An Iranian political group designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization is offering large payments to orators willing to speak at events on their behalf. Among those with connections to the organization, Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) aka MKO/PMOI, are Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s chief foreign policy adviser and liberal politician Howard Dean.
A clearer picture of what US leaders really think of the MEK aka MKO/PMOI/NCR can be found in earlier assessments of the group by the US government—at a time when MEK’s connections in Western governments weren’t as extensively developed. Today the MEK propaganda efforts mentioned in this report are showing their effects.Excerpts from 1992 report by Congressional Research Service addressed to Lee H. Hammilton, Chairman…
Certainly, an unethical dogmatic cult like the MEK aka MKO/PMOI – which has the capacity of instructing its own members to self-immolate in support of their leaders – a cult that went as far as fighting alongside the troops of Saddam Hussein when he invaded its own country’s territorial integrity – is much less principled and predictable than some hawkish American politicians wish it to be.
The MEK’s ongoing delisting campaign is guided by the belief that the American public and the U.S. government are ignorant enough to believe its statements no matter how many times they’re proven false. The breathless claims of seeming support made by former U.S. officials are marketed by the MEK as a testament to its legitimacy, especially when these people conflate the human rights issue at the MEK’s base in Camp Ashraf near the Iran-Iraq border with its FTO delisting campaign…
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “should ignore their [MEK] P.R. campaign. Mujahedeen Khalq is not only irrelevant to the cause of Iran’s democratic activists, but a totalitarian cult that will come back to haunt us.” Rubin argues that what is “most disturbing” about the MEK/MKO/PMOI is the way the leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi treats its members that reside in Iraq’s Camp Ashraf.
Such comments would seemingly go against the MEK’s repeated claims to have transitioned from Islamo-Marxist cult into the non-violent champion of the free market it now styles itself as, but didn’t seem to phase anyone, including the conference’s organizer Ray Tanter, who insisted the attacks the MEK/MKO/PMOI has conducted inside Iran were simply “military activities” and didn’t count as terrorism.
… Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy were among those speaking in support of the Mujahedin-e Khalq. The midday crowd filled a a street outside the State Department for a rally with confetti and doves released into the air. The U.S. declared the group a terrorist body in 1997. But a court last year ordered the State Department to reconsider the designation. ..
… Mr Nafee-Issa said that”the Committee is working to collect a large number of facts that show the crimes of this organization and what caused the killings of civilians in Iraq since 1986 till 2003.”He added that”organized crime continued after 2003 as a result of political interference in the affairs of Iraq by creating sectarian strife.. Camp Ashraf, or as it is now known camp New Iraq, houses thousands of Iranian fighters of the MKO/MEK/PMOI …
Rally participants also included a number of non-Iranian-Americans. Several of them told RFE/RL they had little or no knowledge about the MKO.”We’ve come for Iranian people,”said one African-American.When asked whether he and his female companion received money to attend the rally, the woman first said yes, but then retracted her statement at the man’s behest..Western media have reported that former U.S. officials have received substantial financial contributions to speak at MKO events..
So what is the MEK? Well, that depends on who you ask… The MEK/MKO/PMOI says it renounced violence in 2001 and professes to be leading the resistance to the Iranian regime. That claim, in addition to lucrative payments to former officials in both parties, has bought it a lot of attention and friends in Washington. But how can senior officials take money from a terrorist group?