The recent revelations concerning the speaking fees paid to the former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell as a supporter of a designated terrorist group MKO, only one of a group of senior former American officials and military commanders walking on the same line, are sad news to hear especially when you come to realize that these advocates have been a part of an administration that voiced a global war on terrorism.
Maybe it was the money. Or perhaps they were conned by an incredible MEK lobbying effort carried out through a series of front groups. That effort lavished money on prime-time TV, and full-page newspaper ads, which portray the MEK as a democratic group leading the fight for Iran regime change. Apparently none of these pooh-bahs ever asked about the source of their honoraria.”Nobody has ever been able to figure out where the money comes from,”says Iran expert Barbara Slavin
It is unclear how far Treasury Department officials intend to push the probe .. But NBC News has obtained one possible clue: A small Pennsylvania-based speakers firm called Speakers Access wrote an email in September inviting a Washington based national security expert to speak at a conference in Geneva, Switzerland”on behalf of our client, National Council of Resistance of Iran, Foreign Affairs Committee.”..
In both 2006 and 2007, I helped review the MEK’s terrorist designation. I worked with my colleagues in government to review documentation dating from the 1970s to the present, and it was swiftly determined that the MEK’s aka MKO/PMOI terrorist designation remained warranted. This was during the Bush administration — which had an openly stated policy of regime change.. The facts were so indisputable that nearly zero debate took place inside ..
Sources told NBC that former government officials received fees of more than $30,000 a talk and were flown first class to Europe. The officials claimed that they were told the fees came from wealthy Americans or foreign supporters of the group — but not the group itself.Many of the speaking arrangements were made through speaking booking firms, according to the report.”This is about finding out where the money is coming from,”..
The gravy train on which some prominent Americans rode seems to be perforce halted in an outstation. The US Treasury Department appears to have begun an inquiry to see whether the speaking fees paid by Mojahedin Khalq Organization MKO to its American advocates who have spoken on its behalf are illegal. In an earlier report by The Washington Times, Edward G. Rendell, the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania ..
There are many misconceptions about the MEK/MKO/PMOI so I checked in with several Iranian born experts on Iran. All of them are distressed that American politicians are advocating for the MEK. They also doubt that the money paid to the politicos comes from the Iranian Diaspora because most expatriate Iranians do no support the MEK.. a Washington political consultant, said,”The MEK is a terrorist group. It is a cult of religious automatons. ..
In August of last year, The Christian Science Monitor‘s Scott Peterson published a detailed exposé about “a high-powered array of former top American officials” who have received “tens of thousands of dollars” from a designated Terrorist organization – the Iranian dissident group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) aka MKO/PMOI— and then met with its leaders, attended its meetings, and/or publicly advocated on its behalf…
It doesn’t exactly come as a shock that the MEK/MKO/PMOI is misrepresenting the facts about the conditions at Camp Liberty, since the group misrepresents itself on a regular basis. Pro-MEK advocates in the U.S. and Europe worked diligently for years to blur the differences between the welfare of the civilians at Camp Ashraf and the issue of the MEK’s listing as a foreign terrorist organization. The goal of this was to exploit the plight of Ashraf residents..
Rendell’s”extensive research”claim appears to contradict what he told the audience at his very first MEK-related speaking engagement — a July 16 conference at the Willard Hotel in Washington attended by this reporter. There, on a bipartisan panel of former administration officials, all receiving at least $20,000 for their appearances, Rendell said he had received the speaking invitation only five days before. Typically, top-tier speakers like Rendell are booked months in advance.