The government press in Tehran calls the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) the “Iran lobby in US.” Is NIAC the pro-Iran lobby in the United States, and do they influence U.S. policy making towards Islamist Iran?  Hassan Dai, and many other experts, believe so.  Please join us as Mr. Dai will discuss the results of NIAC’s legal case against him, and how it has helped to support the idea that NIAC is a lobbying organization for Iran.  He will also discuss those current and former NIAC staffers who have the ear of, and in one case, Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, is a member of, the Obama Administration.

In 2008, NIAC and its president Trita Parsi, sued Mr. Dai for defamation, “after Mr. Dai’s investigative reporting exposed Parsi’s and NIAC’s deep and incontrovertible ties to high-level agents of the Iranian regime. The suit went through 53 months of litigation that included 24 months of discovery and over 30 court motions. These ultimately confirmed the accuracy of Mr. Dai’s investigative reports.” The case reached national prominence when Parsi’s e-mails (produced during discovery) not only confirmed his ties to the mullahs but also that he has delivered lectures to the CIA, briefed Secretary Hilary Clinton and visited the Obama White House starting in 2009. As recently as (July, 2011), he was hosted by Senior Adviser to the President Valerie Jarrett.”

Noted journalist Eli Lake used documents revealed during the NIAC lawsuit against Dai to suggest that NIAC was, indeed, illegally lobbying. Lake’s story apparently forced NIAC to amend its tax returns.

Michael Rubin, a prominent expert on Iran, writing at Commentary, also documented that NIAC is the lobby for the government of Iran. “Jamal Abdi, NIAC’s policy director, now appears to push aside any pretense that NIAC is something other than Iran’s lobby. Speaking at the forthcoming “Expose AIPAC” conference, Abdi is featured on the “Training: Constituent Lobbying for Iran” panel. Oops. Then again, in his university days, NIAC founder Trita Parsi made ‘no secret of his goals.'”  Further, asreported by Jordan Schachtel of Breitbart, in American Thinker, “Mohsen Makhmalbalf, an established leader in Iran’s Green Movement, said of Parsi, “I feel his lobbying has secretly been more for the Islamic republic.”

Here is a link to the 2012 court dismissal which sanctioned NIAC and Parsi for discovery abuses, including false declaration to the court and ordered them to pay significant part of Dai’s legal expenses.  Some of NIAC’s internal documents released during the lawsuit are posted on the Iranian-American Forum.

Hassan Dai (full name Seid Hassan Daioleslam) is a human rights activist, political analyst and editor of the Iranian American Forum. He is well-published in Farsi and English and frequently appears as an expert guest on the Voice of America and major Persian language media. Mr. Dai writes on Iran’s domestic politics, Iranian regime’s foreign policy and US-Iran relations.  Mr. Dai was a student leader before and after the revolution and was forced to escape the Iranian regime’s persecution and therefore, immigrated to France. During the 1980’s and 1990’s, he was involved in human rights activities and the defense of political prisoners in Iran. In 2001 he moved to the United States and focused on investigating and reporting the US-Iran relations and the Iranian regime’s lobby and advocacy activities in the US.