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Feds Say Court Shouldn't Interfere With MEK Terror List Review

Ryan J. Reilly | March 27, 2012, 12:05PM

MEK supporters rally outside the State Department as former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) speaks.

The Obama administration said Monday that an appeals court shouldn't interfere with the government's review of its designation of an Iranian opposition group as a terrorist organization.

The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, also known as MEK, wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to make the U.S. State Department purge the group from its list of designated terrorist organizations or require it take specific actions within a certain timeframe, Reuters reports.

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Topics: Department of Justice, Justice Department, MEK, Michael Mukasey, People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, State Department, Tom Ridge

MEK

Politicians Line Up With Iranian 'Terror' Group Despite Investigation

Ryan J. Reilly | March 26, 2012, 12:05PM

Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI).

An ongoing investigation into payments made to high-profile figures speaking on behalf of an Iranian opposition group the U.S. considers a terrorist organization hasn't scared them away from advocating on its behalf.

Republican and Democratic politicians alike showed their support for the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, at two events last week: one in a Congress and one in France. The MEK and its supporters are campaigning to have the group removed from the U.S. State Department's list of officially designated terrorist organizations.

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Topics: Ed Rendell, Iran, MEK, Maryam Rajavi, Michael Mukasey, Patrick Kennedy, Rudy Giuliani, Tom Ridge

MEK

State Dept. Refutes Ridge Claim That MEK Has Special Protection Under Geneva Convention

Eric Lach | February 1, 2011, 8:48AM

Fmr. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge (R)

When a who's who of Washington heavyweights spoke at a panel two weeks ago on behalf of the MEK, an Iranian opposition group currently considered a terrorist organization by the State Department, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge made a claim that the members of the group who currently reside in Iraq enjoy special protection under the Geneva Convention. But the State Department tells TPM that's not true.

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Topics: Executive Action, Geneva Convention, Iran, Iraq, MEK, State Department, Tom Ridge

Iran

Giuliani, Tom Ridge Go To Paris To Support Iranian Marxist Terrorist Group

Rachel Slajda | December 23, 2010, 12:42PM

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Inset: the MEK logo.

This Wednesday, a group of prominent Bush-era Republicans, including former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, former White House adviser Frances Townsend and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, flew to Paris to speak in support of an Iranian exile group there -- one that's been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.

"The United States should not just be on your side," Giuliani told the group, the Washington Post reported. "It should be enthusiastically on your side. You want the same things we want."

The group, known as Mujaheddin-e Khalq or MEK, is a militant group that's been violently fighting the Iranian government since the 1960s. It has ties to the regime of Saddam Hussein, which trained and outfitted the MEK and for whom the MEK fought in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. According to the State Department, which declared the group a terrorist organization in 1997, the group's philosophy is a combination of "Marxism, Islam, and feminism."

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Topics: Frances Townsend, Iran, MEK, Michael Mukasey, Rudy Giuliani, Terrorism, Tom Ridge

Alberto Gonzales

Bush Team Reunites To Cover 'Vindicated' Alberto Gonzales' Defense Bills

Ryan J. Reilly | December 3, 2010, 11:18AM

Fmr. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and President George W. Bush

With the Justice Department investigation of the U.S. Attorneys scandal wrapped up without charges, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has some big legal bills to pay. So Gonzales called on several Bush administration officials -- including former President George W. Bush himself -- to help.

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Topics: Alberto Gonzales, Condoleezza Rice, DOJ Office Of The Inspector General, Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush, Glenn Fine, Hank Paulson, John Bolton, Justice Department, Michael Chertoff, Tom Ridge

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Cheney, Ridge Pioneered Miranda Attack On Obama

Justin Elliott | February 9, 2010, 3:43PM

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Former Vice President Dick Cheney

It turns out that the criticism surrounding the decision to read Miranda rights to the attempted Christmas bombing suspect didn't originally come from any office-holding Republican.

Rather, it was pioneered by Tom Ridge and Dick Cheney in the days after Christmas, and only later picked up by members of Congress like Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) and Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO).

With the heated Obama-GOP back-and-forth this week over the Mirandizing of Umar Abdulmutallab, we decided to look back at the facts of what happened, and when critics pounced on the issue.

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Topics: Dick Cheney, Kit Bond, Miranda rights, Northwest Flight 253, Pete Hoekstra, Tom Ridge, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Bond Spokesperson: Bush Erred In Trying Shoe Bomber As Civilian

Justin Elliott | January 4, 2010, 9:18AM

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO)

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) on Sunday became the latest Republican to criticize the Obama Administration for handling the would-be Christmas day bomber as a civilian, and Bond's communications director added on Twitter that trying shoebomber Richard Reid in federal court was a "mistake."

The comments by Bond, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Fox News Sunday echo calls by Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, for Umar Abdulmutallab to be tried in a military tribunal.

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Topics: Kit Bond, Pete Hoekstra, Richard Reid, Shana Marchio, Tom Ridge, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Hoekstra: Abdulmutallab Should Be Classified As 'Enemy Combatant'

Justin Elliott | December 30, 2009, 1:42PM

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI)

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) believes the Obama Administration should have ordered that alleged terrorist Umar Abdulmutallab be taken into military custody and held as an enemy combatant, his spokesman tells TPMmuckraker.

Abdulmutallab is currently in federal prison in Michigan and is expected to be tried in U.S. district court.

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Topics: Enemy Combatant, Jamal Ware, Pete Hoekstra, Pete King, Richard Reid, Tom Ridge, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Bush Administration

Maddow On 'The Incredible Magic Al Jazeera Scam' (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | December 22, 2009, 10:50AM

Rachel Maddow last night interviewed journalist Aram Roston about the finer points of the revelation, published in Playboy, that a December 2003 Orange terror alert was prompted by supposed decoding technology that revealed terrorist communications in Al Jazeera broadcasts.

Maddow plays some remarkable media reports from 2003, complete with scare quotes from Tom Ridge about catastrophic attacks "against the homeland."

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Topics: Al Jazeera, Aram Roston, Bush Administration, CIA, Dennis Montgomery, Department of Homeland Security, Rachel Maddow, Terror Alerts, Tom Ridge

Bush Administration

Report: Bush Admin Raised Terror Alert Based On Con Man's Al Jazeera 'Decoding' Scam

Justin Elliott | December 21, 2009, 9:32AM

Then-Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge making an announcement about the Code Orange terror alert in December 2003.

A self-styled Nevada codebreaker convinced the CIA he could decode secret terrorist targeting information sent through Al Jazeera broadcasts, prompting the Bush White House to raise the terror alert level to Orange (high) in December 2003, with Tom Ridge warning of "near-term attacks that could either rival or exceed what we experience on September 11," according to a new report in Playboy.

The report deals another blow to the credibility of the Department of Homeland Security's color-coded terror alert system, and comes after Ridge's claim that the system was used as a political tool when he was DHS secretary.

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Topics: Al Jazeera, Bush Administration, Dennis Montgomery, Frances Townsend, Homeland Security, Terror Alerts, Tom Ridge

Bush

Fran Townsend: We Discussed If Raising The Terror Alert Would Hurt Bush

Versha Sharma | August 21, 2009, 10:44AM

Fran Townsend, Bush's Homeland Security adviser and CNN contributor, appeared on the network again this morning to refute Tom Ridge's new claim that he was pushed to raise the terror alert on Election Eve 2004 for political reasons.

She repeated much of what she said on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer last night - namely, that "there was no discussion of politics whatsoever," but she added some new contradictory information about "discussion on the margins."

"The only discussions I recall were on the margin - there was concern that if the intelligence supported raising the threat level, it might actually [be] to the detriment of President Bush because people might perceive it as being political," said Townsend.

Here's the video:

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Topics: Bush, Tom Ridge, War on Terror

Tom Ridge: I Fought Against Raising Security Threat Level On The Eve Of 2004 Election

Versha Sharma | August 20, 2009, 5:10PM

In his new tell-all book, former Secretary Of Homeland Security Tom Ridge reveals that he was under intense political pressure to raise the national security threat level on the eve of the 2004 presidential election.

In The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege...and How We Can Be Safe Again, to be released September 1st, Ridge says that he fought against changing the terror alert and wondered at the time whether the Ashcroft- and Rumsfeld-backed request was about "security or politics," because while there was "nothing to indicate a specific threat and no reason to cause undue public alarm...Post-election analysis demonstrated a significant increase in the president's approval rating in the days after the raising of the threat level."

From the book:

On Friday, October 29, 2004, Osama bin Laden delivered a new videotape message that aired on the Arab language network Al Jazeera. The presidential election scheduled for the following Tuesday was tightening. The most recent polls had Bush leading Kerry by no more than two or three points. Having won my first congressional election by 729 votes and experienced the volatility of the election cycle during several campaigns, this race was literally a dead heat going into the final seventy-two hours.
...

We huddled that Friday night. Next morning we met early at the department's headquarters. The country was unaware that all levels of government had quietly ramped up security several weeks before the election, although not to the level that would have been required had we actually gone to a higher public threat level (orange). The timing of the tape may have been a surprise; the content was not. Within the department no one felt it necessary to consider additional security measures or to call the Homeland Security Council into session.

In a conference call with members of the Bush administration's national security and counter-terrorism team, Ridge pushed back against the request, which Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were eagerly promoting.