Western Bloggers

Bill Richardson speaker fees linked to known terror group MEK

When former Gov. Bill Richardson left office he told New Mexicans he was looking forward to visiting baseball parks across the United States.

Instead, the former pitcher has been traveling around the world earning speaking fees.

Eyewitness News has learned some of Richardson’s fees were paid by an Iranian dissident group listed on the U.S. State Department’s list of known terrorist groups.

In addition to paying the former governor, the Mojahedin-e Khalq, also named MEK, has been spending millions to have Richardson and other diplomats, politicians and even former U.S. military generals use their influence to help them get de-listed.

In December 2011, Richardson, the former U.N. Ambassador, told the National Resistance Council in Paris, France that there is increasing international and bipartisan support for the group.

KOB found the video from Richardson’s speech in Paris on YouTube.

At least 33 high-ranking former U.S. officials have given speeches to MEK-friendly audiences since December of last year as part of more than 22 events in Washington, Brussels, London, Paris and Berlin.

While not every speaker accepted payment, MEK-affiliated groups have spent millions of dollars on speaking fees, according to interviews with the former officials, organizers.

Richardon is represented by the Washington Speakers’ Bureau and reportedly earns between $25,000 and $50,000 a speech.

Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the MEK agreed to give up its weapons arsenal in exchange for protection from the U.S. military.

But following a review in 2007, the U.S. State Department maintained the organization’s classification as a Foreign Terrorist Organization when it ruled the group still possessed the "capacity and will" to commit terrorist acts.

Exiled in Iraq, members of the MEK are suspected of assassinating nuclear scientists working for Iran’s nuclear development program.

Earlier this month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicated she has not made a decision to de-list MEK.

She said they must voluntarily relocate from their current camp to another location inside of Iraq first.

By: Peter St. Cyr, KOB Eyewitness News 4

March 12, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

What’s Up With All the MEK Ads?

The Prospect takes on the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq ads playing nonstop during campaign coverage.

If you’ve been watching cable news lately, there’s a good chance that you’ve noticed some out-of-the-ordinary adverts. Namely, a 30-second spot done in the grainy style of a spy-thriller flashback calling for the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian dissident group, to be taken off the official U.S. terrorist watch list. It’s a conspicuous outsider in the typical ad roster filled with car commercials and cholesterol meds, which might have led some viewers to wonder, “What’s up with that?”

Ask and ye shall receive.

What does the MEK purport to be?

As tabloid editors who traffic in celebrity divorces and teen-idol feuds well know, there are two sides to every juicy story. In the words of the commercial mentioned above, the “MEK is Iran’s democratic opposition working for a nuclear-free Iran founded on human rights.” The ad employs cinematically ominous music and a narrator whose vocal stylings are more stress-inducing than a pelvic exam, all to great effect. It closes with pictures of U.S. politicians and officials who have publicly supported the group, along with the imperative, “Secretary Clinton, for democracy and freedom in Iran, delist MEK.”

This sentiment is well in line with how supporters of the MEK portray the group—as a political movement with freedom-fighting roots going back to the overthrow of the shah. The MEK didn’t mesh well with Iran’s new Islamic government, however, (Marxist leanings appear to terrify powerful imams just as much as they do senators from Wisconsin), and its members were booted from the country in 1981.

Most MEK loyalists moved into a camp on the Iran/Iraq border and were materially supported by Saddam Hussein until his ouster. Over the course of the last three decades, they have been linked to attacks on Iranian embassies abroad, along with assassinations within Iran itself.

How does the U.S. government characterize the MEK?

As a Foreign Terrorist Organization, the official bad-guy label that the group earned from the State Department in 1997, the U.S.’s feelings about MEK are pretty clear. According to the official State Department report listing the MEK as a terrorist organization, which was obtained recently by NBC news, the group’s actions during the Iranian revolution were anti-American: “As part of that struggle, they assassinated at least six American citizens, supported the takeover of the U.S. embassy, and opposed the release of the American hostages.”

Most recently, the MEK has been accused of coordinating with Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, in the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist in January in the midst of busy downtown Tehran traffic.

Why is there talk of delisting?

In July 2010, a federal appeals court in D.C. ordered the State Department to reconsider the MEK’s place on the terrorist watch list. The court ordered the State Department to revise the MEK’s delineation as a terrorist group on the grounds that it was categorized without proper evidence brought by the government. The ruling mandated that Secretary Clinton come back with sufficient evidence and a ruling on the MEK designation within 180 days. Two years later, no such announcement has been made. In 2009, the European Union removed the MEK from its watch list.

The MEK sounds sketchy! How’d it get support from all those politicians in the pro-delisting TV ads?

The short answer is, to quote the inimitable Coolio, because of the “power and the money.”

Basically, through its Paris-based political wing, The National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), the MEK has been on a PR blitz as of late. The poster girl for the movement is Maryam Rajavi, who, along with her husband Massoud (whereabouts unknown—how glam!) runs the MEK’s operations. The current TV ad features her wearing a matronly suit and a purple hijab, smiling winningly for the cameras.

The quest for legitimacy in recent years has consisted of paying prominent U.S. political figures thousands of dollars to appear at pro-MEK speaking engagements. Payments are made through speaking agents with money from pro-MEK Iranian community organizations. Videos of Howard Dean, Patrick Kennedy, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and former National Security Adviser Jim Jones promoting the delisting of the MEK can all be found in the multimedia section of the NCRI’s website. Other delisting proponents are retired General Wesley Clark, former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, and former Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson.

Mitchell Reiss, Mitt Romney’s special adviser on foreign policy is another Washington pol who has publicly advocated for the MEK over the years.

Should we be weirded out by this whole campaign?

Yes. Very much.

First of all, the MEK is not well liked by the majority of Iranians because of the numerous acts of violence it has committed within the country. This means that it’s not really a viable regime-change option—which is the reason Washington insiders have been lining up on behalf of the group.

More disturbing is the fact that the MEK is basically a cult. In a 2009 report on the group, the Rand Corporation characterizes the MEK’s practices as “cultic” and their recruitment tactics as “deceptive,” noting that the group practiced “near-religious devotion to the Rajavis…public self-deprecation sessions, mandatory divorce, celibacy, enforced separation from family and friends, and gender segregation.” It goes on to describe efforts to attract new members with false promises of employment and marriage, and the confiscation of passports once recruits reached the MEK stronghold.

In her 2011 opinion piece in The New York Times, Elizabeth Rubin, who spent an extended amount of time in Camp Ashraf, the MEK stronghold by the Iran/Iraq border, echoes these sentiments and expresses dismay at the support from U.S. officials. Her basis for concern came largely from the conditions she witnessed at the camp and the former MEK members with whom she talked: “Friendships and all emotional relationships are forbidden. From the time they are toddlers, boys and girls are not allowed to speak to each other. Each day at Camp Ashraf you had to report your dreams and thoughts.”

What do these commercials mean for primary-campaign season?

Combined with the machismo “bomb Iran” rhetoric that has been bandied back and forth in this year’s GOP race, the airing of the pro-MEK ad during marquee events like the GOP debates is part of a disturbing trend. There have been MEK advocates in Washington for years, namely the Iran Policy Committee led by Raymond Tantur, a Georgetown University professor and former staff member of the National Security Council, but the hawkish leanings of the group meant that it wasn’t really part of the mainstream discourse. The spate of appearances by high-profile, mainstream public officials from both sides of the aisle is a whole different story—it lends a loud microphone to the MEK and bestows legitimacy by osmosis; coasting off of the reputations and connections of their paid supporters in Washington is a shrewd move by the group, one that could very well pay dividends.

Ramped-up talk about Iran from GOP candidates, including Romney, who lacks any real foreign-policy experience (the Olympics don’t count), coupled with the clever pro-MEK ad campaign could mean a softening of ground when it comes to public opinion of the group. There’s nothing like good polling numbers to sway a candidate with an immature foreign policy. After all, if a picture’s worth a thousand words, a cable ad is sure to pack a punch.

By Clare Malone – American Prospect

March 11, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Rudy and the MEK Terrorists

The MEK Terrorists Take Over Camp Liberty(TTL)

Terrorists rule America. They serve other terrorists. They employ other terrorists. They conspire and “plot and plan” with other terrorists. They betray other terrorists and they worship other terrorists. They use other terrorists to fulfill their terrorist agendas. They covet what some terrorists have while they lust for the same things that other terrorists want. Terrorists rule America. By deception they make war. By complicity they make allies. By terror they profit.
“There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it… I have now surpassed.
My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact, I want my pain to be inflicted on others… I want no one to escape.
But even after admitting this there is no catharsis, my punishment continues to elude me and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself. No new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This confession has meant… nothing.” Patrick Bateman
The U.S. State Department, under heavy pressure from a D.C. based advocacy group (the Global Initiative for Democracy) and their paid shills, has decided to hand over Camp Liberty ( Temporary Transit Location) in Iraq to a terrorist organization, the MEK, which has not only killed U.S. servicemen and committed acts of indiscriminate terror inside Iran, but under another name of their organization called the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) they also oversaw the slaughter of thousands of Iraqi Kurds, the very same Iraqi Kurds that the Bush administration eventually used as proof that Saddam Hussein must be removed from power because he was a brutal tyrant who killed his own people (those self-same Iraqi Kurds)
“U.N. special representative in Iraq Martin Kobler, with help from the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and the State Department, has organized efforts to relocate the MEK to Camp Liberty ( Temporary Transit Location), a former U.S. military base near the Baghdad airport. The first convoy of about 400 MEK members arrived there last month. The second convoy of about 400 MEK members arrived Thursday at Camp Liberty (TTL), Reuters reported” Foreign Policy
The MEK is listed as a terrorist organization at the State Department for a good reason: they’re terrorists… but like the Cuban exiles and the Contras and bin Laden… they’re our terrorists. They serve a purpose: mammon.
“MEK has carried out decades of brutal terrorist attacks, assassinations, and espionage against the Iranian government and its people, as well as targeting Americans including the attempted kidnapping of US Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II, the attempted assassination of USAF Brigadier General Harold Price, the successful assassination of Lieutenant Colonel Louis Lee Hawkins, the double assassinations of Colonel Paul Shaffer and Lieutenant Colonel Jack Turner, and the successful ambush and killing of American Rockwell International employees William Cottrell, Donald Smith, and Robert Krongard.

Admissions to the deaths of the Rockwell International employees can be found within a report written by former US State Department and Department of Defense official Lincoln Bloomfield Jr. on behalf of the lobbying firm Akin Gump in an attempt to dismiss concerns over MEK’s violent past and how it connects to its current campaign of armed terror – a testament to the depths of depravity from which Washington and London lobbyists operate.” Tony Cartalucci
How’s that for irony? We go to Iraq, supposedly to fight the Global War on Terror, we stage our soldiers have-way around the world at Camp Liberty (TTL) among other places, then we move (some) of them out and bring in the terrorists to take up residence at their old base which they defended with their lives from… the terrorists.
Irony is perhaps the wrong word. Maybe “insult” or “treason” would be a better choice.
The MEK (PMOI) is a cult of fanatical Iranian dissidents led by the husband and wife duo of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. They do not allow the women in their group of say 5,000 living in exile in Iraq to marry. They must devote their entire lives to the cause, and by extention to the Rajavis. While the MEK live in squalor in Iraq, hated by even the Iraqis for their terrorist and treasonous history, the Rajavis live in splendor in Paris occasionally jet-setting over to the U.S. to plead for more money and get their marching orders from Clinton or Cheney or whomever is in office at the time.
In 1981 after the Iranian Revolution, Massoud Rajavi planned and carried out a terrorist act against the new regime. It’s effects were devastating.
“The Mujahedeen (MEK) detonated a powerful bomb that killed more than 70 officials in the Iranian theocracy. (Today’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, lost the use of his right arm in one such explosion that year.)” New York Times
After being chased out of France long ago, the terrorist duo landed in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Massoud quickly betrayed his Iranian brothers by providing intel to Saddam that ended up causing the deaths of thousands of Iranians. Then, when Saddam faced an uprising in the north, it was the MEK (PMOI) he sent in to deal with it.
“Iraqi intelligence officers, Kurdish commanders and human rights groups — said that in 1991 Hussein used the Mujahedeen and its tanks as advance forces to crush the Kurdish uprisings in the north and the Shia uprisings in the south. And former Mujahedeen members remember Maryam Rajavi’s infamous command at the time: ”Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.”” New York Times
The PMOI (MEK) have a long history of terrorist activity but they also have a long history of being supported by certain factions within the United States… anyone who wishes to help Israel pick a fight and force a regime change in Iran.
Back in February there was a conference held by Iranian dissident groups who wish to cause the violent overthrow of the Iranian regime. Several retired U.S. politicians and intelligence officials decided to cash in on the momentum and help the terrorist organization, the MEK (PMOI), in their bid to be removed from the State Department’s terrorist organization list. The MEK touts a long list of this kind of supporter here in America.
“The campaign has included huge rallies outside the State Department, massive sit-ins at congressional hearings, and an ongoing vigil outside the State Department’s C Street entrance. MEK supporters there tout the support of a long list of officials, including Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, former Sen. Robert Torricelli, former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, former National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers, former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, former CIA Director Porter Goss, senior advisor to the Romney campaign Mitchell Reiss, retired Gen. Anthony Zinni, and former Sen. Evan Bayh.” Foreign Policy
The “famed” Watergate journalist, Carl Bernstein, recently spoke at a GID conference on behalf of the MEK and the dissident Iranians living outside Iran who want nothing more than to have the United States bomb the crap out of their home country so they can regain power and hand over the nations assets to their globalist banker CEO friends. This is part of what he said…
“One of the things that we do as journalists, the most important thing we do, is decide what is news. And this is news, … And one of the things we do when we decide what is news is we decide what portion of the story is devoted to what we know to be fact and what portion of the story is devoted to what we know is a lie.” “famed Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein“
Notice that Bernstein didn’t say that telling the truth or exposing the truth was the most important thing for journalists, but rather it’s deciding what is or is not news and then deciding what portion is true and what is a lie. That makes perfect sense considering it was the MEK who provided the now infamous “laptop” forgery that fingered Iran for having a nuclear program in the first place.
Interesting that Bernstein would make such a claim at a conference promoting the forced regime change in Iran on behalf of Israeli interests.
Right on cue, enter former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani claiming that Camp Liberty (TTL)isn’t good enough for his newly found terrorist friends. It was good enough for our soldiers who fought and died there, but apparently Rudy thinks it’s a “concentration camp” that is beneath the gold standard status of a well equipped terrorist training facility we should provide for the MEK.
“Camp Liberty (TTL): A Prison For Iranian Dissidents in Iraq,” reads a March 3 full-page ad in the New York Times, leveling the surprising accusation that the former U.S. military base is unfit for human occupation. The ad quotes former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani calling Camp Liberty (TTL) “a concentration camp” — a charge Giuliani made at an MEK-sponsored conference late last month in Paris.” Foreign Policy
Giuliani went on Fox News recently and spewed one outrageous lie after another dealing with Iran. The president, the intelligence community, even the Israeli Prime Minister all admit that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon program and has not as of yet even decided to create one. But that doesn’t stop someone like Giuliani from lying through his teeth except at the point where he says that if the MEK actually did commit terrorist acts in Iran killing nuclear scientists (teachers and workers at power plants) then they should be made TIME magazine’s persons of the year.
Some would say killing a scientist, a civilian, is an act of terrorism.
Giuliani: uh. uh. yes if they are building weapons of mass destruction to give to a madman. Would it be terrorism if we killed Hitler’s scientists?
)in fact, we didn’t kill Hitler’s scientists, we brought them over here and gave them security clearances. Operation Paperclip)
The lies and circular logic on display in this deplorable interview is enough to make your head explode. This is what the war-mongering chicken hawks are reduced to. Pay careful attention to the part near the end where Rudy wonders aloud that if we have to determine that the MEK are terrorists for killing Iranian scientists then we would also have to declare the people who attacked Libya and Syria as terrorists as well.
Well, since it’s WELL KNOWN that al Qaeda is committing acts of terrorism in Syria on behalf of the Free Syrian Army and since it’s also WELL KNOWN that several NTC leaders in Libya are ex-al Qaeda recruiters and trainers… yes, I guess we could make that conclusion, couldn’t we?
But Iran is not building weapons of mass destruction. WMDs are an affront to Islam according to their religious leaders. The scientists who were killed by the MEK and their glorious leaders the Rajavis were simply citizens murdered in an act of terrorism. After all, it is acknowledged by the United States and Israel both that Iran is not in fact building a nuclear weapon.
So by that standard, by Giuliani’s own admission, the MEK and Massoud and Maryam Rajavi are terrorists because the MEK did not murder people in the process of building a weapon of mass destruction to give to a madman, as Rudy so desperately put it.
Ergo, even by Rudy’s convoluted and desperate logic, the MEK are terrorists. Period.
The shock of seeing someone like Rudy Giuliani praise the terrorists who supposedly attacked us on 9/11 as “Persons of the Year” does not elicit even a dull pain these days. I saw it coming years ago.
What I find interesting is watching their panicked little dances around the history and the facts of the last few decades. It’s an ever spiraling streamer of tail flaming justifications and minced logic rushing headlong down the toilet that was once our great republic.
But the look on his face was priceless when that reporter asked the great “terrorist fighter” Rudy Giuliani if he was supporting terrorists by backing the MEK. You could see the toilet flushing in his little geeked out overloaded brain.
He certainly felt more at ease hanging out with them (what’s he doing? Chopping up lines with his credit card? (
Terrorists rule America. They serve other terrorists. They employ other terrorists. They conspire and “plot and plan” with other terrorists. They betray other terrorists and they worship other terrorists. They use other terrorists to fulfill their terrorist agendas. They covet what some terrorists have while they lust for the same things that other terrorists want. Terrorists rule America. By deception they make war. By complicity they make allies. By terror they profit.
by Scott Creighton

March 10, 2012 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Former MeK top official answers questions

Q & A with a reporter with Masoud Banisadr (author of Masoud: Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel, SAQI Books, 2004). I have had the pleasure of spending several hours with Masoud. In my professional opinion, the extreme influence (brainwashing) used by this destructive cult to recruit, indoctrinate and maintain control over their members ranks extremely high.

Good afternoon Masoud,

Thanks so much for speaking with me. I think e-mail will work best, so I’ve put my questions below. Just as background, I’m writing about the potential role that the People’s Mujahedin could have in the current situation in Iran – specifically if supporting the MEK either publically or covertly could be beneficial to the U.S. and Israel, or if it could have an effect – either positive or negative – on Iran’s nuclear program.

– Does funding or training the MEK or MEK operatives make strategic sense for either Israel or the United States? Or is it altogether a bad idea?

– Could the MEK be actively trying to sabotage the Iranian regime and its nuclear program?

– Is it in the United States’ interest to de-list the MEK as a terrorist organization?

– What are the negative consequences of supporting the MEK?

– If Israel chooses to launch a military strike against Iran, would the MEK be an important ally for Israel?

– If you don’t mind me asking, why did you leave the MEK and what are your views toward the organization now?

– Lastly, is there anything else I need to know, or anyone you think I should talk to?

Thanks again.

Best, reporter

Dear reporter: please find my reply to your questions as below:

First let me answer your final question as it will be a good base for answering your other questions.

My view toward MEK:

In my view MEK since 1985 has changed into a destructive cult, why and how? I have explained it in an article that you can find it in below address. In short, I believe all violent or terrorist groups to survive have no choice but to change into a destructive cult. When in 1981 MEK’s strategy and all its tactics changed into a blind terrorism; to survive, she had no choice but gradually to change into a cult.

http://www.banisadr.info/ICSA.htm

Fortunately now days many independent organizations, experts and even governments do agree that MEK has all the characteristics of a destructive cult; for example you can read the RAND report. You can find its full report in below address:

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG871.html

I believe cults although, to recruit and as a tool of manipulation need to have a doctrine or an ideology, but in reality they only have to principles that followers of the cult are loyal to and are ready to die for:

Survival of the cult with any price
Absolute obedience and loyalty toward the cult leader

To follow these two principles cults internally use different methods of mind manipulation (If you like to know more you can read my article on this subject in: http://www.banisadr.info/Inform.htm ) and externally they have theorized deceiving of others as part of their doctrine (in a way, I believe all destructive cults, ideologically are hypocrite); in simple word they openly and genuinely believe in ‘end justifies means’. Or in another word as Chameleon, they can change color in mater of few hours or even minutes due to circumstances or their immediate or long term interests.

After Iranian revolution, late seventies and early eighties MEK could change from a guerrilla (or terrorist organization according to different people’s definition) into a popular political group attracting thousands of young people. But after moving back to terrorism, ignoring and violating people’s ethics, beliefs and principles, especially working with Iraq’s president, Saddam Hussein after the incursion of Iraq into Iran, they lost all their support inside Iran and as matter of fact in public view they changed into a traitor organization. Although they have about 3400 members in Iraq and another few thousands supporters in Europe and America, talking with any other Iranian (pro or against Iranian government, inside or outside of Iran) you can find out that, they are very much hated among Iranian and this is why no other opposition group (inside or outside or Iran) is ready to work with them.

Average age of MEK members is about 45, and since they were disarmed by Americans in 2003, I can say majority of their members are too old and untrained for any real and effective military activities. Saying this, doesn’t mean that they cannot change back into a terrorist, able to kill few more soft targets, such as Iranian scientists.

– Does funding or training the MEK or MEK operatives make strategic sense for either Israel or the United States? Or is it altogether a bad idea?

First; MEK is a destructive cult, to be a cult means, they always pursue their own specific interest. They might be useful in one occasion or another, but as a whole as they are not loyal toward any norms, ethics, principles or mutual agreement (except those two values of all destructive cults, mentioned above) like Al Qaeda, they cannot be trusted. Therefore strategically I believe it is not in the interest of anybody or any country to trust, not only the MEK but any destructive cults and should take note that any cooperation with them might soon change into their own nightmares as cooperation of the United States with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan during Soviet’s occupation, ended with the 9/11.

Second; I have to separate your question in two parts first about Israel and then United States; as I think their interest on Iran, while due to lobby of AIPAC, it seems are the same, strategically are different.

I genuinely think and feel, if the United States accepts the era of Shah has gone forever and recognizes Iran as it is; not only strategically they can live in peace with each other but also they might even change into a close allies (Well if you ask me why, then I have to write an essay, explaining culture of Iranian that is totally different from its western Arab neighbors or its civilization and its social and scientific progress which is different from its eastern and northern neighbors …) . However, even if the United States against its own interest and just for sake of tactical interest of Israel decides to work against present regime in Iran, it is against its own interest to capitalize on a group that, is a destructive cult, is like a balloon that looks big from without (because of sophistication of its propaganda tools) but empty from within; hated among Iranian and has no chance of gaining any support among them (Inside or outside of the country. Please don’t be deceived by MEK’s propaganda tricks including moving their two to three thousands members and supporters from one country to another or use of other nationalities in their gatherings for show of support among Iranian. Iran’s population is about 75 Million and there are more than two million Iranian who live in the United States and perhaps another million who live in Europe).

For Israel, again if you are talking about strategic interest of Israelis, I feel and think their long term interest is in reaching to some kind of agreement with Palestinians and live with them in peace, coexistence and cooperation. In this case I think even present regime of Iran, not only is not an obstacle, but even can help both sides to reach to long lasting peace and friendship (As Jews have lived in Iran for thousands of years in peace and harmony with their Zoroastrian, Muslim and Christian neighbors). But if you are talking about government of Israel and especially its present extreme right wing government, although in the past they have used MEK for example for announcing Israel’s findings about Nathans enrichment site (where no other Iranian opposition group agreed to do this job) and they might have used them for assassination of Iranian scientists, still I think trusting a cult is not a good idea. Capitalizing on people who are under mind control of a destructive cult; all of them live in a psychological isolation and more than half of them have to live both in psychological and physical isolation from the wider society to remain loyal to the group and its leader, is very bad idea even for present government of Israel. I am sure they can find younger and more loyal mercenaries to do their dirty job rather than cooperating with MEK.

Final word on this question; I genuinely think any cooperation of either the West, the United States or Israel with MEK is only beneficial to Iranian Regime in showing to Iranian; against all claims of the West for being supportive of Human Rights, Democracy and being against Terrorists, what kind of people they are supporting and what kind of government they are hoping to establish in Iran.

– Could the MEK be actively trying to sabotage the Iranian regime and its nuclear program?

It is more than thirty years that they are trying to harm Iran, and have not done much except terrorizing and killing few thousands soft targets and manipulating and deceiving few reporters and members of parliaments of Western countries. If during Sadam Hussein, when they were much younger, more united, and could benefit from unlimited resources of Iraq, including money, arms, and training, still couldn’t do much against Iran, or sabotaging any activity of Iran; it is very difficult to imagine they can do anything effective now.

– Is it in the United States’ interest to de-list the MEK as a terrorist organization?

I wish all countries including the United States had a law against destructive cults; then there was no needs to have a law against terrorist groups as all terrorist organizations, to survive eventually have to change into a destructive cult. Please don’t forget that all destructive cults cannot be trusted for what they claim they are, and all of them can violate all civilized norms and ethics to survive.

But as for now no country except perhaps France has such a law, de listing MEK in my view is a very bad idea. It will damage US claims of being against terrorists, or supportive of democratic groups (at least among Iranian); gives legitimacy to a destructive cult that violates all rights of its members; and damages long term relation between Americans and Iranian people. I feel it even might damage US’s prestige among Iranian, as bad as 1953 CIA’s coup d’état in Iran.

– What are the negative consequences of supporting the MEK?

I guess I answered it above.

– If Israel chooses to launch a military strike against Iran, would the MEK be an important ally for Israel?

How?! I cannot see it. When we are talking about Israel’s military strike, we are only are talking about its Air strike and in this case they don’t need any people in the country as they have all the satellite plan of Iranian nuclear sites. Israel knows very well that with one, two or few even successful air strike against Iran, she cannot destroy nuclear activities of Iran; therefore I feel their aim would be to force Iran into a reaction which eventually will force the United States into war against Iran. In this case neither MEK, nor any other opposition groups are useful for either the US or Israel as Iraqis opposition groups were useless when the real war started against Sadam Hussein. For sure in this scenario all Iranian, including Iranian oppositions (inside and outside of Iran) will support present Iranian government.

– If you don’t mind me asking, why did you leave the MEK and what are your views toward the organization now?

If you ask those who leave destructive cults, you might receive different answers. They might claim, suddenly they realized how bad they are; how manipulating they are; how much they deceive ordinary people for soliciting money or else; … in case of MEK, I have met those who claim; they suddenly realized that the organization is a traitor toward Iranian people, collaborating with Iranian enemies; or left them when they collaborated with Sadam Hussein, in suppressing and killing Iraqi Kurds, … But my sincere and honest answer is: I left them as I couldn’t change myself anymore and give them the reminder of my own personality, identity and individuality.

Between 1978, when, we (I and my ex wife) became MEK’s supporter till 1996 when I escaped, through use of different techniques of mind manipulation I was forced to give them whatever they asked me; first any capital or material things we had; then any love, attachments or relation we had with our country, our family and friends in Iran; then when they asked all members to divorce their spouses, I lost love of my life, my dear wife and could not see my children for almost six years; I lost part of my health, and many times were on the edge of dying for them. Then in final stage of their system of mind manipulation, they asked us to divorce ourselves, our identity and personality; I tried and lost big part of it, but couldn’t do more so I escaped. I honestly cannot understand or accept claims of others who say they realized this or that so they left, as I think those who are under mind manipulation of a destructive cult, have no chance of seeing or realizing what they are doing or saying, to reject it. Only when they escape, by chance or due to inability to give what cults wants them to do more; and only after years of hard work they might be able to realize what has happened to them and what have they done for the cult.

– Lastly, is there anything else I need to know, or anyone you think I should talk to?

I guess I have said more than enough and perhaps by now, have given you a headache.

Best wishes Masoud
Steve Hassan, Freedom of mind,

February 28, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Mossad practicing its motto in bomb plots

"By Way Of Deception, Thou Shalt Do War"

The motto of Mossad has long been based on practicing the art of deception to engage in covert and overt warfare. Mossad’s motto "By Way of Deception, Thou Shalt Do War" (Hebrew: be-tahb?l?t ta`aseh lekh? milkham?h) is being carried out in supposed Iranian-engineered bomb plots against Israeli diplomats in New Delhi, India; Tbilisi, Georgia; and Bangkok, Thailand.

The Israeli ambassador to Thailand, Itzhak Shoham, is alleging that the latest bomb plot in Bangkok, in which two men said to be carrying Iranian passports were caught trying to carry out a bomb plot against Israeli diplomatic targets, were similar to two other operations in Tbilisi and New Delhi. The Tbilisi and New Delhi operations saw amateurish homemade magnetic "sticky bombs," similar to those that Israel and the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) have used to carry out car bomb assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists in Iran, being used against Israeli embassy targets.

In Bangkok, "sticky bombs" made from C-4 explosives went off prematurely in the home of two suspects. The residence is located on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok. One of the alleged Iranians caught by Thai police is Saeid Moradi. Moradi lost his legs while tossing a grenade at police while they were chasing Moradi.

Earlier, a bomb attached to an Israeli diplomatic vehicle exploded, slightly wounding the wife of an Israeli diplomat. The woman was released from the hospital later the same day. In Tbilisi, a bomb attached to an Israeli diplomatic vehicle was defused before it as detonated.

Israeli officials have promised retaliation for the alleged Iranian attacks. However, Iran has stated that Israel carried out the attacks in order to damage Tehran’s good relations with India, Georgia, and Thailand. Thailand recently recognized the statehood of Palestine.

Thai authorities had been expecting a Mossad operation for the past month in retaliation for Thailand’s recognition of Palestine. The alleged "Iranian" operation in Bangkok comes just after the triennial Cobra Gold exercise that involved U.S. Special Forces, Thai and other troops from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Indonesia, as well as invited Israeli military observers. Cobra Gold wrapped up on February 13. The exercises were based out of the Sattahip naval base near Chonburi.

Moradi, the alleged Iranian grenade thrower, flew to Bangkok from Seoul. After arriving in Thailand, Moradi traveled to Phuket and then to Chonburi, remaining for several days during the Cobra Gold exercise. It is believed by Thai sources that Moradi obtained the hand grenades from the U.S. Special Forces team in Chonburi.

Moradi threw the grenades at police on Sukhumvit Soi 7 in the Nana area of Bangkok. This is an area that services sex tourists from the Arab Middle East and Islamic countries. There are no Israeli targets of opportunity in the Sukhumvit No. 7 area. The Israeli embassy is located on Sukhumvit Soi 19, far from the location of the grenade incident.

Typical sign found in Soi 7: not the type of neighborhood one would expect seasoned Iranian Shi’a Muslim agents sworn to die for Ayatollah Khamenei and Allah would be plotting their attack on the Israeli embassy.

The female room mate of the trio of Iranian suspects was staying in the Ekkamai district, several kilometers from the Sukhumvit safe house location. It is believed that the Ekkamai residence was where the "Iranians" were actually staying. To get to Sukhumvit Soi 7/Nana from Ekkamai, Moradi would have taken a taxi or the Skytrain twelve blocks past the Israeli embassy. It is believed that Moradi was hiding from the Thai police in the Nana Arab district. If Moradi were an Iranian agent, the question remains why he was staying in locations far from the Israeli embassy, as well as the Chabad House, which is on the other side of Bangkok, and why he did not use the occasion of passing by the Israeli embassy to make a dash for the compound or the diplomatic vehicles, if, as Israeli officials have stated, the Bangkok operation was a mirror of the operations in New Delhi and Tbilisi.

UPDATE: WMR has learned from Thai sources that the Ekkamai safe house was being used as an assembly center for car explosives. The devices were magnetic packages that were designed to be detonated by radio signal. The targets were not Israeli facilities in Thailand. The bomb packages were being shipped by the MEK from Thailand to Iran disguised as consumer electronics. The Thailand-to-Iran route is how previous car bombs targeting Iranian scientists were being smuggled into Iran. The operation involved "for-hire" ex-U.S. Special Forces personnel and is funded by Mossad.

The MEK rented the Ekkamai safe house in early December 2011. On January 11, Iranian chemical engineer Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan was killed after a magnetic bomb that was slapped on to his car in a northern suburb of Tehran exploded. The small bomb that killed Ahmadi-Roshan was shipped from Thailand to Iran was very small and hidden inside a mobile phone carton. Similar bombs have been shipped from the Ekkamai safe house to Iran.

The Valentine’s Day incident in Bangkok came a month after the Tehran blast. The accidental blast in Bangkok occurred after the Mossad-directed MEK team picked up C4 in Chonburi and technical and operational instructions in Phuket, over the previous week.
The Ekkamai safe house was an independent, small 2-story glass-and-sheetmetal structure with a garage and a tall concrete block wall in front. The facility was an obvious factory operation. Only the ground floor was damaged with shattered windows on the doors and the front door leaning on broken hinges. The second story windows were not damaged. An aerial shot of the Ekkamai safe house shows the front part of the roof blown through with tiles missing and a rectangular hole.

A number of international terrorism experts claim the Bangkok operation lacked the sophistication that would be expected from Iranian intelligence or Iran’s Quds special operations force.

The C4 used in the bombs that went off prematurely in the Sukhumvit safe house were of standard U.S. Navy issue. Since 2001, most of the explosives used for U.S. covert operations/false flag attacks in southern Thailand, Indonesia, and Myanmar originated from the large weapons arsenal located at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Fallon, Nevada.

In past covert/false flag operations, the C4 was smuggled into Thailand by retired U.S. military personnel operating under the cover of the U.S. Missing in Action program in Laos. The C4 used by the alleged bombers in Sukhumvit was diverted from the Cobra Gold exercise.

Thai sources also point out that Moradi is of Persian Jewish origin. A number of prominent Iranian Jewish families, some of whom are in exile in the United States, have the last name Moradi. In 2004, the Simon Wiesenthal Center posthumously honored Iranian diplomat Abol-Hassan Sardari, the Iranian consul in Paris during the Nazi occupation, for saving the life of an Iranian Jew named Ibrahim Moradi. Moradi is also a common name among Kurdish Jews who live in northern Iran.

by Wayne Madsen – Opinion

February 28, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Exposing The Israeli-Mossad False Flag Terror

"It would be far more preferable if the USA could cite an Iranian provocation as justification for the airstrikes before launching them. Clearly the outrageous, the more deadly & the more unprovoked the Iranian action, the better off the USA will be. Of course, it would be very difficult for the US to goad Iran into such a provocation, without the rest of the world recognizing the game, which would then undermine it. One method that would have some possibility of success would be to ratchet up covert regime change efforts in the hope that Tehran would retaliate overtly, or even-semi-overtly, which would then be portrayed as an act of unprovoked Iranian aggression."

(US Foreign Policy makers, Brookings Institution’s 2009 report, pages84-85)

"Attack on Iran imminent this summer" – (General Nikolai Makarov, Russian General Staff)

The terror attacks in New Delhi & in Tbilisi (Georgia), Baku (Azerbaijan) & Bangkok (Thailand) are another round of false-flag terror (http://mailstar.net/ostrovsky.html) being waged by the Israeli Mossad to achieve its strategic objectives by targeting Iran & the Hezbollah, which is a resistance movement. The timing of the false-flag terror attack is very interesting. It comes at the precise moment when India has refused to enforce the US-Israeli-EU sanctions against Iran & when Indo-Iran ties are witnessing a new strategic rethink in Delhi, where Pranab Mukherjee in a visit to the US, refused to abide by the sanctions. Also both India & Iran have agreed on a Rupee Trade & barter system, thus avoiding the use of the USD regime.

Also the Tbilisi, Georgia bombings though not of a serious nature, are making international headlines, with Iran & Hezbollah being mentioned by PM Netanyahu. Georgia & Azerbaijan are both US-Israeli satellite states, with a strong presence of CIA-Mossad operatives & security advisers present in both the nations.

The riddle of Bangkok, where Iranians have been injured in the blasts, needs to be understood & it is a very simple matter to comprehend. The Mujahedeen Khalq (MKO/MEK), is a terrorist organization comprising of disgruntled Iranians who are now working for the CIA & the Mossad. The MKO-MEK , is openly supported by the US-Israel as their strategic allies & they are the ones who are responsible for the assassinations of the Iranian nuclear scientists & terror attacks within Iran.

Time & again the Chabad Lubavitch members & houses are involved with acts of terror & drug smuggling operations. Chabad Houses, under the guise of religious centres are also dens of espionage & used by Mossad operatives the world over. Thus the Chabad Lubavitch centres across the country need to be probed by the government agencies, as they certainly pose a grave security threat.

There has been increased activity of Israeli "tourists", where a number of them have been caught red-handed with revolvers, live ammunition & satellite phones in the last 5 years. Due to the direct intervention of the Israeli embassy, they are let of by the police within 24 hours, despite the fact that they are foreigners & supposedly "tourists". Recently an Israeli couple Shenor Zalman & Yaffa Shenoi were ordered to be deported from Kochi (Kerala), after being under surveillance by the RAW & the Police authorities & were suspected of being involved in drug smuggling & espionage as Kochi is a sensitive Indian Naval base. They are still to be deported pending a court order. This false-flag attack has once again opened the doors for more Mossad agents to come into India, under the pretext of security considerations & joint investigations.

In the Indian context, the Hindutva-RSS are once again under pressure as the NIA-ATS have arrested another of their activists, Kamal Chauhan from Indore in connection with the Samjhauta train terror attack, previously blamed on Pakistan. These arrests also come at a time when the crucial UP & 4 other state elections are on & in any case the BJP is under pressure due to many other issues of corruption & morality where it stands utterly exposed. Thus this terror attack, surely helps to change the national headlines & priorities.

The terror attack has again been carried out in a high-security area, barely a few hundred meters away for the residence of the PM himself & thus this is not possible without the collusion & support of certain sections of the IB-RAW that are aligned to the Mossad & CIA. Also has the visit of SM Krishna (being probed for a multi-crore iron ore scam) to Israel got some relation with this false-flag attack? Clearly there is a struggle within the Indian government & bureaucracy in terms of our alignment with the Imperial-Zionist powers & the other that represents the Non-Aligned Movement & Third World Solidarity

But the more crucial point is that, Israel-Mossad will use the strategy of false-flag terror to further demonize-isolate & escalate the warmongering against Iran & the Hezbollah & finally against the Fatah, Hamas, PLO & the rest of the Palestinian national resistance as they continue to unite & forge a common front & strategy against the Israeli occupation, based on collective popular mass resistance.

Israel & its Zionist allies are fabricating false-flag terror attacks, finally leading to another massive 9/11 style false flag on US & possibly European soil, after which we will witness an Israeli attack on Iran, with the backing of the Western powers, who will immediately step in.

Thus it is necessary to expose the Israeli-Mossad-CIA role in the 9/11 terror attacks, as that started a new wave of Zionist-imperial intervention, wars & an ongoing genocidal holocaust of the Third World nations.

A war is on the horizon . . .we are heading towards WWIII & now India is being prepared to fight that war on the side of the Imperial-Zionist powers.

Feroze Mithiborwala is a peace activist in Mumbai. He led the Asia to Gaza peace flotilla.

By Feroze Mithiborwala – Counter Currents

February 27, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The group assassinated Iran’s scientists wants to be delisted

Yet, the MEK, also referred to as the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, or PMOI, has a history of having killed American citizens, was allied with the Iraqi regime of President Saddam Hussein and has been closely associated with the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida.

A virulently anti-Iranian terrorist group has been credited by U.S. intelligence sources for the recent killings of Iranian nuclear scientists and Iran’s major missile developer, even while the organization is promoting a public relations effort – with the support of prominent Americans – to The group that assassinated Iran's scientists wants to be delisted be removed from the U.S. State Department’s terrorist list.

Sources confirm that the Mujahedin-e-Khalq organization, which also is referred to as MEK or MKO, was involved with Israel in the current round of assassinations of two Iranian nuclear scientists and Iran’s top missile designer. To date, some five Iranian nuclear scientists have been targeted.

Separately, the British Daily Mail reports that U.S. officials have confirmed that Israel has been funding and training Iranian dissidents to assassinate nuclear scientists involved in Iran’s nuclear program.

U.S. officials also confirmed similar information to NBC News but quickly added that the United States isn’t involved in the assassinations of the Iranian nuclear scientists, although it apparently is aware of the alleged connection between the Israeli intelligence service Mossad and the MEK.

U.S. sources confirm the close relationship between Israel’s Mossad and the MEK. The association hasn’t gone unnoticed by Iranian officials.

"The relation is very intricate and close," according to Mohammad Javad Larijani, who is a senior aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s current supreme leader. "They (Israelis) are paying the mujahedin. Some of their (MEK) agents are providing Israel with information. And they recruit and also manage logistical support.

"Israel does not have direct access to our society," Larijani added. "Mujahedin, being Iranian and being part of Iranian society, they have a good number of places to get in touch with people. So, I think they are working hand-to-hand very close. And we do have very concrete documents."

Larijani apparently was referring to an interrogation of an MEK member in a failed assassination attempt in 2010 in which such documentation reportedly was found on him. Despite confirmation by U.S. intelligence sources of MEK involvement in continued assassinations, the MEK seeks to be removed from the U.S. terrorism list – a goal which has the backing from notable Americans, several members of Congress and a prominent Washington-based law firm.

The effort to delist the MEK is led by groups on both the left and right of the American political spectrum because of its anti-Iranian position and opposition to the Muslim clerics which lead the Islamic republic.

In August 1998, for example, the MEK received assistance from the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida to assassinate 11 Iranian diplomats, journalists and innocent civilians in an attack on Shi’a Muslims in Afghanistan.

The MEK was first established in the 1960s by the college-educated children of many Iranian merchants who sought to counter what they viewed as excessive Western influence with the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a closed U.S. ally who reigned from 1941 to 1979 when the Islamic Revolution took place installing the clerics under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In events leading up to the overthrow of the shah, the MEK staged numerous terrorist attacks inside Iran and killed a number of U.S. military personnel and civilians working on defense projects in Tehran.

The MEK also backed the takeover in 1979 of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and for a time backed the clerics led by Ayatollah Khomeini against nationalists and moderates within the revolution.

However, a power struggle occurred in late 1980 and by mid-1981 the MEK was engaged in street battles against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

The MEK sided with the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. The group actually received refuge from Hussein and conducted attacks on Iran from within Iraqi territory.

U.S. intelligence sources tell G2Bulletin that the MEK was involved in the movement of al-Qaida members into eastern Iran after the October 2001 invasion of Afghanistan to escape U.S. detection. The eastern portion of Iran is regarded as a lawless Sunni haven of tribes loyal to al-Qaida. The region borders the Baluchistan province in neighboring Pakistan where many members of al-Qaida reside, along with other Sunni Islamist militants.

Iraq’s Hussein provided financial and logistical assistance to the MEK as a counter-balance to Shi’a Tehran.

Yet, the MEK in 2006 claimed that it had renounced violence in 2001 as it was seeking to have funds unfrozen by the European Union, which ultimately occurred.

With deep financial pockets, however, the MEK today has begun a major public relations campaign in the United States to be removed, or "delisted," from the State Department’s U.S. terrorist list, formally known as the Foreign Terrorist Organization, list.

The MEK has enlisted the help of former U.S. cabinet members and other former American officials from both the left and right of the political spectrum. It also has legal representation for its delisting activities from a highly expensive Washington-based law firm, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.

The campaign to get delisted began in earnest last year with a kickoff event at the swanky Williard Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Notable Washington insiders who have been tapped to speak on MEK’s behalf include Louis Freeh, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Hugh Shelton; former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean; John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; Gen. Wesley Clark, retired former NATO supreme allied commander; Ed Rendell, former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania; Rudolph Giulani, former mayor of New York City; Porter Goss, former director of Central Intelligence; Lee Hamilton, former co-chairman of the 9/11 Commission; retired Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of Central Intelligence; and Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico, among others.

In all, some 33 high-ranking former U.S. officials were listed as "prominent speakers at MEK-related Meetings and Conferences from December 2010-July 2011," based on a list compiled by the Huffington Post.

In addition to Washington, events for MEK’s delisting efforts have featured these and other prominent speakers in Berlin, Brussels, London and Paris.

Because the MEK still is on the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list, these speakers cannot be paid directly. While MEK reportedly is spending millions of dollars to obtain these speakers, they are paid indirectly through numerous private Iranian-American booking agents who, in turn, pay the prominent American speakers from $20,000 to $40,000 for just an eight to 10 minute speech on MEK’s behalf.

In that way, the speakers technically aren’t accepting money directly from a terrorist organization, even though in presenting their speeches on behalf of the MEK they know the source of the money.

Now, the MEK is blanketing U.S. television with advertisements nationwide calling for the group’s delisting.

A State Department spokesman refused to comment on ongoing deliberations to consider the MEK’s request to be delisted, a process which formally has been under way for more than a year. However, the State Department has yet to make a decision.

By Michael Maloof – Business Insider

February 26, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MEK is not democrats or freedom fighters

These are not democrats or freedom fighters. The more you get to know them the more they seem closer to some kind of odd, almost Manson-like cult. Maryam Rajavi is their leader and she Mujahedin Khalq is not democrats or freedom fighters (her husband yielded to her years ago since a woman leader impresses Westerners) will be President of Iran when they somehow sweep away the clerical regime.

Trita Parsi (an MEI adjunct scholar by the way) has a good post up at The Huffington Post about the People’s Mojahedin of Iran/Mohahedin-e-Khalq (PMOI or MEK) efforts to get themselves off the US terrorism supporters list. His lead says it all succinctly:

In the 10 years that I have lived in Washington, I have never seen lobbyists for al-Qaeda parade through the halls of Congress. I have not seen any events on Capitol Hill organized by Hamas. And I have not seen any American politicians take campaign contributions from the Islamic Jihad.
But the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an organization with the blood of Americans and Iranians alike on its hands, freely does all of these things, despite being a designated foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

I’ve been here a lot longer than ten years, but I share his view. The MEK have been lobbying hard in Washington since the 80s at least, despite being on the terrorist list for killing American diplomats and military personnel in the days of the Shah. They’re slick, they’re well funded (how?) and they seem able to persuade Congressmen who would never respond to an Arab group in the same way. Yet besides their track record of killing US personnel in the Shah’s day, they are based in Iraq, fought on the side of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war, maintain to this day a cult like "Camp Ashraf" in Iraq that the Iraqi government is pressuring to leave and threatening to deport to Iran, have a true cult of personality about their leadership, and are uniformly hated by every Iranian I know who isn’t one of them, from Pahlavi restorationists to leftists to liberal democrats to people who support the current system. After all, they fought for Saddam against Iranians, and are traitors in the eyes even of those who hate the clerical regime.

Their PR skills are good. In my journalism days they used to drop by regularly to try to cultivate me, and while I listened politely, I had too many US military friends who’d served in pre-revolutionary Iran and knew them as their primary nemesis. (The MEK claim that was because their current leadership was in jail under the Shah, and all the bad stuff was done by somebody else.)

True story: I’ve only been in Iraq once, for about five days in 1989 in between the Iran-Iraq war and the Kuwait war. I was getting in an elevator in the Sheraton Hotel when a smallish man in an impeccable suit stepped in and asked if I was an American. My first thought was, gosh, he looks and carries himself just like the MEK guys in DC. Guess what? That’s exactly who he was. With exactly the same missionary spiel.

These are not democrats or freedom fighters. The more you get to know them the more they seem closer to some kind of odd, almost Manson-like cult. Maryam Rajavi is their leader and she (her husband yielded to her years ago since a woman leader impresses Westerners) will be President of Iran when they somehow sweep away the clerical regime. Not through election, through acclamation. She’s the Evita Peron of Iran, or at least a wannabe.

I have no brief for the Iranian regime, but these guys worry me, especially for their strange, Svengali-like power over members of Congress from both sides of the aisle. I applaud Trita’s warning here. Let the Buyer Beware.

by Michael Collins Dunn – mideasti.blogspot

February 25, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The Obama-al-Qaeda-MEK Connection

When Will We throw This Bum out?
The Obama-al-Qaeda-MEK Connection

British puppet President Barack Obama has entered into an alliance with two of the worlds leading terrorist organizations—al-Qaeda and the Mujahideen e-Khalq (MEK)—in his zeal to overthrow the present governments in Syria and Iran. The Obama-al-Qaeda marriage of convenience is particularly deep and it centers on the drive to overthrow the government of Bashar Assad in Damascus, through an armed opposition.

U.S. intelligence agencies are aware that the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) has no actual military capabilities inside Syria, and consists largely of a group of defectors from the Syrian Army who are safe-housed on military bases inside Turkey. All of the significant military actions targeted at the Syrian government have been carried out by al-Qaeda terrorists, who have infiltrated the country from Iraq. The suicide bombings in Damascus and Aleppo, the assassinations of Syrian government and military officials, and the sabotage of pipelines and other infrastructure have all been carried out by al-Qaeda. Despite widespread evidence in the hands of U.S. intelligence agencies, President Obama continues to join hands with the new al-Qaeda head, Ayman al-Zawaheri, in calling for the violent removal of President Assad from power.

The idea that the President of the United States is so blatantly in bed with the terrorists who carried out the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001 should be sufficient grounds for his immediate removal from office, under the impeachment provisions of the U.S. Constitution or Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Last year, following the U.S. Navy SEAL Team killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin-Laden, President Obama did cartwheels to claim credit for the act. Now, he is allied with the very same 9/11 perpetrators in pushing for a war in the Persian Gulf that will rapidly expand into a global thermonuclear confrontation with Russia and China.

The British Role
As well-documented in Executive Intelligence Review, the al-Qaeda attacks of 9/11 were carried out with the full support of the Anglo-Saudi Al Yamamah apparatus. Under the al-Yamamah oil-for-arms deal, launched in 1985 and continued through to the present, British intelligence and the Saudis created a string of offshore covert operations funds, which directly financed the 9/11 attacks. Al-Yamamah funds, in excess of $2 billion, were funneled to Saudi Prince Bandar bin-Sultan, and at least $50,000 of those funds went to the San Diego-based team of 9/11 hijackers. A Joint Congressional Select Committee, probing the 9/11 attacks, established evidence of the Bandar-al-Qaeda funding, but the 28-page chapter detailing this evidence was suppressed by the George W. Bush White House. At the start of his administration, President Obama promised family members of the 9/11 victims that he would release the 28 pages, but he never kept his promise, and moved to further suppress the evidence of al-Yamamah angle on the attacks, thus protecting his British masters along with the Saudi Royals.

To this day, former Senator Bob Graham (D-Fla.), who co-chaired the Congressional probe, insists that the cover-up of the Saudi Monarchy’s complicity in the attacks must be exposed publicly.

President Obama’s embrace of the 9/11 terrorists, after the fact, constitutes a scandal of enormous proportions for this Administration, and underscores further the hypocrisy of Obamas efforts to exploit the bin-Laden assassination, while he colludes with the remnants of al-Qaeda.

The same is true of the President’s collusion with the Mujahideen e-Khalq, an Iranian terrorist group that has been on the U.S. State Departments list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations since its inception in 1997. MEK assassinated a number of U.S. military personnel in Iran in the 1970s, actively participated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and then fled to Iraq and allied with Saddam Hussein, after they were purged from the Islamic Republic leadership. In recent weeks, MEK has been linked to the assassinations of Iranian scientists. This week, the Bangkok Post revealed that Thai authorities believe that MEK terrorists were behind foiled attempts to attack Israeli officials. Those attacks were loudly blamed on the Iranian government, and fed the drive to launch military action against Iran.

While the Obama Administration has attempted to keep a distance from the assassinations and bombings and other acts of sabotage inside Iran over the past two years, MEK has been protected by U.S. military forces at Camp Ashraf inside Iraq, ever since the U.S. invasion of that country in March 2003.

Executive Inteligence Review

February 25, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Bangkok bomb suspects were MKO members

Four Iranians suspected of involvement in a botched bomb plot targeting Israeli diplomats in Bangkok were members of an exiled Iranian opposition group which wanted the incident to reflect badly on Teheran, Syedsulaiman Husaini, Shia leader of Thailand, said on Sunday. Bangkok bomb suspects were members of Mojahedin Khalq

He claimed the four belonged to the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organisation (also known as MEK, MKO and the People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran, or PMOI) which aims to overthrow the current Iranian government.

The MEK has been on the US Department of State’s list of foreign terrorist organisations since 1997.

Thai authorities and security agencies were not familiar with the group, said Mr Syedsulaima, who is also director of the Islamic studies centre at Al Mahdi Institute and former president of the Iran University Alumni Association.

The Islamic scholar said the bomb incident was unlikely to be the work of the Iranian government as speculated because Bangkok and Teheran have good bilateral relations.

A secret report by Iran’s security agency also indicated that the Iran nationals linked with Bangkok’s latest bomb plot were members of the MEK, reports said.

Formed in the 1960s, the organisation participated in Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution that replaced the country’s pro-Western ruler, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with a Shi’ite Islamist regime led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. The MEK, whose ideology mixes Marxism and Islam, was expelled from Iran two years later after trying to stage an armed uprising against Khomeini.

Bangkok Post,

February 21, 2012 0 comments

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