Who's Behind the Council for a Democratic Iran? [1]
Submitted by Diane Farsetta [2] on
CMD's Diane Farsetta digs further into the Virginia-based Council for a Democratic Iran [3] (CDI) and its major new contract [4] with the Livingston Group [5] lobbying and PR firm, which Lauri Fitz-Pegado [6] is working on. CDI's founder, Dr. Behrooz Behbudi [7], "seems to be aligned with military hawks." In 2007, he "bought $250,000 worth of ads in major North American newspapers denouncing Iran's Muslims leaders and 'terrorists' and 'fascists' and warning they are a direct threat to the U.S. and Canada." Also last year, Behbudi said he opposed a military invasion of Iran, but warned that if President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian leaders don't change their stance, "What happened to Saddam Hussein [8] ... will happen in Iran, too." In 2004, Behbudi founded the "Iranian Democratization Foundation" with disgraced defense contractor Mitchell Wade [9], one of the people who paid bribes to former Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham [10].