In the wake of Hamas\u2019 October 7 assault, arch-neoconservative official John Bolton was invited<\/a> on CNN, where he claimed that what we witnessed was really an \u201cIranian attack on Israel using Hamas as a surrogate\u201d and that the U.S. must immediately respond. When asked whether he had any evidence, given the implications of what he was saying, he shrugged and replied, \u201cThis is not a court of law.\u201d<\/p>\n On December 28, Bolton doubled down on his hawkish stance, writing<\/a> in the pages of Britain\u2019s Daily Telegraph that \u201cThe West may now have no option but to attack Iran\u201d \u2013 a position he has held for at least a decade.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in an interview with Saudi state-funded<\/a> broadcaster Iran International, senior Bush official Mark Wallace bellowed<\/a> that, \u201cThis is Iran\u2019s work. Iran will suffer at the hands of retribution and will suffer the consequences of supporting this terror group and its horrific attack on Israel.\u201d Wallace continued<\/a>:<\/p>\n No civilized country wants further conflict. But the Iranians are forcing the civilized world\u2019s hand. And you will see a dramatic response soon as the United States, Israel, and our allies begin to position assets around the world in preparation.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If there was any doubt as to what sort of \u201cdramatic response\u201d Wallace wanted to see, he added a message<\/a> to Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: \u201cI look forward to seeing you hanged from the end of one of your own ropes.\u201d<\/p>\n Iran was recently the victim of a deadly terrorist attack. As mourners commemorated the U.S. assassination of Qassem Soleimani, two bombs exploded, killing 91 and injuring hundreds more. In this context, it was understandable why Iranian officials pointed the finger at the U.S. and Israel.<\/p>\n What these individuals all have in common is that they are board members of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a shadowy but influential organization dedicated to pushing the West toward a military confrontation with the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n Founded in 2008, the group is led by neoconservative hawks and has close ties to both U.S. and Israeli intelligence. It does not divulge where it receives its copious funding. However, it is known that right-wing Israeli-American billionaire Sheldon Adelson was a source. There is strong circumstantial evidence that Gulf dictatorships may also be bankrolling the group, although UANI has strongly denied this. In 2019, Iran designated<\/a> UANI as a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n When asked by MintPress what he made of UANI\u2019s recent statements, Eli Clifton, one of the few investigative journalists to have covered the group, said, \u201cIt\u2019s very consistent with the positions and advocacy that the organization has taken since its inception.\u201d Adding,<\/p>\n United Against Nuclear Iran does not miss an opportunity to try to bring the United States closer to a military conflict with Iran. And on the other side of the equation, they also have worked very hard to oppose efforts to de-escalate the U.S.-Iran relationship.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n UANI\u2019s board<\/a> is a who\u2019s who of high state, military and intelligence officials from around the Western world. Among its more notable members include:<\/p>\n In addition, notable former board members include ex-CIA Director R. James Woolsey; head of Mossad between 2002 and 2011, Meir Dagan; and one-time chief of British spy agency MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove.<\/p>\n For 15 years, UANI has organized conferences, published reports, and lobbied politicians and governments, all with one goal: pushing a neoconservative line on Iran. \u201cUANI are a force multiplier. They provide at least the veneer of an intellectual infrastructure for the Iran hawk movement. They did not invent being hawkish on Iran, but they sure made it a heck of a lot easier,\u201d Ben Freeman<\/a>, Director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy Program<\/a> at the Quincy Institute, told MintPress.<\/p>\n Find someone who loves you as much as the Washington Post loves demanding we bomb Iran. pic.twitter.com\/O2gBOKbvM1<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) July 7, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n For such a large, well-financed, and influential organization filled with senior officials, United Against Nuclear Iran keeps its funding sources very quiet. However, in 2015, Clifton was able to obtain<\/a> a UANI donor list for the 2013 financial year. By far and away, the largest funders were billionaire New York-based investor Thomas Kaplan and multibillionaire Israeli-American casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.<\/p>\n Kaplan, whose $843,000 donation supplied around half the group\u2019s 2013 funding, is a venture capitalist investor concentrating on metals, particularly gold. He is the chairman of Tigris Financial and the Electrum Group LLC. Both of Kaplan\u2019s firms employ UANI CEO Mark Wallace as CEO and COO, respectively.<\/p>\n A 2010 Wall Street Journal article<\/a> titled \u201cTigris Financial Goes All-in on Gold\u201d noted that the company had bet billions of dollars on the price of gold rising, more than the reserves of the Brazilian central bank. As Clifton has noted, both Kaplan and Wallace have marketed<\/a> gold to clients as the perfect commodity to hold if there is increased instability in the Middle East. Therefore, both Kaplan and Wallace stand to make massive sums if the U.S. or Israel were to attack Iran, making their UANI warmongering a gigantic and potentially profitable conflict of interest.<\/p>\n Adelson provided the majority of the rest of UANI\u2019s funding. The world\u2019s 18th-richest individual<\/a> at the time of his 2021 death, the tycoon turned his economic empire into a political one, supporting ultraconservative causes in both the United States and Israel. Between 2010 and 2020, he and his wife donated more than $500 million to the Republican Party, becoming GOP kingmakers in the process. He would often vet Republican presidential candidates at his casino in Las Vegas, and it was often said<\/a> that this \u201cAdelson Primary\u201d was almost as important as the public one.<\/p>\n An ardent Zionist, Adelson bankrolled numerous pro-Israel lobby projects, such as AIPAC, One Jerusalem and Taglit Birthright. He also owned Israel Hayom, the country\u2019s most-read newspaper, with 31% of the national share. Relentlessly pro-Netanyahu, it was said<\/a> that the Israeli prime minister asked his friend Adelson to set up a newspaper to help his political career.<\/p>\n Adelson and his influence have been one of the driving forces of American hostility towards Iran. In 2013, during a conversation with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, he called<\/a> for the United States to stop negotiating and drop a nuclear bomb on Iran to show that \u201cwe mean business.\u201d<\/p>\n A potential third, even more controversial, source of funding is the Gulf monarchies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Leaked emails show UANI officials soliciting support from the Emirati royal family. Both Mark Wallace and Frances Townsend, for example, emailed<\/a> the Emirati Ambassador to the U.S. detailing cost estimates for upcoming events and inquiring about support from the UAE.<\/p>\n Thomas Kaplan himself is extraordinarily close to the nation. \u201cThe country and the leadership of the UAE, I would say, are my closest partners in more facets of my life than anyone else other than my wife,\u201d he told the Emirati outlet, The National News, which also detailed<\/a> his friendship with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed.<\/p>\n One of United Against Nuclear Iran\u2019s primary activities, Iranian political commenter Ali Alizadeh told MintPress, is to create a worldwide \u201cculture of fear and anxiety for investing in Iran.\u201d The group attempts to persuade businesses to divest from the Islamic Republic and sign their certification pledge<\/a>, which reads as follows:<\/p>\n The undersigned [Name], the [Title] of [Company] (the \u201cCompany\u201d), does hereby certify on behalf of the Company that until the Iranian regime verifiably abandons its drive for nuclear weapons, support for terrorism, routine human rights violations, hostage-taking, and rampant anti-Americanism as state policy, that neither the Company nor any subsidiary or affiliate of the Company, directly or through an agent, representative or intermediary.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n One corporation that UANI targeted was the industrial machinery firm Caterpillar. UANI hectored the firm, even erecting a roadside billboard outside its headquarters in Peoria, IL, insinuating that they were aiding Iran in constructing a nuclear weapon. Caterpillar quickly ordered<\/a> its Iran projects terminated. Wallace took heart from his group\u2019s victory and warned that other businesses would be targeted.<\/p>\n These have included French companies such as Airbus and \u200b\u200bPeugeot-Citroen, who were threatened<\/a> with legal action. In 2019, UANI earned an official rebuke from the Russian Foreign Ministry for attempting to intimidate Russian corporations trading with Tehran. \u201cWe think such actions are unacceptable and deeply concerning,\u201d said<\/a> Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova. \u201cAttempts to pressure and threaten Russian business \u2026 are a follow-up on the dishonorable anti-Iranian cause by the U.S. administration,\u201d she added, hinting at collusion between the government and the supposedly non-governmental organization.<\/p>\n Some of UANI\u2019s campaigns have been markedly petty, including pressuring<\/a> New York City hotels to cancel bookings with Iranian officials (including then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) visiting the city on United Nations business. Others, however, have been devastating to the Iranian economy, such as the SWIFT international money transfer terminating<\/a> its relationship with Tehran, cutting the country off from the global banking system.<\/p>\n On UANI\u2019s actions against businesses, Freeman said: \u201cIt\u2019s effective, and (in some cases, at least) it\u2019s to the detriment of the people of Iran; it\u2019s to the detriment of these companies; and it\u2019s to the detriment of peace in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n While the group presents itself as against a nuclear Iran, UANI was strangely opposed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) \u2013 the deal between Iran and the West that limited the former\u2019s nuclear technology research in exchange for sanctions relief from the latter. As MintPress reported<\/a> at the time, UANI spent millions on T.V. advertisements trashing the agreement. As Wallace noted, \u201cWe have a multi-million-dollar budget, and we are in it for the long haul. Money continues to pour in.<\/p>\n After the JCPOA was signed, UANI hosted a summit attended by senior Israeli, Emirati, and Bahraini officials, touting its failures. Once UANI\u2019s John Bolton was named Donald Trump\u2019s National Security Advisor, he persuaded the president to withdraw entirely from the deal. Bolton has deep connections to the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), an exiled Iranian political group widely identified as a terrorist organization. He has, for some time, considered them a government in waiting after the U.S. overthrows the current administration. \u201cBefore 2019, we will celebrate in Tehran,\u201d he told<\/a> the group in 2018, predicting that, with him at the helm, the Trump administration would soon cause the downfall of the Iranian government.<\/p>\n Bolton has long been a hardliner on regime change. \u201cTo stop Iran\u2019s bomb, bomb Iran,\u201d read the title of his 2015 New York Times op-ed<\/a>. Yet this appears to be the dominant position at UANI. In March, Ross published an article<\/a> in The Atlantic headlined \u201cIran needs to believe America\u2019s threat,\u201d which demanded that the U.S. \u201ctake forceful action to check Tehran\u2019s progress toward a nuclear bomb.\u201d Failure to do so, Ross claimed, would provoke Israel to do so itself \u2013 a \u201cmuch more dangerous scenario,\u201d according to him. Yet only two years previously, Ross called on the U.S. to \u201cgive Israel a big bomb\u201d to \u201cdeter Iran,\u201d noting that the \u201cbest way\u201d to stop the Iranian nuclear program was to supply Israel with its own nukes, thereby taken as a given that Iran was indeed pursuing nuclear weapons itself (a highly questionable claim at the time) and ignoring Israel\u2019s already existing 200+ stockpile<\/a> of nuclear missiles.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem like UANI ever really took seriously the possibility of a diplomatic means to constrain Iran from continuing to increase its enrichment levels and moving towards a nuclear weapon,\u201d Clifton told MintPress. \u201cAs a matter of fact, they generally fought tooth and nail against the JCPOA. They are eager to push the United States toward confrontation with Iran using the possibility of Iranian nuclear weapons as a reason,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n That UANI is headed by so many state, military and intelligence leaders begs the question: to what extent is this really a non-governmental organization? \u201cThat is one of the dirty secrets of think tanks: they are very often holding tanks for government officials,\u201d Freeman said, adding:<\/p>\n The Trump folks all had to leave office when Biden won, so a lot of them ended up in think tanks for a while, four years, let\u2019s say. And if Trump wins again, they will bounce back into government. And the same is true of Democratic administrations, too.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The U.S. government also clearly has a longstanding policy of outsourcing much of its work to \u201cprivate\u201d groups in order to avoid further scrutiny. Many of the CIA\u2019s most controversial activities, for example, have been farmed out to the National Endowment for Democracy<\/a> (NED), a technically non-governmental organization funded entirely by Washington and staffed with ex-state officials. In recent years, the NED has funneled<\/a> millions of dollars to protest leaders in Hong Kong, organized<\/a> an attempted color revolution in Cuba, organized<\/a> anti-government rock concerts in Venezuela, and propped<\/a> up dozens of media organizations in Ukraine.<\/p>\n These sorts of institutions blur the line between public and private sectors. But a 2014 legal case raises even more questions about UANI\u2019s connections to the U.S. government. After UANI accused Greek shipping magnate Victor Restis of working with the Iranian government, he sued them for libel. In an unprecedented<\/a> move for what was a private, commercial lawsuit, Attorney General Eric Holder intervened in the lawsuit, ordering the judge to shut the case down on the grounds that, if it continued, it would expose key U.S. national security secrets. The case was immediately dropped without explanation.<\/p>\n In the past, when the Justice Department has invoked state secrets, a high-ranking state official has offered a public statement as to why. Yet, this time, nothing was offered. Reporters at the time speculated<\/a> that much of the material Restis wanted to make public was possibly given to UANI by either the CIA or Mossad, which would have revealed a network of collusion between state intelligence agencies and a supposedly independent, private non-profit. Given the glut of ex-Mossad and CIA chiefs at UANI, this speculation is perhaps not as wild as it might seem.<\/p>\n UANI\u2019s funders certainly also have extensive connections to Israel. Kaplan is the son-in-law of Israeli billionaire Leon Recanati and is said<\/a> to be close with Prime Ministers Naftali Bennet and Yair Lapid. He has also employed a number of Israeli officials at his businesses. An example of this is Olivia Blechner<\/a>, who, in 2007, left her role as the Director of Academic Affairs at the Israeli Consulate General in New York to become Executive Vice-President of Investor Relations and Research at Kaplan\u2019s Electrum Group \u2013 a rather perplexing career move.<\/p>\n Adelson, meanwhile, was given what amounted to an official state funeral in Israel, one that even Prime Minister Netanyahu attended. He was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem \u2013 one of the holiest sites in Judaism and an honor that very few figures receive.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While United Against Nuclear Iran is already a notable enough organization, it is actually merely part of a large group of shadowy non-governmental groups working to cause unrest and, ultimately, regime change in Iran. These groups all share overlapping goals, funders and key individuals.<\/p>\n One example of this is the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a non-profit that purports<\/a> to exist to \u201ccombat the growing threat posed by extremist ideologies.\u201d Yet the group focuses largely on Islamist extremism \u2013 and only those groups that are enemies of the U.S., Israel and the Gulf Monarchies (about whose extremism and violence the CEP has nothing to say). Ten members of the CEP\u2019s leadership council<\/a> are also on UANI\u2019s board, including Wallace, who is CEO of both organizations.<\/p>\n Another group headed by Wallace is the Jewish Committee to Support Women Life Freedom in Iran. This organization claims to be focused on improving women\u2019s rights in Iran. It very quickly, however, divulges that this is a vehicle for regime change. On its homepage, for example, it writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n These freedom fighters continue with no sign of relenting on their calls for regime change. Calls for \u201cWoman Life Freedom\u201d and the removal of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei echo from rooftops, down street corridors, across campus hallways, and on government billboards. These brave Iranians have expressed their hatred for the ruling clerics not only in their words, but in their actions.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Seven members of the Jewish Committee to Support Women Life Freedom in Iran\u2019s steering group<\/a> \u2013 including Wallace and Kaplan \u2013 also lead UANI.<\/p>\n Kaplan is well-known as a conservationist. However, his group, Panthera, which works to preserve the world\u2019s 40 known species of big cats, has also been accused of being a secret regime change operation. Panthera has a number of UANI officials on its board<\/a> or conservation council<\/a>, including Wallace and Lamb (the ex-director of U.K. Special Forces and Commander of the British Army). Also on the council are Itzhak Dar, former Director of the Israeli Secret Service, Shin Bet, and General David Petraeus, former CIA Director and Commander of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n In 2018, Iranian authorities arrested<\/a> eight individuals working with Panthera inside the country. All eight were convicted of spying on behalf of the U.S. and Israel. While many in the West decried the trials as politically motivated, any organization led by these figures is bound to cause suspicions.<\/p>\n This is especially the case as Wallace is also a founder of PaykanArtCar, an organization that attempts to use art to, in its words<\/a>, \u201cadvocate for the restoration of human rights and dignity for all in Iran.\u201d All three team members of PaykanArtCar also work at UANI.<\/p>\n The final group in this Iran regime change network is the International Convention for the Future of Iran. Set up by Wallace himself, the organization\u2019s website explains<\/a> that it exists to \u201cend the repression of the regime and bring true change to Iran.\u201d Further purposes<\/a> are to \u201cconnect the Iranian opposition in exile [i.e., the MEK] with policymakers in the United States and internationally\u201d and to \u201coffer program grants and technical support\u201d to groups working to overthrow the government. However, judging by the lack of updates and the group\u2019s Twitter profile having only 31 followers, it appears that it has not had much success achieving its goals.<\/p>\n In short, then, there exists a network of American NGOs with the mission statements of helping Iran, opposing Iran, preserving Iran, and bombing Iran, all staffed by largely the same ex-U.S. government officials.<\/p>\n Iran, however, is not the only target in Wallace\u2019s sights. It appears that he is also trying to give Turkey similar treatment. Wallace is the CEO of the Turkish Democracy Project, a non-profit established to oppose the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, who, it says<\/a>, has \u201cdramatically altered Turkey\u2019s position in the international community and its status as a free and liberal democracy.\u201d The Turkish Democracy Project denounces what it calls Erdo\u011fan\u2019s \u201cdestabilizing actions in and beyond the region, his systemic corruption, support for extremism, and disregard for democracy and human rights.\u201d There are no Turkish people<\/a> among the Turkish Democracy Project\u2019s leadership. But there are seven<\/a> UANI board members at the top, calling the shots.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The history of Iran has been intimately intertwined with the United States since at least 1953 when Washington orchestrated a successful coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Mosaddegh had refused U.S. demands to stamp out Communist influences in his country and had nationalized the nation\u2019s oil. The U.S. installed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a puppet ruler. An unpopular and authoritarian ruler, the Shah was overthrown in the Revolution of 1979. Since then, it has become a target for regime change, and its nuclear program is something of an obsession in the West.<\/p>\n Often orchestrated by UANI officials while they were in government, the U.S. has carried out a sustained economic war against Tehran, attempting to collapse its economy. American sanctions have severely hurt Iran\u2019s ability to both buy and sell goods on the open market and have harmed the value of the Iranian rial. As prices and inflation rose rapidly, ordinary people lost their savings.<\/p>\n During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. turned the screw once again, intimidating both businesses and nations into refusing to sell Tehran vital medical supplies. Eventually, the World Health Organization stepped in and directly supplied it with provisions \u2013 a factor in the Trump administration\u2019s decision to pull out of the agency.<\/p>\n While U.S. actions have severely harmed the Iranian economy, a future bright spot may come in the form of BRICS, the economic bloc that Iran \u2013 along with Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE \u2013 joined on January 1. American economic power on the global stage appears to be waning. However, This new reality might spur Washington policymakers to reconsider a military option, as UANI desperately wants them to.<\/p>\n It is perfectly reasonable to be worried about Iran \u2013 or any country, for that matter \u2013 developing atomic bombs. Nuclear weapons pose an existential threat to human civilization, and more actors with access to them increase the likelihood of a devastating confrontation. Already in the region, India, Pakistan, Israel and Russia possess them. But it is only the United States that has ever used them in anger, dropping two on Japan and coming close to doing so in China, Korea and Vietnam. And given the U.S.\u2019 recent track record of attacking countries that do not<\/i> possess weapons of mass destruction (e.g., Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan) and not touching those who do (such as North Korea), it is entirely understandable why Iran might want one. As Freeman said:<\/p>\n I certainly do not want Iran to get a nuclear weapon. But at the same time, you can also believe that it would be catastrophic if the U.S. were to engage in a war with Iran\u2026And the concern with groups like UANI is that they are taking that [the worry of Iran getting a nuclear weapon] and pushing that argument to a point where it might lead to an active conflict.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The slaughter in Gaza has been horrifying enough. More than 22,000 people have been killed in the Israeli invasion, and a further 1.9 million displaced. Israel is also simultaneously bombing the West Bank, Syria and Lebanon. The U.S. is facilitating this, sending billions of dollars in weaponry, pledging iron-clad political support to Israel, silencing critics of its actions, and vetoing United Nations resolutions.<\/p>\n But United Against Nuclear Iran is eager to escalate the situation to a vastly greater level, urging Washington to attack a well-armed country of nearly 90 million people, erroneously claiming that Iran is behind every Hamas or Hezbollah action. \u201cThis is not a nuclear non-proliferation organization\u201d Clifton said, noting that there are plenty of genuine already existing peace and environmental groups worried about nuclear weapons that either supported the JCPOA or said it did not go far enough. \u201cTheir focus is more on working towards regime change in Iran rather than actually supporting efforts that might prevent Iranian nuclear weapons,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n IF UANI gets its way, a conflict with Iran might spark a Third World War. And yet they are receiving virtually no pushback to their ultra-hawkish pronouncements, largely because they operate in the shadows and receive virtually no public scrutiny. It is, therefore, imperative for all those who value peace to quickly change that and expose the organization for what it is.<\/p>\n Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News<\/p>\nWarmongers, Inc<\/h2>\n
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Conflicts and Conflicts of Interest<\/h2>\n
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\nPutting Iran in the Crosshairs<\/h2>\n
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Intelligence Connections<\/h2>\n
A Network of Regime Change Groups<\/h2>\n
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A Lesson From History<\/h2>\n
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