Mosalahi's Account of 'Infiltration' in Ahmadinejad's Government

Haider Mosalahi, the Minister of Intelligence in the tenth government, states that the arrogance succeeded in character assassination of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad through 'massive investment,' and decisions made due to 'the infiltration of individuals in the President's office' were entirely aimed at character assassination of him. Mr. Mosalahi, who held the position of Minister of Intelligence since the beginning of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's second term, mentioned at a conference on January 1 that 'over the years since the revolution, we have witnessed many cases and trends of infiltration.' The former intelligence minister cited examples of infiltration as 'physical assassination and character assassination,' referring to 'the infiltration of one of the British spies into the house of one of the Grand Ayatollahs in the days following the victory of the revolution.' This former security official also stated that in the years following the revolution, 'we have witnessed a trend of infiltration in the form of influence in decision-making.' In this context, Mr. Mosalahi referred to the last two years of Ahmadinejad's government, saying that 'according to existing documents, the arrogance unfortunately succeeded to some extent in character assassination of the President of the tenth government, and when we look at this process with open eyes, we realize that due to the infiltration of individuals in the President's office, decisions made at that time were entirely in the direction of character assassination of the President.' He did not elaborate further on these decision-making processes in Ahmadinejad's office, but the time he refers to, namely the last two years of the tenth government, is when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attempted to dismiss Mr. Mosalahi from the Ministry of Intelligence, trying to make changes in the management of this ministry, but this effort failed with the Supreme Leader's decree for Haider Mosalahi's return to work. Additionally, the composition of the Presidential office in Ahmadinejad's second government was criticized by conservatives to the extent that they referred to Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, Ahmadinejad's Chief of Staff, and his surrounding circle as a deviant current. In another part of his remarks, Mr. Mosalahi cited the lack of attention to the issue of bank debtors as another example of the project of infiltration and stated that during his ministry, 'all arrears and the amount of debts of over 300 individuals who owed banks were extracted,' but complaints in this regard did not yield results in the judiciary. He added that 'when we took the complaint to the judiciary, this authority announced that at least one complaint from one of the bank managers must be received for the cases to be processed, but unfortunately, none of the bank presidents paid attention to this matter.' The former intelligence minister stated that 'just at the time we were trying to condemn the plunderers of the nation's wealth in banks, a single article in one of the budget bills of that year regarding the extension of repayment of arrears was included, and when this matter is given sufficient attention, we see that it is interpreted as part of the same infiltration project in decision-making.' Haider Mosalahi added that due to my responsibility in the Ministry of Intelligence, I was aware of the detailed economic problems of the country, and 'I firmly declare that only 20 percent of the economic and livelihood problems of the country are due to sanctions, and the rest of the problems stem from improper management in collecting receivables and the budgets allocated for implementing programs in the government.' Since Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, warned about the project of Western infiltration in Iran, this is the first time a former security official has described the actions of Ahmadinejad's government as a precursor to infiltration. Until now, the main volume of comments from officials close to and appointed by the Supreme Leader regarding 'infiltration' has been related to the potential infiltration through the Iran-West nuclear agreement or the potential infiltration through changes in the composition of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Assembly of Experts. In another section of the claims made by the Minister of Intelligence of the tenth government, he referred to the protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election. An election in which, based on the announced results, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again took office, and consequently, Haider Mosalahi became the Minister of Intelligence. Mr. Mosalahi again pointed the finger at Britain, stating that 'at that time in the British embassy, 250 active members were engaged in operations to create unrest in the community, of which 50 were considered employees of the British embassy.' He claimed that the British intelligence apparatus used two elements to create insecurity in countries: corrupt elites and thugs. The former intelligence minister further claimed that 'at that time, individuals who were arrested confessed that they were only paid 250 million tomans weekly to create insecurity at one of the intersections in Tehran, next to the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization on Azadi Street.' Officials close to Ayatollah Khamenei refer to the protests against the results of the June 2009 presidential election as a 'sedition.' However, on Thursday, it was not only Haider Mosalahi who made claims regarding the events of 2009, as the position on these events was also reflected in the remarks of Ali Saeedi, the representative of Ayatollah Khamenei in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He claimed that 'the liberalization of the Iranian revolution began in 1989, and Western researchers believe that the sedition of 2009 originated from the time of Prime Minister Mousavi, who intended to negotiate with America, and since 1989, with the rise of the Kargozaran, new issues fundamentally began.' He added that 'in 2009, a combination of reformists and Kargozaran gathered to complete their project and created the ground for a comprehensive confrontation, conditioning the people and creating various layers.' The representative of Ayatollah Khamenei in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also implicitly linked Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's support for Hassan Khomeini to the 'sedition,' warning that the elements of the '2009 sedition' are planning again.