Richard Perle, one of the godfathers of the Bush administration’s unilateralist foreign policy and a big fan of the war in Iraq, gave a speech last weekend at an event that likely had connections to a known terrorist group that was backed by Saddam Hussein.
That group is the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, a cult-like armed organization of Iranian dissidents based in Iraq. The MEK has been on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations for years. Here’s how State Department spokesman Richard Boucher answered questions about MEK at a briefing last year:
QUESTION: Richard, do you have any language on the Mujahedin-e Khalq, the Foreign Terrorist Organization whose bases have been targeted recently by U.S. military in Iraq?
MR. BOUCHER: Slow down. The answer is yes. I just have to find it. But the language I have is to say what you just told me, that Mujahedin-e Khalq is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the Department of State, as we note in our Patterns of Global Terrorism Report. This group mixes Marxist ideology and Islam and is engaged in anti-Western attacks, including support for the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and terrorist attacks inside Iran during the 1970s that killed several U.S. military personnel and civilians.
The Mujahedin-e Khalq's forces were fully integrated with Saddam Hussein's command and control, therefore constituted legitimate military targets that posed a threat to coalition forces. …
That was then. Last Saturday, Perle addressed a crowd of 3,000 people who showed up for an event sponsored by the several organizations associated with the Iranian-American community and Iranian dissidents. The FBI and the Treasury Department were concerned enough about the sponsoring groups' likely connections to the MEK that they considered trying to block the event (it is illegal for U.S. residents to contribute money to the MEK because of its status as a terrorist group), according to the Washington Post.
Perle told the Post that he was unaware of any involvement by the MEK and thought he was speaking on behalf of a relief effort for victims of the recent earthquake in Bam, Iran. As with so many Perleisms, this is scarcely credible. Perle also told the Post that when he asked for more information about the sponsoring organizations he had received a letter describing the event as "solidarity with earthquake victims in Iran and an evening for Iranian Resistance." As the Post notes, “The Iranian Resistance is often an alias for the MEK. In August, the State Department shut down the U.S. offices of the political arm of the MEK, known as National Council of Resistance of Iran.” It is quite unlikely that a man whose stature rests on his Mideast expertise was unaware of all this.
Also, there’s the fact that among some officials in the Pentagon, where Perle still serves on the Defense Advisory Board, there was sentiment last year for removing the MEK from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations and supporting its Iraq-based efforts to undermine the Iranian regime. Cooler heads prevailed, and that didn’t happen. The MEK is still listed as a terrorist organization that in the past killed Americans.
But Perle seems to have been undeterred. And no one gives a damn.
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