COMMENTARY

Images of dissent on the streets of Tehran, 2009. 

Enduring images on the streets of Tehran a year ago.

Unsurpassed brutality meted out on the people of Iran.

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Now a three month investigation by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative  Journalism  has penetrated the very heart of the Iran's military elite: The Revolutionary Guard: The defenders of the revolution.

These men are breaking every taboo and openly criticising the leadership.

They speak of rifts and open dissent in their ranks. They tell us how the regime was gripped by panic and nearly collapsed.

SYNC TORKAMEN:

They were terrified.  They had prepared themselves to leave the country, and flee to Syria just in case the regime was to  collapse... Khamanei’s Airbus 330 was waiting, ready to get them out of Iran…

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The Revolutionary Guard are the backbone of the Iranian Revolution. Khameini’s fighters: It is they who make the laws and enforce them.

We have gained unprecented access to recently defected high ranking officers who have now turned on the regime.

GENERAL MOHAMMAD REZA MADHI

Head of Committee To Protect The Revolution 

SYNC MADHI

I had the authority to to investigayte anyone regardless of their position whether they were president any authority within the country, head of the Judiiciary leader of the parliamant or anyone else. This  authority is given to me from the Commission Article 115 of the constitution -  meaning the highest authority in the regime.

TORKAMAN

SYNC

Yes, we were part of it and yes we cannot seperate ourselves from it. We didn't want to do it but due to the pressure we were under we were compelled to do these things but the first chance I got, I got myself out of there.

ALI, former Basij member

SYNC

I myself was a member of the Revolutionary Guard Basij unit 153, the forces knew me well and I was identified immediately.

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All these men have defected - fled the regime - now part of an international diaspora - scattered across the globe.

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The tourist delights of Cappodocia in central Turkey  - a strange place to meet a man who was at the heart of the Iranian regime.

SYNC TORKAMAN

The order to shoot at the protestors was given by Brigadier General Ahamed Vaheedi who is currently the Minister of Defence – I know this because I was in the unit of the Revolutionary Guard when the order came through.

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Up until six months ago Muhammad Hussain Torkaman was he says, a card carrying member of a Basij unit under the command of the Revolutionary Guard.

A people’s revolution - against a ‘stolen election’.

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At the time of the elections last June, he says he was inside Ayatollah Khamanei’s compound – overseeing security logistics - for the supreme leader, the President and their offices.

SYNC TORKAMEN: because of my job every five days I would meet with high ranking officials, like Mr Ahmadinejad and his ministers. I could see the fear in them all

[..]The fear and panic was obvious.

COMMENTARY

Now an asylum-seeker in Turkey, with his wife and young son, Torkaman is wary of mixing with the other Iranian exiles in the small town where they have been placed … he was after all – until just a few months ago -  a loyal son of the Regime.

He spends most of the  days on his computer – connecting with friends and trying to  forget. 

He says he left the regime in disgust. 

He told us that Ahmadinejad and Khamenei - uncertain of the loyalty of their own security forces - shipped in foreign mercenaries to bolster the regime.

SYNC TORKAMAN

The forces they had chosen to do the shooting at people were from the Quds  Force – the majority of them are Lebanese or Palestinian. They don’t speak Farsi, the Persian language. These were the ones who were given permission to open fire. 

The majority of shooting at the demonstrators was coming from snipers who’d been placed on the rooftops of high buildings. It was not COMING FROM the forces on the streets. I knew where the the snipers were, because I had the drawings of the security operations.

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These are the plans he was responsible for drawing up - showing the strategic positions of the security forces:

Blocking protestors from the presidential and Supreme Leaders offices.

Red is for the revolutionary guard

Yellow is for Khamenei’s protection unit

Green is for the plain-clothed militia. 

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But he wasn’t just confined to the President’s office. He was sent to the notorious Evin prison.

SYNC TURKEMAN

They had built places within the prisons specifically for torturing people.  There’s a basement in Evin prison where I was called in to look at the ventilation. It was extremely bad -  disease was spreading because of  prisoners’ open wounds that had been caused by torture. When I was there, there was this young women, the daughter of a martyr, whose name I prefer not to disclose as I think it would not be right,  I remember she grabbed hold of my leg and begged me to ask this man called  Yaseen, the torturer of Evin prison, to stop hurting her.

The situation is extremely bad in Iran; they claim to be a religious state, a government based on religion – well, I can say right now that God does not exist in Iran right now…

He later told me that she said she’d been raped.

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It was seeing the victims of torture first hand made him think of leaving.

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But it was scenes like these during the holy festival of Ashura in December last year that were the final straw.

Mayhem on the streets.

SYNC COL TORKAMAN

Look something very important happened during Ashura – the violence I think was very similar to what we had seen in the days after the June elections. The people were attacking all the government institutions – and the regime was once again unable to stop them; protestors were even run over by cars....

... Yes it’s true, the government was nearly overthrown on the day of Ashura – I witnessed this.

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It was after this that the real reign of Terror began.

Torkaman knew that if the regime fell he would go with it.

ASHURA GVS VIOLENCE

TORKAMAN

I was an intelligence agent and I was aware of all the confidential affairs of our leaders, so it was possible that I like former agents would be murdered. They could kill me too so there was no guarantee for my life.

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This footage was shot by Iranians at extreme risk to themselves – fed out to the world via the internet – it paints a terrifying picture of Iran over the past six months.

COMM…a country   where public hangings have become a favoured method of intimidation ….

COMM Amnesty International says there have been 115 so far this year.

COMM Despite the oppression Iranians have found new ways to voice their dissent.

These images were fed to the internet in the past few days:

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Here, as Ahmedinejad addresses a crowd, the people heckle him with one word: ‘unemployment’ .... iran’s economy is faltering..

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Even on the Iranian bank notes – they scrawl slogans of dissent

“June is the month of battle”

This one says: “Death to Khamenei”

“Khamenei is trembling with fear”

Untraceable messages expressing contempt for the regime.

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But the students are still defiant.

Holding sheets of paper they hide their faces from the cameras of the regime.

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Javad Moghimi was on the streets during those days. Now he's had to leave Iran seeking refuge in Turkey because of the photos he took.

They're stunning images but they cost him his job because he was working for the Revolutionary Guard press agency, Fars News, a tool of the State. And these were images that the regime in Iran didn't want the world to see.

SYNC

“They told us we can’t go out and take photographs. They did not issue us with permits ... they had told us not to take photographs and said that we are not going to be responsible if anything happens to you, we will not back you up and we will even testify against you and claim that you are spies.”

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He defied his boss’s orders.

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And this picture made it all the way on the Front cover of Time magazine.

Every photographers dream – but it was to be his downfall.

SYNC

I took part in a meeting with the managing director of the Fars News and all the other photojournalists. He said he knew that two photographers had sent pictures abroad and that if he found out who they were, he would deal with them severely.

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Javad fled leaving with nothing but his camera, lap top and a change of clothes.

SYNC

I was afraid of flying. I took a risk coming to the airport. The passport officer asked me which town in Turkey I was visiting? 'Ankara, I said.' Why Ankara, and not another place', he asked? 'What if I went there and never came back? 'What do you mean?' I asked, ' Of course, I'm coming back, what reason would I have for not coming back?'

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Because he took these photographs, Javad became one of 80 young journalists to have fled Iran since the demonstrations - 39 are behind bars.

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And even though Azadi Square has fallen silent – the resistance is far from over

Because now they’ve been joined by the old guard - the custodians of the revolution are turning too.

SYNC MADHI

The current members of the Revolutionary Guard are saying that they have become very disheartened – the situation is becoming unbearable.

MAHI OLD GUARD SEQUENCE

COMMENTARY

One of the best places to understand why –  is here -  in the Martyrs’ Cemetery just outside of Teheran -  this solemn place is  where the dead of the Iran/Iraq war in the 1980s lie buried.

Millions died.

For those that survived, the memory of this war and their sacrifice forms much of their thinking.

SYNC MADHI

We have given a lot of blood for the Regime; we did not expect it to end up like this

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General Mohammad Reza Madhi is one of these war veterans who rose through the ranks to become a very senior member of the Revolutionary Guard.

Up until two years ago general Madhi served in intelligence.

These are his ID cards – note the Revolutionary Guard insignia in the top right hand corner.

He later headed the powerful committee for the protection of the revolution.

It is exceptional for a man like this - with nearly 30 years loyal service – to speak out against the regime.

SYNC GEN MAHDI

I am simply acting on the promise I made to my martyred brothers and fellow warriors and the oath we  swore together…

The Regime is witnessing it's destruction. The Regime is prepared to instill fear and insecurity into the people of Iran in order to ensure it's stability. It has got to that stage, the Regime is sinking.

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Every morning he puts on his bullet proof vest – it’s a daily ritual – he is scared for his life.

General Madhi fled Iran two years ago – after falling foul of the current leadership.

Now he flits from country to country to avoid capture.

He agreed to meet us here in Bangkok.

SYNC MADHI

Ahmadinejad has no power. He is a puppet - a plaything ... he does what he’s told. No one has any belief in him - he has no power.

SKYPE ACTUALITY.

SYNC MADHI

'Hello, how are you?'

'Hi, greetings to you too.'

'I just called to see how you are.'

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Just as Iran’s young bloggers use the internet to post their messages of dissent, so the General connects to the internet – conducting a whispering campaign - with other high ranking co-conspirators in Iran - via skype....sharing intelligence and monitoring events... trying to garner support to destabilise the regime from afar.

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General Madhi told us that over a third of the Revolutionary Guard are against the regime.

There is no way of verifying his claims.

TURKEY

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But back in Turkey – we found a reluctant and frightened man – who backed up what General Madhi told us.

Across his back – he showed us the healing scars of recent torture.

But this is what they looked like just four weeks ago.

SYNC ALI

It was a small cell, the ceiling was very low, a maximum of 1 and metres, it was tiled throughout, so it was easy to clean, because there would constantly be bleeding and blood stains down there.

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But this man was no student dissenter – he was a loyal son of the regime – a Revolutionary Guard – tortured for helping the protestors.

SYNC ALI They used to pretend our loved ones had been arrested and that they were there. You could constantly hear the shouting and screams of torture.

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The regime has turned on its own.

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This revolution may have begun with the young but now the men of the Revolutionary Guard – the conservatives and custodians of the Islamic Revolution – are turning to stand alongside young men and women who are daring to take on the regime.

It’s this unholy alliance – between young and old that is posing a new threat to the survival of the Islamic Republic.

ENDS