The body of the latest hero in Portuguese history is brought back to the Lisbon barracks where he was killed last week, the only death in an attempted right-wing coup. The coup itself is a miserable failure. This Week: Portugal: Attempted Coup, Thames TV 1975
The failed revolt shattered the right of centre parties in Portugal. ibid.
On November 8th 1923 Adolf Hitler led the infamous beerhall putsch, an attempt to take power in Germany by force. It was a day that would change the world for ever. Hitler’s Coup 1923, Giles Milton reporting, History 2023
In some ways Hitler’s putsch on 8th/9th November 1923 was a complete failure. It didn’t bring about what he hoped to bring about. It didn’t bring about the national revolution. But without that putsch Hitler may never have come to power. It gave him time to reflect, it gave him time to think about how he would destroy the Wehrmarch regime. ibid.
‘Hitler’s model was of course Mussolini’s march on Rome.’ ibid. Sir Richard Evans
Now he makes a fatal mistake. He leaves the Bierkeller and he leaves the ruling triumvirate of Bavaria in the hands of Ludendorff … Everything starts to unravel. ibid.
On November 9th 1923 Hitler’s attempt to seize power in the Beerhall Putsch had ended in a deadly gun battle in the centre of Munich. ibid.
He’s going to be tried in a people’s court in Bavaria with a very sympathetic judge. ibid.
March 2011: Libyan rebels rise against Muammar Gaddafi. What at first appears to be a spontaneous uprising is in reality the culmination of a carefully managed, top secret, 30-year-old, CIA operation. For decades America has been plotting to remove the man it branded the Mad Dog of the Middle East. What few people know as the rebellion against Gaddafi unfolds is that the man leading the uprising is in fact a long-time CIA contact. CIA Declassified s1e1: Killing Mad Dog Gaddafi, 2014
The Libyan rebels are directed and coordinated by CIA experts on the ground. ibid.
CIA headquarters, Langley, Virginia: The North Africa desk is buzzing. They are monitoring secret communications coming in from Libya. ibid.
1986: Operation El Dorado Canyon: Instead of sending in a CIA hit squad, the US will launch air strikes on a series of military targets inside Libya. ibid.
The rebels turn into a baying mob. They unleash a murderous revenge upon Gaddafi for four decades of oppression. ibid.
Guatemala, 1954: The Central Intelligence Agency launches an operation codenamed PBSuccess to overthrow the government that is threatening American interests in the region. It is the first ever mission of its kind. 500 rebels will face off against the President’s army of 6,000. The CIA has handpicked the next leader of Guatemala, and he is the head of the rebel force. CIA Declassified s1e10: The Deadly Phantom Coup
12 August 1953, Washington DC: A top secret meeting is convened at the White House. Its task – to deal with a brand-new security threat, a small country in Central America, Guatemala. Present are America’s most powerful men. ibid.
The decision is made – Arbenz must be removed … The plan is to secretly back an armed uprising against Guatemala’s freely elected leader Arbenz and topple him in a coup d’etat. ibid.
Declassified files now show that the president [Eisenhower] provide Dallas [CIA] with two brand new F4 47 bombers. ibid.
But the CIA still has one last trump card yet to play – psychological warfare. ibid.
In June 1974 a very very strange thing happened in Britain. Heathrow Airport, then as now the busiest airport in the UK and one of the most important in the world, was suddenly invaded. In a fast operation 400 British military personnel plus police began to isolate the airport using armoured vehicles to set up checkpoints and roadblocks while armed soldiers and police began checking vehicles and drivers’ documents. The managers of Heathrow had not been forewarned. Mark Felton: Operation Clockwork Orange: Secret Military Coup Against British Prime Minister, Mark Felton productions, Youtube 2025
When news of this action, codenamed Operation Marmaion, reached 10 Downing Street, the home of the British prime minister, it caused considerable alarm in the prime minister’s office. The prime minister, Harold Wilson, had not been informed of such an operation. ibid.
MI5 sent Peter Wright [Spycatcher] to talk to the chief doctor at Porton Down, Britain’s top-secret chemical and biological warfare establishment. The doctor stated that he and his staff had absolutely no idea how Gaitskill could have contracted the disease. MI5, already suspicious of Harold Wilson’s loyalties hence their file on him, suspected that Gaitskill might have been assassinated by the KGB to ensure Harold Wilson became Labour prime minister. ibid.
Diplomatic relations between Iran and the US were severed in 1980, and hostilities between the two nations remain high. The root cause of the hostilities goes back more than fifty years. American Coup, Amazon 2010
In August of 1953 Iran had a democratic government. Its parliament and prime minister, the popular Mohammad Mosaddegh had nationalised the oil industry to control the country’s chief asset. Then, the CIA intervened. ibid.
‘I never would have agreed to the formation of the CIA back in 47 … if I had known it would become the American Gestapo.’ ibid. Harry S Truman
‘Iran, formerly known as Persia, is one of the world’s oldest civilisations.’ ibid. comment
In 1908 the British discovered oil in Iran. Geologists soon learned that Iran sits on an ocean of oil. ibid.
‘So people in Iran began challenging Anglo Iranian Oil company.’ ibid. comment
‘So the next stage was to have a [British] blockade of Iran.’ ibid.
It wasn’t hard for the British to talk the [Dulles] brothers into overthrowing Mosaddegh. ibid.
Shah Flees Iran After Move To Dismiss Mossadegh Fails. ibid. The New York Times headline Kennett Love August 16th 1953
For the next several days [Kermit] Roosevelt played the roll of puppeteer, throwing Tehran deep into chaos … ibid.
Roosevelt made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. ibid.
To head up the coup, the CIA had chosen Fazlollah Zahedi who had a reputation for ruthlessness. ibid.
Three months after the coup, Mosaddegh was tried in a military court on trumped-up charges of treason. ibid.
‘The Shah ruled for 25 years with increasing repression. His repression produced the explosion of the late 1970s, what we call the Islamic revolution.’ ibid. comment
Former CIA operative Richard Cottam contradicted the claims made by the CIA about its involvement in the coup. ibid. Caption
The CIA prepared a report on how the coup was to be carried out. ibid.
‘The CIA working very closely with the Iranian Nazi Party.’ ibid. comment