Jahanshah Javid
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The spy with no secrets
11-Apr-2010
"The FBI people came and visited me. I'm not going to say anything more. They told me not to tell anyone," my friend said during dinner a few weeks ago.
I didn't say a word. I pretended I didn't hear anything.
This is the fifth or sixth person I know personally who has been contacted by the FBI. This is what usually happens: two agents show up unannounced at your residence. They ask if they could come in and have a chat. They are polite and friendly. They want information, anything that would be of interest to the security of the United States. They ask if you would be willing to become an informant. In all cases, as far as I know (I can't be absolutely sure), direct cooperation was refused, although all said they would of course report any potential dangerous activity.
***
"How's Mehdi doing? What's he up to these days? Is he in Iran or U.S.?" I asked a friend a few months ago. The FBI had also paid him and his wife a visit, so he had some experience.
"I'm not sure. Never know what he's up to. He called me the other day and said the FBI wanted to talk to him. He wanted me to give him advice. I told him it's entirely up to him. He had to decide. I think he met with agents three or four times. He called me again and asked what he should do. I told him, baba, just say you will or you won't cooperate. Make up your mind!"
We laughed thinking how the FBI were being given the runaround. We know "Mehdi" (that's not his real name) well. It's hard to get a straight answer from him.
***
Every time I hear about a new case, a part of me gets jealous. Maybe jealous is not the right word. I feel left out and ignored. Why won't the FBI talk to ME? Don't I know a lot of stuff about Iran and Iranians? If I was the FBI, I would definitely put my name on the contact list. But no... nothing so far. No visit, no phone call. Losers!
Don't get me wrong. I would never become an agent or informant. But they could at least ask! :>)
I know what it is. They must have figured out that I have a big mouth. If the FBI came to my door I would blog about it the next day. Guaran'fn'teed.
***
When I was about 15 and living with one of my sisters and her husband in southern California, I went on a road trip with them and a few of their friends. They were mostly political activists and very much against the shah. This was around 1977. One of them asked what I wanted to do when I grew up. I had no real idea but I loved James Bond movies. I said I wanted to become a spy. Well, you would have thought I said I wanted to become the devil himself. I got such a stern lecture about SAVAK and the terrible things it did. I hardly knew what SAVAK was.
The first time I heard about SAVAK was a couple of years earlier in Abadan. Some friends and I were in the parking lot of Segoosh swimming pool. There was a guy sitting on a big motorcycle. "He's a SAVAKI," one of my friends said. Damn! A spy? Really?
***
When students occupied the American embassy in Tehran in 1979, they published a lot of the secret documents they found, including stuff that had been through the shredder and painstakingly put together. I found them fascinating. After all, what officials say in public is often very different from what they actually think. I was curious to know what the Americans were up to and really thought about Iran under the shah, and the first months after the revolution. I read every volume. This was REAL James Bond stuff. I loved it.
One of the last volumes was published in the late 1980s. I was in London and had brought a copy from Tehran. I thought the American press would be interested in the latest secrets to come out of the embassy. I made an appointment with the New York Times correspondent in London, the late Raymond Apple, whom I had met in Iran. I offered to sell the book to him. He said he wasn't interested. I was so embarrassed. Felt like an ass. I should have just given it to him.
***
I have never met a spy in my life. Let me rephrase that. I have never met anyone I KNEW for sure was a spy. But I have met and worked with some, let's say, interesting characters.
When I worked for IRNA in the early 1980s, I took a part-time job at Kayhan International. At the time Kayhan publishing house was under the management of Mohammad Khatami. The editor of the English newspaper was Masoumeh Ebtekar, who later became the head of the Environmental Protection Organization when Khatami became president (she was also the English spokesperson for students who had taken over the American embassy).
There I met three African Americans who worked as copy editors. Hassan Abdulrahman, another guy named Luqman and his wife Shakura (don't remember their last names). I never asked how they ended up in Iran. I just assumed they were Muslims who believed in whatever the Islamic Republic stood for.
Luqman did not get along with Iranians too well. First of all, the type of people he was working with were not strict Muslims. They had been hired primarily for their English skills, not their political or religious views. He didn't feel much in common with them. Plus, the Iranians had never seen a black person in their life and I could sense there was some racist tension.
I don't know what happened exactly, but I heard Luqman had a nervous breakdown and he left Iran with his wife after a couple of years. Hassan, on the other hand, is still in Iran.
Hassan was always cool and collected. Intelligent with a sense of humor. I enjoyed our conversations. He was honest. He said what was on his mind, even if it wasn't in line with the policies of the Islamic Republic.
The last time we spoke was during my last visit to Iran in 1995. By then he spoke good Persian, had taken an Iranian wife, I believe, and settled pretty well. I was not the same person he knew when we first met at Kayhan International. I was very much done with religion and the Islamic Republic and had moved to the U.S.
I asked him why he had stayed in Iran for so long, because I knew he too had changed, politically at least. He was not as fond of the Islamic Republic as he once was. He said he wanted to leave Iran, but there were not many places he could go. Maybe Afghanistan. He didn't go into details, but he said it was impossible to go back to America. He felt trapped.
Not long after I went back to the U.S., Hassan gave an interview to ABC, or CBS, television news. It was then I first found out why he went to Iran and never left. His real name is David Theodore Belfield. In 1980, posing as a postman, he shot and killed a former diplomat, an alleged SAVAKI, based in the Iranian embassy in Washington before the revolution.
Hassan is on the FBI wanted list.
***
The weirdest character I worked with, in the early 1980s, was an American guy who called himself Jalal Anderson, if my memory serves me correctly. He looked like a cross between Homer Simpson and his neighbor, Flanders. He was hired by IRNA as a copy editor in the English section. He didn't do anything to raise any suspicions but he just looked odd and out of place. Shy and untidy. We all wondered why the hell HE would want to be in the Islamic Republic. For the money? Maybe. Foreigners got paid in U.S. dollars which in real terms meant ten times more than everyone else. But still, something about him didn't feel right. He stayed in Iran for five or six years, I think.
I just did a google search for his name. Nothing, zilch.
***
In 1981, a few months after Iraq invaded Iran, many opposition groups were banned and forced underground. Giving war and national unity as an excuse, the authorities began to silence all critics in the most brutal fashion, much worse than what was witnessed in the past year. Mojahedin Khalgh and a few other radical groups launched an armed struggle, killing many officials as well as revolutionary guards and basijis.
One day it was announced that everybody had to go the local mosque or Komiteh to register. Appointments were made in alphabetical order. Those whose last names started with A went first, and so forth. Officials came to every residence and checked for any suspicious activity. The purpose was to weed out suspected terrorists in hiding. Meanwhile if they found any "anti-revolutionary" books, newspapers or photographs, the owners would have been arrested and potentially severely punished.
My favorite hobby was to collect everything I could get my hands on. That is everything that had to do with the revolution and the Islamic Republic. I had newspapers, books, pamphlets and posters from every group, most of which were now at war with the regime. I got very worried. I would have had to do a lot of explaining if my private library had been discovered. If you had anti-government material, you were guilty no matter what.
At the time, I did freelance photography for Soroosh magazine, which was published by the state radio and TV. I told the editor that I wanted to get rid of my library, but I didn't want the material destroyed. I felt they were part of history and had to be preserved in some way. A few days later he gave me an address and told me to take the stuff there on a certain day and time.
On the day of the appointment, I put all the "dangerous" literature in boxes and hired a taxi. I was not familiar with Tehran and not sure where the address was. All I remember was that it was in north Tehran. There was no sign outside. Only a metal gate and behind it a relatively large cube-shaped building covered with dark glass. I was escorted inside an office. I remember the man behind the desk looked a bit like Ebrahim Yazdi, the former foreign minister and Nehzat Azadi leader. The meeting did not last long. I just told him why I was there, handed over the boxes and left.
Fastforward to 1997. I got a call from a friend of mine. He said Saeed Hajjarian, a reformist member of Tehran's city council had been shot in the head and was close to death. He wanted me to ask my brother, who's a neurosurgeon in New York, to fly to Tehran. I told him my brother was on vacation. I lied. I was positive he wouldn't go to Tehran. He had not been to Iran after the revolution and did not want to get involved in anything political. To my great surprise, a couple of hours later I found out he was already en route to Tehran. He saved Hajjarian's life.
I didn't know who Hajjarian was. When I looked at his picture I couldn't believe it. He looked just like the guy I met in 1981. When I read about his background, I became pretty certain it was him. He worked for the Intelligence Ministry in the 1980s before joining the reformists. A few months ago, as a close adviser to Mir Hossein Mousavi, Hajjarian and many others were put on trial after "confessing" to... whatever.
***
I have a secret I would like to share. Well, I think it's a secret and a pretty important one. But you may disagree. A friend of mine laughed when I told her. She didn't think it was anything that significant. I disagree. It's something that should be recorded in the history of the 8-year war with Iraq.
During the war, Iraq's use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops and civilians was well-documented. Iran got a lot of sympathy for it and the Iraqis came under considerable international pressure. But what about Iran's use of chemical weapons? It was never suspected and no one reported it.
In the final year of the war, in 1987-88, I remember seeing news items at IRNA that said Iraqi forces had suffered casualties from their own chemical weapons. The wind had changed the direction of the poisonous clouds, the reports claimed. Years later, a friend of mine who worked for the War Propagation Headquarters (setaad tablighaat jang) told me that in fact the Iranian air force had dropped chemical bombs on Iraqi troops. The "wind change" stories were a cover up.
Also, a relative of mine who was a soldier in the army during the final phase of the war, told me he was aware of secret revolutionary guards' artillery units which fired chemical shells against the Iraqis.
***
One thing I wonder about is whether I have dated any spies. If I did I'm sure they were disappointed, professionally speaking. The closest I came to being in that situation was when I dated someone who trained Persian-speakers for the U.S. military. I made sure I never asked any questions about her job and if she spoke about it I would change the subject. I just didn't want any of us getting into trouble.
***
When I left Iran in 1990, I enrolled at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. I was shocked to see ads in the student newspaper for CIA jobs. I thought the CIA was so secretive that it wouldn't openly advertise employment opportunities. But I guess like any organization it needs to recruit people. And ads aren't the only way.
I took a political science class. One day the professor asked me to have lunch with him. I didn't think anything of it and agreed. The lunch was pretty uneventful and we didn't talk about any unusual topics. Sometime later I was told by another student that the professor hired foreign students for the CIA. Hmm... I don't know if it was true or not, but if it was, the professor obviously didn't think I was made for it.
And he would have been right.
I find spying to be a despicable occupation, especially the kind involving political espionage that invade privacies and harm individuals and nations. I'm a firm believer in government transparency. I think spy agencies are largely unnecessary and a huge waste of money. Personally, I can never keep a secret. My life is an open book. I have revealed many things on these pages that are far from flattering. I'm a terrible liar. I can be evasive and economical with the truth, but that's about it.
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Iran DID NOT use Chemical Weapons
by hass on Wed Apr 14, 2010 12:57 PM PDTJJ -- at the time, international law on chemical weapons only prohibited the FIRST USE of chemical weapons, not retaliation with chemical weapons. And the (lack of) Iran's use of chemical weapons has been well-documented. For example, by Jean-Pascal Zanders at SIPRI.
Iran did NOT have even the capability of making chemical weapons at the time. However the US which was protecting Saddam (and providing him with targetting intelligence for his chemical weapons -- making the US directly complicit in that war crime) promoted propaganda about Iranian chemical weapons use. Like I said, they even promoted the rumor that Iran was responsible for the Halabja massacre (read Joost Hiltermann's book) even though it was Iran (and photographer Kaveh Golestan, my friend) who first exposed the massacre to the international media.
CIA stories are lots more fun than FBI ones
by Monda on Tue Apr 13, 2010 08:15 PM PDTNot that I don't have those.
First, in college back in '80 when I was about to be deported. I had an interview not only with INS but with an FBI agent who for interrogated me (twice in one week) about the amount of money I was making at off campus jobs (nothing indecent mind you). He wanted to know what I did with all that cash. When I told him that because of my Dad's assets confiscated by the Islamic regime and he being in and out of jail in Iran, I had to plan out a way to support my family with money left over from paying out of state tuitions, dorms, second hand wet suites, etc. He did soften up and even bought me m&m's (I think) from a nearby machine.
Then, back in the late 90's I used to feed the cats of this couple who under assumed names were selling un-kosher properties to the elderly. After their arrest, FBI was tapping my phone for months. Because they were trying to recover the couple million dollars from those transactions. They thought I may have been in on the deals, since I was one of the very few people allowed in their mansion. How do I know about that piece? When I went to bail her out, the DA (very nice with good music sense) told me.
BTW Jahanshah, I only deleted my CIA share because few hours later the thought occurred to me that I could cause my old classmate unnecessary havoc within his agency :o)
Ramin jan, I actually liked American made "She Devil"
by Anahid Hojjati on Tue Apr 13, 2010 07:15 PM PDTWatching American made "She Devil" about 20 years ago was actually fun. On issue of spies, one time during Shah, a classmate told my sister that her dad worked for SAVAK. My sister who was junior high age, gave a list of banned books to our friend to see if her dad had access to those. My friend's dad then commented to his daughter that who was this friend who was interested in all these banned books. Fortunately, my sister did not get in trouble.
JJ
by maziar 58 on Tue Apr 13, 2010 03:48 PM PDTABBE LA PATZIENCIA........
BE PATIENT IRAN (IRR) turns will be next, these are all dirty politic in times due.....when they read to them LA MIRANDA's right......Maziar
And?
by Jahanshah Javid on Tue Apr 13, 2010 02:56 PM PDTmaziar, thanks for the information. Nobody had any doubts about Iraq's chemical weapons and how they were obtained and used during the war.
It's IRAN's use of the weapons that needs to be looked into if any one wants to write the history of the war because this aspect has never been reported or discussed.
chemical deals
by maziar 58 on Tue Apr 13, 2010 02:49 PM PDTjj in regard to that chemical deals....... we used to have a
German Bank branch here in tennessee run and managed by an Iraqi baathist (dble dipper) by the name of Ali Haddad ,and all his transactions were secured by american and german to ship the mustards to iraq,After the 2003 invasion since the government knew that he knows about the secrets, chased him all the way to sofia,Bulgaria and put him in jail for 4 yrs.and siemense also had to work with german and american to get him convicted of...by the end of that 4 yrs. now he is serving 15 yrs in germany.
he was send to germany during saddam to study in germany........
sorry to give you head aches .
P.S All it can be googled for verification. Maziar
ramintork Indeed & Not surprising It's Beaumarchais Fault ! ;0)
by Darius Kadivar on Tue Apr 13, 2010 02:26 PM PDTBeekhod Neest Ramin Jaan cause The Guy who was at the origine of the Laws on Intellectual Property ( Loi sur La Propriete Intellectuelle) of Artists and Writers was Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais who was commissioned by the French King Louis XVI to help The Americans in their War against the British by delivering Arms and Ammunition to the Revolutionaries ...
Spy for Liberty: The Adventurous Life of Beaumarchais, Playwright and Secret Agent for the American Revolution Ariane Ruskin
He must have also given the Americans some Extra Tips that have since well served Hollywood Moguls and Sharks ... LOL
But beyneh Khodemoon In those days Spies at least had Class not like some of these Goldors :
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manucher_Ghorbanifar
See Photo :
//www.life.com/image/57578097
Ghorbanifar, the middleman in the so-called Iran-Contra/Arms-for-Hostages scandal in the Reagan administration, had fabricated so much bad intelligence and empty schemes that the CIA had put him on a no-contact list.
All the more that unlike Beaumarchais the above Bee Orzeh Not Only Failed to deliver Regime Change !
But Ended up in a Computer Game:
//deadlinelive.info/2009/07/02/global-intel-%E2%80%98secret%E2%80%99-rome-meeting-recounted-by-aipac-spy-case-figure/
LOL
Where are capt_ayhab and Marge to complain ? ...
Hee Hee !
Chemical Weapons
by Jahanshah Javid on Tue Apr 13, 2010 02:13 PM PDTYou say Iran had every right to use chemical weapons against the Iraqi forces. I don't agree. International clearly states that the use of such weapons is prohibited. But in any case, that was not my point.
I am trying to shed light on important fact about the war which has been left unnoticed and unreported. The use of chemical weapons by Iran has never been brought up. Whether Iran was right or wrong in using them can be argued one way or another. But first, those who will write the history of the war should investigate both sides' use of chemical weapons.
chemical weapons use
by hass on Tue Apr 13, 2010 02:04 PM PDTThe fact that the Iranian artillery fired some chemical shells that they had captured from the Iraqis back at them is hardly a secret. However Iran did not have a chemical weapons program and would not have been able to manufacture the bombs you speak of. Based on the Chemical Weapons Convention of the time, Iran was legally entitled to use chemical weapons in response to Iraqi chemical weapons use. And, you're wrong when you say that IRaq came under a lot of international pressure as a result of its chemical weapons use. In fact, for most of the time, the US prevented any open criticism of Iraq's chemical weapons use at the UN and instead promoted the rumor that Iran was using chemical weapons instead, even promoting the myth that Iran was responsible for the Halabja massacre of the kurds by Saddam's chemical weapons. It was in fact Iran that first exposed that massacre to the international media.
They've been copying French movies for years!
by ramintork on Tue Apr 13, 2010 01:46 PM PDTI know DK, because I like french movies. They also copy British Drama sometimes very badly.
The worst adaptation was from a British TV drama called "She Devil" which was a masterful work of writing, acting and drama and Hollywood turned it to the worst nightmare comedy you can imagine.
It was Meryl Streep's only bad movie and she is otherwise absolutely brilliant but this was done so badly.
JJ & Ramin Jaan I'd Rather advise to Lie BUT Truthfully ... ;0)
by Darius Kadivar on Tue Apr 13, 2010 01:41 PM PDTParticularly in this situation:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFj5MTp4lLo&feature=related
True Lies -(1994) Trailer directed by James Cameron
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B7HG8_xbDw
Even if it's a Plagiarism of a French Movie ...
La Totale (1991) directed by Claude Zidi
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofqc9xmaRtg&feature=related
America Like Hollywood Copies Everything From Us Frenchies ... Even Our Spies !
LOL
Wolek Midoonestom
by Jahanshah Javid on Tue Apr 13, 2010 01:31 PM PDTRamin Ka! To khodeh James Bondie :)
JJ
by ramintork on Tue Apr 13, 2010 01:29 PM PDTDon't take it seriously I was doing the Abadani bragging!
To lie and pretend
by Jahanshah Javid on Tue Apr 13, 2010 01:25 PM PDTInteresting Ramin. I've always assumed that spies need to be completely anonymous and undercover. I mean you should never know someone is working for any spy agency, unless they are trying to recruit you. If someone came to dinner at my house and said I work for the CIA, I would be very skeptical.
Anyway, I think it can be exciting to have a double life and snoop on people and governments, but to lie and pretend to be something and someone else ... I just couldn't do it.
Thanks for sharing.
I am a spy too!
by ramintork on Tue Apr 13, 2010 01:15 PM PDTAre we doing the "free the spies this week"? I am a spy too!
Actually being in UK, I was almost recurited by MI6. They knew I had lived in Abadan and I can brag my way out of anything!
Seriously though, for a few years in early 80s I had to live as an illegal immigrant in UK and during that time I worked in a shop in Oxford Street and became friends with many people. One person who became a good friend turned up to be a spy working with the cover of working for The British Council and with the information he asked me I realized I was being preped-up to be of use to him in his travels to Iran. He used to tell me about IRI guys who they kept taps on and were in London for the oil deals. He had recognized my talent for decoding information, pattern recognition and natural body language reading.
Now as a investment Banker consultant who managed to finish his education and go to a normal life I wonder what life would have been like if I was the type to be recurited.
I guess talking about politics as we often did, he knew I wasn't happy with the way Brits had intervened in our History and I was not for sale.
Oh, by the way there are many Iranians who work for CIA, one of them was a second generation agent and he had dined in my house.
Almost a Spy
by Jahanshah Javid on Tue Apr 13, 2010 12:26 PM PDTThanks for sharing Monda. Again, I'm jealous! You were at least asked to join the CIA :)
I was hoping others would come forward and talk about any experience they may have had with the FBI. But I can understand it's not something people would want to talk about in public. The fear factor is high, I can imagine.
Iran_Zamin :)
by Jeesh Daram on Mon Apr 12, 2010 09:58 PM PDTI thought it was 30 years :) in both countries. But under freedom of information we basically do whatever comes handy as who knows if we will make it that long. Thanks for the reminder.
JJ is the new Truman
by iran_zameen on Mon Apr 12, 2010 09:46 PM PDTI feel giddy and scared a bit.
I get the feeling that JJ is now overtaking the Truman Show...
Its scary at times, because I feel JJ is at times "experiencing" with certain things which are irreversible or at least he burns down the bridge...
Khoda Nakhaste, what will JJ do in 40 years from now, if he is under severe chronic pain?
Will he invite us via webcam to the office of a doctor who performs euthonasia in Oregan, declare he is athiest and press the buzzer!!!
Scary, but I just got giddy thinking about it!
No pun intended
Jeesh Daram, you've violating rules
by iran_zameen on Mon Apr 12, 2010 09:38 PM PDTJD, i hope you're not living in UK or US..
UK has a 50 yr perido before classified material are revealed..
You should have waitied another 20 yrs before revealing this classfied info or atleast until JJ was 70 years old
Jalal
by Jeesh Daram on Mon Apr 12, 2010 10:00 PM PDTHe claimed to have lived in America (Ohio), but later came clean and said his parents were British and lived in England. How did Africa get into his geneology? Are you referring to the other guy who played in the movie Ghandahar whom in real life was accused of killing the Iranian diplomat in DC? Yes, and he was very white with reddish tint with blonde hair. He did not know a damn thing about Islam.
African?
by Jahanshah Javid on Mon Apr 12, 2010 09:03 PM PDTDarius, you are not talking about the same Jalal Anderson. The person I knew was white with blond hair. Nothing African or Muslim about him.
Jalal was not British
by darius on Mon Apr 12, 2010 08:51 PM PDTJalal was an African descendant considered himself devoted to Islam
, a student of Theology and accepted to work as a secret liaison between Khomeini and his follower inside Iran. Before revolution he carried messages back and forth between Iran and Iraq.
During his secret trips to Iraq he was picked by Iran Intelligent service but they had let him go for obvious reason that his work was not significant. He should be living in east coast of USA and possibly teaching theology .
Just a few meeting
by Jeesh Daram on Mon Apr 12, 2010 08:16 PM PDTJJ, no I did not work with him just met him in those few gatherings and me coming from USA was very curious why would he come to Iran under those conditions.
He lived in Ohio for a while but he had very little to share about life in USA. So being a born amature reporter, young and nosy I scruitinized deeply. That is why he produced that letter twice to somewhat convince or perhaps intimidate me. He accidentally disclosed about his parents and my television memory recorded just about everything I went throgh during that short period.
I was among three other people who believed he was a British peddler.
Even Mashadi suspected him! I only met these two characters a few times while visiting Iran.
Jalal Anderson
by Jahanshah Javid on Mon Apr 12, 2010 08:03 PM PDTJD, so you also knew and worked with Jalal? I don't know why I thought he was American. I don't recall him having a British accent. I worked with him almost thirty years ago so my memory must be failing.
In any case, I didn't have any bad experiences with him, but he was definitely odd and there didn't seem to be a good reason why he would be living and working Iran under those harsh conditions.
So you think he was a British spy? Interesting :)
The name Mashadi does ring a bell, but my memory is not clear. Perhaps if I see a picture of him...
Thanks for sharing.
Interesting
by Jeesh Daram on Mon Apr 12, 2010 10:17 PM PDTDear JJ,
Valuable memories you shared with us. I just wanted to let it go, but your curiosity about Jalal Anderson prompted me to give you a little bit of information that I know of this truly "weird" character as you called him and I agree with you.
Before you met him at IRNA he worked for more than a year for NIRT at Jaam-Jam location in English news section as a reporter and an announcer for the shortwave "Voice of the Islamic Republic" broadcasting for other countries. I don't know why he left NIRT for IRNA as I was long gone from Iran.
My encounter with him was quite accidental and in several occasions. I dated a lady that took me to some parties that this guy was invited too. He claimed to be an American, but after several discussions we had in separate occasions in a friend's gathering, he disclosed to me that his parents were actually British and sure enough they lived in England as well. Something I was totally convinced of even before his disclosure to me. My feeling was that he was a British spy (low level) reporting on translated material at NIRT for overseas consumption and to insure the materials were 100% anti-American and pro-British. He was referred to NIRT by a very notrious pro-British TV executive with no specific title! Several of my friends worked for NIRT and that is how I got these information.
As you might recall we could also listen to the English program after midnight on FM in Tehran which was intended for other countries. All his reporting was anti-American.
Jalal which was his accquired Islamic name carried a piece of paper with him and showed me twice. It was written in English and addressed by him to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking the Ministry to allow him (Anderson) to live and work in Iran because of his love of Islam. On the bottm of the letter he showed me a handwritten snetence that he claimed was Khomeini's hand-written authorization for his work permit. He said he obtained such signature by personally going to Khoemeini's residence at Alavi-School on Iran avenue. He was certainly falsifying his identity and his intentions and the above document. He did not have an American accent and he was quite anti-American. I despised the guy immensly on how he was taking advantage of our country and reporting to our enemies. But he wasn't alone, Tehran was filled with characters like him those days and continues to be.
To me he was nothing more than a piece of dirt and a peddler reporting for the British Embassy. I am glad my encounter with him came to an end for his safety (with a smile). The timing was at the very frist few months of revolution. I am not surprised that Google search returns nothing about him because everything about him was falsified.Another character like him was a guy by the last name Mashhadi who worked with him, and we leave his biography for another time. You might have met him at some point.
I feel sorry for those that call people like me Daee-Jaan because they don't know a crap about what goes on in their country as we speak, but they all have seen a crappy video at some point of their lives and think they have learned all they need about Iran's history.
Thank you
Very good read. Thanks.
by benross on Mon Apr 12, 2010 04:31 PM PDTVery good read. Thanks.
Bond-esque adventures ...
by Darius Kadivar on Mon Apr 12, 2010 02:21 PM PDTOn the lighter side ...
Soraya James BOND Girl?
James Bond Visits Shah's Iran for Ian Fleming's 100th Anniversary
Great piece
by ahvazi on Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:39 AM PDTJJ. My dream of being a spy was shattered when at the age of 8 my Bibi (grandmother) slapped me when i told her that my brother was eating the noon-khameyis in the refrigrator. She told me "Bacheh Khabar-Chini zeshteh!!!" :-)
You can tell some stories! wow Jahanshah, wow
by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:16 AM PDTI was hooked.
I'm not surprised about the cover up one bit. Neither nation should have possessed chmical weapons. That is very sad. After Saddam did it, it only got dirtier, so I'm not surprised revolutionary guards did it. What a sick war. Thank you for sharing all this with us.
Spy stories are fascinating!
by Monda on Mon Apr 12, 2010 08:01 PM PDTJahanshah and Jeesh collaborating on the notorious spies sounds like a good book material. How intriguing to read about these characters. Please consider writing more on them?