Middle East

Khomeini’s revolution and CIA disclosures

I have read some of what is being published by Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper concerning the classified documents released by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for the period around the Iranian revolution in the late 1970s. The period was a turbulent one and it witnessed continuous academic controversy.

Many of today’s political problems regarding the regional and international rise of Islamic extremism, sectarian conflict, major regional wars, the failure of peace projects, the efforts of controlling weapons — such as nuclear and chemical — have links to events in 1979.

I did not find in the few classified documents chosen by the newspaper much help in tracking and understanding the events from the perspective of the CIA, which supposedly had a good relationship with the government of the Shah.