By actively partnering with the U.S. government to smuggle communications hardware into Iran, Elon Musk is once again aiding Washington’s attempts at regime change. This fits into a long pattern of both American efforts to dislodge the government in Tehran and Musk’s close collaboration with the U.S. national security state, helping it to achieve its objectives around the world.

For decades, Washington has sought to overthrow the government in Tehran. Today, its most important ally in that effort may not be in the CIA or Pentagon, but in Silicon Valley.

Elon Musk, through his Starlink satellite system, is now helping to smuggle thousands of communication terminals into Iran, enabling opposition networks to evade government restrictions and coordinate in secret. His partnership with the U.S. national security state has made him a central figure in one of the most ambitious regime change campaigns in modern times.

Targeting Tehran

It is no secret that Iran is in Washington’s crosshairs. And Elon Musk is aiding the attempt to depose the government in Tehran. In response to a post by a member of President Trump’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, Mark Levin, asking him to “put the final nail in the coffin of the Iranian regime by providing Starlink internet to the Iranian people,” the billionaire tech mogul recently announced that “the beams are on.”

After the Israeli bombardment began, Iran’s Communication Ministry placed heavy restrictions on online communication. This had the effect of hampering the ability of American and Israeli assets inside the country from communicating.

Starlink is an internet service allowing those with terminals to directly connect to thousands of SpaceX satellites in low Earth orbit. Terminals are, in effect, small, portable satellite dishes that can be set up anywhere and used by those in the near vicinity to skirt government restrictions on communication.

This is not the first time that Musk has used Starlink to sow chaos in Iran. In 2023, at the height of a U.S.-backed protest movement, the South African-born plutocrat responded to a statement to Secretary of State Antony Blinken announcing that the United States was taking action “to advance internet freedom and the free flow of information for the Iranian people…to counter the Iranian government’s censorship.”

“Activating Starlink,” Musk said. A few weeks after this pronouncement, Musk revealed that he was helping to smuggle hundreds of Starlinks into the country. “Approaching 100 Starlinks active in Iran,” he later noted.

The scale of the operation has been substantial, as only 18 months later, an estimated 20,000 clandestine Starlink devices are operating inside the country, helping a vast network of activists, spies, and other anti-government forces coordinate and communicate.

Keeping Ukraine Fighting

This is far from the only country where Starlink has been used to promote Washington’s interests.

After Russia hit its communications grid, the U.S. government rushed thousands of Starlinks into Ukraine, where they provide the backbone of the country’s communications system. Most of the high-tech weaponry sent by NATO countries to Ukraine is useless without online targeting systems, and Starlink keeps the Ukrainian military in the field, allowing it to target Russian positions. Indeed, one official told The Times of London that he “must” use Starlink to target enemy forces via thermal imaging.

There are an estimated 42,000 Starlinks in Ukraine, keeping their government ministries, hospitals, and military online. “Starlink is what changed the war in Ukraine’s favor. Russia went out of its way to blow up all our comms. Now they can’t. Starlink operates under Katyusha fire and artillery fire. It even works in Mariupol,” one Ukrainian soldier told journalist David Patrikarakos, referencing the deep underground mines where Ukrainian forces were dug in.

The Pentagon’s Man

As can be seen, then, Musk and his companies enjoy a very close relationship with the U.S. national security state. SpaceX – the manufacturer of Starlink – has signed a myriad of lucrative contracts with various American intelligence agencies.

In 2021, the firm won a $1.8 billion contract with the National Reconnaissance Office to build a network of hundreds of spy satellites. It was also chosen to blast a $500 million Lockheed Martin spy system into orbit, and to deliver an Air Force command satellite into space.

The spying agency that has worked most intimately with Musk and SpaceX, however, is the Central Intelligence Agency. Midwifing the birth of SpaceX was Mike Griffin, then the head of In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capitalist wing. In-Q-Tel identifies and funds cutting-edge tech firms whose technologies and products will give the CIA an advantage over its rivals.

Griffin was with Musk from day one, even accompanying him to Moscow in 2002, where the pair attempted to kickstart SpaceX by purchasing cut-price Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles. Musk believed that by sourcing missiles at a lower cost from around the world, he could significantly undercut competitors like Lockheed Martin and secure defense contracts.

The attempt failed, but the trip cemented a lifelong partnership that remains to this day. Griffin became Musk’s primary backer within the intelligence community, labelling him the “Henry Ford” of the rocket industry, and constantly promoting his name within the halls of power.

Griffin would later become the head of NASA, hold a senior position at the Pentagon, and save SpaceX on multiple occasions from bankruptcy by handing the company gigantic contracts.

Perhaps no other figure has impacted Musk’s life more than Griffin, who now serves as a senior advisor to Castelion, a SpaceX spin-off organization dealing with missile defense systems. Musk called his oldest child Griffin, and went on to name his subsequent child X Æ A-12, after a CIA bomber jet.

Rocketman

Castelion was formed in 2022 to help the Pentagon win a nuclear war. For decades, war planners in Washington have been determined to find a way to block foreign nuclear missiles from reaching the United States. To that end, they recruited Musk in an effort to build an enormous “American Iron Dome” of modified SpaceX satellites that could shoot down incoming rockets, making the United States impervious to attack.

While this technology might appear defensive on the surface, it would, in effect, give the United States free rein to attack any nation at any time, safe in the knowledge that there would be no possible retaliation. The Mutually Assured Destruction doctrine that has held together a fragile peace since the late 1940s would be shattered, and the United States—the only country to use nuclear weapons against another nation—would be invincible.

Internal documents have shown for decades that it is precisely and only this threat of consequences from Russian, Chinese, or North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles that has stayed the hand of Washington.

Musk has repeatedly downplayed the consequences of a nuclear winter, and even suggested firing more than 10,000 nuclear warheads at Mars, in a quixotic attempt to trigger a rapid greenhouse effect, warming the planet sufficiently for human habitation.

Few scientists believe that the plan could work, and many have strongly denounced the idea. Dmitry Rogozin, then-head of the Russian state space agency Roscosmos, for instance, warned that Musk’s gambit was nothing more than a cover to fill space with thousands of nuclear missiles pointed at Russia, China, and any other nation drawing the U.S.’s ire.

Overthrowing Governments Around the World

While Iran is currently in the crosshairs, it is far from the only country Musk has interfered in. The tech magnate also led an attempt to overturn last year’s presidential elections in Venezuela, claiming that far-right opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez had won.

Musk shared fake videos purporting to show massive election fraud, suspended the Twitter account of President Nicolas Maduro, and even threatened to drag the Venezuelan leader to the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison. Given Musk’s past statements, these are not taken lightly in Latin America.

The billionaire admitted to working with the U.S. government to overthrow Bolivian President Evo Morales in 2019. Bolivia is home to the world’s largest easily extractable lithium reserves, an element crucial in the production of electric-vehicle batteries. Morales had refused to open the country up to foreign corporations eager to exploit Bolivia for profit. Instead, he proposed developing sovereign technology to keep both the jobs and profits inside the country.

A U.S.-backed far-right insurrection overthrew him in November 2019. The new government quickly invited Musk for talks. When directly accused of his complicity, the tycoon stated bluntly, “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.” Inside Bolivia, the affair is often described as “the Lithium Coup.”

More recently, Musk has interfered in German politics, strongly backing the far-right AfD Party, telling voters that they should not be ashamed of their past (i.e., fascism). In Britain, Musk funds and promotes far-right racist agitator Tommy Robinson. And in Canada, he attempted to swing this year’s election towards the right-wing conservative candidate, Pierre Poilievre.

The attempted backfired spectacularly, however, as his perceived arrogance (he repeatedly called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “governor”, implying Canada was not a sovereign nation, but the 51st state of the U.S.) rallied Canadians around Liberal candidate Mark Carney. It was a similar story in Wisconsin this April, where Musk spent tens of millions of dollars attempting (and failing) to buy an election.

Nevertheless, despite his recent failures, it is doubtful that Musk has given up on national and international politics. Nor is it likely that this will be the last time that Washington openly plans for regime change in Tehran.

Ever since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 that deposed a U.S.-backed dictator, Iran has been a top concern for members of the American national security state. Thankfully for them, they can rely on help from tech CEOs such as Elon Musk, who appear only too happy to ally themselves with those in power to serve the agenda of the U.S. empire.

Feature photo | In this photo illustration, the X Starlink logo is displayed on a smartphone with Elon Musk’s profile in the background. Algi Febri Sugita | AP

Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. Follow Alan on Twitter for more of his work and commentary: @AlanRMacLeod.

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