Seventy-one members of Mujahedin Khalq Organization have been relocated to Albania.
The resettlement is due to protracted efforts by the UN to move the around 3,000 members of the former rebel People’s Mujahedeen at Camp Liberty, on Baghdad’s outskirts, outside of Iraq.
The Video File is one of several reports published by Albanian Media on the resettlement of these 71 MEK members in Tirana Refugee Camp .
Seventy-one members of Mujahedin Khalq Organization have been relocated to Albania.
The resettlement is due to protracted efforts by the UN to move the around 3,000 members of the former rebel People’s Mujahedeen at Camp Liberty, on Baghdad’s outskirts, outside of Iraq.
The Video File is one of several reports published by Albanian Media on the resettlement of these 71 MEK members in Tirana Refugee Camp .
Iraqi official discloses documents showing cooperation between MKO, Al-Qaeda
An Iraqi official disclosed the close relationship and cooperation between the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as the MEK, NCRI and PMOI) and al-Qaeda terrorist group.
“The MKO committed numerous crimes against the Iraqi people during Saddam’s era and after the US invasion of the country and the government has many documents showing links between the MKO and several leaders of al-Qaeda terrorist network,” former Iraqi National Security Minister Sherwan Waeli told Habilian Association.
He called on the UN to expedite expulsion of MKO members from Iraq, reiterating that the international body is acting slowly in this regard.
Earlier in 2012, governor of Iraqi district Khalis announced the discovery of a memorial stone in Camp Ashraf inscribed with the names of some high ranking Ba’ath party officials and Al-Qaeda terrorists.
The MKO group, 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 Judiciary Chief Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by 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 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 US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with American entities, the State Department said in a statement at the time.
In September 2012, the last groups of the MKO terrorists left Camp Ashraf, their main training center in Iraq’s Diyala province. They have been transferred to Camp Liberty which lies Northeast of the Baghdad International Airport.
MKO terrorist cult abuses the power of propaganda to raise public prestige
Nobody can deny the power of propaganda as a relevant and effective tool to convince people to do what the exercisers like them to. But it becomes a much threatening and dangerous approach if abused by a terrorist cult for a sham demonstration of public support or attempts at mobilizing it, particularly after a total fall in the aftermath of a full scale violent and terrorist campaign. That is the approach adopted by MKO, Mujahidin Khalq Organization, after it failed to overthrow the Iranian regime through decades-lasted armed warfare that led to countless deaths from among Iranian people. Now active in Western counties under a pro-democratic disguise, MKO is on a regular move of expensive propaganda campaign to muster support to be cleaned of its flagrant past and to buy a forged prestige. An example is the group’s highly propagated gathering on 22 June in Villepinte, Paris, by hiring big crowds and speakers as supporters and advocates.
These are good historical evidences to prove the simplicity of considering MKO as devotee of freedom and democracy. Discrepancy between chanted mottos and actual practice of democracy is a product of disapproving the democracy itself. To bring off democracy, mottos should tally with practices. MKO’s fierce campaign in the past well depicts the wrong direction that the group had taken for the cause of democracy. How can it claim to be following the principles of democracy when the very same president-elect of the group, Maryam Rajavi, is elected through no social and inter-organizational voting but appointed by her despot husband, Massoud Rajav? The autocratic structure of MKO’s leadership has discredited it to a kind of Stalinist dictatorship. Thus, how can MKO guarantee that it wouldn’t adapt claims of democracy for practice of autocracy?
That is precisely correct to say those who struggle for democracy cannot be terrorists because democracy absolutely discards any form of violence. But violence has been an innately distinguished feature of MKO from its very formation. The key solution to accomplish organizational and ideological achievements was believed to be through practice of violence, the lack of which led any struggle for democracy and freedom to total failure.
The advocates of MKO, particularly those hired for the June gathering, are well aware that the group is at the pass of a critical juncture and in need of applicable instruments and whoever and whatever help and offer to survive. We do not know exactly how much each hired speaker and advocate were paid, but they, for sure, and we know that the great challenge the world faces today is terrorism and MKO has so far failed to prove any commitment to democracy. In representing definitions of democracy, MKO oversteps those of the West. By drilling its exaggeratedly theorized democracy into the West, the group reminds the West that it has a rather more enormous capacity to overshoot the Western adopted democracy. At the same time, it has not the least respect for democracy to practice it, not even in its primitive form, neither for the insiders nor for the outsiders.
Nowhere can you find so ruthless methods of brainwashing put into practice under the cover of democracy as within MKO. The fact is that MKO is innately a terrorist group, regardless of its de-proscription, and its attempts to hold at democracy never wash its hands off its past crimes. Through the power of propaganda, MKO strives to convince the world that it has increased supports as Iran’s legitimate opposition and the sole alternative to the current ruling power in Iran. Facts are stubborn things and MKO, a typical of absolute hypocrisy and duplicity, is on a regular path of endless plots to fool the world.
Neither have we believed MKO struggles for a secular, democratic, and non-nuclear republic in Iran, as it circulates, nor have the claimed advocates any trust for such a capacity in MKO. Even if thousands of supporters, as MKO brags, gather to chant over and over that the group has shifted to democracy and has denounced terrorism, we can believe it only if a leopard can change its spots, as people say. Even worse, the underlying, serious problem is that a terrorist group has transformed into a dangerous cult of personality. And what a horrible nightmare may haunt societies where a terrorist cult abuses the power of propaganda.
A Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist and former lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said, “I am ashamed that my tax dollars and my neighbors’ and family’s tax dollars are supporting these horrible acts,” referring to the US and Israeli backing and funding violent groups in Iran during the past 30 years which cost the lives of over 17000 Iranians.
“Much of the world does not know that Iran has been targeted by terrorists far more than most other countries,” Dr. Kevin Barrett said during an interview with Habilian Association.
He noted that the National Congress of 17000 Iranian Terror Victims which is going to be held on August 31st, 2013, in the capital Tehran “will contribute to educational efforts to help demythologize the problem of terrorism.”
Asked about the bombing of the Prime Minister’s Office in August 30, 1981, he said, “This event is virtually unknown in the West, and has been completely ignored in the Western media’s discussion of terrorism.”
“One of the reasons is the West’s hostility toward Iran,” added Barrett. “Another is that this bombing does not fit the false Zionist narrative of ‘Islamic terrorism’ and ‘non-Muslim victims’, since the perpetrators were fanatical Marxist secularists, while the victims are associated with the Islamic Revolution.”
The American political analyst added that, even in the West, the MEK is known as one of the world’s most vicious and extremist terrorist groups. “The 2012 US de-listing and subsequent support of the MEK is an extreme example of the characteristic hypocrisy that guides US policy on terrorism.”
“There is an odd disconnect between the European people, who (according to polls) view Israel and the US as the two biggest threats to world peace, and the anti-Iranian policies of European governments,” he added, concerning the European countries’ support for MEK.
“This disjunction between public opinion and official policy calls into question European countries’ claims to being democracies. Another sign that Europe is not democratic: The European parliament has verified that the US and NATO directed the wave of Operation Gladio terrorism that killed hundreds or thousands of Europeans in the 1970s and early 1980s, yet Europeans have never been able to prosecute the terrorists – who still rule them.”
MEK Stirs Pot in Iran Despite Improved Negotiation Outlook After Rohani’s Election
In a remarkably welcome surprise, moderate cleric Hassan Rohani won last month’s presidential election in Iran 
and did so with a large enough margin to avoid a runoff. In the immediate aftermath of the election, there was hope that the heated rhetoric on both sides of the dispute over Iran’s nuclear technology would calm a bit:
Though thousands of jubilant Iranians poured onto the streets in celebration of the
victory, the outcome will not soon transform Iran’s tense relations with the West, resolve the row over its nuclear program or lessen its support of Syria’s president in the civil war there – matters of national security that remain the domain of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
But the president runs the economy and wields broad influence in decision-making in other spheres. Rohani’s resounding mandate could provide latitude for a diplomatic thaw with the West and more social freedoms at home after eight years of belligerence and repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was legally barred from seeking a third consecutive term.
“This victory is a victory of wisdom, a victory of moderation, a victory of growth and awareness and a victory of commitment over extremism and ill-temper,” Rohani told state television, promising to work for all Iranians, including the hardline so-called “Principlists” whom he defeated at the poll.
Alas, those who favor violence over negotiation don’t intend to sit idly while moderation has a chance of breaking out. Today, we have a new “revelation” brought to us in a Reuters article:
An exiled opposition group said on Thursday it had obtained information about a secret underground nuclear site under construction in Iran, without specifying what kind of atomic activity it believed would be carried out there.
/snip/
The NCRI said the site was inside a complex of tunnels beneath mountains 10 km (6 miles) east of the town of Damavand, itself about 50 km northeast of Tehran. Construction of the first phase began in 2006 and was recently completed, it said.
The group released satellite photographs of what it said was the site. But the images did not appear to constitute hard evidence to support the assertion that it was a planned nuclear facility.
The Reuters article identifies NCRI as the National Council of Resistance of Iran and in addition to identifying them as “exiled dissedents” also mentions affiliation with the “People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI)” without noting that the more commonly used acronym for the latter group is MEK. That would be the same MEK that was only de-listed by the US Department of State as a terrorist organization last year. Promptly after de-listing, the group moved to register as lobbyists:
An Iranian group that was listed as a terrorist organization until last year has formally registered to lobby the Obama administration.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran told the Justice Department that it plans to “educate” the public and the U.S. government about the need to pursue an Iran policy “based on respect for human rights, non-proliferation, and promotion of democracy.” The council is an umbrella group of five Iranian opposition groups, the largest of which is the delisted terror group Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or MEK.
/snip/
The State Department closed the council’s Washington office in 2002, calling it a front group for the MEK. Since then, the group has earned the good graces of U.S. conservatives by drawing international attention to Iran’s clandestine uranium enrichment facility in Natanz.
That bit about NCRI exposing the Natanz facility? Even though it also is cited in today’s Reuters article, there is good reason to believe that MEK came into the information through a leak to them rather than their own intelligence-gathering:
As I understand the sequence of events, the United States—knowing full well that Iran had a clandestine centrifuge program—watched Iran dig two MASSIVE HOLES near Natanz (see the big picture), then ratted the Iranians out to the IAEA. About the same time, someone leaked that information to an Iranian dissident group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which then released the second-hand dope in a press conference where they got the details wrong.
Lewis goes on to cite convincing evidence in that article at Arms Control Wonk. That sequence of events, though, in which US intelligence made the discovery, briefed IAEA and then someone leaked the intelligence to the MEK is a sequence for which we have seen multiple variants over the years since.
I have posted many times on the network of “diplomats” in Vienna who leak either to George Jahn of AP or Fredrik Dahl of Reuters (Dahl wrote today’s Reuters article). Most of those leaks over the past few years have been couched in a way to put Iran in the worst possible light. Late in May, Jahn appears to have had an epiphany and finally pointed out that he likely was being fed slanted information.
Time will soon tell us whether there is indeed a new secret Iranian nuclear facility or if, as happens when NCRI produces its own “intelligence”, this is just another load of bunk. If NCRI’s satellite photos only appear on David Albright’s site (he has not yet posted them), then this is likely just another disinformation campaign by MEK. Real intelligence of a new site would very likely leak to a much wider array than just the credulous transcription crowd, especially given the tendency of John Brennan and Barack Obama to leak anything that puts them in a more flattering light or stronger bargaining position. My gut leans more toward this being more chaff thrown up by MEK because Iran has known that they have been under the most intense scrutiny ever under the Obama administration and that construction of a secret facility would inevitably be detected by US intelligence, just as Natanz was.
Postscript: Yes, I have used NCRI and MEK interchangeably in the text, as I find them to be functionally indistinguishable.
By Jim White, Emptywheel.net
++ Reuters published a sceptical report on the MEK’s claim to have information that Iran is building secret nuclear tunnels linked to its nuclear programme. The article refers to the MEK’s track record with these kind of revelations pointing out that they have often been wrong and that the MEK has a clear political agenda – this coming a month after the election of Rohani. Satellite pictures from the MEK don’t appear to link to any nuclear activity. An MEK spokesman who claimed to know all the names of those involved [a phone listing maybe?] admitted that he couldn’t say what nuclear activity there was at the site.
++ Radio Voice of America also covered the MEK claim but said the American government has previously warned about the MEK telling lies and making unsubstantiated claims.
++ Some Farsi writers have reminded us that these periodic claims by the MEK usually coincide with a crisis. In this case, now that Rohani has been elected in Iran, both the MEK and Israel are afraid of a negotiated settlement of the differences between Iran and America.
++ Nasrin Ebrahimi’s article is titled ‘The relation between the elected president of Iran, Maryam Rajavi’s shiver and the sudden discovery of yet another nuclear site’. She reminds us that the same thing happened when Khatami was elected; the MEK went into a panic and started finding secret nuclear activity. Ebrahimi says the reaction of the international community to this sort of revelation is so negligible that you can see “even the roast chickens on the table are laughing”. Rajavi used to call this kind of revelation ‘raising the elephant’ to create a distraction. Apparently, she says, this time the elephant was punctured and didn’t even lift off the ground.
++ Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejat comments in his weblog on the MEK’s show in Villepinte He refers to Rajavi’s pretended subservience to the paid speakers but how at the same time the MEK hung ‘wanted’ posters of their ex-members on the wall of the salon along with a mobile phone number with the instruction ‘these are agents of the regime, if anyone sees them let us know’. He goes on to say, when you see these pictures and what they get away with in Paris, you can’t help remembering what they would do to disaffected members in Saddam’s Iraq. No wonder Iranians don’t go, even when they could get paid to attend. They don’t trust you (Rajavi) because these ex members have been with you for years and no one can say if any of your current members are also ‘agents of the regime’.
++ Nim Negah site published a letter from Ehsan Ghoreshi to his father Karim Ghoreshi under the title ‘To the father I have not seen for 26 years’. The article was accompanied with family pictures and explains the difficulties he has faced in trying to see his father and how his mother and the wider family have suffered because of missing his love and affection.
++ Mehrdad Sagharchi from Farnoos Association published an article which examines another fifty page document from the NCRI against Rowhani and Ghassem who resigned. The document lists the names every active ex-member or other critic of the cult and claims they are all paid by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry.
++ Irandidban website has begun a series of articles about Massoud Rajavi’s personality as seen through his actions. The first article, ‘Rajavi the retarded, sexual deviant’, describes why he is sexually deviant while at the same time his actions show he is somehow retarded. The second article is called ‘The Rude, Jealous Envier’, and goes through his life showing how base he is, but also how if anyone gets an advantage he doesn’t have he gets jealous and angry.
++ There have been several articles again about ‘sister’ Farzaneh Meidan Shahi (who was sent to Albania to monitor the new arrivals) written by various ex-members and others who know her. They recount how she was involved in the torture and mistreatment of members during the time they were in Ashraf or Liberty.
++ A lot of articles have been written about Maryam Rajavi suddenly changing sides over Egypt. Some weeks ago she invited people close to President Morsi and made some large financial payments to see if they could be useful to her. Now suddenly she has changed her tune and stood in favour of groups against Morsi. Ironically, she claims this is a big blow for Iran, while Iran and Syria have both welcomed the event.
++ Mohammad Karami writes in his weblog expanding on a few more mysterious deaths he witnessed in the camps.
++ Ghader Rahmani has said more about Javad Khorrasan, the torturer who has been sent to Albania with the last group. He describes the bullying way he used to treat people in Iraq and says it is clear why Rajavi has sent someone like that, because everyone is afraid of him.
++ Batoul Soltani and Zahra Mirbagheri – both former members of the MEK’s Leadership Council – were guests on this week’s Mardom TV.
++ Michael Rubin writing for COMMENTARY, America’s premier monthly magazine of opinion and a pivotal voice in American intellectual life, points out that “No longer being considered a terrorist group does not make the MKO democratic… as anyone who has ever studied their internal workers can attest”. The article titled, ‘Yes, Mujahedin al-Khalq Is a Dishonest Cult’ concludes, “The MKO is not only a creepy cult, and willing to say anything to buy support regardless of the group’s record, but an empty shell as well. Let us hope that one day their remaining congressional supporters will recognize that if they truly want to bring change to Iran’s odious regime, they would best reach out to the Iranian people and not associate with groups which repel them.”
++ Iraqi newspapers report that some of the authorities in Diyala Province have asked for a thorough investigation and documentation of all the MEK’s activities during the time of Saddam Hussein.
++ This week Iraqi MP Karim Alivi, talking with radio Navva, said there is documented evidence that general Casey was paid to tell the lies about Iraq which Maliki rejected. He says this is a very dangerous act which the American government should investigate if they want to keep their credibility with other countries.
++ Mohammad Razaghi writes in his weblog about Ali Khalkhaal. He is known as a torturer in the MEK who spent a lot of time alongside others like Hassan Ezzati, Bahram Jannat Sarra, Majid Alemian, Nader Raffi’inejad and Hassan Mo’asel. He therefore has a lot of information about them, but has been sent to Norway because he is not in a good mental state. Razaghi asks the authorities in Norway to find this man and enquire about the missing people and hidden bodies and human rights abuses in the camps.
++ Homayoun Kohzadi from Yaraan Association in Paris writes an article about Maryam Rajavi with the title, ‘Why is it this cult throws the bones to the donkey and grass to the dog?’ He points out that Rajavi pays out lots of money but does it wrongly and therefore pays a high price.
++ Iraj Shokri has published the first article of a series about the fifty page NCRI document ranting against everyone. He has begun to analyse the document and its contents in detail.
++ In his weblog Mohammad B. congratulates the seven arrivals in Germany but explains how Rajavi although he is incapable of preventing people from leaving Iraq, his next effort is to stop them coming together so they only come in dribs and drabs.
++Nim Negah published a lengthy interview with Mrs Soraya Abdullahi, mother of Amir Aslan. She explains how she has struggled to find her son after he travelled to Turkey for work and was trapped by the MEK and taken to Iraq.
++ An article in Jeune Afrique on the Villepinte show is titled, ‘What are the MEK up to in Paris?’. The article talks to many experts who report that the MEK will say something but they clearly don’t believe in it. For example, they have killed Americans, they sided with Saddam and are now hiring ex officials from the American establishment. It is interesting, the article says, that the monarchists and many other oppositionists prefer the current regime to the MEK. As nationalistic people they see the MEK as traitors.
++ A few articles have been written in response to the MEK saying that all their problems were because of Martin Kobler. They describe it as a kind of déjà vu that Kobler is moving on but the MEK’s problems are still there, and now they will have to find another person to bark at.
July 12, 2013
Holding conferences like the National Congress of 17000 Iranian Terror Victims is of high importance per se, since they demonstrate the depth of the crimes of the terrorist groups against innocent civilians, said head of the Diyala Province’s Foundation of Martyrs.
The terrorist groups commit human rights violations under various titles, and organizing Congresses on martyrs plays an important role in informing the public opinion regarding this issue, Mohammed Saleh al-Shammari told Habilian Association.
He also made a reference to the Mujahedin-e Khalq terrorist group, saying the terrorist MKO group backed the former regime’s killing of Iraqi people.
Referring to the discovery of memorial stones engraved with the names of high ranking Baath party officials and Al-Qaeda terrorists, al-Shammari said, “After the fall of (Saddam’s) regime, the group seconded al-Qaeda terrorists.”
Earlier in 2012, governor of Iraqi district Khalis announced the discovery of a memorial stone in Camp Ashraf inscribed with the names of some high ranking Ba’ath party officials and Al-Qaeda terrorists.
“Holding conferences like the Congress of 17000 Iranian Terror Victims in Iraq will draw the global attention to the crimes of MKO against Iraqi people,” head of the Diyala Province’s Foundation of Martyrs noted.
He added that the media, photo exhibitions, panel discussions, and conferences play a pivotal role in introducing the martyrs of terror.
Al-Shammari went on to mention that 13000 Iraqi civilians fell victim to the terrorist operations since past decade, concluding that the common ground between Iran and Iraq is that they are both victims of the MKO group.
The Ira
nian Foreign Ministry has rejected allegations by the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) accusing Tehran of building a secret nuclear site.
Reacting to the allegation on Friday, the ministry’s spokesman, Seyyed Abbas Araqchi, dismissed the claim as mere lies by the “desperate” terrorist group.
On Thursday, the MKO claimed to have evidence of an underground nuclear site built under a mountain near the city of Damavand, 70 kilometers (43 miles) northeast of Tehran.
The terrorist group alleged that the site had existed since 2006 with the first series of underground tunnels and four external depots recently completed.
“This report is by no means true and is denied [by the Islamic Republic of Iran],” Araqchi said, adding, “The terrorist MKO has been so discredited that the publication of such stories by them is not worth a response,” he added.
The Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization – blamed for the assassination of many Iranian people and officials after the 1979 Islamic Revolution – fled to Iraq in the 1980s, where they enjoyed the support of former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, and set up a military base near the Iranian border in Diyala Province.
Members of the anti-Iranian group currently live at Camp Liberty, a former US military camp near Baghdad Airport, after their relocation from their former Camp Ashraf under growing pressure from the Iraqi government and people for the terrorist group to leave the country.
The US, Israel and some of their European allies have frequently accused Iran of pursing military goals in its nuclear energy program with the US and EU using that pretext to impose illegal unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Tehran has categorically rejected the accusation, arguing that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Also, during its numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities, the IAEA has never found any evidence that the Iranian nuclear energy program has been diverted toward non-civilian purposes.
MKO’s yearly public show is a cultic approach to garner public attention
If you tell a lie over and over again, people will start to believe it. Then, the easiest way a cult may exploit to instill its reprogramming on others is repetition, in the same way advertising and propaganda work. That is one of the approaches adopted by MKO to garner a social attention by setting a public show every year around a certain date in June. Michael Rubin, an ex- adviser for Iran and Iraq at the Pentagon, seems to be just one amongst many Americans whom MKO has failed to fool. That is maybe because of his full understanding of Iranian people among whom he has lived for years. In his latest piece about MKO, once more he reiterates dishonesty of the group as a terrorist cult despite having bipartisan supporters in the Congress.
Iranians are politically engaged—even if not within the system—and did not hesitate to talk. Many spoke of their desire for alternatives. Some asked about the son of the late shah, living in exile in the United States. Others would speak more theoretically about a desire for a republic, a parliamentary democracy, or other alternative. The only thing on which Iranians agreed was their dislike of the Mujahedin al-Khalq Organization (MKO). Several years ago, I wrote a piece outlining their history and ideological evolution. Long story short, the group’s involvement in terrorism that killed not only regime officials but ordinary Iranian citizens, as well as their willingness to accept aid and shelter from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the years after Iraq’s invasion of Iran, delegitimized the group in the face of the public they claim to represent.
The Clinton administration designated the MKO to be a terrorist group, but after years of lobbying—and buying support by paying huge honoraria to a bipartisan array of senior officials—the MKO was delisted in 2012. No longer being considered a terrorist group does not make the MKO democratic, however, as anyone who has ever studied their internal workers can attest. It is against this backdrop that this diary, written by a Kyrgyz student recruited to attend an MKO rally in Paris, is so interesting. It seems that the MKO leaders must now not only pay speakers to sing their praises at their rallies, but also the audience members. The MKO is not only a creepy cult, and willing to say anything to buy support regardless of the group’s record, but an empty shell as well. Let us hope that one day their remaining congressional supporters will recognize that if they truly want to bring change to Iran’s odious regime, they would best reach out to the Iranian people and not associate with groups which repel them.
However, still there is a question to put that how and when it happened that MKO transformed from a Marxist-oriented political group with a fundamental ideology of advocating armed warfare to what is today known as a cult of personality. Speculations fueled by a considerable bulk of studies as well as assertions by detached and former MKO members center on the fact that it was not an overnight transformation but a plot that hatched gradually through some lengthy process of guilefully outlined stages.
There are more than enough evidences to prove that the Rajavis, MKO’s self-appointed husband-wife leaders, had personal ambitions of establishing a cult of personality after a complete failure in armed warfare and facing an overall political stalemate that led their group into total isolation from the masses. Even before the initiation of the military phase and declaring armed struggle against the Iranian regime in 1980, some eminent political figures well acquainted with MKO anticipated its transformation into a cult sooner or later.
It may seem hard to believe that the first seeds of metamorphosis into a cult of personality were sown in France, believing to have the strongest democracy, after a shameful flight from Iran to initiate a heretic inter-organizational revolution within MKO. In fact, before MKO relocation to Iraq to execute cultic relations in Camp Ashraf as its main cult bastion, the cult thought had passed beyond its embryo stage at Auvers-Sur-Oise in Paris. The four-year settlement of MKO in France and a great accumulation of members made them engaged in a routine bureaucracy that caused a staff crisis. Many other factors such as daily-life problems, lack of a clear strategy in 1981 to 1985, critical detachment and separation of members and lack of motivation as a result of long residence in France, attractions of life and beauties of European countries all and all caused the organization suffer acute crises. Besides, Rajavi was receiving formal messages and invitations from Saddam Hussein for a complete transfer of the organization to Iraq. The group had been caught in a difficult dilemma since Iraq was at war with Iran and Saddam was the most hated man in the eyes of Iranian. As a matter of fact, move to Iraq was equal to involving in an unforgivable conspiracy against a nation for whom the group had promised freedom and democracy.
Although no more a designated terrorist group, MKO carries the stigma of being notoriously recognized as a dangerous cult of personality that freely roams the streets of the Western countries. The terrorists’ potentiality in utilization of violence for whatever political and social demands is a horrible nightmare enough to disturb societies. The possible disaster would be even worse if the terrorists are the breeds of a destructive cult. And what necessary precautions have those in Western countries taken to fight back the threats of a dangerous terrorist cult they themselves unshackled? There is no need to answer since people in Paris are used to seeing unknown crowds of different nationality gathered in regular rallies of the cult as a display of its muscle just in the heart of the capital.
