Former deputy director of the US State Department’s Middle East Intelligence Office believes the U.S. scratched off Mujahedin-e Khalq organization from the FTO list to pressure Iran over its
“The MEK has a rather unsavory history of opposing the release of the US hostages in January 1981, terrorism in Iran, a long period when much of it was a mercenary brigade in Saddam’s Army, and, of course, its cult-like and bizarre internal politics that have involved some insider human rights violations,” Wayne White told Habilian.
“That’s why, if someone wants to place the list game with it, it probably should be on the list, not off of it,” he added.
Asked if MEK poses a threat to U.S. national security, White said, “they are intensely pesky, have tons of (typically naive) supporters, and if they chose to act against the US they have assets.”
“Since plenty of silly Americans comprise their only major source of support (and probably funding), I doubt they would want to bite the hands that feed them,” Wayne White, now a scholar at the Middle East Institute of Columbia institute, further added.
He finally said, “I personally just wish they had died out by the late 1980’s after their defeat in Iran & were barely a memory.”