August Intelligence Summary

The US National Security Agency intercepted a phone call between Jibril and Iranian Interior Minister Ali Akbar Mohtashemi-Pur. Mohtashemi-Pur was on a nonsecure line, in which Jibril listed US targets in Europe his group could hit for the right price.After a few weeks of haggling, Mohtashemi-Pur granted Jibril the contract and an initial payment of US$1.3 million. The rest of the money, namely US$10 million, was to be paid after successful completion of the mission. Mohtashemi-Pur decided that liaison between Jibril and his office would be carried through the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon. The operation was codenamed INTEKAM, which means just revenge (2).Patrick Lang, chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency's Middle East section at the time, told me that he stands by his conviction that "the bombing of the Pan Am flight was conceived, authorized and financed by Ali-Akbar Mohtashemi-Pur, the former Iranian minister of interior." Read full story