As I wrote in my op-ed a few weeks back about the intelligence-collection priority decisions of the Biden administration that amounted to a monumental failure in the defense of our nation, those same decisions have led to the installment of Iranian infiltration at the highest levels of the U.S. national security apparatus.

Let's start with the Iranian influencer installed at the highest ranks of the Pentagon. Ariane Tabatabai, an Iranian-American, is currently serving as the chief of staff to the assistant secretary of Defense for special operations. As reported last month by Semafor, Tabatabai, on multiple occasions, requested guidance from the Iranian Foreign Ministry dating back to at least 2014—the emails themselves are now public—when operating inside of the U.S. supposedly for our best interests.

As the former chief of staff for the Department of Defense (DoD) myself during the Trump administration, anyone caught seeking permission and guidance from the world's largest state sponsor of terror would've been fired and relationships with the government terminated. In the Biden administration, she is rewarded. The Pentagon's assistant secretary of Defense for legislative affairs (responsible for all of DoD's engagements with Congress), Rheanne Wirkkala, issued a statement just last week, clearing Tabatabai of any wrongdoing. It's confounding that Wirkkala, a former top aide to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)—a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and co-author of the now debunked Schiff memo—can justify anything given her own massive failures in putting out the truth. So, how did Tabatabai rise to such a senior rank, holding some of the highest security clearances in government? Who was her benefactor? I'll get to that. As of today, she still has access to our nation's most sensitive intel, leading special operations at DoD.