The huge death tolls in Iran being splashed all over the media are sourced to an outfit in Fairfax, VA called “Human Rights Activists in Iran” that is overwhelmingly funded by the US government. What is their methodology? Is it credible? Who cares? Just pump the big numbers out.
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) received $315 million in FY2025, and GOP appropriators just released their FY2026 spending bill – NED will again receive $315 million. This “Human Rights Activists in Iran” outfit, based in Northern Virginia, says it’s an NED grantee.
This excellent information! Should probably be its own post, especially the part about the “Which Path to Persia” think tank paper. Anyone following what is happening with Iran needs to read it, just like anyone following Russia-Ukraine needs to read RAND’s “Overextending and Unbalancing Russia”.
Someone posted the “Which Path to Persia” document in c/latestagecapitalism -> https://lemmygrad.ml/post/10352199
Sadly, it didn’t get that much interaction even though it has valuable data such as their plans to provoke ethnic tensions using the Kurds and other minorities within Iran.