Raymond Tanter

MKO; A Tool for Warmongers in Elections

Raymond Tanter, arms dealer and a supporter of contras who’s now trying to sell the MKO to the Israeli regime, has expressed amazing comments on Iran and the MKO; the comments that prove that Tanter is trying to sell the MKO to either the US or Israel. The issue is who pays the higher price.

For instance, he has said that "We believe that the moment the organization is able to operate from Iraq it will gain public favor in Iran".

It seems that Tanter thinks the MKO has arrived in Iraq just yesterday that it would gain public favor (in the case of being allowed to operate)! Or, he may think that the MKO has been doing nothing in Iraq for the past 25 years!

More interesting is that Tanter is going to take advantage of the MKO in his election campaigns in the favor of Neoconservatives and warmongers.

Although the MKO has tried to influence the elections in the US in the past (in the favor of potential supporters of MKO), this time they are going to serve the warmongers in all aspects.

Tanter, who earlier in an interview with Australia’s SBS TV channel announced his intentions to use the MKO for the purposes of warmongers, now tries to sell the MKO in the election campaigns.

Tanter tries to pretend that Iran’s pursuing nuclear weapons programs and that the US should attack Iran to stop the process. He says that only Neocons will be able to do this, so people should vote in favor of them. Meanwhile, the Americans have turned their backs to the warmongering policies of Bush and it’s predicted that there would be a big blow to republicans in the congress.

On the other hand, by betting on a dead horse, Tanter tries to get the highest price while stupidly talking about a civil war in Iran by the MKO! With this, he may be able to buy more votes for warmongers.

The problem with the comments of Mr. Tanter lies within the fact that he lags 25 years behind the current situation in Iran and that he speaks against the historical realities.

Irandidban – 2006/10/21

October 31, 2006 0 comment

Raymond Tanter

Tanter, A Mediator Between MKO and Israel

Professor Raymond Tanter of Georgetown U. and the head of the Iran Policy Committee, has concluded that supporting the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) is in America’s interest. Though this amounts to making a pact with the devil, he believes that the only way to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons is to replace the religious regime in Iran with a democratic one, and that only MEK can do that. But there are several problems with MEK. The U.S. declared it a terror organization, and most Iranians consider MEK members traitors, because they supported Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

Here is Tanter’s viewpoint in a nutshell: "Israel does not have the military strength to attack Iran’s nuclear installations…Only the United States can do that…on condition that there isn’t a Democratic president in the White House. A Republican administration is more likely to attack in the absence of a political regime change policy, whether there are good military opportunities or not. But attacking will not provide a fundamental solution to the (nuclear) problem…only delay it. In order to bring about a halt to the nuclear program, there has to be a regime change (that) can take place…in less time than it takes the regime of the ayatollahs to obtain nuclear weapons."

How much time are we talking about?

Tanter believes that Iran will have nuclear weapons within one to three years. His ten-point plan has clear guidelines: The U.S. should remove MEK from the list of terror organizations and allow it to operate from Iraq against the regime in Iran. "We believe that the moment the organization is able to operate from Iraq it will gain public favor in Iran…They will shoot at demonstrators, a civil war will break out, and then…the army will intervene, stop the bloodshed, remove the ayatollahs and take over."

But even then there will be no guarantee that Iran will stop trying to obtain nuclear weapons.

"Mujahideen-e-Khalq have already declared that they are not interested in manufacturing nuclear weapons. But no one cares if a democratic Iran has nuclear weapons. Who cares if Israel or India has nuclear weapons?"

MEK was founded in the 1960s by Iranian students with Marxist views, who were opposed to the Shah’s pro-Western policy. They joined Ayatollah Khomeini in the Islamic Revolution, but in 1981 the group was expelled from Iran. Saddam Hussein then enabled them to operate from Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. This was seen as betrayal by most of the Iranians, even opponents of the regime. At the end of the war, MEK established headquarters in Paris, and since then they have guerrilla and terrorist activities to their "credit". When the U.S. invaded Iraq, it disarmed the organization.

Tanter believes that Israel can help legitimize Mujahideen-e-Khalq: "I’m not asking the Mossad to join them and cooperate with them…But Israel has supporters and a lobby in the U.S. and it can ask them to have MEK removed from the State Department’s list of terror organizations…MEK is the only game in town if we want to bring about regime change in Iran. To paraphrase Churchill: Mujahideen-e-Khalq is the worst option, except for all the other alternatives.

Infoisrael quoting Haaretz/ Yossi Melman – 2006/10/21

October 31, 2006 0 comment

Raymond Tanter

Iranian leaders to be savaged by dead sheep

There is an expression in English which wonderfully describes the totally ineffectual attack by a impotent enemy. We say it is like being savaged by a dead sheep.

Raymond Tanter, without further explanation, is quoted in an article (http://metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060823-085142-7397r)

about Iran’s nuclear programme, saying "that legitimizing the MeK will rattle the saber of regime change over Tehran’s head enough to send a stern message to Tehran."

When you stop laughing at this long enough, you will appreciate how apt the saying is.

The MeK ‘threat’ is an ageing – average age around 50 years – and disillusioned group of slaves numbering less than 3,000, who have been camped out in the Iraqi desert for over two decades and who are now waiting to be rescued from the cult. Nobody knows this better than the Islamic Republic of Iran itself.

Isn’t it about time this particular dead sheep [the MeK] was well and truly buried and the leaders brought to justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Original Source: Middle East Times

Commentary: New Middle East realities

Claude Salhani

UPI

August 23, 2006

Iran-Interlink, August 31, 2006

September 3, 2006 0 comment

Raymond Tanter

Tanter’s Golden Dreams

A newly established group has asked the US government to lift the name of MKO from terror list.

Few members of “Iran Policy Committee” (IPC) are comprised of former officials of US government and retired CIA agents.

In order to understand its importance and influence, one should consider how far they are from the latest analysis of US government about the terrorist group they support. A terrorist group on US terror list, offices of which were shut down by the government of George Bush.

Part of Pentagon officials believe that MKO members should be used in espionage activities against Iranian regime and this constitutes the pillars of Raymond Tanter’s idea to support this terrorist group.

But Tanter is not aware of the unified approach of US officials toward this group. He doesn’t how Iranians hate this group and that’s why he call it a “resistance group”.

AP published recently a very funny and simple analysis on MKO by Raymond Tanter.

He said that his committee found strong opposition to MKO in different website and that , according to this, it can be concluded that Iranian government is worried about MKO and that this group has a high level of support!

Tanter and his partners in IPC (support of whom for MKO is very suspicious and, like many other examples, can be acquire by MKO in exchange for paying money) have based their analysis on the presence of a number of websites. This approach proves that they’re not familiar with Iran affairs. It also shows how they’ve copied MKO’s stances, since it’s only the MKO that claims “slogans in Friday prayers in Iran prove its position”!

Instead of citing websites, Tanter could have talked about popular actions and demonstrations in support of MKO; something that has never happened during past two decades and that’s why they have used the contents of a number of websites for their judgment.

Tanter refers to infeasibility of military attack against Iran and asks for the removal of MKO (as an alternative) from terror list; this also proves how far they are from official policies of the US government.

While one can barely relate the option of military strike against Iran to the removal of MKO from terror list (posing such claim is essentially senseless), what’s more lamentable is that Tanter and those who think like him (if there’s any thinking at all!) even don’t know that the unacceptable idea of using Mojahedin-e khalq was posed in the framework of military option. Even in that case, this terrorist group with shameful records of cooperating with Saddam Hussein and involvement in terrorist operations has little chance to accompany US soldiers.

The new US approach in foreign diplomacy, introduced recently by Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes, is to cleanse US policies from contradictions and double standards. Regarding this new approach, will the US government officially support a group it categorized as terrorist?

Furthermore, Raymond Tanter and his partners have denied those records of the MKO that can’t be denied even by the spokespersons of the group itself!

How can they deny the issue of assassination of US citizens in Iran when its case is available in US State Department and CIA since before revolution in Iran?

The least IPC can do to get to its goals is to break the consensus in the White House and State Department against this group, clear terrorist records of this group and also ignore this fact that the cult of Rajavi has no popular support in Iran. It doesn’t seem they’re able to do so.

September 19, 2005 0 comment

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