Who is Nahal Toosi?
Nahal Toosi is an important figure among Iran's network of apologists/lobbyists in the U.S. pushing Tehran's talking points while justifying the regime's atrocious crimes.
Nahal Toosi, currently working with Politico, was born in Tehran, Iran. Her family immigrated to the United States when she was six years old. She graduated valedictorian from McKinney High School in McKinney, Texas. In 2000, she received a BA in politics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she reported and edited for the student-run The Daily Tar Heel.
Most importantly she is a staunch supporter of Iran’s DC-based lobby arm, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) in mainstream media across the U.S. and the world. In the past she managed/edited the content of NIAC’s website.
Politico, one of the most important media outlets in the U.S., is actually better described as a political journalism company based in Arlington, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and internationally. It distributes content primarily through its website but also printed newspapers, radio, and podcasts.
It is worth noting that one of the most important principles of politics and writing about this sensitive and highly controversial topic is to refrain from covering only side of a story. You need to at times return to the left, right, and center aspects of a story to deliver different reports and perspectives to readers and researchers. This allows you, in politics, to portray yourself as a somewhat centrist and pushing certain talking points or specific agendas.
This has been Toosi’s modus operandi. At times she has reported about Africa, Bangladesh, hunger in India, Mexicans storming America’s southern borders, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s golfing, and so forth. This approach is pursued by the network of Iran apologists/lobbyists in the U.S. and Europe.
Nahal Toosi is one of the most important operatives for the Iranian regime and NIAC in the U.S. Toosi had long managed the criteria of news interviews, reports and statements issued by NIAC’s president and members in the U.S., be it in various political scenes or social gatherings. For some time NIAC’s media team was active under Toosi’s direct management.
Appearing before cameras, issuing statements and correctly managing remarks made by members is extremely important for any and all political groups. Toosi is an expert in preparing news/political reports. Her reports in Politico have gained a significant amount of attention and for quite a long period she was the editor of NIAC’s published content.
When the Iranian people were being gunned down and murdered during street protests, Toosi would be for example reporting news from Egypt and criticizing the U.S. Embassy in that country. Toosi pushed this narrative that the U.S. Embassy should support the protesting people in Egypt. Interesting that while being Iranian herself, Toosi never criticized the U.S. in any way for not supporting the Iranian people.
Nahal Toosi was in charge of the final editing of statements made by Trita Parsi and current NIAC President Jamal Abdi. I wouldn’t be surprised if she continues to provide consultations to these two individuals to this day. Using experience she has gained through years of work in various U.S. news outlets and researching various narratives and train of thoughts of the American people, Toosi would edit (change) news reports to literally direct the reader’s mentality in a preferred direction. In short, NIAC, led by Nahal Toosi, literally promotes the Iranian regime’s mentality and ideology in foreign media.
Negar Mortazavi is one of the closest figures to Toosi and is considered her pupil in the media and preparing political reports. Thanks to Toosi, Mortazavi gained access to mainstream media outlets such as CNN and Independent where she began working. Little by little, after gaining more experience and training on drafting and editing news reports, Mortazavi became active in writing articles and especially TV interviews.
Nahal Toosi and Negar Mortazavi, among the main members of NIAC, while appearing in NIAC’s seminars, interviews and workshops as guests, are quite influential and make the calls in NIAC’s social spheres in the U.S.
At times Nahal Toosi appears in TV interviews where she justifies the Iranian regime’s crimes and atrocious policies. And when necessary, Toosi is quite active in rerouting attention away from Iran to topics in Bangladesh and India. She has a history of researching about India and Pakistan.
NIAC would have been completely forgotten if not for its figures appearing in TV interviews and political roundtables. Thanks to the likes of Nahal Toosi and her influence in the media, parallel to her contacts with directors of various news networks, she appears under the spotlight to push Iran’s talking points, justify the regime’s policies while playing the “nothing to see here!” narrative about the mullahs’ atrocities.
By the way, that “State Department career official” / “civil servant” was Sahar Nowrouzzadeh of NIAC worked on the Iran nuclear deal and had very close access to Obama himself. If Nowrouzzadeh or anyone denies she was a NIAC member, her business card proves they’re lying.
“NIAC’s most accomplished alum is Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, who is now National Security Council director for Iran in the Obama admin & the top US official for Iran policy, bringing together various departments working on US strategy toward [Iran].” — The Daily Beast
Final thoughts from an interesting article in the Tablet Magazine:
The Iranian diaspora has coined a term for this kind of news management, hashtad-beest, or “80/20,” meaning that 80% of the reporting focuses on the obvious and unavoidable, including mild or implied criticism of the regime, in order to establish credibility among foreign readers. According to Iranian political activist Heshmat Alavi, “The remaining 20 percent of their published material focuses on pushing Iran’s talking points, such as justifying Zarif’s arguments, praising Soleimani as a popular figure and criticizing Iranian opposition groups.”