Saddam-backed terrorists hold U.S. fund-raiser
Congressman seeks probe of event in Washington this weekend
Posted: January 24, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
A congressman is asking the Justice Department to probe sponsors of a fundraising event in Washington tonight for possible ties to an Iranian terrorist group supported by Saddam Hussein.
The Iranian-American Society of Northern Virginia's "solidarity" fund-raiser at Washington Convention Center will attempt to raise $140,000 for survivors of the 30,000 victims in the Dec. 26 earthquake in Iran, reported the congressional newspaper, The Hill.
Rep. Robert Ney, R-Ohio, has asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate whether some of the event's sponsors are tied to Mujahedin-e Khalq, the MEK, or People's Mujaheddin, a known terrorist group.
Ney, noting organizers featured an MEK official's picture in marketing material, believes the event likely violates the global terrorist support ban.
"The MEK is hiding behind earthquake victims; you'll find those [sponsors] are false groups," Ney told The Hill. "They're not supposed to operate, and I don't know what they're going to do with the money. I just think it smells."
The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said they were aware of the event, but they declined to comment.
The Hill said an MEK representative in Washington did not return repeated calls for comment.
An official with the Iranian-American Community of Northern Virginia would not provide any details on the participating groups, the paper said.
"It's about solidarity with victims of the earthquake in Iran and to support the Iranian Resistance and call for referendum in Iran," said the official, who would not give his name.
The official said all of the money raised would be donated to the American Red Cross, but a Red Cross spokeswoman declared it "will not be accepting donations from this fund-raiser."
"Given the political undertones of the event, we just could no longer field donations because of the potential to compromise our neutrality, but the Red Cross has backed out of the event," said Jacki Flowers.
The MEK was responsible for the deaths of at least six American servicemen and civilians in Iran during the mid-1970s and participated in the 1979 U.S. Embassy seizure in Tehran, the U.S. intelligence community alleges.
The group fell out of favor with the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1986 and went to Baghdad to operate under the covering of Saddam Hussein.
Intelligence sources say the group launched periodic strikes inside Iran and participated in Saddam's deadly suppression of the Kurdish and Shiite minorities.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36759Does this Mr. Ney work with NIAC? A branch of Mullahs' regime in the U.S?
Iran denies Sept. 11 connection
Iran has denied that it had anything to do with the September 11th
attacks in the United States two and a half years ago. A statement
issued by the Iranian Embassy in Berlin categorically denied that
Iran had any involvement in the attacks. It also said that there
was no connection between Tehran and the al Qaeda terror network.
The denials were in response to allegations of a witness in the
Hamburg trial of a Moroccan man accused of involvement in the
attacks. The witness, quoted by an investigating police officer at
the trial, said Iran was behind the attacks. Media reports said
security experts do not believe the claims of the alleged Iranian
former spy.
http://www2.dw-world.de/english/news_bulletin/4.101388.1.html