Majlis Summons Minister of Intelligence Over Report

Rooz Online

In an unprecedented and bold move, fifteen Majlis representatives summoned Hassan Rouhani’s minister of intelligence over the publication of a report on the activities of the Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Agency.

The representatives are all close to the conservative hardliners commonly known as the principlists who are critics of the current administration. Fars news agency, closely tied to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), reported that the lawmakers questioned how the special report that was critical of a state security agency and written for the president could have been obtained and published by “counter-revolutionary media.” They also questioned the contents of the report by calling it false and then the reason for even preparing it.

Saham News, a website close to Mehdi Karubi, the moderate cleric who continues to be under house arrest since February 2011, last week posted excerpts of the report by the ministry of intelligence on the IRGC Intelligence Agency in two piece. The newspaper report examined the confidential report on what it called was a “secret government inside the IRGC Intelligence Agency to overthrow the administration.”

According to Saham News the report was submitted by Rouhani to Iran’s supreme leader ayatollah Khamenei who is said to have responded by saying that IRGC members do not heed to his words either.

According to the report, the IRGC led by Hossein Taeb – the director of its intelligence agency – had created a number of “safe houses” where opposition to the current government was planned and implemented.

Majlis representatives asked the intelligence minister whether he would confirm the contents of the report or was it a fantasy and another “psychological war by counter revolutionary media.” As part of their question, the representatives asked which specific agency had prepared the “biased and unthoughtful” report; how the report had reached the hands of counter revolutionary media; and, what measures the ministry of intelligence had taken to “identify and punish those who had prepared the report.”

Javad Karimi Ghodoosi, Habib Aghajari, Mahmoud Nabavian, Hosssein-Ali Haji Deligani, Mohammad Saleh Jowkar, Hossein Nejabat, Elias Naderan, Ismail Kowsari, Mohammd-Mehdi Zahedi, Jabar Kootchakinejad, Mohammad Ismail Saeedi, Nasrollah Pejmanfar, Morteza Hosseini, Mehdi Kootchakzade and Ali Taheri signed the summons petition with the questions.

Four months ago, president Hassan Rouhani publicly spoke about “think tanks” and “disruptive” activities against his administration. “A small group that has left the think tank and has entered the operational room should know that the government is not only aware of their activities but that it will take appropriate measures against them.”

History of Parallel or Shadow Governments

This is the first time that Majlis members summon a cabinet minister over such a report. During the tenure of reformist president Mohammad Khatami reformers had claimed that a “counter reform group” was active against the administration. They said that a parallel intelligence agency existed which guided counter-reform measures.

A former Majlis member who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals told Rooz that while some parts of the report may be ambiguous, “the essence of the report was 100 percent accurate. Similar activities took place during the reform period too (i.e., Khatami’s presidency) even though in those days the activities of the parallel government were not as intense and were generally restricted to security-judiciary measures. Now after eight years of Ahmadinejad’s rule, they have influence in all quarters.”

At that time, many senior administration members such as the government’s spokesperson, the vice-president in parliamentary affairs, and the head of the national security committee of the Majlis had publicly spoken about the existence and activities of the parallel agencies. Mohsen Mirdamadi, the then-head of the Majlis national security committee had said, “The number of staff of the (secret) parallel intelligence group in Tehran alone equaled the number of staff of the whole ministry of intelligence.” In retrospect, those officials never went into details about the activities or members of the parallel intelligence agency.

This former Majlis members said that reformers in those days were not after a fight with the ruling establishment and merely wanted to stop or curtail the activities of the parallel intelligence group through public warnings. “People in those days knew that it was some members of the Revolutionary Guards or former members of the ministry of intelligence who constituted this group under the umbrella of the IRGC under ayatollah Khamenei’s direction.” He also said that this was the very group that had planned and manipulated the 2005 presidential elections in favor of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and also led the coup of 2009; something it failed to accomplish in 2013.