Former US officials speak at radical anti-Iran forum

 (July 19) The People's Mujahedin (MEK) a radical anti-Iran group that some consider a cult and was considered a terrorist organization until 2012 by the US held its annual Free Iran Conference on line.

Former present US officials featured speakers at the conference

The conference was held by the National Conference of Resistance of Iran a coalition headed by the MEK. The MEK is considered the premiere Iranian opposition group by the US. If hawks against Iran had their way they would have the MEK replace the current Islamic regime. US officials such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have appeared at events with MEK members.

Former mayor or New York Rudy Guiliani has been a frequent guest at MEK gathering. He spoke against the existing government in Iran claiming that the ruling mullahs are like those who ran the mafia that Guiliani prosecuted. Guiliani said: "They’re not only religious maniacs, they’re just plain common criminals, they are crooks, they are thieves. To me, the mullahs are like the people who ran the mafia, the people I prosecuted who ran the mafia, and extorted their people, the Italian American people and subjected them, except this is on a much bigger scale, and the Ayatollah is like the head of the mafia.”"

There were also two sitting members of the US Congress who spoke at the conference: Senator Martha McSally a Repulbican from Arizona, and Representative Lance Gooden also a Republican from Texas. Gooden praised MEK leader Maryam Rajavi and encouraged young people to join the fight. She also claimed that the people of the US were with her.

The MEK pays well for speeches

Among prominent former US officials who have spoken at MEK conferences are former speaker of the House New Gingrich and Senator from Connecticut. A February 2017 article notes: "Elaine Chao, confirmed this week as Trump's transportation secretary, received $50,000 in 2015 for a five-minute speech to the political wing of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, previously called a "cult-like" terrorist group by the State Department. Former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani also was paid an unknown sum to talk to the group, known as the MEK."

Although not at this year's conference, former National Security Advisor John Bolton and a prominent hawk has often spoken for the MEK. Records show he has been paid at least $180,000 for speeches over the years.

Rajavi speaks

In the MEK compound in Albania, in front of numerous screens, Rajavi spoke to the conference:. “Our first commitment is that we, the Iranian people and the Resistance, will overthrow the clerical regime and will reclaim Iran. The final word is that the mullahs have no solutions and their regime is doomed to fall in its entirety.”

Previous role of the MEK

The MEK started as a leftist organization in the 1960 in Iran. They attacked the US supported Shah's police force throughout the 1970s. The group also played a role in the 1979 overthrow of the Shah but ultimately came to oppose the new government of the Mullahs and carried out attacks against it. The MEK was driven out of Iran in the 1980's

The MEK was welcomed into Iraq by Sadam Hussein who provided them refuge at a military base Camp Ashraf. The group launched terrorist attacks into Iran and sided with Iran in the eight year war between Iraq and Iran. Many believe that the MEK has at present little support within Iran itself.

After the US 2003 invasion or Iraq the US government commissioned a report about the MEK inside their former headquarters at camp Asharaf. The report suggested that MEK was much like a cult noting “many of the typical characteristics of a cult, such as authoritarian control, confiscation of assets, sexual control (including mandatory divorce and celibacy), emotional isolation, forced labor, sleep deprivation, physical abuse and limited exit options.”

Previously  published in the Digital Journal

Report claim Israel supports terror group in killing of Iranian scientists

 According to an article here U.S. officials confirm that a dissident Iranian group the People's Mujahedin of Iran (referred to by various acronyms, MEK, MKO and PMI), is supported by Israel. The U.S. has long designated the MEK as a terrorist group. At one time they were allied with Iran and supported the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Iran. However, they broke with the regime in 1980 and have been accused of terrorist attacks against Iran since.
    Terrorist attacks have killed a total of 5 Iranian scientists since 2007 and the MEK may also have destroyed a missile development and research center. Iranian officials have  claimed that there is a close connection between the MEK and Israel. However, U.S. officials now seem to confirm this.
     The MEK renounced violence years ago. Two senior U.S. officials have confirmed  in an NBC interview  the MEK role in assassinations but both deny any U.S. involvement. Iranian authorities claim that Israel actually trains MEK agents. Analysts indicate that the skill with which the attacks take place shows the hand of a clever intelligence agency. Mossad would fit that description!
   For much more detail with description of the attacks see the entire article. An Israeli spokesperson said:
 "As long as we can't see all the evidence being claimed by NBC, the Foreign Ministry won't react to every gossip and report being published worldwide."  The MEK denies it is involved in any of the attacks. Whoever is responsible the attacks are definitely happening and if Israel (or the U.S.) is providing support than that support would be for terrorism. The MEK has a number of supporters in the west who would like to see them removed from the official list of terrorist groups.

U.S. not happy Iraq terrorist camp being closed!

It is rather ironic that the U.S. comes to the defence of an organisation that is on the State Dept. list of terrorist groups! However, these are anti-Iranian terrorists and as such quite useful as providing information to the U.S. and also no doubt engaging in covert activities within Iran to help destabilise the existing government. The ideological orientation as Marxists or even their former terrorist activities do not seem to bother the U.S. any more than the jihadist ideology of those who fought against the Evil Empire (USSR) in Afghanistan bothered the U.S.








News From Antiwar.com - http://news.antiwar.com/2009/07/29/us-not-happy-as-iraq-announces-plans-to-close-mek-camp/ -

US ‘Not Happy’ as Iraq Announces Plans to Close MEK Camp

Posted By Jason Ditz On July 29, 2009

US officials are reportedly “not happy” with the situation unfolding in the MEK’s Camp Ashraf, following yesterday’s deadly raids by Iraqi forces. Today, the Iraqi government says that it plans to close the camp down entirely.

It remains unclear what the closure will mean to the thousands of Iranian exiles which reside in the camp, and which enjoy the status of “protected persons” under the Geneva Convention. The camp was turned over to the Iraqi government’s control in January, and yesterday’s raid killed at least eight and injured over 400 according to the governor of the Diyala Province.

The raid on the camp and the detention of several members of the anti-Iranian militant group has been welcomed by Iranian officials. Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said the move “came late” but was still a welcome chance to clear Iraqi territory of terrorists.

Though the MEK is recognized as a terrorist organization by the US State Department, it has a complex relationship with the US. The Saddam-backed group has supplied the US with considerable information regarding Iran, though there is doubt over whether the information is accurate or simply an attempt to foment a US invasion and regime change.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged both sides to “exercise restraint” in the wake of the clashes, and House Foreign Affairs Committee members released a statement accusing the Iraqi government of not living up to its commitments. Other US officials concede that since they turned the camp over to Iraqi control there is very little they can do about the clashe

US chauffeurs some terrorist leaders in Iraq

The whole article is at the Washington Post.
Obviously all terrorists are not equal. I doubt that Hamas is able to commandeer US soldiers as chauffeurs. Groups such as this are ideal to act as providers of false intelligence information on Iran. They are also helpful within Iran to wreak havoc by outright terrorist activity. This sort of action shows the total hypocrisy of the so-called war on terrorism. The US has supported terrorist groups whenever it fits with their own policy aims as in Nicaragua.


Iraq Intensifies Efforts to Expel Iranian Group
Though Labeled Terrorist, MEK Has Updated U.S. on Tehran's Nuclear Program

By Ernesto Londoño and Saad al-Izzi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 14, 2007; A10



BAGHDAD -- For three years, thousands of members of a militant group dedicated to overthrowing Iran's theocracy have lived in a sprawling compound north of Baghdad under the protection of the U.S. military.

American soldiers chauffeur top leaders of the group, known as the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK, to and from their compound, where they have hosted dozens of visitors in an energetic campaign to persuade the State Department to stop designating the group as a terrorist organization.

Now the Iraqi government is intensifying its efforts to evict the 3,800 or so members of the group who live in Iraq, although U.S. officials say they are in no hurry to change their policy toward the MEK, which has been a prime source of information about Iran's nuclear program.

The Iraqi government announced this week that roughly 100 members would face prosecution for human rights violations, a move MEK officials contend comes at the request of the Iranian government.

"We have documents, witnesses," Jaafar al-Moussawi, a top Iraqi prosecutor, said Monday, alleging that the MEK aided President Saddam Hussein's campaign to crush Shiite and Kurdish opposition movements at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Moussawi said the criminal complaint would implicate MEK members in "killing, torture, [wrongful] imprisonment and displacement."

The group denied involvement in Hussein's reprisals.

"These allegations are preposterous and lies made by the Iranian mullahs and repeated by their agents," it said in a statement issued this week.

The case highlights the occasional discord between the U.S. and Iraqi governments on matters related to Iran. While the U.S. government has accused Iran of supplying Iraqi Shiite militias with sophisticated weapons that it says have been used to kill American troops, Iraq's Shiite-led government has expanded commercial and diplomatic ties with its majority-Shiite neighbor.

"This organization has always destabilized the security situation" in Iraq, said Mariam Rayis, a top foreign affairs adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, adding that the MEK's continued presence "could lead to deteriorating the relationship with neighboring countries."

MEK leaders dispute the prosecutor's allegations. They contend that Iran has infiltrated Iraq's political leadership while also supporting militant groups in an effort to keep the United States in a quagmire in Iraq. They also say the Iranian government wants to forestall a U.S. attack on Iran.

"The Iranian regime wants very much to prevent the winds of change," Behzad Saffari, a spokesman for the group, said in a recent interview at a Baghdad hotel. "Instead of fighting the Americans in Iran, [the Iranian government] is fighting them in Iraq. If we have to leave Iraq, it means the Americans are defeated. It means Iran has prevailed."

Maliki told officials from neighboring countries during a meeting in Baghdad on Saturday that Iraq should not become a battleground where other nations attempt to settle their disputes.

The Iranian Embassy in Baghdad did not reply to questions about the MEK.

The MEK, also known as the People's Mujaheddin of Iran, was founded by students at Tehran University in 1965 as an opposition movement to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the country's U.S.-backed dictator. The group clashed with that government and later with the Islamic Republic established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979.

In 1986, the MEK moved its headquarters to Iraq, where Hussein welcomed the organization. MEK fighters have been widely accused of backing Hussein's suppression of the Shiite and Kurdish uprisings, but MEK officials say Kurdish leaders have absolved them of playing a role in the crackdown on Kurds.

In 1997, during a period of warmer relations between Washington and Tehran under the Clinton administration, the State Department added the MEK to its list of foreign terrorist organizations.

The group's leader, Maryam Rajavi, lives in Paris. She has a cultlike following among members, some of whom set themselves on fire to protest her brief arrest in 2003 after French officials raided the group's offices. Rajavi has led efforts to have the group's terror label removed in the United States and Europe. In December, a European court overturned an E.U. order freezing the group's assets. The European Union has not removed the group from its terrorist list.

The MEK says it has several thousand members in Iran, but the extent of its support base is unclear. Most exiled members live in the camp at Ashraf, north of Baghdad.