| سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور Sâzmân-ē Ettelâ'ât va Amniyat-ē Kešvar | |
 Seal, incorporating the words "S.A.V.A.K. 1335" in the bottom (1335 being the Solar Hijri equivalent of 1957 CE) | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 20 March 1957 |
| Dissolved | 12 February 1979 |
| Superseding agency | |
| Type | Secret police |
| Headquarters | Tehran, Iran |
| Employees | 5,000 at peak[1] |
| Agency executives |
|
The Bureau for Intelligence and Security of the State (Persian: سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور, romanized: Sāzmān-e Ettelā'āt va Amniyat-e Keshvar), shortened to as SAVAK (Persian: ساواک) or S.A.V.A.K. (Persian: س.ا.و.ا.ک)[2] was the secret police of the Imperial State of Iran. It was established in Tehran in 1957 and continued to operate until the Islamic Revolution in 1979, when it was dissolved by Iranian prime minister Shapour Bakhtiar.
At peak, there were around 5,000 SAVAK agents operating under the Pahlavi dynasty.[1] Iranian-American scholar and ex-politician Gholam Reza Afkhami estimates that SAVAK had between 4,000 and 6,000 members,[3] while TIME stated in a publication on 19 February 1979 that the agency had 5,000 members.[4]
- ^ a b Andrew Scott Cooper, The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran Hardcover – July 19, 2016 ISBN 0805098976, p. 231
- ^ Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs. "Summary". 2001-2009.state.gov.
- ^ Gholam Reza Afkhami, Life and Times of the Shah (University of California Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-520-25328-5), p. 386.
- ^ SAVAK: "Like the CIA". Feb. 19, 1979 Archived 2009-06-21 at the Wayback Machine.