At the end of this five-year process, no evidence was found to substantiate the accusation that NIAC was lobbying for the Iranian regime.
With its access to the White House, State Department and media, NIAC has increasingly troubled the war crowd, so much so that it has become one of their favorite targets.
Its leading attack dog, Seyyed Hassan Daioleslam put it like this in an internal email: "destroying" NIAC and its President Trita Parsi "is an integral part of any attack on [former Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton and President Obama." In other words, destroying NIAC would also destroy the administration's policy of avoiding war with Iran.
Daioleslam has engaged in a massive smear campaign accusing NIAC of being the lobby of the Islamic Republic of Iran -- a ludicrous accusation considering NIAC's unambiguous support for the Iranian pro-democracy movement but one that would rightly destroy the organization if proven true.
NIAC responded, as it had to, by taking Daioleslam to court for defamation.
No doubt, NIAC knew that in suing Daioleslam it was fighting a David vs. Goliath battle, since the laws are stacked against anyone suing for defamation in the U.S.
But it was worse than that. Not only were the laws stacked against it, NIAC was also significantly outspent because the neoconservatives decided to go all out to deal a death blow to the anti-war forces. In fact, the well-financed anti-Muslim, pro-war and anti-Obama activist Daniel Pipes stepped in to support Daioleslam through the legal arm of his organization, the Middle East Forum. Pipes got Daioleslam a top-notch legal team headed by George Bush's former White House lawyer Bradford Berenson of Sidley Austin, the sixth largest law firm in the world.
At first, Daioleslam's court room argument was that his statements were accurate and that NIAC should be compelled to open its books so that the veracity of his claim of NIAC's control by Tehran could be assessed. NIAC complied and Daioleslam's high-powered legal team went through thousands of emails, documents and calendar entries.
However, to their great frustration, they couldn't find a shred of evidence supporting Daioleslam's claims. Instead, the documents revealed a very simple truth: NIAC is an independent grassroots organization supported by the Iranian American community, and which, engages with all parties to the conflict including the U.S., Iranian and Israeli governments.
Failing to prove his main contention, Daioleslam retreated from the assertion that NIAC was the Islamic Republic's lobby. This was a huge victory for NIAC and, if the lawsuit had been filed in any other country, the conclusion would have been: Daioleslam lost, NIAC won.
Not a good day for the pro-war lobby, but a very good one for Americans who abhor the idea of being embroiled in a third Middle East war.
But in the U.S., the plaintiffs (in this case, NIAC) have to go one step beyond proving that they were defamed. Plaintiffs also have to prove that the other side had acted with malice. So NIAC had to prove that Daioleslam knew that he was lying -- a tall order under all circumstances. And convincing the very conservative, Bush appointed Judge John Bates -- the same judge that got Dick Cheney off the hook in the Valerie Plame case -- that Daioleslam acted with malice was probably impossible.
NIAC could not pull that off and the judge responded by shifting some of the legal "discovery" costs ($184,000) from Daioleslam to NIAC. But that was Daioleslam's only victory.
Not only was the claim that NIAC is a foreign lobby shattered, but Daniel Pipes and other neoconservatives had spent considerably more than $184,000 on their efforts to destroy NIAC. They had hoped to shift a much larger chunk of those costs to NIAC to cripple it by emptying its coffers.
But NIAC succeeded in striking out the largest item on Daioleslam's menu of requests, leaving NIAC with an $184,000 bill, an amount it is appealing. In short, Dailoeslam's attack backfired, apparently leaving him (or Pipes) heavily in the hole. In fact, during a press call last week, Dailoeslam actually called on reporters to donate and help defray its costs!
So at the end of this five-year process, no evidence was found to substantiate the accusation that NIAC was lobbying for the Iranian regime; the objective of "destroying NIAC" has completely failed as the organization continues to be one of the most prominent voices on Iran policy in Washington; and the vast majority of the cost of the discovery process remains with the defendant and his neo-conservative backers.
Not a good day for the pro-war lobby, but a very good one for Americans who find the idea of being embroiled in a third Middle East war -- so soon after Iraq and with our troops still in Afghanistan -- utterly appalling.
Timely piece, thank you.
FYI,
In his email, the lifetime leader of the Islamist regime's lobby has included a Persian version of the ordered character assassination article.
Even if the lifetime regime lobbyist has this character assassination article translated into all languages including Swahili, Arabic, mandarin,.... it still would not hide the fact that NIAC lobby sued Dai for saying the lobby is a regime lobby. And the lobby lost the case; ergo Dai's claim was not disproved and it stands.
The cherry on the top is, for lying and hiding documents, the Federal judge penalized the lobby and its lifetime leader $180,000+ interests.
No amount of custom ordered character assassination will wash that fact away.
NIAC Lobby, paa bezan!
Dear Fred, I think some zeresk juice is in order for Trita & NIAC as well for this failed attempt!
Shameful serial campaign of distortion and deception have been insidiously launched on behalf of IRI..IMHO. part of this campaign is also the take over or the coup d'etat at Iranian.com implemented by Said...
I also had no idea this MJ guy was AIPAC staffer. Terry must have wined and dined this guy quite a bit. He looks like he could love "kabob"...lol
Artificial_Intelligence,
Lets respond to the childish attemts of the NIAkian and their lifetime leader with a FOOTAINA !
AI aziz,
But you have not discussed, argued or pointed out (with the hint of logic) as what is a "lie" in this article? I wonder, for a given person as a point of interest with no prejudiced , how can one differentiate from an article such as written here from those that they write in support of NIAC, if no facts or arguments are given.
Do you see the irony?
Mehrdad
There is a Korosh Lghani doing a big character assassination on H.D. In the "other" house.
Dear Bavafa, My blog's main point was not intended to argue all the lies in the MJ article; My blog main objective was about NIAC's damage control in the face of undisputed defeat in court and getting sanctioned for abuse of the discovery process because Trita's computer got eaten by his dog.... Additionally, my blog is about Iranian.com's new management and its participation in NIAC's poor attempt at damage control with its new anti freedom of speech policies. You yourself are no fan of IC.
It will be pointless for you and I to argue every point. I know where you stand. I completly disagree with you. However I respect your right to hold your views.
To answer your question, I do not see any irony whatsoever.
Notwithstanding, below are some examples of what I believe to be lies and puffery by this MJ character
1) sanctions that only hurt the Iranian people
2) at the same time (NIAC), rebuking Tehran's horrible human rights record
3) the battle line is between a small coalition of peace and security, non-proliferation and religious groups opposing war and favoring a peaceful solution to the stand off with Iran, and a well-funded war machine comprising neoconservative organizations who believe war with Iran should have started years ago.
4) destroying NIAC would also destroy the administration's policy of avoiding war with Iran.
5) NIAC has increasingly troubled the war crowd, so much so that it has become one of their favorite targets
6) NIAC was also significantly outspent because the neoconservatives decided to go all out to deal a death blow to the anti-war forces.
7) The well-financed anti-Muslim, pro-war and ..........activist Daniel Pipes
Dear Fozoli, where is H.D.? Can you send the link please. Thanks
Dear AI,
As anyone can expect, there is hardly any solid truth in anything that has remotely related to politics and NIAC, AIPAC, H.D. or anyone else for that matter is no exception. Politicians have a way to twist and present things just to further their own agenda. And unfortunately most of us will fall for those half-truth that we like to hear.
But at the end of the day, I am glad that at least you and I, as before, have been able to discuss things and agree to disagree cordially.
Mehrdad
Well, Trita got his wish, and his way with Iranian.com. What did I say when the promised "changes" took place on that site? I said 'wait for the NIACization of the site.' That process is now complete. Parsi has a featured piece right on top of the page, and his henchmen are posting article after article attacking Hassan Dai. What a disgrace!
Dear Bavafa, Thanks for your comment and Kind words.
Dear AO, just in the past 72 hours or so I have observed a bunch of new members. All are Pro NIAC members by accident of course:))))..See members like:
Soheila
Farideh Zangeneh
John Gish
IraneMah
Also, the character Irandokht, a well documented NIAC apologist, who was missing for about 2 years just reappeared. The site has become NIAC spin zone:))))
They think war is imminent. Posted by Said Amin, with comments by Trita Parsi in the article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/world/middleeast/bill-would-deny-iran-access-to-foreign-exchange-reserves.html?_r=0
brother Intelligence.
I dont know who these "NeoCons" are, but may Allah almighty break their backs for doing all this harm to the nation of Iran. I remember a while back, when relative freedom and democracy ruled in iranian.com, I read an article or two in there which claimed with substatntial evidance that Trita Khan Parsi, has been and still is a lackey of Necons who have very good relationship behind the scenes with that fake seyed and agent of England, Ali Khamenei.
Another article posted on IC - panic about war
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/flynt-and-hillary-mann-leverett/what-failed-nuclear-diplo_b_3233091.html
Dear Shepesh: this whole propaganda about "Iran will be attacked tomorrow" has been going on for years. One of them, Abbas Edalat, even gave an exact date of April 1, 2008 for it in a video that I posted awhile back. No one believes it any longer. The biggest warmongers on the planet are the IR and its supporters, apologists and appeasers.
Dear AI- the "Soheila" character is the funniest of them all. I think s/he is probably one of their interns. S/he is on every NIAC sponosred thread, showering them with words of support. Just hilarious!
AO jan have you seen SK using Stephen Hawking to make a point? :-)
Not that I support Israeli Policies necessarily but that was quite funny.
http://iranian.com/posts/view/post/14404
I saw that. Trawetsdor's comment summed it all up.
It looks as if the entire NIAC management and staff, all 10 of them (!), are busy posting, Tooping, Liking 7x24 on Iranian.com!
Hey guys, who is taking of the issues facing Iranian-Americans!
I also liked how they prepared the scene for Parsi's grand return to Iranian.com. They started off with the MJ Rosenberg post trying to lessen the impact of their loss and the fines in court. Then their main hit man, Kourosh Ighani posted a couple of blogs attacking Dai and talking about MEK. These were warnings to those who were going to question Parsi. After their targets were "softened up" a bit (to borrow a military term) Parsi made his rand return to the site with a featured post. Pretty well planned if you ask me.
A.I. Here is the Link sorry about the late response. I suggest you look at all the this character's blogs. He is the winner of the OBN (Order of the Brown Nose).