L.A. Is a Den of Iranian Intrigue and Ambition (US taps exiles for intel)

[Rose Siding]

Roozbeh Farahanipour was jailed and beaten during student protests in Iran in 1999. Today, he sits in a cramped office above a Persian-language bookstore on Westwood Boulevard, speaking in low tones about the pro-Tehran "agents" he says still dog him.

Two years ago, after hostile men confronted his Iranian activist group at public forums, he walked down the bustling avenue — past Persian restaurants, Persian pop music vendors and the publisher of the 1,200-page Iranian Yellow Pages — to the FBI office a few blocks away.

There, he said, U.S. agents pressed him for details on espionage and provocateurs.

Such relationships are the political currency of the real-life Casablanca that is "Irangeles," the largest Iranian community outside Iran. Here, across miles of urban sprawl, from Encino to Beverly Hills to Westwood, intrigue over who might be spying on whom abounds.

Los Angeles has become a key location for gathering intelligence on Tehran. A CIA station here has spent a decade recruiting informants among Iranian expatriates and businessmen who travel to Iran. The local FBI field office is wooing Iranians as sources — and investigating others as potential terrorists or spies.

.........MORE........

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-irangeles20mar20,0,1725850.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Some exiles tell of mtgs with Cheney's staff, according to the article.

[Spazito]

1. Looks like they are looking for an Iranian 'Chalabi' to parade

in front of the press and congress to 'persuade' them that Iran needs to be attacked. How much more obvious can they be!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

2. Great...now we want to demonize the Iranians living in the US,...

...99% of the Iranians living in the US today either fled Iran when the Shah was overthrown, or are descendants of those same people. Why would our fearless federal investigators think that they would have any ties with the current Iranian government?

Knuckleheads.

[kineneb]

4. You are talking about a lot of my relatives

Half of my step-father's family are here in CA. And as far as I know, they have no political connections in the old country. Most left with what they could pack in suitcases. And they are all US citizens now.

My dipshit brother even voted for BushCo.! (I told him he was nuts.)

[Zerex71]

3. From the people who brought you the Chalabi Fiasco...

...comes another wacky cut-up sure to bring mayhem and chaos to the screen! It's called "Foreign Exile Follies". Starring the US Government and Middle Eastern defectors who will end up bilking the American taxpayers in a wacky scheme for "intelligence". Rated R for Republican.