The focus of this article is to explore the vicious and unlawful history of US intervention in Iran’s government. It’s from my brief: War with Iraq and Afghanistan, rhetoric for war with Iran:
In 1953, the United States CIA led by one of President Theodore Roosevelt’s grandsons, initiated a coup in Iran (Operation Ajax)[8] to remove the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. The Iranian government was understandably dissatisfied with the terms of its contract with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company that allowed British interests to claim 85% of the oil profit from Iran.[9] Iran voted to nationalize the oil industry in 1951 after the British declined to renegotiate the terms.
The US-led coup was successful, and the royal monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi,[10] became virtual dictator. Fearing popular reprisal, Pahlavi’s government was supported by the CIA in creating the Iranian SAVAK, a vicious secret police for the Shah’s dictatorial government.[11] We can only assume that the oil revenue sharing agreement with the Shah was acceptable to the US and UK.
Under the Eisenhower administration, the US cooperated with the Shah’s government for the development of Iranian nuclear energy through the “Atoms for Peace” program.[12] President Ford agreed to US full cooperation to help Iran build about two dozen nuclear energy plants. When the Iranian people overthrew the Shah’s government in 1979, the US stopped cooperating.
The US backed Iraq in their invasion of Iran in 1980 and throughout the war until 1988, seeking a more US-friendly Iranian government. The US provided Saddam Hussein with the chemical and biological weapons the W. Bush administration later used as justification for invading Iraq.[13] Since 1979, the US has worked to prevent Iran having a nuclear energy program, even under the legal provisions of the NPT, and reneged on a multi-billion dollar contract to deliver nuclear fuel to Iran without refunding Iran’s money.[14]
The previous three paragraphs are plain vanilla history in conservatively-known content. Neither our government’s political leaders from either party or our major media give the US public the context of history to evaluate the Bush/Obama administrations’ statements advocating war with Iran. Their use of the term “nuclear program” is misleading. We could also call it fraud, as it deliberately misinforms.[15] Objectively, the US actions are in violation of NPT and the UN Charter in threatening war.[16] Our mainstream media does not communicate these facts to the public.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Seymour Hersh, has reported since 2005 that government insiders have disclosed to him that the CIA is presently engaged in covert operations similar to 1953 to overthrow the Iranian government.[17] Hersh, claiming inside White House sources, reported one idea from Vice President Dick Cheney was for the US Navy to build four or five boats that looked like Iranian Naval PT boats, man and arm them with US Navy Seals, then have the Navy Seals attack a US Navy ship off Iran’s coast.
The incident would be filmed and used as propaganda to enflame US public opinion for war with Iran.[18] Hersh is the reporter who insiders trusted to report the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up in the Vietnam War, and the Abu Ghraib Torture Scandal in the current Iraq war. Scott Ritter, US former weapons inspector and officer for US Marine Intelligence calls any covert planning and actions by their correct legal name: Acts of War. Ritter states the obvious: the US would never allow Iran to take these actions without calling them Acts of War.[19]
Recently and disturbingly, was the US Air Force admission that they “mistakenly” transported six live nuclear warheads attached to ready-to-launch cruise missiles to the US military base that is the jump-off for US supplies to Middle East Operations. This could be a veiled threat of nuclear war against Iran rather than explained by the long chain of continuous “mistakes” required for such an event to occur.[20] Nuclear weapons are protected by detailed protocol and lethal force; they go nowhere by mistake and had a 50 year perfect record for their handling.
We properly wonder why the Bush/Obama administrations are using Iran’s “nuclear program” as rhetoric linking Iran with atomic weapons, and the call for US war against Iran. In academic analysis, “why” is a subjective question that cannot be answered in full objective confidence. All we can do is discuss related facts to build broad-scale constructions of circumstances, and then construct hypotheses that match those facts. The hypothesis I invite you to embrace as containing all the facts is that current false propaganda is repetitive of recent history of US unlawful interest to control Iran’s resources.
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As I wrote in the context of US war history:
The two “reasons” for war with Iran are as false as the “reasons” for war with Iraq. Beware a false flag attack by the US or Israel to blame on Iran as pretext for another “defensive” war:
- Iran’s president never physically threatened Israel.
- All of Iran’s nuclear material is fully accounted for peaceful and legal use for energy and medicine.
By Carl Herman
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Endnotes (with common encyclopedic links for additional general backgrounds):
[8] Future of Freedom. Hornberger, J.G. An Anti-democracy Foreign Policy: Iran. Jan. 31, 2005: http://www.fff.org/comment/com0501i.asp , Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax .
[9] Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/2003/8/25/50_years_after_the_cias_first , Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Iranian_Oil_Company .
[10] New York Times. Risen, J. April 16, 2000. The CIA in Iran: http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html , Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi .
[11] Federation of American Scientists. Pike J. Ministry of Security: SAVAK. Jan. 16, 2000: http://www.fas.org/irp/world/iran/savak/index.html ,Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAVAK .
[12] World Nuclear University. President Eisenhower’s speech to the UN General Assembly. Dec. 8, 1953: http://world-nuclear-university.org/html/atoms_for_peace/ , Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran .
[13] Iran Chamber Society. King, J. Arming Iraq: A Chronology of US Involvement. March, 2003: http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/arming_iraq.php , Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_iraq_war .
[14] Antiwar. Prather, G. ElBaradei Isn’t Perfect. Dec. 27, 2005: http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=8308 , and background: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran#After_the_1979_Revolution .
[15] Legal Dictionary: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/fraud , Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraud .
[16] Foley, B. “Limiting War by Process: Congress, the UN and Iran. Jurist Legal News and Research. May 25, 2006. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2006/05/limiting-war-by-process-congress-un.php .
[17] Hersh, S. Preparing the Battlefield: The Bush Administration Steps up its Secret Moves Against Iran. July 7, 2008: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh and interviews on Preparing the Battlefield: http://www.911blogger.com/node/16388 , http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=1812 .
[18] Prison Planet. Watson, S. Media blackout on Cheney Iran false flag story. Aug. 2, 2008: http://www.prisonplanet.com/media-blackout-on-cheney-iran-false-flag-story.html .
[19] Truthdig.com. Ritter, S. Acts of war. July 29, 2008: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080729_acts_of_war/ .
[20] Analyses: Project Camelot. Carter, J. What Really Happened at Minot AFB. : http://www.projectcamelot.org/jack_carter.html , Information Liberation. Lindorff, D. The Air Force Report on the Minot-Barksdale Nuclear Missile Flight. Nov. 2, 2007: http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=24191 , and Rense. Twietmeyer, T. Missteps in the Bunker: Damage Control? Sept. 25, 2007: http://www.rense.com/general78/dmge.htm ..