Word: tahmassebi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...iron gates of Teheran prison opened one chilly afternoon last week and out stepped a killer, bearded fanatic Khalil Tahmassebi. Nearly two years ago he murdered Ali Razmara, Iran's ablest postwar Premier, and thus started Iran down its unhappy trail. Last week Tahmassebi was a free man, pardoned by Mossadegh's subservient Majlis and captive Shah. The young assassin promptly rushed to the Hazrat Abdolazim shrine, wept joyously and said: "When I killed Razmara, I was sure that his people would kill...
...Tahmassebi's next call was on Navab Safavi, hard-working boss of the terrorist Fadayan Islam (Crusaders of Islam), which plotted Razmara's killing. Safavi was himself in jail on suspicion of murdering other moderates, but in present-day Iran that is a mark of distinction. The two wept at the reunion, and Tahmassebi said: "Thanks to God we succeeded in our task." Over fruits and sweets served in his cozy cell, Safavi boasted: "I am such a powerful man that if I decide at any time, the gates of this prison will be opened...
Even Premier Mohammed Mossadegh asked the assassin to call. However, the wily old Premier refused to pose with Tahmassebi and barred photographers from the meeting...
...London and Washington exchanged thousands of words on the subject, Iran continued to go steadily into the hands of the extremists. In Teheran, with the galleries screaming approval, the Majlis voted a full pardon to bearded Khalil Tahmassebi, the nationalist fanatic who murdered moderate, pro-Western Premier Ali Razmara in March 1951. Then, to the second most powerful post in Iran, president of the Majlis, it elected the Mullah Ayatullah Kashani, spiritual chief of the assassins. Extremist Kashani arranged the Nationalist-Red alliance that battered Qavam out of power and brought Mossadegh back (TIME, Aug. 4). He still fancies himself...
Fine Impartiality. Assassin Tahmassebi is a carpenter, a reader of the Koran in the mosque, a member of a small xenophobic sect called Fadayan Islam (Crusaders of Islam) which, with fine impartiality, has been denouncing Truman, Stalin and Britain's George VI. Washington and London, which were shocked and worried by Razmara's murder, regarded Tahmassebi as a mere triggerman; the real instigator was assumed to be Ayatulla Kashani, head of Fadayan Islam and a member of a twelve-man "National Front" in the Majlis (parliament...