With any given international superpower, there exists and underlying system of smaller states, over which the superpower maintains dominance. These nations often find their destinies controlled, if not at the very least greatly affected by the will and actions of greater powers. Though the old practices of economic manipulation or imperialist annexation still thrive on the international stage, another more subtle, ancient form of statecraft continues to steer the fates of millions, often to everyone’s detriment.
Espionage is the act of obtaining secrets for political or military purposes and so it has always been officially defined as. However in addition to this, intelligence services are often used in other ways, for even more potent forms of control. Such methods may be the incitement or quelling of civil insurrection, the instilling or deposing of leaders, and even the creation or destruction of armies and militias. Tactics such as these are often popular tools of spies and intelligence operatives, working for fast or revolutionary political change, but their actions are seldom without consequences. Referred to by the CIA as “blowback”, these consequences often result in prolonged wars, violence and more recently international terrorism.
After World War 2, Britain’s MI6 Intelligence force and the newly formed CIA were scrambling to secure interests for their nations from the Soviet Union and its KGB operatives. The remaining superpowers were laying claim to resources, lands and important figures as “spoils of war[1],” and worked furiously in an effort to maintain their edge on the competition. In 1953, Iran’s democratically elected President Mohammed Mossadeq was ousted from office and replaced by Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, as part of the British and American intelligence efforts to secure the countries oil fields for BP (British Petroleum co.)
The efforts themselves where the culmination of what is now known to have been called Operation Ajax, wherein a series of terrorist attacks were staged in Iran and blamed on Mossadeq’s government. Though the majority of the civilian level effort such as those failed, the president was eventually ousted by way of a military coup, bringing the young Shah Pahlavi into power. Relations with Iran normalized until the inevitable blowback came in 1979, when the Pahlavi dynasty was overturned by Islamic Revolution.
Many feel this was a detrimental change in Iran, spurred ultimately by the foreign involvement which brought the secular Pahlavi government into power. The Islamic revolutionaries felt furious with their country and more so with the west, leading to the occupation of the U.S. Embassy, a hostage crisis and the long term severing of diplomatic ties. Today as the United States and Iran face off over nuclear missiles and defense shields, many attribute the international animosity to Operation Ajax and the fallout which came from it.
In the same year (1979) the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in an effort to support the waning power of then Prime Minister, Hazifullah Amin. Amid protests from the Muslim majority, Amin had begun attempting to westernize Afghanistan, by pushing out the religious cultural heritage and replacing it with western, communist policy. It was under this rule that the Afghan “Mujahadeen” was born. These guerilla fighters, many of whom came from Arab states, were summoned by a Fatwa[2] put out for the protection of Islam within Afghanistan from what was then called “the evil empire.”
Leading the charge in this militant uprising was a southern tribe that would later become a household name in the United States. The Taliban, whose radical religious interpretations and reputation for violence was well known by the local Afghan tribes as well as foreign intelligence services, soon found a friend in the American CIA. Seeing an opportunity to continue the perpetual fight against communism, CIA officers, with the blessing and assistance from Washington were soon flying into Bagram (now Bagram Air Force Base) with crates of weapons and cash. These “aid packages,” as they were officially documented as, were bound for direct delivery into the hands of both the anti-communist guerillas and even the Islamic Jihadists (radical religious fighters).
In addition to the Taliban, other foreign fighters were also recipients of U.S. aid, including one fundamentalist Islamic militia headed by a man named Ayman al-Zawahiri. Prior to fighting in Afghanistan, Al-Zawahiri was tortured while in prison for his suspected role in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Al Sadat and for the illegal possession of weapons. As part of the radical group The Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Zawahiri also held a position of power in the Islamic Jihad movement, which promoted the use of horrific violence as a means to bring about an Islamic revolution.
Once released into Afghanistan as part of a prison liquidation ploy, Zawahiri met a young Saudi from an oil rich family, whose connections had become a valuable asset to a small Mujahadeen base. An idealist who had seen little actual combat, the young Saudi and al-Zawahiri shared a similar vision of Islam, in which its duty was not only to rule the Arab world, but to destroy all other ways of life, leaving only the purity of the Koran. The Saudi’s name was Osama Bin Laden.
Together the two used advanced guerilla warfare tactics along with sophisticated weapons technologies (provided by CIA) to continue the war against the occupation of Afghanistan, until the Soviets finally withdrew in 1991. Though they would remain on the CIA’s radar, it would be a full decade before their names were again spoken outside of a shady, pentagon intelligence briefing. For in that time they, using their training and remaining weapons would combine their efforts again in the forming what would eventually be known as Al Qaeda.
It is estimated that after the initial shipment of Stinger missiles (a sophisticated weapon systems which is highly effective against aircraft) in 1986 that 2,000-2,500 such surface to air missiles where distributed to the Mujahadeen during the 1980s. In 1996 intelligence reports stated that of those, six hundred were still unaccounted for and thus did the CIA offer bounties of eighty, to one-hundred-thousand dollars per missile, every penny of which went straight into the pocket of whichever warlord was in possession of them. Today the U.S. government still expresses concern over the exact location of many of those very same Stingers, as the war effort against a new threat continues.
Though the Soviet Union failed to conquer Afghanistan and all efforts in Iran had lead to only further divisions between Persia and the west, the United States continued fighting its proxy war against communism on every front it could. In 1986 Lebanese news papers published a story which claimed the Regan Administration and the United States CIA had become involved in a covert operation involving Iran, Nicaragua and the sale of powerful weapons technologies. The deal later exposed (by western media as well as declassified testimony) and dubbed “The Iran Contra Scandal,” was an operation undertaken by the Regan Administration and directed by National Security Council (NSC) staffer Lieutenant Col. Oliver North. As part of this covert enterprise, long range missile systems were sold to Iran and the funds generated from these sales were then sent directly to Nicaragua to support the contras[3] in their fight against the socialist Sandinista government[4]. Though these deals had already been opposed and forbidden by congress, by way of the Boland amendments[5] the will of the Regan administration and intelligence operatives soon circumvented the law and proceeded with the deals.
In addition to selling weapons technologies to Iran, their southern neighbor Iraq was also the recipient of U.S. support. In 1963, with the support of Britain and Israel, the United States, through use of intelligence forces and clandestine intelligence assets, staged a coup in Iraq, overthrowing the regime of President Abdel Karim Kassem and replacing it with that of the secular Baath party and it’s chairman Saddam Hussein. As an ardent and militant anti-communist, Hussein was seen as the perfect choice to head Iraq’s new government and in addition to his western backing during the coup, Hussein was also given weapons with which he would later use against Kurdish separatists in the northern provinces, as well as in the war with Iran which lasted from 1980 until 1988.
Defense Dept. documents from the 1990s show that the United States, under the express wishes of President George H.W. Bush and the CIA, continued selling high power weapons components to Iraq until August 1st, 1991. Of these, SCUD guidance systems, chemical weapons and long range targeting equipment were found to be the most common procurements, falling just behind Kalashnikov assault rifles and surplus soviet tanks. On August 2nd, 1991, Iraq invaded Kuwait and thus began the first US Gulf War.
After operations “Desert Shield” and “Desert Storm”, relations with Iraq ground to a halt and the diplomatic breakdown, previously observed with Iran, began gaining speed. Despite numerous admitted attempts to assassinate him, the CIA and Dept. of Defense were unable to effectively “neutralize” the situation with Saddam Hussein. Economic sanctions and strafing U.N. sanctioned air strikes were soon imposed upon Iraq and would last until 2003.
In September, 2001 the largest terrorist attack in United States history was perpetrated by elements of a terrorist group named Al Qaeda. Hailing from Afghanistan, the U.S. soon learned that many of Al Qaeda’s top leaders were former Mujahadeen, who had chosen to turn their CIA training against the west inspired by radical religious ideology. Upon the invasion of Afghanistan, U.S. troops were forced to battle with Taliban fighters, many of whom fought with the very same weapons and tactics learned during their battle against the Soviets.
Shortly after the invasion of Afghanistan, the United States, utilizing doctored intelligence assessments, invaded Iraq, claiming that Hussein was constructing weapons of mass destruction and harboring terrorists. Later it would be uncovered that the weapons in question did not exist. Additionally, it would not be until after the toppling of his regime that terrorist elements and sectarian insurgents would begin moving into Iraq.
Today the situation in Iraq is headline news, with the country rapidly descending into a bloody civil war, with the US arming militant factions on both sides. Afghanistan remains a “wild west” scenario of religious extremists battling against western coalition forces, with no sign of ending and Iran’s nuclear ambitions has become the grounds for what many believe may be a new cold war. Each of these situations are not mutually exclusive, nor are they developments within the normal evolution of a state. They are byproducts of foreign policy decisions and intelligence operations directives which continually fail to take the people of the nation into account.
In Afghanistan, the unfettered training and equipping of Islamic radicals gave birth to Al Qaeda. In Iran, the secular supreme authority of Shah Pahlavi, inspired the Islamic revolution and in turn gave rise to the current sentiment of animosity for the west. In Iraq, every step taken by the US since 1963 has proven to be disastrous, from the installing of Saddam to the failure of the current war policy. Events such as these are perfect examples of the failure of U.S. foreign policy and the even greater failure of covert intelligence operations.
Until these covert operations are brought out into the light, there is no telling what the future holds in terms of the “blowback” from recent events. The war on terrorism will continue unabated and for every operation seen on the nightly news, there are likely untold numbers of secrets not yet known about what lies beneath. The fears that the current wars will be inherited by America’s children can only be compounded by the fact that we inherited them from our parents and as it is now, there is no end in sight.
[1] A term used to describe goods or resources seized by the victor of a war.
[2] Fatwa: An Islamic religious edict
[3] Guerilla fighters formerly based within and outside of Nicaragua.
[4] Sandinista Government: A leftist regime who in later years took on Marxist/Leninist policy by nationalizing Nicaraguan resources.
[5] Boland Amendments: Laws prohibiting the President, Defense Dept., CIA or any government agency from providing direct aid to South American contras
————————————————————————————————
Morris, Roger. “A Tyrant Forty Years in the Making.” Global Policy Forum. 14 Mar. 2003. 14 Jun. 2007. www.globalppolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/history/2003/0314history.htm
“Iran-contra affair.” The Free Dictionary by Farlex. 2005. Columbia Free Dictionary. 11 Mar. 2007. <http://coulumbia.thefreedictionary.com/Iran+Contra>
“1953 Iranian coup d’etat.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 2007. Wikipedia. 13 Jun. 2007. <http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax>.
“Ayman al-Zawahiri.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 2007. Wikipedia. 12 Jun. 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayman_al-Zawahiri
Coll, Steve. Ghost Wars. Washington, 2004. 09 Jun. 2007. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3853553
“Afghanistan.” History Learning Site. 2000-2007. Historylearningsite.com. 09 Jun.2007. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/afghanistan.htm>
“About the Author.” History Learning Site. 2000-2007. Historylearningsits.com. 09 Jun. 2007. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/about-the-author.htm.
Chossudovsky, Michel. “CRG – Who Is Osama Bin Laden?” CRG – Centre for Research on Globalization. 2001. 13 pp. CRG. 09 Jun. 2007. <http://userhome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/sschaar/Who_Osama%20htm>
Beckett, Andy. “The making of the terror myth.” The Guardian. 15 Oct. 2004. 09 Jun. 2007. http://guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1327904,00.html
“Statement of Principals.” Project for the New American Century. 1997. PNAC. 09 Jun. 2007. <http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm>