Two United Nations officials today strongly condemned an attack on Camp Liberty, an Iranian exile camp in Iraq, and called on the Government to assist and protect camp residents in need.
According to media reports two people were killed and dozens injured in a mortar attack to the camp, which is located near western Baghdad.
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Martin Kobler and the country representative for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Claire Bourgeois, said they are “deeply concerned that today’s tragic violence has occurred despite their repeated requests to the Government of Iraq to provide Camp Liberty and its residents with protective measures, including T-Walls.”
More than 3,000 residents, most of them members of a group known as the People’s Mojahedeen of Iran, are temporarily housed in Camp Liberty – a transit facility also know as Camp Hurriya – while UNHCR carries out a process to determine their refugee status.
The camp had previously been attacked in February while most of the residents were sleeping. The attack resulted in six deaths and various injuries.
Camp residents were previously situated at Camp Ashraf in eastern Iraq, but were relocated last year, in line with an agreement signed in December 2011 between the UN and the Iraqi Government.
Mr. Kobler reminded the Government of its responsibility to guarantee the security and safety of Camp Liberty as well as Camp Ashraf’s residents, throughout the relocation process.
He also called on authorities to do everything possible to provide immediate assistance to the injured.
“Today’s second terror attack on camp Liberty is a reminder to third countries to come forward with serious offers to resettle Camp Liberty residents outside Iraq,” Mr. Kobler said. “Third countries must step forward and open their doors to relocation.”
WASHINGTON – For decades, an Iranian dissident group has seemed to be on the wrong side of history. Suppressed by both the Shah of Iran and then the ayatollahs who deposed him in 1979, its supporters have faced prison, death and exile, and were shunned in the United States as members of a cult-like terrorist organization.
The Mujahadin-e-Khalq (MEK) former guerrilla movement began to shake off its painful past last year when the State Department took it off the official U.S. list of terrorist organizations. The European Union made a similar decision in 2009 after a prolonged court battle.
But as Iran elects a new president on Friday, the MEK has no discernible role in politics at home, where it is mistrusted – even by government critics – for having been allied with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.
Yet Iran’s clerical rulers remain obsessed with a perceived threat from the group, frequently warning Western governments against any giving the MEK shelter or support, diplomats say.
Unable to operate openly in Iran, the MEK is instead waging some of its battles in Washington. It opened an attractive new office in April just a five-minute walk from the White House.
Long active as an advocacy group in the United States and Europe, the MEK is now formalizing its campaign to pressure the Obama administration to maintain a hard line – including in multilateral nuclear talks – with the Islamic Republic, which it hopes will one day crumble.
Now that it is no longer on the U.S. blacklist, the MEK can hire registered lobbyists and raise funds on its own, rather than rely on wealthy Iranian-American sympathizers.
Democratic former Senator Robert Torricelli signed up as a lobbyist earlier this year for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the Paris-based political arm of the MEK.
"They (the MEK) deserve to have a voice in Washington, to be heard, and to (show) what the Iranian people are actually looking for in the future of Iran: a non-nuclear Iran, a government that is based on democratic values," said Soona Samsami, the U.S. representative of the NCRI.
Once one of Capitol Hill’s biggest fund raisers, Torricelli pulled out of the race for a second Senate term in 2002 amid an ethics scandal.
His lobby registration form says he will be "meeting with U.S. government and congressional officials, and advising on general strategy."
Other notable backers of the MEK include former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell and ex-CIA director James Woolsey.
A TOUGH SELL
Even though it has renounced violence, the MEK is a tough sell in the United States, which for many years has blamed it for the killing of six Americans in Iran in the 1970s.
A 2009 study by the RAND Corporation think tank depicted the MEK as a cult-like movement run with military-style discipline, gender separation and "near-religious devotion" to its Paris-based leaders – a description the MEK denies.
"I can’t believe the U.S. government is going to be particularly excited about working with them … because in the U.S. government, I would hope there would be people who would understand that this is not where the political future of Iran lies," said Patrick Clawson, director of research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Some U.S. policymakers are mistrustful of Middle East exile groups following Washington’s reliance on Iraqi expatriates who pushed America toward war in Iraq in 2003.
Calls from MEK representatives for "regime change" in Iran remind some of Ahmad Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress, which helped convince the administration of former President George W. Bush that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
"They’ll deny it, but I think it’s pretty simple: their goal is to keep pushing the politics in America to lead to an invasion, some kind of major unsettlement of Iran, that they can sweep into as a new government," said Jeremiah Goulka, author of the RAND study.
Some in the U.S. government also share that suspicion – but the MEK resents comparisons to Iraqi exiles of 10 years ago.
"We’ve never been in favor of a war. We’ve never tried to push things towards that direction," said Alireza Jafarzadeh, the deputy U.S. representative of the NCRI. The MEK is "not the U.S. creature that Chalabi was," he said.
Attempts to make over the MEK’s image have been boosted by a report from a former senior State Department official who questions whether the group really committed the killings of six Americans in Iran in the 1970s that are often blamed on it.
The killings, during a guerrilla campaign against the U.S.-backed Shah, were actually the work of a faction that later broke away from MEK, said Lincoln Bloomfield, whose report has just been published as a book by the University of Baltimore.
"Not a single person you could name in the MEK had any knowledge of it or had anything to do with it," he said.
The study grew out of a 2011 memo Bloomfield wrote as a consultant for a law firm that lobbied to remove MEK from the terrorism list on behalf of the Iranian-American Community of Northern California. The author said he had no financial interest in the book, and proceeds are going to the university.
The MEK still has some 3,000 members in Iraq, many of whom were invited by Saddam in the 1980s. The group fell out of favor after his 2003 downfall and current Iraqi officials have applied pressure for them to leave.
After clashes with Iraqi security forces in 2011 in which 34 people were killed, the residents were moved last year as part of a plan in which the United Nations intends to process them for refugee status in other countries.
But progress has been slow, and their temporary home at a former U.S. military compound in Baghdad known as Camp Liberty came under fire in February when eight people were killed in a rocket attack by unknown assailants.
U.S. officials have tentatively identified a handful of Camp Liberty residents who may be allowed to move to the United States. But they would be expected to renounce their membership in MEK, the officials told Reuters.
Forty-four residents of the camp have left over the last month for Albania, which has offered to take up to 210 of them.
Susan Cornwell (Editing by Alistair Bell and Jackie Frank)
Following the resignation of the two last non-MEK members of the National Council of Resistance, the secretariat of the NCR published an announcement denouncing the two defectors, Mr. Karim Ghasim and Mr. Mohammad Reza Rowhani! The announcement was a reaction to the common statement the two defected member issued after their resignation.
Ghasim and Rowhani criticized the NCR leader for their undemocratic approach during the years of their membership in the council although they seemed reluctant to openly question the organization. However, the NCR announcement calls their allegedly unexpected resignation as treason! Ghorban Ali Hossein nejad former Rajavi’s personal interpreter –who himself was harshly verbally harassed by Massoud Rajavi after his defection from the Mujahedin Khalq Organization/ MKO—condemned the group’s attitude regarding defection of the members of the NCR.
“Where in the world leaving a party or a political organization is considered treason and joining the enemy?”, Hossein nejad asks the group leaders.”Why you never answered a single question they asked about the council’s functions and decisions in 30 years?”As the two individuals have noted in their statement the reason of their resignation is the lack of responsiveness in the MKO.
Comparing the MKO with the Communist party of the Soviet Union, Ghorban Ali Hosseinnejad wants the MKO authorities to respond the criticism the defectors of the NCR presented in their statement.
The announcement of the NCR was allegedly signed by the so-called signatories who signed the group’s announcement against Qasim and Rowhani and according to Hossein nejad 90 percent of them are currently in Iraq so they were absent at the NCR’s meeting held in Paris! Therefore, no challenge and criticism was posed in the meeting. Basically members of the MKO especially those who are residing in Camp Liberty, Iraq, never dare to refuse signing the indoctrinated documents. Former translator of Massoud Rajavi puts: ”Besides, I know individuals among the signatories with whom I used to work when I was in the group and I know them well. I know that they were serious critics of the council’s leader who is also the MKO’s leader but they were forced to sign the announcement under Rajavi’s oppressive system and heavy pressure ruling Liberty.”
Founded in 1965 by a group of leftist Iranian college students, the “Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, a.k.a MEK and NCRI)” was mainly devoted to opposing the rule of the Shah before the Islamic revolution. In its first five years, the group primarily engaged in ideological work, their interpretation of Islam and economic and political ideas. The MKO preached a combination of Marxism and Islamism.
Soon following the Iranian Islamic revolution, the organization started a phase of armed struggle in a bid to destabilize the newly formed regime and have its revenge of failing to assume a share in the power. As a result, MKO’s dedicated terrorist teams launched numerous blind suicide operations, bombings, gun-shot assassinations as well as street gun-battles in which many innocent civilians and key officials were killed. The atrocities and crimes of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization set up one of the bloodiest chapters of Iranian history.
But one of the first times the MKO adopted terrorism as a tool goes back to the era of Shah regime; When the MKO was involved in assassination of American businessmen, military personnel, and even a senior American diplomat in Iran before the 1979 revolution. Some of the attacks on U.S. citizens were reflected in American newspapers back in the 70s. The St. Petersburg independent published an article titled ‘Terrorists Slay Americans in Iran’ in May 21, 1975. It is written in a part of the article: ‘A Woman telephoned the Associated Press office anonymously at noon and said: “The execution of American officers today was a reply to the execution of nine Iranian revolutionaries in prison last month”. Identifying herself as a spokesman for the Iranian People’s Warriors Association, she said Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi is a “stooge of the Americans, therefore we murder Americans.”
Following is a short review on US government’s stance on MKO issue since 1984 until 2013:
In December 1984, the US State Department wrote to Rep. Lee Hamilton, then Chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East, to clarify its official views on the MKO: “The Iranian Mujahedin remains a highly nationalistic, Islamic, left-wing and anti-western organization…”
On June 14, 1985, the US State Department issued another statement against the MKO. In this statement, the MKO was referred to as “a militantly Islamic, anti-democratic, anti-American, anti-Western collectivist organization.”
On July 24, 1985, 10 years after the MKO assassinated US citizens, Richard W. Murphy, US assistant secretary of state for Middle East affairs, stated to the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Middle East affairs that the MKO was “ militantly Islamic, anti-democratic, anti-American, and continue to employ terrorism and violence as standard instruments of their policies.” He also identified the MKO as having been active in bringing down the former Shah and as being Marxist.
These statements shaped the earliest stances the US had taken on the MKO issue. Some people believe at that time, the US government was trying to persuade Iran to help release American soldiers who were arrested in Lebanon so they pressured the MKO to impress Iran.
About a year later, the US government somehow shifted its policy towards the MKO. The State Department apparently contacted the MKO’s Washington office in November 1986, to arrange a meeting.
At a hearing on April 21, 1987, in line with the change in policy, Mr. Murphy did an about-face when asked about the Department’s MKO statements. He said: “I will very freely admit that there were gaps in our knowledge about the organization,” adding, “We meet, have met with the Mojahedin Organization here in Washington. They are a player in Iran…We are not boycotting them.” This policy shift took place exactly at the time the Iranian forces were achieving big victories in the battle against the Iraqi Ba’ath forces who had started the war on Iran. The MKO was at Saddam’s service at the time and the group needed to be strong enough to help Saddam against Iran.
A couple of years later, the MKO was despised again by the US government. In September 1989, the US State Department replied to a letter from Congressman Mervyn Dymally to Secretary of State James Baker. The congressman had asked the Secretary of State to resume talks with the MKO. The State Department rejected his request and again referred to MKO as an anti-American, anti-Western collectivist organization that continues to employ terrorism and violence as standard instruments of its policies.
In November 1992, The US Secretary of State submitted "a report detailing the structure, current activities, external support, and history of the people’s Mojahedin of Iran”. The report was prepared at the request of US Congress.
Some of the report highlights are as following (all direct quotes):
“The Mojahedin revolutionaries developed and disseminated an eclectic ideology based on their personal interpretation of Shi’a Islamic theology and Marxist tenets. Then as now the Mojahedin advocated a two-pronged strategy of armed struggle and the use of propaganda to gain their political objectives.”
“They assassinated at least six American citizens, supported the takeover of the U.S. embassy, and opposed the release of American hostages. In the post-revolutionary political chaos, however, the Mojahedin lost political power to Iran’s Islamic clergy. They then applied their dedication to armed struggle and the use of propaganda against the new Iranian government, launching a violent and polemical cycle of attack and reprisal. In 1981, the Mojahedin leadership fled to France and with other Iranian opposition movements formed the National Council of Resistance (NCR).”
“In 1986, France expelled the leader of the Mojahedin, Masud Rajavi.”
“After his expulsion form France, Rajavi relocated to Baghdad, Iraq, adopting Saddam Hussein as his patron, In 1987.”
“Rajavi announced the formation of the National Liberation Army (NLA), the military wing of the Mojahedin, which conducted raids into Iran during the latter years of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. The NLA’s last major offensive reportedly was conducted against Iraqi Kurds in 1991, when it joined Saddam Hussein’s brutal repression of the Kurdish rebellion. In addition to occasional acts of sabotage, the Mojahedin are responsible for violent attacks in Iran that victimize civilians. They also engage in violence against Iranian government targets in the West.”
“Since their leadership’s expulsion from Iran, the Mojahedin have conducted a public relations campaign among Western press and public officials, seeking political support and financial backing. Exploiting Western opprobrium of the behavior of the current government of Iran, the Mojahedin posit themselves as the alternative. To achieve that goal, they claim they have the support of a majority of Iranians. This claim is much disputed by academics and other specialists on Iran, who assert that in fact the Mojahedin-e Khalq have little support among Iranians. They argue that the Mojahedin’s activities since the group’s leadership fled from Iran in 1981– particularly their alliance with Iraq and the group’s internal oppression — have discredited them among the Iranian polity. “
“Despite Mojahedin assertions that the group has abandoned its revolutionary ideology and now favors a liberal democracy, there is no written or public record of discussion or debate about the dramatic reversals in the Mojahedin’s stated positions. Moreover, the Mojahedin’s 29-year record of behavior does not substantiate its capability or intention to be democratic. Internally, the Mojahedin run their organization autocratically, suppressing dissent and eschewing tolerance of differing viewpoints. Rajavi, who heads the Mojahedin’s political and military wings, has fostered a cult of personality around himself. These characteristics have alienated most Iranian expatriates, who assert they do not want to replace one objectionable regime for another. Given these attributes, it is no coincidence that the only government in the world that supports the Mojahedin politically and financially is the totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein.”
“The Mojahedin’s actual military efforts have consisted of occasional strikes against border towns, industrial targets (particularly oil installations), and civilian targets. “
“At the border the Mojahedin’s military record is limited. The group launched its most significant incursion in June and July 1988, when they coordinated an advance into Iran with Iraqi forces. During the same offensive, Iraqi units in other sectors of the front used chemical weapons against Iran. “
United States government’s view on the MKO barely changed until during Clinton presidency, the group was put on the US State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations in 1997. Some believe MKO’s designation as a terrorist organization was a goodwill gesture to the newly elected Iranian government. The MKO was kept on the list for some 15 years in 3 different administrations.
The Bush administration cited Saddam’s support of MKO as a reason to invade Iraq. When the Bush administration sought to justify its attack on Iraq in 2003 by accusing Saddam Hussein of being a sponsor of “international terrorism”, one of its prime examples was Iraq’s “sheltering” of the MKO.
But despite the group was referred to as a terrorist organization and Saddam’s support of it would lead to invasion of Iraq, the MKO enjoyed the support from the US government indirectly and secretly after the US invaded Iraq. The US had planned to use MKO’s terrorist capabilities to confront Iran.
U.S. Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, The former Ranking Member on the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, gave a speech during House debate HR 282, the Iran Freedom and Support Act in which he criticized the U.S. government’s support of the Mujahedin e-Khalq terrorist group.
“HR 282 supports anti-government advocates in Iran promoting regime change. This is highly problematic. While an important amendment offered by Congressman Blumenauer was adopted into this bill during markup, to prohibit U.S. assistance to groups that are on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations, or have been on that list for the last 4 years, there are ways around this. For example, according to a Newsweek article from February 14, 2005, the US has been recruiting individuals from the MKO, a group currently labeled as “terrorist” by the State Department, who have agreed to form a new group with the same mission of the MKO: regime change in Iran. These individuals have been conducting military activity in Iran with the United States’ support. I just want to remind everyone that the MKO was the group responsible for the U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran in 1979. The MKO also had a camp in Iraq where Osama bin Laden’s first fighters were reportedly trained. The MKO also trained and supported Taliban fighters. Now we’re recruiting help from members of the MKO, which makes a total mockery of this so-called War on Terror.” Kucinich said.
The renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh also revealed striking details of his findings on the aim of the $400 million budgeted US covert operations inside Iran in an article published in New Yorker in July 2008, titled ‘Preparing the battlefield’. He provided valuable information on US military preparations to strike Iran, on the total expansion of the Bush Administration’s executive power, about the US recognition of Iran’s overall positive role in Iraq and on the US support for the anti-Iran terrorist organizations Jondollah, PJAK and MKO. He explained how the Bush Administration’s policy of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” has led the US to support the Baluchi organisation Jondollah and the MKO (Mujahideen-e-Khalq a.k.a PMOI), both of which have clear track records of terrorist activities including against the US. He reiterated that the US has been giving arms and cash to the terrorists in the MKO for years and reveals that “most of the [MKO] leaders have been taking our money and cashing it in an awful lot of bank accounts in London.” He also revealed for the first time that the US has trained MKO teams in the state of Nevada and that “they do a lot of crazy stuff inside Iran”.
As reported by Seymour Hersh, Illegal military and financial support of MKO was not limited to the Bush administration. In April 2012, Seymour Hersh reported at the New Yorker that the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) of the US military gave members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) training in signals intelligence at a facility in Nevada during the Bush era. The MEK was then on the US State Department’s terrorism watch list, so the Pentagon’s deployment of this group was quite illegal.
Hersh revealed a trail of blatant hypocrisy on the part of the US government. The U.S. favorite terrorists are not terrorists even if they have blown up non-combatants, but national liberation groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon are designated terrorists. The U.S. Government officials have even brandished the word “terrorism” to describe perfectly peaceful protesters and dissidents inside the US, while JSOC was flying dyed-in-the-wool terrorists to Nevada for training.
Finally, after the United States played all those games with its favorite terrorists, the Obama administration started a new game and removed MKO’s name from the list of foreign terrorist organizations. They also allowed the former terrorists to open an office in Washington. Again what didn’t matter here at all was the MKO itself. It was about politics and a leverage to pressure Iran.
With a brief review on US-MKO relations, it can be seen the MKO has always been perceived by various US governments as a tool to be used against Iran. In fact, what doesn’t really matter is the terrorist group. It is all about the United States and Iran. MKO is just a terrorist group with a black record that could only serve its Master’s wishes without any independency. The only reason the MKO continues to exist today, is that its masters believe they can still use it to pressure Iran.
The honorable Mr. Pascal Deguilhem
French National Assembly
126 L’Universite St.
75355 Paris 07 SP
Dear Mr. Deguilhem,
We are pleased to introduce our NGO, "Nejat Society" based in Iran. Nejat Society was founded by a number of former members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) and Families of those who are still held as hostages by the group leaders. The main objective of our NGO is to help the families of those who are held in the camps of the MKO and have had no contact with their loved ones for many years.
As we heard that you are supposed to speak at the rally the group is going to hold in Villepint, on june 22, 2013 we are concerned about a few issues.
A large number of The MKO members who are currently kept in Camp Liberty, Iraq do not enjoy proper mental and physical conditions. The Camp facilities are not enough and members are under constant psychological pressure; they have to attend daily self-criticism and brainwashing sessions under the manipulative system of the group. They have no access to the outside world. They are exposed to the world outside the group camps –weather in Baghdad or Ouver Sur d’Oise– only by what the cult-like system of the group offers them.
Regarding such conditions, just a few individuals could manage to escape the MKO camps during the past decade. You may want to study the ”No Exit" report published by the Human Rights Watch in 2005, based on testimonies of the former members of the Cult of Rajavi.As our duty is to provide families of the MKO members with possibilities to contact their loved ones in the MKO or at least to get news about them, we firmly ask the international community to pave the way for free access to Liberty residents in accordance with the international laws.
The group authorities annually spend large amounts of money to hire speakers and attendees for the gathering of June. You may want to take a look at the audience in the MKO gatherings to get to know about the number of Iranians and non-Iranians present there! You may want to ask the speakers at the gathering about their speaking fees!
This letter is not to challenge your sincerity in your beliefs but as a Socialist Republican deputy, do you really feel happy to attend the so-called gathering which is in no way the icon of the Iranians’ pro-democratic aspirations? Don’t you think that you are just used by the Rajavis as a means to run their ambitions?
Dear Sir
Compared with your socialist ideals, advocacy for a cult-like group with a dark history of human rights abuses, makes us confused and also concerned about the situation of our children behind the bars of the MKO. However, if you are still willing to attend the June 22 rally we appeal to you to at least use your political social and cultural influence to ask the group leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi to fully cooperate with the UN mission in Iraq for the relocation of Liberty residents to third countries and also to provide us with an opening to get in touch with the residents in a free atmosphere without the supervision of the group officials.
Sincerely,
Nejat Society
Two members of the Iranian opposition group, People’s Mujahedin Organization were found dead a month ago in the Idlib region in Western Syria, reported a European MEP in contact with anti Bashar Al-assad rebels.
They fought alongside insurgents seeking the overthrow of the Syrian regime backed by Iran. Considered by France as a terrorist organization, the People’s Mujahedin have a base in Iraq and their headquarters in Parisian suburb. Western and Arab intelligence services would use them against Iranian interests and the allies of Tehran such as Syria.
Georges Malbrunot, Figaro Blog, May 30, 2013
Discovery and seizure of advanced telecom devices in MEK food convoy entering Camp Ashraf – Khalis Mayor calls for investigation
Mayor of Khalis in Diyala province, Uday Al Khadran, called on the Iraqi government to open an urgent investigation after advanced telecom devices were seized in Camp Ashraf which is home to a number of the Mojahedin Khalq terrorist group.
In a press statement Al Khadran said that the security services had found 80 phones hidden in a suspicious manner inside a shipment carrying food. The shipment came from one of the Arab companies which had bid to secure the needs of the MEK members in the camp.
Al Khadran said that the way the devices had been hidden demonstrates an intention to use them in a non-legal framework that is unlawful activities. He said, “these devices and the sophisticated way they were hidden show the MEK’s intention to use them illegally”.
Iran poses no threat to the United States: Ex-US Air Force Lt. Col.
Karen Kwiatkowski is a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel who spent some 4 years working at the Pentagon. Since her retirement, she has become an outspoken critic on the U.S. foreign policy. Holding a PhD degree in World Politics from the Catholic University of America, Kwiatkowski is a prolific writer at the LewRockWell.com and the American Conservative.
Colonel Kwiatkowski is primarily noted for openly and publicly denouncing what she sees as a corrupting political influence on the course of military intelligence leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Her most comprehensive writings on this subject appeared in a series of articles in The American Conservative magazine in December 2003 and in a March 2004 article on Salon.com.
Dr. Kwiatkowski joined Habilian Association in an exclusive interview, and shared her ideas on a number of issues. What follows is excerpt of the interview selected by Nejat Society:
[…]
Habilian: The US considers itself to be at the forefront of the war on terrorism and censures other countries for their alleged sponsorship of terrorist groups. But, it took Mujahedin-e Khalq off its list of terrorist organizations, and there are credible evidence showing that Washington has been supporting MEK in its terror ops, both militarily and financially. Isn’t it a hypocritical approach in dealing with the issue of terrorism?
Kwiatkowski: I am personally disgusted by the many years of political support for the MEK by neoconservative elements among the US political class. It is beyond hypocritical, and the history and shifts regarding the MEK– in many ways a western proxy organization from the beginning — is simply one more means of war and provocation against another country, that like drone warfare, is a mechanism that provides the United State government with deniability, ambiguity, a lack of accountability, and ultimately hurts US credibility and interests.
Habilian: Would you please touch on Canada’s dropping MEK from its official list of terrorists?
Kwiatkowski: I don’t follow Canadian politics, but I’m sure Canadian politicians are as venal as the ones we have in the United States. There is a strong and growing tendency for both Canada and Mexican government to fall in line with Washington — I do celebrate when I see Mexican and Canadian leaders expressing their national sovereignty by distancing themselves from US decisions and actions. I don’t see this often, though.
Habilian: And finally, speaking at the French National Assembly on December 5, 2012, MEK leader Maryam Rajavi asked France and the western countries to recognize them as an opposition group as they recognized the Syrian coalition against Assad. What’s your take on this issue? Do you think this group can bring democracy?
Kwiatkowski: I’m not overly familiar with Maryam Rajavi — however, I remember reading about her and the MEK in my days at the Pentagon. My sense was, and remains, that this group is dependent on outside money, serves interests that may have nothing to do with their published propaganda. I left the Pentagon in 2003, nearly a decade ago. Maryam has led the MEK since 1993, and it appears she inherited the position from her husband. That doesn’t sound very democratic, and I suspect that Rajavi knows little about, and cares little about, democracy. The very fact that her organization is favored by a powerful sector in Washington should undermine it as some sort of people’s movement for Iranians dissatisfied with the mullahs and/or Ahmedinejad. Beyond that, Iran already has democracy. Ahmedinejad is an elected leader, much as Obama is. I frankly don’t see democracy as a solution to much of anything. Small, limited and lawful governments — whether they be led by kings or parliaments — deliver far more peace and prosperity than do large, unlimited and unlawful governments, even if those large, unlimited and unlawful governments were “democratically” elected.
With regard to Syria — the war supporters in Washington DC and allies in Europe who are involved in Syrian national politics have been working overtime, without the benefit of public scrutiny, comment or awareness. To wish to be "recognized" by such corrupt governments is revealing, and little good for the people of Syria or the people of Iran respectively, will come of it.
Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq (SRSG) Martin Kobler expressed anger at the lack of cooperation of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as the MEK, NCRI and PMOI) in their resettlement and departure from Iraq.
Kobler (UNAMI) made the remarks while briefing the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (AFET) on the current developments in Iraq in a meeting on May 29.
Kobler also briefed AFET on UNAMI’s efforts to resettle the former residents of Camp Ashraf to third countries.
He deplored the lack of cooperation of the residents and of their leadership with the UNHCR and UN monitors, and urged them to accept concrete resettlement offers. Stressing that "resettlement to safe countries is the only durable option", he called again on European Union member states to accept former Camp Ashraf residents into their countries.
Meantime, reports said on Saturday that MKO members are running away from the group’s transient settlement facility, Camp Liberty, before they are sent by their leaders to other countries.
According to a report by Ashraf News website, an informed source in the committee supervising the Camp Liberty affairs said that five MKO members had fled the Camp two days ago.
The informed source named the defectors as Arshad Shekarzehi and Hassan Sha’bani as well as three other members who were not named.
They surrendered to the Iraqi security forces and were transferred to the UN mission in Baghdad, the source added.
Many of the MKO members have abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the grouplet are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.
A recent Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.
According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
The 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 the 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 argued for the MKO to be taken 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.
Camp Liberty is a transient settlement facility and a last station for the MKO in Iraq.
++ In a Press Statement, US State Department spokesperson Jan Psaki welcomed the transfer of 30 more Camp Liberty residents to Albania and asked the MEK to cooperate with UNAMI and ICRI interviewers. The statement said, “The United States reaffirms its strong support for the work of UNHCR, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), and especially the tireless work of UNAMI Special Representative of the Secretary General Martin Kobler, to assist and resettle Camp Hurriya (aka Liberty) residents”.
++ The MEK have written a letter advising the DoS not to listen to the lies of Martin Kobler and the ICRC because they are agents of the Iranian regime. Commentators have called this a desperate attempt to hide the daily human rights abuses in the camp and delay the release of these hostages. Furthermore, although the US has been instrumental in saving the cult from collapsing from within, and has paid a high price for tarnishing its reputation in this way, at the end of the day the MEK have not been, and will not be, more than a mercenary force whose value cannot rise more than a certain level, and the US cannot expect to have to fight with the UN and ICRC because of them.
++ Sahar Family Association addressed an open letter to Martin Kobler to raise some issues and questions along with some propositions and demands including restoration of contact with the outside world and in particular their families.
++ This week, Mardom TV in Washington had live interviews with two ex-members, Homayoun Kohzadih and Hamid Reza Salmani in France, who explained at length the situation of the MEK who have come to Albania and with whom they have been in regular contact. They also discussed the MEK’s lobbying office in Washington, linking it with the deception surrounding the MEK’s annual celebration of violence and armed struggle on 22 June in Paris.
++ Ex-MEK members were contacted by the new arrivals in Albania. They report that the MEK have dispatched commanders to Albania from Paris headed by Hassan Nayeb Agha, and another, to monitor them and try to pacify them so they don’t run away from the MEK. Except the few known MEK agents among these 30 people from Liberty, the others have not welcomed these two from Paris and have mostly rejected the food and money they brought for them. In this respect Iran Ghalam Association in Germany has urged their families to introduce themselves to international organisations like the UN and ICRC and ask to be connected to their loved ones so they can provide help and support before they become desperate and get misused again by the MEK.
++ Among the 30 new transferees there are three women and Mr Mohammad Eghbal, whose sisters, Atefeh and Eghbat, MEK sympathisers, started a campaign asking the MEK to help people leave Iraq.
++ Long term MEK member Esmail Yaghmai – now married and living in London – demands to know if the mother of his son, Ms Akram Habib Khani, is dead or alive. The MEK responded by swearing at him and calling him an ‘agent of Iranian Ministry of Intelligence’. Many people responded to this on social media with comments and articles saying how disgusted they are with the reaction of Rajavi and the NCRI. On his weblog and in Facebook Yaghmai has said ‘whenever anyone criticises the MEK you bring a member of their family to swear at them, but this time we don’t see her swearing at us. Does this mean she is dead?’ Yaghmai addresses his former wife directly saying, ‘we don’t care what you say against us, but if you can, ask the MEK to allow you to curse us so at least we know you are alive’.
++ A delegation of Faryad-e Azadi Association in Paris – ex members – attended a UNESCO conference in Paris and networked.
++ Mina Assadi, a well known opposition figure, published a short article on her site criticising the MEK and especially the non-Mojahedin members of the NCRI for swearing at Iraj Mesdaghi and using threats and intimidation tactics against people.
++The Iranian government claims it has captured what it calls a “spy ring” working for Israel and Britain which had planned to carry out “sabotage and assassinations” to undermine the impending national elections in the country. Western diplomatic sources maintained the arrests had been stage-managed ahead of the polls for the presidency on 14 June.
++ In an interview for Iran Zanan, Mrs Mir Bagheri describes Rajavi’s desperation and how he has now started sending public audio messages to Iran’s presidential candidates and the Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. She reminds us that this is the man who, up to a few years ago was fond of saying that a snake will never give birth to a dove, and who, when he went to Iraq, he gave a deadline of six months to topple the regime, but who ever since has had to extend the deadline for yet another six months.
++ An article in French newspaper Figaro says MEK mercenaries are being used in Syria and has quoted an MEP saying there is clear evidence the MEK are working alongside terrorists in Syria and that two of its members were killed two months ago in Allepo in west Syria.
++ There have been many articles exposing Maryam Rajavi’s anniversary celebration of armed struggle in Paris on 22 June. The MEK are trying to buy refugees from any country; Middle East, Asia, Africa, etc. Rajavi has ordered that by whatever means and with an open budget, every association linked to the MEK should bring 1000 people or more – money is not a problem. She has said that ‘the only way we can save Ashraf and take our forces back there is by putting on a good show’.
++ Mehdi Nikbakht from Iran Qalam in Germany has referenced the MEK’s US lobbying office alongside documents detailing the MEK’s murder of Americans and their celebration of 9/11. He points out that the MEK have never said anything against Saddam in all these years, and that they are still part and parcel of the Saddamists. Nikbakht says that lobbying might work to convince those Americans who don’t care about their soldiers being killed, but Iranians and Iraqis know better.
++ On the subject of the Paris gathering, Mohammad Razaghi has published an article explaining how the MEK spend hundreds of dollars to bring lobbyists to praise Maryam Rajavi, but that it has been a long time since they stopped trying to pretend to Iranians. He reminds Rajavi that ‘your money may be used by American lobbyists but your fate is coming nearer every day as the hostages are transferred to third countries like Albania’.
Edvard Termador from Avaa Association published an article entitled ’20th June 1981, start of deadlock in MEK’s struggle’. He explains how the MEK started going wrong and getting weaker and weaker and becoming more and more irrelevant after staging a failed coup d’etat and taking up arms. After that the MEK became cult and joined with the Americans and Israel against Iran.
++ Iran Setaregan in Switzerland has also commented on Rajavi’s annual show in Paris as a celebration of the start of terrorism. It says it is difficult to distinguish between Rajavi paying the likes of John Bolton and Rudi Giuliani as lobbyists from one point of view, while seeing Maryam Rajavi act like a jester or clown to amuse the Israeli lobby in Washington.
++ Mr Ali Jahani has written an open letter to the retired general Phillips, an MEK lobbyist, and reminds us how he was recruited by the MEK even when he was running the TIPF adjacent to Ashraf camp. How he tried his best to make life hell for the residents so they would not leave the MEK.
++ Mohammad Reza Rowhani and Karim Ghassim, two heads of the so-called Commissions of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) published a joint resignation statement. They say they do not want to go into detail, however they have listed a long list of human rights abuses and political mistakes – which are already well documented everywhere else. Apparently they do not want to bring internal affairs into the open but felt compelled to mention a few things they simply couldn’t bear any more. Commentators responded by pointing out that these two individuals represented the last remaining ‘non-MEK’ members of the NCRI and that now there is no way for the MEK’s Washington lobby office to pretend that it does not belong to the MEK.
++ Several articles welcomed the resignation of Rowhani and Ghassim from the NCRI but say they have not explained enough about what is going on inside the cult. In particular Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejat (Rajavi’s former translator, now in France) has said they need to become more involved in rescuing others who they now acknowledge are hostages in Iraq.
++ Ms Nasrin Ebrahimi published an article comparing the life of women in camps Ashraf and Liberty with the way Maryam Rajavi lives in Paris. She publishes pictures which do not need explanation as they vividly contrast the life of the two. She also showed some pictures of herself in the camp and now in Switzerland and has titled it ‘In Your Face Maryam Rajavi!’
++ Mr Maziar Ezzat Panah published his article in the well known opposition site Akhbar-e Ruz (Daily News) titled ‘A look at the psychology of the Internal Revolution in the MEK’ which gives a long detailed explanation of the MEK’s cult practices.
++ Adel Azami a young ex-member, who is a painter and poet, published a personal account called ‘Militia’. He describes one of the brainwashing sessions involving a young recruit who had been separated from his MEK family from childhood and raised by other families and in orphanages and then brought back to Ashraf from a western country. The recruit was being beaten, spat at and sworn at by hundreds of people in a salon for daring to ask his commander for more time to sleep. Azami says that when he saw him the following day he asked ‘they swore at you, accusing you one minute of being a child and the next minute of not being a child anymore. And at one point you smiled and your punishment got even worse. What were you thinking!? The young man replied, ‘I wasn’t trying to annoy anyone, but I suddenly remembered that yesterday was my birthday and I forgot where I was as my mind filled with memories of getting presents and eating cake with my family.