Deep background.

The recent visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Baghdad has resulted in a serious problem for the United States, and not only because it is another sign of the amicable relationship between Iran and Iraq that is further isolating Washington politically. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki promised Ahmadinejad that he would do everything in his power to eliminate Camp Ashraf, located 30 miles north of Baghdad, which is the base of the dissident Iranian terrorist group Mujaheddin e-Khalq. The United States, Iraq, and most countries in the European Union recognize that MEK is a terrorist group. It has traditionally been anti-Western and was responsible for taking U.S. citizens hostage during the Iranian revolution in 1979. There are also reports that it operates like a cult, torturing individuals who try to leave or who disagree with its leadership.

There are, however, constituencies both in Congress and within the Bush administration that are intent on protecting MEK because it is an enemy of the ayatollahs and claims to have the ability to carry out sabotage and information collection activity inside Iran. Congressmen Tom Tancredo and Ted Poe sponsored a "Get to know MEK" rally on Capitol Hill on Feb. 12 in a bid to have it removed from the State Department's terrorist list. The Pentagon insists that MEK is harmless, that it is contained in Camp Ashraf, and that it has been disarmed. But sources indicate that the public account is untrue and that MEK has a close and continuing relationship with Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman's office in the Pentagon and more particularly with Israel's Mossad.

MEK and its political arm, the National Council of Resistance in Iran, are reminiscent of the Iraqi National Congress of Ahmad Chalabi in that they exploit the popular notion that they represent national resistance to a hostile regime that has been targeted for change while providing a steady flow of information that supports the argument that Iran poses a genuine threat to U.S. interests. The problem for U.S. intelligence analysts who have seen MEK material is that the information is frequently unique, meaning that it cannot be verified. Yet it has sometimes been shown to be demonstrably false, so there is concern that it might nearly all be fabricated or distorted, intended to depict Iran in the darkest terms.

German intelligence sources have revealed that a laptop computer produced in 2004, containing alleged information on the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile programs, was provided to Washington by MEK. The evidence has been used to make a case against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency, though the U.S. has not allowed Tehran to review the actual documents. Some members of the IAEA are convinced that the documents are clever forgeries but have been unwilling to confront Washington on the issue. Since MEK has no capability to create forgeries of technical documents and blueprints, it is believed within the U.S. intelligence community that the laptop's information was fabricated by Mossad to help make the case for war against Iran.

Philip Giraldi is a former CIA officer and fellow at the American Conservative Defense Alliance.