Frankly, who knows what their [MKO/MEK/PMOI]total budget is? Rubin continues. “But it seems to have paid off, because they’ve found a number of corrupt officials in Washington. Whether it’s Republicans or Democrats, it may be legal to pay such inflated individual speaking fees, but it shows a fundamental weakness and a fundamental corruption that doesn’t belong in any of the presidential campaigns.
The record extends from the days it was killing Americans while opposing the shah, through supporting the hostage-taking at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, through the long period during which it was working for the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. The record is not based just on what is said by the State Department or an intelligence agency or any governmental component with a policy to support, much less on anything the Iranian regime might say. If you want a recent independently reported portrait ..
But while the review has attracted a flurry of recent news coverage of the MEK and its alleged terrorist ties, what has been less examined is the impact this whole debate has had on American policy towards Iran and its people. MEK allies’ remarkably sophisticated and well-connected lobbying effort has sown confusion in Washington about the interests of the Iranian-American community as well as of the current generation of dissidents back in Iran.
The other thing that comes up in all of this of course is that we are seeing attention diverted from what the United States and Israel are clearly doing in conjunction with groups like the Iran Policy Committee; to work with the Mujahedin-e Khalq aka MKO/MEK/PMOI in Iran to facilitate the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists and to be involved in other black intelligence operations within Iran that are clearly both illegal and counterproductive. Raymond Tanter..
Dean and other luminaries from across the political spectrum have been paid vast sums of money by the MKO/MEK/PMOI – as much as $20,000 for a 10-minute speech – to appear at events pushing the Obama administration to remove the MKO from the official list of terrorist organizations.Dean himself has acknowledged being paid but has not disclosed specific sums.
“Whether the MEK should or should not be listed is one thing, but the law is very clear that third parties and intermediaries don’t insulate you,”says David Cole, a professor of law at Georgetown University.”Think about how the United States would respond if [American] citizens were actively working with a PR organization to support the legitimacy of Hamas in Gaza? Here, the only thing protecting the people involved is that they include the former homeland security secretary..
Robert Hunter, a retired ambassador now with the National Defense University, says the residents of Camp Ashraf ought to be protected. But, he adds,”getting into bed with these people, I think, would be a profound mistake.”Hunter describes the MEK aka MKO/PMOI as a Marxist cult, whose members have learned the ways of Western public relations.
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 aka MEK/PMOI are the new freedom fighters, and they deserve, and must be de-listed.
The group’s long list of detractors – and many Iran experts – warn against removing them from the terrorist list.In a 2009 report, Rand, a non-profit Washington think-tank, called the group a”cult”and”skilled manipulators of public opinion”.Based inside Iraq, at a camp called Ashraf, north of Baghdad, the MEK/MKO/PMOI has been on the US list of banned foreign terrorist organisations (FTO) since 1997.
An Iranian political group designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization is offering large payments to orators willing to speak at events on their behalf. Among those with connections to the organization, Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) aka MKO/PMOI, are Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s chief foreign policy adviser and liberal politician Howard Dean.