Iran’s ruling clerics knew a nationwide revolt was coming — and plotted a brutal, premeditated crackdown months in advance, according to explosive new audio recordings and secret regime documents released Tuesday by the most prominent Iranian opposition group in the US.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, whose intelligence first identified Iran’s nuclear program in 2002, said the Tehran regime coldly mapped out a mass slaughter of protesters — including orders to cut off the internet, unleash live fire on crowds, embed undercover agents in demonstrations and manipulate protest chants to weaken the uprising.
“This was not panic. This was a plan,” NCRI US Deputy Director Alireza Jafarzadeh told reporters at a briefing in Washington. “They anticipated a national uprising — and prepared to crush it.”
Protests erupted in more than 400 cities across all 31 provinces, sweeping in students, workers, women, ethnic minorities and entire families — a scale NCRI called “unprecedented” under the Islamic Republic.
Crowds chanted “Death to Khamenei” and “Death to the dictator,” directly challenging Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in scenes that, Jafarzadeh said, “terrified the regime.” Even Khamenei recently admitted the unrest threatened the regime’s survival, calling it an attempted coup.
“This uprising caught the mullahs by surprise,” Jafarzadeh said. “It shook the foundations of their rule.”
The opposition group unveiled a 129-page “Comprehensive Tehran Security Plan,” drafted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Sarallah Garrison in fall 2024 — months before the protests erupted.
The plan, parts of which The Post has reviewed, details identifying “high-risk” citizens and families likely to protest, at what point to deploy IRGC forces, when to impose internet blackouts and isolate protesters and how to escalate the crackdown from police control to military suppression.
It also laid out the main reason behind civilians’ distaste for the radical Islamist regime, indicating Khamenei knew well in advance that his people disapproved of his leadership bringing on sanctions for his pursuit of nuclear weapons and support of proxy terrorist groups — and why.
“What currently causes the greatest public dissatisfaction is people’s concern and frustration over the repeated fluctuations in the exchange rate, and consequently the disruption of prices in the market, which has affected other areas such as cultural, social, political, sports and so forth,” the document said.
Another top-secret Interior Ministry directive outlined a four-stage crisis response, including pre-authorized orders to slow or completely shut down internet access once unrest reached a critical stage to isolate protesters and prevent the world from observing the scenes.
“By order of the IRGC commander-in-chief, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is olbligated to impose internet restrictions (cutting or slowing connectivity, etc.) in the areas experiencing unrest,” the document said.
Jafarzadeh said the document “proves the internet shutdown was not spontaneous.”
“It was written into their playbook,” he said.
NCRI also released an audio recording from an April 2025 high-level security meeting, attended by Iran’s intelligence minister and senior provincial officials.
In the tape played for reporters on Tuesday, officials bragged that they had neutralized all potential threats and believed another uprising was impossible.
“Just months later, their worst nightmare became reality,” Jafarzadeh said.
Iranian forces firing indiscriminately on crowds of protesters, blinding demonstrators with rubber bullets, storming hospitals, killing wounded protesters, hiding bodies — and even forcing grieving families to pay for the bullets the regime used to kill their loved ones, according to NCRI.
“This was not crowd control,” Jafarzadeh said. “This was a crime against humanity.”
NCRI has identified roughly 2,257 people killed during the January crackdown — with more names still being verified. The total death toll is likely far higher — with some international estimates as high as 30,000 — as some families decline to report their loved ones’ deaths for fear of reprisal of the regime.
The dead included at least 150 children and 245 women, with tens of thosands wounded and more than 50,000 protesters arrested, according to NCRI’s findings.
“These are martyrs of a national uprising,” Jafarzadeh said. “Their courage and sacrifice have been unprecedented.”
The resistance group also said the regime planted plainclothes operatives inside demonstrations to disrupt anti-Khamenei momentum.
When crowds began chanting “Death to Khamenei,” agents allegedly redirected chants toward pro-Shah slogans — an effort to fracture the movement and confuse the public, according to NCRI.
“They tried to dilute the uprising and divert attention from the real target: Khamenei,” Jafarzadeh said.
The protests reached major cities including Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan and Kermanshah, as well as smaller towns across Iran’s Kurdish, Baluchi and Azeri regions.
In some areas, demonstrators even temporarily seized control of neighborhoods — forcing security forces to retreat for hours before the IRGC stormed back in.
Jafarzadeh also highlighted cases of young activists killed in the crackdown, including university students and resistance members, describing them as symbols of a generation “willing to risk everything” to topple the regime.
Despite the bloodshed, Jafarzadeh argued the crackdown failed to crush the movement — and instead deepened public rage.
“This massacre did not intimidate the people,” Jafarzadeh said. “It convinced millions that there is only one solution — to end the rule of the clerics.”
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