Israel Matzav

Outrageous: Largest Iranian opposition group is deemed 'terrorist' by US

In a twist that can only be described as Orwellian, Daniel Pipes reports that the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq - the largest and best organized group seeking to overthrow the Islamist regime in Iran - is considered a terrorist organization by the United States government.

The other protest took place in a vast exhibition hall just north of Paris, where the largest and best organized Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedeen-e Khalq or the People's Mujahedeen of Iran (MeK or PMOI) joined with smaller groups to hold their annual meeting. About 20,000 people attended it, including me.

The assembly's most emotional moment came when the anxious crowd learned that their peaceful counterparts marching in Iran had been killed or wounded. At that moment, freedom of assembly in France contrasted most starkly with its denial in Iran. Later that day came confirmation of the regime's obsessive fears of the MeK, when deputy police chief, Ahmad Reza Radan, blamed MeK "thugs" for his own government's violence against the peaceful demonstrators.

The MEK mounted an impressive display in France, as it did at the last meeting I attended, in 2007, with dignitaries, made-for-television pageantry, and a powerful speech by its leader, Maryam Rajavi. Like the street protestors, she also called for the demise of the Khomeinist regime. In a 4,000-word speech, she steered blessedly clear of attacks on the United States or Israel and excluded the conspiracy-theory mongering so common to Iranian political life. Instead, she:

• Ridiculed the regime for portraying the demonstrators as Western agents.
• Bitterly complained that corpses of demonstrators were "wrapped in American flags" and then trampled upon.
• Condemned the regime's "crimes" in Iraq and its "export of terrorism" to Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, and Afghanistan.
• Predicted that "the beginning of the end" of the Islamic Republic of Iran is underway.
• Critiqued the Obama administration for giving yet another chance to the regime, noting that the Bush administration had met its representatives 28 times to no avail.

Rajavi has rightly called for a stronger U.S. policy toward Tehran, explaining in a recent interview that "The West can stop the nuclear program if it stands up to the mullahs."

Sadly, standing up to the mullahs has never been American policy. Jimmy Carter meekly accepted their rule. Ronald Reagan sent them arms. To win their favor, Bill Clinton put the MEK on the terrorism list. George W. Bush did not foil their nuclear weapons project. And Barack Obama hopes to gain concessions from Tehran on the nuclear weapons issue by distancing himself from the dissidents.

The picture is from the MEK's annual meeting in Paris on June 20.

Read the whole thing. The United States apparently has a much longer history than most of us thought of coddling the Islamists in Iran.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:12 AM