PLANS PROLIFERATE FOR INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY MINISTRY REORGANIZATION.
During the Pahlavi regime, Iran had one main intelligence agency -- Sazeman-i Ettelaat va Amniyat-i Keshvar (SAVAK, the Intelligence and Security Organization) -- and several smaller bodies that dealt with oversight activities, such as the Daftar-i Vizhe-yi Ettelaat (Special Intelligence Bureau) and the Bazrasi-yi Shahanshahi (Imperial Inspectorate). SAVAK was eliminated after the 1979 revolution and a number of competing organizations emerged to deal with intelligence and security. In 1984 the parliament passed legislation that centralized these organizations into one ministry.
Top officials gathered in Tehran on 5 October to commemorate the Intelligence and Security Ministry's 20th anniversary. First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref-Yazdi said on 5 October that the government is working on reorganizing the ministry's administrative structure, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported. Aref-Yazdi added that the ministry should consolidate and assume its appropriate place in the country's management system. The actual structure of the ministry is unimportant, Intelligence and Security Minister Hojatoleslam Ali Yunesi said in a 4 October interview on state television. He said the Intelligence and Security Ministry needed restructuring after a number of crises (a reference to the 1998-99 serial killings of dissidents by alleged rogue elements within the ministry), and "the ministry made itself up to date." Yunesi said the experience of Intelligence and Security Ministry specialists is being documented in a way that can be passed on to future generations -- "We see this as part of the renovation of the ministry."
Parliamentarians affiliated with the conservative Islamic Iran Developers Council (Etelaf-i Abadgaran-i Iran-i Islami) are working on legislation that would place the Intelligence and Security Ministry under the conservative-controlled judiciary, according to a 1 October article about Iranian neoconservatives on the Eurasia Insight website (
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav100104.shtml ). Such a development would consolidate control of security institutions in the hands of regime hard-liners who are said to control their own, extra-governmental surveillance structures. These "parallel intelligence organizations" are allegedly controlled by an "antireform headquarters" that emerged after reformists won the 2001 parliamentary elections (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 16 July 2001, 15 September 2003, and 19 January 2004). Yunesi said that his priority has been winning public trust and eliminating fear, state television reported on 4 October. "An intelligence service should bring people peace of mind and tranquility rather than fear," he explained. Yunesi said that counterterrorism is the ministry's main duty, and because the armed opposition is concentrated in one organization this is relatively easy. He added that the ministry has assets in many of the overseas opposition groups and knows ahead of time about their agents' trips to Iran. Dealing with social and financial corruption is more complicated, Yunesi said, because it occurs throughout society.
Referring to the country's ethnic and religious minorities, Yunesi said, "We have good cooperation with all religious sects and denominations." He said the Intelligence and Security Ministry will not allow Iran's enemies to infiltrate these groups to spread dissent, adding, "Attempts have always been made to identify extremist and radical views among these religious sects and denominations and to aggrandize them." Yunesi did not specify when this has occurred, but he said the ministry has always taken action when appropriate. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on 4 October praised the efforts of the ministry as the organization marked its establishment 20 years earlier, IRNA reported. (Bill Samii)
Source: RFE/RL Iran Report Vol. 7, No. 35, 11 October 2004