At a Congressional hearing on May 5, 2011, the top counterterrorism official at the State Department said the a decision about adjusting the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK) status on the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) was to be expected within six months.  The Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Ambassador Daniel Benjamin was responding to a series of questions from Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) about a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling from July 2010 said State must evaluate the group’s designation after they failed to adequately provide the MEK with an opportunity to review the unclassified information used for its designation. Placed on the State Department’s FTO list in 1997, MEK is a militant group that opposes the Iranian government.

“Over 230 days ago, a federal district court has ruled that the State Department did not give the MEK due process when it decided to keep the MEK on the FTO list. The law states that reviews are to take place within 180 days should the group appeal its designation. It’s been past 120 days, it’s now 230 days…is the State Department going to take them off the list? And if they are, when?  And if they’re not, when?  When are you all going to make a decision,” Poe asked?
Benjamin replied that the State Department is “working as expeditiously as possible to complete the review that the U.S. Court of Appeals ordered” and an answer was likely to be made in “less than six months.” He added, “As recently as April 6th, we received new material from MEK counsel. And we are reviewing it. And just as fast as we can, we are going to get a recommendation package to the Secretary and have a decision made.”
Despite Poe describing the problem as one “the State Department can resolve and is within the State Department’s power to resolve,” Poe introduced a bill (HR 60) in January that calls on the Secretary of State to take the MEK off the FTO list.

The introduction of the bill underscores the red flags civil rights and civil liberties advocates have raised about the fundamental problems with the listing process both at State and at the Treasury Department.   Significant due process violations, including improper designations and illegal seizure of private property, in Treasury’s investigations of two U.S. charities, KindHearts for Charitable and Humanitarian Development and Al-Haramain Oregon, have been recognized by federal courts. In both cases, a U.S. District Court ruled that Treasury’s action violated the organizations’ Fifth Amendment rights and potentially their Fourth Amendment rights as well.  After Treasury’s actions, both charities have been effectively shut down despite neither facing criminal charges.

“The counterterrorism legal framework denies charities due process, exposing them to mistake and abuse…The laws allow the seizure and indefinite freezing of a charitable organization’s assets “pending investigation” without charges, opportunity to respond, or meaningful judicial review. A 9/11 Commission staff report on terrorism financing found that the laws that allow the Treasury Department to designate and seize the assets of charities raise “substantial civil liberty concerns,” says the ACLU report, Blocking Faith, Freezing Charity.