________________________
At least in part, there seems little doubt that the surge in New Year protests across Iran followed a régime-change agenda set by the USA. Public statements issued by US President Donald Trump and his senior officials all made strident calls in support of protesters while denigrating the Iranian government as a “brutal oppressor”. Arguably, that amounts to audacious incitement of sedition in a foreign state, and we should legally sanction such American misconduct. Washington and its allies used such a formula in dozens of countries over the decades, including most recently in Syria, during the 2011 unrest that led to all-out war. What’s acutely resonant is the historical background. Iran was probably the first nation subjected to American régime-change operations in the post-WWII period, with a CIA-led coup carried out in 1953.
Firstly, let’s look at the flagrant attempts by the USA to destabilise the Iranian government through highly pejorative and misleading public statements. Last week, American Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley even claimed:
The Iranian people are crying out for freedom against their dictators.
A senior official in the US State Department also admitted that his government was communicating via social media with demonstrators in Iran. Washington’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, openly said in a media interview this weekend that his government is seeking “political transition” in Iran… or, in other words, régime-change. In addition, this weekend, the USA called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in an attempt to censure the Iranian government for the dozens of deaths incurred during the week-long protests. Haley declared:
The world is watching what Iran does.
Iran, Russia, and China berated the USA for violating Iranian sovereignty by interfering in the country’s internal affairs. The brazen attempt by the USA to fuel protests in Iran is indeed a serious breach of the UN Charter forbidding interference in any nation’s political matters. US régime-change policy is arguably criminal conduct. We still don’t know just how actively involved on the ground US agencies were in stoking the recent protests in Iran. The initial demonstrations that first broke out on 28 December in Mashhad quickly spread to dozens of other urban centres. Iranian authorities blamed the USA and other foreign enemies for being behind the disturbances.
The rallies had a legitimate part motivated by genuine economic grievances. However, at the same time, the rapid escalation of violence and armed attacks on police stations suggest that someone was orchestrating a subversive plot. The role of the US news media (and to lesser extent European) in covering the Iranian unrest was also indicative of a geopolitical agenda. In particular, the American media tended to portray the protests in a benign light as an uprising against an autocratic regime. US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley dismissed Iranian claims of foreign subversion. Haley’s dismissal contradicts the public statements and admissions of the US President and other senior officials. Nonetheless, Iran has sound reason to suspect a pernicious agenda seeking to exploit social protests.
In 2013, some 60 years after the 1953 coup in Iran, the CIA disclosed classified documents that prove the agency was behind that infamous event. The CIA worked covertly with its British counterpart MI6 to carry out Operation Ajax to overthrow the elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Mosaddegh intended to nationalise Iran’s oil industry, threatening American and British interests. The coup ushered in the rule of the pro-Western Shah Pahlavi who opened up Iranian oil fields to American and British companies. The CIA and US military were lynchpins in the Shah’s régime and its brutal repression of Iranians until the Islamic Revolution of 1979 finally overthrew him. For this reason, Washington never forgave the Iranian people. It explains why obsession with régime-change in Tehran haunts the US political establishment.
What’s telling are the similarities between events then and now. The CIA-led coup in 1953 involved a propaganda campaign using news media outlets to undermine the government. The New York Times labelled Mosaddegh a “dictator” and compared him to “Hitler” and “Stalin”. Britain’s state broadcaster, the BBC, was also involved in the campaign to undermine the Iranian authorities, as Mark Curtis recounts in his book Web of Deceit. Back in Washington and London, the political leaders implemented an economic embargo on Tehran and denounced it as a Soviet stooge. When the coup got underway, the CIA is now on record admitting that it paid thugs and provocateurs to launch street violence in Tehran, which it blamed on the authorities ostensibly showing a heavy-hand. From the CIA and MI6’s point of view, the coup was a stunning success. The régime-change opened up big oil interests. For the Iranian people, it meant years of vicious repression under the Shah and his CIA-trained SAVAK secret police.
In 1953, the CIA was only newly-formed in the aftermath of the World War II. What the Iran coup marked was a fateful turning point for the agency, and the nature of American governments ever since, with global repercussions. In its original formation, the CIA was only intended to serve as an “intelligence gathering” service to aid US presidents to formulate foreign policy. What the coup in Iran marked was the beginning of a “secret government” within the USA; one that was above the law and unaccountable. US presidents would come and go in elections, but the “deep state” of the CIA would remain. It assumed the powers to carry out régime-change against any foreign government regardless of international law. Subversion and political assassination would become tools of this new US statecraft. Once the CIA got the habit of régime-change in Iran, it couldn’t stop. Since 1953, the American “secret government” has gone on to conduct dozens of such dirty operations around the world with deadly and horrific consequences for masses of people.
While the recent social protests in Iran have subsided, nevertheless, there also seems to be another, more sinister dimension to the Iranian disturbances… an illegal agenda of régime-change promoted by Washington. Given that Iran is “Ground Zero” for America’s historical worldwide practice of régime-change, the threat to national security from foreign interference is an understandable concern. Russia and China took the correct position in warning the USA to cease adding instability in Iran. The Iranian people must be free from external meddling to resolve their own internal problems. The laughable irony is that as American politicians and media complain hysterically about others meddling in their country, they have no qualms about brazenly poking into Iran.
6 January 2018
Finian Cunningham
Sputnik International
https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201801061060556845-iran-us-regime-change-ground-zero/
Voices from Russia 
Iran “Ground Zero” for US Régime-Change
Tags: Iran, Middle East, Middle Eastern, political commentary, politics, United States, USA
________________________
At least in part, there seems little doubt that the surge in New Year protests across Iran followed a régime-change agenda set by the USA. Public statements issued by US President Donald Trump and his senior officials all made strident calls in support of protesters while denigrating the Iranian government as a “brutal oppressor”. Arguably, that amounts to audacious incitement of sedition in a foreign state, and we should legally sanction such American misconduct. Washington and its allies used such a formula in dozens of countries over the decades, including most recently in Syria, during the 2011 unrest that led to all-out war. What’s acutely resonant is the historical background. Iran was probably the first nation subjected to American régime-change operations in the post-WWII period, with a CIA-led coup carried out in 1953.
Firstly, let’s look at the flagrant attempts by the USA to destabilise the Iranian government through highly pejorative and misleading public statements. Last week, American Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley even claimed:
A senior official in the US State Department also admitted that his government was communicating via social media with demonstrators in Iran. Washington’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, openly said in a media interview this weekend that his government is seeking “political transition” in Iran… or, in other words, régime-change. In addition, this weekend, the USA called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in an attempt to censure the Iranian government for the dozens of deaths incurred during the week-long protests. Haley declared:
Iran, Russia, and China berated the USA for violating Iranian sovereignty by interfering in the country’s internal affairs. The brazen attempt by the USA to fuel protests in Iran is indeed a serious breach of the UN Charter forbidding interference in any nation’s political matters. US régime-change policy is arguably criminal conduct. We still don’t know just how actively involved on the ground US agencies were in stoking the recent protests in Iran. The initial demonstrations that first broke out on 28 December in Mashhad quickly spread to dozens of other urban centres. Iranian authorities blamed the USA and other foreign enemies for being behind the disturbances.
The rallies had a legitimate part motivated by genuine economic grievances. However, at the same time, the rapid escalation of violence and armed attacks on police stations suggest that someone was orchestrating a subversive plot. The role of the US news media (and to lesser extent European) in covering the Iranian unrest was also indicative of a geopolitical agenda. In particular, the American media tended to portray the protests in a benign light as an uprising against an autocratic regime. US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley dismissed Iranian claims of foreign subversion. Haley’s dismissal contradicts the public statements and admissions of the US President and other senior officials. Nonetheless, Iran has sound reason to suspect a pernicious agenda seeking to exploit social protests.
In 2013, some 60 years after the 1953 coup in Iran, the CIA disclosed classified documents that prove the agency was behind that infamous event. The CIA worked covertly with its British counterpart MI6 to carry out Operation Ajax to overthrow the elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Mosaddegh intended to nationalise Iran’s oil industry, threatening American and British interests. The coup ushered in the rule of the pro-Western Shah Pahlavi who opened up Iranian oil fields to American and British companies. The CIA and US military were lynchpins in the Shah’s régime and its brutal repression of Iranians until the Islamic Revolution of 1979 finally overthrew him. For this reason, Washington never forgave the Iranian people. It explains why obsession with régime-change in Tehran haunts the US political establishment.
What’s telling are the similarities between events then and now. The CIA-led coup in 1953 involved a propaganda campaign using news media outlets to undermine the government. The New York Times labelled Mosaddegh a “dictator” and compared him to “Hitler” and “Stalin”. Britain’s state broadcaster, the BBC, was also involved in the campaign to undermine the Iranian authorities, as Mark Curtis recounts in his book Web of Deceit. Back in Washington and London, the political leaders implemented an economic embargo on Tehran and denounced it as a Soviet stooge. When the coup got underway, the CIA is now on record admitting that it paid thugs and provocateurs to launch street violence in Tehran, which it blamed on the authorities ostensibly showing a heavy-hand. From the CIA and MI6’s point of view, the coup was a stunning success. The régime-change opened up big oil interests. For the Iranian people, it meant years of vicious repression under the Shah and his CIA-trained SAVAK secret police.
In 1953, the CIA was only newly-formed in the aftermath of the World War II. What the Iran coup marked was a fateful turning point for the agency, and the nature of American governments ever since, with global repercussions. In its original formation, the CIA was only intended to serve as an “intelligence gathering” service to aid US presidents to formulate foreign policy. What the coup in Iran marked was the beginning of a “secret government” within the USA; one that was above the law and unaccountable. US presidents would come and go in elections, but the “deep state” of the CIA would remain. It assumed the powers to carry out régime-change against any foreign government regardless of international law. Subversion and political assassination would become tools of this new US statecraft. Once the CIA got the habit of régime-change in Iran, it couldn’t stop. Since 1953, the American “secret government” has gone on to conduct dozens of such dirty operations around the world with deadly and horrific consequences for masses of people.
While the recent social protests in Iran have subsided, nevertheless, there also seems to be another, more sinister dimension to the Iranian disturbances… an illegal agenda of régime-change promoted by Washington. Given that Iran is “Ground Zero” for America’s historical worldwide practice of régime-change, the threat to national security from foreign interference is an understandable concern. Russia and China took the correct position in warning the USA to cease adding instability in Iran. The Iranian people must be free from external meddling to resolve their own internal problems. The laughable irony is that as American politicians and media complain hysterically about others meddling in their country, they have no qualms about brazenly poking into Iran.
6 January 2018
Finian Cunningham
Sputnik International
https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201801061060556845-iran-us-regime-change-ground-zero/