Close Trump associates have been quietly meeting with a controversial Iranian opposition group that was only recently removed from the U.S. terror list, TYT has learned.<\/p>\n
Rudy Giuliani, President Trump\u2019s personal lawyer, and John Bolton, Trump\u2019s National Security Advisor, met with the group five separate times since Trump\u2019s inauguration, according to Justice Department documents reviewed by TYT. The documents were submitted to the Justice Department by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)\u2014MEK\u2019s political wing\u2014under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, between July 20, 2017 and June 27, 2018.<\/p>\n
That group, the People\u2019s Mujahedin of Iran, or MEK for short, was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department until 2012, at which point it was removed from the State Department\u2019s terror list after an intense lobbying effort. The group was on the terror list for good reason: MEK has killed several American servicemembers and contractors; attempted to assassinate a top U.S. general; and attempted to kidnap the U.S. Ambassador to Iran, Douglas MacArthur II.<\/p>\n
In 1992, the MEK conducted a terror attack on the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York, making it one of the few terror groups to have operated on U.S. soil, according to Daniel Benjamin, the former coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department.<\/p>\n
The group has been widely characterized as a cult. As The Intercept\u2019s Mehdi Hasan recently noted, a State Department report found that MEK\u2019s leader \u201cfostered a cult of personality around himself\u201d which had \u201calienated most Iranian expatriates, who assert they do not want to replace one objectionable regime for another.\u201d<\/p>\n
A RAND Corporation report also described MEK\u2019s practices as \u201cauthoritarian [and] cultic.\u201d The report cites Iranians who \u201clikened the MEK to the Khmer Rouge and the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Justice Department documents reviewed by TYT show that Giuliani attended three meetings with NCRI since Trump\u2019s inauguration. One meeting took place on February 10, 2017, and another on May 10, 2017; both included the same vague description: \u201cto discuss the situation in Iran and the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third meeting took place on February 27 of this year, \u201cto discuss the protests in Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Bolton, he met with NCRI two times since Trump\u2019s inauguration. One meeting took place on April 13, 2017, \u201cabout the nuclear weapons program of Iran.\u201d The other meeting was on August 2, 2017, and is described in vague terms: \u201cMeeting [with] Mr. Bolton.\u201d<\/p>\n
After being shown the documents, Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council,\u00a0 told TYT, \u201cThis shows that it\u2019s very difficult to take the Trump admin. seriously when he says he\u2019s looking for diplomacy and a better deal. If Trump actually, genuinely, wants diplomacy, at the end of the day, he\u2019s going to have a difficult time because his associates are so closely allied with the MEK, who are adamantly opposed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nikki Haley, Trump\u2019s U.N. ambassador, retweeted MEK\u2019s official Twitter account in July.<\/p>\n
Although Trump has said he is open to diplomacy with Iran and that he merely ended the Iran Deal in search of a \u201cbetter deal,\u201d administration officials like Bolton have advocated for regime change in Tehran.<\/p>\n
In 2017, Bolton told a crowd of MEK members, \u201cThe declared policy of the United States should be the overthrow of the mullahs\u2019 regime in Tehran.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bolton concluded the speech by promising regime change before 2019.<\/p>\n
Giuliani has expressed similar sentiments. In March, he led a crowd of MEK members in chanting, \u201cregime change.\u201d<\/p>\n
These may not be empty words. On Thursday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the Trump administration is preparing to bomb Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities \u201cas early as next month,\u201d citing senior figures in the Turnbull government.<\/p>\n
Asked about the Trump team\u2019s interest in the group, Parsi told TYT,\u00a0 \u201cMEK are valuable to them because they have training in sabotage, assassination, and terrorism. There\u2019s no other Iranian opposition group that can provide this. It also provides them with a facade of claiming what they\u2019re doing is actually supported by the Iranian people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ken Klippenstein is a freelance journalist who can be reached on Twitter at @kenklippenstein or via email: kenneth.klippenstein@gmail.com<\/p>\n
Follow TYT Investigates on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to stay on top of exclusive news stories from The Young Turks<\/p>\n
Close Trump associates have been quietly meeting with a controversial Iranian opposition group that was only recently removed from the U.S. terror list, TYT has learned. Rudy Giuliani, President Trump\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[2,85,642,64,20],"module":[81],"ctype":[17],"blog":[109],"class_list":["post-8563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mujahedin-khalq-proxy-force","tag-mujahedin-khalq-list-fto","tag-mujahedin-khalq-terrorism","tag-paid-advocacy-for-mko","tag-mkos-terrorist-activities","tag-third-view-mek","module-article","ctype-story","blog-western-bloggers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8563","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=8563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8563"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=8563"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=8563"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=8563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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