++ Last week Mohammad Eghbal,a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) wrote an article which was posted on MEK websites. The article was a rant and swearing badly against his two sisters in France who are running a campaign to help the people in Camp Liberty. This attracted a reaction from many Iranians outside Iran. Among them is Ghorbanali Hossein Nejad who worked with Eghbal in the MEK’s Arabic section for decades. He has explained why someone like this, an old man in his sixties from a highly respected and educated family, has written like a lumpen in the MEK system and has been so vulgar and offensive against his own sisters that he has even called them prostitutes.

++ Massoud Khodabandeh Facebooked a short note about Mohammad Eghbal and his sisters. Khodabandeh points out that the sisters are not against the MEK, rather they are internal critics. Form this it is clear that the problem for Rajavi is not criticism or critics or any other issue, his problem is how to keep Mohammad Eghbal inside the MEK. Eghbal was brought to Paris recently from Camp Liberty. This is the price he had to pay. He has had to estrange his sisters to ensure that he has no other physical or mental place to escape to, not even to them. Khodabandeh says, “Irrelevant of our different ideas and beliefs, I advise his sisters not to close the doors on him and to accept that this writing is from Rajavi himself and has nothing to do with their brother. And in whatever way they can they should pass this message to their brother, that they don’t disown him and he will be welcomed by them any time he comes out.”

++ The execution in Iran of MEK member Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani attracted various responses. Khosravi admitted that he was in direct contact with the MEK and had worked for them in the past. He provided intelligence from inside Iran to the MEK to give to MOSSAD. The IRI made public some of the documents he had passed, including military and other sensitive sites in Iran. The IRI clarified that he was not executed because he supported the MEK – pointing out that there are thousands of former MEK living freely in Iran who have not changed their beliefs and that Iran has no problem accommodating those beliefs – Khosravi was sentenced and executed for activities against the state on behalf of the MEK, including spying for Israel. Human rights organisations in the West have condemned the execution of Khosravi on the grounds of due legal process and opposing the death penalty. The US Department of State has also come out and condemned it. Prominent human rights activist Abdul Karim Lahiji, however, has gone further claiming he was clearly executed for his political beliefs. (He does not even say his political activities, but he does not offer any explanation of this.) Ironically he is a lawyer. Ironically none of these entities have ever condemned the even worse things that happen to members inside the MEK itself.

++ This week was the anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Khomeini. Referencing the execution of Khosravi, a part of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s speech was devoted to the West’s support for terrorism under the guise of human rights. He ended by saying the real enemy is not the brainwashed terrorists but those who feed them physically and mentally. Iran’s spokesman for the Foreign Ministry responded to the US State Department’s concern about the number of executions in Iran, pointing out that the US doesn’t have a leg to stand on while they kill people by drones and kill prisoners in places like Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Europe without trial. The spokesman said Khosaravi had undergone due process in a court of law, and according to our laws this is the punishment for spying. Observers and analysts inside Iran have written that the importance those in the West are placing on this specific execution is exactly because he was a spy for the MEK and MOSSAD and they are worried that this will increase the market price of agents sent to Iran because the danger has become more palpable. They point out that after the assassinations of several Iranian nuclear scientists they have not succeeded in killing anyone else because their agents have all been tracked down and apprehended.

++ Farsi sites have been buzzing with exposures of the MEK’s agents who are actively trawling travel agencies and refugee camps in Europe to recruit the paid audience for the MEK’s June 20th rally in Paris. The speakers, as many point out, are already known creatures. In an article titled ‘Gholamreza Khosravi, victim of the Rajavi gang’s agenda’, Mohammad Alavi from Aryia Association in Paris has explained how the MEK have used this execution against Iran, but goes on to describe its specific use by Maryam Rajavi. In Paris the MEK are preparing large bill boards depicting Khosravi for the MEK’s annual rally on 20 June. This is so that Maryam Rajavi can sit underneath his image and claim him as her martyr as she did with the victims of self-immolation in 2003. She badly needs more blood. In addition, the MEK are desperate to pay any agent they can in Iran to find the family of Khosravi and convince someone from the family to be smuggled out of Iran to attend the rally in Paris as an MEK supporter. Alavi says that no one can condone execution for any reason, but using the issues of human rights and anti-death penalty to feed a terrorist organisation which itself claims to have killed 25,000 Iraqis and 17,000 Iranians is not something which will be washed away from the people who support it, and cannot be excused by saying “I’m getting paid”. You can’t claim fair exchange between blood for money.

In English:

++ Ahmed Qobadi in Mehr News writes about the MEK’s track record as a terrorist group and about the human rights abuses against its own members.

++ Press TV reports on the execution of Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani who was “sentenced to death for providing documents and photos of Iran’s important centers including military sites as well as giving financial aid to the MKO and the media affiliated to the terror group. He had also tried to recruit for the terrorist organization. Khosravi Savadjani’s death sentence was approved by Iran’s Supreme Court after he was tried and sentenced at a Tehran branch of Islamic Revolution Court in the presence of his lawyer and the representative of the country’s prosecutor general.”

++ In a long analytical article for Middle East Eye, ‘Iran ponders its future in Syria – Iran’s support for the Syrian government is unflinching, but victory for its ally may not create the perfect regional outcome for Tehran’ Mahan Abedin writes about the MEK’s association with the issue of Syria. ““Jarba does not know who to meet in his foreign meetings”, that was the dismissive reaction by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to news of a meeting last week between Ahmad Jarba, the head of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, and Maryam Rajavi, the leader of a notorious Iranian opposition group… Jarba’s meeting with Rajavi is being widely seen in Tehran as a vindication of Iran’s Syria policy. By meeting Rajavi, whose group has killed over 17,000 Iranians since 1981, the Syrian opposition has sent an unmistakeable message of ill-will and hostility to Tehran. The meeting is also being interpreted as a sign of desperation on the part of the Syrian opposition who have been reduced to engaging with a discredited and exiled Iranian organisation.”

++ Mazda Parsi from Nejat Bloggers writes that the ‘MKO’s Irresponsible Fear-mongering Goes on’. “The Israeli backed MKO cult is determined to manipulate US policy. Claims about an Iranian “breakout” on the nuclear agreements are falsified. The MKO propaganda –led by Israel– repeats its fabrications with disturbing regularity. Neocon warmonger sponsors of the group also repeat after the MKO.”

++ Gareth Porter, author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of Iran Nuclear Scare told a Press TV interview that “he has evidence of MKO’s submission of documents to the German intelligence in 2004, claiming that Iran has been seeking to develop nuclear weapons. “And the MKO undoubtedly got them from Israel – A document that connects the MKO and Israel that the MKO had been laundering intelligence for the Israelis for years,” he said. Porter said there is “absolutely convincing evidence” that the MKO documents were “fabricated.” He said Israel and the United States started in 1983 fabricating documents against the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program by raising claims that Iran is running a “covert nuclear weapons program.””

June 06 2014

++ Behzad Alishahi’s wife has responded to the saga involving a threatening article in Iran Global. She says although she doesn’t usually look at anything from either the MEK or IRI, because this involves her husband she is obliged to set a few facts right. She explains that Behzad Alishahi has not been charged or criminalised. Instead, in June 2013 he was refused permission to stay in the Netherlands and in February 2014 was detained by the Immigration service for overstaying. He is not in prison but is being held in an immigration service camp for his own safety. He doesn’t have a case against him and there is no question about his going or not going to Iran; he has not left the Netherlands at any time since he arrived. He has never been questioned by either the police or the intelligence services. The problem is that he admitted to once being a member of the MEK and taking part in armed struggle and he has been refused permission to remain on these grounds. It is ironic, says Mrs Alishahi, that the MEK should be so excited and pleased about his situation instead of decently trying to help someone who had been involved with their armed struggle. She continues, “Having said this, I wish the MEK would go to Iran and understand more about the real situation there – how a series of pictures of women who took their scarf off, or young people who danced, has a much greater effect on the situation there than the MEK’s thirty years of so-called fighting Iran”. In conclusion she says that Alishahi has no complaint against him in his file let alone a 150 strong petition. These are fictions created by the MEK to divert from their own failures – the things they say they can do, but never have. The second reason is to terrify the stranded people inside the organisation with the fear that the same thing might happen to them. Thirdly, it is an attempt to intimidate MEK critics by claiming to be so powerful that they can make these things happen to them. But the allegation of ‘spying for Iran’ that the MEK banks on so much is entirely invalid because as long as Iran has an enemy like the MEK it doesn’t need to do any spying; the MEK can destroy any opposition much better than any spy could do. She concludes, “our problem has a solution, but the MEK’s problems will have no solution until, as my husband has always said, they sit down and see what it is they are doing and change.”

++ Sahar Family Association translated some Iraqi papers this week. In one example, Dr Adnan Al Seraj’s article in Al Mizan goes into detail about events of the last few yeas and how Rajavi has tried everything possible to hinder and prevent the UN from giving help to the people in Camp Liberty, whether to get them out or simply to give them help inside the camp itself. Quite a few items in the Iraqi media after the election cover many MPs speaking out and demanding that the situation with the MEK has to end. One is Vaheb MP, who clearly states that the UN has failed to live up to its agreement with the government of Iraq and that this needs to be looked at again and reworked. This failure means, he says, that although the MEK are under the protection of the Americans and the UN, they should be treated like the rest of the Saddamists and put on trial.

++ There has been a vast amount of writing from every side – from inside Iran, from ex members and from other opposition groups and personalities – about the new initiative to try to pass Maryam Rajavi off as a human rights advocate. Several point out that this is an insult to the intelligence of people across the globe. One witty writer observes, “This is like trying to paint a pigeon and sell it as a Volkswagen!”

In English

++ According to the Tehran Times, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, told a gathering of Revolutionary Guards, that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was standing strong against the Europeans in the nuclear talks in Vienna. He said that Iran has adopted a win-win approach in nuclear talks and will not grant any concessions to the West. He said that the Zionist, Arab and Mojahedeen Khalq lobbyists are campaigning hard against the Geneva deal in the U.S. Congress. Adding that if nuclear talks fail, no one can blame Iran.

++ The Canadian Iranian Coalition for Peace have asked Justin Trudeau, leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, to rein in one of his MPs Reza Moridi who “knowingly or unknowingly, has supported an infamous ex terrorist group in Iran (Mojahedin Khalq) MEK and their lobbyist in Canada which have kept a few young Canadians in Camp Ashraf against their will. MEK is promoting hate and violence in Iraq and Iran which is totally against Canadian values and principles… MPP Moridi also supported the closure of Iranian consulate in Ottawa, which has caused a tremendous amount of inconvenience for all Canadian-Iranians in our country Canada. He is simply following the Conservative Party mandates. Supporting sanction and war, this is against the Liberal party’s policy and philosophy. Therefore our community cannot distinguish between the Liberals and the conservatives… We request that you as the leader of the Liberal party of Canada to guide some of the party members to follow the Liberal path, rather than their own personal agenda!”

++ Iran’s Fars News agency reported a meeting between Head of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SCO) Ahmad Jarba and Maryam Rajavi in Paris. One former MEK member Mohammad Razzaqi said the MEK has been training some militant groups fighting the Syrian government, including the FSA, on bomb manufacturing, planting and detonation methods, assassination and street war. He noted that some MEK leaders have had a series of meetings with the Syrian opposition leaders in France and Jordan and discussed help and assistance to the FSA and a number of other extremist Salafi groups in Syria. In late 2012, deputy commander of the FSA Malek al-Kurdi said the MEK acted as a role model for Syrian insurgents. “Mojahedin-e Khalq is our role model, and we inform them that all doors of our houses are open to them.”

++ In a televised speech, Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Seyed Hassan Nasrallah congratulated his forces saying they had pushed back the Syrian opposition forces so far that they have been reduced to sitting and talking with the MEK in Paris which is nothing more than a defeated enemy, a dead horse.

++ An article by Mazda Parsi of Nejat bloggers begins with details of the MEK’s record of human rights abuses inside its own organisation. From this context, which explains more fully why UN Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed cancelled his speech at the Spotlight on Iran in the Canadian Parliament, Parsi says the decision looks less bizarre. Dr. Shaheed’s assistant explained that Shaheed felt the event’s framing “made it feel less like a briefing and more of something that encroached upon what he believes is his independence on the issue” of human rights in Iran.”

++ Iran Pen Association congratulates the people and prime minister of Iraq and wishes Iraq peace, stability and tranquillity. “We condemn the interventionist and divisive policies of MEK/PMOI and demand the leadership of MEK Cult, Mr. Massoud Rajavi and Mrs. Maryam Rajavi , that instead of plotting such desperate attempts and insisting on remaining in Iraq at any cost and victimizing the captive members in your Cult; try for once to be rational and stop persisting on your gross blunders and transfer these victims from Iraq.”

++ Iran Interlink interprets the result of the European Parliament election for the MEK in a short piece titled, ‘Rajavi/Saddamists stranded by European Parliament losses’. “The MEK and Saddamists have lost two key lobbyists in the new session of the European Parliament. Struan Stevenson (UK) threw in the towel and didn’t stand again. Alejo Vidal-Quadras (Spain) tried to garner the far right vote by creating the new Vox Party – which took less than 2% of the vote. Vidal-Quadras was exposed in the Spanish media before the election for supporting terrorism and being greedy for money. Both MEPs had previously worked in the Iraq Delegation for a bloc of anti-Maliki groups and MPs in Iraq which included the MEK.Rajavi will, of course, not be able to further influence the situation in Iraq where Maliki’s coalition was a clear winner. But the MEK will no doubt declare a ‘basij’ (gathering of forces) in the European Parliament to actively hunt, recruit and corrupt new MEPs to keep its terrorist-logo flag flying there!”

++ According to Press TV Iran’s diplomatic mission at the United Nations condemned a report in The Wall Street Journal as a fabrication. The US newspaper cited a report by the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) as saying that Iran “has kept active and intact its core team of weaponization researchers.” The statement added “that Tehran expects the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain — plus Germany to abide by their commitments concerning Iran’s nuclear rights, regardless of the “uproar” by anti-Iran lobby groups.”

++ On the same subject, Eli Clifton writes in The Nation, ‘What the ‘Wall Street Journal’ and the MEK Get Very Wrong About Iran’s Nuclear Program’. “Even while uncritically reporting on the allegations, the article contained one major factual error… But perhaps more surprisingly, the WSJ editorial board apparently felt no compunction to inform readers about the source of this “plausible new report.” This, despite the fact that the Journal’s editorial team even includes one outspoken critic of the MEK, Sohrab Ahmari, an editorial page writer based in Europe.” “Noticeably, the WSJ did not claim to have verified the MEK’s allegations that Tehran has continued to pursue nuclear weaponization research.” Clifton concludes, “The MEK may be onto something with its contention that Iran continued with its nuclear weapons work (the IAEA’s reporting about the “possible military dimensions” of Iran’s nuclear program only covers the period before 2003). But relying almost exclusively on the organization is, to borrow a word, problematic, and raises a question: Why did the MEK approach the ideologues of the Journal’s opinion pages instead of its newsroom staff with its exclusive report? Perhaps the paper’s veteran foreign affairs reporters, who have no doubt had many interactions with the MEK, are more skeptical of the group’s claim.”

30 May 2014