Building the world's largest empire

You want to know how the world's largest empire, that of the United States of America, was built? Read the bestselling books 'Confessions of an Economic Hit Man' and the recent 'The Secret History of the American Empire', in which the author John Perkins tells the gripping tale of how he had, as an 'economic hit man', or EHM, helped the US to control global economy by using foreign aid as a strategic weapon. As an EHM, Perkins was involved in the economic destabilization of many countries in Asia and Latin America.

The starting point of the strategy delineated in the book was to convince the political and financial leadership of the targeted underdeveloped country to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the World Bank, IMF and USAID. EHM would come as consultants to multilateral banking institutions and government corporations, fiddle with economic statistics and suggest infrastructure development that would usher in vibrant economic growth. Payoffs, extortion, sex ... were the tools used for the game. Once these countries were saddled with huge debts that could not be repaid, the American government and the international aid agencies would dictate repayment terms or demand favors, including military bases, UN votes or access to oil and other natural resources, force dropping of subsidies and trade restrictions that supported local businesses, and demand privatizing of public services like health, education, and water. Building the infrastructure would of course go to a Halliburton or a Bechtel, who would build an electrical system or ports or highways. For example, when Ecuador owed a huge debt, US demanded that their Amazon rain forests with vast reserves of oil be given to its oil companies.

If the economic subversion through EHM failed, the "jackals" — the CIA operators — entered the scene for the dirty job of deposing or assassinating the political leader of the country. Perkins shows how this was done in Iran, Panama, and Ecuador.

If the "jackals" failed, the US Empire had to go in for outright military invasion of the victim country, as with Panama in 1989 and the first invasion of Iraq in the early 1990s. So the first plan was an economic, second a political, and third a military approach to dominating nations that did not toe the US line.

The art of making strategic economic gains without a full fledged war had been perfected by the US in Iran in 1951. That was the time when the constitutionally elected Prime Minister Mossadegh nationalized the oil industry so that Iran could begin profiting from its vast oil reserves that had so far been under the control of the British. This angered the British, but their attempts at coup d'état was unsuccessful. So the US intervened and entrusted the job with Kermit Roosevelt, a CIA agent who very quickly brought about a coup that overthrew Mossadegh and installed Shah of Iran. Thus, by merely spending millions of dollars, the US could achieve its aim without direct confrontatopn with Russia. But there had been a risk of embarrassment had the hands of CIA been proved.

So, the US decided to use organizations like the CIA and the NSA to recruit men like John Perkins and then send them to work for private consulting companies, engineering firms or construction companies, so that if they were caught, there would be no connection with the government. John Perkins worked as chief economist for a company named Chas. T. Main in Boston, Massachusetts.

John Perkins' account of what happened in Indonesia can serve as an illutration of the whole process. Perkins arrived in Indonesia in 1971 and helped to create the economic studies to secure financing from the international agencies. Meanwhile, East Timor, a Portugal colony in the Indonesian archipelago, declared itself independent in 1975. The US, which had an eye on the island's oil and gas deposits and mineral wealth, supported Suharto's invasion of East Timor and the subsequent massacre of people. Oil and mineral extraction companies entrenched themselves in Indonesia, and big corporations benefited from its cheap labour. Mounting loans and stringent repayment conditions forced Suharto to cut food subsidies and other social benerfits to the poor, and this created such an unrest that he was forced to resign in 1998. American government always coveted the oil in the Indonesian Aceh province. During the tsunami of 2004 that devastated Indonesia, the US, under the pretext of relieving disaster victims supported the armed forces in thoroughly quashing the Free Aceh Movement. The "disaster relief" programs helped only the US engineering firms and corporations that owned hotel, retail chains, communication networks, banks and insurance companies.

What EHMs were able to achieve in Saudi Arabia is equally enlightening. America needed dependable supplies of oil after the OPEC-led 1970's oil crisis that had brought down its economy to a low. To ensure that there was no such threat in the future, the US government agreed to keep the royal House of Saud in power and offered total political and military support. In return, the Saudi government agreed to maintain oil supplies and prices that would be acceptable to the US. They were also forced to invest most of their petro-dollars in U.S. government securities, the interest from which would be used to hire U.S. companies to build new infrastructure inSaudi Arabia. The US government isolated Saudi Arabia from its leading role in OPEC and ensured that Saudi Arabia would not use its oil power against the US.

When the same policy was applied to Iraq, Saddam Hussein didn’t oblige the US. When the EHM failed in this scenario, the 'jackals' tried to foment a coup or revolution. Since they weren’t able to get through to Saddam Hussein, the US was forced to take the next line of defense, which was war.

For over a decade Perkins traveled all over the world — Indonesia, Panama, Ecuador, Columbia, Saudi Arabia, Iran — and worked with men like Panaman's president Omar Torrijos, who became his personal friend. John Perkins alleges that Torrijos was assassinated by American interests, who did not like the negotiations between Torrijos and a group of Japanese businessmen who were promoting the idea of a new, larger, sea-level canal for Panama and had a bomb planted aboard his aircraft.

The story of John Perkins is important for illuminating the ways of a country that calls itself the champion of democracy.

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