CIA AND DEA BETRAY IRANIAN COLLABORATOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100310001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: November 22, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100310001-7
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BETRAY IRANIAN
COLLABORATOR..
They're used to national security cases
at the old Federal courthouse in Alexan-
dria, Virgir,a. Federal prosecutors make
certain that cases at all offensive to the
CIA end up here, conveniently close to
Company HQ in nearby McLean. But in
April 1980, there was a drug case tried
here that was considered bizarre even in
Alexandria. Not much of a defense was put
up for the three Iranians on trial, and it
ended in a much celebrated conviction by
the Drug Enforcement Agency. But it was
a hollow victory for the DEA. The trial of
Shahrohk Bakhtiar and two co-defendants
wasn't really a heroin trial. It was the end
of a botched intelligence operation.
. Bakhtiar, a well-connected Iranian im-
migrant, was accused of smuggling more
than $50 million dollars worth of heroin
into the United States. He did just that,and
he went to prison for it. But that isn't the
real story. His purpose, be told friends,
was to use these funds to overthrow the
Khomeini regime in Iran. Instead of pulling
off the coup in his homeland, Bakhtiar, 41,
found himself behind bars, a victim of a
DEA entrapment operation, abandoned by
the intelligence agency that recruited him.
His story was pieced together from de-
tails obtained from Federal wiretap logs
and interviews with intelligence officials
and participants in the case. In early 1979,
we found, present and former CIA men ap-
proached Bakhtiar and asked him to refrain
from filing a lawsuit against top CIA offi-
cials and the fallen Shah for the assassina-
tion of Bakhtiar's father, the powerful
director of SAVAK, the royal govern-
ment's secret police organization, until his
death was ordered by the Shah in 1973. In
exchange, Bakhtiar was told that if he as-
sisted the CIA in helping his cousin, former
Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar, to
THE REBEL
22 November 1983
By Joe Trento
i
ANn
overthrow Khomeini, the CIA would see
that he got his share of his late father's half
billion-dollar estate, which had been tied
up in Swiss bank accounts.
CIA officials told Bakhtiar that a timid
Jimmy Carter would never allow the spy
agency to finance such a coup, but if Bakh-
tiar was willing to travel to Iran to tap into
the heroin resources of his family, the
agency could provide him with a "safe"
buyer to raise the money. Bakhtiar's
friends warned him that the scheme might
be a trap to silence him, but he ignored
their admonitions.
Donald E. Deneselya, a former CIA offi-
cer, told me that his friend Bakhtiar was
"set up." He said Bakbtiar became con-
vinced, in his dealings with SAVAK agents
in the United States, that the Shah had
betrayed his father on the advice of top
CIA officials-including former CIA direc-
tor Richard Helms-whom he believed
were loyal family friends. When he decided
to. sue the CIA for its role in his father's
death; he threatened to reveal "all kinds of
things about CIA activities in Iran during
the Shah's regime."
Deneselya claims that Bakhtiar inadver-
tently tipped off Helms and his former CIA
colleagues that he was thinking about legal
action when he approached Helms' lawyer,
Edward Bennett Williams, about taking on
the - case. Soon afterward, according to
Deneselya, family "friends" began telling
him that they'd help him get his share of
his father's estate if he'd agree to drop the
lawsuit. By the late summer of 1979,
Bakhtiar was meeting directly with CIA
contacts on the deal to import heroin to
help overthrow the revolutionary regime
and install his cousin Shahpour in power.
But Denese)ya said he could offer no
proof of his charges because telephone re-
cords that showed which CIA officials had
contacted Bakhtiar during the last months
in 1979 had been kept secret by the DEA.
This reporter has obtained those tele-
phone logs. They list the names of con-
gressmen and intelligence officials who the.hook." says 2 friend "HP k m fool." D
Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000100310001-7
STAT
called Bakhtiar during the period when the .
heroin traffickers were under DEA
investigation.
The registers show that calls were made
to Bakhtiar from the private lines.of Cali-
fornia Representative Don Edwards (D-
Ca.) Representative Timothy Wirth
(D-Colo.) and Congressional Delegate Wal-
ter Fauntroy, (D-Washington, D.C.). All
three say they could remember making no
such calls.
The register also reveals that at 11:11
p.m. on December 23, 1979, former CIA
Director and Ambassador to Iran Richard
M. Helms called Bakhtiar from his home
number during the narcotics probe and
surveillance that led to his arrest. Helms, -
of course, denies that either he or his wife
ever called Bakhtiar.
Other intelligence officials listed on the
pen register agreed to talk on the condition
they not be identified. They confirm they
had discussed a possible coup in Iran with
Bakhtiar.
. It was soon afterward, according to
court records, that Bakhtiar was intro-
duced to a Kenny Feldman as a Mafia buy-
er for the heroin. The records show that
Feldman, who was and is an undercover
agent for the DEA, promised Bakhtiar that,
he could handle all Bakhtiar could bring in,
and supplied him with $36,000 in Agency
funds for heroin samples and travel funds.
Bakhtiar says he picked up and brought
back more than 22 kilos, about 45 pounds,
from his contacts in Iran. Court records
show that Feldman insisted he be supplied
with higher and higher grades of pure her-
oin. When the purity reached 78 percent, a
level that brings additional criminal penali-
ties, Feldman made the arrests.
Since his conviction and imprisonment
in the Petersburg, Virginia Federal Cor-
rectional Center, Bakhtiar has remained
steadfastly silent about the entire case. He
faces three more years incarcerati on be-
fore he can be considered for parole. "He
still believes his CIA friends will get him off