MEK yourself comfortable

It's weird sometimes how things come together.

This morning on MSNBC we get a interesting story on the "domestic IED threat":

Secretary Michael Chertoff, who told the Senate last month that such bombs are terrorists' "weapon of choice," said yesterday at a local meeting that President Bush will soon issue a blueprint for countering the threat of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Chertoff's department said in a draft report on IEDs earlier this year that national efforts "lack strategic guidance, are sometimes insufficiently coordinated . . . and lack essential resources."

Well, I says to myself, I says, could THIS be the link they're looking for in turning accusations of Iranian supplying IEDs to Iraqi guerrillas into "Iran is a direct threat to the United States and is therefore a valid military target"?

So I go to Teh Gazoogle and do a "News" search on "Iran source Iraq IEDs". One of the first things to turn up is an article on FAUX News (mirable dictu!) by one "Alireza Jafarzadeh" about how the Iranians are not only supplying aforementioned IEDs but also still on the way to a nuclear arsenal.

Who's this "Alireza Jafarzadeh"? Let's highlight his name and do the "search" thing on him...

Ah, it's Sourcewatch:

Alireza Jafarzadeh is an Iranian exile "who regularly reveals what he claims is inside information on Iran's nuclear program." He is also a lobbyist for Mujahedin-e Khalq who in the past observed that Iran is "scheduled to be able to get the (nuclear) bomb by 2005."

Well, so much for THAT date. And, of course, thank god we're listening to exiles again; not as if that's ever burned us before.

But the MEK - where did I just read about them...?

Last night in the ever-informative Juan Cole's blog with this link to an interesting history of the group:

Here you have virtually everything the Right claims to oppose all rolled into one: Islamism, Marxism, terrorism, and Saddam. Naturally, then, neoconservatives would utterly deplore the MEK and everything it stands for, right?

Well, evidently not, seeing as not only is FAUX willing to let their (former - see below) lobbyist blog for them, they're also darlings of Daniel Pipes and Max Boot:

Right-wing commentator Max Boot has argued not merely for the removal of the MEK from the terrorist list but for funding and unleashing it to do battle with Iranian forces — this while casually acknowledging that it is a “political cult.”

Now, according to the CAF article, Jafarzadeh is a former representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which was designated a terrorist front for the MEK back in 2003. (Which means the Sourcewatch article is old, but that's not important.) However, as the CAF article points out, his heart is still with the MEK, as witness his comments at the end of this article:

Two years ago, President George W. Bush stated that “democratic dissidents of today are the democratic leaders of tomorrow.” Branding the IRGC as terrorist and revoking the terror designation of Iran's democratic dissidents is a first and necessary step to empowering the democratic leaders of tomorrow's Iran.

Ah, "democratic dissidents". "Founding fathers", even. Yep. Yeah, their (old) flag just SCREAMS "domestic dissidents", doesn't it?


Those who fail to learn from history...