Posted on 10/02/2003 7:47:17 AM PDT by Wolfstar
Brings to mind the Democrat congressman who had the fundraiser at that pro-mullah Iranian's house out in California. Can't think of the name off the top of my head this morning...
Biden Buddies Up To Pro-Iran Lobby
Some might call it reaching out to American Muslims. But to many Iranians living in California, a fund-raiser for Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) at the home of a prominent pro-Iran lobbyist on Feb. 19 sent a wrongheaded message to the ruling clerics in Tehran.
"When we learned that Sen. Biden was planning to hold a fund-raiser at the California home of Dr. Sadegh Namazi-khah, we immediately contacted his office to express our dismay," a prominent Iranian-American activist tells Insight. Why dismay? "Dr. Namazi-khah is well-known in the Los Angeles area for his support of the ruling clerical regime in Tehran and is one of the regime's leading unofficial lobbyists in America. We thought that Sen. Biden might not know his background. Getting the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to appear at this event will certainly be seen by the regime in Tehran as a show of support."
On the eve of the fund-raiser, which brought an estimated $30,000 into Biden's re-election coffers, a Biden staffer told the activist that the senator's staff "had all the facts necessary to make a decision," and he was planning to attend the fund-raiser despite the protests.
Several participants who paid to attend the event tell Insight that Biden arrived at 8 p.m., stayed until 11 and delivered a sweeping condemnation of President George W. Bush's "Axis of Evil" formula.
"He really impressed us by his grasp of world affairs," Namazi-khah tells Insight in an interview. "He encouraged us to make our views known and to get more involved in American politics."
Biden also impressed many of those present with his friendly attitude toward the Islamic Republic of Iran. The senator said that "Iran always wanted to be an ally of the United States and to have good relations with the U.S.," according to Housang Dadgostar, a prominent lawyer. "As Iranian-Americans, we don't want anything to happen to the Iranian government or to the Iranian people as a result of this war on terrorism," says Mohsen Movaghar, a Los Angeles businessman. Both men belong to the 70-member board of directors of Namazi-khah's Iranian Muslim Association of North America (IMAN).
Namazi-khah denied any official contact with the Iranian government. But he tells Insight that he regularly travels to Iran — something many expatriates do — and that he actively supports "moderates" within the ruling clergy, such as Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, in their efforts to bring reform to the Islamic system.
Namazi-khah and other IMAN board members say Biden's office contacted them to inquire if they would hold a private fund-raiser for the senator, who is up for re-election this year, after meeting with them at a pro-Tehran gala in New York last December. That event was sponsored by the American-Iranian Council (AIC), a pro-regime lobbying group trying to get Congress and the Bush administration to lift the trade embargo on Iran.
The AIC is funded by hefty contributions from Conoco and other U.S. oil companies seeking to get a piece of the potentially lucrative Iranian petrochemicals sector. The oil companies are prevented from working in Iran by the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA), which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1996.
Namazi-khah acknowledges that he and other IMAN board members would like to see the U.S. sanctions lifted and that they worked actively with AIC and another antisanctions lobbying group known as the World Political Action Committee. However, he insists that IMAN is a "cultural and religious group, not a political group." Indeed, the group is registered in the state of California as a "church" and is exempt from financial disclosure. One IMAN board member says the group raises $300,000 to $400,000 per year from members. He insists that they take "no money from the government in Tehran."
California real-estate records show that the group purchased a building at 3376 Motor Ave. in Los Angeles in August 1995 for $925,000 and has spent hundreds of thousands more to build auditoriums and meeting rooms for religious services. It was unclear where the money for these projects originated.
One clue can be found in an official calendar circulated by the Iranian government for the Persian year 1379 (March 2000-March 2001), obtained by Insight. The mission statement of the "General Office of Cultural Affairs of Iranians Outside the Country," which circulated the calendar, is to "promote policies of the government of the Islamic Republic [and] strive to be a bridge between the Iranian community abroad and inside the country." In addition to listing Iranian government Websites, the calendar cites IMAN as a pro-regime group.
"If they are lobbying on behalf of the Tehran government they are probably in violation of U.S. law," an FBI source who has prosecuted several related cases tells Insight. But with high-level friends in Washington, IMAN may believe it has purchased immunity.
Norm Kurz, a spokesman for Biden, tells Insight the Delaware Democrat never would meet knowingly with a group known to back a terrorist organization and that he makes the distinction between the Iranian people and the regime. Nevertheless, Kurz adds, Biden hopes a dialogue with Iran could be constructive.
The AIC is playing host to a gala at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on March 13, where it will honor , the only Republican openly to criticize Bush for his "Axis of Evil" rhetoric.
Also invited, according to AIC, are Sens. Biden and Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.). Biden's staff insisted that the AIC had announced his participation prematurely and that no final decision had been made.
(From Iran) An Open Letter To Senator John Kerry
Senator Kerry, last month when Senator Biden was "engaging" the terrorist ex-hostage- taker Mr. Kharrazi in Davos and the honorable Congressmen: Senator Specter, Representative Nye and Snyder, among others, were hosting and praising the other ex-hostage-taker Mr. Zarif as a special guest of the Congress, on February 7, 2004, World Net Daily under the title of: "Iran Hosting Global Terrorist Conference" reported: "Just as the U.S. State Department approves wider contact with Iran and as members of Congress begin planning the first official trips in 25 years, Tehran is sponsoring a 10-day conference of major terrorist organizations beginning next week. The purpose of the conference is to discuss anti-U.S. strategy. Among the groups headed to Iran to participate are: Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and al-Qaida allies Ansar Al Islam. The conference, dubbed 'Ten Days of Dawn,' is ordered by Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, marks Iran's investment in sponsoring Islamic insurgency groups in the Middle East, Asia and South America."
On that note, as I recall, part of the barrier to our intelligence-sharing with the British on that also stemmed from the fact that they couldn't disclose French intelligence as the source of certain information.
Good notes in the other posts on VIPS personnel. I hadn't noticed Churchill was travelling with them, but now that you mention it, that fits him.
The AIC is playing host to a gala at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on March 13, where it will honor Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), the only Republican openly to criticize Bush for his "Axis of Evil" rhetoric.
Also invited, according to AIC, are Sens. Biden and Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.). Biden's staff insisted that the AIC had announced his participation prematurely and that no final decision had been made.
"The real scandal is the obvious, and treacherous, collusion between Plame, Wilson, perhaps Plame's CIA boss, and a small number of reporters"
I agree, except that I think the scandal is wider still - as I have posted on other threads, Wilson and Rand Beers worked together to try to make the Kerry's campaign's foreign policy team the shadow government preparing to push out the Bush administration, and Rand Beers is great buddies with Richard Clarke.... I think there was/is a nice little cabal of these people working hard behind the scenes to try to ensure that Niger uranium + 9/11 Commission would blow up the Bush administration. If some of us can review many/all of the articles published in connection with both of these manufactured scandals I'll bet there are some very interesting cross-linkages between the reporters and sources..... and let's not forget what Sandy Burglar may have been doing in sanitizing records and/or trying to obtain more ammo for the Kerry campaign! Berger was also a foreign policy adviser for the Kerry campaign (until they had to dump him and also Wilson). Rand Beers, who was a critical Kerry adviser, who was quoted saying he never felt so strongly about anything in his life (as helping Kerry beat Bush), may well be the linchpin in this Axis of Fraud......
Yes, I have long wanted to do that, but it's tough to get the necessary free time.
As my readers know, I have long thought that this "Plame Game" was concocted by Rogue elements of the CIA (Plame, and others that I will name later) with the help certain connected members of MSM to attempt to discredit the President of the United States. As this article in American Thinking stated, the old "Iron Triangle".This post is from the Free Republic Site, by a poster by the name of "Wolfstar" in 2003. I don't know the author, but it was their take on this that started me looking into to it.
I think it will be a grave miscarriage of justice if the real criminals in this matter got a pass, while Fitzgerald attempts to justify his existence by indicting people who are attempting to get the truth out.
rock, thanks for recirculating it.
Hi okie. Thanks, and I agree with your observation above. Unfortunately, I don't trust Fitzgerald to do the right thing.
On the one hand, there is the opportunity to score some cheap political points.
On the other hand, there is the opportunity to do the nation a massive favor and expose the Wilson-CIA-media cabal.
I very much doubt we're going to get the latter. I sincerely hope we don't get the former.
Ping for later comprehension when my hair stops hurting.
Grin...it's a twisted tale, isn't it. The thing is, Washington is a town that lives and dies by leaks. Leaks are everyone's bread and butter there. Plenty of leaks have been far worse than this one.
This investigation was instigated by Dims and their media shills due to partisan political reasons. I'll wager there are plenty of them who now regret making such a big fuss back in '03.
But is there a simple (hypothesized) ennumerated timeline that a simpleton (like me) can get his head around? I can't tell who told whom what when, so I refrain from attacking my libby acquantances and the MSM story stands. Does such a "1. Nov xx, 200x wilson goes to...., 2. Dec xx, xxx Novak writes article, etc"
Sam, I don't know if a reasonably complete timeline can be put together easily given the fact that new information continues to come out. I wrote the article on this thread in 2003. It is organized chronologically but, of course, it doesn't include anything after 2003, such as Woodward's new revelation.
Understood. But as it is, the timeline has wormholes! You got a thorough and complete write-up, indeed.....and you figured it out early. Maybe if there was another thread and people just updated it over time. Way I read the recent revelation is that "high level admin" person still told Woodward about Plame before the Novak article.....but was that before or after Plame was "outed?" or was that the outing.
Bob Novak's article was the first time Valerie Plame's name appeared in a news article. (She was mentioned in her husband's bio in Who's Who, however.)
There were a number of reporters and others who knew Valerie Plame's identity and job title well before Novak wrote his column. The only difference with Novak's piece is that he named her.
To do a complete timeline, one would have to start with the earliest contacts between Iraq and Niger, then work forward. It would be extremely difficult for an average person to do without access to the expensive Lexis-Nexis database or comparable tool.
Well, that in itself is an interesting answer. That means that the MSM hasn't done it either. And, I suspect, if they were interested in clarifying the situation, they would have. bastards.
In all of your investigating, have you ever come across anything about McGovern's family? Like names of his kids? In a really bizarre turn, I saw a picture of McGovern for the first time just recently. I couldn't figure out what was bugging me about it, and then I suddenly realized that I think I once worked with his daughter. I've searched, but can't find anything where his children's names are actually listed.
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