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MKO Rajavi Cult Declining
The Threat of Cults
 
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Scott Peterson


Scott Peterson Scott Peterson is the  Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor who  has written several stories about the Iranian opposition group in exile, the Mujahideen-e Khalq (the MKO or MEK). He was a Middle East correspondent for the Daily Telegraph but as of 2000 was a staff writer and Moscow bureau chief for the Christian Science Monitor. His book, Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda is an account of his experiences and observations during a decade of reporting from Sub-Saharan Africa. He is also one of only a few journalists to report in depth on the subject of depleted uranium contamination in Ir aq.]        

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Posted on :November 02 2009

Iran sees less threat in exiled MKO militants "I think you would find the current President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad more democratic than the Mujahideen," says Mr. Abrahamian. "Even in the early 1970s, it had turned into a cult organization.... The remaining members ... will do whatever [MKO leader Massoud] Rajavi tells them." The State Department's terrorism report last year said the MKO maintains "the capacity and will to commit terrorist acts in Europe, the Middle East, the United States, Canada and beyond."



Posted on :September 26 2007

This strange twist, analysts say, underscores the divisions in Washington over US strategy in the Middle East and the war against terrorism. It's also a function of the swiftly deteriorating US-Iran dynamic, and a victory for US hawks who favor using the Mujahideen-e Khalq Organization (MKO) or "People's Holy Warriors," as a tool against Iran's clerical regime.



Posted on :June 26 2006

The case of those holed up in Camp Ashraf, near Baghdad, remains a quirky piece of unfinished business left over from the American campaign to oust Saddam Hussein. It continues to leave a trail of broken lives...the MKO's fate is unclear. While the Iraqis want it disbanded, the politically savvy group still has support among some congressmen and Pentagon officials, who see it as a potential tool against Iran, a country which President Bush calls part of an "axis of evil."



Posted on :June 26 2005

At a ceremony last week, an Iranian mother hugged her son, one of 31 returning combatants who had spent time at a military camp in Iraq....More than 250 young Iranians, from a group committed to toppling Iran's leaders(MKO), are back in Tehran..The journey of one of those sons, Hamid Khalkali, is typical: He went to Turkey five years ago for work, but ended up at a military training camp in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. He was recruited by the Mujahideen-e Khalq..