the government of Bangladesh was overthrown in August after months of violent protests a new interim leader came to power named Muhammad Eunice who is a banker who is very closely linked to the US government the US Congress awarded Muhammad Eunice with its top award for a civilian the US Congressional gold medal and in 2009 US president Obama gave Unice the medal of freedom after Bangladesh's government was toppled the US state department immediately recognized the new unelected Administration and US Secretary of State Anthony blinkin tweeted that he welcomed in the swearing in of Dr Muhammad Eunice
to lead the interim government and he says that the United States is committed to working with Bangladesh as it charts a democratic and prosperous future Muhammad yunice has been closely linked to the US government for decades he spent a large part of his career working in the US training as a neoliberal economist Unis became very wealthy and famous because he created the gamine bank which is referred to as the so-called bank for the poor and his idea was that many poor people don't have access to bank in so he could profit from giving what are
known as microloans to poor people exploiting poor people in the perverse name of helping them researchers in Australia who support the gine bank they're not critics they admitted that the average rate of interest on a working capital loan at the gine bank is 20% in a poor country like Bangladesh 20% is a very high rate of interest that is exploitative and gine has also expanded from Bangladesh around the world including in the United States where the bank gine America has opened banks in 207n cities and boasts of giving out more than 1 million loans on
its website it boasts of targeting poor communities in the US in particular black and Latino communities and the web website of the gine bank states that their interest rates are 15 to 18% on their loans again 18% is a very high interest rate this is exploitative but through his work as a banker Muhammad yunice became very close to top US government officials especially the Clinton family Hillary Clinton went with Unice to a village in Bangladesh and Bill Clinton the former president said to CNN way back in 2001 that he was advocating for Unice to receive
a Nobel Prize and that is exactly what happened a few years later in 2006 Muhammad Eunice was given the Nobel Peace Prize meaning he shares this dubious honor with war criminals like Barack Obama and Henry Kissinger who were also given peace prizes despite the many wars and coups that they backed but it's not just the overt support that the US government has provided to Unis there's also been quite a lot of covert support and this is proven by US state department cables published by Wikileaks back in 2009 in a confidential State Department cable titled Nobel
laate requests US Government help on gine Bank rules this document reveals that Muhammad Eunice has been collaborating for decades with the US government conspiring behind the scenes against the previous leader of Bangladesh the elected prime minister shik Hina and in this state department cable it notes that the US ambassador in Bangladesh was having regular meetings with Muhammad Eunice who was requesting Washington's support on lobbying against the Prime Minister Hina on behalf of the gine bank and in the state department cable it noted that the US ambassador quote pledged to assist Unice in obtaining a meeting
with the Prime Minister and in arguing on Eunice's behalf with the Prime Minister and her advisors and this cable also acknowledges that Unice and the US ambassador were discussing their frustration with the government of prime minister shik Hina and her party the awami league these are just a few pieces of evidence showing how the US government has played a role in the overthrow of Bangladesh's previous prime minister shik Hina and the installation of the new leader who is unelected Muhammad Eunice now sh Casina has been demonized in the western media and by the US government
as authoritarian she was democratically elected and she served office from 2009 until 2024 so she was in office for 15 years that means that she actually served less time in office than the former German leader Anga Merle who is in office for 16 years longer than shik Casina Merkel was never demonized as a authoritarian or a dictator of course because she was a loyal Western Ally now the overthrow of Hina has become a hotly debated geopolitical topic involving the United States China Russia and India the major powers in the world today I'm going to be
discussing the geopolitics of this the role of the US government why there were large protests the legitimate critiques of Hina and the government in Bangladesh the allegations of corruption the economic problems and poverty this is a very complicated issue but it's very important to understand what happened in a larger historical context looking at the so-called color revolutions that have gone on in Eastern Europe in Central Asia in Western Asia in the so-called Middle East and in North Africa where the US government has played a role in in coups and violent protest movements that have successfully
overthrown governments it doesn't mean that every government overthrown was a perfect government that represented the people and that there was no corruption obviously many of these governments have a lot of problems many of these leaders are deeply flawed but what is important to understand is that the US government has a history of backing these so-called color revolutions against independent leaders in order to advance its geopolitical interests it doesn't mean that those leaders are perfect or even ideal or good but in many ways they were seen as obstacles to us geopolitical interests and this is precisely
what shik Casina has alleged the Indian media reported in August after she fled to India they obtained access to a speech that she allegedly prepared in which she accused the US government of backing the attempt to oust her and the violent protests and in particular according to this speech sha Casina said quote I could have remained in power if I had surrendered the sovereignty of St Martin island and allowed America to hold sway over the Bay of Bengal so what is she talking about here she's accusing the US government of backing this color Revolution because
Washington for years has pressured Bangladesh to allow it to turn this strategic Island to the south of Bangladesh called St Martin's Island into a US military base in order for the US military to have power projection in the Bay of Bengal and I think there are two major geopolitical interests driving the US here first of all the US wants to have more control over Myanmar where there is a military government that came to power Myanmar had previously been governed from 2016 to 2021 by another western-backed leader Anan suuchi who by the way also was a
winner of the Nobel Peace Prize like Muhammad Eunice like Barack Obama like Henry Kissinger Anansi had been a loyal Western Ally many of the groups backing her had been funded by the US government through organs like the National Endowment for democracy she obviously leaned in her foreign policy toward the west and was very critical of China and the military overthrew her in 2021 creating a military government which has been much more independent in its foreign policy and the US has been very critical of the military government and has been trying to find a way to
exercise more influence over Myanmar and one of the main reasons for this of course is to try to create geopolitical problems for China Myanmar shares a large border with the southwest of China and for years the US has backed armed groups that have fought in Myanmar and have created instability in the region so if the US military can build a strategic Base South of Bangladesh on St Martin's Island it can be used for power projection into Myanmar to try to overthrow the military government there and furthermore another very important strategic interest the US has here
is it wants to be able to project power into the Bay of Bengal and Southeast into the straight of Mala in Southeast Asia between Malaysia Singapore and Indonesia this is one of the most strategic Maritime choke points on Earth every single day on average 15.2 million barrels of oil pass through the straight of malaka according to the US government's Energy Information Administration the eia that makes this the second most important trade choke point on Earth for energy after the straight of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf region and this fact has been highlighted by the US
government's energy Information Administration it noted back in 2018 that more than 30% of global Maritime crude oil trade 15 million barrels per day passes through the South China Sea and more than 90% of crude oil volumes flowing through the South China Sea transited the straight of Mala which is the shortest sea rout between suppliers in Africa and the Persian Gulf and markets in Asia they and the US eia referred to this as one of the world's primary oil Transit choke points now China its largest oil partners are in the Persian Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia
the United Arab Emirates Qatar providing oil and liquefied natural gas LNG and they provide 90% of that through the straight of Mala so us Imperial strategists for years have salivated over the possibility of building a strategic military base in southern Bangladesh on St Martin's Island which they could potentially use if there's a war on China in order to block the straight of Mala which would cut off 90% of the oil that goes into the South China Sea and of course China is the largest importer of oil not only in the South China Sea but on
Earth China is the world's largest oil importer so the fact that Bangladesh's overthrown prime minister Hina has accused the US government of backing this color revolution in order to try to build a base on St Martin's island is something very plausible from the perspective of us Imperial strategists who are preparing for war on China this could be extremely important for their attempt to try to starve China of oil and in fact the Indian media which has largely been quite supportive of shik Casina and critical of the violent protest going on because she had leaned a
little bit toward India but shik Casina had also formed pretty close relations with China and historically Bangladesh and China had tense relations but under her those relations had grown closer and the Indian media speculate this is one of the reasons why she was overthrown the Hindustan times published an article titled did Shake Casa's leaning toward China caused her downfall it noted that Bangladesh's proximity toward China and deepening bilateral military cooperation with China had raised red flags in New Delhi and Washington so Des despite the fact that she was politically close to India the fact that
she had also deepened her relations with China had not only frustrated Washington but had had also frustrated the Indian government of prime minister Narendra Modi who's very right-wing and very anti-china so it shows that she was independent in her foreign policy in 2021 under prime minister Hina Bangladesh joined the bricks Bank the new development bank and as recently as June Bangladesh's State media Outlet announced that Bangladesh was trying to join bricks and that China had supported Bangladesh in its bid to join this block along with Brazil Russia India China and South Africa and Bricks has
now expanded and other invited members include Iran Saudi Arabia the United Arab Emirates Ethiopia and Egypt some of them have not officially confirmed that they're joining but the point is is that brics is expanding Bangladesh has wanted to join bricks and prime minister Hina was working with China in order to try to join and by the way while Bangladesh had been participating in the process of Eurasian integration working more closely with China and Russia at the same time the US government had been pressuring Bangladesh to join its so-called indopacific strategy which really means Washington's attempt
to contain China I'm reading here in article in the major Bangladeshi newspaper the Daka Tribune from 2023 this article notes that a senior director for South Asia from the US National Security Council visited DCA and had meetings with highlevel officials and she conveyed a message from the Biden Administration that the US wanted Bangladesh to join the quad the quadrilateral security dialog dialogue and the indopacific economic framework and this article noted that on the other hand Beijing China had been pressuring Bangladesh not to join any us-led anti-china coalitions now India is already a member of the
Quad this anti-china group which also has Japan and Australia as members so the US has been trying to to expand the quad by not only having India but also Bangladesh but shik Casina had said no unlike India's right-wing current prime minister Narendra Modi who is more pro-western and anti-china he had he's going along with the quad but shik Casina had said no so this is where the geopolitics gets complicated because yes Bangladesh has good relations with India at least under shikina but she also has good relations with China and with Russia and her relations with
the US have been very tense whereas India has bad relations with China but good relations with the US and Russia so geopolitics can be quite complicated and by the way it wasn't just China but also Russia that had been outspoken in support of the Bangladeshi government in fact in December 2023 just a few months before prime minister Hassen and her government were overthrown the Russian Embassy in Bangladesh published a statement that was by Russian foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria zacharova and Russia warned of the danger of destabilization of Bangladesh the Russian Embassy noted that there were
violent protests going on with rioter burning buses and attacking police and the Russian Embassy he noted quote we see a direct link between these events and instigating activities of Western diplomatic missions in Daka which is the capital of Bangladesh in particular Russia noted the role of US ambassador Peter hos and the Russian Embassy warned of quote an even wider arsenal of tools for pressure including sanctions that may be used and the Russian Embassy warned quote the attempts to further dest stabiliz the situation in Bangladesh along the lines of the Arab Spring are likely the Arab
Spring of course refers to the protests in countries like Tunisia and Egypt and then later Libya and Syria where the us militarily intervened to try to overthrow the governments and NATO destroyed the government of Libya in 2011 and still today there is no unified central government in Libya it's a failed State there are open air slave markets it's been in a state of Civil War the US fueled that disastrous war in Syria for a decade that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and destabilized the region so by drawing parallels between the violence and Bangladesh
and the so-called Arab Spring Russia was predicting that there would be more violence and the government could be overthrown and that's exactly what happened eight months after Russia made that prediction now another complicated detail in the story which I should mention is that the son of Hina sajib wazid claimed on Twitter that the speech that the Indian media got access to that Hina had allegedly written in which she accused the US of backing her ouer he claimed that that's actually not a real speech however I actually don't think this is true I think he's lying
about that for political reasons because as I'll show in a moment what she is alleged to have said in that speech is exactly what Hena has said previously it was not the first time that she had said that and what's actually funny about these remarks by hena's son is at the same time he also said that foreign forces were backing the protests in Bangladesh I'm reading here from this report in the in the Bangladeshi media he alleged unidentified foreign forces had supported the protests and he said quote I believe at this point it is from
Beyond Bangladesh that is that foreign governments or institutions or parties were supporting these violent riots and by the way he pointed out that in these protests they were not simply peaceful protests as is often the case in these color revolutions and regime change operations the Western media claims that there so-called peaceful protests but in reality there are often hundreds of people dead on both sides the rioter violently attack State security forces they attack people who support the government and he pointed out that yes some of the police in Bangladesh did use excessive force but there
were also attacks on the police police members were killed as well the violence was not one-sided and this is exactly what happened in places like Syria and Libya and many other countries where you have these regime change operations where the so-called peaceful protesters end up killing a lot of State personnel and politicians even but regardless getting back to this allegation that her speech was fake it was fabricated I don't buy that at all because the allegations that she allegedly made in that speech are identical to what shik Casina has said numerous times in fact I'm
reading here from the major Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star in May of 2024 just a few months before she was overthrown she gave another speech in which she alleged that foreign governments were trying to create a secessionist state out of Bangladesh and Myanmar of course the strong implication is that the US is trying to do this and she said in this speech in May before she was overthrown she said that she was offered to that she would be allowed to stay on power if she allowed a foreign country to build an air base in Bangladeshi
territory now she did not mention the country but she said that the goal was to build a base in the Bay of Bengal The Proposal was for an air base and she said the offer came from a white man so it's obvious she's talking about the US ambassador Peter hos or maybe she's talking talking about another US government official but she's strongly implying that a white man that is a US government official came to her and said we will allow you to stay in power if you let us build a military base on St Martin's
island in the Bay of Bengal and she said in may quote if I allowed a certain country to build an air base in Bangladesh then I would have had no problem and this also came after a similar speech that Hina gave in 2023 and as the Bangladeshi newspaper DCA Tribune put it the US can overturn the power of any nation which it wants I'm reading here from the newspaper prime minister Shak casena said that the United States can change the power of any country if it wants and then in Her speech sh Casina said quote
the country gives us the guise of democracy with its words that is the US she's claiming that the US is a fake democracy she says quote they can overthrow the government in any country particularly Muslim countries so she's clearly implying that the US wants to overthrow her government and then she talked about the mass shootings that go on in the US and all of the domestic problems and she says quote they want to bring such a government here scraping democracy which would have no Democratic existence that means an undemocratic Trend this is not a very
good translation she's saying that the US is trying to impose an undemocratic puppet government and then she says some local so-called intellectuals who live on selling their intellects obey them so she's saying that some so-called intellectuals in Bangladesh are pro- us and I think she's really implying people like Muhammad Eunice who as I've shown have very deep extensive ties to the US government going back decades and by the way in this speech that Hina gave in 2023 she also made another very interesting comment in which she accused the US government of Sheltering murderers she pointed
out that the coup plotter Rashid chowder who was the killer of her father had taken refuge in America and she said quote they are giving Refuge to him and other such criminals they speak against corruption but in reality they are advocating on behalf of those convicted in corruption so she was accusing the US of backing Killers cou plotters and corrupt politicians in Bangladesh this is not some crazy fabrication it's actually true the founding father of Bangladesh the National Liberation leader shik mujib was the father of shik Hina he was the founding prime minister of Bangladesh
from 1971 until 1975 and he was overthrown in a military coup that was backed by the United States and one of the military officers who was involved in the coup and the execution of Bangladesh's founding leader rashed shry he is living in the United States Washington gave him political Asylum and this has become a major political issue in fact the grandson of the founding father of Bangladesh and the son of the overthrown prime minister shik Casina he published an article in the New York Times in 2016 titled the US must extradite my grandfather's killer and
he noted that in 1975 the democratically elected government of Bangladesh was overthrown by a military coup and among the soldiers who executed his grandfather and other family members was Rashid Shri this us this this Bangladeshi military officer who has been living in the United States for many years now after the US gave him Asylum after the US backed this coup against Bangladesh's democratically elected leader so the United States has a long history of meddling in Bangladesh it was Washington that in the first place opposed the creation of Bangladesh as a country and given that long
history of the US intervening in Bangladesh's Internal Affairs it's not at all crazy to suspect that Washington played an important role in the overthrow of shik Casina just as the US played a role in backing the coup against her father in 1975 this is especially important given that in 20122 the US backed another coup in South Asia this time in Pakistan and the US backed this operation that overthrew Pakistan's democratically elected prime minister Imran Khan and The Intercept obtained a secret cable that shows that the US state department was threatening Imran Khan and telling him
that if he cut relations with Russia and supported Ukraine in the proxy war against Russia then the US would allow him to stay in power he refused to do so he was independent and he was overthrown and what's ironic about this is that Pakistan and Bangladesh as I'll explain in a moment here actually have very tense relations they're not in any way allies they actually there's a lot of bad blood between them so even in these two countries that are antagonistic to each other and historically the US has been more closely allied with Pakistan not
with Bangladesh but the US has a history of meddling in both of these countries in backing coups in both of these countries I mean of course the US has a history of backing coups in dozens of countries around the world in fact the irony goes even deeper when you realize that one of the top US State Department officials who was involved in the coup in Pakistan in 2022 also backed this regime change operation in Bangladesh two years later I'm talking about Donald Lou Who is the US assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian
Affairs he visited Bangladesh in May and the US government propaganda Outlet Voice of America noted that this top US government official met with Bangladeshi officials and he also met with so-called Civil Society leaders which is a word for opposition activists who wanted to overthrow asena and then he said that the US wants to fight so-called corruption in Bangladesh now obviously there are problems of corruption in Bangladesh but when the US talks about corruption this is a fig leaf for us meddling they're using this as an excuse to intervene in the internal affairs of Bangladesh as
if the US didn't have extreme problems with corruption with sitting Senators taking gold bars as bribes but that's that's a whole other point and while these violent protests were going on in Bangladesh the US state department was releasing statements publicly saying that Bangladesh must respect the right to protest they constantly say that which means hey we support these protests don't you dare crack down on the people whom we support now of course the main US government organization that often funds these color revolutions and regime change operations abroad is the National Endowment for democracy the Ned
and the Ned has spent a lot of money funding opposition groups in Bangladesh for years now one of such organizations is an opposition media outlet that was very supportive of the protests in antias called netra news netra news claims on its website that it defends democracy in Bangladesh through public public interest journalism it also discloses on its website that it is funded by the US government's National Endowment for democracy which is a CIA cutout that has been used to fund regime change operations around the world and this is not just a small Fringe website by
the way on YouTube netro news has over 100,000 subscribers they have videos that have millions of views and most of those videos are not in English they're in Bengal so they're targeting the majority of people in Bangladesh who actually don't speak English but do speak Bengali on Facebook which is very popular in South Asia and very influential netro news has over 150,000 followers and again this is a US government funded media Outlet in fact what's so funny about this is this is such a blatant us government-backed propaganda operation in Bangladesh that their most recent article
is dedicated to the former US ambassador in Bangladesh Peter hos who resigned with the successful regime change operation his work was done so this US government funded media Outlet in Bangladesh that was helping to amplify the protests and the overthrow of Hina not only were they accepting money from the US government they are writing articles that are just propaganda praising the US ambassador this is in credible so it's very clear there's a lot of evidence and I'm going to look at more today showing how Bangladesh has been caught in the middle of a larger geopolitical
conflict and although there may have been some legitimate protests as is often the case those legitimate protests were co-opted by Foreign forces in particular the US government and its regime change network and they co-opted those forces to to push for a color Revolution to advance their geopolitical interests so in order to better understand what's going on in Bangladesh I want to briefly review some history that explains the larger context and this is not new this goes back to the partition of South Asia in 1947 when the British Empire was overthrown and the British colonialists were
kicked out but at the same time Pakistan was created through the process of Partition by Muslim nationalists who wanted a state of their own and this was a horrific bloody process in which many people died and what happened is a new Muslim majority country Pakistan was created however there were two sides to Pakistan which were divided with India in the middle there was West Pakistan which today is Pakistan and there was East Pakistan which is today Bangladesh and in 1971 there was a war of independence led by Bangladeshi revolutionaries and nationalists and also socialists were
involved and they declared independence of course this is at the height of Cold War I and the Soviet Union supported Bangladesh and India also supported Bangladesh at this time India's government was more left-leaning and had been more closely affiliated with the Soviet Union and India was also one of the leaders of the non-aligned movement at that time India did not have very good relations with the US and the West today it's very different today India has much better relations with the West especially under the new right-wing government of Narendra Modi today but historically India had
been a leader of the non-aligned movement and India had supported the Bangladeshi Liberation struggle whereas Pakistan West Pakistan which just became Pakistan was supported by the US and in fact the Richard Nixon government gave weapons to Pakistan as it carried out horrific atrocities against bengalis in what was known as so-called East Pakistan so to simplify it the Soviet Union in India supported the Bengali Liberation struggle whereas the US supported West Pakistan and also at this time the China and the Soviet Union had very negative relations it was very complicated so China had also supported Pakistan
against Bangladesh so for those historical geopolitical reasons the US and China had been much more Pro Pakistan and Bangladesh had been much more closely allied with the former Soviet Union in Russia and India so if you fast forward to today the party of the overthrown prime minister shik Casina is called the aami league which historically was a left-wing party with its origins in the Socialist movement and also the anti-colonial Nationalist movement and the previous leader of the awami league was the famous founding father of Bangladesh the revolutionary leader shik mujur Rahman who led the Bangladeshi
Liberation struggle against Pakistan in The Liberation war of 1971 mujib as he was known was a nationalist and he was persecuted by the Pakistani regime which was backed by the US government and he in his foreign policy had leaned toward the Soviet Union in India which at that time was part of the non- Align movement and his party the awami league technically follows in those footsteps although I should be clear I have talked to a lot of people in Bangladesh I have friends and they say that while it's true that historically the awami league was
from the left and inherited that Legacy it is also true over time that it's become more of a kind of corrupt neoliberal party there are major allegations of corruption inside the party so while it does inherit that Legacy and although Shake cinaa is the daughter of the founding father of the country many people in Bangladesh who are sympathetic have been frustrated and this does explain part of the reason for the protests I'm not saying that there were no legitimate reasons for protest or criticizing the government I have shown how the US government did play a
role in backing this color Revolution but as with other color revolutions that happened in previous countries like Georgia and Serb IA and Ukraine and countries in Central Asia it doesn't mean that there weren't legitimate reasons to protest in fact what often happens in these us-backed color revolutions is they start with legitimate grievances so in the case of Bangladesh what really started these protests at least the narrative is criticism over the job quota system so I talked about how in 1971 Bangladesh had a war of Liberation in which declared independence from Pakistan and with us support
Pakistan had carried out brutal atrocities against bengalis now one of the legacies the holdovers of that Liberation war is that still today in Bangladesh there is a job quota system where 30% of government jobs which are well paid and have good benefits are provided to the children and the grandchildren of the freedom fighters who fought in this Liberation War so this has become a legitimate source of controversy because there are many allegations of nepotism and Corruption so what happens is that people who are in the government they simply give good jobs to their family members
with the you know excuse saying that they are the descendants of the Freedom Fighters and what happens is that only 44% of the government jobs which again are very wellp paid and have good benefits only 44% of them go to People based on Merit so this is basically a system that yes it may have been understandable in the 1970s 80s 90s because the the government wanted to provide you know benefits to people who fought to free their country however over the decades there have been many allegations of corruption and nepotism and many student protesters were
frustrated by the fact that there were not very many good paid jobs there's a big problem with youth unemployment in Bangladesh so this was at least the reason for the start of the protests however as I mentioned earlier this happens in a historical context and what happened in Bangladesh is reminiscent of so-called color revolutions that happened in countries in Eastern Europe and the 19 1990s and 2000s an example of this is Ukraine in 2004 the guardian the mainstream British newspaper published an article boasting of us-backed color Revolutions in four Easter European countries in four years
this article is titled us campaign behind the turmoil in Kiev it noted that there was the orange so called Chestnut revolution in Ukraine and that overthrew an independent nationalist leader and installed a pro-western regime and the same thing happened a decade later in 2014 so there were two us-backed color Revolutions in Ukraine in a decade and the guardian boasted that the C that quote the campaign is an American creation a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in Western branding and mass marketing that in four countries in four years has been used to try to salvage so-called
rigged elections and topple unsavory regimes they say funded I'm reading from the guardian quote funded and organized by the US government deploying us consultancies pollsters diplomats the two big American parties and US non-governmental organizations this campaign was first used in Belgrade in Serbia in 2000 to overthrow mosovich and then it was used in Georgia and then it was used in bellus and then it was used in Kiev Ukraine so this is an example of something we've seen again and again and again where us-backed organizations they back protests that often begin with some kind of legitimate
criticism but then those protests become EXT extremely violent riers start attacking police burning down government buildings attacking anyone who opposes them they basically use these violent tactics of fear to to overthrow the government and they have the support of the western media of Western governments this doesn't mean that all of the leaders whom they overthrew were great Progressive leaders who were who represented the people and who were not correct you know if you look for instance in Ukraine and you look at the independent leader who was overthrown in two different us-backed color revolutions his name
is Victor yanukovich there were many legitimate allegations of corruption in his government he was not a progressive he was not you know a revolutionary like Ugo Chavez in Venezuela who was targeted by many US P coups he was basically an independent nationalist leader and he did many things that in Ukraine were very objectionable and people could rightly criticize them but just because that's true does not negate the fact that he was targeted by numerous us government-backed regime change operations both of those things can be true and they are true there are many examples of this
throughout history there was Manuel Nia in Panama who was a corrupt us Ally for many years but then after he was no longer useful and he took a more nationalist turn in his policy the US invaded Panama killed hundreds of civilians and overthrew his government and imprisoned him the story of Saddam Hussein in Iraq is very similar he was a US Ally and then he became an independent nationalist who was no longer following us orders and the US invaded Iraq over a million Iraqis died in that illegal us war of aggression and the US imprisoned
Saddam Hussein Tried Him and executed him it doesn't mean that they were great leaders who were Progressive men of the people but the fact that they were independent leaders who stood in the way of us geopolitical interests meant that Washington backed campaigns to overthrow them and this is also true of shake Casina in Bangladesh I'm not trying to claim that she was the Bangladeshi Ugo Chavez there were many people who had legitimate criticisms of her but again the fact that that is true does not discount the fact that the US government played a key role
in overthrowing her simply because she was not a US puppet this us pressure campaign was quite blatant it happened over months in SE September of 2023 the US state department imposed sanctions on Bangladeshi officials they were visa restrictions and the state department accused Bangladeshi politicians of quote undermining the democratic election process then a few weeks later there were national elections and the right-wing Bangladesh nationalist party which historically has been closely allied with the us against the wami League which was Shay cas's party which historically had been more independent the right-wing Bangladesh nationalist party boycotted the
elections they voluntarily chose not to participate claiming that the elections would supposedly be rigged and then of course awami league and Sh Casino won the election because their main opponent boycotted it and what happened the US state department immediately released a statement claiming that quote the United States shares The View with other observers that these elections were not free or fair and we regret that not all parties participated they didn't mention that the Bangladesh nationalist party which historically has been very closely allied with the US chose not to participate they voluntarily boycotted the election and
in fact there are documents from the US state department that were published by Wikileaks that show how the US government has been secretly collaborating behind the scenes with the right-wing opposition party in Bangladesh the Bangladesh nationalist party the BNP one of these cables from 2010 after shik Casina came to power as prime minister this us this secret US state department cable notes that the chair of the BNP who was the previous right-wing prime minister who was closely allied with the US Kaa Zia she actually was having regular meetings with top US State Department officials and
the US ambassador in Bangladesh and they were discussing her critiques of the awami league now Kaa Zia the leader of the right-wing BNP had been prime minister of Bangladesh between 2001 and 2006 and she had been a pretty reliably close us Ally and of course the BNP had been supporting these violent protests against their political opponent and now that shik Hina and the aami league government have been overthrown I think it's very likely that the next government in Bangladesh after this current interim government by the unelected usback leader Muhammad yunas the next government will probably
be led by the right-wing BNP which historically has been even more Pro us and historically the BNP also was closely linked to Pakistan and what further complicates this issue is the alleged role of extremist groups now one of the political allies of the right-wing party BNP is an a right-wing islamist group called jamaat islami which historically during the Bangladesh National Liberation war in 1971 the jamaat islami had right-wing paramilitary groups that were allied with West Pakistan and participated in Mass atrocities against Bengali nationalists who were largely secular and many were socialists so they killed many
of them and carried out horrific atrocities in Alliance with the West Pakistani regime backed by the US so of course throughout history for many decades the US government has backed many of these far-right islamist groups that have carried out extreme sectarian crimes and in the very violent protests and riots going on in Bangladesh jamat a islami was active and was trying to co-op the student protests and make them a coup attempt a very violent you know color Revolution and shik Hina had repeatedly warned about the role of extremist groups and just a few days before
she was overthrown at the beginning of August her government actually banned this very right-wing islamist group this party jamaat a islami now because she did this we saw this narrative being promoted by some Gulf media Outlets like Al jazer which is Cuttery State media claiming that sha Casina and the Bangladeshi government were engaging in islamophobia I think that's pretty outlandish I mean over 90% of the Bangladeshi population is Muslim shik Casina and the vast majority of people from her party are Muslims calling them islamophobic is very strange what they have warned about is extremism which
does exist in Bangladesh now I'm not going to dispute at all that in India there is Extreme islamophobia which is often very violent in India the situation is very different in India Muslims are a minority of the population and the current government is a very right-wing Hindu nationalist government led by Narendra Modi and the party the BJP which is a Hindu nationalist party and Modi is a lifelong member of the far-right Hindu nationalist paramilitary group The RSS they have engaged in extreme anti-muslim policies and used xenophobic islamophobic rhetoric that's certainly true of India but Bangladesh
is not India in Bangladesh again over 90% of bengalis are Muslims and prime minister Hina is Muslim accusing her of islamophobia is very weird and in addition to the gulf monarchies of course this narrative is being pushed by Pakistan because for obvious historical reasons Pakistan and Bangladesh have very tense relations so just because they are opposed to the extremists in groups like jamat islami does not mean they are islamophobic in reality Bangladesh does have a real problem with extremists who have carried out violence not just in these recent riots but for years now there have
been extremist groups that have been active in Bangladesh and in Pakistan so now that Hina has been overthrown this far-right islamist group jamat islami has been allowed to flourish it just opened up a major office in the capital Dhaka and this came after foreign media Outlets complained that Hina was suppressing this extremist group well now it's very likely that a new government in Bangladesh will come to power probably led by the BNP the right-wing party that is closely linked to the US and has also formed a deao alliance with some of these extremist islamist groups
so once again coincidentally the US just so happens to find itself on the same side as islamist extremist groups just as it has done for many years in places like Libya and Syria and Beyond and this is the situation that Bangladesh is in today with a lot of instability and people asking what the future will look like on that note I'm going to wrap up here there is more I could say about the larger geopolitics and I'll probably do more analysis in the future but this is already a very long episode I hope this was
useful I Tred I wanted to provide some historical context geopolitical context I wanted to look at some of the evidence that I've been investigating showing how the US government has played a key role in this regime change operation and I of course I wanted to provide some historical examples of some similar scenarios on that note I'm going to conclude I am Ben Norton I am the editor-in-chief of geopolitical economy report please like And subscribe please share this and I will be back very soon thanks a lot for joining me today
