TEHRAN -- The Foreign Minister in the cabinet of first Prime Mehdi Bazargan after the culmination of the Islamic Revolution yesterday was quoted as saying gave certain fresh information about Said Emami and said that before he comes to Iran worked with Iran's Interest Section and Iranian Mission at the United Nations. Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi, secretary of Freedom Movement of Iran gave interview to Persian daily Arya which was carried by a prominent Persian to English translation service Akhbaar Ruz. The interview in the form of question-and-answer follows; Arya: Who supported and publicized Said Emami? Q: You were one of the founders of the Islamic Society of Students in the U.S. and Canada... We heard that Mr Said Islamic was a member of the society.

Do you remember that? A: As far as I know Said Emami entered the .... University of Oklahoma in September 1978, ie a few months before the victory of the revolution. He was 19 at that time... Four years later he received his B. Sc. in mechanical engineering... When he entered the university he joined the Islamic Society of the Persian-Speaking Students. In the Islamic Society, new members had to accept lower-level duties and to receive the necessary training.

They could then be promoted... The experience had shown that if a young person was given a responsibility without his acquiring the necessary qualification and passing the necessary moral tests he would "inflate" instead of grow. And such a person would find characteristics which were generally very destructive... Mr. Said Emami was very active in the Islamic Society of the Students. Among the students he was known as "Said the Loudspeaker" because of his loud and resonant voice.

After the victory of the revolution most of the experienced and noted members of the society returned to Iran. The differences in Iran after the victory of the revolution were transferred to the Islamic societies of the students in the U.S., Canada and Europe. After the revolution some organizations and a party in the country gave some financial aids to the societies.

With the aids the students were incited against the old cadres of the society. In this way a current was formed against the old cadres and the past policies... With the help of the money received from Iran and with the recruitment of new members there was a kind of coup in society. In this scheme Said Emami found an active part in such a way that he became secretary of the Islamic Society of Students in the U.S. and Canada. He finished his college education in 1982 and as far as I remember he worked in the Iranian Interests Section in the U.S. for one year and in the Iranian mission at the UN for one year.

He then came to Iran... He did not use education and expertise in the U.S. and went to the Iranian former embassy and the Iranian mission at the UN. Apparently there he was recruited by the security forces in such a way that when after two years he comes to Iran he directly goes to the Intelligence Ministry. I did not have any information about him after that till the exposure of the serial killings affair.

The question for me is, how come he was promoted to the highest security position in 1988 or 1989 although when he came to Iran he was 25-years-old?... Q: Was Mr. Said Islami connected only with the Islamic Society...? A: I do not know. Because I went out of the U.S. in September 1978. From Europe I went to Lebanon and Iraq and from there I accompanied the Imam to Paris. Of course I had contacts with the society...

But because of my job in the provisional government and at the Foreign Ministry my contacts with the Islamic Society gradually stopped completely. Q: You talked about the removal of the old members... Were the students supporting that? A: On the eve of the victory of the revolution a number of the old members had completed their education. And some returned to Iran without completing their education.

And there was a vacuum in society... Some of the members were Kamal Kharazi, Dr Najafi, Dr Davoud Banki, Dr Hassan Ghafoorifard, Mohammad Hashemi, Dr Ali Sadeqi Tehrani, Dr Khalil Zarabi, Dr Tabatabaei, Dr Fereshteh Hashemi (Mrs), Ali Karaji, Mohammad Nematollahi, Rokni, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Majid Sharif, Hossein Navab, Abdolreza Sadr, Behruz Makuei, Hossein Sheikholeslam, Eng Mir-Ghaffari, Mohsen Noorbakhsh, Hadi Nezhadhosseinian, Ahmad Azizi, Dr Reza Sadr, Mohammad Suri Roughani Zanjani, the Najarians (three brothers and a sister), the late martyr Ali Ansari (the governor general of Gilan province assassinated after the incidents in 1981), Farhad Ebrahimi, Eng Mozafari, Eng Reza Masmoei, Baqer Valibeig, Zari Roughani, Ali Agah, Hossein Nasiri and Ali Nasiri, Mhsen Sazgaran (Sazgara?], Hossein Harati, Ali Mohfared and Hamid Amoei. These people were active in the U.S. The activists of the Association of the Islamic Societies of Students in Europe, as far as I can remember, were Dr Sadeq Tabatabaei, Dr Mehdi Navab, Javad Noorbakhsh, Gisoderaz, Eng. Abdollah Tavasoli, Hamid Beheshti, Sadeq Qotbzadeh, Dr Hassan Habibi, Dr Abolhassan Banisadr, Parviz Amin, Dr Abdolkarim Soroosh, Reza Raeisi Tousi, Taromi and Abbas Salimi Namin. Abbas Salimi Namin was in New Castle of England. From the start he had hardline stands and he was criticizing us all the time why we were not supporting the Mojahedin Organization properly.

He was among the hardline and ardent sympathizers of the original Mojahedin. (NOTE- When the TEHRAN TIMES asked Salimi Namin to comment on what Yazdi said, he did not go into details but said, "He was the one who was against political activities of the Iranian students abroad. Salimi Namin said, "Mr. Yazdi used to emphasize on the social and cultural activities, but used to recommend strongly that the students should not take part in politics.") From the students who were active in India I remember Manuchehr Motaki and Dr Ghafar Farzadi. From the students active in the Philippines I remember Zibakalam (brother of Sadeq Zibakalam). One of the reasons that we did not want the society to become political was that before the victory of the revolution there were different political tendencies among the Muslim students.

And if the society had wanted to act like a political party it would certainly have lost its coherence and its important cultural work would have been harmed greatly. After the announcement of the change of ideology by the central cadre of the Mojahedin Organization [declaring the organization a Marxist one] in September 1975 some members of the societies were greatly influenced and some differences emerged.

But the societies were not harmed much and that did not have much negative effect. The deviation of the Mojahedin Organization did not have much effect especially in the U.S. where the ideological training was strong. But after the victory of the revolution and when the Islamic Republic Party was established and there were differences between them and the provisional government and there were differences between the clergy and the intellectuals some members of the Islamic Society joined the Republic Party... They did the same in the US too.

They removed all the remaining old members and a new group came into power. These individuals did not have a long record of activities. One ugly consequence of this was the Islamic Society's becoming a job center. The graduates who wanted to come to Iran would carry out activities in the society for a while. And they would be recommended to Iranian organizations by the societies and they would be given jobs.

This was one of the very sensitive channels. Unreliable and probably dependent individuals infiltrated the system in this way. Even individuals affiliated to the non-Muslim sects disguised themselves and carried out activities in the Islamic Society of Students in the U.S. They were recommended by the same gentlemen and they became university lecturers in Iran. But later they were exposed. Q: The Armed Forces Judiciary Organization in its statements about Said Islamic and the culprits of the killings pointed that it was considering them to be friends but they were enemies.

It also said Said Islami was a spy... Was he a spy from the start or was he recruited later? Or was he not a spy at all...?... A: In today's world one way to infiltrate a security agency is to assign a person... This person is an infiltrating agent and a spy from the start. The examples have been Kashmiri and Kolahi (responsible for the explosions at the Prime Ministry and the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party). Another method is to trap someone in the target organization.

I do not know whether Said Emami was a spy from the start or was trapped because of probable moral weaknesses. But the important point is that such a person with such a record which was not that clear enters the intelligence and security service and can secure the highest policy-making, decision-making and executive position. Furthermore, how is the structure of the Intelligence Ministry that a person can carry out such schemes very easily? Everyone appointed to a position higher than director general had to have the endorsement of Mr Said Emami as the deputy intelligence minister for security...

He goes to the Intelligence Ministry when he is 25 or 26. Two or three years later, when he is just 28 or 29 he becomes the deputy intelligence minister for security. There has been no such a thing in any security agency in the world. This is unless a person or official had been supporting him... After the revolution the late Dr Beheshti had told his colleagues that all the boys in the Islamic Society of Students in the U.S. except such and such (me) should be recruited.

I met Dr Beheshti at the Revolutionary Council and asked: "You have been quoted as saying such a thing. I am pleased if our activities in the U.S. have resulted in training of committed and specialist youths who can serve the country and that I have had a share, even if it was a small one, in those activities... But I strongly recommend that you should not give a job to any without consolation with me.

I have raised all these children and know all of them well." Regrettably that was not done. After the revolution for administration of the country committed and specialist forces were needed... It is not unnatural if you see that all the office... No other group had worked in this area. Before the revolution the gentlemen did not know how many Iranian students we had abroad...

The founders of the Islamic societies brought the youths together and trained them. It was natural for them to be recruited after the revolution. But their recruitment must have been according to some criteria. However that was not the case and opportunism was fanned. When the only criterion for employment of individuals is their religious appearance and the degree of their commitment to the officials the way is opened for infiltration by the opportunist and the dependent elements.

Q: It is said Islam distanced himself from the Islamic Society for a while and joined CIS (Confederation of Iranian Students)... A: I do not know that, but I consider it unlikely. More important than that has been his record before going to the university. Apparently his high school education was in the U.S. It is said his maternal uncle was a colonel of the Shah and that their family name was not Emami... I heard that he was living with an American family when he was at high school.

This is why his English was very good... Iranian youths who were living with American families used to form special attitudes and special connections with the government and non-government American institutions... Whether this was true about Said Emami too it needs investigation. One of his classmates at the same university who was present at his wedding party told me all the pictures of the wedding party disappeared in the photo shop.