Stephen Kinzer on the History of BP/British Petroleum and Its Role in the 1953 Iran Coup

[EFerrari]

(After Kinzer speaks about BP, he discusses Turkey's relationship with Irsael wrt Gaza, Iran.)

Stephen Kinzer on the History of BP/British Petroleum and Its Role in the 1953 Iran Coup

Stephen Kinzer, former New York Times reporter. He is author of All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror. His latest book is Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to America’s role in a changing Middle East. Israel has set up an internal inquiry into its deadly attack last month on the Gaza-bound flotilla of humanitarian aid ships. Nine Turkish citizens, one who also was a US citizen, were killed when Israeli commandos attacked a ship in international waters last month. Israel rejected a UN proposal for an international probe into the incident but has agreed to include two foreign non-voting observers in its own inquiry.

The United States has hailed the decision as, quote, "an important step forward." But Turkey’s foreign minister said, quote, "We have no trust at all that Israel, a country that has carried out such an attack on a civilian convoy in international waters, will conduct an impartial investigation." Turkish-Israeli relations appear to be at an all-time low following the flotilla attack.

Meanwhile, Turkey, along with Brazil, negotiated a nuclear fuel swap agreement with Iran and then voted against a UN Security Council resolution last week that imposed another round of sanctions on Iran.

Well, award-winning journalist and bestselling author Stephen Kinzer is out with a new book that looks back into history to make some sense of these shifting alliances in the Middle East and to chart a new vision for US foreign policy in the region. The former New York Times correspondent is the author of a number of books, including All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror and Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. His latest book, out this week, is called Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future. Stephen Kinzer joins me now from Washington, DC.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/14/steven_kinzer_on_the_history_of

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. That wouldn't surprise me

in fact nothing suprises me with BP.

[FBI_Un_Sub]

2. One of BP's oredecessirs

was behind the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Sykes-Picot did more damage then the Balfour Delaration. the San Remo Accords.

[slipslidingaway]

3. Israel should have immediately handed over all tapes they...

confiscated to a third party, an internal investigation while they could hold any contrary evidence is a joke.

:(

[shaayecanaan]

4. I can vouch for "All the Shah's men"...

its a good read and it catalogues an instance of particularly disgraceful behaviour by the Americans and British intelligence services.

Its worth bearing in mind that had Mossadegh's government been allowed to govern Iran would probably be a functioning parliamentary republic today.

[EFerrari]

5. Overthrow was outstanding. I would like to read his new one, Reset.