SAVAK

Uncommon card · No. 114969

The Bureau for Intelligence and Security of the State, shortened to SAVAK or S.A.V.A.K., was the intelligence agency and secret police of the Imperial State of Iran from 1957 to 1979. SAVAK was established in Tehran in 1957 by national security law. The French intelligence service, the SDECE, assisted in establishing and training SAVAK during its formative years in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. French instructors provided courses in surveillance, counter-subversion, interrogation techniques, and political intelligence gathering – expertise refined during the Algerian War. According to a declassified CIA memo citing a classified U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee report, the CIA played a significant role in establishing SAVAK, providing both funding and training. The organization became notorious for its extensive surveillance, repression, and torture of political dissidents. The Shah used SAVAK to arrest, imprison, exile, and torture his opponents, leading to widespread public resentment...

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