June 23, 2009 by dandelionsalad

Has the U.S. Played a Role in Fomenting Unrest During Iran’s Election? by Jeremy R. Hammond

By Jeremy R. Hammond
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Foreign Policy Journal
June 23, 2009

Following the announcement of victory for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over his main opponent Mir Hossein Mousavi in Iran’s presidential election on June 12, the country erupted in turmoil as supporters of Mousavi flocked to the streets to protest what they claimed was a fraudulent election, while state security and militia forces cracked down on dissenters, sometimes violently. Iran claimed that the unrest was being fueled by foreign interference, a charge reported but generally dismissed in Western media accounts. But there is ample reason to believe that the U.S. likely had a hand in fomenting the chaos that has since plagued the country many commentators have compared to the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Shah.

The role of the U.S. in overthrowing the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 and installing the brutal regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi is by now well known. In his speech in Cairo last month, President Barack Obama even referenced the CIA-backed coup, acknowledging that “In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government.”[1]

Continue reading →

June 23, 2009 by dandelionsalad

Class Struggle in Iran by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on Buzzflash.com
June 23, 2009

When the Shah of Iran was overthrown in January 1979, a moderate, bourgeois-democratic pro-Western one, led by Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar, replaced his government. Although for most of his time in power the Shah had been content to reign as a Constitutional monarch, he became increasingly enamored of himself as a potential dictator. In 1975, he had abolished multi-party government and installed himself as the head of a one-party state. He literally outlawed all other parties than his own. He labeled members of the principal opposition party, the Tudeh, “traitors” (are you listening, Coulter, Limbaugh and Le-vin?). He in effect declared, in words that might sound familiar to citizens of the United States, “you are either with us or against us.”

Continue reading →

June 23, 2009 by dandelionsalad

Netanyahu: 75% of the Iranians want regime change

Updated: June 29, 2009

Updated: June 25, 2009

Propaganda Alert

compiled by Cem Ertür
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
23 June 2009

Return of Shah from Rome, after Coup of 1953

permission granted from: IPC

http://iranpoliticsclub.net/photos/alahazrat/index.htm

1) Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu: Iranians want regime change (23 June 2009)
2) Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu: The true nature of the Iranian regime has been unmasked (22 June 2009)
3) Son of former Shah of Iran: Iranian government is liable to lead to a nuclear holocaust (22 June 2009)
4) [VIDEO] Son of former Shah of Iran: I know the moment will come when I will return + Shah’s son optimistic about Israel-Iran future (26 & 29 June 2009)

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http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3735992,00.html

excerpt from: Netanyahu: Iranians want regime change

by Roni Sofer, Ynetnews, 23 June 2009

Quote:

“I believe more than 75% (of the people) there would have liked to replace the [Iranian] regime, and that percentage has recently risen”

[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Rome, 23 June 2009]

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http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/EventsDiary/eventrai230609. htm

excerpt from: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s interview with RAI TV

(Israeli) Prime Minister’s Office website, 22 June 2009

Quote:

RAI: Mr. Prime Minister, […] you should be quiet satisfied this days because hundreds thousands people in Iran are demonstrating against your worst enemy, Mr Ahmedinajad. Do you support their struggle?

Netanyahu: I think that people now can understand many of the things that we have been talking all this years. This is a regime that oppresses his people and this is a regime that threatens everyone with the denial of the holocaust, the call for the elimination of Israel, with the sponsorship of terrorism throughout the world and with the attempt to develop nuclear weapons which they can give to terrorists around the world. I think now that what is the true nature of this regime has been unmasked.

RAI: You are talking about the nuclear program, in 1981 Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear program in order to stop it, are you ready and in which circumstances to do the same with Iran?

Netanyahu: I think right now everybody understands that nuclear weapons in the hands of such a brutal regime could be very dangerous to the entire world. This is an international issue and I was very pleased to hear president Obama in my recent visit to Washington say that nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran is a strategic threat to the United States and the peace of the world. Certainly it is to my country, but it is an international danger and it should be dealt by an international effort led by the United states. That’s our preference.

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excerpts from: Shah’s Son: Support Us

by Tzah Yoqed, Ma’ariv (via BBC Monitoring Newsfile), 23 June 2009

Quote:

“Israel’s citizens should support the fight the Iranians are waging. […] The continued existence of the current government in Iran is liable to lead to a nuclear holocaust.”

[Reza Pahlavi, son of former Shah of Iran, interview with Ma’ariv, 23 June 2009]

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video:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1194419829128&pagename=JPos t%2FPage%2FVideoPlayer&videoId=1245924955424

Son of Iranian Shah: I know the moment will come when I will return

Jerusalem Post website, 29 June 2009

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1194419829128&pagename=JPos t%2FPage%2FVideoPlayer&videoId=1245924938004

Shah’s son optimistic about Israel-Iran future

Jerusalem Post website, 26 June 2009

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Document points to alleged military plot against Turkish government

Dandelion Salad

By Sinan Ikinci
http://www.wsws.org
23 June 2009

Under conditions of economic crisis and social polarization, tensions between the Islamist and the secularist wing of the Turkish establishment are continuing to fester below the surface.

On June 12, the daily newspaper Taraf published a new document, which allegedly reveals fresh plans by the Turkish military to discredit and destabilize the ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party AKP. The plans include a frame-up to weaken the most powerful Sunni religious sect in Turkey, led by Fetullah Gulen. The action is also designed to give support to members of the military who were arrested as part of the ongoing Ergenekon investigation and court case.

Ergenekon is a clandestine, ultra-nationalist organisation, composed of retired generals, top bureaucrats, mafia members, leading members of the Kemalist-Maoist Workers Party, and some journalists. Popularly known as the “deep state,” its aim is to topple the government.

[…]

via Document points to alleged military plot against Turkish government

see

US Ambassador: Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is a great danger to Turkey

Turkey

June 23, 2009 by dandelionsalad

Passing Propaganda by Cindy Sheehan

By Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
June 23, 2009

“The goal of modern propaganda is no longer to transform opinion but to arouse an active and mythical belief.”
Jacques Ellul, philosopher

One day in July of 2006, I was on Hardball and the host was Norah O’Donnell who was filling in for Chris Matthews. I was her first guest that day and when she was introducing the show before the first break, she intro’d me as: THE WOMAN WHO MET WITH COMMUNIST DICTATOR, HUGO CHAVEZ. We then went to break and I told Norah: “You know Chavez is not a communist, he’s a socialist and he has been democratically elected several times, survived a CIA coup attempt and the last election was certified by Jimmy Carter.” She replied: “Yeah, we talked about that earlier, but we decided to call him a ‘communist dictator,’ anyway.” Continue reading →

June 23, 2009 by dandelionsalad

Andy Worthington Discusses Guantánamo on Democracy Now!

by Andy Worthington
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.andyworthington.co.uk
23 June 2009

Today I was delighted to be invited into a London studio for an interview about Guantánamo on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. The show, which airs on over 750 stations, is described as “pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the US,” and it was, therefore, a great pleasure to be able to talk about the case of Abdul Rahim al-Ginco (or al-Janko), the al-Qaeda torture victim whose release from Guantánamo was ordered yesterday following a habeas corpus review by Judge Richard Leon. Memorably, Judge Leon (an appointee of George W. Bush) lambasted the government for attempting to claim that, despite being tortured by al-Qaeda to admit to being an American spy, and then being imprisoned for 18 months by the Taliban, al-Ginco retained some sort of connection with either group that justified his indefinite detention. This was, he said, a sign that the government’s position “defies common sense.” Continue reading →

June 23, 2009 by dandelionsalad

US Ambassador: Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is a great danger to Turkey

Propaganda Alert

compiled by Cem Ertür
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
23 June 2009

1) Interview with US Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey (June 2009)
2) US President Barack Obama’s speech to Turkey’s parliament (April 2009)
3) CSIS report: Turkey would be the optimum route for a possible Israeli attack on Iran (March 2009)
4) Petition by the European Mayors on whose territory US nuclear weapons are deployed (December 2007)
5) Percentage of population desiring Europe to be nuclear free (May 2006)
6) US Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey’s background (June 2008)

________________

Quote:

NTV: Mr. Ahmedinejad won the elections for the second time in Iran. Do you think that it will affect the general approach of USA to Iran in region?

US Ambassador Jeffrey: […] What we’re very concerned about are, first of all, it’s pursuit of what we believe is a nuclear weapon system which is a great danger to everybody in this region not least Turkey. […]

[US Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey, interview with Turkey’s NTV channel, Ankara, 19 June 2009] [1]

note: for information on the background of US Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey, see item 6 of this compilation.

__________________

Quote:

“The peace of the region will also be advanced if Iran forgoes any nuclear weapons ambitions. Now, as I made clear in Prague yesterday, no one is served by the spread of nuclear weapons, least of all Turkey.”

[US President Barack Obama, speech to Turkey’s parliament, Ankara, 6 April 2009] [2]

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CSIS report: Turkey would be the optimum route for a possible Israeli attack on Iran (March 2009) [3]

Quote:

A military strike by Israel against Iranian Nuclear Facilities is possible and the optimum route would be along the Syrian-Turkish border then over a small portion of Iraq then into Iran, and back the same route. […]

If the Israeli aircraft do actually fly over Turkey that would constitute a clear Turkish – Israel and even U.S. conspiracy to attack Iran, so the Political risks could be high with Turkey.

Operationally, […] the risk from Turkey could be of medium level if Turkey deems it necessary to react militarily. […]

_________________

Quote:

“While our public is regularly provided alarming media reports of nuclear dangers in Iraq, North Korea or Iran, what is supposed to be a well-informed western audience is living in ignorance of the destructive power of thousands of potential Hiroshimas stored in their backyards.”

[Mayors for Peace petition launched on 6 December 2007 by the European Mayors on whose territory US nuclear weapons are deployed, namely:

Vedat Karadag (Incirlik, TURKEY), Stefano Del Cont (Aviano, ITALY), Anna Giulia Guarneri (Ghedi, ITALY), Theo Kelchtermans (Peer, BELGIUM), Dr. Joke W. Kersten (Uden, NETHERLANDS), Heinz Onnertz (Buechel, GERMANY) ] [4]

_________________

Percentage of population desiring Europe to be nuclear free

(results of an opinion poll conducted in April-May 2006) [5] :

Yes No

Turkey 88.1% 2.5%
Italy 71.5% 9.3%
Germany 70.5% 26.8%
Belgium 64.6% 31.2%
Netherlands63.3% 26.0%
UK 55.7% 39.5%

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US Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey’s background:

On June 5, [2008], The White House announced the nomination of the Deputy National Security Advisor James Franklin Jeffrey as US Ambassador to Turkey. In his earlier capacity as the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, Mr Jeffrey had a prominent role on Iraq policy and was co-chairing the now defunct Iran-Syria Policy and Operations Group:

“The infamous Iran-Syria Policy and Operations Group (ISOG) created in early 2006, integrated by officials from the White House, the [US] State Department, the CIA and the Treasury Department, had a mandate to destabilize Syria and Iran, and bring about ‘Regime Change’. ” [6]

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notes:

[1] Ambassador James Jeffrey’s Interview with Murat Akgun, NTV

website of the US Embassy in Ankara, 19 June 2009

http://turkey.usembassy.gov/amb_jeffrey_061909.html

[2] Remarks by President Barack Obama to the Turkish Parliament

The White House website, 6 April 2009

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-By-President-Obama-To-The-Turkish-Parliament/

[3] Study on a possible Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear development facilities

by Abdullah Toukan et al., Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 16 March 2009

http://www.csis.org/component/option,com_csis_pubs/task,view/id,5337/t ype,1/

[4] European mayors want withdrawal of US nukes from their territory marking INF [i.e. the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty] 20th anniversary

2020 Vision Campaign website, 6 December 2007

http://www.2020visioncampaign.org/pages/319

[5] Nuclear Weapons in Europe: Survey Results in Six European Countries

public opinion survey by Strategic Communications, Greenpeace International website, 25 May 2006

http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/nuclear-weapons-in-europe-survey.pdf

[6] Coming war against Iran: Increasing Anglo-American pressure on Turkey

by Cem Ertür, Dandelion Salad, 21 June 2008

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/06/21/coming-war-against-iran-increasing-anglo-american-pressure-on-turkey/

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Rachel Maddow: Iran protesters targeting volunteer police

Dandelion Salad

MSNBC
June 22, 2009
Rachel Maddow

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Rachel Maddow:Iran protesters targeti…“, posted with vodpod

h/t: earth2obama.org

see

What Actually Happened in the Iranian Presidential Election? by Esam Al-Amin

Iran Falls to US PSYOPS By Paul Craig Roberts

For a socialist, not a “color” revolution in Iran

Iran Had a Democracy Before We Took It Away by Chris Hedges

What The Media’s NOT Telling You About Iran’s Police Brutality

Iran-Election-Protests-Green Revolution

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