Iran divided on crisis over secret services
TEHRAN, Jan 10 (AFP) - Iran's political factions are divided over how
to deal with the country's intelligence ministry after the stunning admission
that its secret agents were involved in the murders of intellectuals and
dissidents.
Islamic leftwingers backing President Mohammad Khatami have demanded
the removal of the intelligence ministry's conservative chief, Ghorban-Ali
Dorrie Najafabadi, and called for a shakeup of the agency.
But conservatives cite the incident as an aberration and appear determined
to keep moderates and liberals from making any political gains out of the
controversy.
"This sedition must not be treated as an opportunity for settlement
of political accounts," warned the conservative daily Qods, describing
Dorrie-Najafabadi as a "fair-minded cleric with an admirable revolutionary
record."
"The propaganda offensive and cowardly attack against the minister
by foreign media and some naive people inside (the regime) is a part of
a scenario behind the recent foreign sedition," it said.
The English-language Tehran Times, citing "well-informed sources,"
said Sunday that Dorrie-Najafabadi would stay on as intelligence chief
after receiving support from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme
leader.
Khamenei praised the ministry on Friday for "showing courage"
in coming clean with the murder affair and described subsequent criticisms
of the agency as "unfair."
He also reiterated what has in effect become the conservative line on
the killings -- that elements outside Iran were involved.
The ministry itself, in admitting the affair, said the rogue agents
had ties outside the Islamic republic.
But left-wingers appear convinced that the roots of the murders are
inside the regime and are linked to a wave of Islamic extremist violence,
including an attack on a group of American tourists in October, aimed at
undermining Khatami's reform policies.
The Association of Combatant Clerics (ACC), a group of left-wing religious
leaders, said the ministry's involvement in the killings indicated the
root of the problem was internal.
"The burning of bookshops, the disrupting of political and religious
gatherings, the attacks on newspapers and the bold armed attack on foreign
tourists -- all this has strengthened the belief that the culprits come
from inside the regime and are backed by centers of power," it said.
It demanded efforts to "eradicate the mindset which leads to such
shameful crimes and rigid-minded and dogmatic interpretations of Islam."
Moderates and liberals have also called for the identities of the agents
involved in the murders to be made public -- a bold request given the ministry's
tradition of secrecy.
"We urge the authorities to immediately identify the culprits behind
the terrorist act and punish them for their ugly acts," said the Islamic
Iran Participation Front, a recently formed coalition of political groups
that supports Khatami.
"It is necessary to put aside political considerations and introduce
all who have had a direct or indirect role in these anti-religion crimes,"
said Ayatollah Abdol-Karim Musavi-Ardebili, who also supports the president.
The ACC urged Khatami to "exercise care in the selection of the
management of the intelligence ministry and maintain constant supervision.
"We must not limit ourselves to the arrest of several agents deceived
into committing the crime, but must find the roots within the regime, and
not just the intelligence ministry," it said.
The authorities have thus far refused to release any names, saying only
that the investigation is continuing, while the Tehran Times said a number
of top intelligence officials, including a director general, had been arrested.
The ministry made the extraordinary admission last week that "ill-minded
irresponsible colleagues" were involved in the murders of nationalist
opposition leader Daryush Foruhar and his wife along with several liberal
writers.
But the shadowy Fedayeen of Islam (Devotees of Islam) has also claimed
responsibility for the murders, and the group threatened Sunday to take
action against those who have been criticising the regime's hardliners.
We will "take revenge against ill-minded hypocrites for their campaign
against children of (late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini and
devotees of pure Islam," it said.
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