An Iranian Plot Grew in Brooklyn, and the Revelations about Pegasus

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2021

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The indictment reads like a not-so-great spy novel: the operatives would kidnap the dissident from her home in Brooklyn, deliver her to the waterfront to meet a speedboat, bring her by sea to Venezuela, and then move her on to Tehran—where she would, presumably, face a show trial, and perhaps execution. But this was no potboiler. The Iranian nationals charged in the indictment were allegedly researching an audacious plot to capture a naturalized American citizen, on U.S. soil. The target of the scheme was Masih Alinejad, a journalist and activist who has been critical of the Iranian theocracy and particularly vocal in speaking out against the compulsory wearing of hijab; she has a large following on social media and a show on Voice of America. Her brother has been jailed in Iran, and her sister was forced to renounce her on television. The F.B.I. took the threat to Alinejad seriously enough to sequester her and her husband, Kambiz Foroohar, in a series of safe houses, where they stayed for months. Alinejad and Foroohar spoke about their ordeal with David Remnick, and explained why the regime regards her as such a threat. “For Iran, hijab is like the Berlin Wall was to the Soviet system,” Foroohar points out. “The narrative of the Islamic Republic was that women are choosing to wear hijab, and Masih is challenging that narrative.” Plus, the revelations about Pegasus. Marketed as a tool against terrorism, the spyware was also deployed by governments against journalists and activists. Isaac Chotiner interviews one of the targets, the Indian journalist and scholar Siddharth Varadarajan.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:12.0	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:16.0	Lately, the stories were reading about international espionage or kind of like something from Cold War spy novels.
0:23.5	Nerve agents deployed against a Russian dissident, a so-called Havana syndrome, which we've
0:28.7	reported in the New Yorker, apparently some kind of microwave weapon that's used on American
0:33.5	diplomats who after the attacks have showed signs of brain damage.
0:38.9	Now there's this.
0:40.4	U.S. officials have indicted four Iranian nationals of planning an extraordinary plot on U.S. soil.
0:46.7	It targeted an American born in Iran named Masi Alinajad, a journalist and an activist.
0:52.7	She's quite critical of the Iranian regime, particularly of the
0:55.6	requirement that women wear the hijab. According to a recently unsealed indictment,
1:01.0	the plotters researched kidnapping Alinajad in Brooklyn, evacuating her by speedboat,
1:06.5	taking a sea route to Venezuela, and from there, flying her to Iran, presumably to be put on trial
1:12.8	or much worse. When the FBI caught wind of the scheme, they put her and her husband in a series
1:18.4	of safe houses where they stayed for months. Masi, Alinajad, and her husband, Cambiz Faruha,
1:24.5	join me now. Masi, the last few months must have been very stressful and incredibly strange.
1:31.3	Now that this indictment has been unsealed, do you feel that you're on the other side of
1:38.4	this experience, or do you feel safe from being kidnapped or being harmed in any way?
1:46.5	To be honest, the word safe is too luxury for us Iranians.
1:51.5	Because, yeah, I am under FBI's protection.
1:55.7	But, you know, every single word that I say here to you, I don't know what's going to happen to my brother in prison.
2:04.1	I don't know what's going to happen to my family inside Iran.
	...

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