We Learned the Techniques of Concealment

The adventures of a training trip to Egypt via SOMA Organization

Hossein Hariri,

Tehran University Alumni

Translator: Asghar Aboutorabi

2015-8-15

Years before Islamic revolution, many political activists and thinkers looked for a way to fight secretly with the regime and solve the country’s problems. Some of them after their struggles inside the country and its entanglements left Iran and followed their campaigns abroad. In those days, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh was in France, Taghizadeh was in England, EbrahmYazdi and Mostafa Chamran were in America and protected those who left Iran to follow their campaigns. This traffic was so intense that made Sadergh Ghotbzadeh indebted because of his political friend staying in his house and their use of the telephone. Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was in America for political studies, suffered financial hardship too.

Some of the friends inside Iran collected some money and asked me to take it for Ghotbzadeh and Mousavi in a trip to Europe in 1966. When I entered France, Ghotbzadeh refused to meet me in Champs-Elysees street in fear of security forces. I met him in small hotel in Paris. In this meeting I gave him the money and was informed that our friends have made a contact with Gamal Abdel Nasser and has obtained his agreement to perform some political and military training in Egypt. Ghotbzadeh proposed me to take part in this training course, which I accepted. A few days later I was given a temporary passport to go to Egypt. I could not use my Iranian passport because I had to conceal my travel from Iranian security officials. Egyptian stamp on my Iranian passport would arouse many suspicions, especially when the bilateral relation of the two countries was dark.

 After some arrangements I flew to Cairo and was welcomed by Ebrahim Yazdi and martyr Chamran, my Iranian friends in Cairo. I was astonished to meet Chamran there. He was my classmate and was physically weak when in university. But there in Egypt he was really an experienced man and you could see that military trainings and courses had made him proficient. There I found out that the military-political trainings are managed by these two in Egypt, who were active members of Iran Freedom Movement in America. I was settled in a villa in Cairo suburbs. I only met martyr Chamran, Dr. Yazdi and his family and Mohammad Tavasoli among all Iranian present in Egypt. I guessed that other Iranians were taking the courses too, but we were not introduced to each other because of concealment principles. It was supposed that the name and countenance of the participants to be unknown to prevent the penetration of SAVAK. First the theoretical courses were held. Egyptian officers in plainclothes thought me. This course included secret organizing, escaping encirclement, chase and escape techniques, use of invisible ink, writing cryptogram and writing between the lines of the book, eliminating the documents in case of being caught in police trap and encountering the interrogators and resistance techniques in prison. The next steps included how to use a gun, how to shoot and how to use explosives. Egyptian officers taught in English. After theoretical trainings, the military exercises started. The trainings were very tough in this phase. They were performed in a garrison and included hard drills like crossing the river using a rope. Once, one of the Egyptian educators told me that if I did not enjoy complete good health, I would make more problems than benefits for my organization. I consulted with Egyptian officers and my Iranian friends and the final order was declared to me to leave the trainings. A few days after the end of theoretical courses and the half-ended military trainings, I went to visit the three pyramids and returned to France with the same temporary passport.  I went to visit Italy for a short time to prevent the suspect of the security officials and then returned to France and Tehran. I eliminated all documents related to my trip to Egypt including that temporary passport. The interesting point is that even my wife was not informed from my travel to Egypt. When I was in Egypt my wife’s letters to Paris, were sent to Egypt by my friends.