6 - Operation Ajax: The CIA-Backed Coup Against Iran's Mosaddegh

Explicit content warning

04/27/20 • 71 min

In 1953, the CIA overthrew popular Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and shored up the despotic rule of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in order to safeguard British oil interests in Iran. The tale reads like a spy novel: imperialism, espionage, scheming, bribery, and betrayal abound.

In this episode, we bring you the story of the brief, wondrous reign of Mohammad Mosaddegh and the clandestine operation to unseat him — an event that changed the course of Iranian history and ultimately has effects that ring around the world today.

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Sources: https://bit.ly/3bhoMVw

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/dascriminal

Sources: https://bit.ly/3bhoMVw

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5 - The Strange Case of Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman

In October of 2012, Canadian-American couple Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman were on a backpacking trip through Central Asia when they were kidnapped by the Haqqani network — an affiliate of the Taliban. The couple and their growing family endured five years in captivity before they were rescued by Pakistani forces in 2017 — a favorable outcome to such a horrifying ordeal. But with this case, nothing is as it seems.

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7 - The 1979 Iranian Revolution and Hostage Crisis

In 1953, the CIA engineered the overthrow of Iran’s popular Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, and propped up instead the country’s detested monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi — the Shah of Iran. Exploiting Iran’s oil fields, the Shah enriched himself while the country’s workers struggled, and his security forces ruthlessly persecuted dissidents who protested the regime.

By the late 1970s, the Shah’s cruelty toward the Iranian people would finally blow up in his face, as the country revolted in a series of strikes and protests. One of the Shah’s harshest critics — Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — would emerge as a leading figure in Iran’s revolution and the Islamic Republic that would follow.

As for the Shah, he looked for sanctuary in his old ally — the United States. But President Jimmy Carter’s reception of the tyrant inflamed tensions in Tehran, and a group of students responded by seizing the U.S. embassy and holding 52 of its diplomats hostage. In this episode, we bring you the story of Iran’s 1979 Revolution and the events now known as the hostage crisis.

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/dascriminal

Sources: https://bit.ly/3bhoMVw