My Reading Notes

BBC

w/o the BBC, there would be no Khomeini;
BBC stationed dozens of correspondents in Iran, in every remote town and village in 1978;

Khomeini woudl make tapes in Paris, and w/in hours they would be broadcast in Tehran;

In Dec 1978, the BBC began to broadcast psy-war rumors, rumors like that the shah had fled the country, etc.. adicated the throne to his son, etc. or gone insane; In Dec Tehrani accused the BBC of inciting Iranian oil workers to strike;
On Dec 2, 1978, the clergy tried to organize a fight between the Muslims and hte government; the fight didn't materialize, so they broadcast tape recordings of screms, gunshots and violence, and played them from the minirets! The mullahs poured red dye on teh streets to simulate blood;

Washington had given the final g0-ahead to remove the Shah from power; In Nov, George Ball (TC,BB) was aonnounced to head a special task force on Iran; In Jan 1979, at a meeting of the heads of state of the US, GB, France and W Germany, the US formally announced that it would no longer work to keep the shah in power; the "Islamic card" was now on the table, and it would only be a matter of time before the Shah was out of power;

(*) Islamic Republic as a "bulwark" against Communists;

France's role became crucial; France and W Germany was well aware that a Khomeini Regime would destabklize the Gulf and threaten their oil supply; using Khomeini as an excuse, the US would pressure for expanded prescence in the Indian Ocean area; could lead to WWIII; The french had already made one mess up; when Iraq had arrested Khomeini, the French offered him asylum again; (Oct 1978);

Guests who visited Khomini included:

(*) Ramsey Clark;
(*) Joseph Malone (ex CIA station chief in Beirut), close ties to British intelligence;
(*) Zygmunt Nagorski (CFR);

Shah put a new PM in place;
Big changes happened:

(*) completely nationalized all British oil interests (and concessions in Iran);
(*) put an end to martial law;
(*) abolished the SAVAK secret police;
(*) pulled IRan out of CENTO and declared that Iran woudl notlonger be a gendarme of the Gulf;
(*) removing the ambassador from the US;

Zahedi was a link between the Shah and Zbigniew Brzezinski;

Khomeini flew back to Iran on Feb 1, procaimed Bakhtiar's government illegitiame and created his own governemtn w/ Yazdi;

posted by Paul Sholtz @ 5:15 PM