Obama decision on Islamo-Marxist MEK will lead to US funding

‎“When these criminal politicians start speaking about the ‘war against terrorism,’ spit on your ‎television screen, as they are the terrorists,” fumed liberty-minded analyst Daniel McAdams after the ‎decision was made public.

After a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign that unlawfully enlisted top members of the bipartisan ‎U.S. political class, the Obama administration decided that the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MeK), an Islamo-‎Marxist terror cult notorious for murdering Americans, should no longer be on the State Department’s ‎list of designated terrorist organizations. Experts say the decision paves the way to begin openly ‎showering U.S. taxpayer money on the anti-American outfit in its bid to overthrow the Iranian regime.

The controversial decision to formally "delist" the organization came in the wake of reports charging ‎that the federal government was already arming and training the cult-like Iranian MeK in violation of ‎U.S. terror laws. The purpose of the alleged support, according to multiple sources, was to help wage a ‎proxy war against Iran. Criticism of the administration’s recent decision, however, erupted quickly and ‎forcefully.

Also known as the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, the MeK was founded in an effort to ‎advance a hybrid system incorporating communism and Islam. It officially landed on the U.S. ‎government’s terror list some ‎‏15‏‎ years ago for perpetrating numerous terror attacks against civilians ‎and more than a few senior American military personnel. The group was also allied with Iraqi dictator ‎Saddam Hussein, helping him to wage a brutal war against Iran while suppressing dissidents within ‎Iraq.

‎“The U.S. Department of State took the moral and strategic bankruptcy of America’s Iran policy to a ‎new low,” observed Iran expert Flynt Leverett, a professor at Pennsylvania State University’s School ‎of International Affairs. “Since when did murdering unarmed civilians (and, in some instances, ‎members of their families as well) on public streets in the middle of a heavily populated urban area ‎‎(Tehran) not meet even the U.S. government’s own professed standard for terrorism?”

Despite federal statutes defining as a felony the provision of any “material support” to designated ‎terrorist organizations, the MeK managed to buy die-hard support from numerous senior U.S. ‎politicians and former officials on both sides of the aisle. Advocates for the terror cult range from neo-‎conservative terror-war cheerleaders like Rudy Giuliani and Michael Mukasey to liberals like Howard ‎Dean and Gen. James Jones. Former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, ex-CIA and FBI bosses, and ‎many others jumped on the pro-MeK bandwagon, too.

The paid lobbyists for the terror cult unlawfully earned massive sums of money — often tens of ‎thousands of dollars or more. But the administration’s decision, supposedly based on “humanitarian” ‎concerns to get the group’s members out of Iraq, sets a troubling precedent, according to analysts. ‎‎“The delisting of the MEK, following a well-funded political lobby campaign, creates the dangerous ‎impression that it is possible for terrorist organizations to buy their way off the [terrorism] list,” Mila ‎Johns of the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism was quoted as ‎saying by Wired magazine.

‎But there is undoubtedly more to the decision to delist the group than the fact that it showered ‎money on former U.S. officials — funds that were probably extracted from American taxpayers at ‎some point. While well-paid shills for the group claim that the MeK has not been engaged in much ‎terrorism recently — at least not against American targets — numerous reports indicate that the cult ‎has been as busy as ever. As recently as ‎‏2009‎, for example, the U.S. State Department warned that ‎‎“MEK leadership and members across the world maintain the capacity and will to commit terrorist acts ‎in Europe, the Middle East, the United States, Canada and beyond.”

More recently, U.S. officials have even admitted that the murders of Iranian scientists over the past ‎several years were being conducted by the MeK — apparently with support and training from the ‎Obama administration and the Israeli government. Journalist Seymour Hersh with the New Yorker ‎reported that members of the cult were actually receiving training from the U.S. government on ‎American soil, a severe violation of federal law.

However, for now at least, the group’s terror campaign appears to be largely directed at Iran, which is ‎ruled by a regime that both the Western establishment and the MeK hope to depose. So, because the ‎Iranian regime is now the terror cult’s primary target for terrorism — it used to be capitalism, America, ‎and the West, and probably will be again at some point — war-mongering U.S. officials have ‎apparently found an ally.

‎“When these criminal politicians start speaking about the ‘war against terrorism,’ spit on your ‎television screen, as they are the terrorists,” fumed liberty-minded analyst Daniel McAdams after the ‎decision was made public. “They are wealthy terrorists who steal your tax dollars to send overseas and ‎recoup to lobby in favor of bloody killers of civilians in Iran.”

Experts predict with relative certainty that U.S. taxpayer money will soon begin openly flowing to the ‎Marxist terror cult, too. However, observers argue that collaborating with the dangerous group at all ‎would be a terrible plan — let alone openly arming and funding it to wage a war against a foreign ‎government.

‎“To limit the damage from its decision, the State Department needs to make it powerfully clear that ‎the United States does not support the MEK,” wrote analyst Jeremiah Goulka, who studied the MeK in ‎Iraq for the RAND Corporation. “The White House should consider making it policy for the government ‎not to fund, employ, or otherwise collaborate with the group. The MEK is not our ally. Its interests are ‎its own, not ours.”

Analysts also said the delisting of the terror cult would be counterproductive on multiple fronts even ‎for goals the Obama administration purports to support. For one, it reinforces Tehran’s narrative that ‎the lawless U.S. government intends to destroy Iran and the Iranian people no matter what — and ‎that it has nothing to do with non-existent nuclear weapons. It also makes war more likely.

Meanwhile, the MeK, unsurprisingly, is widely despised within Iran, partly because it worked with ‎Saddam Hussein to massacre Iranians with American support before the Iraqi tyrant found himself on ‎the U.S. government’s enemy list. The fact that the Obama administration is now seen as openly ‎supportive of the terror cult and may even begin openly funding it soon will decimate the genuine ‎movement for political reform inside Iran as well.

The decision will also allow the Islamo-Marxist group to have an even larger say in U.S. government ‎policy toward Iran as it seeks to overthrow the government and seize the reins of power. Former DNC ‎boss Howard Dean even called for recognizing the mass-murdering cult, which, again, has virtually no ‎support outside of Washington, D.C., as the legitimate government of Iran.

Iranians opposed to the Islamist regime, however, say that would be a terrible idea. “The MEK does ‎not represent the Iranian-American community or the pro-democracy movement in Iran,” noted the ‎National Iranian American Council

‎According to analysts, the controversial decision to delist the MeK has also exposed once again the ‎lawless and hypocritical nature of U.S. government policy makers. In recent decades, no matter which ‎political party has been in power, the U.S. government has routinely backed dictators and terrorist ‎groups before turning against them. Critics of the latest example of such outrageous behavior say the ‎MeK’s victory fits into that pattern perfectly.‎

‎“This MEK scam more vividly illustrates the rot and corruption at the heart of America's DC-based ‎political culture than almost any episode I can recall,” observed popular analyst Glenn Greenwald in ‎the U.K. Guardian, adding that the U.S. government often “favors” terrorism despite purporting to ‎oppose it. “The history of the U.S. list of designated terrorist organizations, and its close cousin list of ‎state sponsors of terrorism, is simple: a country or group goes on the list when they use violence to ‎impede U.S. interests, and they are then taken off the list when they start to use exactly the same ‎violence to advance U.S. interests.”‎

Activists are still hoping that federal terror laws will be applied consistently so former U.S. officials and ‎politicians bought by the MeK can be held accountable for providing “material support” to a ‎designated terrorist organization. Even more important, however, are the consequences of having the ‎U.S. government work with yet another terror group, in this case an anti-American Islamo-Communist ‎cult. The blowback will undoubtedly come back to haunt the world — probably sooner rather than ‎later. ‎

 

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/foreign-policy/item/‎‏12970‏‎-obama-decision-on-islamo-‎marxist-terror-cult-will-lead-to-us-funding-experts-say