400 Pages of Still-Classified CIA and State Dept Documents Seized From the US Embassy in Tehran

Acrobat/PDF files

Part One (88 pages | 7.7 meg)

Part Two (88 pages | 7.8 meg)

Part Three (84 pages | 8.6 meg)

Part Four (70 pages | 7 meg)

Part Five (70 pages | 6 meg)

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>>> "Documents From the US Espionage Den" is a legendary series of Iranian books containing classified US documents that were found in the American Embassy in Tehran when it was taken over by revolutionaries. These books are very hard to come by in the US, and until now there has been no concerted effort to post them. The National Security Archive is integrating individual documents into their electronic reading books on various topics, but we're interested in posting the whole set, volume by volume. As a first step, we're offering a smattering of the documents via the files above. We beseech anyone with access to the books - either the bound volumes or scanned versions of the English-language portions - to please get in touch.

Steven Aftergood of the Project on Government Secrecy (part of the Federation of American Scientists) gave an excellent introduction to these publications in 1997:

Many people will recall that when Iranian revolutionaries seized the U.S. embassy in Teheran in 1979, they acquired a large cache of classified U.S. government documents, some of which had been shredded and painstakingly reassembled, which they proceeded to publish. What no one seems to have noticed, however, is that they never stopped publishing!

By 1995, an amazing 77 volumes of "Documents from the U.S. Espionage Den" (Asnad-i lanih-'i Jasusi) had been collected and published by the "Muslim Students Following the Line of the Imam" (Center for the Publication of the U.S. Espionage Den's Documents, P.O. Box 15815-3489, Teheran, Islamic Republic of Iran, tel. 824005). Each volume contains original documents along with Farsi translations and, for no extra charge, an inflammatory introductory essay. [Read the full article here]

In a frequently referenced 1987 article on the subject, Edward Jay Epstein wrote:

...Iranian students seized an entire archive of CIA and State Department documents, which represented one of the most extensive losses of secret data in the history of any modern intelligence service. Even though many of these documents were shredded into thin strips before the Embassy, and CIA base, was surrendered, the Iranians managed to piece them back together. They were then published in 1982 in 54 volumes under the title "Documents From the U.S. Espionage Den", and are sold in the United States for $246.50. As the Teheran Embassy evidently served as a regional base for the CIA, The scope of this captures intelligence goes well beyond intelligence reports on Iran alone. They cover the Soviet Union, Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. There are also secret analysis of arcane subjects ranging from the effectiveness of Israeli intelligence to Soviet oil production. [Read the full article here]

It turns out that in keeping with the times, the majority of the "Espionage Den" volumes have been scanned and are available on CDs sold in Iran. A Memory Hole reader had an Iranian friend buy the two-volume set, which he kindly gave to us. The major down side is that while the CDs contain 68 volumes of "Espionage Den" in Farsi (totalling over 10,000 pages), they contain only two PDF files of the original English-language documents (totalling a meager 400 pages). Adding to the frustration, the English material is presented in completely random order. Each page is usually from a completely different document than the page before and after it. We're posting them as they appear on the CD (although broken down into five files instead of two, since the original files were so huge). If some enterprising reader wants to create an index, we'll happily post it here.

Most of these documents are labeled "Confidential" or "Secret" and remain classified to this day.

More info about "Documents From the US Espionage Den"

"Shredded Secrets" (excerpt) by Edward Jay Epstein

"Iran: The Making of U.S. Policy, 1977-1980" by the National Security Archive

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