Vasu

How do you deal with terrorists ? As a nation, we are all stung deep more so because of our new found status and prosperity and the newly formed world scenario.

Terrorism has no boundries and almost all major countries are affected by it. Europe is engulfed by it, so is a large part of asia. America has seen the monster which it helped create and the ausies had felt its heat in bali. The thing about terrorism that totally stuns people is the absense of sense, ideology and rationale. Mindless violence or killing of innocents is no the feature that defines terrorism.

Mindless violence exists in war. Mindless violence is what when a US marine sprays a magazine onto an iraqi family having dinner.

Innocents die in all kind of battles not just terrorism. Innocents died when napalm was dropped in vietnam. Innocents were killed when bunker busters were dropped in iraq and innocents die when american armed forces entered cities and randamly killed people.

But all these are not terrorism. The core of terrorism is in its inspiration and goal. There is no land to fight for, there is no ideology to assert and there is no wealth to be grabbed. The very act of killing is the motive. That is why no one except the terrorists could become suicide bombers.

Till the late 90s the sheer fearlessness of terrorists have been used by many countries to achieve real ends. Japanese used kamakazee trained pilots to hit american warrior ships. Americans used terrorists to subvert Iran and later to drive out the soviets.

Terrorists are therefore usefull. Surely I am not suggesting lets have our own terrorists. Thats not a good idea because terrorists can turn around very similar to the way Osama bin laden turned around and bit his own master (Americans) just a decade later. The only answer to fight the terrorist is through terror.

Terror makes people scared. Terror after terror after terror can really destroy the spirit. We can use terror to destroy the spirits of the terrorists.

Why not use this as a tool to fight the terrorists ?

1. Develop a highly trained, motivated, effective assasination squad.


2. Infiltrate the enemy.


3. Monitor the enemy extremely closely using technology, human intelligence.


4. The enemy is not just one identified group like IRA. There are a 100 groups. This they think is their strength. Turn it around and make it our strength. Fomment mistrust, animosity amongst them. Creae mistrust between the enemy groups.
   
5. You will get some of those groups snitch for you. It always happens like that.


6. Quietly assasinate the kingpins. Planners and key players first need not necessarily be the
   leaders.


7. Kill the finances. If its organised finance, go to the source and get accounts blocked. If
   its hawala finance, kill the financer, Kill his contact and kill the network.


8. Kidnap a few, use medical technolgy (pentathol) truth serum and other methodologies to get to the mind of the terrorist.


9. Have a crack team of specialists back home who would not only provide technology support but also help crack the mind of the terrorist.


10. Keep killing the enemy as a way of demoralising the flock. Identify those who are the most charismatic and brutally assasinate them when they least expect it. Remember all terrorists have reconciled themselves to death. They are not afraid of death. Let their deaths be a statement of deterrance than a statement of martyrdom.


11. Erode the base of terrorist by getting into some of the philanthropic institutions they run.


12. Bribe, threaten, seduce, cajole these institution runners and keep a tab on their
    functioning.


13. Make sure that all terrorist movement are continueously kept tab off.


14. Once in a while switch on the heat.


15. Ensure the enemy head of state is influenced by you.


16. Peace can be a weapon. Its effective only if its a weapon. Peace is romantic and calming but only if both sides realise that peace is benificial for them. Continue the peace talks and let people-people interraction happen. Not just as a media thamasha but also as an alternative to terrorism. The people we talk to should realise that peace is the only alternative. For this, they should realise that those who perpetrate terrorism dont live long. Its no use cutting the legs leaving the head. These monsters grow other legs. Kill some of the top beurucrats, administrators of the enemy who are inimical to the idea of peace.

Let all this happen quietly and silently. History's course can be changed by those who are systematic, focussed and go about their jobs quietly. Within no time, you will find that a terrorist's lifespan reduced to just 2 or 3 years once he takes it up. Donot let any mid level generals to grow. Finish them off in one stroke and dont rest. I am not saying "dont rest untill the goal is reached". I am saying "Dont rest ever".

These are nothing new to Indians. When RAW was formed, it was based on this, On the model propounded by Kautilya.

It will take us another 15 years to do this. But unless a multipronged conerted effort is launched, we will not reach the goal.

For this the victims should accept assasination as a measure of justice. India's legal framework is too cumbersome and people can easily get out. The ultimate justice is dismantelling the hydra piece by piece. The ultimate justice is to get back to our normal state of mind. The ultimate justice is the collective compassion, people of mumbai and India should exhibit towards the victims and their families.

The ultimate justice in seeing 3-4 generations down the line India changing the world around us. To peg our hopes on the legal justice system of India would be futile. Assasinations are quicker, and help people achieve closure and move on with their lives.

For this, the people of India should be determined and steadfast. The politicians unwavering in their goal and keeping intelligence and anti-terrorism as "no politics zone". There is no other way in safegaurding India than doing all of these things

For this the intelligence agencies should work quietly, silently honestly and with complete anonymity. They should work with the determination of not just finding out who the culprits of mumbai blasts 711 are, but also with a determination of dismantelling the complete aparatus.

We should protect our intelligence systems. We should make the betrayer a greater enemy than the enemy himself. Traitors should have their balls cut off with a rusted hack saw. We should not let our friends (so-called friends) take us for granted. If an Indian sells secrets to other countries (not-necessarily our enemies) the action should be swift. We should also watch out for our own interest and dont fight wars on behalf of others. Let the west fight its own battles and lets fight ours.

Betraying our country's secrets to America should become the worst crimes in this country and should be prosecuted with great ferocity. The supreme court should directly take it up and the prosecution should be outside of police juristriction.

Watch out for your enemies because they are dangerous. Watch out for your friends because they are duplicitous.

Lets not categorise terrorist by their relegion or nationality. Lets get each and every one of them weather it might be dawood ibrahim or Warren anderson (Bhopal gas tragedy). Lets make anti-terrorism a national priority and not some regional skirmish in far off kashmir or nagaland. Lets talk to those with us who are disgruntled. Lets talk to those oustide who are disgruntled. Lets not just give them the idea that India talks because it is scared. Lets not talk to those who have their fingers on the trigger.

Why ? Mumbai is India and India is mumbai. They are simply synonymous. A hit on mumbai is a hit on India.

The first time I saw or heard of this book was during an election interview of Budhadheb Bhattacharya. The campaigning had been called off and it was a personal peek into the life of this marxist poltician.

Newscaster: "What are you doing today ?"
Budha: "Nothing, just catching up on reading"

Saying this, Budha brandishes a copy of this book. Time went by and one day I found myself within the higginbothom's stall in Chennai central railway station. I had an instant recall and made an instant purchase. Obviously I live an instant life :).



Summary
Authored by John Perkins , Confessions of an economic hitman is a story of the insider turned whistle blower.

This book talks of how corporations benifit from American imperialism. The things that they do, the lies they tell and how they leverage economic institutions like IMF, World bank, USAID to promote the economic interests of American corporations.

It begins with John perkins childhood, about his insecurity of having poor parents in an affluent school and his converting these inadequacies into a source of strength. He goes on to lay the foundation of the inner conflict which would dogg him for years to come.

John joins the peace corps to avoid getting drafted into the vietnam war and proceeds to work with Ecuador. He is guided by the uncle of his girlfriend/wife who works in the NSA. The NSA does an extensive testing of John's motivations in life and declares him as an ideal candidate to be an EHM (Economic hit man). NSA further advises him to join the peace corps and develop his skills and contacts.

While in ecuador John gets recruited by MAIN one of the biggest contracting companies then in the USA which appoints him as an economic analyst. John's worldwide sojourn starts. He is trained by Claudia on the techniques of economic manipulation, econometrics and high growth projection of statistics. According to john the procedure was simple. American consulting firms like his would be deputed to countries on statistical and economic assignments. These firms would depute their EHM trained executives ( just a few of them who are trained in liason with NSA and other US govt. agencies) to conduct econmic and statistical analysis and project growth based on cooked up numbers. These numbers would be based as reasons for extending large loans to the countries.

Developemental works like power projects, electrification etc would then be contracted to American companies most notably Bechtel, Haliburton etc. These projects would ensure that the loans granted would be immediately ploughed back into American companies. As time goes by the growth projections (sometimes as high as 20%) would not be achieved in a sustained fashion and the countries would bear high interest burden for the loan repayments (sometimes as high as 50% of national budgets).

The threat of this is used by American governments both democratic and republican to
leverage for votes, oil drilling rights, access to these countries resources etc.

John claims that the role of the economic hitman is to project cooked up statistics and economic growth and enslave the rulers of the nation using, kickbacks, sex and other western gizmos.

This in his opinion would ensure American domination across the world. He proceeds to add, "not of the common man but of a few corporates who are closely tied to the government". Bush Sr, Bush Jr, Rumsfield, Ford, Shultz, Cheney are all examples of this. He calls this "Corporatocracy". John proceeds to argue that the general American population are clue less of what America does to the world and elicits that as the reason why many are surprised of the backlash America receives.

Further EHM's are part of a larger 3 stage process of American corporotocracy.
Joh says, "If EHM's fail, The jackals step in.". By "Jackals", john means the assasination squad of the American government CIA. Panama's Richard Torrjos and Ecuador's president killed in quick succession of each other is given as failure of EHMs and success of Jackals. Both died mysteriously in plane crashes and had vowed to fight American Imperialism

The third stage is all too familiar to the world. John calls it thus. "When the jackal's fail, young men and women from rural america are sent to die in foreign lands". Iraq and Panama (under Manual Noriega) are given as examples of failure of jackals.

John calls all these a coordinated set of events and rips the masks surrounding US governmental AID to countries. He asks this questions "If so many people are against American Aid in the world ? and are so ungreatful of America, why is America so eager to promote AID ?, because it is profitable and it helps America". How ? was my first question as I sat confused ?.

towards the end of the book he explains. "American dollar is today the currency of the world. The currency of transactions between countries. Only America is allowed to print these dollars and the confidence and strength of American economy is what makes the world invest in America. America has printed billions of dollars and funded reconstruction and developement projects in many countries. This funding is unproductive and inflationairy. At the end of the day the american economy pays for it with high public debt (6 trillion USD). Some day if China calls for its loans back or if saudi arabia switches to euro's instead of America, this ghost will come back to roost".

He ends that book with a warning of what will happen to the world if we dream it and build it the American way. Amazonian jungle tracks in Ecuador are lost forever because of texaco oil company. The indegeneous Shaur's are displaced in their own land and their way of lives lost forever.

This book is a tremendous eye opener and illustrates beautifully the politics of middle east, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia.

Iran

1953 Mossadeg a democratically elected ruler in Iran was overthrown by American propoganda machinery who stirred up the oil companies, businessmen and labour unions. The Shah was propped up as the ruler.

Verdict : EHM - failiure, Jackals - success.

Saudi Arabia (Hose of Saud)

The house of saud was coopted using money, Sex, status, to clean up saudi arabia and build palaces, electrification projects, construction, defence and the whole gamut of stuff we call as developement.

Verdict : EHM - resounding success.

Iraq

Saddam propped up by USA for its opposition to Iran and vast oil resources (next only to saudi arabia). Sold billions of dollars of weapons and help build WMDs. Fomented a war against Iran which went for a decade. WMDs which America helped to build was used to gas kurds, shias and other minorities.

Saddam nationalised oil companies and attacked Kuwait. War declared on iraq.

verdict - EHM failure, Jackal failure, young men and women sent to die.

teritorial war did not gaurentee them oil access as UN took over oil management in iraq. War declared again and occupation of iraq was launched.

Verdict - Young men and women sent to die. This time, they did die.

Meanwhile Haliburton, Bechtel and the American oil companies are benifiting from the spoils.

The american corporatocracy interest in Saudi arabia forced them to turn a blind eye to the extreme relegious fanatism the House of Saud was promoting. The house of Saud pumped billions of oil dollars into Hamas, Pakistan, Mujahideen and ismalic jihad.
These islamic relegious orgainsations was the foundation for taliban and Alqaeda. The most virulent of all.

Finally the shit hits the fan september 11 happens.

The cycle is long. Too long for common public memory, but according to john the connections are unmistakable.

My take on this book

1) Absolutely authentic in terms of facts and events.

2) Poorly constructed in terms of the narration.

3)I think this book is another case of profiteering and lacks genuineness from the
author. e.g. john claims to be morally torn about his choices all through his life
about the work he is doing and yet continues to do it for 20 long years.
After quitting from this, he goes on to form a alternative power company called
IPS and sells it off to an oil company. His explaination of threat and fear rings
hollow. Looks to me that he played with the big guys all along and snitched for a
lucritive book deal.

4) Some of the later events which John claims to be not involved with appears
sketchy and dubious. Some thrash this as conspiracy theory.

Vasu's Recommendation : Buy it. Good read and perfectly plausible. If its true that John did work for MAIN, I would even say a lot of the things he says is credible. But I am not the one to buy he was a noble soul.

I dont need to, at the end of the day I still credit John Perkins for having told this story however badly written or with illdisguised intentions it might be

This is my first post. Wondering whether it works well for me.