Ex-UK parliament speaker in cahoots with terrorist group
Saeed Pourreza
Press TV, London
Yet another attempt by a banned terrorist organization at rebranding itself as a legitimate opposition group in exile: The Mujehadeen Khalgh Organization, known as the MEK, which held its annual gathering in Albania, featuring generously paid politicians and former government officials from the US and Europe giving carefully worded speeches in person or online.
Among them, former British parliament speaker, John Bercow, the man who recently defected the conservative party for labor after launching a withering attack on his erstwhile party member, prime minister Boris Johnson.
Former politicians speaking at the MEKs annual gatherings is not without precedent. Over the years, the terror cult has splashed out sizable sums of money to enlist the support of people in power on both sides of the Atlantic: most notably former US national security advisor John Bolton was paid upwards of 40 thousand dollars per speech in 2018.
Why would a former parliament speaker side with a terrorist group? What does his association with MKO mean when it comes to the issue of terrorism and the war on terror?
Iran alleges the duplicitous cult’s attempts to cultivate close ties with foreign governments is nothing new. It alleges the MEK paid an intermediary to secure a meeting between its leader and former UK conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. That meeting never happened. Another attempt allegedly involved the group paying a hefty sum for a meeting in London with former PLO president Yasser Arafat.
The MKO, who used to be based in a large military garrison in Iraq, fought against Iran alongside Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, and provided material and intelligence support in a conflict that lasted eight long years and left hundreds of thousands dead, injured or displaced on either side. In 2000, they were designated as a terrorist organization. 12 years later, the US government removed them from a list of terrorist organizations, and in 2013, the terrorist group relocated to a vast and tightly guarded barracks in Albania that few outsiders have ever entered.
Experts say to see former American and European political officials support a known terrorist organization in return for huge compensations speaks to the double standard exercised by those individuals when it comes to the issue of terrorism.
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