Local Free-Iran Activists Attend UN Rally

IRAN EXPATS RESISTANCE ADVANCES WITH STATE DEPARTMENT 

 A year ago, the Long Beach Library hosted a presentation sponsored by the Long Beach Tea Party that featured representatives of an Iranian refugee organization advocating secular democratic regime change in Iran and promoting the goals of the People’s Mujahadin of Iran (PMOI; also known as Melek e Khalq, or MEK.)  At the time, the PMOI was classified by the United States Department of State as a “terrorist group.” On September 26, many of those same representatives who were at the Long Beach Library gathered at the United Nations Dag Hammerjold Plaza to celebrate the removal of the PMOI from the terrorist list. This past month, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton announced that the PMOI would be removed from the State Department terrorist list pursuant to an order to show cause U.S. backers of the PMOI were able to win in a 2010 Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals suit.  The announcement capped off years of effort to free the PMOI from the legal constraints and negative inference of their being on the State Department terrorist list. Two local residents took part in the September 26 rally, as they had taken part in years of activity in support of democratic reform and regime change in Iran:  Max Saatchi of Lido Beach and Frank McQuade of Long Beach.  Saatchi is an Iranian who fled as a dissident against the Iranian theocracy.  He took his resistance to the U.S. where he has been active in leadership roles in the Iranian expatriate movement.  Frank McQuade is an attorney who has worked as a speaker, writer and lobbyist on behalf of the PMOI de-classification and the democracy movement in Iran. The September 26 rally included appearances by Rudy Giuliani, John Bolton, Tom Ridge and Louis Frey. “The removal of the PMOI as a suspect group is a watershed moment for the free-Iran movement,” claims McQuade. “It frees them up to forward the goals of regime change and the downfall of Mahoud Achmadinijad.”  McQuade points out that the PMOI proposes to succeed in regime change without the use of U.S military or financial support.  “They have the means and ways to really light up the Teheran street by the power of good ideas in way that will not entangle the United States.  Regime change from within.” While Saatchi and McQuade are pleased with the State Department’s decision to de-classify the PMOI, they understand that there is much work mto be done.  They see Iran as being behind world terror and regional instability, and will be more of a problem if they succeed in going nuclear.  “Iran remains a dangerous place,”  says McQuade.  “To eliminate Achmadinijad is the next step towards a free Iran, and a more peaceful region will follow.  Good for them…good for us.”