Iranian dissident: ‘Regime stalked, threatened me in Los Angeles’

Journalist Lisa Daftari warns that Tehran’s efforts to silence critics extend to American cities.

By World Israel News Staff

A journalist of Iranian descent has described decades of being stalked and intimidated by Iranian government agents on American soil, warning that Tehran has infiltrated Iranian communities across the United States on a wide scale.

Lisa Daftari, who was born in New Jersey to Jewish parents from Iran, wrote in the New York Post about years of terrifying interactions with people she believed to be operatives acting on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Daftari, a prominent writer and commentator on Iranian affairs, recounted a series of incidents in which she believes she was targeted by agents affiliated with the Iranian regime in attempts to silence her.

In her essay, Daftari described a number of frightening incidents dating back to 2006, including being followed by someone she believed to be an IRGC agent on the streets of Westwood, a heavily Iranian enclave in Los Angeles.

She also described being targeted by an intimidation campaign while studying at Rutgers University, where she served as president of the school’s Iranian club. According to Daftari, death threats were sent to her mailbox and left on her voicemail.

Eventually, the man behind the threats — whom Daftari believed to be a regime operative — approached her in person, escalating the intimidation.

But the threats did not stop there.

“In a severe hacking attempt a few years ago, my websites, email and social media accounts were all taken over. On another occasion, I was emailed the link to a website on my birthday featuring my photographs and describing me as a Mossad agent,” she wrote in the Post.

“Hackers also accessed my photos and sent pictures of me in a bikini to my husband’s email. I understood exactly what they wanted me to take from that — they could access my private life. They knew who my husband was and how to reach him,” she continued.

“That is how intimidation works when the target is thousands of miles from Iran. The threat reaches a family member.”

Daftari also wrote about an online platform launched by the Iranian government through which Iranians are encouraged to report information about dissidents living abroad.

The Iranian government has claimed that the app, called Alaj, has identified some 1,600 dissidents in exile and enables punitive measures against them, including confiscating their assets in Iran and freezing their ability to access consular services.

“The regime is telling Iranians that leaving the country does not end its authority over them. Speak freely abroad, and it will look for something it can still take from you,” Daftari wrote, stressing that “the pressure reaches into Western countries and challenges their ability to protect free speech on their own soil.”