Who Are The Iranian Revolutionary Guards?

This article was submitted last week, but had to be "embargoed" or held up from publication until today, because the author's sibling was in Iran, and there was the risk that this article would have put her at risk.

A few days ago, President Bush declared the Iranian revolutionary guards a terrorist organization. Although, I totally agree with this move, I should mention that we Iranian Americans have been disappointed by American administrations before.

One can remember when Ronald Reagan became the president of the U.S and talked about swift retribution for hostage takers, while he was the one who authorized the deal with the Hezbollah and sent a cake and a Bible to Ayatollah Khomeini. It was at that time that several Americans were taken hostage in Lebanon and Oliver North made his famous arms for hostages deal.

Who Are The Revolutionary Guards?

I had gone to Tehran for a trip in the 1980s when suddenly the war between Iran and Iraq flared up. They were calling it “War of the Cities” -- each country was bombing the heck out of the other country’s cities. I was with my family in Tehran and we decided that Tehran was not safe enough and that we should go to one of the resort cities close to the Soviet Border, knowing that the Iraqis would not dare to bomb a city close to the Soviet Union.

We got in the cars and drove out of Tehran, me, my mother, and my sisters, aunts and uncles. There was a large group of us. Everybody was intense, angry and upset and in a bad mood. We drove all day and most of the night. Around 11:00 pm, we stopped at a tea house in the middle of nowhere to get something to drink and to let the kids go to the bathroom. While we were sitting in the tea house, my back was to the door, I noticed that my sisters’ faces got pale and they began to pull their scarves on their heads. I knew something was wrong. I turned around and saw four revolutionary guards had come into the tea house.

I was surprised to see the Gestapo in such a remote place, and astonished at how quickly they had noticed that we were there and had come in to check us out. Fortunately, we were with the family and everyone had managed to maintain their Islamic clothes, nothing illegal about what we were doing. Once they checked everybody, and they were sure that we were not anti- revolutionary forces, they left.

I was mad that we could not have a cup of tea in peace. Revolutionary Guards are what the Ayatollah Khomeini has left for us “The Army of God” or “Angels of Terror”

The History of Revolutionary Guards in Iran:

During the 1950’s and 60’s the Shah of Iran ruled the country with an iron fist. He received strong backing from the American government, especially the Republican administrations. He was very close to Nixon, and in many ways, they were similar characters.

In 1953, when Nixon was the U.S vice president, he ordered a military coup against the popular prime minister of Iran, Dr. Mosadegh, and caused the killing and imprisonment of all democratic forces in the country. Later, when he became the president, he gave the Shah free hand to do whatever he wanted.

The Shah, out of his paranoia and the need for power, crushed all opposition against him. His Secret Service, the SAVAC, brutally crushed all opposition. Corruption, torture, and filling up the prisons with political prisoners were the order of the day.

The Shah of Iran

During the late 60’s and 70’s there were some sporadic armed opposition against the Shah,which mostly came out of the Universities in Tehran. Some of these small cells engaged in ferocious fights against the Shah’s forces. They used the Urban Gorilla warfare model of Castro and Che Guevara. These groups divided into two major branches, one branch was mostly communist and they themselves divided to subsections of Maoist, Castroists and followers of the Soviet Union. The second branch was the Islamic groups which had their own subdivisions. The Shah crushed these small groups without mercy. They were subjected to brutal torture, imprisonment and execution, a very little number of them survived.

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