Influential politicos including former Vermont governor Howard Dean have succeeded in their well-compensated lobbying campaign to remove an Iranian dissident group from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations.
The State Department announced on Friday that it is formally de-listing the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), which has handsomely remunerated Dean and other high-caliber hired guns, such as former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge. The MEK even enlisted a few high-profile journalists as speakers, notably Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame and Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page.
The de-listing upset a few bloggers who side with Dean’s stands more often than not. “Several leading Washington figures from both parties whored themselves out to lobby for [MEK],” Andrew Sullivan wrote in The Daily Beast. “Seeing Howard Dean back terrorism in another country is quite something. Giuliani has always been a corrupt money-whore.”
Citing unnamed U.S. officials as sources, NBC News reported in February that “deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by [MEK],” which, NBC said, is “financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service.” MEK denies such involvement.
More recently, the New York Times reported that thugs apparently associated with MEK assaulted an Iranian official last week on a street near United Nations headquarters in Manhattan.
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“Now who’s being naive Kay”?
Glenn Greenwald’s case totally relies on the word of US officials who are not speaking on the record for attribution so there is no way to confirm their assertions. Greenwald is happy to rely on anonymous officials when it suits his purposes. The statement Dean had made–publicly urging U.S. and European recognition of MEK’s leader as president of Iran–was made exactly one time. He has not said it before or since so again, Greenwald’s assertion is weak. To say that Greenwald has a case at all lies mainly in the simple fact that he doesn’t like Dean, which hardly makes him a reliable and credible commentator.
A group of protestors, of which only 1 person was identified by his yellow vest as an MEK supporter hardly qualifies identifying them as “thugs.” And, that statement that the spokesman was assaulted by MEK members is based on comments by Iran’s state-run satellite channel Press TV, whose word is pretty unreliable since they represent the regime the MEK opposes.
Overall, this story is pretty weak tea since it relies heavily on secondary sources that themselves rely on anonymous comments. And you couldn’t get a more current statement from Dean?