SAVAK [Ministry of Security] Iran Intelligence Agencies
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Ministry of Security SAVAK
Shah-an-Shah [King of Kings] Mohammad Reza Pahlevi was restored to the Peacock Throne of Iran with the assistance of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1953. CIA mounted a coup against the left-leaning government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq, which had planned to nationalize Iran's oil industry. CIA subsequently provided organizational and and training assistance for the establishment of an intelligence organization for the Shah. With training focused on domestic security and interrogation, the primary purpose of the intelligence unit, headed by General Teymur Bakhtiar, was to eliminate
threats to Shah.
Formed under the guidance of United States and Israeli
intelligence officers in 1957, SAVAK developed into an effective
secret agency. Bakhtiar was appointed its first
director, only to be dismissed in 1961, allegedly for organizing a
coup; he was assassinated in 1970 under mysterious circumstances,
probably on the shah's direct order. His successor, General Hosain
Pakravan, was dismissed in 1966, allegedly for having failed to
crush the clerical opposition in the early 1960s. The shah turned
to his childhood friend and classmate, General Nematollah Nassiri,
to rebuild SAVAK and properly "serve" the monarch. Mansur
Rafizadeh, the SAVAK director in the United States throughout the
1970s, claimed that General Nassiri's telephone was tapped by SAVAK
agents reporting directly to the shah, an example of the level of
mistrust pervading the government on the eve of the Revolution.
SAVAK increasingly to symbolized the Shah's rule from 1963-79, a period of corruption in the royal family, one-party rule, the torture and execution of thousands of political prisoners,
suppression of dissent, and alienation of the religious masses. The United States reinforced its position as the Shah's protector and supporter, sowing the seeds of the anti-Americanism that later manifested itself in the revolution against the monarchy.
Accurate information concerning SAVAK remains publicly
unavailable. A flurry of pamphlets issued by the revolutionary
regime after 1979 indicated that SAVAK had been a full-scale
intelligence agency with more than 15,000 full-time personnel and
thousands of part-time informants. SAVAK was attached to the Office
of the Prime Minister, and its director assumed the title of deputy
to the prime minister for national security affairs. Although
officially a civilian agency, SAVAK had close ties to the military;
many of its officers served simultaneously in branches of the armed
forces.
Another childhood friend and close confidant of the shah,
Major General Hosain Fardust, was deputy director of SAVAK until
the early 1970s, when the shah promoted him to the directorship of
the
Special Intelligence Bureau
, which operated inside Niavaran
Palace, independently of SAVAK.
Founded to round up members of the outlawed Tudeh, SAVAK
expanded its activities to include gathering intelligence and
neutralizing the regime's opponents. An elaborate system was
created to monitor all facets of political life. For example, a
censorship office was established to monitor journalists, literary
figures, and academics throughout the country; it took appropriate
measures against those who fell out of line. Universities, labor
unions, and peasant organizations, among others, were all subjected
to intense surveillance by SAVAK agents and paid informants. The
agency was also active abroad, especially in monitoring Iranian
students who publicly opposed Pahlavi rule.
SAVAK paid Rockwell International to implement a large communications monitoring system called IBEX. Both the CIA and the NSA funded Ibex and received Ibex data. The project included specially converted aircraft containing broadband and narrow band receivers. The aircraft penetrated Soviet airspace for the purpose of recording communications coincident with the penetration. There were five Ibex ground sites in Iran which also received and recorded Soviet transmissions. The Stanford Technology Corp. [STC, owned by Hakim] had a $5.5 million contract to supply the IBEX project. STC had another $7.5 million contract with Iran's air force for a telephone monitoring system, operated by SAVAK, to enable the Shah to track his top commanders' communications.
Over the years, SAVAK became a law unto itself, having legal
authority to arrest and detain suspected persons indefinitely.
SAVAK operated its own prisons in Tehran (the Komiteh and Evin
facilities) and, many suspected, throughout the country as well. SAVAK's
torture methods included electric shock, whipping, beating, inserting brokon glass and pouring boiling water into the rectum, tying weights to the testicles, and the extraction of teeth and nails. Many of these activities were carried out without any institutional
checks.
At the peak its influence under the Shah SAVAK had at least 13 full-time case officers running a network of informers and infiltration covering 30,000 Iranian students on United States college campuses. The head of the SAVAK agents in the United States operated under the cover of an attache at the Iranian Mission to the United Nations, with the FBI, CIA, and State Department fully aware of these activities.
In 1978 the deepening opposition to the Shah errupted in widespread demonstrations and rioting. SAVAK and the military responded with widespread repression that killed thousands of people. Recognizing that even this level of violence had failed to crush the rebellion, the Shah abdicated the Peacock Throne and departed Iran on 16 January 1979. Despite decades of pervasive surveillance by SAVAK, working closely with CIA, the extent of public opposition to the Shah, and his sudden departure, came as a considerable suprise to the US intelligence community and national leadership. As late as September 28, 1978 the US Defense Intelligence Agency reported that the shah "is expected to remain actively in power over the next ten years."
However, it was no surprise that SAVAK was
singled out as a primary target for reprisals, its headquarters
overrun, and prominent leaders tried and executed by
komiteh
representatives. High-ranking SAVAK agents were purged between 1979
and 1981; there were 61 SAVAK officials among 248 military
personnel executed between February and September 1979. The
organization was officially dissolved by Khomeini shortly after he
came to power in 1979.
Sources and Resources
- SAVAK
in
IRAN - A Country Study
Library of Congress Federal Research Division
- HISTORY OF MOJAHEDIN
[Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ]
- Khomeini's Incorporation of the Iranian Military
Mark Roberts NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIVERSITY
McNair Paper 48 January 1996
- "Judgment; An Analysis of Savak", by General Hashemai, the former head of counterespionage
of Savak who in Savak for 22 years. Unfortunately this book is only available in Farsi.
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/iran/savak/
Maintained by
Steven Aftergood
Created by John Pike
Updated Sunday, January 16, 2000 7:50:52 AM