PEJAK emerged this decade as an Iranian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, an armed group formed to fight a separatist war against the Turkish government.
Former members say PEJAK was meant to circumvent Western restrictions on contacts with the PKK, which has been labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department and the European Union.
"The PKK wanted to have a relationship with America, so it formed and used PEJAK," said Mamand Rozhe, a former commander who defected from the group four years ago.
U.S. military officials visited PEJAK's camps in northern Iraq just after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, said Osman Ocalan, a brother of the PKK's imprisoned leader and a founder of PEJAK.
"Since the beginning, we thought we would get the American help," said Ocalan, who left the group two years ago. "And it's a good relationship now. . . . They are in talks with each other, and there is some military assistance."
Ocalan and others say U.S. help has included foodstuffs, economic assistance, medical supplies and Russian military equipment, some of it funneled through nonprofit groups. Every two or three months, U.S. military vehicles can be seen entering PKK and PEJAK strongholds, Ocalan said.
"There's no systematic relationship, no number to call," he said. "Americans do not intend to have an official relationship. Whenever there's any kind of question by the Turks, they can say we don't have a relationship."
That's not to say that these secret war is limited to just the PEJAK, or that it is being done by rogue CIA agents. This proxy war is as fully funded and official as Reagan's Contra War in the 1980's. Just two days ago Andrew Cockburn reported that an official proxy war against Iran was authorized by President Bush himself.
Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, "unprecedented in its scope."
Bush’s secret directive covers actions across a huge geographic area – from Lebanon to Afghanistan – but is also far more sweeping in the type of actions permitted under its guidelines – up to and including the assassination of targeted officials. This widened scope clears the way, for example, for full support for the military arm of Mujahedin-e Khalq, the cultish Iranian opposition group, despite its enduring position on the State Department's list of terrorist groups.
Similarly, covert funds can now flow without restriction to Jundullah, or "army of god," the militant Sunni group in Iranian Baluchistan – just across the Afghan border -- whose leader was featured not long ago on Dan Rather Reports cutting his brother in law's throat.
Cockburn reports that this international operation has a starting budget of $300 million, but that is only what is available through official channels.
None of this is a surprise to people who have closely followed the events in the region. Seymour Hersch exposed the ties between these terrorist groups and the Bush Administration more than a year ago. Last February the Sunday Telegraph used the term "no great secret" when it referred to how the CIA was funding these terrorist groups.
The difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter
So exactly who are these groups and what have they done?
The PJAK is based out of northern Iraq and is strongly supported by our Kurdish allies, despite the bombing and incursions by the Iranian military which have killed dozens. Speaking of which, you would think that the Bush Administration would make a big stink about Iran bombing Iraqi territory. Yet they don't. The BBC elaborated on that.
What the politicians and intellectuals have realized is the fact that the USA will not abandon or adopt an act unless it serves its interests. It seems that it serves the US interests to disregard the Iranian shelling.
In the same article that the L.A. Times referred to the PEJAK as "rebels" (instead of "terrorists", which is what most nations refer to them as), they also mentioned how a kurdish woman killed several Iranian soldiers in a suicide attack.
"The Iranian government is strong, but not that strong."
- Akif Zagros, PJAK founding member
I should note that the PEJAK is the least offensive of the terrorist groups your tax dollars are going to support. On the extreme is the Jundullah (Army of Allah). ABC reported how the CIA was funding this group more than a year ago. They are as much terrorist as a terrorist group can get, including the bombings of girls schools.
According to Tariq Jamil, chief of the Karachi police, "Jundullah has close ties with Al-Qaeda." He's not the only one to claim that.
The interesting thing about Jundullah is that they aren't just fighting against Iran. They are also fighting against another one of our allies - Pakistan, and are critical of its ties to America.
The group hit the headlines after a daring attack last month on the motorcade of Karachi's Corps Commander. The general narrowly escaped death, but 11 people, including eight soldiers were killed. It was the most serious terrorist action targeting the military since the two failed assassination attempts on President Musharraf in Rawalpindi in December last year. Jundullah has also been involved in attacks on rangers, police stations, as well as the twin car bombings outside the Pakistan-US Cultural Center last month.
About a year ago, Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of the Jundallah, appeared on the Iranian branch of the Voice of America, and was identified as "the leader of popular Iranian resistance movement". The Iranian-American community was outraged. They didn't want their political resistance movement to be associated with a guy who cuts off people's heads.
Next on the list is Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK).
This group was violently anti-American in the 1970's. It carried out assassinations of American citizens in Iran during that time, and took part in seizing the American embassy in Tehran in 1979. However, it had a falling out with the new Iranian government.
MEK’s ideology, a blend of Marxism, feminism, and Islamism, put it at odds with the post-revolutionary government, and its original leadership was soon executed by the Khomeini regime. In 1981, the group was driven from its bases on the Iran-Iraq border and resettled in Paris, where it began supporting Iraq in its eight-year war against Khomeini’s Iran.
The MEK joined with Saddam's Iraqi government shortly before the 1988 massacre, and assisted in crushing the Shia revolt in 1991. The MEK is our leading source of information about Iran's alleged "nuclear weapons program".
MEK leader with Saddam
The newcomer to this group is Ahwazi Arab Renaissance Party. They were unknown until they launched a series of bombing against civilian targets that killed dozens starting in mid-2005.
Unlike the Jundallah, they seem to be more run-of-the-mill terrorists that a foreign government would often create, and that is exactly what the Iranian government has claimed.
Of course the Bush Administration's support for terrorist groups don't stop here. They also back violent Azeri rebel groups and yet another Kurdish group called Komala. There may be others that I'm not aware of.
Same ol' Song
We should take a step back and note that this is not a new policy by the American government in regards to the middle east.
To give you an idea just how hypocritical this "War on Terror" is, look at the guy the Bush Administration wanted as prime minister in Iraq - Iyad Allawi.
During the early 90's, Allawai was the head of the Iraqi National Accord.
Dr. Allawi's group, the Iraqi National Accord, used car bombs and other explosive devices smuggled into Baghdad from northern Iraq, the officials said. [...]
The Iraqi government at the time claimed that the bombs, including one it said exploded in a movie theater, resulted in many civilian casualties. One former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was based in the region, Robert Baer, recalled that a bombing during that period "blew up a school bus; schoolchildren were killed."
Dr. Allawi was a favorite of the C.I.A. and other government agencies 10 years ago...
So, can you tell the difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter yet? If not, let me remind you of when Osama bin Laden was still on the CIA payroll.
"Every country and every people has a stake in the Afghan resistance, for the freedom fighters of Afghanistan are defending principles of independence and freedom that form the basis of global security and stability."
- - Ronald Reagan on Afghanistan Day, 1982-03-10
Reagan also called the Contras "freedom fighters". Of course he went a step further and called them the "moral equivalent of our founding fathers". Now I didn't live in the 1770's, but I'm pretty sure our founding fathers weren't drug traffickers like the Contras were. Nor do I think our founding fathers targeted "bridges, electric generators, but also state-owned agricultural cooperatives, rural health clinics, villages and non-combatants."
Maybe Republicans have some different idea of our founding fathers than I do. Or maybe its a different idea of what freedom is, and why it is worth fighting for.
