Trouble is, this one was fighting Iran. Strange but true.
NEW YORK (AP) -- When the U.S. military two years ago took over parts of Iraq once controlled by a group dedicated to the violent overthrow of Iran's government, the FBI detained and questioned hundreds of the organization's members.
Among them, the U.S. government alleges in court documents, was a naturalized U.S. citizen who left behind her Virginia home to become a top official for the Mujahedeen Khalq, an Iranian militia that fought the clerical establishment in Tehran.
Zeinab Taleb-Jedi, now 51, resurfaced in March after flying from Jordan to New York, where she was arrested. She faces up to 15 years in prison on charges of providing support to a terrorist organization.
Her attorney, Justine Harris, said Monday that given the U.S. government's labeling of Iran as a sponsor of terrorism, "it's outrageous it would seek to prosecute a woman who has actively opposed that regime."
"We believe this is an unfair and unfounded prosecution," she said.
The Mujahedeen Khalq, also known as the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, and its affiliates were deemed foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department in 1997. The designations bar anyone in the United States from providing material support. In the court papers obtained Monday, the group was identified as Mujahedin-e Khalq.
Taleb-Jedi, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen 10 years ago, was identified as a leader of the group by two confidential informants, the court documents say.
In 2004, U.S. soldiers seized tanks, anti-aircraft weapons, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and more than 420,000 pounds of plastic explosives that had been under the group's control in Iraq. At the time, Taleb-Jedi told agents she "wholeheartedly supports the Mujahedin," the papers said.
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