 "CIA acknowledges role in Iran's 1953 coup")
The CIA for the first time has publicly admitted that with British help it engineered the notorious 1953 coup against Iran's then democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mossadeq.
Sixty years after the overthrow of Mossadeq, a declassified CIA document has acknowledged that the US spy agency was involved in the coup.
The independent National Security Archive research institute, which published the document yesterday, said the declassification is believed to mark the CIA's first formal acknowledgement of its involvement.
The documents, declassified in 2011 and given to George Washington University research group under the Freedom of Information Act, come from the CIA's internal history of Iran from the mid-1970s and paint a detailed picture of how the CIA worked to oust Mossadeq, CNN reported.
In a key line pointed out by Malcom Byrne, the editor who worked through the documents, the CIA spells out its involvement in the coup.
"The military coup that overthrew Mossadeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of US foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government," the document says.
While this might be the CIA's first formal nod, the US role has long been known.
President Barack Obama acknowledged the United States' involvement in the coup during a 2009 speech in Cairo. "In the middle of the Cold War, the US played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government," the president said.
In 2000, then-US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke of the intervention, and in the same year, the New York Times published what it said was a leaked 1954 CIA-written account of the overthrow.
Iranians elected Mossadeq prime minister in 1951.
Shortly after Mossadeq's election, the CIA began to plan his overthrow. The goal of the coup was to elevate the strength of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and appoint a new prime minister -- General Fazlollah Zahedi.
Before the coup, the agency -- along with the British Secret Intelligence Service -- helped foment anti-Mossadeq fervor using propaganda, according to CIA documents.
Oil negotiations with Iran had failed and along with a number of other issues, the US was concerned "that Iran was in real danger of falling behind the Iron Curtain."
"It was the aim of the TPAJAX project" -- that was the mission's code name -- "to cause the fall of the Mossadeq government; to reestablish the prestige and power of the Shah," Donald N Wilber, a principal planner of the mission, wrote within months of the overthrow.
Sixty years after the overthrow of Mossadeq, a declassified CIA document has acknowledged that the US spy agency was involved in the coup.
The independent National Security Archive research institute, which published the document yesterday, said the declassification is believed to mark the CIA's first formal acknowledgement of its involvement.
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The document, published on the archive's website under freedom of information laws, describes in detail how the US, with British help, engineered the coup, codenamed TPAJAX by the CIA and Operation Boot by Britain's MI6.
The documents, declassified in 2011 and given to George Washington University research group under the Freedom of Information Act, come from the CIA's internal history of Iran from the mid-1970s and paint a detailed picture of how the CIA worked to oust Mossadeq, CNN reported.
In a key line pointed out by Malcom Byrne, the editor who worked through the documents, the CIA spells out its involvement in the coup.
"The military coup that overthrew Mossadeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of US foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government," the document says.
While this might be the CIA's first formal nod, the US role has long been known.
President Barack Obama acknowledged the United States' involvement in the coup during a 2009 speech in Cairo. "In the middle of the Cold War, the US played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government," the president said.
In 2000, then-US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke of the intervention, and in the same year, the New York Times published what it said was a leaked 1954 CIA-written account of the overthrow.
Iranians elected Mossadeq prime minister in 1951.
Shortly after Mossadeq's election, the CIA began to plan his overthrow. The goal of the coup was to elevate the strength of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and appoint a new prime minister -- General Fazlollah Zahedi.
Before the coup, the agency -- along with the British Secret Intelligence Service -- helped foment anti-Mossadeq fervor using propaganda, according to CIA documents.
Oil negotiations with Iran had failed and along with a number of other issues, the US was concerned "that Iran was in real danger of falling behind the Iron Curtain."
"It was the aim of the TPAJAX project" -- that was the mission's code name -- "to cause the fall of the Mossadeq government; to reestablish the prestige and power of the Shah," Donald N Wilber, a principal planner of the mission, wrote within months of the overthrow.