Mujahedin Khalq Terror group

New demands of a terrorist group

MKO is killing time by a variety of excuse to secure a permanent stay

Just following the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s remarks at a House committee, the terrorist MKO has expressed displeasure over the living conditions at Camp Liberty near the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, demanding for a temporary relocation to another site near the Jordanian border.

Mrs. Clinton had earlier sent MKO a strong signal stating; “Given the ongoing efforts to relocate the residents, MEK cooperation in the successful and peaceful closure of Camp Ashraf, the MEK’s main paramilitary base, will be a key factor in any decision regarding the MEK’s FTO status”. In response to her remarks, the group’s she-guru, Maryam Rajavi, in a Saturday statement claimed that so far, “none of the minimum assurances that (Camp) Ashraf residents had sought has been met.”

Further, she demanded that the residents be relocated temporarily to a site near the Jordanian border instead of being located in Temporary Transit Location TTL. The camp she demanded for had been set up as a tent city to accommodate asylum seekers after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

On February 19, some 397 MKO members were transferred from MKO’s paramilitary camp to a temporary location near Baghdad. The move is part of an agreement reached between the United Nations and Iraq in December, which is expected to facilitate the MKO’s complete exit from Iraq. But MKO seems to be killing time by a variety of excuse to secure a permanent stay of the whole organization.

March 6, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

MEK terrorists in Iraq battle using press releases

An Iraq-based Iranian opposition group that is fixated on conspiracy theories allegedly carried out attacks in Iran and elsewhere for decades, but now relies on a different weapon: the press release. UNAMI has been the latest target of MEK's statement-issuing ire.

The United Nations mission here, which has been attempting to facilitate the exit of some 3,400 members of the opposition People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) from Iraq, where they have been based for decades, has been the latest target of the group’s statement-issuing ire.

Iraq wants the PMOI out of its territory, and signed an agreement with the UN in December to that end.

On February 18, the first group of 397 exiles moved from their long-time base of Camp Ashraf in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad to Temporary Transit Location (Camp Liberty), a former US military base near the Iraqi capital, as part of that process.

But soon after arriving, the group began complaining about conditions in Camp Liberty and accusing the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), which in January said Liberty[Temporary Transit Location] met “international humanitarian standards,” of misrepresenting conditions there.

The PMOI’s focus on public relations campaigns marked by frequent statements to the media and cultivating well-known western politicians to speak on its behalf differs dramatically from its past activities.

The leftwing group was founded in the 1960s to oppose the shah of Iran, but took up arms against the country’s new rulers after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The U.S. State Department, which blacklists the PMOI as a terrorist organization, says it has carried out attacks that killed a number of Iranians, as well as American soldiers and civilians, from the 1970s into 2001.

Now-executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein allowed the PMOI to establish Camp Ashraf in Iraq after he launched the 1980-88 war with Iran in which the group reportedly fought alongside his forces, and provided financial backing to the group.

But the PMOI said it renounced violence in 2001 and its members in Iraq were disarmed following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, leaving it in need of other tactics.

It successfully campaigned to be delisted as a terrorist organization in Europe and is working to do the same in the US too.

However, it is not always clear what the group aims to accomplish with its media campaigns.

A day after the first group of the exiles moved to Liberty, PMOI spokesman Shahriar Kia sent a statement by email alleging a U.N. expert who assessed the camp told “lies” and apparently “was compelled to file an unrealistic report,” with “necessary modifications” made by “political authorities” from UNAMI.

“The bungalows and toilet facilities” were “dirty and unusable,” and “there is serious water shortage and electricity is cut off, as in prisons, after 10.30 pm.”

A statement emailed the next day described Camp Liberty as “a highly controlled prison,” referring to the presence of Iraqi security forces in the camp.

Iraqi forces carried out two deadly raids on Camp Ashraf in 2009 and 2011, leaving dozens of people dead.

But the statement continued: “Everything shows that at the behest of the Iranian regime, the Iraqi government has turned this camp into a prison and regretfully, UNAMI and (U.N. envoy) Mr. Martin Kobler himself … assist in this prison-making by confirming it as a refugee camp.”

Another email from Kia on February 27 referred to the “lies that Martin Kobler made to the residents of Camp Ashraf for a forcible relocation to Camp Liberty.”

When asked about the PMOI statements, Kobler told AFP that Camp Liberty “was host of 5,000 American soldiers, so it should be possible to have the infrastructure ready also for these 400 persons who are now living there.”

“I do not think that the infrastructure problem is the problem,” he said.

“If there is garbage, the garbage can be removed and should be removed, and the government of Iraq stands ready … to have garbage trucks available, but they have to enter the camp to remove the garbage,” he said.

“The aim of the whole exercise is to have the … refugee status determination moving,” he said, referring to a process which must be completed before the exiles can be resettled.

The PMOI meanwhile says it is facing “conspiracies.”

“The whole plan for the relocation of the residents of Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty is an Iranian plan, and the mullah’s regime’s plan, and nobody else,” Kia said in a telephone interview with AFP, referring to the cleric-led government in Tehran.

He also said in the interview that “espionage cameras and … eavesdropping devices” in Liberty give information “to the Iranian embassy and to the agents of the Iranian regime.”

When asked about the purpose of the flurry of statements on the U.N., Kia referred to demands over Camp Liberty.

These include the removal of Iraqi armed forces from Liberty and freedom of movement for residents, but also, despite numerous statements accusing the U.N. of lying about conditions there, a demand for around-the-clock U.N. monitoring.

By W.G. Dunlop

March 5, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

A Message Addressed to Terrorists

MKO is one of the thirty organizations first designated and put on the US’s FTO list
Mojahedin Khalq Organizatio, MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCR, NLA, is one of the thirty organizations first designated and put on the US’s FTO list in October 1997. Majority of the groups on the list have since been redesignated for sound reasons based on the groups’ history of terrorist atrocities and the previous secretaries of the State put any review of their status out of the question. But it seems that Mrs. Hilary Clinton’s sensibility is bending under the pressure of a number of the terrorist group’s influenced bi-partisans.

Addressing US lawmakers, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sent the terrorist group a strong signal stating; “Given the ongoing efforts to relocate the residents, MEK cooperation in the successful and peaceful closure of Camp Ashraf, the MEK’s main paramilitary base, will be a key factor in any decision regarding the MEK’s FTO status”.

The truth is that, despite claims of MKO that its first designation was the outcome of a political decision, Americans know well that even if it was a politically-purposeful decision, it was not actually a wrong decision. But it should be reminded that America’s first serious stance against MKO goes back to years before 1997, when the State Department prepared a special and unclassified report on MKO at the request of the US Congress.

Despite the report provoked an angry reaction from the group at the time, MKO never tried to contest the charges at the time as a political decision. Rather, they considered the decision the outcome of an inappropriate, weak research and disregarding the right of the organization to defend itself against the charges. Now more than 24 years after the State Department’s first position, the US seems to have taken a different turn for certain reasons. You can well notice this interest-seeking turn in the speeches of the former senators and ex-security experts talking in behalf of MKO.

Is it a new definition of war against terrorism, or loss of logic, or anything else, one thing is for certain; neither Mrs. Clinton nor advocates of terrorists can ever change the nature of terrorists by some encouraging and promising words even if they do not really mean what they say.

March 5, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO criminals should stand trial

Maryam Rajavi should be expelled by France, along with her husband, and sent back to Tehran to stand trial along with the other Mujahedin-e Khalq expatriates currently in Iraq, a political analyst tells Habilian Foundation (families of Iranian terror victims). Mark Dankof, former US Senate candidate and a San Antonio-based political commentator

Habilian has interviewed Mark Dankof, former US Senate candidate and a San Antonio-based political commentator, about the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK, also MKO and PMOI) and the latest developments surrounding the terrorist group. What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Habilian: Mr. Dankof, there have been allegations recently that the MEK was involved in the recent bomb blasts in Thailand. What do you think of these allegations? If you place any validity in them, for what purposes would the MEK have been involved?

Mark Dankof: I am aware of the allegations made by Syed Sulaiman Husaini, the Shia leader of Thailand, that the MEK was directly involved, and that all four of the suspects were MEK operatives. His allegations were published in the Bangkok Post. Mr. Husaini’s allegations make perfect sense to me. In the first place, the Iranian government is not reckless enough to sanction such an absolutely absurd undertaking, any more than the so-called Saudi Ambassador assassination plot in the United States Iran was linked to by the American media.

I emphasized this in my last conversation with you fine folks and with Press TV. Tehran would have everything to lose by such actions, in essence handing the Zionists the public casus belli they seek in conjunction with the Zionist-affiliated War Party in the United States. Everything about this recent incident in Bangkok points to a False Flag Operation conducted by the Mossad and the MEK for purposes of discrediting Iran, facilitating their propaganda campaign about Iran’s posited danger to the international community, and diverting attention from their own obvious acts of terror within Iranian borders in recent years, including the assassinations of the 5 Iranian nuclear scientists.

NBC News has all but confirmed MEK/Mossad involvement in these killings, quoting an “unnamed senior U.S. official” as confirming a direct Israeli/MEK involvement not only in these 5 murders, but in other acts of terror in Iranian Azerbaijan, Khuzestan, Balochistan, and Khorasan provinces.

Here is the bottom line. The United States and Israel are already at war with Iran, as Ron Paul has correctly observed. The recent articles by Pat Buchanan, Pepe Escobar, and Alex Newman of the New American are among those which chronicle the real reasons for this bellicose policy of unmitigated aggression. These reasons have nothing to do with the Zionist propaganda poured into American homes every evening by Corporate Media. The Zionist doctrine of Eretz Yisrael, Iran’s forced entrance into a Jewish dominated international central banking system at gunpoint, and the control of Iranian oil, natural gas, and pipeline routes by Western multinational energy consortiums is the real agenda. And one of history’s most bitter ironies and paradoxes is that the Marxist-Leninist MEK is a tool in the achievement of these evil objectives. The real point of intersection in all of this may well be the truism that Marxism, Zionism, and Multinational Corporate Capitalism have an identical disregard for God and a complete lack of respect for the sanctity of human life—especially Iranian human life.

Habilian: The hue and cry of the MKO is that the conditions at Camp Liberty in Iraq are dire and inhumane, and that Iraqi forces are a threat to the wellbeing of the MEK members at the new camp, even though the United Nations has confirmed that Liberty meets international standards. What do you think of all of this? Is the MEK going to resist further attempts at relocation? What will Iraq’s reaction to continued resistance be?

Mark Dankof: The propaganda campaign being waged by the MKO over their status in Iraq is being aided and abetted by Israel’s Lobby in the United States, as is made clear by reading Ron Kampeas’ piece for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the Jerusalem Post entitled, “Pro-Israel Voices Want MKO off Terrorist List.” I have some advice for both Iraq and Iran. I believe all 3,400 MKO members should be returned to Tehran. Those determined to have been directly involved in crimes should face a public tribunal for their massively expansive list of violent acts undertaken in that country since 1965. The witnesses in the tribunal would include a rather impressive list of Westerners victimized by the MEK, including Constance Wilson Andresen, the ex-wife of Professor Raymond Tanter of Georgetown University who heads up the MEK’s chief front organization in the United States, the Iran Policy Committee.

The world needs to hear Mrs. Tanter’s story, the stories of the American family members whose loved ones were assassinated by the MEK during the days of Pahlavi Iran, the role of the MEK in killing dozens of members of the IRI government in Iran in the early 1980s by bomb blasts, the utilization of the MEK by Saddam Hussein against Iran during the Iran-Iraq War from 1980-1988, the role of the MEK in carrying out the murder of Kurds at Mr. Hussein’s directive, and the particulars of the murders of 17,000 Iranians by this Marxist-Leninist cult.

The horrific criminal record of this organization, when exposed by open public tribunal, will simply underscore the moral bankruptcy of the Israeli government presently in league with these people, and the connivance of Israel’s agents in the United States government with these murderers.

Habilian: What do you think of barring Miryam Rajavi [co-leader of the MEK with husband Masoud Rajavi] from entrance into the UK?

Mark Dankof: She should be barred. She should also be expelled by France, along with her husband, and sent back to Tehran to stand trial along with the other MEK expatriates currently in Iraq. Ed Blanche’s piece in June of 2009 for The Middle East on the MEK discusses the Rajavis. It should be read by everyone in the United States currently feasting on Zionist propaganda on the subject, along with the RAND Corporation dossier on this organization and its sordid history.

Habilian: Any final thoughts today?

Mark Dankof: The sickening spectacle of the national gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington this coming week is, nonetheless, a pivotal event in world history, but for tragic and demonic purposes. Benjamin Netanyahu is coming here in an American Presidential Election Year to extort support from a groveling American Chief Executive of the United States, his wannabe opponents in the Republican Presidential Primaries, and key Congressional members of both major parties on Capitol Hill, also known as Zionist Occupied Territory. What happens at this gathering, and in the private meeting of Netanyahu with Obama and his Republican neo-conservative counterparts, may well determine the date when Israel’s overt aerial military operation against Iran begins. I believe it will happen before the American election. When it does, Philip Giraldi’s essay, “What World War III May Look Like,” underscores the horror and tragedy of the intended—and unintended—consequences that will undoubtedly follow.

I’d like to express one more thought tonight. I have always loved Iran since I first traveled there in 1974. It was my intention to return there for a visit this year, an intention unfortunately preempted by events beyond the control of any of us. I’d like any Iranian who reads my remarks, either in English, or in a Farsi translation, to know from the bottom of my heart that I am truly and sincerely sorry for the direction the relationship between our countries has taken in recent years because of the poison disseminated by the Zionist beast, and that I and many similarly powerless Americans are sickened and outraged by what is likely to transpire in the next year. I’ll never forget Iran and the kindness of its people as I encountered them personally many years ago as a young person. My memories remain bright. They will never die. The Old American Republic already has.

March 4, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

US offers to”UNTERRORIST’, terrorists

The United States has officially offered the anti-Iran Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group a path to get off the US terrorism blacklist.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a House committee on Wednesday that the MKO’s cooperation in a relocation plan from Camp Ashraf on the Iran-Iraq border "will be a key factor in any decision" on whether to take it off the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.

The United States will help ensure the safety and security of the camp’s residents as they are moved to another site inside Iraq, Clinton further said.

Around four hundred MKO members have so far been relocated to a new site called Liberty Camp, a former US military base near Baghdad airport, where they await resettlement in other countries.

The move is said to be part of an agreement reached between the United Nations and Iraq in December, which is expected to facilitate a complete MKO exit from Iraq.

Clinton’s remarks are seen as a clear indication that the US is close to removing the terrorist group from its blacklist. The US State Department has also been ordered by a federal court to re-evaluate the designation of the MKO.

The terrorist group has reportedly assembled a large roster of advocates in the United States, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Bush administration Attorney General Michael Mukasey, FBI Director Louis Freeh and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.

The Christian Science Monitor reported last August that former US four-star generals, intelligence chiefs, governors, and political heavyweights had been paid “tens of thousands of dollars” to call for the US government to take the MKO off the terror list.

Another report by NBC News on February 9 shed light on the MKO’s financial sources by citing two “senior US officials” as saying that the group “is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service.” The report further confirmed Iranian claims that the terrorist cell had indeed been involved in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists.

The senior US officials also admitted that “the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign” but claims it “has no direct involvement.”

The MKO is widely listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and is responsible for numerous acts of terror and violence against Iraqi as well as Iranian civilians, scientists and officials.

March 3, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MeK Status on US Terror List Hinges on Relocation

Clinton says if anti-Tehran terrorist group can’t find someplace to go after being evicted from Iraq, they may get de-listed.

If the terrorist Iranian dissident group Mujahadin-e Khalq (MeK) can’t find someplace to go after being evicted from its base in Iraq, the United States may remove the group from the State Department’s terrorist list.

The MEK has a long history of terrorist activity going back to the 1970′s and it remains on America’s official list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and has the goal of overthrowing the Iranian government. Because of this goal, there has been a big money push by many influential people in Washington to get the group removed from the State Department’s terrorist list, presumably to make it eligible for U.S. funding and harm Iran.

MeK’s former ally, the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, had allowed the group to settle at Camp Ashraf, 40 miles from Baghdad. But now Iraq’s Shi’ite majority has forged closer ties with its Shi’ite neighbor Iran, and the MeK is no longer welcome at Ashraf.

Despite still being officially considered a terrorist group, the U.S. has sort of taken MeK under its wing, opening up a former U.S. base in Iraq for the 3,000 MeK members in Ashraf to resettle to, and trying to find a third country that might welcome them, since both Iraq and Iran will not.

But they can’t stay at the U.S. base in Iraq permanently. And if a new home can’t be found for them, the U.S. may de-list them, and possibly even welcome them on U.S. soil.

“Given the ongoing efforts to relocate the residents, MeK cooperation in the successful and peaceful closure of Camp Ashraf, the MeK’s main paramilitary base, will be a key factor in any decision regarding the MEK’s FTO status,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently told U.S. lawmakers.

This is a despicable and hypocritical approach on the part of Washington. U.S. officials recently told NBC News that Israel has financed, trained, and armed MeK terrorists to carry out unprovoked attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists inside Iran. To help MeK find refuge or even de-list them would clearly be U.S. support for terrorists. Of course, when terrorists target the United States or its allies, they are detained without charge or trial, tortured, or even executed. But if terrorists target an adversary of the U.S., like Iran, suddenly they’re worthy of Washington’s help.

by John Glaser,

March 1, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

12 MKO leaders on Interpol’s wanted list

Interpol has issued arrest warrants for 12 leaders of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization, the Habilian Association website reported on Tuesday.

The website, quoting an informed unidentified Iraqi official, said that the arrest warrants have been issued for the members due to the illegal activities that they have carried out, including abduction.

According to the official, the main impediment to the implementation of the arrest warrants is the fact that police forces are not allowed to enter Camp New Iraq, which was formerly known as Camp Ashraf, where most of the MKO members are based.

However, he said that Iraq reserves the right to pursue the cases of the MKO members in other countries when they are transferred out of Iraq.

The Iraqi government plans to transfer all MKO members out of the country and has temporality relocated them to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near Baghdad International Airport.

February 29, 2012 0 comments

Rajavi Banned to Enter UK

The UK Home Secretary barred Maryam Rajavi from coming to Britain.

According to Evining Standard, some British parliamentarians are angry at Theresa May, the Home Secretary, after she barred Maryam Rajavi from coming to Britain.

The ban was imposed on Maryam Rajavi after the Home Secretary claimed that her presence on the country’s soil might damage efforts to stop Iran obtaining nuclear weapons and put Britons in the country at risk.

Baroness Boothroyd, the former Commons Speaker, and Lord Waddington, a former Conservative home secretary, have denounced the ban as “intolerable” and are bringing a judicial review in an attempt to overturn it.

After her presence in the European Parliament, Rajavi was invited by the British peers and MPs to speak in Parliament but was refused permission to visit Britain after the Home Office ruled that it would have a “significant damaging impact on relations between the UK and Iran”.

Maryam Rajavi was originally excluded from Britain in 1997 because of her leadership role in the terrorist MKO, a group proscribed as a terrorist organization before the ban was lifted by the Britain’s Court of Appeal in 2008. Mrs May renewed the ban in October last year and again last month.

February 27, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Dining with MKO Terrorists

Sitting alongside a number of European and American personalities, whose countries allegedly bear the flag of a global war against terrorism, you can see the leader of a designated terrorist

Supporters of the terrorist MKO are allowed to serve in Congress

group in a conference held in the European Parliament in Brussels on February 7. Of course, all personalities present in the conference, either those occupying an official post or formers, knew well whom they were in her presence, Maryam Rajavi – the Paris based leader of a terrorist cult in the absence of her husband, Massoud Rajavi.

Among them you could see Jim Higgins, member of the European Parliament presided over the meeting, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice President of the European parliament; Struan Stevenson, President of Delegation for Relations with Iraq of the European Parliament; Howard Dean, former Chairman of the U.S. Democratic Party; John Bruton, former Prime Minister of Ireland and former EU Ambassador to U.S.; Patrick Kennedy, U.S. Congressman (1995-2011); and Senator Robert Torricelli (1997-2003. The question raised in my mind is, what kind of relation could these people have with the representative of a terrorist cult still on the State Department’s terrorist list?

I recall a time when Mojahedin, in the early days of Iranian Islamic revolution, reiterate their antagonism with the American imperialism in many published statements and articles in their own publications after the Islamic revolution. In the first two years of the post-revolution, Mojahedin showed no open antagonism against the regime and tried to highlight a coalition with it to inoculate an extreme anti- imperialism and anti-American vision in the Islamic state and among the public. As part of their revolutionary slogans, they called for the establishment of a nationalist, democratic government that they hardly believed in as they consented to no system exclusive of socialism.

During the 9 month post-revolutionary period, from the victory of Iranian revolution in February to the takeover of the American Embassy in November 1979, Mojahedin frequently accused all religious leaders, except Ayatollah Khomeini and mostly for political considerations, and ranking authorities of negotiating and compromising with American imperialism especially after Brzezinski-Bazargan fortuitous, brief meeting in Algiers on 1 November 1979.

The importance of the embassy takeover lies in the fact that the incident turned into a golden opportunity for Mojahedin Khalq to start an extensive political-ideological propaganda. It might be true to say Mojahedin hardly played any role in the occupation of the embassy, but their role to aggravate the situation to turn it into a crisis lasting for 444 days is an undeniable truth. Concerning this fact as a part of the group’s anti-imperialist struggle, in the US State Department’s report of 1994 we read; “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 American hostages”.

But Mojahedin fail to recall that while Iranian authorities tried to achieve a solution to end the crisis, it was Mojahedin who through numerous announcements and messages draw sketches for total annihilation of imperialism, warned against possibly made concession vis-à-vis America’s threats and announced their readiness for nay military confrontation with it. They repeatedly proposed their own logical anti-imperialist suggestions to regime’s authorities to confront America, including seizure and confiscation of American assets in Iran and annulment of all signed contracts and drawing a sketch for total annihilation of imperialism.

Evidences never fail to reveal the truth. There are numerous facts published in Mojahedin’s publications that prove the critical role of the organization in intensifying the created tension and crisis to advance their so called anti-imperialism objectives and to win a public support to initiate an aggressive campaign against the main Capitalist camp, namely America.

Maybe Mojahedin never anticipated that in less than two decades they would have to make desperate attempts to acquit themselves of what they refer to as the accusations and its leaders would sit alongside some retired imperialist fed officials urging them to support the group out of some crises. For sure Mojahedin are the same leopards that have never changed their spots and the American sides are well aware whom they have leashed. But to sit with them at the same table, even if for political interests and causes, seems to be as illogical as unleashing beasts that could well terrorize the world for a mere achievement of trumpeted democracy the group itself has the least faith in. and I hear many people asking: If Mojahedin Khalq is a terrorist group, why are its supporters allowed to serve in Congress?

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

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