Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

602 • REX CINEMA ARSON AND MASSACREterrorists attempting, committing, conspiring to commit, or aidingand abetting in the commission of terrorist acts against U.S. citizensor property worldwide. The Bureau of Diplomatic Security of theU.S. Department of State administers this program. One of the documentedsuccesses of this program was the arrest and rendition ofRamzi Yousef, one of the main planners of the World Trade Centerattack of 1993, who was located in 1995 as the result of informationprovided by a source in response to the Rewards Program.REX CINEMA ARSON AND MASSACRE. On 19 August 1978the Rex Cinema movie theater of Abadan, Iran, was set ablazeduring a showing of an evening film, resulting in 422 deaths,which until that time was one of the worst terrorist incidents inthe modern history of Iran and of the Middle East generally. Thisevent occurred during the early stages of the Iranian revolutionwhen Islamic fundamentalists had been regularly carrying outarson attacks against movie theaters believed to offer features offensiveto Islamic sentiments. When previous arsons of this kindhad taken place, however, the arsonists would order the theater tobe cleared or would strike when the theater was already emptiedafter hours. The four arsonists who entered the theater were apparentlyunaware that the movie operator had chained the fire exitdoors to prevent nonpaying viewers from sneaking into the theater,and subsequently three of the arsonists trapped in the theaterperished. An inquest into the causes of death indicated that thevictims apparently died of suffocation rather than from the flamesthemselves, possibly from the freon gas released from the air conditioningsystem, which was ruptured in the fire.The shah’s regime blamed the arson on its fundamentalist opponents,and in turn the Islamic fundamentalists accused the monarchicalregime of having staged the arson in order to discredit thefundamentalists. The Rex Cinema arson occurred during the Islamicfasting month of Ramadhan, during which some strict fundamentalistsregarded the viewing of movies or other ordinary amusementsas being sinful. Those who accused the monarchical regime of havingstaged the fire pointed out that the theater was showing the filmGavaznha (The Elk), which was viewed as critical of the Pahlaviregime. Although a revolutionary court tried and convicted an Iranianarmy officer, Munir Taheri, for this arson and executed him on 21