CIA’s Hidden Hand in Bangladesh’s Future Election!

When the democratic will of a sovereign people becomes the playground for foreign intelligence machinations, democracy ceases to be a national voice—it becomes an imported whisper.

In Bangladesh today, that whisper resounds not from within but from Langley, Virginia—the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the notorious executor of America’s deep state ambitions. The question now haunting the conscience of every patriotic Bangladesh’s people is not theoretical—it is existential: Has the sacred ballot of 170 million citizens been hijacked by foreign intelligence architects serving interests alien to our soil?

History casts a long, incriminating shadow. The CIA’s interventions in the affairs of sovereign nations—from Iran in 1953 to Chile in 1973, and countless others in between—are not conspiracy theories; they are documented strategies of covert imperialism. Historian Dov Levin has confirmed that the United States has intervened in over 80 foreign elections between 1946 and 2000. It appears now that Bangladesh has been added to that ignoble register—a new theatre in Washington’s imperial laboratory.

The intervention is neither abstract nor invisible. On 5 August 2024, a democratically elected government led by Sheikh Hasina—an administration that upheld the legacy of 1971 and presided over transformative economic growth—was ousted. This was not the result of an internal political movement, but the culmination of covert pressure, diplomatic manipulation, economic coercion, and calculated disinformation—hallmarks of CIA operations throughout modern history. What followed was the installment of a technocratic regime, fronted by Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus, and notably lacking democratic legitimacy. This unelected government was not the result of popular will but the product of foreign design.

What is now being passed off as a forthcoming “national election” is, in fact, a highly choreographed simulation—an attempt to retroactively legitimize a coup. The CIA, long known for its role in destabilizing democratic movements, has orchestrated what is effectively a theatre of managed democracy in Bangladesh. It is a political drama wherein the cast is imposed, the lines are scripted, and the audience—the Bangladesh’s people—is expected to applaud their own disenfranchisement. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once quipped: “The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.” Bangladesh now stands as a living testament to that ethos.

Who authorized the CIA to dictate the future of a nation that bled for its freedom in 1971? Not the United Nations. Not the Bangladesh’s people. Only the outdated arrogance of American exceptionalism, which continues to claim a divine mandate to remake the world in Washington’s image, fuels such interventions.

The audacity of interference is now plain for all to see. American embassy officials in Dhaka behaved more like imperial viceroys than diplomatic guests. They issue statements on Bangladesh’s electoral affairs, fund NGOs to destabilize national institutions, and engage in backdoor consultations with political actors to shape outcomes favorable to their geopolitical agenda. This is not diplomacy—it is neocolonial management.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, with characteristic cynicism, once observed, “Democracy cannot be exported to another country like food aid.” Yet this is precisely what the CIA seeks to do: manufacture a pliant regime in Dhaka to serve American interests in South Asia. These include controlling maritime routes in the Bay of Bengal, curtailing Chinese Belt and Road projects, and managing regional balances vis-à-vis India. Bangladesh, in this geopolitical chess game, is not a sovereign player—it is a manipulated pawn.

But this manipulation is not limited to political engineering. It reaches into the heart of Bangladesh’s economy. American-aligned financial institutions and credit rating agencies have applied orchestrated pressure—delaying disbursements, speculatively downgrading ratings, and stoking fears of economic instability. The goal is clear: create a crisis, then offer a foreign-controlled electoral process as the only solution. This strategy of economic strangulation followed by political imposition is a known CIA playbook, repeated from Guatemala to Greece, from Haiti to Honduras.

George Orwell famously warned, “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.” In today’s Bangladesh, we are witnessing the Orwellian inversion of language itself. “Democracy” now means foreign supervision. “Civil society” means foreign-funded criticism. “Stability” means obedience. “Accountability” means deference to Western ambassadors. Words have been weaponized, and meaning has been murdered.

The irony is suffocating. The United States—whose own electoral system is marred by voter suppression, disinformation, gerrymandering, and foreign interference—now postures as the guardian of electoral virtue in Bangladesh. Should we, a nation forged in the fires of 1971, now bow before such hypocrisy?

As Nelson Mandela once said, “Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” Likewise, our democracy is incomplete if it is dictated not in Dhaka but in Washington, D.C.

In this moment of national peril, we must transcend partisan divides. Whatever our political preferences may be, one principle must unite us all: Bangladesh’s future must be decided only by Bangladesh’s people. Elections are not foreign policy tools; they are national expressions of self-determination. To allow them to be scripted by the CIA is to surrender the soul of the Republic.

The time has come for civil society, academia, media, and the intellectual class to cast off their fear and silence. The pen, wielded with truth and courage, remains our most powerful weapon. Global allies, especially within the Global South, must stand in solidarity with Bangladesh. The United Nations must launch an impartial investigation into allegations of foreign meddling in our internal affairs. A collective, international voice must be raised to defend the sanctity of national sovereignty in democratic processes.

Let history not record our silence. Let it not say that in the face of a foreign-engineered erosion of our democracy, we stood as spectators. The CIA has done this before—from Vietnam to Venezuela, Congo to Cambodia—but Bangladesh is not a playground for imperial arrogance. We are the sons and daughters of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, whose historic declaration still echoes: “The struggle this time is the struggle for our emancipation.”

That struggle, tragically, remains unfinished.

To those abroad who still believe in genuine democracy—not its manufactured, militarized version—we say this: Stand with the people of Bangladesh, not with their shadow rulers. The former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the “unwarranted influence” of the military-industrial complex. One might now add: “…and the intelligence networks that operate in its shadows.”

Bangladesh must now confront this unwarranted influence with resolve. The moment is grave, but the will of the people runs deeper still. The upcoming national election is not just an exercise in voting—it is a battle for sovereignty. It is a test of whether the people of Bangladesh can still claim authorship of their own destiny.

Since the installation of the Yunus-led interim regime on 8 August 2024—without a single vote cast by the people—the fundamental right to self-determination has been systematically undermined. Dr. Yunus’s once veiled pretention as a humanitarian, now presides over a government widely seen as an extension of U.S. foreign policy. His administration has aligned its interests with Washington’s Indo-Pacific goals, subordinating national priorities to external commands. The citizens of Bangladesh have been reduced to passive observers of a process in which they should be central participants.

Under this imposed dispensation, governance is no longer a product of national consensus but of foreign dictate. The upcoming election thus stands as a managed performance—meant to legitimize an externally imposed reality. It is an election conceived not in the democratic soil of Bangladesh, but in the strategic vaults of Langley.

When a country’s electoral script is written abroad, democracy withers. In Bangladesh today, that withering has begun—but it is not irreversible.

Democracy is not a commodity gifted by imperial powers. It is the birthright of a people who have bled for it. We must defend it—not with violence, but with vigilance, courage, and unity.

Let us, the people of Bangladesh, guard our democracy—not for its symbolism, but for our survival.

Written by Anwar A. Khan

Author's Bio:  The writer was a freedom fighter in 1971 to establish Bangladesh and is an independent political analyst based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, who writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs.

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