Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence Crafting a James Bond-style Story

Investigated and Compiled by: Amir Farshad Ebrahimi and Meraj Rasoolof

On January 10, 2010 Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence circulated an announcement in the newspapers claiming to have identified the real causes for the attack against Dr. Masoud Ali Mohammadi (the Iranian nuclear expert assassinated last year) and thus having made arrests. After this announcement, the Iranian state television news aired statements made by an individual identified as Majid Jamali Fashi. During the initial broadcasts which had a picture of him and the bomb scene, he stated that:

“It was about three years ago when I travelled to Istanbul for the second time, and there I came to know a person by the name of Radpour who suggested me to go to the consulate. Since I was enthusiastic, we both went to the consulate. We did some official paperwork and entered a room, but then we were separated. They asked me a number of questions and then gave me some identification papers and [papers] on how to cooperate with them.”

And this was his first communication with the Mossad.  In Iran’s latest propaganda move, a forty minute documentary called “Red Windows” was aired again in the news channel. The title refers to a laptop with a secure “Red Windows” installed which Jamali claims that the Mossad provided him:

“This laptop from the outside looked like an ordinary laptop which everyone carried, and if anyone saw they would not have realized that it actually had two Windows XP programs; one of them had a secure sign-in in which you had to pass through a series of steps in order to reach the real Windows called the ‘Red Windows’.”

The “Red Windows” documentary was based upon previous statements, but then important facts were gradually deleted. In this documentary, many of the countries and cities which Jamali mentioned as places where he met with the Mossad were erased, so that he only mentions Israel. Furthermore, the producers of this documentary explicitly list the four main goals they have in mind. The documentary begins by linking one reason for [Mohammadi’s] assassination to the post-election events:

“The post-election strife formed this vacuum and made the job easier for the Mossad and the CIA.”

Likewise, Iran’s security and intelligence power was apotheosized many times throughout the documentary in that it has been able to “deeply infiltrate the Mossad Intelligence Agency” and acquire valuable information—that all such moves were constructed and executed with “domestic and national” technology.  In this respect, Jamali mentions many times that the Mossad were really scared of Iran’s intelligence:

It was obvious that they feared Iran’s security apparatus. For them, everything must definitely go well as they were examining every little detail. They heavily emphasized that because they were very scared of Iran, whatever they said must be done. Their fear was apparent.”

Who is Majid Jamali Fashi?

But who is this suspect who today simply sits in front of the camera, talking about the many accusations against himself which will punish and eventually put him to death? Majid Jamali Fashi (who for unclear reasons referred to in Iran’s newspapers as “Jamali Fash”) was born on 8/3/1982 in Urumiyeh and is a resident of Tehran. He only has a secondary school education and after failing twice the pre-college examinations, he left school altogether in order to play his favorite sport.  From 2002 to 2008, Jamali worked at a Tehran Pars sports club called “Shayestegan” as a kickboxing coach. Jamali was one of the national and international kickboxing champions participating in many national and international competitions, most recently at the June 2009 Azerbaijan International Games.

Jamali won third place at the Baku Games and returned to Iran. In July 2009, the Iran Boxing Federation asked him to help the IRGC Basij which wanted to set up a martial arts gym. For personal and financial reasons, Jamali did not reach an agreement and backed away from consenting to this collaboration with the IRGC. His refusal opened a Pandora’s Box of problems, to the point where the Federation barred him from working and forbade him to continue his job at the Shayestegan sports club.

During his last trip to Baku, Jamali apparently received a number of job proposals. When he saw that it wasn’t just possible to continue his life and job [in Iran], in August 2009 Jamali went to Azerbaijan where he became a coach at a Baku sports club. It was that time when his wife (still in Iran) told him about the summons issued by the judiciary. Since the reason for the summons and the charges were not clear, Jamali did not return to Iran. Following such hassle (the last one being Revolutionary Prosecution agents showing up at his residence), Jamali abandoned the idea of returning to Iran altogether. He applied for a visa at the American embassy in Baku but did not succeed.

After his visa application got rejected, Jamali went to the American embassy again. Taking into account all his problems, he applied for asylum. The American Embassy’s report #BAKU68709 to the State Department (which Wikileaks has published) deals with one of these visits as follows:

A martial arts coach (apparently an Azerbaijani) said at the American Embassy in Baku that the Iranian sports clubs and their directors placed him under heavy pressure on behalf of the Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC—that in addition to training the IRGC forces in the martial arts, he must also directly participate in the crackdown on the people’s protests and in political assassinations at the government’s orders.”

 

Since Jamali felt hopeless in getting the visa in Azerbaijan and could not find a proper home, he was forced to go to Turkey. It was very difficult for us to find Jamali in Turkey, and when finally we found a man named “B. Kamali” (an Iranian merchant from Urumiyeh) he became very frightened and apprehensive about revealing his name. Jamali stated that in January 2010 he got to know Kamali in Istanbul and stayed at his home for one month.

During Dr. Alimohammadi’s Assasination, Majid Jamali Fashi was in Turkey!

 

What is clear from “B. Kamali’s” statements is that little before the end of February 2010 Majid Jamali had been in Istanbul, exactly when Dr. Masoud Alimohammadi was assassinated! Of course, he revealed to us that he had a friend named “Mohsen Radpour” and he came to their residence twice.

Jamali in his confessions presented Radpour as follows:

“There (in Istanbul) I came to know a person named Radpour who had suggested going to the consulate and since I was enthusiastic we went to the consulate together.”

Setting aside all the made-up stories, “Kamali” points out that after the second meeting with Radpour at his home, Jamali left some days later and chose to stay at an Istanbul hotel called “Hotel Armanda” and did not see him again.  In our investigation at Hotel Armanda, it was shown that an Iranian named “Majid Fesh” stayed there from 19-27 February 2010.

In order to find a trace of Jamali, we even went to the UN High Commission for Refugees in Ankara and strangely they did not answer us—meaning neither did they confirm nor deny that that this individual visited them! But an Iranian lawyer who has lived Ankara for several years and works in immigration affairs (and he too wanted to remain anonymous) confirmed that:

“Jamali asked him to become his lawyer for getting a U.S. visa or a European visa. The aforementioned lawyer tells Jamali that since he recently was rejected by the American embassy he must wait and apply again.” (He said that this visit happened around mid-March.)

 

We couldn’t find any more trace or news of him in Turkey. Since Majid Jamali Fashi became discouraged after trying every way to move to another country, and given that any Iranian can stay up to three months in Turkey, he probably returned to Iran after his legal residency permit expired.

Contradictions in Jamali’s Confession

In a part of his confession, he said that he went to Israel:

“We flew from Istanbul to Tel Aviv, and when we arrived it was indicated on my passport that I was an Israeli national.”

 

Shajar Katzman is an advisor at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and told us that:

“I’m not going to deny Israel’s power and influence, but based upon my 25-year experience at the Foreign Ministry I never saw the Mossad issuing an Israeli passport to a spy or any foreigner even for a one-day trip. Definitely doing that is considered a big crime and offensive in Israel.”

In another part of his confession, Jamali claims that he entered a training camp:

“The next day they said that the training session will begin, and the next morning Bahram came and the rental car was from Tel Aviv. We went to a shop to buy some stuff like water….then we left Tel Aviv and in half an hour reached a camp.

 

We left Tel Aviv, and it took half an hour driving on the Tel Aviv-Evr Shelim highway in order to reach the camp. I think it was next to the Tel Aviv-Evr Shelim highway. After crossing a bridge we entered the camp itself. We walked along the fence for three or four kilometers, they had put up fences as far as you could see.”

 

Setting aside the fact that it doesn’t take half an hour to buy stuff like water, and that basically the Mossad agents would not use a “rental car/taxi” to go to a secret training camp, the details of the route which Jamali describes (from Hertzliya to the Mossad training camp) is contradictory. Israeli newspapers, as they are familiar with the area, deny the existence of such an area and camp.

Ilya Chen, a public relations director at the Israeli Defense Ministry told us that:

 

“Not only we don’t have such a camp according to what this individual said, but also throughout that route there is only one suspended bridge where there is an orange grove and a parking lot for old cars close to it. In addition, there are also other inconsistencies in his claims. For example, he says that he received open-air training in archery but from 2005 until now no armed force can use its weapons in such a manner. All archery training fields have been closed down. The use of weapons for training the military, police, and even Mossad is only permitted in secure and closed-roof compounds reserved for archery, not as stated by this individual in a field at the end of this camp.”

We also see other contradictions in Jamali’s statements:

In a penholder contained a passport, an identification card, a card indicating the end of service, and a driver’s license with the name Mehdi Vali and my picture, and pictures that they had taken of me before.”

Instead if the Mossad was able to provide him armed vehicles, bombs, a house, and an armory in Tehran, undoubtedly it was also able to give him these documents in Tehran and not in Israel. It would have been certainly dangerous for him to carry these false documents when entering Iran as he would have been questioned by airport authorities!

The most appalling contradiction in his statement is where he talks about the assassination:

“It was 4am when I woke up I checked my laptop again as they advised me to check for messages. They said that if there were no messages, I must put on warm and comfortable clothes as planned in order to drive smoothly. According to security conditions, I left the phones at home and used a taxi.”

 

The question is that if he “following orders” on the day of the assassination left his phones at home as a precaution, and started to carry out his mission, then how did he talk with his superiors on the day of assassination? For when first describing the mission for that day, he said that he left his phones at home:

“While going to Shariati Avenue, and the end of Saba Avenue in front of the electricity company at the point where there was the phone number of the coffee shop, I made the first call and said that I was ready and had arrived at the place. Since satellite phones were not secure and could not talk easily, they had provided codes for the satellite phone.”

 

In order to make Jamali a lesson for others about collaborating with the Mossad and how it does not keep its promise, Jamali states that:

“They only gave half of the $50,000 reward which they had set aside for me….I really don’t know why they took half of it for themselves?”

 

Now Majid Jamali Fashi’s confessions have been aired, and we cannot find anyone who believes what he says—because whatever he says [in the video] looks more like something from a James Bond or some other Hollywood movie about how Iranian intelligence infiltrated the Mossad, with all the intensive training and the so-called laptop with the “Red Windows”! Currently he is in prison and all we can do is to simply wait for the news which undoubtedly would be of his execution. The more we investigate the more we find inconsistencies. Whether the Mossad, the Islamic Republic, individual, organization or group caused this assassination is not clear, but certainly Majid Jamali Fashi didn’t do it.

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