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In September 2023, Pentagon Chief of Staff Ariane Tabatabai, an Iranian immigrant, was accused of having worked as an agent of the Tehran regime. Dissident media outlets produced emails that showed that Tabatabai had joined an initiative by the Iranian Foreign Ministry to coordinate operations and that she had even run her congressional testimony on Iran’s nuclear program past the head of an Iranian Foreign Ministry think tank.
Tabatabai had served under Robert Malley, Biden’s Iran Envoy, who had been suspended from the Obama campaign for his backchannel contacts with Hamas, and has been under investigation for mishandling classified documents. The emails appeared to show that she had personally worked for Iran and its influence operations aimed at the U.S. government.
Despite that she continued to be promoted until she is now the Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC).
In January 2024, Iranian-backed terrorists launched their most successful single attack against an American base to date. The target was the living quarters where U.S military personnel were stationed on an obscure support base in the Jordanian desert known as Tower 22.
While the drone attack would normally have been intercepted, the Iranian-backed terrorists had precisely timed the arrival of their drone to match that of an American drone returning home.
In the confusion, the Islamic terrorist drone was not intercepted and 3 American military personnel were killed and over 30 more were wounded.
The Iranians had known where the living quarters on the base were, what our procedures for drone arrivals and departures were, and when one of our drones would be coming back.
How were the Islamic terrorists able to precisely coordinate the arrival of their drone and ours?
Late last year, 30 Senate members had urged the Pentagon to suspend her security clearance.
“Iran continues to threaten U.S. military personnel in the Middle East and remains intent on assassinating American citizens here in the United States. Given these facts, we find it simply unconscionable that a senior Department official would continue to hold a sensitive position despite her alleged participation in an Iranian government information operation,” they warned.
“Dr. Tabatabai was thoroughly and properly vetted as a condition of her employment with the Department of Defense,” a Pentagon spokesman claimed. “We are honored to have her serve.”
There should be no place for current or former agents of an enemy government which is actively attacking and killing Americans inside the Pentagon. And yet Tabatabai is still there.
Despite multiple congressional letters and warnings from Senate and House members, the Department of Defense has done nothing to clean its house and the clock is ticking.