Iran's Election and US - Iranian Relations

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By Stephen Lendman (about the author) Page 4 of 5 page(s)

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Mossadegh was ousted. Reza Shah Pahlavi returned to power. Sanctions were lifted, and America and Britain regained their client state until February 1979 when the same Anglo-American interests turned on the Shah and deposed him.

F. William Engdahl explained it in his important book, "A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order." In 1978, a White House Iran task force recommended ousting the Shah and replacing him with Ayatollah Khomeini, then living in France. It was part of a larger scheme to balkanize the Middle East along tribal and religious lines and create an "Arc of Crisis" from Central Asia to the Soviet Union.

Doing it in 1978 became urgent at a time the Shah was negotiating a 25-year oil agreement with British Petroleum (BP), but talks broke down in October. BP demanded exclusive rights to future output but refused to guarantee oil purchases. The Shah balked and looked for new buyers in continental Europe and elsewhere.

He also sought to create a modern energy infrastructure built around nuclear power generation to transform the region's power needs. He envisioned 20 new reactors by 1995, wanted to diversity Iran's dependence on oil to weaken Washington's pressure to recycle petrodollars, and also increase investments in leading continental European companies.

Washington was alarmed, tried to block the plan but failed, and resorted instead to destabilization, starting with cutting Iranian purchases. Economic pressures and oil strikes followed along with US and UK agitators fanning religious discontent and other turmoil. The Carter administration urged Iran's Savak secret police to crack down as a way to arouse anti-Shah sentiment. Western media highlighted it, gave Khomeini a public stage to speak and prevented the Shah from responding.

In January 1979, things came to a head. The Shah fled the country, Khomeini returned, and proclaimed a theocratic state. By May, he cancelled Iran's nuclear plans. America thought it could control him and his nation's oil but calculated wrongly. Tensions built, thirty years later they continue, and post-June 12 they may again be coming to a boil.

Iranian Street Protests and Their Ominous Possibilities

Leading up to and after the Iranian election, The New York Times played its customary role as lead media gatekeeper/instigator doing what it does best - sanitizing news, filtering out uncomfortable truths, and presenting distorted opinions for the powerful interests it represents.

Roger Cohen's June 17 op-ed said 40 million Iranian "votes (were) flouted," many of whom "have crossed over from reluctant acquiescence to the Islamic Republic into opposition. (The Republic) has lost legitimacy. It is fissured. It will not be the same again." Does he know something we don't?

He called Mousavi "the reformist of impeccable revolutionary credentials." He's "a credible vehicle for a reform regime that serves to preserve it - an acceptable compromise to most Iranians." No matter that most of them apparently preferred Ahmadinejad, an outcome neither Cohen nor the Times accepts, or perhaps they and Washington do to be able to use his victory to incite trouble.

On June 17, The Times' feature story highlighted "Iranians angry at the results of last week's election (marshaled) tens of thousands (in) the streets (in spite of) signs of an intensified crackdown....the government expanded (it) with more arrests and pressure against journalists to limit coverage of the protests."

Scant mention was made of huge pro-Ahmadinejad crowds in central Tehran nor has there been in other media reports, especially on television where, not surprisingly, coverage has been distorted, one-way, and hostile to the Iranian president and regime, much as it's always been.

What's going on? Are anti-Ahmadinejad protests spontaneous or are covert instigators inciting them?

The Pak Alert Press reported that former Pakistani Army General Mirza Aslam Beig claims that the CIA distributed around $400 million inside Iran to incite revolution. In a June 15 interview with Pashto Radio, he cited "undisputed" intelligence proving interference.

"The documents prove that the CIA spend $400 million inside Iran to prop up a colorful-hollow revolution following the election" to incite regime change for a pro-Western government. He called Ahmadinejad's victory "a decisive point in regional policy and if Pakistan and Afghanistan unite with Iran, the US has to leave the area, especially (from) occupied Afghanistan."

Writing in the New Yorker's June 29, 2008 issue, Seymour Hersh said "Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country's religious leadership."

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I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.

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