Sadegh Bozorgmehr

In a recent piece titled “Anti-Iranianism and the ‘Brown-skins’ that Make It Possible,” I outlined new research revealing an organized network of racist Iran war advocates who simultaneously work to marginalize Iranian-Americans. The research concludes that the campaign’s success depends on Iranian collaborators, and LA satellite television personality Hassan Dai was fingered as one of the better-known figures in the drama. Within days of the exposé, shocking material surfaced indicating the appalling depths Dai will go to to help his financial backers in their anti-Iranian crusade.  

Dai’s Symbiotic Relationship with the Network

Hardly able to contain their excitement, associates of Dai in the network wasted no time seizing on a Christmas day tragedy in which one Iranian-American shot and killed six members of his own family. The man’s name was Aziz Yazdanpanah, and his Iranian-sounding name was enough for the network to giddily rush out articles claiming that this was almost certainly an Islamic “honor killing.”

Pamela Geller, the virulent racist whose blog inspired anti-Muslim fanatic Anders Breivik to carry out the worst terrorist attack in Norway’s history, led the charge in exploiting the tragedy to spread hatred against Iranians. Geller, who days earlier had used Dai’s writings to promote anti-Iranian feelings, was once more successful as readers took turns to comment that her story was further proof that Iranians are “savage” and “inhuman.”

At around the same time, Dai released videos repeating conspiracy theories promoting by Pamela Geller, Daniel Pipes, and other leading figures of the anti-Iran network. Arguments made by Pipes claiming an alliance between Iranian-Americans, “Jihadists”, and White Supremacists were regurgitated by Dai almost to the letter.

Ironically, the same people who Dai uses to allege Iranian racism have called him and all Iranians “brown-skins” with bad hygiene. But Dai simply cannot expose his own superiors lest he lose their material and financial backing.

So, slavishly, Dai accepts that he is their foul-odored brown-skin.

Why They Do It: The Benefits

The alliance between Dai and the sickest elements in the anti-Iranian network is mutually beneficial. The network needs an Iranian face to validate it’s pro-war agenda abroad and racist agenda at home. Additionally, it makes obvious strategic sense to use an Iranian to discredit anti-war voices within the Iranian community.

For his services, Dai has benefitted from the network’s endless flow of cash, resources, and other perks that institutes like Daniel Pipes’ Middle East Forum have granted him.

Both sides continue to use each other’s writings to promote their common agenda. Both favor military conflict with Iran, so both benefit from using the other’s resources to, in Dai’s words, “destroy” Iranian-American non-radicals. As a bonus, the network has happily used its resources to lobby on behalf of Hassan Dai’s Mujahedin e-Khalq terror cult.

Conclusion

Despite calls for Dai to speak out against his bigoted and war-hungry backers, he has chosen silence and continued complicity. In the image of his superiors who still insist Obama was born in Kenya, Rick Perry is the “stealth jihad candidate,” and refer to the US marines urinating on dead corpses as their heroes, Dai has chosen to be the preeminent conspiracist of the Iranian community--a community that suffers no shortage of conspiracy theorists.

Dismissing Dai as a crack-pot “House Persian” ignores the mainstreaming of the fringe in the past decade and frees him from responsibility for his dangerous collusion. Each time Dai’s allies have drummed up hate for Iranians and promoted war, he has chosen to fuel their brimming hate against his own people rather than speak out against it. As new evidence continually surfaces demonstrating organized attacks aimed at our community, Dai and those like him must face the reality that the free pass they received has finally ended.