'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
An Iranian dissident group long accused of terrorism by the United States remains the most serious threat to Iran's brutal, theocratic regime, a U.S. report says — even though the group's armed wing surrendered its weapons 10 years ago and now is confined to a refugee camp in Iraq.
The Obama administration has taken the Mujahideen-e-Khalq off the U.S. terrorist blacklist culminating an expensive PR campaign by the Iranian dissidents.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will decide on removing an Iranian dissident group from the U.S. list of foreign terror groups only after all its members have left a camp north of Baghdad, a Justice Department lawyer told a federal court Tuesday.
On Oct. 7, 1997, during the Clinton administration, the People's Mujahedeen of Iran (POMI/MEK) was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The MEK represents the main opposition group to the Iranian theocracy and has been the source of key intelligence relating to Iran's secret underground nuclear sites. According to a senior Clinton administration official, the designation of the MEK as a terrorist organization was intended as a "goodwill gesture" to Tehran and its newly elected "moderate" President Mohammad Khatami. Such a goodwill gesture coming on the heels of the Khobar Towers bombing in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where we had proof of Iran's involvement, resulting in the killing of 19 U.S. servicemen and the wounding of more than 500 was unbelievable.
In the past few weeks, Washington has been abuzz with a heated debate over the main Iranian opposition, the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran.
ran has executed at least 66 people this year, an alarming surge that has defied outside pressure, the U.N.'s top human rights official said Wednesday.
Since the theocratic regime of Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in 1979, and under Khomeini's successors, Iran has consistently out-maneuvered the United States and our allies through a crafty combination of diplomatic manipulation; exploitation of commercial considerations; support for terrorists and kidnappers; the use of proxy agents in Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere; and, in recent years, playing the nuclear card.
