Given a document, find the main entity about whom the author is writing. Write the full name if mentioned in the text. Note that URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].

[Q]: This week  one of IRIBâs popular nightly talk shows was dedicated to the protests. The Channel Two show featured Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani  a conservative MP  and  Reza Seraj   introduced as an âexpert on strategic questions and a university professor.â
 Seraj  is well-known to many Iranian activists  although not exactly in those terms. Many of the thousands who have gone through the notorious interrogations blindfolded in Tehranâs Evin Prison remember his voice as an âexpert interrogator.â He is known for meting out psychological torture rather than physical torture by flaunting his supposed knowledge of the intricate webs of espionage with which any given activist is allegedly involved.
Born in the southwestern city of Ahvaz in 1966   Seraj  has cut  his  teeth in different wings of the IRGC  especially its autonomous volunteer paramilitary  the Basij. One story alleges that in 1988  the then-21-year-old Seraj galvanized a group of angry Basijis to stop a speech by Ali Khameneiâwho was president at the timeâto soldiers on the frontlines of the war with Iraq. Back then  President Khamenei was engaged in a power struggle with Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi  who was regarded as being more revolutionary and closer to the founder of the Islamic Republic  Ayatollah Khomeini.
As it turned out  two decades later  in 2009   Seraj  played a lead role in defending Khamenei  by then the supreme leader  harassing and torturing supporters of Mousavi  who was by that time the leader of the Green Movement that threatened Khamenei.
â 'The Americans  the Israelis and the Saudis had a strategic operational plan that was to be put in action next year '  Seraj  said  'but some factors led them into hastening  it .' â
 Seraj  headed the student organization of Basij from 2008 to 2010 and was lauded by the pro-IRGC Fars News Agency as a transformative Basiji figure. In the years since  he has become known for working with outlets like Fars and the state broadcaster to defend the regime and spin tales of foreign espionage.
His real identity didnât remain hidden for long. Ali Afshari  the student activist who was driven to exile after bouts of prison and torture in Iran  recalled  Seraj  very well in an interview he gave to the New Haven-based Iran Human Rights Documentation Center.
âWhen I gave up  they had taken my blindfold [off] and I could see my interrogator â Afshari said. âHe introduced himself as Alavi but I later found out that his name was Seraj. He sometimes writes for Fars now and is the head of student Basij. I complained to the judge and asked for a different interrogator.  Seraj  used to tell me that it was  he  who told the judge what to do  not the other way around.â
Adding more to spice up the story  Amirabadi claimed that part of the U.S. plan was to bring the forces of ISIS to Iranian territory  but this had been thwarted by the Quds Force (a part of the IRGC which is not supposed to operate on Iranian territory) and the Unknown Soldiers of the Twelfth Imam (the name used for the forces of Iranâs ministry of intelligence.)  Seraj  quickly agreed with this claim.
According to  Seraj   now that the Americansâ âPlan Aâ had been defeated  they had resorted to âPlan B â which had been started by U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haleyâs calling on the United Nations Security Council to meet about Iran.
âTheir plan is to lead Iran to miscalculation and to change its behavior according to what U.S. and the European countries want â  Seraj  said. âThey had designed a game of dominoes. The Americans were to threaten us with leaving the JCPOA [nuclear agreement] and ramping up the sanctions while the Europeans were to play the good cop.â
Confirming "the Conspiracy" and Worries for Whatâs  Next
Seraj  doesnât officially speak for the IRGC so someone unfamiliar with  his  significance might dismiss  his  elaborate theory as the thoughts of one man. But Iranian Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri has given a version of events that coincides very closely with Serajâs.
Montazeri then gave numerous details to back up the story put forth by  Seraj  and Amirabadiâand added some new claims. The cities of Herat in Afghanistan and Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan had been picked as centers of operation  he said  and ISIS forces were to come to Iran from there. He also claimed that Michael DâAndreaâwho was revealed in U.S. media reports back in June as the newly appointed head of the CIAâs Iran Mission Centerâhad organized the protests  a claim previously made by some pro-government Turkish newspapers (these reports were so inaccurate they had mistakenly published photographs of U.S. actors instead of DâAndrea.)
The Green Movement of 2009 was followed by Stalinesque show trials during which the accused confessed to involvement in elaborate espionage plans.  Seraj  is known to have played a role in concocting those fantasy plans. So  now  many worry that a similar fate awaits more than 1 500 people who have been arrested over the last few days.
[A]: Reza Seraj


[Q]: David Allen  owner of A&M Auctioneers and Appraisers   never quite knows what’s going to turn up from the old homes and shops of the Eastern Shore.
Once   he  said   he  came across a box of wooden and metal washboards from an old general store  100 years old and looking new.
 Allen  said this was the first time  he  had come across a KKK robe as part of an estate.
 Allen  told  her  the auction house was contractually bound to sell all the items from the estate — including the robe. But together with the seller   he  arranged to donate proceeds from its sale toward college costs for one of  his  employees  whom  he  described as an immigrant from Nigeria studying in the United States.
“We didn’t really want it publicized ”  Allen  said. But the solution was “something that we feel was fair ”  he  said  given the item’s legacy.
 Allen  said that under the terms of the auction house’s contract   he  couldn’t reveal the buyer or the seller. But  he  said the robe  which sold Feb. 7 during the online auction  went for about $1 300.
“Take it or leave it  it’s a piece of history ”  Allen  said.
[A]: David Allen


[Q]: (CNN) This Tuesday  the GOP faces a defining moment. With Donald Trump in the White House and the possibility of  Roy Moore  in the Senate  the nation is watching closely to see whether the GOP is becoming the party of the GOB -- the good old boys.
While some Senate elections are just about the politics of a state   Moore 's victory would leave a huge imprint on the way that voters perceive the Republican Party for years to come. It could easily affect the 2018 and 2020 elections.
He has no respect for the separation between church and state.  Moore  was removed as chief justice when  he  refused to dismantle the Ten Commandments monument  he  had installed in the Alabama Judicial Building. Like President Trump   he  was one of the birthers who falsely claimed that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States  and thus his presidency was illegitimate.
In 2006   Moore  responded to the election of Keith Ellison  the first Muslim-American elected to Congress  by stating that Ellison shouldn't be able to take his seat.
During his campaign   Moore  has referred to Native Americans and Asian-Americans as "reds and yellows." And when an African-American at a rally asked when America was "great "  Moore  responded : "I think it was great at the time when families were united -- even though we had slavery -- they cared for one another. ... Our families were strong  our country had a direction."
 Moore  even said that 9/11 might have happened because Americans were not religious enough; God was unhappy that "we legitimize sodomy" and "legitimize abortion."
With Trump as President and  Moore  as a senator  Democrats would have a strong case to make about the GOP jumping deep into the world of identity politics: defining itself through one caricature version of the identity of the white  male  non-college educated voter.
It will become harder for members of the GOP to argue that the party is best suited to lead a nation that has become more pluralistic  more diverse and culturally liberal than ever before. If the Republicans want any moral high ground on cultural questions  it will be much more difficult to claim it with  Moore  as one of the faces of the party.
And it looks as though  Moore  is very much in the race despite everything that we have learned. Democratic competitor Doug Jones has only a slim lead over  Moore .
Why is it that  Moore  might pull this off? Why would the Republican Party be taking this kind of risk? It is easy to blame Jones for running a lackluster campaign  but  in fact  he has offered the kind of candidacy and campaign that political analysts have been calling for. He is a white male  a centrist concerned about a strong middle-class economy  a gun-toting Democrat  and at the same time someone with impeccable credentials on civil rights -- as a US attorney  he successfully prosecuted Ku Klux Klan members for a church bombing in 1963.
JUST WATCHED How will Alabama vote in  Moore  vs. Jones race? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH How will Alabama vote in  Moore  vs. Jones race? 04:44
Though many prominent Republicans have denounced  Moore 's candidacy -- Sen. Jeff Flake even sent a check to the Jones campaign -- key parts of the Republican Party have fallen behind him. This is essential to why victory is possible. Most importantly  President Trump has now endorsed  Moore  . "Go get 'em  Roy!" he reportedly said at the end of their phone conversation on Monday morning.
Trump  who said he would not campaign for  Moore   held a rally in Florida -- less than 30 miles from the Alabama border -- on Friday. "The future of the country cannot afford to lose a seat in the very  very close United States Senate " Trump said during the rally. "We need somebody in that Senate seat who will vote for our Make America Great Again agenda. So get out and vote for  Roy Moore ."
Last Monday  the Republican National Committee rejoined Moore's campaign to move  him  toward victory after cutting ties with  him  because of the sexual assault accusations. Stephen Bannon  the executive chairman of Breitbart News  who now must be considered a power broker in the party as a result of his work on Trump's campaign and in his administration  has aggressively campaigned for  Moore  as one of his "anti-establishment" candidates.
The fact is that large portions of the Republican leadership are now comfortable with someone like  Moore  standing within their tent. It is fallacious to paint  him  as an outsider  since this campaign proves that the Republican Party has changed and there is sufficient room for these kinds of extremist elements to be welcomed into its ranks.
It is not surprising that the  Moore  campaign continues to remind voters  in its advertisements  about  Moore 's strong opposition to abortion -- a key issue for conservatives. The appeal to voters is that all his "peccadillos " as they seem to dismiss them as being  are forgivable if they allow Republicans to retain the seat. As Ron Brownstein has perceptively argued  a  Moore  victory would come down to  his  retaining the support of white women who have no college education and who will hold their noses and vote for  Moore  despite  his  record with women.
[A]:
Roy Moore