The revolving door of SPND leadership spins again

-

 Well, blow us down. SPND has a new boss! Again!

Reza Mozafarinia SPND Head IRGC General MODAFL

We'd not even had time to settle in and get used to the tenure of IRGC official Mehdi Farahi, who'd been drafted in to replace the assassinated Mohsen Fakhrizadeh as head of Iran's premier defense-industrial-definitely-not-nuclear-weapons-research outfit. As things turn out, Farahi headed SPND for less than six months - a paltry record after Fakhrizadeh's 20 year plus run in charge of SPND or its predecessor organizations.

 

We're a bit sad about that, as Mehdi Farahi was a favorite punching bag for us at Redline HQ. There wasn't a single guidance system or carbon fiber production factory that Farahi couldn't bungle in his previous incarnations looking at things overseeing business in Iran's missile industry. Perhaps the SPND hot seat was just a little too toasty for Farahi's ample buttocks.

 

A big (if admittedly slightly belated) welcome, then to the new new head of SPND - Dr Reza Mozafarinia. If you've been lurking about inside Iranian government databases (we can only dream), you might know him by his national ID of 1280856521. So far as we can tell from his public appearances, Mozafarinia took over as head of SPND in about October 2021. He made his quiet debut that month signing a run-of-the-mill agreement between SPND and the Supreme Leader's University Representative. Mozafarinia's appointment as the lucky new boss of SPND was only picked up by Twitter the next month, after his new role was obliquely cited in another obscure Iranian media article.

 

So what do we know about Dr Mozafarinia? (Actually, let's go with Mozzer - we're an informal bunch here at Redline HQ.)

 

First, this Mozzer has probably never had bunches of gladiola thrown lovingly at his feet, nor has he been rightly shunned by Johnny Marr for dabbling in ethno-nationalism (at least so far as we know). Wrong Moz. Reza Mozafarinia, on the other hand, is yet another long-time Iranian regime crony: a pencil-pushing bureaucrat from Iran's military-defense industries, he's been known to Iran watchers for more than 20 years as one of the grayest of the gray men.

 

Reza Mozafarinia SPND Head IRGC General

Mozafarinia wasn't sure whether to go with the grey suit or the grey jacket. Both was a good option.

 

Dare we say, he's a boringly predictable replacement for Fakhrizadeh. Indeed, you might need some amphetamines just to get through Mozafarinia's CV. He was formerly <Deputy Minister of Industrialand Research Affairs of MODAFL, a role that mostly involves pretending that Iran's military industries are self-sufficient; that the country can actually make its own carbon fiber; and that the defense sector isn't thoroughly penetrated by foreign intelligence. Mozafarinia was also the dean of Malek Ashtar University - a military-owned research institution where Fakhrizadeh occasionally moonlighted. His academic specialization was corrosion studies - quite apt for such a rusted-on relic.

 

His central role in Iran's defense industries hasn't gone unnoticed by global authorities. We were going to print verbatim the text of Mozafarinia's <2013 US Treasury designation, but we had to make some light edits just to keep you awake. Here goes:

 

"Sweet and Tender Hooligan Reza Mozafarinia is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13382 for acting for or on behalf of the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL). Mozafarinia, a Handsome Devil, is MODAFL's Deputy Defense Minister and Dean of Malek Ashtar University (MUT). This Charming Man is responsible for significant contributions to Iran's missile program.  Is It Really So Strange that Mozafarinia has been the head of Malek Ashtar University of Technology (MUT) since at least 2009? MUT [is Murder] was designated on July 12, 2012 pursuant to E.O. 13382 for being owned or controlled by MODAFL. Accept Yourself that MUT was identified in the Annex to UNSCR 1929 because it is a subordinate (Half a Person) of the Defense Technology and Science Research Center within MODAFL - where There Is a Light That Never Goes Out."

 

Some subtle references there! You should get the picture, though - Dr Moz is a hardened member of Iran's defense establishment.

 

Mozafarinia also inherits an SPND that appears to be on the ascendancy in Iran's political system. We note that Iran's parliamentary national security commission has approved a plan to recognize SPND as an independent legal personality within MODAFL. The details of this plan aren't clear, but we predict that it might entail an increased budget, more resources, and more weight for SPND within decision-making circles.

 

That's not great news, but at the same time we take solace in the fundamental weaknesses of the organization. SPND's legendary founder is dead. The organization is toxic in international circles. Every senior official gets publicly exposed; every domestic deal revealed. Even half-assed bloggers can run rings around it.

 

See you next time!

 

[For the benefit of happy Googling:

Name: Reza Mozaffarinia Hosein

AKA: Reza Mozaffarinia

AKA: Reza Mozaffari nia

AKA: Dr. Reza Mozafarnia

AKA: Reza Mozaffari-nia

AKA: Reza Mozaffari-niya

AKA: Reza Mozafarinia

AKA: Reza Mozafari-niya]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in HD

-
Image
We can't believe our luck today here at Iran Redline. The world's most elusive entity has been caught on camera! No, not the giant squid filmed in the Gulf of Mexico , although that's quite good too. Rather, we've found video footage of Iran's most notorious individual: Mohsen Fakhrizadeh ( محسن فخری زاده or محسن فخری زاده مهابادی ), head of Iran's pre-2003 nuclear weapons program, and the man most likely to lead any resumption of such work should Iran make good on its former threats to leave the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) . Today, we're pleased to point out the first video of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh that (to the best of our knowledge) has ever been released in the public domain. Taken in January 2019, the video footage shows Fakhrizadeh taking part in a meeting with Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ( سيد علی خامنه ای ), and members of a governmental neuroscience coordination body called the Cognitive Science and Tech...
Read more

Iran's Yellowcake Submarine is back on the cards

-
Image
That's right – they’re at it again! Despite needing an IMF bailout to pay for basic hospital supplies, Iran apparently still has the funds and the stomach to build ‘ nuclear-powered submarines ’. Fakrizadeh and his boys must think we suffer from short-term memory loss, as they tried this trick in 2013 and we weren’t fooled then either. But, as a little reminder to our readers about why Iran really wants to build these things, we felt that Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi’s announcement was the perfect time to dive deep in to the archives and pull up this bad boy from way back when (see below).  Spoiler alert: it’s got nothing to do with submarines and a whole lot to do with Fakrizadeh’s penchant for developing a nuclear weapon. We’ll keep digging on this, so stay tuned for more as it develops. Iran’s Yellowcake Submarine: or, How to Succeed in Weapons Grade Uranium Enrichment without Really Lying August 2013 Iran has got away with mastering, more or less,...
Read more

New sanctions, same old SPND

-
Image
The public revelation of Iran's atomic archives continues to cause ripples, with the United States Treasury the latest government authority to delve into the documents pinched from under the nose of Iran's intelligence agencies. On 22 March, the Treasury released an extensive list ( here and here ) of sanctions designations targeted directly at SPND ( سازمان پژوهش ‌ های نوین دفاعی ), the Iranian military research organisation responsible for curating (and losing) the extensive records of Iran's pre-2003 nuclear weapons programme.  This news must have been a real blow to scientists and other staff working at SPND, many of whom are already upset by stressful working conditions under Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Now they will find their freedom to travel, to publish and to speak academically, as well as their future work prospects,(even more) severely limited. These sanctions basically mean that SPND and its employees can forget about ever getting a bank account with anyth...
Read more

The giant steel balls of Saeed Borji

-
Image
Are you struggling to find the smoothest, most perfectly spherical balls? Iran Redline feels your pain! And apparently so too does SPND ( سپند ) - the hapless Iranian defense research organization with a penchant for nuclear weapons - because SPND's latest business venture involves solving exactly this problem.  In today's post, we're revealing the SPND front company that is leading a rather ludicrous commercial effort to deliver the best giant balls in all of Iran. The company is run by two notorious SPND old-timers - mechanical engineer Saeed Borji ( دکتر سعید برجی , national ID 1816934984) and metallurgist Mohammad Reza Heydari (aka Mohammadreza Heidari, or مهندس محمدرضا حیدی , national ID 4489244029). It's not hard to tell which of these guys is the bigger fish in the SPoND, as Dr Saeed Borji has tastefully named the company after himself: say hello to the Azar Afrouz Saeed Engineering Company! In Farsi, they're known as شرکت فنی مهندسی آذر افروز ...
Read more

Sadra Cognitive Research Center: where SPND gets their freak on

-
Image
No villainous organization, factual or fictional, is truly complete without a part-time penchant for the truly weird. The Nazis had an obsession for finding the Spear of Destiny and Holy Grail. Spectre had a volcano lair and chinchilla cats. SPND ( سپند), the Iranian defense research organization that holds the ageing expertise from Iran's nuclear weapons program, is no exception. When SPND wants to get its freak on, it calls on one of its subsidiaries: the Sadra Cognitive Defense Science Center ( مرکز علوم شناختی دفاعی صدرا or مرکز علوم شناختی و دفاعی صدرا or مرکز پژوهشی صدرا or مرکـز مطالعات علوم شناختی دفاعی صدرا ). The Sadra Center has been around for a few years, but its status as a component of SPND was only revealed publicly in March 2019 in a US government sanctions list. Since then, a short article from a corporate intelligence company, Kharon, has provided some extra details on Sadra . Today, we want to provide even more evidence on the connections between SPND and Sadr...
Read more

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh creeps into the limelight

-
Image
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the head of Iran's shadowy SPND organization, has traditionally shunned publicity. Until recently, the only glimpses that we've had of Fakhrizadeh have been from grainy photographs probably purloined by intelligence agencies.   That's all changed. We recently wrote about how we spotted Fakhrizadeh in publicly-released footage from a meeting in January 2019 of Iran's Cognitive Science and Technologies Council (CSTC or ستاد توسعه علوم و فناوریهای شناختی ) - probably much to Fakhrizadeh's annoyance. Little did we realize then that Mohsen actually made at least two public appearances that month - and at the second one, he certainly wasn't hiding from the cameras.   On 5 January 2019, as an obscure Iranian media outlet reported , Fakhrizadeh signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding on behalf of SPND with the IRGC's Basij mobilization organization ( مسلح سازمان بسیج سازندگی کشور ) and Iran's Supreme National Defense Univers...
Read more

Heavy Metal in Tehran

-
Image
I’m told that one of the hardest things to do when making nuclear weapons is metallurgy – getting the fissile material ‘pit’ [1] that sits at the heart of the bomb just right. You don’t want your pit to be contaminated by other materials, nor for it to be brittle or aerated – they’re all things that cause nukes to fizzle [2] rather than bang. If Iran wants to produce nuclear weapons, getting metallurgical aspects of its fissile material right is a hurdle that it needs to overcome. And it’s not entirely clear how much work Iran has already done in this area. The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran has admitted [3] to the IAEA that it conducted experiments in producing uranium metal from Chinese-origin uranium tetrafluoride. Helpfully, we also know from the IAEA that the pre-2004 ‘AMAD’ nuclear weapons development organisation had a ‘ uranium metallurgy project ’ [4] (dang, I wonder what they were working on?), and, given that AMAD ran for at least four years, it’s not a ...
Read more

Amad Men: Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi

-
While we sip on pomegranate juice and throw pistachio shells around the office with carefree abandon, Redline is also enjoying the fallout (pardon the pun) from the revelations of the so-called Atomic Archive , the stash of incriminating paperwork nabbed by the Mossad from Iran. The Atomic Archive has lots of juicy details about Iran's pre-2003 nuclear weapons programme, and provides unparalleled insights into Iran's crash effort to build nukes in the early 2000s. Those analysts who've been granted access to parts of the archive have shown that Iran got much further towards preparing fissile material for use in nuclear weapons than has generally been understood in the public domain. From covert facilities under mountains for uranium enrichment to, erm, covert facilities under mountains for uranium metallurgy , the archive shows that Iran's plan for putting nukes together was real and extensive. And thank God that the Supreme Leader got antsy and pulled the pin on t...
Read more

My Babri Just Doesn't Care For Me

-
Image
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...
Read more

How SPND is at the heart of Iran's Novichok research - Part II

-
Image
In this post we're continuing our deep dive into Iran's research on novel chemical weapons, which we think is being spearheaded by SPND. You can read the first part of this work here . In that article, we revealed that Iran's internationally-certified chemical weapons research laboratory, the DCRL, is co-located with and probably controlled by an SPND entity, the Shahid Meisami Research Group.   In this article, we pinpoint the person responsible for Iran's work on novel chemical weapons - and his close ties to SPND.   The man behind Iran's novichok work   Dr Mehran Babri ( مهران ببری , ID: 0050111078) is one of Iran's foremost experts on the science of chemical weapons. With more than 25 years of experience in chemistry, he's an expert in gas chromotograph mass spectrometry - an extremely precise means of measuring chemical compounds, and of detecting the presence of chemical weapon agents in environmental samples. Babri's published research...
Read more