04/19/17 – Daniel McAdams on how the Mojahedin-e Khalq bribed its way off the US terrorism list – The Scott Horton Show

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I'm going to record one right after this, in fact, today.
But right now, it's our good friend Dan McAdams.
He runs the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, and he co-hosts the Liberty Report every day with the American hero, the great Ron Paul, at LibertyReport.com and RonPaulInstitute.com.
Welcome back to the show.
How you doing, Dan?
Hey, Scott.
Good to be back with you.
Very good to have you here.
You know who's funny?
John McCain.
And yes, in a ha-ha funny way, and also in the other kinds of funny.
I know there are a few different kinds of funny.
I'm pretty sure he's funny in most, if not all, of them.
But the latest, this is definitely in the ha-ha funny to me.
Sorry, I can't get over it.
He just got back from Europe, where he went to, I guess, party with the Mujahideen-e-Khalq.
Dan, what's the Mujahideen-e-Khalq?
Well, it is a terrorist organization.
The U.S. has considered them terrorists for, I think, at least a couple of decades now.
After heavy, heavy lobbying, I think a couple of years ago, the State Department reluctantly took them off the terrorist list.
But they demonstrate, they fund a lot of politicians, they give a lot of money to politicians to come speak at their events.
But what they did in the 60s and 70s is that they killed a lot of Americans, and they were allies with Saddam Hussein.
So you're right, McCain was in Albania, of all places, receiving an award from the head of, from the founder, Massoud Rajavi, or Miriam Rajavi, and having just, it looks like they're having a great old time there.
So it's pretty, it's pretty shocking.
It's a Marxist-jihadist group, essentially, is what it is.
And there's John McCain in the midst of them once again.
He is really something else, man.
More and more, whenever I see his face, I just picture some guy somewhere with like a little radio remote control, like he would use for a little model airplane or something, just moving his lips.
I don't know where he gets this stuff from.
How could a guy, well, I guess, let me put it this way.
Wouldn't it be just as easy for John McCain to say, the MEK is a communist terrorist cult?
Just like McAdams said, they're horrible, they're Iranian.
But I guess that's the key, is they're against the Iranian regime, and that's all that matters.
You're right, that's it.
And that's the key that I left out.
They want to overthrow the current Iranian government, and so does McCain.
So he doesn't care how evil they are, or how nasty they are.
You know, he said, here's what he said in Albania, you are an example to everyone in the world that is struggling for freedom.
It's what he said to the group.
You know, they are terrorists.
It's also a bizarre cult, a bizarre terrorist, jihadist cult.
And here's McCain.
And you know what irritates me about McCain?
What irritates me about people who criticize McCain is a lot of people want to say, oh, he's just senile, he's just old, he's just senile.
That gives him a pass.
He's not senile, he's evil.
That's what he is.
And people need to understand that.
I think there's a big difference.
Yeah.
Well, I think, not that this is really an excuse for him or anything, but I think part of the context is, too, that he's really stupid in the sense that he's very talented, even, maybe you could put it, at just seeing right through his tunnel vision only and refusing to acknowledge all of the other information that's, you know, bombarding, you know, pounding at the door, trying to get in.
And he just, he only sees what he wants to see.
That way he doesn't have to outright lie all the time.
It's just that he refuses to really ever know what he's talking about, because that might get him in too much trouble.
Yeah, I think you're right.
I think he is simplistic and, you know, he, he was very fortunate that he married a very wealthy woman.
And I think that helped him in his political career.
As we know, money drives politics and drives Washington.
So he certainly didn't distinguish himself by anything other than, other than that.
But you know, what he said in Albania is pretty dumb.
He believes that the Iranian regime, Assad, and ISIS are all interrelated and inseparable entities.
So.
All right, now, wait a minute.
I just got here and started caring about politics yesterday.
Tell me why that ain't right.
Because Assad is fighting ISIS.
That's the people who are trying to overthrow his country, kill all the Christians, kill all the minorities.
Uh-huh.
So right there, they're linked because they're on the same battlefield together.
That's right.
Even though they're fighting each other.
That's right.
They're linked.
They're linked.
That's right.
And got that guy's blood on me.
So now it's like we're blood brothers.
Yeah, it's incredible.
You know, I, I used to, the MEK used to demonstrate on Capitol Hill and I, you know, this was a, you know, post nine 11, obviously.
And they, they always told us, if you see something, say something.
And I, I was so tempted to call the Capitol police and say, there are terrorists demonstrating, you know, on the corner.
And this is the time that they still were listed as a terrorist group.
Right.
And it would have been a legitimate complaint.
There are terrorists outside my window.
I have reason to believe they may have compromised some of our senators.
Yeah, exactly.
Follow the money, uh, you know, which they've given millions to people, to, to people in power here in the U S. So, you know, but this is just another pattern of McCain.
You know, he, he went over there to Syria illegal and he met with some jihadists in there.
I mean, he went to Ukraine and met with a bunch of Nazis and help them overthrow the government there.
I mean, everywhere he goes, it's just a disaster.
Yeah, absolutely.
It sure is.
Well, boy, don't get me started on, uh, on his visits to Syria.
Now, uh, let's stick with MEK for a minute.
You talk about how they're a cult and how they killed Americans.
Well, that was during the Iranian revolution.
They helped Khomeini overthrow the Shah's regime there.
The one that the overthrow of the American sock puppet that the American people and certainly no one in DC can ever get over or forgive their declaration of independence and overthrow of the government that our government had foisted on them there.
Um, but it's funny how this violent faction that actually killed Americans during that unforgivable revolution, they get a pass because they were later, they later betrayed Khomeini or he betrayed them.
I'm not sure who betrayed who first, but they ended up getting chased right out of Iran.
And then, as you said, became the guests and the puppets of Saddam Hussein.
Um, but anyway, Phil Giroldi told me one time on the show, former CIA officer, that when he was in CIA counterterrorism officer training, that one of the scenarios when, in fact, I guess the main scenario was a reenactment of a time when the M.E.K. used a ambush and a truck bomb and machine guns to kill some Americans in Iran.
And he was placed in that scenario at the CIA training grounds that this is what we're reenacting that time that the M.E.K. massacred some American State Department and military officials.
And you're in the middle of that.
What do you do?
And how's the training?
And yet now these are our guys.
Here's McCain.
I take an award from them.
That's what I do.
But, you know, here's the State Department's own website.
It says during the 1970s, the M.E.K. assassinated several U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians working in defense projects in Tehran and supported the violent takeover in 79.
Despite U.S. efforts, M.E.K. members have never been brought to justice for the group's role in these illegal acts.
So you're reading that from state.gov right now.
Exactly.
State.gov right now.
Amazing.
Hey, well, good.
I mean, at least they're not censoring what they had previously admitted.
And then but now, as you're saying, Secretary Clinton in 2012, she took him off the terrorist list.
So I guess it's no longer felony material support for terrorism for John McCain to go give speeches for these guys, as it was before 2012 when he did the very same thing.
Yeah, it's amazing.
I'm reading from a 2007 report on terrorist organizations at the State Department.
But, you know, nothing in the group changed, you know, between that time.
Its ideology hasn't changed.
Its leadership is identical.
Its tactics and behavior.
Maybe they haven't killed Americans for a few years, but they certainly have killed a lot of Iranians.
And they may have they may have played a part in the assassination of Iranian scientists as well.
So, well, that's an important point, too, that, you know, where the Americans were certainly using them for espionage inside Iran, according to Obama.
It was this NBC report that clearly came from the White House at a moment of tension between America and Israel in the spring of 2012, that it was just clear it was the White House who put this article in NBC News, you know, nightly news.
Big deal.
It's the headline of the day.
Israel's been using the MEK to assassinate Iranian scientists, and the Americans want them to stop.
Wow.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
So it's it's pretty amazing.
I'm looking at the pictures on the MEK's own website of McCain sitting there.
And I have to wonder, he's got he's got he's surrounded by State Department personnel.
And to be honest, I mean, you can't really read people by the way they look, but they don't look awfully comfortable sitting there.
I should send you one of these photos to put up, because the guy is sitting there with the State Department folder on his lap and he looks like he's getting me the heck out of here.
Yeah.
This is a lunatic asylum.
Hey, tell us about some more prominent politicians who've allowed themselves to be associated with the Mujahideen called Dan.
Oh, you know, there are there are many of them, actually.
And I don't want to off the top of my head say someone who hadn't who hadn't been.
So maybe you've got a list with you of people that have been involved, but I know that they've paid a lot of money for speeches and and they've paid a lot for, you know, for American politicians to go over and join them.
But that's their mode.
That's how they got taken off the list is basically through through money and bribery and getting the backing of, you know, of and of course, anyone else in politics who took money from terrorists would would have a tough time.
But these guys have been able to get get away with it.
Well, you know, I've talked with Mohammed Sahimi and other experts, too, but I'm certain I can quote Sahimi saying this, that, you know, he is absolutely he's in exile from the revolution.
He's no fan of the Ayatollah or of the Mullahs regime whatsoever.
But and he's no, you know, royalist or any of these factions.
He's just a regular guy and a science professor, you know.
But he just says, hey, look, it doesn't matter if the regime says so, too.
It's still the fact that the MEK has absolutely zero popular support inside Iran from any faction.
There is no constituency for a communist terrorist cult from who used to help Saddam Hussein murder them back in the 1980s and all of this thing.
And that, you know, there's negative support for them.
And that's it's like trying it's like the Brits trying to install Benedict Arnold in power here after the revolution was already won.
Sorry, dudes, you guys already had your chance at that and lost.
And this guy is not welcome here.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
You know, he's that and as we're speaking, I'm looking up some names and I know this might shock you, but Rudy Giuliani was a prominent recipient of MBK's largesse.
Not the former U.S. attorney.
I know.
It's just so sad, isn't it?
So shocking.
And Elaine Chao, who was I think he's one of she's one of Trump's secretaries, isn't it?
If I'm not mistaken.
Was it labor?
I forget.
But yes, I believe so.
That sounds familiar.
Yeah.
So it's.
And there are many.
Governor Rendell was one of them, too.
Yeah.
There are many prominent ones who have gotten big paychecks to support this group.
And that's because they hate Iran and they want to overthrow Iran.
You know, OK, we get it.
But you know, the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend.
Yeah.
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You know, I wonder about when John McCain gets his armed forces briefings from the say the D.A. or whatever.
I don't know if he he must he must talk with CIA sources and stuff, too.
But I'm trying to think of whatever his committee assignments are and things like that.
He must.
Somebody must tell him that, you know, Mr. Senator, sir, that, you know, I know that the M.E.K. told you all this great stuff and everything.
But you should know that in context that actually if somehow you parachuted them in in a Bay of Pigs thing into Iran, that they wouldn't last six minutes over there, man.
They got nobody who wants them to rule that country.
And go ahead.
Make your money.
I'm not I'm not criticizing your business arrangement, Senator.
But just so you know that this isn't really a thing, does does he know?
Does anybody talk to him like that at all?
Yeah.
You know, they live in a bubble and certainly the people around them think like like they do.
There's no one's about to say, you know, Mr. Senator, you're wrong.
None of their staff members are about to say they're wrong, you know, which is part of the problem.
Nobody thinks outside the box.
And that's one of the reasons if I mean, pretend that Trump really did have the best interests in heart.
And he really meant what he said about wanting to do less around the world.
You know, there's frankly in Washington, there's no one to turn to except for the neocons and the people who are the echo chambers, you know.
But I've got a couple more names for you, Bill Richardson, Newt Gingrich, Sheila Jackson Lee, who called Rajavi her sister, the cult leader, John Bolton, Michael Mukasey, Louis Freeh.
So the former director of the FBI, Bill Richardson, the former director of the Energy Department in charge of our thermonuclear weapons.
Yeah.
So they're bipartisan, at least in their support of U.S. politicians.
It's really an interesting thing, isn't it?
It's amazing that they're just I don't know.
It just seems like a comic book thing to me that there's no brakes on this thing.
They just keep doing it.
Nobody's telling them to stop doing it.
60 Minutes isn't doing a thing saying, can you believe this, guys?
It just keeps going and going and going.
It's 2017.
We're talking about this now.
You know, it's amazing.
I'll be honest with you.
You know, I met with most when I was working for Dr. Paul on the Hill, I would meet with most groups, you know, different groups from right to left, you know, even ideology is very different than ours.
And I never truly felt uncomfortable, except once when an MBK delegation came in and I met with them.
And there wasn't anything specific that happened.
But honestly, Scott, I'm telling you, I left feeling terrified, like I don't want to do anything to take these people off because they scare the hell out of me.
It was it was just that weird feeling.
And I didn't know anything about him back then.
I was I didn't know much about him.
Let's put it that way.
Yeah, it was pretty early on was a hostage situation, basically.
I mean, these people when their children are born, they take them away.
Yeah.
You know, they really are.
When you call them a cult, people want to throw that term around too loosely.
And I have a problem with it, especially on April 19th, when the Branch Davidians, they might have been nutty, but they weren't really a cult the way you think.
But remember Heaven's Gate with Bo and T and the mass suicide in L.A. and what, 1998 or whatever they were.
They're all wearing black pajamas and purple Nikes and and they all believed because of the Art Bell show, they were all going to catch the comet, but they had to die to get on the flying saucer that was hiding behind the comet or whatever.
Now, that's the kind of cult we're talking about here, where you have to raise your hand for permission to speak, where strict celibacy is enforced, you know, the children are taken away, you know, and when they are allowed to reproduce, they're then held as hostages basically over them, where absolute command deference is given to the leader, Mairam Rajavi, where they all pretend her husband is still alive, even though he's been dead for who knows exactly, but probably 10 or 15 years, but they pretend that he's still the leader of the cult.
You know, Bo is dead and T's still leading it, for Christ's sake here.
The thing is completely mad.
Somebody should make a TV show about this thing.
Could be a comedy, really.
Yeah, but you know, it sounds weird, but I would not be surprised if you get some pushback just from doing this show about them.
They listen and they follow up and they know who their enemies are.
Well, yeah, you know, I mean, my Twitter feed this morning is because somebody wrote a decent thing about MEK for Huffington Post and tagged me in it on Twitter.
And then I'm getting nothing but, oh, yeah, well, the Iranian regime hangs people.
Oh, yeah, well, no doubt about that.
Now tell me how many Iranians want to be liberated from that by you?
That's actually the operative question here.
You know, it reminds me actually of just like Israeli Hasbara, too, where it's obligatory that they have to come and harass me with their stupid tweets, but it doesn't feel like their heart's really in it, you know?
Yeah, I mean, these guys, their hearts are in it.
I've got a couple more names for you.
James Woolsey.
I know that'll shock you.
He was paid by them to speak at a conference.
Porter Goss, former Intel, Howard Dean, General James Jones, Tom Ridge.
You know, it's a who's who of Washington.
Former very prominent candidates for president, former director of the office, and then later the Department of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge.
Exactly.
Paid to speak at their rallies.
Paid to speak at their rallies.
I guess it really is with most of these guys.
They really don't know, right?
All they know is their PR department told them, here, you're going to get paid to give this speech, and everybody else is doing it, and they don't know or care, and they just read their lines.
I mean, right?
Tom Ridge isn't obsessed with Iran, right?
He probably doesn't even know where Iran is.
Yeah, he makes the right noises, though, because he knows what side his bread is buttered on.
But you're right.
Hell, I might give a speech for the MEK for $50,000, Dan.
The hell do I care?
Exactly.
You know?
Nobody offered me $50,000, by the way, but I'd take it.
Yeah.
Please corrupt me.
Yeah.
Go ahead and try anyway.
We'll see.
All right.
Hey, so let me ask you about this.
Did you see that Rand Paul wrote a really decent thing for CNN.com about Syria and about John McCain and that Lindsey Graham almost said Joe Lieberman consensus there for what must be done and why.
We talked a little bit earlier there about the conflation of Assad and his enemies.
Yeah, exactly.
And it's, I mean, I'm glad to see him taking the lead on this, and it's tough because the war drums beat.
The president's approval rating shoots up, up, up as soon as he drops some bombs.
It's really disheartening.
But, you know, it's good to see that Rand has taken out this territory because he makes some very good points.
You know, he talks about the persecution of minorities in Syria.
He's certainly saying that he's not a fan of Assad.
But look, you know, two million Christians in Syria are protected by Assad and they don't want to be killed like they were killed in Iraq after we got rid of Saddam.
So he makes some excellent points.
And, you know, the title McCain and Graham are blind to the risks in Syria, which they are blind and they're insulated.
They're not going to have to suffer when they blow this country apart.
It won't affect them one whit.
Well, you know, if any of Rand Paul's people are listening to this show, you see the power of the bully pulpit that you have as a U.S. senator.
If you want to use that voice to do the right thing and especially, you know, and nobody needed to be told this, you don't have to go after McCain hard.
Just continue being the opposite of whatever he said.
Say it as gently as you need to.
But say it for God's sake.
Don't back down.
Keep up with this.
This is really powerful stuff.
You know, even in I don't always go for Rand Paul's spirit, but I can see here how a very mild mannered suggestion that, you know, the Constitution is the law and we all are bound by it.
And furthermore, you know, and if he wants to go after it that way, cool.
As long as he's, you know, in here by name, identifying McCain as the leader of those who got it wrong.
I mean, this is so good.
This is his very best day, if you ask me.
And I hope that he knows that.
I hope that he can see that, like, wow, you know, it's actually kind of fun sticking it to him instead of holding my fire all the time.
You know?
Exactly.
Listen to this paragraph.
I mean, this should be framed.
This is classic stuff.
The neocons were wrong about the war in Libya.
They were wrong about the war in Iraq.
And they are wrong about getting us further mired in the civil war in Syria.
They've been wrong about every major intervention of the past two decades in the Middle East.
Maybe it's time to quit listening to them.
Amen, brother.
Yeah, exactly.
And, you know, this is a real advantage that we have, is that the Republican Party, and this is what I've been saying since his father started running in 08, is like, great.
You know, they don't have any intellectual leadership whatsoever, except for Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich, who he's not even smart, as Sheldon Richman points out.
All he does is say fundamental all the time.
Profound and fundamental.
And that makes him sound smart, but he never says anything profound about anything fundamental.
He doesn't actually know anything.
And I guess there is, you know, Breitbart nowadays and whatever.
But it sure seems like there's a real big power vacuum as far as Republicans who actually know anything and could form a coherent argument about anything or what should be done about it.
And especially one that would actually be right, you know, what valid and sound.
So I just think what a huge opportunity for Rand.
He could be the leader of this country from the U.S. Senate starting tomorrow if he really tried.
You know?
Yeah.
A coherent philosophical approach to governing a sense of America's place in the world.
That's what's been lacking since the end of the Cold War, really.
And someone who can articulate, I think Trump tried to do that.
I don't know that if you eat, whether he believed it and was corrupted when he got in or if he knew he was bsing.
I don't know.
But he touched a lot of those right sounds.
But he didn't have the philosophical background.
Right.
It was just sound bites with him.
So someone with that background.
You're right.
I agree.
It could go far.
And he you know, he also pulls it off in this article, too, where he says Trump is right.
And when and then he notes the few sounds that Trump has made when he was actually right and he ignores the rest mostly, which is exactly what he should be doing is saying, Mr.
President, here's that anti funding terrorist bill, the the no more funding terrorist bill that you wanted.
I'm doing this because this is what you said your policy is.
So here tell tell the rest of the senators that you want them to support it to that kind of thing that I think is absolutely the best way to handle this is just it's a good approach.
Yeah.
I mean, give him the give him the opportunity to affirm his statements or to disavow them, you know.
And, you know, he's he's certainly he's isolated some of his strongest and most vocal supporters with his recent moves.
I don't think it's I don't think it's too late for him to back down.
Some of this may be, you know, the mistakes of someone, you know, early days in office.
But, you know, the more he hangs out, it's like with your kids, you know, the more he starts hanging out with a bad crowd, his behavior is going to get worse and worse.
Right.
As dumb as I constantly call him and I do think he is, he is smart enough to know, right, that the support of Bill Kristol is the kiss of death, dude, you don't want that.
That was why he was able to beat the rest of them as he said, well, that's who all the worst people support.
So you probably should support me instead.
And that was the winning sale right there.
He got it back then.
Yeah.
And to side with the D.C. think tank elite over the American people on this, this late in the game when people on the left and right in town and country and everywhere are sick and tired of this stuff by now, he really is making, I think, a bad political decision here.
Well, hopefully he's listening to us.
Maybe you'll call in next time and we'll set him straight.
Yeah, there you go.
Hey, Trump, check it out.
I know you don't like reading, but I got this podcast for you.
Exactly.
It's easy.
It's easy to listen.
Yeah, man.
It's great.
You'll hate it, but it's good anyway.
Yeah.
All right.
So listen, thank you for coming on the show and thank you for doing such a great job on that Liberty Report with Ron Paul every day.
I just, I just think it's great.
And I know that so many people, I get this vicarious thrill knowing that all of these strangers are watching it and are learning all of this stuff from you guys.
It's just the best thing on the Internet.
And thanks very much.
And the whole Ron Paul Institute is just great.
So thank you again, Dan.
Thank you, Scott.
All right, so that is the great Dan McAdams.
He's at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
I should have mentioned at the beginning, I meant to.
He was Ron Paul's foreign policy advisor for many years in his congressional office.
Now he runs the Ron Paul Institute and the Liberty Report.
It's on YouTube and it's at LibertyReport.com and lots of great stuff there, including check out Ron Paul's new essay that he wrote in memory of Will Grigg, too, that I thought was really great.
And I really appreciate that, Ron, by the way, if you hear this.
And that's the Scott Horton Show.
Check out the archives at ScottHorton.org, at LibertarianInstitute.org and follow me on Twitter at Scott Horton Show.
Thanks.
Hey, all.
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