Wall Street Journal
December 12, 2006
The article “Iranian Imbroglio Gives New Boost to Odd Exile Group” (page one, Nov. 29) asserted that most American officials dispute claims of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the main Iranian resistance movement, of “having a mass following in Iran, stressing that many Iranians despise the organization.” Believing this would lead one to wonder why a “terrorist” labeling of such an “isolated” organization should be such a big deal for the clerical regime, as has been underscored by Martin Indyk, the assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs at the time, who stated in the article that the Khatami government “considered it a pretty big deal.”
The Washington-based Iran Policy Committee, in a study of the regime’s official media, established in 2006 that Tehran paid five times more attention to the PMOI than to all other internal and external opposition groups combined. The Associated Press reported from Tehran on Dec. 5 that the Iranian regime has blocked access to YouTube.com mainly because videos from the PMOI have been posted on this site.
In reference to the assertion that the organization received help from the former Iraqi government, the article leaves unanswered one simple question: Four years into the downfall of the former Iraqi government, who finances the expenses of this elaborate resistance that operates inside and outside of Iran so extensively? Answer: The very same Iranian people who have been the sole source of support for the past 27 years.
Shahin Gobadi
Press Spokesman
National Council of Resistance of Iran
London
