At a conference last week, a star-studded and bipartisan trio declared their backing for the Mojahedin, including two former aspirants for the White House: Rudolph Giuliani, the former Republican mayor of New York City, Howard Dean, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and governor of Vermont, and Andrew Card, former White House chief of staff under President George W. Bush.
Giuliani sought the Republican presidential nomination and Howard Dean the Democratic presidential nomination.
For the past half-year, periodic conferences held in Washington, Paris and Brussels have unveiled some big names in American politics laying out their support for the Mojahedin.
All of the endorsements have come from former office holders now retired from public office. And a few have publicly acknowledged that they received payments—speaking fees—for appearing in public and lauding the Mojahedin.
Last Tuesday, Dean produced one of his patented shouting and table-pounding speeches on behalf of the group.
He read parts of the group’s platform that states its commitment to democracy, free speech and gender equality, as well as opposition to the death penalty. “Explain to me how this is a terrorist group,” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
He read on that the group supports private property, private investment and a market economy. “I’m afraid they may be Republicans,” he joked.
In an interview with The Washington Times, Dean said his speaking agent was approached by the Mojahedin. “I spent a lot of time on the Internet learning about them and then I met them,” he said. Since then he has become a strong supporter, sometimes being paid to speak and other times doing free work, he said.
The conferences that have been held have been organized by a Washington-based group, Executive Action LLP.
Here is a list of major American figures who have been recruited to speak out on behalf of the Mojahedin in recent months:
• Michael Mukasey, attorney general under President George W. Bush;
• Tom Ridge, former governor of Pennsylvania and homeland security secretary under Bush;
• John Bolton, ambassador to the United Nations under Bush;
• Gens. Peter Pace and Hugh Shelton, both former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff;
• Bill Richardson, former US ambassador to the UN and energy secretary under President Bill Clinton, who finished two terms as governor of New Mexico in January;
• Former FBI Director Louis Freeh;
• James Jones, who until last fall was President Obama’s national security adviser and before that the commandant of the Marine Corps;
• Lee Hamilton, former Democratic congressman from Indiana and chairman in the 1990s of the House Foreign Affairs Committee;
• Two former heads of the CIA, Michael Hayden and James Woolsey;
• Dell Dailey, the former coordinator for counter-terrorism in the State Department;
• Anthony Zinni, a retired four-star general who commanded the Central Command from 1997 to 2000, which includes Iran in its geographic area; and
• Frances Townsend, homeland security adviser in the Bush White House.
The Mojahedin were originally designated by the US State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on October 8, 1997, during the Clinton Administration.
Many of those speaking out now had a say in the FTO list while they were in government, but none is known to have advocated de-listing the Mojahedin at that time.