SAVAK

From Open Encyclopedia

SAVAK (Persian: ساواک, short for سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور Sazeman-i Ettelaat va Amniyat-i Keshvar, Organization for Intelligence and National Security) was the domestic security and intelligence service of Iran from 1957–1979.

1 History
2 Operations
3 Post-Revolution
4 SAVAK Directors
5 External links

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History

SAVAK was founded in 1957 with the assistance of the CIA and the Israeli Mossad. Its mission was to protect the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran, and control opposition, especially political opposition. Its first director was General Teymur Bakhtiar, who was replaced by General Hassan Pakravan in 1961 and later assassinated on the Shah's orders. Pakravan was replaced in 1965 by General Nematollah Nassiri, a close associate of the Shah, and the service was reorganized and became increasingly active in the face of rising Islamic and Communist militancy and political unrest. SAVAK reported directly to the Office of the Prime Minister and had strong ties to the military.

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Operations

SAVAK had virtually unlimited powers of arrest and detention. It operated its own detention centres, like the notorious Evin Prison. It is universally accepted that SAVAK routinely subjected detainees to physical torture. In addition to domestic security the service's tasks extended to the surveillance of Iranians (especially students on government stipends) abroad, notably in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom.

SAVAK agents often carried out operations against each other. Teymur Bakhtiar was assassinated by SAVAK agents in 1970, and Mansur Rafizadeh, SAVAK's United States director during the 1970s, reported that General Nassiri's phone was tapped. Hussein Fardust, a former classmate of the Shah, was a deputy director of SAVAK until he was appointed head of the Imperial Inspectorate, also known as the Special Intelligence Bureau, to watch over high-level government officials, including SAVAK directors. Also, SAVAK planned and executed the Black Friday (1978). SAVAK has killed an estimated amount of 20,000 people over the course of the Shah's regime.

The SAVAK did many operations outside the country. One of the most famous events was the killing of the Anti Shah leader Dr.Ali Shariati who was killed in Paris,France

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Post-Revolution

Following the flight of the Shah in January 1979, SAVAK's 15,000 strong staff were targeted for reprisals, many of the senior officials were executed, and the organization was closed down by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini when he took power in February.

SAVAK has been replaced by the theologically guising SAVAMA, Sazman-e Ettela'at va Amniat-e Melli-e Iran, later renamed to the Ministry of Intelligence. The latter also referred to as VEVAK, Vezarat-e Ettela'at va Amniat-e Keshvar, though Iranians and the Iranian press never employ this term and use its official name as a Ministry.

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