Word: mujahedins
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Later that summer, after the U.S.-led coalition toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, the Iranians came up with another offer: they would trade their Arab captives, including Saad, for members of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian terrorist group that was given sanctuary by Saddam. "It was a straightforward swap: your terrorists for ours," says a Western intelligence official familiar with Tehran's offer. The official says the offer included assurances that the MEK operatives would not be tortured and that international human-rights organizations would have access to them. "They said...
...most likely a nod to Iran's ayatullahs, who brand the group as terrorists, as does the U.S. Yet in the convoluted politics of the region, the U.S., despite having tagged the organization on its terrorist list, had been a sort of guarantor of the safety of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) because it was the enemy of its enemy Iran...
...1970s, Congress and the Ford Administration sought to rein in the CIA by creating oversight committees and instituting a ban on assassinations. Some restrictions were eased in the '80s, when the agency backed Afghan mujahedin fighting against the Soviets and meddled in Central America. And since 9/11, the agency has attracted a new load of critics, this time for matters such as "extraordinary renditions" and the harsh interrogation of suspected terrorists in secret overseas prisons known as black sites. Poor Langley--praise is a scarce commodity for an agency whose missions, as President George W. Bush put it, remain "secret...
Jundullah isn't the only case cited by those who accuse the U.S. of backing Iranian extremist groups. After the U.S. occupied Iraq in 2003, the U.S. military ostensibly disarmed the Saddam-backed Iranian militant group the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) - then, as now, on the State Department's terror list - allowing it to remain in its base in Iraq, but deployed American soldiers to protect the base. The group claimed that it helped the U.S. government gather intelligence from inside Iran. Washington hawks such as House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman Representative Bob Filner (D.-Calif.) continue to call...
...common denominator. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the nation rallied under the banner of jihad. Today any attack on Islam, even the perception of one, is akin to an assault on Pakistan's very identity. When the militants say they too are fighting for Islam, just as the mujahedin fought the Soviets, it creates a sense of paralysis. (See pictures of Pakistan's vulnerable North-West passage...