TODAY - AUGUST 8, 2024, STANDS AS ONE OF THE DARKEST CHAPTERS IN BANGLADESH’S HISTORY

August 8, 2024, stands as one of the darkest chapters in Bangladesh’s history—a day marked by the unlawful usurpation of power by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, orchestrated with the covert support of the CIA. This brazen subversion of constitutional authority echoes the grim legacy of foreign-backed coups that have scarred nations across the Global South.

The Silent Coup of August 2024

On August 5, 2024, the old imperial playbook was dusted off once more—cloaked hands, foreign whispers, and the unmistakable imprint of regime change. In chilling resonance with the CIA-led coups in Iran (1953) and Chile (1973), Bangladesh became the latest theatre for covert manipulation. With allegations swirling of CIA collusion with domestic collaborators, a silent and surgical seizure of state unfolded. By August 8, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, long considered a darling of Western political elites, was catapulted to power—an accession widely believed as illegitimate and orchestrated from the shadows of Langley, Virginia, not the will of the people.

As Mark Twain famously said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” And this grim stanza rhymed with betrayal. Under the hollow pretext of reform, Bangladesh’s democracy was suffocated, sovereignty subverted.

The haunting precedent was set nearly five decades prior. On August 15, 1975, the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was brutally assassinated along with most of his family. Far from a spontaneous mutiny, it was a calculated act—an imperial strike masked as internal dissent. The CIA, well-versed in the dark arts of destabilization from Tehran to Santiago, is long acted to have fueled the ambitions of rogue officers within the Bangladeshi army. Deluded by power and emboldened by foreign assurances, they paved the way for decades of instability.

As Malcolm X once declared, “The media is the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent.” Those crafting the narrative in 1975—and again in 2024—knew the value of perception in legitimizing illegitimacy.

Fast forward to August 5, 2024—a day cloaked in eerie silence, yet thunderous in significance. Once again, forces behind diplomatic smiles and aid packages maneuvered behind the curtain. The CIA, according to many, emerged as a cardinal force, covertly aligning with sections of the domestic elite to engineer the erosion of electoral sovereignty. Their target? Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, whose unapologetic refusal to reduce Bangladesh to a vassal of Western geostrategic interests made her a stumbling block to neocolonial designs.

As in 1975, the motive was not partnership—but control. The same imperial blueprint—refined, digitized, and veiled in “democratic concern”—was invoked to subvert a sovereign nation's will. But Sheikh Hasina’s unflinching stance—refusing to make Bangladesh a Yankee feudatory—earned her both admiration from her people and enemies abroad.

Bangladesh must remain vigilant, for beneath the velvet glove lies the clenched imperial fist. The theatre of geopolitics may evolve, but the actors and intentions often remain the same. As George Orwell warned in 1984, “Who controls the past controls the future? Who controls the present controls the past?”

Let the lessons of history not be swallowed by silence. In remembering, there is resistance. And in resistance, there is sovereignty.

More So about the CIA: The CIA’s Dark Legacy of Global Coup-Mongering

In the annals of international espionage and covert manipulation, few institutions have left as indelible a stain on democratic aspirations worldwide as the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Charged ostensibly with the protection of American national security, the CIA has, for decades, operated as an unaccountable arm of imperial policy—engineering the toppling of governments, the subversion of popular movements, and the installation of brutal regimes to ensure the United States' geopolitical dominance. The cost? Countless lives lost, societies shattered, and democracies derailed.

The very architecture of the modern CIA was forged in the crucible of Cold War paranoia, but its actions have far outlived that era, creating what author William Blum once called “a laboratory of empire.” With shocking consistency, the Agency has orchestrated, aided, or abetted coups in sovereign nations, cloaking these illegal interventions under the guise of “freedom,” “democracy,” or the ever-elastic term— “national interest.”

Let us delve into some of the more egregious examples.

Iran, 1953: The Fall of Mossadegh

One of the CIA’s earliest and most infamous operations was the overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953. Mossadegh had dared to nationalize Iran’s oil industry—wresting it from British control—and for this, he was branded a threat.

With “Operation Ajax,” the CIA, alongside Britain’s MI6, unleashed a campaign of propaganda, bribery, and street violence. Mossadegh was deposed and replaced with the autocratic Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, whose brutal rule—bolstered by the CIA-trained SAVAK secret police—would ultimately fuel the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Reflecting on this operation decades later, former CIA officer Kermit Roosevelt Jr., who led the coup, remarked with chilling nonchalance: “It was just a game we played.” But for the Iranian people, the consequences were no game.

Chile, 1973: Make the Economy Scream

In the Southern Cone of Latin America, the CIA's fingerprints are equally damning. On September 11, 1973, the democratically elected socialist President of Chile, Salvador Allende, was overthrown in a violent military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. The role of the CIA in destabilizing Allende’s government—economically and politically—has been well-documented, including through declassified U.S. documents.

In the lead-up to the coup, then-President Richard Nixon famously ordered the CIA to “make the economy scream.” What followed was a multifaceted campaign of economic sabotage, psychological warfare, and political subversion, culminating in the bombing of the presidential palace, the death of Allende, and the rise of a military dictatorship responsible for the torture, disappearance, and execution of thousands.

As writer Eduardo Galeano poignantly noted: “The dictatorship imposed an economic model of savage capitalism, inaugurated in Chile by blood and fire.” All with Washington’s silent approval.

Congo, 1961: The Murder of Lumumba

Patrice Lumumba, the charismatic first Prime Minister of an independent Congo, envisioned a future free from colonial exploitation. For this vision, he was perceived as dangerous—not to his people, but to Western mining interests and Cold War chess players.

The CIA, in collaboration with Belgian intelligence and local actors, engineered his removal and eventual execution. President Dwight Eisenhower reportedly authorized Lumumba’s assassination, while CIA Director Allen Dulles described the Congolese leader as a “mad dog” who had to be eliminated.

Lumumba’s death plunged the Congo into decades of dictatorship under Mobutu Sese Seko—one of the most corrupt tyrants in African history and a faithful Western ally.

Guatemala, 1954: The Banana Republic’s Orchestrated Collapse

In 1954, the CIA deposed Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz, whose modest land reform program threatened the interests of the United Fruit Company (an American corporation with deep ties to Washington powerbrokers). “Operation PBSUCCESS” saw the CIA arm and train a small rebel force while waging a propaganda war that portrayed Árbenz as a communist threat.

This intervention not only toppled a progressive democratic government but also sparked a 36-year civil war that resulted in over 200,000 deaths—most of them Indigenous civilians, often massacred by U.S.-backed military forces.

Years later, former President Bill Clinton would apologize for the U.S. role in these atrocities, stating: “It is important that I state clearly that support for military forces or intelligence units which engaged in violent and widespread repression... was wrong.”

Indonesia, 1965: A “Quiet” Genocide

In Indonesia, the CIA played a key role in one of the bloodiest anti-communist purges of the 20th century. Following an attempted coup in 1965, the U.S. Embassy provided the Indonesian army with lists of suspected communists and leftist sympathizers. What followed was a brutal massacre in which between 500,000 and one million people were slaughtered.

The CIA’s own internal assessment lauded the events as “a major victory” in the Cold War. Meanwhile, Western media hailed Suharto, the dictator who rose to power, as a bulwark against communism.

The British writer Harold Pinter, in his Nobel lecture, condemned this moral depravity: “It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest.”

A Pattern, Not a Mistake

These are not isolated misjudgments or unfortunate episodes; they represent a systematic pattern of illegal, immoral interventions masquerading as strategy. Under the doctrine of “plausible deniability,” the CIA became a shadow government—one that operated without public accountability, Congressional oversight, or regard for international law.

The irony is stark: In claiming to defend democracy, the CIA often annihilated it. As Senator Frank Church warned in the 1970s after leading a landmark investigation into CIA abuses:

“If this government ever became a tyrant… the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny.”

The warning rings louder today in an era of mass surveillance and perpetual war.

The Reckoning That Never Came

Despite public revelations and scattered apologies, there has been no real reckoning for the CIA’s global coup-mongering. The architects of these interventions have largely escaped justice. Instead, their successors continue to operate under the same veil of secrecy.

From Libya to Syria, Venezuela to Ukraine, the CIA’s methods—economic destabilization, disinformation, proxy warfare, and clandestine support—remain chillingly familiar. The ideological foe may have shifted from communism to “authoritarianism,” but the machinery of regime changes hums with the same ruthless efficiency.

Conclusion: A Call for Transparency and Restraint

The time has come to shine a relentless light on this dark chapter of modern history—not as an exercise in nostalgia, but as a moral imperative. The international community must demand transparency, accountability, and adherence to international law. Democracy cannot be exported at gunpoint or imposed through the backdoor of subversion.

As the philosopher George Santayana cautioned: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

To prevent future generations from paying the bloody price of empire, we must confront the truths our governments prefer to bury—and ensure that the CIA’s cloak no longer hides the dagger.

By: Anwar A. Khan,

 Anwar A. Khan, a 1971 freedom fighter to establish Bangladesh and a political analyst, remains committed to writing about international affairs and the political landscape of Bangladesh from Dhaka, Bangladesh.

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