Congress Supports the People’s Mujahidin Organization of Iran (PMOI)

In an effort to promote democracy in the Middle East and support opposition to the regime in Tehran, members of Congress recently backed support for the People’s Mujahidin Organization of Iran (PMOI), leaving many in the United States confused and upset.

In an effort to promote democracy in the Middle East and support opposition to the regime in Tehran, members of Congress recently backed support for the People’s Mujahidin Organization of Iran (PMOI), leaving many in the United States confused and upset. Supporting the People’s Mujahidin Organization of Iran, listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department, is not only detrimental to the movement towards democracy in Iran, but also detrimental to the future stability of the region.

The support of the People’s Mujahidin Organization’s goals contradicts any policy the United States has had in the past regarding such groups. Also known as the Mujahidin-e Khalq (MEK), the National Council of Resistance (NCR), or the National Liberation Army (NLA), the organization is connected to a number of past events that illustrate their terrorist origins. According to State Department reports, the PMOI was founded in order to counter excessive Western influence in the Shah’s regime. They operate on the belief that violence is the only way to bring about change in Iran and as part of their principles, exclude any future democratic polity in Iran that they find objectionable. They include propaganda and terrorist violence as a way to achieve their means.

Currently, PMOI troops reside in Ashraf, Iraq, 30 miles from the Iranian border. The organization’s participation in the Khomeini revolution and the revolutionary governments between 1979 and 1981, their record of kidnapping and murdering American military personnel and civilians working on defense projects in Tehran as well as 3,000 to 5,000 sympathizers of the former regime in the late 1970’s, their attacks on 13 Iranian embassies around the world in 1992 and their current shelter under Saddam Hussein are clear indications that their goals are anything but democratic.

One Washington D.C. security expert states that the PMOI has “a slanted agenda of their own and their relations with Iraq bear watching.” You may want to update your Congressman about the status of the People’s Mujahidin Organization of Iran.