re: "Ros-Lehtinen defends MEK as State Dept anger grows"

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside The Foreign Policy Machine") provided an update on the unfolding PMOI/MEK situation.

Money quote(s):

"The State Department is growing increasing frustrated with the MEK and its American lobbyists, and now with two leading lawmakers who are injecting themselves into the cause of the Iranian dissident group.

Tensions between Foggy Bottom and supporters of the Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK), a State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization opposed to the Iranian regime, have been building for months. The plan to relocate 3,200 members of the group from its compound in Iraq to a former U.S. military base appear stalled as the group lobbies to be taken off the list of terrorist organizations.

A federal court has ordered the State Department to make a decision on delisting the MEK by October, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has indicated that the group's willingness to complete the move to the former base, Camp Liberty, will be a key factor in the department's decision. State Department officials, however, now believe the MEK is stalling."

Stalling or otherwise playing for time is something the PMOI is very good at.

"Administration officials believe the MEK is getting bad advice and unhelpful support from its team of American advocates, some of whom are paid handsomely to advise the MEK and lobby the administration on its behalf (though all insist they are promoting the MEK's cause out of sincere conviction). The Treasury Department has opened an investigation into the funds paid to these activists, which often come from Iranian-American groups in the United States and are paid through a speakers' bureau."

That these Iranian-American groups are acting as proxies for the PMOI and other NCRI-related groups should be obvious.

"The MEK seems to believe it can keep control of Camp Ashraf, its longtime compound near the Iran-Iraq border, and Clinton will still be under pressure to delist the group, this official said."

Camp Ashraf is where they have their own facilities, radio station, museum, cemetary, and probably weapon caches as well. Moving to somewhere they haven't had years to prepare, and during which movement they could be searched or otherwise molested, is not on their list of preferences.

"This week, the MEK got the support of two new powerful Americans, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA). The pair are circulating a letter this week to Clinton asking her to improve the conditions in Camp Liberty for the MEK."

&

"(L)awmakers are requesting that the MEK residents in Camp Liberty be connected to the Iraqi main water system, be given more power generators, and be given new cars and trucks and other supplies. The administration official said that some of the requests are valid but the characterization of the conditions in Camp Liberty as "dreadful" is unfair.

"Really, are new cars a basic human right?" the official said."

Nice snark, but are they asking for new vehicles (note that they included both cars and trucks in their request) to replace old, wornout, destroyed, or confiscated ones? Just thought I'd ask....

7/18