Against The Madness

By John Amato — March 17, 2005

A Wolf in Wonderland

At first, the nomination of Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank seemed like just another in the series of bizarre appointments from the Bush Administration. A look at Wofie’s biography shows very little that would lead one to conclude he would make a great banker. Bush’s own words do nothing to clarify what makes this guy the ideal choice for the job.

“I've said he's a man of good experiences. He helped manage a large organization. The World Bank is a large organization; the Pentagon is a large organization -- he's been involved in the management of that organization. He's a skilled diplomat, worked at the State Department in high positions. He was Ambassador to Indonesia where he did a very good job representing our country. And Paul is committed to development. He's a compassionate, decent man who will do a fine job in the World Bank. And that's why I called leaders of countries and that's why I put him up.”

Nothing in that endorsement says to me: “obvious choice for World Bank President”. There is, however, other information that may help us to understand this appointment.

John Perkins has written a book entitled, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions. Although I have not read his book, I have heard several extensive interviews with Perkins. One of those was with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. In these interviews, Perkins laid out a clear and convincing case for his own involvement in a number of these economic “hits”.

Put simply, an economic hit consists of enticing poor countries to borrow vast sums of money for development projects which is then handed to huge U.S. contractors in payment for that development work. The contractors would typically be in the Bechtel and Halliburton league. Later, the poor country discovers that they are disastrously over-extended and it is then that the “hit” part of the plan takes place. According to Perkins, at the point where the victim realizes it can’t pay the enormous debts, the U.S., through this network of “hit men” moves to take over industries such as oil or demands favors such as U.N. votes. The whole operation works much like a simple extortion scam. In the end, U.S. interests pocket most of the money and gain control over foreign interests.

In his interview with Goodman, Perkins described dealings in South and Central America, especially in Panama and Ecuador. He describes, in detail, the financial maneuvers and also the mysterious deaths of politicians who resisted the pressure, namely Omar Torrijos of Panama and Jaime Roldos, the first democratically elected President of Ecuador.

Now for the connection to Wolfowitz. Remember, Wolfie is one of the

Nothing in that endorsement says to me: “obvious choice for World Bank President”. There is, however, other information that may help us to understand this appointment.

Now for the connection to Wolfowitz. Remember, Wolfie is one of thecharter participants in the Project for a New American Century, a thinly veiled plan for U.S. global domination. Wolfowitz is widely considered the architect of U.S. policy in Iraq. But that still doesn’t tell us why the World Bank.

Perkins, in his Democracy Now interview, gives us the link.

“And we do this, typically -- well, there are many ways to do it, but a typical one is that we identify a third-world country that has resources, which we covet. And often these days that's oil, or might be the canal in the case of Panama. In any case, we go to that third-world country and we arrange a huge loan from the international lending community; usually the World Bank leads that process.” (emphasis added)

If you connect Wolfie’s interest in global domination, as expressed through PNAC, with Perkin’s allegations about the World Bank’s activities in international extortion, suddenly it all seems clearer. And of course, in true neo-con fashion, Bush has cleverly sown some of the truth into his obfuscations. All one needs is an ‘Orwellian decoder’ to make sense of Bush’s comment:

“And Paul is committed to development.”

Indeed, I’m sure he is!

charter participants in the Project for a New American Century, a thinly veiled plan for U.S. global domination. Wolfowitz is widely considered the architect of U.S. policy in Iraq. But that still doesn’t tell us why the World Bank.

Perkins, in his Democracy Now interview, gives us the link.

“And we do this, typically -- well, there are many ways to do it, but a typical one is that we identify a third-world country that has resources, which we covet. And often these days that's oil, or might be the canal in the case of Panama. In any case, we go to that third-world country and we arrange a huge loan from the international lending community; usually the World Bank leads that process.” (emphasis added)