Violent extremism on September 11th was the work of terrorists who have been hunted by the US since the disaster. Because of this extremist violence, the US has justified attacks on both Iraq
When former president Bush launched this statement of propaganda, Middle Eastern countries immediately got a bad rap and politicians were in a frenzy to update the State Department’s Terrorist list. In his remarks at the United Nations, he used the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK/PMOI) as a pretext for his so-called Iraqi Freedom Operation.[1] For decades, the MKO has been a terrorist cult group, occupying Camp Ashraf inside Iraq. They were Saddam Hussein’s private army and used to execute Kurds, and perform terrorist acts against Iran. Today they have been executing a large scale, massively-funded propaganda campaign of their own in an effort to clean up their image and gain support from the US.
In fact, this terrorist group has gained the support from a number of prominent American politicians in its massive well-funded campaign to get removed from US State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
But why?
The US and the MKO would like to use the MKO as a US proxy against the Islamic Republic as a way to destabilize the Iranian government. Despite the group’s violent extremist background record, it was embraced by some in the US administration. What this means for Iran haters, is that the MKO are the new freedom fighters, and they deserve, and must be de-listed.
Since 2003, there have been numerous reports on the risk of US-Iran proxy war. In July 2008, Col. Sam Gardiner (Ret.) an expert on strategy and military organizations warned about the proxy war that “has created an atmosphere in which incidents that otherwise could be handled could now ignite a much larger conflict." [2] The proxy war now seriously contradicts the diplomatic approach—largely propagated by President Obama.
Kaveh L.Afrasiabi of *The Asia Times* believes that a “full-fledged tree of tension with Iran has been nurtured by Washington.” Why such a hypocrisy in the US government’s policy? Afrasiabi finds the answer in the words of a Tehran University political science professor, who spoke with him on the condition of anonymity, he said, “a select group of Jewish policy makers in the White House, State Department and Treasury have hijacked President Obama’s policy on Iran and Obama may wake up one day and find the web of conflict with Iran so tightly wrapped around him that he has no choice but to lock horns with us.”[3]
One of the advocates of the MKO in the United States, retired Air Force Lt. General McInerny praised the group and called for its delisting as a part of a campaign of “provocative actions” against the Iranian government. He explicitly declared the group a “credible overt political-military counter force to the Iranian regime” at a pro-MKO conference in Washington. [4] General McInerney promotes the MKO to “a political military counterforce”, rather than a proxy force. And now, he clearly refers to the group’s military nature that has conveniently been denied by the MKO for years. Such comments would seemingly go against the MEK’s repeated claims to have transitioned from an Islamo-Marxist cult into the non-violent champion-head of creating a “free” Iran. This contradictory blunder didn’t seem to faze anyone, including the conference organizer Raymond Tanter, who insisted the attacks the MEK has conducted inside Iran were simply “military activities” and didn’t count as terrorism, writes Jason Ditz of Antiwar.com.[5]
The American supporters of the MKO terrorist designated cult must understand that terrorism will always remain a substantial and consistent threat.
Extremism is harmful, and the MKO are extremists who rely on Iran-haters to support their cause. Hate and anger are merely traits that encourage predatory type recruitment by the MKO, with delicious financial perks for the particularly intelligent, famous or well-connected “sponsors” who shamelessly offer speeches promoting, softening, and trying to legitimize the group. Georgetown Law School professor, David Cole asserts that agreeing to the speaking offer –let alone receiving speaking fees – violates the law that bars material support for terrorism. Thus MKO advocates are overtly committing a crime. [6]
The Middle East with the Arab Spring is already an overheated region. US citizens can expect a great social stress by supporting the MKO as a proxy against Iran. US authorities, particularly the Secretary of State should know that supporting a terrorist extremist entity is a large step forward against peace.
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] PressTV, West, Saudi money keeps terrorism alive, July 19,2011.
[2] Murray, Julia, The Risk of a US-Iran Proxy War, NIAC,July31,2008.
[3] L.Afrasiabi, Kaveh, US grows a tree of tension with Iran, Asia
Times,Aug3,2011
[4] Ditz, Jason, Retired US General: Delist Terrorists a ‘Provocative ‘
Action Iran,Antiwar.com, August23, 2011
[5]ibid
[6]Elliot, Justin, Speakers Bureau worked for Iranian terror group,
Salon.com,September8,2011