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.Download Nejat NewsLetter-SPECIAL ISSUE
Taking advantage of any circumstance to advance their organizational objectives, naturally in contrast to that of national wills, unpopular groups and organizations that camp outside their home-country in the name of their people know well how to benefit from national celebrations. Of these, the Iranian MKO is one of the most hateful opportunists.
On the threshold of each Iranian New Year, when Iranian youths come to the streets in the eve of the Festival of Fire in various cities to celebrate the upcoming Norooz, the cult of Mojahedin adverts it as a social unrest against the government as recently reported by NCRI’s site:
The regime frightened of escalating social unrest in days ahead of Iranian New Year Celebrations has increased its suppressive measures against the Iranian people.
The cult leaders are not ashamed of selling people’s delight for their organization’s interests since they have chained parts of people’s heart in their cult. How long more should Iranian families be waiting to see their beloved kept forcefully in the cult returned to them?
Mojahedin.ws – 17/03/2007
Friday prayer leader of Barasa mosque in Iraq, Jalal al-Din Al-Saghir, said on Friday that, "MKO will be expelled from Iraq in the near future because it was a terrorist organization involved in killing Iraq people during Sha’banieh uprising and also participated in other crimes of Saddam Hussein. This organization is repeating its crimes in Diyalah province".
"Iraqi government will soon submit a request to the UN according to which it could expel the MKO from Iraq to another country."
He also added that he had visited Nuri Al-Maliki last week to discuss the issue as well as the fact that Diyalah has become a safe haven for terrorists.
Ali Mohsen Razi/Barasa news agency, March 17 2007
Open letter to Cologne Police chief
Mr. Klaus Steffenhagen
Polizeipräsidium Köln
Walter-Pauli-Ring 2-4
51103 Köln
Dear Mr. Steffenhagen,
We have been informed that the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MKO) under the name of National Council of Resistance (NCR), has once again expanded its violent threats against Mr. Ali Akbar Rastgoo (a German citizen who is resident in Cologne ) and some of his colleagues. Mr. Rastgoo and his family are well known internationally for their outspoken criticism against terrorism and violations of human rights.
The proscribed terrorist cult, Mojahedin Khalq, has once again accused all those people and organisations which criticize its behaviour of ‘working for the Iranian government’; an accusation which is punishable by death according to their public announcements over the past 25 years. And this is the worrying part which has prompted me to write this letter.
The representative heads of the Mojahedin cult in different countries are placed there as the "Representative of the National Council of Resistance", which in the case of the UK where I reside is Ms. Dolat Noroozi and in your country Ms. Massoumeh Boloorchi. Both these individuals are well known cult members with a dreadful history. Both women are known to be experts in "information laundry" and recruiters of agents and members to carry out their illegal work. They are both connected directly to Maryam Rajavi (who is, of course, a known character to your security agencies) and are both potentially hard-core suicide terrorists if they receive the order at any time. One of their old tactics (which I believe you are familiar with) is gathering information from Iranian newspapers and perhaps telephone conversation and adding their desired misinformation between the lines to feed to the intelligence services of various countries in return for a more open hand to operate outside the framework of the law. This tactic is nothing other than what Saddam’s Mokhaberat (secret services) has trained them in during their long history of working for him.
According to an article in today’s Guardian newspaper, the MKO is now accused of kidnapping a retired member of the Iranian Government in Turkey. The article also mentions the possibility that the Iranian officials arrested in Arbil (Iraq) were interrogated by Mojahedin operatives. We have also just received unconfirmed news of several arrests in Frankfurt airport linked to the alleged discovery of bombs aboard a Lufthansa flight to Tehran. The unconfirmed news indicates the motive as turning Arab countries and Iran against each other. This motive is a well know tactic employed by ex-Saddam operatives, in particular the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation. But to bring this motive to Frankfurt airport is more than a simple escalation and can be considered as deliberately exporting the most violent parts of the Iraqi conflict to the heart of Europe.
In the last few weeks, the Mojahedin has openly supported the mass murder of school children by drug traffickers in the province of Baloochestan of Iran, supported the insurgency in Iraq, and vowed to take revenge against their critics in Iraq, European countries and North America. (Of course, it is a fact that for a long time the MKO has had no influence or presence inside Iran).
Now, Mr. Rastgou and others have been accused by the MKO of ‘working for Iran ‘, which, according to the MKO’s beliefs, is punishable by death; that is, if the cult leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi give permission for such extrajudicial murders to be performed in the West. The extent of these threats has become so widespread that even people in the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and prominent journalists and political analysts like Dr. Noorizadeh have, in the last few weeks received open threats from the cult. The literature distributed by the cult leaders on their websites has not even spared the governments and foreign ministers of European countries from these threats.
Dear Sir,
The shocking memory of self-immolations by MKO members following the brief detention of the cult leader by French police is still fresh in our minds, while a catalogue of self confessions about the killing of thousands of Iranians, Iraqis as well as citizens of European countries, Canada and United States of America has been gathered by law enforcement agencies across the globe.
I am now writing to you to inform your good self about yet another change of direction by the leaders of the Rajavi cult after their deep disappointment in failing to clear their name from the list of terrorist organisations in the European Union without having to actually reject violence and their cult culture. The avenue to be removed from the list without a clear denouncement of violence to achieve political power is now at its end, and the Rajavi cult leaders have decided (as they have always maintained internally to the cult members) to go back to the only way they know and that is to return to the violent ways and tactics, for which the cult received training from Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guards during their joint operations in Iraq for over 20 years.
It is clear that the path they have chosen is to use physical force to stop anyone and everyone who they believe is responsible for their failure to sell themselves as a mercenary force in Iraq and beyond. This, of course, includes the ex members, critics and human right activists.
It is no secret that after the French authorities curtailed their activities in 2003 (to where Maryam Rajavi escaped from Iraq just before the fall of Saddam Hussein), Cologne has, for the last 3 years, been the main base and the unofficial HQ of the cult (as far as their directing terrorist activities are concerned). It is also no secret that the group is now flexing its muscles against its critics as well as European countries (which have refused to take them off the list) in an attempt to put pressure on the west (they have continuously announced the self-immolations as something that worked well against western countries, and have since vowed that those who can set fire to themselves at a hint from the cult leader can also kill anyone, anywhere and at any time if ordered to do so).
Sir,
At this critical point I beg you to take every precaution to ensure the safety of your citizens (as well as others) in Cologne and elsewhere in Germany .
While I am fully confident about the quality and quantity of information you and your law enforcement agencies have at your disposal, please do not hesitate to contact me should you wish to access our archives and/or recent documents about this proscribed group.
Yours sincerely,
Massoud Khodabandeh,
Iran Interlink
March 08, 2007 Massoud Khodabandeh, March 09, 2007
A number of Lebanese officials, who are members of March 14 forces, in Beirut and Washington revealed US’s plan to transfer thousands of MKO members to Lebanon.
These officials said in an interview with Lebanon-based newspaper Al-Siasat said that, "American officials in Pentagon and State Department have told the leaders of March 14 forces that they like to deploy MKO members to certain parts of Lebanon in order to encounter Hizballah, supported by Iran."
MKO is an Iranian opposition group that settled in Iraq during 80s.
According to contacts made by US officials from Pentagon and State Department, A member of Lebanese lobby in Washington believes that: "American diplomats in Iraq have asked Maliki’s government to issue the order of MKO’s expulsion from Iraq so that Americans could use them against Hizballah. Currently, the US doesn’t support MKO’s presence in Iraq because Iraqi people and government are strongly opposed to the presence of this group in their country."
Another leader of "March 14 forces" in Beirut said to Al-Siasat newspaper that: "There have been unofficial talks with our officials. Americans are waiting for our answer but we aren’t sure yet about the issue because we hope we could be able to solve problems without war and bloodshed."
"In the following weeks and in Riyadh, we would announce the results and if the situation moved towards war, we would welcome the Satan," he added.
He also went on to say that: "The activities of Hizballah and other groups supporting it are all controlled by the international community, government and us and we know that they have some logistical movements. We also continue our military preparedness to prevent any possible war but accepting strange forces like MKO should be discussed deeply and for the time being we don’t need them."
Hamid Gharyafi/London – 2007/03/12
TEHRAN, March 10 (Mehr News Agency) — The Foreign Ministry on Friday summoned German Ambassador Herbert Honsowitz and the Belgian charge’ d’affaires Paul De Vos to receive Iran’s protest over a terrorist group’s conference in Brussels.
Foreign Ministry Director for Western European Affairs Ebrahim Rahimpur expressed surprise over the permission given to the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) to hold a conference in Belgium.
"Belgium has allowed a group that is in the European Union’s list of terrorists to hold a conference" while the Belgian Ambassador to Tehran Herve’ Goyens is on a Middle East tour to hold talks on fighting international terrorism, Rahimpur told the envoys in separate meetings.
MKO is listed by both the European Union and the United States as a terrorist organization.
The German and the Belgian envoys stated that they will deliver the message to their respective governments and the EU.
Germany is the president of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2007.
Payvand’s Iran News – 3/10/07
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