{"id":260613,"date":"2022-06-29T22:32:01","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T20:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=260613"},"modified":"2023-02-05T19:48:50","modified_gmt":"2023-02-05T18:48:50","slug":"who-is-hossein-taeb-recently-booted-from-irans-irgc-intelligence-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/anews\/who-is-who\/who-is-hossein-taeb-recently-booted-from-irans-irgc-intelligence-unit\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Is Hossein Taeb, Recently Booted From Iran\u2019s IRGC Intelligence Organization?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"hossein-taeb-ghassem-soleimani-iran\"
Hossein Taeb (middle) standing next to the slain IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani (left) during a mourning ceremony<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last week, the Iranian regime sacked Hossein Taeb<\/a>, the longstanding intelligence chief of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and a confidant of the mullahs\u2019 supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and his son Mojtaba.<\/p>\n

Taeb, a notorious criminal, was removed from his post after 13 years, shortly after several assassinations of the IRGC\u2019s commanders inside Iran and hundreds of operations by the Iranian Resistance aimed at dismantling the regime\u2019s oppressive apparatus, such as the recent takedown of Tehran\u2019s municipality<\/a> and the city\u2019s CCTVs.<\/p>\n

The news of Taeb\u2019s dismissal was a bombshell as it revealed the depth of the regime\u2019s internal crisis. He was considered \u201cuntouchable\u201d due to his close relations with Khamenei and his role in oppressing dissidents. But who is Hossein Taeb?<\/p>\n

Taeb\u2019s Early Life and his role in the IRGC <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"hossein-taeb-war-iran\"
Hossein Taeb during the Iran-Iraq war<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Taeb was born in 1963 in Tehran. He joined the IRGC soon after the 1979 revolution. As an IRGC member, Taeb played a key role in the 1980s in hunting, torturing, and killing Iranian dissidents, mainly members and supporters of the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization<\/a> of Iran (PMOI\/MEK). Taeb climbed the ladder in the IRGC due to his cruelty and was appointed as the intelligence chief of the IRGC\u2019s first brigade, known as \u201cThar-Allah.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the Iran-Iraq war, Taeb was the IRGC\u2019s \u201cHabib Battalion\u201d commander and served with Mojtaba Khamenei. Members of this battalion occupied top posts in the regime when Ali Khamenei became the supreme leader. Some of these figures<\/a> include Mehdi Taeb, head of Amar HQ, which consists of Khamenei\u2019s most loyal plainclothes mercenaries; Hossein Taeb, former head of the IRGC\u2019s Intelligence; Hassan Mohagheg, a top IRGC commander, and IRGC brigadier general Mohammad Esmail Kothari, director of the \u201cThar-Allah HQ\u201d in Tehran, which is responsible for oppressing protests in the capital.<\/p>\n

Hossein Taeb, A Security Figure<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1988, the regime\u2019s then-supreme leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, had to accept a ceasefire under domestic and international pressure. He managed to save his regime by massacring over 30,000 political<\/a> prisoners, mostly MEK members. Taeb, among other regime officials, also participated in the mass killings.<\/p>\n

The unpatriotic Iran-Iraq war was a profitable business for IRGC commanders such as Taeb. So, when it ended, these thugs, who knew nothing but murder, started dominating Iran\u2019s economic and social affairs.<\/p>\n

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, then-president of the regime, appointed Taeb as the head of the \u201canti-espionage\u201d deputy of the regime\u2019s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). Taeb played a key role in the 1990s \u201cchain murders\u201d under Ali Fallahian, then Minister of Intelligence. During that episode, the MOIS agents abducted, tortured, and mutilated dozens of Iranian intellectuals inside and outside the country.<\/p>\n

Taeb played a significant role in the targeting of Iranian dissidents abroad, including the assassination of<\/a> the MEK members Akbar Ghorbani and Zahra Rajabi in Turkey.<\/p>\n

Taeb\u2019s expertise was in forming cases against the regime\u2019s opponents and sometimes regime officials. During his years in the MOIS, Taeb churned out many false claims against the MEK.<\/p>\n

\"iran-explosion-imam-reza-shrine\"<\/p>\n

In 1994, hundreds of pilgrims were killed and injured during the bombing of Imam Reza<\/a>\u2019s shrine in the northeastern city of Mashhad. The regime carried out the bombing but blamed it on the MEK \u00a0to demonize the group inside Iran and label it as a terrorist organization, demanding western countries put pressure on them.<\/p>\n

To implement the MOIS\u2019s objective, Taeb, working closely with the former Intelligence Ministry deputy Saeed Emami, used a prisoner, Mehdi Nahvi. Nahvi, was tortured into accepting he had participated in the bombing. Nahvi was later apparently released in the Tehranpars district of Tehran but was surrounded and gunned down to wipe out any evidence.<\/p>\n

Akbar Ganji<\/a>, one of the MOIS\u2019s then-top officials, acknowledged how Taeb used Nahvi and presented him as a MEK member and the bombing\u2019s mastermind, while Nahvi had been arrested years before.<\/p>\n

Taeb and Emami also planned and ordered the horrific killing of three Iranian priests and later staged a show to blame the MEK for it.<\/p>\n

Mehdi Khazali, a former top official, later acknowledged how the MOIS mutilated the priests and framed the MEK members under Taeb\u2019s supervision.<\/p>\n

\"Christian-leaders-killed-by-Iranian-regime\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MOIS arrested three girls and were forced to frame these three priests for converting Muslims to Christians. When they accepted, the [mercenaries] killed all three priests<\/a> and mutilated them before the girls\u2019 eyes. They asked these poor ladies to do an interview confessing they killed these priests at the behest of the MEK,\u201d Khazali acknowledged this fact in a conference in 2016, amid the regime\u2019s infightings.<\/p>\n

But was goes around comes around, and one case ended Taeb\u2019s career in the MOIS.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of the 1990s, Taeb decided to form a case against Rafsanjani\u2019s son, framing him for espionage, to put pressure on his father amid the regime\u2019s increasing infightings. He arrested Abbas Yazdan Panah Yazdi<\/a>, an Iranian-British businessman who was in contact with Mehdi Rafsanjani. The MOIS agents extracted a forced confession from Yazdi under torture.<\/p>\n

The state-run Tasnim News Agency, linked to the IRGC\u2019s Quds Force, published Yazdi\u2019s confession in 2015, two years after he was abducted in Dubai and disappeared.<\/p>\n

Taeb\u2019s action infuriated Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who fired Taeb from the MOIS and prevented him from occupying any posts for a short time.<\/p>\n

Taeb\u2019s Path to the IRGC Intelligence<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"mojtaba-khamenei\"Shortly after his dismissal from the MOIS, Mojtaba Khamenei<\/a> appointed Taeb as the deputy coordinator of Khamenei\u2019s office or \u201cBeyt.\u201d He later became the cultural deputy of the IRGC and, after three years, served as the president of the IRGC\u2019s Imam Hussain University. Mojtaba and Taeb started forming a \u201cparallel\u201d intelligence service. They laid the foundation of the IRGC\u2019s Intelligence, which later became the most powerful security apparatus in the regime. During his time in Khamenei\u2019s office, Taeb participated in oppressing the students\u2019 movement in the late 1990s, killing and arresting dozens of Iranian university students.<\/p>\n

Taeb played a crucial role in 2005 in Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s efforts to appoint Mahmoud Ahmadinejad<\/a> as the regime\u2019s president. His loyalty to Khamenei earned him the position of the commander of the IRGC\u2019s Basij paramilitary force in 2009. He was also the deputy commander of the IRGC\u2019s intelligence.<\/p>\n

Taeb and the 2009 Protests<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Protests erupted following the regime announced the results of its sham presidential elections in 2009. People poured onto the streets and, in a matter of few hours, chanted slogans against the entire regime. As then-head of Basji\u2019s militia, Taeb organized the regime\u2019s forces and launched a brutal crackdown on protesters. Dozens were killed, injured, or arrested. Among all the victims, the case of Taraneh Mousavi, a young Iranian girl, is heart-wrenching.<\/p>\n

Taraneh was arrested by the Basij forces and transferred to the \u201cThar-Allah HQ\u201d prison, where she was repeatedly raped, tortured, and then killed. According to eye-witnesses, Taeb personally raped and tortured Taraneh Mousavi<\/a>. Taraneh\u2019s body was burnt to wipe out any evidence.<\/p>\n

In response to rising protests against Taraneh Mousavi\u2019s killing, even inside the regime, Taeb also started a false-flag operation. He claimed Mousavi had left Iran and lived in Canada, but later it became evident the family he claimed Taraneh lived with were his relatives.<\/p>\n

Taeb and the IRGC Intelligence <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In September 2009, Taeb was removed from Basij and became the head of the IRGC intelligence. IRGC Intelligence Organization (IRGC-IO) became notoriously known due to its role in oppressing protesters. Following the assignation of some nuclear scientists and the MOIS\u2019s unsuccessful attempts to save its face, the IRGC-IO became more powerful, sidelining the MOIS and taking its major responsibilities. Some of these responsibilities included providing protection to the regime officials and influential figures and countering the Iranian dissidents, mainly the MEK\u2019s activists.<\/p>\n

There are three separate and independent organizations in the IRGC:<\/p>\n

1.\u200c IRGC Intelligence Organization<\/p>\n

2.1 IRGC Protection Organization<\/p>\n

3.1 IRGC Information Protection Organization or Counterintelligence<\/p>\n

All three IRGC organizations operate directly and indirectly under Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards commander. These organizations are Khamenei’s primary tools of repression and espionage.<\/p>\n

The IRGC-IO played a major role in the killings of protesters during the November 2019 uprisings. This terrorist organization has been actively engaged in the regime\u2019s terrorist attacks abroad, including its foiled bombing of the Iranian Resistance\u2019s rally<\/a> in France in 2018.<\/p>\n

While the IRGC-IO claimed it had control over everything, the first major cracks appeared in this organization when Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the father of the regime\u2019s nuclear-weapons program, was assassinated<\/a> in broad daylight near Tehran.\u00a0 Fakhrizadeh\u2019s assassination was followed by several more assassinations of the IRGC top aerospace commanders and nuclear program scientists.\u00a0 These assassinations, coupled with the sabotage of the regime\u2019s nuclear sites, caused a lot of stir in the mullahs, leading to Taeb\u2019s dismissal.<\/p>\n

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#Iran<\/a>: More than 5,000 Tehran municipality surveillance cameras compromised by Iranian opposition PMOI\/MEK Resistance Units inside the country#FreeIran2022<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/YNfwelscVt<\/a><\/p>\n

— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) June 3, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n