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U.S. Plans Sanctions Against Iran’s Drones and Guided Missiles

by July 30, 2021
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Western security officials say they view Iranian precision-strike capabilities as a bigger immediate threat than nuclear enrichment and ballistic missiles

WSJ    |    Ian Talley in Washington and Benoit Faucon in London    |    July 29, 2021

The U.S. plans a sanctions campaign against Iran’s evolving capabilities for precision strikes using drones and guided missiles, according to U.S. officials, amid concerns over the threat these weapons represent to American and allied interests.

The effort comes as Western security officials say they see those capabilities as a more immediate danger to Middle East stability than Iran’s nuclear-enrichment and ballistic-missile programs.

The U.S. has sanctioned some of Iran’s missile programs in past years, but officials said that targeting Iran’s procurement networks, such as the providers of parts used to build the drones and precision-guided missiles, could more effectively disrupt those activities.

“It’s part of a comprehensive approach so we’re dealing with all aspects of the Iranian threat,” a senior U.S. official said.

Top military and diplomatic officials say they have seen a major increase in the use of guided missiles and drones against U.S. forces and allies.

“Iran’s drones are becoming an increasing threat to our allies in the region,” said another U.S. official.

Iran’s representatives at the United Nations in New York didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The planned campaign comes as the Biden administration considers tightening enforcement of oil sanctions to pressure Tehran to soften its position in stalled negotiations over compliance with a 2015 international nuclear agreement. But the officials said the planned drone and missile measures are a separate part of Washington’s Iran policy.

The Biden administration has offered to lift a host of sanctions in exchange for Tehran’s return into compliance with the 2015 nuclear accord. Iran’s government has said it would comply only if the U.S. repeals all sanctions, including those targeting its missile programs and the terror designations against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the IRGC’s specialized Qods Force.

The Biden administration says that many of those sanctions are outside the scope of the nuclear deal and that it plans to continue the U.S. pressure campaign against Iran’s support for regional conflicts and the ballistic-missile program banned by the U.S. and internationally.

Because the U.S. views many of the existing missile and terror sanctions as separate from the nuclear deal, the U.S. expansion of sanctions against Iran’s drone and precision-guided missile programs shouldn’t be misinterpreted as an effort to prod Tehran on the stalled nuclear talks, the senior official said.

Among early signs of the expanded sanctions program are a series of recent Treasury Department sanctions against Iran-backed Houthi officials in Yemen and their supporters that cite the use of drones and missiles by fighters.

A spokeswoman for the Treasury Department, which manages U.S. sanctions policy, declined to comment.

Iran’s precision-strike capabilities were highlighted in 2019 when a drone attack shut half the crude-oil output of Saudi Arabia—the world’s biggest oil exporter—and the U.S. blamed Tehran.

A few months later, Washington considered striking a drone factory near the central Iranian city of Isfahan amid an escalation of tensions following the killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, U.S. officials said at the time.

Saudi Arabia, a longtime adversary of Iran and its primary challenger as regional hegemon, has been attacked more than 100 times in recent months by ballistic missiles, unmanned aerial systems, small drones and cruise missiles fired by Iranian proxies in Yemen, officials have said.

Iranian drone technologies were also used by Islamist group Hamas against Israel during their short conflict in May, Israeli officials and security analysts said.

Iran has developed a domestic production base for its unmanned aerial vehicles in the face of successive U.S. sanctions campaigns, the Washington-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said in an assessment earlier this year of Iran’s missile and drone capabilities.

However, subsystems and components for its drones, notably engines and microelectronics, continue to be imported through illicit channels, the think tank said.

Those channels and companies involved in them could be targeted by U.S. sanctions, a move analysts said could be as crippling as the international arms embargo that expired last year.

“It would notably disrupt Iran’s defense supply chain,” particularly imports from any providers in Russia and China, said Robert Czulda, an assistant professor specializing in Iran at Poland’s University of Lodz.

Using financial coercion gives the U.S. a diplomatic alternative to carrying out military strikes on missile and drone factories, officials say, as the Biden administration is seeking to avoid confrontations with Iran and its proxies in Yemen, Syria and Iraq.

Critics of the administration’s Iran policy say the U.S. needs to do more, such as requiring authorities in Lebanon to root out weapon factories in Beirut. Western intelligence and Israeli officials have said members of Iran-backed Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terror group, are building precision-guided missiles and drones that represent a top national security threat to U.S. ally Israel.

U.S. and Israeli officials have said they want to find ways to eliminate new factories being built in Lebanon by Hezbollah for precision-guided missiles. Lebanese officials and Hezbollah leaders have denied the existence of weapons plants.

Iran’s evolving ability to launch precision strikes represents a growing threat in part because of the concentration of strategic Western assets in the region and because the weapons represent a low-cost, low-risk option with high potential impact. Covert factories can be located near targets, sidestepping the ability of the U.S. and its allies to disrupt arms shipments along supply lines.

The drones and guided missiles also can be launched from afar: Iran says some of its drones now have a strike range of 4,400 miles. U.S. and Western officials consider many Iranian military claims to be exaggerated, but haven’t specifically rebutted the Iranian assertion.

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/u-s-plans-sanctions-against-irans-drones-and-guided-missiles-11627556400

July 30, 2021 0 comment
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Iranian Intelligence Officials Indicted on Kidnapping Conspiracy Charges

by July 18, 2021
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Department of Justice     |     July 13, 2021

Iranian Intelligence Services Allegedly Plotted to Kidnap a U.S. Journalist and Human Rights Activist from New York City for Rendition to Iran

A New York federal court unsealed an indictment today charging four Iranian nationals with conspiracies related to kidnapping, sanctions violations, bank and wire fraud, and money laundering. A co-conspirator and California resident, also of Iran, faces additional structuring charges.

According to court documents, Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, aka Vezerat Salimi and Haj Ali, 50; Mahmoud Khazein, 42; Kiya Sadeghi, 35; and Omid Noori, 45, all of Iran, conspired to kidnap a Brooklyn journalist, author and human rights activist for mobilizing public opinion in Iran and around the world to bring about changes to the regime’s laws and practices. Niloufar Bahadorifar, aka Nellie Bahadorifar, 46, originally of Iran and currently residing in California, is alleged to have provided financial services that supported the plot.

“Every person in the United States must be free from harassment, threats and physical harm by foreign powers,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mark J. Lesko for the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Through this indictment, we bring to light one such pernicious plot to harm an American citizen who was exercising their First Amendment rights, and we commit ourselves to bring the defendants to justice.”

“As alleged, four of the defendants monitored and planned to kidnap a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin who has been critical of the regime’s autocracy, and to forcibly take their intended victim to Iran, where the victim’s fate would have been uncertain at best,” said U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss for the Southern District of New York. “Among this country’s most cherished freedoms is the right to speak one’s mind without fear of government reprisal. A U.S. citizen living in the United States must be able to advocate for human rights without being targeted by foreign intelligence operatives. Thanks to the FBI’s exposure of their alleged scheme, these defendants have failed to silence criticism by forcible abduction.”

“As alleged in this indictment, the government of Iran directed a number of state actors to plot to kidnap a U.S.-based journalist and American citizen, and to conduct surveillance on U.S. soil – all with the intention to lure our citizen back to Iran as retaliation for their freedom of expression,” said Assistant Director Alan E. Kohler Jr. of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. “We will use all the tools at our disposal to aggressively investigate foreign activities by operatives who conspire to kidnap a U.S. citizen just because the government of Iran didn’t approve of the victim’s criticism of the regime.”

According to the indictment, Farahani is an Iranian intelligence official who resides in Iran. Khazein, Sadeghi and Noori are Iranian intelligence assets who also reside in Iran and work under Farahani. Since at least June 2020, Farahani and his intelligence network have plotted to kidnap a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin (Victim-1) from within the United States in furtherance of the government of Iran’s efforts to silence Victim-1’s criticisms of the regime. Victim-1 is an author and journalist who has publicized the government of Iran’s human rights abuses.

Prior to the kidnapping plot, the government of Iran attempted to lure Victim-1 to a third country in order to capture Victim-1 for rendition to Iran. In approximately 2018, Iranian government officials attempted to induce relatives of Victim-1, who reside in Iran, to invite the victim to travel to a third country for the apparent purpose of having Victim-1 arrested or detained and transported to Iran for imprisonment. Victim-1’s relatives did not accept the offer. An electronic device used by Farahani contains, among other things, a photo of Victim-1 alongside photos of two other individuals, both of whom were lured from third countries and captured by Iranian intelligence, with one later executed and the other imprisoned in Iran, and a caption in Farsi that reads: “gradually the gathering gets bigger… are you coming, or should we come for you?”

On multiple occasions in 2020 and 2021, as part of the plot to kidnap Victim-1, Farahani and his network procured the services of private investigators to surveil, photograph and video record Victim-1 and Victim-1’s household members in Brooklyn. Farahani’s network procured days’ worth of surveillance at Victim-1’s home and the surrounding area, videos and photographs of the victim’s family and associates, surveillance of the victim’s residence, and the installation of and access to a live high-definition video feed of Victim-1’s home. The network repeatedly insisted on high-quality photographs and video recordings of Victim-1 and Victim-1’s household members; a large volume of content; pictures of visitors and objects around the house; and depictions of Victim-1’s body language. The network procured the surveillance by misrepresenting their identities and the purpose of the surveillance to the investigators, and laundered money into the United States from Iran to pay for the surveillance. Sadeghi acted as the network’s primary point of contact with private investigators while Noori facilitated payment to the investigators in furtherance of the plot.

As part of the kidnapping plot, the Farahani-led intelligence network also researched methods of transporting Victim-1 out of the United States for rendition to Iran. Sadeghi, for example, researched a service offering military-style speedboats for self-operated maritime evacuation out of New York City, and maritime travel from New York to Venezuela, a country whose de facto government has friendly relations with Iran. Khazein researched travel routes from Victim-1’s residence to a waterfront neighborhood in Brooklyn; the location of Victim-1’s residence relative to Venezuela; and the location of Victim-1’s residence relative to Tehran.

The network that Farahani directs has also targeted victims in other countries, including victims in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, and has worked to procure similar surveillance of those victims.

As alleged, Bahadorifar provided financial and other services from the United States to Iranian residents and entities, including to Khazein, since approximately 2015. Bahadorifar facilitated access to the U.S. financial system and institutions through the use of card accounts and offered to manage business interests in the United States on Khazein’s behalf. Among other things, Bahadorifar caused a payment to be made to a private investigator for surveillance of Victim-1 on Khazein’s behalf. While Bahadorifar is not charged with participating in the kidnapping conspiracy, she is alleged to have provided financial services that supported the plot and is charged with conspiring to violate sanctions against Iran, commit bank and wire fraud, and commit money laundering. Bahadorifar is also charged with structuring cash deposits totaling more than approximately $445,000.

Farahani, Khazein, Sadeghi and Noori are each charged with: (1) conspiring to kidnap, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison; (2) conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and sanctions against the government of Iran, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; (3) conspiring to commit bank and wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison; and (4) conspiring to launder money, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Bahadorifar is charged with counts two, three and four, and is further charged with structuring, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The FBI’s New York Field Office, Counterintelligence-Cyber Division and Iran Threat Task Force are investigating the case.

Trial Attorney Nathan Swinton of the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael D. Lockard, Jacob H. Gutwillig and Matthew J.C. Hellman of the Southern District of New York are prosecuting the case.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/iranian-intelligence-officials-indicted-kidnapping-conspiracy-charges

 

July 18, 2021 0 comment
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Former Iranian refugee represents US as karate world champion

by June 28, 2021
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 UNHCR    |    By Andrea Mucino-Sanchez    |   20 June 2021

Soolmaz fled Iran as a child with her family and embarked on a harrowing journey to safety. She is now a 14-time U.S. Champion and World Champion in traditional karate.

Dr. Soolmaz Abooali, a 14-time U.S. Champion and World Champion in traditional karate, hopes that her story will inspire others to play a role in helping refugees around the world.

In the 1980’s, Soolmaz Abooali’s parents found themselves in a precarious situation. Both were activists and making a future for their family in Iran was becoming increasingly difficult. When she was four, Soolmaz and her mother made the dangerous journey to Pakistan and eventually to Bangladesh in search of safety.

With the help of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, Soolmaz and her family received funding and assistance. While the modest support offered was of use, her family had to find scrappy ways to not only survive but attempt to thrive.

“My parents made it doable for me.” She said. “Fruits were expensive and hard to come by in Bangladesh, but with whatever money they had they’d buy an apple and slice it into seven pieces, so I’d have a piece of fruit every day of the week.”

It was simple experiences like this that made Soolmaz realize what conflict felt like. “I really had this mind, body, and spirit awareness. I knew that something was not right. Something was not safe or accessible. We were always having to fight for something.”

The awareness of conflict manifested itself in various ways. She remembers the weariness in which they approached people, questioning their motives and where they could be from. Yet it was this very feeling that allowed a sincere enchantment with martial art movies. How the heroes of the story would find themselves in an ominous situation and battle their way to victory – a concept Soolmaz could relate to at such a young age.

“For me, in my child imagination, karate came to represent a way out of conflict.”

Soolmaz’s introduction to karate came initially from her father who had practiced martial arts. As a young child, he had promised Soolmaz that when they were in a safe place where they could start rebuilding their lives, he would put her in a karate class. Years later when they were resettled in Canada, Soolmaz’s father kept his word. At first it was her parents who kept her motivated to continue training, then slowly karate started to mean so much more to her personally.

“It represented a way for me to use my own sense of power with what I had to resolve conflict. It kind of took off from there.”

A straightforward list of Soolmaz’s karate accolades and accomplishments hardly do them justice. Through unimaginable odds as a refugee in Bangladesh dreaming of taking a karate class, to now a 14-time US Champion, one-time World Champion, gold medalist across all categories in form (Kata) and fighting (Kumite) events, and a member of Team USA at a national and global level for the last 14 years, her journey is one of perseverance and grit.

Soolmaz Abooali (right) represented the United States at the 2016 World Traditional Karate-Do Championships in Kraków, Poland.   © Latos Adam

“The more I practiced, the more I realized it was making me feel really strong. I sacrificed more, I put more time and focus into it,” she said, “and the more I achieved the more I felt a deeper sense of confidence.”

While karate gave Soolmaz an outlet to test herself in conflict simulated scenarios, it also provided a sense of community, one that as a refugee had immeasurable value.

“Because we have to leave everything behind and we come with almost nothing but ourselves, our skills and our passions to a new place, feeling a sense of belonging is huge for refugees. And I think that’s what karate has given me. It’s given me this space where I can belong,” she said. “The relationships I’ve built have been fundamental and I wouldn’t be where I am without my coach or my teammates.”

Among the impressive accomplishments Soolmaz has under her karate belt, one has evaded her reach out of pure omission of the art in one of the most internationally well-known sporting competitions in the world: the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee selects twenty-five core sports that are mandatory events in Olympic competitions. However, the host organizing committee has the ability to add sports they believe represent the values of the games.

For the first time, karate will make its debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. For the second time, a team of refugee athletes will compete at the summer games as part of the IOC’s Refugee Olympic Team. Two of those refugee athletes will compete for one of the 8 medals in karate. Wael Shueb from Sryia in the Kata category, and Hamoon Derafshipour from Iran in Kumite.

“Everyone needs inspiration, especially refugees,”

“Everyone needs inspiration, especially refugees,” Soolmaz said. “I think the Olympic refugee team is one way of how that’s done for refugees.”

Soolmaz’s story, from refugee to world champion, instilled a passion for further understanding the intersection of sport, conflict, and diplomacy. In 2019, Soolmaz obtained her PhD in conflict resolution from the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, another testament to the possibility to succeed against all odds, to find a sense of belonging, and find a sense of community.

“This is home. I’ve been able to not only take but to give back. And that’s what makes this country beautiful and valuable for everyone of any background,” she said. “I hope some part of my story will resonate with others and especially those who are looking in from the outside to see how they can play a role to help refugees. At the end of the day we are all in this together.”

https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/stories/2021/6/60cde22b4/former-iranian-refugee-represents-the-united-states-as-karate-world-champion.html

 

June 28, 2021 0 comment
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Congress demands to see if Iran is paying Americans to help influence Biden policy

by March 27, 2021
written by

Fox News     |     Eric Shawn     |     March. 19. 2021

New Mexico Republican Rep. Yvette Herrell, and eight of her colleagues, sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking that it ferret out and prosecute any Americans who are secretly paid to parrot Tehran’s line

The U.S. government should investigate what is alleged to be a covert Iranian propaganda operation being run on American soil, according to a congressional request.

New Mexico Republican Rep. Yvette Herrell, and eight of her colleagues, sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking that it ferret out and prosecute any Americans who are secretly paid to parrot Tehran’s line to influence Biden administration policy and U.S. public opinion about the theocratic regime.

“Iran remains one of the biggest threats to the United States in the region. It is important we ensure they are not improperly using their money to influence politicians and thought leaders in our own government. Any influence used to soften America’s stands towards Iran threatens our national security. This is why I and my colleagues wrote this letter — to protect our national security and hold Iran accountable,” Herrell told Fox News.

Herrell’s warning comes after a Massachusetts political scientist, Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, was arrested and charged by federal prosecutors in January with acting and conspiring to act as an unregistered Iranian agent. The feds say that Afrasiabi portrayed himself as an objective Iranian expert in his media interviews and writings, including penning two opinion pieces on Iran for The New York Times, while authorities say he was actually on Tehran’s payroll to spread the pro-regime party line. He allegedly was paid “approximately $265,000” by Iran’s Mission to the United Nations as “a secret employee … who was being paid to spread their propaganda,” say the feds. He is charged with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA.)

Herrell and the letter’s co-signers are calling on the Biden administration to create a special task force to “identify, track and arrest other Iranian Nationals who are in violation of FARA,” create a list of potential violations similar to the “FBI Most Wanted” list, establish an FBI office to focus on Iranian influence operations as well as “investigate and monitor groups, charities and think tanks that get funding from the U.S. government to ensure American taxpayer money does not directly or indirectly go to those who are Islamic Republic agents and lobbyists.”

“Iran is a sophisticated regime. They are seeking to influence the political process and even politicians to benefit their interests and harm our own interests. The Trump administration held Iran accountable for their actions and took their threats seriously. Any softening of our stance on Iran threatens our national security,” Herrell said.

“We are thrilled to learn about this letter,” said activist Bryan E. Leib, the executive director of Iranian Americans for Liberty. “Her letter sends a strong message that American lawmakers will not stand by as Iranian nationals continue to operate illegally on U.S. soil as unregistered agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Among those who co-signed the letter are New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and co-chair of the House Black-Jewish Caucus, Minnesota  Rep. Jim Hagedorn, a member of the Oversight, Investigations and Regulations Sub-Committee, and Arkansas Rep. Rick Crawford, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Leib said that the Iranian regime has ramped up its influence operation as part of its efforts to push the Biden administration to rejoin the Iranian nuclear deal, relax sanctions and soften U.S. policy toward Tehran.

“Their ultimate goal is to neutralize the threat posed by the U.S., through sowing division, doubt and resentment,” Leib told Fox News. “The Islamic Republic’s chief weapon is terror and its favorite tactic is assassinations. They have made implicit and explicit threats to Iranian Americans for opposing them. The regime’s lobby has a long history of character assassination of Iranian Americans who oppose the regime.”

The recent report on election interference by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence said that the Iran regime engaged in a covert influence campaign, besides Russia, to sway the 2020 presidential contest. The report says Tehran’s goal was to target former President Trump “and to further its longstanding objectives by exacerbating divisions in the U.S., creating confusion, and undermining the legitimacy of U.S. elections and institutions.”

“We assess that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei probably authorized Iran’s influence campaign and that it was a whole of government effort,” said the agency. “Tehran designed its campaign to attempt to influence U.S. policy toward Iran, distract U.S. leaders with domestic issues, and to amplify messages sympathetic to the Iranian regime.”

Leib said Iran’s message is one that Iranian Americans do not want to hear and U.S. policy makers should ignore.

“Americans should understand Iranians inside and outside of Iran are overwhelmingly sick and tired of this terror sponsoring regime in Iran,” he said. “Americans should know that, the vast majority of Iranian Americans are grateful immigrants who love and cherish the United States and the ideals of freedom and equality under law, because they had the unfortunate experience of living under the Islamic Republic.”

For his part, Afrasiabi has denied the allegations against him. In a statement to Fox News after his arrest, he said, “what I did under the U.N. norms was legal and transparent … and I had absolutely no clue that I was violating any U.S. law. I never engaged in any lobbying.”

He also explained that his “consulting role for Iran covered their international affairs and I never once deviated from my independent calling as a policy expert.”

But Leib and his group believe a wider federal effort will finally expose what Iran has really been up to.

“We are confident with an official investigation, more unregistered agents of the Islamic Regime will be identified. We expect appropriate measures will be taken, from prosecution all the way to expulsion, and rescinding of permanent residency status or citizenship to be pursued.”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/congress-demands-to-see-if-iran-is-paying-americans-to-help-influence-biden-policy

March 27, 2021 0 comment
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Congress Will Make It Tough for Biden on Iran

by February 8, 2021
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Biden’s nominees will face trouble in the Senate unless they prove they learned the lessons of the failed 2015 nuclear agreement.

FOREIGN POLICY    |    BY JIM INHOFE   |   FEBRUARY 1, 2021

President Joe Biden has repeatedly expressed his intent to reenter the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. That would be a terrible mistake because the United States should never reenter the flawed agreement. While many of my colleagues in the U.S. Congress and I would support diplomatic efforts to end the United States’ decades-long standoff with the Iranian regime, a new and significantly improved agreement must be negotiated for us to consider supporting it.

The original Iran deal, after all, was a gift to the Iranian regime—a regime that supports terrorist organizations around the world, harbors al Qaeda, and has its supporters chant “death to America and Israel.” The agreement lifted major sanctions on Tehran while only partially restricting its nuclear activities—and those restrictions begin expiring in 2025. The deal also failed to address the regime’s ongoing development of ballistic missiles, support for terrorism against U.S. partners, attacks on U.S. personnel, and sheltering of al Qaeda operatives—all activities that have been widely reported in the press. It certainly did not advance U.S. national security objectives.

For these reasons, many of my colleagues and I strongly supported former President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran deal in 2018, after negotiations to fix the deal’s many flaws went nowhere. It would make no sense to reenter the same problematic deal, which will begin expiring in only four years. Further, we should not grant sanctions relief to a regime that continues to support attacks on U.S. facilities and terrorist activities against our partners.

Still, even while Trump pursued a maximum pressure campaign against Iran and responded to the killing of a U.S. citizen by taking out its top terrorist operative, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ notorious Quds Force, Qassem Suleimani, he always held out the possibility of a deal that “makes the world a safer and more peaceful place.”

To that end, any new U.S. agreement with Iran must adhere to four main principles.

Biden can still avoid repeating the same mistakes that were made when he was vice president.

First, a new deal with Tehran should be comprehensive. It must address the regime’s funding of terrorist proxies, curtail its ballistic missile program, and close off every avenue to a nuclear weapons capability.

Second, a deal must be inclusive. Any negotiation should strongly take account of the views and concerns of Israel and our Arab partners, and a U.S. signature should be contingent on their support. Our partners have the most to lose in a bad deal and can offer substantial legitimacy to a good one. They should not be sidestepped as they were during the Obama administration, and we should never make a deal with Iran that further endangers them, as the original Iran deal did.

Third, a resolution should be permanent. There cannot be sunset provisions that would ultimately allow Iran to possess a nuclear weapons capability, as is the case in the current deal, or which will indefinitely defer discussions of its terrorist activities.

Fourth, the implementation of any deal must be transparent, allowing for regular and unconditional inspections of Iran’s nuclear program, as well as requiring Iran to reveal all of its prior nuclear activities.

Biden should also reconsider his nomination to senior national security positions of former Obama administration officials who were directly involved in negotiating the original Iran deal, as well as those who promoted it. Unless these nominees can demonstrate that they have learned from their previous mistakes, their confirmation process in the Senate will be difficult—and rightly so.

My colleagues and I strongly hope to avoid further conflict with Iran. The Biden administration has an opportunity to build bipartisan congressional support for a truly comprehensive, inclusive, and permanent diplomatic resolution. Biden can avoid repeating the same mistakes that were made when he was vice president. A new agreement that achieves these goals would ensure a better outcome—one that will not be subject to the next presidential or congressional elections and one that will allow the United States to focus more squarely on the challenges posed by Russia and China.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/01/congress-biden-iran-nuclear-deal/

February 8, 2021 0 comment
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Delhi blast: Indian media blames Iran for attack near Israeli embassy

by February 1, 2021
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ARAB NEWS     |     SANJAY KUMAR     |     30 January 2021

Delhi blast: Indian media blames Iran for attack near Israeli embassy
Alert level increased for past few weeks following intelligence reports, ambassador says

NEW DELHI: A day after a low-intensity blast near the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi, several sections of the Indian media on Saturday accused Iran of staging the attack in the capital.

On Friday, a small bomb exploded nearly 50 meters from the Israeli Embassy — located in a high-security zone and not far from the prime minister’s residence — damaging nearby cars but causing no injuries. Simultaneously, a letter recovered from the site termed the incident a “trailer.”

Media reports say that an envelope found at the blast site “revealed the Iranian connection to the blast” as their targets were Israeli installations in India.

“An Iranian hand is suspected behind the minor IED (improvised explosive device) blast that took place on Friday outside the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi,” New Delhi-based English weekly news magazine, India Today, reported on Saturday.

According to the magazine, the letter describes “Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani and Iran’s top nuclear scientists Mohsen Fakhrizadeh as martyrs.”

Military commander Soleimani was killed in a US airstrike at Baghdad International Airport in January 2020.
Iran’s top nuclear scientist Fakhrizadeh was killed in Tehran in November 2020, with Iran blaming Israel for the assassination.

Meanwhile, English newspaper The Tribune quoted Delhi police sources in its report as saying that the “materials used in the blasts were locally produced.”

“The envelope that was found at the blast site has revealed the Iranian connection to the blast, as it claimed it was a trailer and their target is Israeli installations in India,” it added.

These attacks cannot stop us or scare us. Our peace efforts will continue uninterrupted.

Ron Malka, Israeli ambassador to India

 The newspaper reported that “the police with the help of central agencies, including IB (Intelligence Bureau) and immigration authorities, are trying to locate the Iranian nationals who have come to India in the past one month.”

In an interview to various media houses, the Israeli ambassador to India Ron Malka said: “There are enough reasons to believe that it was a terrorist attack.”

He said that “the alert level has been increased for the past few weeks following intelligence inputs,” adding that it was an attempt to “destabilize” West Asia.

“These attacks by those seeking destabilization in the (West Asia ) cannot stop us or scare us. Our peace efforts will continue uninterrupted,” Malka said on Saturday.

In 2012, a blast near the embassy in New Delhi injured an Israeli diplomat’s wife, driver and two others, and coincided with an attack on another Israeli diplomat in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Experts say that the attack raises “serious concerns.”

“When the attack in 2012 took place on an Israeli car in Delhi that time also there was a feeling that India is becoming a playground for Iran and Israel politics. There are some concerns also in this latest case as well,” Harsh V. Pant, a New Delhi-based foreign policy expert at the think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF), told Arab News.

“The challenge of Middle Eastern politics being fought in Indian territory is a serious concern. You cannot have a situation where Indian territory becomes hostage to the political landscape of West Asia,” he said.

“If elements within Iran are trying to use India to target their adversaries in Indian territory, that poses a challenge to India’s already troubling relationship with Iran.”
https://arab.news/r6g3b

February 1, 2021 0 comment
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Iranian Americans Outline a Comprehensive, Bi-partisan Iran Policy for 2021

by December 21, 2020
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OIAC     |     12/15/2020

WASHINGTON, DC- On December 15, 2020, the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) hosted a virtual event on US policy toward Iran. The event was titled “Iranian Americans Call for a Comprehensive US-Iran Policy” and featured several members of OIAC’s Advisory Board, members of OIAC’s Young Professionals and Students Chapter, and a panel of Iranian American community leaders. The focus was on countering the escalating human rights violations in Iran as well as the regional and terror threats posed by the Islamic Republic.

With the next U.S. administration set to take office in January 2021, the message of Iranian Americans is clear: The regime in Tehran lacks legitimacy, and the United States should stand with the people of Iran since they hold the real leverage for change from within. A key element in OIAC’s call for a comprehensive US-Iran policy was the need for bipartisanship. The speakers made it clear that the struggle for a free and democratic Iran is not a republican nor a democrat issue; it is an issue of human rights, global peace, security, and stability.

Professor Kazem Kazerounian, a senior member of OIAC’s Advisory Board, suggested that current socio-political dynamics can lead to the “final blow” to the regime. He noted that “this regime has failed the Iranian people,” with “80% of the population living below the poverty line and the economy in a freefall.” Meanwhile, the regime has escalated arrests, torture, and public executions to control the restless population that has nothing to lose. Referring to the waves of massacres, including the 1988 Massacre, and the recent high-profile executions of Navid Afkari and Ruhollah Zam, Professor Kazerounian added that the regime continues to expose its “true face to the international community” as the Iranian people’s “resistance and defiance grow day by day.”

Professor Ali Parsa of the OIAC Advisory Board explained how Iranians “refer to this regime as a religious fascism that uses terrorism at home and abroad to stay in power.” He added, “I think if anyone has any doubt about how deceptive this regime can be, all they need to do is to look at the protests and the slogans by the Iranian people.” Like: “reformers, conservatives the game is over” or, “leave Iraq, Syria, Yemen, tend our grievances” or, “the enemy is here (Mullahs), they lie saying it is the U.S.”

Dr. Majid Sadeghpour, Political Director of OIAC, outlined the bipartisan congressional support for a free Iran. He referred to Iranian terrorist activities over the last four decades and underscored that finally for the first time “an Iranian diplomat has been apprehended” to face criminal charges with “compelling evidence that demonstrates how far the regime is willing to go when it comes to eliminating opponents and conducting terrorism.” He added, “The Middle East that we have today is quite different than the Middle East of a decade ago, or even two years ago. The political shifts and alliances formed in the Middle East are no longer in favor of the regime…The situation is ripe for a major transformation not just in Iran but the entire region.”

Dr. Ramesh Sepehrrad, who moderated the Advisory Board panel, summed up the key drivers for a comprehensive 2021 policy:

  • Recognizing the voice of the Iranian people and their desire for freedom and democracy.
  • Disabling Tehran’s terror and hostage-taking diplomacy
  • Promoting and encouraging a path to justice and accountability for the ongoing crimes against humanity in Iran, as called for by Amnesty International and UN experts.
  • Leveraging the regional collaboration to counter the regime’s drive for regional terror and hegemony

The second panel, moderated by Amir Emadi, member of OIAC’s Young Professionals and Students, analyzed the status of the pandemic in Iran, the change in the political environment in the US and the need for a more concerted effort by the international community to support the call for change in Iran.

Dr. Azadeh Sami shared some of the eye-opening statistics across Iran, including its COVID-19 death toll of 185,000 representing 237 deaths per 100 thousand (the worst in the world). She highlighted how the Iranian regime had grossly exacerbated the public health situation by prioritizing   to spend on export of terrorism and regional meddling instead of supporting medical care-workers and investing in the nation’s healthcare system. In fact, while the regime publicly decries sanctions for its abysmal healthcare system, Iranian government officials have declined multiple offers of assistance on COVID-19 from the rest of the world, including the help from the United States. Dr. Sami emphasized that the “regime’s priorities are clear” and that any sanctions relief would be used for nefarious regional meddling instead of alleviating the suffering of Iranian people.

Seena Saiedian, a student at UC Berkeley, suggested, “On the issue of the Iranian threat, Congress has been noticeably clear that it is not a Republican or Democrat issue, or even just an American issue; it is an issue of global peace, security, and stability.” He added, “The new administration has an opportunity to rally the international community together in order to develop a truly cohesive and concerted policy of accountability, and one that is focused on the needs and desires of the Iranian population.”

More specifically, Behrang Borhani focused on two primary goals for the next administration:

(1) Ensuring that the Iran’s regime cannot continue to export and conduct terrorism regionally and globally, while

(2) Recognizing and promoting the desires and basic rights of the Iranian people to be paramount to the peace and stability in the region.

The last panel was moderated by Zahra Amanpour, representing the Iranian American Community of New Jersey and New York. She was joined by Homeira Hesami, Chairwoman of Iranian American Community of North Texas; Nasser Sharif, President of the California Society for Democracy in Iran; and Jila Andalib, Director of the Iranian American Community of Connecticut.  The community leaders highlighted several areas for a comprehensive U.S. policy toward Iran:

  • Focus on the voice of Iranian people and their struggle for democracy and freedom. More specifically, recognize the activism of students, women, the labor movement, union workers, retired workers, environmentalists, and social justice activists.
  • Place Iran’s human rights record at the bedrock of US policy on Iran in 2021.
  • Hold to account the regime’s political, judicial and security officials who are directly involved in the arrests, undue and prolong detentions, torture, and executions of nonviolent protesters. Use sanctions as a tool to name and shame those responsible for oppression and to prevent further violence and killings.
  • Adopt zero tolerance for attacks on Iran’s ethnic and religious minorities, who are suffering even more from state-sponsored discrimination on social, economic, and political basis.

Mr. Sharif was immensely proud of the U.S. House Resolution 374, cosponsored by a strong bipartisan support, including the main two sponsors who were from California. Ms. Hesami and Ms. Andalib both echoed these sentiments and supported a firm U.S. policy that amplifies the Iranian people’s quest for a democratic, secular, non-nuclear republic of Iran. Ms. Andalib addressed Maryam Rajavi’s 10-point plan which is widely recognized by the majority of the House and European parliamentarian members as a doctrine for a free Iran.

OIAC’s year-end 2020 virtual conference reconfirmed a clear message: the incoming U.S. administration has a unique opportunity to stand with the Iranian people, and in favor of a comprehensive U.S.-Iran policy that benefits the Iranian people, the United States, the region, and the world.

Iranian Americans Outline a Comprehensive, Bi-partisan Iran Policy for 2021

 

December 21, 2020 0 comment
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United States Seizes Domain Names Used by Iran’s IRGC

by October 18, 2020
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US Department of Justice    |    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    |    October 7, 2020

United States Seizes Domain Names Used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps 

Seizure Documents Describe Iranian Government’s Efforts to Use Domains as Part of Global Disinformation Campaign

The United States has seized 92 domain names that were unlawfully used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to engage in a global disinformation campaign, announced the Department of Justice.

According to the seizure documents, four of the domains purported to be genuine news outlets but were actually controlled by the IRGC and targeted the United States for the spread of Iranian propaganda to influence United States domestic and foreign policy in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), and the remainder spread Iranian propaganda to other parts of the world.  In addition, the seizure documents describe how all 92 domains were being used in violation of U.S. sanctions targeting both the Government of Iran and the IRGC.

“We will continue to use all of our tools to stop the Iranian Government from misusing U.S. companies and social media to spread propaganda covertly, to attempt to influence the American public secretly, and to sow discord,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers.  “Fake news organizations have become a new outlet for disinformation spread by authoritarian countries as they continue to try to undermine our democracy.  Today’s actions show that we can use a variety of laws to vindicate the value of transparency.”

“Today we are 92 domains closer to shutting down Iran’s worldwide disinformation campaign,” said U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson for the Northern District of California.  “This important work will continue.  Iran cannot be allowed to hide behind fake news sites.  If Iran wants to be heard using U.S. facilities, it must reveal its true colors.”

“Today, we successfully seized 92 domains involved in a disinformation campaign conducted by Iran-based actors to promote pro-Iranian propaganda.  This investigation, initiated by intelligence we received from Google, was a collaborative effort between the FBI and social media companies Google, Facebook, and Twitter,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Bennett. “This case is a perfect example of why the FBI San Francisco Division prioritizes maintaining an ongoing relationship with a variety of social media and technology companies.  These relationships enable a quick exchange of information to better protect against threats to the nation’s security and our democratic processes. The FBI also urges the public to remain vigilant about the information they find and share on social media. Every citizen must do their part to use a critical eye and look for trusted sources of information. We all have a role to play in protecting the American democratic system from foreign adversaries.”

Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), unauthorized exports of goods, technology or services to Iran, directly or indirectly from the United States or by a United States person are prohibited. Pursuant to the IEEPA, the Secretary of the Treasury promulgated the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR) that prohibit the provision of services to the Government of Iran without a license.  The Department of Treasury may issue a license through its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).  Further, the United States has found that the IRGC has provided material support to a number of terrorist groups, including Hizballah, Hamas, and the Taliban and, on April 15, 2019, the IRGC was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States Government.

In this case, the United States seized 92 domain names on Oct. 7, 2020, pursuant to a seizure warrant.  The seizure documents describe how the 92 seized domain names were being operated in violation of federal law.

Four of the domain names, “newsstand7.com,” “usjournal.net,” “usjournal.us,” and “twtoday.net,” were seized pursuant to FARA.  FARA establishes a registration, reporting, and disclosure regime for agents of foreign principals (which includes foreign non-government individuals and entities) so that the U.S. government and the people of the United States are informed of the source of information and the identity of persons attempting to influence U.S. public opinion, policy, and law.  FARA requires, among other things, that persons subject to its requirements submit periodic registration statements containing truthful information about their activities and the income earned from them.  Disclosure of the required information allows the federal government and the American people to evaluate the statements and activities of such persons in light of their function as foreign agents.  Here, the four domains purported to be independent news outlets, but were actually operated by or on behalf of the IRGC to target the United States with pro-Iranian propaganda in an attempt to influence the American people to change United States foreign and domestic policy toward Iran and the Middle East.  These domains targeted a United States audience without proper registration pursuant to FARA and without notifying the American public with a conspicuous notice that the content of the domains was being published on behalf of the IRGC and the Government of Iran.

In addition, the remaining 88 domains targeted audiences in Western Europe, the Middle East, and South East Asia and masqueraded as genuine news outlets while actually being operated by the IRGC to spread pro-Iranian disinformation around the globe to the benefit of the Government of Iran.  The Government of Iran and the IRGC utilized website and domain services in the United States without a license from OFAC.  All 92 domains are owned and operated by United States companies.  Neither the IRGC nor the Government of Iran obtained a license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control prior to utilizing the domain names.  A list of the 92 seized domain names is available here.

Visitors to the sites received the following message:

THIS SITE HAS BEEN SEIZED

This seizure was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The Special Prosecutions Section and Asset Forfeiture Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, and the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, are prosecuting the seizure.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-seizes-domain-names-used-iran-s-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20has%20seized,announced%20the%20Department%20of%20Justice.

 

October 18, 2020 0 comment
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Iran’s international assassins are getting away with murder

by July 16, 2020
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THE SCOTTSMAN    |    By Struan Stevenson    |    July 3, 2020

The appeasement of the murderous, fascist regime in Iran must stop, writes Struan Stevenson.

There must have been blind panic in Tehran last week when the mullahs heard that the fugitive judge Gholamreza Mansouri had been arrested in Romania on an Interpol warrant issued by the Iranian regime and, after being released from custody, was under police watch in a Bucharest hotel. Mansouri had been accused of accepting a £450,000 bribe in his capacity as a judge and the Iranian authorities were desperate to bring him back to Tehran, where he faced almost certain execution. A Romanian court on June 12 postponed the extradition of Mansouri, demanding that Tehran present documents and evidence against him. His exposure as a thief by the clerical regime surprised no-one, as almost the entire Iranian elite are venally corrupt. But Mansouri’s fate has shone some light on a murkier tale.

Mansouri fled Iran immediately after a turf war led to Ebrahim Raisi’s appointment as chief of Iran’s Judiciary last year. Raisi, a hardliner, replaced Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, with whom Mansouri had closely collaborated. The downfall of Larijani signaled deep divisions within the theocratic regime and Mansouri clearly knew he was a marked man. When it was discovered that he was in Romania, pressure mounted from human rights activists and ex-pat Iranians in the West for Mansouri to be indicted for crimes against humanity in relation to his role in jailing dozens of journalists on trumped up charges. The mullahs feared that his appearance in the International Criminal Court in the Hague might open a can of worms. Frantic efforts began to extradite Mansouri to Iran. The Iranian authorities said they would send a private aircraft to collect him, but the Romanian government said that no flights were possible due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As the legal arguments over his extradition intensified, a member of staff in the Duke Hotel in Bucharest, phoned the police on 19 June to inform them that a man had fallen to his death from a sixth-floor bedroom window onto the sidewalk below in an apparent suicide. It was Mansouri, who, with his extradition blocked, a lavish property in Turkey purchased and a fat bribe in his pocket, had no real reason to kill himself. His death bore all the hallmarks of an assassination by the clerical regime’s intelligence services, using their signature methods. Human rights activists are furious that Mansouri was not held in custody for his own protection and so that he could face justice in the EU for his crimes.

In a similar case in 1999, Saeed Emami, a senior Iranian intelligence officer awaiting trial for murder in Iran, mysteriously died after allegedly swallowing hair remover while having a bath in prison. Like Mansouri, Emami had found himself on the wrong-side of a factional struggle within the ruling elite.

Mansouri’s assassination also revived memories of the killing in Turkey last year of Massoud Molavi, an Iranian Ministry of Defense contractor who had defected to Turkey and set up an opposition social media site. He was gunned down in Istanbul on 14 November 2019.

The on-going assassinations should come as no surprise to international observers of the fascist Iranian regime. In January 2013, the US Pentagon and Library of Congress published a report entitled: “Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security: a profile”. It made striking revelations about the extent of activities by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) against dissidents and in particular efforts to discredit the main opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The report stated: “According to Iran’s constitution, all organizations must share information with the Ministry of Intelligence and Security. The ministry oversees all covert operations. It usually executes internal operations itself, but the Qods Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps for the most part handles extraterritorial operations such as sabotage, assassinations, and espionage.

“Although the Qods Force operates independently, it shares the information it collects with MOIS. The Iranian government considers the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) to be the organization that most threatens the Islamic Republic of Iran. One of the main responsibilities of [MOIS] is to conduct covert operations against the Mojahedin-e-Khalq and to identify and eliminate its members. Other Iranian dissidents also fall under the ministry’s jurisdiction. The ministry has a Department of Disinformation, which is in charge of creating and waging psychological warfare against the enemies of the Islamic Republic.”

In the last 41 years, dozens of assassinations have been carried out by MOIS agents in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria, France and Turkey. The fact that targeted eliminations can happen virtually un-challenged on European soil should be of great concern. In April 2017, Saeed Karimian, a 45-year-old London-based Iranian TV executive and chairman of the GEM satellite TV network, was assassinated in Turkey, where his TV station had a branch. In January 2017, a revolutionary court in Tehran had condemned him in absentia to a six-year prison term for spreading propaganda and acting against national security. In May 2017, Turkish media reported that two men suspected in the assassination had been arrested with fake passports in Montenegro, on their way to Iran.

In March 2017, Mustufa Haidar Syed-Naqfi, a Pakistani national, was convicted in Germany of spying for Iran, specifically of searching out potential targets for attacks by the IRGC’s Qods Force. Syed-Naqfi was sentenced to four years and three months in prison “for working for a foreign intelligence service”. The court found he had “spied against Germany and another NATO member”, France, for the Qods Force. Syed-Naqfi compiled dossiers on possible targets – namely a German lawmaker who was the former head of a German-Israeli organization and a French-Israeli economics professor. In June 2018, Assadollah Assadi, a diplomat from the Iranian Embassy in Vienna was arrested after allegedly handing 500gms of high explosives and a detonator to an Iranian couple from Antwerp. He allegedly ordered them to drive to Paris and detonate the bomb at a major rally organized by the National Council for Resistance in Iran (NCRI) and attended by over 100,000 people. A combined operation by the German, French and Belgian intelligence services led to the arrest of Assadi and the other conspirators, all of whom are now in prison in Belgium, awaiting trial on charges of terrorism.

With such a catalogue of killings, it was something of a shock when the Prosecutor’s Office in Vaud in Switzerland, announced earlier this month that they had decided to close the file on the assassination in April 1990 in Geneva of Professor Kazem Rajavi. A prominent and respected human rights activist, Kazem Rajavi was the brother of the leader of the Iranian Resistance Massoud Rajavi and the representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Switzerland as well as its representative in the European Headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva. A team of 13 MOIS agents were quickly identified as the assassins, all of whom had fled back to Iran following the murder. International arrest warrants should be issued for the 13 assassins and the mullahs who ordered the killing. Appeasement of the Iranian regime must stop. Economic deals and political considerations never justify concessions to terrorism. Closing the file on Kazem Rajavi’s assassination simply facilitates and promotes more terrorism.

Struan Stevenson is the coordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change and president of the European Iraqi Freedom Association

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/irans-international-assassins-are-getting-away-murder-struan-stevenson-2903006

July 16, 2020 0 comment
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Why are US taxpayers funding a ‘Voice of the Mullahs’ in Iran?

by May 30, 2020
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New York Post    |    By Brian Hook    |    May 27, 2020

As the US special representative for Iran, I receive complaints regularly about Voice of America’s Persian service. Iranian viewers say its American taxpayer-funded programming often sounds more like the “Voice of the mullahs” than the “Voice of America.”

VOA Persian needs to do a better job of countering Iranian disinformation and propaganda. This is a priority for the Trump administration, because supporting the Iranian people includes giving them access to independent and truthful reporting.

Voice of America was founded n 1942 to communicate US policies to a global audience. VOA’s congressionally funded Persian News Network received more than $17 million in taxpayer funds last year. But VOA is failing to represent America to Iran with fact-based content that is reliable and authoritative.

And it isn’t just the Persian service. This month, President Trump highlighted serious concerns with VOA’s coverage of COVID-19, because it became an echo chamber for Chinese propaganda and disinformation.

The president is only the latest person to voice frustrations with VOA programming. The nonpartisan American Foreign Policy Council in 2017 conducted an independent assessment of VOA’s Persian programming. It found bias in its reporting, noting that VOA’s Persian coverage of Iran’s foreign policy “perpetuated to audiences the appearance of pro-regime propaganda, rather than objective reporting.” A follow-up analysis by the AFPC in 2019 found that many of the recommendations it made in 2017 were not implemented.

In 2014, a group of congressional representatives from both sides of the aisle called for an investigation into VOA Persian after allegations that it deliberately papered over the regime’s brutal human rights record.

I hear regularly about popular shows being suddenly canceled and replaced with lower quality programming that is less engaging and relevant. I was also disturbed to see that during the historic anti-regime protests last November, which left up to 1,500 Iranians dead, VOA Persian aired nature documentaries. VOA has certainly failed to present incisive and independent coverage of the Iranian regime itself.

One employee of VOA Persian told The Wall Street Journal that the network often refuses to air criticism of Iranian regime terror unless it is “balanced with the perspective of the Islamic Republic who vehemently [deny] any involvement.” Covering Iranian regime terrorism should not be conditioned upon regime hacks being available to lie about the terrorism.

Everyone knows the Iranian regime heavily censors news and information. The regime often imprisons journalists for telling the truth, then denies them their basic rights, like access to medical care or fair trials. The non-profit Reporters Without Borders routinely condemns the Islamic Republic for its assault against the free press. In February, it exposed Iranian officials who cracked down against the media for telling the truth about Iran’s COVID-19 outbreak and debunking the regime’s propaganda.

Now more than ever, the Iranian people need unbiased news. Regrettably, VOA Persian is letting them down. It is failing to effectively communicate US policies to Persian-speaking audiences with the balance and accuracy required in a contested information environment, especially with the regime’s sophisticated disinformation campaigns.

There is also widespread mismanagement at the organization. VOA Persian has failed to create an open and transparent workplace, a problem that has persisted for more than a decade. A 2009 government report found widespread employee dissatisfaction at VOA Persian, along with allegations of favoritism and biased hiring.

The report’s findings then could just as easily apply today, based on feedback from current and former employees, many of whom have taken their concerns public. VOA and the agency that oversees it, the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), are regularly ranked by their employees in confidential surveys as among the worst federal agencies to work for.

The American people deserve to have taxpayer-funded programs advance their interests, and VOA Persian is no exception. Here is what can be done to improve its reach and effectiveness.

First, VOA Persian needs to create more original programming that actually resonates with Iranian audiences. The earlier example of showing nature documentaries while protests raged across Iran is just one instance of VOA Persian’s programming missing the mark. In 2009, when the Green Revolution contested the presidential elections, VOA Persian continued its regular programming until three days into the post-election crisis. VOA Persian should be driving the conversation with content that is timely, relevant and reliably truthful.

Second, VOA Persian’s leadership needs to be more responsive and accountable. A start would be for USAGM to have a Senate-confirmed leader in place. Michael Pack was nominated to run the agency in June 2018, but his confirmation has languished needlessly in the Senate. Pack is the former head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and has served on the National Council of the Humanities. He is qualified for the position and should be confirmed by the Senate.

VOA Persian has the potential to be a critical tool to empower the Iranian people with news and information otherwise denied to them by the mullahs. Iranians suffer from heavily censored media; what they need is accurate and honest reporting. VOA Persian should be driving the news about human rights in Iran, corruption among the Iranian regime and analysis that counters propaganda rather than propagating it. If it can’t meet these standards — and soon — Congress should consider ending its funding and shutting down VOA Persian as a fiduciary duty to American taxpayers.

Brian Hook is the US special representative for Iran and a senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

https://nypost.com/2020/05/27/why-are-us-taxpayers-funding-a-voice-of-the-mullahs-in-iran/

May 30, 2020 0 comment
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