Iran Interlink, January 02 2014:…

++ The Mojahedin Khalq released a statement this week exclusively in Farsi language. The statement, purporting to be from the MEK spokesman in Oslo, Norway, consisted swearing at everybody concerned with the situation in Iraq. The Americans, along with the United Nations and the government of Iraq, were attacked for “working for Iran”. In particular American Jane Holl Lute who heads the UNAMI effort to expel the MEK from Iraq, was named in the statement as working for Iran. The US and UN were lashed for not providing sufficient security for the residents of Camp Liberty [who the MEK do not allow to leave the camp], and demands the return of ten percent of the arms that were taken from the MEK in 2003 when the group surrendered to US troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In the same statement the MEK lashed the US, Iran and Iraq for fighting against ISIS, saying the group belongs to the country of Iraq.

++ The MEK statement from Oslo attracted many different reactions, to the extent that the MEK was forced to issue denials of their support for ISIS in various third class English language media. Many comments in Farsi simply criticised the MEK’s support for ISIS. Others took a more ironic line, saying that even were the arms returned to them, the residents of Camp Liberty are incapable of using them. In more detailed comments people point to the number of former combatants at the time of Saddam Hussein which numbered around 4,000, and the list of arms which the US army took from them – the MEK claimed 20,000 items of heavy and light armoury were surrendered, of which 5,000 were heavy armaments. These figures simply point to the falsity of the MEK’s position say commentators, whereby 4,000 combatants had 5,000 heavy weapons – certainly they were incapable even then of using them all. Other critics say that this demand is an attempt by Massoud Rajavi to muddy the waters in order to create conditions for the residents to be killed one way or another – an attack from ISIS or Iraqi forces for example. Families of Camp Liberty residents have expressed their deep concern at this turn of events and have written extensively to the UNHCR asking to be allowed to rescue their relatives and loved ones themselves.

++ Another statement issued by the MEK this week came out in support of a criminal gang in Iran who were involved in a shoot-out with police. The armed thieves were ludicrously described as revolutionaries by the MEK.

++ An MEK website this week published an article advertising a resolution passed in the British Parliament in support of Maryam Rajavi and her views – as usual without names. Official sources in the parliamentary press office confirmed that no such resolution has been registered let alone voted on or ratified.

++ An article by Ebrahim Khodabandeh titled ‘The Cult and the Families’ goes into detail about cultish activities and compares Rajavi’s cult with others. The article reveals that such cults are very much afraid of the members’ families and examines why this is so.

++ Secretary General of Habilian Society, Hashemi Nejad, whose father, a prominent religious leader, was assassinated by the MEK, gave an interview which was reported in various Iranian media. Hashemi Nejad used documents to criticise the “financial, intelligence and political backers of the murderers of our people”. Now, he says, these same people are pretending to be human rights activists and want something from us as well.

In English:

++ Press TV reported that the MEK has spoken out in support of ISIS. “The anti-Iran terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) has openly expressed support for the ISIL militants and their acts of terror in a clear indication of its wrath over Iran-Iraq cooperation against the Takfiri group. In a statement on Saturday, the MKO said any measure against ISIL would be a blatant violation of the UN Security Council’s agreements.”

++ An article by Ken Silverstein in The Intercept is an attack on former high-level U.S. officials, former CIA director George Tenet and former FBI director Louis Freeh, “who helped pave the way for the over decade-long “war on terror,” which has been a near complete catastrophe”. The article points out that “Freeh is one of many former U.S. officials who got paid big speaking fees (reportedly up to $50,000 a pop) by a creepy Iranian group called the People’s Mujahedin, also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq, or MEK, to successfully advocate for its removal from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. He also opened up a consulting firm whose clients have included Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar, who the U.S. Department of Justice accused of taking massive bribes from a British defense contractor. That’s right, Freeh represented a prince from America’s old pal Saudi Arabia, home to fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers, and whose export of Wahhabism is credited with giving rising to the Islamic State.”

++ The sister of one Camp Liberty resident, Azar Hossein Nejad from Tehran, Iran, wrote an open letter to the UNHCR asking for them to facilitate the transfer of her sister out of Camp Liberty.

January 2, 2014

++ The main focus of Farsi outlets this week has been reaction to the MEK’s threats against critics and former members. The MEK has been in overdrive in the last two weeks following Massoud Rajavi’s order to kill them. This has already led to many physical and verbal threats and intimidation, particularly in France where the MEK now has its main base. Many writers responded by holding France responsible for any trouble rather than the MEK itself, since France hosts the group which is known to promote and use violence. According to many, the recent dropping of the legal case against MEK second-in-command Maryam Rajavi and around 80 of her cohorts has acted as a green light for the group. The MEK now specifically wants to assassinate those who were witnesses in the court case against Rajavi and the others. These people point out they were summoned as witnesses and it is now incumbent on France to protect them. The MEK’s Farsi paper carries an order directly from Rajavi to kill Massoud Khodabandeh. Khodabandeh points out “this is to frighten the recent arrivals from Camp Liberty and stop them from exposing further crimes of the MEK leaders. The real problem is that the French Judiciary is weak in front of Mossad and other MEK backers. But if anything happens to anyone we all know that France is responsible as it hosts the group.”

++ Jahangir Shadanlou has headed an appeal against the decision to drop the court case. In an interview with Rahai TV, Shadanlou said: “Their threats are not new. The MEK have always tried to kill if they can, and if they can’t kill they character assassinate people to the extent of publishing books and reports against them. They will even pay people like Yves Bonnet to write a book. We took him to court for libel and he lost the case. Other incidents like the FIAP knife attacks reveal the MEK’s violent nature. If France doesn’t stop them, this kind of thing can happen anywhere in Europe. The ridiculous dropping of the court case has been taken by MEK as a green light to kill critics as they used to do in Iraq.”

++ An article by Minoo Sepher, a prominent writer, says the only way for the Americans and the French to clear themselves of accusations of supporting terrorism and operating double standards, is to extradite Massoud and Maryam Rajavi to Iran to stand trial for their crimes in an open court.

++ Now the list of new arrivals in Tirana from Camp Liberty is known, many families are trying to establish contact with their loved ones. They have resorted to leaving notices around the area frequented by the refugees with their names and phone numbers. The families have been prevented from contacting their loved ones by the MEK, so they have asked them to make the first contact instead. According to a report by Ebrahim Khodabandeh [in last week’s Weekly Digest] the MEK have created closed camps in Tirana to which they take the arrivals and have re-created the cult conditions which were so destructive in the Iraqi camps.

In English:

++ Nejat Association reported on the participation of Maryam Sanjabi and Ebrahim Khodabandeh in the International Conference on ‘World Against Violence and Extremism’ (WAVE). Held in Tehran by the Institute of Political and International Studies (IPIS) on 9-10 Dec. 2014, the conference enabled hundreds of delegations from 53 countries around the world to share information and views on militarism, terrorism and other forms of violence. During the conference, Sanjabi and Khodabandeh, who represented hundreds of families of residents in Camp Liberty, were able to brief the participants about the latest situation of Rajavi’s mind manipulating destructive cult (MKO) and the need to establish contact between those trapped in Camp Liberty in Iraq in the hands of Rajavi, and their suffering families. In all cases, without exception, the addressees approved the necessity for this basic right to be fulfilled and made promises that they would do everything possible in their capacity to help this human rights issue which is the result of the whim of a violent extremist leader of a cult.

++ An article by Gareth Porter published in Consortium News talks about ‘How the Iran-Nuke Crisis Was Hyped’. In an interview with Porter, former IAEA Director General Han Blix, “said he has long been skeptical of intelligence that has been used to accuse Iraq and Iran of having active nuclear-weapons programs.” According to Porter “a prized weapon in the U.S. geopolitical arsenal is “information warfare,” the ability to promote false or misleading information to heighten the pressure on an adversary, often using supposedly neutral UN agencies as a front, as may have happened on Iran’s nuclear program.”

“The provenance of the largest part of the intelligence documents — the so-called “laptop documents” — was an unresolved question for years after they were first reported in 2004 and 2005. But former senior German foreign office official Karsten Voigt confirmed in 2013 that the Iranian exile opposition group, the Mujahedeen E-Khalq (MEK), gave the original set of documents to the German intelligence service (BND) in 2004.”

“The MEK has been reported by Seymour Hersh, Connie Bruck, and a popular history of the Mossad’s covert operations to have been a client of Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, serving to “launder” intelligence that Mossad did not want to have attributed to Israel.”

++ Mazda Parsi in Nejat Bloggers says the Mojahedin “Adore Hypocrisy on Human Rights”. The article points out that whenever the UN passes a resolution to condemn human rights in the IRI, this gives fuel to the MEK propaganda machine, despite its own horrendous human rights record.

In November, Parsi says, “Dr. Ismail Salami wrote in Global Research: “The not-very-independent UN body has made a mockery of justice by soldering a resolution on the so-called human rights violations in Iran.” He suggests that the double standard over human rights has led the UN to ignore severe violation of human rights by some countries like Israel.”

The article continues, “While the UN ignores serious violation of human rights in Gaza, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and particularly in camps of the cult-like MKO, the Australian Government maintains the MKO and its affiliates in its consolidated [terrorism] list updated on December 15th, 2014.” In spite of this, “although the cult leader Mrayam Rajavi vainly tries to wear the mask of humanity by laying flowers at the floral memorial of the victims of the incident in Sydney, the history will never forget the atrocities of the Cult leaders toward its own members, and the victims’ memories will be always alive.”

++ Another article by Mazda Parsi in Nejat Bloggers talks about the MEK’s propaganda campaign to manipulate American hardliners on the issue of the nuclear negotiations.