Iran’s intelligence operatives abroad flee their terror masters
Iran Focus London, Jun. 11 – Several key agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS a.k.a. VEVAK) operating in countries bordering Iran have gone on the run from their terror masters in Tehran, a well-placed source inside the government told Iran Focus.
Refusing to identify specifically the agents that had gone on the run, the source who requested anonymity told Iran Focus that the agents were “high up” on the ministry’s organisational chart.
The contact blackout began last month and the ministry has still not managed to track the agents’ locations, the source said.
Tehran has however since ruled out the possibility that the agents had been arrested by foreign security forces.
Soon after hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office as President, a purge of a number of senior officials in the MOIS with ties to former President Mohammad Khatami’s political camp was carried out. Some of the former officials are currently facing trials in special courts set up to deal with security agents.
Control of the ministry, which is currently headed by radical Shiite cleric Hojjatoleslam Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ezhei, has since come into the hands of a clique of hard-liners once allied to former Deputy Intelligence Minister Saeed Emami.
Until his highly controversial “suicide” in prison, Emami had a turbulent history in the dreaded ministry. In 1997, a series of gruesome murders of dissident journalists and writers, commonly known as the “chain murders”, were carried out throughout Iran. In the aftermath, journalist Akbar Ganji shed light on the murders, revealing that it had been an “inside-job” sanctioned on Emami’s orders. The MOIS blamed the killings on “rogue agents”.
Refusing to identify specifically the agents that had gone on the run, the source who requested anonymity told Iran Focus that the agents were “high up” on the ministry’s organisational chart.
The contact blackout began last month and the ministry has still not managed to track the agents’ locations, the source said.
Tehran has however since ruled out the possibility that the agents had been arrested by foreign security forces.
Soon after hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office as President, a purge of a number of senior officials in the MOIS with ties to former President Mohammad Khatami’s political camp was carried out. Some of the former officials are currently facing trials in special courts set up to deal with security agents.
Control of the ministry, which is currently headed by radical Shiite cleric Hojjatoleslam Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ezhei, has since come into the hands of a clique of hard-liners once allied to former Deputy Intelligence Minister Saeed Emami.
Until his highly controversial “suicide” in prison, Emami had a turbulent history in the dreaded ministry. In 1997, a series of gruesome murders of dissident journalists and writers, commonly known as the “chain murders”, were carried out throughout Iran. In the aftermath, journalist Akbar Ganji shed light on the murders, revealing that it had been an “inside-job” sanctioned on Emami’s orders. The MOIS blamed the killings on “rogue agents”.
posted by Marko at 6/11/2006 11:17:00 PM
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