Bolton's prediction

Rob Malley, who coordinated Middle East policy in the Obama administration, observed that Bolton’s appointment, along with the nomination of Iran deal critic Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, seemed to signal that the agreement would most likely be “dead and buried” within months.

[...]

Bolton, who made his name as a belligerent member of George W. Bush’s State Department and a Fox News contributor, has not only demanded that the Trump administration withdraw from the nuclear deal, he also previously advocated bombing Iran instead. Bolton has spent the better part of a decade calling for the United States to help overthrow the theocratic government in Tehran and hand power to a cult-like group of Iranian exiles with no real support inside the country.

[...]

“I think the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, that military action, was a resounding success,” Bolton told [Fox News' Tucker] Carlson. The chaos that followed in Iraq, he said, was caused by a poorly executed occupation that ended too soon. On the bright side, Bolton said, the mistakes the U.S. made in Iraq offered “lessons about what to do after a regime is overthrown” in the future.

[...]

Just eight months ago, at a Paris gathering, Bolton told members of the Iranian exile group, known as the Mujahedeen Khalq, MEK, or People’s Mujahedeen, that the Trump administration should embrace their goal of immediate regime change in Iran and recognize their group as a “viable” alternative.

[...]

“The declared policy of the United States should be the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime in Tehran,” Bolton added. “The behavior and the objectives of the regime are not going to change and, therefore, the only solution is to change the regime itself.”

As the Iranian expatriate journalist Bahman Kalbasi noted, Bolton concluded his address to the exiles with a rousing promise: “And that’s why, before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran!”

  The Intercept

Remember when the MEK was on GW Bush's terrorist groups list?

After members of the MEK helped foment the 1979 revolution, in part by killing American civilians working in Tehran, the group then lost a bitter struggle for power to the Islamists led by the revolution’s leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. With its leadership forced to flee Iran in 1981, the MEK’s members set up a government-in-exile in France and established a military base in Iraq, where they were given arms and training by Saddam Hussein, as part of a strategy to destabilize the government in Tehran that he was at war with.

In recent years, as The Intercept has reported, the MEK has poured millions of dollars into reinventing itself as a moderate political group ready to take power in Iran if Western-backed regime change ever takes place. To that end, it lobbied successfully to be removed from the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2012.

Remember who helped them get the job done? (For hefty speaking fees, of course.)

At a previous gala, in 2016, Bolton was joined in singing the group’s praises by another former U.N. ambassador, Bill Richardson; a former attorney general, Michael Mukasey; the former State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley; the former Homeland Security adviser Frances Townsend; the former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.; and the former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. That Paris gala was hosted by Linda Chavez, a former Reagan administration official.

At a similar event this January, the backdrop behind former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, as he praised MEK leader Maryam Rajavi, made the aim of the group’s investment in American politicians clear.

[...]

At the group’s celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, in Albania on Tuesday, Rajavi was joined on stage by Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City.

And remember who was reportedly funding MEK?

All of these mysteries received substantial clarity from an NBC News report by Richard Engel and Robert Windrem yesterday. Citing two anonymous “senior U.S. officials,” that report makes two amazing claims: (1) that it was MEK which perpetrated the string of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists and (2) the Terrorist group “is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service.”

[...]

If these senior U.S. officials are telling the truth, there are a number of vital questions and conclusions raised by this. First, it would mean that the assurances by MEK’s paid American shills such as Howard Dean that “they are unarmed” are totally false: whoever murdered these scientists is obviously well-armed. Second, this should completely gut the effort to remove MEK from the list of designated Terrorist groups.

[...]

Of course, as I documented in my last book, those who are politically and financially well-connected are free to commit even the most egregious crimes; for that reason, the very idea of prosecuting Giuliani, Rendell, Ridge, Townsend, Dean and friends for their paid labor on behalf of a Terrorist group is unthinkable.

  Glenn Geenwald February 2012

How many times has the US overthrown foreign governments and set up its own puppet regime that proved to be disastrous? It's the never-ending story.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"Your Sanity and Wits They Will All Vanish, I Promise"

"It's just a matter of time."*

Remember when MEK was on the US terrorist enemies list?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

*Gogol Bordello - Start Wearing Purple

Howard Dean, Disgrace

Howard Dean volunteers to lead the new McCarthy trials. https://t.co/f9KW0Et4rW

— Benjamin Dixon 🌹 (@TheBpDShow) December 21, 2016

Dean is a paid shill for the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), the Iranian exile group that calls for an overthrow of the Iranian regime. This organization has worked closely with hawks in recent years to build support for their shared goal.

[...]

Dean, along with the likes of John Bolton, Rudy Giuliani, Ed Rendell and other notables, has given paid speeches at MEK rallies.

  Salon

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Get Used to the Shuffling

UPDATE from The Intercept:

ACCORDING TO THE Wall Street Journal, Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, has joined Donald Trump’s transition team to work on national security issues. Trump’s campaign has denied that Gaffney is officially part of the transition, and the New York Times is reporting that Trump is merely relying on “advice” from Gaffney.

  Jon Schwartz

Original post:

Who's who in the Trump admin?  We may have a hard time keeping up for the next four years.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence formally signed documents that put him in charge of the transition team. [...] In one of his first moves, Mr. Pence ordered the removal of all lobbyists from the transition team, said one transition team member with knowledge of the decisions.

  WSJ

Credit where credit is due. Kudos to Mike.

[F]ormer Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, once considered a candidate to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, was ousted from the Trump transition team’s national security unit. Matthew Freedman, who was leading the group’s planning for the White House National Security Council, also departed.

[...]

Mr. Rogers was told he was being replaced because everyone who was brought in by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the transition team’s original chairman, was being ousted.

The favors and punishments will be a hallmark of this presidency, I think. Logically speaking, if this continues, it could leave a trail of resentful people with national security and secret information.

MIKE ROGERS: CNN nat'l security commentator; Michigan Rep 2001-2015; former House chair Permanent select Comm on Intel & member Energy & Commerce panel; said Snowden was a Russian spy; espouses American exceptionalism; wanted to block the Senate Intel (torture) report; pro expanded NSA operations

MATTHEW FREEDMAN: Davis, Manafort & Freedman lobbyist for foreign dictators, gambling corporation GTECH, telecommunications, and others

Frank Gaffney, a Reagan administration veteran, was brought in to assist on national security issues, as has GOP U.S. Reps. Pete Hoekstra and Devin Nunes.

[...]

[The transition team] faced an early test as Rudy Giuliani, a leading candidate to lead the State Department, was targeted by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. The Republican senator, who has tried to block previous presidential appointments, criticized the former New York mayor for calling for the bombing of Iran in 2015. He also said he opposed former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, who was also under consideration for the job.

[Giuliani and Bolton represent] “the most bellicose interventionist wing of any party,” Mr. Paul told Reason magazine. “I can’t support anybody to be our secretary of state who didn’t learn the lesson of the Iraq war.”

[...]

Mr. Giuliani is also drawing scrutiny for his regular appearances at events supporting an Iranian opposition group, called the Mujahedin-e Khalq, which the State Department designated as a terrorist organization from 1997 through 2012. [Mr. Bolton has also been paid to speak to the MEK.]

[...]

The Treasury Department launched a probe into the legality of former officials being paid by the MEK or its affiliates while it was still on the State Department’s terror list, U.S. officials have said. Treasury officials declined to comment on the status of that probe, including whether it has been closed.

Is Rand Paul the only thing standing between us and complete disaster?

FRANK GAFFNEY: Wash Times columnist; called Obama a Muslim; birther; anti-Muslim; anti-arms control, Ass't to Richard Perle in Reagan admin & acting Defense Sec after Perle stepped down; banned from Conservative Political Action Conference for extreme anti-Islamic book; author of Sharia: the Threat to America; says Saddam Hussein was behind Oklahoma City bombing; founder Center for Security Policy and host of Secure Freedom Radio addressing "current and emerging threats to national security, sovereignty and our ways of life"; ran a racist (anti-Chinese) ad against Debbie Stabenow which he shut down in response to backlash;

RUDY GIULIANI:  no intro needed

JOHN BOLTON:  Good lord!  That rabid anti-Islam, anti-UN Neocon dog again?

PETE HOEKSTRA: member House Intel Comm; torture proponent, opposed release of torture report; anti-Islam; announced that WMD were located in Iraq; exaggerated and lied about Iran's nuke capabilities; founding member of Tea Party Caucus

DAVID NUNES: current chair House Intel Comm; member Ways & Means Comm; former co-chair US-Mexico Friendship Caucus (!); tax reduction proponent for businesses & consumption tax proponent; anti-environmental regs; global warming denier; nat'l security hawk; proposed acts to accelerate fossil fuel exploration and production, triple number of nuclear reactors over 30 years, support market-based alternative energy supplies, "solve" health care by reducing Medicaid and Medicare, prohibit future public pension bailouts; called environmentalists extremist, Marxist, socialist, Maoist and Communist; pro-torture

Also on Tuesday, Ben Carson, one of Mr. Trump’s top allies, said he declined an offer to become the next secretary of Health and Human Services.

Really, Ben? Were you actually offered a position?

“I don’t particularly want to work inside the government,” Dr. Carson said on a conference call with conservatives.

So tell me, Ben. Why was it you ran for president?

I should give Ben the benefit of the doubt, because he might not have realized the president works inside the government.

On Tuesday night, Mr. Trump tweeted: “Very organized process taking place as I decide on Cabinet and many other positions. I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!”

Dear god! They really are in trouble if they can't take away his Twitter.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  House Intel Committee Chair Devin Nunes is incorrectly identified in the above as David Nunes.

Meanwhile: The Mujahedin-e-Kalk

In the wake of the embarrassing new revelations that the top Israeli intelligence agency is contradicting Bibi Netanyahu on his alarmist Iran intelligence, the well known liars, the "dissident" group NCRI (aka MEK), has jumped into damage control action and has released a suspiciously timed report that claims Iran has a new secret site.

  Daily Kos

They offered proof of Iran’s nuclear plans by showing a picture of an alleged nuclear material storage safe.

But it's a total fabrication. The image included in the NCRI report is actually a product shot from the Iranian safe company.

MEK background:

Since being legitimized [removed from the US terrorist list], the Mojahedin’s [MEK – “people’s holy warriors”] influence on Capitol Hill spread from the fringes of Congress to include more mainstream and respected Republicans and Democrats. Most of the group’s lobbying focuses on its members’ well-being in Iraq, said a current Hill staffer, who works in foreign policy. But, the staffer added, “undergirding this is all this neocon-friendly warmongering, this intense push for regime change, this intense hatred for [Iranian president Hassan] Rouhani — they’re not subtle about this at all.”

Menendez’s advocacy for the Mojahedin at the October hearing wasn’t new, but it signaled that by 2013 the group had come full circle: from an outlaw terrorist outfit to a player on Capitol Hill. How that happened is a classic story of money, politics and the enduring appeal of exile groups promising regime change.

  The Intercept

Like the Cubans in Miami?

The MEK’s origins go back to the Shah of Iran, the corrupt figure the US had installed as a puppet in Iran, when a group of students organized to attempt to oust him involving attacks and killings, including some Americans. Of course, they were called terrorists by the US. They carried that designation throughout their Saddam Hussein-supported activity in Iraq. Now, most of the US considers them good guys, with several Congressmen actively promoting the group.

You can read about it at the Intercept. Don’t forget your scorecard.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

As If There Might Have Been a Different Conclusion

I guess you heard that Hillary Clinton took the MEK off the terror organization list. 

Training the Terrorists

When the U.S. wants to fund, train, arm or otherwise align itself with a Terrorist group or state sponsor of Terror — as it often does — it at least usually has the tact to first remove them from its formal terrorist list (as the U.S. did when it wanted to support Saddam in 1982 and work with Libya in 2006), or it just keeps them off the list altogether despite what former Council on Foreign Relations writer Lionel Beehner described as “mounds of evidence that [they] at one time or another abetted terrorists” (as it has done with close U.S. allies in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, along with the El Salvadoran death squads and Nicaraguan contras armed and funded in the 1980s by the Reagan administration).

  Glenn Greenwald

On the other hand, it just (secretly) trains them itself.

From the air, the terrain of the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site, with its arid high plains and remote mountain peaks, has the look of northwest Iran. The site, some sixty-five miles northwest of Las Vegas, was once used for nuclear testing, and now includes a counterintelligence training facility and a private airport capable of handling Boeing 737 aircraft. It’s a restricted area, and inhospitable—in certain sections, the curious are warned that the site’s security personnel are authorized to use deadly force, if necessary, against intruders.

[...]

It was here that the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) conducted training, beginning in 2005, for members of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, a dissident Iranian opposition group known in the West as the M.E.K. The M.E.K. had its beginnings as a Marxist-Islamist student-led group and, in the nineteen-seventies, it was linked to the assassination of six American citizens.[... In] 1997, it was listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department.

[...]

“We did train them here, and washed them through the Energy Department because the D.O.E. owns all this land in southern Nevada,” a former senior American intelligence official told me. “We were deploying them over long distances in the desert and mountains, and building their capacity in communications.”

[...]

Allan Gerson, a Washington attorney for the M.E.K., notes that the M.E.K. has publicly and repeatedly renounced terror. Gerson said he would not comment on the alleged training in Nevada. But such training, if true, he said, would be “especially incongruent with the State Department’s decision to continue to maintain the M.E.K. on the terrorist list. How can the U.S. train those on State’s foreign terrorist list, when others face criminal penalties for providing a nickel to the same organization?”

  Sy Hersh

So...will the current investigations into the politicos who are stumping for MEK be extended to include government training in Nevada?  Won't really matter, because the "investigation" is going to clear everybody, and after this report, the pressure will be on the Obama administration to remove the MEK from the terrorist list...retroactively to the time of the training.

This is not the first time we've gotten into ome trouble over training terrorists. Heck, we ran the School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia, training Latin American thugs for years. THAT at least had to change its name.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The MEK - What Defines a Terrorist?

And why are prominent US officials and politicos trying to get the MEK off the US terrorist list? (And why haven't they been sent to Guantanamo for providing material support to a terrorist organization?)

Jeremiah Goulka :

The U.S. Treasury Department has begun an investigation into nearly two dozen prominent former government officials who have been paid tens of thousands of dollars to promote the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian dissident cult group that has been designated by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) since 1997.

[...]

Given the cacophony of saber-rattling over Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program – which the U.S. intelligence community generally believes was shut down in 2003 – and the risk, however low, of actually getting prosecuted for “material support of terrorism,” it is important to examine why anyone would promote a designated terrorist organization.

[...]

 There are two main reasons [US officials are promoting the MEK], neither of them good.

The first is ignorance.  The MEK presents itself well and is good at running “Astroturf” campaigns.  Its NCRI is a self-proclaimed “parliament in exile,” dedicated to the principles of western liberal democracy.  Over the years, lots of American civilian and military officials have failed to do their homework and fallen for the MEK’s sales spiel.

[...]

The second reason is money.  The officials were paid to speak on the MEK’s behalf, up to $30,000 per speech.

But this is just the beginning.  What the media has generally failed to mention is that these former officials are now in the national/homeland security business. 

[...]

For people in the national/homeland security business, war with Iran would be a cash cow. 

[...]

An invasion followed by an Iraq-style lingering occupation and reconstruction would open up hundreds of billions and possibly even trillions of taxpayer dollars for the grabbing.

[...]

The MEK claims to be the best organized and the most prominent opposition group in Iran.  No credible sources that I have seen suggest that it has any relevance in Iran at all, other than to get the mullahs riled up.  It is, however, very well organized, because, cut off from new volunteers, the MEK’s co-leaders Masoud Rajavi (whereabouts unknown) and his wife Maryam Rajavi turned the MEK into a cult of personality.

[...]

I studied the MEK for the U.S. military and visited Camp Ashraf, the MEK facility 40 miles north of Baghdad. I also interviewed former MEK members. As Human Rights Watch also concluded, I saw that the MEK is a cult. It uses brainwashing, sleep deprivation, and forced labor to indoctrinate members. It segregates men from women, mandates celibacy, forces married members to divorce (except for its leaders), and separates families and friends who must seek permission just to converse.

[...]

The cult has but one purpose: to put itself in charge in Iran.

[...]

[Its] alliance with Saddam in a brutally violent war cost the MEK credibility and its font of recruits. Isolated in Iraq’s desert, Rajavi instituted authoritarian control over his decimated army and confiscated his troops’ assets. He encouraged Saddam to send Iranian POWs to MEK’s Camp Ashraf rather than repatriate them. With promises of asylum for POWs and family reunions with the new MEK members, Rajavi duped Iranian visitors to come to the camp and stole their passports so they couldn’t leave.

Human Rights Watch reports that those who tried to escape endured confinement or torture. After the U.S. invaded Iraq, the MEK ejected its most “difficult” members and used guards and concertina wire to entrap the rest.

[...]

While its propaganda arm espouses Western values to Western audiences, the MEK continues to force-feed its doctrine to members who may not criticize the Rajavis and are not free to leave the Ashraf compound.

While many people would like to see a change of regime in Tehran, no one should believe that the MEK would provide Iran with a government based on liberty and justice for all. 

[...]

Hopefully these Treasury Department investigations are a sign that the Obama Administration has finally decided to rein in the warmongers.

  Jeremiah Goulka via Glenn Greenwald

Yeah, well, I'm not holding my breath.

Within this narrative by Jeremiah Goulka is a brief history of the MEK if you care to enlighten yourself.

[R]emember that paid MEK shill Howard Dean actually called on its leader to be recognized as President of Iran while paid MEK shill Rudy Giuliani has continuously hailed the group’s benevolence .

[...]

[Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stated that] the U.S. Government is currently attempting to force MEK to move from its current base in Camp Ashraf to another location in Iraq (something MEK does not want to do), and whether MEK cooperates with the U.S. Government’s directives will play a large role in determining whether the group is removed from the Terrorist list.

[W]hat conceivable difference should it make whether MEK is cooperative in moving from Camp Ashraf as the U.S. Government wants? What does their cooperation or lack thereof have to do with whether they are a Terrorist organization? The answer, of course, is that the U.S. list of Terrorist organizations (like its list of state sponsors of Terrorism) has little or nothing to do with who are and are not actually Terrorists; it is, instead, simply an instrument used to reward those who comply with U.S. dictates (you’re no longer a Terrorist) and to punish those who refuse (you are hereby deemed Terrorists).

  Glenn Greenwald

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Material Support to Terrorists

Supporting Terrorists

Meet the Iranian dissident group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Born out of Marxist roots, the group has tried for decades to take control of the Iranian government. During this time, it engaged in various terrorist attacks, including ones that killed six Americans.

For these actions and others, the State Department officially includes the group on its list of terrorist organizations. The MEK has in recent years insisted that it no longer engages in terrorism and that it should be de-listed. However, last month there were news reports that Israel may have enlisted the MEK to engage in bombings in Iran, which would indicate that the group has resumed terror.

In its campaign for delisting, the group has enlisted high-profile politicians from both politician parties.

  Republic Report

The list of high American politicos receiving big pay for promotion from the MEK includes:

Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, a 2004 Democratic Party presidential primary contender, and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Lee Hamilton, former Democratic congressman and a co-chair of the National Security Preparedness Group (NSPG) at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Porter Goss, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Patrick Kennedy, former Democratic Party congressman.

Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City and 2008 Republican presidential contender.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D).

Apparently, Rendell is currently under investigation for payments received. Why not the others and many more like them?

It is possible for Rendell, Dean, Giuliani and others to avoid liability if they are receiving payments from individuals sympathetic to the MEK but who are not formally part of it.

I don't see why.

In June, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 6-3 ruling in the case of Holder v. Humanitarian Law. In that case, the Court upheld the Obama DOJ’s very broad interpretation of the statute that criminalizes the providing of “material support” to groups formally designated by the State Department as Terrorist organizations. The five-judge conservative bloc (along with Justice Stevens) held that pure political speech could be permissibly criminalized as “material support for Terrorism” consistent with the First Amendment if the “advocacy [is] performed in coordination with, or at the direction of, a foreign terrorist organization” (emphasis added). In other words, pure political advocacy in support of a designated Terrorist group could be prosecuted as a felony — punishable with 15 years in prison — if the advocacy is coordinated with that group.

This ruling was one of the most severe erosions of free speech rights in decades because, as Justice Breyer (joined by Ginsberg and Sotomayor) pointed out in dissent, “all the activities” at issue, which the DOJ’s interpretation would criminalize, “involve the communication and advocacy of political ideas and lawful means of achieving political ends.”

[...]

Whatever one’s views are on this ruling, it is now binding law. To advocate on behalf of a designated Terrorist group constitutes the felony of “providing material support” if that advocacy is coordinated with the group.

  

So perhaps if it is not coordinated with the terrorist group...

In August of last year, The Christian Science Monitor‘s Scott Peterson published a detailed exposé about “a high-powered array of former top American officials” who have received “tens of thousands of dollars” from a designated Terrorist organization – the Iranian dissident group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) — and then met with its leaders, attended its meetings, and/or publicly advocated on its behalf. That group includes Rudy Giuliani, Howard Dean, Michael Mukasey, Ed Rendell, Andy Card, Lee Hamilton, Tom Ridge, Bill Richardson, Wesley Clark, Michael Hayden, John Bolton, Louis Freeh — and Fran Townsend.

[...]

As but one example, Rendell, the former Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania and current MSNBC contributor, was paid $20,000 for a 10- minute speech before a MEK gathering, and has been a stalwart advocate of the group ever since.

Even for official Washington, where elite crimes are tolerated as a matter of course, this level of what appears to be overt criminality — taking large amounts of money from a designated Terrorist group, appearing before its meetings, meeting with its leaders, then advocating on its behalf — is too much to completely overlook.

[...]

What’s infuriating is that there are large numbers of people — almost always Muslims — who have been prosecuted and are now in prison for providing “material support” to Terrorist groups for doing far less than Fran Townsend and her fellow cast of bipartisan ex-officials have done with and on behalf of MEK. In fact, the U.S. Government has been (under the administration in which Townsend worked) and still is (under the administration Rendell supports) continuously prosecuting Muslims for providing “material support” for Terrorist groups based on their pure speech.

  Glenn Greenwald

....but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

MEK - It's Worse Than You Thought

It usually is.

Recall that a number of high politicos in this country, including Rudy Giuliani and Howard Dean have been for some time now accepting payments from the US-officially-designated Iranian terrorist group the MEK in return for making appearances on behalf of the MEK in an attempt to get them off the terrorist list. Of course, at this time, they are still on it, and therefore, these politicos are actually offering material aid to terrorists (not to mention receiving it), which would get you or me an orange jumpsuit and leg irons. The group is apparently extremely well-funded, but the source of that money hasn't been publicized.

All of these mysteries received substantial clarity from an NBC News report by Richard Engel and Robert Windrem yesterday. Citing two anonymous “senior U.S. officials,” that report makes two amazing claims: (1) that it was MEK which perpetrated the string of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists and (2) the Terrorist group “is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service.”

[...]

If these senior U.S. officials are telling the truth, there are a number of vital questions and conclusions raised by this. First, it would mean that the assurances by MEK’s paid American shills such as Howard Dean that “they are unarmed” are totally false: whoever murdered these scientists is obviously well-armed. Second, this should completely gut the effort to remove MEK from the list of designated Terrorist groups.

[...]

Of course, as I documented in my last book, those who are politically and financially well-connected are free to commit even the most egregious crimes; for that reason, the very idea of prosecuting Giuliani, Rendell, Ridge, Townsend, Dean and friends for their paid labor on behalf of a Terrorist group is unthinkable.

  Glenn Geenwald

Well….I’m thinking it.