Some people wear their politics on their sleeve but Seyed Maghloubi, 54, a resident on Hartzell Street, wears his all over his front yard and even lights it up at night for passersby to see. His home, which is directly across from a gingerbread-themed house just off Sunset Boulevard, is definitely hard to miss–a large banner adorning his front yard reads ‘Long Live Iran and United States Peace’ and numerous smaller U.S. and Iranian flags populate his lawn like garden flowers. And when the sun goes down on his quiet Pacific Palisades neighborhood, the home lights up like the Vegas strip–that is, if the strip were in Tehran and across the street from the Gingerbread Man. However, for Maghloubi the signs are more than just a show of his political views–for him they are a message he actually believes and hopes to bring to the doorsteps of the White House, and eventually to Tehran, where he claims he will run for president in 2013. “My message is one of peace,” Maghloubi said Saturday, as he sat in his living room with his six children sipping tea and eating baklava. “My campaign started in 2005 when I participated in the Iranian elections.” Maghloubi, who lives here with his Columbian wife Nelly, said he broadcasted his campaign message via Iranian satellite into his country of birth, a claim that could not be independently verified by the Palisadian-Post. “Iran and U.S. peace is going to help modern people and those who want freedom of speech and religious tolerance,” Magloubi said, claiming that his candidacy did not gain traction because he was labeled as having close ties to the U.S. because of his American citizenship. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, 12 conservative jurists called the Council of Guardians choose Iranian presidential candidates, and although close to 1,000 candidates vied for the Iranian presidency in 2005, only six names were chosen to appear on the ballot. None of which were Maghloubi. The pool containing the 1,000 candidate names was not released to the public. “In Iran, most of the things that happen are secret,” Maghloubi said, referring to what he called the Golden Victory Plan and his 2007 charge in the U.S. for plotting to purchase 100,000 Uzis and night-vision goggles to be exported into Iran. In October 2005, Maghloubi attempted to purchase the weapons in order to send them to officials in Iran’s government, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ). As part of his 2007 plea agreement, Maghloubi admitted to the crime and said that the weapons were to be delivered to a faction within Iran’s government that was a political opponent of the country’s current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In 2008, Maghloubi was sentenced to three years and five months in prison in the Central District of California for attempting to export goods into Iran, according to the USDOJ, a conviction he says gives him “street cred” in Iranian politics. His actions, he claims, were sanctioned and supported by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a controversial figure in Iranian politics who is considered a moderate among hardliners and a supporter of the Green Movement, a political movement that sought to remove Ahmadinejad from office. “The Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations in 2000 was supposed to provide the weapons to Iran’s Supreme Leader (Iran’s highest authority) for his Special Forces and bodyguards,” Maghloubi said. “But he failed–that’s when they asked me to do it. The plan to export the weapons was meant to be a gesture of good peace,” He claims the weapons were going to be presented as a gift from the U.S., but he is vague as to the actual nature of the exchange, or its purpose. Iranian politics are very much like a smorgasbord of various powers pulling and pushing against each other. While the majority of the American public sees one or two leaders at the top of country’s leadership, such as the Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, the truth is much more complicated– much like what Maghloubi was trying to explain. Maghloubi, who claims to have recently been in contact with an anonymous U.S. Congressman thanks to his eye catching home decor, said the goal is to create a direct pathway of communication between the Ayatollah and the White House, sidestepping hardliner factions that are currently using the conflict for their own benefit. “United States and peace with Iran is going to be the key factor is eliminating all terrorists in the Middle East and creating longstanding peace in the region,” Maghloubi said. “Everything is set up and ready. Iranian people are tired of this situation.” Iran has a lot of influence in the region and if peace with the U.S. is achieved, that will drastically change everything, he said. “A lot of mistakes happened in Iran in the last 20 years,” Maghloubi said. The Supreme Leader learned that he was not supposed to support Ahmadinejad. That’s why he elected Rafsanjani’as Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council, which is the number-two position under Khamenei, Maghloubi said. “Rafsanjani, when he came to power, talked about U.S. and Iran peace again, but Khamenei remained quiet. What does that mean?” Maghloubi asked as he sipped his tea. “He cannot do this by himself–that’s why I am here as his representative to bring peace.” When asked if he can prove his endorsements by “officials in Iran,” Maghloubi said: “The situation is not like it is here. In Iran everything is different; everything is under the table and secret. It’s not clear, it’s not obvious.” Maghloubi said he’s planning a large protest at the Wilshire Federal Building on August 5 to spread the message of peace. By the end of August, he plans on organizing a caravan of protesters, similar to the Million Man March, to head to Washington, D.C. and wave banners depicting President Obama’s and Khamenei’s faces next to each other. As for the large signs on his front lawn, which were egged by a band of vandals on Friday night, Maghloubi said “Have you seen the lights at night? They are beautiful.” When asked if he cared that many of his neighbors find the signs aesthetically displeasing, he said, “I don’t really care. What is more important–hundreds of thousands of soldiers fighting and dying in a war, or some people living in Pacific Palisades by the beach?” “I guarantee you; if our countries go to war then my neighbors will show up and ask me to put signs in front of their lawn, too.” Whether or not Maghloubi’s plans for peace will work, only time will tell. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Iran for a recent bus bombing in Bulgaria that targeted Israeli tourists, while Iran continues to blame on Israel the death of five of its nuclear scientists.
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