Cult of Personality
Camp Ashraf Countdown
The ideological schism of 1975 constitutes one of the critical phases of MKO. Following the mass arrests of 1971, the leadership cadre found it necessary to review the past events to find the reasons underlying the strategic failure of the organization. Since two ranking members of organization, Taqi Shahram and Bahram Aram, were converted to Marxism this review led to the overall ideological shift of MKO to Marxism. However, one of the organization activists, Dr. Karim Rastegar, informed Rajavi, already in prison, of the conversion of the organization leaders. Not only did Rajavi desist to make any reaction to their perversive activities but also accused Rastegar of cynicism and fundamentalism up to the time when the ideological shift of the organization was declared openly through Marxism wing manifesto.
This event influenced the imprisoned members to a great extent and many more converted to Marxism and declared it openly. Although after the declaration of the Marxism wing Rajavi falsely made a promise to make his best to modify and revise the ideological principles of MKO, he failed to do so and instead held grab to ideological and political purging of those prisoners who were in favor of religious leadership in Iran. The consequences of the declaration of the Marxism wing inside and outside prison necessitated it for Rajavi to deny having any relation and inclination to Marxism since the past history of Marxists in preventing social movements of Iran like the destructive activities of Tudeh party in the course of nationalization of oil industry and betrayal of Shahram and Aram led to the intensification of the sensitivity of religious prisoners toward Marxists. Then, Rajavi was expected to revise organizational principles taking a firm position against Marxists and in favor of religious prisoners.
However, all those trying to find the roots of the June 1981 crises are unanimous that the position taking of Rajavi in this phase was intentionally aimed at keeping distance from religious forces and especially clerical leaders while inside prison. They acknowledge the fact that his twelve-point declaration, first distributed orally from inside the prison, formed the main pillars of his position taking and he acted amateurishly in demarcating with the ideological shift of the organization and its founders. Two out of the twelve points were more effective in intensifying the crises between Rajavi and religious prisoners. One pointed out that the organization would keep its previous position toward Marxists. In other words, it considered the converted members as an opportunist group not real Marxists so there would be no change in the organization relations towards them. The second and the most important point was triggering a more intense reaction on the part of religious members calling them reactionaries.
It is evident that jailed Mojahedin under the leadership of Rajavi considered Marxist members as their ideological allies and even preferred them to members with religious inclinations. These events as well as Rajavi’s declaration letter intensified the crises inside prisons even more. Saeed Shahsavandi, already an intimate friend of Rajavi, putting the contents of the twelve-point letter in writing expounds on the course of events after the declared manifesto of Marxist Mojahedin. Almost all members except Rajavi believed in the necessity of revising the ideological principles of the organization at that particular period of time. According to Shahsavandi:
I dare say that almost all high rankings but Rajavi came to the conclusion that the organization had made some mistakes in the past that were to be modified and these modifications were to have religious and in political terms rightist inclinations. 1
He further refers to the internal and external trends inside prison trying to revise the fundamentals and principles of MKO and revive Mojahedin making them free from dualistic views replaced by pure religious position and Rajavi’s opposition to these trends by issuing his twelve-point declaration. As he puts into words, almost all political trends and individuals were to find the roots of MKO schism and also a solution to terminate the crises. Yet, Rajavi paid no attention to the existing conditions and issued his twelve-point “declaration of MKO position toward leftist perverted opportunist trend” worsening the conditions.
It has to be pointed out that some prominent figures outside prison like ayatollah Motahari wrote a letter to ayatollah Khomeini, at the time living in Najaf in exile, referring to the deviation and schism of Mojahedin asking him to find an immediate solution for their challenges:
Marxist views have been slinked into some political groups like Mojahedin. They were primarily a political group and are gradually turning to a religious sect with their own ideology and interpretations from Islam. They claim to have come to a point where they no longer need religious instructions and teachings. They respect both Marx as Shiite Imams and also claim to be true Muslims. Others have converted to Marxism declaring it openly. 2
References:
1. The interview of Saeed Shahsavandi with the voice of Iran, part 38.
2. A review of the life of ayatollah Motahari
Research Bureau – Mojahedin.ws – January 18, 2009
Once James Lukaszewski in The Media and the Terrorist stated that: “Media coverage and terrorism are soul mates – virtually inseparable. They feed off each other. They together create a dance of death – the one for political or ideological motives, the other for commercial success”.
MKO considers advantages of the effectiveness of the media in its cult-like activities so important that it uses a number of methods to manipulate the media. Exploited beyond their main purpose, the media are practical instruments to fulfill MKO’s ambitions. Besides their utilization to augment psychological warfare and propaganda blitz, the media are turned into the means of diffusing ideological teachings directly and indirectly.
MKO has proved that it is the master of propaganda and advertisement blitz and, of course, the successful advertiser is the master of a new art that converts the truth. The political advertising messages that MKO prepares to be released in some highly circulated papers may actually strengthen its information value to deceive readers especially those unfamiliar with its terrorist and cult nature concealed under a pro-democratic razzle-dazzle.
Here is a report by MKO’s official site giving details on an advertisement published by Washington Times’ Special Section on 111th Congress : “The January 14 issue of the Washington Times published the 10-point declaration announced by the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, for free Iran of future.”
The Washington Times’ Special Section has published nothing but a piece of advertisement for the money it has been paid. If the terrorist MKO think it works to be a highly valued purchase of legitimacy, so let them enjoy they illusion!
Muajhedin-e-Kahlq Iran was considered as the powerful armed opposition against Iran and its objectives was the evident overthrow of the Iranian
regime.
Until the fall of Saddam Hussein, the organization was in the spotlight by its National Liberation Army, the military wing of MKO that has launched many terrorist operations against Iran.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political arm of MKO which is active in Europe and North America, has got the attention of the world due to its large-scale propaganda and systematic fund raising activities.
MKO has repeatedly succeeded to have public attention using its professional propagandistic skills.
The most significant example on the case are the self-immolation acts in London, Paris, Rome, Bern, under the pretext of French Security Police’s raid on MKO bases due to their illegal fundraising activities and terrorist operations (The investigation on MKO headquarters in Paris and 12 other locations and the arrest of 150 members.)
In that raid 9 million US dollars in cash and highly advanced transmission facilities were found at MKO base.
The arrest warrant was issued for 11 of high-ranking officials and Maryam Rajavi, the wife of Masud Rajavi, the MKO leader. Maryam Rajavi, who is called the president – in exile of the organization, was released together with the other detainees.
This bulletin includes the clandestine activities of MKO and the process of their cooperation with Saddam Hussein, their current situation and importance. It also presents the totalitarian characteristic of the organization that has not denounced violence in its political struggle even after the disarmament of its military arm.
- The threat made by cults must be taken as serious because this methodology requires a large-scale complicated recruitment and manipulation process to which no one is immune. Ann Singleton the British woman who was once a member of Rajavi’s cult( MKO/PMOI) believes that “the irony was that I was in a state of modern slavery. I was mentally chained to the Mujahedin… Psychological manipulation can happen to anyone, any time. If you’re lucky, you end up with a timeshare”
Since all the cults function the same way, the website Howcultswork.com gives a very helpful definition of cults and their tricks to recruit and keep members:
Cults, wonderful on the outside but on the inside are very manipulating. Cult leaders are desperate to trick you into joining. They are after your obedience, your time and your money.
Cults use sophisticated mind control and recruitment techniques that have been refined over time. Beware of thinking that you are immune from cult involvement, the cults have millions of members around the world who once thought they were immune, and still don’t know they are in a cult! To spot a cult you need to know how they work and you need to understand the techniques they use. Teaching you these things is what this article is all about.
This article exposes the secret techniques cults will use to try and trick and control you. Cult leaders will not want you to read this, but read it anyway. Once you understand How Cults Work you will be better able to spot and avoid cult recruiters, and protect your family and friends.
The term cult seems strange to most people. They think that it is something far from their normal life, so they often have some misconceptions about the cults. In the second part of the article on howcultswork.com, the author clarifies some misunderstandings that are common among public about the cults:
Let’s eliminate some misconceptions about cults:
Cults are easy to spot, they wear strange clothes and live in communes.
Well some do. But most are everyday people like you and me. They live in houses. They wear the same clothes. They eat the same food. Cult leaders don’t want you to know that you are being recruited into a cult and so they order their recruiters to dress, talk and act in a way that will put you at ease. One cult has even invented a phrase to describe this, they call it”being relatable”.Since our focus here is the destructive cult of Rajavi, it should be said that “yes” some of MKO members are now living in castles like camp Ashraf or Camp Maryam but another large number who are mainly the recruiters and lobbying activists have apparently normal people who appear to be so good looking and friendly so it is very hard to spot them in the society due to their pleasant appearance.
Cults are full of the weak, weird and emotionally unstable.
Not true. Many cult members are very intelligent, attractive and skilled. The reality is that all sorts of people are involved in cults. One of the few common denominators is that they were often recruited at a low point in their life — more about that later.
Most of the members and ex-members of MKO are well educated people. Also the experts believe that the individuals with complicated minds who are eventually intelligent, talented people are more likely to be recruited by a cult because of their curiosity and interest in unknown adventures. The members and former members of MKO cult mostly master two or three languages. They have different skills such as computer work, arts, IT, political and technical science.
Cults are just a bunch of religious nut cases.
This is a common mistake people make thinking that cults are purely religious groups. The modern definition of a mind control cult refers to all groups that use mind control and the devious recruiting techniques that this article exposes. The belief system of a religion is often warped to become a container for these techniques, but it is the techniques themselves that make it a cult. In a free society people can believe what they want, but most people would agree that it is wrong for anyone to try to trick and control people.
About MKO, religion is only a mean to justify some of their activities. Relying on religion depends on their situation, for example to recruit a religious Iranian they claim to be a religious opposition but to deceive a Western politician they pretend to advocate a secular regime.
Refrence: Howcultswork.com
By Mazdak Parsi
It is almost two years that Mojahedin.ws has suggested the necessity of reviewing the content of Masoud Rajavi’s so-called ideological revolution making its best to obtain its fulfillment which has been accelerated by means of communicating with the organization’s ex-members. Following the statements made by Batool Soltani, of the ex-leadership cadre of MKO, with the Sahar NGO on different aspects of MKO cultic relations including the ideological revolution, it seems necessary to have a further reference to the suggestion mentioned before. Among the statements on the personal, organizational, and political aspects of her life in MKO, that of ideological revolution is of utmost importance as she is the first female Mojahed ex-member paying enough attention to this fundamental issue.
In addition, her recruitment in the leadership council of MKO leading to close relations and intimacy with the organization leadership, Masoud Rajavi and Maryam Azdanlu, has made her statements trustworthy and reliable. We do really appreciate her precision and sensitivity in this subject paving the way for other MKO ex-members to elaborate on various aspects of the ideological revolution of Mojahedin. Even her seemingly repetitious statements manage to clarify some untold truth on the real nature of MKO and its leadership.
Another factor highlighting the significance of her statements is that they may work to persuade other MKO members to break their silence on the critical issue of the ideological revolution of Mojahedin. Before, some factors like resorting deliberately to passivity and refraining to pose challenges to the organization in order not to be put under the attack of terror of personality were stated on the reasons why MKO ex-members have kept quiet on the issue of the ideological revolution while the fact is that merely grabbing at biography writing is of no effect and fails to present a challenge for Mojahedin; on the contrary, it is welcome by Mojahedin who aim to cover the facts on the real nature of their cultist relations the uncovering of which is a terrible nightmare coming true for them.
This issue is of a significance for Mojahedin that they have refused to show any reaction to their being accused of having cultic relations since they are well aware that even their common procedure of using bad language in this matter may be destructive since in that case they are obliged to elaborate on some cultic indices pertained to them leading to the subject being updated and widespread. Therefore, instead of taking an aggressive stance and offensive position toward this accusation, they have kept quiet even on the report of the US state department in April 2007 in which MKO was referred to as a cult of personality. Taking these facts into consideration may give us a better understanding of the significance of this issue and the necessity of disclosing the content of the ideological revolution of Mojahedin.
It is a fact that Mrs. Soltani’s disclosing statements have a wide variety of functions. First, the silence of Mojahedin on her separation shows the considerable importance of the subject for them. Second, disclosing facts on the relation of Rajavi with female Mojaheds by a detached female MKO member may pose a challenge of a high cost and many negative consequences for Mojahedin. Third, it is unbearable for Rajavi that females on whom he has made so much investment leave the organization. Mojahedin’s keeping silent proves that they are truly accused of censorship and banning the release of news in camp Ashraf among rank-and-files. In fact, in practice they prove their controlling and filtering of news spread lest Ashraf residents become aware of the separation of a member of leadership council.
Here it is worthy to refer to some major points on the consequences of Mrs. Soltani separation and the covert reactions of the organization to it underlining the importance of the subject. First, as she claims Masoud Rajavi has once asserted we have no separated female member so he dares not confirm the separation of Mrs. Soltani not to be accused of giving false promises to members as previously done.
Second, Mrs. Soltani claims that her separation is of great significance for the leadership of Mojahedin to the point that they hold grab to sending secret message asking her to go wherever she wants refraining to publicize her separation from MKO. However, her separation as well as the secret message of MKO leadership has been publicized at a high cost for Masoud Rajavi and MKO.
Third, Mojahedin are not willing to acknowledge the fact that despite all the controls exerted on members willing to separate and developing the hegemony of women on men, they failed to meet the desires and inclinations of members and women in particular and all the efforts made by Rajavi to stabilize the presence of women in MKO relations proved futile to the point that many female members leave the organization upon getting the least opportunity to do so. In addition, the way Mrs. Soltani has escaped from the organization reveals the amount of her frustration over the conditions of the organization.
Anyway, contrary to what Mojahedin leaders are after, Mrs. Soltani is expounding on the tragic and disastrous facts of the internal relations of MKO to which Mojahedin make no negative and public reaction. The fact is that despite her children being at the hands of Mojahedin as hostages and attempts to use them as blackmail for her keeping silent, she insists on revealing the real nature of MKO and Rajavi due to her years of suffering and pain inside MKO. Although her efforts are just for humanistic causes, she is to be appreciated and sympathized for the costs she has paid in the past and is likely to pay in the future.
“An Iranian resistance group that has been living in exile in Iraq for decades is no longer a welcome guest in the country’’ ,Anita McNaught the correspondent of Fox News in Iraq reported on January 12th. 
Ms. McNaught has based her documented report on evidences made by Iraqi Kurds who were victims of MKO’s atrocities while their cooperation with regime of Saddam Hussein to suppress Kurdish uprisings. Although, as McNaught reports “MKO denies involvement in the repression”, she cites the testimonies of Kurds including a Kurd military commander of Pishmerga who lost many forces of his battalion that was attacked by MKO, and a Kurdish researcher assured her that he has handed many secret documents of Baath Intelligence Service to Human Rights Watch; the documents show that MKO helped the Ba’ath forces to occupy Kirkuk province to resist Kurdish forces.
This two-page report of Anita McNaught gives some evidences on the terrorist nature of the MKO and as she quotes from Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group MEK “acquired its reputation as the ruthless tool of a thuggish regime.”
Finally she concluded with the viewpoint of a Western diplomat:”there is nothing we lose from Camp Ashraf except a huge headache and taxpayer dollars.”, as the reason of MEK’s expired role for the West.
Now that Fox News has too much evidence on the terrorist activities of MKO agents at least in Iraq. There is a question: why does Fox News hire AliReza Jaafarzade, the official member of MKO, as the foreign affair analyst?
Jaafarzade has never denounced his membership in MKO and has always advocated MKO’s cause in his so-called analysis on Fox News programs.
Why such a contradiction in Fox News’ policy?
Mazdak Parsi
As an organization designated FTO by the Department of State and as it is no more useful for the West, the only use of Jaafar Zade’s propaganda on FoxNews is to deceive the MKO members who are captured in Camp Ashraf, Iraq and Camp Maryam, France. Because they have no free access to the mass media, they only can view the Medias filtered by the cult leaders.
Therefore , the systematic propaganda of MKO on TV channels including FoxNews is an effort to keep the members hopeful to an uncertain future.
Despite its recent widespread campaign and arranged rallies even in subfreezing temperatures of some European countries calling to be removed from the list of proscribed terrorist organizations, Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCRI, NLA) can never abandon the extremely violent strategy of armed struggle that is intermingled with its ideology. In fact, the militant infrastructure constituted the group’s started struggle against the Pahlavis monarch.
MKO started its first armed activities in August 1971; the first was a plan to blow up a main high-power electrical tower located in Sologhan, Tehran; the second was to prepare a blacklist of SAVAK agents, the ousted Shah’s notorious security system. In August 1971 the regime was preparing to celebrate the Festivities of 2500 years of Iranian Monarchy. Not following the line of the main Iranian cleric leaders, particularly Ayatollah Khomeini, MKO were inspired by their opposition moves and position takings against some decisions made by the regime. In respect to the Festivities, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a statement to boycott the regime’s glorification of monarchy. It gave MKO an opportunity to think of its first daring armed action that could really shock the regime. As Hanifnezhad stated at the time; “Now that an eminent clergy has boycotted the festivities, it would be too bad to sit immobilized. We do have to do something. If God willing, we torch the celebration. (1)
Had the group succeeded, it could have been a great achievement because the damage would cause outages in gusts’ residence as well as in the performance of the celebration itself. However, SAVAK agents were already waiting for the saboteurs at the place and arrested four Mojahedin members before they could realize what was happening. It was more because a second armed party had tried the same plan the previous night and the regime had kept the report censored to avoid expansion of panic and disturbance:
The team was aware not in the least that the Fedayan (Devoted) Militant had sabotaged the high-power tower on the previous night causing it to slant a little. The security forces had swarmed all over the religion and trapped the team that was arriving in a car; the engineer Samavati, Alireza Tashayyod, Mohammad Seyyedi Kashani, and Nabi Moazemi were all captured. (2)
The organization’s next the so-called spectacular feat, although lacking a military nature, was to prepare a blacklist of SAVAK agents. The importance lies in the fact that the regime tried to withhold the identity of its security forces from the public while it was curtail for the dissident groups to keep a watchful eye on the agents in their vicinity if they were to accomplish their armed activities. Having no access to SAVAK’s authentic information files, Mojahedin gathered the needed information from any possible source such as the media. An information team had the responsibility to obtain the needed information to synthesize them into a whole complete body.
Despite all its maneuvering feats and attempts, no sooner had Mojahedin Khalq started their armed action than the SAVAK struck the great blow that shattered the organization and eliminated more than half of its cadres. After the mass arrests, some free members, who had escaped arrest, planned to kidnap Prince Shahram, Shah’s nephew, with the hope of exchanging him for the arrested cadre awaiting their execution. They had decided to take Prince Shahram to the airport and fly to Libya along with the released prisoners where they would set the Prince free.
The kidnapping operation, however, failed and the kidnappers fled, notwithstanding the precisely made calculations. Later on, the kidnapper team was arrested and the plotters revealed to be Hanifnezhad, Ali-asghar Badizadegan, and Rasoul Meshkinfam. Thus, MKO’s first activities of violence and terror turned out to be complete failure that caused the arrest and execution of all its leaders but Rajavi who closely aligned himself with SAVAK.
When SAVAK arrested the cadres and seized their safe-houses, it issued an analytical report pointing to a number MKO’s weaknesses that led to its breakdown, including:
– The hierarchical order of the relation between the ranks was not yet fully developed. In general, the organization did not benefit from a well-developed echelon.
– The members did not live in secret and performed their organizational orders under their ordinary tasks.
– The members identity was not kept secrete from the others.
– The documents and the arms were not kept and stored with extreme caution.
– The arms were not distributed among the members and, expect in some cases, they were not trained for sabotage operations. (3)
The Islamic Revolution, however, set the remnants of MKO free from prison. Now they had free access to SAVAK’s secrete files to learn about their past mistakes and correct them. They learned how to reorganize violent and terrorist plots rather than reviewing their ideology to clean it of malignancies. Just when they found the opportunity to carry out their first terrorist operation, they proved to be talented trainees that had outstripped their trainers.
References:
1. Maysami, lotfullah; from the Movement to Mojahedin, p. 387.
2. Maysami, lotfullah; those who have gone, p. 41.
3. Ruhani, Hamid; Khomeini’s Movement, vol. 3, p. 635.
The U.S. State Department reaffirmed its designation of the anti-Iran Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization as a terrorist organization.
The presence in Iraq of the MKO has long been a source of friction between Washington and Baghdad, which intends to expel the terrorist group.
The MKO had filed a petition for revocation of its designation as a terrorist organization. But U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote in a notice published Monday in the Federal Register that after reviewing the case she determined that the designation is still valid and appropriate.
Iraq’s government has long sought to get rid of the MKO, but the issue took on new urgency when Iraq assumed greater sovereignty Jan. 1 under a new security agreement that gave the Iraqis responsibility for Camp Ashraf.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said on Jan. 1 that the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization can ""no longer operate in Iraq"".
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
The MKO is on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze, and has been designated by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visits Brussels and despite the ban enjoys 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).
In recent months, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world in the hope of acknowledgement as a legitimate opposition group.