US using IMF, World Bank as weapons: WikiLeaks

The 2008 document, titled “Field Manual (FM) 3-05.130, Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare,” jumped into spotlight in the wake of the recent unrest in Venezuela, where US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido has been challenging President Nicolas Maduro, according to a report by MintPress News.

WikiLeaks mentioned the document on Twitter to underline Washington’s years-long campaign of economic pressure against the South American country.

The document, titled “Financial Instrument of US National Power and Unconventional Warfare,” argues that global institutions can serve as means of economic warfare “in times of conflict up to and including large-scale general war,” as well as in leveraging “the policies and cooperation of state governments.”

WikiLeaks specifically draws attention to a section of the 248-page document which states the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) – which oversees US sanctions against other countries, has long been “conducting economic warfare” deemed necessary for the success of any related operation by Army Special Operations Forces Unconventional Warfare (ARSOF UW).

The document lists the global institutions as extensions of America’s political and financial power as well as integral parts of Washington’s “current global governance system.”

It’s worth mentioning that these financial “weapons” are essentially governed by the US National Security Council (NSC), currently headed by John Bolton.

The NSC is primarily responsible for “the integration of the economic and military instruments of national power abroad,” the document says.

In the case of the Washington-based World Bank, the organization’s president has always been a US citizen who is directly chosen by the US president.
Washington is also the bank’s largest shareholder, and therefore the only member with veto rights.

“As major decisions require an 85% super majority, the United States can block any major changes” to World Bank policy or its services, the leaked manual notes. This is while US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, functions as the World Bank’s governor.

The IMF is also largely dominated by US government influence and funding.  This level of US control means that these organizations can easily use their loans and grants to “trap” nations in debt.

In case of Venezuela, Guaido has already requested IMF funds, and thus IMF-controlled debt, to fund his “coup” against Maduro.

Ecuador, another Latin American country in chaos, has gone so far as to conduct an “audit” of its asylum of journalist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in order to win a $10 billion bailout from the IMF.

Assange has been staying in Ecuador’s embassy in London since 2012 and Washington has fervently sought his extradition.