USA

US can call foreign groups terrorists, court says

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 20 – The United States can designate foreign organizations as terrorist groups and bar Americans from financially backing them, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday.

"Leaving the determination of whether a group is a ‘foreign terrorist organization’ to the executive branch … is both a reasonable and a constitutional way to make such determinations," Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote for a three-judge panel.

"The Constitution does not forbid Congress from requiring individuals, whether they agree with the executive branch determination or not, to refrain from furnishing material assistance to designated terrorist organizations."

The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was made in a case involving people who raised money in California for Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian opposition group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government since 1997.

The defendants argued the MEK was not a terrorist group and they had First Amendment rights to contribute to the group.

The court disagreed, saying contributing money was not the same as exercising a right to free speech. "Guns and bombs are not speech," Judge Kleinfeld wrote.

The 9th Circuit ruling was a rehearing of the same panel’s decision in June. Both 9th Circuit decisions overturned a district court’s dismissal of the indictment in the case.

The "Committee for Human Rights" had solicited contributions at the Los Angeles International Airport and sent them to the MEK in Turkey.

The Iranian group was formed in the 1960s to overthrow the Iranian government and was involved in taking U.S. Embassy staff in Tehran hostage in 1979. Its members, dissatisfied with the clerical government, later fled Iran, and resettled in Iraq, carrying out attacks with the backing of Saddam Hussein.

The ruling acknowledged geopolitical changes could change the perception about the MEK, but said the U.S. government should be the entity that decides.

"Defendants could be right about the MEK. But that is not for us, or for a jury in defendants’ case, to say," the decision read.

"The sometimes subtle analysis of a foreign organization’s political program to determine whether it is indeed a terrorist threat to the United States is particularly within the expertise of the State Department and the executive branch."

Adam Tanner

October 24, 2005 0 comment

USA

An Open Letter to US President

Mr. George Bush, the President of the United States

At the 4th anniversary of 9/11 events, I’d like to have your attention to the following important notes.

1. As a former member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq, Iranian terrorist group based in Iraq, I have always lived in fear since I’ve left the group; fear from being assassinated or kidnapped by the MKO because I and others left the group in response to its terrorist activities. 9/11 events proved that terrorists are cruel. Since then, we have always felt that we should do something, not only for our own lives but also for the lives of innocent people who’ve been kept there in the MKO and their only fault is that they’re human beings.

Although the 9/11 wasn’t the only day on which the people of the world felt deeply the danger of terrorism, but it was one of the most horrible days. 9/11 proved that terrorism, in its wildest forms, has the capacity to cross the power lines and choose its victims by creating new methods, without being concerned about inhuman consequences of such attacks. Deep fear made by such terrorist attacks is worse than the damage.

9/11 events stressed this fact that the idea of getting to political aims by terrorism, anywhere in world with any justification, only helps its expansion. These attacks once again attracted world’s attention to terrorism and exposed the uniform nature of all terrorists. These attacks and its aftermath directed public attention towards Bin Laden and Taliban (as the most dangerous terrorists).

However, we should not forget that terrorism is not limited to Taliban and Bin Laden. The word “terrorism” reminds Europeans of Afghanistan. They may pass a number of terrorists each day while walking in a park in London or in New York, or while buying books in Ottawa or in Berlin, without knowing that. They barely believe that some of these terrorists are more dangerous than Bin Laden.

These terrorists may not issue “Fatwa” for killing westerners as Bin Laden does; their faces may comply with the standards of developed nations; these acceptable faces may talk about the concepts of freedom, democracy and human rights even more than US and European statesmen but their presence is as hazourdas for human civilization as the presence of Bin Laden.

They may appear in the streets of the cities of the West, under the name of charities for children and hungry people, but the reality is that “terrorism is what terrorism does”.

2. Since 1987, MKO has all major aspects of a cult:

– Lifelong leader who’s called “Imam”

– Strict hierarchy in which the orders come from above and all should obey unquestionably (Stalinist system).

– No one has the right to form family live, except the leader.

– All members should live in ghettos

– The group believes in armed struggle as an ideological principle and it has never quit it.

Such an organization has high potential to eradicate security and democracy in the West. They’re like time bombs, ticking in the Western society, which would explode in the case they’re not defused. The first victims of such an event would be the innocent people of the West. The religious cult of the MKO started with killing US officers in Iran and continued with self-immolations in June 2003 in Europe, showing abhorrent aspect of its ideological abilities. More like a political chantage, these recent shameful acts’ message to the West was that MKO would do anything to get to its goals even if the cost is the elimination of human beings. We can even expect that a member of this organization takes bomb and explodes himself in US or Europe in the near future.

Mr. President,

With the issues mentioned above it’s natural that your respected government- and governments of Canada, Australia and many other Western countries- recognized imminent threat of the MKO and put it on the terror list. This is appreciated and we expect no changes this year in the status of the MKO. We, former members of the MKO, are ready to cooperate on this.

But what has surprised me is practical measures of that government towards the list. According to US law, the properties of the organizations on the list should be confiscated and the activities of the groups should be banned.

MKO has political-financial activities in the US regardless of the law. MKO holds meetings, press conferences and demonstrations in different cities of the US (the last of which was held on November 20, 2004 in Washington). They’re planning for another demonstration on September 14th to protest to Iranian president’s visit to New York.

I ask you as the president of the United States:

1. Isn’t the MKO on your government’s list of terrorist organizations? If yes, then why is it treated with laxity?

2. Why isn’t it banned from political-financial activities?

3. Your security organizations know that the MKO is active under forged and unreal names, don’t they? So, why have you closed your eyes on them?

4. It should be kept in mind as an example that compromising with Taliban and tactic cooperation with that group has had horrible consequences for the people of Afghanistan and then the people of the US.

The fear is that this idea would be spread that the US is going to experience the same disaster, this time by using the MKO.

September 13, 2005 0 comment

USA

Americans’ Positive Stance in Fighting Terrorism

Pentagon has announced that it will repatriate guantanamo prisoners to their homelands in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russian, France, Saudi Arabia and other European and Asian countries. In this regard, the US has signed an agreement with Afghanistan according to which Afghan prisoners would be taken back to their country in a planned process.

The US treats all terrorist groups and prisoners in the same manner. For instance, after the US invasion on Iraq, the US took the control of the MKO which has been listed as a terrorist organization since 1997. The US disarmed the group and restricted its members into Camp Ashraf near Baghdad. But the responsibility for standing against this terrorist group was left for Iraqi new government, Iran and the Red Cross. If we look carefully at other terrorist groups, we’d be assured that the US has treated them in a similar way. The US authorities try to encourage European countries to participate actively in the field of fighting terrorism.

Some of human rights activists have expressed concerns over the repatriation of terrorists and prisoners to their own nations and believe that their governments violate prisoners’ rights but it should be noted that the Red Cross is responsible for fate of these people after they’re repatriated.

Terrorist attacks around the world have created international unity in the field of fighting terrorism and have forced the nations to cooperate and exchange intelligence and information. The threat is serious so that the US has even asked its old enemy, Iran, for help and active presence on the issue. In addition, US forces have interrogated the members of terrorist MKO and have paved the way for repentant terrorists to return to their country. To date, more than 350 former members of MKO have returned to Iran.

This unprecedented positive step and stance from the US indicates that the US needs the cooperation of all other countries in the war against terrorism.

Al-Asadi

August 18, 2005 0 comment

USA

U.S. bombs Mujahedin; backers hide

Congressional supporters of an Iraq-based terrorist organization kept a low profile this week after confirmation that U.S.-led coalition forces attacked their bases during the final days of the war.

The group, known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), is made up of Iranian dissidents based in Baghdad. Despite a history of violence against Americans and its common cause with former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the group developed a significant following in Congress for its opposition to Tehran’s regime.

In 1997, the State Department identified the MEK as a foreign terrorist organization. Last Tuesday, General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged in a briefing at the Pentagon that the U.S. bombed MEK forces.

“We are still pursuing elements of the MEK inside Iraq,” Myers said, adding: “It’s possible some of them may surrender very soon to coalition forces.” We’re still interested in that particular group.”

House supporters of the MEK, led by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), staunchly defended the group when The Hill reported April 2 that U.S. officials were targeting their bases in Iraq.

“They’e a combatant,” a State Department spokesman said at the time. “Targeting data is being provided to the Pentagon. We believe they are undertaking some of the actions in the south [of Iraq] where enemy combatants have disguised themselves as civilians.”

Ros-Lehtinen insisted at the time that the State Department spokesman was wrong and that her sources in the U.S. government assured her the MEK was not considered a combatant.

“This group loves the United States; they’re assisting us in the war on terrorism; they’re pro-U.S.” she told The Hill. “This group has not been fighting against the U.S. It simply isn’t true. “ I have attended many classified briefings on the Hill, and never once has this group been brought up.”

Over the years, officials in the counterterrorism office at the State Department have regularly tried to meet with lawmakers who support the MEK in an effort to dissuade them.

Aides to Ros-Lehtinen, chairwoman of the House International Relations subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia, did not return several calls for comment after Following confirmation from Gen. Myers confirmed that the MEK was regarded and treated as an enemy during the war.

Earlier this month, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) expressed shock upon hearing that the State Department considered the MEK combatants. “If these reports are accurate, that’s the end of it for me,” he told The Hill three weeks ago.

But citing “information of a different nature entirely from people who are closer to the scene than the State Department,” Tancredo later called The Hill to reassert his backing of the MEK. He declined to identify his sources at the time, except to say that they were with “our government”

Like Ros-Lehtinen’s office, Tancredo’s aides did not return calls this week seeking comment.

Other lawmakers who have long backed the MEK also declined comment. They are Reps. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), Bob Filner (D-Calif.), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas).

Although the MEK’s political arm, the National Council of Resistance, has garnered signatures of support from a number of U.S. lawmakers, it’s unclear whether those members were adequately informed about the group when they signed on.

Ros-Lehtinen claims 150 colleagues signed a letter she circulated last year in support of the MEK. Although the letter was released in November, Ros-Lehtinen has repeatedly declined to name those Congress members who backed her.

“A list has not been published because most members who initially signed on have withdrawn their support and the list has dwindled down to no more than a handful of Congressional supporters,”charged Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), a vocal critic of the MEK.

Several lawmakers said they asked to have their names removed when they learned more about the group. In addition, Reps. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) and Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), the chairman and ranking member of the House International Relations committee, respectively, wrote a counterletter to their colleagues providing “ful” and “accurate” information on the MEK.

The group’s supporters on Capitol Hill may decrease after Myers’ comments. On Thursday, other senior administration officials echoed Myers’ comments to reporters. “The [MEK] forces were fully integrated with Saddam Hussein’s command and control [and] therefore constituted legitimate military targets that posed a threat to coalition forces,” said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher in Washington.

“We know there’s a presence of the [MEK] inside of Iraq, and indeed we have been targeting them for some time,” said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks from Central Command in Doha, Qatar. “There’s work that’s ongoing right now to secure some sort of agreement that would be a cease-fire and capitulation,” he said.

On Monday, The Associated Press reported a military spokesman saying that a cease-fire had been negotiated with MEK forces in Iraq.

By Sam Dealy

July 3, 2005 0 comment

USA

U.S. troops surround Iranian opposition group in Iraq

CAMP ASHRAF, Iraq (AP) – The U.S. army surrounded camps of an Iranian opposition group in eastern Iraq on Friday, demanding they lay down their arms or "be destroyed."

Surrender negotiations between U.S. officials and the Mujahedeen Khalq continued past nightfall with no apparent resolution, though the Americans appeared confident of an agreement. The confrontation came three weeks after a truce between the Iranians and the army, which U.S. officials said had been a "prelude" to surrender.

But the group’s well-armed force, which for years has fought Iran’s Islamic rulers with the backing of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, poses a potential challenge to the U.S.-led coalition’s authority as Iraq’s military occupier and U.S. troops said they were prepared for full-scale combat.

U.S. Abrams tanks lined nearby highways and helicopters flew low over the low-slung sandstone buildings that are Camp Ashraf, the group’s headquarters. U.S. officials said thousands of Mujahedeen fighters were inside.

Under the April 15 truce, the Mujahedeen Khalq could keep its weapons to defend itself against Iranian attacks but had to stop manning checkpoints it had set up, with armed fighters in khaki uniforms behind sandbagged emplacements and Jeeps mounted with machine-guns.

At the time, the U.S. State Department called the agreement "a prelude to the group’s surrender."

"This has been in the works for a while. The ceasefire was a stepping stone to the capitulation agreement," military spokesman Capt. Josh Felker said.

But reports of roadblock confrontations involving the group in recent days suggested it had continued playing an active, armed role in the region. U.S. military commanders "don’t want two armed forces in the area," Felker said.

Still, he indicated the standoff with the group – listed by the United States as a terrorist organization since the 1990s – could be resolved peacefully.

"As far as I know, they are agreeing to capitulate at this time," he said.

The Mujahedeen Khalq was negotiating with Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the U.S. army’s 4th Infantry Division.

The U.S. ultimatum also came amid reports fighters loyal to an Iranian-based anti-Saddam group, the Badr Brigade, have been infiltrating into the area near the Mujahedeen’s base. The United States fears clashes between the two opposing groups.

Mujahedeen Khalq forces also contend Iranian fighters ambushed them at least once in recent days, wounding one.

Friday’s confrontation pits the United States against a group that spent a generation fighting Iran’s clerical regime – the government President George W. Bush includes in his "axis of evil."

More negotiations were planned for Sunday morning but the U.S. army wouldn’t comment further about whether Friday’s talks produced any progress.

The choices for the paramilitaries appeared bleak. U.S. military talking points gave the following guidance, using the group’s acronym: "MEK forces will be destroyed or compelled to surrender, leading to disarmament and detention."

The Mujahedeen Khalq, the People’s Warriors, is the military wing of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella body said to unite Iran’s diverse opposition groups.

Before Saddam’s ouster, the group helped train Saddam’s elite Republican Guard units, the U.S. military said. It has several camps near Baqubah, about 70 kilometres northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad and not far from the Iranian border.

It was allied with the late ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic fundamentalists during the 1979 revolution that overthrew the pro-U.S. dictatorship of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. But the new government soon banned the Mujahedeen Khalq and other groups that advocated a secular regime.

In the past, Washington deemed the Mujahedeen Khalq a terrorist organization. Iran’s clerical government has said it was hypocritical of the United States to describe the group as terrorist, yet still sanction its existence.

During the 1970s, the group was accused in attacks that killed several U.S. military personnel and civilians working on defence projects in Iran, although the group denies targeting Americans. It was reported to have backed the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in the Iranian capital Tehran in 1979.

July 3, 2005 0 comment

USA

US shuts down Iran opposition group

The United States shut down the offices of the political wing of the Iranian opposition People’s Mujahedeen, closing a loophole that had allowed the group to operate despite being designated “terrorist” organisation.

State, Treasury and Justice departments closed the Washington office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) on Friday, placing notices on its doors declaring that it was now banned, officials said.

US federal agents acted after Secretary of State Colin Powell clarified earlier “terrorist” designations of the NCRI’s parent organisation, the People’s Mujahedeen or Mujahedeen e Khalq (MEK), they said.

No one was in the office when agents arrived, according to one official.

Telephone calls to the group’s representatives were not answered.

The order also freezes the group’s US assets and bars US citizens from making contributions to it, the officials said.

In addition, they said suspected members of the group in the United States had been notified that their continued affiliation was now illegal.

"Any continued material support for the MEK or use of its facilities or property under any of its aliases and any unauthorized dealing in property in which the MEK has an interest is a violation of US law," one official said.

Clampdown

"Its history is studded with anti-Western attacks as well as terrorist attacks on the interests of the clerical regime in Iran and abroad."

-The US State Department in the latest edition of its "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report Powell’s clarification, published in the Federal Register, said the MEK under all of its aliases – including the NCRI, the National Council of Resistance and the People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) – are now considered "foreign terrorist organizations."

The designation includes "its US representative office and all other offices worldwide," Powell said.

His decision was "based on information from a variety of sources that those entities functioned as part of the MEK and have supported the MEK’s acts of terrorism," said Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman.

In a separate notice, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control declared the NCRI under all of its aliases "including its US press office" to be a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" group.

Friend or foe?

The People’s Mujahedeen was first named a "terrorist" organisation in 1997, when the administration of President Bill Clinton took the step as a conciliatory gesture to Iran.

Iran welcomed the decision at the time but until Friday the Washington office of the NCRI remained open while it fought the ban in US courts.

Amid the uncertainty over its status, the NCRI gave frequent news conferences at its office in the National Press Building, just blocks from the White House, and at Washington hotels to denounce the Iranian government.

At times, the United States used information provided by the NCRI to highlight its concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme, which Washington believes is a cover for atomic weapons development.

Confusion over the group’s status was a complicating factor during the Iraq war as US troops were forced to confront armed elements of the People’s Mujahedeen to which former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had given shelter.

Asked to address the apparent contradiction, State Department spokesmen had repeatedly demurred, referring reporters to the Justice Department which enforces US federal laws.

Exiled revolutionaries

The group – which is also considered a “terrorist” organisation by the European Union and Iran – denies all wrongdoing and maintains that it represents legitimate opponents to Tehran’s religious leadership.

With a programme that blends left-wing and Islamic ideology, it took part in the 1979 revolution in Iran, but the movement was suppressed in the years that followed and its members fled abroad with the military wing taking refuge in Iraq in 1986.

The State Department has accused the group of conducting "internal security operations in support of the government of Iraq" during Saddam’s time in power.

French crackdown

The US move against the People’s Mujahedeen follows a similar crackdown on the group in France, where police raided their headquarters in a Paris suburb in June, arresting scores of people.

The group’s leader, Maryam Rajavi, was one of more than 160 people detained in the raids and her arrest outraged her followers, with a spate of self-immolation protests across Europe that left two women dead.

Rajavi and 16 others who were then placed under investigation were granted conditional release in early July after two weeks in detention, although that does not preclude charges being brought against them.

July 2, 2005 0 comment

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