Abbas Abdi: Reducing the 2021 protests to a security issue is a grave mistake
In a note titled ‘The Refusal of the Intelligence Institution’ in the Etemad newspaper, Abbas Abdi wrote: People and the private sector should be allowed to establish various independent polling institutions and even share their findings with the community, including intelligence agencies. If the intelligence agency uses these findings to make decisions for the public good, the best thing is to publish this information in society so that others can also align with these decisions. But if this information remains confidential and others are neither allowed to produce nor have the right to access it, it means that the use of these results serves the security role of these institutions.
The difference between intelligence and security institutions is evident in their performances and is seen in their approaches and analyses. Both Iranian security agencies, in a joint statement released last year after the Mahsa protests, showed that their approach is entirely security-oriented.
This does not mean that those protests lacked a security aspect. Certainly, they did, and it is quite clear that whenever an event of this magnitude occurs, anti-security elements, whether Iranian or foreign, or even media, get involved, and everyone tries to benefit from the situation. But reducing the foundation of this matter to a security issue was not only a grave mistake but also detrimental to the performance and efficiency of the security institutions. Why?
Because anti-security movements exploit social, economic, and political demands and weaknesses, and the security institution cannot confront the anti-security movement indefinitely without addressing these growing weaknesses. The more these weaknesses increase, the stronger the anti-security movement becomes, and confronting it goes beyond the capabilities of the security institutions, as it has happened. Therefore, in the current environment of Iran, the existence of an intelligence institution is impossible because the reality and information reflecting the realities of society have not yet been officially recognized.