Massoud Rajavi

European intellectual views on the Cult of Rajavi_Part 6

Dena Peace and Freedom Association interviewed a European intellectual on the Cult of Rajavi(MKO/MEK). Ms. Shemeltz who is an expert and scholar on psychotherapy has personal and scientific experience about cults.
As the representative of Dena Peace and Freedom Association, Mr. Mohsen Abbasslou talked with the honorable expert, Ms. Shemeltz.
European intellectual views on the Cult of Rajavi_Part 6
Mr. Abbasslou: Dear Ms. Shemeltz, as a person who is familiar with the cults and their functions, do you think we should feel pity for Mr. Rajavi?

Ms. Shemeltz: personally, I really feel pity for such a person, I’m so sorry for him.

Mr. Abbasslou : Ms. Shemeltz, I got shocked by your answer. Do you really feel pity for a criminal?

Ms. Shemeltz: yes, it is with a great sorrow that an individual has to commit so many criminal acts in order to please himself and to survive. Yes, I feel pity for Mr. Rajavi and also for his victims.

What makes me upset is that a human being has such capacities and there is no mechanism or practical solution to control him. In the world of business many people like that such individuals exit. Individuals like Massoud Rajavi bring benefits to many and are considered as a source of making a living and achieving benefits.

Rajavi is an example. Anyway, he is a human being. The sufferings he caused to his victims impose pressure on his inner self more than anyone else. It may seem bizarre but people like Rajavi feel the suffering of his victims more than anyone else.

Victims have gone but the pain exists in the sole of Rajavi. Rajavi still feels pain, his pain is more than anyone else because he has victimized hundreds of people and their families. His pain and sufferings are more than anyone else.

Mr. Ababsslou: dear Ms. Shemeltz, I couldn’t get what you exactly mean! Do you mean than MR. Rajavi suffers from his victims’ sufferings?

Ms. Shemeltz: Mr. Rajavi is a miserable person. He cannot see others’ sufferings because his own sufferings are more than anyone else. He is deeply drowned in his tormenting world. He views himself a sun that gives life to the earth. He views himself the centre of the world.

He cannot realize what the origin of this negative feeling is. He is kind of dramatized human being living in a shock. He has always been involved in this shock and cannot get out of it. He is looking for the origin of this shock. He is seriously busy with himself.

Mr. Rajavi has had a good picture in the mirror of the society. He definitely has been a charismatic personality for his followers who have not simply diagnosed his psychotic desease. I guess that so far no one has seriously and deeply investigated or analyzed Mr. Rajavi’s mental problem.

First of all, we should know Mr. Rajavi to know the cult under his control. Understanding people like Mr. Rajavi is a complicated task requiring detailed scientific research and studies. As I said none of the above mentioned theories are precisely right; they are just theories. To suggest an exact argument about Mr. Rajavi, He should be monitored in a treatment center under our control. I wish I could talk to him. I wish he would write his opinions if he read the interview.

Mr. Rajavi is able to move other’s feelings. He can manipulate their feelings and emotions taking them out of normal condition and make them decide and move in favor of his own goals and ideas.

To be continued

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Iraqi Authorities' stance on the MEK

Iraqi MP Lashes out at UNAMI for Failure to Expel MKO

A member of Iraq’s Islamic Virtue Party (al-Fadhila Party) described the steps taken by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) to expel the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, PMOI and NCRI) from Iraq as "very slow and insufficient."

According to Habilian Association, Susan Al-Sa’ad criticized UNAMI for its failure in finding a third country for the resettlement of the MKO members in Iraq.

The Iraqi lawmaker called on the United Nations to expedite expulsion of MKO members from the Arab country.

Welcomed by the former Iraqi dictator in 1980s, the terrorist MKO assisted Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran and suppression of Iraqi Kurds.

After some three decades of their stay in Iraq, the remaining members of the terrorist MKO in Iraq had been relocated to a former US military base near Baghdad’s International Airport for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to determine their refugee status.

Albania was the first country who volunteered to accept over 200 members of the MKO. However, MKO turned down the offer in a bid to keep its strength in numbers and hold over rank and files, as Soraya Sepahpour, an independent researcher and political analyst has said.

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Former members of the MEK

MKO office in US, violation of international law

Victims of Mojahedin Khalq Terrorism: ‘MKO office in US, violation of international law’

The families of the Iranian victims of terrorism have condemned the opening of an office by the terrorist Mujaheeden-e Khalq Organization (MKO) in Washington as a violation of international law.MKO office in US, violation of international law

“The Mujaheeden-e Khalq [Organization] is a terrorist group in the real sense of the word,” the Tehran-based Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism wrote in a letter to US President Barack Obama.

Pointing to the dictatorial nature of the group, the letter said Maryam Rajavi has led the terrorist group for over 18 years, adding that, “The structure of the organization is completely devoid of democratic principles and is run in a completely dictatorial fashion. [Its] members do not have any say in determining policies and approaches.”

“The claims of such a group about human rights and democracy, when it does not respect the most basic needs of its members and does not care for democratic principles in managing its own internal affairs, are not genuine,” the letter further read.

The MKO’s office, located a block from the White House, was officially opened on April 11 only months after the United States formally removed the anti-Iranian group from the US State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.

The MKO was taken off the State Department’s blacklist on September 28, 2012.

This was while the terrorist group has carried out numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.

Out of the 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, some 12,000 of them have fallen victim to acts of terror carried out by the MKO.

The MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where it received the support of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up its camp near the Iranian border.

Members of the MKO terrorist group were later transferred from Camp New Iraq, formerly known as Camp Ashraf, which is situated about 120 kilometers (74 miles) west of the border with Iran, to Camp Liberty near Baghdad Airport.

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Enemy of my enemy?

In from the cold, and now on Pennsylvania Avenue just a block from the White House!Enemy of my enemy?

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella group that includes an armed wing (Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK), opened its new Washington office Thursday.

A fierce foe of the Tehran government, the group — which the regime brands a violent cult — had been on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations since 1997. The NCRI hasn’t been able to operate in this country since 2003.

There had been 3,000-plus MEK members in Camp Ashraf in Iraq near the Iranian border. The MEK turned over its weapons to the Army — and has rejected violence, an NCRI official told us. But pressure from Iran led the Iraqis to close the camp recently and move the MEK closer to the capital — where they get hammered regularly by mortar fire. (The group’s leadership is based in Paris.)

A lengthy lobbying and legal campaign — backed by folks such as former U.N. ambassador John Bolton; Rep. Dana Rohrabacher; former presidential candidates Newt Gingrich (R), Rudy Giuliani (R) and Howard Dean (D); and former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell — eventually forced the State Department to remove the organization from the terrorist sponsor list.

NCRI officials noted that Bolton, former Obama national security adviser Jim Jones, former congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and other backers attended the opening of the office of what’s now styled as “Iran’s parliament-in-exile.”

By AL Kamen, (In the loop)

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Hassan Dai

NIAC to Appeal Cost Sharing Decision in Lawsuit Against Daieoleslam

NIAC Statement

Washington, DC – Today, Judge John Bates issued a cost sharing opinion in NIAC’s defamation lawsuit against Seyyed Hassan Daieoleslam. Although Daieoleslam failed to demonstrate that his accusations against NIAC were true, Judge Bates ordered that NIAC bear some of the discovery costs. NIAC has already filed an appeal of this order.

NIAC brought the lawsuit against Daieoleslam in response to his false accusations that the organization was a lobbyist for the Iranian Government. Once in front of the court, Daieoleslam had the opportunity to make his case for the truth. Instead, he changed his tune and did not seek to argue that his accusations were correct and truthful. He essentially abandoned the truth and instead argued that NIAC could not prove that he knew what he was saying was false, i.e. malicious. While we believe the evidence clearly showed that Daieoleslam knew he was lying, based on his systematic disregard for truth, neglect of readily available information that contradicted his conspiracy theories, declaration that he aimed to “destroy NIAC” in order to “bring down Obama,” as well as his support for the Mujahedin-e Khalq terrorist organization, the Judge felt this didn’t meet his standard and denied us the opportunity to take Daieoleslam in front of a jury.

Judge Bates provided Defendant with unfettered access to all of NIAC’s computer systems, and yet Defendant was unable to produce a single shred of evidence to substantiate his false allegations. Daieoleslam retreated from his outrageous claims when challenged to back them up in court and instead hired a million-dollar defense team backed by pro-war neo-cons and engaged in creating false and nonexistent discovery issues to facilitate exorbitant costs for NIAC. Ultimately Defendant filed a motion for cost sharing, seeking to shift Defendants wasted efforts in discovery to NIAC. Judge Bates found no evidence that NIAC intentionally destroyed electronic documents or manipulated electronic documents improperly despite Defendant’s misrepresentations to the Court of the contrary.

How did Daieoleslam–a self-described independent journalist–put together a million-dollar legal defense team?

He didn’t.

It has been revealed that the Middle East Forum–a neoconservative group at the center of the push for broad sanctions and war–financed Daieoleslam’s legal efforts as part of a campaign to prevent anti-war Iranian-Americans from having a voice in Washington DC.

That group’s reactionary founder, Daniel Pipes, is one of the most outspoken advocates for war with Iran and an aggressive critic of efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear challenge peacefully. Pipes has called for the U.S. to “empower Iranians” by working with the Mujahedin-e Khalq. In 2009 he famously said Iranians should vote for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and reject the Green Movement to make war more likely. Pipes’ most recent work, in addition to his legal campaign on behalf of Daieoleslam against NIAC, has focused on trying to prove that President Obama is a “closet Muslim.”

The legal team financed by Pipes’ organization attempted to bury NIAC in a long and cumbersome discovery process. As part of that process, they leaked NIAC emails and documents to neoconservative reporters ideologically opposed to NIAC’s anti-war agenda. Yet, even after combing through all of NIAC’s emails and documents in the discovery process, they could not produce a single shred of evidence to support any of Daieoleslam’s false accusations.

The fact that a multimillion-dollar legal team could not find a single piece of evidence that NIAC has lobbied for the Iranian government is a public vindication against this outrageous accusation. This should discredit once and for all the politically motivated attacks against NIAC and expose the true aim behind these smears: to silence Iranian Americans who oppose war and crippling sanctions.

However, NIAC strongly disagrees with the decision to share the costs of this process. NIAC should not bear any responsibility for Daieoleslam’s failure to produce any evidence to back up his egregious claims as well as his grotesquely disproportionate and wasteful discovery tactics. As such, NIAC anticipates that a D.C. Circuit panel will recognize that Judge Bates’s cost-shifting orders contained multiple errors and therefore should be reversed or vacated.

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Wiped from terrorist list, Iranian group hires former senator as lobbyist

An Iranian opposition group that was once considered a terrorist front by the State Department has hired an ex-senator to lobby for them.Wiped from terrorist list, Iranian group hires former senator as lobbyist

Former Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) has registered to represent the National Council of Resistance of Iran at his lobby firm Rosemont Associates, according to lobbying disclosure records.

The council’s members include the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), which was removed last year from the State Department’s terrorist organization list after an aggressive lobbying campaign by its supporters.

Torricelli has been lobbying for the council since April 2, according to his registration. The ex-senator has been providing consulting services and strategy advice while meeting with “other supporters of the Iranian resistance in the United States” and “U.S. government and congressional officials.”

The lobbying registration also says Torricelli “provides public speaking services abroad for the client, as requested.”

Speeches by high-profile Washington figures like Torricelli played heavily in the campaign to delist the MEK. The push included legal action, television ads and lobbying by Iranian-American groups.

Speaking fees paid by MEK supporters to former government officials — including ex-Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and Gen. Hugh Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — reportedly attracted the attention of federal investigators. Taking payments from a terrorist group is against the law.

The MEK was blamed by the State Department for several attacks in the 1970s that killed Americans in Iran. But the group’s supporters say it has since renounced violence and worked to promote democracy. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton removed the MEK from the terrorist list last year.

On Thursday, the council re-opened its Washington office after the U.S. government closed it down a decade ago. Several prominent Washington names attended the opening ceremony, including Torricelli.

By Kevin Bogardus

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Iranian ‘ex-terrorists’ open downtown Washington, DC office

The National Council of Resistance of Iran has opened shop just a stone’s throw from the White House — and only months after being removed from a US State Department list of designated terrorist groups.

The Washington Post reports that the NCRI, an organization of Iran exiles considered terrorists by the State Department between 1997 through 2012, has officially begun operating out of a downtown Washington, DC office building.

“Once-banned Iran exile group opens office a block from White House,” reads the Post article from Thursday afternoon.

The NCRI had been barred from operating within the United States since 2003, but a campaign that drew the attention of some high-profile American politicians in recent years helped have their name removed from the same Department of State roster that contains foreign organizations including al-Qaeda, Hamas, the Palestine Liberation Front and the Army of Islam.

Critics of the NCRI have called the group a front for the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, or MEK, the group of Islamic Marxists that helped violently overthrew the Pahlavi Shah during a 1979 revolution in Iran and was credited with killing six American citizens that decade. As recently as 2002, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation told the State Department that ‘‘[i]t is the unanimous view of the FBI personnel who are involved in and familiar with the FBI’s investigation of the [MEK] that the NCRI is not a separate organization, but is instead, and has been, an integral part of the MEK at all relevant times.’’

“Contrary to NCRI’s portrayal of itself as an umbrella organization, of which the MEK was just one member, the FBI concluded that it is NCRI that is ‘’the political branch,’” the agency found at the time.

A decade later though, a group of influential politicians including former UN ambassador John Bolton, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California), presidential candidates Newt Gingrich (R), Rudy Giuliani (R) and Howard Dean (D) rallied on behalf of the NCRI to have their name removed from the State Department list.

"Have you ever seen a more bipartisan disciplined group as the one that supported this issue?" asked lobbyist Victoria Toensing of DiGenova & Toensing when she weighed in on the NCRI to US News & World Report last year.

Now that the organization formerly considered terrorists has been given the go-ahead to operate in the US, they’ve opened their doors alongside the rest of the powerful lobbying groups that litter downtown DC’s K Street district.

“The MEK are Iranians who desire a secular, peaceful, and democratic government,” Rep. Rohrabacher told the Post last year as the State Department considered their appeal. “Nothing threatens the Mullah dictatorship more than openness and transparency.”

Others haven’t been as certain, though, and cite a number of incidents credited to MEK throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, including an attempted attack in 1992 against the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York City.

NCRI officials speaking to the Post confirmed that Bolton and a handful of others — including former Obama National Security Adviser Jim Jones — attended the grand opening of the group’s new DC office, styled as “Iran’s Parliament-in-exile.”

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

For former Iranian ‘terrorists,’ a warm Washington welcome

With Washington luminaries in attendance, the Iranian dissident group NCRI and its formerly armed wing MEK inaugurated their sleek new offices Thursday, within sight of the White House.

An Iranian dissident group that languished on the US list of terrorist organizations for more than a decade under both Democratic and Republican administrations marked its full rehabilitation Thursday when it opened sleek new offices – complete with floors covered by plush Persian carpets – within sight of the White House.

Just how stunning the reversal of fortunes has been for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and its formerly armed wing, the Mojahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, was underscored by the long list of Washington luminaries who attended the office inauguration.

From prominent former members of Congress to former national security officials and high-profile diplomats, the caliber of the American advocates on hand for the ribbon-cutting demonstrated how effective the Iranian opposition organization has been at transforming its image – from that of a fringe group with a violent past to one in which it is the embodiment of the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people.

Referring to the NCRI’s platform, which states as its goal the fall of the ayatollahs’ regime and the establishment of “a free, secular, democratic, and non-nuclear Iran,” Gen. James Jones, who served as President Obama’s first national security adviser, described the objectives as “completely in sync with our core [American] values.”

That is a remarkable turnaround for a group that President Clinton placed on the list of terrorist organizations in 1997 – ostensibly as a result of the one-time Marxist group’s violent acts, including against Americans, but by some theories as part of a campaign to pave the way to negotiations with the Iranian regime.

Whatever the reason, the terrorist designation stuck through the Bush administration and was only lifted by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton last September after a long court battle.

Others on hand to fete the Iranians’ new status included former US ambassador to the United Nations and Bush administration diplomat John Bolton, former Sen. Robert Torricelli (D) of New Jersey and former US Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D) of Rhode Island, and P.J. Crowley, a former assistant secretary of State for public affairs who served under Hillary Clinton.

Several Republican members of Congress who have lobbied on the group’s behalf sent their regrets at being unable to attend but sought to mark the occasion through letters or by dispatching staff to the opening.

Mr. Crowley, now a teacher of diplomacy and global communications at George Washington University, hailed the NCRI as the “better option’ for “democratic change” in Iran when stacked up against the alternatives.

“When change comes to Iran,” Crowley said, “it will be the NCRI that brings in that change.”

Yet despite the group’s Washington makeover, not everyone is convinced that the Paris-based organization, which some critics slam as a cult enthralled with leader Maryam Rajavi, is the opposition that many Iranians see as the ideal alternative to the Islamic revolution.

The MEK’s fighters are still hated by many Iranians for living in exile in Iraq under the protection of Saddam Hussein – and for having allegedly fought on Iraq’s side in the Iran-Iraq war. Hundreds of those fighters still live precariously in camps in Iraq, with their security and well-being a passionate issue for prominent advocates like General Jones.

Some US critics of the NCRI say there are no grounds for believing the group has anything of a positive image, let alone actual support, in Iran. Going further, they point to the high speaking and lobbying fees that some of the group’s prominent American advocates have reportedly been paid as evidence of Washington support that is only dollars-and-cents deep.

But the dignitaries at Thursday’s inauguration – described by Ambassador Bolton as “a distinguished bipartisan group, a rare occasion in Washington these days” – said they were on the NCRI’s side because they see it as Iran’s best hope for attaining freedom.

Senator Torricelli compared the NCRI in 2013 to when the “Free French” opened an office in London in 1940. “Maybe a lot of people didn’t notice,” he said, but the French resistance would go on to play a crucial role in France’s liberation.

The NCRI, with a new office in Washington, can start down that same path, he said, adding, “I’m proud to be a soldier in that struggle.”

By Howard LaFranchi, Staff writer

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The cult of Rajavi

Memoirs of Nasrin Ebrahimi, MKO ex- member_Part 5

Nasrin Ebrahimi is a former member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, who fled the group in 2006. She was one of the first survivors of the Cult-like MKO who dared to reveal the corruption of the leaders of the group. She was the first person to speak of the “Summit Operation” which was a cult jargon through which a large number of female members of the group became infertile by Hysterectomy surgery.
Nim Negah Website is publishing series of interviews with Ms. Ebrahimi. Nejat society translated excerpts of her memoirs of the sufferings of living in the MKO cult.

Consequences of Emotional Suppression

After a few months, they held a meeting in women base where Maryam Rajavi discussed a very bizarre case. “When we separated you from men, we got rid of the main threat but now we are facing another serious threat,” she said. ”this time the problem is among women!” It was too difficult for me to understand what she meant as I had never come across such a case. “In the absence of men, women may want to satisfy themselves with one another,” Maryam continued.

“Women have no right to have friendly relationships. They mustn’t be kind to each other. They should criticize each other. They should destroy the relationships that have been created in the absence of men”, ordered Maryam Rajavi.

Well, the truth is that you cannot separate men and women otherwise you are fighting a Rule of Nature. When Rajavi omitted such a natural relationship, the negative effects appeared in both men and women […]
 

Considering such facts, the authorities frequently changed members’ responsibilities so that they could not be with certain comrades more than a few months […]

Special sessions were held for women. During the session, women had to read reports on their sexual relationships. Then they would verbally abuse each other in order to grow hatred between themselves.

You may not believe that in the female base, women were not allowed to wear open collar or short sleeve dresses. […]

If you take a look at women in Camp Ashraf, you would find that their faces were sad, bored, exhausted and often angry, violent and tough. Suppressed sexual desires caused hormonal problems that would in turn cause low-temper and depression.

The story of painful consequences of suppressing sexual desires in Camp Ashraf does not include one or two cases; it includes.

[…] There were men who escaped from their base after mid-night and would come around women bases so that they could find a woman alone outside the base.

There were numerous cases of the above mentioned stories. For instance, a young man was found around our guarding post. The women treated him like a murderer. He was terribly beaten by the women. I never found him guilty. In my opinion, he had done nothing wrong. I believed that it was Rajavi’s fault. With every cry of pain by the young man I cursed Massoud Rajavi for the crimes he committed against his own members. Those poor youth were deceived to join the horrible castle of Ashraf in the hope of living a better life in Europe!

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO’s online fundraising; an approach to money laundering

Mujahedin-e Khalq organization (MKMKO's online fundraising; an approach to money launderingO, a.k.a. MEK and NCRI) has launched a page on its website recently, which is dedicated to receiving money from the website visitors titled as “donation”.

This seems to be a notable act since MKO’s traditional approaches of fundraising in the European countries still stand on place. These fundraisings are usually undertaken under the cover of charity works and titled as “social-financial” activities. The group’s TV channel also launches programs named “collaboration” to achieve the same goal.

Many former MKO members, who have defected from the cult, believe the money that the MKO receives from such activities, is not sufficient even for covering a small part of the group’s expenses; recruiting lobbyists from around the world, organizing various conferences on different occasions and the money spent on other activities to promote their goals, are just a portion of their costs.MKO's online fundraising; an approach to money laundering

On the other side, knowing the cult doesn’t enjoy the support of a lot of people who are willing to financially support it, and also that most of their supporters are living outside Iran and it has been a long time since they have been made to pay the group an amount of money monthly, a question is raised about the nature of such an activity at this moment.

There is an initial assumption which is mainly coming from the cult’s critics and its defected members, which is that after Saddam’s fall and the cessation of Ba’ath regime’s financial support, the MKO is now facing a financial crisis and is trying to compensate for it in every possible way including the online fundraising.

But as mentioned before, since the MKO doesn’t enjoy the public support, it won’t be able to raise much money through this means. Although it is a fact that the MKO is suffering from a financial crisis, it doesn’t seem the main reason behind the group’s online fundraising is dealing with the crisis.

On the other hand, since it is possible to create various virtual accounts using different IPs from several countries in the internet, and there are many complicated ways to make the donors look a lot, online fundraising is a good approach for covering the cult’s money laundering activities and also a good way to hide the real sources where the MKO is receiving its money from.

One of the most challenging problems the MKO is now facing, is that the group’s bank accounts and financial transactions are under constant surveillance in Europe and that is why the cult’s ringleaders are trying out all the possible ways to hide their sources of receiving money which are mainly composed of smuggling and illegal businesses.

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