[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 123 (Monday, July 30, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1647-E1648]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                COMMENDING DICK ARMEY'S OP-ED ON THE MEK

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                        HON. THOMAS G. TANCREDO

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 30, 2007

  Mr. TANCREDO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commend the following 
op-ed about the MEK to the body. This is an important topic and I hope 
Members will have an opportunity to review it.
  Thank you, Madam Speaker.

                            [July 24, 2007]

              Empowering the Democratic Opposition in Iran

                            (By Dick Armey)

       During the Cold War, the free world was threatened by a 
     nuclear-armed state based on a radical, all-encompassing and 
     discredited ideology, a regime that projected an aggressive 
     agenda of global domination even as it struggled to keep its 
     own dissatisfied citizens in line back home. While America 
     and her allies maintained a resolute posture of military 
     strength to keep Soviet expansionism in check, ultimately it 
     was our example of freedom that inspired the restive peoples 
     living under the Evil Empire to tear down the wall.
       Taking a leaf out of history's notebook, there are striking 
     similarities between the

[[Page E1648]]

     dangers now emanating from tehran and those fueled by Moscow 
     during the Soviet era. Iran's regime is also based on a 
     radical, all-encompassing and discredited ideology, and 
     projects an aggressive, destabilizing international posture 
     while suppressing the will of its own citizens. The good news 
     may be that, like the totalitarian ideology before it, the 
     extremist fundamentalism of the Iranian mullahs could best be 
     attacked by the power of an idea called freedom.
       There is currently no shortage of high-level American 
     attention to Iran. My former colleagues in Congress are 
     working to impose tougher economic pressure and bans on 
     investment in iran, while the Bush administration is working 
     to marshal stronger international will to enforce the 
     sanctions.
       But the other part of the Iran equation must be to 
     encourage the kind of peaceful revolution inside Iran that 
     not only Americans desire, but that a majority of the iranian 
     people themselves want.
       Military intervention is not a viable option. 
     ``Engagement'' may seem like an appealing alternative. But 
     the diplomatic history of the past 30 years provides a 
     chronicle of successive setbacks suffered by the West while 
     the regime continued its relentless march toward 
     nuclearization while bankrolling terrorists and expanding its 
     power and reach.
       Current efforts at ``engagement'' have done nothing to 
     advance the cause of freedom inside Iran. The regime has 
     recently resorted to a crackdown on internal dissent and 
     personal freedom, targeting everything from community 
     organizations to the nation's burgeoning private banking 
     system--pillars of civil society and a free market economy. 
     Visiting Iranian-American scholars are detained on absurd, 
     trumped-up charges and made to ``confess'' their ``crimes'' 
     on television.
       Like the captive peoples of the Soviet empire a generation 
     ago, today's Iranians are receptive to ideas that challenge 
     the ruling orthodoxy. Indeed, the popularity of America in 
     Iran seems to rise the more the regime demonizes us.
       One of the best assets working for reform is demographics--
     nearly 70 percent of Iran's 68 million citizens are under the 
     age of 30. They are impatient for change, and they are the 
     future.
       America and our partners should work with and empower 
     freedom-loving elements within Iran and among the Iranian 
     Diaspora, broadcasting messages of democracy and providing 
     support, moral and otherwise, to the brave dissidents. While 
     we must avoid doing this with a heavy hand, lest our efforts 
     backfire, there are ways we can help level the playing field 
     and give the opposition a fighting chance.
       Supporting the democratic opposition holds great promise 
     for promoting the cause of freedom and democracy in iran, 
     particularly the group feared most by the regime: the 
     Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), for decades demonized by the regime 
     for its efforts to encourage ``soft'' revolution.
       Never has the old adage, ``the enemy of my enemy is my 
     friend,'' been more true than in the case of the MEK, whose 
     members residing in Ashraf City, Iraq, are protected persons 
     under the Geneva Convention. But, in a stark example of 
     failed ``engagement,'' the organization was placed on the 
     list of foreign terrorist organizations by the Clinton 
     administration as a way of placating the so-called 
     ``moderates'' in Iran.
       Attracting world attention in 2002, the MEK first revealed 
     the existence of Iran's secret nuclear facility at Natanz. 
     Today it is providing useful intelligence that is saving the 
     lives of Coalition soldiers in Iraq. Thus, it comes as no 
     surprise that the regime is eager to use the next round of 
     ``engagement'' with American officials to further isolate the 
     MEK, as part of iran's certain-to-be-unfulfilled pledge to 
     reduce its influence in Iraq.
       Two of my former congressional colleagues, Reps. Tom 
     Tancredo (R-Colo.) and Bob Filner (D-Calif.), are leading a 
     bipartisan effort to urge the State Department to remove the 
     MEK from the terrorist list, where it was wrongly included in 
     the first place.
       Removing the MEK from the list represents one concrete step 
     we could take to help the Iranian people forward on the long 
     road to achieving freedom and real democracy in their 
     country.

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