Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a joint news conference as part of a meeting with Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz at the federal chancellery in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak) **FILE** more >
By Rowan
Scarborough - The Washington Times - Tuesday, August 21, 2018
The Justice
Department has charged two Iranians with spying on Jewish and opposition groups
in the U.S., and the court documents suggest Tehran’s hard-line
Islamic regime is hunting for bombing and assassination targets.
Ahmadreza
Doostdar and Majid Ghorbani were
indicted on charges of being illegal agents of a foreign power — Iran.
On a
wiretap, Mr.
Ghorbani, a California resident, is heard singling out an opposing figure for
assassination. “M––F needs one, one shot,” he said.
The charges
were filed as President Trump embarked on a get-tough policy toward Iran, which the State
Department has designated as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
Mr. Trump this spring pulled out of the 2015 international nuclear deal
with Tehran negotiated
by the Obama administration and has embarked on a campaign to get other
countries to join the U.S. in reapplying economic sanctions against Tehran.
The Justice
Department charging documents say the two men specifically targeted Jewish
centers in Chicago as well as an anti-regime opposition rally in New York last
year and a convention in Washington this
year.
The New York protest
was organized by Mojahedin-e Khalq, an exiled Iranian dissident group known as
the MEK. The MEK is the main component of the National Council of Resistance of
Iran, the umbrella group calling for the overthrow of Iran’s ruling
mullahs. Iran has
been the scene of anti-regime street protests for months.
SPONSORED
CONTENT
“The
government of Iran considered
the MEK to be a primary opponent of the current regime and has sought to
eradicate the MEK,” said an FBI affidavit.
The
affidavit said the Iranians created a “target package” that “could enable a
neutralization plan, which may include apprehension, recruitment, cyber exploitation,
or capture/kill operations.”
Iran has targeted
foes in Europe for eradication, but pursuing such plans on U.S. soil would
represent an escalation in the clash with the West. European police broke up a
suspected Iranian plot to ignite a bomb at an MEK rally outside Paris this
summer.
The Iranian regime denounces the MEK as a terrorist
organization, noting its presence on the U.S. terrorist organization list from
1993 to 2012. Gholamali Khoshroo, Iran’s ambassador to
the United Nations, sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council demanding that
the U.S. drop its support of the organization and complaining of the links
between the group and top advisers to President Trump such as National Security
Adviser John R. Bolton and presidential attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani.
Easy access
Documents
show how easily Iranian saboteurs can move in and out of the U.S., even
with Iran now
on the list of seven countries named in the Trump administration’s travel ban.
Mr. Doostdar,
who has dual citizenship, was born in Long Beach, California, but has spent
most of his life in Canada and Iran.
Mr. Ghorbani was
raised in Iran.
In 2015, he became a U.S. legal permanent resident and lives in Costa Mesa,
California.
An FBI search
of Mr.
Doostdar’s electronic devices showed he canvassed a number of targets. In
July 2017, he traveled from Tehran to
Chicago.
The FBI placed
him under physical surveillance and followed him to the Oriental Institute
Museum at the University of Chicago.
“Doostdar
moved through the museum in an unusual fashion and was alone in a small room
with an unidentified female for a short time,” the affidavit said.
He then
left the museum, walked a few blocks and began photographing several Jewish
centers, such as the Hillel Center and Rohr Chabad Center.
Later, he
traveled to Costa Mesa and met with Mr. Ghorbani for
the first time.
“Doostdar
employed intelligence tradecraft and ran surveillance detection routes before,
during and after his meetings with Ghorbani,”
the FBI said.
It
was Mr.
Ghorbani who surveilled the MEK at a New York rally
and photographed individual anti-regime protesters.
Mr. Doostdar entered
the U.S. again in December. Immigration officials discovered $6,000 in cash,
which he claimed was money to repay a brother. He denied meeting with anyone on
his previous U.S. visit.
He traveled
again to Costa Mesa. A wiretap captured a phone call to Mr. Ghorbani during
which Mr.
Doostdaridentified himself as “Uncle Sohrab.”
The FBI listened
to their car ride as Mr. Ghorbani delivered
a briefing on his New York trip.
“I took
some pictures and collected some information of them and some senators that
they worked with,” he said.
Mr. Doostdar instructed
him on how to mix his photos with family pictures in a flash drive to avoid
arousing suspicions of customs agents at airports. “I notice they don’t search
these at all. I put it right in front of them. They didn’t even open it,” he
said.
He said he
would take the photos back to Iran.
“I will
give it to the guys to do their research,” he said.
When Mr. Doostdar left
the U.S. in December, authorities inspected his checked luggage and found the
rally photographs. The FBI affidavit
said he ultimately provided the drive to the Iranian government.
Mr. Ghorbani left
the U.S. for Iran in
March and returned a month later. A luggage search showed he had instructions
on future MEK spying.
By
then, Mr.
Ghorbani had infiltrated MEK associates as a supposed ally. He was
invited to attend a convention in Washington in
May. FBI surveillance
showed Mr.
Ghorbani constantly taking photographs of attendees.
Mr. Doostdar returned
to the U.S. in July, this time with $16,000 in cash.
“The policy
of appeasement has so emboldened the clerical regime that it has directly
targeted the U.S. soil with its Iranian agents, something unprecedented in the
past 40 years,” said Ali Safavi, an opposition official based in Washington. “For
this reason, all of Tehran’s known and
undercover agents and mercenaries who pursue the regime’s plots in the U.S.
must be identified and prosecuted.”
Mr. Safavi
attended the New
York rally. His name is mentioned by Mr. Ghorbani as
an assassination target.
Said
Assistant Attorney General John Demers, “Doostdar and Ghorbani are
alleged to have acted on behalf of Iran, including by
conducting surveillance of political opponents and engaging in other activities
that could put Americans at risk. With their arrest and these charges, we are
seeking to hold the defendants accountable.”
No comments:
Post a Comment