A former senior Mossad official has revealed the establishment of a specialized branch in 2021, under Director David Barnea, dedicated to covert operations in Iran, including psychological warfare and influencing public opinion with the ultimate aim of weakening and overthrowing the Islamic regime. This unit was created to foster societal division, undermine the government's legitimacy, and facilitate political change, a significant shift from previous Mossad policy where regime change was a sensitive topic. An example of their strategy involves embarrassing leaks, such as the 2022 dissemination of a compromising photograph of former Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Rostam Qasemi, which contributed to his resignation, illustrating a preference for exposure over assassination as a means of removing officials. Furthermore, Mossad reportedly operates a "poison machine" utilizing fake accounts, anonymous pages, and AI-driven content distribution, including virtual influencers, to spread destabilizing narratives and exploit societal gaps within Iran, identified through extensive studies of public opinion and social media.

A former senior Mossad official has revealed the establishment of a specialized branch in 2021, under Director David Barnea, dedicated to covert operations in Iran, including psychological warfare and influencing public opinion with the ultimate aim of weakening and overthrowing the Islamic regime. This unit was created to foster societal division, undermine the government's legitimacy, and facilitate political change, a significant shift from previous Mossad policy where regime change was a sensitive topic. An example of their strategy involves embarrassing leaks, such as the 2022 dissemination of a compromising photograph of former Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Rostam Qasemi, which contributed to his resignation, illustrating a preference for exposure over assassination as a means of removing officials. Furthermore, Mossad reportedly operates a "poison machine" utilizing fake accounts, anonymous pages, and AI-driven content distribution, including virtual influencers, to spread destabilizing narratives and exploit societal gaps within Iran, identified through extensive studies of public opinion and social media.

A former senior Mossad official has revealed the establishment of a specialized branch in 2021, under Director David Barnea, dedicated to covert operations in Iran, including psychological warfare and influencing public opinion with the ultimate aim of weakening and overthrowing the Islamic regime. This unit was created to foster societal division, undermine the government's legitimacy, and facilitate political change, a significant shift from previous Mossad policy where regime change was a sensitive topic. An example of their strategy involves embarrassing leaks, such as the 2022 dissemination of a compromising photograph of former Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Rostam Qasemi, which contributed to his resignation, illustrating a preference for exposure over assassination as a means of removing officials. Furthermore, Mossad reportedly operates a "poison machine" utilizing fake accounts, anonymous pages, and AI-driven content distribution, including virtual influencers, to spread destabilizing narratives and exploit societal gaps within Iran, identified through extensive studies of public opinion and social media.

A former senior Mossad official has said that the spy organisation has created a special branch for infiltration operations, psychological warfare, and influenced public opinion in Iran, and the ultimate goal was to weaken and end the Islamic regime. The official added that  the unit was established in 2021, coinciding with the beginning of David Barnea's tenure as head of Mossad.

The mission of the unit was to create a rift between Iranian society and the government, undermine the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic, and pave the way for political change in Iran, the unnamed official told Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

In this interview, the official said that before Barnea came to power, even using the phrase "regime change" was a sensitive and almost forbidden topic in Mossad, but over the following years, overthrowing the Islamic Republic became one of the central goals of the organisation's activities.

One of the operations of the unit was the leaking of a photograph featuring Rostam  Qasemi, former commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and Minister of Roads in the government of Ebrahim Raisi. According to Yedioth Ahronoth, in 2022, Mossad  provided media outlets opposing the Islamic Republic with a photo taken years ago during Qasemi's trip to Malaysia. In the photo, Qasemi was seen hugging a woman who was not his wife and was not wearing a hijab.

The photo was published amid protests following the killing of Mahsa Amini and was quickly reposted on social media. A few days later, Ghasemi resigned from his position, a resignation that Islamic Republic officials attributed to his physical condition and illness.

The former Mossad official said that the release of this image was part of the organisation's new strategy to eliminate Islamic Republic officials without resorting to assassination operations. "Sometimes, exposing a case or embarrassing information can lead to the removal of an official from power. This is much cheaper and easier than carrying out an assassination operation," he added.

Mossad's "poison machine"

The Mossad also operated "poison machine"; a network of fake accounts, anonymous  pages, and content distribution systems that, according to the former official, have been used to spread information and narratives aimed at destabilising the Islamic Republic.

He claims that this network has expanded in recent years using new technologies and, in some cases, with the help of artificial intelligence, and even created virtual characters and fake influencers to spread the desired messages.

One of the first actions of the unit was to create a new intelligence unit to study public opinion, media, and social networks in Iran. The former branch official says that Mossad, using surveys, media analysis, and social media data,  had concluded that the gap between society and the government was widening and that a significant portion of Iranian society no longer believed in the survival of the Islamic Republic.

The report reveals that the release of images attributed to Mossad agents inside Iran during recent Israeli operations was not simply a propaganda move to showcase intelligence success.

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