Sargon Dadesho

Sargon Dadesho (Syriac: ܣܪܓܘܢ ܕܕܝܫܘܥ‎) (born September 18, 1948 in Habbaniya, Iraq) is an Assyrian nationalist leader. Dadesho is currently the head of various Assyrian organizations and political parties.

In the early 1970s Dadesho was a vocal evangelist for the Assyrian Universal Alliance. His pursuit of a more militant approach to finding solutions to Assyrian struggle in Iraq led him to leave AUA and with the help of a few former AUA members form the Bet-Nahrain Democratic Party in California.

He has skilfully utilized the media for his political aims as president of Bet-Nahrain Inc., a 501(c)(03) public charity non-profit organization that operates a 24/7Assyrian television station KSBV Channel 23, out of Ceres. He also runs a radio program, a television station and a magazine, along with AssyriaSat.

The source of revenue for the Bet-Nahrain, Inc which fuels Dadesho's political machine is said to be the members' donations, memberships, and the bingo games. According to the IRS report in 2003 Bet-Nahrain, Inc.'s revenues totalled a little over $325,000 and the total expenses totalled over $407,000. Yet the cost of running the Assyrian Satellite program and all other media outlets connected with Sargon Dadesho alone are well-over $50,000 a month.

His critics allege that Dadesho may be allowing other more powerful political groups utilize his media for their political objectives and in return providing him with the much needed funds for the operation of his AssyriaSat television propaganda. For example, two separate programs are cited for their anti-Iranian propaganda in which the presenters speak in Azerbaijani and Arabic inviting their viewers in the Middle East to battle the Iranian government in seceding the Azarbaijan and Khuzistan provinces for the Turkish and Arab people, respectively. In 1995, Dadesho won a $1.5 million judgment against Iraq for "emotional distress" suffered after the assassination attempt, which was foiled by the FBI. Iraq appealed the decision, but a federal appeals court later affirmed the judgment. In April, 2003 he was awarded the money after a failed assassination attempt by a hired Iraqi hit man 10 years ago. The money came from the confiscated assets of the Iraqi government, one of a number of victims to finally collect judgments from lawsuits filed after the first Gulf War. Dadesho remains the most vocal devotee of the “Assyrian-only” camp, a position he has uncompromisingly held since the explosion of the Chaldean identity on the scene of Assyrian politics during the 1990 U.S. Census.

Wilfred Bet-Alkhas, editor and publisher of the online newsletter Zinda Magazine, selected Dadesho as the "Person of the Year" for 2004, saying that Dadesho was "celebrated as both an Assyrian nationalist and a nemesis of Assyrian political progress".