The Iranian Revolution - BBC
The supreme leader of Iran has accused the UK and US of meddling in its internal affairs. They just kicked out the BBC correspondent to Iran although they have allowed the BBC office to remain open. Is there credibility to their claims?
Economic Hitmen
Back in the fifties a similar incident happened in Iran. The US friendly Shah was overthrown by a Mohammed Mossadegh who then proceeded to kick out the oil companies and nationalize Iran's oil industry. Subsequently, Mossadegh was overthrown by a coup that saw the reinstatement of the Shah of Iran and the re-commencement of Big oil company operations, providing a cheaper and a more secure source of oil to the Western nations.
John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman, claims it was the CIA who instigated this coup at the request of the UK whose Oil firms suffered the most at the hands of Mossadegh's nationalization. A CIA operative by the name of Kermit Roosevelt (the grandson of President Teddy) used a few million dollars to bribe the right people and with the support of the international media pulled off the first of what was to become a regular US tactic to further their empire building strategies henceforth.
The Shah was in power until Iran went back into revolt in the late 70s with a religious upheaval brought upon by the rise of the Ayatollahs. And this has continued to the present day. There has been a lot of baseless effort at tarnishing Iran's reputation through the whole nuclear power scenario and there could have been build up on this for an attempt at the overthrowing of the existing power base of Iran to install a government more friendly to the West.
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The government of Iran claims that it had detected the movement of several British secret agents during the weeks and months preceding the election. Media reports on the goings on inside Iran are full of speculation and drive uncertainty, mostly using unverified and non-credible reports to support their theories. Although, there has been evidence of tampering by the admission of the Guardian Council itself which admitted that more than 100% of the voter base has voted in about 50 cities of Iran.
But this is apparently a normal occurence because there is no legislation preventing people from voting twice in different constituencies. Its absurd, but hey, if it's true then its perfectly possible that more than 100% could have been voted in.
The Venzuelan Connection
Another similar incident which echoes to the current 'riots' in Iran happened in Venezuela not a decade ago. Hugo Chavez was overthrown by a elitist uprising that spurred protesters to eventually invade and claim the presidential palace.
The rioters against the President were met by rioters for the President. There was a shooting incident, and Chavez was accused of opening fire on the people protesting against him. This was then used to catalyze more opposition against him when several chiefs of the army denounced him on the media (which had taken the lead in painting him black for a long time by then), which subsequently led to the overthrowing of the presidential palace guard and the taking over of the country with a rich businessman at the helm.
Ultimately as it turned out, the army itself had instigated the shooting and reports that the president had abdicated were falsified (his signature was forged and he was kidnapped). There was a major uproar and hundreds of thousands of people stormed the presidential palace, overwhelmed the army and succeeded in reinstating the president - War on Democracy
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It's interesting to speculate on world affairs based on controversy and what are generally regarded as crackpot conspicay theories by the genral public who live and die by what is seen and heard in the mainstream media, but its more than just idle indulgence. There is more than meets the eye most of the time. The order of power and the lines of command are mere illusions. The world operates on a whole different spectrum from where it pretends to.
It's going to be interesting to see what happens in Iran now. It seems that most candidates are withdrawing their claims while reports from the media increasingly stress on the 'violent' crackdowns of the government. Perhaps an effort at dragging this as far as possible? Protests are still to spread outside of Tehran so we can't really say that the majority is behind the opposition. Until this whole issue clears up and some perspective can be gained, the story of what is really going on in Iran will not be known.
