When in 2012 US State department removed the name of Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) from its list of foreign terrorist organizations critics correctly criticized the USA foreign policy’s double standards towards terrorism. Many critics considered the decision as a way to clear legal barriers in the way of 
overtly arming and funding the terrorists in pursuing a proxy war with Iran.
Mujahedin Khalq prolonged a decade long lobbying efforts and invested a great amount of money to get their organization removed from the Black List of FTOs. Vividly crossing the US anti Terrorism Laws, a large number of members of Congress, former White House officials and army generals supported their bid in exchange for large sums of money.
In fact the material support law under which several people with far less alleged crimes got severe punishments didn’t turned out to include over three dozen top U.S. officials who were the most vocal proponents of the War on Terror.
Tony Cartalucci analyzes the US dignitaries’ support of a Terrorist organization with the American blood on their hand as “a combination of theater and formalities to preserve in the eyes of stakeholders in the West’s international order, a semblance of “rule of law. That is to portray MKO’s American lobbyists as merely financially motivated to obfuscate the true nature of their duplicity as well as their true motives- [to use the group as an armed proxy against Iran]. He says considering the US funding of MKO, it is not believable that they are taking this money and sending it right back to America to lobby for their delisting.[1]
Indeed the United States covert support of the MKO terrorist group has been ongoing long before even under the Bush administration as Seymour Hersh exposed in its 2008 article “Preparing the Battlefield” that “the US had already begun arming and financing them to wage war inside Iran”.[2]
While hypocrisy in confronting terrorism fails to be a new subject the more disturbing point is when some ordinary people are considered criminal for far less affiliation to terrorist group.
There are more than enough proofs to prove ;the latest of which may be the Mirmehdi brothers who detained on allegations that they were affiliated with the MKO terrorist organization; though the men argued they were not members of MKO or any other terrorist group and had just attended a rally organized by NCR.[3]
To name another case; Morteza Assadi , a 49-year-old real estate agent in northern Virginia whose green card application has been on hold for more than a decade just because in the early 1980s as a teenager he distributed fliers for Mujahedin-e Khalq in Tehran. Assadi said he was never an active member or contributor to its activities and that the group was removed from the list of terrorist organizations in 2012.[4]
As the Obama administration has eased the rules for would-be asylum-seekers and refugees who gave "limited" support to terrorists or terrorist groups, now Assadi is hopeful that the U.S. government will look at his teenage activities as "limited."
The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department are tasked to determine with deciding which terrorists will be benefit from “limited material support”.
However, considering the double standards within the US policy makes the execution of the rule more complicated than it seems to be.
That is the hypocrisy reaches its heights when we see that the rule hasn’t applied to none of the Camp Liberty residents while some high ranking members can freely commute within the US. Although the US repeatedly declared concerns over the safety of TTL residents and appointed a longtime Kerry adviser as the senior advisor for Mujahedin-e Khalq resettlement trying to convince EU states to accept MKO members, yet the US itself hasn’t accepted any of the residents. In March hearing of Capital Hill, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher proposed a bill co-sponsored with 59 lawmakers to grant asylum to the MKO members in the United States but the administration officials privately suggest that Rohrabacher’s bill, and any other efforts to grant asylum to the MEK in the United States, face nearly insurmountable odds.[5]
Despite America’s attempt at window dressing the FTO list, putting some groups on it and removing others is just a political play based on the interests of the US politicians; and even not the people of the United States.
MKO members especially Camp Liberty residents are just a plaything for the US play with the group leaders.
By: A.Sepinoud
References:
[1] Cartalucci,Tony & Ziabari, Kourosh, US “Delisting” of Terror Network: Washington overtly supports the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), Global Research, October 07, 2012
[2] Hersh, Seymour, Preparing the Battlefield, Newyorker, July7, 2008
[3] Gazzar, Brenda , San Fernando Valley-based Iranian brothers turn to international tribunals over U.S. detentions, Los Angeles Daily News, April22,2014
[4]Newsmax Wires,Obama Easing Immigration Rule for Terrorist Supporters, February 9, 2014
[5] Wilkie, Christina, John Kerry Gets Pressed To Grant Asylum To Former Terrorist Group Mojahedin, The Huffington Post, March 14
