In 2012, the US State Department would delist anti-Iranian terrorist group \u2013 Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) \u2013 from its Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list. Yet years later, MEK has demonstrated an eager desire to carry out political violence on a scale that eclipses the previous atrocities that had it designated a terrorist organization in the first place.<\/p>\n
In the US State Department\u2019s official statement published in September 2012, the rationale for delisting MEK would be as follows (emphasis added):<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 With today\u2019s actions, the Department does not overlook or forget the MEK\u2019s past acts of terrorism, including its involvement in the killing of U.S. citizens in Iran in the 1970s and an attack on U.S. soil in 1992. The Department also has serious concerns about the MEK as an organization, particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members.<\/p>\n
The Secretary\u2019s decision today took into account the MEK\u2019s public renunciation of violence, the absence of confirmed acts of terrorism by the MEK<\/strong> for more than a decade, and their cooperation in the peaceful closure of Camp Ashraf, their historic paramilitary base.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Yet US policy before the State Department\u2019s delisting, and events ever since, have proven this rationale for removing MEK as an FTO to be an intentional fabrication \u2013 that MEK was and still is committed to political violence against the Iranian people, and envisions a Libya-Syrian-style conflict to likewise divide and destroy the Iranian nation.<\/p>\n
However, facts regarding the true nature of MEK is not derived from Iranian state media, or accusations made by MEK\u2019s opponents in Tehran, but by MEK\u2019s own US sponsors and even MEK\u2019s senior leadership itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cUndeniably\u201d MEK \u201cConducted Terrorist Attacks\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n
By the admissions of the United States and the United Kingdom, MEK is undeniably a terrorist organization guilty of self-admitted acts of terrorism. The UK House of Commons in a briefing paper titled, \u201cThe People\u2019s Mujahiddeen of Iran (PMOI),\u201d it\u00a0 cites the UK Foreign Office which states explicitly that:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK) is proscribed in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000. It has a long history of involvement in terrorism in Iran and elsewhere and is, by its own admission, responsible for violent attacks that have resulted in many deaths.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The briefing paper makes mention of \u201cassiduous\u201d lobbying efforts by MEK to have itself removed from terrorist lists around the globe.<\/p>\n
A 2012 Guardian article titled, \u201cMEK decision: multimillion-dollar campaign led to removal from terror list,\u201d would extensively detail the large number of prominent US politicians approached and paid by MEK as part of this lobbying effort.<\/p>\n
Yet there is more behind MEK\u2019s delisting than mere lobbying. As early as 2009, US policymakers saw MEK as one of many minority opposition and ethnic groups that could be used by the US as part of a wider agenda toward regime change in Iran.<\/p>\n
The Brookings Institution in a 2009 policy paper titled, \u201cWhich Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy Toward Iran\u201d (PDF), under a chapter titled, \u201cInspiring an Insurgency: Supporting Iranian Minority And Opposition Groups,\u201d would openly admit (emphasis added):<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps the most prominent (and certainly the most controversial) opposition group that has attracted attention as a potential U.S.\u00a0 proxy\u00a0 is\u00a0 the\u00a0 NCRI\u00a0 (National\u00a0 Council of Resistance of\u00a0 Iran),\u00a0 the\u00a0 political\u00a0 movement\u00a0 established\u00a0 by\u00a0 the\u00a0 MeK\u00a0 (Mujahedin-e\u00a0 Khalq). Critics believe the group to be undemocratic and unpopular, and indeed anti-American.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Brookings would concede to MEK\u2019s terrorist background, admitting (emphasis added):<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Undeniably, the group has conducted terrorist attacks\u2014often excused by the MeK\u2019s advocates because they are directed against the Iranian government. For example, in 1981, the group bombed the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party, which was then the clerical leadership\u2019s main\u00a0 political organization, killing an estimated 70 senior officials. More recently, the group has claimed\u00a0 credit for over a dozen mortar attacks, assassinations, and other assaults on\u00a0 Iranian civilian and\u00a0 military targets between 1998 and 2001.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Brookings makes mention of MEK\u2019s attacks on US servicemen and American civilian contractors which earned it its place on the US FTO, noting:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the 1970s, the group killed three U.S. officers and three civilian contractors in Iran.<\/strong><\/p>\n
And despite MEK\u2019s current depiction as a popular resistance movement in Iran, Brookings would also admit (emphasis added):<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The group itself also appears to be undemocratic and enjoys little popularity in Iran itself. It has no\u00a0 political base in the country, although it appears to have an operational presence. In particular, its\u00a0 active participation on Saddam Husayn\u2019s side during the bitter Iran-Iraq War made the group widely\u00a0 loathed. In addition, many aspects of the group are cultish, and its leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, are revered to the point of obsession.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Brookings would note that despite the obvious reality of MEK, the US could indeed use the terrorist organization as a proxy against Iran, but notes that:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u2026at the very least, to work more closely with the\u00a0 group (at least in an overt manner), Washington would need to remove it from the list of foreign\u00a0 terrorist organizations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And from 2009 onward, that is precisely what was done. It is unlikely that the MEK alone facilitated the rehabilitation of its image or exclusively sought its removal from US-European terrorist organization lists \u2013 considering the central role MEK terrorists played in US regime change plans versus Iran.<\/p>\n
While MEK propaganda insists that its inclusion on terrorist organization lists around the globe was the result of a global effort to \u201ccurry favor with Iran\u2019s clerical regime,\u201d it is clear that the terrorist organization earned its way onto these lists, and then lobbied and cheated its way off of them.<\/p>\n
The MEK is Still Committed to Violence Today<\/strong><\/p>\n
While Iranians mourned in the wake of the Ahvaz attack, MEK was holding a rally in New York City attended by prominent US politicians including US President Donald Trump\u2019s lawyer Rudolph Giuliani and former US National Security Adviser under the Obama administration, James Jones.<\/p>\n
During the \u201c2018 Iran Uprising Summit\u201d Giuliani would vow the overthrow of the Iranian government.<\/p>\n
MEK leader Maryam Rajavi would broadcast a message now posted on MEK websites. In her message she would discuss MEK\u2019s role in fomenting ongoing violence inside of Iran.She would admit:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Today, the ruling mullahs\u2019 fear is amplified by the role of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and resistance units in leading and continuing the uprisings. Regime analysts say: \u201cThe definitive element in relation to the December 2017 riots is the organization of rioters. So-called Units of Rebellion have been created, which have both the ability to increase their forces and the potential to replace leaders on the spot.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The roadmap for freedom reveals itself in these very uprisings, in ceaseless protests, and in the struggle of the Resistance Units.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Riots by definition entail violence. The riots taking place across Iran beginning in late 2017 and continuing sporadically since \u2013 of which Rajavi and her MEK take credit for organizing \u2013 have left dozens dead including police.<\/p>\n
One police officer was shot dead just before New Year\u2019s, and another three were killed in late February 2018 during such riots.<\/p>\n
In the region of Ahvaz specifically, MEK social media accounts have been taking credit for and promoting ongoing unrest there. Ahvaz was more recently the scene of a terrorist attack in which gunmen targeted a parade leaving dozens dead and scores more injured.<\/p>\n
Rajavi and MEK\u2019s ultimate goal is the overthrow of the Iranian government. As Brookings admits in its 2009 paper, the Iranian government will not cede power to US-orchestrated regime change without a fight \u2013 and MEK was recruited as a US proxy specifically because of its capacity for violence.Brookings would note:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Despite its limited popularity (but perhaps because of its successful use of terrorism), the Iranian regime is exceptionally sensitive to the MEK and is vigilant in guarding against it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It was for this reason that Brookings singled them out as a potential proxy in 2009 and recommended their delisting by the US State Department so the US could provide more open support for the terrorist organization.<\/p>\n
It is clear that Rajavi\u2019s recent admissions to being behind political violence inside Iran contravenes the US State Department\u2019s rationale for deslisting MEK on grounds that the group had made a \u201cpublic renunciation of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
MEK is not only refusing to renounce violence, MEK\u2019s most senior leader has just publicly and unambiguously declared MEK\u2019s policy is to openly wield violence inside Iran toward destabilizing and overthrowing the government.From the United States\u2019 ignoring of its own anti-terrorism laws \u2013 aiding and abetting MEK while still on the US State Department\u2019s Foreign Terrorist Organizations list \u2013 to the US now portraying MEK as a \u201creformed\u201d \u201cresistance\u201d organization even as its leader takes credit for ongoing political violence inside Iran, it is clear that once again the US finds itself a willing state sponsor of terrorism.It was as early as 2007 that Seymour Hersh in his New Yorker article, \u201cThe Redirection Is the Administration\u2019s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?\u201d would warn:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has co\u00f6perated with Saudi Arabia\u2019s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It is clear in retrospect that the rise of the self-proclaimed \u201cIslamic State\u201d (ISIS), Al Qaeda, Al Nusra, and other extremist fronts in Syria were a result of this US policy. It is also clear that there are many other extremist groups the US has knowingly whitewashed politically and is covertly supporting in terrorism aimed directly at Iran itself.<\/p>\n
It is just a matter of time before the same denials and cover-ups used to depict Syrian and Libyan terrorists as \u201cfreedom fighting rebels\u201d are reused in regards to US-backed violence aimed at Iran. Hopefully, it will not take nearly as long for the rest of the world to see through this game and condemn groups like MEK as the terrorists they always have been, and continue to be today.<\/p>\n
Also in retrospect, it is clear how US-engineered conflict and regime change has impacted the Middle Eastern region and the world as a whole \u2013 one can only imagine the further impact a successful repeat of this violence will have if visited upon Iran directly.<\/p>\n
By Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine\u201cNew Eastern Outlook\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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