Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

EXCLUSIVE: MKO Voices Readiness to Help Saudi Arabia in Yemen

The terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCRI and PMOI) voiced its readiness to help the Al Saud regime in its aggression against Yemen.

MKO Leader Maryam Rajavi in a meeting with Saudi Ambassador to Paris Mohammad Al Sheikh said that the group is willing to cooperate with Riyadh to carry out its attacks against the Yemeni nation.

She reiterated that whenever Saudi Arabia asks MKO for help, the group will immediately provide assistance to the Al Saud regime.

Rajavi and Al Sheikh have met several times in Paris so far and Rajavi has thanked the Al Saud regime for its support and financial assistance over the past years.

The MKO, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and western targets.

The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly-established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by the MKO members in 1981.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.

The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who argued for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in early September, one week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent the US Congress a classified communication about the move. The decision made by Clinton enabled the group to have its assets under the US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with the American entities, the State Department said in a statement at the time.

In September 2012, the last groups of the MKO terrorists left Camp Ashraf, their main training center in Iraq’s Diyala province. They have been transferred to Camp Liberty. Hundreds of the MKO terrorists have now been sent to Europe.

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Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 98

++ Several Iraqi news agencies published news that Maryam Rajavi met with the Saudi ambassador to France. According to sources at the Saudi embassy Rajavi has asked for the MEK to be used in Yemen to fight the Houthis on behalf of the Saudis and has presented the MEK’s CV from the time of Saddam to advertise her cult. [Editor’s note: The average age of MEK members is over 55.]

++ The MEK will hold its annual celebration of armed struggle on 13 June at Villepinte near Paris. Evidence is emerging as before that the MEK is compiling hired speakers and a paid audience. Each year the MEK pays hundreds of students and needy people to travel to Paris where they can enjoy a cheap weekend break on condition they spend two or three hours at the rally clapping and waving flags. The Villepinte show will also act to launch the book by long term MEK lobbyist Struan Stevenson. The book is an attempt to whitewash his support for the MEK by spinning it as a humanitarian gesture. While the MEK prepares in Villepinte to pretend it is a peaceful, democratic opposition, the MEK’s Farsi websites and media are on overdrive in support of ISIS in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, referring to these vicious, lawless killers as “tribal leaders”. In its papers, the MEK viciously attacks the government of Iraq for re-taking Ramadi.

++ After MEK operative Mehran Kakavand attacked Mansour Nazari in Paris last week, many commentators said they recognised him from photographs and knew him personally inside the MEK. Such witnesses explained that Kakavand had undergone specialist training with Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard to learn to kill people with his bare hands. In this respect they point out that he failed in his mission this time because of public scrutiny (French police were at the picket). Complaints were addressed to the French government asking why Saddam-trained killers are operating there.

++ The Investigative judge in the case of the MEK and Mehdi Abrishamchi added a new claim of violent activity, defamation and intimidation of witnesses to the charges. This new case was brought by Mohammad Karami who presented his evidence to the judge. In the previous week a similar, evidenced case brought by Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad was added when he showed defamatory leaflets to the judge and described MEK threats to kill him if he gave evidence.

++ This week marks the anniversary of 4th Khordad – when the founders of the MEK were executed by the Shah. Farsi sites published articles with two distinct views. One view is that the current MEK and Rajavi have no connection to the original aims and ideals of the MEK. Another view is that because it was founded with the belief of pursuing political aims through violence, it has ended up exactly where it always would have regardless, with MOSSAD and ISIS and etc.

++ On the nuclear issue – some commentators ask why the National Council of Resistance of Iran has a website with six or seven languages but nothing in Farsi. What relevance does the NCRI have to Iranians in that case?

In English:

++ Anne Khodabandeh of Iran Interlink attended the FECRIS Conference in Marseille as a representative of a UK charity, The Family Survival Trust. She reported a highly successful Conference to which she contributed by briefing Serge Blisko, head of Miviludes, on the possibility of analysing and confronting terrorism without falling into the false debate about religion.

(FECRIS is the Europe wide Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Cults and Sects. FECRIS operates at an international level with representation at the UN.)

++ Mazda Parsi of Nejat Bloggers says ‘Mrs Rajavi, Your Propaganda Just Doesn’t Work Well’. The article uses an article by Eldar Mamedov of the European Parliament to pick apart the MEK’s failed attempt to interfere with parliamentary business through undue influence.

++ Iran Interlink gave an analysis of what might be behind the publication of a book by long term MEK lobbyist Struan Stevenson. From the pre-sales blurb, the book, titled ‘Self-Sacrifice’ appears to be Stevenson’s attempt to re-frame his support for the MEK as a humanitarian gesture in spite of being, by his own admission, being warned off by the UK government and MI5. Iran Interlink suggested the MEK’s motive behind publication of this book is that it provides (perhaps unbeknown to Stevenson) fabricated ‘ammunition’ for its regime change agenda which it can use to attack Iran.

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Iran

Informed source in IRI Embassy in Paris rejects Reuters’ claim

Paris– An informed source in Embassy of Iran in France here on Friday strongly rejected as ‘false and baseless’ a claim made by the Reuters on Iran’s nuclear and missile cooperation with North Korea.

Terming the news in question as ‘politically motivate news fabrication’, the informed Iranian Embassy source said that the false news is based only on biased information provide for the Reuters by the ill-famed terrorist group Mojahedine-e Khalq Organization (MKO – also known as the People’s Mojahedin of Iran – PMO), which is comprised of a bunch of mercenaries of the aliens.

He said that such false news’ broadcasting by the Reuters is highly questionable and suspicious in this particular period of time.

‘It was quite predictable in advance that with approaching deadline for signing of an Iran-Sextet final nuclear agreement and increased chances for cracking a win-win deal with the West on Iran’s peaceful nuclear program the broadcasting of such false and baseless news, too, will accelerate,’ he added.

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Behind Struan Stevenson’s book “Self Sacrifice”

The MEK has not only failed to make one iota of progress in all its forty year mission to take power in Iran, but as Eldar Mamedov pointed out in his article ‘Iranian Parliamentarians Discover Brussels’ published in Lobelog, in recent times the MEK’s regime change lobbying is even failing to make any impact among parliamentarians wise to its lies and deceptions. In short, the MEK’s star is on the wane.

An indication of the anxiety resulting from this change of tide is found in the publication of a book by long term MEK advocate, Struan Stevenson. Reading the blurb, this book looks like a ‘Self Inflicted Wound’; Stevenson admits he was warned off collaboration with the MEK by the UK government and MI5. Why would either Stevenson or the MEK believe that writing about their grubby relationship is a good idea? But then, one reason the MEK have singularly failed to succeed in anything is because nothing they do makes sense. Except, that is, in the warped world of cultic abuse and its belief that the ends justify the means.

The MEK is well-known for its deceptive media and internet campaigns, its hyperbole-filled anti-Iran propaganda and ridiculous self-promotion. But rather than dismiss this book as the work of an MEK stooge, it is useful to briefly examine what is really behind it.

Stevenson tied his career to the MEK presumably because he believed they would aid his own mission to “intensify his attacks on Tehran’s meddling in Iraq”. Now he is no longer an MEP, he has inverted this relationship by working for the MEK’s office in Brussels. The book is a way to perhaps normalise and thereby justify this stance by putting a positive humanitarian gloss on it. Accordingly, he has interspersed his own story with accounts of the self-sacrifice of MEK members, presumably to gain sympathy. But we can be certain there will be not a word from former members of the group or from human rights organisations which have spent two decades documenting the internal harmful practices of the MEK. The 2005 Human Rights Watch report ‘No Exit’ provides a window into the inner workings of this cultic group. Instead, we can be sure that the testimony of former members is dismissed as ‘evidence’ that they are ‘agents of Iran’s Intelligence ministry’ working to keep the MEK on Western terrorism lists.

What is of real interest however is that the MEK’s motives behind the publication of this book are blatantly clear only from its dust jacket. This picture tells its own story, perhaps unbeknown to Stevenson.

The woman pictured is Zohreh Ghaemi. She was one of the MEK’s top commanders. She commanded the team which assassinated General Sayad Shirazi, a popular Iranian war hero in 1999. In September 2103, Ghaemi was among 53 MEK members killed in Camp Ashraf during a raid by masked commandos. The MEK’s several versions of the attack is that it was variously undertaken by unidentified Iraqi or Iranian government sponsored assassins. After extensive investigations by Iraqi officials, hindered only by the MEK themselves, there is very little doubt among experts that this was almost certainly carried out by the MEK themselves – a real Self Inflicted Wound. The purpose was twofold: to cleanse the group of dissidents and unwanted liabilities – like Ghaemi – who had outlived their usefulness, and to assign blame to Iran as part of the long term MEK regime change narrative.

Thus the cover of this book is the story behind book: the MEK’s willingness to shed the blood of its members in its relentless and pernicious attempts to promote regime change in Iran through false narratives.

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Mrs. Rajavi! Your Propaganda Just doesn’t work well!

The Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) has apparently had only one goal since the Islamic revolution in Iran, in 1979: the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. Regardless of its real capacity to achieve such an aim orMrs. Rajavi! Your Propaganda Just doesn’t work well! not, for decades, the group has strained to take opportunities of regional and political ups and downs into its aim, even though in most cases there is no true relation between what is going on in the region and what the group is trying benefit from. It seems the group is confused.

An instance of the group’s opportunistic nature was recently seen in the so-called testimony given by Maryam Rajavi in the US Congress where she presents the overthrow of the Iranian government as the main solution to fight ISIS!

Daniel Larison of the American conservative Magazine writes about Rajavi’s weird recommendation to the West: “The plan to bring down ISIS by toppling Iran’s government, then, is little more than the latest chapter of group’s 50-year history of monomaniacally trying to install itself atop the Iranian government.” [1]

He adds, ”This obviously has nothing to do with combating or understanding ISIS, and allowing her to speak at such a meeting just lends a totalitarian cult a platform from which it can promote its own warped agenda. Inviting Rajavi demonstrates exceptionally poor judgment, and her testimony will make a farce of the proceedings tomorrow.’’ [2]

 “It sounds counter-intuitive—Iran’s aid to the Iraqi government and various Iraqi militias, after all, is widely credited with stopping ISIS’s advances there—but not when you know about the MEK’s tortuous past,’ suggests Ali Gharib of the Nation. “Over the years, the MEK has been nothing if not opportunistic; animated by the twisted logic that the enemy of its enemy is its friend, the group seizes whatever political angle is fashionable at the moment to bring them relevance (Congress is happy to oblige).” [3]

engage in diplomacy with Islamic Republic.

Eldar Mamedov who has served as a political adviser for the social-democrats in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) and is in charge of the delegation for inter-parliamentary relations between the EP and Iran, analyzes the MKO’s part to obstruct diplomacy with Iran. He refers to the Cult’s large-scale efforts to demonize the Iranian Government and to derail any relation between the EP and Iran. Nonetheless, he asserts the group’s lobbying efforts to accomplish its aim has so far failed. On the contrary to the group wishes, Islamic Republic has become an important ally for the Europe in fighting ISIS.

  “A growing realization of the converging interests between the EU and Iran accounts for this dramatic change,’’ Eldar Mamedov submits.” This time, the discussions in Brussels were not so much focused on traditional European concerns, such as Iran´s nuclear program and human rights, as on the situation in the Middle East.” [4]

Mamedov concludes, “In a scenario of rapidly disintegrating states and spreading terrorist threats, European officials are discovering that Iran is among the most stable and predictable state actors in the region.” [5]

In his opinion, the EU´s foreign policy supremo Federica Mogherini mentions the advantages of engaging with Iran because she “definitely doesn´t share the Saudi narrative of Iran being the root of all tumult in the Middle East. In fact, she sees the nuclear deal with Iran as a gate opener for engaging Iran on the regional issues, including in Syria and Yemen, which is an anathema to Saudis."

The MKO leaders, namely Maryam Rajavi would be disappointed to know that “officials from the Mogherini-led European External Action Service (EEAS) now discuss the possibility of a regional dialogue with Iran, which is a sharp departure from her predecessor Catherine Ashton, who approached Iran as an exclusively nuclear problem.” [6]

Despite the MKO’s harsh opposition against the visits of the Iranian Parliamentary delegation to EP, the visits took place anyway. The visit of the Iranian MPs to Brussels is considered by Mamedov as “another sign of changing times in the Middle East.”

Mamedov notifies, “Although a wholesale rapprochement between the EU and Iran may still be some way off, inter-parliamentary diplomacy has the potential to build trust, bridge differences, and eventually make a re-alignment possible,” inviting US Congressmen to join such peaceful policy.[7]

It seems that Maryam Rajavi and her supporters should work harder to survive the new geopolitical and regional undercurrents.

Mazda Parsi

Sources:

[1] Larison, Daniel, The Backlash Against the MEK’s Fans in Congress, The American conservative Magazine, May 05 2015

[2] ibid

[3] Gharib, Ali, Cult Leader Will Tell Congress: Fight ISIS by Regime Change in Iran, The Nation, April 28, 2015

[4] Mamedov, Eldar, Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) Lobby in European Parliament fails to deliver, Lobelog,

May 19 2015

[5] ibid

[6] ibid

[7] ibid

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The cult of Rajavi

REPORT – FECRIS Marseille 2015

Expert in cultic abuse and terrorism in the MEK speaks in London charity meeting

REPORT – FECRIS Marseille 2015

The FECRIS Conference provides a forum for the world’s leading experts in cultic abuse to meet and talk and to share ideas, knowledge and experiences. The Conference is a safe place for researchers, practitioners, campaigners and support groups to mingle with former cult members and families of people who remain trapped in cultic relationships. The value of this unique forum was acknowledged by the board during the AGM.

After several years as Chairman of FECRIS, Tom Sackville retired and was replaced by Danièle Muller-Tulli. Good wishes to Danièle for success in this important role.

The theme of this year’s Conference which was hosted in Marseille by GEMPPI, was ‘Deliberately Planned and Encouraged Confusion Between Cults and Religion’. Serge Blisko, President of MIVILUDES, presented the opening speech which outlined this subject. He said that the widespread use of exploitative cultic abuse undermines democratic institutions and social functions. Those who employ these methods deflect criticism by claiming that their critics want to deprive them of ‘freedom of belief’ or that they are not accorded proper status as ‘religions’. Blisko also talked about the growing problem of ‘religious’ terrorism and its links to cultic behaviour.

Anne Khodabandeh, representative of The Family Survival Trust, was in a unique position to brief M. Blisko and the audience about this issue. She explained that it is possible to construct a model for describing and analysing the use of cultic abuse by terrorist entities without mentioning religion. Anne then went on to describe the deceptive recruitment and brainwashing methods used by terrorist groups and said that from her fifteen years as an activist in this field she was able to suggest solutions to tackle this phenomenon. This briefing was greeted enthusiastically by M. Blisko and the audience.

President of MIVILUDES Serge Blisko with Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton) of the FST

There were several informative and interesting talks and also first-hand testimonies. Some stood out as particularly interesting. Pierre Le Coz Director of the Department of Social Science at the Faculty of Medicine, University Aix-Marseilles, gave a fascinating presentation in which he described step by step how individuals can be brought under the influence of a manipulator using specific psychological techniques.

In contrast, Alexey Voat a researcher from Moscow, gave a very pertinent presentation on the Aum Shinriyo cult’s use of the internet for deceptive recruitment. Voat had undertaken to act as a recruit to delve deep inside the cult’s workings. His revelations were instructive for understanding any other cultic recruitment over the internet.

Olivier Faelens, President of SAS Seckten from Belgium, inspired the audience with his advice on how to avoid false arguments presented by groups such as The Church of Scientology, with its continual demands for debate on the subject of whether or not it is a true religion. The real issue, said Faelens, is the internal harmful practices. It is these we must insist on addressing when debating cultic abuse.

Anne Edelstam, journalist, talked about Fundamentalism. She described the history of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and how in spite of the people’s revolution, its creation of alternative social structures dedicated to the reintroduction of fundamentalist strictures on society still have the potential to undermine the country’s democratic processes.

Finally, leading cult expert Janja Lalich explored the struggle for justice in the American legal system. She described several case studies and talked about her own experience as an expert witness and how the cults deliberately exploit ignorance and misconceptions regarding cultic abuse. This talk linked the various issues raised in previous speeches with the subject of the Conference: ‘Deliberately Planned and Encouraged Confusion Between Cults and Religion’.

Maurizio, Lalich, Khodabandeh (Singleton), Corvaglia

During the Conference the audience participated with lively and informative questions and discussions at various points in the day. A light lunch was served al Fresco in a convivial atmosphere. The host association GEMPPI is to be congratulated on the success of the Conference. The simultaneous translators are appreciated for their hard work in bringing the full content of the speeches and interjections to all the audience. The new Chair of FECRIS, Danièle Muller-Tulli closed the Conference and thanked the outgoing Chairman Tom Sackville in his absence for all his hard work.

Anne Khodabandeh representing TFST at the FECRIS Conference, Marseille 2015

[Note: FECRIS – European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Cults and Sects – created in 1994, serves as an umbrella organisation for associations which defend cult victims in more than 30 countries, including 5 non-European organisations. FECRIS is active at an international level with representation at the UN (ECOSOC).]

(END)

Family Survival Trust,

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

High- Ranking member Prosecution; MKO reaction to the deponents

Mehdi Abrishamchi; a high ranking member of MKO and the ex-husband of the so called president elect of the group – Maryam Rajavi was summoned for a court hearing by the French Court of First Instance at the Palais de Justice in Paris on terrorism charges .

The MKO has kept up silence over the Abrishamchi’s appearance in the court, However it couldn’t keep cool over the activities of former members of the group.

MKO ex-members staged a picket outside the court in support of the prosecution. The Mujahedin- e Khalq elements reacted to the demonstration by posting defamatory leaflets around their residency areas.

The group agents also attacked those ex-members who offer testimony to the investigative judge. 

In its weekly Digest Iran Interlink reports: ” .. One of these is Mansour Nazari who was physically attacked and injured in his neck. His attackers were commanded by notorious lumpen Mehran Kakavand whose role is to perform such jobs for the MEK. The Police are now involved and the Investigative judge has added the case of distribution of defamatory leaflets around the homes of ex members to the file against Mehdi Abrishamchi. So the MEK have stupidly made it worse for him.”

Nejat Society

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