Playbook for Covert & Overt Regime Change Operations

Reidar Kaarboe
Hva Mener Partiene (.pdf)

Since World War II, the US has been almost continuously involved in conflict and war.

According to the late William Blum:

❖ The US has attempted to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments.
❖ The US has interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.
❖ The US has attempted to assassinate more than 50 leaders in other countries.
❖ The US has dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries.
❖ The US has attempted to crush popular or nationalist movements against intolerable regimes in more than 20 countries.

So how does the US facilitate regime change around the world?

    1. Reasons why the US replaces regimes

The desire to replace the regime has nothing to do with what kind of regime or government the country has, nothing to do with a desire for “democratization,” nor anything to do with whether the country carries out executions, smuggles drugs, or kills “Christians.” It's about oil, gold, resources, and the US's access to do whatever it wants in the country.

And for Iraq, Libya, Venezuela, and Iran, it also has to do with these countries' desire to move away from the petrodollar, something the US fears more than anything. And we must not forget the US's hatred of Russia. This results in an eternal desire to weaken and dismantle this enemy, to install a new government, and divide the spoils between the US, the UK, and the EU.

    2. Planning

It often takes a year or more from the time the US starts planning until it intervenes in a country. The US is a master of planning; it has the best planners, unlimited money and resources, and full control of the media. This is a machine that grinds slowly and mercilessly.

    3. Economic strangulation

Covert regime change often starts with sanctions against a state. The US believes it has the right to impose sanctions on anyone, at any time, for any reason. The result is that the state runs out of food, medicine, and spare parts, and the people suffer. The US then imposes sanctions, including punitive tariffs, on other countries that trade with sanctioned states. The currency of the state under attac is weakened. Outwardly, it is presented as if this state is pursuing bad policies and is itself responsible for the downturn, not the US. Over years, the CIA has ensured that the sanctions make loyalty to the regime “more expensive” than treason.

    4. Riots and crisis initiation

When the desperation becomes great enough, it is time for the next step. Now, the most important thing is to be well organized. This section consists of several sub-points:

    ❖ planning demonstrations
    ❖ ensuring alternative communication if the internet is taken down
    ❖ planting agents (CIA, Mossad, paid actors) who can escalate the riots
    ❖ deploying agents with live weapons who shoot both police and demonstrators

Crisis initiation through the use of snipers was used in Kiev in 2014 and observed in Tehran in January 2026. The goal is to escalate the situation so there is no turning back and to let the international media obtain the images they need to demand “humanitarian intervention.”

    5. Controlling public opinion

The US is a master at this: it has long had tight control over the media and allied politicians, and can publish any version of events it desires. AI has given it a new tool. Now, it is easy to make a demonstration of 10 people look like 100,000; fake videos are rampant, and fake messages from fake people can give the impression that the conflict is already over, that the rebels have won, and that all that remains is to lay down their arms. We believe what we see and hear, and thus the trap is sprung. AI-generated audio can clone the voices of leaders urging people to give up, or create heart-wrenching soundtracks of children crying for help, which trigger international outrage much faster than factual news reports.

    6. New regime installed

Now all that remains for the US to do is to pull a new president out of its sleeve, or install a new government that it has had in reserve – loyal people who have been bought and paid for and will do as they are told. These will then be “democratically elected” at the next opportunity.

Three examples of regime change carried out by the US

Ukraine | The US and NATO began planning the war in 1993. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to the US, said that without Ukraine, Russia would never be able to rise again as a superpower.

And NATO began a program of frequent exercises, with Ukraine participating in a total of 107 exercises between 1993 and 2022. The US knew that if it broke the promise not to expand NATO eastward, which it made when the Soviet Union collapsed, there would be war. And the US wanted war. The problem was that most of the people in Ukraine, plus a legally elected president, did not want to join NATO or go to war.

A week before the coup, the US put together a coup regime that was strongly anti-Russian, based on old Nazi ideals, and thoroughly corrupt. They barely had time to put on their ties and break into parliament before the West accepted the new regime.

The takeover went according to plan, with snipers shooting both demonstrators and police from a rooftop, which was reported to be the work of riot police. The demonstrators received the full support of the entire West.

Western media and Western politicians only conveyed the pro-American angle.

The propaganda has been relentlessly one-sided, and Putin has been portrayed as a power-hungry despot who wants to “take over” all of Europe and, God knows, maybe the whole world. The true story behind the war is that the US managed to corner Russia and get its proxy war, but it is never mentioned. Now that Russia has actually won this war, the West finds it difficult to admit the defeat.

Venezuela | As early as August 2025, the CIA deployed a specialized team on the ground in Caracas to map Maduro's most private habits, movements, and security locations. This team operated covertly for five months before the attack. It is now clear that the CIA not only monitored Maduro, but they also corrupted the loyalty of the personell around him.

At the same time, the US began a massive military buildup in the Caribbean with over 14,000 soldiers, aircraft carriers, and fighter jets. Around October/November, the forces were effectively “ready” and just waiting for the right political and weather window.

Reports indicate that key personnel in the Venezuelan air force and military intelligence had received guarantees (and substantial sums of money) in the months leading up to January 3. This explains why Venezuela's sophisticated Russian air defense systems remained conspicuously passive when the American planes arrived.

In Venezuela, especially around January 3, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok were peppered with AI images of Maduro in handcuffs and American soldiers landing on the beaches of Caracas before it actually happened. When people see that “everyone else” is rebelling, or that their leader has been captured, they stop obeying. AI creates a self-fulfilling prophecy where the digital lie forces a physical truth.

Despite the enormous strength of 150 aircraft, the US managed to maintain the element of surprise until they landed in Caracas at 2:00 a.m. This suggests that the flow of information from Maduro's staff was controlled by the US well in advance.

The US knocked out power and communications in large parts of Caracas just as Delta Force landed. This was not accidental sabotage, but a carefully planned “digital blackout” developed over time.

The operation in Caracas on January 3 showed that Maduro's security apparatus was compromised. The CIA had “owned” the inner circles for months, which led to Maduro being captured without a single American life being lost.

Iran | In Iran, the rial currency hit a low point in early January, amid the US's new 25% punitive tariff on countries that trade with Iran. This makes everyday goods unaffordable, creating a desperate population with “nothing to lose.”

The CIA and Mossad predicted that the regime in Iran would shut down the internet. And they were already prepared. They had smuggled 50,000+ Starlink terminals into Iran over two years. When the regime cut the internet on January 8, SpaceX activated the free service on January 13. This creates a “shadow state” that the authorities cannot shut down.

By offering free internet (as SpaceX did on January 13), the US ensured that coordination with the rebel groups could continue even in “digital darkness.” This made it impossible for the Iranian state to have a monopoly on information. However, this was precisely what Iran and Russia had prepared for. They learned from Venezuela's fall and set up their own jamming systems against Starlink to prevent the same “coordinated paralysis” from happening in Tehran as in Venezuela.

In January 2026, we saw how AI-generated videos from Iran depicted large riots that had not occurred, and videos of huge crowds created by AI. When people see that “everyone else” is rebelling, it can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy, where the digital lie produces a physical truth. Videos of women overturning police cars in Tehran, or protesters hanging “Trump Street” signs turned out to be 100% AI-generated. They got millions of views before fact-checkers (like NewsGuard) even had time to wake up.

The opposite happened as early as January 2, when Iranian authorities dismissed videos of protests in Kuhdasht as “AI constructions,” even though they were probably real.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Image: © N/A, but probably amazon.com + Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs. In line with our policies, we address notices of alleged violations under the United States "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" (DMCA). If you believe that your copyright has been infringed on our site, please contact us, and we will promptly remove your photo from display. editor@a-w-i-p.com
AWIP: https://a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2026/01/24/playbook-for-covert-and-regime