Iran Policy Committee

The Iran Policy Committee (IPC), formed in January 2005, is a pressure group meant to influence US government policy towards Iran. IPC is made up of former White House, State Department, Pentagon and CIA officials .

Views and activities

On the grounds that Iran poses a threat to US National Security, the IPC advocates that the US should favor "regime change" through a process of "destabilization" and "coercive diplomacy", while keeping the full military option open. Suggested policies include economic blockades, military support of the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) or the MEK, and precision strikes of selected targets within Iran. They describe this as "providing a central role for the Iranian opposition to facilitate regime change". In a speech to a rally on 19 January 2006 organized by Council for Democratic Change in Iran, an MeK front group, Tanter said the revolution in Iran will not be one of the nonviolent “color revolutions” likes those in central Europe. “To say that the only route in Iran is the non-violent route of Gandhi and King is to misunderstand the nature of the theocratic regime in Tehran..”

According to Rightweb:

Launched in 2005, IPC's main modus operandi is to hold a press conference, typically at the National Press Club, at which it releases the findings of its latest “white paper.” On January 11, 2007, a day after President George W. Bush announced his “surge” strategy for Iraq, IPC held a press conference at the National Press Club to announce the release of its latest paper, “How to Make the Surge Work: A Complementary Political-Military Plan for Iraq.” ...Less than a week earlier, on January 5, 2007, IPC held a press conference at the National Press Club at which it claimed to provide convincing evidence of Tehran's role in fomenting violence in Iraq. Under the headline “New Intelligence Points to Iran Destabilizing Iraq,” the conference showcased the work of Alireza Jafarzadeh...IPC's Tanter followed up Jafarzadeh's remarks to push for the involvement of the MEK in U.S. operations in the region.

Earlier IPC white papers on Iran have included: “U.S. Policy Options for Iran and Iranian Political Opposition,” September 13 2005; “U.S. Policy Options for Iran: Sham Elections, Disinformation Campaign, Human Rights Abuses, and Regime Change,” June 30, 2005; “U.S. Policy Options for Iran,” February 10, 2005; and “What Makes Iran Tick,” May 10, 2006.

A Neocon Dissent

While the organization does not shy away from endorsing violence to achieve regime change in Iran, they have been criticized by neocons for not being hardline enough. The neocon hawk Michael Rubin has criticized them for working with the “Monsters of the Left: The Mujahedin al-Khalq.” He was rebutted by the IPC's Clare Lopez for vilifying MEK: “While the MEK's wartime actions [attacking Iran during the Iran-Iraq war] undeniably alienated some Iranians, the group's survival and ability to organize itself, and collect and disseminate key intelligence about Iran's top-secret nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction programs clearly attest to an extensive base of support inside the country today. The MEK's broad level of support among the Iranian Diaspora is obvious in regular and large-scale demonstrations, for instance, in New York City to protest the September 2005 appearance of Iran's terrorist president [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad at the United Nations and on January 19 in Washington, DC to urge referral of Iran to the UN Security Council, where seas of hundreds of waving placards with photos of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi are always prominent features...”

Principals, directors, and personnel

• Clare M. Lopez - Executive Director. Also a senior intelligence analyst at Hawkeye Systems, and a former CIA operative.
• James Akins
• Bill Cowan (CEO of private military corp the WVC3 Group, Inc.)
• Ali Keshavarzi
• Paul Leventhal
• Neil Livingstone
• R. Bruce McColm
• Thomas McInerney
• Charles T. Nash
• Edward Rowny (Lieutenant-General)
• Raymond Tanter – Founder and Co-Chair
• Paul E. Vallely

Politicians or academics promoting IPC

US Congressmen/Senators promoting IPC

• Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
• Bob Filner – (D, CA)
• Tom Tancredo – (R, CO)
• Dennis Moore – (R, KN)
• Ted Poe – (R, TX)
• Kay Bailey Hutchinson – (R, TX)
• James Talent – (R, MS)
• Rick Santorum
• Joseph Lieberman

European Parliamentarians promoting IPC

• Brian Binley
• Struan Stevenson

Featured Iranians

• Alireza Jafarzadeh ..

Affiliations

• Committee on the Present Danger
• Council on Foreign Relations
• National Council of Resistance of Iran
• Nuclear Control Institute (hosts the only web presence of IPC, and shares some principals).
• Strategic Policy Consulting
• Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Other resources

• Hawkeye Systems
• WVC3 Group, Inc.
• Freedom Support Act (HR 282) – IPC and its supporting Congressmen are pressing for HR 282, and it will likely have the same effect as the Syria Accountability Act, in essence, imposing a US embargo on the country.
• Alliance for Democracy in Iran (ADI)
• Iran Democracy Foundation (IDF)
• Iran Freedom Foundation (IFF)
• Iran Freedom Foundation (Maryland)

External Links

• Jim Lobe, "Iran War Drums Beat Harder", InterPress Service, Feb. 11, 2005.
• "Iran policy group outlines new approach in dealing with Tehran", Iran Focus, Feb. 13, 2005.
• Press Release, "Members of Congress, Iran Policy Committee Meet to Discuss U.S. Policy Options for Iran", April 7, 2005.
• Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, "Let’s Rethink What We Wish For…", Payvand News, April 14, 2005. (discusses significance of the Congressional meeting and why the MEK has been removed from the list of terrorist organizations).
• Barbara Slavin, "Iran's 'terrorists' helped disclose nuke program", USA Today, April 14, 2005. Discusses another IPC rumination: "Ray Tanter, a Middle East expert on the National Security Council under President Reagan, said the United States should use the MEK to try to destabilize Iran's government before it acquires nuclear weapons".
• Bill Samii, "Iran opposes US moves", AsiaTimes, April 26, 2005.
• Tom Barry, Iran Freedom and Regime Change Politics, Right Web, 19 May 2006.
• ^Ali Keshavarzi, For progress in Iran, take groups off U.S. terror list, MySanAntonio.com, 28 May 2006.

Contact

Iran Policy Committee

3700 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Suite 507, Washington DC 20016

Phone: 202-333-7346

Fax: 202-333-4126 (fax)

Web: www.iranpolicy.org (NB: the original website and offices of IPC were run out of the Nuclear Control Institute)