The Washington Times is reporting that the Treasury Department's counter-terrorism unit has issued a subpoena to former Pennsylvania Governor Rendell over his advocacy for the Iranian dissident group Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK), which has been declared a terrorist organization by the State Department. Many in Washington, including former Homeland Security Secretary Thomas Ridge, have publicly called for the removal of MEK from the terrorist watch list. So far, Rendell is the only one that has been issued a subpoena.
To appease Iran, President Clinton placed the MEK, which some say is responsible for the deaths of 17,000 Iranian, on the terrorist watch list. Members of the organization, who are housed in a camp near the Iran-Iraq border, renounced violence in 2001.
Rendell and Ridge admitted to the Washington Times taking money for their promotional activities. Rendell made 5 all-expense-paid trips to Europe on behalf of the organization. It is illegal to accept money from organizations on the terror watch list. Since both men do not believe that the MEK should be on the terrorist watch list, they do not seem overly concerned about the legality of the payments. They also did not seem to know the precise source of their payments. In Rendell's defense, the William Morris Agency handles his speaking engagements.
While Iran and the United States are close to war, their devil may care attitude about the origins of their funds seems strange. The issuance of the subpoena seems to indicate that the Treasury Department does not feel the same way. Many in counter-terrorism posit the financiers are just as dangerous as the bomb throwers. As one public official once told me, "Money is the mother's milk of terrorism."
The subpoena may explain why Gerry Lenfest replaced Rendell as CEO of the investor group bidding for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. The Rendellization of the Inquirer continues. Although the Washington Times published this story at 6pm on Friday night, the Philadelphia Inquirer had not reported as of 9:36 pm Saturday.
in my opinion, as someone who has been from the basics of life by the current Iranian regime/system, who has seen killings done by this regime first hand and was subjected to "fake execution scenarios" many times, articles like this are only due to the fact that the US State department has come short of reasoning for keeping MEK on the unjust terror list; therefore, it has turned to this dirty policy of attacking those who had the courage to stand tall and talk against what President Clinton did back in 1997 to favor the Iranian Regime. The President favored the same regime that was responsible for the following:
ReplyDelete“In the attack, 19 U.S. military personnel were killed and 372 were wounded, making this the most deadly terrorist attack on Americans abroad since the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing.”
I remember seeing President Clinton on TV saying that he will bring anyone found responsible for the deadly attack to justice, but he didn’t even try to bring them to justice. He favored the regime, who was responsible for the killings of the Americans, and put the opposition on the terror list!
These are hard facts and cannot be altered but the State Department must think again and come to its senses because “it cannot swim against the will of the Iranian people for freedom and democracy”. Finally, I, Masood Abooali, as an Iranian-American want to extend my fullest support for what former Pennsylvania Governor Rendell has done to help MEK (the main opposition to the terrorist regime of Iran) and may the Almighty God bless him. Thank you Governor Rendell.