7.3.4  Covert Intervention in the Affairs of Other Countries

(This is an archived extract from the book Patterns of Power: Edition 2)

Covert intervention in the affairs of other countries can take the form of assassinations, sabotage or helping resistance groups.  By definition, such operations are intended to be secret – so the target country finds it hard to prove that they have taken place, and therefore finds it difficult to obtain legal protection.  Self-protection might be the objective of the intervention, and the response is also likely to be an attempt at self-protection.

As mentioned, it is difficult to prove that an assassination attempt has taken place.  Bill Clinton retaliated against Iraq for an alleged attempt to assassinate former President George H.  Bush in 1993, for example, although Iraq denied that the attempt had been made.[1]  It is also alleged that the Israeli Intelligence agency, Mossad, tried to kill Saddam Hussein with an exploding book,[2] and that it made other assassination attempts.  More recently, assassinations have been carried out by making drone strikes (7.3.2.3) – which are not covert.

Sabotage in the past might have taken the form of destroying key elements of the country's infrastructure, for example by blowing up a bridge.  Nowadays it can take the form of cyber-attacks, against a power grid for example, which could have the effect of weakening the target country – perhaps as part of a wider strategy to undermine its power.  It is suspected that such cyber-attacks may already have taken place, and technology is making them easier, but it is difficult to prove who carried them out;[3] the perpetrators could have been malicious individuals, or part of a terror network, or hostile countries.  The target country might have no recourse in law because cyber-attacks can be carried out from a remote location and extradition would not be granted.

Of all covert foreign attempts to overthrow a government, perhaps the 1953 CIA-inspired coup in Iran is perhaps the most notorious.[4]  Mohammad Mossadeq's democratically elected government was overthrown and he was replaced by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.  This coup permanently damaged relations between America and Iran.  There are also many less dramatic examples of one country trying to undermine another, by helping resistance fighters; Iran supplies weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, for example, as a way of waging war against Israel by proxy.[5]

Covert interventions are less likely to incur reprisals, and are therefore less risky, than overt military action.  It may be hard to prove to the UN what is happening, so countries have to take their own countermeasures.[6]  In the longer term it may be possible to negotiate treaties and to find political solutions to lessen the threat.

© PatternsofPower.org, 2014                                                 



[1] On 27 June 1993, the Washington Post published a report entitled US Strikes Iraq for Plot to Kill Bush, which was available in May 2014 at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/iraq/timeline/062793.htm.

[2] On 12 November 2012, ABC News published a report entitled Mossad Tried to Kill Saddam With Exploding Book; it was available in May 2014 at http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/mossad-kill-saddam-exploding-book-report/story?id=17699228.  The report also listed some other Mossad assassination attempts, both successful and unsuccessful.

[3] On 9 May 2012 Discovery News published an article entitled Energy Grid: Safe from Cyber Attack?,  which reported the following:

“The Department of Homeland Security reports that an unidentified group of hackers has been targeting a small, select group of employees at U.S. gas companies in a possible attempt to attack the control systems of pipelines.”

The article listed several other cyber-attacks and also noted that countermeasures are being introduced; it was available in May 2014 at http://news.discovery.com/tech/smart-grid-cyber-attacks-110901.html.

[4] The American CIA engineered the overthrow of Iran’s democratically-elected government in August 1953, as described for example in Darioush Bayandor’s book Iran and the CIA: The Fall of Mossadeq Revisited.  The Economist’s critical review of this book, which expressed its own view of the arguments presented, was published on 13 May 2010 and was available in May 2014 at http://www.economist.com/node/16103846.

Another article on this topic was written by Jacob C. Hornberger on 31 January 2005, entitled An Anti-Democracy Foreign Policy: Iran; it was available in May 2014 at http://www.lewrockwell.com/hornberger/hornberger21.html.

[5] Hezbollah is funded by Iran and has acted against Israel from Lebanon, as reported in a BBC article entitled Who are Hezbollah?, which was published on 4 July 2010 and was available in May 2014 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4314423.stm.

[6] Stephen Moore’s report, entitled Cyber Attacks and the Beginnings of an International Cyber Treaty, was published on 20 October 2013, and was available in May 2014 at http://www.law.unc.edu/components/handlers/document.ashx?category=24&subcategory=52&cid=1236.   The report described some innovative use of cyber technology by America and Israel, including the suggestion that Pakistan's air defences were blocked for a while so that the assassination of Osama bin Laden could take place undetected.  It talked of efforts to set up an International Cyber Treaty, but noted that:

 “The Pentagon, for one, currently spends $3.4 billion a year on developing cyber defensive and offensive capabilities.” (p. 229, on p. 7 of the PDF file)

The source of this information was quoted as p. 264 of David E. Sanger’s 2012 book, Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power.