Conspiracy Theory (Iran)

[Joz]

I haven't ever come up with a conspiracy theory before, but just for "fun"...

I just read that article in the news about how the new Iranian president-elect is supposedly one of the hostage takers from the good ol' Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979. The election was "surprisingly" won by this new Iranian president and is being called a sham (albeit by the bush administration). What if the Iranian election was indeed a sham, but the bush administration somehow had a hand in making it fraudulent (as they have such a track record with elections already), while claiming it as fraudulent at the same time to cover their tracks. Now you have this actual terrorist that took americans hostage running the country.. sounds like pretty damn good cannon fodder for a war on Iran, as part of a war on terrorism.

Can't you just hear bush (or some planned republican successor)'s war-drum speech? "They have a leader, after all, who is a terrorist and has terrorized americans personally."

[WoodrowFan]

1. you must be joking

and HOW would we fix the election in Iran? this gets nominated for sillest question of the year

bye bye

[converted_democrat]

3. It really isn't that silly...........

If you have ever watched the history channel or are very familiar with history you would know that the CIA is notorious for fixing elections, and starting demonstrations all over the world. (American money goes along way in many foreign countries, especially a few years ago.) I'm not suggesting that this guys theory is correct, but it is far from silly.

[WoodrowFan]

9. if I knew anything about history?? LOL

I am a professioanl historian witha Ph.D. in 20th century American history (specifically US politics and foreign policy). And in my professional opinion, the idea that the US could fix the Iranian election in 2005 is batshit crazy. it's posts like the original one that make the DU look bad even to the mainstream left.

bye bye

[converted_democrat]

11. Dude I don't care who you claim to be, the idea is not bat shit crazy.....

In fact it's pretty damn smart.


Bye, Bye

[The Magistrate]

17. The Idea, Ma'am

Is indeed, as you put it, "bat shit crazy." The life expectancy of a C.I.A. operative in Iran these days would approximate that of a may-fly....

[converted_democrat]

21. Perhaps you should read the whole thread before jumping to conclusions.

Did I say I was agreeing with the poster? No. Read the whole thread. My position is and has been that the CIA has in the past effected the outcome of many world events, and they have. My problem was with the way the first replier chose to correct the original poster. Do you personally have first hand knowledge that this poster is wrong? I doubt it. So it is just what the poster called it, a theory. Making fun of people and calling their ideas silly is far from constructive, and closes down future dialog. I stated several times my position that I did not feel that we had anything to do with the "fixing" of the elections in Iran. Perhaps if you had read all of the posts you would've seen that.

[Walt Starr]

12. I agree with you about the theory of the U.S. rigging the Iranian election

How do you feel about the government using these allegations as a pretext to war?

[The Magistrate]

20. It May, Mr. Starr

Feed into the mass propaganda line. It is quite possibly true; many of those involved in the embassy seizure have gone on to success in political life there, though some have moderated to become, by local standards at least, accomodating reformists. It would take a bit of real research to suss the question out.

It is beginning to seem a bit of a dubious proposition to me that there will be a real war with Iran. It is very hard to see how anything more than air strikes would be a practical possibility.

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. Read..."Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins.

It's about how WE interject ourselves in governments all over the world. Nicaragua, Guatemala, Venezuela, Jakarta, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq.....I think this "conspiracy theory" is MORE THAN realistic and is more than likely SPOT ON. Now, all the BFEE has to do is say..."THAT man kidnapped OUR U.S. citizens! He must be removed from office...he's a very, very bad man." They could rally the people into a bunch of foaming at the mouth, anti-Iran warmongers in a weekend with their corporate owned propaganda networks. Hell, they could prepare the sheeple for an Iranian invasion in no time! This is not silly. It's the reality we live.

[Joz]

14. Yeah I am, sort of...

Dude, calm down, it's a conspiracy theory that I just came up with after reading all the interesting tidbits of news regarding the iranian election and the new president-elect, and thinking about the ridiculousness of the bush administration. It's not meant to be a serious statement/allegation. I mean it to be a "what if this is actually what happened????" *raise eyebrow* type thing.

[converted_democrat]

2. I actually think it's a great theory...............

I doubt we did fix it, but the CIA is notorious for fixing elections. Have you ever watched the History Channel? They have great programs about the stunts the CIA pulls. I think it's a great theory.

[The Magistrate]

23. A Theory, Ma'am

Is a template for organizing facts in a way that gives them meaning. If it organizes them in a way that provides a superior explaination of what actually occurs, than it is a good, or even great theory. If it organizes them in a way that manifestly does not do this, it cannot be either a great or a good theory.

[mrfrapp]

4. I have to be honest, it crossed my mind.

There's no evidence that the Bush administration had anything to do with the Iranian elections but it does seem odd that this man of all men should be elected; particularly when we consider the current war posture towards Iran. What better excuse to wage war on a country than to have an age old enemy suddenly rising to political prominance. Probably just an unfortunate coincedence though.

But we can't forget that the Republicans have had dealings with this man (or his associates at least) before, during the Carter-Reagan presidential battle. The famed October Surprise.

Who knows?

[KnaveRupe]

5. I've gotta agree with WWFan -

There's really no way we could have DIRECTLY affected an Iranian election. (If we could do that, there'd be no reason to support coups against democratically-elected governments like Venezuela's... we could just rig their polls.)

That being said, I think that the case could be made that this kind of Anti-American backlash DOES play right into the hands of TPTB; if they are going to try and "gin up" a case for invading Iran in the near future, it's easier to rally support against a rabid fundamentalist anti-American who had a hand in the '79 hostage crisis.

Did they anticipate that people like this would come to power in the surrounding Islamic countries, giving us a green light with our own public to pre-emptively strike? Eh, it depends on how paranoid you are. I don't like to give this bunch THAT much credit, preferring to see them instead as a bunch of incompetent boobs, rather than the super-competent criminal geniuses they'd need to be to engineer something like this.

[converted_democrat]

6. I'm not saying the theory is correct, but you are way off if you think

it isn't possible. The CIA is famous for fixing elections all over the world and starting mass demonstrations simply by paying people off. This isn't a new concept. Read some history or watch the History channel. The History channel has programs on it all the time.

[WoodrowFan]

10. now THAT makes sense

we sabre rattle so they elect someone who they see as stronger against a foreign threat (sound familar.) makes TONS more sense that raising the big, bad CIA bogeyman again, regardless of what the History Channel :eyes: says between their shows on UFO conspiracies.

[Walt Starr]

7. Yup, this will be a pretext for going to war against a democratically

elected leader. I don't buy that the election was rigged, either by Iranians or by Americans. He was elected in a democratic fashion.

Hey, I saw a picture of the guy wiht a purple finger! It was democratic in Iraq, so it must also be democratic in Iran.

Now, we will go after him because he was a terrorist, even though only five of the people who were taken hostage are making this claim, now 26 years after the fact, and others claim he was NOT one of the hostage takers. He has denied it and members of the group who were the hostage takers have denied it as well.

Still, it will become a pretext for war. Here's a link to the story, BTW:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/06/30/iran.hostages.ap/index.html

[chefgirl]

13. I had (kind of) the same reaction when I heard about this.

I'm not sure I'm ready to believe that we were able to fix the election in Iran, if only because their gov't hates ours as much as ours hates theirs.

That said, however, our gov't has been able to accomplish a LOT in its 200+ year history with the good old American dollar bill, so I WON'T say it wasn't possible. (Iran-Contra)

I do think this could (and probably will) be used as justification for getting the war mongers in our country all fired up, and for ultimately taking some kind of action in Iran.
It certainly sounds suspiciously similar to Bush Sr. telling Saddam we would look the other way if he invaded Kuwait, and then pouncing on him, when he did, with all the self-righteous outrage the RW could fabricate.

Scott Ritters recent words about Iran keep ringing in my ears, and lets face it, he was EXACTLY right about Iraq.

The question I would like to see answered is, 'How closely are those particular ex-hostages, who are making this claim, tied to Bushco?' It would stand to reason, and wouldnt surprise me even a little bit, to find out that they have close ties, considering it was actually Poppy, and not Ronald Reagan, who was responsible for their release, and we all know that the BFEE never does anything for anyone without expecting a little Quid Pro Quo.

-chef-

[Joz]

15. The real conspiracy?

The question I would like to see answered is, 'How closely are those particular ex-hostages, who are making this claim, tied to Bushco?' It would stand to reason, and wouldnt surprise me even a little bit, to find out that they have close ties, considering it was actually Poppy, and not Ronald Reagan, who was responsible for their release, and we all know that the BFEE never does anything for anyone without expecting a little Quid Pro Quo.

Maybe THATS the real conspiracy, to tie these ex-hostages to him to make him into a terrorist president, when in fact perhaps he was not even one of the terrorists.

[chefgirl]

18. Right

Maybe THATS the real conspiracy, to tie these ex-hostages to him to make him into a terrorist president, when in fact perhaps he was not even one of the terrorists.

If I'm understanding you correctly, then, yes, thats exactly what I'm saying.
If the former hostages who are making this claim have close ties to Bushco, it seems pretty logical to me to theorize that Bushco is 'encouraging' them to make these claims so Junior can justify taking action against Iran.

-chef-

[Joz]

16. delete - accidental duplicate post

[gasperc]

19. So our spy agencies had no idea until today????

So either this is utter incompentance by our spy agencies that didn't have this background information before?? i.e, quite a simple matter to find out where the guy WENT TO SCHOOL!

Or a total set-up by the Bush administration to turn this guy into a reviled enemy of the US in the same fashion as Saddam. So whole scale carpet bombing is totally justified.

[orwell]

22. Questions

How did these five hostages all suddenly come to the same conclusion at the same time and arrange a media campaign?

Who called the press?

Have they been in touch with each other all these years?

Do they have a press agent?

Do any of them have any formal ties to the Republican party?

Is there "money" behind these allegations?

The press story seems very well timed and very well orchestrated.