Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Is CIA Involved In Iran's Election Unrest?
Middle East Online ^ | June 18, 2009

Posted on 06/18/2009 10:24:12 AM PDT by Strategy

TEHRAN - There is a valid possibility that CIA is playing a sinister role behind the scenes to exploit the current Iranian election protests to destabilise the country, observers said.

The CIA secret programme involves playing the media (especially websites) as well as having secret agents on the ground in Iran, they add.

In May 2007, ABC News reported that the CIA has received secret presidential (Bush) approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, citing officials in the intelligence community.

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions.

(Excerpt) Read more at middle-east-online.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; Israel; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: agitprop; ahmadinejad; bho44; bhocia; bhoiran; bhomiddleeast; cia; iran; iranviolence2009; iraq; israel; obama
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-52 next last
To: SJackson

So it’s Bush fault after all?!


21 posted on 06/18/2009 11:28:31 AM PDT by Tolik
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Lordy, NOOOOO! Keep those Iranians stable! How will they finish building the bomb if they also have to stomp out protests and arrest dissidents? You know how many good nuclear physicists and engineers have been taken out of the line to torture people? It’s a crime, I tell you!


22 posted on 06/18/2009 11:44:43 AM PDT by Eleutheria5 (www.publishedauthors.net/benmaxwell/index.html. Donate to members.tripod.com/tva_israel/HOME.HTM)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Strategy
I would rather not know.

But if they are.....GOD SPEED!

23 posted on 06/18/2009 11:47:12 AM PDT by Churchillspirit
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Strategy

Are they or aren’t they. . .Obama will have to poll first. . .


24 posted on 06/18/2009 12:17:12 PM PDT by cricket ('Don't bow for me . . Obama ' (America's 'sorry' President))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Strategy

If this was true the NYT would have revealed all the secrets, home addresses of the agents, and democrats would be on TV blaming gwbush and rush limbaugh.

(john mccain would demand an investigation, meghan mccain would be writing stories about homosexual iranians in the iranian government, and david letterman would still be appologizing for his next palin joke)


25 posted on 06/18/2009 12:22:31 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Strategy
Corrected link

First Published 2009-06-18


Is the operation to destabilize Iran still on?

 
Is CIA involved in Iran's election unrest?

 
Observers: Bush-era CIA campaign of propaganda, disinformation on Iran could still be still active.

 
TEHRAN - There is a valid possibility that CIA is playing a sinister role behind the scenes to exploit the current Iranian election protests to destabilise the country, observers said.

The CIA secret programme involves playing the media (especially websites) as well as having secret agents on the ground in Iran, they add.

In May 2007, ABC News reported that the CIA has received secret presidential (Bush) approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, citing officials in the intelligence community.

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions.

The CIA was allowed to supply communications equipment which would enable opposition groups in Iran to work together and bypass internet censorship by the government.

The White House does not usually comment on intelligence matters.

Under the law, the CIA needs an official presidential finding to carry out such covert actions. But the CIA is permitted to mount covert "collection" operations without a presidential finding.

Terror against Tehran

The "nonlethal" aspect of the presidential finding means CIA officers may not use deadly force in carrying out the secret operations against Iran.

Still, some fear that even a nonlethal covert CIA program carries great risks.

As earlier reported on the Blotter on ABCNews.com, the United States has supported and encouraged an Iranian militant group, Jundullah, that has conducted deadly raids inside Iran from bases on the rugged Iran-Pakistan-Afghanistan "tri-border region."

US officials deny any "direct funding" of Jundullah groups but say the leader of Jundullah was in regular contact with US officials.

Spying and funding

Reports also suggest that the so called US "National Endowment for Democracy" has been involved in funding candidates favourable to the US in many countries.

Observers say their interference could very well include Iran in 2009.

Roxana Saberi, a US-Iranian journalist who was recently released after being charged for spying for the US in Iran, is said to have been convicted of spying in part because she had a copy of a confidential Iranian report on the war in Iraq.

Her lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, said that she had copied the report "out of curiosity."

Saberi had admitted that she had copied the document two years ago but said she had not passed it on to the Americans as the Iranian prosecutors had claimed. She had apologised, saying it had been a mistake to take the report.

Observers say there is no reason to believe that there has been a change of CIA policy towards Iran.

Iran strikes back

Iran Wednesday said it had identified websites run by companies it said were backed by the US and British secret services.

"We warn those who propagate riots and spread rumours that our legal action against them will cost them dearly, especially since some of the youth of this land were killed by the thugs' action, so we urge them to delete such material from their sites," a statement said.

"It shows the animosity of the Western media towards the Iranian people," it added.

Iran said the sites had been "identified" and were "financially and technically sponsored by Canadian and American firms which are backed by the US and British intelligence services."

Iran on Wednesday accused some foreign media outlets of becoming the "mouthpiece of rioters."

"The presence of hundreds of foreign media (personnel) during the last election and their observation of the existing realities alongside the successful experience in the past 30 years in organising elections is a symbol of utter transparency in the election process," the foreign ministry said.

"But some countries, in an uncalculated, hasty and rude reaction towards the illegal gatherings, have supported them contrary to democratic principles and regulations and have become the mouthpiece of the rioters' movement."

The ministry also warned the foreign media to change its "approach towards Iranian events."

"...The chess players will monitor their behaviour and at the appropriate time, without any doubt, checkmate the enemies of Iran's national unity."

The statement carried by the ISNA news agency was directed to "interfering comments by some Western countries, officials and media."

Twitter takes part

The US government took the unusual step of asking Twitter to delay a planned maintenance outage because of its use as a communications tool by Iranians following their disputed election, a US senior official said Tuesday.

The request highlighted the Obama administration's Web-savvy and the power of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook in organizing protests over the election results in the face of a ban by Iranian authorities on other media.

But it also seemed to run counter to Obama's public efforts not to appear to be meddling in Iran's internal affairs.

A State Department official in Washington said Twitter had been asked to delay Monday's shutdown because it was being used as "an important means of communications" in Iran.

The official told reporters on condition of anonymity that Twitter was all the more important because the Iranian government had shut down other websites, cell phones, and newspapers.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, in a blog post, noted the State Department request but said the decision to delay the outage was made with Twitter's network provider, NTT America.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said meanwhile that the United States does not intend to meddle in Iranian politics. "We don't want to be seen as interfering," he said.

"We're of course monitoring the situation through a number of different media, including social media networks like Facebook and Twitter," he said.


26 posted on 06/18/2009 12:23:02 PM PDT by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TADSLOS

I hope so, too. That is their job.


27 posted on 06/18/2009 12:25:21 PM PDT by mono
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Strategy

If so, it would be one of the few uses of my tax money I find justifiable.


28 posted on 06/18/2009 12:28:11 PM PDT by Travis T. OJustice (I can spell just fine, thanks, it's my typing that sucks.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SJackson

Spreading misinformation and propaganda? That’s the MSM’s job!


29 posted on 06/18/2009 12:30:22 PM PDT by Eleutheria5 (www.publishedauthors.net/benmaxwell/index.html. Donate to members.tripod.com/tva_israel/HOME.HTM)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Strategy; All

1. This is an Arab anti-US site spreading anti-US conspiracy propaganda. You should post a warning about the source

2. Your link is broken

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=32842


30 posted on 06/18/2009 12:43:20 PM PDT by dervish (I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SolidWood

see my post #30.

This site is an ant-US Arab propaganda site.

In the Jerusalem Post today there are two articles about Iran accusing Israel of causing the election crisis through Twitter and planning terror attacks on Iranian Mosques, the old ‘outside agitator’ ploy to deflect attention from the real crisis.

Same with this article.


31 posted on 06/18/2009 12:48:46 PM PDT by dervish (I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: mono

Exactly. I want my full money’s worth as a taxpayer.


32 posted on 06/18/2009 1:16:22 PM PDT by TADSLOS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Strategy

I do not believe a word of it. It smells exactly what it is; BS!


33 posted on 06/18/2009 1:20:38 PM PDT by NY Attitude (Make love not war but be prepared for either.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Strategy

the question should be: is the CIA involved with Obama


34 posted on 06/18/2009 2:10:47 PM PDT by The Wizard (DemonRATS: enemies of America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Strategy

With Obama it’s highly unlikely, but wishful thing toward overthrowing the despotic anti-Western Islamic régime.


35 posted on 06/18/2009 3:16:36 PM PDT by M. Espinola (Freedom is not 'free'.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Strategy

The page cannot be found


36 posted on 06/18/2009 3:16:45 PM PDT by arthurus (ACORN + Amnesty = Venezuelan Democracy in the USSSA)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Strategy

The CIA in NEVER in favor of regime change, and prefers to deal with dictators. The current unrest in Iran has virtually nothing to do with the CIA. After all, democracies are messy, it is much easier to deal with strongmen, thugs, and oligarchs.


37 posted on 06/18/2009 6:47:05 PM PDT by attiladhun2 (Obama is the anti-Reagan, he believes government is the solution, rather than the problem)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Strategy

I doubt it. If we were good enough to pull this off - the Mullahs would have been gone years ago ... along with North Korea.


38 posted on 06/18/2009 6:50:00 PM PDT by GOPJ (...those who make non-violent revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.- JFK (Iran))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SolidWood; NormsRevenge; Marine_Uncle; Straight Vermonter; G8 Diplomat; Man50D; SunkenCiv

ROFL!


39 posted on 06/18/2009 7:17:14 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

40 posted on 06/18/2009 7:37:02 PM PDT by G8 Diplomat (I'm learning Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Pashtu, and Russian so someday you won't have to)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-52 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson