Pipes supports terrorists

Daniel Pipes: Unleash the Iranian Opposition

This is an article by Daniel Pipes in the Jerusalem Post, plugging the so-called People's Mujahideen (or Mujahideen-e-Khalq), an organisation banned as a terrorist group in the US and the UK, but apparently not in France where its leader was able to rub shoulders with a US congressman (Bob Filner, D-CA) and the former Algerian PM Sid Ahmed Ghozali. Pipes's write-up mentions a few of the things that pleased him:

Simply put, the rogue oil state regime it opposes terrifies one half the West and tempts the other; and the MEK is itself accused of being a superannuated Marxist-Islamist terrorist cult.

These obstacles have not, however, prevented the MEK from trumpeting that Islamism is the new global threat, providing important intelligence to the West (for example, about Iran's nuclear program), terrifying the regime in Teheran, and putting on major displays of anti-regime solidarity. ...

[MeK leader Maryam] Rajavi's in-depth analysis mentioned neither the United States nor Israel, something extremely rare for a major speech about Middle Eastern politics. Nor did she even hint at conspiratorial thinking, a deeply welcome change for Iranian politics.

Finally, no other opposition group in the world can mount so impressive a display of muscle as does the MEK, with its thousands of supporters, many young, and a slate of dignitaries.

These factors, combined with the mullah's near-phobic reaction toward the MEK, suggest that the organization presents a formidable tool for intimidating Teheran.

I was put onto Pipes's article by a guest post at Harry's Place, a blog I don't link to or agree with often, but in this case they provide a number of references for why the MeK can't be trusted to deliver a "secular, democratic Iran", including one from the New York Times (not online, it seems) which describes how they force their members to divorce, deny them friendship and shield them from "corrupting" outside influences.

I find it amusing that the guest poster asks if Pipes has "lost his marbles". I think it's part of his usual agenda. After all, the MeK have not fought western forces for decades, and as long as they are only terrorising Muslim Iranians, that's OK by him.