Sight of the protestors waving flags and toting signs and the sea of MKO flags and pictures and lines of Drummers marching in front of the White House on Friday to protest Obama’s meeting with Iraqi prime
It also reminds us of the United States’ plan to contribute $1 million to the trust fund. In a statement on the State Department’s Web site, Marie Harf, a spokeswoman, said resettling Camp Liberty residents in other countries was “the only lasting means of guaranteeing the safety and well-being of those residing in Camp Hurriya.” [2]
The US administration and State department know better than everybody else that the MKO spends much more money than the 1 million dollars on donations to prominent political figures.
The group paid Washington lobby groups and hired influential politicians and officials, as speakers to press the state department into removing the group from the list of terrorist organizations. Chris Mc Greal states based on the research by the Centre for Responsive Politics, a group tracking the impact of money in US politics.[3]
The steady flow of funds continued even after the delisting. The group reopened its Washington office and hired former Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) to lobby on its behalf.[4]
Flushes with cash, the group day to day puts on events hiring political figures to give speech. The group also hires asylum seekers and refugees from different nations to participate. [5]
So a glance at the group’s propaganda campaigns proves that money is the last thing the MEK needs, as stated by Mr. Arash Pirooz ,MKO former member.
Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in an interview with Foreign Policy said “What keeps them in the news are their deep pockets,” Many outside experts believe the MEK is still drawing from the pools of money it received from the former Iraqi leader.[6]
The US State Department statement reiterates that the resettlement has become an ever more urgent humanitarian imperative in the aftermath of deadly attacks on Camps Ashraf and Liberty. [7]
So why doesn’t the US pick up more practical step.
Addressing the protesters, Mr. Gingrich urged Mr. Obama to instruct the State Department to “cut the red tape” and issue U.S. visas to more than 3,000 Iranian refugees who remain in Iraq.[8]
Why doesn’t the US move the relocation process forward by letting the MKO members in?
A glance at the past would provide the answer. The US doesn’t want to let its handmade terrorists to reside safely on its land.
The US administration provided MEK operatives terror training at secret facilities in Nevada starting in 2005 and received U.S. intelligence that the group used to carry out the assassinations of Iranian scientists, According to investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Quoting a senior Pentagon consultant Hersh reported:
“The M.E.K. was a total joke,…and now it’s a real network inside Iran… MEK now has a capacity for efficient operations that it never had before.” [9]
NBC News’ Richard Engel and Robert Windrem reported in February 2012, that the MEK colluded with Israel to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists.[10]
Mujahedin Khalq are the United States proxy on waging war in Iran, Iraq, Syria and wherever the US decides while the group is a bargaining chip at US hands in dealing with Iran.
Yet, being absolutely aware of the terror potentiality and the unpredictable nature of the Mujahedin Khalq as a terror cult, the US wants them to exist but somewhere out of its own territory. The United States doesn’t risk its nation’s security by housing members of a terrorist cult.
By: A. Sepinoud
References:
[1] Dreazen, Yochi, Meet the weird well-connected ex-terrorists threatening our relationship with Iraq, Foreign Policy, October 30,2013
[2] U.S. Department of State, Press Statement, U.S. Pledges Support to UN Trust Fund for Resettlement of Camp Hurriya Residents, Marie Harf, Deputy Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC, October 24, 2013
[3] McGreal, Chris, Iranian exiles, DC lobbyists and the campaign to delist the MEK, the guardian.com, September21, 2012
[4]Pecquet, Julian, Delisted Iranian terror group MEK registers to lobby, the Hill May 24, 2013
[5] Kane, Alex, Former us officials blast diplomacy with rouhani at mek rally outside un Mondoweiss.net, september24, 2013
[6] Dreazen, Yochi, Meet the weird well-connected ex-terrorists threatening our relationship with Iraq, Foreign Policy, October 30,2013
[7] U.S. Department of State, Press Statement, U.S. Pledges Support to UN Trust Fund for Resettlement of Camp Hurriya Residents, Marie Harf, Deputy Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC, October 24, 2013
[8] Wall Street Journal, Loud Protests as Obama Hosts Iraqi Leader, November1, 2013
[9]Hersh,Seymour, Our Men in Iran, the New Yorker, April6, 2012
[10] Engel, Richard & Windrem, Robert, Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News, NBC News, Feb 9,2012