Henry of Arabia

by Greg Grandin The only person Henry Kissinger flattered more than President Richard Nixon was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. In the early 1970s, the Shah, sitting atop an enormous reserve of increasingly expensive oil and a key… Continue Reading

The MEK As a Wedge Issue for Neo-Con Iran Hawks

While you would expect the State Department’s decision to de-list the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) would elicit cheers from anti-Iran neo-conservatives, the MEK has, in fact, been one of a number of issue — including former Israeli… Continue Reading

U.S. to Take Iran Anti-Regime Group Off Terrorism List

By Jim Lobe and Jasmin Ramsey via IPS News In a move certain to ratchet up already-high tensions with Iran, the administration of President Barack Obama will remove a militant anti-regime group from the State Department’s terrorism list, U.S. officials told… Continue Reading

FDD Opens Iran Confab; Dinner at Oren’s? (Nope! UPDATED)

(UPDATED: Below I guessed that the FDD fundraiser at the residence of an unnamed ambassador to the U.S. would be at Israeli ambassador Michael Oren’s house. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Turns out it was a Pakistani ambassador Husain Haqqani’s house. That… Continue Reading

Skepticism about MEK’s alleged Iranian nuke revelation

The Iran Policy Committee, a neoconservative-led group associated with the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), held a press conference today in Washington to reveal what it said was a previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear site near the Iranian city of Qazvin. The MEK,… Continue Reading