Qasim Javadi (1946 - 2003) was an Iranian spy and former terrorist, leading the Kadivar Mercenaries after the death of Arash Kadivar in Turkey. Secretly, despite being a KGB asset, he became an informant for the CIA after he was captured in the Netherlands during the assassination operation against Kadivar. Due to his intel, the CIA was able to disrupt Soviet activity in the Middle East.
Javadi was also instructed to spy on his own government, eventually being caught and hanged in 2003.
Biography
Early life
Qasim Javadi was born in 1946 in the Soviet-ruled Azerbaijan People's Government in northern Iran. In the early 60s, Javadi attended the University of Tehran to study the medical field, but became influenced by the political resistance against the tyrannical Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and dropped out to join this movement. He met Arash Kadivar at a secret rally in Tehran, joining his terrorist mercenary group and becoming Kadivar's protégé.
While Kadivar organized the group's activities, Javadi managed the finances; this included money sent from the KGB to fund their operations. Javadi rarely participated in the group's activities, which included bombing Iranian government buildings and executing key supporters of Pahlavi. He also participated in the Iranian Revolution of 1979, attacking the Shah's soldiers and his supporters. Though Javadi advised against it, Kadivar assisted the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line to take hostages at the US Embassy in Tehran, beginning the Iran hostage crisis.
Capture and death of Kadivar
In January 1981, President Ronald Reagan approved a CIA operation to hunt down Arash Kadivar, led by special agent Russell Adler and agents Alex Mason and Frank Woods. On 12 January 1981, Javadi and about thirty Kadivar mercenaries were occupying an apartment block in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, awaiting word from Kadivar in Turkey. CIA intelligence discovered Javadi's safehouse in Amsterdam, prompting Adler to utilize a favor with Amsterdam KLPD chief Hans Tillerman to lax police presence near the safehouse.
Qasim Javadi being interrogated by Alex Mason.
When the assault began, Javadi fled across the rooftops with the mercenaries covering him, though his men were killed by the assault team and Javadi was caught at the end of the roof. Mason interrogated him, threatening to throw him off the building if Javadi didn't divulge where Kadivar was. Out of fear, Javadi revealed his location at an airport in Trabzon, Turkey, before being knocked out and taken into CIA custody.
Later life
Javadi was flipped into a CIA asset, being used to report on Soviet activities in the Middle East utilizing his contacts and his newfound leadership of the Kadivar mercs. After the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kadivar reluctantly spied on the Iranian government, feeding information on its activities to his CIA handlers. He ceased participating in terrorist attacks, though he did manage to gain significant political influence in his home country.
Death
In 2003, Kadivar's laptop was ceased by the Iranian government which revealed his status as a CIA informant. Having betrayed his home country, Javadi was sentenced to death by hanging, which was carried out in Tehran.