After 60 years of secrecy, the CIA finally admitted to masterminding the 1953 coup against democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossedegh that ushered the widely despised U.S.-controlled Mohammad Reza Pahlavi back to power and had a hand in decimating left and progressive forces in Iran.
While it has long been known that U.S. and British forces secretly contributed to the overthrew of Mossedegh—who introduced social security systems, land reforms, and, to the horror of the U.S. and Britain, moved to nationalize Iran's oil industry—Monday marked the first time that the CIA publicly acknowledged the full extent of its role.
The independent National Security Archive research institute obtained documents from the CIA's internal history the Battle for Iran, penned in the 1970s, through a Freedom of Information Act request, according to the institute. The documents included discussion of TPAJAX—the U.S.-led and Britain-supported plot to overthrow Mossedegh.
The CIA had released a heavily redacted version of the documents in 1981 in response to an ACLU lawsuit, but it censored all information about the coup itself.
Monday's documents, which are publicly available on the National Security archive's website, declare, "It was the aim of the TPAJAX project to cause the fall of the Mossede[gh] government; to establish the prestige and power of the Shah... and bring to power a government which would reach an equitable oil settlement, enabling Iran to become economically sound and financially solvent, and which would vigorously prosecute the dangerously strong communist party."
The documents detail an aggressive U.S.-led and Britain-backed push for a coup, including an intensive "propaganda effort," official threats of removing economic aid, infiltration of the Iranian government, sparking of pro-Shah rallies and organization of security forces. The CIA admits to working with the state department to plant stories in major U.S. newspapers to influence public opinion in Iran, as well as pressuring the Shah to dismiss Mossedegh, in part through talks from his "dynamic and forceful twin sister."
While the U.S. role has long been acknowledged by scholars, former operatives and even former U.S. presidents, the CIA has long resisted revealing its specific methods and role.
The overthrow of Mossedegh has long stoked ire across the world as an example of U.S. policies of aggressive intervention and "soft power" propaganda wars, in pursuit of private profits and imperialist control. Its repercussions, which helped set the conditions for Iran's 1979 revolution, continue to ricochet throughout that country and the entire region.
Original article on Common Dreams
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Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith
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Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R)
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"The Butler", Another Young Boy's Personal Recall of That Period
"The Butler", Another Young Boy's Recall of History
I had a chance to see movie "The Butler" yesterday. I wasn't sure just what I thought I thought I was going to se, but it turned to be a very good movie. It covered not only civil rights movement but also differing views of black folk at the time (mostly of one family; the butler's). I was nine years old when President John Kennedy was assassinated, which was my point of awakening to politics, and the world began to unfold to me.
Even though I was very young, I remember the lynchings and killings. And they were still happening in the deep south almost until the year I graduated from high school in 1973. The Black Panthers came on the scene in the 1960's. Their goal was to serve and protect the black neighborhoods from police brutality and tyranny. They were not afraid to use force against force, even though they knew that in the end they couldn't win. But they were willing to die to make white America that black people weren't going to be treated as less than men. We wanted our freedom, just like every other American and we wanted it NOW!! Even though I admired the Black Panther Party, I could not see how their actions could accomplish anything but bring the wrath of the whole American government down on the black community, which it did for a time. In the end, the FBI infiltrated the Black Panther Party and turned them against each other and either killed or imprisoned their leaders. But in the end, their efforts also helped to win our rights in the south also. The black Panthers had a shootout in a court house in New Orleans in either the late 1970's or early 1980's. Just as in the recent case of a teenager named Trayvon Martin case, there was nothing that could be done if any white person killed a black person for any reason or for no reason at all. A young man from the northern city of Detroit, Michigan was brutally tortured shot to death and buried in a swamp, because he whistled at a white woman. In those days in the south, a person of color had better not hold the gaze of a white person, which was the reason the "butler's" father was killed in the cotton fields of the south. The butler knowing that it was just a matter of time before that same man would kill him, ran away the south and after many years came to be e butler inside the white house.
The Man was a white house butler from the Harry Truman administration until the Reagan administration, when he was invited to a white house gala, which he did attend. At that point I told my wife that I would not have attended because I would be in a room filled with people I didn't know nor have anything in common with. It was at that gala that the 'butler" began to open his eyes that maybe the way he saw the world wasn't all there was to it. He began to open his own mind to see his son's and other black folk's point of view. But the irony of the situation was that because of the way he conducted himself throughout his work at the white house, his example seemed to have affected the conscience of all those presidents for the better. God had given him grace in the eyes of those presidents much the same way he gave a young man named Joseph grace in the eyes of Pharoah in a story in the Holy Bible. It has been said, and I know it to be true, that God works in mysterious ways. And this is a case in point. When Africans were brought to the new land as slaves, those who brought them here didn't mean them any good, but God did! Now their descendants, though having gone through great trials, now live as citizens of the most prosperous country on the earth. And again this parallels an important event in the Holy Bible when God's chosen people, the Jews were in slavery in Egypt for 400 years. Afterwards they came out, with God's protection, as a nation.
Yes, the movie brought back some memories, many of them not so pleasant. but in the end I recommend that anyone who is able, to go and see it. I think you'll learn something not only about the human condition and also some history, you'll also be moved to want to make your contribution to history, no matter what that contribution may be
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Greg Palast | Investigative Reporter
When a little birdie dropped the End Game memo through my window, its content was so explosive, so sick and plain evil, I just couldn't believe it.
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CIA Exposed for Orchestrating '53 Iranian Coup: the Beginning of Distrust in Americn Foreign Policy
Prime Minister Mohammad Mossedeq Wikimedia Creative CommonsNew revelations follow 60 years of agency secrecy about event that struck blow against left and progressive forces in Iran
Published in National News
PDA In Your State
CIA Exposed for Orchestrating '53 Iranian Coup
Monday, August 19, 2013
US Aid to Egypt is Mostly Corporate Welfare From the Pentagon to Arms Manufacturers
Welcome to Informed Comment, where I do my best to provide an independent and informed perspective on Middle Eastern and American politics.
It's not about Democracy: Top Ten Reasons Washington is Reluctant to cut off Egypt Aid | Informed Comment
