Page:Documents from the Den of Espionage.djvu/32

 CONSULATE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION

Participants:BGen. Mostafa Moastafai, Chief of Police, Isfahan BGen, Abolfazl Taghavi, Chief of SAVAK, Isfahan -- Col. FNU Darabi, Chief-of-Staff, Martial Law Admin, InF. David C. McGaffey, Consul Isfahan

Date & Place: Subject:

Gen. Mostafai has been seriously ill, and I visited his home with flowers to wish him well, and found Gen. Taghavi there. During the conversation, Gen. Taghavi asked me about the extent and succes s of my program to expose all USC employees here to a briefing on personal security. i informed him that it had been partially successful, and would continue. Gen. Mostafai, who has been out of touch, asked him why he was particularly concerned now. Gen. Taghavi looked embarassed, than said he was saying this unoficially, between friends, and would not want it repeated to Martial law in minimizing public demonstrations may be driving individuals and small groups underground. After a long lecture on the "communist menace", especially involving the known terrorist groups, he admitted he had no evidence to show links between those groups and the people he was concerned with now, but he feared their tactics would be similar, and that they would quickly combine forces, sharing expertise, weapons, and training. He explained that, deprived of the release of public demonstrations, some extremists had been heard talking of assasination. He complained of his inability to get the Governor-General, Mr. Haghdan, to take precautions, and stated that he and other senior officials were taking extra security precautions. (This explained his previous calls to me about my security). He was now somewhat fearful that the extremists, not finding Iranian targets, could target Americans, who, he complained, still ignore routine precautions. He has nothing to indicate any threat, except his own fears, and his collegues on the Isfahan Security Committee disagree with his threat assessment, but his fears remain. I promised I would do what I could, without revealing him as a source, to remind Americans of the necessity of personal security precautions, but shared with him some pessimism about the effectiveness of my warnings.

Note: Gen. Taghavi has never before shared his thoughts with me, holding himself to a discussion of firmly established facts. In