Ali Akbar Rastgou

Mr. George Bush, the President of the United States

At the 4th anniversary of 9/11 events, I’d like to have your attention to the following important notes.

1. As a former member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq, Iranian terrorist group based in Iraq, I have always lived in fear since I’ve left the group; fear from being assassinated or kidnapped by the MKO because I and others left the group in response to its terrorist activities. 9/11 events proved that terrorists are cruel. Since then, we have always felt that we should do something, not only for our own lives but also for the lives of innocent people who’ve been kept there in the MKO and their only fault is that they’re human beings.

Although the 9/11 wasn’t the only day on which the people of the world felt deeply the danger of terrorism, but it was one of the most horrible days. 9/11 proved that terrorism, in its wildest forms, has the capacity to cross the power lines and choose its victims by creating new methods, without being concerned about inhuman consequences of such attacks. Deep fear made by such terrorist attacks is worse than the damage.

9/11 events stressed this fact that the idea of getting to political aims by terrorism, anywhere in world with any justification, only helps its expansion. These attacks once again attracted world’s attention to terrorism and exposed the uniform nature of all terrorists. These attacks and its aftermath directed public attention towards Bin Laden and Taliban (as the most dangerous terrorists).

However, we should not forget that terrorism is not limited to Taliban and Bin Laden. The word “terrorism” reminds Europeans of Afghanistan. They may pass a number of terrorists each day while walking in a park in London or in New York, or while buying books in Ottawa or in Berlin, without knowing that. They barely believe that some of these terrorists are more dangerous than Bin Laden.

These terrorists may not issue “Fatwa” for killing westerners as Bin Laden does; their faces may comply with the standards of developed nations; these acceptable faces may talk about the concepts of freedom, democracy and human rights even more than US and European statesmen but their presence is as hazourdas for human civilization as the presence of Bin Laden.

They may appear in the streets of the cities of the West, under the name of charities for children and hungry people, but the reality is that “terrorism is what terrorism does”.

2. Since 1987, MKO has all major aspects of a cult:

– Lifelong leader who’s called “Imam”

– Strict hierarchy in which the orders come from above and all should obey unquestionably (Stalinist system).

– No one has the right to form family live, except the leader.

– All members should live in ghettos

– The group believes in armed struggle as an ideological principle and it has never quit it.

Such an organization has high potential to eradicate security and democracy in the West. They’re like time bombs, ticking in the Western society, which would explode in the case they’re not defused. The first victims of such an event would be the innocent people of the West. The religious cult of the MKO started with killing US officers in Iran and continued with self-immolations in June 2003 in Europe, showing abhorrent aspect of its ideological abilities. More like a political chantage, these recent shameful acts’ message to the West was that MKO would do anything to get to its goals even if the cost is the elimination of human beings. We can even expect that a member of this organization takes bomb and explodes himself in US or Europe in the near future.

Mr. President,

With the issues mentioned above it’s natural that your respected government- and governments of Canada, Australia and many other Western countries- recognized imminent threat of the MKO and put it on the terror list. This is appreciated and we expect no changes this year in the status of the MKO. We, former members of the MKO, are ready to cooperate on this.

But what has surprised me is practical measures of that government towards the list. According to US law, the properties of the organizations on the list should be confiscated and the activities of the groups should be banned.

MKO has political-financial activities in the US regardless of the law. MKO holds meetings, press conferences and demonstrations in different cities of the US (the last of which was held on November 20, 2004 in Washington). They’re planning for another demonstration on September 14th to protest to Iranian president’s visit to New York.

I ask you as the president of the United States:

1. Isn’t the MKO on your government’s list of terrorist organizations? If yes, then why is it treated with laxity?

2. Why isn’t it banned from political-financial activities?

3. Your security organizations know that the MKO is active under forged and unreal names, don’t they? So, why have you closed your eyes on them?

4. It should be kept in mind as an example that compromising with Taliban and tactic cooperation with that group has had horrible consequences for the people of Afghanistan and then the people of the US.

The fear is that this idea would be spread that the US is going to experience the same disaster, this time by using the MKO.