"No
Blood For Oil"
By David Truskoff
05 October,2006
Countercurrents.org
"No Blood For Oil" - Most popular sign carried all over
the world during May, 2003 anti-war demonstrations
At
the end of World War II, American and British oil companies were once
again fighting for control of the Iranian oil fields and giving Stalin
another reason for deep concern. The Iran -Soviet border was long and
treacherous. Stalin had already pulled his troops out of Iran in April
of 1946, but his own very productive oil fields in Baku were near the
Iranian border. With the western powers constantly fomenting revolution
and discord in Iran, Stalin was understandably concerned. Aramco, Shell,
Socony and other huge international oil companies were rushing to sign
long- term contracts with the western supported, Iranian Government.
For sixty years, the British plundered the Iranian oil fields by maintaining
friendly sovereigns in power. After World War II, the people of Iran
were calling for an end to what they referred to as British imperialist
rule. Revolutionary forces led by Muhammad Mossadegh finally overthrew
the Western supported Government of Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlevi.
The Shah managed, with western
help to escaped to Italy and the people of Iran seemed,
at last, to be in control of their own country, but when Mossadegh nationalized
the rich oil fields, he signed his own fate. Mossadegh became Premier
in 1951, and the first politicalmove he made was to present the Oil
Nationalization Bill.
Responding to the seizure
of the AIOC,(Anglo- Iranian Oil Company) the British government
anounced it would not allow Mossadegh’s government to export any
oil produced in the formerly British-controlled fields. A blockade of
British ships was sent to prevent any attempts by Iran to ship any oil
out of the country. An economic problem for Iran was created,and an
anormous amount of revenue was lost, causing serious hardship for the
people of Iran, as the British ships blocked any oil from Leaving Iran.
The US also immediately reacted
.to the Oil Nationalization bill. Attempts were made to overthrow Mossadegh’s
Government, and after three failed attempts, On August 19, 1953, members
of Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh’s National Movement of Iranclaimed the
intelligence services of "U.S.A. and Britain (CIA - MI6) enforced
a more precise and expensive coup de’tat plan, and succeeded in
overthrowing the government. The Oil Nationalization bill was rendered
moot. These claims, of course, would not be hard for any Realist to
believe. On that day, the coup makers brought mobs into the streets
to demonstrate against the national government of Dr. Mossadegh.
They reached the house of
the Prime Minister, and entered the house. After plundering it, they
burned it. During the military trial of Dr. Mossadegh, he related for
the press the details of the coups, but the western press put their
own spin on it, claiming the British developed the oil.
Mossadegh was found guilty
of what his supporters called an "unknown crime." and ordered
to serve three years in an Iranian prison. The British and Americans
brought back the Shah, but he was still not welcomed by the people and
repressive measures were enforced to prevent another revolution.
Throughout the spring of
1963, Imam Khomeini continued to denounce the shah’s regime, and
the US. He pointed to Israel as a puppet of the US, and developed a
huge following. The Shah had to get rid of him and he was expelled to
Iraq. Saddam Hussein, annoyed by the Shiite preaching and political
organizing under the Shiite religion expelled the Ayatollah to France.
Following the revolution that deposed Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi, for
the second time, Khomeini returned triumphantly to Iran in 1979, declared
an Islamic republic, and began to exercise ultimate Islamic authority
in the nation. This is the history that Mr Ahmadinejad President of
Iran today was born into. in 1956. By 2006 he was already a well educated
man with a PHD and a revolutionary who saw the west as an old enemy.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a good student but his history lessons were
written for him in the streets of Iran. Distrust and dislike of the
Western Powers was bred into Ahmadinejad as it was bred into Fidel Castro.
Liberals in America were
dead in the water. In the face of the enormous blast of hate generated
by the State Department through the mass media, Liberals who tried to
explain the real situation in Iran were shouted down and branded anti-American.
I found that trying to explain it was literally at one’s own risk.
The media had whipped Americans into a frenzy of hate and Muslims were
beaten and forced to live in fear.
The conservative Shiite ideology
of Khomeini opposed pro-Western tendencies. The West immediately began
to demonize him. There was no way the West could again confiscate Iranian
oil while Khomeini was in Power. Suspecting another western coup; on
November 4, 1979, 3,000 Iranian militants took over the U.S. Embassy
in Teheran. They held 54 embassy staff members as hostages. Ayatollah
Khomeini totally supported them. They demanded that: the Shah, be tried
for crimes against the people. Trying to pacify the revolutionaries,
and develop a rapport with the people, the United States almost apologized
for crimes against the Iranian people, and offered the Shah’s
assets be paid to them.
The Washington Post reported:
March 17,2000
"Secretary of State
Madeleine K. Albright will announce a major overture toward Iran today,
promising steps toward the return of assets frozen since Iran’s
1979 Islamic revolution, lifting a ban on imports of Iranian luxury
goods and making it easier for Iranian academics and athletes to visit
the United States. While stopping short of an apology, Albright will
acknowledge past American meddling in Iran, including the CIA-backed
coup that toppled Iran’s leftist prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh,
and restored its monarchy in 1953. She also will express regret for
Washington’s "shortsighted" support of Iraq during the
Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, according to an administration official
who has read the speech."
Liberals saw this as a late
and minor victory, knowing that the Savak, the Shah’s secrete
police, was known to carry out many crimes. There were 61 SAVAK officials
among 248 military personnel executed between February and September
1979, when the organization was officially dissolved by Khomeini. Khomeini
supporters always claimed that the dreaded Savak was created with the
help of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad. Realists wonder if any were
trained at the School of the Americas.
At his death, June 5,1989.
The Guardian added this to his epitaph.
"Ever since he (Khomeini)
was swept back to Iran from exile in a demonstration of Iranian people
power, railing against the United States as the ‘Great Satan,’
America’s most hated foreign leader tormented and frustrated successive
American administrations."
Day after day western mass
media hammered Khomeini with hate propaganda. Young people were wearing
tee shirts showing a bomb dropping on his head. Government officials
talked openly about, "taking out Khomeini." Yet, the Iranian
leader made the West pay a high price.
President Jimmy Carter who
looked tired and haggard as the hostage crisis dragged on for 14 months
lost the confidence of the American people to solve the situation. His
reelection chances slipped away as the Iranians thumbed their noses
at every threat he made. He was defeated at the poles. As his opponent,
and those behind him hammered way at Carter’s impotence Mr. Reagan
promised that under his administration America would no longer be, "
a pitiful giant. ". President Carter wrote in his biography, "Keeping
the Faith," that he asked the Shah whether he could curb the human
rights abuses in Iran. The Shah answered, "No, there is nothing
I can do. I must enforce the Iranian laws, which are designed to combat
communism."
At the United Nations, the
President of Iran was speaking from this history
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