Ethics flap over sway of Iranian exiles

Trump official paid by ‘cultlike’ political wing

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB

EMIRATES• An official in U.S. President Donald Trump’s cabinet and at least one of his advisers gave paid speeches for organizations linked to an Iranian exile group that killed Americans before t he 1979 Islamic Revolution, ran donation scams and saw its members set themselves on fire over the arrest of their leader.

Elaine Chao, confirmed this week as Trump’s transportation secretary, received $ 50,000 in 2015 for a fiveminute speech to the political wing of the Mujahedeene- Khalq, previously called a “cultlike” terrorist group by the State Department.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani also was paid an unknown sum to talk to the group, known as the MEK.

More t han two dozen former U.S. officials, both Republican and Democratic, have spoken before the MEK, including former House Speaker and Trump adviser Newt Gingrich. Some have publicly acknowledged being paid, but others have not.

While nothing would have prohibited the paid speeches, they raise questions about what influence the exiles may have in the new administration.

Already, a group of former U.S. officials, including Giuliani, wrote a letter to Trump last month encouraging him to “establish a dialogue” with the MEK’s political arm.

With Trump’s ban on Iranians entering the U.S ., his administration’s call this week to put Iran “on notice” and the imposition of new sanctions on Friday, the exile group may find his administration more welcoming than any before.

A potential alliance with the MEK would link the U.S. to a group with a controversial history that has gone against American interests in the past by supporting Iran’s Islamic Revolution and the U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran. After fleeing Iran, the MEK joined forces with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It later exposed details of the clandestine nuclear program run by Iran, which views the MEK as its sworn enemy.

The MEK has long cultivated a roster of former U.S. and European officials to attend its events opposing Iran’s clerically run government. It pays for the appearance of many.

While the MEK continues to pay former U.S. officials for their time, the family of the American lieutenant colonel killed in Iran in 1975 has filed a US$ 35- million federal lawsuit in Colorado against the group and Iran.

The reason for the lawsuit, Jack Turner’s family says, is simple: “Unlike the U.S. hostages, our father never had the chance to come home.”