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More on “Washington’s Favorite Terrorists,” the MEK

Iranian politics are complex and can be as confusing as US foreign policy is on Iran, but of this you can be certain: the MEK and it’s “parliament in-waiting” is considered illegitimate at best by the vast majority of Iranians living inside and outside of Iran. It can’t serve the interests of the US government or normal Iranians either.But that doesn’t seem to matter to the likes of Rudy Giuliani, Tom Ridge, John Bolton and other neoconservatives, far right-wingers and their European counterparts..is it naive to hope that the mainstream media which failed so badly in the run up to the Iraq war with figures like Ahmed Chalabi will give this group better investigative coverage?

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Mujahedin Khalq are not democrats or freedom fighters

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 seem able to persuade Congressmen .. 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 cultlike”Camp Ashraf”in Iraq..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 ..

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Bachmann and the Mujahideen e-Khalq

I was disappointed, therefore, to see Bachmann’s uncritical support for the Mujahideen e-Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK/PMOI), which the State Department defines as a terror group…I also welcome the debate on whether the MKO is a terrorist group or not (I believe it is), there are certain incontrovertible facts: (1) the MKO has targeted Americans in past terrorist attacks; (2) they have embraced Saddam; (3) they operate as a cult which remains hostile to freedom, liberty, and democracy; and (4), they have very little if any support among Iranians in Iran.

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MEK Terrorist Group Lobbies Congress for De-Listing

Maryam Rajavi, leader of the MEK The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian Marxist-Islamist group opposed to the government there, is lobbying the Obama administration to have its name removed from a list of foreign terrorist organizations.MEK has been on the State Department’s terrorist list since 1997, although even prior to that it was accused of killing Americans in Iran in the 1970s and supporting the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein…Opponents of the de-listing point out that an FBI report from 2004 showed the group continued to plan terrorist acts at least three years after it renounced terrorism.

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MEK, Washington’s Favorite Terrorists

… No one should be surprised — not even DC’s”unwitting members of Congress”– as the FBI calls the group’s supporters on Capitol Hill. The State Department has documented the MEK’s disturbing record: killing Americans and Iranians in terrorist attacks; fighting for Saddam Hussein against Iran and assisting Saddam’s brutal campaign against Iraq’s Kurds and Shia; its”cult-like”behavior; the abuses and even torture it commits against its own members; and its support for the U.S. embassy takeover and calls for executing the hostages. And let’s not forget, the MEK suppresses and holds captive its own members – more than …

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Talibani: Iraqi government’s patience with the MeK worn thin

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 ..

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Camp Ashraf and the Mojahedin Khalq

… Iran-Interlink representative Anne Singleton traveled to Iraq mid April at the invitation of the Baghdad based human rights NGO Baladiyeh Foundation, officials of the Government of Iraq and other NGOs involved in the Camp Ashraf problem. The Baladiyeh Foundation, headed by Mrs Ahlam al-Maliki, provides humanitarian assistance to a wide range of deprived sectors of Iraqi society arising directly from the invasion and occupation of Iraq by allied forces in 2003. Baladiyeh Foundation is concerned by the humanitarian crisis at Camp Ashraf caused by the group’s leaders who are refusing to allow access to human rights organisations to verify the wellbeing of all of the camp’s residents …

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Challenges for the MKO lobby in US

The relationship between the Mujahedin –e- khalq (MEK/MKO) and Israel is getting weirdly closer as the group’s large-scale campaign to get removed from FTO list of the State Department grows. It’s not a coincidence that the MKO adoring supporters among American neoconservatives – these days largely responsible for the push toward war in the Middle East- seem also caring to Israel and the Zionist lobby in the US, AIPAC. Having begun with an anti Zionism—even anti Jews– and anti-imperialism agenda, the MKO’s role to run the super powers’ policy is considered controversial by experts.

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A British MP who presumes to know better than most Iranians what is best for Iran

Sheda Vasseghi of World Tribune criticizes an MKO supporter, British MP for Northampton South for his passionate support for the Terrorist destructive cult of Mujahedin Khalq and his impudence to choose for Iranians’ future:It is curious when non-Iranian politicians such as a British Member of Parliament, who are naturally working for the interests of their own country, suggest that those of Iranian descent and experts in Iranian history are wrong about Iran’s affairs.It is unclear whether Mr. Brian Binley is actually ignorant of the facts, in denial, or simply trapped in the British colonial mentality in rejecting that times have changed!

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Lobbying for MKO terrorists

The MEK has for years lobbied aggressively via a myriad of front groups to be taken off the terrorism list. Shrewd lobbyists, they have moved well beyond their street corner and airports campaign (“support Iran’s starving children”) to “grassroots” organizations and hired guns. And I get why they don’t want to be on the terrorism list; it comes with a spate of sanctions and restrictions that are odious to most groups no matter their intentions. But what of their partisans? Do they know the MEK/MKO/PMOI? If not, check out Michael Rubin’s piece on the MEK or this FBI report from 2004,

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