Radar reveals the unknowns who control our world

W
hen Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helu overtook Bill Gates this month to become the richest man in the world, many Americans were taken by surprise. "Carlos who?" they asked skeptically, perplexed by the idea that Mexicans could even make money on the other side of the border.

With $68 billion in assets, Slim's power and influence are beyond compare in Mexico, where his wealth makes up a startling eight percent of the country's GDP. Unfortunately, now that his jowly mug has reached nationwide CNN saturation, he's officially out of contention for our list of the most powerful people you've never heard of. But there are plenty more where he came from. From the female Vice Premier of China, to the man who controls the largest private army in the world, Radar presents the unknown power brokers, and the puppet masters who prefer to remain in the shadows.

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BOB PERRY

As the man behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, millionaire Texas home-builder Bob Perry is perhaps the biggest dark-operator in politics. It was Perry who gave the group $4.5 million to capsize John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid, but the diminutive 74-year-old didn't make the list for his ability to paint a decorated Vietnam vet as an opportunistic fake. It's his distinction as the largest individual political donor in the country that raises our brow. Perry gave $29 million to politicians and their causes in 2004 and 2006, and as one might expect from a millionaire Texas Republican, the vast majority of that money went to factions pushing his pet issues: tort reform and the fight against abortion and gay marriage. Surprisingly, Perry is also an ardent supporter of affirmative action, and is a major benefactor to minority scholarships and several foreign orphanages.

The lucky 2008 presidential candidate with access to Perry's Texas-size checkbook? Mitt Romney.

ERIK PRINCE

In addition to being young, rich, and good-looking, Blackwater CEO Erik Prince controls what is arguably the largest private army in the world.

Founded by Prince in 1997, Blackwater operates a sprawling 7,000-acre military training facility in North Carolina (1,200-yard firing range, 20-acre man-made lake, Zeppelin) and contracts out thousands of security agents a year to the US government. The firm has approximately 1,000 troops in Iraq, and some of them have become major targets. In 2004, four of them were gruesomely killed in Fallujah, and now their families are suing Blackwater for wrongful death, claiming the company compromised the safety of the workers for the sake of profit.

Prince doesn't restrict his powerful influence to guns and multi-billion dollar government contracts. He's also a board member of Christian Freedom International, a human rights group that advocates on behalf of persecuted Christians around the world. And he has recently expressed a desire to cleanse Blackwater's image by employing its might to stop the genocide in Darfur.

BARCLAY BROS.

For much of their lives, Britain's Barclay twins were known as recluses, conducting their billion-dollar businesses outside of the media spotlight. Then, in 2004, they thrust themselves onto the cover of Britain's newspapers ... by buying one. In addition to the Daily Telegraph and a home shopping empire, David and Fred own London's Ritz hotel and part of the InterContinental resort chain. But hospitality isn't their strong suit. The brothers love their privacy and are willing to go to great lengths to protect it, including changing the constitution of a small nation.

In 1993 they paid about $3.5 million for Brecqhou, a small private island in the territory of British fiefdom Sark. Wasting no time, the brothers built a castle (spires and towers included), issued their own postage stamps, and slapped the Barclay family crest on Sark's flag in an attempt to turn the island into Barclayistan.

But they weren't content to simply play make-believe; the Barclays wanted an actual kingdom, and, after seeking to change the island's inheritance laws, they pushed landowners out of the legislative body, and, eventually, restructured the island's compact as they saw fit.

Whoever said money can't buy happiness didn't have his own island nation.

WU YI
In a country famous for both misogyny and secrecy, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi has defied the odds. She has risen to the top of the Chinese politics, despite being in possession of a vagina and committed to unprecedented levels of governmental transparency.

Yi began her professional career by ascending the ranks of the burgeoning Chinese petroleum industry, where she earned renown as a strong negotiator. Nicknamed the "Iron Lady," she gained international clout after conducting trade talks with the WTO in the 90s and righting China's ineffectual health ministry during the SARS outbreak. Her reputation as a tough broad won her the honor of serving as China's chief U.S. negotiator.

"She's seen as quite adept at dealing with the Americans," says David Lampton, professor of China Studies at Johns Hopkins University. "Every time there has been a major international crisis where China has to present a reasonable face to the world, she's usually brought out."

Some Chinese peasants even believe that she is the reincarnation of the Buddhist goddess of mercy, likely a result of Yi's work to improve Chinese medical care. She's pushed for a more public discussion of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, no small feat in a country with a history of denying the disease. And American businesses worship her too, as an ally in the fight to protect intellectual property rights, another long-ignored issue in China.

Though Yi has yet to ascend to China's most powerful governing body, the standing committee of the Politburo, she has climbed higher than any other female in the history of Chinese politics (who wasn't clinging to a husband's arm). According to Lampton, "She's the first woman who, by dint of her political skills, got to the top."

DAVID ADDINGTON

As Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff, Addington has the ear of, arguably, the most powerful man you have heard of. And he doesn't hesitate to use it.

"As it's true that the vice president is an extension of the executive office of the president, the vice president's chief of staff is an extension of the vice president," says Timothy Walch, a presidential expert and director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Museum. Accordingly, Walch submits, Addington's influence dwarfs that of any former vice presidential chief of staff in history.

Addington has been closely involved—and critics would say dirtied his hands—with some of the Bush administration's most controversial policies, including claims that Saddam Hussein bought uranium from Niger, and the infamous "torture memo" justifying the use of aggressive interrogation techniques on terror detainees. Yet, despite his considerable influence, Addington maintains a much lower profile than Cheney's former chief of staff, Scooter Libby. Like Libby, Addington was involved in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. But unlike Libby, he's managed to stay out of the spotlight and, more importantly, the courtroom.

SESSALEE HENSLEY

Hensley is not a billionaire, but as the fiction buyer for Barnes & Noble, she's the most powerful force in book publishing not named Oprah.

Considered the arbiter of mass-market success, Hensley decides what gets promoted on those coveted front-of-store displays, and what winds up on the dusty discount racks of history. Having her sign off on your novel is a fast track to the bestseller list. (She famously pegged Alice Sebold's Lovely Bones and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.)

So how can you get Hensley to notice your experimental debut novel? A good cover helps. So does a marketing blitz and, yes, a spot on Oprah. What doesn't help are flowers, chocolates or any other form of bribery.

Not that it's easy to find her in the first place. Hensley is notoriously private. "I've never laid eyes on her," says Kevin Howell, bookselling editor at Publishers Weekly. "I wouldn't even be able to pick her out of a crowd." She may keep a low profile, but her formidable reputation speaks for itself. Howell had to kill a profile of Hensley for the magazine because no one in publishing would talk about her on the record.

PHIL ANSCHUTZ

Does soccer stand a chance in America? Billionaire Phil Anschutz is betting yes.

Involved in Major League Soccer since its inception, Anschutz now owns three teams in the league. But it's not on his teams that he stakes the future of American soccer; it's on David Beckham. Anschutz signed the British superstar to a five-year contract with the L.A. Galaxy this January, hoping that Beck's sex appeal and personality will give the sport a much needed infusion of star power. Whether Anschutz's investment in Beckham can turn soccer into a viable Stateside spectator sport remains to be seen, but if the Colorado billionaire's track record is any indication, there just might be a chance.

After making a fortune in the oil and railroad industries, Anschutz jumped on the fiber-optic bandwagon, founding Qwest Communications in 1996. Since then, he has evolved from a mere business mortal to a bona fide media player. As the owner of the nation's largest theater chain, Regal Entertainment Group, he has exerted his clout within the film industry by producing family-friendly, Christian-themed films like the Chronicles of Narnia and Amazing Grace. Anschutz has also dipped his fingers into the newspaper industry, developing a line of free alternative dailies that compete with established papers for advertisements, and are read by millions of Americans every day.

HONORABLE MENTION - TINA JONAS

Tina Jonas was born to handle money. In her 16-year government career she has worked for the OMB and the House Committee on Appropriations and served as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Financial Management, Chief Financial Officer of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and now her most powerful role of all, Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Defense.

As the CFO for the DoD, TJ presides over some serious purse strings—a budget of more than $400 billion, larger than the GDP of 165 countries.

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