Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08RPODUBAI41
2008-07-15 09:56:00
SECRET//NOFORN
Iran RPO Dubai
Cable title:  

SECOND AHMADINEJAD ASSOCIATE ARRESTED AFTER EXPOSING

Tags:  PGOV PREL ECON IR 
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VZCZCXRO7134
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK
DE RUEHDIR #0041/01 1970956
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
P 150956Z JUL 08
FM RPO DUBAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0298
INFO RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHDIR/RPO DUBAI PRIORITY 0290
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEHDE/AMCONSUL DUBAI PRIORITY 0258
RUEHAD/USDAO ABU DHABI TC
RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI PRIORITY 0226
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 RPO DUBAI 000041 

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 7/15/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON IR
SUBJECT: SECOND AHMADINEJAD ASSOCIATE ARRESTED AFTER EXPOSING
CORRUPTION

REF: RPO DUBAI 0030

DUBAI 00000041 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Ramin Asgard, Director, Iran Regional Presence
Office, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)


S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 RPO DUBAI 000041

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 7/15/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON IR
SUBJECT: SECOND AHMADINEJAD ASSOCIATE ARRESTED AFTER EXPOSING
CORRUPTION

REF: RPO DUBAI 0030

DUBAI 00000041 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Ramin Asgard, Director, Iran Regional Presence
Office, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



1.(S//NF) Summary: Abdollah Shahbazi has been dubbed by Iranian
press as the "second exposer" after minor politician Abbas
Palizdar (reftel). Shahbazi was reportedly jailed June 18 for
several days and then escaped an assassination attempt July 6
after accusing high-ranking clerics and IRGC officials in Fars
province of expropriating land. According to press reports,
Shahbazi is a founding member of the Intelligence Ministry's
Center for Political Research and as such, also published
documents in May detailing "secret talks" between the Supreme
Leader and senior officials regarding the 1990s chain murders.
Shahbazi, like Palizdar, has been linked to Ahmadinejad in the
press. One Iranian businessman, who claims close connections to
power circles in Iran, postulated that Ahmadinejad is using the
likes of Palizdar and Shahbazi as insurance against clerics who
want to see him removed from power prior to the next
presidential election. End Summary.

The accusations

--------------


2. (U) According to the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA),
historian and Intelligence Ministry collaborator Abdollah
Shahbazi was arrested June 18 on charges of "slander and
spreading lies," after claiming that several high-ranking
officials from Fars province had expropriated land. Friday
prayer leader and the Supreme Leader's representative in Shiraz
Ayatollah Mohyeddin Haeri-Shirazi and Fars Province IRGC
Commander and Commander in the Ansar al-Mahdi Army,
Brigadier-General Abdoali Najafi were among those accused.
Reportedly, Fars provincial prosecutor-general Ahmad
Siavash-Pour said June 18 that the arrest came after 8 private
individuals (including Haeri-Shirazi and Najafi) filed
complaints against Shahbazi.

3.(U) This is not the first time that Shahbazi publicly
denounced officials on charges of economic corruption.
According to the press, while speaking at Shiraz University in
late 2007, Shahbazi named and accused "a number of" IRGC and

governorship officials of economic corruption. In an attempt to
prove his claims, Shahbazi wrote a book titled "Land and
Accumulation of Wealth: The Genesis of a New Oligarchy in
Contemporary Iran." ISNA reports that the book was published on
his website (www.shahbazi.org).

4.(U) This does, however, appear to be the first time that
Shahbazi was jailed for making allegations of economic
corruption. Furthermore, subsequent to his release on bail,
Shahbazi wrote a letter to Ahmadinejad claiming that an attempt
was made on his life. Edalatkhah website, which is affiliated
to President Ahmadinejad, reported the assassination attempt on
July 8 along with the following details: "After a series of
protest statements by Shahbazi about corruption and fraud in
real estate deals in the province of Fars, armed men two nights
ago chased his car and attempted to kidnap and assassinate
him...when the chasers discovered that Shahbazi was not in the
vehicle they were following, they beat up the driver and
threatened him with a pistol. They then attempted to kidnap the
driver who after being hit in the head was forced to drive his
car off a curb and then ran out of the vehicle to flee."

5.(U) In May, Shahbazi also made headlines after taking a
dispute with Rohallah Hosseinian public. Hosseinian is the head
of the Islamic Revolution Documents Center and the judiciary's
former representative at the Ministry of Intelligence under Ali
Fallahian. According to press, Hosseinian was insisting that
despite a military tribunal claiming otherwise, former
intelligence officer Saeed Emami was not a main perpetrator of
the chain murders in the 1990s. To prove Emami's guilt,
Shahbazi published a partial account of a top-secret June 23,
1999 meeting. Present at the meeting, which reportedly took
place in front of the Supreme Leader, was then President
Khatami, Nategh Nouri, Mohammad Yazdi, Expediency Council Chair
Rafsanjani, former Intelligence Minister Younesi, Head of the
armed forces judicial tribunal Niyazi and three officials in
charge of the case. According to Rooz Online, the question of
how Shahbazi gained access to such sensitive information,

DUBAI 00000041 002.2 OF 002


particularly when it was never even available to the victim's
attorneys, is still unknown.

Shahbazi's background

--------------

6.(U) According to open source information, Shahbazi was born in
Shiraz in 1955. His father, Habubollah Khan Shahbazi, was the
last Khan of the Sorkhi tribes of the Kuhmarre Sorkhi region in
southern Shiraz. His father reportedly led Iran's 1962-1963
tribal rebellion against the Pahlavi dynasty and was then
executed for his role. A Tehran University graduate, Shahbazi
was himself arrested in his youth for political activities
against the state. Before the 1979 revolution, Shahbazi joined
Iran's Tudeh Party (communist party) and was re-arrested in
1983, but while jailed he reportedly collaborated with the
Intelligence Ministry. Shahbazi is said to be one of the
founders of the "Center for Political Research" in Iran's
Intelligence Ministry - a center that he ran for 10 years.
Shahbazi was also appointed by the Supreme Leader to serve at
the "Center for Study of Contemporary Iranian History," which is
affiliated with the Bonyad-e Mostazafeen.

7.(U) Rooz Online reports that Shahbazi, who retains close ties
to the conservative camp and the "security faction based in
Kayhan Newspaper and the Islamic Revolution Documents Center,"
is now introducing himself as being affiliated with the
"President's Special Investigation Unit," which is headed by
President Ahmadinejad's brother, Davoud Ahmadinejad.

Shahbazi's motivations

--------------

8.(S//NF) While little is reported on Shahbazi's motivations, he
maintains on his website that he will continue with his crusade
to expose economic corruption. One long-standing contact of
IRPO, who claims to be close to power centers in Iran, (Note:
real level of access unknown. Endnote) alleged July 9 that
several senior clerics want to see Ahmadinejad removed and
possibly even jailed prior to the next presidential election.
The single-source claimed that clerics are concerned that if
Ahmadinejad remains in power until the next election cycle, he
will use surplus oil dollars to buy off votes and win a second
term. The likes of Palizdar (reftel) and Shahbazi, postulated
the businessman, provide Ahmadinejad a little insurance. If the
clerics were to have the president removed now, it would only
publicly appear to validate corruption charges.

9.(S//NF) Comment: While the possibility of clerics wanting to
remove and potentially jail Ahmadinejad can not be
substantiated, anecdotal information suggests that Ahmadinejad
is becoming a greater liability for the Supreme Leader in his
constant attempts to balance the various power centers in Iran.
Ahmadinejad, however, is cleverly staying close enough to
Palizdar and Shahbazi to burnish his anti-corruption credentials
with the populace, but far enough away should they be taken
down. It is still too soon to predict the fate of Ahmadinejad
in the tumultuous Iranian political landscape.
ASGARD