Page 843 – Nejat Society

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO Terrorists Reappear in Paris Streets

No doubt, those quoted French citizens who the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq claim to have spoken in its behalf in the course of its gathering in Paris on Wednesday April 18 were given no opportunity to have access to any immediate information on the nature of the organization they were supporting. Hardly can French people sink into the oblivion the nightmare of the human-torches running it the streets of Paris nearly four years ago in June 2003.

The gathering in front of the French Parliament, one among a number of the like organized rallies in other Western countries, demanded from the French government to take MEK name off the EU terrorist list. The group also claimed that 15,000 French citizens, whose identities have never been released, had signed a petition in support of the group.

It is a question asked by many including the French people that why the government permits a proscribed terrorist group whose leaders are still facing new charges in French courts organize protesting rallies.

French prosecutor general had earlier on March 19 requested the anti-terror court to add new charges against MKO and the header of the group Maryam Rajavi. The new charges are reported to be money laundering and fraud charges added to the previous case which includes connection with terrorism and saboteur groups.

April 23, 2007 0 comments

European Union

The Proscribed Groups Be Informed Soon

Reported by Radio Farda quoting the European Union diplomats, they said on April 20 the European Union will soon inform the proscribed groups and entities through letter the reasons for being listing as terrorists.

Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) is one of the listed terrorists that the European Union is decisive to keep on the list regardless of a decree by the Court of First Instance that annulled the freeze of the group’s assets.

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".

The Council’s decision seems to be a reaction against the judgment of the Court of First Instance. The European Union proscribed MEK on 2002 and ordered its assets to be frozen.

April 23, 2007 0 comments

Canada

MEK A Banned Group on Canadaian List

Reflecting Canada’s decisiveness in war on terrorism, the Canadian Cnews reported that the government considers MEK a terrorist organization in spite of protesting rallies orchestrated by the group.

According to the report, several hundred chanting, flag-waving demonstrators paraded on Parliament Hill on Thursday, urging the government to drop an Iranian opposition group from the formal list of banned, terrorist organizations.

The protesters, many of them Iranian emigres, said the PMOI, the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, offers secular opponents of the theocratic Iranian regime a political option for change.

The group is banned by the government as part of a larger terrorist organization called Mujahedeen-e-Khalq or MEK which was placed on the list of banned groups in May 2005 and its status was reviewed last November.

The Public Safety Department describes the group as "an Iranian terrorist organization that was based in Iraq until recently. It subscribes to an eclectic ideology that combines its own interpretation of Shiite Islamism with Marxist principles. The group aspires to overthrow the current regime in Iran and to establish a democratic, socialist, Islamic republic."

The department also says MEK is believed to have had ties to Saddam Hussein, as well as a number of Palestinian factions and is suspected of working with the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Cnews/Mojahedin.ws – 20/04/2007

April 23, 2007 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Bush’s Terrorist Allies

You can’t tell the players without a program

Of course supporting terrorism is not something that is new to the Bush Administration, nor American foreign policy. Just last year it was revealed that another terrorist group called the MEK (Mujahedeen-e Khalq) was being used by the DoD to attack Iran.

One of the operational assets being used by the Defense Department is a right-wing terrorist organization known as Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), which is being “run” in two southern regional areas of Iran. They are Baluchistan, a Sunni stronghold, and Khuzestan, a Shia region where a series of recent attacks has left many dead and hundreds injured in the last three months.

One former counterintelligence official, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the information, describes the Pentagon as pushing MEK shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The drive to use the insurgent group was said to have been advanced by the Pentagon under the influence of the Vice President’s office and opposed by the State Department, National Security Council and then-National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice.

MEK leader with SaddamIf you will recall, the MEK was one of the original backers of the Islamic Revolution in Iran whose ideology is a weird mix of fundamentalist Islamism, feminism, and Marxism. They actively supported the 1979 embassy occupation in Tehran and had conducted several assassinations against U.S. civilians working in Iran during the 1970’s. The MEK was chased out of Iran in the 1980’s, when thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) were simply executed by the Iranian government. The MEK joined with Saddam’s Iraqi government shortly before the 1988 massacre, and assisted in crushing the Shia revolt in 1991. The MEK is our leading source of information about Iran’s alleged "nuclear weapons program".

The MEK is currently lobbying to have it taken of the list of terrorist organizations, and it has friends in both the Bush Administration and in Congress.

Reps. Bob Filner, D-Calif., Tom Tancredo, R-Col., Ted Poe, R-Texas, Dennis Moore, R-Kan., and staffers for Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, and James Talent, R-Mo., spoke to MEK supporters at a convention hall just four blocks from the White House.

The MEK has been listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department since 1997, but some in Congress and close to the Administration want the group to be removed from the terrorist list. Even President Bush has called the MEK a "dissident group."

Of course that is only two of the terrorist groups fighting the Iranian government that the Bush Administration supports. Probably the most active group is the Partiya Jiyana Azad a Kurdistanê (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, PJAK). Last November Seymour Hersch wrote about this issue.

In the past six months, Israel and the United States have also been working together in support of a Kurdish resistance group known as the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan. The group has been conducting clandestine cross-border forays into Iran, I was told by a government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon civilian leadership, as "part of an effort to explore alternative means of applying pressure on Iran." The government consultant said that Israel is giving the Kurdish group "equipment and training." The group has also been given "a list of targets inside Iran of interest to the U.S."

PJAK’s ideology is democratic liberalism and traces its origin to non-violent student movements. It is considerably less radical than the PKK, but its leader, Haji Ahmad, is a member of Kongra-Gel (formerly known as the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK). The PJAK is listed as a terrorist group by the American government. It is reported that the PJAK killed 120 Iranian security forces members in 2005 alone.

Of course the Bush Administration’s support for terrorist groups don’t stop here. They also back violent Azeri rebel groups and yet another Kurdish group called Komala. There may be others that I’m not aware of.

Saturday, 07 April 2007 – Written by Garrett Johnson

April 23, 2007 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Who benefits from America’s support for terrorist MKO

Who benefits from America’s support for terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (Rajavi Cult)?

It is not a secret that America has recently helped some of the smuggling gangs and terrorist cults, which have been denounced over the years throughout the civilized world, in an attempt to put more pressure on Iran to stop enriching Uranium.

The most recent support for Jondollah, which claimed the recent killings in Baluchestan province of Iran (attacking schools, etc), came in a live interview with Abdolmalek Rigi the head of Jondollah broadcast by Voice of America.

Link to the related article (Persian)

http://www.iran-interlink.org/fa/index.php?mod=view&id=2051

And the comments of American officials about the controversial Camp Ashraf (still run by the Rajavi cult and protected by the US Army in Iraq) given to CNN correspondent, leave not much question about direct support and protection given to MKO (Rajavi cult), which has been responsible for scores of murders across the globe by the order and support of Saddam Hussein.

The article, written by Michael Ware, CNN, April 05, 2007 is titled:

U.S. protects Iranian opposition group in Iraq

http://www.iran-interlink.org/index.php?mod=view&id=2084

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/04/05/

protected.terrorists/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Ambassador Javad Zarif (representative of Islamic Republic of Iran in United Nations) was interviewed by Asia Source on April 21, 2007.

http://www.asiasource.org/news/special_reports/zarif.cfm

Part of the interview reads:

"Is Hamas a terrorist organization?

No.

Is Hezbollah?

No. Let ‘s stop here. The majority – you don’t need to ask me this question – the majority of the international community does not regard these two organizations to be a terrorist organization. Now the question that can be asked from the United States is why is it cooperating with organizations that it considers to be terrorists? Now the majority of the world do not believe that Hezbollah or Hamas are terrorist organizations. Hamas and Hezbollah are official political parties with seats in the parliament. Hamas won the majority, which the United States did not like and the United States has boycotted Hezbollah ministers in the Lebanese Parliament simply because it doesn’t like them. Now the US or Israel labeling an organization "terrorist", that organization which is involved in legitimate resistance to foreign occupation, that organization does not then automatically become terrorist. Go look at the international community. This is the problem of the US equating itself with the international community again and again. But the question that needs to be asked is the behavior of the United States vis-à-vis organizations that it considers to be terrorists. Why is it cooperating with them?

Which organizations are you thinking of?

I’m referring to MEK [Mujahideen-e-Khalq], for instance, in Iraq that the United States is actually supporting and signing agreements with. Would the United States accept any country providing the Fourth Geneva Convention protection to Al Qaeda which is another universally recognized terrorist organization? So terrorism should not become a label, a convenient label for dealing with your adversaries. You’ve got to have objective criteria. Apply those objective criteria and deal with them accordingly."

It seems once again the ball has landed permanently in the court of Bush administration to come up with an answer.

Iran Interlink, April 21, 2007

April 23, 2007 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

On MKO Terrorists’ Message of Condolence

On April 16, I came across a message from Mohammad Mohaddessin, known as the chair of Mojahedin-e-Khalq’s Foreign Affairs Committee, on the passing away of Paul Leventhal, President of the Nuclear Control Institute. In the message, he conveyed his profound condolences, on behalf of his group, “to the family of Mr. Paul Leventhal and to all those in the United States who support the cause of peace, human rights, and democratic change in Iran”.

He referred to Mr. Leventhal as a “longtime supporter of the Iranian Resistance with a remarkable background in fight against the threat of nuclear weapons”. It was so surprising to learn, as claimed by Mojahedin, that a man among the first leading specialists and scholars in the United States had risen in defense of a terrorist group blacklisted by the US State Department notwithstanding he had mentioned the group as the source of bringing the Iranian nuclear program to light. The IAEA and the international community hardly follow up on information revealed by Mojahedin-e-Khalq since their accuracy are under question and such acts of disclosure are regarded much as a propaganda blitz in the gain political legitimacy.

Dismissed from Iran’s political scene following the Islamic revolution because of their extremely violent views in struggle against imperialism and the US specifically, Mojahedin under the leadership of Massoud Rajavi resurfaced in Europe and then settled in Iraq. Its forces allegedly took part in Saddam’s war against Iran and especially the suppression of the Kurd and Shi’it insurgencies. The group was openly supported and maintained in Iraq by Saddam up to the American invasion. Most Iranians judge Mojahedin-e Khalq as a hypocrite, anti-national organization regardless of its advertises to be a pro-democratic representative of Iranian people.

After the American invasion, the military encampment of the group was sealed off by the Americans and partially disarmed, but never destroyed. It is alleged that the Americans are now using persons from the camp to infiltrate Iran to perform what they are not themselves legally permitted to indulge.

In the 1990s, the organization was totally dominated by the Rajavis, Massoud and his third wife Maryam. The husband elevated the wife to a divine status and she was appointed as “president-in-exile” of Iran in 1993. She is to serve as President until elections are held following the overthrow of the Iranian regime. Thus, the Rajavis transformed the group into a cult with a totalitarian cultist center, Camp Ashraf, wherein the male and female members, reported to be more that 3,000, live apart, and most personal decisions are made by the leadership.

No criticisms of the Rajavis or their decisions are allowed and regular self-criticism sessions are held and taped. Discussants are expected to confess their sexual desires and other personal feelings as well as private affairs and even dreams and day-dreams. Informants are everywhere and “traitors” are sharply reprimanded.

Even many Iranian opposition overseas have a negative descriptions of the Mojahedin. The American Department of State and many other foreign services see the group as a dangerous far left terrorist group with no real commitment to human rights or democracy. I believe that expression of condolence on somebody’s death by an opportunist terrorist group cannot necessarily mean that he has been an advocate of terrorists, especially when he cannot defend himself anymore.

Mailed by D. Roshana – Mojahedin.ws – April 19, 2007

April 23, 2007 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq 's Function

More rent-a-crowd, yet another desperate attempt

Is Canada unleashing terrorists on its own soil and, if so, on whose order?

The grievances between the US and Iran is not new for any of us. Whether we think dialogue should prevail over hostilities or visa-versa, surely no-one can believe that using a destructive cult (which is globally listed as a terrorist entity) to force Iran to give up enrichment of uranium is a particularly clever idea. This is especially so considering that the group has gradually been dismantled since the fall of Saddam Hussein. In any case, the average age of its fighters – about 3000 remain in its isolated Iraqi camp – is between 45 and 50 (some ‘fighters’ are over 65 years old and in any other society would be collecting their pension). Iran has openly and repeatedly rejected any payment in exchange for the group. Only a couple of months ago, the Iranian Foreign Minister explained that the problem presented by the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation is nothing to do with Iran, rather the group is a problem for western countries – but Iran would be willing to help these countries if they ask for it!

But who are those who still think the dead horse has a value? They are certainly not far from Washington and certainly not far from the neo conservatives HQ. But that the terrorist Mojahedin’s backers are not as strong as a couple of years ago is clear from the shift from Washington to Canada as the platform for this support.

CNEWS reported today (April 20, 2007) about yet another seemingly desperate attempt by the neo conservatives to rescue the remains of the Rajavi cult (aka Mojahedin Khalq).

Read the time line of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation – Rajavi cult

http://www.iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=816

Focus on line reported last month that a paid ‘rent-a-crowd’ had been transferred from Cologne to Brussels for a similar protest to remove the Rajavi cult (aka, Mojahedin Khalq Organisation, MKO, MEK, PMOI, National Council of Resistance …) from the terrorism lists. The news agency said:

Around 60 Iranian actors and actresses, who were not informed beforehand about the action, were paid the usual 50 euros per day fee to take part in the recent demonstration in Brussels where the MKO was protesting its continued blacklisting as a terror group by the European Union.

http://www.focus.de/politik/deutschland/gekaufter-protest_aid_51864.html

The Rajavi cult which was responsible for the assassination of Americans in Iran during the reign of the Shah, has openly admitted to killing innocent civilians by the use of mortars and bombs in crowded places in Iranian cities. The number is believed to be in excess of 16,000. The armed terrorist cult had also been engaged in the massacre of the Iraqi Kurds and Shiites in collaboration with the intelligence services and army of Saddam Hussein inside Iraq. And if these were not enough, the cult has tortured and killed its own disaffected members according to the records of many humanitarian organizations, including Human Rights Watch.

In 1997, the US put the group in its list of terrorist entities and a new report was given out. We can read in the report:

The Mojahedin collaborated with Ayatollah Khomeini to overthrow the former Shah of Iran. As part of that struggle, they assassinated at least six American citizens, supported the takeover of the U.S. embassy, and opposed the release of American hostages. In the post-revolutionary political chaos, however, the Mojahedin lost political power to Iran’s Islamic clergy. They then applied their dedication to armed struggle and the use of propaganda against the new Iranian government, launching a violent and polemical cycle of attack and reprisal. In 1981, the Mojahedin leadership fled to France and with other Iranian opposition movements formed the National Council of Resistance (NCR).

Yet within a few years the NCR became a mere shell as individuals and groups abandoned the organization because of Mojahedin domination. In 1986, France expelled the leader of the Mojahedin, Massoud Rajavi. Rajavi was a member of the Mojahedin original "Central Committee" and "Ideological Team." Imprisoned by the Shah’s government from 1972-1979, he nonetheless remained influential within the group. He rose to command in 1975 after the Mojahedin experienced an internal schism. From his release from prison until today, he has maintained absolute control of the Mojahedin, the NCR, and its associated groups. In 1993, his wife Maryam Rajavi replaced him as the NCR’s "future president" of Iran. Previously, she had held the appointed position of NCR secretary-general. After his expulsion form France, Rajavi relocated to Baghdad, Iraq, adopting Saddam Hussein as his patron, in 1987.

The report continues:

Despite Mojahedin assertions that the group has abandoned its revolutionary ideology and now favours a liberal democracy, there is no written or public record of discussion or debate about the dramatic reversals in the Mojahedin stated positions. Moreover, the Mojahedin 29-year record of behaviour does not substantiate its capability or intention to be democratic. Internally, the Mojahedin run their organization autocratically, suppressing dissent and eschewing tolerance of differing viewpoints. Rajavi, who heads the Mojahedin political and military wings, has fostered a cult of personality around himself. These characteristics have alienated most Iranian expatriates, who assert they do not want to replace one objectionable regime for another. Given these attributes, it is no coincidence that the only government in the world that supports the Mojahedin politically and financially is the totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein…

Ann Singleton Interview with BBC(Asian Network)

Interviewer: Good morning, its eleven o’clock, we will be live on BBC Asian network for an hour. Did you know a forty-year computer programmer has been involved with a Kalashnikov and has a six year old son?

Ann Singleton has a past unlike most people working for the Iranian Mujahedin in Iraq attempting for the overthrow the Iranian government. Today I’m talking to her about her experiences and the lessons that she learned. I will ask her about the feeling of working with a terrorist organization, fighting in the desert and how did she get involved with them in the first place? She has a fascinating story. Ann Singleton, she lives in Leeds, she has got a six year old child and she is a computer programmer. What we hear, you say is that Ann has got a past unlike many others. She used to be part of the Iranian Mujahedin training in a camp in deserts of Iraq, preparing to overthrow the Iranian regime. So what happened and how did Ann get involved with a terrorist organization that was intending to invade Iran. What lessons did she learn? Now she joins me.

Good morning Ann!

Singleton: Good morning Rosina.

Interviewer: let’s start from the beginning. How did you get involved with the Mujahedin? For those who don’t know just explain who the Mujahedin are.

Singleton: Mujahedin are an Iranian opposition group. They formed in 1965 in opposition to the Shah’s regime and after the revolution in 1979, in Iran they tried to take a share of power in the country. When they confronted by the ayatollah Khomeini regime which was established at that time, they left Iran and took a base in Iraq which is where I was trained. Since that time they have been allies to Saddam Hussein’s regime in fighting against the Iranian Islamic Republic and trying to replace the Islamic Republic with a regime of their own. It is an armed guerilla outfit and always has been started as an armed group. I got involved with the group when I was at the University.

Interviewer: so what made an English lady got involved in this?

Ann: The reasons are two things: one is that the time of Iranian Revolution was a very political time in the world. Elsalvador and Chile had revolutions. There were a lot of political activities going on. The political scene in Britain was changing. It was interesting times for everyone, I think, to see how world events would turn out. It happened that I had Iranian friends at the university and I had an Iranian boy friend. He was religious and so he got involved with the Mujahedin which was an Islamic group.

Interviewer: did you convert to Islam?

Ann: I had already converted before I knew them. Yes I was not a very strongly religious person but, yes Islam makes sense to me. I converted. I was almost very interested in finding out more. I did not believe that interest was kind of hijack by the Mujahedin because they were more interested in the politics of Iran rather than increasing people’s religious belief.

Interviewer: so was there a gradual process of indoctrination going through Islam. I mean did you go to it very quickly or no was it quiet slowly?

Singleton: my story is quiet unique because in a scene I was recruited by this organization by default. I have to say that they were actually recruiting Iranian students and it just happened that their techniques also worked on me and then because they were actually targeting me, I think it took a long time to recruit me …It takes about three or four days to recruit some body and I have to note this point that this organization operated as a cult. It wasn’t just an ordinary political organization.

Interviewer: so what kind of methods did they use then?

Singleton: they start with a message. They started to say to me that there is a regime in Iran which is violating people’s basic human rights. And they are repressive and reactionary and their version of Islam is very very inhuman. They came to me with the message that our version of Islam, the Muajhedin’s Islam is progressive and liberal and freeing the people. That was the basic message.

Interviewer: and you have embraced Islam and you are coming down to that kind of thinking.

Singleton: yes. I was quiet intrigued by the events in Iran because there was a revolution enfolding before my very eyes. I know the people who were involved in that revolution with their family. It was a very exciting but also disorientating event. But what really recruited me to this organization were the people not the message. If they just left their message I would have been happy with them in small ways. But what they do, they get the people to come along and flatter you for example they sent the people that they would say to me that you understand more than ordinary people, you have a sensitivity to our issues and you are just not an ordinary person and that for you need to do more because you understand and so they would ask me to go to demonstrations down in London outside the Iranian Embassy or just holding big demonstrations and then eventually they would invite me to their safe houses in London and along side with this they did this to create an atmosphere in which you couldn’t ask questions, in which you never had enough sleep . You never had enough to eat. They kept you uncomfortable and they were bombarding you with the information. All this was disorientating and was imposed from outside and made you deliver yourself toward their demands.

Interviewer: what was the reaction of other members of the group? Were they all Iranians or were there many foreigners like you among them?

Singleton: when in the early 1980’s I got involved with this group, of course they mostly targeted Iranian students or refugees. So most of the members were Iranians but there were non-Iranians who were often the ones who had married an Iranian. These people also, like the others had given up to the organization and had left their studies, job and life and dedicated all their feelings to the organization.

Interviewer: How was your relationship with your boyfriend? His name was Ali? Wasn’t it?

Singleton: Yes. That’s right.

Interviewer: How was it? Now that you were working with the group was your relationship better and closer?

Singleton: in fact, he suffered a lot because they wanted to recruit him and he resisted.

Interviewer: that’s very interesting. You mean you joined the group but he didn’t?

Singleton: it’s exactly so and because of that we broke up. In the late 1980’s, I was so influenced by the indoctrinations of the organization that I compared everything in my life with them and then I evaluated. I have created a black and white aspect in my life. At that time I really believed that somehow they are the only possible hope for the whole world. So I said to my boyfriend that I will go to London to help them in more measures. He opposed, he said that he wanted to live his own life and didn’t want to live that way. So I left him and went to London where I served for Mujahedin full time.

Interviewer: did he ever tell you that you would be brainwashed or did you yourself ever think that you might be brainwashed?

Singleton: no. I didn’t think so and nobody didn’t either because the organization operates in a way so that you believe that anything you’re doing is done with your own will. And you are completely satisfied with what you are doing. In fact as a full time member what suffered me was lack of sleep, affection grieves and psychological manipulations, but I was satisfied and felt that I myself had chosen this life.

Interviewer: what did your friends and family think about it?

Singleton: they didn’t have an idea about the organization. Of course they saw the people I communicated with, were very kind, very sincere, very self sacrificing and very educated people. They couldn’t understand why a white British woman can actually get involved with Iran at all. They couldn’t understand the obsession that I had. My parents told me: if you want to show your concern about human rights, why don’t you help the Amnesty International for example. But I was totally taken over by the group. I was taken over to the point where I believed that my parents had no idea about anything and that I have the answer to everything.

Interviewer: Ann, you mentioned that you were putting you around their way of thinking about how the world was. What was their thinking way about how the world was?

Singleton: well, on the surface of their thinking, the Mujahedin present themselves as quiet pro-Western, pro-democratic, pro-feminist, they have presented a woman leader. They promoted women to the leadership roles but the organization which I joined was in fact their Western aspect. I mean the aspect they show to the world. But actually they have been always anti-imperialist and they basically want to set the Rajavis in power in Iran. The organization is a totalitarian organization inside itself and their absolute objective is to settle pro-democratic Islamic republic of their own but from inside the organization I don’t think anyone can believe that because they are so profoundly undemocratic, profoundly exploitative of the people

Interviewer: then you describe them as a cult and the way they operated is very much like a cult. Just describe how it was. Were you of a big family?

Singleton: absolutely yes. That’s how they would like to see themselves. A cult you can characterize it by several means. It has a self-appointed and non-accountable leader who is usually charismatic person that would be Masud Rajavi in this case, who when you listen to his speech is a very charismatic speaker, you can get quiet carried away and your emotions would be aroused. A cult forms very elitist in a totalitarian society among itself. When I was with the Mujahedin, I believed that we were above normal humanity; we were somehow the avant-garde of the civilization and evolution. The leaders used to speak of spiritual evolution that we had reached the stage now that we had reached the end of physical evolution and we believed that they were leading us to this kind of spiritual evolution. So they were separating us from normal society that included separating us from our families and friends and the outside world in general.

Interviewer: you mentioned it but I try to ask this question which is difficult for me to find out why a middle class English woman would become so heavily involved with the Mujahedin and you mentioned that they tried cutting you off from your friends and family. What was in your life at the time? Was there a hole you were trying to fill? What was there to attract you in the first place?

Singleton: I think on a personal level I found them very friendly. Yes they were extremely affectionate toward me and very inclusive.

Interviewer: hadn’t that happened to you in your life outside the university?

Singleton: for most people life is a bit of struggle. You have friends, these people judge you. Life is not straight forward. What this organization did was to present the most lovely people, the friendliest people, the most compassionate and understanding and caring people. They were almost too good to be true. They weren’t true. This was all deception. They used these deceptive methods to recruit people and maintain them in group. The way cults work, is just based on deception. They use a kind of physical techniques as well as mental techniques in order to control your environment.

Interviewer: so you got deeper and deeper and you got more involved and then in the end you went to a terrorist training camp in the Iraqi desert. What was that like?

Singleton: as briefly to explain, when I joined the Mujahedin at that time after a hunger strike which we held in 1990 as a part of the demonstration about human rights situation in Iran. Hunger and sleep deprivation are classic recruitment techniques which at first I didn’t know about it. By the day three or four of this hunger strike we were almost in state of heightened awareness, in a different state of mind to the point that I gave up everything that I had partly truly my house, my car, my friends, my family. I gave up everything in order to be a full time member, I was completely in their house, and I believe it was a voluntarily thinking, but of course I’ve been manipulated in to this state of mind and from that point I was given various tasks to perform. I was working something like 16 to 20 hours a day. I didn’t get paid, didn’t choose where to live, what to wear, what to eat, every aspect of my life was controlled by the organization and I had no concept that I was so totally under their control. I really did believe and I think every one around me believed that we were doing this after our own free will. We believed in causes so strongly that we were prepared to sacrifice everything. Now I got to the point where I was asked to undertake military training and of course this organization’s main goal was to overthrow the regime in Iran. So I had no reason to imagine that I should not do the military training. And of course I agreed and we went with a group of about 50 people to a place called Camp Ashraf in North of Bagdad and we were separated men and women and we were given a military training.

Interviewer: what did that consist of?

Singleton: well at that

time, it was basic military training which was gotten in any army, consisted of marching, learning how to dissolve, collective training, how to fire a Kalashnikov, how to load it, how to clean it. We learned how to drive heavy vehicle and that was a basic thing. What the organization was doing and we were totally unaware of, they were watching our performance, our commitment, our submission, how far we will be willing to submit to the demands and from the group that I was with, they selected about five or six women for further training and that is how these organizations work, they may train a 100, from that hundred people they will take a few of them to the further step and the further step and the further step and of course the end game is suicide machines.

Interviewer: well, we will come to that again in a moment. You eventually did succeed to get out of the organization and we will find out how. You explained that how you got involved in those camps in Iraq and how you got that stage. Just describe to me a typical day at the camp. What was it like?

Singleton: we had a military uniform. We woke up in the morning. We had breakfast, it was much disciplined. We had particular tasks besides. One day we would do marching and another day we would do the assault collective training. We had classes in which we learned about basic military activities. Through out my whole experience of being with the Mujahedin every moment of my life was programmed by them and you know now that I think about it, its hard to believe that I was so totally controlled.

Interviewer: did watching videos, not sleeping enough, not eating enough continue to control your behavior?

Singleton: inside the Mujahedin there is a constant bombardment of indoctrination that come through meetings and come through films. For example while dinnertime every time every evening they would show film. You are not allowed to see anything or hear anything or read anything that didn’t come from the inside of the Organization, a very very strict censorship in that respect and the films that were shown were films with glorified violence. A very simple example is of a film that was from the early 80’s was about a female suicide bomber inside Iran who blew up one of the ayatollahs. It was a quiet graphic film. To the extent that you could see body parts flying around after the explosion, they showed it several times. The first time I saw it, I was horrified, it was terrific, I looked away and then they showed it again and again and again. What is important here is that after several times they showed it, everyone in that room when this happened, would jump up and cheer and say:" Hurray! What a marvelous woman this was! How fantastic she was!" they praised her to the point that they believed that she did her job, she was a devoted member and maybe I should be like that, maybe I should take amount of that characteristics.

Interviewer: did you seriously investigate that you may also be one of these suicide bombers one day?

Singleton: I had no intention, killing anyone or being killed. What I didn’t understand was that it wouldn’t be in my hands. When I was in the training camp in Iraq, if the leader, Masud Rajavi, said:" we are now going to launch an attack on Iran." I would have gone. I like to believe that I wouldn’t have but deep in my heart I know that I wouldn’t have no will to resist… the indoctrination was so overwhelming and so as I said they had created an environment to the extent that I had no contact with my family if my mum sent me a letter I had to read it so that they would understand what was in it.

Interviewer: what was the punishment like if you did anything against what they wanted you to do?

Singleton: the punishment was very simple and at the same time very very strong. I mentioned peer pressure and it was one of the main stays of the cults. For example I’ve always enjoyed walking and one day I went out and I took a walk and I didn’t tell anybody that I was going when I just spent an hour outside walking for that they didn’t speak to me for days and I had no idea what I have done wrong that for days I was basically sent to coventry and that was quiet horrible punishment because this group was all I knew as a family. I trusted them, I loved them and that was my world but of course as a Western English woman they were very soft with me. Other people who were in the organization who were for example based in Iraq had much harsher punishment. When the Americans invaded Iraq in 2003 they opened up Abu Qoraib prison the Iraqi political prison, there were members of the Mujahedin in that prison, around fifty who had been there because of their dissent. Punishment could be extremely harsh. People would have been killed, people have lost their sanity in the organization. There is a catalog of very very harsh human rights abuses.

Interviewer: what was the turning point when you thought "no this is wrong, no it,s not correct, I don’t want to go on any more"?

Singleton: it wasn’t simple. I did not reject the organization as such. What happened was that the organization had called for forced marriages and that people were expected to get married to somebody and they performed it as a duty. Now in 1990 they reversed this to the point where they had forced divorces and everybody in the organization was required to divorce. If you were married you were expected to divorce your spouse. If you were not married, then you would be expected to mentally and emotionally divorce the understanding that you would ever marry and have children. And that was in order to get you to devote yourself one hundred percent to the leadership, with no distraction, no emotional ties. You are married to the Mujahedin’s leadership. You divorce your sexuality which is impossible. I have never imagined when I joined them, that I would never get married and never have children and I couldn’t submit this commandment so I struggled and struggled and I felt that I was failing and I constantly asked myself this question that this was right or wrong. It was incredible to me but I just couldn’t question the legality of their demands. And I left the Organization because I felt I had failed. And that’s what they wanted me to believe "that I was a failure." And then only when I walked out I began to think more clearly about what they asked me to do and even then it took me three years to separate myself because all the time they were putting place their recruitment techniques again, the ones that worked in the early eighties to recruit and maintain me; their friendliness, their flattery, feelings of guilt, the peer pressures , all these kind of techniques which they used to get me in ,in the first place they continued to use to get me back, now in 1996 I cut off completely from them, I couldn’t accept them anymore and it was only at that point that I started to research what had happened to me and I got a label which was " Cult" and I began to see that what MKO was doing was the same as other cults and there are other organizations that today are acting the same way. I was horrified.

Interviewer: it is fascinating to hear that this fear of not being able to have children was like a switch in your head that made you realize that you can’t continue like this. The desperation of not being able to be a mother in the future. Was it as simple as that?

Singleton: I don’t think it was as simple as that. Yes that was very illogical that why could any organization deny you from your basic human right which is to get married and to have children. On what basis they are making that demand. When I left them and I looked the universal decoration of human rights which is documented by the United Nations, I realized that I did not have one single one of those rights accorded to me as a member of that organization and that I was held in a state of modern slavery. At the time I didn’t question that they had a right to demand, that I didn’t get paid, that I had no time out of there, that I had no time out of there, that I had no family contact that I had no chance of marriage no chance of having children and that my only only purpose was to sacrifice my life for the organization.

Interviewer: how easy was it, to get back to ordinary life again after what you were going through?

Singleton: it was extremely hard, the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I had to learn humanity once again. It may seem strange but as a member of MKO you believe that you are superior to the humanity and that is what they want you to believe. That’s how they get you to perform this self-sacrificing. You accept that you are better than ordinary people because you have to come down. As a computer programmer I had to work among ordinary people who I had to contact with. So I had to learn to make contacts with people as an ordinary person.

Interviewer: how did they react? Did they view you as traitor? Did they ever call you that?

Singleton: they’re still swearing at me, and cursing and trying to discredit me in any way they can accuse me.

Interviewer: it is still difficult to do your everyday works? Are you still influenced by your previous experiences? Are you still haunted by the videos that you were forced to watch?

Singleton: it’s ten years on now since I finally left them and I have worked very very hard with my husband who is also an ex-member to come to terms before it happened to us and I think the birth of my son changed things for me when I realized that he is the future generation and I have to put this behind and put my face to the future and grow his up as a good person.

Interviewer: do you think that it’s easier to recruit somebody if they’re younger or if they’re male or female because you said earlier that some women were selected for further training?

Singleton: I think that people believe that it could never happen to them. They think that the only people who get recruited to their organization are somehow inadequate or they’re stupid or not well-educated. What I have learned is that cults can recruit just about anybody. There is qualification to that. May be it doesn’t happen to you never but younger people because they’re idealistic people they are more vulnerable. You don’t have that kind of experience but what organization like the Mujahedin will do is that they target the people who are intelligent, educated who are skilled and can bring something to the organization. Now it’s become a trend to recruit the women. They may not have generalization but now many of the organizations concluded that the women are more valuable to maintain their organization. They are more easily to manipulate. I’m sorry but as a woman I say this. Emotionally they are more prepared to be manipulated. So I think there is a greater danger to women.

Interviewer: how do you think a society can prevent the recruitment of for example young Muslims to suicide group?

Singleton: I think we have to draw distraction between radical ideas and radical actions. It’s wrong to say people: "you can’t or shouldn’t have radical ideas". Of course you can but you must not do is terrorism. Terrorism is a tool, a method of creating conflict in the society. Islam is also not exclusive to terror in essence. It is exploited by terrorist groups that terrorism is in itself a tool of waging war in society. For young people they have to make that distinction say yes I can have strong and radical believes and I have to test them out in society. Once an organization comes to you and says we have the answer to the world’s problems that should be an alarm in your mind. In history no one organization had the answer to everything. If you are approached by people who do try to separate you from society or separate you from your family they try to take you to their environment where you are not given answer, where you are not allowed to think or question what they’re telling you, you need to think that it is an ordinary organization and walk away.

Interviewer: some people would say only weak people get recruited in these organizations. What would you say to them?

Singleton: I would say No, don’t think that. When I was in the Mujahedin, the people in the organization were probably among the most educated and intelligent of their society. They had come to Britain as students mostly and they were highly educated level people. Recruitment techniques in cults will work on just about everybody. If it doesn’t work on you, you may have some sort of mental problems. In this case being stupid and mad may save you. You are recruited by people telling you great ideas. You are recruited by methods. When you are going to a meeting for example, it is a dark room with an unnatural atmosphere and chanting. So the techniques are recruiting you not the ideas. The ideas are important but what I was told in the Mujahedin were lies but the way I was recruited was their methods.

Interviewer: it was fascinating talking to you Ann. Before I let you go I have to ask you what’s your political stand for the situation between Iran and Britain at the moment? How can the British government get the sailors back? Is Iran a threat?

Singleton: I say from my own position, talk, talk and talk .Go and talk to each other please.

Interviewer: a lot of talks are going on.

Singleton: there is a danger of people standing on their high horses say they are right. In fact what is needed is more diplomacy, more contact, and more involvement between different countries.

Interviewer: Ann Singleton thank you very much for joining me this morning. It’s been a pleasure time as well as your fascinating story.

April 22, 2007 0 comments

Ann Singleton Former members of the MEK

Ann Singleton Interview with BBC

Good morning, its eleven o’clock, we will be live on BBC Asian network for an hour. Did you know a forty-year computer programmer has been involved with a Kalashnikov and has a six year old son?

well, on the surface of their thinking, the Mujahedin present themselves as quiet pro-Western, pro-democratic, pro-feminist, they have presented a woman leader. They promoted women to the leadership roles but the organization which I joined was in fact their Western aspect. I mean the aspect they show to the world. But actually they have been always anti-imperialist and they basically want to set the Rajavis in power in Iran….