Support the MEK, but Recognize that it is Still an Opportunistic Cult
Reader comment on item: Unleash the Iranian Opposition[, the Mujahedeen-e Khalq]

Submitted by Alex (United States), Jul 10, 2007 at 14:18

The MEK probably has lost its power for popular mobilization in Iran, but it is a dominant force in Iranian immigrant communities in the West and has impressive intelligence and special operations capabilities inside Iran (it assasinated Asadollah Lajevardi, the "Butcher of Evin Prison", in the late 1990s during the Islamic Repblic's own crackdown on dissidents). Much of its clandestine power derives--I heavily suspect--from patronage, smuggling and other illegal activities, as well as from factional politics in the Islamic Republic that sometimes provide it with intelligence needed to assasinate members of the Hojjatieh Society that is currently in formal (though not substantive) power in Iran. The latter factor may be another tool for Western intelligence at the present. Also, the MEK is still a cult, and it should be used for finite purposes as part of a strategy that engages primarily liberal forces inside Iran who will not likely follow the MEK (nor monarchists, nor regional/ethnic factions).

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