lines of the news reports and hear the truths that are glossed over by the self-serving pronouncements of the individuals who control our businesses, governments, and media (collectively, the corporatocracy). As I explained in Confessions, I tried to write that book several times. I approached other EHMs and jackals—the CIA- sponsored mercenaries who step in to influence, cajole, bribe, and sometimes assassinate—and asked them to include their stories. Word quickly spread; I myself was bribed and threatened. I stopped writing. After 9/11, when I made the commitment to move forward, I decided that this time I would tell no one until the manuscript was published. At that point it became an insurance policy; the jackals knew that if anything unusual happened to me, sales of the book would skyrocket. Writing Confessions without assistance from others with similar experiences might have been difficult, but it was my safest route. Since its publication, people have stepped out from the shadows. I EHMs, jackals, reporters, Peace Corps volunteers, corporate executives, and World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and government officials have come to me with their own confessions. The stories they share in the following pages expose the facts behind the events that are shaping the world our children will inherit. They underscore the inevitable conclusion: We must act, we must change. I want to emphasize that you will not find gloom and doom in these pages. I am optimistic. I know that, although serious, our problems are man-made. We are not threatened by a giant meteor. The fire of the sun has not been extinguished. Because we created these problems, we can solve them. By exploring the dark recesses of our past we can develop a light for examining—and changing—the future. When you finish reading The Secret History of the American Empire, you too will, I believe, feel absolutely confident that we will do the right thing. You will have identified a plan of action. Together we will utilize the resources providence has provided to establish human societies that reflect our highest ideals. One evening a few months into my book tour for Confessions I found myself lecturing in a Washington, D.C., bookstore. The woman introducing me had mentioned earlier that she expected a number of World Bank staffers to attend. Created at Bretton Woods in my home state of New Hampshire in 1944, the Bank was charged with reconstructing countries devastated by the war. Its mission soon became synonymous with proving that the capitalist system was superior to that of the Soviet Union. To further this role, its employees cultivated cozy relationships with capitalism's main proponents, multinational corporations. This opened the door for me and other EHMs to mount a multitrillion-dollar scam. We channeled funds from the Bank and its sister organizations into schemes that appeared to serve the poor while primarily benefiting a few wealthy people. Under the most common of these, we would identify a developing country that possessed resources our corporations coveted (such as oil), arrange a huge loan for that country, and then direct most of the money to 2PROLOGUE our own engineering and construction companies—and a few collaborators in the developing country.