You recall how Bush, in the run-up to the Iraq war, hopped into bed with the crooked Iraqi exile leader Achmed Chalabi? History repeats itself. In its scramble for dirt on Iran, the White House relies on information supplied by a controversial Iranian exile group called MEK. Human Rights Watch has compiled much data indicating that this organization is, in essence, a cult:
Human Rights Watch alleges that the Iranian exile group known as Mujahedine Khalq (MEK) has a history of cultlike practices that include forcing members to divorce their spouses and to engage in extended self-criticism sessions.This last paragraph will remind readers of motifs explored in several past posts.
More dramatically, the report states, former MEK members told Human Rights Watch that when they protested MEK policies or tried to leave the organization, they were arrested, in some cases violently abused and in other instances imprisoned. Two former recruits told the human-rights group that they were held in solitary confinement for years in a camp operated by MEK in Iraq under the protection of Saddam Hussein. MEK representatives in the United States and France, where MEK is headquartered, did not immediately respond to NEWSWEEK phone calls and an e-mail requesting comment.
MEK has long been controversial because of its history of violent attacks in Iran, its relationship with Saddam's regime and its background as a quasi-religious, quasi-Marxist radical resistance group founded in the era of the late Iranian shah.
Neocon propagandist Max Boot recently offered a bizarre rewrite of history, in which he tried to create the impression that conservatives of the 1970s had pressed for the U.S. to dissociate itself from the Shah. Quite the opposite actually occurred: Conservatives insisted that President Carter stick with "America's ally" to the bitterest of ends; for years afterward -- well into the 1980s -- rightists excoriated the Democrats for being insufficiently supportive of the Iranian despot.
The Bush/MEK link helps explain why Boot now pretends that conservatives were always anti-Shah. (Just as we have always been allied with Westasia, and have always been at war with Eastasia.)
The Marxism of the MEK also fits the neocon agenda. The Bushites have allied themselves with Marxist parties in Iraq. Their Great Funder, the Reverend Moon, has undeniable ties to North Korea. Grover Norquist is an fanatical admirer of Lenin. The Bush administration has bent over backwards to enrich communist China. Most neocons have Trotskyite backgrounds.
MEK also had strong ties to Saddam Hussein, who provided the bulk of the group's funding for years. Of course, Bush the elder helped to arm Iraq.
One MEK detainee interviewed by Human Rights Watch, Mohammad Hussein Sobhani, claimed to have spent eight and a half years in solitary confinement in MEK detention facilities after he started raising questions about the leadership's policies. He said he was beaten on 11 occasions with wooden sticks and leather belts. Another former MEK member interviewed by Human Rights Watch, Farhad Javaheri-Yar, claimed to have been imprisoned in solitary confinement by the group for five years.Small wonder the Bushies love these guys. They have so much in common!
Other witnesses told Human Rights Watch claimed it was the practice of MEK interrogators to tie thick ropes around prisoners' necks and drag them along the ground. One witness told investigators: "Sometimes prisoners returned to the cell with extremely swollen necks—their head and neck as big as a pillow."
Perhaps the neocons knew that Newsweek (Isikoff's publisher) planned to offer this expose of Dubya's new pals. And perhaps we can now better understand the underlying reasons for the recent smear campaign against that publication.
UPDATE: This page offers a good, objective overview of MEK. Interestingly enough, the group's leader -- viewed by followers as something akin to a deity -- is a woman: Maryam Rajavi. She hopes to become the new leader of Iran, just as Chalabi had once hoped to be Saddam's replacement.
An interesting view of the MEK and similar Iranian exile groups can be found on the Iran Interlink site.
Iran Interlink has been established as a point of contact for families and friends of members of the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq (aka MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCR, NCRI, NLA, MISS) which is now based in Iraq.We now enter some strange territory.
There is now urgent concern since the organisation has been labelled as a terrorist entity by the US State Department, the UK government and the European Union. Whilst the description and activities reported are accurate, they do not reflect the full situation of the Mojahedin.
Over the past 15 years, the Mojahedin has been changed from an armed political force into a cult. As the Mojahedin has become more cult-like it has become more closed and insular. Those people who joined the organisation for political reasons now find themselves in a completely changed organisation, in a totally different world scene. Over the years, as with any organisation, people have left the Mojahedin for any number of reasons; personal, political etc. At present, many more would like to leave and are prevented from doing so. The fundamental human rights of these people are being violated.
The Mojahedin has retreated all its forces to Iraq and is holding some of them there against their will. People who wish to leave are prevented first and foremost because they are in Iraq and have no money, passport or identity papers. They are unable to find succour in Iraq because the Mojahedin has become part of the Iraqi regime and defectors from the Mojahedin are treated as enemies of the State and dealt with accordingly. People are unable to move outside the Mojahedin bases without risking internment.
Iran-Interlink is extremely concerned about the fate of those people who would like to leave the organisation and are prevented from doing so. People who managed to leave in the past have reported abuses and mistreatment. This includes both physical and psychological pressure. Iran-Interlink is also concerned that because of the psychological coercion and manipulation, members of the Mojahedin cult are not free to choose a course of action for themselves. Their thoughts and actions are strictly controlled by the leadership.
I'm reminded of Michael Ledeen's continuing joined-at-the-hip linkages to Ahmed Chalabi, exposed as a conduit of secret intelligence to the Iranian regime. Yet Ledeen's is one of the loudest voices in favor of regime change in that nation. The MEK (or whatever it sees fit to call itself) also seems to have a case of multiple personal disorder -- opposing the Iranian government and doing its dirty work.
I'm stumped. For once, I don't even have a theory. What the hell is going on?
2 comments:
That the Bush administration is trying to build a case against Iran in exactly the same way it built a wholly fictitious one against Iraq is mind-boggling. Their contempt for the public intelligence is apparently boundless.
But when even a whore like Issikof sees through it, there could still be hope....
You say that the Bushies are in bed with the Marxists in Iraq. I simply have seen no evidence of this. None whatsoever.
Moon is the most anti-communist man alive. He's loony-anti-Communist.
This is long, but exquisitely researched.
If you ask me, our biggest failure in Iraq was our lack of link-up with the Commies there. Pre-Saddam, there were three native political groups, the Ba'athists/Nationalists, the Islamists and the Commies. To do well post-Ba'athist, we needed to resurrect the Nationalists (too ironic for words) and embrace the Commies. They would have been a nice atheist (can you see where Bush would have a problem here, on TOP of the whole Commie thing?) counterbalance to SCIRI.
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