Refugee status in the US might seem an obvious solution to the problem. But in another bizarre twist, the Iranian Mujahideen members, who are considered “protected persons” under the Geneva Convention by US forces in their “Camp Ashraf” north of Baghdad, are actually listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department. They allegedly supported the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979. British courts and the European Court of Justice have ordered that the PMOI be removed from their respective lists of proscribed organizations. Standard diplomatic procedure requires the White House to assert that, in the basket of pressure tactics on Iran, military action is always an option. Both presidential candidates have echoed that line. The reality is that both the State Department and the Pentagon know that an airstrike against Iran’s nuclear facilities would be a political catastrophe and could not guarantee eliminating some of the facilities buried deep underground
