The Guardian's one-sided Iran 'Explainer': "A troubled history"

Once again the Guardian and its journalists try to convince us that the West can do no wrong and its the fault of those 'orrible "wogs".

Here is my letter to Ian Black and the Guardian Reader's editor:

Dear Ian Black,

I read your recent 'Explainer': "A troubled history" (1) this morning'.

You state in the first paragraph "The two countries have been at daggers drawn since the 1979 Islamic revolution, when the shah, long backed by Washington, was overthrown by Ayatollah Khomeini."

Your cut-off date of 1979 is grossly misleading as to the 'troubled history' between the 2 countries, as you fail to mention the British and American-instigated coup of 1953 which brought the Shah's bloody dictatorship to power, overthrowing the democratically-elected government of Mossadeq, which was the real cause of said 'troubled history'. This episode has been described in detail by the NYT Pullitzer prizewinner Tim Weiner in his book "Legacy of Ashes".

The US National Security Archive calls it "a watershed for Iran, for the Middle East and for the standing of the United States in the region" and states further that when "the Shah finally fell in 1979, memories of the U.S. intervention in 1953, which made possible the monarch's subsequent, and increasingly unpopular, 25-reign intensified the anti-American character of the revolution in the minds of many Iranians."(2) Yet you obviously feel it has nothing to do with the 'troubled hstory' between the two countries!

The US is trying the exact same tactic now according to Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker, and yet you feel this is also not relevant enough to include in your "Explainer".... (3)

C.P. Scott would be rolling in his grave considering his slogan that 'facts are sacred'. A bit more respect for your readers Mr. Black!

Please amend the article to include these fundamentally relevant facts.

Yours Sincerely

Links:

(1) A troubled history

(2) Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran

(3) "The Finding was focussed on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change,"
Preparing the Battlefield: The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.