Wiretapping Political Activists and Prisoner Interrogation Documents

While the Islamic republic officials and state-run media have remained silence in response to the leaking of a Supreme National Security Council report prepared by senior officers at the ministry of intelligence, state security forces and the Islamic Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Rooz has obtained new details about the report.

According to the information obtained by Rooz, the 110-page report, parts of which were revealed in a speech last fall by commaner Moshfegh in Mashad, was delivered to the Supreme National Security Council last March after the IRGC concluded interrogating political prisoners in its notorious ward A.

The information obtained by Rooz indicates that the report, titled, “Examination and Analysis of the Organization and Structure of the 1388 Conspiracy,” was prepared at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s request last summer and approved by the Supreme National Security Council. The date is important because Mahmoud Ahmadinejad replaced the-then intelligence minister Mohseni-Ezhei last summer, with only four days left until the end of his first term in office, and as protests against the presidential election were ongoing.

The report was first published by Rooz last Thursday and republished by the website norooz shortly after. It identifies Hashemi Rafsanjani as the head of the conspiracy followed by seyyed Mohammad Khatami, Mousavi-Khoiniha and Mir-Hossein Mousavi. It characterizes the events surrounding the election as a “preplanned political plot to topple the country’s executive management and change certain of the regime’s principles and foundations through circumvention of the law and the supreme leader and using all domestic and foreign resources, including causing disturbance.”

But on what evidence were these conclusions based? The report relies on information gathered from “wiretapping, interrogation sessions and the intelligence ministry’s internal bulletins,” which have been widely disseminated in among the regime’s senior officials. This is a significant development as the Islamic republic officials have consistently denied “wiretapping,” while many political prisoners have claimed that they their confessions were forcefully extracted under torture and pressure.

A review of the information gathered from interrogation sessions reveals, however, that Mostafa Tajzadeh remained defiant and called for ayatollah Jannati’s prosecution at his interrogation session.

The report contains references to statements gathered through wiretapping not only in 1388 but also in 1387. Relying on short sentences uttered by political figures, the report concludes that the “conspiracy movement” sought to “eliminate the supreme leader and his position, eliminate Ahmadinejad at any cost, return to power, and limit the supreme leader’s power.”

In effect, the entire body of evidence that supports the lengthy report about the so-called conspiracy movement is composed of statements from political prisoners’ interrogation session at Evin prison’s Ward A, which is under the control of the Islamic Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), or private statements from prominent reformist figures, journalists and politicians obtained through wiretapping.