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Sunday, 15 January 2006 |
 The Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) is comprised
of 16 Directorates, two organisations, five independent offices and 27
main departments for each province.
Three of the most important Directorates are involved in spreading
Islamic fundamentalism beyond Iran's borders, especially to regional
countries.
Directorate for Overseas Affairs
Mohammad-Reza Iravani (a.k.a Amir-Hossein Taghavi) heads the
Directorate for Overseas Affairs. Irvani handles MOIS branches abroad
and specifically directs terrorist activities, in particular against
the main Iranian opposition movement, the People's Mojahedin
Organization of Iran (PMOI).
All MOIS overseas branches are supervised by this Directorate, which
also has offices on the Iran-Iraq border. The principal offices are
located in Khuzistan, Kermanshah, Ilam, West-Azerbaijan and Kurdistan
provinces in western and southwestern Iran.
Directorate for Foreign Intelligence and Liberation Movements
The primary task of this Directorate is to collect information overseas
and engage in espionage in foreign countries. It also uses the services
of non-Iranian terrorists and agents. The Directorate plays an active
role in political and propaganda plots against the PMOI.
Directorate for Security
The Directorate for Security is one of the most important entities in
the MOIS. Ostensibly using the cover of internal security, the
Directorate's main task in to plan and carry out assassinations
abroad. It works in close conjunction with the Overseas and Foreign
Intelligence directorates.
For years, Saeed Emami was the head of the Directorate for Security
until his suspicious suicide in 1999. Hashmi Alavi took over the
Directorate after Emami died.
In a conference held in 1999, Alavi said the Directorate for Security
had been reorganized into five departments, with special emphasis on
strengthening the department coordinating activities against the PMOI.
He boasted that this department had planned and carried out a
remote-controlled truck bomb attack on a bus carrying Mojahedin members
in Baghdad as well as a missile attack on PMOI's base in Iraq in June
1999.
Directorate for Domestic Intelligence
Mullah Mohammad Shafi'i heads this Directorate, which is tasked with
collecting intelligence on internal dissent and dissidents as well as
putting down social protests and discontent.
Other MOIS directorates include:
- Directorate for Counter-Intelligence, led by Sajjadi;
- Directorate for Technical Affairs, led by Firouz Abadi. This office
jams dissident satellite television and radio programs, including Iran
National Television (Simay-e Azadi) as well as the Voice of Mojahed
radio;
- Directorate for Training, headed by Bakhshi;
- Directorate for the Clergy, led by Mullah Bagherian. The Directorate
is responsible for clamping down on dissident Iranian clerics;
- Directorate for Planning, led by Talebi;
- Directorate for Logistics and Parliamentary Affairs, headed by Amir Tehrani.
- Directorate for Strategic Research and Studies, led by Mullah Kamali;
- Directorate for Administration and Finance, headed by Kamali;
- Directorate for Information Security;
- Directorate for Inspection and Control;
- Directorate for Cultural Affairs;
- Directorate for Economic Affairs.
In addition, several MOIS departments along the border region play a
major role in providing support for activities designed to export
terrorism to other countries. They include:
- East-Azerbaijan Department, responsible for meddling in the affairs of the former Soviet Union republic of Azerbaijan;
- West-Azerbaijan Department, headed by Hamid Rezai and responsible for subversive activities in Turkey and Iraq;
- The Kurdistan Department, managed by Majidi;
- The Kermanshah Department, managed by Tehrani;
- The Ilam Department, managed by Haj Nasser Karimi;
- The Khuzestan Department, managed by Haji-pour;
(Located in western and southwestern Iran, these four regional
departments are primarily responsible for planning and coordinating
activities in Iraq).
- The Khorassan Department (northeast), responsible for activities in Afghanistan and Central Asia;
- The Sistan and Baluchistan Department (southeast), responsible for activities in Pakistan;
- The Fars and Hurmozgan Department (southern Iran), responsible for activities in Bahrain, U.A.E, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
In 1986, the University of Imam Baqer was established and began
operating in 1987. The main aim of this university is to train
interrogators, torturers and terrorists.
Confidential budget to ensure freedom of action
The budget for the MOIS is determined and allocated outside the normal
budgetary process of the Planning and Budget Organization. According to
Article 15 of the MOIS charter, on August 17, 1983, the Parliament
exempted the MOIS from the regulatory processes involved in budget
allocation. Instead, the Ministries of Intelligence, Economy and
Finance determine the budget, which is approved separately by the
cabinet.
Based on that Parliamentary motion, the Director of the Planning and
Budget Organization and the Minister of Intelligence put together the
MOIS budget, which is transferred directly from the treasury to the
Central Bank which in turn wires it to the Melli Bank branch in the
Ministry.
The public budget for the MOIS, which is included in the annual budget,
consists of both Dollar and Rial (Iranian currency) amounts, but
accounts for a small portion of the Ministry's expenditures. A large
part of the expenses are taken care of directly by the Supreme Leader
Khamenei and the President's Special Fund.
The Parliament has passed several bills to expand the authority of the
MOIS. Based on a bill adopted in January 1995, fifty percent of the
cost of properties which the MOIS seizes during its activities is
allocated to the Ministry with a ceiling of five billion rials ($5m).
Another bill adopted in February 1996, the MOIS is responsible for
liquidating the properties of dissidents.
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