*Mujahedin-e-Khalq-e-Iran* is the Arabic term used to refer to a group called the People’s Mujahedin of Iran. The term *mujahedin* actually means holy warrior, and to take the definition a 
step further, it is this term which metaphorically submits to *jihad*, God’s struggle. For Muslims this is a righteous word, but since the attack of 9/11, it has become a rather notorious and widely misunderstood word to non-Muslims. The*Mujahedin-e-Khalq-e-Iran * (MKO/MEK) seemed to have passionate and noble intentions thirty years ago and they called themselves holy warriors with fervor. But now, they have transformed into a cult of personality and their holy warrior image no longer exists in the minds of the Iranian people. The MKO has inflicted so much damage on the Iranian people that instead of being known as holy warriors, their name, *The Mujahedin,* is synonymous with *traitor*.
Treason has always been part of the group’s strategy for struggle, and therefore remain a threat to the Iranian people. Now the MKO is supported by some United States politicians who know very well that their own United States government lists the MKO as a designated terrorist group—a group nonetheless who once despised and described the United States as imperialists, capitalists and Zionists. Dirty facts exist in the glossed over history of the MKO—one includes the murdering of American people, but that was thirty years ago.
Scott Shane of the *New York Times* describes the support for the MKO by US politicians as an “obscure cause” and notes it is a “stellar list of supporters from both parties and the last two administrations, including a dozen former top national security officials.” [1]
Shane furthers that “the M.E.K. advocacy campaign has included full-page newspaper advertisements identifying the group as ‘Iran’s Main Opposition’ — an absurd distortion in the view of most Iran specialists; leaders of Iran’s broad opposition, known as the Green Movement, have denounced the group.” [2]
The very group of Mujahedin-e-Khalq, the enemy of America’s enemy—definitely his friend—is an “anti-American, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist” group, according to Professor Paul Sheldon Foote. He calls Massoud Rajavi, who is the disappeared leader of the group, the Pol Pot of Iran. [3]
Why is it that the very US government who had despised the MEK in its early years is now coming around to shake hands with them and become an ally?
According to Justin Raimondo of *antiwar.com* “the War Party is bound and determined to drag us, kicking and screaming, into a military conflict with Iran.” Raimondo asserts that the “nexus of this network is the government of Israel and its intelligence services which is coordinating an increasingly frantic campaign to bring the Iran issue to a head.”[4]
The true face of MKO is revealed in Israel’s recent acts of hostility against the Islamic Republic. In fact, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) aggressively lobbies US politicians to stand against Iran, and has announced that the MEK has potential as a proxy force against Iran. Raimondo warns that ”The Israel lobby is an octopus with many tentacles, of which MEK is merely one: they are all attached to the same body, however and that is the government of Israel and its intelligence services.” He further quips that the US is just another “Israeli occupied territory”. [5]
If there is a goal to destabilize Tehran, the MEK has become a potential tool for both the CIA and the Mossad. As the MEK feeds them misinformation the MEK gains ground in the intelligence arena, and likewise, as the CIA and Mossad continue to use the misinformation, the MEK becomes more of an ideal proxy. Paul Joseph Watson of *PrisonPlanet.com* writes that “it’s an admitted fact that the CIA uses terrorist proxies,” and “it is widely suspected that the well-known right-wing terrorist organization known as Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), once run by Saddam Hussein’s dreaded intelligence services, is now working exclusively for the CIA’s Directorate of Operations and carrying out remote bombings in Iran.”[6]
Following the explosion at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s missile base, west of Tehran, Israel’s Mossad was immediately accused and the Israeli government didn’t deny the accusations. Richard Silverstein, a correspondent of *Haaretz* suggests that it could have been the work of the MEK in a Mossad-led operation. Silverstein notes that it is “widely known within intelligence circles that the Israelis use the MEK for varied acts of espionage and terror ranging from fraudulent Iranian memos alleging work on nuclear trigger devices to assassinations of nuclear scientists and bombings of sensitive military installations.” [7]
The allegations about the MKO’s collaboration with western intelligence agencies were confirmed recently by an arrested Israeli spy, Mohammad Ali Lobnani who was arrested earlier this year in Lebanon. In a court hearing session, Lobnani said that he had phone contacts with Mohammad Alizadeh, an MKO ringleader, but claimed he didn’t know the number was a Mossad contact number, according to Fars News Agency. [9] Responding to a judge’s question about the link between the MKO and the Mossad, he noted, “as far as I know, the group [MKO] has been collaborating with Israel for several years and has massive interactions with the Mossad.”[8]
Western advocates of the MKO need to be aware of the group’s chameleon-like tendencies, because at some point the MKO will turn against the very ones who help them. Ultimately the MKO is a cult and the inner workings of the cult are kept secret from the various politicians they contract with to pursue their objective. Michael Rubin, an American scholar describes the MKO as a group who “sort of combined Islamism with Marxism, but it kind of just evolved into a freaky personality cult," and even warned that secretary of State, Hillary Clinton “should ignore their PR campaign.” Rubin cautions that the “Mujahedin Khalq is not only irrelevant to the cause of Iran’s democratic activities, but a totalitarian cult that will come back to haunt us.”[9]
Richard Silverstein also warns about consequences of lobbying for and working with a terror group like the MKO cult, pointing out that “It is, of course, ironic that the same MEK [which is trusted by Israel for its covert operations against Iran] is paying key political players in U.S. life hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby on behalf of removing it from the Treasury Department terror list. I suppose when a terror group is harming your enemy then it’s no longer a terror group, eh? Certainly if there was another power than the Mossad willing to pay more for them to attack Israel and the U.S., guess who they’d be wreaking havoc on?” [10]
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1]Shane, Scott, For Obscure Iranian Exile Group, Broad Support in US, New
York Times,November27,2011
[2]ibid
[3]Sheldon Fooote, Paul, American Demons,Nejatngo.org,November14,2011
[4]Raimondo, Justin, The Armageddon Network,Antiwar.com,November13,2011
[5]ibid
[6]Watson, Paul Joseph, The US Is Already Attacking Iran Through Terrorist
Proxies,Prison Palnet.com,November11,2011
[7]Silverstein, Richard, Mossad – MEK May Have bombed Iranian Missile Base
,40 dead and Wounded, Richard Silverstein.com , Novemebr14,2011
[8]Fars News Agency, Arrested spy in Lebanon Confesses MKO’s Collaboration
with Mossad, Novemebr29, 2011
[9]Rahn, Will, Strange bedfellows: Romney and the militias who hate the
mullahs, the Daily Caller, November15, 2011
[10]Silverstein, Richard, Mossad-MEK May Have Bombed Iranian Missile Base,40 Dead and Wounded,Richardsilverstein.com, November14,2011
