Page 412 – Nejat Society

Iraqi crackdown on insurgents – al-Batat arrested

[As a result of Iraqi Government efforts throughout Iraq to push back insurgents, Wathiq al-Batat commander of the al-Mukhtar Army militia was among those arrested. Batat has claimed responsibility for three mortar attacks on the MEK residents of Camp Liberty. It is still not know who the assailants of Camp Ashraf were on 1st September.]

The Iraqi police on Thursday arrested a militia leader whose group claimed responsibility for a mortar bomb attack near a border post in Saudi Arabia in November, police sources said.

Wathiq al-Batat, commander of Iraq’s al-Mukhtar Army militia, was arrested at a check point in northeastern Baghdad, the source told KUNA.

Batat is a former leader of Iraq’s better known Kata’ib Hezbollah militia. (end) aha.tg KUNA 021543 Jan 14NNNN

Kuwait News Agency,

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Iraq starts sweeping operation in Anbar

Iraqi security forces and local tribesmen have started a sweeping operation against militants linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist group in the western province of Anbar.

Gunmen from the Albu Assaf and Albu Ali tribes have entered the city of Ramadi to help security forces clear the city of militants.

Reports said al-Qaeda-linked militants controlled parts of the city of Fallujah.

Witnesses noted that armed militants have set up checkpoints in central and south Fallujah, and were patrolling streets of the flashpoint city’s east — chanting slogans in support of al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Some reports also suggested that a major militant leader, Hassan Abu Dagdash, has been killed in clashes with Iraqi forces.

On Wednesday, militants and government forces clashed in Ramadi, with militants burning four police stations.

In Fallujah, militants torched some police stations and freed more than 100 prisoners.

Anbar Province has been gripped by deadly violence since Monday after Iraqi police and army forces dismantled an anti-government protest camp in Ramadi, which had become a breeding ground for the pro-al-Qaeda militants.

Forty-four members of the Iraqi parliament announced their resignation after the removal of the protest camp, calling for “the withdrawal of the army from the cities and the release of MP Ahmed al-Alwani”.

Alwani was arrested on December 28, 2013. His brother, five guards and a member of security forces were killed in the clashes that were sparked during his arrest. The MP backs the anti-government demonstrators.

24 All News,

January 4, 2014 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 35

++ Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad has written an open letter to the Kuwaiti writer, supporter of the Mojahedin Khalq and remnant of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Zafer Al Ajami, criticising him for advocating using the MEK to stop Iran’s ambitions to enlarge its influence in the region. He reminds Ajami of Saddam’s attack on Kuwait as well as the many other crimes committed by the MEK. His letter is entitled “Dear Mr Al Ajami, MEK hostages, our friends and families, are not your playing cards”.

++ Anne Singleton wrote an article titled ‘MEK’s Western backers are complicit in their deaths’. After head of the Mukhtar Army Wathiq al-Battat claimed responsibility for another mortar attack on Camp Liberty, Singleton wrote, “In the past year over 8,000 people have died in violent incidents in Iraq. The problem is not that the MEK are being singled out for attack, the real problem is that nobody is allowed to get inside Camp Liberty to help rescue these people from their enforced captivity. Nobody is allowed to help them or to relocate them or save their lives. In spite of the diverse efforts of various parties, MEK leaders have refused to allow any party to help or rescue the residents first in Camp Ashraf and latterly in Camp Liberty.” The article pointed out that it cannot be possible for only Massoud and Maryam Rajavi to block all access to the MEK residents in Camp Liberty, and that the MEK’s powerful backers have an interest in keeping them trapped there. Singleton concludes that the Rajavis “will expend their [members’] blood in whatever way suits them to fulfil the agenda of their backers, but clearly they will end up killing all of them sooner or later. And those who use the MEK in any way and deny help to the individuals are complicit in this scenario.”

++ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Nickolay Mladenov called on the Government of Iraq to investigate the mortar attack on Camp Liberty and bring the perpetrators to justice. Both Mr. Mladenov and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) urged the international community to urgently intensify efforts to find resettlement opportunities. “This is the ultimate guarantee of the security and safety of Camp Hurriya (Liberty) residents,” he said. Since then Iraqi security forces have instigated further efforts to push back terrorists and insurgents throughout the country and as a result arrested Al Batatt at a checkpoint. In addition, Iraqi security forces and local tribesmen have started a sweeping operation against militants linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist group in the western province of Anbar. Al Batatt previously claimed responsibility for the mortar attacks from outside Camp Liberty. It is still not known which assailants attacked and killed 53 MEK members from inside Camp Ashraf.

++ Many people have written articles in Farsi about the suspicious death of the 53rd victim Massoud Dalili in Camp Ashraf. They have pieced together the known facts to debunk Rajavi’s claim that this was due to his defection and that he led the attackers to the site of Rajavi’s hideout before the attackers killed him and disfigured his corpse to hide his identity. Iran Interlink wrote an open letter to Ban Ki Moon under the title: ‘Who killed ex MEK member Massoud Dalili? Pentagon must release the key to the UN investigation’. The article identifies the continued protection and immunity given to the MEK in Iraq by the Pentagon as the reason Iraqi investigators are unable to get inside Camp Liberty to interview the 42 surviving eye witnesses to the deaths. Dalili’s death and the MEK’s strange reaction calls into question who exactly did commit the murders inside Camp Ashraf. Iran Interlink’s article concludes “Currently the Pentagon does not allow the UN or the authorities of the sovereign state of Iraq to enter Camp Liberty and offer succour to the residents there. The Iraqi investigators as well as government officials widely acknowledge that their hands are tied by the UN and ultimately by the Americans who have deliberately foisted the MEK on them without giving them any chance to remove them or bring the criminal elements to justice. Unless the UN discovers the courage and ability to stand up to the Americans over this issue, it is clear that more and more residents of Camp Liberty will be killed.”

++ There have been numerous warnings issued to western governments and security agencies, including from Sahar Family Foundation, that Rajavi is trying to incite his followers to attack, terrorize and eliminate the ex members and critics of the MEK in Europe and North America and blame this on the Iranian Government. This comes after exposure of the suspicious murder of the 53rd victim in Camp Ashraf, Massoud Dalili, which Rajavi likes to blame on Iraqi government forces. Following this claim, the MEK outlets have been on overdrive to say that ex members are a danger to the leadership and the cause and should therefore be eliminated before they can become part of the enemy force (in this case Iraqi government).

++ Arash Sametipour wrote for the BBC Persian website ‘Another missile attack on Camp Liberty’. He added more photos to the collection exposing Maryam Rajavi. Many commentators have criticised Rajavi during this week for not co-operating with the international agencies to take the remaining MEK and Ex MEK members out of Iraq.

++ Sahar Family Foundation published an article about Massoud Dalili, the ex member killed by the MEK in Camp Ashraf. (The MEK claims that Iraqi forces attacked Ashraf and killed Dalili after bringing him with themselves.) The article gives the details of his escape from the MEK, his registration with UNAMI and the ICRC and his refusal to stay under the protection of Iraqi security alongside 15 other ex members at that time in Hotel Mohajer, Baghdad. Dalili transferred to another hotel with less security and a few days later vanished. Now we know that he was abducted by the MEK and taken to Camp Ashraf. SFF clearly places responsibility for the murder of Massoud Dalili on the MEK and its leader Massoud Rajavi.

++ During an interview in Baghdad an Iraqi MP detailed the MEK’s role in suppressing the Iraqi people on the order of Saddam Hussein’s security services. He went on to explain how easy it would be for the European and American backers of the MEK to take them to their own countries. He explains that they don’t do so because they know the nature of what they have created. Their terrorist group is there to be used as a tool against the people in the Middle East region and they don’t want its potential danger in their own countries.

++ Many, including Hadi Afshar (Saeed Jamali), have again emphasised the fact that bringing the camp residents out of Iraq is very much possible and have even explained a variety of possible scenarios including the details of the movement of MEK leaders and commanders from Iraq to Europe as Maryam Rajavi and around 200 close people came to Paris through Jordan in 2003 during the fall of Saddam. Many have pointed out that Rajavi is getting paid by ex Saddamists to keep these hostages in Iraq as long as possible, a task which has no relevance to the stated goal of the organisation which is supposedly to oppose the Iranian government.

++ Ex members are reminding those groups and agencies who use every and any false excuse to attack Iran, that these kinds of action only help Iran to claim that all accusations of human rights abuses from outside the country are based on political hostility by the West and its agents and not on facts and reality.

++ Several ex members have been writing about an individual called Jafar Eghdami who is in prison in Iran. Some Facebook users and commentators have claimed that because he has been with the MEK he should be classed as a political prisoner or be released under the amnesty. Other ex members however have revealed their first hand knowledge of Jafar Eghdami’s terrorist operations using mortars and other military equipment on several occasions after having been trained in Camp Ashraf in Iraq during the era of Saddam Hussein. We are reminded by them that terrorists caught red handed in killing innocent people cannot and should not be portrayed as ‘political prisoners’ as this will jeopardise the struggles of real political prisoners who are neither criminals nor terrorists.

++ Mazda Parsi of Nejat Bloggers identifies the MEK and AIPAC as lobbying groups which promote endless wars in the Mideast. The article starts with the assertion that, “Very soon after the US administration was starting to admit that the military option could not be on the table any more, the MKO and AIPAC lobbies came up with a new Iran sanctions bill designed to frustrate the historic agreement reached by Iran and the West in Geneva. And, once that bill is passed, it provides automatic U.S military backing for Israel if its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decides to attack Iran.” Parsi continues, “Regarding the MKO as a cult-like group that had been on the FTO list until recently, the support it enjoys in the Congress is mostly linked to the financial donations it makes to its advocates rather than any deep loyalty to the group’s agenda. However, the support for the MKO agenda to violently overthrow the Islamic Republic is now paired with the long time efforts of AIPAC to drive the United States into a war with Iran.”

++ An article by Global Research implicates the MEK in the killings of Iranian scientists in the past four years. “Iran announced late June that its intelligence forces have identified and arrested all terrorist elements behind the assassination of the country’s nuclear scientists. All the elements involved in the assassinations of the country’s nuclear scientists have been identified and arrested,” Iran’s Intelligence Ministry announced in a statement at the time. A number of countries, whose territories and facilities had been misused by the Mossad-backed terrorist teams, have provided Iranian officials with relevant information, the statement added.

January 4, 2014 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi

UN must investigate Rajavi’s role in the deaths of 53 MEK victims

Open Letter to Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General

The impunity given to Rajavi by Western governments from the start of his stay in Iraq in 1986 until now

Door leading to Massoud Rajavi’s hideout in Camp Ashraf

has given him such latitude that he is able to kill his own people and blame the Iraqi authorities for it without any fear of investigation or recrimination.

The events which took place at Camp Ashraf on September 1st became controversial immediately following the attack by unknown assailants when the Mojahedin Khalq inundated Western media with their own films and pictures of the event. Why were the MEK filming these events if they had been taken by surprise?

Now a week after the Iraqi investigating team published the name of a 53rd victim, the MEK have hastily cobbled together a documentary made up of short, unconnected clips of film with the clear intention of creating a specific scenario. In this documentary the body of the 53rd victim, Massoud Dalili, is shown without a shirt and with Iranian money scattered around his body, which, it is claimed, was taken from his pocket. His face has been burned beyond recognition. The MEK explanation of this scenario is that because Massoud Dalili knew about the nuclear bunkers underneath Massoud Rajavi’s compound in Camp Ashraf he has led agents of the Iraqi government there to attack that specific place.

The nuclear bunker was built over three years; starting a year before the First Gulf War, continued during the war and finished a year after. It is a prototype of a Swedish anti-nuclear bunker. All the equipment, from additives to strengthen the concrete, the air conditioning, generators, doors and gaskets, shock absorber springs, anti-shatter toilets, mirrors etc were all imported through Orly and Frankfurt airports and then through Jordan, with the knowledge and consent of the Jordanian government (during the sanctions regime imposed on Iraq), and with the endorsement of the Pentagon. This was done by a joint team of purchasers headed by Ala’adin Touran who was the MEK’s representative in Jordan in those days and who worked from the MEK office in Amman. During the First Gulf War the Pentagon instructed the MEK through Mohammad Mohaddessin to place identifying flags and signs on top of this half completed building so they would not bomb it.

This bunker was visited by agents of the Pentagon and other US agencies when the US army first gained access to Camp Ashraf in 2003. It was then handed back to the leadership of the MEK with the promise that other MEK members would not be told about it. During the transfer of responsibility of Camp Ashraf to the Government of Iraq in 2009 information about this compound and the nuclear bunkers was given to the Iraqis. Of the two dozen or so MEK members who knew about the bunker because, like myself, they were involved in its construction, several have left the MEK and made this information public. Descriptions and satellite images of the exact location and configuration of the nuclear bunker can be found in two books: Saddam’s Private Army published in 2003 and The Life of Camp Ashraf published in 2011.

It is ludicrous to assert that an attacking force would need to rely on Dalili as a guide two years after he left the organisation when this information was already in the public domain, and ludicrous they would take him along as he was over 50 years old. It is ludicrous that an attacking force would take acid with them to deliberately burn the face of one of their party. It is ludicrous that the Iranian money scattered over his body is not enough to even pay for a taxi ride In Iran, never mind in Iraq. Why would anyone take this kind of foreign currency on a mission like this?

For me, and for anyone who has had any dealings with the MEK, it is absolutely clear that this person, who was registered with the UN in Baghdad as an escapee and who suddenly went missing one day has been forcefully or deceitfully taken back by the MEK to Camp Ashraf, (numerous ex members have complained about near kidnappings in Iraq and in Europe, including Massoud Banisadr in London and Batoul Soltani in Baquba, Iraq), and has been kept there clandestinely and when they realised they would have to get rid of him they tried to destroy the evidence of his presence there. As soon as the Iraqis identified him as someone the MEK had not admitted to being at the camp, they tried to create a Hollywood style film to whitewash their crime. Ironically the documentary’s narrator is Hassan Nezamalmolki who is a well known torturer of the time of Saddam and who is wanted by the Iraqi Judiciary to face criminal charges.

One mistake Dalili made was that after escaping the MEK he refused to remain in Hotel Mohajer with the other ex members under the protection of the Iraqi security forces. He ignored efforts to persuade him to make use of the protection offered by this circumstance, and insisted on being moved to a different hotel where he was in fact more vulnerable.

There is extremely strong evidence, not least the MEK’s own panicky and slipshod reaction, to indicate that Dalili has been killed by the MEK themselves. And the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the other 52 victims are so bizarre and inexplicable that it is highly likely that the MEK had a hand in those deaths also. It is imperative that this incident be thoroughly investigated as a matter of urgency.

UN officials tasked the Government of Iraq to carry out an investigation on its behalf and then denied them any opportunity to do this. The Iraqis know, and UNAMI knows that the Pentagon will not allow this to be investigated. There are 42 surviving members who were moved from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty who are eye witnesses to what happened that day. They would all have known Massoud Dalili. Nobody has seen or heard from them since the time they were handed back to the MEK commanders in Camp Liberty. The MEK’s past behaviour and the impunity Massoud Rajavi clearly enjoys to imprison and kill his own followers strongly suggests that many of them and others in the camp are being mistreated behind closed doors. How many more deaths will there be?

We – ex members and families of residents in Camp Liberty – earnestly request that you use your office as Secretary General of the United Nations to stand up to the Pentagon and force this investigation to move forward to conclusion by demanding access to these 42 survivors and others who can help get to the bottom of what actually happened in Camp Ashraf on 1st September 2013.

camp ashraf

Satellite image of Rajavi’s compound and explanations from the book “The Life of Camp Ashraf” published 2011

Iranian.com

January 4, 2014 0 comments

Iraqi Authorities' stance on the MEK

Mojahedin Khalq terrorists, members of international mafia

Many European countries refuse to give refuge to the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorists as most of them are members of the international mafia and wanted by Interpol, says an Iraqi MP.

The Iraqi government has put the MKO on the list of most wanted terror groups and called on the international community to help expel them from Iraq, Adnan al-Mayahi, a member of the Parliamentary Security and Defense Committee, told Fars news agency on Thursday.

However, the legislator added, the United Nations and European Union have turned a blind eye to the request.

The MKO terrorists are responsible for the killing of innocent Iraqi people during the rule of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the legislator underlined.

The group pushed ahead with its crimes after Saddam Hussein’s ouster in 2003 with the support of the US and Western countries, such as France, said the MP, noting that the MKO terrorists have also enjoyed the backing of certain regional states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The MKO is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and has committed numerous terrorist acts against Iranians and Iraqis.

The group fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq, where it had Saddam Hussein’s support and set up Camp Ashraf near the Iranian border.

In December 2011, the United Nations and Baghdad agreed to relocate some 3,000 MKO members from Camp New Iraq, formerly known as Camp Ashraf, to the former US-held Camp Liberty.

The last group of the MKO terrorists was evicted by the Iraqi government on September 11, 2013, to join the other members of the terrorist group at Camp Liberty and await potential relocation to other countries.

January 4, 2014 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

MKO defector reveals mass graves near Camp Ashraf

A defected member of the terrorist group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) has located several mass graves near the group’s former headquarters of Camp Ashraf, in Iraq’s Diyala Province.

The former member of the terrorist groups said on Monday that one of the graves is located near the Khan Qarafeh village on the Versateh hill, which is about five kilometers from Camp Ashraf.

He said that the MKO leaders are claiming that the people buried in these mass graves are victims of ethnic cleansing in Iraq.

The former MKO member, however, said the victims in the graves come from different racial backgrounds including Iranian, Kurdish and Arabs, adding that some of the victims were eliminated for opposing the MKO leader’s views.

He also said that some of the bodies in the graves belong to Iranian border guards who were captured during terrorist operations by the group near the two countries’ border.

The MKO is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and has committed numerous terrorist acts against Iranians and Iraqis.

The group fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq, where it received the support of Iraq’s former dictator Saddam Hussein and set up camp near the Iranian border.

In December 2011, the United Nations and Baghdad agreed to relocate some 3,000 MKO members from Camp New Iraq, formerly known as Camp Ashraf, to Camp Liberty. The last group of MKO terrorists was evicted by the Iraqi government on September 11 to join the other members of the terrorist group at Camp Liberty near Baghdad International Airport and await relocation to other countries.

January 4, 2014 0 comments

Terrorist groups and the MEK

Iraqi MP Reveals Collaboration between Terrorist ISIL, MKO

A senior Iraqi lawmaker disclosed that the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCRI or PMOI) have collaborated in a plot to attack the guards of Liberty Camp near Baghdad and project the blame on the Iraqi government.

“There has been an agreement between the MKO and other terrorist groups, specially the ISIL, which are present near the capital, specially in Abu Ghraib, to attack the Liberty Camp and then accuse the Iraqi government of bearing the responsibility,” Mohammad al-Agili said on Sunday after the Iraqi government strongly rejected involvement in the attack.

He underlined that Iraq is opposed to the presence of the MKO terrorists on its soil, and said, “Protecting them is a heavy burden on the shoulders of the Iraqi security forces.”

A rocket attack earlier this week killed three members of the MKO and injured a number of others at Camp Liberty in Baghdad.

Baghdad denies involvement in the attack.

The last group of MKO terrorists at Camp Ashraf, now called Camp New Iraq, in Diyala province was evicted by the Iraqi government on September 11 to join other members of the terrorist group in the former US-held Camp Liberty, now called Camp Hurriya, near Baghdad International Airport where they are awaiting relocation to other countries.

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.

January 4, 2014 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Who killed ex MEK member Massoud Dalili?

Pentagon must release the key to the UN investigation
One of the more curious aspects of the September 1 attack on Camp Ashraf was that the MEK filmed so much of what happened that day, not only the aftermath but also some film of balaclava clad assailants creeping into the camp to attack. Unless the MEK are routinely filming the perimeter of the camp it is almost as though they were forewarned and had the cameras ready. These pictures are in the public domain because within hours of the attack the MEK had contacted every western media outlet to present their version of what happened and attribute blame to the Iraqi government and call themselves victims. This is so typical of MEK behaviour that it warrants no further comment.
At that time, the MEK announced that 52 of its members had been killed. They published photographs of the victims along with their biographies and claimed that Iran had given the order to attack the camp and that Iraq had carried it out. Both governments denied any involvement and no evidence has been offered to contradict this. Weeks later Iraq announced that the death toll was 53, not 52 as previously claimed by the MEK. The revised figure was due to the fact that the 53rd victim had had his face so badly burned that it took a while to identify him as one of the MEK and not one of the attackers and to discover his true identity. Following this revelation the MEK published a documentary about the 53 in which a picture of Massoud Dalili was shown along with a sample of his handwriting in which he declares that he will never surrender to the enemy, the Iranian regime. In this documentary the MEK refer to them as martyrs.
Since every person who remained in Camp Ashraf after the main body of residents were transferred to Camp Liberty was registered with the office of the United Nations in Iraq, this raises the question why the MEK had not announced that 53 members had been killed immediately after the attack, especially since they had so carefully documented the whole scenario?
Then from yesterday, after the Iraqi authorities named the 53rd victim as Massoud Dalili, the MEK suddenly changed their tune and embarked on the line that Dalili was an Iranian agent and as a person who knew what is where inside Camp Ashraf, the IRI and Iraqis had used him to plan and launch the September 1st attack, and when they finished the job they have killed him there and then burned his face so he would not be recognised. (As a adjunct to this new position toward Dalili it is significant that the MEK propaganda machine is on overdrive to say that Massoud Rajavi has been too lenient with the ex members and that the MEK commanders are complaining he hasn’t allowed them to kill these traitors, and now this is the price they have had to pay. If we had killed ex members, they claim, we would not have all these casualties. In answer Rajavi has used the new version of how Dalili died to introduce a new explanation; that the regime is killing its own agents. In this way Rajavi is giving permission for his followers to kill ex members and blame Iran.)
At this point it is necessary to explain a little about Massoud Dalili’s background. Dalili escaped from the MEK more than a year ago. He took refuge with the Iraqi authorities who took him to Hotel Mohajer in Baghdad. He stayed there for some time and was registered by UN officials and interviewed by several agencies including various UNAMI officials and the ICRC. After some time Dalili said he didn’t want to stay in the same hotel as the other ex members and requested a change of place. The Iraqi authorities obliged and he was given a room in another hotel, Hotel Mansour. Some time later he went out and didn’t return. He was announced missing and the Iraqi authorities assumed he had returned to the MEK. However, during the period of time that he was missing Massoud Rajavi announced in an audio message to his followers that Dalili had run away from the MEK and was denounced as a traitor.
How Dalili ended up back in Camp Ashraf is open to question. Did he return willingly or was he abducted and taken by force? Certainly in every other case when a defector has willingly returned to the MEK, the group has made a big propaganda show of their victory. In the case of Dalili nothing was said of his return or his whereabouts after he disappeared from Hotel Mansour. This suggests that he had been abducted in Baghdad and imprisoned in Camp Ashraf clandestinely and that when the majority of MEK were transferred to Camp Liberty (aka camp Hurriya) Dalili was kept there with around one hundred others, but without the knowledge of the UN officials.
It is critical at this point to explain the significance of Massoud Dalili for the MEK. He had been one of the highest ranking members and was one of the personal security personnel for Massoud Rajavi. He had undergone training with Saddam’s Republican Guards and the MEK’s own specialist training. He not only had a lot of information about Rajavi but was one of only a small handful of people in the MEK who knew of the existence of Rajavi’s underground nuclear bunker which was his hideout. Certainly he was an individual who could have done a lot of damage to the MEK had he been allowed to leave Iraq.
This bunker and the probability that Rajavi was still hiding there explains why the MEK refused to fully evacuate Camp Ashraf when the majority were transferred to Camp Liberty. The MEK made the excuse that they were protecting and selling off their assets, and were assisted in this sham by announcing that a British company was willing to buy the stuff. But this never came about and local Iraqi officials in the Diyala province went through court procedures to have the land returned to the rightful owners. This in itself distracted from the MEK’s own position and provided a welcome battle to wills to justify their continued presence at the camp. The real reason was that Rajavi was still there right up to September 1st when he was forced to escape with seven of his loyal bodyguards through a tunnel leading to the outskirts of the camp.
What happened on that day is still not known. Who killed Dalili and then tried to destroy his identity is not known. Why did the MEK suddenly after the Iraqi authorities named him last week reverse their announcement that he was one of their martyrs and now claim that he entered the camp with the attackers and led them to the various places in the camp to capture and kill the MEK residents. In the fourth part of the MEK’s documentary series on the attacks Dalili’s mangled and disfigured body is shown for the first time with Iranian money strewn over it. The MEK say he was an Iranian agent and that when the attack was completed his handlers killed him there and then. But why then, since they had taken the film on September 1st had the MEK not said anything before now, and had in fact said he was one of their martyrs? If Dalili had been an agent surely he would have been much more valuable for the MEK’s enemies if he were alive, especially since he had so much sensitive information. Also why would they kill and maim him in the camp and not take him elsewhere to kill him clandestinely?
The investigation into this event is far from over. Indeed this new revelation only points to how important it is for the investigators to have access to the forty two survivors of the attack who are currently being held incommunicado by the MEK in Camp Liberty. Even residents of the camp have not had sight or word of them since their arrival on September 11.
It is impossible to discount their testimony. As a matter of urgency they must be brought forward and removed from the camp to a place of safety where each one can be cross examined to establish what they witnessed that day.
Unfortunately the Iraqi authorities who have been tasked by the UN to investigate this incident are obliged to rely on the UN to facilitate access to these forty two people. The UN in turn is beholden to the Pentagon in its treatment of the MEK. The Pentagon of course has a ten year history of supporting and protecting the MEK in Iraq, starting with then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s personal granting of Fourth Geneva Convention Protection which made a complete nonsense of the previously declared position that the US had invaded Iraq partly because Saddam Hussein harboured terrorist groups such as the MEK. Since then the Pentagon has blocked any attempt to dismantle the group or rescue its members. American soldiers refused to help those families who had tried to contact their loved ones inside Camp Ashraf and in cooperation with orders from MEK commanders turned them away. Those who escaped the MEK and were housed in the TIPF adjacent to Camp Ashraf informed the American soldiers of widespread abuses taking place behind closed doors. They said that the MEK commanders were armed with small arms and kept control through fear and threats. One ex member says that he saw Afsaneh Vatankhah, the bodyguard of Mojgan Parsai, openly wearing a holster with a colt and magazine clip. He believes that it is not unlikely that what happened in Camp Ashraf was the result of an internal fight. He reminds us that during the last two decades we have regularly heard about people getting shot in the camp and it being announced as a suicide or that people died under the American bombardment or that unintentional shootings had occurred, etc. None of this was investigated or stopped by the UN army in the six years they were in charge of the camp.
Currently the Pentagon does not allow the UN or the authorities of the sovereign state of Iraq to enter Camp Liberty and offer succour to the residents there. The Iraqi investigators as well as government officials widely acknowledge that their hands are tied by the UN and ultimately by the Americans who have deliberately foisted the MEK on them without giving them any chance to remove them or bring the criminal elements to justice.
Unless the UN discovers the courage and ability to stand up to the Americans over this issue, it is clear that more and more residents of Camp Liberty will be killed.

January 1, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MKO & AIPAC lobbies to promote endless wars in the Mideast

Very soon after the US administration was starting to admit that the military option could not be on the table any more, the MKO and AIPAC lobbies came up with a new Iran sanctions bill designed to frustrate MKO & AIPAC lobbies to promote endless wars in the Mideast the historic agreement reached by Iran and the West in Geneva. And, once that bill is passed, it provides automatic U.S military backing for Israel if its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decides to attack Iran.

Three top senators, including two Democrats, have begun circulating a draft of a new Iran sanctions bill that critics say could violate the terms of an agreement struck between Iran and the United States in Geneva last month, reported Ali Gharib of Foreign Policy. The resolution was introduced by Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Mark Kirk(R-IL) of which the goal is “the complete and verifiable termination of Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program”.[1]

Two of AIPAC’s favorite senators from both parties, Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk(R-IL), are at this moment actively working with AIPAC to push for new sanctions, notwithstanding the warnings by the Obama administration that additional sanctions will violate the interim accord and put the entire diplomatic process at risk. [2]Senator Robert Menendez is also an ardent advocate of the MKO in the US Congress.

Menhendez backs the MKO operatives to the extent that he told Wendy Sherman the US State Department’s third person that the MEK should be invited to relocate to the United States. [3]

Earlier this year the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Menendez, said there is still time for diplomacy, but the United States needs to look closely at enhancing “military pressure” on Iran. [4]Once the diplomatic solution started working in Geneva, Bob Menendez said a briefing by Secretary of State John Kerry and others Wednesday failed to convince him that a proposed deal with Iran to loosen sanctions in exchange for a temporary freeze of the country’s nuclear program was worth pursuing on November 15. [Cheered by the MKO that published it on its propaganda website by the title "Menendez joins GOP in slamming Iran briefing"]

Jim White of the Emptywheel website confirms AIPAC’s part to pass the legislation against Iran but he also notifies the part of the MKO in the "warmongering aspects" of the bill. He writes," the work (and funding money) of MEK, which advocates for (in my opinion, violent) regime change in Iran, seems to be just as likely, if not more likely, to be behind this hideous piece of legislation." [5]

Although White gives too much credit to the cult of Rajavi, he accurately warns about the MKO’s crisis mongering propaganda to obstruct the Geneva deal in which Iran insisted on its right to low level enrichment to produce fuel for nuclear power plants. " Since that is seen as a deal-breaker for Iran, it is precisely what the MEK now sets as the determinant of whether sanctions that will certainly lead to war are enacted", he states. "What they want is a war to change the regime in Iran, not a diplomatic solution that prevents nuclear weapons being developed by Iran."[6]

Regarding the MKO as a cult-like group that had been on the FTO list until recently, the support it enjoys in the Congress is mostly linked to the financial donations it makes to its advocates rather than any deep loyalty to the group’s agenda. However, the support for the MKO agenda to violently overthrow the Islamic Republic is now paired with the long time efforts of AIPAC to drive the United States into a war with Iran.

The true fact about the MKO and AIPAC is that both are well connected with the Israeli intelligence Mossad. "Recently declassified FBI files reveal how Israeli government officials first orchestrated public relations and policies through the U.S. lobby," reported Granth Smith of the Antiwar. "Counter-espionage investigations of proto-AIPAC’s first coordinating meetings with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the head of Mossad provide a timely and useful framework for understanding how AIPAC continues to localize and market Israeli government policies in America."[7]

Concerning the MKO the relation with Mossad is mostly operational rather than political. US officials told NBC News in 2012 that Mossad has recruited and trained MKO operative for sabotage operations in Iran. [8]

Despite the hard work by war mongers’ parties and lobbies to launch another war in the Middle East, the White House has assured to veto any bills calling for new sanctions since they clearly violate the P5+1 agreement. Let’s hope that diplomacy will win over war this time.

Mazda Parsi

[1]Gharib, Ali, Exclusive: Top Senate Democrats Break with White House and Circulate New Iran Sanctions Bill, Foreign Policy, December 18, 2013

[2]Payvand Iran News, Top Jewish Non-Profit Heads Leading Iran Sanctions Call, December 21, 2013

[3] NIAC Staff, State Department Advises Senate to Hold off Iran Sanctions Until After Negotiations, October 4, 2013

[4] NIAC Staff, Congress Debates War, Sanctions, Diplomacy and MEK with Top Obama Officials, May 16, 2013

[5] White, Jim, MEK Purchases 27 US Senate Votes for War with Iran, Emptywheel, December 20, 2013

[6] ibid

[7] Smith, Grant, The Mossad Has Long Given Marching Orders to AIPAC, Antiwar.com, February 28, 2012

[8] Engel, Richard & Windrem, Robert, Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News, NBC News, Feb 9, 2012

December 30, 2013 0 comments

The MEK Expulsion from Iraq

The ball in the court of US, EU countries

Following the Thursday’s rocket attack on the MKO’s camp, UNHCR said 1,400 Mujahedin-e Khalq (MKO, a.k.a. MEK and NCRI) members are ready for relocation to third countries, throwing the ball in the court of the group’s supporters to take action and accept these individuals in their countries.

“UNHCR urgently reiterates the need to find solutions for the camp’s residents, and is appealing to countries to act urgently on 1,400 cases from Camp Hurriya that have already been submitted for relocation,” said the UN’s refugee agency in a press release.

The press release added that since 2011, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) have been “engaged in an effort to find relocation opportunities outside Iraq” for some 3,200 members of MKO now residing temporarily inside Camp Liberty, a former US military base near Baghdad International Airport.

“So far, the international community has managed to secure the relocation to third countries of 311 residents, clearly demonstrating that more relocation places are urgently needed,” UNHCR added.

Raising concerns at the Thursday’s attack on Camp Liberty, Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Nickolay Mladenov also said the Iraqi Government, in cooperation with the Camp Liberty leadership, “needs to take immediate action to ensure that appropriate measures are put in place to maximise the security of the residents.”

He also urged the international community to urgently intensify efforts to find resettlement opportunities, describing it as “the ultimate guarantee of the security and safety” of MKO members.

December 30, 2013 0 comments

Camp Liberty

MEK’s Western backers are complicit in their deaths

This is the second time head of the Mukhtar Army Wathiq al-Battat has claimed responsibility for attacks on the MEK. In February, in an interview with Al-Mada Press, al-Battat said he did not rule out the possibility of further attacks on Camp Liberty, and emphasized that they are waiting in MEK’s Western backers are complicit in their deaths ambush for the terrorist MEK until they leave Iraq. In a separate interview with the Associated Press, al-Battat said, “It is time for the people of the MEK to leave Iraq. We have demanded that the government kick the group out of the country, but the Iraqi government did not respond positively to our demand”.

In the past year over 8,000 people have died in violent incidents in Iraq. The problem is not that the MEK are being singled out for attack, the real problem is that nobody is allowed to get inside Camp Liberty to help rescue these people from their enforced captivity. Nobody is allowed to help them or to relocate them or save their lives. In spite of the diverse efforts of various parties, MEK leaders have refused to allow any party to help or rescue the residents first in Camp Ashraf and latterly in Camp Liberty.

Maryam Rajavi may be able to lie to and deceive the captive members and those supporters who have not the intellectual or moral capacity to question or challenge her script, but these are the facts:

· In 2003, the IRI offered an amnesty to rank and file members who renounced their membership of the terrorist group and other political activity can return home under the supervision of the Red Cross in Iran. To date this has been honoured.

· Iraq’s constitution, its polity and its judicial system will never allow the MEK terrorist organisation to remain in the country. To date the government and the security services have shown commendable restraint and compliance with international law, above the demands of national law, as embodied by the agency of UNAMI.

· Since 2009, America and European countries have offered to take several of the captives; initially those who have had previous connection with their countries or have family members there.

· The UN has instigated refugee determination interviews to assess the eligibility of all the captives. Some have been enabled to be transferred to Albania after such interviews.

· Individual families have travelled to Iraq on several occasions to try to reach their relatives. For three years families of residents held vigil outside Camp Ashraf demanding contact with their loved ones which the MEK leaders denied.

To date the Rajavis have refused to cooperate with all of these attempts to help and rescue the residents and take them to safety.

As a result, since 2003 there have been numerous deaths among the residents of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty: through rocket or missile attack (including this latest one), during interventions by the Iraqi military, untreated illness and disease, uninvestigated suicides or murders. Most of these could have been prevented. It is no longer acceptable that the Rajavis blame every other party to this crisis and refuse to acknowledge their part. Nobody will buy that any more. If there was even one iota of accountability in the totalitarian system of the MEK the leadership would have been expelled by now.

But is it ludicrous to imagine that one or even two people – whether Maryam and/or Massoud Rajavi – are capable of acting alone to prevent all this help from reaching the people in the camp. There are others who have a clear interest in keeping them locked away behind closed doors.

For years now the presence of the MEK in Iraq has had nothing to do with Iran. The MEK’s own policy of ‘regime change’ or ‘overthrow of the Iranian regime’ was abandoned several years ago, possibly as long ago as 2003. Since then the MEK has been taken up and used by western backers to interfere in the internal affairs of Iraq. This was made abundantly clear in the work of the European Parliament’s Iraq Delegation which shamelessly supported and promoted the MEK’s presence in Iraq in defiance of the government’s decision to expel the group and in spite of the constitutional requirement to remove them.

All the lobbying on behalf of the MEK is to do with preserving it as a terrorist organisation for its backers to use in pursuit of their anti-Iraq agenda. There is no intention on the part of those who use the group to have it dismantled, or to have the residents rescued. The group must either remain in Iraq or, if pushed, they must move altogether without anyone talking with them. Although it is glib to claim that MOSSAD and the CIA are the MEK’s main backers, we only have to look at a recent report from Sofia which reveals that during a visit to Romania, the US Secretary of State John Kerry and the Romanian Foreign Minister discussed the possibility of settling all 3000+ MEK members together near the city of Craiova. In other words, if this terrorist group must be moved, it must be moved as a whole. That such a discussion and plan could take place at this level is ample evidence that even at the highest levels of power there is no intention of dismantling the group and helping the individual members out of captivity. Instead there is a sense of ownership which clearly states ‘this is our terrorist group, we will do as we like with it and use it as we like’.

Such owners pay for the name of the MEK – and the 3000 members to pretend it is a viable group. They are playing with the lives of these people for their own agenda and as long as the MEK are useful in this way they won’t allow help to be given or anyone to go in to rescue them. While Maryam Rajavi lives with every convenience and comfort in Paris, the rest must remain in Iraq, targets for missile attacks. For the MEK leaders every one of them who dies is a martyr and every one of them who survives is a witness. It is clear what the outcome should be for the Rajavis. They will expend their blood in whatever way suits them to fulfil the agenda of their backers, but clearly they will end up killing all of them sooner or later. And those who use the MEK in any way and deny help to the individuals are complicit in this scenario.

Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), Middle East Strategy Consultants

December 29, 2013 0 comments

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