Highlights
& Quotes
Raymond Tanter is founder and co-chair of the Iran Policy Committee (IPC), which was established in January 2005. IPC is comprised of "former officials from the White House, State Department, intelligence agencies, and experts from think tanks and universities." According to IPC: "By calling for change in Tehran based on Iranians instead of Americans, IPC stresses the potential for a third alternative: Keep open diplomatic and military options, while providing a central role for the Iranian opposition to facilitate regime change." 2
Tanter is a fervent supporter of a combination of covert and congressionally-designated aid to foster regime change in Iran. In June 2003, Tanter said: "I think that regime change ought to be the policy of the Bush administration. But regime change doesn't mean that you need the 4th Infantry Division to come in from the north and meet up in the south with the 3rd Infantry Division coming in from the south and the Marines coming in from the West. That is, Iran is not Iraq." Instead of a U.S. invasion, Tanter recommended that the U.S. government support the Iraq-based People's Mujahedin Organization (MEK), so that it can launch a cross-border insurgency against Iranian regime targets. 3
The MEK, which is on the State Department's list of international terrorist organizations since 1997 because of its assassinations of six U.S. citizens (three soldiers and three contractors) involved in selling weapons to the shah, was partially disarmed as part of a cease-fire deal with U.S. forces in Iraq.
Tanter presented his radical prescriptions for U.S. policy in Iran at a press briefing at the National Press Club on November 21, 2005. 4 Excerpts from Tanter's speech follow:
"One military option is the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, which may have the capability to destroy hardened deeply-buried targets. That is, bunker-busting bombs could destroy tunnels and other underground facilities. But the Pentagon's 2001 Nuclear Posture Review states that over 70 countries employ underground facilities for military purposes, while the United States lacks sufficient means to destroy these facilities. In addition, the Non-Proliferation Treaty bans use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states, such as Iran. Such a prohibition might not apply as much to Israel. In this respect, the United States has sold Israel bunker-busting bombs, which keeps the military option on the table."
"Empowerment requires working with Iranian opposition groups in general and with the main opposition in particular. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) are not only the best source for intelligence on Iran's potential violations of the nonproliferation regime. The NCRI and MEK are also a possible ally of the West in bringing about regime change in Tehran."
"The international community should realize that there is only one group to which the regime pays attention and fears: the Mujahedeen-e Khalq and the political coalition of which the MEK is a part, the National Council of Resistance of Iran. By delisting the NCRI and MEK from the Foreign Terrorist Organizations listing maintained by the Department of State, it would allow regime change to be on the table in Tehran. With regime change in the open, Tehran would have to face a choice about whether to slow down in its drive to acquire nuclear weapons or not."
The Iran Policy Committee demonstrated its strong ties with foreign policy hawks on Capitol Hill in April 2005 when it convened a briefing at the invitation of the Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives. Co-chairs of this caucus are Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO) and Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA).
IPC panelists included: Prof. Raymond Tanter, former staff member, National Security Council; Paul Leventhal, founder and president emeritus, Nuclear Control Institute; Dr. Neil Livingstone, CEO, Global Options Inc.; Capt. Chuck Nash (ret.), president, Emerging Technologies International; Lt. Col. Bill Cowan, USMC (ret.), CEO, wvc3 Inc.; and Clare Lopez, IPC executive director and strategic policy and intelligence analyst. IPC member, Lt. General Edward Rowny (ret.), former Ambassador to the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks, also attended.
Tancredo raised the issue of the terrorist designation of Iran's main opposition group, the Mujahedeen e-Khalq organization (MEK), and IPC panelists concurred on the need to remove it from the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organizations List. Rep. Tancredo noted that the MEK was designated not because it was involved in terrorist activities, but because the Clinton administration sought to curry favor with the Iranian regime.
According to an IPC press release, Tanter told Tancredo and other caucus members: "While Iran's nuclear clock is ticking very fast, the clock for a regime change is much too slow," he said. "And if Iran were to acquire the bomb before the people are able to change the regime, it might obtain a new lease on life, act to extend the Iranian Revolution throughout the region, and threaten U.S. interests in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Israel." 5
On May 11, 2006 IPC released a policy paper, What Makes Tehran Tick, which concludes that Iran's hostility toward Israel and the United States is less a result of feeling threatened or living in a "tough neighborhood" than of "the nature of the regime's revolutionary ideology." Explaining the new IPC white paper, Tanter stated: "The Islamist nature of the regime takes on enhanced importance because Iran is on the road to acquiring nuclear weapons, and there are few exit ramps along the way." Tanter said that, "Given the Islamist character of the Iranian regime and its nuclear potential, only regime change ends the threat of a nuclear-armed Islamist Iran. Diplomacy and military strikes would only delay the onset of the Iranian regime acquisition of nuclear arms." 6
Tanter has written two books. In Rogue Regimes: Terrorism and Proliferation (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998, 1999), he wrote: "In a forest of world politics, the West slew a dying Soviet bear, and Washington sees additional beasts hiding in the woods-rogue elephants. The book compares European efforts to embrace states like Iran with American efforts to isolate them." Coauthored with John Psarouthakis, Balancing in the Balkans (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999) includes this summary passage: "When there is a balance of power among parties in conflict, diplomatic persuasion is an option available to outside actors; but if there is an imbalance of power, interventionists might use coercive diplomacy." Prior documents written by Tanter include Rational Decision-Making: Israel's Decisions, 1967, and Who's at the Helm? Lessons of Lebanon.
