John Perkins Quotations

We're aware that there's a worldwide shortage of refinery capacity and to that extent, we've let it be known that we'd be amenable to discussing the possibility in Nova Scotia, and we have had discussions with a couple of parties.

The only way that we're going to feel secure in this country again and that we're going to feel good about ourselves is if we use these systems we've put into place to create positive change around the world. I really believe we can do that.

When the National Security Agency recruited me, they put me through a day of lie detector tests. They found out all my weaknesses and immediately seduced me. They used the strongest drugs in our culture, sex, power and money, to win me over.

But when 9/11 struck, I had a change of heart. I knew the story had to be told because what happened at 9/11 is a direct result of what the economic hit men are doing.

Basically, what Economic Hit Men are trained to do is to build up the American empire. To create situations where as many resources as possible flow into this country, to our corporations, and our government, and in fact we've been very successful.

I felt guilty throughout the whole time, but I was seduced. The power of these drugs, sex, power, and money, was extremely strong for me.

If three fully uniformed police officers show up at your door and knock, I guess I don't know what else you're supposed to do,

Had Roosevelt been caught, we would have been in a lot of trouble. It would have been very embarrassing.

I think something will go ahead. I just don't know what it'll be. We wanted to take the proposal that we thought was best, or one that we added to, or one we made up and then start doing draws and the like. But we can't do a draw until we know what the concept is. So it's all in limbo again.

I think some people thought Jeffersonville was going to profit and that's it, ... That's not true.

I was initially recruited while I was in business school back in the late sixties by the National Security Agency, the nation's largest and least understood spy organization; but ultimately I worked for private corporations.

I thought he was drunk or passed out or something.

We never met Kirby, we didn't know Kirby, but you feel like you know him. He was part of our lives, with going to games.

We were just thinking the ball was going to go out of the park and he jumps up from nowhere.

When 9/11 struck, I had a change of heart. I knew the story had to be told because what happened at 9/11 is a direct result of what the economic hit men are doing, and the only way that we're going to feel secure about ourselves again and that we're going to feel good about ourselves is if we use these systems we've put into place to create positive change around the world.

We would like a developer to have a component for senior housing. There is a potential for 72 units.

We want to have enough units to entice senior citizens to stay. Seventy-two is not enough.

What if it was a stranded motorist getting shot in the chest?

We've built the largest empire in the history of the world. It's been done over the last 50 years since World War II with very little military might, actually. It's only in rare instances like Iraq where the military comes in as a last resort.

Every play was loud, but a big play like that was deafening, with the screams and the cheers.

An economic hit man walked into his office and said, 'Congratulations, Mr President, I just want you to know that over here I've got a couple of hundred million dollars for you and your family if you cooperate with your Uncle Sam and our oil companies. And over here I have a man with a gun in his hand and a bullet with your name on it.'

There's no question in my mind that it was C.I.A. sanctioned, and most - many Latin American investigators have come to the same conclusion. Of course, we never heard about that in our country.

The Treasury Department would use the interest from these securities to hire U.S. companies to build Saudi Arabia - new cities, new infrastructure - which we've done.

I sense that public opinion may have turned in favor of riverboat gaming in Clark County,

These were big ones. Those companies would then go in and build an electrical system or ports or highways, and these would basically serve just a few of the very wealthiest families in those countries.

So we make this big loan, most of it comes back to the United States, the country is left with the debt plus lots of interest, and they basically become our servants, our slaves. It's an empire. There's no two ways about it. It's a huge empire. It's been extremely successful.

And that's why I wrote the book, because our country really needs to understand, if people in this nation understood what our foreign policy is really about, what foreign aid is about, how our corporations work, where our tax money goes, I know we will demand change.

This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic hit men. I was very much a part of that.

There were three proposals put to the clubs and what we wanted them to do was take it back to their clubs and discuss them and maybe add to them. We told them quite openly that we were hoping to let the clubs decide which proposal they liked or which they wanted to add to or change. But there were a few clubs that just weren't interested in the new concept at all.

They're in business to sell drugs, and I don't think we need that, ... I'm going to fight like hell against it.

It will go back to the Country board now to sort out,

The choices we make within the boundaries of the twists of fate determines who we are

I have come to understand that life is composed of a series of coincidences. How we react to these - how we exercise what some refer to as free will - is everything; the choices we make within the boundaries of the twists of fate determine who we are.

No matter how many toys we amass we leave them behind when we die, just as we leave a broken environment, an economy that only benefits the richest, and a legacy of empowering greed over goodness. It is now time to commit to following a new path.

I've never met anyone who wanted to be a terrorist. They are desperate people.

The United States spends over $87 billion conducting a war in Iraq while the United Nations estimates that for less than half that amount we could provide clean water, adequate diets, sanitations services and basic education to every person on the planet. And we wonder why terrorists attack us.

And in Iraq we tried to implement the same policy that was so successful in Saudi Arabia, but Saddam Hussein didn't buy. When the economic hit men fail in this scenario, the next step is what we call the jackals.