Page 323 – Nejat Society

A Lobbyist for terrorism; Michael Mukasey

Born on July 28, 1941, Michael Bernard Mukasey is a lawyer and former judge who served as the 81st Attorney General of the United States. He was appointed following the resignation of Alberto Gonzales. Mukasey also served for 18 years as a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, six of those years as Chief Judge. He was the second Jewish U.S. Attorney General and currently he is a partner at the international law firm Debevoise & Plimpton.

On November 8, 2007, After two months of controversy, and a round of sporadically contentious Senate confirmation hearings, former judge Michael Mukasey narrowly won the Senate’s approval to become the next attorney general, by an almost-party line 53-40 vote. Musakey replaced Alberto Gonzales, who resigned under fire in September 2007. Many Democrats voted against Mukasey because of his refusal to categorize the interrogation technique of waterboarding as torture, and his refusal to say that he would oppose President Bush’s insistence on eavesdropping on US citizens. [CNN, 11/8/2007]

Notable issues and comments

Support for the MeK

Alireza Jafarzadeh, counseled former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey prior to his testimony

Mukasey is among the former high profile political officials who were apparently investigated over their financial transactions with the terrorists in the Mujahidin e Khalq aka “MEK” and paid advocacy on behalf of them. (Top Democrat’s speeches for terrorist group probed; The Washington Times – Friday, March 9, 2012)

Mukasey has admitted being paid by MEK and admitted he and his friends have helped the terrorist group by advocating for their removal from the FTO list. This admission by Mukasey contradicted his support for the 2009 Holder v Humanitarian Law Project Supreme Court Decision which held that such advice and assistance as he has admittedly provided in coordination with a designated foreign terrorist organization falls within “material support of terrorism” even if it is nothing but speech.

Mukasey has admitted he was paid handsomely by the MEK to advocate for them. He didn’t deny that his “expert advice and assistance” to MEK was coordinated, only that the designated terrorist group did not dictate what he said. He insisted that as long as the MEK did not write his speech, his acceptance of the terrorist organization’s money and his meetings with MEK members to coordinate his appearances and advocacy are not enough to get him into trouble.

Further, Mukasey accused the Treasury of improperly targeting him and his political friends by looking into the handsome amounts of money they have all been paid by the MEK. He claimed that the Treasury’s subpoenas looking into his and other high-level former politicians’ payments from MEK stemmed from the filing of their amicus brief arguing for MEK to be removed from the terrorist organization list.

What is worse is that Mukasey and his MEK-paid friends scoff at the laws and government terrorist designations they insist on applying to others. As Attorney General, Mukasey undoubtedly ordered prosecutions of many Muslims for financial transactions with FTOs involving far less money than he has been paid.

In their January 2011 opinion piece “MEK Is Not a Terrorist Group,” Mukasey’s group disclosed the perhaps bigger reason for their support of MEK than the thousands of dollars they were each paid, claiming that MEK “has provided valuable intelligence to the United States on Iranian nuclear plans.”

(Dear Department of Justice: Please Investigate Your Old Boss for Material Support of Terrorism! Coleen Rowley Former FBI Special Agent. Huffingtonpost, 03/20/2012 Updated May 20, 2012)

Eavesdropping

On December 12, 2007, Michael Mukasey, the new Attorney General, wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times pushing for Congressional immunity for US telecommunications firms over their cooperation with the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program. Mukasey supported the NSA program, echoing the administration’s long insistence that the surveillance program is “crucial” in protecting the country against terrorist attacks. He also reiterated the administration’s criticism of the “outdated” Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which he said hampers the government’s ability to collect needed intelligence and does little to protect the privacy of US citizens. Mukasey called for Congress to pass a Senate bill that would grant the telecommunications firms retroactive immunity to civil lawsuits and criminal charges surrounding their cooperation with the NSA, and would no longer require court orders for the government to “direct surveillance at foreign targets overseas”—surveillance that would target US citizens. Mukasey also asked for full cooperation of private companies in intelligence activities and strongly opposed another Senate bill that would grant no immunity and would continue to require the government to obtain FISA Court warrants before wiretapping domestic communications. [LOS ANGELES TIMES, 12/12/2007]

Relationship with Giuliani

Mukasey and Giuliani have been friends since working at the same law firm in the early 1970s. [46] In 1985, when Rudolph W. Giuliani, the then U.S. ?????????, was coming under intense criticism for his aggressive tactics in prosecuting organized crime in attorney for the Southern District of New York, his former colleague, Michael B. Mukasey sprang to his defense. Mukasey wrote a strongly worded opinion piece in New York Times arguing that Giuliani’s tough tactics were justified to defeat “dangerous and powerful enemies”. Alec MacGillis, a senior editor at The New Republic magazine and former Washington Post staff writer, had described Mukasey’s public defense of Giuliani as “one example of the strong and lasting bond between President Bush’s nominee for attorney general and the man leading in the GOP polls to replace Bush.” In 1994, Giuliani selected Mukasey, then a federal judge, to preside over his inauguration as mayor. The ties only strengthened after Giuliani left City Hall. Mukasey’s son, Marc, a former assistant U.S. attorney himself, works as a partner at Giuliani’s consulting firm, and Giuliani named Mukasey and his son to one of his presidential campaign advisory committees. Dov Hikind, Democratic New York State Assemblyman has said about Mukasey and Giuliani that they “are two people who are extremely close — extremely, extremely close — and everybody knows that.” ]Washington Post [September 18, 2007

Waterboarding

On December 11, 2014, Mukasey publicly stated on CNN that he believed waterboarding could not be called torture. [ “Mukasey: Waterboarding is not torture”. YouTube. December 11, 2014.] In a 2008 hearing, he said waterboarding would feel like torture if he were subjected to it. [ “At Senate Hearing, Attorney General Michael Mukasey Refuses to Say if Waterboarding is Torture, Illegal”. Democracy Now!] In a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy on January 29, 2008, Mukasey said he finished a review of Justice Department memos about the CIA’s current methods of interrogating terror suspects and finds them to be lawful. He claimed waterboarding currently is not used by the CIA. ]Chicago Tribune, January 30, 2008 [ Attorney General Mukasey on February 7, 2008 said he will Not investigate US government’s use of waterboarding [MOTHER JONES, 2/7/2008].

Remarks about pre-9/11 terrorist phone call

Speaking in San Francisco to the California Commonwealth Club on March 27, 2008, Mukasey defended President Bush’s program of wiretapping calls between Americans and suspected foreign terrorists without court authorization, and implied that the government might have been able to prevent the attacks of September 11, 2001, if it had been able to wiretap a specific call to the U.S. from Afghanistan. Before September 11, 2001, Mukasey said, “We knew that there had been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan, and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn’t know precisely where it went.” He paused, seemed to stifle tears or at least suppress emotion, then continued, “You’ve got 3,000 people who went to work that day, and didn’t come home, to show for that.” In a subsequent letter to Mukasey, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers questioned whether any such phone call had ever actually occurred and, if so, why the government hadn’t been able to use its then-existing legal authority and technological capabilities to monitor it. Also, Some media outlets pick up on the Mukasey’s claim. For example, the San Francisco Chronicle notes that Mukasey “did not explain why the government, if it knew of telephone calls from suspected foreign terrorists, hadn’t sought a wiretapping warrant from a court established by Congress to authorize terrorist surveillance, or hadn’t monitored all such calls without a warrant for 72 hours as allowed by law.” [SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, 3/28/2008].

Boston College Law School Won’t Honor Mukasey

John Garvey, the dean of Boston College Law School announced on March 28, 2008 that the school will not award its highest honor to US Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey at its May commencement amid sharp criticism from some students, faculty, and alumni over his invitation as graduation speaker. The move reflects broad discontent with Mukasey’s controversial refusal to declare that a prison-interrogation technique known as waterboarding constitutes torture. [Huffington Post, 03/28/2008[

Violations of the law are not always crimes

On August 12, 2008, Mukasey told American Bar Association annual meeting delegates that “not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime,” with “only violations of the civil service laws” being found among hiring practices during Gonzales’ tenure as Attorney General.

April 13, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Maryam Rajavi’s lobbyist convicted for child sexual abuse

Dennis Hastert ‘paid hush money to cover up sex abuse’

Dennis Hastert alongside other American paid speakers in Mojahedin Khalq terrorists gathering in Paris

Prosecutors are seeking a six-month jail sentence for disgraced former US House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who is alleged to have paid hush money to cover up sex abuse.

Court documents say Hastert agreed to pay $3.5m (£2.5m) to a person he sexually abused when the victim was aged 14 and Hastert was working as a teacher and wrestling coach.

Prosecutors allege he abused five boys.

The 74-year-old has admitted lying and breaking financial laws.

The plea represents a dramatic fall for the former senior Republican politician, who has had his portrait removed from the House of Representatives in the US Congress.

The alleged abuse happened while Hastert was working in Yorkville, a suburb of Chicago, between 1965 and 1981. Three of the victims were wrestlers on a team he coached.

He cannot be charged with sexual abuse as the statute of limitations has expired in the cases.

One of the victims – referred to in court documents as Individual A – said Hastert had stayed with him in a motel room on the way back from a trip to a wrestling camp and touched him inappropriately.

Two of the others, aged 14 and 17, said Hastert had performed sex acts on them in the locker room at the high school in Yorkville.

All the victims “struggled and are still struggling” with what Hastert did to them, prosecutors argue. Hastert made them feel “alone, ashamed, guilty and devoid of dignity”, they say.

Hastert, who retired in 2007 after serving as House Speaker for eight years, will be sentenced later this month for concealing the large sums of money he paid to Individual A to buy his silence.

Between 2010 and 2012 he withdrew $750,000 in lump sums of $50,000 before learning of rules requiring banks to report large transactions.

After that he withdrew a further $952,000 in lump sums of less than $10,000 between 2012 and 2014.

He was able to pay Individual A $1.7m in payments of $100,000 before being questioned by the FBI in 2014 about his withdrawals.

One of the reasons he gave for the large withdrawals was that he was being blackmailed by someone making a false claim of sex abuse.

He agreed to let investigators record phone conversations he had with Individual A, but prosecutors said the “tone and comments” of Individual A in the conversations were “inconsistent with someone committing extortion”.

In a deal with prosecutors, he admitted the charge of “structuring and assisting in structuring currency transactions” by removing small sums of money to avoid the transactions being reported.

However, the charge of lying to FBI investigators is set to be dropped.

Defence lawyers want Hastert to be spared jail because they say he is suffering from ill health.

He is due to be sentenced on 27 April.

April 12, 2016 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Gender Segregation Everywhere in the MKO Cult

Gender segregation has always been a controversial issue depending on social, religious and legal structure. Critics of gender segregation argue that it is a violation of human rights and denial of capabilities of a specific sex. This phenomenon is a very iconic aspect of the life inside the Mujahedin Khalq Organizatin (the MKO) as a cult-like group. However, the group makes efforts to launch pro-democracy propaganda, chanting slogans of human rights, gender equality and feminism and condemning the Iranian Government for human rights violation and gender segregation.

A short news on the MKO propaganda website reports what it calls “a religious decree issued for segregation of sexes in transport systems.” The alleged report quotes from the state source website ‘hamshahrionline.ir that ”according to the train company schedule, and in cooperation with the Islamic republic’s train service, a special section has been assigned to women for traveling between Tehran and Mashhad on Nour Railways’ for the first time.”

The MKO propaganda accuses the Islamic Republic of continuing “to implement gender segregation across the country” while its own record on gender segregation is notoriously known to the world. The MKO’s abusive structure has been discussed by various bodies. Independent reports from Human Rights Watch and from the RAND Corporation have gathered facts on the group’s cult-like control over members, which according to RAND, include “a near-religious devotion to the Rajavis … public self-deprecation sessions, mandatory divorce, celibacy, enforced separation from family and friends and gender segregation.” [1]

The women only passenger wagons in widely customary across the world. In many countries like, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and Indonesia gender segregated transport system is used to create a more relaxing and peaceful journey for women. A recent report says that, a central German regional railway is also launching a special women and children only area for their trains “. [2] Regardless the controversial arguments that gender segregated carriages on trains are effective to prevent sexual harassments against women or not, the MKO –also known as the Cult of Rajavi—lacks the least competency to argue about such issues.

The freelance British journalist Owen Bennet Jones in his book, “Terrorists? Us?” defines how the MKO destructive cult turned in to the “Cherished ally” of the West. He accurately describes the development of Rajavi’s cult-like control system in the MKO after the disastrous failure in his Saddam-backed military operation against Iran called “Eternal Light”. “Rajavi had to come up with an explanation for the defeat,” he writes.” His unorthodox solution was to tell his fighters they had lost because they had been distracted by love and sex. He commanded members to divorce, become celibate and live in communal, single-sex accommodation, just like soldiers in a regular army. Filled with ideas of self-sacrifice and martyrdom, they did as they were told. (The celibacy rule is to this day so tightly enforced that there are separate times for men and women to use Camp Ashraf’s petrol station.) Members were urged to transfer their passions from their former spouses to their leaders, the Rajavis. Aware that people were becoming sexually frustrated, meetings were organized where members were obliged to confess their sexual fantasies in public. If you did confess to something, other members spat at you. Friendships were also discouraged at Camp Ashraf, and so were children. From the mid-1980s, citing safety concerns, the leadership ordered that several hundred children living in the camp be moved to pro-MEK foster families in Europe and Canada. Some parents have not seen their children for more than twenty years.” [3]

Gender segregation in the MKO is mandatory. It is neither permissive –ordered by law— nor voluntary. Inside Camp Ashraf eating places, dormitories, gas stations and even streets were sex-segregated. The couple, both defectors of the MKO, Ann Singleton and Massoud Khodabandeh described the violations committed against members of the MKO cult in their book “The Life of Camp Ashraf Mojahedin-e Khalq – Victims of Many Masters” :

“Over the years former members who escaped from Camp Ashraf have told their stories to a world unwilling or unable to listen. Thousands of them consistently and courageously described the conditions of the internal revolutions and Rajavi’s bizarre requirements for members to divorce and to remove all the children from the camp; to undergo the daily humiliations of public self-confessions which enforce the celibacy and gender apartheid; to suffer micro-management of their every waking moment which imposed deliberately exhausting work schedules and disorienting indoctrination sessions; to be deprived of any information from and contact with the outside world and their families. Rajavi did all this to keep his members from leaving. When this failed, he imprisoned them.”[4]

Rania Abouzeid of the Time also provides a comprehensive account on the MKO’s hypocrisy: “Camp Ashraf, with its gender-segregated dormitories, manicured lawns, flower beds and tree-lined streets, is the only home many of the residents have known. The MEK maintains firm control over its members, preventing them from marrying and restricting or preventing contact with family elsewhere.” [5]

Constant human rights violation and gender segregation are in the essence of the MKO as terrorist destructive cult even if it is relocated in Europe in the heart of democracy; and even if its propaganda resorts to each and every means possible.

Mazda Parsi

Sources:

1] Goulka, Jeremiah, Hansell, Lydia, Wilke, Elizabeth, Larson, Judith, The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq, A Policy Conundrum, RAND, 2009

[2] Lane, JJ, Oliver, German Railway Launches Gender Segregated Carriages In Wake Of Sex Attacks, breitbart.com, March26, 2016

[3] Jones, Owen Bennett, Terrorists? Us?, Vol. 34 No. 11 · 7 ,London Review of Books, June 2012

[4] Khodabandeh, Anne, Khodabandeh, Massoud, The Life of Camp Ashraf Mojahedin-e Khalq – Victims of Many Masters, IRAN-INTERLINK, September 2011

[5] Abouzeid, Rania, Why Is the Iraqi Military Cracking Down on an Iranian Camp?, The Time, April 15, 2011

April 12, 2016 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 140

++ When President Rohani visited Europe in January this year, the MEK had invited some Arab lobbyists to their demonstrations. Very soon afterwards these lobbyists distanced themselves, explaining that they hadn’t known how bad the MEK are. Some even met with former MEK members instead. This week, in typical propaganda mode, the MEK announced that this distancing was all because of pressure exerted by the former members. However, one such Arab lobbyist answered back. He exposed that an article published in Al-Basra newspaper against him, ostensibly written by an Arab MEK supporter, was actually originally written in Farsi by the MEK and as evidence he pointed out that the Farsi script was still embedded in the piece about halfway through. The lobbyist wrote to Al-Basra newspaper demanding that the MEK’s piece be withdrawn. Which it was. He explained that he distanced from them well before he met the former members. But more importantly, his main reason was that one of the MEK’s Arab speakers is heavily involved with several Israeli ministers. Al-Basra apologised fully to him for printing the MEK’s defamatory lies about him.

++ Ehsan Bidi and Siavosh Rastar are still picketing outside the UNHCR office in Tirana and suffering the resulting harassment and pressures. They say that, contrary to its own rules and regulations, the UNHCR claims it has no money to help them and the only way is to go back to the MEK. Bidi and others say “we will die rather than go back to become terrorists with the MEK”. According to various sources an agreement was signed between America, the UNHCR, Albania and the MEK which states that the MEK is responsible to pay for the expenses of those transferred from Iraq. That’s why the UN is trying to force the ex-members to go back to the MEK. On the other hand, the MEK say unequivocally, “if we find them we’ll kill them”. This is certainly not a legally defensible document or agreement. The former members are political refugees not members of a terrorist group and cannot be forced to return to the terrorist group to beg for financial assistance. Many people have written letters of protest, in particular to the President of Albania, about the two former members, saying they should not be forced for their survival to agree to become terrorists again.

++ Several former members have written accounts of their activities and memories to mark the anniversary of the MEK’s massacre of the Kurds in March 1991.

++ Atefeh Eghbal, an MEK internal critic, wrote about her humanitarian concerns on her weblog. The MEK response was to have her brother Mohammad Eghbal write all over the MEK sites swearing at his sister, calling her a prostitute and worse – using words not usually found in normal writing. Some commentators noted their disgust at the MEK‘s reaction. One is Hojjat Esmaili – formerly a long serving intelligence officer in the MEK – who wrote an interesting note explaining what this writing reveals about Mohammad Eghbal’s mentality. Esmaili comes to the conclusion that this person, who comes from an educated and cultured family of publishers, has been turned by the MEK into a lumpen. This being a clear example of Rajavi’s ideology.

++ On the anniversary of the Iraqi attack on Camp Ashraf on April 8, 2011, Iraj Shokri a well-known writer who was formerly with the NCRI, published an article examining the situation. He says now that several years have passed we can see what Massoud Rajavi was after and what he got out of it. Essentially, after agreeing with then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to allow the transfer of the MEK from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty in exchange for removing the MEK from the US terrorism list, Rajavi refused to honour his side of the bargain and dragged his feet to get more money. His staged intransigence provoked a deadly confrontation with the Iraqi army. Rajavi even falsely promised the MEK members that the Iraqis would not possibly shoot them if they resisted unarmed. Instead Rajavi trapped them into a massacre. Rajavi wanted to show that he would not leave the camp without being paid more than just getting off a terrorism list. As a hint, a few days after this tragic event he placed adverts in the Iraqi papers offering to sell the contents of the camp and putting a price on everything in the camp. As time passed however, Rajavi was forced to allow the MEK to be removed from Camp Ashraf. Though he tried to keep 100 there, they were eventually forced out. Shokri’s article concludes that the only language Rajavi understands is force. Unfortunately, this is never directed against him personally. It is the members who are forced to pay the price for his nasty ideas.

In English:

++ In Nejat Bloggers, Mazda Parsi analyses the MEK’s relation with Zionist lobbies. “…Dr. Fayazmanesh determines when a ‘cult centered around an individual’ with a dark history of violence and cult-like practices, becomes a convenient tool in the hands of strange bedfellows like Saddam Hussein, The US and Israel. It means that the MKO is not taking benefits from using its ‘various patrons’ to meet its aims but ‘the opposite is usually the case’. The US and Israel as well as Saddam Hussein have just a ‘temporary use’ for them.”

++ Tehran Times reported that “Iran has confirmed that the visit of President Hassan Rouhani to Austria, which was scheduled for March 30, was cancelled due to a rally by the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) in Vienna. Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani said Rouhani cancelled his trip because Austria paid no attention to Iran’s request to revoke permission for the rally of the MKO, ISNA news agency reported on Saturday.”

++ Iran’s Tasnim News reported that “The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) forces have smashed a terror ring linked with the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as, MEK) in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, an IRGC commander announced…

“…Both Sunni and Shiite Muslims of the region helped the IRGC forces in hunting down the terrorist ring, [Brigadier General Mohammad] Marani said, noting that five militants, including the band’s leader Ahmad Sahouei, have been killed.

“Complicity with the MKO terrorist group as well as murder and armed robberies were among the crimes committed by the ring, the Iranian general said, stressing that the militants had long been monitored by security forces.”

April 08, 2016

April 11, 2016 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi

Massoud Rajavi deprived me of my father

Alireza was a one-year old toddler when he saw his father for the last time.

Alireza Beheshti’s father; Mr. Morteza Beheshti and his uncle Mostafa was deceived by the Mujahedin-e Khalq recruiters in Turkey into joining the Cult in 2001.

Alireza is now 16. His father victimized by the MKO Cult leaders at camp Ashraf in 2011. His uncle;Morteza is still hold hostage by the MKO.

Beheshti family have several times gone in front of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty to visit their beloved Morteza or even get a news of him.

They do their utmost efforts in accompany with other suffering families of MKO destructive Cult to liberate their loved ones.

Alireza Writes:

With greeting, I am Alireza Beheshti and it is 16 years that I spend days and nights with this hope that I can see my father whose name is Morteza Beheshti. I, ve kept all my handwritings from my childhood to show them to my father.

My father and my uncle Morteza and Mostafa Beheshti were fallen in the traps of Rajavi band in Turkey. They were hunted by them. I am a child who has not seen his father from a time I was just one year old. Now, I am 16 years old. My dear father was killed in 2011 in Ashraf jail. I burn in the pain of separation for years. Rajavi band killed my father and I became an orphan. Now, I search my uncle whose meeting makes me glad as if I see my father. I am a child and I speak with my own language. I call those who speak from human rights. I could not see my father, at least provide a condition for me to see my uncle. I could not take part at my father’s funeral. I wait to see my dear uncle even for many years like my aunts Nargess, Laila and my uncle Mohammad who are waiting for many years. You Rajavi! You deprived me from meeting my father, but I will get my uncle from you. My dear uncle! Please, say to me what did my father do in the pain of my separation. Come to give my handwritings. I want to give them you as a gift.

April 10, 2016 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Defector of the MKO reopen the black Box of Camp Ashraf Massacre

Ali Ardalani left the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) in 2013 after 25 years of membership in the group. He is an eyewitness of the deadly clashes in Camp Ashraf on April 8th, 2011. He writes his memoires of that specific day:

Before April 8th, the Iraqi Government had several times warned the MKO to allow Iraqi security forces to enter Camp Ashraf in order to settle a police station there but the MKO did not cooperate with the police at all.

In the morning of April 8th, Iraqi security forces began their run to penetrate the camp. During the first clashes some of male members of the group were killed but no female was killed until noon.

Women had formed a human wall against the base “forty nine” to resist Iraqi forces. (Base 49 was Rajavi’s headquarters where his high ranking commandants were located. Formerly, the base was Massoud Rajavi’s safe house. Of course on that day, Rajavi was not there. It was just a symbolic act to pretend the importance of the base.)

The human wall was formed by young women. They wanted to pretend that Rajavi was in the base ignoring his disappearance since years ago. They cried so badly that the poor rank and file would believe that Massoud Rajavi was really there. This was another fraudulent show by Rajavi to give the false impression that he was in Iraq together with his rank and file!

Among these women, certain men were placed. They had archeries and Molotov cocktails. Surprisingly, the archeries and Molotov cocktails had been prepared two days ago. They targeted Iraqi soldiers out of the female human wall. They had been previously told that Iraqi forces would not attack women so they could simply throw their fire bombs against Iraqi forces.

This way, an Iraqi young soldier was killed. The forces who had so far avoided clash with females, began attacking them…therefore, at noon of several female members of the MKO were killed. The women’s names – mostly youngsters who were newcomers or problematic members- are Saba Haftbaradaran, Marziyeh Pourtaqi, Fatemeh Masih, Mahdiyeh Madadzadeh , Ensieh Rakhshaei, Shahnaz Pahlavani, Faezeh Rajabi and Nastaran Azimi. No high-ranking member was among the killed ones.

Male members were then interrogated in the meetings that were held in the following days. They were asked why they did not resist Iraqi forces, why they escaped the clashes. When the commandants were replied that the rank and file were empty-handed, they blamed them,” you should have resisted, more people should have been killed,” I even heard that they said: “Even if 500 people had been killed on April 8th, we would have won the battle. It was worth. The martyrs we offered on April8th helped us achieve the insurance card for Camp Ashraf. Not the Iraqi State nor any other person can look down on us at Ashraf. “

However, the world witnessed the shutdown of Camp Ashraf about a year and a half later. Members were expelled from the camp, humiliated and despised. Fifty-four members including high ranking members and commandants were killed after the closure of Camp Ashraf. Consequently, Camp Ashraf turned into the dustbin of history…

April 9, 2016 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Pictorial – MKO cult ex-member got married

Mr. Fereydoun Ebrahimi; MKO Cult defector meets his mother after 15 years MKO former members

Mr. Fereydoun Ebrahimi who had been enforced to stay within the Camps of Mujahedin- e Khalq Cult for 15 years managed to escape the Cult Camp in 2014. He escaped Camp Liberty, reached UN stand in the Camp and asked for help.

Fereydoun had no contact with his family from the time when he was recruited by the cult. He called his family as soon as he stepped back into the free world in 2014. Then he went to Turkey. In Turkey he succeeded to meet his mother and other family members after 15 years, though unfortunately his father was passed away.

Mr. Ebrahimi resided in Germany for a short time and then repatriated to his homeland to join his family. He has just got married and enjoys a free life within his family.

Mr. Feeydoun Ebrahimi enjoys a free life in his homeland

April 6, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Zionist Lobbies Exploit the MKO

When in 1989, the Iranian American historian Ervand Abrahamian published his prominent book on the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO), The Iranian Mojahedin and asserted that the MKO’s rhetoric and its relations do not match its activities and ideology, the group’s hypocrisy had not extended to its today’s dimensions. Today, the MKO is openly trying to take shelter under the umbrella of the US and Israel while the leader of the group, Masoud Rajavi criticized the rulers of the Islamic republic for their alleged rapprochement to the West! [1]

The Iranian American scholar, Dr. Sasan Fayazmanesh discussed the group’s history as “an autocratic, Marxist-oriented terrorist organization with little popular support in Iran and little credibility outside”. Dr. Fayazmanesh who is an economics professor at California State University wrote a book on the US-Iran relations, The United States and Iran: Sanctions, Wars and the Policy of Dual Containment. In a part of the book, he clarifies the MKO’s opportunistic tactics asserting, ”MEK had correctly realized that the Israeli lobby groups are the nerve-center of US foreign policy in the Middle East, and as such they concentrated their efforts on befriending these groups and their representatives in the US government.” He adds, “This was of course, quite ironic. Just a few months earlier, on June 20, 1992, the BBC Summary of World Broadcast reported that in his meeting with Saddam Hussein, MEK leader Rajavi had stated: “Iranian national movements and their masses strongly denounced the Iranian regime’s alliance with US imperialism, World Zionism and regional reactionaries to launch aggression against Iraq…” [2]

However, the objective of overthrowing the Islamic Republic made strange bed fellows out of the US, Israel and the MKO. The American government officials with close relationships with Zionist lobbies became vigorous supporters of the MKO. An example is introduced by Dr. Fayazmanesh: “There are, of course, a number of other individuals in the US Congress who are closely associated with Israeli Lobby groups and support MEK. One such person is Representative Ileana Ros- Lehtinen who considers the MKO terror cult as “democratic, pluralistic and secular”. [3]

Dr. Fayazmanesh determines when a “cult centered around an individual” with a dark history of violence and cult-like practices, becomes a convenient tool in the hands of strange bedfellows like Saddam Hussein, The US and Israel. It means that the MKO is not taking benefits from using its “various patrons” to meet its aims but “the opposite is usually the case”. The US and Israel as well as Saddam Hussein have just a ”temporary use” for them. [4]

The Iranian American journalist Ali Gharib’s recent piece on Lobelog about Zionists-MKO relations also points out how terribly this relationship is based on benefits of Israel. “Perhaps some right-wing Israel lobby groups can be forgiven for taking up the cause of the exiled Iranian opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK),” writes Ali Gharib. “The more ignorant among them might see a group headed by a woman, Maryam Rajavi, who claims to champion a secular, human rights-respecting democracy in Iran. They don’t know about Rajavi and the MEK’s history: its violence, its cult-like behavior, and its own history of human rights violations. What they do see—however problematic it might be for the rest of us—is a group monomaniacally focused on overthrowing their nemesis, the Islamic Republic, and that’s good enough.” [5]

Gharib points out the controversial deed of a Zionist lobby group named The Israeli Project. “But the Israel Project (TIP), which featured Maryam Rajavi in an online video earlier this month denouncing the Iranian elections, gets no pass on using the MEK as a bludgeon against Iran,” He asserts.” That’s because the Israel Project knows damn well what Rajavi and the MEK are. Consider what TIP head Josh Block had to say about the group in 2011, when he was at the inaptly named Progressive Policy Institute: “The MEK is a terrorist organization. Right? Let’s not kid ourselves.” Yes, let’s not.” [6]

By: Mazda Parsi

Sources:

[1] Abrahamian, Ervand, The Iranian Mojahedin, Yale University Press, 1992

[2]Fayazmanesh, Sasan, The United States and Iran: Sanctions, Wars and the Policy of Dual Containment Routledge, Reprint edition , May 16, 2008, Pages 79 to 85

[3] ibid

[4] ibid

[5] Gharib, Ali, The Israel Project Boosts An Iranian “Terrorist Organization”, The Lobelog, March 18, 2016

[6] ibid

April 5, 2016 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Pictorial – Recently defected member among MKO hostages families in Iraq

Mr. Ashur Varshi, 46, is the most recent defector of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO). He escaped Camp Liberty a few weeks ago. He is residing in a hotel in Baghdad now, in company with other survivors of the MKO. He is in contact with his family.

Varshi joined the MKO 27 years ago. As a 19–year–old teenager his ideal was the overthrow of the Islamic Republic through armed struggle. But ultimately, the totalitarian and manipulative system of the group made him leave it. ”After 27 years of companionship with the group, I was threatened to death (by Alireza Budaqchi under the pseudonym of Ahad) just because I had said that the leader’s arguments were not realistic,” Varshi writes. “He [Ahad] used to pressure me to praise the leader’s words.”

Ashur who was labeled an anti-leader agent, was eventually supervised all the time. ”There was an absolutely suppressive atmosphere,” he recounts.” I was repeatedly summoned by them; and I was faced with mental torture in order to stop criticizing the group.”

As a dissident member of the Cult of Rajavi, Ashur was brave enough to question the leaders for their dishonesty but the answer was more punishment. ”with each punishment, I got more assured that the MKO was not the same group I once had joined for struggle, so I admitted any danger and pressure.’’

He paid a heavy price for the disagreement he voiced against the group leaders. ”I preferred to be bombed, to be attacked by missiles everyday instead of talking with a bunch of brainwashed torturers,” he states.

Recently defected member among MKO hostages families in Iraq

April 4, 2016 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Pictorial – Mr. Varshi managed to run away the Cult after 27 years

Ashur Varshi joined the MKO 27 years ago. As a 19–year–old teenager his ideal was the overthrow of the Islamic Republic through armed struggle. But ultimately, the totalitarian and manipulative system of the group made him leave it. ”After 27 years of companionship with the group, I was threatened to death (by Alireza Budaqchi under the pseudonym of Ahad) just because I had said that the leader’s arguments were not realistic,” Varshi writes. “He [Ahad] used to pressure me to praise the leader’s words.”

Mr. Varshi defected MKO Cult

April 4, 2016 0 comments

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