Archived: Iran: CIA Analyst Says US Taught Nazi Torture
Rich Winkel
>From the New York Times, 1/7/79:
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"Ex-analyst says CIA rejected warning on Shah"
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by Seymour Hersh
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A former Iran analyst for the central intelligence agency said
yesterday that his reports characterizing Shah Pahlevi as thirsty for
power and a megalomaniac were repeatedly rejected by the agency as
being contrary to official US policy.
Jesse Leaf said in an interview that for five years had had been the
chief CIA analyst on Iran before resigning from the agency in 1973....
A spokesman for the CIA confirmed that Mr. Leaf had been an employee
there but said, "We will not discuss former employees."
Mr. Leaf also said in the interview that he and his colleagues knew
of the torture of Iranian dissenters by Savak, the Iranian secret
police set up during the late 1950's by the Shah with help from the
CIA. [1] Furthermore, Mr. Leaf said, a senior CIA official was
involved in instructing officials in the Savak on torture techniques,
although Mr. Leaf said that to his knowledge no americans did any of
the torturing. The CIA's torture seminars, Mr. Leaf said, "were based
on German torture techniques from World War II."
The Shah himself was "one of our sources" of information, Mr. Leaf
said. "He was a regular contact for a case officer."
Mr. Leaf said that because of the CIA's complacency about the Shah,
no one considered protesting about the Savak's use of torture. "Why
should we protest? We were on their side, remember?" [2]
Although the Iranian use of torture was widely known inside the
agency, Mr. Leaf said, he knew of no americans who admitted that they
witnessed such treatment. "I do remember seeing and being told of
people who were there seeing the rooms and being told of torture. And
I know that the torture rooms were toured and it was all paid for by
the USA."
Mr. Leaf said he decided to resign from the CIA after receiving an
adverse fitness report in 1973. His basic complaint, he said, was
that "policy pretty much determines reporting rather than the other
way around."
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[1] Actually, the CIA pretty much designed and implemented Savak from
the ground up, with some minor help from British and Israeli
intelligence, according to Mansur Rafizadeh, a former Savak/CIA agent.
(see his book: "Witness")
[2] It's interesting the way the issue of who advocated torture to whom
was turned around in this paragraph. It seems unlikely the US would
complain about Savak's use of nazi torture after having taught it to
them!