Iranian exiles just want freedom! (Even if they are terrorists.)

Wasn't I just writing about Iranian "exiles" and up pops a story about the "National Council of Resistance of Iran" (NCRI) telling the U.S. the Iranian government spent "$2.5 billion to obtain three nuclear warheads last year.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an exile group that wants to oust Iran's clerical rulers, said Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had told the defense minister to take steps to obtain nuclear warheads.

"In mid-2004, Khamenei allocated $2.5 billion to obtain three nuclear warheads," Mohammad Mohaddessin of the NCRI told a news conference in Paris."

The problen with the NCRI is that it is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

wikipedia says the NCRI is associated with

"...The Mojahedin-e-Khalq...(which) is also known as the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), the Mujahideen al-Khalq, the Mujahideen al-Khalq Organization (MKO), or The People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI).

Its armed wing is called the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA). The organization, which was founded in 1965, is today a violent guerrilla group that opposes the Islamic Iranian government.

The MKO has been officially designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation by the United States and is proscribed in the European Union, though the movement claims to be a "patriotic, Muslim and democratic organization".

The MKO began life as one of the most radical factions opposed to the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and during the 1970s carried out violent attacks against that regime. Some also blame the group for attacks on American interests and the murder of Americans during that time."

Shaking hands with Saddam:

But hey, we did buisness with Osama Bin Laden and Saddam, so how bad can these guys be? Plus, whoever is against the Mullahs is a friend of ours. [Iraq's determination to gas the Iranians into the stone age provided positive atmospherics to U.S./Iraq talks.]

:
At one time Iraq was a state sponsor of terrorism but that all went away too...

"A State Department background paper dated November 16, 1984 said that Iraq had stopped using chemical weapons after a November 1983 demarche from the U.S., but had resumed their use in February 1984.

On November 26, 1984, Iraq and the U.S. restored diplomatic relations.

Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, in Washington for the formal resumption of ties, met with Secretary of State George Shultz.

When their discussion turned to the Iran-Iraq war, Aziz said that his country was satisfied that "the U.S. analysis of the war's threat to regional stability is 'in agreement in principle' with Iraq's."

What the hell ever happened to Tariq Aziz anyway?