Bechtel
 Bechtel  (Corporation)      | |
|---|---|
| Founder | Warren A. Bechtel |
| Headquarters | Blue Shield of California BuildingSan Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Staff | 53,000 |
Bechtel Corporation (Bechtel Group) is the largest construction and civil engineering company in the United States,[1] and the 9th-largest privately owned American company in 2016.[2]
Bechtel is a ruthless and central part of the military-industrial complex and the neo-colonial system used to enslave poor countries described by insider John Perkins.
Revolving Door
George Shultz was the president of Bechtel for seven years, in between his posts as Nixon’s treasury secretary and Reagan’s secretary of state. After leaving government, Shultz again joined Bechtel, taking a seat on the company’s board of directors. Shultz also chaired the advisory board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a right-wing outfit that was critical in manufacturing a justification for the war against Iraq in 2003.[3]
Caspar Weinberger was Bechtel’s general counsel from 1975 to 1981, before joining the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan] administration as secretary of defense.
The head of USAID, Andrew Natsios, was at one time the director of Boston’s Big Dig project, a multi-billion-dollar construction operation run by Bechtel and another firm.
William Casey, who was chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission under Nixon, head of the Export-Import Bank under Ford, and head of the CIA under Reagan, was a former Bechtel consultant.
Richard Helms, Nixon’s CIA director, was another Bechtel consultant, as was Nixon’s Treasury Secretary, William Simon.
Close ties that emerged between Bechtel and the CIA during the 1950s. Former CEO Steve Bechtel had close ties with then-CIA Deputy Director Allen Dulles, and he was the CIA’s liaison with the Business Council and other organizations linked to the intelligence agency.
Related Quotation
| Page | Quote | Author |
|---|---|---|
| John Perkins | “My job was to convince heads of state of countries with resources our corporations covet, like oil, to accept huge loans from the World Bank and its sister organizations. The stipulation was that these loans would be used to hire our engineering and construction companies, such as Bechtel, Halliburton, and Stone and Webster, to build electric power systems, ports, airports, highways and other infrastructure projects that would bring large profits to those companies and also benefit a few wealthy families in the country, the ones that owned the industries and commercial establishments. Everyone else in the country would suffer because funds were diverted from education, healthcare and other social services to pay interest on the debt. In the end, when the country could not buy down the principal, we would go back and, with the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), “restructure” the loans. This included demands that the country sell its resources cheap to our corporations with minimal environmental and social regulations and that it privatize its utility companies and other public service businesses and offer them to our companies at cut-rate prices.” | John Perkins |
