Assassination of Paul R. Shaffer and John H. Turner

Colonel Paul R. Shaffer (1930–1975) was a United States military aide to Iran who served as an air force pilot in both Korea and Vietnam.^[1][2] In 1975, he was assassinated along with Lieutenant Colonel Jack H. Turner. Vahid Afrakhteh, a founding member of Peykar, confessed to the killing and later was executed.^[3][4][5][6] Nevertheless, some sources have said the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) was responsible.^[7]

Ettela'at newspaper covering assassination of U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jack H. Turner and Colonel Paul R. Shaffer

Background

According to the US ambassador to Iran, Richard Helms, the American presence in Iran during the 1970s was too large, estimated at 10,000–40,000 people. American personnel and arms had relocated to Iran due to the arms embargo against Turkey and withdrawal of Americans from Vietnam.^[8]

In the leadup to the assassination, security for American personnel had deteriorated so much that senior officers had been assigned bodyguards. Two weeks before the two Iranian government officials had been assassinated in Tehran and nine political prisoners had been killed in Evin prison.^[8]

Assassination

 

Vahid Afrakhteh's mugshot.

On 21 May 1975, terrorists stopped the car carrying Colonel Shaffer and Lieutenant Colonel John H Turner. One vehicle blocked the car from the front while another vehicle rammed it from behind.^[8] They ordered the Iranian driver to lie down, and then shot and killed the Americans at point-blank range. The shooting happened when the two officers were on their way to work at an Iranian military base in south Tehran.^{[1][9][2][10]} Hours after the attack, American officials received an anonymous call, which said the assassinations were retaliation for "Government atrocities against political prisoners".^[11] The Iranian government identified the terrorists as "young leftists"^[11] (according to another source it said "Marxist guerrillas"^[1]).

Individuals belonging to a Marxist element of the MEK^[12] (also known as Peykar)^[13] were identified as responsible.^{[by whom?]} Vahid Afrakhteh was accused and charged by an Iranian army tribunal, and was sentenced to death by firing squad.^[14] Afrakhteh (one of the founders of Peykar)^[15] confessed that he had led the cell that gunned down Col. Paul Shaffer and Lt. Col. Jack Turner, also saying that his immediate superiors at the time had close links with the Marxist Habash group.^[16]

According to some sources, the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) was responsible for the assassination.^{[17][18][7][11][19][20][21]} According to Col Wes Martin (U.S. army), there often is no distinguishment between acts committed by the MEK and the Marxist PMOI, and despite the Shah's police arresting "two people for the killings of Shaffer and Turner and stated they were part of the "Islamic Marxist group", and a member of the Marxist PMOI would later claim to have killed Hawkins, the blame remains on the PMOI [MEK]."^[22]

According to The Bulletin, a newspaper of Bend, Oregon, "a group identifying itself as the Revolutionary Republican Movement of the Armed Forces of Iran" also claimed responsibility.^[23]

Aftermath

In response to the assassinations, the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) set up surveillance detection and antiterrorism efforts to protect American defense personnel in Iran. In 1976, this protective mission was expanded to include civilians, after three American civilian contractors for Rockwell International were assassinated.^[24]

In 2005 a memorial was built by the War on Terror Foundation to honor Col. Shaffer.^[25] In 2017, the family of Jack Turner filed a $35 million lawsuit against the MEK and Iran.^[26]

See also

• Lewis Lee Hawkins
• List of people assassinated by the People's Mujahedin of Iran

References

1. "Daily Kent Stater 22 May 1975". Kent State University.
2. "Desert Sun 21 May 1975" – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
3. Shirali, Mahnaz (28 July 2017). The Mystery of Contemporary Iran. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-47913-4. The most notable actions of the Marxist Mojahedin were assassinations of Savak general, of two American military advisers, and a failed attempt against an American diplomat, all in 1975
4. Camp Ashraf: Iraqi Obligations and State Department Accountability: Joint Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, First Session, December 7, 2011. U.S. Government Printing Office. 2011. ISBN 978-0-16-090501-8. Referred to in the Iranian press as the 'Iranian People's Strugglers', and later known as Peykar, this group led by Tagui Shahram, Vahid Arakhteh and Bahram Aram was one of several underground groups waging a covert war against the Shah's secret police, SAVAK. Afrakhteh, who later confessed to the killings of Americans, was executed
5. Iran Almanac and Book of Facts, Volumen 15. 1976. Ten terrorists were sentenced to death... The condemned terrorists were Vahid Afrakhteh... The terroirsts were charged with the murders of Brigadier-general Reza Zandipur, United States Colonels Hawkins, Paul Shaffer and ack Turner, the U.S. Embassy's translator Hassan Hossnan
6. Reisinezhad, Arash (2018). The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 8. ASIN B07FBB6L8Y.
7. Ervand Abrahamian (1989). The Iranian Mojahedin. Yale University Press. p. 142.
8. Andrew Scott Cooper (2012). The Oil Kings: How the U.S., Iran, and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East. Simon & Schuster. pp. 255–256.
9. "Desert Sun 28 August 1976" – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
10. "Terrorists Kill Iranian Employe of U.S. Embassy". The New York Times. 4 July 1975.
11. Eric Pace (1975-05-22). "Iranian Terrorists Slay 2 U.S. Colonels". New York Times.
12. "Chapter 8 -- Foreign Terrorist Organizations". U.S. Department of State.
13. Shirali, Mahnaz (2014). The Mystery of Contemporary Iran. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-1-351-47913-4.
14. Mickolus, Edward F. (1980). Transnational terrorism: a chronology of events, 1968-1979. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-22206-1.
15. Arash Reisinezhad (2018). The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 8. ASIN B07FBB6L8Y.
16. "Clippings of Latin American political, social and economic news from various English language newspapers". ISLA. 12. April 1976.
17. Goulka, Jeremiah; Hansell, Lydia; Wilke, Elizabeth; Larson, Judith (2009). The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq: a policy conundrum (PDF). RAND Corporation. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-8330-4701-4.
18. Scott Horton (2012-04-09). "For Official Washington, Terrorism Is a Laughing Matter". Harper's.
19. Global Terrorism Database [Data file], National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), 1975-05-21, 197505210002
20. Dennis Pluchinsky. Anti-american Terrorism: From Eisenhower To Trump – A Chronicle Of The Threat And Response: Volume I: The Eisenhower Through Carter Administrations. World Scientific. pp. 54–55.
21. Albert V. Benliot (2001). Iran Outlaw, Outcast Or Normal Country?. Nova Science Publishers. p. 99.
22. Camp Ashraf: Iraqi Obligations and State Department Accountability: Joint Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, First Session, December 7, 2011. U.S. Government Printing Office. 2011. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-16-090501-8.
23. "Group claims responsibility for Iran deaths". The Bulletin.
24. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations, 1948-2000. United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations. 2008. pp. 332–333. OCLC 298116347.
25. http://www.waronterror.org/the-memorial/
26. "Trump Cabinet pick paid by controversial Iranian exile group". Associated Press. 24 April 2021.