Irani Exiles

According to Jim Lobe, there are "at least three main factions of Iranian dissidents who would accept U.S. funding: the pro-monarchists who support Reza Pahlavi, the former shah's son; the anti-monarchists and pro-democracy dissidents who, like the monarchists, oppose the MEK; and the MEK adherents, who appear to be the largest organized faction in the United States and Europe and to be also the best financed. MEK supporters currently stand to the right of the Bush administration, which has thus far declined to take the MEK off the list of terrorists. There have also been reports, notably in the American Conservative in an item written by former CIA officer Philip Giraldi, which say that the U.S. Special Forces have been working with the MEK in carrying out reconnaissance and intelligence collection operations in Iran."

Related Articles

• Connie Bruck, Exiles: How Iran's Expatriates are Gaming the Nuclear Threat, New Yorker, 6 March 2006