Len Khodorkovsky

Iran has been cut off from the world since late February — an unprecedented internet blackout silencing millions. @MessageFromLen breaks down how the regime uses information control to hide unrest — and what pressure points actually exist. Watch on Eye for Iran: youtube.com/watch?v=fSUhhn… Or listen on any podcast platform!

In isolationist circles, “escalation” is a scary word to be avoided at all costs. No. De-escalation is not the goal. Strategic outcomes—like denuclearizing a terrorist regime or ensuring freedom of navigation—are the desired end states. Escalation that leads to those outcomes should be on the table.

For US national security, it would be far more damaging to walk away from Iran without a clear victory than to resume military operations aimed at achieving at least one of these objectives: 1) Retrieval of “nuclear dust” + removal/elimination of the highly-enriched uranium 2) Enforceable, binding deal (JCPOA was not binding—one of its many fatal flaws) that includes Option 1 + blocks the regime’s future enrichment capability (it simply can’t be trusted), limits its missile arsenal, and prevents it from controlling the Strait in any way 3) PREFERABLE: Seizing a once-in-50 years-opportunity and toppling the Islamic Republic while it’s weak—this is the only way to ensure US national security for the long term.

⏱️ It's now the 66th consecutive day of #Iran's internet blackout with the censorship measure surpassing 1560 hours. Despite the distribution of some international access via pro-regime channels, metrics confirm that there is still no restoration of service to the general public.

Must read, important from @MessageFromLen 👇

As things stand now, the regime is likely to survive. Its tolerance for the pain inflicted by the blockade is greater than the US media’s tolerance for higher gas prices (though President Trump’s tolerance may be higher). 3 options for next steps: 1) Stay the course a little longer, inflict maximum economic damage to the regime, weaken it as much as possible, claim victory—it will certainly be a military victory—but recognize we’ll always have to be ready to come back to ensure the regime doesn’t regenerate its nuclear program and deal with its inevitable terrorism. 2) Keep the blockade + restart a military operation to definitively destroy the regime’s ability to regenerate its nuclear program—or delay it by decades (this will require putting boots on the ground to at least remove the “nuclear dust”). This approach will likely mean we’ll have to come back from time to time. 3) Option 2 + restart the targeting of the regime’s top (and local) leaders, degrade their repression capabilities as much as possible, while arming the population, with the clear objective of toppling the regime. Only Option 3—definitely the riskiest—can lead to the change of leadership in Iran that’ll ensure we don’t always have to look over our shoulder. Who knows?Maybe we’ll even end up with @PahlaviReza, who’ll usher in a democracy that likes America.

A must-read assessment by @MessageFromLen. I would only add the following to point three: Avoid sending mixed or confusing signals to the Iranian people and to potential defectors within the regime. To lead this path to victory, the Trump administration must clearly articulate its objective, a genuine regime change, both to the Iranian people and to those considering defection.

@amiretemadi Yes, the Iranian people are America’s best partners on the ground. We should definitely be helping them help themselves.

Always a pleasure to exchange ideas with @NegarMojtahedi @IranIntl_En. We covered a lot of ground on Iran information warfare and commiserated about the state of the news business. ⬇️

Iran has shut down the internet since late February, cutting people off from the outside world through an unprecedented digital blackout. Len Khodorkovsky, a former senior advisor to the US envoy for Iran under the Trump administration, discusses the options available to pressure the regime and help Iranians overcome the blackout. @MessageFromLen Watch the full interview on the Eye for Iran podcast: youtube.com/watch?v=fSUhhn…

“Freedom matters” Freedom 250 CEO Keith Krach (@KeithJKrach), speaking at the Freedom 250 Rodeo in Fort Worth, Texas tonight. Freedom fuels innovation. Innovation fuels prosperity. Prosperity makes peace possible. It’s the chain that built America.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 The internet blackout in #Iran is now in its 63rd day after 1488 hours. The extended censorship measure presents a barrier for friends and families abroad checking in on loved ones' safety and wellbeing.

Joined @robertobaldoni at the beautiful @ItalyinUS Embassy. We discussed our work on establishing the Global Trusted Tech Standard (xGTT), which will soon become the world’s first benchmark for evaluating the trustworthiness of companies across the most advanced tech sectors.

The Krach Institute’s Janice deGarmo and @MessageFromLen, along with Italian tech diplomat Roberto Baldoni @ItalyinUS, penned a new paper making the case for democracies to scale trusted technology together to outpace our authoritarian adversaries. ⬇️

In tech, as in life, trust is a force multiplier, translating shared democratic values into industrial capacity, resilience, and leverage over authoritarian regimes. My @TechDiplomacy paper with Roberto Baldoni & Janice deGarmo in @en_decode39 decode39.com/14539/trusted-…

The defining contest of the 21st century is between those that use technology to expand freedom and those that weaponize it to entrench control. Trusted tech is the free world’s strategic advantage. Roberto Baldoni, Janice deGarmo and I in @Newsweek: newsweek.com/freedom-vs-con…

The woman depicted here is real. Her voice is real. The only reason her identity is disguised using AI is because the regime that already abused her will abuse her again (or worse) if it discovered her true identity. There are many documented reports of similar sexual abuse of Iranian women by the regime and its foreign mercenaries from Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and elsewhere. But neither @soraya_lennie nor @AJEnglish care about Iranian women as long as they score political points. Shameful and unethical.

There’s wall-to-wall coverage of the Strait of Hormuz and no coverage of the medieval slaughter of 40,000+ Iranians. So many, the regime ran out of body bags. Come to think of it, this willful blindness is not new. At the time, the media also ignored Stalin’s purges, Holomodor (his starvation of Ukrainians), the Holocaust, Pol Pot’s killing fields, Khomeini’s mass executions, Rwandan genocide... There’s a saying in the news business, “if it doesn’t bleed, it doesn’t lead.” Not really. Today, it’s more like, “if it’s not about Trump, the ratings will slump.”