John Perkins and His Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

By Julio Severo

Economist John Perkins said, “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, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), 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 include 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. I should know; I was an EHM.”

Other revelations by Perkins are equally impressive. According to him, in his 2004 book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” Saudi Arabia has a very special relationship with the U.S. since mid-1970s. He says,

“The evidence was indisputable: Saudi Arabia, America’s longtime ally and the world’s largest oil producer, had somehow become, as a senior Treasury Department official put it, ‘the epicenter’ of terrorist financing… Saudi largess encouraged U.S. officials to look the other way, some veteran intelligence officers say. Billions of dollars in contracts, grants, and salaries have gone to a broad range of former U.S. officials who had dealt with the Saudis: ambassadors, CIA station chiefs, even cabinet secretaries…”

Perkins came to get such knowledge not only because he was a respected economist, but also because of his involvement, decades ago, with NSA (National Security Agency) and even designing massive projects in Saudi Arabia.

In the 1960s and 1970s, NSA was not internationally known, but today, because of the leaks of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, NSA’s stealthy activities comprising surveillance and espionage have been exposed. Yet, ten years before Snowden, John Perkins had already made a significant exposé, which remained largely unnoticed, because apparently no one was willing to believe that the mysterious NSA was a malignant octopus.

How did Perkins come to know NSA? In 1967 he married to a woman whose uncle was a top echelon executive at NSA. In 1968 he was profiled by the NSA as an ideal economic hit man (EHM).

He had been deliberately hired by NSA because of his non-conservative qualities and a lack of moral values. A truly conservative, moral man would never do what he was hired to do.

In 1981 he married to another woman whose father was chief architect at Bechtel Corporation and was in charge of designing and building cities in Saudi Arabia — work financed through the 1974 EHM deal.

About his NSA training, Perkins said,

“First, I was to justify huge international loans that would funnel money back to MAIN and other U.S. companies (such as Bechtel, Halliburton, Stone & Webster, and Brown & Root) through massive engineering and construction projects. Second, I would work to bankrupt the countries that received those loans (after they had paid MAIN and the other U.S. contractors, of course) so that they would be forever beholden to their creditors, and so they would present easy targets when we needed favors, including military bases, UN votes, or access to oil and other natural resources. My job, [NSA agent] said, was to forecast the effects of investing billions of dollars in a country. Specifically, I would produce studies that projected economic growth twenty to twenty-five years into the future and that evaluated the impacts of a variety of projects. For example, if a decision was made to lend a country $1 billion to persuade its leaders not to align with the Soviet Union, I would compare the benefits of investing that money in power plants with the benefits of investing in a new national railroad network or a telecommunications system. Or I might be told that the country was being offered the opportunity to receive a modern electric utility system, and it would be up to me to demonstrate that such a system would result in sufficient economic growth to justify the loan. The critical factor, in every case, was gross national product. The project that resulted in the highest average annual growth of GNP won. If only one project was under consideration, I would need to demonstrate that developing it would bring superior benefits to the GNP. The unspoken aspect of every one of these projects was that they were intended to create large profits for the contractors, and to make a handful of wealthy and influential families in the receiving countries very happy, while assuring the long-term financial dependence and therefore the political loyalty of governments around the world. The larger the loan, the better.”

This was in the 1970s. I remembered Brazil, my country. In the 1970s, the military government in Brazil kept up massive investments in infrastructure — highways, telecommunications, hydroelectric dams, etc. The military rule, under President Ernesto Geisel, borrowed billions of dollars. Brazil was enjoying an investment boom that had pushed annual GDP growth to over ten percent. Large-scale infrastructure projects, such as the Itaipu and Tucuruí hydroelectric dams, fueled growth, and Brazil emerged as the undisputed industrial leader in Latin America, earning the title “the Brazilian miracle.” But the boom fell apart. By 1982, Brazil halted payment of its main foreign debt, which is among the world’s biggest.

Brazil was apparently the perfect field for EHMs’ activities. The Brazilian military government, which made investments of billions of dollars in infrastructure, ended with loans and massive debts. And these debts had no relation with corruption, because the military government was corruption-free. Probably, in the modern history of Brazil, Brazilians never had a so corruption-free government as the military government was.

If the job of EHMs (and their colleagues) was to persuade countries to take out loans worth billions of dollars, often to pay for infrastructure projects that the EHMs themselves recommend, as John Perkins wrote in his book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” then Brazil was probably a big victim.

As Brazil, many of the nations put into debt in the 1970s and 1980s were ruled by right-wing militarists and their debts were used by their socialist enemies as a reason to put their nations into a socialist route. The economic explorations made these military allies of the U.S. vulnerable before socialists.

The Brazilian military rule in the 1980s was plagued by inflation, recession and massive foreign debt. The International Monetary Fund was a daily subject in the Brazilian news. Socialist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who in 2002 was elected president of Brazil, agitated against the Brazilian government. His main weapon was the economic crisis, which made the Brazilian people discontent with the military presidents.

I cannot imagine the military rule in Brazil running into massive debt because of corruption. I only can imagine, by all the clues pointed by Perkins, that there is a possibility that they fell into an economic hit man’s trap.

John Perkins’ book was recommended to me by a U.S. conservative leader.

By reading his book, you see NSA and other U.S. agencies as machines of economic exploitation of nations. But often such exploitation is facilitated by political leaders of these nations who also exploited economically their own people. I do not believe that this was the case in Brazil, because the Brazilian military rule was hard-working. When socialists overthrew U.S. allies in Latin America — an overthrow facilitated by U.S. economic hit men —, they themselves became exploiters, economically and also socially and religiously, because socialism severely stifles speech and religious freedom.

Perkins saw so much corruption among his professional peers in America exploiting the poor in Third-World nations that he began to see favorably socialist ideas, thinking that socialism was the only answer to the massive capitalist corruption he saw coming from his own nation. Of course, he did not know the Gospel, which is the only real answer to socialism and capitalist corruption.

The human nature is wicked. If it occupies a high post, it explores people under its control.

People without the Gospel should be capable of not exploring other people, because they have a conscience.

People who have the Gospel are under a double responsibility not to explore, because they have God’s conscience available to them (the Gospel) and their own conscience.

It not a sin to be wealthy. But God commands the rich to be also wealthy in generosity. Yet, socialism sees all wealth (except for the wealthy socialist establishment) as exploitation. The Bible does not see all rich as exploiters. There are rich and there are exploiters. And there are wealthy exploiters.

In his book, Perkins writes,

“‘We’re a small, exclusive club,’ [NSA agent] said. ‘We’re paid—well paid—to cheat countries around the globe out of billions of dollars. A large part of your job is to encourage world leaders to become part of a vast network that promotes U.S. commercial interests. In the end, those leaders become ensnared in a web of debt that ensures their loyalty. We can draw on them whenever we desire—to satisfy our political, economic, or military needs. In turn, these leaders bolster their political positions by bringing industrial parks, power plants, and airports to their people. Meanwhile, the owners of U.S. engineering and construction companies become very wealthy… [NSA special agent] described how throughout most of history, empires were built largely through military force or the threat of it. But with the end of World War II, the emergence of the Soviet Union, and the specter of nuclear holocaust, the military solution became just too risky.”

Perkins also shows how the U.S. changed profoundly Iran through stealthy economic actions. He said,

“The decisive moment occurred in 1951, when Iran rebelled against a British oil company that was exploiting Iranian natural resources and its people. The company was the forerunner of British Petroleum, today’s BP. In response, the highly popular, democratically elected Iranian prime minister (and TIME magazine’s Man of the Year in 1951), Mohammad Mossadegh, nationalized all Iranian petroleum assets. An outraged England sought the help of her World War II ally, the United States. However, both countries feared that military retaliation would provoke the Soviet Union into taking action on behalf of Iran. Instead of sending in the Marines, therefore, Washington dispatched CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt (Theodore’s grandson). He performed brilliantly, winning people over through payoffs and threats. He then enlisted them to organize a series of street riots and violent demonstrations, which created the impression that Mossadegh was both unpopular and inept. In the end, Mossadegh went down, and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest. The pro-American Mohammad Reza Shah became the unchallenged dictator. Kermit Roosevelt had set the stage for a new profession, the one whose ranks I was joining.”

Of course, the U.S. strategy in Iran eventually backfired, and today Iran has a mortal hatred of America.

“By 1968, the year I interviewed with the NSA, it had become clear that if the United States wanted to realize its dream of global empire (as envisioned by men like presidents Johnson and Nixon), it would have to employ strategies modeled on Roosevelt’s Iranian example. This was the only way to beat the Soviets without the threat of nuclear war. There was one problem, however. Kermit Roosevelt was a CIA employee. Had he been caught, the consequences would have been dire. He had orchestrated the first U.S. operation to overthrow a foreign government, and it was likely that many more would follow, but it was important to find an approach that would not directly implicate Washington. Fortunately for the strategists, the 1960s also witnessed another type of revolution: the empowerment of international corporations and of multinational organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF. The latter were financed primarily by the United States and our sister empire builders in Europe. A symbiotic relationship developed between governments, corporations, and multinational organizations.”

Perkins explains more about their dirty work:

“Roosevelt-as-CIA-agent problem had already been worked out. U.S. intelligence agencies—including the NSA—would identify prospective EHMs, who could then be hired by international corporations. These EHMs would never be paid by the government; instead, they would draw their salaries from the private sector. As a result, their dirty work, if exposed, would be chalked up to corporate greed rather than to government policy. In addition, the corporations that hired them, although paid by government agencies and their multinational banking counterparts (with taxpayer money), would be insulated from congressional oversight and public scrutiny, shielded by a growing body of legal initiatives, including trademark, international trade, and Freedom of Information laws.”

Saudi Arabia is “lucky.” Billions of its dollars in contracts, grants, and salaries to U.S. officials have protected the Islamic nation from dark consequences of EHMs.

Perkins was related to Tom Paine (1737-1809), the American revolutionary leader who fought for the U.S. independence from England. With his conscience, Perkins had a motivation to write his book against the exploitations from NSA and other U.S. agencies. He said,

“I only had to return to the American Revolution and Tom Paine for a model. I recalled that Britain justified its taxes by claiming that England was providing aid to the colonies in the form of military protection against the French and the Indians. The colonists had a very different interpretation.”

With information of Foreign Affairs and BBC.

Portuguese version of this article: John Perkins e Suas Confissões de um Assassino Econômico

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

U.S. Betrays Military Men Who Protected Brazil from Communist Threat

Brazil, the Next (Regional or Global) Threat to the U.S. Economic Supremacy?

Were Brazilian Protests an Anti-Marxist Counter-Revolution?

War between Christian Nations and Muslim Nations: A Table Talk between an American Economist and Young Muslims in Indonesia

“1984” Live! US Surveillance Scandal Is The Biggest Story Of Your Lifetime

Actually, people have been writing exposes of the NSA since the Watergate era. They were investigated by the Rockefeller Commission and the Pike and Church Committees, for instance. I wouldn't put much stock in anything Perkins says that can't be substantiated by reliable sources.

>>Economist John Perkins said, “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, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), 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.<<

Bill and Hillary, for example?

Thanks for posting. Interesting.

“We’re paid—well paid—to cheat countries around the globe out of billions of dollars.”

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/a

EHM of the republic…

https://www.congress.gov/members

http://www.usdebtclock.org

Socialism Is Legal Plunder - Bastiat

>> I wouldn’t put much stock in anything Perkins says that can’t be substantiated by reliable sources <<

Agreed. This stuff looks to me like total garbage. Whatever the sins of NSA might be, that agency does not conduct operations whereby they would send “hit men” to foreign countries. Nor do they work in the “economic” realm. Their mission is two-fold:

1. Spying on the communications of foreigners. That’s their best-known role.

2. But they also are tasked with protecting the communications of U. S. gov’t entities, for example, by developing better encryption methods and technologies.

So I think “John Perkins” — if he actually exists — is probably a fraud and a charlatan. More likely, however, I think he is probably no more than the fruit of a somewhat skillful fiction writer’s imagination.

Yes, it sounds like fiction. Perkins even claims fiction writer Graham Greene (who died in 1991) told him to write the book. These reviews give some examples of how investigators have been unable to substantiate details Perkins claims to disclose:

Confessions of a professional liar

(This review mentions that Perkins also has written books and given seminars on "shamanic shapeshifting".)

Chapter 14: Junk Library Science

("we found that none of the writer’s claims that were not previously known could be independently verified")

PROFILE: John Perkins, self-confessed 'economic hit man'

(This reviewer notes that Perkins gives the wrong date for an attempted coup against Chavez, and summarizes, "I came away convinced not only that the work is a semi-fictional narrative (albeit one that aspires to address in this appealing way a larger truth), but that Perkins has woven into his Confessions of an Economic Hit Man about a dozen clues to point the reader to the work's true character.")

Perkins' book is long on rhetoric, histrionics, and conspiracy theories but short on evidence and coherent reasoning. Where the facts can be checked, critics have demonstrated that Perkins is often wrong on key points and that his history is unreliable and expressive of left-wing views.

For example, Perkins' account of the overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran is the standard left-wing account, which is based on an acceptance of propaganda crafted by the KGB during the Cold War and used by Khomeini to help overthrow the Shah. In truth, the erratic and kooky Mossadegh was overthrown by a populist revolt, with the CIA and British intelligence having a marginal role that mostly aimed at securing that the successor regime would be pro-Western and anti-Communist.

American and British actions do not at all seem objectionable during the Cold War, and the era of the Shah is now recalled fondly by most Iranians as a time of peace and prosperity. And considering the menacing chaos in Libya today, one cannot but rue that the US seems to have lost the capacity to assure that, when a lout of a foreign leader is overthrown with our participation, a better regime is then installed in the aftermath.

Based on several hours of skimming through Perkins' book, my guess is that in retirement, Perkins started to write a novel but could not quite pull it off. He then recast and sold his book as a memoir, gauging, correctly, that it might catch fire with the left-wing crowd as a critique of American economic and foreign policy.

In a 2006 rebuttal, a State Department release claims that much of the book “appears to be a total fabrication.” So the State Department has a so powerful case against his book that they could destroy him in the courts. But, because of some mysterious reason of divine grace, the U.S. government does not want to prosecute him for fabrications and lies.

The Brazilian military rule in the 1980s was plagued by inflation,

I can't speak about economic hit men. However, in 1983 I was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Technological Research, on the campus of University of Sao Paolo. The inflation rate was terrible. However, the Brazilian government required banks to protect deposits against inflation, increasing them to keep the purchasing power of the money constant. The Institute put my salary in the bank when I arrived, and drew it out to be converted into dollars when I left. That way I didn't lose anything to their runaway inflation.

Read carefully, Perkins' allegations that rely on personal experience lack convincing detail. Nevertheless, if his claims of corruption are taken seriously, we are obliged to ask why Perkins apparently never attempted any remedial action by reporting it to the authorities, as US law required him to do? And why didn't Perkins get a lawyer and file a qui tam whistleblower suit seeking to recover any money that was stolen -- a case that could provide a hefty reward for his efforts?

Notably, there is no general criminal law against fabrication and lies in a book, even if untruths are told about the US government. Lying to federal officials or in sworn testimony though is against the law and can lead to criminal charges. Perhaps that is why Perkins has avoided the test of making a report to the appropriate US officials or of filing a whistleblower suit in court.

Instead of belief and dodgy information, reasoned analysis based on solid evidence seems to me to be the better approach. Perkins' unsourced account and extreme views do not do so well by that standard.

Granted, one of Perkins' core criticisms -- the corruption and abuse in Third World lending and grant programs -- is well-proven in a wide range of official reports and investigations. Notably, the George W. Bush administration took up the cause of reform, if with limited results. A 2012 Forbes article offers a glimpse into the subject: World Bank Spins Out Of Control: Corruption, Dysfunction Await New President.

Instead of relying on such evidence, from Perkins we get screwball, self-glorifying conspiracy theories. More generally, Perkins contends that spying, lending, and aid programs and the burdens that they place on Third World countries are part of the way that the US projects and maintains power in the world. Boo-hoo! What is so bad about that, even assuming that the bulk of Perkins' account is true?

Most Third World countries are utterly and hopelessly corrupt and dysfunctional, run by predatory elites, and populated by wretched people with rotten cultures. For the US to use lending and aid to keep such countries in line seems to me to be preferable to the likely alternatives. On the whole, to keep peace and protect ourselves in a chaotic and dangerous world, I would rather send dollars in aid and loans than to have to send aircraft carriers, JDAMs, and the Marines.

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