Iran Redline

  Like your dad’s favourite dead rockstars and the best actor in The Wire , it seems that the Iranian government just can’t quit its addiction to fentanyl. Indeed, we’ve just stumbled across a piece of information indicating that the weird relationship between Iran’s military‑industrial complex and the world of illicit drug production could be ramping up even further. Remember Iranian state-owned fentanyl manufacturer Tofigh Daru Research and Engineering Company , which we wrote about in a previous post? In that post, we aired our suspicions that Tofigh Daru is mass-producing fentanyl for the purposes of supplying the global black market for the drug. It turns out that in December 2023, Tofigh Daru was paid an official visit by an Iranian government official named Javad Mashayekh ( جواد مشایخ ). To those with a little bit of knowledge about the murky world of Iranian covert operations, Mashayekh’s presence at Tofigh Daru is what a poker player might call a Big Fucking Tell. Mas

  Ahmad Karimi Rahjerdi’s Hitler haircut is making me feel ill Redline does not generally purport to be an arbiter of style. But upon reviewing some recent photographs of SPND senior official Dr Ahmad Karimi Rahjerdi ( احمد کریمی راهجردی ), we couldn’t help but be reminded of a certain sweaty bunker-dweller from Austria. The clammy side-part is a tough look to pull off; we’re not sure that it really works for Dr Karimi (particularly when applied sans moustache). Dr Karimi has been the public face of SPND’s work on a dubious COVID vaccine . He’s also the head of SPND’s Biology Department, according to this radio interview . That role in SPND involves dabbling with small quantities of biological weapon material, ostensibly for the purposes of developing defensive mechanisms, but actually for developingpoisons and delivery systems . So what’s got Dr Karimi so sweaty? The photos above are from a recent demonstration of a mobile biological laboratory, developed by SPND not for the pu

  The first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini and the resulting wave of protests across Iran has us reflecting on the courage of those who dare to take to the streets. While we’re usually preoccupied with Iran’s nuclear program and other research activities that edge close to the category of weapons of mass destruction, we should remember that the Iranian entities involved in WMD-related work are also responsible for direct acts of repression against legitimate protesters. SPND, our main bête-noire, is of course no exception. We’ve written extensively about SPND’s Shahid Meisami Group ( گروه شهید میثمی ), and its head, Mehran Babri ( مهران   ببری , National ID: 0050111078). Shahid Meisami and Babri have long been on our radar because of their work developing deadly chemical warfare agents, including V-series nerve agents and Novichok. Thankfully, unlike Putin’s Russia, Iran hasn’t yet felt the need to apply Novichok or nerve agents to any dissidents . The Iranian aut

  SPND Goes Recruiting   Editor’s note: A rare treat for readers with this post! We’ve been combing through the recently leaked emails from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), and came across a nugget from some of the AEOI’s Iranian colleagues that was too good not to share. We’re releasing in its entirety the below email from Iran’s SPND organization, which we’ve translated for your convenience. -------------------------------------------------------------   From: SPND Human Resources Department < wewantsuckers@projectsepand.ir > To: Number One Iranian Recruitment Agency & Kebab Emporium < recruitment@bestjobsnkebab.ir >   Dearest Recruitment Agency & Kebab Emporium,   Here’s the job advert that we at SPND want to publicize:   Hi friends! SPND here, Iran’s oldest and most prestigious nuclear-weapons-but-not-really research organization. You might have seen us “going viral” recently with our Instagram and Telegram . Due to th

It seems we struck a nerve with our last article on Dr Mehran Babri (مهران ببری, ID: 0050111078), the man leading SPND’s research into chemical weapons. That’s not surprising – Babri’s work on fourth generation chemical agents – including the notorious Novichok variants used by Russia in assassination attempts – is pretty outrageous, and we can barely believe that nobody had outed it already. One thing that we didn’t cover in that article is Babri’s deep connections across Iranian academia, and the inherent risks that those connections pose to otherwise innocent academics and research institutions. Let’s dive in! Publish or perish Like many of his SPND colleagues, Mehran Babri collaborates on scientific research with Iranian universities outside the SPND bubble. That’s not something that you might expect, given these guys work in an otherwise top-secret environment. But published research is the yardstick by which scientists judge their success; and it’s hard for SPND scienti