Management Organization in the Hands of Security Men

Meysam Tavab, Rooz Online:

Farhad Rahbar, the director of the Management and Planning Organization of the President’s Office who was formerly the deputy for economic affairs at the Ministry of Intelligence when cleric Ali Fallahian led the ministry, has launched a major reshuffling of the posts inside the organization, with a security blend. The MPO is responsible for drawing up plans and budgets for the country, and is considered one of the key deputies of the president.

Rahbar became a known figure during the 8-year administration of Mohammad Khatami in connection with the Shahram Jazaeri televised trials who repeatedly referred to Farhad Rahbar for authorization for his actions.

One of the first acts of Rahbar since assuming his post that indicates his security thinking and approach to an agency that is not considered a national security bureau was to categorize a large number of documents that had until his arrival been available to the public as ‘Confidential”, thus depriving independent scholars and experts of the opportunity to look into planning documents and statistics. In another sweeping act, also indicating his security approach, has been his reshuffling of many individuals inside the agency and replacing many with individuals who had worked at the Ministry of Intelligence’s Office of Economic Affairs from Fallahian’s period.

This approach and view at an office that is not in the national security circles, is expected to show itself in the proposals that this and other offices made regarding national economic planning. Already this approach manifested itself when president Ahmadinejad’s aides and cabinet members wrestled with the problem of dwindling trading at Tehran’s Stock Exchange. The purely economic causes of the slack in trading were attributed to “plots” of Iran’s enemies, while the president’s famous remarks that the trading crises would be solved by “executing 1 or 2 individuals” continued to be repeated among his aides until as recently as a few weeks ago.