IRAN: PURGES DECIMATE BUREAUCRACIES AND MILITARY UNITS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81B00401R000500110017-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2003
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: August 28, 1980
• Content Type: REPORT

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State MoApewsMArr~elease 2003/10/071 CIA-RDP81 B00401 R000500110017-0
BUREAU OF INTELLTGF.NCE AND RESEARCH ANALYSIS: `August 26, 1980
1. 'IRAN: PURGES DECIMATE BUREAUCRACIES AND MILITARY t3NITS
Recent purges have left the government bureaucracies and
military establishments with few,.. if any,competent
administrators. The prognosis is for administrative chaos for
at least months to.come. In this atmosphere, the decentralized
revolutionary institutions (i.e., the komitehs) ? provide the only
functioning organizations capable of meeting minimal social needs.
The original purge after the Shah's fall sought to rid the
ministries. of senior-level holdovers from the former regime and
to provide-the revolutionary faithful with jobs. This was accom-
plished rather-quickly.
The second wave of purges began last month after a series of
Khomeini speeches. Lower-level individuals who had been part of
the Shah's bureaucracy, those with Western training, or those who
were deemed to lack full Revolutionary fervor have been retired
or fired on an. increasingly large scale since then.
The repercussions in the Foreign Ministry have received the
most attention, but the same pattern has been repeated throughout
the government. In a statement to the Mt 1i---s, Foreign Minister
Ghobtzadeh reported that 68 percent of Ministry of Foreign
Affairs' 7-010 es were purged in approximately a month,
leavers an
average of three diplomats to man eacn rseas
embassies.
There is some evidence that a few of the fundamentalists
are becoming uncomfortable with the depth of the purges.
Ayatollah Montazeri recently warned that the country needed
medical specialists and that they should not be purged just
because they possessed a "momento from the past." The sheer
momentum of the purges, however, will make it difficult to bring
them under control. Moreover,, the extremists can always slander
any opposition with the charge of deviating from the Imam's path.
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Approved For Release 2003/10/07 : CIA-RDP81B00401 R000500110017-0