(credit: WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY/REUTERS) Its predecessor, the shah’s SAVAK, was disbanded on the eve of Khomeini’s return to Iran. Yet Khomeini in exile had been insightful enough to cultivate ...

An Iranian intelligence organization for the Shah, founded in 1957 with CIA assistance. Its primary purpose was to eliminate threats to the Shah. SAVAK's tactics included censorship, torture ...

Before the 1979 revolt, he was arrested by SAVAK (the National Security Agency of Iran during the reign of the late, and patriotic Shah of Iran) due to terrorist activity in an Islamic group.