SVAK

The SAVAK, or “Sazeman-e Ettela’at va Amniyat-e Keshvar,” [Intelligence and Security Organization of the Country] was expanded in March 1957 with the approval of parliament and with the assistance of the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel.

 

The existence of security devices is inevitable in any country, but when it becomes a force against the people, a fearsome organization emerges, an example of which should be SAVAK. In two decades of 40 and 50, the name of SAVAK was synonymous with fear, terror and violence. Before the official establishment of SAVAK, the security and intelligence missions were mainly in charge of the two armies and constabulary.

 

Following the Shah’s consultation with US officials, a five-member CIA training group came to Iran and worked on establishing, training, and transforming SAVAK into an efficient intelligence agent. Beginning in the 1960s, a group of Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (Mossad) trainers replaced US troops and began training SAVAK forces. At the time, with the guidance of Brigadier General Hossein Fardoust (1918-1988), high-ranking officials of SAVAK and companion of the Shah, SAVAK provided educational leaflets and other relevant materials from the intelligence agencies of the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany and used them to develop their comprehensive curriculum. SAVAK’s relationship with the CIA and Mossad was very close. SAVAK provided the CIA with a great deal of information about countries in the region, especially the Soviet Union. In contrast, the CIA provided information from the Tudeh Party and other Iranian domestic opposition to SAVAK.

 

The relationship between SAVAK and Mossad is important because both countries provide security and safeguard American interests in the Middle East. SAVAK acted under the direct supervision of the Shah. It was an independent power within the government. Other government agencies, including the Ministry of Justice, were not allowed to interfere in its affairs. Meanwhile, the Shah, who feared the creation of any entity, even by and under the supervision of his lords, created another espionage-police unit called “Imperial Inspection to monitor SAVAK.” However, until the last days of the Shah’s rule, SAVAK was the most important and efficient intelligence agent. Although initially recruited mainly by military and law enforcement personnel, a new recruitment procedure was developed that enabled SAVAK to recruit a group of educated people. The first president of SAVAK was Lieutenant General Teymur Bakhtiar, known as SAVAK’s father, who began his work as military commander of Tehran after the 19 August 1953 coup and until the establishment of SAVAK with its subordinate forces, he had nearly three and a half years of practical experience with violence. The group, which formed the core of the SAVAK, carried out important operations during this period, such as the discovery of the Tudeh military organization and the arrest of the Islamic Organization of Iranian People’s Fadaian and the tyranny of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s opposition, thus attracting American attention and Shah removed him from the SAVAK presidency on 19 March 1961 in fear of Bakhtiar’s power. Teymur Bakhtiar’s presidency of SAVAK was also the first period of SAVAK’s life. The second SAVAK era, led by Hasan Pakravan, coincided with the White King’s revolution and the implementation of American economic theories, apparently partially offset by SAVAK’s direct violence.

 

The second period began with the head of SAVAK that Hasan Pakravan was coincided with the White Revolution of the Shah and the implementation of the American economic theories, apparently somewhat reduced SAVAK’s direct violence. At the same time, the Iranian people with false reform opposed the Shah and the uprising of 6 June 1963 formed, but the regime brutally suppressed the uprising and later banished Imam Khomeini out of the country.

In the third period, which lasted for about 13 years, the head of the organization is the responsibility of Lieutenant Colonel Nematollah Nassiri. The reason for Nassiri’s rise and dismissal was the assassination of Hasan Ali Mansour and the rise of militant groups. This was the era of SAVAK’s invasion and power, and the organization reached the peak of defamation. The decline and fall of the fourth round of SAVAK, which is the last months of the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah, and the dismissal of the Nassiri and Lieutenant Colonel Nasser Moghadam and eventually began with the victory of the Islamic Revolution on 11 February 1979 of 22-year-old life this organization ended.

 

The basis of the formation of the SAVAK deal with the communists, which was successful in that field but in confronting the clerics and religious forces failed because it faced a public uprising.

 

The SAVAK was organized in ten general offices. General administration (Administrative Affairs), second general administration (External Intelligence Administration), third general administration (Internal Security Administration), fourth general administration (Organizational Security Administration), fifth general administration (Technical Services Administration), sixth general administration (Finance administration), seventh administration (Foreign Intelligence Survey administration), eighth administration (Counterintelligence or anti-spyware administration), ninth administration (Investigation Administration) and tenth administration (Education Administration).

 

SAVAK Homeland Security administration or third general administration was the most important machine of repression. It had about ten percent of the organization’s regular staff and was divided into five divisions. The first section oversees the research and operations of the key opposition groups and organizations such as the clergy, students and Iranians abroad, the National Front, and the Communist groups. The second part of the public opinion and public institutions like the press, tribes and government agencies. The main task of this section was to gather information about these institutions and their members. The third section maintained the documents of the administration of Homeland Security. The fourth section was responsible for specific activities such as censorship, the dissemination of ideas, training and special operations, and legal issues such as interrogation. The administration of Homeland Security controlled four prisons. Among these prisons were the well-known Bagh Mehran Prison, which is said to have torture chambers and an execution yard. Evin Prison was controlled by the counterintelligence administration. Qasr Prison was also one of the other prisons where SAVAK tortured dissidents. The SAVAK Homeland Security Office worked closely with other SAVAK departments, with operational divisions of the organization and sometimes with police, gendarmerie and armed forces units. SAVAK also had five operational branches in Tehran and one branch in each province. These branches did most of their information gathering and repression activities in their area of mission. After the formation of the joint anti-sanctions campaign that SAVAK was the main member of the constituent, several reports about torture have been published. The multitude of irrefutable reports and evidence that accompanied many of them, as well as the memories of post-release prisoners, revealed the widespread use of rumours and the scope of the killings and SAVAK assassinations.

 

“No country in the world has a worse human rights record than Iran,” Amnesty International said in a statement in 1975.

 

SAVAK sign

 

Famous torturers of SAVAK include Fereydoon Tavangari, known as Arash, Bahman Naderipour, known as Iran’s Eichmann, who was sentenced to death by a July 6 court verdict in Arash and Tehrani.

 

Among the famous SAVAK Torturers can be called Fereydoon Tavangari known as Arash, Bahman Naderi Pour known as Tehrani and Azmoudeh, famous deaths man known as Iran’s Eichmann that Arash and Tehrani were sentenced to death by 24 June 1979.

 

SAVAK agents use various methods of torture, such as Brazilian, self-driving, ceiling fan, swinging, ironing, Aria Mehr pan, electric shock, nail removal and burning, limb breaks, burning of legs in oil, using cigarettes to burn different body positions became so popular that even the government ministers were afraid of this dreaded organization.

Thousands of political prisoners were tortured and persecuted by SAVAK officials from 1971 to 11 February 1979, but international human rights organizations did not report any of these victims, and it was only after the release of large numbers of prisoners in May 1977 that international organizations inevitably, reports were made and published.

 

From the inception of SAVAK until its dissolution, four people had headed the organization, but the interesting thing about them is that all four had similar results. Teymur Bakhtiar was killed by Shah on his orders and three others, Major General Pakravan, Lieutenant Nassiri and Lieutenant General Moqaddam, were tried and executed in 1978.

 

In March 1978, students protested SAVAK’s cooperation with Western security forces during a demonstration. At the beginning of 1979, SAVAK developed new tactics to combat the revolutionaries and began bombing the houses of the opposition, doing so through an organization called the Revenge Committee. SAVAK was also responsible for causing a fire at the Rex Abadan Cinema in August of this year, killing 377 people. With the victory of the revolution, the Islamic Revolutionary Court tried the perpetrators and sentenced them to death.

Shahpour Bakhtiar ended his 22-year life on 14 January 1979 by announcing the dissolution of the organization.

Archive of The History of the Islamic Revolution