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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/29/world/middleeast/israel-iran-spy-chief.html
Iranian Officials Admit Damaging Effect of Israeli Security Operations
(New York Times) Farnaz Fassihi and Ronen Bergman - For more than a decade, Hossein Taeb, chief of intelligence for Iran's Revolutionary Guards, crushed domestic dissent and expanded covert operations beyond Iran's borders, until he was abruptly removed from his position last week. According to Israeli intelligence officials, a botched Iranian effort to target Israeli citizens in Turkey, which caused an embarrassing diplomatic crisis with Ankara, eventually tipped the balance. Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a reformist former vice president of Iran, said, "The security breaches inside Iran and the vast scope of operations by Israel have really undermined our most powerful intelligence organization. The strength of our security has always been the bedrock of the Islamic Republic and it has been damaged in the past year." Israel's spy network has infiltrated deep into Iran's security circles, Iranian officials have acknowledged. Several dozen employees of the Ministry of Defense's missile development program were arrested on suspicion of leaking classified military information, including design blueprints of missiles, to Israel, according to an Iranian official.