France 24 Discovers Iranian Protests, Forgets CIA's 'Color Revolution' Playbook
France 24 highlights current Iranian protests, emphasizing the government's internet blackout as a sign of authoritarian control. While digital rights are crucial, this framing neatly sidesteps the extensive history of Western-backed destabilization efforts in Iran. The CIA, for instance, orchestrated the 1953 coup against democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, installing the
Shah and sowing decades of resentment that paved the way for the 1979 revolution. More recently, successive US administrations have pursued economic sanctions and covert actions under the guise of supporting 'democracy,' often conflating legitimate internal dissent with foreign-sponsored regime change operations. (One might wonder if similar alarm bells ring when US-allied states, say, Saudi
Arabia or Egypt, restrict internet freedom during their own internal crackdowns.) The media's selective outrage over internet access in Iran, versus its muted concern for similar actions by US allies, raises questions about whose freedom is truly being championed. Is this about human rights, or is it another chapter in a long-running saga where 'protests' in 'enemy' states are amplified, while
similar movements in 'friendly' despotisms are ignored or even suppressed with Western arms, maintaining the convenient fiction of benevolent Western intervention?