According to an extensive investigation published in The Atlantic magazine, a senior officer in Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security led a double life, allegedly as an informant for the United States’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), providing details that likely led to strikes against key global terror figures before he was murdered while attempting to flee to Turkey.
Mohammad Hossein Tajik, who was the commander of an elite Iranian cyberwarfare unit, made contact with journalist Shane Harris in 2016 and revealed his story, which included deep involvement in some of the most sensitive intersections of Iranian security.
According to the report, Tajik claimed that in his Iranian intelligence role, he made several trips to Lebanon, where he grew close to senior Hezbollah leaders. Tajik told Harris that he developed a close relationship with Imad Mughniyeh, the mastermind behind the 1983 bombings of the US embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut.
Tajik said he provided the CIA with detailed information about Hezbollah’s organizational structure and how its units coordinated with Iranian intelligence. The investigation noted that the CIA, in collaboration with Israeli forces, killed Mughniyeh in February 2008, the same year that Tajik reportedly began working for the American agency.
Despite this background, Tajik turned against the regime, describing it as corrupt and hypocritical. His connection with the CIA was severed in 2013 after he was deemed "unmanageable," and he was arrested and tortured at the notorious Evin prison, until his father secured his release on bail.
Tajik's family background was deeply rooted within the regime; his father, known as "Haji Vali," was one of the revolutionaries who participated in Iran’s Islamic Revolution and stormed the Shah's secret police headquarters in 1979, and helped establish the intelligence services of the Islamic Republic.
Tajik's attempted escape to Turkey
Tajik's tragic end came in July 2016.
According to the report, he had planned to escape to Turkey with stolen documents containing Iranian regime secrets he intended to expose.
His younger brother, Amir, allegedly noticed the packed suitcase and informed their father that Tajik was planning to flee.
On July 5, a day on which Tajik was scheduled to speak with Harris, his father Haji Vali showed up at his home, accompanied by a senior official from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence.
That evening, the younger brother found Tajik’s body. No autopsy was conducted, and he was quickly buried at a cemetery in Tehran.
Exiled Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam, who had also been in contact with Tajik, and was later executed by Iran, provided information indicating that Tajik’s father was involved with his son’s murder.
Zam described it as an "ideological murder," intended to prevent embarrassment to the intelligence apparatus and the family due to Tajik’s betrayal of the regime.