Page 753 – Nejat Society

A matter of control and freedom

Majority of those who joined Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK/PMOI) and spent years and decades trapped in the leftist group could never dream that their quest for a socialist utopia would lead them to the abyss of a destructive cult of personality. Many of defectors that managed to break the embrace of the cult confess that what they gained in all those lost years was an understanding that they had been the sure victims of a man’s power abuse and ambitions who had not the least idea what democracy could be like.

Kept totally in ignorance of the true nature of the group, since the group severely controls the outlet and leak of information, even the sympathizers living in the free world of modern European countries as well as a handful of European parliamentarians, who seem to be after their own party and political interests rather than caring about Iranian people, have been led to a prejudice that the organization is a pro-democratic political group struggling for the institution of democracy in Iran. However, a merely show of sympathy does not seem to harm anybody. But when it comes to sympathize with a cult and terrorist group to further keep and enslave its members against their will it makes different.

Looking it from a humanitarian point of view, let’s support voluntarily return of MKO members to Iran or any other country they wish to move according to international regulations and through the organizations concerned. Let’s help those in Ashraf decide where to live rather than who controls them. They have had enough of any form of control and what at the present need is to be free.

September 27, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Cultic Collective life

Collective life constitutes one of the most significant stages of human development; however, nowadays some cultist groups misuse it as a favored Cultist joint life is based on a collective unity in which individuals are exposed to some uncommon factors resulting in their blind obedience and submission means through which a variety of controlling techniques such as brainwashing and mental exploitation of their members is accomplished. It has to be pointed out that communal life in a cult has a meaning much different from that we have in our mind.

Cultist joint life is based on a collective unity in which individuals are exposed to some uncommon factors resulting in their blind obedience and submission. A kind of discipline is exercised within cults much stronger than that of army, schools, political groups, etc. Such a discipline covers all aspects of cult members’ life such as their mentality, beliefs, sleep, food, leisure time, occupation, emotional relations, blood ties, etc. Eric Hoffer describes cultist collective life as follows:

Collective unity is not the result of the brotherly love of the faithful for each other. The loyalty of the true believer is to the whole-the church, party, nation-and not to his fellow true believer, True loyalty between individuals is possible only in a loose and relatively free society, As Abraham was ready to sacrifice his only son to prove his devotion to Jehovah, so must the fanatical Nazi or Communist be ready to sacrifice relatives and friends to demonstrate his total surrender to the holy cause. The active mass movement sees in the personal ties of blood and friendship a diminution of its own corporate cohesion. Thus mutual suspicion within the ranks is not only compatible with corporate strength, but, one might almost say, a precondition of it (1).

Cultist relations aim at cutting all individuals’ personal attachments on the one hand and then putting that individual within a collective unity. In other words, it is attempted to prevent member’s connections with the outside world and all his/her family, emotional, social, professional, mental, and ideological relations to make him/her wholly dependent on the cult. There is a paradox between the individuals’ separateness from the society and connection with cult members. According to Hoffer:

The effacement of individual separateness must be thorough. In every act, however trivial, the individual must by some ritual associate himself with the congregation, the tribe, the party, and etcetera. His joys and sorrows, his pride and confidence must spring from the fortunes and capacities of the group rather than from his individual prospects and abilities. Above all, he must never feel alone. Though stranded on a desert island, he must still feel that he is under the eyes of the group. To be cast out from the group should be equivalent to being cut off from life (2).

In fact the main motivation for conducting collective life in cults is taking members under full control. According to Hoffer, the mechanisms of cultist life change the value system of members in a way that it even puts value on aggression and aggressive behaviors:

There is also this: when we renounce the self and become part of a compact whole, we not only renounce personal advantage but are also rid of personal responsibility. There is no telling to what extremes of cruelty and ruthlessness a man will go when he is freed from the fears, hesitations, doubts and the vague stirrings of decency that go with individual judgment. When we lose our individual independence in the corporateness of a mass movement, we find a new freedom-freedom to hate, bully, lie, torture, murder and betray without shame and remorse (3).

It is a fact that communal life is the sole solution for keeping absolute control over a group of individuals. As a result it is a common strategy in all cults to resort to collective life.

Where new creeds vie with each other for the allegiance of the populace, the one which comes with the most perfected collective framework wins (4).

Such a collective framework has been referred to repeatedly by Mojahedin as the main factor resulting in winning their political and ideological achievements and legitimacy.

References:

1. Eric Hoffer; The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, New York: First Perennial Classics 2002, p. 115.

2. ibid, 61.

3. ibid, 93.

4. ibid, 44.

September 27, 2008 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

MKO‘s propaganda Machine

As a terrorist organization closely allied with Saddam Hussein, MKO should not be considered as serious as any other source. Relying on news sources like MKO terrorist cult, is just like using the information of a news agency that absolutely lies or exaggerates incidents in order to run their own cause: regime change in Iran. Therefore every time the IAEA went on discussing the Iranian nuclear program, MKO’s propaganda machine set off for repeating their old allegation to “reveal” “clandestine” nuclear activities of Iran. MKO has almost very little information on Iran’s nuclear program and this little part is also known to the world. The only thing MKO do is to repeat and exaggerate the same words from time to time showing photos of Natanz installations with explanations by Ali Reza Jaafarzadeh. As Michael Rubin says in his famous article”Monsters of the left”; “The MKO is masters of propaganda …[but] terrorism, the deliberate targeting of civilians for political gain, should never be acceptable”.

There are some special phrases usually used by MKO members and supporters such as “ democratic alternative”, ”democracy in Iran”, ”human rights”, ”freedom” … to represent a misleading image of the cult of Rajavi but as Michael Rubin exactly defines them :” Many “monsters of the left” use the rhetoric of democracy to realize their ambition. Masud and Maryam Rajavi and the organization over which they exert dictatorial control, are no exception.”

In 2005, when the Human Rights Watch published the detailed report on human right abuses committed by MKO, the organization launched a large champagne to say that the report was due to a plot between the HRW and the agents of Iranian regime! And of course the HRW didn’t stay quiet and gave a response to such allegations. According to MKO’s ideology anyone who is not with MKO is with the Islamic Republic.

MKO’s disinformation quest is working hard to deceive European and American politic men by their propaganda including their campagne to remove the name of the cult from the UK’s terrorist list. They are still on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations although they allege that MKO was listed as a terrorist group due to Clinton’s appeasement policy towards Iran.

Although there are some allegations on the clandestine support of some Pentagon officials for MKO but you never forget that in his pre-invasion speech before the American operation against Iraq, President Bush said: “Iraq shelters terrorist groups including Muajhedin-e-Khalq, which has used terrorist violence against Iran and in the 1970’s was responsible for killing several US military personnel and US civilians.”

The MKO exaggeration policy is also an important factor to run their propaganda machine .When in MKO websites the number of the participants in one of the groups gathering is reported as 40’000, the credible news agencies such as Washington Times reports 300 participants.

Therefore MKO’s propaganda machine distorts the truth, fabricates false information, repeats and exaggerates the clearly known realities.

September 25, 2008 0 comments

Iraq

Iraq: No country willing to take Mojahedin Khalq

Iraq’s ambassador to Iran says so far no country in the world has agreed to shelter the dissident members of the US-backed MKO terrorist group. Iraq Envoy to Tehran Mohammad Majid Al-Sheikh

According to International Law, the outlawed Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) should be handed over to any country which is prepared to harbor its members, Ambassador Mohammad Majid Al-Sheikh told Fars News Agency.

However, no government has so far expressed willingness to admit the group into their country, al-Sheikh added. Baghdad has issued a six-month deadline for the MKO to leave the Iraqi soil.

He ruled out the possibility of extraditing MKO members to Tehran saying according to International Law, Iraq is not allowed to force the members to return to Iran.

Al-Sheikh explained that any a member who is willing to return to Iran, should be handed over to the Red Cross, and the movement would then deliver them to Iran.

Al-Sheikh said that the Iraqi forces will soon take control of the Mujahedin group enclave, a small area about 60 km (35 miles) north of Baghdad.

"The MKO members are not allowed to exit the camp, nor they are not permitted to use arms," the ambassador said.

He added that Iraqi officials would hold meetings with the group members to persuade them to return to Iran, in case they were reject by all the other countries.

The dissident group leaders which are accountable for assassinating officials in Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution are based in France, but some 3,000 members of the group reside in Iraq.

Backed by the United States and the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hossein, the group has used its northern Iraq enclave – Ashraf – to launch military incursion against Iran.

The MKO is blacklisted as a terrorist group by a majority of the European Union member states as well as the United States.

September 25, 2008 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq 's Function

Where Mujahedin Khalq is destined to settle?

If the Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) is forced to weigh anchor from Iraq, since the Iraqi government is decisive to expel the group as once France did, it has to drop it in another country; it has already succeeded to drop it partly in France although not officially consented and announced neither by French government nor the organization. In fact, the organization needs to root in a country to survive, as it has already survived in Iraq for so long within its Ashraf cult-like enclave.

In spite of many current controversies and concerns that the group’s members would be sent to Iran to face trial for numerous terrorist atrocities if the Iraqi government holds the control of Camp Ashraf, a duty more on the shoulders of legal international tribunals investigating war and terrorist crimes, Iran seems to be unveiling to receive and tackle with so many ideologically potential terrorist forces that need thought reformation and have to go under a process of treatment for psychological or physical traumas before being sent into the society. No doubt, it would lead the organization to the precipice of absolute demise and that is why the organization is already protesting an improbable decision through a widespread international propaganda blitz.

Now at the service of world powers that walk on a war path with Iran, MKO will be probably granted a camp of refugees. Will it be a Western country? Of course not, since none of them is willing to risk its internal security. Despite given protections, the world has witnessed MKO’s acts of violence, meddling and espionage wherever it has been settled. Even the strictly imposed controls of French anti-terrorist forces could not cease potential terrorist and cult threats of the group settled in Auvers-sur-Oise when it came to display its real cult nature through setting member ablaze in Paris streets.

The courageous deed by the French government to handcuff terrorists who tried to turn Auvers-Sur-Oise into a bastion of terrorist plots worked as a blueprint for the Iraqi government to follow in order to have more control over Camp Ashraf. Being kept on terrorist lists or removed by some certain country does not necessarily mean that the countries where MKO members are officially, or under political refugees, residing have changed their views on the group; they are known to be terrorists and cultist above all and no country trust them to be freely moving here and there.

Restrictions imposed on the organization in France and Iraq, where it holds two bases, has actually checked group’s political and propaganda activities more or less. All these lead to a third supposition that the group would be relocated to the US as refugees. Although the US is supporting MKO to utilize it against Iran, however, it has never come to terms with the organization to recognize it an alternative for Iran’s current ruling order.

But MKO’s settlement in the US requires another decision: abandoning group’s designation as a terrorist organization. Of course, such a decision would cause the greatest controversy not only amongst the ruling administration but also amongst different political parties as well as national and social communities. It would be a logical and rational question to ask whoever delist MKO that how a group long occupying notorious rank of terrorists comes to be removed from the list and, above all, turns into a most favorite opposition group permitted to settle in the country. Then, where the terrorist cult is destined to settle?

September 25, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Fostered ambiance of distrust within Mujahedin

As was explained in previous articles, one of the controlling techniques practiced within MKO is espionage. Despite the fact that in almost all political systems and groups it is attempted to conceal the identity of the spies, within MKO spying is respected and valued so all members are involved in it openly and consider it to be an ideological and organizational duty. It seems that Mojahedin have redefined some terms. According to a former member:

Many reactionary features such as blind obedience and submission are considered to be positive ones. In fact, terms have lost their original meaning and the most shameful actions are introduced as revolutionary and valued characteristics and vice versa (1).

It is a fact that Mojahedin’s leadership resorts to appropriate approaches in accordance with the existing situation and conditions so that utmost security and control is achieved. According to some MKO ex-members, the strategy of spreading mistrust among members was taken after the ideological failure of Rajavi in the operation Eternal Light (Forugh-e Javidan). In other words, faced with a strategic impasse concerning the issue of the overthrow of the Iranian regime, Rajavi decided to put more strict control over the internal relations and MKO members.

It has to be noted that Rajavi had clear justifications for his decisions. For example, this strategy would control individual members one by one and consequently all the MKO members would be under control. What was of utmost importance for Rajavi in this critical phase was the danger of emotional relations of the family. Therefore, he decided to create mistrust among family members in order to prevent the negative consequences of their family ties. The leadership was well aware that after the failure in the operation Eternal Light, the family relations might intensify the challenges the organization was facing. As a result, the leadership tried to make family members pessimistic against each other by means of different approaches one of which was spying against each other.

Inter-organizational marriages that aimed at making the mind of members engaged in other issues rather than thinking of organizational challenges turned itself into a problem that threatened the organizational potentialities in next phases. One of the former Mojahedin members, Hadi Shams Haeri, refers to the main reasons behind obligatory organizational marriages in the first phase of the ideological revolution and the obligatory divorces in the second phase and writes:

Another trick played by Rajavi was creating much pessimism and hostility in women against men to create a resultant deep gap. Also the organization announced repeatedly that ‘men coveted women to satisfying their own sexual desires. For them, women are like properties and dolls. They are very selfish and aim to exploit women. Men are wild creatures and the ideological revolution is to solve the existing disparity’. Such comments affected the family relations negatively and made it full of distrust and disfavor (2).

He further explained that this controlling strategy was taken after the initiation of the first phase of the ideological revolution in 1985-6. He himself can be referred to as one of the victims of this strategy. As he says:

After the ideological revolution in 1985, I never felt secure at home. I talked to my wife cautiously since I felt that she controlled me like a spy. In fact she reported my words to the officials many times and they interrogated me for that. She was very different from the early years of our marriage turning to an obedient spy who did whatever she was ordered. She told me many times: ‘why are you such a subordinate member? I expected you to help me win promotion’ (3).

There are many reported instances in MKO in which the couples are made to belittle each other by spitting at their spouses’ face, using ideological swears and expressing hate to each other in order to pave the way for the leadership to put more control and hegemony over the members.

Anne Singleton, an MKO former member, elaborates on this controlling procedure and believes that Rajavi has generalized the absolute distrust exercised in the external policy of the organization to that of internal relations of the members in that the members felt pessimistic toward the outside world as well as other members and even their family members to the extent that all members tried to act in a cautious way not to be subject to the suspicion of others.

In such an atmosphere, any event resulting in others’ misunderstanding and doubt may lead to a lack of trust on the part of the leadership toward the members. According to Eric Hoffer, any individual’s reaction in such a milieu is the result of his adaptation with circumstances came across and the sole inlet into a system of values is renouncing individual wills to be dissolved in a collective whole:

Only the individual who has come to terms with his self can have a dispassionate attitude toward the world. Once the harmony with the self is upset, and a man is impelled to reject, renounce, distrust or forget his self, he turns into a highly reactive entity (4).

This mechanism may be interpreted as the best instrument for controlling members by their own family members after losing trust in each other to become reactive entities. According to Anne Singleton:

There is total trust between all the members of the Mojahedin, as a group of people facing an outside enemy (the rest of the corrupting world) they must trust one another completely. But, there is also a total absence of trust between all the members because no-one can ever be sure what anyone else is really thinking, or even what oneself is thinking and therefore it is easy to lose trust in oneself as a rational being. The only certainty that remains is to listen to and obey Rajavi (5).

References

1. Shams Haeri, Hadi, The Swamp, vol 1.

2. ibid.

3. ibid, p.131.

4. Hoffer, Eric, The true believer, p. 80.

5. Singleton, Anne; Saddam’s private army.

September 21, 2008 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Ashraf, a camp for refugees or captives

Reportedly, in the conference "In Search of Justice, European Committee for De-listing the PMOI" held in Brussels and attended by dozens of parliamentarians form the European Parliament and delegations from national parliaments of Member States, Mr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras, president of the conference, announced the formation of a European Committee to challenge the Council of the European Union decision to maintain the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran on the EU terrorist list.

as stated by Mr. Struan Stevenson, the Vice-President of the EPP/ED, in the conference”if what the PMOI is doing constitutes terrorism then the EU Presidency should also include parliamentarians on the list because we support PMOI’s conduct”. The conference also discussed the recent developments regarding the situation of MKO members residing in Ashraf in Iraq and emphasized that those in Camp Ashraf are political refugees and protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention and as such they are protected by the principle of non-refoulement, International Humanitarian law, International Law and enjoy juridical security.

Just on the day before the conference was held, a delegation from Nejat Society, formed by MKO ex-members in an attempt to unbind the comrades still held captivated in the terrorist cult, travelled to Geneva to participate the meeting of United Nations Human Rights Council and to visit the delegations from other international human rights organizations to stop political abuse of those in Camp Ashraf and guarantee their individual rights.

Nejat Society asks the whole international human rights community to demand justice for the remaining members who really deserve the right to visit their family, choose clothes other than military uniforms, the right to have access to public information resources like newspapers, radio or TV and the right to select their living-place.

It would be a good thing if the EU advocates of terrorist and cultist MKO made a thorough study of group’s atrocities or contacted the ex-members before making a fuss to be included on the list next to terrorists. If they believe that those in Ashraf have to be treated according to the International Law, the least they can do is to provide for the international humanitarian organizations to freely visit Camp Ashraf and the residents individually. Then it will be much easier to stay with the terrorists or avoid them.

September 20, 2008 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Mujahedin Khalq on the run

Massoud Khodabandeh and Arash Sametipoor join live from Geneva

Massoud Khodabandeh and Arash Sametipoor who are attending the UN Human Press TV- 4 Corners on MKO Rights Council meeting in Geneva, Participate in a discussion about the future of Camp Ashraf after hand over to the Iraqi Govenment.

(The recorded video file is 44.04 minutes. the discussion on MKO starts in the second part of the programm. 22.56 min)

4 corners, Press TV,

Download Mojahedin Khalq on the run

September 20, 2008 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

Nejat Society Visits Geneva With Camp Ashraf Rescue Plan

A delegation from Nejat Society in Iran is in Geneva this week to participate in sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council and to meet with delegations from other international human rights organizations.

Their aim is to prevent further political abuse of Mojahedin-e Khalq (MKO, MEK, NCRI) members in Camp Ashraf held captive by their leaders, and guarantee the individual rights of those who renounce violence and are willing to return to society.

The delegation has also concerns about the removal from the camp of about 300 high ranking MKO members (wanted by Interpol) by the US army.

Nejat Society delegation comprises: Mr. Babak Amin, Mr. Arash Sametipoor, Ms. Marjan Malek and Ms. Ronak Dashti.

The delegation of Nejat Society in Geneva to participate in sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council

Arash Sametipoor said

"the most serious threat to those left in Camp Ashraf comes from the MKO cult’s leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. They will want to use their blood to extricate themselves from this crisis."

Babak Amin explained:

"For over twenty years Ashraf has been inaccessible to the outside world. This has allowed the Rajavis to do whatever they liked behind closed doors. It is necessary now for humanitarian agencies to enter the camp to investigate what is really going on there. We need to discover how widespread the human rights abuses against the members are."

Now that the Iraqi government, the ICRC and UN human rights and refugee agencies have access to the remaining people in Camp Ashraf, Nejat is asking for their immediate protection.

Arash Sametipoor said,

"Because these people have been abandoned by the MKO leaders, they must be considered now as ex-members of the terrorist cult.

It is clear the Iraqi authorities will not cooperate with the MKO to further suppress their members. We urge humanitarian agencies to now visit Camp Ashraf and restore basic human rights to the people trapped there."

Nejat Society wants every individual person in Camp Ashraf to be given the opportunity to decide for themselves – without pressure or interference from MKO personnel – whether they want to continue wearing military uniform, or whether they want to take off their military uniform and renounce violence. They should be given access to external information, internet, radio, television, books, newspapers and conversation. Above all, the people in Camp Ashraf must be helped to contact their families and enjoy family visits as soon as possible.

"Contact with their families re-connects the cult member with their emotions and provides a trustworthy frame of reference in which they can reassess what the cult is telling them", explained Babak Amin.

Mojahedin leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, and other leading members who have escaped the camp should be arrested and brought to justice through international courts.

Nejat Society believes that when the residents of Camp Ashraf are treated as individuals they will find places to go, especially if their families can be involved in helping them.

September 18, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Enforced internal intelligence activities in MKO

Mojahedin-e Khalq organization (a cultist group also known as MKO, MEK, PMOI) resorts to brainwashing and controlling techniques as well as engaging in other blameful activities such as training spies in a way different from other political and security systems. Normally, espionage is considered to be a profession by itself. However, in most cases it emerges as a result of ignorance, unfounded demands, and an ever-increasing phobia on the part of those involved in it. Although it means gathering, transmitting, or losing, of information by those who pretend to be part of a system or group, Mojahedin relate it to ideological and religious issues as a valued activity.

Cultist groups make psychological use of such a phenomenon. Eric Hoffer refers to it as a marvelous slime to cement the embittered and disaffected into one compact whole, a unifying agent. He writes:

The awareness of their individual blemishes and shortcomings inclines the frustrated to detect ill will and meanness in their fellow men. Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves. Thus when the frustrated congregate in a mass movement, the air is heavy-laden with suspicion. There is prying and spying, tense watching and a tense awareness of being watched. The surprising thing is that this pathological mistrust within the ranks leads not to dissension but to strict conformity. Knowing themselves continually watched, the faithful strive to escape suspicion by adhering zealously to prescribed behavior and opinion. Strict orthodoxy is as much the result of mutual suspicion as of ardent faith (1).

Then he refers to some examples in right Fascist parties and expounds on such an assumed sacred process as follows:

Mass movements make extensive use of suspicion in their machinery of domination. The rank-and-file within the Nazi party were made to feel that they were continually under observation and were kept in a permanent state of uneasy conscience and fear. Fear of one’s neighbors, one’s friends and even ones relatives seems to be the rule within all mass movements. Now and then innocent people are deliberately accused and sacrificed in order to keep suspicion alive. Suspicion is given a sharp edge by associating all opposition within the ranks with the enemy threatening the movement from without. This enemy-the indispensable devil of every mass movement-is omnipresent. He plots both outside and inside the ranks of the faithful. It is his voice that speaks through the mouth of the dissenter, and the deviationists are his stooges. If anything goes wrong within the movement, it is his doing. It is the sacred duty of the true believer to be suspicious. He must be constantly on the lookout for saboteurs, spies and traitors (2).

Such a deep theoretical consideration within the cultist relations of MKO constitutes what we call ideological sacredness which paves the way for the application of espionage activities. Subornation is used in order to convince members of being engaged in espionage in MKO, a common approach in the world of politics practiced by Mojahedin as well. One of the Mojahedin former members expands on such a controlling procedure and writes:

One of the undemocratic and even un-revolutionary relations is that of training spies. Spy is a person communicating with others in a friendly manner and then reporting his/her actions and speeches to the leader of the organization. This approach has penetrated within the families too. Wife spies against her husband, sister spies against her brother and vice versa giving the report to the officials which debilitates the marital relations resulting in suspicion and hatred in the families. Even in one or two hours allowed to be with each other, no one dares to talk to or consult with her/his spouse since it may end in giving secret information or criticizing the organization both of which are forbidden (3).

Hadi Shams Haeri describes such a process as follows:

Spying was another means for the mental reformation of members. The organization asked members to make daily reports of their family members and give it to their person in charge to control the affairs. Even talking in a specific dialect was forbidden not to disclose information in this way. As a result, distrust was spreading among the members and every one considered other members as security agents. Also the reporting person was affected negatively turning to a double-faced person (4).

Saeed Shahsavandi, former member of Mojahedin’s central democratic cadre, in his letter to Masoud Rajavi (MKO ideological leader) refers to one of the doctrines of the ideological revolution of Mojahedin, writing:

Members’ espionage and even that of couples is done as report writing. It was initiated after the development of the ideological revolution and nowadays is ever-increasingly practicing (5).

In a nutshell, espionage turned to be a kind of organizational advancement after the initiation of ideological revolution. In most ideological sessions of Mojahedin especially that of the so-called ‘article c’, members were told to be involved in espionage in order to get promotion. It is very interesting that this approach has no red line and all members were obligated ideologically to write reports. For example, European members returning to Camp Ashraf were accused of being secret agents too. In this regard, Masoud Banisadr writes:

By now not only we had to give reports about ourselves, and our thought, but as we were told that we have to be safeguard of each other, and report back misbehaviour of each other. God knows how many people gave such reports about us from abroad that didn’t know about this new situation. Some times I could not believe my ear when I could hear some facts people were giving about themselves or others. In a meeting, a brother was accusing another brother who sat on a seat occupied before be a sister. He was accused of wanting to touch a seat, already touched by a woman (6).

According to some detached members, sometimes even the common recollection of members they chat over turned to a means for their own indictment. However, although such exchange of information in no way aimed at giving reports, the internal relations of MKO made it inevitable to end the ordinary and day-to-day chitchats of members in giving reports against one another.

The most pitiful event was that of family members’ spy against each other done under the pretext of ideological and religious considerations. Making all members indebted to the leader is one of the most important phases of the ideological revolution without which organizational membership and advancement is impossible. This principle affected common emotional relations between relatives and made members mostly concerned about organizational upgrading and contentment of the leadership.

Some members had to divorce their spouse just because of losing their organizational status. The family turned into a place of mistrust and spying within MKO. Every one was obligated to report all events happened in his/her family to the organization. There was no freedom at home. Every one with a higher organizational status had hegemony over others and more facilities and welfare (7).

Taking members under control by means of spying is one of the appalling mechanisms practiced within MKO. According to some MKO ex-members, some members ignored all ethical principles accusing their fellow warriors falsely in order to satisfy the leadership. One of the most famous gatherings of Mojahedin in which a member was condemned harshly and sometimes beaten by others was called ‘pot’. It was like being put in a pot and boiled on fire as members were put under heavy, inescapable psychological pressures and reproach. Such sessions were formed based on the reports given to the officials about members.

The process of espionage in MKO is different from other systems and organizations; in the latter it is preferred to hide the identity of spies while in MKO it is respected because it is a duty to prove loyalty to the leadership. The value given to surveillance results from the fact that MKO leadership has theorized it ideologically. As Hoffer refers to psychological aspects of this issue, Mojahedin make use of the same aspect as well as ideological considerations thus making it an ordinary daily activity.

The study of such controlling mechanisms in MKO is of special significance since they make members do self-censorship due to the fact that no one can distinct spies from ordinary members. As a result, all members control each other automatically preventing the occurrence of any tension within the organization. There are many evidences provided by separated members proving this fact. The cases discussed above well illustrate the quality and quantity of such an unethical phenomenon in the internal relations of Mojahedin many of which are not mentioned here.

References:

1. Hoffer, Eric, The true believer, p.114

2. ibid, p.115

3. Shams Haeri, Hadi, The impasse of deviations, p.26

4. Shams Haeri, Hadi, The swamp

5. Shahsavandi, Saeed, Documents of my letters to Masoud Rajavi

6. Banisadr, Masoud, The memoirs of an Iranian rebel, p.376

7 Shams Haeri, Hadi, The swamp

September 18, 2008 0 comments

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