Table of contents
- Background After revolution
- After revolution
- Cooperation with Islamic Revolution,
- Confrontation with the Islamic Republic of Iran
3· Cooperation with Saddam
4· Relation with Western Countries
5· Financial Sources of Mujahedin
1. 13 MKO defectors repatriated
2. Call for the Expulsion of a Controversial Iranian Rebel Group
3. Saddam Hussein’s Links with International Terrorism
4. MKO remains on EU terrorist list
5. BBC Woman’s Hour interview with Anne Singleton
6. Iranian Dissidents Square Off in DC
Download Pars Brief – Issue No.19
Download Pars Brief – Issue No.19
Multinational forces in Iraq has an electronic journal in which they reflect latest news and events on Iraq, especially those related to these forces. In Vol.1 No.2, under the title “Detainee Operations Update” we read about the MKO:
“MeK members repatriate to Iran
CAMP ASHRAF, Iraq – With assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Ministry of Human Rights, ten former members of the Iranian Mujahedeen-e Khalq Organization based at Camp Ashraf returned home this month.
These former members requested to be repatriated back to Iran upon arrival at the Coalition controlled facility. Since late 2004, over 300 former members of the organization have returned home to Iran through the amnesty program provided by the Iranian Regime.”
A news conference conducted by self-described Iranian dissidents descended into chaos on Monday as audience members and two journalists accused the speakers of spreading disinformation and being agents of Iranian intelligence.
As supporters of the rival dissident groups vied for media attention, one group accused the other of being imposters. An hour and a half into the National Press Club event in Washington, D.C., organizers halted it and Capitol police were called in to keep order.
Monday’s news conference, titled "Saddam and Terrorism," was sponsored by the Iran Peyvand Association and was supposed to focus on Iraq as it was. Speakers argued that after fleeing Iran, the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) operated out of Iraq as a terrorist group. For that reason, its leader, Massoud Rajavi, should be brought to justice just as Saddam Hussein was, the Iran Peyvand Association insisted.
The MEK was expelled from Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Starting in the late 1980s, its main support came from Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime. While it conducted terrorist attacks against the interests of the religious regime in Iran, it also mobilized to suppress the 1991 Shiite and Kurdish uprisings against Saddam, a point the presenters emphasized.
According to U.S. government terrorist group profiles, the MEK advocates the overthrow of the Iranian regime and its replacement with the group’s own leadership. Currently, over 3,000 MEK members live in Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, where they remain under the Geneva Convention’s "protected person" status.
A press release for Monday’s event promised that attendees would see a documentary film exposing the MEK’s role in the suppression of the 1991 Iraqi uprising and "video evidence, secretly filmed by Saddam’s own security services," showing the "financial, spying and terrorist relationship between the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization and Saddam’s regime."
Anti-war activist Carol Moore warned that if the U.S. attacked Iran, the result could be world-wide nuclear war.
A flier distributed by the organizers echoed the "catastrophic" repercussions of an American attack and argued that Iranian officials could deploy "millions of troops and enter Iraq," as well as attack Israel’s nuclear sites and cities, American bases and troops in Iraq and U.S. ships at sea.
"They could cut off much of the world’s oil, which comes through the Straight of Hormuz," read the flier, which was produced by StopTheWarNow.net, DawnDC.net and UnitedForPeace.org.
Karim Haqi, introduced as a former member of the MEK, followed Moore’s speech. After a video was shown, he addressed the meeting in Farsi while Marukh Haji translated.
Shortly into Haqi’s speech, audience members began interrupting, including one unidentified young woman who said she spoke Farsi and complained the translation being given to the audience was erroneous.
Another woman who refused to be identified except to say she was an immigration attorney, stood up and complained that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had allowed a former "terrorist" into the country.
A man who described himself as a "freelance journalist" asked Haqi whether it was true, as alleged, that he had worked with Iranian intelligence. He was escorted from the meeting by organizers. But the charge was echoed in questions by a British-Israeli journalist.
Haqi later denied any such ties to Iranian Intelligence, and through translator Marukh Haji, added that he and his supporters had spent years in Iranian prisons and were the "first ones" the government attacked.
"We put all our hopes in [the MEK]" said Haqi. "They betrayed us.
Two individuals carrying materials from the Committee Against Ahmadinejad (Iran’s new president) repeatedly interrupted Haqi and his translator. Later, members of the group gave reporters copies of a document accusing the organizers of Monday’s news conference of being in the employ of Iranian intelligence.
By Sherrie Gossett and Monisha Bansal
Even by the standards of Washington politics it was an unusual spectacle – the veiled leader of a Middle East group banned in the US as a terrorist organisation delivering a speech by live video-link to applauding members of Congress inside the Capitol itself.
But since the organisation is dedicated to the overthrow of Iran’s theocracy, the People’s Mujahideen Organisation and its political co-leader, Maryam Rajavi, are given leeway in the US as they campaign to have the "terrorist" tag removed and to become eligible for US funding of Iranian opposition groups.
In suit and matching headscarf, Mrs Rajavi spoke from France. She thanked six congressmen by name for their support, praised President George W. Bush and called for an end to western "appeasement" of the "engine of Islamic fundamentalism".
The audience – a mix of Iranian-Americans, politicians and staffers filling a conference room in the Capitol last Thursday – gave her a standing ovation. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat congresswoman from Texas, spoke warmly of "sister Maryam".
Known by its acronyms MKO and MEK, the group led by Mrs Rajavi and her husband Massoud, was outlawed by the US for its killing of Americans before the 1979 Iranian revolution; alleged collaboration with Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaigns against Iraqi Kurds; and attacks on civilians inside Iran.
The MKO denies the charges of terrorism, saying it was banned by then-president Bill Clinton in an attempt to engage the Iranian government.
Despite its attraction to the US – and particularly to some Pentagon planners – as an armed force inside Iraq ready in opposition, analysts in Washington doubt the group will regain legitimacy.
Nonetheless, its lobbying reflects the ferment inside the Bush administration as it grapples with producing a coherent policy towards Iran, working out – in the words of one European diplomat – whether to "engage, isolate or disrupt".
Stephen Hadley, national security adviser, commissioned 10 briefing papers exploring various options. A National Security Council meeting was cancelled this month after one of the papers, which proposed expanding diplomatic contacts with Iran, was leaked to the Wall Street Journal. Some officials suspect that someone senior wanted to sabotage the idea.
Diplomats and two US officials said the latest review was prompted by the conclusion reached by Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, and others that an effective sanctions option did not exist, and that they had been misled by the predictions of neoconservatives who saw the Iranian regime ripe for overthrow by a restless populace.
Recent statements by Ms Rice point to an effort to broaden diplomatic contacts with Iran.
Diplomats also say there is a new effort to find a settlement, negotiated through European allies, to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme. But officials say any such pragmatic tendencies would be tempered by the conviction that the Bush administration should do nothing that would be seen to confer legitimacy on the regime while actively supporting the democratic aspirations of Iranians.
Iranian-American sympathisers of the MKO, who are active donors to US politicians, remain hopeful their group will be de-listed
By Guy Dinmore in Washington
We used to live in a restricted society in which there was only one voice and maybe that is the reason why we now see everything upside down.
Today, we feel the freedom in Iraq and no one can deny this, except those who have never wanted to accept the truth or those who act maliciously. You can vote and express your ideas freely and whenever you want; what’s it if it’s not freedom? You can get a passport and travel freely in this situation. You can sleep in your own car without being arrested for what’s called “violation of security and social order”. I can well remember a day when I was traveling with my friend on the road of Basra and my friend was rebuked only for sleeping on his seat. The officer acted like Saddam. He took my friend out of the bust and arrested him but he was lucky and later freed, otherwise no one knows what would have happened to him. All this was for being asleep when the car stopped at checkpoint. Do we now fear from being asleep?
I know the meaning of freedom and I know that its definition is wider than what I said; I was just giving an example. Today, we can speak freely in front of employees, teachers and other people of this society. We can criticize ministers and some people even insult them.
We now enjoy freedom and we should preserve it. But freedom is not anarchy; it’s order and fidelity. We should be faithful to Iraq and its people.
On the other hand, the government should also know that freedom is not the same as anarchy and disorder. Free and democratic countries have practical plans and regulations they act according to which. Iraq should not bear big threats and dangers under the name of freedom.
The issue of the settlement of armed paramilitary groups in Iraq is also important. Some paramilitary groups in Iraq have been disarmed but other international terrorist organizations still possess weapons and everyone, familiar with politics, understands how dangerous it is for Iraq.
There’s no doubt that these terrorist groups are linked to each other and there are secret ties and cooperation between terrorist MKO, Al-Qaeda and Zarqawi and other remnants of ousted Saddam regime.
We are all aware of strong ties between Mojahedin-e khalq and Saddam Hussein. Some people try to clean this from the minds of Iraqis. They even hold meetings to do this, which has undesirable consequences.
Cleansing Iraqis soil from paramilitary groups, such as MKO, Zarqawi and Al-Qaeda, is as important as destroying weapons. Freedom and democracy and recognizing the rights for political asylum is not the same as welcoming terrorist groups.
Abbas Sarhan – Al Naba Website
Group to Hold Press Conference on Saddam Hussein’s Links with International Terrorism,
To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: Mahrukh Haji of Pars-Iran, 613-829-9598 or 613-261-2550 (cell)
News Advisory:
WHAT: Press conference on Saddam Hussein’s links with international terrorism
WHEN: Monday, Oct. 24 at 12 p.m.
WHERE: National Press Club (First Amendment Lounge), 529 14th Street NW, Washington DC
—
The following is a statement released by Pars-Iran:
The trial of Saddam Hussein is scheduled to start this week.
We demand that his closest ally, Massoud Rajavi, whose hands have been dirtied by many of Saddam’s crimes, also be brought to justice.
The toppled regime of Saddam Hussein actively supported international terrorism, and the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation, led by Massoud Rajavi, was at the top of the list of these terrorist organisations.
— The Mojahedin as part of Saddam’s military played a decisive role in the suppression of the internal uprisings in Iraq in 1991, and are responsible for the massacre of many Iraqi Shiites and Kurds who opposed Saddam. The best documented of these being the massacre of the Kurds in their uprising in March 1991.
— The Mojahedin acting as ‘Saddam’s Private Army’ have actively participated in the war which Saddam Hussein waged against Iran between 1980 and 1988, engaging themselves in intelligence gathering for the Iraqi army as well as participating in joint operations with them.
— Each and every military and terrorist operation carried out by the Mojahedin in Iran has been ordered directly by Saddam Hussein and his intelligence and secret services in Iraq.
On Monday, October 24, a press conference will be held in Washington, DC. The program includes:
— A documentary film exposing the Mojahedin’s role in the suppression of the uprising of the Iraqi people in 1991.
— Video evidence, secretly filmed by Saddam’s own security services, showing the financial and spying relationship between the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation and Saddam’s regime.
— A three member panel (TBA) will speak on this issue.
— Former members will be available to answer questions on the MEK.
The European Union published Tuesday an updated list of persons and groups that the 25-member European bloc designates as terrorists.
The Iranian Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), which was put on the EU’s terrorist list in 2002, remains on the new blacklist.
However, the MKO’s political front, the so-called National Council for Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which has its headquarters near Paris, is excluded from the list.
The MKO has been lobbying with some members of the European Parliament to have its name removed from the EU’s terrorist list.
The Communist Party of the Philippines was added to the new list, which contains the name of 45 individuals and 46 organizations.
The EU started the list following the Sept 11 attacks in the US as part of its efforts to fight terrorism.
EU governments are obliged to freeze assets of people and groups on the list, according to EU rules.
Newspapers in the Middle East are encouraged by the Iraqi constitution referendum, although they see a long road ahead until stability is achieved.
In Iraq itself, where many papers have failed to publish over the past few days because of an election holiday, one daily is optimistic, while another links the vote to a call for the expulsion of a controversial Iranian rebel group.
Commentary in Iraq’s independent Al-Shahid
Now that Iraqis have voted on their new constitution which has put an end to the presence of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation in Iraq, we believe that the Iraqi government is now required to take action and implement the constitutional article concerning this terrorist organisation. It should be brave, expel it from Iraq, given the danger it poses and especially the horrible crimes it committed. The Mojahedin-e Khalq has no place in the new Iraq.
PARIS, 19 Oct. (IPS) On the eve of the trial of the toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, some former members of the Mojahedeen Khalq Organsation (MKO) demanded that the leader of the outlawed Organisation and some of his close associates be also tried for “crimes against both the Iraqi and Iranian peoples”.
“The toppled regime of Saddam Hussein actively supported international terrorism and committed crimes against Iraqi and Iranian peoples and the Mojaheedin Khalq Organisation, led by Mas’oud Rajavi, were at the top of the list of these terrorist organizations”, Behzad Alishahi, a former member of the group said in a press conference held in Paris on Tuesday 18 October 2005.
Created in the sixties, the MKO, a mix of radical Islam and Stalinism, took an active part in operations against the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and is suspected to have assassinated at least six American military advisors.
Mr. Rajavi sided with Grand Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini in the Islamic Revolution of 1979, but was declared outlaw after he attempted a coup against the leader of the Revolution and along with Mr. Abolhasan Banisadr, the first president of the Islamic Republic, fled to Paris.
In 1886 and at the height of Iran-Iraq War, Mr. Rajavi and his Organisation left France for Baghdad, where he started an active cooperation with the Iraqi army and intelligence not only against Iran, but also the Kurds and the Sh’ias.
“The Mojahedeen, as part of Saddam’s military establishment, played a decisive role in the suppression of the internal uprisings in Iraq in 1991, and are responsible for the massacre of many Iraqi Shi’ites and Kurds who opposed Saddam. The best documented of these being the massacre of the Kurds in their uprising in March 1991”, the dissident claimed.
Mr. Alishahi said he is in possession of some of the “crimes” the MKO committed against both the Kurds and the Shi’ites, adding that he had sent the documents to Mr. Jalal Talabani, the former leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) who is now the President of Iraq.
“Acting as Saddam’s Private Army, the Mojahedeen have actively participated in the war which Saddam Hussein waged against Iran between 1980 and 1988, engaging themselves in intelligence gathering for the Iraqi army as well as participating in joint operations with them”, the former MKO members said.
“On direct orders from Hasan al-Majid, better known as Ali the Chemical, (then Governor of the province of Basra and latter Saddam’s Representative in Kuwait after the occupation of the oil-rich country by Iraqi forces), we organised military maneuvers in Basra and paraded with tanks for days just to frighten the Shi’a population of the town, known for their hate of Saddam”, Mr. Alishahi recalled.
“Each and every military and terrorist operation carried out by the Mojahedeen in Iran has been ordered directly by Saddam Hussein and his intelligence and secret services in Iraq”, he went on, adding that on occasions, the Organisation would carry espionage operations in Iran, mostly from Ahvaz, the capital city of the oil-rich Iranian province of Khouzestan.
“On orders from the Iraqis and against receiving a monthly sum of 27 million US Dollars, not only we would fight, kill and arrest the Kurds and the Shi’a insurgents, but any ordinary Iraqi suspected of opposing Saddam and hand them to Iraqi intelligence, of which the MKO was a special unit. We would even arrest Iraqi soldiers who would desert the army”, another dissident told reporters.
Accusing Mr. Rajavi of “murdering” several members of the group suspected of “not sharing his views”, Mr. Alishahi said of the 3.000 to 4.000 mojahedeens now living in the Shraf Camp near Baghdad, “all except a very few would leave in a plane from the International Red Cross would land there”.
An anchorman of the MKO’s television that would broadcast from both Baghdad and Basra, Mr. Alishahi said had been jailed for five months and tortured on orders from Mr. Rajavi some eleven years ago, but was latter pardoned and stayed with the group until the Americans toppled the Iraqi regime.
As the MKO dissidents were talking to correspondents and showing films about Mr. and Mrs Rajavi, the so-called “co-leaders” of the MKO, Afshin Molavi, a spokesman for the Organisation sent e-mails, describing Mr. Alishahi as “a member of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry”. ENDS MKO TRIAL 191005
By Safa Haeri