by cameron | May 12, 2008 | CIA, Iran, US politics
I’ve been reading more from Tim Weiner’s book “Legacy Of Ashes: The History of the CIA” and have finished the story about how the CIA staged a covert coup d’état against the legitimate government of Iran in 1953. You can read the salient details in Wikipedia. Note: this isn’t a “conspiracy theory” – it was confirmed by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, during the administration of President Bill Clinton, when she called it a “setback for democratic government” in Iran.
Basically what happened is this:
The Iranians wanted to nationalize their oil. They had done a deal with the British in 1901 to explore Iran for oil and just before WWI, Winston Churchill moved the British navy from coal-burning ships over to oil-burning ships and then basically took control of Iran’s oil production, leaving them with only 16% of the profits. The Iranians weren’t happy with the situation, to the British installed a Shah of their liking on the throne.
During WWII, Churchill invaded Iran, got rid of the Shah (who was thought to be too friendly with the Nazis) and installed his son on the throne.
After WWII, the Iranians decided to take control of their oil production back. And Churchill wasn’t happy. Britian took their case to the International Court of Justice at The Hague – and lost. So Churchill asked the American government to intervene. The President (Truman) said no. So MI6 turned to the CIA who said “sure that sounds like fun”.
They then spent millions of dollars undermining the government, spreading lies about them, hiring thugs to commit crimes around the country and then blaming it on communists, on propaganda accusing the Iranian Prime Minister Mossadeq of being a communist, etc. The BBC in Britian did their part, also broadcasting anti-Iranian propaganda to lend the events legitimacy.
Eventually US-backed troops stormed the Prime Minister’s offices, arrested him, and he spent the last years of his life in prison, replaced by a General Zahedi, picked by the US and Britian to be Mossadeq’s puppet successor.
What happened next? 25 years later the Iranian revolution happened, fueled by memories of the coup, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took control and the country has hated the US and Britian ever since. Can you blame them?
Of course, the US and Britian denied all of this ever happened for almost 50 years until internal CIA documents were leaked in 2000.
So – the next time you hear about how Iran “hate our freedoms” or about the US trying to overthrow a country and other “conspiracy theories”, remember – Iran 1953.
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thepodcastnet-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=038551445X&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr
by cameron | Apr 18, 2008 | US politics
Barack Obama yesterday confessed that if he becomes President of the USA, he’s committed to keeping the US’s #1 military base in the Middle East, aka Israel, open and functioning.
Key quotes:
“As president, I will do everything that I can to help (Israel) protect itself … We will make sure that it can defend itself from any attack, whether it comes from as close as Gaza or as far as Tehran.”
TRANSLATION: “I’m also being controlled by the American military-industrial complex and I’m going to continue our sponsorship of terrorism in the Middle East by supplying Israel with weapons with which to continue their occupation of Palestine.”
He also promised that if he were elected president, the United States would continue to veto anti-Israeli resolutions at the United Nations.
TRANSLATION: “It doesn’t matter what the majority of the world’s governments think about Israel’s occupation of Palestine and state-sponsored terrorism, the United States will continue to support it, using our veto vote on the United Nations Security Council to ensure no action is taken against them, thereby making sure our #1 military base in Oilsville, stays open.”
“Hamas is not a state, Hamas is a terrorist organization.”
TRANSLATION: “I have as little respect for democracy as George Bush. I don’t care if Hamas was voted in by the majority of Palestinians in the January 2006 popular elections. I only like democracy when people who agree with the United States’ interests win.”
Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist militant organization and political party. It currently holds a majority of seats in the legislative council of the Palestinian Authority. In January 2006, Hamas won the legislative elections, and thus replaced Arafat’s Fatah as leading party of the Palestinian people.
by cameron | Mar 23, 2008 | capitalism, CIA, US politics
If you’ve seen the recent Hollywood blockbuster “Charlie Wilson’s War”, you probably think you know why the CIA decided to lend support to the mujahadeen in Afghanistan in 1980. It was to help defeat the evil invading Soviet army – right?
Wrong.
According to former CIA director Robert Gates and President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brezinski, the CIA were involved in Afghanistan at least six months before the Soviet’s invaded. Okay, I know this isn’t new news, but I’m just catching up.
The CIA, with Presidential approval, were illegally supporting terrorist forces within the country to help them attack and overthrow the pro-Soviet government run by Nur Muhammed Taraki. Taraki, who had taken power via a coup from Mohammed Daoud Khan, a member of the Royal Family, was upsetting Muslims by trying to modernize the country – including the establishment of full women’s rights and the implementation of land reform. These are things you’d think the USA would support, right?
Wrong.
The USA was doing everything they could to prevent the spread of Communism. But why?
I’ve often wondered where this American fear of communism comes from. I know we’ve all been programmed from birth to believe “communism = evil, capitalism = good”, but why? If communism is just another political idea, like being a Democrat versus being a Republican, why not just let “the people” decide what they want? Why the massive scare campaign about the ‘red terror’?
I finally figured it out. Okay, I know, I must be dumb. It’s because the powers than run the USA are wealthy white men, otherwise known as the bourgeoisie. They are, by definition, anti-Communist. They have money and power and communism would take that power away from them and disperse it amongst the people. The success of socialism or communism around the world would encourage the people inside the USA to think about the benefits of Marxism and this would run contrary to the self-interest of the American upper classes. In fact, it is probably the last thing they want the people to think about. Think about football, celebrities, game shows, Saddam Hussein, New York Governors and their expensive hookers, ANYTHING – just don’t think about a different political system which would stop protecting the position of the privileged and the wealthy.
So anyway, back to Afghanistan. When the civil war, funded and supported by the CIA, was getting out of control, President Taraki asked the Soviets to help. They told him that sending troops in would be a VERY BAD IDEA. They knew what would happen. They knew the USA would use it as a pretext for further support.
After Taraki was assassinated, allegedly by a member of his own Government, then the Soviets invaded. And the rest is history.
Why is all this important? Because it goes to show, yet again, how you can’t just believe the official version of events.
If you believe the official version of events, the CIA stopped meddling in the affairs of other countries after the Church Committee Report came out in 1975. Yeah, right.
by cameron | Feb 6, 2008 | US politics
http://seesmic.com/Standalone.swf?video=5TvZKvFuQf
Watch “The War On Democracy” on Google Video.
by cameron | Sep 23, 2007 | US politics
I’ve never really taken the “Google is watching you” conspiracy theories very seriously, but Cory Doctorow has cooked up a scenario in his new short story “Scroogled” which scares the hell out of me. It’s a story about how easy it would be for Google to do a deal with a neo-fascist Government to provide them with information on everything about everybody. In this era of the decline of Western Democracy that we are living in, Google becomes the new secret police, spilling the beans on your entire history. I’ve always held the opinion that “privacy” doesn’t matter unless you have something to be embarrassed about, but Cory’s story dramatizes the scenarios in which you can become a “person of interest” and then “disappeared” if you get in “their” way. You could end up a suicide in Cabo. Make sure you read it.
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Now playing: Beastie Boys – Off The Grid
via FoxyTunes
by cameron | Sep 18, 2007 | US politics
In this video from The Real News, Gore Vidal makes the suggestion I’ve heard a number of times that the USA knew Japan was defeated and had surrendered BEFORE they dropped the atom bombs on them. But they went ahead and did it anyway.
http://therealnews.com/permalinkedembed/mediaplayer.swf
I’ve been reading lately about “NSC 68” or “National Security Council paper 68” which was drafted in 1950. That’s pretty much where many of the world’s current problems started and signaled the the beginning of America as a global bully and the corresponding decline of their moral authority. Read about it here and here.
From Wikipeda:
“NSC-68 would make the case for a US military buildup to confront what it called an enemy “unlike previous aspirants to hegemony. .. animated by a new fanatic faith, antithetical to our own.” The Soviet Union and the United States existed in a bi-polar world, in which the Soviets wished to “impose its absolute authority over the rest of the world.” This would be a war of ideas in which “the idea of freedom under a government of laws, and the idea of slavery under the grim oligarchy of the “Kremlin” were pitted against each other. Therefore, the US as “the center of power in the free world,” should build an international community in which American society would “survive and flourish” and pursue a policy of containment.”
