Word: savak
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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What happened to the Shah's once very real support? Sums up a senior American businessman with many years' experience in Iran: "He lost contact with the peasants. He lost control of inflation. He lost contact with the mullahs. He lost control of SAVAK [the secret police]. He lost control of his own family and all the outrageous deals they made for personal profit. All he had left was the army...
...overthrown in a 1953 CIA-backed coup that restored the Shah to his throne. Bakhtiar has long been an outspoken opponent of the Shah. He spent two years in prison for his activities with the opposition National Front. Only 18 months ago, he was beaten up by agents of SAVAK, Iran's secret police. He is commonly regarded as being a staunch anti-Communist and a politician untainted by corruption...
...violence began when protesters, engaged in a mass rally, began destroying downtown banks and public buildings, including the headquarters of SAVAK, the Iranian secret police...
Among them were 700 who have been arrested since Nov. 6, when the military took over the country. Contrary to earlier government pledges, the fact finders said, prisoners were still subjected to psychological torture by SAVAK, Iran's secret police (though physical torture had apparently stopped...
...practices as hanging women prisoners naked from the ceiling and burning them with cigarettes. So shocking were the disclosures that newly appointed Justice Minister Hussein Najafi immediately promised the release of Iran's remaining political prisoners, believed to number about 1,000. In addition, 34 top officials of SAVAK were dismissed...