Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK)
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The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), which John Kiriakou also renders as "Mujahedin al-Haq", is an Iranian opposition group he characterizes as "a quasi-communist cult" and a former U.S.-designated terrorist organization. He raises it primarily to discredit the intelligence the U.S. relied on in deciding to attack Iran: "When the only analysis you're getting or paying attention to is from either the Israelis or the MEK, which is really no more than a quasi-communist cult, then you can't rely on the information."

Origins and anti-American attacks

Per Kiriakou, the MEK was founded by a husband-and-wife team in the 1960s and based in northeastern Iraq, from which it launched cross-border terrorist attacks deep into Iran, including in Tehran. It attempted to murder the American ambassador and a three-star general who was the senior-most U.S. military official in Iran, and carried out anti-American terrorist attacks over the course of decades. In a separate telling, Kiriakou describes the group, originally communist opposition during the Shah's era, as having actually assassinated an American ambassador and kidnapped a US four-star general. In a third account, Kiriakou says the MEK, an Iran-based cult originally founded as a communist organization in northern Iraq, tried to kill the American ambassador and the senior-most American general in Iran during the 1970s and would kidnap and execute Iranian government officials.

Relocation to Paris; the Rajavi takeover

When Saddam Hussein later pushed the MEK out of Iraq, it relocated mostly to Paris. Kiriakou notes the recurring pattern, Paris was also where Ayatollah Khomeini lived until 1979 and where the Greek groups 17 November and Popular Revolutionary Struggle began. The husband of current leader Maryam Rajavi "vanished never to be seen again," and the conventional wisdom, per Kiriakou, is that "she killed him or had him killed and she took over the MEK." He gives the same account elsewhere: Rajavi's husband, the group's founder, simply disappeared one day, and it is rumored she killed him and buried him in the rock; she has since led the group from bases in Washington and Paris. In a third telling, Kiriakou again says the founder-husband "just vanished one day. Just disappeared," and that "the consensus is that she murdered him and disposed of his body so that she could take over the organization, which she has."

Delisting and the lobbying campaign

After Barack Obama's 2009 election, the MEK hired some of the most high-powered lobbyists in Washington, engaging both parties, "everybody from Howard Dean to Rudy Giuliani", to get itself removed from the terrorism list, appearing together at large fundraising banquets. Kiriakou's incredulity: "These are the people who tried to kill the US ambassador. But they're the good guys now." In a separate account, Kiriakou places the same rehabilitation earlier, saying the MEK hired Rudy Giuliani to represent it in Washington and was "feted" by the Clinton administration. Kiriakou also credits Hillary Clinton specifically with taking the MEK off the State Department's terrorism list, after which prominent Democrats and Republicans alike began taking MEK money to lobby on its behalf, with Clinton and Giuliani both later showing up at MEK fundraising dinners in Washington and New York to praise Rajavi as a great leader.

Israeli funding and assassinations

Per Kiriakou, the MEK is ardently communist, lacks the wherewithal to actually fight the Iranian government, and exists largely to arm itself with the American weapons its delisting now permits. He says the conventional wisdom is that "the Israelis use the MEK regularly to carry out these assassinations we've seen over the years in Tehran," and that the MEK takes "lots of money" from Israel. Elsewhere Kiriakou says he is "100% certain" the MEK, funded with Israeli money, is behind the protests and unrest inside Iran, which by his count had caused at least 15 deaths as of that telling.

The 2026 operation, and how it became known

Asked whether the unrest in Iran resembled the classic pattern of funded protests, paid journalists and street mobs, Kiriakou said it did, and assigned it jointly: "I think it''s more a joint Mossad,CIA operation. And the only reason I say that is because the Mossad has bragged about it in the Israeli press."

The operation as he describes it ran through the MEK. Israeli services "were working with the MEK, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, formerly a terrorist group, and they were able to lightly arm the MEK. They were able to get MEK operatives in Iran to set fire to mosques, and then to burn 38 fire trucks, so there was no way to put out the fires at the mosques." The rationale he gives for using a proxy at all is one of cost and exposure: "it''s easier, it''s cheaper and it''s safer for Americans if you let controlled mobs do your dirty work, rather than putting your own operatives on the ground."

Origins, and the rehabilitation

Kiriakou's account of the organisation begins with its founders: "the Mujahedin-e Khalq started off as something akin to a cult. It was founded by a married couple, the Rajavis. The husband mysteriously disappeared in the 1970s, the rumour was that his wife had had him killed and just buried in the desert somewhere. Maryam Rajavi took over the organisation."

The record he attaches to it: "this is an organisation that tried to assassinate the US ambassador in Iran in the 1970s, that tried to assassinate an American lieutenant general who was the highest ranking US military official in Iran." It was later given safe haven by Saddam Hussein in north-eastern Iraq.

The turn came with delisting: "in 2009, when Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State, we decided to take the MEK off the terrorism watch list. And immediately the likes of everybody from Rudy Giuliani to Howard Dean, prominent people on the left and the right in everyday American politics, they all started taking MEK money. And they started lobbying for the MEK."

"So all of a sudden now, Maryam Rajavi, who was a murderous lunatic just prior to this, was now feted in Washington at these gigantic dinners," with millions spent hiring further American political figures. And then, he adds, "we have the Mossad bragging that they have an operational relationship with the MEK."

The mosques and the fire engines

Kiriakou says he suspected the 2026 street protests in Iran were externally driven before anyone confirmed it, and names the detail that convinced him: "these protesters were burning mosques ... they burned 18 mosques. And then they set fire to 38 fire trucks. Well, if you're demonstrating for democracy and freedom, why in the world would you set mosques and fire engines on fire? That didn't make any sense to me."

His explanation is purpose rather than politics: "now it makes sense, because the Mossad and the CIA want chaos in Iran. Chaos to try to bring down this government." And a caution: "chaos has never resulted in anything better, at least in the near term. If there is chaos, a whole lot of people are going to die."

He attributes public knowledge of the joint operation to Mike Pompeo's own posting, "we know, thanks to Mike Pompeo's flapping gums, that this was a Mossad-CIA operation", while noting that in his own experience the CIA had no people on the ground in Iran and the Mossad had a great many.

See also

- Iran Nuclear Assessment
- MOSSAD
- Revolutionary Organization 17 November
- CIA
- John Kiriakou
