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Recent
Stories
May
27, 2003
Kurt
Nimmo
Condoleezza Rice: Huckstress for Israeli
Myths
Anthony
Gancarski
Hillary: a Dem the NeoCons Could Love?
Patrick
Cockburn
Terror, Bush and Joseph Conrad
John Chuckman
an Interpretation of Bush's Character
Kathleen
Christison
What Sharon Wants, Sharon Gets
Jeffrey
Blankfort
AIPAC Hijacks the Roadmap
Steve
Perry
Trouble in the Hinterlands
May
26, 2003
Franklin
C. Spinney
Test Anxiety: Star Wars, Punctuated
Epistimology and the Triumph of Medievalism
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Sacrifice
Sam
Hamod
When Trained Killers Return Home
Stew Albert
The Final Conflict
May
24 / 25, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Philosopher Kings: Leo Strauss
and the Neo-Cons
Uri Avnery
The Hannibal Procedure
Diane
Christian
Who's the Real Enemy?
"Just Cause" or "Kill the Bastards"
Alexander
Cockburn
Derrida's Double Life
William
S. Lind
Is Saddam Really Out of the Game?
William
Cook
Road to Nowhere
David Krieger
Bush's War on the Poor: Economic Justice
Ilan
Pappe
Academic Freedom Under Assault in Israel
Wayne Madsen
American Idle
Noah
Leavitt
Slowing Sowing Justice in the Killing Fields
Walt Brasch
Americans are Liars
Lenni
Brenner
John Brown and Dutch Bill
Mickey
Z.
Hope, Crosby & Al Qaeda
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Grievous Harm Here and Abroad
Adam Engel
Towers of Babel
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Guthrie, Alam, Orloski
May
23, 2003
Standard
Schaefer
Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits?
Ron
Jacobs
Long Live People's Park!
Michael
Greger, MD
Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply
at Risk
Elaine
Cassel
Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of Democratic Govt."
Sam
Hamod
The Shi'a of Iraq
Christopher
Greeder
After the Layoffs (poem)
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23
May
22, 2003
Mark
Gaffney
Christian in Name Only
Carl
Estabrook
Republic of Fear
Carl
Camacho, Jr.
Reason for Hope
Ben
Granby
What Rates a Headline from the Middle
East?
Vanessa
Jones
Terror Alerts in Australia
Mickey
Z.
Instant Understanding
Don
Monkerud
Snowballs in a Soggy Economy
Barry Lando
The Nether-Nether World of G.W. Bush
Steve
Perry
Total Information
Awareness: Secret Shadow Program?
May
21, 2003
Dave
Lindorff
Ari Fleischer Quits the Scene: The
Liar's Gone, the Enablers Remain
Chris
Floyd
How Blood Money Becomes Business Opportunity
Dr. Gerry
Lower
Graham's God and Bush's Pathology
Patrick
Cockburn
In Post War Iraq, the Signs of Breakdown
are Everywhere
Brian Cloughley
The Fatuous Braintrust: Newt, Rummy and Wolfowitz
Saul
Landau
Shopping, the End of the World and the Politics of Bush
Larry Kearney
Two Morning Poems, May 2003
Steve
Perry
Chaos in Iraq: Just What the US Wanted?
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Justice Comes to Iraq
May
20, 2003
Tariq
Ali
The Empire Advances
Ahmad
Faruqui
Whither American Nationalism?
Ben Tripp
Dialysis with Osama
Linda
Heard
The Cage of Occupation
Cynthia
McKinney
Toward a Just and Peaceful World
Edward
Said
The Arab Condition
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Why Ari Should Have Resigned in Protest Long Ago
Stew
Albert
Yale Men
Steve Perry
The New Face of Al-Qaeda
May
19, 2003
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
A Letter to Kofi Annan on Powell's Missing
Evidence
CounterPunch
Wire
"Terror" Slut Steve Emerson
Eats Crow
John
Chuckman
Blair's Awkward Lies
Matt
Vidal
Corporate Media and the Myth of the Free Market
Michael
S. Ladah
The Fine Print to Bush's Road Map
Robert
Fisk
Bush's Eternal War Backfires
Elaine
Cassel
Clarence Thomas, Still Whining After All These Years
Jonathan
Freedland
Ann Coulter's Appalling Magic
Steve Perry
Play It Again, O-Sam-a
May
17 / 18, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Children's Teeth
Peter
Linebaugh
An American Tribute to Christopher
Hill
Gary
Leupp
Nepal Today
Rock and
Rap Confidential
The Republican Plot Against the Dixie Chicks
Walter
Sommerfeld
Plundering Baghdad's Museums
Ron Jacobs
Condy Rice's Yipping Tirades
Thomas
P. Healy
Dubya Does Indy
Tarif Abboushi
Bush, Sharon and the Roadmap
Francis
Boyle
Debating US War Crimes in Iraq
Mark Davis
An Interview with Richard Butler
Richard
Lichtman
American Mourning
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Overcoming Terrorism
Adam
Engel
Uncle Sam is YOU!
Alan Maas
The Best News Show on TV
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Albert
Elaine
Cassel
Good Enough for an Alien
Website
of the Weekend
The 37 Americans Who Run Iraq
Song of
the Weekend
Talkin' Sounds Just Like Joe McCarthy Blues
May
16, 2003
Leah
Wells
In Iraq Water and Oil Do Mix
Ben Tripp
Fear Itself
Sharon
Smith
The Resegregation of US Schools
Ramzy Baroud
Does Defeat Have to be So Humiliating?
Sam
Hamod
A Nation of Fear
Phil Reeves
Baghdad Pays the Price
Robert
McChesney
The FCC's Big Grab
Mark Engler
Those Who Don't Count
Steve
Perry
We're All
Extras in Bush's Movie
Website
of the Day
Iraq and Our
Energy Future
May
15, 2003
Ayesha
Iman and Sindi Medar-Gould
How
Not to Help Amina Lawal: The Hidden Dangers of Letter
Writing Campaigns
Julie
Hilden
Moussaoui and the Camp X-Ray Detainees:
Can He Get a Fair Trial?
Tanya
Reinhart
Bush's Roadmap: a Ticket to Failure
Laura Carlsen
Here We Go Again: NAFTA Plus or Minus?
Kenneth
Rapoza
The New Fakers: State Dept. Undercuts
New Yorker's Goldberg
Stew Albert
A Story I Will Tell
Steve
Perry
Bush's Little
Nukes
Website
of the Day
Strip-o-Rama
May
14, 2003
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Jason
Leopold
The Pentagon and Hallburton: a Secret
November Deal for Iraq's Oil
David
Lindorff
Fighting the Patriot Act: Now It's
Alaska
John
Chuckman
Giggling into Chaos
Jack
McCarthy
Twin Towers of Journalism: Racism
and Double Standards
Wayne
Madsen
Assassinating JFK Again
M.
Junaid Alam
The Longer View
Paul
de Rooij
The New Hydra's Head:
Propagandists and the Selling of the US/Iraq War
James
Reiss
What? Me Worry?
Steve Perry
More on Saudi Arabia Bombings
Website
of the Day
A Tribute to Ted Joans
May
13, 2003
Saul
Landau
Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves
Michael
Neumann
Has Islam Failed? Not by Western
Standards
Uri
Avnery
My Meeting with Arafat
Steve Perry
The Saudi Arabia Bombing
Jacob
Levich
Democracy Comes to Iraq: Kick Their Ass and Grab Their Gas
William
Lind
The Hippo and the Mongoose: a Question of Military Theory
The
Black Commentator
Fraud at the Times: Blaming Blacks for White Folks' Mistakes
Stew Albert
Asylum
Hammond
Guthrie
An Illogical Reign
Website
of the Day
Sy Hersh: War and Intelligence
May
12, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush, Bin Laden, Bechtel, and Baghdad
Dave
Lindorff
America's Dirty Bombs
Sam
Hamod and Elaine Cassel
Resisting the Bush Administration's War on Liberty
Uzi
Benziman
Sharon and Sons, Inc.
Jason
Leopold
The Decline and Fall of Thomas White
Rich Procter
George Jumps the Shark
Federico
Moscogiuri
Going to Israel? Sign or Else
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/12
Book
of the Day
Fooling
Marty Peretz
Website
of the Day
T-Shirts to Protest In
Hot Stories
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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for More Stories.
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May
28, 2003
The CIA in Iran
The
Oily Business of Regime Change
By AHMAD FARUQUI
About fifty years ago, in July 1953, the U.S.
secretary of state held a press conference in which he stated,
"The growing activities of the illegal Communist Party in
Iran and the toleration of them by the Iranian government has
caused our government much concern." On August 19, a pro-Shah
demonstration arose spontaneously in a Teheran bazaar. The demonstration
seemed to express public alarm at the plans of the Communist
Party to declare Iran a republic. By the end of the day, a retired
general and a former cabinet member, Fazlollah Zahedi, had taken
over as the new premier. The deposed premier, 71-year old Mohammed
Mossadeq, and his cohorts were either in hiding or had been captured.
The Shah returned shortly to Iran, where he was given a rousing
reception. The U.S. claimed another victory against the evil
empire, saying Iran had been prevented from falling behind the
Iron Curtain.
A minority argued that a coup d'etat
had taken place but the majority accounts disputed that assertion.
Time magazine said, "This was no military coup, but a spontaneous
popular uprising." The Washington Post commented that Iran
had been saved from falling into communist hands. That became
the official version of history, and was taught in colleges and
universities worldwide for the past five decades. The minority
version has now been validated by the unofficial release of the
C.I.A.'s secret history about the Iranian coup of 1953.
The 200-page document, which remains
classified, discloses the pivotal role American and British intelligence
services played in initiating and planning the coup. It shows
that Washington and London-who constituted the coalition of two
in the recent war against Iraq-shared an interest in maintaining
the West's control over Iranian oil. Donald Wilbur wrote the
document in March 1954, based on agency cable traffic and interviews
with agents on the ground in Iran. Excerpts were published by
James Risen in the New York Times in April 2000 and the entire
document was subsequently posted on the Times web site. Recent
events in Iraq have given Wilbur's history a new salience, and
it is featured in the May 19 issue of Time magazine.
Wilbur lists seven reasons for why the
C.I.A. carried out the coup. Oil heads the list. He says, "By
the end of 1952, it had become clear that the Mossadeq government
in Iran was incapable of reaching an oil settlement with interested
western countries." Mossadeq was an impassioned speaker
and popular politician who had long argued against the British
domination of Iranian oil. The Anglo-Iranian oil company, a predecessor
of today's British petroleum, held the concession for all of
Iran's oil. Mossadeq wanted a fifty-fifty sharing arrangement
with the British, which was becoming the industry standard, but
they refused. On becoming Iran's premier, he nationalized the
company.
According to Professor Mark Gasiorowski
of Louisiana State University, the coup was stage-managed meticulously
by the C.I.A. It prepared the groundwork for the coup by subordinating
various important Iranian political actors and using propaganda
and other instruments to influence public opinion against Mossadeq.
There was no popular uprising on behalf of the Shah. The history
says agency officers orchestrating the Iran coup worked directly
with royalist Iranian military officers, sent a stream of envoys
to bolster the shah's courage, directed a campaign of bombings
by Iranians posing as members of the Communist Party, and planted
articles, editorial cartoons and fake interviews in the Iranian
press.
The Operation was code named TPAJAX,
and its aim was "to cause the fall of the Mossadeq government.and
bring to power a government which would reach an equitable oil
settlement." By April 16, 1953, the C.I.A. had determined
that it was possible to change the democratically elected regime
through covert operations carried out jointly with the British
Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). The plan was completed by
June 10, 1953 and submitted to the Secretary of State John Foster
Dulles and his brother, Allen W. Dulles, the director of the
C.I.A. The Dulles brothers assigned the task of overseeing the
coup to Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of President Theodore
Roosevelt and a long-time intelligence operative who was based
in Teheran.
On July 11, President Eisenhower approved
Operation TPAJAX. The C.I.A. choose General Zahedi as the successor
to Mossadeq who would pave the way for the Shah's return. Brigadier
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, father of the American general
who led the allied forces during the first Gulf War, played a
key role in the coup. General Schwarzkopf, who had worked with
the Shah's palace security forces during the mid-forties, helped
buy his support for the coup by convincing him of its success.
Once the coup had restored the Peacock
Throne to the Shah, British Petroleum returned to work the Iranian
oil fields. In tow came along five American companies who would
one day become ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco. American foreign
aid poured into Iran for the next quarter century to the tune
of $20 billion. The Shah proceeded to launch a "White Revolution"
from the throne. His grip on power was sustained through a notorious
secret police, the Savak, which arrested, tortured and executed
his opponents with a zeal that reminded Iranians of the Gestapo.
In due course of time, TP-AJAX became
the blueprint for a succession of C.I.A. plots to foment coups
during the Cold War. In more than one instance, such operations
led to the same kind of long-term animosity toward the United
States that occurred in Iran in 1979 when a religious movement
led by Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah. The staff of the
American embassy were held as hostages for over a year and to
this day, U.S. companies are barred from doing business in Iran.
A lot has changed since then. The U.S.
has successfully overthrown the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein
in Iraq through an overt military invasion of Baghdad. In the
post 9/11-world, regime change does not have to be carried out
in secret. The U.S. defense secretary has bristled at suggestions
that the invasion was about oil. The Bush administration had
argued that the war was directed at eliminating Iraq's weapons
of mass destruction. Since such weapons may never be found, the
new line from the administration is that the war was intended
to relieve Iraqis from tyranny and to bestow on them the gift
of democracy.
This war may well turn out to be un-related
to oil, and be the first such war in the Middle East. In the
mean time, there is a strong suspicion, not just among the French,
that "the more things change, the more they stay the same."
Ahmad Faruqui,
an economist, is a fellow with the American Institute of International
Studies and the author of Rethinking
the National Security of Pakistan. He can be reached
at faruqui@pacbell.net
Today's
Features
Kurt
Nimmo
Condoleezza Rice: Huckstress for Israeli
Myths
Anthony
Gancarski
Hillary: a Dem the NeoCons Could Love?
Patrick
Cockburn
Terror, Bush and Joseph Conrad
John Chuckman
an Interpretation of Bush's Character
Kathleen
Christison
What Sharon Wants, Sharon Gets
Jeffrey
Blankfort
AIPAC Hijacks the Roadmap
Steve
Perry
Trouble in the Hinterlands
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