[…] National Telegraph […]
Written By Daniel Bordman, Posted on October 21, 2022
As the revolution inside Iran has gathered steam, the Iranians in the diaspora have taken aim at the regime’s assets abroad, primarily what they perceive as their main propaganda tool NIAC (National Iranian American Council). NIAC has been accused of being a lobbying front for the Islamic Republic before by blogger Hassan Daioleslam. NIAC sued him and lost the case.
One of the main fixtures of the Iran Lobby is Negar Mortazavi, who has a long history of attacking Iranian dissidents who ask for sanctions or oppose the Iran Deal (JCPOA). The narrative she has been pushing out has been so in lock-step with the regime she and her colleagues even got to meet with The Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister, Javid Zarif, the man who pretty much led the Western propaganda machine in the West.
While a big part of the job of NIAC members is attacking anyone with reasonable foreign policy towards Iran as “warmongers,” “radicals,” or being “uncompassionate” towards the Iranian people, the other half of the equation is always to play the victim. The people in the Iran Lobby have adapted the Taylor Lorenz/Rachel Gilmore playbook of attacking a group of people and crying “harassment” when criticized.
This brings us to the most recent scandal involving Negar Mortazavi, and what looks like an undeniably fake bomb threat over a speaking event she had at the University of Chicago. Iranian activists were outraged that a career regime apologist was chosen as an expert on the current revolution, and in response, they wrote letters to the university and protested outside of the event. The event was moved to an online-only event where Mortazavi did what her critics accused her of doing – downplaying the revolution.
After the event was over Negar Mortazavi went online to claim victimhood status and even claimed that there was a bomb threat because of her talk. (She even still has the tweet pinned on her Twitter page at the time this article was published)
There is only one problem with this story. It was so easily debunkable. That is what an Iranian activist decided to do. An Iranian Ph.D. student in Chicago with the Twitter handle @_Injaneb96 who was at the event and noticed that at the time of the alleged bomb threat, there was no evacuation or notice to put out to the app that warns about violent crime in the area. So she took it upon herself to call the police department and got them on camera saying there was no bomb threat.
1.This is me calling The University of Chicago Police Department to fact check the alleged bomb threat news. Called twice. The result:
False, no there's no record of such event. Is this enough for you to believe Negar Mortazavi is a liar? #MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/nZg4UroF4i— اینجانب (@__Injaneb96) October 20, 2022
Since then the police have released their own statement saying that there was no bomb threat. The Chicago maroon, which had reported the bomb threat, has still not retracted or corrected the story. Likewise, Negar Mortazavi is sticking to the debunked narrative as well.
The whole incident is a great example of why so many people in the Iranian community, along with the protestors inside Iran are so vocally distrustful of NIAC and their associates, and don’t want them pretending to represent the Iranian people in the Western media.
Daniel is the host of political satire show Uninterrupted, runs multiple podcasts and has written for a variety of publications. Daniel is also the communications coordinator of the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation. You can find him on Twitter here. Uninterrupted on YouTube
thank you very much for publishing this article, you did a great job. I hope your colleagues on other platforms do the same. we want the NIAC’s hand cut off of our protests. they aren’t representing us, their only aim is to reduce sanctions to make more money for this terrorist government.
thank you very much for publishing this article, you did a great job. I hope your colleagues on other platforms do the same. we want the NIAC’s hand cut off of our protests. they aren’t representing us, their only aim is to reduce sanctions to make more money for this terrorist government.
Nice article. Thank you, Daniel.
Negar Mortazavi and the Islamic Republic lobby in the US (NIAC) have been denying the femicide in Iran and suppressing the voice of people fighting for regime change in Iran, through their false narratives. Here she is terrorizing US public to suppress the public opinion in support of revolution and democracy in Iran.
this whole website and level of ‘journalism’ is so bad
Hi Negar, How are you doing?
Excellent article. Thank yo
Factual and to the point. NIAC is indeed a mouthpiece and lobby for terrorist regime in Iran.
Superb article and great summary. Thank you!
great writing exposing the appalling track record of a well known infamous Islamic Republic goon, playing victim and shedding crocodie tears; Negar Mortazavi is not alone in playing victim after whitewashing atrocities and crimes committed by the Islamic Republic; Farnaz Fassihi of New York Times is also a prime example of just doing that; her tireless efforts in whitewashing Islamic Republic and IRGC got to the point that Iranians in diaspora had to stage a protest against New York Times building
I strongly urge you to please write about Farnaz Fassihi and each and all of Islamic Republic goons and stooges; they all have been tirelessly misleading Americans and Western audience and policy makers for decades and have been profiting from this act of treason; they should all be exposed, held to account and appear in Federal Court; they all have been agent of a foreign government acting on US soil, in this case, an agent of a government which is largest sponsor of terrorism in the world
Thanks for this great article and supporting the brave people of Iran
It’s good to have someone who cares and do fact-checking. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for paying attention, I personally would not expect anything else apart from lying , from regime beneficiaires.
Very well! We appreciate the article. Someone needs to expose these criminals. Hopefully we’d be able to bring some legal actions against these terrorist sympathizers in the near future.
that is what we need as your help in iran
Great