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Vancouver Sun
2 days ago
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
'Canada is the most infiltrated country': Iranian Canadians fear the regime's borderless terror
Article content Toronto resident Daniel was not in Iran's good books even before Israel and the United States showered the country with missiles and bombs last month. While working as a telecommunications supplier in Iran, he says he deliberately sabotaged schemes to evade sanctions and import equipment for military use, earning the regime's ire. A member of Iran's tiny Jewish community, he eventually fled the Islamic Republic and ended up in Canada a decade ago. But in the wake of the short-lived Iran-Israel war, military officials called in his brother, mother and sister-in-law for hours of interrogation about their Canadian relative. The officials claimed Daniel, who asked that his last name be withheld for security reasons, was a spy for Israel. As evidence, they cited the reports he contributed to Israel Pars, an online TV station catering to Israel's Farsi-speaking minority. 'They told my brother, 'We know where he is, where he is living with his family, and we are going to execute him,' ' Daniel quoted his relatives as telling him by phone. ' 'We got the order from the court to execute him.' ' Daniel, who has a wife and two-year-old boy, takes the officials' violent threat seriously. 'I don't care about myself. (But) I have been living in a state of fear because of my son. If something happened to me his life really would be destroyed.' It may be an extreme case, but such dread is not uncommon within Canada's Iranian diaspora, a group estimated to number 400,000 people. As Iran once more becomes a focal point of Middle East tensions, many Iranian Canadians live with a troubling anxiety. They typically emigrated to escape a system marked by rampant human-rights abuses, stifling censorship and harshly enforced religious edicts. Now some feel like they never truly left the Islamic Republic behind. No Iranian official has been based here since Canada cut off diplomatic ties in 2012. But there are numerous reports of intimidation of Canadians who speak out against the regime, evidence of planned kidnapping and assassination plots — at least one contracted out to Hell's Angels — a steady stream of senior Iranian government figures entering Canada, and suspicions of widespread money laundering by the regime and its proxies. A would-be Conservative candidate for Parliament believes a nomination contest was tainted by misinformation orchestrated by Iran. And a prominent human-rights lawyer even warned that Iranian sleeper cells may be activated in the recent war's aftermath. Anita Anand, Canada's foreign affairs minister, said she shared Irwin Cotler's concern. The Iranian-Canadian experience has been double-edged: it's an impressive immigration success story, unfolding under a dark shadow cast from 10,000 kilometres away. 'I was supposed to live in Canada in safety, in peace, enjoying my life, enjoying my freedoms,' said Ardeshir Zarezadeh, a Toronto legal advisor and human-rights activist who spent years in prison in Iran. 'But in Canada itself we can't live in peace and freedom.' Even those who lost loved ones in Iran's shooting down of an airliner packed with Canadian citizens and permanent residents have felt Tehran's grip, citing threatening calls and demands to stay quiet. The Iranian newspaper Farheekhtegan — Farsi for intellectuals — published a full-page spread last October headlined by the statement 'United Iran against the murderers.' The piece featured photos of six alleged 'murderers' with targets superimposed over their faces. They included then-U.S. vice president Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli defence minister at the time, and Reza Pahlavi, son of the late Shah of Iran. The sixth person? Hamed Esmaeilion, a Toronto dentist. I call it the borderless empire of terror and fear. Hamed Esmaeilion The Canadian citizen has been an outspoken critic of the regime but, he says with a wry laugh, 'I have never murdered anybody.' Esmaeilion can state without question, though, that Tehran killed his wife and nine-year-old daughter. They were on Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752, shot down by Iran just outside Tehran in 2020. Iran says it was an accident; family members and others suspect the attack was deliberate. 'I call it the borderless empire of terror and fear,' says Esmaeilion of Iran's worldwide tentacles. At the same time, Iranian Canadians subjected to harassment and worried about a steady stream of regime officials settling in or visiting Canada, say security services don't pay enough heed to their complaints. 'I would argue Canada is the most infiltrated country in the western world,' says Alireza Nader, a Washington, D.C.-based Iran analyst who prepared a study on Tehran's interference in Canada for the conservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies. 'Canada is actually well-known as a haven for the regime. People (in the Iranian community) joke about it. It is part of the popular culture.' RCMP spokesman Marie-Eve Breton declined to say how many complaints it has received about interference from Iran or to detail how it responds to them, citing 'operational reasons.' That said, the Mounties take threats 'very seriously' and will investigate if there is a suspicion of criminal or other illegal activity, she said. But the diaspora that has grown up here since the 1979 Islamic revolution — full of professionals, entrepreneurs and academics — is not unanimous in its dim view of the Iranian government. Some groups have tended to avoid stiff criticism of Tehran, and sometimes echoed its viewpoints. A rally against Israeli attacks last month — called 'Hands-off Iran ' — included people waving the Islamic Republic flag, a symbol of oppression to some expatriates. Competing vigils for the PS752 victims in 2020 — one involving regime critics, the other factions more sympathetic to Tehran — ended in a physical fight that required police intervention. Organizations like the Iranian Canadian Congress (ICC), a co-sponsor of Hands-off Iran, have been accused of being apologists for the Islamic Republic. The ICC denies the charge and says it simply wants peace, the end to sanctions against Iran and restoration of Canada-Iran diplomatic ties. 'Iranian Canadian activists who oppose military action or sanctions, citing their detrimental impact on the Iranian populace and regional peace and stability, are frequently discredited by hardline political factions,' the ICC told the federal Foreign Interference Commission. 'These factions prioritize regime change in Tehran over all else, disregarding both Canada's interests and the potential harm that increased instability may inflict on the people of Iran.' Complicating the divisions right now are events in the Middle East. Even some staunch opponents of the Iranian regime and its allies like Hamas and Hezbollah are disturbed by the Gaza war. After Iranian-backed Hamas crossed over from the strip and massacred 1,200 Israelis, Israel's armed forces responded with operations that have killed more than 50,000 Palestinian fighters and civilians and laid waste to much of the territory. There are 'mixed feelings,' says Esmaeilion. And the exchange of missiles and drones between Iran and Israel, combined with the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear sites, has triggered a vicious crackdown by Tehran on alleged 'spies' and dissidents, noted Zarezadeh. 'Weakening the regime is good, but what's next?' he asks. 'If this is going to create a lot of damage (to the democracy movement) … mass executions … what is the point?' Like so many other burgeoning ethnic communities in Canada, Iranians were a rare presence here for most of the 20th century. But that began to change as the revolution transformed their homeland into a theocratic state steered by unelected clerics. First came people seeking political asylum, then middle-class strivers wanting a freer, more enriching life, especially for women whose existence is tightly constricted in Iran. Many have settled in Vancouver and its suburbs, but the greatest concentration live in the northern reaches of the Greater Toronto Area. The enclave is predictably nicknamed Tehranto, the main streets in some neighbourhoods lined with Iranian restaurants and other businesses. The group includes a surprising number of high achievers. Esmaeilion says he knew of a couple hundred dentists of Iranian extraction in Canada when he emigrated in 2010. Now they number well over 1,000, he said. 'You can say the same thing about medical doctors, you can say the same about lawyers, about engineers.' The make-up of the diaspora is partly a result of 'selection bias,' says lawyer Kaveh Shahrooz, a rights activist in Toronto. Many are people who had the wherewithal and money to get out of Iran, while Canadian laws in the past favoured newcomers who could invest sizeable sums here, he said. Plus, the culture promotes education and career success. Shahrooz believes the most recent waves include many people who did well economically under the Ayatollahs and retain a sympathy for the regime or even continued business links in Iran. Esmaeilion disagrees. If anything, he argues, the newest arrivals are more disenchanted than anyone about the Islamic autocracy. There's a lack of polling data breaking down exactly what portion of Iranian Canadians are staunch opponents of the Iranian regime. But critics insist it's the majority, even if many are too afraid to speak out. The dissidents cite in part two rallies held in 2022. They supported protests in Iran over the death in custody of a young woman arrested for wearing an insufficiently modest hijab. Both 'Woman Life Freedom' events in the Greater Toronto area attracted an estimated 50,000 people — a significant chunk of local Iranian Canadians — while cities across Canada held smaller demonstrations, noted Zarezadeh. The Iranian Canadian Congress did not respond to requests for comment by deadline, but it has noted that a petition calling for renewed diplomatic relations with Iran gathered 16,000 signatures; one opposing the idea only a few hundred. Still, for those Canadians who do publicly criticize the regime, the consequences can be chilling. Weakening the regime is good, but what's next? Ardeshir Zarezadeh A 2021 U.S. indictment accused Iranian intelligence operatives of planning to kidnap and fly to Iran Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad. The same group, prosecutors said, was plotting to snatch three unnamed Canadian opponents of the regime. The FBI has since charged multiple people tied to Iran with conspiring to actually assassinate Alinejad. Last year, U.S. attorneys indicted two Canadian Hell's Angels members, accusing them of working at the behest of Iranian intelligence to assassinate dissidents in Maryland. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service's most recent annual report says it continues to investigate 'credible intelligence' about death threats against Canadians emanating from Iran, often using proxies like organized crime figures. The targets are 'perceived enemies' living abroad, and the threats to Canadians may increase as tensions heighten in the Middle East, said the spy agency. Iran also uses 'malicious cyber activity' to repress and manipulate Canada-based opponents, the CSIS report said. In its submissions to the Foreign Interference Commission, the Iranian Canadian Congress did not dwell on actions by Tehran. It focused instead on threats it says it and similar groups face closer to home, saying it should be 'protected from information wars organized by media outlets established with foreign investments by authoritarian or democratic states.' But individual Iranian Canadians have reported first-hand experience with a range of intimidation by Tehran. Ardeshir Zarezadeh, the Toronto legal advisor, says he spent a total of seven years in prison, including two in solitary confinement, for helping organize student protests and the like in Iran. He fled through mountains to Turkey and ended up here in 2006. But he continues to be dogged by the regime, he says. A suspicious Iranian man called from a pay phone, then showed up unannounced at his office in 2019. Zarezadeh notified both the RCMP and FBI. The Americans responded promptly, informing him that his visitor was an Iranian intelligence officer. Zerezadeh says he never heard back from the Mounties. Then in 2022, he said Iranian intelligence contacted a friend of his, demanding the friend turn over Zerezadeh's home address or see all his business interests in Iran destroyed. Esmaeilion lost his family in Iran's destruction of flight PS752 but he says that hasn't stopped the regime from targeting him. His 76-year-old father was interrogated for two hours in May 2024 about his son's activities in Canada, while his parents were banned from leaving Iran for a year. Esmaeilion's mother finally made it here earlier this year but after she returned to Iran two months ago, her passport was seized again. Esmaeilion posted on X in 2023 when the community discovered by chance that Seyed Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi — a former Iranian health minister — was on vacation in Canada, even as Iran continued to evade accountability for the plane shoot-down. While in Toronto, the minister did an interview with Iranian media in which he vowed retaliation against Esmaeilion and others whose posts had interrupted his holiday. The federal government eventually banned Hashemi from entering Canada for 36 months, but Esmaeilion says police told him they could do nothing about the threat. Shahrooz said he often receives threats online and gets regular warnings from Google that state-based actors have been trying to hack into his accounts. After he did an interview with the Voice of America's Farsi-language service, relatives in Iran were taken in for interrogation about him. But he considers his experience last year campaigning for the Conservative nomination in the federal riding of Richmond Hill as particularly troubling. He had not even officially announced he was running for the candidacy when posts started proliferating online that falsely accused him of being a member of Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), the anti-regime group that Canada once designated as a terrorist entity. It's widely unpopular with both regime opponents and supporters. The smear campaign had an organized tone to it and included references to a particular relative who had been a MEK member, a fact that few people without access to Iranian security files would know, says Shahrooz. 'My name would trend on Twitter, for example, twice in a week — because I'm running for a nomination in a suburb of Toronto. It doesn't make any sense unless there is an organized cyber army of Iran's regime working to undermine me.' He says Conservative Party officials were not receptive to his reports of intimidation and when they closed the nomination race early, before he had time to sign up many of the crucial new members, the Harvard law graduate ended his run. Mariyam Shafipour was a prominent student activist in Iran and spent two years in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, making her way to Canada after being released. She's continued her opposition here, resulting in the intimidation of her sisters by Iranian security services, she told the Human Rights Talks podcast earlier this year. And there have been ominous signs of not just digital, but physical surveillance here in Canada. Officials of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which Canada designated as terrorist last year, told one of her sisters that Shafipour's apartment overlooked a school and that she owned three cats, she told CBC TV in 2022. Both were accurate observations. Such experiences help explain deep concern in the community about another phenomenon. Current or former officials of the regime routinely seem to show up in Canada, while some refugee claimants and relatives of ordinary people — including family of the PS752 victims — are regularly denied visitor visas. Zarezadeh said he's received numerous reports of former IRGC officials entering Canada, which he plans to pass on to authorities. Vancouver lawyer Mojdeh Shahriari has said she's collected hundreds of reports of various senior officials obtaining Canadian visas. Nader, the Washington-based analyst, said he was shocked to learn that Mahdi Nasiri, the head of hard-line newspaper Kayhan in late-1990s Iran, then an adviser to the government, had arrived in Canada earlier this spring. Nasiri told CBC News that he'd been a critic of the regime for six years and was a 'liberal' now. Nader and other regime critics were doubtful. Morteza Talaei, who as Tehran police chief oversaw a crackdown on women's dress and took part in the bloody response to student protests in 1999, was spotted in Richmond Hill, north of Toronto, three years ago. Critics accused him of rank hypocrisy, with video showing him exercising in a local gym next to women in workout outfits, public attire he would have considered criminal in his old job. The federal government is trying to stem the tide. A law passed in 2022 and updated last year now bars entry to Canada of anyone who was a senior Iranian official as far back as 2003. And there seems no shortage of cases. Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada has cancelled 131 visas under the law, while Canada Border Services Agency has opened 115 investigations. Half of those were deemed to not be senior officials, but the rest are still being reviewed or enforcement action taken, said Luke Reimer, a CBSA spokesman. The agency has reported 20 alleged senior officials who are in Canada for inadmissibility hearings. But as of June, only three had been ordered deported — and one of those actually removed from the country, Reimer said. Coupled with the arrival of figures from the Iranian government are fears of rampant money laundering. The proliferation of money-exchange services in Iranian-Canadian neighbourhoods underscores the problem, says Esmaeilion. One such business told a friend that it processes millions of dollars in transfers to and from Iran every day, he said. National Post was unable to verify that claim. But the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), Ottawa's anti-money-laundering watchdog, is planning to require financial institutions to more closely monitor cash flowing to and from Iran, the Globe and Mail reported recently. The number of 'suspicious transaction reports' involving Iran and filed with the centre is already soaring, to 19,572 in 2024-25, from 6,866 in 2023-24, the Globe said. All of this — intimidation, frequent visits by regime heavyweights and alleged money laundering — is transpiring 13 years after the Iranian embassy in Canada was shuttered. But Daniel, for one, has no doubts about the regime's ability to function here, with or without an official presence. As he contemplates the Iranian threat to 'execute' him, Daniel notes IRGC officials showed his family photographs of him, his wife and son, and knew his correct Canadian address. 'When I was in Iran, because of my business, I knew a lot of high-level government people. One of those guys one time told me, 'the hub of spying in North America is in Canada,'' he says, a suggestion the Post could not independently verify. 'They have the financial support, they have the people to support them. They are capable of doing many things in Canada.'
The Star
27-06-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Immigration officers arrest Iranian asylum-seekers in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Pastor Ara Torosian received a distressed phone call from two Iranian members of his Farsi-speaking church on Tuesday -- U.S. federal immigration officers were at their Los Angeles home to arrest them. It was the second such call he received this week. On Monday, an Iranian couple with a 3-year-old was detained at a routine immigration appointment, Torosian said. Both families were recently arrived asylum seekers, who had entered the United States at the U.S.-Mexico border after making an appointment, he said. The appointment system, known as CBP One, was launched by former U.S. President Joe Biden to promote orderly border crossings. President Donald Trump ended the program when he took office, as part of his aggressive crackdown on immigration. Torosian said when he arrived at the couple's home on Tuesday he saw an 'army' of federal law enforcement officers and began filming on his cell phone as officers stopped him from getting close to his church members. As officers restrained the woman being detained she started to have a panic attack and began convulsing on the floor, he said. 'She's sick! Call 911!' Torosian is heard shouting on the video. 'Why are you guys doing this?' Torosian said the couple fled religious persecution in Iran. In a statement on X, the Department of Homeland Security said that it detained two Iranian nationals in Los Angeles on Tuesday, who had been flagged for national security reasons. It said the woman was taken to hospital, but was later discharged and both are now in immigration custody. The arrests came after U.S. military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities in the early hours of Sunday morning local time. In a press release on Tuesday, the DHS said it had arrested 11 Iranians in the country illegally over the weekend. Iran doesn't accept deportees from the United States, but on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to deport migrants to countries other than their own, without offering them a chance to show the harms they could face there. Torosian said his congregation has between 50 and 60 members, most of whom have been in the country for less than two years. He said he is telling them to stay home rather than come to church. "In a million years, a million years, I never imagined, one day I can call my members and tell them that better not to come to the church, because as I know, America is a free country, but they're afraid," Torosian said. "Some of them lock themselves in their house." Torosian himself is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He said the arrest he witnessed was traumatic. "When I was seeing the masked soldiers put down a woman, a female, on the ground, it triggered me," he said. "I'm on the street of Los Angeles or the street of Tehran? So that was what made me very sad and I cried a lot." (Reporting by Sandra Stojanovic in Los Angeles;Editing by Michael Perry)
Straits Times
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Immigration officers arrest Iranian asylum-seekers in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES - Pastor Ara Torosian received a distressed phone call from two Iranian members of his Farsi-speaking church on Tuesday -- U.S. federal immigration officers were at their Los Angeles home to arrest them. It was the second such call he received this week. On Monday, an Iranian couple with a 3-year-old was detained at a routine immigration appointment, Torosian said. Both families were recently arrived asylum seekers, who had entered the United States at the U.S.-Mexico border after making an appointment, he said. The appointment system, known as CBP One, was launched by former U.S. President Joe Biden to promote orderly border crossings. President Donald Trump ended the program when he took office, as part of his aggressive crackdown on immigration. Torosian said when he arrived at the couple's home on Tuesday he saw an 'army' of federal law enforcement officers and began filming on his cell phone as officers stopped him from getting close to his church members. As officers restrained the woman being detained she started to have a panic attack and began convulsing on the floor, he said. 'She's sick! Call 911!' Torosian is heard shouting on the video. 'Why are you guys doing this?' Torosian said the couple fled religious persecution in Iran. In a statement on X, the Department of Homeland Security said that it detained two Iranian nationals in Los Angeles on Tuesday, who had been flagged for national security reasons. It said the woman was taken to hospital, but was later discharged and both are now in immigration custody. The arrests came after U.S. military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities in the early hours of Sunday morning local time. In a press release on Tuesday, the DHS said it had arrested 11 Iranians in the country illegally over the weekend. Iran doesn't accept deportees from the United States, but on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to deport migrants to countries other than their own, without offering them a chance to show the harms they could face there. Torosian said his congregation has between 50 and 60 members, most of whom have been in the country for less than two years. He said he is telling them to stay home rather than come to church. "In a million years, a million years, I never imagined, one day I can call my members and tell them that better not to come to the church, because as I know, America is a free country, but they're afraid," Torosian said. "Some of them lock themselves in their house." Torosian himself is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He said the arrest he witnessed was traumatic. "When I was seeing the masked soldiers put down a woman, a female, on the ground, it triggered me," he said. "I'm on the street of Los Angeles or the street of Tehran? So that was what made me very sad and I cried a lot." REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration almost totally dismantles Voice of America with latest terminations
The Trump administration has terminated 639 employees at Voice of America and its parent organization in the latest round of sweeping cuts that have reduced the international broadcasting service to a fraction of its former size. The mass terminations announced Friday rounds out the Trump-led elimination of 1,400 positions since March and represents the near-complete dismantling of an organization founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda, whose first broadcast declared: 'We bring you voices from America.' Just 250 employees now remain across the entire parent group the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), who operated what was America's primary tool for projecting democratic values globally. 'For decades, American taxpayers have been forced to bankroll an agency that's been riddled with dysfunction, bias and waste. That ends now,' said Kari Lake, Trump's senior advisor to USAGM, in Friday's termination announcement. VOA once reached 360 million people weekly across dozens of languages, former USAGM CEO and director John Lansing told Congress in 2019. In March, the White House put out a statement calling the outlet 'propaganda', 'leftist' and dubbed it 'The Voice of Radical America'. One of the examples cited to justify that explanation was VOA's refusal to use the term 'terrorist' to describe members of Hamas unless in statements, which falls in line with common and basic journalistic practice. The cuts represent a major retreat from America's Cold War strategy of using broadcasting to reach audiences behind the iron curtain. VOA had evolved from its wartime origins to become a lifeline for populations living under authoritarian rule, providing independent news and an American perspective in regions where press freedom is under assault. The layoffs also came just days after VOA recalled Farsi-speaking journalists from administrative leave to cover the war between Israel and Iran, after Israel shot missiles at Tehran less than a week ago in the dead of night. 'It spells the death of 83 years of independent journalism that upholds US ideals of democracy and freedom around the world,' said three VOA journalists, Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper, who are leading legal challenges against the demolition, in a statement. The agency's folding began in March when Trump signed an executive order targeting federal agencies he branded as bloated bureaucracy, and VOA staff were placed on paid leave and broadcasts were suspended. Lake, Trump's handpicked choice to run VOA, had previously floated plans to replace the service's professional journalism with content from One America News Network (OANN), a rightwing pro-Trump network that would provide programming without charge. The sole survivor of the cull is the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which transmits into Cuba from Florida. All 33 employees there remain, according to the announcement. USAGM offered voluntary departure packages through what it termed a 'Fork in the Road' program, providing full pay through September plus benefits. Some 163 employees accepted the buyouts rather than face involuntary termination, the agency said in a press release. Federal courts have allowed the administration to proceed with the terminations while legal challenges continue for now. The VOA cuts form part of Trump's broader assault on the federal workforce, with tens of thousands terminated across agencies including the IRS, Social Security Administration, USAID, and departments of education, health and agriculture.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Voice of America Frantically Rehires Axed Farsi-Speaking Employees
The Trump administration has reversed course on yet another of its early decisions. Following Israel's attack on Iran, they're calling back several Farsi-speaking Voice of America employees. According to a new CNN report, several dozen employees who had been placed on paid administrative leave in March have been called back to work. The move, which CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter believes suggests that the Trump administration wants to bolster programming in Iran, comes after Israel launched multiple airstrikes against Iran. Prior to the Trump administration's cutbacks in March, Voice of America produced over four hours of Persian-language programming for audiences in Iran on a daily basis. According to the Voice of America website, this content 'confronts the disinformation and censorship efforts of the Iranian regime and enhances U.S. efforts to speak directly to the Iranian people and the global Persian-speaking diaspora.' While videos have been continuously uploaded to the VOA Farsi YouTube channel since March, they have increased in frequency since Israel's airstrikes, with the account uploading nine videos since Thursday. One of the videos features a Persian-speaking spokesperson from the Israel Defense Forces explaining the Israeli government's justification for the attacks, while others show footage of the immediate aftermath of some of Israel's airstrikes on Iran. Critics were quick to use the news to highlight the importance of VOA in American diplomacy. Brett Bruen, a top Obama-era diplomat, tweeted, 'Turns out not having a channel to communicate with the Iranian people was a pretty bad idea.' Bruen made sure to tag Kari Lake, a senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, on his post. Retired Washington Post editor Robert McCartney also weighed in, posting on X, 'So Trump and Musk gleefully dismissed Farsi speakers at Voice of America's Iran service, and now in crisis realize they need them back. Obvious lesson here, but MAGA and GOP will doubtless ignore it.' Patsy Widakuswara, a journalist who is suing the Trump administration as part of the Save VOA campaign, shared a statement on X that read, 'VOA's role in providing independent, factual and authoritative news has been proven throughout countless times of crisis. But after months off the air, we've already lost a lot of audience and credibility. They should bring us all back so we can respond to breaking news in all parts of the world.'
