Earlier this month, NBC News published an article about the Iranian opposition group Mujahedin-e-Khalgh of Iran (PMOI/MEK), which contained so many false and long-disproved allegations that it was an affront to the notion of journalism.

The MEK is known around the world as the main opposition to the terrorist and criminal regime of the mullahs, championing democracy and freedom in Iran, but the article claimed that the MEK was a terrorist organization with ties to Marxism that is not popular within Iran.

Let’s deal with those baseless claims, which are ripped straight from the propaganda machine of the Iranian Regime and only empower the regime’s terrorist activities against MEK members, right now.

NBC News Needs to Stand on Right Side of History Regarding #Iran
https://t.co/STpzpfhBSM#MEK #FreeIran @USAdarFarsi

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) October 30, 2019

First, the MEK is not a terrorist organization. This is something that was proven in the highest courts of law within the US and the EU after the MEK wrongfully ended up on terrorism lists there in an attempt by the West to appease the Regime. The MEK is not on the terrorist watch lists of any of these nations now, but several of the Regime’s organizations are.

In fact, during the MEK’s 2018 Free Iran gathering in Paris, the Iranian Regime’s agents, including a diplomat was caught attempting to bomb the meeting, which was attended by 100,000 people. Thankfully, it was foiled by European authorities.

On the website of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Hossain Jahansouz, Ph.D., wrote: “The Iranian regime is the true terrorist in this story. They continually arrest innocent citizens, dual-nationality citizens, and foreigners based upon false allegations of spying. NBC News should focus efforts on the stories of these individuals instead of spreading fake news about MEK.”

Jahansouz continued: “It is important for NBC News to focus on the facts and provide accurate information to the public regarding the current Iranian regime’s terrorist activities, and support organizations like MEK that seek to overthrow the Iranian government and bring the country into a time of modernization and peace.”

MEK Supporters Respond to NBC’s Fake News
https://t.co/KnQBpO45v6#MEK #Iran #FreeIran @USAdarFarsi

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) October 26, 2019

Second, the MEK is supported by the Iranian people and their diaspora, which is the reason that the MEK-led Iranian uprising is going strong, why the MEK’s gatherings across the world have so many attendees, and how the MEK get the money needed to keep going.

Third, the MEK is not a Marxist organization. When MEK leaders were imprisoned by the Shah in the 1970s, Marxists usurped the party, but upon the release of the sole surviving MEK member Massoud Rajavi in 1979, the Marxists were kicked out and the organization restored.

NBC News published an article on October 17, which contained several long-disproved claims about the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK Iran). Anyone could see that the source for this article is actually the Iranian Regime, but after NBC refused to publish the rebuttal, written by Ali Safavi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), he decided to publish it.

In the rebuttal, Safavi made seven points which we will address briefly, but you should read it in full.

Safavi began by explaining that the MEK has spent 40 years fighting for democracy against the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world and, as a result, has been severely attacked by those who advocate appeasing the mullahs.

He said: “Unable to openly defend the religious dictatorship in Iran, these apologists instead demonize the regime’s democratic alternative to justify appeasing the current regime.”

I've looked through every tweet by Obama's counter-terror chief @Benjamin05055 & haven't found a word against Iranian regime's terrorism. Yet he attacks @realDonaldTrump's 'maximum pressure' campaign & @StateDept's decision to designate Iran's IRGC as a terror org. Wondering why? pic.twitter.com/AlftxsNyCL

— M. Hanif Jazayeri (@HanifJazayeri) October 20, 2019

Safavi noted that the article quoted former State Department official Daniel Benjamin, who was the main opponent to the MEK’s legal battle against the false terrorist designation levied against it in the 1990s to appease the mullahs.

This is not the first time NBC has sought a quote from Benjamin. Last year, when European law enforcement agencies foiled the regime’s terror plot against the MEK in Paris, NBC echoed Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif by calling the plot a “false flag” and then quoted Benjamin as saying that nothing was simple and shifting the blame to the victims.

Then, Safavi quotes the US State Department’s recent release about the Iranian regime’s malign activities during nuclear negotiations and after the signing of the nuclear agreement as proof of Iran’s evil actions, especially against the MEK.

Safavi wrote: “The dozens of honourable and bipartisan American figures who support the MEK and the Iranian Resistance represent the conscience of humanity against the evils of the theocratic rulers of Iran. Targeting these personalities, including America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who have distinguished careers, is part of the clerical regime’s vilification campaign against the MEK, which is sadly echoed by supporters of appeasement vis-a-vis the regime like Daniel Benjamin.”

Safavi explained that Benjamin had while working as the State Department’s Counterterrorism official “inexplicably” refused to implement the orders of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to delist the MEK, meaning that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had to do it herself.

Safavi then easily dismissed claims that the MEK has no base in Iran, citing that over 100,000 of its members have been executed, yet they still continue to donate money to the MEK, hang up their posters, and fight for freedom.

Safavi wrote: “Such a movement could not have survived, much less continuously expand, for more than five decades without an extensive popular base. Why would an organization that lacks social support become the clerical regime’s main existential problem?… Hours after the publication of the NBC article, the clerical regime’s state-run media outlets, including the Fars news agency tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), embraced it and translated it into Farsi. Serving the godfather of terrorism and arming it with more fodder to suppress the Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance is utterly shameful.”

More than 100K of #MEK members &sympathizers have been executed. Such a movement could not have survived, much less continuously expand, for more than five decades without an extensive popular base. https://t.co/SXRQDBOIaA #NBC #FakeNewsMedia #WeSupportMEK #FreeIran pic.twitter.com/2w6jykoORH

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 20, 2019