Defense urged to fire ex-Muslim Iran expert

Cites his decision to renounce Islam and begin 'quest to find the real God'

WASHINGTON – A former Iranian CIA operative, now an expert lecturer with the Defense Department, is being targeted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim Brotherhood front group, because he “renounced Islam and began the quest to find the real God.”

CAIR, based in Washington, D.C., is calling on the Defense Department to fire Reza Kahlili, a frequent contributing writer to WND, in part, a press release from the group states, because he became a Christian and revealed his change of faith in a commentary in WND.

“They actually cite my change of faith as a principal reason for targeting me,” Kahlili told WND in a phone interview. “I thought once I left Iran for America I wouldn’t have to worry about that kind of persecution.”

Khalili uses a pseudonym and guards his anonymity because of death threats he faces from The Islamic Republic of Iran.

Read Reza Kahlili’s stunning response to the terror-tied Council on...

Among the other reasons CAIR says it wants Kahlili driven out of the Defense Department is because of his documented revelations that:

• Iranian agents are “coordinating operations out of [U.S.] mosques and Islamic centers”;
• Iran already has nuclear weapons; and
• Iranian agents have infiltrated the United States through the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muslim Students Association.”

Kahlili is an expert lecturer for the Defense Department’s Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy where his identity is protected by means of audio-only lectures.

The former spy in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard also serves on the newly formed Task Force on National and Homeland Security, an advisory board authorized by Congress. He is the author of the award-winning book “A Time to Betray” and regularly appears in national and international media as an expert on Iran and counterterrorism in the Middle East. He has been featured on ABC, CBS, CNN, CBN, C-Span, BBC, Fox News, MSNBC, ZDF, Forbes, the Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post, the Washington Times and numerous other media outlets in addition to WND.

“I always believed in my heart, though endangering my life as well as of my family, that my activity on spying on the regime ruling Iran was not only in defense of democracy and freedom for Iranians, but also for the security of America and the free world,” Kahlili told WND. “It truly hurts me that CAIR suggests otherwise.”

He spent an idyllic childhood in Tehran, the capital of Iran, surrounded by a close-knit upper middle-class family and two spirited boyhood friends. The Iran of his youth allowed Reza to think and act freely, and even indulge a penchant for rebellious pranks in the face of the local mullahs.

His political and personal freedoms flourished while he continued his education in America during the ’70s. He returned to Iran shortly after the revolution eager to help rebuild his country, honestly believing that freedom and democracy would prevail and lead his country into a glorious future.

Even though most Iranians had enjoyed varying degrees of success under the shah, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s message resonated with a population weary of oppression and desperate for the political choice denied them under the shah. To this end, Reza joined the Revolutionary Guards, an elite force that served Khomeini.

But instead of finding a new beginning for his country, he discovered a tyrannical ayatollah bent on plunging Iran into a dark age of religious fundamentalism and causing his fellow countrymen to turn on each other. Shaken to his very core after witnessing the atrocities at Evin Prison, atrocities that hit very close to home, a shattered and disillusioned Reza embarked on a mission that would change his life forever. He returned to America and emerged as “Wally,” a spy for the CIA.

Counterintelligence, coded communications, escape tactics and evasion, dominated his new life. He risked exposure daily and after several close calls, he managed to leave Iran. His CIA activities continued in Europe for a few more years before he and his family finally moved to America.

After the 9/11 attacks, Kahlili activated a handful of sources within Iran and once again contacted the CIA. He continues as an active voice for a free Iran and works toward ending what he calls the “thugocracy” of the mullah’s regime. He now lives in California.
Though valued by America’s Defense and intelligence establishments, to CAIR Kahlili is an apostate, a traitor.

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