Russia today

Who are the “Iranian dissidents?” US media promotes bizarre terrorist cult

Caleb Maupin is a political analyst from New York City and is an activist with the International Action Center and Workers World Party. He has worked against police brutality and mass incarceration.

The forgotten history of a group of “Iranian dissidents” being promoted in Western media shows the hypocrisy US media promotes bizarre terrorist cult of the so-called “War on Terror.”

The Associated Press published an article entitled “Iran Dissident: Tehran Continues Nuke Arms Work” earlier in October. The piece quoted Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK) members, who insist that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.

The claims are rather fantastic, as the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran have always declared extreme opposition to nuclear weapons, and endless inspections from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirm that Iran is not pursuing them. Iran has every right, under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to pursue peaceful nuclear energy. These facts are largely unknown to the US public, and absent from discussion of Iran in the mainstream press.

The AP’s news report is not the only place the MEK has been given such polite treatment in the Western press. On September 17th, when the French government dropped money-laundering charges against the organization, the headlines reporting the case continued to refer to its members as “Iranian dissidents.” The articles in Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal contained nothing about what this “Mujahadeen-e-Khalq” organization is – or what kind of activities it has engaged in.

The most extreme example of hypocritical treatment for this organization comes from Murdoch-owned, ideologically neoconservative FOX News. FOX News hosts and commentators are known for stirring up rumors of US President Barack Obama’s alleged links to Marxism and Islamic radicalism. Recently, FOX News host Megyn Kelly interviewed Professor William Ayers, demanding to know why he wouldn’t “take responsibility” after she listed various terrorist acts she claimed he was involved in. Kelly also recently berated Ward Churchill, Native American Professor at the University of Colorado, claiming words he wrote in a 2001 essay emotionally harmed the families of 9/11 victims.

However, on June 16, FOX News anchor and senior correspondent Eric Shawn sat down across from an actual, self-proclaimed “Islamic Marxist” named Maryam Rajavi, who is linked to the death of thousands of innocent civilians in Iran, as well as many Americans, who were killed by the MEK in the last few decades. While facing this real life, violent terrorist extremist, the FOX anchor threw softballs. He allowed the spokesperson for MEK to spew her rhetoric against the Iranian government without interruption. In his questions, Shawn even compared Rajavi to the resistance forces that fought the Nazis.

If cable news viewers and consumers of US print media knew who these “Iranian dissidents” actually were, they would begin to ask some serious questions about US foreign policy.

What is the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq?

The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (People’s Army of God) organization was founded in the 1960s as a student group opposed to the Shah. It eventually began work toward achieving its aims with isolated acts of violence such as assassinations, bombings, and kidnappings. Its beliefs included a bizarre mixture of Islam and Marxism. One of the group’s primary beliefs is in the brilliance of its founder and leader, Massoud Rajavi, who is worshipped in a cultish manner. At recent rallies in France, for example, placards carried by MEK members contained the simple slogan “Massoud Rajavi Is Our Leader.” Massoud Rajavi’s location is unknown, and he has not made a public appearance since 2003. Rajavi’s spouse, Maryam Rajavi, now acts as the primary public representative of the group.

In its early years, MEK primarily targeted people from the United States. The group attempted to kidnap the US ambassador to Iran. It carried out an attempted assassination of a US Air Force General. In 1976, the organization attacked a car and killed the three American hotel employees inside. These terrorist acts were done in the hope of damaging the US backed Iranian monarchy.

However, it was not the isolated acts of adventurist violence from MEK members, but a rather broad explosion of popular resistance that toppled the US-backed Shah in 1979. After Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, when it became clear that the MEK would not become the new ruling party, the organization responded with a vicious bombing campaign against the new government. In 1981, the group bombed a meeting of the Iranian Republican Party, killing 72 people, including many high-ranking government officials.

During the Iraq-Iran War, the group became very friendly with Saddam Hussein. With money pouring in from the Iraqi regime, the group formed an armed outfit called the “Iranian National Liberation Army.” They went through Iran committing war crimes, hoping that they could secure victory for the US-backed Iraqi invaders that used chemical and biological weapons against Iranian civilians.

In one particularly brutal war atrocity, the MEK group killed nearly all the residents of a village called Islamabad-e Gharb. The group staged this cowardly attack on July 26th, 1988 – six days after Imam Khomeini had announced he was accepting a ceasefire with Iraq.

The number of innocent civilians slaughtered by the MEK or its various front groups such as the Iranian National Council of Resistance, is likely to be in the tens of thousands, if you include the number of civilians killed during the bombing campaigns, the number of people MEK linked groups slaughtered during the Iraq-Iran War, and the number of victims of MEK terrorism against Iran throughout the 1990s and up to today. Human Rights Watch has issued condemnations of the group for routinely torturing those it holds captive.

The internal workings of the group are equally frightening. A Human Rights Watch report from 2005 describes how, within its various bases and camps, the group subjects members to summary execution for violations of its bizarre regulations and practices. According to ex-members of MEK, it functions as a very dangerous cult. All members are required to divorce their spouses, as family life is considered a distraction from the cause of overthrowing the Iranian state. The words of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi are interpreted as divine and infallible, and members are encouraged to seek martyrdom to advance the ideological and religious goals.

The coddling of dangerous extremists

Frequently, Iran is declared to be a “state sponsor of terror” by US officials and media outlets. However, it is leaders of the United States that are currently promoting the cause of the dangerous and violent MEK.

Hillary Clinton played an important role in removing the group from the official state department list of “Foreign Terrorist Organizations.” Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City, promotes its cause by acting as MEK’s spokesman. Tom Ridge, former head of the Department of Homeland Security, has played a similar role for the group. Very few US media commentators have highlighted the irony of “America’s Mayor” embracing a group of “Islamic Marxist” militants – and the truth about MEK and its relationship with figures in Washington DC is largely unknown.

Occasionally, US officials will try to justify the coddling of this group of violent extremists with vague claims that it “renounced violence.” However, the group is very open about continuing its armed underground activities inside the Islamic Republic of Iran. Reports indicate that it was members of MEK, in cooperation with the Mossad that assassinated scientists working on Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy program in 2012.

While MEK denies it works with the Israeli government, a fact that should shatter the credibility of anyone claiming to be an “Islamic Marxist,” the truth was leaked to NBC by the Obama Administration.

The US press largely treats MEK like romantic pacifist freedom fighters. In her interviews, Maryam Rajavi seems frighteningly confident that she will be successful and her organization will someday come to power.

In her interview with FOX’s Shawn, she said, “I am confident the mullah’s religious dictatorship will not last and will be overthrown.” In the interview, a woman who oversaw the slaughter of thousands compared herself to Jefferson, Lincoln, and even pacifist civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. FOX’s Shawn sat in front of her nodding, never questioning her words or intentions.

If one looks at Libya after the US/NATO “regime change,” or the state of Syria after four years of US-funded civil war against the government, it should be clear what “regime change” in Iran will mean. The fact that the US media is openly promoting extremists like MEK – and their fantastic claims about nuclear weapons – should be a warning call to all who would support US efforts in the region.

The promises from US officials of “stability” made before the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, or the overthrow of Gaddafi, never materialized. Instead, the various US- and NATO-installed collaborators and extremists turned their guns against each other. With chaos and destruction in the region, the US and Israel remained secure in their control of the oil profits and world markets.

The poster children for the US/Israeli crusade against the Islamic Republic, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi are hardly capable of bringing peace and stability. The MEK is much like ISIS in Syria, or the US-backed insurgents in Libya. They are bloodthirsty extremists who would destroy Iran’s existing stability and independent economic development, replacing it with chaos, destruction, and death.

The promotion of such extremists, who unleash violence and chaos, fits perfectly with the realpolitik strategy laid out by former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski: “Maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together.” (Zbigniew Brzezinski “The Grand Chessboard,” p. 40)

The program of the United States and Israel for the Middle East is permanent civil war, chaos, and death. Part of implementing this program is the rallying cry of “regime change in Iran,” and the promotion of violent terrorists who oppose the Islamic Republic.

Caleb Maupin,

October 21, 2014 0 comment

USA

ISIS a pretext for US-sponsored regime change in Iraq

The ousting of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is part of a broader US plan for Iraq and the Middle East as a whole.

Against the backdrop of the war against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), Washington has managed to kill two birds with one stone, as the saying goes. Not only has the US removed a political leader who had proven to be problematic due to his opposition to US military presence in Iraq, as well as his staunch support for Syria and President Assad, they have also created the conditions for the dismemberment of the Iraqi state.

The US and its allies are supporting de facto ‘independence’ for the Kurdish region in the north of the country, using the IS as a convenient pretext for openly arming and supporting Kurdish forces. Naturally, one should not look for altruism in Washington’s motives. Rather, this strategy is to benefit western oil companies with dollar signs in their eyes, licking their lips in anticipation of being able to deal directly with Kurdish President Barzani.

Additionally, Maliki’s ouster deprives Syrian President Assad of a key ally, thereby emboldening the IS and the other militants waging war against Syria. It provides further evidence, as if more were needed, that the political future is bleak for any Iraqi leader who dares to break from the script written for him by Washington. Perhaps most importantly, it allows the US and its allies to be the leading force politically in the war against the IS, an organization created by US policy and covert operations in the region.

In the sales and marketing industry, there is a term known as ‘solution selling’ whereby the salesperson either creates or exaggerates a problem, then presents his or her product as the invaluable solution. Indeed, this sort of sales strategy is precisely the approach Washington has taken in the region, and specifically in Iraq.

The IS disease

The IS has only very recently become an internationally recognized epidemic of militant Islamist extremism that must be eradicated at all costs. That international recognition came only when the organization began taking control of territory in Iraq, threatening Western oil and gas interests. While the IS was waging its brutal and vicious war against the Syrian people and government however, the IS was merely an afterthought, simply a group of extremists fighting the ‘brutal dictator’ Assad.

It seems then that the danger of ISIS and the necessity to eradicate it is directly correlative to US interests. Put another way, the IS is a useful tool in Syria and southern Lebanon where it creates chaos to the detriment of Assad and Hezbollah respectively, while in Iraq, the IS is dangerous where it threatens the US client regime in Kurdistan and Western oil interests. But of course, the detail consistently left out of most analysis of the IS problem is the simple fact that it is a creation of US intelligence and its covert war on Syria.

As early as 2011, the US CIA was involved in an elaborate and widespread program to covertly arm militant extremists in Syria in order to overthrow the government of President Assad. As the New York Times and other media outlets reported in 2012, the CIA was working with the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups along the Turkish-Syrian border to funnel weapons, communications equipment, and other military materiel to terrorist groups at war with Damascus. Despite vehement claims by Washington that only ‘moderate rebels’ were receiving such support, it is an open secret that much of those supplies ended up in the hands of then-ISIS, which already by 2012 was beginning to establish itself as a dominant fighting force in the Syrian war.

Perhaps it should then begin to make sense why, when ISIS launched its allegedly ‘surprise’ attack on the critical Iraqi city of Mosul in June, they were so well armed and equipped with everything from matching pickup trucks to anti-tank weapons, RPGs, and a host of other US-made equipment. Naturally, in the days and weeks following the attack, ISIS armed itself even further with confiscated Iraqi military equipment, also provided by the US. So it would be fair to say that, consciously or unconsciously, the United States helped to create and unleash the IS we know today.

No longer simply another militant organization among many, the IS has grown, thanks to US sponsorship, into the premier terrorist fighting force in the region, capable of engaging national militaries (Iraq, Syria) and other well-organized armed groups such as Hezbollah. In effect, the IS has become the enforcer of US foreign policy, a proxy force that furthers the US agenda without any significant US military presence needed. And yet, the IS is presented in the mainstream media as the greatest threat in the Middle East. Why so? Why were they no threat at all in Syria, but have become the great menace in Iraq?

Iraq, Maliki & Western interests

The US waged an aggressive war and occupation of Iraq for nearly a decade for the purposes of establishing a puppet government that would be amenable to Western economic and geopolitical interests. In many ways, that project failed as PM Maliki emerged as a strong, nationalistic leader who was unwilling to accede to the demands of the occupiers.

Washington wanted to permanently base US troops in the country, and Maliki rejected this proposal, demanding the permanent withdrawal of all US forces by the end of 2011. Maliki purged Iraq of the US-sponsored terrorist organization the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) which had waged a decades-long campaign of terrorism against Iran by closing down Camp Ashraf, the base from which the organization operated. Maliki also sacked two key figures in Iraq’s banking establishment, both of whom were close associates of neocon darling, and failed Iraqi presidential candidate, Ahmed Chalabi, thereby earning him the ire of Washington, which sought to maintain its grip on the purse-strings of Iraqi wealth.

But of course, these were by no means Maliki’s only ‘crimes’ in the eyes of the US. He also challenged Western oil companies looking to make massive profits off of Iraq’s vast energy deposits. Perhaps the best-known instance occurred in 2012 when ExxonMobil signed an oil exploration deal with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq. Maliki rejected the validity of the deal, noting that any oil contracts must be negotiated with the central government in Baghdad, rather than Barzani’s US-aligned government in Arbil. Maliki’s spokesman noted at the time that:

“Maliki views these deals as representing a very dangerous initiative that may lead to the outbreak of wars… [and] breaking up the unity of Iraq…Maliki is prepared to go to the highest levels for the sake of preserving the national wealth and the necessary transparency in investing the wealth of the Iraqis, especially oil… [He] sent a message to American President Barak [sic] Obama last week urging him to intervene to prevent ExxonMobil from going in this direction.”

It is no secret that Maliki’s strong-willed resistance to this deal, in addition to his refusal to pay ExxonMobil upwards of $50 million to improve production at one major southern oilfield led directly to the oil company pulling out of the lucrative West Qurna-1 project. Essentially then, Maliki took on the very powerful oil corporations (BP is no friend of Maliki either), seeking to get a better deal for Iraq. It would be safe to assume that the endemic corruption in Iraq would have made it easier for Maliki and his associates to enrich themselves by skimming off the top and/or receiving payouts from other oil interests. However, this is secondary to the primary ‘crime’ of challenging the hegemony of oil companies in Iraq.

And it is here that we see quite clearly why the US has been so keen on protecting their Kurdish puppet government, which really should be understood as a ruling clique centered on President Barzani and ex-President of Iraq Talabani, their families, and cronies. Since as early as 2011, Western oil companies sought to bypass Maliki and the legal government in Baghdad by making independent deals with the Kurds. Not only did they not want to pay the taxes that would be used to fund the recovery of Iraq from more than a decade of war, they attempted to play the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities off one another in a cynical ploy to more effectively and efficiently exploit the corruption and competition that exists in both.

Of course, it should be noted that the US, Israel, and other Western powers have long maintained very close ties with Barzani and the Kurds. A valid argument could be made that Kurdistan represents a forward base for US military power projection in Iraq and, particularly against Iran. Additionally, Israel has long maintained close ties with Kurdish authorities, both in terms of political support as well as covert intelligence and espionage-related activities. As Israeli scholar Ofra Bengio recently wrote in the pro-US, pro-Israeli publication the Middle East Quarterly:

“From the 1990s on, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) maintained relations with Kurdish officials since ‘pro-Israel Jewish activists viewed support for the Kurds, a small nation struggling for self-determination in a hostile Arab neighborhood, as helping Israel reach out to a natural ally.’ According to Morris Amitay, AIPAC’s executive director from 1974 to 1980, ‘Our Israeli friends always appreciated our friendship with the Kurds.’ Amitay’s son, Mike Amitay, also served as executive director of the Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI) from 1996 to 2005.”

Naturally, the Israeli connection is not strictly a benevolent one. Rather, Israeli intelligence and special forces have been deeply intertwined with their Kurdish counterparts as far back as 2003 and the commencement of the second US war in Iraq (though likely decades before that). As Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh noted in 2004:

“The Israelis have had long standing ties to the Talibani and Barzani clans [in] Kurdistan and there are many Kurdish Jews that emigrated to Israel and there are still a lot of connection. But at some time before the end of the year, and I’m not clear exactly when, certainly I would say a good six, eight months ago, Israel began to work with some trained Kurdish commandoes, ostensibly the idea was the Israelis — some of the Israeli elite commander units, counter-terror or terror units, depending on your point of view, began training — getting the Kurds up to speed.”

So, as should be self-evident, Washington’s decision to use military force against ISIS is a cynical ploy to protect intelligence assets, economic interests, and create a nominally independent Kurdish state which will become integrated into the US-Israeli sphere of influence in the region. In order to achieve these strategic objectives, first and foremost, Maliki had to be gotten rid of.

And so, regime change has once again come to Iraq, this time through the backdoor. By arming ISIS in Syria, the US unleashed a monster in Iraq, which it now uses as the pretext for fulfilling the long-standing goal of de facto partition of Iraq. With Kurdish independence robbing Iraq of vital oil resources, it is unlikely that any ruling coalition consisting of Sunnis and Shia will effectively govern the country, regardless of the individuals at its helm. And this is precisely the point. Sadly, in the interests of the West, Iraq will now endure yet another civil war and period of misery and despair. There will be no economic development, no political progress, no peace. Exactly what Washington wanted.

Eric Draitser, RT

(Eric Draitser is an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City and the founder of StopImperialism.com.)

August 19, 2014 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

McMillan case: Two kinds of protesters

Cecily McMillan, a young Occupy Wall Street activist has just been found guilty of 2nd Degree assault on a police officer.

The "assault" was a startled reaction after a police officer violently grabbed her breast in 2011, squeezing it so hard he left a hand shaped bruise. McMillan began having a seizure after being arrested, and the NYPD blocked emergency medical technicians from treating her. When McMillan was released from the hospital she was limping, barely able to walk, after being beaten so badly. Her body was covered in bruises.

On May 19th McMillan will receive a sentence of between 2 and 7 years in prison for her startled reaction to a violent police sexual assault. She now sits in New York’s infamous Riker’s Island correctional facility awaiting her sentence.

During the trial, Police officers spoke of "smelly protesters" in their testimony. Prosecutor Amy Choe alleged that McMillan had injured herself, and mockingly dismissed any allegations of police brutality, comparing it to belief in "space aliens." The Jury was not allowed to hear testimony about the NYPD’s record of brutality against Occupy Protesters. A great deal of video of what happened to McMillan was prevented from being shown as well. The prosecution insinuated that McMillan was mentally ill and criminal for protesting at all. Articles from Rolling Stone Magazine, where she was quoted denouncing capitalism were presented as evidence.

Wall Street’s favorite protesters

As Cecily McMillan was being convicted, one of the top stories on the news was a group of nudists in China. The US and western media have raved on and on about the "bravery" of wealthy Chinese people who "heroically" engage in public indecency on a beach.

This is just the latest trendy group of protesters the Western media has decided to embrace. The airwaves have so often been filled with reports alleging mistreatment of "green movement" activists in Iran. We were told about the US backed rebels in Libya as if they were heroes. The insurgents who terrorize Syria are also given this hero treatment.

When Right Sector and Svoboda members were openly running through the streets terrorizing people and assaulting cops in Ukraine, they received endless praise in the Western press. Anderson Cooper strolled through Maiden Square narrating their assaults on police and civilians as if it were a romantic battle.

Through the National Endowment for Democracy, the US government gives billions of dollars to fund protesters in places like Iran, Belarus, and Venezuela. These "protesters" break laws, carry out assassinations, and commits all kinds of crimes.

The reason Cecily McMillan is now a political prisoner is because she occupied Wall Street, she did not occupy on behalf of Wall Street. She did not Occupy Maiden Square, beating up ethnic Russians and Jews, to clear the way for the IMF. She did not commit acts of public indecency in churches and supermarkets hoping to destabilize Russia. She did not strip naked on a Chinese beach. She did not bomb a school is Damascus. She did not hang dark skinned Africans in Tripoli. She did not burn monuments to the Ukrainians who died in the Second World War.

Cecily McMillan slept in a park, talking about income inequality, and plutocracy in the US. While doing it she professed non-violence, and was noted for criticizing the more radical elements of her movement. She was sexually assaulted, and jumped in response. She received a horrific beating, and is now going to spend years in prison.

As far as the US government, courts, and media are concerned, there are clearly two types of protesters.

When protesters are opposing the regime currently topping Wall Street’s enemies list, they get praised on TV, they get funding from various US based non-government organizations, and the slightest attempts to suppress them are declared "tyranny." Luis Posada Carrilles, a Cuban "protester" who bombed an airplane killing over 70 people is living very comfortably in Miami. Terrorists from the "People’s Mujahadeen" (MKO) in Iran, who have tortured and murdered for decades, are happily embraced by political leaders like Tom Ridge, and provided safe evacuation by the United Nations. "Protesters" run through the streets of Venezuela, burning buildings, assaulting police officers, and yet receive support from the US government, and are treated as heroes by the US media.

The US government and Wall Street are happy to fund the most violent, terroristic "protesters" in order to destabilize a government that gets in their way. But when young people in the center of world capitalism engage in peaceful protest, they are dubbed "smelly protesters" and "traitors." They get maced in the face, beaten, and arrested. The kind of brutality routinely unleashed on black and brown people, is turned on those who take political action.

Anthony Bolognia, who famously maced two protesters in the face during the first month of Occupy Wall Street without any provocation had all charges against him dropped. He is continuing his career as a highly paid New York City Police Officer. Though the world watched Occupy protesters in New York being brutally beaten, not a single NYPD officer has been charged with brutality.

The rising police state

The Police Officers who shot Ramarely Graham, a young African-American man through the chest have also received no penalty. No one disputes that they burst into his apartment and gunned him down in front of his family, but not even the slightest penalty has been issued.

The prison system is in the United States is rapidly expanding with 2.5 million people locked away. The schools in the US are often now filled with armed police, and children are often arrested for what would be previously considered a matter of classroom discipline.

The rising expansion of the "criminal justice system" is accompanied by an increased repression of political activists.

The homes of activists from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization were raided by the FBI. Anarchists in Seattle were imprisoned for refusing to testify against their comrades. In Chicago and Cleveland, occupy activists face lengthy sentences in obvious examples of entrapment. The National Security Agency now admits it is spying on millions of people, recording phone calls, emails, etc.

Are we really expected to trust John Kerry, Samantha Power, or Barack Obama in their words against Russia, People’s Korea, China, or Iran? Are we really expected to trust them as "human rights advocates" around the world, as they preside over rising police state at home?

The next time CNN, FOX, or MSNBC begins to speak of "peaceful protesters" in some country Wall Street dislikes, and declares that government to be "tyrannical", and calls to rescue these "peaceful protesters" with sanctions and cruise missiles, millions of people will think of Cecily McMillan, and know that these words are nothing but pure hypocrisy.

Caleb Maupin is a political analyst who lives in New York City, and is an activist with the International Action Center and Workers World Party. He was part of the Occupy Wall Street mo.

May 8, 2014 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Obama pushes Israel to stop assassinations of Iran nuclear scientists

President Barack Obama is pressuring Israel to stop carrying out assassinations of top nuclear scientists in Iran as the Islamic Republic continues its negotiations with world powers over its uranium enrichment program, according to a new book.

President Barack Obama is pressuring Israel to stop carrying out assassinations of top nuclear scientists in Iran Apart from pressure from Washington that Israel give up the assassination program, sources close to Israel’s intelligence agencies told CBS News’s Dan Raviv that Mossad itself viewed the campaign as too dangerous to continue. Raviv, who was updating a book he co-wrote about the history of Israel’s intelligence agencies, said the pressure form the Obama administration was “more than a hint.”

Mossad itself was apparently undergoing a sea change regarding the program. Fearing their ‘best combatants’ – Israel’s term for its most accomplished spies – could be captured and hanged, the agency is reportedly set to shift its focus to other activities. According to security sources, Netanyahu ordered the intelligence agency to focus its efforts on proving the Islamic Republic is cheating on a landmark preliminary agreement made with six world powers in November to curtail its uranium enrichment program in return for limited sanctions relief.

At least five Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed since 2007, with men on motorcycles sticking magnetically attachable bombs to their victims’ cars. The head of the country’s ballistic missile program was also killed, while in October Mojtaba Ahmadi, who served as commander of the Cyber War Headquarters, was found shot dead. No Israeli national has ever been arrested in collusion with the targeted assassination program, which is reportedly intended to thwart advances in Iran’s nuclear program and dissuade Iran’s best and brightest from working in the sphere.

The killing of Ahmadi was widely viewed as an attempt to derail nuclear negotiations between Tehran and the P5+1 – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

Israel has never publically claimed responsibility for the attacks.

In 2012, however, an NBC News report concluded that “deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service.”

The report cited two senior Obama administration officials as confirming that Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) is behind the killings, though the officials denied the US played any role in the program.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, told NBC that Mossad worked through the MEK because “Israel does not have direct access to our society. [The MEK], being Iranian and being part of Iranian society, they have … a good number of places… to get into touch with people.”

The MEK has denied colluding with Israel, though Israeli officials have confirmed links between MEK and Israeli intelligence.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told defense officials on Saturday the country had given up its nuclear program because owning weapons of mass destruction is a sin.

“Even if there were no NPT (nuclear non-proliferation treaty) or other treaties, our belief, our faith, our religion and principles tell us not to seek weapons of mass destruction,” Rouhani said.

In November, Iran agreed to stop enriching uranium beyond 20 percent and to dilute its already enriched stockpiles in return for an estimated $7 billion in sanctions relief. That deal came into effect January 20.

Following the latest round of Iran nuclear talks in Vienna on February 20, Iran and the P5+1 agreed to a framework on which to strike a final agreement within the coming months. Both sides have agreed to hold an additional round of talks in Vienna later this month.

March 3, 2014 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Iranian ‘ex-terrorists’ open downtown Washington, DC office

The National Council of Resistance of Iran has opened shop just a stone’s throw from the White House — and only months after being removed from a US State Department list of designated terrorist groups.

The Washington Post reports that the NCRI, an organization of Iran exiles considered terrorists by the State Department between 1997 through 2012, has officially begun operating out of a downtown Washington, DC office building.

“Once-banned Iran exile group opens office a block from White House,” reads the Post article from Thursday afternoon.

The NCRI had been barred from operating within the United States since 2003, but a campaign that drew the attention of some high-profile American politicians in recent years helped have their name removed from the same Department of State roster that contains foreign organizations including al-Qaeda, Hamas, the Palestine Liberation Front and the Army of Islam.

Critics of the NCRI have called the group a front for the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, or MEK, the group of Islamic Marxists that helped violently overthrew the Pahlavi Shah during a 1979 revolution in Iran and was credited with killing six American citizens that decade. As recently as 2002, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation told the State Department that ‘‘[i]t is the unanimous view of the FBI personnel who are involved in and familiar with the FBI’s investigation of the [MEK] that the NCRI is not a separate organization, but is instead, and has been, an integral part of the MEK at all relevant times.’’

“Contrary to NCRI’s portrayal of itself as an umbrella organization, of which the MEK was just one member, the FBI concluded that it is NCRI that is ‘’the political branch,’” the agency found at the time.

A decade later though, a group of influential politicians including former UN ambassador John Bolton, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California), presidential candidates Newt Gingrich (R), Rudy Giuliani (R) and Howard Dean (D) rallied on behalf of the NCRI to have their name removed from the State Department list.

"Have you ever seen a more bipartisan disciplined group as the one that supported this issue?" asked lobbyist Victoria Toensing of DiGenova & Toensing when she weighed in on the NCRI to US News & World Report last year.

Now that the organization formerly considered terrorists has been given the go-ahead to operate in the US, they’ve opened their doors alongside the rest of the powerful lobbying groups that litter downtown DC’s K Street district.

“The MEK are Iranians who desire a secular, peaceful, and democratic government,” Rep. Rohrabacher told the Post last year as the State Department considered their appeal. “Nothing threatens the Mullah dictatorship more than openness and transparency.”

Others haven’t been as certain, though, and cite a number of incidents credited to MEK throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, including an attempted attack in 1992 against the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York City.

NCRI officials speaking to the Post confirmed that Bolton and a handful of others — including former Obama National Security Adviser Jim Jones — attended the grand opening of the group’s new DC office, styled as “Iran’s Parliament-in-exile.”

April 13, 2013 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Library of Congress pulls sketchy Iran intel report

The Library of Congress has pulled a report on Iran’s intelligence activities from circulation after an American journalism watchdog showed that the widely cited text was playing fast and loose with the facts.

American and international media outlets had jumped in the report’s claim that Iranian intelligence was employing 30,000 people, a figure called "ill-supported" by ProPublica, a New York-based non-profit reporting on public interest matters.

The report had been produced by a Pentagon office and posted to a US government intranet site before leaking to the public in early January.

And a massive Iranian intel staff wasn’t the only dubious claim brought to light by ProPobulica: the report also alleged, without much evidence, that Vienna was the European hub for the Iranian foreign spy network and that Tehran was gathering information by way of "signals intelligence stations" throughout the Middle East, with many of them in Syria.

"The report was pulled for revisions after the Division staff identified a passage that should have been caveated but was missed in the initial reviews," Federal Research Division chief David Osborne told ProPublica in an email.

Though the document was taken offline "for revisions," it has not gone back up in a modified form.

It was also the source of public humiliation in the UK after claiming explicitly that Briton Anne Khodabandeh (nee Singleton) and her Iranian-born husband Massoud were Iranian foreign intelligence operatives, even showing their pictures. Khodabandeh, a former member of the MEK, the exiled group fighting the Iranian government, has in recent years become a critic of the group, which was recently taken off the US government’s list of terrorist organizations.

To back up its claim that Khodabandeh was spying for Tehran, the report cited a 2007 essay written by Rabbi Daniel Zucker, who chairs a group called Americans for Democracy in the Middle East and is known to write often in support of the MEK. The website where his essay was published is no longer operational, but had linked to the also now-defunct iranterror.com as its source.

After seeing the report, even the MEK claimed that the Pentagon’s report showed that "Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh are agents of the mullahs’ Ministry of Intelligence and Security."

"Everything they’ve said is just made up," Anne Khodabandeh told ProPublica.

Despite such sketchy sources, the report was for all intents and purposes the official word of the United States government.

The Khodabandehs are refraining from legal action due to the costs of such a lawsuit and the fact that report does not credit an author.

January 24, 2013 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Mujahadin-e Khalq: America’s protected terrorists gearing up against Iran

Unsatisfied in "crippling" Iran with sanctions, the US looks to be set for active operations there – and already has an in: a group called the Mujahadin-e Khalq, which in the near future could become the Persian equivalent of the Free Syrian Army. Mujahadin-e Khalq: America’s protected terrorists gearing up against Iran

On September 21, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton passed Public Notice 8050, de-listing the Mujahadin-e Khalq (MEK) from the State Department’s Specially Designated Global Terrorist list, effective September 28.

What is MEK? Mujahadin-e Khalq is an Iranian Islamic militant organization in exile that advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since its inception in 1965 in Iran, the group conducted assassinations of US military personnel and civilians working in Iran in the 1970s, jubilantly supported the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 and opposed the release of American personnel, calling for their execution instead, fought against the Islamic Republic together with Saddam Hussein during the Iraq-Iran War (1980-1988) and set up headquarters in Iraq at Camp Ashraf.

In recent years, according to various sources including NBC, MEK teamed up with the Israeli secret service to kill Iranian nuclear scientists. NBC reported that US officials confirmed that “the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign but has no direct involvement”.

In 1994, the State Department sent a damning 41-page report to Congress on why the MEK is a terrorist organization; that designation was enacted in 1997. The report concluded: “It is no coincidence that the only government in the world that supports the Mujahadin politically and financially is the totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein.” Well, the MEK’s mission to overthrow Iran’s leadership has not changed since, but the US agenda has: In a vertiginous about-face, Washington became the powerful protector of the Mujahadin-e Khalq.

Over the past few years, a formidable fundraising operation and campaign to de-list MEK from the Specially Designated Global Terrorist register gathered some high-caliber US supporters including General James Jones, President Obama’s National Security Advisor from 2009 to 2010; Bill Richardson, Energy Secretary and UN ambassador in the Clinton administration and Obama’s Special Envoy to North Korea; Tom Ridge, the first Secretary of Homeland Security; General Wesley Clark, former supreme commander of NATO; Louis Freeh, former director of the FBI; three former directors of the CIA – Michael Hayden, James Woolsey and Porter Goss; Rudolph Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City; former UN Ambassador John Bolton; General Hugh Shelton, former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002; and many others.

Top Washington lawyers and lobbyists made the case for the terrorist group as well: Akin Gump, Strauss Hauer & Feld, Patton Boggs and others. Robert Strauss, of the firm of the same name, was US Ambassador to the Soviet Union during the critical months of August 2, 1991, through December 26, 1991. A senior member of the firm Tobi Gati was also head of the intelligence branch of the US State Department.

When speaking about terrorist groups, one might think of MEK as a ragtag bunch of cutthroats in shreds and tatters, confined to an unsanitary tent city. The truth is nothing of the sort. Watch this report by CNN’s Michael Ware dating back to 2007: You will see a marching army in crisp brand-new white-and-blue and khaki uniforms, entering a spacious parade ground framed by sculptures of lions. Camp Ashraf itself is one of the best-kept military facilities in Iraq and a sprawling city of 4,000 people, with shopping centers and hospitals, gardens, monuments, fountains and illuminations quite unexpected in the war-torn deserts of Iraq. The MEK is also armed with more than 2,000 well-maintained tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft guns and armored personnel carriers. Its supplies are guarded by US military police, and the camp itself is guarded by the American military.

Indeed, “The coalition remains deeply committed to the security and rights of protected people of Ashraf,” US Major General Gardner said, according to a Headquarters Multinational Force Iraq document dated March 11, 2006. Michael Ware calls the MEK “the US’ officially protected terrorists.” Another film of Australian origin shows Camp Ashraf’s own parliament and hundreds of tanks on the camp’s parade ground.

Well-versed in American political mores, the MEK’s leadership says the group is ‘pro-democracy.’ However, even the New York Times disagrees: In the middle of the 2011 de-listing campaign, it described MEK as “a repressive cult despised by most Iranians and Iraqis.”

‘Totalitarian cult’ is indeed the most frequent label applied to the MEK by people who come in contact with the group. And American support for MEK is not limited to military protection. Seymour Hersh, in his New Yorker piece“Our Men in Iran?” revealed that beginning in 2005, MEK fighters were trained in Nevada by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

Why is Washington backing the MEK? As General Shelton said at a conference in February 2011, “When you look at what the MEK stands for, when they are antinuclear, separation of church and state, individual rights, MEK is obviously the way Iran needs to go. … By placing the MEK on the FTO [Foreign Terrorist Organizations] list we have weakened the support of the best organized internal resistance group to the most terrorist-oriented anti-Western world, anti-democratic regime in the region.”

In an interview with Germany’s WDR TV back in 2005, ex-CIA operative Ray McGovern explained the logic: “Why the U.S. cooperates with organizations like the Mujahadin, I think, is because that they are local, and because they are ready to work for us. Previously, we considered them a terrorist organization. And they exactly are. But they are now our terrorists and we now don’t hesitate to send them into Iran …. for the usual secret service activities: attacking sensors, in order to supervise the Iranian nuclear program, mark targets for air attacks, and perhaps establishing secret camps to control the military locations in Iran. And also a little sabotage.”

Karen Kwiatkowski, formerly with the Department of Defense, makes a long story short for WDR TV: “MEK is ready to do things over which we would be ashamed, and over which we try to keep silent. But for such tasks we’ll use them.”

Now is the time for Russia and the world community to take active political measures preventing the United States from launching another proxy war in the Middle East. The MEK is much better trained and prepared for war than the Syrian rebels were at the beginning of the conflict, or even today. The MEK has all the necessary capabilities to become the military arm of an American attack against Iran. This time – unlike in Syria – the world should not ignore the march to war, and must take steps to prevent it from happening again.

By eronika Krasheninnikova, Director General of the Institute for Foreign Policy Research and Initiatives in Moscow, for RT

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

October 27, 2012 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Lobbying campaign takes Iranian dissident group off US terror list

A group with a history of bombings and murders, including the killing of US citizens, which also happens to oppose the current Iranian government, has paid its way off of a US blacklist, Lajos Lobbying campaign takes Iranian dissident group off US terror list Szasdi, an international affairs analyst told RT.

The US Secretary of State announced the removal of the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MKO) from its list of terrorist organizations on Friday. Originally one of the main participants of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, it is now in opposition to the government in Tehran, and with the help of Israeli special forces carries out “assassinations of nuclear scientists in Iran and obtains information on the Iranian nuclear program,” Szasdi says.

RT: Why has Washington chosen now to remove Mujahadeen-e-Khalq from its list of terrorist organizations?

Lajos Szasdi: This group, the MKO, has been apparently very successful in gaining the support of both the Republican and Democratic parties, civilians, as well as retired members of the military, senior officers included. So apparently, there has been a very successful lobbying campaign before the government to overturn the government’s decision, made in 1997, to place the MKO on the terrorist list of the Treasury Department.

There is also another issue. Washington might find this group highly useful. It seems that they have made use of it since 2007, in trying to destabilize the internal situation in Iran, and apparently with the cooperation of the Israeli secret service, the Mossad. They have used this group to conduct, it is said by some authors, assassinations of nuclear scientists in Iran and obtain information on the Iranian nuclear program. And they’ve carried out some acts of sabotage – they caused the explosion of a missile factory as well. There is some strategic interest in terms of current and ongoing, bad relationships, to say the least, to put it mildly, between the United States on one side and Iran on the other.

And this group has also been carrying out a highly successful lobbying campaign, which is very interesting because according to some sectors in the press, if you spoke for ten minutes in favor of the group in a speech, you could have gotten twenty thousand dollars. And they have been paying for speeches defending their cause, so they would be removed from the list of being terrorists, between ten and fifty thousand dollars. So, it is quite interesting.
RT: Do you think this will influence the upcoming Iranian elections, is that the intention?
LS: The Iranian candidates will try to portray this event, the fact that the US government removed this group from the list of terrorists … it would be a further justification of any hardening of the position that the United States has no interest in finding a negotiated solution, but on the contrary – they are supporting its enemies.
It is going to, in any case, work to the detriment of the relationship between the West and Iran, and in particular the United States and Iran. It is going to favor taking hardening positions towards the West and the United States. I think it is quite inevitable in light of the rhetoric coming from Washington, alongside that coming from Tel Aviv regarding Iran and the Iranian nuclear program. It might not make much difference, but it certainly is going to be ammunition for those that would try to suppress the idea of any dialogue with Washington, because after all, Washington is not offering any olive branch for such a kind of dialogue.

September 29, 2012 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

US State Department lobbies for terrorist group?

Since May of this year, the Obama administration has been pushing to have a terrorist organization removed from the terrorist watch list.

The Mujahadeen- e-Khalq of Iran is allegedly responsible for assassinating US citizens and even worked together with Saddam Hussein.

The group has been on the watch list for approximately 15 years, so why is there this push to remove the MEK as terrorists?

Jamal Abdi, policy director at The National Iranian American Council, takes a closer look at the possible motives.

Download US State Department lobbies for terrorist group?

July 17, 2012 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Iran terror group moved off US blacklist ‘over Israeli ties’

An Iranian group considered as terrorist by the US for 15 years is moving off the black list.

Government officials are advocating to clear the name of Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK, even releasing a number of PR adverts.

This could further strain relations between Washington and Tehran.

Jamal Abdi, the policy director for the Iranian-American national council, believes it’s MEK’s ties with Israel and US lawmakers that are driving the push.
Download MEK terror group moved off US blacklist over Israeli ties

June 16, 2012 0 comment

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