IRAN SHIITE MILITIAS ENDANGERING FUTURE OF IRAQ

IRAN SHIITE MILITIAS ENDANGERING FUTURE OF IRAQ

IRAN SHIITE MILITIAS ENDANGERING FUTURE OF IRAQ

The Islamic Republic continues on its path of death and destruction.
A conglomerate of Iran-backed Shiite militias in Iraq, known as the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), or more commonly by the Arabic label al-Hashd al-Shaabi, pose a very dire threat for the future of Iraq. This sectarian group of dangerous armed elements is resorting to any and all crimes with the objective of pursuing Tehran’s policies across Mesopotamia.

The PMU, established back in the mid-2014, has taken part in the battles of Syria from mid-2013 onward and now, despite participating in the offensive to retake Mosul from Daesh (ISIS/ISIL), this phenomenon poses the gravest of all threats for the Iraqi nation. Mor...

iran Why We Shouldn’t Worry About Giuliani’s Ties to an Iranian Resistance Group

http://politi.co/2gqshNC

iran Why We Shouldn’t Worry About Giuliani’s Ties to an Iranian Resistance Group

 Mujahidin e-Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian resistance group, and the U.S. politicians who support it, especially former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. As a former Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and someone familiar with the MEK and Giuliani’s work on the organization’s behalf, I can say unequivocally that Benjamin’s assertions are outrageous—so outrageous that I must respond.

First, I want to be clear about one thing: This isn’t about Rudy Giuliani. Arguably the broadest and most impressive bipartisan coalition in a generation has supported the MEK in its campaign for regime change in Iran. This includes two former chairmen of the joint chiefs, two former CIA directors, a former attorney general and the former chairs of both political parties. The ideological range includes everyone from Howard Dean and Patrick Kennedy to Newt Gingrich and John Bolton. From this perspective, the outlier isn’t Rudy Giuliani; it’s Daniel Benjamin mor...mor...

Iran- Has the Iran Lobby Set its Sights on the Trump Administration?

http://bit.ly/2gLqeV1

Has the Iran Lobby Set its Sights on the Trump Administration?

Repeated attacks on Iranian dissidents featuring discredited talking points normally espoused by Tehran’s well-organized Washington lobby are landing with Donald Trump’s White House transition in full swing.

Daniel Benjamin’s Politico Magazine hit job – Giuliani Took Money From a Group That Killed Americans. Does Trump Care? and Josh Rogin’s takedown in The Washington Post – Giuliani was Paid Advocate for Shady Iranian Dissident Group – are case in point.

Were the smears designed to influence the selection of key members of the president-elect’s cabinet and, by extension, US policy?

If allegations levied by Benjamin or Rogin were substantiated by actual evidence, their claims might be credible. They are not. Instead the articles traffic in innuendo that is easily dismissed.
How do I know?

I am the author of three empirical, peer-reviewed journal articles that examine matters involving the exiled Iranian resistance group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), also known as People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). I also penned the foreword to an independent 2013 study undertaken by Ambassador Lincoln P. Bloomfield Jr. that addressed the misinformation campaign directed at Western government policies toward the Iranian opposition group. Bloomfield, a former defense and foreign policy official who served three presidents over five administrations in the Pentagon, White House, and State Department, produced the scholarly history of the MEK to challenge conventional wisdom within the Department of State and to prompt fresh policy thinking.
MOR.....

Iran:Can propaganda save the threadbare Iran appeasement policy?

With President Obama's administration expiring in a few weeks, the Iranian regime, its lobbies in the United States and Iran apologists with vested interest in the continuation of rapprochement with Tehran have initiated a widespread propaganda campaign to avoid losing their earnings in Obama's eight years of appeasement policy vis-a-vis Iran.

Their efforts involve the publication of lopsided reports and hastily scribbled op-eds with enticing titles on highly viewed media outlets to reframe past failures as historical achievements, and to discourage President-elect Trump from choosing vocal critics of Iran's mischievous deeds as his cabinet members.

An op-ed published in the Washington Post shortly after Trump's victory tried to demonize Rudy Giuliani, calling him a "paid advocate of a shady Iranian dissident group," referring to the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the main opposition of the Iranian regime. The author of the article, Josh Rogin, has a long history of attacking the PMOI/MEK and quoting Tehran lobbies in his reporting..Mor

Iran regime even more oppressive since nuclear deal, dissidents say

Iran regime even more oppressive since nuclear deal, dissidents say

Now free in the West, recently escaped political dissidents say Iran’s regime has grown more oppressive since its nuclear deal with the U.S. and other world powers that had hoped the agreement would moderate the Islamic-ruled nation.

The protesters also say the billions of dollars in cash the U.S. shipped to Iran, plus the West’s release of frozen Iranian bank assets, already have been diverted to Iran’s expansionist armies in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.

“Every deal, every negotiation with the regime, it means additional gallows in Iran,” says Shabnam Madadzadeh, 29, who gained fame as a student organizer at Tehran’s Tarbiat Moalem University. She spent five harsh years in confinement, including in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, but she did not break..Mor....

Iran; As understanding of the Iranian resistance grows, support should follow

As understanding of the Iranian resistance grows, support should follow

Iranian Maleheh Hosseini (R) participates in a rally at the White House against Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his alleged killing of 52 Iranian dissidents at Camp Ashraf in Iraq in 2013. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI

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This summer marked the 28th anniversary of an extraordinary massacre of political prisoners in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the span of a few months in 1988, upwards of 30,000 people were put to death as a result of minutes-long trials that were little more than loyalty tests for the regime. The vast majority of those victims were members and supporters of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), and recently revealed information has helped to confirm that the massacre was primarily motivated by a longstanding desire to snuff out the opposition of the MEK to the increasingly repressive theocracy.... http://bit.ly/2cgHJsW