- Americans terror delisting the Mojahedin Khalq is a cynical sham
- By Delisting the MEK, the Obama Administration is Taking the Moral and Strategic Bankruptcy of America’s Iran Policy to a New Low
- What’s new at Camp Liberty in Baghdad?
- Families from Kermanshah and Lorestan enter camp Ashraf, Iraq
- Hamed Moradi escape Camp Liberty
The decision of the US State Department to remove the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from its list of foreign terrorist organizations created an atmosphere of ambivalence particularly in 
the West. Public opinion in the West may face contradictory ideas regarding the decision. On the one hand well-paid supporters of the group view the decision as “correct” but “overdue” ,on the other hand, there are experts and journalists and of course Iranians who view it as an evidence of American double standards and hypocrisy.
Regardless what people –pros or cons –may think of the apparent reality: a group is no more considered “terrorist”, the true substance of the MKO as well as many other cult-like groups does not change. In the world of “legal” or “illegal”, “bad” or “good”, “terrorist” and “freedom fighters”, conventions never tell the truth.
Even in the Press Release of the spokesperson’s office of the DOS, you may see the ambivalence in the published decision:”With today’s actions, the Department does not overlook or forget the MEK’s past acts of terrorism, including its involvement in the listing of US citizens and an attack on US soil in 1992. The Department also has serious concerns about the MEK as an organization, particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members.”[1]
While the DOS says”Yes” to the MKO, there is a “No” in the background informing its decision. It seems that the US government is not able to fully commit to that “Yes”. This was also implied in comments of a US official who spoke to Barbara Slavin and Laura Rozen of Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. They wrote in their piece titled” Iran Group MEK’s Delisting Does not Signal US Approval, ”The US official added that taking the MEK off the terrorist list would not connote US government approval. Responsible for the deaths of half a dozen Americans in the 1970’s and for killing hundreds of Iranians after 1979, the MEK is widely regarded as a cult that demands that its followers stay celibate and obey the commands of Mariam Rajavi, the wife of MEK leader Massoud Rajavi, whose whereabouts are unknown.”[2]
Another US official assured Elise Labott who first published the news of delisting on CNN, that US government is concerned about the group’s bad reputation. “While they represent themselves as a legitimate democratic group worthy of support, there is universal belief in the administration that they are a cult”, the official told CNN.”A delisting is a sign of support or amnesia on our part as to what they have done and it does not mean we have suddenly changed our mind about their current behavior. We don’t forget who they were and we don’t think they are now who they claim to be, which is alternative to the current regime.”[3]
One of the authors of the famous RAND report on the MKO, published in 2009, is Christina Wilkie who is also a Huffington Post correspondent. She has a different analysis on the group delisting. As she has widely investigated on the MKO and as she says she’s been reporting on the group for the Huffington Post, she has been threatened by members of the group and her email was hacked by them. However, she believes that the DOS’s “decision was a good one.” She makes it clear that she believes the MKO is a “militant cult of personality” and she doesn’t trust them but Clinton delisted them because she “understands that they’re a dangerous cult, and that all the other potential outcomes of the 30-year standoff between the MEK and the outside world would have likely been much, much worse.”[4]
Wilkie thinks that on top the list of risky MKO functions was mass suicide and to stop such a tragedy,” Clinton only had one major bargaining chip. In exchange for leaving Camp Ashraf, the secretary agreed to delist the group from the U.S. list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations,” this way she saved the lives of “ thousands of brainwashed MEK foot soldiers”.[5]
At least Wilkie admitts that the State Department officials feel some ambivalence about the terrorist substance of the cult of Rajavi: ”But the question facing secretary Clinton wasn’t whether the MEK could be trusted,” she writes. “Or even if the MEK’s members were still dangerous. Privately, US officials don’t pretend to know the answer to either one.”[6]
It seems that no pretext can ultimately enclose the dual approach of the US administration. In a Mint Press article, the author Martin Michaels describes the terror listing or delisting of Foreign Terrorist Organization as paradoxical. He refers to US administration’s decision to classify Wikileaks as the enemy of the State comparing the decision to that of delisting the MKO. He concludes, “The Selective branding of Wikileaks, the MEK or other organizations align with the interests of the US while the MEK may share some of the same goals, namely, regime change in Iran, the labeling indicates an underlying desire to justify alliances in the name of security.”[7]
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] US Department of State, Delisting of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, Office of Spokesperson, September 28, 2012
[2]Slavin, Barbara & Rozen, Laura, Iran Group MEK’s Delisting Doesn’t Signal US Approval, Al Monitor, Septemeber2, 2012
[3] Labott, Elise, Clinton to remove Iranian exile group from terror list, CNN, September 21, 2012
[4]Wilkie, Christina, MEK is Bad News, But Delisting Them Was A Good Decision, the Huffington Post, October 1, 2012
[5]ibid
[6]ibid
[7]Michaels, Martin, Wikileaks And The MEK: The Paradoxical Labeling Of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, Mint Press News, October 1, 2012
The US follows a new version of policy by delisting the convicted murderers of Americans
Some believe that the lobbying effort by current and former US officials led to the removal of the 
Mojahedin Khalq Organization MKO/MEK/PMOI from the State Department FTO. Others say it was a result of huge sums of spent money and another party affirms it was a decision by the US State Department in order to clear legal obstacles in the way of overtly arming and funding the terrorists in pursuit of a proxy war with Iran. Covert support for the blacklisted MKO has been ongoing since long under the Bush administration, and as Seymour Hersh’s “Preparing the Battlefield,” reported, MKO had been considered a possible proxy armed and financed to wage war inside Iran:
“The M.E.K. has been on the State Department’s terrorist list for more than a decade, yet in recent years the group has received arms and intelligence, directly or indirectly, from the United States. Some of the newly authorized covert funds, the Pentagon consultant told me, may well end up in M.E.K. coffers. “The new task force will work with the M.E.K. The Administration is desperate for results.” He added, “The M.E.K. has no C.P.A. auditing the books, and its leaders are thought to have been lining their pockets for years. If people only knew what the M.E.K. is getting, and how much is going to its bank accounts—and yet it is almost useless for the purposes the Administration intends.”
Granting that all these reasons are somehow justifiable to remove MKO from the FTO blacklist, the main question raised is why was the group ever put on the list? Maybe many Americans are unaware of the fact that MKO was initially formed as an anti-American militant group chanting anti-imperialist slogans and focusing all its might to fight and terminate any US-led economic and military enterprise in Iran at any price, even by murdering or sabotage activities.
According to the recorded facts on which the State Department relied to blacklist MKO, regardless of carrying out decades of brutal terrorist attacks, assassinations, and espionage against the Iranian government and its people, the group had targeted a number of Americans inside Iran including the attempted assassination of USAF Brigadier General Harold Price, the successful assassination of Lieutenant Colonel Louis Lee Hawkins, the double assassinations of Colonel Paul Shaffer and Lieutenant Colonel Jack Turner, and the successful ambush and killing of American Rockwell International employees William Cottrell, Donald Smith, and Robert Krongard as well as attempted kidnapping of US Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II.
The Iranian people need no justification for the US- made decision to delist MKO as they still and forever despise its ring-leaders as traitors and terrorists. But how the US can present any justification for the duplicity of unleashing the murderers of its own citizens while they were serving their country in another land is another question for the Secretary of the State to answer. Is it a new kind of policy to differentiate between American citizens? American people still remember, if the current and former officials have forgotten, that at the time an American military operation was attempted to put an end to the hostage crisis and to rescue the Americans held at the US Embassy in Tehran. Noteworthy, the hostage crisis was also intensified by the very same members of MKO who played their role to aggravate the situation to turn it into a real crisis. In its new version of policy, the US lets the killers and terrorists, according to released factsheets, free as a humanitarian bid!
If that is how Washington insiders care for the nation, and if interfere in other countries is a priority over internal and national interests, then, in whom should American people trust for national security and protection?
Department of State Public Notice 8050 dated September 21, 2012, reads thus:
In the matter of the designation of Mujahadin-e Khalq, also known as MEK, also known as Mujahadin-e Khalq Organization, also known as MKO, also known as Muslim Iranian Students’ Society, also known as National Council of Resistance, also known as NCR, also known as Organization of the People’s Holy Warriors of Iran, also known as the National Liberation Army of Iran, also known as NLA, also known as National Council of Resistance of Iran, also known as NCRI, also known as Sazeman-e Mujahadin-e Khalq-e Iran, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Pursuant to Section 1[b] of Executive Order 13224, as amended. Acting under the authority of Section 1[b] of Executive Order 13224 of September 23, 2001, as amended ]"the Order’] I hereby revoke the designation of the entity known as the Mujahadin-e Khalq, and its aliases, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist pursuant to Section 1[b] of the Order. This action takes effect September 28, 2012.
Hillary Rodham Clinton,Secretary of State
With this stroke of the pen, as it were, the United States removed from its global terrorist list an 
organization—Mujahedin-e Khalq [MEK]—that had been listed since 1997. A shadowy outfit, MEK’s delisting was the result of a full-court press by a bipartisan group of policy influentials, including General Hugh Shelton, former chairman of the joint Chiefs of Staff; Lee Hamilton, former congressman from Indiana; Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico; General Wesley Clark, former supreme commander of NATO; and Louis Freeh and Michael 
Hayden, former directors of the FBI and CIA, respectively.
In a speech at a conference in February 2011, Governor Richardson urged that MEK should be removed from the terrorist list : "This is a movement that doesn’t want any money. This is a movement that doesn’t want weapons," Richardson declared. "This is a movement that just wants to be allowed to roam, to do your democratic thing." Equally opaquely, General Shelton said at the same event: "When you look at what the MEK stands for, when they are antinuclear, separation of church and state, individual rights, MEK is obviously the way Iran needs to go."
On one level, the ostensible reason for the United States’ delisting is that the Iraq-based MEK is a force in exile dedicated to removing the current regime in Tehran. As General Shelton added, "By placing the MEK on the FTO [Foreign Terrorist Organizations] list we have weakened the support of the best organized internal resistance group to the most terrorist-oriented anti-Western world, anti-democratic regime in the region." In the zero-sum game of U.S.-Iran relations, there appears to be, then, a certain logic to the move. It is illuminating, however, to take a closer look at this movement, through the eyes of some individuals lesser known than the heavyweight list that supports their cause, but who might just be in a position to know more about it. These would include Ray McGovern, an ex-CIA operative, who said of the MEK: "Why the U.S. cooperates with organizations like the Mujahedin, I think, is because that they are local, and because they are ready to work for us. Previously, we considered them a terrorist organization. And they exactly are. But they are now our terrorists and we now don’t hesitate to send them into Iran….for the usual secret service activities: attacking sensors, in order to supervise the Iranian nuclear program, mark targets for air attacks, and perhaps establishing secret camps to control the military locations in Iran. And also a little sabotage."
Or, from Karen Kwiatkowski, formerly with the Department of Defense: "MEK is ready to do things over which we would be ashamed, and over which we try to keep silent. But for such tasks we’ll use them." (For both these quotes, see "US Government’s Secret Plans for Iran," by Markus Schmidt, John Goetz, WDR TV, Germany, February 3, 2005).
And what exactly are these "tasks"? According to the State Department’s original statement designating MEK as a terrorist organization (in 1997, when the Clinton administration was trying to engage Iran), MEK instigated a bombing campaign, including an attack against the head office of the Islamic Republic Party and the Prime Minister’s office, which killed some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar. In addition, MEK assassinations range in date and targets from U.S. military personnel and civilians in the 1970s (hence the original terrorist listing) to, almost certainly, the killing of at least five leading Iranian nuclear scientists in recent months.
Complementing the lethal violence of the MEK is the organization’s bizarre internal dynamic. Elizabeth Rubin of The New York Times visited its Camp Ashraf headquarters in Iraq in 2003, and, in the course of the drumbeat of support for de-listing, posted an article in the Times on August 13, 2011, "An Iranian Cult and its American Friends." Herein she describes a—"cult" is the only appropriate term—headed by a woman named Maryam Rajavi and her husband, Massoud. What she relates is eerily reminiscent of the doomed Jim Jones cult in Guyana in the 1970s—"a fictional world of female worker bees…staring ahead as if they were working at a factory in Maoist China….Friendships and all emotional relationships are forbidden. From the time they are toddlers, boys and girls are not allowed to speak to each other. Each day at Camp Ashraf you had to report your dreams and thoughts….After my visit, I met and spoke to men and women who had escaped from the group’s clutches. Many had to be reprogrammed. They recounted how people were locked up if they disagreed with the leadership or tried to escape; some were even killed."
So far, this is only a Jim Jones situation—which is bad enough—in that the tragedy affected only the cult’s members. But, as Rubin also reports:
During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the group served as Saddam Hussein’s own private militia opposing the theocratic government in Tehran. For two decades, he gave the group money, weapons, jeeps and military bases along the border with Iran. In return, the Rajavis pledged their fealty.
In 1991, when Mr. Hussein crushed a Shiite uprising in the south and attempted to carry out a genocide against the Kurds in the north, the Rajavis and their army joined his forces in mowing down fleeing Kurds. Ms. Rajavi told her disciples ‘Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.’ Many followers escaped in disgust.
Rubin concludes: "MEK is not only irrelevant to the cause of Iran’s democratic activists, but a totalitarian cult that will come back to haunt us."
All of which begs the pressing question: Why the policy reversal? And why now? There are at least three reasons, from the pragmatic to the venal. First, MEK’s presence in Iraq has been a growing source of tension between the host country’s Shia government and the United States. As a 2009 Rand Corporation report ("The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq: A Policy Conundrum") says:
From the early weeks of Operation Iraqi Freedom [OIF] until January 2009, coalition forces detained and provided security for members of the MEK, an exiled Iranian dissident cult group living in Iraq. From the outset of OIF, the MEK was designate d a hostile force, largely because of its history of cooperation with Saddam Hussein’s military in the Iran-Iraq war and its alleged involvement in his suppression of the Shia and Kurdish uprisings that followed the Gulf War of 1991.
The Rand report goes on:
The coalition’s decision to provide security for a foreign terrorist organization was very controversial because it placed the United States in the position of protecting a group that it had labeled a terrorist organization. Among many resulting complications, this policy conundrum has made the United States vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy in the war on terrorism.
The Nour Al- Maliki government in Iraq, therefore, wanted the MEK out; but only by offering the prospect of de-listing could the Obama administration persuade its rogue protectee to leave Ashraf peacefully, as it has now done, to be processed for resettlement by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Second, the dance with the MEK is a commentary on our lack of engagement with Iran, despite early promises for such by President Obama. According to a blog posting of September 24, 2012, by Leila Kashefi, a Washington-based Iranian-American human rights activist: "It has been incredible to watch members of a designated terror group walk the halls of Congressional office buildings, mingling with Hill staffers and representatives. ‘The only Iranians we see are the MEK’, said one staffer."
Third—and this is the least salubrious factor in the de-listing—despite General Shelton’s protestations to the contrary, the MEK both wants and gets money, and uses it strategically. How exactly the group receives its support is a murky, perhaps impenetrable question. A report by the UK daily, The Guardian ("Iranian exiles, DC lobbyists and the campaign to delist the MEK," September 21 2012) attributes this to "a formidable fundraising operation and campaign to transform the MEK’s image led by more than 20 Iranian-American organizations across the US. These groups and their leaders have spent millions of dollars on donations to members of Congress, paying Washington lobby groups and hiring influential politicians and officials, including two former CIA directors as speakers." As the Financial Times summed up in a recent editorial (Mujahedin mistake," September 25, 2012) "MEK has found the best friends money can buy". (As a footnote, it goes without saying that neither of these press organs is typically amicably disposed toward the Iranian regime.)
Others have been skeptical about the role of expatriate groups—citing their characteristic frugality! Another, perhaps fanciful, explanation has been the largesse of Saddam Hussein toward MEK in the 1990s, and shrewd stewardship of his funding. Or perhaps the multiple aliases—self describing as "freedom fighters" or "democracy" activists—have diversified the funding options. Whatever the nature of the money trail, according to the Guardian report, "Several prominent former officials have acknowledged being paid significant amounts of money to speak about the MEK. The former Pennsylvania governor, Ed Rendell, has accepted more than $150,000 in speaking fees at events in support of unbanning the MEK." (Others who have accepted fees include Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, and Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City. See, for example, "Iranian group’s big-money push to get off US terrorist list," Christian Science Monitor, August 8, 2011.) Nor do these friends in court appear overly concerned with a process of background checking: For Representative Dana Rohrabacher, "If they want to contribute to me because I believe strongly in human rights and stand up in cases like this, that’s fine. I don’t check their credentials." [Guardian]
Finally, what are the consequences of the step to delist the MEK? In practical terms, the liberation will enable the MEK to lobby the U.S. Congress for support in the same way as the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 allowed the Iraqi National Congress led by the exiled Ahmad Chalabi to do so—a monumental policy error that led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. In this regard, history, as we know all too well, has a habit of repeating itself. Some 30-odd years ago, we saw the mujahedin of another state as "allies" in a cosmic struggle. Welcome to the Afghanistan of the Taliban, three decades on. It is the old adage "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" taken to absurd extreme.
Lest there are doubts about the adverse ethical as well as policy consequences, consider the response from the National Iranian American Council [NAIC], an organization opposed to the current regime, dated September 21, 2012:
The NAIC deplores the decision to remove the MEK from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations. This decision opens the door for Congressional funding of the MEK to conduct terrorist attacks in Iran, makes war with Iran far more likely, and will seriously damage Iran’s peaceful pro-democracy movement as well as America’s standing among ordinary Iranians. The biggest winner today is the Iranian regime, which has claimed for a long time that the U.S. is out to destroy Iran and is the enemy of the Iranian people.
All in all, a sad saga—one of taking the moral low ground in pursuit of dubious policy objectives. Let us give the last word to the Financial Timeseditorial, which sums it up rather well:
"The US government’s decision to take Mujahedin-e Khalq, the exiled Iranian organization, off its list of terrorist groups is a vivid example of the influence of money and lobbying in Washington. At worst it highlights the analytical fog that clouds many US policy heavyweights’ view of Iran."
By David C. Speedie , Carnegie Council
•Islamist-Marxist terrorist group that seeks to topple the Iranian regime
•Served Moscow as a source of information on Iran during the Cold War
•By the late 1980s, created a 10,000-strong fighting force in Iraq to aid Saddam Hussein
Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or MEK (a.k.a. Iranian Mujahedin Khalq, or IMK, and Mujahedin al-Khalq Organization, or MKO) is an Islamic-Marxist sect that has been trying to topple Iran’s governing regime since 1981. (It is most commonly known by the acronym MEK.) MEK was classified as a terrorist organization by President Bill Clinton in 1997, and five years later the European Union followed suit.
MEK is led by the husband-and-wife team of Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi. Massoud Rajavi heads the organization’s military forces. Experts say that MEK has increasingly come to resemble a personality cult that is devoted to Mr. Rajavi’s secular interpretation of the Koran and is prone to sudden, dramatic ideological shifts. Mr. Rajavi was last known to be living in Iraq, but his current whereabouts are unknown. His wife Maryam, who hopes to become President of Iran someday, is MEK’s principal leader. Born in 1953 to an upper-middle-class Iranian family, she joined MEK as a student in Tehran in the early 1970s. After relocating with the group to Paris in 1981, she was elected its joint leader and later became deputy commander-in-chief of its armed wing.
MEK has a network of sympathizers in Europe, the United States, and Canada. The group’s political arm, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, maintains offices in several capitals, including Washington, DC. MEK’s membership has dwindled since about 2001, and the organization is currently believed to have some 10,000 members in its ranks; one-third to one-half of these are fighters.
MEK, whose name means “People’s Combatants,” was established in 1965 after a split in a Marxist-Leninist movement that had waged a guerrilla action in northern Iran. Its founders were college-educated Iranian leftists opposed to the country’s pro-Western ruler, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Its ideology emerged as a mix of Islam and Marxism, with influence as well from the Iranian religious sociologist Ali Shariati, who advocated an “Islam without a clergy.” With KGB help, MEK engaged in a campaign against the Shah and sent cadres to Cuba, East Germany, South Yemen, and Palestinian camps in Lebanon to train as guerrillas.
Vladimir Kuzishkin, a former KGB head in Tehran, reveals in his memoirs that MEK became a major source of information on Iran for Moscow. It also helped Moscow in its efforts to thwart U.S. influence in Iran. In 1970 and 1971, MEK murdered five American military technicians working with the Iranian army. An MEK team tried to kidnap U.S. Ambassador Douglas MacArthur III in Tehran. The attempt failed and the MEK leader, Massoud Rajavi, was given a death sentence, later commuted thanks to a plea to the Shah from Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny.
During Iran’s 1978-79 turmoil, MEK played an active role in helping Ayatollah Khomeini come to power. Its squads burned cinemas, restaurants, hotels and bookshops, and they murdered policemen. After Ayatollah Khomeini took control of the government, MEK worked to radicalize the regime, supporting the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Yet within a year, MEK — now led by Massoud Rajavi, who had been released from prison during the revolution — decided that the Ayatollah Khomeini regime was not revolutionary enough and had to be toppled; there ensued a terrorist operation against the regime, and it continues to this day. In 1981, MEK was driven from its bases on the Iran-Iraq border and resettled in Paris, where it began supporting Iraq in its eight-year war against Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran. In 1986, MEK moved its headquarters to camps in Iraq near the Iran border.
By 1988, MEK had created in Iraq a 10,000-strong fighting force that helped Saddam Hussein in his genocidal campaign against the Kurds, and would also help him crush the Iraqi Shiites in the south in 1991. MEK maintained a reciprocal relationship with Saddam, whose regime was the main source of MEK’s financial support. (Saddam also provided MEK with bases, weapons, and protection.) To raise additional funds, MEK used front organizations such as the Muslim Iranian Student’s Society to collect money from expatriate Iranians and others. MEK also organized an asylum seekers’ campaign – sending 40,000 Iranians to Europe in exchange for their “voluntary contributions” of up to $10,000 apiece.
New MEK recruits.. traditionally have been indoctrinated and prevented from developing normal relationships outside the organization. Their children are not permitted to attend school, but must be educated at home.
During the Iraq War in 2003, U.S. forces cracked down on MEK’s bases in Iraq, and in June of that year French authorities raided an MEK compound outside Paris and arrested 160 people, including Maryam Rajavi. These authorities accused MEK of conspiring to finance and carry out acts of terrorism from the organization’s French base. All the suspects, including Rajavi, were subsequently released.
Acts of violence linked to MEK over the years include:
• The series of mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids during 2000 and 2001 against Iranian government buildings; one of these killed Iran’s chief of staff.
• The 2000 mortar attack on President Mohammad Khatami’s palace in Tehran
• The February 2000 “Operation Great Bahman,” during which MEK launched 12 attacks against Iran
• The 1999 assassination of the deputy chief of Iran’s armed forces general staff, Ali Sayyad Shirazi
• The 1998 assassination of the director of Iran’s prison system, Asadollah Lajevardi
• The 1992 near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and institutions in 13 countries
• Assistance to Saddam Hussein’s suppression of the 1991 Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish uprisings
• The 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party and of Premier Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, which killed some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei and Bahonar
• Support for the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by Iranian revolutionaries
• The 1970s killings of U.S. military personnel and civilians working on defense projects in Tehran
DiscoverTheNetwork.org
Even after being removed from the blacklist MKO has not actually got any job done
In one of the famous fables of the storyteller, Aesop, it goes: “A very deep and frightening sound began emanating from Mount Ida (the birthplace of Zeus). The earth commenced to tremble and shake — and huge boulders flew off the mountain top into the sky.
It seemed as if the mountain was about to give birth.”
“The population was terrified and ran for shelter — trembling in fear.”
“The sky blackened and the thunderous sound from the sacred mountain became even worse. Finally, an earthquake more violent than any ever-before it, set everything in motion — and in one terrifying moment, the mountain’s peak split wide open!”
“The people all got down on their knees and began to pray. Some fainted from fear. Others couldn’t take their eyes off the mountain — wondering how this terror would end.”
“Suddenly the roaring, the shaking, and the shocks just stopped. The whole Aegean region went silent.”
“Then, slowly, and with hardly a whisper of sound… out of the huge cleft in the mountain peak there slowly emerged… a tiny little mouse.”
A flashback to the decade-long campaign by Mojahedin Khalq Organization MKO/MEK/PMOI to be removed from the global terrorist lists, and particularly after the controversial POAC’s judgment to be removed from the EU blacklist, had convinced many misinformed that the world was neglecting and depriving itself of the great dormant potentiality in a pro-democratic organization! In fact, the political life of MKO especially after Massoud Rajavi’s retreat to hideout to let his phoenix of democracy, Maryam Rajavi, to hold sway a democratic tactic after a long frantic phase of terrorism, heavily depended on propaganda ploys. And it was following a rather long propaganda doldrums that the UK court ruling granted the organization‘s propaganda machine a recovering opportunity.
It started all with celebrating the court ruling along with Maryam Rajavi who in turn began extravagant performances of welcoming the decision and sending messages of congratulations. The scenario continued with repetitive, lengthy TV shows and analysis programs with a variety of analysts who suddenly turned to be experts in law and judiciary affairs. Practically, nothing great came out of the big drum they were beating.
And the greatest and final victory was achieved only a few weeks ago when the Department of Stale removed MKO from the global FTO. Then, what? A look at the group’s own TV and websites reveals nothing but jubilant drumming of being removed, celebrations and congratulations and welcoming of delisting by this and that dignitary and party. Just like many similar politicians and parties, regardless of their political weight and influence to cause any change, who promise big things and who bellow and roar but who don’t actually get the job done. Out of the all these brouhahas, lobbying activities and million dollar expenses many expected to see a single or tiny portion of countless promises for restoration of democracy and human rights, as the group claimed, fulfilled. The more we have waited the less we have seen a pup mouse emerging, let alone a tiny little mouse!
By N. Morgan
An Iranian lawmaker has condemned as “shameful” Washington’s decision to remove the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) from the US State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.
Fatemeh Alia, a member of National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iran Majlis (parliament), said Saturday that the US delisting the terrorist cell was no surprise to Iran.
On September 28, Washington formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations one week after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent the US Congress a classified communication about the move.
The Iranian lawmaker stated that the MKO receives orders from the US intelligence agency, CIA, Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, as well as the British intelligence agency, MI6, to carry out terrorist operations.
Members of the MKO, who had murdered over 17,000 Iranians since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, fled to Iraq in the 1980s, where they had the support of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and set up Camp Ashraf in the eastern province of Diyala near the Iranian border.
The terrorist group has carried out countless terrorist acts against Iraqi civilians.
Iran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the MKO, but the US has been putting pressure on Baghdad to resist the calls.
On Thursday morning, 11th October, just after midnight, one hundred MEK were taken from Camp Ashraf and transferred to Camp Liberty. The group comprised 92 men and 8 women.
On the afternoon of the previous day MEK combatants had launched an unprovoked attack on the families who are waiting outside the camp to find news of their loved ones. The MEK used catapults and slingshots to launch rocks and stones at the defenseless families, injuring some. Iraqi security forces intervened to protect them and pushed the MEK back inside the camp.
After the successful transfer of 100 more MEK to Camp Liberty, the Chief of Police of Diyala Province told reporters that tens of MEK still remain in Camp Ashraf and will be transferred as soon as is possible. He said that the people of Diyala Province want the MEK problem to be cleared up and the camp closed, emphasising that the MEK is a terrorist group and should be removed from the country.
Over the past few days many other Iraqi officials have spoken on this issue to emphasise that the Americans should take their favoured group out of the country. They stressed that Iraq cannot accept America’s terrorists to remain as guests indefinitely and be in a position to help the insurgency and interfere in the internal affairs of the country.
The Pakistani media disclosed that the US is training around 2,000 members of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as the MEK, NCR and PMOI) in special military camps in Afghanistan.
The Karachi-based Urdu daily ‘Ummat’ reported that US authorities have setup a training camp for people of MKO in city of Heart in Afghanistan.
According to the report, under the plan about 2,000 foreigners, mostly from Iranian origin are being training at ‘Shindand’ airbase in Heart bordering Iran.
The daily said, the plan to train the MKO people for destruction and violence inside Iran was suggested by Israel and the trained activists may launch their terrorist activities in Iran by next year.
The daily reported that under the deal with the MKO, US has removed sanctions against the key figures of the group including restrictions on their bank accounts and travel abroad.
The daily said, some of the members of the family of former king of Iran also have contact with MKO and they also wanted to station at an Iran’s neighboring country but could not achieve the goal.
The daily added, the former royal family members had secretly visited Afghanistan with the assistance of Sardar Abdul Wali, the son in law of Former King Zaher Shah in 2007 but soon after under the Iranian pressure, they escaped from Afghanistan.
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of European Union (EU) parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).
Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.
A May 2005 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.
Leaders of the group have been fighting to shed its terrorist tag after a series of bloody anti-Western attacks in the 1970s, and nearly 33 years of violent struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
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.
In recent years, MKO ringleaders have been lobbying governments around the world in the hope of acknowledgement as a legitimate opposition group.
The MKO spent huge sums of money over years lobbying for removal from the US terror list, holding rallies in European capitals and elsewhere that featured luminaries like former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge from the administration of George W. Bush. Former House Speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich was among those recently welcomed by the MKO to Paris.
The UK initiative, however, prompted the European Union to establish relations with the exiled organization now based in Paris. The European Court of First Instance threw its weight behind the MKO in December and annulled its previous decision to freeze its funds.
Late in September 2012, the US State Department removed the MKO from its list of foreign terrorist organizations. The decision made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton enabled the group to have its assets under US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with American entities.
The Dideban Strategic Institute says the remaining members of the Mojahadin Khalq 
Organization in Camp Ashraf are destroying documents related to the group’s terrorist activities.
According to a person who has staged a sit-in in front of the camp, the smell of burnt papers has been filling the air over the last nights which shows a huge amount of papers are being burnt out, the institute said in a report.
These people are also selling the property to customers at a discount of 40 percent, the institute’s correspondent in Iraq says.
The properties were given to the terrorist group during the Saddam regime as a reward for their mercenary acts.
The last big batch of the MKO left Camp Ashraf in northeast Iraq and arrived at Camp Liberty on Baghdad’s outskirts on September 16.
The MKO have carried out assassinations and bombings in Iran. Several thousand of its members were given sanctuary in Iraq by Saddam Hussein.
Camp Liberty was designed as a compromise way-station for the UN to speed the MKO members out of Iraq.
On September 28, the U.S. State Department formally removed the MKO from its official list of terrorist organizations, a move which prompted angry response from Iran.
The U.S. made the decision under the claim that the group has renounced violence.
Iranian Majlis speaker Ali Larijani recently said that the MKO is an accomplice in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists. He also said the decision showed that Washington is paying lip service to the campaign against terrorism.
In a commentary published in the Tehran Times on October 8, the former Iranian Ambassador to Iraq Hassan Kazemi Qomi said that the United States’ decision will have no impact on the public perception of the group as a notorious terrorist entity.
He stated that the move was a carbon copy of what the European Union did several years ago. He also said it is a clear example of the double standards the U.S. government applies in dealing with the issue of terrorism.