Audit the Mujahedin-e-Khalq

The Mujahedin-e-Khalq Group (MKO) is a barometer of Washington corruption.

Whereas the group describes itself as devoted to freedom in Iran, it's something however. Its roots lie in a mixture of Islamism and Marxism. Within the run-up to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the group each allied with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and performed terrorism in opposition to People and American firms.

FAMILY OF IRANIAN SOCCER LEGEND WHO SUPPORTED PROTESTS NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE

Khomeini back-stabbed his MKO allies. In an episode their spokesman buries and the MKO purges from their web site, the group allied itself with Saddam Hussein, killing not solely regime officers but in addition Kurdish dissidents and extraordinary Iranians.

At the moment, they don't seem to be a lot better: The continued Iranian revolution reveals the vacancy of earlier MKO claims. Iranians march for freedom and democracy, not for a cult whose chief nonetheless veils and who runs the group as an autocracy.

Some American politicians might really feel they do no hurt by taking MKO money in change for peppering a brief gala speech with MKO speaking factors, however they're mistaken. Endorsing the MKO is a present to the Islamic Republic. It performs into the ayatollahs’ propaganda that the West hates Iranians quite than respects them.

The MKO, after all, rejects such actuality. They embrace the massive lie. MKO spokesmen declare reputation and grass roots help, and castigate anybody who criticizes them as a part of some broad pro-Islamic Republic conspiracy, regardless of how ridiculous. The MKO ignores their alliance with Saddam or the crimes they dedicated alongside Khomeini’s revolutionaries. Whereas their galas are glitzy and search to undertaking an aura of recognition, their funds are opaque.

If the MKO really was something greater than a political Ponzi scheme, they'd open their books to audit. They'd clarify the murky origins of the cash they channel by way of shell organizations to achieve the endorsement of American and European politicians. They'd clarify how Maryam Rajavi lives a lifetime of luxurious, as apparently do the few distinguished spokesmen whom the group permits to talk to outsiders.

Each non-profit within the U.S. should file tax returns and clarify their earnings and spending. The MKO and its subsidiaries might not be non-profits, neither is its headquarters within the U.S., however there isn't a motive the group can't voluntarily present the minimal data anticipated and supplied by 1000's of American nonprofits.

On the very least, Alireza Jafarzadeh, who usually acts because the group’s mouthpiece within the U.S., may launch his tax returns simply as American politicians do. It might be telling if he lives in luxurious whereas many MKO members dwell in group houses and apparently donate the overwhelming majority of their earnings to the group.

The fact, after all, is that the MKO will make each excuse to not open their books. They may bluster, however they'll by no means rent a impartial auditor to substantiate the legitimacy of their group. To take action can be to reveal the picture they search to undertaking as an phantasm rigorously crafted for grasping or naïve outsiders.

Autocrats hate transparency.

There actually isn't any distinction within the need of Supreme Chief Ali Khamenei and his prime henchmen to maintain the funds of his enterprise empire secret, and that of Rajavi and her prime aides. Absent such transparency, nevertheless, American and European politicians ought to avoid the MKO, and redirect any cash supplied by the group to the protesters truly preventing for freedom in Iran quite than merely looking for to revenue from it.

Michael Rubin (@mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential. He's a senior fellow on the American Enterprise Institute.