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Changed my Twitter bio. Can't take another comment mystified by why I'm writing here on Trump's Iran policy, after researching it for over a year and publishing a 970-page book on it—with 4,330 citations to the best investigative journalism by media outlets from around the world.
PS/ Totally OK not to read my book. Not OK to pretend I didn't write it.
SOURCES/ Here, below, are pages 583 to 960 of my book PROOF OF CONSPIRACY, which contain all the endnotes for this late 2019 book on President Trump's Iran policy (including an exhaustive discussion of how, why, when, where, and for whom it was developed). read.macmillan.com/proofofconspir…
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More from @SethAbramson see all

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Seth Abramson
@SethAbramson
I feel oddly sanguine about this as it simply means the Democrats now *know* the fix is in in the Senate and have no motivation to do anything but continue investigating and litigating in the House because the Senate is aiding and abetting Trump's obstruction of witness testimony
As far as I'm concerned, this puts the matter of a Senate trial to rest. It's clear that the Senate, as currently constituted, has no intention of helping the House access information being illegally kept from it by the White House. So now the House must go it alone. That's fine.
The situation now is remarkably simple: Bolton has screwed himself and lost his argument to fight any House subpoena. The Senate has lost any argument that the House shouldn't keep investigating and litigating because *GOP Senators are demanding it*.

So Democrats should do that.
Read 5 tweets
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Seth Abramson
@SethAbramson
A list of Trump associates involved in clandestine negotiations with *Maduro* or his allies—not Guaido—per major-media reporting:

🔹 Giuliani
🔹 Prince
🔹 Parnas
🔹 Sessions (Pete)
🔹 Sargeant III

These are the ones we know of—the possibility there are more is extremely high.
SOURCE/ Here's a good starting point for the Trump-Venezuela scandal, which is currently like sixth in the queue of Trump scandals (after, e.g., Trump-China) still waiting to be fully appreciated by the majority of those in American media and U.S. voters: washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
SOURCE2/ This Atlantic article gives you a sense of how bonkers the Trump-Venezuela scandal will be once it fully breaks (which is many, many months away, I suspect): theatlantic.com/international/…
Read 6 tweets
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Seth Abramson
@SethAbramson
BREAKING: Federal Website Hack Shows Signs of Being Work of Iran theguardian.com/world/2020/jan…
NOTE/ I vehemently oppose violence as a means of settling political disputes. I posted the @guardian story because it's newsworthy and people must judge for themselves if the evidence left by the hackers confirms it was the work of Iranians. At present, that issue is unresolved.
@guardian PS/ In the absence of any claim of responsibility from a *known* Iranian group—which I don't think we have yet—my own sense is that this could well be the work of non-Iranian anarchists or trolls. But we'll see; I don't think we have any basis to really say or know at this point.
Read 6 tweets

Related threads

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Heshmat Alavi
@HeshmatAlavi
THREAD

"fabricated polls"

1)
 @mattduss criticizes Trump's #Iran policy by citing a University of Maryland poll.

Let's dig into some details that Duss won't tell you about.
2)
 The University of Maryland is also cited by #Iran apologist/lobbyist @yarbatman in his pushing of Tehran's talking points against Trump's talking points.
3)
 These surveys are conducted by Ebrahim Mohseni of the University of Maryland. Here he is seen speaking at the Atlantic Council, a known pro-#Iran appeasement think tank.

Mohseni is known to have given speeches at IRGC Basij paramilitary events.
Read 8 tweets
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Esfandyar Batmanghelidj
@yarbatman
1. Trump is being misled by his advisors. Yes, #Iran does want to talk to the U.S. But that is because over the last few months Iran's leaders have assessed themselves to be in a position of strength, shrugging off "maximum pressure" sanctions.

That's actually a good thing...
2. "Maximum pressure" started in earnest in November after 11 months of Iran's currency losing value, of inflation rising, and of foreign companies pulling out of the market. It looked like Iran's economy could be pushed into a spiral by the return of secondary sanctions.
3. But over the last three months, Iran's currency has regained value, inflation has slowed, and Iran's has begun to export oil to China in defiance of US sanctions. Regional trade has grown significantly and Iran is sourcing plenty of hard currency (USD!) to grease its economy.
Read 13 tweets
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Heshmat Alavi
@HeshmatAlavi
1)
 Brian Hook, US Special Rep. for #Iran, discusses President Trump's Iran policy, the impact of US withdrawal from the JCPOA & the future of U.S.-Iran relations.
"We will not be held hostage by Iran's malign activities. You either comply or you don't. It will not be tolerated."
2)
 Hook:
Iran is more financially isolated today than two years ago. Last month we designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist org. Iran not only supports terrorism through proxies, it engages as a gov in terrorism. The IRGC has institutionalized in terrorism.
3)
 Hook:
We have recently sanctioned Iran's oil exports & trekking towards zero. Iran receives $50 billion oil revenue each year. Iranian-backed Shia fighters are going unpaid. We have raised the cost of Iran's behavior. We have zeroed purchases of Iranian crude & condensates.
Read 14 tweets
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Sina Toossi
@SinaToossi
[Thread]

Lost in much of the discussion surrounding the Trump admin's imposition of unilateral US sanctions against #Iran is the massive human suffering caused by his so-called "maximum pressure" campaign.
Make no mistake, the purpose of these sanctions isn't to gain leverage to advance some sort of diplomatic process aimed at compromise.

They're pressure for the sake of pressure, aimed at creating a destructive situation inside #Iran.
Trump's #Iran policy is firmly under the control of figures long opposed to US-Iran diplomacy in principle, a la John Bolton, Mike Pompeo & Brian Hook.

Trump has based his Iran policy on the wishes of his right-wing billionaire donors & his Saudi, Emirati, & Israeli friends.
Read 11 tweets
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Farzan Sabet
@IranWonk
Excited to share my first piece in 18 months and in @ForeignPolicy, co-authored w/ Simon Miles, an assistant professor @DukeSanford, completing a book on US-Soviet relations during the early 1980s based on new Eastern bloc archival sources. 1/ foreignpolicy.com/2018/10/30/wha…
Context: @mike_giglio had an excellent piece last month on how the #Trump admin may be executing a strategy of "maximum pressure" against #Iran, partly inspired by the book "Victory" & its claim that Reagan used this strategy to defeat the Soviet Union. 2/ buzzfeednews.com/article/mikegi…
There's only one problem: "Victory" is not good history, to put it politely. The most basic critique is that the author didn't have access to US & Soviet archives when the book was published in 1994. You can find much harsher academic critiques online. 3/ amazon.com/dp/0871136333/…
Read 18 tweets
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Mark Fitzpatrick
@FitzpatrickIISS
What adjectives to use to describe #Iran’s regional posture? -- a good question at @IISS_org panel discussion I chaired on Oct 22 featuring @DEsfandiary, former US Amb to UAE @SafiraLeaf & @AliVaez. Video here: bit.ly/2OSUsZB; highlights below, h/t @LiDanieRae 1/11
@DEsfandiary: #Iran’s regional policies are motivated not by religion but by “pragmatic nationalism”. Iran does not aim to gratuitously disrupt the region; it wants to consolidate power. But this hasn’t always played out in its favor. 2/11
@SafiraLeaf: 40 years on, Iran is no longer a revolutionary power. It is primarily committed to its own continuance but using asymmetric tools of directing proxy forces and splintering them, including the “NextGen use of Hezbollah” in Syria”. 3/11
Read 14 tweets

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