The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran by David Crist Page A
Authors: David Crist
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officers who accepted the American pitch was Captain Touradj Riahi. Highly regarded by fellow Iranian officers, Riahi rose rapidly to command a squadron of American-made minesweeping helicopters. Fluent in English, fair skinned with light brown hair and a matching mustache, Captain Riahi, like many secular officers, felt no affinity for the new religious government. He was fond of the United States and had relatives in Hawaii. Aspects of the Western lifestyle embraced by Riahi were not acceptable under Ayatollah Khomeini’s rule. The captain made wine in his basement. He and his wife entertained and played cards as the alcohol flowed freely, with even his daughter allowed to sample occasionally. 14
In the winter of 1985, Captain Riahi traveled to Ankara, Turkey, seeking a U.S. visa for his son to live with an aunt in Hawaii. This was not an easy proposition for an Iranian military officer. But his son was two years away from mandatory military service, and Captain Riahi wished to save him from becoming one more martyr in the war with Iraq. Five years of war and revolution had brought only ruin, he believed. While he remained an ardent nationalist, he felt growing disdain for the governing clergy, whom he thought were intent on taking Iran back from modernity. While it was painful to send his son away, Riahi believed the United States offered him and his family the best future.
Captain Riahi made his way to the sprawling American embassy off a bustling divided highway named Ataturk Boulevard. He submitted passport photos and filled out a detailed visa application. A few days later, heinterviewed with an American Foreign Service officer and at one point met with an embassy employee who introduced himself only as “Parker.” Pleasant and nondescript, Parker offered to cut through the red tape and speedily stamp his son’s visa request. It could be done quickly enough through the West German embassy, he told the Iranian captain. In return, though, Parker wanted information on the Iranian military.
Captain Riahi agreed to Parker’s terms out of both pragmatism and idealism. “He was a good man but naive when it came to the harsh reality of espionage,” a close friend, Commander Said Zanganeh, recalled later. “He thought they [CIA] would take care of him.” 15
Using a false passport, Riahi flew with a CIA officer to Frankfurt, Germany, where he underwent a standard lie detector test to ensure he was not a double agent for Iranian intelligence. While his son’s visa was being arranged, the CIA trained him on how to communicate with his handlers. Thus Captain Riahi officially became a U.S. intelligence agent, or, as an Iranian commentator later put it, one of those “who had sold their faith and honor for the CIA’s deceptive glamour.” 16
The CIA recruited at least five naval officers. 17 One of the agency’s most valuable trophies was a close friend of Riahi’s, Commodore Kanoush Hakimi, who’d played a key role in negotiating many of Iran’s sensitive arms agreements. His major success had been the purchase of powerful Chinese Silkworm antiship missiles that would enable Iran to control the Strait of Hormuz by threatening ships navigating this choke point for the world’s oil. 18
I n addition to the military officers, the CIA recruited a diverse group of civilians. This included a lawyer in the Iranian foreign ministry, local government officials, an engineer employed at a chemical factory—all with access to the broad range of information needed by American intelligence. 19 The CIA even managed to penetrate Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard. Among those recruited from the Revolutionary Guard, divisions existed, despite their overt loyalty to the state. Some were young idealists who’d joined the revolution and then rebelled against the oppressive republic that emerged. Others simply wanted a better life in America.
One of those recruited was a Revolutionary Guard official known by
In the winter of 1985, Captain Riahi traveled to Ankara, Turkey, seeking a U.S. visa for his son to live with an aunt in Hawaii. This was not an easy proposition for an Iranian military officer. But his son was two years away from mandatory military service, and Captain Riahi wished to save him from becoming one more martyr in the war with Iraq. Five years of war and revolution had brought only ruin, he believed. While he remained an ardent nationalist, he felt growing disdain for the governing clergy, whom he thought were intent on taking Iran back from modernity. While it was painful to send his son away, Riahi believed the United States offered him and his family the best future.
Captain Riahi made his way to the sprawling American embassy off a bustling divided highway named Ataturk Boulevard. He submitted passport photos and filled out a detailed visa application. A few days later, heinterviewed with an American Foreign Service officer and at one point met with an embassy employee who introduced himself only as “Parker.” Pleasant and nondescript, Parker offered to cut through the red tape and speedily stamp his son’s visa request. It could be done quickly enough through the West German embassy, he told the Iranian captain. In return, though, Parker wanted information on the Iranian military.
Captain Riahi agreed to Parker’s terms out of both pragmatism and idealism. “He was a good man but naive when it came to the harsh reality of espionage,” a close friend, Commander Said Zanganeh, recalled later. “He thought they [CIA] would take care of him.” 15
Using a false passport, Riahi flew with a CIA officer to Frankfurt, Germany, where he underwent a standard lie detector test to ensure he was not a double agent for Iranian intelligence. While his son’s visa was being arranged, the CIA trained him on how to communicate with his handlers. Thus Captain Riahi officially became a U.S. intelligence agent, or, as an Iranian commentator later put it, one of those “who had sold their faith and honor for the CIA’s deceptive glamour.” 16
The CIA recruited at least five naval officers. 17 One of the agency’s most valuable trophies was a close friend of Riahi’s, Commodore Kanoush Hakimi, who’d played a key role in negotiating many of Iran’s sensitive arms agreements. His major success had been the purchase of powerful Chinese Silkworm antiship missiles that would enable Iran to control the Strait of Hormuz by threatening ships navigating this choke point for the world’s oil. 18
I n addition to the military officers, the CIA recruited a diverse group of civilians. This included a lawyer in the Iranian foreign ministry, local government officials, an engineer employed at a chemical factory—all with access to the broad range of information needed by American intelligence. 19 The CIA even managed to penetrate Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard. Among those recruited from the Revolutionary Guard, divisions existed, despite their overt loyalty to the state. Some were young idealists who’d joined the revolution and then rebelled against the oppressive republic that emerged. Others simply wanted a better life in America.
One of those recruited was a Revolutionary Guard official known by
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