| As Professor
Is Arrested For Lobbying For UN Mission of
Iran UN Refuses Qs On Credit Union
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
FEDERAL COURT,
Jan 19 – A professor is
charged with violation US law
by lobbying for Iran and its
Mission to the UN, including a
US Congress members, without
registering under the US
Foreign Agents Registration
Act.
The US Attorney
for the EDNY is charging Kaveh
Lotfolah Afrasiabi, also known
as “Lotfolah Kaveh Afrasiabi,”
with acting and conspiring to
act as an unregistered agent
of the Government of the
Islamic Republic of Iran, in
violation of FARA.
Afrasiabi was
arrested on January 18 at his
home in Watertown,
Massachusetts, and will make
his initial appearance on
January 19 in federal court in
Boston, Massachusetts, before
United States Magistrate Judge
Jennifer C. Boal.
On the
morning of January 19, given
the multiple references in the
complaint to the UN, Inner
City Press in writing asked UN
Sec-Gen Antonio Guterres and
his spokespeople Stephane
Dujarric and Melissa Fleming,
"What are comments and actions
if any of SG Guterres on
today's EDNY indictment of
Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi,
a/k/a “Lotfolah Kaveh
Afrasiabi,” with acting and
conspiring to act as an
unregistered agent of the
Government of the Islamic
Republic of Iran, in violation
of US FARA?"
Hours later, no
answer. Inner City Press was
by Guterres banned from
attending the UN noon briefing
to ask - this while the UN
gives multiple taxpayer funded
office to Iran state
media. No one else
allowed in asked about the
case.
From the
complaint: Afrasiabi
"has surreptitiously derived a
significant portion of his
income from compensation for
services performed at the
direction and under the
control of the Government of
the Islamic Republic of Iran
(“GOI”) and officials of the
GOI assigned to the Permanent
Mission of the Islamic
Republic of Iran to the United
Nations (“IMUN”) in New York
City. In performing these
services, AFRASIABI has not
registered with the U.S.
Department of Justice as an
agent of a foreign principal,
the GOI...
"On January 5,
2020, AFRASIABI emailed GOI
officials, including the
Foreign Minister and the GOI’s
Permanent Representative to
the United Nations (“Permanent
Representative-3”) with advice
for the GOI’s “retaliation”
for the killing of Soleimani,
writing: 25 Ba
salam, as a foreign policy
expert, I advise the
government not to pull out of
barjam7 and yet end all
inspections and end all
information on Iran’s nuclear
activities pending a UNSC
condemnation of US’ illegal
crime. The advantages are as
follows: 1. it will strike
fear in the heart of enemy 2.
it will weaken Trump and
strengthen his opponents 3. it
shows Iran's rule abiding
behavior and puts pressure on
UN and Europe to act. 4. It is
an important retaliation and
will be well received by
people. 70. In a later email
to Permanent Representative-3
on or about January 7, 2020,
AFRASIABI advised that “we
shoukd show heroic restraint,”
and in an apparent reference
to the United States,
AFRASIABI continued “[e]nemy
has laid trap for a war we
must avoid.”
AFRASIABI
received more than $265,000
from the IMUN in checks
payable to him and drawn on
official bank accounts held in
the name of the Permanent
Mission of the Islamic
Republic of Iran to the United
Nations. The memo lines of
many of the most recently
issued checks have explicitly
described the payments as
“salary.” 78. Many of the
payments made to AFRASIABI by
officials of the GOI assigned
to the IMUN since 2012 have
been drawn on the IMUN’s bank
account at a financial
institution in Long Island
City in Queens, New
York."
Would that be the
UN Federal Credit Union, about
which Inner City Press has
previously reported, before
being banned by Guterres, now
seeking a second term as UNSG?
Watch this site.
***
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