History
Ministry of Intelligence and Security [MOIS]
Vezarat-e Ettela'at va Amniat-e Keshvar VEVAK
Little public information exists on SAVAK's successor agency, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security [Vezarat-e Ettela'at va Amniat-e Keshvar - VEVAK ], initially known by the acronym SAVAMA. The agency's first director was Major General Fardust, who was arrested in December 1985 for being a "Soviet informer." But after this major arrest the revolutionary government's keen desire to gain an upper hand over leftist guerrilla organizations may have influenced certain IRP leaders to relax their previously unrelenting pursuit of military intelligence personnel.
A 1983-1984 reorganization of the security organization led by Mohammadi Rayshahri, concurrently the head of the Army Military Revolutionary Tribunal, created the Ministry of Information and Security which assumed the role formerly played by SAVAMA.
Key religious leaders, including Majlis speaker Hashemi-Rafsanjani, insisted on recalling former agents to help the regime eliminate domestic opposition. Consequently, some intelligence officers and low-ranking SAVAK and army intelligence officials were asked to return to government service because of their specialized knowledge of the Iranian left. Others had acquired in-depth knowledge of Iraq's Baath Party and proved to be invaluable in helping decision makers.
Although it was impossible to verify, observers speculated that some of SAVAK's intelligence-gathering operations were turned over to VEVAK. However, the ideological underpinnings of the new agency were radicallyl different from its Imperial predecessor. The Islamic Republic of Iran is Khomeini' philosophy of Velayat-e Faqih, or "Islamic Rule," which calls for imposing absolute authority over the populace, and on the other upon extending this authority to all Muslims, i.e. "exporting revolution."
On 23 February 1999 the conservative-dominated parliament overwhelmingly approved Hojatoleslam Ali Yunesi to take over the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). This came after the ministry made a shock admission in January 1999 that its own "rogue agents" murdered four liberal dissidents in November and December 1998. The assassinations targeted nationalist dissident Dariush Foruhar and his wife, as well as the poet Mohammad Mokhtari and writer-translator Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh. The intelligence ministry's admission led to the resignation in early February 1999 of its former head -- Qorban-Ali Dori-Najafabadi -- after weeks of mounting pressure from supporters of Iran's moderate President Mohammad Khatami. But in an ironic twist to events, the incoming intelligence minister probably turned out to be far more hard-line toward reformists and dissidents than the man he replaces. Moderate parliamentary deputy Seyyed Ahmad Rasuli-Nejad charged that the outgoing intelligence chief was being used as a scapegoat and that there will be no changes in the MOIS because the old cadre was still there. The naming of the 43-year-old Yunesi to head the MOIS came as the investigation into the killing of the dissidents had slowed, after getting off to an initially strong start. The new head of the intelligence services is a protege of one of Khatami's leading conservative rivals -- Hojatoleslam Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri -- who came in a distant third in the presidential race in 1997. Yunesi's appointment puts Reyshahri back in indirect control of the ministry, which he has strongly influenced since its inception in 1979. The Islamic Republic's first intelligence minister -- Ali-Akbar Fallahian -- was also a Reyshahri protege, and Reyshahri himself later served as the ministry's head. The only intelligence minister not associated with Reyshahri is the outgoing Dori-Najafabadi.
