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Did NIAC Defraud the National Endowment for Democracy and
Congress?
Hassan Daioleslam
June 18, 2008
National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and its president
Trita Parsi have arranged to receive congressional
appropriated funds from the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED) through an expedited process. They have spent these
funds on trivial activities aimed at enhancing false-flag
Iranian NGOs that were in fact managed and controlled by
Iranian Deputy Ministers or high level officials- making a
mockery of the term "Non-Governmental". At the same time,
NIAC and Trita Parsi have lobbied the congress to stop
appropriating other funds meant for dissident democratic
movements and NGOs in Iran through non NIAC channels. While
NIAC´s actions appear paradoxical, it is a cohesive,
targeted and deceptive tactic that has three distinct but
related goals:
to block resources to the NGOs not controlled by the
government,
to provide resources to their showcase NGOs ,
and to funnel the American taxpayers´ money to the Iranian
lobby in the US to benefit Tehran´s goals.
NIAC´s actions with respect to the congressional
appropriated funds are suspect of defrauding American
taxpayers and deserve nothing short of a full congressional
investigation.
NIAC obtained NED congressional appropriated funds
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a private,
non-profit, grant-making organization that receives an
annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress through the
Department of State.
In 2002 NED, in an unusually expeditious review process,
provided a grant to NIAC to "design and implement a two-day
media training workshop in Iran for forty staff members from
five civic groups..." [1]
It is noteworthy that NIAC´s published mission is focused on
empowering Iranian Americans in the US civil life, and has
no provision on civil life inside Iran. It is baffling why
such newly founded organization as its first action item
applied for funds to do capacity building in Tehran. The
first grant was obtained in less than 4 weeks after NIAC was
created. NED requires a two month review process after the
application is submitted.
The original grant was renewed at least two more times.
These grants are about $200,000 so far. It is also unclear
how a startup group, with no track record, can secure a
grant from NED in four weeks. At the time, Trita Parsi´s
only noteworthy credential was founding the Iranian lobby
organization, IIC (as Parsi himself had declared*) and being
connected to Bob Ney. [2]
NIAC Spent NED´s funds to work with Hamyaran
NIAC used NED funds to send two of its members (with
non-technical background and experience) to work with de
facto Iranian government agency Hamyaran to teach NGO
members how to use computer based digital media [3]. The
NIAC members conducting the training were Dokhi Fassihian
(NIAC executive at the time) and Hadi Ghaemi (NIAC membe):
"Among the NGOs present were BoomIran, an environmental
group, the Family Planning Association, a health-based NGO
focusing on reproductive health, the Cultural Research
Bureau, Hamyaran, a networking and capacity-building NGO,
and the Children´s Literature Council, a publishing house
specializing in children´s books." [3]
In fact Hamyaran which organized the workshop is not an NGO
but a government initiated false flag agency incepted,
initiated, founded and managed by the theocratic regime of
Iran. At the time Hamyaran was managed by the Deputy
Minister and Under Secretary of Health Hossein Malek- Afzali.
Malek-Afzali has held high level governmental positions
since 1984. Hamyaran is packed with Iranian government high
level officials. Family Planning Association is again headed
by Deputy Minister Malek –Afzali [4] and the Iranian high
official Safieh Afshari [5]. Two of the other NGOs
mentioned, were large-scale established publishing and
cultural enterprises controlled by government. These two
organizations have sophisticated computer and digital media
infrastructures and are not in need of two non-experts to
teach them how to use computers. The fifth NGO attending the
workshop (BoomIran) is a small organization which shares
management with Hamyaran. We will discuss these so-called
independent NGOs later in this paper.
It is noteworthy that in addition to the high level
management of Hamyaran by the government officials,
according to Hamyaran´s site, many of their daily activities
such as their capacity building workshops are "under the
supervision of the Ministry of Interior as part of their
nationwide capacity building plan for NGOs".
NIAC´s lobby to block US funds to Iranian NGOs through non
NIAC channels
NIAC, while requesting and receiving the funds from NED to
work with the Iranian NGOs, has lobbied congress to stop
direct support for genuine and independent Iranian NGOs
through non-NIAC channels. In this endeavor, they have
organized petitions, congressional briefings, PR plugs and
articles. Trita Parsi, shedding crocodile tears for the
hardship of American taxpayers writes:
"Congress is adept at throwing money at a problem. Far
better to continue doling out cash on a project than to
admit it´s not working. Or is it? After all, bridges are
falling. We are facing major challenges in Iraq. Millions
are without health insurance. In a time when the budget is
increasingly stretched, Congress should reassess its
spending — particularly on programs that have done more
damage than good. The Iran democracy fund is a prime example
of such a program. …. Come September, Congress will be
looking for ways to fill in these budgetary potholes without
increasing the budget. Where better to look for savings than
in the bloated budget of the democracy program, which has
hurt the very people it is aimed to assist? … Not only would
this help ensure that no more bridges fall in the American
heartland, but it would also ease the burden on the most
effective agent for change in Iran — the Iranian people."
[6]
"The reality is that there are smart ways to help Iranian
civil society and there are incredibly stupid ways. NIAC,
through funding from NED, had chosen the former." [7]
Hamyaran: Iranian regime´s means to control NGOs
In 1998, in an attempt to divert attention from crack down
on the internal dissent, Iranian theocratic rulers created a
showcase of several Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
under one umbrella organization called Hamyaran. Hamyaran,
was the outcome of a conference of three sectors. The first
sector, according to the conference outcomes report [8] was
deputy ministers and representatives of several Iranian
ministries and the Iranian parliament. The second sector was
Iranian "non-governmental organizations" headed by Malek
Afzali, (an influential deputy minister himself!) The third
group, according to the report, was International
organizations´ representatives (including United Nations).
Since no representative names were included in the report,
an independent determination of who these representatives
were was not possible for this author. This conference of
the mostly Iranian government agents decided that a new
umbrella NGO, Hamyaran, will manage, coordinate and
represent the showcase Iranian NGOs. This left Tehran´s
hands open in brutal suppression of other NGOs. Hamyaran is
currently headed by Baquer Namazi (the father of Siamak
Namazi who was Trita Parsi´s partner in forming the Iranian
lobby in the US.) Malek Afzali, remains the key member of
Hamyaran management.
In addition to monitoring and controlling the Iran´s NGOs,
Hamyaran is charged with channeling all contacts and
relations of the NGOs with the international organizations
and the UN. Under the supervision of the government,
Hamyaran is also charged with creating communication
channels with the Iranians living in the US to utilize them
as part of the Iranian lobby.
Hamyaran´s report of one of their meeting in the "ministry
of foreign affairs" with various government agencies
attending is a clear indication of the Iranian government's
strategy to use NGOs to recruit the Iranian Diaspora. The
meeting was held on March 16th, 2002 to review the "grounds
for mutual cooperation in the area of strengthening the ties
between the Iranian Expatriates and corresponding agencies
in Iran with specific emphasis on the role of NGOs in this
process." In this meeting "An overall agreement was reached
on the nature of cooperation between the Government
Agencies, International Agencies, and concerned Iranian NGOs
both domestic and abroad. " According to Hamyaran´s report
[9] "Workshops on specific topics related to the Iranian
Expatriates and the International Conference on the Role of
Iranian Expatriates were considered as immediate action
plans."
Baqer Namazi, Hamyaran´s current leader, in 2003, the height
of the brutal suppression of the Iranian civil society,
said:
"… At present the new policies of the Foreign Ministry have
a more facilitating role and direct cooperation of Iranian
NGOs with international counterparts is smoother and easier.
We invite government officials to participate, and several
have come to do so. The government´s professional staff has
welcomed such initiatives. … To come back to the question of
the Iranian expatriates, the Foreign Ministry has been
encouraging us to reach out to the Iranian experts in the
Diaspora, either individually, or in a more
institutionalized form such as through Iranians working at
the World Bank. So in terms of policy, the trend is becoming
more positive, and the regulations are being made easier,
there is verbal encouragement, but there are also the banal
problems such as getting visas et cetera. But generally the
government is positive towards the NGOs networking with the
expatriate professional Iranians who are working in Europe
and in America" [10]
Conclusion
Congress and the board of National Endowment for Democracy
must provide detailed information on how NIAC obtained NED
funding in the first grant and in the subsequent
applications. They must inquire into how the funds were
spent. They must also inquire if NIAC president and members
had knowledge of the active management of these NGOs by the
Iranian government.
IIC site (active from 1997 to 2002 included the following
statements under "Frequently Asked Questions" : Q: How long
has IIC existed? A: IIC was founded in August 1997 by Trita
Parsi, the present Chairman. While conducting research on
Iran for US Congressmen in Washington DC in 1997, he
recognized the necessity of establishing a lobbying
organization in order to protect the socio-economic and
political aspirations of the Iranian people on one hand, and
to promote the historical and contemporary cultural and
scientific contributions of people of Iranian heritage
worldwide, on the other. This consequently led, in
collaboration with a large number of intellectuals and
experts, to the formation of Iranians for International
Cooperation (IIC). "Q: What is IIC? Is it a political party
or a lobby organization? A: IIC is not a political party or
even a political organization. We consider ourselves a lobby
organization; we use our constitutional rights to influence
our elected representatives."
References:
1] http://www.ned.org/grants/02programs/grants-mena.html
2] http://www.tritaparsi.com/biography.htm
3]http://www.niacouncil.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=598&Itemid=2
4] http://www.hamyaran.org/productinformation.php?pid=8
5] http://www.fpairi.org/org.htm
6] http://thehill.com/op-eds/fund-bridges-not-failed-policy-2007-09-11.html
7]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/trita-parsi/smells-like-desperation-_b_73575.html
8] http://www.hamyaran.org/fulltext.php?tid=30
9] http://web.archive.org/web/20030402193515/www.iranngos.org/
10] http://programs.ssrc.org/gsc/publications/quarterly10/shaeryham.pdf
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