Page 857 – Nejat Society

MKO still qualified to be on the list

According to Brian Adeba’s account published in NEWS STORY, MKO activists in Canada intended to follow the same action they took to the European court. It states that a Canadian lawyer, Warren Creates, an Ottawa-based lawyer who has represented the group and its sympathizers for seven years, is considering challenging the decision that placed The People’s Mujahedeen on the Canadian list in May 2005.

Last month, the Canadian government reviewed the group and found that it still qualified to be on the list of terrorist organizations banned in Canada, said Philip McLinton, a spokesman from the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

"It’s according to the criteria [in the Criminal Code] and intelligence received that this assessment was conducted," said Mr. McLinton. However, he said under Canada’s laws, any group listed on the terror watch list can appeal the decision, but added that the department hasn’t received any such request from the People’s Mujahedeen.

Three years ago, the group attracted media attention in Canada when a 26-year-old Iranian-Canadian committed suicide by setting herself on fire outside the French embassy in London, UK. Neda Hassani, a computer sciences student at Carleton University, was protesting the arrest of Maryam Rajavi, the president of the People’s Mujahedeen.

mojahedin.ws – 21/12/2006

December 25, 2006 0 comments

European Union

EU knows MKO is not democratic says Director of Human Rights

In a report on Iranian refugees and also on the occasion of the anniversary of approving Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Brussels, Radio Farda said:

"Ms. Sabin Mayer, Director of Human Rights and International Relations of EU’s Greens, pointed to the process of talks between Europe and Iran since the government of Khatami and said: "Geopolitically, Iran is important and European Union believes that Iran can be taken out of isolation only by dialogue. Parliament knows that along with talking with Iranian officials, more activity is needed in the field of talking with Iranian opposition, writers and citizens."

She stressed: "Iran criticized invitation of Maryam Rajavi to Strasburg. Iranian officials said that it was an indication that we were backing the idea of regime change. But we denied it. We know that the MKO has not been a democratic group and that it is a closed group. However, in terms of legal issues, EU’s laws were needed to change and therefore, restriction on MKO’s bank accounts in Europe were lifted."

Radio Farda, December 19, 2006

December 25, 2006 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq 's Terrorism

Child rescued from the hands of a terrorist group

Annieke Kranen Berg and Janny Groen from the Dutch news paper Focus Grant reported on 15th December 2006

Habib Khorami managed to rescue his son Bahador age 2 years from Mojahedin Khalq Organisation. He managed to bring his son to the Netherlands from Canada where he had been given to a family supporting the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation.

This reunion cost Habib very dearly. The Mojahedin took Habib to court and froze a large portion of his income as compensation.

Habib decided to counter the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation which had unlimited funds. With nothing in his hands he spent a very long time in the courts and legal advice centres.

Mojahedin were intending to make a terrorist from his son but the suspicious father decided to stop the misuse of his son and, facing the danger of imprisonment, he sent his son to his family back in Iran where he was sure he would be out of reach of the Mojahedin and where he could go to school safely.

A report was made by Focus Grant, a national paper, from the court of appeal in the Netherlands on 14 December 2006. In parts we read:

…the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation is known as a terrorist organisation almost globally.

In 2002, a court in the Netherlands condemned Mr. Khorami to two years imprisonment for refusing to hand over his own child to governmental agencies.

The court of appeal was held in Leeuwarden on 14 December 2006.

In a process for establishing custody of his son Bahador, whom the supporters of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation in Canada were claiming, was an unjust straggle for him. The root of this war was really in the Mojahedin’s military camp in Iraq where Mr. Khorami himself was once a member.

…Bahador was born in 1980 when Mr. Khorami had decided to join the Mojahedin in Iraq to topple the regime of Iran

The organisation’s ideology is a mixture of Marxism and Islam. Mr. Khorami had spent 2 years in prison in Iran for supporting the Mojahedin. The Mojahedin claim that Camp Ashraf is for freedom and democracy. Mr. Khorami’s wife was first against joining Mojahedin in Iraq but later accepted to go there. Mr. khorami found out that the organisation, contrary to their claims, is nothing more than a dangerous, destructive cult. The members were under physical and psychological pressure and isolated from the real world. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire.

The organisation’s leaders, Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi, were demanding total submission of the members. Outside contact was impossible and daily brainwashing meetings were held where they had to confess to even their remotest thoughts and dreams…. Khorami remembers Massoud Rajavi pointing at his son and saying "You should give him to me". This was very hard for Mr. Khorami as it was hard to see the organisation serving Saddam Hussein in crushing the Iraqi Kurds and Shiites. When Rajavi announced the forced divorces of all members, Mr. Khorami decided that enough is enough. Mr. Khorami was witnessing a dangerous game. Husbands and wives were forced to spit at each other and denounce their relations. Despite all efforts unfortunately Mr. Khorami lost his wife to the organisation.

At the start of first Gulf war Rajavi took the children away from the camp to Baghdad which was under continuous bombardment. The idea was to convince the parents to accept the transfer of all their children. Of course they would accept a safer place when the children were in such a dangerous situation in Baghdad.

Rajavi smuggled about 800 children to Europe, Canada and the US with the promise that he would bring them back after the war. Judit Neurink in her book "Mislead Martyrs" investigates this action under the title of "The Great Child Kidnapping". Ms. Neurink explains in detail how the children were given to the supporters to raise them to their teenage years, ready to be used in paramilitary operations. Bahador was only two and a half years old.

Mr. Khorami found that his son had been given to a family in Toronto in Canada. My son was taken hostage. They were putting pressure on me not to talk about the kidnapping of children. he said.

Khorami started contacting the family who were supporters of the terrorist organisation. He also started contacting human rights organisations as well as supporting organisations for refugees but without much success. In 1998, when he was granted a Dutch passport, he got a family visit visa for his son and travelled to Canada. Of course he had never signed anything to accept transfer of custody of his son to anyone.

In Canada he came to an agreement with Shafiee and Pira (Mojahedin supporters) to take Bahador to the Netherlands.

Bahador came to the Netherlands in 1998. His father started the process of getting permanent residency for his son in the Netherlands.

In 1999, Shafiee and Pira filed a complaint against Mr. Khorami accusing him of kidnapping Bahador and claimed that Bahador is in their custody. They did not have any evidence, but a social worker in Canada had written a letter to allow the child to go to school and the court accepted that custody belongs to the supporters of the Mojahedin. The social worker knew the situation but had written the letter in order to facilitate the situation of the child and allow him to enjoy the support of governmental subsidies. The social worker admitted this later on. The Canadian court later overruled the verdict, but the court in the Netherlands still referred to that verdict. The Judge ruled that Mr. Khorami has to give back his son to Shafiee and Pira and in refusing to do so, he will have to pay 5000 Guilder for each day…

Khorami says, "this ruling put me in a desperate situation. Every day I received reports and news about the children who were sent back to the camp in Iraq. In September the National Post revealed the transfer of children and teenagers to Ashraf camp. Boys and girls were being smuggled to Iraq to train for suicide missions". Khorami decided to keep his child away and send him to his brother in Iranian Kurdistan.

Khorami had to pay the financial penalties and could not afford to pursue the legal process in Canada. His lawyer forgot to ask for an appeal and Mr. Khorami was sent to prison, losing his job as a social worker.

The most bitter part of the story is when no judge was willing to listen to the circumstances. The Judge said: "we are not talking about politics in here". He only would take the official versions of custody into consideration.

The Mojahedin Khalq Organisation is now in the list of terrorist organisations and human rights organisation including Human Rights Watch have revealed evidence. Last year HRW published a report titled "NO EXIT" in which it explained the abuse of human rights inside the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation. It said the members who criticised the leadership or the ones who wanted to leave the organisation were imprisoned and tortured.

According to HRW, we are talking about severe brainwashing. The members are provoked to write reports about each other and even torture each other. Mojahedin accuse their critics of connection with the secret services of Iran. Khorami has also been accused by them. So has Ms. Farah Karimi the Member of Parliament who confessed her involvement with the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation as a member. In her view this is no more than a criminal cult.

Khorami puts all his hope on the testimonies given by Shafiee and Pira. The testimonies explode like a bomb, very controversial. There is no doubt that they are from Mojahedin Khalq Organisation and have been involved in other cases of child kidnapping. But Khorami has his eyes on the testimonies given by his son.

Bahador was supposed to come to Amsterdam from Tehran to attend the court. Unfortunately he could not and this was unfortunate for his father who has not seen his son for the last 8 years. The Iranians have decided that his visa is not correct. Bahador wanted to talk about how he was treated in Canada. How he was being prepared to join Mojahedin and about his father, the Netherlands and Iran. Mr. Nooitgedagt has no doubt his client will win.

Mr.Khorami was expected to give up his son to a known international terrorist organisation. He says, "I am proud of myself for supporting and rescuing my child. I wouldn’t want to live and see my Bahadoor in the hands of Mojahedin Khalq terrorists. I hope this time the judges wiill see that I have done nothing wrong except rescuing my child. A report by Rahaee Association, Netherlands, December 22, 2006

December 25, 2006 0 comments

Belgium

Belgian TV: 300 repentant MKO members return home

Brussels, Dec 20, IRNA-Belgian television RTBF-1 in a report dispatched from Tehran said 300 repentant members of the terrorist MKO grouplet have returned to the Islamic Republic.

The French-language TV interviewed some of the former members of the MKO who said they were duped by the terrorist grouplet.

One of them, named Arash Sametipour, explained the methods of the MKO and how he was tricked by the grouplet.

He said the MKO assigned him to carry out terror acts in Iran and advised him to commit suicide if he failed in his terror mission.

Repentant MKO members in Tehran (file photo)

Another woman, whose name was not mentioned, said that when she joined the group in Iraq she was told that she must divorce her husband physically and mentally.

The Belgian TV in the report braodcast at the weekend also noted the report published by the Human Rights Watch on the human rights violations of the MKO in Iraq — how it tortured and used violent methods and ran secret cells for those members who wanted to leave the grouplet. [see Iran: Exiled Armed Group Abuses Dissident Members; Opposition Group Seeks Recognition and Support in Western Capitals>

RTBF also referred to the visit of the leader of the MKO terror grouplet, Maryam Rajavi, to the Belgian Senate in October which caused a big political uproar both in Iran and Belgium.

Payvand.com, December21, 2006

http://www.payvand.com/news/06/dec/1220.html

December 25, 2006 0 comments

Canada

MKO’s Terrorist Label Reaffirmed by Canada

Following the ruling of the EU’s second court on lifting the ban on the funds of terrorist MKO in Europe, remnants of Rajavi’s cult are stupidly trying to take advantage of this ruling in other countries and pave the way for being taken out of the terror list.

In this regard, the lawyer of terrorist organization in Canada who is trying to take the MKO’s name out of the black list in that country has dealt a big blow in his first steps.

On the issue of MKO’s new efforts for getting out of terror list, Brian Adeba discussed MKO lawyer’s efforts in Canadian-based "Embassy" on Dec. 20, 2006 and wrote according to Canadian officials that:

"Last month, the Canadian government reviewed the group and found that it still qualified to be on the list of terrorist organizations banned in Canada, said Philip McLinton, a spokesman from the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

IranDidban – 2006/12/23

December 25, 2006 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq 's Function

Al-Arabia’s Detailed Report on MKO Cult

Al-Arabia news channel broadcast a detailed report titled "MKO, Struggle for Survival". The program was hosted by Ahmed Abdulla, a powerful presenter of Al-Arabia. Contacting Ali Safavi, Alireza Jafarzadeh (MKO members) as well as Massoud Khodabandeh and Anne Singleton (former members of the group) and also Professor Gary Sick, Raymond Tanter and Dokhi Fasihian via telephone, the program discussed the status of the MKO, criticism about this terrorist group, its popular base and also its involvement in massacring Kurds in Iraq. Parts of the report are as follows:

Internal Criticism

Al-Arabia: Khodabandeh worked for the group in Iraq as the bodyguard of MKO leaders until he felt disappointed and now he is a strong opponent of the group.

Khodabandeh: "For a long time, there were sessions in the MKO known as "current operations", which served the promotion of sectarianism. Each person was required to take part in these sessions on daily basis to report what he had thought about during the day or what he wished or what he hated. He had to express them all for others. After confessions, the person was told to deny so-and-so and the purpose was to put the person under the pressure of others in order to clarify issues to him and shape him as they wanted."

Al-Arabia: Did all women wear scarves? Were they required to wear scarves?

Anne (Khodabandeh’s wife): "Yes, wearing scarf was one of the conditions in the Camp".

Al-Arabia: Anne Singleton, the wife of Massoud Khodabandeh, was also MKO member for 7 years. One of his friends, an Iranian, was the reason for her interest in the group.

Anne: "In 1990, I officially became a member. I passed two weeks while being on hunger strike. I forced myself to accept that situation. I had prepared myself for that. In the early stages, I was told that I had to obey leader’s orders totally. By leader, they mean Maryam Rajavi".

Al-Arabia: Massoud and Anne stress that the organization of Mojahedin tries to weaken family relations in order to absorb and keep members.

Anne: "The MKO claims that they are struggling for the freedom of women but the fact is quite opposite because the only thing they do is to force women to leave their children. Besides, they force women to divorce their husbands. They press women to quit thinking about forming a family, having a normal life and family relationships. The organization even prevents them from meeting their relatives who are also members of the group. Women can meet their relatives in the organization but the meeting should not be held as a family one since family relationships can affect relationship with "Sister Maryam"! In this cult, all should think about her and love her."

Al-Arabia: MKO leaders deny these, claiming that Massoud Khodabandeh is in touch with Iranian Intelligence Ministry. However, there’s a more important accusation: MKO had special ties with Saddam Hussein’s regime during 15 years of being in Iraq. Pictures released recently show Massoud Rajavi and MKO’s number two man beside Saddam Hussein.

Ali Safavi (MKO member): "MKO had to change its position and settle in Iraq. Since 1986, when it was settled in Iraq, it has acted independent from the hosting government in issues like political, ideological, organizational and military issues."

Al-Arabia: You mean there has been no cooperation between the fighters of MKO and Saddam?!

Ali Safavi: "No."

Al-Arabia: Despite Mr. Safavi’s answer, several sources including US State Department believe that Saddam Hussein has equipped the MKO and that the group received financial aid from Saddam’s regime- apart from the financial aids from Iranian exiles. In this regard, Massoud Khodabandeh says: "After the first Gulf war in 1991, Taha Yassin Ramadhan, one of Saddam’s senior deputies, asked the MKO to help Saddam in crushing the Kurds".

A Kurdish village destroyed totally by the MKO.

Massoud Khodabandeh: "What I remember is that Taha Yassin Ramadhan held a meeting with MKO members and that the MKO members expressed preparedness and praised his positions. Since Ramadhan lacked sufficient forces after the war, so he divided the forces. His own forces were only enough to suppress the uprising in the South. Therefore, Rajavi’s forces were tasked with crushing the opponents in the North".

Al-Arabia: Since you eyewitnesses the destruction of a village by MKO forces, please tell us what happened.

Khodabandeh: "MKO forces leveled the village. Iraqi villages are small. Imaging what would happen to such village with 20 tanks. The village was intentionally devastated."

Al-Arabia: Was it done by MKO forces?

Khodabandeh: "Yes, it was done by MKO forces and their tanks and they were happy of this victory."

Al-Arabia: "According to some reports and news, during ideological and psychological sessions in Iraq, Massoud Rajavi taught anti-Imperialist and anti-American ideas to the members. Is the MKO capable of hiding its real face under a mask?

Khodabandeh: "Yes, particularly when they moved to Iraq they never thought that Saddam would fall someday. Therefore, they expressed their enmity towards west by relying on the regime of Saddam. This democratic face you see today is simply a fake."

Al-Arabia: MKO always denies this part of its history and those who talk about this are accused by the MKO of being involved with Iran’s Intelligence Ministry!

Ali Safavi (MKO member): "This is only a propagandistic issue on which the Iranian regime spends hundred millions of dollars.

Al-Arabia: while the MKO and its supporters claim that there’s no black or shameful point in the history of organization, experts believe that this claim is rejected by Iranians.

Professor Gary Sick: "There’s no doubt that the MKO is rejected and renounced in Iran. There’s no question on that. Iranians look at the group as traitor organization since it stood along with the enemy to overthrow the government."

Al-Arabia: Dokhi Fasihian was formerly the executive director of Iranian-American Council, a nonpartisan institution.

Al-Arabia: Ms. Fasihian, is it true that Iranians hate the MKO and reject it?

Dokhi Fasihian: "MKO claims that if elections were held in Iran, people would elect them but this is a sheer lie and an insult to Iranians."

Dokhi Fasihian: "Indeed, the MKO has no place among Iranians. They are rejected because of their cooperation with Iraqi forces during Iran-Iraq war. I believe that Iranians rather hate MKO than Americans. Iranian don’t understand why some foreign governments and officials support such undemocratic groups that are known for violence and terrorism!

December 23, 2006 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq 's Terrorism

Judges of the Court of First Instance

Re: Case T-228/02

Esteemed Judges of the Court,

We noted with interest your Judgement in Case T-228/02.

After reading press release No 97/06, there are several issues which we wish to bring to your attention.

Firstly, we must express our disappointment at the apparent level of evidence on which your ruling has been based. The press release asserts as facts details which are clearly in error.

For example: “In the past, it [MKO] has had an armed branch operating inside Iran.” There is absolutely no doubt that for the past twenty years the Mojahedin operated all its armed personnel exclusively from inside Iraq as part of the Iraqi military apparatus and only made armed incursions into Iran with the permission of Saddam Hussein’s generals. The remains of this ‘armed branch’ are of course currently detained in Camp Ashraf 60 km north of Baghdad.

And: “that it [MKO] has expressly renounced all military activity since June 2001”. The Mojahedin Khalq and its leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi have never at any time announced that the MKO has renounced violence. It has been revealed, however, that a statement indicating that it had renounced violence had been made privately by the MKO to the Court through its lawyers. The Court of First Instance apparently took this statement at face value. There is clear evidence to show that MKO military activity continued right up to the allied invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Even right now they are openly promoting terrorism and threatening their critics in the EU and US. These critics have been “condemned to death” by the MKO’s Revolutionary Court pending the execution of their sentences in Europe and the USA.

But our main reason for writing to you – of course we recognise that your ruling concerns procedural issues and not issues of European security – is to alert you to the humanitarian crisis which lies behind the façade which Mojahedin-e Khalq shows western audiences and which remains unchallenged by this judgement.

Mojahedin Khalq is not a political party, it is a destructive cult which uses psychological coercion to exert control over its members. Since the autumn of 2003, the members trapped in Camp Ashraf, Iraq – the ‘armed branch’ – have been held incommunicado and have no access to humanitarian help, contact with their families or information. They do not have ‘contracts of employment’ and are living in conditions which can only be described as modern slavery. There is much evidence freely available which confirms this above assertion, and the Human Rights Watch report ‘No Exit’ from May 2005 serves as a useful introduction to the dire human rights situation which pertains inside the MKO.

What is of concern for our organisation, Iran-Interlink, is that the delicate and ongoing efforts of the UNHCR, ICRC, HRW, AI and many smaller organisations to rescue victims of the MKO headed by Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi in Iraq have been jeopardized by this judgement by the Court of First Instance.

Although we believe your judgement will not have any material effect on the terrorist status of the Mojahedin Khalq, you should know that it has been immediately misrepresented by leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi to the members. The day after your ruling, Massoud Rajavi, who is wanted by Interpol for war crimes and crimes against humanity, emerged after three years of silence, to tell his commanders in Iraq they will soon get their arms back and they can resume their armed activity. How does this square with the claim to have renounced military activity?

In the last few years Iran-Interlink and other agencies have been successful in helping people leave the Rajavi cult and re-integrate into normal society. Many of the survivors are resident in western countries including most of Europe and the UK, Scandinavia and Canada.

The main victims of this court ruling then are the individual cult members interred in Camp Ashraf. They are now unable to leave the cult. Unable to make contact with their families and unable to return to their homes, the MKO will now tell those members trapped in Camp Ashraf that their armed struggle is being supported by western democracies. It gives them an open hand to increase psychological coercion on the remaining hostages in Camp Ashraf.

Your judgement is also a gift to the Islamic Republic of Iran which will use it to accuse the west of double standards. Mojahedin military activity has resulted in the deaths of 16,000 Iranians, most of whom were civilians. The Mojahedin has also imprisoned and tortured hundreds of its own members resulting in several deaths.

For over two decades, Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi have been promising to achieve victory through armed struggle. They are still promising the same. Nothing they have done or said so far would lead anyone to believe either that they have changed this violent approach or that they provide value for money for anyone who backs them in their attempt to achieve power in this way.

Yours sincerely,

Anne Singleton

Iran-Interlink

PO Box 148

Leeds LS16 5YJ

Anne Singleton, December 20, 2006

December 23, 2006 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq 's Function

MKO Reacts to Tribal Leaders’ Conference

Recently, the heads of tribes in Dyala province held a conference to discuss the critical economical and security situation as well as the presence of terrorist groups in the province.

A delegation of tribal leaders also briefed the government on the ways of improving security situation in the province.

Complaints on the illegal presence of terrorist organization of Mojahedin-e Khalq as a source of instability in the region were top on the agenda. They also backed government’s decision to expel the group from Iraq.

The murderous gang of Rajavi, which has created a group called”The Front of Saving Dyala”with the remnants of Baath party, has desperately claimed that American forces can assure provincial officials that the MKO is restricted to Camp Ashraf and that it has no role in the problems of the region.

MKO’s statement, released by the name of this fake”Front”, reads:

“Governor’s office and other provincial officials are well aware that the MKO has no role in destabilizing the security of the region. How is it possible to have a role in security of the province when you are restricted? This delegation, instead of solving the problems of people and province, is partaking in continuation of bad security situation. All residents of the province are disappointed by this move of delegation.”

Observers believe that MKO’s efforts during past years to win support in the province, and its claims that it has good relations with people, have all failed.

December 23, 2006 0 comments

Iraq

Adnan Al-Dulaimi, The Master of Civil Wars

When Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda’s number one in Iraq, was killed Iraqi security forces found the mobile phone number of Adnan Al-Dulaimi, Tareq Al-Hashemi and Hares Al-Zari at the site. Mowafq Al-Rubaii, Iraqi security advisor, announced at that time that the government had found precious documents. However, the Iraqi government was pressed by Americans not to pursue the issue. Some Iraqi official preferred not to go on with the case in order to keep their posts.

Also, a while ago, US forces entered Dulaimi’s house and found 8 bombed cars, a workshop equipped with devices for planting explosives and also fake ID cards. On the other hand, Dulaimi’s grandson admitted that their targets belonged to Shiites including regions such as Al-Jahad, Al-Hurriah and Al-Aamel. On 26.9.2006, Dulaimi’s personal bodyguard, Khazir Farhan, who was closely cooperating with Al-Qaeda revealed the suicide bombings with explosive belts in Al-Khazra district.

Dulaimi’s comments on supporting the terrorist MKO, which has been involved in killing Iraqis during Shaabaniah uprising in 1991, prove that accusations on his support for terrorism are true.

Dulaimi had claimed that Iraqi Shiites who accuse the MKO of terrorism, are in fact Iranians.

He said: "MKO, based in Iraq, is a political group and is not terrorist group in any way. According to the laws of Iraq, MKO’s rights should be respected and Iraq’s regulations should protect them. We hope Iraqi officials understand this. I ask God Almighty to help us in our support for the guests of Iraq. Our moral values force us to support them. We should protect them and I don’t believe that they have negative impact on Iraq’s situation."

Vadad Fakher/Soutaliraq – 2006/12/20

December 23, 2006 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq 's Function

A lot of hoo-ha for nothing

On Tuesday 12th of December 2006, the European court of justice announced that they had made an errand in not allowing the Mojahedin-E Khalq of Iran the opportunity to defend itself when putting them on a terror list. Link With this decision, the Mojahedin will receive access to the frozen funds and be able to defend themselves in the courts. That is as far as the court decision has implemented. But if you were to view the official Mojahedin TV stations and numerous websites and newspapers you would get the impression that they had in fact been taken out of the terrorist list. This is of course far from the truth.

The European court of justice, declared in its verdict that any funds that had been frozen should now be made available at the disposal of Mojahedin-E Khalq. But the experts on this organization can clearly state that the Mojahedin has never in the past made any of its money transactions through any bank in Europe. The Mojahedin have in fact never placed any of its vast funds that they have acquired through Saddam Hussein in any of the European bank. The exchange and transfer of money has always been conducted in secret and always in cash, just like other terrorist organization like Al-Qaeda.

The reality is that removing the Mojahedin-E Khalq of Iran out of the European Terror list will not make any impact what so ever. In the past, the Mojahedin used to get their entire funding and support from the Iraqi regime, and even with all the tanks and guns it still didn’t amount to anything.

For the Mojahedin, the presence of their names in the European terror list has had very little effect in their day to day activities. They have continued to hold demonstrations over the past few years and still enjoy the full support of many European politicians and lawmakers.

During the past few days the Mojahedin have unofficially proclaimed that they have set aside violent resistance and will from now on only work by peaceful means. But the reality is that the armed struggle against the Iranian regime is a strategic, tactical and ideological essence of the

group. And if they ever decide to set aside armed and violent means as a form of struggle, they cease to exist as a group. The result would be mass defection and finally an implosion of the organization. There has never in fact been an official declaration of distance from violent armed struggle.

The major issue at stake is that the people of Iran do not consider Mojahedin as a serious political force. For the majority of the Iranian people they are only known as a cult that worked with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in time of war against and helped the enemy in killing thousands of Iranian people during the Iran-Iraq conflict that lasted 8 years (1980 – 1988) There remains no support for the Mojahedin-E Khalq by any class, age or gender in Iran’s society.

Karim Haghi Moni

18 December 2006

Karim Haghi, IranPeyvand

December 23, 2006 0 comments

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