Exposing The Deception Campaign Of The MKO-MEK
(A letter to Fox News)

Paris Association, December 17, 2006

I am writing to voice my concerns over the repetitive appearance of Mr. Alireza Jafarzadeh as a foreign affairs analyst on FOX news.  Although his opposition and criticism of the mullah’s regime in Tehran is justified by the irrational and radical policies of that government, his past and present affiliation with a well known terrorist organization is indeed alarming, and regrettably lowering the credibility of your news organization by association. 

A brief investigation in Mr. Jafarzadeh’s background reveals his close association with the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a front for the Mujahedin al-Khalq Organization also know as MKO or MEK, a cult like organization with a 40 year history of terrorism, much of it directed against U.S. interests abroad and recognized as a terrorist organization by its inclusion in the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organizations list. 

Throughout its existence the MKO/MEK has been a revolutionary organization which has blended Marxist theories with Islam and believes in the instrument of terror as a means to further the political aims of the organization. An example of these tactic were the assassination in Tehran of at least six US advisors and the bombing of American Telephone and Telegraph offices by this terrorist organization in 1975. Furthermore, the MKO/MEK fully endorsed and supported the occupation of the U. S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, and the subsequent illegal and unjustified incarceration of officials as hostages for 444 days. Several laudatory and supportive statements were published in their official organ, the “Mojahed” in support of this action. A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report exemplifies the terrorist nature and the human rights abuses committed by the (MKO/MEK), inside its military camps in Iraq from 1991 to February 2003, prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government. The report is titled No Exit: Human Rights Abuses Inside the MKO. These examples and other terror tactics perpetrated by the MKO/MEK can be found in the Congressional Research Service studies, Congressional briefings, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International reports and noted academic studies by Ervand Abrahamian, The Iranian Mojahedin,  and Masoud Banisadr, Masoud: Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel.

To change the tarnished image of their cult-like organization and gain respectability and legitimacy the MKO/MEK and their representatives have embarked upon a campaign of  deception portraying their organization as democratic and in favor of free market principals. They have used their front man Mr. Jafarzadeh in the to set up and support consultancies and think tanks such as the Strategic Policy Consulting, Inc., and the Iran Policy Committee (IPC), to lobby the United States Congress, and public officials to reverse the policy of including the MKO/MEK in the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Interestingly these activities have continued while the organization still believes in the instrument of terror as a means to further its political aims.  

The policy of FOX news is rightly to provide diverse views and information. However, it should beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing and not employ Mr. Jafarzadeh, a known member of a known terrorist organization. The policy of supporting any voice that opposes the Islamic fundamentalist regime is erroneous and harmful for democracy. There are many American-Iranian specialist in Washington who can provide objective and rational views in opposition to the Islamic Republic policies and fundamentalist causes, without harming the image of FOX news.

 Sincerely,

(Pars Association, December 17,2006) 

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