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What About Iranian Troubles and U.S. Covert Operations?

The media reports haven’t really made sense to me about Iran. And I’ve felt strongly that we’re being whipped up into a frenzy for war. Now I see this report from a year or two ago, that there’s been $400 million put into covert ops in Iran? I think there needs to be some investigation of what exactly these covert ops have been. To think that they’ve had no effect on the uproar over there is more than a stretch of the imagination, in my book. Well, also the book of Paul Craig Robert, former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service, wrote about the possibility of the “Green Revolution” being a covert U.S. operation. From the Baltimore Chronicle:

“Commentators are “explaining” the Iran elections based on their own illusions, delusions, emotions, and vested interests. Whether or not the poll results predicting Ahmadinejad’s win are sound, there is, so far, no evidence beyond surmise that the election was stolen. However, there are credible reports that the CIA has been working for two years to destabilize the Iranian government.

On May 23, 2007, Brian Ross and Richard Esposito reported on ABC News: “The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert “black” operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell ABC News.”

On May 27, 2007, the London Telegraph independently reported: “Mr. Bush has signed an official document endorsing CIA plans for a propaganda and disinformation campaign intended to destabilize, and eventually topple, the theocratic rule of the mullahs.”

A few days previously, the Telegraph reported on May 16, 2007, that Bush administration neocon warmonger John Bolton told the Telegraph that a US military attack on Iran would “be a ‘last option’ after economic sanctions and attempts to foment a popular revolution had failed.”

On June 29, 2008, Seymour Hersh reported in the New Yorker: “Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership.”

The protests in Tehran no doubt have many sincere participants. The protests also have the hallmarks of the CIA orchestrated protests in Georgia and Ukraine. It requires total blindness not to see this.“

The Washington Post mentioned this program again in 2008:

“ U.S. Is Said to Expand Covert Operations in Iran

Plan Allows Up to $400 Million for Activities Aimed at Destabilizing Government

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 30, 2008; A02

The Bush administration told Congress last year of a secret plan to dramatically expand covert operations inside Iran as part of a long-running effort to destabilize the country’s ruling regime, according to a report published yesterday.

The plan allowed up to $400 million in covert spending for activities ranging from spying on Iran’s nuclear program to supporting rebel groups opposed to the country’s ruling clerics, veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported in the New Yorker magazine.

While the administration has been waging a low-grade covert campaign against Iran for at least three years — consisting mainly of cross-border raids targeting groups tied to attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq — the new policy represents a significant expansion, the report contends. The prospect of a broader covert presence inside Iran also has raised concerns among some congressional and military officials about a possible escalation leading to a broader military conflict, it states.”

Tie this with the information being supressed by the main stream media about David Barstow. Even though David Barstow just one a Pulitzer prize for his New York Times story covering Pentagon plants in the media not just leading up to the Iraq war, but also today, the story has been ignored by network and cable news.

From the NYT: “INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING: DAVID BARSTOW OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
Awarded to David Barstow of The New York Times for his tenacious reporting that revealed how some retired generals, working as radio and television analysts, had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq, and how many of them also had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended.

• Part 1: Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand
• Part 2: Barry McCaffrey’s World“

This is a video of Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviewing Barstow on May 8th 2009. every American should watch. I’m not asking you to believe it, I’m just asking you take a look at this information because I believe it is critically important:

The Australian site Crikey put it well, I think:

“So why are we supporting Tehran’s green-clad demonstrators, exactly? Is it because they’re English-tweeting middle class city-dwellers with smartphones like us, easier to relate to than the conservative rural Iranians who support Ahmadinejad? Is it knee-jerk support for anyone fighting the man the US neocons portrayed as a new Hitler, even if so far it appears he was elected fairly (at least as such things go)? Or could there be larger forces at play?

Why has the world engaged with tweets from Iran, when there wasn’t the same reaction when they came from Thailand or Moldova? Could it be… 138 billion barrels of oil reserves and counting?

As Meg Pickard says, “Information which spreads quickly, explosively and loudly isn’t necessarily reliable, accurate or helpful.”

That’s my opinion. I think there is something fishy about this, and we should look into it. All of us.