The Three Hidden Personalities

Arash Motamed, Rooz Online:

With the participation of Mojtaba Hashemi Samareh as a speaker in a seminar, one of the three hidden personalities directing events in the country was disclosed to the public. The other two continue to remain in the shadows.

These two individuals, who work in different government agencies, each have a military-security background and record. Here we look at them. READ MORE

The first Phantom

Rooz revealed for the first time the identify, name and personality of Samareh who participated and spoke on behalf of President Ahmadinejad at the International Seminar of Women Quran Researchers, earlier this year. While apologizing for the president’s absence, he also said that the circle of aides is not a closed one for the president. “Among the many applicants to join, some have contacted me with some of whom I have held discussions,” he added. At the seminar, he thanked the participants “on behalf of the President”, indicating his authority, closeness and confidence.

The second Phantom

The other personality who is known by name in Iran’s political circles, but who has not yet been publicly seen, is known as Asqar Hejazi. This middle aged cleric was sociology student at Tehran University in early 1980s. At the same time, he held a sensitive post at the Ministry of Intelligence. During Ali Fallahian’s helmsmanship of the Ministry, he became a deputy of the ministry, after which he was transferred to the office of the Leader, i.e. ayatollah Khamenei. Hejazi’s name has repeatedly come up during talks on sensitive and decisive issues of the Islamic Republic by various political groups, especially among the reformers. He remains to be seen with other officials in public.

The third Phantom

He is known as Hossein Shayanfar. Being a commander of the Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps, he was busy converting prisoners into repentees in early 1980s at Tohid Prison in Tehran, along with Hossein Shariatmadari of Kayhan newspaper. Unlike Shariatmadari however, Shayanfar makes no public appearances. Then and there, he was known as “brother Hossein” and “Maasumi” as his nome de guerre. One of his well-known subjects was Ehsan Tabari, the ideologue of Iran’s Tudeh (Communists) Party. After Tohid prison, he moved on to Gezelhesar prison in Karaj, where he was in charge of “cultural” activities. His work included finding crimes for the prisoners and adding them to their dossiers. These files later became the sources for the execution of hundreds of prisoners soon after Iran accepted the UN Security Council resolution calling for the end of the 8-year Iran-Iraq war, in the summer of 1988. The next chapter in his life was joining Kayhan newspaper and formed the Research Center there. Using his influence, he brought the judiciary and court files of prominent prisoners to the Center, where he created new files and dossiers for each. Papers from these files subsequently found their way in the Intelligence community, books, pamphlets, etc. They were used by the Intelligence officers in their tasks of tracking and dealing with those individuals that had served their terms and had been freed from prison.

Shayanfar was a key member of Saeed Emami’s gang inside the Ministry of Intelligence, the person who confessed responsibility in the killing of dissidents and who was himself found dead in prison apparently committing suicide. Shayanfar was a crucial player in the formation of what became known as the “Parallel Intelligence Groups”, i.e. groups outside the discredited Ministry of Intelligence that continued to gather intelligence on dissidents. In fact he has been called the “Minister of Parallel Intelligence”, indicating the pivotal role he played in those activities. All dossiers relating to dissidents, intellectuals, writers, journalists, etc during the last 8 years have been created under his watch and direction. These became operational through the Office of Buildings and Intelligence Protection. The most famous dossiers in this regard belong to Siamak Poorzand and web-bloggers who were arrested, charged, harassed and imprisoned. There are confirmed reports that he met and talked with Shayanfar at Kayhan newspaper several times in his protests about what the newspaper was writing about him and his family. This in fact is how he stepped into a trap that subsequently became known as the Office of Buildings dossier. The victims of the other dossier, the web bloggers, have said on their release that they were interrogated by Shayanfar while in prison. According to the web bloggers, after being weakened psychologically and physically, they were taken to Shayanfar for questioning. Thus the director of Kayhan’s Research Center tried to intimidate, coerce and enlist them to cooperate in intelligence gathering and eavesdropping activities.

Unlike Shariatmadari, Shayanfar makes no public appearances.

A must read!