Secret documents and recordings smuggled out of Tehran show the regime believed it had prevented an uprising, only to be caught off guard by the unrest that erupted late last year, Newsmax chief correspondent James Rosen reported.
"[These are] scenes from the latest uprising in Iran [that] the regime didn't want you to see, smuggled out by the country's largest resistance network," Rosen said in his exclusive report, airing on Newsmax's "Saturday Report."
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, described as the resistance network's Washington arm, "unveiled secret documents and recordings smuggled out of Tehran, showing regime leaders expressing confidence early last year that they had thwarted any potential uprisings, like the one that shook the country over the last two months," Rosen added.
He pointed to a meeting held on April 28, 2025, involving senior officials in Tehran province, led by a provincial governor, Mohammad Sadegh Mohammadian.
"Senior officials in the province of Tehran, led by a provincial governor, Mohammad Sadegh Mohammadian, reviewed the security climate, including the threat of renewed protests," Rosen said.
In one smuggled recording from the meeting, Mohammadian is heard saying that "the estimate of all security services in the country indicated that there would be a possibility of a crisis in the final months of the year, but with the help of the intelligence we had from Tehran, good cooperation and the preemptive measures, four or five crises were managed."
In another portion of the recording, Mohammadian added that "the Ministry of Intelligence, the IRGC, the internal security forces, the judiciary. We predicted different scenarios.
"We are prepared for them."
Rosen reported the NCRI "also presented regime documents identifying the internal groups most likely to stage an uprising," along with details on "the circumstances under which the Revolutionary Guard Corps would take over from the police."
But Rosen said the uprising that erupted in December and spread nationwide still stunned the government.
"Yet the rapid and explosive outbreak of the uprising that materialized in December and spread to all 31 provinces did take the regime by surprise and prompted the brutal crackdown that ultimately came," he said.
Meanwhile, NCRI Deputy Director Alireza Jafarzadeh insisted during a recorded presentation that the opposition emerged more resilient despite the violence.
"But the network is now stronger than it was before the uprising started," he said. "This was not a massacre that demoralized people and pacified them."
Rosen also reported on the group's response when asked about possible U.S. military action.
"When asked if NCRI wants President [Donald] Trump to launch fresh military strikes against Iran in response to the crackdown as he has threatened to do, the group effectively said no," Rosen said.
Instead, the NCRI responded that "the objective is not to weaken the regime, nor to respond to its actions, but to end it altogether by mass action inside the country," he reported.
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