Page 404 – Nejat Society

US may give asylum to MEK, Al-Qaida terrorists

US eases rule for asylum seekers who support terror groups

The Obama administration has unilaterally eased the rules for would-be asylum-seekers and refugees who the United States says have given “limited material support” to terrorist groups.

The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department now say people with links to terrorists or terrorist groups are no longer automatically banned from entering the United States.

The DHS said in a statement that the rule change, made last week and not in concert with Congress, gives the administration more discretion on immigration.

Under the new rules, people seeking refugee status, asylum and visa, and those who want to expand their visa, still will be checked to make sure they do not pose a threat to national security, the department said.

The move marks one of President Barack Obama’s first steps towards altering immigration rules since promising to take more executive actions in his State of the Union address last month.

A provision in immigrant law, enacted since Sept. 11, 2001, had affected anyone considered to have give support to terrorists.

The new decision could pave the way for networks like the anti-Iran terrorist group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), and al-Qaeda-linked foreign insurgents fighting in Syria to seek asylum in the US.

The US government has already taken the MKO off its terror watch list.

February 12, 2014 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

EU must reassess risk after Rajavi orders MEK loyalists to kill critics

Maryam Rajavi has used a meeting at her headquarters near Paris to incite her followers to go ahead and kill individuals that she identifies as her enemies. Speaking to Mojahedin Khalq loyalists on the eve of the thirty fifth anniversary of the Iranian revolution, Rajavi drew a red line between her supporters and everyone else; at one point she lashes out at Iranian opposition groups outside Iran, calling their criticism of the MEK “the struggle of Khamenei’s Pasdars’ satanic attacks against the resistance”, (i.e. Rajavi). Her red line has a very clear definition; you are either totally for us or totally against us.

According to the MEK’s NCRI website, three hundred associations – essentially sub-sects of the Mojahedin Khalq – were in attendance, although the pictures do not reflect these numbers and the associations are not named anywhere in the report. These represent the core supporters of the MEK who are paid to perform the activities which the majority of actual MEK members are incapable of doing. To the extent they are loyal to Rajavi, they are at her command.

Rajavi began to motivate them by first claiming, without providing even anecdotal evidence and in spite of the recent popular election of President Rohani that, “the Iranian society stands ready to change this regime”. She then went on to define her red line: “we highlight the demarcation with the regime in its entirety and we also stress solidarity with all those true defenders of overthrowing the regime”.

To be absolutely clear about what she means by drawing this red line between ‘us and them’, she says, “the struggle of the participant organisations and associations in this convention against the Mullah’s intelligence ministry at this time is the most needed part of the struggle to topple the Mullah’s regime and bring about democracy and the rule of people in Iran. We announce that countering the agents of religious fascist rulers of Iran who are targeting the leadership of the resistance (i.e. Rajavi), is a nationalistic duty of every freedom lover Iranian irrelevant to their political and ideological belief”. [my emphasis]

By “agents of the religious fascist rulers of Iran”, Maryam Rajavi means anyone who criticises the MEK and in particular former members of the MEK who are by default, and “according to the rules of armed struggle [war], condemned to death”.

Since the vast majority of these critics and former members are resident in Europe and North America, ‘countering the agents’ who are ‘condemned to death’ can only be interpreted as instructing her loyal followers to kill these people wherever they reside in the west.

Of course this is never expressed in English, only on the Farsi sites was the threat published. Realising that, as a resident of France, Rajavi would be held personally responsible for incitement to murder, the MEK quickly removed the incriminating Farsi sections of her speech from the hambastegi meli website (a copy is available), and instead an MEK spokesman in Iraq was quoted issuing the same threat. This time more directly as he said, “since we are at war with Iran we will treat anyone who leaves us as someone who has changed sides and we will execute them”. In this context the specific delineation of the red line becomes highly significant as Rajavi is now able to label anybody who does not bow down to her as her enemy , as an “agent of the Iranian regime”. Even those who have escaped Camp Liberty after thirty years in isolation, and threaten them with elimination.

Try as they might the leaders of the MEK cannot for long disguise their total dependence on violence as a means to pursue the very existence of their group. Although posing for Western consumption as a democratic opposition group, the MEK operates as a cult and relies absolutely on instilling fear and dependency on its members. It is imperative that the leaders maintain this atmosphere among the members in order to keep them ‘on message’. As a result, any criticism or protest aimed at exposing the true nature of the group provokes an immediate deployment of intimidation and aggression, sometimes leading to actual physical attacks, even in the streets of western countries. In this way, members (and backers) are graphically reminded of their real role as a group.

The question is, how far will the MEK go to counter the exposures made by former members who are increasing in number and who remain undeterred in their efforts to help rescue those former colleagues who remain trapped in conditions of isolation and suffering daily abuses inside all the MEK’s bases, whether in Iraq or in Europe and North America?

Informed people are beginning to ask what Maryam Rajavi will ask of the members being kept in Iraq against their will. The MEK are trained to violence, to kill and be killed. That has been the MEK’s raison d’être for five decades. It is the reason warmongers and anti-Iran pundits back the group. Loyal members who are trained for assassination are known to already be in Europe. Will they be unleashed soon in an attempt to silence the MEK’s most effective critics? (In her recent speech Maryam Rajavi emphasises that her real enemies – former MEK members – are no more than a handful in every western countries, but she does not name them.)

Judging by past behaviour, the answer to this question is a resounding yes. On many occasions since the MEK established bases in western capitals, it has used violent attacks on its rivals and enemies; tactics from character assassination campaigns to knifings and attempted kidnaps have frequently been reported by victims. Unfortunately, because the MEK has powerful backers, these low level criminal activities have seldom been investigated or prosecuted, leaving the victims vulnerable, though undeterred.

This threat however must be taken seriously. The gruesome death of a former MEK member who had become incarcerated in Camp Ashraf is a vivid reminder of what the MEK is capable of. Massoud Dalili’s disfigured body was discovered among 52 other victims of a violent attack on the Camp which occurred on September 1st 2013. The victims had mostly been subjected to execution style killing. But Dalili’s face had been burned with acid to render him unidentifiable. Although it is still unclear who launched the attack – Iraqi investigators are unable to interview the 42 eyewitness because the MEK are holding them incommunicado inside Camp Liberty – the fact that Dalili was a former high ranking member who disappeared unaccountably from a hotel in Baghdad two years before has led experts on MEK behaviour to conclude that he was killed by the MEK themselves after being kidnapped or deceived into returning to Camp Ashraf. The MEK have simply blamed Iran for his death.

There are further indications that the MEK are actively mobilising to counter the inevitable exposures of former members about human rights abuses committed systematically inside all MEK camps and bases. Two MEK intelligence and security officers of the Mojahedin Khalq have been tracked travelling between Paris and Tirana in Albania. Tirana is now home to some 210 individuals who were recently transferred there from Camp Liberty. The MEK has made every effort to contain them and keep them under cult control, sending minders along with them from Iraq to maintain the control.

Since their arrival, 70 have separated from the MEK and begun to speak out against their treatment in the Iraqi camps. Now, Esmail Mortezaee (Javad Khorasan) and Hassan Nayb Aghad, have been reported bringing suitcases of money (well over a million dollars in cash) with them from Paris out of which they pay $500 per month to each person on condition that they do not talk to anyone, not even their families, about their experiences in the MEK camps, that they do not talk to the UNHCR, which is responsible for the individuals but pays only around $200 per month, and that they work for the MEK by updating social networks to promote the group. Some of these refugees have been threatened with violence and physical elimination. Interestingly, Esmail Mortazaee carries a card or pass which identifies him as working from the Pentagon office in Tirana. He shows this to the ex members as proof of his backing and power over them.

Such activities are not new and have gone on unchallenged for many years in Europe and North America. Many former members who are outspoken critics of the MEK have been, over the years, subjected to mental and physical intimidation carried out with impunity by loyal MEK members trained in security, intelligence and military skills. But importantly, not one of these trained killers will act without the order of their cult leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. It is incumbent on western security services to understand this dynamic and also acquaint themselves with the current change in risk following the transfer of defected MEK members from Iraq to Europe and in particular Maryam Rajavi’s speech in France blatantly giving her ‘permission’ (read order) to go ahead and kill her opponents.

Middle East Strategy Consultants,Author of “Saddam’s Private Army” and “The life of Camp Ashraf”

February 12, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

MEK: deep pocket, relentless lobbying, still no progress

The MKO’s million dollar champagne in the US Congress has always got the attention of Western media. Hannah Allam of the Miami Herald is one of many American journalists who report on the

well funded MKO lobbying efforts in the Congress and its problematic situation as a foreign force in Iraq. The herald piece "Iran’s MEK has friends in Congress, but that hasn’t eased problems in Iraq" , quotes an MKO activist Shirin Nariman who admits that the group’s "deep pocket" and " relentless lobbying" against Islamic Republic is the key to buy US high profiles although she claims that the paid sponsors’ motivation is human :

“ The congressional hearing earlier this week was to have focused on al Qaida’s resurgence in Iraq, but lawmaker after lawmaker veered off topic to ask about another problem left from the U.S.-led war there: what to do with a group of Iranian dissidents stuck in a besieged camp in Baghdad.

The plight of the former militant group known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq dominated the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday. Critics of the group consider it a cult and note that only a year and a half ago it was still listed as a U.S.-designated terrorist group. They’re outraged at what they call the disproportionate amount of attention the group receives in Congress.

Yet despite all the powerful friends won by the MEK’s deep pockets and relentless lobbying, the group has seen relatively little progress in efforts to relocate the 2,500 or so members who remain in Iraq, where they’re vulnerable under the Iran-friendly government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. Since September, attacks on Camp Liberty, the former U.S. base where the group is housed under the watch of the Iraqi military, have killed more than 50 people and wounded many more.

American supporters of the group – including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich – say the United States has abandoned its pledge to protect the group, which was disarmed after the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. A few hundred MEK members were relocated recently to Albania and Germany, but there’s no word yet on a broader resettlement program in accordance with a 2011 agreement between the Iraqi government and the United Nations.

Eight members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee – six Republicans and two Democrats – lambasted the U.S. government for failing to do more to protect the virtual prisoners at Camp Liberty.

The most forceful was Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who called Maliki a “murderer” and said the United States had no business helping him on other issues, such as the fight against jihadists in western Iraq. Another Republican, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, complained that the residents “still have very little protection” and demanded “extra effort in saving lives there.”

Brett McGurk, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, had been called to testify about al Qaida but found himself answering as many if not more questions about the MEK. McGurk, who visited Camp Liberty on a trip to Baghdad this month, said talks were ongoing about resettling the residents and getting them more protections in the meantime.

“I told them I promise I would do everything I could,” McGurk said of his talks with MEK members in the camp.

An investigation by Britain’s Guardian newspaper found that Rohrabacher had received thousands of dollars in donations from MEK supporters in 2012 alone. The paper’s report added that Ros-Lehtinen has accepted at least $20,000 in campaign donations from Iranian-American groups, or their leaders, that support the MEK. Other members of Congress have been flown to France to address pro-MEK events, and a Washington lobbying firm received nearly $1 million to work on getting the MEK off the terrorist list, according to The Guardian.

Shirin Nariman, a Virginia-based MEK activist, acknowledged that some of its political allies had received money from MEK supporters. But Nariman said that more important than campaign donations and speaker fees was the time the group had spent knocking on the doors of politicians, making them aware of the MEK’s cause.

[…]

February 9, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Rajavi’s Pal, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen helped fugitive embezzlers

Miami – A Republican US congresswoman known for supporting terrorists also helped a pair of Ecuadorean brothers convicted of embezzlement as they attempted to establish United States residency.

The Daily Beast reports Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), while acting as chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent a letter to federal agencies on behalf of William and Roberto Isaias, who once ran the Ecuadorean bank Filanbanco before being convicted in absentia in Ecuador of embezzling more than $100 million as the bank collapsed. The brothers never spent any time in prison because they fled to the United States, where they remain today even as the threat of extradition grows. But the Isaias brothers have friends in high places. Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who is being targeted by an FBI investigation for alleged corruption related to the case, made phone calls and sent letters in support of their residency request.

Members of the Isaias family have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the campaigns of numerous lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle. While the fugitive brothers cannot donate directly because they are not US citizens, their American relatives can and have given generously to Ros-Lehtinen, Menendez and others. In addition to Ros-Lehtinen, who received $20,000 from the family, and Menendez, who got $10,000 for his 2012 campaign. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) received at least $7,500 in 2012, according to FEC records. Both Ros-Lehtinen and Menendez deny any quid pro quo with the fugitive brothers.

“As a member who represents the area where the Isaias brothers live and during my tenure as Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I sent letters to US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of State, as I do for many constituents,” Ros-Lehtinen told the Daily Beast in a statement. “The Isaias family contacted my office and, as is standard practice, we forwarded the constituent’s concerns to the appropriate federal agencies.”

This is not the first time Rep. Ros-Lehtinen has helped a convicted criminal enter or remain in the United States. She is a staunch supporter of Cuban terrorists exiled in South Florida, including some who have carried out deadly attacks against innocent civilians. Orlando Bosch, now deceased, and Luis Posada Carriles masterminded, among many other deadly attacks, the 1976 bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455, which killed 73 innocent passengers and crew, many of them teenagers.

According to the US Justice Department, “for 30 years Bosch has been resolute and unwavering in his advocacy of terrorist violence… He has repeatedly expressed and demonstrated a willingness to cause indiscriminate injury and death.”

But to the fiercely anti-communist, anti-Castro Ros-Lehtinen, Bosch and Posada Carriles are heroes, freedom fighters worthy of the official ‘Orlando Bosch Day’ celebrated in Miami in 1982 in honor of the convicted terrorist. Ros-Lehtinen, then a state senator running for Congress, made the campaign to free Orlando Bosch (he was arrested after escaping from a Venezuelan prison and entering the US illegally) one of her signature election issues. She turned to her campaign manager, a well-connected young real estate developer named Jeb Bush, to get Bosh out of jail. Bush, in turn, lobbied his father, President George H. W. Bush, and Bosch was released for “humanitarian reasons” and allowed to live in Miami.

Ros-Lehtinen has also publicly voiced her support for Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK), a then-State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization of Iranian dissidents who once assassinated numerous US officials and carries out attacks inside Iran with US and Israeli assistance. She also backs the brutal, conservative Honduran regime, now led by President Juan Orlando Hernandéz, which has been slammed by international human rights groups for its widespread murder, violence, terrorism, corruption and other abuses.

Brett Wilkins, Digital Journal

February 8, 2014 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 40

++ Sahar has published an article about a new broadcast from Massoud Rajavi for the residents of Camp Liberty. The message is delivered by audio tape alongside 15 year old pictures of Rajavi. The people who have informed Sahar about the broadcast from inside the camp say that one of the images shows two people fighting, one has fallen and the other is sitting on his chest and grabbing his collar. While this is showing, Rajavi is talking and clearly says that if he gets help he will be able to get up but if he doesn’t he will be finished. After this there has been much discussion among the members as they attempted to interpret this. It is clear to them he is not asking for help from those inside the camp because there is nothing they can do, but is it the Israelis or Americans to whom is he directing his message? Some have said that if that is the case then Rajavi is preparing us for either his coming out as an agent of MOSSAD or being resident in Tel Aviv, etc.

++ Some weeks ago, Desmond Tutu’s daughter was used by Maryam Rajavi as a speaker at an MEK event to express condolences for the death of Nelson Mandela. At that time, everyone pointed out that the MEK had been swearing vigorously at Mandela up to that date. Two weeks ago, Desmond Tutu himself was part of a group of dignitaries, including Kofi Anan, who visited Tehran. Irandidban website published a short report on the visit which highlighted the MEK’s silence over the visit in the context of them previously using his grand daughter against Iran.

++ Iran Ghalam has published a key article directed at the members inside Camp Liberty which Iran Interlink has condensed as much as possible here without removing the full meaning. Iran Ghalam asks for anyone who can, as much as they can, to take this message to the people inside the camp. In the article Iran Ghalam addresses them as “our dear friends”, while acknowledging that “even if you don’t consider us friends now you will come to see it later”. The article then presents simple facts, thus: ‘The ceasefire between Iran and Iraq has been in place for a long time, Saddam Hussein has been deposed, the MEK has been disarmed and Camp Ashraf has been emptied. Even if you don’t regard us as your friends, we can at least agree on these facts. Our message is based on these realities.’ The article then goes on to look at Massoud Rajavi’s analyses and suggests that “you can agree that he told all of us that peace between Iran and Iraq is impossible and that Saddam’s army is one of the best in the world and will never be toppled, and you can agree that the slogan he gave us was ‘if there is no Ashraf, there is no Mojahedin’. Surely you can agree that he told us these things. The question at this point then is, after all these things happening is it too much to ask that after thirty years, Massoud Rajavi hold a democratic election and is it too much to ask where the limit is of human rights abuses that can go on under the pretext of fighting the Iranian regime?” The article again acknowledges: “We probably don’t agree that Rajavi is a war criminal, but surely you do agree that for the last thirty years he has not done what he said he would do. You agree that in 1361 (1983), he announced that the IRI will be toppled in two years time. And ever since then, he and his wife have extended this year by year. Is it too much to ask after all this that Rajavi give his place up for a short period for four years to anyone elected by you to lead the organisation? Is it too much to ask Massoud and Maryam to explain what their aim is in keeping you in Iraq and preventing anyone from being sent to third countries? Is it too much to ask why didn’t we leave Camp Ashraf before 53 people were massacred there, and why did we leave only after that but without explanation? Why was a hunger strike held and why did this stop without achieving anything? Why are we refusing to co-operate with the UNHCR to the point that they issue statements against us? Why was Maryam Rajavi insisting that everyone in Liberty should be taken back to Camp Ashraf on the grounds that Ashraf is safer than Liberty, but when the people there got killed she took no responsibility for their deaths, even when the international community said it would be dangerous to return to Ashraf? Is it too much to ask what the plan is behind our support for some fugitive Iraqis and other foreign personalities, and why suddenly all our energy must go into saving an arrested Iraqi MP, are we after now after Iraq’s interests, have we become Iraqis now? Is it too much to ask why we are so closely aligned with and working together with the extremist groups in Syria to the point that there are reports of MEK members being killed in fights there, and the MEK’s sites are devoted to what is happening in Syria? Do we have Syrian nationality too now? The last and main question is, who is leading this organisation and where is he after a decade and why does his wife have nothing more on her agenda than holding parties and meetings to which she invites second hand and retired personalities? In the end we know that anyone who asks even one of these questions will not have an easy time and people have even been killed for insisting on getting answers. But we will not stay silent and we will continue to insist that the doors of the camp be opened so that people can come out and choose whatever they want to do next.”

++ There have been several more responses to Parviz Khazai’s swearing at Atefeh Eghbal and others who are internal critics of the MEK. One of the responses is from Nader Naderi who is from the same province of Lorestan as Khazai. Naderi has lashed Khazai, using some colourful local dialect as well, as somebody who has disgraced the Lorestan people who are famous for their courage on the front lines rather than sitting like Khazai in Sweden, encouraging others in the camps in Iraq to get killed.

++ Several responses and open letters denounce a new committee in the Romanian parliament which has been made by the MEK. Many refer to similar committees which the MEK have created in the UK and European parliaments and talk of the disgrace MPs face later down the line for taking money for supporting them. One example is MEP Paulo Casaca who was de-selected after his support for the MEK was revealed to his constituents in Portugal. Another example being Lord Corbett of Castle Vale who was mocked by his peers until his death. The writers suggest that the money paid is not worth the loss of your reputation.

++ Many commentators have written articles on the back of the UN half-yearly report on Iraq which mentioned the human rights abuses by MEK leaders and the way they have been stopping people from going to third countries, and linking this to the MEK’s lobbyists in America’s House of Representatives and the Senate who falsely claim there is nowhere to take these people. Many point out that, as the UN says, the real problem is that Rajavi and his backers refuse to open the door of Camp Liberty. They are resigned to the necessity of moving everyone to another closed camp like Romania but absolutely refuse to open the camp door as they know everyone will leave.

++ AFP reports that the French investigative judge in Maryam Rajavi’s case will decide after all these years of investigation whether to send her to court or not. Some people who have been following details of the case have offered qualifying explanations that in 2003 the allegations against Maryam Rajavi and nine others were that they were involved in: funding and planning acts of terrorism from Paris; planning to attack Iranian embassies across Europe; planning to kill some ex-members across Europe; moving their HQ from Iraq to Paris, including buying a studio (a paint factory) and establishing satellites and equipment to continue their broadcasting activities; and money laundry. Although due to political interference and the support of MOSSAD and CIA, some of these might be dropped, the judge will certainly not be able to drop all of it because everybody knows full well what the MEK are doing. Many others point out that the issue concerning Rajavi and his wife is much wider than whether French national law will cover it or not. They point out that crimes against humanity and war crimes can only really be dealt with under international law by places like The Hague. Mohammad Razaghi has put these facts together in a letter to Iraqi PM Nouri Al Maliki and asked him to pursue the Rajavis for their crimes against Iraqis, Iranians and his own members under Iraqi law because the majority of these crimes have taken place in his country.

++ Maryam Sanjabi has published a three part article about cults in the website ‘Call of the Truth’. She uses information from Steve Hassan and from Margaret Singer and compares their facts about cults with what she has witnessed inside the MEK. Massoud Khodabandeh has referred to this in his Facebook and congratulated her for her work. He says, I remember being with her, just after she had escaped the MEK, when a journalist from the Wall Street Journal put it to her, ‘you are from the leadership of the MEK and have defected. You, therefore, are different from other defectors. You have a responsibility to answer for what has happened in these camps.’ At that time Sanjabi responded by saying, ‘all I can say is that in a cult there are no leaders (plural) there is only one leader, and the rest of us are all victims’. She continued, ‘I will try in future to explain and expand on this as I have just come out.’ This is apparently the start of her explanation.

++ Several items have appeared in English from both sides of the fence which identify the role of the MEK in activities designed to destroy the P5+1 nuclear negotiations. Speaking to Tasnim News Agency, former Iranian nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian, referred to building trust and the dimensions of nuclear inspections as the main challenges facing the nuclear talks between Iran and the world powers. He underlined that there are others, including certain Arab countries, the Zionist lobby and Israel as well as the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), that make all-out efforts to make sure that the agreement and negotiations will fail. John Glaser writing in Anti War, describes as ‘too preposterous to be true if you say it out loud’, the fact that four high-profile former government officials are getting paid by an Iranian dissident group that until 2012 was an officially designated terrorist organization to publicly oppose the Obama administration’s diplomatic efforts with Iran. Press TV reports, “The MKO has “combined efforts with Israeli, Zionist” groups to “bribe” US officials, said Scott Rickard, a former American intelligence linguist in Florida. The four American officials “are nothing more than Zionist puppets who are consistently being paid by this group (MKO) and this group obviously being funded by anti-Iranian and pro-Israel initiatives,” Rickard told Press TV on Saturday.“This is a form of bribery and the bribery goes on and on and on,” he added.”

++ Dave Seminara has produced a detailed article for The Washington Diplomat which describes how “Despite its opacity and relative obscurity, analysts agree that the MEK has been able to punch above its weight in Washington.”

++ According to the Arabic-language website Voice of Russia, in her meeting with the Iraqi minister of Human Rights, head of the European Union Delegation in Iraq Ambassador Jana Hybáškova, said the EU plans to allocate 22 million euros for the relocation of MKO members outside Iraq in order to respond to Iraq’s requests.

++ Nejat Society reports on the French philosopher, journalist, former government official and academic Regis Debray’s recent visit to Iran. Debray criticized his government for double standards and mistaken policies towards Iranians including hosting the Mujahedin Khalq Organization terror cult in French territory and aiding “the Iraqi aggressor” Saddam Hussein in the disastrous war against Iran. Regis Debray suggests: We are much more conscious of always hosting on our territory, with visible public support (by parliamentarians and mayors), the People’s Mujahedin, politico religious cult, so far without representation in the country, and with the record of fighting alongside Saddam Hussein against its motherland. It targeted and killed half of the government and made thousands of civilians die.”Where are the terrorists”, we ask. ” Are they with you or with us?”

++ Fars News says a prominent Iraqi politician described the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCRI or PMOI) as a big cancerous tumour being cut off from his country. “The MKO is like a cancer that Iraq has been afflicted with, but uprooting it is nearly complete and it has reached its final days,” former Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie told FNA on Sunday.

++ Fars News also quoted Lebanon’s al-Nahar daily newspaper saying that the Mojahedin Khalq has been reporting its activities and operations in Iraq as well as the status quo in the country to the French counterintelligence agency every two weeks for years. According to the report, the MKO leaders were called to the headquarters of the French counterintelligence agency every two weeks to present their intelligence on the situation in Iran.

++ Nazik Muhammad reporting for PUKmedia in Baghdad, said that Iraq had reached an agreement with the United Nations and the European Union to move the remaining members of the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) to the Romanian territories as soon as possible. MP from the State of Law, Foud al-Duraki said in a statement to PUKmedia that the third country had been agreed on by Iraq, UN and EU which shall be Romania. “the Iraqi Government do not want MEK members to stay in Iraq, as they participated in oppression of 1991 revolution in Iraq with the former regime” al-Duraki added. The Iraqi Government had designated $500 thousand to transport the MEK members from Iraq, Iraqi Minister of Human Rights, Muhammad al-Shaya’a announced. Another € 22 million (EUR) from the European Union shall also be designated to transport MEK members out of Iraq.

February 8, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Purchased MKO supporters to violate New deal

The sworn enemy of the Iranian Nation, the Mujahedin khalq Organization is passionately paying the US officials to pass new legislations in the Congress that violate the interim agreement reached by Islamic Republic in December 2013 in Geneva. The MKO’ efforts have got some attention among bipartisan US representatives and senators.

Dave Seminara of Purchased MKO supporters to violate New deal The Washington Diplomat puts, "In Washington, there are very few issues that unite Republicans and Democrats. One is support for Israel and condemnation of the Islamic Republic of Iran." [1] The Israeli notorious lobby AIPAC is a powerful Zionist body that effectively runs Israeli policies including hostile guidelines against Iran, in the US government.

"The MeK is putting a lot of effort behind the same Senate sanctions bill that the Israel Lobby is so staunchly behind" , writes Jason Ditz of the Anitwar website. "The bill would violate the Iran deal by imposing new sanctions, and would effectively kill negotiations." [2]

Today, the MKO’s Multi million campaign in the Congress is in the limelight of various media in the West although the group is hardly ever known in its own motherland. The Diplomat correspondent describes the opportunist nature of the group. "With its shadowy past, shifting ideologies and deep pockets, the MEK has been called the most powerful lobby you’ve never heard of," He writes, " It has evolved from killing Americans to courting them — and supporting the Iranian Revolution to becoming its sworn enemy."[3]

Removed from the list of officially designated terrorist organizations in 2012, after an intense multimillion lobbying campaign in which the organization gave donations to Congress and recruited a number of high-profile former officials, the second step for the MKO seems to be pushing the US and its allies particularly Israel towards war with Tehran where the group leaders dream of founding their own dictatorship. "While the depth of the MeK’s funding of this is, like much of their lobbying, strictly off-the-record ,the group appears to still envision itself being the benefactors of US-imposed regime change in Iran, and is willing to pull out all the stops to see to it that diplomacy does not succeed and rapprochement remains impossible,” suggests Jason Ditz.[4]

In order to make such a disastrous dream come true, the MKO has to closely work with Israel . Regarding the MKO-Israeli relations, Dave Seminara asks John Ghazvinian a historian who is working on a book about the history of U.S.-Iranian relations. Ghazvinian thinks the MEK-Israel connection is credible. "The Israelis have a long history of using the MEK as a sort of foil,” the historian said. “In 2002, when the allegations about Iran’s nuclear programs hit the headlines, they were presented to the world as having come from the MEK, but they probably came from Israel. The revelations were handed to the MEK because the Mossad didn’t want to be obvious. Better to present the information as coming from this ‘Iranian opposition group.’ It made it look to the world like it was Iranians blowing the whistle, but that was probably not what happened.”[5]

Although American Neo-cons and other ardent supporters of Israel consider the group up as a possible "democratic" alternative to Islamic Republic, many intellectuals and analysts believe that they are thoroughly misguided. John Ghazvinian told the Diplomat that sponsoring the MKO terrorist cult "could derail sensitive talks with Iran on the nuclear issue ".[6]

John Glasser of Antiwar also criticizes the US double standards towards Terrorism. He warns the former government officials speaking out on behalf of this group against diplomacy with Iran would launch them in " the inevitable war path to Tehran". Glasser refers to the famous White House document in which George W. Bush includes Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorists like MEK in his propaganda justifying the invasion of Iraq: “Iraq shelters terrorist groups including the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization which has used terrorist violence against Iran and in the 1970s was responsible for killing several US military personnel and US civilians.”[7]

Regardless of all dual approaches of the West towards Iranian nuclear program and the MKO terrorist cult of personality, the group’s support in the West is extremely limited. Moreover and more important is its support inside Iran which is "virtually none" ."The MEK is the one thing that most Iranians of any political persuasion can agree on,” Ghazvinian tells Seminara. “They are viewed as traitors to their country.”[8]

The historical memory of the Iranian people never forgets the atrocities the MKO committed against their own country fellowmen during the years of their serving as Saddam Hussein mercenaries as well as the services they offer Israel.

By Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] Seminara, Dave, Small Band of Iranian Exiles Gets Lots of Attention in U.S., The Washington Diplomat, January 28, 2014

[2]Ditz, Jason, Mujahedin-e Khalq Opposes Iran Deal, Pushes Sanctions, MeK-Paid Officials Blast Deal as ‘Appeasement’, Antiwar.com , January 29, 2014

[3] Seminara, Dave, Small Band of Iranian Exiles Gets Lots of Attention in U.S., The Washington Diplomat, January 28, 2014

[4] Ditz, Jason, Mujahedin-e Khalq Opposes Iran Deal, Pushes Sanctions, MeK-Paid Officials Blast Deal as ‘Appeasement’, Antiwar.com , January 29, 2014

[5] Seminara, Dave, Small Band of Iranian Exiles Gets Lots of Attention in U.S., The Washington Diplomat, January 28, 2014

[6]ibid

[7]Glasser John, The Other Lobby: MEK’s Crusade Against US-Iran Negotiations, Antiwar.com, January 31, 2014

[8] ] Seminara, Dave, Small Band of Iranian Exiles Gets Lots of Attention in U.S., The Washington Diplomat, January 28, 2014

February 8, 2014 0 comments

The MEK Expulsion from Iraq

Iraq, UN, EU agree to move 3164 MEK to Romania

Iraq has reached an agreement with the United Nations and the European Union to move the remaining members of the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) to the Romanian territories as soon as possible. Iraq, UN, EU agree to move 3164 MEK to Romania

The Iraqi Government had discussed with the European Union Ambassadors, the agreement between Iraq and the UN to move the remaining MEK members in Liberty camp (located near the capital Baghdad) to a third country, as it became impossible for the MEK to remain in Iraq after having information regarding their involvement in cooperating with Saddam Hussain in oppression of 1991 revolution in Iraq.

MP from the State of Law, Foud al-Duraki said in a statement to PUKmedia that the third country had been agreed on by Iraq, UN and EU which shall be Romania. “the Iraqi Government do not want MEK members to stay in Iraq, as they participated in oppression of 1991 revolution in Iraq with the former regime” al-Duraki added.

The Iraqi Government had designated $500 thousand to transport the MEK members from Iraq, Iraqi Minister of Human Rights, Muhammad al-Shaya’a announced. Another € 22 million (EUR) from the European Union shall also be designated to transport MEK members out of Iraq.

3164 members of the MEK, had been transported to Huriya camp under the supervision of UNAMI to be moved to a third country (Romania).

Reported by Nazik Muhammad from Baghdad,PUKmedia

February 6, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Small Band of Iranian Exiles Gets Lots of Attention in U.S.

In Washington, there are very few issues that unite Republicans and Democrats. One is support for Israel and condemnation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Yet the story of how an exiled Iranian dissident group Small Band of Iranian Exiles Gets Lots of Attention in U.S. secured bipartisan support from a host of heavyweight Washington insiders and fought its way off of the State Department’s list of designated terrorist organizations illustrates how power is wielded in Washington, and how former officials continue to influence American foreign policy.

The Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), also known as the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran and People’s Holy Warriors, inspires fierce passion among its followers, deep skepticism among its critics, and more than its fair share of conspiracy theories. With its shadowy past, shifting ideologies and deep pockets, the MEK has been called “the most powerful lobby you’ve never heard of.” It has evolved from killing Americans to courting them — and supporting the Iranian Revolution to becoming its sworn enemy.

Violent History

The MEK was one of two Marxist guerrilla student groups formed in the 1960s to topple Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran.

Iranian-American activists protest in Washington, D.C., in June 2009 demanding protection for members of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) in Camp Ashraf. The MEK says the Iraqi government periodically attacked the camp, where some 3,000 MEK members have since been moved to another camp near Baghdad after being taken off the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.

“They played an important role in bringing down the Shah,” said John Ghazvinian, a historian who is working on a book about the history of U.S.-Iranian relations. “But they fell out of favor and [Ayatollah] Khomeini condemned them as hypocrites. He called them the ‘Hypocrites of the People’ and said you can’t be Marxists and Muslims at the same time.”

In the ’70s and ’80s, the group committed acts of terrorism against the Islamic theocracy, killing scores of Iranians, plus six Americans. In perhaps their most notorious attack, MEK operatives blew up the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party in 1981, killing more than 70 prominent Iranian politicians, including members of parliament, clerics and cabinet ministers. Two months later, they killed the prime minister and newly elected president.

“That massive campaign of terrorism turned Iranian people completely against them,” said Ghazvinian.

During the Iran-Iraq War, the group was given refuge by Saddam Hussein, and it mounted attacks on Iran from within Iraqi territory and joined Hussein’s brutal crackdown on the Kurdish rebellion. The State Department placed the MEK on its list of designated terrorist groups in 1997 for a “swath of terror” that targeted Americans and killed thousands of Iranians. But the group, which in the last decade has renounced violence, was removed from the State Department’s terrorist list in September 2012 after an intense lobbying campaign involving dozens of prominent American officials, including former directors of the FBI and CIA, generals and prominent politicians, most of them recently retired.

Limbo at Liberty

The U.S. military disarmed the MEK after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, reportedly securing their cooperation in exchange for a pledge to protect them at Camp Ashraf. The group provided intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program — some charge that the information was funneled to them by Israeli intelligence — and began to win allies in the Department of Defense by sounding the right notes about democracy, women’s empowerment and freedom of speech.

Since control of Camp Ashraf was returned to Iraq in 2009, more than 100 MEK members have been killed, allegedly by Iraqi security forces with ties to Iran. MEK supporters believe that the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad is deliberately targeting their group, now about 3,200 strong and located in the former Camp Liberty near Baghdad, acting on orders from the Iranian regime, which still views them as traitors.

The bulk of MEK members moved to Liberty (also called Camp Hurriya) last year, reportedly as a condition for being taken off the State Department’s terrorist list. (From there, U.N. and State officials hope to resettle them in third countries.)

About 100 members remain at Camp Ashraf, where 52 people were killed in a Sept. 1 attack that the MEK blamed on Iraqi security forces (a separate rocket attack on Camp Liberty in late December reportedly killed three people). The circumstances of the Ashraf attack remain murky. Nevertheless, the deaths sparked outrage in various quarters of Washington.

Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) decried what he called a “massacre.” Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, demanded that Iraq do more to find the seven members who were allegedly taken hostage during the attack. Both suggested withholding U.S. weapons sales to Baghdad until it cooperates. Marc Ginsberg, former U.S. ambassador to Morocco under the Clinton administration, evoked the memory of John F. Kennedy and his advocacy for refugees to push President Obama to help the Iranian dissidents. Reporter James Morrison of the Washington Times’s Embassy Row column has written about the MEK no fewer than a dozen times last year alone.

Beltway Cause Célèbre

The plight of these 3,000 stranded Iranians has certainly taken up an inordinate amount of bandwidth in Washington, as strange bedfellows offer a full-throated defense of a group that has been described by critics and former members as a cult.

The MEK is part of an umbrella coalition known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a Paris-based “parliament in exile” led for decades by Maryam Rajavi and her husband Massoud (Maryam is now the main figurehead). Interestingly, feminism is part of the group’s ideology, and the MEK is “the only army in the world with a commander corps composed mostly of women,” according to Elizabeth Rubin, a former Council on Foreign Relations press fellow.

Critics though say the group is hardly a beacon of democracy and women’s rights. Defectors have accused it of being a totalitarian cult that forced its members to divorce and stay celibate (so they could focus on fighting Iran) and confess their sexual fantasies in public. The MEK counters that many former members are really Iranian agents out to tarnish them.

Despite its opacity and relative obscurity, analysts agree that the MEK has been able to punch above its weight in Washington. The bipartisan roster of prominent supporters includes: R. James Woolsey and Porter J. Goss, both former CIA directors; Louis J. Freeh, the former FBI director; President George W. Bush’s homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge, his attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey, and his chief of staff, Andrew Card; former National Security Adviser Gen. James L. Jones; former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton; former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani; former Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell; former House Speakers Dennis Hastert and Newt Gingrich; and former Vermont Governor and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Howard Dean, among many others.

“You had people who had made their names as terrorism fighters in the Bush administration offering to speak on behalf of the MEK, which was on the terrorist list at the time, for $10,000,” said Jeremiah Goulka, a writer and former analyst at the Rand Corp. who was the lead author of a lengthy 2009 report on the MEK. (The MEK took issue with the report, hiring a crisis communications firm to publish its own rebuttal. Goulka says he spent a year researching the report in the United States and in Iraq, along with its co-authors, and stands by it.)

Many on the MEK’s list of prominent supporters were indeed paid by the group to deliver speeches, sometimes reportedly charging up to $40,000 per speaking engagement. Rendell told the Washington Post that he was paid more than $150,000 in expenses. The MEK also recruited journalists as speakers. According to ProPublica, the group paid Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame $12,000 and Clarence Page, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, $20,000.

A number of the MEK’s high-profile supporters spoke on its behalf while it was still designated as a terrorist group, often through speaker agencies or third-party Iranian-American organizations. According to news reports, the Treasury Department investigated Rendell’s receipt of money from the MEK but apparently declined to pursue the matter.

Glenn Greenwald, writing for Salon, pointed out that numerous Muslims inside the United States “have been prosecuted for providing ‘material support for terrorism’ for doing far less than these American politicians are publicly doing on behalf of a designated terrorist group.”

An Iran analyst who works for a major think tank in Washington, D.C., but didn’t want to speak for attribution because he feared a backlash from MEK supporters, said that the MEK’s well-funded lobbying campaign, which included full-page ads in prominent newspapers as well as high-powered advocacy, was what got them off the State Department’s list of terrorist groups.

“They are paying a lot of influential people big sums of money to come and speak at their events, and I think that’s had an impact,” he said. “They’re a marginal actor on the Iran issue, but they garner support because they spend a lot of money.”

Hired Guns?

How does a group of Iranian dissidents, most of them stranded in a refugee camp in Iraq, afford millions of dollars to advertise and pay big-name politicians to make speeches? A story in NBC News from February 2012, citing unnamed U.S. officials, asserted that the MEK was financed by Israeli intelligence, which also reportedly used MEK operatives to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. The MEK issued a statement denying the allegations.

Ghazvinian thinks the MEK-Israel connection is credible.

“The Israelis have a long history of using the MEK as a sort of foil,” the historian said. “In 2002, when the allegations about Iran’s nuclear programs hit the headlines, they were presented to the world as having come from the MEK, but they probably came from Israel. The revelations were handed to the MEK because the Mossad didn’t want to be obvious. Better to present the information as coming from this ‘Iranian opposition group.’ It made it look to the world like it was Iranians blowing the whistle, but that was probably not what happened.”

Goulka said he wasn’t sure if the MEK would risk getting involved in covert activities like the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists because, at that time, the group was making a major push to get off the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.

Despite being on that list, Seymour Hersh, writing in the New Yorker, reported in 2012 that the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) trained MEK operatives at a secret site in Nevada beginning in 2005. A JSOC spokesperson denied the report.

Still, suspicions linger that the group hasn’t completely left its militancy days behind it and is being recruited as a proxy to fight Iran, much like it was by Saddam Hussein years ago.

‘American Honor’

The MEK declined numerous interview requests, but in an interview with The Diplomat, Howard Dean said that he wasn’t under any illusions about the MEK’s past — or the present-day humanitarian situation it finds itself in. Dean acknowledged being paid by the MEK to make speeches at their conferences over the years but declined to say how much he received, insisting that it was only his “normal speaking fee.” But he said that he would be a supporter of the MEK regardless of whether they paid him.

“That’s what really annoys me about journalists,” he said, referring to insinuations in the media that he was paid by the MEK in exchange for his support. “What they say is, because I gave a speech for the MEK, therefore my argument doesn’t mean anything…. I was never paid to speak on their behalf. I was paid to speak at their conferences and I say what I damn well please, which is what I always do. There’s a lot of snideness and assumptions. If you think we can all be bought by speaking fees, that’s your privilege.”

Dean alleged that many supposedly nonpartisan Iran analysts in the United States are actually on the Islamic Republic’s payroll, and he insisted that there was an “Arabist rump” at the State Department that was soft on Iran and unhelpful to the MEK. He also maintains that senior American military commanders convinced the MEK to disarm after the invasion of Iraq and promised them protection.

“Thirty-one hundred unarmed people get herded into what has turned into a prison camp — we talked them into that. We thought it was the best way to get them out of Iraq in one piece,” he told us. “Since then, the State Department has done very little to keep them safe. They are in danger every single day. They’re being abused every day.”

The group was issued identity cards, but it’s unclear how U.S. officials could pledge to protect MEK members, knowing that U.S. troops wouldn’t be in the country indefinitely. Dean maintained that retired U.S. Army Col. Wes Martin or retired Brig. Gen. David Phillips could verify what was promised to the MEK. The Diplomat learned that both are now members of the U.S. Foundation for Liberty, a nonprofit group that appears to be working on behalf of MEK members in Iraq. The foundation did not respond to a request to make Phillips or Martin available for an interview.

The State Department appointed a senior advisor, Jonathan Wine, to help resettle those in Camp Hurriya, and the United Nations has been in the process of determining their refugee status. Albania has agreed to take about 200 MEK exiles, but no other country has stepped forward to accept any others. Dean says Washington should organize an airlift to bring the 3,100 remaining members to the United States, where he believes they should be allowed to stay permanently as refugees.

“It’s a matter of American honor,” he argued. “Are we willing to let 3,100 now civilians die? I don’t think that would preserve American honor.”

But if the State Department is reluctant to issue visas for Iraqi and Afghan interpreters who risked their lives to help Americans during those wars, it’s doubtful Washington would bring over 3,000 Iranians that up until fairly recently were officially deemed terrorists. Moreover, Ghazvinian warned that action could derail sensitive talks with Iran on the nuclear issue.

“At a time when we’re possibly about to make headway with Iran in the nuclear negotiations, it strikes me that giving asylum to 3,000 MEK is quite possibly the dumbest thing we could do,” he said. “Even dumber than adding new sanctions.”

MEK’s Chances Back Home

Yet some neoconservatives and avid supporters of Israel on the left hold the group up as a possible democratic alternative to the clerical regime in Iran. But Iran scholars and analysts say that notion is wishful thinking.

“The MEK is a lot like Ahmed Chalabi was for Iraq,” said Goulka, referring to the Iraqi dissident accused of trumping up intelligence on Iraq’s phantom weapons of mass destruction to goad the United States into war.

The Iran analyst who spoke to The Diplomat on background said that hardcore opponents of Iran have reflexively backed the MEK, without knowing much about the group.

“There’s a tendency to support any group that opposes the Islamic Republic without delving very deep into what that group stands for,” he said.

Goulka’s report for Rand alleged that the MEK leadership engaged in cult-like practices after leaving Iran.

“Families were broken up, there was mandatory divorce, there is mandatory celebratory,” he said. “They separate friends. They tell family members back home in Iran that members were killed by the regime, so they don’t try to get in touch. They keep diaries of their sexual thoughts and then discuss them. They’re publicly jeered for having them but if they deny having them, they are criticized because they must be lying.”

In 2005, Human Rights Watch issued a report alleging that the MEK engaged in serious human rights abuses from 1991 until February 2003, prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government, including “prolonged deprivation of liberty and torture.”

Elizabeth Rubin of the New York Times Magazine visited Camp Ashraf just after U.S. forces invaded Iraq. “After my visit, I met and spoke to men and women who had escaped from the group’s clutches. Many had to be deprogrammed. They recounted how people were locked up if they disagreed with the leadership or tried to escape; some were even killed,” she wrote.

The State Department itself once had harsh words for the group. In a 1994 report to Congress, it said that co-founder Massoud Rajavi “fostered a cult of personality” around himself and that “internally, the Mujahedin run their organization autocratically, suppressing dissent and eschewing tolerance of differing viewpoints.”

Massoud Rajavi himself hasn’t been seen publicly in more than a decade, only adding to the enigma of the MEK. Regardless, both the State Department and the European Union seemed to have changed their tunes about the Iranian exile group, removing it from their respective terrorist lists.

But Ghazvinian, who has spent time in Iran recently to conduct research for his book, says the group has scant support in Europe and North America, and virtually none in Iran.

“The MEK is the one thing that most Iranians of any political persuasion can agree on,” he said. “They are viewed as traitors to their country.”

By Dave Seminara, The Washington Diplomat

February 4, 2014 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

My big sister, who I have never seen, is in Camp Liberty

Open letter to Maryam Rajavi from an Iranian woman who has not ever seen her sister

Mrs Maryam Rajavi,

After greeting, I am Mona Hussein Nejad – 31 years old. I was an infant aged only 10 days when I was taken from the bosom of my mother and her milk into tears and wailing and left in the bosom of my grandmother in Tehran. My father and mother with my older sister secretly fled Iran from the oppression of the Iranian regime with a large number of members of the PMOI thirty-one years ago. I am the youngest daughter of martyr Mojahed Farideh Karim Zadeh and the younger sister of Mojahed Zainab Hussein Nejad, one of the residents of Camp Al-Hurriyeh (Liberty), the headquarters of the PMOI in the proximity of Baghdad airport .

I cried during the lean years, eager to see my mother, looking for the intimacy of her embrace, the intimate lap of her tender motherhood, which I did not experience except for only ten days. So I stayed, sighing to see her for the first time in my life until I was 18 years of age, when I discovered that I had lost my mother a few years ago and my waiting will not end for seeing her.

But I ask will my waiting end up the same for seeing my sister Zainab, who I have not seen in my life? I remember that when I was a teenager I wished that my parents had taken me also with them and I tell myself: Blessed sister Zainab who lives with mama and papa. But I was not to know that she lived after the death of our mother under the care of individuals and families and it is not about us and them, that she also grew up under difficulties. But today I wish that they had not taken Zainab with them but they had left her here for us to live and grow old together and share our sorrows and joys and share each other’s concerns, and pain.

Mrs Rajavi,

I have not seen and held my sister Zainab in my life for more than thirty years now, and I have not heard news about her safety also, especially after the terrorist attacks on camp Ashraf and camp Al-Hurriyeh (Liberty) in Iraq, and I do not have information about her condition. I ask, cannot your Excellency, as the senior leadership of the People’s Mojahedin Organization, order her to relate me so that I hear her voice at least to make me sure of her safety and health? Or allow us to meet together and embrace each other for the first time in our lives even so I can smell the odour of our martyred mother because she has been grown and nurtured for many years in the bosom of our mother? I do not know whether the relentless struggle against the system of government established in Iran may have kept something in the heart of the emotions of motherhood and the love that binds sisters or not? If there has remained something of it, you can understand my feelings and my sense. I travelled to Baghdad a year ago and asked officials at the People’s Mojahedin Organization through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations and the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry to meet my sister Zainab, or at least see her, even from a distance, and so I went for this purpose to the door of Camp Al-Hurriyeh (Liberty), before taking off on the plane at Baghdad airport adjacent to the camp to return to Iran. But officials in the organization did not allow us to meet and see each other so I went back to my homeland with tearful eyes.

Mrs Rajavi,

I ask you:

1 – to provide the possibility for my sister Zainab Hussein Nejad one of the residents of Camp Al-Hurriyeh ( Liberty ) to call me even briefly about her safety and health.

2 – Do not allow me to wait all my life to see and hug my sister and do not let it go on, God forbid, as did my waiting to see my mother.

3 – Remove the restrictions and harassment from the residents of the camp toward contact with their families, to bring about an end of the concern of the families about the conditions of their children and their relatives.

With my thanks in advance to your Excellency.

Mona Hussein Nejad

February 4, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Report Discloses MKO’s Ties with French Counterintelligence

The terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCRI or PMOI) has been reporting its activities and operations in Iraq as well as the status quo in the country to the French counterintelligence agency every two weeks for years, a report revealed on Monday.

The MKO leaders were called to the headquarters of the French counterintelligence agency every two weeks to present their intelligence on the situation in Iran, Habilian Association – a human rights NGO representing the families of 17,000 Iranian terror victims – said quoting a report from the Lebanese al-Nahar daily.

“We have had good relations with the French government since 2002 and had regular contacts with the French counterintelligence agency, interior ministry and president’s office,” Spokesman of the MKO in France Afshin Alawi told the AFP according to al-Nahar.

“The counterintelligence agency had some meetings with us at its headquarters so that we present our reports on the events in Iran,” he added.

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 eventually took the MKO off the US terror list.

The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in early September 2012, one week after the then 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.

February 4, 2014 0 comments

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