Massoud Khodabandeh, from Middle East Strategy Consultants introduced the book ‘The Life of Camp Ashraf – Mojahedin-e Khalq Victims of Many Masters’ to the Conference. The book places the MEK in the context of its foreign ownership and concludes that these owners have invested heavily in the MEK’s ability to commit acts of violence and terrorism, and that this is the reason for western resistance to closing the camp..
The Conference was held in Al-Hakim Conference Centre in Baghdad University and hundreds of tribal leaders, University lecturers, Governmental representatives and officials, NGOs and media representatives filled the salon. Although Camp Ashraf and the MEK is an issue specific to the government and citizens of Iraq, the Conference organisers made sure to invite Western agencies, such as the UN, EU and diplomats who have claimed or expressed an interest in Camp Ashraf.
Massoud Khodabandeh heading the delegation thanked the Government of Iraq and asked the Governor of Diyala and the General to help inform the people trapped inside about their rights and to counter the lies given to them by the hostage takers and cult leaders. Ms. Abdollahi on behalf of the families asked for help and for care to be taken when dismantling the camp to institute particular safeguards to protect the relatives of the picketing families..
With the arrest of 615 Saddamist Baathists in the middle and south of Iraq charged with activities that threatened the safety and security of the state, it may be that the dots are finally being joined up. Up until yesterday the MEK’s/MKO/PMOI websites and media were forcefully promoting the views of several Iraqi politicians who are among those arrested. Today their names have been carefully expunged from the site…
in this alleged plot the MEK could have posed as a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and other agents to trap or implicate various parties in an essentially fictitious plot? Considering that the MEK has been backed by the Israeli lobby to demonise and otherwise act against Iran it is no surprise that the stated expectation of the MEK/MKO/PMOI immediately after the announcement of the so-called failed terror attack that they should be now..
In the first years of the 1979 revolution, young members of the MKO had instructions not to engage with members and affiliates of other political groups. Was this true and is there a similar policy today? • If delisted, does the MKO plan to change its structure and make it similar to other political organizations and be subject to the regulations governing such parties? …
The Mojahedin Khalq started its terror campaign with the assassination of 6 Americans in Tehran and have, since then over 16000 Iranians, 25000 Iraqis and scores of individuals of American, European, Pakistani, African and even Chinese descent. While we do not expect or even find the American government capable of intervening and halt the influx of Mojahedin Khalq operatives into their capital city, we warn the countries officials against any failure to prevent harm the critics of the terrorist group in the US..
… Iran-Interlink representative Anne Singleton traveled to Iraq mid April at the invitation of the Baghdad based human rights NGO Baladiyeh Foundation, officials of the Government of Iraq and other NGOs involved in the Camp Ashraf problem. The Baladiyeh Foundation, headed by Mrs Ahlam al-Maliki, provides humanitarian assistance to a wide range of deprived sectors of Iraqi society arising directly from the invasion and occupation of Iraq by allied forces in 2003. Baladiyeh Foundation is concerned by the humanitarian crisis at Camp Ashraf caused by the group’s leaders who are refusing to allow access to human rights organisations to verify the wellbeing of all of the camp’s residents …
… A U.S. State Department document released in May 2011 under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act says the MEK has no popular support inside Iran and “to the extent Iranians know about this group they are far more likely to oppose it than support it.” It added, “Any U.S. support for MEK would extremely damage its reputation amongst Iranians and would increase anti-American sentiments in Iran.” The State Department cables quoted defectors as describing MEK as a cult that punishes former members. The cables said the MEK leadership ordered the execution of all attempted defectors …
… What Rajavi is really threatening is that the MEK leaders will massacre their own people if any external agency should attempt to interfere with the MEK’s totalitarian control over the camp’s residents. Her real message is that the residents of Camp Ashraf are being held as hostages and the MEK leaders will kill them if anyone tries to rescue them. It must be understood that the threat is real. The MEK leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi have a history of shedding the blood of ordinary MEK members for political gain. In 2003 two MEK members died in Paris and London after setting themselves on fire …