“The [State] Department does not overlook or forget the MEK’s past acts of terrorism, including its involvement in the killing of U.S. citizens in Iran in the 1970s and an attack on U.S. soil in 1992,” it said in a statement. It “also has serious concerns about the MEK as an organization, particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members
“It is past time for the MeK to recognize that Ashraf is not going to remain an MeK base in Iraq,” said Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, State Department coordinator for counter-terrorism, on the call. “The Iraqi Government is committed to closing it, and any plan to wait out the government in the hope that something will change is irresponsible and dangerous.”
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, while in Tehran, voiced his support for Iran’s call to shut a military camp in central Iraq that has served as a base for an Iranian insurgent group, the Mujahedin e-Khalq, or MeK/MKO/PMOI.Washington, while designating the MeK as an international terrorist organization, has pressured Iraq to continue to provide sanctuary to some 3,400 MeK fighters..The MeK was aligned with the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and carried out a string of terrorist attacks ..
.. Supporters of the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, a controversial Iranian resistance movement that was once allied with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, took up a couple of rows in the Dirksen Senate office building hearing room. They were wearing matching day-glow yellow T-shirts and vests that read, “Protect Camp Ashraf” and “Delist MEK.” Also in the audience was a smaller contingent from Code Pink, the antiwar group. Code Pink members, wearing their signature pink shirts, silently held up signs in the aisle opposite the MEK. Their signs read, “End war – rebuild America”; “Bring our war $ home”’; and “Diplomacy not war!!” …
These officials, and others including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former heads of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, have taken the podium to praise the group. The speakers wouldn’t disclose their speaking fees, but many of them charge between $25,000 and $40,000 per appearance…Condoleezza Rice wrote in a 2009 internal cable released by anti-secrecy group Wikileaks:”The most powerful myth the MeK has been able to lodge in the minds of most supporters is that they are the democratic alternative to the current regime..
The State Department has decided to keep Iran’s largest opposition group, Mujahedin e-Khalq, on its list of terrorist organizations, according to U.S. officials.The decision, which could set up a legal battle in the U.S., came before the European Union on Monday removed Mujahedin e-Khalq, or the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, from its own roster of terrorist groups.Some Middle East analysts say the State Department’s Jan. 7 ruling could assist President Barack Obama ..The U.S. has charged the MEK with assassinating senior Iranian officials and bombing overseas Iranian missions.
For its part, Washington claims Iran is backing Iraqi insurgent groups that are attacking U.S. forces and wants it to stop. But the Iranians are countering with demands, both in public and through private channels, that the Bush administration break up an Iranian terrorist group, the Mujahedin e-Khalq, or MEK, that opposes the Iranian government and is being sheltered by U.S. forces in Iraq near the Iranian border, senior U.S. officials and academics said.
The MEK, however, has a big handicap: The U.S. government says it’s a terrorist organization. Officials cite its role in the murder of Americans in the 1970s and subsequent terror attacks that killed hundreds of Iranians. Another big blemish is the group’s long collaboration with Saddam Hussein. On top of all that, former members describe the MEK as a personality cult obsessed with celibacy and martyrdom.
As tensions between the U.S. and Iran continue to mount, an Iranian exile group viewed here as a terrorist organization is lobbying to play a greater role in the struggle against Tehran…The Mujahedeen-e Khalq, or People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, was formally listed as a terrorist group by the State Department because of its attacks on American military personnel and Iranian officials. It fiercely opposed the Shah and his supporters during the 1970s and allied with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in his 1980-88 war against Iran.
Washington — AS TENSIONS between the U.S. and Iran continue to mount, an Iranian exile group viewed here as a terrorist organization is lobbying to play a greater role in the struggle against Tehran. And it is winning some support in Congress.