NIAC Resource Page
aka National Iranian American Council
Part of the FDI Truth Project
Exposing
the Pro-Tehran Lobby
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The National
Iranian American Council, NIAC, has become the leading
edge of the
pro-Tehran lobby in Washington, DC. FDI has been
exposing their activities from the
very start,
when NIAC founder Trita Parsi held his first
fund-raisers in
California in
2003. Dec. 20, 2012 - Pro-Tehran group seeks an end to sanctions. The National Iranian-American Council, which has consistently lobbied the U.S. government to end sanctions and engage in direct negotiations with the Tehran regime,has sent a letter to President Obama signed by 24 U.S. and European "experts," arguing that sanctions will not compel the regime to halt its nuclear weapons program. NIAC's goal, once again, is to get U.S. sanctions lifted and to provide "cover" to the Obama administration for its efforts to craft a "grand bargain" that would guarantee U.S. recognition for the Islamist regime in exchange for window-dressing concessions by Tehran. According to Hassan Daioleslam, who won a landmark defamation suit against NIAC earlier this year (see our Sept 20, 2012 entry, below), this latest NIAC letter received a "warm reception in Tehran," where a group of former regime diplomatsreported on the NIAC effort with the title, "Did the Iran Lobby Speak Out?" Sept. 20,
2012: Judge vindicates Hassan Dai. The Free
Beacon newspaper in
Washington, DC wrote
a
detailed account of NIAC’s failed lawsuit against
Iranian-American
human rights activist Hassan Daioleslam. FDI president
Kenneth R.
Timmerman, now a candidate for Congress in Maryland, who
is quoted in
the article, pledged to conduct a Congressional
investigation into
NIAC’s alleged ties to the Iranian regime and for
potential violations
of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, FARA Sept 14,
2012: The End of NIAC as we know it. A federal
judge in
Washington, DC on Thursday dismissed the long-standing
NIAC lawsuit
against Iranian-American activist Hassan Daioleslam, who
has claimed in
numerous news articles and opinion pieces that NIAC
founder Trita Parsi
acts as a “lobbyist” for the the Islamic Republic of
Iran. You
can download the
judgment here. Judge Bates also ruled
that
NIAC was liable to pay Dai seventy percent of his
expenses, which could
amount to several million dollars. This
will effectively bankrupt NIAC –
unless,
of course, his masters decide to foot the bill. Parsi
has
become the darling of the George Soros Left. Since
President Obama took
office, Parsi has been invited to the White House and to
private
dinners with Sec/State Hillary Clinton. May 5, 2012:
Iranian-Americans protest
appearance by pro-Tehran
lobbyists Trita Parsi in Sweden.
Oct. 11, 2011: No-show for
NIAC show. After
two months of large-scale
campaign of emails, advertisements, phone calls,
and personal
invitations, fewer than FDI sources say that Asgard is hoping to fire more anti-regime journalists, while adding to the five young NIAC members recently brought on board from southern California, to complete the VOA's transformation into the Voice of the Mullahs. A recent evaluation of VOA broadcasting that appears to have given support to Asgard's makeover was authored by Hooman Majd, an Iranian-American "scholar" who has worked as Ahmadinejad's "voice" during his vistis to New York. Iranian regime intelligence planted a story with Press TV several months ago alleging a sexual harassment investigation against Chaharlangi, when in fact no such investigation was under way nor allegations made. Press TV is widely believed to be controlled by Iran's ministry of information and security, MOIS. Aug. 31, 2011: Facebook blocks anti-NIAC "cause. Internet giant Faceboo ![]() So far, Facebook has taken no action against a replacement "cause" page set up yesterday. This cause had the straightforward title, "United Against NIAC." FDI has joined this "cause" as a supporter and urges our readers and supporters to do the same. (A similar page, "National Iranian American Council and Trita Parsi, Myths vs. Facts," has also been set up. • NIAC efforts to compel testimony from FDI fail in court. A U.S. District Court judge in Washington, DC yesterday rejected long-standing efforts by NIAC to compel testimony and documents from FDI in relation to NIAC's lawsuit against Hassan Daioleslam. In an early subpoena, served on FDI president Kenneth R. Timmerman at his residence in January 2010, NIAC demanded that he produce “any email, article, letter or work, published or unpublished, public or private that you (or anyone under your (direct or indirect) direction, supervision or control) has produced or has in your possession regarding....the Islamic Republic of Iran.” The court quickly rejected that demand as an open-ended fishing expedition, but NIAC took 18 months to serve a new subpoena, claiming in court documents it couldn't locate Mr. Timmerman's residence, even though they had already served him at that location! Yesterday's court order vindicates FDI's efforts to quash the subpoena. "Plaintiffs had ample opportunity to depose Timmerman prior to the February 4, 2011 discovery deadline," the Court order reads. "The Court then provided plaintiffs with additional time to depose Timmerman, allowing, them up until May 13, 2011 to take the deposition. Although plaintiffs maintain that their failure to depose Timmerman is attrributable to Timmerman's attempts to evade service of process, the court finds this explanation unpersuasive, given that (1) plaints appear to have known Timmerman's home address throughout this litigation..." In fact, the court documents allege some troubling connections involving NIAC's attorney, Afshin Pishevar, of Rockville, MD. "Plaintiffs’ have conveniently neglected to advise the court in regard to the service issue, that Abraham Pishevar, the father of plaintiffs’ present counsel, Afshin Pishevar, worked on the U.S. Senate campaign of Timmerman, has been to Timmerman’s home on numerous occasions in conjunction with campaign conferences, and has taken photographs of Timmerman and the inside of Timmerman’s home which, (Timmerman was subsequently informed) Pishevar provided to the Iranian government," the court documents revealed. Perhaps encouraged by the successful efforts to get inside Timmerman's house, NIAC attorneys now wanted to get inside Timmerman's computer. Wisely, the US District court said no. May 23, 2011: DACOR rejections calls to cancel Trita Parsi. Diplomatic and Consular Officers, Retired (DACOR) has rejected calls by Iranian-Americans to cancel Trita Parsi's presentation on May 24. The group will host Parsi at a Forum on Iran at noon at its historic mansion, known as Bacon House, at 1801 F street, NW in Washington, DC, despite protests by Iranian-Americans that Parsi represents the positions of the Iranian regime. FDI joined other Iranian-Americans in a letter urging DACOR to cancel Parsi's presentation. "The Iranian-American community considers the "self-appointed" Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) an intellectually dishonest regime apologist and an unofficial and unregistered lobby for the Iranian regime. He contributes to the regime’s agenda and serves the interests of those in power in the Islamic Republic of Iran, not the Iranians, nor the Iranian-Americans. In a recent survey, 96% of the Iranian-Americans expressed that Trita is a lobbyist for the Iranian regime," the letter states. A separate letter, sent by Walton Martin of the Iran Information Project and and Dr. Gill Gillespie of the Iranian Refugees Action network, notes that internal NIAC documents show NIAC's "intent to outright deceive Congress, the NED, Iranian-Americans and Americans as a whole under the guise of pretending to pursue human rights issues." May 17, 2011: Iranian-Americans Step Up Protests of NIAC Misrepresentation. Iranian-Americans have written a series open letters over the past few weeks to protest the misrepresentations of NIAC and its founder, Trita Parsi. The latest installment, released today, was addressed to General Wesley Clark, took part in a recent forum with Paris. "Dr. Trita Parsi and NIAC are shunned by the Iranian American community. We overwhelmingly believe that he is a lobbyist for the Islamic Republic. In a survey conducted of NIAC by the Pro-Democracy Movement of Iran, over 95% of the Iranians believe that NIAC does not represent their interests or their views," writes Sheri Alavandian of the Pro-Democracy Movement of Iran. She added that documents and emails that have come to light in NIAC's lawsuit against Hassan Dai "clearly shows NIAC has been advocating for policies favorable to the Islamic (non)Republic government in Iran." The documents also indicate that NIAC may have misused funds obtained from the National Endowment for Democracy, Ms. Alavandian writes. May 8, 2011: FDI Joins Iranian-American Activists Calling on UCLA to disinvite Iran-regime apologist Trita Parsi. In a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, a group of Iranian-American activists, joined by FDI, called on UCLA to cancel its invitation to Trita Parsi to address an upcoming forum on Iran. As the letter states, "the Iranian- American community considers Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) an intellectually dishonest regime apologist. He contributes to the regime’s agenda and serves the interests of those in power in the Islamic Republic of Iran." Read the full letter here. April 25, 2011: Trita Parsi hits brick wall in Canada. Following an oped by FDI president Kenneth Timmerman and Canadian human rights activist and advocate Sayeh Hassan in the National Post on Friday, pro-Tehran lobbyist Trita Parsi appears to have backed out from participating in the Ottowa Iran conference. (See April 22, below). More to come as the details emerge... Parsi and friends continue to try to curry favor with the Obama White House. A key Parsi sponsor and funder, Noosheen Hashemi, founder and chairman of the Hand Foundation and the PARSA Foundation, paid $35,800 to attend an Obama celebrity fund-raiser on April 20 at billionaire Marc Benioff's San Francisco home. The PARSA foundation has given grants worth more than $400,000 recently to NIAC, according to its own website. Most of these grants came after NIAC reportedly had advised the State Department and the White House not to openly criticize the Iranian regime for its crackdown on protesters after the June 2009 election fraud in Iran. April 22, 2011: Conference on Iran to feature Tehran apologist. In an opinion column in today's National Post, FDI president Kenneth Timmerman and Canadian human rights activist and advocate Sayeh Hassan urged the Canadian authorities to cancel a scheduled speech by Trita Parsi at a conference on Iran to be held in Ottowa next month.The conference will be sponsored in part by the Canadian Department of National Defence and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS), making the invitation of a known pro-Tehran advocate all the more questionable. "Given the leadership role the Canadian government has taken in condemning Tehran’s human rights violations, pushing for smart sanctions and showing support for the pro-democracy movement in Iran, it is therefore surprising that the Ministry of National Defence and CSIS, two entities responsible for the safety and security of Canadians, did not perform due diligence on Trita, the founder of the Teheran-friendly NIAC," we argue. The Canadian Parliament calls Ahmadinejad's regime "a threat to peace, human rights, and international law." Read their ground-breaking report (PDF file) March 17, 2011: Have an opinion on Trita Parsi and NIAC? Take this online survey. Is Parsi an Iranian regime agent? A human rights activist? Should NIAC be shut down? Be forced to answer questions on its ties to regime officials? Take the survey here. Jan. 8, 2010: NIAC - a False Friend of the Green Movement. Hassan Daioleslam reveals the "sea change" Trita Parsi and his pro-Tehran lobbying group have undergone since the green movement came on the scene this year. In Jan. 2008, when an Iranian-American asked him why NIAC didn't stand up against human rights abuses in Iran, Parsi demurred, saying 'we do not have the expertise' in the area... Now, of course, NIAC is trying to make people believe that they are in the forefront of the Green movement. Their agenda? Same as before: no U.S. sanctions on Iran, and no credible military option - just what Tehran wants. Dec. 2, 2009: Trita Parsi faces tough question from American University students. Asked to defend his pro-engagement policy toward Iran, NIAC founder Trita Parsi says that the U.S. is not legitimizing the Iranian regime through talks. He also claimed, against all evidence, that the leaders of the Green Movement inside Iran seek to "reform" the Islamic Republic. An American University student quoted a recent statement by former president Khatami - the father of the "reform" illusion movement - who recently said that the regime was illegitimate and "reform" was "no longer an option." Meanwhile, emails between Parsi and Iran's Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations have surfaced in a lawsuit pitting NIAC against Hassan Daioleslam. These emails, reproduced in an essay by Mr. Daioleslam in the American Thinker, caused him to retort that "Trita Parsi Reports to Tehran."Nov. 19,
2008: NIAC attempts to silence
critics. FDI has received emails from a number
of
Iranian-Americans who tried to attend the NIAC event on
Tuesday, but
were turned away when they tried to register online on
the pretext the
event was "overbooked." However, NIAC set up a special
line at the
entry to admit friends of NIAC who had not
pre-registered. NIAC goons
also attempted to prevent a credentialed reporter
unsympathetic to
their views from entering the conference room, only to
be rebuked by a
staff member of conference organizer, Sen. Thomas Carper
(D, DE). To
prevent embarassing questions (for example, about NIAC's
alleged
violation of its grants from the National Endowment for
Democracy),
NIAC staff turned off the microphones positioned at the
back of the
room, so that unmiked questions from the floor could be
screened by
Parsi and rephrased to his liking. Among those
who
will present the proposals on Tuesday is Joseph
Cirincirone, an arms
control advocate identified as an “advisor to the Obama
transition
team,” and Trita Parsi, a pro-Tehran activist who has
been lobbying
Congress for several years to lift sanctions against
Tehran and end
U.S. support for the pro-democracy movement. [...]
“It is
deeply
concerning that a discredited group within the
Iranian-American
community, with blatantly obvious connections with the
Islamic
Republic, should be allowed to freely influence
Washington's political
circles to the detriment of the American peoples' and
ultimately, the
world community's interests,” the Progressive
American-Iranian
Committee said
in
an editorial published on Saturday.
“It is also shocking and difficult to explain that a group labeled by the Iranian regime as the 'Iranian lobby' could so easily penetrate the U.S. Congress,” they added, referring to Parsi’s National Iranian American Council, which is sponsoring Tuesday’s event. Condemnation of the NIAC conference have come in from all sides. FDI has received statements from monarchist, nationalist, center-left and independent groups. NIAC critic, Hassan Dailoleslam, told FrontPage magazine on Monday he believes the Obama administration will be forced by reality to reject NIAC's capitulationist entreaties and "adopt a more robust policy than what President Bush has been pursuing. Shortly after, those who favor Iran will portray the Obama administration as being under Israeli’s orders and infiltrated by Neocons." Nov. 14, 2008: Update. Next Tuesday's meeting will begin at 2:30 PM in room 902 of the U.S. Senate Hart building. It is being sponsored by Sen. Thomas Carper (D, DE), who will also give a keynote address, as will Rep. John Tierney (D, MA). NIAC, which is organizing the event, is attempting to prevent Iranian-American activists from attending this meeting, by requiring prior registration. (RSVP to Hormoz Rashidi at rsvp@niacouncil.org or (202) 386-6324). This is typical for NIAC, and for NIAC president Trita Parsi, who knows that his capitulation policies are deeply unpopular with Iranian-Americans. Parsi has refused to debate with critics such as Hassan Daioleslam or with FDI. ACTION: Call Sen. Carper's office: 202-224-2441, and Rep. John Tierney's office 202-225-8020 using the script below. ![]() URGENT ACTION: Nov. 13, 20008: PROTEST NIAC CAPITULATION PLAN Call Sen. Carper's office: 202-224-2441, and Rep. John Tierney's office 202-225-8020 using the script below NIAC is at it again. Now they are working
together with pro-Tehran regime policy analysts, to
propose a
disastrous “new” policy for the incoming Obama
administration toward
Iran. June 19, 2008: NIAC reportedly spent U.S. Congressional funds on regime-affiliated agencies in Tehran! In stunning revelations that appeared inFrontpage magazine today, Iranian research Hassan Daioleslam reveals that the National Iranian American Council used money from a 2002 grant from the National Endowment for Democracy to train officials at an Iranian state-affiliated agency in Tehran, contrary to the stated purpose of the NED grant. While the money was appropriated by Congress to promote civil society in Iran, NIAC "spent these funds on trivial activities aimed at enhancing false-flag Iranian NGOs, that were in fact managed and controlled by Iranian Deputy Ministers or high level officials - making a mockery of the term “Non-Governmental," Daioleslam writes. Among the Tehran-based "NGO's that were assisted by NIAC under the NED grant was an outfit called Hamyran, which "is not an NGO but a government initiated false flag agency... managed by the deputy minister and undersecretary of health, Hossein Malek-Afzali," Dailoleslam added. A second "NGO" aided by NIAC under the NED grant was the Family Planning Association, also headed by Malek-Afzali and Iranian government official Safieh Afshari. May 15,
2008:
NIAC and Parsi file lawsuit
against critics. The
National Iranian American Council and its president,
Trita
Parsi, have filed a civil lawsuit in the District Court
for the
District of Columbia against Hassan Daioleslam, alleging
that recent
articles he has published defamed and
harmed their reputation. In a press release today, NIAC
claimed that
Daioleslam "mischaracterized NIAC's anti-war and
pro-diplomacy
activities as serving the interest of the Iranian
government." (Gee, if
this were true, it sounds like what the New York Times
does with
Republicans every day!). "[D]despite NIAC's efforts,
Daioleslam has
continued to do nothing but defame
NIAC through defamation," the press release
states. The group,
which Daioleslam has called "the Iranian lobby" in the
United States,
then tossed out a piece of malicious slander of its own,
alleging that
Daioleslam "has been identified by former members of the
terrorist-listed Mujahedin organization as a member of
the group's
executive committee," an allegation which they know is
demonstrably
false. In the complaint, NIAC claims that
factual
assertions made by Daioleslam "are false," even though
Daioleslam
backed up those assetions with documents made available
through
Internet links so that readers could judge the merit of
his claims.
NIAC and Parsi take issue with Daioleslam's account of
how NIAC was
founded, its relationship to Iranian oil consultant and
middle man,
Siamack Namazi, the efforts of former Iranian deputy
foreign minister
Sadegh Kharrazi to encourage the creation a pro-Tehran
lobby, and
Parsi's part in releasing to the public a 2003
negotiation offer by the
Iranian regime, which Washington rejected after Tehran
was caught
backing the May 2003 al Qaeda attack in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia. In a recent interview with Frontpage magazine, Daioleslam describes in detail the Iranian government strategy to create a pro-regime lobby in the United States, and attributes that strategy to Sadegh Kharazzi. Trita Parsi and Siamak Namazi used precisely the same logic in a 1999 paper they co-authored and presented at an international conference, in which they advocated the creation of an "Iranian-American lobby... needed in order to create a balance between the competing Middle Eastern lobbies." (Daioleslam's response in Persian is here.) In recent months, Iranian-Americans have protested NIAC events in California and elsewhere. So far, Iranian-Americans have responded overwhelmingly in Daioleslam's support. "We should treat this lawsuit as if we were all sued by NIAC," one UCLA student wrote. "It should be treated like a political campaign, where Mr. Daioleslam should not have to worry." Update: Dr. Mohammad Parvin, director of MEHR, has taken apart NIAC's recent efforts to recast themselves as a human rights organization. "Being exposed and on the run, NIAC has discovered that to remain an active promoter of IRI, a little lip service to human rights doesn’t hurt," Dr. Parvin writes at FrontPage magazine.April 7, 2008: Iranian-Americans petition Sen. Feinstein to withdraw from NIAC event. The Mission for the Establishment of Human Rights in Iran (MEHR) has launched an on-line petition, asking Sen. Diane Feinstein to withdraw from tomorrow's NIAC event on Capitol Hill. Noting the Senator's reputation as a human rights advocate, MEHR said, "NIAC is a group that lobbies for the unconditional relations with the religious dictatorship in Iran and for making this possible has tried hard to de-emphasize the daily human rights violation in Iran. Reza Pardisian has included full contact information for Sen. Feinstein. And Dr. Saeed Ganji has faxed a more detailed letter to Sen. Feinstein, urging her to withdraw from the NIAC. event. Dr. Mohammad Parvin and Hassan Daioleslam reveal in "Flirting with the Mullahs" that an Iranian-American Democrat party activist, Afshine Afshar, has played an active role in the "Iran lobby," setting up the Iranian Trade Association in 1997 to introduce U.S. oil companies to senior Iranian government offi8cials. Aug. 3, 2007: Iranian scholar Hassan Daioleslam dissects the "disinformation campaign" by pro-Iranian regime circles in policy think tanks. Focusing on Ray Takyeh of the Council on Foreign Relations, Daioleslam argues that they have attempted to paint the regime as pragmatic, cooperative on terror, reasonable on nuclear issues, and no threat to U.S. security or regional stability. According to this view, "All US has to do is to offer more carrots to the Iranian regime to have them behave in a friendlier manner," he argues.In earlier articles, Daileslam has exposed NIAC (see below) for championing the viewpoint of Tehran in Washington; most recently, NIAC has attempted to appropriate the issue of human rights, he wrote. NIAC carefully filtered access to the July 26 event, preventing more than a dozen Iranian-American human rights activists from expressing their views. Among those prevented entry to the Congressional meeting room were Dr. Manouchehr Ganji and Manda Zand-Karimi. See also Sen. Jon Kyl's policy prescriptions on IranJuly 25, 2007: Policy alert: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and sponsors in Congress will host a panel this Thursday, July 26, that will be chaired by Trita Parsi, a Swedish-Iranian also known as the "mullah's voice" in Washington. The informal hearing will take place from 12:00-2:30 PM in room B369 of the Rayburn House Office Building tomorrow. In a Frontpage magazine column this week, FDI President Kenneth R. Timmerman explains that Parsi and his group have consistently opposed U.S. Assistance to pro-democracy groups in Iran, and have advocated in favor of expanded U.S.relations with the Iranian regime, making his presence at such a panel a travesty. This is still time to prevent this from happening. FDI calls on supporters to call Alex Arriega at Amnesty International, the nominal sponsor of the event. She can be reached at 202-544-0200. Alternately, phone Amnesty' Middle East Advocacy director, Mr. Zahir John Mohammad, at 202-675-8755. Please also call Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D, MD), who booked the room for this outrageous event. His office: 202-225-5341. There are plenty of authentic victims of Iranian human rights abuses available in Washington, DC for such a hearing, as well as authentic spokespersons for those victims. Trita Parsi is not one of them.
In
a
press release in April,
NIAC openly slandered Mr. Dailoleslam by calling him "a
Marxist
Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MKO) supporter," because an
MEK-affiliated website
had picked up one of his articles exposing NIAC's
ties
to the Iran oil mafia.
In fact, in a statement released today, Mr. Dailoleslam
said that while
many Persian-language websites picked up his article,
"This by no means
suggests I am affiliated to any of them." He accused
NIAC of launching
a "disinformation campaign to create a smoke screen
hiding its
disguised relations with mullahs," and stated
categorically, "I have
never been in MEK or worked with MEK." March
26,
2007: The California Assembly will hear
legislation
on Wednesday, March 28, at 9 AM, that would
require the
State pension funds to disinvest from companies doing
business in Iran.
The pro-Tehran group NIAC has come out against the bill.
Why? Because
it just might convince major multinational companies to
rethink their
business in Tehran. Four trade unions have already come
out in favor of
the bill. Feb 23 , 2007: FDI Executive Director exposes NIAC Dirctor Trita Parsi as "the Mullah's Voice," at Frontpagemag.com - Earlier, the Iranian-American Republican Council denounced the NIAC poll, which claimed that four out of five Iranian-Americans opposed the Iran Freedom Support Act (see April 14, below). The IARC urged Iranian-americans to make their views known directly by phoning or writing to members of Congress in support of HR 282, and demanded NIAC's "immediate and clear retraction [of] false claims of representing the views of Iranian-Americans." May 22, 2003: Exiles call for protest of pro-Tehran meetings in California next week. A new pro-Tehran lobbying group, the "National Iranian American Council," an apparent successor to Housang Amirahmadi's American Iranian Council, plans to hold two meetings in California on May 30 and May 31, which have angered Iranian-Americans seeking to promote democracy in Iran. Among the announced speakers are U.S. Representatives Bob Ney (R, Ohio) and Mike Honda (D, CA). The opposition groups have called on supporters to protest the pro-Tehran meetings at the following times and locations: 1) Friday, May 30 at 6:30 PM at the Santa Clara Convention Center, room 210, located at 5001 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara, CA (Tel: 408-748-7000) at 6:30 PM, 2) Saturday, May 31, at 2 PM, in front of the Sheraton Hotel, 1108 N. Mathilda Ave, Sunnyvale, CA (408-752-8000). 3) Sunday, June 1 at 2 PM, in front of the wyndham Hotel Orange County, 3350 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa, CA (across from South Coast Plaza), 714-751-5100.
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