Mr. Mohammad Baqer Keshavarz, another defector of terrorist destructive cult of Rajavi, returned home on March 11th, 2010. He was welcomed by Nejat Society Gilan Branch.
The newly defected member, who had been forced to stay in Camp Ashraf under severe manipulative control system, seemed to be depressed and disappointed. He revealed some horrifying facts on cult-like relationships ruling Ashraf, which made the members of Nejat Society cry for their beloved ones still captured by Rajavi’s cult.
It is typical of the cult leaders to use rhetoric to demarcate the boundary for the critics, especially those who demonstrate signs of siding with the adversaries. Rajavi is not an exception at all. For him, as he has recently expressed in his message, the true critics are those who in no way take any side with the Iranian regime as the organization’s foe to be overthrown. As seen in his recent message, he once more focuses on this point saying:
We declare that everyone has the right to oppose NCRI or MKO and express its criticisms freely. But if it is manipulated as a means to overstep the demarcated line between MKO and the regime or to recognizing the legitimacy of some internal parties, we consider it a betrayal of the interests of the nation.
In simple words, Rajavi makes a new attempt to legitimize his critics and opponents just when they denounce the Iranian regime and maintain their siding with the organization. But it is a claim hard to believe since Rajavi, at least in his past 30-year long struggle against the Iranian regime, has never treated his critics with the least courtesy let alone to recognize them and their deed. However, his newly set criterion is founded on a mutual concordance, the prerequisite for which is recognition of Mojahedin’s rightful resistance and further distancing from the Iranian regime because, as he puts into words, “contravening this rightful resistance, under any subterfuge, results in nothing but the survival of the regime”.
Rajavi is well aware that he is talking nonsense for a critic cannot possibly take sides with the Iranian regime as well as Mojahedin at the same time. Besides, he has never welcomed the opponents of the regime who have also taken a different side with his organization. Clearly enough, those who have ever recognized the legitimacy of MKO and have submitted to the authenticity of its leadership fail to be true critics even if they have dared to say or write to question anything. In other words, any individual, regardless of the high or low political status he occupies, failing to be totally devoted to Rajavi is labeled an agent of the Iranian regime despite his opposition to the regime and he has to even pay costs for defending political rights of Rajavi. Here is an example.
It was revealed in early days after the Islamic revolution that Mehdi Bazargan, the late Provisional Government’s Primer, and Rajavi had frequent contacts. In spite of their disputes, Bazargan is said to have tried to convince Rajavi to support his government. However, the main point is that Rajavi does approve antagonizing Bazargan as the man of authority who once defended him as the nominee in the course of the parliament elections at the time:
Although we openly declared disputes with Bazargan in 1979-80, he supported me plainly in the second round of elections and made many troubles for himself while he was under many pressures after his dismissal as the Prime Minister.
Of course, this is not an assertion for appreciating the late Bazargan but further to state he had betrayed him and his organization by refusing the invitation to join the organization to fight in the same front against the regime. His hostility against Bazargan who had made full support of Rajavi in the early years of revolution while the organization had created many problems for his government is a good indication of the fact that Rajavi denounces whoever would decry his leadership authenticity. Consider that Rajavi claims Bazargan’s support was due to the principles of freedom and ethical considerations, then, has he to be blamed for rejecting Mojahedin’s invitation for the very same causes? It has to be pointed out that Bazargan never criticized the organization in his life; on the contrary, he supported them during 1980s and sometimes advised them from the stance of an experienced politician.
We are not concerned with Bazargan and his position in this discussion; here the aim is to prove that the slogans of Rajavi on being open to criticism and siding with the regime’s opponents are absurd and nonsense and sheer lip service. If he has any objection, he is invited to present just one example to have recognized critics who have made mild or sever criticism against Mojahedin’s leadership.
It is not the first time that MKO, and its leader in particular, falsely claims to have provided an open window for dissident members, critics, and even infiltrators to express their views and is showing the highest degree of tolerance compared with other revolutionary organizations. On the contrary, most former MKO members report instances of the organization’s duality in dealing with its critics. They acknowledge the fact that Mojahedin suppress dissident members by means of intimidation, torture, false accusations, contempt and other psychological pressures as well as being branded as the agents and traitors. None of the Rajavi’s plotted scenarios to pose a pro-democratic seem to be working especially when he tries to proselytize hostile attitudes towards critics.
The troubling history of Tea Party leader Dick Armey
As the Tea Party movement has gained momentum during the last 12 months, it seems few Tea Partiers have caught on to the troubling past of the man at the center of their movement: FreedomWorks chairman, former House Majority Leader and recently-retired lobbyist extraordinaire, Dick Armey.
As chairman of FreedomWorks, the group credited with mobilizing the Tea Party movement, Armey is the movement’s de facto leader. Yet Armey’s years spent lobbying for a group recognized by the State Department as being a terrorist organization—should give Tea Partiers pause.
In the weeks before April 15, 2009, local newspapers began reporting that groups calling themselves TEA, or Taxed Enough Already, were planning rallies to protest wasteful government spending. By the time Tax Day rolled around, over 300 protests were under way in all 50 states. More than 100,000 people took to the streets, gathered in parks and city centers with signs, slogans and costumes evoking America’s revolutionary past.
The protests have continued. On Sept. 12, 2009, Tea Partiers marched on Washington, D.C. From a podium at the base the Capitol Building, Armey addressed the crowd with his wife Susan by his side. They were standing there together, he said, for the future of their grandchildren.
At which point the crowd burst into the collective chant: “You lie! You lie! You lie,” echoing Rep. Joe Wilson’s (D-S.C.) outburst during Obama’s address to Congress two days earlier.
Armey went on to lead the masses in the chant: “Freedom works! Freedom works! Freedom works!”
The man behind the movement
Only one month before that populist moment on Capitol Hill, Armey was employed as a lobbyist by leading international “consulting firm” DLA Piper. In that capacity, from 2005 to 2009, Armey promoted the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, otherwise known as Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), which the State Department has branded a terrorist group. Armey lobbied his former colleagues on behalf of legislation that would have provided taxpayer support to the MEK.
Armey’s work as a lobbyist—during which time he also served as chairman of FreedomWorks and organized Tea Party protests—is not mentioned in his FreedomWorks biography. This omission can perhaps be explained by the anti-lobbyist sentiments held by so many Tea Partiers. At the first national Tea Party Convention held in Nashville in February, former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin spouted off on the Obama administration’s failure to eliminate lobbyists and cronyism in D.C. during her keynote speech and the crowd burst into loud applause.
As a lobbyist, Armey has not let his stated ideology stand in the way of his paycheck. In 2008, as corporations and banks across the nation were being bailed out with billions of tax dollars, Armey was lobbying on provisions of the TARP Reform and Accountability Act of 2009 for CarMax, a Fortune 500 company that went on to issue $1.5 billion in asset-backed securities eligible for investor loans under the TARP and Federal Reserve-subsidized Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).
However, the most interesting set of clients Armey represented during his career as a lobbyist were two Iranian-American businessmen: Akbar Nikooie and Saied Ghaemi.
From 2005 to 2008, Ghaemi paid out $910,000 to DLA Piper for the service of Armey, his former staffer Jean Campbell, and a handful of other lobbyists to bring issues relating to Iranian “foreign relations” and “human rights” to the attention of Congress, the Department of Defense, the State Department, the White House, the National Security Council and the Department of the Treasury.
2007 was a banner year for Armey’s work on U.S./Iran relations. Ghaemi shelled out $400,000 for Armey and his team of Capitol Hill lobbyists. There were two bills before Congress that year that would have had a profound effect on U.S.-Iran foreign policy and could have potentially benefited a group of exiled Iranians greatly—namely MEK. Armey, during his time as Ghaemi’s voice on the Hill, became the outspoken proponent of MEK, repeatedly urging Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to remove the group’s terrorist designation.
In a 2007 article written by Armey in The Hill, he said the Bush administration would be wise to utilize MEK, which is violently opposed to the current Islamic regime. “Supporting the democratic opposition holds great promise for promoting the cause of freedom and democracy in Iran, particularly the group feared most by the regime (MEK),” wrote Armey, who concluded by saying “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” This statement had never before been so true.
According to the State Department, MEK, a group that blends Marxist and Islamist tenets, was founded for the purpose of overthrowing the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran. In 1975 and 1976, MEK allegedly killed seven American defense advisors to the Shah.
MEK’s initial purpose was realized in 1979 when the group, along with followers of Ayatollah Khomeini, successfully staged the Islamic revolution, seizing the Tehran U.S. Embassy and sending the Shah into exile. Following the revolution, MEK was sent into exile by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Over the following two decades MEK allied itself with Saddam Hussein to undermine the Islamic government of Iran. During the onset of the Iraq War in 2003, U.S. troops captured and detained 4,000 MEK soldiers near the Iran/Iraq border.
One of the bills Armey was lobbying for in 2007 would have directed the State Department to place the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on its list of foreign terrorist organizations, because the IRGC was involved in both surveillance and combat against U.S. forces in Iraq. The bill (HR 1324) quoted an article published in Sobh-e Sadeq, an Iranian state-run publication produced for the IRGC, that advocated the capture of “blue-eyed blonde soldiers, who would become grain to be fed to hungry gamecocks that are waiting for our signal.” In effect, the bill would have in effect justified U.S. military action against Iran.
The second bill, the Iran Human Rights Act of 2007, asked Congress to “hold the current regime in Iran accountable for its human rights record and to support a transition to democracy in Iran.”
One of the bill’s several provisions, custom tailored for MEK, called for an amendment to the Iran Freedom Support Act of 2006 that would have endorsed U.S. support for groups dedicated to overthrowing the Ahmadinejad regime, both within (as the law then provided for), as well as outside Iran (as in the case of MEK).
Critics note that the proposed legislation was strikingly similar to the Clinton administration’s use of the Iraq Liberation Act to employ and fund the Iraq National Congress and its less-than-reputable leader, Ahmed Chalabi, in a failed attempt to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Despite the fact that neither bill passed in the 110th Congress (though the State Department did designate the IRGC as a foreign sponsor of terror in October, 2007), Ghaemi continued to employ Armey until July 2008. After that, Armey did not drop the banner; that same month Nikooie began to patronize DLA Piper and Armey lobbying on issues of “Iranian human rights.” To date, Nikooie has paid the firm $210,000.
Neither Ghaemi nor Nikooie could be reached for comment.
A common refrain
Armey hasn’t been alone in his support of MEK. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) led a concerted effort during the Bush administration to have the State Department remove MEK from its list of terrorist organizations.
Ironically, given his support of a socialist group, Tancredo delivered an acerbic opening address at the National Tea Party Convention. “People who could not even spell the word ‘vote,’ or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House,” he said. “His name is Barack Hussein Obama.”
Palin seemed to agree with Armey and Tancredo on their stance toward Iran in her
Tea Party convention speech in February.
“Around the world people seeking freedom from oppressive regimes wonder if Alaska [sic] is still that beacon of hope for their cause,” Palin said. “The administration has cut support for democracy programs, and where the president has not been clear, I ask: Where is his strong voice of support for the Iranians who are risking all in their opposition to Ahmadinejad?”
Beau Hodai, inthesetimes.com, March 22, 2010
Nejat Correspondent, Gilan – Mr. Mohammad Baqer Keshavarz, another defector of terrorist destructive cult of Rajavi, returned home on March 11th, 2010.
He was welcomed by Nejat Society Gilan Branch.
The newly defected member, who had been forced to stay in Camp Ashraf under severe manipulative control system, seemed to be depressed and disappointed. He revealed some horrifying facts on cult-like relationships ruling Ashraf, which made the members of Nejat Society cry for their beloved ones still captured by Rajavi’s cult.
Nejat society looks forward for the release of other captives of Camp Ashraf and congratulates Mr. Keshavarz family on freedom of their loved son.
David Drew (Stroud, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has made to the government of Iraq on the situation in Camp Ashraf; and if he will take steps to ensure that residents of Camp Ashraf are not driven from Iraq.
Ivan Lewis (Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs), Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Bury South, Labour)
We have discussed the situation at Camp Ashraf with the Iraqi Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Human Rights Minister, the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Iraqi Government’s Ashraf Committee. I met the Iraqi Foreign Minister in Baghdad in December 2009 and underlined the need for the Iraqi authorities to deal with the residents of Camp Ashraf in a way that meets international humanitarian standards. In addition we discuss the issue with the UN, US, and the EU.
The Iraqi authorities have told the residents that they can no longer stay at Camp Ashraf but has given assurances that no residents will be forcibly transferred to a country where they have reason to fear persecution, or where substantial grounds exist to believe they would be tortured. The Iraqi Human Rights Minister confirmed to our ambassador on 27 January 2010 that the Government of Iraq would deal with the residents of the camp with respect for their human rights in co-operation with the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross. We believe it is in the interests of the residents to respect and accept the decision made by the Government of Iraq, and to cooperate peacefully with the Iraqi authorities.
House of Commons
The Iraqi people in the city of Al-Khalis in Diyala province call on the future Iraqi government to expel the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq (MKO) group from the country as soon as possible.
The people of Al-Khalis urged the next government to expel the members of terrorist MKO group, stationed in Camp Ashraf in Diyala province. They said the MKO’s case was resolved through the country’s constitution and the group had no place in Iraq, Iran’s Mehr News Agency quoted Nahrain news website as saying.
The local officials and the citizens of Al-Khalis have clung to the hope that the “State of Law” coalition and “National Coalition Government” will prepare the ground to expel of the terrorist group, if they win the election, Al-Khalis governor’s office said.
Meanwhile, a leader of Badr Organization, Abbas Al-faridavi in Diyala Province reiterated that the MKO group is behind the assassination of Shia leaders and innocent citizens of Diyala and that many complaints have been lodged against them, but since the courts of the province had surrendered to the Baath and MKO groups, none of the complaints were investigated.
The MKO was allowed by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to build a camp in eastern Iraq near the Iranian border in 1986 in order wage war and terror on Iran. Iraqis say that the MKO also helped Saddam in killing and spying against his opponents. The group remained under the protection of US-led forces after the invasion of the country in March 2003.
The group is responsible for numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials as well as Iraqis during the rein of Saddam.
After the American forces handed over the security of Camp Ashraf to the Iraqi government, the Iraqi Premier, Nouri al-Maliki decided to relocate the MKO group to a remote detention facility in the southern parts of Iraq as a prelude to their expulsion.
The decision was reportedly hampered by the intervention of pro-Israeli US congressmen, who called on the President Barack Obama to stop the relocation of MKO members.
A good year is judged by its Spring
Yes, as the truism states a good year can be judged by its Spring – the season of growth and renewal. This Spring we see that after all these years the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) has become nothing more than a foul and vulgar dictatorial cult. In all its aspects – organizational, ideological, political and military – it has deteriorated to the point that it is unable to reconstruct or restore itself as a positive entity.
Massoud Rajavi the leader and ideologist of this cult went into hiding after the downfall of his benefactor, the notorious dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein. His wife, Maryam Ghajar Azdanlo (aka Maryam Rajavi) does not possess the ability to solve any complicated organizational, political, and in particular ideological problems. She has pushed the organization into a black hole in which there is no place for sentiment, humanity and more important than all, logic and realism.
The descent into this black hole, which could only be achieved through brainwashing techniques and indoctrination and deception concerning preposterous and baseless political and ideological issues, has enslaved around 3500 men and women. And with false and hollow promises such as ‘victory’ and ‘overthrow’ and etc, has deprived them of their families, their lives, and even their real and genuine political struggle for almost three decades.
Yes, three decades of isolation, seclusion, deception, violence and terror are Massoud Rajavi’s treacherous legacy which has deprived them all of their enjoyable free and real lives.
If Massoud Rajavi’s strategy and its implementation were correct then why would he need to become the mercenary of the superpower America after being the mercenary of Saddam Hussein for almost thirty years?
Why do the key operatives and veteran commanders of this cult, such as Mr. Alireza Jafarzadeh, claim not to be a member of this cult when in fact Jafarzadeh has been one of the key operatives and active commanders of the PMOI cult in the USA and Canada since the 1980s, and has recruited many, including myself, to send to Iraq during this time.
Jafarzadeh was praised and admired by Massoud Rajavi himself in gatherings in Iraq for his role in buying side arms from international mafia dealers in the US for Rajavi’s so-called army the National Liberation Army (NLA). He was praised for smuggling Mrs. Azadeh Rezayee, one of the PMOI cult’s key commanders, into both the USA and Canada and for managing to rescue her from Canada while she was wanted by the FBI and RCMP.
Now he pretends that he is not a member or a commander of this cult in the US anymore. Even so, I have introduced him and disclosed his real identity in an article last year.
Yes, the subterfuge, the denials and deception, the hypocrisy over policies and beliefs, pretending to believe in and practice democratic principles, the ravings and hysteria of this cult over anyone who does not back them – labeling them ‘agents of the Iranian Intelligence service’ – these are clear and undeniable signs which demonstrate that the cult is fast falling over the edge of a cliff.
Maryam Rajavi has no ability to deal with these problems and merely resorts to matters of appearance, showing off and empty gestures – donning expensive dresses and throwing glamorous banquets and feasts where she preaches about democracy. She has succeeded in bewitching some European politicians, and now she is begging for help from the super power.
This cult, by destroying its victims’ youth and hopes and futures, has forced them to remain in the prison of Camp Ashraf despite their unwillingness to stay there.
These people, whose average age is 45 to 50 years old, are at an age when without family, finance or profession, have no option but to remain incarcerated and submit to Rajavi’s petty whims and demands.
These people believe they have no place to go, and that there are no open arms to welcome them – these people were forcibly estranged from their families and loved ones during their time in the prison of Camp Ashraf.
For themselves they have no love or compassion left inside to motivate them to rescue themselves from Rajavi’s ruthless clutch.
No motivation or incentive remains for them to grasp on to rescue themselves because Rajavi has deliberately destroyed it all. As a result, a number of these desperate victims set themselves on fire on the direct order of Rajavi in 2003. Rajavi exploits their desperation and use them as mere tools to further his cultic objectives and power mongering.
Yes, this is a truly terrifying reality which has fallen upon these stranded victims and it is one of the most forcible reasons that these victims have ‘chosen’ to remain in their prison.
Massoud Rajavi is the successor of the Imam Zaman (The 12th Imam in Islam ideology who will remain in hiding until the right moment when he will re-emerge and save the world) and Maryam Rajavi is the symbol of Hazrat Zeynab.
Massoud Rajavi stands next to the Gates of Paradise and guides his followers through it. His guarantor and sponsor before God is Hazrat Ali (Imam Ali) who comes to his dreams every night and gives him important outlines and orders.
All these preposterous and absurd lies were told to us every day in different sessions and gatherings to make us believe that Massoud Rajavi is the successor of the Imam Zaman or is the Imam Zaman himself and that his wife Maryam is the inheritor of Hazrat Zeynab’s legacy. Maryam Rajavi is always saying that Massoud Rajavi is only responsible to God and so no one dared to criticize him or her.
In reality, Massoud Rajavi is hiding out of fear of being tried in a court of law. But he casts a deceitful and demagogic influence over those 3500 victims stranded in that prison, Camp Ashraf. Massoud Rajavi implies that he will remain hidden until the right moment to emerge and save the world from corruption and dictatorship!
Yes this is the story of this cult, a cult which – in the visible absence of its supreme leaders, Massoud Rajavi, – strives to present itself in world politics through Maryam’s appearance and posing with western attitudes. But can the Iraqi people forget her orders to kill the injured and wounded Iraqi Kurds by running tanks over them? Can she, just by speaking French and posing with western gestures, negate all the misery that she and her husband imposed on all of those people who lost their lives and families and futures?
Can she explain to all the victims who lost whatever they had in their lives what happened to their lives and explain what all the savagery and brutality and violence of the past three decades was for? And what the real story of this cult is?
Is it possible for Iranian people to forget the deadly co-operation of this cult with Saddam Hussein during eight years of war with Iran? Is it possible to wipe out all the treason and espionage that this cult committed during the past decades from the Iranian peoples’ heart and mind?
Can Iranian and Iraqi people ever forgive them?
The answer is no, because the crimes which they committed are extremely serious and undeniable and there are so many witnesses and so much evidence already in the public domain. The only path which can be followed for resolution and restoration is to put the leaders of the cult on trial before judge and jury.
Respectfully,
a victim of Rajavi’s cult – Paris
After investigations by the Iraqi Minister of Human Rights, Minister Salim said that the presence of the residents of Camp Ashraf in Iraq is illegal. She stressed that the Iraqi government will deal with them in a purely humanitarian manner, and added that since 2003 it has secured the freedom of 300 of them who wanted to leave the camp.
In a statement summarised by al-sabaah newspaper, Minister Salim said that the government is dealing with the residents of the camp in Diyala province, members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, in a humane fashion. The absence of any official documents in their files of applications for asylum is an indication of the illegality of their presence in Camp Ashraf. However, between 2003 until the end of 2009, 300 have left the camp of their own free will and returned to their own country.
Minister Salim said that delegations from the Human Rights Ministry visit the camp from time to time to review the conditions of its population in coordination with the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations. In less than a year, 36 people have asked to leave the camp under the direct supervision of the Ministry. They asked to return to Iran without any influence from government bodies and they were brought to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which took responsibility for them.
For decades the MKO have been in this camp and have not been regarded as refugees. Now neither the UNHCR nor the International Organization for Migration deal with them on that basis and refuse to cooperate with them. The Ministry has addressed these organisations formally more than once in order to lend a helping hand to them, but they always affirm in their responses that that the MKO is a military organization and has not demilitarized. They can only deal with them once they leave the camp and claim civilian protection.
Minister Salim explained that the laws and agreements on the protection of populations who seek protection on the grounds of suffering because of armed conflicts or war do not apply to them because they are not in a nation in war or conflict.
Minister Salim indicated that since the beginning of the SOFA with the United States which transferred responsibility for the camp from the Americans to the Iraqis, the legal situation has changed completely for them. In particular after review of the records and papers which exist, officials did not find any requests for asylum or protection or evidence that their presence is in any way legal.
Minister Sailm said that in general it is necessary to deal with them in a spirit of humanity and not to deport them to countries where they may be exposed to harm or torture, asserting that the Iraqi government has committed itself to this principle. She expressed surprise at their refusal to be moved to another location which provides services and care since they have not rented and nor do they own the land they currently occupy.
Alsabah, Translated by Iran Interlink
A short note concerning the ongoing election process in Iraq
Media outlets reporting the Iraqi election view events, as expected, through their own variously tinted glasses. Some are sounding seriously nervous, even hysterical. In spite of these charged and polarised predictions, the final outcome of the Iraqi election will have no effect whatsoever on the situation of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation in Iraq and, according to the law enforcement agencies, which will continue to carrying out their duties no matter who forms the new Parliament, the group will be dismantled as soon as possible.
As far as the election itself is concerned, there are basic realities beyond the media propaganda which will govern the eventual outcome.
1- The overall percentage of votes has no bearing on the outcome of the election process. On a nationwide basis, the fact that one or other of the candidates has fewer or more votes is irrelevant. The voting system works on a provincial basis.
2- No single Coalition, Party or Group has or will have enough members in parliament to be able to form a government. The Election Commission has announced that after 95% of the votes have been counted, the number of seats which will be allocated to each coalition in the parliament is as follows
– State of Law Coalition will occupy 92 seats
– Al Iraqiya will occupy 89 seats
– Iraqi National Alliance will occupy 64 seats
– Kurdistan Alliance will occupy 42 seats
– Accordance list will occupy 6 seats
– Iraq’s Unity Coalition will occupy 3 seats
An alliance to form a government will have to take into account at least the first 4 of these.
In relation to the MKO:
Mr. Maliki has repeatedly made his government’s position against Saddamists and terrorists clear.
Mr. Allawi was the first Prime Minister of Iraq who announced the will of the Iraqi people to expel the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation from Iraq.
Mr. Hakim has been an outspoken critic of the delays in expelling terrorists from Iraq.
Mr. Talebani clearly sees the presence of MKO in Iraq as problematic to his people.
The official voting result is expected to be announced on Friday at Hotel Rashid in Baghdad. The ensuing negotiations between different Iraqi statesmen to appoint ministers, etc will likely take more than a few weeks.
Whatever the result of these negotiations, it will be to the benefit of the Iraqi people since all the above coalitions have shown their commitment to democracy and patriotism.
Whatever the result of these negotiations, the emerging government will be a cooperative government whose first priority would be to get rid of insurgency, the remains of the Saddam era terrorists and to stabilise a country torn apart by foreign interference and occupation.
The new government (as all the top officials have already emphasised) will not tolerate a terrorist camp where the families of the victims inside it must sit at the gate and wait, while the terrorist leaders inside refuse to allow even visits between the hostages and their families.
On a side note, it is worth mentioning that Ayad Jamal Aldin, the infamous Washington financed MP who has regularly appeared on Alarabia TV advocating support for the Mojahedin-e Khalq on behalf of the CIA, received fewer than 11 thousand votes in Baghdad (a minimum of 45 thousand is required for election to parliament). This is interesting because another former MP, Saleh Motlaq, was actually disqualified from running in the elections because of his connections with Saddam’s daughter in Jordan and his active support for the Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist group.
May I wish a Happy New Year to all the families who spent their Norooz by the gates of the camp. I am certain that whatever the result of the election, Iraq’s new government, which will obviously be stronger than ever, will once and for all dismantle the garrison and free the hostages in a very short time.
In the new Iraq there is an atmosphere of freedom and institutional work and respect for human rights in various fields, particularly for detainees and prisoners. There are field visits by civic and human rights organisations as well as international and local advocates of those in prisons and detention centres across Iraq.
But a collection of humanitarian organizations and media, tribal leaders, who organized a field trip to Camp New Iraq (formerly Ashraf) in Diyala province, found dozens of families from Iran sitting at the gates of the camp demanding that the MKO leaders allow them access to their children inside the camp.
They say, “We came from Iran to meet with our children, but members of the MKO refuse to allow
our entry into the camp to meet sons and daughters who came here twenty years ago. We have picketed here for thirty days”.
Al-bayyana Al-Jadida met some of the families. Mrs Fatima Babai , 45, said, “We have stayed in these tents for more than a month and the MKO does not allow us to meet our sons who have been detained for more than 20 years”. She added that, “despite the efforts made by the Iraqi government and the Ministry of Human Rights as well as United Nations delegates, the MKO leaders will not let us enter into the camp and meet our children. We do not have any news about them except their names and pictures are at the UN mission.
Inside the camp they are not allowed any media or communication like radio, television, or computer or telephones. They are not even allowed to mix freely with each other.
Mahmoud Piroozi said, “I came from Iran to meet my brother who has been detained in the camp for more than 22 years. I found his name and photograph at the Human Rights Commission of Iraq which is responsible for the camp. But I am denied entry to the camp with ridiculous reasons. I appeal through your newspaper to all humanitarian organizations and the Iraqi government to allow me to see my brother in the presence of officials of the Ministry of Human Rights and the United Nations and with respected elders of the Diyala province”.
The refusal of the MKO to allow family interviews between those who came from Iran to Iraq to meet with their children is a violation of divine laws and international laws recognized all over the world.
Iraq’s Senate confirmed that the MKO organization is not welcome in Iraq, especially because terrorist acts were taking place in areas adjacent to the camp and conferences and forums have been held there which are suspicious and violate the customs and laws on refugees. The MKO continued to host gatherings of notables and tribal leaders.
The families have come to Iraq with the support of the Iraqi government which is encouraging their children to return to Iran or any other country of their choice under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights.
The visit surprised MKO leaders who refuse to allow their members to meet with their families for fear they will leave the organization and Camp Ashraf and return to their homeland and their families. The MKO has thrown up excuses such as lack of names required for the interview with members of the organization, or that the children themselves do not desire an interview with their families or that they refuse to communicate with their families and their relatives.
The families are demanding interviews arranged and supervised with the presence of the media and civil society organizations and for the United Nations to follow-up the issue.
Al-bayyana Al-Jadida – Zuhair Fatlawi
