Free Republic

Two high-level Iranian government backers, including a former Islamic Republic official and another accused of lobbying on Tehran’s behalf, were hosted at the Obama White House for more than 30 meetings with top officials at key junctures in the former administration’s contested diplomacy with Iran, according to White House visitor logs that provide a window into the former administration’s outreach to leading pro-Iran advocates. Seyed Mousavian, a former Iranian diplomat and head of its national security council, was hosted at the White House at least three times, while Trita Parsi, a pro-Iran advocate long accused of hiding his ties to...

A trusted Obama aide who once worked for an alleged Iranian regime lobbying group is one of the individuals in charge of Iran policy planning at the State Department under Secretary Rex Tillerson. Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, the Iran director for former President Obama’s National Security Council (NSC), has burrowed into the government under President Trump. She’s now in charge of Iran and the Persian Gulf region on the policy planning staff at the State Department. To make matters worse, Nowrouzzadeh is a former employee of the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), a non-profit that is accused of being a lobbying group for...

I get the first part of this story, not so much the second. The bit about Obama alumni targeting Flynn? Highly plausible if not likely. Flynn was a harsh Obama critic ever since O fired him from his position as DIA, and Flynn more than anyone else in the administration seemed prepared to guide Trump towards detente with the same Putin regime that had tried to sink Democrats’ chances during the campaign with the DNC and Podesta hackings. Flynn is also famously an Iran hawk, something which the Obama administration was, er, not. Did Team O have the means...

For $250,”friends” — or $1000 for a “champion” (photo included) — you too can attend a fundraiser with Chelsea Clinton for her mother at the home of Michael and Sholeh Chegini in Newport Coast, California, according to an invitation to the event obtained by Right Turn. Michael Chegini served on the board of directors and thereafter the advisory board of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a notorious group with links to the Iranian regime that opposed, among other things, any sanctions on Iran. “The Clintons never miss an opportunity to put money ahead of principle,” a spokesman for the Republican Jewish Coalition...

Between 2006 and 2007, at least twelve Democratic Congressmen agreed to meet with Iranian officials in the Ayatollah’s regime at the behest of National Iranian American Council (NIAC) President Trita Parsi, according to a report by Hassan Dai of the Iranian American Forum. Parsi allegedly solicited the help of current Iranian Defense Minister Javad Zarif, who was Iran’s Ambassador to the UN at the time. Zarif is now one of the lead negotiators for Iran’s nuclear program on behalf of the Islamic republic.

One year after they signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, popularly known as the Iran deal, the Iranians are secretly attempting to procure illicit nuclear technology and equipment. So says Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. It appears the mullahs are supremely confident that America and the West will do nothing to enforce the agreement. Looking back on the Iran nuclear deal and the singular role Iran’s American lobby, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), played in the formulation and promotion of the agreement, it’s clear that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s past experience with President Obama has given him...

A protective magnetic force field, self-assembling space habitat and a deep sleep chamber. These may seem like concepts straight out of science fiction, but they are quite real and are actually three of eight projects that NASA will be working on in order to improve space exploration. NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is the agency's annual program that is responsible for funding such concepts. According to NASA, the one thing that all of these concepts have in common is their ability to "change the possible." However, it's not enough to change the possible- they actually have to be technically sound....

In case you missed it, over the weekend, Twitter suspended the account of prominent conservative Robert Stacy McCain. This marks the second time in recent weeks that Twitter has suspended the account of a prominent conservative in addition to several other cases of prominent conservatives having their blue verification buttons removed. Also over the weekend, Washington Free Beacon's Adam Kredo reported that Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is teaming up with a pro-Iranian group for a fundraiser at the home of a Twitter executive. Clinton is scheduled to travel to Silicon Valley this weekend for three fundraisers with wealthy...

Despite Ohio Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich saying a Syrian media report “mischaracterized” a press conference he gave while on a “fact-finding” trip to Syria, video footage of an interview he gave on Syrian television while in Syria clearly shows Kucinich being deferential to and even laudatory of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. In an exclusive video obtained by The Daily Caller, Kucinich openly praises Assad, whose regime has reportedly killed over 1,300 demonstrators and injured many more since protests against the dictatorship began earlier this year. (Report says Kucinich praised Syrian dictator, congressman says statement ‘mischaracterized’) “What I learned from my...

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Obama administration's military intervention in Libya, confirmed Friday that he was invited to visit the North African nation in an attempt to end months-long conflict between the Qaddafi regime and the rebel forces who have been aided by NATO air strikes. (Snip) But Kucinich, who was worried about security, declined the offer and visited Syria instead. In a statement, Kucinich said he was contacted by both sides seeking a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is joining Fox News Channel as a regular contributor, the channel announced Wednesday. Kucinich, the liberal firebrand and former two-time presidential candidate, will make his first appearance on the channel on Thursday night during "The O'Reilly Factor," according to The Associated Press. Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/277595-kucinich-joins-fox-news-channel#ixzz2IB1Dxtg8

Former Democratic Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich reportedly interviewed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday.

As the families of Americans celebrate the release of their loved ones held in Iran, the authorities in Tehran said they would not be freeing a businessman arrested in October and were silent on the fate of a former FBI agent who disappeared in the country. It was unclear why Siamak Namazi, 44, an Iranian American based in Dubai, was arrested in October while visiting a friend in Tehran where he had done consultant work over the previous decade. U.S. officials said Saturday that they would continue to talk with Iran to secure the release of Namazi as well as...

An aide to Bill Clinton sought permission from the State Department in 2012 for the former president to deliver a paid speech to a group tied to the Iranian government that has been campaigning for an end to U.S. sanctions against the country. Fox News reported: The email from the former president’s office was sent on June 4, 2012, from an aide to Bill Clinton to three aides for then-Secretary Clinton, including Sullivan as well as State Department chief of staff Cheryl Mills. It concerned an event in the U.S. hosted by the National Iranian American Council. “Would USG have...

Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American citizen who helped establish a pro-Tehran lobbying group in America, has been arrested in Iran and imprisoned indefinitely. -excerpt- Namazi has been described as one of the “intellectual architects” of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that has been accused of working in support of the regime in Tehran. He and NIAC Director Trita Parsi founded the organization as a way to continuously lobby for the removal of sanctions against Iran and to promote Iran’s foreign policy, while combating the pro-Israel sentiment in America, according to documents from a Cyprus convention...

Executive Summary The Iranian nuclear deal is a full capitulation to Iran’s terrorist mastermind Mullahs, and the latest in a series of betrayals of the American people and allies by the Obama administration. At the highest level of the administration, Barack Obama’s Senior Advisor, the Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett, prioritized rapprochement with the terror state. Throughout the process and negotiations, she had the backing of billionaire investor (and Obama-backer) George Soros, and his multi-headed network of tax-exempt foundations. Their efforts were driven by deep-rooted anti-Semitism and personal greed. Meanwhile, since the mid-1990s, a small but very connected Iranian lobby (funded, in...

Former President Bill Clinton was in talks to give a paid speech at a fundraiser for an Iranian group closely tied to the Iranian regime, and his people ran the idea by Hillary Clinton’s State Department staffers. Clinton Foundation official Amitabh Desai emailed Hillary Clinton State Department staffers including Cheryl Mills and Jacob Sullivan on June 4, 2012, according to an email provided to Breitbart News by Citizens United, which obtained the email in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. “Would USG have any concerns about WJC doing a paid speech for National Iranian American Council (“NIAC”)?,” Desai asked. “We...

When the world’s major powers struck a deal over Iran’s nuclear program in Vienna in July, it represented a victory not just for the Islamic Republic, which has now been granted international legitimacy as a nuclear threshold state, but also for a small but increasingly influential lobby in America, one which has long sought rapprochement between Washington and Tehran and now seeks to leverage a successfully concluded nuclear deal as a means to that end. This Iran lobby, publicly represented by the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), has become a staunch institutional ally of the White House selling the Joint...

Top White House allies are mounting a campaign to discredit recent reports Iran will be responsible for investigating its own military facility for evidence of nuclear activities under an agreement between international inspectors and Tehran. The International Atomic Energy Agency will rely on Iran to collect its own environmental samples and turn over photos and videos from its suspected nuclear military site Parchin, according to a draft of a secret side-deal between the agency and the Iranian government published by the Associated Press on Thursday. White House allies rushed to denounce the report, accusing the AP of publishing a phony...

Obama administration allies lobbying in favor of a recently signed nuclear deal with Iran are smearing Jewish lawmakers and opponents of the accord with allegations of dual loyalty to Israel, rhetoric many view as anti-Semitic, according to allegations leveled by these individuals and groups.Organizations close to the White House, including the pro-Tehran lobbying shop National Iranian American Council (NIAC), the liberal fringe group J Street, and the anti-war organization MoveOn, have come out to question the motivation of Jewish individuals who oppose the nuclear deal, which will provide Iran with billions of dollars in sanctions relief and lift longstanding restrictions...