Iran Intelligence Official Reports on Activities of Suspected Foreign Spies
Text of report by political desk entitled “New details announced on identification of several spy networks in Iran: Intelligence Ministry warns university academics.” By Iranian newspaper E’temad website on 30 May
The director-general of counter-espionage at the Intelligence Ministry warned against the utilization of university lecturers and academics by foreign intelligence services. He [or she] told a press conference on the ministry’s recent counter-measures directed at several spy networks, and expressed concern at these networks’ infiltration into seven provinces and their targeting of many important individuals and centres, ISNA reported.
He said the network identified by the ministry was linked to American and British intelligence services and was backed by some groups in Iraq. He said the network’s area of activities in Iran was West Azarbayjan, Kordestan, Khuzestan, Kermanshah, Hamedan and Tehran. He said “the network was identified and hit and we had some success here.” He said members of this espionage network sought to access important individuals and sensitive areas in the country and obtain intelligence by infiltrating those centres, using targeted people. “They tried to obtain the classified information needed by the occupying powers from inside Iran,” he said.
He cited the network’s activities as including destructive activities, bombing, assassination, kidnapping, filming and photography of sensitive sites under the supervision of the occupiers’ intelligence services, and added “soft” measures by the network as including “psychological operations in frontier areas” intended to create “a rift and alienation” from the country and political system among ethnic groups. “They tried to fan divisions using counter-revolutionary elements in frontier regions,” he added. The counter-espionage director-general said the network sought to form “criminal groups with a Salafist or Takfiri cover, which they trained to use religious and ethnic divisions, and unfortunately the scope of their activities included intelligence operations and cultural and ethnic issues with a regional scope, and they were fanning the existing regional divisions.”
The official said the network used various means to attain its goals, and the Islamic Republic used all its capabilities to counter them. “The occupiers’ intelligence services made false promises to people living in border areas, including giving them residencies or visas or grants, and even threatened them, to be able to use them for specific aims. These are examples of intelligence work and one has to admit the occupiers’ intelligence services used these people and their intelligence capabilities for this network,” he said. He added that the intelligence ministry began its response by identifying the network, and continued by “striking at and unraveling” the network, while working to prevent its “damaging activities.”
He said “we went very quickly through the judicial procedures in dealing with the spy network and responded to the network in line with norms and regulations.” He added “we are continuing the intelligence cycle. This network has been given a fundamental blow and if some of its people are still active, they are either under supervision or we shall very quickly move to arrest them.” The official said the occupiers were in a position of weakness in Iraq, and the activities of such networks were “a measure to cover” their weaknesses. He said “the occupiers are inclined to spread to neighbouring countries their weakness in establishing security in Iraq, so they are targeting our country in the first stage. They want there to be assassinations and kidnappings in Iran as in Iraq, so they can cover some of their weaknesses this way.”
He expressed regret that many of the spies recently caught were Iranians, and said “we are concerned. We must be careful as many of those living on our frontiers are subject to exploitation. They themselves must be sure not to allow themselves to be used.” He expressed concern at the number of ostensibly academic gatherings held by foreigners. “Unfortunately our academics are subject to intelligence threats, and with the methods they use, they first establish an initial contact, and this academic contact soon turns into an intelligence link.”
He expressed concern at the intelligence use made of the country’s academic figures. He said “not every foreigner who makes contact can be trusted. Many of the interviews carried out are not academic, but a ploy so people follow their wishes.” He added that not every contact could be trusted, nor was it permitted to accept money from unknown entities.” He referred to problems faced by people living in frontier areas in the west, south west and north west of the country and regretted that people in those areas were victims of foreign intelligence services. “If these frontier people turn to activities like smuggling, the state can ignore this, since it knows about the conditions in these regions and we are aware of the social conditions in border areas. But when frontier people become dangerous intelligence elements, and turn to human trafficking, forgery of documents, transfer of information and use of particular electronic equipment to transfer messages, then this cannot be overlooked, because these have begun a path the system considers unforgivable and which has no return.”
He said that previously there was “Saddam and the Ba’thists on the frontiers, but mercenary work did not stop with Saddam’s departure. Unfortunately the little group of hypocrites is working against us as the strongest spy group, and the fifth column that used to put its information at Saddam’s disposal during the war is still active and giving its information to the occupiers.” He said the Ba’th Party and Iraq’s secret police were not at the service of Saddam: “it is as if they were trained from the start for the occupiers, and the service they provide the occupiers today is stronger than for Saddam, and we feel this problem intensely today.” He said telephone discharges were still being used as an espionage tool, and people and officials should “be informed, though those who have to know more are officials. They pay attention to this in many places, but this is an intelligence method used by the hypocrites, and people and officials should be vigilant.” He said the sum of intelligence activities undertaken against the country was extensive in scope: “They are trying to penetrate areas where we all have to be vigilant. The media must play a role in this regard, and their role here is eloquent and functional.”
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