Dec 27 2010
Dr. Hossein Lahiji and Najmeh Vahid, a married couple, were arrested on December 21 in Austin, T.X., for allegedly using their charity in Portland, O.R. as a front to funnel $1.8 million to the government of Iran, according to the Associated Press. They are now free on bail and deny doing anything illegal.
Mehrdad Yasrebi, the head of the Child Foundation involved in the scheme, have agreed to a plea deal in Oregon and admitted to sending the money to an Iranian government bank account. The charity solicited donations by claiming they would provide financial aid children in Iran, Afghanistan and Indonesia so they could continue to go to school.
Reuters reports that the indictment accused the charity’s operators of having “consulted with and sought approval, support and monetary assistance” from “the Hizballah brothers, Iranian diplomats, Iranian ayatollahs and other Iranian governmental representatives.”
“These arrests show that Iran’s hands are in the United States,” said Ryan Mauro, the Christian Action Network’s National Security Advisor.
“As the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, that is frightening. If you think about what Al-Qaeda has been able to do, imagine what the Iranian government is capable of,” he said.
In November, the Investigative Project on Terrorism ran a three-part series about the presence of Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group, in the U.S.
“There are members of Hezbollah in the US who are capable of being activated to carry out terrorist attacks. However, these agents have refrained from attacking the Homeland. In the case of hostilities breaking out with Iran, all bets are off however,” the head of the organization, Steve Emerson, told Fox News in March. http://www.christianaction.org/node/158