In case you missed it last week, it was revealed that the Iranian regime plotted to kidnap an American-Iranian journalist and activist in New York City, render her to Venezuela by boat, then send her to Iran, for imprisonment or execution. The FBI busted the scheme, with the Department of Justice indicting four intelligence operatives and arresting a fifth individual tied to the plan. Here are some of the chilling details of the regime's outrageous and brazen plot to snatch a critic on American soil, via the New York Times:
An Iranian American journalist living in Brooklyn who has been a sharp critic of the Iranian government was the target of an international kidnapping plot orchestrated by an intelligence network in Iran, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. In an indictment unsealed in federal court in Manhattan, four Iranians were charged with conspiring to kidnap the journalist and author, Masih Alinejad...The four defendants all live in Iran and remain at large, the prosecutors said, identifying one of them, Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, 50, as an Iranian intelligence official and the three others as “Iranian intelligence assets.” A fifth defendant, accused of supporting the plot but not participating in the kidnapping conspiracy, was arrested in California...The intelligence official, Mr. Farahani, and his network used private investigators to surveil, photograph and video record Ms. Alinejad and members of her household in Brooklyn, the government said.
More from the Daily Beast:
Farahani allegedly directed his associates to research various ways to illegally return their target to Iran. Sadeghi allegedly produced research on procuring speedboats similar to those used in the military that could evacuate the intended victim from New York City and then transport her to Venezuela, which has friendly relations with Iran. Meanwhile, Khazein allegedly researched routes the wannabe kidnappers could take from her Brooklyn home to the water to Venezuela and from there to Tehran. The Justice Department included a screenshot of Khazein’s search for “brooklyn new york to caracas by boat” in Google Maps. Farahani and others also allegedly contracted multiple private investigators to surveil the journalist, photographing her, members of her household, and her visitors, as well as installing a live high-quality camera feed that recorded her house at all times in 2020 and continuing into 2021. They allegedly misrepresented their identities to the investigators and used laundered money to pay them.
Another anti-regime activist I know sent me a note after this plot was publicly revealed, explaining that while this scheme was especially elaborate, other critics of Iran's repressive government living in the West receive a steady stream of threats from regime-linked accounts and other loyalists. The activist said the regime seems emboldened by the Biden administration's return to Obama-era policies and placations. Indeed, Alinejad has criticized the new administration's weak response to the indictments, demanding more forceful action. On Fox Business Network's Kennedy this week, I asked her about the whole ordeal, as well as her discussion with Secretary of State Antony Blinken:
She also summarized the conversation in a series of tweets:
4-I informed @SecBlinken that people in Khuzestan province are getting killed for protesting about ongoing water shortages and in November 2019 the regime killed more than 1500 protesters in the street.
— Masih Alinejad ??? (@AlinejadMasih) July 20, 2021
6- I urged @SecBlinken to meet with different opposition groups to get a wider sense of the human rights situation inside Iran. Murder, kidnap and executions are in the nature of the Islamic Republic.
— Masih Alinejad ??? (@AlinejadMasih) July 20, 2021
The shocking affront to US sovereignty and free expression comes as Team Biden is desperately seeking renewed negotiations and relations with Tehran. The Washington Post's editors call the plot a warning to the president, while the Wall Street Journal editorial board makes a more pointed, persuasive case:
Iran’s behavior...shows what it thinks about President Biden’s arms-control overtures...Federal prosecutors said last week that an Iranian intelligence network planned to kidnap a U.S. citizen in New York and bring her to Iran...Iranian intelligence has targeted others in Canada, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Last year Tehran executed Ruhollah Zam, a France-based Iranian exile abducted while traveling in Iraq. Europe has previously imposed sanctions on Iran for planning terrorist attacks and murders on the Continent...Meanwhile, Reuters reports that an Iranian commander has encouraged Iran-backed militias to step up attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq and Syria. Shiite militias have attacked U.S. positions in Iraq at least 26 times since President Biden took office...Iran’s violations of the 2015 nuclear deal also continue. Lame duck President Hassan Rouhani says the country can enrich uranium to weapons-grade purity, or about 90%. So far it has stopped at 60%, but that’s well above the 3.67% allowed under the deal. The government is stockpiling other illicit material and ignoring its inspection obligations to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Even Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov admitted, “Iran seems to be going too far.”
"None of this has stopped the Biden Administration from conducting six rounds of indirect talks with the Iranians," the Journal correctly notes. Beyond that, the administration has said that the kidnap plot and other hostile Iranian actions will not deter its efforts to renew Obama's fatally-flawed nuclear deal. Neither will the attacks against US positions in Iraq, to which the president has responded with some limited strikes. Indeed, they've been practically begging Tehran to return to the table, offering sanctions relief as apparent incentives. The regime seems to recognize that there's a new, pliant group in charge of American foreign policy and is testing them aggressively. They are clearly assessing the substance of the US response, or lack there of, closely.
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