Former US national security advisor�John Bolton�has admitted to receiving tens of thousands of dollars from the anti-Iran terrorist cult of Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) at a time when the group was still a banned terrorist outfit and not removed from the Washington�s black list.
In an interview with Al Jazeera's Presenter Mehdi Hassan, the Iran hawk was asked to expound on his long-time animosity with the Islamic Republic as well as his relationship with the MKO, which has long been responsible for the death, assassination�and torture of thousands of Iranians.
�How much of your antipathy towards Iran is to do with geopolitics, and how much is to do with the fact that you have a long association with a group called MKO which was once a terrorist group banned by the state department while you worked there,� Hassan asked Bolton.
�You don�t mention that in your book; I looked in your book and there was no mention of the MKO. I think you took tens of thousands of dollars for several speeches. I just wonder how much that influences you policy on Iran?� the Al Jazeera's presenter queried.
The former US national security advisor adopted a confident posture and responded, �You know that I took tens of thousands of dollars for speeches in liberal universities in the United States.�
Bolton, however, tried to pass the buck by saying, �The fact is that [former US secretary of state] Hillary Clinton, perhaps someone you support, took the MKO off the US list of terrorist organizations.�
The answer by Bolton was swiftly rejected by Hassan, who argued that, �She took it off in 2012 and you spoke with them in 2010 when they were still a banned group.�
While Bolton was still trying to conceal the fact, Hassan asserted that��you were in Paris speaking at a MKO rally in 2010 when they were still a banned group according to the State Department.�
The MKO has conducted many assassinations and bombings against Iranian officials and civilians since the 1979 victory of Iran�s Islamic Revolution. It notoriously sided with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during his 1980-88 war on Iran.
Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist assaults since the Revolution, about 12,000 fell victim to the MKO�s acts of terror.
Source: Press TV