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Very impressive stuff. DefinItely makes me want to read Cooper for myself. Several points to make.

1) The narrative about the CIA being clueless may well be true but it is nowhere near the full story.

The CIA knew in advance of everyone else that the Shah was dying. The diagnosis was a state secret but news was shared confidentially with personal friends, including a former school-mate from La Rosey who had ended up in the senior executive at Langley.

2) The Americans supposedly vetoed plans for a regency by Ashraf. Iranians used to joke that she got the male chronic osimosjnes, her brother the female as a young teenager she impressed Stalin. He gave her a full length fur coat made from tiger pelts.

3) Khomeini was protected by the West. He initially fled to Ba'athist Iraq, but later moved to Turkey and then France.

4) Khomeini was partially financed by the West. While in Europe Khomeini reportedly received donations from Francois Genoud, a Swiss national who had been Himmler's lawyer and who bankrolled neo-Nazis and Sunni extremists alike in the post-war era.

Genoud was involved in intrigue from the 30s on. He definitely travelled to the Palestine and Lebanon during the Mandate. If I recall things correctly, he met Harry St John Philby, taj Amin Al Husseini and perhaps Izz ad-Din al-Qassam.

There is no way that Genoud could have operated without protection from Swiss intelligence and, quite likely, other Western powers.

4) The CIA has always taken a curious approach to Islamic fanatics. This tendency became marked in the late 70s and early 80s.

Shortly after Reagan returned to work from his recovery from the assasination attempt he received Sadat. The Egyptian sought assistance to combat Islamic fanatics within the officer corps of the Army. The CIA reviewed the evidence Sadat brought with him. They advised Reagan that there was no threat. The Western press then started insinuating that Sadat's judgement was faltering. The intelligence officer Sadat brought with him to the white House ended up emigrating yo the US, joining US forces and was involved in various Afghan intrigues.

5) Khomeini's Islamic allies all had links to Western governments, as well as links to the Soviet Bloc. Arafat in particular was as much a client of the CIA as he was of the KGB.

6) The role of Western governments in sponsoring Ithna Ashari clerics in Iran (as well as Najaf and Karbala) began in the 19th century after the suppression of the Mutiny in India. The British gained control of charitable bequests in a North Indian Shiah kingdom after they deposed the local nawab. These funds were used to buy the loyalty of clergy. It was this legacy that had enabled the British to help steer Iran from republicanism in the 1920s.

7) Iranian development under the Shah threatened US interests. Washington prefers basket-cases, failed states. It abhors successful development and independence. The campaign against the Shah was contemporaneous with the era of anti-apartheid agitation that a decade later brought South Africa. The mullahs, like the ANC, are as corrupt as they are destructive. This makes them ideal partners for Washington.

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