State Department Staffer Gets Demoted After Being Targeted By Breitbart (TWEETS)

By
Darrell Lucus
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It’s no secret that Breitbart News, one of the most notorious fake news shops in the nation, has an alarming amount of influence in Donald Trump’s administration. After all, its former chairman, Steve Bannon, is now Trump’s right-hand man as chief strategist and chief political operative. But apparently Breitbart’s influence is even greater than suspected. Word recently got out that a career State Department official was effectively demoted because–wait for it–Breitbart and other fake news peddlers threw a tantrum about her.


One of the people responsible for crafting the Iran nuclear deal was Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, a career civil servant who has served in both the Defense and State departments since 2005, under both presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. She has served as a foreign affairs analyst at the Pentagon, and as a National Security Council staff director for Iran. Last July, she became a member of the Secretary of State’s planning team, an in-house think tank for the Secretary. She specialized in Iran and the Persian Gulf.

However, earlier in April, Nowrouzzadeh was abruptly transferred to the State Department’s Office of Iranian Affairs, where she had served before becoming part of the planning team. According to a number of State Department officials, that move came after Breitbart, Conservative Review, and other right-leaning fake news sites published a number of articles that attacked her by name. The articles slammed her Iranian ethnicity, even though she was born in the United States and is an American citizen.

They also questioned why she and a number of staffers who served in the Obama White House are still on the payroll–forgetting that her tenure in Washington dates to Bush 43. Indeed, Nowrouzzadeh has been a pet hate of the right since at least 2015. However, she has a number of staunch supporters. Philip Gordon, one of Obama’s top Middle East advisers, praised her as a “very smart, very knowledgeable official” who has “just the sort of expertise” that presidents from both parties ought to crave.


One particular item on Nowrouzzadeh’s resume drew hackles from the right. They claimed that she worked for the National Iranian American Council, an advocacy group for Iranian-Americans that has been slammed as a front for Tehran. However, Nowrouzzadeh was actually an intern at the NIAC during her days at George Washington University. At that time, the NIAC was not involved in politics.

The message was apparently received by Trump supporters on Twitter.

According to one State Department official close to the situation, the attacks on Nowrouzzadeh put a number of senior people in the White House on edge. Since career government employees have broad protections from politically motivated retaliation, the White House had to find a way to shuffle her around without violating those rights. They did so by reassigning her–so even though it looks like a demotion and smells like a demotion, it technically isn’t one.

Nonetheless, according to another State Department official, her shuffling has a lot of people “on edge.” And with good reason–this is at least the second time that a career staffer has been reassigned after Breitbart threw a tantrum. Earlier in the month, Andrew Quinn was moved from the National Economic Council back to the Trade Representative’s office after Breitbart and others wailed about his role in negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

In contrast, Trump diehards were positively giddy about Nowrouzzadeh’s apparent demotion on Twitter–and some of them want her out of the capital altogether.

They wouldn’t be so giddy if they knew that Breitbart and friends may have been doing the mullahs’ work for them. During the worst of the attacks, a State Department spokesman noted that many of the articles were sourced from Iranian state media, which is known to be a cesspool of “propaganda and falsehoods.”


While most people have focused on how Nowrouzzadeh’s de facto demotion appears politically motivated, there’s another reason why this should send a chill down any fair-minded person’s spine. Trump didn’t bat an eyelash when press secretary Sean Spicer planted a fake news story to discredit a critical reporter. He didn’t even respond when his top counterterrorism adviser, Sebastian Gorka, called a private citizen late at night to berate him over critical tweets. And, of course, Bannon still has a job despite his documented links to extremist groups in this country and abroad.

But Trump sees fit to have a career foreign affairs expert demoted on the basis of a smear campaign by fake news outfits. Sounds like the swamp is overflowing–again.

(featured image courtesy Lawrence Jackson, part of public domain)

Darrell Lucus
Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.

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