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Intel - History
Iranian Revolution

"In God we trust.
All others we monitor."

• England had just nationalized their own steel industry, but objected to Iran's nationalizing its oil fields

At the 2500th celebration of the Iranian Monarchy, dinner is served under a designer tent. Left to right are Prince RAINIER of Monaco, Prince PHILIP of great Britain, Crown Prince GUSTAV of Sweden and Vice President Spiro AGNEW of the USA

• In October 1971, the 2,500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire was held at the site of Persepolis.
• Only foreign dignitaries were invited to the three-day party whose extravagances included over one ton of caviar, and preparation by some two hundred chefs flown in from Paris.
• Cost was officially $40 million but estimated to be more in the range of $100–120 million.

• Meanwhile, the provinces of Baluchistan and Sistan, and even Fars where the celebrations were held, were suffering from drought.
• "As the foreigners reveled on drink forbidden by Islam, Iranians were not only excluded from the festivities, some were starving."

• In 1976, the Shah's government angered pious Iranian Muslims by changing the first year of the Iranian solar calendar from the Islamic hijri to the ascension to the throne by Cyrus the Great. "Iran jumped overnight from the Muslim year 1355 to the royalist year 2535."

• The first of the major demonstrations against the Shah led by Islamic groups came in January 1978.
• Furious students and religious leaders in the city of Qom demonstrated against a libelous story attacking Khomeini run in the official press.

• The army was sent in, dispersing the demonstrations and killing several students (two according to the government, 70 according to the opposition).

• According to the Shi'ite customs, memorial services are held forty days after a person's death.
• In mosques across the nation, calls were made to honour the dead students.

• Thus on February 18 groups in a number of cities marched to honour the fallen and protest against the rule of the Shah.
• This time, violence erupted in Tabriz, and over a hundred demonstrators were killed.

• The cycle repeated itself, and on March 29, a new round of protests began across the nation.
• Luxury hotels, cinemas, banks, government offices, and other symbols of the Shah regime were destroyed; again security forces intervened, killing many.

• On May 10 the same occurred.

Ayatollah Kazem Shariatmadari

• In May, government commandos burst into the home of Ayatollah Kazem Shariatmadari, a leading cleric and political moderate, and shot dead one of his followers right in front of him.

• Shariatmadari abandoned his quietist stance and joined the opposition to the Shah.

Rex Cinema, most burned in their
seats, passed out from Freon Gas

• On August 20, 1978, Cinema Rex in Abadan, Iran, was set ablaze, killing approximately 500 individuals.
• Mohammad Reza Pahlavi said that Islamic militants set the fire, while the public believed that the Shah and the country's intelligence service, SAVAK, set the fire.

• According to Daniel L. Byman in Washington Post in 2007, the fire was "the second-deadliest terrorist attack in modern history," after only the September 11th, 2001 attacks; it has since been surpassed by the 2007 Kahtaniya bombings? in Iraq, which killed 796.

Central Intelligence Agency

• A CIA analysis in August 1978, just six months before the Shah fled Iran, had concluded that the country "is not in a revolutionary or even a pre-revolutionary situation."

• The Shah decided to seek the deportation of Ayatollah Khomeini from Iraq.
• On September 24, 1978, the Iraqi regime sieged the house of Khomeini in Najaf.

• He was informed that his continued residence in Iraq was contingent on his abandoning political activity, a condition he rejected.

Brezinski

• The U.S. ambassador to Iran, William H. Sullivan, recalls that the U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski “repeatedly assured Pahlavi that the U.S. backed him fully."

• On November 4, 1978, Brzezinski called the Shah to tell him that the United States would "back him to the hilt."

Khomeini Speaks at Azadi Square, years later

• On December 2, during the Islamic month of Muharram, over two million people filled the streets of Tehran's Azadi Square (then Shahyad Square), to demand the removal of the Shah and return of Khomeini.

• On January 16, 1979, he and his wife left Iran at the behest of Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar (a long time opposition leader himself), who sought to calm the situation.

Opposition Prime Minister
Bakhtiar Assassinated in Paris 1991

• He asked Khomeini to create a Vatican-like state in Qom, promised free elections and called upon the opposition to help preserve the constitution, proposing a 'national unity' government including Khomeini's followers.

Khomeini Returns to Iran

• On February 1, 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran to a greeting by several million Iranians.

• Khomeini fiercely rejected Dr. Bakhtiar's demands and appointed his own interim government, with Mehdi Bazargan as prime minister, demanding "since I have appointed him he must be obeyed."

• In February, pro-Khomeini Revolutionary guerrilla and rebel soldiers gained the upper hand in street fighting and the military announced their neutrality.

Pro-Khomeini Rally

• On the evening of February 11 the dissolution of the monarchy was complete.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

• In June, the Freedom Movement released its draft constitution; it referred to Iran as an Islamic Republic and included a Guardian Council to veto unIslamic legislation, but had no guardian jurist ruler.
• The constitution was sent for review to the newly-elected Assembly of Experts for the Constitution which was dominated by allies of Khomeini. Despite the fact that Khomeini had originally declared it ‘correct’, Khomeini (and the assembly) rejected the constitution, Khomeini declaring that the new government should be based "100% on Islam."

• A new constitution drawn up by the Assembly of Experts for the Constitution created a powerful post of Supreme Leader for Khomeini, who was in charge of the military and security services, and appointed several top government and judicial officials.
• A less powerful president was to be elected every four years.

• The first to be executed by revolutionary leadership were members of the old regime: senior generals, and a couple of months later over 200 of the Shah's senior civilian officials as punishment and to eliminate the danger of coup d’État.
• Brief trials lacking defense attorneys, juries, transparency or opportunity for the accused to defend themselves were held by revolutionary judges such as Sadegh Khalkhali, the Sharia judge.

• Among those executed was Amir Abbas Hoveida, former Prime Minister of Iran.
• Those who escaped Iran were not immune. A decade later, another former Prime Minister, Dr. Shapour Bakhtiar, was assassinated in Paris, one of at least 63 Iranians abroad killed or wounded since the Shah was overthrown, although these attacks are thought to have stopped after the early 1990s.

Outside wall of former US Embassy

• Approximately 500 students seize embassy

• Saudis feared Khomeini Revolution and Soviet advances into Afghanistan. The United States was not the only country frightened by the Soviets and the Iranian situation. Saudi Arabia had a lot more to lose if the Soviets succeeded - or, for that matter, if Shiite Iran did. [source: America's Secret War, p. 11]

• KHOMEINI BLASTED MERCY SURAS, EMPHASIZED SWORD VERSES JUNE 1983 [source: Root Causes of Terrorism, p. 58]

• KHOMEINI BLASTED MERCY SURAS, EMPHASIZED SWORD VERSES JUNE 1983 [source: Root Causes of Terrorism, p. 58]