Terror Tagging

As in the children's game of "chase and tag," opponents of the main Iranian dissident organization-the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MeK)-oppose removal of an unwarranted terrorist tag imposed on it by the U.S. State Department. Terror Tagging of an Iranian Dissident Organization resolves the puzzle of why the State Department continues to label the MeK a terrorist organization, despite the law and facts. With a simple signature to remove the terrorist tag, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would bring her department in accord with the law and facts, empower the Iranian people to change the regime in Tehran, and open a political option between failed diplomatic engagement and ineffective economic sanctions, on one hand, and problematic military action, on the other.

Dr. Raymond Tanter is the president of the Iran Policy Committee, Professor Emeritus of the University of Michigan, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, an adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a former member of the U.S. National Security Council Staff in the Executive Office of the President, and a former personal representative of the U.S. Secretary of Defense to arms control negotiations in Europe. His books include Rogue Regimes, Appeasing the Ayatollahs, What Makes Tehran Tick?, Baghdad Ablaze, President Obama and Iraq, and President Obama and Iran.