Nader Talebzadeh ( fa, نادر طالبزاده) also known as Nader Ordoubadi was an Iranian
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
journalist and filmmaker.
Early life
Talebzadeh was born in 1953
or 1954 in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
.
His father Mansour Talebzadeh Ordoubadi, was a general officer serving in the
Imperial Iranian Army
, founded =
, current_form = ( Islamic Republic)
, disbanded =
, branches =
, headquarters = Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters, Tehran
, website =
, commander-in-chief = Maj. Ge ...
. Several sources claimed that his father was instrumental in
1953 Iranian coup d'état
The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup d'état ( fa, کودتای ۲۸ مرداد), was the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favor of strengthening the monarchical rule of ...
, overthrowing
Mohammad Mosaddegh
Mohammad Mosaddegh ( fa, محمد مصدق, ; 16 June 1882 – 5 March 1967) was an Iranian politician, author, and lawyer who served as the 35th Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, after appointment by the 16th Majlis. He was a member of ...
, a claim which Talebzadeh always denied during his lifetime. Talebzadeh himself told Iranian news sources that his mother was Seyyedeh Vahideh Amir Molouk Sharafi a descendant of Ayatollah Sharafolaali Isfahani. Nasser Talebzadeh (
Noah Mckay
Noah Mckay also known as Nass Ordoubadi (born Nasser Talebzadeh Ordoubadi fa, ناصر طالبزاده اردوبادی; 1956 – February 13, 2009) was an Iranian-American physician.
Life and education
Mckay was born Nasser Ordoubadi ...
)'s funeral lists his mother as Marie Ordoubadi.
Catherine Shakdam, a french journalist who spend time in Iran in close connection with Talebzadeh wrote in her opinion blog in
Times of Israel
''The Times of Israel'' is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist David Horovitz, who is also the founding editor, and American billionaire investor Seth Klarman. that she heard rumors that Talebzadeh's mother was from a
crypto-Jewish
Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews" (origin from Greek ''kryptos'' – , 'hidden').
The term is especially applied historically to Sp ...
background. The couple had two other children. Talebzadeh's brother, Nasser Ordoubadi also known as
Noah A. McKay, was a medical doctor. His sister, Nini Ordoubadi
lives in a barn located in
East Meredith, New York
East Meredith is a hamlet in Delaware County, New York, United States. The community is east-southeast of Oneonta. East Meredith has a post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as acc ...
with her husband Anthony Chase, and owns a tea shop named Tay Tea.
Talebzadeh immigrated to the United States in 1970
and lived in the state of
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
.
Talebzadeh told the ''Los Angeles Times'' in 2008 that he studied at the
American University
The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...
.
Afterwards, he studied cinema at Now York City's
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
Career
Talebzadeh returned to Iran after in 1979 to film the
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...
.
He became a
fixer for American media in Tehran due to his command in English language and his earlier experiences, working closely with the crew of
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...
, which at the time had about thirty to forty personnel stationed in Iran.
He also established contacts in the
National Radio and Television, as well as the
Ministry of National Guidance.
According to
Hamid Naficy
Hamid Naficy ( fa, حمید نفیسی; born 1944) is an Iranian-born American filmmaker, writer, scholar, and educator. He is the Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor in Communication at Northwestern University in the department of Radio/Film/Te ...
, Talebzadeh left CBS after he became disillusioned with media portrayal of the revolution by Western outlets.
Using his connections, he then made a 35-minute documentary named ''Vaqeiyat'' () about Western
bias
Bias is a disproportionate weight ''in favor of'' or ''against'' an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, ...
on covering the
hostage crisis
A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or ref ...
, which included using
juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is an act or instance of placing two elements close together or side by side. This is often done in order to compare/contrast the two, to show similarities or differences, etc.
Speech
Juxtaposition in literary terms is the showing ...
technique to mix interviews he had made with foreign correspondents covering Iran and reports aired by their media.
During the 1990s he irregularly contributed to ''Sobh'', an
anti-intellectual
Anti-intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, commonly expressed as deprecation of education and philosophy and the dismissal of art, literature, and science as impractical, politically mo ...
publiction edited by Mohammad Nassiri.
Conference organizing
Talebzadeh was a key organizer of several controversial conferences, including the
(2006), the
International Conference on Hollywoodism
The International Conference on Hollywoodism, sometimes known as the Conference on Hollywoodism and Cinema, is a conference held on several occasions in the early 2010s and organized by the government of Iran. By its own description, it "host filmm ...
(2011–2013) and the
New Horizon Conference
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
(2013–2019).
U.S. federal government accused Talebzadeh of working closely with the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...
(IRGC) and traveling across the world to recruit
assets
In financial accountancy, financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value ...
for the
Quds Force
The Quds Force ( fa, نیروی قدس, niru-ye qods, Jerusalem Force) is one of five branches of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) specializing in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations. U.S. Army's Iraq War ...
under cover of inviting guests to conferences. Talebzadeh denied allegations of providing the IRGC with information.
He was nonetheless put on the sanctions list by the
U.S. Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...
in 2019 for "supporting intelligence and cyber targeting of U.S. persons".
According to George Michael, Talebzadeh introduced his personal friend
Michael Collins Piper
Michael Collins Piper (born Michael Bernard Piper; July 16, 1960 – May 2015) was an American political writer, conspiracy theorist and talk radio host.
Piper was a regular contributor to both ''The Spotlight'' and its successor, the ''Americ ...
to Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدینژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956), and the two met on the sidelines of a press conference in the New York City after the latter's speech at the United Nations.
Piper was then invited to Iran by Ahmadinejad and participated in
in 2006.
Other figures personally in touch with Talebzadeh include
Aleksandr Dugin
Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin ( rus, Александр Гельевич Дугин; born 7 January 1962) is a Russian political philosopher, analyst, and strategist, who has been widely characterized as a fascist.
Born into a military intelligen ...
,
Ibrahim Mousawi
Ibrahim Mousawi ( ar, إبراهيم الموسوي; also spelled Moussawi, El-Moussaoui, born 1965) is a Lebanese journalist and spokesman for the Islamist group Hezbollah.
Biography
He was born in 1965 to a family from Baalbek and grew up ...
,
Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan (; born Louis Eugene Walcott, May 11, 1933) is an American religious leader, black supremacist, anti-white and antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and former singer who heads the Nation of Islam (NOI). Prior to joining the NOI, h ...
and
Catherine Perez-Shakdam.
Partial filmography
* ''Vaqeiyat'' (, 1979)
* ''Zaban-e Hal'' (, 1980s)
* ''Khanjar va Shaqayeq'' (, 1992), documentary series about the
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...
* ''
The Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a salvation, saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''Messiah in Judaism, mashiach'', Messianism#Judaism, messianism, and of a Messianic Age#Judaism, Messianic Age ...
'' (2007)
* ''I Was There'' (2008), a
9/11 conspiracy documentary
* ''Secret'', a show on state television
Personal life
According to John Gaffney, a classmate and friend of Talebzadeh at the Columbia University, Talebzadeh had a partially deaf girlfriend from Chicago named Randi Hoffman. New York public marriage license data show that Talebzadeh married Hoffman during the time he spent in United States. According to Hoffman's twitter page, she later accompanied him back and spent time in Iran acting as a journalist for CBS news. Talebzadeh later married twice, first to Azam Bagheri, and later in life to Zeinab Mehanna, a Lebanese woman.
Views
Talebzadeh was politically a
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
and co-founder of the
Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces
The Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces (PFIRF; fa, جبهه مردمی نیروهای انقلاب اسلامی, Jebhe-ye Mardomi-ye Niruhā-ye Enqelāb-e Eslāmī) is a political organization in Iran, founded in late 2016 by ten figures ...
.
He was staunchly against
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ( fa, اکبر هاشمی رفسنجانی, Akbar Hāshemī Rafsanjānī, born Akbar Hashemi Bahramani, 25 August 1934 – 8 January 2017) was an Iranian politician, writer, and one of the founding fathers of the Islami ...
and technocratic policies of his administration.
Though described as a proponent of
anti-Americanism
Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment) is prejudice, fear, or hatred of the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general.
Political scientist Brendon O'Connor at the United States Studies Centr ...
, it has been claimed that he held
American citizenship
Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...
.
In 2013,
Thomas Erdbrink
Thomas Erdbrink (; born January 27, 1976) is a Dutch journalist who is the Northern Europe bureau chief for ''The New York Times'', covering Nordic countries and the Netherlands. He was from 2012 until 2019 the Tehran Bureau Chief for ''The New Yor ...
who served as bureau chief for ''The New York Times'' in Tehran, referred to him as an "
Iranian-American
Iranian Americans are United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian ancestry or who hold Iranian citizenship.
Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the United States. They have historically excelled in busine ...
".
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Talebzadeh, Nader
1953 births
2022 deaths
Iranian film directors
Iranian film critics
CBS News people
Randolph–Macon College alumni
Columbia University School of the Arts alumni
Iranian expatriates in the United States
American people of Iranian descent
Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces politicians
Iranian columnists
Iranian individuals subject to the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions
Iranian conspiracy theorists
People from Tehran