Back on March 6th, TPM and later TPMmuckraker.com reported the fact that in April 2004 
Cunningham fraudster Mitchell Wade registered a non-profit in Washington, DC called the “Iranian Democratization Foundation.”
Tonight, Knight-Ridder’s Warren Strobel significantly advances the ball on the story and gives us the first clear details of just what Wade’s Iran regime-change angle really was.
Wade founded the IDF with two other big ticket GOP campaign contributors — New York-based real estate developer Sonny Lee and Iranian emigre Behrooz Behbudi. According to Behbudi, Lee introduced Behbudi to Wade.
Lee vouched for Wade’s character to Knight-Ridder, calling the convicted felon “a good Christian man.”
Strobel wasn’t able to get all the details — presumably they’re stil on the case, as are we. But it seems Wade wanted to have an INC-like operation on hand for when the US government money started flowing to destabilize the Iranian government. Whether the IDF ever got any money or conducted any ‘operations’ isn’t clear.
Apparently, Wade and Behbudi also had an aborted plan to pull down a government contract to rebuild the Central Bank of Iraq. Behbudi told Knight-Ridder he “came up with the most beautiful building” design for the Bank. “Mitch was supposed to come up with the contracts and secure the funds. I was supposed to do the work.” But it all came to naught and Wade didn’t even pay Behbudi for the design work.
Tales of the Reconstruction …
