The twists and turns of diaspora communities in the US, Britain and Australia is a source of constant fascination. Middle Eastern diasporic communities are always enmeshed in intrigues and connivances infinitely more astounding than any manufactured soap opera. One aspect of diaspora life is how such communities become transformed into foot soldiers of the US empire. Take the case of the Iranian diaspora.

Matthew Petti, journalist and expert on Iranian affairs, has written an informative and eye-opening article on the extent of cooperation between the Iranian American diaspora and US intelligence agencies, such as the FBI. In the early 1960s, when Iran was a solid American ally under the Shah, the FBI kept tabs on the exiled Iranian community in the United States. Worried about the anti-monarchy sentiments of the Iranians, the US government was looking for purported ‘Communist agents’, and the Iranian exiles happily snitched on each other.

Petti has had access to thousands of secret FBI files from that period. He relates the case of Iranian exile and student activist at the time (1962), Sadeq Qotbzadeh. Iranian students in the US were particularly vocal in their opposition to the Shah, and equally strident in attacking the US financial and military support his monarchist regime was receiving from the US. The Shah’s notorious secret police, the Savak, were trained in torture techniques by US intelligence experts.

Qotbzadeh, an activist student, approached the FBI to explain to them that he was no communist, but a proponent of Jeffersonian democracy. He could never accept atheistic Communism as a pious Muslim. However, these explanations did not stop the FBI from treating the Iranian diasporic community with suspicion. Numerous Iranian Americans willingly informed on their fellow Iranians, alleging the presence of Communist infiltrators.

As Petti notes in summarising the issue:

It was really striking to see how deeply U.S. intelligence had penetrated the Iranian-American diaspora. The FBI was able to compile such a large file because Iranian expats were constantly snitching on each other, calling to complain that their political rivals were Communist agents. Diaspora activists still do that sort of thing today. It would have been a lot more serious back then, when Communism was a crime and the United States was willing to deport Iranian dissidents.

Qotbzadeh, returning to Iran as one of the main supporters of the 1979 Iranian revolution, had a falling out with the new theocratic regime. He was executed by the ayatollahs in 1982.

The times have changed, but the tactics of the US financial-intelligence apparatus remains the same. Today, Iranian Americans inform on each other, this time charging their fellow Iranians with bring agents of the Islamic Republic. Accusations and counter-accusations ensue, followed by lawsuits. The Iranian American diaspora provide foot soldiers for the US regime change plans for Iran.

Let’s pivot this discussion onto the broader issues than regime change in Iran. We need to remember the role of Iraqi exiles, such as Kanan Makiya, is making the case for the 2003 American invasion of Iraq. No, I am not suggesting that Makiya is personally responsible for the entire gamut of US foreign policies. He is responsible for becoming a ‘native’ spokesperson, trotting out the regime change friendly rhetoric, claiming that Iraqis inside their nation will welcome the American invaders as liberators. How wrong he was, and is.

Iraqi exiles in America, such as Makiya, provided a multicultural gloss for US imperial expansion. Intersectional imperialism has become the propaganda technique of choice for the US ruling class. Makiya, as one example, became the go-to spokesperson for war commentary. He authored a book back in 1989 under a pseudonym. The book, Republic of Fear, a denunciation of the Iraqi Ba’athist dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, was heavily promoted by the Washington beltway experts. Makiya conveniently ignored the instrumental role of the US, and the CIA in particular, in the rise of the anticommunist Ba’athist party to power.

Makiya now regrets advocating for regime change, in view of the sectarian violence, the demolition of public services, the ecological pollution and outflow of refugees that have gripped the country since the 2003 American invasion. It is important to note that sentiment, for the following observation; the Washington Beltway structure, the collection of pundits, self-appointed ‘experts’ and foreign policy aficionados, were quick to loudly advocate regime change in Russia, in the immediate wake of Yevgenny Prigozhin’s abortive armed rebellion.

While going into an elaborate examination of the Prigozhin rebellion is out of the current scope – there is reams of commentary on the subject regardless – we can make a number of pertinent observations here. Prigozhin, head of the Wagner private military contractors, has been doing the dirty work for Moscow in Eastern Ukraine. His views are those of the ultranationalist Right. However, from June 24 onwards, after he began his attempted coup – or uprising, or armed revolt depending on whom you talk to – the Washington beltway establishment cheered on Prigozhin’s rebellion, and relished the prospect of a Russian civil war.

Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to Russia, Anne Applebaum, the neoconservative shill, and others, were positively giddy at the excitement of a prospective Russian civil war. Their commentary, issued in the libidinous excitement of the Prigozhin moment, soon evaporated into nothing as the armed rebellion fizzled, a peaceful solution was found, and the much-hoped-for civil war never eventuated.

Were these regime change advocates ready for the disastrous consequences of a Russian civil conflict? The outflow of refugees, the ecological destruction and breakdown of Russian society are predictable consequences too horrid to contemplate. What we can say with certainty is that the diaspora communities which have become cheerleaders for US wars must bear responsibility for the devastating consequences of such imperialist overreach policies.