Same As The Old Boss

Iran minister says CIA funding "rioters": report

"Iran's interior minister on Wednesday accused U.S. spy agency the CIA of helping to fund "rioters," stepping up accusations of Western involvement in street unrest following the country's disputed election.
"Britain, America and the Zionist regime (Israel) were behind the recent unrest in Tehran," Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars News Agency.
"Many of the rioters were in contact with America, CIA and the MKO and are being fed by their financial resources," he said. The MKO (Mujahideen Khalq Organization) is an exiled Iranian opposition group."

flashback - CIA planned “Soft Revolution” in early 2009

"The U.S. intelligence agency was seeking to (repeat) its experiences of color revolutions through such public contacts with influential persons and elites.”
The CIA tried to attain its goals by taking advantage of people-to-people contacts, joint studies, efforts to share scientific experiences, and other similar projects, he added.
The soft revolution plan was carried out through “NGOs, union protests, non-violent demonstrations, civil disobedience… and (efforts to) foment ethnic strife” all across Iran, the official stated."

flashback - Bush Authorizes New Covert Action against Iran

"May 22, 2007. The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President 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."

flashback - US funds terror groups to sow chaos in Iran

"The operations are controversial because they involve dealing with movements that resort to terrorist methods in pursuit of their grievances against the Iranian regime."

Strange how I disagree with Chris Floyd on Iran's imbroglio. He seems to believe the fascists secretly want Ahmadinejad in place:

"The trope of a singular American hand guiding a million-headed puppet in the streets of Iran seems a bit odd anyway. There is of course little doubt that the imperial security apparat will try to make hay from the turmoil; but the American militarists have already made it clear that they prefer a victory for the incumbent Ahmadinejad; after all, without a readily demonizable figure as the public face of Iran, their unquenchable lust for conquering Persia becomes that much harder to consummate."

I find it hard to believe that the empire has to or cares much to put a face on a demonized Iran at this point, a la Saddam pre 2003 invasion. It's abundantly clear that the US is fanning the flames in the country and the reason is to weaken Israel's main stumbling block to middle east hegemony. The empire is expending a lot of effort to this effect despite Chris' denial, and it won't matter who occupies the presidency when the missiles fly, only that the country is less able to defend itself. The election was merely an excuse to initiate the culmination of a huge destabilization operation started under Bush.