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March 25, 2018March 25, 2018Gronda Morin

aside New National Security Adviser John Bolton’s Ties To A Fringe Iranian Group

The more one learns about John Bolton the more one sees a very smart, polished man who lives in a world of rampant with conspiracy theories. He sounds great when he pontificates on foreign policy but I can’t think of an outcome where he pushed for action that turned out as he forcefully predicted. He has an incredible record for being outright wrong.

He has long had an association with this Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK) group who ages ago helped in the over throw the Western-backed Shah in 1979, but were ousted for their violent resistance by the clerics shortly after the revolution.

Around 1981, They were forced into exile in France but its base of operations was relocated in eastern Iraq in 1986. In recent years, the now pro-Iranian government of Nouri al-Maliki has pushed for the exiled group to relocate outside of Iraq. With the toppling of the Iraqi leader Suddam Hussein by US forces in 2003, the major foe to Iran, Iraq with its Shia majority population has become more pro-Iranian. As of mid-2014, some 3,000 MEK members residing at Camp Hurriya (Liberty, a US base) near Baghdad, Iraq have been awaiting resettlement to third countries.

Because of their stance against the current regime in Iran and their generosity in donating to US politicians, they have endeared themselves to some on the right like John Bolton. This group is despised by Iranians, mostly because in the war between Iraq and Iran, this group fought on the side of the Iraqis. By any definition of a cult, this group is considered by most independent observers to be a cult. In the past, their claims of certain events like the Iranian hostage taking of U.S. Embassy personnel in November 1979 have proven to be false. Iran would never be accepting of these peoples as a ruling party within Iran but don’t tell this to the likes of John Bolton. “As per 7/28/14 Council on Foreign Relations report by Jonathan Masters, “The MEK has long been led jointly by husband-and-wife team Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, and is reputedly the largest militant Iranian opposition group committed to the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. It is also “the only army in the world with a commander corps composed mostly of women,” said former CFR press fellow Elizabeth Rubin. Maryam Rajavi joined the resistance as a student in Tehran in the early 1970s and, at the behest of her husband, assumed joint control of the group in 1985. Feminism and allegiance to the Rajavi family are pillars of MEK ideology, which was founded on both Islam and Marxism—though the group has denied its affiliation with the latter.”

“Many analysts, including Rubin, have characterized the MEK as a cult, citing the group’s fealty to the Rajavis. Older women were reportedly required to divorce their husbands in the late 1980s, and younger girls cannot marry or have children.”

“But like many on the right, Mr. Bolton is enthralled with this group. ”

See: Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK) | Council on Foreign Relations/2014

See: Here’s Why Washington Hawks Love This Cultish Iranian Exile Group Intercept 2017

See: Who are the Iranian dissident group MEK? – BBC News/2015 On March 24, 2018, Jason Rezalan of the Washington Post penned the following report, “John Bolton wants regime change in Iran, and so does the cult that paid him” Those who were left fled to Iraq, where Saddam Hussein, who invaded Iran in 1980, gave them haven. Many took up arms and fought against their Iranian countrymen, earning the group the unofficial nickname monafegheen, or the “hypocrites.” That title has stuck, and most Iranians inside the country, regardless of their political tendencies, refer to them as such. “All this was carried out under the supervision of the group’s leaders, Massoud and Maryam Masoud the husband and wife at the top of the organization’s pyramid. He has been missing since the U.S. invasion in 2003 and is presumed dead. She now runs the group and makes regular public appearances with her powerful friends from the West — such as Bolton.” 

“In John Bolton they have someone who will do it for them.”






