Massoud Khodabandeh

A setback for Washington’s anti-Iran lobby as MKO goes into a tailspin

Iran’s election a setback for Washington’s anti-Iran lobby as MKO goes into a tailspin

Only months after being removed from the US terrorism list the Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) has registered under the pseudonym National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) as a lobby group and opened an office in Washington. The move of course allows regime change pundits and pro-war speakers and advocates to now legally accept payments to promote the MEK.

With the election of a new President in Iran, MEK leader Massoud Rajavi is hoping that his lobbying office will become the focus of western anti-Iran activity. The Iranian people’s choice – a moderate, pragmatic negotiator – is bad news for the MEK, which wants war. But all is not lost. Media news about the election headlined with Israel’s irate response rather more than what the election means for Iran’s voters. We will now see the MEK position itself, boasting pretended western support, as the only force which can bring about regime change if the US and/or Israel decide to go ahead with military intervention. Up to that point of course there is still a lot of black propaganda work to be undertaken to sully and defile the reputation of President Rowhani; efforts will be made for example, to provoke a human rights crisis to be laid at his door.

And Rajavi is ready. Or is he? There is a lot happening behind the scenes that belies the group’s boasts and declarations. Behind the scenes at the lobbying office the disintegration of the MEK is gaining momentum and is likely to implode the group in the near future leaving a mere shell. Opening a lobbying office should be seen as an attempt to save themselves rather than representing any capacity for influencing events in Iran. The more the group collapses in Iraq and Europe, the more they try to keep face by using lobbyists and speakers to promote them.

The main existential threat to the MEK comes from the continuing efforts by UNAMI (United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq) and the Iraqi authorities to transfer the remaining 3,000+ residents of Camp Liberty near Baghdad to the safety of third countries. Last Autumn, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton intervened to persuade Albania to take 210 refugees. European countries have agreed to take back former residents; for example Germany will take 100, while the UK figure is 52. This means of course that the MEK will be eventually broken up into smaller and smaller groups which are distributed throughout many western countries. The MEK leader’s extreme control over the members, which was severely reduced with the move to Camp Liberty, will be massively eroded to the point that the MEK as an entity may fairly quickly crumble to a mere handful of loyalists based in the European and North American capitals.

The recent transfer of two groups of 14 and 30 individuals to Albania prompted Rajavi to order a boycott of the UNHCR interview process in an attempt to create delays. In a vitriolic attack Rajavi describes the UN and ICRC as ‘poison’, telling his followers they must purge their organisation of the deadly disease of ‘third countries’. To have contact with any agency outside the MEK is now decreed a sin. When Rajavi says that anyone leaving the MEK should be sentenced to death, no one should doubt the severity of punishment for offenders inside the MEK.

Following this vicious attack the UN Secretary General robustly defended his representative in Iraq, UNAMI chief Martin Kobler, who has spent two years in excruciatingly difficult negotiations with the MEK to end the deadlock. Ban Ki Moon politely suggested that the MEK, their backers and supporters spend their money on helping the members in Iraq rather than on paying huge fees to lobbyists. The European Union and the State Department also backed Kobler’s efforts and strongly urged the MEK to give full cooperation to those agencies which are trying to help rescue them.

That state of insecurity was emphasised by a (strangely convenient) violent attack on Camp Liberty to coincide with the election in Iran. This allowed the MEK to repeat its demand for an immediate return to Camp Ashraf. It seems that as the efforts of Martin Kobler, the UN agencies and the Iraqi authorities to progress the removal of the MEK from Iraq are beginning to bear fruit, so the MEK leader is coming under greater and greater pressure.

This is not a new demand. Many in Iraq believe that after the MEK moved to Camp Liberty in a deal which saw the US remove the group from its terrorism list, the other part of the bargain – to find a place of sanctuary for the leader Massoud Rajavi – was not fulfilled and he is now stranded in the nuclear bunker in Camp Ashraf. That is why the MEK leaders are so desperate to return the group there to protect him.

In spite of Rajavi’s attempts to exert control, residents are still managing to escape from Liberty and the families are still waiting outside the camp demanding to have access to their loved ones. On one level Martin Kobler briefed the European Parliament about the MEK’s lack of cooperation. On another level the Farsi language websites and blogs are vibrant with the stories of ex-members who have recently come out and are giving personal accounts of individual suffering as well as describing the desperate psychological condition of those still left inside. Two weeks ago five more residents escaped the camp. In Liberty no one has a voice, but anyone who comes out now joins this wave of exposure.

In a clear attempt to keep them together the MEK spent a lot of money sending two top commanders from Paris to Tirana to stop the new arrivals from contacting the outside world. It was no use. As the first group arrived they lost no time in contacting their friends – other ex-members who have already made it to Europe. They now give daily updates which include their own names, the names of MEK loyalists sent from Liberty with them, and how they are resisting the MEK’s bribes and threats to silence them. They describe their efforts to survive this onslaught and instead try to get into contact with their families and friends and the outside world.

In response Massoud Rajavi, initially describing this as a plot concocted by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in Europe, warned that anyone contacting Europe based ex-members will endanger the lives of their families in Iran (although he didn’t explain how). When this failed to deter them Rajavi shifted to a scenario in which these people themselves who resist confinement are the agents of the Iranian regime (after thirty years in the camp in Iraq).

It is becoming blatantly obvious that Rajavi cannot prevent the attrition of his members. His best scenario was that they would die in an assault on Iran, but this didn’t happen. One of the things people believe is that he wants them back in Camp Ashraf because it is nearer to Iran and he can devise a way to get them killed in some violence. It should be noted that the average age of these people is around 50 years.

Interestingly, while dealing with these issues, the MEK have not abandoned their activities with the Saddamists and al Qaida in Iraq, Syria and Jordan. A few weeks ago two MEK operatives from Sweden were killed in fighting in Aleppo, Syria at a joint base with insurgents nicknamed the hospital. This week Iraqi security has seized communication equipment they were trying to smuggle into Camp Ashraf in a food delivery. Fugitive Saddamists regularly praise the MEK in their clandestine websites for their help. Their lobbyists in Washington DC close their eyes to the point they are, by default, wholeheartedly in support of the remains of Saddam Hussein’s regime – in particular Ezzat Ibrahim in Jordan. The MEK have never denounced 9/11.

But the MEK’s woes are not confined to the Middle East. In France, Atefeh and Effat Eghbal, two sisters of Mohammad Eghbal who is in Camp Liberty, and a few other close members of the MEK started an internet campaign asking the MEK leaders to cooperate to bring people out of Iraq as their lives are in danger. Soon more MEK rank and file and NCRI members joined them and the campaign got bigger and bigger. The MEK immediately denounced them as ‘working for the intelligence services of Iran’. This was the last straw for fiercely anti-Iran campaigner Iraj Mesdaghi who wrote a 200 page open letter to Massoud Rajavi exposing his ill treatment of his own members and ridiculing Rajavi’s analysis of the situation in Iran, Iraq and Syria. This was a hard blow for the MEK as, along with Hassan Daioleslam, Mesdaghi had for years deliberately posed as a non-MEK aligned individual in order to support the MEK in other media. Daioleslam has gone quiet but Mesdaghi has continued vocalising his criticisms. Ironically the MEK response to this criticism – which was written not as a rejection of the MEK but as an attempt to be helpful from within – is that not only has the MEK published statements saying he is an ‘agent of the regime’ and that he was converted thirty years ago while in prison in Iran, they have also brought every wobbly member or distant supporter to prove their allegiance to Rajavi by swearing at him as this ‘agent of the regime’.

Not only did this fail to prevent the spread of vocal criticism but now dozens of close supporters and members have joined the campaign of questioning the MEK leadership and calling for answers. Among them is Esmael Vafa Yaghmai the famous poet who was a member of the MEK and NCRI for around 40 years. He hasn’t been spared the now famous MEK vitriol as he started asking for answers about the welfare of his son’s mother after MEK members sent him condolences on her death. Rather than answer, the MEK were quick to tar him with the same brush – that he and his son have been recruited by Iran.

And it seems that the spread of this internal rot will not end. Last week the last two remaining non-MEK members of the NCRI resigned after thirty years. In a joint statement Dr Karim Ghassim and Mr Mohammad Reza Rowhani emphasised that they would not expose their differences and say why they have resigned, and only expressed their best wishes for the MEK and NCRI. The MEK published its predictable reply in the form of the NCRI’s annual report which contained nothing but the accusation that the resignation of these two is part and parcel of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry’s plots – which include moving people out of Camp Liberty, closing Camp Ashraf and buying UNAMI, ICRC, DoS, EU officials and Prime Minister Al Maliki, as well as the corruption of the Eghbal and Yaghmai families in western countries – the report claims that all these are being done in an attempt to ultimately kill Massoud Rajavi.

The report also listed the majority of NCRI members who could not attend the annual conference but who voted in support of the report by proxy. Former member Ghorban Ali Hosseinnejad in Paris revealed that most those who could not attend are trapped in Camp Liberty and that he knows several who would have left as he did if they had the opportunity. Iraj Shokri, another writer who left the NCRI some time ago, blogged to advise NCRI members this is their last chance; either leave now or be part of the crimes Rajavi is committing. A group of ex-members, Iran Pen Association, requested the many ex-NCRI members, including Dr Hedayat Matin Daftary who left fifteen years ago, not to waste their time but to start a new Council to which everyone can subscribe. The inference is that Rajavi can no longer be regarded, or followed, as an Ideological Leader; he has become an anachronism. When he is eventually dug out from his bunker he should be parked in a museum as an ‘archaeological leader’.

While this internal chaos grows, the MEK are carrying on with business as usual. Preparations are in full swing for the anniversary celebration of the so-called armed struggle (the new face of MEK terrorism). As ever, huge amounts of money are being spent to pay refugees from any country possible to attend the 22 June rally in Paris. The offer is three days’ holiday with spending money in exchange for a few hours attendance at the rally. In addition the refugees are being told they will have photo opportunities with the paid speakers, John Bolton, Struan Stevenson MEP and Alejo Vidal Quadras MEP, in order to help their asylum cases.

In spite of all these internal crises, the MEK’s English language lobbying office in Washington behaves as though it hasn’t heard about these events. The office coolly insists the MEK is not a terrorist group and that, even as the last two non-MEK members resign, the NCRI is only an umbrella group which just happens to include the MEK.

Is it not sad that those who have put their reputations on the line to be paid by the MEK for lobbying and advocacy activities really have no idea not only what, but who they are lobbying for.

Middle East Strategy Consultants,

June 23, 2013 0 comment

The MEK to launch Armed Struggle

Spectacle glorifying the 31st anniversary of armed struggle

Mojahedin-e Khalq has become an anti-Iraq force

After ten years Western anti-Iran pundits are finally waking up to the fact that the Iranian

Where does the Mojahedin-e Khalq stand now?

Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) terrorist group cannot be used against Iran as long as it remains in Iraq. The MEK leader Massoud Rajavi, in a fight for his own survival, has now dug himself into such a deep hole there that the MEK no longer has any role in anti-Iran activities. Instead a ridiculous situation has arisen in which his wife Maryam Rajavi is using her Paris base to attack Nouri Al Maliki and the Government of Iraq. While the West is trying to put more and more pressure on Iran and isolate the country, the self-styled Iranian opposition has now become an Iraqi opposition with no links to Iran at all except the group of Farsi speaking former members scattered through western countries who are now suing the leaders for compensation for mistreatment in Iraq, Europe and North America.

While the MEK’s paid lobbyists remain highly vocal in their attacks on the Government of Iraq (GOI) and United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), the people who still don’t have a voice are the residents inside both Camp Ashraf (aka Camp New Iraq) and Temporary Transit Camp Liberty (aka Camp Hurriya). Since the relocation process began in February numerous residents have run away and taken refuge with the Iraqi authorities. They report an increasingly tense and turbulent internal situation with violent attacks and sexual assaults becoming more frequent. Families of the residents have maintained a permanent vigil outside Camp Ashraf and now Camp Liberty[TTL] for two years in an attempt to gain access to their loved ones. The GOI has still not been given the go ahead to allow families access to the people transferred to Camp Liberty[TTL].

The UNHCR has begun refugee status determination interviews with individuals who have relocated to Camp Liberty. Of these, 238 residents have been formally declared refugees. To qualify they needed to renounce membership of the MEK. 1,400 more interviews are scheduled. The GOI remains adamant none of them will be able to remain in Iraq and the process is therefore ongoing. There is no reason for Europe or the US to refuse to accept those who have UN refugee status.
Two-thirds of the residents, just fewer than 2,000 people, have relocated. Interestingly, among them are hundreds of people with special needs, suffering from disabilities and serious medical conditions as well as many elderly people; people whom Rajavi regards as dispensable. At least five people who were rushed to hospital with life threatening conditions after they arrived at Camp Liberty[TTL] said they did not want to leave the MEK but were thrown out and told not to come back because of their illnesses. The Iraqi authorities have ensured that they have received the best treatment available.

UNAMI officials reported that the relocation of MEK from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty had stalled since the arrival of the fifth group of residents on 5 May as the MEK refused further movement. The reasoning behind the stop is Massoud Rajavi’s hope to drag the removal process out for another four months until the MEK is removed from the US FTO list and things will then change for him. He is certainly not prepared to cooperate with Secretary of State Clinton’s suggestion – repeated on 18 June – that they should show full cooperation before she reviews their FTO status –the implication being that if they voluntarily remove to the new camp this would be enough proof they have renounced violence.
Instead the MEK is setting its own agenda based on the legal ruling which gave rise to Clinton’s review. Rajavi does not regard the Secretary of State as being powerful enough to need to listen to and is looking instead to his Israeli friends to protect him.

However, the Government of Iraq and the UN have said every resident of Camp Ashraf must leave Iraq and it is clear they cannot be taken off the terrorism list in this situation.

To further his agenda Rajavi is using his wife’s Paris base for an advertising campaign focusing on a rally in VillePinte, Paris on 23 June. The demand is to have the MEK taken off the US list without moving the combatants from Iraq. In addition to this ‘wait it out’ tactic, Rajavi is also hopeful that Al Maliki’s government will fall – or even that he is assassinated – and that a new government in Iraq take a more favourable position toward his group. After the MEK’s office inside the European Parliament was closed, the MEK covertly financed two new lobbying offices outside the parliament for the use of Struan Stevenson, MEP and Alejo Vidal Quadras, MEP. Both MEPs switched from the European Parliament’s Iran Delegation where they lobbied for the MEK, to the Iraq Delegation to lobby for Saddamists during the Iraqi election.

But these activities are balanced by a severe crackdown on the MEK’s activities. The GOI, UNAMI, European and US representatives, the ICRC and a large body of former members are showing a united front to challenge the MEK’s stalling and diversionary tactics.

The GOI has tasked its diplomatic delegations in Europe to apprise the European political community of the lies and deception used by the MEK to cover its many contraventions of the law. Only days ago Maryam Rajavi was summoned to the Palais de Justice in Paris to answer charges to charges of terrorism related activities, fraud and slavery.

Documents have recently been made available to the US Treasury linking an array of front organisation finances to companies and investments controlled by the Mojahedin-e Khalq’s leader.

Speakers’ agencies have been warned to exercise extreme caution regarding the MEK’s methods for recruiting support for the rally in France. Those attending the rally must know they are engaged by organisations with direct links to the MEK.

In addition, with the MEK’s financial sources exposed it has become possible for victims to pursue a class action to claim compensation directly from the Rajavis. Victims of the MEK, including former members who say their basic human rights were denied them for years, have launched a legal case for compensation from the companies which Massoud and Maryam Rajavi use to fund their elaborate and expensive propaganda campaigns. Their message is clear: Individuals who accept financial recompense from the MEK through its front organisations for speeches or lobbying should know that they can no longer claim ignorance and they will be pursued through the courts to recover money which should rightfully go to compensate the victims.
Whether the MEK is on the US terrorism list or not there is very little tolerance for the group. It is widely regarded as finished.

For those who are not involved too deeply with the MEK, it would be advisable to get out now.

By Massoud Khodabandeh, MESConsultants

June 20, 2012 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Secretary Clinton trapped by a false dichotomy

In November 2011 a large group of interested people met in Baghdad to discuss the seemingly intractable problem of how to dismantle the Mohjahedin-e Khalq foreign terrorist group and remove the members from the country. At the behest of families of the individuals trapped inside Camp Ashraf, the GOI agreed to proceed in a way that would avoid violent confrontation. Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari announced later, “We will refuse them the satisfaction of becoming martyrs on our soil”. The Governor of Diyala, the military head of Diyala province and other authorities all went the extra mile to prevent the MEK from killing more hostages and blaming the Iraqis for it.
Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the UN which would allow more time and give oversight of the eviction process to the UN and to representatives of the EU and US.
The Iraqis have kept their side of bargain – the deadline for the MEK’s departure was extended and negotiations were facilitated to persuade the MEK to cooperate in a move from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty where the UNHCR would be able to assess each individual for refugee status. (Remember that no external body, including the GOI, has been able to freely access the inside of Camp Ashraf since the fall of Saddam Hussein.) The first 800 individuals have now moved and another 800 are lined up to move over the next few days in two groups of 400. The MEK leader has not been able to exploit the situation and kill any hostages. The GOI has control of the situation.
UNAMI has been rigorous in its supervision of the move and, by enforcing its own rules and regulations has not allowed propaganda to overshadow activities at either camp. Facilities at the new camp were approved by UN inspectors, the ICRC has been involved and behind the scene EU and US special advisors have been keeping a watchful eye on events. The MEK has ‘character assassinated’ UNAMI and its officials, and others, in the media but UNAMI has not been diverted by the efforts of the MEK and their backers.
But one pernicious factor which has actively impeded proper progress in this task has been the support given to the MEK by Israelis and US Neoconservatives whose clear intent is to politicise what is essentially a humanitarian situation. The MEK is a well-honed tool in the hands of these ideologues and is used to incite hatred against Iran and Iraq among ignorant and lazy political communities. The MEK is far too valuable for them to allow it to disappear. Most recently, the MEK has been used by Mossad to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists.
This being so will make it even more difficult for UNAMI to transfer them to third countries. This ruthless use of the MEK as a mercenary terrorist force has a direct impact on the situation of the hostages trapped in the camp; their future becomes all the more uncertain.
But then, it has been all along, the clear intention of the MEK’s paymasters to keep the MEK intact as a terrorist entity in Iraq, in total disregard for the human beings involved.
If it wasn’t because of the backing of Israel and the Neoconservatives, Rajavi would have had no choice but to open the doors of his closed totalitarian group and allow the individuals trapped inside to walk free. That is the aim of everyone on the ground working to resolve the situation in Iraq. In this respect it is no less the responsibility of the US Government to work with the international community to dismantle this terrorist group and rescue the hostages.
But while the rest of the world is genuinely working toward a peaceful end to the camp and the release and resettlement of the hostages, it appears Secretary of State Clinton is somewhat ambiguous in her dealing with the situation.
Based on a legal ruling, Clinton must make a decision by the end of March whether the State Department remove the MEK from its terrorism list or not. Presenting this as leverage she has introduced a unilateral condition to the MEK’s removal from Iraq; if the MEK cooperate with UNAMI and the Government of Iraq, she has indicated, we will remove them from the US terrorism list. But cooperation with UNAMI is a legal obligation rather than an optional choice for the MEK. So what is really behind this position?
On the surface this would appear as though the USG is prepared to do a political deal to get the MEK to leave Iraq (and in doing so gain credit with the Iraqi government). It is as though the MEK were a far distant uncontrollable threat to US security which needs careful handling to bring it under control before dismantling it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everything that the MEK’s western owners can do is being done to help the MEK’s leader keep the doors to the camp closed, to keep the hostages inside and to deny them contact with their families – even though this is against all humanitarian, moral or indeed criminal law.
By talking about the terrorism list rather than talking about what is happening in Iraq Clinton is bowing to this pressure. Certainly if UNAMI is allowed to do its job properly – with the support of all the international community – there will not be an organisation left to be listed or not listed. By invoking the US terrorism list, the actual script appears to be whether the MEK can be more useful listed as terrorists or if they are not regarded as terrorists. This false choice disguises the real intent of its proponents which is to keep the group intact as a terrorist group so it can be rearmed and used.
Secretary Clinton, indeed the whole government of America, needs to unhitch the politically charged consideration of the MEK’s inclusion in the US terrorism list from the very real humanitarian situation in Iraq. If the USG’s intention is really to deal properly with this terrorist group, it should reassert the humanitarian focus of American policy toward the MEK and unequivocally support the dismantlement process in Iraq.

March 24, 2012 0 comment

MEK Camp Ashraf

UN must tread carefully in dealing with Camp Ashraf

Trapped in the camp Trapped in Camp Ashraf

As the Mojahedin-e Khalq (aka; MEK, MKO) is painfully slowly being nudged toward compliance with both international and Iraqi law over its activities inside Camp Ashraf in Iraq, cult experts warn that external agencies must be wary of falling foul of cultic manipulation techniques as the group struggles to maintain its hold over the 3400 Iranians trapped inside.

Efforts over the summer by US Ambassador Lawrence Butler to convince the MEK leader Massoud Rajavi that he would have to act on the Government of Iraq’s deadline to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, yielded little progress. MEK front personnel still refused to allow any residents to be interviewed by UNHCR staff without MEK minders being present. Then by the end of September Vincent Cochetel, a Washington representative for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that an agreement had been reached through the MKO’s legal counsel in London for individual screening for refugee status with the UNHCR offering an alternative location near Ashraf for those who have been processed.

Maryam Rajavi immediately qualified this news from her HQ in France with the Farsi language diktat: “… we will not allow the line of the mercenaries Maliki and Barezani and the strategy of their masters, the Iranian regime, to prevail under the pretext of interviewing people one by one and …” and she continued “… all the Mojahedin members should only be taken for interviews using helicopters …” – which meant that in order to interview the people trapped in the camp she expected the US to fly over seven thousand helicopter sorties.

Such statements are plainly silly and we should not imagine that either Massoud or Maryam Rajavi expect anyone to take them seriously. They are meant first and foremost for internal consumption and as a time wasting exercise. Such a stance is reminiscent of the time when the MEK’s London lawyers announced in English that the group had given up armed struggle in order to be removed from the UK and EU terrorism lists. At the same time Rajavi told her followers in Farsi that as soon as the MEK was de-listed the Americans would re-arm them and they could continue with their violent activities.

The latest salvo from the MEK’s armoury of lies and deception was introduced in the form of an MEK claim that over seventy Iraqi MPs have called for the UNHCR to open an office inside Camp Ashraf and take over control of the camp from the Iraqi government. This comes at the same time that Alsumeria News has reported that a British parliamentary group headed by Baroness Nicholson is discussing with a visiting Iraqi parliamentary delegation headed by Mr. Alnajifi to find way to actually get access to the inside of the camp.

On the surface the MEK offer to allow the UNHCR into the camp might look like cooperation and progress. But in the light of the MEK’s past behaviour the agencies involved in the issue of Camp Ashraf would be wise to view this latest stance with deep suspicion. In the book ‘The Life of Camp Ashraf – Mojahedin-e Khalq Victims of Many Masters’ published by Iran-Interlink in September, we warn that “the MEK loyalists will continue to resist and try to provoke violence to prevent any interference in the internal affairs of the camp… The MEK has an armoury of defensive tactics with which to prevent such interference. The obvious one is to meet all attempts to enter the camp with violent, suicidal resistance. But the MEK system is also supremely manipulative as the American army discovered in 2003. Certainly both MEK cult experts and recently escaped residents will be needed to identify loyal cult leaders and activists. These experts will also be able to identify and challenge the MEK’s manipulative techniques which would otherwise be effective in deceiving less experienced agencies – no matter how well meaning.”

The Government of Iraq is very clear that it is dealing with the phenomenon of a dangerous, destructive mind control cult. Unfortunately, Western agencies do not appear to have got to grips with this fundamental aspect of the group and as such continue to fall under the spell of the MEK leaders and their unearthly and insatiable demands. It would be unfortunate in the extreme if the UNHCR did not understand during all its negotiations with the group’s front personnel that Massoud Rajavi does not represent anyone but himself and his own interests.

Cult experts warn that the MEK are not seriously offering to allow the UNHCR to open an office inside Camp Ashraf in order to conduct individual screening and processing with a view to removing the residents. The most the MEK could hope for is that the UN will, for any reason, raise its flag over the camp beside or in place of the Iraqi flag which is currently there.
Raising the UNHCR flag over the camp over which the Iraqis themselves have no jurisdiction would of course be extremely provocative, a challenge to the rule of law and cause conflict between external agencies and the Iraqi security forces. Exactly the kind of scenario which the MEK would love to create so the MEK leader continues with impunity to occupy the camp and hold hostages there.

The MEK effort is to create conflict and prevent change to the status quo. If anyone is in any doubt of this they must be made aware that at the same time this so-called offer is on the table, Rajavi’s special forces have manufactured a specialised missile launcher with which they fire stones at the families on the periphery of the camp .

Iranian.com

October 18, 2011 0 comment

USA

New U.S. approach to MKO overlooks the victims’ human rights

New U.S. approach to Mojahedin-e Khalq (MKO, MEK) in Camp Ashraf overlooks the victims’ human rights

Attitudes are slowly crystallising and shifting over what should be done about the MEK, with the New U.S. approach to Mojahedin-e Khalq (MKO, MEK) in Camp Ashraf overlooks the victims’ human rights U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey introducing a new and positive approach in U.S. dealings with the group in Iraq. But the July 4 Miami Herald article ‘Iranian dissidents in Iraq want refuge in 3rd country’ , also highlights the danger that various elements are still trying to derive their own benefits from the MEK even though the demise of Camp Ashraf has become inevitable. Of course you would need to ask those involved what they each hope to get out of such a defunct group.

Ambassador James Jeffrey, addressing only MEK leaders, has urged them to “‘dissolve’ their paramilitary organization and become refugees someplace else in Iraq”. In its turn the MEK itself has already threatened to massacre its own members if any external body interferes in the camp. Jeffrey added that the group "really believe that the U.N. and the United States will protect them forever." Well, they have good reason to believe that to be so.

Trita Parsi’s timely article Washington’s Favorite Terrorists exposed U.S. hypocrisy in dealing with the MEK in Washington. But we may very well see a similar level of support continuing in Iraq. The obvious way this would manifest would be for the MEK to be taken (en masse) inside a U.S. military base and held there until further notice. This would protect the group from Iraqi attempts to expel them from the country, and also obviate the need for the U.N. to enter Camp Ashraf and rescue the individual residents from their enforced imprisonment by the MEK leadership.

The wholesale transfer of the residents of Camp Ashraf would truly be a human rights disaster. The sooner it is acknowledged that Rajavi is nobody’s representative but his own, the sooner the victims of the MEK will be helped.

From the hardliners in Iran who want to keep their dangerous foreign backed enemy, to the neoconservatives in the U.S. who want to keep the hatred between Iran and the west (as the neocon version of Holocaust denial, the fact that the MEK has killed so many Iranians is what feeds this hatred), to Iraqi internal factions which want to use the MEK for attacking other factions, to Europeans who still believe the MEK are a useful bargaining chip with Iran or can be used to influence the internal affairs of Iraq. All these have an interest in keeping the MEK intact. None wants the dissolution of the camp or the organisation. They all want to stop the camp being disbanded because they are using the MEK for their own various agendas.

The problem is that without taking the necessary action to access the individual residents of the camp they are essentially being left in the ownership of the Rajavis and their backers. In this respect where are the human rights organisations which should be directly involved in helping these victims? What attempts have the U.N. made to actually get inside the camp and have free access to the residents? Human Rights Watch published its ‘No Exit’ report in 2005 which was laudable, but what have they done since then? Amnesty International still prefers to think of the MEK as an entity and ignore the existence of the individuals in the camp. What has AI said about the internal problems of the residents; the daily violations and abuses of their basic human rights?

The problem is not the name of Camp Ashraf or the name MEK. The Rajavi’s cannot simply re-name, re-brand or even relocate their group for political expediency and expect the ‘members’ to continue as their slaves. To solve this problem (before the question of whether they want to work for or against anyone) the residents must be given access to the outside world, to their families, to media, communications, get paid for their work and have access to the post office, cinema, marriage registry, birth registry, police station, legal aid, courts and legal bodies of the country they are living in etc.

Nine years after the fall of Saddam and the disappearance of the cult leader it is not acceptable for a U.S. official to simply try to move the group from one part of the world to the other part without the slightest concern about the human rights of the captives there.

July 6, 2011 0 comment

MEK Camp Ashraf

After four weeks MKO terrorist cult refuses to let families bury the dead

One month after the coordinated attack by Mojahedin-e Khalq loyalists on the Iraqi security forces in charge of the security of Camp New Iraq (formerly Ashraf), the bodies of the individuals who were killed (some, according to Iraqi officials, while trying to run away from the garrison and After four weeks MKO terrorist cult refuses to let families bury the dead some forced to rush towards the Iraqi posts throwing petrol bombs and pre-fabricated missiles) are still lying inside the notorious camp and the leaders of the terrorist cult with the direct support of American agencies in Iraq refuse to give officials access to them. Mojahedin-e Khalq leaders also refuse to bury the dead inside the camp and insist in keeping the bodies without their families or any other agency having any access to the bodies.

The Iraqi government acted in April to enforce a ruling by the court of Baghdad such that land unlawfully confiscated by Saddam Hussein’s regime and given to Massoud Rajavi for his military headquarters, must be returned to the original landowners who live in the village next to the camp.

The Mojahedin-e Khalq’s pre-meditated attack on the Iraqi forces was a show of power and was intended to demonstrate the ability of the leader of this Washington backed group to instigate mass murder and massacre of the captive hostages inside the camp. The notorious cult has repeatedly used this tactic in the past; the latest example took place in several European capitals in 2003 when MEK loyalists (some drugged) indulged in self-immolations in which two died and others were left with permanent disabilities and disfigurement.
The Mojahedin-e Khalq leader recently pronounced through his interlocutors that the MEK will only bury the dead if the Iraqi government abandons its investigation and if they give the land recently reclaimed back to the Washington backed terror group; a demand the Iraqi government finds impossible to consider as it is against the law of the land.

Mojahedin-e Khalq loyalists are also refusing to bury the dead unless the land where their cemetery is located is given back and that the Iraqis leave this land without conducting any further investigations. The Iraqis are apparently already investigating some unmarked graves and have discovered some hidden caches of arms and ammunitions in that part of the camp which they reclaimed from the group.

Iraqi officials responding to appeals by the families of the dead for humanitarian consideration have accepted that the bodies can be buried in the original MEK cemetery, but have again said that the land will not be given back as it is subject to a court ruling which the government cannot reverse.

In turn the MEK did not accept this concession because the Iraqi government had stipulated that fewer than 200 MEK members attend the burials. This is because both the government and the MEK and the American backers of terrorism in Iraq (and others) know that the MEK is only using this (having large numbers attend the funerals) as an excuse to occupy the land and then refuse to leave. Thus, creating yet another situation whereby they can shed more blood and divert attention from the real problem which is that they have been holding thousands of people hostage and do not let them have any contact with the outside world.

At the same time, the Americans claim they buried the body of Bin Laden at sea (with some so-called Islamic ceremonies) because “Islam dictated that the dead should be buried ASAP”! It is ironic that their beloved terrorist cult in Iraq is encouraged to keep the bodies of the victims and not allow their families to bury them.

Many families of the victims have already complained officially to the Iraqi Judiciary demanding the bodies of their loved ones be returned to them. Many more are now getting together to insist on a full investigation into the Mojahedin-e Khalq’s plots and the deaths of their loved ones. They want to see that the bodies are forcefully taken out of the hands of the American backed terrorists and ensure that they are buried after post mortem examinations establish the cause of their deaths.

MESConsultants

May 9, 2011 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Mojahedin Khalq propaganda machine cannot hide the facts at Camp Ashraf

There are a number of basic facts which even the sophisticated and well-financed MEK propaganda machine cannot make untrue. It is worth repeating them.

The number of MEK members has never risen beyond 6,000 to 7,000. Even in 1988 at the height of their powers the group could only muster 5500 to launch its abortive operation to topple the regime, the infamous Eternal Light operation. American soldiers corralled 3800 members inside Camp Ashraf in 2003. In the rest of the world figures probably do not exceed an additional one to two thousand including the MEK’s non Iranian supporters and backers.

Fourth Geneva Convention Protected Persons’ status was wrongfully applied in 2004 by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He gave ‘Pentagon protection’ to his terrorists in Iraq while the UN and ICRC expressed their concern over the issue and argued (fruitlessly) that the MEK is a paramilitary group, not a civilian population and this designation had no legal basis. But in any case the status would not apply after 2006, a year after the first elections in Iraq – a fact repeatedly corroborated by British, European and American officials. A document produced by the Library of the UK’s House of Commons states: “In the case of occupied territory, the Convention continues to apply for a year after the general close of military operations, and partially thereafter if the occupying power continues to exercise the functions of government. The occupation of Iraq formally ended on 30 June 2004.”

The MEK members in Camp Ashraf do not have any legal right to be in Iraq. No MEK member has refugee status in Iraq. Leader Massoud Rajavi ensured they all entered the country illegally in order to be able to use this against them if they defected (he sent scores to Abu Ghraib in this way). After 2003, the UNHCR in Iraq would not grant refugee status to MEK members because it is a paramilitary group and the GOI has refused to grant refugee status to members of what is known throughout Iraq as a terrorist organisation which has killed some 25,000 Iraqi civilians. In Written Answers in the House of Lords on 20 April 2009, Lord Malloch-Brown (then Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office) told parliament, “The UN High Commission for Refugees has previously determined that Camp Ashraf residents do not qualify as refugees.”

The Government of Iraq has every reason, regardless of Iranian or American influence either way, to wish to expel the MEK from the country. The MEK was responsible for killing 25,000 Iraqi civilians. It is currently the only part of Saddam Hussein’s repressive apparatus which remains intact and active. This is due to the failure of the American military to dismantle the camp and remove the inhabitants. (RAND Report, August 2009) Iraq’s Foreign Minister Zebari a few weeks ago again accused the MEK of trying to maintain a state within a state and said that "the Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist organization is like many other armed terrorist organizations," adding that "the government is determined to impose its sovereignty and not allow any party to impose its policy orientations."

The Iraqi Judiciary would like to prosecute leading members of the MEK for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Iraqis in Iraq. They have been frustrated by the interference of the MEK’s backers in Washington, London and Brussels.

Iraqi soldiers are stationed at Camp Ashraf to provide protection, a role imposed on them by the Americans who failed to deal with the MEK for six years. In the six years that American soldiers protected the terrorist group and its base, fourteen American soldiers were killed during escort missions for MEK shopping in Baghdad. (RAND Report August 2009.)

There is plenty of evidence that the MEK commit serious human rights abuses against their own members inside Camp Ashraf, but to date no independent investigation has taken place into these allegations.

The Iranians outside Camp Ashraf are the families of members trapped inside. The MEK do not allow the members to have contact with them. The families have been recently attacked by MEK special forces from inside the camp which resulted in the hospitalisation of a couple of old people. The American soldiers have repeatedly come to support the MEK in the harassment of the families who have now entered their 13th month of their picket, demanding a simple visit to make sure their loved ones are there of their own free will. So far, no one has established that the people inside Camp Ashraf are there of their own free will.

February 26, 2011 0 comment

Iraq

Open letter in solidarity with the Iraqi and Iranian victims of MKO

Open Letter to President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and Hoshyar Zebari, Foreign Minister of Iraq on the situation of Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, NCRI) at Camp Ashraf

On Friday 7 January 2010, a large and peaceful gathering of citizens, Council representatives from the Diyala Province and NGOs from all over Iraq, calling for the removal of foreign terrorist group Mojahedin-e Khalq from their country, came under attack by leading members of the group who used bottles, stones and other implements to try to deter the demonstrators. This did not surprise anyone as the MKO had been issuing threats in its western based media in the days running up to the gathering.
Demonstrators, domestic and foreign reporters and Iraqi security personnel at the gates of Camp New Iraq (formerly Camp Ashraf) were all among those who suffered injuries, with some taken by ambulance to hospitals in Baquba and Baghdad. The MEK’s typically violent response to the demonstrators further exposes the group’s weakness and lack of legitimacy. Several members of the group exhibited self-inflicted head wounds as they followed orders to pretend that Iraqi security forces had attacked them.

Over the past year, the group has come under increasing pressure to allow Iranian families of MEK members who have been encamped outside the MEK’s garrison for eleven months, to meet with their loved ones who, they claim, are being held hostage by the group’s leaders. These families have also suffered attacks and abuse by the MEK leaders. It is clear that many inside the camp are disaffected and have been touched by the presence of their families and want out.

There is clear congruence between the aims of the Iranian families of the hostages and all those Iraqis who have lost loved ones, possessions and land at the hands of the MEK during the regime of Saddam Hussein who supported them. The Iranian families have joined the demonstrators as they see their only hope to see their loved ones is through the dismantlement of the camp and opening the gates of a place in which no marriage or childbirth has taken place for two decades and from which there is no means of contact with the outside world.

A major aim of the demonstrators was to alert international public opinion to the views of ordinary Iraqis toward the continued illegal presence of this foreign terrorist group in their country, and in particular in their Province. They describe the MEK presence as a cancer or a nightmare for their society, and fully support your government’s stance on the MEK. It is important for them that the international community hear their voices.

Unfortunately, many in the West, particularly lawmakers, have relied almost exclusively on the MEK’s duplicitous propaganda campaigns as a source of information about the events at Camp Ashraf. As such, we believe that it would be helpful for your new government to invite independent observers from Western countries to visit the camp in order to see for themselves what is happening there.

But our greatest concern is for the ordinary members who remain trapped inside the camp.
As you are no doubt aware, over five hundred former members of the MEK have been active for many years in Western countries in exposing the MEK’s abuses of their own members. In particular many former members have given first hand testimony of their brutal treatment at the hands of the MKO leaders. As well as daily, systematic violations of human rights, punishments and beatings, some were, in the past, even incarcerated by the MEK in the infamous Abu Ghraib, the political prison of Saddam Hussein.

We are now increasingly aware that MEK leader Massoud Rajavi is denying seriously ill members from accessing life-saving medical treatment because he benefits from the publicity surrounding their deaths which – using lies and misinformation in his western media outlets – he seeks to blame on your government.

With this past record, and with the fresh testimony of recent escapees, we are sure you would agree that there is now urgent need for independent human rights investigators to be given free and unfettered access to check on the situation of every person resident in the camp – that is with no interference by MEK leaders – accompanied by security personnel to ensure their protection.

We applaud the wisdom of the Iraqi people and those leaders who brought the coalition government into existence – despite a great deal of interference by the outside world. We thank you for the humanitarian approach and patience that the Government of Iraq has shown in dealing with this unwelcome issue. While it was incumbent on the occupying American forces to resolve this problem many years ago, they unfortunately neglected this duty and it has been left on your hands.

As the people of Iran and Iraq are the most affected by the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by Massoud Rajavi and his wife and lieutenant Maryam Rajavi, it is very difficult to see how they can be pardoned in these countries (considering the social problems which come with bloodshed). Therefore it is only fair to ask Europe and America, where we have witnessed extensive favours toward the group, to take and house the remaining aging people trapped in this camp.

Yours sincerely,
Massoud Khodabandeh
Iran Interlink
U.K.

January 9, 2011 0 comment

Europe

Massoud Khodabandeh open letter to Lady Ashton

How can we stop the repetition of the disgrace brought to EU policy by the illegal non binding resolution pushed into European Parliament in support of Terrorism? (Open letter to Lady Ashton)

Dear Lady Ashton, How can we stop the repetition of the disgrace brought to EU policy by the illegal non binding resolution pushed into European Parliament in support of Terrorism?
On 25 November 2010, the European Parliament voted for a resolution asking you “to urge the USA to follow the example of the EU by removing the PMOI from its blacklist and to urge the UN to provide urgent protection for [Camp] Ashraf“.

As you are aware, the Mojahedin Khalq organisation (aka PMOI, MKO, MEK, NCRI, Rajavi cult) has a long history of lobbying in the European Parliament to influence the perceptions and beliefs of Members of the European Parliament in relation to Iran and Iraq. As you are also no doubt aware such lobbying has depended on lies and deception which unfortunately have not been sufficiently investigated and exposed. One such blatant lie, which appears in the resolution, is that the PMOI are ‘Protected Persons’ under the Fourth Geneva Convention. They are not. I am sure you would agree that only this one lie told on behalf of a parliament would not only render the resolution illegal (although non-binding), but also makes it insulting to those to whom it is directed.

Fortunately the resolution does not try to present the PMOI as a legitimate or popular Iranian opposition group. It is not. Nor does it try to pretend that the residents of Camp Ashraf are refugees in Iraq. They are not.

It instead names them as “Iranian dissidents”. In fact, as you know, they are all involuntary members of a dangerous destructive personality cult. In this respect, if Mr Struan Stevenson, as Chair of the Iraq Delegation, has genuine concern and any evidence of a “merciless siege” of Camp Ashraf by the Iraqis at the camp, should he not, in the first instance, take this matter up with the Government of Iraq, rather than embroil the leading members of the European Union in an issue which has not actually been investigated or even shown to exist at all.

The advocates of the PMOI in the European Parliament deceptively portray the situation of Camp Ashraf as a humanitarian issue. Behind this façade – which ignores the real human rights disaster which does exist inside the camp and which the Iraqi Human Rights Minister is trying to alleviate in spite of the negative interference of UNAMI and the US embassy in Iraq – is the real agenda of the resolution.

As much as this could be interpreted as a push by the anti-Iran lobby in Europe to sabotage your meeting next week with the Iranian negotiators over the remaining issues concerning Iran’s uranium enrichment and the necessary safeguards to ensure civilian use of the outcome, it is now clear that the aim of the lobbying has not been to stymie better relations with Iran, but the deliberate sabotage of the success of the Iraqi people and their leaders who managed to come to agreement over the creation of a government comprising all the democratic parties involved.

It is deeply disappointing that the signatures collected in the parliament and the timing of this disreputable support for the murderers of Iraqis, Iranians, Americans and European citizens has been planned and carried out simply owing to the unchallenged – unquestioned even – misuse of the powers invested in Mr. Sturan Stevenson and Mr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras as elected Members of the European Parliament. Mr Stevenson has regular contacts with the remains of the former Saddam regime in Brussels, London, Jordan and Baghdad. He is a tireless advocate for the PMOI in the European Parliament. As you know, the PMOI in Camp Ashraf is the only part of the former Saddam regime’s infrastructure which remains intact in Iraq and, as such, it still plays an unwarranted role in the current political scene of that country. I am sure that if any MEP was aware of these connections they would never sign such a petition and I am sure you are now sadly aware of the political consequences of this disgraceful resolution for both the EU and the US across the world.
Dear Lady Ashton,

Without going into the details of the connections and the practices of some of the lobbyists in the European Parliament who have turned the EP into a playground for Saddamists and the likes, let me just say that some MEPs are now afraid of even talking aloud in their own offices as they are rightly fearful of the reaction of the “terrorist PMOI Mafia haunting the EP buildings” on a daily basis. I wonder if there are no procedures to look at the evidence available in this regard.

I am sure you are now aware – as the Iranians have announced – after the assassination of the nuclear scientists in Tehran immediately following the written support of the EP for terrorism, that the first card laid on the negotiating table will by connected to this issue. But then, perhaps you have already accepted to surrender this first card as a loss at that table.

Dear Lady Ashton,

I am sure you would agree that investigation into the misuse of parliamentary powers, especially lobbying for foreign terrorist organisations, would be an appropriate step to safeguard the interests of the European Union, its members and its allies, particularly in regard to serious issues like the 5+1 negotiation with Iran over the safeguards needed for enrichment of uranium. To forfeit trust and confidence in exchange for five minutes of fame for the Saddamists and their private army in the western media is a high price to pay.
May I finish this letter by suggesting that this kind of behaviour has not only placed the EU in a checkmate position in the international diplomatic arena over its conflicts with Iran, but it has not helped the EU’s fragile relations with Iraq either.

I am sure your advisors are well aware that Mojahedin Khalq lobbyists in the EP, Mr Struan Stevenson and Mr Alejo Vidal-Quadras, left the Iran Delegation before the start of the new session and joined the Iraq Delegation under the surprised eyes of the Iraqi foreign ministry, and have since been engaged in shuttle diplomacy between the Saddamists bases in London, Brussels and Jordan to undermine and hinder any possibility of political progress in Iraq. Their meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq on behalf of Saddamists has already caused Iraqis from every faction and party to react on variety of occasions, not least the open written complaints from the Ambassador of Iraq to Brussels in his article in Shargh al Awsat against the use of Mojahedin Khalq terrorism and the remains of Saddam in Iraq with the support of known lobbyist MEPs.

Reacting to this resolution one official in the Government of Iraq told me that Mr. Maliki did not respond a similar themed letter sent to him previously by the EP as “we Iraqis do not usually respond to hate mail. We ignore it until it turns to action and then we deal with it”. As to this latest resolution he commented that “the Americans can follow the advice of the EP to take the MKO off their terrorism list if they wish, and we will be more than happy to see them take Mojahedin Khalq with them when they leave”.

Due to lack of oversight and due diligence as to the facts about the Mojahedin Khalq and its misuse of parliament, this resolution has damaged the reputation of the European Unions internationally. Your reaction to it will either compound the effect, or dismiss it as the pernicious nonsense that it is. More importantly, your reaction could discourage such reckless behaviour in future.

Yours
Massoud Khodabandeh
MESConsultants LTD, UK
December 01, 2010

December 2, 2010 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Families’ demands force Rajavi’s back against the wall

The repeated demand of Iranian families to meet with their relatives who are held captive inside Camp Ashraf by the leaders of the Mojahedein-e Khalq cult has had devastating effects on the group. Unable to answer the families and unable to get support in the international community, the MKO leaders have resorted to their normal pattern of reaction to external problems – bloodshed; threatened and actual.

The group has no future in Iraq and is trying to turn a humanitarian issue – family meetings – into a security issue by invoking the bogeyman of Iran’s Intelligence services (forgetting, of course, that cult phobias only work on cult members). This will be the excuse to order MKO members to start shedding blood – whether their own or that of others. And, if they cannot do this in Iraq (which they cannot because the Iraqi government is fully in control of the situation), then they will do it in Europe – as they did in 2003.

Unfortunately, Western governments, because of their reluctance to take any action to curtail the activities of this terrorist cult in their own countries, are placing their citizens’ lives and their own reputations under threat.

The following statement issued by the MKO (aka NCRI) is indicative of this diversion from the real issue of having family members sitting outside the camp gates for over 100 days asking to meet with their children.

Iranian regime and Iraqi PM?s committee force defectors from Ashraf to return to Iran
Saturday, 15 May 2010
http://ncr-iran.org/content/view/8153/1/
"Iranian regime intelligence agents and Iraqi PM’s committee of suppression of Ashraf force defectors from Ashraf to return to Iran despite earlier promises of sending them to Europe
NCRI – According to credible reports obtained from inside the Iranian regime, after the 2008 closure of the Temporary International Presence Facility (TIPF), which was controlled by the American forces, and following the transfer of Camp Ashraf’s protection to the Iraqi forces in early 2009, the Iranian regime’s Intelligence Ministry is seriously pressuring those who defected from Ashraf with earlier promises of traveling to Europe to return to Iran instead.
….."

May 16, 2010 0 comment

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