Review: America and Iran by John Ghazvinian

America and Iran

Most books or documentaries start with the year 1979 when writing about Iran. And obviously so because they want to vilify Iran. 1979 saw the revolution which overthrew the dyasty and brought in conservative rule. And since then Iran has been consistently portrayed as the ‘bad boy’. But John goes back hundreds of years to write how did Iran really came to be seen as a villian and was it really so since ever? The answer is an emphatic no. As you may have read about my rants against mainstream media and the media cabal in some of my previous posts, reading this book reinforces that view even further.

John writes how Persia (that’s how the West referred to them, until many years later in 1935 the Iranian governenment asked itself to be referred to as Iran and not Persia) was considered a friendly, welcoming country and a land of enchantment. John’s deep research by going into newspapers, books, and even pamphlets show that people and media was smitten by the Persians and their rugs and culture. There is also how Christian missionaries went about converting and even propogating their kind of Christianity (the ‘right kind’) versus the ‘wrong kind’ which was being followed by Assyrians there. However, Persia was also treated as the ‘good one’ because it was Shia and the Turks and Afghans were Sunni. The Turks were especially despised because the Crusade Wars and the Afghans were being supported by the Turks to fight agains the Shias of Persia. And anybody against the Sunnis was good, and hence Persia became the good one. On top of it, the southern region of Persia was controlled by the British and the northern by the Soviets and the rulers of Qajar / Shah dynasty were more than happy to be subservient and let them plunder away the wealth of the country. America was out of such demeaning politicking, however could stay away for long when Reza Shah and his son took an American tilt and the Americans too had their eyes set on oil, the exploration rights of which had been handed over to the British on a platter for the sake of a loan by the Shahs.

I wouldn’t go into the whole political history of what happened after Mossadegh nationalized the oil industry, the coup against him orchestrated by the British and supported by Americans, and finally the 1979 Islamic Revolution which made Iran the ultimate, eternal arch-enemy of US and for Israel too.

This is a book so important that it should be made mandatory for anybody interested in international politics and diplomacy. John consistently shows how the mainstream media (I can’t stop my rants agains them) just parroted whatever the government wanted them to write about Iran and its various political leaders. John exposes how Israel has hyped up Iran as that one country which is an existential threat for the Jews despite of there being no evidence of it. Even the nuclear capabilities of Iran have been blown out of proportion to create an aura of fear so that the politicians like Netanyahu can rake up votes to be in power. This is one of those books which will leave you stunned and astounded at how the whole group of Western countries came together to crush Iran to its knees, making millions of people suffer and reducing their economy to a fraction of what it was earlier. Endless sanctions, American-backstabbing while gaining concessions from Iranian politicians, European malfeasance, and Russian selfishness, have all drained a country which was once vibrant and emerging and a cultural hub in the middle-eastern region.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

Review: Missing Man by Barry Meier

Missing Man

Barry Meier has crafted a thriller in Missing Man, tracking the disappearance of Robert Levinson (Bob), a former FBI agent and who was later working as a contractor to CIA. Bob disappeared when he went to Kish Island from Dubai for a “side trip” to reach a nut head Dawud Salahuddin. The purpose of Bob’s visit was to get information from Dawud about Iraninan regime’s possible methods which may be resorted to in the future in case US imposed sanctions on Iran due to uranium enrichment. Dawud was constantly feeding him how Rafsanjani had spread his tentacles into financial crime and money laundering and had even invested in various projects in Canada. Barry’s narration doesn’t keep you on the edge of the seat, but is more like an undercurrent of suspense which links the whole plot together.

Bob was struggling financially to keep up with the expenses for his family as his childrent (seven of them) went from school to college to their jobs and finally married life. Bob had worked in FBI for multiple decades and had forged strong connections within the intelligene and law enforcement agencies. When he started working as a CIA contractor in the hopes of getting more excitement and possibly better remuneration, he was dishing out copious amounts of reports for his handler Anne Jablonski, who teaches yoga. The financial unit of the CIA wanted dirt on the political elite in Ian and Bob made a connection with Dawud via the journalist Ira.

This book however is also an eye opener that the FBI and CIA are after all two arms of the government, where bureaucracy and red tape have rusted the piston as with any other departments of the government. The details about how Bob used to struggle to get his contracts finalized on time, reaching out to different departments within CIA for additional budget, and even spending money from his own pocket with the hope that eventually the bills would be tabled for reimbursement. But it is also a story we all know too well: government’s shirking away from owning up when things go south. After Bob was reported missing, CIA refused to acknowledge that Bob had gone to Iran (Kish) at its behest. The intelligence agencies were trying (not sincerely enough though) to get information about Bob through other means: Russian oligarchs, Kurdish fighters, Iranian exiles. Then there were people who had contacted the Levinson family through the website setup by them to give them tips. Somebody even sent emails few times from a Gmail id “osman.muhamad@gmail.com” but initially the emails were marked as hoax by the agencies, a decision which came to haunt them later. [The recovery email associated with it is “nsa******@gmail.com”, where the “*” may represent any characters but probably could be 6 characters. However, presence of “nsa” at the beginning of the recovery email might indicate that the person behind both of these email ids is trying to mock the US authorities]

Nobody still knows the complete truth about Bob, though there was a military court order from Iran which was shared by an Iranian exile in Germany. As much as one would want to dig deeper into the mystery, the outline is that Bob was a victim of the worsening relations between Iran and US. He was probably detained as a collateral for bargaining in negotiations. None of it worked though it seems when in 2020 the Levinson family released a statement that they were contacted by the authorities in US to inform them that it was believed that Bob had died while in custody in Iran.

I would highly recommend this book to understand how the world of spies is not as glorious as depicted in movies, and how they too are not above the shenanigans of government inefficiencies and inter-agency rivalries. Then there’s media too which played along the CIA version that Bob wasn’t their agent in the hope that it would be safer for Bob that way in captivity. It would have been a dramatic victory if Bob had been located or even released, but that were not to be (yet).

Review: Operation Ajax by Daniel Burwen and Mike De Seve

Operation AJAX

 

There have been quite a few books about Mossadegh’s overthrow and how oil has come to dominate its political tribulations. However, a graphic novel about a crime so serious deserves utmost attention. For it makes complex machinations easier to understand for those who rarely read; but does it beat Palast’s picnic in reaping the goods? Well, no. But you can’t really compare these two here. Because for understanding a Palast, you have to read it thrice: the first two times to enjoy his satire, the last time to link-up the stories. Ajax even manages to put in a few pages of the original TPAJAX documents. It shouldn’t come as a surprise why democracy is thriving everywhere. Ah, just about everywhere.

 

In the beginning there is a cast of characters – Iranian, British and American. The narrator is somebody out of the Ivy league and lands a job with the CIA. And after anger, depression and self-questioning gets thrown in the Iranian cauldron in the 1950s. He is nightmarish about it in his old age, and can’t help but shout at his aging wife and wake up amidst nightmares, just like the Mossad agents in Munich. Anyone who thinks Churchill was a great statesman should just read a few pages of this one to understand why he was not. And if they still believe he was, then probably my definition of a statesman is skewed. The moment when black oil is discovered in the parched horizons of the then Persia, the capitalists eyed it green with greed and got most of the oil in exchange of few million dollars here and there to the Shah dynasty. But in comes Mossadegh, a European trained lawyer, who can’t stand this and ends up as the Prime Minister and nationalizes oil. But the Brits won’t have a thing of it and choke their economy with sanctions and naval blockades. Before they could kick-off the Third World War in the Midde East, the grand-daddy of all steps in and plans a perfect coup, to be executed by the Ivy-leaguers of CIA. What money can’t buy can be bought with a little more than money. Throw in the Red-scare, along-with paid off Majlis, local thugs, buttered mullahs and bribed journos, and you have got the best ingredients for having a democracy on its knees with a noose around its neck.

This graphic novel is a grim reminder of the fact that our values and morals stand good only till they serve us. The moment they start stinking, you got to burn them and grow new ones. And it makes for an interesting gift to anyone interested in Middle East, Iran and Democracy.

Go, read it.

Review: All the Shah’s Men by Stephen Kinzer

All The Shah’s Men (Image source: Amazon)

When I came across this book as a suggestion by an online retailer, I couldn’t be happier. It fitted perfectly as the missing first part of my trilogy of books on Iranian politics, with the other two being The Oil Kings and The Guests of the Ayatollah. Unwittingly though, I have read these three books in the reverse order from the chronological perspective. Though I hadn’t ever heard of Stephen Kinzer, but the reviews were good enough apart from the description to lure me into buying it. However, since I read the reviews of In the Name of Sorrow and Hope on Amazon (http://goo.gl/exbfD) I have begun to trust reviews with a less trusting eye, and more so after reading an article on Forbes about fake reviews (http://goo.gl/sJY0R).

 

The golden shiny cover of the book gave it a look of a classic book, but it also had an ugly red colored circle proclaiming it to be a ‘national bestseller’. I personally like books which don’t proclaim what praise they have got on the front page. On the back cover is fine, but on the front page is being superabundant. Books usually by universities like Oxford, Cambridge etc. don’t indulge in such foolish and naive braggadocio. The preface to the 2008 edition told me how “more than half a century had passed since the United States deposed the only democratic government Iran ever had” and how Iran would have been different had the “United States not sent agents to depose” Mohammad Mossadegh and how “the United States deposed a popular Iranian nationalist” in 1953. It continued to explain how “the British secret service worked with the CIA to depose Prime Minister Mossadegh” and that the “United States  violently interrupted Iran’s progress toward freedom by overthrowing Prime Minister Mossadegh in 1953” and how Akbar Ganji, an Iranian dissident, reported “Iranians will never forget the 1953 U.S.- supported coup that toppled the nationalist, moderate, democratic government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh” and that “Operation Ajax, as the CIA plot to depose Prime Minister Mossadegh was code-named, brought immense tragedy to Iran“. After such tortuous harping about the “deposition of Mossadegh” I wondered how could this book make it to the list of “national bestseller”; and it made me think about the state of the “nation” where it was so!

 

I did not buy this book to know “how” it was done, but rather “why” it was done. But hope was not in sight especially after reading what was coming up. The author intelligently suggests that the current Iranian crisis can be handled with negotiations just like the way it was done with China and North Korea. Yes, that sounded like a baritone amongst a barrage of squeaks. But it died down when he goes on to say that “in the interest of the United States to promote all manner of social, political, and economic contacts with people” the United States should “invite as many Iranians as possible to the United States and flood Iran with Americans, ranging from students and professors to farmers and entrepreneurs to writers and artists“. People don’t go and settle down in other countries to promote goodwill amongst two arguing nations, but rather as an after effect of goodwill between two countries. It left me wondering what else I could have done with Rs. 996/-.

 

The author, being a journalist, expectedly starts with events on 15th of August, 1953 and rewinds back to give a fascinating yet somewhat aloof overview of the history of Iran. He starts from how “migrants from Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent began arriving in what is now Iran nearly four thousand years ago“, continues to Darius, Cyrus and Xerxes and the fights of the Zoroastrians with the Arabs and the ultimate triumph of a different form of Islam, Shia Islam, in the region. He explains how the British imperialists exploited the region for oil and power and how ultimately the United States, resisting earlier under Harry Truman but gave in under Dwight D. Eisenhower, became a party to overthrow Mossadegh. The book covers how the Qajar dynasty was thrown out with the rise of Reza Khan and the later ascent of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It ends with a very fleeting view of the Iranian revolution. Completing this book gave me a better understanding of the 1979 revolution’s roots and would recommend it to be read as a beginner’s book on understanding West Asian politics.

 

At last I am convinced that I could have done nothing better with those Rs. 996/-. And also to never judge a book neither by its cover, nor by its preface!

Review: The Oil Kings by Andrew Scott Cooper

The Oil Kings

“I like him, I like him and I like the country. And some of those other bastards out there I don’t like, right?“ – President Richard Nixon, 1971

“Nothing could provoke more reaction in us than this threatening tone from certain circles and their paternalistic attitude.“ – The Shah, 1976

The above two quotes from this book fleetingly summarize the complexities of what lies in its 400 odd pages

Since lot of years I have been reading books on politics of Middle East (I prefer it calling West Asia though). And consider myself decently aware of a great deal of geopolitics there. That was till I read this book. A lot of my straight laced understanding was washed away. Reading this was like falling off the bed while dreaming of paradise. I thought I understood national interests well. Now I understand them better!

I probably had read its review in Frontline magazine, or would have seen in it in a Crossword store. And from the description found it interesting. And it talked about topics I had not read much about. So ordered it from Flipkart and started reading it in a train journey back home but couldn’t read further at that point as other books took over it. And, strangely, didn’t find the first chapter very interesting or appealing. Maybe it’s got to do with the style of writing. Started reading this book a few weeks earlier and finished it in 5 days. And it is a hell of a book.

It’s full of startling revelations. United States of America was scratching the back of Iran to supply weapons to Pakistan during the India-Pakistan war of 1971, which resulted in East Pakistan becoming Bangladesh. That Nixon administration had rigged a defense deal in favor of Grumman so that it doesn’t go bankrupt. And that the Shah of Iran was asked to choose Grumman as the supplier for F-14’s. That’s Foreign Service for you. I was humbled to read about so many different facets of what goes behind highest level talks of statesmen. South Vietnam at one point of time had become the possessor of world’s fourth largest air force fleet and that lot of it had come from Iran – through back door channeling by the United States.

The book covers the era from 1969 to 1977. And it revolves around a dozen or so of individuals and their power play in the realms of politics. It has got lot of quotes from interviews and declassified documents. So for someone who is not accustomed to detailed analysis this may appear as repetitive. These quotes unfailingly are followed by the author’s explanation and comments. This makes it much easier to understand and correlate a lot complicated things spoken by diplomats. Makes for a good reading to get a hold of how Kissinger was being seen as behind the doors president during the term of Gerald Ford by Iran. And also covers, though not with a considerable depth, the beginnings of Iran’s nuclear power plants brokered with the Eisenhower administration for university research, and the roots of Iran’s nuclear capability which has garnered much media attention in recent times. Henry Kissinger comes out as a smart yet cunning diplomat. This makes me want to read his trilogy: The White House Years, Years of Upheaval and Years of Renewal. It will happen in the near future, for sure. One statement by the author that underlines the beginnings of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 (which hasn’t been covered in this book, but the roots growing out of the economic collapse are obvious) is: Luck was in short supply in Iran in the late 1970s.

I would recommend this book only to those who have read at least a couple of books on politics of Middle East written by historians, for they usually follow and chronicle events in a sequential manner, unlike journalists who oscillate between different eras and events. The book’s language is simple and easy to understand. Though most of this book is sequential, at a couple of places it does go back and forth. To conclude, this book can be treated as a primer on oil-politik in a world which is getting hungrier – for energy.

As a follow up for anyone who reads this book, a couple of reads on Iranian Revolution would make for a good understanding of its political scenario. I had read Guests of the Ayatollah back in 2007, but will definitely have to peruse at least one good read by a historian to add to my own appreciation of this complex slimy web.