[News] United Against Nuclear Iran: The Shadowy, Intelligence-Linked Group Driving the US Towards War With Iran
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<https://www.mintpressnews.com/united-against-nuclear-iran-the-shadowy-intelligence-linked-group-driving-the-us-towards-war-with-iran/286596/>
United Against Nuclear Iran: The Shadowy, Intelligence-Linked Group
Driving the US Towards War With Iran
January 12, 2024
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Most of the world has watched the Israeli assault on Gaza in horror. As
tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced, tens of
millions of people around the world have poured onto the streets to
demand an end to the violence. But a few select others have taken to the
pages of our most influential media to demand an escalation of the
violence and that the United States help Israel strike not just
Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon but Iran as well.
“I might have once favored a cease-fire with Hamas, but not now,” wrote
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/27/opinion/hamas-war-gaza-israel.html>
Bush-era diplomat Dennis Ross in The New York Times, explaining that “if
Hamas is perceived as winning, it will validate the group’s ideology of
rejection, give leverage and momentum to Iran and its collaborators and
put [our] own governments on the defensive.”
In the wake of Hamas’ October 7 assault, arch-neoconservative official
John Bolton was invited
<https://www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-relations/cnn-brings-warmonger-john-bolton-baselessly-claim-iran-directed-hamas-attack>
on CNN, where he claimed that what we witnessed was really an “Iranian
attack on Israel using Hamas as a surrogate” and that the U.S. must
immediately respond. When asked whether he had any evidence, given the
implications of what he was saying, he shrugged and replied, “This is
not a court of law.”
On December 28, Bolton doubled down on his hawkish stance, writing
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/28/the-west-may-now-have-no-option-but-to-attack-iran/>
in the pages of Britain’s Daily Telegraph that “The West may now have no
option but to attack Iran” – a position he has held for at least a decade.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Saudi state-funded
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/iran-international-saudi-funded-tv-channel-promoting-regime-change-iran/284115/>
broadcaster Iran International, senior Bush official Mark Wallace
bellowed <https://twitter.com/IranIntl_En/status/1711592934510911568>
that, “This is Iran’s work. Iran will suffer at the hands of retribution
and will suffer the consequences of supporting this terror group and its
horrific attack on Israel.” Wallace continued
<https://twitter.com/IranIntl_En/status/1711595693310169539>:
No civilized country wants further conflict. But the Iranians are
forcing the civilized world’s hand. And you will see a dramatic
response soon as the United States, Israel, and our allies begin to
position assets around the world in preparation.”
If there was any doubt as to what sort of “dramatic response” Wallace
wanted to see, he added a message
<https://twitter.com/IranIntl_En/status/1711595693310169539> to Iran’s
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: “I look forward to seeing you hanged
from the end of one of your own ropes.”
Iran was recently the victim of a deadly terrorist attack. As mourners
commemorated the U.S. assassination of Qassem Soleimani, two bombs
exploded, killing 91 and injuring hundreds more. In this context, it was
understandable why Iranian officials pointed the finger at the U.S. and
Israel.
Warmongers, Inc
What these individuals all have in common is that they are board members
of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a shadowy but influential
organization dedicated to pushing the West toward a military
confrontation with the Islamic Republic.
Founded in 2008, the group is led by neoconservative hawks and has close
ties to both U.S. and Israeli intelligence. It does not divulge where it
receives its copious funding. However, it is known that right-wing
Israeli-American billionaire Sheldon Adelson was a source. There is
strong circumstantial evidence that Gulf dictatorships may also be
bankrolling the group, although UANI has strongly denied this. In 2019,
Iran designated
<https://mfa.gov.ir/portal/newsview/540056/%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%88%DB%8C-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D8%AF-%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%B1%D8%B3%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%B2%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%86-%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%BE%D9%88%D8%B4%D8%B4%DB%8C-%D8%A2%D9%85%D8%B1%DB%8C%DA%A9%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D8%B9%D9%84%DB%8C%D9%87-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%87%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%87-%D8%A7%DB%8C-uani-%D8%B1%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D9%87-%D9%81%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%AA-%DA%AF%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%87%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B1%DB%8C%D8%B3%D8%AA%DB%8C-%D8%A8%D8%B2%D9%88%D8%AF%DB%8C-%D8%A2%D8%BA%D8%A7%D8%B2-%D8%AE%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%AF-%DA%A9%D8%B1%D8%AF>
UANI as a terrorist organization.
When asked by MintPress what he made of UANI’s recent statements, Eli
Clifton, one of the few investigative journalists to have covered the
group, said, “It’s very consistent with the positions and advocacy that
the organization has taken since its inception.” Adding,
United Against Nuclear Iran does not miss an opportunity to try to
bring the United States closer to a military conflict with Iran. And
on the other side of the equation, they also have worked very hard
to oppose efforts to de-escalate the U.S.-Iran relationship.”
UANI’s board <https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/about/leadership>
is a who’s who of high state, military and intelligence officials from
around the Western world. Among its more notable members include:
* CEO Mark Wallace, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and
deputy campaign manager for George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection.
* Chairman Joe Lieberman, former senator and Democratic
vice-presidential nominee for the 2000 election.
* Tamir Pardo, Director of the Mossad, 2011-2016.
* Dennis Ross, former State Department Director of Policy Planning and
former Middle East Envoy under George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
* Field Marshall Lord Charles Guthrie, ex-Chief of Staff of the U.K.
Armed Forces.
* Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida.
* August Hanning, President of the German Federal Intelligence Service
(BND), 1998-2005; State Secretary at the Federal Interior Ministry,
2005-2009.
* Zohar Palti, former head of the Political-Military Bureau, Israeli
Ministry of Defense; former Director of Intelligence of the Mossad.
* Frances Townsend, Homeland Security Advisor to President George W. Bush.
* John Bolton, former U.S. National Security Advisor and former U.S.
Ambassador to the U.N.
* Roger Noriega, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western
Hemisphere Affairs and Ambassador to the Organization of American
States.
* Otto Reich, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western
Hemisphere Affairs and architect of the 2002 U.S. coup against
Venezuela.
* Michael Singh, White House Senior Director for Near East and North
African Affairs, 2007-2008.
* Giulio Terzi di Sant-Agata, former Italian Foreign Minister.
* Robert Hill, former Minister of Defense of Australia.
* Jack David, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Combating
Weapons of Mass Destruction, 2004-2006.
* Mark Kirk, U.S. Senator for Illinois, 2010-2017.
* Lt. Gen. Sir Graeme Lamb, ex-Director of U.K. Special Forces and
Commander of the British Field Army.
* Norman Roule, former CIA Division Chief and National Intelligence
Manager for Iran at the Director of National Intelligence.
* Irwin Cotler, Canadian Minister of Justice and Attorney General,
2003-2006.
* Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, U.K. Minister of State for Security
and Counter Terrorism, 2010-2011.
In addition, notable former board members include ex-CIA Director R.
James Woolsey; head of Mossad between 2002 and 2011, Meir Dagan; and
one-time chief of British spy agency MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove.
For 15 years, UANI has organized conferences, published reports, and
lobbied politicians and governments, all with one goal: pushing a
neoconservative line on Iran. “UANI are a force multiplier. They provide
at least the veneer of an intellectual infrastructure for the Iran hawk
movement. They did not invent being hawkish on Iran, but they sure made
it a heck of a lot easier,” Ben Freeman
<https://twitter.com/BenFreemanDC>, Director of the Democratizing
Foreign Policy Program
<https://quincyinst.org/category/democratizing-foreign-policy/> at the
Quincy Institute, told MintPress.
Conflicts and Conflicts of Interest
For such a large, well-financed, and influential organization filled
with senior officials, United Against Nuclear Iran keeps its funding
sources very quiet. However, in 2015, Clifton was able to obtain
<https://lobelog.com/document-reveals-billionaire-backers-behind-united-against-nuclear-iran/>
a UANI donor list for the 2013 financial year. By far and away, the
largest funders were billionaire New York-based investor Thomas Kaplan
and multibillionaire Israeli-American casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.
Kaplan, whose $843,000 donation supplied around half the group’s 2013
funding, is a venture capitalist investor concentrating on metals,
particularly gold. He is the chairman of Tigris Financial and the
Electrum Group LLC. Both of Kaplan’s firms employ UANI CEO Mark Wallace
as CEO and COO, respectively.
A 2010 Wall Street Journal article
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704167704575258783702875778>
titled “Tigris Financial Goes All-in on Gold” noted that the company had
bet billions of dollars on the price of gold rising, more than the
reserves of the Brazilian central bank. As Clifton has noted, both
Kaplan and Wallace have marketed
<https://www.salon.com/2014/08/11/billionaires_sketchy_middle_east_gamble_meet_the_man_betting_on_war_with_iran/>
gold to clients as the perfect commodity to hold if there is increased
instability in the Middle East. Therefore, both Kaplan and Wallace stand
to make massive sums if the U.S. or Israel were to attack Iran, making
their UANI warmongering a gigantic and potentially profitable conflict
of interest.
Adelson provided the majority of the rest of UANI’s funding. The world’s
18th-richest individual
<https://www.forbes.com/profile/sheldon-adelson/> at the time of his
2021 death, the tycoon turned his economic empire into a political one,
supporting ultraconservative causes in both the United States and
Israel. Between 2010 and 2020, he and his wife donated more than $500
million to the Republican Party, becoming GOP kingmakers in the process.
He would often vet Republican presidential candidates at his casino in
Las Vegas, and it was often said
<https://news.yahoo.com/millions-at-stake-the-adelson-primary-is-neck-125553624.html>
that this “Adelson Primary” was almost as important as the public one.
An ardent Zionist, Adelson bankrolled numerous pro-Israel lobby
projects, such as AIPAC, One Jerusalem and Taglit Birthright. He also
owned Israel Hayom, the country’s most-read newspaper, with 31% of the
national share. Relentlessly pro-Netanyahu, it was said
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-aide-testifies-netanyahu-enlisted-sheldon-adelson-to-take-down-rival-paper/>
that the Israeli prime minister asked his friend Adelson to set up a
newspaper to help his political career.
Adelson and his influence have been one of the driving forces of
American hostility towards Iran. In 2013, during a conversation with
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, he called
<https://mondoweiss.net/2013/10/adelson-nuclear-negotiate/> for the
United States to stop negotiating and drop a nuclear bomb on Iran to
show that “we mean business.”
A potential third, even more controversial, source of funding is the
Gulf monarchies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Leaked emails show UANI
officials soliciting support from the Emirati royal family. Both Mark
Wallace and Frances Townsend, for example, emailed
<https://quincyinst.org/2021/11/26/dark-money-network-pushes-pro-uae-saudi-policies-from-new-york/>
the Emirati Ambassador to the U.S. detailing cost estimates for upcoming
events and inquiring about support from the UAE.
Thomas Kaplan himself is extraordinarily close to the nation. “The
country and the leadership of the UAE, I would say, are my closest
partners in more facets of my life than anyone else other than my wife,”
he told the Emirati outlet, The National News, which also detailed
<https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/art/billionaire-art-collector-thomas-kaplan-on-working-with-sheikh-mohamed-and-why-he-loves-the-uae-1.826947>
his friendship with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed.
Thomas Kaplan chats with UAE monarch Sheikh Mohamed bin ZayedThomas
Kaplan chats with UAE monarch Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed. Credit |
Brunswick PR
Putting Iran in the Crosshairs
One of United Against Nuclear Iran’s primary activities, Iranian
political commenter Ali Alizadeh told MintPress, is to create a
worldwide “culture of fear and anxiety for investing in Iran.” The group
attempts to persuade businesses to divest from the Islamic Republic and
sign their certification pledge
<https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/sites/default/files/UANI--Certification-Iran-Business-Declaration.pdf>,
which reads as follows:
The undersigned [Name], the [Title] of [Company] (the “Company”),
does hereby certify on behalf of the Company that until the Iranian
regime verifiably abandons its drive for nuclear weapons, support
for terrorism, routine human rights violations, hostage-taking, and
rampant anti-Americanism as state policy, that neither the Company
nor any subsidiary or affiliate of the Company, directly or through
an agent, representative or intermediary.”
One corporation that UANI targeted was the industrial machinery firm
Caterpillar. UANI hectored the firm, even erecting a roadside billboard
outside its headquarters in Peoria, IL, insinuating that they were
aiding Iran in constructing a nuclear weapon. Caterpillar quickly
ordered
<https://eu.pjstar.com/story/news/2010/02/26/js-exclusive-cat-no-longer/42365115007/>
its Iran projects terminated. Wallace took heart from his group’s
victory and warned that other businesses would be targeted.
United Against Nuclear IranA billboard erected by United Against Nuclear
Iran near Caterpillar’s Illinois headquarters. Photo | United Against
Nuclear Iran
These have included French companies such as Airbus and Peugeot-Citroen,
who were threatened
<https://www.france24.com/en/20160804-secret-american-ngo-blocking-french-investments-iran-uani-usa>
with legal action. In 2019, UANI earned an official rebuke from the
Russian Foreign Ministry for attempting to intimidate Russian
corporations trading with Tehran. “We think such actions are
unacceptable and deeply concerning,” said
<https://lobelog.com/large-payments-to-bolton-might-explain-his-uani-tweet/>
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova. “Attempts to pressure and
threaten Russian business … are a follow-up on the dishonorable
anti-Iranian cause by the U.S. administration,” she added, hinting at
collusion between the government and the supposedly non-governmental
organization.
Some of UANI’s campaigns have been markedly petty, including pressuring
<https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2010/0430/Not-welcome-sign-out-for-Iran-s-Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad>
New York City hotels to cancel bookings with Iranian officials
(including then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) visiting the city on
United Nations business. Others, however, have been devastating to the
Iranian economy, such as the SWIFT international money transfer
terminating <https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/swift> its
relationship with Tehran, cutting the country off from the global
banking system.
On UANI’s actions against businesses, Freeman said: “It’s effective, and
(in some cases, at least) it’s to the detriment of the people of Iran;
it’s to the detriment of these companies; and it’s to the detriment of
peace in the region.”
While the group presents itself as against a nuclear Iran, UANI was
strangely opposed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) –
the deal between Iran and the West that limited the former’s nuclear
technology research in exchange for sanctions relief from the latter. As
MintPress reported
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-israel-lobby-50m-campaign-against-iran-nuclear-deal/207807/>
at the time, UANI spent millions on T.V. advertisements trashing the
agreement. As Wallace noted, “We have a multi-million-dollar budget, and
we are in it for the long haul. Money continues to pour in.”
After the JCPOA was signed, UANI hosted a summit attended by senior
Israeli, Emirati, and Bahraini officials, touting its failures. Once
UANI’s John Bolton was named Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor,
he persuaded the president to withdraw entirely from the deal. Bolton
has deep connections to the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), an exiled Iranian
political group widely identified as a terrorist organization. He has,
for some time, considered them a government in waiting after the U.S.
overthrows the current administration. “Before 2019, we will celebrate
in Tehran,” he told
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/07/world/middleeast/john-bolton-regime-change-iran.html>
the group in 2018, predicting that, with him at the helm, the Trump
administration would soon cause the downfall of the Iranian government.
Bolton has long been a hardliner on regime change. “To stop Iran’s bomb,
bomb Iran,” read the title of his 2015 New York Times op-ed
<https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/opinion/to-stop-irans-bomb-bomb-iran.html>.
Yet this appears to be the dominant position at UANI. In March, Ross
published an article
<https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/03/iran-united-states-nuclear-bomb-weapon-israel/673268/>
in The Atlantic headlined “Iran needs to believe America’s threat,”
which demanded that the U.S. “take forceful action to check Tehran’s
progress toward a nuclear bomb.” Failure to do so, Ross claimed, would
provoke Israel to do so itself – a “much more dangerous scenario,”
according to him. Yet only two years previously, Ross called on the U.S.
to “give Israel a big bomb” to “deter Iran,” noting that the “best way”
to stop the Iranian nuclear program was to supply Israel with its own
nukes, thereby taken as a given that Iran was indeed pursuing nuclear
weapons itself (a highly questionable claim at the time) and ignoring
Israel’s already existing 200+ stockpile
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-leaked-emails-colin-powell-says-israel-has-200-nukes/>
of nuclear missiles.
“It doesn’t seem like UANI ever really took seriously the possibility of
a diplomatic means to constrain Iran from continuing to increase its
enrichment levels and moving towards a nuclear weapon,” Clifton told
MintPress. “As a matter of fact, they generally fought tooth and nail
against the JCPOA. They are eager to push the United States toward
confrontation with Iran using the possibility of Iranian nuclear weapons
as a reason,” he added.
Intelligence Connections
That UANI is headed by so many state, military and intelligence leaders
begs the question: to what extent is this really a non-governmental
organization? “That is one of the dirty secrets of think tanks: they are
very often holding tanks for government officials,” Freeman said, adding:
The Trump folks all had to leave office when Biden won, so a lot of
them ended up in think tanks for a while, four years, let’s say. And
if Trump wins again, they will bounce back into government. And the
same is true of Democratic administrations, too.”
The U.S. government also clearly has a longstanding policy of
outsourcing much of its work to “private” groups in order to avoid
further scrutiny. Many of the CIA’s most controversial activities, for
example, have been farmed out to the National Endowment for Democracy
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/documents-reveal-us-ned-spent-22m-promoting-anti-russia-narrative-ukraine/279734/>
(NED), a technically non-governmental organization funded entirely by
Washington and staffed with ex-state officials. In recent years, the NED
has funneled
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/hong-kong-protest-united-states-destabilize-china/261712/>
millions of dollars to protest leaders in Hong Kong, organized
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/documents-point-to-us-hand-in-cuba-protests/277987/>
an attempted color revolution in Cuba, organized
<https://jacobin.com/2020/06/us-intervention-venezuela-hugo-chavez-ned>
anti-government rock concerts in Venezuela, and propped
<https://www.mintpressnews.com/documents-reveal-us-ned-spent-22m-promoting-anti-russia-narrative-ukraine/279734/>
up dozens of media organizations in Ukraine.
These sorts of institutions blur the line between public and private
sectors. But a 2014 legal case raises even more questions about UANI’s
connections to the U.S. government. After UANI accused Greek shipping
magnate Victor Restis of working with the Iranian government, he sued
them for libel. In an unprecedented
<https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/eric-holder-state-secrets-defamation-lawsuit-iran/>
move for what was a private, commercial lawsuit, Attorney General Eric
Holder intervened in the lawsuit, ordering the judge to shut the case
down on the grounds that, if it continued, it would expose key U.S.
national security secrets. The case was immediately dropped without
explanation.
In the past, when the Justice Department has invoked state secrets, a
high-ranking state official has offered a public statement as to why.
Yet, this time, nothing was offered. Reporters at the time speculated
<https://www.twn.my/title2/resurgence/2015/298-299/world2.htm> that much
of the material Restis wanted to make public was possibly given to UANI
by either the CIA or Mossad, which would have revealed a network of
collusion between state intelligence agencies and a supposedly
independent, private non-profit. Given the glut of ex-Mossad and CIA
chiefs at UANI, this speculation is perhaps not as wild as it might seem.
UANI’s funders certainly also have extensive connections to Israel.
Kaplan is the son-in-law of Israeli billionaire Leon Recanati and is
said
<https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2022/07/20/tom-kaplan-israels-anti-iran-svengali/>
to be close with Prime Ministers Naftali Bennet and Yair Lapid. He has
also employed a number of Israeli officials at his businesses. An
example of this is Olivia Blechner
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-blechner-2ba0784/>, who, in 2007,
left her role as the Director of Academic Affairs at the Israeli
Consulate General in New York to become Executive Vice-President of
Investor Relations and Research at Kaplan’s Electrum Group – a rather
perplexing career move.
Adelson, meanwhile, was given what amounted to an official state funeral
in Israel, one that even Prime Minister Netanyahu attended. He was
buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem – one of the holiest sites in
Judaism and an honor that very few figures receive.
A Network of Regime Change Groups
While United Against Nuclear Iran is already a notable enough
organization, it is actually merely part of a large group of shadowy
non-governmental groups working to cause unrest and, ultimately, regime
change in Iran. These groups all share overlapping goals, funders and
key individuals.
One example of this is the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a non-profit
that purports <https://www.counterextremism.com/about> to exist to
“combat the growing threat posed by extremist ideologies.” Yet the group
focuses largely on Islamist extremism – and only those groups that are
enemies of the U.S., Israel and the Gulf Monarchies (about whose
extremism and violence the CEP has nothing to say). Ten members of the
CEP’s leadership council <https://www.counterextremism.com/leadership>
are also on UANI’s board, including Wallace, who is CEO of both
organizations.
Another group headed by Wallace is the Jewish Committee to Support Women
Life Freedom in Iran. This organization claims to be focused on
improving women’s rights in Iran. It very quickly, however, divulges
that this is a vehicle for regime change. On its homepage, for example,
it writes <https://supportwomanlifefreedom.com/>:
These freedom fighters continue with no sign of relenting on their
calls for regime change. Calls for “Woman Life Freedom” and the
removal of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei echo from rooftops,
down street corridors, across campus hallways, and on government
billboards. These brave Iranians have expressed their hatred for the
ruling clerics not only in their words, but in their actions.”
Seven members of the Jewish Committee to Support Women Life Freedom in
Iran’s steering group <https://supportwomanlifefreedom.com/> – including
Wallace and Kaplan – also lead UANI.
Mike Wallace, second from right, poses with prominent anti-Iran figures
at a lobbying event in Italy, February 2023. Photo | Twitter
Kaplan is well-known as a conservationist. However, his group, Panthera,
which works to preserve the world’s 40 known species of big cats, has
also been accused of being a secret regime change operation. Panthera
has a number of UANI officials on its board
<https://panthera.org/pantheras-board-members> or conservation council
<https://panthera.org/conservation-council>, including Wallace and Lamb
(the ex-director of U.K. Special Forces and Commander of the British
Army). Also on the council are Itzhak Dar, former Director of the
Israeli Secret Service, Shin Bet, and General David Petraeus, former CIA
Director and Commander of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
In 2018, Iranian authorities arrested
<https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/iran-upholds-heavy-sentences-for-conservationists-convicted-of-spying/>
eight individuals working with Panthera inside the country. All eight
were convicted of spying on behalf of the U.S. and Israel. While many in
the West decried the trials as politically motivated, any organization
led by these figures is bound to cause suspicions.
This is especially the case as Wallace is also a founder of
PaykanArtCar, an organization that attempts to use art to, in its words
<https://paykanartcar.com/about-us/#history>, “advocate for the
restoration of human rights and dignity for all in Iran.” All three team
members of PaykanArtCar also work at UANI.
The final group in this Iran regime change network is the International
Convention for the Future of Iran. Set up by Wallace himself, the
organization’s website explains <https://iransfuture.org/who-we-are/>
that it exists to “end the repression of the regime and bring true
change to Iran.” Further purposes <https://iransfuture.org/what-we-do/>
are to “connect the Iranian opposition in exile [i.e., the MEK] with
policymakers in the United States and internationally” and to “offer
program grants and technical support” to groups working to overthrow the
government. However, judging by the lack of updates and the group’s
Twitter profile having only 31 followers, it appears that it has not had
much success achieving its goals.
In short, then, there exists a network of American NGOs with the mission
statements of helping Iran, opposing Iran, preserving Iran, and bombing
Iran, all staffed by largely the same ex-U.S. government officials.
Iran, however, is not the only target in Wallace’s sights. It appears
that he is also trying to give Turkey similar treatment. Wallace is the
CEO of the Turkish Democracy Project, a non-profit established to oppose
the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who, it says
<https://turkishdemocracy.com/about-us/>, has “dramatically altered
Turkey’s position in the international community and its status as a
free and liberal democracy.” The Turkish Democracy Project denounces
what it calls Erdoğan’s “destabilizing actions in and beyond the region,
his systemic corruption, support for extremism, and disregard for
democracy and human rights.” There are no Turkish people
<https://quincyinst.org/2021/11/26/dark-money-network-pushes-pro-uae-saudi-policies-from-new-york/>
among the Turkish Democracy Project’s leadership. But there are seven
<https://turkishdemocracy.com/about-us/> UANI board members at the top,
calling the shots.
A Lesson From History
The history of Iran has been intimately intertwined with the United
States since at least 1953 when Washington orchestrated a successful
coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Mosaddegh had refused
U.S. demands to stamp out Communist influences in his country and had
nationalized the nation’s oil. The U.S. installed Shah Mohammad Reza
Pahlavi as a puppet ruler. An unpopular and authoritarian ruler, the
Shah was overthrown in the Revolution of 1979. Since then, it has become
a target for regime change, and its nuclear program is something of an
obsession in the West.
Often orchestrated by UANI officials while they were in government, the
U.S. has carried out a sustained economic war against Tehran, attempting
to collapse its economy. American sanctions have severely hurt Iran’s
ability to both buy and sell goods on the open market and have harmed
the value of the Iranian rial. As prices and inflation rose rapidly,
ordinary people lost their savings.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. turned the screw once again,
intimidating both businesses and nations into refusing to sell Tehran
vital medical supplies. Eventually, the World Health Organization
stepped in and directly supplied it with provisions – a factor in the
Trump administration’s decision to pull out of the agency.
While U.S. actions have severely harmed the Iranian economy, a future
bright spot may come in the form of BRICS, the economic bloc that Iran –
along with Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE – joined on
January 1. American economic power on the global stage appears to be
waning. However, This new reality might spur Washington policymakers to
reconsider a military option, as UANI desperately wants them to.
It is perfectly reasonable to be worried about Iran – or any country,
for that matter – developing atomic bombs. Nuclear weapons pose an
existential threat to human civilization, and more actors with access to
them increase the likelihood of a devastating confrontation. Already in
the region, India, Pakistan, Israel and Russia possess them. But it is
only the United States that has ever used them in anger, dropping two on
Japan and coming close to doing so in China, Korea and Vietnam. And
given the U.S.’ recent track record of attacking countries that /do not/
possess weapons of mass destruction (e.g., Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan) and
not touching those who do (such as North Korea), it is entirely
understandable why Iran might want one. As Freeman said:
I certainly do not want Iran to get a nuclear weapon. But at the
same time, you can also believe that it would be catastrophic if the
U.S. were to engage in a war with Iran…And the concern with groups
like UANI is that they are taking that [the worry of Iran getting a
nuclear weapon] and pushing that argument to a point where it might
lead to an active conflict.”
The slaughter in Gaza has been horrifying enough. More than 22,000
people have been killed in the Israeli invasion, and a further 1.9
million displaced. Israel is also simultaneously bombing the West Bank,
Syria and Lebanon. The U.S. is facilitating this, sending billions of
dollars in weaponry, pledging iron-clad political support to Israel,
silencing critics of its actions, and vetoing United Nations resolutions.
But United Against Nuclear Iran is eager to escalate the situation to a
vastly greater level, urging Washington to attack a well-armed country
of nearly 90 million people, erroneously claiming that Iran is behind
every Hamas or Hezbollah action. “This is not a nuclear
non-proliferation organization” Clifton said, noting that there are
plenty of genuine already existing peace and environmental groups
worried about nuclear weapons that either supported the JCPOA or said it
did not go far enough. “Their focus is more on working towards regime
change in Iran rather than actually supporting efforts that might
prevent Iranian nuclear weapons,” he added.
IF UANI gets its way, a conflict with Iran might spark a Third World
War. And yet they are receiving virtually no pushback to their
ultra-hawkish pronouncements, largely because they operate in the
shadows and receive virtually no public scrutiny. It is, therefore,
imperative for all those who value peace to quickly change that and
expose the organization for what it is.
Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News
/*Alan MacLeod <https://twitter.com/AlanRMacLeod>* is Senior Staff
Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017, he
published two books, Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News
and Misreporting
<https://www.routledge.com/Bad-News-from-Venezuela-Twenty-years-of-fake-news-and-misreporting/Macleod/p/book/9781138489233> and
Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent
<https://www.routledge.com/Propaganda-in-the-Information-Age-Still-Manufacturing-Consent-1st-Edition/MacLeod/p/book/9781138366404?fbclid=IwAR2xQQWJd98C25wapG4ynmlEnGvL5wxG_mp5RwpBwtwPDxInjNZ1Oo7KD-E>, as
well as a
<https://journalcontent.mediatheoryjournal.org/index.php/mt/article/view/65/56>
number
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0306396818823639#articleShareContainer>
of <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/blar.12940> academic
<https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2018.00064/full>
articles
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0896920518820934>. He has
also contributed to FAIR.org <https://fair.org/author/alan-macleod/>,
The Guardian <https://www.theguardian.com/profile/alan-macleod>, Salon
<https://www.salon.com/writer/alan-macleod>, The Grayzone
<https://thegrayzone.com/author/alan-macleod/>, Jacobin Magazine
<https://jacobinmag.com/author/alan-macleod>, and Common Dreams
<https://www.commondreams.org/author/alan-macleod>./
*Republish our stories! * MintPress News is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.
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