 | The Iranian intelligence and security apparatus remains one of the most secretive in the world, and is very poorly characterized in the open literature. Available sources provide only extremely sparse and fragmentary information concerning internal organizational structure, and information on budgets, personnel levels or facility locations is almost entirely lacking in the open literature. While this resource represents the best available profile of these entities, there are obviously significant gaps in coverage and points of ambiguity on which corrections or additions would be most welcome. |
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The years 1981 and 1982 were marked by extensive political violence as the political elite other groups contested for power, with organized gangs attacking individuals and organizations considered to be enemies of the Revolution. The government responded by carrying out mass arrests and executions. At the height of the confrontation, an average of 50 persons per day were executed; on several days during September 1981, the total number executed throughout the country exceeded 100. The government dramatized its resolve to crush the uprising by conducting many of these mass executions in public. By the end of 1982 an estimated 7,500 persons had been executed or killed in street battles with the Pasdaran.
The reign of terror officially ended in December 1982 when Khomeini issued an eight-point decree that effectively instructed the courts to ensure that the civil and due process rights of citizens be safeguarded. The decree forbade forcible entry of homes and businesses, arrest and detention without judges' orders, property expropriation without court authorization, and all forms of government spying on private persons.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei served as President under the Ayatollah Khomeini from 1982-1989. After Khomeini's death Khamenei succeeded to the office of faqih. Consequently, he has direct control of the armed forces, the intelligence services and the Foreign Ministry.