A most peculiar kind of alliance

An Iranian opposition group, the Mujaheddin-e-Khalq, has been a valuable source of information to the U.S. government, about not only Iran's activities in Iraq (news - web sites) but also its secret nuclear program. More than a year ago, the organization also tipped American military officers that Ahmad Chalabi, then a major Iraqi ally of the Pentagon (news - web sites), was allegedly providing sensitive information to Iran's clerical regime. Chalabi denies such assertions.

Given that background, it would seem that everything would be just rosy between the MEK and the U.S. government. Not so. In October 1997, the State Department designated the MEK as a foreign terrorist organization, an allegation its leaders deny. The MEK supported the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran but later fell out with the radical mullahs there and established a base of operations in Iraq, with the support of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime. After invading Iraq in March 2003, U.S. military forces took control of the MEK, whose members number about 3,800. Today, the organization's members are based at a camp northeast of Baghdad, under U.S. guard. snip

...Last summer, the organization was given "protected person" status under the Fourth Geneva Convention by the U.S. military. So now the MEK enjoys the unique status of being the only designated terrorist group under Pentagon protection.

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