A Time to Betray: The Astonishing Double Life of a CIA Agent Inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran

5 Responses to “A Time to Betray: The Astonishing Double Life of a CIA Agent Inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran”

1. Pirooz says:

   August 24, 2010 at 1:06 pm

   The book is an simple read. No intricate plots, no revealing details, really nothing besides a plot that continuously reminded me of the 1970’s movie “like Tale” starring O’Neil & McGraw rather than a spy master’s adventures. This is unexpected result of the leader dedicating far too much space to his longings for his wife etc. It tries too hard in that department and at times one gets the feeling of reading a romantic paperback novel as a replacement for of a book about a revolution, the Guards or anything else of substance. In covering the rest of what the book really promises on its take in, there are too many coincidences natural fiber into the fabric of the account ; again at times one starts to doubt it is a factual account as the plot does get rather melodramatic. Most of the conclusions, facts , speculations that the leader makes would be common knowledge to anyone reading the international news media.

   In the end I establish the book a disappointment lonely of anything of substance to offer anyone who has followed events in the middle east (even superficially).
   Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
2. Poquelin says:

   August 24, 2010 at 2:47 pm

   This is a fantastic read. I just couldn’t place it down. You won’t be dissapointed if you’re looking for all the emotions you’d expect to get from a thrilling spy tale: Excitement, dread, sadness, suspense, etc.

   A definate plus is the history lesson about modern day Iran and the picture clear explanation of life there before and after the Revolution. I loved reading about their family tree traditions, gatherings and how normal family tree life in Iran was then. How children in Iran could be as harmful and prone to play pranks and get grounded just like any western child would. Somehow, I never thought about it before.

   No need to try to prompt in a different way the many accolades already agreed by the additional reviewers. I agree with all the excellent things that have already been said.

   The only thing that bothers me is that, having read hundreds of personal tales in my life, this is the first time that I find myself wondering the sincerity of some of the events described. While most of the tale is completely believable and I know that names, places and descriptions of buildings and events may need to be changed for security reasons, there are certain events about which their timing is suspicious at best and their convenience to go the tale to the next necessary step nearly rises to the level of a Deus ex Machina.

   Perhaps you will feel the same way after reading this well-written nearly novel like spy tale. It was a joy reading it except for the everpresent question mark on the back of my mind about some of the events.

   As for the additional 98% of the book, it is definately a thumbs up!
   Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
3. DVDFan says:

   August 24, 2010 at 5:24 pm

   I’m highly recommending this book and yet giving a 3 star. I will clarify this dichotomy. I judge that all of the tales told here are right and that Reza was a spy. But most of what is written here seems to be tales that have floated around for years and it seems the leader has simply regurgitated them as his own to erect tension and justify his actions. For instance back in 1991, I had personally heard this tale of a missile destroying a young en’s birthday party that others did not attend. What are the chances of that tale being the exact same one that Reza’s son was invited to? The tale of the Mujaheddins (MLK) following on quick motorbikes and killing various officials did take place though it was not that widespread. Again what are the chances of Reza having been part of one and what are the chances that he was finally breaking his silence with Kazim right before the attack? If a Kazim in his life was a real person that he never had this final conversation with, does this tale simply serve as a way to pacify Reza’s troubled mind years afterward? Why would a Kazim want to attend the stoning of a woman anyway? Most privileged status officials would shy away from this sort of dirty work and place it to their scum to carry out and make a scene.

   The tale(ies) are well written and it would serve well as the vignettes of the problems the Iranian people have suffered for the last 30 years, if it had been collected as such. to say all of these happened to one person is disingenuous at best. It makes for a fantastic thriller movie, if done well and I suspect that’s what the leader aiming at. I want to see it though.

   I still reflect the effort of the leader to collect and publish these tales need to be applauded as is his effort to highlight the human rights abuses in Iran. I just wished he had the courage to keep most tales as things he heard and then really shine the light on what he really witnessed.

   Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
4. Andrew Desani says:

   August 24, 2010 at 7:41 pm

   As much as I wanted to judge Mr. Kahlilis account it was overly dramatized that made me be skeptical about it or at lease feel the raw material is wasted. During the read I kept asking myself how come the book doesn’t offer any new information or events rather than recounting facts that are so ancient and obvious now for everybody. This book is excellent and entertaining and it weaves pieces of history into it. I don’t have any doubt that Reza is a real person and not a fictional character and this exactly make me disappointed because such a person must have so much valuable memories that would be more attractive, had it been less fictionalized/romanticized.
   Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
5. Charles F. Benninghoff III says:

   August 24, 2010 at 10:27 pm

   Weird indeed, it is, that mans’ vision for better tomorrows, for spiritual fulfillment and world peace bring out the very worst as a replacement for of the best. This strangeness crept into the soul, the life, the very bosom of Reza Kahlili and caused him such turmoil, pain and suffering that all but the victims of his avowed religion could but scarcely imagine when, in 1979, the horror of the Iranian revolution swept decency into the trash bin and Mr. Kahlili into treason.
   
   Like the warp and weft of a fine Nain, Kahlili weaves together two complementary threads of his life in his new book A Time to Betray (Threshold Editions – A Division of Simon Schuster): a warp made of his like of very ancient Fars and its intriguing, life fulfilling traditions of family tree, Zoroaster and motherland and a brightly patterned weft of lifting childhood memories, friendships, dreams and ambition.
   
   That ambition brought Mr. Kahlili to America, to the University of Southern California, in the mid-1970s; thus, our two lives unknowingly passed as I was there and then a student. I remember vividly the many Persians who attended USC’s schools of engineering, accounting, business, and such – many by the personal largesse of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who (it turned out) was the last of a thousand-year period of absolute rulers of Iran).
   
   Handsome and bright, struggling for English while knowledgeable of a world luring, yet unfamiliar to me, these dark and foreboding men brought to me knowledge of Iran I would never otherwise have had and friendship I never suspected. Somehow a “bug” mysteriously and unwanted awakened in me, a drive to learn about, buy and appreciate the tapestries of Iran. Such has seemed reasonably silly to me as I have gone through life for, as a child, I was never exposed to carpets or rugs. I reflect, though, it simply is an awe of cultural beauty and thoughtless devotion to an art form.
   
   The closeness of the Persian students flooding the campus of Troy, each seemingly driven here by their mother with a Heriz, or Nain, or Esfahan, or Tekke Bokhara, or Tabriz in their baggage made a milieu so attractive to my bug that several times my rent was nearly not paid. I still have persons rugs and their memories from my student days and like them now as then. I learned from them as well, for with each haggle or buy came a flood of information and appreciation of the peoples who manufactured them, their lands, traditions and beliefs. And, with that knowledge my appreciation of the House of Pahlavi grew for in it I saw a modernization and awakening in the sleeping giant of backward, tribalistic and fearsome musselmen. Over the years, I read the quran from take in-to-take in in what now I recollect as mind-numbingly repetitive, verbose and jingoistic prose; yet in this prose was Mohammed’s perfect acceptance of Mary’s virgin birth of Jesus and that Jesus’ creation was both divine (surah 3:38-48) and that He would rise from the dead (surah 19:30-35) and in copious places Mohammed (allegedly in behalf of Allah) refers in the Quran to Jesus as Messiah. This, before I myself came back to Christ, fostered a fervent belief and robust hope that the conservative ecumenicalism I then embraced would be matched by a more long-suffering, open – even “liberal” (how I now quiver at that thought) – Islamic religion, at least in Iran through Shah Pahlavi’s excellent works.
   
   After graduating, for a grand five years, from 1975-1979, I made many, many friends in the Islamic community of Los Angeles and was propelled to do so not only by the “rug bug” referred to, above, but also as a result of additional businesses, social acquaintances and well. Then it happened!
   
   Reza Kahlili, a then-pleased, pot enjoying and to some extent philandering USC student (or is that a description of all USC students?) was called home to attend to his father’s affairs and became both embroiled in family tree issues and, as well, caught up in the tide of Islamic fundamentalism that brought on the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
   
   Mr. Kahlili soon became an vital member of the Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian equivalent of – and at least as ruthless as – Hitler’s Schutzstaffel, and because of his computer training at USC he was leaps and bounds yet to be of everyone in the RG. Soon, he became a trusted RG leader and officer, putting together the very computer systems that helped Iran defeat Hussein’s Iraq in the 1980s. Reza’s pride in revolutionary Islamism swelled even while he started to realize that the extremes of the guards were apt appalling. Then, he learned about the daughter of his closest of childhood acquaintances being held in Tehran’s Evin Prison simply for having acted like any young girl, no crime, nothing additional than an issue of modesty. Reza pled for her life to no aim but he did learn that all young girls were cruelly raped by mullahs, guards and others prior to their execution because, under Islamic belief, a virgin permanently goes to heaven. It was too much, obviously, for these crazed musselmen that a teenage girl who chats with a boyfriend to go to heaven so each child was systematically and cruelly raped, leaving them fit for naught but hell.
   
   Mr. Kahlili tells of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of completely innocent Iranians who met their death at the hands of, or at the behest of, the mullahs who have run Iran since 1979, for no reason, with no real crime committed (such as adultery, homosexuality, verbal abuse of the regime, lack of piety for a mullah, etc) – just so the mullahs could keep the population in abject dread and themselves in perfect and total power.
   
   Thus, just as my hopes for moderation in Iran were dashed by daily revelations in the conservative press of how the Islamic leadership of Iran was treating it minorities, women and dissidents, so too were Mr. Kahlili’s – except that he was living through the horrors of radical Islam personally.
   
   Beginning about 1983, the ponderous weight of the massacres of Iranian civilians by the mullahs and their henchmen, along with the mullahs’ drive to root out all forms of Persian life before Islam, started to weigh most heavily on Mr. Kahlili. In one instance, he thought the status of his position could help a young, teenage daughter of a life-long friend who was held in Evin. He describes the horror thus: “Moments later, I saw a line of blindfolded prisoners being led to a room. By this point my palms were sweating and my heart was pounding [for he was in dread that his status as a CIA agent had been learned]. The guard told me to wait in the hall while he arranged my visit [with my acquaintances] children… Moments later, I stared straight into the gulf. A group of armed guards emerged from a doorway. With them, a dozen teenage girls struggled barefoot down the hall. I went numb as they… [passed by]. These children seemed broken both mentally and physically. I could see that some were in shock. Some had tears rolling down their inflated faces. Others had blood caked on their skin. The rest seemed hopeless… ” Upon seeing his acquaintances teenage daughter in this group, he questioned the guard to intercede, adage, “That’s Davood’s daughter and he is here to see her.” The guard stated, “The order for execution is already in effect. Nothing can be done.” Within minutes, Kahlili heard the roar of the executioners’ tune.
   
   Then the azan, the sing-song call to prayer, rang through the dungeon celebrating the desecration of these innocent teenage girls, with the imam crying “… allihu akbar, allihu akbar…” meaning Allah is fantastic, Allah is fantastic. The greatness of Allah, but, was seemingly forever lost on Kahlili from that day forwards for the mercilessness of the mullahs, and their religion, had brought light to Kahlili, light with which he sought to open the darkness of the revolution to the prying eyes of the Central Intelligence Agency, indeed – to the world.
   
   Islam’s vile treatment of women reverberated even into the home of Kahlili, who by then had risen high in the RG’s ranks, for his wife was accosted by the Muslim sex police. Women are virtual sex slaves under Islamic law. This point is supported, as well, in the P. David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry best seller book, Muslim Mafia( WND Books 2010) where at page 131 it is stated, “Under Islamic law, a man is allowed up to four wives, but women can have just one spouse. A man can divorce his wife easily, but a woman has to question her spouse for permission to place the marriage. And the witness of a woman in court is worth just half that of a man.” Further, “Muslim women also lack equal rights in their houses of worship – even in America. At fully two-thirds of U.S. mosques, they’re required to worship behind a curtain or partition – separated from the men… And many of them require women to enter the mosque from the back of the building, regularly near the dumpster, such as [at] the 9/11 mosque in Falls Church, Virginia…” which was the religious home of terrorists who carried out the attack on the Twin Towers.
   
   What’s more, the Muslim declaration of faith, or shahada, by a woman must be performed in front of two male witnesses and women cannot make the pilgrimage to Mecca (one of the so-called Pillars of Islam) by themselves. They must be accompanied by a mahram – a first-degree male relative such as a father, spouse, son or brother – and marriage or birth certificates must be submitted prior to entry into Mecca as proof of the relationship. If a married woman elects to go with her brother, for instance, she must take a notarized “no-objection” letter from her spouse and present this to Saudi officials in Mecca prior to entry. Even if a widow wishes to make the pilgrimage, she cannot go lacking first obtaining a notarized letter from her son or brother addressed to the Saudi embassy stating he has no objection with travelling to the pilgrimage. Id. All of these rules are set into the world in the Quranic law including the right of men to beat their wives. Yes, musselmen beating their wives is a condoned activity by the Islamic god, Allah. It has been postulated that the reason Muslim women are required to wear head-to-toe dark clothing is to take in-up any signs of Islamic-approved spouse beatings. Id.
   
   Thus, the slave status of women in Islam is chiseled in bone, so to speak, and that was an additional impetus to Kahlili to betray both Islam and Iran.
   
   It was puzzling, at first, why the leader both referred to his conduct as “treachery” in the book, and, at the same time, make the title of the book A Time to Betray because in light of the grave misdeeds of the Islamic Iranian government and its crimes against humanity, Kahlili’s work to despoil it were certainly not treachery but heroism. Kahlili clarified, “To sidestep your principals; to lie to your wife and family tree and to pretend you are a name else is not morally right. But the brutal acts of the Islamic Government left me with no choice but to act the way I did. The reason I named my book ‘A Time to Betray’ hopefully justifies that!” It does to a degree, but there are many examples in everyday life that would not condone, much less approve, harboring clearly illegal conduct such as that of the Islamic leaders of Iran. For example, universal law (except in despotic countries such as Iran, of course) forbids soldiers from carrying out crimes against humanity and additional illegal orders such as execution lacking due process. Perhaps, then, a better title would be A Time for Heroism…
   
   For Kahlili is truly a hero of Iran and, indeed, the world. One of the few voices of reason calling to the world to listen and pay attention to the evil resident in Tehran. He stated during a correspondence interview with me, “Throughout my journey as a spy I never felt I betrayed God. Reasonably to the contrary, I fervently believed the mullahs preached a religion which represented evil. I had establish my God, the same one that saw me and my family tree through this rough journey unharmed.”
   
   From beginning to end, the journey taken by Kahlili was a thrilling ride. One that is full of suspense, excitement and fantastic moral reward. The book is keenly crafted, foundations carefully and fervently laid down and with prose of some beauty. The agony of the Kahlili family tree is palpable from the turn of many phrases, and (while knowing the outcome since the book, itself, was written) it was never clear that Kahlili really was to escape unharmed even while he went through one scrape after another.
   
   What Kahlili did, what he suffered through, and the burdens he personally bore in order to reveal to the world the demagoguery and butchery of the Iranian musselmen was truly heroic. His revelations of one base crime after another would have been more than enough to dissuade any man to seek escape from daily horrors of life under the mullahs; but, he did not. He persevered through treachery of even his formerly-closest friends who were driven by radical Islam to turn upon one another, the incomparable moral debauchment of the mullahs, living through upsetting experiences while in the front lines in the Iran-Iraq war, and the threat from moment-to-moment of being uncovered as a spy for truth and justice.
   
   1979 seems to be a cut-off point year in another battle, as well. That battle concerns the horror that Islam is today when compared to a lesser horror that it could have been had the few voices of moderation in that year been listened to. For, it was 1979 when Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani died at the age of 74. Taleghani was said to have been an advocate of moderation within the Iranian theocracy. But, upon his death, it was revealed that he had been the chairman of the secretive Revolutionary Council, Iran’s chief ruling body. He was reported to have died of a heart attack, a favorite “official line” in Tehran at the time when political assassination was really the cause of death. Taleghani was the first religious leader to pronounce the Pahlavi monarchy “illegal” and the first to be arrested for doing so. He remained in Iran throughout the Pahlavi reign, spending a dozen years in prison, but also shaping the violent revolution that brought the exiled Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. He was publicly known for his tolerance as a result of being compared to additional, virulent Islamists and he served as Khomeini’s negotiator in disputes with the Kurds and additional unorthodox groups. His own differences with the “Grand Ayatollah” nearly forced a showdown in April, 1979 when Khomeini arrested two of Taleghani’s sons. To well loved acclaim, Taleghani warned then against a “return to despotism” if Khomeini came fully to power. Before long thereafter, he suffered his “heart attack”. This history is pertinent to A Time to Betray because lacking reference to Taleghani himself, Mr. Kahlili poignantly addresses the very issue of Taleghani’s substance because Taleghani was a prime movant in Islam of blending communism into this faith and he did so, he reported, in order to appeal to the highly agitated Arab and Farsi youth who at the time were being enchanted by the allure of the lyrical notes of the Internationale. Khomeini, but, would have nothing to do with the blending of apostasy and Islam and all of Iranian leadership since have been similarly disposed. As well, Khomeini, and all subsequent leadership have been members of a secret Muslim society known as Hojjatieh. They comprise the hardcore believers of “end of times” and the return of Mahdi (an Islamic concept holding that a person called “Mahdi” will appear and enslave the world with Islam). These Hojjatieh members are running some of the most vital political and security institutions in the Iranian government today and are fully in charge of its actions. They truly judge that the Hojjatieh adherents have to foment chaos, famine, and lawlessness, that they must ruin Israel and disrupt world order so that this will force Mahdi to re-appear and kill all nonbelievers and only then will Islam conquer the world. Their pursuit of the nuclear bomb is in direct furtherance of this super-mystical belief system.
   
   The battle between Khomeini and Taleghani factions of Islamic thought has carried forwards to the present for it is the neo-communists of today (who call themselves “progressives”) and who are particularly in control of Western media who have aligned themselves with Islam at the expense of Israel and the United States, seeking to obliterate the Jews and Islamize the Americans into non-being. These neo-communists fail to see the threat to themselves and are patently effective for their own destruction. A valid question is, “well, why not let them? Excellent riddance!” To which the answer is, “… the holocaust may well take all of humanity along with them.” A Valid response.
   
   Mr. Kahlili addresses this Khomeini-Taleghani question by referring to Iran’s current president, “Like others who reflect as he does, Ahmadinejad believes that many of the signs of Mahdi’s return have emerged. Known as hadiths, these signs include the invasion of Afghanistan, the slaughter in Iraq, and the global economic meltdown. According to prophecy, the hadiths will grow increasingly furious as Mahdi’s return comes closer…” and that by their own vile actions of warfare and pogrom, Muslims can themselves cause Mahdi to appear (p. 334).
   
   Thus, the entire Iranian regime is based upon the thought that progressives are superfluous and indispensable tools of victory and that, when conflict arises between them and the regime the only answer is, as in the case of Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani, death by means of some convenient, contrived “heart attack”. Kahlili referenced this fact on page 282 where he wrote, “[Khomeini] ordered that deaths of leftists because they were apostate [non-Islamic]. Th[is] fatwa [religious order based upon Islamic power] led to the execution of thousands of innocent men and women of all ages in a very fleeting period. Among them were girls as young as … [teenagers, who were]…raped before their bodies swayed on the hook of [construction] cranes. Innocent young men … were lined up for several hours before they were hanged. This massacre was on of the most heinous acts of Khomeini’s rule, yet the rest of the world paid small attention to it.” It is thus certain that Islam will use progressives to come to power and then do all of them.
   
   Based upon the clear facts and actual promotion of pogrom by such as Ahmadinejad, Mr. Kahlili wrote to me, “The only thing that can be done is to help the Iranian people overthrow this cruel and inhumane regime. I fervently judge anything fleeting of that will bring horror and destruction to the Iranian people and the world.”
   
   In the final analysis, the “right believers” of Islam like Khomeini, Ahmadinejad and their ilk over the centuries have entirely misconstrued what Islam is all about – either for their own advancement or by reason of competitiveness with western culture. As referenced from the Quran itself, Mohammed as the Messenger related that Jesus was born of Mary, a virgin, through the will of God, that He will return and that He is the Messiah – another word for Mahdi. This is in the Quran!
   
   This book, A Time to Betray, is a must read for anyone concerned about human rights, the travails of women under Islamic Sharia rule, and how best to free the Iranian people in order to remove this unquestionable threat to humanity. Lacking even considering what the madmen in Tehran will do with an atomic contrivance, this book proves that the West has taken Iran’s plight far too lightly.
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5