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This is part one of a two part series on the growing impact of the US economic war on Iran.<\/em><\/p>\n Several US citizens have been questioned by the FBI and threatened with arrest for their participation in New Horizon, a public media conference held each year in Iran.<\/p>\n The interrogations and threats are the result of orders apparently delivered by Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence\u00a0Sigal P. Mandelker<\/a>, a militantly pro-Israel lawyer with longstanding ties to right-wing political networks.<\/p>\n Mandelker was\u00a0reportedly involved in brokering the infamous Florida deal<\/a>\u00a0that allowed the wealthy child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to avoid federal charges.<\/p>\n Since Mandelker\u2019s appointment as Under Secretary of Treasury in 2017, she has been described on pro-Israel news sites as a \u201cformer Israeli\u201d and \u201cIsraeli-born.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked by The Grayzone if Mandelker currently holds Israeli citizenship, and if so, whether she was given a special exemption that allowed her to obtain a security clearance, the US Department of Treasury did not reply.<\/p>\n Mandelker\u2019s actions against the US citizens who participated in New Horizon represent an under-acknowledged but significant escalation in the Trump administration\u2019s strategy of \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d to bring about regime change in Iran. As the Atlantic\u00a0noted<\/a>, Mandelker is \u201cthe one with her hand on the lever\u201d of Trump\u2019s unilateral sanctions policy against Iran.<\/p>\n Michael Maloof, a former security analyst in the US Department of Defense, was among the New Horizon attendees who has been visited by the FBI. Bureau agents appeared at Maloof\u2019s Virginia home in the early morning last May to inquire about his participation in the conference. Sander Hicks, another participant in New Horizon, claimed that others who joined the conference had been threatened with arrest if they attended again.<\/p>\n \u201cOFAC [the US Office of Financial Sanctions Regulations] is supposed to restrict exchanges of money, but this conference was just an exchange of ideas,\u201d Maloof told The Grayzone. \u201cThey\u2019re interpreting the regulations to say that even if you associate with someone who has been sanctioned, you are subject to fines and imprisonment. I haven\u2019t seen anything in the regulations that allows that, but they\u2019ve set the bar so low that anyone can be designated.\u201d<\/p>\n The New Horizon Conference is an annual event overseen by Iranian TV host and filmmaker named Nader Talebzadeh and his wife, Zeina Mehanna, a Lebanese writer. Both were\u00a0placed under financial sanctions<\/a>\u00a0this year by the Treasury Department\u2019s Office of Financial Sanctions Regulations [OFAC] on the grounds that they had organized events where Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps \u201crecruitment and collection efforts were made.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe wrote to OFAC challenging them about their accusations, however, they only responded by acknowledging the receipt of our letter. Nothing more!\u201d Mehanna complained to The Grayzone.<\/p>\n She insisted that \u201cwe are not in contact with the IRGC nor have we ever been funded by them.\u201d<\/p>\n Negative scrutiny of the New Horizon Conference began in 2014 with a series of reports by the pro-Israel pressure group, the Anti-Defamation League [ADL]. The ADL openly coordinates with local and federal US law enforcement, and\u00a0escorts law enforcement officials<\/a>\u00a0on annual training and lobbying tours of Israel.<\/p>\n According to the ADL, New Horizon was an\u00a0\u201canti-Semitic gathering\u201d<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cincluded U.S. and international anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers and anti-war activists.\u201d<\/p>\n There was some truth to the charge: over the years, New Horizon has played host to an array of\u00a0conspiracy cranks<\/a>\u00a0and figures with disturbing records of vehemently\u00a0anti-Jewish statements<\/a>.<\/p>\n The event has also featured well-known anti-war activists and former US national security professionals seeking to forge relations with a country that has been under sustained Western economic and military attack for decades.<\/p>\n Peter Van Buren, an author and former diplomat who served in the State Department for 24 years, attended New Horizon this May in the city of Mashhad. He returned with a\u00a0colorful account<\/a>\u00a0for Reuters of life in Iran under escalating US sanctions.<\/p>\n \u201cOutside, in Mashhad city, there were no demonstrations, no flag burnings, and when I visited the central mosque here after Friday prayers more people were interested in a selfie with a foreigner than anything else,\u201d Van Buren reported.<\/p>\n Maloof, too, said his attendance of the conference was motivated by a desire to build diplomatic bridges. \u201cWe felt that it was important for dialogue to go [to New Horizon]. And I don\u2019t agree with the US position on Iran,\u201d he explained.\u00a0 \u201cAll we did was went there, talked and met with people, and this is the only way you\u2019re going to have better relations.\u201d<\/p>\n Maloof emphasized, \u201cWe\u2019re all still US patriots, but we believe there\u2019s another way to go about things than looking at everything in Iran through the prism of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if there was any interaction with IRGC officials or assets at the event, Maloof insisted, \u201cWe were not approached by anyone. And those of us who are national security veterans, we\u2019re very attuned to that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Under Mandelker\u2019s guidance, the Trump administration\u00a0designated<\/a>\u00a0the IRGC as a terrorist organization this April, provoking Iran to counter by\u00a0branding all US military personnel<\/a>\u00a0in the Middle East as terrorists.<\/p>\n Since then, Mandelker has expanded her target list in Iran and across the region, even sanctioning institutions that collaborate with the US government.<\/p>\n On August 30, the Treasury Department\u2019s OFAC\u00a0sanctioned<\/a>\u00a0an Iranian oil tanker and its captain after it was freed from detention in Gilbraltar. Mandelker claimed that the vessel was used to \u201ctransfer large volumes of oil, which attempt to mask and sell illicitly to fund the regime\u2019s malign activities and propagate terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n That same day, Treasury sanctioned Jammal Trust Bank in Lebanon, claiming that it and its subsidiaries had been \u201cbrazenly enabling Hizballah\u2019s financial activities.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJammal Trust provides support and services to Hizballah\u2019s Executive Council and the Martyrs Foundation, which funnels money to the families of suicide bombers,\u201d Mandelker\u00a0declared<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Hezbollah has not employed suicide bombing as a tactic since the 1980\u2019s. And as Asia Times\u00a0noted<\/a>, Jammal Trust\u00a0partnered<\/a>\u00a0with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as recently as last year on public initiatives intended to help impoverished communities in Lebanon.<\/p>\n Because Lebanon\u2019s economy is so thoroughly dollarized, the sanctions represent a likely death sentence for Jammal, preventing it from carrying out transactions in the US currency.<\/p>\n Notably, the bank is owned by a Shia businessman with\u00a0close ties<\/a>\u00a0to Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and one of several who have been targeted under the watch of Mandelker. Berri was reportedly\u00a0threatened<\/a>\u00a0with US sanctions this April by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for his insufficient hostility to Hezbollah.<\/p>\n When New Horizon\u2019s Mehanna was sanctioned, her personal savings account in Lebanon was frozen.<\/p>\n \u201cI got a call that I need to go to the bank and close my account,\u201d Mehanna told The Grayzone. \u201cThe teller told me that the bank was informed by US Treasury Department to close my account because it had dollars! They closed my account, gave me a mere $400, and I was told politely to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n She said she was given no documentation that her account had been closed. She recalled, \u201cWe just left the bank in total shock and bewilderment.\u201d<\/p>\n It was all in a day\u2019s work for Mandelker, the most militant official to serve in a department overseen by a long line of pro-Israel ideologues.<\/p>\n At a gathering of the elite\u00a0Aspen Security Conference<\/a>\u00a0this July, Mandelker put her extreme views on display when she accused former Obama officials of mollycoddling Iran.<\/p>\n Seated beside Wendy Sherman, Obama\u2019s Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and Jeremy Bash, the CIA\u2019s ex-chief of staff, Mandelker declared that Iran was \u201cposing an incredibly destabilizing presence in the region. They\u2019re threatening our great ally in the region, Israel!\u201d<\/p>\n She went on: \u201cAnd after the JCPOA [the Iran nuclear deal], what did the Obama administration do to curb that kind of behavior? Nothing!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not true,\u201d Sherman protested.<\/p>\n \u201cBad actors need money to do bad things,\u201d Mandelker continued. \u201cThat is why we have this massive sanctions regime. Because we know Iran is threatening our great partner, Israel!\u201d<\/p>\n While media at the event focused on the dust-up between Trump and Obama officials, they ignored the stunning admission by a US official to advancing provocative policies on Israel\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n But this was the role that Mandelker and her predecessors have played since her position was established during the second Bush administration by her mentor, Stuart Levey.<\/p>\n Like Mandelker, Levey is an unabashedly ultra-Zionist ideologue. His\u00a01985 senior thesis<\/a>\u00a0at Harvard University was a paean to the creation of Israel, declaring that the Zionist movement had created a \u201cmorally exemplary\u201d state that \u201cwould be a light unto other nations.\u201d<\/p>\n As journalist Phil Weiss\u00a0noted<\/a>, Levey\u2019s thesis advisor was Martin Peretz, the neoconservative former New Republic publisher who emigrated to Israel after\u00a0triggering protests<\/a>\u00a0with his\u00a0declaration,<\/a>\u00a0\u201cMuslim life is cheap, especially for Muslims.\u201d<\/p>\n At the dawn of the so-called \u201cwar on terror,\u201d Levey successfully lobbied Bush\u2019s national security team to turn up the heat on Iran, a country that considered Al Qaeda its mortal enemy. His weapon of choice was sanctions, convincing the Bush administration to blacklist Iran\u2019s Central Bank and sever Tehran\u2019s ties to the global financial system.<\/p>\n \u201cStuart Levey\u2019s war is like \u2018Charlie Wilson\u2019s War,\u2019 \u201d an unnamed State Department official\u00a0told the New York Times<\/a>, referring to a former Texas congressman\u2019s campaign to undermine the Soviet Union by funneling arms to Afghan insurgents. \u201cIt\u2019s the most direct and aggressive stuff we\u2019ve got going. It delivers.\u201d<\/p>\n Mandelker learned the ropes in Levey\u2019s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, developing an innovative arsenal of financial weapons against the enemies of Israel, a state for which she and her boss clearly felt a passionate attachment.<\/p>\n She came to the job with the conservative movement credentials she gained as a clerk in the office of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and as a card-carrying member of the right-wing Federalist Society.<\/p>\n Mandelker\u2019s husband,\u00a0Stephen Capozolla<\/a>, has worked as a spokesman for the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a Washington-based lobbying group, while pumping out columns denying climate change for the right-wing site, Breitbart.com.<\/p>\n In 2008, while Mandelker served in Bush\u2019s Department of Justice, she\u00a0approved<\/a>\u00a0the notorious deal that allowed the wealthy child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to escape federal prosecution.<\/p>\n \u201cI was told Epstein \u2018belonged to intelligence\u2019 and to leave it alone,\u201d Alex Acosta, the former US attorney who brokered the deal,\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the Trump administration\u2019s transition team.<\/p>\n When Mandelker returned to government in March 2017, she earned immediate\u00a0praise<\/a>\u00a0from Levey, her former boss, who called her \u201can asset.\u201d Michael Chertoff, another close colleague, described her as his \u201ceyes and ears\u201d when he was at the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n Pro-Israel websites also buzzed about the appointee, homing in on her alleged Israeli roots.<\/p>\n The right-wing Jewish Press\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0Mandelker as an \u201cIsraeli-born deputy secretary,\u201d while the Israeli security blog, Debka File,\u00a0referred<\/a>\u00a0to her as a \u201cformer Israeli.\u201d Meanwhile, the Jerusalem-based blogger, Jewlicious, called Mandelker a current Israeli citizen. When asked how he knew she maintained her citizenship, the blogger said he didn\u2019t know, but that \u201cshe was born in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\nTargeting a public media conference<\/h3>\n
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Sanctioning a USAID partner<\/h3>\n
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\u201cThat is why we have this massive sanctions regime. Because we know Iran is threatening our great partner, Israel!\u201d<\/h3>\n
\u201cMandelker\u2026isn\u2019t just Jewish, she\u2019s Israeli!\u201d<\/h3>\n
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