By Reza Shafa
On December 11, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in an order appointed Brig. Gen. Ali Hosseinitash as the new chancellor of the IRGC’s main school called Imam Hossein, the semi-official news agency Fars reported.
"Imam Hossein University plays a major role in the IRGC’s future. Considering the upcoming challenges, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces [referring to Ali Khamenei the supreme leader of the regime] has in mind for the IRGC, the school has to live up to its obligations," said Jafari.
Jafari thanked the outgoing head of the university, Brig. Gen. Hassan Karaminia and again praised Hosseinitash for his "outstanding service" and great "scientific achievements" the school had under his leadership the last time around in the 90s.
Much has been said about the school in the past from different perspectives; however, it is worth looking back to its "scientific achievements," as Jafari put it. The school is the core of the IRGC in training its commanders as well as the agents of its notorious intelligence office.
Imam Hossein University
Many tests and research for production of nuclear weapons take place at Imam Hossein University, which was established in northeast Tehran in 1986 during the Iran-Iraq war.
The Imam Hossein University, unlike other universities, is organized like a military structure. In specific, it has a student brigade and all students are under the command of this brigade. The chain of command at this university is company commander, platoon commander, and team commander.
The address for Imam Hossein University in Tehran is near Fourth Square, Tehran Pars, Shahid Babaie Highway, near Hakimiyeh and Mini-city.
The Imam Hossein University has a scientific group and a nuclear physics department. The fact that a nuclear physics unit exists in a military university related to the IRGC suggests the regime’s goals in procuring a nuclear weapon.
The nuclear physics program at Imam Hossein University is as extensive as Sharif University of Technology, which has the oldest and largest nuclear physics major in the country.
Two company commanders of the nuclear physics program are IRGC commander Seyyed Hassan Hosseini and IRGC commander, Reza Haj Beiglou.
Imam Hossein University, Personnel and Research
Based on verified information obtained from sources inside the Iranian regime, one of the nuclear tests conducted at Imam Hossein University used a Neutron Generator for neutron emission with high power. The tests were conducted under the supervision of an individual named Fereydoon Abbasi.
He is in charge of the physics group at the Imam Hossein University. Since the beginning of the 1979 revolution, he has been a member of the IRGC. He was present at the war fronts during the Iran-Iraq war. Following the war, he obtained a PhD in nuclear physics. From 1993, he has been a member of the physics college scientific board at the IRGC Imam Hossein University. He later became the department head of the college of physics. At the same time, Abbasi began work on nuclear research at the Ministry of Defense.
A number of nuclear experts have been transferred to the Imam Hossein University following reorganization in the regime’s center for nuclear research. One of the high-level experts in the IRGC by the name of Mohammad Tavalaei is working at the Imam Hossein University’s research center.
Prior to recent appointment of Hosseinitash as the new Imam Hossein University chancellor by Jafari, in the end of 2005, Rahim-Safavi made a similar appointment. At the time however, Hossenitash was holding another position which was the IRGC’s chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Who is Ali Hosseinitash?
Ali Hosseinitash ran the mullahs’ regime secret weapon’s program. Under the previous defense minister Ali Shamkhani, he ran the Iranian regime’s secret WMD research projects such as uranium enrichment and reprocessing. Since Ahmadinejad coming to power, he was given the assignment of something called "opening the political atmosphere for nuclear program" which was nothing more than opening a breathing space for continuing with the development of the atomic bomb. It was in this position that he traveled to Moscow in February of 2006.
As the deputy defense minister, he used two universities, Imam Hossein and Malik-e-ashtar, both belonging to IRGC, as research centers for development of WMD such as nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. He employed top-ranking scientists of both institutions including Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and Fereidoon Abbasi to diligently pursue the atomic bomb.
Timing of Hosseinitash’s return to Imam Hossein University, considering all the controversy surrounding the Iranian regime’s nuclear program, is of great importance since the IRGC schools are the strategic centers for development and research of weapon’s program. They invoke the least suspicions for their status as higher education institutions plus the fact that the IRGC has kept impervious.
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Reza Shafa is an expert on the Iranian regime’s intelligence networks, both in Iran and abroad. He has done extensive research on VAVAK (MOIS), IRGC’s Intelligence Office, and Quds Force among others. Currently he is a contributor to NCRI website.