The Mujahedin-e-Khalq organization, sometimes called the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, or PMOI, has been on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist groups since 1997 — even as it enjoys widespread support on Capitol Hill. In addition, the U.S. military has allowed the MeK to maintain an operational training facility in Iraq, said Gregg Sullivan, a State Department spokesman.
MEK supporters roam the halls of Congress asking unsuspecting twenty-something aides if their Member will sign a”Dear Colleague”letter calling for freedom and democracy in Iran. They have conducted similar influence operations in Britain, France, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada, and elsewhere.
Iranian-Americans openly refer to MEK leader Massoud Rajavi as the”Pol Pot”of Iran, because they believe he would conduct wholesale massacres of his political opponents ..
On the one hand, the leaders of the group asked the members to have influential political and propagandistic activities regarding Iranian nuclear activities. They even said to the members- who have no contact with the outer world- that the leaders of the group were leading an international battlefield against Iran and that the MKO has convinced Europe and the US that the time for war on Iran has come.
with the clear implication being that the members of the strange Marxist terrorist (ex-terrorist?) Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization were being used by the United States to gather information on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Doubtless with the MKO in mind, David Kay made the important point yesterday in the Washington Post:[D]issidents and exiles have their own agenda —
Western governments classify the People’s Mojahedin as a terrorist group, but it can still boast allies…When one of its leaders was arrested by French police last month, her followers went on hunger strike. Several set themselves alight in front of television cameras, with two later dying. …
It coincided with the MKO, which is already a proscribed terrorist group in the UK, being allowed holding its latest campaign meeting in London under its so-called front group, the National Council of Resistance.
..the Mujahiddeen /PMOI/NCR/MKO stays on the terrorist list for at least another two years and in return for this goodwill, Iran is more forthcoming in its nuclear pledges…the exiled Iranian resistance groups’ terrorist label can either be used as little more than a bargaining chip or -less likely- they might find that they might be fitted into a US cooked up plan for inciting popular uprisings inside Iran. Both ends of the spectrum have implications that might be unforeseen….”The MKO are highly disliked and disregarded by Iranians worldwide. During the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein financed and utilized the MKO to institute several attacks against Iranians,”
The German weekly “Focus” quoted a former CIA employee and said that the US is spying on Iran by using Mojahedin-e Khalq members.
Beside the pictures of MKO tanks (which were received from Saddam Hussein), Focus quoted Ray McGovern saying: “There’s no doubt in Washington that this group (MKO) can be a good leverage against Iran.”
President George W. Bush employed two major pretexts to dupe Americans into supporting the Iraq War: (1) extend the war on terror to Iraq, a major sponsor of terrorist organizations such as the MEK (2) find and destroy weapons of mass destruction….The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune have published claims contrary to American government reports.
It would seem that there is a great deal at stake for the 150 MEK supporters in Congress. Whether it is these congressional members who are providing Jafarzadeh, the MEK spokesman, with aerial photos of Iran’s nuclear facilities, or vice versa, the Bush administration is having a field day with it at the UN General Assembly.