March 19, 2024

Iranians Rally in DC to Demand Delisting of MEK

WASHINGTON, DC – Thousands of Iranian-Americans from 41 states took part in a huge rally outside the State Department on August 26, 2011, urging Secretary Clinton to act swiftly and remove the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

Thousands of Iranian-Americans from 41 states took part in a huge rally outside the State Department on August 26, 2011, urging Secretary Clinton to act swiftly and remove the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Rally Draws Thousands to DC Calling for MEK Delisting

WASHINGTON, DC – Thousands of Iranian-Americans from 41 states took part in a huge rally outside the State Department on August 26, 2011, urging Secretary Clinton to act swiftly and remove the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

Thousands of Iranian-Americans from 41 states took part in a huge rally outside the State Department on August 26, 2011, urging Secretary Clinton to act swiftly and remove the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

State Department Rally Draws Thousands Calling for MEK Delisting

WASHINGTON, DC – Thousands of Iranian-Americans from 41 states took part in a huge rally outside the State Department on August 26, 2011, urging Secretary Clinton to act swiftly and remove the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

Thousands of Iranian-Americans from 41 states took part in a huge rally outside the State Department on August 26, 2011, urging Secretary Clinton to act swiftly and remove the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

 

DC Rally Draws Thousands Calling for MEK Delisting

WASHINGTON, DC – Thousands of Iranian-Americans from 41 states took part in a huge rally outside the State Department on August 26, 2011, urging Secretary Clinton to act swiftly and remove the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

Thousands of Iranian-Americans from 41 states took part in a huge rally outside the State Department on August 26, 2011, urging Secretary Clinton to act swiftly and remove the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

AFP: Thousands Demand removal of MEK from FTO List

A huge crowd of Iranian American demonstrators protest during a rally in front of the US Department of State on August 26, 2011 in Washington, DC. The group was demanding the removal of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran from the list of terrorist organizations by the State Deptartment. AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards (Photo credit should read PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

My Message to Secretary Clinton, de-list the MEK

If ever there was a time for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to remove the main Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin (MEK / PMOI) from the US list of terrorist organisations, today is that day.

I attended a rally by thousands of Iranian-Americans today outside the State Department, where participants, young and old, urged Secretary Clinton to de-list the MEK as she has been ordered to do by the DC Court of Appeal.

Thousands of MEK members have repeatedly come under deadly attack in their main base in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, by Iraqi armed forces at the behest of Iran’s fundamentalist regime. Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri Maliki uses the terror label as an excuse to murder the residents. In April 36 MEK members were slaughtered by Iraqi forces and hundreds of others were injured. Maliki has now threatened to close the camp and expel the residents by force at the end of the year.

The MEK was blacklisted in Washington in 1997 as a “goodwill gesture” to Iran in the hope that the mullahs could be placated to abandon terrorism and repression. The British government labelled the group as terrorist in 2001 for similar reasons. Yet the mullahs have not only continued to use terror at home and abroad; they are now fast pursuing an illegal nuclear weapons program.

As one of the 35 Parliamentarians who were successful in legally challenging our government to delist the MEK in the UK, I know that our victory tells us all we need to know about the decision Secretary of State Clinton must now make. Every single shred of evidence available to the British government was placed before the British courts. Much of this information was made up of Iranian regime misinformation, but also a great deal was provided by the US authorities. We are all fully aware that intelligence between the UK and US governments is widely shared and in the case of the MEK it was no different. Based on all this information, including every piece of evidence US authorities shared with their UK counterparts, the British courts found the ban on the MEK to have been ‘perverse’ and ‘flawed’. Perverse in legal terms is a damning indictment of the British government’s attitude towards the MEK, meaning in this instance that no reasonable and honest Secretary of State based on the information put before him or her could have come to the conclusion that the MEK was a terrorist organisation.

THE HUFFINGTON POST

We are fully aware that the listing of the MEK in the US and UK was never honest nor was it reasonable, rather it was an attempt by previous administrations to pander to the wishes of the Iranian regime and hold out a hand of friendship to this vile regime. The regime gratefully took our hand and has for years used to it to slap us with, as it continues to support terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan with 7 out of every 10 Coalition deaths directly linked to the Iranian regime while continuing to defy the international community over its nuclear weapons program.

WikiLeaks revelations have indicated that the British government’s delaying tactics in relation to that legal challenge were as a result of fear for the repercussions which the regime may commit against British interests in Iran and specifically the British Embassy. In reality the regime’s threats were nothing but hot air.

Now Secretary of State Clinton must do what is just. She must do what the legal system of the United States requires her to do and that is to immediately remove the MEK from the US list of banned organisations. The judgments of the British and European courts have unequivocally proven that no case exists for maintaining a ban on the MEK.

For far too long the MEK has unjustifiably been banned in the US to please the vile regime of Tehran, a vile regime which has continually used the ban to justify the torture and execution of hundreds of thousands and now the US ban is used by the Iraqi authorities to justify the massacre of Camp Ashraf residents.

This is now a matter of life and death. Maintaining this illegitimate ban on the MEK will lead to the massacre of all Camp Ashraf residents. Secretary of State Clinton must immediately remove the MEK from the list, not only because that is her legal duty, but further because it will allow the safety of the Camp Ashraf residents to be guaranteed while sending a clear message to the Iranian people that we support their right to democracy and freedom.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/brian-binley/my-message-to-secretary-c_b_938137.html

 

Appeal to Secretary Clinton to delist the MEK

On Friday thousands of Iranians rallied outside the US State Department calling on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to immediately lift the terrorist designation of Iran’s main opposition group People’s Mojahedin (MEK/PMOI) and ensure US forces guarantee the protection of the group’s members in Camp Ashraf in Iraq. I joined them to announce the support of 500 British Parliamentarians from all parties and both Houses of Parliament, and a total of 4,000 lawmakers globally, for their just cause.

I addressed the rally alongside my distinguished American colleagues including Louis Freeh, former Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation; Ed Rendell, former Governor of Pennsylvania; John Sano, former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency; Colonel Wesley Martin, former Coalition counter terrorism commander in Iraq; and Patrick Kennedy, the distinguished former US Congressman and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, who addressed our rally via satellite link from Paris, told us: “It has been more a year since the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, which ordered the State Department to review the terrorist listing of the PMOI. Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance have paid the price for this unjustified delay with the blood of their most courageous children… The terror listing in the U.S. is openly used as a justification to legitimize such bloodletting, both by the cruel mullahs in Tehran as well as their proxy government in Iraq.”

If ever there was a time for Secretary Clinton to remove the MEK from the US list of terrorist organisations, today is that day.

Thousands of MEK members have repeatedly come under deadly attack in Camp Ashraf by Iraqi armed forces at the behest of Iran’s fundamentalist regime. In April 36 MEK members were slaughtered by Iraqi forces and hundreds of others were injured. Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri Maliki has now threatened to close the camp and expel the residents by force at the end of the year.

The MEK was blacklisted in Washington in 1997 as a “goodwill gesture” to Iran in the hope that the mullahs could be placated to abandon terrorism and repression. The British government labelled the group as terrorist in 2001 for similar reasons. Yet the mullahs have not only continued to use terror at home and abroad; they are now fast pursuing an illegal nuclear weapons program.

As one of the 35 Parliamentarians who were successful in legally challenging our government to delist the MEK in the UK, I know that our victory tells us all we need to know about the decision Secretary of State Clinton must now make. Every single shred of evidence available to the British government was placed before the British courts. Much of this information was made up of Iranian regime misinformation, but also a great deal was provided by the US authorities. We are all fully aware that intelligence between the UK and US governments is widely shared and in the case of the MEK it was no different. The British courts found the ban on the MEK to have been ‘perverse’ and ‘flawed.’

We are fully aware that the listing of the MEK in the US and UK was never honest nor was it reasonable, rather it was an attempt by previous administrations to pander to the wishes of the Iranian regime and hold out a hand of friendship to this vile regime. The regime gratefully took our hand and has for years used it to slap us, as it continues to support terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan with 7 out of every 10 Coalition deaths directly linked to the Iranian regime while continuing to defy the international community over its nuclear weapons program.

Now Secretary of State Clinton must do what is just. She must do what the legal system of the United States requires her to do and that is to immediately remove the MEK from the US list of banned organisations.

Brian Binley is a Member of Parliament from the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party.

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/178407-appeal-to-secretary-clinton-to-delist-the-mek

Rally To Demand De-Listing of the MEK

 

Rally Demands De-Listing of the MEK

US Department of State, August 26, 2011

 

ABOUT THE RALLY:

More than a year since the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals’ ruling in favor of the main Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), thousands will rally outside the State Department to demand the group’s removal from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO). At its core, today’s rally represents the Iranians’ national desire for democratic change.  

Fourteen years since MEK was designated as an FTO to placate Tehranrulers, the call for the MEK delisting has now become a national demand by Iranians from all walks of life and political persuasions. This demand is not just about the injustice done to the MEK or about the safety and security of its members in Camp Ashraf. Today, demand for the MEK delisting is the embodiment of Iranians’ national desire for democratic change; desire for a secular, democratic and non-nuclear republic in Iran.

The dire implications of the unwarranted FTO designation of the MEK far exceeds the loss of life and injury it has caused to the group’s members in Camp Ashraf in Iraq and to their families and sympathizers in Iran.  The terrorist stigma has gravely handicapped the MEK’s political, diplomatic, financial, and organizational wherewithal at a very crucial juncture when every Iranian democratic opposition needs to function at full throttle to achieve democratic change.  The continued blacklisting of the MEK has been seen by Iranians as a sign of Washington’s preference for the status-quo in Iran.

Not surprisingly, the State Department’s blacklisting of the MEK has been hugely popular within Iran’s theocratic leadership and its most suppressive organs.  In recent weeks, senior Iranian regime officials, including commanders of the notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have urged the United States to maintain the MEK on its terrorist list.

In addition to Iranians, a growing roster of former seniorUSgovernment officials and some 130 Members of Congress have called for the removal of the MEK from the FTO list, emphasizing that any decision to the contrary would violate the statutory criteria and bring irreparable damage toIran’s democratic movement.

Thousands of Iranian-Americans from 41 states took part in a huge rally outside the State Department on August 26, 2011, urging Secretary Clinton to act swiftly and remove the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

 

RALLY’S DEMANDS:

  • Considering the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals’ ruling in favor of the MEK;
  • Recognizing the absence of any evidence – classified or otherwise – to satisfy the statutory requirements;
  • Noting the call by a bi-partisan and multi-discipline list of former senior U.S. government officials for the MEK delisting;
  • Considering the Congressional resolutions co-sponsored by some 130 members of Congress from both parties urging the MEK delisting;
  • Considering the looming humanitarian disaster for 3,400 members of the MEK atCampAshrafinIraq; and
  • Recognizing the Iranians’ national call for MEK delisting as a prelude to adopting the policy of support for democratic change in Iran.

We are resolved in tandem with H. RES. 60:

  1. The Secretary of State must promptly remove the MEK from the FTO list; 
  2. The Secretary of State must remove all restrictions imposed on the MEK, its members, and its affiliates, which has emanated from its designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Unshackle Iran’s main opposition

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Refusal to remove MEK’s terrorist designation betrays democracy

With Iran reportedly making progress on its nuclear program, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has an opportunity to recognize an Iranian opposition group that is dedicated to democratic reform; has a secular, pro-Western outlook, and is most feared by the Iranian rulers. There’s only one catch: She must first remove the group from the U.S. list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

Removing any group from the FTO list is never easy, as doing so inevitably runs the risk of being seen as soft on terrorism. But, if ever there were a case for so acting, it is with regard to a group known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).

Indeed, the MEK should never have been designated as an FTO in the first place. An ardent opponent of the mullahs who run Iran, the MEK was put on the U.S. list in 1997 as a gesture to Tehran at a time when U.S-Iranian relations seemed to be thawing.

The group had engaged in armed resistance first to the shah and later against the mullahs as a last resort because both regimes had eliminated the last vestiges of peaceful political activity. As a result, the Iranian government has jailed, tortured and executed tens of thousands MEK members. Many of its members, mostly former political prisoners, have fled Iran since the 1980s, with several thousand settling in Camp Ashraf in Iraq.

At the end of the Iraq war, the MEK disarmed under the supervision of the U.S. Army and renounced violence. It has embraced its own bill of rights that calls for a free and democratic Iran. The MEK has endorsed the emancipation of women, the separation of government and religion in Iran, the ability of Iranians to worship as they choose, and adherence to internationally recognized human rights. In light of these actions, MEK members in Camp Ashraf were deemed “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention and were to be shielded by the U.S. military.

Other governments have recognized that the MEK is not a terrorist group. In 2008 and 2009, respectively, Britain and the European Union removed the MEK from their lists. Some 90 members of Congress have called for the MEK to be removed from the U.S. list, and the bipartisan support is growing.

In addition to myself, former national security officials from the Obama, Bush and Clinton administrations have joined this call, including John R. Bolton (U.N. ambassador), Andrew Card (White House chief of staff), Gen. Wesley Clark, Louis J. Freeh (FBI director), Gen. James L. Jones (national security adviser), Gen. Richard Myers and Gen. Peter Pace (chairmen, Joint Chiefs of Staff), Gen. James T. Conway (commandant of the Marine Corps), Michael B. Mukasey (attorney general), Tom Ridge (Homeland Security secretary), Howard Dean (Vermont governor), Bill Richardson (New Mexico governor), and Togo D. West Jr. (Secretary of the Army), to name just a few

Despite these developments and the fact that a nonviolent, disarmed group cannot as a matter of law be an FTO (the use of violence is the fundamental criterion for such a designation), the State Department so far has delayed the delisting of the MEK. A federal appeals court in July 2010 ordered the department to reconsider its position. All deadlines have come and gone.

This inaction has had tragic consequences. On April 8, thousands of Iraqi troops, backed by Humvees and armored personnel carriers, invaded Camp Ashraf and killed 36 residents and wounded hundreds more, all MEK members. The United States failed to safeguard Ashraf despite its pledge to do so. The unarmed residents had no means of resistance and they remain under threat.

Members of Congress attempted to investigate the attack but were turned away by the Iraqi government, which cited the U.S. terrorist designation as a reason to wall off the camp from U.S. lawmakers as well as to justify its violent treatment of the residents.

The FTO designation not only imperils the people of Ashraf, but it also casts a shadow on a group that is working to advance the values the United States has long hoped to see in Iran. The MEK is not a terrorist group and it is time for the United States to join our partners in the EU and Britain and take the MEK off the FTO list.

Any delay in delisting the MEK runs the risk of undermining the values of our nation based on the rule of law. It sends the wrong signal to Iran, the most active state exporter of terrorism, that it can continue to use its proxies to eliminate its opponents and evade the consequences. The regime in Iran wants nothing less than eliminating the MEK, which it views as a threat. They desire to see the MEK members at Camp Ashraf eliminated, thus killing the hope for change in Iran. As a great nation, we should not stand by and allow this to happen.

Gen. Henry H. Shelton is the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/25/unshackle-irans-main-opposition/

Moment of truth for Iran

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 (UPI) — The moment of truth is upon us. The Iranian regime has raised the nuclear stakes even while struggling under international sanctions.

The regime has already begun transferring centrifuges to a secret facility deep inside the mountains some 90 miles south of Tehran as part of a plan to expand production of uranium enriched to more than 20 percent.

And, this week it was revealed that North Korea has supplied Tehran with software that is instrumental in the development of nuclear explosives.

All this is taking place as people in Libya have finally succeeded in unseating a 42-year-old dictatorship while the Syrian people are struggling to depose another. The overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi is another watershed moment for popular movements in the region and especially Iran.

Coupled with an eventual people’s victory in Syria, it marks a severe blow to the regime’s regional alliances, which were designed to promote fundamentalism and terrorism as a means to project power. Circumstances in the Middle East are changing rapidly but Washington is surprisingly behind the curve, especially when it comes to Iran.

The Iranian regime is fissured at the core and melting away. The recent row between the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his hand-picked President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad marked a dangerous escalation in the crippling infighting that has gripped the regime since its 2009 elections.

The mullahs, now in their death throes, can sense the West’s formidable financial, diplomatic and military muscle. Despite that, however, the regime keeps coming back defiant as ever. So, what’s missing?

To begin with, there is a near pathological absenteeism in coming to terms with what scares the living daylight out of the mullahs. Plain and simple, the rulers in Iran fear nothing more than the popular opposition that is now arrayed against them, determined to once and for all put the regime out of its misery.

The missing piece of the puzzle is recognizing and liberating a crucial factor in Iranian politics: the Iranian people and their organized opposition.

There is no question that anti-regime sentiment in Iran is profound and widespread.

Two years before the recent Arab revolts, people in Iran carried out a mass uprising. After months of upheaval, unrest, rape and torture, in the YouTube age, the West was in denial. And it was indeed ironic that it took much less for the West to champion the Arab Spring this year.

A new approach is needed that might just work; an outreach to the Iranian people and the organized opposition. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in June, “The United States stands with all Iranians who wish for a government that respects their human rights, their dignity and their freedom.”

Better late than never, as they say!

But, there is a concrete way for the secretary to demonstrate that her expression of goodwill toward the Iranian people and her warnings to the tyrants of Tehran are more than just words.

To the Iranian people she should say that her State Department will immediately lift all the unwarranted duress it placed on the main democratic opposition force, the Mujahedin-e Khalq in a lame attempt to buy the mullahs’ friendship.

Last month, the House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously adopted an amendment on Camp Ashraf, Iraq, where 3,400 MEK members reside, making it the policy of the United States to prevent their internal displacement as demanded by Tehran.

“The MEK was our ally in the war on terror … But the State Department was left behind, left behind with a document that is irrelevant today. And the courts have said, check its relevance. My prayerful hope is that the State Department is checking what is relevant today and they will see today for what it is rather than a yesterday that they didn’t understand or know … I hope that the United States will say the MEK is that ally that we need on the war on terror,” said Andrew Card, former President George W. Bush’s chief of staff, in a Washington conference in April.

The clock is ticking and the State Department has missed its statute-mandated deadline to provide a shred of evidence for maintaining the designation, thus dragging the only decision the department can legally make: delisting the MEK.

This is despite the fact that H.R. 60 has called on Secretary Clinton to delist the MEK. The resolution now has 94 co-sponsors, including Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Howard McKeon, R-Calif., chairmen of the Select Intelligence and Armed Services committees.

Some 50 former senior U.S. government officials have joined that call as well.

The mullahs are clearly terrified of the prospect of MEK delisting, reflected in a desperate propaganda campaign by their lobby inside the Beltway over the past month. That’s not unexpected.

To the Iranian mullahs, Secretary Clinton should say, we’ve tried waving the sticks like sanctions, military threats and encirclement and we’ve tried offering the carrots like the blacklisting of the main opposition for the past 14 years. But, it’s clear to us now that you don’t fear us, or respect us, or want to join our community of nations. We’re beginning to come to terms with what really keeps you awake in your bunkers.

Going forward, Secretary Clinton should announce that economic sanctions will be complemented with removing the stigma of terrorism from the main Iranian opposition movement, which has striven, at the cost of tens of thousands of its members and sympathizers, to make the Iran Spring a reality.

The timing could not be better. On Friday, thousands of Iranian Americans from 40 states across America will rally outside the State Department to echo that call.

That democratic future that heralds a non-nuclear Iran and averts a nuclear arms race in the Middle East is something that the people of Libya, Syria and the entire region will benefit from as much as the people of Iran. All eyes are now on Secretary Clinton.

(Ali Safavi is a member of Iran’s Parliament-in-exile and president of Near East Policy Research, a policy analysis firm in Washington.)

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Analysis/Outside-View/2011/08/25/Outside-View-Moment-of-truth-for-Iran/UPI-13451314274782/#ixzz1W37WAG6e