Post 4000: I quit

[Flabbergasted]

Iraqi National Congress (INC): An umbrella group led by Ahmad Chalabi. Founded in 1992, the INC was expelled from Iraq in 1996 and was based in London until its leadership returned to Baghdad in April. Though thought to have little or no political support inside Iraq, the INC reportedly won backing from some in the Bush administration who see it as the best vehicle to promote Iraqi democracy.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/7704/


National Council of Resistance of Iran(NCRI) is the parliament-in-exile of the Iranian Resistance, and is a broad-based political umbrella coalition of five opposition political organizations and parties and more than 550 political, cultural and social figures, specialists, artists, intellectuals, scientists, military officers and commanders of the National Liberation Army.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Council_of_Resistance_of_Iran

There is an obvious similarity between these two paragraphs. In fact I’m calling them the other side of the Iraq mirror. The NCRI is in the process even now of solidifying its ties with the Bush administration and Congress as the main opposition force within Iran. Another major contributor is the Kurdish in Iran who have been supported and armed by the US.

From SourceWatch

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) was founded in 1981 in Tehran upon the initiative of Massoud Rajavi (Leader of the Iranian Resistance) and is closely linked to the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK); according to their website the NCRI "is the parliament-in-exile of the Iranian Resistance."

snip

"Every part of the spectrum of Iran's social and political mosaic is represented in the NCRI, including those of religious, secular, liberal and nationalist persuasions, as well as the representatives of ethnic minorities, namely Kurds, Baluchis, Turkmens, and Arabs, Sunni Moslems, and members of smaller religious communities, such as Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians. Half of the members of the NCRI are women." <1>

On August 15, 2003, the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to the Specially Designated Global Terrorist list.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=National_Council_of_Resistance_of_Iran

….the Washington office was closed by the US State Department in 2002 on the grounds that it was only a front group for the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI, also known as MEK or MKO), by then listed as a terrorist organistion in the United States.<1> Most analysts believe the NCRI to be the political wing of the MEK though the NCRI and the MEk both claim that the MEK is simply a member of the NCRI. It has been alleged that the inclusion of NCRI and MEK in the list was a token offered to the theocratic regime of Iran rather than based the facts of the matter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Council_of_Resistance_of_Iran

What major attacks has MEK been responsible for?

The group has targeted Iranian government officials and government facilities in Iran and abroad; during the 1970s, it attacked Americans in Iran. While the group says it does not intentionally target civilians, it has often risked civilian casualties. It routinely aims its attacks at government buildings in crowded cities. MEK terrorism has declined since late 2001. Incidents linked to the group include:

The series of mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids during 2000 and 2001 against Iranian government buildings; one of these killed Iran’s chief of staff;

The 2000 mortar attack on President Mohammad Khatami’s palace in Tehran;

The February 2000 “Operation Great Bahman,” during which MEK launched twelve attacks against Iran;

The 1999 assassination of the deputy chief of Iran’s armed forces general staff, Ali Sayyad Shirazi;

The 1998 assassination of the director of Iran’s prison system, Asadollah Lajevardi;

The 1992 near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and institutions in 13 countries;
assistance to Saddam Hussein’s suppression of the 1991 Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish uprisings;

The 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party and of Premier Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, which killed some seventy high-ranking Iranian officials, including President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei and Bahonar;

Support for the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by Iranian revolutionaries;
the 1970s killings ofU.S. military personnel and civilians working on defense projects in Tehran.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/9158/#5

NCRI – In a video message to a meeting at the U.S. Congress on September 11, 2007, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance said, “The undeniable reality is that the policy of appeasing the Iranian regime with the aim of bringing about gradual or behavior change or containing it has failed. For the mullahs the only way to deal with the tide of democracy in Iran and global developments is repression, nuclear weapons, domination of Iraq and spread of Islamic fundamentalism.”

snip

The Iranian Resistance is appealing to members of Congress and all those who advocate a correct policy in dealing with the current crisis. Firstly to ask them to help remove the terrorist tag from the main Iranian opposition so that the Iranian people and their resistance could contribute to democratic change in Iran as well as to regional and international peace so that the civilized world is rid of the threat of Islamo-fascism. And secondly work to evict the Iranian regime from Iraq, a demand shared by a majority of Iraqis.
http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/4097/152/