Comments on Wide Asleep in America: AJAX REDUX: US Heavy Meddle in Iran

i'm heartened seeing this wonderfully thorough...

2009-07-22T14:48:29.612-04:00

i'm heartened seeing this wonderfully thorough and synthesized article. i read your blog a few weeks ago in the wake of the election and though you were moderately skeptical, you hadn't at that point pieced together the picture you've presented here. in your comments section there were several impassioned readers who provided a portion of your source material (in particular a reader who linked you to Hersh's New Yorker piece), and who were themselves proponents of the stance you have now legitimized. the point being, i guess, is that it's difficult to gauge the veracity of bloggers' views, difficult to know whether the issue with writers is simply an inability to resolve inconsistencies between prior and current views, or whatever. but in your honest analysis of those (extremely convincing) sources provided, in both fact and opinion, by your readers in the comment section, you have proved to me to be a trustworthy source of information, able to readjust and reconsider when the evidence is strong enough to do so. your piece, supported by what is now a wealth of independent analysis, is the most complete account i have yet to read, and i appreciate and applaud the time and effort you've put into reformulating this troubling case. thank you!

by the way, there was a politico article published not long after the election stating that by all accounts, though perhaps some inconsistencies were present, ahmadinejad clearly and legally won the election, whose margin of victory is only off a couple of percentage points from the last Iranian elections. this coming from politico! wide asleep in america, indeed.

...continued from above... In a recent Al Jazeera...

2009-07-01T21:43:14.892-04:00

...continued from above...

In a recent Al Jazeera interview, reporter Josh Rushing asks former US National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft if there are "intelligence operatives on the ground in Iran," to which Scowcroft simply replies, "Of course we do."

Additionally, in a June 28 CNN interview with Robert Baer, Fareed Zakaria asked the retired 21 year CIA veteran and former Middle East undercover operative, "Isn’t it true that we do [try to destabilize the regime]? Don’t we fund various groups inside and outside Iran that do try to destabilize the government?" Baer answered, "Oh absolutely," adding, "There is a covert action program against Iran where the [U.S.] military is running; a covert action against Iran from Iraq and Afghanistan."

A June 19 BBC interview with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the foreign policy icon, ultimate insider, and consumate imperialist, exposed Washington's deep involvement (or, at least, interest) in Iranian affairs. Kissinger said, "If it turns out that it is not possible for a government to emerge in Iran that can deal with itself as a nation rather than as a cause, then we have a different situation."

Analyst Esam Al-Amin provides us with a telling "between the lines" translation of Kissinger's words:

...if our preferred candidate did not emerge a winner after using all our soft power...

Kissinger continued, "Then we may conclude that we must work for regime change in Iran from the outside..."

...then the U.S. (or perhaps Israel) may have to resort to hard power, meaning military strikes....

Kissinger then added, "But if I understand the president correctly, he does not want to do this as a visible intervention in the current crisis."

...Whatever President Barack Obama is doing in Iran, he wants to make sure that Washington’s hand is invisible...

Again, this is not to say that the reaction of each and every Mousavi supporter after the election was manipulated or orchestrated - it is clear that there was a genuine groundswell of outrage, frustration, and disappointment - but I do think that there are other elements that play into the whole picture. To assume that the CIA is not doing the job that they are paid to do is naive in my opinion.

I support the voice of the Iranian people - as it is, in part, my voice too - and I abhor the use of force to silence dissent and stifle resistance. I do not think, however, that the Iranian people speak with a monolithic and unified voice - no population as large, thoughtful, informed, and diverse as that of Iran could. From what I have heard from reliable sources both within and outside Iran (take Boston-based political scientist Kaveh Afrasiabi or University of Tehran professor and critic of Ahmadinejad Seyed Mohammad Marandi for example), there is tremendous popular support for the incumbent.

For you to say that the Iranian people hate Ahmadinejad, to me, reveals more about how you personally feel (which is completely valid) than how a country of 70 million people feel.

But this is not what is being discussed here. There is not one single guiding force behind what is happening in Iran. There are a multitude of motives, influences, beliefs, viewpoints, and causes that have converged over the past few weeks - ranging of course from real, grassroots activism to overseas string-pulling.

The majority of the mainstream, right-wing, and progressive media have fallen head-over-heels to cover the former. I chose, for this particular article, to focus on the latter.

آباد باش اِی ایران
آزاد باش اِی ایران

Iranian guy, Thank you for your comments. I'...

2009-07-01T21:32:53.187-04:00

Iranian guy,

Thank you for your comments. I'm sorry you see my analysis as being wrong-headed. Please know, first and foremost, that I would love to be wrong about foreign influence in Iran, even though there is a lot of evidence to suggest that it exists and has played at least some part in what happened after the election.

But let me also say this:

I myself am Iranian. I have citizenship and I voted on June 12th. I have hundreds and hundreds of family members living all over Iran, including large clusters in Tehran, Karaj, and Varamin.

As I have written before, I am often frustrated to varying degrees (ranging from dismayed to disappointed to disgusted) by the actions of the Iranian government. It is one that I would not have voted for thirty years ago - though a huge majority of the Iranian population following the Revolution did - and one that I would readily vote against now if there were a new referendum. At no point have I ever attempt to defend or support certain aspects or actions of the Islamic Republic security apparatus or even try to justify certain paradoxical elements of the Constitution.

Additonally, I am not going to argue with you about defects of the structural, ideological, and Constitutional make-up of the Islamic Republic of Iran. As a devoted atheist, I have many problems (to say the least) with any political system that relies heavily on religious doctrine. I do believe that elements of the Iranian government are wholly representational and democractic, but I don't believe that it's a system that allows for the kind of universal human rights that I would like to see in every government, in every community, in every household, in every brain on this planet.

I also must reiterate that the point of my article is not to downplay the genuine role of thousands and thousands of Iranians who flooded the streets for days on end, who came out and spoke out against what they believe is a gross injustice and I wholly support any and all efforts for the voices of popular movements to be heard and listened to by their government.

In no way would I ever seek to justify the actions of the state "security" apparatus of Iran (or of the United States, for that matter) or minimize the the effects of such actions. My article was not about that, however, it was about documented US involvement in Iran.

...continued below...

I wonder how you dare saying this nonsense while y...

2009-07-01T09:00:45.480-04:00

I wonder how you dare saying this nonsense while you don't live in my country, you are living in a free country & have the right to say these craps!
Even somebody like Moosavi who has passed through different filters in Iranian Regime doesn't have the right to complain, to publish articles on newspapers to have a speech on television!

Where the hell were you when real Iranian people protested in Azadi Square? Don't you have eyes to just see the millions of people out there? Were they all Americans? Haven't you seen the footages of explicit fraud showing some bastards writing tons of ballots?

Haven't you seen people got killed in streets by Basij Militia? Maybe you haven't but I was in there & SAW IT! I SAW IT ALL!

Open your eyes, Iranian people hate Ahmadi Nejad! Face this fact! I wonder how are you getting revenue out of saying these craps! Iranian government should have rewarded you, since your stupid article is all over their shitty media!

Say the truth for God's sake, you are disrespecting people's intelligence!

Death to our regime & all of it's supporters!

I was wondering if anyone had taken this view as i...

2009-06-29T13:32:05.492-04:00

I was wondering if anyone had taken this view as it certainly seemed a plausible one given the record of U.S. meddling. This was more than I expected; an excellent synthesis. Noting the "color revolutions" of NED design was an important point to make.

There is plenty of evidence of voter fraud before ...

2009-06-26T08:03:08.168-04:00

There is plenty of evidence of voter fraud before and after the elections:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_murders_of_Iran

"Why would fraudulent numbers look any different? The reason is that humans are bad at making up numbers. Cognitive psychologists have found that study participants in lab experiments asked to write sequences of random digits will tend to select some digits more frequently than others."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/20/AR2009062000004.html

If nothing else, the fact that the American govern...

2009-06-24T21:13:04.790-04:00

If nothing else, the fact that the American government has used "overt and covert operations designed to weaken one of the only countries that has ever successfully stood up to American imperialism in the face of aggressive efforts to foment dissent and promote regime change." seems like a good reason for any proud Iranian to vote for Ahmadinejad.