Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Donald Trump urged to work with terrorist organization NCRI

While the Iranian government and people call the exiled opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) ‘terrorist’, nearly two dozen former top U.S. government officials have urged President-elect Donald Trump to work with the group!

According to Fox News, a letter signed by 23 former officeholders calls on Trump to consult with the Paris-based group.

“Iran’s rulers have directly targeted US strategic interests, policies and principles, and those of our allies and friends in the Middle East,” the letter reads, in part. “To restore American influence and credibility in the world, the United States needs a revised policy.”

The letter’s signatories include former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani; former Sen. Joe Lieberman; and retired Army Gen. Hugh Shelton, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Bill Clinton.

NCRI, the political arm of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MeK) and a political coalition of Iran’s democratic opposition groups and figures, was founded in 1981 with the aim of overthrowing the Iranian regime.

In 2003, the United States listed NCRI as a terrorist organization and closed its Washington office. But in 2012, the US State Department formally removed MEK from its list of terrorist organizations in a decision made by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

MEK’s past acts of terrorism included its involvement in the killing of U.S. citizens in Iran in the 1970s and an attack on U.S. soil in 1992. While the group says it does not intentionally target civilians, it has often risked civilian casualties. It routinely aims its attacks at government buildings in crowded cities. MEK terrorism has declined since late 2001.

Last month, a group of Iranian dissidents wrote a letter to Trump, urging the president-elect to follow through on his campaign promise to revisit the nuclear deal between Iran and six global powers, including the U.S.

“During the presidential campaign, we and millions of Iranians followed your forthright objection to the nuclear agreement reached between the Obama administration and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the letter reads.

According to Fox news, the Trump transition team has not given any official response to the letter, and it’s unclear whether Trump has any plans to take a meeting with Iran dissidents and groups.

Earlier Sunday, Iran’s deputy foreign minister told reporters that “the new U.S. administration cannot abandon the deal.” Abbas Araghchi added that the agreement “will not be renegotiated” and repeated an earlier warning by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who publicly stated, “If they tear it up, we will burn it,” without elaborating.

Realiran.org

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Abdi family’s dear son is enslaved by the cult of MKO

Mrs. Abdi is an active member of Nejat Society – Tehran Branch. She is a suffering mother whose dear son; Ahmad is enslaved behind the bars of the Rajavis’ Cult.

Enduring much hardship and sufferings, Mrs. Abdi has done her utmost efforts to liberate Ahmad. She several times traveled to the war-torn country of Iraq.  She picketed in front of MKO Camps in Iraq along with other families asking to visit their beloved ones.

Mrs. Abdi Says:” the only thing I wish is that I meet Ahmad and embrace him tightly…”

Abdi family's dear son is enslaved by the cult of MKO

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Former members of the MEK

Mansour fadaei managed to defect the MKO Cult in Albania

Mr. Mansour fadaei managed to liberate himself from the destructive cult of MKO in Tirana, Albania.

Mansour’s parents wrote a letter to their son on the occasion of his birthday which was published on Nejat Society Website. Hearing about the letter, Mansour became more determined to release himself from the mental and physical captivity of the group.

Mansour contacted his parent as soon as he defected the MKO Cult.

While shedding tears of joy; Mansour’s parent went to the Nejat Society office and announced their dear son’s release from the terrorist, destructive cult of Mujahedin-e Khalq.

Mr. Fadaei defect the MKO Cult in Albania

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Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

MKO dissident members at Abu Quraib Prison!

Mr. Mohammad Hossein Sobhani ; former high ranking member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Cult wrote an enlightening article- in persian on the occasion of the release of 50 MKO dissident members from the Abu Quraib – the Iraqi Baath regime prison.

The article reads:” January 21st reminds me and others – who were prisoners of Abu Quraib, of the bitter as well as sweet memoirs of our freedom from that gruesome prison. In January 21, 2002 a number of 50 MKO dissident members whom were handed over to the Iraqi former dictator; Saddam Hussein by Massoud Rajavi, got released by the help of international organizations.

Honoring this day, I want to remind Massoud Rajavi and Mujahein-e Khalq that we do not let their treasons and crimes be forgotten….it is very bitter and regrettable to see an organization which claims to be after freedom, equality, justice, democracy and monotheistic classless society But imprisons dissent members and those who were no more willing to cooperate with the organization in solitary confinements for years and then hand them over to Saddam Hussein; the Iraqi former dictator. Saddam relatively imprisoned them at Abu Guraib prison under the name of “Mujahedin’s loan “[ Amanat-e Mojahedin ]. We, MKO dissident members, had committed no crime…  “

Mr. Sobhani, went to Iraq as a member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq in the early 1980s. In 1992, Mr. Sobhani declared his doubt and dissatisfaction with the group leader – Massoud Rajavi’s strategies. Since then he underwent a prolonged period of imprisonment .

Mr. Sobhani is one among hundreds of individuals who victimized by the MKO leaders.

The 28-page report, "No Exit: Human Rights Abuses Inside the MKO Camps," examines how dissatisfied MKO members were tortured and held in solitary confinement. The report is based on the direct testimonies of a dozen former MKO members, including five who were turned over to Iraqi security forces and held in Abu Ghraib prison under Saddam Hussein. 

Mr. Sobhani is one of these five witnesses:

” Mohammad Hussein Sobhani spent eight-and-a-half years in solitary confinement inside the MKO’s main camp in Iraq, Camp Ashraf, from September 1992 to January 2001. He was subsequently held in Abu Ghraib prison and left Iraq in 2002.

Sobhani first came in contact with the MKO in 1977, a year before the anti-monarchy revolution. By 1979, he was working “professionally and full time” with the organization. When the headquarters of the armed wing of the organization relocated inside Iraq, he followed suit. By 1991, he had risen in the ranks of the organization and had become a member of the Central Committee. However, ever since the “ideological revolution,” when divorces were mandated, he became uncomfortable with the path pursued by the leadership. His differences with the leadership of Masoud and Maryam Rajavi and other members of the Central Committee reached a climax in 1992. Masoud Rajavi argued for remaining in Iraq regardless of the end of the Iran-Iraq war and Saddam Hussein’s defeat in the first Gulf War in 1991, he said. Rajavi still hoped that fighting between Iran and Iraq would resume, and based the organization’s strategy on such a development. Sobhani says he found the possibility of a new war highly unlikely given the dismal state of Iraq’s armed forces. Other members of the Central Committee saw his arguments as a challenge to the Rajavis’ leadership:

As long as my criticisms were mild, I was left alone. But as soon as I persevered in my questioning, their behavior changed dramatically. In the beginning, I discussed my concerns personally with the leadership, Maryam and Masoud Rajavi. I also brought up my concerns with other members of the Central Committee. These discussions reached a dead-end. Once they became certain that I didn’t share their views, on August 28, 1992, they convened a meeting (neshast taiin taklif) to determine my faith and to decide if I was staying with the organization or not. The process began with intimidation, verbal abuse, and beatings. Of course, since I was a high ranking official I was treated better than ordinary members. I was told that my criticisms and questions were just an excuse to quit the struggle. Their conclusion was that I was a quitter (borideh) and didn’t have the strength to continue the struggle any longer.50

On August 31, 1992, Sobhani was moved to a prison and kept under solitary confinement for the next eight-and-a-half years.

After the first two months in prison, all of my beliefs in the organization fell apart. Up to that point I considered my differences with them as a matter of divergent political views; I wasn’t questioning the MKO’s underlying essence. I used to mark my prison walls each time I was subjected to severe beatings. There were many occasions of lesser beatings, but on eleven occasions I was beaten mercilessly using wooden sticks and thick leather belts.51

Sobhani was handed over to Iraqi officials in January 2001. He spent one month in mukhabarat  prison and then transferred to Abu Ghraib. He was held in Abu Ghraib until January 21, 2002, when he was repatriated to Iran in exchange for Iraqi POWs. In Iran, he was detained and interrogated by the Iranian government. After three days, he escaped from a low security detention center and fled Iran. He is currently living in Europe.

Joe Stork, HRW’s Washington director said:” Members who try to leave the MKO pay a very heavy price,"… These testimonies paint a grim picture of what happened to members who criticized the group’s leaders."

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Goebbels’ Principles of Propaganda followed by the MKO

Decades after the lethal fate of Hitler and his highly effective and skilled minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels, there are still people who use their methodology in order to deceive public opinion and to indoctrinate their followers. The Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the Cult of Rajavi/ the MKO/MEK) is one of the notoriously known cult-like groups that complies with the entire methodology of Goebbels.

Leader of the MKO cult, Massoud Rajavi systematically inherited Goebbels’ legacy as a devious, manipulative master propagandist.  Like Goebbels, Massoud was extremely good at his job. He drove his listeners into trance, making them stand up for long hours, sing songs, raise their arms, repeat oaths and slogans; and he did it, not through an ardent inspiration, but as the result of a psychological manipulative methodology.

Goebbels’ guideline was based on his 19 "Principles of propaganda" that would make his propaganda campaign active. Studying Goebbels’ principals, one may find out the extent of the MKO leaders’ loyalty to these principals. However, this post is able to cover only certain ones of the principals that are more iconic and common in the propaganda machine of the Cult of Rajavi.

At the first place Goebbels believes that “the propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion”. Regarding the cult-like system of the MKO, authorities of the group use the most horrible cult jargons in order to have access to the most inner thoughts of members –in case of the MKO, public opinion is limited to the members and sympathizers of the group.

Members are forced to write daily reports to confess any kind of thought that crosses their minds to their superiors and peers. They have to attend daily meetings to submit their self-criticism reports. No two MKO members can form a friendly relationship. There is always a superior to supervise a member’s daily life. Under such a circumstance, members have no private space and thus the authorities are more easily able to control their minds.

According to Goebbels, Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority; it must issue all the propaganda directives; it must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain their morale. Massoud Rajavi has been the absolute authority of the MKO for nearly four decades. Despite his disappearance since 2003, his authority ruled over the main officials of the cult, even his third wife Maryam Rajavi. Massoud’s influence over his high-ranking members particularly Maryam was been so extensive and destructive that she could never stop him as a polygamous cult leader. Instead, she cooperated him in his fraudulent tactics to marry a large number of female members of the group. This was how Massoud “maintained their morale”!

Goebbels suggests, “propaganda theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing effectiveness.” No matter how many years the MKO has promised the “overthrow” of the Islamic Republic, it seems that repeating the word “overthrow” is enough for them to run their propaganda. From time to time, that the word loses its effectiveness to indoctrinate members, the authorities set off for a new tactic, for instance the word get printed, framed and put on the new year’s Haftsin table (the Iranian traditional table which is set for the New Year’s celebration).

The principals underline that Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans. The MKO authorities are skillful users of this key principal. There are so many of such phrases and slogans. The followings are just some examples:

-Since the group was turned into a cult in the late 1980s, Massoud Rajavi has always been called as the “Ideological leader”.

-The cult-like techniques that forced members to divorce their spouses, forget their families and accept Massoud as their only source of love, has been named “Maryam’s Revolution”.

-The Iranian government is called “Reactionary Regime” and anyone who criticize the group is labeled as “agent of the Iranian Intelligence” by the Cult’s propaganda.

-“Ashrafi” and “Ashrafneshan” are used as passionate terms to instigate the group members who were once residing in Camp Ashraf, Iraq. It was in Camp Ashraf that the group formed military force by financial and logistical support of Saddam Hussein and became his private army.

Briefly, according to Goebbels’s instructions, propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat. This tactic has maintained the MKO members under the cult-like brainwashing system of the group. Over years, the members have become so anxious and fearful that they cannot find anyway out to feel secure except staying inside the cult. The leaders of the Cult of Rajavi intimidate the members by telling tales about execution and torture that is awaiting them outside the cult.

By the way, Goebbels manipulated the German media and ensured that the radical Nazi messages of German racial superiority and anti-Semitic conspiracy theory became commonplace and accepted. The last line of his last speech was a call to arms: “People, rise up, and storm, break loose!”  However, His idea of “total war”– completely mobilizing everything in the nation for the war effort– failed. His fate was a tragedy. He committed suicide together with his wife, after he poisoned his six children!

When in 2003, after the American invasion to Iraq and consequently the disarmament of the Camp Ashraf, Massoud Rajavi disappeared, the start of his declining fate was marked. A few months later, in June Maryam Rajvai was arrested by the French Police. This was a shock that convinced Massoud to continue to stay in hiding.

 Today, 14 years have passed, Massoud’s fate is uncertain although the MKO’s Saudi sponsor Turki Feisal announced his death at the group’s gathering last July. Obviously, he is not that effective, absolute leader any more. This is proved by the rise in the defections from the cult.

By Mazda Parsi

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Let your breathe speak …

Mrs. Saedi is the mother of Firooz who was entrapped by the Mujahedin-e Khalq Cult several decades ago.

Mr. and Mrs. Saedi; parent of MKO Cult hostage Saed

We have several times went in front of MKO Camps in Iraq to meet Firooz, but Rajavi denied our visit, says Mrs. Saedi. Her eyes brim with tears when she talks about her son.

She has written a letter to her dear son; Firooz saying:

” hello my unfaithful son. I don’t get disappointed, though my hellos have been remained unanswered. My eyes are waiting to see you again …. What has happened to you that you don’t want to hear your mum’s voice!! I have lost my patience… my dear Saed I beg you if you don’t want to see me again please just do me a favor: call me and at least let me hear you breathe….

Your Mother ,

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Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 177

++ Over the last week the MEK tried to insert their letter, word by word, line by line, into the media in the hope it would provoke some response from Iran. There was no response at all. The MEK want to say they are part of Trump’s war machine and he will declare war on Iran soon. Nobody is buying this. The only people who wrote about it are some of the ex-MEK members who remind us where the MEK started from (anti-Imperialist) and where they have ended up (begging America for support). Sources inside the MEK report that because the letter gained no response the MEK are wishing they hadn’t written it; the group is so obviously and so publicly being side-lined and ignored. This means the MEK is well below the radar blip of other minor letter writers, so-called opponents of Iran who advocate sanctions, etc. At least they had some response.

++ The MEK have again launched a street fundraising campaign. Ex-members and critics published short notes about why this is done every year. The purpose has always been for money laundering. They explain, the MEK will probably have recently received money from the Saudis and possibly others and now they are collecting money in the street so they can claim that these funds come from charitable public donations. Other methods of money laundry are revealed as: sympathetic ‘individuals’ sell their gold and deposit the money in MEK accounts as a donation; sizeable cheques are given to street collectors from agents of foreign governments supposedly as spontaneous ‘donations’; over-priced sales are transacted through pseudo companies – such as selling a Persian rug for 100 times its real value; money is laundered through antique sales. This is accompanied by the MEK’s usual claim that all their money comes from friendly public and sympathiser donations.

++ Mardom TV had interview with Ali Mohammadi, who has recently left the MEK in Sweden. The interview exposed many of their activities. He appeared alongside Issa Azadeh, a former high-ranking intelligence officer with the MEK, who knows them inside out and who now lives in Paris.

++ Leading MEK enforcer Mehdi Abrishamchi has established a permanent presence in Albania along with an office peopled by his deputies. Abrishamchi is notorious inside the MEK as an agent of Saddam Hussein’s Mokhaberat and as a torturer. He has now set about intimidating the members in Tirana. He tells them ‘Don’t think that Saddam has gone. That is just a name. We are now well established in Albania and we have full backing and have an open hand to do what we like.’ Abrishamchi named Albania’s Interior minister, the head of the UNHCR in Albania and the Albanian Immigration ministry as being ‘in our pocket’ and says ‘they will do as we tell them’.

++ In Tirana, the MEK have printed and distributed maps and plans for the members. These show that the MEK is purportedly planning to build a replica of Camp Ashraf in Albania. The MEK claims they will be given the land soon by the Albanian government and that the Albanians have got no say in this ‘because the Americans and NATO have ordered it and they will not be able to say no’. The plans show that the same monuments (Kuwait’s fountain, the morvarid statue) and buildings and parade ground – presumably along with a cemetery – as in Camp Ashraf will be created. The plan shows the same streets, along with the same names and bus stops. On top of this the MEK has asked all the members to sign a new oath committing to give a hundred times more effort to help build this new base even better than Ashraf. They are told, ‘your age and health are not an excuse. Your life is ours. You will also train for military operations which will come soon.’

The source of this information is still inside the MEK but will leave soon. S/he says the people inside are really, really desperate and very afraid of the MEK leaders. The members are afraid of leaving because they believe what the leaders tell them about Albania being in the hands of the MEK. The MEK hire Albanian thugs and tell the members ‘these are from Albania’s security services who have come to help us’. The source stressed that if only the Albanian authorities or an official would make an announcement to the members that they can live freely outside and that the MEK cannot do anything to harm them, then not many people would be left of the MEK.

In English:

++ Several articles highlighted the plight of the MEK members in Albania and the efforts of their long-suffering families to rescue them. Nejat Society writes how the MEK imprisons members incommunicado in Albania. The campaigners with the No to Terrorism and Cults Movement attended meetings in the European Parliament to share their testimony with lawmakers and policy makers about the situation inside the MEK. Mazda Parsi, writing for Nejat Society, describes Massoud Rajavi’s “ominous legacy…: suffering families and desperate members” as he details the process of internal suppression by MEK leaders against the members in Albania.

++ Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported the visit of Albanian Foreign Minister, Dmitr Bushati, to Tehran and talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif. No mention was made of the MEK in the report, but we can assume that the issue of the group’s presence in Albania was discussed during the visit.

++ Iran Interlink noted that the misguided letter signed by several former US officials had served only to inform Iran that the anti-Iran “toolbox is truly empty”.

++ Albanian newspaper Gazeta Impact reported a clandestine concert held by the MEK out of sight of the media to demonstrate “the solidarity of the Albanian people with the Iranian Mojahedin”. The article derided the ignorance and hypocrisy of the attendees, Deputy Minister of the Interior Elona Gjebrea and Shehi, an MP who claimed to have just been there by accident. The conductor also spoke of the Albanian people’s satisfaction with the MEK terrorists’ cooperation over the years.

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

If Trump Meets Iranian Mujahidin Group, it Could ‘Hurt US Interests’

Washington’s interests will be damaged if incoming US President Donald Trump decides to negotiate with The People’s Mujahidin Organization of Iran (MEK), Sina Azodi, the US-based expert on Iran’s foreign policy and US- Iranian relations, told Sputnik.

AP Photo/ Brennan Linsley

In an interview with Sputnik, Sina Azodi, the US-based expert on Iran’s foreign policy and US-Iranian relations, warned that if US President-elect Donald Trump decides to sit down with The People’s Mujahidin Organization of Iran (MEK), it will ride roughshod over Washington’s interests.

The interview came after a number of former US officials urged President-elect Donald Trump to start a dialogue with an exiled Iranian group – the National Council of Resistance.

The organization presents itself as an alternative to Iran’s theocracy and seeks to change the regime in the Islamic Republic. One of the Council’s components is a group known as MEK which was designated a terrorist organization by the US between 1997 and 2012.

"The Trump Administration should not talk to MEK because in the long run it can hurt the United States’ interests," Sina Azodi said.

According to him, Trump’s possible talks with MEK could be used by Iran’s domestic hardline politicians as leverage in dealing with the country’s moderate government.

Asked about how Iranian authorities feel about the Trump Administration’s potential parleys with MEK, Azodi said that "they [the Iranian government] might be bothered but I don’t think they are concerned."

He remained cautiously optimistic about the development of relations between Washington and Tehran under Trump, and the situation around the Iranian nuclear deal.

"I don’t think that anything major would happen," Azodi said, adding that Iran typically develops better relations with Washington when a Republican administration is in power in the United States.

During the 1970s, MEK led a guerilla campaign against the US-backed Shah of Iran, and launched attacks on American targets. However, in a recent letter to Trump, former US officials claimed that the designation of MEK as a terrorist group was done at the request of Tehran.

The signatories of the letter also urged Trump to close the loopholes standing in the way of the Iranian nuclear deal and to refocus on US policy towards Tehran and on its human rights violations. Trump’s transition officials did not immediately respond to a request to comment about this.

Meanwhile, analysts say that any talks with MEK would not be a radical departure from current US policy. However, they stress that any indication that the US backs the group’s goal of regime change would increase hostility between Tehran and Washington.

Sputniknews.com

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Former members of the MEK

Mr. Fadaei defect the MKO Cult in Albania

Mr. Mansour fadaei managed to liberate himself from the destructive cult of MKO in Tirana, Albania.

Mansour’s parents wrote a letter to their son on the occasion of his birthday which was published on Nejat Society Website. Hearing about the letter, Mansour became more determined to release himself from the mental and physical captivity of the group.

Mansour contacted his parent as soon as he defected the MKO Cult.  

While shedding tears of joy; Mansour’s parent went to the Nejat Society office and announced their dear son’s release from the terrorist, destructive cult of Mujahedin-e Khalq.

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Misguided letter by MEK’s US lobbyists informs Iran the toolbox is truly empty

A letter signed by some former US officials urging the incoming president to support the MEK was first given publicity by Fox News. When this elicited no response from Iran they tried the Farsi outlets – VOA, Radio Farda, BBC etc. But still no response from Iran.

Of itself this lack of response should be enough to clarify that a bunch of sick and deviant pensioners in Albania does not count as a credible or viable tool in anybody’s book. America can’t expect Iran to pay a price for a heap of rotting rubbish. Indeed, this letter only shows Iran how empty the anti-Iran toolbox is.

Sources close to the MEK have revealed that Maryam Rajavi has promised the Saudis that if she gets paid enough, the MEK, NCRI (whatever they call themselves), will be able to gather all the Iranian opposition under their wing and be the voice of all these various groups – whether based in London and Washington writing and talking, or in Kurdistan and Baluchistan carrying out terrorist acts, or any of the others. Whether this absurd claim has been bought by the Saudis we don’t know. What we do know is that the MEK’s expenditure in London and Washington has increased.

All the Americans need to know is that this is an impossible promise and the MEK are simply milking whatever resources they can.

As far as Iran is concerned, there has been no response to this. And why would you expect any – this is a letter signed by paid lobbyists and former officials.

Most definitely Iran is waiting to see if this gains substance in the new Trump administration. If it does, Iran will be delighted. What better for Iran than to have ex-Saddamists, supporters of Daesh and terrorists as the ‘only opposition’! Iran would dearly love to have that card on the table in any future 5+1 negotiations.

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