End of Controversy
Jafarzadeh's association with the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) which is associated with the People's Mujahedin of Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq, MEK, PMOI, or MKO) was a source of controversy for some time. Jafarzadeh was the public spokesperson for the National Council of Resistance of Iran until its office in Washington was closed by the US State Department in 2003 in what pundits believe was a move to curry favor with Tehran. On the same grounds, the People's Mujahedin of Iran, was listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department in 1997. The controversy ended when the Iranian opposition group was delisted by the State Department on September 28, 2012. The designation was removed as a result of several Court rulings and extensive pressure by the heavy weights in the U.S. Congress in both chambers, dozens of senior former national security officials such as Obama's National Security Advisor General James Jones, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, CIA Directors R. James Woolsey, Jr., General Michael Hayden and Porter Goss, former US Ambassadors at the UN Bill Richardson and John R. Bolton, Governors Ed Rendell, Howard Dean, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani, as well as Iranian-American communities across America. Jafarzadeh defended a firm policy on Iran as well as the MEK during his interviews, such as in the Fox News of USA coverage on findings of an "Iranian nuclear site"
Jafarzadeh's name appeared in the media in a Houston Chronicle article dated December 24, 1986, where he is described as a spokesman for the MEK. In this article, Jafarzadeh compared the MEK's resistance activities to those of the US Founding Fathers.
On August 28, 1988, New York Times published an article that Jafarzadeh as then public spokesman for People's Mujahedin of Iran in the United States said:
| “ | "Mujahedeen have learned to take proper tactics when and if necessary. We have always adjusted tactics in our fighting. The form of fighting is secondary." | ” |
Read more about this topic: Alireza Jafarzadeh
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