Posted tagged ‘Iranian propaganda in U.S.’

Hezbollah TV in the Bay Area of San Jose

May 5, 2017

Hezbollah TV in the Bay Area of San Jose, Israel National News, Lee Kaplan, May 5, 2017

After 9/11, Republican Sen. Bob Graham warned that Hezbollah is “believed to have the largest embedded terrorist network inside the U.S.” As potential conflict looms with Iran as it pursues nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles, the Islamic terrorism-supporting nation is exporting another form of stealth warfare via Hezbollah in America.

Shia Association Bay Area (SABA) in San Jose, California is one such pro-Hezbollah Islamic center that is under the mainstream media’s and public’s radar despite its close ties to Iran. SABA’s leadership works with Shiite imams all over the Bay Area and has under its influence the imam in charge of a satellite television station that reaches around the world.

Al-Manar TV is a terrorism-promoting entity serving to indoctrinate Muslims throughout the world to the course of violent jihad.  Al Manar TV is not allowed to broadcast in the U.S. and many other countries.

But nearby,Dublin, California, hosts Velayat TV USA which plays a big part in pro-Hezbollah actvities in Northern California to promote the goals of the Ayatollahs in Iran.  Velayat TV USA promotes jihad against the Shiites’ perceived enemies, the United States — the Great Satan — and Israel and the Jews, the Little Satan.  In the event of war with Iran, Velayat TV can reach millions of viewers who might be sympathetic to the Mullahs back in Iran.

For now, Velayat TV tries to keep up the appearance of an innocent local TV station for Shiite Muslims who only want to fit in and “dialog” with the non-Muslim community.

Zaheer Hassan, the Imam who runs the station, completed his studies in Pakistan,  then traveled to Qom, Iran, where he earned his black turban.. Qom is where the majority of Islamist mullahs are trained and the breeding ground for the militant Ayatollahs who run the totalitarian pro-terror regime in Iran today.

The regime is known as the Velayat-e Faqih, which translates “as the guardianship of the religious jurist”. The jurists are mullahs in Iran who preach the Shiite prophecy that calls for the downfall of the West and Israel with the coming of the 12th Imam.

Velayat TV USA, like Al-Manar, promotes the teachings of the mullahs in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley.  This is done under the supervisory religious leadership of the SABA  Islamic Center in San Jose, California.

Hassan works under guidance from Nabi Raza Mir, the mullah in charge of SABA’s mosque that is the central locus for Shia Islam in the Bay Area and also supports and praises the Ayatollah Khomeini-inspired regime in Iran.

Despite the “interfaith dialog” claims on its website suggesting religious tolerance of non-Muslims, a fatwa (religious edict) can be found further inside the website from current Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei calling for death to Americans and World Jewry. The list of fatwas on the SABA website include an explanation that the term “Death to America” is not just a statement or slogan, but a prayer (as defined by Khamenei).

Mir recently won  a lawsuit with the help of radical lawyers from the National Lawyers Guild.  Former Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano, former Attorney General Eric Holder and ex- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to keep Mir out of the country, after he visited family abroad, due to his ties to Hezbollah terrorists. All three of these government officials could scarcely be accused of Islamophobia given their cooperation and working past with the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR in Washington.

Apparently, all three government officials felt Mir was enough of a threat to homeland security to keep him out. Hassan also promotes an English version of “interfaith dialogue” on air, speaking of building a bridge between Western and Shiite communities. However, in Farsi, he really calls for a “bridge of fire,” even talking about burning people who do not adhere to the Shiite faith, that could be heard in a video from his television station, but has been recently hidden from the public.

Hassan says in English he has no political agenda. He is a militant Islamist who follows closely the teachings and exhortations of Ali Khamenei and even Holocaust-deniers. At a religious celebration meant to coordinate with the Occupy Wall Street movement in Oakland, California, youth leaders from the SABA Islamic Center appeared wearing paraphernalia of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, the enforcers for the Mullahs back in Iran, as well as their accompanying governmental thug corps, the Basij.

With tools like Velayat TV , Zaheer Hassan and the mullahs back in Iran are able to guarantee a Hezbollah media foothold in the Bay Area that Al-Manar TV could only have once hoped to create throughout the U.S. and Canada.

This puts any threat from Iran on U.S. doorsteps, not just Israel’s..

 

Iranian Dissidents Demand Investigation Into Islamic Regime’s Secret U.S. Lobbying Network

February 20, 2017

Iranian Dissidents Demand Investigation Into Islamic Regime’s Secret U.S. Lobbying Network, Washington Free Beacon, , February 20, 2017

An Iranian flag flies in front of the building where closed-door nuclear talks take place in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday, July 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

An Iranian flag flies in front of the building where closed-door nuclear talks take place in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday, July 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

A group of nearly 100 prominent Iranian dissidents is demanding that Congress launch investigations into clandestine efforts by the Islamic Republic to influence U.S. policy using a network of lobbyists and propaganda pieces placed in Voice of America’s Persian service, according to a letter sent to leading lawmakers and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The group of dissidents, composed of prominent Iranian voices that oppose the hardline regime in Tehran, says that Congress is not doing enough to expose the Iranian regime’s lobbying efforts in D.C. and propaganda network, which is said to include some at VOA Persia.

Iranian-American groups claiming to represent American interests are said to be carrying water for the Islamic regime inside the White House and on Capitol Hill, according to these dissident voices.

The letter cites VOA’s Persian service as a source of pro-Iran corruption. The Free Beacon has reported multiple times on claims that VOA has been infiltrated by Iran regime loyalists who seek to spin coverage in a favorable way for Tehran. In one instance, an Iranian dissident was barred from appearing on VOA Persia for voicing critical opinions about the regime.

The letter comes at a time when the Trump administration is seeking a tougher approach on Iran for its repeated violations of international accords governing the nuclear deal. The dissidents maintain that U.S. officials have been too soft on the regime and ignored its surreptitious efforts to make American diplomacy more generous to Tehran.

“We write to request a congressional hearing on the efforts of Tehran’s theocratic regime to influence U.S. policy and public diplomacy toward Iran,” the dissidents write to Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) and Rep. Ed Royce (R., Calif.), the heads of Congress’ foreign affair committees, according to copies of the letter obtained by the Free Beacon.

“We ask that you launch an investigation into any and all lobbying activities of Iranian-American groups, which ostensibly promote the interests of our community but whose real goal is to undermine long-term U.S. national security interests in Iran and its neighborhood,” the dissidents write.

Organizations such as the National Iranian American Council, or NIAC, which played a key role in championing the Iran nuclear agreement and worked closely with the Obama administration, have long operated under a cloud of suspicion. Dissident voices maintain that NIAC in particular serves as a mouthpiece for Iran’s regime in the United States.

The group of dissidents—which includes foreign policy experts, university professors, interfaith leaders, prominent real estate developers, and human rights activists, among others—also requested that Congress shine a light on VOA Persia’s activities.

“We also ask that you launch an inquiry into the Voice of America’s Persian service, whose bloated budget is the largest of all language services under the VOA,” they write.

“There have been numerous instances of editorials by the VOA’s Persian service that have been lenient or favorable to Iran’s clerical despots. We consider this to be totally unacceptable and demoralizing for pro-democracy Iranians who watch these broadcasts.”

Such hearings would compliment past efforts by Congress to investigate corruption at VOA, including what many describe as its pro-Tehran bent.

Peter Kohanloo, a chief architect of the letter and president of the Iranian American Majority, told the Free Beacon that the missive represents an unprecedented effort by Iranian dissidents to expose the Iranian regime’s “influence-peddling agenda.”

“Never before have so many Iranian dissidents of different political persuasions and backgrounds come together to speak with one unified voice,” Kohanloo told the Free Beacon. “This historic letter is a clear and unmistakable message to Tehran that we will no longer tolerate their influence-peddling agenda, which divides our community and demoralizes pro-democracy activists in Iran.”

The group of dissidents informed lawmakers that they are all willing to testify publicly at congressional hearings on both of these matters.