By Heshmat Alavi
The likes of Daniel Benjamin, former counterterrorism chief in the U.S. State Department, and Daniel Larison, known to write for Iran’s lobby against its opposition, have recently resorted to a new low standard of yellow and biased journalism.
They are targeting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, (PMOI/MEK), the sole legitimate and democratic opposition group that continues to terrify the murderous mullahs’ regime in Tehran. And why would the likes of Benjamin and Larson join the ranks of Michael Rubin, Josh Rogin and Eli Clifton in targeting the MEK?
Following U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s unexpected victory, it is beginning to sink in heavily for the Iranian regime that the “golden era” of President Barack Obama’s tenure is coming to an end.
As Trump assembles his cabinet, Iran has been devastated to see prominent figures such as former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, Ambassador John Bolton, former Bush security advisor Frances Townsend and other MEK supporters being considered for senior administration posts, including as secretary of state and national security advisor, amongst others.
In response Iran has launched a very low, yellow-style smear campaign against these individuals. And the likes of Benjamin, a former senior State Department official who should know better, and Larison have been writing unprofessional pieces only worthy of checkout-stand tabloids.
Aside from all the low-level slander against the MEK–already reviewed and turned down by a D.C. Appeals Court back in 2012 that went on to order the State Department to delist the MEK from its terrorist list–Benjamin, Larison & Co., if you will, argue that Giuliani, Gingrich, Bolton and … are supporting the MEK for money.
It is quite hard to believe that such senior figures in the American political spectrum would place their hard-earned reputations on the line for this cause, considering their first-hand knowledge of the highly sensitive Iran dossier in U.S. foreign policy.
And these writers fail to recognize and emphasize the extremely unprecedented fact that the MEK enjoys the support of senior current and former politicians from both sides of the aisle in Washington. Something quite rare and hard to find these days in U.S. politics, and in recent history, in fact.
Former Democratic National Committee chairs Howard Dean and Ed Rendell (both also former governors), former New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli, incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, former Obama National Security Advisor General Jim Jones; Representative Eliot L. Engel, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas and Rep. Brad Sherman of California are only a few of the Democrat lineup backing the MEK for years now.
Can one actually believe such a long, and growing, list of elite Americans are in need of MEK money? Rest assured no money can buy the support they have provided through the years, as they have come to stand shoulder to shoulder to what MEK represents and pledges for a future democratic and free Iran.
We should also take the time to look at the entire issue from a much broader perspective. Trump’s victory came as a major turn of events and a huge shock for the mullahs sitting on the throne in Tehran.
Eight years of Obama providing numerous incentives, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reaching the point of having very close relations with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, is all going down the drain.
The very notion of a new White House even considering the possibility of bringing an end to the Iran nuclear deal has terrified the entire establishment of the mullahs’ regime. Tehran sees no alternative other than resorting to such yellow journalism.
Rest assured such tactics will be repeated by the Iranian regime, and this only proves the fact that the MEK poses the main threat against the mullahs’ rule. The MEK, under the umbrella of the National Council of Resistance of Iran led by its President-elect Maryam Rajavi, is the sole alternative that can provide a solution for Iran. And this is the reason why MEK & NCRI enjoy such vast and unprecedented support in America and across Europe.
Heshmat Alavi tweets @HeshmatAlavi
Originally published in Iran Freedom
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