SECRETS OF THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION


Book Description

This intriguing book by Manouchehr Bibiyan, producer and president of Los Angeles based JAAM-E-JAM Television Network, is a rare political document and a credible historical primary source on the history of modern Iran. Based on the many interviews of Mr. Manouchehr Bibiyan and his staff with Iranian public figures over the years, Secrets of the Iranian Revolution is a unique and rare glimpse behind the scenes of one of the most turbulent modern revolutions. Mr. Manouchehr Bibiyan, the producer and president of JAAM-E-JAM Television Network, continues to be a prominent, influential, active and permanent presence in the arenas of music, culture and politics as he has for the more than fifty-three years in Iran and the United States. He was born on November 22, 1933 in Tehran. After completing high school and higher education in Tehran and Tel Aviv, he soon contributed to the field of Journalism. Prior to the Iranian Revolution, Manouchehr Bibiyan was Iran’s biggest producer of Iranian music and for twenty-five years (1954-1979),he produced eighty percent of Iran’s music. During the Shah’s regime, Iran’s national radio and television produced about ten percent of Iran’s music. Therefore, throughout this period it primarily broadcast the music produced by Manouchehr Bibiyan’s music company, Apollon. As President of Apollon Music Company, he introduced the most successful and celebrated Iranian singers to the Iranian public. With the cooperation of young and talented songwriters and composers, Mr. Bibiyan introduced pop and jazz to Iranians, revolutionizing Iran’s music industry. During the Iranian Revolution and with the likelihood of the imminent establishment of an Islamic republic, Manouchehr Bibiyan left Iran and established residency in Los Angeles. In 1980, he founded Pars Video in orderto preserve Iranian music, language and culture outside Iran. A year later, in1981, in response to historic necessity, he founded JAAM-E-JAM Television. This medium was a bridge between the displaced Iranians in their first few years of exile and a link to the larger community in America. Within a few short years, JAAM-E-JAM Television was broadcasting its programs nationwide and currently it broadcasts worldwide via satellite. JAAM-E-JAM Television broadcasts a program entitled Tribun-e-Azaad (Open Forum) consisting of interviews conducted by the author, Manouchehr Bibiyan, and his staff with world leaders and political figures. Open Forum became a medium for recording, preserving and presenting the secrets of history. Both Iranian and world statespersons participated in the forum. For the first time in history, Iranian statespersons from the old regime of the Shah narrated the historical events and revealed the secrets of the causes and consequences of the Iranian Revolution for the hundreds of thousands of viewers of JAAM-E-JAM Television.




The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran


Book Description

The shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, would remain on the throne for the foreseeable future: This was the firm conclusion of a top-secret CIA analysis issued in October 1978. One hundred days later the shah--despite his massive military, fearsome security police, and superpower support was overthrown by a popular and largely peaceful revolution. But the CIA was not alone in its myopia, as Charles Kurzman reveals in this penetrating work; Iranians themselves, except for a tiny minority, considered a revolution inconceivable until it actually occurred. Revisiting the circumstances surrounding the fall of the shah, Kurzman offers rare insight into the nature and evolution of the Iranian revolution and into the ultimate unpredictability of protest movements in general. As one Iranian recalls, The future was up in the air. Through interviews and eyewitness accounts, declassified security documents and underground pamphlets, Kurzman documents the overwhelming sense of confusion that gripped pre-revolutionary Iran, and that characterizes major protest movements. His book provides a striking picture of the chaotic conditions under which Iranians acted, participating in protest only when they expected others to do so too, the process approaching critical mass in unforeseen and unforeseeable ways. Only when large numbers of Iranians began to think the unthinkable, in the words of the U.S. ambassador, did revolutionary expectations become a self-fulfilling prophecy. A corrective to 20-20 hindsight, this book reveals shortcomings of analyses that make the Iranian revolution or any major protest movement seem inevitable in retrospect.




My Turn to Speak


Book Description

Includes material on Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, the "October Surprise" controversy, and the Ayatollah Khomeini.




Revolutionary Iran


Book Description

In Revolutionary Iran, Michael Axworthy offers a richly textured and authoritative history of Iran from the 1979 revolution to the present.




The Iranian Revolution


Book Description

Examines how the Iranian Revolution became a showdown between the ideas and values of Islam and those of the West and how it recast the face of the Middle East.




Days of God


Book Description

A myth-busting insider’s account of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that destroyed US influence in the country and transformed the politics of the Middle East and the world. The 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran was one of the seminal events of our time. It inaugurated more than thirty years of war in the Middle East and fostered an Islamic radicalism that shapes foreign policy in the United States and Europe to this day. Drawing on his lifetime of engagement with Iran, James Buchan explains the history that gave rise to the Revolution, in which Ayatollah Khomeini and his supporters displaced the Shah with little diffi­culty. Mystifyingly to outsiders, the people of Iran turned their backs on a successful Westernized government for an amateurish religious regime. Buchan dispels myths about the Iranian Revolution and instead assesses the historical forces to which it responded. He puts the extremism of the Islamic regime in perspective: a truly radical revolution, it can be compared to the French or Russian Revolu­tions. Using recently declassified diplomatic papers and Persian-language news reports, diaries, memoirs, interviews, and theological tracts, Buchan illumi­nates both Khomeini and the Shah. His writing is always clear, dispassionate, and informative. The Iranian Revolution was a turning point in modern history, and James Buchan’s Days of God is, as London’s Independent put it, “a compelling, beautifully written history” of that event.




The Twilight War


Book Description

"An important and timely book that should be required reading for anyone interested in understanding how the United States and Iran went from close allies to enduring enemies." -The Washington Post "Deserves a spot on the short list of must-read books on United States-Iran relations." -The New York Times The dramatic secret history of the undeclared, ongoing war between the U.S. and Iran. The United States and Iran have been engaged in an unacknowledged secret war since the 1970s. This conflict has frustrated multiple American presidents, divided administrations, and repeatedly threatened to bring the two nations to the brink of open warfare. Drawing upon unparalleled access to senior officials and key documents of several U.S. administrations, David Crist, a senior historian in the federal government, breaks new ground on virtually every page of The Twilight War. From the Iranian Revolution to secret negotiations between Iran and the United States after 9/11, from Iran’s nuclear program to the secretive and deadly role of Qasem Soleimani, Crist brings vital new depth to our understanding of “the Iran problem”—and what the future of this tense relationship may bring.




Deadly Secrets of Iranian Princes


Book Description

Every once in a while, someone with unprecedented access to the truth, lifts the veil in a memoir so stark and revealing that it has the power to reframe history and our perceptions of those who defined it. Pascal Mahvi's book is one such to me. The Deadly Secrets of Iranian Princes, which spans three decades, is Mahvi's candid account of his struggle growing up straddling two cultures and in the process reconciling his own identity both as an American and a descendant of Iranian royalty. When the newly appointed Shah of Iran reaches out to Mahvi's father to become his chief advisor and confidante, young Pascal is thrust into the controversial leader's elite inner-sanctum during one of the most pivotal periods in history. The author's story of survival is at once both riveting and poignant, offering rare, intimate glimpses of the Shah at his most human away from the glare of the spotlight. It is also a window into the surprising strengths and frailties of some of the world's most famous celebrities from the deeply personal perspective of someone who unexpectedly finds himself an intimate part of their world. Told through the eyes of a son forced to become a man against a backdrop of unimaginable danger and sacrifice, Deadly Secrets of Iranian Princes is the front page story that hasn't been broken...until now. The revelations in this book, from corporate treason and corrupt government to the surreal demands of being an insider in the shadow of a nuclear arms race are sure to ignite a firestorm of controversy, especially for those whose betrayals will finally become public. More than a news story, at its heart, Deadly Secrets of Iranian Princes is also a haunting testimonial to the complexities of extreme privilege and the unforgettable chronicle of one man's quest to honor his father....




The Secret History of Iran


Book Description

Iran is an ancient place of extreme contrasts. It is both blessed and cursed.It is home to both Islam and anti-Islam. This book attempts to trace out the Secret History of Iran, from 500 B.C. to present. This book covers the various secret groups and cabals that continue to dominate Iran, from the remnants of Mystery Babylon and the Sabaeans to crypto-Byzantines. Their little known role in the Mongol Invasion is investigated. Connections between such groups and well-known poets and intellectuals produced by Iran is methodically examined. Under the little known Khwarezm Empire, Iran served as the key to the Mongol destruction of the Islamic World. Today, Iran has once again been thrust into a similar position, as the modern-day Mongols encircle the Middle East. What role will Iran play this time?




The Secret War with Iran


Book Description

For twenty-six years, Iran has waged an international terrorist war while the intelligence services of the West, led by Mossad and the CIA, have waged a relentless, mostly clandestine counter-jihad in return. Though Iran has become a quietly looming threat, little has been revealed about this intelligence-based war. Now, Ronen Bergman, Israel’s leading reporter and analyst of intelligence affairs, has written a full account of this secret war. He connected the dots of the long history of Iranian backed terrorist attacks, and revealed for the first time many classified operations against the Iranian terrorist network, including details about collaborations between Israel’s Mossad and the CIA and FBI; thrilling Mossad operations, the successful recruitment of top insiders of Iranian intelligence, who have disclosed a wealth of information about Iran’s nuclear program as well as it’s terrorist activities; and the use of ultra-sophisticated surveillance equipment to penetrate and damage Iranian targets. From the Iranian proxy Hizbollah’s planning of terrorists attacks from apartments in New York City, to Iran’s training of an army of work Iraqi insurgents in the techniques of suicide bombing and the making of improvised explosive devises, he showed Iran has steadily waged war against the West.