Supporting Terrorists

Last Thursday in Washington D.C., a prominent group of former government officials gathered for a panel on Iran. Among them were a former National Security Adviser, a former CENTCOM Commander, a former Democratic Senator, a former Democratic Presidential candidate, a former Republican Attorney General, a former Republican Homeland Security Secretary, a former CIA Director and a former FBI Director. Almost to a man -- and they were all men -- they expressed support for a group considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

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Getting the MEK off the United States' list of terrorist organizations has become a top priority for "members of Congress, former Bush administration officials, and Iran experts.

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This week, The Wall Street Journal reports, [Gen. James Jones, who was Obama's National Security Adviser until last fall and former New Mexico Gov. Bill] Richardson were in Brussels, for yet another pro-MEK panel, this one alongside former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton.

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Last month, TPM reported how former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey flew to Paris to speak at an MEK event.

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When the MEK's leader Maryam Rajavi was arrested in France in 2003, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) were among those who protested publicly.

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At last week's panel, a pair of prominent Democrats --[...] Richardson and former Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) -- and several national security experts added their voices to the pro-MEK chorus.

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"Does it make sense that we continue to ostracize, label opponents of the regime as terrorists, when the facts say otherwise," Torricelli, who moderated the event, said in his opening statement. "Is it even possible to oppose a terrorist state, and be a terrorist yourself?"

TPM

In a word – yes.

I think I’m beginning to see the problem here. The people making our laws don’t know the meaning of the word ‘terrorist.’

Now, I don’t know whether the MEK should be on the US terrorist list or not. But I do know they’ve been there for years, and I have to wonder why it was okay for them to be there 5 years ago or 2 years or even 1 year ago, and now, suddenly, it’s a top priority for these people to get them off it. Plus, we’ve been dealing with them in Iraq for several years now; it hasn’t seemed to matter to our military and intelligence officials that they were on the terrorist list. What gives?

The State Department website states that the group "advocates the violent overthrow of the Iranian regime and was responsible for the assassination of several U.S. military personnel and civilians in the 1970's." When it was founded by students in the 1960s, the group's philosophy blended Marxism and Islam, and it later developed a strong feminist bent.

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Popular sentiment in Iran turned against the MEK, and the group fled, first to France, and then, in 1986, to Iraq, where they were offered safe haven by Saddam Hussein.

Hussein armed the MEK with tanks and other heavy military equipment, and deployed "thousands of MEK fighters in suicidal, mass wave attacks against Iranian forces" during the Iran-Iraq war, according to the State Department. In 1991, Hussein used the MEK to crack down on Iraqi Shia and Kurds. [...] None of the speakers at last week's panel mentioned the MEK's prior ties with Hussein.

No, I bet they didn’t.

Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of them didn’t even know it.

....and hey, do what you want....you will anyway.