Iranian Spies
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https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/iran-spy-ring-robert-malley-lee-smith
The Biden administration’s now-suspended Iran envoy Robert Malley helped to fund, support, and direct an Iranian intelligence operation designed to influence the United States and allied governments, according to a trove of purloined Iranian government emails. The emails, which were reported on by veteran Wall Street Journal correspondent Jay Solomon, writing in Semafor, and by Iran International, the London-based émigré opposition outlet which is the most widely read independent news source inside Iran, were published last week after being extensively verified over a period of several months by the two outlets. They showed that Malley had helped to infiltrate an Iranian agent of influence named Ariane Tabatabai into some of the most sensitive positions in the U.S. government—first at the State Department and now the Pentagon, where she has been serving as chief of staff for the assistant secretary of defense for special operations, Christopher Maier.
On Thursday, Maier told a congressional committee that the Defense Department is “actively looking into whether all law and policy was properly followed in granting my chief of staff top secret special compartmented information.”
The emails, which were exchanged over a period of several years between Iranian regime diplomats and analysts, show that Tabatabai was part of a regime propaganda unit set up in 2014 by the Iranian Foreign Ministry. The Iran Experts Initiative (IEI) tasked operatives drawn from Iranian diaspora communities to promote Iranian interests during the clerical regime’s negotiations with the United States over its nuclear weapons program. Though several of the IEI operatives and others named in the emails have sought to portray themselves on social media as having engaged with the regime in their capacity as academic experts, or in order to promote better understanding between the United States and Iran, none has questioned the veracity of the emails.
The contents of the emails are damning, showing a group of Iranian American academics being recruited by the Iranian regime, meeting together in foreign countries to receive instructions from top regime officials, and pledging their personal loyalty to the regime. They also show how these operatives used their Iranian heritage and Western academic positions to influence U.S. policy toward Iran, first as outside “experts” and then from high-level U.S. government posts. Both inside and outside of government, the efforts of members of this circle were repeatedly supported and advanced by Malley, who served as the U.S. government’s chief interlocutor with Iran under both the Obama and the Biden administrations.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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G George K referenced this topic on
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After Tabatabai was appointed to her position in the US State Department, she was the target of accusations on social media.[10] These accusations about Tabatabai, that were later substantiated, first appeared on Twitter, accusing her of surrendering to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Right-wing media, including The Washington Free Beacon and Saudi media, were the first to report on these accusations, while left-wing outlets tended to either ignore the accusations or label them as "conspiracy theories".[11]
In September 2023, a large cache of Iranian government correspondence and emails reported for the first time by Semafor and Iran International connected Ariane with the Iran Experts Initiative, an effort initiated by senior Iranian Foreign Ministry officials to bolster Tehran's image and positions on global security issues, particularly its nuclear program. She regularly met with high ranking Iranian officials and often asked for their guidance in shaping U.S. foreign policy toward Iran. These meetings even included vows of allegiance to the Iranian government.[12][13][14]There has also been a call for a review of her security clearance by Senator Marsha Blackburn.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Iranian Spies:
Emily Landau? The art collector in New York? The Fischer Landau Center of Art Elimy Landau? That seems a little out there.
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@George-K said in Iranian Spies:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/iran-spy-ring-robert-malley-lee-smith
The contents of the emails are damning, showing a group of Iranian American academics being recruited by the Iranian regime, meeting together in foreign countries to receive instructions from top regime officials, and pledging their personal loyalty to the regime. They also show how these operatives used their Iranian heritage and Western academic positions to influence U.S. policy toward Iran, first as outside “experts” and then from high-level U.S. government posts. Both inside and outside of government, the efforts of members of this circle were repeatedly supported and advanced by Malley, who served as the U.S. government’s chief interlocutor with Iran under both the Obama and the Biden administrations.
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Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
@Jolly said in Iranian Spies:
treason should strip him of citizenship
(As usual) Jolly, you made me think. How much is it possible to remove citizenship from a native born US person.
Apparently, not very possible. Not 100% decided but interesting question if it comes up.
In Afroyim v. Rusk (1967), the Court rejected the government’s argument that it could revoke citizenship based on an individual’s actions. The Court found that the Constitution grants natural born citizens an “absolute right to citizenship.” A person must intend to relinquish citizenship, not just perform an expatriating act.
However, some scholars argue that natural born citizens may still lose citizenship involuntarily in a narrow set of cases:
Renouncing citizenship: Natural born citizens may still be subject to expatriation if they voluntarily renounce their citizenship.
Treason: The Constitution defines treason against the U.S. as levying war against them or giving aid to their enemies. Some experts argue that treason is grounds for revoking even natural born citizenship.
Fighting against U.S. forces: Natural born citizenship may still be lost if a person joins the armed forces of a hostile foreign power or fights against the U.S. or its allies.
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Classified docs on phone, breached by "hostile actor."
Republicans lawmakers have uncovered “troubling allegations” that President Biden’s suspended special envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, stored classified material on his personal email account and cellphone — which was later accessed by a “hostile cyber actor.”
The top Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committee on Monday asked the State Department to confirm the allegations against Malley, who was quietly placed on unpaid leave last June and had his security clearance suspended amid a State Department investigation reportedly centered on his potential mishandling of classified information.
The State Department has refused to reveal the exact nature of the allegations against Malley, leading Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member James Risch (R-Idaho) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) to launch their own investigation into Biden’s top diplomat for Iran.
"Most transparent..."
“Specifically, we understand that Mr. Malley’s security clearance was suspended because he allegedly transferred classified documents to his personal email account and downloaded these documents to his personal cell phone,” Risch and McCaul wrote.
“Specifically, we understand that Mr. Malley’s security clearance was suspended because he allegedly transferred classified documents to his personal email account and downloaded these documents to his personal cell phone,” Risch and McCaul wrote.
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Kamala's NatSec Adviser Probed Over Ties to Iranian Influence
In a Wednesday letter to Harris, Cotton and Stefanik asked the presumptive Democratic nominee to provide information about her adviser Phil Gordon's "connections to Ms. Ariane Tabatabai, a senior Department of Defense official who was reportedly involved in an Iranian government operation to expand Tehran's soft power in the United States."
Gordon, the letter notes, coauthored at least three opinion pieces with Tabatabai that argued against sanctions on the Iranian regime. Tabatabai was outed last year as an alleged member of an Iranian-run influence network that reported back to Tehran's foreign ministry.
Gordon's connections to Tabatabai are fueling concerns ahead of the 2024 election. Gordon is likely to play a central national security role in a Harris White House, and his connections to pro-Tehran advocacy groups suggest that renewed diplomacy with Iran will be a top foreign policy priority for Harris if she is elected.
Cotton and Stefanik are primarily concerned about Gordon's access to classified information and want to know if his ties to Tehran's enablers might disqualify him from holding a top-secret security clearance.
Gordon, the lawmakers note, published pieces with Tabatabai "blatantly promoting the Iranian regime's perspective and interests." Those pieces were published after the time Tabatabai was alleged to be working for the Iran Experts Initiative (IEI), an influence network that included several American policymakers associated with the Biden administration's former Iran envoy, Robert Malley, who was indefinitely suspended from his job amid allegations that he leaked classified information.
In a March 2020 article, Gordon and Tabatabai "claimed continued sanctions on Iran would create 'catastrophe' in the Middle East," Cotton and Stefanik wrote in their letter. In another piece, according to the lawmakers, Gordon and Tabatabai "wrote sanctions could lead to new Iranian efforts to 'lash out with attacks on its neighbors, and on Americans and American interests in the Middle East.' Each prediction was as wrong, as it was biased in favor of Tehran."
Gordon is also "closely associated with the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), another Iranian influence organization that allegedly collaborates with Tehran," according to the letter. NIAC has long faced allegations of serving as Iran's unregistered lobbying arm in America and was a player in the Obama administration's self-described pro-Tehran "echo chamber." Gordon spoke at NIAC's Leadership Conference in 2014 and 2016, before and after his time serving in the Obama administration as a Middle East hand working on the nuclear agreement with Iran.
"The Biden-Harris Administration is no stranger to Iran accommodators, appeasers, and accomplices," Cotton and Stefanik wrote. "Ms. Tabatabai remains gainfully employed in the Defense Department, helping oversee sensitive special operations. The FBI is investigating your former Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley for passing classified intelligence to Tehran and your Special Envoy Amos Hochstein allegedly passed intelligence about Israeli airstrikes to Hezbollah potentially as recently as this weekend."
https://topsecretumbra.substack.com/p/the-obama-biden-iranian-spy-scandal
The mysterious Malley saga includes other players, several of whom are linked to the National Iranian American Council, an NGO that advocates in Tehran’s interests. NIAC is viewed as a front for Iranian intelligence by Western counterspies. The NIAC orbit also touched the Iran Experts Initiative, which served to push Tehran’s line on several security-related issues. IEI members included multiple Malley friends and proteges, including Ariane Tabatabai, who was appointed chief of staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, a highly sensitive Pentagon position requiring Top Secret security clearances. Requests by Congress for information have been met with more stonewalling by Team Biden, and Tabatabai is reportedly still in the Pentagon, notwithstanding that she appears to be an Iranian spy of some sort.
Is Vice President Kamala Harris involved with this Iranian espionage ring? Certainly the extended Malley network has been very welcome in the Biden White House, allowing NIAC access to the administration (just as it enjoyed under Obama). Harris criticized the Soleimani assassination, while her public appearance alongside known NIAC agents raises counterintelligence questions. Now Congress is asking what’s going on here. ...
Cotton and Stefanik acidly observe that “the Biden-Harris administration is no stranger to Iran accommodators, appeasers, and accomplices. Ms. Tabatabai remains gainfully employed in the Defense Department, helping oversee sensitive special operations.” They allege a dubious relationship between Gordon and Tabatabai, as well as NIAC[.]
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"My pronouns are FA/FO." - Mik, 2024
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@Mik said in Iranian Spies:
Y'know, we might be hearing more of this soon.
Lots of snark.
you failed to respond by my deadline or to appropriately address this threat to national security
If he's willing to ridicule Israel so unfairly in public, we can only imagine what he is telling you in private.
Thank you for your belated attention
