The real story of Iran’s revolution is a tale that makes spy stories and James Bond movies seem tame by comparison. It is necessary to look behind the closed doors of the world’s most powerful banks, oil companies, and industrial corporations, and into the paneled boardrooms of elite clubs such as the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, and the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. Iran is the backdrop for a behind-the-scenes war that was raging among international circles of high finance and their friends in the various intelligence services of the NATO countries, Israel, and the Middle East.

The Rockefeller Link

From the moment the Americans got involved in Iran’s oil industry, from 1953 onwards, a close bond developed between the Shah and the two Rockefeller brothers. The American financial elite, based in New York, was headed by the immensely powerful Rockefeller family. The prime movers among the five brothers were Nelson and David.

David at that time was the head of the family bank, Chase Manhattan Bank, America’s largest. Although only one of several major banks within the Rockefeller portfolio, it was the most important. It also dealt with all issues within the oil industry. The Rockefeller oil portfolio included such giants as Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, and many others. The apex of all these was the Chase, with David as its head.

 By the early 1970s, the entire Iranian oil and finance sectors were run completely by Chase.  Some wags have commented that Iran was run as a division of the Chase. It is said if the wealthy are the aristocracy in America, then the Rockefeller’s are its royalty. David, as the uncrowned king of Wall Street, had made it his business to befriend world leaders, kings and potentates.  So it was hardly surprising that David should become a personal friend of the Shah as Iran became more important to the Rockefeller oil and banking groups.  And among the family, Nelson was one of the people whose company the Shah most enjoyed. Till his death in 1979, Nelson was the undisputed head of the Rockefeller Empire. That was understandable. Nelson was, quite simply, more like a shah than anyone else.   Nelson made his last visit to Teheran in May 1978.

As the Shah’s predicament worsened through the second half of 1978, he remained in constant touch by phone with Nelson, who sent offers of help. Many, many times in the past, Nelson has left heads of state dangling on the phone, till it was too late. Nelson then sent Robert Armao to the Shah. In the past, the Shah had depended on the Rockefeller network of US Presidents, Secretaries of State, national security advisors, as well as CIA heads. Now his crutch was a young ambitious public relations man who had started his career as Nelson’s gofer. When the Shah was in Morocco, Nelson died. His brother David assumed the family’s responsibility for the Shah. Throughout his exile, the Shah would now be associated with the Rockefeller machine in ways that brought joy to the complicated hearts of conspiracy theorists.

By the 1970s, Chase had become one of the principal foreign banks in Iran, a banker to the NIOC, as well as the Shah himself, and the government’s main creditor. More importantly, Chase was receiving growing deposits from the NIOC, whose dealings were kept secret from others, including Iran’s Central Bank.

By lending to the Shah’s family, the banks found it easier to get other business; but the responsibility for these loans was later the subject of bitter recriminations. As the post-Shah governor of the central bank, Ali-Reza Nobari complained: “all the banks knew that the Bank Omran was the Shah’s personal repository for his pocket money, but they went on lending to Bank Omran. Citibank (A Rockefeller bank) lent, for example, $55m to Princess Ashraf (the Shah’s sister) for a housing project. On the site of the housing project she built a palace. And yet Citibank debits our account for this.”

After 1975, Chase was regularly chosen by Iran as the managing bank to put together lending consortiums when Iran sought to borrow money. Chase had vast Iranian deposits. By 1975, it was $2.5b, or almost 8% of the bank’s total deposits. David flew in and out of Teheran, staying at the Hilton with his large entourage, and impressing the Shah with his influence and benign concern. David enjoyed the re-assurance of a fellow prince, as well as the prospect of business; and the Shah saw David as a key to American support – with all the mystique of his name, his foundations and international connections, personifying the traditional links between Chase and the oil industry.

Early in 1977 the Chase took the lead in raising a record loan, which was to have severe repercussions. The Loan was for $500m for the government to balance the budget. As chase’s own Iranian lawyers pointed out that the Shah had not secured the Majlis’s (Iran’s parliament) endorsement as required by the Iranian constitution. Technically, the $500m loan was unconstitutional. If Teheran were to repudiate the loan later, Chase would have to answer to the other banks that had participated in the loan syndicate. Please remember this point, for it will have a bearing on what happens later.

The Chase had become a symbol of American support and international capitalism. As one Arab banker said” The Chase is not really a bank; it’s an army.”

Meanwhile, back in Iran, the new Islamic rulers regarded the banks- particularly the Chase – as the hated new agents of the Shah who had corrupted their country and stolen their money, and the instrument of the “great Satan” of American capitalism. The relationship did not immediately change when the Shah fell, for monies received from oil sales were still being deposited exclusively at the Chase. At this point in time – January 1979 – the Chase still had $6bln of Iran’s money on deposit.

Secondly, any imports into Iran, needed to be paid, via a bank ‘letter of credit’ or an ‘LC’, and the Chase was the sole issuer of these LC’s for Iran’s imports. This issuing of LC’s was a very lucrative ‘fee generator’ for the bank. This practice was stopped at the end of February.

But what was worse (from David’s point of view) was that no new funds were being deposited at the Chase. To add insult to injury, there was a gradual withdrawal of the $6 billion on deposit at the Chase. By the second week of March, alarm bells and red lights were going off, not only at the Chase, but throughout the Rockefeller network.

When the Shah had finally worn out his welcome in Morocco, David arranged a beachfront villa in the Bahamas. Besides sending Robert Armao, David sent his personal assistant at the Chase, Joseph Reed to handle the Shah’s finances and the logistics of his security needs; and later when the Shah’s health deteriorated, David dispatched the world-renowned cancer specialist, Dr. Benjamin Kean, to supervise his medical care. Kean was employed by one of the many Rockefeller controlled medical institutions.

David, Henry Kissinger, John J McCloy and Joseph Reed got together and organized a ‘special project’, code-named “Project Alpha”, whose costs were paid out of David’s pockets.

The aim of this project was to bring the Shah into the US and use him as a possible replay of the 1953 scenario, in which a potential threat could be exercised against the Khomeini regime for playing a dirty trick against the Rockefellers. The dirty trick referred to here was the matter of withdrawing funds from Chase, and more. Frequent strategy sessions were held at One Chase Plaza. Over the next seven months, Project Alpha pestered the Carter administration into providing sanctuary for the Shah.

Kissinger fired the first volley when on April 7^th; he called Zbig and berated him in rather sharp terms. Both Kissinger and Zbig served the Rockefeller family, and were bitter rivals.

David Rockefeller flies down to Washington from New York, every month, and spends a few hours at the White House to check up on his empire, and to smooth out whatever problems have arisen since his last visit.

On April 9, David lectured Carter in the Oval Office that a ‘great power (meaning the Rockefeller Empire) such as ours should not submit to blackmail’. Carter sat stiff and formal as he listened to David; but as David complained to Kissinger afterwards that Carter did not want to hear about it. That night Kissinger went on the offensive by going public with a speech at the Harvard Business School. This was only the beginning of a well-orchestrated and persistent effort by the Rockefeller Empire against Carter. After many efforts by Zbig, Carter became very annoyed and cut Zbig off by saying:” Fuck the Shah. I ‘m not going to welcome him here when he has other places to go where he will be safe – – and to hell with Henry Kissinger. I am the President of this country.”

In early September, with no slowing down in the withdrawal of Iranian deposits from the Chase, a new strategy was then opened. In the covert world of the CIA and other intelligence agencies of the Rockefeller’s, a lever was found – which if properly used – could effectively blackmail Khomeini, and ultimately contain him. This was those tapes, amongst other items, of which a transcript was at the beginning of the last issue. The operation that now follows would be a “black operation” – something which Carter would be unaware of. This did not affect the normal plans that was agreed beforehand, and one that ‘official Washington ‘were following.

By September 1979, it was becoming clear the France and Germany, and their allies, did not intend to capitulate to American pressure, and were proceeding full=steam ahead with the European Monetary System, despite undisguised threats and blackmail from Washington. Western Europe had issued its own declaration of independence and was busy pulling a coalition that included the Arab world, other OPEC countries, India, and Mexico around a strategy whose slogan was, in practice: Peace through development.

Washington and revolutionary Iran were tightening its co-operation against Western Europe. By creating an artificial crisis in Iran, Washington believed that it could use the international shock, and go to its allies and demand that they subordinate their independent will to the broader concern of the NATO alliance.

In early October, Project Alpha went public with the news that the Shah is dying of cancer, and so must be admitted into the US for proper treatment. The Shah was currently in Mexico.

The danger for the Chase was now increasing daily regarding the Iranian deposits. It became apparent that by the end of October the Chase would not have enough Iranian funds on deposit to cover the bank’s loans to the Shah. As noted earlier, Chase could have a problem with that last jumbo loan of $500m. The covert operation was now put into urgent mode. On October 19, Colonel Bell had the Shah’s former finance minister forcibly brought to Washington.  Bell asked him about the tapes which he had recorded the famous meeting of March 7^th 1975. Bell also asked him for the ‘Paris tapes’. These Paris tapes were secretly recorded. It contained conversations between Khomeni’s advisors and the CIA, as to how they would run Iran, after the Shah.

How Bell found out about both these sets of tapes remains a mystery. Bell threatened Ansari with death and that’s when Ansari told Bell that he has papers and documents detailing names, bank accounts and more. They will be released were he to meet a tragic end. When Bell questioned Ansari about the details, he was shocked.

Ansari detailed for Bell how oil stealing was conducted. Some of which are as follows:

1. An 8c per barrel commission on 4m bpd paid into an account in Switzerland.
2. Shuffling credit terms (SCT): Oil is sold by OPEC on 60 days terms. The funds were deposited into an account not linked to NIOC. And paid into NIOC’s accounts at Chase AFTER a further 60 days. The interest on this was enormous.
3. Myopic meters:  In Ansari’s own words:

“That was the jewel. It was so brazen. We in Iran were equipped to export 8.5m bpd, but even at the highest point only 6m bpd were officially transferred to tankers. That left over 2.5m bpd of extra capacity that we never used- not officially. It was for ‘emergency purposes’ – only the ‘emergency’ was unofficially always there. All we did was bypass the meters with auxiliary (spare) pipelines that simply had no meters, and, voila, the oil was never registered. About 500,000 bpd to 1mbpd flowed. This amounted to between $5m and $12m a day. Between all three of these ‘tricks’, the daily total sum came to between $8m and $20m a day. These funds were placed in Swiss accounts.  The distribution of these funds was handled by a man Mohammed Behbehanian. We in Iran got crumbs, as most of it went to your bosses.”

“It is the biggest swindle in history; bigger even than Watergate, Colonel.” And what poetic irony that its stars are the most outstanding and upright pillars of the American and European business establishments. Up to now it was always us ‘dirty little Arabs’ who were the thieves. It would be fascinating to see how your public would react if they learned that what we stole was a pittance compared with the so-called pillars of your society, would it not?

So, Bell did not kill Ansari, but did persuade him to request his son-in-law, Adel, to help retrieve the tapes – both the Paris and New York series.

(Editor’s note:  Several months after the takeover of the US embassy in Teheran, Behbehanian left his wife and family and ‘disappeared’ with a mistress and $80m. In actual reality, he was murdered, and whatever funds were left in the account was removed by the CIA).

Bell then flies to France, meets Adel and informs him of his ‘task’. Failure to accomplish this task would result in Ansari’s death. Over a period of several days, Adel is trained in the art of clandestine operations and survival.  Before he left for Iran, Bell met again with Adel, and gave him these last instructions:” Your contact in Teheran will be George Clark; he’s in the economic section of the embassy there. He will arrange your equipment and whatever else you may need.”

By then, it was the 28 of October. On October 22, Project Alpha succeeded in bringing the Shah to New York. Joseph Reed circulated a memo to the other members of Project Alpha, congratulating them: “Our MISSION IMPOSSIBLE is completed – my applause is like thunder.”

At the end of October, Brzezinski was attending the celebration of the 25^th anniversary of the Algerian revolution in Algiers. There he with the new Iranian Prime Minister, Mehdi Barzagan, Foreign Minister Bani Sadr, and Defense Minister Chamran. The subject of discussion was how the US might relate to the reborn Iran, along with the Chase problem. It was common meetings of minds, for these were the American agents in Khomein’is circle. These Iranians told Brzezinski that they were not responsible for the Chase problem; rather it was the radical clergy and the militants that held sway over Khomeini in this matter. To neutralize them, they insisted that Iranian doctors be allowed to examine the Shah; to determine if he was ill, or if it was a ruse to disguise a plot.

The information of this meeting reached Khomeini. This report, coming on top of the Shah’s arrival into the US a week earlier, alarmed the radical circles around Khomeini. The Shah was the enemy.  His presence in the US stoked memories of 1953, of Mossadeq’s fall, of the Shah’s flight to Rome and his triumphant return to the throne. It aroused fears that the Rockefellers were about to stage another coup and, once more, restore the Shah. After all, the “great Satan” was capable of carrying out the worst abominations. And here was Barzagan, Bani Sadr and Chamran meeting with Brzezinski – to the fury of the militants who associated Brzezinski with Washington and New York.

The Double-Cross

October 30: Adel arrives in Teheran and meets his contact at the Embassy, then goes to Ansari’s house in Farmanieh, an exclusive area of north Teheran.

That night, it was stormy and thundering. Adel manages to retrieve the tapes from Ansari’s safe. Then he is ambushed by two CIA agents and a Palestinian helper. In the ensuing shootout, Adel is wounded, and manages to kill the 2 CIA agents and wounding the Palestinian helper, Salim.

Adel does not contact the embassy for help, as he knows now that Bell will kill him, after retrieving those tapes. Nonetheless, he manages to evade detection by the CIA, and Khomeini’s agents, and escapes from Iran on November1, on a Swissair flight to London, where he made copies of these tapes to ensure his survival. And that is how we, you and I, now come to know the true story of what really went on ‘behind-the-scenes’.

Back in Teheran, Ayatollah Khalkali, a close intimate of Khomeini, was the no 2 to Khomeini. He was also known as the “killer”, Judge, Jury, and executioner; he was responsible for the elimination of hundreds of Khomeini’s rivals.

He had given orders to follow and monitor every American Embassy staff in Teheran. So, they had followed   the CIA car went it drove to Adel house, and waited. They did not hear the gunshots that night, as it was raining and thundering. In the morning, their curiosity piqued, they went to investigate the car. Finding it empty, they then searched the house. Seeing the two dead CIA agents, they interrogated the wounded Palestinian. And what they heard frightened them. Salim told them about the tapes and that Adel was supposed to deliver the tapes to the American Embassy. In haste, the report went straight to Khalkali. Now it gets interesting.

Khalkali reports directly to Khomeini in Qom, on 31 October.  A search ensues for Adel, who had already left Iran. Then on November 3, at a follow-up meeting, Khalkali updates Khomeini on the search for Adel.

Khalkali: “We moved very quickly. If Adel had delivered the tapes to the embassy, then the Americans did not have time to dispatch them out of the country. No diplomatic pouches have left Teheran since this incident. We’ve clamped down hard on every exit from the city. I’ve also ordered the opening of the diplomatic pouches of every embassy in case the Americans should want to use one of their surrogates to export the tapes. The only country not to comply with my instructions is the Russians.”

Khomeini: “Adel is unimportant but the tapes. That is another matter. They are very important indeed. Now they threaten me with death my friend, they seek to frighten an 80-year old with martyrdom. I who value death above all else.”

After a long while, while Khalkali sat in nervous silence, and did not know what to say.

Khomeini: “My son, we worked together recently, the Western world and I. It was a marriage of convenience; we needed each other to remove the cancerous regime of the Shah. Now they want to blackmail me with exposure of this past relationship, believing my people will be disappointed to learn of my association with the West in defeating the Shah. Of course, Allah forewarned me; I knew such a day would come. It is something I have prepared for.”

Khalkali: “Allah Akbar!”

Khomeini:” Six months ago in France, that creature of corruption, Houshang Ansari, passed word to me that he had information on tapes secreted in Iran which recorded the relationship between the Americans and me. He had stolen it from the Americans. That despicable wart on God’s earth desired to sell us those tapes, but naturally we ignored him. Undoubtedly, he has now sold them back to the Americans or they have at least found out about them somehow, and now wish to retrieve them for their own purpose.”

Khalkali nodded but said nothing. He did not know what to say in the face of the Khomeini’s revelations.”

Khomeini: “Actually it is not important where the tapes are for, I am sure the Americans have copies. And I doubt you will find them, no matter how efficient and dedicated your efforts.”

Khalkali: “Then how must we stop them?”

Khomeini: “My son, never fear the mighty for the mighty are not motivated by victory. They are preoccupied by defeat.”

A smile spread slowly across Khalkali’s face: “As with the Shah, Holy One.”

Khomeini: “Precisely my son. The Americans, this nation of infants, have provided us with the very stick with which to beat them and all they have stood for in this country.”

Khalkali: “The fact that this Adel has been escorted out of Iran confirms the fact that the Americans are everywhere. Their net even reaches the Prime Minister.”

Khomeini: “If Adel took these tapes out of the country, it can only mean one thing: That the Americans are in a hurry. There could be no other reason to risk rushing them through the airport. They could simply and safely smuggle them through our vast unguardable borders like we used to do. No, my brother, they wish to use these tapes against us.”

After thinking for some time, his whisper returned.

Khomeini: “They wish to blackmail us with them. They wish to discredit us with our own people, trying to show that we collaborated with them. No doubt they will again attempt to place their puppets – lackeys like Barzagan, Yazdi, Ghotbzadeh – into power.” Khalkali was amazed at Khomeini’s lack of emotion.

Khomeini: “But did I not say they are like children? They have done for us what we have sought to do since the success of this revolution. They have given us the opportunity to eradicate their stooges forever. And more; much, much more. This peanut-grower has handed us the perfect tool with which to carve anti-Americanism into the very souls of our people.”

Khalkali looked at Khomeini with awe. “How, you’re Holiness?”

Khomeini turned slowly and spoke with a barely concealed rage: “We shall take their embassy. We shall take their spies hostage. And we shall hold them. And hold them. We shall hold them until those tapes are useless to Carter and his cronies. Never again will either East or West dominate our land.”

The next day, under Khalkali’s instructions, a group of militants (one of whom was young Mohammed Ahmedinijad – later to become President) seized and stormed the American embassy. Staff shredded, burnt and destroyed a lot of material, but despite an intensive search, no tapes were located. Not to leave any stone unturned, the students spent several years piecing all the shredded paper together, and in this manner a lot of secret information was put together. It was indeed a remarkable effort.

When Iran started to withdraw funds from Chase Manhattan, starting in February 1979, Chase law firms brought into play a contingency plan to freeze all the assets of the Iranian government. By November 1, the papers were finalized.

The day after the embassy was seized; Chase received a telex from the Iranian government authorizing a payment of $4m. in interest due on the $500m loan. This was a monthly payment. Chase was to take the payment, due on 15 November, from one of Iran’s accounts in its London branch. Chase did not acknowledge these instructions.

On November 14, Iran’s Foreign Minister announced that his country was going to withdraw all deposits from American banks. The same day, Carter signed the “freeze papers” – an hour after this announcement. Not only within the US, but all Iranian assets were frozen in any American banks, both within the US and abroad.

After Carter froze Iran’s assets, Chase refused to make this transfer of $4m, giving the presidential order as its reason! Thus, Chase was now technically in a position to declare the $500m in default. Five days later, on November 19, it did so. At this point in time, Iran’s deposits with Chase totaled $470m (London $432m and New York $39m).

This move by Chase infuriated many of its European partners in the syndicate. On November 23, Chase informed Bank Markazi in Teheran that it had set all of the Central Bank’s accounts against the monies that Chase said Iran owed it and its various branches. Each began a lawsuit against the other. When the dust had finally settled, Chase had no loans to Iran left on its books.

There was a total cash balance of $12bln of Iran’s money that was frozen. Ultimately Iran got back $4bln, after the release of the embassy hostages. Perhaps even more important than the cash was the military equipment which Iran ordered and paid for, but which no delivery was affected. It was not until late 1991 that Iran received some compensation for this.

When Khomeini received the news that Chase had frozen Iran’s money, he then decided to retaliate against America’s most valuable asset in the Middle East – Saudi Arabia. This was the soft underbelly of the Rockefeller’s Middle East Empire.

The Mecca Battle

November 20, 1979 had a special significance in the Islamic calendar. It was the beginning of the Islamic year 1400.  The Haj for that year had also just ended.  At 4.30 am, in the Grand Mosque, shots rang out. Men were firing rifles into the air. A wild-bearded figure with blazing eyes leaped up the steps to the PA system and proclaimed himself to be the Mahdi. He said his name is Juhayman. The gunmen reached the gates and sealed of the Grand Mosque.

King Khalid was woken with the news in Riyadh at 6 am. It was alarming news. The forcible capture of Islam’s Holy of Holies, the most sacred spot in the entire world to Muslims was shocking in itself. It represented an immediate disgrace upon the Al Saud clan who had deliberately linked their prestige to the protection of the Holy Places, and the speed, efficiency and strength of the terrorists argued for a wider conspiracy. It seemed impossible to Muslims of any persuasion that co-religionists could have sullied the Holy Kaaba with gunfire and bloodshed, for the Quran carries the direst warnings against those who desecrate the House of God. No animal can be killed there, not even plants may be uprooted. All these prohibitions raised special problems for King Khalid, since he could not simply order the Saudi army to storm the Kaaba. Many would flatly disobey.

So, one of the first things that the King did that Tuesday morning was to summon the Ulema (Clergy) to his presence and ask for a ruling. Was it lawful for the forces of the government to shoot, take life in the Kaaba? The answer was yes.

The infantry assault on the Grand mosque was a long- drawn-out and bloody affair. The building had to be recaptured pillar by pillar, and many Saudi soldiers were not happy at the prospect of fighting in the Mosque.  So, the king utilized the help of Pakistani troops, along with the special forces of France (GIGN) and Germany (GSG 9), in addition to Saudi troops.

The government troops threw down tear gas, burning tyres; they flooded the cellars and they flung live mains cables into the water to electrocute the last survivors. But it was a week before Juhayman and his followers came stumbling out. By the time the Grand Mosque was recaptured, over 200 men had been killed, and many more badly injured. The last stages of the siege were fought in the warren of cellars below the Grand Mosque’s marble pavements. On the morning of January 9, 63 rebels were led out into the squares of various towns and publicly beheaded.

Simultaneously, riots broke out in the Eastern provinces of Saudi Arabia. This was where the bulk of its oilfields were. And 40% of its workforce comprised Shias – who were sympathetic to Iran. They miscalculated badly. Within five weeks, the riots were put down. Many were killed, and the jails were full.

This was Khomeini’s response to the freezing of his money by Chase Manhattan bank, and its chief, David Rockefeller.

Between November 1979 and April 1980, the entire world was preoccupied with the hostage crisis in Teheran. A dozen political leaderships across the globe were paralysed. Thee freezing of ran’s funds had the effect of undermining confidence in the dollar and weakening its value as an international reserve currency. The Eurodollar market was paralysed, and most international lending came to a halt. More serious was the effect in scaring other OPEC nations from any long-term lending, precisely at a time when France and Germany were seeking to attract oil deposits into the financial apparatus associated with the EMS.

The US-Iran confrontation gave Carter the pretext he sought for vastly expanding the US military presence in the Middle East, by dispatching several aircraft carriers and 30 other vessels to the Persian Gulf.

Washington had positioned itself into a situation in which it could almost dictate its demands to a western Europe and Japan : “Go along with what we say, or we will cut off your oil supplies” was the message delivered to European capitals from the Carter administration.

In a press conference in February, Carter declared that if the hostages are released, then Washington would consider a “normal” relationship with Iran, including sending military aid to the regime. Finally, at the end of April, the Iran crisis broke in a way that almost touched off World War III.

The American military attempted a rescue on April 24, which had ended in a fiasco for the US. Only days before the raid, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance resigned; “we haven’t begun just an attack on Iran. We may have started World War 3,” said Vance to a friend.

The failed US action automatically precipitated a sudden rise in the extremist element and gave the pro-American faction in Teheran a resounding defeat. The hostages were released on January 20, 1980, the day Reagan was inaugurated as the new US President.

And what about France and Germany? Both countries had to suffer multi-billion losses on the cancelled contracts in Iran. And some of its key players were killed by the CIA, especially in Germany. In December 1977, one of the key architects on the German side was (Dresdner Bank head), Jurgen Ponto was killed at his home by a CIA proxy hit team.  And lastly let us not forget the third player in all of this – South Africa.

The American Takedown of South Africa

The US dropped its gold/dollar convertibility in August 1971. By 1974, a new system replaced the old; the petrodollar. There was no way that the US would allow gold to make any comeback into this new system. By entering this tripartite deal with Iran and France/Germany, South Africa put itself into the cross hairs of the Rockefeller Empire. The payback was not long in coming.

South Africa was destabilized in two ways.  The first was in 1976. The US Information Services (USIS) library in Soweto, a black township of Johannesburg was ground zero. It was the coordinating point for the first Color revolution in the world. South Africa was governed by the apartheid regime then. And its insistence on mandating the Afrikaans language as a compulsory course in schools was the catalyst which the CIA used to spark an uprising.

It started around May 30, but it finally broke out in Soweto, Johannesburg on June 16, 1976. From there it spread countrywide. From that point on the country began its long slide down.

Secondly, the Portuguese government underwent a violent overthrow of its head. The CIA blew up the President’s motorcade. So powerful was the explosion that the car was hurled over a 5-story building. The result later was the granting of independence to its colonies, among them Angola and Mozambique.

In Angola, movements tied to the Soviet Union and China moved to take over the country. Henry Kissinger urged then South African Prime Minister, Vorster, to invade Angola in support of the US backed movement there. South Africa foolishly went into Angola.

Prior to this date, South Africa hardly had any debt. But wars are very costly. Soon, the government was forced to borrow money to fund these expenditures. In order to pay the interest on this debt, a consumption tax was levied on the South African consumer. It was called General sales Tax, or GST. Originally started at a rate of 4%, it escalated over a 25-year period to 14%.

This had the result of weakening the financial strength of South Africa. The country now had to fight on multiple fronts, externally in Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe or Rhodesia and internally in the black townships of the country. Over the next 18 years, the cumulative effect on the finances of the country ended in the changeover to a majority government in 1994.

Not only that, but the head on the South African side was a banker, Robert Smith, who was the Deputy Finance Minister, and a former banker. In November 1977, both Smith and his wife were murdered in his Springs home, with the killers (5 of them) spraying “Rau Tem” on the lounge walls.

The Revenge

Having been double-crossed did not sit well with the Anglo-American elite. Barely four months after the April 24 fiasco, they persuaded Saddam Hussein into launching an attack on Iran. Convincing him that the military of Iran was demoralized, and in no state to defend itself, they conned Saddam into telling him that it will short, and a cake walk.

And so, an 8-year long ensued with no victory. The Iraq-Iran war ended in August 1988. Costing just over a million lives, hundreds of billions in losses, it set back both regions by two decades. This catastrophe led Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait three years later. The ensuing war to drive out Iraq in 1991 was the 2^nd Gulf War. And 11 – years later came the invasion of Iraq, in 2003.

Henry Kissinger said that he had no interest in ending the war. It “was better to let these two fight and bleed to death”. That was the Anglo-American revenge inflicted on Iran. As for Israel, it could not have been happier with the outcome. It had two powerful enemies on its eastern front – Iraq and Iran – and was thrilled to see this threat eliminated.

The subject of geopolitics is fascinating; and one must look at the world as a whole. What happens in one part of the globe has an effect in other parts. One of the best ways of explaining this is to think in strategic terms.  An example is the forest. If one is standing on the floor of the forest, it would be hard to grasp the dimensions of the forest.

But if one were high enough in the sky, one can then make out the size and contours of the forest. This is called strategic thinking. The tactical viewpoint would be studying the individual trees. In short, look at the forest (strategy), and not at the individual trees (Tactics).