Thanks Keith, "Lest We Forget . . . "
Michael Allen Thailand On Sun, 10 Aug 2003 22:52:51 +0900, Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > We've talked about the CIA coup against Mossadegh in Iran here several > times, and drawn much the same conclusions. I'm glad it's getting a bit > more attention now, very timely. > > Here's the NYT review of Stephen Kinzer's new book, All the Shah's Men: > An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror: > http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/10/books/review/10BASS.html > 'All the Shah's Men': Regime Change, Circa 1953 > > Keith > > > http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2003/000158.html > We Had a Democracy Once, But You Crushed It > By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > > Fri, 08 Aug 2003 > In yesterday's Washington Post, Condoleeza Rice, the President's National > Security Advisor, writes the following: > > "Our task is to work with those in the Middle East who seek progress > toward greater democracy, tolerance, prosperity and freedom. As President > Bush said in February, 'The world has a clear interest in the spread of > democratic values, because stable and free nations do not breed > ideologies of murder. They encourage the peaceful pursuit of a better > life.'" > > Now, if we only had a nickel for every time Bush, or Rice, or Colin > Powell, or Paul Wolfowitz or Dick Cheney or Richard Perle or Donald > Rumsfeld talked about bringing democracy to the Middle East. > > Talk, talk, talk. > > Here's something you can bet on: Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz will not hold a > press conference this month to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the > U.S.-led coup of the democratically elected leader of Iran -- Mohammed > Mossadegh. > > Rice and Powell won't hold a press conference to celebrate Operation > Ajax, the CIA plot that overthrew the Mossadegh. > > That was 50 years ago this month, in August 1953. > > That's when Mossadegh was fed up with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company -- > now BP -- pumping Iran's oil and shipping the profits back home to the > United Kingdom. > > And Mossadegh said -- hey, this is our oil, I think we'll keep it. > > And Winston Churchill said -- no you won't. > > Mossadegh nationalized the company -- the way the British were > nationalizing their own vital industries at the time. > > But what's good for the UK ain't good for Iran. > > If you fly out of Dulles Airport in Virginia, ever wonder what the word > Dulles means? > > It stands for the Dulles family -- Secretary of State John Foster Dulles > and his brother, the CIA director, Allen Dulles. > > They were responsible for the overthrow of the democratically elected > leader of Iran. > > As was President Theodore Roosevelt's grandson, Kermit Roosevelt, the CIA > agent who traveled to Iran to pull off the coup. > > Now why should we be concerned about a coup that happened so far away > almost 50 years ago this month? > > New York Times reporter Stephen Kinzer puts it this way: > > "It is not far-fetched to draw a line from Operation Ajax through the > Shah's repressive regime and the Islamic revolution to the fireballs that > engulfed the World Trade Center in New York." > > Kinzer has written a remarkable new book, All the Shah's Men: An American > Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror (Wiley, 2003). > > In it, he documents step by step, how Roosevelt, the Dulles boys and > Norman Schwarzkopf Sr., among a host of others, took down a > democratically elected regime in Iran. > > They had freedom of the press. We shut it down. > > They had democracy. And we crushed it. > > Mossadegh was the beacon of hope for the Middle East. > > If democracy were allowed to take hold in Iran, it probably would have > spread throughout the Middle East. > > We asked Kinzer: what does the overthrow of Mossadegh say about the > United States respect for democracy abroad? > > "Imagine today what it must sound like to Iranians to hear American > leaders tell them -- 'We want you to have a democracy in Iran, we > disapprove of your present government, we wish to help you bring > democracy to your country.' Naturally, they roll their eyes and say -- > "We had a democracy once, but you crushed it,'" he said. "This shows how > differently other people perceive us from the way we perceive ourselves. > We think of ourselves as paladins of democracy. But actually, in Iran, we > destroyed the last democratic regime the country ever had and set them on > a road to what has been half a century of dictatorship." > > After ousting Mossadegh, the United States put in place a brutal Shah who > destroyed dissent and tortured the dissenters. > > And the Shah begat the Islamic revolution. > > During that Islamic revolution in 1979, Iranians held up Mossadegh's > picture, telling the world: we want a democratic regime that resists > foreign influence and respects the will of the Iranian people as > expressed through democratic institutions. > > "They were never able to achieve that. And this has led many Iranians to > react very poignantly to my book," Kaizer told us. "One woman sent me an > e-mail that said: 'I was in tears when I finished your book because it > made me think of all we lost and all we could have had.'" > > Of course, the overthrow of Mossadegh was only one of the first U.S. > coups of democratically elected regime. (To see one in movie form, pick > up a copy of Raoul Peck's Lumumba, now on DVD.) > > Kinzer's previous books include Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American > Coup in Guatemala. > > He's thinking of putting together a boxed set of his books on American > coups. > > Get copies of Bitter Fruit and All The Shah's Men. > > Read them. > > And the next time a politician talks about spreading democracy around the > globe, ask them about Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran, Patrice Lumumba in the > Congo, and Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. > > > Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime > Reporter, http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com. Robert Weissman is > editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor, > http://www.multinationalmonitor.org. They are co-authors of Corporate > Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, > Maine: Common Courage Press; http://www.corporatepredators.org). > > (c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > > > > Biofuels at Journey to Forever > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > Biofuel at WebConX > http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm > List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: > http://archive.nnytech.net/ > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > > > -- Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. 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