Iranian agent at local shul — ‘Absurd’

A synagogue in Denver might seem the last place where Iranian Americans might choose to stage a confrontation, but that was definitely the scene on Sunday when Trita Parsi, an author and speaker on Iranian-American relations, spoke at BMH-BJ as a guest of DU’s Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East.

Parsi, whose award-winning book, Treacherous Alliance — The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States, served as the basis for his public talk at BMH-BJ and subsequent talks at DU and CU, is called an astute foreign policy expert by his many admirers.

His detractors, however — some of whom made themselves vocally known Sunday evening in the synagogue’s social hall — call Parsi a covert propagandist and operative for the Iranian regime, intent on cozying up to American Jews as part of an effort to lure the US away from its confrontational stance regarding Iran.

Rabbi Selwyn Franklin, whose synagogue served as the event’s venue, attended Parsi’s talk and characterized it as thought provoking.

“He spoke of the Israeli and Iranian and American relationship going back to the Shah, and then claimed that even after the Islamic revolution cooperation continued,” Rabbi Franklin told the Intermountain Jewish News this week.

“His main thesis was that Iran has not always followed ideological lines in terms of its realpolitik, but is often pragmatic in its approach. Although the [US-Iranian] relationship has soured . . . nevertheless he maintains that a dialogue is possible and realistic, and that Iran is not a natural ally of the Arab nations.”

The rabbi acknowledged, however, that “some Iranian expatriates who were in the audience were upset and expressed themselves to the speaker.”

Their objection, he added, seemed based on “some evidence to indicate that he [Parsi] has not always been as aboveboard as he seemed Sunday, and in fact is promoting dialogue whereas it might not be in America’s best interest.”

Asked whether Parsi said anything at the synagogue that could be construed as anti-Israel or anti-Semitic, Rabbi Franklin opined, “Not in the slightest. In fact, I was quite surprised that he seemed to be quite balanced in his approach.”

The rabbi identified one of the Iranian Americans at the synagogue this week as Anahita (Ana) Sami, who has been a persistent critic of Parsi and his work.

A writer and speaker with a master’s degree from the Colorado School of Mines, Sami has described herself as an advocate for women’s and human rights in Iran.

In emails that were sent to Denver Jewish activists before Parsi’s appearances here, Sami called Parsi a “lobbyist” for the Iranian regime.

Similar allegations were made by other Iranian-American activists in telephone messages left last weekend at the IJN.

“Parsi has been exposed as a well known lobbyist for the Iranian Regime,” Sami wrote in her email. “The well published author Hassan Dai has exposed Parsi’s relationship again and again.”

Sami cited allegations — attributed to Dai — that Parsi has served as a messenger and go-between for the Iranian regime, on one occasion passing information from Tehran to Karl Rove, deputy chief of staff in the last US administration.

Sami also forwarded extensive allegations that Parsi has had considerable success cultivating ties with prominent US political, diplomatic, philanthropic and academic figures, often through such organizations as the National American Iranian Council, of which Parsi is the founder, and which Sami characterized as a lobbying concern affiliated with Tehran.

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Parsi was also described as having served as the development director for another lobbying organization, the American Iranian Council, which was described as a “powerful” group that was “advocating improved relations with the Iranian regime.”

Sami cited further allegations by Dai that Parsi was a primary lobbyist behind the “Campaign for New American Policy on Iran,” an effort to fight US House Resolution 362, an advisory resolution which sought to impose additional sanctions on Iran.

Shaul Gabbay, director of ISIMI, described all of these charges against Parsi as “absolutely ridiculous” and characterized the audience’s reaction to the speaker at BMH-BJ as disrespectful.

“If he’s an agent of Iran, this should be the problem of the CIA and the FBI,” Gabbay told the IJN this week. “This man is an academic. He may be the only person in the West who has such knowledge about Iran.”

An obviously angry Gabbay said that he did his own “very careful” extensive research of Parsi’s background, including contacting associates in Israel, and concluded before inviting him that his credibility is unassailable.

Parsi, he said, regularly speaks with American and Israeli intelligence officials and his visits to Israel have so angered the Iranian regime that  Parsi is no longer allowed to return to his own country.

“Not only that,” Gabbay added, “but in his work, as well as in his talks in Denver, he openly criticized the policies of the Iranian regime and spoke of it as totalitarian regime with terrible human rights violations.”

According to Gabbay, Parsi also affirmed the Holocaust in his own words, and condemned Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for publicly denying the Holocaust.

Gabbay acknowledged that Parsi has had ongoing contacts with leading figures in the Iranian government, and likely continues to do so. This does not equate with Parsi being a “lobbyist” for Iran, Gabbay said, and is not uncommon in the academic community.

Gabbay himself says he stays in regular contact with Egyptian and Jordanian officials, and says this is part of good scholarship.

“He is courageous, a nice sweet man,” Gabbay said of Parsi, “very careful about his statements, very respectful about being in the synagogue and very critical of the Iranian government.”

What particularly angered Gabbay is that virtually all of the questions that came from the audience at BMH-BJ — which included both Jews and Iranian Americans — focused on Parsi’s alleged lobbying work for Iran. One questioner even asked him to reveal the amount of his honorarium for his Denver talks, which Gabbay says was nobody’s business.

“When I have a guest in my community, in my synagogue,  and people come and accuse him of being an agent for Iran, it’s just incredible,” Gabbay said.

“If you want to protest someone and ask them difficult questions, no problem. But to say that somebody is working for the enemy, it’s disrespectful. I was embarrassed for him and embarrassed for myself.”