"Immediately after receiving the results (of the survey), an infuriated and worried Khatami queried about who had placed the controversial question, and why, and ordered that both the item on the popularity of the officials and the answers be withdrawn from the classified operation, but by then it was too late, as the Information (Intelligence) Ministry, which had obtained the full list of questions and the results before the President, had informed the office of the leader", according to Mr. Ahmad Salamatian, a veteran political analyst based in Paris.

According to the classified report, a little more than one per cent of the people questioned by the NIRSOP listed Mr. Khameneh'i as a popular leader, coming 18^th on a list of twenty personalities, Mr. Salamatian said, quoting unidentified sources who had access to the original results, without naming the other personalities coming before the leader.

The survey also showed that 75 per cent of the interviewees were in favour of normalising relations with the United States, thus rejecting the official position of Mr. Khameneh'i, who, not only is against resuming ties with Washington, but also has forbidden the media publishing anything in support of dialogue with America.

The conservatives-controlled press and Judiciary immediately opened an unprecedented barrage against the government, accusing it of having deliberately commissioned the poll to undermine the very system of the Islamic Republic and its symbol, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i as the Representative of God.

But Mr. Shari’atmadari, who is also a high-ranking officer of the security services specialising in interrogating dissidents, did not say how the NIRSOP "fabricated" a survey which he describes as "highly classified"?

The NIRSOP was denounced by conservatives dailies for having carried a poll for the Japanese Embassy in Iran.

"To some circles, any connection to outside world, either by internet, satellite or through specialised scientific or cultural firms mean espionage", said Mr. Ali Shakkoori Rad, a reformist lawmaker, pointing out that the survey conducted for the Japanese was done with the authorisation from the Foreign Affairs Ministry and could not, in any way, be considered as spying.

In the meantime, the leader-controlled Judiciary summoned Mr. Abdollah Naseri, the General Director of IRNA for publishing the damaging results and Mr. Ahmad Boorqani, a former Deputy Guidance Minister, for his links to the NIRSOP and jailed Mr. Geranpayeh, who had failed raising a staggering 200 million toomans (250.000 US Dollars on the market rate) bail imposed on him by Sa’id Mortazavi, the leader-appointed judge of the so-called press court.

On his rulings, more than 80 publications, most of them supporting reforms, have been shut and a dozen of influential and popular journalists and editors jailed.