{"id":13507,"date":"2021-10-30T13:56:29","date_gmt":"2021-10-30T10:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/?p=13507"},"modified":"2021-10-30T13:56:29","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T10:26:29","slug":"pences-despicable-shilling-for-the-mek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/posts\/13507","title":{"rendered":"Pence\u2019s Despicable Shilling for the MEK"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The willingness of so many prominent politicians and ex-officials to embrace such a group reflects how warped and toxic the debate over Iran policy is in this country.<\/p>\n<p>Mike Pence joins the long and growing list of current and former elected officials and retired officers to discredit themselves by shilling for the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), the deranged cult and \u201cformer\u201d terrorist organization that seeks regime change in Iran and pretends it is a legitimate opposition group:<br \/>\nPence described the MEK as \u201ca well-organized, fully prepared, perfectly qualified and popularly supported alternative\u201d to the current government in Iran. Rajavi, he said, is \u201can inspiration to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13509\" style=\"width: 608px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13509\" class=\"wp-image-13509 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/Pence-Mike-2.jpg\" alt=\"Mike Pence\" width=\"598\" height=\"374\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/Pence-Mike-2.jpg 598w, https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/Pence-Mike-2-300x188.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-13509\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Pence<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It isn\u2019t surprising that some former Trump administration officials have become pro-MEK shills since they left government. Even if they weren\u2019t lacking in integrity and apparently willing to take money from anyone, they share the MEK\u2019s hostility to Iran and they are presumably only too happy to cheer on a group that almost all Iranians everywhere despise. Fortunately, there are no longer MEK boosters in charge of U.S. policy right now, but the MEK\u2019s extensive network of bought-and-paid-for cheerleaders in both parties means that their baleful influence will continue to be felt in our Iran policy debates for years to come. MEK shills have already demonstrated that they have no shame if they\u2019re willing to endorse a group like this in public, but it is important to keep explaining why their support for this group is so damning. This is a group that has American blood on its hands, and it routinely abuses its own members. It is an oppressive and fanatical organization, and it would be a nightmare if it ever managed to gain power over a larger population. There is a reason it has sometimes been likened to the Khmer Rouge.<\/p>\n<p>by Daniel Larison, The Antiwar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The willingness of so many prominent politicians and ex-officials to embrace such a group reflects how warped and toxic the debate over Iran policy is in this country. Mike Pence&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[85,642],"module":[81],"ctype":[17],"blog":[109],"class_list":["post-13507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mujahedin-khalq-proxy-force","tag-mujahedin-khalq-terrorism","tag-paid-advocacy-for-mko","module-article","ctype-story","blog-western-bloggers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13507","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=13507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13507"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=13507"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=13507"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=13507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}