Life Inside Iran’s Revolutionary Guard

Reza Khalili was recruited to join the Revolutionary Guard in 1979.  What he experienced sickened him, and he reached out to the American Central Intelligence Agency and offered to help them prevent needless death and bloodshed at the hands of Iran’s new terrorist army.

Khalili is a pseudonym, but the stories are real.  I look forward to reading Khalili’s new book, “A Time to Betray: The Astonishing Double Life of a CIA Agent Inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran.”  CNN reports:

In one of his first public appearances, Kahlili addressed a packed hall Friday at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Flanked by a bodyguard and disguised in a hat, mask and glasses, he spoke through a modulator that led Washington Post columnist David Ignatius to liken his voice to Darth Vader’s. Even his name is a pseudonym, all in an effort to protect his family, friends and contacts, he said.

The author said that, after a peaceful childhood in Iran, he came to the United States in the 1970s for college, studying computer science at the University of Southern California, where he enjoyed a carefree life of parties, watching football and listening to Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull.

He returned home after the sudden death of his father to find a country embroiled in change.

Kahlili describes the immediate aftermath of the 1979 revolution against Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi as a special time in Iran. Iranians had been led to believe democracy was theirs, the clergy wouldn’t interfere in their lives and the people would have freedom of speech, assembly and political affiliation, he said. Everyone was excited about the direction of the country, he said.

It was then that Khalili’s friend told him about an opportunity with the newly formed, elite Revolutionary Guard, which hired him immediately.

Reza said he quickly became disillusioned when he saw people being tortured and murdered and women raped in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. Repressing his countrymen, he said, was not what he had signed up for.

But rather than quit the Guard and endanger his family, he contacted the CIA and began work as an American agent under the code name “Wally,” he said.

In his story, he relates many terrifying truths, such as Iran’s inevitable attack on Israel and the naivety of  US administrations that do not take the Iranian threat seriously.  “Stop dreaming, please,” he said Friday. “You are not dealing with rational people. Every time you extend a hand, it is not seen as sincerity, but stupidity.”