Page 686 – Nejat Society

Argentine Diplomat: MKO Testimony to AMIA Case Unacceptable

TEHRAN (FNA)- Argentina’s Charge D’affaires in Tehran Mario Enrique Quinteros blasted the western media for using the testimonies given by the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) to the case of a 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires.

Argentine Diplomat: MKO (Washington backed Mojahedin Khalq) Testimony to AMIA Case Unacceptable

Western and Israeli media reports claimed that a number of Iranian officials are wanted by Interpol in connection with the AMIA case, which left 85 dead and wounded more than 300 others.

Iran has strongly denied the allegations, saying Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor of the case, has received huge sums of money from Jewish lobby groups in Argentina to accuse Tehran of the bombing.

"It is a question to me why a large number of international media have based their reports on the remarks and testimonies of a number of the members of this group, and why certain countries have used these testimonies to ruin Iran’s face," Quinteros said in a meeting with Hasheminejad, Secretary General of Habilian Association.

Habilian is an association formed of the families of martyrs of terror attacks.

During the meeting, Hasheminejad termed the documents presented by the MKO members in the AMIA case "fake", and said, "Whenever the MKO feels there is tension between Iran and other countries, it misuses the opportunity and does its best to impair the relations between Tehran and that given country."

He further presented a number of documents on MKO’s involvement in terrorist attacks in Iran which were well received by the Argentinean diplomat.

The MKO has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many international entities and countries.

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).

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.

The MKO was put on the US terror list in 1997 by the then President, Bill Clinton, but since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group has been strongly backed by the Washington Neocons.

November 3, 2009 0 comments

European Union

Ancient Iran Association Letter to Mr. Vidal Quadras Roca

MR. Alejo Vidal Quadras Roca, The honorable Vice President of European Parliament

The Ancient Iran, Glorious Future which comprises of separated members and oppressed victims of notorious Rajavi’s cult , knows its humane task to notify all European parliamentarians and you in particular who are a humanitarian parliamentarian, of deception and trickery which this inhumane cult use to magnetize honorable European politicians with a glamorous slogans such as freedom, democracy ,peace and the like, because this religious cult had been at Saddam Hussein (dictator of Iraq) disposal for decades in suppression and slaying of Iraqi Kurd citizens in 1990-1991 uprisings thus , on the one hand the Iraqi people hate and loathe them because of their atrocities and savagery against Iraqi people and on the other hand as a result of violent and armed deeds and blind terrorism on Iran’s soil, are subjected to hatred and blame of Iranian people so they have been isolated and secluded in Iranian community and society.

This cult has even had no mercy upon its own members and these members for variety of reasons are imposed and coerced to set themselves on fire or hunger strike to death to safeguard and preserve the cult’s interests and its leaders. MR. Alejo Vidal Quadras Roca, The honorable Vice President of European Parliament

This cult fundamentally does not believe in democracy and freedom so that the slightest criticism to this inhumane cult causes outpour and flowing out a variety of labels and scandals and even in some cases it has led to beating of dissident members who dared to criticize them.

Mr. Quadras, as you are informed that Mr. Paulo Casaca , former Portuguese politician from Portugal socialist party in European parliament who was backing and supporting this notorious cult up for years lost his seat in the European parliament as well as being defeated in his struggle to become the Mayer of Ponta Delgada in the Azores vis a vis his rival Mrs. Berta Maria Cabral in municipality election in Ponta Delgada so that he lost his popularity among his own people for his support of PMOI which led him to egregious defeat and fiasco vis a vis his rival.

We the victims of this cult , urge all the European politicians specially the politicians who have been deceived and fallen in pmoi’s ambush by their glamorous slogans which are devoid of any real content to revise their support of this notorious and dishonorable cult( Rajavi’s cult) and instead , question and inquire them for the numerous crimes which are perpetrated and carried out by them against the people of Iraq and Iran and suppression and slaying of its own dissidents .

Best Regard

Ancient Iran, Glorious Future Association, Paris

November 2, 2009 0 comments

Iran

Iran sees less threat in exiled MKO militants

– Gholam Reza Sadeghi felt certain of his fate if he ever returned to Iran: torture and execution, given his years as a member of the antiregime Mujahideen-e Khalq, or "People’s Holy Warriors."

But stuck in a crowded camp in Iraq with 3,400 other members of the MKO under US military guard, Mr. Sadeghi finally had had enough. He wanted out, and to see his son. So he came back to the Islamic Republic, which imprisoned him for five years in the 1980s for participating in a group labeled "terrorist" by both Washington and Tehran. Yet some American officials view the MKO – disarmed but still intact – as a possible tool of regime change against Iran. And the MKO’s continued presence in Iraq aggravates US-Iran tensions.

What Sadeghi found was a soft-touch amnesty that he had never been told of in the MKO camp. His case could resonate with the 100 or so other Iranian militants who have been allowed to leave the camp in recent weeks, afraid to return to Iran and running into trouble in Kurdish northern Iraq and upon entering Turkey. "Because I had been in prison, I expected to go back to prison, torture, and execution," says Sadeghi, who was detained for a week and then let go. "They said [the MKO] is not a threat. [They said,] ‘We know you were a victim yourself, who thought you were doing something good for your country but were deceived by a cult.’ " The MKO (or MEK) in 2002 tipped off the world to Iran’s secret uranium-enrichment program – with the help of Israel, many analysts have concluded. It now says the recent findings of a US National Intelligence Estimate were wrong and that Iran restarted a nuclear- weapons program in 2004. UN inspectors, however, say that much of the information the UN has received from the group in recent years has a political purpose and has been wrong.

No nation has taken the militants who left Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, some of them carrying US military letters for travel to Turkey. Documents of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees show that at one point in their saga nearly two weeks ago, 19 were turned back to Iraq by Turkey, dozens were picked up in Kurdish northern Iraq and some forced to return to the dangers of central Iraq, and 26 were missing.

The situation highlights the sensitivity of Camp Ashraf, which has been virtually off-limits to journalists since the fall of Saddam Hussein. According to some of the 340 former MKO members who have returned to Iran with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the MKO controls all aspects of life in the camp. Numbers have dropped: Only 12 returned to Iran in all of 2007, and three more in mid-January.

"We don’t have the impression that these people are harassed or bothered, … mainly because the families and the [Iranian] authorities want them to come back," says Andreas Schweizer, until recently the ICRC protection officer in Tehran.

"We haven’t heard of any problems so far."

Indeed, in 2005, when the Monitor followed up privately on the story of one returnee, his mother complained about the lack official reintegration help. There had been no government interference either, she said. The MKO’s checkered and violent history has kept it on the US and European terrorist list. The MKO killed several American military advisers and civilians in Iran in the 1970s, played a key role in Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, and supported the US Embassy seizure before breaking away and launching attacks that have killed scores of senior Iranian officials.

Exiled first to France and then expelled in 1986, the MKO was given safe haven, weapons, and cash from Saddam Hussein. Though he used it to fight Iran during the Iran-Iraq war – an act that soured most Iranians toward the group – and to help quell local uprisings in 1991, the MKO today portrays itself as a democratic Iranian government-in-waiting. MKO coleader Maryam Rajavi, as quoted recently in the Opinion pages of the Monitor, claims substantial underground support in Iran, and said US labeling of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group is a "clear testament and an indispensable prelude to democratic change in Iran." But analysts dispute claims of broad support.

"They are so discredited in Iran that I can’t imagine they have any social basis," says Ervand Abrahamian, an Iran historian at the City University of New York and author of "The Iranian Mojahedin," a study of the MKO. "I think you would find the current President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad more democratic than the Mujahideen," says Mr. Abrahamian. "Even in the early 1970s, it had turned into a cult organization…. The remaining members … will do whatever [MKO leader Massoud] Rajavi tells them." The State Department’s terrorism report last year said the MKO maintains "the capacity and will to commit terrorist acts in Europe, the Middle East, the United States, Canada and beyond." The report notes the MKO’s "cult-like characteristics," such that "new members are indoctrinated in MEK ideology and revisionist Iranian history [and] required to … participate in weekly ‘ideological cleansings.’ " Children are separated from their parents, it adds, and Mrs. Rajavi "has established a ‘cult of personality.’.

The US rejected a secret 2003 Iranian offer to exchange top MKO leaders for several Al Qaeda personalities now held in Iran. "The Islamic Republic’s policy toward the MKO is very clear – there is nothing hidden," says a foreign ministry official who asked not to be named. "In our opinion they are a terrorist cult. When it comes to cults, only the leaders are responsible, and the rest are all victims themselves." The MKO and some in Congress and the Pentagon have challenged the terrorist label. Senior Iranian officers have accused US forces in Iraq of using the MKO during interrogations of Iranians detained in Iraq. Western news reports also suggest that some MKO operatives may be conducting cross-border operations into Iran on behalf the US. Indeed, such action seemed to be on offer to Sadeghi when US federal agents first questioned him in Camp Ashraf in 2003. After release from prison in Iran in the 1980s, he had fled to Canada in the 1980s, where the MKO found him and gave him a letter from leader Rajavi.

"The letter said: ‘You were one of us, and suffered in prison," recounts Sadeghi. "Now you are in Toronto living the good life. You forgot your brothers and sisters, you forgot freedom and democracy.’"

Sadeghi left his Canadian wife, broke custody rules by letting the MKO ship his son to his parents in Iran, and was moved by the MKO to Los Angeles. His visit to Iraq was meant to be short-term, but the MKO took his US passport and said they destroyed it, he says. After US forces disarmed the group in 2003, the FBI met with each member. Sadeghi says he was told that the US planned to topple Iran’s regime, that they wanted his help, and that they would ensure his return to the US. Sticking with the MKO would mean "never seeing the US again." "I didn’t believe [the FBI agent] was going to send me back to the US, or I would have jumped on it," says Sadeghi. Tired of daily MKO self-criticism sessions, he finally told the Americans he wanted to go to Iran. He had not seen his parents for 22 years; his son was 16 and full of resentment. "He asked me: ‘Where were you? For 10 years, no call, no postcard,’ " says Sadeghi, adding that his life was broken by the MKO. "For that, he hates me." ——————–

* Familiar Faces: Staff writer Scott Peterson has written several stories about Iran’s largest opposition group in exile, the Mujahideen-e Khalq (the MKO or MEK). But this time when he checked up on those who had been trickling back to Iran from Iraq , he found a surprise at the offices of the Nejat or Rescue group that helps former MKO members reintegrate into civilian life in Iran. Nejat is run by former MKO militants. Among them, Scott recognized Arash Sametipour, an English-speaker who had conducted a failed assassination attempt and then blown off his right hand while trying to kill himself to avoid capture. "The last time I saw him, he was wearing a prison uniform in a Tehran jail," says Scott, who had interviewed Mr. Sametipour along with several other MKO prisoners. "Today he is the main liaison between Nejat and the Red Cross. He is now trying to find a home for those 100 or so MKO members who recently left Camp Ashraf in Iraq." – David Clark Scott, World editor

Scott Peterson Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor – 11 February 2008

November 2, 2009 0 comments

Habilian Foundation

“Iran: A Victim of Terrorism”in Mashhad

"Iran: A Victim of Terrorism" exhibition was held by Habilian Association (families of 16000 Iranian terror victims) in Mashhad, north east of Iran. Highly welcomed by the visitors, the exhibition was held in order for various groups of school teachers to become familiar with the background and crimes of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).

As a sideline of the 1st regional course for political training teachers in Mashhad, Habilian Association held the exhibition in order to reveal the crimes of the MKO. The exhibition was highly welcomed by hundreds of school teachers from Sistan-Balouchestan, Kerman, Yazd, Golestan, Khorasan-e-Razavi, Khorasan-e-Shomali and Khorasan-e-Jonoubi provinces.

Documents on MKO crimes were on the show Documents on scandals of MKO leaders, forced divorces and violating women rights within the MKO, the cult’s tricks to attract Iranian youth, documents on MKO frauds, MKO’s vast assassination attempts against Iranian people, the cult’s contributions to Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war against Iran as well as against Iraqi Shias and Kurds and documents on Iranian victims assassinated by the MKO were on show.

Several software and multimedia products on crimes of the MKO produced by Habilian Association were also introduced to the visitors. Showing documentaries on MKO crimes was also highly welcomed.

The following are only few of the visitors’ positive comments who signed the exhibition’s Documents on MKO crimes were on the show guestbook:

• Well done! Thank you very much for your great work. It reveals the crimes of terrorist groups to the youth. Please hold the exhibition in other cities if possible.

• Since protecting the Islamic Revolution necessitates holding such exhibitions, I suggest you to hold this in regions close to the frontier, where is more endangered by foreign agents.

• I was always wondering about terror attempts in the post-Revolution Iran and wishing to view a full collection of terrorist groups’ activities against Iran. Now I found my wish fulfilled. I think this should be held in other cities also.

• To me the exhibition was an innovation; that is I had never seen such a full-detailed and informative collection on crimes of the MKO. Thank you very much for all your efforts.

• Thank you very much for this. I suggest you to hold this in schools so that crimes of the MKO will be revealed to the Iranian young generation.

November 1, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Series of Batool Soltani interviews on MKO self-immolations

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations
In a new round of interviews with Batool Soltani, she discloses new facts on self-burning operations in MKO

A précis of parts 35-36 – Preparedness for suicide, a prerequisite for MKO operations

A précis of parts 33-34 – Camp Ashraf, MKO’s political excuse in the West

A précis of parts 31-32 –Urgency of safeguarding Camp Ashraf at any price

Part 30 – Hierarchical administration of information within MKO

Part 29 – Primacy of death and violence in the ideology of MKO

A précis of parts 27-28 – Human shield in defense of Ashraf

Part 26 – Neda had been tutored from the childhood

Part 25 – Defining an organizational jargon

Part 24 – The members were coerced into dedicating themselves to Massoud and Maryam

Part 23 – Neda’s family feeling obligated to the organization

Part 22 – 17 June immolations, orchestrated or willful acts

Part 21 – 17 June immolations and the test of commitment

Parts 19-20 – MKO Abuse of Neda and Sedigheh’s death

Part 18 – Rajavi; self-burnings were not enough, you should have sacrificed more

Part 17 – Rajavi; the operations have higher potentialities to utilize

Part 16 – Rajavi; you were derelict in performance of your duty to save Maryam

Part 15 – The manipulated approach to spur immolations

Part 14 – Rajavi, self-immolations forces French authorities to withdraw

Part 13 – Rajavi’s interpretation of the holy and foul suicide

Part 12 – Weekly sessions, a process to secure obedience to Rajavi

Part 11 – Rajav’s leadership, the criterion to legitimize the ideology

Part 10 – Execution, the approach to repel dissenters

Part 9 – Rajavi; set your body on fire to defend Ashraf

Part 8 – Human tragedy in prospect; Mojgan Parsai the first volunteer

Part 7 – Suicide operation, a lever to defend Camp Ashraf

Part 6 – The red-line discriminating between word and action in suicide operation

Part 5 – Suicide, the ideal means to safeguard information

Part 4 – Suicide operation, an ultimate solution to security dilemma

Part 3 – No suicide operation unless commanded by the organization

Part 2 – Suicide operation; a solution or sidestepping it

Part 1 – A Definition of suicide operations

November 1, 2009 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

The enslaved in Ashraf have the right to live free

The propaganda machine of MKO never ceases to advertize the expressed concerns of its European advocates over the situation of human rights in Iran and especially its members in Anybody who claims to be a defender of human rights, oppressed people and women in particular should have the issue of Camp Ashraf on his conscience Camp Ashraf, in Iraq. It seems that these advocates are totally unaware of the fact that the group they are backing was formed as an armed opposition and which is long despised by Iranians and expelled because of its many bloody, brutal terrorist activities against Iranian authorities and civilians. Or the reports that it has been designated a terrorist group since 1997 by the US as well as being, a few years later, recognized a cult of personality for its cultic practices like committing self-immolations and systematic application of brainwashing techniques as well as subjecting members to intense physical and psychological pressures.

Regardless of all this truth, I want to take the opportunity to tell them that we are also concerned about the members not living but enslaved and held in Camp Ashraf against their own will. If they cannot, we can see how the organization is exploiting them as human shields to safeguard its own entity rather than being the least concerned about the members themselves. No member has ever been forced to return to Iran, though a number have already returned and are now safely living with their families. They can be sent to any country that accepts them but it is the organization’s strict cultic rules and pressures that has so far impeded the process of releasing the members from the bonds of the cult. The most authentic sources are the detached members of the organization whose views are released regularly through a number of their personally run-websites and whom are labeled by the organization with many names.

Anybody who claims to be a defender of human rights, oppressed people and women in particular should have the issue of Camp Ashraf on his conscience, not in the way the organization wants it but rather as a real issue of humanity and to put an end to their sufferings and exploitations. Considering that a remarkable number of the victimized members held in Camp Ashraf are women who have long been abused as sexual slaves, instruments to advance the cult and group’s objectives, and in general, servitudes of a masculine hegemony. The predicament of these insiders, who under the hollow slogans of being the pioneers and heroines of freedom and democracy suffer crushing physical and psychological pressures, is even worse than those enslaved in the outside world. They are under severe physical and psychological cult bounds of the organization and deprived of free will, thought, and as we have recently witnessed, forced onto the frontline of defenders of Ashraf to confront the entrance of the Iraqi police into the camp.

Many of them mothers and wives now detached from their families and each running a life in isolation because of the strict cultic regulations, they are all victims of most inhuman practices carried out within the MKO terrorist cut. For the outsiders it is hard to believe, as they might have read it in the books or seen on the screens, that just in a real piece of land in a neighbor or far country a terrorist cult is misusing modern science against women, that is, to make them infertile. Publically admitted by Batoul Soltani, an experienced rank of the organization’s leadership council who managed to escape the cult:

“The women members who have dedicated their family life, children and husbands to the cult leaders are totally separated from the outside world by the removal of their womb. In the organization, the hysterectomy surgery is considered as reaching the peak.” (Presstv)

In two phases, at least to mention, women suffered under the extreme exploitation exercised by MKO. In the first phase, on pretext of removing obstacles for the advancement of the struggle, the leaders ordered compulsory inter-organizational marriages. These marriages didn’t take place according to the members’ tastes or ages. This was closely related with rising and degrees of merit. The couples thus married were forbidden to have children and their conjugal duties and meetings were under strict control. In fact, the marriage was an ideological practice; the couples were the property of the organization and their marriage had to be channeled for the advancement of organizational ends rather than to secure familial and emotional relations. The target was not love, emotion, sexual pleasure or continuation of the generations but the control of the forces and maintenance of the organization. Women were utilized as the objects of controlling the male insiders and motivating them onward.

The second phase began with the ideological divorces after MKO’s failure in the military operation called Eternal Light. To justify the failure, Massoud Rajavi in 1991 completed his philosophy of ideological revolution by the decree of ideological divorcing. He gave the command of general divorcing of all married members. Thereafter, women, suffering grave humiliation, had to succumb to the wills of the leaders. In 2003, the world was shocked to see members of MKO setting themselves on fire to protest Maryam Rajavi’s arrest by French police. Two women members, Marzieh Babakhani and Neda Hassani, died of the injuries. They had the order to sacrifice themselves for the leader.

Many of women members are crushed under heavy physical and psychological pressures at the present. They suffer humiliation by regular confessions of the sins they have never committed before other members and have to write and report about their dreams and fancies. Where in the world women are treated as they are? Confined within the walls of a heavily guarded military camp in Iraq, these women are susceptible to any form of assault and harassment and we think the Iraqi government has taken a sound and wise decision to close Camp Ashraf at least because all enslaved insiders, and particularly women, will possibly achieve the freedom they never dream.

It is a duty on all humanitarian, international bodies and defenders of human rights to seek eliminate violence against the members of MKO, a proven case of exploitation and violence that lies before their eyes. If they are determined, they can easily hear the help cries of these men and women who do not wish for much; they want to live like other free people in the world as it is their right and any move that may hinder the process is criticized as siding with the cult leaders whose false, pro-democratic visage has duped many so far.

October 31, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Camp Ashraf, MKO’s political excuse in the West

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – a précis of parts 33-34

Sahar Family Foundation: Ms. Soltani, your given reasons for preservation of Ashraf implies that MKO does not shrink to sacrifice all of the camp Ashraf members to survive the organization considers two functions for the camp, political and strategic with your focus more on the latter function. You also had references to the organization’s attempts in the West to preserve Ashraf which I classify as the former function. Do you have anything more to add?

Batool Soltani: Your classification seems accurate and right. Besides considering the strategic potentialities of Ashraf that secures the permanence of the organization, there are other interests that it strives to achieve in the West. As you have noticed especially in the recent years, Ashraf has given the organization a good excuse to orchestrate a variety of rallies and gatherings, some arranged with only a handful of people, in different Western cities. They work as fuels to run the organization’s propaganda machine throughout the world as a vindication of its entity and practically influential political life.

Naturally, to survive on the world’s political stage to show off as a potential alternative it has to buy credit by playing up whatever trifle. The victimization of Camp Ashraf can influentially impress the public opinion that the organization exploits as a working leverage in European countries.

The volume of reports and news released at the present concerning Ashraf indicates that the organization has no other lever to rely on to advance its political ends in the West. While the organization calls the world’s attention to Ashraf to intervene to stop the human tragedy taking place there, which also puts its great impact on the Ashraf residents as well, it does not shrink to sacrifice all of the camp’s members to survive and further its ends. The propagandas persuades insiders to insist on their resistance since they may come to believe that for sure something would come out of these propagandas and they may achieve Rajavi’s promised victory to start a triumphant return to their home country. Would not you be influenced by such illusion if you are made to believe that you have the support of whole world behind you?

The consequent easy result will be that Rajavi can persuade Ashraf residents to commit suicide for the final battle to gain the victory. That is the political function the organization intends to grab at and to convince the West that Ashraf is no more a military camp housing listed terrorists but a city that resists to survive and it is a duty on the world to join the resistance. That is why in most of its programs on Ashraf aired by its TV it focuses on the existing facilities, accommodations, green avenues and gardens as well as people in civilian, clean outfits rather than military uniforms.

SFF: If you will, Ms. Soltani, lets return to our unfinished issue, that is, reasons for Mojahedin to stay in Iraq, and the possible fluctuations that may help them to continue with their strategy of overthrowing the regime. How is it possible and what guarantees it to achieve the end by effectuating its stay in Iraq?

BS: You know, the principal thing Rajavi exclusively relies on is the time, which plays a crucial role for someone in his position. He knows well that the question of time can be either accelerating or deterring the accomplishment of events. He has the experience of being driven forth by the time in tortuous paths and strained circumstances. He knows that the states are after their own interests and may dodge to be observant of their promises. He has reiterated again and again that neither Europeans nor Americans believe in any principle but accomplishment of their own interests and they consider no ethics in their relations, feeling under no obligation to be observant of their pledge.

Thus, each side was after achieving its own interest more or less and Rajavi believed that it would be so treasured if the organization could convince them to support it even if it imposed makeshift costs on the organization to furnish them with the interests that pleased them. Such reasoning was enough to push them into an attempt to draw the US political support regardless of a notorious anti-American history and assassination of its personnel. The organization hoped that the pass of time had changed many things and the two sides reckoned on a guarantee that could well ensure collective interests.

As a result, the organization needed to procure time to pass over the crises and to continue its anchor in Iraq. That is why from the very beginning of Saddam’s fall the organization began to invest on the existing internal disorder and frictions among the dissident groups. It is still through the support of some factions and individuals that the organization hopes a permanent residence in Iraq. However, the question of buying time and letting their supports profit out of it remains a strategic priority in its global relations. Why France tolerates presence of Maryam Rajavi on its soil while it is well aware of the costs that her presence imposes on the country? Does not it know all problems the organization is facing in Iraq? While France is still opposing removal of the organization from the EU terror list, we see the leader of the organization is freely active in the heart of the country?
SFF: For sure it is looking after its own interests.

BS: Exactly. Since 1997 Maryam Rajavi has two times travelled between Iraq and France with no restriction. France could have easily occluded or expel her for leading a blacklisted, clandestine terrorist group in France. If France had abjured to grant her asylum, no state or organization would have condemned it for breach of human rights because the organization had been listed a terrorist group. Not only the French government let her settle on its soil, but also provided for her protection. Trading a profitable political deal, France tries taking advantage of a potential lever by paying the least cost. Of course, we have nothing to do with Franc’s reluctance to receive Ashraf residents as it is another case to discuss. What is of great importance for the organization at the present is to be removed from the US list of FTO which may grant the organization the legitimacy of a liberation army permitted to carry arms. That is the future in perspective.

SFF: But it is possible on condition that the organization has soil to settle on. It is impossible to organize a liberation army when it has no piece of land on the border. How is it possible?

BS: That is it. It depends on the influence of Americans on the Iraqi government. It would be enough for the organization if the US could convince Iraqis to let it carry arms, of course on condition it is removed from the US terrorist list. It all relies on possibilities and ifs, but does it have any other choice but to wait for the unexpected opportunity to arrive? So, the organization waits and waits for the ripe time that can change its course and connect another ring of the chain. As the violence is innate in its nature, violent tactics of mass suicide and immolation may work as good instruments to evade or pass over the temporal impediments.

Rajavi believes that a tree with dried leaves and branches can possibly bloom but it cannot if it is uprooted. It is the very same case with the organization and the duty on the members is to prevent uproot and demise of the organization so it may be rejuvenated by a new political entity. The members play the role of the leaves that their drop, as they sacrifice for the organization, help safeguarding the trunk that may come to life by shooting greens. So it is the body that is of significance and all have to do their best and sacrifice their lives to protect it.

SFF: Ms. Soltani, will you be clear enough to say that how can the organization kill the time to use the present Iraqi Government as a lever to effectuate its strategy of armed struggle and liberation army?

BS: The organization insists to become an outlet of violence and arms for both Americans and Iraqis to carry out their ambitions against Iran. It hopes to be equipped with arms and does whatever it can to instigate tension that deters any peace. By demonizing Iranian regime, they try to justify the right of carrying arms.

Link to the previous parts

October 28, 2009 0 comments

Ann Singleton Former members of the MEK

Anne Singleton covers the history of MEK on Mark Dankof’s RBN

Anne Singleton on the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MeK/MKO): Mark Dankof’s America on RBN Radio

… Anne Singleton covers the history and ideology of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MeK) for two hours on Mark Dankof’s America on the Republic Broadcasting Network…

Download Anne Singleton covers the history of MEK on Mark Dankof’s RBN

October 27, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Petition Against MKO in France

Martyr Sayyad Shirazi’s Son: we complained against Mojahedin-e Khalq in France

In an interview with martyr Lieutenant Gen. Sayyad Shirazi’s Son, reporter of Terror Victims information base, posed some questions in order to explore his assassination from a new angle and besides to take a look at his outstanding personal characteristics:

*What happened the night before his assassination between Martyr Sayyad Shirazi and the family?
I was in the third grade of high school that year and at the night of his martyrdom I had an exam, due to his proficiency in English and mathematics I referred to him to ask my questions.

He had recently come back from Mashhad and his mother’s visit, so he had a great spiritual morale and transferred this morale to family. Indeed he was always kind and affectionate towards family members.

*Did he say anything special that night?
Speaking to me, He emphasized on education and studying. Certainly he had some discussions with other family members too.

*You were present in the day of his assassination, how did it happen?
In the day of his assassination, my father was going to take me and my brother to school.
I went to the yard a bit earlier and saw my father leaving out the Hosseiniyeh, which is located in the lower floor of our house. He put two bags in the rear booth of his Toyota. I put my schoolbag in the car and opened the garage door. At 6:30 he drove the car out of garage. We waited for the arrival of my brother for a few seconds.

I was closing the garage door, Meantime I saw a man, wearing orange clothes which resembled to street sweepers. He was wearing a mask and carrying a broom. Sweeping the ground he approached my father and handled a letter to him. As my father was reading the letter, the sweeper took out a gun and fired four times on his head. He ran quickly to the ally below our house. Likely He was not alone because at that moment I heard the sound of a motorcycle.

When I heard the fire gunshots I rushed to the car and saw my father submerged in blood. Hearing the sound of firing, other members of family came to the house door and quickly we took him to the hospital. But as the bullets hit him on sensitive areas of body i.e. head, brain and skull, he was blessed with martyrdom.

*Regarding his case, what have your family, your lawyer and the government done?
At present, his case is being investigated and I follow it as complainant and witness. All the judicial institutions like Judiciary System, security institutions and armed forces general headquarters have made their best in this regard.

From four years ago this case is being followed in an international impartial court in France. At the beginning of this year, in early Farvardin [March] I had a one-week trip to France in order to set forth my family’s complaint and to explain the details of the assassination as a witness to the court officials. In addition I delivered the documents against this incident. But the result of the court is not yet clear.

*Have you taken legal action by yourself?
No, the complaint officially has been sued by the family four years ago, but before that our lawyers indicted the case in France.
Since 10 years ago by putting the case into the juridical process, our attorney has been appointed and due to the fact that Mojahedin-e Kahlq had claimed responsibility for the assassination, the complaints has been put forward against this organization. *Up to now, how many hearing sessions have been convened?
Many sessions have been convened with the presence of our attorneys but Farvardin’s session was the first hearing session that French court invited me to attend. Most of questions in this session were regarding the particulars of the assassination.

*How much time do you think is needed to conclude this case, and what measures have been done by France court?
We just inform the information that has been transferred to us and the problem is that the curt is being continued for the last 3 or 4 years with the same findings.

*What is your own analysis about concluding this case and arresting the agents of the assassination?
I talk about this issue based on the existed evidences and documents but the Mojaheedin-e Khalq organization has itself claimed responsibility for the attack through internet and video films. French court and the judiciary officials of this country have understood the case and now they are investigated the other aspects of the assassination.
The reason behind the assassination brought up by Mojahedin-e Khalq was confronting Monafeghin in Mersad operation. They have claimed it by film and some other documents.

*Has this organization attained its aim by assassinating martyr Sayyad Shirazi?
The aim of these people is the aim of their organization and they just pursue the interests of their group and organization. As they find individuals like martyr Sayyad Shirazi as a hinder for achievement of their goals, they try to suppress them.
Groups like Mojahedin-e Khalq are destructive terrorist organizations and unfortunately some groups which speak about human rights in the world, de-list Mojahedine- Khalq from the terrorist groups list. But we believe that all terrorist and the groups which train them should be find guilty and respond against their behaviors and acts.

*Claiming responsibility of the assassination by MKO is a symbol of what?
This shows that the assassination was not an instant decision but they had planned for it previously and martyr Sayyad Shirazi was among their terror list. Their aim was to facilitate they rout for conducting their plans. There is the possibility of planning for the attack from a long time ago. Maybe they were just waiting for the right time to put it in practice and the time that he didn’t have a driver or guard was the best time for the assassination.

*Why didn’t he have a driver or a guard?
He was driving himself at the time of martyrdom.
One of his characteristic features was that he didn’t like to bother others; therefore he didn’t have a drive or a guard.

I remember when others talked about this issue; he always said our protector is God. He tried to take responsibilities himself and cause less inconvenience or danger for others.
In addition protecting him could cause some limitations for his family and without the presence of guards he could be comfortable with his family.
Undoubtedly at that time and at present we believe that there had been some negligence in this regard. Today there is still a bit of carelessness about public outstanding characters and I believe that these people should be protected even unnoticeably.

*What kind of personal features have made him a public human character?
Other that being kind and sincere towards family and people of different social classes, he attended the Friday Prayers without standing in the line of high officials’ position. Rather he preferred to say prayers in the back lines along with people with various social classes.
Martyr Sayyad Shirazi attended in religious ceremonies without any special formalities. One of the meetings that he was interested in and attended in, was Haj Agha Mojtaba Tehrany’s sessions, he took notes from the educational points of it.

Martyr Sayyad Shirazi always thought about poor people and tried to help and support them materially and spiritually. He made his best effort to solve the problems of people and tried to never reject their requests.

*What kind of conditions brought about for you and your family after his martyrdom?
We loose him emotionally because he was not only our father but also our teacher. So if the terrorist be arrested and sentenced it would relief our family.

*What is the most important and everlasting memory of him in your mind?
All of the moments beside him are memories for us but all of the trips that I was in his company were quite useful and instructive and I could gain a lot of good experiences.
One of the places he took us with himself was the 8 Years Holy War operational regions. He emphasized on traveling to these areas and being in contact with those who had attended the war directly.
At that time he established the “War Education” group in Officers’ faculty in order to explain the war zones scientifically to the students.

*If someday you face the attacker of your father what will you say?

Just like now we will try to reasonably ask about his purpose and aims and refuse irrational behavior. We are just seeking the enforcement of Islamic law.

October 27, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Neglected points in RAND’s report on MEK

RAND National Defense Research Institute Corporation has published a comprehensive report on MEK in 2009. It may be considered the official position taking of the US toward MKO as a supplement to the statements of the US state department in 1997 as well as that of April 2009. All these reports focus on terrorist nature of the organization as a cult of personality. RAND National Defense Research Institute Corporation has published a comprehensive report on MEK in 2009

MEK leader Maryam Rajavi has established a "cult of personality." 1

The fact is that the US has failed to refer to a novel point regarding the organization in these statements yet has reiterated the analyses and viewpoints of separated members as well as political opposition trends that have managed to reveal some facts on the organization for more than two decades. However, the efforts made by the US to develop a realistic comprehension of NKO imply the well-intentioned inclination of the US in investigating the true nature of Mojahedin.

This article aims to elaborate on some ambiguities found in RAND report including the offered solution of repatriating MKO members to Iran. First of all it has to be pointed out that according to international bodies Mojahedin are an unknown group whose understanding depends on learning lessons from past experiences to avert the danger arising from MKO and other similar groups. According to the statements made by the US:

MEK leadership and members across the world maintain the capacity and will to commit terrorist acts in Europe, the Middle East, the United State, Canada, and beyond. 2

Therefore, finding solutions for avoiding the threat of such a terrorist group needs a full investigation. The more unknown an issue, the more study is necessary for its understanding.

Likewise, solutions proposed for escaping the danger of Mojahedin have to be of novel and unique nature. The solutions offered in RAND report are rarely feasible and also some result in the development of the organization. Surprisingly enough, it seems that the authors of the report aim mainly at shifting their own responsibility for providing a clear explanation of the reality onto other organs and bodies; as it was done by the US in neglecting its responsibility for eliminating the risk posed by Mojahedin in Iraqi soil and further putting the responsibility of making the final decision for the organization on the Iraqi government. However, it seems that Americans care not about the illegal actions of Mojahedin in Iraq.

Despite the focus of RAND report on the necessity of prosecuting and trying MKO leaders, it refrains to refer to this issue in its conclusions. It is not clear why the position taking of Iraqi government against MKO has been questioned in this report in spite of the fact that according to the constitution and sovereignty of Iraq, Iraqi government is rightful to maintain the interests of its citizens by fighting against those breaking its national rules. Another point to be noted is the issue of repatriating MKO members to Iran. According to the report:

Each MEK member who has been granted amnesty by the IRI should be repatriated to Iran. 3
A point confirmed by the following statement:

To date, however, there is no evidence that Iran has failed to honor its offer of amnesty for the former MEK members who have already returned to the country.4

However, the authors refuse to refer to the individual, voluntary and willful nature of the repatriation of a number of MKO members to Iran. This claim is made in a condition when the US has already acknowledged to the lack of public support and legitimacy for Mojahedin in Iran:

Following its participation in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the group rapidly fell out of favor with the Iranian. 5

It is not clear if RAND report has taken a realistic and practical viewpoint when referring to Iran as the main alternative for giving refuge to MKO members. As it is put into words:

All evidence indicates that no country other than Iran will accept the group. 6

The question is that how a group failing to win the support of even one country in taking its members as political refugees suffering a lack of social support may be repatriated to Iran where according to the same report:

However, once it settled in Iraq and fought against Iranian forces in alliance with Saddam, the group incurred the ire of the Iranian people. 7

It is evident that the US is far from developing a realistic viewpoint and a clear position toward MKO failing to grasp its true nature and consequently resort to conservative policies in dealing with the organization. The solutions given in RAND report fail to solve the challenges met by Mojahedin and also refrain to decrease the potential fear of Mojahedin felt by the US.

The best way for ending the present crises is taking appropriate and feasible procedures for overcoming a group that according to the US is unreliable, incredible, unknown, deceptive and perverse. However, the US has never made an attempt to make Mojahedin submit to international rules and conventions nor withdraw its illegal claims against Iraqi government and its sovereignty.

References:
1. The US State Department’s statement, April 2007.
2. ibid.
3. The report made by RAND National Defense Research Institute on MKO, www.rand.org.
4. ibid.
5. The US State Department’s statement, April 2007.
6. The report made by RAND National Defense Research Institute on MKO, www.rand.org.
7. ibid.

October 25, 2009 0 comments

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