A dramatic new report from
researchers at George Washington University identifies a dozen
organizations, some operating in the U.S. under tax-exempt status, whose
purpose is to promote pro-Iranian propaganda, and includes photos of
Vice President Kamala Harris happily interacting with one alleged
operative: Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi.
The photos were taken in 2021
at Elahi’s Islamic House of Wisdom in Michigan at an event Democrat Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer also attended and was for the purpose of advancing the
COVID-19 vaccinations.
But the Oct. 9 report, "Propaganda, Procurement and Lethal Operations: Iran's Activities Inside America,"
describes Elahi as a radical who has likened Israel Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu to “Hitler” carrying out a "holocaust" against the
Palestinians and who has referred to the Israeli military as a
“terrorist cult.”
Elahi, who once served as head of the Iranian
Navy’s political-ideological office, has cast doubts on Al-Qaeda’s role
in the 9/11 terror attacks and was friendly with Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, who was instrumental in the hostage crisis of 1979 in which 53
Americans were held captive for 444 days.
“What arguably
constitutes the most problematic aspect of Imam Elahi's persona is his
explicit and continuous support for Hezbollah,” says the report.
While
some will no doubt interpret the association of Harris, now the
Democratic presidential nominee, with Elahi as undercutting her
oft-stated support of Israel in its ongoing war with Hamas, the report
is non-partisan, one of its authors, Lara Burns, told Just the News.
Burns
said she does not know how much information Harris had when the photos
of her smiling next to Elahi were taken three years ago.
“These
are just examples of attempts to gain credibility and influence by
rubbing shoulders with people of prominence,” she said.
Elahi and
others in the report “operate under the cloak of organizations that
represent a segment of the population, but they don’t disclose their
true agenda, which is to spread Iranian-regime rhetoric for the purpose
of radicalizing and recruiting,” Burns also said.
Burns added that
one step toward solving the problem would be to rethink the charitable
status of the groups operating stateside.
“The whole benefit is
that you are contributing to the public good, and if an organization is
driving the agenda of a sponsor of terrorism like Iran, that’s not for
the public good,” she said. “There should be extra scrutiny on their
tax-exempt status.”
While Harris did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News, she was recently asked on CBS News' 60 Minutes
to name the nation that is America’s greatest adversary, and she
answered it was Iran. And on Wednesday she was on Fox News to explain
her answer.
“Critics say that you either relaxed or failed to
enforce sanctions on Iran, allowing all of this money to flow into Iran,
like, billions in oil profits,” host Bret Baier said during a combative
interview in which the two frequently spoke over each other.
Harris
responded: “Let’s go back to Donald Trump … who pulled out of the deal
that would have actually put Iran in check,” referring to him as
president ending of a nuclear deal struck by preceding President Barack
Obama in favor of beefing up sanctions.
The report was made public
just prior to Netanyahu announcing Thursday that Israeli military
forces killed Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who masterminded the Oct.
7, 2023, attack that killed about 1,200 civilians.
“Evil suffered a
heavy blow,” Netanyahu said. “This is the beginning of the day after
Hamas, and this is an opportunity for you, the residents of Gaza, to
finally break free from its tyranny.”
On Thursday, Harris also addressed the nation about the killing of Sinwar.
“Justice
has been served, and the United States, Israel and the entire world are
better off as a result,” she said. “He had American blood on his hands.
Today, I can only hope that the families of the victims of Hamas feel a
sense and measure of relief.”
While GWU report is not focused on
Hamas, it notes that Iran provides about $100 million annually to Hamas
and other terrorist groups, while Elahi and organizations tied to him
funnel money from the U.S. to Iran.
The 126-page report includes
498 citations, and photos of Obama and former Secretary of State John
Kerry hobnobbing with Imam Hassan Qazwini in 2008 and 2014,
respectively.
Qazwini leads the tax-exempt Islamic Institute of
America and is described in the report as “one of the most influential
Shia figures in the U.S.” He has also met with presidents Bill Clinton
and George W. Bush and former Vice President Al Gore, among others.
Qazwini
has said the riot at the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, was a
punishment from God because then-President Trump oversaw the operation
that killed Qasem Soleimani, whom the U.S. had identified as one of the
world’s top terrorists.
Qazwini is also known for his antisemitic
rhetoric, according to the report, claiming that Israel is behind ISIS
and that its citizens are “the enemies of Islam” and promising that
Jerusalem “will be a Muslim city.”
Another prolific organization
for spreading Iranian propaganda is the Alavi Foundation, a prime
benefactor of Elahi that has reportedly donated $1.9 million to American
colleges like Harvard University, Columbia University, the University
of California at Berkeley and others that saw their share of anti-Israel
protests since Hezbollah terrorists' attacked the nation on Oct. 7,
2023.
The report notes that in 2008 the Department of Justice
argued that Alavi “secretly served as a front for the Iranian government
and as a gateway for millions of dollars to be funneled to Iran in
clear violation of U.S. sanction laws,” setting off a legal battle that
is ongoing today.
The New York Post earlier reported that
Elahi is a regular donor to Democrats through ActBlue, a platform also
used by Thomas Matthews Crooks, the 20-year-old would-be assassin who
shot President Donald Trump in the ear at a Pennsylvania rally in July.
While
Burns said she and the other authors of the report found no evidence of
an Iranian connection to either of the two attempted assassinations of
Trump, the report notes that the U.S. is “aware of multiple plots
against U.S. officials,” including John Bolton, Trump’s former security
adviser.
The “desire to avenge Soleimani’s death led to a set of
lethal plots against former Trump Administration officials,” the report
states.
The report also notes that Hezbollah is the oldest, most
established of Iran’s proxies and it has long operated in the U.S.
George Washington University’s Program on Extremism has identified 142
U.S.-based individuals who have been prosecuted for Hezbollah activities
since 2000.
“The possibility that Iran and its proxies could
mobilize known and trusted assets based in the U.S. rather than hired
guns to carry out some kind of violent action in the future is a
concrete one,” according to the report.
Among others who have
mingled with Elahi are Sen. Gary Peters, Rep. Debbie Dingell and the
late Congressman John Conyers, all Democrats from Michigan, a state that
is well represented in the report, as it is home to Elahi’s House of
Wisdom and several other pro-Iranian entities.
House of Wisdom has
operated from Dearborn, Michigan, as a federally tax-exempt
organization since 1996, and it regularly praises Khomeini and
Iranian-style democracy that is insinuates should be copied worldwide.
Elahi
is also the only identifiable American member of Ahl Al-Bayt World
Assembly, a group founded in 1994 by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei that operates in 90 countries.
The report notes that ABWA
is barred from operating directly in the U.S. due to sanctions, though
it reportedly organizes trips for American academics hoping to meet
regime leaders at its headquarters in the holy city of Qom, Iran.
The
report calls ABWA “one of the main tools for spreading the Iranian
regime’s version of Shia Islam and supporting its agenda.”
Just the News
reached out not only to the Harris campaign, but Dingell, Peters, Elahi
and Qazwini, as well, and it will update this story should any of them
respond.
