Repatriation of MKO disaffected members
1. List of the returnees to Iran
2. Report to Senate Foreign Relations Committee
3. Terrorist Mercenaries
4. Interview – Elahe Iranian Singer and Anne Singleton
Download Pars Brief – Issue No.18
Download Pars Brief – Issue No.18
…Sending a letter to European countries, US and Canada, a group of former members of the MKO warned that the group is starting to harass them in western countries using its trained members. The letter said that a number of MKO members trained in security, intelligence and urban warfare courses had been deployed to Europe illegally.
I had an interview with Massoud Khodabandeh, former member of National Council of Resistance, who is among the letter’s signatories. I asked him about the reasons behind signing such a letter?
Massoud Khodabandeh: before the fall of Saddam, the MKO deployed 200-300 of its members along with Maryam Rajavi to Europe. Most of these people were trained in Saddam’s security systems and can be compared to Saddam’s Fedayeen.
It seems that this intelligence system has matured during the past 2 years and is now active. For the time being, this system is centered in Germany, with direct contact with the MKO’s headquarters in Auvers-sur-Oise in France. Its divisions are also active in the capitals of other democratic countries. They now have more than one hundred associations, companies and websites to cover-up their activities and they have come to a point, unfortunately, that their activities include kidnapping in Germany, beatings in Netherlands, harassing families and even schoolchildren whose parents are critics of the organization.
We sent this letter, signed by 80-90 people, to the Interior Ministries of European countries, the USA and Canada to be investigated seriously. But we should be careful about the process; the way it’s going now would turn the previous self-immolations into future murders and killings and we don’t want this to happen.
Interviewer: Mr. Khodabandeh, according to you, these attacks have intensified. What are the goals of such activities? Are they organized movements? In all countries?
Khodabandeh: yes, it’s organized by a trained system. Some of them have 20 to 25 year records in this. They were officially trained in Iraq. It means that we can’t ignore it. And, about the goals of such activities: they believe that their problems with being on the terror lists, or being prosecuted by the French Judiciary, are rooted in the revelations made by their critics and by former members. They’ve concluded that they will never relieved [from the terror label] while these people continue to disclose the organization’s realities. So, they spend a significant amount of their energy to suppress, or erase, those who criticize them.
Interviewer: What measures can the western countries take? What have they done?
Khodabandeh: For instance, a court in Germany is now hearing the complaints of a former Abu Ghraib prisoner who is a critic of the MKO. They [MKO] wanted to kidnap him in the street. The court is doing its work, and that’s a positive step. There have been cases of beatings in the Netherlands but it was not possible to investigate the cases because the MKO agents were able to flee the scene; that’s because, as I told you, they’re trained in this field. But it seems that there are some ways to stop such activities if western governments take this seriously. Anyway, such organized movements are not legal in these countries. Even the lawyers here say that surveillance is not legal. Making databases of opponents is not legal. Harassing people and their children is not legal. Apparently, such activities can be prevented. The only thing is that they should be paid attention to.
Once more MKO members repatriated. 13 former members have returned to Iran by the cooperation of Islamic Republic, Red Crescent, International Red Cross and other officials.
Earlier, hundreds of other members of MKO who’d left the group’s camp in Iraq returned to the country.
Gradual defections reveal the existing deadlock in Iraq.
Nejat Society Reporter: following the return news of 13 defectors of Rajavi’s cult who were settled in American camps, it is declared that these members with cooperation of Red Cross on a private flight of that organization via Mehr Abad Airport repatriated and joined their families.
It is notable that six of these former members were captured by Saddam dictatorship since they were deceived by MKO cult. Seven other defectors moved to neighboring countries looking for job and were absorbed by MKO deception.
Ghorban Ali Pourahmadie – Lahijan
Ahmad Saraiee – Golestan
Naser Hussein Pour – Sistan va Balouchestan
Hadi Alibabayie – Tehran
Mohammad Ebrahim Najaf zade – Kashan
Dariuosh Aminy – Kermanshah
Javad Savaedie – Khouzestan
Mohammad Reza Mobinie – Tabriz
Younes Yanpey – Golestan
Esfandiar Batmanie – Kermanshah
Massoud Vahabpour – Gilan
Vali Allah Vahedie – Golestan
Nader Chapchin – Tabriz
Four months after HRW’s report on MKO (and its violation of human rights) was published, those accused of violating human rights held a 250-member carnival, spent astronomical amounts of money, and repeated the same words they had expressed 4 months ago.
Human rights violators easily accuse others of being “mercenary”, call themselves “protectors of human rights” and say that others accusations are coming from enemy’s intelligence services.
Unlike other cases, this time there are witnesses (with enough evidences such as Abu Ghraib prison and registered by Red Cross as prisoners), ready to give testimony anywhere anytime. As an opponent of HRW’s report said, one should look at the faces of victims when giving testimony in order to find whether their testimony is true or not.
Taking advantage of deceived people and a large group of human rights experts- all unaware of being trapped- can only help the victims of MKO human rights violations to prove their claims.
The people who say testimonies against human rights violators (MKO) are not true have took the burden to go to Iraq in order to get the testimonies of those entangled in that country, but they didn’t accept to have an interview with any of the victims in Europe.
Can anybody ask these impartial “judges” why? This could help you hear the complaints of both sides and have a better decision-making.
Anyway, Roshana Association is ready to hold a seminar, with MKO officials and human rights experts, to discuss the accuracy of these claims.
It would seem that there is a great deal at stake for the 150 MEK supporters in Congress. Whether it is these congressional members who are providing Jafarzadeh, the MEK spokesman, with aerial photos of Iran’s nuclear facilities, or vice versa, the Bush administration is having a field day with it at the UN General Assembly.
Of course, the doctored satellite images that took America to war three years ago, proved costly. Body bags and a depleted treasury have prompted the Pentagon to revisit its preemptive nuclear doctrine. The justification would be saving lives – obliterating cities to save a thousand American lives and half a billion dollars seems reasonable. Rumsfeld is right on the ball. School children will grow up learning that Iran had to be nuked so that the Iranians would stop sponsoring terrorists that were going to harm Americans with their nukes 10 years down the line. Oil was reaching $100 a barrel. We wanted to keep Alaska clean for you all.
Sadly, the mainstream media is following suit. Regrettably, there is no free press in this society – it is simply a mouthpiece of corporations and the government. Else, why would the speaker of a terrorist cult the MEK be given a platform? And why would the facts about Iran’s nuclear program be distorted to such an extent?
Even the once reputable The Economist writes "two decades of nuclear deception” (September 10-16th, 2005). The uninformed author of this article, or the ill-intentioned writer, should be reminded that Iran was openly soliciting bids to buy reactors from different countries after Germany, under pressure from the U.S., withheld its reactors which had been duly paid for. In fact, in 1996, Iran filed a lawsuit against Germany’s Kraftwerk Union at the International Commerce Commission.
More importantly, as a signatory to the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the construction of a facility, even a nuclear facility, does not have to be reported to the IAEA (Natanz is a case in point). The only stipulation is that 180 days PRIOR to introducing any nuclear material, the NPT member has to declare the existence of the facility. The construction of the Natanz facility is not a violation of the NPT as the Bush administration would have us believe, echoed by the media. The NPT does allow a member to legally build any nuclear facility, including one for uranium enrichment, so long as it is declared, and safeguarded by the IAEA, and is intended for peaceful purposes.
As for the revelations of Natanz, though Jafarzadeh would like to take credit, if treason can be given credit to; it was revealed by Seymour Hersh, the renowned journalist who exposed the My Lai massacre and the human right abuses at Abu Gharib prison (and Afghanistan), that it was indeed Israel that provided the MEK with the intelligence reports, many unfounded, regarding Iran’s nuclear sights.
The 150 congressional members have betrayed the trust of the American people by bargaining with the devil, the MEK, a terrorist cult who betrayed their own people”
One of the major news stories today on the Iranian satellite television channel Simaye Azadi was the favorable news coverage the MEK (Rajavi Cult) received on September 24, 2005 in the New York Times and in the International Herald Tribune. Craig S. Smith’s article appeared as “Exiled Iranians Try to Foment Revolution From France” in the New York Times and as “An implacable opponent to the mullahs of Iran” in the International Herald Tribune.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/24/international/europe/24rajavi.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/09/23/news/profile.php
Both newspapers reported the statements of Maryam Rajavi during an interview at MEK headquarters in Auvers-Sur-Oise, France. While the reporter raised questions about or mentioned frequent criticisms of the MEK (cult organization, mandatory divorce, members burning themselves to death, the unusual marriage of Massoud Rajavi and of Maryam Rajavi), the newspapers published Maryam Rajavi’s responses without identifying factual errors. For example:
“She denies that the movement ever accepted financial support from Iraq or fought against Iraqi Shiites and Kurds on Mr. Hussein’s behalf, as some people claim.”
Smith included a description of Maryam Rajavi that readers of the New York Times who believed that Fidel Castro was the “George Washington of Cuba” will find endearing: “She speaks volumes on a Castro-like scale”- The New York Times’ support for Castro’s 1959 takeover of Cuba was so strong that the National Review responded by placing a picture of Fidel Castro on its cover with the words: “I got my job through the New York Times”.
http://www.etherzone.com/2002/bren013002.shtml
On September 12, 2002, President George W. Bush spoke to the United Nations General Assembly. His Office of the Press Secretary distributed a background paper supporting his remarks: "A Decade of Deception and Defiance". The section “Saddam Hussein’s Support for International Terrorism” included the MEK and did not include al-Qaeda:
“Iraq shelters terrorist groups including the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), which has used terrorist violence against Iran and in the 1970s was responsible for killing several U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians.”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020912.html
President George W. Bush employed two major pretexts to dupe Americans into supporting the Iraq War: (1) extend the war on terror to Iraq, a major sponsor of terrorist organizations such as the MEK (2) find and destroy weapons of mass destruction before Saddam Hussein uses the weapons or sells the weapons to terrorists.
The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune have published claims contrary to American government reports. On October 13, 2004, Newsweek published “Shades of Gray” by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6242223/site/newsweek
The Newsweek article contains details counter to New York Times and International Herald Tribune articles:
1. Chief U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer’s report includes evidence that Saddam Hussein allocated approximately $16 million of oil to the MEK over a 4-year period prior to the Iraq War. Saddam Hussein made the allocations using the United Nations-managed Oil-for-Food program. Saddam Hussein signed approvals to add any group to the Oil Allocation Recipient List.
2. The MEK’s response was that Iranian intelligence agents must have been involved with placing the MEK on the list!
3. MEK war crimes in Iraq:
But a U.S. official told NEWSWEEK that more recent reporting from Camp Ashraf indicates that about 40 MEK members have been identified as possible candidates for prosecution. Most likely, the official said, the prosecutions would take place in Iraq, where MEK members might be charged with crimes against humanity or war crimes associated with assistance they provided Saddam’s regime including acting as a paramilitary force to suppress uprisings by the Shia. Another handful, perhaps four to six, might be brought to the United States for prosecution for terrorist-related acts or other crimes, the official said.”
Quiz: Who is publishing the truth about the MEK: Maryam Rajavi, New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, President George W. Bush, or Newsweek?
Please email your answers and references to: traitorsusa@yahoogroups.com
References
“A Decade of Deception and Defiance”, Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, September 12, 2002.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020912.html
Brennan, Phil, “The New York Times: The “Newspaper of Record”- Some Record, Ether Zone, January 30, 2002.
http://www.etherzone.com/2002/bren013002.shtml
Isikoff, Michael, and Mark Hosenball, “Shades of Gray”, Newsweek, October 13, 2004.
A newly established group has asked the US government to lift the name of MKO from terror list.
Few members of “Iran Policy Committee” (IPC) are comprised of former officials of US government and retired CIA agents.
In order to understand its importance and influence, one should consider how far they are from the latest analysis of US government about the terrorist group they support. A terrorist group on US terror list, offices of which were shut down by the government of George Bush.
Part of Pentagon officials believe that MKO members should be used in espionage activities against Iranian regime and this constitutes the pillars of Raymond Tanter’s idea to support this terrorist group.
But Tanter is not aware of the unified approach of US officials toward this group. He doesn’t how Iranians hate this group and that’s why he call it a “resistance group”.
AP published recently a very funny and simple analysis on MKO by Raymond Tanter.
He said that his committee found strong opposition to MKO in different website and that , according to this, it can be concluded that Iranian government is worried about MKO and that this group has a high level of support!
Tanter and his partners in IPC (support of whom for MKO is very suspicious and, like many other examples, can be acquire by MKO in exchange for paying money) have based their analysis on the presence of a number of websites. This approach proves that they’re not familiar with Iran affairs. It also shows how they’ve copied MKO’s stances, since it’s only the MKO that claims “slogans in Friday prayers in Iran prove its position”!
Instead of citing websites, Tanter could have talked about popular actions and demonstrations in support of MKO; something that has never happened during past two decades and that’s why they have used the contents of a number of websites for their judgment.
Tanter refers to infeasibility of military attack against Iran and asks for the removal of MKO (as an alternative) from terror list; this also proves how far they are from official policies of the US government.
While one can barely relate the option of military strike against Iran to the removal of MKO from terror list (posing such claim is essentially senseless), what’s more lamentable is that Tanter and those who think like him (if there’s any thinking at all!) even don’t know that the unacceptable idea of using Mojahedin-e khalq was posed in the framework of military option. Even in that case, this terrorist group with shameful records of cooperating with Saddam Hussein and involvement in terrorist operations has little chance to accompany US soldiers.
The new US approach in foreign diplomacy, introduced recently by Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes, is to cleanse US policies from contradictions and double standards. Regarding this new approach, will the US government officially support a group it categorized as terrorist?
Furthermore, Raymond Tanter and his partners have denied those records of the MKO that can’t be denied even by the spokespersons of the group itself!
How can they deny the issue of assassination of US citizens in Iran when its case is available in US State Department and CIA since before revolution in Iran?
The least IPC can do to get to its goals is to break the consensus in the White House and State Department against this group, clear terrorist records of this group and also ignore this fact that the cult of Rajavi has no popular support in Iran. It doesn’t seem they’re able to do so.