Monday, July 13, 2009

July 14, 1958 in Iraq-CIA-U.S.

A group of Iraqi army officers staged a coup in Iraq and overthrew the monarchy of King Faisal II (who had ascended to the throne at age four). The new government, led by Abdul Karim el Qasim, was ousted in 1963 by a coup helped by the CIA and led by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party—later dominated by Saddam Hussein.

Saddam Hussein: whom we knew as a brutal street thug, connected to the right family, U.S. ideology of the time, and more importantly, for him, connected to the right people in the U.S. and CIA!

1958: Coup in Iraq sparks jitters in Middle East
A group of Iraqi army officers have staged a coup in Iraq and overthrown the monarchy.

Baghdad Radio announced the Army has liberated the Iraqi people from domination by a corrupt group put in power by "imperialism".

From now on Iraq would be a republic that would "maintain ties with other Arab countries". It said some 12,000 Iraqi troops based in neighboring Jordan have been ordered to return................


And how does a certain, important even then, Iraqi resource play into this coup:

While Iraqis are celebrating on the streets of Baghdad, the news is a cause for concern for western powers worried about their oil interests and instability in the region.


And in those days in the history of the World it was cold, as in cold war mentality.

Officials in Washington fear the Iraqi coup will mean the end of the Baghdad Pact whose members include Turkey, Persia and Pakistan. It was intended to stem the influence of the Soviet Union in the region.

There are fears the Iraq coup will have a domino effect and that the pro-Western oil regimes of Kuwait, Bahrain and the Trucial States may fall to Arab nationalists.


And the CIA, with one Saddam Hussein on the payroll, took it from there:

Iraq's coup leader and prime minister, Abdul Karim el Qasim, was ousted and killed in 1963 in a coup led by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party.


And as they say, "The rest is History!", or some would now say, "The history that was is our present!".

No comments: