Zeinab Taleb-Jedi, a member of an Iranian rebel group called the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or Peoples’ Mohajedin Organization of Iran (MEK), faces charges in federal court for providing material support to a terrorist organization under 18 U.S.C. 2339.
Taleb-Jedi argues that the United States is cooperating with MEK in Iraq, and so it is inconsistent for the federal government to prosecute her for cooperating with the same group. A judge agreed last week to let the case go forwards, reasoning that the State Department has designated MEK a Foreign Terrorist Organization, as authorized by the Anti-Terrorism & Effective Death Penalty Act, that MEK is in fact a terrorist organization which has admitted responsibility in assassinations and other terrorist activity, and that the government had advanced sufficient evidence that Taleb-Jedi had provided material support to the organization, including evidence uncovered shortly after her capture at Camp Ashraf, an MEK community in Iraq.
As a matter of law, Taleb-Jedi may not challenge MEK's designation by State. Nonetheless, the military's cooperation with MEK will certainly be an issue at trial, and the case – perhaps the first one where a defendant is prosecuted for violating Section 2339 by aiding a group that the federal government is also, simultaneously, cooperating with – points up the difficulty in distinguishing between allies and enemies in Iraq.
