Amir-Abbas Fakhravar, the Senate Chairman of the National Iranian Congress, told Newsmax Wednesday the FBI told him Tuesday that like activist journalist Masih Alinejad, he is also danger from Iranian operatives over his stance against the country's government.
"I know Masih, from the time she was a journalist in Iran, and she's a very well known and loud voice for Iranian opposition outside of the country," Fakhravar, whose U.S.-based political organization calls for regime change in Iran, told Newsmax's "National Report." "The FBI briefed me and she last night...normally it's confidential, but today I told the FBI agents that I need to talk about that because this is more serious than they thought."
Tuesday, the four Iranians, described as an intelligence officer and three members of an intelligence network, are facing federal charges of plotting to lure Alinejad, whose name wasn't listed in the indictment, and four others, from New York to Iran. Iran's regime has denied wrongdoing and accused the United States of employing a "Hollywood" scenario. The four defendants are reportedly in Iran and remain at large.
But Fakhravar told Newsmax that the Iranians have "been trying to kidnap" Alinejad and then send her to Venezuela, from where she would be flown by a "charger flight by the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) to Tehran.
He added that such tactics have happened before, including to a friend of his who was also in his organization.
"Last year they kidnapped him," Fakhravar said. "He was a refugee in Paris...the IRGC kidnapped him. They interrogated him in front of national TV and then they executed him and an entire country was in shock because he was a journalist and doing this."
The charges Iran levied against the slain journalist were "corruption of Earth" and being an "enemy of God," he added.
The Iranian regime is taking chances with launching such attacks on U.S. soil because of the propaganda value, said Fakhravar.
"The regime's intelligence systems are totally trained by Russians, and it's just their propaganda to show all look what is happening in the United States because it's not at all even not close to the thing is happening inside Iran."
Last year, he said, snipers killed 1,500 children in the streets, in front of their parents in 134 towns, under the director order of Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the most powerful political authority in the Islamic Republic.
"Where in the planet, where in the history you have seen such a thing that the leader of the country is ordering to kill with snipers, in the street, their kids who are protesting without any guns?" said Fakhravar.
Meanwhile, he said threats against him are the "story of my life for at least the last 15 years."
"I'm living in the United States and these days during the last six months, it's a lot of threat," said Fakhravar. "(The FBI) told me the level of that is this very high right now. I'm going after this interview. I'm going to meet them again and to see what is exactly the situation."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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