Iranian Opposition Emboldened by Trump 2.0

I’ve been keeping up with their multiple YouTube channels, and they’ve really ramped up their activity lately.

Alireza Jafarzadeh (Spokesman for the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – PMOI):

New Era for Iran Is Within Reach

Last month, over 160 bipartisan U.S. lawmakers for H.Res.166, which supports the Ten-Point Platform for the Future of Iran introduced by Mrs. Rajavi that calls for universal right to vote, free elections, a market economy, and separation of religion and state, and advocates gender, religious, and ethnic equality, a foreign policy based on peaceful coexistence, peace in the Middle East, and a nonnuclear Republic of Iran.

Related:

H.Res. 166: Expressing support for the Iranian people’s desires

Maryam Rajavi’s Ten Point Plan for the Future of Iran

Concerns over MEK’s potential Influence in Congress + More

Trump 2.0’s Incoming Ukraine Envoy Speaks at Event Hosted by Cult That Wants Regime Change in Iran

Trump’s pick for Sec. Of State Marco Rubio’s love affair with Israel, MKO, Pahlavi’s

The Cult-Like Group Fighting Iran

MEK/MKO/NCRI/PMOI

Trump 2.0’s Incoming Ukraine Envoy Speaks at Event Hosted by Cult That Wants Regime Change in Iran

Source

Keith Kellogg told the MEK-hosted event that the world must reinstate ‘maximum pressure’ on Iran

Trump’s Incoming Ukraine Envoy Speaks at Event Hosted by Cult That Wants Regime Change in Iran

Related:

‘A breach of intl. law’: Iran condemns France for hosting terrorist gathering

The American mainstream media suppresses the assassination of six US advisors by the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK)

US-Delisted MEK Terrorists Still Openly Committed to Violence

Mojahedin Khalq began their terror campain by killing Americans

US Special Forces Trained Foreign Terrorists In Nevada To Fight Iran

PMOI/MKO/MEK

Bernard-Henri Lévy and Iran International

I listened to an interview with Bernard-Henri Lévy. I’ve never actually listened to him before. The woman who interviewed him worked for Radio Farda (the Iranian branch of the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty). I suspected that the channel (Iran International English) was run by an Iranian opposition group. Daniel Davis interviewed one of the hosts earlier this week.

Related:

Saudi Arabia Sought Vice’s Help to Build a Media Empire

Tehran Designates London-Based Iran International News A ‘Terrorist’ Organization

Ofcom examining TV network over interview praising attack in Iran

Gunmen attack Iran military parade, killing civilians and troops

My previous posts on Bernard-Henri Lévy.

Pro-Israel leaders encouraged by Brian Hook’s role on State Department transition team

As questions emerge about how President-elect Donald Trump will handle the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East during a second term, some pro-Israel foreign policy voices say they have been reassured by recent news reports that Brian Hook, a special envoy for Iran in the first Trump administration, is expected to lead the transition team at the State Department.

Hook, who previously worked in the State Department under former President George W. Bush and is now the vice chairman of Cerberus Global Investments, helped to oversee Trump’s so-called “maximum pressure” campaign toward Iran, including punishing sanctions after the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal. He was also a key player on the team that negotiated the Abraham Accords, Trump’s signature foreign policy achievement, which the president-elect has pledged to expand when he returns to office.

Among the candidates rumored to be under consideration for secretary of state are Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a former ambassador to Japan; Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former national security advisor; and Ric Grenell, who served as the former president’s ambassador to Germany as well as his acting director of national intelligence.

But conservative foreign policy experts surveyed by JI said they did not envision ideological tensions between Hook and Grenell emerging should they serve together. “Grenell mirrors Trump in being a champion-level supporter of Israel and Iran hawk,” said a former official on Trump’s National Security Council, who was granted anonymity to discuss the transition. “There would be no reason for friction.”

Pro-Israel leaders encouraged by Brian Hook’s role on State Department transition team

Previously:

Making Excuses for Trump: Where Does the Buck Stop?

But Trump’s seemingly aimless foreign and national security policies are only part of the problem. More to the point, the president keeps appointing people to senior level positions where they have a hand in shaping the policies ranging from hardline on civil liberties issues to complete interventionism vis-à-vis America’s role worldwide. The list is long and includes John Bolton, Rick Grenell, Mike Pompeo, Brian Hook, James Jeffrey, Robert O’Brien, John Ratcliffe and Gina Haspel. And one might suggest that the latest move might very well be the worst of all, naming Eliot Abrams as Special Envoy on Iran.

Donors to Bob Menendez Legal Defense Linked to ex-Terror Group

Disclosure: it’s a reprint of an article by Eli Clifton from The Responsible Statecraft and The Intercept. If you have a problem with that, this is for you.

Donors to Bob Menendez Legal Defense Linked to ex-Terror Group (archived)

Much of the cash in the fund — he has raised over $400,000 — comes from sources one might anticipate. New Jersey and New York donors with various business and political interests in his home state, including the real estate firm led by Jared Kushner’s family, have given the fund money. There are, however, many lesser-known donors. One is Ahmad Moeinimanesh, an electronic engineer from Northern California. Another is Hossein Afshari, also from California.

Related:

Iranian exiles, DC lobbyists and the campaign to delist the MEK

The Iranian American Community of Northern California. It paid $400,000 over the past year to a Washington lobby group, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, to work on Capitol Hill to work for the removal of the MEK from the list of foreign terrorist organisations. The company assigned several former members of Congress to the account. The IACNC has also organised events in support of unbanning the MEK with appearances by Ros-Lehtinen and other prominent members of Congress as well as former White House officials.

Its director, Ahmad Moeinimanesh, has made personal financial donations to Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chair of the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee even though her congressional district is on the other side of the country in Florida, as well as to her reelection committee. She has accepted more than $20,000 in political contributions from activists who support the MEK’s delisting.

The IACNC’s registered address is at a photocopying shop in Albany, California, owned by Behnam Mirabdal who has made financial donations to Ros-Lehtinen and Dana Rohrabacher, a subcommittee chairman who is among the most vigorous proponents of unbanning the MEK.

The American mainstream media suppresses the assassination of six US advisors by the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK)