January 2005: CIA Officer Approached by Pentagon Neocons to Oversee MEK Incursions into Iran

A Farsi-speaking former CIA officer says he was approached by neoconservatives in the Pentagon who asked him to go to Iran and oversee “MEK [Mujahedeen-e Khalq] cross-border operations” into Iran, which he refused to do. Commenting on the neoconservatives’ ambitions in Iran, the former officer says, “They are bringing a lot of the old war-horses from the Reagan and Iran-contra days into a sort of kitchen cabinet outside the government to write up policy papers on Iran.” He says their plans for Iran are “delusional.” “They think in Iran you can just go in and hit the facilities and destabilize the government. They believe they can get rid of a few crazy mullahs and bring in the young guys who like Gap jeans, all the world’s problems are solved,” he says. [Guardian, 1/18/2005] Journalist Craig Unger explains the neoconservatives’ willingness to rely on MEK fighters. For them, Unger writes, MEK is not a terrorist group, but “America’s best hope in Iran.” [Vanity Fair, 3/2007]