People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran

The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, also listed as Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), appears in the book as a named organization in the United States Department of State's October 5, 2001, list of foreign terrorist organizations. The text gives no organizational history, membership, operations, or account of its relationship with the United States; its significance here lies in its place within an official designation system that the book examines critically.

Appearance in the 2001 List

The organization is item 15 in the list established on October 5, 2001. The entry renders its name as Mujahedin-e Khalq and supplies the abbreviation MEK. No additional description accompanies the listing, so the passage establishes its designation and the form under which it was recorded, but not the grounds for that designation.

The List and Its Context

The list is presented after a brief account of changes to the designation roster. Madeleine Albright designated one new organization in 1999 and another in 2000; in October 2001, Colin Powell renewed the designations of 26 of the 28 listed organizations and combined two previously separate entries, Kahane Chai and Kach. The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran is included in the resulting list, but the text does not say whether its own designation was renewed in that action.

The entry sits within the book's wider argument that official uses of the word terrorism are shaped by political convention. The author invokes the official U.S. definition of terrorism as calculated violence or its threat for political, religious, or ideological aims, while arguing that governments also use the term propagandistically for acts committed by adversaries. He further argues that the same actors can be recategorized as terrorists or freedom fighters as political circumstances change. These are the book's general claims about classification, not specific claims about the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran.

What the Text Establishes—and Leaves Open

The passage establishes that the organization was named in the United States' October 2001 foreign-terrorist-organization list and identifies the list's label, Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). It does not describe the group's aims, actions, leadership, or the evidence behind its placement. Nor does it connect the organization to any event discussed elsewhere in the book. Its documented role in this account is therefore limited but clear: it is one of the organizations through which the official designation framework is made concrete.