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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Who’s Hanging Out With The Iranian Terrorist Group Now?

Every big- and middle-name Democrat and Republican loves raking in fees to speak to the exiled Iranian Marxist guerilla group MEK, an official member of the State Department’s terrorist group list that also happens to hate the current Iranian regime. This seems pretty illegal.. Now let’s meet an additional two faces who’ve been providing support to this official terrorist group recently: Newt Gingrich and columnist Clarence Page!

Fathead arrived in Paris last week to address the “principal leader” of MEK and greeted her with his finest curtsy:

When Newt Gingrich arrived in Paris last week to speak to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an Iranian exile umbrella group that’s been based there since shortly after the 1979 revolution, he seemed to know exactly who Maryam Rajavi is. He praised Rajavi and her work several times in his speech, which he delivered as the prominent exile stood at his side. Before the speech, as he neared the end of a long line of attendees who stood in the rain to shake his hand, he turned to face Rajavi, smiled, and at approximately 1:02 minutes into the above video, folded at the waist and bowed solemnly. Rajavi, clothed head-to-toe in green, handed him a bouquet of flowers as the crowd cheered.

Of course Newt Gingrich did this. What’s more fascinating is how working journalist Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune found himself in such a position:

Late last month, syndicated columnist Clarence Page appeared at a rally in Paris in support of the Mujahadin-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian group that has been lobbying Washington to be removed from the U.S. government’s list of designated foreign terrorist organizations.

Before a huge crowd waving portraits of MEK leaders Maryam and Massoud Rajavi as well as Iranian flags, Page called for the MEK to be removed from the official terrorist organization list.

Contacted about the appearance by ProPublica, Page said he has decided to give back his speaking fee for the event, as well as reimburse the cost of travel to and from France, which was paid for by a group called the Organizing Committee for Convention for Democracy in Iran.

“I thought they were simply a group of Iranian exiles who were opposed to the regime in Tehran,” Page said. “I later found out they can be construed as a MEK front group, and I don’t think it’s worth it to my reputation to be perceived as a paid spokesman for any political cause.

The man who heard that a group called “the Organizing Committee for Convention for Democracy in Iran” would pay him and fly him to Paris to speak and didn’t think anything was suspicious thinks he has a reputation to maintain? Dear God.

by Jim Newell , Wonkette.com

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Zionist-Directed U.S. Campaign against Iran Continues

The latest hypocritical twist in the Zionist extremist-directed campaign against Iran has seen an Iranian terrorist group, long on the State Department’s “banned” list, move towards recognition and “legitimacy” because it now can be used to carry out attacks inside Iran.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the “Obama administration is moving to remove an Iranian opposition group from the State Department’s terrorism list.

The exile organization, the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MeK, was originally named as a terrorist entity 15 years ago for its alleged role in assassinating U.S. citizens in the years before the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran and for allying with Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein against Tehran.

The terrorism designation, which has been in place since 1997, freezes the MeK’s assets inside the U.S. and prevents the exile group from fundraising.

Senior U.S. officials said on Monday that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has yet to make any final decision on the MeK’s status. But they said the State Department was looking favorably at delisting MeK if it continued cooperating by vacating a former paramilitary base inside Iraq, called Camp Ashraf, which the group had used to stage cross-border strikes into Iran.

Many of Iran’s top leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were targets of MeK attacks during the 1980s.

Iran has regularly accused Western countries of hypocrisy for providing shelter to MeK members while criticizing Tehran’s support for militant groups, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.

“We believe that despite the claims that others make about fighting terrorism, they [Western nations] provide the most support for terrorist groups,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said last week.

“In Europe, the MeK has already been removed from the list of terrorist organizations and they are completely safe to continue their activities.”

As outlined earlier, the US administration has already started arming and training MEK terrorists for attacks inside Iran, in blatant violation of international law.

David Duke

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Despite Evidence Of Illicit Activity, US To Remove MEK From Terrorist List

The Mujahideen-el Khalq (MEK) could soon be removed from America’s list of terrorist organizations. However, the controversial decision is being hindered by reports that the embattled group has failed to evacuate the remaining 1,400 group members from Camp Ashraf in Iraq. The MEK has long fought Iranian governments, in what they claim is a struggle to establish a democratic Iranian state.
Despite Evidence Of Illicit Activity, US To Remove MEK From Terrorist List
The decision to remove the MEK from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations has been promoted by some politicians, both Democratic and Republican. Many of the group’s supporters in Washington see the group as fighting a common Iranian enemy. Conversely, critics have said the MEK has used coercion and bribery to win supporters. Should the U.S. choose to delist the organization, the decision would likely inflame tensions between Washington and Tehran during already tenuous negotiations to de-escalate the standoff over the supposed Iranian nuclear program.

Operating in exile
The U.S. has issued a warning to the MEK, requesting that they vacate Camp Ashraf, the main headquarters of the group. Camp Ashraf was protected by the United States during the occupation of Iraq from 2003-2011. This military protection was extended despite the “terrorist” listing of the group. However, U.S. officials have claimed that the protection was extended under the auspices of the Geneva Convention’s provision on “protected populations,” that is, refugees and political exiles. Other foreign governments, including the United Kingdom, do not recognize the MEK as a protected population.

Although some 2,000 MEK members have left the camp, between 1,200-1,400 remain. The MEK has sought to shed its “terrorist” label, insisting that it has renounced violence and sought major reform. While the U.S. has not clearly enumerated the remaining steps the group must take, closing the camp is seen a necessary first step on a path that some hope will ultimately lead to removing the group from the list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTO). The MEK has been on the FTO terrorist list since 1997.

The group has been involved in targeted assassinations as recently as January 2012, previously working with Israeli intelligence agency Mossad to carry out five known targeted killings since 2007, according to Iranian state sources as well as U.S. government officials. The most recent attack in January of this year killed Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a nuclear scientist.

Speaking frankly about the close Mossad-MEK relationship, Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says, “The relation is very intricate and close. They (Israelis) are paying … the Mujahedin. Some of their (MEK) agents … (are) providing Israel with information. And they recruit and also manage logistical support.”

The MEK was founded in 1965 by leftist university students in Iran who sought to overthrow the monarchical rule of the Shah, supporting instead the creation of a democratic Iranian government. Following the 1979 Iranian revolution, the group was banned by Ayatollah Khomeini … .

Forced into exile, the group established a foothold in France and in neighboring Iraq. During the Iran-Iraq war, the group operating under the “National Liberation Army”. (NLA) attacked Iranian forces carrying out several incursions on Iraqi soil.

While the group shares the legitimate democratic aspirations of most Iranians, Reza Marashi, Research Director of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) notes in a recent MintPress statement that the “terrorist” designation is not one handed out haphazardly by the United States. The label, Marashi contends, is accurate and necessary until there is significant reform within the ranks of the MEK organization.

Indeed, a 2009 report by the Rand Corporation describes the numerous attacks carried out against various Iranian governments, including against the Shah. One such attack reportedly killed six Americans during the 1970s.

Additionally, an independent report by Human Rights Watch describes the excesses and abuses within the organization.

“Human rights abuses carried out by MEK leaders against dissident members ranged from prolonged incommunicado and solitary confinement to beatings, verbal and psychological abuse, coerced confessions, threats of execution, and torture that in two cases led to death.”

Nonetheless, the group, which has been labeled by critics as a “cult”, has exerted significant effort lobbying lawmakers to recognize their membership as legitimate opposition. Several politicians, including former Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania Edward Rendell, are accused of openly supporting a group classified as a terrorist organization. In March, the Treasury Department began an investigation into speaking fees Rendell received from the MEK. It is, not surprisingly, illegal for an American to receive money from a known terrorist group.

The US-MEK relationship
The effort to engage Iranian exiles committed to overthrowing the religious theocratic establishment is one promoted by many in Washington. While the MEK has petitioned actively to delist its organization, other groups, operating in exile have supported removing the group from the U.S. terrorist list.

Historically, the United States has not shied away from supporting dissidents and terrorist groups when the relationship is deemed politically expedient. Very often, these relationships have been cultivated as a means to overthrow or challenge unfavorable governments. For example, the United States previously backed the Afghan Mujahideen during the Cold War fight to rid Afghanistan of Soviet colonial rule. The loose mujahideen resistance movement grew later to include the ranks of the Taliban, a group with alliances to the transnational al-Qaida terrorist network.

This “Regan doctrine” promoted a rollback of Soviet influence in countries around the world. This foreign policy lead to the U.S. support of armed groups in Nicaragua, Angola, Cambodia and the aforementioned Afghanistan, among others, in an effort to curb the influence of America’s Cold War adversary.

However, on this issue, it appears that MEK delistment has received small support from other, disparate Iranian exiles. For example, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), representing “a broad coalition of Iranian organizations” claims more than 500 members and has petitioned actively on behalf of the MEK. According to the NCRI website:

“National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a broad coalition of democratic Iranian organizations, groups and personalities, was founded in 1981 in Tehran upon the initiative of Massoud Rajavi, the Leader of the Iranian Resistance.The NCRI has over 500 members, including representatives of ethnic and religious minorities such as the Kurds, Baluchis, Armenians, Jews and Zoroastrians, representing a broad spectrum of political tendencies in Iran. Acting as parliament in exile, the NCRI aims to establish a democratic, secular and coalition government in Iran. Women comprise 50 [percent] of the council’s members. Five organizations are also members of the NCRI, including the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the largest and most popular resistance group inside Iran.”

Although the NCRI is rarely discussed in Washington, its open public support for delisting the MEK could position them as a key ally of those with vested interest in Iranian regime change. However, MEK support within Iran, and even in the Iranian diaspora, remains limited. In fact, those involved with Iran’s 2009 “Green Revolution,” have categorically rejected the tactics of the MEK.

However, in the U.S., the ongoing discussions about the classification of the MEK continues amidst increasingly hostile rhetoric toward Iran. Some lawmakers have promoted aggressive military action should negotiations fail to dissuade Tehran from supposedly pursuing nuclear weapons. Lobbying by the group is intimately tied to the hardline policies U.S. lawmakers take vis-a-vis engaging Iran.

MEK lobbies Washington
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a non-profit advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., published an article on Tuesday, linking MEK lobbying efforts to a recent bipartisan letter circulating through the Senate. The letter, signed by 44 U.S. senators, strongly urges President Barack Obama to abandon negotiations with Iran if the minimum parameters laid out at the recent Baghdad negotiations are not met.

The immediate action, or “absolute minimum”, outlined by the senators is to shut down the Fordo uranium enrichment facility near Qom, freeze all uranium enrichment above 5 percent and ship all uranium enriched above 5 percent out of the country.

Speaking about the actions, Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) commented on the letter in a recent statement, saying, “Absent these steps, we must conclude that Tehran is using the talks as a cover to buy time as it continues to advance toward nuclear weapons capability. We know that you share our conviction that allowing Iran to gain this capability is unacceptable.”

Previously, Congressmen Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Walter Jones (R-NC) co-authored a letter in February, urging President Obama to exercise diplomacy fully before considering other ways in which to engage Iran. The letter gathered 35 additional signatures from congressional representatives and drew popular support from a number of prominent peace organizations. However, a public weary of prolonged negotiations may be more willing to embrace a hardline stance pushed by the MEK and more hawkish lawmakers. A Gallup public opinion poll shows that Americans consider Iran to be America’s top enemy. Thirty-two percent ranked Iran as America’s number one enemy, followed by China with 23 percent and North Korea with 10 percent.

This finding corresponds with a May 18 Pew Research Center Poll showing that a majority in the U.S., Britain, France and Germany would support a military strike against Iran as a means to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. While majorities in Russia and China oppose an Iranian nuclear weapons program, a majority, around 70 percent in both countries, oppose any kind of military action against Iran, even if it meant preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

By Martin Michaels ,MintPress

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization

The War of Words Against Iran’s MEK

For the last several months, articles about the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian dissident Muftah.orggroup, have spread like wildfire through the mainstream U.S. press. The firestorm began in early February 2012 after anonymous White House officials accused the group of assassinating several Iranian nuclear scientists with the help of the Israeli government. Media coverage gained further traction after reports surfaced about alleged payments made by the MEK to former, high-ranking U.S. officials in exchange for their work in lobbying to remove the group from the The War of Words Against Iran’s MEKState Department’s list of terrorist organizations.

While focused mainly on these issues, the MEK media frenzy has also reflected several notable tendencies. First, the coverage has overwhelmingly depicted the group as a cultish, terrorist organization. Second, with its single-minded focus on the group’s “terrorist” pedigree, reporting on the MEK has made short shrift of the its long, complex, and controversial history. Little background has been provided on the group’s origins as a popular political organization and transformation into a resistance movement in exile, and even less insight has been given about its current status as a cult-like group.

In order to evaluate competing claims about the MEK’s terrorist credentials and its current position vis a vis the United States, Iran, and Israel, an understanding of this history is critical.

The Political Organization

The MEK was established in 1965 by three young university-educated professionals, Mohammed Hanifnejad, who would become the group’s first leader, Saied Mohsen, and Ali Asghar Badi’zadegan. From its inception, the organization dedicated itself to the overthrow of Iran’s then-ruler, Reza Shah Pahlavi. While committed to armed struggle, the MEK’s work remained largely non-violent and focused on spreading its anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist message to students and factory workers, among others.

The MEK espoused a political ideology described as “Eslame Vaghee” or “True Islam,” which combined Islamic concepts with principles of social justice. While religious practices, like daily prayer, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and zakat (alms giving to the poor), formed an important part of its political philosophy, the MEK was far from a militant Islamic organization. Eschewing regressive and reactionary forms of Islam, the MEK’s religious philosophy developed out of a commitment to the progressive, liberating power of Islam and reflected Iranian society’s strong Islamic identity.

Over time, the MEK gained substantial support, particularly among students, religious clerics, and “bazaaris,” Iran’s powerful merchant class. In response to this growing popularity, the MEK’s leadership and many of its supporters were arrested in 1971 by the SAVAK, Iran’s notorious secret police. While the organization’s founders along with most of its leadership were executed in April-May 1972, a handful of MEK leaders were spared execution and sentenced to life imprisonment. Among this small group was Massoud Rajavi, who would go on to become the MEK’s primary leader in the decades to come.

After the Iranian Revolution began and MEK leaders were released from prison, the group formally joined forces with various organizations, including the followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Living as an exile in Paris during the lead up to the revolution, Khomeini had appreciated the value of working with the MEK, which enjoyed a strong support base inside the country.

This collaborative relationship substantially changed after the Ayatollah’s triumphant return to Iran in February 1979, following the ouster of Iran’s shah. Shortly after his arrival, the Ayatollah’s followers presented the MEK with an ultimatum – either unconditionally support Khomeini as Iran’s next ruler or face political isolation. Refusing to accept these terms, the group began publicly opposing Khomeini’s bid for power.

An outright war quickly developed between the two sides, with the new government arresting and killing countless MEK followers. The group responded with armed attacks against government installations and officials. By mid to late 1981, most MEK members who had not been arrested or killed fled the country, in what would become permanent exile for most.

Armed Resistance in Exile

Now focused on toppling the Islamic Republic, the MEK continued its work abroad. It established political headquarters in Paris and operated a series of “kanoons”, or community centers, around the world, including in several U.S. cities. A kanoon, which was typically an apartment or house owned or rented by a MEK supporter, served as a gathering place, center for grassroots organizing, and venue for community celebrations. In the early 1980s, most MEK members living outside of Iran were overwhelmingly young, recent émigrés. For these displaced individuals, the kanoons represented a safe haven, where they could live rent-free, speak Farsi, socialize, and meet other like-minded individuals.

Despite the civic and political work happening in these venues, armed resistance was at the heart of the MEK’s struggle against the Islamic Republic. In 1986, with the blessing of Saddam Hussein, the group established Camp Ashraf, a military base in Iraq near the Iran-Iraq border. Here, the MEK transformed its most committed supporters, both male and female, into a conventional fighting force. Periodically, this small but fervent group of soldiers would stage incursions into Iran [and only Iran], the most notable coming after the 1988 ceasefire ending the Iran-Iraq war.

While Saddam had provided the MEK with the vast majority of its arms, by the end of the 1991 Gulf War, this financial and logistical support had started to dwindle, an unintended victim of UN sanctions against Iraq. While the MEK continued to stage minor assaults into Iran, armed incursions became less and less feasible, and less and less frequent throughout the 1990s.

To add insult to injury, the MEK was also becoming increasingly irrelevant as an opposition group, having lost substantial support among the Iranian public. Many MEK supporters still inside Iran had been executed in 1988, in an infamous purge of the notorious Evin Prison. The decision to center MEK operations in Iraq was, however, the most damaging to the group’s reputation. Despite the clear practical and strategic reasons for this move, many Iranians saw the establishment of Camp Ashraf as an act of national betrayal, coming as it did during the height of the Iran-Iraq war.

The Cult

With prospects of toppling the Islamic Republic increasingly slim, the MEK focused on perpetuating its ideology and maintaining the devotion of its remaining members. Massoud Rajavi was presented as the organization’s god-like ideological father, while his wife, Maryam Rajavi, became the figurehead and public face of MEK leadership. Despite an avowed commitment to democratic ideals, the MEK intensified its already regimented system of internal governance, quashing dissent and rewarding only those blindly obedient to the group’s leadership.

Although these tendencies had existed before the post-Gulf War period, panic and desperation took these practices into overdrive. In the hopes of developing a devoted cadre of followers, the MEK divided families, separating husbands from wives and parents from children. Many of the organization’s most fervent members, who had willingly given up family and career, became wholly dependent upon the MEK. For these individuals, daily life was largely restricted to the confines of Camp Ashraf, the Paris headquarters, or the kanoons. These institutions functioned as echo chambers in which the organization’s philosophy was repeatedly emphasized. To feed this propaganda machine, the MEK, which already published its own books and newspaper, created a satellite television network, began producing its own music, and, eventually, had its own boy band to boot.

While this strategy helped forge a deeply committed, though small, group of MEK supporters, for many the intolerance and subjugation was unbearable. Unsurprisingly, throughout the 1990s, the group lost scores of supporters.

The United States, Israel, and Iran

With its armed activities curtailed, its support within Iran virtually non-existent, and its membership abroad dwindling, in the 1990s, the MEK increased efforts to build support among Western government officials. While the results were tepid at best, the Presidency of George W. Bush, September 11, 2011, and the 2003 Iraq invasion changed the rules of the game. Suddenly, prominent American politicians of the neo-conservative strain were ready to speak with the MEK. And the MEK was more willing than ever to join these conversations.

In 1997, the group had been placed on the State Department’s terrorism list, in response to pressure from Iranian President Mahmoud Khatami. In the hopes that Khatami, a reformer, would soften Iran’s stance towards the United States, the Clinton Administration acquiesced to the request. Although the State Department designation initially had little affect on the MEK, after September 11th, the group’s activities in the United States were significantly curtailed, coming to a near standstill.

Desperation makes strange bedfellows. Facing virtual annihilation, in 2002-2003, the MEK solidified its now notorious relationship with certain neo-conservative elements of the Bush Administration, as well as with the Israeli government. In the short-term, the MEK focused on removing its name from the State Department list and protecting its military base in Iraq, which was threatened by talks of an impending U.S. invasion of the country. In the long-term, the group saw its dreams of toppling the Iranian government align perfectly (for the first time) with the goals of a sitting U.S. President. Israeli support for the MEK was welcomed for similar reasons, although the assistance was deeper both ideologically and logistically. The MEK’s leadership threw itself head on into cultivating these relationships and the rest, as they say, is history.

Conclusion

As it stands today, the MEK is a broken and largely irrelevant group. Concerned only with generating support among a narrow segment of the U.S. political elite, it has engaged in a bitter rivalry with a number of Iranian-American leaders and groups, such as the National Iranian American Council. While this bad blood partly explains the recent negative publicity about the MEK, at base, the group remains very insular and secretive, with little interest in cultivating public opinion within Iran or the diaspora.

Given its past relationships and strategic-interests, rumors about the MEK’s role in assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists may be true, and, if so, raise serious concerns about removing the group from the State Department’s list. Putting these allegations aside, however, the MEK’s reach and impact, whether inside or outside Iran, has dwindled to a trickle. With its Iraqi military base virtually lost and its credibility with most Iranians permanently destroyed, the group has come far from its roots as a popular political organization. Regardless of the power and influence of its new friends, the MEK stands little chance of ever coming to power in Iran.

Muftah.org

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The MEK Expulsion from Iraq

Iraq Camp Relocation Problematic For Iran’s MEK

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday warned Iranian exile group Mujahideen-e Khalq, or MEK, to comply with its relocation from Iraq’s Camp Ashraf to Camp Hurriya if it hopes to be removed from the United States’ list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

"The United States remains concerned about the situation at Camp Ashraf and urges the residents of Camp Ashraf to resume full cooperation immediately with the Iraqi government and United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

"The peaceful closure of Camp Ashraf is achievable but requires continued patience and practical engagement to be realized. Constructive offers must be met with a constructive spirit and not with refusals or pre-conditions to engage in dialogue."

The State Department has held the transition over MEK’s head for half a year, saying a peaceful move and cooperation with American and Iraqi authorities could get it off the terrorist list.

Washington believes that the eviction is necessary for humanitarian reasons since Ashraf has long been considered a refugee camp. So far, around 2,000 MEK members have successfully moved to the Iraqi-run Camp Hurriya, formerly Camp Liberty, in Baghdad. But another 1,200 to 1,400 are still in Ashraf, and the relocation is stalled, with MEK threatening to leave them behind if the conditions in Hurriya are not approved.

MEK — sometimes known as the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, or PMOI — has been on the foreign terrorist list for the last 15 years and is desperately trying to be removed. The group was exiled from Iran after the Islamic Revolution and fled to Iraq, as well as across Europe, under the guidance of leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. The group allegedly helped Saddam Hussein during the Iraq-Iran war and has in the past been linked to various bombings and assassinations inside Iran.

However, MEK and the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella organization for Iranian exiles run by Miryam Rajavi, insist that the group is now only a political organization and refugee group. All of MEK’s weapons were confiscated by the American government years ago, and it has renounced its former violence.

Over the past few years, MEK, with help from a slate of American supporters that includes an all-star list of former top officials, have campaigned to be removed from the terrorist list, going as far as filing a suit with a U.S. appeals court to force Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to make a decision about MEK’s status within four months.

Nonetheless, a number of MEK members have seized the move from Ashraf to Hurriya as an opportunity to defect, revealing troubling details about the organization in the process. One of the first, according to the Sahar Family Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that says it provides humanitarian assistance to those who leave Ashraf, was Ali Reza Rahmati, who was in MEK for 10 years.

"I am extremely happy, and I thank God that I could obtain my freedom. I did not even have the right of free-thinking, and I was under the constant pressure and mental torture," Rahmati stated. "Now I feel the love of life’s revival inside of me, which was dead for 10 years, and I feel great satisfaction of this."

Ehsan Bidi, who also defected from the MEK and "declared separation" from "the corrupt Cult of Rajavi," compared his time in the refugee camp to being imprisoned and admitted that he had tried to escape before. Eight-year MEK member Sirous Morsalpour said that he was twice shot in the stomach — once in 2009 and once in 2012 — but was not permitted to have surgery outside of Camp Ashraf despite requests and the severity of the injuries. Morsalpour said that after he continued to insist on going to a hospital, "I was told that I was fired."

"They handed me to Iraqi police to get rid of me," he declared as he left the group.

The highest-ranking Mujahedeen to escape was Qorban Ali Husseini Nezhad, a 30-year member who was part of the MEK’s foreign affairs team, as well as a translator. Nezhad escaped after arriving in Camp Liberty in April and, like the rest of the defectors, described MEK more as a cult than a terrorist organization.

However, confirming long-held suspicions, Nezhad also said that thanks to deals between Saddam and Massoud Rajavi, MEK spied for Iraq’s intelligence service and received payment from the ill-conceived oil-for-food program.

By Daniel Tovrov

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Terrorist groups and the MEK

Al-Qaida group wants off U.S. terror list

History includes assassinations, breaking oil embargo

Editor’s Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium WorldNetDailyonline newsletter published by the founder of WND.

WASHINGTON – There are increasing indications that the anti-Iranian Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization, known as the MEK or MKO, is working with al-Qaida to topple the U.S.-backed Iraqi government, even though it seeks to be removed from the U.S. State Department’s terror list, History includes assassinations, breaking oil embargoaccording to a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

An MKO defector said the group is collaborating with leaders of Iraq’s dissident groups as well as al-Qaida.

While the MEK has been involved in various assassinations, it has mounted a major campaign in the United States to have its name removed from the State Department’s terror list.

In addition to the U.S., other Western countries also regard the MEK as a terror entity.

Ali Hosseinnejad, who recently defected from the MEK and surrendered to Iraqi military forces, said the MKO leadership wants to topple the Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki, who is Shiite and sympathetic to Iran.

In addition to continuing ties with the Sunni al-Qaida terrorist group, Hosseinnejad said the MEK is working with remnants of the regime of ousted President Saddam Hussein, who also was Sunni.

The MEK is against the Iranian regime and had worked closely with the security services of the Hussein government against Iran. It still seeks the overthrow of the clerics in Tehran.

Hosseinnejad also has revealed that the MEK earned significant income by smuggling and selling Iraqi oil when the country was under an international oil embargo during Saddam’s regime.

WorldNetDaily

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Mark Dankof interviews Anne Singleton and Dr. Foote

… Mark Dankof spoke with Anne Singleton and Dr Paul Sheldon Foote about the Mojahedin-e Khalq blankterrorist group. The discussion covered issues concerning the MEK’s role in the US and Israel, France and Iraq. Is the MEK a danger to the US is one of the questions asked. Describing Rajavi as a mercenary who will sell his group to anyone to perform acts of violence, Anne Singleton stressed the need to differentiate between Rajavi loyalists and the majority of ordinary members trapped in Iraq who want to leave but are prevented from doing so. The US must do more to help she said …

Download Mark Dankof interviews Anne Singleton and Dr. Foote

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USA

State to decide on Mujahedin-e Khalq terror delisting in 4 months

The State Department plans to comply with a court’s order to decide the status of a group that Jewish Telegraphic Agencyopposes the Iranian regime and that it lists as terrorist.

In an unsigned statement issued June 1, the spokesman’s office said that it "intends to comply" with a ruling earlier that day by the D.C. Circuit’s Court of Appeals ordering the State Department to decide within four months whether Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, should be removed from its designated terrorist group list.

The court, which had first issued an order in 2010 demanding a decision within 180 days, expressed its frustration with the delay.

"We have been given no sufficient reason why the Secretary, in the last 600 days, has not been able to make a decision which the Congress gave her only 180 days to make," it said, and ruled that if the department failed to decide within four months, the group would automatically be delisted.

A number of pro-Israel figures in recent years have joined the effort to delist the MEK, saying that it has reformed since its days under the shah when it targeted Americans.

They note also that the MEK base in Iraq has disarmed, per U.S. requests, and say delisting is vital now as the pro-Iranian Iraqi regime consolidates power and the thousands of residents of the MEK camp in Iraq are left defenseless, because removing the group from the terrorist list facilitates travel for its members.

Iraqi forces killed 34 camp residents in a raid last year.

The MEK is reportedly assisting Israel in exposing and sabotaging Iranian nuclear facilities.

Opponents of delisting say it serves no useful purpose, saying that MEK’s alignment with Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war has led to it being universally reviled, even among opponents of the theocracy.

They say that delisting would only needlessly provoke Iran during a period of sensitive negotiations over making its nuclear program more transparent.

MEK welcomed the judge’s decision. "The judgment once again demonstrated that maintaining the terrorist designation on the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) is absolutely illegitimate and unlawful, and is guided by ulterior political motives," it said in a statement.

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

US to delist MEK/MKO? Who cares

So the Wall St Journal shook up some people with a report that the US will soon delist the MEK as a terrorist organization.

Question: so what? I mean, apart from the fact that the listing was never really enforced anyway, what with MEK members still strutting around in the halls of Congress and paying large sums of money to various officials to campaign for them, nevermind the MEK spokesmen who show up on Fox and HuffingtonPost to peddle their propaganda… apart from all that, the fact is that no one in Iran really gives a damn what the US State Department’s opinion on the matter is anyway. Iranians hate the MEK not because it is on the State Department’s terrorist list but because of the historical actions and agenda of the MEK, which isn’t going to change no matter how many times it gets added or removed from any lists.

Anyway, Laura Rozen reports that the Wall St Journal article about delisting the MEK "blindsided" the Iran experts in Washington. I think the true explanation is this: Lets not forget that the Wall St Journal is part of the far-right (just read their editorial pages) in the US that doesn’t want to see a peaceful resolution of the US-Iran standoff, and like other far-right anti-Iran organizations, it has been trying to do its part to scuttle the Iran nuclear talks.

Secretly, I suspect that the regime in Iran is quite happy to see the US remove the MEK from the terrorist list. After all, the MEK is the best opposition that the IRI could hope for. I mean, if you’re going to have activists opposing you, what better that these discredited, hated, and cultlike activists can you find?

Iranaffairs

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

US violates law – provides material support for MEK

U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) helped train, arm, equip and arrange for travel of members of the Iranian opposition group Mujahideen-e-Khalq (M.E.K.) at a secretive site in US violates law – provides material support for MEKNevada from 2005 to at least 2007, as reported by Seymour M. Hersh at The New Yorker.

M.E.K. has been listed as a “foreign terrorist organization” since 1997.

It is a felony in U.S. law to knowingly provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.

Five Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated since 2007.

Early last month two senior Obama officials said that the attacks were the work of M.E.K. and that the group is "financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service [i.e. Mossad].

In 2002 M.E.K. publicly revealed that Iran had begun enriching uranium at a secret underground location and the information was provided by Mossad, according to then-head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei.

From The New Yorker:

The M.E.K.’s ties with Western intelligence deepened after the fall of the Iraqi regime in 2003, and JSOC began operating inside Iran in an effort to substantiate the Bush Administration’s fears that Iran was building the bomb at one or more secret underground locations. Funds were covertly passed to a number of dissident organizations, for intelligence collection and, ultimately, for anti-regime terrorist activities. Directly, or indirectly, the M.E.K. ended up with resources like arms and intelligence.

The training in the U.S. took place at the secretive Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site, located about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

A retired four-star general told Hersh that the Iranians received standard training for about six months that included bomb making, communications, cryptography, small-unit tactics and weaponry.

Last month the senior Obama officials lied to the American public about any U.S. involvement in the M.E.K. assassinations, but a former senior intelligence official told Hersh that the U.S. provides intelligence for M.E.K. operations. “The US broke international laws, helped finance terrorism that was responsible for the death of innocent civilians in Iran”, said Bob Smith of Charlotte, N.C. in a telephone conversation, who claims the Special Forces units involved in training the MEK terrorists came from Ft. Bragg, N.C.

"How can the U.S. train those on State’s foreign terrorist list, when others face criminal penalties for providing a nickel to the same organization?”, says Allan Gerson, a Washington attorney for the M.E.K., pointed out the total hypocrisy of simultaneously listing the group as a terrorist organization and training them. I wonder what that says about a lawyer who defends them?

The People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK, also PMOI, MKO) founded in September 5, 1965 by a group of leftist Iranian university students as an Islamic and Marxist political mass movement MEK was originally devoted to armed struggle against the Shah of Iran, capitalism, and Western imperialism. In the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the MEK and the Tudeh Party at first chose to side with the clerics led by Ayatollah Khomeini against the liberals, nationalists and other moderate forces within the revolution. A power struggle ensued, and by mid-1981, MEK was fighting street battles against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards.[7][8][9] During the Iran-Iraq War, the group was given refuge by Saddam Hussein and mounted attacks on Iran from within Iraqi territory. Government sources claim that over 17,000 Iranians were killed by the MEK.

The group claims to have renounced violence in 2001 and today it is the main component organization of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an "umbrella coalition" calling itself the "parliament-in-exile dedicated to a democratic, secular and coalition government in Iran. The group has had thousands of its members for many years in bases in Iraq, but according to the British Broadcasting Corporation "they were disarmed in the wake of the US-led invasion and are said to have adhered to a ceasefire."

The United States, Canada, Iraq and Iran have designated the MEK a terrorist organization.

“The US used taxpayer funds to train these terrorists”, said one Charlotte, N.C. veteran. “I would like to see those prosecuted for this crime”, he said. The veteran stopped short of calling for prosecution of members of the Pentagon and senior military officials who carried out what was an “illegal act”. “Soldiers follow orders sometimes. They cannot disobey. They should be excused for their crimes. I more interested in the senior military commanders who went along with this”, he said.

“The possibility that anyone will be prosecuted for helping train terrorists is highly unlikely”, said one retired FBI agent from Charlotte, who declined to be named in this report. “I don’t like what our government does sometimes but I am in no position to do anything about it”, he said.

This is generally the attitude of people I talked to about this incident. From officials at Ft. Bragg who refused to discuss it, to former Special Forces members who claim they just follow orders, to Administration officials who indicated the US is right for funding people who murder and kill people in Iran. They all offer excuses.

On December 14, 2006, Time Magazine published an article about MEK and reported: "In 2003, French anti-terrorist police raided Maryam Rajavi’s place in Auvers-sur-Oise, securing millions of euros and taking Maryam Rajavi and some of her collaborators into custody. Several of Rajavi’s followers set themselves on fire to protest her arrest, confirming official French concerns about the cultish nature of the group."

On September 14, 1981, Time Magazine published an article about MEK and reported: "The Mujahedin platform focused on anticapitalist, anti-Western slogans. It demanded the nationalization of all foreign businesses run by Iranians and continuation of the anti-imperialist struggle, especially against the U.S. Western intelligence sources doubt that the Mujahedin, though superbly organized, have as many followers as they claim. "They are not a popular movement," one analyst asserts. "Their ideology is not understood by the masses. They are capable, of carrying out terror operations but not of governing Iran."

On April 21, 1997, Time Magazine published an article about MEK and reported:

"There is a cult of personality around Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi that is unhealthy,"

says Michael Eisenstadt, an Iran expert at the Washington Institute on Near East Policy. "If they were to achieve power, it is unlikely they would give it up."

On August 28, 1988, New York Times published an article that after chemical attacks by MEK against western Iranian cities, Alireza Jafarzadeh as then public spokesman for MEK in the United States said:

"Mujahedeen have learned to take proper tactics when and if necessary. We have always adjusted tactics in our fighting. The form of fighting is secondary."

The Mujahedeen claimed to have inflicted 40,000 Iranian casualties.

On July 13, 2003, New York Times published an article that in 1991 when Saddam Hussein used the MEK and its tanks as advance forces to crush the Iraqi Kurdish people in the north and the Iraqi Shia people in the south, Maryam Rajavi as then leader of MEK’s army forces commanded:

"Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards."

On December 14, 2006, Time Magazine published an article about MEK and reported: "By the mid-1980s, the group (MEK) had cozied up to Saddam Hussein, who provided them with funds and a compound, Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad. The U.S. government has accused the group of helping Saddam brutally put down Iraqi Kurdish people in the early 1990s, and of launching numerous attacks inside Iran."

On January 5, 2009, Time Magazine published an article about MEK and reported: "Despite its position on the U.S. terrorist list since 1997, and reports by former members of abusive and cultlike practices at Ashraf, the MEK has gathered support from some surprising places abroad — especially since the U.S. invasion — by pitching itself as a viable opposition to the regime in Tehran.”They have been extremely clever and very, very effective in their propaganda and lobbying of members of Congress," says Gary Sick, a Persian Gulf expert at Columbia University’s Middle East Institute and the author of All Fall Down: America’s Tragic Encounter With Iran. "They get all sorts of people to sign their petitions. Many times the Congressmen don’t know what they’re signing." But others, Sick adds, "are quite aware of the fact that this is a designated terrorist organization, and they are quite willing to look the other way for a group that they think is a democratic alternative to the Iranian regime."

On May 18, 2005, Newsweek published an article about MEK and reported: "Human Rights Watch alleges that the Iranian exile group known as Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) has a history of cultlike practices that include forcing members to divorce their spouses and to engage in extended self-criticism sessions. More dramatically, the report states, former MEK members told Human Rights Watch that when they protested MEK policies or tried to leave the organization, they were arrested, in some cases violently abused and in other instances imprisoned. They were held in solitary confinement for years in a camp operated by MEK in Iraq under the protection of Saddam Hussein. MEK representatives in the United States and France, where MEK is headquartered, did not respond to NEWSWEEK phone calls and an e-mail requesting comment. The new Human Rights Watch report does allege strange and sometimes brutal behavior by the group’s leaders and internal security apparatus. According to Human Rights Watch, following this 1988 military defeat, the Rajavi’s leadership of MEK became increasingly authoritarian and cultlike. According to an MEK defector’s memoir, Rajavi claimed to have a mystical relationship with a prophet known as Imam Zaman, who is Shia Islam’s version of the long-awaited Messiah. In order to better cement their relationship with their leader, and hence ultimately their Messiah, Rajavi then instructed his followers to divorce their spouses. The group had already established a practice of "self criticism," under which members were asked to undergo their own personal "ideological revolution" by confessing personal inadequacies in cultlike confession sessions. Human Rights Watch says the testimony of former MEK prisoners paints a grim picture of how the organization treated its members, particularly those who held dissenting opinions or expressed an intent to leave the organization. Other witnesses told Human Rights Watch claimed it was the practice of MEK interrogators to tie thick ropes around prisoners’ necks and drag them along the ground. One witness told investigators: "Sometimes prisoners returned to the cell with extremely swollen necks–their head and neck as big as a pillow." In a statement accompanying its investigative report, Joe Stork, a Human Rights Watch expert on the Middle East, commented:

"… it would be a mistake to promote an opposition group that is responsible for serious human rights abuses."

In 2004, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) listed the MEK as a terrorist entity (see: http://www.american.com/archive/2011/FBI%20-%20REPORT.pdf

Among the charges the FBI accused the MEK of committing was murder of US citizen Paul Grimm, a Texaco executive in 1978 and participating in the student takeover of the US embassy in Iran. A list of the charges would take 42 pages to list

The FBI field office in Kansas City, Missouri refused comment on this story.

See also article: Hersh: US facilitates MEK terror in Iran

by Robert Tilford ,Exminer

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