Hossein Fardoust

In April 1987, Fardoust appeared in public for the first time in a television "interview" with Islamic authorities. He described and denounced the life of the Shah, his court, and the corruption and dependency of the government he had served in.

Despite the high and important posts that he held under the Shah’s regime, and his close relations personally with the Shah, Fardoust remained in Iran after the overthrow of the monarchy. He was arrested, was in prison for some time, but, to everyone's surprise, he was not sentenced to death. According to the most common information, Fardoust actively cooperated with the Islamic regime, founded and until 1985 was the head of SAVAMA, the new security organization and secret police, which became the successor of SAVAK.

In 1985, General Fardoust was removed from all posts and imprisoned in December, where he was charged with cooperation with the KGB of the USSR.

Abdollah Shahbazi has published many books and articles, including "Rise and Fall of the Pahlavi dynasty." The two-volume set contained the controversial memoirs of General Hussein Fardoost, the head of Mohammad Reza Shah's secret service. Hussein Fardoust, did not remain for very long at the head of SAVAMA: in December 1985, he was accused of being a Soviet agent who was duly paid by the KGB and was stripped of his duties. He died two years later, apparently from a heart attack. The 2-volume Rise and Fall of the Pahlavi dynasty has been translated and can be read on the following site: [1]

Until the mid-1970s, Fardoust met with the Shah daily to personally inform him of the key details of intelligence reports. It is still unclear why the Shah did not want to meet in person with Fardoust two or three years before his fall. Fardoust retained his post, but now was forced to submit written reports to the Shah daily. The personal friendship that connected the Shah and Hossein Fardoust over the years has ended. Some of the most important Iranian army generals worked for some time under the leadership of Hossein Fardoust at "Imperial Inspectorate Organization", including General Abbas Gharabaghi, who in January 1979 was appointed shah by the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, when the monarch was forced leave Iran (January 16), and which contributed to the success of the revolution with its decision not to support the government approved by the Shah, prime minister Shapour Bakhtiar. Fardoust obviously used the last few years of his tenure to establish close ties with those generals of the Iranian armed forces who criticized the Shah and played a decisive role in the first stage of the Islamic revolution in the decomposition of the old power structures of the monarchy. The very fact that General Hossein Fardoust and General Abbas Gharabaghi survived the Islamic Revolution intact, despite the fact that they worked with the Shah for many years, is considered by many researchers as clear evidence of their involvement in the Islamic Revolution. When protests against the Shah intensified in 1978, officers and politicians asked Fardoust to finally do something to stop Khomeini, to which Fardoust said: “It is completely useless to do anything. The Shah has long broken the law. It is time for him to paid the price for it".

When Mohammad Mosaddegh became Prime Minister in April of 1951, Fardoust was one of the first to leave Iran under pressure from Mosaddegh. He went to Paris and began to study law. In Paris, Fardoust turned to an Iranian carpet dealer named Saberi and asked him to lend money to finance his stay in France. Saberi was a connecting link for the Iranians in France and supported him financially. Fardoust also borrowed money from Saberi and they became friends. It was later discovered that Saberi worked for the soviet KGB. It has been speculated that Sberi recruited him as an informant for the KGB.

Arteshbod Hossein Fardoust (Persian: حسین فردوست; 21 February 1917 – 18 May 1987) was a childhood friend of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and served for ten years as deputy head of SAVAK, the powerful Iranian intelligence agency.