- 18 August 2011
- 3 Comments
- MEK
The State Department today released its annual Country Reports on Terrorism, which includes the Mujahedin-e Khalq under the section on Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).
Does this mean the group’s terror designation has been retained and its multi-million dollar campaign to pressure its way off of the FTO list has failed?
No.
The review by Secretary Clinton regarding the MEK designation remains pending. FTOs are legally allowed to appeal their listing every two years, and Secretary Clinton’s decision regarding their most recent appeal will come out separately and is expected soon.
The Country Reports on Terrorism, on the other hand, is legally required every year, and–since MEK remains an FTO (at least until Clinton finalizes her review)–the organization is listed in the report.
The report does, however, include many important facts on the history, ideology, and current status of the MEK (which may be worth a look by some of the prominent former U.S. officials receiving cash to advocate for the group without doing their homework). It also includes a few updates from last year’s report that may or may not suggest which direction the State Department is headed regarding the FTO review. The main update from last year’s report is regarding the 1979 U.S. embassy takeover:
Though denied by the MEK, analysis based on eyewitness accounts and MEK documents demonstrates that MEK members participated in and supported the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and that the MEK later argued against the early release the American hostages. The MEK also provided personnel to guard and defend the site of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, following the takeover of the Embassy.
The new report also has omitted some items from last year’s report. It no longer contains a passage on how Saddam Hussein provided MEK with millions of dollars from the Oil For Food program, and it no longer mentions that a “significant number of MEK personnel voluntarily left Ashraf, and an additional several hundred individuals renounced ties to the MEK and (have) been voluntarily repatriated to Iran.”
The full passage on MEK, with annotations from last year’s report, is included after the jump.