Neocons' Pet Iranian Revolutionaries Accused of Torture

[chlamor]

Neocons' Pet Iranian Revolutionaries Accused of Torture

by Jim Lobe

An Iranian rebel group that is aggressively campaigning for Washington's support as part of a "regime change" strategy in its homeland has committed serious abuses, including torture and prolonged isolation, against dissident members, according to a leading human rights watchdog.

The group, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), insists that it should lead a U.S.-backed effort to bring what it has termed democratic rule to Iran. Last month, it organized a rally, attended by several powerful Republican lawmakers and billed as the "2005 National Convention for a Democratic, Secular Republic in Iran," at Washington's historic Constitution Hall.

<snip>

But MEK's own human-rights record during its almost 20 years as an armed group sheltered and supported by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein belies its professed commitment to democratic rule, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a 28-page report, "No Exit: Human Rights Abuses Inside the MEK Camps," released Thursday.

<snip>

While the group's supporters in the Pentagon so far have succeeded in protecting the several thousand MEK militants based at Camp Ashraf near the Iranian border from being dispersed or deported, they have failed to persuade the U.S. State Department to take the group off its terrorist list, to which it was added in 1997 based on its attacks during the 1970s against U.S. military contractors and its participation in the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The European Union (EU) also cites the MEK as a terrorist organization.

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=6011

[Zuni]

1. The US has never been a supporter of this group

I have heard of them before.

[chlamor]

3. Learn More About MEK-CIA and the Neocons

The use of the MEK for U.S.-intelligence-gathering missions strikes some former U.S. intelligence officials as bizarre. The State Department's annual publication, "Patterns of Global Terrorism," lists them as a terrorist organization.
    
    According to the State Department report, the MEK were allies with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in fighting Iran and, in addition, "assisted Saddam in "suppressing opposition within Iraq, and performed internal security for the Iraqi regime."
    
    After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, U.S. forces seized and destroyed MEK munitions and weapons, and about 4,000 MEK operatives were "consolidated, detained, disarmed, and screened for any past terrorist acts, the report said. Shortly afterwards, the Bush administration began to use them in its covert operations against Iran, former senior U.S. intelligence officials said.
   
    <snip>

"This looks to be turning into a pretty large-scale covert operation," a former long-time CIA operator in the region told UPI. In addition to the air strikes on allegedly Iranian nuclear weapons sites, the second aim of the operation is to secure the support in Iran of those "who view U.S. policy of hostility towards Iran's clerics with favor," he said.
    
    The United States is also attempting to erect a covert infrastructure in Iran able to support U.S. efforts, this source said. It consists of Israelis and other U.S. assets, using third country passports, who have created a network of front companies that they own and staff. "It's a covert infrastructure for material support," a U.S. administration official said.

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20050126-045615-4690r

     Thousands of MEK terrorists attend Iran convention in US Capital --- Is this War On Terror?
Iran Focus ^


Posted on 04/15/2005 9:36:25 PM PDT by Khashayar


Washington, D.C., Apr. 14 - Iranians from across the United States gathered in the Constitution Hall here today to take part in what they called Iranian-American National Convention for Democratic Change in Iran.

Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA), joint-chair of the Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus of the U.S. House of Representative; Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Congress and Co-chair of the Caucus; Congressman Dennis Moore (D-KS); and Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) were among the speakers who offered their support to the Iranian people’s efforts to topple the clerical regime and replace it with a secular, democratic government.

The crowd gave rapturous applause to words of support from Republican Senators Kay Hutchinson from Texas and James Talent from Missouri.

A number of former government officials, human rights activists, and parliamentarians from other countries also spoke at this convention. They included Dr. Neil Livingstone, a Washington-based terrorism expert and author; Prof. Donna Hughes, Chair of Women's Studies at the University of Rhode Island, and Paul Enzinna, a lawyer from former Secretary of State James Baker’s law firm, Baker Botts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1384817/posts

Now some powerful Americans are snuggling up to this group in Iran called MEK. Snuggling how? This is from the article: (NCRI is MEK's political wing)

While the U.S. government's official line about the MEK has been that "a terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist," Washington hardly treats NCRI members the same way as it would, say, Hamas. Former NCRI spokesman Alireza Jafarzadeh is highly visible in the media – often serving as an expert commentator on Fox News Channel – and frequently attends Iran-related events in D.C. held by conservative think tanks. Neoconservative guru Richard Perle spoke at a charity fundraiser organized by an MEK front group last January to benefit victims of the earthquake in Van, Iran. He later told the Washington Post that he was unaware of MEK's involvement – a claim that's hard to swallow since Perle's fellow keynote speaker at the event was MEK leader Maryam Rajavi, who addressed the audience via videophone from Paris.

http://www.musicforamerica.org/node/70551

" ... the United States, for generations, has sustained two parallel but opposed states of mind about military atrocities and human rights: one of U.S. benevolence, generally held by the public, and the other of ends-justify-the-means brutality sponsored by counterinsurgency specialists. Normally the specialists carry out their actions in remote locations with little notice in the national press. That allows the public to sustain its faith in a just America, while hard-nosed security and economic interests are still protected in secret. ": Robert Parry, investigative reporter and author

[David__77]

2. MEK is not simply an American pawn.

They have a long record of opposing the Shah and the US' interference in Iranian affairs. They supported the 1979 revolution and were visciously attacked by the Khomeneist rightists. They are a bit cultish, but so what? Any exiled military-political organization would have cultish tendencies.