Cheney/Rumsfeld order:US outsourcing Spec Ops/Intel to Iraq terror grp MEK

[Roland99]

On Cheney, Rumsfeld order, US outsourcing special ops, intelligence to Iraq terror group, intelligence officials say
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/US_outsourcing_special_operations_intelligence_gathering_0413.html

One of the operational assets being used by the Defense Department is a right-wing terrorist organization known as Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), which is being “run” in two southern regional areas of Iran, both bordering Pakistan. They are Balucistan, a Sunni stronghold, and Khuzestan, a Shia region where a series of recent attacks has left many dead and hundreds injured in the last three months.

One former counterintelligence official, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the information, describes the Pentagon as pushing MEK shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The drive to use the insurgent group was said to have been advanced by the Pentagon under the influence of the Vice President’s office and opposed by the State Department, National Security Council and then-National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice.

“The MEK is run by a brother and sister who were given bases in northern Baghdad by Saddam,” the intelligence official told RAW STORY. “The US army secured a key MEK facility 60 miles northwest of Baghdad shortly after the 2003 invasion, but they did not secure the MEK and let them basically be because Wolfowitz was thinking ahead to Iran.”

...

“These guys are nuts,” this intelligence source said. “Cambone and those guys made MEK members swear an oath to Democracy and resign from the MEK and then our guys incorporated them into their unit and trained them.”

Bush doesn't negotiate with terrorists but I guess Cheney does (since he *is* one himself)

[RedEarth]

1. I wonder if the infamous "Curveball" is connected with that group...

[Bozita]

2. Bushco hires known terrorists - US taxpayers to pick up tab

insanity!

[katty]

14. bushco gangsters DO hire terrorists-it's always been their way

[reichstag911]

3. They were against the terrorists...

...before they were with them!

[WhiteTara]

16. well, first they were with the terrorists

then they were against them and today, they are great friends again. MEK was in Afghanistan during the 80's fighting the Russians. We got them started right on up. I sort of thought they morphed into Al Quada, but what do I know? :shrug:

[Roland99]

17. al Qaeda is a splitter group. Most Islamists don't support bin Laden.

bin Laden wants to attack America and the west. Most Islamist groups, born of the Muslim Brotherhood, want to install Islamic states in their own countries and aren't concerned with fighting the US juggernaut.

[Roland99]

4. Slate article on MEK from March 2003...is MEK sorta like AIPAC, then?

The Enemy of My Enemy of My Enemy Is My What?
What to do about the Iranian terrorist group that is helping Saddam, and helping us.
http://www.slate.com/id/2080513

One of the many hard questions about the war in Iraq is what the United States will do about something called the National Liberation Army. The NLA is a well-trained brigade of perhaps 15,000 men outfitted with heavy artillery, rockets, and tanks. Its troops are headquartered less than 30 miles west of Baghdad, though some recent news accounts say they have moved toward Kurdish areas in northern Iraq. Although the NLA soldiers are Iranians, they are avowed opponents of Iran's clerical rulers and have made common cause with Saddam Hussein. Indeed the NLA has served as part of Saddam's internal security operation and even helped him put down Kurdish and Shiite rebels.

They are also purportedly enemies of the United States. The State Department considers the NLA part of an international Iranian terrorist group that has killed Americans and thousands of civilians. That means fund raising for the NLA in the United States is just as likely to land you in prison as fund raising for, say, al-Qaida. Some press accounts say the NLA has recently helped Saddam hide weapons of mass destruction and may be ready to fight for him in the coming days. In short, these guys seem like prime candidates for a good carpet-bombing.

But wait, hold the MOABs! The NLA's parent organization—called the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK)—or "People's Holy Warriors"—is also a leading Iranian political opposition group, which has done the Bush administration some big favors lately. The pro-democracy MEK has undermined the rule of Iran's anti-American mullahs, and during the past few months has dished precious new details about Iran's alarmingly advanced nuclear weapons program. The group also has many defenders in Congress and even its own lobbying office in downtown Washington. In fact, on any given day it's often not clear whether the MEK are America's friends, its terrorist enemies—or both. The war with Iraq may finally force the Bush administration to decide. Well, I guess we know now.

...

During the '90s, the MEK carried out hundreds of attacks, almost all of them aimed at Iranian government buildings and officials within Iran. In 1999, for instance, the MEK assassinated a top Iranian military leader. The next year, it fired mortars at the Iranian presidential palace, killing a civilian print-shop worker. The State Department says that MEK hit-and-run raids against Iranian government buildings along the Iran-Iraq border have become "commonplace" and that the group's attacks in Tehran "constitute the biggest security threat" to the regime. The State Department also says the MEK's soldiers helped Saddam suppress Kurdish and Shiite rebellions in 1991 and 1996.

Iran retaliated against the MEK with very accurate missile strikes against MEK bases and the MEK attacks against Iran stopped. The MEK certainly has the motive for vengeance against Iran.

[leftchick]

5. Good God! "We Are Already at War"!

:scared:

Although the specifics of what the MEK is being used for remain unclear, a UN official close to the Security Council explained that the newly renamed MEK soldiers are being run instead of military advance teams, committing acts of violence in hopes of staging an insurgency of the Iranian Sunni population.

“We are already at war,” the UN official told RAW STORY.

Asked how long the MEK agents have been active in the region under the guidance of the US military civilian leadership, the UN official explained that the clandestine war had been going on for roughly a year and included unmanned drones run jointly by several agencies.

In a stunning repeat of pre-war Iraq activities, the Bush administration continues to publicly call for action and pursue diplomatic solutions to allegations that Iran is bomb-ready. Behind the scenes, however, the administration is already well underway and engaged in ground operations in Iran.

... remember the drone shot down in Iran last week?

[ShortnFiery]

6. Well at least that just may solve us one mystery?

This must be where Karen Hughes is at? :P

After all, is she not our new global PR czarina ... the link between the Middle East and America? ;)

[Bozita]

7. looking more and more like Barbara Bush every day

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. Aren't these the same bases the Amazing Zarqawi

was using before the invasion?

The ones we claimed Saddam was using to develop chemical weapons with al CIAda?

[Roland99]

20. I think Zarqawi was operating out of Kurdish areas.

Further to the north.

[leftchick]

9. check this out: Solution to Iran crisis is to support MEK

http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/1265/70/

Solution to Iran crisis is to support MEK - Tanter
Friday, 07 April 2006
NCRI - The only way to confront Iran's threats is to support the opposition Mojahedin-e Khalgh (MEK, aka PMOI) and its removal from the terror lists, said Professor Raymond Tanter of Georgetown University and a former White House aide in an interview with Al Jazeera television.

Responding to a question about Iran's threats to block the Strait of Hormuz and endanger the flow of oil out of this vital area, Professor Tanter said: "If Iran tries to close the Strait of Hormuz, it has engaged in an aggressive military act. This is an international waterway and is very much difficult to close it and prevent ships from crossing this narrow waterway."


Professor Tanter added that Iran's intimidations showed that its days are numbered, therefore, the only thing that can stop this regime from executing its threats is the main Iranian opposition, Mojahedin-e Khalgh. This is an important element and must be recognized, said tanter and stressed that the MEK must be removed from the terror list.

The former White House aide noted that there was an increasing effort to recognize this element in Washington.

Professor Tanter also reminded that Iranian regime was politically weak, both in the UN and in the IAEA in Vienna, therefore, it is trying to compensate for this weakness using its military force.


Ex-WH aide still aiding the WH?

[Roland99]

10. I knew that nameTanter rang a bell. He's been calling for this for months.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31217

Some hard-liners, including neo-conservatives associated with the Committee on the Present Danger, have urged the administration to open an interest section in Tehran to gain more direct access to and intelligence about opposition groups. They argue that with sufficient U.S. support, these groups could subvert the regime in much the same way that U.S. support for Solidarity in Poland allegedly helped create the conditions for the end of Communist rule there.

But others have warned against any steps that could be seen as granting the regime international legitimacy would be a mistake, particularly in light of the hard-line rhetoric of the country's controversial new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"On the one hand, I think it's a good idea to maintain back-channel contacts with adversaries," says Raymond Tanter, a former National Security Council staffer whose Iran Policy Committee has called for Washington to deploy the Iraq-based Mujahadin-e Khalq, which is listed as a "terrorist" group by the State Department, against Tehran.

"On the other hand, when you go public after Ahmadinejad says he wants to wipe Israel off the map, it seems to reward Iranian belligerence. I don't know why it's being done," he says.

[leftchick]

15. yes, he must be peter pan

and that there is fantasyland. :crazy:

[Roland99]

11. Hersh: "Bush doesn't talk to people he's mad at."

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/12/1359254

Check out the last few paragraphs from Hersh.

Explains why he'd rather use might (and a terrorist group) instead of diplomacy. Bush is a mental midget in reality. Too scared of confrontation and debate.


:banghead:

[OKNancy]

12. December 2003 article - Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1231/p10s01-woiq.html

December or 2003 article

Mujahideen-e Khalq, an Iraq-based group founded to fight Iran's regime, may be expelled from its base this week

snip

Some MKO tips have led to recent revelations about key aspects of Iran's clandestine nuclear program, though many others have proven unreliable. Long a diplomatic hot potato - which Tehran has offered to solve, by exchanging MKO militants for Al Qaeda players now in Iran - the MKO continues to complicate US-Iran-Iraq relations

[stillcool]

13. ..........

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="" border="0" alt="Image hosting by Photobucket"></a>

[HuffleClaw]

18. "...Rumsfeld under instructions from Cheney, began using the group...

...on special ops missions into Iran to pave the way for a potential Iran strike.

“They are doing whatever they want, no oversight at all,” one intelligence source said."

this remind folks of anything? a certain south american country during the reagan years? what a cockup.

[Roland99]

19. Same people, same twisted mindset

[Roland99]

21. " What's Going On In Camp Ashraf?" - More info on the MEK

http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2005/12/whats-going-on-in-camp-ashraf.html


Remember, the MEK is a group that took part in the taking of American hostages in Iran in the late 1970s.

[Mika]

22. Ileana Ros Lehtinen was supporting MEK long ago. Article from April 2003

http://www.hillnews.com/news/040803/roslehtinen.aspx
Rep. Ros-Lehtinen defends Iranian group labeled terrorist front for Saddam Hussein
By Sam Dealey

A senior lawmaker on the House International Relations committee has defended her ongoing support for a group the State Department says is a terrorist organization fighting against coalition troops in Iraq.

“This group loves the United States. They’re assisting us in the war on terrorism; they’re pro-U.S.,” said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) in an interview with The Hill.



THOMAS BUTLER

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
“This group has not been fighting against the U.S. It’s simply not true,” she insisted.
Ros-Lehtinen is the chairwoman of the panel’s Central Asia and Middle East Subcommittee.

The group, known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), is an Iranian opposition group in Iraq. The U.S. intelligence and diplomatic community argues that the MEK is funded by Saddam Hussein and has engaged in efforts by the Iraqi leader to suppress Kurd and Shiite uprisings.

The group killed several Americans during the 1970s. It also participated in the 1979-1981 U.S. Embassy seizure in Tehran. In 1997, the MEK and its various appendages were designated a “foreign terrorist organization.”

Last week, State Department spokesman Greg Sullivan told The Hill the MEK is considered “a combatant” and U.S. officials believe its soldiers “are undertaking some of the action in the south where enemy combatants have disguised themselves as civilians.”

Ros-Lehtinen vehemently disputed State’s assertion to The Washington Times, calling the spokesman a “weasel” and a “gutless bureaucrat who won’t come out of his cave.” Sullivan did not respond to a request for further comment.

Ros-Lehtinen dismissed the group’s anti-American actions as “past history.” She said, “It has no bearing on what is going on right now in the field.”

“In no meeting or briefing I have ever attended has anyone called this group an anti-U.S., terrorist organization,” she continued, adding that the group has provided useful intelligence to the U.S. government on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Ros-Lehtinen further said that there is “wide support” in Congress for the MEK and that it will be “one of the leading groups in establishing secular government in Iran.”

In November, Ros-Lehtinen released a letter of support for the MEK that she said had the backing of 150 colleagues, whom she repeatedly refused to identify. “Because of the Khatami well-funded campaign on propaganda, lies and misinformation, I have decided not to release the names of these signers.”

In October, as Ros-Lehtinen’s letter circulated the House, Reps. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), the chairman and ranking member of the House International Relations Committee, respectively, also wrote to their colleagues. The lawmakers’ letter sought to give colleagues “full” and “accurate” information on the MEK.

“We are strong opponents of the current government of Iran but do not believe that it is necessary to use terrorism or make common cause … Saddam Hussein to change Iran’s government,” Hyde and Lantos wrote.

“Particularly in view of the fact that the MEK is based in Iraq, has taken part in operations against the Kurds and Shia, has been responsible for killing Americans in Iran, and has supported the takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran, we wanted you to have the full background on this organization as most recently reported by the Department of State, so that you may best decide whether to lend your name to this letter” of support. It further advised: “Some colleagues have signed similar letters in the past and then been embarrassed when confronted with accurate information about the MEK.”

Committee spokesman Sam Stratman acknowledged the letter was sent in the fall but declined to characterize its contents. Ylem Poblete, an aide to Ros-Lehtinen, denied that it suggested the congresswoman had not fully informed her colleagues about the group.

“I would not venture to speculate or qualify or attach any assumptions to what Chairman Hyde or Mr. Lantos may have said,” Poblete said. “I don’t think anyone should look into or suggest anything from Chairman Hyde indicating that our information was inaccurate.”

Ros-Lehtinen further said that, upon her instigation, “maybe one, two or three” unidentified lawmakers requested that their names be removed from the list. “I came up to them and asked if they wanted to be removed,” she said.

Spokesmen for Reps. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) and Pete Sessions (R-Texas) told The Hill last week that the lawmakers asked to have their names removed after learning more about the MEK.

Citing an anonymous quote in a 1997 Los Angeles Times article, Ros-Lehtinen said the MEK was named a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) “as a goodwill gesture to Tehran” by the Clinton administration and that its continued designation was a “holdover policy.”

“We’re kowtowing to a regime,” she said. “We became an apologist for this regime” in Iran.

Mike Craft, a counterterrorism official with the State Department, defended the group’s designation.

“The MEK keeps putting out the line that they were put on the list just as a gesture to Iran. I can tell you from watching the FTO process that this is done on a separate, nonpolitical track. This designation process is very cumbersome. It takes months, and these things were in preparation for quite a while.”

Middle East scholars widely dispute the assessment that the MEK is a legitimate democratic alternative to the Iranian regime. “That’s patently nonsense,” said Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute.

“I know about support on Capitol Hill for this group, and I think it’s atrocious,” said Dan Brumberg of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “I think it’s due to total ignorance and political manipulation.”

He added: “There’s not much debate in the academic circles of those who know Iran and Iraq.”

Elahe Hicks of Human Rights Watch said that “many, many Iranians resent” the MEK. “Because this group is so extremely resented inside Iran, the Iranian government actually benefits from having an opposition group like this,” she said.
James Phillips of the Heritage Foundation agreed. “When they sided with Iraq against Iran in the <1980-88> war, that was the kiss of death for their political future. Even Iranians who might have sympathized with them were enraged that they became the junior partner of their longstanding rival,” he said.

“Some of their representatives are very articulate,” Phillips continued, “but they are a terrorist group. They have a longstanding alliance with Saddam Hussein, and they have gone after some of the Kurds at the behest of Saddam Hussein.”

[Supersedeas]

23. supporting terrorism