Why do the Republicans have such a penchant for associating with terrorists?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6242223/site/newsweek/

Shades of Gray

The Duelfer report alleges that Saddam gave funds to a listed terror group. But the claim does little to advance the White House case for war

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek
Updated: 7:44 a.m. CT Oct 17, 2004

Oct. 13 - The new report by chief U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer contains evidence that Saddam Hussein allegedly used the United Nations-managed Oil-for-Food program to provide millions of dollars in subsidies to a group the U.S. State Department has branded a foreign terrorist organization.

But so far, the Bush administration has made little of Duelfer’s surprise discovery which, on its face, would seem to strengthen White House claims that Saddam’s regime had longstanding ties to terrorism. snip

The new documents relating to the MEK underscore the awkward problems the group has long presented for U.S. officials. For the past seven years, the State Department has labeled the MEK a terrorist organization, depicting it as a cultlike organization that “mixes Marxism and Islam.” The department’s most recent annual “Patterns of Global Terrorism” report says the group has been implicated in repeated bombings, mortar attacks and political assassinations inside Iran. "This group has a long, bloody history of committing terrorist acts and retains the capability to do so," a U.S. counterterrorism official said today when asked about the MEK.

Saddam is known to have supported the group for years as a potential subversive force against the theocratic mullahs in Tehran. Just last year, the U.S. Treasury Department shut down the operations of an affiliated group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, on the grounds that it was serving as the political front—with an office at the National Press Building in Washington, D.C.—for the MEK.

But at the same time, the MEK has been championed for years by leading members of Congress who, like its spokesman, have described it as a legitimate resistance movement opposing a tyrannical government run by religious fanatics. As recently as four years ago, more than 200 members of Congress signed statements endorsing the National Council’s cause (including prominent Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Missouri GOP Sen. Kit Bond.)

When Mahnaz Samadi, one of the group’s spokeswomen, was detained by U.S. immigration authorities in early 2000 on grounds that she did not disclose her past “terrorist” ties, including her role as a “military commander” for the MEK, John Ashcroft, then a senator, wrote a letter of “concern” to Attorney General Janet Reno. As first reported by NEWSWEEK in September 2002, Ashcroft described Samadi as a “highly regarded human-rights activist” and a “powerful voice for democracy.” (A spokeswoman for Ashcroft at the time said he was “supporting democracy and freedom in Iran” and that he did not “knowingly” intend to endorse a member of any terrorist organization.)

[Yael]

1. Because theres cash involved?

Terra is only 'terra' when it involves oil and war profits.

Nothing to be made in Burma or Darfur, so we politely look the other way.