Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/Iran Regime’s Agents and Illegal Activities in the US/د. مجيد رافزادا/معهد كايتستون: عملاء إيران وانشطتهم المخالفة للقانون في الولايات المتحدة
Iran Regime’s Agents and Illegal Activities in the US Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/January 30/2021 د. مجيد رافزادا/معهد كايتستون: عملاء إيران وانشطتهم المخالفة للقانون في الولايات المتحدة
What is alarming is that Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, who has been in the US for almost 35 years, was working for the Iranian regime and getting paid [by Iran] for nearly 13 years without being detected.
Afrasiabi presented himself as an independent political scientist, academic and expert. He allegedly wrote articles, including instance for The New York Times, a book, and gave TV interviews while getting guidance and payments from the Iranian regime. When Iranian officials reportedly asked him to revise an article already submitted, he followed up on their instructions.
A year ago, three Republican Senators, Ted Cruz (TX), Tom Cotton (AK) and Mike Braun (IN), called on the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). “NIAC’s innocuous public branding masks troubling behavior,” the senators wrote. The congressmen noted that this entity was a lobby group acting as a “foreign agent of the Islamic Republic….”
For safeguarding America’s national interests, it is urgent that the US follow up on the recommendation of these Senators, at least to investigate who might be operating for the Iranian regime and what they might be up to.
The US is apparently not immune from the Iranian regime’s operatives; unfortunately, the significance of this issue has long been downplayed.
Last week, Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, also known as Lotfolah Kaveh Afrasiabi, was arrested at his home in Watertown, Massachusetts. According to the U.S. Justice Department, Afrasiabi is charged with “acting and conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)”.
What is alarming is that Afrasiabi, who has been in the US for almost 35 years, was working for the Iranian regime and getting paid for nearly 13 years without being detected. It is alleged that from July 2007 to November 2020, he received at least $265,000 from the Iranian government. According to the Lobbying Disclosure Act, anyone who is paid to lobby the US federal government is required to “register with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives.”
Looking at Afrasiabi’s activities cannot possibly tell us what other agents of Iran may be doing. Afrasiabi presented himself as an independent political scientist, academic and expert. He allegedly wrote articles, including instance for The New York Times, a book, and gave TV interviews while getting guidance and payments from the Iranian regime. When Iranian officials reportedly asked him to revise an article already submitted, he followed up on their instructions.
In addition, without disclosing his ties with his paymaster, the Tehran regime, he helped a US Congressman draft a letter to President Barack Obama in favor of a deal desired by Iran. He also allegedly tried to acquire important information, such as sending an email to an official in the State Department asking the administration’s “thinking” about Iran’s nuclear program.
Why do Iran’s agents conceal their connections to their paymaster? To evade paying taxes? To maintain some legitimacy and credibility by not exposing their links to what the US Department of State has called the “world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism”?
The ruling mullahs of Iran attempt to spread their propaganda through their agents and to promote their preferred narratives. Some of this propaganda may include the following:
Sanctions on Iran ought to be lifted. The nuclear deal, aka the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is a good deal for the West and the international community. Iran’s involvements and interventions in other countries are minimal or nonexistent. Iran’s military role in Syria and Iraq are for protecting those nations from extremist groups…
It is worth mentioning that a year ago, three Republican Senators, Ted Cruz (TX), Tom Cotton (AK) and Mike Braun (IN), called on the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).
“NIAC’s innocuous public branding masks troubling behavior,” the senators wrote. The congressmen noted that this entity was a lobby group acting as a “foreign agent of the Islamic Republic…. For example,” the senators wrote, “on December 31, NIAC circulated an email memorandum blaming the United States government for Iranian-backed militias’ repeated attacks against US forces in Iraq and brazen attempt to storm the US embassy in Baghdad.”
NIAC is not registered as a lobby group and has been reportedly operating for more than a decade. The organization calls itself a “nonpartisan, nonprofit organization advancing interests of [the] Iranian-American community.”
Intriguingly, however, according to the senators’ statement:
NIAC’s former acting policy director, Patrick Disney, admitted in internal emails that he and the organization’s legislative director spent more than 20 percent of their time conducting lobbying activities. He wrote, “I believe we fall under this definition of ‘lobbyist’….”
In addition, the former FBI associate deputy director, Oliver Revell, stated:
“[A]rranging meetings between members of Congress and Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations would in my opinion require that person or entity to register as an agent of a foreign power; in this case it would be Iran.”
Revell’s statement came after NIAC’s Swedish-Iranian founder, Trita Parsi, reportedly arranged meetings between Iran’s then-ambassador to the United Nations (and current Foreign Minister) Mohammad Javad Zarif and members of the US Congress and the. According to the Iranian American Forum:
“Some of these documents are posted here and reveal NIAC’s relation and collaboration with Iranian officials and business interests inside Iran. They show that NIAC coordinated its lobby with the Iranian ambassador to the UN to influence the US policy with Iran. Some of NIAC’s internal documents released during the lawsuit have been used to prepare this report.”
For safeguarding America’s national interests, it is urgent that the US follow up on the recommendation of these Senators, at least to investigate who might be operating for the Iranian regime and what they might be up to.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
خلفيات المقال/Background تقرير يحكي تفاصيل وأسباب اعتقال السلطات الأميركية الأميركي-الإيراني المدعو كافيه لطفولة أفراسيابي بتهمة التجسس للجمهورية الإسلامية الإيرانية US-based political scientist arrested, accused of secretly working for Iran Officials say Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi was paid by diplomats from Tehran’s UN mission, urged Iran to end nuclear inspections after Soleimani killing By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER 20 January 2021, 8:40 am 0 BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts-based political scientist and author is accused of secretly working for the government of Iran while lobbying US officials on issues like nuclear policy, federal authorities said Tuesday. Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi was arrested by FBI agents at his home in Watertown, Massachusetts, on Monday, officials said. He is charged in New York City federal court with acting and conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of Iran. An email seeking comment was sent to an attorney for Afrasiabi. Afrasiabi appeared before a Boston federal court judge via videoconference during a brief hearing and a detention hearing was scheduled for Friday. Authorities said Afrasiabi, an Iranian citizen and lawful permanent US resident, has been paid by Iranian diplomats assigned to the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations in New York City since at least 2007. At the same time, he made TV appearances, wrote articles and lobbied US officials to support the Iranian government’s agenda, officials said. In 2009, Afrasiabi helped an unidentified congressman draft a letter to former US president Barack Obama about US and Iranian nuclear negotiations, according to court documents. He never disclosed that he was working for Iran, officials said. After the January 2020 US military airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Afrasiabi told Iran’s foreign minister and permanent representative to the United Nations that Iran, in response, should “end all inspections and end all information on Iran’s nuclear activities pending a [United Nations Security Council] condemnation of [the United States’] illegal crime,’” according to court documents. Doing so will “strike fear in the heart of enemy” and “weaken Trump and strengthen his opponents,” Afrasiabi wrote, according to court documents. US Assistant Attorney General John Demers said Afrasiabi portrayed himself “to Congress, journalists and the American public as a neutral and objective expert on Iran.”“Mr. Afrasiabi never disclosed to a Congressman, journalists or others who hold roles of influence in our country that he was being paid by the Iranian government to paint an untruthfully positive picture of the nation,” William Sweeney, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office, said in a statement.
