Once the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) was removed from the list of foreign terrorist organizations of the US department of State, it was believed that it would surely use its lobbying campaign to achieve US 
financial and military sponsorship. Their support for a group that until less than two years ago was designated a terrorist organization and described by the US State Department as “fundamentally undemocratic” and “not a viable alternative to the current government of Iran”, became legitimate in September 2012.
The portrait of the MKO as a democratic alternative of the Islamic Republic was drawn by the group’s skillful manipulative propaganda machine in the US Congress. A long list of American formerly prominent politicians became permanent participants and speakers at the group’s rallies and lobbying campaigns to flatter and praise Maryam Rajavi.
The MKO, in its turn, allocates a highly focused part of its propaganda on the support it gains by the side of American infamous high profiles such as John Bolton. A highlighted icon on the group’s website demonstrates several speeches by American figures in support of the cult of Maryam Rajavi. Definitely, the MKO propaganda is highly proud of having the support of a number American warmongers who do not believe in engagement with Iran.
Daniel Larison of the American Conservative makes fun of the US mainstream figures who have been deceived by the group’s propaganda apparatus. He points to Hugh Shelton, a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs who “is opposed to diplomacy with the Iranian government, because he insists that Tehran can’t be trusted to honor its agreements”. [1]
Larison ironically notifies the deceitful approach of the MKO that is deeply trusted by certain American politicians. He suggests, “Leaving aside how crazy it is to spurn diplomacy because governments sometimes lie and break their promises, there is something especially weird about an argument that simultaneously promotes the cause of the MEK while complaining about Iranian deceit.”[2]
“As it has sought to rehabilitate itself in the West, the MEK has claimed all sorts of spurious, self-serving things about what it represents,” he reveals the hypocrisy of the MKO. “Despite being a bizarre authoritarian cult with Marxist and quasi-Islamist views, it now pretends to be exactly what Westerners want an Iranian exile group to be.”[3]
In addition, the American Conservative correspondent clarifies that manipulated Western sponsors of the MKO do not care about the fraudulent attitude of the group as long as it runs their agenda against Iran. “It doesn’t matter to the MEK’s American fans that it is lying about its political views, and they are obviously not worried about reciting those lies for Western audiences,” he writes. “Indeed, it has so completely hoodwinked them that they think it should be rewarded with American support.”[4]
“The shilling for this group by many prominent American former officials and politicians is one of the more disgraceful displays of the last decade, and as long as it continues it should be held up for derision”, he conclude. [5]
This is added to covert spying and military cooperation the group has managed with Israel despite its old history of anti-Zionism ideology. The president of National Iranian American Council (NIAC) Trita Parsi states the MKO’s Long time hostility against Israel: “The MEK’s history of violence and anti-Israeli activities is long and bloody. In the 1970s, it established deep ties with Yasser Arafat and both provided and received training from the PLO fighters… Massud Rajavi, the head of the MEK, greeted Arafat in Tehran with a Kalashnikov as a welcoming gift.”[6]
NIAC’s president suggests that the bizarre mixture of Islam and Marxism in the ideology of the MKO had made it totally hated by Israel since the group “fell in both categories”. According to Parsi, “Israeli diplomats knew that whoever seized power in Iran in 1979 would be no lover of Israel—whether it was the Islamists who opposed Israel on religious and ideological grounds, or the leftists who viewed Israel as an outpost for American imperialism in the region.” [7]
How came that the MKO turned out to become an ally of Israel?
Trita Parsi finds it not surprising in the MiddleEast where “Political one-night stands are not unusual” but he warns that “associating Israel with a cultish Iranian terror group is damaging to Israel on several levels.” [8]
This warning demonstrates the MKO’s extremely bad fame among intellectuals. It is notoriously known for its deceitful nature.
Mazda Parsi
Sources:
[1] Larison, Daniel, The Disgraceful Shilling for the MEK Continues, The American Conservative, August 9, 2014
[2] ibid
[3] ibid
[4] ibid
[5] ibid
[6] Parsi, Trita, Is Israel flirting with Iranian terrorists? , Open Zion, May 15, 2012
[7] ibid
[8] ibid
