FreedomWorks/Tea Party Leader Dick Armey Lobbied for Terrorist Group

Submitted by Anne Landman on

Dick ArmeyThe magazine In These Times reports that in his previous position with the lobbying firm DLA Piper, Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey promoted the interests of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, otherwise known as Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), an organization that the State Department brands a terrorist group. According to the State Department, MEK blends Marxist and Islamic tenets, and was founded to overthrow the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran. In 1975 and 1976, MEK is alleged to have killed seven American defense advisers to the Shah. MEK achieved its original purpose when, working with followers of Ayatollah Khomeini, the group took part in the Islamic revolution, seized the American Embassy in Tehran and sent the Shah into exile. MEK later allied itself with Saddam Hussein to undermine the Islamic government of Iran. Armey also represented the Iranian-American businessman Saied Ghaemi, who from 2005-2008, paid DLA Piper $910,000 specifically for Armey's services bringing issues relating to Iran to the attention of Congress, the State Department, the Department of Defense, the White House, the National Security Council and the Department of Treasury.

Main Source: 
In These Times, March 21, 2010
Topics: 
Lobbying
Right Wing
Iran
Terrorism

Comments

markfromireland replied on

This:

MEK achieved its original purpose when, working with followers of Ayatollah Khomeini, the group staged the Islamic revolution, seized the American Embassy in Tehran and sent the Shah into exile. MEK later allied itself with Saddam Hussein to undermine the Islamic government of Iran.

is complete total and absolute nonsense. The MEK participated in the revolution yes. They participated as a small left-wing organisation by in an overwhelmingly conservative society. To claim that a group founded by three Marxists whose mixture of Marxism and a distinctly heterodox version of Islam:

"staged the Islamic revolution"

is complete and total nonsense and utterly at variance with the facts.

As is this:

"seized the American Embassy in Tehran "

Wrong, not just wrong but hilariously wrong, ludicrously wrong:

The people who did that were very far indeed from being sympathisers or members of the MEK, They were sympathisers of and members of the Basij and the group that subsequently became the revolutionary guard. That particular group includes Iran's current president.

"and sent the Shah into exile"

Oh please the MEK did that? Really there's only one possible reaction and it's this bwaaaahahahahahahahahaha.

I've no doubt that Dick Armey has all sorts of unsavoury clients and he strikes me as pretty unsavoury himself but you've weaken your credibility rather a lot by failing to engage in some very basic fact checking about the MEK.

markfromireland

Anne Landman replied on

The original language was taken from the article in In These Times magazine, who published the information about Armey. We have modified it.

Anne Landman

Anonymous replied on

The fact that the MEK is a terrorist organization, that sided with Saddam Hussein against Iran during the Iran-Iraq War, that it was responsible for the worst atrocities of the Islamic revolution, and not only supported the US embassy hostage-taking but also opposed their release, is all well-known and cannot ever be undone by MEK propaganda. And, even Human Rights Watch acknowledges that the MEK tortures and abuses its own members.

Read the FBI and Senator McCain's statements on the MEK:
http://www.iranaffairs.com/iran_affairs/2009/11/the-mko-mek-pmoi-facts.html

Read the Human Rights Watch report on the MEK:
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/mena/iran0505/

Anonymous replied on

The MEK is the same terrorist cult which has so far killed, as they assumed, over 12000 innocent Iranian civilians. They have killed our president, prime minister, judiciary chief and many members of parliament as well as ordinary people. They set fire on buses, planted roadside bombs, launched mortar attacks on residential compounds and staged arm struggle against the Islamic republic in which they opened fire at anyone who left bear without asking why. They sided with Saddam Hussein and fought alongside the Iraqi dictator against their own people. They also helped the vampire in the massacre of Iraqi Kurds and suppression of Shiites in Iraq. MEK has killed over 25000 people in Iraq and is now followed by the Iraq’s judicial system for the crimes they have committed so far. But what is important now is the sever mental as well of physical conditions of those MEK members in camp Ashraf ; those who are a different type of Rajavi’s cult victims. Being isolated from the outside world in a remote Iraqi desert for years, the MEK ranks and file members are kept in a semi-garrison place with no access to the free media and merely receive what the leaders like them to receive without knowing what really goes on beyond the tall walls of the camp now for decades. Iran has offered the dissident MEK members amnesty as a result of which many have escaped the camp and returned home and are now leading ordinary lives like other Iranian citizens. Lets hope the rest of enslaved MEK members be released from the chains of Rajavis’ prison and return to their home and families….
www.habilian.com
www.iran-interlink.org
www.nejatngo.org

Jay Diamond replied on

Hey, it's not like Dick's terror clients got socialized PR; Dick made good Ayn Rand type money for informing the world of his terror client's virtues.

There was no coercion, just good Americans (and Iranians) being entrepreneurial and making jobs.

You lousy commies shouldn't be hard on Dick.

Anonymous replied on

Perhaps Michelle Bachmann should include Dick Armey in her list of those to be investigated for having un-American views.

Anonymous replied on

Are you people out of your friggin minds? Amazing. Truly sad actually.

Anonymous replied on

The MEK (MKO, Mujaheddin, etc.) is a terrorist cult. They sided with Saddam and killed their own people. They will never be accepted by Iranians.

Anonymous replied on

The MEK is the same terrorist cult which has so far killed, as they assumed, over 12000 innocent Iranian civilians. They have killed our president, prime minister, judiciary chief and many members of parliament as well as ordinary people. They set fire on buses, planted roadside bombs, launched mortar attacks on residential compounds and staged arm struggle against the Islamic republic in which they opened fire at anyone who left bear without asking why. They sided with Saddam Hussein and fought alongside the Iraqi dictator against their own people. They also helped the vampire in the massacre of Iraqi Kurds and suppression of Shiites in Iraq. MEK has killed over 25000 people in Iraq and is now followed by the Iraq’s judicial system for the crimes they have committed so far. But what is important now is the sever mental as well of physical conditions of those MEK members in camp Ashraf ; those who are a different type of Rajavi’s cult victims. Being isolated from the outside world in a remote Iraqi desert for years, the MEK ranks and file members are kept in a semi-garrison place with no access to the free media and merely receive what the leaders like them to receive without knowing what really goes on beyond the tall walls of the camp now for decades. Iran has offered the dissident MEK members amnesty as a result of which many have escaped the camp and returned home and are now leading ordinary lives like other Iranian citizens. Lets hope the rest of enslaved MEK members be released from the chains of Rajavis’ prison and return to their home and families….
www.habilian.com
www.iran-interlink.org
www.nejatngo.org