{"id":127716,"date":"2019-02-11T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=127716"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:58:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T10:58:43","slug":"leaked-wikileaks-doc-reveals-us-military-use-of-imf-world-bank-as-unconventional-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/02\/leaked-wikileaks-doc-reveals-us-military-use-of-imf-world-bank-as-unconventional-weapons\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaked WikiLeaks Doc Reveals US Military Use of IMF, World Bank as \u201cUnconventional\u201d Weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"

This \u201cU.S. coup manual,\u201d recently highlighted by WikiLeaks, serves as a reminder that the so-called \u201cindependence\u201d of such financial institutions as The World Bank and IMF is an illusion and that they are among the many \u201cfinancial weapons\u201d regularly used by the U.S. government to bend countries to its will.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A masked demonstrator wearing a detail of a 100 U.S. dollar bill protests the government\u2019s plans to make a deal with the IMF and increase the price of utilities such as gas and electricity in Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 14, 2018. Natacha Pisarenko | AP<\/p><\/div>\n

7 Feb 2019 <\/em>\u2013<\/strong> In a leaked military manual on \u201cunconventional warfare\u201d recently highlighted by WikiLeaks, the U.S. Army states that major global financial institutions \u2014 such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) \u2014 are used as unconventional, financial \u201cweapons in times of conflict up to and including large-scale general war,\u201d as well as in leveraging \u201cthe policies and cooperation of state governments.\u201d<\/p>\n

The document<\/a>, officially titled \u201cField Manual (FM) 3-05.130, Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare\u201d and originally written in September 2008, was recently highlighted<\/a> by WikiLeaks on Twitter in light of recent events in Venezuela as well as the years-long, U.S.-led economic siege of that country through sanctions and other means of economic warfare. Though the document has generated new interest in recent days, it had originally been released<\/a> by WikiLeaks in December 2008 and has been described as the military\u2019s \u201cregime change handbook.\u201d<\/p>\n

What’s happening with Venezuela? @WikiLeaks<\/a>‘ publication of US coup manual FM3-05.130, Unconventional Warfare [UW], provides insight<\/em><\/p>\n

DOS=Department of State
\nIC=Intelligence Community
\nUWOA=UW operations area
\nARSOF=US Army Special Operations Forceshttps:\/\/t.co\/8q4oQfsMzY<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/ez0tGqheSw<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 28, 2019<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

WikiLeaks\u2019 recent tweets on the subject drew attention to a single section of the 248-page-long document, titled \u201cFinancial Instrument of U.S. National Power and Unconventional Warfare.\u201d This section in particular notes that the U.S. government applies \u201cunilateral and indirect financial power through persuasive influence to international and domestic financial institutions regarding availability and terms of loans, grants, or other financial assistance to foreign state and nonstate actors,\u201d and specifically names the World Bank, IMF and The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as well as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), as \u201cU.S. diplomatic-financial venues to accomplish\u201d such goals.<\/p>\n

The manual also touts the \u201cstate manipulation of tax and interest rates\u201d along with other \u201clegal and bureaucratic measures\u201d to \u201copen, modify or close financial flows\u201d and further states that the U.S. Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) \u2013 which oversees U.S. sanctions on other nations, like Venezuela \u2014 \u201chas a long history of conducting economic warfare valuable to any ARSOF [Army Special Operations Forces] UW [Unconventional Warfare] campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

This section of the manual goes on to note that these financial weapons can be used by the U.S. military to create \u201cfinancial incentives or disincentives to persuade adversaries, allies and surrogates to modify their behavior at the theater strategic, operational, and tactical levels\u201d and that such unconventional warfare campaigns are highly coordinated with the State Department and the Intelligence Community in determining \u201cwhich elements of the human terrain in UWOA [Unconventional Warfare Operations Area] are most susceptible to financial engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The role of these \u201cindependent\u201d international financial institutions as extensions of U.S. imperial power is elaborated elsewhere in the manual and several of these institutions are described in detail in an appendix to the manual titled \u201cThe Financial Instrument of National Power.\u201d Notably, the World Bank and the IMF are listed as both Financial Instruments and Diplomatic Instruments of U.S. National Power as well as integral parts of what the manual calls the \u201ccurrent global governance system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the manual states that the U.S. military \u201cunderstand[s] that properly integrated manipulation of economic power can and should be a component of UW,\u201d meaning that these weapons are a regular feature of unconventional warfare campaigns waged by the United States.<\/p>\n

Another point of interest is that these financial weapons are largely governed by the National Security Council (NSC), which is currently headed by John Bolton. The document notes that the NSC \u201chas primary responsibility for the integration of the economic and military instruments of national power abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIndependent\u201d but controlled<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though the unconventional warfare manual is notable for stating so openly that \u201cindependent\u201d financial institutions like the World Bank and the IMF are essentially extensions of U.S. government power, analysts have noted for decades that these institutions have consistently pushed U.S. geopolitical goals abroad.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the myth of World Bank and IMF \u201cindependence\u201d is quickly eroded by merely looking at the structure and funding of each institution. In the case of the World Bank, the institution is located in Washington and the organization\u2019s president has always been a U.S. citizen chosen directly<\/a> by the president of the United States. In the World Bank\u2019s entire history, the institution\u2019s Board of Governors has never rejected Washington\u2019s pick.<\/p>\n

This past Monday, it was reported that President Donald Trump nominated<\/a> former Bear Stearns economist David Malpass to lead the World Bank. Malpass had famously failed to foresee the destruction of his former employer during the 2008 financial crisis and is likely to limit World Bank loans to China and to countries allied or allying with China, given his well-established reputation as a China hawk.<\/p>\n

In addition to choosing its president, the U.S. is also the bank\u2019s largest shareholder<\/a>, making it the only member nation to have veto rights. Indeed, as the leaked unconventional warfare manual notes, \u201cAs major decisions require an 85% supermajority, the United States can block any major changes\u201d to World Bank policy or the services it offers. Furthermore, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs banker and \u201cforeclosure king,\u201d Steve Mnuchin, functions as the World Bank\u2019s governor.<\/p>\n

Though the IMF is different from the World Bank in several respects, such as its stated mission and focus, it too is largely dominated by U.S. government influence and funding. For instance, the IMF is also based in Washington and the U.S. is the company\u2019s largest shareholder \u2014 the largest by far, owning 17.46 percent<\/a> of the institution \u2013 and also pays the largest quota for the institution\u2019s maintenance, paying $164 billion<\/a> in IMF financial commitments annually. Though the U.S. does not choose the IMF\u2019s top executive, it uses its privileged position as the institution\u2019s largest funder to control IMF policy by threatening to withhold<\/a> its IMF funding if the institution does not abide by Washington\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Protestors hold an effigy of Captain America with a photo of IMF Director Christine Lagarde during meetings by the IMF and World Bank in Lima, Peru, Oct. 9, 2015. Geraldo Caso Bizama | AP<\/p><\/div>\n

As a consequence of the lopsided influence of the U.S. on these institutions\u2019 behavior, these organizations have used their loans and grants to \u201ctrap\u201d nations in debt and have imposed \u201cstructural adjustment\u201d programs on these debt-saddled governments that result in the mass privatization of state assets, deregulation, and austerity that routinely benefit foreign corporations over local economies. Frequently, these very institutions \u2013 by pressuring countries<\/a> to deregulate their financial sector and through corrupt dealings<\/a> with state actors \u2013 bring about the very economic problems that they then swoop in to \u201cfix.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guaid\u00f3 hits up IMF<\/strong><\/p>\n

Given the close relationship between the U.S. government and these international financial institutions, it should come as little surprise that \u2013 in Venezuela \u2013 the U.S.-backed \u201cinterim president\u201d Juan Guaid\u00f3 \u2013 has already requested<\/a> IMF funds, and thus IMF-controlled debt, to fund his parallel government.<\/p>\n

This is highly significant because it shows that top among Guaid\u00f3\u2019s objectives, in addition to privatizing Venezuela\u2019s massive oil reserves, is to again shackle the country to the U.S.-controlled debt machine.<\/p>\n

As the Grayzone Project<\/em> recently noted<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s previous elected socialist president, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, broke ties with the IMF and World Bank, which he noted were \u201cdominated by US imperialism.\u201d Instead Venezuela and other left-wing governments in Latin America worked together to co-found the Bank of the South, as a counterbalance to the IMF and World Bank.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, Venezuela is far from the only country in Latin America being targeted by these financial weapons masquerading as \u201cindependent\u201d financial institutions. For instance, Ecuador \u2013 whose current president has sought to bring the country back into Washington\u2019s good graces \u2013 has gone so far as to conduct an \u201caudit\u201d of its asylum of journalist and WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange in order to win a $10 billion bailout<\/a> from the IMF. Ecuador granted Assange asylum in 2012 and the U.S. has fervently sought his extradition for still sealed charges ever since.<\/p>\n

In addition, last July, the U.S. threatened Ecuador<\/a> with \u201cpunishing trade measures\u201d if it introduced a measure at the UN to support breastfeeding over infant formula, in a move that stunned the international community but laid bare the willingness of the U.S. government to use \u201ceconomic weapons\u201d against Latin American nations.<\/p>\n

Beyond Ecuador, other recent targets of massive IMF and World Bank \u201cwarfare\u201d include Argentina, which awarded the largest IMF bailout loan in history<\/a> just last year. That loan package was, unsurprisingly, heavily pushed by the U.S., according to a statement from Treasury Secretary Mnuchin released last year<\/a>. Notably, the IMF was instrumental<\/a> in causing the complete collapse of the Argentinian economy in 2001, sending a poor omen for last year\u2019s approval of the record loan package.<\/p>\n

Though it was released over a decade ago, this \u201cU.S. coup manual\u201d recently highlighted by WikiLeaks serves as a salient reminder that the so-called \u201cindependence\u201d of these financial institutions is an illusion and that they are among the many \u201cfinancial weapons\u201d regularly used by the U.S. government to bend countries to its will and even overthrow U.S.-disfavored governments.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Whitney Webb is a<\/em> MintPress contributor who has written for several news organizations in both English and Spanish; her stories have been featured on<\/em> ZeroHedge, the Anti-Media, 21st Century Wire, and<\/em> True Activist among others – she currently resides in Southern Chile.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Republish our stories! <\/em>MintPress News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License. <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 mintpressnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7 Feb 2019 \u2013 This \u201cU.S. coup manual,\u201d recently highlighted by WikiLeaks, serves as a reminder that the so-called \u201cindependence\u201d of such financial institutions as The World Bank and IMF is an illusion and that they are among the many \u201cfinancial weapons\u201d regularly used by the U.S. government to bend countries to its will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":127717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,224,65,55,146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus","category-human-rights","category-anglo-america","category-capitalism","category-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}