A Conspiratorial History of Iran

Anglo-Persian Oil Company and the discovery of Oil in Iran

In 1901 entrepreneur William Knox D’Arcy negotiated an oil concession with the Shah of Persia, Mozzafar al-Din Shah Qajar, obtaining for himself exclusive oil prospecting rights for 60 years over most of the territory held at that time by Persia. The terms of this agreement, was a payment of £20,000, the equivalent again in shares of D'Arcy's company, and 16% of future profits.

D’Arcy having invested over half a million pounds into the venture without finding any oil, in 1908 was forced to sell the majority of his rights to the Burmah Oil Company. Just a few months later, on 26th May 1908, they struck oil and soon formed the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC), which generated the revenues needed to build a refinery at Abadan by selling shares to the public.

D’Arcy and the Burmah Oil Company were not the only western businesses looking to the Middle East as a means of economic expansion, both Russia and Germany had been making in roads and establishing concessions and developing the regions communications networks. In reaction to this, the Persian Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911), led to reforms that aimed at strengthening the role of government against exploitation by Imperial powers and reducing the power of the Qajar dynasty to sell off the countries natural resources.

In 1913, Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty negotiated with APOC to supply Britain, and the soon to be modernised naval fleet with oil, thus liberating it from dependence on Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell. In exchange for much needed capital, APOC lost much of it’s independence, and became, defacto, an arm of the British government.

In 1921, a Cossack Army Officer, Reza Khan launched a successful coup to oust the already weakened Qajar dynasty and himself assumed leadership of Persia, changing his name to Reza Shah in the process. The new Shah was in favour of modernising and commenced initiatives to develop a national educational system, industrial development and construction of network of rail roads. Most controversially, he looked to Germany as a means of balancing the traditional imperialistic influences of Russia and Britain on Iranian affairs. In 1923, due to growing concern that Germany, as partners in a number of rail building ventures, had designs on as yet untapped oil reserves, Burmah Oil, backhanded Winston Churchill £5,000 to lobby for an APOC monopoly on Persian oil resources.

It was not long before Iran realised that the 16% of net profits that it was receiving, seemed a little unfair, and sought to negotiate better terms for itself. Additionally, Iran had little control over the companies actions and their complaints were, initially, met with withholding of cash advances that the government relied upon to institute planned reforms.

The attempt to revise the terms of the oil concession on a more favourable basis for Iran led to protracted negotiations that took place in Tehran, Lausanne, London and Paris between Abdolhossein Teymourtash, Iran's Minister of Court 1925-32 and its nominal Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Chairman of APOC, John Cadman, spanned 1928-32.

Iran demanded a revision of the terms whereby Iran would be granted 25% of APOC's total shares. To counter British objections, Teymourtash, would state that "if this had been a new concession, the Persian Government would have insisted not on 25 percent but on a 50-50 basis. Teymourtash also asked for a minimum guaranteed interest of 12.5% on dividends from the shares of the company, plus 2s per ton of oil produced. In addition, he specified that the company was to reduce the existing area of the concession. The intent behind reducing the area of the concession was to push APOC operations to the southwest of the country so as to make it possible for Iran to approach and lure non-British oil companies to develop oilfields on more generous terms in areas not part of APOC's area of concession.

en.wikipedia.org...

Teymourtash's further requested that APOC make their accounting system more transparent, and register the company in Tehran, as well as London to facilitate this and allow Iran to derive tax and transportation revenues from oil extraction and refining on it’s soil. In 1930 the Iranian National Consultative Assembly approved a bill requiring APOC to pay 4% tax on it’s profits earned in Iran. In 1931, Teymourtash, in Europe to enrol the Crown Prince in a Swiss school, took the opportunity to secure an agreement in principle from the British Foreign Office to Iran’s demands for it’s fair share.

However, the agreement, and all negotiations prior, assumed a hollow ring, when in 1931 the plentiful global oil market, combined with the economic instability of the Depression resulted in price fluctuation which, overall, led to Iran receiveing less in oil revenues than it had previously ever received .

In that year APOC informed the Iranian government that its royalties for the year would amount to a mere £366,782 while in the same period the company's income taxes paid to the British Government amounted to approximately £1,000,000. Furthermore, while the company's profits declined 36 percent for the year, the revenues paid to the Iranian government pursuant to the company's accounting practices decreased by 76 percent.

en.wikipedia.org...

Reza Shah, not only publically critised Teymourtash for his failure to secure the demanded revenues, but informed his cabinet that the D’Arcy Agreement was to be considered null and void. Acting upon behalf of APOC the British government sought redress before the Permanent Court of International Justice at the Hague claiming that the decrease in payments was merely attempt to protect the company overall. In rebuff, Iran claimed that the cancellation was merely meant to expediate further negotiations which Iran felt had stalled.
After much wrangling, a new agreement was proposed, ratified and on 29th May 1933 received the approval of the Iranian monarch.

The terms of the new agreement provided for a new 60-year concession. The Agreement reduced the area under APOC control to 100,000 square miles (260,000 km2), required annual payments in lieu of Iranian income tax, as well as guaranteeing a minimum annual payment of £750,000 to the Iranian government. These provisions, while appearing favourable, are widely agreed to have represented a squandered opportunity for the Iranian government. The agreement extended the life of the D'Arcy concession by an additional 32 years, negligently allowed APOC to select the best 100,000 square miles (260,000 km2), the minimum guaranteed royalty was far too modest, and in a fit of carelessness the company's operations were exempted from import or customs duties. Finally, Iran surrendered its right to annul the agreement, and settled on a complex and tediously elaborate arbitration process to settle any disagreements that would arise.

The Anglo-Persian Oil Company continued its large Persian operations although it changed its name to the AIOC in 1935.

en.wikipedia.org...

The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

With the outbreak of World War Two, Iran declared it’s neutrality, and exercised it’s right to do business with both sides in the conflict. Britain complained, demanding that German nationals residing in Iran represented a threat to AIPOCs interests in the country. Iran refused on the grounds of neutrality. Britain knew that they had little chance of defending its assets in Iran, and actively began a campaign to gain an alliance with the Soviet Union. Stalin had already formed a non-aggression pact with Germany, and showed no inclination to engage in the hostilities, but that did not calm British fears that, left unchecked, that they would not muscle into Iran, if indeed the Germans didn’t. In what was, and still remains, one of the most closely guarded intelligence operations of the second world war, Churchill lured Hitler, and those closest to him, into believing that should he attack Russia, Britain would go join him in his fight against the Red Menace.

The plan succeeded and rather than join Germany against Russia, Churchill, in June 1941, formed an alliance with the Soviets. Together the two powers agreed upon Iran’s strategic importance to the war effort, both in terms of the 8 million tonnes of oil produced annually at the Abadan Oil Refinery, but also on the need to utilise the Trans-Iranian Railway to deliver the essentially needed Lend-Lease supplies needed by Russia to fight the Germans. Despite British Embassy reports that confirmed that the German presence in Iran posed a negligible threat, the newly united Allied powers invaded on 25th August 1941. Over 5 million tonnes of supplies were moved to Russia through this newly opened Persian corridor, supplies without which the Soviets would have been helpless against the German onslaught, further, it aided in supplying the much depleted British Forces in the Middle East.

Iran was left little choice but to suffer the rigours of occupation, or to come to an agreement with the Allies, and so in January 1942 the new Shah signed a Treaty of Alliance with Britain and the Soviet Union, with provisions to supply non-miliary assistance to the Allied war effort. Under Article five of the Treaty, the Allies agreed to leave Iran no more that six months after hostilities had ceased. In September of the following year, Iran declared war on Germany, and in doing so, secured it’s place within the United Nations, and in November 1943, at the Tehran Conference the three Allied leaders, confirmed their commitment to Iranian independence. Despite these assurances, it did little to balance the severe economic impact that joining the Allied war effort had on the people of Iran.

The occupation had even more far reaching effects on the fabric of Iran politically, and it clearly did not escape the Allies attention, that the Shah, himself a Cossack, could perhaps hope to rely in future upon the not inconsiderable support of his ethnic brethren. In one of the greatest injustices of the immediate post-war period, at the Yalta conference, it was decided that all Cossacks be forcibly repatriated into Soviet Russia, whether they were born there or not.

On 28 May 1945, the British Army arrived at Camp Peggetz, in Lienz, where there were 2,479 Cossacks, including 2,201 officers and soldiers.[10] They went to invite the Cossacks to an important conference with British officials, informing them that they would return to Lienz by six o’clock that evening; some Cossacks worried, but the British reassured them that everything was in order. One British officer told the Cossacks: “I assure you, on my word of honour as a British officer, that you are just going to a conference”.[10] By then, British-Cossack relationships were friendly to the extent that many on both sides had developed emotions for the other. Deep down, a number of British soldiers felt sympathy and remorse for executing such treacherous operations, yet bureaucratic military obedience obliged them to follow higher order. The Lienz Cossack repatriation was exceptional, because the Cossacks forcefully resisted their British repatriation to the USSR; a Cossack noted: “The NKVD or the Gestapo would have slain us with truncheons, the British did it with their word of honor.”

The first to commit suicide, by hanging, was the Cossack editor Evgenij Tarruski. The second was General Silkin, who shot himself. . . . The Cossacks refused to board the trucks. British soldiers [armed] with pistols and clubs began using their clubs, aiming at the heads of the prisoners. They first dragged the men out of the crowd, and threw them into the trucks. The men jumped out. They beat them again, and threw them onto the floor of the trucks. Again, they jumped out. The British then hit them with rifle butts until they lay unconscious, and threw them, like sacks of potatoes, in the trucks. — Operation Keelhaul (1973), by Julius Epstein.
The British transported the Cossacks to a prison where the Soviets assumed their custody.

en.wikipedia.org...

While some Cossacks had fought against the Bolsheviks alongside the White Russian during the Revolution, many had turned to fight alongside the Allies against the encroachment of the Nazis into traditional Cossack territories, while others had fought alongside the German for the same reason elsewhere. It was clear that the Allies feared that as a combined force they would threaten their interests in the Middle-East, and Stalin in particular was eager not to lose the political influence in the region that he had worked hard to establish during the occupation.

During the three years of occupation, Stalin had expanded Soviet political influence in Azerbaijan and the Kurdish area in northwestern Iran, as well as in Iran founding the communist Tudeh Party of Iran. On December 12, 1945, after weeks of violent clashes a Soviet-backed separatist People's Republic of Azerbaijan was founded. The Kurdish People's Republic was also established in late 1945. Iranian government troops sent to reestablish control were blocked by Soviet Red Army units.

When the deadline for withdrawal arrived on March 2, 1946, six months after the end of World War II hostilities, the British began to withdraw, but Moscow refused, "citing threats to Soviet security."

en.wikipedia.org...

The Irans request for assistance to expel Soviet troops was the first ever complaint to be brought to the United Nations Security Council, and like so many subsequent complaints, no action was taken, however in May 1946 the Soviet troops did begin to withdraw.

Seven years later, following more attempts to renegotiate the terms of it’s agreement with AIOC, followed by the companies point blank refusal to do so, the assassination of the Prime Minister, and the subsequent populist nationalisation of the countries petroleum industry, this prolonged presence by Soviet forces, and the influence that the Soviets had exercised over the border territories politically during the occupation would provide the British with the necessary ammunition to entice the US into a joint coup to overthrow the leadership of Iran.

An Anglo-American Coup and the Making of the CIA

In 1950, the Abadan Oil Refinery was the biggest in the world, and AIOC, through it, controlled all of Iran’s oils, though only three-quarters were sourced from it’s own fields. When the then Prime Minster Ali Razmara baulked at nationalising Iranian oil, he was assassinated, and a month later legislation was passed and the National Iranian Oil Company was formed (NIOC) under the guidance of Dr Mohammad Mosaddegh, who in May of that year had been appointed Prime Minister.

Mosaddegh had, at first, proposed a 50/50 compromise with AIOC, which they had refused against the recommendation of the United States delegation led by Averell Harriman. Harriman then appealed to the Shah, who stated that he could not oppose the will of the people, and at a press conference, Harriman was shouted down by those present affirming the desire for nationalisation.

AIOC withdrew all it technical expertise, the British Royal Navy blockaded exports and ceased importing sugar and steel, as well as freezing Iran’s accounts in British banks leading to the Abadan Crisis. However despite the decrease in production, revenues reaching Iran’s treasury showed a marked increase now that those revenues were not being funnelled to foreign and private companies, but that was of little use, when those funds could not be used to import vital needed goods. The military had been mobilised with the intention of taking the refinery by force, but the then PM Clement Atlee baulked at the idea, saying trade sanction were quite enough.
When the United Kingdom took the case to the International Court of Justice on behalf of AIOC, the court ruled in Iran’s favour.

In August 1952, the British Prime Minister complained that the Truman administration had undermined his attempt to ‘isolate’ Iran when American Oil accepted an invitation to visit Iran. Since Britain was supporting the US in Korea, it was only correct, Britain argued, that the favour be returned in Iran. The appeal proved effectie, and by the middle of 1952, the stockade of Iran was having the desired effect on the hearts and minds of the Iranian people and while still considered a hero by the people, parliamentary support for Mosadegh was waning.
In the Majlis election in the spring of that year, British agents had been employed across the country to bribe the regional bosses, hoping to gain a coup by relatively legal means. The cities, where support for Mosadegh was still high, were to most part untouchable by the agents, but in the rural areas, the votes were easily bought, and created divisions amongst the bosses and the workers. Violence broke out in a number of areas, including, perhaps naturally, Abadan. Mosaddegh who at this very moment was called to appear at the Hague, decided to postpone the election until after the case had been concluded. Left to deal with the resulting uproar, resignations of Mosaddegh supporters in parliament soon followed, and a referendum to dissolve parliament and give Mosaddegh sole power to make law was voted in by a massive majority of 2,043,300 votes to 1300.

With the British stockade in place, Iran couldn’t sell it’s oil, thousands had lost their jobs, and Iran faced certain bankruptcy. It’s appeals to the US and the World Bank were met with stony silence. Iran was on it’s knees and Britain began preparations to hammer the final nail into her coffin.

The 1953 Iranian coup d'état (known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup[3]) was the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh on 19 August 1953, orchestrated by the intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom and the United States under the name TPAJAX Project.[4] The coup saw the transition of Mohammad-Rezā Shāh Pahlavi from a constitutional monarch to an authoritarian one who relied heavily on United States support to hold on to power until his own overthrow in February 1979.[5]

British agents had begun a whispering campaign in the US, citing the threat of Soviet, and more particularly, communism to the rise of nationalism in Iran, and had, in principle at least, secured the support of John Foster Dulles, then Secretary of State for an intervention to prevent the ‘Reds’ from getting hold of all that oil. Truman though, refused to embroil the US in another possible conflict when it was already engaged in Korea. But in 1953, Dwight D Eisenhower was sworn in as President, and with Dulles already behind the idea, the British, with Churchill now back as PM, soon convinced him of the necessity of deposing the Iranian government.

The coup was carried out by the U.S. administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower in a covert action advocated by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and implemented under the supervision of his brother Allen Dulles, the Director of Central Intelligence.[59] The coup was organized by the United States' CIA and the United Kingdom's MI6, two spy agencies that aided royalists and royalist elements of the Iranian army.[60]

... from the Ambrose biography of Eisenhower:
Before going into the operation, Ajax had to have the approval of the President. Eisenhower participated in none of the meetings that set up Ajax; he received only oral reports on the plan; and he did not discuss it with his Cabinet or the NSC. Establishing a pattern he would hold to throughout his Presidency, he kept his distance and left no documents behind that could implicate the President in any projected coup. But in the privacy of the Oval Office, over cocktails, he was kept informed by Foster Dulles, and he maintained a tight control over the activities of the CIA.[62]

en.wikipedia.org...

For the plan to succeed the backing of the monarch, Mohammad-Reza Shah Pahlavi was needed, but since it would mean an abandonment of the constitutional monarchy in his favour to a more authoritarian regime this was considered feasible. A Prime Minster would still be required under the new regime but one selected for malliabilty. Meanwhile, the CIA rounded up gangs, prostitutes, organised crime lords, clergy, politicians and officers from the army, liberally distributing bribes and funds to create the required show of unrest, and to distribute propaganda against the current government. Additionally, MI6 and CIA trained Iranian operatives posed as Communists and threatened Muslim leaders with ‘savage punishment’ if they opposed Mossadegh, thus creating the necessary implication that the Communists had a foothold in the existing power structure of Iran. According to some versions of events CIA operatives posing as Communists bombed the home of at least one Muslim leader as part of this disinformation campaign.

The CIA drew up a Royal Degree which dismissed Mosaddegh in favour of their chosen puppet, Fazlollah Zahedi and at a meeting with Major General Norman Schwarzkopf, the Shah was pressured to sign. He refused on the basis that the Army would not support such a move.

On the night of 15-16 August, Colonel Nematollah Nassiri, of the Imperial Guard attempted to arrest Mosaddegh, but was himself arrested in the process. Fearing that the coup had failed, and that his fore knowledge of it would be revealed, the Shah fled the country.

Three days later, after more bribes from the CIA, the paid mob comprising of some of the most dangerous criminal gangs in Iran approached Mosaddegh’s home. Vehicles loaded with other paid ‘protesters’ were brought into Tehran and set about making mayhem on the streets of the city. 800 people were killed as a direct result of these riots. Mosaddegh was arrested, and in short shrift, tried and found guilty of treason. He was eventually sentenced to three years imprisonment, but was in actuality placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. His supporters were systematically rounded up, detained and in some cases, tortured or murdered.

The CIA sent Schwarzkopf to Rome, where the Shah had fled, to persuade him to return. The Major General, explained that the US had established a stronghold amongst Qashqai tribal leaders from which US funded guerrillas and spies could operate, and that he personally would be overseeing the training of specialist security forces, SAVAK, who would ensure that no harm can to him or his position as Shah. The Shah agreed to return and signed the decree granting Zahedi the position of Prime Minister.

SAVAK paid Rockwell International to implement a large communications monitoring system called IBEX. Both the CIA and the NSA funded Ibex and received Ibex data. The project included specially converted aircraft containing broadband and narrow band receivers. The aircraft penetrated Soviet airspace for the purpose of recording communications coincident with the penetration. There were five Ibex ground sites in Iran which also received and recorded Soviet transmissions. The Stanford Technology Corp. [STC, owned by Hakim] had a $5.5 million contract to supply the IBEX project. STC had another $7.5 million contract with Iran's air force for a telephone monitoring system, operated by SAVAK, to enable the Shah to track his top commanders' communications.

Over the years, SAVAK became a law unto itself, having legal authority to arrest and detain suspected persons indefinitely. SAVAK operated its own prisons in Tehran (the Komiteh and Evin facilities) and, many suspected, throughout the country as well. SAVAK's torture methods included electric shock, whipping, beating, inserting brokon glass and pouring boiling water into the rectum, tying weights to the testicles, and the extraction of teeth and nails. Many of these activities were carried out without any institutional checks.

At the peak its influence under the Shah SAVAK had at least 13 full-time case officers running a network of informers and infiltration covering 30,000 Iranian students on United States college campuses. The head of the SAVAK agents in the United States operated under the cover of an attache at the Iranian Mission to the United Nations, with the FBI, CIA, and State Department fully aware of these activities.

www.fas.org...

Aftermath and Blowback

The immediate effect of the coup was to secure Western control of Iranian oil resources, and to prevent the Soviet Union from obtaining exploration rights. It also however ended British monopoly of those resources, and saw the creation of the Seven Sisters.

The "Seven Sisters" was a term coined in the 1950s by businessman Enrico Mattei, then-head of the Italian state oil company Eni, to describe the seven oil companies which formed the "Consortium for Iran" cartel and dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s to the 1970s.[1][2] The group comprised Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now BP); Gulf Oil, Standard Oil of California (Socal) and Texaco (now Chevron); Royal Dutch Shell; and Standard Oil of New Jersey (Esso) and Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony) (now ExxonMobil).

Prior to the oil crisis of 1973, the members of the Seven Sisters controlled around 85% of the world's petroleum reserves, but in recent decades the dominance of the companies and their successors has declined as a result of the increasing influence of the OPEC cartel and state-owned oil companies in emerging-market economies.[1][3]

en.wikipedia.org...(oil_companies)

For the people of Iran though the effects would be far more devastating. Though initially, with the lifting of embargoes and Iran being once again able to sell it’s oil, revenues and employment began to rose dramatically, but the relief was to be short lived and was soon followed by increasing totalitarianism and oppression. As former New York Times correspondent, Stephen Kinzer would later write in his book “All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror” (2003)

The world has paid a heavy price for the lack of democracy in most of the Middle East. Operation Ajax taught tyrants and aspiring tyrants that the world's most powerful governments were willing to tolerate limitless oppression as long as oppressive regimes were friendly to the West and to Western oil companies. That helped tilt the political balance in a vast region away from freedom and toward dictatorship.

en.wikipedia.org...-102

Many of those that had colluded, and later benefitted from the coup had fascist leanings, and furthermore had worked with the Nazis during the second world war.

Gen. Fazlollah Zahedi, who had been arrested and imprisoned by the British during World War II for his attempt to establish a pro-Nazi government, was made Prime Minister on 19 August 1953. The CIA gave Zahedi about $100,000 before the coup and an additional $5 million the day after the coup to help consolidate support for the coup. Bahram Shahrokh, a trainee of Joseph Goebbels and Berlin Radio's Persian-language program announcer during the Nazi rule, became director of propaganda. Mr. Sharif-Emami, who also had spent some time in jail for his pro-Nazi activities in the 1940s, assumed several positions after 1953 coup, including Secretary General of the Oil Industry, President of the Senate, and Prime Minister (twice). [66][67]

en.wikipedia.org...-102

And the success of the operation secured for the CIA carte blanche in directing US foreign policy, which would lead to devastation of the natural development of the democratic process in many regions of the world with almost immediate effect.

The 1953 coup d'état was the first time the U.S. used the CIA to overthrow a democratically elected, civil government.[118] The Eisenhower administration viewed Operation Ajax as a success, with "immediate and far-reaching effect. Overnight, the CIA became a central part of the American foreign policy apparatus, and covert action came to be regarded as a cheap and effective way to shape the course of world events"—a coup engineered by the CIA called Operation PBSUCCESS toppling the duly elected Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, which had nationalised farm land owned by the United Fruit Company, followed the next year.[119]

en.wikipedia.org...-102

In 1954, the democratically elected Guatemalan government of Colonel Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán was toppled by U.S.- backed forces led by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas[8] who invaded from Honduras. Assigned by the Eisenhower administration, this military opposition was armed, trained and organized by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency[9] (see Operation PBSUCCESS). The directors of United Fruit Company (UFCO) had lobbied to convince the Truman and Eisenhower administrations that Colonel Arbenz intended to align Guatemala with the Soviet Bloc. Besides the disputed issue of Arbenz's allegiance to Communism, UFCO was being threatened by the Arbenz government’s agrarian reform legislation and new Labor Code.[10] UFCO was the largest Guatemalan landowner and employer, and the Arbenz government’s land reform included the expropriation of 40% of UFCO land.[11] U.S. officials had little proof to back their claims of a growing communist threat in Guatemala,[12] however the relationship between the Eisenhower administration and UFCO demonstrated the influence of corporate interest on U.S. foreign policy.[9] United States Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was an avowed opponent of Communism, whose law firm Sullivan and Cromwell had represented United Fruit.[13] His brother Allen Dulles was the director of the CIA, and a board member of United Fruit. United Fruit Company is the only company known to have a CIA cryptonym. The brother of the Assistant Secretary of State for InterAmerican Affairs John Moors Cabot had once been president of United Fruit. Ed Whitman, who was United Fruit’s principal lobbyist, was married to President Eisenhower's personal secretary, Ann C. Whitman.[13] Many individuals who directly influenced U.S. policy towards Guatemala in the 1950s also had direct ties to UFCO.[10] The overthrow of Arbenz, however, failed to benefit the Company. Its stock market value declined along with its profit margin. The Eisenhower administration proceeded with antitrust action against the company, which forced it to divest in 1958. In 1972, the company sold off the last of their Guatemalan holdings after over a decade of decline.

en.wikipedia.org...

Perhaps the best testament to the global implications of Operation AJAX comes from the man who authorised it, Dwight Eisenhower.

In 2000, then US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, came the closest to admitting culpability for the coup that either the US and British government so far has, but while CNN and others have referred to her words as an apology, it clearly falls short of an acknowledgement of responsibility.

The coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development, and it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs.

transcripts.cnn.com...

It is believed by many Middle-Eastern experts and observers of Islamic extremism, that the coup set in place a chain of events that not only led to the Islamic revolution, but to the continued hostility for many in those regions effected towards the US.

Jacob G. Hornberger, founder and president, of The Future of Freedom Foundation, said, "U.S. officials, not surprisingly, considered the operation one of their greatest foreign policy successes—until, that is, the enormous convulsion that rocked Iranian society with the violent ouster of the Shah and the installation of a virulently anti-American Islamic regime in 1979".[117] According to him, "the coup, in essence, paved the way for the rise to power of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and all the rest that's happened right up to 9/11 and beyond".[117]

In June 2009, the U.S. President Barack Obama in a speech in Cairo, Egypt, talked about the United States' relationship with Iran, mentioning the role of the U.S. in 1953 Iranian coup saying:

This issue has been a source of tension between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran. For many years, Iran has defined itself in part by its opposition to my country, and there is indeed a tumultuous history between us. In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians. This history is well known. Rather than remain trapped in the past, I have made it clear to Iran's leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward.[122]

en.wikipedia.org...

Perhaps the Iranian leadership, and it’s people would be more eager to listen to such criticism, and so far empty promises, if the US and Britain, were first to issue a very long overdue apology, for the part they played in creating the distrust between the West and the Middle-East in the first place. It is, after all, no secret, and a matter of public record, is it so hard to actually say ‘We’re sorry and what we did was wrong’. Perhaps, because that Military-Industrial complex has not changed, and will not change, until WE heed Eisenhower’s words and be more vigilant, and more proactive, and stop believing the misinformation. As we stand, right now, they are poised to force Iran into a war it clearly does not want, and they only way that they will be stopped is if we stand up and say, no, enough is enough, is enough.

That's all folks!

Apologies for the bitty-ness of the presentation, but my PC and MS Word are being equally unco-operative.

MODS: By all means move to a more appropriate board if I have chosen incorrectly...couldn't quite decide.

I am assuming that this thread is a little too long for the average ATSer...but I'm going to keep bumping myself just to make sure I don't miss anyone who may want to read...this is essential information, and if you don't know this stuff, you have no business calling yourself a conspiracy theorist...

...there'll be no glug, glug, glugging soon.

Comments and discussion are, of course, deeply welcomed

Kudos on lots of work. I do not know a lot about Persian/Iranian history, but from what i do know ,some of the basic info seems weird.

In 1921, a Cossack Army Officer, Reza Khan launched a successful coup to oust the already weakened Qajar dynasty and himself assumed leadership of Persia, changing his name to Reza Shah in the process.

Reza Shah was not part of Cossack army. Persians had a small military unit that they modeled on Russians and called them cossack brigade. Maybe few Russian officers who trained them were cossacks but almost all (including Reza Shah) had nothing to do with being an ethnic cossack and were drafted from parts of Persian empire.
Thus i do not get the connection to real ethnic WW2 cossacks who fought in Nazi forces against Soviets and gave up to Allies who indeed passed them to Soviets despite promisses. It had nothing to do with Persia/Iran or Reza Shah. Another sad part of WW2.
Then even better - this:

In what was, and still remains, one of the most closely guarded intelligence operations of the second world war, Churchill lured Hitler, and those closest to him, into believing that should he attack Russia, Britain would go join him in his fight against the Red Menace.

This is so well guarded that while Red Menace and Nazis marched together in conquered Poland ,UK and French fought with Nazis. Soviets supplied Nazi Germany while it ran over France. Nazi Germany bombed UK while trading modern military navy ships with their buddies Red Menace and you want to tell me that Churchill lured Hitler by promissing he would join them aganist Soviets???
This is not well guarded but totally insane theory. Forget Soviet incursions in Romania threatening Hitlers oil and massive Soviet military build up on German border. It is all Churchill plot and Hitler was naive enough to believe for a second that Churchil and British people would join him after all the vicious bombardment of 1940.
Really, it makes me doubt all your info.

Originally posted by ZeroKnowledge
Thus i do not get the connection to real ethnic WW2 cossacks who fought in Nazi forces against Soviets and gave up to Allies who indeed passed them to Soviets despite promisses. It had nothing to do with Persia/Iran or Reza Shah. Another sad part of WW2.

Ethnic means culture, not race. The affiliation existed and represented a threat. The Cossacks were a highly dissparate group, and completely worthy of study, as you demonstrate there are many misconceptions as to what it was to be a Cossack. There were even Cossacks in the US that were repatriated under the Yalta agreement.

Originally posted by ZeroKnowledge
This is so well guarded that while Red Menace and Nazis marched together in conquered Poland ,UK and French fought with Nazis. Soviets supplied Nazi Germany while it ran over France. Nazi Germany bombed UK while trading modern military navy ships with their buddies Red Menace and you want to tell me that Churchill lured Hitler by promissing he would join them aganist Soviets???

I'm not sure if you have misread that, Churchill, or more particularly, Operation HHH, fed Hitler information, utilising the Lucy spy network, that led him to believe that they were willing to make peace. I think you have your timeline somewhat confused either way.

reply to post by ZeroKnowledge


Here you go...Reza Khan (later Reza Shah)...Cossack...

When Reza was sixteen years old, he joined the Persian Cossack Brigade, in which, years later, he would rise to the rank of Brigadier. In 1903 he is reported to have been guard and servant to the Dutch consul general Frits Knobel. A picture of him in Cossack uniform standing next to the mounted Dutch consul-general was published in De Hollandsche Revue. In 1925 Maurits Wagenvoort, a friend of Knobel, wrote: "was the present autocrat the same person as the one I once spoke to in the Babi-circle of Hadsji Achont when he was gholam of his Respected Presence the Netherlands' ambassador in Tehran?" He appeared to me most eager to learn about the Western political situation. And I shall never forget the expression of disillusion on his face when, in answer to his question, 'What? Aren't the elected people's representatives the most intelligent men of the nation?' I replied, 'Not a bit of it! Perhaps they are just a trifle above your average, everyday folk'. He continued, 'And the ministers then?' 'They are somewhat brighter. But not always.'[7] He also served in the Iranian Army, where he gained the rank of gunnery sergeant under Qajar Prince Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma's command. He rose through the ranks, eventually holding a commission as a Brigadier General in the Persian Cossack Brigade. He was the last, and only Iranian, commander of the Persian Cossack Brigade. He was also one of the last individuals to become an officer of the Neshan-e Aqdas prior to the collapse of the Qajar dynasty in 1925.[8]

en.wikipedia.org...

I hope that helps clarify.

Originally posted by ZeroKnowledge
This is not well guarded but totally insane theory. Forget Soviet incursions in Romania threatening Hitlers oil and massive Soviet military build up on German border. It is all Churchill plot and Hitler was naive enough to believe for a second that Churchil and British people would join him after all the vicious bombardment of 1940.
Really, it makes me doubt all your info.

You have to bear in mind, that despire several attempts at warning Stalin that Hitler was amassing forces along the Soviet border, he did nothing, and by all accounts was taken completely by surprise. Much like the current situation in Iran, there was much tactical intelligence work going on, attempting to get Stalin and Hitler to 'have it out'. And Stalin just wouldn't believe it. Most of those warnings were sent via British intelligence networks, why? Because if Hitler had not engaged the Soviet Union, Britain wouldn't have stood a chance, and would have eventually been forced to capitulate.

And, understandably, I am struggling to get the sources to back up my claims on-line, but will, if you bear with me, not this evening as it is close to my bedtime, go to my books and get you the necessary references, because really I would hate you to doubt the rest of my info.

reply to post by Biliverdin


Good thread Biliverdin

Perhaps there is more to the Iran/Oil cartel than the politicians are letting out.

Some years back, Iran apparently made Plans on Privatizing Oil Refineries.

This thread has some details that my apply.... www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by xuenchen
reply to post by Biliverdin

 

Good thread Biliverdin

Perhaps there is more to the Iran/Oil cartel than the politicians are letting out.

Some years back, Iran apparently made Plans on Privatizing Oil Refineries.

This thread has some details that my apply.... www.abovetopsecret.com...

Thanks and thanks doubly for the link, I will check that out as I am working on a follow up, time permitting.

Cheers for reading.

reply to post by ZeroKnowledge


As promised, I've hit my books to reassure you, I hope, of my veracity...regarding the operations to deceive Hitler into believing that an Anglo-German alliance was possible...

The Hitler/Hess Deception, by Martin Allen (2004)

Provides comprehensive details of the numerous secret peace offers that Hitler made up until 22nd June 1941 and commencement of Barbarossa.

“In 1941...Albrecht (Haushofer, Hitler’s personal advisor on geopolitical matters)was sent to Switzerland. There he met a British confidential agent – a Lord Templewood (Sir Samuel Hoare’s cover name), I believe...We offered to relinquish Norway, Denmark and France. A larger meeting was to be held in Madrid. When my son returned, he was immediately called to Augsburg to see Hess. A few days later Hess flew to England.” (from testimony taken by OSS from Professor Haushofer...pxxv)

Spring 1941...Hjalmar Schacht approached US to ask if they would be intermediary between Germany and Britain in securing a peace.

June 1941...Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, Sir Alexander Cadogan, sent memo to Lord Halifax (the US Ambassador)

“Many thanks for your letter of 17th June about Schacht’s peace feeler...we recently prepared...a memorandum summarising the various peace feelers which have reached us since the beginning of the war. The Germans are...attempting to interest certain circles in the USA...” (p53)
Memo discloses 16 peace ‘feelers’.

Those confirmed as being initiated by Hitler;

Dahlerus, August to October 1939
Venlo, October to December 1939
Windsor, November 1939 to August 1940 (Hitler unaware of Duke of Windsor’s political impotence
Weissauer, September 1940 to May 1941
Operation HHHH, September 1940 to May 1941 (culminating in Hess’s flight to Scotland)
Schacht, July to August 1941

Violet Roberts , and old English friend of the Haushofer’s begins corresponding (effective start of Op HHHH) and Haushofer is directed to respond to “PO Box 506, Lisbon, Portugal....the Thomas Cook offices, and a known British Intelligence drop” p97

Saturday 10th May 1941, Woburn Abbey, in attendance Anthony Eden, Hugh Dalton, Rex Leeper, and 18 others (unnamed in book)...objectives set included “...encourage Germans to attack Russia by misleading Hitler and by hinting that the large sections both in Britain and United State who preferred to see overthrow of the Russian rather than German regime might be prepared to force through a compromise peace between Britain and Germany and combine to destroy the common enemy, Communism.” (p111)

Hopefully that should suffice....but the following books also touch on the topic though not in so much detail...but do provide background upon those in the UK and US with Nazi affiliations and contacts, as well as the various networks that were set up and utilised operationally...

Operation Lucy: Most Secret Spy Ring of the Second World War, by Anthony Read and David Fisher (1980)

Hitler’s Traitor: Martin Bormann and the Defeat of the Reich, by Louis Kilzer (2000)

Himmler's Secret War: The Covert Peace Negotiations of Heinrich Himmler, by Martin Allen (2005)

Churchill’s Wizards: The British Genius for Deception, 1914 – 1945, by Nicholas Rankin (2009)

Hitler’s Secret War, by Charles Whiting (2000)