Untitled

THE RASHIDIAN BROTHERS
THREE IRANIAN BROTHERS, working closely with British and
U.S. intelligence, played pivotal roles in helping to carry out the
coup in 1953. Identified throughout the report as "the Rashidians,"
their names were actually Saifollah, Asadollah and Ghodratollah.
The British and the CIA relied heavily on the three because of the
contacts they maintained both inside the murky underworld of Iran
and among the wealthy elites including the Pahlavi family.
Saifollah, the eldest of the three, was an opium-addicted musician
who took great pleasure in philosophy and history. The second
brother, Asadollah, was the corpulent and cheery brother who
is most often shown in photographs. It was Asadollah who talked
the Shah and his sister into participating in the coup. The third
brother, Ghodratollah, made his money in investments and kept
good connections in the bazaar. This worked out well for the CIA
when U.S. agents looked to stir up trouble among the merchants.
In his book on the coup, CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt, the mastermind
behind Operation Ajax, named Saifollah and Asadollah as
the two Rashidian brothers who were integral to the CIA's plan.
Roosevelt trusted Asadollah so much that he had him personally
visit the Shah and his sister. The Rashidians also received 10,000
British pounds per month—quite a bit of money at that time—for
the purpose of bribing Iranian politicians, religious leaders, street
thugs and military officers. As the report later notes, the Rashidians
were the ones who orchestrated much of the terrorism and lawlessness
on the night the coup was put into place.