Key PMOI Figures To Get US Citizenship?

By Cernig

Iran's Press TV reports that 16 senior members of the PMOI, also known as the Mujahedeen eKalq Organisation (the MKO or MeK), are to be granted US citizenship for services rendered in Iraq and Iran.

An Iraqi deputy told Fars news agency that the MKO members who were given US citizenship were directly engaged in acts of terror against Iranians and the Iraqi people.

According to the lawmaker, the terrorists, who had earlier exited Camp Ashraf, were reportedly transferred to a former Iraqi air force base near the capital, Baghdad.

The US had earlier relocated selected members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization after Iraqi authorities took control of their camp in Diyala province in August. The act was aimed at preventing MKO members from falling into the hands of the Iraqi government.

The deputy said, however, that the US had denied support for a certain number of MKO members in the Camp after accessing their records.

He added that documents, including tapes of MKO espionage acts against the Iranian government, have been delivered from the camp to US military forces in Iraq.

His remarks come as Ali al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi security official, told Fars that there were documents available on the group's cooperation with al-Qaeda and Baath regime in their acts of violence.

He added the US was studying the records of certain MKO members willing to join American troops to select those useful to American forces in their anti-Iran goals.

The MKO are on the State Department's list of proscribed terror groups, but that hasn't stopped the Buh administration from using MKO members as interpreters and interrogators in Iraq, as a source of highly dubious intelligence on Iran and, it is rumored, as proxies for attacks inside Iran itself. Being so virulently anti-Iranian, they're high on the neocons' list of favored terrorists but not so liked by Iraq's current government, which is led by Shiites highly sympathetic to Iran such as the Dawa, ISCI and Badr parties. Indeed, the Badr Brigades were originally set up by Iran to be direct competition to the MKO, who were helping Saddam at the time.

Press TV isn't an unbiased source on this, but still - if 16 members of a proscribed terror group are indeed being given US citizenship, you'd think the Bush administration would have some explaining to do. I wonder if any mainstream Western reporters will follow up the Iranian reports?

Comments

[Russ Wellen]

The Supreme Leader can't be happy about that. Back in 1981 the MKO concealed a bomb in a tape recorder at a press conference. It exploded right beside him and he lost the use of his right arm and still suffers pain from the injuries he sustained.

They staged massive bombings too on a par with the worst Hezbollah has to offer. Also in 1981, the MKO carried out massive bombing attack that killed more than 100 high-ranking Iranian officials, including President Rajaii.