Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Is the Mujahedin’s Third Option Practical?

The third option has been presented by MKO for the last three years as part of its propaganda against Iranian regime. They have repeated the words like “referendum” or “third option” on their website and their postings or articles on the other media like Ali Safavi’s article “third option in Iran; support the regime dissidents” on August 7th, 2008 when he states that “removing the immoral, and now illegal, terror tag against the PMOI will foster a new approach towards Iran, one that offers considerable strategies depth and long-term benefits.” […]” there is a third viable option, which is embodied by the Iranian people and their organized opposition” he quoted from Maryam Rajavi’s speech addressed to European parliamentarians.

According to Ali Safavi, third option would be practical by supporting the MKO and the support would come from the west that has listed the group as a terrorist organization.

He stated that removing the group from list would offer benefits!

What are the benefits of the removal of MKO from the list of terrorist organizations? The west will not  risk the security of its citizens by supporting a group with a long history of suicide cult-like activities following the arrest of Maryam Rajavi  in France or the assassinations including of those American civilians in Iran in the 1970’s.

Maryam Rajavi also views the third option in support of the Iranian people who hardly even remember who MEK are. If the elderlies of Iranian society remember them well, they will absolutely remember the bombing and assassinations the group committed against their Iranian compatriots: civilians or authorities. They will never forget the MKO served as Saddam Hussein’s spy during the Iran-Iraq war. The group is also well known by some Iranians; those whose beloved ones are captured in Camp Ashraf and are not allowed, by MKO, to contact their children.

So where does Mrs. Rajavi‘s support come from? She might still dream in the illusion of being the president of the future Iran.

While MKO is looking for the support for their third option, the only supporters could seldom found among western politicians that according to James Graff:”there are also reasons why western governments remain wary: among them are the group’s ideological origins in a mixture of Marxism and Islam, the aid they offered to and received from Saddam Hussein and charges, which they deny, implicating them in terrorist acts in Iran. Many independent analysts, such as Paris-based sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar, say the group has few supporters inside Iran.[…]the PMOI represents a Third way the west is still unlikely to embrace –even if it has no other options either.” (Time CNN-World- “Are the PMOI Iran’s last hope for a peaceful solution” by James Graff, July, 7, 2006)

According to Mujahedin, the support can also come from the organization’s sympathizers who are so got in the busy life of the west where they can barely find any time to participate the group’s so –called large gatherings with the exaggerated number of participants who are mostly deceived by democratic slogans of MKO’s propaganda system or are simply rented by MKO, just like the German actors or Polish students . Are such types of gathering enough to enjoy the support of the Iranians or the west?

The Iranian expatriates in abroad hardly risk their lives or freedom to attend a demonstration held by a terrorist designated radical Marxist group. A demonstration in which there is always the risk of being arrested or imprisoned.

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Mujahedin Bebehind the misinformation, disintegration

Iraq, Camp Ashraf, Mojahedin-e Khalq Behind the misinformation, disintegration

An agreement was reached earlier this year for security at Camp Ashraf, the military base of the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist group, to be transferred from American to Iraqi forces.

The MKO reacted with a blitz of misinformation aimed at media and decision makers.

This misinformation has a single aim; to persuade decision makers in every field that Camp Ashraf must remain untouched, protected externally by US forces, while internally it must be kept exclusively under the control of MEK leaders with no external interference at all.

The preservation of Camp Ashraf is essential to MKO leader Massoud Rajavi because it provides the total isolation in which mind control methodology can be used for cult indoctrination.

As a result, some recent reporting on the MKO contains confusing and conflicting information which passes for fact but which can be sourced to the misinformation issued by the MKO itself.

Iran-Interlink here examines the MKO’s claims in relation to Camp Ashraf and, in the context of other information, provides some brief analysis.

 

Mojahedin supporters claim the people in Camp Ashraf face persecution or even execution if sent back to Iran

The Iraqi government has given repeated assurances that it will abide by international law and no-one will be forced to return to Iran against their will.

Over 600 MKO have already voluntarily returned to Iran and the ICRC which has oversight of their treatment has reported no incidences of any mistreatment, persecution or even detention.

Although Iran has not rescinded its amnesty for ‘repentant’ MKO members who wish to return home, BBC monitoring reported that one Majlis representative demanded the return and execution of MKO.

In the context of reports that US forces have removed 300 leading MKO members from Camp Ashraf in recent weeks, Iran rejects the idea that the west ‘cherry pick’ useful MKO operatives and send the unwanted ones home for Iran to deal with. Such stances are designed to ensure that western governments take all MKO operatives from Camp Ashraf to any western countries which can tolerate them.

 

Mojahedin supporters claim it is the only resistance to the Iranian regime

The true resistance to the Iranian regime are the people inside Iran who live on a daily basis with the lack of freedoms and rights. They are the front-line of opposition. The MKO has no presence in Iran in this respect. The people inside Iran are not waiting to be ‘rescued’ by this military-political cult. They are competently opposing their own government on a daily basis. Instead, the MKO is regarded by ordinary Iranians as a foreign treacherous force which sided with Saddam Hussein during the eight year war with Iraq, and which is now asking the U.S. to bomb them, invade their country and hand it over to the Rajavis.

 

Proponents say members of the camp have been recognized by the U.S. as "protected persons" under the Fourth Geneva Convention since 2004

No matter what is claimed by the American military and the MKO itself, the body which decides on this status is the United Nations. The UN says that the Geneva Fourth Convention does not apply to any uniformed paramilitary group and in any case, the conditions for applying it have not existed since 2004. The MKO cannot be assessed as individual refugees until they lay down their arms and take off their military uniforms.

 

Proponents claim that Amnesty International and other non-governmental organizations that speak out against transferring authority of the camp to Iraq is proof that their cause is legitimate.

Neither Amnesty International, nor any other body, has ever said authority should not be transferred to the sovereign government of Iraq. AI has only urged that international law on non-refoulement be respected by both the U.S. and Iraq. The Iraqi government has given repeated assurances that respect for international law is a fundamental basis for the treatment of the individuals in Camp Ashraf.

 

Mojahedin supporters claim the people in Camp Ashraf will face ‘a Srebreneza-style massacre’ on the orders of Iran if Iraqi military take control

The handover is by mutual agreement between U.S. and Iraqi governmental officials. Iraqi officials from various ministries have expressed their outrage at the deeply insulting insinuation repeated by western media that they will act like Saddam Hussein and simply massacre their opponents. They assert that the role of Iraqi military is no different from that of the U.S. military in relation to Camp Ashraf which is, to detain the residents and provide security during their detention.

 

Mojahedin supporters claim taking them off the terrorism lists will enable the MKO to overthrow the Iranian regime

From 1983 to 2003 the MKO has had every possible encouragement and support, whether political, militarily, financially and etc, to do exactly that. Since its biggest incursion into Iran in 1988 in which hundreds of civilians in its ranks were killed, the MKO has been unable to effect any change to the internal situation of Iran other than cause an increase in the level of repression.

Inclusion in western terrorism lists did not prevent the MKO in Iraq from continuing to launch terrorist attacks into Iranian territory through to at least 2002. Only since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 when the MKO was forcibly disarmed has the group been unable to continue its military track.

Inclusion in western terrorism lists has not prevented the MKO from fundraising, recruiting and lobbying legislators in western countries. Removing the group from these lists will make no material difference to the group, but will allow it to become deeper entrenched in western political establishments.

 

The MKO misinformation serves a single purpose; to delay the disintegration of the group – an inevitable outcome which can be either facilitated or hindered by western governments and humanitarian agencies.

• Delay will allow the leaders to re-group in western countries and abandon unwanted rank and file members.

 

• Delay will expose rank and file members to increased human rights abuse; recent escapees say ten percent of women in Camp Ashraf have undergone unnecessary hysterectomies to rob them of the chance of having children. This process is ongoing.

 

Iran-Interlink urges that a separate camp be opened by the Iraqi government next to Camp Ashraf to allow defectors an escape route.

 

Iran-Interlink urges that the closed doors of Camp Ashraf be opened to outside bodies, including the families of people inside the camp and international humanitarian agencies.

 

Interested people can contact Iran-Interlink and/or the Iraqi government for up-to-date news about Camp Ashraf.

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Iraq

Mujahedin presence in Iraq is illegal

Iraqi envoy: Iraq never signs deal with US, unless its interests are met

Iraqi Ambassador to Tehran Abu Heidar al-Sheikh said on Saturday that Iraq would not sign any deal with US, unless it will meet interests of the Iraqi nation and those of all neighboring states. Mujahedin presence in Iraq is illegal

In an exclusive interview with IRNA, he said there are lots of unresolved issues on a security pact between Iraq and the US which should be reviewed and that signing a deal at this juncture is out of question.

Any agreement should get approval of the Iraqi parliament, he underlined.

Iraqi religious leaders should also put seal of approval prior to signing any security pact with the US, he pointed out.

The Iraqi nation has the final say in all affairs and its consent is required, he said.

White House officials have declared that if Iraq refuses to sign the security pact with the US, they will freeze Iraq’s assets, he said.

Iraq has asked Iran and the US to attend the fourth round of talks on Iraq’s security, he said, adding that "We are waiting to hear comments from both sides."

…

He called for promotion of jointly run projects as well as investment of Iranian companies in Iraq to help reconstruct the war-shattered country.

Denouncing bloody war between Iran and Iraq, he said the war between the two countries was masterminded by Saddam Hussein and his oppressive regime and the Iraqi nation had no role in it.

On presence of MKO members in Iraq, he said "We believe that they are against the Iraqi and Iranian nations and should leave the country. Their presence in Iraq is totally illegal."

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Missions of Nejat Society

Nejat Society’s Announcement No.3

The so called sectarian NCRI claimed that the offices of Nejat Society in Iran forced the families of Ashraf residents, threatening them and putting pressureNejat Society announcement No.3 on them, to go to Iraq and make their children leave Camp Ashraf and return to Iran.

NCRI also claimed that families are told to sign pre-written letters addressed to the International Committee of Red Cross, adding that Nejat Society threatened a family to death because they refused the cooperation.

Nejat Society would like to inform the patriotic and broad-minded people:

The honorable families of Nejat are some of the most respectable  and faithful Iranians who never believe in the terrorist destructive cult of MEK traitors who have a black file of assassinations and spying as Saddam Hussein’s accomplice during the 8 years of Iran-Iraq war.

The slogans like “Down with terrorism “, “there is no good or bad terrorism” , “ leave our children “  and the self-will slogans “ Down with Rajavi” which are chanted  by the families in their gatherings proves their hatred towards MKO cult .

 Having enjoyed the motivation and eagerness of these families, Nejat Society succeeded to return more than 600 of the innocent beloved ones who defected from the hypocrite cult, to the warm embrace of their families and their mother land, Iran of where you are the worst traitor who serve as spies for the United States.

There is no need for Nejat Society to threaten the families or to force them to cooperate with it.

In fact, the respectful families, themselves ,asking for the release of their deceived children captured in Ashraf prison, have an active role in Nejat Society activities.

It is that the cult of Rajavi speaks of the same families whose deceived children were forced to insult their parents or to spit at them and to slap them on the face when had gone to Camp Ashraf to visit them.

Mr. Masud Rajavi,

The families , personally ,in their own style and with their good nature, write the letters to ICRC from their cities or towns. They, personally, bear the difficulties of traveling to submit their complaints to international community.

Speaking of threat to death, you might mean the Mustafa Muhammadi family who were so severely beaten by your bully agents in front of Ashraf until the American forces came saved them from your hands.

Nejat Society including the honorable families of captives of Camp Ashraf is decided to continue its activities until the release of their children to have a free will to choose by their own. MEK cult can not prevent the residents of Ashraf from visiting their families (with lying, threatening and concealment) any more. They can no more tell the members falsely that some of their family members have died in order to kill their will to contact their families.

In Mujahedin’s opinion, the families are refused as poison but in Nejat Society ‘s idea ,the families are the oppressed ones whose children have been manipulated under destructive indoctrinations of Masud Rajavi for three decades and that’s why they have not been able to contact their families.

The same indoctrinations forbid any family relationship or marriage in Ashraf base and force the married ones to divorce and leave their children in the poisonous orphan houses of the cult in Europe. No child has been born in Camp Ashraf for twenty years now.

The announcement of the secretariat of NCRI is another scandal due to their narrow – mindedness. They are still dreaming their mirage.  

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

America to give Iraqi nationality to Mujahedin Terrorist

U.S. promises to elements of the MKO to secure the survival of them in Iraq through the issuance of their certificates of Iraqi nationality.

Sources close to the MKO activists declared in Paris that the leadership of the Organization received promises from the United States to secure their protection in Iraq, especially in Camp Ashraf, despite its decision to hand over the security file of the Status of the Ashraf camp to government forces recently.

The sources revealed that the U.S. is supposed to prevent any attempts the Iraqi authorities might make to crack down on the movement and activity of MKO in Iran, and prevent any attempt to arrest or extradite any of the elements of this terrorist organization to the Iranian authorities.

The sources said that leaders of the organization had told their forces in Ashraf camp that U.S. personnel said they promised to work to ensure the issuance of certificates of nationality and the nationality of an Iraqi organization’s members who are in Iraq, particularly those who master the language of Iraq, in order to keep them in Iraq and In the "components” of security, military and intelligence officers working under the supervision of U.S. military officers in Iraq.

It is worth mentioning that the U.S. occupying forces have kept MKO under protection in Iraq for the last five years in an attempt to benefit from these MKO members to put pressure on the Islamic republic and to launch spying activities and even military action against Iran. Washington’s trying to destabilize Iran’s internal security.

It is unclear how the U.S. will issue certificates of Iraqi nationality for the elements of this terrorist organization.

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The MEK Expulsion from Iraq

Iraqi tribes: MKO must be expelled from Iraq

In a new statement, Leaders of Iraqi tribes demanded senior Iraqi officials, including Iraqi President and Prime Minister to expel Terrorist groups especially MKO from Iraq’s soil.

They called President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and members of the Iraqi parliament to take a firm decision to expel different terrorist groups, especially the MKO terrorist group from Iraq.

The tribal leaders believe that MKO clique is a symbol of global terrorism because they committed the most crimes and massacres against the Iraqi people; this band is the same terrorist band which assisted Saddam Hussein in suppressing Shiites Intifada in 1991 and other uprisings of Iraqi people. They also mass murdered Kurds under Saddam’s direct command.

The statement stresses that the criminal terrorist group of MKO is one of the pawns of Saddam’s regime to suppress the Iraqi people move further adding to its crimes through intervention in Iraqi affairs and supporting terrorists, particularly in Diyali province and harboring criminals in the Ashraf camp.

This new statement, which was issued by the political office of Islamic assembly of Iraqi Tribes and is sealed by the assembly’s emblem, reveals that the group is still planning financial support for all terrorist acts in Iraq to destabilize the security and political stability throughout the country.

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Mujahedin Khalq 's Function

Mujahedin destroyed all documents and books in Camp Ashraf

How the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (Rajavi cult) destroyed all documents and books in Camp Ashraf Hassan Piransar

After the fall of Saddam Hussein, Rajavi ordered us to search all the camp. Ashraf camp had to be wiped off any material linked to Saddam’s apparatus. He told us, the new hosts (Americans) are stronger and will be able to help us a lot more. He ordered all the anti American and anti imperialist books and documents to be destroyed.

Download Mujahedin destroyed all documents and books in Camp Ashraf

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The cult of Rajavi

Instillation of Hatred in the Cult of Mujahedin

Cultist groups put much energy to develop a collective identity. However, in cases of encountering the danger of split and signs of any schism, they may resort to a variety of measures that strictly negates the first preliminaries needed to keep a whole community united. In general, cult leaders unit members and gave them enemies to hate and comrades to love but love towards other members is replaced by hatred and disgust to prevent the formation of dissidence and objection within the cult. In other word, as members are instilled to hate themselves and follow the group, they are forced to hate other members in order not to be motivated to quit the organization. Eric Hoffer refers to such a paradoxical aspect in cultist relations and says:

The revulsion from an unwanted self, and the impulse to forget it, mask it, slough it off and lose it, produce both a readiness to sacrifice the self and a willingness to dissolve it by loosing one’s individual distinctness in a compact collective whole. Moreover, the estrangement from the self is usually accompanied by a train of diverse and seemingly unrelated attitudes and impulses which a closer probing reveals to be essential factors in the process of unification and of self-sacrifice. In other words, frustration not only gives rise to the desire f6r unity and the readiness for self-sacrifice but also creates a mechanism for their realization. Such diverse phenomena as a deprecation of the present, a facility for make-believe, a proneness to hate, a readiness to imitate, credulity, a readiness to attempt the impossible, and many others which crowd the minds of the intensely frustrated are, as we shall see, unifying agents and prompters of recklessness. (1)

The main cause of resorting to controlling procedures is the dissatisfaction on the part of members. For example, such mechanisms were developed within MKO after the initiation of the ideological revolution due to the fact that the shocking Many MKO ex-members point out that they had to express their hatred to their relatives, friends and even their parents in order to pass the phases of the ideological revolutionevent of the marriage between Masoud Rajavi and Maryam Azdanlu, after her divorce from her high ranking member Mehdi Abrishamchi, which led to the discontentment of members, necessitated improvement of security considerations within the organization. The phase of compulsory divorces prepared much more ground for this approach. Although this procedure was justified pointing to the necessity of directing members’ emotions and feelings toward Rajavi, but in the long run it had challenging effects on the internal relations of the organization, detaching all the emotional and family attachments of members and even couples and paving the way for the application of more controlling procedures.  

Under such a repressive atmosphere where the members themselves did the control job, the organization was made secure against possibility of any deviation from principles and policy. The phase of compulsory divorces was the outmost extend of enforcing cult-like process of resentment through which spouses began disparaging each other before other members only to accomplish organizational commands. The organization was well aware of the fact that hatred aroused hatred; members had to show detestation in their words, eyes, hearts and conducts.

Even beyond the milieu of the organization members were compelled to carry this revultion with them in their external relations with the world outside. And they were instructed to cover their hatred with smiles and eloquences. Many MKO ex-members point out that they had to express their hatred to their relatives, friends and even their parents in order to pass the phases of the ideological revolution. The more hatred they showed to outsiders, the more loyal they proved to be to the leader. Some members were even forced to terrify their own family members to increase needed qualification for organizational promotion. The ex-member Masoud Banisadr giving details on one of the ideological sessions writes:

The session was called ‘detachment from the past’. One man had to leave his much-loved black girl friend to become a full time supporter. He put his head on my shoulder and cried for a few minutes, telling me how much he loved her, but with her attitude toward the organization he could not marry her and work with the Mojahedin at the same time. Another had to leave his brother who was working in the Iranian embassy, and show his readiness to kill him if it became necessary. (2)

He also relates a case in which he was ordered to cut all his attachments to the past and burning his photos in order to prove his revolutionary competence and writes:

I wanted to say real good-bye this time once forever. I went home and saw Anna; she asked me what am I doing home. I explained to her, She didn’t say anything, as she knew it is not going to do any good. This time I attacked my old photographs from my own childhood till marriage and up to then, my parents photographs as I wanted to deny all of them, my father who was perhaps responsible for my bourgeois tendencies and my mother who was responsible of my own ‘mild’ and ‘gentle’ behavior known as liberal ones. Anna seeing me taking all those photographs and albums, with anger, was quietly crying, then when I attacked our marriage Album she start crying louder, and asked me to stop it. She said those are not just yours, . . . but I was not listening to her and took every thing and put them in a rubbish bag. And left for the base. Over there every body was worried where I am and thought perhaps I have left the organization or under the immense pressure which I was, in during past few weeks, have killed myself or something like that. I wrote a long report for Tahereh and with that report send that rubbish bag to her. She sent me back the rubbish bag and asked me to burn it all and welcomed me back to the organization. (3)

The applied controlling mechanisms within MKO are far beyond most known cults. Although hardly the term ‘hatred’ is mentioned in the cases where it is meant, the consequent antagonisms, resentment and hostility clearly indicate that members have been taken over willingly or unwillingly. The unbounded hatred in the members is a factor of encourage to antagonize whatever order that contradicts that of the organization’s.

References:

1.    Eric Hoffer; The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, New York: First Perennial Classics 2002, p. 58.

2. Banisadr, Masoud, The memoirs of an Iranian rebel.

3. ibid

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Bombs ticking on the US soil

Claiming to be the dissident movement seeking democratic reform in Iran, Mojahedin Khalq Organization (aka MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCRI, NLA) is listed by several nations as a terrorist organization for its atrocities against Iranian people and activities under the former Iraqi regime. Being the first of countries to put the group on the terror list, the US is commonly known to have established ambiguous relationship with MKO due to its anti-Iranian stance. However, nobody denies that the US was again the first, among other forces invading Iraq under the pretext of war on terrorism, to grant the group the protected status and to take it under its own protection.

But to grant citizenship to a number of leading terrorist members of MKO, 16 members as reported, might be a truth that hurts. Some may say that it is hard to believe even as gossip.  But, as people say, where there is smoke there is fire. It is not an issue concerning the US government to deal with and let the recognized terrorists freely in and out of the country. It is an issue of national security and no American citizen ever fancies being again eyewitness to another national tragedy even more appalling than that of 9/11.

Being trained under the most sophisticated methods of terrorism as well as enigmatic, destructive cult techniques in the safe haven of Camp Ashraf heavily protected by American themselves, MKO leading members are like time bombs that start ticking in any corner of the world where they opt to detonate. As the media have reported lately, several members of MKO were arrested in France and Switzerland on terrorist charges. Justifying the arrests for no clear reason, some officials familiar with the group’s activities claim that the arrested were sympathizers, not official members. Does it really make any difference to be a sympathizer or an official member when the instilled ideology induces to detonate a bomb, disturb the social order, or commit self-destruction? It is hard to believe that the US is giving assent to bombs ticking rampant on its soil!

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The MEK Expulsion from Iraq

So What to Do with Those Mujahedin Terrorists?

Deciding the fate of the Mujahedin

The Bush administration inherited many of Iraq’s problems when it invaded that country, including an Iranian terrorist organization funded and armed by Saddam Hussein, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MKO). Though in the midst of a war on terror, the Bush administration chose in 2003 to protect 3,000 of the organization’s militants and house them in a camp given to the group by Saddam — Camp Ashraf just north of Baghdad. Trita Parsi

Ever since, the faith of this State Department-listed terrorist organization has been unclear. Hated by Iraqis for its involvement in Saddam’s crimes against the Iraqi people, the Baghdad government wants to expel the group. But no country is willing to take them.

Though the Iranian government wants to put the group’s leadership on trial in Iran, it seems less interested in the organization’s rank and file. The European governments have little interest in taking in 3,000 battle-hardened Muslim militants, fearing that they will use Europe as a base to plan and execute further terrorist attacks.

The U.S., on the other hand, has already contradicted its own principles by giving preferential treatment to an organization on the State Department’s terrorist list — even though President Bush himself pointed to the organization’s patronage under Saddam Hussein as evidence of Iraq’s support for international terrorists in his speech to the United Nations in September 2002.

"Iraq continues to shelter and support terrorist organizations that direct violence against Iran," President Bush said.

To complicate matters further, if reports that the U.S. has used MKO terrorists for cross-border raids into Iran are true, then Washington certainly doesn’t want these militants to end up in Iranian hands.

Washington seems doomed if it does, doomed if it doesn’t.

Members of the terrorist organization have protested outside the White House this past week, angered by the Bush administration’s decision to hand over Camp Ashraf to the Iraqi government. The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will surrender the MKO members to Tehran, they argue, who in turn will imprison and execute them.

Though approximately 500 MKO fighters have been repatriated to Iran and no reports of abuse have emerged according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which oversaw their return, sending rank-and-file Mujahedin members to Iran against their will would be irresponsible.

Hated by the Iranian people for having fought on Saddam’s side in the Iraq-Iran war, the Iranian Mujahedin is understandably fearful of the fate awaiting them in Iran.

Yet, contrary to the protesters outside the White House, the issue is not a choice between freedom in Camp Ashraf and captivity in Iran.

The Mujahedin is not an effective opposition to the government in Iran as the organization’s defenders in Washington claim, but a politico-religious cult that brainwashes its members, places children of Mujahedin members with other families in order to prevent parents from defecting, and who according to Human Rights Watch, maintains control by torturing its rank and file. "Members who try to leave the Mujahedin pay a very heavy price," according to Joe Stork of Human Rights Watch.

Its involvement in terrorism is undisputed. It assassinated several Americans in Iran in the 1970s. It supported the taking of the U.S. Embassy in Iran and blasted Ayatollah Khomeini for releasing the American diplomats in 1981, arguing instead that the hostages should have been executed. It made a pact with Saddam Hussein in the 1980s and fought alongside his army against their Iranian countrymen. Later in the 1990s, they became Saddam’s most trusted henchmen, tasked with quelling Kurdish and Shiite uprisings against the Iraqi dictator.

According to defectors, Mujahedin members in Camp Ashraf celebrated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In 2004, French authorities descended upon the Mujahedin headquarters in France, arresting the leader of the cult, Maryam Rajavi. Immediately, zealous Mujahedin members staged hunger strikes and several set themselves ablaze. Hardly the behavior of a democratically oriented opposition group.

But the vast majority of the Camp Ashraf residents are not so much members of a terrorist cult as they are victims of it. The camp is itself a prison. It may have provided Mujahedin militants with protection against ordinary Iraqis who sought to avenge their relatives killed by the Mujahedin at the behest of Saddam Hussein, but the prison has primarily enabled the leaders of the terrorist organization to prevent the rank and file from defecting.

Rather than debating where to expel the Mujahedin terrorists, help should be provided to the rank and file to break with the cult and make free choices about their future. It’s the only humanitarian solution to this dilemma – and one that defeats rather than protects this anti-American terrorist group.

Trita Parsi

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