A report published Monday in The Times sheds light on the secretive new life of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. According to journalist Michael Evans, the challenge facing Israel’s Mossad and the CIA starts with the fact that Mojtaba hasn’t used a phone or computer in about three months. On top of that, the Iranians use body doubles—and even those who serve him meals don’t know whether they’re actually dealing with the ayatollah or one of his stand-ins.
1+The Times quoted Rami Igra, former head of a division at Mossad, who explained how intelligence agencies might reach the terror regime’s leader: “Mojtaba may not use a phone, but if so, he has other means of communication, like pieces of paper. They use a network of couriers to pass messages. These couriers don’t know what they’re doing, other than passing messages from one person to another. So if Mossad finds him, it will be thanks to a human agent.”
A senior American official explained Israel’s advantage when it comes to running human agents on Iranian soil: “I’m skeptical about the effectiveness of American human intelligence, because Iran has been a forbidden zone for 40 years. Israeli intelligence is of course much better, but it also has limitations.”
1+Another quote came from Avner Avraham, a former brigadier general at Mossad, who addressed the body double issue: “Mojtaba lives in different places and people are employed to feed him. But what they don’t know is whether the food they’re giving is for the real Mojtaba or his double, so they go home at night thinking they’re taking care of the supreme leader, when most of the time it’s an imposter.”
Mojtaba went underground about three months ago amid a wave of targeted assassinations of senior Iranian regime figures, led by his father. Khamenei, who reportedly suffers from severe physical deformities and disfigurement following an assassination attempt on his life, has since maintained tight secrecy and avoided all public appearances.