Iran Interlink Website

++ In the lead up to Maryam Rajavi’s propaganda event on Saturday, many MEK formers have gathered together in Paris to alert both the public and participants about the MEK’s deceptive practices. Every day over the past week they have been distributing leaflets and holding pickets in various locations around Paris, including in Auvers-sur-Oise. This was particularly welcomed by neighbours of the closed MEK base in that village. The residents complained to the formers that “we are as sick of them as you are. They constantly interfere in our local affairs and use money to bribe and mollify various people”. At the same time as this activism, many people have written open letters addressed to the MEK’s advocates asking them not to participate just because of money. There is a moral responsibility too. The MEK are glorifying terrorism.

++ Nejat Society has published the fourth interview for the Mothers: The Forgotten Victims series. This time Mrs Mahmonir Jalali, whose son Shahab Firouzmandeh is in Camp Liberty, talked about her son and how he has no contact with his family because it is forbidden by the MEK.

++ The Mojahedin, predictably, embarked on a burst of anti-former propaganda last week. One example is the paid Youtube TV channel called Rang-a Rang. The person they have brought to character assassinate formers is called Abedin Janbaz. Majid Rouhi has written an article published in Iran-Interlink exposing this person using documentary evidence. He says “while in the MEK this man was known to everyone as a torturer and enforcer. He ‘escaped’ from Camp Ashraf and took up residence in the American TIPF. But while there he went on working as a spy for the MEK, reporting on the ex-members. When he got to Europe he continued doing the same thing.” Janbaz is used in a really nasty way. Rouhi says “the fact that the MEK would rather use even this notorious character to attack the formers than use their own outlets which are much more widespread, serves to demonstrate just how dirty their own outlets are.”

++ Following the recent attack on Camp Liberty in Iraq, 103 formers and human rights activists and families wrote open letters of condemnation. Families in particular expressed worry about their loved ones. Fortunately this time there were no casualties. Nevertheless the concern is justified. All those writing have one thing in common. They are suspicious that this attack, like all the others, occurred at a time advantageous for the MEK – this time just before the Paris meeting. Other attacks were similarly significantly linked to other MEK events. The writers believe the attacks create food for the MEK propaganda machine (in other words, they are done by the MEK themselves). All the writers also acknowledge that while asking the Iraqis to try their best, in war-torn Iraq it is impossible to fully secure this place. The point is that the only person who insists they stay there in Camp Liberty is Rajavi. If it wasn’t for him, all the residents would have left Iraq before now.

In English:

++ Nejat Society reported that 40 more Camp Liberty residents have been successfully transferred to Tirana in Albania. The names of the two groups of twenty each were published for the benefit of their families. A total number of 294 Camp Liberty residents have been transferred to Albania in the last 16 groups of relocations since January 2016.

++ Jason Ditz in AntiWar.com wrote about the attack on Camp Liberty in Iraq. “At least 40 people were wounded today when rocket fire landed at Camp Liberty, a base of operations of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MeK), with the attacks causing considerable destruction and leaving several large craters in the camp.” The report concludes “The UN has been trying to relocate the MeK out of Iraq, but has only managed to remove about a third of them as of the most recent reports. That leaves nearly 2,000 still stuck at Camp Liberty.”

++ Several articles and letters focus on Maryam Rajavis ‘grand gathering’ on 9 July. Some ask the MEK paid advocates to think again about what it is they are involved in. An article by Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh exposes the shallow extent of Maryam Rajavi’s ‘offer’. She is merely a propaganda queen who has discovered a talent for dressing up and putting on events to give the illusion of support.

 July 8, 2016

++ Nejat Society Tehran branch published an interesting analysis called ‘the 313 disciples of Imam Zaman’. It explains that in the Shia tradition there are three kinds of people who will follow the Imam Zaman when he returns. 313 will be resurrected with him in Mecca and the revolution will not start without them. The second group are the commanders and true believers who will come to help when the 313 return. The third group are those who will join once the revolution has started. Massoud Rajavi has conducted talks with his commanders and told them ‘we need just under a thousand people in Camp Liberty and the rest can go. These are the 313 who will be resurrected with me’. This means that anyone asking to be transferred to Albania can be told ‘no, you are one of the chosen ones and cannot leave. The revolution can only start if you stay.’ [It is also an indication that Rajavi intends to use them as suicide soldiers. – Iran-Interlink]

++ Soroush Dana sent an article for Iran-Interlink explaining another kind of deception by Rajavi. He says Rajavi used to force us to sit and imagine ‘if you weren’t with the MEK but on the other side of the border what would you be?’ People would write whatever came into their minds – for example, that ‘I would be one of the Revolutionary Guards and I would be your enemy and so I thank you for being here so I didn’t have to be like that’. People would write in good faith to show their loyalty (and often just to get rid of the burden of constant confessions). Dana then says that this information is now being used against former MEK members by the MEK which selects and publishes specific paragraphs written in their handwriting which, according to Rajavi, ‘proves’ they were torturers or murderers before they joined the MEK. Dana explains these are paragraphs from those imaginary writings written in good faith. Dana has published several and asks why would anyone ever write this without instruction from the MEK. One example was from a person who had never been in Iran and had lived all his life in Europe but claimed he was a torturer there.

++ Hamed Sarafpour wrote an article titled ‘Prisoners, a tool for murder and advertisement for Rajavi’. He says ‘not only does Rajavi use any kind of prisoner (thieves, murderers and drug dealers) and claim they belong to him – even when they deny it – but he also publishes letters in their names, simply because they can’t stop him. The latest ridiculous example is ‘written’ by prisoner Arjang Davoodi who announces in his letter ‘the continuation of armed struggle’ and how they ‘will continue and kill the mullahs’. Ironically he then invites everyone to join the MEK rally on 9 July in Paris, which doesn’t match with the rest of the letter. Sarafpour asks ‘does he have access to a computer and the internet in prison to log in to MEK sites while the internet in Iran is filtered throughout the country? Then is he really able to write a letter from prison and send it to Europe which threatens violence against the state? Unbelievable.’

++ During the last two weeks a few ex members have replied to the nasty things Rajavi puts out in his sites against them – which mostly consists of swearing. Iran Efshahgah site in particular, in which nine sentences out of ten are swearing. This week Ali Moradi in Lorestan who is vocal in universities exposing the MEK has written a short note. He says ‘I saw what Rajavi said against me. It is interesting that he follows my activities in such detail that he has put together a timeline. I took a look at it and concluded that considering the numerous crimes Rajavi has been committing against ordinary people, I should self-criticise for not doing enough work in comparison. I will try harder in future to work to expose his crimes.’

++ Nejat Society has published the third part of ‘Mothers, the forgotten victims’. In a series of short interviews, the story of Najibeh Ershadi from Ardebil is told.

++ Forty more Camp Liberty residents, in two groups of twenty, have arrived in Albania in the last two weeks. Their names are published in Farsi but not yet in English.

++ Former MEK members and other supporters have begun a leafletting campaign in Paris to draw public attention to the deceptive and dangerous nature of the MEK in the lead up to the July 9 rally to celebrate armed struggle.

In English:

++ Peyvand-e Rahayee website reported a meeting between former MEK members with the deputy ambassador to Poland at the country’s embassy in Paris. The delegation comprised Mohammad Karami and his wife who is Polish and Ghorbanali Hosseinnejad. Both Karami and Hosseinnejad were formerly high-ranking members of the MEK cult. The meeting lasted for more than three hours. The delegation exposed the Rajavi cult’s illegal and clandestine activities in Poland including the group’s efforts at deceiving public opinion. In particular deceiving young people into participating in its June 9th gathering in Paris – which is to celebrate the group’s start of armed struggle against the current Iranian government. The two ex-members also exposed the terrorist and inhumane nature of the MEK cult, presenting more than 90 pages of documentation on the group’s crimes and terrorist activities. The deputy ambassador of Poland welcomed the delegation and eagerly considered the topics.

++ Open letters have been written by former MEK members to various people who have been invited to the MEK’s July 9 rally in Paris. Hassan Piransar and Ali Akbar Rastgou this week wrote to expose the MEK’s deceptions.

 July 01, 2016

++ More has been written about the start of the MEK’s armed struggle in 1981 when they began killing people in Iran and also the 17th June 2003 self-immolations. One of the MEK’s regular writers called Alireza Khaloukakai wrote an open letter to Hamid Orefah, one of the self-immolation victims from London who was badly disfigured as a result. In response to this, Mirbagher Sedaghi in Switzerland wrote an article lashing him, saying ‘as years go by you get nastier and nastier. I know you and Orefah. I know why you are writing and why he did it. He performed the self-immolation on their order and then they wrote things on his behalf, including an interview in a local newspaper in London with the famous irrelevant quote that ‘I burned myself because people in Iran don’t have football’. After that we got news that Orefah could have had operations to save his legs from disability and disfigurement, but since the treatment wasn’t available free on the NHS the MEK refused to pay for private treatment in spite of Maryam Rajavi having so much money.’

++ Nejat Society has started a series of articles about the mothers of MEK hostages. Last week was the story of Soraya Abdullahi and this week was about Roghiyeh Farazian (or Nedai). Both have sons in the MEK with whom they are denied contact by the MEK leader. One son was a POW during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. The other had gone to Turkey to find work but was deceived by MEK recruiters into going to Iraq where he was then trapped. More stories are to follow.

++ Mohammad Razaghi’s short article on his weblog is titled ‘Where is this place?’ The pictures show the huge apartment blocks in Tirana to which the MEK have been transferred. What is most interesting is the external aspect. The residents are not allowed to open a single curtain, and the fear of those guarding it is obvious. Razaghi comments, ‘If you look at this, it looks like a girls’ dormitory in a restricted Islamic country or a prison camp or a place created to hide and protect some very important officials. But this is just the MEK hiding the people brought from Iraq, keeping them in same conditions as Camp Liberty without their consent. This is nothing less than a continuation of the slavery which has been going on for three decades. And of course, this is happening in collusion with their backers.’

++ After a long disappearance, Manouchehr Hezarkhani from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has returned to write for Rajavi again. This time interestingly he has been barking at Mehdi Bazargan – Ayatollah Khomeini’s first Prime Minister – labelling him a traitor and claiming that Rajavi is the only person for the people of Iran. In response, Iran Fanous Association published an article clarifying several points. One is ‘how and why’ Hezarkhani disappeared in the first place. The dispute, apparently, has nothing to do with his ideas but is purely about money. Why? Because this Council doesn’t have to worry about answering or persuading ‘the people’ in its writing. No. Quite simply, if the MEK simply cuts their money for any length of time, they are forced to come back and write for them. Another question is ‘Why suddenly attack someone who died many years ago?’ Well, Bazargan left Iran for a short time for medical reasons. At that time Rajavi was trying to deceive and buy anybody he could (such as the singer Shahjarian, etc) and so sent people to try to recruit him to join the resistance. Bazargan wrote back saying ‘I love my country and I love my wife, and above all, I don’t have a daughter you can marry, so I can’t join your resistance!’ (In other words, I won’t be used like Mehdi Abrishamchi nor taken in like Abol Hassan Bani Sadr). The article concludes that not long ago, Hezarkhani used to sit and eat with Saddamists. ‘If you sit near him you can still smell the food they ate together. How dare somebody like that speak out at all. He was a slave to Rajavi and Rajavi was a slave to Saddam.’

In English:

++ History of Iran website re-published Chapter Two of the book ‘Saddam’s Private Army How Rajavi changed Iran’s Mojahedin from armed revolutionaries to an armed cult’ by Anne Singleton (Khodabandeh). The chapter deals with the events surrounding Massoud Rajavi’s first bid for power in 1981.

++ Several articles and open letters have been written to various officials regarding the transfer of MEK residents of Camp Liberty in Iraq to a new closed base in Tirana, Albania. Families are demanding the right to have contact with their loved ones in spite of Rajavi’s efforts to deny this.

June 24, 2016

++ To mark the anniversary of 30th June, many former members have written their memories about the start of the MEK’s armed struggle. Most discuss the question ‘after such a strong beginning, how did the MEK end up in the mess they are in now?’

++ Hashemi Nejad from Habilian (representing the families of victims of MEK violence in Iran) was interviewed by ISNA agency about the end of the MEK in Iraq. He explains, using evidence, that before and after the fall of Saddam the Americans directly interfered in the fate of the MEK and whenever the group was in danger of collapse they resuscitated them through the auspices of the Saudis and Saddam. After 2003 the curtains fell away and the Americans were forced to help them directly themselves. It is known that the Americans tried to find another country to keep the MEK in, but the group is so dirty nobody accepted. Even the warlords governing no-man’s land war zones refused to help. So Albanians – a notoriously corrupt country – were paid to host the MEK. While doing this, the Americans have made sure the group is kept intact and – as with Ashraf and Liberty – that it is extremely difficult for anybody to run away from the cult. It is clear that, contrary to what is said publicly about accomplishing the transfers this year, the Americans will again interfere and the process will drag on, even though it is known this is the last step and soon the Middle East will be rid of the MEK.

++ Farsi articles about the MEK’s media presence this week focus on the fact that in spite of spending money and hiring lobbyists and being fed behind the scenes by anti-Iran intelligence services, the MEK has lost its place in the media and can’t get it back. Only Saudi or Saudi-backed papers cheer them on when they say anything against Iran. And in return the MEK are obliged to say things – like praising Arab sheikhs – that make Iranians despise them. The MEK are aware of this contradiction but can’t refuse because they are paid to do it.

++ Omid, a recent survivor of the MEK, sent an article to Iran Interlink on the occasion of 17 June and the self-immolations over Maryam Rajavi’s 2003 arrest in which two women died. Omid explains that Neda Hassani had been recently recruited from Canada so nothing much could be said about her. But Sedighe Mojaveri’s background was unknown and the MEK therefore claimed her as an ideological MEK member, deeply devoted to Maryam Rajavi. Omid says ‘I knew her, and I knew she wasn’t ideological nor was she a member of the MEK. But she was badly deceived. The proof is that at the time of her death the MEK announced she had a nine-year old son. This places her pregnancy four years after the internal ideological revolution and forced divorces. Omid goes into detail about the how the MEK have always tricked unsuspecting people into getting killed and that their own members would never perform such acts because they are aware of the deception.

In English:

++ Nejat Society published the open letter of former MEK member Issa Azadeh who spent 30 years with the group. He warns the French Interior Minister about the MEK’s planned rally at Villepinte. He says that the MEK will be bussing in a large number of Arab refugees from all over Europe and that tolerance of this event does not tally with French counter-terrorism efforts.

++ Faryad Azadei website in Paris reports on a letter signed by 127 human rights activists to Ban Ki-moon condemning the MEK’s unprovoked attack on family members outside Camp Liberty when they tried to contact their loved ones there.

++ Iran Didban website reports that over three years, 958 residents of Camp Liberty in Iraq have been transferred to Tirana. The Albanian government announced that the remaining 1900 residents would be relocated there by the end of 2016.

 June 17, 2016

++ Over ninety percent of the MEK’s websites and outlets have been promoting Daesh’s cause. Now that Daesh is being pushed back by Syrian and Iraqi armed forces, the MEK and Saudi media have come out strongly against the Syrian and Iraqi and Russian governments with unsubstantiated allegations of murders and mistreatment of civilians. One such item is interesting because it accuses the Iraqi army of destroying a Sunni mosque. The photograph used, however, is from several years ago and actually shows Daesh destroying a Shia mosque. Farsi commentators say this is not surprising since the Saddamists, Daesh and the MEK are losing their footholds in Iraq. These anti-Iran forces are so much on overdrive that they gleefully celebrate the death of an Iranian pilot when his jet fighter accidentally crashed during a training exercise inside Iran.

++ Several open letters have been addressed to the French Interior Ministry expressing disgust that the French government allows the MEK to publicly celebrate their ‘armed struggle’ which killed thousands of Iranian and Iraqi civilians while the French people are cowed and restricted by ‘the terrorist threat’.

++ To mark the start of the month of Ramazan, a few former MEK members wrote their experience of Ramazan inside the group. They reveal that at the start of the MEK, fasting was observed as a religious obligation. Later on, when Rajavi took control, they were ordered to make a show of it for the outside world, but to give their allegiance to Rajavi rather than to their religion.

++ German language Duetch Welle published an article about fears over the MEK arriving in Europe. In the article, experts say that European countries must deal with this issue properly or it will add to the terrorism threat inside Europe. In Albania, Agenzia Nova newspaper revealed that arrangements have been agreed for the remaining 1,900 residents of Camp Liberty in Iraq to be transferred to Tirana before the end of the year.

++ Farzad Farzinfar, a former MEK member, died in Sweden this week. Many who expressed their condolences also wrote their memories of him. After leaving the MEK, Farzinfar spent a difficult time in Ramardi camp at the time of Saddam before getting out of Iraq. He was one of the first members to be able to escape Iraq and talk outside that country about the realities inside the MEK at a time when the MEK had the full support of Western governments and Saddam himself. People write that although he suffered greatly he always tried to help others rather than complain about his own situation.

++ Maryam Sanjabi, a former member of the MEK’s all women Leadership Council, was interviewed by Neda-ye Haghighat website. The MEK tried hard to demonise and discredit Sanjabi after the recent publication of her book. In the interview Sanjabi exposes evidence of Saudi support and payments for the MEK at the time of Saddam. She talks in detail about Massoud Rajavi’s clandestine visit to Saudi Arabia ostensibly for Haj which the MEK later were forced to admit to. After that, after the First Gulf War, Rajavi received three lorry loads of gold bars and jewellery which was brought to Iraq from Saudi Arabia. The MEK took it bit by bit to Jordan and sold it there. At that time Malek Abdullah was Crown Prince and he was in charge of the MEK and Saddamists. He gave his support for these financial transactions. Sanjabi explains further that Daesh is not a new phenomenon but is a continuation of this coalition of forces.

In English:

++ Mazda Parsi writes an interesting article for Nejat Society based on evidence from the Walk Free Foundation about modern slavery in the world. Parsi uses the Foundation’s evidence and information about slavery to demonstrate that MEK members are being held in a state of modern slavery, including conditions of forced labour, incarceration and secrecy and sexual exploitation.

++ Several people have written to support Mr Gholamreza Shirdam in his hunger strike in Turkey. He complains that after seven years his application for asylum has still not been assessed by the UNHCR. He believes this is because he is a former member of the MEK.

June 11, 2016

++ The fifth series of families this year arrived in Iraq on Saturday and today was their third visit to Camp Liberty. On each day they have taken sweets to offer the residents as a friendly gesture. They have tried to talk with the residents to explain why they are there. Inside the camp, the MEK have positioned around fifteen freshly radicalised members – most with their faces hidden – primed to throw stones and viciously swear at the families outside. The families don’t understand cult mentality and can’t fathom the strange and unproductive behaviour of the small band in front of them. These families have been able to penetrate past the concrete crash barriers in their attempt to make contact with their loved ones. In response, the MEK have now erected fabric barriers, with banners proclaiming what translates as Death to ‘that bit of the Iranian constitution which mentions the Velayat-e Faghi’! One mother said, “I passed one of them a picture of myself and my family and asked him to take it to my son. He tore it up! But then immediately started taking pictures of me with his own camera. Why? What was that for?” Others are bewildered why the MEK place fabric barriers in front of themselves even though their faces are hidden, but they then bring ladders to stand above the barrier to film the families. Again, why? Even the soldiers and police who are posted at the camp don’t get it. In films taken at the scene, we can see a look of amusement mingled with contempt for the MEK on their faces. These are people who are supposedly going to ‘topple the Iranian regime’ but who can’t even deal with the families.

++ The families at Camp Liberty say they are concerned because they know there are around two thousand people living in the camp, but they are all hidden and it is not clear whether they are hiding themselves, or are forced to keep away. They have written to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi asking him to help them get visits with their loved ones. Around 80 former MEK members have also contacted the Iraqi PM to make the same request. The families are very worried about the welfare of the residents, particularly about their security – only kilometres to the north lies Falujah where Iraqi security forces are fighting to take back the city from ISIS mercenaries.

++ This week, eighty more Camp Liberty residents have been transferred, in four groups of twenty, to Albania. Their names have been published by Nejat Society to inform their estranged families.

++ There has been much Farsi commentary about the case of Behzad Alishahi. He was acquitted of false charges and Rajavi has been left out in the cold again, unable to achieve the petty criminal activities he tried for. Alishahi published a note thanking everyone for their support over all this time. He said that ‘Although I will pursue Rajavi and the lobbyists who created falsifications for money, that is not the main issue. It’s not about me but about criminality in the Iranian community which should be stopped. As the MEK have no place among Iranians in Iran, and as the Iraqis are also trying to expel them from Iraq, we now have to put an end to Rajavi’s criminal activities in the West, and to expose those lobbyists who misuse their names and positions for his dirty money.’

++ A few letters and articles appeared talking about counter-terrorism in Europe and Maryam Rajavi’s apparent freedom to glorify MEK violence in her annual rally at Villepinte in Paris. Rajavi’s impunity to invite paid speakers from Washington to celebrate MEK terrorism and self-immolation drew criticism about how the West is handling the roots of terrorism.

++ This week marks the anniversary of the execution of the founders of the MEK. Among those writing about it is internal critic Iraj Mesdaghi. He draws on interviews with former SAVAK officers who admit that Massoud Rajavi worked with them against the founding members. Documentary evidence from that time which has been re-published includes handwritten notes and sketches by Massoud Rajavi about other MEK members, in particular identifying the whereabouts of Mohammad Hanif Nejad which led to his arrest.

In English:

++ Mazda Parsi in Nejat Bloggers writes about the strange case in Britain in which several young women have been psychologically manipulated by a self-styled “spiritual healer”, Anne Craige to turn their backs on their families. Parsi compares this with Rajavi’s treatment of children: “Children in destructive cults belong to the leader, with all members of the group considered their ‘family’, and the leader, their father or mother. The Mujahedin Khalq Organization is a notoriously known example of such destructive cults that indoctrinate children to leave their parents behind and to yield themselves to the leaders’ ambitions.” Parsi concludes: “As a matter of fact, cult indoctrination and psychological manipulation and its perils are not restricted to British boundaries and British families. Definitely, the UN and other international human rights bodies should also be considerate enough to listen to many families who have been suffering grievously since their children were abducted by the Cult of Rajavi.”

++ Sahar Family Foundation in Iraq has written a report on the families currently visiting Iraq in the hopes of getting contact with their loved ones in Camp Liberty.

++ Former MEK member Anne Khodabandeh has written a blog piece for Huffington Post titled ‘From Attraction to Action – How Young People are Radicalized’. Drawing on forty years of experience and knowledge, Khodabandeh explains the methodology of radicalisation, including the use of deceptive recruitment and psychological manipulation. She concludes: “To our eyes, the overt horror of terrorism and extremist violence appears a crude instrument. But recruiters are involved in a highly sophisticated game of mind control which we ignore at our peril. If we don’t take seriously the methodology behind the bloodied images, then we will continue to allow our young people and even whole families to be deceptively stolen away from their normal lives and put on a conveyor belt toward death and destruction.”

May 27, 2016

++ When the MEK reported on the resolution introduced by Mr. Poe of Texas on March 17, 2016 to the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Middle East and North Africa and which was passed by that Committee this week, they gleefully added anything and everything they liked to promote themselves on the back of it. It was as though the whole of the American political class, including the Obama Administration itself, had come out in support of Maryam Rajavi. Analysis reveals that this ridiculous spinning of news is typical of a group which has no real substance to it. They use a low-level human rights issue for which support is inevitable and then spin it to pretend the politicians are actually supporting Maryam Rajavi and her so-called movement. Clearly this version is for internal consumption only. In reality, what is significant is that the Committee has asked the USG to help the Iraqis remove the MEK from Iraq ASAP.

++ This week KSA’s Al Arabiya published an interview with an officer of the Free Syrian Army in which he goes out of his way to stress that his group were given information about the location of Khan Tuman (a location the FSA subsequently attacked, killing fifteen Iranians) by the Mojahedin Khalq. At the same time Kuwait’s AlDastour newspaper published an advertorial written by infamous Saddamist Davoud Al Basari – who recently claimed that the US army is actually a Shia army and that Saddam was its victim [?!]. His article is full of praise for the MEK and in a few places emphasises that ‘the Arabs are now waking up to recognise the MEK as a strong tool to use and that investors in this group will surely not regret it’.

In reaction to these issues, Behzad Alishahi titles his article ‘Advertisement for a permanent job’. He says the MEK want to swap their current position as contractors for a permanent role similar to the arrangement they had with Saddam Hussein. An article by Nejat points out that the KSA knows that the IRI knows the MEK inside out and therefore there is no leverage in supporting them. Only US lobbyists will fall for the MEK’s tricks and so their level will never be more than short term mercenaries. Nejat lists other times the MEK has tried to aggrandise itself to get sponsorship, saying “the MEK never seem to learn the lesson that foreign agencies will not take their word at face value. They tried it with the US, with French Intelligence and with Saddam and failed. Yet they still can’t see that their self-aggrandisement doesn’t work.”

++ Another delightfully incisive article by Majid Rouhi this week is titled ‘Rajavi! What is this struggle of yours that the aim of it is to ‘topple’ the families and the strategy is swearing and shouting?’ Rouhi exposes the fact that the only real activity of the MEK for the past decade and a half has been against the families who come looking for their loved ones in his closed, inaccessible camps.

++ Many commentators have reacted to Maryam Rajavi’s announcement that she will hold her annual rally to celebrate the start of armed struggle on July 7th in Paris. The event marks the MEK’s failed coup d’état of ‘Sie Khordad’ and the anniversary of her arrest in 2003. Both events resulted in the deaths of the MEK’s own people. Most comments ask ‘why does she have to do this?’ and answer themselves ‘because she can’t do anything else’. Rajavi’s only talent is to pay for both speakers and audience to create an artificial event. What is new this year is that the MEK have opened up several new websites and social media sites in the Polish language advertising a weekend trip to Paris on condition people participate in the rally. Payvand Rahai site lists tens of these sites and Facebook pages. And ridicules them. Mohammad Razaghi points out that the MEK haven’t used their name or that of Rajavi on these advertisements. He concludes that not only has Massoud Rajavi been in hiding for over fifteen years, he now can’t even bear to hear his own name mentioned without shivering with fear.

++ This week one of the videos taken of families in front of Camp Liberty near Baghdad captured a poignant moment. In one heart breaking scene, Narges Beheshti recognises, as his face covering slips, that one of the MEK swearing at them is her own brother. He also recognises her as his sister. The film captures their mutual reaction. It is clear their instinct is to make contact, but her brother cannot because he is under the supervision of MEK commanders.

In English:

++ Nejat Society published another of its ‘Elimination Project’ stories, this time about the death of Masoumeh Gheibipour at the hands of the MEK. With testimony from former members, in particular Batul Soltani and Edward Termador who knew her well, Nejat pieces together the MEK’s shocking treatment and murder of one of their own members.

++ Tasnim News Agency, Tehran – “Iran’s Police spokesman said the Interpol has arrested a female member of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) in Albania for involvement in a bomb blast at the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party in Tehran in 1981. Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency on Sunday, General Saeed Montazer-al-Mahdi said the woman was arrested after she was put on the Interpol’s Red Notice, a warrant that necessitates measures to seek the location and arrest of a person wanted by a judicial jurisdiction or an international tribunal with a view to his or her extradition.”

++ Nejat Society – “[A] protest gathering was held on May 14th, in front of Dame Church in down town, Cologne. The human rights activists who participated the gathering appealed for the basic rights of MKO Cult members who are under the systematic manipulation practices of the Cult leaders. Homeira Mohammadnejad, Zahra Moeini, Batoul Soltani, Ali Jahani, Nader Keshtkar, Davoud Baghervand Arshad, Amir Mowaseghi, Mehdi Khoshhal and Abdolkarim Mahmoudi participated the rally.”

++ Habilian Association, Iran, writes about support given by controversial French Bishop Jacques Jean Edmond Georges Gaillot (known in France as Monseigneur Gaillot) to Maryam Rajavi. “In 2004 Bishop Gaillot met with Maryam Rajavi, MKO’s leader. Rajavi publicly thanked the bishop and expressed that his support had been very effective in promoting the cause of what she calls “Iran resistance”. Jacques Gaillot has praised the terrorists in Camp Liberty in Iraq for their brutal activities, what he calls it fighting for “bring freedom and democracy to Iran.” Camp Liberty in Iraq houses thousands of members of the terrorist group MKO.”

++ Nejat Society reports that a former MEK member from Camp Liberty has been reunited with his family in Iran after 27 years. “Mr Esmaeil Fallah Ranjkesh managed to escape Mujahedin-e Khalq Cult Camp Liberty on November 2015. Ranjkesh who is from Gilan Province contacted his family as soon as he stepped the free world. Mr Ranjkesh who was under the manipulation practices of the MKO Cult for years and lost his youth over the interests of the power thirsty leader of the Cult, Massoud Rajavi, finally dared to liberate himself from the destructive cult affairs. He is now reunited with his family.

“During his first meeting with his family members after 27 years, he said: “I cannot express how very happy I am. Especially when I hugged my elderly mother, I could realize the depth of Rajavis’ oppression against my family and I. He is surely a traitor. I will share my experiences within the MKO Cult affairs with the suffering families of the cult hostages…” Nejat Society congratulates Mr Fallah Ranjkesh and his family for their being back together after many years.”

May 20 2016