Formers Reza Sadeghi and Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad attended a meeting of the Social Democrats in the European Parliament discussing the situation of refugees coming into Europe. They talked to MEPs and their staff about the MEK in Albania.
++ Iran Interlink and Sahar Family Foundation are receiving many requests for help from individuals who have left the MEK in Albania. They tell us that nobody from the UNHCR or the Albanian authorities give them any answers. It is clear these bodies don’t know what to do with such people. Iran Interlink advises ex-members to be clear that it is illegal for the UNHCR or RAMSA or any other body to ask them to choose between the Iranian embassy and the MEK. They were brought to Albania as refugees so these officials are responsible for their welfare. Encouraging people to go back to Iran, even though it is backed by the Americans, is illegal. Twelve individuals have put their complaints in writing to the MEK leaders. We have advised them to approach the UN directly because the MEK is a terrorist group and they are not responsible for them. Nor is the CIA which backs the MEK. One complainant who approached the MEK to ask why they would not give him his money was beaten up because, they said, he had ‘contacted his mother by telephone’. In front of him, they paid double the allowance to another individual who is working for them while claiming to be an ex-member. The MEK said, ‘we recognise him as an ex-member because he listens to what we say’. Iran Interlink advised him to visit the UNHCR with a lawyer that we have found, and ask them what their conditions are for helping refugees. We advised him to remind the UNHCR that the deal between the Americans and the Albanian government does not apply to people like him because he is an individual refugee and not a member of the MEK terrorist group.
++ Mohammad Karami published an article called ‘The Most Hated Iranian Ever’. The piece comprises mostly self-explanatory pictures of Maryam Rajavi aligning herself during the last two decades with whoever in the world is anti-Iranian. Pictures of her with Saudis, the Syrian National Front, various Americans and etc., are an interesting display of her legacy as the MEK leader.
++ This week was Ashura. The MEK and Maryam Rajavi have been trying to align their brand with the Shia faith. Some Farsi commentators responded by linking her stance this week vis a vis Ashura with her previous act of gifting a book of MEK anti-imperialist martyrs to Senator John McCain. Rajavi sits down with the most anti-Shia people, but at the same time claims the MEK are Shias. In referring to this hypocrisy, some commentators claim ‘just this one contradiction makes it impossible for them to last another year’.
In English:
++ Muhammad Sahimi has written an article in Anti War ‘Deconstructing Neoconservatives’ Manifesto for War With Iran’. Starting with Donald Trump’s determination to supper the JCPOA, Sahimi outlines Neoconservative efforts to provoke a war with Iran, including a speech by US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley which was “replete with lies, exaggerations and innuendoes”. Sahimi identifies John Bolton as proposing “the most comprehensive plan of action for leaving the JCPOA and eventually going to war with Iran” while also being “a lobbyist for Mujahedin-e Khalgh Organization (MEK, also known as MOK), an Iranian opposition group that for years was listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization, and is universally despised by the Iranian people for its collaboration with the regime of Saddam Hussein during Iran-Iraq war, and working with Israel to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. Bolton also has very cozy relations with anti-Muslim hate groups, which only goes to show the depth of the man’s mental state.”
After a full and detailed examination of Bolton’s position toward Iran, the article concludes: “Why do Bolton and the neoconservatives hate Iran so unabashedly? They have made it clear that they believe the US should rule the world. They disguise this wish under the term ‘US leadership’. To them, international treaties and organizations are useful only to the extent that they protect and advance what they consider as the US interests, which are almost never the true national interests of the United States. Bolton and the neoconservative have never seen a war that they have not liked it. They see Iran not as a threat to the national security of the United States – which Iran is not – but as an impediment to US imperial ambitions for completely dominating the Middle East and its natural resources. This, and only this, is the reason for the neoconservatives constantly trying to provoke a war with Iran.”
++ ISNA (Tehran) reports on a delegation of female victims of MEK terrorism at the 36th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. “Representatives of the Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism attended the 36th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council under the motto “Empowering Women Victims of Terrorism as a Necessity for the Future of Human Beings”, and offered recommendations to UN mandate holders, representatives of states, human rights activists, and other NGOs… One of the prominent and impressive points raised at this side-event was the testimonies delivered by women victims of terrorism.”
October 06, 2017
MEK or KKK, Cults are destructive
For those familiar with the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ the Cult of Rajavi) the group’s efforts to represent itself as an opposition group who fights for freedom of Iranians is both absurd and ludicrous.
The MKO has notorious reputation in helping Saddam Hossein in the Iran—Iraq war during which many Iraqis along with Iranians were killed as a result. It goes without saying that MKO was funded and supported by Saddam. This is why almost all Iranians and Iraqis loathed the group.
Human Rights Watch has been clear on the MKO’s cult-like practices that include abuses which range “from detention and persecution of ordinary members wishing to leave the organization, to lengthy solitary confinements, severe beatings, and torture of dissident members.” [1]
Elizabeth Rubin a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, where her article”The Cult of Rajavi”appeared in July2003, warns American supporters of the MKO, “Mujahedeen Khalq is not only irrelevant to the cause of Iran’s democratic activists, but a totalitarian cult that will come back to haunt us.” [2]
“Friendships and all emotional relationships are forbidden,” Rubin writes about the atmosphere ruling the Cult of Rajavi. “From the time they are toddlers, boys and girls are not allowed to speak to each other. Each day at Camp Ashraf you had to report your dreams and thoughts.” [3]
Considering such reports and documents on violations of human rights inside the MKO camps, Jon Gambrell of the Associated Press states his concerns over the paid sponsorship for the group by the side of some factions of the Trump administration. “An official in U.S. President Donald Trump’s cabinet and at least one of his advisers gave paid speeches for an Iranian exile group that killed Americans before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, ran donation scams and saw its members set themselves on fire over the arrest of their leader,” he writes. “The U.S. State Department has described the MEK as having”cult-like characteristics.”When French police arrested Rajavi in 2003 as part of a terrorism investigation, MEK members responded by lighting themselves on fire. At least two people died.” [4]
Gambrell reveals the US newly-elected cabinet member for her paid support for the formerly terrorist designated MKO. “Elaine Chao, confirmed this week as Trump’s transportation secretary, received $50,000 in 2015 for a five-minute speech to the political wing of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, previously called a”cult-like”terrorist group by the U.S. State Department.” [5]
Paid advocacy for the MKO is actually a disgrace for its sponsors in Washington due to the MKO’s violent past and cult-like present. Mehdi Hassan of the Intercept states, ”These days, the organization — run by husband and wife Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, though the former’s whereabouts are unknown and he is rumored to be dead — claims to have renounced violence and sells itself to its new American friends as a 100 percent secular and democratic Iranian opposition group.” [6]
However, Hassan suggests that its terrorist background is not the biggest problem with the MKO. “Plenty of violent groups that were once seen as “terrorists” later abandoned their armed struggles and entered the corridors of power — think of the Irish Republican Army or Mandela’s African National Congress,” he writes. “Nor is it that the MEK lacks support inside of the Islamic Republic, where it has been disowned by the opposition Green Movement and is loathed by ordinary Iranians for having fought on Saddam Hussein’s side during the Iran-Iraq war.” [7]
He correctly ends his argument against the MKO by warning the US politicians about the group’s cult-like nature. “Rather, the biggest problem with U.S. politicians backing the MEK is that the group has all the trappings of a totalitarian cult,” he states. ”Don’t take my word for it: A 1994 State Department report documented how Massoud Rajavi “fostered a cult of personality around himself” which had “alienated most Iranian expatriates, who assert they do not want to replace one objectionable regime for another.” [8]
More tangible for the American audience is the argument by Sam Ghanchi the editor of Iranscope who compares the Cult of Rajavi with the notorious American cult, Ku Klux Klan (KKK)*. “In our eyes, PMOI is the Ku Klux Klan of 150 years ago and not Klan of today which at least acts civilized and does not lynch people. PMOI has agents harassing and threatening pro-democracy activists who oppose PMOI, on the Internet and elsewhere,” he states in his website. “We do not want the death of any human being but want the death of this *organization* which is a Shiite version of Daesh and goes by the names of Mojahedin khalgh organization, PMOI, MEK, MKO.” [9]
*The Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of violence, is the most infamous – and oldest – of American hate groups. Although black American shave typically been the Klan’s primary target, it also has attacked Jews, immigrants, gays and lesbians and, until recently, Catholics. Over the years since it was formed in December 1865, the Klan has typically seen itself as a Christian organization, although in modern times Klan groups are motivated by a variety of theological and political ideologies. The group has been an ardent supporter of Donald Trump during its presidential campaign.
By Mazda Parsi
Sources:
[1] Human Rights Watch, NO EXIT
[2] Rubin, Elizabeth, An Iranian Cult and Its American Friends, the New York Times, August 13, 2011
[2] ibid
[3] ibid
[4]Gambrell, Jon, Trump cabinet pick paid by ‘cult-like’ Iranian exile group, The Associated Press, February 05, 2017
[5] ibid
[6] Hassan, Mehdi, Here’s Why Washington Hawks Love This Cultish Iranian Exile Group, The Intercept,July 7, 2017
[7] Ghandchi, Sam, To France: Expel Maryam Rajavi, ghandchi.com, August 17, 2017
Mr. Reza Jebelli; Mujahedin-e Khalq former member met Ms. Maria Gomes, Aawa association reported.
Referring to the MKO Cult’s inhumane practices against the members in Albania, The MKO former member explained how members are kept under intense psychological pressure.
He also stated that the cult leaders put pressure on separated members threatening them that their refugee allowances would be cut.
Mr. Jebelli defined the Mujahedin-e Khalq cult efforts to disseminate false news and documents against the former members.
The MKO ex-member also informed the MEP of the separation of many dissatisfied members especially several veteran members, some with more than 30 years of membership within the group. Though Maryam Rajavi has travelled to Albania to save the MEK, the rate of disaffection is accelerating day by day.
Aawa association representative reiterated the MEK efforts to relocate the members to a closed camp in a rural area near Tirana in order to keep members within the cult providing a suitable environment to practice manipulation practices more freely.
Mr. Jebelli thanked Ms. Gomes for her invitation and conveyed the MKO hostages’ families appeal to facilitate their visit with their loved ones in MKO Camps. He also asked European Parliament representatives to help the MKO hostages in Albania in any possible way.
Rajavi married fellow MEK member Ashraf Rabiei in summer 1980. Rabiei was widow of another MEK member killed in 1976, Ali-Akbar Nabavi-Nuri, whom she married in 1975.
In February 1982, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard members attacked a hide out of Mujahedin Khalgh leaders. During the clashes Ashraf Rabiei the wife of the Paris-based MKO leader killed. The attack took place about six months after the Iranian PM’s office bombing by Mujahedin-e Khalq as well as several other terror activities such as bombing the headquarters of the Iran Islamic Republic Party (IRP).
Massoud Rajavi’s second wife was Abolhassan Banisadr’s daughter Firouzeh. Their marriage of state took place in October 1982 following their exile and the couple divorced in 1984.
Rajavi married to Maryam Qajar Azodanlu (later known as Maryam Rajavi) in 1985, who was already married to one of his close associates Mehdi Abrishamchi and divorced her husband in order to marry Rajavi.
Ann Singleton in his book” Saddam’s Private army” refers to the Rajavi’s marriages:
” Only months after Ashraf was killed, Rajavi had married Abol Hassan Bani Sadr’s daughter, Firouzeh. She was a student at a university in Paris at the time. She had no political inclination as far as is known and was largely regarded as being used as a pawn by Rajavi in the manipulation of her father. Ironically, this marriage did not cause any controversy. Members saw it for what it was; a political tactic. Ordinary Iranians saw it as both a convenient and a normal marriage. Rajavi’s wife was dead, so why shouldn’t he marry again, albeit indecently quickly? Yet this marriage really was cynical and exploitative. The young Firouzeh was naïve and innocent and had no real choice in the matter. Not a very good basis for marriage to a man who later promoted himself as the defender of women’s rights in the Mojahedin. In fact it was the next marriage, between two highly ambitious and fully aware people, that caused the outrage and continues to do so. Why? Because Rajavi married his best friend’s’ wife. (The relationship started long before Abrishamchi was ordered to divorce.) Looking at the marriage from a traditional point of view from Iranian culture, it was dishonourable, a betrayal of his friend. It was wrong, if not scandalous.”
With Trump’s apparent determination to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK/PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) has just found more room to move around the US government to launch its anti-Iran lobbying campaign more generously –pushing its paid advocates to run their “war on Iran” agenda.
Trump described the nuclear deal as an”embarrassment”to the United States. Meanwhile, John Bolton may be the most vocal Iran hawk who addressed the September 20 rally coordinated by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities (OIAC), and members of the MKO, against the visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in New York. “I think it was a disastrous agreement for the United States to make; harmful to the United States, harmful to its friends and allies, harmful to the people of Iran. The sooner we get out of it, the better,” Bolton told the AP reporter.[1]
Bolton is certainly a symbol of return to the Bush years, but he is such a hard-liner that he would think that Bush didn’t go nearly far enough in his foreign policy. He comes from the faction of the US government that wanted (and still wants) war with Iran, more confrontation with Russia and China, and a generally more aggressive approach to any threat (real or imagined). Like Trump, he is an alleged nationalist, but it is a nationalism defined by fulfilling their wish for U.S. “leadership” over the world. Muhammad Sahimi, a professor of the University of Southern California says, “They disguise this wish under the term”US leadership”. To them, international treaties and organizations are useful only to the extent that they protect and advance what they consider as the US interests, which are almost never the true national interests of the United States.” [2]
“For years Bolton has been advocating bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities, either by Israel, the US, or both,” Sahimi writes. “He is also a lobbyist for Mujahedin-e Khalgh Organization (MEK, also known as MKO), an Iranian opposition group that for years was listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization, and is universally despised by the Iranian people for its collaboration with the regime of Saddam Hussein during Iran-Iraq war, and working with Israel to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. Bolton also has very cozy relations with anti-Muslim hate groups, which only goes to show the depth of the man’s mental state.” [3]
Probably the most troublesome part of Bolton and other neocons, in the eye of his country-men is his avowed support for regime change and his fondness for the Cult of Rajavi. When he talks about providing “vigorous support” to Iran’s opposition, he is talking about the MKO! Bolton should admit the bitter truth that no credible protesting party inside Iran wants anything to do with U.S. interference in their politics, and they absolutely aren’t interested in regime change. The so-called opposition that Bolton supports is the MKO, which is widely loathed in Iran and doesn’t speak for Iranian protesters of the Tehran government. However, Bolton seems to be blocked, regarding his own testimony in an op-ed where he confessed that he doesn’t have access to the White House.
The huge contradiction is that the MKO authorities who invest too much on the role of Bolton-like warmongers, paying large amounts of money for the speaking fees in their rallies and even expenses of the luxurious trips to Paris and Tirana to appear in their propaganda shows, claim that they seek non-violent regime change in Iran!
“Bolton’s comprehensive plan of aggression (BCPOA) against Iran is built upon lies, exaggeration, warmongering, and twisting the truth,” states Muhammad Sahimi. It should be added that the MKO’s claim of non-violent regime change is also built upon lies, exaggeration and illusion. According to Dr. Sahimi, “Bolton’s plan is also crude and cruel” and the MKO is evidently supporting and propagating this plan in its propaganda machine. [4]
The MKO’s company with US warmongers demonstrates its utmost hypocrisy and corruption.
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] Nazarian, Adelle,EXCLUSIVE–John Bolton: Trump Should Decertify, Withdraw from Iran Nuclear DealEntirely, the Associated Press, September 24, 2017
[2]Sahimi, Muhammad, Deconstructing Neoconservatives’Manifesto for War with Iran, Antiwar.com, September 25, 2017
[3] ibid
[4] ibid
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was the first major organization to embrace the Mujahedin-e Khalq group and offer them military training and supplies in its camps in Lebanon and Syria. the MKO`s leader, Massoud Rajavi was trained by PLO in Lebanon and Jordan in the late 1960’s.
According to journal”Mojahed”of June 1979, it was Yasser Arafat who initially put the MKO in touch with the Soviet Union. Therefore when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the people’s Mojahedin were at front to praise the Soviet Union.
Yasser Arafat receives the Herald of the MKO by its leader Massoud Rajavi.
[In September 1981, political adviser to Yasser Arafat and former PLO representative in Tehran called at the secluded house outside Paris that former Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr was sharing with Massoud Rajavi, leader of the Mujahideen-e Khalq guerrillas. Hani Hassan was quickly escorted past the swarm of newsmen and police at the villa’s gate and brought to Rajavi. Mujahideen sources interpreted Mr. Hassan’s surprise visit — and his invitation for Rajavi to meet with Yasser Arafat sometime soon in Beirut, Christian Science monitor reported at the time.]
Massoud Rajavi leader of the Mujahedin-e Khalq group (R) and Mussa Khiabani with Ayatollah Khomeini in the months after the Iranian revolution.
On 29th July 1981 Rajavi and Bani Sadr escape to Paris. They [in disguise] were driven to a Tehran military base and got on board of a hijacked Iranian air force 707 jet tanker around 10 at night. Rajavi and Banisadr together established the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The NCRI had 12 members including the Mojahedin. However Rajavi claimed to be the head of National Council or Resistance and not the representative of Mojahedin. Rajavi appointed another representative for Mojahedin.