Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Rayburn 2240

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Ms. Ros-Lehtinen,

The Foundation for Democracy in Iran welcomes your opposition to the regime in Tehran, as expressed in the letter you made public today with Congressmen Gary Ackerman and James Trafficant, but we are concerned that you have fallen into a trap laid by a group that has been closely associated with the Tehran regime, the People's Mujahidin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as the Mujahidin-e Khalq (MEK), the National Council of Resistance (NCR), or the National Liberation Army (NLA).

The State Department has carefully detailed the MEK's record of kidnapping and murdering American citizens in Iran during the late 1970s. It is also documented the role played by the MEK in the Khomeinist revolution and the revolutionary governments between 1979 and 1981. During that time, MEK guerrillas assassinated in cold blood an estimated 3,000-5,000 sympathizers of the former regime. Contrary to Mr. Trafficant's statement this afternoon that the group had "purged" those responsible for the 1979-1981 murders, the group's leader at the time, Massoud Rajavi, remains in control of the group today.

We fully agree that the United States should take a firm stand against the Tehran regime. We are on record as fully supporting the U.S. policy of economic sanctions against the Tehran regime, and have advocated taking a tougher stance against the Islamic Republic's abysmal human rights record as well. The United States should act in cooperation with its allies, where possible, and unilaterally if that fails, to increase pressure on the regime. We fully believe that a strong, free, and democratic Iran would abandon the behavior the United States finds objectionable. However, we caution you that the MEK has shown that it does not support a democratic, pluralistic Iran, but instead is dedicated to bloodshed and an era of renewed radicalism. The group's own statement of principles (Maryam Rajavi's "16 points") explicitly excludes from any future democratic polity in Iran groups it finds objectionable or that disagree with its aims. Clearly, this is a recipe for more dictatorship, not for democracy.

As a human rights monitoring group, we are in contact with a large number of opposition groups from all across the Iranian political spectrum, both inside Iran and in exile. I can assure you that all these groups, whether former monarchists, leftist former allies of the Mujahidin, or members of the Iranian clergy who oppose the regime on religious grounds, totally reject the Mujahidin because of their totalitarian practices and their history of collaboration with the Khomeini regime.

One case in point was the "invasion" of Iran by Mujahidin troops in concert with Iraqi forces in April 1988. Well before Iran's Revolutionary Guards were able to deploy to ward off the MEK forces, teenagers and old men from frontier villages repelled the Mujahidin and inflicted heavy casualties on them, according to international wire service reports. While the Mujahidin disputes these wire service accounts, the group acknowledges that it was forced to call off its "march to Tehran."  We believe the future of Iran lies with the Iranian people, and the Iranian people have consistently and vigorously rejected the Mujahidin. Notwithstanding the group's propaganda, there is no objective evidence that the group can count on any support inside Iran. The group's record during the Iran-Iraq war, when its guerrillas fought side by side with Saddam Hussein's troops against Iranian forces, have earned it a reputation as "collaborators" with the enemy in the eyes of most Iranians. Its actions since then - which include the deployment of Mujahidin guerrillas to combat Kurdish opponents to Saddam Hussein in northern Iraq last year - have done nothing to efface this image of a group totally subservient to the orders of the Iraqi dictator.

We cannot believe that you would want to go on record as supporting Saddam Hussein, or a group that has been closely allied with the terrorist activities of the Khomeini regime in Tehran. We therefore urge that you withdraw your signature from this letter.

So you can better judge our group, which supports no political party or group in the domestic Iranian debate or in the United States, we invite you to review the attached statement we issued two days after the election of Hojj. Mohammad Khatemi as president of Iran on May 23, 1997, in which we argue that measurable changes in Iran's behavior must occur before the U.S. should alter its approach toward Tehran. We also invite you to visit our website at www.iran.org, and to review a letter similar to yours, drafted by FDI in cooperation with Senators Alfonse D'Amato, Trent Lott, Joseph Lieberman, and others, that was sent to the President on February 19 of this year (available at http://www.iran.org/news/970218.htm).

We look forward to working with you to promote freedom and democracy in Iran, but are convinced that using the regime's own methods, terrorism and violence - as advocated by the Mujahidin - will only lead to another disaster. There are many voices inside Iran who support these worthy goal, whose activities we would be happy to discuss with you at your convenience.

Sincerely yours,

Kenneth R. Timmerman

Executive Director