US govt told to review terrorist list decision
The State Department must review its designation of the People’s Mujahedin Organisation of Iran, or PMOI, as a foreign terrorist organisation, a US appeals court ruled on Friday.
In a 22-page decision, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the State Department failed to give the group a fair chance to overturn the listing. It remanded the matter to the department.
PMOI filed a petition on July 15, 2008, saying it should no longer be listed as a terrorist group. On January 12, 2009, in the final days of the Bush administration, the State Department rejected the request after examining material submitted by PMOI and the US intelligence community, including classified information.
If a group is listed as a foreign terrorist organisation, the US government can freeze its assets, bar entry of group members and bring criminal charges against people who knowingly aid it.
The government was obligated under a 1996 anti-terrorism law and 2004 revisions to give PMOI the chance to rebut unclassified information, the appeals court said.
"This did not happen here. The PMOI was notified of the Secretary’s decision and permitted access to the unclassified portion of the record only after the decision was final," it said.
In a statement, the State Department said it would study the decision. Using the abbreviation for another name for the group, Mujahedin-e Khalq, it added, "The US Government continues to view the MEK as a terrorist organisation."
PMOI initially was listed as a foreign terrorist group in 1997. In 2008, it asked for removal of the designation, saying it ceased its military campaign against the Iranian government in 2001, handed over its weapons to US forces in Iraq in 2003 and had provided information to US officials about Iran’s nuclear program.
The State Department said PMOI "has not shown that the relevant circumstances are sufficiently different" to warrant a change. Material that was declassified in the autumn of 2009 contained allegations that PMOI trained women in Iraq to be suicide bombers, had not ended military operations and that much of its information about Iran’s nuclear program was wrong.
Iran and he transferred his organization to Iraq territory which was in war with Iran at that time, and he began his military and terror apparatus again in Iraq with the assistance of Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq.
opposition group known as Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) to the Iraqi security forces. the step was taken as the US says it is preparing to withdraw its troops from Iraq by 2011 …
People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).5 Secular and left-leaning, it was formed in the 1960s to try to overthrow the Shah of Iran and advocated Marxism blended with Islamic tenets. It allied with pro-Khomeini forces during the Islamic revolution and supported the November 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran but was later driven into exile. Even though it is an opponent of Tehran, since the late 1980s the State Department has refused contact with the PMOI and its umbrella organization, the National Council of Resistance (NCR). The State Department designated the PMOI as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in October 19976 and the NCR was named as an alias of the PMOI in the October 1999 re-designation. The FTO designation was prompted by PMOI attacks in Iran that sometimes kill or injure civilians—although the group does not appear to purposely target civilians. In August 14, 2003, the State Department designated the NCR offices in the United States an alias of the PMOI, and NCR and Justice Department authorities closed down those offices. The regime accuses the group of involvement in the post June 2009 presidential election violence.
U.S. urges caution with PMOI in Iraq