Lawmakers Probe How Iran Ex-Official Appeared In Pentagon Event
Lawmakers have written to Gen Anthony J. Cotton to probe why an Iranian regime insider was invited as a key speaker to the recent STRATCOM Deterrence Symposium.
The chair of the US House Armed Services Committee Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), and the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen Roger Wicker (R- Miss.) have asked Gen. Cotton for details about those involved in the decision to invite Hussein Mousavian, a former high-ranking Iranian official. Mousavian who is a faculty member at Princeton has been praised in the past by former Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif about his role in advocating for the policies of the regime in the United States.
The affair in mid-August that was revealed earlier this week led to an uproar on social media. Former US officials, analysts and Iranian activists condemned the move by the US military to invite Mousavian. Some quipped that perhaps Vladimir Putin and other US adversaries should also be considered as speakers as Pentagon events.
The lawmakers pointed out in their letter that Mousavian is “A propagandist of the regime since 1980, Mousavian served as the Iranian regime’s Ambassador to Germany in 1992 when the regime’s intelligence operatives assassinated four Iranian dissidents in Berlin. In response, German authorities forced Mousavian to leave the country along with several other Iranian “diplomats” and intelligence operatives.“
Mousavian made headlines last year for bragging about revenge against American officials over the targeted killing of IRGC's Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani. In January 2022, his remarks in a documentary made in Iran to mark Qassem Soleimani’s death anniversary led to controversy when he gloated about how Iran’s threat to avenge Soleimani killing frightened the wife of Brian Hook, Washington’s special envoy for Iran at the time. “An American told me that Brian Hook’s wife had not slept for several days and that she was shaking and crying. That’s how afraid they were” Mousavian said gleefully in the documentary.
A STRATCOM spokesman later told the Washington Free Beacon that "We were aware of Mr. Mousavian’s previous position within the Iranian government and believe that... we would have benefited from that insight into an opposing viewpoint."
The lawmakers sharply criticized the move to invite Mousavian and said, “While we appreciate the importance of improving our understanding of adversary perspectives and motivations in formulating deterrence policies, providing Mousavian with an officially sanctioned U.S. Government platform for spreading historical falsehoods and Iranian regime propaganda is profoundly ill-advised.“
They went on to ask Gen. Cotton to provide “the names and positions of all officials responsible for approving the invitation to Mousavian,” and asked if STRATCOM provided “compensation for transportation, lodging or a per diem to Mr. Mousavian? Was Mousavian provided with an honorarium? If so, how much?“
Many critics had raised questions about whether US taxpayer funds were used to pay an Iranian regime advocate to appear in the STRATCOM event.
Earlier, other lawmakers had already voiced frustration over the incident. "Mousavian helped lead the murderous Iranian regime’s efforts to obtain nuclear weapons so it could threaten the United States and our allies with annihilation," said Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), a member of the House Armed Services Committee. "Now he’s in semi-retirement at Princeton as a full-time propagandist for the IRGC. Inviting him to spread lies at a US military seminar is insanity."