thegreanvillepostbiasrating--2020-06-06--Da Vinci’s Man and the Arbiters of Power

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Share with kin , friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise .
EDITED AND HOSTED BY THE GREANVILLE POST Veins have been opened on the American streets .
So have eyes .
Somewhere in his almost mythical life of note-taking , masterpiece-making genius , Leonardo da Vinci made an offhand remark that , like so many others , contained a spark of insight .
He said that there are three kinds of men : those who see , those who see when shown , and those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be this last kind that are least worthy , but most likely , to attain positions of power in our government .
And those who , lacking legitimacy in power , will nevertheless be ousted from power only when more people see , or see when shown .
Underlying Causes & The Year of Protest Before the uprising in late May , it would n't have been a stretch to refer to 2019 as the Year of Protest .
Millions marched and voiced a sometimes-violent displeasure in Hong Kong* , China , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Catalonia , Britain , France , the U.S. , Ecuador , Chile , Brazil , Bolivia , Honduras , and Haiti , among others .
Times are hard for the working class .
The brittle nerves of the Davos set are on edge .
After the 2008 mortgage meltdown , the United States Federal Reserve spent 29 trillion dollars propping up Wall Street banks that were effectively insolvent .
A pittance was paid to Main Street , where 10 million homeowners foreclosed .
Since then , financial leveraging in derivatives has exploded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has continued unchecked .
While price-to-earnings ratios express the unproductive state of the Fortune 500 , the multinationals depend more than ever on the largesse of the Fed , an open spigot of cheap money that is quickly repurposed into stock buybacks and high-return loans .
This funnel of free cash was turned on the repo market at the end of 2019 , a forbidding sign of renewed instability .
As the economy sputters , the population grows increasingly restive , having elected a vicious casino mogul to the presidency .
His brief @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and penchant for mocking the mainstream media that rationalizes those wars for the public , has frightened the establishment elite , the infamous one percent .
Something must be done before the global liberal world order loses all credibility , before the momentum of U.S. efforts at hegemony stall , before the economy implodes from the weight of its debt and its outsized risk , and before rebellion becomes the byword of the century .
The Covid19 pandemic provided the kind of crisis during which elite kingpins shore up their power .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arrest , called `` shelter in place . ''
The lockdown is economically devastating , throwing an unprecedented 40 million Americans into the unemployment queues , the machinery of which instantly falters when burdened with increased responsibility .
The responses of the government mirror those of 2009 : massive cash flows to Fortune 500s and stinting relief for Main Street .
Frustration builds , both with the mental health impact of the quarantine , the exasperating federal response , the specter of an onerous global health regime driven by Big Pharma and Big @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the population .
Finally , two events supply the spark that generates an historic uprising : the on-camera murder of American George Floyd by suffocation , and the histrionic race-laced response of a white dog walker to a request from a black man to leash her pet .
The delicate balance of vexation and toleration spills over into public protest , violence , and confrontation .
Protests swiftly emerge in 30 cities across the country , like a coordinated mass action surging up through the collective subconscious of the country .
For @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social media shows police in retreat .
Precincts are attacked , set on fire , and burned down .
Police flee the scene .
Big box retail is looted and burned .
Media outlets are attacked .
Millions more march and sit , peacefully protesting the savagery of a flexing police state .
This vocal but ignored majority is unuseful to the Trump administration because its behavior does not provide a pretext for harsh reprisals .
The media is ablaze with conspiracy and conjecture .
Half-baked formulaic analyses .
Liberals blame the riots @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thugs .
Quick to capitalize , Trump vows to declare antifa a terrorist organization , though it hasn ’ t any formal infrastructure .
He is Bush declaring war on a tactic .
Republicans decry the violence but promise violence in reply .
The president croons , `` When the looting starts , the shooting starts . ''
The National Guard is summoned .
The military is put on alert .
The Insurrection Act is brandished .
The president ’ s reelection campaign then releases an ad claiming that Joe Biden destroyed “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill , where the erstwhile Senator is seen declaring , with the brash arrogance that typified his Congressional tenure , “ We do everything but hang people for jaywalking in this bill.
” As the ad courses through the national consciousness , Biden lurks in his basement , a man overwhelmed by his historic moment .
Liberal media including CNN , MSNBC , and the Times seek to blame Russia for the protests .
 Former Obama official Susan Rice rehearses the wearisome trope that the protests are efforts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and “ are straight out of the Russia playbook.
” Another tone-deaf class-based insult from a millionaire white-collar bourgeoisie .
With media narratives collapsing , the feckless carnival of discredited politicians , for want of instruction , trot out the same bland bromides they ’ ve been rehearsing for decades , hoping to catch the wave of a movement for justice that has long left them behind .
Biden issues one threadbare platitude after another .
His vague summons are incoherent .
His abject calls for action are met with derision .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are laid bare .
Amy Klobuchar , who refrained from prosecuting any of the corrupt police under her watch in Minnesota , announces that the arrest of Derek Chauvin ( ist ) , who murdered Floyd , is the `` first step towards justice . ''
Could these careerist millionaires be any more tone deaf ?
Could Klobuchar not see that we no longer believe in the euphemism called `` the justice system , '' or that a killer ’ s arrest by an institution built on racism , shaped by class , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ confidence ?
Has Biden not recognized there is no legitimacy in a party that cheated its best representative of the people out of a nomination , twice , in order to salvage the wishes of its donor class ?
Has neither seen that there is no legitimacy in a government that commits war crimes abroad , and barbarism at home ?
They know better .
They most likely understand , for instance , that the national security state has long since taken the upper hand in the steady state 's power-sharing arrangements , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ executive bluster .
But to bear witness to this reality would be to concede their own lawless grip on power .
Whether the population fully sees the extent of their government ’ s betrayal is debatable .
But they certainly see the racist oppression .
The people are restive , unruly , exhausted , and increasingly dismissive of even the most jingoistic refrains from leaders like Barack Obama or Bill Clinton , let alone the callous malice of men like Bush or Trump .
And so they rebel , peacefully , but angrily @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , sometimes thanks to agents provocateurs , they burn , taunt , and riot .
But they also chant , pray , march , cry , scream , and die , as the staggering weight of the state descends upon them .
And yet what options do Americans , or westerners in general , have aside from rebellion ?
As the activist Larken Rose has usefully observed , “ The truth is , one who seeks to achieve freedom by petitioning those in power to give it to him has already failed , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the blessing of ‘ authority ’ is to accept that the choice is the master ’ s alone to make , which means that the person is already , by definition , a slave.
” This was the fatal blunder , the bungled gaffe of Bernie Sanders .
To continually petition an openly criminal power system to grant one ’ s requests .
Which by definition were designed to dismantle the very systemic power it petitioned .
It is this fundamental naivete , and most likely a deliberate ignorance , that plagues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as Sanders .
To say , “ I didn ’ t know , ” is plausible deniability .
One can then feasible keep one ’ s integrity intact .
At least in the public eye , if not in one ’ s soul .
Now , in the street , we are witnessing an underclass flexing its shoulders , attempting to shake off the manacles of that system .
Yet this class , proletarian , bruised , abused , resigned , unrepentant , faithless , sullen , and irate , petitions no one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ways on its immediate environment , an expression of fury regardless of its outcome .
With such a diffuse target , lives of its own are inevitably wrecked , even as it hits more intentional targets -- police precincts , corporate retail chains , global banks , and corporate media .
The responses from the Hill are feckless .
The media report the killings in disembodied terms .
He died in police custody .
She lost her life while under arrest .
Agency is removed from the perpetrator .
It is foisted upon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A grammarian sleight of hand .
An artful dodge .
Meanwhile , precincts burn .
Cop cars are vandalized .
Store owners kicked in the teeth .
Kids maced .
Women shoved down .
Journalists shot with rubber bullets .
Homeowners pelted on their stoops .
Windows smashed .
Some by infiltrators .
Some by blacks .
Some by whites .
Some by blacks paid by whites .
Curfews are imposed on cities already in lockdown .
The chaos never gets completely unwound .
It is like the fog of war : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same ends with discrepant narratives .
The blacks rise against multi-generational racist and class oppression .
Whites hijack the protest .
Liberals piggyback and make it about Trump and foreign interference .
Conservatives make it about antifa and terrorism .
Infiltrators jump in and make it about rioting .
Liberals have been selling white supremacy for four years .
Conservatives have been selling radical socialist infiltration .
Both camps stoke fear .
The Goering gambit never fails .
Make them afraid .
Tell them they are under attack from some terrible foreign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plagues .
Populations tend to submit when there ’ s a rabid threat shaking the gates of our liberal Arcadia .
It is misdirection .
Take legitimate anger and redirect it toward easy targets : socialists who want to take your money ; suicidal jihadists who want to blow you up ; pathogens that want to asphyxiate your loved ones ; inscrutable foreigners who want to destroy your freedoms ; white supremacists that want to exterminate all other ethnicities .
Find a small but fearful threat and magnify it until the entire populace @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do , do not reveal the real problem , which is the class war of elitism against populism .
The plutocrats are winning .
They own the state , the media , and the police .
Their credo is simple : use what works .
Occupy correctly identified the problem .
Which is why they were swiftly , violently , and brutally extinguished as a movement .
Covering the assault on journalists , the Times quotes a free speech activist who said , “ Journalists are there as representatives of the public ... @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it plain .
Media is supposed to represent the people but represents a fascist corporate plutocracy .
Politicians are supposed to represent the people but represent a fascist corporate plutocracy .
Police are supposed to protect the public but protect a fascist corporate plutocracy .
American democracy is a cipher , replete with the trimmings of republicanism but empty at its core .
As long as liberals have done well by the fascist corporate parasite devouring its insides , they were content to play along , mouthing mindless maxims of sympathy and solidarity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the husk has collapsed in on itself , they call frightfully for a return to order , mourning the loss of control more than the loss of life .
But their call comes too late .
Their savior is a bewildered segregationist in cognitive decline .
They snuffed out the last gasp of life in their party when they sidelined Sanders .
In favor of a champion of incarceration with a CV of sexual predation .
When parliamentary democracies fail , they do so because the liberal class dies .
They abandon their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then it is too late to repair the damage .
Nor , sadly , do they even understand what they ’ ve done .
And now that a pandemic and nationwide protests have happened on Trump ’ s watch , they will be even more convinced of their piety .
Martin Luther King warned about the white liberal .
He said the “ great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not ... the Ku Klux Klanner , but the white moderate ... who is more devoted to ‘ order ’ than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
” This is the modern Democrat .
Whites posing as liberals to get the black vote .
That ’ s Biden .
Rather than dismantle the system of oppression , he ’ ll shoot you in the leg rather than the heart , because the lesser harm is the better harm .
But the trick is tired .
The underclass can no longer subsist on the crumbs of incrementalism .
Blood boils when they hear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many euphemisms : Be patient , work within the system to achieve incremental change .
Take a deep breath and settle your nerves .
Change will happen , because we know the moral arc of the universe is long but bends toward justice , a quote we learned from a man who was slaughtered for asking for too much too soon .
When Cornel West called Obama Wall Street ’ s “ black mascot , ” he was echoing Malcolm X who said white liberals “ endorse , sanction , and subsidize ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But now the population sees through the ruse , the artful con of running minority puppets and liberal poseurs to front for elite interests .
Now we face an election between a hack who pretends to befriend the poor , and a narcissist who openly loathes them .
Isn ’ t the former the greater threat ?
He ’ ll fool many , but not all .
The latter will fool none but a few .
From a non-corporate point-of-view , the military-intelligence community has already attempted to compromise Trump ’ s electoral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ failed .
Then it attempted what had been trialed in Brazil , namely a constitutional coup , known by the euphemism , “ impeachment ” .
That failed .
Then it helped launch a global pandemic that would , it was thought , fatally compromise Trump ’ s re-election chances .
That has largely failed .
What ’ s left ?
There is one option .
The question that remains is whether the military-intelligence steady state will hijack the protests and turn them into a color revolution .
Lots of media encouragement for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We ’ ve seen infiltrators stimulating riots and looting .
In this scenario , the goal would be to bait the president into a vicious crackdown .
That would de-legitimize him .
Then they ’ d remove him .
He has no loyalty in the armed forces .
The establishment doesn ’ t want another four years .
Biden is a seriously flawed candidate .
From the perspective of the neoliberal elite , if you want to avoid a second term , now is the time to move .
Easier now than rigging @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Republicans .
This is exactly how color revolutions go down .
Look at Eastern Europe alone .
Ukraine .
Bulgaria .
Yugoslavia .
Romania .
Georgia .
Poland .
Belarus .
Kyrgyzstan .
Usually the unrest is astroturfed , but this real unrest could be hijacked for that purpose .
Half the work is already done .
The head of state has been comprehensively demonized per the color revolution playbook .
The military is in your pocket .
The radical orgs have been penetrated .
The media is stoking public fury .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Washington has brought structural adjustment home .
It has brought the police state home .
Why not bring home the last fixture of the neoliberal world order : the postmodern coup .
Of course , color revolutions are not revolutionary in any democratic sense , and their most typical color is dark red .
They don ’ t replace the class power structure .
It isn ’ t democratization .
It is a drastic means of securing what matters to elite capital : the expansion of markets , low social investment , low @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , control of foreign policy , valuable state-to-state relationships , favorable balances of power .
It would be a momentous fraud .
And it may not happen .
The silent architects of policy may indeed wait for the ritual extravaganza of late fall , when the institutional pomp of democracy can be hailed for the masses .
But it is a possibility , depending on how Trump reacts , and one that tells us something about the nature of the American project and the extremes toward which it has veered as American influence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fall into da Vinci ’ s first category of those who see , it would be a boon to the arbiters of political power if they could hustle our current carnival barker from the stage and replace him , even with an unpredictable geriatric with a penchant for wandering off camera .
An avuncular chaperon for the mechanics of neoliberal policy .
And most importantly , they hope , a man who would serve as a social narcotic and put an angry and agitated public back to sleep .
Jason Hirthler is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the communications industry , and author of two essay collections , and Imperial Fictions .
He lives in New York City and can be reached at jasonhirthler @ gmail.com .
is a writer , media critic , veteran of the communications industry , and author of two essay collections , The Sins of Empire * Hong Kong , though plagued by tumult like other societies listed in the passage , is really the target of a US-induced color revolution in which many participants are entirely confused about who the real enemy is .

Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible. Share with kin, friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise.
EDITED AND HOSTED BY THE GREANVILLE POST
By Jason Hirthler
Veins have been opened on the American streets. So have eyes.
Somewhere in his almost mythical life of note-taking, masterpiece-making genius, Leonardo da Vinci made an offhand remark that, like so many others, contained a spark of insight. He said that there are three kinds of men: those who see, those who see when shown, and those who do not see. It seems to be this last kind that are least worthy, but most likely, to attain positions of power in our government. And those who, lacking legitimacy in power, will nevertheless be ousted from power only when more people see, or see when shown.
Underlying Causes & The Year of Protest
Before the uprising in late May, it wouldn't have been a stretch to refer to 2019 as the Year of Protest. Millions marched and voiced a sometimes-violent displeasure in Hong Kong*, China, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Iran, Catalonia, Britain, France, the U.S., Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Honduras, and Haiti, among others. Times are hard for the working class. The brittle nerves of the Davos set are on edge.
After the 2008 mortgage meltdown, the United States Federal Reserve spent 29 trillion dollars propping up Wall Street banks that were effectively insolvent. A pittance was paid to Main Street, where 10 million homeowners foreclosed. Since then, financial leveraging in derivatives has exploded. The rampant securitization of bad debt has continued unchecked. While price-to-earnings ratios express the unproductive state of the Fortune 500, the multinationals depend more than ever on the largesse of the Fed, an open spigot of cheap money that is quickly repurposed into stock buybacks and high-return loans. This funnel of free cash was turned on the repo market at the end of 2019, a forbidding sign of renewed instability.
As the economy sputters, the population grows increasingly restive, having elected a vicious casino mogul to the presidency. His brief but ham-fisted attempts to foreclose imperial wars and penchant for mocking the mainstream media that rationalizes those wars for the public, has frightened the establishment elite, the infamous one percent. Something must be done before the global liberal world order loses all credibility, before the momentum of U.S. efforts at hegemony stall, before the economy implodes from the weight of its debt and its outsized risk, and before rebellion becomes the byword of the century.
The Covid19 pandemic provided the kind of crisis during which elite kingpins shore up their power. The entire population is driven into effective house arrest, called "shelter in place." The lockdown is economically devastating, throwing an unprecedented 40 million Americans into the unemployment queues, the machinery of which instantly falters when burdened with increased responsibility. The responses of the government mirror those of 2009: massive cash flows to Fortune 500s and stinting relief for Main Street.
Frustration builds, both with the mental health impact of the quarantine, the exasperating federal response, the specter of an onerous global health regime driven by Big Pharma and Big Philanthropy, and the deteriorating economic prospects of the population. Finally, two events supply the spark that generates an historic uprising: the on-camera murder of American George Floyd by suffocation, and the histrionic race-laced response of a white dog walker to a request from a black man to leash her pet. The delicate balance of vexation and toleration spills over into public protest, violence, and confrontation.
Protests swiftly emerge in 30 cities across the country, like a coordinated mass action surging up through the collective subconscious of the country. For the first time in recent memory, social media shows police in retreat. Precincts are attacked, set on fire, and burned down. Police flee the scene. Big box retail is looted and burned. Media outlets are attacked. Millions more march and sit, peacefully protesting the savagery of a flexing police state. This vocal but ignored majority is unuseful to the Trump administration because its behavior does not provide a pretext for harsh reprisals.
Corporate Media Misdirection
The media is ablaze with conspiracy and conjecture. Half-baked formulaic analyses. Liberals blame the riots on white supremacists. Conservatives blame antifa thugs. Quick to capitalize, Trump vows to declare antifa a terrorist organization, though it hasn’t any formal infrastructure. He is Bush declaring war on a tactic. Republicans decry the violence but promise violence in reply. The president croons, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts." The National Guard is summoned. The military is put on alert. The Insurrection Act is brandished.
The president’s reelection campaign then releases an ad claiming that Joe Biden destroyed “millions” of black American lives with the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill, where the erstwhile Senator is seen declaring, with the brash arrogance that typified his Congressional tenure, “We do everything but hang people for jaywalking in this bill.” As the ad courses through the national consciousness, Biden lurks in his basement, a man overwhelmed by his historic moment.
Liberal media including CNN, MSNBC, and the Times seek to blame Russia for the protests.  Former Obama official Susan Rice rehearses the wearisome trope that the protests are efforts to ‘divide’ the American public and “are straight out of the Russia playbook.” Another tone-deaf class-based insult from a millionaire white-collar bourgeoisie.
Political Impotence
With media narratives collapsing, the feckless carnival of discredited politicians, for want of instruction, trot out the same bland bromides they’ve been rehearsing for decades, hoping to catch the wave of a movement for justice that has long left them behind.
Biden issues one threadbare platitude after another. His vague summons are incoherent. His abject calls for action are met with derision. The cultural and class-based fissures in the country are laid bare. Amy Klobuchar, who refrained from prosecuting any of the corrupt police under her watch in Minnesota, announces that the arrest of Derek Chauvin(ist), who murdered Floyd, is the "first step towards justice."
Could these careerist millionaires be any more tone deaf? Could Klobuchar not see that we no longer believe in the euphemism called "the justice system," or that a killer’s arrest by an institution built on racism, shaped by class, and beholden to elitism, instills no confidence? Has Biden not recognized there is no legitimacy in a party that cheated its best representative of the people out of a nomination, twice, in order to salvage the wishes of its donor class? Has neither seen that there is no legitimacy in a government that commits war crimes abroad, and barbarism at home?
They know better. They most likely understand, for instance, that the national security state has long since taken the upper hand in the steady state's power-sharing arrangements, despite the legislative, judicial, and executive bluster. But to bear witness to this reality would be to concede their own lawless grip on power. Whether the population fully sees the extent of their government’s betrayal is debatable. But they certainly see the racist oppression. The people are restive, unruly, exhausted, and increasingly dismissive of even the most jingoistic refrains from leaders like Barack Obama or Bill Clinton, let alone the callous malice of men like Bush or Trump. And so they rebel, peacefully, but angrily. Then, sometimes on their own, sometimes thanks to agents provocateurs, they burn, taunt, and riot. But they also chant, pray, march, cry, scream, and die, as the staggering weight of the state descends upon them.
And yet what options do Americans, or westerners in general, have aside from rebellion? As the activist Larken Rose has usefully observed, “The truth is, one who seeks to achieve freedom by petitioning those in power to give it to him has already failed, regardless of the response. To beg for the blessing of ‘authority’ is to accept that the choice is the master’s alone to make, which means that the person is already, by definition, a slave.”
This was the fatal blunder, the bungled gaffe of Bernie Sanders. To continually petition an openly criminal power system to grant one’s requests. Which by definition were designed to dismantle the very systemic power it petitioned. It is this fundamental naivete, and most likely a deliberate ignorance, that plagues all liberals, even those as forward-thinking as Sanders. To say, “I didn’t know,” is plausible deniability. One can then feasible keep one’s integrity intact. At least in the public eye, if not in one’s soul. Now, in the street, we are witnessing an underclass flexing its shoulders, attempting to shake off the manacles of that system. Yet this class, proletarian, bruised, abused, resigned, unrepentant, faithless, sullen, and irate, petitions no one. It is imposing itself in unpredictable ways on its immediate environment, an expression of fury regardless of its outcome. With such a diffuse target, lives of its own are inevitably wrecked, even as it hits more intentional targets--police precincts, corporate retail chains, global banks, and corporate media.
The responses from the Hill are feckless. The media report the killings in disembodied terms. He died in police custody. She lost her life while under arrest. Agency is removed from the perpetrator. It is foisted upon the fatality. Affixed to the casualty. A grammarian sleight of hand. An artful dodge. Meanwhile, precincts burn. Cop cars are vandalized. Store owners kicked in the teeth. Kids maced. Women shoved down. Journalists shot with rubber bullets. Homeowners pelted on their stoops. Windows smashed. Some by infiltrators. Some by blacks. Some by whites. Some by blacks paid by whites. Curfews are imposed on cities already in lockdown. The chaos never gets completely unwound. It is like the fog of war: an enigma of cross-purposes.
Both serve the same ends with discrepant narratives. The blacks rise against multi-generational racist and class oppression. Whites hijack the protest. Liberals piggyback and make it about Trump and foreign interference. Conservatives make it about antifa and terrorism. Infiltrators jump in and make it about rioting. Liberals have been selling white supremacy for four years. Conservatives have been selling radical socialist infiltration. Both camps stoke fear. The Goering gambit never fails. Make them afraid. Tell them they are under attack from some terrible foreign enemy. Communism. Terrorism. Chinese plagues. Populations tend to submit when there’s a rabid threat shaking the gates of our liberal Arcadia.
It is misdirection. Take legitimate anger and redirect it toward easy targets: socialists who want to take your money; suicidal jihadists who want to blow you up; pathogens that want to asphyxiate your loved ones; inscrutable foreigners who want to destroy your freedoms; white supremacists that want to exterminate all other ethnicities. Find a small but fearful threat and magnify it until the entire populace is quivering with fear. Whatever you do, do not reveal the real problem, which is the class war of elitism against populism. The plutocrats are winning. They own the state, the media, and the police. Their credo is simple: use what works. Occupy correctly identified the problem. Which is why they were swiftly, violently, and brutally extinguished as a movement.
Covering the assault on journalists, the Times quotes a free speech activist who said, “Journalists are there as representatives of the public...” This falseness of this statement lays it plain. Media is supposed to represent the people but represents a fascist corporate plutocracy. Politicians are supposed to represent the people but represent a fascist corporate plutocracy. Police are supposed to protect the public but protect a fascist corporate plutocracy. American democracy is a cipher, replete with the trimmings of republicanism but empty at its core. As long as liberals have done well by the fascist corporate parasite devouring its insides, they were content to play along, mouthing mindless maxims of sympathy and solidarity. Civic celebrities all.
Now that the husk has collapsed in on itself, they call frightfully for a return to order, mourning the loss of control more than the loss of life. But their call comes too late. Their savior is a bewildered segregationist in cognitive decline. They snuffed out the last gasp of life in their party when they sidelined Sanders. In favor of a champion of incarceration with a CV of sexual predation. When parliamentary democracies fail, they do so because the liberal class dies. They abandon their duty to moderate the system, and then it is too late to repair the damage. Nor, sadly, do they even understand what they’ve done. And now that a pandemic and nationwide protests have happened on Trump’s watch, they will be even more convinced of their piety.
White Liberal Supremacy
Martin Luther King warned about the white liberal. He said the “great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not...the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate...who is more devoted to ‘order’ than justice.” He added that, “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” This is the modern Democrat. Whites posing as liberals to get the black vote. That’s Biden. Rather than dismantle the system of oppression, he’ll shoot you in the leg rather than the heart, because the lesser harm is the better harm.
But the trick is tired. The underclass can no longer subsist on the crumbs of incrementalism. Blood boils when they hear that underlying message, communicated in so many euphemisms: Be patient, work within the system to achieve incremental change. Take a deep breath and settle your nerves. Change will happen, because we know the moral arc of the universe is long but bends toward justice, a quote we learned from a man who was slaughtered for asking for too much too soon.
When Cornel West called Obama Wall Street’s “black mascot,” he was echoing Malcolm X who said white liberals “endorse, sanction, and subsidize” black puppets to betray black causes. But now the population sees through the ruse, the artful con of running minority puppets and liberal poseurs to front for elite interests. Now we face an election between a hack who pretends to befriend the poor, and a narcissist who openly loathes them. Isn’t the former the greater threat? He’ll fool many, but not all. The latter will fool none but a few.
A Coming Color Revolution?
From a non-corporate point-of-view, the military-intelligence community has already attempted to compromise Trump’s electoral prospects through spying and kompromat. That failed. Then it attempted what had been trialed in Brazil, namely a constitutional coup, known by the euphemism, “impeachment”. That failed. Then it helped launch a global pandemic that would, it was thought, fatally compromise Trump’s re-election chances. That has largely failed. What’s left? There is one option.
The question that remains is whether the military-intelligence steady state will hijack the protests and turn them into a color revolution. Lots of media encouragement for the protests, which is unusual. We’ve seen infiltrators stimulating riots and looting. In this scenario, the goal would be to bait the president into a vicious crackdown. That would de-legitimize him. Then they’d remove him. He has no loyalty in the armed forces. The establishment doesn’t want another four years. Biden is a seriously flawed candidate. From the perspective of the neoliberal elite, if you want to avoid a second term, now is the time to move. Easier now than rigging the election later, given the involvement of Republicans. This is exactly how color revolutions go down. Look at Eastern Europe alone. Ukraine. Bulgaria. Yugoslavia. Romania. Georgia. Poland. Belarus. Kyrgyzstan. Usually the unrest is astroturfed, but this real unrest could be hijacked for that purpose. Half the work is already done. The head of state has been comprehensively demonized per the color revolution playbook. The military is in your pocket. The radical orgs have been penetrated. The media is stoking public fury. All the elements are in place. Washington has brought structural adjustment home. It has brought the police state home. Why not bring home the last fixture of the neoliberal world order: the postmodern coup.
Of course, color revolutions are not revolutionary in any democratic sense, and their most typical color is dark red. They don’t replace the class power structure. It isn’t democratization. It is a drastic means of securing what matters to elite capital: the expansion of markets, low social investment, low taxes, a docile and subservient population, control of foreign policy, valuable state-to-state relationships, favorable balances of power. It would be a momentous fraud. And it may not happen. The silent architects of policy may indeed wait for the ritual extravaganza of late fall, when the institutional pomp of democracy can be hailed for the masses. But it is a possibility, depending on how Trump reacts, and one that tells us something about the nature of the American project and the extremes toward which it has veered as American influence wanes. In that more do not fall into da Vinci’s first category of those who see, it would be a boon to the arbiters of political power if they could hustle our current carnival barker from the stage and replace him, even with an unpredictable geriatric with a penchant for wandering off camera. An avuncular chaperon for the mechanics of neoliberal policy. And most importantly, they hope, a man who would serve as a social narcotic and put an angry and agitated public back to sleep.
Jason Hirthler is a writer, media critic, veteran of the communications industry, and author of two essay collections, and Imperial Fictions. He lives in New York City and can be reached at jasonhirthler@gmail.com. is a writer, media critic, veteran of the communications industry, and author of two essay collections, The Sins of Empire
* Hong Kong, though plagued by tumult like other societies listed in the passage, is really the target of a US-induced color revolution in which many participants are entirely confused about who the real enemy is.
[post-views]


thegreanvillepostbiasrating--2020-06-06--The Sword of Damocles Over Western Europe: Follow the Trail of Blood and Oil

EDITED AND HOSTED BY THE GREANVILLE POST .
However , during this period OPEC did not have a strong voice in such affairs , the main reason being the “ Seven Sisters ” which controlled approximately 86 % of the oil produced by OPEC countries .
The “ Seven Sisters ” was the name for the seven transnational oil companies of the “ Consortium of Iran ” cartel which dominated the global petroleum industry , with British Petroleum owning 40 % and Royal Dutch Shell 14 % , giving Britain the lead at 54 % ownership during this period .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ police under the Shah from 1957 to 1979 , was established and pretty much run by the SIS ( aka MI6 ) , CIA and the Israeli Mossad .
This is a well-known fact , and yet , was treated as somehow irrelevant during Amnesty International ’ s pleas for a humanitarian intervention into Iran ... '' '' the SAVAK which was the secret police under the Shah from 1957 to 1979 , was established and pretty much run by the SIS ( aka MI6 ) , CIA and the Israeli Mossad .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ yet , was treated as somehow irrelevant during Amnesty International ’ s pleas for a humanitarian intervention into Iran ... '' In 1960 , OPEC was founded by five oil producing countries : Venezuela , Iraq , Saudi Arabia , Iran and Kuwait in an attempt to influence and stabilise the market price of oil , which would in turn stabilise their nations ' economic return .
The formation of OPEC marked a turning point toward national sovereignty over natural resources .
In 1973 , Mohammad Reza Shah thought he finally found his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world ’ s sixth industrial power ” in just one generation… Mohammad Reza Shah wished to continue this vein of progress , however , he would first have to go through Britain and increasingly the U.S. in order to fulfill Iran ’ s vision for a better future .
Despite Reza Shah ’ s problems ( Mosaddegh was sent into exile during his reign ) , he had made significant achievements for Iran .
Among these included the development of transportation infrastructure , 15 000 miles of road by 1940 and the construction @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1938 .
His father , Reza Shah came into power after the overthrow of Ahmad Shah in 1921 , who was responsible for signing into law the infamous Anglo-Persian Agreement in 1919 , which effectively turned Iran into a de facto protectorate run by British “ advisors ” and ensured the British Empire ’ s control of Iran ’ s oil .
Mohammad Reza Shah had developed very good relations with the U.S. under President FDR , who at the behest of the Shah , formed the Iran Declaration which ended Iran ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Soviets after WWII .
He would become the Shah in 1941 at the age of 22 , after the British forced his father Reza Shah into exile .
By then , Persia had already experienced 70 years of British imperialism reducing its people to near destitution .
ne important thing to know about Mohammad Reza Shah was that he was no fan of British imperialism and was an advocate for Iran ’ s independence and industrial growth .
That said , the Shah was a deeply flawed man who lacked the steadfastness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Iran .
After all , foreign-led coups had become quite common in Iran at that point .
After 1973 , with the sudden rise of oil prices , the Shah began to see an opportunity for independent action .
The Shah saw the price increase as a way to pull his country out of backwardness .
To the intense irritation of his sponsors , the Shah pledged to bring Iran into the ranks of the world ’ s top ten industrial nations by the year 2000 .
The Shah understood that in order @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Iran could not just stay as a crude oil producer but needed to invest in a more stable future through industrial growth .
And as it just so happened , France and West Germany were ready to make an offer .
In 1978 , France and West Germany led the European community , with the exception of Great Britain , in the formation of the European Monetary System ( EMS ) .
The EMS was a response to the controlled disintegration that had been unleashed on the world economy after the fixed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 1971 .
French foreign minister Jean Francois–Poncet had told a UN press conference , that it was his vision that the EMS eventually replace the IMF and World Bank as the center of world finance .
For those who are unaware of the devastation that the IMF and World Bank have wreaked upon the world , refer to John Perkins ’ “ Confession of an Economic Hit Man ” … the situation is 10X worst today .
As early as 1977 , France and West Germany had begun exploring the possibility of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in which western Europe would supply high-technology exports , including nuclear technology , to the OPEC countries in exchange for long-term oil supply contracts at a stable price .
In turn , OPEC countries would deposit their enormous financial surpluses into western European banks which could be used for further loans for development projects… obviously to the detriment of the IMF and World Bank hegemony .
The Carter Administration was not happy with this , sending Vice President Walter Mondale to France and West Germany to “ inform ” them that the U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ energy technology to the Third World…and thus they should do so as well .
West Germany ’ s nuclear deal with Brazil and France ’ s promise to sell nuclear technology to South Korea had already come under heavy attack .
In addition , the Shah had started a closer partnership with Iraq and Saudi Arabia cemented at OPEC meetings in 1977 and 1978 .
In a press conference in 1977 the Shah stated he would work for oil price stability .
Together Saudi Arabia and Iran at the time produced nearly half @ @ @ @ @ @ @ If an Iran-Saudi-Iraq axis established a permanent working relationship with the EMS it would have assembled an unstoppable combination against the London world financial center .
Recall that France and West Germany had already ignored British calls to boycott Iranian oil in 1951 under Mosaddegh , and therefore , there was no indication that they were going to follow suit with Britain and the U.S. this time either .
As far as London and Washington were concerned , the Shah ’ s reign was over .
British Petroleum , BBC News and Amnesty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we to select a date for the beginning of the Iranian revolution it would be November 1976 , the month that Amnesty International issued its report charging brutality and torture of political prisoners by the Shah of Iran .
Ironically , the SAVAK which was the secret police under the Shah from 1957 to 1979 , was established and pretty much run by the SIS ( aka MI6 ) , CIA and the Israeli Mossad .
This is a well-known fact , and yet , was treated as somehow irrelevant during Amnesty International @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into Iran .
For those who haven ’ t already discovered Amnesty International ’ s true colors from their recent “ work ” in Syria… it should be known that they work for British Intelligence .
Gruesome accounts of electric shock torture and mutilation were printed in the London Times , the Washington Post and other respected press .
Within a few months , President Carter launched his own “ human rights ” campaign .
With this , the international humanitarian outcry got bigger and louder demanding the removal of the Shah .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a hard place , as he was known not to be strong on “ security ” matters and often left it entirely up to the management of others .
Once Amnesty International sounded the war-cry , the Shah made the mistake of not only defending the indefensible SAVAK in the public arena but continued to trust them entirely .
It would be his biggest mistake .
With the international foment intensifying , the British Broadcasting Corporation ’ s ( BBC ) Persian language broadcasts into Iran fanned the flames of revolt .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ BBC stationed dozens of correspondents throughout the country in every remote town and village .
BBC correspondents , often in the employ of the British secret service , worked as intelligence operatives for the revolution .
Each day the BBC would report in Iran gory accounts of alleged atrocities committed by the Iranian police , often without checking the veracity of the reports .
It is now acknowledged that these news reports helped to fuel and even organise the political foment towards an Iranian revolution .
In 1978 , British Petroleum ( BP @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the government of Iran the renewing of the 25 year contract made in 1953 after the Anglo-American coup against Mosaddegh .
These negotiations collapsed in Oct 1978 , at the height of the revolution .
BP rejected the National Iranian Oil Company ’ s ( NIOC ) demands , refusing to buy a minimum quantity of barrels of Iranian oil but demanding nonetheless the exclusive right to buy that oil should it wish to in the future !
The Shah and NIOC rejected BP ’ s final offer .
Had the Shah @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Iran would have been free in its oil sales policy in 1979 – and would have been able to market its own oil to the state companies of France , Spain , Brazil and many other countries on a state-to-state basis .
In the American press hardly a single line was published about the Iranian fight with BP , the real humanitarian fight for Iranians .
The “ Arc of Crisis ” is a geopolitical theory focused on American/western politics in regards to the Muslim world .
It was first concocted by British @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the leading scholar in the world on oriental studies , especially of Islam , and its implications for today ’ s western politics .
Bernard Lewis was acting as an advisor to the U.S. State Department from 1977-1981 .
Zbigniew Brzezinski , the National Security Advisor , would announce the U.S. ’ adoption of the “ Arc of Crisis ” theory by the American military and NATO in 1978 .
It is widely acknowledged today , that the “ Arc of Crisis ” was primarily aimed at destabilising the USSR and Iran @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Part 3 of this series .
Egypt and Israel were expected to act as the initiating countries for the expansion of NATO into the Middle East .
Iran was to be the next link .
Iran ’ s revolution was perfectly timed with the launching of the “ Arc of Crisis ” , and NATO had its “ humanitarian ” cause for entering the scene .
However , the fight was not over in Iran .
On Jan 4th , 1979 , the Shah named Shapour Bakhtiar , a respected member of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Bakhtiar was held in high regard by not only the French but Iranian nationalists .
As soon as his government was ratified , Bakhtiar began pushing through a series of major reform acts : he completely nationalised all British oil interests in Iran , put an end to the martial law , abolished the SAVAK , and pulled Iran out of the Central Treaty Organization , declaring that Iran would no longer be “ the gendarme of the Gulf ” .
Bakhtiar also announced that he would be removing Ardeshir Zahedi from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the U.S. An apple that did not fall far from the tree , Ardeshir is the son of Fazlollah Zahedi , the man who led the coup against Mosaddegh and replaced him as Prime Minister !
Ardeshir was suspected to have been misinforming the Shah about the events surrounding the Iranian revolution and it was typical that he spoke to Brzezinski in Washington from Teheran over the phone at least once a day , often twice a day , as part of his “ job ” as Ambassador to the U.S. during @ @ @ @ @ @ @ With tensions escalating to a maximum , the Shah agreed to transfer all power to Bakhtiar and left Iran on Jan 16th , 1979 for a “ long vacation ” ( aka exile ) , never to return .
However , despite Bakhtiar ’ s courageous actions , the damage was too far gone and the hyenas were circling round .
It is known that from Jan 7th to early Feb 1979 , the No .
2 in the NATO chain of command , General Robert Huyser , was in Iran and was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ period .
It is thought that Huyser ’ s job was to avoid any coup attempts to disrupt the take-over by Khomeini ’ s revolutionary forces by largely misleading the Iranian generals with false intel and U.S. promises .
Recently declassified documents on Huyser ’ s visit to Iran confirm these suspicions .
During the Shah ’ s “ long vacation ” his health quickly deteriorated .
Unfortunately the Shah was never a good judge of character and kept a close dialogue with Henry Kissinger as to how to go about his health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Shah was diagnosed with cancer and the decision was made to send him to the U.S. for medical treatment .
This decision was very much pushed for and supported by Brzezinski and Kissinger , despite almost every intelligence report indicating this would lead to a disastrous outcome .
In Nov 18th 1979 , the New York Times reported : On Oct 22 , 1979 , the Shah arrived in New York to receive medical treatment .
Twelve days later , the U.S. Embassy in Teheran was taken over and 52 American hostages would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ With the taking of the hostages , the Carter Administration , as preplanned under the “ Arc of Crisis ” , set into motion its scenario for global crisis management .
The hostage crisis , a 100 % predictable response to the U.S. ’ decision to accept the Shah into America , was the external threat the Carter Administration needed to invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act , authorising the President to regulate international commerce after declaring a national emergency in response to an extraordinary threat With this new authority , President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financial assets , amounting to over $ 6 billion , including in branches of American banks abroad .
Instantly , the world financial markets were thrown into a panic , and big dollar depositors in western Europe and the U.S. , particularly the OPEC central banks , began to pull back from further commitments .
The Eurodollar market was paralyzed and most international lending halted until complex legal matters were sorted out .
However , the most serious consequence by far from the Carter Administration ’ s “ emergency actions , ” was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long-term lending precisely at a time when West Germany and France were seeking to attract deposits into the financial apparatus associated with the European Monetary System ( EMS ) .
In addition , the Carter Administration ’ s insistent demands that western Europe and Japan invoke economic sanctions against Iran was like asking them to cut their own throats .
Yet , the raised political tensions succeeded in breaking apart the economic alliances and the slow blood-letting of Europe commenced .
Within days of the taking of the hostages , the pretext was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ military presence in the Middle East and the Indian Ocean .
The message was not lost on Europe .
In a Nov 28 , 1979 column in Le Figaro , Paul Marie de la Gorce , who was in close dialogue with the French presidential palace , concluded that U.S. military and economic intervention into Iran would cause “ more damages for Europe and Japan than for Iran.
” And that those who advocate such solutions are “ consciously or not inspired by the lessons given by Henry Kissinger.
” During the 444 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ invasion was always looming overhead .
Such an invasion was never about seizing the oil supply for the U.S. , but rather to deny it to western Europe and Japan .
If the U.S. were to have seized the oil supply in Iran , the body blow to the western European economies would have knocked out the EMS .
Thus , during the 444 day holding of American hostages , this threat was held over the head of Europe like the sword of Damocles .
Suffice it to say that today ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understood in their full weight and international ramifications without this historical background .

EDITED AND HOSTED BY THE GREANVILLE POST
. However, during this period OPEC did not have a strong voice in such affairs, the main reason being the “Seven Sisters” which controlled approximately 86% of the oil produced by OPEC countries. The “Seven Sisters” was the name for the seven transnational oil companies of the “Consortium of Iran” cartel which dominated the global petroleum industry, with British Petroleum owning 40% and Royal Dutch Shell 14%, giving Britain the lead at 54% ownership during this period.
"the SAVAK which was the secret police under the Shah from 1957 to 1979, was established and pretty much run by the SIS (aka MI6), CIA and the Israeli Mossad. This is a well-known fact, and yet, was treated as somehow irrelevant during Amnesty International’s pleas for a humanitarian intervention into Iran..."
"the SAVAK which was the secret police under the Shah from 1957 to 1979, was established and pretty much run by the SIS (aka MI6), CIA and the Israeli Mossad. This is a well-known fact, and yet, was treated as somehow irrelevant during Amnesty International’s pleas for a humanitarian intervention into Iran..."
In 1960, OPEC was founded by five oil producing countries: Venezuela, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait in an attempt to influence and stabilise the market price of oil, which would in turn stabilise their nations' economic return. The formation of OPEC marked a turning point toward national sovereignty over natural resources.
In 1973, Mohammad Reza Shah thought he finally found his chance to turn Iran into the “world’s sixth industrial power” in just one generation…
Mohammad Reza Shah wished to continue this vein of progress, however, he would first have to go through Britain and increasingly the U.S. in order to fulfill Iran’s vision for a better future.
Despite Reza Shah’s problems (Mosaddegh was sent into exile during his reign), he had made significant achievements for Iran. Among these included the development of transportation infrastructure, 15 000 miles of road by 1940 and the construction of the Trans-Iranian Railway which opened in 1938.
His father, Reza Shah came into power after the overthrow of Ahmad Shah in 1921, who was responsible for signing into law the infamous Anglo-Persian Agreement in 1919, which effectively turned Iran into a de facto protectorate run by British “advisors” and ensured the British Empire’s control of Iran’s oil.
Mohammad Reza Shah had developed very good relations with the U.S. under President FDR, who at the behest of the Shah, formed the Iran Declaration which ended Iran’s foreign occupation by the British and the Soviets after WWII.
He would become the Shah in 1941 at the age of 22, after the British forced his father Reza Shah into exile. By then, Persia had already experienced 70 years of British imperialism reducing its people to near destitution.
ne important thing to know about Mohammad Reza Shah was that he was no fan of British imperialism and was an advocate for Iran’s independence and industrial growth. That said, the Shah was a deeply flawed man who lacked the steadfastness to secure such a positive fate for Iran. After all, foreign-led coups had become quite common in Iran at that point.
After 1973, with the sudden rise of oil prices, the Shah began to see an opportunity for independent action.
The Shah saw the price increase as a way to pull his country out of backwardness. To the intense irritation of his sponsors, the Shah pledged to bring Iran into the ranks of the world’s top ten industrial nations by the year 2000.
The Shah understood that in order for this vision to become a reality, Iran could not just stay as a crude oil producer but needed to invest in a more stable future through industrial growth. And as it just so happened, France and West Germany were ready to make an offer.
In 1978, France and West Germany led the European community, with the exception of Great Britain, in the formation of the European Monetary System (EMS). The EMS was a response to the controlled disintegration that had been unleashed on the world economy after the fixed exchange rate became a floating exchange rate in 1971.
French foreign minister Jean Francois–Poncet had told a UN press conference, that it was his vision that the EMS eventually replace the IMF and World Bank as the center of world finance.
For those who are unaware of the devastation that the IMF and World Bank have wreaked upon the world, refer to John Perkins’ “Confession of an Economic Hit Man”… the situation is 10X worst today.
As early as 1977, France and West Germany had begun exploring the possibility of concretizing a deal with oil producing countries in which western Europe would supply high-technology exports, including nuclear technology, to the OPEC countries in exchange for long-term oil supply contracts at a stable price. In turn, OPEC countries would deposit their enormous financial surpluses into western European banks which could be used for further loans for development projects… obviously to the detriment of the IMF and World Bank hegemony.
The Carter Administration was not happy with this, sending Vice President Walter Mondale to France and West Germany to “inform” them that the U.S. would henceforth oppose the sale of nuclear energy technology to the Third World…and thus they should do so as well. West Germany’s nuclear deal with Brazil and France’s promise to sell nuclear technology to South Korea had already come under heavy attack.
In addition, the Shah had started a closer partnership with Iraq and Saudi Arabia cemented at OPEC meetings in 1977 and 1978. In a press conference in 1977 the Shah stated he would work for oil price stability. Together Saudi Arabia and Iran at the time produced nearly half of OPEC’s entire output.
If an Iran-Saudi-Iraq axis established a permanent working relationship with the EMS it would have assembled an unstoppable combination against the London world financial center.
Recall that France and West Germany had already ignored British calls to boycott Iranian oil in 1951 under Mosaddegh, and therefore, there was no indication that they were going to follow suit with Britain and the U.S. this time either.
As far as London and Washington were concerned, the Shah’s reign was over.
British Petroleum, BBC News and Amnesty International as Servants to the Crown
Were we to select a date for the beginning of the Iranian revolution it would be November 1976, the month that Amnesty International issued its report charging brutality and torture of political prisoners by the Shah of Iran.
Ironically, the SAVAK which was the secret police under the Shah from 1957 to 1979, was established and pretty much run by the SIS (aka MI6), CIA and the Israeli Mossad. This is a well-known fact, and yet, was treated as somehow irrelevant during Amnesty International’s pleas for a humanitarian intervention into Iran.
For those who haven’t already discovered Amnesty International’s true colors from their recent “work” in Syria… it should be known that they work for British Intelligence.
Gruesome accounts of electric shock torture and mutilation were printed in the London Times, the Washington Post and other respected press. Within a few months, President Carter launched his own “human rights” campaign. With this, the international humanitarian outcry got bigger and louder demanding the removal of the Shah.
The Shah was caught between a rock and a hard place, as he was known not to be strong on “security” matters and often left it entirely up to the management of others. Once Amnesty International sounded the war-cry, the Shah made the mistake of not only defending the indefensible SAVAK in the public arena but continued to trust them entirely. It would be his biggest mistake.
With the international foment intensifying, the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) Persian language broadcasts into Iran fanned the flames of revolt.
During the entire year of 1978 the BBC stationed dozens of correspondents throughout the country in every remote town and village. BBC correspondents, often in the employ of the British secret service, worked as intelligence operatives for the revolution.
Each day the BBC would report in Iran gory accounts of alleged atrocities committed by the Iranian police, often without checking the veracity of the reports. It is now acknowledged that these news reports helped to fuel and even organise the political foment towards an Iranian revolution.
In 1978, British Petroleum (BP) was in the process of negotiating with the government of Iran the renewing of the 25 year contract made in 1953 after the Anglo-American coup against Mosaddegh. These negotiations collapsed in Oct 1978, at the height of the revolution. BP rejected the National Iranian Oil Company’s (NIOC) demands, refusing to buy a minimum quantity of barrels of Iranian oil but demanding nonetheless the exclusive right to buy that oil should it wish to in the future!
The Shah and NIOC rejected BP’s final offer. Had the Shah overcome the revolt, it appeared that Iran would have been free in its oil sales policy in 1979 – and would have been able to market its own oil to the state companies of France, Spain, Brazil and many other countries on a state-to-state basis.
In the American press hardly a single line was published about the Iranian fight with BP, the real humanitarian fight for Iranians.
The Sword of Damocles
The “Arc of Crisis” is a geopolitical theory focused on American/western politics in regards to the Muslim world. It was first concocted by British historian Bernard Lewis, who was regarded as the leading scholar in the world on oriental studies, especially of Islam, and its implications for today’s western politics.
Bernard Lewis was acting as an advisor to the U.S. State Department from 1977-1981. Zbigniew Brzezinski, the National Security Advisor, would announce the U.S.’ adoption of the “Arc of Crisis” theory by the American military and NATO in 1978.
It is widely acknowledged today, that the “Arc of Crisis” was primarily aimed at destabilising the USSR and Iran. This will be discussed further in Part 3 of this series.
Egypt and Israel were expected to act as the initiating countries for the expansion of NATO into the Middle East. Iran was to be the next link.
Iran’s revolution was perfectly timed with the launching of the “Arc of Crisis”, and NATO had its “humanitarian” cause for entering the scene.
However, the fight was not over in Iran.
On Jan 4th, 1979, the Shah named Shapour Bakhtiar, a respected member of the National Front as Prime Minister of Iran. Bakhtiar was held in high regard by not only the French but Iranian nationalists. As soon as his government was ratified, Bakhtiar began pushing through a series of major reform acts: he completely nationalised all British oil interests in Iran, put an end to the martial law, abolished the SAVAK, and pulled Iran out of the Central Treaty Organization, declaring that Iran would no longer be “the gendarme of the Gulf”.
Bakhtiar also announced that he would be removing Ardeshir Zahedi from his position as Iran’s Ambassador to the U.S.
An apple that did not fall far from the tree, Ardeshir is the son of Fazlollah Zahedi, the man who led the coup against Mosaddegh and replaced him as Prime Minister!
Ardeshir was suspected to have been misinforming the Shah about the events surrounding the Iranian revolution and it was typical that he spoke to Brzezinski in Washington from Teheran over the phone at least once a day, often twice a day, as part of his “job” as Ambassador to the U.S. during the peak of the Iranian revolution.
With tensions escalating to a maximum, the Shah agreed to transfer all power to Bakhtiar and left Iran on Jan 16th, 1979 for a “long vacation” (aka exile), never to return.
However, despite Bakhtiar’s courageous actions, the damage was too far gone and the hyenas were circling round.
It is known that from Jan 7th to early Feb 1979, the No. 2 in the NATO chain of command, General Robert Huyser, was in Iran and was in frequent contact with Brzezinski during this period. It is thought that Huyser’s job was to avoid any coup attempts to disrupt the take-over by Khomeini’s revolutionary forces by largely misleading the Iranian generals with false intel and U.S. promises. Recently declassified documents on Huyser’s visit to Iran confirm these suspicions.
During the Shah’s “long vacation” his health quickly deteriorated. Unfortunately the Shah was never a good judge of character and kept a close dialogue with Henry Kissinger as to how to go about his health problems. By Oct 1979, the Shah was diagnosed with cancer and the decision was made to send him to the U.S. for medical treatment.
This decision was very much pushed for and supported by Brzezinski and Kissinger, despite almost every intelligence report indicating this would lead to a disastrous outcome.
In Nov 18th 1979, the New York Times reported:
‘The decision was made despite the fact that Mr. Carter and his senior policy advisers had known for months that to admit the Shah might endanger Americans at the embassy in Teheran. An aide reported that at one staff meeting Mr. Carter had asked, “When the Iranians take our people in Teheran hostage, what will you advise me then?” ‘
On Oct 22, 1979, the Shah arrived in New York to receive medical treatment. Twelve days later, the U.S. Embassy in Teheran was taken over and 52 American hostages would be held captive for 444 days!
With the taking of the hostages, the Carter Administration, as preplanned under the “Arc of Crisis”, set into motion its scenario for global crisis management.
The hostage crisis, a 100% predictable response to the U.S.’ decision to accept the Shah into America, was the external threat the Carter Administration needed to invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, authorising the President to regulate international commerce after declaring a national emergency in response to an extraordinary threat
With this new authority, President Carter announced the freezing of all U.S.-Iranian financial assets, amounting to over $6 billion, including in branches of American banks abroad. Instantly, the world financial markets were thrown into a panic, and big dollar depositors in western Europe and the U.S., particularly the OPEC central banks, began to pull back from further commitments.
The Eurodollar market was paralyzed and most international lending halted until complex legal matters were sorted out.
However, the most serious consequence by far from the Carter Administration’s “emergency actions,” was in scaring other OPEC governments away from long-term lending precisely at a time when West Germany and France were seeking to attract deposits into the financial apparatus associated with the European Monetary System (EMS).
In addition, the Carter Administration’s insistent demands that western Europe and Japan invoke economic sanctions against Iran was like asking them to cut their own throats. Yet, the raised political tensions succeeded in breaking apart the economic alliances and the slow blood-letting of Europe commenced.
Within days of the taking of the hostages, the pretext was given for a vast expansion of U.S. military presence in the Middle East and the Indian Ocean.
Sound familiar?
The message was not lost on Europe. In a Nov 28, 1979 column in Le Figaro, Paul Marie de la Gorce, who was in close dialogue with the French presidential palace, concluded that U.S. military and economic intervention into Iran would cause “more damages for Europe and Japan than for Iran.” And that those who advocate such solutions are “consciously or not inspired by the lessons given by Henry Kissinger.”
During the 444 day hostage crisis, a full-scale U.S. invasion was always looming overhead. Such an invasion was never about seizing the oil supply for the U.S., but rather to deny it to western Europe and Japan.
If the U.S. were to have seized the oil supply in Iran, the body blow to the western European economies would have knocked out the EMS. Thus, during the 444 day holding of American hostages, this threat was held over the head of Europe like the sword of Damocles.
Suffice it to say that today’s ongoing sanctions against Iran cannot be understood in their full weight and international ramifications without this historical background.