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FBI Arrests Seven Members Of Iranian Dissidence Movement
LOS ANGELES, Feb 28
(IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced Wednesday it had arrested seven people here, believed to be members of the Iraq-based Iranian dissident movement Mujahedin al-Khalq (MEK), on charges of raising more than $1 million for the group.
"Seven people were arrested here following a three-year investigation," FBI official James DeSarno said at a press conference.
The arrests were made Tuesday as part of an investigation by the Los Angeles Task Force on Terrorism, prompted by a request from German officials, in connection with the soliciting of money from new arrivals at the airport here, mainly of Asian descent.
The MEK, or People's Mujahedeen, is listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization.
"An investigation uncovered this cell of the MEK and led to yesterday's arrests," Desarno said, adding that the group arrested " targeted travelers primarily of Asian descent as they arrived at Los Angeles airport."
"The MEK is a known terrorist group," said DeSarno, adding that, "I think the arrests are very significant ... We certainly hope it puts a crimp on their fund-raising activity."
"They [the group] dressed in business attire and used binders containing photographs of starving children, and other documents, and then aggressively solicited these travelers for their donations - some $5,000 to $10,000 a day collected in this manner," he said.
They told people who donated that the money was to be spent to aid a charitable group called "The Committee for Human Rights in Iran," which purported to use the funds to feed starving children.
"They also aggressively solicited members of the Iranian community," in the Los Angeles are, which is one of the largest Iranian expatriate communities in the world
The FBI investigation, known as Operation Eastern Money, was prompted by a request in June 1997 of the German federal criminal police who were conducting their own investigation into money laundering.
According to a federal affidavit, the Los Angeles-based fund-raisers transferred more than $1 million in donations to two Turkish bank accounts utilized by the MEK after which funds were transferred out of those accounts into an account of an auto parts store in the United Arab Emirates.
During April 1999 alone, more than $400,000 was transferred out of those accounts to the UAE account.
The transfer, FBI officials said, did not appear to be related to humanitarian relief.
"It is believed that the money was used to buy arms including mortars and rocket propelled grenades for the Mujahideen-e Khalq group's National Liberation Army,'' DeSarno said.
Formed in the 1960s by college-educated children of Iranian merchants, the MEK sought to counter what it saw as excessive Western influence in the then-Shah's regime, and followed a philosophy mixing both Marxism and Islam.
From the 1970s to the 1990s, the MEK staged attacks inside Iran where it killed several U.S. military personnel and civilians. The organization has carried out several rocket attacks and assassinations in Iran's big cities in recent months as part of a campaign to overthrow the Islamic Republic.
The MEK also participated in the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and occupied the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York in 1992.
"None of these [arrested] individuals ... are tied to any terrorist act, either here or in the United States or overseas,'' DeSarno said.
An arraignment was expected late on Wednesday in Los Angeles. The charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years per count, officials said.
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