Page 439 – Nejat Society

Albania accepts 71 MKO exiles from Iraq:UN

Seventy-one members of an exiled Iranian opposition group based at a camp near Baghdad have been relocated to Albania, the UN said Saturday, a week after the camp suffered deadly mortar attacks.

The resettlement is the latest in 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.

“A total of 71 men and women now have safely arrived in Albania and have benefited from the government of Albania’s offer to accept 210 of the camp’s residents,” UN special envoy to Iraq Martin Kobler said in a statement.

Kobler said that Germany had also offered to accept around 100 residents, and added that the deadly attack on Camp Liberty a week ago had “once again shown how important it is to relocate the residents to third countries as quickly as possible.”

On June 15, two camp residents were killed by a series of mortar rounds which hit Camp Liberty, a former American military base that now houses the Iranian exiles, in the second such attack this year.

At Iraq’s insistence, the exiles were moved to Camp Liberty late last year from Camp Ashraf, near the Iranian border, where the People’s Mujahedeen set up base in the 1980s.

Ashraf was the base that now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein allowed the group to establish in Diyala province during Iraq’s eight-year war with Iran.

The People’s Mujahedeen was founded in the 1960s to oppose the shah of Iran, and after the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted him it took up arms against Iran’s clerical rulers.

It says it has now laid down its weapons and is working to overthrow the Islamic regime in Iran by peaceful means.

Britain struck the group off its terror blacklist in June 2008, followed by the European Union as a whole in 2009 and the United States in September last year.

June 23, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

A setback for Washington’s anti-Iran lobby as MKO goes into a tailspin

Iran’s election a setback for Washington’s anti-Iran lobby as MKO goes into a tailspin

Only months after being removed from the US terrorism list the Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) has registered under the pseudonym National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) as a lobby group and opened an office in Washington. The move of course allows regime change pundits and pro-war speakers and advocates to now legally accept payments to promote the MEK.

With the election of a new President in Iran, MEK leader Massoud Rajavi is hoping that his lobbying office will become the focus of western anti-Iran activity. The Iranian people’s choice – a moderate, pragmatic negotiator – is bad news for the MEK, which wants war. But all is not lost. Media news about the election headlined with Israel’s irate response rather more than what the election means for Iran’s voters. We will now see the MEK position itself, boasting pretended western support, as the only force which can bring about regime change if the US and/or Israel decide to go ahead with military intervention. Up to that point of course there is still a lot of black propaganda work to be undertaken to sully and defile the reputation of President Rowhani; efforts will be made for example, to provoke a human rights crisis to be laid at his door.

And Rajavi is ready. Or is he? There is a lot happening behind the scenes that belies the group’s boasts and declarations. Behind the scenes at the lobbying office the disintegration of the MEK is gaining momentum and is likely to implode the group in the near future leaving a mere shell. Opening a lobbying office should be seen as an attempt to save themselves rather than representing any capacity for influencing events in Iran. The more the group collapses in Iraq and Europe, the more they try to keep face by using lobbyists and speakers to promote them.

The main existential threat to the MEK comes from the continuing efforts by UNAMI (United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq) and the Iraqi authorities to transfer the remaining 3,000+ residents of Camp Liberty near Baghdad to the safety of third countries. Last Autumn, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton intervened to persuade Albania to take 210 refugees. European countries have agreed to take back former residents; for example Germany will take 100, while the UK figure is 52. This means of course that the MEK will be eventually broken up into smaller and smaller groups which are distributed throughout many western countries. The MEK leader’s extreme control over the members, which was severely reduced with the move to Camp Liberty, will be massively eroded to the point that the MEK as an entity may fairly quickly crumble to a mere handful of loyalists based in the European and North American capitals.

The recent transfer of two groups of 14 and 30 individuals to Albania prompted Rajavi to order a boycott of the UNHCR interview process in an attempt to create delays. In a vitriolic attack Rajavi describes the UN and ICRC as ‘poison’, telling his followers they must purge their organisation of the deadly disease of ‘third countries’. To have contact with any agency outside the MEK is now decreed a sin. When Rajavi says that anyone leaving the MEK should be sentenced to death, no one should doubt the severity of punishment for offenders inside the MEK.

Following this vicious attack the UN Secretary General robustly defended his representative in Iraq, UNAMI chief Martin Kobler, who has spent two years in excruciatingly difficult negotiations with the MEK to end the deadlock. Ban Ki Moon politely suggested that the MEK, their backers and supporters spend their money on helping the members in Iraq rather than on paying huge fees to lobbyists. The European Union and the State Department also backed Kobler’s efforts and strongly urged the MEK to give full cooperation to those agencies which are trying to help rescue them.

That state of insecurity was emphasised by a (strangely convenient) violent attack on Camp Liberty to coincide with the election in Iran. This allowed the MEK to repeat its demand for an immediate return to Camp Ashraf. It seems that as the efforts of Martin Kobler, the UN agencies and the Iraqi authorities to progress the removal of the MEK from Iraq are beginning to bear fruit, so the MEK leader is coming under greater and greater pressure.

This is not a new demand. Many in Iraq believe that after the MEK moved to Camp Liberty in a deal which saw the US remove the group from its terrorism list, the other part of the bargain – to find a place of sanctuary for the leader Massoud Rajavi – was not fulfilled and he is now stranded in the nuclear bunker in Camp Ashraf. That is why the MEK leaders are so desperate to return the group there to protect him.

In spite of Rajavi’s attempts to exert control, residents are still managing to escape from Liberty and the families are still waiting outside the camp demanding to have access to their loved ones. On one level Martin Kobler briefed the European Parliament about the MEK’s lack of cooperation. On another level the Farsi language websites and blogs are vibrant with the stories of ex-members who have recently come out and are giving personal accounts of individual suffering as well as describing the desperate psychological condition of those still left inside. Two weeks ago five more residents escaped the camp. In Liberty no one has a voice, but anyone who comes out now joins this wave of exposure.

In a clear attempt to keep them together the MEK spent a lot of money sending two top commanders from Paris to Tirana to stop the new arrivals from contacting the outside world. It was no use. As the first group arrived they lost no time in contacting their friends – other ex-members who have already made it to Europe. They now give daily updates which include their own names, the names of MEK loyalists sent from Liberty with them, and how they are resisting the MEK’s bribes and threats to silence them. They describe their efforts to survive this onslaught and instead try to get into contact with their families and friends and the outside world.

In response Massoud Rajavi, initially describing this as a plot concocted by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in Europe, warned that anyone contacting Europe based ex-members will endanger the lives of their families in Iran (although he didn’t explain how). When this failed to deter them Rajavi shifted to a scenario in which these people themselves who resist confinement are the agents of the Iranian regime (after thirty years in the camp in Iraq).

It is becoming blatantly obvious that Rajavi cannot prevent the attrition of his members. His best scenario was that they would die in an assault on Iran, but this didn’t happen. One of the things people believe is that he wants them back in Camp Ashraf because it is nearer to Iran and he can devise a way to get them killed in some violence. It should be noted that the average age of these people is around 50 years.

Interestingly, while dealing with these issues, the MEK have not abandoned their activities with the Saddamists and al Qaida in Iraq, Syria and Jordan. A few weeks ago two MEK operatives from Sweden were killed in fighting in Aleppo, Syria at a joint base with insurgents nicknamed the hospital. This week Iraqi security has seized communication equipment they were trying to smuggle into Camp Ashraf in a food delivery. Fugitive Saddamists regularly praise the MEK in their clandestine websites for their help. Their lobbyists in Washington DC close their eyes to the point they are, by default, wholeheartedly in support of the remains of Saddam Hussein’s regime – in particular Ezzat Ibrahim in Jordan. The MEK have never denounced 9/11.

But the MEK’s woes are not confined to the Middle East. In France, Atefeh and Effat Eghbal, two sisters of Mohammad Eghbal who is in Camp Liberty, and a few other close members of the MEK started an internet campaign asking the MEK leaders to cooperate to bring people out of Iraq as their lives are in danger. Soon more MEK rank and file and NCRI members joined them and the campaign got bigger and bigger. The MEK immediately denounced them as ‘working for the intelligence services of Iran’. This was the last straw for fiercely anti-Iran campaigner Iraj Mesdaghi who wrote a 200 page open letter to Massoud Rajavi exposing his ill treatment of his own members and ridiculing Rajavi’s analysis of the situation in Iran, Iraq and Syria. This was a hard blow for the MEK as, along with Hassan Daioleslam, Mesdaghi had for years deliberately posed as a non-MEK aligned individual in order to support the MEK in other media. Daioleslam has gone quiet but Mesdaghi has continued vocalising his criticisms. Ironically the MEK response to this criticism – which was written not as a rejection of the MEK but as an attempt to be helpful from within – is that not only has the MEK published statements saying he is an ‘agent of the regime’ and that he was converted thirty years ago while in prison in Iran, they have also brought every wobbly member or distant supporter to prove their allegiance to Rajavi by swearing at him as this ‘agent of the regime’.

Not only did this fail to prevent the spread of vocal criticism but now dozens of close supporters and members have joined the campaign of questioning the MEK leadership and calling for answers. Among them is Esmael Vafa Yaghmai the famous poet who was a member of the MEK and NCRI for around 40 years. He hasn’t been spared the now famous MEK vitriol as he started asking for answers about the welfare of his son’s mother after MEK members sent him condolences on her death. Rather than answer, the MEK were quick to tar him with the same brush – that he and his son have been recruited by Iran.

And it seems that the spread of this internal rot will not end. Last week the last two remaining non-MEK members of the NCRI resigned after thirty years. In a joint statement Dr Karim Ghassim and Mr Mohammad Reza Rowhani emphasised that they would not expose their differences and say why they have resigned, and only expressed their best wishes for the MEK and NCRI. The MEK published its predictable reply in the form of the NCRI’s annual report which contained nothing but the accusation that the resignation of these two is part and parcel of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry’s plots – which include moving people out of Camp Liberty, closing Camp Ashraf and buying UNAMI, ICRC, DoS, EU officials and Prime Minister Al Maliki, as well as the corruption of the Eghbal and Yaghmai families in western countries – the report claims that all these are being done in an attempt to ultimately kill Massoud Rajavi.

The report also listed the majority of NCRI members who could not attend the annual conference but who voted in support of the report by proxy. Former member Ghorban Ali Hosseinnejad in Paris revealed that most those who could not attend are trapped in Camp Liberty and that he knows several who would have left as he did if they had the opportunity. Iraj Shokri, another writer who left the NCRI some time ago, blogged to advise NCRI members this is their last chance; either leave now or be part of the crimes Rajavi is committing. A group of ex-members, Iran Pen Association, requested the many ex-NCRI members, including Dr Hedayat Matin Daftary who left fifteen years ago, not to waste their time but to start a new Council to which everyone can subscribe. The inference is that Rajavi can no longer be regarded, or followed, as an Ideological Leader; he has become an anachronism. When he is eventually dug out from his bunker he should be parked in a museum as an ‘archaeological leader’.

While this internal chaos grows, the MEK are carrying on with business as usual. Preparations are in full swing for the anniversary celebration of the so-called armed struggle (the new face of MEK terrorism). As ever, huge amounts of money are being spent to pay refugees from any country possible to attend the 22 June rally in Paris. The offer is three days’ holiday with spending money in exchange for a few hours attendance at the rally. In addition the refugees are being told they will have photo opportunities with the paid speakers, John Bolton, Struan Stevenson MEP and Alejo Vidal Quadras MEP, in order to help their asylum cases.

In spite of all these internal crises, the MEK’s English language lobbying office in Washington behaves as though it hasn’t heard about these events. The office coolly insists the MEK is not a terrorist group and that, even as the last two non-MEK members resign, the NCRI is only an umbrella group which just happens to include the MEK.

Is it not sad that those who have put their reputations on the line to be paid by the MEK for lobbying and advocacy activities really have no idea not only what, but who they are lobbying for.

Middle East Strategy Consultants,

June 23, 2013 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 8

++ The UN 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 strongly condemned an attack on Camp Liberty, an Iranian exile camp in Iraq on June 15, and called on the Government to assist and protect camp residents in need. “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.”

++ In a statement, Wathiq al-Battat, a top member of Iraq’s Hezbollah movement, claimed the group was behind the mortar attack on Camp Liberty. It was the second attack on the remaining members of the terrorist MEK in Iraq since February. The previous one took place on February 9, which resulted in a number of deaths and injuries. Al-Battat took responsibility for that attack as well, and warned of further attacks until they leave Iraq. The MEK have used the attacks to bolster their demand to be returned to Camp Ashraf for security reasons.

++ Several people wrote open letters to Martin Kobler, Ban Ki Moon, and the Government of Iraq asking them to urgently help the people in Camp Liberty and bring them out as soon as possible. Letters were also sent to the Head of the French Senate and other lawmakers in France complaining why their government has allowed a group like the MEK to publicly celebrate armed struggle and terrorism in Paris on 22 June.

++ In an article for Reuters following the Iranian election, Susan Cornwell says that for decades the MEK has been on the wrong side of history, and has “no discernible role in politics at home”. In spite of this the MEK is now formalizing its campaign to pressure the Obama administration to maintain a hard line with the Islamic Republic. “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 2009 RAND study. The report 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.

++ Writing in Farsi on the issue of the election many observers have come to the conclusion that whichever way we look at it, the people of Iran have shown that they do not want violence or revolution.

++ News emerged about the MEK’s use of Facebook as part of its efforts to use any means to disrupt the election process. The group created thousands of Facebook pages to try and impose a voter boycott. This obviously failed. A lot of articles and blogs talk about the backlash that the high voter turnout has created for the MEK. Many have pointed out that Massoud Rajavi wrote to Khamenei and Rafsanjani in the hope there would be divisions inside Iran, but this has not worked. More than that, he faces collapse since Rohani was the worst possible winner for the MEK.

++ Mohammad Hussein Sobhani and Mehdi Sajoudi were guests of Mardom TV this week. They talked about many issues including Abu Ghraib prison where Rajavi had Sobhani and others imprisoned, along with more recent issues such as the arrival of 44 people in Albania and the MEK’s desperate need to put on a public show on 22 June in Paris to save face.

++Iran Didban published an article about the election analysing the situation of Massoud Rajavi before and after; how he has lost his opportunity to try to sell himself as mercenary in case of war – now there is no prospect of war. It reminds everyone that from the start until now, Rajavi has tried to portray himself as a lumpen character who can swear and knife and kill etc. But, after writing to Rafsanjani, he is now desperate to say there is no president except Maryam Rajavi.

++ The result of a spoof parallel internet election staged by a Russian chess champion, with alternative candidates from outside Iran, was published. In spite of all their efforts, the share of votes for Maryam Rajavi was less than 1%. The Reformists came out on top with the most votes.

++ Habilian Association has exposed pictures that the MEK had published described as anti-Iran demonstrations in the streets of major Iranian cities, but says, when we look closely we can see the pictures are of people celebrating Iran’s qualification to the 2014 World Cup. Habilian points out this is not the first time such activity has been exposed as the MEK regularly photoshop pictures to create a false image.

++ Many people have written articles exposing the real identities of individuals that Rajavi sent to Albania from Camp Liberty. The real name of ‘[Brother] Javad Khorrasam’ is Ismael Mortezai. His picture and details are exposed in several sites as a top ranking MEK loyalist for thirty years. During the Saddam era he worked with Iraq’s Mokhabarat specifically in Basra, and was involved in all kinds of intelligence and terrorism in Iran and Iraq. After 2003 he was introduced to the US forces as the MEK intelligence contact. He attended meetings with Americans in Camp Ashraf as the Intel consultant for the nominal head of the camp (Mojghan Parsi and later Sedigheh Hosseini).

++ Iran Ghalam reported this week that Massoud Rajavi is threatening the residents of Camp Liberty warning them not to think about Albania. This open message to all the residents shows that there is so much talk about leaving Iraq that he has been forced to react and try to contain it.

++ Mohammad Karami revealed the latest ‘walkouts’ from Camp Liberty. He says 18 individuals found the opportunity when a UNAMI delegation was inside the camp to jump out in front of their vehicles and force them to take them out. One escapee is a famous translator of the MEK.

++ According to news from inside the MEK, Massoud Rajavi tried to prevent the next group from leaving for Albania. He threatened the ICRC, UNAMI and etc. But today (June 21) the third series – comprising 12 men and 2 women – arrived in Tirana. Although the MEK also tried to prevent their names being made public, most of the people coming out have been named on several sites.

++ In an article for Pejvak Iran, Ashraf Alikhani complains about the MEK’s use of vulgar and nasty language in the internet and other media. She says at first she believed this must be being done by former members writing as the MEK to discredit the group. But her article, titled ‘The MEK I knew in Evin prison’, concludes that this is not the enemies of the MEK destroying them, they are doing it themselves.

++ The MEK’s swearing at and vilification of former NCRI members Ghassem and Rowhani continued all week following their resignations and raising questions. But some former MEK members have pointed out that these two deliberately closed their eyes to obvious human rights abuses in the camp in Iraq whenever they were invited there. While congratulating Ghassem for having left the NCRI, Adel Azami writing on Facebook, reminds him of the time he came to camp when Adel was there but refused listen to him.

++ Atefeh Eghbal writing on Facebook refers specifically to Shirin Narriman in the US, criticising her writing nasty things about people who raise questions. Eghbal reminds Narriman that they were in prison together many years ago. She goes on to wonder how a good human can, little by little, collapse to such an extent that they are prepared to write such nasty things and become like a toy in the hands of the MEK.

++ Iran Didban has ridiculed Rajavi for describing the two former NCRI members as infiltrators from Iran, pointing out that everyone is aware they were with Rajavi and the NCRI for thirty years, making this claim impossible. The article says Rajavi has come to the point all dictators reach: they can’t trust anyone, not even those closest to them.

++ In his weblog titled ’32 years after 21 June 1981′, Mohammad B. describes how the MEK changed between then and now (their move to Iraq, etc) but, he says, the MEK is still trying to mix armed struggle with John Bolton, the far left with the far right, and points out that they can’t take a consistent or rational position.

++ Former members of the MEK held a book sale and picket on 19 June in Cologne to draw attention to the situation of Camp Liberty, and Rajavi’s unchallenged hold on the 3000+ hostages there. They also protested the free hand given to Paris based Maryam Rajavi to promote her terrorist agenda in Europe.

June 21, 2013

June 22, 2013 0 comments

Iraq

Iraq urges UN cooperation to oust MKO

Baghdad has urged greater cooperation from the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) to remove Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorists from the country. Iraq urges UN cooperation to oust MKO

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made the call on Thursday during a meeting with the outgoing head of the UNAMI, Martin Kobler, at the premier’s office in Baghdad.

Maliki called on the UN mission to “focus on the problem of the MKO … to apply the agreement concluded in this regard,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

The MKO — listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community — fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up its camp near the Iranian border.

The group is notorious for carrying out numerous acts of terror against Iranian civilians and officials, involvement in the bloody repression of the 1991 Shia Muslims in southern Iraq, and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds in the country’s north under Saddam.

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, in Diyala Province to Camp Liberty — a former US military base near Baghdad International Airport.

Tehran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the terrorist group, but the US has been blocking the expulsion by pressuring the Iraqi government.

June 22, 2013 0 comments

Albania

The third group of Liberty residents arrive in Tirana

Another group of 14 Camp Liberty residents in Iraq have relocated to Albania on Tuesday, June 18, 2013.

This is the third group in a series of planned moves to relocate Camp Liberty [Temporary transit Location] residents to Albania.

The third group comprised 14 MKO members: 12 Men and 2 women.

Names of some of the transferred members are as follows:

Karim Qoraishi, a high ranking MKO member.

Mehdi Dolati, Hesam,Bahram,Sasan, Shirin Maadoumi.

By Mohammad Karami,Faryade Azadi

June 22, 2013 0 comments

Nejat Publications

Pars Brief – Issue No. 72

Inside this Issue:

Thirty residents of Camp Hurriya departed Iraq for Albania
Far from Iran election, former guerrillas lobby Washington
Le Figaro: the anti-Iranian People’s Mujahedin Fight in Syria
How Fast Can Someone Be ‘Radicalized’?
Serious concerns over heightened level of violence in Iraq – UN Envoy tells European Parliament
U.S. plans to move Iranian exile group out of Iraq hit snag

Download Pars Brief – Issue No. 72
Download Pars Brief – Issue No. 72

June 20, 2013 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

MKO Responsible for any Bloodshed

A brief look at MKO-run media implies that the world is concerned about the dire situation of the group’s members residing in the transit Liberty camp scheduled to be transferred out of Iraq to other third countries if they are accepted. As recently, there are also many statements circulated on the group’s pages from a variety of dignitaries from Western countries as well as organizations condemning mortar attacks against Camp Liberty that has led to a number of these refugees being killed and injured. But the bare fact about all this human tragedy and suffering is that the blame has to be squarely placed on MKO leaders.

A common sense approach to end the predicament of the residents is to have a close, unprejudiced cooperation with all parties engaged to solve the problem and those shouldering the responsibility to facilitate the transfer of the residents. However, MKO’s resistance to cooperate and its leaders’ insistence to return the residence to their previous military camp, Camp Ashraf, remains the sole obstacle to implement the approaches. To mention an example of MKO’s refusal to cooperate, the group’s leaders rejected Albania’s generous offer to resettle 210 former residents. The offer was made at a time when no other country has decisively offered to receive any member of the group. However, only a few numbers, only thirty residents, were relocated to Albania in early June under global pressure.

Following the relocation, in a press statement, the State Department called MKO to have a full cooperation with all the engaged parties to solve the problem:

“The United States also reiterates its call to the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) to cooperate fully with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) process to relocate Camp Hurriya residents outside of Iraq as expeditiously as possible. The permanent relocation of residents is essential to ensure the safety and security of residents, especially following the February 9 terrorist attack that took eight lives.

The MEK leadership has the responsibility to facilitate the full and immediate participation of residents in interview and counseling processes required by the UNHCR. Residents of Camp Hurriya are entitled to unimpeded and private access to UN human rights monitors. The MEK leadership has an obligation to ensure residents are able to engage openly and freely with UN human rights monitors, UNHCR personnel and UNAMI representatives.”

Despite all efforts for seeking a peaceful solution in handling the MKO’s exit from Iraq, MKO, innately a violent group investing on violent approaches as a desired outlet, is resolved to heighten the tension to a point that might provoke a violent reaction, just what MKO dreams to happen. MKO never observes nor has any respect for human rights and international laws; it is getting ready for causing an appalling human tragedy rather than to end it. MKO is not uninterested to make all residents martyrs to demonize the Iraqi government as well as securing a much more extended period of stay in Iraq with all needed sympathy directed in its own favor.

For sure, the countries that refuse to accept Liberty residents as refugees have their own logic and reasons. A review of the group’s past violent history and anti-social behaviors in Iraq and other European countries, regardless of the atrocities perpetrated against its own fellow Iranian, might well explain the cause. What is just before European’s eyes is the group’s decade long persisting challenge with the Government of Iraq. Once forming close alliance with Saddam against Iranian regime, MKO acted also as his loyal mercenary in suppression of uprising Iraq dissidents. After the fall of the dictator, in a shift of position the group claimed to be standing beside the Iraqi people in a unified front to secure its stay in Iraq. As it is naturally a terrorist group whose strategy of struggle is founded on armed and violent warfare, soon it began to show its real, hostile attitude against the legally elected government and defied any reached legal decision; it preferred to make coalition with Iraqi insurgent groups. MKO in its struggle to survive not only claimed a position similar to that of Iraqi citizens with all granted rights but also postured as being in the vanguard of accomplishing democracy for Iraqi people and began interfering in the country’s domestic affairs. So it is natural to see a violent reaction from certain Iraqis who are against MKO’s interventionist attitude and prolonged stay in Iraq regardless of any global condemnation and disapproval of attacks against the Liberty residents. It is only MKO and just MKO that is responsible for any killed or injured residents.

by mujahedin.wordpress – Afshar Koosha

June 20, 2013 0 comments

France

Open letter to the President of French National Assembly

In the name of Human Rights, Democracy and Freedom

Mr Claude Bartolone, President of the French National Assembly

As you know, Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (aka; MKO, MEK, NCRI,…) have booked a salon in Parc des Exposition de Villeprinte to celebrate the start of their terror activities in June 1981 killing many civilian people.

17 June is also the anniversary of the arrest of Mrs. Rajavi alongside 164 other Mojahedin Commander in 2003 by the order of the government of Mr. Chirac. They were arrested in Val d’Oise charged with plotting terrorism from their HQ. The Mojahedin now celebrate this occasion every year alongside the anniversary of the start of “armed struggle”.

They contact members of the French Senate and try to gather their support. They rely on and hope that the targeted politicians would not know about their past, present and future intentions.

I am writing to ask for a meeting in the Parliament to come with a delegation comprising some of the senior ex members of this organisation to present to you and explain some of the documents available to us.

Mr President

When Mrs Maryam Rajavi speaks about human rights, you should know that there are 3200 MEK members who have been held captive in Iraq in Camp Liberty on her direct order. Of this total more than half are willing to return to their normal life, if allowed their freedom. Currently, members who show any hint of dissent and those who want to separate from the MEK will be severely and brutally beaten on the direct order of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. Since these people have been relocated to Camp Liberty, more than 50 of them have succeeded in escaping and have rescued themselves from that camp. The obstacles and obstructions which the MEK has created, has resulted in failure of their refugee process in Iraq. The representative of your honorable country in the United Nations and the Security Council’s sessions have witnessed that Mr Martin Kobler, the UN’s special envoy, has complained many times at the lack of MEK cooperation in solving this humanitarian matter. On the other hand, for more than two years the families of MEK members have been asking for a one or two hour meeting with their loved ones. They have established a sit-in in front of the camp, but unfortunately they have been denied meeting with their loved ones on the direct order of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.

Mr President,

In the French National Assembly, which is the symbol of French democracy and human rights, Mrs Maryam Rajavi speaks about human rights while dissidents inside the MEK are being killed on the direct order of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. In this regard, I can mention the names of women such as Mehry Moussavi, Minoo Fathali, Marjan Akbarian, Zahra Faizbakhsh, Homa Bashardoost, Allan Mohammadi, and others and men such as Saeed Kiani, Kiomarz Barforosh, Alinaghi Hadad, and others. In this regard my friends and I who have witnessed these crimes, are ready to testify in any court of law. The MEK, which has not gained power in Iran, massacres its own members. Any Iranian opposition group or organization which wants to criticize the MEK will be faced with bullying aggression and intimidation tactics by the MEK and suffer character assassination; and they will receive death threats from the MEK. None of the Iranian opposition groups which reside in Europe and the USA cooperate with them because of their cultic and violent behavior. The National Council of Resistance, the MEK’s public political face, which comprises MEK commanders and operatives, does not have any popularity among Iranian people. Now, Mrs Maryam Rajavi with this kind of background and record, requests the same kind of recognition and accreditation as the Syrian opposition from the French government!

We former MEK members, with 20-30 years of living in the MEK, who were able to rescue ourselves from the MEK after the downfall of Saddam Hussein and who are currently living in France, would like to alert you to the facts of this situation.

Respectfully

Mohammad Karami, Faryade Azadi, Paris

oyanyoldash@yahoo.com

Transcript

The representatives of the French National Assembly

The representatives of the French Senate

The representatives of the European Parliament

–

Au nom des droits de l’homme, au nom de la démocratie et de la liberté

Claude barthelon, Président de l’Assemblée nationale de France.

Comme vous le savez MEK le 22 Juin..dans la salle de villepinte …À l’occasion des opérations terroristes en Iran en Juin 1981 que.La plupart des gens qui ont été tués etaient des personnes inoccentes..17 juin 2003 Le gouvernement de Jacques Chirac, a condamner Maryam Radjavi et 164 de ces dirigeants.. de complot dans les bases de l’organisation a val-d’Oise ont ete.arreter dans ces célébrations.. Certains députés de l’Assemblée nationale française contacté et ils ont recu des informations sans fondement..et à faire entendre leur voix et en mesure d’obtenir leur appui.À cet égard, je demande un rendez vous (avec une délégation de membres de l’ancien et le MEK). avec les députés pour vous faire connaître les documents.

Mensonge discours de Maryam Radjavi.. elle a été invités à l’Assemblée nationale française…Monsieur le Président..:Mme Maryam Radjavi alors qu elle parle de droits de l’homme.

a ses ordres 3.200 personnes des membres de cette partie… sont.dans le camps de (liberty) commes captifs ……Plus de la moitié d’entre eux veulent retourner à leur vie normale..

. Commandé par Maryam Radjavi et Massoud Radjavi Les gens qui protestes Sont sévèrement battus.

. .depuis que les gens ont été transportés au camp Liberty Plus de 50 personnes Ont réussi à s’échapper du camp….

. les Représentants. au cours des réunions du Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies M. Martin Kublr Envoyé spécial de l’ONU pour résoudre la question de la non-coopération organisation humanitaire se plaignaient souvent…

En revanche depuis deux ans Les familles des membres du partie Pour une visite de 2 heures Avec leurs enfants devant la porte du camp mais ils n ont pas eu l autorisation pour la visite de leurs enfants…..

Monsieur le Président: Mme Maryam Radjavi aL’Assemblée nationale française. qui est Le symbole de la démocratie.Alors qu elle parle de droits des humains Les dissidents sont tués dans l’organisation.

À cet égard, je peut donner les noms …madame mehri musavi ..Mme.minu fathi ..Mme marjan akbarian ..Mme zahra feyz bakhsh …Mme homa bashar doust .Mme mohamadi ..les monsieurs …

Et les mesieurs, said kiyani…kiyoumars bar-froush …ali naghi hadad…..moi et mes amis nous sommes des témoins de ses crimes et nous sommes pretes Témoigner devant les tribunaux du monde

Bien que pour l instant l’organisation n’a pas le pouvoir mais Il massacrés ses membres.. Toute organisation ou un groupe d’opposition iranien ne peut jamais critiquer et ils seront Sévèrement attaqué par l’organisation du mojahedin du peuple ……. Ils ont publiquement menacé a etre Assassiné…

Les mojahedin n ont pas leur place ni en iran et ni parmis les iranienes

Mme Maryam Radjavi demande de gouvernement français Avec un tel passee a Le désir d’être reconnu comme Opposition syrienne pour l iran ….

Nous les d’anciens membres 20 à 30 ans de vie dans cette organisation , nous avons fuite après la chute de Saddam Hussein, Nous vivons en France..on vous Averties le danger qui presente ce groupe

Avec le respect..

Karami Mohammad

oyanyoldash@yahoo.com

L’Assemblée nationale de la France

Sénat français

Les deputes parlement europenes

June 20, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Ex-CIA officer: US Completely Hypocritical Regarding Terrorism

A former CIA officer said the US is "completely hypocritical" in its view of what constitutes terrorism and what does not.

"Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as the MEK, NCR and PMOI) has many friends in Washington, most of whom have been bought and paid for, and it also enjoys broad political support because it has been portrayed as a group that is actively fighting against the Iranian regime," said Philip Giraldi during an interview with Habilian Association.

The contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine touched upon the Israeli supports for the MKO, and said, "Israel has been supporting terrorism carried out by MKO inside Iran.

He went on to denounce US threats to use force against Iran as "violations of the widely accepted just war doctrine," saying they "might even be considered war crimes as Iran has not threatened the United States and has no nuclear weapons program."

"The UN has not taken any action against the US for a number of reasons, but most prominent would be the facts that the UN is located in New York and that most of its funding comes from Washington," Giraldi added.

When asked about the United States drone attacks on Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, and also its violation of Iran’s airspace, he said, "The use of drones in all those circumstances is illegal under international law because it is a deliberate violation of a country’s airspace using military aircraft launched by the US."

"When they kill someone using an armed drone, I believe it amounts to a war crime and the senior US government officials who approve the activity should be held accountable," he added.

June 20, 2013 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest -7

++ Batoul Soltani wrote an open letter to General James Jones, President Obama’s national security advisor up to 2010, reminding him about the situation at Camp Liberty. He is now retired and will attend the MEK’s Paris rally. Soltani asks ‘don’t you see the danger they pose to your and other countries? ‘I am sure you know about this group’, she says, ‘but if you don’t, please do the research as this is not just a straightforward lobbying group’.

++ This week’s guest on Mardom TV was Behzad Alishahi. The programme concentrated on the resignation of the last two non-MEK members of the NCRI, Mohammad Reza Rowhani and Karim Ghassim. He talked about the MEK’s reaction which was to label them, alongside all the others, as ‘agents of the regime’.

++ Iran Ghalam (Pen Association) in Germany published news of the recent MEK arrivals in Albania. The MEK have dispatched two new agents headed by Mahmoud Hashemi – not his real name – who have tried again, unsuccessfully, to buy the new arrivals, and have again threatened them not to make contact with their families and the outside world. These threats have been ignored and contact is flowing.

++ Iran Didban website issued its analysis of the resignation of NCRI members Ghassim and Rowhani, quoting the reasons that they gave, and concludes that this is the last nail in the coffin of deceit and pretence in the Rajavi cult. There is no longer any hiding from the truth.

++ Some ex-members wrote to Mehdi Sameh, who is on the sidelines of the MEK and NCRI, but who has never rejected them publicly. They criticised him for remaining silent after all the things Rajavi has done to his former colleagues in the Council. They pose a simple question, ‘as a Marxist Leninist who believes he is continuing the line of the Fedayeen group, does he still believe that Rajavi is in the camp of revolution and is capable of being criticised?’

++ A fourth bulletin from Iran Ghalam describes further how the Albania arrivals have rejected the money offered to them by Rajavi’s agents and have established contact with ex-members and their families, even though they are under hardship and find it difficult to provide even enough food for themselves.

++ A group of ex-members have requested that the high-ranking NCRI members who have left the Council in recent years – specifically naming Ghassim, Rowhani and Dr Matin Daftary – do not remain silent, but instead come forward and talk about the problems and concerns which every one of them has, and as well, to get together and form a new organisation so that other ex MEK and Council-members can join.

++ Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad criticised the MEK for publishing articles swearing at Ghassim and Rowhani. Hossein Nejad says ‘the only thing they asked for was to leave and the only thing they say is that there is no point talking to you as you never answer’. He says, ‘this is how you treat everyone in this organisation and now they are sick of it and are leaving’. Hossein Nejad and others have addressed the remaining people around Rajavi saying ‘this is your last chance to distance yourselves. If you stay any longer you cannot claim ignorance, and you will be part and parcel of the crimes Rajavi has and will still commit.

++ In reaction to the MEK swearing at everyone including Isaemel Vafa Yaghmai and his son Amir Yaghmai, Batoul Soltani asks ‘who is at fault, the son whose search for news about his mother has come to the point that he can only ask if she alive or not, or is it Rajavi who does not allow him to find out’? The MEK then published the text of a letter allegedly written by Akram Habib Khaani and posted on her behalf (allegedly from inside Camp Liberty) to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, in which it is claimed that all this is the work of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. One of the proofs of this has been that Massoud Khodabandeh published a paragraph sympathising with the Yaghmai family on Facebook. Even though the MEK members themselves accept that there is no free access to internet inside Camp Liberty.

++ Many analysts have described this MEK scenario of hiding the truth (saying the woman is dead and then alive, etc) as a desperate attempt to detract from real evidence that the MEK have been torturing and killing people in Iraq and that there are many dead and missing people. The analysts accuse the MEK of saying, ‘they claim she is dead, but she’s not’ as a way of proving that every accusation against the organisation is a lie. Yaghmai published an article naming a few of the people the MEK claim have committed suicide but who ex-members claim have been killed under torture.

++ Reporting from Syria, Hezbollah’s TV network, Al Manaar, puts the number of foreign fighters who have been killed in Syria at over 6,000, saying they are from 26 different countries. Within these numbers it is alleged 640 are MEK, which is the highest after the Saudis who number 729. It is believed these are not all ideological members but are mercenaries recruited to fight under the name of the MEK.

++ Hanif Heydar Nejad wrote in “Pejvak Iran” addressing Rowhani, Ghassim and Yaghmai. He says he heard that Rowhani and Ghassem are annoyed about being labelled alongside Yaghmai and the Eghbal family and Iraj Mesdaghi as agents of the intelligence services of Iran. Heydar Nejad criticises them for not recognising the true situation and seeing that this collective picture does not comprise just you or the other few you name. You, he says, have joined a much, much bigger picture, and being in it has not been in your or anyone else’s hands; the MEK have been doing this from decades ago. The MEK version of events is that people not submitting totally to their wishes are to be added to the picture. But your annoyance or shouting or not does not affect the photographer as he has been doing this for years.

++ One of the younger ex-members who has survived Rajavi’s cult alongside a few other younger ex-members has written the story of Amir Yaghmai, who he describes as a child soldier in the MEK. Pictures of him have been published showing that the size of the gun he carries is the same as his height. The writer praised him for standing on his own feet after all the things the MEK have done to him.

++ During the Iranian election a Russian chess champion created a spoof online parallel election putting forward the names of candidates who were not selected as well as personalities from outside the country, including Maryam Rajavi and Reza Pahlavi. People were invited to vote for their preferred candidate. Accordingly the MEK ordered their members and supporters to drop everything and make new email accounts in order to vote for Maryam. Apparently their forces have been so busy with this there has not been time for the MEK to write much this week.

++ Edvard Termador’s article describes the NCRI’s past and present, and concludes, ‘any way you look at it, there has been a past and a present but there is no future. The number of people leaving is confirmation of all the human rights abuses that have been going on.’

++ Marzieh Ghorsi in Turkey has published the fourth part of an interview in Nim Negah website titled ‘The difference between words and deeds in the Rajavi cult’. She explains how they treated her when she asked for help to leave. She asked for some of the money and gold that she brought to the organisation when she had joined along with her documents so she could begin a new life. This was of course rejected. Ghorsi has lived in Turkey for some years now with her children and husband Mr Shirdam. They have not been able to progress their claim for asylum for two years because the MEK have employed lawyers, lobbyists, MPs and MEPs in western countries to hider their case and not allow them to come to Europe. They have told the family, if you keep quiet we will bring you to Europe ourselves. If not, we will make life miserable for you and your children.

++ Asharq Al-Awsat interviewed the former president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Abulhassan Banisadr in Paris. Q: Leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and wife of the MEK leader Maryam Rajavi recently said that the Arab Spring will hit Tehran, and that the opposition—represented by the MEK—are prepared to be an alternative to the regime. Do you think there are truly those who view them as a viable alternative? Do you think you yourself are one of these alternatives?

A: Definitely, I consider myself an alternative, and equally I consider all democratic movements as alternatives. But why would we want to consider a group that depended on Saddam, throughout the years he was in power, and then announces that it wants to play the role of lobbyist to Washington. Is this the alternative to the Iranian regime? A lobby group in Washington’s hands?

++ Mayor of Khalis in Diyala province, Uday Al Khadran, called on the Iraqi government to conduct an urgent investigation after advanced telecom devices hidden in a food convoy were seized at Camp Ashraf where just under 100 MEK loyalists remain. He said the way the devices had been hidden demonstrated an intention to use them for unlawful activities.

++ Nejat Society wrote an open letter to French National Assembly member M. Pascal Deguilhem, who is slated to speak at the MEK rally in Villepinte on June 22. The letter reminds him of the situation of people trapped in Camp Liberty and concludes, ‘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.’

June 14 2013

June 19, 2013 0 comments

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