The FBI announced that is has unmasked an alleged Iranian agent who was working secretly to influence U.S. policy while on the payroll of the Iranian Regime.
Kaveh Afrasiabi was arrested on Monday on charges of conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent and acting as a foreign agent without registration.
As CBS Local Boston reports:
A criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn said Afrasiabi was secretly employed by the Iranian government and paid by Iranian diplomats at the country’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York since at least 2007.
“Afrasiabi allegedly sought to influence the American public and American policymakers for the benefit of his employer, the Iranian government, by disguising propaganda as objective analysis and expertise,” Seth DuCharme, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement…
Federal prosecutors accuse Afrasiabi of emailing Iranian officials in January 2020 with advice for “retaliation” for the US military airstrike that killed Qasem Soleimani, head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, an elite unit that handles Iran’s overseas operations.
Afrasiabi at the time proposed the Iranian government “end all inspections and end all information on Iran’s nuclear activities pending a [United Nations Security Council] condemnation of [the United States’] illegal crime,” according to the complaint. Afrasiabi claimed the move would “strike fear in the heart of [the] enemy.”
If convicted Afrasiabi may face up to 10 years in prison.
Political scientist who 'secretly worked for Iran' arrested by FBI https://t.co/LOGSviu1JK via @MailOnline
— Bina Edwards (@jackalJarrod) January 20, 2021
