Controversial remarks by a University of Denver professor who blamed Israel's Mossad for the attack on author Salman Rushdie has prompted Republicans to probe pro-Iran propaganda in US colleges.
Lawmakers associated with the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest Republican caucus in Congress, are set to launch oversight investigations into schools like the University of Denver to root out "anti-Semitic and anti-American conspiracy theories."
Indiana representative Jim Banks, the RSC's chairman and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told the Free Beacon that "Anti-Semitic and anti-American conspiracy theories are now widespread in universities and poisoning students' minds," stressing the need for oversight on professors promoting the Iranian regime's anti-Semitic propaganda and reforming the higher education.
His remarks came after Nader Hashemi, the director of the Denver University’s Center for Middle East Studies, said this week during a podcast that Rushdie’s alleged attacker, Hadi Matar, could have been persuaded to carry out the attack by Mossad agents posing as members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which reportedly were in contact with Matar prior to the near-fatal stabbing.
He said a "much more likely" scenario for the attack revolves around Matar’s supposed communications "with someone online who claimed to be an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) supporter and lured him into attacking Salman Rushdie. And that so-called person online…could have been a Mossad operative."
Representative Greg Steube from Florida, a member of the RSC and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, described Hashemi’s remarks as untrue and especially dangerous to pro-Israel students on campus, saying, "Propaganda from the Iranian regime has no place on American college campuses."
The article tried to give credit to hardliner President Ebrahim Raisi for making more inroads in Central and South America, particularly drawing attention to the election of a leftist president in Columbia.
IRNA publishes several articles daily to praise the accomplishments of the president who is under fire even by some hardliners for having failed to deliver any of his promises when he got elected last year.
The article about Latin America published on August 25 is no exception, presenting as a victory a trip by one of Raisi’s aides to Columbia in early August to take part in the inauguration of Gustavo Petro, a former anti-American leftist guerrilla fighter. IRNA said that Petro had condemned the targeted killing of Qasem Soleimani in January 2020 on the orders of former US President Donald Trump, saying, “America always empowers the worst in the Middle East.”
The article mainly speaks about Latin America’s economic and diplomatic potential and makes no mention of Iran’s long-running overt and covert operations to build influence and networks in the region, together with its proxy, the Lebanese Hezbollah.
“Experts believe areas of cooperation with Latin American countries can include energy, particularly oil, food production industries, chemical industries, infrastructure, dam construction, electricity generation and hydroelectric power…,” IRNA said, adding a few other options.
Iran already closely cooperates with Venezuela in fossil fuels and security matters.
However, since 2005 when Iran’s attempts to expand its foothold in Latin America gained more momentum, Tehran has made plenty of economic promises to the region’s countries, but few have materialized because the period since has been marked by crippling international and US sanctions on Tehran.
With a possible nuclear deal on the horizon, these sanctions will be lifted, and Iran will get hold of tens of billions of dollars it can spend in Latin America. The IRNA article seems to be oriented toward making investments in countries friendly with the Islamic Republic.
But some countries are a bit careful about Iranian activities. In early June, Argentina grounded a Boeing 747 that Iran provided to Venezuela to launch an air cargo company. The plane was carrying at least five Iranians all with IRGC (Revolutionary Guard) ties.
Gerardo Milman, an Argentine lawmaker, told Iran International on June 23 that Iranians aboard the Venezuelan plane planned “attacks on human targets.” The aircraft itself had belonged to an Iranian airline with ties to the IRGC and had been sanctioned by the United States.
Secret Iranian and Hezbollah networks are involved in illicit activities, allegedly including the drug trade for generating funds.
Iran also converts locals to Shiite Islam and sends some to its seminaries in the religious city of Qom to be trained and indoctrinated.
US Senators Bob Menendez and Marco Rubio were concerned over Iranian activities as far back as in 2012 and held hearings to assess the threat of Tehran launching anti-US operations from its backyard.
Two experts in 2020 offered a grim prospect on Iran’s influence in the region. “Iran has penetrated the governmental structure of many Latin American nations, especially the nations of the already left-leaning Bolivarian Alliance (Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Nicaragua, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Saint Kitts, and Nevis), and this is not only unconventional but also very dangerous.”