Word: mossadegh
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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President Carter claimed at the recent AFLCIO convention (11/15/79) that "We have done nothing for which any administration need apologize." Does President Carter fail to recall that in 1953, the popular government of Dr. Mossadegh was overthrown in a bloody coup d'etat orchestrated by the American administration through the Central Intelligence Agency? Has he forgotten that on June 5th, 1962, more than 10,000 innocent people were shot to death by the American-advised Iranian army? Does he not remember congratulating the Shah on the morning after Black Friday, September 8th, 1977, when the Shah's army shot down...
...meantime, the government closed down the offices of all but one opposition political party in Tehran. The exception was the National Front, the ineffectual old party of the late Premier Mohammed Mossadegh. The only party actually outlawed is the Kurdish Democratic Party, which is supporting the fight for Kurdish autonomy. But other parties will be either outlawed or kept under a tight rein. Among these is the pro-Moscow Tudeh (Communist) Party, which has followed the clergy's line so unashamedly that political observers in Tehran refer to the party's first secretary, Noureddin Kianuri, as the Ayatullah...
When Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh came to power as Iran's Premier in 1951, Khomeini welcomed his anticolonialism and his opposition to the Shah, though he considered Mossadegh too secular. Khomeini had much more sympathy for the Ayatullah Abolqasem Kashani, who was then Mossadegh's partner. Kashani later split with him and may even have cooperated with the CIA-backed coup that toppled Mossadegh's government in August 1953 and enabled the Shah to return to his throne. Khomeini still identifies himself with Kashani, whose memory is reviled by Iranian nationalists because of his alleged betrayal of Mossadegh...
...contributed much of its income to the religious institutions of Qum. The Shah's police attacked the Madresseh Faizieh, killing as many as 18 young mullahs, and Khomeini fired off angry telegrams of protest to the Shah. At this point, for the first time since the days of Mossadegh, university students in Tehran came to the support of the clergy against the Shah. Khomeini wrote to then Premier Asadollah Alam: "My heart is ready for the bayonet of your troops. I shall never keep quiet " By the spring of 1963, Khomeini was preaching to crowds...
...revolution's success," the letter read, " 'unity of word' in your opinion was unity of purpose in overthrowing the monarchy. But now it practically means 'unity in obedience to me.' " The NDF, which is led by a grandson of onetime Premier Mohammed Mossadegh, contrasted the Ayatullah's professed support for freedom of the press with the censorship and book burning that has been endemic since the revolution. The document concluded: "Today we find that your leadership is not as it once...