Neo-cons urge Obama to take MKO out of terrorist list
AFP / staff
19-Dec-2010 (5 comments)

WASHINGTON — Several Bush-era officials on Friday urged the Obama administration to strike an Iranian opposition group from a terrorism blacklist and support regime change in Iran.

Former officials Tom Ridge, John Bolton, Frances Townsend and Michael Mukasey who worked under president George W. Bush backed delisting the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI), which is also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK).

The officials said such an approach is needed because US President Barack Obama's administration's policy of engaging Iran will fail to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

"We should take off the list of terrorist organizations the one group that is devoted to restoring freedom in Iran," Mukasey, who was attorney general under Bush, told an audience in a Washington hotel.

The PMOI was originally designated by the US State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on October 8, 1997 during the administration of president Bill Clinton.

It has been redesignated in subsequent years, including by the George W. Bush administration.

Townsend, who was Homeland Security advisor, said the PMOI should not only be delisted but the terrorism blacklist should be abolished completely because she claimed it is not compiled objectively.

Speakers at the symposium, entitled "Countering Iran's Nuclear and Terrorist Threats: What are the US Policy Options?," opted to sup... >>>

MM

John Bolton to call MKO as freedom fighters next??

by MM on Sun Dec 19, 2010 02:58 PM PST

The old Persian proverb states that if you come out of a hole, do not to fall into a well.


Balatarin
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MM

An unholy alliance

by MM on Sun Dec 19, 2010 07:35 PM PST

In a previous blog (//iranian.com/main/blog/mm/sorry-mind-if-i-mop-while-you-mope), I wrote,

"An unholy alliance: AIPAC and/or neo-con members have had a longstanding relationship with the MKO.  For example, in 2004, Richard Perle spoke at a Mujahedin-e Khalq fundraiser disguised as a Bam benefit, and most recently John Bolton and company attended and gave speeches at an MKO rally in France.  It is said that they considered the MEK as a possible vanguard against the Iranian government.  Now, ............., we see the emergence of a neo-con / AIPAC / MKO unholy axis headed probably by John Bolton (based on his cozy speech in the MKO rally in Paris)......"

"However, its militant anti-Iranian stance has made it a favorite of hawks in Washington. Several of them — most notably Tom Tancredo (R-CO) — participated in a 2005 Washington conference in support of the group. The same year also saw the founding of the pro-MEK Iran Policy Committee, headed by Raymond Tanter of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP). The MEK’s neoconservative supporters continue to push for it to be taken off the State Department terror list, which it has been on since 1997. One of the many ironies about the MEK is that, for all the groundless allegations that hawks made about Saddam Hussein’s connections to terrorist groups during the runup to the Iraq war, the terrorist group with perhaps the closest links to Saddam was one that the hawks themselves supported."

* "Nevertheless, some Pentagon officials considered the MEK as a possible vanguard against the Iranian government, which they viewed as a threat in the region."

To the neo-cons, MKO is just another tool in their arsenal to combat IRI.  Because of MKO's military stance, the neo-cons do not care if MKO members are convicted murderers or angels in disguise!


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Bavafa

Excellant response Divaneh jaan

by Bavafa on Sun Dec 19, 2010 04:28 PM PST

The MKO can only find support with the likes of John Bolton. what else can one expect.

But then again, kabotar ba kabotar, baaz ba baaz konand parvaz.

Mehrdad


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divaneh

What an alliance

by divaneh on Sun Dec 19, 2010 04:01 PM PST

Do Neo-cons really think that they can install an MKO government in Iran? I don't think so. I think they want to channel the US support away from democratic groups and to a group who is despised by almost all Iranians (with exception of their own members). That is another measure by Neo-cons to ensure that Iran remains weak and the ME remains in conflict.

On the other side, does MKO think that its association with Neo-cons will help improving its perception between Iranians? How desperate.  


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yolanda

......

by yolanda on Sun Dec 19, 2010 03:38 PM PST

US just added Jundollahs to the terrorist organization list not long ago.....now they wanted to take MKO off the list......wow!


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