TEHRAN – Three persons have been
arrested in Iran on charge of cooperation with American and Saudi institutions amid the recent riots in the Islamic Republic, Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.
It cited an informed source as saying that the culprits had formed links with American institution “Tavana Tech” and Saudi-sponsored television “Iran International”.
They had been cooperating with the foreign institutions under the name of “citizen-reporters”, it said.
Those arrested had received considerable amounts of money from Tavana Tech and Iran International to carry out a series of missions, the source said.
According to the source, the people linked with the foreign institutions used the money laundering model to receive money from outsiders and exercised a method known as “news laundering” to feed foreigners with news and information.
Under the news laundering method, an internal element refrains from providing the foreign parties with the content they demand in order to avoid being prosecuted for information cooperation with the outsiders. Instead, the internal element uploads the stories and information in certain data bases that have been coordinated with the foreign sides in advance, so that the foreigners can use the data.
On Friday, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in a joint statement highlighted the major role of foreign spy agencies, especially the CIA, in orchestrating the violent riots in Iran in the past weeks.
“Continuous and precise” intelligence monitoring in the past year as well as acquired documents during the recent unrest reveals “numerous examples and undeniable references of the all-out role of the American terrorist regime in designing, implementing, and maintaining” the unrest, they said in the statement.