
Feb. 9, 2009
The Assassination Files
Top Iranian Leaders Ordered Political Murders,
Documents show
An explosive Iranian
government dossier leaked to a domestic opposition group reveals that
Iran’s most senior official, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei,
personally ordered the murder of hundreds of opposition activists and
intellectuals, and that then-president Mohammad Khatami –
considered a
“moderate†by the West – was actively engaged
in covering up the
regime’s deadly deeds.
- Read the original story from Newsmax.com here.
- Skip directly to Selected
Quotes in English
translation
- Persian
originals:
Summary of the MPG report
Section One
preface by the MPG emphasizing the important aspects of the files:
1- The new generation must strongly distance itself from the existing
tradition among opposition groups of ONLY defending those victims of
the IRI who are close to their own ideology or type of activities.
2- One must keep in mind that the assassinations in question were
just a small part of a pattern of assassinations which took the lives
of hundreds , and a yet smaller part of massive campaigns of executions
and mass killings of opponents since the 1979 establishment of the
Islamic Republic.
3- Assassination has been a long time policy of the Islamic Republic as
a method of terrorizing and containment of all the rest of individuals
associated with the targeted group. This has included almost all
political opposition groups, religious minorities, ethnicities and etc
4- The regime always conducts its strikes in a focused way, leading
others to think they are safe, until their turn comes. Also the
opposition or even those non-political groips being attacked, not only
refuse to defend those under attack but sometimes consider it a
convenient event for them, watching their rivals being eliminated by
someone else.
5- There has been no period of time, during which the regime has been
idle and has NOT been assassinating some targeted group. This includes
today.
6- The violent assassination wrath of the regime has not been based
upon the type of activity or ideology of the targeted group. Reformists
as well as regime opponents have been assassinated, violent and
armed opponents as well as non-violent writers and thinkers or
activists have been killed. Communists, nationalists, different Islamic
activists, ethnic activists and etc.... have also been included in the
assassination campaigns. Even political leaders in the act of
negotiating peace and reconciliaton with the regime have been
assassinated.
7- The files also show clearly that assassinating opponents or
potential opponents as well as simply different people
(non-regime people and groups) has been a routine POLICY of the regime
to such an extent that each year the Intelligence Ministry mandates a
certain number of assassinations in their annual program, a quota if
you will, without specifying names or circumstances, which will
be filled in or chosen by the operatives and departments in the course
of the coming year.
8- On the other hand, the files reveal many weak points of the regime,
in particular the issue of their fear of widespread and quick publicity
domestically as well as internationally. Therefore the MPG emphasizes
the need to publicize all regime atrocities and all secrets remaining
in the possession of the public in a quick and timely manner.
Saving lives should be at the forefront of everyone's concern, taking
precedence over smaller and more selfish agendas, knowing that
each public expose' of regime atrocities will not only stop similar
actions for a time , not only alerts other potential victims of the
predator's prowl but will also trigger internal and factional arguments
or infighting within the regime, giving an advantageous position to the
opponents.
7- The best revenge is saving lives. The MPG discourages angry or
victimized individuals from taking personal revenge upon agents
and assassins whose names are being published and encourages them to
work hard in documenting atrocities as well as gathering evidence for
future national courtroom trials and for historical awareness of the
nation.
Section 2
contains some key quotations from credible sources who had access
to the original files. These quotations from among many other
references to the files give CREDIBILITY to the existing MPG
files (which are copies of the very same ones these authorities are
referring to ) and clarify different issues surrounding the two year
investigations and public outrage around the issues of the
assassinations.
The people quoted include Abdol-Kareem Lahiji, a long time human rights
lawyer residing in Paris, France who has followed the case from the
beginning, Shirin Ebadi who as a lawyer represented some of the
families and had first hand access to the files and who was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prise in 2003 (not in relation to these assassinations),
and three children of assassinated personalities who also had direct
access to the files and to the case.
Here are some of the commens and quotations:
Lahiji:
"... considering the religious-ideologic nature of the islamic republic
of Iran as well as the structure and chain of command within the
Intelligence Ministry, none of these assassinations could have taken
place not only witout religious edicts and orders from the
Minister of Intelligence [ himself a religious judge-ruler : one who
can declare rulings and edicts or Fatwas] or other authorized religious
judges-rulers but also without authorization by the helmsmen of
the internal and external security policies of the country [ a
reference to the highest authorities including the Supreme
Leader]"---------- Lahiji, 2005
"...Eversince the first day, I told my friend and colleague Mrs. Shirin
Ebadi and also my dear ones Parastoo and Arash Forouhar [daughter and
son of assassinated leaders Dariush Forouhar and Parvaneh Eskandari]
not to delude themselves; the islamic Republic is not the kind of
regime that would actually punish the perpetrators of these murders.
Indeed we saw that unfortunately I was right. They convicted some
agents to s few years in jail and never even identified the ones who
ordered these assassinations, let alone indicting them; therefore, we
are still after justice until such a day when the pursuit of
justice will be possible. One should not allow the memory of these
atrocities be wiped ot from people's minds until that
day."-------------- Lahiji, 2005
Shirin Ebadi:
"... my statements are documented and based upon the contents of
the [ assassination] files which contents were read by myself and my
colleagues [other lawyers]. According to these files and the
interrogations that took place from the accused [assassins] I must say
that the murders were perfectly syatemmatic [organized] and the claims
about murders having taken place by a bunch of rogue [elements] were
not acceptable. Those wo committed the murders were not insane people
who decided one morning who to kill; they were part of special
operations and had been trained for this job. [Some] of these accused
were surprised during their interrogations,[saying] "why are we being
tried" and telling the court "four hundred special operations
were done by us"; indeed they didn't know ahy they were being
prosecuted since they had been employed for the very same job [of
killing]. Forouhar's killer has said during his interrogation " go and
look at my pay check stub... that night you paid me for
overtime" [this assassination took place after hours during
late night hours]".----------- Shirin Ebadi , 2008
Parastoo Forouhar (the daughter):
" [President] Khatami abandoned us. Mr.Khatami abandoned us when it was
necessary to persevere and involved imself in back door dealings with
the other side ..... the reformists used this issue for their
competition against the rival political party...[Khatami] paid
lip service but when actual protection was needed by us he
engaged in behind the scened dealin with the opposite side [ Khameneii
etc...].------------------- Parastoo, 2008
Section 3:
explains some of the more important expressions, professionsal and
security special terms and references which may not be understoood by
the average reader. These include confusing titles of some
Ministry departments as well as using words such as "elimination"
for actual murders, or "specialist" for persons specializing in
stabbing, asphyxiation by rope and etc..........
Section 4:
Beginning with a typically terrorizing quotation from Ayatullah
Khomeini in 1979, prescribing the need to "break all the pens, closing
all corrupt publications, outlawing all corrupt political parties....
and erecting gallows in major squares...." The MPG reveals the original
source of the ideology of assassinations. Many other quotes from regime
leaders to assassin's confessions also reveal the following:
a- that Khameneii was the highest authority giving the Fatwa of these
assassinations in 1998,
b-that Khameneii and Khatami had agreed in a meeting to end the
investigations and close the proceedings in a manner that would not
hurt high officials and the Islamic regime while sacrificing some of
their own agents.
c-That assassinations were routine, ongoing for years, according to
Policy and even mandated by an annual program of the Intelligence
Ministry in general and etc....
d- that the Intelligence Ministry was particularly alarmed at that time
by a small and burgeoning rise of secular nationalism and the
recent revival of confidence among a small group of writers and
intellectuals.
e- that the Minister of Intelligence considered the above events as a
"repeat" of Western governments' activities in Iran against the Shah
which began by Carter's forcing certain easing of regulations onto the
monarch and the Germans holding ten nights of free poetry recitals at
the Goethe Institute in Iran which sparked the 1979 revolution.
This is particularly interesting because it shows that the Islamic
leaders themselves view their victory in 1979 revolution as the
culmination of the original velvet revolution and are still very
sensitive to the repeat of same process that toppled the Shah and
brought the Mullahs to power, this time against the Mullahs.
Section 5:
The first list of names, published for the first time, of high
ranking MOIS officials and their assassination team members and
"specialists" who conducted the four murders selected for prosecution
in 2000. These are 19 names, with brief identification details,
nicknames and other fictitious names used by them in different venues.
The names of the Minister of Intelligence, President Khatami and
Supreme leader Khameneii are also added because of their direct roles
in either initiating , covering up and ultimate responsibility in the
assassinations.
Section 6:
The second list of names, published for the first time of 15
people who had been contacted for conducting the next batch of
assassinations, were aware of the recent ones but except for two, did
not actually participate in the four publicized killings. These people
include MOIS officials, regular police officials and certain sources
and informers associated with the MOIS.
Section 7:
The third list of names, published for the first time of ten people who
placed bail or personal guarantees for the release of the detained
assassins. Most of these people are either MOIS or Revolutionary Guards
officials, some are family members.
Section 8:
The fourth list of names, published for the first time of 25 people
whose names were mentioned in the files, include names of high
officials of different departments of the MOIS as well as other
officials and even two secret agents who had been suspected of some
involvement in the assassinations and etc.....
Section 9:
The fifth list also previously unpublished, include about 8 names
of key officials within the Military Court in charge of the show
trials, Khatami representatives in the investigations mostly active in
reducing factional dispute and ending the trials in a pre arranged and
convenient way, Military Court interrogators from both factions on loan
from the MOIS (!!!)
Section 10:
This interesting section includes a selection of terrifying
confessions by the accused assassins detailing motivations, duties,
MOIS operating methods, religious fanaticism and details of the actual
killings. Many of the accused also insist upon the legality and
religious righteousness of their deeds, saying that these duties are
included within their employment contracts and they had been
assassinating people for a long time without being even questioned, and
indeed being rewarded by official bonuses for it.
Section 11:
Complete and detailed confessions of Mehrdad Aalikhani, the MOIS
official commanding the operations of killing the four dissidents.
These include harrowing details of selecting, kidnapping and killing of
the victims. For the first time it is revealed that the very same
people were involved in numerous other sanctioned killings and etc.
These also confirm and detail many other issues discussed previously in
the MPG files and analyses above.
Section 12 :
Partial and detailed confessions of Mostafa Kazemi (Moussavi), an
infamous IRGC and MOIS official for 18 years, suspected of having
killed hundreds in the province of Fars and then in Tehran, now on
trial for being the Head of the operations , above Aalikhani, and under
the Minister of Intelligence. Kazemi who did not participate in
the operations directly, deals mainly in the higher echelon decision
making leading to these specific assassinations. His statements mention
Khameneii's involvement, detail the direct and sadistic involvement of
the Minister of Intelligence ( Mullah Dorri Najaf-abadi), detail the
political and religious motivations behind the assassinations,
selection of subjects, the feeding frenzy atmosphere which was leading
to the imminent mass killings of many writers and dissidents and
references to other simultaneous assassination which were for some
reason completely ignored in the show trials.
Kazemi's statements also reveal the jovial and banal attitudes of the
decision makers as well as many aspects of the MOIS internal operations.
Select Quotes from the 1998
Assassination Files
[Selected, Translated, with comments by Marze por
Gohar (MPG)
A- Relevant Names:
1- Said Emami ( AKA
Eslami)
Accused of being the master mind behind the assassinations, murdered by
“suicide†in jail.
US educated, aerospace engineering at Oklahoma …
University (OCU ?)
1976- 1982?
IRI informant in the US, IRI intelligence agent in Iran in 1982 (the
old SAVAMA)
Sent to New York in 1984 as the IRI Intelligence Station Chief
Back in Iran in 1985
Officially joins the new Ministry of Intelligence, rises to the post
of Director of the US-Europe Department .
Appointed to the post of Deputy of Counter Espionage , Ministry
of Intelligence in 1988
DEPUTY Minister in Research and Analysis in 1990
Deputy Minister in Security in 1991
Last Position: National Security Advisor to Minister of
Intelligence in 1997 ( During Khatami and during the 1998
assassinations).
MPG
Note: Said Emami’s file was not included in the
general assassination files presumably because of its immense
sensitivity and also because he was dead by the time the military court
was being convened. HOWEVER, part of his interrogation
confessions were shown to certain factional leaders inside Iran
(pro and anti-Emami) and to people among the political factions
who subsequently leaked parts of it to journalists inside Iran and
abroad (including Nourizadeh) who published certain highlights of the
confessions, generally favoring the Khatami agenda. Certain
references to Emami have been made within other files ( published by
the MPG).
2- (Hojjat ol-
Eslam) Ghorban-Ali Dorri Najaf- Abaadi, AKA: DORRI
Minister of Intelligence appointed by Khatami and during the 1998
assassinations in question.
Hojjat oll-Eslam is a religious position just under Ayatollah. Hojjat
ol-Eslam has the power to issue Fatwa. Jurist Lahiji believes that the
IRI always assigns a Mullah with the power of Fatwa to the post of
Minister of Intelligence, so that he can easily order assassinations
which would also satisfy Islamic rules and legitimacy.
3- (Seyyed) Mostafa
Kazemi (AKA Moussavi, AKA Moussavi Shirazi)
Accused of having commanded and directed the 1998 assassinations of
four victims and condemned to death (knowing that a
“Seyyeed†which is
a descendant of Prophet Muhammad cannot be killed and that the families
of the victims would not dare insist on that penalty). Kazemi’s
sentence was officially commuted to life and then he was released at an
unknown date. He is said to have been “abroad†until
recently.
Kazemi was serving directly under Minister Dorri , received
assassination orders from him and organized the assassination teams and
supervised them along till the end, reporting back to the Minister.
First known position: IRGC Intelligence in the early 1980s.
Chief of Department General of Intelligence in Fars Province (
division of Ministry of Intelligence)
Head of the MOIS Department of “Eclecticism†(anti MEK
Department)
Last Position : Assisant Deputy of Minister of Intelligence in Security
Affairs (in Tehran), appointed by Khatami, under Dorri. In charge of
Research and Analysis which despite its innocent sounding academic
title, is an important post directing the policies and programs
of the MOIS against different targets at different times.
He boasts that he had been at the service of the regime for 18 years
(since 1980) as an interrogator, intelligence official, assassin and
etc…..
MPG NOTE: Kazemi is said to have
been responsible for many assassinations of Bahaiis, leftists and MEK
members in Fars and then in Tehran. Kazemi’s lengthy confession
and some
of his interrogation statements have been made available by the MPG.
4- Mehrdad
Aali-khani (AKA: Sadegh Mahdavi, Sadegh, Agha Sadegh
and etc…)
This is different than Ali-khani
Accused of directing the four 1998 assassinations in question,
convicted and condemned to “deathâ€, later commuted to
life, following a
“pardon†by the terrified families of victims. He is
reportedly still
in jail (Gohar Prison, West of Tehran) assisting in the torture of
prisoners. One recent political prisoners’ letter identifies
him as the
actual killer of journalist Zahra Kazemi in 2008. Such a
model prisoner(!) is usually treated well and we doubt if he actually
stays in jail as a prisoner anymore.
Position during the 1998 assassinations: Head of the MOIS Department of
the “New Leftâ€.
Aali-khani, who also had long experience in assassinations, directly
participated in the 19989 assassinations, as the chief of the
operations. He was directly under Kazemi and above the assassination
teams. Reporting back to Kazemi and was present during several meetings
with Minister Dorri who consulted him on the intellectuals and
inquired about specific ones who had to be killed- there were 15 of
them marked for assassination.
MPG has published four of his mostly lengthy confession statements
(below)
B- Notes on Terms
and References:
1- The
term “AGHAA†literally means “Masterâ€
and is usually used commonly as
“Mister†; however, among devout Muslims the term
“Aghaa†without
a specific name following is a reference to their respected
Mullah. Now, among the IRI officialdom who are mostly
“Aghaaâ€s in
their own right, the term “Aghaa†is EXCLUSIVELY used
for the biggest
Master of all, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khameneii.
2- The term
“Haji of Haj-…†which literally
means “pilgrim†to Mecca can be
used as a title for any pilgrim and even any respected person (who has
presumably been to Mecca, otherwise how can he possibly be a respectful
man !!!) . Within the IRI culture as well as inside the MOIS,
“Haji†is sometimes used for the Minister or for
the immediate
official above the person who is referring to him in a conversation. In
the Assassination files, Haji has been sometimes used for Dorri (the
MOIS Minister) and sometimes for Kazemi.
3- The term
“Seyyed†meaning the descendant of Muhammad the
Prophet, is normally
used for all “Seyyeds†but within a certain circle the
term will
automatically refer to the most respected Seyyed present or from among
subjects of conversation. Within the Assassination files this term has
been used to denote President Khatami and oerhaps others in different
places.
C- Notes on the
Assassination Files:
1- Even though the final confessions dated 2000 AD,
have certainly been heavily edited, they still contain statements that
are not only detrimental to the person himself, but to the regime, as
far as their brutality, banality, the normal and legal course of
events, the existence of experienced assassination teams employed by
the MOIS, their intolerant view of even harmless dissidents and
etc…
2- In addition to the final confessions, there are
numerous earlier confessions that are very revealing and in fact not so
much different than the final edited versions.
3- The norm in IRI confessions is that the
interrogator will tell the accused to re-write something, to delete a
certain name or add another. In spite of all this, even the final
confessions clearly show the defiance of the accused assassins (knowing
they had some support in the higher up echelons) and in direct
contradiction with the final court statements as well as the
regime’s
media statements of the time.
4- There are numerous examples of careless redactions
or lack thereof not only within the confession files but also among
dozens of pages of police reports or letters attached to the files,
some noted “confidentialâ€, between concerned MOIS
departments, the
police and the court. As an example there are names of Intelligence
agents, possibly not related to the assassinations at all, which
nevertheless appear among the miscellaneous letters attached to the
files, sometimes from family members inquiring about their
missing husbands etc…
5- All of the above demonstrate that the files
as a whole are much more virgin than your average intelligence related
file, perhaps caused by the factional disputes or the sheer volume of
the files compiled during a chaotic procedure lasting two years.
D- Motives and
Orders by High Officials for Assassinations
MPG
Note: As we shall see further below, the IRI had
always been assassinating, executing and even massacring its opponents.
The subject of the interrogations, confessions and proceedings HERE
however, was the SPECIFIC and most recent round of assassinations which
had become dangerously public and had shaken the confidence of the new
administration that feared some kind of coup by their more fanatic
brethren, the IRGC, the MOIS structure and etc…
“ … Following the 2nd Khordad (the Khatami era
which diverted from the
extreme controls of the Rafsanjani era and before) we noticed that the
danger which we had neutralized by eliminating opposition leaders
outside the country, was now threatening us within our own home
(the country) This was the reason why the physical elimination of
personalities inside the country was planned and implemented.â€
Said
Emami, Adviser to the Minister of Intelligence in Security
Affairs, on the motivation behind the most recent assassinations
in 1998, during his confessions in 1999.
“…After that reception at the home of the
German Cultural
Attache’ (a reception for Iranian poets and writers in 1998) we
understood that the problem is much deeper and if we don’t act
quickly,
the story of the Shah’s time would be repeated. There
too, the
events (the 1979 revolution) began following a few poetry reading
nights at the German Embassy ( referring to ten nights of poetry
reading in November 1977 at the Goethe Institute, the first such free
gathering in over a decade, and the first open sign of Western support
for liberalization during the Shah).†Said Emami, see
above.
“ Who says this Forouhar and his wife are just two people
(opposition
figures and leaders), they hold meetings every day, they incite
students who go to see them every day, they are interviewed by
the BBC radio, the (Voice of) America radio, the Israel radio. Every
day they issue statements and newsletters, they say whatever they want,
why don’t you do something to them? Do something
… why don’t you hit
Forouhar? Hit him!†Minister of Intelligence, Dorri, to Kazami
his
Assistant Deputy and a long time assassination operative in the
presence of Aali-Khani another official and assassination expert in
1998, according to Kazemi and separately by Aali-Khani.
“ … about the activities of the
“Writers Associationâ€,
Mr.Dorri (Minister of Intelligence) asked ‘how many
people
are they’? Mr.Sadegh (Aali-Khani , head of the
“New Leftâ€
Department of the Ministry of Intelligence) said
‘altogether they are fifty but their main people are fifteen
who always
attend the meetings’; Mr. Dorri said
‘gather them all (the
fifteen) in one place and hit them with one (machine gun) burst, place
a bomb under them, hit them on their heads, throw a grenade in their
midst, just make sure they are all dead… â€
Following a report
afterwards that the Writers Association doesn’t hold
meetings too
often anymore, the Minister orders the following “ One or
two of
hem will have to be hit so that all he rest will gather together for
giving a statement and that is when the operation must be implemented
on them“ Kazemi, on Dorri’s ordering of the writers
assassinations of
1998
“… Just like all previous meetings held
for elimination cases,
the specifics of this case was discussed. There was a question
(bothering) me which I asked Mr. Moussavi ( real name Kazemi), about
who had ordered these cases to which he answered “
…
(deleted) knows about it and the Supreme Leader (Khamenei) has issued
the religious Fatwa, but don’t mention this anywhere since if
something
goes wrong with the (elimination) case, it will be a great blow against
the Institution of the Islamic Guardianship ( the definition of
Khameneii’s post and position) and the regime as a
whole…â€. Ali
Ahmadi, a member of the assassination team (AKA Naazeri, AKA Hamidi) in
his 1998 confessions.
“ The Article 90 Commission of the Islamic
‘Parliament’ in Iran, which
is authorized by the Constitution to investigate all the three branches
of power, began an investigation in regards to the 1998 assassinations
in August 2000 but was not able to complete it. According to Mr. Ansari
Raad, the head of this commission : ‘ While investigating this
dossier,
we encountered personalities whom we didn’t have the power to
deal with
them; therefore the investigation was abandoned’
â€. Human Rights
Watch, December 2005
MPG Note: The only person and/or office who the Article 90 Commission
cannot investigate is the Supreme Leader and his Institution.
“… Aghaa (The Master i.e. The Supreme Leader) in
a visit with Mr.
(illegible) and Mr. Dorri (Minister of Intelligence) had said that this
(magazine) smells like foreigners….â€.
Kazemi about the magazine
“Industry and Developmentâ€, published by Mr. Pouyandeh,
who was
assassinated soon after the Aghaa meeting, by Dorri’s specific
order.
MPG Note: The fact that Dorri had taken this
“dangerous†magazine that
smelled like foreigners(!!!) to the Supreme leader, also indicates a
connection between the assassinations and the Leader.
Mr. Dorri said: “ Mr.Moussavi (Kazemi)! These Americans
have
attacked Iraq; can’t we plan something and implement an
operation
on them? (presumably against the MEK opposition group with camps inside
Iraq). I said, (in the past) we had followed this issue (since
Kazemi was the head on the anti-MEK Department at MOIS before) ; the
Joint Staff of the Armed Forces set up a meeting and specified a series
of (possible) operations under such circumstances then they sent it to
the Aghaa (the Master, i.e. the Supreme Leader, Khameneii) and he
benevolently confirmed, so right now Mr. Esmaeeli (Director
General of the Anti-MEK Branch) should follow up .â€
Kazemi’s
confessions, on meetings with the Minister of Intelligence in late
1998, after the original assassinations, when the publicity and the
internal pressures had led the Minister to close down the operations in
Tehran, encouraging assassinations in the provinces and against the MEK
inside Iraq.
MPG Note: This is a clear example of the Supreme Leader giving the
order for assassinations. If his order was needed for terrorist attacks
against a clearly armed opposition group outside the country, inside a
lawless and chaotic country of Iraq under Saddam, then it would
be even more important to obtain his approval for problematic
operations INSIDE the Capital, against un-armed groups, activists and
leaders.
“The Minister (Intelligence Minister, Dorri) said that
“Aghaa (the
Supreme Leader, Khameneii) had spoken with Mr. Khatami (President of
IRI). Name one or two people (patsies to be sacrificed under a false
scenario) as soon as possible so that based upon the discussions
between Aghaa and Mr. Khatami, the issue can be cleaned up (the issue
of the investigations). Aghaa has demanded from Mr.Khatami to wrap up
the issue .†Aali-Khani, in his December 2000 detailed
confessions, focusing on the frantic activities within the regime
to find the most convenient false scenario for public consumption and
finding a way out of the two year public preoccupation with the
assassinations without damaging the regime and high ranking leaders
involved.
MPG Note: This is testimony to Khatami’s involvement in closing
the
investigations without any substantial findings and documentation,
saving face and letting the main perpetrators off the hook. This
perfectly corroborates Forouhar’s daughter’s statement
that Khatami
paid lip service to the issue of the assassinations but when action was
needed, he swept the rug from under us, got involved in backroom
dealings and sacrificed the case for his own factional dealings behind
the scenes. There is also ample evidence of Khatami’s role in
saving
the regime and the main players in the assassinations, in references to
Khatami’s official representative to the oversight committee
which
finally coordinated the events and sealed the fate of the show trials
before they even started. Getting into those documents here will
involve a lot of translation work.
E- Testimony to the
Continuity of Assassinations as an MOIS Policy
MPG Notes:
Assassinations have always been
part of the policy of the IRI against their opponents or even against
people or groups who did not pose any threat but who were deemed
potentially dangerous in terms of propagating an idea in some distant
FUTURE !
It is important to note that
“legal†or publicly announced executions and even mass
executions of
thousands of political prisoners, killing unarmed demonstrators or
armed opposition in firefights, safe house attacks, urban or regional
warfare are NOT considered here as assassinations. Assassinations
are killings of people who were usually either not guilty of any crimes
even under the IRI laws or those whose arrest, trial, imprisonment or
execution would not be to the benefit of the regime due to popular
support for the victims or international sympathy or human rights
pressures.
ASSASSINATION Therapy: Most
assassinations were conducted in a way that the groups or people
around the victims would KNOW the IRI had done it but no one
would take responsibility , no one could definitely prove anything and
the government would even conduct investigations once in a while to
increase deniability power. Such assassinations are called
“open†or “public†assassinations
by the intelligence agents and
are meant to not only eliminate some problematic people but
mainly to terrorize their colleagues or communities into abandoning
their activities. This has proved to be very effective because most
followers of any idea are NOT willing to die for it and will stop doing
things that might endanger their lives or the lives of their family
members ( many assassinations have included accompanying children
or friends ). People “get the message†and cease and
desist. However,
this effect is always temporary and once people feel that nothing has
happened for a long time ( year or two years…) to their
“kind†, they
will start again. This is why, the “Assassination
Therapy†as it has
come to be called, is repeated periodically to keep certain groups or
ideas in check. In addition, since there are many unwanted behaviors
which the IRI needs to stop, they will have to assassinate many
different kinds of people all over the country.
Assassination Targets in the Past Thirty
Years: Most early assassinations were of established
religious or ethnic groups that had to be warned even before they
themselves knew they were in danger, since only the major players in
the IRI knew that in the near future the regime would be ready to
implement a fully Islamic rule which was not possible for a few years
since people were used to secular practices while the promise of
freedom by the Ayatullah was thought by naïve (and
even stupid)
people to INCREASE the freedoms attained by the revolution rather than
DECREASE them.
Original victims were
Bahaiis, Kurds and other ethnic minorities who were restless. Soon,
the emerging rivals within the Islamic movement (some of them
terrorists themselves) became targets. Once the regime felt secure from
within, they began assassinating more and more of the leftists, MEK
members, nationalists, pro Bakhtiar, pro Shah and others who were each
posing challenges to the regime. Finally once the regime stabilized
itself after the Iran Iraq war (1980-1988), massive executions and
eliminations of organized opponents, they concentrated on
POTENTIAL challenges. Since then, we find that most assassinations were
of remaining leaders of exiled opposition parties, Sunni Muslims in the
provinces, Bahaiis, Muslims converting to Christianity, and during
Khatami, newly re-organized writers, journalists, liberal Muslims,
problematic people within the regime and even business partners of the
IRGC and MOIS mafia businesses who knew too much ( such partnerships
had become a popular trend among IRI yuppies who wanted to get rich
quick) or who made too much money while not being really a
“homeboyâ€. So here are some quotes shedding light on
the whole
situation:
Quotes:
“I have supervised over 350 murders (assassinations) over 14
years, a
few of which I did with my own hands while I planned and
commanded the othersâ€.
Said Emami confessions, 1999 as referred to by Shirin Ebadi in
2008, and previously reported by journalists abroad. Reportedly, these
included Christian priests, Sunni Clergymen, MEK and others.
“ First, I have to say humbly that the job of physical
elimination and
other jobs like this, the job of arresting, transporting of the
accused, self defense training, surveillance and etc…
had been
indicated for us by the Ministry (of Intelligence) since 1991,
within our employment chart and these were part of our
section… and in
general such jobs were done a lot in the Ministry (of Intelligence),
whether inside or outside the country but it was only in this
particular case that it turned out this way (investigations and
trials)…… After brother Safaii held the
subject’s neck ( Mrs. Parvaneh
Eskandari ) from behind and when brother Hashem held the anesthetic
drug in front of her nose and mouth, then I stabbed her several times
(in the chest) by reciting the Zekr ( calling a holy
name)….â€.
Mostafa Nowroozi (AKA Mohseni), confessions of June 27th 2000. Employed
Agent of the Operations Section of the Security department of the MOIS.
Notes:
Nowroozi is describing his role in the multi stabbing assassination of
Forouhar’s wife (Nationalist Opposition Leader of the Mellat
Party) at
her home in November 1998.
Zekr, is usually the incantation of the name of a Holy saint, in this
case the name of Hazrateh Zahraa, daughter of the Prophet, Mother of
the martyred Imam Hossein, avenging Hossein’s blood.
“… For years such acts were done and
intelligence or security systems
have such tricks (up their sleeves!) this lowly subject (meaning
himself!) in coordination with and orders from Mr.Moussavi ( real name
kazemi) did this and this had a legal precedence and form; this was a
custom in the Ministry (of Intelligence) and there were never any
obstacles in its way.â€
Ali Ahmadi (AKA Nazeri), employed as the agent of the General
Department of Operations of the Popular Intelligence Department ( a
major department in the Ministry in charge of general information,
contacts and activities within the general population), in his December
5th 2000 confessions. This agent had participated in the assassinations
of two writers and journalists (Pouyandeh and Mokhtari in November
1998).
“… another point is that acts like these
(assassinations of two writers
and journalists and Parvaneh Eskandari in November 1998) were
routine activities of the Ministry (of Intelligence) and therefore,
these acts were not my first either. We were acquainted with these ,
many years before the eliminations called “chain
murders†to such
an extent that within the annual planning forecasts of the major
operations, eliminations and kidnappings were considered and right now
this exists in writing within the documents of the organization
(Ministry of Intelligence).
Asghar Eskandari (AKA Sayyahi), employed agent of the Operations
Section , Ministry of Intelligence, in his July 5th 2000 confessions.
MPG Note: The above confession clearly indicates that not only
assassinations were routine but were part of the next year’s
forecasts
even before any particular person was targeted. We know from other
confessions that particular persons were usually selected for
elimination a few days or weeks before they were killed.
“… considering the background of such acts in
the Ministry
(assassinations) we see that throughout the life of the Ministry (of
Intelligence) each year within the annual forecast of the operations ,
issues confirmed by the Minister at the time, each had one or several
physical eliminations pre-planned … and during the
course of the
year the eliminations would take place and would be the subject of
encouragement and recognition (for the agents in charge of
assassinations).â€
Rassoul Katouzian (AKA Rasouli), Director General of Operations Support
of the Security Department, provided personnel and inter departmental
coordination and contacts for the assassinations, in his April 25th
2000 confessions.
MPG Note: Again, a clear testimony to the pre-planning of annual
assassinations, this time by a high ranking official of the MOIS.
“ It is necessary to explain that I was originally in the
bodyguard
(section) for a few months and then I went to (was employed at)
the (Operations) support of the Security Department and
approximately in 1986 or ’87 went to (was employed at)
the
Operations (department) of the Ministry (of Intelligence) and got busy
as a member of the team where I became an operations specialist in
arresting, kidnapping and physical elimination (working
against) the MEK teams, MEK safe houses and the counter
revolutionaries and opponents of the regimeâ€.
Ali Safaii, in his May 24th 2000 confessions
F- Miscellaneous Testimonies Regarding the Methods,
Brutality and banality of the Assassinations
“…It was decided that the elimination had to be
done the same night. We
entered the house (of Forouhar and his wife) at 22:00 hours together
with the brothers (the other assassins). According to our orders both
subjects were eliminated . I wasn’t involved with other
subjects
(assassinated writers and journalists)…. We always do
these jobs
(assassinations) for the sake of God’s satisfaction and begin
(the
stabbing in these cases) with the name of our Lady, her Holiness
Zahraâ€
Ali Safaii, in his 1998 original confessions.
MPG Note: Hazrateh Zahrah, was Imam Hossein’s mother and
the
incantation of her name before the stabbings means that they are
dedicating this infidel’s life as a vengeance of
Hossein’s blood to his
grieving mother H. Zahra. It is noteworthy that when the IRI agents
were throwing a student from the window of a high floor of the Tehran
University dormitories during the student movement of July 1999,
they were using the same Mantra of Lady Zahra, screaming “ Oh
Lady
Zahra please accept this (soon to be killed student) from usâ€.
“ Sadegh (Merdad Aali-Khani) was for using injections for both
(Forouhar and his wife) whereupon I told him if you use the injection
on both people everyone will know that two people do not have heart
attacks at the same time ( the poison the MOIS was using usually caused
symptoms of a heart attack) they will know it is the work of the
Ministry (of Intelligence)… Mr. Sadegh then said, the
Operations
(department) kids have made a special dagger for these jobs and we can
stab them with daggers and I said OK(!) lets use
daggers…..â€
Mostafa Kazemi (AKA Moussavi), high ranking MOIS official, in
charge of the 1998 assassinations, bragging about his improvisation
during operations in his confessions of March 23rd 2000.
Following the assassination of journalist Pouyandeh, agent Aali-Khani
goes to meet kazemi and report back to him…. Kazemi is
now talking
about this encounter:
“…(Aalikhani) gave me a copy of the publication
‘Industry and
development’ (Pouyandeh’s magazine) which I think
included an interview
with Pouyandeh and said ‘read this so that you know who he
was’ so I
laughed and said ‘now that you have already hit him (killed
him) you
want me to read this to know who he was?..... by the way
when (Aali-Khani) wanted to kidnap and kill Mokhtari and then
Pouyandeh, I told him that Mr.Dorri (Minister of Intelligence) was very
sensitive over Mr. Golshiri ( a major Writers Association activist) so
hit him (first); (Aali-Khani) said this Golshiri is accessible
and we can hit him any time we want, so in his opinion he had chosen
Mokhtari and Pouyandeh who he believed were the Writers Association
theoriticians. After the elimination of the two above persons,
(Aalikhani) said Mr. Ahmadzadeh, the Director General of the Cultural
Department of the Popular Intelligence (of the MOIS) (which was in
charge of Intelligence gathering from the Writers Association-
MPG) said to me ‘ why didn’t you hit
Mokhtari’s son as well to
solve our problem too; his son has caused problems for us at the
university’…â€
Mostafa Kazemi, in his March 23rd 2000 Confessions.
“… one street before his house, Ali and Reza
stopped him (writer
Mokhtari) and under the guise of the Prosecutor’s office
personnel,
they ordered him into the car… with previous
arrangements we had
decided to use one of the administrative facilities of Beheshteh
Zahra (a huge cemetery south of Tehran) under the control of the
cemetery security - Nazeri (one of the MOIS officials participating in
the assassination) was the head of the cemetery security (!!!)- for the
job (of killing)….Roshan, Nazeri and other operatives of
the Al Ghadeer
Operations (a major long term operation of “executingâ€
MEK members
before the 1998 assassinations) had used this facility repeatedly (!)
It was decided to use this place for killing Mokhtari. …
Due to the
long distance, I began a discussion about the Writers Association with
Mokhtari (about to be killed)… we reached the
destination and entered
the building. In the first room they asked him to sit on the floor.
Everything was finished by Roshan and Nazeri. They acted very
professionally. Nazeri quickly got the rope from the cabinet in the
room, took some white rags, tied up his hands from behind,
covered his eyes, tied the rope around his neck, laid him down on his
stomach, and for about 4-5 minutes he tightened the rope and
pulled it back. At the same time nazeri had covered the
subject’s mouth
with a white cloth to prevent any blood from spilling on the floor or
any noise being made (by the victim). These two understood from the
color of (the victim’s finger nails) that the job is finished.
………..â€
The body was subsequently thrown in remote deserted area without
identification so that by the time it was discovered and identified,
other targets could be lured, kidnapped and killed.
Mehrdad Aali-Khani, in his April 23rd 2000 confessions.
“….On the Revolution Avenue, across from
Lalezareh-Now Street we
stopped the subject (Poyandeh, the journalist)… they
pulled him into
the Daewoo car…. According to previous arrangements we
decided to drive
towards the Beheshteh Zahra cemetery… to the same place
we had taken
Mokhtari before. On the way I began talking to Pouyandeh, he
wasn’t in
the mood (!!!)… half an hour after the evening prayer
time, Reza Roshan
and Nazeri finished the job just like the job before ( I mean
Mokhtari’s killing)… in the end Nazeri suggested
just to make sure, it
will be good to hang him for a few minutes … There was a
steel frame in
the courtyard of this building which they had prepared before for
hanging people. Nazeri tied a long rope aroung Pouyandeh’s neck
and we
decided that me, Khosrow (the driver *) and Asghar should help Roshan
hang the body, which we
did………. We put the body
about a hundred meters
to the right of the bridge, where every passer by could see him (this
time they wanted the body to be found quickly)….
On the way back,
our spy Dariush (inside the Writers Association) called me and informed
me that his friend’s take (Consulting body of the Writers
Association
after finding out about the disappearances and by the way two other
assassinations of Islamic moderate Dr. Majid Sharif, and writer Peerooz
Davani) that are barely mentioned during these interrogations and
confessions)) is that this method carry’s a message from the
killers
(to he rest of the writers Association activists), meaning we want to
kill OPENLY. The problem is serious. They are terrified
(!!!!)â€.
Mehrdad Aali-Khani, in his April 29th 2000 confessions
MPG Notes:
• The driver mentioned here, Khosrow
Barati, whose
job as a non-MOIS employee was a taxi driver and an informant for many
years, had been trained and appointed as the driver of a bus carrying
21 members of the same Writers Association on a tour of Armenia about
one year before these assassinations. Barati’s job was to drive
the bus
down a canyon in the mountainous regions or North East Iran, jumping
out and killing all the passengers which later could be passed as a
tragic accident!!! Barati failed and no one was killed but
everyone saw him steering the bus downwards and jumping out.
Surprisingly, all the passengers were arrested and taken to a local
MOIS location and were threatened not to say anything about their
obvious suspiscions and some were openly told that another writer,
Saidi Seerjaani was killed to send YOU people a message but you have
failed to shut up. Interestingly some of the would be victims
have said that the agent threatening them was Mehrdad Aali-Khani under
the name Hashem.
• According to these files, after these
two
assassinations, Minister Dorri chided the assassins by saying that
these two were not important people and I told you to kill them all in
one place, not one by one.
Concluding Notes
MPG
Notes: During the meetings between the Minister of Intelligence
and the officials in charge of assassinations (Kazemi and Aali-Khani),
sometimes the discussions mentioned in the files take the form of a
feeding frenzy, where each person would suggest additional names to be
added to the target list and it seemed that every person, activist and
leader who was not part of the hard line factions, was one argument
away from being officially targeted. At other times, the meetings
resembled a sadistic mass murderer reunion, where the Minister
would keep telling Kazemi to go on with the minute details of
Forouhar’s stabbing and the seconds before repeatedly saying
“great,
great!†as if his mouth was watering with cannibalistic hunger.
Kazemi still wanted to continue
while Aali-Khani was worried about the situation and claims that he
even didn’t show up for work, until repeatedly called by Kazemi:
“….. (Kazemi) asked where (the hell) are you? He
said : ‘ think about a
meeting – meaning finding a meeting of the Consultative Body of
the
Writers Association- to do something substantial. He pointed out
that ‘ it would be great to do something at the funeral of
Mokhtari or
Pouyandeh’. Previously, before Mokhtari’s body had been
discovered, it
was suggested at a meeting between myself, Moussavi
(Kazemi) and Nazeri, at reza Roshan’s house that at the
upcoming funeral either a group would be subjected to machine gun
fire or after the conclusion of the event several people would be
kidnapped and murdered. Nazeri had indicated he was ready with three
teams : Mohammad Safaii, Roshan (Ghodrat?) and Haghani. In the
aforementioned telephone call I told Moussavi (Kazemi) that based upon
Dariush’s information (the spy within the Writers
Association-
real name: Ahmad Afghahi) last night, following the
discovery of Mokhtari’s body, not even one of them would dare
to get of
his house. He insisted that ‘you have to do something’.
I told him I
would let him know. I spoke to Amouzegar and said: ‘ Haj Aghaa
(Kazemi)
insists upon continuing the work; he isn’t concerned about any
consequences for us. He said ‘ he is crazy’; I said if
he calls tell
him you can’t find me’…
….. “Moussavi (Kazemi) was looking for me
till Monday… finally I agreed … I went to
the ministry and started my
regular work… Moussavi (Kazemi) had encountered
Masssoud Saleh at
the Ministry (of Intelligence) … and Massoud leaks
all the
results of the investigations of the President’s office and the
Police
Force regarding these murders to Moussavi (Kazemi) at this time.
Massoud agrees to continue the murders of writers in the provinces;
prepare the necessary forces (assassins) himself. In the
meantime, (Massoud) offers that if the teams need any number of
passports (to escape from the country temporarily or…)
he would be
ready to issue them- since the department of issuing Passports in
the Police department is under the Ministry of
Intelligence- …. Moussavi (Kazemi) told me about his
meeting with
Massoud and asked me to prepare the information on subjects (new
victims) in other cities and give them to him. Moussavi (Kazemi) was
still operating openly and widely even after the Mokhtari murder
and had invited many to cooperate, such as Mostafa Tehrani
– the
Director of Intelligence in the Khorasan Province (MOIS)- and
……
Moussavi (Kazemi) told me that Mehdi Riahi is also ready to join and
his specialty is stabbing (!)…. On Thursday when
we were supposed
to meet for the psychological job ( sending condolences flowers to the
addresses of the targeted victims) at the Children’s World
Autobahn, I
was supposed to also give him the photos and addresses of the
subjects (new victims) in the Provinces so that he could give them to
Massoud. I had requested these from Asghar Sayyah (names of new
victims): Mohammad Taghi Saleh-pour (Northern City of Rasht in the
Gillan Province) and Masoud Toofan (also in Rasht).I gave these two
cases to Moussavi
(Kazemi)……….
Mehrad Aali-Khani in his
November 23rd 2000 confessions
MPG Notes:
The above mentioned Massoud
Salehi was actually one Massoud Sadr-ol-Eslaam, the Director of
the Police Intelligence Department of Iran, a highly effective
organization by itself. Here it is clear that it was not just the
Ministry of Intelligence that had leaders, officials and
assassination teams, ready to prey on naïve opponents of
this deadly
regime.
The above mentioned Mehdi Riahi
was an employee of the Foreign Intelligence Department of the
Ministry of Intelligence, in their General Department of Special (!!!)
operations. The function of this latter Department becomes clear
considering that Riahi’s only specialty was STABBING !!! Again
it is
revealed that the MOIS, has special departments for foreign
assassinations, in case anyone doubted it before!!!
One other person from among 15 who
had been recruited for future assassinations is mentioned as one Navid
Ramezani, a MOIS source, spy or “sub-contractorâ€, or
IRGC member (??)
since they call him a non-Ministry colleague. Before the assassination
team decide to kill Forouhar at his home, they had been planning to
kidnap him and kill him by injecting a poison that simulated heart
attack symptoms. In this plan Ramezani’s home had been prepared
for the
injection murder.
Kazemi’s follow up
and
corroborations of the above Aali-Khani quote and new
assassination plans :
“….Then I spoke to Mr. Massoud Sadr-ol-Eslaam; I
asked him what he
knew about these murders; he said: ‘ I don’t have
any information
but I report (leak) the (results of) the investigations of the (Police)
Intelligence Department which are reported to Mr. Lotfian
–
Commander of the Police Force – and Mr. Lotfian tells me, to
Mr. Dorri
(Minister of Intelligence) and tell him about the clues and
footprints and also I mention them by insinuation and from a
distance to Said Eslaami (Emaami)’ . I said (to Massoud)
: ‘if
you are not involved in these operations (assassinations) I am
!’
. He said ‘Praise be to Allah ! Now I feel at ease.
Let’s
hit Mohammad Atrianfar – of the Hamshahri daily paper- he
writes some
of the articles for Jame’eh magazine
……’ I told him
Mr. Dorri (Minister of Intelligence) had already issued the order
for the Writers Association. He (Massoud) said be careful, they have
found a syringe from Forouhar’s home and also a magazine
(pistol
magazine) which I said doesn’t belong to our kids. Massoud
said :
‘give them to me (the assassins , now in trouble), I will
help
them get out of the country’ to which I answered
‘ they don’t
have any problems, but are you ready to do something?’ He
said :
‘ I’ll do anything ….( he found the
needed trusted women who would do
the “flower†psychological job)…. I have
forces, everything needed for
operations, for any kind of job, just give me the address and
….’…..â€
Mostafa Kazemi in his
July 22nd 2000 Confessions
The Death Van of MOIS:
“…He said if we talk to
Mr. Haghani ( real
name : Morteza Khazeni, Director general of Operations Support
…
including logistics…) to give us a Hias, we can just
strangle the
subject right inside the Hias ( this is a Toyota van used for cargo,
for ambulances or mass transit, safe enough for
assassinations in the windowless models )…. I spoke with
Mr. Haghani
who said I only have one Hias (Toyota Van) and I will give it to them
if possibleâ€â€¦. ( meaning perhaps that
other teams were
already using the death van)…
Kazemi, Confessions of
July 22nd 2000
Targeting Women Activists:
“ … Sadegh (Aali-Khani)
was also (insisted) on
(killing) Mehr Angiz ( Mehr-Angiz Kar, lawyer, womens rights
activist , writer…) and to a lesser extent (on)
Shirin Ebadi,
whereupon I said the situation is not right, not
yet.â€â€¦..
Kazemi, Confessions of July
9th 2000
Targeting Nationalist Leader, Mr.Khosrow
Seif:
MPG
Note: In June of 1981 , Ayatullah Khomeini declared the old
National Front apostate, which meant their leaders could be
killed. This religious order was given as the Front opposed
the adoption of the Islamic Shariah laws of
“Qisass†(eye for an
eye etc….) as the law of the land, and called for a
protest which drew
tens of thousands but never materialized as the Hezbollah thugs,
dispersed the crowds from the major streets. Khomeini’s Fatwa,
effectively stopped all legal and major activities of the
National Front, sent some of their leaders packing to Europe and the US
and made it very difficult to even have meetings. In 1998, the
Intelligence Ministry, used the still valid Apostasy Fatwa of Khomeini
to eliminate Forouhar who could be connected to the old National Front:
“ In the meeting of November 16th 1998, I had referred to the
situation
of Forouhar and the Mellat Party – the apostate nationalists-
to Mr.
Dorri (Minister of Intelligence) and explained how some of the forces
in the National Front who were declared apostates in 1981, such as
Forouhar, were able to continue their existence by changing
the name of their political organization and to be present
currently as one of the active opposition forces and as a bridge
between the political activists abroad with (the society)
inside the country, and vice versa. I told Mr. Moussavi (Kazemi) to
consider them as a priority ( top of the agenda for
killing).â€â€¦â€¦
Aali-Khani, in his March 31st
2000 confessions
MPG
Note: Following Forouhar’s assassination , Kazemi and
Aali-Khani
plead with the Minister of Intelligence to allow them to kill Mr.
Khosrow Seif who had just replaced Dariush Forouhar as the head of the
Mellat Party of Iran :
The meeting with the Minister of Intelligence was arranged for 9:30 Am,
November 11th 1998… “ In the above mentioned
meeting, the
decisions were made regarding the elimination of certain people and in
addition to the persons who had been specified by name, regarding the
secular persons (in general) he (the Minister) said ;
‘eliminate them’.
…In 28th of November, 1998 based on my
statement to Sadegh (Aali-Khani ) that Khosrow Seif has
replaced Forouhar , he (Aali-khani) suggested that he too should be
eliminated whereupon I said lets talk to Mr. Dorri (Minister of
Intelligence). The same day we went to the Imam building (Imam Khomeini
Building within the MOIS complex, the main office of the Minister of
Intelligence) at six o’clock in the afternoon, and Mr.
Dorri (
minister of Intelligence) did not grant the order to kill Khosrow Seif
but insisted upon the (Writers) Association people. In that
meeting , in the beginning I reorted on the elimination of Forouhar and
his wife and then based on the opinion and insistence of Dorri
(Minister of Intelligence) I told Sadegh (Aali-Khani ) that the
Minister had insisted upon the (Writers) Association people, so
Sadegh (Aali-Khani) picked two of them from amongst fifteen who had
been approved (for assassination) by Dorri (Minister of Intelligence)
for elimination.â€
Mostafa Kazemi, in his
Confessions of July 9th 2000
The End of One Round of Assassinations
MPG Notes:
Following the five assassinations
in November 1998 (of Dariush Forouhar and Parvaneh Eskandari –
husband
and wife leaders of the Mellat Party- Mr. Pouyandeh and Mr.
Mokhtari – writers and journalists-, Mr. Davani whose body was
not
found and Dr.Majid Sharif and Islamic moderate writer) , the case of
the assassinations quickly became a National case, the
intellectual and writers community was terrorized and the media
was pre-occupied with an unprecedented coverage of all aspects of these
assassinations. Close to one hundred thousand attended the
Forouhars funeral while thousands attended the Pouyandeh .
Forouhar’s body was buried wrapped in the Iranian flag with
the
nationalist and ancient Lion and Sun symbol and all IRI symbols were
ignored. These events were unprecedented since the beginning years of
the revolution before the IRI established its grip on the society.
The Khatami faction within
the government and the Islamic “reformist†movement
were terrified of a
coup and even assassinations of their own people (which actually did
happen somewhat later when Hajjarian an important Intelligence figure
who was behind the scenes directing a lot of things within the fake
reformist movement was shot and disabled by an assassin) and had
reacted quickly to investigate the case for its own fears and also for
making populist gestures towards the society.
It was in such an atmosphere when
the Intelligence Ministry, experiencing external and internal pressures
decided to change strategy, stop assassinations in Tehran, begin
assassinations in other provinces and wait for the situation to get
back to “normalâ€. Future assassinations did
continue after a
while and continue till today with less publicity and almost no
investigations.
There are pages of information
within the Assassination Files regarding creating false scenarios,
behind the scenes dealings between factions, proposals of sacrificing
some agents and absolving high officials and etc. which are very
interesting but will be the subject of a different research.
Here are more quotes and notes
regarding the situation in the November-December period in 1998
within the Ministry. This was against the background of a list of
fifteen Writers Association activists who had already been officially
targeted and the Minister’s back pedaling out of fear of being
publicly
implicated:
“ … I continued, saying that after Mokhtari who
was the theoretic force
within the (Writers) Association and Pouyandeh who was their organizer,
we have Shirin Ebadi who is the attorney for Yazdi, Sahabi and
Peyman ( loyal opposition Islamic moderates) in the next
program and we want to hit her by fire arms. The Minister (of
Intelligence) asserted : ‘ these who were killed were not
famous
people, and then it was agreed that a bomb would be thrown on
them or that we would shoot them with a machine gun burst. To die once
and to cry once(!) and to end it. These continuing sequence of the
murders have brought a lot of pressure on me …
stop for now until
the (Holy) month of Ramadan is ended….’.
Moussavi (Kazemi) said:
‘ We want to send some flowers to some of the addresses of
these people
with condolences cards ( to those who were marked for death but were
still alive), this is psychological work, everyone will know they are
within reach of the hit men ’. Mr. Dorri (Minister of
Intelligence)
said “do this, the flower plan is good, send the flowers, do
such work
till the end of the month of Ramadan’. Moussavi (Kazemi)
mentioned: ‘ So, give us the permission at
least to conclude the case of Shirin Ebadi – whose
preparation work had been done and was ready to go’. The
minister got
up, smiled and said leave them alone, let them get on with their
(Ramadan) fasting’….. In any case after this
date, based on (Minister)
Dorri’s orders the work was stopped.â€
A Recent Statement by Shirin Ebadi
Shirin Ebadi was representing the
Forouhar family in the case of their parent’s murders and was
given
access to some of the assassination files before the show trials
of some of the assassins and officials involved .
“ I and my lawyer colleagues were busy researching the issue of
the
assassinations of opposition forces in Iran (the 1998
assassinations) when suddenly I saw my own name in the list of the next
assassinations. The officials had been too careless to have
deleted my name from the list within the files. The list was adorned by
the signature of the Minister of Intelligence at the time, Mr. Dorri
Najaf-Abadi. Following the publication of the list and numerous
protests, he had no choice but to resign.â€
Shirin Ebadi in an Interview
with the German Publication Suddeutsche Zeitung, on or about January
21st 2009