Federal documents show MEK met with top Trump officials in addition to National Security Adviser John Bolton and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, seen here honoring slain MEK members at a 2013 UN rally. (Photo: Mario Tama\/Getty Images.)<\/p>\n
President Trump is known for his tough talk on terrorism, having gone as far as threatening family members of suspected terrorists. But his administration has numerous ties to a group that was until recently on the State Department terror list, federal documents show.<\/p>\n
TYT previously reported that the group, People\u2019s Mujahedin of Iran, also known as the MEK, the acronym for its Persian name, conducted a combined total of at least five meetings in 2017 and 2018 with John Bolton prior to his appointment as Trump\u2019s national security adviser and with Rudy Giuliani, Trump\u2019s personal lawyer. Bolton was a vocal advocate for resuming sanctions against Iran, which Trump did shortly after Bolton\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n
The MEK is an Iranian exile group that fled Iran following the 1979 revolution and has since opposed Tehran, at times violently, and at times with backing from American politicians of both parties. Until 2012, it was designated by the US State Department as a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n
Disclosure forms filed by the MEK with the Justice Department show that its connections to Trump\u2019s circle go well beyond Bolton and Giuliani. The group has had previously unreported dealings in the last two years with at least four high-profile foreign-policy figures whose connections to Trump include a lead role in his transition and advising him on Iran policy.<\/p>\n
(MEK payments to Giuliani and Trump Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, among other Republicans, have been previously reported.)<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most controversial of Trump\u2019s associates to have met with the MEK is Walid Phares, who served as Trump\u2019s adviser on counterterrorism and the Middle East during his presidential campaign. This was hardly a symbolic post; Phares was compensated $13,000 per month by the campaign. Phares has come under criticism for Islamophobic remarks. For example, Phares has said that Muslims in the U.S. intend to take over American institutions and \u201care here to spread Sharia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phares has also claimed that the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were in league with the Muslim Brotherhood. In October of 2016, Phares tweeted, \u201cThe triangle Clintonmachine-Iranregime-MuslimBrotherhood has unleashed a coordinated propaganda offensive against @realDonaldTrump worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phares\u2019s fiery rhetoric about Islamism doesn\u2019t appear to apply to the MEK, itself an overtly Islamist group.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department documents show that Phares met with the MEK on two separate occasions after Trump\u2019s electoral victory in November 2016. Like many of the filings international advocacy groups are required to submit about their activities in the US, MEK filings tend to be broad and vague. One document reports a January 12, 2017, meeting, little more than a week before Trump\u2019s inauguration, \u201cto discuss the situation in Iran and the Middle East.\u201d\u00a0 Another filing describes an October 10, 2017, meeting \u201cto discuss human rights situation in Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the documents do not make clear what exactly was discussed, Phares, like the MEK, has called for US-backed regime change in Iran.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Blackwell, who oversaw domestic issues for the Trump transition team and later served on Trump\u2019s voter fraud committee, met with the MEK on October 3, 2017, one document shows, \u201cto discuss the United Nations resolution censuring human rights abuses in Iran.\u201d At the time of the meeting, Blackwell was still on Trump\u2019s voter fraud committee, which was active between May 11, 2017, and January 3, 2018.<\/p>\n
Another Justice Department filing shows Blackwell served as a panelist on a discussion organized by the MEK on December 1, 2017, at the National Press Club in Washington. The panel discussion was titled, \u201cIran: Where Mass Murderers Rule.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another person who met with the MEK is former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey, a longtime law partner of Giuliani. Mukasey\u2019s son, Marc Mukasey, was reportedly on Trump\u2019s shortlist to replace Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara. Both Marc and Michael Mukasey served on Giuliani\u2019s campaign advisory committees.<\/p>\n
The documents show that Michael Mukasey met with the MEK at least twice after Trump\u2019s inauguration. One meeting, on May 10, 2017, involved both Michael Mukasey and Giuliani, \u201cto discuss the situation in Iran and the Middle East.\u201d The other meeting took place on January 23, 2018, and is described only as \u201cto discuss Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Michael Ledeen, a scandal-plagued figure who co-wrote a book about radical Islam with Michael Flynn just prior to Flynn\u2019s brief stint as Trump\u2019s national security adviser. Ledeen has figured in some of the most notorious foreign-policy incidents in modern American history, including the Iran-Contra scandal under Reagan and false intelligence about yellowcake uranium in the run-up to the Iraq War.<\/p>\n
In the debate prior to the Iraq invasion, Ledeen wrote, \u201cOne can only hope that we turn the [Mid-East] region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today.\u201d More recently, Ledeen has said that Iran supports Al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n
The documents show Ledeen met with the MEK at least twice since Trump\u2019s inauguration: Once on January 30, 2017, and again on April 19, 2018; both times \u201cto discuss the situation in Iran and the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n
The documents were filed officially by a France-based group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, widely understood as a MEK front organization.<\/p>\n
Despite its support among both Republicans and Democrats, the MEK remains controversial. In the 40-plus years since its creation, the MEK allegedly has killed several American servicemembers and contractors, attempted to assassinate a top U.S. general, and tried to kidnap the U.S. Ambassador to Iran, Douglas MacArthur II.<\/p>\n
The Clinton State Department removed the group from its terror list in 2012 following an intense lobbying push, including by Giuliani. In recent years, Iran hawks have warmed to the MEK, which has long called for regime change in Iran.<\/p>\n
Notwithstanding the group\u2019s support in Washington, human rights groups remain skeptical.<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch\u2019s Sarah Leah Whitson, director of its Middle East and North Africa division, told TYT, \u201cWe have documented very serious abuses by the MEK against its own members, including the forced detainment and torture of dissident voices at MEK camps in Iraq.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn most of these cases, the MEK sought to punish with physical and psychological abuse individuals who wanted to leave the organization,\u201d Whitson said.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, MEK has been described by many, including the Rand Corporation, as a \u201ccult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about the Trump team\u2019s links to the group, Whitson told TYT, \u201cWe have repeatedly raised our concerns with American officials who have received funds from the MEK, including for example Mr. Giuliani.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Ken Klippenstein, TYT Network<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Ken Klippenstein is a freelance journalist who can be reached on Twitter at @kenklippenstein or via email: kenneth.klippenstein@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Perhaps the most controversial of Trump\u2019s associates to have met with the MEK is Walid Phares, who served as Trump\u2019s adviser on counterterrorism and the Middle East during his presidential campaign. This was hardly a symbolic post; Phares was compensated $13,000 per month by the campaign. Phares has come under criticism for Islamophobic \u2026 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[642,20],"module":[81],"ctype":[17],"blog":[109],"class_list":["post-8621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mujahedin-khalq-proxy-force","tag-paid-advocacy-for-mko","tag-third-view-mek","module-article","ctype-story","blog-western-bloggers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8621","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=8621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8621"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=8621"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=8621"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=8621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}