Home » Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group » Page 38

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO Scheme to Fan the Flame of Ethnic War

Some Arab news sources report that the MKO plans to carry out a series of bombings at the holy shrines in Samarra in an attempt to fan the flames of a sectarian war and mislead the public opinion in Iraq from the issue of MKO expulsion and closure of Camp Ashraf.

Efforts by the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to put things in order and restore stability to the war-torn country which had reached an important and fateful stage with the emphasis on withdrawal of the US military have now entered a sensitive and tense stage with the Baghdad government’s intention to expel the arms of the West’s terrorist operations.

the Iraqi Shia government in addition to issuing an arrest warrant for Deputy Prime Minister Tariq al-Hashimi, a politician close to Saudi Arabia, on charges of planning terrorist operations in Iraq, has also a serious plan on agenda to expel the terrorist members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), another arm of US terrorist operations inside Iraq and close down their Camp Ashraf.

This is while certain currents close to the West by planning a series of extensive terrorist operations in Iraq are seeking to wage a sectarian war in the country. The first blasts in this line occurred in Baghdad last Thursday in which at least 250 people died.

In related news, some Arab news sources report that the MKO plans to carry out a series of bombings at the holy shrines in Samarra in an attempt to fan the flames of a sectarian war and mislead the public opinion in Iraq from the issue of MKO expulsion and closure of Camp Ashraf.

In the meantime, Maryam Rajavi, leader of the MKO hypocrites issued a statement last week giving in to the closure of Camp Ashraf and transfer of the few remaining forces there. Sources close to the MKO have announced that the terrorist group helped by terrorists close to al-Hashimi and a spectrum of al-Iraqiya movement has a special plan to carry out bombings at holy shrines to distract the public opinion and prevent expulsion of the MKO from Camp Ashraf.

Meantime, the MKO leaders at Camp Ashraf have told their advocates that the Maliki government would collapse soon and replaced by Ayyad Alawi and al-Iraqiya spectrum who have good relations with the MKO.

Hassan Tawaliba, an activist close to the MKO who under the cover of support for human rights defends the Ashraf based Mujahedin, has published an article in al-Liwaa newspaper in which he tries to pave the media ground for an important bombing the group apparently intends to carry out in Samarra in the coming days. The pro-MKO writer has tried to already put the blame of the terrorist operation on Iran and thus ignite a widespread religious sedition in Iraq.

The writer who calls himself the head of the media delegation supporting Ashraf, has claimed that a group of 50-60 forces affiliated to the Qods Army and commanded by Abu Hassan al-Rakabi from Zubair city plans to bomb Samarra and stir up a sectarian war.

He has also made a statement against Iranian Qods Army Commander Qasem Suleimni and voiced concern about expulsion of MKO forces from Camp Ashraf.

This claim comes at a time that the Western media have pointed their fingers at al-Qaeda for Thursday’s blasts against Shiite targets and warned against outbreak of ethnic clashes in Iraq.

In its analysis of the Baghdad blasts, the CNN tried to underline the possibility of sectarian clashes in Iraq. It said the deadly explosions had raised concern that the gap caused by the US military pullback from Iraq would pave the way for a power struggle between Sunni militants with links to al-Qaeda and Iran-backed Shia militias.
Raja News

0 comments
FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsappTelegramSkypeEmail
Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MEK remains on US FTO list after Camp Ashraf deal

In August I was one among several people who wrote about a well-funded lobbying campaign by the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) to get delisted from the US’s foreign terrorist organizations (FTO) list. The MEK is an exiled Iranian group that has killed US and Iranian citizens. It’s also described as a “cult” that has committed human rights abuses against its own members as documented by the Rand Corporation and Human Rights Watch.

Armed and supported by Saddam Hussein, the MEK helped him repress Iraqi Shias and Kurds and fought against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. Many analysts including neoconservative Michael Rubin have urged against delisting, noting potential blowback and acknowledging that the group would not be able to implement regime change in Iran due to its unpopularity with most Iranians.

President Obama was put in a tough spot by the MEK’s lobbying blitz not only because of the political heavyweights that expressed differing degrees of endorsement after thousands were paid to them in “speaking fees“, but also because of the MEK’s dishonest merging of the humanitarian concerns at their Camp Ashraf base with their FTO listing. Many expected that the Obama administration would announce a decision in September after dragging its feet for over a year following a 2010 Court of Appeals rare order that the designation be reevaluated, but no final announcement has been made and to date the MEK remains FTO-listed.

Under increasing Iraqi pressure to relocate and from human rights organizations urging leader Maryam Rajavi to allow independent access to over 3,000 Iranians at the camp, many feared a humanitarian tragedy such as mass suicide. But progress has been made after the UN convinced Iraq to sign a memorandum of understanding to temporarily resettle the residents to a former US military base north of Baghdad. The Head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq Martin Kobler said relocation was voluntary.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday that the temporary solution had the U.S’s “full support” and that the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) would be conducting refugee status determinations for the members “toward resettlement to third countries.”

She also stressed that for the initiative to be “successful”, the camp’s residents would have to give their “full support” and urged them to “work with the UN”–an indication that resistance is expected from the MEK’s avid supporters (many are believed to be held against their will).

While the majority of MEK members have never left the camp, Rajavi has been living in Paris where she has successfully lobbied the group off the UK and EU FTO lists. The whereabouts of her husband Masoud are unknown, but some suspect he’s inside the camp. It will be interesting to see whether any new information about him is disclosed and if Maryam Rajavi will ultimately relinquish her hold on the group’s members.

So far there have been no independent confirmations of a MEK claim that Iranian rockets struck their camp on Sunday. We’ll also have to wait and see whether the residents allow themselves to be relocated out of Iraq. The only thing that’s certain is that these people–especially those who have been lured and born into Camp Ashraf–deserve a better life.

The following is an excerpt from the RAND report (pg. 38-9) for those who want to understand the MEK better.

The MeK as a Cult

From its earliest days, the MeK had had tight social bonds, but these began to be transformed into something more sinister during the mid- 1980s after the group’s leaders and many of its members had relocated to Paris. There, Masoud Rajavi began to undertake what he called an “ideological revolution,” requiring a new regimen of activities—at first demanding increased study and devotion to the cause but soon expanding into near-religious devotion to the Rajavis (Masoud and his wife, Maryam), public self-deprecation sessions, mandatory divorce, celibacy,enforced separation from family and friends, and gender segregation.

Prior to establishing an alliance with Saddam, the MeK had been a popular organization. However, once it settled in Iraq and fought against Iranian forces in alliance with Saddam, the group incurred the ire of the Iranian people and, as a result, faced a shortfall in volunteers. Thus began a campaign of disingenuous recruiting. The MeK naturally sought out Iranian dissidents, but it also approached Iranian economic migrants in such countries as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates with false promises of employment, land, aid in applying for asylum in Western countries, and even marriage, to attract them to Iraq. Relatives of members were given free trips to visit the MeK’s camps. Most of these “recruits” were brought into Iraq illegally and then required to hand over their identity documents for “safekeeping.” Thus, they were effectively trapped.

Another recruiting tactic was arranged with the assistance of Saddam’s government. Iranian prisoners from the Iran-Iraq War were offered the choice of going to MeK camps and being repatriated or remaining in Iraqi prison camps. Hundreds of prisoners went to MeK camps, where they languished. No repatriation efforts were made.

For coalition forces, the MeK’s cult behavior and questionable recruiting practices are significant insofar as they affect both the daily operations at the camp and the strategic disposition options available to the group. The leadership is unlikely to cooperate with policies that would undermine its ability to exert direct control over its members. Indeed, Human Rights Watch reports that the MeK long ago instituted a complicated process to retain members who expressed a desire to leave, which included a “trial,” forced confessions of disloyalty, and even torture. Although this process has been modified since the group was consolidated at Camp Ashraf, would-be walkaways are still “debriefed” for days or even weeks while held in some form of solitary confinement, during which they are encouraged to change their minds.

Conversely, the long-term indoctrination and isolation experienced by MeK members are likely to have instilled an exaggerated sense of loyalty, causing them to reject offers to separate themselves from their leaders. This would apply in particular to repatriation to Iran, where the expectation of persecution has been dramatically instilled in their minds.

Jasmin Ramsey

0 comments
FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsappTelegramSkypeEmail
Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO not welcome in Switzerland despite US pressure

Pointing to MKO’s expulsion from Iraq before December 31, 2011 the French-language Swiss newspaper 20 Minutes wrote, "Despite US pressures, Federal Office for Migration in SwitzerlandFederal Office for Migration in Switzerlandrejected the resettlement of 11 members of the MKO organizationrejected the resettlement of 11 members of the MKO organization."

"These individuals pose a great threat to our national security," Federal Office for Migration in Switzerland explained that why they did not accept MKO members, IRNA quoted the newspaper as reporting.

"According to experts, members of this organization are really acting like groups of mafia, and they have committed numerous terrorist attacks in the past," the newspaper added.

Secretary-General of Swiss relief organizations also considered MKO as an aggressive and violent organization.

The newspaper asked the Swiss Middle East analyst Erich Gysling that whether the members of this organization use Switzerland as a base for terrorism? He said, "Yes, and the Swiss Federal Government is considering all these threats."

0 comments
FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsappTelegramSkypeEmail
Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Khalis police arrest MEK members on terrorism charges

Khalis police arrest gang of Saddamists, American contractors and Mojahedin-e Khalq members on terrorism charges

A source in the Iraqi security services said that the police arrested eleven people on Sunday 11 December in the Khalis district who were of different nationalities, all with fake IDs. Khalis police arrest MEK members on terrorism charges

They were arrested while in vehicles which were masquerading as governmental vehicles coming out of Camp Ashraf. The source, who declined to be named at this point of time, said that two of the suspects where U.S. citizens and three of them were members of the Mojahedin Khalq, all speaking fluent Arabic. The remaining six were former (Saddamist) Iraqi army officers, all dressed in uniforms of the Iraqi army.

The source confirmed that the U.S. embassy had intervened and pulled its citizens out on the same day before the other nine were referred to judicial authorities for investigation. The U.S. citizens were revealed to be from a private American security company which has its HQ in Mansour Street. Major General Qassim Atta the official spokesman for Baghdad operations refused to give details of this incident.

Al- Bayyana, Baghdad, Translated by Iran Interlink

0 comments
FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsappTelegramSkypeEmail
Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Mossad killed my husband

Wife of the late Iranian nuclear scientist Massoud Mohammadi says Israeli agents were behind the assassination of her husband.

“An Israeli openly told me in an international congress on victims of terrorism in France…that ‘we have assassinated your husband and we have been at war with you for 30 years,’” Mansoureh Karami said on Monday.

She stated that although Israel is an occupying regime, it considers itself a victim of terrorism, Fars News Agency quoted Karami as saying.

“I am sorry that an Iranian young man sold himself for money…. The assassin admitted that Israelis had told him that Ali-Mohammadi was trying to build a [nuclear] bomb, but this was not true. Israel and terrorist organizations like the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) have [tried to] hurt our sacred establishment using assassination,” she said.

Karami added that if UN human rights rapporteur, Ahmed Shaheed, aims to protect justice and human rights, he should talk to the families of Iranian victims of terror.

“There are more than 17,000 victims of terrorism in Iran. Although this phenomenon has been denounced throughout the world, the US uses it as tool,” she noted.

Professor Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, a lecturer at Tehran University, was killed by a booby-trapped motorbike near his home in northern Tehran on January 12, 2010.

Ali Jamali-Fashi, the man who killed Ali-Mohammadi, admitted in court that he had made numerous visits to Turkey to meet Mossad agents prior to the assassination attempt.

Fashi confessed to having repeatedly met with enemy elements in parks in Tehran and receiving between USD 5,000 to 10,000 for each meeting.

0 comments
FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsappTelegramSkypeEmail
Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Former MEK Leader Confirms Terror Conspirator Affiliated with the group

You’ll recall that the U.S. claimed that the Iranian alleged conspirator in the terror plot against the Saudi ambassador, Gholam Shakuri, was a Revolutionary Guard (IRG) official. Though many Iranians have scoured every resource they could think of, none have found evidence of such a person with any IRG affiliation. If the U.S. has such evidence it ought to produce it if it Richard Silversteinwants to be believed. Yesterday, the well-placed Alef site, run by an Iranian majlis member who’s run for president twice, alleged that Shakuri is in fact a high level Mujahadeen al Khalq (MEK) leader. It offered evidence to support the charge.

Today, the official MEK leadership has denied that Shakuri is a member and the U.S. has also denied the charge. But in fact, a former high-ranking MEK leader, Massoud Khodabandeh (he has allowed me to use his name), writing in the Gulf2000 listserv, confirmed that Shakuri is in fact an MEK member. He cautions that there may be more than one Gholam Shakuri, and the one who is the MEK member may not be the same Shakuri the U.S. has named. While this may be true, this new development moves Shakuri a lot closer to being MEK than being IRG. And moves the entire U.S. account of this supposed crime closer to the trash heap.

In its story containing the U.S. denial, the NY Times quotes U.S. sources responding to the Iranian charge that Shakuri held or holds a U.S. passport:

Mr. Shakuri is not a United States citizen and does not have an American passport.
I have no doubt that Shakuri is not a U.S. citizen and also that he may not currently have a U.S. passport. But this statement, at least as portrayed by Scott Shane, does not say the U.S. never issued such a passport in his name. There are many ways and reasons a non-U.S. citizen may obtain a U.S. passport including fraud and the possibility that Shakuri was performing a task for the U.S. government or CIA and needed such a document. I am speculating, but in light of the paucity of evidence the U.S. has offered to support its claims, we must parse the information it has distributed to try to determine credibility and accuracy.

There is another intriguing element that the Alef story added to the mix. It claimed that Interpol had released information allowing confirmation of Shakuri as an MEK official. The NY Times says this:

An Interpol spokeswoman declined to comment. But an American official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Interpol had discovered no link to the opposition group, calling the Iranian news report “pure fiction.”

While I do not know the protocols that Interpol follows in making public statements, I’d think that if the organization had been portrayed falsely by Iran, that it would want to say so. I’d also think that the U.S. would be a far more important national partner to Interpol than Iran and that Interpol would also want to deny this story if it were false because the U.S. would benefit from this. The fact that it refuses to do so raises if not a red, then surely a yellow flag for me.

The fact that a U.S. official seeks to speak on behalf of Interpol and under the cloak of anonymity is highly dubious. If they want us to believe what they claim, then I’m afraid it will have to be Interpol speaking on its own behalf.

Tikun Olam

0 comments
FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsappTelegramSkypeEmail
Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Iran: Alleged Terror Conspirator MEK Leader

I’ve been able to confirm with enough certainty to feel comfortable publishing the report from Iranian media that Gholam Shakuri, the alleged Iranian Revolutionary Guard co-conspirator in the Iran terror plot, is a member of the Mujahadeen al-Khalq (MEK). This is the group which engages in acts of terror within Iran in order to overthrow the regime. It also collaborates with the Mossad in spreading disinformation about the Iranian nuclear program. MEK has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaker and consulting fees to U.S. political figures like Howard Dean, in a so far vain attempt to get the group removed from the Treasury Department list of recognized terror groups.

Yesterday, the NY Times published this report:

Iran injected a new twist on Tuesday into the week-old American accusation of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, asserting that one of the defendants really belongs to an outlawed and exiled opposition group.

The defendant, Gholam Shakuri, identified by the Justice Department as an operative of the élite Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, is actually a “key member” of the Mujahedeen Khalq, Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported.

The agency did not explain the group’s possible motive but left the implication that the plot was a bogus scheme meant to frame and ostracize Iran.

… “The person in question has been traveling to different countries under the names of Ali Shakuri/Gholam Shakuri/Gholam-Hussein Shakuri by using fake passports including forged Iranian passports,” Mehr said.
…Mehr said it had learned what it called the new information about Mr. Shakuri from Interpol but was not more specific.

Muhammad Sahimi, working directly from Iranian media sources reports:

Alef, the website published by Majles deputy Ahmad Tavakoli, claimed that the second person named in the U.S. Justice Deaprtment’s indictment of the alleged culprits in the plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Washington, D.C., is a member of the Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization (MKO, or MEK). According to Alef, Gholam Shakuri — who, the website claims, has used the aliases Ali Shakuri and Gholam-Hossein Shakuri — is a high-ranking MKO member who has used faked passports to travel to various countries over the years. One of those passports was issued on November 30, 2006, in Washington with the number K10295631. Alef asserted that its information was obtained through Interpol. The website’s claims cannot be independently verified.

As I noted above, MEK has a history of planting fraudulent “evidence” designed to support the claim that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon. It therefore is entirely possible that it cooked up this scheme to further tarnish Iran’s reputation and relations with western countries. My only question is wouldn’t they care if they hatched such a slipshod plot that it made Barack Obama end up looking like an utter fool?

For those wondering, Alef is a website published by a well-connected Iranian legislator who’s run for president twice.

This article appeared at Tikun Olam

About the author:
Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein is an author, journalist and blogger, with articles appearing in Haaretz, the Jewish Forward, Los Angeles Times, the Guardian’s Comment Is Free, Al Jazeera English, and Alternet. His work has also been in the Seattle Times, American Conservative Magazine, Beliefnet and Tikkun Magazine, where he is on the advisory board. Check out Silverstein’s blog at Tikun Olam, one of the earliest liberal Jewish blogs, which he has maintained since February, 2003.

Richard Silverstein

0 comments
FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsappTelegramSkypeEmail
Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Alleged Terror suspect is a member of MKO

Iran said one of the two suspects in a US alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington belongs to the outlawed and armed opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) – a terrorist group responsible for the death of thousands of Iranian, Iraqi and western people and officials during the last 5 decades.

Gholam Shakuri, who the US Justice Department claimed to be an operative of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force is actually a "key member" of the Mojahedin-e -Khalq Organization, MNA reported.

The agency did not explain the group’s possible motive but left the implication that the plot was a bogus scheme meant to frame and ostracize Iran.

It said Shakuri, who is at large, had last been seen in Washington and in MKO’s main training center in Iraq, Camp Ashraf.

"The person in question has been traveling to different countries under the names of Ali Shakuri/Gholam Shakuri/Gholam-Hussein Shakuri by using fake passports including forged Iranian passports," the report said.

The MKO, also known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and MEK, is regarded by Iran as a violent insurgent organization with a history of assassinations and sabotage aimed at overthrowing the Islamic government that took power in 1979. While the group claims to have renounced violence a decade ago, it is still classified as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department.

The report said it had learned what it called the new information about Shakuri from Interpol.

The revelation that Shakuri is in fact a member of the opposition group is viewed as an embarrassing turn for the United States, which announced the suspected plot with some fanfare a week ago in a televised news conference by Attorney General Eric. H. Holder Jr., who said American investigators believed high officials in Iran’s government were responsible.

The US Justice Department has accused Shakuri and Mansour J. Arbabsiar, a naturalized Iranian-American citizen from Corpus Christi, Tex., of conspiring to hire assassins from a Mexican drug gang for $1.5 million to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States.

American officials have acknowledged the suspected plot sounds hard to believe but asserted they have the evidence to back it up.

Different Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, have rejected the claim. Yet, to prove that the US allegations are baseless, Tehran has asked the Washington officials to present their case along with their proofs and allow a consular access to Arbabsiar who is now under detention in the US.

Tehran has accused the Obama administration of concocting the plot to divert attention from its internal problems and stir a rift between the regional and OPEC kingpins Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.

Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.

The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).

Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.

A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.

The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.

Leaders of the group have been fighting to shed its terrorist tag after a series of bloody anti-Western attacks in the 1970s, and nearly 30 years of violent struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In recent years, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world in the hope of acknowledgement as a legitimate opposition group.

The UK initiative, however, prompted the European Union to establish relations with the exiled organization now based in Paris. The European Court of First Instance threw its weight behind the MKO in December and annulled its previous decision to freeze its funds.

The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.

The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s.

Iraqi security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad – in 2009 and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.

0 comments
FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsappTelegramSkypeEmail
Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO offers bribes to get off terror list

The assassination plot allegation against Iran attempts to divert attention from US and Israeli support of the Mujahedin-e Khalq and the activities of the organization inside Iran.
Mark Dankof, former US Senate candidate
Press TV talks with Mark Dankof, former US Senate candidate in San Antonio, who names prominent Americans who have received money from the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and who push for the MEK to be removed from the list of international terrorist organizations. He also postulates Israeli intelligence and American neo-conservative involvement in an allegation of an attempt to assassinate a Saudi envoy.

Following is a transcript of the interview.

Press TV: In terms of the UN, the US has sent this alleged Iranian plot to the UN Security Council. But the UNSC is not a court. No court has substantiated the allegations. So what do you think is behind the move by the US?

Mark Dankof: I think what you have here is a clear cut case of Israeli intelligence and American intelligence being involved in trying to pin something phony on the Iranian government. No one who is a responsible international observer or commentator or intelligence expert believes that the President Ahmadinejad would be foolish enough to concoct a plot like this, much less to use as unstable a source as this Arbabsiar in terms of what his public profile is; and to do so with an unproven source allegedly tied to a Mexican drug cartel in Mexico.

And to be having open conversations with these people over open phone waves easily intercepted by the American National Security Agency and conducting bank transactions that would be totally traceable to the players – as I understand it the money that came from these banks that supposedly was used to pay these alleged criminal suspects is from non-Iranian banks.

Philip Geraldi of the Council of National Interests – a long time American CIA station chief – has branded this whole thing for what it is. Gareth Porter and Pepe Escobar of the Asian Times and others have clearly pointed to the phony character of this and the desperate character of the whole thing in terms of Barak Obama and Eric Holder [US Attorney General] working in conjunction with Israeli intelligence and with these American neo-conservatives in the United States government, they’ve been angling for an American Israeli war with Iran for a long time. They’re trying to create a casus belli here.

Press TV: The protests going on inside the US – Don’t they have to be worried about that? At the same time we look at what they’re doing overseas – these drone attacks that have killed many people in several countries from Pakistan to Somalia – there was a report that 27 civilians died in Southern Somalia from these drone attacks.

Again the UN has been silent. Why doesn’t the UN take Washington to account? Of course there is speculation – has the UN become part of the US war machine in this case?

Mark Dankof: Well I think that’s exactly right. In this particular case it’s pathetic that the UN has not taken a more definitive position on these drone attacks and so forth, which are not simply reprehensible, they’re counter productive.

One may presume for every civilian killed in these drone attacks that the United States is probably facilitating the recruitment of an additional 100 to 500 insurgents to oppose it around the world in the future.

The other thing that comes up in all of this of course is that we are seeing attention diverted from what the United States and Israel are clearly doing in conjunction with groups like the Iran Policy Committee; to work with the Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iran to facilitate the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists and to be involved in other black intelligence operations within Iran that are clearly both illegal and counterproductive.

Raymond Tanter who is the head of the Iran Policy Committee – Raymond Tanter of Georgetown University has all kinds of provable links with Israeli intelligence and Israeli think tanks. His colleague Clare Lopez is an agent for the CIA and they have been at the forefront of this attempt to have the Mujahedin-e Khalq removed from the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations in the United States.

And when you see the number of people who have been receiving money from the Mujahedin-e Khalq to engage in public relations work on behalf of the MEK in the US – this includes Tom Ridge, Rudolph Giuliani, several past members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a former FBI counter intelligence expert. And Rudolph Giuliani of course seems to be kind of spearheading these efforts – Patrick Kennedy the son of Ted Kennedy received 25,000 or 50,000 dollars from these folks.

It’s clear that the biggest player in this whole thing is the Israeli MOSSAD and again these American neo-conservatives who want a war with Iran. And whether it’s legitimizing the MEK in this country and having blind eyes and deaf ears turned to things that they’re doing that are terroristic in Iran with the full sponsorship of the US and Israel.

Or it’s a simple question of trying to concoct something phony against the Iranian government.
This is clearly what’s going on here.
And Americans left, right and center should stand opposed to something that is evil – that is immoral and that is not in the own country’s interests and that certainly is facilitating crimes against other people abroad.

Press TV: Maybe the US is not the one that is being proactive here – maybe as you mentioned Israel is pushing the US based on the visit Leon Panetta made to Israel? Or, is it Saudi Arabia doing this because Saudi Arabia has asked for this case to also go to the UN?

Mark Dankof: I think this is where the interests of Israel and the interests of the United States, or at least the elite that controls the United States let me put it that way, and the Saudi Arabians absolutely coincide.

This is why these are the three powers principally involved with the Mujahedin-e Khalq and funding them and their terrorist operations against the Iranian people and the present government in Iran.

And clearly when we look at this whole situation with the public statements that Netanyahu has made; the public statements that Avigdor Lieberman has made – the foreign minister of Israel – And again just look at this laundry list of American neo-conservative in the United States ranging from Kenneth R. Timmerman and Raymond Tanter and Clare Lopez over to Rudolph Giuliani and others, one begins to have a very clear picture as to what is going on here.

And that is that the project for the New American Century crowd – now know as the foreign policy initiative; the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee; and the Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs – JENSA – are in the forefront of manipulating these individuals and groups and events to try and produce what it is that Netanyahu wants; what it is the Israelis want; and what it is that many in the banking community and the military industrial complex want – and that is an American-Israeli war with Iran.

Innocent people will be killed. Untold numbers of innocent people will be killed on all sides if something like this were to take place. And I find it interesting that looking at where Sara Flounders sits on the political spectrum and there you have Jim Fetzer and I – presumably kind of at the other end of the political spectrum – agreeing on this. This poses a lot of questions for an American political and military and economic and media establishment that’s having increasing trouble selling this pack of lies not simply to the international community, but also to the America public.

0 comments
FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsappTelegramSkypeEmail
Newer Posts
Older Posts