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The CIA Insider's Guide to the Iran Crisis: From CIA Coup to the Brink of War
Why are the United States and Iran always at odds? How can two strong former allies become such mortal enemies? What does the future hold for US–Iran relations, and how will it affect the Middle East?
In The CIA Guide to Iran, former CIA Officer John C. Kiriakou explores one of the most intractable and difficult problems in American foreign policy. This book looks at the political and social history of Iran, its strategic importance to the Soviet Union and its economic and strategic importance to the US and the United Kingdom. It explains to the reader how external events, economic pressures, sanctions, religion, war, and American and British imperialism conspired to push a country with immeasurable natural wealth to bankruptcy. It then walks the reader through contemporary problems between Iran and the international community—and especially the United States—by examining the events leading up to myriad political, diplomatic, and military conflicts between them.
With additional information from Iran expert Gareth Porter, author of Manufactured The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare, The CIA Guide to Iran also includes robust appendices to help the reader understand American foreign and intelligence policy toward Iran, United Nations Security Council Resolutions, and the analysis of think tanks that focus on Iran. It also features extensive information on President Trump's foreign policy approach to Iran and the Middle East in general.
In The CIA Guide to Iran, former CIA Officer John C. Kiriakou explores one of the most intractable and difficult problems in American foreign policy. This book looks at the political and social history of Iran, its strategic importance to the Soviet Union and its economic and strategic importance to the US and the United Kingdom. It explains to the reader how external events, economic pressures, sanctions, religion, war, and American and British imperialism conspired to push a country with immeasurable natural wealth to bankruptcy. It then walks the reader through contemporary problems between Iran and the international community—and especially the United States—by examining the events leading up to myriad political, diplomatic, and military conflicts between them.
With additional information from Iran expert Gareth Porter, author of Manufactured The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare, The CIA Guide to Iran also includes robust appendices to help the reader understand American foreign and intelligence policy toward Iran, United Nations Security Council Resolutions, and the analysis of think tanks that focus on Iran. It also features extensive information on President Trump's foreign policy approach to Iran and the Middle East in general.
146 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 4, 2020
18 people are currently reading
297 people want to read
About the author
John Kiriakou
9 books127 followersJohn served in the Central Intelligence Agency first as an analyst, and later as a counterterrorism operations officer, from 1990-2004. He spent much of his career working on Iraq and the Persian Gulf. In 1997 he changed career tracks from analysis to operations and moved to Athens, Greece, where he worked against the notorious terrorist group “Revolutionary Organization 17 November.” He became chief of counterterrorist operations in Pakistan following the September 11 attacks, and his tour climaxed in the March 2002 capture of Abu Zubaydah, then believed to be al-Qa’ida’s third-ranking official.
John Kiriakou became an anti-torture whistleblower and activist when he told ABC News in December 2007 that the CIA was torturing prisoners, that that torture was official U.S. government policy, and that the policy was approved by the President.
John eventually was charged with three counts of espionage, one count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and one count of making a false statement as a result of the 2007 ABC News interview. Even though he had no criminal intent, and there was no harm to the national security, accepting the plea resulted in a sentence of 30 months in prison.
John Kiriakou became an anti-torture whistleblower and activist when he told ABC News in December 2007 that the CIA was torturing prisoners, that that torture was official U.S. government policy, and that the policy was approved by the President.
John eventually was charged with three counts of espionage, one count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and one count of making a false statement as a result of the 2007 ABC News interview. Even though he had no criminal intent, and there was no harm to the national security, accepting the plea resulted in a sentence of 30 months in prison.
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July 2, 2025
After the US/CIA removed the democratically elected leader of Iran Mosaddegh in 1953 and placed him under house arrest for the rest of his life, it installed the dictator Shah and his dreaded secret service SAVAK – both which ruled Iran until 1979. “The SAVAK earned a fearsome reputation for the use of torture and murder of dissidents. The CIA and Israel’s Mossad took care of the training and many SAVAK officers were sent to Israel for that purpose.” Note, that US media will never tell you about the US-approved crimes of the Shah or SAVAK. Dictators only get labeled bad if the US isn’t given a cut of their action; thus, Saudi Arabia’s dictatorship isn’t mentioned on TV. An Iranian populace primarily enflamed by the Shah’s inequality led Iran from secular/nationalism to an Islamic state: “by 1972, Iran had one of the most unequal systems of income distribution in the entire world.” The Shah did nothing to help the rural poor, or those who flocked to the cities from poverty, who were now living in shanty towns. The Iranian people were also enflamed that the US-supported Shah had taken $20 billion from the country. The US also outfitted the Shah’s Iran with more than $10 billion in military equipment, giving it the fifth largest army in the world.
Iran’s Shi’a clergy blamed the Shah’s failures on polytheism and turned the Iranian people against the hereditary monarchy. Adding fuel to the fire, in 1978, when there were 500,000 protesting against the Shah in Tehran, his forces responded, and 84 Iranian civilians were killed. Then that December two million Iranians called “for the return of Khomeini from exile and the establishment of an Islamic Republic.” Then in 1979 starts the 444-day Iran hostage crisis which was “celebrated” by “millions of Iranians” who well remembered “vividly how the CIA had destroyed the first truly independent Iranian government and put the Shah in power.” Carter appearing to grant the Shah asylum in the US then only intensified Iranian hostage crisis pride.
The US well knew that Iraqi forces were using US made chemical weapons against the Iranians in 1983 – the author says the “US was complicit”. A US military attaché said in an interview the US knew all about it. In Halabja, Iraqis killed 3,500 to 5,000 “virtually all civilians” with US supplied sarin gas. And 100,000 Iranians were “severely injured” from those attacks of which 55,000 still suffer agonizing after-effects. Imagine our press telling you any of this. Iran inherited a nuclear reactor (Bushehr) from the Shah’s regime. Iran hasn’t violated the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but the author says the US has by denying Iran peaceful access to nuclear technology.
Americans were taught by media to hate Khomeini but we were not told how he actually banned producing both chemical and nuclear weapons because they said they were “illicit under Islam” a.k.a. haram [forbidden] – funny how they AREN’T illicit under Zionism. Fast forward to Khamenei in 2003 who also said nuclear weapons were “against our principles.” But Israel developing them in the 60’s was not against Zionist principles. The CIA got its hands on a very credible 2001 report that Iran had no intention of “weaponizing” uranium. Obama’s campaign platform was to negotiate with Iran, but that went down the toilet once he was elected and replaced negotiation with military threats and economic pressure. We are going to hurt you both physically and economically – think of us like the Mafia - but without their delightful accordion music. Hillary Clinton said she wanted the sanctions on Iran to be “tight and crippling” – like her persona in bed. “The first ever cyberattack resulting in damage to infrastructure in human history” was done by Obama who in 2009 who authorized a cyberattack on Iran’s enrichment facility at Natanz. [When they asked, “Can we go ahead with the illegal attack Sir?” I’ll bet he replied, “Yes, We Can” while standing in front of a placard that said, “HOPE”]
When Trump gets in office in 2017, Jared Kushner’s dad was already a friend and bankroller of Netanyahu, while Trump had been financed to the tune of $100 million by rabid Zionist Sheldon Adelson (another bankroller of Netanyahu). Christian Zionist Pompeo portrayed Iran as “fueling proxy wars across the Middle East” but said nothing about the US fueling proxy wars from Gaza to Ukraine. Apparently, Pompeo and Trump don’t want you to know about the long history of Israel threatening Iran which might lead it to logically want and develop some form of deterrence. “The Trump administration’s strategy also seeks to deprive Iran of the sovereign right of self-defense, which obviously includes the right to maintain the normal means of deterrence.” Giving up that right of deterrence didn’t historically turn out that well for Saddam Hussein (p.79), did it? The US Treasury went after Iran contracting its economy with sanctions creating “an acute shortage of drugs needed for life-saving treatments, especially chemotherapy for cancer patients.” The idea was (and still is) to turn the Iranian people en masse against their government – instead a 2019 survey showed 80% of Iranians (p.85) had a negative view of the US. An Inconvenient Truth. Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which made the world more unsafe.
Trump Speaks: Trump said Iran is “the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism”. And I thought (as Martin Luther King Jr said) that the US was the leading sponsor of terrorism. Just compare Iran’s tiny death toll since 1979 to that of the US yet Trump called Iran’s present regime “murderous” which is laughable. Trump added, “and we will not allow a regime that chants ‘Death to America’ to gain access to the ‘most deadly’ weapons on Earth.” [But giving our deadliest weapons to fund an active genocide - no problemo. Note that Trump has no problem calling Iran’s Islamic leadership a dictatorship but NEVER called Iran’s previous dictator Shah, as a dictator. Trump won’t tell you that the last time Iran actually had a leader who wasn’t a dictator and was loved by the people, the US/CIA removed him (1953) - so the US is partly to blame for today’s Iran.] Trump in 2017 called Iran’s present regime “a rogue regime” while Noam Chomsky for decades called the US “a rogue state.” Trump said of Iran “the regime’s two favorite chants are ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’.” The amusing thing here is if Israel merely became a true democracy (equal rights for all Palestinians) it WOULD mean the death of Israel (as a Jewish supremacist state) w/o any actual death. And if the US was a true democracy (and not as Jimmy Carter said long ago an oligarchy), then no one in Iran would shout “Death to America” because they'd see us as isolationists too busy fixing our infrastructure and creating US high-speed rail to lust after ripping Iran a new one to screw with its ally China (Belt and Road Initiative) and China's immediate terminal threat to decades of US hegemony.
This was my 52nd and last Goodreads book essay to post for 2025 so until January all my 2026 reviews (starting next week) will just be posted on my Facebook page. This was a very good book I’m glad to have read. Kudos to the author. With Iran presently dominating the headlines, I wanted to move my knowledge of post-Shah Iran vs. the US from braindead to comatose.
Iran’s Shi’a clergy blamed the Shah’s failures on polytheism and turned the Iranian people against the hereditary monarchy. Adding fuel to the fire, in 1978, when there were 500,000 protesting against the Shah in Tehran, his forces responded, and 84 Iranian civilians were killed. Then that December two million Iranians called “for the return of Khomeini from exile and the establishment of an Islamic Republic.” Then in 1979 starts the 444-day Iran hostage crisis which was “celebrated” by “millions of Iranians” who well remembered “vividly how the CIA had destroyed the first truly independent Iranian government and put the Shah in power.” Carter appearing to grant the Shah asylum in the US then only intensified Iranian hostage crisis pride.
The US well knew that Iraqi forces were using US made chemical weapons against the Iranians in 1983 – the author says the “US was complicit”. A US military attaché said in an interview the US knew all about it. In Halabja, Iraqis killed 3,500 to 5,000 “virtually all civilians” with US supplied sarin gas. And 100,000 Iranians were “severely injured” from those attacks of which 55,000 still suffer agonizing after-effects. Imagine our press telling you any of this. Iran inherited a nuclear reactor (Bushehr) from the Shah’s regime. Iran hasn’t violated the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but the author says the US has by denying Iran peaceful access to nuclear technology.
Americans were taught by media to hate Khomeini but we were not told how he actually banned producing both chemical and nuclear weapons because they said they were “illicit under Islam” a.k.a. haram [forbidden] – funny how they AREN’T illicit under Zionism. Fast forward to Khamenei in 2003 who also said nuclear weapons were “against our principles.” But Israel developing them in the 60’s was not against Zionist principles. The CIA got its hands on a very credible 2001 report that Iran had no intention of “weaponizing” uranium. Obama’s campaign platform was to negotiate with Iran, but that went down the toilet once he was elected and replaced negotiation with military threats and economic pressure. We are going to hurt you both physically and economically – think of us like the Mafia - but without their delightful accordion music. Hillary Clinton said she wanted the sanctions on Iran to be “tight and crippling” – like her persona in bed. “The first ever cyberattack resulting in damage to infrastructure in human history” was done by Obama who in 2009 who authorized a cyberattack on Iran’s enrichment facility at Natanz. [When they asked, “Can we go ahead with the illegal attack Sir?” I’ll bet he replied, “Yes, We Can” while standing in front of a placard that said, “HOPE”]
When Trump gets in office in 2017, Jared Kushner’s dad was already a friend and bankroller of Netanyahu, while Trump had been financed to the tune of $100 million by rabid Zionist Sheldon Adelson (another bankroller of Netanyahu). Christian Zionist Pompeo portrayed Iran as “fueling proxy wars across the Middle East” but said nothing about the US fueling proxy wars from Gaza to Ukraine. Apparently, Pompeo and Trump don’t want you to know about the long history of Israel threatening Iran which might lead it to logically want and develop some form of deterrence. “The Trump administration’s strategy also seeks to deprive Iran of the sovereign right of self-defense, which obviously includes the right to maintain the normal means of deterrence.” Giving up that right of deterrence didn’t historically turn out that well for Saddam Hussein (p.79), did it? The US Treasury went after Iran contracting its economy with sanctions creating “an acute shortage of drugs needed for life-saving treatments, especially chemotherapy for cancer patients.” The idea was (and still is) to turn the Iranian people en masse against their government – instead a 2019 survey showed 80% of Iranians (p.85) had a negative view of the US. An Inconvenient Truth. Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which made the world more unsafe.
Trump Speaks: Trump said Iran is “the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism”. And I thought (as Martin Luther King Jr said) that the US was the leading sponsor of terrorism. Just compare Iran’s tiny death toll since 1979 to that of the US yet Trump called Iran’s present regime “murderous” which is laughable. Trump added, “and we will not allow a regime that chants ‘Death to America’ to gain access to the ‘most deadly’ weapons on Earth.” [But giving our deadliest weapons to fund an active genocide - no problemo. Note that Trump has no problem calling Iran’s Islamic leadership a dictatorship but NEVER called Iran’s previous dictator Shah, as a dictator. Trump won’t tell you that the last time Iran actually had a leader who wasn’t a dictator and was loved by the people, the US/CIA removed him (1953) - so the US is partly to blame for today’s Iran.] Trump in 2017 called Iran’s present regime “a rogue regime” while Noam Chomsky for decades called the US “a rogue state.” Trump said of Iran “the regime’s two favorite chants are ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’.” The amusing thing here is if Israel merely became a true democracy (equal rights for all Palestinians) it WOULD mean the death of Israel (as a Jewish supremacist state) w/o any actual death. And if the US was a true democracy (and not as Jimmy Carter said long ago an oligarchy), then no one in Iran would shout “Death to America” because they'd see us as isolationists too busy fixing our infrastructure and creating US high-speed rail to lust after ripping Iran a new one to screw with its ally China (Belt and Road Initiative) and China's immediate terminal threat to decades of US hegemony.
This was my 52nd and last Goodreads book essay to post for 2025 so until January all my 2026 reviews (starting next week) will just be posted on my Facebook page. This was a very good book I’m glad to have read. Kudos to the author. With Iran presently dominating the headlines, I wanted to move my knowledge of post-Shah Iran vs. the US from braindead to comatose.
July 14, 2022
This might be a small book in stature, but huge, absolutely huge in insight. It includes: a brief history of US meddling in the Middle East. It discusses propaganda ~ American style, how to make a country seem more menacing than it really is; present false narratives, demonize a country and argued that sanctions imposed upon a country don't actually work. It should be mentioned, Mr. John Kiriakou blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program, telling the ABC News that the CIA tortured prisoners and that torture was official government policy. Suffice to say, he spent time in prison for it.
This person read with real interest and then Chapter Five, "Pushing for War", sent this reader into free-fall. Kiriakou and Porter gave a blow by blow description of US foreign policy implementation for Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza. The authors went to great length to describe what Bolton, in particular, was trying to do. He was trying to goad the then US President, Trump, into an all out war with Iran. In a matter of six weeks leading up to September 9, John Bolton had created a phony Iranian threat (not believed by the President). He then, tried to generate an extra 10,000 troops into the Middle East. (Not considered by the President). Then, he urged an attack in retaliation to a US drone that was shot down. If that wasn't enough, Trump and Bolton clashed over softening sanctions on Iran. By September 9th, Trump had had enough of Bolton and sacked him announcing it on Twitter the next day.
This novella, had a staggering 229 footnotes and appendices complete with redacted documents and statements about Trump, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton to support all his assertions. America has pushed the images of 'Democracy' and 'Freedom' which really represent military occupation and regime change. It is clearly the US wants to dominate and control the world. They don't care about 'Democracy' or 'Freedom' in the slightest, they just want to plunder the resources out of each country and, of course, any oil that may be in the ground. The US, then leaves a puppet government for them to use for their own purposes in the future.
Lastly, it should be mentioned that the US aims to throw their militant extremists back into Syria (remember the supposed 'moderate rebels'), Iraq and Iran in the near future. Heaven help us all.
Some further reading with the US at the forefront of foreign policy ~
AFGHANISTAN:
1. Chapter 5,'Liberating Afghanistan'. From, “Freedom Next Time”, John Pilger. 2007.
2. “No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban and the War through Afghan Eyes”, Anand Gopal. 2015.
3. “The Hooligans of Kandahar: Not All War Stories are Heroic”, Joseph Kassabian. 2017. pages 258.
4. “The Afghan Solution”, Lucy Morgan Edwards. (US and Afghanistan).
IRAQ:
1. “We Meant Well: How I helped lose the the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi people”. Peter Van Buren. 2001. 275 pages. (Iraq).
2. “Tell Me No Lies”, John Pilger. 2011. 677 pages. Particularly, ‘Complicity in a Million Deaths', Mark Curtis. 'Reporting the Truth about Iraq': Articles by Felicity Arbuthnot, Joy Gordon, Richard Norton-Taylor, Jo Wilding, Edward W. Said and Robert Fisk. et. al. (Iraq).
3. “Tell Me Lies”, Propaganda and media distortion in the Attack on Iraq. (2004). Edited by D Miller.
4. “The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq”, Emma Sky, 2016. (Iraq).
The MIDDLE EAST & the USA:
1. “The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East”, Robert Fisk. 2005. 1105 pages.
2. “Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington sold our Soul for Saudi Crude”, Robert Baer.
3. “See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism”, Robert Baer.
4. “Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 11”, Steve Coll. 2001. (USA & Pakistan).
5. “The Looming Tower”, Lawerence Wright. (The USA & The Middle East).
6. “Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield”, Jeremy Scahill. 2013. (the USA and the Middle East).
7. “Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army”, Jeremy Scahill. 2007.
8. "Syria's Silenced Voices", by Patrik Paulov. May 10th, 2021. (Syria).
9. “Countering War Propaganda: of the Dirty War on Syria”, Tim Anderson. 2017. (Syria).
10. “Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex”,William D Hartung. 2010. (The US).
11. “Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America’s Arms Trade”, John Tirman. 1997. (Turkey, ‘Kurdistan’ & the US).
This person read with real interest and then Chapter Five, "Pushing for War", sent this reader into free-fall. Kiriakou and Porter gave a blow by blow description of US foreign policy implementation for Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza. The authors went to great length to describe what Bolton, in particular, was trying to do. He was trying to goad the then US President, Trump, into an all out war with Iran. In a matter of six weeks leading up to September 9, John Bolton had created a phony Iranian threat (not believed by the President). He then, tried to generate an extra 10,000 troops into the Middle East. (Not considered by the President). Then, he urged an attack in retaliation to a US drone that was shot down. If that wasn't enough, Trump and Bolton clashed over softening sanctions on Iran. By September 9th, Trump had had enough of Bolton and sacked him announcing it on Twitter the next day.
This novella, had a staggering 229 footnotes and appendices complete with redacted documents and statements about Trump, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton to support all his assertions. America has pushed the images of 'Democracy' and 'Freedom' which really represent military occupation and regime change. It is clearly the US wants to dominate and control the world. They don't care about 'Democracy' or 'Freedom' in the slightest, they just want to plunder the resources out of each country and, of course, any oil that may be in the ground. The US, then leaves a puppet government for them to use for their own purposes in the future.
Lastly, it should be mentioned that the US aims to throw their militant extremists back into Syria (remember the supposed 'moderate rebels'), Iraq and Iran in the near future. Heaven help us all.
Some further reading with the US at the forefront of foreign policy ~
AFGHANISTAN:
1. Chapter 5,'Liberating Afghanistan'. From, “Freedom Next Time”, John Pilger. 2007.
2. “No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban and the War through Afghan Eyes”, Anand Gopal. 2015.
3. “The Hooligans of Kandahar: Not All War Stories are Heroic”, Joseph Kassabian. 2017. pages 258.
4. “The Afghan Solution”, Lucy Morgan Edwards. (US and Afghanistan).
IRAQ:
1. “We Meant Well: How I helped lose the the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi people”. Peter Van Buren. 2001. 275 pages. (Iraq).
2. “Tell Me No Lies”, John Pilger. 2011. 677 pages. Particularly, ‘Complicity in a Million Deaths', Mark Curtis. 'Reporting the Truth about Iraq': Articles by Felicity Arbuthnot, Joy Gordon, Richard Norton-Taylor, Jo Wilding, Edward W. Said and Robert Fisk. et. al. (Iraq).
3. “Tell Me Lies”, Propaganda and media distortion in the Attack on Iraq. (2004). Edited by D Miller.
4. “The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq”, Emma Sky, 2016. (Iraq).
The MIDDLE EAST & the USA:
1. “The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East”, Robert Fisk. 2005. 1105 pages.
2. “Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington sold our Soul for Saudi Crude”, Robert Baer.
3. “See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism”, Robert Baer.
4. “Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 11”, Steve Coll. 2001. (USA & Pakistan).
5. “The Looming Tower”, Lawerence Wright. (The USA & The Middle East).
6. “Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield”, Jeremy Scahill. 2013. (the USA and the Middle East).
7. “Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army”, Jeremy Scahill. 2007.
8. "Syria's Silenced Voices", by Patrik Paulov. May 10th, 2021. (Syria).
9. “Countering War Propaganda: of the Dirty War on Syria”, Tim Anderson. 2017. (Syria).
10. “Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex”,William D Hartung. 2010. (The US).
11. “Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America’s Arms Trade”, John Tirman. 1997. (Turkey, ‘Kurdistan’ & the US).
February 23, 2023
The authors give a great overview of the US Iran crisis in under 150 pages!
July 11, 2022
This might be a small book in stature, but huge, absolutely huge in insight. It includes: a brief history of US meddling in the Middle East. It discusses propaganda American style, how to make a country seem more menacing than it really is; present false narratives, demonize a country and argues that sanctions imposed upon a country don't actually work. It should be mentioned, Mr. John Kiriakou blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program, telling the ABC News that the CIA tortured prisoners and that torture was official government policy and he spent time in prison for it.
But it was Chapter Five, "Pushing for War", that sent this reader into free-fall. Kiriakou and Porter gave a blow by blow description of US foreign policy implementation for Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza. The authors went to length to describe what Bolton, in particular, was trying to goad the then US President, Trump, into an all out war with Iran. In a matter of six weeks leading up to September, for example, Bolton had created a phony Iranian threat (not believed by the President). He then, tried to generate an extra 10,000 troops into the Middle East. (Not even considered by Trump). Then, he urged an attack in retaliation to a US drone that was shot down. If that wasn't enough, Trump and Bolton clashed over softening sanctions on Iran. By September 9th, Trump had had enough of Bolton and sacked him announcing it on Twitter the next day.
This novella, had a staggering 229 footnotes and an appendices complete with redacted documents and statements about Trump, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton all to support his assertions. America has pushed the images of 'Democracy' and 'Freedom' which really represent military occupation and regime change. It is clearly the US wants to dominate and control the world. They don't care about 'Democracy' or 'Freedom', they just want to take the riches and resources out of the country and, of course, any oil that might be there and leave a puppet government for the US government to use for their own purposes.
Lastly, it should be mentioned that the US aims to throw their militant extremists (remember the so called 'moderate rebels) back into Syria, Iraq and Iran in the near future. Heaven help all us.
But it was Chapter Five, "Pushing for War", that sent this reader into free-fall. Kiriakou and Porter gave a blow by blow description of US foreign policy implementation for Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza. The authors went to length to describe what Bolton, in particular, was trying to goad the then US President, Trump, into an all out war with Iran. In a matter of six weeks leading up to September, for example, Bolton had created a phony Iranian threat (not believed by the President). He then, tried to generate an extra 10,000 troops into the Middle East. (Not even considered by Trump). Then, he urged an attack in retaliation to a US drone that was shot down. If that wasn't enough, Trump and Bolton clashed over softening sanctions on Iran. By September 9th, Trump had had enough of Bolton and sacked him announcing it on Twitter the next day.
This novella, had a staggering 229 footnotes and an appendices complete with redacted documents and statements about Trump, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton all to support his assertions. America has pushed the images of 'Democracy' and 'Freedom' which really represent military occupation and regime change. It is clearly the US wants to dominate and control the world. They don't care about 'Democracy' or 'Freedom', they just want to take the riches and resources out of the country and, of course, any oil that might be there and leave a puppet government for the US government to use for their own purposes.
Lastly, it should be mentioned that the US aims to throw their militant extremists (remember the so called 'moderate rebels) back into Syria, Iraq and Iran in the near future. Heaven help all us.
April 12, 2021
I like books that offer insight into otherwise secret information and I do believe that the author is a patriot. But, because there's bad blood between him and the agency, which led to his imprisonment, I feel like he's not objective anymore. If you rely solely on this book, you might actually believe that Iran is a force for good in the world stage which clearly isn't.
July 14, 2021
Very insightful and interesting.
June 5, 2024
Gave me an idea on the USA's views about Iran.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews