Obama's Denials of US interference in Iran not credible »
Posted By hyperbola 4 months, 2 weeks ago in Political OpinionThe Obama administration has responded to Iranian allegations of manipulating opposition protests inside the country with flat denials. However, there is considerable evidence of extensive US operations against Iran, spanning a range of diplomatic, intelligence and military activities.
USA Today last week noted that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was handing out $20 million in grants this financial year to unnamed organisations “to promote democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in Iran”. For next year, the Obama administration is seeking another $15 million via the Near Eastern Regional Democracy Initiative, which has similar aims.
...One of the funnels for funding is the state-funded National Endowment for Democracy, which has been intimately involved in “colour revolutions” in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics. The NED website lists a number of Iranian organisations including the National Iranian American Council as recipients of its funds.
This openly acknowledged program is, however, just the tip of the iceberg. In a series of articles in the New Yorker, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh provided details of the Bush administration’s efforts to foster “regime change” in Tehran and prepare for a military strikes. There is no reason to believe that the Obama administration has ended any of these covert activities by the CIA and the Pentagon.
In one of his first articles entitled “The Coming Wars” in January 2005, Hersh reported that the US military had been staging commando operations inside Iran for months to accumulate “intelligence and targeting information on Iranian nuclear, chemical and missile sites” for future military strikes. US special forces were operating from bases inside neighbouring, US-occupied Afghanistan and Iraq. The use of the military for covert operations avoided the formal legal constraints under which the CIA operated. (“US carrying out acts of war against Iran, magazine reports”)....
...In 2006, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought an extra $75 million to fund anti-Tehran propaganda and support opposition groups...
...The article provided details of US covert operations inside Lebanon, Syria and Iran, including the use of Al Qaeda-linked Sunni groups deeply hostile to Shiite Iran. (“The Bush administration’s new strategy of setting the Middle East aflame”)...
...In January 2007, the Boston Globe reported that ...
Reports also emerged in 2006 and 2007 that the US was covertly assisting armed guerrillas...
...The advent of the Obama administration resulted in a tactical shift in US foreign policy, not a fundamental change in direction....
It is not possible at this stage to determine the full extent of US involvement in the recent Iranian presidential elections and the subsequent protests. However, the entire campaign run by Mir Hossein Mousavi before and after the poll bears an uncanny resemblance to previous US-backed “colour revolutions” in Eastern Europe and former Soviet Republics. Given the intensive activities of the CIA, Pentagon and State Department, not only in recent years, but going back to the 1953 US-backed coup that overthrew the nationalist Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq, it certainly can be ruled out that the Obama administration has simply sat back and watched events unfold.
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hyperbola
Military brat (14th generation American) with unassuaged wanderlust. By age 11, schools in four states and three foreign countries (in 3 languages). Left home at ...
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berkeley4 months, 2 weeks ago
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we must remember that obama is playing a role, he is following a script. as president there are certain things he must say, and others he is not allowed to say.
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we, as a country, have interfered in most of the nations of the world, numerous times. iran has been high on that list for decades. it still is. anyone who cares to look can document that. good article. -
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