In an email to Foreign Policy, Benjamin noted that the MEK’s “exclusive focus” of concern has for decades been Iran. “So one has to wonder what the purpose of Rajavi’s presence on this panel is,” said Benjamin, who is now director of an international studies program at Dartmouth University.
He is the second witness to balk at sharing the spotlight with Rajavi. On Monday, former State Department counterterrorism director Daniel Benjamin pulled out of the hearing, which is scheduled for Wednesday. “I didn’t want to be on a panel with the MEK aka MKO/PMOI. I was shocked they invited ,,,
Former ambassador to Syria Robert Ford and ex-counterterrorism coordinator Daniel Benjamin told Al-Monitor that they did not want to give a platform to the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK)/MKO/PMOI, a group that the United States considered a terrorist organization until three years ago. Ford said he would not testify at the same time as Maryam Rajavi, while Benjamin has pulled out altogether from Wednesday’s terrorism subcommittee hearing on the self-proclaimed Islamic State
The Barack Obama administration believes Rajavi’s group[MKO/MEK/PMOI] is trying to derail its negotiations with Iran and has raised doubts about its recent purported revelations about illicit nuclear activity. The group’s claim to fame came in 2002 when it publicly revealed the location of an undisclosed nuclear facility at Natanz, but questions about how much the United States and Israel already knew at the time have swirled ever since.
How else could one explain Giuliani’s support for a cultish Iranian opposition group[MKO/MEK/PMOI] that was formerly on the U.S. State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) and has been implicated in the assassinations of six Americans? On Wednesday, Giuliani appeared on Fox & Friends, where he announced that he’s traveling to Berlin this weekend ….
One of the lobbyists working on behalf of the MEK/MKO/PMOI was Victoria Toensing, who played a role in the Monica Lewenski affair, and who later told lies about Valerie Plame Wilson. Toensing says that the MEK has”reformed its violent past.”Those murdered scientists might disagree, if they could speak…..
Bolton has acknowledged delivering paid speeches in support of the People’s Mojahedin of Iran, or MEK. The MEK advocates the overthrow of the Iranian government (as Bolton does himself in his op-ed) and was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. until 2012. According to a 2012 NBC report, U.S. …
Menendez received more campaign contributions from the MEK and its allies than any other member of Congress, according to a study by Eli Clifton and me for our piece on their relationship in the Intercept. And during his 2012 re-election campaign, Menendez garnered more contributions from pro-Israel groups than any other senator, according to Open Secrets…
In the past Bolton has identified the “opposition” as called Mojahedin-e-Khalq. This is a shadowy cult that makes the Scientologists look transparent by comparison. In the past MEK/MKO/PMOI members have killed Americans in terror attacks. More recently they are seen as the likely suspects in the car-bombing …
The report contains the usual denials, but few Mideast insiders believe these attacks could be anything other than an MEK operation. That of course would mean our side is supporting terrorism, since putting magnetic bombs on cars is quite obviously an act of terrorism.Not that there’s anything wrong with that …