Dear Friends,
Please share the blogs in all your social networks and blogs in any way possible and spread the words as much as you can. New materials will be added soon. All I expect from those who want to use the information that is presented in these blogs, is to respect the integrity of materials and do not make any changes through unjustifiable interpretations as some people have done in the past. I understand that people's view about different things may vary but what is presented here is based on extensive research which I have conducted through out many years and if anyone likes to draw different conclusions then please don't do it on the account of my work.
Sometime in the past, integrity of the materials and documents which are presented here have been abused by some people of more popular medias in United States which referenced the work of "Middle East Research Institute" while there was absolutely no information available from that organization to confirm such claims. Because of that issue, I had to stop publishing further materials until I find a clarification and a solution to prevent such issues from repeating. This matter created a painful gap in my line of thoughts and a break in my research work and I finally decided to discus it in my blogs and make some changes in the way that the documents are presented.
It is very sad to see that people even in some reputable institutions and medias resort to such low attitude in order to make undeserved gains in their political agendas.
I encourage all my readers to share their thoughts and comments on what they see and read in the blogs. This will definitely help me with continuing my work and I appreciate that very much.
Sohrab Ferdows
December 7th, 2013
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Friday, December 6, 2013
Conspiracy, fact or fiction? (part 2)
One of the issues which have been in the focus of many who follow the line of conspiracies through out the world in last couple of decades is the issue of "new world order" which was openly pronounced by different top ranking leaders of the world. I would like to talk a little about this matter before getting back to the main subject regarding "conspiracy" because the story of "new world order" has been considered as a "conspiracy theory" by many of those who follow the line of political cliche and political correctness, especially in the western world. This piece was first published a few years ago in some forums but I have made some changes and since it is very much relevant to the subject, I would like to bring it here before continuing with main topic.
Many people became aware of the story of "new world order" from the time when former president of the United States; G.H. Bush openly spoke about it while in office. In the first glance, the new order of the world with one superpower at the top, and creation of a single world government system to run the affairs of the whole planet may not seem a bad idea. After all, different nations share the same environment on a planet with limited resources which is more like a very tiny dot in a vast universe that its realities change frequently as our knowledge improves through advancement of our science and our wisdom. All of it may sound very nice. Prosperity and resources will be shared by humanity and international hostilities will cease in the light of more harmonious developments. Peace and tranquility will dominate on the planet and humans can engage in activities with higher and nobler purpose than gaining and collecting wealth and serving selfish agendas. Sounds very much like a beautiful dream but, is it anything other than that? We may have a second thought about it once we hear what some of so called "conspiracy buffs" have to say. What will be the share of Iranian nation in this "new world order"? This should definitely be important to all of us as Iranian nationals because we consider ourselves an important element in establishment of civilization on this planet. What do we get in "new world order"? Is "new world order" a conspiracy theory or a solid fact? How does it work? Who is in charge?
The fact is that having single governing authority for all humanity is not a new idea. Since the establishment of the first empire in the world by Cyrus the Great, this notion has been followed by many rulers in different parts of the world to justify the expansionist policies for domination over other people and exploitation of their resources. Empires of all sorts came and went and nothing is left of them today other than some ruins and historical tales. What can make another empire to have a different destiny? History shows that brutal repression has always been one of the tools which were employed by empires for expansion and survival until they faced an enemy which was more powerful than them. It is obvious that the nature of human beings has not changed much since the beginning of the mankind and no empire has vanished voluntarily if not faced with resistance and rebellion from its subjects or from external sources of opposing power. Is it possible to create a single world authority without need for brutal repression? Without exploitation of the weak for the benefit of powerful? Without corruption of authorities? Without monopoly of resources and power by a few who have gained their wealth and power through corruption and manipulations? Is it possible to build a fair and just universal system with remnants of a corrupt system that have had the main roles in corruption of the whole system and society before that? These are just a few questions from many which one may have about establishment of a new world order with single governing authority.
One of the major issues about "new world order" is with some of those who are most serious proponents of single world authority and the values that they believe in as much as it shows through their actions. The trail of their corrupt and criminal activities in most cases includes but is not limited to stealing, bribery, blackmail, murder and assassination that have been committed openly or through covert operations (if necessary) to maintain their own grip on power through manipulation of society and monopolization of resources. These affairs were not just happening in United States or Europe. The whole world has not been immune to these crimes. Daniel Yergin in his great and well documented book, "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power", has written in details about how some of western corporations (mainly British and Americans) imposed and maintained their monopoly in the field of energy in the world through unwritten contracts and agreements while conspiring against others. A great documentary movie of 8 hours long has been made based on this book which although missing many parts of the book but still worth watching.
There are some speculations that the Italian oil tycoon Enrico Maatei who coined the name "The Seven Sisters" for the main oil cartel in those days (Exxon/Esso, Shell, BP, Gulf, Texaco, Mobil, Socal/Chevron) and was killed in a mysterious plane crash shortly after he agreed to give a better deal than oil consortium to Iranian government, was just one of many victims who tried to enter in a field that the oil cartel considered their own rightful domain. There are many other sources which provide information about how this new invisible empire of corporations has been creeping its way to take over the world's resources for a long time and it is just now, thanks to internet and explosion of information, that all these sources of information are reachable in much easier ways than before to help us understand what is being done to humanity and how.
Takeover of the world's resources by stateless or globalist corporations is not an American issue as American people themselves are also victims of this phenomenon. There are many people of different professions in America who have joined the efforts to expose the evil which is presenting itself as savior of humanity. Invisible Empire is name of a documentary made by a young American named Jason Bermas who started doubting the information that was coming out of main stream media and official sources and decided to research the matters on his own and find out the truth. His quest to find the truth started after the event of 9/11/2001 and Invisible Empire is his most recent production. It may not be perfect and complete but it definitely is a great piece of work to make us wonder about many things and events which have also affected our lives and the life of our nation. Whether it's called conspiracy or something else, the facts are there and it is up to us if we choose to see and question them or ignore them. Here is the link to the new video which is about 2 hr long:
Invisible Empire:
And here is "The Prize" documentary (8 parts) published by the author Daniel Yergin himself who served under prestigious positions for different US and UK governments and also as a member of academia :
The Prize
To be continued..
Sohrab Ferdows
December, 6th, 2013
Many people became aware of the story of "new world order" from the time when former president of the United States; G.H. Bush openly spoke about it while in office. In the first glance, the new order of the world with one superpower at the top, and creation of a single world government system to run the affairs of the whole planet may not seem a bad idea. After all, different nations share the same environment on a planet with limited resources which is more like a very tiny dot in a vast universe that its realities change frequently as our knowledge improves through advancement of our science and our wisdom. All of it may sound very nice. Prosperity and resources will be shared by humanity and international hostilities will cease in the light of more harmonious developments. Peace and tranquility will dominate on the planet and humans can engage in activities with higher and nobler purpose than gaining and collecting wealth and serving selfish agendas. Sounds very much like a beautiful dream but, is it anything other than that? We may have a second thought about it once we hear what some of so called "conspiracy buffs" have to say. What will be the share of Iranian nation in this "new world order"? This should definitely be important to all of us as Iranian nationals because we consider ourselves an important element in establishment of civilization on this planet. What do we get in "new world order"? Is "new world order" a conspiracy theory or a solid fact? How does it work? Who is in charge?
The fact is that having single governing authority for all humanity is not a new idea. Since the establishment of the first empire in the world by Cyrus the Great, this notion has been followed by many rulers in different parts of the world to justify the expansionist policies for domination over other people and exploitation of their resources. Empires of all sorts came and went and nothing is left of them today other than some ruins and historical tales. What can make another empire to have a different destiny? History shows that brutal repression has always been one of the tools which were employed by empires for expansion and survival until they faced an enemy which was more powerful than them. It is obvious that the nature of human beings has not changed much since the beginning of the mankind and no empire has vanished voluntarily if not faced with resistance and rebellion from its subjects or from external sources of opposing power. Is it possible to create a single world authority without need for brutal repression? Without exploitation of the weak for the benefit of powerful? Without corruption of authorities? Without monopoly of resources and power by a few who have gained their wealth and power through corruption and manipulations? Is it possible to build a fair and just universal system with remnants of a corrupt system that have had the main roles in corruption of the whole system and society before that? These are just a few questions from many which one may have about establishment of a new world order with single governing authority.
One of the major issues about "new world order" is with some of those who are most serious proponents of single world authority and the values that they believe in as much as it shows through their actions. The trail of their corrupt and criminal activities in most cases includes but is not limited to stealing, bribery, blackmail, murder and assassination that have been committed openly or through covert operations (if necessary) to maintain their own grip on power through manipulation of society and monopolization of resources. These affairs were not just happening in United States or Europe. The whole world has not been immune to these crimes. Daniel Yergin in his great and well documented book, "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power", has written in details about how some of western corporations (mainly British and Americans) imposed and maintained their monopoly in the field of energy in the world through unwritten contracts and agreements while conspiring against others. A great documentary movie of 8 hours long has been made based on this book which although missing many parts of the book but still worth watching.
There are some speculations that the Italian oil tycoon Enrico Maatei who coined the name "The Seven Sisters" for the main oil cartel in those days (Exxon/Esso, Shell, BP, Gulf, Texaco, Mobil, Socal/Chevron) and was killed in a mysterious plane crash shortly after he agreed to give a better deal than oil consortium to Iranian government, was just one of many victims who tried to enter in a field that the oil cartel considered their own rightful domain. There are many other sources which provide information about how this new invisible empire of corporations has been creeping its way to take over the world's resources for a long time and it is just now, thanks to internet and explosion of information, that all these sources of information are reachable in much easier ways than before to help us understand what is being done to humanity and how.
Takeover of the world's resources by stateless or globalist corporations is not an American issue as American people themselves are also victims of this phenomenon. There are many people of different professions in America who have joined the efforts to expose the evil which is presenting itself as savior of humanity. Invisible Empire is name of a documentary made by a young American named Jason Bermas who started doubting the information that was coming out of main stream media and official sources and decided to research the matters on his own and find out the truth. His quest to find the truth started after the event of 9/11/2001 and Invisible Empire is his most recent production. It may not be perfect and complete but it definitely is a great piece of work to make us wonder about many things and events which have also affected our lives and the life of our nation. Whether it's called conspiracy or something else, the facts are there and it is up to us if we choose to see and question them or ignore them. Here is the link to the new video which is about 2 hr long:
Invisible Empire:
And here is "The Prize" documentary (8 parts) published by the author Daniel Yergin himself who served under prestigious positions for different US and UK governments and also as a member of academia :
The Prize
To be continued..
Sohrab Ferdows
December, 6th, 2013
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Conspiracy, fact or fiction?
During the years of late 1960's, a book was published in Iran which brought to light the misdeeds of United States government through out the world while acting as protector of American oil companies under pretext of US national interests. The author was a journalist named Dr. Mehdi Bahar, with known links to Iranian mainstream medias at that time which were suspected of spreading pro government propaganda by most leftist minded intellectuals in those days. The book's name was "Miras Khar-e Estemar" in Persian which means "Inheritor Of Colonialism". Many of leftist Iranian intellectuals were quick to dismiss it as a conspiracy by government to identify anti-establishment individuals who would rush to buy it! I guess I was a little too numb towards such ideas and that's why I took that book as soon as it was presented to me by the owner of the book store that I regularly visited (and, not very surprisingly, was suspected of being a SAVAK agent by same leftist intellectuals). Many years of passing the time has withered away my memories of the exact materials in that book but I remember fairly well that I was amazed by the amount of information (the book was over 600 pages) that clearly indicated how US government had capitalized on their own magnificent military might and the weakness of old European colonialists to take over the resources of the world. I was even more amazed by the reaction and suspicions of intellectual community which seemed to have its own interpretation of any publishing or event to fit their ideological preset definitions.
Around the same time, Isamil Raeen had published the first edition of his famous book, "Freemasonry In Iran" (Faramasonery Dar Iran) which divulged many secrets of this fraternity in Iran and revealed identity of many of its Iranian members whom would never be known by anyone outside that fraternity otherwise. There were also other publishing which were illuminating about unfair and unjustifiable policies of western governments (especially British and American) towards less progressed nations which varied as far as dept and significance. I remember reading the well known leftist revolutionary book of Nikolay Chernyshevsky (a forbidden book by government which was given to me by a leftist friend to read), "What To Be Done" or "Che Bayad Kard" in Persian, around the same time. To me, it looked as one of the most useless books to enlighten a reader about unjust behaviors of capitalist world towards others while to my leftist friends it was regarded like a sacred document. In fact it was more about sharing poverty and low quality of life rather than inspiring motivation and boosting spirit for advancement. The materials in that book apparently had been one of the major inspirations behind Bolshevik Revolution in Russia which was the bread basket of Europe at that time but, after the revolution, it fell to a level that it had to import wheat and corn from USA for internal consumption. Much later, when I was reading "A Century Of War" by William Engdhal, this made me wonder about what could have been the cause of such upheaval in Russia other than poverty which was commonplace all over Europe in those days but that is another story which requires extensive research and analysis of its own.
With all that said, I must admit that I personally learned more about evil nature of western colonialism and the forces behind them from reading something like Mr. Bahar's book than tons of useless leftist propaganda materials and publishing that, thanks to the lackeys of Soviet Union in Tudeh party, became available to everyone in Iran after Islamic Revolution. But all of that, especially these days, is nothing compared to the enormous amount of materials available to readers and researchers in the libraries outside Iran and also through internet everywhere. After going through many of such resources, I am convinced that we would be very naive to believe that colonialist powers reached such stage to exploit the resources of other nations for their own benefit without resorting to lowest deceptive tactics, committing all kinds of crimes and, engaging in all kinds of inhumane activities against others as an empire would do (or even worse than that) in older times. History shows that, as we get closer to modern days, the use of espionage, infiltration and conspiratorial activities have become the more favorable method to enforce colonialistic agendas by powerful governments in the west through different means including subversion against unfavorable establishments in weaker and less progressed nations.
During earlier stages in history, an empire needed a vast amount of manpower and resources to be able to enforce any expansionist agenda but this matter became much easier and less resource intensive after invention of firearm. After that,the only element to restrict and restrain the greed of European colonialist powers for more wealth and free or cheap resources was their ability to mobilize enough men with firepower to control such resources and the people who possessed them. That's how Portuguese lost their conquered territories and colonies to stronger and greedier colonialists who had bigger and better guns and more soldiers. Use of diplomacy as a tool to advance the hidden agendas of colonialist powers along with military power made the best combination that worked to the advantage of the European conquerors for a relatively long period of time. Awakening of people of the world to the intentions and agendas of advanced western powers posed a real threat to their interests which were heavily dependent on cheap raw materials and resources of colonized nations. This matter called for a new solution that was fulfilled by development of newer methods of control through covert operations of espionage and use of low cost local elements, wherever possible, to achieve desired goals.
British rulers who had won the war among colonialist powers, enjoyed domination of the world stage for a good period of time which still, to some degrees, continues to this day. British Empire spread from far east and Oceania to far west and the New World (continents of north and south America) and, despite the fact that they faced resistance in many of their colonies, one way or another, they managed to sustain influence in the affairs of former colonies through indirect means of manipulation. Social clubs and fraternities that were created of local people at the height of their presence in colonies and semi-colonies, and provided the members with great advantages and privileges, were in fact nothing but training institutions to prepare the members to serve colonialist agenda at the time of need under pretext of socially accepted values. Everything and anything would be done to protect the "status quo" and therefore, during previous century, the relation between colony and colonizer entered a different phase.
After the era of unfair "free trade" between western colonizers and colonies, new terms like "common wealth nations" gave a new look to the ugliness of deceit and greed of colonialist powers while no real effort was put into such relations by advanced nations in order to help in progress of developing nations which their resources and markets were vital to the economy of their colonizers that appeared as equal trade partners at this time. Entering of the United States of America into this equation as a new competition, did not have much effect on the nature of relations between the powerful and the weak nations. In fact, since United States was falsely viewed as a symbol of resistance and victory against colonial powers by most of non-western politicians, it became much easier for them to find a foothold among under-developed nations which suffered from a bitter and unfair relation with old colonialist powers.
In general view at the relations between western and non-western nations, western powers relied on cheap raw materials and sources of energy for production of goods to run their economy and sustain economic growth while expected the producers of raw materials to buy their manufactured goods without attempting to enter in the arena of manufacturing themselves. This unfair relation was one of the main reasons behind many tensions and confrontations between western and non-western nations while western governments seriously intended to remain in full control of the situation as later unfolding events clearly indicate. Development of universal fund and monetary organizations and with that, new and covert methods of influence and control through financial and economic levers, created concealed ways for pulling political strings and manipulating the situations to nullify any unfavorable activities and reactions effectively. In this new order of affairs, even elected officials of many developed nations (including United States of America) have become mere tools of control in the hands of strong financial institutions.
In these days, as we may all notice, the relations between nations can be very complicated due to the fact that many different elements and agendas are at work in order to maintain the "status quo" for the interest of powerful and greedy while the world's wealth continues to flow into the hands of a small number of people who are at the top and in control of all international economic and financial affairs. Almost every political event in the whole world is influenced by these relations which are designed to maintain supremacy of certain group of people over the rest of the world. Recent chain of events in most stable nations of Northern Africa and some Middle Eastern nations, have the hallmarks of this modern day phenomenon written all over them to show how weaker nations can be manipulated under financial/economic strings and political pressure into a direction of subversion to serve certain agendas for the rich and powerful which in these days, although reside in certain geographic areas of the globe but do not consider themselves bound by any man-made borders and territorial divisions.
All of these may constitute ground for a nice and easy label of "conspiracy theory" but what if there are tangible and solid evidence to prove such points without any shadow of a doubt? Believing that western imperial powers, which fiercely rivaled each other over whatever they considered vital for their own interests through-out the history, have given up on old habits and greed, would be very simplistic if not foolish. British and French went to a full-scale war against each other over "Rosetta Stone" which promised a key to decipher Egyptian's glyphic writings and finding the secrets of it's past monumental fortune and glory. Understanding the true cause of that war can lead us to the main motive (other than greed and treasures) behind all activities of western archaeologists through-out the past two centuries in the far territories of the eastern ancient civilizations but, that is a separate issue and is not the point of this writing.
To be continued..
Around the same time, Isamil Raeen had published the first edition of his famous book, "Freemasonry In Iran" (Faramasonery Dar Iran) which divulged many secrets of this fraternity in Iran and revealed identity of many of its Iranian members whom would never be known by anyone outside that fraternity otherwise. There were also other publishing which were illuminating about unfair and unjustifiable policies of western governments (especially British and American) towards less progressed nations which varied as far as dept and significance. I remember reading the well known leftist revolutionary book of Nikolay Chernyshevsky (a forbidden book by government which was given to me by a leftist friend to read), "What To Be Done" or "Che Bayad Kard" in Persian, around the same time. To me, it looked as one of the most useless books to enlighten a reader about unjust behaviors of capitalist world towards others while to my leftist friends it was regarded like a sacred document. In fact it was more about sharing poverty and low quality of life rather than inspiring motivation and boosting spirit for advancement. The materials in that book apparently had been one of the major inspirations behind Bolshevik Revolution in Russia which was the bread basket of Europe at that time but, after the revolution, it fell to a level that it had to import wheat and corn from USA for internal consumption. Much later, when I was reading "A Century Of War" by William Engdhal, this made me wonder about what could have been the cause of such upheaval in Russia other than poverty which was commonplace all over Europe in those days but that is another story which requires extensive research and analysis of its own.
With all that said, I must admit that I personally learned more about evil nature of western colonialism and the forces behind them from reading something like Mr. Bahar's book than tons of useless leftist propaganda materials and publishing that, thanks to the lackeys of Soviet Union in Tudeh party, became available to everyone in Iran after Islamic Revolution. But all of that, especially these days, is nothing compared to the enormous amount of materials available to readers and researchers in the libraries outside Iran and also through internet everywhere. After going through many of such resources, I am convinced that we would be very naive to believe that colonialist powers reached such stage to exploit the resources of other nations for their own benefit without resorting to lowest deceptive tactics, committing all kinds of crimes and, engaging in all kinds of inhumane activities against others as an empire would do (or even worse than that) in older times. History shows that, as we get closer to modern days, the use of espionage, infiltration and conspiratorial activities have become the more favorable method to enforce colonialistic agendas by powerful governments in the west through different means including subversion against unfavorable establishments in weaker and less progressed nations.
During earlier stages in history, an empire needed a vast amount of manpower and resources to be able to enforce any expansionist agenda but this matter became much easier and less resource intensive after invention of firearm. After that,the only element to restrict and restrain the greed of European colonialist powers for more wealth and free or cheap resources was their ability to mobilize enough men with firepower to control such resources and the people who possessed them. That's how Portuguese lost their conquered territories and colonies to stronger and greedier colonialists who had bigger and better guns and more soldiers. Use of diplomacy as a tool to advance the hidden agendas of colonialist powers along with military power made the best combination that worked to the advantage of the European conquerors for a relatively long period of time. Awakening of people of the world to the intentions and agendas of advanced western powers posed a real threat to their interests which were heavily dependent on cheap raw materials and resources of colonized nations. This matter called for a new solution that was fulfilled by development of newer methods of control through covert operations of espionage and use of low cost local elements, wherever possible, to achieve desired goals.
British rulers who had won the war among colonialist powers, enjoyed domination of the world stage for a good period of time which still, to some degrees, continues to this day. British Empire spread from far east and Oceania to far west and the New World (continents of north and south America) and, despite the fact that they faced resistance in many of their colonies, one way or another, they managed to sustain influence in the affairs of former colonies through indirect means of manipulation. Social clubs and fraternities that were created of local people at the height of their presence in colonies and semi-colonies, and provided the members with great advantages and privileges, were in fact nothing but training institutions to prepare the members to serve colonialist agenda at the time of need under pretext of socially accepted values. Everything and anything would be done to protect the "status quo" and therefore, during previous century, the relation between colony and colonizer entered a different phase.
After the era of unfair "free trade" between western colonizers and colonies, new terms like "common wealth nations" gave a new look to the ugliness of deceit and greed of colonialist powers while no real effort was put into such relations by advanced nations in order to help in progress of developing nations which their resources and markets were vital to the economy of their colonizers that appeared as equal trade partners at this time. Entering of the United States of America into this equation as a new competition, did not have much effect on the nature of relations between the powerful and the weak nations. In fact, since United States was falsely viewed as a symbol of resistance and victory against colonial powers by most of non-western politicians, it became much easier for them to find a foothold among under-developed nations which suffered from a bitter and unfair relation with old colonialist powers.
In general view at the relations between western and non-western nations, western powers relied on cheap raw materials and sources of energy for production of goods to run their economy and sustain economic growth while expected the producers of raw materials to buy their manufactured goods without attempting to enter in the arena of manufacturing themselves. This unfair relation was one of the main reasons behind many tensions and confrontations between western and non-western nations while western governments seriously intended to remain in full control of the situation as later unfolding events clearly indicate. Development of universal fund and monetary organizations and with that, new and covert methods of influence and control through financial and economic levers, created concealed ways for pulling political strings and manipulating the situations to nullify any unfavorable activities and reactions effectively. In this new order of affairs, even elected officials of many developed nations (including United States of America) have become mere tools of control in the hands of strong financial institutions.
In these days, as we may all notice, the relations between nations can be very complicated due to the fact that many different elements and agendas are at work in order to maintain the "status quo" for the interest of powerful and greedy while the world's wealth continues to flow into the hands of a small number of people who are at the top and in control of all international economic and financial affairs. Almost every political event in the whole world is influenced by these relations which are designed to maintain supremacy of certain group of people over the rest of the world. Recent chain of events in most stable nations of Northern Africa and some Middle Eastern nations, have the hallmarks of this modern day phenomenon written all over them to show how weaker nations can be manipulated under financial/economic strings and political pressure into a direction of subversion to serve certain agendas for the rich and powerful which in these days, although reside in certain geographic areas of the globe but do not consider themselves bound by any man-made borders and territorial divisions.
All of these may constitute ground for a nice and easy label of "conspiracy theory" but what if there are tangible and solid evidence to prove such points without any shadow of a doubt? Believing that western imperial powers, which fiercely rivaled each other over whatever they considered vital for their own interests through-out the history, have given up on old habits and greed, would be very simplistic if not foolish. British and French went to a full-scale war against each other over "Rosetta Stone" which promised a key to decipher Egyptian's glyphic writings and finding the secrets of it's past monumental fortune and glory. Understanding the true cause of that war can lead us to the main motive (other than greed and treasures) behind all activities of western archaeologists through-out the past two centuries in the far territories of the eastern ancient civilizations but, that is a separate issue and is not the point of this writing.
To be continued..
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Developments in Egypt and new statements by Russian President
As days pass, it is becoming more clear that the events which started happening in Iran since 1978 are not merely the results of some spontaneous actions by some outraged religious bigots or logical consequences of economic hardship (as some leftist idealists would believe). The events in Tunisia , Libya and Egypt are not some isolated events that could be explained in conventional way of politics. There is no economic justification for what happened in Tunisia and there is no common sense about the attack by NATO members on Libya which was the pioneer of Islamization of the region since Ghadhafi came to power over 40 years ago. Ghadhafi was a puppet of the same people who backed the rivals against him! He was the one who, for the first time in 20th century, declared implementation of sharia law and abandoning of modern education (closing all schools and universities) in favor of Islamic teachings and Quran upon his ascendance to power! His benefits for the western masters far outweighed his noisy rhetoric against them. Then why change? A new era is beginning in the politics of the region and the world, and newer and more ambitious forces with better revolutionary labels are needed to move forward with the agendas which will shape the new world in coming decades. I will write more about this later.
Around this time, 8 years ago, I started a discussion in an Egyptian forum regarding the influence and domination of Arabic culture over Egyptian people. That discussion continued for a few months and for obvious reasons, political issues and Islam were dragged into the discussion too (as intended) and during those exchanges that I had with forum members, I was labeled with different things but also received some good feedback from some of better informed forum members. Today, when I hear the news about the conflicts between Egyptian army rulers and the gangs of clueless revolutionaries which are being manipulated by "Muslim Brotherhood" to impose so called "Islamic democracy" rather than true liberty, I am reminded of those simple minded forum members (especially females) who could not see what was behind the events which were developing in the region that I tried to inform them about. In recent days, a very young Egyptian girl tried to counter the imposition of strict and suppressive religious laws being imposed on Egyptians under influence of Muslim Brotherhood by stripping in-front of a camera. This girl probably was not more then 12-13 years old 8 years ago when I had my discussion with her older compatriots.
Egyptian Forum
It is truly unfortunate to see so much ignorance among people of most non-western nations which when accompanied with corruption of their politicians (inside and outside their governments), become the most effective combination for manipulation of people into any direction by those who seek control over resources of the whole world. Is it crazy to think that there are many important things going on in this world which almost all ordinary people with ordinary way of thinking (in the box) and ordinary life style are unaware of? YES, until something super crazy happens in reality and kicks them hard in the head!
Since yesterday, a video is being circulated on the internet which shows president of Russia openly talking about attacking NATO targets in Europe and taking some other actions which definitely need serious attention. It seems that covert confrontation between the rivals to take over the world is entering a new stage in which harsh words are being spoken in the open to indicate the seriousness of the situation. All of this remind me of some materials that I had encountered a while back regarding the upcoming events that would also involve Iran and some other nations in an extremely serious adventure with unpredictable grave consequences. I have some thoughts about all of this which will try to bring up as new developments happen and more things come to light. Here is a video of President Dmitry Medvedev (please make sure to enable English translation by clicking on CC for close caption unless you understand Russian language):
President Medvedev
Around this time, 8 years ago, I started a discussion in an Egyptian forum regarding the influence and domination of Arabic culture over Egyptian people. That discussion continued for a few months and for obvious reasons, political issues and Islam were dragged into the discussion too (as intended) and during those exchanges that I had with forum members, I was labeled with different things but also received some good feedback from some of better informed forum members. Today, when I hear the news about the conflicts between Egyptian army rulers and the gangs of clueless revolutionaries which are being manipulated by "Muslim Brotherhood" to impose so called "Islamic democracy" rather than true liberty, I am reminded of those simple minded forum members (especially females) who could not see what was behind the events which were developing in the region that I tried to inform them about. In recent days, a very young Egyptian girl tried to counter the imposition of strict and suppressive religious laws being imposed on Egyptians under influence of Muslim Brotherhood by stripping in-front of a camera. This girl probably was not more then 12-13 years old 8 years ago when I had my discussion with her older compatriots.
Egyptian Forum
It is truly unfortunate to see so much ignorance among people of most non-western nations which when accompanied with corruption of their politicians (inside and outside their governments), become the most effective combination for manipulation of people into any direction by those who seek control over resources of the whole world. Is it crazy to think that there are many important things going on in this world which almost all ordinary people with ordinary way of thinking (in the box) and ordinary life style are unaware of? YES, until something super crazy happens in reality and kicks them hard in the head!
Since yesterday, a video is being circulated on the internet which shows president of Russia openly talking about attacking NATO targets in Europe and taking some other actions which definitely need serious attention. It seems that covert confrontation between the rivals to take over the world is entering a new stage in which harsh words are being spoken in the open to indicate the seriousness of the situation. All of this remind me of some materials that I had encountered a while back regarding the upcoming events that would also involve Iran and some other nations in an extremely serious adventure with unpredictable grave consequences. I have some thoughts about all of this which will try to bring up as new developments happen and more things come to light. Here is a video of President Dmitry Medvedev (please make sure to enable English translation by clicking on CC for close caption unless you understand Russian language):
President Medvedev
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
What is going on in Tunisia?
Once again, we are witnessing a turmoil in a non-western country that has many signatures of an orchestrated and calculated plan written all over it to manipulate another ignorant nation into a dark and miserable future under rule of Islamic religious leaders.
Tunisia, according to many sources, has been the most stable nation in Africa until very recently. Economically, Tunisia has been ranking number one nation in the whole continent of Africa with less percentage of people bellow poverty than US and some other western nations. Its economic indices have been much better than some European countries like, Italy and Portugal and, a big majority of people have been enjoying a high standard of living. Then, what went wrong?
Habib Boiurqiba, the first president of Tunisia, had started his presidency after establishment of a republic system and terminating the colonial relation with France. His social and economic reforms for the nation turned him into a figure which was later compared with Kamal Ataturk by many. In his reforms, he imposed limits on different aspects of Islamic traditions and nullified the "vaqf" which would lock properties and some other sources of revenue to pay for religious centers and figures. Those reforms brought fundamental changes to the way that Tunisians lived and put the nation on the path of modernization.
Even though his secular government was openly on the side of anti-communist camp which was led by United States during cold war era, he was never exempted of being criticized for suppression of opposition (mostly by Islamic rivals) by his western allies. Bourqiba once tried to provide a base for PLO in Tunisia but an air attack by Israel put an end to it and the Palestinian base was destroyed. As a result of this event, Bourqiba severed his relation with United States of America. A couple of years later Bourqiba was replaced by Zine El Abedin Ben Ali in a non-violant coup d'etat.
The most important opposition to Bourqiba came from Islamist party of An Nahad which continued its activities after him to pursuit establishment of a Islamic regime and implement sharia law over 20 years ago. Increasing power of An Nahad and Islamist group of "Al-Ittijah Al-Islami" (founded by Rashid Al-Ghanuchi in early 1980's) posed a great challenge to stability and progress of Tunis and at some point, Zine El Abedin Ben Ali was forced to ban their activities for conspiring to topple the government. As a result, the leaders of Islamic movement of Tunisia left the country and until recently, stayed in England.
The event of January 15th-16th and 17th/2011 in Tunis show amazing similarities with the events that happened in Iran during the days of February 1979. The clashes between presidential guard and the army on January 17th/2011 draws a parallel to events of February 12th/1979 in Tehran in which final battles took place between Royal Guard and armed rebels with assistance of some army personnel.
At this moment that I am writing these lines, a new interim government has been formed in Tunisia which is mostly secular but considering the background of strong activities and influence of Islamic groups, this may not last very long and we may soon witness the rising of another Islamic Republic in Tunisia. This will definitely be a serious event for countries like Morocco and Egypt which have been wrestling with their own Islamic opposition for the last three decades.
Sohrab Ferdows
January 18th/2011
Canada
Tunisia, according to many sources, has been the most stable nation in Africa until very recently. Economically, Tunisia has been ranking number one nation in the whole continent of Africa with less percentage of people bellow poverty than US and some other western nations. Its economic indices have been much better than some European countries like, Italy and Portugal and, a big majority of people have been enjoying a high standard of living. Then, what went wrong?
Habib Boiurqiba, the first president of Tunisia, had started his presidency after establishment of a republic system and terminating the colonial relation with France. His social and economic reforms for the nation turned him into a figure which was later compared with Kamal Ataturk by many. In his reforms, he imposed limits on different aspects of Islamic traditions and nullified the "vaqf" which would lock properties and some other sources of revenue to pay for religious centers and figures. Those reforms brought fundamental changes to the way that Tunisians lived and put the nation on the path of modernization.
Even though his secular government was openly on the side of anti-communist camp which was led by United States during cold war era, he was never exempted of being criticized for suppression of opposition (mostly by Islamic rivals) by his western allies. Bourqiba once tried to provide a base for PLO in Tunisia but an air attack by Israel put an end to it and the Palestinian base was destroyed. As a result of this event, Bourqiba severed his relation with United States of America. A couple of years later Bourqiba was replaced by Zine El Abedin Ben Ali in a non-violant coup d'etat.
The most important opposition to Bourqiba came from Islamist party of An Nahad which continued its activities after him to pursuit establishment of a Islamic regime and implement sharia law over 20 years ago. Increasing power of An Nahad and Islamist group of "Al-Ittijah Al-Islami" (founded by Rashid Al-Ghanuchi in early 1980's) posed a great challenge to stability and progress of Tunis and at some point, Zine El Abedin Ben Ali was forced to ban their activities for conspiring to topple the government. As a result, the leaders of Islamic movement of Tunisia left the country and until recently, stayed in England.
The event of January 15th-16th and 17th/2011 in Tunis show amazing similarities with the events that happened in Iran during the days of February 1979. The clashes between presidential guard and the army on January 17th/2011 draws a parallel to events of February 12th/1979 in Tehran in which final battles took place between Royal Guard and armed rebels with assistance of some army personnel.
At this moment that I am writing these lines, a new interim government has been formed in Tunisia which is mostly secular but considering the background of strong activities and influence of Islamic groups, this may not last very long and we may soon witness the rising of another Islamic Republic in Tunisia. This will definitely be a serious event for countries like Morocco and Egypt which have been wrestling with their own Islamic opposition for the last three decades.
Sohrab Ferdows
January 18th/2011
Canada
Thursday, January 6, 2011
All the Shah's men (part 5)
Establishment of OPEC cartel in 1960 to take control of the oil prices by oil producing and exporting countries, based on a proposal by Venezuelan Minister of Energy Juan Pablo Perez Alfonso, started a new era in relations between oil producing nations and international oil companies. Initial members included 5 nations of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela but successful operation of the cartel in the beginning to increase oil revenue for member nations, attracted most of major oil producing nations in the years after that. By late 1960's and early 1970's, OPEC was strongest oil cartel in the world which held control over the international pricing of this important source of energy. Increasing price of oil had a great impact on development and flourishing of economy in Iran which was still suffering of poverty after noisy events of early 1950's in the oil dispute with British that had not produced the nation with enough resources from oil production to implement major development projects.
In the same year that OPEC was taking shape, another organization which later influenced developments in political affairs of Iran was formed by some Iranian students who lived in some western countries. This organization that took the name of Confederation of Iranian Students (CIS for short), was started by those Iranian students who were mostly followers or sympathizers of Tudeh Party and National Front of Iran while sympathizers of National Front dominated the organization in the beginning. CIS continued to grow by attracting more of Iranian students which their number continued to rise and, later moved to United States that, in those days, had biggest attraction among Iranian young generation and students who wished to continue their studies abroad. Supremacy of nationalist elements within CIS did not last very long and shortly, Marxist elements along with those who wanted to combine Marxism and Islam became dominant in the organization and National Front supporters took the back seat.
In 1962, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had a visit to United States to meet President John Kennedy in order to receive more aid for industrial development of the country and expansion of military. President Kennedy advised Shah that United States would like to see some political and social reforms in Iran. Dr. Ali Amini who was favored by US administration to implement such reforms had become prime minister of the country nearly a year earlier (Shah has mentioned support of US government for this appointment in his book). Iranian parliament had been dissolved in the beginning of Amini's premiership as a precondition for him to take the job with the promise of election in near future. During that year, Hassan Arsanjani who was Minister of Agriculture in Amini's cabinet, initiated a limited land reform in order to create a balance in distribution of wealth in Iranian society which was mostly made of peasants. This limited reform did not include vast properties of many big land owners whose associations with centers of power helped them to influence the process of affairs in the government in their own interest. During the same period, Mohammad Derakhshesh was minister of culture in Dr. Amini's cabinet which at that time, was responsible for the affairs of education from elementary level to post graduate studies. Mr. Derakhshesh was a member of teachers association from earliest times and had contributed to teachers strikes against government in different occasions from which, one was during the Prime Minister Qavam-Ol-Saltaneh when Dr. Shayegan was minister of culture. Apparently the appointment of Mr. Derakhshesh to cabinet position was to resolve the issues which Iranian teachers were struggling with at that time but no real important change came out of that and teachers association was turned into an entity that Tudeh Party (despite being officially banned of activities) continued to influence and manipulate.
A couple of months after return of Shah from United States, Dr. Amini's government was replaced by Asadollah Alam who himself was one of major land owners of Iran in the north-eastern part of the country, the province of Khorasan. Earlier, Alam had implemented his own version of land reform in the region belonging to his family which was welcomed by the government. About seven months after Alam became Prime Minister, Shah launched a "6 point program" that included reforms in different social and economic areas for the nation. This reform was labeled as "White Revolution" due to overwhelming support that it received by Iranian people all over the country through a referendum without spilling any blood. This matter did not last very long. A couple of weeks later, Ruhollah Khomeini, an unknown middle aged cleric at that time, strongly denounced the Shah's reforms in Qom to create a stir in the society. This matter dragged Iranian armed forces to Qom under orders of government to silence the opposition. During the months after that, clashes between Iranian government forces and clerics and other supporters of Khomeini escalated into a bloody confrontation in which a number of Khomeini's supporters and clerics were killed.
The foundation of Khomeini's opposition was based on the arguments in which he accused Shah of violating the constitution by proposing and launching such reforms. He also accused Shah of promoting corruption in society by granting more rights to women and yielding to demands by Americans for reform. This notion was promoted quickly and became a solid belief among those who opposed Shah during the years after that (probably even today) to claim that "White Revolution" was cooked by American government while a former US Ambassador to Iran in an interview with Dr. Lajvardi of Harvard Oral History Project, has made it clear that American government, other than expecting to see some reforms in social affairs, had no part in details of "White Revolution" and were even surprised by one of the articles that called for sharing profits of manufacturing units with workers. In a CIA report of the same years which has been declassified recently, Khomeini's actions were compared with the actions of ayatollah Behbahani and ayatollah Tabatabee during the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (early 1900's) in which those ayatollahs intended to limit the power of monarch while, according to this document, Khomeini opposed the expansion of monarch's powers. In another communication document of CIA, the actions of Shah in meddling with selection of Shiite Marja after death of Ayatollah Hakim to prevent Khomeini from ascending to status of Marja is discussed which indicates the importance of the matter to US government for unknown reasons at that time. Khomeini was arrested and released shortly but this matter did not have any effect on his activities and speeches against the government.
After ratification of a bill in the parliament to grant political immunity to American Military personnel during premiership of Hassan-Ali Mansur who became Prime Minister after Alam, Khomeini argued that Iranian government had submitted to capitulation by accepting that American military personnel in Iran to be exempted from being trialled in Iranian courts for any legal issue. This, apparently, was a prerequisite by American government for providing military aid to any friendly nation and Iran was no exception in this way. This issue resulted in Khomeini's arrest and imprisonment for a few months before he was sent to exile for continuing his opposition to reforms and policies of the government. Many of Khomeini's supporters among lower rank clergies and also some in Tehran bazaar were arrested as well. Khomeini's revolt was suppressed temporarily and calm returned to Iranian cities. The White Revolution reforms provided the nation with relatively good development opportunities in the areas of social and economic affairs while political arena was still reserved for certain group of people who had proven their loyalty to the establishment (as it is in every society) which was heavily influenced by the top figure, the Shah himself, who micromanaged almost every affair of the government. This matter in fact, had paved the way for favoritism by those who had found their way in the circle of power and therefore became an important element of negative propaganda against the Shah by those who were unhappy with such atmosphere in society.
About a year after Khomeini was sent to exile, Prime Minister Hassan-Ali Mansur was assassinated by "Fadaian Islam" in January of 1965. His assassination was allegedly carried with assistance of Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani. Mansur was from a new generation of politicians with a long family history in politics and links to Qajar aristocracy. His plans for deep economic reforms which started with a sharp rise in price of gasoline and bus fares was confronted with violent reaction in demonstrations of university students in Tehran and nationwide strike by cab drivers. Consequently, gasoline prices and bus fares dropped back significantly to settle the unrest in society but this was not enough for those who wanted to disrupt the process of development of the nation. Shortly afterwards, an Islamic fanatic, Mohammad Bokharaee, shot Prime Minister Mansur in front of national parliament's door and he died in hospital a few days later. Hassan-Ali Mansur was followed by Amir-Abbas Hoveyda who was a close friend and associate. Before writing about the era of Mr. Hoveyda's premiership, I would like to take a look at some issues that have left their marks on the history of our nation and influenced the political path that our nation has followed after that.
The stories of corruption and shortcomings in government and all organizations related to that prior to Islamic Revolution is undoubtedly not unique to Iran (even though Iran was not comparable with most of other nations in that regard) but this matter had most definitely created best opportunities for manipulation of portions of the society by enemies (both internal and external) in direction of their own interests through any means possible. Formation of Rastakhiz Party by direct order from Shah in 1975, which has remained a mystery till this day, provided more ammunition to those who wanted him and the system that he represented to be gone for good. This was a year after Shah had been diagnosed with some form of mild lymphoma sickness which was later identified as "human T-cell leukemia", a deadly disease that was not seen among humans much earlier and is closely related to "acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome" (AIDS) virus. This virus, according to Dr. Len Horrowitz, was artificially made in the labs of BIONETICS company (a contractor for US army in the field of BIO weapons), under direction of Dr. Robert Gallo. Based on a brief report from "Health News Network" on history of human experimentation by US government, HTLV (Human T-cell Leukemia Virus) was initiated in Fort Detrick's Center for Biological Warfare Research for US Navy which was renamed later as "Fredrick Cancer Research Facilities".
The argument about involvement of US government in human experimentation for creating biological and chemical weapons which has also been brought up in some unfounded stories by some concpiracy theorists to taint the atmosphere with misinformation, is a well established fact that was proved in the court of law which ordered the government of United States to pay damages to families of some victims during 1990's. Eileen Welsome, a journalist in a small town in United States accidentally discovered some discarded government documents that contained information about the human experimentation which was conducted by US government on American citizens during the years of WWII and afterwards. These experiments were allegedly to make certain biological and chemical materials that could produce desired effects on people in direction of objectives of US military and government. Discovery of the documents directed Eileen Welsome on a path of research that resulted in a great book which she won the Pulitzer prize for that. The documents presented in this book which is named "Plutonium File" became the foundation for a lawsuit on behalf of victims of human experimentation against the government of United States that ended with victory of the families of victims and they were awarded one million dollar each at the end. It goes without saying that such matters have never been limited to this particular case. It is reasonable to believe that these kinds of experimentation have been conducted in more than one area with variety of results and possibly continue till this moment.
Shah's illness was kept not only from public but also from all those who were very close to him as in the beginning, probably neither Shah himself nor his doctor believed that his life would be under any grave danger. It is said that, during the last visit to US before his sickness, Shah and his court minister, Alam, both underwent a full medical checkup without finding anything significant and yet they both became ill not much longer after that. US Ambassador, Richard Helms, who had received the information about the illness of Shah from General Hussein Fardoust in 1976, reported that to Washington. According to Fara (Faramarz) Mansoor who allegedly has access to some secret documents about activities of US intelligence service in Iran before 1979, G.H.W. Bush who was the head of CIA at that time, sent a secret memo to Helms inquiring about mental state and quality of decision making of Shah and the effect of his illness on such activities. This matter, indicates that head of CIA was fully aware of the situation and the initial effects of such illness in preliminary stages before it completely deteriorates the health of patient and ends his life. During the years after 1953 to 1979, in multiple occasions, CIA had requested assessment from its field officers in Iran regarding possible effects in the government system if the Shah was taken out of the scene either through assassination or illness. This kind of information combined with more than one coup attempts against the Shah in which, CIA allegedly had a hand, makes one wonder about the nature of relations of US government with Iran and the late Shah and also their real intentions in such regards.
During the years after creation of CIS (Confederation of Iranian Students), their activities against Iranian government grew and, the organization continued to recruit new Iranian students that their number in United States was increasing rapidly. The first major demonstration of CIS members against Shah occurred in front of the White House during his visit to President Kennedy in 1962. Sadegh Ghotbzadeh who had no success in his academic career in United States at that time, was among the leaders of that organization who paid a visit to Robert Kennedy, who was the Attorney General of United States at that time, before going to the area around White House and chant slogans against Shah. Ardeshir Zahedi who was Iranian Ambassador to US at that time has recalled this visit to Robert Kennedy by students later in a meeting with US Ambassador in Iran. In that conversation which was reported by US Ambassador to Washington, Mr. Zahedi also mentioned that Robert Kennedy had presented all Iranian students who met him with a ball point pen (new at that time) which was decorated with his own picture! This matter is also confirmed by Carrol Jerome (Ghotbzadeh's girl friend) in her book,"Man in The Mirror".
Increasing organized activities of CIS in their opposition to Iranian government which spread throughout the western world became a matter of concern. Due to lack of enough educational institutions at graduate and post graduate levels, Iran needed to send students outside the country in order to take advantage of European and American academic facilities and arm the new generation with the required scientific and technological skills that were needed for national development in different fields. Start of the armed rebellion and guerrilla war against Iranian government by some remnants of Tudeh Party's youth organization and other newly created communist groups which were mainly made of young graduates during the same period of time was an indication that Iranian young generation seemed to have found such activities very attractive. Exaggerated views and rumors about oppressiveness and power of Iranian security police (SAVAK) might have contributed in creating and spreading such tendencies to resist and fight among a portion of younger generation which tends to rebel easily by nature. Considering the wide spread propaganda about leftist rebellion throughout a bipolar world in which communism was very fashionable and attractive, young Iranians and young generation in other under-developed countries, were easy victims to fall for such unrealistic and false promises of social justice and prosperity.
It was under such circumstances that in the year 1971, a CIA humiliation broke out by an Iranian student claiming that he was recruited by CIA to work with CIS (Confederation of Iranian Students) and gave an interview to news papers in Tehran under guidance of SAVAK and the story was ready to be broadcasted on Iranian national TV. This matter caused an unpleasant wave in relations between the two governments. Shah was very angry to hear about such developments while American Ambassador was working hard through his contacts (the ministers of royal court, Alam, and foreign affairs, Zahedi) to control the situation and prevent the escalation of the issue into real difference between the two nations. This matter that US intelligence agency was involved in stirring opposition against Iranian government through CIS was a surprise for many Iranians but to others who were aware of previous events and activities against Shah with CIA involvement, it was not such a crazy idea. Finally, the matter was settled with the help of Mr. Alam and Ardeshir Zahedi who reminded US Ambassador of unpleasant experience of his own about demonstration of Iranian students (with a ball point pen from Robert Kennedy in their pockets) against Shah when he served as Ambassador to United States. US government blamed the whole event on communists. It is interesting to remember a conversation between Shah and Leonid Brezhnev in mid 1970's which happened in Moscow during which Shah thanked Brezhnev for excellent education and training that they provided to Iranian engineering students for steel mill factories and in return Brezhnev said: "If you want well trained students then always send them here but if you want well trained communists send them to US".
After that humiliating event, Ghotbzadeh who had moved to France, along with a few other friends started an Islamic students organization to follow with the agenda which he had in mind and never spoke much about, the destruction of constitutional monarchy establishment and starting a republic system (probably with himself as permanent president). It is not clear that how many of Iranian students joined the Islamic students organization at that time but the organization later received the moral support of Ali Shariati who met the founding members in Paris and encouraged them to contact Khomeini because, in his view, Khomeini was different than other mullahs.
To be continued...
Sohrab Ferdows
August 18th/2010
Canada
In the same year that OPEC was taking shape, another organization which later influenced developments in political affairs of Iran was formed by some Iranian students who lived in some western countries. This organization that took the name of Confederation of Iranian Students (CIS for short), was started by those Iranian students who were mostly followers or sympathizers of Tudeh Party and National Front of Iran while sympathizers of National Front dominated the organization in the beginning. CIS continued to grow by attracting more of Iranian students which their number continued to rise and, later moved to United States that, in those days, had biggest attraction among Iranian young generation and students who wished to continue their studies abroad. Supremacy of nationalist elements within CIS did not last very long and shortly, Marxist elements along with those who wanted to combine Marxism and Islam became dominant in the organization and National Front supporters took the back seat.
In 1962, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had a visit to United States to meet President John Kennedy in order to receive more aid for industrial development of the country and expansion of military. President Kennedy advised Shah that United States would like to see some political and social reforms in Iran. Dr. Ali Amini who was favored by US administration to implement such reforms had become prime minister of the country nearly a year earlier (Shah has mentioned support of US government for this appointment in his book). Iranian parliament had been dissolved in the beginning of Amini's premiership as a precondition for him to take the job with the promise of election in near future. During that year, Hassan Arsanjani who was Minister of Agriculture in Amini's cabinet, initiated a limited land reform in order to create a balance in distribution of wealth in Iranian society which was mostly made of peasants. This limited reform did not include vast properties of many big land owners whose associations with centers of power helped them to influence the process of affairs in the government in their own interest. During the same period, Mohammad Derakhshesh was minister of culture in Dr. Amini's cabinet which at that time, was responsible for the affairs of education from elementary level to post graduate studies. Mr. Derakhshesh was a member of teachers association from earliest times and had contributed to teachers strikes against government in different occasions from which, one was during the Prime Minister Qavam-Ol-Saltaneh when Dr. Shayegan was minister of culture. Apparently the appointment of Mr. Derakhshesh to cabinet position was to resolve the issues which Iranian teachers were struggling with at that time but no real important change came out of that and teachers association was turned into an entity that Tudeh Party (despite being officially banned of activities) continued to influence and manipulate.
A couple of months after return of Shah from United States, Dr. Amini's government was replaced by Asadollah Alam who himself was one of major land owners of Iran in the north-eastern part of the country, the province of Khorasan. Earlier, Alam had implemented his own version of land reform in the region belonging to his family which was welcomed by the government. About seven months after Alam became Prime Minister, Shah launched a "6 point program" that included reforms in different social and economic areas for the nation. This reform was labeled as "White Revolution" due to overwhelming support that it received by Iranian people all over the country through a referendum without spilling any blood. This matter did not last very long. A couple of weeks later, Ruhollah Khomeini, an unknown middle aged cleric at that time, strongly denounced the Shah's reforms in Qom to create a stir in the society. This matter dragged Iranian armed forces to Qom under orders of government to silence the opposition. During the months after that, clashes between Iranian government forces and clerics and other supporters of Khomeini escalated into a bloody confrontation in which a number of Khomeini's supporters and clerics were killed.
The foundation of Khomeini's opposition was based on the arguments in which he accused Shah of violating the constitution by proposing and launching such reforms. He also accused Shah of promoting corruption in society by granting more rights to women and yielding to demands by Americans for reform. This notion was promoted quickly and became a solid belief among those who opposed Shah during the years after that (probably even today) to claim that "White Revolution" was cooked by American government while a former US Ambassador to Iran in an interview with Dr. Lajvardi of Harvard Oral History Project, has made it clear that American government, other than expecting to see some reforms in social affairs, had no part in details of "White Revolution" and were even surprised by one of the articles that called for sharing profits of manufacturing units with workers. In a CIA report of the same years which has been declassified recently, Khomeini's actions were compared with the actions of ayatollah Behbahani and ayatollah Tabatabee during the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (early 1900's) in which those ayatollahs intended to limit the power of monarch while, according to this document, Khomeini opposed the expansion of monarch's powers. In another communication document of CIA, the actions of Shah in meddling with selection of Shiite Marja after death of Ayatollah Hakim to prevent Khomeini from ascending to status of Marja is discussed which indicates the importance of the matter to US government for unknown reasons at that time. Khomeini was arrested and released shortly but this matter did not have any effect on his activities and speeches against the government.
After ratification of a bill in the parliament to grant political immunity to American Military personnel during premiership of Hassan-Ali Mansur who became Prime Minister after Alam, Khomeini argued that Iranian government had submitted to capitulation by accepting that American military personnel in Iran to be exempted from being trialled in Iranian courts for any legal issue. This, apparently, was a prerequisite by American government for providing military aid to any friendly nation and Iran was no exception in this way. This issue resulted in Khomeini's arrest and imprisonment for a few months before he was sent to exile for continuing his opposition to reforms and policies of the government. Many of Khomeini's supporters among lower rank clergies and also some in Tehran bazaar were arrested as well. Khomeini's revolt was suppressed temporarily and calm returned to Iranian cities. The White Revolution reforms provided the nation with relatively good development opportunities in the areas of social and economic affairs while political arena was still reserved for certain group of people who had proven their loyalty to the establishment (as it is in every society) which was heavily influenced by the top figure, the Shah himself, who micromanaged almost every affair of the government. This matter in fact, had paved the way for favoritism by those who had found their way in the circle of power and therefore became an important element of negative propaganda against the Shah by those who were unhappy with such atmosphere in society.
About a year after Khomeini was sent to exile, Prime Minister Hassan-Ali Mansur was assassinated by "Fadaian Islam" in January of 1965. His assassination was allegedly carried with assistance of Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani. Mansur was from a new generation of politicians with a long family history in politics and links to Qajar aristocracy. His plans for deep economic reforms which started with a sharp rise in price of gasoline and bus fares was confronted with violent reaction in demonstrations of university students in Tehran and nationwide strike by cab drivers. Consequently, gasoline prices and bus fares dropped back significantly to settle the unrest in society but this was not enough for those who wanted to disrupt the process of development of the nation. Shortly afterwards, an Islamic fanatic, Mohammad Bokharaee, shot Prime Minister Mansur in front of national parliament's door and he died in hospital a few days later. Hassan-Ali Mansur was followed by Amir-Abbas Hoveyda who was a close friend and associate. Before writing about the era of Mr. Hoveyda's premiership, I would like to take a look at some issues that have left their marks on the history of our nation and influenced the political path that our nation has followed after that.
The stories of corruption and shortcomings in government and all organizations related to that prior to Islamic Revolution is undoubtedly not unique to Iran (even though Iran was not comparable with most of other nations in that regard) but this matter had most definitely created best opportunities for manipulation of portions of the society by enemies (both internal and external) in direction of their own interests through any means possible. Formation of Rastakhiz Party by direct order from Shah in 1975, which has remained a mystery till this day, provided more ammunition to those who wanted him and the system that he represented to be gone for good. This was a year after Shah had been diagnosed with some form of mild lymphoma sickness which was later identified as "human T-cell leukemia", a deadly disease that was not seen among humans much earlier and is closely related to "acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome" (AIDS) virus. This virus, according to Dr. Len Horrowitz, was artificially made in the labs of BIONETICS company (a contractor for US army in the field of BIO weapons), under direction of Dr. Robert Gallo. Based on a brief report from "Health News Network" on history of human experimentation by US government, HTLV (Human T-cell Leukemia Virus) was initiated in Fort Detrick's Center for Biological Warfare Research for US Navy which was renamed later as "Fredrick Cancer Research Facilities".
The argument about involvement of US government in human experimentation for creating biological and chemical weapons which has also been brought up in some unfounded stories by some concpiracy theorists to taint the atmosphere with misinformation, is a well established fact that was proved in the court of law which ordered the government of United States to pay damages to families of some victims during 1990's. Eileen Welsome, a journalist in a small town in United States accidentally discovered some discarded government documents that contained information about the human experimentation which was conducted by US government on American citizens during the years of WWII and afterwards. These experiments were allegedly to make certain biological and chemical materials that could produce desired effects on people in direction of objectives of US military and government. Discovery of the documents directed Eileen Welsome on a path of research that resulted in a great book which she won the Pulitzer prize for that. The documents presented in this book which is named "Plutonium File" became the foundation for a lawsuit on behalf of victims of human experimentation against the government of United States that ended with victory of the families of victims and they were awarded one million dollar each at the end. It goes without saying that such matters have never been limited to this particular case. It is reasonable to believe that these kinds of experimentation have been conducted in more than one area with variety of results and possibly continue till this moment.
Shah's illness was kept not only from public but also from all those who were very close to him as in the beginning, probably neither Shah himself nor his doctor believed that his life would be under any grave danger. It is said that, during the last visit to US before his sickness, Shah and his court minister, Alam, both underwent a full medical checkup without finding anything significant and yet they both became ill not much longer after that. US Ambassador, Richard Helms, who had received the information about the illness of Shah from General Hussein Fardoust in 1976, reported that to Washington. According to Fara (Faramarz) Mansoor who allegedly has access to some secret documents about activities of US intelligence service in Iran before 1979, G.H.W. Bush who was the head of CIA at that time, sent a secret memo to Helms inquiring about mental state and quality of decision making of Shah and the effect of his illness on such activities. This matter, indicates that head of CIA was fully aware of the situation and the initial effects of such illness in preliminary stages before it completely deteriorates the health of patient and ends his life. During the years after 1953 to 1979, in multiple occasions, CIA had requested assessment from its field officers in Iran regarding possible effects in the government system if the Shah was taken out of the scene either through assassination or illness. This kind of information combined with more than one coup attempts against the Shah in which, CIA allegedly had a hand, makes one wonder about the nature of relations of US government with Iran and the late Shah and also their real intentions in such regards.
During the years after creation of CIS (Confederation of Iranian Students), their activities against Iranian government grew and, the organization continued to recruit new Iranian students that their number in United States was increasing rapidly. The first major demonstration of CIS members against Shah occurred in front of the White House during his visit to President Kennedy in 1962. Sadegh Ghotbzadeh who had no success in his academic career in United States at that time, was among the leaders of that organization who paid a visit to Robert Kennedy, who was the Attorney General of United States at that time, before going to the area around White House and chant slogans against Shah. Ardeshir Zahedi who was Iranian Ambassador to US at that time has recalled this visit to Robert Kennedy by students later in a meeting with US Ambassador in Iran. In that conversation which was reported by US Ambassador to Washington, Mr. Zahedi also mentioned that Robert Kennedy had presented all Iranian students who met him with a ball point pen (new at that time) which was decorated with his own picture! This matter is also confirmed by Carrol Jerome (Ghotbzadeh's girl friend) in her book,"Man in The Mirror".
Increasing organized activities of CIS in their opposition to Iranian government which spread throughout the western world became a matter of concern. Due to lack of enough educational institutions at graduate and post graduate levels, Iran needed to send students outside the country in order to take advantage of European and American academic facilities and arm the new generation with the required scientific and technological skills that were needed for national development in different fields. Start of the armed rebellion and guerrilla war against Iranian government by some remnants of Tudeh Party's youth organization and other newly created communist groups which were mainly made of young graduates during the same period of time was an indication that Iranian young generation seemed to have found such activities very attractive. Exaggerated views and rumors about oppressiveness and power of Iranian security police (SAVAK) might have contributed in creating and spreading such tendencies to resist and fight among a portion of younger generation which tends to rebel easily by nature. Considering the wide spread propaganda about leftist rebellion throughout a bipolar world in which communism was very fashionable and attractive, young Iranians and young generation in other under-developed countries, were easy victims to fall for such unrealistic and false promises of social justice and prosperity.
It was under such circumstances that in the year 1971, a CIA humiliation broke out by an Iranian student claiming that he was recruited by CIA to work with CIS (Confederation of Iranian Students) and gave an interview to news papers in Tehran under guidance of SAVAK and the story was ready to be broadcasted on Iranian national TV. This matter caused an unpleasant wave in relations between the two governments. Shah was very angry to hear about such developments while American Ambassador was working hard through his contacts (the ministers of royal court, Alam, and foreign affairs, Zahedi) to control the situation and prevent the escalation of the issue into real difference between the two nations. This matter that US intelligence agency was involved in stirring opposition against Iranian government through CIS was a surprise for many Iranians but to others who were aware of previous events and activities against Shah with CIA involvement, it was not such a crazy idea. Finally, the matter was settled with the help of Mr. Alam and Ardeshir Zahedi who reminded US Ambassador of unpleasant experience of his own about demonstration of Iranian students (with a ball point pen from Robert Kennedy in their pockets) against Shah when he served as Ambassador to United States. US government blamed the whole event on communists. It is interesting to remember a conversation between Shah and Leonid Brezhnev in mid 1970's which happened in Moscow during which Shah thanked Brezhnev for excellent education and training that they provided to Iranian engineering students for steel mill factories and in return Brezhnev said: "If you want well trained students then always send them here but if you want well trained communists send them to US".
After that humiliating event, Ghotbzadeh who had moved to France, along with a few other friends started an Islamic students organization to follow with the agenda which he had in mind and never spoke much about, the destruction of constitutional monarchy establishment and starting a republic system (probably with himself as permanent president). It is not clear that how many of Iranian students joined the Islamic students organization at that time but the organization later received the moral support of Ali Shariati who met the founding members in Paris and encouraged them to contact Khomeini because, in his view, Khomeini was different than other mullahs.
To be continued...
Sohrab Ferdows
August 18th/2010
Canada
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Death of a Persian Prince
A Persian Prince died yesterday. A son of the last king before Islamic Revolution in Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi the Great, Prince Alireza Pahlavi died at his Boston apartment by gun shot. Prince Alireza Pahlavi was a patriotic and highly educated Iranian who had obtained a BA from Princeton University in 1984, a Masters Degree from Columbia University in 1992 and attended Harvard University in pursuit of a PhD in Ancient Iranian Studies. It is with deepest sorrow that many Iranians receive this news about another extremely sad event to happen for a family whose services to our nation can never be forgotten and ignored. I offer my deepest sympathy to this great family especially Her Majesty, The Queen Farah Pahlavi and The Prince Reza Pahlavi for this truly and shockingly unfortunate incident. My thoughts and prayers will be with the family of Pahlavi in these moments of grief and sadness.
Sohrab Ferdows
January 5th, 2011
Sohrab Ferdows
January 5th, 2011
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