{"id":25545,"date":"2018-11-22T09:43:01","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T09:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/blog\/25545-character-assassination"},"modified":"2023-01-19T14:23:18","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T13:23:18","slug":"character-assassination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/blog\/character-assassination\/","title":{"rendered":"Character Assassination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Ali-Safavi-100\" class=\" alignleft size-full wp-image-52345\" style=\"float: left;margin: 5px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/11\/Ali-Safavi-100.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"115\" \/><strong>By\u00a0Ali Safavi<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Character assassination, a particularly repugnant political tactic, has been employed extensively throughout history. An extreme case in contemporary American history, McCarthyism, has since been condemned by the public and political circles, both Democrat and Republican. Slander, distortion, fabrication and sophistry are the tools of the trade. Hitler\u2019s propaganda minister, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org\/joseph-goebbels-on-the-quot-big-lie-quot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joseph Goebbels<\/a>, believed that the bigger the lie, the more convincing. <a href=\"http:\/\/factmyth.com\/factoids\/machiavelli-said-the-ends-justify-the-means\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Machiavelli<\/a> taught that the ends justify the means. Both \u201cprinciples\u201d are applied in character assassination.<\/p>\n<p>Paul Pillar\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/nationalinterest.org\/blog\/paul-pillar\/mek-and-bankrupt-us-policy-iran-35982\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The MEK and the Bankrupt U.S. Policy on Iran<\/a>\u201d (The National Interest, Nov. 13), is the latest in a chain of attempts to denigrate the legitimacy of the main Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.english.mojahedin.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PMOI\/MEK<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>As to whether this litany of stale, utterly preposterous slander will achieve its goal is an entirely different matter. Hundreds of ad hominem attacks against the MEK by the Iranian regime and its propagandists have proven futile, as evidenced by the movement\u2019s growing popularity and wherewithal in Iran, and its standing on the world stage, which leads us to conclude that Pillar\u2019s diatribe does not have a snowball\u2019s chance in hell.<\/p>\n<p>Based on his own writing and public comments, Pillar is a fervent proponent of engaging with Tehran. Regardless of his motives, however, he has thrown a lifeline to the murderous mullahs, besieged by a determined population hell-bent on regime change, and jolted by a new direction in U.S. policy contrasting sharply with that of the previous administration.<\/p>\n<p>Inside Iran, protests and strikes are ongoing since the December 2017 uprising. Pillar\u2019s insistence that the MEK has virtually no support inside Iran is contradicted by the regime\u2019s top brass. Not a day has gone by without Supreme Leader <a href=\"https:\/\/irannewsupdate.com\/news\/iranian-opposition\/5502-new-pressures-on-iran-may-come-from-multiple-sources.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ali Khamenei<\/a>, or President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/wires\/afp\/article-5229589\/Rouhani-calls-Macron-act-anti-Iran-terrorists-France.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hassan Rouhani<\/a>, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tasnimnews.com\/en\/news\/2018\/01\/03\/1619070\/mko-trained-rioters-arrested-in-iran-irgc-chief\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Revolutionary Guard<\/a> commanders, or the heads of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/fr\/publications\/rapports-speciaux\/20576-manifestations-en-iran-les-racines-et-les-perspectives\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Judiciary<\/a> and Legislature, or <a href=\"https:\/\/en.radiofarda.com\/a\/iran-friday-prayers-protests-rouhani\/29329200.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Friday prayer leaders<\/a>, or the state-run media denouncing the MEK\u2019s effective role in organizing and directing the anti-regime movement.<\/p>\n<p>Desperate to survive, Tehran has stepped up its war against the MEK on three fronts: targeting its network in Iran, waging terrorism abroad, and demonizing it in the media. <br \/>The regime\u2019s deadly crackdown, including the executions of dozens of protesters and the arrest of hundreds of MEK Resistance units, has proven ineffective in preventing young Iranians, especially women, from joining.<\/p>\n<p>Which is why, despite their dire need to garner European support as they grapple with re-imposed U.S. sanctions, the mullahs launched a number of high-profile extraterritorial terrorist attacks against the MEK and its affiliates in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/iran-plots-terror-on-european-soil-as-eu-tries-to-shield-regime-from-trump-sanctions-push\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tirana, Albania<\/a>, where thousands of the group\u2019s members reside; in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/france-freezes-iranian-assets-over-bomb-plot-blamed-on-tehran-1538487926\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paris, France<\/a>, where the MEK\u2019s parent coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NCRI<\/a>) is headquartered; and in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/public-safety\/us-charges-two-men-with-serving-as-agents-of-iran-spying-on-americans-and-jewish-center\/2018\/08\/20\/e6d69252-a4bf-11e8-8fac-12e98c13528d_story.html?noredirect=on&amp;utm_term=.db84d42a1df9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington, DC<\/a>, where the NCRI has a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncrius.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Representative Office<\/a>. Thankfully, the plots were foiled, and Tehran\u2019s diplomat-terrorists arrested and\/or expelled.<br \/>Having failed on both fronts, Tehran\u2019s only recourse is mud-slinging. Former Iranian Intelligence Minister, <a href=\"https:\/\/threadreaderapp.com\/thread\/1060982493392920576.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ali Fallahian<\/a>, wanted by Interpol for his role in the 1992 assassination of four <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1997\/04\/11\/world\/berlin-court-says-top-iran-leaders-ordered-killings.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kurdish dissidents<\/a> in Berlin, said as much on state-run TV: \u201c\u2026 We do not dispatch an intelligence officer, let\u2019s say to Germany, the US or Russia, and there he would say, \u2018well, I am from the Ministry of Intelligence, please provide me your information.\u2019 (We would do it) under the cover of businessmen or journalists\u2026\u201d<br \/>I will not dignify the baseless allegations in Pillar\u2019s piece, some of which border on vulgarity, by providing a point-by-point rebuttal. Over the years, dozens of independent and scholarly studies, relying on open sources and declassified documents, have provided crushing refutations, including those by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ubalt.edu\/about-ub\/news-events\/homepage-feature-items\/feature-item-57.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">University of Baltimore, DLA Piper<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.delistmek.com\/MUJAHEDIN-E-KHALQ-AN-INDEPENDENT-ASSESSMENT.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Iran Policy Committee, Akin Gump, Strauss Hauer &amp; Feld<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/archives-republicans-foreignaffairs.house.gov\/112\/blo120711.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-proliferation and Trade<\/a>.<br \/>What I will say is that Pillar\u2019s and other likeminded Tehran apologists\u2019 contention that all those who politically support or are affiliated with the NCRI and MEK, as well as the Iranian people (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/frances-bernard-kouchner-urges-probe-of-1988-iran-prison-massacre\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">120,000<\/a> of whose children fought and died for the noble ideals this movement espouses) are \u201cunaware\u201d and \u201cherded\u2026 like sheep, with no will of their own, and obedient only to their leader,\u201d is an insult to countless <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2018\/jul\/1\/national-council-resistance-iran-paris-gathering-s\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">American and European<\/a> statesmen, a large bipartisan group of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/three-decades-of-bi-partisan-congressional-support-for-the-iranian-opposition-the-mujahedin-e-khalq-mek-300368687.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Members of Congress<\/a>, the movement\u2019s highly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2018\/sep\/19\/meet-mek-iranian-freedom-fighters-longer-freedom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">educated activist<\/a>s and sympathizers, and the Iranian people.<\/p>\n<p>The fact is that the mullahs view the NCRI and MEK as an existential threat, and that is the only explanation for their round-the-clock, expensive campaign of demonization. In the apt words of one of America\u2019s founding fathers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brainyquote.com\/quotes\/john_adams_134175\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Adams<\/a>, \u201cFacts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By&nbsp;Ali Safavi Character assassination, a particularly repugnant political tactic, has been employed extensively throughout history. An extreme case in contemporary American history, McCarthyism, has since been condemned by the public [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":52345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[178],"class_list":{"0":"post-25545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog","8":"tag-save"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Character Assassination - NCRI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By\u00a0Ali Safavi Character assassination, a particularly repugnant political tactic, has been employed extensively throughout history. 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