Economic Hitman

See Confessions of an Economic Hitman (WP)

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An Economic Hitman (EHM) is a contract agent with a discernible agenda but secretive methods that uses political lobbying, bribes, promises of development and economic aid, threats of economic sanctions of various kinds, and threats of violence against leaders and their countries and citizens. This is done to maintain hegemonic control over foreign governments, soften them up for regime change.

Secrecy is maintained for international and home country propaganda purposes and to evade national and international restrictions on crimes of aggression (WP) and acts of aggression (WP).

Satire of the planting of the American flag at Iwo Jima (Wikipedia:Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. World War I began a disparity of wealth between European nations, and forced them to give up their imperial holdings, and WWII increased the disparity, while adding to US imperial holdings, and US bases and intelligence control

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Confessions of an Economic Hitman (ISBN 0452287081) is an auto-biographical book written by Wikipedia:John Perkins. It tells the story of his career working in the private sector, primarily as an employee of the economic consulting firm Chas. T. Main, Inc. There he was recruited by a member of the Wikipedia:National Security Agency to become a self-described "Economic Hit Man." According to his book, Perkins' function was to convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the Wikipedia:World Bank and Wikipedia:USAID. Saddled with huge debts they could not hope to pay, these countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the Wikipedia:United States on a variety of issues. Perkins describes how Wikipedia:developing nations were effectively neutralised politically, had their wealth gaps driven wider and economies crippled in the long run. In this capacity Perkins recounts his meetings with some prominent individuals, including Wikipedia:Graham Greene and Wikipedia:Omar Torrijos. Perkins describes the role of an EHM as follows:

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man relates the story of becoming an "Economic Hit Man,"

John Perkins (WP), a former EHM, describes the role as follows:

Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank (WP), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) (WP), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.

The epilogue to the 2006 edition provides a rebuttal to the current move by the G8 nations to forgive Third World debt. Perkins charges that the proposed conditionalities for this debt forgiveness require countries to sell their health, education, electric, water and other public services to corporations. Those countries would also have to discontinue subsidies and trade restrictions that support local business, but accept the continued subsidation of certain G8 businesses by the US and other G8 countries, and the erection of trade barriers on imports that threaten G8 industries.

Recent events in Wikipedia:Bolivia and Wikipedia:Tanzania are cited as examples of the effects of these proposed conditions; Bolivia is cited as an example of a country that has implemented policy changes in accordance with these "conditionalities".

Before employment with the consulting firm Wikipedia:Chas. T. Main, he interviewed for a job with the Wikipedia:National Security Agency (NSA). Perkins claims that this interview effectively constituted an independent screening which led to his subsequent hiring by Einar Greve, a member of the firm (and alleged NSA liaison) to become a self-described "Economic Hit Man."

According to his book, Perkins' function was to convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the Wikipedia:World Bank and Wikipedia:USAID. Saddled with huge debts they could not hope to pay, these countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the Wikipedia:United States on a variety of issues. Perkins argues in his book that Wikipedia:developing nations were effectively neutralized politically, had their wealth gaps driven wider and economies crippled in the long run. In this capacity Perkins recounts his meetings with some prominent individuals, including Wikipedia:Graham Greene and Wikipedia:Omar Torrijos.

"Covertly recruited by the United States National Security Agency and on the payroll of an international consulting firm, he traveled the world—to Indonesia, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and other strategically important countries...Perkins reveals the hidden mechanics of imperial control behind some of the most dramatic events in recent history, such as the fall of the Shah of Iran, the death of Panamanian president Omar Torrijos, and the U.S. invasions of Panama and Iraq."

In the book, Perkins repeatedly denies the existence of a "conspiracy." Instead, Perkins carefully discusses the role of Wikipedia:corporatocracy.

"I was initially recruited while I was in business school back in the late sixties by the National Security Agency, the nation’s largest and least understood spy organization; but ultimately I worked for private corporations. The first real economic hit man was back in the early 1950’s, Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of Teddy, who overthrew of government of Iran, a democratically elected government, Mossadegh’s government who was Time‘s magazine person of the year; and he was so successful at doing this without any bloodshed—well, there was a little bloodshed, but no military intervention, just spending millions of dollars and replaced Mossadegh with the Shah of Iran. At that point, we understood that this idea of economic hit man was an extremely good one. We didn’t have to worry about the threat of war with Russia when we did it this way. The problem with that was that Roosevelt was a C.I.A. agent. He was a government employee. Had he been caught, we would have been in a lot of trouble. It would have been very embarrassing. So, at that point, the decision was made to use organizations like the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. to recruit potential economic hit men like me and then send us to work for private consulting companies, engineering firms, construction companies, so that if we were caught, there would be no connection with the government. - Nov 4 '04 interview}}

Perkins began writing Confessions of an Economic Hit Man in the 1980s. "Threats or bribes always convinced me to stop" he says in the book.

Verification

Perkins's first boss at Chas. T. Main, Einar Greve, initially declared to journalists that "basically [Perkins's] story is true" and that "what John's book says is, there was a conspiracy to put all these countries on the hook, and that happened" [2].

...and then changed his story

Subsequently, he denied Perkins's allegation that he ever worked as a liaison with the NSA and contradicted other claims made in Perkins's book, stating that Perkins "has convinced himself that a lot of this stuff is true," although it is unclear precisely which claims he stands against.

Perkins comments on Greve's change of heart in the "Epilogue" of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man." He points out that Greve initially supported the truth of the book, only to switch his opinion several months later. Perkins then asks, "Who got to him?", suggesting that Greve was pressured to denounce the book as false.

Criticism

Little investigation has been done into the veracity of Perkins' wide-ranging activities in Wikipedia:Ecuador, Wikipedia:Panama, Wikipedia:Indonesia and Wikipedia:Saudi Arabia, to name a few. It can be presumed that it is convenient for powers identified in the book not to raise their profile in any way. Chas. T. Main, the company Perkins claims to have worked for, is now defunct, and thus would not be able to sue for libel in the event that the accusations were untrue, but several individuals mentioned in the book are alive. Additionally, the NSA and McNamara may be viewed as convenient targets for a conspiracy theory, but Perkins' descriptions of events are plausible, although quite different from the usual mainstream media portrayals.

...The interests of the Left and the people they represent are confounded, not served, by the lack of investigation into this

An Important point to note is that nowhere in his book, Wikipedia:Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, is it mentioned that the 'innocent', 'democratic' governments that he helped overthrow were in fact openly socialist or communistic in nature. This may or may not be a deliberate omission, but the Wikipedia:CIA operations in those countries were undertaken within the contextual framework of the Cold War (WP), and not, as asserted by Perkins, solely on the basis of imperialism. That the Wikipedia:U.S.S.R. was supporting the development of governments friendly to its ideology in South America was in direct violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Had not the effort to establish communist dictatorships existed, more energy could have been devoted more constructive measures than coups. No mention of this perspective is introduced, and instead, capitalism portrayed as the root of blame.

...Argument assumes much. Socialism is taken as a given evil. The reason for the US' opposition to communism and socialism is that they are opposed to capitalism, the very force that the Economic Hit Man serves. Of course they are socialist countries.

Another criticism of Perkins is that the terminology used, such as 'economic hit men', are unique and thus anomalous in the lexicon of American security vocabulary. Such uncharacteristic usage of these terms brings into question the veracity of his 'first hand accounts'.

..."neologism" ad nauseum. Leftists make up more new ideas, whereupon rightists use this to conflate new with unserviceable or funny...except when they make up new terms themselves, like Islamofascism or Communist genocide.

The most striking disparity of Perkin's account is the disruptive nature of the Marxist (WP) leaders upon preexisting cultures, namely, their eradication, and his supposed 'enormous support' for indigenous tribal cultures. That an authoritarian regime allows gradual assimilation of preexisting cultures, as opposed to radical social planning, land redistribution, etc, gets no mention. The book instead seems to be a cleverly crafted piece of Wikipedia:anti-capitalist propaganda.

-This argument presumes much.

Ultimately, the book fits into the category of Wikipedia:Illuminati/Wikipedia:New World Order conspiracy theories, and is endorsed by Wikipedia:Lyndon LaRouche ....!?

Perkins is alleged to have subscribed to non-mainstream views, such as belief in the reality of shamanic magic and a variety of conspiracy theories (WP). This is as much unfounded allegation as it is inconsequential ad hominem.

Perkins' heavy emphasis on Wikipedia:shamanism, and by extension, the accompanying freeform societal structures or patterns, such as Wikipedia:tribalism is frequently interpreted by the Wikipedia:right as a thinly veiled argument for anarchism (WP), and by the Wikipedia:left as the extreme fringe of libertarianism (WP). In either case the net result would be to garner moral support for Wikipedia:democratic socialism, which, while perhaps more acceptable today, was seen as a secrecy threat during the Cold War.

-Go figure

Several of Perkins' other books focus on South American tribal cultures, shamanistic techniques for creating self-empowerment, and techniques to enhance health and longevity.

...good?

A release posted on the United States Department of State (WP) website, while acknowledging that, "Perkins raises legitimate questions about the impacts of economic growth and modernization on developing countries and indigenous peoples", charges that his links to the NSA, the government agency that allegedly recruited him, are dubious. These links are dismissed on the grounds that documentary or testimonial proof is not provided to support them.

At the risk of Wikipedia:Tu quoque, they would say that

In response to allegations that the NSA recruited him to be an Economic Hit Man in the Sixties to "deliberately entrap foreign countries in unmanageable amounts of debt so they would be beholden to the United States", the release states that US has been leading a recent initiative (proposed in 2004) to cancel the debt of many heavily indebted poor countries.

...In return for "liberalization of markets" and other "economic freedoms"? That just proves Perkins' thesis. Details follow...

The epilogue to the 2006 edition provides a rebuttal to the current move by the Wikipedia:G8 nations to forgive Third World debt. Perkins charges that the proposed conditionalities for this debt forgiveness require countries to sell their health, education, electric, water and other public services to corporations. Those countries would also have to discontinue subsidies and trade restrictions that support local business, but accept the continued subsidization of certain G8 businesses by the US and other G8 countries, and the erection of trade barriers on imports that threaten G8 industries. Recent events in Bolivia and Tanzania are cited as examples of the effects of these proposed conditionalities.

A State Department release brings attention to Perkins' public remarks and published work. Perkins has subscribed to non-mainstream views, such as belief in the reality of shamanic magic and a variety of conspiracy theories.

...Right. Gotta admit I expected more from the State Department than mudslinging ad hominem, though.

The State Department release refers to a presentation at a bookstore, where Perkins allegedly asserted that the US Government was involved in the assassinations of John and Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lennon and several US senators who died in plane crashes, and expressed concern regarding alleged inconsistencies in the US investigation of the events surrounding the Wikipedia:September 11 attacks of 2001. The State Department release therefore identifies Perkins as a conspiracy theorist. In the book, however, Perkins repeatedly emphasizes that the dynamics he describes are systemic and specifically not the result of conspiracy:

...If you knew what Perkins knew, you might be forgiven for speculating about those things, also

"Although unconscious, deceived, and—in many cases—self-deluded, these players were not members of any clandestine conspiracy; rather, they were the product of a system that promotes the most subtle and effective form of imperialism the world has ever witnessed."

..."might makes right" given a new coat of "manifest destiny" paint

Columnist Sebastian Mallaby of the Wikipedia:Washington Post reacted sharply to Perkins' book: "This man is a frothing conspiracy theorist, a vainglorious peddler of nonsense, and yet his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, is a runaway bestseller." Mallaby, who spent 13 years writing for the London Economist and wrote a critically well-received biography of Wikipedia:World Bank chief Wikipedia:James Wolfensohn,[3] holds that Perkins' conception of international finance is "largely a dream" and that his "basic contentions are flat wrong." For instance he points out that Wikipedia:Indonesia reduced its Wikipedia:infant mortality and Wikipedia:illiteracy rates by two-thirds after economists persuaded its leaders to borrow money in 1970. He also disputes Perkins' claim that 51 of the top 100 world economies belong to companies. A value-added comparison done by the UN, he says, shows the number to be 29.

...This is the best argument in favor of any of the World Bank, USAID, and IMF activities, though surely it is applicable to few of them. In answer and in clarification, development (WP) itself is not the problem. And development need not incur crippling debt. But you cannot get blood out of a stone, and even the moneylenders know that in order to extract wealth, some wealth must be generated. Conversely, they must know it is in their financial interest to make Third World countries as rich as First and New World ones; the better to extract more wealth. But they fear, and with some reason, that countries with equal economic power could extricate themselves from their clutches.

A far easier rebuttal is that Mallaby is mistaking Wikipedia:correlation for Wikipedia:causation. The improvements in child survival and literacy may be unconnected.

Facts demonstrate that this World Bank apologist's rebuttals are overstated. In the book, Perkins repeatedly denies the existence of a "conspiracy." Instead, Perkins carefully discusses the role of corporatocracy. Also, Mallaby ignores the fact that 49% of Indonesians still live on less than $2 per day, and he fails to consider the potential effects of alternative economic development methods.

Poo poo

Some of the book's critics have questioned whether Perkins makes a significant contribution to the debate on global finance and the development of the Third World. For instance, columnist Mark Engler of Wikipedia:In These Times, has written that "the actual content of Perkins' admissions proves distressingly thin." ^[4] According to the Wikipedia:New York Times, "the book's popularity seems driven more by the mix of cloak-and-dagger atmospherics and Mr. Perkins's Damascene conversion" than by insight into "the larger issue of America's role in emerging economies."

Gnashing of teeth

Columnist Sebastian Mallaby of the Wikipedia:Washington Post reacted sharply to Perkins' book: "This man is a frothing conspiracy theorist, a vainglorious peddler of nonsense, and yet his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, is a runaway bestseller."[5] Mallaby, who spent 13 years writing for the London Economist and wrote a favorable biography of Wikipedia:World Bank chief Wikipedia:James Wolfensohn[6], holds that Perkins's conception of international finance is "largely a dream" and that his "basic contentions are flat wrong."

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man&diff=113839303&oldid=108597031

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man&diff=113894000&oldid=113840203

The book's title was the title for an Wikipedia:Anti-Flag song in the album Wikipedia:For Blood and Empire.

See also

• Wikipedia:Confessions of an Economic Hit Man