Once advocating the anti-American anti-imperialism stance of their early leaders and then designated as a terrorist organization by the US State Department, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) is now pretending to be a friend of the US government! The group’s U-Turn to serve the US has been its main policy during the past decades, particularly after the collapse of the group’s longtime sponsor Saddam Hussein in 2003.
However, not all parts of the US government are favorites of the MEK. As far as an administration is a hawkish one, with stricter policies against the government in Tehran, it is favorable for the MEK leaders. Thus, Trump and his warmonger team must be the MEK’s best friends in the US administration. Therefore, it is worth it for MEK to support Trump for the next term.
The love affair of the MEK with US warmongers is not limited to the paid speeches of politicians like John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani in the MEK-run events in France, Albania and the United States. Mr. President himself has supported the MEK’s campaign against the Iranian nation. Although, the MEK may not be known to most American politicians, the propaganda activities of the group sometimes has been very crucial in manipulating warmongers.
It was a huge disclosure in the mass media when Murtaza Hussain of the Intercept reported that Trump retweeted fake news made by an anti-Iran hardliner who does not exist. He revealed the MEK-made fake persona in tweeter under the name of Heshmat Alavi.”This is not and has never been a real person,”Hussain stated. [1]
The moves by Trump –even unintentionally— seems to be in favor of the MEK. In September, Al Monitor stated that the US President’s appointee to the Supreme Court,”Amy Coney Barrett was part of a legal team that represented the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which had previously been designated by the United States as a terrorist organization”. [2] Dr. Djene Bajalan, a historian of the Middle East talked to the American Michael Brook’s show about Amy Coney Barrett’s relationship with the MEK.
“Amy Barrett’s work has been to advocate on behalf of the Mujahedin Khalq, the MEK which is s a terrorist organization by any standards,”he said. Calling the MEK as”crazy people”, he suggests that these crazy people can run their agenda among the US republicans because they have money.”They pay people big box to give speech and things like that,”he said. [3]
Therefore, it sounds expectable to find the MEK running campaigns making efforts to aid Trump win the elections. The MEK has actually its own usual techniques in misinformation campaigns in the media. The US Director of Intelligence John Ratcliffe announced on Politico, on October 21 that,”Iran is behind threatening pro-Trump emails to U.S. voters”. [4] Juan Cole who is specialized in Middle Eastern and South Asian history and a critic of the MEK’s cult-like violent record, suggests that Ratcliffe’s words are”brain dead thing”and that the spoofed emails can be part of the MEK’s PR mechanism.
He clarifies:”Now, could the spoofed emails have come from accounts in Iran? Sure. The People’s Jihadis (Mojahedin-e Khalq or MEK, MKO), sometimes listed as a terrorist group by the US State Department, wants to overthrow the Islamic Republic, is active inside Iran and could easily set the government up in this way. Or I’m sure that Saudi or other anti-Iran government hackers could route the emails through an Iranian server or spoof an Iranian internet service provider. But, really, guys, intelligence analysis isn’t just tracing an ISP. You have to know geopolitics to know if something is plausible.”[5]
What is significant in the MEK-Warmongers relationship is that all sides of the alliance do not care about Iranian people. The proof of that is the support of US hardliners for the MEK which is a hated entity among the Iranians.
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] Hussain, Murtaza, An Iranian Activist Wrote Dozens of Articles for Right-Wing Outlets. But Is He a Real Person?, The Intercept, June 9th, 2019.
[2] Al Monitor Staff, Trump’s Supreme Court Pick Represented Controversial Iranian Group, Al Monitor, September 30th, 2020.
[3] https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/11158
[4] Geller, Eric, Iran behind threatening pro-Trump emails to U.S. voters, feds say, Politico, October 21st, 2020.
[5] Cole, Juan, Trumpie Wingnut DNI Ratcliffe hilariously blames Iran for pro-Trump Email Spoofs, Informed Comment, October 22nd, 2020.