There used to be a time when taking directions from America’s adversaries would be considered treasonous. But in today’s world, doing so can gain you access to the highest levels of the U.S. government.
On Monday, the New York Post reported a high-ranking Pentagon official with ties to the Iranian government has “sought to undermine the leading group resisting” the Middle Eastern nation’s dictator, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to the Post, Ariane Tabatabai, the chief of staff for the assistant secretary of defense for special operations at the Defense Department, was among several individuals to partake in a “covert campaign” to delegitimize Iran’s “leading opposition group, known as the Mojahedin-e Khalq.”
The revelation was contained in a report written by Ivan Sascha Sheehan, a dean at the University of Baltimore, and presented to President Biden on Monday.
As The Federalist’s David Harsanyi reported, a series of emails released by Semafor and Iran International in September showed Tabatabai participating in an initiative sponsored by Iran’s terrorist government seeking to boost the regime’s image amongst the global community. Launched in 2014, the Iran Experts Initiative was crafted by Iran’s foreign ministry and aimed to enhance the public perception of Iran and its nuclear program by recruiting a bevy of “influential overseas academics and researchers” to do their PR work.
According to a copy of the report obtained by the Post, Tabatabai and others were complicit in helping Iran “neutralize favorable impressions of the [Mojahedin-e Khalq] among Washington’s foreign policy elite.” The ultimate goal
