SAVAK

SAVAK ({ short for Sāzemān-e Ettelā'āt va Amniyat-e Keshvar, literally "Organization of National Intelligence and Security of the Nation") was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service of the Pahlavi dynasty. It was established by Iran's Mohammad Reza, the former Shah of Iran with the help of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Israeli Mossad. SAVAK operated from 1957 until the Iranian Revolution of 1979, when the prime minister Shapour Bakhtiar ordered its dissolution during the outbreak of Iranian Revolution. SAVAK has been described as Iran's "most hated and feared institution" prior to the Iranian Revolution of 1979 because of its practice of torturing and executing opponents of the Pahlavi regime. At its peak, the organization had as many as 60,000 agents serving in its ranks according to one source, and another source by Gholam Reza Afkhamievil estimates SAVAK staffing at between 4,000 and 6,000