Torricelli's Terrorist List Friends
Timmerman, Kenneth R.
Torr • Tern 1 ce obert Torricelli has never had a reputation for impeccable probity. During his stint on the House Intelligence Committee he was several times accused of...
...After the Mujahedin published the photograph in their Persian-language weekly, Iran Zamin, claiming Blair's support for their cause (which Blair fiercely denied), the British government declared the group's co-leader, Maryam Rajavi, "undesirable" and barred her from entering Britain...
...in addition, in no instance did they coincide with contributions from individuals tied to the MEK...
...Another early MEK contributor was Ramesh Sepehrrad, of Springfield, Virginia, whose $1,000 check was logged in by Torricelli's congressional campaign fund on October 26,1993...
...According to the statement, Torricelli took them over to the president's table, where they asked Clinton "to be more firm against the religious dictatorship in Iran" and to overturn the State Department ban...
...counter-intelligence sources as a high-level MEK operative "who has spent many years in Baghdad...
...counter-intelligence officials contacted by TAS...
...We made it very clear that the congressman would only take contributions from U.S...
...citizens nor green card holders, according to U.S...
...I am proud to say, however, that her work has subsequently appeared several times in the New Criterion...
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...Alone among them, Burton apparently became wise to Mujahedin tactics: in late 1995 he stopped publicly supporting the group...
...Of the three Mujahedin representatives who attended the October 21 dinner, Alireza Jaafarzadeh and Hedayat Mostowfi were well known to Torricelli and his staff as official representatives of the group's National Council of Resistance front, while the third, Mona Samsani, is affiliated with the MEK's women's organization...
...It is unclear whether campaign contributions by U.S...
...30 January 1998 • The American Spectator tributed $9,000 to Torricelli...
...Asked about the $6,000 contributed to Traficant on November 28, 1995, by known Mujahedin members, the aide said the contributions had resulted from a fundraising breakfast hosted by the NCR at a Washington hotel...
...TAS I las learned that the FBI had the group under investigation for eight years in the 1980's for a variety of criminal offenses, but was taken off the case following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990...
...senator who openly accepts campaign money from a group the State Department calls terrorists...
...But a few members began digging into the Mujahedin's background, and were disturbed when they discovered that the group had actively participated in the anti-American attacks before splitting with the Islamic regime...
...Sepehrrad is active within the MEK's women's organization and has appeared at numerous public pro-MEK rallies, according to Iranian exiles and U.S...
...The State Department and the FBI have repeatedly warned Torricelli and other members of Congress about the unsavory character of the Mujahedin and their Stalinist tendencies...
...courts and expelled on a variety of charges, including the use of false passports...
...What he didn't know was that he The FBI had the group under investigation for eight years in the 1980's for a variety of criminal offensesbut was taken off the case following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990...
...In his House days, he sponsored more than a half-dozen resolutions and letters of support for the organization, which he circulated among his colleagues for their signatures...
...Under a new law, the State Department on October 8 designated thirty groups as international terrorist organizations, making it illegal for them to raise funds in the United States and denying their representatives U.S...
...policy...
...government position toward the group...
...citizens sympathizing with a foreign terrorist group are illegal under current laws...
...The group operates like a cult, placing its members in "team house" collectives, segregated by sex, to conduct fundraising and other activities...
...Asked about the $6,000 contributed to Traficant on November 28, 1995, by known Mujahedin members, the aide said the contributions had resulted from a fundraising breakfast hosted by the NCR at a Washington hotel...
...Certainly Torricelli didn't have to be tricked...
...Not only has the group been involved in anti-American terrorism in the past...
...Ackerman aides acknowledged that the New York Democrat had openly solicited funds from MEK sympathizers "because we have a lot of Iranian-Americans in our district, so it's a natural to go to them for contributions...
...Only once did it contribute in its own name—a $1,000 check sent by Soheila Alighoi Mayelzadeh on May 19, 1995 to Jim Traficant, in the name of its NCR political front, the National Council of Resistance...
...counter-intelligence officials suggests that the group ran a coordinated effort to win political favors...
...Indeed, he has actively promoted the group with other members of Congress, despite repeated warnings from the State Department about its terrorist activities, which include the killing of American servicemen in Iran in the 197o's, and participation in the seizure of the U.S...
...One embarrassed signer, Virginia Democrat James Moran, later issued a public retraction, explaining he'd been tricked into signing the letter "under false pretenses" and that "it was never my intention to endorse or promote the National Council of Resistance of Iran, or the Iranian Community of Virginia, as they identified themselves to me...
...Some of these companies have either been publicly identified or are known to U.S...
...Bundled Schemes As in other campaign dollars-for-favors schemes, the checks arrived at Torricelli headquarters in bundles...
...Quality hardcover books, starting at $3.95...
...Although the aides made (Continued on page 71) 31 Timmerman/Torricelli (Continued from page3r) no bones about the congressman's support for the MEK, they pleaded ignorance of any specific quid pro quos generated by the campaign donations...
...In many cases, these tactics worked, since few congressmen had any sympathy with an Iranian regime that had taken American diplomats hostage in Tehran and was regularly implicated in anti-American terrorist attacks around the world...
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...Over two years she contributed a total of $5,000 to different campaigns targeted for support by the group's Washington office...
...Torricelli could not have championed the MEK by himself...
...He had initially been lobbied by Hossein Panah, who introduced himself not as a Mujahedin member, but as the representative of a non-profit, the "Iranian Community of Virginia...
...Expelled from France in June 1996, Mrs...
...The State Department action has "opened the doors for the FBI and Treasury to investigate MEK fundraising activities in the KENNETH R. TIMMERMAN, a frequent contributor to TAS, is the publisher of Iran Brief...
...To counter the Hamilton and McCain efforts to get them banned, the Mujahedin launched an all-out effort to buy support in Congress...
...If they did contribute their own money, U.S...
...But contributions by NCR employees in Washington would also fall under this category, including the $5,000 contributed by Hedayat Mostowfi to the Torricelli and Burton campaigns, and the $5oo sent by Abdolnaser Rashidi, the group's current spokesman, to Edolphus Towns...
...Torricelli, Ackerman, and Burton held a press conference at the Capitol criticizing the State Department and calling for a "dialogue with the Iranian Resistance," a term they used to describe the NCR and the Mujahedin...
...The Reagan and Bush administrations consistently refused to offer support to the MEK, choosing instead to back democratic and pro-Monarchist opposition groups working outside Iran...
...Politics, Biography, History, Science, Sports—over 60 subject areas...
...Senator Torricelli did not invite members of the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran to this dinner," Harvey told TAS...
...It urged the president to "support the Iranian people's cry for democracy" and stated that the National Council of Resistance of Iran, led by Massoud Rajavi, "will contribute to the realization of political pluralism and democracy in Iran...
...On June 21, 1994 Torricelli wrote to Assistant Secretary of State Robert Pelletreau, requesting that the State Department "consult" with the Mujahedin...
...citizens," the aide said...
...activities were all planned and organized by the Mujahedin leadership back in Baghdad...
...At the time, California Democrat Mervyn D. Dymally was the group's leading congressional sup porter...
...Torricelli, for one, doesn't think it will...
...Many of these contributions are likely to be outright illegal, since they were made directly by members of a foreign organization as part of a campaign to influence U.S...
...election law also specifically prohibits contributions made in the name of another...
...On July 24 Panah, along with nine other Mujahedin sympathizers, showed up at Moran's office to protest his retraction...
...The room was abuzz with the horror of it all...
...The next spate of campaign contributions coincided with a "Dear Colleague" letter organized by Torricelli, Ackerman, Traficant, and Burton in the spring and early summer of 1995...
...Remember what she did to Richard Rorty...
...Quality hardcover books, starting at $3.95...
...Another prominent Iranian-American contributor to Torricelli's Senate campaign was Hassan Nemazee, who runs an investment firm in New York...
...In an effort to pre-empt the report, Reps...
...Senate seat in New Jersey vacated by Democrat Bill Bradley...
...In the 1995-96 cycle, other recipients of Mujahedin monies were New York Democrat Gary Ackerman, who accepted $26,250, Indiana Republican Dan Burton ($20,000), Ohio Democrat James Traficant ($7,000), Ohio Republican Bob Ney ($4,000), and New York Democrat Edolphus Towns, who received a scant $1,000...
...Dan Frisa warned: "Don't support Iranian "freedom fighters" who double as Iraqi-based terrorists...
...SARKES TARZIAN INC Sarkes Tarzion Television Sarkes Tarzion Radio Broadcasters Making a Difference 70 January 1998 • The American Spectator Timmerman/Torricelli (Continued from page3r) no bones about the congressman's support for the MEK, they pleaded ignorance of any specific quid pro quos generated by the campaign donations...
...In a Clintonian dodge, Sue Harvey said that Torricelli could not have introduced the Mujahedin to Clinton "for the simple reason that the senator had left the pre-dinner reception before the president arrived...
...The day after the State Department letter was received, four MEK supporters wrote $i,ooo checks to the campaign of Dan Burton, who had become one of the group's most steadfast advocates on the Hill...
...He regularly hosted dinners and seminars on their behalf in Congress, and introduced them to other members...
...No doubt editors at our Paper of Record were wondering the same thing...
...If they did contribute their own money, U.S...
...A final push on November 4, 1996, election eve, brought in another $3,000- Of that amount, $1,ooo came from a high-level Mujahedin operative, Fazeleh Rassouli, and another $2,ooo from the Mehre Iran Farsi School in Burke, Virginia, which is operated by the Mujahedin as part of its social services network...
...A Tonicelli spokesperson, Sue Harvey, told TAS that the senator wrote 27 to President Clinton shortly after the State Department designation to ask him to take the group off the terrorism list...
...A sister organization was shut down last year in Britain for similar reasons...
...A counter-lobbying by rival Iranian opposition groups, and by the Iranian-American Republican Committee of California, prompted a dozen more congressmen to publicly withdraw their signatures...
...Switch to Gore The MEK's search for congressional support had its origins in 1987, when an FBI investigation revoked the license of "Iran Aid," a Mujahedin non-profit front in California that had been physically harassing Iranian-Americans in soliciting funds...
...citizens or green card holders, are legal unless the FEC can prove they were directed by the Mujahedin...
...The reply they received, dated September 2o, 1993, was devastating...
...How could she...
...Take it from there...
...One such prominent backer is former Iranian Ambassador Hushang Ansary, who runs a series of investment firms and has also contributed to the campaign of New York Republican Alfonse D'Amato...
...We have no knowledge of a Justice Department investigation" into the Mujahedin contributions, spokesperson Sue Harvey said, "but we are not worried, because we have done nothing improper...
...In any event, that was back in 1991 and Teichman has not appeared in the Times Book Review since...
...When challenged this past summer about his support for the Mujahedin, Traficant told reporters he felt the group had "evolved significantly" from the 197o's, and was no longer anti-American or anti-democratic...
...The FEC will want to determine whether certain of those individuals actually contributed their own funds, or whether they were reimbursed by the Mujahedin or its representatives in the United States...
...Khosrow Semnani, an industrialist in Salt Lake City, Utah, gave $500 to Torricelli's House campaign...
...In my opinion this book is mainly snake oil...
...Given the political climate in Washington, it is doubtful the FBI will be any more successful in locating files from Operation Suture—an FBI spokesman told TAS that the bureau's investigations of the Mujahedin were "too sensitive for us to be able to comment" —than they were in locating intelligence reports on Chinese government contributions to the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign...
...Fearing the FBI would close in further, the group's leader in Iraq, Massoud Rajavi, sent a top aide to Washington in June 1988 to devise a plan for building support in Congress...
...But now a TAS investigation has learned that in his thirst for campaign dollars Torricelli has regularly sought and received contributions from foreign nationals who are members of an international terrorist group and has promoted their cause with President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore...
...election law still requires that individuals who "act together as a group to conduct Federal election activity" should register as a "political action committee," which the Mujahedin never did...
...Said an aide to a congressman who signed such a letter in 1995: "Who wouldn't have signed a letter calling on the President of the United States to take harsher measures against Iranian state-sponsored terrorism...
...We have no knowledge of a Justice Department investigation" into the Mujahedin contributions, spokesperson Sue Harvey said, "but we are not worried, because we have done nothing improper...
...I clipped the piece but forgot about its author until, a couple of years later, she again appeared in the pages of Times Book Review...
...The group operates like a cult, placing its members in "team house" collectives, segregated by sex, to conduct fundraising and other activities...
...And if those contributions are deemed illegal, so should an additional $1o,000 Kiamanesh gave...
...In a Persian-language press release issued from their European office outside Paris on October 23, the group claimed that Torricelli had introduced three of their members to President Clinton at a DSCC fundraiser in Washington on October 21...
...law enforcement as Mujahedin fronts...
...The fact that individuals from the same MEK-related companies —AXS Computer, Phoenix Tour and Travel, and American Leading Technologies, in the northern Virginia suburbs of Annandale and Alexandria, contributed simultaneously to the same political campaignsstrongly suggests a coordinated effort...
...Terrorist Dollars MEK members and supporters, including Hedayat Mostowfi, the group's current representative in Washington, contributed $136,000 to Torricelli's congressional and Senate campaign organizations from April 1993 up to the 1996 election...
...Mujahedin propaganda hails Maryam Rajavi as the "president-elect" of Iran, and calls for the violent overthrow of the ruling clerics so she can assume the leadership of a "Popular Islamic Republic...
...In the past three years it donated more than $215,000 to six members of Congress who have urged U.S...
...An aide to Rep...
...support for the group and its political fronts—including the National Council of Resistance (NCR), which maintains a significant Washington presence...
...conspiracy laws were also broken, since the organization's U.S...
...groups, their ties to the Mujahedin's front organization, the NCR, make any political contribution in their name illegal-particularly since the NCR is registered with the justice Department as a foreign agent and as such banned from making political contributions...
...It was this last claim that prompted several congressman, including Virginia Democrat James Moran, to withdraw their signatures in disgust...
...Only once did it contribute in its own name—a $1,000 check sent by Soheila Alighoi Mayelzadeh on May 19, 1995 to Jim Traficant, in the name of its NCR political front, the National Council of Resistance...
...Those who chose to pay closer attention found that, among its guiding principles, the Mujahedin states that it supports freedom in Iran "except [for] groups loyal to the dictatorships of the shah and Khomeini," a reminder of the group's Stalinist origins, when it was supported by the Soviet Union...
...But Torricelli spokesperson Sue Harvey immediately denied the Mujahedin's version of events...
...Four of these donors wrote additional $1,000 checks that same day to his House campaign fund...
...The group's detractors counter by saying that their bloodthirsty past and veiled hints of Pol Pot-style massacres should they come to power in Iran make many Iranians prefer even the clerics to the Rajavis and the Mujahedin...
...Torricelli has not been the only recipient of Mujahedin largesse...
...Since then, nothing has changed in the way the Mujahedin conduct business...
...By mid-September 1994, word was circulating on Capitol Hill that the State Department was in the final stages of reviewing its special report on the Mujahedin, and that it would be unsparing in exposing the group's terrorist actions, past and present...
...This makes their contributions illegal...
...In a letter to other congressmen about the group, Rep...
...Contributions from foreign organizations are also illegal under U.S...
...One week after an Ottawa court upheld her deportation on March 25, 1993, Ms...
...embassy...
...But an FBI informant who traveled to their Iraqi bases in 1988 found they still celebrated the 1973 murder of Colonel Lewis Hawkins, a U.S...
...Only near the bottom (or in one case, in a separate statement that was not always included with the cover letter) was the group mentioned—hyped as a "democratic alternative" to the Tehran regime...
...From April 1993 through August 1995, FEC records show, Torricelli's congressional campaign fund took in $52,000 from MEK officers, supporters, and sympathizers...
...Once again her subject was a darling of the academic establishment—the philosopher Martha Nussbaum and her book Love's Knowledge—and once again Teichman dove in without trepidation...
...Another oddity: in most cases, the individuals who signed the checks do not have telephone numbers listed in any commerciallyavailable directory in the United States, nor, in many cases, do the companies they identified as their employers...
...In all, it came to another $40,000 in exchange for that single "Dear Colleague" letter...
...During his stint on the House Intelligence Committee he was several times accused of publishing classified intelligence information to suit his own political agenda...
...In 1996, he ran a bitter, mud-slinging campaign to win the U.S...
...The MEK is vowing to take the State Department to court over its action, and it has turned to Torricelli for help...
...Traficant had a better memory...
...Two days later, Mujahedin supporters, spearheaded by the head of the group's Women's Organization, Behjat Dehghan, sent $5,000 to the Burton campaign...
...Here, the MEK has been more careful...
...What distinguishes the Mujahedin-related contributions is that they came grouped together, from obscure individuals, and with rare exceptions they were all for the same amount, $1,ooo...
...activities were all planned and organized by the Mujahedin leadership back in Baghdad...
...An aide to Rep...
...When challenged this past summer about his support for the Mujahedin, Traficant told reporters he felt the group had "evolved significantly" from the 197o's, and was no longer anti-American or anti-democratic...
...conspiracy laws were also broken, since the organization's U.S...
...This is an apple pie issue...
...The aide, Mohsen Rezai, also traveled to Ottawa to meet with the group's top fundraisers out of range of U.S...
...Mujahedin propaganda hails Maryam Rajavi as the "president-elect" of Iran, and calls for the violent overthrow of the ruling clerics so she can assume the leadership of a "Popular Islamic Republic...
...MEK supporters thanked the congressmen who pushed the letter to Clinton with new campaign contributions...
...But according to the Mujahedin themselves, Torricelli has done more than just sponsor congressional letters on their behalf...
...To forestall puzzlement, I'll mention that aerodynamics comes in via the bumble bee, a creature that should not—according to some theories of aerodynamics—be able to fly...
...Members of the group have been indicted by U.S...
...On July 5 they released the text of the letter, which they claimed had now obtained 202 signatures...
...The State Department and the FBI have repeatedly warned Torricelli and other members of Congress about the unsavory character of the Mujahedin and their Stalinist tendencies...
...Mandavieh, from her new home in Washington, made out a $1,000 check to the Torricelli campaign...
...Free Catalog HAMILTON 553317.?ak Falls Village, CT 06031-5005j The American Spectator • January 1998 71 tion readily suggests an answer but it is not a very polite one...
...On December 22,1995, $17,000 came into the Senate fund, and on December 29 another $19,ooo...
...Three of his contributions were registered in the name of the Iranian CommunityUSA, an MEK front in Falls Church, Virginia, that was used extensively to lobby Congress in 1995• Although the "Iranian Community" organizations purport to be U.S...
...counter-intelligence agents...
...They also kicked in $23,000 in soft money to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), which helped Torricelli in his successful Senate bid...
...on May 13, $8,ooo more...
...counter-intelligence sources...
...N ow the Mujahedin could be headed for major legal trouble, and with them, the members of Congress who have taken their money in exchange for political favors...
...Torricelli has stood by these supporters...
...Over the past three years, the MEK and its supporters have given Torricelli $136,000 in precious "hard money," according to Federal Elections Commission records...
...And attempting that in the pages of the New York Times, then as now, required grit...
...indeed, MEK contributions to Burton dried up in December 1995...
...more recently it has been the target of two investigations conducted by the Drug Enforcement Agency on charges of drug smuggling...
...The third trimester consists of a long review of the first two...
...At Torricelli and Burton's prompting, House members in conference deleted the McCain language from the State Department Authorization Bill on April 4. At the same time, the NCR's Washington office publicly accused McCain of kowtowing to the Tehran regime, and charged that a lobbyist paid by Tehran, Bijan Sepassy, was backing McCain's antiMujahedin efforts...
...military officer then serving in Iran, by playing wake-up songs dedicated to the memory of his Mujahedin assassins over the camp public address system...
...One of those groups was Torricelli's buddies, the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran...
...But an FBI informant who traveled to their Iraqi bases in 1988 found they still celebrated the 1973 murder of Colonel Lewis Hawkins, a U.S...
...Others, made in the name of U.S...
...Teichman's review of Rorty's book impressed me not only because of its suave intelligence but also because of its courage...
...Indiana Democrat Lee Hamilton, the influential chairman of the House International Relations Committee, and Arizona Senator John McCain wrote the State Department in mid-1993 asking for the official U.S...
...He received eighty-four separate $i,ooo checks from MEK sources between August 1995 and November 4, 1996, bringing the total to $136,ooo...
...Many Iranian-Americans have complained of being harassed by the group in its quest for funds, and have identified a variety of "charities" and front companies it uses for these purposes...
...Charged with orchestrating a 1992 takeover of the Iranian embassy in Ottawa, Ms...
...The Administration maintains a policy of no contacts with the PMOI and, by extension, the NCR," the letter read...
...Indeed, information collected from FEC records as well as from Iranian exiles and U.S...
...To challenge Richard Rorty was to challenge the prevailing intellectual orthodoxy...
...But fly it does...
...And if those contributions are deemed illegal, so should an additional $1o,000 Kiamanesh gave...
...Intense lobbying from Congress played a part in the decision, FBI sources say, but so did a growing need to focus FBI resources on possible Iraqi terrorist activities in the U.S...
...As it happens, only a few months earlier, at a Labor Party conference in Britain, an MEK member posed with two beaming "friends," prime minister Tony Blair and foreign secretary Robin Cook...
...Torricelli makes no bones of his ties to the group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), also known as the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI...
...In all, the group funneled some $40,000 to Ackerman, Burton, and Torricelli between March and October 1994 during the critical period leading up to the State Department report...
...Some of the Mujahedin members who contributed to Torricelli's and other campaigns were neither U.S...
...Some of the Mujahedin members who contributed to Torricelli's and other campaigns were neither U.S...
...In mid-1994, the group's public image took another blow when the State Department released its annual report on international terrorism, which for the first time listed the MEK and the NCR in its list of "terrorist organizations...
...After splitting with the regime in June 1981, the Mujahedin migrated to Iraq and fought side by side with Iraqi troops during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war...
...How could the Times publish such an unkind piece...
...According to the FBI undercover operative, Dymally also served as the conduit for payments to Senator Al Gore in the summer of 1988, at a time when Gore had run up huge debts in his failed presidential campaign...
...By now everything has got very big and Et but there is no actual baby...
...courts and expelled on a variety of charges, including the use of false passports...
...On October 27, $7,000 arrived from the same sources to Gary Ackerman's campaign...
...In a typical first trimester the author explains how she came to write the essay, what the weather was like, and where she had lunch....In the second trimester she forecasts what she is about to say on the next page but intimates that it might not, after all, be more than a sketch...
...Contributions from foreign organizations are also illegal under U.S...
...Similarly, the $3,500 contributed by Hossein Panah should qualify as a contribution by the group, since he personally lobbied Congress on their behalf, as should the $18,000 contributed by Shahriar Kiamanesh in the name of the Iranian Community USA, Panah's organization...
...Gore campaign records from 1988, however, show no evidence of any regis tered contributions by the Mujadehin...
...On October 19, Dehghan organized another $3,000 that went to Ackerman...
...The American Spectator . January 1998 29 was accompanied by an FBI undercover operative who had infiltrated the organization as part of what was known as Operation Suture...
...Since then, nothing has changed in the way the Mujahedin conduct business...
...It's not often that reading the Times Book Review affords such day-brightening experiences...
...Later that same day, Traficant entered an "Extension of Remarks" into the Congressional Record, in which he praised the Mujahedin and called the NCR "the only alternative to the present regime...
...Who was this Teichman...
...Like most of President Clinton's supporters in Congress, Robert Torricelli is an ardent champion of campaign finance reform—not enforcement of current law...
...She listed her occupation as "Physician...
...Mujahedin supporters argue that the clerical regime in Tehran can only be defeated by force...
...Free Catalog HAMILTON 553317.?ak Falls Village, CT 06031-5005j The American Spectator • January 1998 71...
...Congress...
...more recently it has been the target of two investigations conducted by the Drug Enforcement Agency on charges of drug smuggling...
...A committee spokesman told TAS that all three were "past contributors to the DSCC and are on our mailing list," and so would have been invited to the dinner as a matter of course...
...citizens nor green card holders, according to U.S...
...This makes their contributions illegal...
...Resorting to a parable," she mused, I would say these essays are like a false pregnancy...
...The beleaguered Burton may still be worried about Mujahedin skeletons rattling in his closet, since his aides failed to return repeated telephone inquiries on the subject...
...And then their plans received a jolt...
...Torricelli, for one, doesn't think it will...
...America's biggestbargain book selection...
...Nevertheless, Teichman is right: "if we look around we see that people grasp meanings, understand books, and even understand one another...
...Save 30% or more on a huge selection of current books and best sellers...
...Kiamanesh was identified by U.S...
...U.S...
...Mandavieh was deported from Canada in 1993...
...28 January 1998 • The American Spectator Ms...
...In other words, the bumble bees of truth and meaning can actually fly...
...Similarly, the theory of deconstruction says that meaning is impossible, that truth is an illusion, that (in Derrida's famous phrase) "there is no outside to language," etc., etc...
...Eight years ago, the FBI was investigating whether U.S...
...Moran staffers found the display of muscle distasteful, to say the least...
...Similarly, the $3,500 contributed by Hossein Panah should qualify as a contribution by the group, since he personally lobbied Congress on their behalf, as should the $18,000 contributed by Shahriar Kiamanesh in the name of the Iranian Community USA, Panah's organization...
...Their embrace of Saddam Hussein—who provided the MEK with weapons and training camps—won them the contempt of nlost Iranians, who today view the group as little more than Iraqi collaborators...
...visas...
...With Bill Clinton and Al Gore headed for the White House after the November 1992 election, the Mujahedin were suddenly awarded preferential treatment...
...Eight years ago, the FBI was investigating whether U.S...
...Before congressional pressure shut down Operation Suture, the FBI was planning to prosecute Mujahedin members under the RICOstatutes for racketeering...
...election law still requires that individuals who "act together as a group to conduct Federal election activity" should register as a "political action committee," which the Mujahedin never did...
...Members of the group have been indicted by U.S...
...According to the operative, who provided details of this and other meetings to TAS, Rezai told PMOI members at a "team house" in Ottawa that they should focus their public relations efforts on the U.S...
...The group's "foreign representative," Mohammad Mohandessin, attended a Washington fundraiser with the president and vice president-elect in December 1992, and sat in the VIP booth at the January 1993 inaugural as a guest of Vice President Al Gore...
...Two weeks later, top Mujahedin members Shahriar Kiamanesh, Fazeleh Rassouli, and Mansoureh Zamani spearheaded another spate of contributions to Torricelli's campaign that resulted in eleven checks - each for $1,ooo-which arrived on July 5,1994...
...It would be unfair to spoil the reader's fun by giving away too much, so I'll just remark that "Deconstruction and Aerodynamics" is one of the most incisive—and certainly the funniest—attacks on deconstruction I have ever read...
...Moran's retraction is of particular interest...
...On January 11, 1996, there was $9,000...
...Along with his wife, Ansary contributed $4,ooo to Torricelli, while giving more than $50,000 to various Republican candidates and to the RNC...
...And all three individuals are well known and respected...
...It was payback time...
...As it happened, the day after this review appeared, I had occasion to go to a conference at Yale at which the great Martha Nussbaum was speaking...
...This decision is based on our opposition to the PMOI's use of terrorism...
...On June 8, the congressmen held a press conference to announce that 194 members of Congress had signed a letter supporting the NCR that had been sent to President Clinton...
...26 KENNE fi The recent campaign finance scandals have focused attention on the mysterious role foreign money has come to play in American politics...
...While the Mujahedin claims to oppose the ruling clerics in Tehran, they took part in the 1978-79 Iranian Revolution, helped round up and execute supporters of the former Shah, and actively backed the seizure of the U.S...
...The trio was also well known to the DSCC...
...The American Spectator • January 1998 On July ii, 1995, they gave $9,000 to Burton, and on August 1 $14,000 to Torricelli...
...U.S...
...Many were admonished into doing so by personal letters from California GOP chairman John Herrington...
...And Senator Torricelli did not introduce any Mujahedin members to the president...
...Not only has the group been involved in anti-American terrorism in the past...
...We made it very clear that the congressman would only take contributions from U.S...
...As with many things in the Clinton camp, the answer is money...
...Their leader, Massoud Rajavi, wrote to Clinton shortly after the election, asking for American support, and a "Dear Massoud" reply dated December 2,1992, was trumpeted by the group as the sign of a new, pro-Mujahedin American policy...
...Then in early 1994, McCain sponsored legislation that officially branded the Mujahedin and the NCR as "terrorist organizations," and called on the State Department to issue a public report on the organization's activities...
...One of the first MEK contributions to Torricelli came from Robab Mandavieh, who was identified by the Canadian intelligence service as the group's chief fundraiser and recruiter in Canada, court records examined by TAS show...
...In 1981 the group's leader, Massoud Rajavi, called for the expulsion of Iranian Jews from the army and for special restrictions to be placed on Jewish businesses in Iran...
...While the White House confirmed that the president attended the DSCC event, it had no immediate comment on the alleged meeting with the Iranians...
...on March 25, another $14,000...
...The group's detractors counter by saying that their bloodthirsty past and veiled hints of Pol Pot-style massacres should they come to power in Iran make many Iranians prefer even the clerics to the Rajavis and the Mujahedin...
...Here, the MEK has been more careful...
...I only wish that we had gotten dibs on "Deconstruction and Aerodynamics," one of my favorite pieces in Polemical Papers...
...During this same period, MEK activist Shahriar Kiamanesh funneled another $23,000 to the DSCC, apparently at Torricelli's bidding...
...The American Spectator • January 1998 United States," a State Department official told TAS...
...The fact that individuals from the same MEK-related companies —AXS Computer, Phoenix Tour and Travel, and American Leading Technologies, in the northern Virginia suburbs of Annandale and Alexandria, contributed simultaneously to the same political campaignsstrongly suggests a coordinated effort...
...Over the next six months, MEK supporters and suspected sympathizers contributed another $13,000 to Rep...
...Torr • Tern 1 ce obert Torricelli has never had a reputation for impeccable probity...
...His outspoken support for the MEK notwithstanding, Torricelli has been a sharp critic of Tehran's abysmal human rights record, a stance which has won him support from IranianAmericans of various political backgrounds, not just the Mujahedin...
...On August 1, 1995, Torricelli's newly-founded Senate campaign fund received fourteen MEK-related checks, worth $14,ooo...
...But she also acknowledged that Torricelli introduced Clinton "at the main event" — precisely where the Mujahedin claim their own introductions took place...
...counter-intelligence officials contacted by TAS...
...Why all the solicitude for a terrorist group close to Saddam Hussein...
...Which means that the theory is wrong...
...Before congressional pressure shut down Operation Suture, the FBI was planning to prosecute Mujahedin members under the RICOstatutes for racketeering...
...N ow the Mujahedin could be headed for major legal trouble, and with them, the members of Congress who have taken their money in exchange for political favors...
...military officer then serving in Iran, by playing wake-up songs dedicated to the memory of his Mujahedin assassins over the camp public address system...
...Stalking the Halls Mujahedin members regularly met with congressional staff and stalked members in the corridors, staging photos and trying to get them to sign petitions against the Tehran regime...
...Whether this actually creates trouble for members of Congress is another question...
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...Embassy in Tehran in November 1979...
...Whether this actually creates trouble for members of Congress is another question...
...In May 1994, Kiamanesh listed his employer as American Leading Technologies, an Alexandria, Virginia company used extensively in the Mujahedin's campaign contribution scheme...
...The FEC will want to determine whether certain of those individuals actually contributed their own funds, or whether they were reimbursed by the Mujahedin or its representatives in the United States...
...But Nemazee's, Semnani's, and Ansary's contributions were made separately, without any apparent coordination with other donors...
...Given the political climate in Washington, it is doubtful the FBI will be any more successful in locating files from Operation Suture—an FBI spokesman told TAS that the bureau's investigations of the Mujahedin were "too sensitive for us to be able to comment" —than they were in locating intelligence reports on Chinese government contributions to the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign...
...election law also specifically prohibits contributions made in the name of another...
...Rajavi was trying to establish residence in Britain, rather than return to Baghdad where her husband and his Mujahedin have their biggest base of support...
...and on October 24, Hedayat Mostowfi -who worked out of the NCR office in Washington-assembled eight other donors who con One embarrassed signer, Virginia Democrat James Moran, later issued a public retraction, explaining he'd been tricked into signing the letter "under false pretenses" by the Mujahedin...
...In keeping with the MEK's tactics, the support letters began with rousing condemnations of human rights violations in Iran and the terrorist record of the regime...
...Even if you have to pay them off, do it," he told them...
...It's not as if we haven't done it before...
...Like most of President Clinton's supporters in Congress, Robert Torricelli is an ardent champion of campaign finance reform—not enforcement of current law...
...Politics, Biography, History, Science, Sports—over 60 subject areas...
...citizens," the aide said...
...Mujahedin supporters argue that the clerical regime in Tehran can only be defeated by force...
...But once Torricelli announced for the Senate the favors really started coming in...
...Most recently, the group has helped Saddam I lussein in military operations against Iraqi Kurds in northern Iraq...
...Traficant had a better memory...
...Later that same day, Traficant entered an "Extension of Remarks" into the Congressional Record, in which he praised the Mujahedin and called the NCR "the only alternative to the present regime...
...America's biggestbargain book selection...
...January 1998 • The American Spectator prist List Friends T I lr MERM So what is one to say about a U.S...
...But contributions by NCR employees in Washington would also fall under this category, including the $5,000 contributed by Hedayat Mostowfi to the Torricelli and Burton campaigns, and the $5oo sent by Abdolnaser Rashidi, the group's current spokesman, to Edolphus Towns...
Vol. 31 • January 1998 • No. 1
