Guards Corps' generals and Intelligence Ministry officials hold top posts in most Iranian press

In its latest issue, the weekly Mojahed, official organ of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, published the names of 25 editors and managers of major state controlled media who in the past 19 years have been among Revolutionary Guards commanders, religious judges, and members of the notorious secret police, VEVAK, or involved in the torture and execution of political prisoners.

Most of these editors head pro-Khatami newspapers. A number of the more well-known individuals are as follows:

Fereidoon Verdinejad, head of the official news agency, IRNA, is a Guards Corps Brigadier General;
Hamid Jalai-pour, managing editor of Jame'eh daily (now banned), was the secretary for Kurdistan province's security council and commander of Guards Corps forces in Naqadeh, northwest Iran;
Mohsen Sazgaran, Director General of Jame'eh, is a GC Brig. Gen.;
Mullah Mohammad Moussavi Kho'einiha, managing editor of Salaam daily, was the Revolutionary Prosecutor in the 1980s and responsible for the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988;
Abbas Abdi, editor of Salaam daily, is an ex-hostage-taker and deputy to the Revolutionary Prosecutor in the 1980s;
Ali Rabi'i, editor of Kar-o Kargar daily, head of the Guards Corps' Intelligence Department, Deputy Minister of Intelligence until 1994, and current executive secretary for the Supreme National Security Council;
Mohammad Soltanifar, managing editor of Iran News daily, was head of the Guards Corps' para-military Bassij force in Tehran province;
Mohsen Armin, editor in chief of Asr-e ma weekly, was member of the Guards Corps' general command in Lebanon and personally based in that country;
Ali Mohammad Mahdavi, manager for Gozaresh-e Rouz (banned), was one of GC's intelligence commanders until 1985;
Hossein Shari'atmadari, editor of Kayhan; Massih Mohajeri, managing editor of Jomhouri Islami; and Mehdi Nassiri, manager of Sobh weekly, are former commanders of the Guards Corps. All three publications are pro-Khamenei. Ali Larijani, head of the state radio and television organization, was also a GC Brigadier General and a GC commander.

This list shows that claims about an opening in the media and respect for freedom of expression during Khatami's tenure are but propaganda by some Western circles who aim to legitimize dealings and trade with the mullahs' religious, terrorist dictatorship.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 17, 1998

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