US & IRAN
Why the Hate

It has been almost a quarter of century since Iran experienced a revolution. During this time the rift between the United States and Iran has not healed and the two countries still prefer to snare at each other rather than seek a common path to mutual understanding. Although each country blames the other the landscape of recent history is dotted with the sign-posts of this animosity. The level of vitriol has been so high that we tend to forget that once these two countries were good friends and partners.

After the Second World War the United States was still not a major player in the politics of the region and it was the British who had the driver's seat in the so-called Northern Tier of Middle East. However, Britain had suffered great financial loses at home due to the war and with their attention diverted to their home front, the U.S. moved in to become the major superpower in the region and to stop Soviet adventurism.

This new foreign policy was named the Truman Doctrine, which included "a Zone of Particular American Interest" including Turkey and Iran. The first major interventionist role for America in the region came about when the U.S. along with Britain, undermined the popular Iranian premier Mohammad Mosaddeq, who had nationalized the Iran's oil industry and re-installed the clique of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The Iranians had viewed the British as the main imperialist power in the region but the Mossadegh affair plaed the U.S. in the cross hairs of Iranian nationalists who resented foreign intervention in their country's affairs. The U.S. came to be identified with the tyrannical rule of the Shah and its meddling in Iran's internal policies became the rallying point for all discontented Iranians, secular or religious.

THE FALL OF THE SHAH
Reza Shah, the first Shah in the Pahlavi dynasty was forced out of power by the British because of his collaboration with the Germans. His son, Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, ascended the Peacock throne in. Although initially a popular monarch, the U.S. backed coup that brought the Shah back to power made him an imposed ruler who was increasingly autocratic. His attempts at championing the nationalist causes were not well received because the public perceived him as a puppet of the United States. His White Revolution, which was one such attempt. It included land redistribution, a modernization program and inclusion of women in civil affairs. The Shah's reliance on the U.S. as the only source of his legitimacy lead to popular discontent. His regime had become increasingly brutal in dealing with any opposition and he had usurped the duties of the legislative and executive branch, with the help of a dreaded secret police, in violation of the Iranian Constitution. Finally, the societal pressures resulted in popular uprising that, although initially secular, brought the religious figure Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini into power. The Shah fled Iran in 1979 and remained abroad until his death in Egypt in 1980.

THE HOSTAGE CRISIS
What came to be known as The Iran Hostage Crisis started on an otherwise ordinary day on November 4, 1979. A group of Iranian revolutionaries climbed over the walls of the U.S. embassy compound in central Tehran and lay claim to it and all those within it. The United States, long considered the puppeteer that animated the Shah of Iran, had welcomed the Shah to the U.S. for medical treatment and this had angered those who viewed the fallen regime as traitors and thieves.

Within about three weeks 19 hostages, mostly African-Americans and women were released, but neither the threat of war nor international pressure were enough to secure the release of the other 52 hostages. President Carter, aware of the increasing political fallout and declining popularity, ordered a nighttime rescue mission to free the hostages. This proved disastrous when 3 of the 8 helicopters crashed in a desert in Iran, before they had even reached the capital, Tehran. The following day, Americans woke up to the news that not only the mission had been aborted but also that 8 men had died in the process. News footage of the Iranian Mullah Khalkhali picking at the corpses of the U.S. soldiers with a knife raised the level of anger at the Carter Administration to it's highest level and eventually caused his failure at the next presidential election. The hostages were released after 444 days, but not a moment sooner than Carter's departure and President Reagan's Oath of Office as the new president of the United States.
IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR
The Reagan era National Security Council, desperate to help its client the Contras against the leftist government of Nicaragua had to devise a scheme to circumvent Congressional oversight. The Iran-Contra affair consisted of a number of covert arms sales to Iran, at inflated prices. Although the sales were arranged by private arms dealers they were not only with the full knowledge of the NSC but also with actual assistance from members of the Reagan administration. It was only because of a leak from someone within the government of Iran to a Lebanese newspaper, designed to embarrass the Americans, that the administration admitted the existence of such arrangement. The sales were in return for a promise by Iran to help influence the release of American hostages in Lebanon, who had been kidnapped by Iranian-backed people terrorists. The sales had a back-end benefit as well. The arms were sold at inflated prices and the profit was diverted to the Contra movement in Nicaragua.

The affair resulted in a number of criminal indictments and some convictions for members of the Reagan administration including McFarlane, North, and Poindexter, Caspar Weinberger. Most of those convicted had the decisions vacated or were later pardoned.

THE IRANIAN AIRBUS TRAGEDY
In July 1988, USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian passengers plane killing all 290 people aboard. The Pentagon had claimed Vincennes crew believed that the airliner was headed towards it on a Kamikaze type attack.
The Pentagon's account seemed far fetched since the airbus had left the city of Bandar Abbas only three minutes behind schedule and was flying in the correct flight path and was climbing when it was shot down. Later, unofficial sources later stated that the Vincennes may have used "artificial intelligence," a technique of letting machines go beyond monitoring to actually making deductions and recommendations to humans. The U.S. eventually paid damages to all the survivors of the incident.

IRAN’S SUPPORT OF TERRORISM

THE LOCKERBIE BOMBING
The 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie gave rise to theories that Iran had ordered the attack to revenge the USS Vincennes incident.
It was believed that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) had carried out the attack at the request of Iran and that the regime of the Ayatollahs had bank-rolled the operation.

A report dated March 4, 1991, accused Iran of paying the Lockerbie bombers $10 million to carry out the attack. It mentioned the PFLP-GC by name, and referred to the Vincennes incident as the motive.
To date there has been nothing factual to connect Iran to the Lockerbie bombing but some still cite the Iran-PFLP-GC theory, and believe that those tried for the crime were merely "messenger boys.

THE HEZBOLLAH CONNECTION
The Hezbollah or the "party of God" is a Shiite Moslem organization which was originally started with the help and financing of Iran to act against the occupation of Lebanon by Israel. It is widely held that Israel's departure from Lebanon was as a direct result of partisan tactics of the Hezbollah, which included Roadside bombings, killed and injured countless Israeli soldiers. The head of this group, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, is a much-admired political and religious leader in Lebanon and has moved the group towards mainstream politics.

The Hezbollah and its affiliates have planned or been linked to a number of terrorist acts against the U.S. which include:

· a series of kidnappings of Westerners, including several Americans, in the 1980s;
· the suicide truck bombings that killed more than 200 U.S. Marines at their barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983;
· the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847, which featured the famous footage of the plane's pilot leaning out of the cockpit with a gun to his head;

The Hezbollah is still supported by Iran with financial assistance of almost $100 million per year as well as "training, weapons, explosives, political, diplomatic, and organiza-tional aid," according to the State Department reports.

IRAN & SUPPORT OF TERRORISM
The Iranian Leaders have cooled down their penchant for terrorism in the recent years but in the past, the regime of the clergy relied on terrorism as a tool of achieving its goals routinely.
Iran has been listed on the State Department's countries that support terrorism since 1984. Why is Iran on the list? The following are some of the reasons:

In November 1979, Iranian student revolutionaries widely thought to be linked to the Khomeini govern-ment occupied the American Embassy in Tehran. Iran held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.