Many Americans are unaware that declassified information reveals the CIA helped overthrow an Iranian Prime Minister in 1953 and thwart 1980 hostage negotiations to defeat US President Jimmy Carter.
During 1979-1981 the American people were routinely told the reason for the Iran hostage crisis was that President Carter allowed the Shah to visit the US for medical treatment.
While it is true the Shah did visit the US, the reason for the hostage crisis was to prevent another 1953 US coup. In 1953 the US and Britain illegally overthrew Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister.
Why did the US and Britain overthrow Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq? The answer is that Mossadeq interfered with US and British oil interests. The Shah, returned to power by the US and Britain, outlawed political opposition and committed terrible crimes. Together with the CIA, he created a secret police organization called SAVAK. Torture became common and the Shah and the US were despised by most Iranians.
While this truth was highly classified in the US during the hostage crisis, this information has been published by newspapers in other countries for decades. The American public may want to take note of this to understand why we must not solely rely on the news as it is reported here in the US. US media professionals knew the real reason for the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 and yet they did not broadcast this information.
They failed to do that in part because the official US government position until 1999 was that the CIA was not involved. Decades of US government denials were silenced and illuminated as lies after the National Security Archive filed a lawsuit with the CIA in 1999.
Educating millions about this tragedy, The New York Times also published in 2000 the Top Secret after-action report by coup planner Donald Wilber. The after-action report, kept secret for almost 50 years, confirmed that US covert action executed out of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1953 was a catalyst for the US Embassy being stormed on November 4, 1979. Iranian students involved in the hostage crisis communicated this justification in 1979 but their voices were dismissed.
Since the Iranian people knew about the US overthrow of Mossadeq in 1953, why was it necessary for the US government to deny the operation even in 1999? The answer to this question is to be found in the presidential election of November 1980.
Beyond wondering what secrets are so horrible that the Bush administration hopes they stay classified at least 50 years, why revisit this subject now? As demonstrated with the recent British hostage crisis and current calls by political leaders to bomb Iran, understanding history is necessary both to understand current events and to prevent future wars.
Believing the story constructed by the perpetrators, specifically that 52 Americans were released on January 20, 1981 after 444 days of captivity because Reagan simply put his hand on a Bible to become the President, creates the conditions for continued corruption. A careful review of what really happened reveals that not one but two governments were overthrown by the CIA, one directly, the other, indirectly much later.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan was running against President Carter. Polls showed the major swing issue was the Iran hostage crisis. Time magazine’s October poll highlighted this point, showing how close the race was, with Carter at 42 percent and Reagan at 41 percent. Reagan understood that Carter would win if the hostages were released before the election.
Reagan, his candidate for vice president (former CIA Director George H. W. Bush), and campaign manager (experienced CIA officer William Casey), formed a team of 120 foreign-policy and intelligence professionals. Some of these operatives continue in 2007 to actively promote the “hand on the Bible Reagan miracle propaganda in order to harden Republican party support. To highlight the size of this operation, reporters Abbie Hoffman and Jonathan Silvers noted in an article titled An Election Held Hostage that the National Security Council employed only 65 foreign-policy professionals. They also revealed that in September 1980, William Casey and Edwin Meese formed a subcommittee of these professionals, called the October Surprise (OS) group.
As a result of the focused OS intelligence effort, Reagan had informants at the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Council and in the White House Situation Room. This intelligence apparatus enabled Reagan to receive the “Top Secret – Eyes Only documents regarding President Carter’s negotiations with Iran. When Reagan was asked how these Top Secret documents were found in his personal campaign file he answered “he didn’t know how they got there.
Reagan’s intelligence apparatus also explains why former Congressman David Stockman was able to boast on October 28, 1980 that he used a stolen copy of Carter’s briefing book to coach Reagan for a televised debate. The most important “Eyes Only document Reagan’s network provided was on October 15, 1980, when classified information revealed Carter was about to have the hostages released. Reagan obtained this information from campaign strategist Richard Allen, future Reagan National Security Advisor. Allen said he obtained the information from reporter John Wallach, who obtained his information from Secretary of State Edmund Muskie.
Robert Parry’s book “Secrecy and Privilege was published in 2004. Parry’s interview with Ari Ben-Menashe (Israeli military intelligence officer 1977-1987) for PBS Frontline and subsequently in testimony to Congress revealed that the now Secretary of Defense Gates was a key October Surprise operative. Ben-Menashe also revealed he and Gates attended a 1986 meeting with a Chilean arms manufacturer (Cardoen) who was supplying chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein. Ben-Menashe’s book, Profits of War, describes the Paris Ritz Hotel meeting that followed the October 15th Carter administration leak. At that meeting Gates, McFarlane, Casey, and George H. W. Bush met with Iranian cleric Karrubi. French investigative reporter Claude Angeli confirmed the French secret service provided “cover for this meeting between the Republicans and Iranians on the weekend of October 18-19. This meeting, by delaying the hostage release, effectively determined that Ronald Reagan would become the president of the United States.
The fact that Reagan insiders had arranged for Iran to keep the hostages an additional 76 days served to successfully shape the Iran Contra scandal investigations with the false perception that US weapons were shipped to Iran starting in 1985. Reagan initiated Iranian weapon shipments actually started in 1981. During the Iran Contra investigations, to explore Reagan’s pre-1985 conduct would have revealed to the American people that acts of treason successfully enabled Reagan to seize power.
Why would so many intelligence officers serve as moles against a sitting president? After the Shah was deposed, President Carter saw that the CIA was out of control and needed to be reined in. He reorganized and fired much of the CIA’s Middle East division for misleading him about the reasons for anti-American feelings in Iran. Carter chastised CIA Director Admiral Stansfield Turner just as President Kennedy had blasted CIA Director Allen Dulles. Both presidents reached the boiling point because of misleading information from the CIA. For Kennedy it concerned the April 1961 Bay of Pigs failure and for Carter it was suspected sabotage of the disastrous April 1980 Eagle Claw rescue attempt.
On February 24, 1988, President Carter wrote that he received reports in 1980 that the Reagan campaign was dealing directly with the Iranian government to delay the release of the US hostages. President Carter wrote “I chose to ignore the reports. Later, as you know, former Iranian president Bani-Sadr has given several interviews stating that such an agreement was made involving Bud McFarlene, George Bush and perhaps Bill Casey. By this time, the elections were over and the results could not be changed. < P>In summary, President Eisenhower and Allen Dulles bear much of the responsibility for the conditions that led to the 1979-1981 hostage crisis. The 1953 coup operation planners, like Donald Wilber, are not heroes but criminals.
Reagan’s acts of treason seized the presidency and paved the way for the 41st (George H. W. Bush) and 43rd presidents (George W. Bush) with increasing hawkish foreign policies and violations of the Constitution. The important message here is that when we turn a blind eye to injustice and dirty tricks, even decades old, it can lead to more dirty tricks and the undermining of our democracy.
Where do we go from here? Formally apologize to the people of Iran for overthrowing their democratically elected government in 1953. When we do, we can begin to restore the friendship the US and Iran once shared.
For the now declassified reports and sources to support this article, please visit www.teachpeace.comirandeception.htm.
David Dionisiwrites from the perspective of a military intelligence officer, senior executive and international volunteer. His book, American Hiroshima, warns that the US will attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and Iran can respond by attacking US nuclear power plants. He currently serves as the National Awareness Officer for the international organization Teach Peace (www.teachpeace.com) and is a columnist for The Daily Star Egypt.