Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

When Is a Terrorist Group Not a Terrorist Group?

The People’s Mujahedin of Iran, aka MEK, has long been designated as a terrorist group by the State Department. However, it was removed from the EU’s terrorist list in 2009, and there’s When Is a Terrorist Group Not a Terrorist Group?considerable controversy over whether MEK should continue to receive that designation from the United States. Today the group claims to be nonviolent and to represent a "parliament-in-exile" opposed to the current Iranian regime.

Nonetheless, it does in fact remain an officially designated terrorist organization in the United States, and providing material support for a designated terrorist group is illegal. As Glenn Greenwald points out today:

In June, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 6-3 ruling in the case of Holder v. Humanitarian Law. In that case, the Court upheld the Obama DOJ’s very broad interpretation of the statute that criminalizes the providing of “material support” to groups formally designated by the State Department as Terrorist organizations. The five-judge conservative bloc (along with Justice Stevens) held that pure political speech could be permissibly criminalized as “material support for Terrorism” consistent with the First Amendment if the “advocacy [is] performed in coordination with, or at the direction of, a foreign terrorist organization” (emphasis added). In other words, pure political advocacy in support of a designated Terrorist group could be prosecuted as a felony—punishable with 15 years in prison—if the advocacy is coordinated with that group.

You may think this was a bad ruling. But a ruling it is, and it’s the law of the land. And yet, a large cast of worthies, including Rudy Giuliani, Howard Dean, Michael Mukasey, Ed Rendell, Andy Card, Lee Hamilton, Tom Ridge, Bill Richardson, Wesley Clark, Michael Hayden, John Bolton, Louis Freeh, and Fran Townsend have actively lobbied for MEK and have apparently done it in coordination with MEK’s leadership.

So shouldn’t this be against the law? Glenn, in particular, calls out Townsend, former Homeland Security Advisor under George Bush, who was a vocal supporter of the Humanitarian Law ruling. She actively supports MEK, yet appears to be under no threat of prosecution from the Obama Justice Department. Glenn again:

An NBC News report from Richard Engel and Robert Windrem in February claimed that it was MEK which perpetrated the string of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, and that the Terrorist group “is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service” (MEK denied the report).

….Even the dissenters in Humanitarian Law argued that the First Amendment would allow “material support” prosecution “when the defendant knows or intends that those activities will assist the organization’s unlawful terrorist actions.” A reasonable argument could certainly be advanced that, in light of these recent reports about MEK’s Terrorism, one who takes money from the group and then advocates for its removal from the Terrorist list “knows or intends that those activities will assist the organization’s unlawful terrorist actions”: a prosecutable offense even under the dissent’s far more limited view of the statute.

Discuss! Is support for MEK allowed because (a) their patrons are VIPs, not random Muslim schmoes, (b) MEK’s allegedly lethal activities are aimed at Iran, which everyone thinks is wink-wink-nudge-nudge just fine, or (c) because there’s some legitimate legal issue that distinguishes what Townsend and Rendell are doing from other cases of material support that have been prosecuted in recent years? I’d be genuinely curious to hear the other side of this argument.

By Kevin Drum , Mother Jones

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The MEK; Baath Party Accomplice

Are MEK Politicos Taking Saddam Hussein’s Blood Money?

There are many misconceptions about the MEK so I checked in with several Iranian born experts on Iran. All of them are distressed that American politicians are advocating for the MEK. They also Laura Goldmandoubt that the money paid to the politicos comes from the Iranian Diaspora because most expatriate Iranians do no support the MEK.

Raisool Nafisi, a Washington political consultant, said, "The MEK is a terrorist group. It is a cult of religious automatons. MEK is a terrible dictatorship, whose culture requires complete worship of its leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. The Rajavis require complete subservience and strictly control the thinking, activities and dress of MEK members. Members are punished if they try to leave."

Reports from Rand and Human Rights Watch corroborate that the MEK abuses its own members.
Are MEK Politicos Taking Saddam Hussein's Blood Money?
He continued, "MEK, a leftist theocracy, would be worse than the present regime. Americans that are supporting MEK because of their antipathy towards the current regime and their rumored involvement with the Israelis are being extremely short sighted. If they gained control of Iran, they would create anti-democratic regime."

Rendell may actually be taking blood money from Saddam Hussein.

Nafisi said, "When the head of the Iraqi Secret Police was interrogated, he confessed that Saddam Hussein was giving the MEK $30 million a month, more than $350 million in total."
Nafisi steered me to the previous New York Times reporting on the MEK. "The New York Times accurately described the conditions in the camp and the treatment of women."

That New York Times reporter, Elizabeth Rubin, who toured the camps and wrote an extensive magazine article on the MEK, has condemned in recent days the recent outpouring of support for the group.

Trita Parisi, who wrote “Treacherous Alliance-The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States” and “A Single Roll of the Dice-Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran," said, "US officials recently confirmed to NBC News that the MEK is carrying out assassinations against Iranian scientists, directly contradicting the MEK’s claims to have forgone terrorism and violence. The report also cites law enforcement who say ‘in 1994, the MEK made a pact with terrorist Ramzi Yousef a year after he masterminded the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.’ According to officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity,Yousef built an 11-pound bomb that MEK agents placed inside one of Shia Islam’s greatest shrines in Mashad Iran on June 20, 1994. At least 26 people, mostly women and children, were killed and 200 wounded in the attack."

Laura Goldman, Naked Philadelphian

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Iraq

Iraqi Campaign to Collect Signatures for MKO Trial, Expulsion

A nationwide campaign has started in Iraq to collect one million signatures from Iraqi nationals to call for the trial of the members of the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as the MEK and PMOI) and accelerate their expulsion from Iraq. Iraqi Campaign to Collect Signatures for MKO Trial, Expulsion

According to a report published by the Habilian Association, a human rights group formed of the families of 17,000 Iranian terror victims, the Association of Justice to Defend Iraqi Victims of MKO declared that the first stage of the signature gathering campaign in Diyala province has finished with a total of 40000 signatures.

Secretary-General of the Association of Justice Dr. Nafie Isa told Habilian that the result of the process in other provinces will be announced and made public in the coming days.

Owing to the people’s significant participation, the executive committees of the campaign in other provinces have announced the need for more signature forms.

Hitherto, many university professors and school teachers, young people, university students, tribal elders, politicians, artists, women, and civil society activists in Diyala province have signed the campaign.

The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s.

The MKO is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.

Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.

The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of 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 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 also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

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Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Women, the Scapegoats of Rajavi’s Cult

Female MKO members are easy scapegoats to be victimized by the cult of Rajavi
Women, the Scapegoats of Rajavi’s Cult
It is a global responsibility to support women vulnerable to any form of threat and the international woman’s day is the best occasion to remind the responsibility. But it is much discouraging when you see that the she-guru of a notorious terrorist cult takes advantage of the occasion to conceal her group’s ill-mannered, undemocratic fashion.

In a conference held in Paris on March 10, Maryam Rajavi made a speech in the presence of women gathered from several continents and called for support of female members of the group settled in two locations in Iraq, the military camp of Ashraf and the Temporary Transit Location TTL. The conference was held at a time when the majority of the group’s female members, nearly one third of it, are suffering the harsh conditions and treatments of the recognized terrorist cult.

In her speech, Rajavi said: “Women in MKO suffer crushing physical and psychological pressures under the hollow slogans of being the pioneers and heroines of freedom and democracy”. There is no doubt about the first phrase of her sentence, but, alas, the bare truth about MKO is that “freedom and democracy” have no meaning and place.

In the contemporary history, no cult has overexposed women using them instrumentally as much as MKO. Although Mojahedin have adopted the false ideological and strategic slogan of setting women free form social, conventional, religious, and historical bonds, yet in practice women have been subject to a kind of modern slavery under the cover of freedom through mental and physical convincing mechanisms. Massoud Rajavi, the absent leader of the group, has focused all his efforts in recent years to misuse various social, cultural, religious, and ethical backgrounds to subjugate women. In this regard, he has exploited the emotional attachments and nature of women as well as their ethical, religious, and traditional constraints to increase their dependence on the organization preventing their leaving from the organization.

Meanwhile, promoting women in leadership cadre of the organization is one of the tricks for intensifying the various aspects of this slavery. In the context of a modern slavery bastion, as MKO leaders acknowledge, the main role of MKO’s female rank and file is to be used as human shields for protecting leadership. The published expose and memories by the separated members indicate that the women in MKO have been abused as easy and accessible instruments in the hands of Rajavi to be victimized whenever necessary. Up to that time their role is safeguarding the military bastion of Ashraf as the ideological and strategic container of MKO.

However, the issue of misusing MKO female members has been ignored due to Rajavi’s covering it under the banner of the emancipation of women. The former members have repeatedly referred to the significance of women for Rajavi. He is well aware that the special characteristics of these women like their emotional attachments, lack of support and ethical and religious constraints has excluded the possibility of their leaving from the organization. Besides, they are under the instilled spell of an imaginary threat if they leave the organization. Maryam Rajavi is right when she says “Women in MKO suffer crushing physical and psychological pressures”, yet here the question arises that who poses these pressures and threats?

During the earlier events and conflicts in camp Ashraf, it was observed that these women were used as human shields to prevent the entrance of Iraqi police to camp and also to win the sympathy of the world toward the residents. What is of the significance in the full-scale propaganda blitz of MKO is the insistence on the necessity of saving the life of women members, while hardly you can see any move by the organization to guarantee the welfare, security and freedom of female members. And how many women have been spotted among the two relocated groups from Ashraf to TTL while, as asserted by almost any international convention, the sick people, women and children have the priority of any relocation from a harsh to a better location?

As the female MKO members are easy scapegoats to be victimized, Rajavi seems to be determined to preserve them as human shields for defending Ashraf. In this regard, taking necessary measures for setting Rajavi’s victims free from cultic relations is of highest priority for Iraqi government and the international bodies. And our main responsibility is making the public opinion and the concerned bodies aware of this imminent disaster. MKO female members have been the most ill-fated and vulnerable stratum of the cult of Mojahedin in the past and recent years and now after years of suffering and misuse, they are supposed to be used as Rajavi’s bargaining chips out of any encountered impasse.

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

UN & Obama Supporting Islamo-Marxist Terror Group MEK in Iraq

The Obama administration and top former officials are reportedly violating federal law by offering support to the Iranian Mujahedin-e Khalq , a notorious Islamic-Communist terror group that has murdered senior American personnel and is officially designated a “foreign terrorist organization” by the U.S. State Department.

The U.S. government is, among other support measures, currently helping to relocate members of the MEK to a former American military base in Iraq. It is also assisting the group to settle around the world as refugees in a controversial deal brokered with help from the new Iraqi regime and the United Nations.UN & Obama Supporting Islamo-Marxist Terror Group MEK in Iraq

Outraged critics called the administration’s support for the terrorist group an act of “high treason” and “overt criminality.” But paid lobbyists, including politicians and top U.S. officials, have been waging an intense propaganda campaign on behalf of the MEK.

Incredibly, the organization’s supporters claim the transfer of MEK members to the former American base is unacceptable. The terror group’s leadership and its allies are demanding that members either be allowed to stay where they are or be relocated near the Jordanian border instead.

Several thousand members of the group had been living for decades near the Iranian border in Iraq’s “Camp Ashraf,” which analysts and officials have described as a militarized "cult" compound. And from 2003 until recently, the terror group was there under the protection of American forces.

The protection agreement with the U.S. government came after the group lost its former protector, Saddam Hussein, in the wake of the American invasion. Now, however, U.S. forces are officially out of Iraq and the new regime is supposed to be in charge.

Iraqi officials have recently tried — unsuccessfully — to evict the terror organization’s members from the camp. The efforts resulted in bloodshed, according to news reports. But the process of moving them finally began last month and is now well underway.

In an alleged bid to avoid further confrontations between the terror group and the new regime ruling Iraq, months of negotiations between the UN and American and Iraqi officials resulted in a plan to transfer the MEK members temporarily to “Camp Liberty,”[TTL] a former U.S. military base near Baghdad.

The terror group and its prominent American lobbyists, however, are crying foul, describing the former American installation — which was certified by the UN — as a sort of “substandard” prison. And an international controversy of sorts about the issue is growing.

The MEK, also known as the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), was founded in a bizarre effort to blend economic Marxism with the values and beliefs of Islam — and impose the system by force. The group also helped Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during the Islamic revolution that overthrew the U.S. government-backed Shah of Iran. But the warm relations soured soon after that.

America and capitalism have historically been the organization’s primary enemies. Violence and terror, meanwhile, were the means used to wage war. But after a series of terror attacks within Iran left top officials and hundreds of others dead, the Iranian regime unleashed a crackdown — attempting to dismantle the terrorist network once and for all.

The MEK was eventually designated a foreign terrorist organization in 1997 under the Clinton administration. But in recent years, the terror group has toned down its anti-American rhetoric and adopted a friendlier public-relations approach — spending millions of dollars on lobbyists and even dabbling in politics. Supporters hope to have the U.S. terror designation dropped eventually.

The group’s history, however, includes assassinations of more than a few senior U.S. military personnel, terror attacks on American installations, murder of civilians, and much more. Iranians and Iraqis have been victimized even more frequently.

The designated terrorist organization once fought alongside Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s forces too, collaborating with the tyrant against the Iranian regime in the Iran-Iraq war. It even helped Hussein to quash domestic dissidents within Iraq as well.

Iraqis and Iranians, of course, remember the MEK’s partnership with the former despot in suppressing uprisings by rebel groups and slaughtering Iranians. And the bitter memories have led to growing hostility against the terror group among Iraq’s new rulers.

Since Hussein was overthrown by U.S. forces, the new government in Iraq has also become increasingly close to the Islamic regime in Iran. So, a conflict has erupted over the status of MEK members living inside Iraq as officials demand that Camp Ashraf be permanently shut down.

In recent weeks, convoys comprised of several hundred MEK members each have started arriving at Camp Liberty [Temporary Transit Location] from the group’s previous paramilitary compound near Iran. The second group of about 400 arrived last week. And thousands more are expected in the not-too-distant future.

Meanwhile, U.S. taxpayers are reportedly paying to improve the terror organization’s new temporary residence while the UN works to shuttle them out the country. According to news reports, the MEK members are supposed to be processed at Camp Liberty[TTL] as they await UN-sponsored relocation to other countries as refugees.

But the group’s leaders and their well-paid Western lobbyists have asked for Iraqi law enforcement and security personnel to be expelled from the camp while demanding upgrades to the facilities. And they have found sympathetic supporters around the world.

The Islamo-Marxist terror organization — which much of the press now identifies as a group of “dissidents,” “exiles,” and “refugees” — has especially found favor among advocates of war and regime change in Iran. Numerous reports and experts say the U.S. and Israeli governments have actually been working directly with the group for years, in violation of federal laws, to assassinate Iranian scientists, gather intelligence, and even carry out terror attacks on various targets.

But of course, Obama administration officials would hardly be the first to violate U.S. laws — which the Supreme Court upheld at the government’s request — by supporting the designated terror organization. Top neo-conservatives such as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and ex-Attorney General Michael Mukasey have been lobbying feverishly on behalf of the group too, along with a broad roster of former politicians and U.S. officials.

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, ex-Homeland Security boss Tom Ridge, former FBI chief Louis Freeh, ex-CIA Director Porter Goss, former National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones, former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, and many other prominent Americans have joined the battle to aid the MEK as well. So have officials throughout Europe.

And over the last few months, a strange brouhaha has erupted between the Obama administration and the MEK’s highly placed roster of vocal lobbyists. Instead of focusing on the fact that it is a serious breach of federal law to provide virtually any form of support to a designated terrorist organization, former U.S. officials are alleging — very loudly, even purchasing full page ads in major newspapers — that the federal government is not doing enough to coddle the terrorists.

An article in Foreign Policy, citing an anonymous Obama administration official working on the issue, reported that the terror group is actually trashing Camp Liberty itself in a bid to make conditions appear worse than they are. The official also said the MEK’s high-profile U.S. lobbying activities are making it more difficult — potentially even dangerous — for the Obama administration to properly help the terrorists reach “good solutions.”

“We have a plan that has a chance to work and the Iraqis want it to work,” the administration source was quoted as saying. “Whether the MEK wants a resolution or wants a confrontation is something we’re still debating. It’s that bad."

Apparently investigators with the U.S. Treasury Department’s terror branch have started to probe at least one former official for accepting the terrorist group’s money in exchange for lobbying. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell said recently that he received a subpoena seeking documents related to his ties with the MEK.

A Treasury spokesman refused to either confirm or deny that the department was investigating. “But the MEK is a designated terrorist group, therefore U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with or providing services to this group,” the spokesman was quoted as saying by the Washington Times, which broke the story on March 9.

As part of the covert war on Iran, the U.S. and Israeli governments have reportedly been arming, training, and funding the MEK for years — as well as other known terror groups such as the al-Qaeda affiliate known as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) during the recent “regime change” in Libya. And providing support to a designated foreign terrorist organization remains a serious crime, punishable by steep fines and long prison sentences. Whether anyone will be held accountable, however, remains to be seen.

by Alex Newman , The New American

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The MEK Expulsion from Iraq

Diyala Residents Urge Immediate Expulsion of MKO from Iraq

The residents of Diyala province in Iraq condemned the crimes committed by the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as the MEK and PMOI) against the Iranian and Iraqi nations, and underlined the necessity for the rapid expulsion of the terrorist group from Iraq.

Several people from Diyala province have sent an email to Habilian declaring their displeasure over the MKO terrorist group’s presence on their territory.

According to a report published by the Habilian Association, a human rights group formed of the families of 17,000 Iranian terror victims, the email contains images of large signboards installed along the roads of Diyala province opposing the presence of Mujahedin-e Khalq terrorist group inside their country.

The message reads, "On behalf of the residents of Diyala, we confirm Iraqi government’s decision to expel Monafeqin-e Khalq (as they are called in Iraq). We urge the government to clean our holy land from their presence.
A group of professors, scholars and tribal sheikhs and the residents of Baqubah, Iraq."

The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.

Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.

The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of 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 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 also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s.

Iraqi security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) North of Baghdad – in 2009 and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.

The Iraqi authority also changed the name of the military center from Camp Ashraf to the Camp of New Iraq.

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Iraq

Iraq reaffirms resolve to expel MKO

Iraqi Vice President Khudayr al-Khuzaie has reiterated the resolve of Baghdad in its decision to expel the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group, describing its members as Iraq reaffirms resolve to expel MKO‘persona non grata’.

We insist on the expulsion of the terrorist group from Iraq, al-Khuzaie said, adding that the MKO members are not considered guests, but “persona non-grata”.

The Iranian terrorists, who fled to Iraq in the mid-1980s after conducting many terrorist operations against the country’s officials as well as ordinary citizens, also committed numerous crimes against the Iraqi people and helped executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to suppress several uprisings in the country.

Al-Khuzaie also referred to the cooperation between Iraq and the United Nations with respect to the MKO’s expulsion from Iraq, adding that Iran has expressed its willingness to receive those members of the terrorist group that are willing to abandon terrorist activities and return to Iran.

Earlier in September, the Iraqi government and the United Nations reached a deal, under which they agreed to relocate 3,400 MKO members living in Camp Ashraf, near Baghdad, until their refugee status is determined.

Nearly 750 members of the MKO expressed preference to return to Iran. The Islamic Republic had announced that it would pardon all the residents of Camp Ashraf except less than 100 individuals that have criminal records in the country.

The MKO is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and is responsible for numerous acts of terror and violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.

Iran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the group, but the US has blocked the expulsion by mounting pressure on the Iraqi government.

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The cult of Rajavi

The Suffering Souls that Profit

Death of MKO members grants the group an opportunity to make further excuses

According to released news by MKO’s media, a member of the group, Nour Mohammad Biranvand, died of hepatic failure in the New Iraq Camp (Camp Ashraf). Confirming the report, an Iraqi Security source told AlIraqinews (AIN) that “The element died for heart failure.” The group claims that he was long suffering the disease and inaccessibility to specialist hospital and doctors was the cause of his death.

The death of any resident within Ashraf or TTL before anything is the result of the group’s procrastination to relocate and it grants the terrorist group an opportunity to make further excuses and to condemn the Iraqi Government. Besides putting the blame of any death on the Iraqi Government at the present, any death means a gained victory for MKO rather than a human soul perished long away from his/her family.

The Iraqi Government has never denied the residents access to medical services in Iraq. However, as a closed cult, MKO insists to send accompanying observers along with any patients that is to be taken out of the camp to any medical center, an outright violation of a country’s codes. A cult is never expected to care the least for its entrapped members as it is the case with MKO. The responsibility is on the Iraqi Government to expedite the members’ relocation to TTL, where they will get a step nearer to the free world.

On last Thursday, Diyala Operations Command announced the transferring of the second group of the MKO elements which involved 400 elements to TTL. Although MKO played for the time, at last it had to submit to move the second group. It is not clear how long the group intends to prolong its stay in Ashraf, but one thing is crystal clear; there remain less than two months to hit the deadline for complete closure of Ashraf and its departure from Iraq.

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Ed Rendell, Investigated In MEK Speaker Fees, Backs ‘Terrorist’ Group

WASHINGTON — Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell acknowledged this week that the Treasury Department is investigating payments he accepted to speak in support of an Iranian exile group on the U.S. government’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Groups in the U.S. related to Iran’s Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) have spent millions on highly paid American speakers, including Rendell, as part of a lobbying campaign to remove the group from the foreign terrorist organizations list. It’s illegal for U.S. citizens to accept payment from foreign terrorist organizations.

Rendell, a Democrat, defended his acceptance of payments from MEK-related groups, even after the Washington Times reported that federal agents subpeonaed financial records last month from his agent, William Morris Endeavor.

Rendell said his support of the MEK was an issue of conscience, not simply a chance for him to make easy money. "I did my research extensively on this issue before I ever agreed to speak on it," he told the Washington Times. "And I am 100 percent convinced that the MEK shouldn’t be on the foreign terrorist organization list." Rendell left office in January 2011 after two terms as Pennsylvania governor. He has since joined a number of investment groups and appears regularly on MSNBC. Before he was elected governor, he was chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He couldn’t be reached Monday by The Huffington Post.

Rendell’s "extensive research" claim appears to contradict what he told the audience at his very first MEK-related speaking engagement — a July 16 conference at the Willard Hotel in Washington attended by this reporter. There, on a bipartisan panel of former administration officials, all receiving at least $20,000 for their appearances, Rendell said he had received the speaking invitation only five days before. Typically, top-tier speakers like Rendell are booked months in advance.

When he first read the offer, Rendell said he told his representative to turn it down because, as he said, "I don’t know hardly anything about this subject." Rendell said he instructed his agent to send the message, "I would have loved to come, but I don’t think I’m qualified to come."

To Rendell’s surprise, sponsors of the MEK conference weren’t concerned with his lack of knowledge. Rendell said he was "compelled and interested by the level" of the other panelists, including Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, and Anita McBride, the former chief of staff to Laura Bush. This, Rendell said, was why "I decided to come down" to Washington.

In the four days between Rendell’s acceptance of the engagement and his appearance, he told the audience he had received information from at least four sources. "Firstly, from your representatives over the phone," he said. "Secondly, from the materials you sent me. Thirdly from a discussion [Howard Dean and I] had with some of your representatives earlier this morning. And fourthly, from listening to these panelists."

Since July, Rendell has received payment for at least six pro-MEK speeches in the U.S. and Europe — money he said comes from "citizens, both American citizens here and Iranian expats in Europe who believe in the cause.”

The MEK was founded in Iran in 1963, loosely based on Marxist principles. The group carried out bombings in Iran in the 1970s and 1980s, killing some Americans and prompting its inclusion on the U.S. foreign terrorist organizations list when it was first released in 1997.

Asked recently about the origins of the large payments the pro-MEK groups make for high-ranking former officials including himself, Rendell told the Washington Times he doesn’t actually know where the money originates, except that "there’s a very significant group of American citizens" who support the MEK. "How they pledge their money and send it in and aggregate it to pay us, I don’t know,” he told the newspaper.

Christina Wilkie

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Mojahedin Khalq, True Mercenaries

The media spotlight having uncomfortably focused on the MEK’s alleged involvement in Israeli linked assassinations of Iranian scientists in recent weeks, the MEK has given up for the timeMojahedin Khalq, True Mercenaries being on advertising for their original purpose of killing and martyrdom. Instead they have turned up the volume on what France 24 dubbed their ‘battle by press release’.

There can be few journalists in the world who have an interest in Iran and have not been subjected to the MEK’s famous confetti, or ticker-tape, campaign of press releases. After terrorism, the MEK’s expertise is in propaganda. (Being ridiculously well funded is of course another, lesser investigated area of this group’s range of expertise.)

Over in Iraq, long term home to the MEK’s foreign terrorist base, the group’s members – formerly known as Saddam’s private army – are being moved from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty(TTL) before they are removed from Iraq altogether.

In response to this imagined affront, the MEK has pursued two tactics in its battle by press release – the first was to demand they be sent to a defunct refugee tent camp at the Jordanian border – and in direct contradiction to this to bleat about the terrible inhumane conditions at Camp Liberty (TTL) – former home to up to 5,000 US army personnel, which must surely earn the MEK the new soubriquet of the ‘MEK Princess Corps’.

But as the pleas for help have fallen on deaf ears and its camp looks set for closure, the MEK has more recently woken up to the need to distract from this existential crisis.

They have turned up the volume of press releases. But that is not all, taking a cursory look at the articles and stories engendered by this exercise, we see that the MEK is apparently advising anyone and everyone on what should be done about Iran. You would imagine the MEK is the expert of choice on everything to do with Iran.

But on closer scrutiny it is clear that none of this advise has come from the MEK’s own analysis or knowledge or from any verifiable or valuable information sources inside Iran – which the MEK simply does not have.

Instead the plethora of messages all contradict one another.

In one article the MEK swears at Nouri al Maliki accusing him of being an ‘agent of the Iranian regime’. Then in another article they refer to him as ‘brother al Maliki’. On one hand the MEK are aligned to Israel, at the same time they are associated with Saddamists from the former Iraqi dictatorship regime. The MEK have been linked with Mossad and the CIA, and also allegedly work with Iran’s ultra right intelligence gangs.

In Washington D.C. the MEK cosy up to the neoconservatives, Israeli lobby and regime change pundits to press for military strikes and war against Iran. The MEK’s black/white version of events infects the Republican electoral campaign with a crass warmongering stance.

Conversely, in Europe and the Persian Gulf States, where such a stance is highly unpopular, the MEK instead claim that the sanctions are working and that they should be given a chance to work further. The Democrats must be pleased to hear such posturing echoing way over across the ocean.

The MEK vilify the Green Movement but praise them as well.

If these contradictions arose from a clever manipulation of world politics they might be worthy of note. But this must be the only mercenary group in the world which offers its services to all sides of the equation, including those which are deadly enemies. Instead of the soft hum of smooth politicking, all we really hear is the loud ‘kerching’ of more money landing in Rajavi’s coffers.

Maybe this is why the MEK have so rapidly lost credence and relevance in the Iran debate – even those who use them are discovering they really can’t be trusted.

Anne Singleton, Author of "The life of Camp Ashraf" and "Saddam’s Private Army"

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