SAVAK

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The SAVAK , an abbreviation of Persian ( Persian سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور, DMG sāzmān-e ettelāʽāt o amnijat-e ​​kešwar , 'Organization for Information and Security of the Country'), was the Iranian secret service from 1957 to 1979 . The successor organization has been VEVAK since 1984 .

Logo of the Organization for Information and Security of the Country

history

prehistory

The first Political Police in Iran was established by Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh . On November 11, 1952, Mossadegh informed the Iranian parliament by letter that for some time there had been a political police force in Iran by the name of Amniat Edschtemai ( Persian امنیت اجتماعی; "Company protection") operate. The main purpose of the Amniat Edschtemai was to prevent political unrest and illegal strikes. In his letter to Parliament, Mossadegh gives three reasons for building a political police force:

  1. The presumption of innocence of arrested political opponents who can be released on bail is a flaw in the legal regulation and must be repealed.
  2. Fundamental reforms always generate opposition. In order to carry out these reforms, the opponents of reform must be eliminated.
  3. Opponents of the government must be stopped by force in order to avert threats to public safety. They must be punished on the spot to prevent further conspiracies.

Separate prisons were set up for the Amniat Edschtemai, in which those arrested were sentenced according to an express judicial process. Lawyers to represent the defendants were not allowed.

Founding and directors

Until the establishment of the Amniat Edschtemai there was only one military secret service (G2) in Iran, which, according to British and American secret service experts after the fall of Mossadegh, should be supplemented by a civilian intelligence service. The secret service of Turkey served as a model for the establishment of the SAVAK , in which the domestic and foreign secret service were combined in a single agency. According to the original concept, the SAVAK should collect information and produce reports for political decision-making. The law establishing the SAVAK was passed by the Senate on January 20, 1957 and by Parliament on March 20, 1957. According to the text of the law, the SAVAK should “protect the interests of the state and prevent any conspiracy against the public interest”. The establishment of the secret service took place with significant help from the CIA and the Mossad .

The first director of the service was General Teymur Bakhtiar . After the overthrow of Mossadegh, Bakhtiar became the commander of the royal guard and military governor of Tehran. As military governor, he had almost smashed the communist Tudeh party in the past three years and recommended himself as head of the new SAVAK. As director of the SAVAK, Bachtiar hired numerous officers who were devoted to him and who had learned the secret service work less through explicit training and more through "training on the job". Soon, under Bakhtiar's leadership, the secret service developed into a state within a state and a personal instrument of power for Teymour Bakhtiar. Once the agents of SAVAK were installed everywhere, Teymour Bakhtiar was the secret ruler of the country. In 1961, Teymour Bakhtiar was dismissed for preparing a coup and expelled from the country in 1962. On August 11, 1970, Bakhtiar was killed under mysterious circumstances in Iraq . As Gérard de Villiers writes, he was executed using a tool that he himself had created.

Bakhtiar's successor was his deputy Hassan Pakravan . One of his first decisions was to refrain from any form of torture during interrogation. In addition, Pakravan completely changed the way the SAVAK worked. It was Pakravan who succeeded in ensuring that Khomeini was not executed in 1964 after his arrest and conviction in connection with the violent June demonstrations in 1963, but was released from prison in 1964 into exile in Turkey and later deported to Iraq. On January 22, 1965 a few days before the anniversary of the White Revolution , the reform program of Mohammad Reza Shah, which led in 1963 to the organized by the clergy violent demonstrations, was on Prime Minister Hassan Ali Mansour by a member of the Fedayeen-e Islam shot . Mansour died on January 27, 1965 as a result of the assassination attempt. After Prime Minister Mansour's assassination, it became clear that Hassan Pakravan's idea of ​​running the SAVAK according to the principles of liberal rule of law had failed. General Nematollah Nassiri became the new head of the SAVAK. The replacement of Pakravan, so de Villiers, "meant the replacement of an educated intellectual by a man with guts." General Nassiri then turned the SAVAK into the organization of repression, as it was described in many reports of the opposition.

On June 6, 1978, after 13 years at the helm of SAVAK, Nassiri was replaced by the Shah by Nasser Moghadam . During his tenure, Nassiri was considered the most hated man in Iran, who was said to have a penchant for cruelty and sadism. In the course of the Islamic Revolution he was executed on February 16, 1979 as one of the first members of the SAVAK.

List of directors

Working method

Formally, the director of the SAVAK was subordinate to the prime minister. In fact, the Prime Minister only received selected information. Twice a week the Shah received the director of the SAVAK and listened to his report.

The SAVAK is usually equated with the third office, the domestic intelligence. It was this office that was responsible for monitoring the opposition and, above all, the communist movements, and was to shape the image of the SAVAK, especially in the last few years of its existence under the leadership of Parviz Sabeti, at home and abroad. The successes of foreign intelligence and counter-espionage, which General Ahmad Mogharebi exposed as the top spy of the Soviet Union, were completely forgotten.

monitoring

The domestic intelligence of the SAVAK infiltrated almost all opposition groups in Iran, from the National Front , which was co-founded by Mossadegh, to the communist Tudeh party, from the Marxist People's Mujahedin to the Fedajin-e Islam , who were close to the Shiite clergy around Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini . Smaller groups, such as the Maoist Union of Iranian Communists (Sarbedaran) , or larger groups, such as the terrorist groups of the People's Fedajin Guerrilla Organization of Iran , the People's Fedajin Guerrilla Iran or the Union of the People's Fedajin Iran , which are committed to armed struggle, were under constant surveillance. Thousands of these mostly left-wing, Islamist or Marxist-Islamist critics of the regime were arrested, interrogated, tortured and, if they were involved in terrorist activities, executed. Amnesty International estimated the number of political detainees in Iran at several thousand in 1977. Other opposition sources said there were between 25,000 and 100,000 political prisoners. However, this number has not been confirmed by independent organizations.

Processes

The trials were military tribunals , according to the treason section of 1931, in which the findings of the secret service or confessions obtained under torture were considered incontrovertible evidence. The accused had no right to a self-chosen lawyer. The defense of the accused was incumbent on the military. The Shah was able to approve an appeal within 6 days. If the appeal was denied, the death penalty was executed by shooting within 48 hours .

A video of the accused writer Khosrow Golsorkhi , which was shown on state television, shows an excerpt from a hearing . Khosrow Golsorkhi has been accused of being a member of the People's Mujahedin in planning the kidnapping and hostage-taking of the Shah, Queen and Crown Prince.

censorship

In addition to direct monitoring of the political opposition to the Shah, the SAVAK was initially also responsible for censoring the media and literature. The press law of July 30, 1955 was interpreted in such a way that critical statements against religion and the monarchy could be forbidden by court order. After 1963 the pre-censorship was subject to the newly created Ministry of Information.

Books, newspapers

The newspapers were not allowed to comment on current events and were only allowed to print the official representation verbatim. Violations sometimes resulted in prison and torture for journalists. Writers who submitted critical or politically ambiguous works also faced a ban. By 1970 the Iranian press landscape had been reduced to 60 different newspapers, of which the Shah banned another 37 with reference to insufficient circulation. The publishing industry fared similarly. From 4,000 new books in 1970, the number of new books had dropped to 1,000 by 1975. The SAVAK censored books only when the whole edition was finished. If a book aroused their displeasure, all copies had to be crushed and the publisher paid the costs. This is how most publishers were ruined.

Film, theater

The censorship exercised by SAVAK took on some bizarre features. A SAVAK employee had banned the performances of plays by William Shakespeare that dealt with the murder of kings. The ban was lifted immediately, however.

torture

Ryszard Kapuściński speaks of a pathological cruelty that has not changed in the six hundred years since Timur . Kapuściński did not get his information from tortured prisoners themselves, but only from former prisoners who “would have heard about it”. Particularly cruel torture methods used by the SAVAK allegedly included electrocuting the prisoner , inserting broken glass or hot water into the rectum , placing weights on the testicles, and extracting teeth and nails. In January 1979, Der Spiegel wrote, “Testimony from those affected prove the rape of children in the presence of their parents, the grilling of victims on electrically heated iron bed frames, running water into the anus, and pulling out all fingernails, toenails and teeth. The Iranian poet Resa Baraheni even reports cannibalism in a book about his prison experiences. "

Parviz Sabeti denied the allegations in an interview with the Washington Post, claiming that the Shah banned all torture with a threat of six years in prison. Sabeti stated that before 1970 no one was executed for political opposition. This only changed from 1971, when armed terrorists became active in Iran. British journalist Martin Woollacott of the Guardian has investigated claims by opposition groups about mass torture and brutal attacks by the SAVAK, but has not been able to confirm them.

Known inmates

Foreign assignment in Germany

From mid-1964, SAVAK had set up its central office for Europe in Cologne at Bonner Strasse 180 ( military department of the Iranian embassy), a seven-story apartment building. General Alavi Kia was the head of the foreign office. The main task was to  "track down and eliminate" opposition students - especially supporters of communism and the Iranian Tudeh party .

During the demonstration against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in West Berlin on June 2, 1967 , Iranians hired by the SAVAK beat bystanders with wooden slats. German media afterwards was of cheering Persians or beatings Persians talk. General Hassan Alavi Kia, who was responsible for the operation of the SAVAK in Berlin, was immediately dismissed after these incidents.

From 1972 onwards, the approximately 2,000 leftists among the 15,000 Iranians living in the Federal Republic of Germany were monitored, mostly students who were united in the " Confederation of Iranian Students - National Union" (CISNU) , a kind of popular front of the Shah's opponents, founded in 1960 and banned in Iran in 1971 were.

Foreign assignment in Austria

On the evening of January 20, 1969, on the occasion of the arrival of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a demonstration that was largely carried out by students and not registered took place in downtown Vienna . The march of around 800 people, aiming at the hotel serving as the guest's residence, was stopped by Viennese security forces after repeated fights and attack on a car allegedly in which people from the Persian secret service were sitting was.

In connection with the unannounced rally against terror by the Persian secret service in Vienna two days later, it became known that at the previous demonstration an Iranian, allegedly a SAVAK agent, had driven into the demonstrators at the opera intersection with his car with a German customs license plate , whereupon those affected overturned the vehicle. The next day, when two Iranian students were handing out leaflets in front of the University of Vienna , they were dragged away by three unidentified Iranians and knocked down with steel chains. On the same day, an Iranian student was dragged into a car by several compatriots in front of the new institute building , knocked unconscious there and later thrown from the moving car. The chairman of the Persian students in Vienna was (also) beaten with a steel bar.

The Austrian Students' Union directed severe attacks against the executive, which allegedly did not take any countermeasures against the activities of the Iranian secret service "Savak" in Austria, and demanded that the Federal Minister of the Interior , Franz Soronics , clarify the riots and take legal action. - Just days later, the Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Minister denied in a press conference that there were Savak agents in Austria .

organization

structure

The SAVAK consisted of nine main offices:

Financial resources

The budget of the SAVAK for the financial year 1972/73 was given as 255 million dollars, for the following financial year it was 310 million dollars.

Employee

In an interview on February 4, 1974, the Shah stated that he did not know the number of SAVAK employees, but estimated that there were fewer than 2,000 agents . When asked if he knew that going tortured in his country, he replied: No . He described newspaper reports reporting torture as lies . Working according to Newsweek of October 14, 1974

between 30,000 and 60,000 people constantly for the SAVAK, but they only form the framework for a much larger apparatus. No less than three million Iranians are occasional informants of the SAVAK, in hotels, taxis, schools, embassies, companies and offices, with doctors, even in dormitories and vending machine restaurants where the Iranian students live and eat.

In an interview conducted by David Frost in Panama in 1980, the Shah put the number of permanent employees in 1978 at 4,000. After the revolution, leaflets circulated stating that the SAVAK had 15,000 official and many times more unofficial employees. According to Andrew S. Cooper, SAVAK had a maximum of 5,000 employees. The existing technology made it possible to record a maximum of 50 calls simultaneously.

The Islamic Revolution

In the previous year of the Islamic Revolution (1978), the SAVAK fought against the leadership of the clergy, almost all known clergy in the Khomeini area were imprisoned. Statements by the SAVAK such as the abuse of Khomeini in January 1978 and the advice given to the Shah to expel Khomeini from Iraq ultimately accelerated the revolution. The tight organizational network of the clergy, which was relatively undisturbed by the SAVAK, turned out to be an instrument in preparation for the revolution that worked excellently and clearly outclassed the praised effectiveness of the SAVAK.

When the Shah left the country and Ayatollah Khomeini took over political power, the tide turned against the SAVAK. Employees who did not change fronts in time were now the target of imprisonment or executions. 23 generals and 30 officers were immediately executed; 80 percent of the first two hundred executed belonged to the military or SAVAK.

When Khomeini came to power, the SAVAK was dissolved, replaced by the new secret and intelligence service VEVAK and built up with the help of members of the previous organization. The first director was General Hussein Fardust , a school friend of the Shah, who was recruited by the Revolutionary Council and was dismissed in 1985 due to his ties to Moscow.

The treatment of prisoners deteriorated dramatically after the Islamic revolution. Ervand Abrahamian writes that four months of imprisonment under Khomeini were comparable to four years under the Shah. Another prisoner said that one day under Khomeini was equivalent to 10 years in prison under the Shah. Reports from prisoners under the Shah spoke of “boredom” and “monotony”. Now the prisoners talked about "fear", "death", "terror", "horror" and "nightmares".

Number of victims

The number of prisoners and victims of the SAVAK varies extremely depending on the source. Oltmanns reports 100,000 prisoners in the 1970s and 300 executions in 1972. The number of 100,000 prisoners comes from a report by Amnesty International , which relied on statistics from opposition groups and press reports based on information from Abolhassan Banisadr and other anti-Shah propagandists. An investigation into the situation of the prisoners was carried out in 1977 by the International Committee of the Red Cross at the invitation of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi . In the investigation report published in June 1977 the number of political prisoners was given as 3,087, 700 fewer than in 1975. The information provided by the Red Cross was confirmed in a CIA report on the human rights situation in Iran: “The human rights situation in Iran has changed improved. Political opponents are only arrested if they propagate the violent overthrow of the regime or are involved in terrorist activities. ... "

Khomeini spoke of 60,000 deaths during the revolution for which the Shah's regime was responsible. Mostafa Fateh, a member of the Tudeh party , spoke of 18,000 dead. Abrahamian reports 7,500 political prisoners in the 1970s. In the late 1990s, Emad al-Din Baghi investigated the number of victims of the Shah on behalf of the journal of the Iranian “Martyrs Foundation” (Bonyad Shahid va Omur-e Janbazan) and on the basis of the data collected by the foundation after the Islamic Revolution Regimes. He came to the conclusion that between 1963 and 1979 a total of 3,164 Iranians had been killed in the fight against the regime, 2,781 of them in the revolutionary unrest of 1977/78. He puts the number of victims of the Marxist guerrilla struggle since 1971 at 341, of whom 171 were killed in combat with the security forces, 91 were executed, 15 "disappeared" and 42 died under torture.

literature

  • Teymour Bachtiar (Ed.): Black Book on Tudeh Officers Organization . Tehran 1956.
  • Parvin Darabi and Romin Thomson: You wanted to fly. From the American by Peter A. Schmidt, Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1997, paperback edition, ibid. 1999, pp. 141–152 ( In the Fangs of SAVAK )
  • Ashraf Dehghani: Torture and Resistance in Iran. The testimony of the struggle of a leading people's fedayie guerrillera from Iran . London 1983.
  • Amad Farughy , Jean-Loup Reverier : Persia, Departure into Chaos? An analysis of developments in Iran from 1953–1979 . Goldmann-Taschenbuch, Volume 3846. Goldmann, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-442-03846-4 .
  • Harald Irnberger: SAVAK or the torture friend of the West. From the files of the Iranian secret service . Rororo, Volume 4182. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1977, ISBN 3-499-14182-5 .
  • Ryszard Kapuściński : Shah-in-Shah . Eichborn-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-8218-5672-8 . (First edition published in 1986: ISBN 3-462-01739-X .)
  • Bahman Nirumand : Persia, Model of a Developing Country or The Dictatorship of the Free World . Rororo, Volume 945. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1967.
  • Peter Koch, Reimar Oltmanns: The peacock throne has a thousand eyes . In: Human dignity - torture in our time . Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg 1977, ISBN 3-570-00061-3 .
  • Gérard de Villiers : The Shah. The resilient rise of Mohamed Reza Pahlewi , Vienna / Düsseldorf (Econ) 2975. ISBN 3-430-19364-8

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Erfan Qaneei: Dar Damgah Hadeseh (In the Net of Events). Ketab Corp., Los Angeles 2012, p. 56 f.
  2. ^ Letter from Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh to the Iranian Parliament on November 11, 1952, to establish an organization to protect society.
  3. ↑ Erfan Qaneei: Dar Damgah Hadeseh (In the Net of Events). Ketab Corp. 2012, p. 56f.
  4. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah . University of California Press, 2009, p. 381.
  5. ↑ Amad Farughy, Jean-Loup Reverier: Persia: Departure into Chaos? Munich 1979, p. 163.
  6. ↑ Henner Fürtig : The Islamic Republic of Iran. 1987, p. 60.
  7. ^ Office of the Military Governor of Tehran: Black Book on Tudeh Officers Organization. 1956. ISBN 978-3-8442-7813-2 . epubli.de
  8. ↑ Ehsan Naraghi: From Palace to Prison. IB Tauris, 1994, p. 176.
  9. ^ Gérard de Villiers: The Shah. 1976. p. 395.
  10. ↑ Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians. Syracuse University Press, 2008, p. 478.
  11. ↑ Ehsan Naraghi: From Palace to Prison. IB Tauris, 1994, p. 177.
  12. ^ Gérard de Villiers: The Shah. 1976. p. 396.
  13. ↑ nybooks.com
  14. ^ Bahman Nirumand: Persia, model of a developing country , Hamburg 1967, p. 128f
  15. ^ Ulrich Gehrke: Iran . P. 253
  16. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah . University of Califormia Press, 2008, p. 402.
  17. ^ Ulrich Gehrke: Iran . 1975. p. 106
  18. ↑ Amad Farughy, Jean-Loup Reverier: Persia: Departure into Chaos? Munich 1979, p. 171ff
  19. ^ Ryszard Kapuściński: Shah-in-Shah . P. 113
  20. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah . University of Califormia Press, 2008, p. 386.
  21. ^ Ryszard Kapuściński: Shah-in-Shah. P. 72
  22. ↑ fas.org ( Memento of October 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  23. ↑ Reza Baraheni: The cannibal clan. (Original title The crowned cannibals. Vintage Books, New York 1976 and 1977 with a foreword by EL Doctorow ) Translated from English into German by Walter Hertenstein and Dirk Mülder, Rogner & Bernhard, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-8077-0109-5 .
  24. ↑ "We have modern methods" - the splendor and end of Shah Resa Mohammed Pahlewi . In: Der Spiegel . No. 4 , 1979, p. 96-97 ( online ).
  25. ↑ Andrew S. Cooper: The Fall of Heaven. New York 2016, p. 237.
  26. ↑ Andrew S. Cooper: The Fall of Heaven. New York 2016, p. 238.
  27. ↑ SHRBaresi va Tahile Nehzate Imam Khomeini , p. 575. Quoted from Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians . Syracuse University Press, 2008, p. 479.
  28. ↑ fouman.com
  29. ^ Golsorkhi during the trial (farsi) on YouTube
  30. ↑ Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians . Syracuse University Press, Vol. 1, 2008, pp. 229-235.
  31. ^ Ryszard Kapuściński: Shah-in-Shah . P. 107.
  32. ↑ lane to the 4th floor . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1967, p. 64 ( online ).
  33. ↑ Warning against SAVAK! In: Die Zeit , No. 7/1966
  34. ↑ The Jubelperser . In: Die Zeit , No. 26/1967
  35. ↑ lane to the 4th floor . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1967, p. 64-67 ( online ).
  36. ↑ "The Arab - he is not to be trusted" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 39 , 1972, p. 24-34 ( online ).
  37. ↑ a b 12 advertisements according to Shahwirbel . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 22, 1969, p. 4 , middle left ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  38. Jump up ↑ Shah in front of the opera . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 21, 1969, p. 1 , bottom left ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized). , as well as instead of discussion demonstration . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 21, 1969, p. 5 , bottom center ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  39. ^ A b Student protest against Persian terror. Another march through the city center . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 23, 1969, p. 1 , Mitte ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized). , as well as Persian clubs on Viennese soil . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 23, 1969, p. 3 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  40. ↑ Persian students demand protection. Ministry of the Interior: "A provocation". - But the raids have not yet been clarified . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna January 25, 1969, p. 2 , Mitte ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  41. ↑ Barbara Coudenhove-Calergi : The Persians live dangerously. In this dossier Soronics saw “no suspicion of Savak activity in Austria” . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 2, 1969, p. 3 , above ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  42. ↑ Harald Irnberger. P. 29
  43. ↑ Harald Irnberger. P. 27
  44. ^ Gérard de Villiers: The Shah . 1976. pp. 396 and 410
  45. ^ Gérard de Villiers: The Shah . 1976. p. 408
  46. ↑ Amad Farughy / Jean-Loup Reverier: Persia: Departure into Chaos? , Munich 1979, p. 169
  47. ↑ Interview with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi by David Frost. Posted January 17th, 1980 in ABC.
  48. ↑ Andrew. S. Cooper: The Fall of Heaven. New York 2016, p. 238.
  49. ↑ Henner Fürtig: The Islamic Republic of Iran . P. 154
  50. ↑ James A. Bill: The Iranian Revolution and the Changing Power Structure . P. 124
  51. ↑ Assault on YouTube of SAVAK- headquarters in February 1979
  52. ↑ Henner Fürtig: The Islamic Republic of Iran . 1987. p. 121
  53. ↑ Andrew S. Cooper: The Fall of Heaven . New York 2016, p. 493.
  54. ↑ Reimar Oltmanns: Searching for traces on scorched earth. ISBN 978-3-8370-9507-4 , p. 279.
  55. ↑ Andrew S. Cooper: The Fall of Heaven. New York 2016, p. 237.
  56. ↑ Andrew S. Cooper: The Fall of Heaven. New York 2016, p. 238.
  57. ↑ Shojaedin Shafa: Genayat va Mohafaat . London 1983, p. 21.
  58. ↑ Ervand Abrahamian: Tortured confessions. ISBN 978-0-520-21866-6 , p. 108.
  59. ^ Cyrus Kadivar: A Question of Numbers . In: Rouzegar-Now , August 8, 2003.