{"id":13017,"date":"2021-07-14T11:25:42","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T06:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/?p=13017"},"modified":"2021-07-14T12:33:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T08:03:28","slug":"social-media-abuzz-with-reactions-to-michele-flournoys-speech-at-mek-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/posts\/13017","title":{"rendered":"Social media abuzz with reactions to Michele Flournoy\u2019s speech at MEK summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social media has been abuzz with words of condemnation from journalists and other users who said it was both \u201cshocking\u201d and \u201cembarrassing\u201d for Michele Flournoy, former US undersecretary of defense for policy, to address the annual summit of the notorious anti-Iran Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group.<\/p>\n

Addressing the virtual event on Saturday, Flournoy, once considered a front runner to be President Joe Biden\u2019s defense secretary, accused Iran of posing a threat to the security of the Middle East, the United States, and to its own people.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince 1979, every US administration has had to deal with the threat posed by Iran\u2019s revolutionary regime and the Biden administration is no different,\u201d she told the convention. \u201cIran is one of the most urgent foreign policy issues on the president\u2019s desk<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Michele

Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Mich\u00e8le Flournoy<\/p><\/div>\n

Flournoy called for what she described as an \u201cinternal regime change\u201d in the Islamic Republic.
\nIran slams the presence of certain Western politicians in a summit organized by the MKO terrorist group, saying they are selling themselves cheap for the circus.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to draw attention to the \u201cchaos\u201d allegedly caused by the Islamic Republic, Flournoy readily turned facts on their head and offered a twisted and cut-down view of regional developments to the delight of MEK members.<\/p>\n

For instance, she accused Iran of \u201cattacking American forces in Iraq with ballistic missiles.\u201d But she failed to mention that the January 8, 2020 surgical strike against Ain al-Asad, a sprawling airbase housing American troops in western Iraq, was in response to the brazen assassination of Iran\u2019s top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike days earlier.<\/p>\n

Flournoy also said, truly, that \u201cIran has shot down Americana drones.\u201d But, again, she left out the part that the RQ-4A Global Hawk surveillance drone had simply violated Iran\u2019s airspace.<\/p>\n

\"Flournoy\"

Social media abuzz with reactions to Michele Flournoy\u2019s speech at MKO summit<\/p><\/div>\n

Journalists and other users took to Twitter to react to Flournoy\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichele Flournoy nearly became Biden\u2019s Defense Secretary and co-founded the WestExec corporate influence peddling firm that sent 15 consultants into Biden\u2019s White House. Now she\u2019s shilling for the MEK cult that carries out assassinations & destabilizes Iran. Pure sleaze<\/em>,\u201d tweeted Max Blumenthal<\/strong>, editor at The Grayzone News.<\/p>\n

Michele Flournoy nearly became Biden\u2019s Defense Secretary and co-founded the WestExec corporate influence peddling firm that sent 15 consultants into Biden\u2019s White House. Now she\u2019s shilling for the MEK cult that carries out assassinations & destabilizes Iran. Pure sleaze. https:\/\/t.co\/OUvmewVwat
\n\u2014 Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) July 11, 2021<\/p>\n

Others said that politicians like Flournoy were not oblivious to what the MKO represents, but they nevertheless risk their reputation by addressing such events in return for the \u201cfat checks\u201d they receive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s frankly absurd to imagine that people like Mike Pompeo and Michele Flournoy don’t know what the MEK is or what it represents,\u201d wrote Gregory Brew, a historian at the history department of Georgetown University in Washington DC. \u201cThey know what it means to take the money and speak at these events. And they do it anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a good piece, but it’s frankly absurd to imagine that people like Mike Pompeo and Michele Flournoy don’t know what the MEK is or what it represents.<\/p>\n

They know what it means to take the money and speak at these events. And they do it anyway. https:\/\/t.co\/vJZG7nqXIS
\n\u2014 Gregory Brew (@gbrew24) July 11, 2021<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t that Michele Flournoy is naive enough to get duped by the terrorist cult MEK & speak at their conference for a fat check. She\u2019s the \u2018Democratic\u2019 side of the same warmongering coin that wants to regime change Iran & destroy the lives of its 85 million people,\u201d posted Sina Toossi a senior research analyst who writes for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy magazines.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t that Michele Flournoy is naive enough to get duped by the terrorist cult MEK & speak at their conference for a fat check. She\u2019s the \u201cDemocratic\u201d side of the same warmongering coin that wants to regime change Iran & destroy the lives of its 85 million people. pic.twitter.com\/NYu2oEd34F
\n\u2014 Sina Toossi (@SinaToossi) July 11, 2021<\/p>\n

Jacob Silverman, a journalist with The New Republic, a left-wing American magazine, said that it was embarrassing for a career politician like Flournoy to address a terrorist organization and call its work \u201cimportant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched Michele Flournoy’s MEK speech. Mostly pro-Biden pabulum, but the whole thing is embarrassing, especially for a Serious Person. She called for \u2018internal regime change\u2019 and said MEK’s work was \u2018important,\u2019\u201d he posted on his Twitter page.<\/p>\n

I watched Michele Flournoy’s MEK speech. Mostly pro-Biden pabulum, but the whole thing is embarrassing, especially for a Serious Person. She called for “internal regime change” and said MEK’s work was “important.”https:\/\/t.co\/n9zzxR6ntF (starts around 1:37)
\n\u2014 Jacob Silverman (@SilvermanJacob) July 11, 2021<\/p>\n

Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks over the past four decades, about 12,000 have fallen victim to the MKO’s acts of terror.<\/p>\n

During former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein\u2019s war on Iran, which lasted eight years, MKO members were armed and equipped by the Iraqi regime to fight against Iran.<\/p>\n

The MKO was designated a terrorist organization by the United States for 15 years before it was delisted in 2012, following an intense lobbying campaign by pressure groups in Washington and Iranian exiles. The European Union (EU) also removed the MKO from its list of terrorist organizations in 2009.<\/p>\n

The anti-Iran terrorists enjoy freedom of activity in the US and Europe and hold meetings with American and EU officials.<\/p>\n

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers will address an online gathering of the anti-Iran Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MKO) terrorist organization.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, MKO members were relocated from their Camp Ashraf in Iraq\u2019s Diyala Province and later sent to Albania, where they now reside and continue their anti-Iran activities.<\/p>\n

The group throws lavish conferences every year in the French capital, Paris, with senior American, Western, and Saudi Arabian officials in attendance as guests of honor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Social media has been abuzz with words of condemnation from journalists and other users who said it was both \u201cshocking\u201d and \u201cembarrassing\u201d for Michele Flournoy, former US undersecretary of defense…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[24544,85,642],"module":[67],"ctype":[17],"blog":[25],"class_list":["post-13017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mujahedin-khalq-proxy-force","tag-michele-flournoy","tag-mujahedin-khalq-terrorism","tag-paid-advocacy-for-mko","module-news","ctype-story","blog-press-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13017"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=13017"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=13017"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=13017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}