Dedicated to the people of Halabja who on March 16th, 1988 suffered the worst chemical attacks committed by the Iraqi regime. On that day, 5,000 innocent civilians, 75% women and children, immediately perished. This was not the only chemical attack ordered by Saddam, it was just the worst
Stated in the first paragraph of the judgment of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities released on 12 December 2006 in Case T-228/02, an action brought by Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) against the Council of the European Union, it reads:
At the time of the facts giving rise to the present dispute, it was composed of five separate organisations and an independent section, making up an armed branch operating inside . According to the applicant, however, it and all its members have expressly renounced all military activity since June 2001 and it no longer has an armed structure at the present time.
Consequently, the court’s judgment might have been issued based on the applicant’s claims.
Initially adopting armed struggle as the infrastructure of its campaign, MKO started the other claimed five alias organizations abroad after it was expelled from mainly as coverage for its terrorist operations. The existing evidences indicate that in the course of its past forty-year power struggle, MKO has always adopted application of terror and violence to advance its objectives.
Even in the present case-file whereby it claims to have forsworn military activities, read terrorist operations, since June 2001, there are sound evidences publicized by its own publications that assert the continuation of the line of terror and violence inside as the means to establish democracy!
Moreover, MKO’s claim to have renounced terrorism is made after its proscription and because its moves were under close surveillance. Still, the group, benefiting lack of a universally precise definition of terrorism, manifests modern patterns of terrorism. What do you call it when its members set themselves on fire before the eyes of people in Western countries, besmirch the opponents, accordingly change the tone of threats after exchanging the military uniforms to be elegantly and stylishly attired, and when nearly 150 families of its members organize a 200-day or so sit-in outside the United Nations High Commission headquarters in Geneva to impose the wants that are unfounded?
We believe that MKO has kept its overt, rather than blackmailing, operations dark and has dodged contributing facts. So the Court of First Instance might have been uninformed of the facts when the case was referred to the court for adjudication. With these new facts turned up, a new fact-finding process needs to be arranged for further investigation.
Besides, The European Council announced on 31st January following the 2778th Council meeting of Economic and Financial Affairs that it has "decided to provide the PMOI with a statement of reasons for keeping it on the EU’s ‘asset freeze list’ of persons, groups and entities involved in terrorist acts, and to give the PMOI one month to present its views, together with any supporting documentation". To deracinate the malign roots of terrorism, especially a dangerous terrorist cult like MKO, special care should be taken to avoid the snakes in the grass.
Considering it a duty to inform concealed crimes of the terrorist cult of MKO, we provide clues to broad evidences. Fortunately, since MKO’s propaganda machine can never keep silent over a simple terrorist move, there are many instances of launching mortar attacks and detonating bombs inside after the claimed date of June 2001 published in Mojahed, the official organ of MKO. The followings are references to these publicized proofs originally in Persian. The lines in bold are the original dates, issues number, and the translated headlines. The details stated in the reports and communiqu’s may also be accentuated.
MOJAHED No. 557, Tuesday, 3 Jul 2001 (27/ 2001)
To express solidarity with the months-long walkout and rally of the Chit-Rey laborers, the HQ of the Akhondist regime’s intelligence bureau of the police forces, and the police force selection office and the office of Akhond Ramazani, the deputy of the police forces intelligence bureau, and the ransacking center called the Oppressed Foundation located in the heart of Tehran were demolished by the rockets of RPG 18.
The details of the attacks were also reported by a number of news agencies and papers referred to following the headline.
MOJAHED No. 558 Tuesday, 10 July 2001 (28/ 2001)
The Akhondist regime’s office of military industries and the Guards Corps munitions complex in Tehran were demolished by grenade projectiles and rockets of RPG
MOJAHED No. 559 Tuesday, 17 July 2001 (29 / 2001)
Mojahedin’s clash with the intelligence and police agents before the country’s police HQ near Vanak sq. in Tehran .
A number of the agents were killed and a hero-mojahed was martyred.
According to the included issued communiqu affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country, the skirmish happened on July 12.
MOJAHED No. 561 Tuesday, 31 July 2001 (31/ 2001)
Operation in the name of the martyred-Mojahed Mostafa Nikbakht; the blast of the Akhondist regime’s North-West logistics HQ of the Guards Corps in Tabriz .
According to the included issued communiqu affirmedby Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country, a bomb was detonated on July 29.
MOJAHED No. 563 Tuesday, 30 October 2001 (45/ 2001)
150 blast operations in support of the revolutionary youths and public risings.
– Khorush-e-Iran No. 1; 26 successive blasts against the suppressive forces in Arya-Shar and Noor sq. in response to repression of Tehran ’s uprising and apprehension of thousands youths.
– Khorush-e-Iran No. 2; successive blasts against the suppressive forces in Sa’adat-abad and Shahrak-e Gharb in Tehran .
– Operation Pounak rising; successive blasts against the suppressive forces pending Pounak rising in Tehran .
– The chain operations of Nezam-abad and Sabalan risings; 25 blasts against the suppressive forces in the course of the public demonstrations of Nezam-abad and Sabalan.
– The chain operations of Narmak rising, No. 1; 20 blasts against the centers and the suppressive forces of the Akhondist regime pending the public risings in East of Tehran .
– The chain operations of Narmak rising, No. 2; 30 blasts against the centers and the suppressive forces of the Akhondist regime in the course of the public risings in East of Tehran .
Mehregan chain operations:
– Mehregan No. 1; daring assaults against the 110-police patrols in Elahie district of Tehran and killing a number of the Guards Corps personnel.
– Mehregan No. 2; the HQ of the suppressive police forces in Shahrak-e Vali-asr in south of Tehran was demolished.
– Mehregan No. 3; in solidarity with Isfahan textile laborers, the Guards HQ of 21 Ashura Corps located in Shahrak-e Eram in Tabriz was demolished.
– Ne’mat-abad operations; in solidarity with the oppressed people of Ne’mat-abad, the police HQ there in south of Tehran was blasted.
– Sabzevar Rising Operations; armed assault against a Bassij base in Qala-Morghi and demolishing it using grenades and explosives.
MOJAHED No.564 Tuesday, 6 November 2001 (46/ 2001)
More than 100 blast operations in Tehran and Tabriz in response to the repression of public rallies and revolutionary youths.
– Khorush-e-Iran No. 3; 38 successive blasts against the suppressive forces of Akhondist regime in Narmak.
– Khorush-e-Iran No. 4; 12 blasts against the suppressive forces in Tabriz in response to the repression of public rallies.
– Khorush-e-Iran No. 5; chain blast operations against the suppressive police patrols in Vali-asr St.
According to the included issued communiqu affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country in page 2, the three operations were all carried out on 31 October.
MOJAHED NO 565 Tuesday, 16 November 2001 (47/2001)
Khorush-e-Iran No. 6; the blast of the strategic bridge called al-zahra by army personnel in Kermanshah Province .
Khorush-e-Iran No. 7; 10 successive blast operations against centers and suppressive forces in Vahidieh in Tehran .
According to the included issued communiqu affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country in page 2, the latter operations are dated 10 November.
MOJAHED NO 566 Tuesday, 20 November 2001 (48/2001)
Khorush-e-Iran No. 8; 14 successive blasts against the centers and suppressive forces in Narmak district in Tehran .
Khorush-e-Iran No. 9; string blast operations against the centers and suppressive forces in Noor and Pounak sqs. In Western part of Tehran .
Khorush-e-Iran No. 10; assaulting the suppressive police forces in Tabriz . In Mojahedin’s clash with police forces, including 15 chain blast operations, a number of the Guards were killed.
According to the included issued communiqu affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country in page 2, the two former operations were carried out on 15 November and the latter on 16 November.
MOJAHED NO 567 Tuesday, 4 December 2001 (50/2001)
Khorush-e-Iran No. 11; three operations against the agents, vehicles of the intelligence, Bassij, and the Akhondist police forces in Tehran .
According to the included issued communiqu affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country, the operation was carried out on 22 November.
MOJAHED NO. 577 Wednesday, 20 March 2002 (12/2002)
The West Azarbaijan intelligence HQ in Orumieh was demolished by three sequential blasts.
According to the included issued communiqu affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country in page 12, the bombs detonated on March 19, 2002.
MOJAHED NO. 578 Wednesday, 3 April 2002 (14/2002)
– A police HQ in Tehran’s Molavi sq. was demolished through three successive blats.
– The Guards Corps Bassij Regional base 1 located in south of Tehran was demolished through two successive blats.
– A police HQ nearby Khamenei’s residence was overwhelmed by two blast operations.
MOJAHED No. 581, Tuesday, 30 April 2002 (17/2002)
Ferdos rising operation; a HQ of the suppressive police forces ant its intelligence office located in Seyed-Khandan in Tehran were struck with a few blast operations.
According to the included issued communiqué affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country, the date of the operation is April 24, 2002.
MOJAHED No. 582, Tuesday, 7May 2002 (18/2002)
Jahan-Chit Laborers operation in Tehran; a HQ of the suppressive police forces ant its financial affairs office located in northeast of Tehran was destroyed.
According to the included issued communiqu affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country, the date of the operation is April 30, 2002.
MOJAHED No. 585, Tuesday, 21 May 2002 (20/2002)
The Guards Corps base of Bassij squadron 123 located in East of Tehran was demolished.
According to the included issued communiqu affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country, the operation was launched on May 18, 2002.
MOJAHED No. 593, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 (27/2002)
A police HQ and the special unit base in northwest of Tehran were blasted in two operations.
According to the included issued communiqu affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country in page 2, the operations were conducted on July 4, 2002.
MOJAHED No. 594, Tuesday,16 July 2002 (28/2002)
Assailing Bassij and intelligence agents with hand-grenades in Inqelab sq.
Setting the vehicles of the suppressive enemy on fire.
According to the included issued communiqu affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country, the operations are dated July 9, 2002.
MOJAHED No. 595, Tuesday, 23 July 2002 (29/2002)
The regional Bassij base in West of Tehran nearby the police HQ in Azadi St. was overwhelmed.
According to the included issued communiqu affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country, the operation date is July 18, 2002.
MOJAHED No. 596, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 (30/2002)
A police HQ in Shahrara was demolished.
According to the included issued communiqué affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country, the operation date is July 25, 2002.
MOJAHED No. 597, Thursday, 8 August 2002 (31/2002)
Meqdad base, the Guards Corps Bassij HQ in Jomhori sq., was struck.
According to the included issued communiqu affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country, the operation was conducted on August 6, 2002.
MOJAHED No. 599, Thursday, 22 August 2002 (33/2002)
The Guards Corps Bassij HQ in West of Tehran was overwhelmed by two simultaneous operations.
According to the included issued communiqu affirmed by Mojahedin’s HQ inside the country, the operations were conducted on August 21, 2002.
For three years, thousands of members of a militant group dedicated to overthrowing Iran’s theocracy have lived in a sprawling compound north of Baghdad under the protection of the U.S. military.
American soldiers chauffeur top leaders of the group, known as the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK, to and from their compound, where they have hosted dozens of visitors in an energetic campaign to persuade the State Department to stop designating the group as a terrorist organization.
Now the Iraqi government is intensifying its efforts to evict the 3,800 or so members of the group who live in Iraq, although U.S. officials say they are in no hurry to change their policy toward the MEK, which has been a prime source of information about Iran’s nuclear program.
The Iraqi government announced this week that roughly 100 members would face prosecution for human rights violations, a move MEK officials contend comes at the request of the Iranian government.
"We have documents, witnesses," Jaafar al-Moussawi, a top Iraqi prosecutor, said Monday, alleging that the MEK aided President Saddam Hussein’s campaign to crush Shiite and Kurdish opposition movements at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Moussawi said the criminal complaint would implicate MEK members in "killing, torture, [wrongful] imprisonment and displacement."
The group denied involvement in Hussein’s reprisals.
"These allegations are preposterous and lies made by the Iranian mullahs and repeated by their agents," it said in a statement issued this week.
The case highlights the occasional discord between the U.S. and Iraqi governments on matters related to Iran. While the U.S. government has accused Iran of supplying Iraqi Shiite militias with sophisticated weapons that it says have been used to kill American troops, Iraq’s Shiite-led government has expanded commercial and diplomatic ties with its majority-Shiite neighbor.
"This organization has always destabilized the security situation" in Iraq, said Mariam Rayis, a top foreign affairs adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, adding that the MEK’s continued presence "could lead to deteriorating the relationship with neighboring countries."
MEK leaders dispute the prosecutor’s allegations. They contend that Iran has infiltrated Iraq’s political leadership while also supporting militant groups in an effort to keep the United States in a quagmire in Iraq. They also say the Iranian government wants to forestall a U.S. attack on Iran.
"The Iranian regime wants very much to prevent the winds of change," Behzad Saffari, a spokesman for the group, said in a recent interview at a Baghdad hotel. "Instead of fighting the Americans in Iran, [the Iranian government] is fighting them in Iraq. If we have to leave Iraq, it means the Americans are defeated. It means Iran has prevailed."
Maliki told officials from neighboring countries during a meeting in Baghdad on Saturday that Iraq should not become a battleground where other nations attempt to settle their disputes.
The Iranian Embassy in Baghdad did not reply to questions about the MEK.
The MEK, also known as the People’s Mujaheddin of Iran, was founded by students at Tehran University in 1965 as an opposition movement to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the country’s U.S.-backed dictator. The group clashed with that government and later with the Islamic Republic established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979.
In 1986, the MEK moved its headquarters to Iraq, where Hussein welcomed the organization. MEK fighters have been widely accused of backing Hussein’s suppression of the Shiite and Kurdish uprisings, but MEK officials say Kurdish leaders have absolved them of playing a role in the crackdown on Kurds.
In 1997, during a period of warmer relations between Washington and Tehran under the Clinton administration, the State Department added the MEK to its list of foreign terrorist organizations.
The group’s leader, Maryam Rajavi, lives in Paris. She has a cultlike following among members, some of whom set themselves on fire to protest her brief arrest in 2003 after French officials raided the group’s offices. Rajavi has led efforts to have the group’s terror label removed in the United States and Europe. In December, a European court overturned an E.U. order freezing the group’s assets. The European Union has not removed the group from its terrorist list.
The MEK says it has several thousand members in Iran, but the extent of its support base is unclear. Most exiled members live in the camp at Ashraf, north of Baghdad.
After Hussein was toppled, the MEK agreed to turn over its weapons to U.S. military officials. In 2004, the U.S. military granted its members the status of "protected persons" under the Geneva Conventions and has since provided security for the camp.
Shortly after the camp was set up, FBI and State Department officials screened residents and found no evidence that would lead them to charge anyone with a crime.
A Washington Post special correspondent toured Camp Ashraf in January. It is a largely self-sufficient compound, and the majority of members haven’t left in years. It has shops, a swimming pool, an ice cream store, a bakery and a soda factory that makes a cola- and orange-flavored drink locals call Ashraf Cola.
Last summer, Maliki gave the group six months to leave Iraq. Although the deadline has elapsed, Iraqi officials say they intend to expel the group after getting parliamentary approval.
MEK officers argue that their expulsion would be a violation of international law and have obtained a legal opinion to that effect from the U.N. refugee agency. They say they should be treated as refugees, not terrorists.
Lou Fintor, the spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, said there has been no change in the government’s position toward the MEK. A U.S. military spokesman in Iraq did not respond to questions about the MEK.
A senior U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity said protecting the MEK was "not a big drain on our resources," adding, "This is a political problem between Iraq, Iran and the MEK."
If the group is expelled, it is unclear where Ashraf residents would go or what other country might take them. MEK leaders refuse to speak about such a scenario, reiterating that their expulsion would be illegal.
The leaders say they are a main source of intelligence on Iran and question why the United States keeps the group on its terrorist list.
"All the important things that are talked about are things revealed by us," said Mohammad Mohaddessin chairman of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the MEK’s political arm, referring to information about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and, more recently, the roadside bombs the United States says Iran has made available to insurgents in Iraq.
Moussawi, the Iraqi prosecutor, said the human rights case is not politically motivated. The issue of expulsion, which is not directly related to the pending criminal charges, is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament in coming weeks.
Some lawmakers have criticized Maliki for making the issue a priority at a time when Iraq is besieged by more serious problems.
"If you take it from a humanitarian side, I don’t think they should leave until the situation can be resolved," Saleh al-Mutlak, a Sunni lawmaker, said in an interview. "It is surprising that the government of Iraq is giving such an order. This will only show that the Maliki government will obey Iran’s orders."
Staff writer Ann Scott Tyson in Washington contributed to this report.
By Ernesto Londoo and Saad al-Izzi
Washington Post Staff Writers
March 14, 2007
Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat) | Hansard source
asked Her Majesty’s Government:
What action they have taken to comply with the ruling of the European Court of First Instance in the case Organisation des Modjahedines du Peuple d’Iran v Council of the European Union, annulling Council Decision 2005/930/EC of 21 December 2005 freezing the funds of the organisation; and in what manner they will now provide for the full hearing of the case against the organisation.
Lord Triesman (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign & Commonwealth Office) | Hansard source
On 12 December 2006, the Court of First Instance (CFI) of the European Community annulled the Council of the European Union’s decision to add the Mujahedinn e Khalq (MeK, also known as OMPI or PMOI) to its list of terrorist organisations subject to an EU-wide asset freeze. The CFI judgment focused on issues of EU procedure; the Court did not rule on the substantive question as to whether the MeK is a terrorist group.
The specific Council decision of December 2005 annulled by the Court has been replaced by a subsequent Council decision of May 2006. The EU-wide asset freeze against MeK is therefore still in force. The EU keeps its terrorist asset freezing decisions under regular review.
Following the CFI decision on the MeK case in December, the EU has reviewed the listing, using improved procedures, and on 30 January reaffirmed its decision to include the MeK on its list of terrorist organisations. In line with the Court’s requirements, it has written to the group setting out the reasons for the decision, and explaining how the group can exercise its right to provide further information relevant to the case and/or petition for delisting.
House of Lords
The terrorists’ potentiality in utilization of violence for whatever political and social demands is a horrible nightmare that disturbs societies and especially those in the West. The possible disaster would be even worse if the terrorists are the breeds of a destructive cult. You can hardly tell a cult insider from those you work and live with, nice people that might turn their face when passing a butcher’s.
Maryam Rajavi’s arrest and its aftermath gave the states and the public opinion the opportunity to see behind the pseudo-democratic face of Mojahedin. On 17 June 2003 when the police raided MKO-run offices in Paris districts and arrested 164 suspected Mojahedin cadres as well as Maryam Rajavi on charges of terrorist activities, they hardly knew that they were piercing through a cult’s stronghold. Unknowingly, they were arresting the husband appointed she-guru of a destructive cult living among their society for the long. They did something they shouldn’t have and they had to pay for it soon.
Nobody could believe that these seemingly amiable people setting up a community of modest women and smart gentlemen smiling and shaking hands with the elites of a modern society and who carried a veracious look had a ferocious persona underneath.
It was long ago that these Iranians, believed to be exiled from their home country for the cause of campaign for freedom and democracy, had come to live in the Western countries that advocated the cause they claimed to be fighting for. Rarely the public knew about their malign past when their bullets and bombs perished many innocent Iranians and personalities in power struggle attempts. And the guardians of the Western societies, well aware of the group’s past but kipping silent for political causes, were certain they could leash the terrorists to keep them calm and under the surveillance in their country. But a fact had remained unnoticed; besides its terrorist structure, the group since long had developed into a cult.
In June 2003, people in some Western cities were shocked to encounter appalling cult potentialities of MKO. Following the arrest of Maryam Rajavi, a number of the group’s insiders immolated themselves in public in a series of premeditated missions as leverages of pressure to buy Maryam Rajavi’s freedom. According to reports issued by the group itself, “16 people attempted to set themselves alight in three days in Paris, Berne, Rome, London, Ottawa, Athens and Nicosia â€. The human tragedy ended with two deaths; two women, Sediqeh Mojaveri, 44-year-old, and Neda Hassani, 19-year-old, died because of the self-immolation injuries.
These acts of self-destruction reveal the covert violent mien of the group’s ideology which is brought to surface and fully practiced whenever the circumstances deem it just. It is not wrong to say that the acts of self-immolations imposed Mojahedin’s demands on the French judges and courts to take a moderate position to stop further agitation of the public opinion.
The cult is again facing a new crisis at the present. Just at the time when they were celebrating their assumed won battle in the EU’s Court of Justice last year, when the court annulled a 2002 decision to freeze all European assets of the group, the legal counsel to the 27 EU governments, Jean-Claude Piris said that the judgment did not call into question the original decision that MKO was a terrorist organization, but that the EU court annulled the decision because of procedure.
Nearly a month ago, the EU gave the group 30 days to put forward its case for being removed from the list, which the group failed to present. Instead, the she-guru took a change of posture, unlike her usual courteous wear, and stepped forth to publicize once more the cult potentialities, already demonstrated, of her group. There is no need to read between the lines when we here her saying "We are speaking about the lives of individuals… I warn that two decades of appeasing the mullahs is now resulting in a new catastrophe".
What are the 27 EU member states waiting for? Are they waiting to see a new, horrible cult-protest performance in their streets before the eyes of their people? What they have already seen of the Mojahedin cult is only a tip of an iceberg. To wait to see more of it, results "in a new catastrophe".
Mojahedin WS, March 11, 2007
Part of the editorial on Mojahed Weekly No.840 was as follows:
"Free Iranians will gather in Brussels on March 8 to protest to EU’s refusal to accept the ruling of European Court. They want to ask EU officials why are they refusing to accept the ruling that orders them to quit accusing the MKO of terrorism. Hundreds of Parliamentarians have ordered their governments that this way of refusing the law wouldn’t be tolerated and that they would force the EU to obey the ruling of the Court."
UN General Assembly asks the states in its resolution (passed in 1989) to avoid organizing, provoking, assisting or taking part in terrorist activities. It also passed the international convention of terrorism prevention in order to ban financial support for terrorist activities. According to this convention, all activities aimed at forcing a state or international organization to do or not to do something is considered a terrorist act. This is exactly what would happen on March 8 in Brussels by the MKO.
The UN Security Council has also set up some duties for governments for fighting terrorism:
1. In resolution 1368 of UN Security Council, passed on Sept. 12, terrorism was defined as an aggression or military invasion and that the victim state is authorized to resort to military might according to article 51 of UN charter.
2. Resolution 1373, undoubtedly the most important resolution on terrorism, stresses the right of legal defense against terrorism and asks the states to fight terrorism in a serious manner.
It is clear that MKO wants European countries to ignore all international laws and regulations.
MKO relies on a weak ruling by a European court, which is not bounding for the states and its least effect can be limited to bureaucratic relations inside the EU.
More importantly, the ruling stressed that MKO had not committed terrorist acts since 2000, while after the ruling was issued, Maryam Rajavi said that group should be rearmed!
This means that the MKO has never stopped terrorism and not committing terrorist activities was due to being disarmed by US forces and it doesn’t necessarily mean that the MKO has changed its policies.
This one message is enough for the EU to keep the MKO on terror list and impose more limitations on it.
In order to survive, the MKO wants the warmongers to employ it in their possible plans against Iran and also asks European states to treat the group as a political one, something that requires the change of policies and practices by the group. Thus, resolving this paradox is vital for the survival of the group and has nothing to do with European countries. This is up to the group to decide whether to serve Pentagon or Western intelligence services for its survival.
The current situation of Rajavi’s remnants reminds us of the status of terrorist Taliban; while in power in Afghanistan, this rebel group refused to accept international regulations and meanwhile expected to be treated according to international conventions!!
IRNA quoted Al-Edaleh newspaper writing: "Kamal Saedi, Iraqi member of parliament from the list of Unity Coalition asked the Iraqi government to discuss the dangers of MKO’s presence in Iraq seriously. "
IRNA – 2007/03/11
In her neat home nestling in a quiet suburban street, mum Anne Singleton peers out from her cottage-style windows.
Her Audi sits in the driveway and beyond it she sees a neat row of cedar trees leading to a church in an open field.
It is a typical English scene . . . and a lifetime away from the hostile deserts of Iraq and the military training camps of the People’s Mujahidin of Iran. Though Anne also once called these home.
She was in the clutches of the terrorist organisation and ready to give her life ” and sacrifice the lives of the innocent ” in the name of a bloodthirsty war
Little more than a decade ago, Anne was learning how to fire rifles and gearing up to fight for the group backed by Saddam Hussein.
Then, she believed her comrades were fighting for freedom in Iran ” and that the deaths of innocent people were a justifiable means to an end.
But now the 48-year-old recognises the group for what it is ” a deadly, extremist terrorist organisation.
With growing numbers of British youngsters being recruited into terror cells, Anne hopes her story will act as a warning.
At her home in Leeds, she tells The Sun: “What happened to me could happen to anyone.
“These groups entice concerned activists then persuade them to commit terrorist atrocities.
“They convinced me to give up my life to follow them. Now I see their methods were identical to the ones cults use to brainwash people.”
Anne became involved with the extremists while studying English at Manchester University in 1979.
Her boyfriend at the time, an Iranian called Ali, was interested in the Mujahidin” a group formed in 1965 to free Iran from “capitalism, imperialism, reactionary Islamic forces and despotism”.
Anne says:” I went along to Mujahidin meetings held in Manchester. In truth, I could not understand what the leader was saying in the videos we saw but I was transfixed.
“It all seemed so exciting. I thought, “I want to help them and do some good” so I decided to convert to being Muslim.”
Anne did not realise she was being psychologically manipulated.
She says now: “They flatter you in a way that you don’t even realise they are doing it.
“They really put themselves on a pedestal so that when they want you to join them, you feel special.
“I thought I was a saviour of the world and would have done anything for the Mujahidin.”
In 1989 Anne moved to London to become more involved in Mujahidin activities, working in computing and PR for them.
The computer programmer says: “They told me I should dedicate myself totally to them and that they needed me.
“The following year, during a hunger strike, I succumbed fully.
“I took two weeks off work and by day three of not eating I felt like I was on a complete high.
“We were given tea and sugar to keep us going and I had entered a completely different state of mind.
“I was adamant that this was what I should do for the rest of my life.”
Anne has since discovered that hunger and sleep deprivation are classic cult recruiting techniques.
She says: “I didn’t question anything. I was shown a film of a female suicide bomber blowing up an ayatollah in Iran. It was horrific and very shocking at first.
“But they showed me the film so many times that I got less and less distressed. Eventually I didn’t bat an eyelid. Of course, I heard politicians and journalists describing the group as extreme but I dismissed it and assumed they didn’t understand.
“There were 30 or 40 of us living in a safe house and I was the only white person. I never left unless it was for fund-raising or a demo.
“We had no possessions and any money we earned or benefits we received had to be handed straight over to the group.
“We were discouraged from keeping in contact with any family or friends.”
Anne’s parents, an office administrator and a painter and decorator, insisted she gave them her address and they wrote to her regularly, but letters were often confiscated.
In 1992 Anne was asked to go to the Iraqi desert for military training.
She says: “I loved the camp. It felt liberating to obey orders because then you lose all responsibility for yourself. I had a uniform, did assault courses, learned how to drive trucks and did firearms training.
“When I signed up to the Mujahidin I never imagined I would do that, but once I was there it seemed totally normal.”
After three months Anne was sent to Sweden to carry on with the PR work. But she became depressed after the group introduced a new rule banning marriages and families.
Anne says: “That rule seemed too final. I knew a family was the one other thing I wanted from life.
“To try to make me pull myself together they demoted me, sent me back to London and gave me less responsibility.
“It was reverse psychology, but I was so depressed that even that didn’t work.
“I’d lost all motivation. They tried to make me feel guilty, saying I was letting them and God down.
“By 1993 I knew I wanted to distance myself from the group so I began to work part-time again as a college administrator.”
Anne was finally ready to leave ” but the Mujahidin wouldn’t let her go easily. She says: “They tried to make me frightened of the outside world, saying it was dangerous. They said I’d end up living an immoral life or get sucked into drugs or crime if I abandoned the values of the Mujahidin.”
Around this time Anne met Massoud Khodabandeh, a senior and disillusioned member of the group who had also decided to leave.
They went their separate ways but met again and married in 1997. Three years later they had a son.
Anne says: “We are both Muslim but after we left the Mujahidin we would go out and get drunk just to be “normal”. Being able to think for yourself was amazing.
“We were like little kids doing things like going to the supermarket and choosing our own food. We discussed what we’d been through and I had no doubt we were psychologically manipulated. We’re fortunate we have each other to lean on.”
Anne feels it is only since the birth of son Babak, now six, that she truly feels like her old self.
“His birth made me pull myself together and we moved to Leeds shortly afterwards,” she says. “My family live there and after years apart it was great to be close again.”
The couple are now in a group called Iran Interlink, which campaigns AGAINST terrorist cells.
Anne says: “When I joined the Mujahidin I never had any intention of fighting. But by the end I thought it was OK to kill and assassinate.
“I thought it was right that people would die on suicide missions. I’m appalled at that now.
“France and Germany have ministers for cults and I think we need the same here.
“People are free to do what they like virtually until they reach the point of blowing someone up.
“The Government needs to look at terrorism from the angle of recruitment. People have a civilian mind where they know it is wrong to fire a gun and hurt someone. You have to be trained to kill and that is what’s happening in these groups.
“Psychological manipulation can happen to anyone at any time.
“If you’re lucky, you end up with a timeshare. If you’re unlucky you end up blowing yourself and innocent people up on the Tube.”
The Sun
By SAMANTHA WOSTEAR
March 02, 2007
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,11000-2007100090,00.html
The joy of Salvation
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