|
An Iranian opposition group, the Mujaheddin-e-Khalq,
has been a valuable source of information to the U.S. government, about not
only Iran's activities in Iraq but also its secret nuclear program. More
than a year ago, the organization also tipped American military officers
that Ahmad Chalabi, then a major Iraqi ally of the Pentagon, was allegedly
providing sensitive information to Iran's clerical regime. Chalabi denies
such assertions.
Given that background, it would seem that everything
would be just rosy between the MEK and the U.S. government. Not so. In
October 1997, the State Department designated the MEK as a foreign terrorist
organization, an allegation its leaders deny. The MEK supported the 1979
takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran but later fell out with the radical
mullahs there and established a base of operations in Iraq, with the support
of Saddam Hussein's regime. After invading Iraq in March 2003, U.S. military
forces took control of the MEK, whose members number about 3,800. Today, the
organization's members are based at a camp northeast of Baghdad, under U.S.
guard.
Proxy force?
The MEK has been a source of conflict in the U.S. government. Some
administration officials and members of Congress support the group. But a
senior administration official says that the United States mishandled the
MEK issue after the Iraq invasion. Defense Department hawks, this official
says, even toyed with the idea of rearming the MEK as a proxy force against
the Islamic regime. "Iran became convinced that we were going to launder the
MEK, " he adds, "and turn them into a designated regime-change force."
Not so, says a senior Defense Department official: "They are not an ally of
ours, and we have no stake in them." Iranian leaders would like to see MEK
members returned to Iran, but that's unlikely to happen. Last summer, the
organization was given "protected person" status under the Fourth Geneva
Convention by the U.S. military. So now the MEK enjoys the unique status of
being the only designated terrorist group under Pentagon protection.
|
|