Under the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, it’s a crime to knowingly provide material support to an organization that appears on the State Department’s list. The defendants in the Los Angeles case are accused of soliciting donations for MEK/PMOI in Los Angeles and of wiring at least several hundred thousand dollars to an MEK bank account in Turkey.
The BBC’s January 17, 2007 television program on the Iranian Communist MEK included an interview with Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Wilkerson revealed that the State Department supported a plan to disband the Iranian communist cult at Camp Ashraf, Iraq. However, Vice President Dick Cheney’s office rejected the plan.
Britain’s state-funded broadcaster said the US cannot decide what to do in its hypocritical policy, with some statesmen in Washington still seeing the MKO as potential allies even though the grouplet is officially branded as terrorists. A documentary for Newsnight, screened on Wednesday, suggested there was a split between the US State Department and Defence Department ….
There are lots of, you know, gray areas, murky areas in the past, things we’re not positive about in terms of their responsibility for certain actions 30 years ago. But in the last couple of decades, anyway, it seems to me that it is pretty clear that they are, as a political — they are certainly not much of a military force, but a political force — and they may not even be that to any great extent.
The Supreme Court refused Monday to block the trial of seven Los Angeles residents charged with raising money for an Iranian opposition group that was designated a”foreign terrorist organization”by the U.S. government. Lawyers for the seven had argued the charges were unconstitutional because they had a free-speech right to raise money for a political group. …
Without comment, the justices denied the appeal by the Los Angeles area residents accused of soliciting money for the Mujahedin-e Khalq, which has carried the designation since 1977. Only the groups themselves may seek judicial review in challenging such a designation, according to the 1996 anti-terrorism law. …
RAW STORY’s Ron Brynaert and Michael Roston revealed the redacted portions of Flynt Leverett’s”censored”New York Times op-ed which contained”sensitive”information that the White House apparently did not want disclosed—some of it obliquely referring to the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), an anti-Tehran militia.
The political scene of the US recently witnessed two controversial developments, namely the victory of Democrats in recent elections and the report of Iraq Study Group. Will these two development a beginning for a turn in US policies towards Iran?Amir Mossaddegh Katuzian from Radio Farda posed this question for James Jeffrey Senior Advisor of Secretary of State in Near East Affairs and US policy-making on Iran.
Once itself the forerunner of such resistance, MKO has taken a sloping path swimming against the current. In its formation of struggle against the ousted Iranian monarchy, the organization propagated the idea that “there is only one major enemy: imperialism and its local collaborators”. Mojahedin denounced the American imperialism for its political, economic, social and cultural break-in role.
In our opinion you are well aware of the 1994 State Department report which describes this organization as a terrorist group. The leadership of MEK, the Rajavis, ignored the report at the time since they were being supported and financed by the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and the MEK had total reliance on him. However, after the collapse of the despot they have tried to find a new ally, this time in the West, yet their main obstacle has remained