Ariane Tabatabai, who has been linked to a secret Iranian government propaganda campaign, is now serving as a Counterterrorism Officer in the Pentagon.
In 2016, Tabatabai co-authored an article advocating for the United States to align with Iran against ISIS. She suggested that the US Air Force could provide air support for Iranian-backed militias and that the two nations could share intelligence on targets. She also warned that excluding Iran, a major Shia state in the region, from the coalition against ISIS would worsen regional sectarian conflicts and benefit the terrorist organization.
Tabatabai’s current position is described as Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict, a promotion from her role as a Senior Advisor the previous year. This office advises the Secretary of Defense on counterterrorism matters.
Tabatabai’s appointment to this position has raised concerns due to her alleged ties to the Iranian regime. In 2021, a congressional letter called for her security clearance to be revoked, citing her previous statements that echoed Iranian regime talking points, when the State Department had brought her in as a senior adviser to the Office of the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.
Biden’s State Department Spokesman Ned Price claimed that she “was thoroughly vetted and investigated before being granted the position. Any suggestion of security-related concerns about Dr. Tabatabai are baseless and illegitimate”. He fumed that, “we will not sit idly by as our employees—dedicated public servants—face personal smears and slander”.
Leaked emails have also suggested her participation in a secret Iranian government operation to influence the United States. In 2014, she joined an initiative by the Iranian Foreign Ministry to mobilize Iranians with affiliations to international think tanks and academic institutions. These individuals were allegedly part of the “core group” of Iran’s influence operation.
During her time as a consultant for NATO, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Kennedy’s Atom/International Security Program, and a teacher at Georgetown University in 2015, emails containing her articles were circulated from the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s operation to Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. She also forwarded her propaganda articles to her handlers.
Under Biden’s administration, Iranian government agent Tabatabai’s elevation to Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict show how deep the rot is in the Department of Defense. The DOD, entrusted with defending the nation, has allowed itself to be suborned into ignoring national security and its allegiances in order to do the bidding of the Biden administration.
Not just politics, but the most fundamental kind of national security, requires urgently cleaning house in the Pentagon. It’s either that or hand over control over our government to our enemies.
Tabatabai’s background and alleged ties to Iran have raised concerns about her role in US national security and foreign policy. The Biden administration has not commented on the leaked emails, and her appointment continues to draw scrutiny.
She has the blood of young Iranian who lost their lives in the brutal regime in Iran. She calls herself so called journalist but she is nothing more than a Parasto for the mullahs of Iran. She has to be prosecuted for all the wrong information that she has been giving American government and worked as double agent for the mullahs of Iran.