We all know The New York Times is a liberal newspaper. We all know they hate Republicans. They hated Trump. But they weren’t too ashamed to publish Iranian propaganda. Yeah, you read that right. They were cited for peddling the talking points of the government who happens to be the world’s largest state-sponsor of terrorism. Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, who portrayed himself as some neutral expert on Iran, was recently arrested for being an unregistered agent of Iran. He submitted op-ed pieces to the publication who went along and printed them (via Fox News):
A @nytimes contributor was arrested for allegedly promoting and spreading Iranian propaganda. pic.twitter.com/dv0B00udCS
— MRCTV (@mrctv) January 28, 2021
A political scientist that has been published by The New York Times was arrested and charged with acting and conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of Iran, federal authorities announced last week.
Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, who is accused of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), allegedly sought to influence the American public and American policymakers for the benefit of Iran.
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In 2018, The New York Times published an opinion piece co-written by Afrasiabi that called for a meeting between then-President Trump and President Hassan Rouhani of Iran. The Times described Afrasiabi as "a former adviser to Iran’s nuclear negotiation team." The Times also linked to a book written by Afrasiabi, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office now accuses him of simply pushing propaganda.
"For over a decade, Kaveh Afrasiabi pitched himself to Congress, journalists, and the American public as a neutral and objective expert on Iran," Assistant Attorney General Demers said. "However, all the while, Afrasiabi was actually a secret employee of the Government of Iran and the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations (IMUN) who was being paid to spread their propaganda."
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Afrasiabi also wrote a 2012 opinion piece published by the Times which claimed world leaders gathering in Tehran for a summit would "elevate Iran as the movement’s new president for three years and enhance Tehran’s regional and international clout" but "the United States … adopted a purely negative approach toward the Tehran summit."
So, is the NYT an agent of Iran as well, maybe even a co-conspirator? Probably not, but for all the criticism lobbed at conservative media, at least we don’t peddle the propaganda of radical Islamic terrorists. Yet, given liberal America’s affinity for these people, maybe it’s not shocking that they ran with Iranian propaganda. Fox News assed that Afrasiabi was paid over $250,000 for his operations work here and faces up to a decade in jail if convicted.