Meet Biden’s Iranian-Born Military Aide Reportedly Under Investigation Over Major Influence Campaign
In the wake of terrorist fears over a car explosion at a US-Canada border checkpoint on Wednesday, the Biden administration’s inexplicable complacency regarding national security threats must end.
While Governor Hochul now says the FBI has ruled out a terrorist attack, there were initial concerns “at a time of high alert” that the car was packed with explosives and could have even been headed to New York City.
Hochul announced new counterterrorism efforts last week and had already beefed up security for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
On Tuesday, CBS reported on a threat assessment from the New York State Intelligence Center warning that the war in Gaza is “spawning rumors about targets in New York.”
The threats make it even more reprehensible that hundreds of known and suspected terrorists have been caught crossing our porous southern border, and God knows how many have evaded detection.
But equally troubling is the administration’s apparent harboring and coddling of Iran’s agents, even after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Iran is the main state sponsor of terrorism in the world. Sponsor Hamas.
And yet, sitting in the Pentagon with a high-level security clearance is Ariane Tabatabai, Biden’s Iranian-born military aide who is reportedly under investigation for an Iranian influence operation whose tentacles reach deep into the establishment. military and diplomatic from Washington, no one in the government will explain why.
Eyes on Tehran
Tabatabai is not only the chief of staff to the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for special operations, Christopher Maier, but, according to Navy sources, she recently became a reserve U.S. naval intelligence officer.
Tabatabai completed his five-month training at the Information Dominance Center in Dam Neck, Virginia, according to a fellow officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, and expressed concern that Tabatabai will retain his security clearance, despite counterintelligence investigation.
The official says that Tabatabai would have access, in his reservist intelligence role, to information as sensitive as personnel lists and movements of US ships and submarines in the Persian Gulf, all of which is clearly of interest to Iran amid the current conflict in Loop.
“The Navy has been actively training her to be an intelligence officer and giving her access, not only to what she has in her civilian job, but also to all the information a reserve unit needs,” the officer says. .
“This naval reserve [role] gives you more space and access. “Everyone he has contact with in the Navy intelligence sphere is now potentially exposed.”
The officer says Tabatabai’s security clearance has been a source of constant concern among his colleagues, especially since “the investigation has been going on for so long.”
“It is a clear and present danger in the sense that even if [the investigation] gives him the right to due process, his clearance should still be on hold and he should not have any access to enter the Pentagon or any other military installation.”
The FBI has reportedly been excluded from the Tabatabai investigation and it is not known which agency is in charge.
The FBI did not respond to questions from the Post on Wednesday.
The Pentagon acknowledged receipt of the Post’s questions about Tabatabai on Wednesday, but said “we will not meet your deadline.”
Sources say it is highly unusual that the investigation has dragged on this long while Tabatabai remains free to access computer systems and enter the Pentagon, despite leaked emails reported by Semafor two months ago that showed she was in communication. regularly with senior Iranian officials and was a protégé of suspended Iran’s special envoy, Robert Malley.
Malley, his former State Department colleague, was placed on unpaid leave in June, two months after his security clearance was suspended, pending an FBI investigation into alleged mishandling of classified information, which is at least in its seventh month, with no explanation from the State Department. administration, “due to privacy considerations.”
Joe Biden brought in Malley, the architect of the Obama administration’s disastrous Iran nuclear deal that was scuttled by Donald Trump, to revive the deal, despite Israel’s strenuous objections that it would empower Iran and fuel terrorism.
Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and 30 other Senate Republicans sent a letter to the Pentagon in September demanding that Tabatabai’s security clearance be revoked, but have not received a response.
“The barbaric Hamas attack on October 7 tragically demonstrated the folly of this administration’s coddling of the Iranian regime,” Johnson told The Post.
“They may now take our concerns about Ms. Tabatabai’s connections to the Iranian government seriously, but I’m not going to hold my breath.”
A report delivered this month to Congress and the White House claims that Tabatabai and other members of the Tehran-backed influence network, the Iran Experts Initiative, have infiltrated the US government to spread disinformation about the regime’s intentions. Iranian and undermine the main anti-Iran movement. dissident group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK).
“No individual or organization that aligns itself with a hostile state or acts as a foreign agent should influence US policy or have access to sensitive national security information,” said the report’s author, Professor Ivan Sascha Sheehan of the University from Baltimore. he told The Post on Wednesday.
White House silent
“I did not receive a response from the White House after the publication of my report. “I am also not aware of any changes to Dr. Tabatabai’s security clearance.”
Among the aid and comfort that the Biden administration has provided to the Iranian regime is its blessing to attack the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) in Albania, where dissidents had been guaranteed safe haven under the Trump administration.
Last November, the State Department disavowed the MEK group in a statement, saying: “The United States does not view the MEK as a viable democratic opposition movement that is representative of the Iranian people.”
That appeared to be the green light for the Albanian government to raid the MEK headquarters in June, killing one person and confiscating computers that turned up in Tehran.
In September, in response to questions about Tabatabai’s security clearance, a Pentagon spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon: “We are honored to have her serve, prompting Iran’s Intelligence Ministry to thank Albania and begin arrest MEK agents.”
Malley was accused by a bipartisan group of former lawmakers, including former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and former Senator Joe Lieberman, of being behind the State Department’s “flagrant betrayal” of Iranian dissidents.
How much damage did the destruction of the MEK’s covert network there, less than four months before the Hamas attack on Israel, do to Israel and America’s intelligence-gathering capabilities in Iran?
Albanian sources say MEK members are now trying to move to Canada.
The State Department and the Pentagon have shown arrogant disregard for the media’s interest in the Iranian espionage scandal.
In October, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller dismissed the questions with a cheerful tone: “I have no reason to believe that an Iranian influence operation infiltrated the United States government.”
Hannity’s ‘Jingle’ is family fun
It’s that lovely time of year when families can spend free time together watching wholesome, cheesy Christmas movies.
Since woke Hollywood has lost its mind, it’s generally safer to stick with old heartwarming classics like “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “Home Alone” or any Christmas movie starring Chevy Chase; My favorite movie is “Funny Farm.”
But Sean Hannity has come to the rescue this year.
The popular Fox News host has co-produced a family Christmas comedy called “Jingle Smells” that launches on PPV on Rumble Thursday.
Hannity even has a cameo, along with Fox regular and former Governor Mike Huckabee, among actors John Schneider, Eric Roberts and Ben Davies.
Hannity promises that his Robin Hood-themed film is free of the “crazy agendas that those other entertainment platforms present.” ‘Jingle Smells’ is a movie the whole family can enjoy together.”
In my opinion, that’s worth it.
Happy Thanksgiving Day!
