Now with Biden’s handlers in power, it could be open season. But the vast majority of American journalists need not worry: they already report on events exactly the way the Islamic Republic of Iran wants them to.
“Iran Attempted To Abduct at Least 3 American Journalists in 2019 and 2020,” by Alana Goodman, Washington Free Beacon, July 29, 2021:
At least three U.S. journalists working for Voice of America were the subjects of attempted Iranian abduction and surveillance efforts in 2019 and 2020, a former senior State Department official familiar with the security threats told the Washington Free Beacon.
In one botched plot in late 2019, Iranian operatives allegedly tried to use a female “honey trap” to lure a male VOA journalist to a hotel room in Irbil, Iraq, according to the former State Department official—a plan that failed when the reporter, who has since left VOA, declined to show up to the hotel. The plot closely mirrors the case of Ruhollah Zam, an Iranian dissident ex-pat who was lured from France to Iraq by a female Iranian operative and then taken to Iran where he was executed by the government last year.
The news indicates that the Iranian government’s targeting of American journalists—including the brazen kidnapping plot against Masih Alinejad that was outlined in a Department of Justice indictment earlier this month—is more widespread than has been reported. It also raises questions for the Biden administration, which has downplayed recent news that Iranian intelligence agents surveilled and plotted to kidnap Alinejad on U.S. soil. Iranian pro-democracy advocates say the administration’s tepid response to the attack is tied to President Biden’s efforts to reenter the nuclear deal with the Iranian government.
The FBI warned the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the parent agency of VOA, in mid-2020 that two popular VOA reporters based in New York, including Alinejad, were the target of Iranian surveillance efforts, according to the source. VOA has a Persian-language service that provides global coverage of Iranian politics and employs some journalists who are vocal critics of the Iranian regime.
The former senior State Department official said the then-director of Voice of America, Setareh Derakhshesh, was informed about the threats by both the State Department and the U.S. Agency for Global Media but declined to take action and dismissed the warnings as interagency meddling. Derakhshesh, who is now working as VOA director of programming review, was fired for alleged misconduct last year but rehired by the Biden administration.
The State Department in late 2019 “sent a notice to VOA telling them that they need to ensure the safety of this American citizen and VOA journalist abroad,” the former senior official told the Free Beacon. “Derakhshesh then tried to block this and accused the State Department of a firewall violation for stepping in and trying to ensure the safety of this person.”…
gravenimage says
Islamic Republic of Iran Attempted To Abduct at Least 3 American Journalists in 2019 and 2020
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Is this going to affect Biden’s shoveling piles of money to the Mullahs? Probably not…
Walter Sieruk says
For the information of the reader, the Bible strongly condemns kidnapping and requires severs punishment for those who engage in the sin an crime of kidnapping, Exodus 21:16.
Kepha says
Walter, you know and I know that. The text was cited by Evangelical abolitionists back in the day to note that God saw such as a very grave sin. But, I’m sure that our professional agonized consciences of the present will see this text as one more example of “Old Testament severity”.
Giacomo Latta says
If this really bugged Reporters Without Borders then I would have heard about it through some media. Up till now they have only complained about reporters being detained. A little late in the process.
Kepha says
RWB keeps mum because Islamicists are supposedly brave revolutionary fighters against the imperialist, oppressive West.