If asked to name a terrorist organization most Americans could likely name Al Qaeda, Al Shabbab, and a few others. Few are probably familiar with the Mujahedin-e Khalq or Peoples Mujaheddin of Iran known by its initials MEK. Accused of killing American servicemen and contractors in the 1970s…
Now we can begin to understand how this relatively small player came to be the organisation that broke the news that Iran had been ‘secretly hiding’ uranium enrichment facilities from the IAEA for two decades. Capitalising on the issue du jour, Iran’s purported nuclear weapons, the MEK network focused on telling the Necocon chicken-hawks in Washington exactly what the Israelis wanted them to hear.
While the Journal doesn’t mention MeK’s reported role in the attacks, it does forecast what Iran’s response would be if MeK was delisted. ..”Many of Iran’s top leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were targets of MeK aka MKO/PMOI attacks during the 1980s.”Clearly, like any country, Iran takes assassination attempts on its people seriously.
If MEK had, as it claims, left its terrorist ways behind, this”delisting”of it, though geopolitically unfortunate, might be legally or morally defensible. However, within only the last few months, according to NBC News, MEK/MKO/PMOI agents have murdered people by placing bombs on their cars. The murdered people were Iranian scientists,
another story from Iran has received less media attention and could have long-term implications for the State Department’s handling of terror groups moving forward.A heavy hitting, bi-partisan lobbying effort has petitioned Secretary of State Hilary Clinton for the past two years to remove the organization called Mujahideen e-Khalq (or MeK) from the State Department’s terrorism list..
opponents of the MEK’s aka MKO/PMOI terrorist designation are willing to overlook prior transgressions if it means gaining a supposedly non-violent ally in the battle to undermine Iran.There are several problems with this line of thinking, however. For one, withdrawing the MEK’s terror designation would undeniably exacerbate tensions with Iran..
The Foreign Terrorism Organization list really doesn’t mean much if the way to get off it is by killing Iranian scientists at the behest of the US and Israel…The MeK/MKO/PMOI has engaged in an aggressive legal and lobbying campaign
In their latest report, which a top U.S. nuclear expert already said should be treated with great skepticism according to Haaretz,[MKo/MEK/PMOI] claims that there are 60 scientists and engineers currently playing a role in the alleged Iranian nuclear weapons program…
Why, then, nearly two months after it was revealed that the Treasury Department is investigating former Gov. Ed Rendell for receiving money from a terrorist group to undertake just that sort of advocacy, has he not been indicted by the Department of Justice?..
For some, it seems, although the MEK aka MKO/PMOI may be a terrorist group, it has the “right targets,” and therefore should be supported rather than banned.But the MEK is not simply a run-of-the-mill dissident group employing terrorist tactics. It is a bizarre and dangerous cult run by a strange and fanatical couple,The Rajavis..By legitimizing the MEK, Washington would lose almost all credibility when it comes to opposing terrorism.