Articles

How much does it cost to keep Iran’s enemies in Albania?

The Albanian page of Pars Today Website published a report by an Albanian periodical Parrena on the recent relocation of the Mujahedin-e Khalq members in Tirana, Albania. The report is titled “the result of receiving Mujahedin, Albania on the verge of war.”

Parrena criticizes the Albanian government for accepting the MKO in its territory. Like the Zionists who settled in the Palestinian territory in the last century, 3000 members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq were relocated in Albania, according to Parrena.

The following, extracted of the report, was translated to Persian by Pars Today:

“The problem is absolutely not the MKO as a group of people with different race, religion or ethnic traits. The basic problem is that the MKO is the enemy of the Islamic Republic government. They are not only ideological its enemies but also active fighters who are officially denounced by the Iranian government as its enemy.

Having accepted the MKO in Albania, the war battle between Iran and Europe is situated in Albania. The group will soon launch its propaganda and its activities inside the Albanian borders while it is protected by the Albanian government.

Does Albania need such a danger?

Of-course, everything has its own price. To accomplish the deal, the US Secretary of State John Kerry came to Albania. But it should be asked how much it costs Albania to locate the enemies of Iran in the heart of Albania? Such a deal would be justified only if it is done for the national interests of the Albanians just like the “Kosovo-Albania Unification”.

However, during the past month, no changes were seen in the Albanian cities, except the mobile stores haunted by large numbers of MKO members who seek to be equipped by the newest mobile or tablets.

Albanian public opinion is not able to realize what it means to bring war to your home. This is the dream of every Albanian politician: “Good relations with the United States. Nothing else matters.” […]

For the time being, the US is seeking to normalize the relations with Iran and the European Union is taking serious actions to improve the relations with Iran. But, we, “the hometown of the MKO”, what did we do and what did we obtain?

The MKO will continue the war it started decades ago now, in the “promised land”, in the Palestine it has found in the heart of Balkan.

Well, what will happen next? What will the media do? Do the media suffer the sever lack of information on the issue? No, it is impossible. With a slight google search, you can find out everything about the MKO and the threat they pose. Nevertheless, the media sound to have sold themselves with a very low price too.”

September 21, 2016 0 comments

USA

US Resettles Last MEK Members in Albania

On September 12, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the last 280 members of a controversial Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), had been transferred from Iraq to Albania. Founded in 1965 as an urban guerilla group, it opposed the monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The leftist group killed six Americans in Iran in the 1970s. The MEK participated in the 1979 Revolution but later broke with revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini over ideology and direction.

In 1981, the MEK went underground. Members fled to Iraq and supported Saddam Hussein during the 1980-1988 war with Iran. The MEK helped Hussein’s forces suppress Shiite and Kurdish uprisings after the 1991 Gulf War. It also attempted an attack against the Iranian mission to the United Nations in 1992 and was thought to be responsible for attacks on Iranian officials in the 1990s. The State Department designated it a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997. But the MEK renounced violence in 2001.

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, U.S. forces initially attacked MEK military targets. The group claimed neutrality though. As part of a cease-fire, members were disarmed and confined to their base at Camp Ashraf. The United States later designated them as civilian “protected persons.” More than 3,000 of the camp’s residents were moved to a former U.S. military base near Baghdad known as Camp Liberty in 2012 with the intention of resettling them elsewhere for their own safety. The State Department took the MEK off the terror list that same year, noting that it had not been positively linked to terrorist attacks for more than a decade. During the last few years, the United States has helped to resettle MEK members in several European countries, including Albania.

The following is the full text of Kerry’s remarks on the recent transfer.

Secretary of State John Kerry

John KerryOn Friday of last week, the last 280 members of the exiled Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin e-Khalq, or MEK, as they’re known, were moved out of Camp Liberty in Iraq. And their departure concludes a significant American diplomatic initiative that has assured the safety of more than 3,000 MEK members whose lives have been under threat. And as everybody remembers, the camp they were in had on many occasions been shelled. There were people killed and injured. And we have been trying to figure out the way forward.

Well, the last 10 years have been filled with reminders of this challenge. I first became involved in this effort when I was in the Senate, and that is why during my first year as Secretary I appointed Jonathan Winer, one of my longest-serving and most trusted advisers, as our emissary to find a way to help the MEK be able to leave Iraq.

After steady progress over a period of months, I visited Tirana earlier this year and I discussed with the Albanian Government how to assist in facilitating the transfer and the resettlement of the last group of MEK members from Camp Liberty. Albania has a proud tradition of protecting vulnerable communities, as it did during the Kosovo conflict and in sheltering large numbers of Jews during World War II. I am very grateful that in this case too Albania was willing to play an important humanitarian role. I also want to thank the governments of Germany, Norway, Italy, the U.K., Finland, and other EU countries for helping to save the lives of the MEK. And this is a major humanitarian achievement, and I’m very proud that the United States was able to play a pivotal role in helping to get this job done. —Sept. 12, 2016, during a press briefing

Iranprimer.usip.org

September 19, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

State Department Removes Last MEK Members from Iraq

Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Monday that the last 280 members of a controversial Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), had been removed from a camp near Baghdad and given refuge in Albania.

The news aroused little notice amid Kerry’s remarks about a bigger story – a new attempt at a cease-fire agreement in Syria. But the announcement marks an end to a long-running saga that was among the many unforeseen complications of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The relocation also diminishes the likelihood that the MEK will be able to foment more mischief in the Middle East.

A Marxist-Islamist group that killed six Americans in Tehran in the 1970s and lost out in a power struggle after the 1979 Iranian revolution, the MEK fled to Iraq and supported Saddam in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. That decision earned the undying enmity of most Iranians – a fact that MEK leaders sought to conceal in their efforts to cultivate support in the United States.

The MEK also helped Saddam brutally suppress uprisings by Iraqi Shiites and Kurds after the 1991 Gulf War and is believed responsible for attacks on Iranian officials in the 1990s. For this reason, the group – which for decades kept adherents at a base outside Baghdad called Camp Ashraf – was persona non grata in a post-Saddam Iraq dominated by Shiites and Kurds.

The administration of President Bill Clinton put the MEK on the State Department terrorism list in 1997 in what some say was a gesture to the then reformist government of Iran, led by President Mohammad Khatami. The political arm of the group, the so-called National Council of Resistance, lobbied for years to be removed from the list and finally succeeded in 2012 when Iran was at the height of its international isolation over its nuclear program.

Even after winning this fight, the group continued to hold “conventions” in Paris, where Maryam Rajavi, the widow of MEK leader Massoud Rajavi, held court. The MEK has also continued to pay large speaking fees to a bipartisan assortment of former U.S. officials, including former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who supports Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton backer Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor.

In July, a former Saudi head of intelligence and ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal, also appeared at such a meeting and called for the “downfall of the [Iranian] regime.” This led many observers to conclude that much of the MEK’s money is coming from Saudi Arabia, which is embroiled in a bitter rivalry with the Iranian government.

After Saddam was overthrown, the residents of Camp Ashraf were in obvious peril. The George W. Bush administration, which had earlier promised Iran that the MEK members would be declared enemy combatants, instead put the camp under U.S. projection.

For years, the MEK was able to use the plight of the stranded camp inhabitants to attract support for its cause. Given the hostility of the Baghdad government and occasional violent Iraqi intrusions into the camp, concern for these people’s welfare was justified. At the end of 2011, the group agreed to transfer the more than 3,000 residents of Ashraf to a former U.S. military base closer to Baghdad known as Camp Liberty and to allow the U.N. to begin processing residents for eventual resettlement.

It took years for U.S. officials to find countries willing to accept the MEK members; the effort was reminiscent of that required to try to empty out Guantanamo.

In announcing the departure of the last residents from Camp Liberty, Kerry called it rare “good news.” “Their departure concludes a significant American diplomatic initiative that has assured the safety of more than 3,000 MEK members whose lives have been under threat,” Kerry said. “And as everybody remembers, the camp they were in had on many occasions been shelled. There were people killed and injured. And we have been trying to figure out the way forward.”

State Department officials say that Albania has accepted the largest number of MEK refugees. In addition, Kerry said, Germany, Norway, Italy, Britain, Finland and other European countries have taken MEK members. “This is a major humanitarian achievement, and I’m very proud that the United States was able to play a pivotal role in helping to get this job done,” Kerry said.

The group has also been in the news lately because of the release of recorded comments by the late Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri condemning the Iranian regime for executing thousands of jailed MEK members in 1988 at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. MEK leaders had foolishly sent adherents into Iran after the Islamic Republic accepted a U.N.-brokered cease-fire. Then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini retaliated by sanctioning the killing of the detainees, many of whom had been scooped up as youngsters in the chaos following the revolution. Montazeri, who had been Khomeini’s heir apparent, was pushed aside because of his criticism of the executions and spent many of his last years under house arrest in the Iranian clerical center of Qom. His taped remarks were released by his son.

The 1988 executions – which also killed many leftists and other regime opponents — were a grotesque abuse of human rights. But sympathy for the victims should not lead to support for the MEK. Far from the “democratic” organization it purports to be, the group is a cult that forces members to be celibate, to give up personal wealth and to show complete allegiance to Ms. Rajavi.

As unpopular as the current government of Iran may be, it is hard to find Iranians who would switch from the current system to one led by the MEK. Hopefully, the former residents of Camp Ashraf will be able to construct new lives outside Iraq and memories of the movement will fade.

By Barbara Slavin, Voice Of America,

Barbara Slavin is Acting Director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council in Washington.

September 17, 2016 0 comments

Iraq

What’s next for Baghdad-Tehran ties as last MEK members leave Iraq?

BAGHDAD — On Sept. 10, commenting on the news that the last batch of Iranian dissidents affiliated with the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) had left Iraq and were heading to Albania in a deal that the United States mediated and the United Nations supervised, the Iraqi government declared it had "closed the book on the Baathist regime."

The last group of Iranians was composed of 280 dissidents. They had lived in Camp Liberty refugee camp in Baghdad since 2012, after the Iraqi government transferred them from Camp Ashraf in Diyala province, along the Iraq-Iran border, in which they had lived for almost three decades.

On Sept. 12, US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his happiness about the MEK members’ departure from Iraq and escaping the danger that was threatening their lives there, saying, "Their departure concludes a significant American diplomatic initiative that has assured the safety of more than 3,000 MEK members whose lives have been under threat."

Kerry added, "[Camp Liberty] had on many occasions been shelled. There were people killed and injured. And we have been trying to figure out a way forward. … After steady progress over a period of months, I visited Tirana earlier this year and I discussed with the Albanian government how to assist in facilitating the transfer and the resettlement of the last group of MEK members from Camp Liberty. … I’m very proud that the United States was able to play a pivotal role in helping to get this job done."

Every now and then, Camp Liberty, which had sheltered MEK members for four years, would be bombed with mortars and rockets by armed groups close to Iran. For instance, Watheq al-Battat, a leader for the armed faction Hezbollah in Iraq who was reportedly killed in 2014, claimed responsibility for carrying out an attack against the camp in 2013, killing seven people and wounding 100 others.

On Sept. 10, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s media bureau issued a press statement, expressing the prime minister’s satisfaction with the departure of the last Iranian dissidents. The government statement read, "The Iraqi government has completely eliminated the presence of the MEK on Iraqi territory and was able to close this file and close the book on the Baathist regime."

A major burden has been lifted off Baghdad’s shoulders after 13 years. The MEK, which Iran-affiliated Iraqi parties call the "Khalq hypocrites," was close to Saddam Hussein’s regime and had opposed the velayat-e faqih project, which has had strong ties with the Iraqi governments for 13 years.

Iran exerted great pressure on Iraqi authorities to put an end to the MEK in their country, because the group created a source of concern for Iran’s presence and projects there. This is why Baghdad breathed a sigh of relief as it bid farewell to the opponents of velayat-e faqih.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari said Sept. 11, "The hypocrite terrorists — the MEK — had many conspiracies and committed crimes against the Iranian and Iraqi peoples. This is why their departure helps to spread chaos all around the world. On the other hand, the departure of al-Qaeda, which attacked both the Iranian and Iraqi people, was a good thing. They will be brought to justice sooner or later."

Majed Ghammas, the representative of the Lebanese Shiite Supreme Council to Tehran, told Iranian Tasnim news agency that the MEK’s departure from Iraq was "humiliating."

Meanwhile, Fatima al-Zarakani, an Iraqi member of parliament for the State of Law Coalition led by Nouri al-Maliki, told Al-Monitor, "The MEK is a terrorist group. They had great cooperation with the Baathist regime to exterminate the Iraqi people. Their departure from Iraq is a major positive step toward getting rid of the Baathist regime’s affiliates in the war against Iraqis. … The MEK has played a negative role in Iraq before and after 2003, as well as it has sought to please the Baathist regime and Iraq’s enemies through acts that harmed the Iraqi political process."

However, Maryam Rajavi, the president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, commented on the last Iranian dissidents’ transfer from Iraq to Albania and said, "This process is a strategic defeat for the regime in Tehran, where the bells rang marking the start of change [in Iran], attack and crawl operations."

She added, "The conspiracies and schemes to eliminate the MEK were defeated. The velayat-e faqih regime remained, along with its Ministry of Intelligence, its terrorism power and all its spies in Iraq who were hungry for the blood of MEK members, dragging their tails between their legs in shame."

For his part, an Iranian dissident who spent time in Camp Ashraf in Iraq but currently resides in Paris, told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, "The suffering the MEK members had to endure in Iraq over the past 13 years cannot be described. But we can describe the steadfastness with which we confronted Mullahs’ attempts to annihilate us; we were victorious and the dictatorial regime was defeated."

Of course, the MEK’s departure from Iraq after they had been present there for 30 years has eliminated the threat posed against the Iranian regime, since the MEK’s proximity to Iranian interests in Iraq could not have been easy for Tehran.

After 2013, Iraq’s Shiite governments missed the chance to take advantage of both the presence and the departure of MEK members in strengthening their position vis-a-vis neighboring Iran, thereby enhancing Iraq’s national interests in the midst of regional rivalries over Iraq.

By Mustafa Saadoun , al-monitor, Translator : Cynthia Milan

September 17, 2016 0 comments

Iran

Five reasons Iranians hate Saudi rulers

Hajj 2016 is proceeding while Iranian pilgrims didn’t attend one of the biggest Muslim ceremonies due to conflicts between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Meanwhile, some pilgrims from Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq were also prevented from travel to Mecca because of harsh policies of the new generation of Saudi rulers. Since 2011, Saudi Arabia has been supporting salafist groups in Syria and Iraq and have tried to spread insecurity to Lebanon and Iran as well. Consequently, in December 2015 German intelligence had warned that Saudi Arabia was at risk of becoming a major destabilizing influence in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Leader of Islamic Revolution on Monday September 5 issued an important message to all Muslims around the world in which he paralleled Saudi Arabian authorities with the Quranic term “evil progeny of the taghut” which refers to Umayyad dynasty in Islamic history. The message and its harsh rhetoric reflects deepened conflict between Tehran and Riyadh. The conflict, however, doesn’t seem to be only at political levels and majority of Iranians are strongly opposed to the Saudi regime.

Here are five major reasons Iranian people hate Saudi rulers:

1- The hajj stampede in 2015 caused a new flare-up in tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The September 2015 stampede and crush of pilgrims killed at least 7,477 people, according to a list that was published by Saudi Ministry of Health. Tehran has said 464 of the dead were Iranian and those who survived blame the catastrophe on Saudi mismanagement of the annual pilgrimage. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on the United Nations to investigate the incident. Iran has urged Saudi Arabia to apologize for the disaster and form an international Islamic fact-finding committee, but it has so far been refuted by Saudi rulers. In his recent message‌, Iran’s Leader highlighted the problem; “instead of apology and remorse and judicial prosecution of those who were directly at fault in that horrifying event, Saudi rulers – with utmost shamelessness and insolence – refused to allow the formation of an international Islamic fact-finding committee.”

2) In April 2015, 2 Iranian teenage pilgrims were sexually harassed by two Saudi security officers at Jeddah Airport. After that, thousands of Iranians protested outside Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran over the abuse of these two Iranian pilgrims. On April 13th, Iran suspended minor hajj trips to Saudi Arabia until the Saudi government “applies a strong attitude” to the case. Although Saud al-Faisal, FM of Saudi Arabia, has pledged to Iran’s ambassador that his government will punish the two Saudi policemen very soon, nothing has happened yet!

3) On 31 July 1987 around 400 pilgrims, out of which two thirds had Iranian nationality were killed by Saudi security forces during a gathering. Iranian officials maintain that the Saudis had opened fire on the demonstrators without provocation, and that the demonstrations had been peaceful. For people of Iran and perhaps for the families of martyrs in other countries, that event is a sad event and that year’s Hajj is known and recalled as ‘Bloody Hajj’.

4) As the leading global exporter of oil, Saudi Arabia has refused to cut production in the face of plummeting oil prices to defend its market share. As a result, the world is now awash in cheap oil. The drop in prices already has forced Iran to splash its government budget. Saudi Arabia has used the oil price as a leverage to put pressure on Iran’s economy just at a time when the sanctions were imposed on Iran’s economy.

5) About a month ago, Saudi Arabia hosted Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) leader Maryam Rajavi and supported the militia group’s gathering in France. This group initially did find its place on some Western state’s terror list. The MKO terrorist organization has a long record of assassinations taking lives of around 12000 high ranking Iranian officials and civilians. One of the most terrible of such terrorist attacks by the MKO was the bombing of the Islamic Republic Party’s headquarters. During this terrorist attack then-Head of Iran’s Supreme Court, Ayatollah Beheshti along with 72 of Iranian ministers, MPs and politicians were killed. Saudi Arabia is trying to reinvigorate MKO and other terrorist groups against Iranian People. Moreover, Saudis have long supported separatists groups such as ‘Pan-Turkism Party,’ ‘Democratic Solidarity Party of Al-Ahwaz,’ ‘Jundallah,’ etc.

By Ali Rajabi,

Ali Rajabi is a Tehran-based journalist working as political editor of Hamshahri newspaper.

September 14, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Trusting the cult of Rajavi to fight inequalities is a huge gaffe

Human society is dreaming the day that people will live together in peace regardless of their gender, ethnic, race, religious and national differences. Illuminated, open-minded people think of a society in which people value their most important common characteristic: humanity. Humanity is the basic notion for the qualities that make us human, such as the ability to love and have compassion, be creative, and not be a robot or alien. To achieve such ideals in a human society, one should trust those who actually practice the criteria of humanity not a destructive cult of personality like the Mujahedin Khalq with a dark history of violence and discrimination.

The Iranian nation includes a variety of ethnic minorities living in different parts of the country. This means that the Iranian territory has the potential capacity for separatist groups. As Mohammad Sahimi the Iranian-American professor suggests, the US and Israel alliance have founded their strategy on using this capacity to create what they call the “new Middle East”. They mostly succeeded to make this strategy work in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon but not in Iran.

“One approach that had been discussed for years and is now being seriously pursued is inciting ethnic unrest and creating puppet separatist groups or “liberation movements” in Iran’s provinces where ethnic groups other than Persians make up a significant portion of the population,” writes Sahimi. “They include Iran’s two Azerbaijan provinces, Kurdistan, and the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, where a small but significant part of the population is Iranian-Arab.” [1]

As it is known to everyone, the MKO is also one of the US-Israeli backed dissident groups to push Iran to turn into a client state. The MKO in its turn has so far cooperated with separatist group like Kurdish Pejak and now it is endeavoring to attract other separatists like Ahwazi Arabs. This year, the group annual gathering in Paris provided an opportunity for Ahwazi figures like Karim Abdian who might be so pleased to see Saudi Prince Turkie Faisal there calling for the fall of the Iranian government.

Karim Abdian announced his pleasure in an article published by Asharq Al-awsat. He writes about his experience of being in the list of MKO sponsors: “There appeared to be a drive to reach out to others in the Iranian opposition as well as Arab governments, in an effort to forge wider solidarity. Invited to attend for the first time, I headed a moderate Ahwazi Arab delegation as we sought to respond to the MEK’s offer to give our cause a fair hearing.” [2]

Abdian believes that the MKO is a reliable entity to unite with to form a federal state. As a matter of fact, federalism is the aim of certain separatists. Professor Sahimi asserts that in 2005, the American Enterprise Institute, the bastion of the neoconservatives, held a conference, “The Unknown Iran: Another Case for Federalism?” According to him the conference “, as usual, was attended by some who claim to represent a portion of the Iranian population. But the conference also provoked wide protests by Iranians.”[3]

While Karim Abdian resorts to the Cult of Rajavi as a trustable “non-Persian” opposition group, he indicates his ignorance about the current Mujahedin Khalq by recalling Ayatollah Taleqani as “the MEK’s ideological father”. He fails to know that Massoud Rajavi has been the absolute leader of the cult for at least the past 35 years. He counts on the MKO alliance saying, “In a positive move, Dr. Mohammad Mohaddessin, the head of MEK’s foreign relations, stated in recent interviews with Al-Arabiya and Alkhabriah that MEK seeks the same autonomy for the Kurdish, Arab, Baloch, Azeri, Turkmen and Lur regions as well.”[4]

The recent move by the MKO to embrace Arab states and Arab separatists is just another effort to find financial sponsors to replace Saddam Hussein. Adam Ereli, a lobbyist for Qatar and former U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain attended the MKO’s recent panel in Washington. He is an often-quoted critic of the Iran deal in the media and lobbyist for one of Iran’s biggest regional rivals, Qatar.”Over the past year, news outlets have consistently failed to disclose his work on behalf of Qatar when publishing his attacks on the White House’s nuclear diplomacy,” writes Eli Clifton of Lobelog. [5]

“Ereli wouldn’t be the first MEK-advocate with Sunni-Gulf ties to jump on the MEK’s bandwagon,” suggests Clifton. “Prince Turki bin Faisal al-Saud, the former head of the Saudi intelligence agency and longtime ambassador to the U.S., praised MEK leader Maryam Rajavi at the group’s annual gathering last July, in Paris. Prince Turki’s appearance, and his show of open support for the MEK, lends new credence to the rumors that the Sunni Gulf states are a possible source for the group’s mysterious funding.” [6]

Professor Sahimi accurately conclude that “the efforts to break Iran up will ultimately fail, as Iran has existed for thousands of years”. [7]Separatists and their allies particularly the Cult of Rajavi should know that Iranian nationality is one single identity that all ethnic minorities of Iran are living under it and brightened Iranians are those who seek a peaceful world together with all human beings of all races, religions and ethnic backgrounds. Mujahedin Khalq have indicated that humanity does not mean to them, what matters to the Rajavis is the survival of their cult of personality.

By Mazda parsi

Sources:

[1] Sahimi, Mohammad, Stop Supporting Separatist Groups in Iran, Antiwar.com, October 15, 2012

[2] Abdian, Karim, How the Iranian Opposition can Unite and Win?,Asharq Al-Awsat, September 4,2016

[3] Sahimi, Mohammad, Stop Supporting Separatist Groups in Iran, Antiwar.com, October 15, 2012

[4] Abdian, Karim, How the Iranian Opposition can Unite and Win?,Asharq Al-Awsat, September 4,2016

[5] Clifton, Eli, Congressional Research Service Expert and Gulf Lobbyist Headline MEK Event, LobeLog

August 31, 2016

[6] ibid

[7] Sahimi, Mohammad, Stop Supporting Separatist Groups in Iran, Antiwar.com, October 15, 2012

September 13, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Dirty deals between the MKO, Saudis and their lobbyists in the US

Sunday marks the 15th anniversary of 9/11 and many events have been planned to honor the victims who lost their lives. However, you may be shocked to hear that there are still people who celebrate the violent act of terrorist extremists of Al-Qaida.

These people include the Mujahedin Khalq Organization ( the MKO/ the Cult of Rajavi) whose disappeared leader ;Massoud Rajavi gathered the rank and file in Baqerzadeh Camp and congratulated members on the occasion of the collapse of imperialists’ twin towers, offering candies. He said,” this was reactionary Islam, let’s see what revolutionary Islam will do.” (He refers to his group’s ideology as revolutionary Islam)

Surprising is the recent allegations made by one of the American sponsors of the MKO, former senator “Joe Lieberman” in his piece on the Wall Street Journal in which he has tried to link Iran to 9/11!

Lieberman is a famous pro-war figure against Iran. He was the one who called on bombing Iran in a 2010 speech to the Council of Foreign Relations. Lieberman who is a paid speaker for the MKO, addressed the group’s events promising them he will “be working closely” with them for a change of regime in Iran.”

Not only the support for the cult of Rajavi as a “resistance” or “opposition” group indicates the ignorance of the group supporters, but also it demonstrates the complexity and filthiness of the political deals that the MKO and its supporters are involved in.

The Iranian American Progress Action Center ( IAPAC) has posted a photo of Maryam Rajavi and his American friends such as Joseph Lieberman and Rudolph Juliani former mayor of New York.

IAPAC’s comment under the photo is revealing. The page explains how Lieberman is selling the American’s security to the Israel-Saudi-MKO alliance:

“There was a commission dedicated to fact finding about 9/11, so far all we know is they didn’t release the parts associated with Saudis and does not point a finger to Iran as a co-conspirator.”

The page believes that Lieberman’s new allegations “seems to have appeared out of thin air to help Lieberman install his radical Islamic friends.”

However, IAPAC fails to note that the MKO celebrated the 9/11 disastrous event in 2001. It does not notify that Massoud Rajavi has promised his followers to accomplish what AL-Qaida didn’t succeed to do.

The page is right to warn about the dirty relations of warmongers. “Clearly Lieberman and his Saudi owners and Bibi ( Benjamin Netantahu) are creating a pre-text for a war with Iran,” IAPAC commented.” We should not allow American blood and treasure to be wasted on another unnecessary war to make Netanyahu and Saudis realize their dreams.”

The truth is that 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia who were honored by the MKO at that time. Leiberman and other anti-Iran Hawks should be prudent enough to at least know what the MEK is , otherwise they can continue their hypocrisy.

Mazda Parsi,

September 11, 2016 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

When is Rarjavi’s turn?

Awaiting the day that the polygamous Massoud Rajavi is brought to justice, Batul Soltani revealed horrific facts about her former “ideological leader” in the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ the Cult of Rajavi). Bringing a polygamous cult leader to justice is not unheard of in today world. Every now and then, people read the news of arrest and trial of cult leaders who abuse their victims who are ironically their wives and even daughters.

Goel Ratzon, 64, was a polygamist cult leader who was sentenced to 30 years in prison by an Israeli court for sexually abusing his wives and daughters. He had been convicted of a number of sexual offences including rape, indecent assault and incest, reported BBC world in October 2014.

In January 2016, the Guardian reported that Aravindan Balakrishnan, 75, the Maoist cult leader has was jailed for 23 years for imprisoning his daughter and repeated sex attacks on two of his followers.

As another instance, Rebeca Musser is known for being a wife of the late Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints prophet Rulon Jeffs and for her escape, advocacy work and involvement in legal proceedings after leaving the FLDS. She grew up in fear, concealing her family’s polygamous life style from the "dangerous" outside world but then she found enough courage to testify against her former cult leader as well as many female defectors of the Cult of Rajavi who have denounced womanizer Massoud Rajavi and his accomplice Maryam Rajavi who aided him to convince female members to get naked in front of him and then marry him.

Investigating polygamous cults, you will notice common characteristics and attitude among them. For example, as Ratzon had forced his wives to tattoo his name and sometimes his portrait on their bodies, Massoud Rajavi offered necklaces with his portraits on them to his female victims who had been nominated to get married with him.

The stories of all victims of the cults indicated that cult leaders definitely force their members to break their ties with their friends and families. The manipulative system of cults convinces victims that family and friends are harmful. Disassociating members of the outside world, the cult leaders are able to violate their human rights ranging from their most basic rights –like the right to choose their clothes– to rape and sexual abuse.

Despite the oppressive atmosphere of the destructive cults, in many cases there have been people who have succeeded to escape the bars of the cult and managed to testify against leaders that eventually caused their arrest and trial. In case of the MKO, defectors are countless, particularly female survivors of the cult of Rajavi who could manage to testify against the leaders of the cult in the international bodies. However, the Rajavis have not been brought to justice yet.

Justice is absolutely impartial and objective. Regarding large number of evidences and testimonies against the Rajavis, they must be sentenced to the most years in prison if they are tried in a court that death penalty is not included. But, they are not brought to justice unless the international community stops mixing justice with politics.

The West and its Saudi partners have turned the blind eye on certain human rights violations that take place all over the world on a daily basis since it is against their own interests., Human rights and justice mean to them only if it is about their enemies and the MKO is the enemy of their enemy so it is their friend and human rights of the MKO victims do not matter to them.

Mazda Parsi

September 3, 2016 0 comments

Members of the MEK

Fugitive heads of the MKO Cult: Fahimeh Ma’huzi

The Mujahedin-e Khalq ( MEK/MKO) criminal heads are running away from Camp Liberty, Iraq using false passports. These are the elements who have been involved in terrorizing, torturing and killing operations and are mostly wanted by Interpol.

They are mostly escaping to Albania and then to European countries.

Information and photographs of several of these fugitive elements has been exposed by former members of the MKO destructive cult.

Fahimeh Ma’huzi :

She operated as tank commander during the Mujahedin-e Khalq Pearl Operation in Iraqi Kurdistan in which Rajavi took orders from Iraqi dictator; Saddam Hussein to massacre Kurdish villagers. Maryam Rajavi famously ordered her forces to run over the victims with their tanks so as not to waste bullets unnecessarily. The MEK, acting as Saddam’s Private Army, were used to viciously quell the Kurdish uprisings (intifada Shabaniyeh) in the North.

She also functioned within the MKO Cult as one of the commanders of the Interior section ( Bakhah-e Dakheleh ). The “Interior Section” focus was inside Iran. That is this section was in charge of recruiting members, attracting money, spying and sabotage operation inside Iran. The MKO tricked many unaware people and deceptively transferred them to Iraq.

September 1, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Congressional Research Service Expert and Gulf Lobbyist Headline MEK Event

By outward appearances, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), the ex-terrorist Iranian opposition group hell-bent on regime change, appears to be losing their influence in the media. The group’s allegations about Iran’s nuclear program are met with increased skepticism after, for example, photographic evidence of “Lavizan-3,” a secret uranium enrichment facility in suburban Tehran, was revealed to be a stock photo from an Iranian safe company. But their spotty track record on providing verifiable information from inside Iran hasn’t stopped the group from gaining the support of Washington’s biggest Iran hawks—and, more recently, anti-Iran ideologues associated closely with Arab kingdoms in the Persian Gulf.

The MEK’s latest purported revelation, exclusively reported in the UK tabloid, The Daily Mail, is that Iran commands 60,000 pro-Assad fighters in Syria, has spent as much as $100 billion in Syria since 2011, and maintains a secret command post near the Damascus airport. The fact that Iran is supporting the Syrian government comes as no surprise, but the scale of its involvement, if true, would mean Iran is far more deeply invested than was previously thought. But the Daily Mail’s reporting on the MEK’s allegations provides little evidence to back up the tough-to-swallow claim that Iranian led forces outnumber the Syrian army.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the MEK’s political front, will present its findings tomorrow at its Washington offices with a panel discussion featuring, among others, Dr. Kenneth Katzman, a prominent Iran expert at the taxpayer-funded Congressional Research Service (CRS), and Amb. Adam Ereli, a lobbyist for Qatar and former U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain.

Katzman’s participation in the panel is particularly surprising, given his previous critical writings about the group. In 2010, he authored a CRS report featuring a section on the MEK, which he characterized as advocating “Marxism blended with Islamic tenets,” a fact that the MEK—despite its well-documented history—now denies. Katzman cited a 2007 State Department report which “notes the group’s promotion of women in its ranks and again emphasizes the group’s ‘cult-like’ character, including the indoctrination of its members and separation of family members, including children, from its activists.” And in 2012, Katzman warned about exiled opposition groups like the MEK, comparing them to the internal Iranian opposition Green Movement:

Some groups have been committed to the replacement of the regime virtually since its inception, and have used violence to achieve their objectives. Their current linkages to the Green Movement are tenuous, if existing at all, and some indications suggest these movements want to dominate any coalition that might topple the regime.

Katzman did not respond to questions about his decision to participate in the panel.

In contrast to Katzman, J. Adam Ereli, another MEK panelist, is an often-quoted critic of the Iran deal in the media and lobbyist for one of Iran’s biggest regional rivals, Qatar. Over the past year, news outlets have consistently failed to disclose his work on behalf of Qatar when publishing his attacks on the White House’s nuclear diplomacy.

Ereli, along with former Rep. Vin Weber (R-MN), is listed as “personally and substantially involved in the performance” of Mercury’s work on behalf of Qatar, according to the 2015 contract between Mercury Public Affairs, where Ereli is a vice-chairman, and Qatar. Qatar pays Mercury $100,000 per month for Ereli and Weber’s services. That contract has been extended twice and now continues until the end of 2016. Ereli didn’t respond to a question about whether he was appearing on the panel in a personal capacity or as a lobbyist for Qatar.

The Thursday appearance on the panel won’t be the first time that Ereli has participated in one of MEK’s events. In July, 2014, Ereli appeared at a Capitol Hill event hosted by the Organization of Iranian American Communities, a coalition whose sole purpose is supporting the MEK, and praised the NCRI. He noted, contra Katzman’s assessment, that the MEK was a voice for Iranians who are dissatisfied with the country’s leadership, saying, “Outside of Iran, and both inside of Iran, there is a credible organization that helps channel that dissent, that is the NCRI or Mojahedin-e Khalq.”

While the MEK and many of its stateside boosters promote the group as the legitimate Iranian opposition, impartial Iran experts believe the group lost any popularity and legitimacy it once held inside Iran thanks to its decision to fight alongside Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war. Ereli also spoke at another pro-MEK Hill event in 2015 and attended the NCRI’s Nowruz (Iranian New Year) celebration in March.

Ereli wouldn’t be the first MEK-advocate with Sunni-Gulf ties to jump on the MEK’s bandwagon. Prince Turki bin Faisal al-Saud, the former head of the Saudi intelligence agency and longtime ambassador to the U.S., praised MEK leader Maryam Rajavi at the group’s annual gathering last July, in Paris. Prince Turki’s appearance, and his show of open support for the MEK, lends new credence to the rumors that the Sunni Gulf states are a possible source for the group’s mysterious funding.

About the Author

Eli Clifton reports on money in politics and US foreign policy. Eli previously reported for the American Independent New Network, ThinkProgress, and Inter Press Service.

September 1, 2016 0 comments

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