Comments on: Strange Bedfellowship

By: derrida derider

derrida derider — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 05:26:33 +0000

I just finished reading a book on ME history in the war and interwar years. It’s interesting that both the Iranian far-right (ie the mujahideen) and far-left (the Tudeh) originally started in the 20s as opposition to treaties aimed at stealing their oil (for the benefit of the firm now called BP), and then got their biggest boost in the armed resistance to British occupation in WWII.

I wonder what future extremists will exist in Iraq in 80 or 90 years time?

By: albertchampion

albertchampion — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:10:59 +0000

the mek is a very interesting group. my info is that it remains a SAS-operated entity. infiltrating iran, committing acts of gangsterism, then returning to iraqi kurdistan were it is sheltered by the peshmurga, and clandestine us/brit operators.

what i continue to pray for is the iranians capturing the sas/mek gangsters and holding them for a show trial.

By: Leinad

Leinad — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:00:33 +0000

bi: you make it sound like there’s something wrong about wanting stuff to be blown up…

By: bi

bi — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 03:48:29 +0000

Michael Pugliese: Wow. Just wow. The other day I was wondering if some people are supporting the MEK not to promote democracy, human rights, free trade or whatever, but just to see people blow up crap.

By: Geoff Robinson

Geoff Robinson — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 02:44:03 +0000

Looks like the cultish sub-marxism you find among rank and file members of many revolutionary groups in the west. Sparts anyone?
Bit seriously it shows the weakness of the left in the Islamic world, Kemalist nostalgia or 70s third-worldist marxism offer no effective guidance.

By: Michael Pugliese

Michael Pugliese — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:21:59 +0000

In late 2001, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) tells the Village Voice, “I don’t give a shit if they are undemocratic. OK, so the [MEK] is a terrorist organization based in Iraq, which is a terrorist state. They are fighting Iran, which is another terrorist state. I say let’s help them fight each other as much as they want. Once they all are destroyed, I can celebrate twice over.”

By: Michael Pugliese

Michael Pugliese — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:15:20 +0000

bi>…JK, this is interesting. But I’m still wondering why all the Congressfolks supporting this group are Republicans. I’m guessing there’s more than meets the eye..
Nope, Rep. Bob Filner a left Democrat (has written pieces for In These Times, a paleo-con blogger claims he is the Son of a CPUSA cadre who ran for a Congressional seat) and Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, a liberal Democrat support the NCRI.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Filner+Sheila+Jackson+Lee+NCRI
Who is the MEK? Why are they protected in Iraq? (Part two)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/23/81037/3317

By: Michael Pugliese

Michael Pugliese — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:10:10 +0000

The Cult of Rajavi from the NYT Sunday magazine,
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/13/magazine/13MUJAHADEEN.html
Good book on the Iranian Left, by a former participant in their struggles, Rebels with a Cause: The Failure of the Left in Iran. London, New York: I.B. Tauris, 1999 by Maziar Behrooz who teaches at SFSU in Ca. See also his “Iranian Revolution and the Legacy of the Guerrilla Movement,” in Stephanie Cronin, ed. Reformers and Revolutionaries in Modern Iran: New Perspectives on The Iranian Left (London: Routledge Curzon, 2004)

By: Michael Pugliese

Michael Pugliese — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:05:11 +0000

BBC Newsnight on the MEK,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIwCOdHQgfc&mode=related&search=
BBC Newsnight: Mujahideen-e-Khalq Terrorist MeK MKO - Part 1

By: Hermenautic Circle » Strange Bedfellowship

Hermenautic Circle » Strange Bedfellowship — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:53:52 +0000

[...] Quick Study on 21 Oct 2007 Suppose there were an Iranian cult combining Islamism and Stalinism, with a history of terrorist attacks, that had enjoyed friendly relations with Saddam’s regime, back when. Why, that’s something that the American right would fund a special TV network just to denounce 24-7, isn’t it? Not so fast. Daniel Pipes and Max Boot think the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) is just sadly misunderstood. Get the backstory at the Campaign for America’s Future. (crossposted from CT) [...]

By: Laleh

Laleh — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:09:49 +0000

I used to have lots of MEK friends in Iran who were excuted and in fact they were quite legit until they decamped to Iraq, where they lent their arms and training to Saddam to put down the Kurds in Kurdistan, and they actually fought against Iranians. I am not a nationalist and find their former act more heinous than the latter act. But lots of Iranians will never forgive them for having fought against Iranian kids in the Iran-Iraq war; and they are NOT at all comparable to ANC.

As for why they are being called a cult; i have heard nightmare stories about cyclical purges, masive surveillance of doubting members by the apparatus of the organisation etc. Cult is probably too much, but they are NOT a democratic organisation.

Finally, I wouldn’t call them necessarily a terror group, but that is mostly because “terror group” is such a stupid term describing/defining nothing and illuminating nothing except for the US’s particular politics….

By: bi

bi — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:32:23 +0000

“The MEK, which is on the State Department’s list of international terrorist organizations since 1997 because of its assassinations of six U.S. citizens (three soldiers and three contractors) involved in selling weapons to the shah, was partially disarmed as part of a cease-fire deal with U.S. forces in Iraq.”

Yeah, this is some powerful crap.

By: Daniel Nexon

Daniel Nexon — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 17:38:54 +0000

The MEK has long been a pet cause for neo-conservatives.

By: abb1

abb1 — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 17:14:49 +0000

Well, I suppose the Democrats just aren’t too crazy about Marxist guerrilla movements.

By: bi

bi — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 16:48:04 +0000

Then what do the Democrats find objectionable about this group? Or is there some deeper reason I don’t know about? Mohammad Khatami isn’t in power anymore, so there’s no more need to please him…