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.
MKO is an exiled cult-like organization that resorts to armed attacks to destabilize the government in Tehran.
The US State Department has declared that the official designation of Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group is appropriate.
In a notice published Monday in the Federal Register, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that the MKO group should remain in its list of terrorist organizations.
The US announcement comes amid Iraqi government efforts to expel members of the terrorist group. Baghdad assumed control of the security of Camp Ashraf, the main MKO military base in Iraq’s Diyala province, on January 1, 2009.
The Mujahedin Khalq Organization is blacklisted by many countries, including EU member states and the United States as a terrorist organization. It relocated to Camp Ashraf from Iran after the Islamic Revolution.
Prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the MKO enjoyed the support of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain, who provided the group with arms and military equipment to launch attacks against the Islamic Republic during the Iraqi war against Iran (1980-88).
The Iraqi government says the MKO has played a significant role in destabilizing the war-torn country, blaming the group for terrorist attacks within Iraq.
The recent move provoked the group to file a petition in order to take the case to the court.”We will take the case to the court and we will win,” a Paris-based spokesman for the group, Shahin Gobadi, proclaimed.
The MKO has sought to have the group removed from the list of terrorist organizations, lobbying the European parliament and officials.
Baghdad urges the expulsion or relocation of the terrorist group, saying the MKO presence at Camp Ashraf may strain its diplomatic relations with Tehran.
In addition to terrorist attacks within Iran, which claimed the lives of 12,000 civilians, the MKO helped Saddam in suppressing Iraqi Kurds.
Following is a partial transcript of the debate in the House of Lords on Monday on the terrorist listing of MKO
People’s Mujaheddin Organisation of Iran Question
2.44 pm
Asked By Lord Waddington
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to observe the latest judgment of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities concerning the People’s Mujaheddin Organisation of Iran.
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): My Lords, mindful of the clear judgment of the Court of First Instance of 4 December 2008 annulling the July 2008 listing of the PMOI, the UK believe that EU member states must observe and respect the court’s judgment in the current review of the EU list of terrorist organisations.
Lord Waddington: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his reply, but I think that he will agree with me that so far the British Government have not covered themselves in glory, having abstained rather than supported the Court of Appeal’s decision that the PMOI was not a terrorist organisation when the matter was before the Council of Ministers some months ago. Did not the European Court say in its judgment of 4 December that the British Government’s excuse for abstaining on that occasion—namely, that they had to vote either for or against the whole list of terrorist organisations—was wholly spurious? Surely
12 Jan 2009 : Column 1008
we are entitled to expect that from now on the Government will ensure that the judgments of the Court of Appeal and the European Court are observed and that the European Union respects the rule of law.
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, the noble Lord is, as always, gracious; he was kind enough, in attributing the spurious response to the Government, not to say that it was my response in this Chamber to him and others. This gives me the opportunity to say that, while the Court thought the view incorrect that it was impossible to vote against only one member of that list, I checked back with officials, who have reconfirmed that it is up to the presidency of the European Council at the time to determine how such business is dealt with. A whole list was given and there was no option but to vote it up or down. Therefore, if we had not abstained, other terrorist organisations would have been delisted.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire: My Lords, it is always a great pleasure to hear the noble Lord, Lord Waddington, supporting so strongly the EU Court of Justice and the importance of obeying its rules. We all recognise the delicacy of defining a terrorist organisation. I am not an expert on the PMOI, but I have some hesitation about it, which arises from the fact that right-wing think tanks, Washington, Christopher Booker and the Sunday Telegraph are among its strongest proponents. Does the Minister accept that we are concerned about the delicate line between legitimate exiled organisations in this country and terrorist organisations? For example, the last day we met in December, the VHP from India was mentioned in the context of raising charitable moneys in this country that may go through to violence against minorities in India. Are the Government looking overall at the question?
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, we constantly review which organisations we believe should be proscribed. It is enormously important that our reviews and the decisions that we and our European partners make are subject to scrutiny by the courts. In this case it is clear that courts both at the national and the EU levels have found repeatedly against our desire to proscribe this organisation and it is enormously important that we accept and respect those judgments.
Lord Wedderburn of Charlton: My Lords, will my noble friend reassure the House in clear and absolute terms that every future vote cast by Her Majesty’s Government will aim at the removal of the word “terrorist” in relation to the PMOI?
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, let me be clear: at the end of this month there will be a decision on this issue by Ministers at the European level. Let me be equally clear that the UK will, both in the working meetings that precede that decision and at the time of the decision itself, urge respect for the decisions of the courts.
Lord Campbell of Alloway: My Lords, will the noble Lord explain why, if one is excluded, all others are excluded? Surely there is a form of assessment on the merits of each case. What is going on?
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Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, each organisation is individually considered by the working committee that gives advice to the Council of Ministers. It is then the prerogative of the presidency to decide how a vote is taken on the list derived from those discussions. The last presidency determined that the vote should be on the list as a whole and that the list should be either adopted by consensus or rejected. It was not possible, in the view of the officials involved, to demand a vote on individual organisations on the list.
The Lord Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham: My Lords, in the light of the PMOI’s hopes for a Government in Iran who respect religious freedom, what action are Her Majesty’s Government taking on the position of the seven leaders of the Baha’i community who have been imprisoned without trial and held in severe conditions and who are now threatened with execution for no other crime than their religious beliefs?
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, we are very much aware that seven leading members of the Baha’i community have remained in detention without formal charge since their arrest in the first half of last year. We received reports in December that the group had been sentenced to death and that executions were imminent, although we have been unable to confirm this and cannot therefore substantiate the reports. Since the arrests, we have made several representations to the Iranian authorities calling for the group’s release and will continue to monitor developments closely. I associate myself with the right reverend Prelate in saying that this is an extraordinary attack on freedom of religion in that country.
Baroness Turner of Camden: My Lords, does my noble friend agree that, in view of the court decision that effectively removes the PMOI from the terrorist list, it would be quite wrong to seek its inclusion on the EU’s asset-freeze list?
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, the two lists are in this sense linked. The deproscribing of the PMOI indeed has knock-on effects on the organisation as a whole.
Lord Avebury: My Lords, when the decision comes before European Ministers at the end of this month, will there be an individual decision on the PMOI? Will the Government then vote for deproscription?
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, in the light of the court decision, we hope that the list, when it arrives before Ministers, will ideally not contain the PMOI.
An Iranian resistance group that has been living in exile in Iraq for decades is no longer a welcome guest in the country and may have no choice but to
return to Iran, where some of its members fear they could be tortured and possibly executed as traitors.
Some 3,400 members of the militant group the Mujahedin-e-Khalq — the People’s Mujahadeen of Iran, or MeK — have lived at Camp Ashraf, a 14-square-mile base north of Baghdad, since Saddam Hussein invited them there in 1986.
But the current Iraqi government, which took control of national security on New Year’s Day, has made it clear that it wants the MeK out. The government is unmoved by a sustained international campaign by the group that has included demonstrations and sit-ins in Washington and Geneva, Switzerland.
The MeK was founded in Iran in the 1960s, when it organized as a group opposed to the rule of the Shah. For more than two decades, it carried out a campaign of bombing and sabotage against the Iranian government, including the killing of U.S. citizens working in Iran in the 1970s, which led it to be designated an international terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
The MeK cooperated briefly with the clerical regime that overthrew the Shah in the Islamic Revolution, but then it turned against the nation’s new religious leadership, as well.
Despite its history of violence and its official designation as a terrorist group, some U.S. officials have been sympathetic toward the MeK because of the potential that it could be used as a card against Iran. But now that the Iraqi government wants the MeK to leave Iraq, the group’s designation as a terrorist organization is preventing other countries from offering its members a new home, and they fear they may have no choice but to return to Iran.
On Jan. 1, during a visit to Iran, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki re-stated his government’s position:
"Iraq is determined to put an end to this organization because it is affecting relations between Iran and Iraq. This organization participated in many operations that harmed Iranian and Iraqi civilians under the Saddam regime."
Al-Maliki was referring to evidence that the MeK collaborated with the government of Saddam Hussein, particularly during the Kurdish uprising in 1991 when thousands of Kurds were massacred. The MeK denies involvement in the repression and cites supporting statements from, among others, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
Hopes had risen among MeK members and their overseas supporters that they had found a means of remaining in Iraq when the U.S. Embassy said on Dec. 27 that American forces would "maintain a presence at Camp Ashraf … to assist the government of Iraq in carrying out its assurances of humane treatment of the residents."
"It means the United States has recognized its responsibility to ensure the safety and security of our people in Ashraf," said Ali Safavi, an official of NCRI, political wing of the MeK.
But the U.S. government no longer considers MeK members in Iraq to have the protected-persons status the U.S. gave them in 2003, and is privately supportive of Iraqi government efforts to encourage the residents to leave.
The U.S. also doesn’t have the final say, as the Iraqi government assumed responsibility for all detainees on Jan. 1 under the terms of the Security Agreement.
The MeK once had the finest tank division in Iraq and harbored hopes of leading a resistance army back into Iran to topple the Tehran government. But it was disarmed in 2003 by Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, then of the 4th Infantry Division, who put U.S. guards on the gate.
By then, the MeK had many enemies in Iraq as well as in Iran.
Nabaz Rasheed Ahmed, 61, a commander of the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in 1991, said MeK forces attacked his battalion in Chiman, Kirkuk province, in 1991.
"Mujahideen fighters who were backed by Iraqi army helicopters and tanks attacked my battalion in March 29, 1991. They killed many of my Peshmergas and wounded a lot, including me," he said.
The military architect of that uprising was Neywshirwan Mustafa, 64, who now is chairman of the powerful Kurdish media group Wusha Corporation. When told that the MeK denied helping Saddam in his crackdown on the Kurds, Mustafa said:
"That is not true. They were working in cooperation with the Iraqi Army…. They attacked many bases belonging to the PUK.
"They occupied the road from Kanar to Kirkuk. They occupied a hospital in Kanar. They killed a doctor and many other civilian people. Saddam Hussein was protecting them in Iraq".
Abdullah Safir, 59, a Kurdish English teacher who lives in Kifri, in Kirkuk Province, says he was there when the MeK mobilized against his town in 1991.
"I knew they were opponents of the Iranian regime at the time. I did not expect them to intimidate people in a country in which they were guests, and to interfere in internal issues."
Safir recalled how the MeK shelled Kurdish towns "at random," took locals hostage, and in one incident attacked a busload of young people from Kifri, killing all 20. He remembers seeing some of the bodies when they were brought home and said that one or two had been run over by MeK tanks.
Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group, which analyzes the causes of conflict, has also investigated the MeK’s role in Iraq.
"The MEK has yet to own up to its intimate relationship with the Saddam regime, which protected it and deployed it against its enemies when this served its purpose," Hiltermann said. "It thus acquired its reputation as the ruthless tool of a thuggish regime."
Shorsh Haji, a researcher on Kurdish issues who lives in the United Kingdom, escaped from Iraq after the 1991 uprising with many Iraqi secret police documents and worked with New York-based Human Rights Watch to analyze the content. He said the mukhabarat — a branch of Saddam’s intelligence service — wrote in their reports that the MeK "heroically resisted the rebels and traitors who wanted to occupy Kirkuk."
The intelligence the MeK had on Iran made them most useful to Saddam — and later, to the United States, Haji said. And that, he said, accounts for the protection the U.S. gave them at Camp Ashraf.
One MeK member told FOX News that the group gave the U.S. the names of "32,000 Iranian agents working inside Iraq." She also mentioned MeK’s purported role in revealing the extent of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, though subsequent reports support the view that Israel actually provided the information for the MeK to release.
Iraq has told the residents of Camp Ashraf that they must be gone by March of this year. It has promised they will not be forcibly repatriated to Iran, but it is not clear where else they could go.
Sources told FOX News that the Iranian government has a list of 50 "most wanted" MeK members, around 20 of whom are believed to live at the camp.
In recent years Iran has made much of a new policy of humanely "readmitting" former MeK members into Iranian society, with the help of a group of ex-members called the Nejat Society, which means "Rescue."
Behzad Saffari, legal adviser for the MeK, told FOX News: "Anyone who repents or remorses the past are welcomed by the Iranian regime and can be used against the MeK. They are a useful commodity. But anyone who goes back to Iran and still keeps the ideas of the MeK — they will be executed."
Approximately half of the residents of Camp Ashraf are under 30 years old, too young to have been part of the MeK’s fighting past.
But this may partly explain why the MeK has outlived its usefulness. A Western diplomat told FOX News: "There’s nothing we lose from Camp Ashraf except a huge headache and taxpayer dollars."
Qassim Khidhir Hamad contributed to this report
By Anita McNaught