She resembles Flynt Leveret and Hillary Mann, the couple who met with Mohsen Rezayee a few years after the invasion of Iraq. Right after, they called for the extradition of MEK members in Ashraf. The State D didin't do it.

The following article has their names plus Slavin, Parsi, et al.

Consortium News

MehrdadA,

I know there will always be amoral people, like that Leverett duo, having no problem making money at the price of the elongation of misery for the Iranian people.

However, I have a big problem with those who under the guise of “journalist” make their blood money and/or do propagandizing for the Islamist fascists - ”reformers” and all. 

Fred,

Speaking of journalists, a few years ago, when the State D was about to delist MEK, 37 people filed a petition against it. Trita's name wasn't a surprise. But, Maziar Bahari, a journalist, and Raming Jahanbogloo (If I am not mistaken) were both on the list. 

Both had been detained in Iran under physical pressure and torture, yet their animosity with MEK was more palpable. Here is the link.

MehrdadA,

Assuming they are honest, there are those who have not yet come to terms with the unreformability of the monster.

Preferring to continue believing the figment of their own imagination, it is hard for some to accept reality, it will eventfully be force on them. 

It's a long time this woman's credentials should have been questioned.

I never trusted her.

Al Monitor is financed by a Pro Assad Syrian Millionaire who was lobbying for Hezbollah and Iran through this media network.

She belongs to the think tanks who lured Obama into this faustian pact with Iran with the terrible consequences for the middle east.

Even Abbas Milani fell for this "expert" early on ... 

Should the U.S. Use "Surgical Strikes" on Iran?

Even our idiotic "sadeh low" Shahrvand has become their useful idiot by signing the "mashoor 91" created by that so called "Ann Telectual" Ramin JAhanbegloo just about the time RP created his silly Shora with his new NIAC buddies ...

'Charter 91' Seeks to Unite Iranians Around a Tolerant Visionby Barbara Slavin

@Fred and MehrdadA: I read Maziar Bahari's book "Then They Came For Me" a few years ago. In it, he makes the claim that the MEK was responsible for turning the 2009 protests violent (and doesn't provide any credible proof for said claim)! Otherwise, it's a fairly decent enough book and I do sympathize with him for the torture he was subjected to in prison.

Amir,

I appreciate anyone sympathizing with anyone else tortured by IR. Iranians have become desensitized about torture and death by the regime. Just look at Narges' story and look around and see how many Iranians are aware of it.

All these so-called Intellectuals and academics including our "philosopher" Jahannohloo, Esfandiari, Bahari, and now Namazi went to Iran to "effect" change and influence the "green" movement. And, they all got what others had received in the 80s: Got their heinies flogged. And some of them got that Stockholm syndrime, like Esfandiari.  Namazi is probably next.

Had they known the nature of the regime, they would have never tried it. So, is that fair that others should pay the price of their ignorance about Iran? The first time MEK was blamed was by the Tudeh Party and accused of deviating the revolutionary road! They still say if not for the role of MEK, Iran would have been in the sphere of the Soviets by now.

The reformers don't want to accept that their project has failed in taming an incorrigible regime. I too sympathize with Bahari about his experience, but blaming MEK for the debacle of 2009 is ignorance.

Mehrdad,

I agree with essentially everything you wrote above. Despite being a physician, I actually got my BA in History -- mostly Mideast history, but I took a class on History of Communism. One of the things the professor once said was that the top Commies Stalin persecuted during his show trials in the 1930s (Zinoviev, Kamenev et al.) went along with the trials at least in part because they were still "true believers" in their decrepit "Workers Paradise" (that, and because they were tortured in prison, of course). Even when Communism was killing them, they were still "true believers"!

If you ever want to read a short, excellent novel along the same lines, read Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon" -- though Koestler himself was thoroughly disillusioned with Communism.

Best regards.

Amir,

No wonder some call the 1979 revulotion an illegitimate son of Bolshevism and Shiism. The show trials of the Tudeis in the 80s released last year by the regime is reminiscent of those past decades. Every single one of them at old age repented, and some began their statement with "besmellah."

Their remnants today, however, still propagate that worker paradise.

GR,

Yes, I agree with you. Bahari's claim is preposterous, at best, or perhaps simply regime propaganda, as you point out.

Mehrdad,

The book "Tortured Confessions" by Ervand Abrahamian (himself a Marxist) makes the same point.

Amir,

As you know, Tudeis and their ilk stayed silent about the tortures of the 80s, until they were caught themselves. That book by the leftist Abrahamian was published years after the dust has setteled in prisons. He also still harbors vendetta against the 1953 coup. 

I am saying that whole generation of the old pro-Soviet as well as independent lefties, now in their 70s, have been a stumnling block to economic and social progress in Iran.

Mehrdad,

I could not agree more!