Mujahideen-e Khalq

The Mujahedin-e-Khalq (translation: People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) is an Iranian exile organization officially declared a 'terrorist' organization both in the United States and Iran. Through its front group, National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), it has been the main conduit for publicizing Israeli intelligence on Iran's nuclear program.

Other Names for MEK include the National Liberation Army of Iran and the Muslim Iranian Student's Society.

History

Beginning as an anti-Shah movement in the 1950s, the MEK became the most militaristic opposition movement in Iran during the Shah's regime and continues this policy with the current Iranian government. The MEK reportedly conducted attacks on US officials and civilians in Iran during the 1970s, and in 1981 claimed responsibility for the murders of more than 70 high-ranking Iranian officials in the "Hafte Tir bombing." This led to a widespread government crackdown on all opposition movements in Iran during the time, with thousands of people being tortured and executed. After this time surviving MEK members fled to Paris and Iraq where the MEK turned into a completely reactionary movement, embracing the main goal of overthrowing the Islamic government in Iran through violent means. In Iraq the MEK assisted Saddam Hussein's government in suppressing Shias and Kurds and performed "security services" for the Iraqi government until it was overthrown by the US government. The MEK did not resist the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 even though the US government distanced itself from the group shortly after. At present the MEK is mainly supported by pro-Israel advocates and/or those who want regime change in Iran.

Support from Progressives

Even though the MEK has carried out violent attacks on civilians, worked for Saddam Hussein's government for years, and accepted various forms of support from the US government when it was intent on pushing for regime change in Iran through opposition movements, some progressives in North America and Europe have still embraced the MEK as a legitimate resistance movement.

Writes Rostam Pourzal:

On May 26, 2006, a representative of the violent Iranian fugitives based in Iraq, known as MEK, addressed a forum -- an anti-war forum -- sponsored by the liberal Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists in Berkeley, California, as he had done the year before. Introduced as Ali Mirardal, the speaker lamented human rights abuses in Iran and offered the National Council of Resistance, a Paris-based front group for MEK, as the best hope for a democratic Iran.

Pourzal notes that the MEK's flag-waving for human rights is one reason why audiences invite MEK to events, an ironic result considering how the MEK is known as "Saddam's Private Army" for its part in suppressing Iraqi Kurds and Shias.

While MEK activists feign humanistic values before mainstream audiences, they work closely with some of the extremist Washington circles that push for preemptive US confrontation with Iran. (Other American unilateralist think tanks prefer to support the rival monarchist Iranian groups here.) For example, the Iranian "security expert" who regularly warns us about Iranian fundamentalism on Fox News television, Alireza Jafarzadeh, is none other than the terror group's former registered Washington representative.

US Support

CIA

According to Seymour Hersh, the CIA and Special Operations communities have long-standing ties to the MEK which have resulted in the US supporting the group with money and weapons, even while their lack of usefulness in achieving US foreign policy goals is known:

The M.E.K. has been on the State Department’s terrorist list for more than a decade, yet in recent years the group has received arms and intelligence, directly or indirectly, from the United States. Some of the newly authorized covert funds, the Pentagon consultant told me, may well end up in M.E.K. coffers. “The new task force will work with the M.E.K. The Administration is desperate for results.” He added, “The M.E.K. has no C.P.A. auditing the books, and its leaders are thought to have been lining their pockets for years. If people only knew what the M.E.K. is getting, and how much is going to its bank accounts—and yet it is almost useless for the purposes the Administration intends.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki indirectly condemned the US's dealings with the MEK in 2008:

Gardiner also mentioned a trip that the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, made to Tehran in June. After his return, Maliki announced that his government would ban any contact between foreigners and the M.E.K.—a slap at the U.S.’s dealings with the group. Maliki declared that Iraq was not willing to be a staging ground for covert operations against other countries.

US Politicians

US politicians that openly advocate forced regime change in Iran endorse the MEK or individuals associated with the MEK, like Israel lobby favorite, Alireza Jafarzadeh.

Although the Obama Administration has been careful to resist calls to war with Iran, US congress members like Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) (who has been openly endorsing the MEK for years) introduce resolutions that advocate direct US support of the MEK and its activities:

Members of Congress led by have introduced a resolution calling on the Secretary of State and the President to throw the support of the United States behind an exiled Iranian terrorist group seeking to overthrow the Iranian regime and install themselves in power. Calling the exiled organization “Iran’s main opposition,” Filner is urging the State Department to end the blacklisting of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) — a group listed by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The resolution currently has 83 cosponsors and is gaining significant ground.

Activities

When the Raymond Tanter run Iran Policy Committee held a press conference in Washington in September 2010 with MEK representatives to reveal what it called a previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear site near the Iranian city of Qazvin, officials and analysts expressed caution considering the group's unreliable record:

But the source of the information — the MEK is listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department — and the group’s affiliation and promotion by U.S. neoconservatives pushing hard-line policies towards Iran are reasons for skepticism. Both the State Department and independent experts have raised several alarms about the reliability of the MEK’s claims.

While in the past, official U.S. sources have been willing to confirm information made public by the MEK, the State Department today told Fox News it would “study” the information, which included satellite images, and noted the MEK’s mixed record. “The MEK has made pronouncements about Iranian facilities in the past — some accurate, some not,” State spokesman P.J. Crowley told Fox.

Affiliations

• Maryam Rajavi - "President-elect" of the NCRI since 1993
• Alireza Jafarzadeh - MEK Lobbyist and Fox News Commentator

Related Links

• Chris Zambelis, An Iranian voice in the wilderness, Asia Times, June 5, 2008
• Video report on MEK, BBC Newsnight, January 2007
• NPS Terrorist Group Profiles: MEK
• Bronwyn Adcock, "Gunning for Iran", Dateline, SBS , October 4, 2006.
• US Policy Options for Iran and Iranian Political Opposition, Iran Policy Committee, September 13, 2005
• Friends of a Free Iran, "People's Mojahedin of Iran - Mission Report, Friends of a Free Iran - European Parliament, 2005.
• Jorndorff "Who is the MEK? Daily Kos, August 23, 2005.
• "U.S. Congress's support for Mujahedin-e Khalq", OpenDemocracy, July 14, 2005.
• Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization profile, Globalsecurity.org, updated March 2004.
• Justin Raimondo, Richard Perle Supports Terrorism, Antiwar.com, January 28, 2004
• Sam Dealy, Terrorists Plan D.C. Fundraiser., The Hill January 21, 2004
• Connie Bruck, Exiles: How Iran's Expatriates are Gaming the Nuclear Threat, New Yorker, 6 March 2006