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Last month, the US department of Treasury issued subpoenas against “a bipartisan array of prominent former US officials who have accepted hefty honoraria from Mujahedin Khalq(MEK) front groups even though the State Department lists the MEK as a terrorist group.” Michael Rubin of commentary magazine considers the MEK’s campaign to be delisted as their “largest war”.
Rubin criticizes US officials for their paid support for the MEK terrorists:
“There is no doubt that in the past, the MEK engaged in terrorism against Americans and that it has embraced a fiercely anti-Western ideology. Proponents of delisting the MEK, however, argue that the group has not engaged in terrorism against the United States or its interests for decades. The State Department may eventually be forced by the letter of the law to delist the MEK. That does not mean the group is entitled to any American support. The group’s culpability in recent terrorist attacks in Iran is murkier. Still, it would be a mistake to boil the MEK issue—and the question of U.S. support—down to the terrorism listing, however. Working with the MEK is simply bad policy.”
Although Rubin is not a fan of Islamic Republic government, he truly recognizes the terrorist substance of the MEK:
“Iranians living under the regime’s yoke hate the MEK. That is not regime propaganda; it is fact, one to which any honest analyst who has ever visited Iran can testify. Ordinary Iranians deeply resent the MEK’s terrorism, which has targeted not only regime officials, but also led to the deaths of scores of civilians. During the Iran-Iraq War—a conflict that decimated cities and led to tens of thousands of civilian deaths—the MEK sided with Saddam Hussein. No Iranian will ever forgive that treason. Iranians see the MEK in the same manner that Americans view American Taliban John Walker Lindh.”