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In Guatemala, United Fruit Company had been that country’s political equivalent of Panama’s canal. Founded in the late 1800s, United Fruit soon grew into one of the most powerful forces in Central America. During the early 1950s, reform candidate Jacabo Arbenz was elected president of Guatemala in an election hailed all over the hemisphere as a model of the democratic process. At the time, less than 3 percent of Guatemalans owned 70 percent of the land. Arbenz promised to help the poor dig their way out of starvation, and after his election he implemented a comprehensive land reform program.

United Fruit owned big plantations in Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Santo Domingo, and in Panama. They couldn’t afford to let Arbenz give the rest ideas.

United Fruit launched a major public relations campaign in the United States, aimed at convincing the American public and congress that Arbenz was part of a Russian plot and that Guatemala was a Soviet satellite. In 1954, the CIA orchestrated a coup. American pilots bombed Guatemala City and the democratically elected Arbenz was overthrown, replaced by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, a ruthless right-wing dictator.

Wikipedia Carlos Castillo Armas

The United States was opposed to the nationalization efforts, the destabilizing effect of the Czech weaponry that arrived in Guatemala on May 15, 1954 and Arbenz's perceived communism. This led to CIA support for Castillo Armas (CIA codename: "Calligeris") and his army. In 1954, they invaded Guatemala, forcing Arbenz Guzmán to resign

On September 1, Carlos Castillo Armas was formally declared president, ushering in a decades-long period of dictatorial rule. Upon taking office, he disenfranchised more than half of Guatemala's voting population by removing the voting ability of illiterates. Armas had not only cancelled the law that facilitated the nation's land reform, Decree 900, forcing peasants to vacate their newly acquired lands, but, at the CIA's request, formed the National Committee of Defense Against Communism, which is generally acknowledged to be Latin America's first modern death squad.

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Tuesday, May 22

Saddam Hussein: Economic Hit Man

by mammon on Tue 22 May 2007 07:00 PM AKDT

Economic Hit Man Series

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, 2004, Excerpts

It hardly mattered that Saddam was pathological tyrant, that he had the blood of mass murders on his hands, or that his mannerisms and brutal actions conjured images of Adolph Hitler. The United States had tolerated and even supported such men many times before. We would be happy to offer him U.S. government securities in exchange for petrodollars, for the promise of continued oil supplies, and for a deal whereby the interest on those securities was used to hire U.S. companies to improve infrastructure systems throughout Iraq, to create new cities, and to turn the deserts into oases. We would be willing to sell him tanks and fighter planes and to build him chemical and nuclear power plants, as we had done in so many other countries, even if these technologies cold conceivably be used to produce advanced weaponry.

Iraq presented a vast market for American technology and engineering expertise. The fact that it sits atop one of the world’s most extensive oil fields assured that it was in a position to finance huge infrastructure and industrialization programs. All the major players – engineering and construction companies; computer systems suppliers; aircraft, missile, and tank manufacturers; and pharmaceutical and chemical companies – were focused on Iraq.

In August 1990, the U.S. invaded the oil-rich sheikdom of Kuwait. Bush responded with a denunciation of Saddam for violation international law, even though it had been less that a year since Bush himself had staged the illegal and unilateral invasion of Panama. It was no surprise when the president finally ordered an all-out military attack. Five hundred thousand U.S. troops were sent in as part of an international force.

Wikipedia Saddam Hussein

Saddam actively fostered the modernization of the Iraqi economy along with the creation of a strong security apparatus to prevent coups within the power structure and insurrections apart from it. Ever concerned with broadening his base of support among the diverse elements of Iraqi society and mobilizing mass support, he closely followed the administration of state welfare and development programs.

At the center of this strategy was Iraq's oil. On June 1, 1972, Saddam oversaw the seizure of international oil interests, which, at the time, dominated the country's oil sector. A year later, world oil prices rose dramatically as a result of the 1973 energy crisis, and skyrocketing revenues enabled Saddam to expand his agenda.

Thanks for the Memories

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Monday, May 21

Bechtel: Economic Hit Man

by mammon on Mon 21 May 2007 07:00 PM AKDT

Economic Hit Man Series

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, 2004, Excerpts

George Schultz was secretary of the treasury and chairman of the Council on Economic Policy under Nixon, served as Bechtel president, and then became secretary of state under Reagan. Caspar Weinberger was a Bechtel vice president and general council, and later the secretary of defense under Reagan. Richard Cheney served as secretary of defense under George H. W. Bush, as Halliburton president, and as U.S. vice president to George W. Bush. George H. W. Bush, began as founder of Zapata Petroleum Corp., served as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under presidents Nixon, Ford, and was Ford’s CIA director.

Reagan was most definitely a global empire builder, a servant of the corporatocracy. He catered to men who shuttled back and forth from corporate CEO offices to bank boards and into the halls of government. He served the men who appeared to serve him but who in fact ran the government – men like Vice President George H.W. Bush, Secretary of State George Schultz, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Richard Cheney, Richard Helms, and Robert McNamara, He advocated what those men wanted: an America that controlled the world and all its resources, a world that answered to the commands of America, a U.S. military that would enforce the rules as they were written by America, and an international trade and banking system that supported America as CEO of the global empire.

The Bechtel Group, inc. is a prime example of the cozy relationship between private companies and the U.S. government. Bechtel was the United States’ most influential engineering and construction company. Its president and senior officers included George Shultz and Caspar Weinberger, who despised Torrijos because he brazenly courted a Japanese plan to replace Panama’s existing canal with a new, more efficient one. Such a move not only would transfer the ownership form the United States to Panama but would also exclude Bechtel from participation in the most exciting and potentially lucrative engineering project of the century.

Bechtel – loaded with Nixon, Ford, and Bush cronies, pulls the strings of the Republican Party.

Wikipedia Bechtel Corporation (Bechtel Group)

is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 9th-largest privately owned company in the U.S. With headquarters in San Francisco, Bechtel had 40,000 employees as of 2006 working on projects in nearly 50 countries with $20.5 billion in revenue.

The Bechtel family has owned Bechtel since incorporating the company in 1925. Bechtel's size, its political clout, and its penchant for privacy have made it a perennial target for journalists and politicians since the 1930s. Bechtel has maintained strong relationships with officials in many United States administrations, including those of Nixon, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush. The company also has strong ties to other governments, particularly the Saudi Royal Family.

Recently, the company has come under criticism for alleged mismanagement of the Big Dig project, its financial links to the bin Laden family, and the manner in which it received Iraqi rebuilding contracts after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Bechtel's long involvement with oil, power, and water overseas has become a focus of criticism by the growing anti-globalization and environmental movements.

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Sunday, May 20

Ben Bernanke: Economic Hit Man

by mammon on Sun 20 May 2007 07:24 PM AKDT

Economic Hit Man Series

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, 2004, Excerpts

The United States prints currency that is not backed by gold, Indeed, it is not backed by anything other that a general worldwide confidence in our economy and our ability to marshal the forces and resources of the empire we have created to support us. The ability to print currency gives government immense power. It means that government can continue to make loans that will never be repaid. Much of this debt is owed to Asian countries, particularly to Japan and China.

As long as the world accepts the dollar as its standard currency, this excessive debt does not pose a serious obstacle. However, if another currency should come along to replace the dollar, and if some of the United States’ creditors should decide to call in their debts, the situation could change drastically. The United States would suddenly find itself in a most precarious situation. A decision by OPEC to substitute the euro for the dollar as its standard currency would shake the empire to its very foundations.

The global empire depends on the fact that the dollar acts as the standard world currency, and the United States Mint has the right to print those dollars. Thus, we make loans to countries like Ecuador with the full knowledge that they will never repay them; in fact, we do not want them to honor their debts, since the nonpayment is what gives us our leverage, our pound of flesh.

Wikipedia Bernanke

Ben Shalom Bernanke (born December 13, 1953) is an American economist and current Chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve. He was previously Chairman of the U.S. President's Council of Economic Advisers, and member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. On October 24, 2005, President George W. Bush nominated Bernanke to succeed Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Bernanke was sworn in on February 1, 2006 after the Senate's confirmation by a voice vote on January 31, 2006.

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Saturday, May 19

Henry Paulson: Economic Hit Man

by mammon on Sat 19 May 2007 06:30 PM AKDT

Economic Hit Man Series

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, 2004, Excerpts

The global empire is self-centered, self-serving, greedy and materialistic, a system based on mercantilism. Like empires before, its arms open only to accumulate resources, to grab everything in sight and stuff its insatiable maw. It will use whatever means it deems necessary to help its rulers gain more power and riches. Thanks to the biased “sciences” for forecasting, econometrics, and statistics, if you bomb a city and then re-build it, the data shows a huge spike in economic growth.

06.20.07: Treasury chief says economic reforms are needed to increase domestic consumption and reduce reliance on investment, exports to drive growth. CNN

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Wednesday that China is helping to power the strongest global growth in decades, but as a major economic participant, China must address the need for economic reforms. Paulson also said accelerated growth in Europe and Japan has given the global economy more balance and stability. But both Europe and Japan also need more structural reforms and faster domestic growth on a sustained basis.

Wikipedia Henry Paulson

Henry Merritt "Hank" Paulson Jr. (born March 28, 1946) is the United States Treasury Secretary and member of the International Monetary Fund Board of Governors. He previously served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs, one of the world's largest and most successful investment banks. He was nominated by U.S. President George W. Bush to succeed John Snow as the Treasury Secretary on May 30, 2006.

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