For Obscure Iranian Exile Group, Broad Support in U.S.
NY Times / SCOTT SHANE
27-Nov-2011 (3 comments)

WASHINGTON — At a time of partisan gridlock in the capital, one obscure cause has drawn a stellar list of supporters from both parties and the last two administrations, including a dozen former top national security officials.

That alone would be unusual. What makes it astonishing is the object of their attention: a fringe Iranian opposition group, long an ally of Saddam Hussein, that is designated as a terrorist organization under United States law and described by State Department officials as a repressive cult despised by most Iranians and Iraqis.

The extraordinary lobbying effort to reverse the terrorist designation of the group, the Mujahedeen Khalq, or People’s Mujahedeen, has won the support of two former C.I.A. directors, R. James Woolsey and Porter J. Goss; a former F.B.I. director, Louis J. Freeh; a former attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey; President George W. Bush’s first homeland security chief, Tom Ridge; President Obama’s first national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones; big-name Republicans like the former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Democrats like the former Vermont governor Howard Dean; and even the former top counterterrorism official of the State Department, Dell L. Dailey, who argued unsuccessfully for ending the terrorist label while in office.

The American advocates have been well paid, hired through their speaking agencies and collecting fees of $10,000 to $50,000 for speeches on behalf of the Ir... >>>

MM

Money talks? Or, tit4tat

by MM on

 TIT:

* "The American advocates have been well paid, hired through their speaking agencies and collecting fees of $10,000 to $50,000 for speeches on behalf of the Iranian group. Some have been flown to Paris, Berlin and Brussels for appearances.  But they insist that their motive is humanitarian — to protect and resettle about 3,400 members of the group, known as the M.E.K., now confined in a camp in Iraq."

* "The group’s spending, certainly in the millions of dollars, has inevitably raised questions about funding sources."

* "Like other advocates, Mr. Mukasey said he had been paid his standard speaking fee — $15,000 to $20,000, according to the Web site of his speakers’ agency — to talk at M.E.K.-related events. But he insisted that the money was not a factor for him or other former officials who had taken up the cause. “There’s no way I would compromise my standing by expressing views I don’t believe in,” he said."

TAT:

* "Mr. Ridge suggested that the M.E.K.’s implacable hostility to the rulers of Iran should be a point in their favor."

* "“In my view, if you’re a threat to Ahmadinejad,” — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president — “well, the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Mr. Ridge said. He noted that the M.E.K. had provided information on Iran’s nuclear program during the Bush administration."

 

 



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MM

Vildemose - good question

by MM on

MEK has always had money to distribute to the politicians.  Even back in the 1990s, MEK tried to influence the politicians in DC (The contributions total more than $204,000 and span a three and a half year period, from April 1993 through November 1996.).  MEK even gave $4000 to Represetative Bob Ney.

The sources, my guesses are:

1. Just like any other cult, when someone joins, the person forgoes all his/her wealth and the heads become the center of attention.

2. All kinds of governmental agencies / funds may help them due to the above tit4tat, e.g., providing information on Iran’s nuclear program, as discussed in the article, or they consider the MEK as a possible vanguard against the Iranian government.  

3. Fund raisers: For example, in 2004, Richard Perle spoke at a Mujahedin-e Khalq fundraiser disguised as a Bam benefit. 


vildemose

 Where does MEK get this

by vildemose on

 Where does MEK get this much money??

 

"It is the chain of communicat­ion, not the means of production­, that determines a social process."

-- Robert Anton Wilson