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Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
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We speak with John Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking community. In his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man he describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then take over their economies. [includes rush transcript]

John Perkins describes himself as a former economic hit man–a highly paid professional who cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars.

20 years ago Perkins began writing a book with the working title, “Conscience of an Economic Hit Men.”

Perkins writes, “The book was to be dedicated to the presidents of two countries, men who had been his clients whom I respected and thought of as kindred spirits–Jaime Roldós, president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos, president of Panama. Both had just died in fiery crashes. Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal is global empire. We Economic Hit Men failed to bring Roldós and Torrijos around, and the other type of hit men, the CIA-sanctioned jackals who were always right behind us, stepped in.

John Perkins goes on to write: “I was persuaded to stop writing that book. I started it four more times during the next twenty years. On each occasion, my decision to begin again was influenced by current world events: the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1980, the first Gulf War, Somalia, and the rise of Osama bin Laden. However, threats or bribes always convinced me to stop.”

But now Perkins has finally published his story. The book is titled Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. John Perkins joins us now in our Firehouse studios.
- John Perkins, from 1971 to 1981 he worked for the international consulting firm of Chas T. Main where he was a self-described “economic hit man.” He is the author of the new book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
July 29, 2016
Let me explain it to you, foreign press by GÜLSE BİRSEL

GÜLSE BİRSEL

gbirsel

Let me explain it to you, foreign press

For days I have been reading and reviewing the international press. Can any incident be so vastly misinterpreted? Can it ever be written and explained in such a jumbled way?

I want to call all the newspapers one by one and say, “Hey, my name is Gülse Birsel. I’m a celebrity in Turkey and I’m fluent in English. Put me through to you editor immediately, I have a few things to say.”

Guys, haven’t you ever met a Turkish person? Don’t you have a correspondent here? Go to any city in Turkey, close your eyes and randomly pick any citizen. Ask them what happened that night. Ask them what would have happened if there was a successful coup. Listen to their answer.

Still, it’s fair to say that even if the most objective and bright Western journalist, equipped with all good intentions, tries to report the incident and asks any of us what exactly happened, it is a far from easily grasped situation.

Let’s say a foreign correspondent approaches you and you try to explain the situation:

“Listen, this coup was planned by a secretive religious sect. The declaration they read out on TV contained references to Atatürk to try to lure out secularists. But nobody bought it. The secularists never bought it. As a matter of fact, the secularists have never bought what the Gülenists were selling. They always had zero trust in them. It was the government that bought it. Government officials have already confessed that they were deceived. These guys were close friends with the government but they became enemies later on. They were not enemies when they once conspired together to jail so many patriots. The animosity started later…”
“Look, these guys, long before this coup attempt, jailed dozens of staunch democrats. They falsely claimed that these people were planning to stage a coup and in that way they filled their empty bureaucratic and military positions. They did all that after they fooled and deceived the government. Got it? Later, they themselves staged the dirtiest coup ever. If you ask why they weren’t caught, this secret organization not only infiltrated the army but it had also planted itself everywhere in the state. For instance, the imam of the underwater commandoes was also a member of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency. Yes, the banking authority. Don’t ask me why, it looks as if nothing makes sense, but actually it is all related.

“No, I’m not paranoid, I’m a normal person. Listen, they are such… No, in fact they don’t resemble anything in world history. They laid low and communicated with nicknames. The sheikhs of the cult handed out to them dollar bills carrying the letter “F” as a secret sign. Hey, don’t stare at me like I’m stupid!

“Well, whatever, they went crazy and tried to stage a coup. But then people took to the streets in their T-shirts and slippers to resist. That’s what we’re like, you wouldn’t be able to understand. Then they shot people with machine guns. The F-16 jets attacked cities and bombed the parliament. Yes indeed, that is what happened. I witnessed it. I saw it with my own eyes.

“Then what happened? Well, now, we are united together as a country. Yes we were being bombed yesterday, but today we are full of hope for the future because that is what we’re like as people.

“What? You didn’t get it? Well, let me try to explain once more.”

That’s what I’d say to the foreign journalist trying to understand what happened. It may sound as fanciful as the script of “The Lord of the Rings,” but every word is true.

To be fair, it is not possible for anyone, let alone ourselves, to understand us. Especially nowadays…

Leave aside those foreign journalists with bad intentions; for those with good intentions a certain amount of time has to pass for them to understand what went on.

Even we are only just disentangling it…

July/28/2016

July 29, 2016
Turkishnews.com and Ethnoglobus.az have started online konferace : ” The attempted coup in Turkey-cause and impact on regional policy and the economy”

US-Turkey forum “Turkishforum” (Turkishnews.com) (USA) and International online information-analytical center “Ethnoglobus” (Ethnoglobus.az) (Azerbaijan) will start a joint online conference entitled:

” The attempted coup in Turkey-cause and impact on regional policy and the economy”.

Articles can be submitted in English, Turkish, Azerbaijan and Russian languages.

Articles will be published in Turkishnews.com resources, www.turkishnews.com/ru/content/ and Ethnoglobus.az.

Moderator of the conference editor of the Russian section of Turkishnews.com, director of the Ethnoglobus.az, political scientist Gulnara Inanc.

Those interested can contact the Internet at:

mete62@inbox.ru, facebook pace

https://www.facebook.com/TurkishForumPage/

https://www.facebook.com/turkishforumru/

https://www.facebook.com/Ethnoglobus-1601637286732561/

July 21, 2016
Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Turkey’s ruthless president

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party enjoys a fierce and loyal support among Turkey’s conservative, Muslim base, while outside the country outrage grows over his silencing of critics, often by force.

Turkish journalists have been investigated and put on trial, foreign journalists have been harassed and deported. Last month, police raided Turkey’s biggest newspaper, Zaman. Its staff emerged bloodied and cowed.

Zaman’s last independent edition said Turkey’s press had seen one of its “darkest days”. Its first edition under state control carried unabashedly pro-government articles.

And Mr Erdogan’s authoritarian approach is not confined to Turkey’s borders. His bodyguards harassed reporters in the US, and a German satirist is under investigation in his home country for offending the Turkish president on TV.

Mr Erdogan, 61, came to power in 2002, a year after the formation of the AK Party. He spent 11 years as Turkey’s prime minister before becoming the country’s first directly-elected president in August 2014 – a supposedly ceremonial role.

In June 2015 the AK Party suffered a dip in the polls and failed to form a coalition. But a snap election in November, after Turkey’s worst suicide bombing prompted Mr Erdogan to escalate his war against the PKK, gave the party a convincing majority.

1970s-1980s – Active in Islamist circles, member of Necmettin Erbakan’s Welfare Party

1994-1998 – Mayor of Istanbul, until military officers made power grab

1998 – Welfare Party banned, Erdogan jailed for four months for inciting religious hatred

Aug 2001 – Founds Islamist-rooted AKP with ally Abdullah Gul

2002-2003 – AKP wins solid majority in parliamentary election, Erdogan appointed prime minister

Aug 2014 – Becomes president after first-ever direct elections for head of state

Challenging the military

n the decades before the AKP’s rise to power, the military had intervened in politics four times to curb Islamist influence.

In 2013 Mr Erdogan triumphed over the military elite when senior officers were among 17 people jailed for life, convicted of plotting to overthrow the AKP in what was known as the “Ergenekon” case.

Hundreds of other officers were also put on trial, along with journalists and secularist politicians, in that investigation and a similar one called the “Operation Sledgehammer” case.

When more than 200 officers were detained in the Sledgehammer investigation in 2011, the heads of Turkey’s army, navy and air force resigned in protest.

Critics accused Mr Erdogan of using the judiciary to silence political opponents, and there were many allegations of trumped-up charges.

But his supporters applauded him for taking on previously untouchable establishment figures, who saw themselves as guardians of the state created by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Gezi Park protests
Image copyright Reuters
Image caption In June 2013 Mr Erdogan survived a challenge from opposition demonstrators in Istanbul

Mr Erdogan also unleashed the power of the state to crush mass protests in Istanbul in June 2013, focused on Gezi Park, a green area earmarked for a huge building project.

The protests spread to other cities, swelled by many secularist Turks suspicious of the AKP’s Islamist leanings.

A major corruption scandal battered his government in December 2013, involving numerous arrests, including the sons of three cabinet ministers.

Mr Erdogan raged against “plotters” based outside Turkey, condemning supporters of Fethullah Gulen. He also lashed out against social media, vowing to “wipe out” Twitter.

He has a combative charisma that many Turks in the teeming cities and small Anatolian towns love.

But his reputation took a hit in May 2014 when he reacted coldly to a mine disaster in Soma, western Turkey, which killed 301 people.
Muslim revival
Image copyright AFP
Image caption Some secularist critics bristle at the sight of Mr Erdogan’s wife in a headscarf

Mr Erdogan has denied wanting to impose Islamic values, saying he is committed to secularism. But he supports Turks’ right to express their religious beliefs more openly.

That message goes down particularly well in rural and small-town Anatolia – the AKP’s traditional heartland. Some supporters nicknamed him “Sultan” – harking back to the Ottoman Empire.

In October 2013 Turkey lifted rules banning women from wearing headscarves in the country’s state institutions – with the exception of the judiciary, military and police – ending a decades-old restriction.

Mr Erdogan’s wife Emine wears a headscarf to official functions, as does the wife of his long-standing AKP ally Abdullah Gul, who was president before him.

Critics also pointed to Mr Erdogan’s failed bid to criminalise adultery, and his attempts to introduce “alcohol-free zones”, as evidence of his alleged Islamist intentions.
Palatial ambitions

Mr Erdogan’s political opponents saw a lavish new presidential palace as a symbol of his alleged authoritarian tendencies.

Perched on a hill on the outskirts of Ankara, the 1,000-room Ak Saray (White Palace) is bigger than the White House or the Kremlin and ended up costing even more than the original £385m ($615m) price tag.
Image copyright EPA
Image caption The sprawling palace in Ankara has been highly controversial for Mr Erdogan

Mr Erdogan owes much of his political success in the past decade to economic stability, with an average annual growth rate of 4.5%.

Turkey has developed into a manufacturing and export powerhouse. The AKP government kept inflation under control – no mean feat, as there were years in the 1990s when it soared above 100%.

But in 2014 the economy began flagging – growth fell to 2.9% and unemployment rose above 10%.

On the international stage he has bitterly condemned Israel – previously a strong ally of Turkey – over its treatment of the Palestinians. The policy not only galvanised his Islamic base, but also made him a hugely popular leader across the Middle East.

He has backed Syria’s opposition in its fight against Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus.

But his tentative peace overtures to the Kurds in south-eastern Turkey soured when he refused to help Syrian Kurds battling Islamic State militants just across the border.
Islamic education
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Mr Erdogan became prime minister after elections in 2002

Born in 1954, Recep Tayyip Erdogan grew up the son of a coastguard, on Turkey’s Black Sea coast.

When he was 13, his father decided to move to Istanbul, hoping to give his five children a better upbringing.

As a teenager, the young Erdogan sold lemonade and sesame buns on the streets of Istanbul’s rougher districts to earn extra cash.

He attended an Islamic school before obtaining a degree in management from Istanbul’s Marmara University – and playing professional football.

While at university, he met Necmettin Erbakan – who went on to become the country’s first Islamist prime minister – and entered Turkey’s Islamist movement.

In 1994, Mr Erdogan became the mayor of Istanbul. Even his critics admit that he did a good job, making Istanbul cleaner and greener.

But in 1999 he spent four months in jail after a conviction for religious incitement.

He had publicly read a nationalist poem including the lines: “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers.”

In 2001 Mr Erdogan launched the AKP with allies, having broken away from the Virtue Party, which had been banned.

His rise to power was complete when the AKP won a landslide election victory in 2002 and he became prime minister.

July 16, 2016
Why the Turkish Coup Will Likely Fail

STRATFOR INTELLIGENCE REPORTS

Turkish armored personnel carriers move through the streets of Istanbul in the early hours of July 16. The plotters of the coup had the element of surprise on their side, but the attempt is already starting to fray. (DEFNE KARADENIZ/Getty Images)

Analysis

Turkey’s coup plotters certainly had the element of surprise working in their favor. The speed in which the military deployed in major cities and took control of critical power nodes showed a high degree of organization and efficiency. However, the coup attempt is already starting to fray, and its chances of failing are high because a polarizing faction is leading it.

There are multiple indications that followers of the Gulen movement embedded within the military are spearheading the coup attempt. The Gulenists are an Islamist movement that has built up significant influence in Turkey since the 1970s. They started with the gendarmerie, where they could take advantage of lax background checks, and gradually worked their way up the military chain of command. When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan felt that the Gulen movement had become too powerful, relations started to fray between the ruling party and the Gulenists. Starting in 2014, massive purges took place to whittle down Gulenist influence in the media and government.

But the Gulenist influence in the military was not fully purged. This may be because of the large amount of blackmail that the Gulenists retained on major military figures to prevent their own dismissals. In essence, an Islamist faction within the military that has deeply alienated the secular strongmen within the armed forces is the one leading the challenge against Erdogan. In other words, it is not a coup backed by Turkey’s secular political, military and civilian opposition. This is already evidenced by signs of a countercoup led by a number of military commanders and the national police, as well as by the main secular opposition Republican People’s Party leader saying it is against the coup.

As we saw in Turkey’s 2015 elections, when the Justice and Development Party won 49.5 percent of the vote, the country is deeply polarized among secularists, Islamists, Kurds and nationalists. Turkey has a number of fault lines that breed opposition to Erdogan’s Islamist-leaning political agenda and neo-Ottoman foreign policy direction, but on the other side of those splits are a substantial number of supporters who legitimately support the president. Moreover, there are many Turks who are anti-Erdogan yet also anti-coup, and who remember the deep economic and political instability of Turkey’s coup-ridden past. This coup attempt is the product of an Islamist division within the military – and divisions within divisions do not spell success for a coup.

July 16, 2016
Erdogan Flies to Istanbul, Declares Coup Dead, and Vows Payback
- By david.kenner
On Friday evening, Turkish military personnel blocked bridges over the Bosphorus strait in Istanbul, deployed tanks to the city’s main airport, and sent low-flying jets and helicopters to patrol over the capital of Ankara.

Updated, 9:55 p.m., EST: After urging Turkish citizens to take to the streets to turn back an attempted military coup, President Erdogan flew to Istanbul early Saturday to retake control of Turkey.

For hours on Friday evening, Turkey’s political present and future were literally in the air. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was rumored to be in his private jet seeking political asylum in Germany, or perhaps in the U.K. Turkish Army troops had taken over the country’s two biggest cities with tanks, jets, and loudspeakers. Turkey’s latest attempt at a coup d’etat since joining NATO had come, and after some flutters and shots and explosions, gone.

The scene in Turkey, a NATO ally which is imperative in the fight against the Islamic State, was triumphant as Erdogan returned. The autocrat harshest on social media had urged Turks to take to the streets to defend his regime — via Twitter. His first post-coup TV appearance came via Apple’s FaceTime.

“They are going to pay for this in the harshest way,” Erdogan said after landing. He set up shop behind a rickety wooden table in a room in Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, named for the secular founder of the modern Turkish Republic that Erdogan has sought to dismantle, and scene of the country’s last deadly terror attack.

“There has been a movement within the Armed Forces starting this afternoon. A minority within the Armed Forces has unfortunately been unable to stomach Turkey’s unity. It was the [Gulen Movement] itself. This group has penetrated the Armed Forces and the police among other government agencies over the past 40 years. What is being perpetrated is a rebellion and treason. They will pay a heavy price for their treason to Turkey,” Erdogan said.

“Law enforcement has started arresting military officers of various ranks. Those who stain the military’s reputation must leave. The process has started today and it will continue, just as we fight other terrorist groups,” the president of Turkey said, lumping his own army together with the Islamists and Kurds that the country has battled for years and decades.

Martial law was declared in Turkey, convulsed by military takeovers at least three times in the past half-century. How Erdogan’s return will be taken remains to be seen.

Updated by David Francis

Updated, 8:00 p.m., EST: President Barack Obama has rejected the ongoing attempted military coup in Turkey, meant to depose Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In a statement late Friday, the president called on all parties to “support the democratically elected government of Turkey.” His view on the ongoing incident was announced during a readout of a call between the White House and Secretary of State John Kerry.

“The President and Secretary agreed that all parties in Turkey should support the democratically-elected Government of Turkey, show restraint, and avoid any violence or bloodshed. The Secretary underscored that the State Department will continue to focus on the safety and security of U.S. citizens in Turkey,” the White House said in a statement.

This sentiment was echoed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her spokesperson tweeted that Turkey’s democracy “must be respected.”

Merkel spox: “The democratic order in #Turkey must be respected. Everything must be done to protect lives.“ https://t.co/durVTLznCm

— Frank Jordans (@wirereporter) July 15, 2016

The State Department warned Americans in Turkey on Twitter to “shelter in place” and confirmed that martial law had been imposed in the country.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that Turkey’s national intelligence spokesperson said the coup had been repelled.

BREAKING: Turkish national intelligence spokesman says coup attempt has been “repelled.”

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 15, 2016

As the attempted coup progressed into Saturday morning, Turkish time, the extent of the violence is becoming more clear. The Anadolu Agency, Turkey’s state-run news outlet, reported 17 police officers were killed in a helicopter attack on police special forces headquarters on the outskirts of Ankara. The agency also reported a bomb detonated outside the Turkish parliament building in the capital.

Updated by David Francis

According to high-ranking officials in the Turkish government — including Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, who spoke to Turkish television channel NTV — it was an attempted military coup against the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has alarmed many in the country with his staunchly Islamist views. The Turkish military has traditionally seen itself as a guardian of the country’s secular heritage, and tensions between Erdogan and the Turkish armed forces have been growing for years.

A group claiming to represent the Turkish military issued a statement announcing that it had “completely taken over the administration of the country to reinstate constitutional order, human rights and freedoms, the rule of law and the general security that was damaged.”

There were conflicting reports about Erdogan’s status, with some Turkish media outlets reporting he was poised to give a statement and others reporting he had left the country on his private jet. Erdogan made a statement late on Friday night through a FaceTime call broadcast on CNN Turk where he denounced the coup attempt and vowed that the perpetrators would be punished. He urged Turkish citizens to defy a military-announced curfew, saying, “I call on our people to gather in squares and airports” to oppose the attempted government takeover.

If successful, the coup would put Washington in a bind. Erdogan was freely elected to the leadership of one of his region’s most powerful countries, and Turkey — a NATO member — has recently repaired its relationship with Israel, the closest American ally in the Middle East. Publicly endorsing a military coup would be politically challenging for a White House ostensibly committed to the expansion of democratic values abroad.

At the same time, many in the Obama administration have grown concerned about Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian policies, which have included a broad crackdown on journalists and human rights advocates in the country. Washington has also accused Erdogan of failing to do enough to stop the flow of foreign fighters loyal to the Islamic State into Syria.

An aide to Erdogan condemned the coup in a text to Foreign Policy Friday.

“This is an attack against Turkish democracy,” the aide said. “A group within the Turkish armed forces has made an attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government outside the chain of command.”

The Turkish military also seized control of the state broadcaster TRT. In its statement, the group went on to confirm that all international agreements entered into by Turkey would still be adhered to.

CNN Turk and the semiofficial Anadolu Agency announced that Hulusi Akar, the head of Turkey’s armed forces, was currently detained at the military headquarters in Ankara. The U.S. Embassy in Ankara issued a warning to Americans, urging them to contact family and friends to let them know they are safe.

US Embassy warning on ongoing coup attempt in Turkey: https://t.co/IEWlyhFPZp—
Dion Nissenbaum (@DionNissenbaum) July 15, 2016

The timing of the coup could be related to a yearly summit that Turkey’s military holds, which determines promotions within the top ranks of the armed forces. In 2011, the entire top brass of the Turkish military resigned over anger at the arrest of senior officers who were accused of plotting a coup. The summit was supposed to be held on Aug. 1: Some observers speculated that this coup attempt could have been conducted by factions within the military who feared they would be sidelined then and moved to preempt that development.

If the Turkish military succeeds in forcing out Erdogan, the Obama administration will face a reprise of the challenges it faced in 2013, when the Egyptian military forced out and then arrested President Mohamed Morsi. In the aftermath, the White House refused to call Morsi’s ouster by what it was: a textbook definition of a coup.

“[We are] taking the time to determine what happened, what to label it,” then-White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at the time.

“We’re just not taking a position,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki at the time, adding that “each circumstance is different.”

Psaki, using words that would later be echoed by other senior administration officials said, said “there were millions of people who have expressed legitimate grievances” against Morsi, a committed Islamist. “A democratic process is not just about casting your ballots.… There are other factors including how somebody behaves or how they govern.”

In the case of Morsi, the fate of $1.5 billion in annual U.S. aid to Egypt was hanging in the balance as Washington weighed how to describe his ouster. If the White House had labeled it a coup, Washington would have had to suspend the funds. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ultimately chose to praise the Egyptian military for “restoring democracy” in the country. The United States now recognizes Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the man who led the coup, as Egypt’s president.

Below, FP has embedded footage from the ground in Turkey:

A military tank on the street in Istanbul #Turkey during the #TurkishCoup. pic.twitter.com/YjgUR2lEeb

— Mr Red Ghost (@Mr_Ghostly) July 15, 2016

Boğaziçi Köprüsü’nde asker ve askeri araçların bulunduğu görülüyor. pic.twitter.com/9TFVP7z3Rh

— 140journos (@140journos) July 15, 2016

Unverified image of helicopter opening fire #Turkey pic.twitter.com/d9GiDxisWy

— Michael Horowitz (@michaelh992) July 15, 2016

Bir TSK mensubu: “Tatbikat değil. Herkes evine gitsin.” @parya12342 pic.twitter.com/SpaFodRM7g

— 140journos (@140journos) July 15, 2016

Foreign Policy staff writer Siobhán O’Grady and fellow Henry Johnson contributed to this report.

Photo credit: YASIN AKGUL/AFP/Getty Images
July 16, 2016