Iran Had a Democracy Before We Took It Away

The reason for this post is to tie together a theme that has been occurring here on ATS for the past week or so regarding the Iranian protests.

Here are some of the threads that are important to understanding why I felt it necessary to do so:

My own to understand our hand in this: CIA, Iran, and the Election Protests

To understand how much this is costing us and how far they are taking it: CIA has distributed 400 million dollars in Iran to evoke a revolution

one poster: audas
had this to say:

"Once again, Iran is an experimental field for innovative subversive methods. "

"The CIA is relying in 2009 on a new weapon: control of cell phones."

"Secondly, Iranian citizens were selected by the CIA or volunteered on the Internet by the CIA to chat on Facebook or to subscribe to Twitter feeds."

" They received information —true or false— (still via SMS) about the evolution of the political crisis and the ongoing demonstrations. "

"These anonymous news posts by the CIA were spreading news of gun fights and numerous deaths which to this day have not been confirmed. "

"Because of an unfortunate calendar overlap, Twitter was supposed to suspend its service for a night to allow for some maintenance of its systems."

" The US State Department intervened to ask them to postpone it . According to the New York Times, these operations contributed to spread defiance in the population."

"Simultaneously, in a new type of effort, the CIA is mobilizing anti-Iranian militants in the United States and in the United Kingdom to increase the chaos."

" A Practical Guide to revolution in Iran was distributed to them, which contains a number of recommendations, including:
set Twitter accounts feeds to Tehran time zone;
centralize messages on the following Twitter accounts @stopAhmadi, #iranelection and #gr88 ;
official Iranian State websites should not be attacked. « Let the US military take care of it » .

Here is his source: voltairenet.org

Department of Defense: Protests = Terrorism--to understand the hypocrisy

Now, to tie this all together to understand what we are doing and why we are doing it:

Iran Had a Democracy Before We Took It Away I have emphasized certain parts:

Iranians do not need or want us to teach them about liberty and representative government. They have long embodied this struggle. It is we who need to be taught. It was Washington that orchestrated the 1953 coup to topple Iran’s democratically elected government, the first in the Middle East, and install the compliant shah in power. It was Washington that forced Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, a man who cared as much for his country as he did for the rule of law and democracy, to spend the rest of his life under house arrest. We gave to the Iranian people the corrupt regime of the shah and his savage secret police and the primitive clerics that rose out of the swamp of the dictator’s Iran. Iranians know they once had a democracy until we took it away

To understand the CIA operation that overthrew the democratically elected Iranian gov't: Operation Ajax

The history of modern Iran is the history of a people battling tyranny. These tyrants were almost always propped up and funded by foreign powers. This suppression and distortion of legitimate democratic movements over the decades resulted in the 1979 revolution that brought the Iranian clerics to power, unleashing another tragic cycle of Iranian resistance.

“For a long time the perpetrators were the British and Russians. Beginning in 1953, the United States began taking over that role. In that year, the American and British secret services overthrew an elected government, wiped away Iranian democracy, and set the country on the path to dictatorship.”

“Then, in the 1980s, the U.S. sided with Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war, providing him with military equipment and intelligence that helped make it possible for his army to kill hundreds of thousands of Iranians,” Kinzer said. “Given this history, the moral credibility of the U.S. to pose as a promoter of democracy in Iran is close to nil.

Especially ludicrous is the sight of people in Washington calling for intervention on behalf of democracy in Iran when just last year they were calling for the bombing of Iran. If they had had their way then, many of the brave protesters on the streets of Tehran today—the ones they hold up as heroes of democracy—would be dead now.”

Detailing the US siding with Saddam Hussein: Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein. Includes additional links on the declassified documents of US support for Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war.

This next part is very important to see the situation from ALL SIDES:

I am no friend of the Iranian regime, which helped create and arm Hezbollah, is certainly meddling in Iraq, has persecuted human rights activists, gays, women and religious and ethnic minorities, embraces racism and intolerance and uses its power to deny popular will. ButI do not remember Iran orchestrating a coup in the United States to replace an elected government with a brutal dictator who for decades persecuted, assassinated and imprisoned democracy activists. I do not remember Iran arming and funding a neighboring state to wage war against our country. Iran never shot down one of our passenger jets as did the USS Vincennes—caustically nicknamed Robocruiser by the crews of other American vessels—when in June 1988 it fired missiles at an Airbus filled with Iranian civilians, killing everyone on board.

The resistance you see in Iran will not end until Iranians, and all those burdened with repression in the Middle East, free themselves from the tyranny that comes from within and without. Let us, for once, be on the side of those who share our democratic ideals.

It's reported by multiple news sites that over 30 precincts in Iran had voter turnout over 100%. Was that the USA as well? If so how was it still such a landslide for Amenjihad? Additionally there was not enough time to count 40 million paper ballots and tabulate the results so quickly.

reply to post by jjkenobi


I think you should read my post before responding. Plus, I don't exactly know what you are trying to say.

reply to post by jjkenobi


Having been lied to for so long about so many things by the mainstream press, why should we believe anything they are telling us about the situation in Iran. Verbatim regurgitation of the same stories by different press outlets does not mean it's true or verifiable.
The whole situation seems to be highly orchestrated and yet they have not, as far as I have seen, been able to present any actual proof of vote rigging. The levels of hypocrisy from the US especially are incredible, given the actual and proven issues of vote fraud in 2000 and 2004.

I see even the "Crown Prince" is weighing in now with support for the riots. Mmmmmm....another dictator in waiting?

Star for you Nunya13.

[edit on 22-6-2009 by Britguy]

Originally posted by nunya13
It was Washington that orchestrated the 1953 coup to topple Iran’s democratically elected government, the first in the Middle East, and install the compliant shah in power. It was Washington that forced Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, a man who cared as much for his country as he did for the rule of law and democracy, to spend the rest of his life under house arrest. We gave to the Iranian people the corrupt regime of the shah and his savage secret police and the primitive clerics that rose out of the swamp of the dictator’s Iran. Iranians know they once had a democracy until we took it away

In fact, under Mossadegh's reign as Prime Minister, the Iranian people had begun to suffer greatly, in large part, as a result of his decision to nationalize an Anglo-Iranian Oil company which lead to a Brittish boycott of the country.

It was the British who most wanted Mossadegh ousted from office since it was their revenues that were suddenly taken away. In fact, initially, Mossadegh believed the US would support the move to nationalize the company but they did not and, as the OP points out, the CIA played a large part in removing Mossadegh from power.

It should be remembered, however, that his former internal coalition turned on him and that was ultimately what allowed him to meet his demise.

Originally posted by jjkenobi
It's reported by multiple news sites that over 30 precincts in Iran had voter turnout over 100%. Was that the USA as well? If so how was it still such a landslide for Amenjihad? Additionally there was not enough time to count 40 million paper ballots and tabulate the results so quickly.

I might know what you're getting at upon further thought. The only information we have that there was massive fraud is from a story that the votes were determined before the ballots were counted. However, there is more to that story(from the link I provided in my OP:

First, SMS were sent during the night of the counting of the votes, according to which the Guardian Council of the Constitution (equivalent to a constitutional court) had informed Mir-Hossein Mousavi of his victory. After that, the announcing of the official results — the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with 64 % of cast votes — seemed like a huge fraud. However, three days earlier, M. Mousavi and his friends were considering a massive victory of M. Ahmadinejad as certain and were trying to explain it by unbalanced campaigns. Indeed the ex president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was detailing his grievances in an open letter. The US polling institutes in Iran were predicting a 20 points lead for M. Ahmadinejad over M. Mousavi [12]. M. Mousavi victory never seemed possible, even if it is probable that some fraud accentuated the margin between the two candidates.

The anger of the people was compounded by the initial announcement of Moussavi's victory even though even he knew he would loose by a landslide. Why was he first led to believe he won?

Secondly, the situation gets even more mysterious when, if you had followed the same link, you would've read that there is no real way to tell just WHO is sending these messages via Twitter speaking of the Iranian military bursting into people's homes and the rumors of tanks on the streets.

Simultaneously, in a new type of effort, the CIA is mobilizing anti-Iranian militants in the United States and in the United Kingdom to increase the chaos. A Practical Guide to revolution in Iran was distributed to them, which contains a number of recommendations, including:

- set Twitter accounts feeds to Tehran time zone;
- centralize messages on the following Twitter accounts @stopAhmadi, #iranelection and #gr88 ;
- official Iranian State websites should not be attacked. « Let the US military take care of it » (sic).

When applied, these recommendations make it impossible to authenticate any Twitter messages. It is impossible to know if they are being sent by witnesses of the demonstrations in Tehran or by CIA agents in Langley, and it is impossible to distinguish real from false ones. The goal is to create more and more confusion and to push Iranians to fight amongst themselves.

SOMEONE IS TRYING TO MAKE THIS SITUATION WORSE than it every would have been had that someone NOT intervened.

edit to add another quote


[edit on 22-6-2009 by nunya13]

what we did in South America is much worse... Jackels

Originally posted by jjkenobi
It's reported by multiple news sites that over 30 precincts in Iran had voter turnout over 100%. Was that the USA as well? If so how was it still such a landslide for Amenjihad? Additionally there was not enough time to count 40 million paper ballots and tabulate the results so quickly.

Reread the OP's post - he is referring to the fact that the CIA was responsible for the overthrow of a democratically elected leader in 1953. Obama just admitted this fact recently.

Originally posted by andrewh7

Originally posted by jjkenobi
It's reported by multiple news sites that over 30 precincts in Iran had voter turnout over 100%. Was that the USA as well? If so how was it still such a landslide for Amenjihad? Additionally there was not enough time to count 40 million paper ballots and tabulate the results so quickly.

Reread the OP's post - he is referring to the fact that the CIA was responsible for the overthrow of a democratically elected leader in 1953. Obama just admitted this fact recently.

empahsis mine...

Eh hem...your he would be a she...it's okay though, understandable. I am a female...last time I checked

I don't believe that jjkenobi actually read my post in the first place. He/she replied too soon after I posted it to even really have viewed the video, read and understood it.