Connecting the Dots From B to P

In his article from the June 11-13 edition of counterpunch.org, the brilliant, iconoclastic journalist Alexander Cockburn points out a fascinating tidbit from the history of the oil company previously known as British Petroleum. It turns out that, like your typical common criminal, BP has had a few aliases over the years, including that of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, an institution that figures prominently in one of the more immoral episodes in modern American history.

In 1953, the CIA organized a coup d'etat against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh as retaliation for his nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, after fruitless negotiations attempting to alter the one-sided and decidedly colonialist relationship between the company and a nation asserting its sovereign rights as a fledgling democracy in the wake of World War II. This assertion did not sit well with either the British or American governments, and the administration of Dwight Eisenhower, one of the military heroes of the struggle against fascism and (presumably) for democracy, decided to make an example of the brash upstart.

Let's connect the dots, shall we? Democratically-elected Mossadegh out, the autocratic Shah of Iran back in power, a slavish ally of Western interests in the Middle East throughout the Cold War, ably assisted by his notorious secret police, the SAVAK. He is finally overthrown in 1979 by a coalition of secular and Islamic revolutionaries. Unfortunately, the Islamists prevail, and President Jimmy Carter, as committed to the short-sighted Machiavellianism of cynical realpolitick as his predecessors, supports the Shah up to and beyond the bitter end, facilitating his cushy exile. The American Embassy was stormed, and the Carter presidency was doomed.

Along with the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, the removal of Mossadegh did much to squander any moral authority the United States had in the Middle East after the Allied victory. And, as with United Fruit in Guatemala and ITT in Chile, among others, the CIA asserted its role as a corporate-friendly mercenary army. Anglo-Iranian/British Petroleum and other oil companies in the region found common cause with various strongmen in the region, and the bonds between Islamic fundamentalism and apocalyptic terrorism grew stronger.

I'm not asserting any direct link between the historical actions of BP and 9/11, of course, but there is a definite sequence of events and consequences once the dots are connected. The 1953 coup has done monumental harm to the prospects for democracy in Iran and throughout the Middle East, and was planned and executed with the tacit approval of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The corporate institution which currently goes by the name BP thus has a history of criminal behavior far predating April 20, and I believe the appropriate actions to be taken by the attorney general and state legislature of Louisiana are (a) aggressive criminal and civil investigations, followed by appropriate prosecutions, and (b) the revocation of BP's corporate charter in Louisiana. In other words, the corporate death penalty for this homicidal, career corporate criminal.