The Talk Radio News Service – March 17 – By Rachel Christiansen
Congress introduced a bill Thursday which urges the State Department to remove a pro-democracy Iranian opposition from the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.
A “Freedom Panel” with broad bipartisan support, led by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), gathered on Capitol Hill to discuss the importance of removing The People’s Mojaheden Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) from the list in order to shift power away from the oppressive mullah regime.
MEK has been an important asset to American intelligence services, and as a result have been interrogated and oppressed by the Iranian leadership, forcing many into the Iraqi refugee camp Ashraf.
Poe said that unless the State Department proves any evidence as to why the MEK should remain on the list, it should be removed “sooner rather than later.”
The energetic audience gave Poe’s Democratic colleague in Texas, Sheila Jackson Lee, a standing ovation when she said she was sure some day Iran “will have a promised land of freedom and justice.”
The resolution for removing the group from the list include their voluntary surrender of arms to the U.S. in 2003.
Several influential voices attended the panel, such as former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and former chairman of the Joinc Chiefs of Staff General Hugh Sheltion.
