Mujahedin Warmongers

Sen. Menendez Top Recipient of MEK-Related Campaign Funding

As readers of this blog already know, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) was the top congressional recipient of “pro-Israel” campaign funding in the 2012 election cycle, the last time he ran for office, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He has since distinguished himself as the leading proponent among Senate’s Democrats of new sanctions against Iran. He has repeatedly co-sponsored sanctions legislation-with Mark Kirk (R-IL), the top recipient of pro-Israel campaign funding for the past decade-with the ostensible purpose of increasing pressure on Tehran to make far-reaching concessions at the negotiating table.

It appears that Menendez has also been the top recipient of campaign funding from donors with ties to the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), the cultish group that was until recently included on the State Department’s terrorism list, according to a new investigative report published Thursday by LobeLogalumni and occasional contributors Ali Gharib and Eli Clifton on The Intercept website. The article,“Long March of the Yellow Jackets: How a One-Time Terrorist Group Prevailed on Capitol Hill,” details how Menendez, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, maintained a hold for some six months-from July 2013 until late January 2014-on an arms package for the Iraqi government that included 24 Apache helicopters. Menendez explained publicly that he was concerned about then-Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s record of attacks against civilians and his tacitly allowing Iran to use Iraqi airspace to transport weapons to Syria.

But Ali and Eli cite sources that cumulatively suggest that Menendez’s position may have been influenced by intense lobbying on the part of pro-MeK individuals, including the lobbyist for one of the MeK’s political fronts and Menendez’s immediate predecessor, Robert Torricelli. Menendez finally lifted his hold after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launched their first major offensive into al-Anbar province from bases along the Syrian-Iraqi border, taking Fallujah and most of Ramadi.

As noted in the article, the delayed Apaches would not likely have been ready to be flown by Iraqi pilots by the time ISIL launched its January offensive even if the hold had been lifted six months before. But the fact that those six months were lost made Baghdad more reliant on the air power of the United States and other countries (including Iran) to halt ISIL’s advance some nine months later after the jihadi group and its tribal allies had captured Mosul and driven to within 30 kilometers of Kirkuk. Although it would be unfair to conclude that Menendez was motivated only by his sympathy for the MeK, sources quoted by Ali and Eli suggest pretty strongly that the issue played a role. As Iraq’s ambassador to the United States Lukman Faily told Ali in relation to his efforts to release the hold on the Apaches, “The issue of the MEK came up in most of my meetings with the House and Senate, especially the Foreign [Relations Committee].”

According to the article,Menendez accepted more than $25,000 from donors with ties to the MEK, making him the largest recipient from 2012, when the MeK was delisted that September, to the present. That’s not much compared to the well over $300,000 Menendez received from pro-Israel groups during the 2012 election cycle, but it was more than twice what was provided to the next biggest recipients, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA).

In any event, the article casts light on the seamier side of the politics around Iran, and it’s a good read besides.

By Jim Lobe

About the Author:

Jim Lobe is best known for his coverage of U.S. foreign policy, particularly the neoconservative influence in the Bush administration. The Washington Bureau Chief of the international news agency Inter Press Service (IPS), Lobe has written for various outlets and was featured in BBC and ABC television documentaries about motivations for the US invasion of Iraq. Read his complete biography.

March 1, 2015 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

New Iran reactor revelations highlight role of Mojahedin Khalq

They’ve been referred to as a “cult” and a “terrorist organisation” by Iran, the EU and the US at various times. But the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK), also known as the People’s Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI) have continued to endure as one of the longest-running militant groups opposing the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Under the banner of their “coalition”, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) have often worked to expose atrocities by the Islamic Republic and leak information regarding the country’s controversial nuclear programme.

On Tuesday, the NCRI held a press conference in Washington to announce they had acquired evidence of a secret facility buried deep beneath the ground in the northeast suburbs of Tehran, engaged in uranium enrichment.

They also released a detailed report into their findings, in which they claim that “despite the Iranian regime’s claims that all of its enrichment activities are transparent and under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has in fact been engaged in research and development with advanced centrifuges at a secret nuclear site called Lavizan-3, in a military base in northeast Tehran suburbs.”

They stated that their information came from “highly placed sources within the Iranian regime, as well as those involved in the nuclear weapons projects”.

“The notion that the mullahs will abandon their nuclear weapons program thru [sic] nuclear talks is a misguided narrative, which is the by-product of the mullahs’ duplicity and western economic and political expediency,” the report concludes.

“Those who hope to secure the regime’s cooperation in the campaign against fundamentalism by offering nuclear concessions to the mullahs are both increasing the chances of a nuclear-armed Iran and contributing to the spread of Islamic fundamentalism.”

This is not the first time the MEK have leaked information about Iranian nuclear ambitions – in 2002, the NCRI publicly announced the discovery of secret nuclear facilities at Arak and Natanz, which later allegedly became the basis for an investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and sparked the controversy over Iran’s true nuclear intentions that continues to this day.

In 2004 it was reported that they had given German intelligence a series of documents which seemed to prove the existence of a nuclear facility at Lavizan and enrichment-related activity at the Parchin military complex.

Evidence later emerged in an expose of Israeli spying practices which suggested that some or all of the documents had been given to the group by Israel’s Mossad secret service.

Links between the two groups – who share a mutual enemy in the Islamic Republic – were alleged to go as far as training and arming, according to some reports.

‘Cult-like’

The NCRI began life in 1981, founded by MEK leader, Massoud Rajavi as a “parliament-in-exile” encompassing the MEK, the liberal National Democratic Front and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan.

The latter two groups both left during the Iran-Iraq war, outraged at what they saw as the “pro-Iraq” position of the MEK, leaving the NCRI totally under the control of Rajavi’s organisation.

The MEK itself began life in 1965 when it was established as left-wing “Islamic-Marxist” organisation dedicated to fighting the then-monarchy of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. After taking part in the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Shah, they found themselves suppresed by Ruhollah Khomenei’s Islamic Republic.

Following the banning of the organisation, they began a guerilla campaign against the Islamic Republic, even going as far as backing Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war.

Since then, the MEK have established a reputation as a violent and often bizarre organisation. According to the Iranian government, the MEK have been responsible for over 12,000 deaths, through suicide bombings, assassinations and armed raids.

Operating primarily out of Camp Liberty in Iraq (and prior to 2013, Ashraf refugee camp, also in Iraq), the group have also hit the headlines for their organisational methods, which have been frequently referred to as “cult-like”.

Former members have stated that joining the group involved something akin to brainwashing.

“There was a black-and-white world view imposed; followers cutting themselves off from family; followers losing their personality,” one former member told VICE news.

“I remember one task where we had to write down our old personality in one column on a board, and the new personality in a different column. I remember a guy who said, ‘My brother works in the Iranian embassy in London. Before I loved him as my brother, now I hate him as my enemy. I am ready to kill him tomorrow, if necessary.’ And everyone applauded.”

Other reports have spoken of forced divorces, public airings of hidden sexual fantasies and the idolising of leader Massoud Rajavi. Leaving the MEK is also, reportedly, easier said than done.

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report in 2005 suggested that 70 percent of Ashraf residents were being held there against their will.

But the MEK have a broad support base in Europe and America, particularly among right-wing politicians who would not seem natural allies of their “Islamic-Marxist” ideology.

David Amess, the British Conservative MP, has frequently tabled motions in the UK Parliament calling for the MEK’s de-listing as a terrorist organisation.

In an op-ed for the Washington Times, he refers to the group as the “main opposition” in Iran.

“Removing the terrorist tag would enjoy the backing of Congress,” he wrote. “A bipartisan group of more than 80 members co-sponsored House Resolution 1431, explicitly calling for the delisting of the PMOI, ‘thereby denying the regime the pretext to crack down on dissidents inside Iran.’”

“It is ironic that as Mr. Ahmadinejad keeps lashing out against the very principles of the United States, the US keeps the main opposition enchained,” he added.

In 2012 he was also a speaker at an NCRI conference in Paris

After major lobbying by MEK supporters – including Amess, former New York mayor, Rudy Guiliani, lawyer, Alan Dershowitz and numerous other Republican and Democrat politicians in the US – the group was eventually taken off the terror list in 2012.

At the time former Governor Howard Dean of Vermont even went so far as to say that the MEK President elect , Maryam Rajavi, should be acknowledged as Iran’s legitimate ruler.

“Madame Rajavi does not sound like a terrorist to me – she sounds like a president – and her organisation should not be listed as a terrorist organisation,” he said, speaking to MEK supporters.

“We should be recognizing her as the president of Iran.”

A ‘bad source’

Though Fox News was quick to run with the NCRI’s allegations as story, other media outlets have been hesitant to produce anything, even leading to a chastisement from the right-wing Jewish Press, who claimed the story had been “squelched”.

The absence of reports possibly reflects growing concerns about the reliability of the MEK as a source of information on internal Iranian affairs.

“They have been right on occasion, but its not because their claim to have inside sources in the Iranian government is accurate,” investigative journalist, Gareth Porter told Middle East Eye.

“I haven’t done an exhaustive survey about the times they’ve given information publicly or turned it over to foreign governments including the US, where the IAEA have checked it out and there’s nothing there, but it’s an enormously high percentage.”

According to Mohamed ElBaradei, then head of the IAEA, after visiting the facilities at Arak and Natanz an IAEA team also “visited three locations at an industrial complex in Kolahdouz in western Tehran that had been mentioned in open source reports as relevant to enrichment activities” and found no “indications of activities involving the use of nuclear material”.

Paul Kerr, of the website Arms Control Wonk also stated in 2005 that, according to an IAEA sources, further inspections by the IAEA based on MEK evidence had failed to produce results.

He also pointed out that, contrary to popular belief, US intelligence agencies had known about the existence of the Arak and Natanz nuclear facilities prior to the MEK expose and that they had highlighted the IAEA. The MEK also mistakenly classified Natanz as a “fuel production plant”.

“News from this group is often good for getting right-wingers to show their “O” face and belittle the EU3’s diplomacy with Tehran, but it’s probably good that we’re not banking on these exiles for too much intel,” he opined.

Gareth Porter said that the US intelligence community had been divided over the use of the MEK as a credible source on Iranian nuclear capabilities.

“There’s good evidence that the MEK was simply a bad source for the US military and the CIA has clearly taken their information and considered it along with a lot of other information – some people in the CIA thought they were fine and dandy and other people recognised they were a bad source,” he said. “

They were controversial to say the least.”

The move by the NCRI/MEK to release more information – authentic or not – on Iran’s nuclear capabilities was likely intended to throw a spanner in the works of the P5+1 talks to limit Iran’s nuclear plans.

“MEK is naturally going to be nervous about any suggestion of an improvement in relations between the US and Iran,” he said.

“In the longer run they are obviously trying to get western governments to support them, to overthrow the regime and put them in power – that’s ultimate MEK aim.”

Alex MacDonald, Middle East Eye

February 26, 2015 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

MKO propaganda to manipulate US hardliners

Last month’s extension of the nuclear talks between Iran and the West provoked American hardliners and warmongers who were already manipulated by the Mujahedi khalq Organization (the MKO). For instance Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) –who is on the payroll of the MKO propaganda arm—has allegedly said it is "incredibly bad judgment to continue to extend the talks going on with Iran as they continue to do exactly the things we would not want them to be doing."

Another MKO sponsor is John Bolton, former American ambassador at the UN who is a prominent warmonger figure. According to an MKO-linked website, Bolton warned, "Verification does not make a bad deal a good deal. Verification is simply insurance when you think you’ve reached an acceptable agreement to protect against the risk of violation."

“In the war of words on Iran’s domestic issues and controversial nuclear program, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) always is front and center to condemn the country”, wrote Holly Dagres in the Huffington Post . “Through social media, the group spams most Iran-related hashtags with their propaganda, bankroll prominent U.S. officials to advocate on their behalf as the "democratic alternative" to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and even re-opened an office a block from the White House where they hired former Senator Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) as their legal representative.”

Dagres truly criticizes the US paid advocates of the Cult of Rajavi who seem to be fooled by its propaganda campaign and its multi-million dollar lobbying efforts. “What makes this realization peculiar is the very people in Congress that cozy up to the group’s leader, Maryam Rajavi, by calling for staunch sanctions–sometimes even war–on Iran due to its nuclear program and particularly human rights violations, seem to turn a blind eye to the activities of the totalitarian cult of Marxist-Islamist Iranian dissidents we know today as the MEK.”

The American- Iranian analyst and commentator of the Middle East affairs warns about the true cult-like substance of the MKO. “Maryam Rajavi’s marriage to one of the original founders of the MEK symbolized the transformation from an organization to a "cult of personality", she points out." With the money provided by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein–they formed an alliance due to a deep disdain for the Iranian regime–to "construct self-sufficient camps" which included: medical clinics, prisons (also known as "reeducation centers"), schools, and training centers, in order for the population not to engage with outside society.”

On the one hand, that MKO propaganda website, the so-called IACA, quotes from Senator Joseph Lieberman as praising Maryam Rajavi and her cult of personality. The biased report reads, “Speaking to the Iranian opposition and the 10-point plan for the future of Iran as articulated by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, Senator Lieberman said, "You are frontline troops in the fight against radical Islam. You represent the alternative. You’re part of the hope for the future." (!)

On the other hand, Dagres disputes the duplicity of the group’s and its supporters’ claims about the MKO as an alternative to the Iranian government. “Not only has the Mojahedin-e Khalq lost its support because of its alliance with Saddam during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s–an insult to the Iranian people’s nationalism–but also for its position against Iran’s nuclear program, something the average Iranian sees as their legitimate right. Many Iranians convey the group is "worse than the mullahs" or along the lines of what some Iranian democracy activists claim that "if it had had the chance, [the MEK] could have become the Khmer Rouge of Iran", she notes.

Dagres accurately suggests that the MKO is actually “a sham” that is brainwashing not only its own members but also its blind US sponsors.

Mazda Parsi

December 27, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MKO along the lines of Western hardliners

As the co-leader of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, Maryam Rajavi, calls on the West for more sanctions against Iran, her leading sponsor in the US Congress is demanding new sanctions to pressure Iranian government. The US-MEK campaign is paired with Israeli propaganda against Iran.

Immediately after a seven-month extension in talks between P5+1 was announced, Maryam Rajavi started to blame the West for not being firm on Iran. According to Rajavi “Exercising firmness and tightening the sanctions” is the only option to deal with Islamic Republic that should be followed with supporting the MKO as the alternative for the Iranian regime.

On the other side of the world, Rajavi’s paid advocates also launched their own campaign to obstruct nuclear talks. Even before the ink dried on the extension agreement in Vienna, skeptics in Washington were demanding new sanctions to pressure Iran`s rulers, reported Reuters. [1]

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, long regarded as one of the most effective lobbying groups in Washington, called on Congress to take up sanctions legislation.[] Members of AIPAC are mostly found among advocates of the MKO in the US government. You can find certain names on both lists of recipients of the MKO and AIPAC contributions such as Robert Menendez, Lindsey Graham and Carl Levin. [http://maplight.org/us-congress/interest/J5100/view/all]

Senator Robert Menendez, Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Carl Levin are three of the long list of the MKO supporters who receive large amounts of speaking fees to speak on behalf of the group. They are paid for their luxurious trips to attend the MKO’s rallies around the world. News and videos of their advocacy for “the cult of Rajavi” are available on the group’s websites.

Reuters reported that Sen. Robert Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from Obama’s Democratic Party stopped short of calling for new sanctions immediately, but said: "The cycle of negotiations, followed by an extension, coupled with sanctions relief for Iran has not succeeded.” [2]

Opponents of the Iranian government including the MKO and American-Israeli warmongers disrespect the fact that the alleged Iranian nuclear program was basically a forged story made by Israeli Intelligence service and published by the MKO propaganda arm. The investigative journalist Gareth Porter studied the case and included that the key “evidence” of an Iranian nuclear weapons program came via the MKO cult and was produced by Israel. [3]

Porter suggests, “The MEK role in transferring the documents indicates that they originated in Israel, because the MEK had been serving as a client of Israel for several years, including the “laundering” of Israeli intelligence reports by presenting them to the IAEA and the press as coming from the MEK itself.” [4]

Moreover, in November 2007, National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of the US reported that Iran had “halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.” [5] However, Iran never had a weapons program—at least not one that has been confirmed by U.S. Thus that the unproven MKO-Israeli, nuclear weapons claim has become the source of all deceptive propaganda of the group.

While the MKO leader makes efforts to show off her cult of personality as a secular democratic alternative for Islamic Republic, critics found out the opposite. Holly Dagres of the Huffington Post refers to Rand report to prove dishonest of Maryam Rajavi and her supporters,” Despite denials, its [the MKO’s] conduct tells otherwise as cited by a RAND report: deceptive recruitment, emotional isolation, extreme degrading peer pressure, forced labor, imprisonment, lack of exit options, sexual control, sleep deprivation, and physical abuse.” [6]

Dagres remarks that the MKO has no public support inside Iran and despite its claims its slogans never reflect the aspirations of the Iranian nation. He writes,” Not only has the Mojahedin-e Khalq lost its support because of its alliance with Saddam during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s–an insult to the Iranian people’s nationalism–but also for its position against Iran’s nuclear program, something the average Iranian sees as their legitimate right.” [7]

Maryam Rajavi and her sponsors must understand that their determination to obstruct nuclear talks and engagement with Iran is not in line with the Iranian people’s longing for independence and security.

Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] Reuters, Domestic pressures in U.S., Iran threaten slow-moving nuclear talks, Nov 25, 2014

[2] ibid

[3] Porter, Gareth, How US Policy on Iran Came to Be Based on Fabricated Documents, the Nation, June 9, 2014

[4] ibid

[5] Key Judgments From a National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s Nuclear Activity, the New York Times

December 4, 2007

[6] Dagres, Holly, Dear Washington: Kick Out This Iranian Militant Cult, Huffington Post, December 14 2014

[7] ibid

December 18, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The MKO happy with GOP victory

Less than a week after the US midterm elections– in which Republicans snatched control of the Congress– the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) sounds hopeful for its ambitions for power in Iran. It seems pretty obvious that the MKO is dreaming of failure of nuclear talks between Iran and West and eventually the imposition of more sanctions against Iran and finally military invasion.

The takeover of Republicans over the US Congress may narrow the path for Obama and his foreign policy makers who tend to engagement and diplomacy with the Iranian Government and this is exactly what the MKO wants. The group’s advocates in the Congress mostly belong to the GOP party. However, it has been successful to buy the support of some Democrats too.

The MKO’s multimillion-dollar campaign of lobbying in the corridors of the Capitol Hill ultimately ended in the removal of the group from the List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations of the State Department in September 2012. A few months after its delisting, the MKO reopened its office in Washington a block away from the White House, eating cake with some of its congressional sponsors.

In fact, the MKO has a long list of advocates among republicans. The group has hired the most powerful republican lobbying firms such as Akin Gump to run its agenda in the US government. Rep. Ileana Ros-lehtinen, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher are two of most vocal supporters of the MKO in the Congress. They often appear in the group’s rallies to speak on behalf of the group and its warmonger belief. Also, former republican figures and hardliners have deep pockets of the MKO dollars. Tom Ridge, Rudy Guiliani, Fran Townsand, Patrick Kennedy and Micheal Mukasey are other formerly high profiles in the MKO campaign who have been beating on war

drums against Iran for years.

The MKO hopes that the republican majority could be able to stop nuclear talks while the last round of the talks is now taking place in Oman. It means that before next January and the start of republicans’ rule over the Congress the talks will be done. Therefore, it is clear that the result of the midterm elections is not going to affect the negotiations, at least for the time being. However, President Obama has promised that he would try to convince Republicans in case of reaching any agreement with Iran.

Today, the MKO propaganda office has found itself with new supporters of war in the Congress. Thus, the timing to launch the old repeated propaganda against the Iranian nuclear program seems appropriate for the group.

Last Friday, the office of the MKO’s propaganda arm, the so-called National council of Resistance held a press conference show to claim that Iran has installed explosive chambers in Parchin site. Yet, the so-called revelation of the NCR has hardly ever gained attention in the media.

Seemingly the efforts of the MKO’s lobby and huge expenses it paid will not simply bear fruit. By the way, any agreement with Iran that is defendable by Obama and his party can very probably satisfy the Republicans, considering that the US public opinion extensively oppose a new war.

Regarding the current crisis of the Middle East and the threat of terrorists of the Islamic State group, and the Iranian good will to reach an agreement with the West, any agreement between the two sides is considered as a win-win deal, regardless of who won the US congressional elections.

The only loser of the entire story is the MKO and its warmonger opportunist drive that is seeking to overthrow the Iranian government at any cost.

By Mazda Parsi

November 10, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Direct, intentional, unmistakable support for the terrorist MKO

Although pursuing hegemony in today’s world is a futile tasks because of Russia and China’s resistance, yet the United States pushes for its dominance over the world. To achieve this ambition, the US is not hesitant to use any means necessary such as capitalizing on terrorist groups. This tactic was clearly seen when the US created Taliban after the invasion of Afghanestan by Russia.

“It is not merely hyperbole when it is said the US created terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda or the so-called Islamic State,” Writes Tony Cartalucci the Bangkok based political analyst. ‘’ It is documented fact.”

He suggests that the chaotic situation of the Middle East is “intentional, engineered “ by the US and its “many eager allies” to create regional fronts in a war against Iran. In his opinion Western support for terrorists is “direct, intentional, and unmistakable”.

Cartalucci states that the support for Mujahedin Khalq Organization is “perhaps the most overt and bizarre declaration of allegiance to terrorism to date”. He points out the speech of one of the well-paid supporters of the MKO the American retired General Hugh Shelton who “hysterically” pledges American material, political, and strategic backing for the MKO.

General Hugh Shelton is the permanent participant of Maryam Rajavi’s masquerade shows in Paris. He is always offered luxurious trips to flatter Mrs. Rajavi. Shelton’s shilling for the MKO is also observed in his piece on Global Research. Persuading the US foreign policy makers to apply pressure against Iran. He often praises Maryam Rajavi for her rhetoric and warmongering ideas.

As Cartalucci correctly states, “To this day MEK terrorists have been carrying out attacks inside of Iran killing political opponents, attacking civilian targets, as well as carrying out the US-Israeli program of targeting and assassinating Iranian scientists.” The MKO’s use of violence against Iranian nation is undeniable. Most of its terrorist acts have been glorified in the group’s media. They are well documented. However this does not stop the West from sponsoring it.

“There is no guiding principles of peace, stability, democracy, freedom, or any confining principles of humanity that prohibit US foreign policy from exercising the most abhorrent practices in order to achieve its goals”, according to Tony Cartalucci.” Failure to identify these interests blindly chasing hegemony at the cost of global peace and prosperity leads not only America over a cliff into a ravine of madness, but the entire world as well.”

The same thing is true about the MKO. The Rajavis believe in Machiavellianism that is embodied by the saying “the ends justify the means”. They have so far used any sort of violence, treason, dishonesty and fraudulent tactics to spur their hegemony over their cult – not Iran. Just as Cartalucci sees no future for the US empire-building policy, there is no future seen for the MKO’s futile efforts for power in Iran.

“ That a US general can stand before terrorists even as the US bombs two nations in the name of fighting terrorism, is but a glimpse into this madness”, He concludes. “For America and the Western aligned nations and interests caught in its orbit, there is no future. Chasing hegemony for the sake of hegemony alone leaves no room for actual progress. “

For the time being, for both the MKO and the West “anything and everything obstructing the path to hegemony is seen as an “enemy” to be destroyed by any means necessary.”

The MKO leaders used to try to win hearts and minds with tanks and mortars and Kalashnikovs and now they are trying to win the support of the West by huge amounts of money they offer. They created their army of brainwashed and manipulated minds who murder and lie for their guru. They justified any means to gain their ends. They sold themselves to the West. Obviously the group has gained nothing except ill fame for itself. The group is notorious for its violence and abuse of its own members. But there is no use of the whole notoriety they made for themselves.

Mazda Parsi

October 22, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The MEK: US War on Iran Takes Bizarre Turn

It is not merely hyperbole when it is said the US created terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda or the so-called “Islamic State.” It is documented fact. The current conflict in the Middle East may appear to be a chaotic conflagration beyond the control of the United States and its many eager allies, but in reality it is the intentional, engineered creation of regional fronts in a war against Iran and its powerful arc of influence.

It is not Western policy that indirectly spurs the creation and perpetuation of terrorist organizations, but in fact, direct, intentional, unmistakable support.

This support would manifest itself in perhaps the most overt and bizarre declaration of allegiance to terrorism to date, US Army General Hugh Shelton on stage before terrorists of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) and their Wahabist counterparts fighting in Syria, hysterically pledging American material, political, and strategic backing. MEK was listed for years by the US State Department as a foreign terrorist organization, but has received funding, arms, and safe haven by the United States for almost as long.

General Hugh’s speech titled, “Making Iranian mullahs fear, the MEK, come true,” was most likely never meant to be seen or fully understood by Americans. In titled alone, it is clear that US foreign policy intends to use the tool of terrorism to exact concessions from Tehran. If the true nature of America’s support for terrorist organizations like MEK were more widely known, the current narrative driving US intervention in Iraq and Syria would crumble.

MEK Has Killed US Servicemen, Contractors, and Iranian Civilians For Decades

MEK has carried out decades of brutal terrorist attacks, assassinations, and espionage against the Iranian government and its people, as well as targeting Americans including the attempted kidnapping of US Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II, the attempted assassination of USAF Brigadier General Harold Price, the successful assassination of Lieutenant Colonel Louis Lee Hawkins, the double assassinations of Colonel Paul Shaffer and Lieutenant Colonel Jack Turner, and the successful ambush and killing of American Rockwell International employees William Cottrell, Donald Smith, and Robert Krongard.

Admissions to the deaths of the Rockwell International employees can be found within a report written by former US State Department and Department of Defense official Lincoln Bloomfield Jr. on behalf of the lobbying firm Akin Gump in an attempt to dismiss concerns over MEK’s violent past and how it connects to its current campaign of armed terror – a testament to the depths of depravity from which Washington and London lobbyists operate.

To this day MEK terrorists have been carrying out attacks inside of Iran killing political opponents, attacking civilian targets, as well as carrying out the US-Israeli program of targeting and assassinating Iranian scientists. MEK terrorists are also suspected of handling patsies in recent false flag operations carried out in India, Georgia, and Thailand, which have been ham-handedly blamed on the Iranian government by the United States and Israel.

MEK is described by Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Ray Takeyh as a “cult-like organization” with “totalitarian tendencies.” While Takeyh fails to expand on what he meant by “cult-like” and “totalitarian,” an interview with US State Department-run Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty reported that a MEK Camp Ashraf escapee claimed the terrorist organization bans marriage, using radios, the Internet, and holds many members against their will with the threat of death if ever they are caught attempting to escape.

US Has Been Eagerly Supporting MEK Terrorists For Years

Besides providing MEK terrorists with now two former US military bases in Iraq as safe havens, the US has conspired to arm, fund, and back MEK for years in a proxy war against Iran.

Covert support for the US-listed terrorist group Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK) has been ongoing since at least 2008 under the Bush administration, when Seymour Hersh’s 2008 New Yorker article “Preparing the Battlefield,” reported that not only had MEK been considered for their role as a possible proxy, but that the US had already begun arming and financing them to wage war inside Iran:

The M.E.K. has been on the State Department’s terrorist list for more than a decade, yet in recent years the group has received arms and intelligence, directly or indirectly, from the United States. Some of the newly authorized covert funds, the Pentagon consultant told me, may well end up in M.E.K. coffers. “The new task force will work with the M.E.K. The Administration is desperate for results.” He added, “The M.E.K. has no C.P.A. auditing the books, and its leaders are thought to have been lining their pockets for years. If people only knew what the M.E.K. is getting, and how much is going to its bank accounts—and yet it is almost useless for the purposes the Administration intends.

More recently, the British Daily Mail published a stunning admission by “US officials” that Israel is currently funding, training, arming, and working directly with MEK. The Daily Mail article states: Seymore Hersh in an NPR interview, also claims that select MEK members have already received trainingin the US.

U.S. officials confirmed today that Israel has been funding and training Iranian dissidents to assassinate nuclear scientists involved in Iran’s nuclear program. Washington insiders confirmed there is a close relationship between Mossad and MEK.

In 2009, an extensive conspiracy was formulated within US policy think-tank Brookings Institution’s 2009 “Which Path to Persia?” report, proposing to fully arm, train, and back MEK as it waged a campaign of armed terror against the Iranian people. In their report, they openly conspire to use what is an admitted terrorist organization as a “US proxy” (emphasis added):

“Perhaps the most prominent (and certainly the most controversial) opposition group that has attracted attention as a potential U.S. proxy is the NCRI (National Council of Resistance of Iran), the political movement established by the MEK (Mujahedin-e Khalq). Critics believe the group to be undemocratic and unpopular, and indeed anti-American.

In contrast, the group’s champions contend that the movement’s long-standing opposition to the Iranian regime and record of successful attacks on and intelligence-gathering operations against the regime make it worthy of U.S. support. They also argue that the group is no longer anti-American and question the merit of earlier accusations. Raymond Tanter, one of the group’s supporters in the United States, contends that the MEK and the NCRI are allies for regime change in Tehran and also act as a useful proxy for gathering intelligence. The MEK’s greatest intelligence coup was the provision of intelligence in 2002 that led to the discovery of a secret site in Iran for enriching uranium.

Despite its defenders’ claims, the MEK remains on the U.S. government list of foreign terrorist organizations. In the 1970s, the group killed three U.S. officers and three civilian contractors in Iran. During the 1979-1980 hostage crisis, the group praised the decision to take America hostages and Elaine Sciolino reported that while group leaders publicly condemned the 9/11 attacks, within the group celebrations were widespread.

Undeniably, the group has conducted terrorist attacks—often excused by the MEK’s advocates because they are directed against the Iranian government. For example, in 1981, the group bombed the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party, which was then the clerical leadership’s main political organization, killing an estimated 70 senior officials. More recently, the group has claimed credit for over a dozen mortar attacks, assassinations, and other assaults on Iranian civilian and military targets between 1998 and 2001. At the very least, to work more closely with the group (at least in an overt manner), Washington would need to remove it from the list of foreign terrorist organizations.”

Besides US Army General Hugh Shelton, other prominent US politicians to literally stand before crowds of baying MEK terrorists and their supporters include former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Howard Dean, Tom Ridge, John Lewis, Ed Rendell, former ambassador John Bolton, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, retired General Wesley Clark, Lee Hamilton, former US Marine Corps Commandant General James Jones, and Alan Dershowitz. US Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi would also stand in front of MEK terrorists to deliver to them an Iranian New Year “greeting.”

Blind Lust for Global Hegemony is Leading America Over a Cliff

What it says about American foreign policy, to trick US servicemen and women into dying in far off lands to “fight terrorism” when US politicians in the highest positions of power openly pledge support to terrorism – using it as a battering ram against its enemies abroad, and failing to topple them by proxy, using their own terrorist hordes as a pretext for direct military intervention to do so – is that such policy is underpinned by nothing more than blind lust for power, wealth, and influence in senseless pursuit of global hegemony. There is no guiding principles of peace, stability, democracy, freedom, or any confining principles of humanity that prohibit US foreign policy from exercising the most abhorrent practices in order to achieve its goals.

Failure to identify these interests blindly chasing hegemony at the cost of global peace and prosperity leads not only America over a cliff into a ravine of madness, but the entire world as well. That a US general can stand before terrorists even as the US bombs two nations in the name of fighting terrorism, is but a glimpse into this madness.For America and the Western aligned nations and interests caught in its orbit, there is no future. Chasing hegemony for the sake of hegemony alone leaves no room for actual progress. When anything and everything obstructing the path to hegemony is seen as an “enemy” to be destroyed by any means necessary, that includes setting aside resources and attention to solving some of the most pressing issues of our time – health care, infrastructure, education, better jobs, peace, and prosperity. All of these are seen as obstacles toward hegemony, and the very same interests standing before MEK terrorists pledging America’s resources to their campaign of terrorism against Iran, are the same interests calling for and implementing austerity upon the American people to continuously fuel its foreign adventures.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

NSNBC.me

October 18, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The adventures of the MKO and warmongers

The ISIS threat in the Middle East might be over someday but the threat of cult-like extremism will not leave the region unless the super powers stop pursuing their empire-building policies in the region.

The beginning of the sectarian violence in the region perhaps goes back to the time of Russian influence in Afghanistan when the US supported Afghan Mujahideen and then created Taliban, the extremists group to fight the Soviet Union –the US strategic adversary in the Middle East. The rise of Taliban was the start of al Qaeda. Al Qaede in turn has been the originator of even worse extremist groups such as ISIS or IS. The entire historical memory of the world indicates that the Threat of extremism is a Western creature.

“The ISIL or IS threat is a smokescreen,” Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya the award-winning author, sociologist and geopolitical analyst states. “The strength of the ISIL has deliberately been inflated to get public support for the Pentagon and to justify the illegal bombing of Syria.” He suggests that the US has a broader dream which is regime change in Iran. ”… Baghdad and Damascus have been viewed as pathways for the Pentagon towards Tehran, “he writes. [1]

To accomplish such an objective, the US has the same plan for the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO, Rajavi’s Cult, MEK). As Nasemroaya notices, “disingenuously and ironically, the US and Britain used Saddam Hussein’s support for the MEK to justify labeling Iraq as a state-sponsor of terrorism and to also justify the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq”. [2]

That part of the US government that is opposed to diplomacy with Iran is dramatically manipulated by the MKO propaganda. The group’s multi-million dollar lobbying campaign finally resulted in getting removed from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations of the US State Department in September 2012 but shilling for the MKO has not stopped since then. The warmongers of the Congress view the Cult of Rajavi as “the main Iranian opposition” and an “alternative” for the Islamic Republic.

Daniel Larison of the American Conservative website criticizes Western supporters of the MKO who argue about the Iranian “deceit”. “Leaving aside how crazy it is to spurn diplomacy because governments sometimes lie and break their promises, there is something especially weird about an argument that simultaneously promotes the cause of the MEK while complaining about Iranian deceit,” he writes. [3]

Larison clarifies how the MKO propaganda actually deceived the West to buy its sponsorship. He states:” As it has sought to rehabilitate itself in the West, the MEK has claimed all sorts of spurious, self-serving things about what it represents. Despite being a bizarre authoritarian cult with Marxist and quasi-Islamist views, it now pretends to be exactly what Westerners want an Iranian exile group to be.” About the group’s skillful propaganda he writes,” It doesn’t matter to the MEK’s American fans that it is lying about its political views, and they are obviously not worried about reciting those lies for Western audiences. Indeed, it has so completely hoodwinked them that they think it should be rewarded with American support.” [4]

“The MKO Since 2003, the US has been funding the MEK,” Nazemroaya also warns about the US support for the MKO. “Washington has been protecting the MEK, because it wants to keep them on a leash as either leverage against Tehran or to have the option of one day installing the MEK into power in Tehran as part of a regime change operation against Iran.” He confirms that the MKO “has literally become incorporated into the Pentagon and CIA toolboxes against Tehran.”[5]

The Iranian-American analyst declares that the MKO’s money is circulated among its sponsors and the group’s propaganda arm. “The irony is that the money for the event most probably came from the US government itself. US allies probably contributed too,” he writes. “This money has gone to the MEK’s lobbying initiatives with the US Congress and US Department of State, which in effect is recycling US funding.” [6]

The fraudulent policy of the West to run its empire in the Middle East is very clearly seen in recent Henry Kissinger’s comment about ISIS which MKO propaganda website proudly republishes it. The former US Secretary of State who is famous for his warmonger policies, expressed in an interview with NPR that he considers ”Iran a bigger problem than ISIS”. He sounds to be making this audience ready for another war in the region—which is a dream for Maryam Rajavi. [7]

Daniel Larison announces to his country fellow politicians that the MKO is not “the main Iranian opposition” or “anything like it”. He suggests, ”The shilling for this group by many prominent American former officials and politicians is one of the more disgraceful displays of the last decade, and as long as it continues it should be held up for derision.” [8]

However, as Nasemroaya proposes, the West’s imperialism policy is not indeed based on truth but it is based on its in benefits and interests. “When it comes down to it, the US is not concerned about fighting the ISIL, which has been serving Washington’s interests in the Middle East,” he concludes. ”America’s main concern is about preserving its crumbling empire and preventing Eurasian integration.” [9]

Mazda Parsi

Sources:

[1] Nazemroaya, Mahdi Darius, The March to War: Fighting ISIL is a Smokescreen for US Mobilization against Syria, Iran, Global Research, September 26, 2014

[2] ibid

[3] Larison, Daniel, The Disgraceful Shilling for the MEK Continues, The American Conservative, August 9, 2014

[4] ibid

[5] Nazemroaya, Mahdi Darius, The March to War: Fighting ISIL is a Smokescreen for US Mobilization against Syria, Iran, Global Research, September 26, 2014

[6] ibid

[7] NPR Staff, Henry Kissinger’s Thoughts On The Islamic State, Ukraine And ‘World Order’, NPR , September 6, 2014

[8] Larison, Daniel, The Disgraceful Shilling for the MEK Continues, The American Conservative, August 9, 2014

[9] Nazemroaya, Mahdi Darius, The March to War: Fighting ISIL is a Smokescreen for US Mobilization against Syria, Iran, Global Research, September 26, 2014

October 6, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The War Party never takes a holiday

Hoaxes, Hype, and Hysteria

While Americans were barbecuing over the Labor Day weekend, the Usual Suspects were busy cooking up new wars, from Iraq to Ukraine. While this is nothing new – after all, evil never sleeps – one thing I did notice: the stunning lack of imagination on their part. It was, in effect, the equivalent of a bunch of summer reruns: tired formulaic retreads that weren’t all that convincing in the first place.

Take the latest war propaganda centered on the alleged "threat" to our precious bodily fluids supposedly posed by ISIS, the War Party’s latest bogeyman. As polls showed a stubborn reluctance on the part of the American people to re-invade Iraq, the neocons came up with a not-so-new one: they claim a laptop computer ostensibly captured from ISIS by the "good" jihadists – the so-called Free Syrian Army, which is armed and trained by the US – contains plans for constructing "weapons of mass destruction," i.e. biological weapons. They’re even calling it the "laptop of death" – a phrase that ought to ring a bell for those who follow these sorts of things.

That’s the same phrase used to describe yet another purloined laptop, this one supplied by the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, an Iranian terrorist group that, for years, has been feeding the War Party bogus "intelligence" about Tehran’s nonexistent nuclear weapons program. That tall tale was debunked in 2011 – yet another case of MEK cobbling together old outdated data, adding a dash of forgery, and shaking well enough to fool the credulous.

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but what if the dog can pass off an old hoax as a new one? And that’s why I’m here: to remind you.

Speaking of America’s Good Jihadists, a.k.a. the Syrian Free Army, I was struck by this nugget from an account of the killing of Douglas McAuthur McCain, an American fighting for ISIS in Syria, in the New York Times:

"The rebels who killed him were fighting for the Free Syrian Army, a rival group backed by the United States, and they went on to behead six ISIS fighters – but not Mr. McCain – and then posted the photographs on Facebook."

Yes, these are the "moderate" Syrian rebels, backed by your tax dollars and the prestige of the United States government. Oh, but don’t worry, kids: they’re our barbarians – so beheading is okay, even praiseworthy, since they’re doing it on behalf of spreading "freedom" and "democracy."

And speaking of hoaxes, here’s a biggie: they’re telling us that the long-awaited Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine has finally arrived! Yay! You can almost hear the sigh of relief all the way from Washington. The War Party’s journalistic camarilla – which has been telling us for the past six months or so that Putin’s move was "imminent" – yelped "we told you so!" in unison. Neocon hysteric Anne Applebaum screeched that this proved that we have to prepare for "total war" with nuclear-armed Russia – which, she claims, is planning to "use nuclear weapons to bomb Poland and the Baltic countries."

There’s just one problem with this alleged "invasion" – there’s zero evidence for it. Normally when one country invades another, troops pour over the border, missiles strike their targets, and the invaders proclaim their victory. So where are the Russian tanks, the missiles raining down death, the tens of thousands of troops marching in to take possession of their newly-conquered territory?

They’re nowhere to be seen. The best NATO could come up with was a series of murky satellite photos showing a column of military vehicles going somewhere from some place else – and that’s it. Apparently the Ukrainian army is so under-equipped that the poor things don’t even have a single cell phone camera to take a quick shot of the invading hordes. (This just proves they need more American aid!) Washington avers that one thousand Russian troops are now in Ukraine – but why would Putin send in such a paltry "army" and risk defeat? Why not just send in the troops, as he did in Crimea, and be done with it?

Oh, but the new cold warriors have a ready answer for the absence of solid evidence: this, we’re told, is no regular old-fashioned conquest. In this case, it’s a "new" kind of invasion – a "stealth invasion." Which just goes to show that words can be twisted to mean their exact opposite.

Yet this "stealth" angle elides an important element of any invasion plan: the political benefits to be had at home. These are, by the way, the only benefits to be had if Putin decided to annex ramshackle east Ukraine, with its profitless Soviet-era industries and desperately poor populace. So why isn’t he up there beating his chest and scoring points by telling the Russian people he’s the kind of strong leader who can stand up to the West?

The War Party has sunk to a new low: they’re stealing from Hollywood! If this isn’t outright plagiarism of the plot of "Wag the Dog," then it’s damned close. If I were the producers of that movie, I’d sue – but that’s just me.

While our war propagandists lack originality, you have to give them credit for persistence: these guys never give up. When one lie is exposed, another quickly takes center stage – and if the War Party does this in the belief that the memory of the American people is lamentably short, then who can fault their logic?

That’s why Antiwar.com is a vitally important resource for those of us who want to put an end to our foreign policy of global intervention. Our online archives are a detailed record of the War Party’s now-debunked fabrications, a charge sheet stretching all the way back to the mid-1990s.

And our readers apparently realize the value of this resource – because, unlike the War Party’s bought-and-paid-for "journalists," we depend on a growing base of grassroots supporters to keep this operation afloat and expanding.

Amid all the navel-gazing discussion by "mainstream" scribes about how to sustain a news operation in the face of a technology that has changed the face of journalism, Antiwar.com’s success in building a new model has gone largely unremarked. As mainline journalists bemoan the decline of their industry, Antiwar.com has pointed the way forward for new media by building a news organization that abandons the old subscriber-advertiser-dependent revenue stream and bases itself, instead, on reader donations.

Of course, bloggers have been doing this, with the by-now-traditional "tip jar," for years, but I believe we were among the first to apply it to a broader-based news-and-opinion site – and make it work.

It has worked for over fifteen years. Every time we pass the goal in our quarterly fundraising drives I feel an immense satisfaction in the fact that our readers have given us yet another vote of confidence.

From where I sit, it looks as though our late summer fundraising drive is very close to the goalpost. My thanks to all who gave: I can’t even begin to express the depth of my gratitude. And I want to point out that none of us here at Antiwar.com take your support for granted: we work overtime to earn your support by reporting the facts as we understand them and never failing to question the "conventional wisdom" – no matter where it takes us.

Antiwar

September 11, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Pro-Israeli American Billionaires Helped by the White House “Make War on Iran”

Pro-Israeli American Billionaires Helped by the White House “Make War on Iran”, Law Suit Reveals

There is a group of Jewish American billionaires who are apparently doing their best to make sure than negotiations with Iran go nowhere in the mistaken belief that they are doing what is best for Israel. And they would also appear to be assisted in their efforts by the White House, which is at the same time claiming that it wants the talks to be successful. The odd relationship is currently playing out in a Manhattan courtroom where the Justice Department is seeking to squash a lawsuit that it fears might expose the extent to which the government has hypocritically played fast and loose with classified information while simultaneously sending journalists and whistleblowers to jail over allegations that they have done the same.

The power and wealth of the anti-Iran groups as well as their unrivalled access to the United States government means that a policy of détente with Iran, which would be a no brainer based on both American and Iranian interests, only proceeds by fits and starts with the US Congress and much of the media lined up solidly to stop the effort. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its affiliated educational foundation, which have focused on the “Iranian threat” over the past three years, have a combined budget of more than $90 million while AIPAC’s spin-off the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) has $8.7 million.

The American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) efforts are more diversified but uniformly hawkish when it comes to the Middle East. It has a budget of $45 million. Identified multi-million dollar donor/supporters of AIPAC, AEI, and WINEP include Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas Sands, Paul Singer of Elliot Management hedge fund and Bernard Marcus of Home Depot.

Other right wing think tanks including Heritage and Hudson in Washington also support unrelenting pressure directed against Iran. Even the more centrist Brookings Institute is hard core when it comes to Middle Eastern politics by virtue of its Saban Institute funded by Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban. And then there are the mainstream Jewish organizations to include the Anti Defamation League, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations and the American Jewish Congress, all of which have vast resources and unparalleled access to the White House, Congress and the media.

All the pro-Israel anti-Iran groups engage in pressure tactics on Capitol Hill and have been effective in dominating the political debate. Of thirty-six outside witnesses brought in to testify at seven Senate hearings on Iran since 2012 only one might be characterized as sensitive to Iranian concerns. The enormous lobbying effort enables the anti-Iran groups to define the actual policies, move their drafts of legislation through congress, and eventually see their bills pass with overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate. It is democracy in action if one accepts that popular rule ought to be guided by money and pressure groups rather than by national interests.

Less well known is United Against Nuclear Iran, which has a budget just shy of $2 million. UANI is involved in the New York lawsuit. The group, which has somehow obtained a 501[c]3 “educational” tax status that inter alia allows it to conceal its donors, has offices in Rockefeller Center in New York City. It is active on Capitol Hill providing “expert testimony” on Iran for congressional committees, to include “help” in drafting legislation. At a July Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Iran all three outside witnesses were from UANI. It is also active in the media but is perhaps best known for its “name and shame” initiatives in which it exposes companies that it claims are doing business with Tehran in violation of US sanctions.

UANI is being sued by a Greek billionaire Victor Restis whom it had outed in 2013. Restis, claiming the exposure was fraudulent and carried out to damage his business, has filed suit demanding that UANI and billionaire Thomas Kaplan turn over documents and details of relationships regarding UANI donors who it is claimed are linked to the case. Kaplan, a New York City resident, made his initial fortune on energy exploration and development. More recently he has been involved in commodities trading in precious metals. His wife Daphne is Israeli and his involvement in various Jewish philanthropies both in the US and in Israel have invited comparison with controversial deceased commodities trader Marc Rich, who reportedly worked closely with the Israeli government on a number of projects.

The Justice department would like to the see the UANI lawsuit go away as it is aware that what is being described as “law enforcement” documents would include both privileged and classified Treasury Department work product relating to individuals and companies that it has investigated for sanctions busting. Passing either intelligence related or law enforcement documents to a private organization is illegal but the Justice Department’s only apparent concern is that the activity might be exposed. There is no indication that it would go after UANI for having acquired the information and it perhaps should be presumed that the source of the leak is the Treasury Department itself.

Who or what provided the documents to a private advocacy group that is also a tax exempt foundation supported by prominent businessmen with interests in the Middle East is consequently not completely clear but Restis is assuming that the truth will out if he can get hold of the evidence. The lawsuit claims that UANI intimidates its targets by defaming their business practices as well as by demanding both examination of their books and an audit carried out by one of its own accountants followed by review from an “independent counsel.”

Kaplan is named in the suit as he appears to be the gray eminence behind UANI. He once boasted “we’ve (UANI) done more to bring Iran to heel than any other private sector initiative.” Kaplan also employs as a director or officer in six of his companies the Executive Director of UANI Mark Wallace and reportedly arranged the awarding of the Executive Director position at Harvard’s Belfer Center to its President Gary Samore.

Kaplan is a business competitor to Restis, whose lawyers are apparently seeking to demonstrate two things: first, that the US government has been feeding sometimes only partially vetted information to UANI to help in its “name and shame” program and second, that UANI is itself supported by partisan business interests like Kaplan as well as by foreign sources, which apparently is meant to imply Israel. Or even the Israeli intelligence service Mossad. Meir Dagan, former head of Mossad, is on the UANI advisory board, which also includes ex-Senator Joseph Lieberman and former Senior Diplomat Dennis Ross, both of whom have frequently been accused of favoring Israeli interests and both of whom might well have easy access to US government generated information.

And then there is the Muhadedin-e-Khalq, the Iranian terrorist group that has assassinated at least six Americans and is now assisting the Israeli government in killing Iranian scientists, a prima facie definition of what constitutes terrorism. The group was on the State Department terrorist list from 1997 until 2012, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton de-listed it in response to demands coming from friends of Israel in Congress as well as from a large group of ex government officials, many of whom were paid large honoraria by the group to serve as advocates. The paid American shills included former CIA Directors James Woolsey and Porter Goss, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Louis Freeh and former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton. The promoters of MEK in congress and elsewhere claimed to be primarily motivated by MEK’s being an enemy of the current regime in Tehran, though its virulent anti-Americanism and terrorist history make it a somewhat unlikely poster child for the “Iranian resistance.”

Supporters of MEK also ignore the fact that the group is run like a cult, routinely executes internal dissidents, and has virtually no political support within Iran. But such are the ways of the corrupt Washington punditocracy, lionizing an organization that it should be shunning. MEK’s political arm is located in Paris and it has long been assumed that it is funded by the Israeli government and by at least some of the same gaggle of billionaires, possibly including their Israeli counterparts, who support the anti-Iranian agenda in the United States.

Iranian negotiators have accepted that their country should have only limited uranium enrichment capabilities coupled with a rigorous inspection regime but the talks in Geneva drag on and on as the United States continues to hesitate, raising new objections regularly in spite of claims that it operates in good faith and seeks a settlement. That an agreement is within reach is undoubtedly true and it would even be good for Israel as it would remove the regional nuclear option while making much less likely another pointless and devastating war. But the men who write the checks do not see it that way and, unfortunately, they are the ones who all too often both pay the piper and call the tune.

Philip Giraldi,

September 1, 2014 0 comments

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