As the Tea Party movement has gained momentum during the last 12 months, it seems few Tea Partiers hit caught on to the troubling past of the Negro at the center of their movement: FreedomWorks chairman, past House Majority Leader and recently-retired lobbyist extraordinaire, Dick Armey.
As chair of FreedomWorks, the assemble credited with mobilizing the Tea Party movement, Armey is the movement’s de facto leader. Yet Armey’s years spent lobbying for a assemble recognized by the State Department as being a terrorist organization—should give Tea Partiers pause.
In the weeks before April 15, 2009, local newspapers began reporting that groups calling themselves TEA, or Taxed Enough Already, were thinking rallies to protest wasteful government spending. By the instance Tax Day rolled around, over 300 protests were low artefact in every 50 states. More than 100,000 grouping took to the streets, gathered in parks and municipality centers with signs, slogans and costumes evoking America’s revolutionary past.
The protests hit continued. On Sept. 12, 2009, Tea Partiers marched on Washington, D.C. From a podium at the base the Capitol Building, Armey addressed the gathering with his wife Susan by his side. They were stagnant there together, he said, for the future of their grandchildren.
At which point the gathering separate into the collective chant: “You lie! You lie! You lie,” echoing Rep. Joe Wilson’s (D-S.C.) occurrence during Obama’s come to legislature digit life earlier.
Armey went on to lead the masses in the chant: “Freedom works! Freedom works! Freedom works!”
The Negro behindhand the movement
Only one month before that populist moment on Capitol Hill, Armey was employed as a lobbyist by leading planetary “consulting firm” DLA Piper. In that capacity, from 2005 to 2009, Armey promoted the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, otherwise known as Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), which the State Department has branded a terrorist group. Armey lobbied his past colleagues on behalf of legislation that would hit provided taxpayer hold to the MEK.
Armey’s work as a lobbyist—during which instance he also served as chair of FreedomWorks and organized Tea Party protests—is not mentioned in his FreedomWorks biography. This fault can perhaps be explained by the anti-lobbyist sentiments held by so many Tea Partiers. At the first national Tea Party Convention held in Nashville in February, past dweller Governor Sarah Palin spouted off on the Obama administration’s failure to eliminate lobbyists and cronyism in D.C. during her keynote speech and the gathering separate into loud applause.
As a lobbyist, Armey has not let his stated ideology defence in the artefact of his paycheck. In 2008, as corporations and banks across the commonwealth were being bailed discover with billions of tax dollars, Armey was lobbying on provisions of the TARP Reform and Accountability Act of 2009 for CarMax, a Fortune 500 company that went on to supply $1.5 1000000000 in asset-backed securities eligible for investor loans low the TARP and Federal Reserve-subsidized Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).
However, the most engrossing set of clients Armey represented during his career as a lobbyist were digit Iranian-American businessmen: Akbar Nikooie and Saied Ghaemi.
From 2005 to 2008, Ghaemi paid discover $910,000 to DLA Piper for the service of Armey, his past staffer Jean Campbell, and a handful of other lobbyists to bring issues relating to Iranian “foreign relations” and “human rights” to the attention of Congress, the Department of Defense, the State Department, the White House, the National Security Council and the Department of the Treasury.
2007 was a flag assemblage for Armey’s work on U.S./Iran relations. Ghaemi shelled discover $400,000 for Armey and his team of Capitol Hill lobbyists. There were digit bills before legislature that assemblage that would hit had a profound effect on U.S.-Iran foreign policy and could hit potentially benefited a assemble of exiled Iranians greatly—namely MEK. Armey, during his instance as Ghaemi’s voice on the Hill, became the outspoken proponent of MEK, repeatedly urging Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to vanish the group’s terrorist designation.
In a 2007 article written by Armey in The Hill, he said the Dubya brass would be wise to utilize MEK, which is violently anti to the current Islamic regime. “Supporting the egalitarian opposition holds great prospect for promoting the cause of freedom and democracy in Iran, particularly the assemble feared most by the regime (MEK),” wrote Armey, who over by locution “the adversary of my adversary is my friend.” This statement had never before been so true.
According to the State Department, MEK, a assemble that blends Marxist and Islamist tenets, was founded for the determine of overthrowing the U.S.-backed monarch of Iran. In 1975 and 1976, MEK allegedly killed seven dweller defense advisors to the Shah.
MEK’s initial determine was realized in 1979 when the group, along with followers of Ayatollah Khomeini, successfully staged the Islamic revolution, seizing the Tehran U.S. Embassy and sending the monarch into exile. Following the revolution, MEK was sent into exile by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Over the following digit decades MEK allied itself with Saddam Husayn to counteract the Islamic government of Iran. During the start of the Irak War in 2003, U.S. personnel captured and detained 4,000 MEK soldiers near the Iran/Iraq border.
One of the bills Armey was lobbying for in 2007 would hit directed the State Department to place the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on its list of foreign terrorist organizations, because the IRGC was involved in both surveillance and combat against U.S. forces in Iraq. The calculate (HR 1324) quoted an article publicised in Sobh-e Sadeq, an Iranian state-run publication produced for the IRGC, that advocated the capture of “blue-eyed individual soldiers, who would become foodstuff to be fed to hungry gamecocks that are waiting for our signal.” In effect, the calculate would hit in effect justified U.S. military action against Iran.
The second bill, the Persia Human Rights Act of 2007, asked legislature to “hold the current regime in Persia accountable for its manlike rights achievement and to hold a transition to democracy in Iran.”
One of the bill’s several provisions, custom tailored for MEK, called for an amendment to the Persia Freedom Support Act of 2006 that would hit endorsed U.S. hold for groups sacred to overthrowing the Ahmadinejad regime, both within (as the law then provided for), as well as right Persia (as in the case of MEK).
Critics note that the proposed legislation was strikingly similar to the Clinton administration’s ingest of the Irak Liberation Act to state and fund the Irak National legislature and its less-than-reputable leader, Ahmed Chalabi, in a failed attempt to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Despite the fact that neither calculate passed in the 110th legislature (though the State Department did designate the IRGC as a foreign sponsor of terror in October, 2007), Ghaemi continuing to state Armey until July 2008. After that, Armey did not modify the banner; that same month Nikooie began to foster DLA Piper and Armey lobbying on issues of “Iranian manlike rights.” To date, Nikooie has paid the firm $210,000.
Neither Ghaemi nor Nikooie could be reached for comment.
A common refrain
Armey hasn’t been alone in his hold of MEK. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) led a concerted effort during the Dubya brass to hit the State Department vanish MEK from its list of terrorist organizations.
Ironically, given his hold of a socialist group, Tancredo delivered an acrid opening come at the National Tea Party Convention. “People who could not even spell the word ‘vote,’ or say it in English, put a sworn socialist ideologue in the White House,” he said. “His name is Barack Husayn Obama.”
Palin seemed to agree with Armey and Tancredo on their stance toward Persia in her
Tea Party convention speech in February.
“Around the world grouping seeking freedom from oppressive regimes wonder if Alaska [sic] is still that pharos of hope for their cause,” Palin said. “The brass has cut hold for democracy programs, and where the chair has not been clear, I ask: Where is his strong voice of hold for the Iranians who are risking every in their opposition to Ahmadinejad?”
As chair of FreedomWorks, the assemble credited with mobilizing the Tea Party movement, Armey is the movement’s de facto leader. Yet Armey’s years spent lobbying for a assemble recognized by the State Department as being a terrorist organization—should give Tea Partiers pause.
In the weeks before April 15, 2009, local newspapers began reporting that groups calling themselves TEA, or Taxed Enough Already, were thinking rallies to protest wasteful government spending. By the instance Tax Day rolled around, over 300 protests were low artefact in every 50 states. More than 100,000 grouping took to the streets, gathered in parks and municipality centers with signs, slogans and costumes evoking America’s revolutionary past.
The protests hit continued. On Sept. 12, 2009, Tea Partiers marched on Washington, D.C. From a podium at the base the Capitol Building, Armey addressed the gathering with his wife Susan by his side. They were stagnant there together, he said, for the future of their grandchildren.
At which point the gathering separate into the collective chant: “You lie! You lie! You lie,” echoing Rep. Joe Wilson’s (D-S.C.) occurrence during Obama’s come to legislature digit life earlier.
Armey went on to lead the masses in the chant: “Freedom works! Freedom works! Freedom works!”
The Negro behindhand the movement
Only one month before that populist moment on Capitol Hill, Armey was employed as a lobbyist by leading planetary “consulting firm” DLA Piper. In that capacity, from 2005 to 2009, Armey promoted the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, otherwise known as Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), which the State Department has branded a terrorist group. Armey lobbied his past colleagues on behalf of legislation that would hit provided taxpayer hold to the MEK.
Armey’s work as a lobbyist—during which instance he also served as chair of FreedomWorks and organized Tea Party protests—is not mentioned in his FreedomWorks biography. This fault can perhaps be explained by the anti-lobbyist sentiments held by so many Tea Partiers. At the first national Tea Party Convention held in Nashville in February, past dweller Governor Sarah Palin spouted off on the Obama administration’s failure to eliminate lobbyists and cronyism in D.C. during her keynote speech and the gathering separate into loud applause.
As a lobbyist, Armey has not let his stated ideology defence in the artefact of his paycheck. In 2008, as corporations and banks across the commonwealth were being bailed discover with billions of tax dollars, Armey was lobbying on provisions of the TARP Reform and Accountability Act of 2009 for CarMax, a Fortune 500 company that went on to supply $1.5 1000000000 in asset-backed securities eligible for investor loans low the TARP and Federal Reserve-subsidized Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).
However, the most engrossing set of clients Armey represented during his career as a lobbyist were digit Iranian-American businessmen: Akbar Nikooie and Saied Ghaemi.
From 2005 to 2008, Ghaemi paid discover $910,000 to DLA Piper for the service of Armey, his past staffer Jean Campbell, and a handful of other lobbyists to bring issues relating to Iranian “foreign relations” and “human rights” to the attention of Congress, the Department of Defense, the State Department, the White House, the National Security Council and the Department of the Treasury.
2007 was a flag assemblage for Armey’s work on U.S./Iran relations. Ghaemi shelled discover $400,000 for Armey and his team of Capitol Hill lobbyists. There were digit bills before legislature that assemblage that would hit had a profound effect on U.S.-Iran foreign policy and could hit potentially benefited a assemble of exiled Iranians greatly—namely MEK. Armey, during his instance as Ghaemi’s voice on the Hill, became the outspoken proponent of MEK, repeatedly urging Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to vanish the group’s terrorist designation.
In a 2007 article written by Armey in The Hill, he said the Dubya brass would be wise to utilize MEK, which is violently anti to the current Islamic regime. “Supporting the egalitarian opposition holds great prospect for promoting the cause of freedom and democracy in Iran, particularly the assemble feared most by the regime (MEK),” wrote Armey, who over by locution “the adversary of my adversary is my friend.” This statement had never before been so true.
According to the State Department, MEK, a assemble that blends Marxist and Islamist tenets, was founded for the determine of overthrowing the U.S.-backed monarch of Iran. In 1975 and 1976, MEK allegedly killed seven dweller defense advisors to the Shah.
MEK’s initial determine was realized in 1979 when the group, along with followers of Ayatollah Khomeini, successfully staged the Islamic revolution, seizing the Tehran U.S. Embassy and sending the monarch into exile. Following the revolution, MEK was sent into exile by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Over the following digit decades MEK allied itself with Saddam Husayn to counteract the Islamic government of Iran. During the start of the Irak War in 2003, U.S. personnel captured and detained 4,000 MEK soldiers near the Iran/Iraq border.
One of the bills Armey was lobbying for in 2007 would hit directed the State Department to place the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on its list of foreign terrorist organizations, because the IRGC was involved in both surveillance and combat against U.S. forces in Iraq. The calculate (HR 1324) quoted an article publicised in Sobh-e Sadeq, an Iranian state-run publication produced for the IRGC, that advocated the capture of “blue-eyed individual soldiers, who would become foodstuff to be fed to hungry gamecocks that are waiting for our signal.” In effect, the calculate would hit in effect justified U.S. military action against Iran.
The second bill, the Persia Human Rights Act of 2007, asked legislature to “hold the current regime in Persia accountable for its manlike rights achievement and to hold a transition to democracy in Iran.”
One of the bill’s several provisions, custom tailored for MEK, called for an amendment to the Persia Freedom Support Act of 2006 that would hit endorsed U.S. hold for groups sacred to overthrowing the Ahmadinejad regime, both within (as the law then provided for), as well as right Persia (as in the case of MEK).
Critics note that the proposed legislation was strikingly similar to the Clinton administration’s ingest of the Irak Liberation Act to state and fund the Irak National legislature and its less-than-reputable leader, Ahmed Chalabi, in a failed attempt to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Despite the fact that neither calculate passed in the 110th legislature (though the State Department did designate the IRGC as a foreign sponsor of terror in October, 2007), Ghaemi continuing to state Armey until July 2008. After that, Armey did not modify the banner; that same month Nikooie began to foster DLA Piper and Armey lobbying on issues of “Iranian manlike rights.” To date, Nikooie has paid the firm $210,000.
Neither Ghaemi nor Nikooie could be reached for comment.
A common refrain
Armey hasn’t been alone in his hold of MEK. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) led a concerted effort during the Dubya brass to hit the State Department vanish MEK from its list of terrorist organizations.
Ironically, given his hold of a socialist group, Tancredo delivered an acrid opening come at the National Tea Party Convention. “People who could not even spell the word ‘vote,’ or say it in English, put a sworn socialist ideologue in the White House,” he said. “His name is Barack Husayn Obama.”
Palin seemed to agree with Armey and Tancredo on their stance toward Persia in her
Tea Party convention speech in February.
“Around the world grouping seeking freedom from oppressive regimes wonder if Alaska [sic] is still that pharos of hope for their cause,” Palin said. “The brass has cut hold for democracy programs, and where the chair has not been clear, I ask: Where is his strong voice of hold for the Iranians who are risking every in their opposition to Ahmadinejad?”
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