SAVAK

1957–1979 Iranian secret police agency

"Savak" redirects here. For the band, see Savak (band).

Bureau for Intelligence and Security of the Stateسازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور
Sâzmân-e Ettelâ'ât va Amniyyat-e Kešvar

Seal, incorporating the words "S.A.V.A.K. 1335" in the bottom (1335 being the Solar Hijri equivalent of 1957 CE)

Agency overview
Formed| 20 March 1957 (1957-03-20)
Dissolved| 12 February 1979 (1979-02-12)
Superseding agency|

* Prime Ministry Intelligence Office

Type| Secret police
Headquarters| Tehran, Iran
Employees| 5,000 at peak[1]
Agency executives|

* Teymur Bakhtiar (first)
* Nasser Moghaddam (last)

The Bureau for Intelligence and Security of the State (Persian: سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور, romanized: Sâzmân-e Ettelâ'ât va Amniyyat-e Kešvar), shortened to SAVAK (Persian: ساواک) or S.A.V.A.K. (Persian: س.ا.و.ا.ک),[2] was the secret police of the Imperial State of Iran. It was established in Tehran in 1957 by national security law,[3] and continued to operate until the Islamic Revolution in 1979, when it was dissolved by Iranian prime minister Shapour Bakhtiar.

The French intelligence service, the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage (SDECE, predecessor of today’s DGSE), assisted in establishing and training SAVAK during its formative years in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. French instructors provided courses in surveillance, counter-subversion, interrogation techniques, and political intelligence gathering—expertise refined during the Algerian War.[4][5][6]

According to a declassified CIA memo citing a classified U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee report, the CIA played a significant role in establishing SAVAK, providing both funding and training.[7] The organization became notorious for its extensive surveillance, repression, and torture of political dissidents. The Shah used SAVAK to arrest, imprison, exile, and torture his opponents, leading to widespread public resentment. This discontent was leveraged by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then in exile, to build popular support for his Islamic philosophy.[8]

At its peak, SAVAK reportedly employed approximately 5,000 agents operating under the Pahlavi dynasty.[1] Iranian-American scholar and ex-politician Gholam Reza Afkhami estimates that SAVAK had between 4,000 and 6,000 members,[9] while TIME stated in a publication on 19 February 1979 that the agency had 5,000 members.[10]

## History

[edit]

### 1957–1971

[edit]

After the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq was removed. He was originally focused on nationalizing Iran's oil industry but had also set out to weaken the Shah's power. After the coup, the monarch, Mohammad Reza Shah, established an intelligence service with police powers. The Shah's goal was to strengthen his regime by placing political opponents under surveillance and repressing dissident movements.[11][12][13] According to Encyclopædia Iranica:

> A U.S. Army colonel working for the CIA was sent to Persia in September 1953 to work with General Teymur Bakhtiar, who was appointed military governor of Tehran in December 1953, and immediately began to assemble the nucleus of a new intelligence organization. The U.S. Army colonel worked closely with Bakhtīār and his subordinates, commanding the new intelligence organization and training its members in basic intelligence techniques, such as surveillance and interrogation methods, the use of intelligence networks, and organizational security. This organization was the first modern, effective intelligence service to operate in Persia. Its main achievement occurred in September 1954, when it discovered and destroyed a large communist Tudeh Party network that had been established in the Persian armed forces.[14][15]

In March 1955, the Army colonel was "replaced with a more permanent team of five career Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers, including specialists in covert operations, intelligence analysis, and counterintelligence, including Major General Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf who "trained virtually all of the first generation of SAVAK personnel". In October 1956, news of the intended establishment of an agency was reported by state media and in 1965, this agency was reorganized and given the name Sazeman-e Ettela'at va Amniyat-e Keshvar (SAVAK).[15][16] These in turn were replaced by SAVAK's own instructors in 1965.[17][18]

SAVAK had the power to censor the media, screen applicants for government jobs, and "according to a reliable Western source,[19][which?] use all means necessary, including torture, to hunt down dissidents".[20][clarification needed] After 1963, the Shah expanded his security organizations, including SAVAK, which grew to over 5,300 full-time agents and a large but unknown number of part-time informers.[20]

In 1961, the Iranian authorities dismissed the agency's first director, General Teymur Bakhtiar,[21] and he later became a political dissident. In 1970, SAVAK agents assassinated him, disguising the deed as an accident.

General Hassan Pakravan, director of SAVAK from 1961 to 1966,[21] had an almost benevolent reputation, for example dining on a weekly basis with Ayatollah Khomeini while Khomeini was under house arrest, and later intervened to prevent Khomeini's execution on the grounds that it would "anger the common people of Iran".[22] After the Iranian Revolution, however, Pakravan was among the first of the Shah's officials to be executed by the Khomeini regime.

Pakravan was replaced in 1966 by General Nematollah Nassiri, a close associate of the Shah, and the service was reorganized and became increasingly active in the face of rising leftist and Islamist militancy and political unrest.

Throughout the 1960s, some agents in SAVAK started to consider financial corruption as a matter of financial security and monitored not only the fiscal activities of the political and economic elite of Iran, but also the royal family. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was reportedly angered by these SAVAK reports due to its contents and the belief that the security agents were prying into private matters beyond their purview.[23]

### Siahkal attack and after

[edit]

A turning point in SAVAK's reputation for ruthless brutality was reportedly an attack on a gendarmerie post in the Caspian village of Siahkal by a small band of armed Marxists in February 1971, although it is also reported to have tortured to death a Shia cleric, Ayatollah Muhammad Reza Sa'idi, in 1970.[24][25] According to Iranian political historian Ervand Abrahamian, after this attack SAVAK interrogators were sent abroad for "scientific training to prevent unwanted deaths from 'brute force.'" Brute force was supplemented with the bastinado; sleep deprivation; extensive solitary confinement; glaring searchlights; standing in one place for hours on end; nail extractions; snakes (favored for use with women); electrical shocks with cattle prods, often into the rectum; cigarette burns; sitting on hot grills; acid dripped into nostrils; near-drownings; mock executions; and an electric chair with a large metal mask to muffle screams while amplifying them for the victim. This latter contraption was dubbed the Apollo—an allusion to the American spacecraft of the same name. Prisoners were also humiliated by being raped, urinated on, and forced to stand naked.[26] Despite the new 'scientific' methods, the torture of choice remained the traditional bastinado used to beat soles of the feet. The "primary goal" of those using the bastinados "was to locate arms caches, safe houses and accomplices ..."[27]

Abrahamian estimates that SAVAK (and other police and military) killed 368 guerrillas including the leadership of the major urban guerrilla organizations (Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas, People's Mujahedin of Iran) such as Hamid Ashraf between 1971–1977 and executed up to 100 political prisoners between 1971 and 1979—the most violent era of the SAVAK's existence.[28]

> One well known writer was arrested, tortured for months, and finally placed before television cameras to 'confess' that his works paid too much attention to social problems and not enough to the great achievements of the White Revolution. By the end of 1975, twenty-two prominent poets, novelist, professors, theater directors, and film makers were in jail for criticizing the regime. And many others had been physically attacked for refusing to cooperate with the authorities.[29]

The repression was softened thanks to publicity and scrutiny by "numerous international organizations and foreign newspapers." Jimmy Carter became president of the United States and he raised the issue of human rights in the Imperial State of Iran. Overnight prison conditions changed. Inmates dubbed this the dawn of "jimmykrasy".[30]

## Directors

[edit]

No. | Portrait  | Director | Took office | Left office | Time in office

|
|
|
|
|

| Bakhtiar, TeymurTimsar
Teymur Bakhtiar
(1914–1970)| 1957| 1961| 3–4 years

| Pakravan, HassanTimsar
Hassan Pakravan
(1911–1979)| 1961| 1965| 3–4 years

| Nassiri, NematollahTimsar
Nematollah Nassiri
(1911–1979)| 26 January 1965| 6 June 1978| 13 years, 131 days

| Moghaddam, NasserTimsar
Nasser Moghaddam
(1921–1979)| 7 June 1978| 12 February 1979| 250 days

## Organization

[edit]

SAVAK was divided into 9 directorates:[31]

* First General Directorate: Cadres, Courses, Ceremonies, Correspondence and Secretariat
* Second General Directorate: Foreign Intelligence
* Third General Directorate: Internal Security
* Fourth General Directorate: Security Within SAVAK
* Fifth General Directorate: Technical Affairs
* Sixth General Directorate: Administration
* Seventh General Directorate: Liaison with other Agencies
* Eighth General Directorate: Counterintelligence
* The Ninth General Directorate: Archives, Passport Department

## Number of employees

[edit]

Over the years, the question of the number of employees of SAVAK has been the subject of debate by many historians and researchers. Given the fact that Iran has never disclosed data on the number of employees of the secret agency - many historians gave conflicting figures for the number of SAVAK personnel - 6,000,[32] 20,000,[33] 30,000 and 60,000.[34]

In one of his interviews, on February 4, 1974, the Shah stated that he did not know the exact number of employees of SAVAK. However, he estimated their total number to be less than 2,000 employees.[35] To the frequently asked question about “torture and atrocities” in SAVAK, the shah answered negatively, designating newspaper reports about the “arbitrariness and cruelty of SAVAK” as a lie and slander.[36] Leaflets circulated after the Islamic Revolution indicated that 15,000 Iranians officially served in SAVAK, not to mention the many unofficial employees.

## Operations

[edit]

During the height of its power, SAVAK had virtually unlimited powers. It operated its own detention centers, such as Evin Prison. In addition to domestic security, the service's tasks extended to the surveillance of Iranians abroad, notably in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, and especially students on government stipends. The agency also closely collaborated with the CIA by sending their agents to an air force base in New York to share and discuss interrogation tactics.[37]

Teymur Bakhtiar was assassinated by SAVAK agents in 1970,[38] and Mansur Rafizadeh, SAVAK's United States director during the 1970s, reported that General Nassiri's phone was tapped.[39] Mansur Rafizadeh later wrote of his life as a SAVAK man and detailed the human rights violations of the Shah in his book Witness: From the Shah to the Secret Arms Deal: An Insider's Account of U.S. Involvement in Iran. Mansur Rafizadeh was suspected to have been a double agent also working for the CIA.[40]

SAVAK was additionally involved in supporting Jamiat-e Islami militants during the 1975 Panjshir Valley uprising and 1975 Laghman uprising in the Republic of Afghanistan, in collaboration with the CIA and the Pakistani ISI, although Afghan–Iranian relations later improved in 1976 under Mohammad Daoud Khan.[41][42] Two days before the Saur Revolution in 1978, the KGB were informed of the coup by Afghan Army leaders Mohammed Rafie and Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy. As a result, the KGB mistakenly informed its operatives in Kabul that SAVAK tricked the PDPA into starting a rebellion, expecting it to be crushed and for the rebels to fail.[43]

According to Polish author Ryszard Kapuściński, SAVAK was responsible for: Censorship of press, books, and films; Interrogation and often torture of prisoners; and Surveillance of political opponents.[44]

## Victims

[edit]

Writing at the time of the Shah's overthrow, Time magazine on February 19, 1979, described SAVAK as having "long been Iran's most hated and feared institution" which had "tortured and murdered thousands of the Shah's opponents".[10] The Federation of American Scientists also found it guilty of "the torture and execution of thousands of political prisoners" and symbolising "the Shah's rule from 1963–79." The FAS list of SAVAK torture methods included "electric shock, whipping, beating, inserting broken glass and pouring boiling water into the rectum, tying weights to the testicles, and the extraction of teeth and nails".[45][46]

## Fardoust and security and intelligence after the revolution

[edit]

Further information: Human rights in Iran and human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

SAVAK was closed down shortly before the overthrow of the monarchy and the coming to power of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the February 1979 Iranian Revolution. Following the departure of the Shah in January 1979, SAVAK's more than 3,000 strong central staff and its agents were targeted for reprisals. However, it is believed that Khomeini may have changed his mind and may have retained them into the new SAVAMA.[47] Hossein Fardoust, a former classmate of the Shah, was a deputy director of SAVAK until he was appointed head of the Imperial Inspectorate, also known as the Special Intelligence Bureau, to watch over high-level government officials, including SAVAK directors. Fardoust later switched sides during the revolution and managed to salvage the bulk of the SAVAK organization.[48] According to author Charles Kurzman, SAVAK was never dismantled but rather changed its name and leadership and continued on with the same codes of operation, and a relatively unchanged "staff."[49][50]

SAVAK was replaced by the "much larger"[51] SAVAMA, Sazman-e Ettela'at va Amniat-e Melli-e Iran, also known as the Ministry of Intelligence and National Security of Iran.[52] After the Iranian Revolution, a museum was opened in the former Towhid Prison in central Tehran called "Ebrat". The museum displays and exhibits the documented atrocities of SAVAK.

## See also

[edit]

* Iran portal

* Second Bureau of Imperial Iranian Army
* Prime Ministry Intelligence Office
* Ministry of Intelligence (Iran)
* Basij

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Andrew Scott Cooper, The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran Hardcover – July 19, 2016 ISBN 0805098976, p. 231
2. ^ Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs. "Summary". 2001-2009.state.gov.
3. ^ "Historical Documents - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2025-02-10.
4. ^ Abrahamian, Ervand (1999). Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520218450. `{{cite book}}`: Check `|isbn=` value: checksum (help)
5. ^ Cooper, Andrew Scott (2016). The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran. Henry Holt and Co. ISBN 978-0805090970.
6. ^ Guisnel, Jean (2012). La DGSE : Les missions secrètes de la République (in French). La Découverte. ISBN 978-2707172400. `{{cite book}}`: Check `|isbn=` value: checksum (help)
7. ^ "CIA'S ROLE IN FORMING SAVAK | CIA FOIA (foia.cia.gov)". www.cia.gov. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
8. ^ Ghosh, Palash R. (2012-03-20). "Iran: The Long Lasting Legacy of the 1953 U.S./CIA Coup". International Business Times. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
9. ^ Gholam Reza Afkhami, Life and Times of the Shah (University of California Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-520-25328-5), p. 386.
10. ^ a b SAVAK: "Like the CIA". Feb. 19, 1979 Archived 2009-06-21 at the Wayback Machine.
11. ^ Nikki R. Keddie and Yann Richard, Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution Archived 2014-07-26 at the Wayback Machine (Yale University Press, 2006), p. 134.
12. ^ "Intelligence - Iran, Nuclear, Diplomacy | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2025-02-10.
13. ^ McGhee, Braedon. "The Double-Edged Sword: Examining the Contradictory Nature of SAVAK and The U.S.- Iran Cliency Relationship". History in the Making.
14. ^ M. J. Gasiorowski, eds., Neither East Nor West. Iran, the United States, and the Soviet Union, New Haven, 1990, pp. 148–51
15. ^ a b Central Intelligence Agency in Persia[usurped] Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 26 July 2008.
16. ^ Moravej, K. (2011). "The SAVAK and the Cold War: Counter-Intelligence and Foreign Intelligence (1957–1968)" (PDF).
17. ^ N. R. Keddie and M. J. Gasiorowski, eds., Neither East Nor West: Iran, the United States, and the Soviet Union (New Haven, 1990), pp. 154–55; personal interviews.
18. ^ Profile: Norman Schwarzkopf Sr. Archived 2011-04-22 at the Wayback Machine History Commons
19. ^ New York Times, 21 September 1972.
20. ^ a b Ervand Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, p. 437
21. ^ a b "National security". Pars Times. Archived from the original on 2013-05-15. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
22. ^ Harvard Iranian Oral History Project Archived 2008-02-29 at the Wayback Machine Transcript of interview with Fatemeh Pakravan conducted by Habib Ladjevardi 3 March 1983.
23. ^ Milani, Abbas (2011-01-04). The Shah. Macmillan + ORM. p. 19\. ISBN 978-0-230-11562-0.
24. ^ Momen, Moojan, An Introduction to Shi'i Islam (Yale University Press, 1985), p. 255.
25. ^ Bill, James A., Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations Archived 2016-05-18 at the Wayback Machine(Yale University Press, 1989), p. 181–82
26. ^ Ervand Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions (University of California Press, 1999), p. 106.
27. ^ Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions, p. 106.
28. ^ Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions, pp. 103, 169.
29. ^ Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, pp. 442–43.
30. ^ Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions, p. 119.
31. ^ Harald Irnberger. S. 29
32. ^ Sullivan, William H., Mission to Iran, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1981, pp. 96–97.
33. ^ Sullivan, William H., Mission to Iran, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, (1981), p. 97.
34. ^ Graham, Robert, Iran: The Illusion of Power, New York: St. Martin’s Press, (1978), p. 146.
35. ^ Gérard de Villiers: Der Schah. (1976), Seite 396 und 410.
36. ^ Gérard de Villiers: Der Schah. (1976), Seite 408.
37. ^ Fisk. Great War for Civilisation, p. 112.
38. ^ Reeva S. Simon, Philip Mattar, Richard W. Bulliet. Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East: A-C. Macmillan Reference USA, (1996), p. 294.
39. ^ Rodney Carlisle. "Encyclopedia of Intelligence and Counterintelligence". (2005), p. 325.
40. ^ Henry Robinson Luce. "Time", Volume 129. Time Incorporated, (1987), p. 327.
41. ^ MSc, Engineer Fazel Ahmed Afghan (2015-06-12). Conspiracies and Atrocities in Afghanistan: 1700–2014. Xlibris Corporation. ISBN 978-1-5035-7300-0.
42. ^ "The Afghan communists" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-09-23.
43. ^ Jalali, Ali Ahmad (2017). A Military History of Afghanistan: From the Great Game to the Global War on Terror. University Press of Kansas. doi:10.1353/book51632. ISBN 978-0-7006-2408-9.
44. ^ Kapuściński, Ryszard, Shah of Shahs, pp. 46, 50, 76
45. ^ Ministry of Security SAVAK Archived 2012-10-04 at the Wayback Machine, Federation of American Scientists.
46. ^ Tragert, Joseph (2003). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Iran. Alpha. p. 101\. ISBN 978-1592571413.
47. ^ "Khomeini is Reported to Have a SAVAK of His Own - the Washington Post". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2017-03-15. Retrieved 2017-02-26.`{{cite news}}`: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
48. ^ Robert Dreyfuss, Hostage to Khomeini 1981 and The Devils Game: How the United States Unleashed Fundamentalist Islam, 2004
49. ^ Intelligence (international relations) : Iran Archived 2008-10-13 at the Wayback Machine. (2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 26, 2008.
50. ^ Charles Kurzman, The Unthinkable Revolution (Harvard University Press), p. ?
51. ^ Abrahamian, History of Modern Iran, (2008), p. 176
52. ^ The ministry is also referred to as VEVAK, Vezarat-e Ettela'at va Amniat-e Keshvar, though Iranians and the Iranian press never employ this term, using instead the official Ministry title.[citation needed]

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to SAVAK.

* Ministry of Intelligence and Security VEVAK – Iran Intelligence Agencies at website of Federation of American Scientists

* v
* t
* e

SAVAK

Directors|

* Teymur Bakhtiar (1957−61)
* Hassan Pakravan (1961−65)
* Nematollah Nassiri (1965−78)
* Nasser Moghadam (1978−79)

Deputy directors|

* Hassan Alavikia (1957−1962)
* Hossein Fardoust (1962−73)
* Ali Mo'tazed (1973−78)
* Nasser Moghadam (1978)
* Parviz Sabeti (1978)

Related|

* Siahkal incident
* Safari Club
* Iranian Revolution

Category
*[No.]: Number
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template