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Sheila Jackson Lee and Ted Poe team up to support Iranian opposition group MEK

By Sharanya Shankar on March 23, 2012 at 11:04 AM Celebrants were seeking freedom from the current Iranian theocracy. (Sharanya Shankar / Houston Chronicle)

Houston-area lawmakers Ted Poe and Sheila Jackson Lee came together Thursday to celebrate the Iranian New Year. And they’re hoping that the new year brings good news for the opposition to Iran’s brutal theocracy.

In a congressional hearing room decorated with Persian food and flowers to celebrate Nowrouz, otherwise known as Iranian New Year, Poe and Jackson Lee were among the lawmakers and Iranian-Americans requesting that the Obama administration take the Iranian opposition group known as Mujahedin-e-Khalq’s (MEK) off the U.S. terrorism watch list.

Though the MEK has been accused of murdering countless Americans in years past (1970s) and committing other unlawful violent acts, it also has provided Americans intelligence on Iran. The MEK is on the United States terrorism blacklist even after the organization repeatedly renounced participation in terrorism and violence.

The European Union removed MEK from its terrorist list in 2009.

A U.S. federal court last year gave the administration an extended period of time to bring forth evidence that MEK still has links to terrorism. Approximately 200 days later, past the court’s deadline, the Obama administration has neither responded nor come up with new evidence.

At the hearing, Iranian Americans assembled in the Foreign Affairs Committee hearing room with a lavish display of spring flowers, authentic Iranian food and desserts in honor of a new year. The Iranians shared personal anecdotes and hard evidence of why Iranians fighting for freedom in Camp Liberty in Iraq should deserve fundamental humanitarian rights. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee teamed up Thursday with fellow Texan Ted Poe. (Sharanya Shankar / Houston Chronicle)

The crowd included former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, along with the two Texas lawmakers.

Poe, a Republican from Humble, declared that “freedom-loving Americans should support a regime change in Iran.” He urged the State Department to give him more convincing information that would declare that MEK is still a threat. “That information either doesn’t either exist or they haven’t provided it for me,” he told Texas on the Potomac.

Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, acknowledged that “even in the relocation there are challenges being faced.”

“We will work together in brotherhood and sisterhood, and that our cause will always be the dignity of all humanity, the freedom of voices, the freedom of movement, and the safety of our people, together we stand united,” she said. “I believe there is enough sentiment in our government to be sensitive to a review that is thorough and moves now…I don’t think it is out of the ordinary to review an order by the court.”

Ali Soudjani, president of the Iranian-American Society of Texas, wholeheartedly agreed with Jackson Lee: “2,500 years ago we had freedom of speech, freedom of movement, and freedom of religion. Today we don’t have those three. It’s time. We want freedom.”



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