(NY Post) An Iranian-born Pentagon aide, who was revealed earlier this year to be part of a years-long, Tehran-backed influence operation, also sought to undermine the leading group resisting the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to a new report delivered to President Biden.
Ariane Tabatabai has retained her security clearance and position as chief of staff to the Pentagon’s assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict — despite a bombshell Semafor report in September detailing her ties to senior Iranian Foreign Ministry officials.
But Tabatabai and founding members of the influence operation, known as the Iran Experts Initiative, were also engaged in a “covert campaign” to smear the nation’s leading opposition group, known as the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), according to a recent report endorsed by former vice presidential national security adviser Lincoln Bloomfield and written by a University of Baltimore professor.
