U.S. THWARTS IRANIAN PLAN TO KIDNAP CANADIANS.
Four Iranian intelligence officials charged
Iran has a secret program to assassinate people abroad as well as harass and intimidate dissidents in foreign countries, according to a report earlier this year.
“The (Iranian) campaign incorporates the full spectrum of transnational repression tactics, including assassinations, renditions, detentions, unlawful deportations, Interpol abuse, digital intimidation, spyware, coercion by proxy, and mobility controls. These tools have been deployed against Iranians in at least nine countries in Europe, the Middle East, and North America,” warned the report by Freedom House, an organization that advocates for human and political rights.
Now, three Canadians are revealed to be the target of the Iranian regime after U.S. authorities uncovered an alleged kidnapping plot.
Four Iranian intelligence officials were charged by U.S. prosecutors this week after they allegedly plotted to lure the unnamed Canadians to Iran, along with an individual in the U.K. and a New York journalist.
The FBI accuses the four Iranians with carrying out surveillance on the targets with a view to kidnapping them and smuggling them out of the country.
“Thanks to the FBI'S exposure of their alleged scheme, these defendants have failed to silence criticism by forcible abduction,” said U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss for the Southern District of New York.
No details were given on the intended Canadian victims — although the BBC said there were three — and the indictment did not name the U.S. journalist. But activist and author Masih Alinejad has stepped forward to say she was the target in the U.S.
“I am grateful to FBI for foiling the Islamic Republic of Iran's Intelligence Ministry's plot to kidnap me,” said Alinejad on Twitter.
Alinejad, 44, is also a prominent person on social media and hosts a program on a satellite TV channel funded by the U.S., named Voice of America Persian.
“Initially, I naturally felt shocked. Then I got worried ... Then I thought about it: we have been scared of the Islamic regime for a lifetime. But now the Islamic regime is scared of me,” Alinejad said on Tuesday, according to the BBC.
The Canadians and the UK resident were also critical of Iran, the U.S. indictment said.
One of the four Iranian intelligence officers is Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani who remains a fugitive, according to the FBI. The other three named in the indictment are Mahmoud Khazein, Kiya Sadeghi and Omid Noori.
The incident sounds like “some far-fetched movie plot,” William Sweeney, the head of the New York FBI office, is reported to have said.
“We allege a group, backed by the Iranian government, conspired to kidnap a U.s.-based journalist here on our soil and forcibly return her to Iran,” said Sweeney. “Not on our watch.”
In multiple incidents between 2020 and 2021, the four intelligence officials procured the services of private investigators to engage in surveillance, which included photographing and video recording Alinejad and members of her household. Several days worth of surveillance was accumulated, and a live high-definition video feed was installed at Alinejad's house, according to the indictment.
As part of the kidnapping plot, the four officials allegedly researched a service offering military-style speedboats, for a scenario that involved evacuating the target from New York City to the friendly country of Venezuela. The Freedom House report said targets of the Iranian regime were right to be fearful.
“The Iranian campaign is distinguished by the total commitment it receives from the state, the level of violence that it employs, and its sophisticated application of diverse methods against a similarly diverse set of targets,” said the report. “The result is intense intimidation of the Iranian diaspora, from which even those who avoid physical consequences ultimately suffer. As an Iranian activist told Freedom House, `They drain you emotionally, financially, in every way.'”
The report said since 2014, the regime has been linked to five assassinations or assassination attempts in three countries, and plots were thwarted in at least two others.
WE HAVE BEEN SCARED OF THE ISLAMIC REGIME FOR A LIFETIME. BUT NOW THE ISLAMIC REGIME IS SCARED OF ME.
AMONG THE ATTACKS:
❚ In December 2015, Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi, a refugee living in the Netherlands since 1981, was assassinated outside his home.
❚ Belgian authorities disrupted a bomb plot against a gathering in France of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in 2018.
❚ In September 2018, Danish intelligence officials said they had disrupted an assassination attempt organized by the Iranian regime against the head of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz.
The report added, “Another recent tactic is renditions, in which Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) leads operations to kidnap exiles from other countries and forcibly repatriate them.”