How many here know about the crap we pulled in Iran in the 70's?

[starroute]

I expect that by now most DUers have caught up with the overthrow of Mossadgh in 1953. But how many know about the stuff in the 70's that led to the overthrow of the Shah?

Here's a hint -- it involved the same people who had previously been behind the Phoenix Project assassination operation in Vietnam and would later be neck-deep in Iran-Contra.

Basically, the CIA drug trafficking that was going on in Vietnam during the war to fund covert operations like the Phoenix Project continued after US troops pulled out and even after the fall of Saigon in April 1975. By that point, though, a lot of the people involved were starting to go rogue. They had arms stashes in Thailand and cash in the Nugan Hand Bank which were under their own control and not that of the CIA.

The leader of this bunch was Ted Shackley, who had previously run Operation 40 for the CIA in Miami, training assassins to take out members of Castro's regime. In 1965, he and Tom Clines went to Laos to set up a drugs-arms-and-assassination operation. General Richard Secord coordinated the flights that carried the arms and drugs, and Oliver North and Richard Armitage were involved as well.

After the fall of Saigon, however, they needed a new primary basis of operations. For that reason, Shackley sent Armitage to Iran to set up both an unauthorized operation to funnel drug money from Southeast Asia and a covert assassination program to eliminate enemies of the Shah. Around the end of 1975, Shackley and Clines sent Edwin Wilson (formerly of the CIA's Air America) to Tehran to run the program and train SAVAK in assassination techniques. Secord was also in Iran at that time.

(This, among other things, is why some people were skeptical when Armitage said he'd inadvertently outed Valerie Plame because he just couldn't help himself. Inveterate gossips don't generally get picked to set up covert money-laundering and assassination programs.)

George H.W. Bush took over as CIA director in January 1976 and made Shackley his Deputy Director of Operations. A year later, however, Jimmy Carter became president and Shackley's people were recalled from Iran -- but by then it was too late to save the Shah from the hatred that their operations and their training of SAVAK had engendered.

Meanwhile, most of the same people had moved on to Latin American drugs-and-arms smuggling and then to Iran-Contra. Around the end of 1984, for example, Shackley was introduced by an Iranian general to Manucher Ghorbanifar -- and by the spring of 1985, the two of them and Ollie North were meeting together to cook up the Iranian arms deal.

[tabatha]

1. Yep, I knew it.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. Ghorbanifar!!!

Thank you! I was trying to remember that bastard's name last night, and couldn't remember it.

He was a real miserable sonofabitch. He's still at it, too.

This is a great summation and good history lesson for people who don't know what happened. Our historical memory is so short these days, it's important that people know as much as possible so as to put it all into perspective.

But, watching the House vote that damn resolution was such a joke. Those tools can't put their own house in order, but they're right ready to tell another country how to do it.

The Iranian people today are shaming us. We should have done this in November of 2000. Imagine how different the world would be today if we'd had half the courage and passion of the Iranian people today ...............

[theoldman]

6. Have you noticed that it is mostly young people in Iran that are protesting?

Young people in the US did not appear to be as interested in politics during the 2000 election. They did not perk up until the 2008 election.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

12. I remember reading an article by

Christopher Hitchens, who has done some excellent reporting about the Middle East, and he wrote about how the government of Iran in no way reflected the young population. That the youngsters were politically savvy and tired of being kept down, but he feared for what would happen to them if they ever rose up. This was maybe three years ago.

I'll be curious to see how Hitchens reports on what is happening right now. I'm watching CNN, in shock and awe.

Our youth now has a whole different set of struggles - trying to get a job or an education - and I fear they'll fall back even farther . As I've said, our schools aren't teaching any kind of relevant history, and the kids have no idea of what this world is about or what their place in that world might be.

The people of Iran right now, though - I am so afraid for them, thinking of Tiananmen Square which wasn't all that long ago - at least to some of us.....................

:hi:

[Sebastian Doyle]

3. Sometimes I wonder if the Shah got cancer from a CIA needle

the way Jack Ruby and Bill Casey did.

[timeforpeace]

4. And all we got out of it was Khomeni, Ahmadinejad and Co. No t-shirts even.

Dinnerjacket had a starring role in the embassy takeover, but denies it. And who wouldn't believe him?

[create.peace]

5. oh, freakin' yeah nt

[Trajan]

7. I object to the term 'we'

A term misused in forums everywhere ...

If 'we' inlcudes 'me', then WE didn't so any such thing ....

Maybe you can say 'The US Government' or something or other, but 'we' casts to wide a net ....

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

8. many of them moved on to Central America

but the real hard-core ones stayed in Central Asia, moving north into Afghanistan where they propped up the Taliban against the "Soviet Threat" and created our current terror problem as well.

[LSparkle]

9. Not to mention that WE advocated that they have NUCLEAR power

Back in the '70s. Probably because we wanted their oil
but for us to now say they have no right to a civilian
nuclear power program is pure hypocrisy.

[patrice]

10. Good point about Armsitrade, uhh . . Armitage.

[havocmom]

11. Early 70s on a very small, rural, remote community college the Shah had spies

Profs and instructors who had Iranian students in any class had to make a statement advising them to NOT participate in any discussions in class. Evidently, a couple of students who were vocal against the Shah had been killed. In this tiny podunk town off the beaten path in California.

I was astounded. Young and not as jaded back then. Agents of a dictator? On THIS tiny, obscure campus?

Yeah, not a nice regime and backed by some really shitty American players. I recall the news re Iran for the next 10 years. It was all bad. And our little king makers/drug dealers in high places were to blame for the root of it.

[madokie]

13. After having read this and the replys

there is no wonder that the people there don't trust us. Pretty much the same in south america too. Sometimes it's difficult to love our country because of shit like this. I do love it and will continue to love the usa but some of this is going way too far if you ask me. I just want us to all live and let live.

[tavalon]

15. Yeah, I'm cynically amused whenever someone mentions that America is no longer "the way it was"

It's never been the way it is remembered.

[PDJane]

14. I'm cursed with a fine memory....and I do remember.

And I am still of the opinion that everyone in America should watch Bill Moyers' "Secret Government" http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=3505348655137118430&ei=3J49StneI464rgKE2pGvCg&q=The+Secret+Government&hl=en . I also think that being aware of the power of the oligarchy would be a good thing.

The US has never been truly aware of what its government is doing.....as opposed to what they think it's doing.