Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Iranian intrigue and ambition

LA Times:

...

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.

This activity is growing in intensity as the Bush administration tries to learn more about Iran's nuclear ambitions and possible Iranian-sponsored terrorism in this country.

...

Faced with the sudden prospect of relevance, exile activists are jockeying for recognition from U.S. policymakers. They are touting contacts with the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the CIA.

They boast of tete-a-tetes with members of Vice President Dick Cheney's staff, and drop the name "Elliott" — as in Elliott Abrams, Bush's deputy national security advisor. They prominently display Christmas cards from Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, an early backer of legislation that would provide financial support to the Iranian opposition. In Washington, they're making the rounds like actors looking for an agent.

Some Iranian exiles speculate that someone among them could emerge as the next Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi opposition leader who helped to spur the American invasion of Iraq with his now-discredited intelligence indicating that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed chemical and biological weapons.

It is precisely the specter of Chalabi that makes many U.S. officials cautious about appearing to endorse the Iranian exiles volunteering themselves now.

...

In the political salons of Irangeles, it can be difficult to distinguish fact from rumor, boast from reality.

Over glasses of strong tea in Westwood, some activists brag about recruiting people back home to gather information on internal opposition and the Islamic republic's nuclear program — information they say they hand over to the CIA.

An interesting article. Irangeles refers to a section of Los Angelos where many of the IRanian exiles have congregated. They have established 20 satelite TV stations as well as two local papers and many other organizations. There may be as many as 150,000 Iranians in the Los Angelos area including the son of the former Shah.