Articles

Rajavi’s assertions motivate defectors to denounce him more and more

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 28 February 2014
Three main issues dominate the news in Farsi this week. We have given special attention to these.
++ In an Open Letter dated January 21 addressed to Jane Holl Lute, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General for the Relocation of Camp Hurriya (aka Liberty) Residents Outside of Iraq, fifty nine former MEK members ask her to help the people in Iraq and in Albania. They emphatically ask her to bypass the MEK leaders because they are the problem and not part of the solution. Several Iranians resident in Europe who have contact with their friends in Tirana are now reporting that the MEK are exerting huge pressure on the disaffected members, who have been moved to another building block, to sign a petition against these fifty nine people and denounce them as “agents of the regime”. Out of 210 individuals transferred to Albania from Camp Liberty, 75 have deserted the MEK. Except for a few who have money from their families the rest must rely either on $200 per month from the UNHCR or alternatively the MEK will give them $500 per month on condition they work on the internet (to promote the MEK) and not work against them in any way.
The MEK’s lead contact who claims to be representative of Rajavi (and is wanted in Iraq for criminal activity), called Esmail Mortezai, nickname Javad Khorrasan, along with his deputy, Farzaneh Meidanshahi (who is also wanted in Iraq for criminal activity), are threatening ex members that the MEK will withhold the money and will make sure they are labeled as “agents of the regime” and, since they claim to be working under the protection of the Pentagon, have threatened the refugees that they can easily be “vanished” if they complain and do not comply with MEK demands.
The MEK have begun to make an example of one of the outspoken ex members who refuses to cooperate with them called Ehsan Bidi in order to show others what could be done against them if they start talking against the MEK. An NCRI (another name for the MEK) announcement claims Bidi was sent directly from Iran’s intelligence ministry in Iraq (which they claim is Hotel Mohajer, see next item), to Tirana. Bidi, who is a vocal critic among the refugees in Tirana has refuted this information and says this “will not stop me exposing what the MEK did in Iraq”. Although the MEK claim he has been sent from Iraq to Tirana by the MOIS, Bidi was interviewed by the UNHCR, Amnesty International and other human rights organisations after he was arrested in transit in Cairo airport while he was trying to get to Europe, a journey that took nearly a year, and during which journey his friend died in Cairo airport of a heart attack.

++ Since 2008 ex members of the MEK who managed to run away from Camp Ashraf or Camp Liberty have been given temporary refuge in Hotel Mohajer until they either go to third countries or return to Iran and their families. The hotel has been allocated and kept secure by the Iraqi authorities exclusively for this purpose. Apparently, after all this time the MEK have suddenly woken up because for the last two weeks they have been claiming that the hotel is a joint headquarters for Iraqi and Iranian intelligence to put pressure on ex members to say things against Rajavi. This is why it is significant that the MEK claim Ehsan Bidi had been sent to Tirana from there (see previous item).
Ali Khatami, who currently resides in Hotel Mohajer after recently escaping the MEK camp, sent a letter to Iran Interlink this week explaining the situation at the hotel. Khatami says the MEK rants are a decoy and explains why. He starts by challenging Rajavi, saying “Even if Rajavi’s claim is right and I have been put under pressure to speak against him and everything I said is a lie, Rajavi himself knows that when I say he and his wife ordered the massacre of the Kurds over the wireless, I was listening at the receiving end. When I say he has killed scores of people, the graves of the victims are in Kurdistan and the survivors of the attacks are still there in their hundreds. And nothing I say is without proof and evidence.”
Having introduced himself in this way, Khatami explains, “Having said that, I know exactly where he is burning so that since 2008 he has, only just now, suddenly discovered a hotel where ex members go. The reason is a visit from Jane Holl Lute [Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General for the Relocation of Camp Hurriya (aka Liberty) Residents Outside of Iraq], who along with her assistant visited the ex members and wrote everything we said down and promised she would have more frequent contact with us as part of her work.” Khatami goes on to say, “Rajavi may think she came here because we are more important, but the truth is, she came here because we are free and accessible. She cannot access people and talk freely with people inside Camp Liberty without the presence of Rajavi’s henchmen. UNAMI [in its Half Yearly Report on Human Rights – January to June 2013] clearly describes the various obstructive behaviour of the MEK and that is why Jane Holl Lute had to come to us.”
In answer to Rajavi’s assertion that the hotel is run jointly by Iranian and Iraqi Intelligence, Khatami has this to say: “Rajavi is trying to say that there has been contact between the people in the hotel and Iran. Well I can tell you that from where I am sitting there is no contact unless people want to return to Iran under the mediation of the Red Cross. In that case, in order to get their passports they need contact and interviews with the Iranian embassy, which they have. Did Rajavi think they should have got their Iranian passports from Maryam Rajavi in Paris to go to Iran? I can also tell you from where I am sitting that we have no restrictions, contrary to Camp Liberty where we were forbidden to see our mothers and fathers for decades. We all have access to the internet and can Skype in privacy from our own rooms, contrary to conditions in Camp Liberty where we couldn’t talk to anyone privately. We all have the phone number and emails of the UN, UNAMI and ICRC representatives, who regularly visit us in the hotel as well.”
He also mentions that the openness of the hotel was exactly the reason that Massoud Dalili was able to simply walk out and go to another hotel which sadly gave the MEK the opportunity to kidnap him and take him to Camp Ashraf where they killed him on September 1st and burned his face to disguise his identity. Khatami derides Rajavi, saying, “You claim that this is a joint venture between Iran and Iraq because we are being guarded by Iraqi security. What did you expect? That the Swedish would be guarding the building? These Iraqi guards are the reason you cannot kidnap us like you did Dalili.”
Khatami again derides the MEK’s statement in the NCRI website, saying, “All the money and facilities we have been provided by the UNHCR and ICRC you have put it as MOIS. Not only have you never helped anyone yourself – and that’s why we had to run away and leave all our personal possession, clothes, photos etc and run away – but now that we are getting help from international bodies you are blaming MOIS. Everyone can see you are trying to make people afraid and not run away. It’s not as though everyone doesn’t see what you are doing.”

++ In another, separate letter to Iran Interlink, Ali Khatami also mentions that he has been Skypeing his friends in Albania, who say they are mortally afraid of the terror teams created by Esmail Mortezai, Rajavi’s representative in Albania. They have told him the MEK have created ten teams of three MEK operatives in order to create fear among the ex members. Khatami warns in his letter that he is surprised that although human rights organisations can see what is happening against these innocent people – who don’t want to continue as terrorists with the MEK – they remain silent. On the other hand, he warns European and Western governments that “if the MEK are allowed to create terror teams in Albania and elsewhere without hindrance, you are not far away from them doing what they already did in Iraq and now here, and you will suddenly find yourselves victims of this group and you will have to pay a higher price to stop them in future.”
++ In another move, a famously lumpen person who fronts himself as a filmmaker called Mansour Ghadarkhah, has started an advertising campaign claiming to be looking for investment to make a documentary film called ‘The Birth of Terror’. Ironically in his advert he has claimed “we will put Maliki in his place”, that is, the prime minister of Iraq. For people in the know, it is obvious this is a money laundry stunt to enable the MEK to spend some money to make a propaganda film for themselves. But they need money laundering techniques because this will be very expensive and will probably cost several million dollars. Many critics have reacted to this new line of Rajavi to try to discredit anyone who says or does anything against him. One of which is Nasrin Ebrahimi from Switzerland who has simply asked if Mansour Ghadarkhah would like to interview the relatives of some of the twelve thousand Iranian victims and twenty five thousand Iraqi victims of MEK terrorism in his documentary, and, if he is interested, she says there are hundreds of ex MEK members who can tell him “what terrorism means inside an organisation”.
Ghadarkhah was exposed a few months ago by Mahnaz Ghezlou in Pejvak Iran website. After she wrote an article criticizing Rajavi, he called her a mercenary and tasked Ghadarkhah to character assassinate her. Ghezlou’s then wrote a response titled, ‘Dear Mr Rajavi, apparently it is not me who is a mercenary it is you and Ghadarkhah’. Along with the article she published documents, including emails between Ghadarkhah and his NCRI contact or handler about his expenses and salary – emails which had been inadvertently sent to her because Ghadarkhah’s handler was also called Mahnaz.
In continuation of this issue, Minou Sepher published an article addressed to a retired film director, Massoud Assadallahi, resident in LA since after the revolution, asking him to come clean about his relations with Maryam Rajavi and the MEK in Paris. She puts it to him that “there are plenty of facts about your relations with this group and I and others know that you have been on and off with them, but you have not been able to settle a price to work for them. Clearly you are still in doubt this time about whether you can get enough out of them.”
Massoud Khodabandeh has commented in Facebook about Assadallahi that although it is not important in our work [in Iran Interlink], still, as someone who has made films, some of which I like, if anyone has contact with him, please warn him not to fall into the trap if he can. Khodabandeh says he knows that all Assadallahi’s meetings with the MEK since 1994 have been filmed by MEK intelligence and these films were transferred to the MEK’s main archive in Camp Ashraf. But in the chaos of the war these videos have been exposed and many others now have copies. Khodabandeh says, “If you don’t believe me, perhaps you can remember that in 1994 you had a meeting with Mehdi Abrishamchi in Auvers sur Oise in which the film shows the whole meeting and then shows how Abrishamchi followed you all the way to the car where a driver was waiting and was talking to you all this time. And this film shows that you are bartering over the budget – which apparently didn’t work out since you didn’t produce anything – and how you claimed that for such a project you would need ‘good tools’, and then you name people as good tools and say these people (actors) are expensive.” Khodabandeh suggests, “I hope this is not too little or too late and you can rise above the fear and the greed evoked in you by the MEK. And remember Marzieh because she started out thinking she was too clever, before falling into the trap and eventually dying in their shit.”

++ Iraqi media reports that Iraq is ready to extradite Mojahedin Khalq criminals to Iran.
The Iraqi Justice Minister has said that Iraq is required to repatriate Mojahedin-e Khalq criminals to Iran due to the memorandum of understanding signed to facilitate the extradition of criminals.
“If Iran wants to take these individuals, we will extradite the most wanted MKO members to Tehran in coordination with the Iraq Judiciary system,” Hassan al-Shimari told Habilian’s correspondent in Baghdad. Asked about the lawsuits filed against the terrorist MKO group, al-Shimari said, “The case of MKO belongs to the National Security Council not to the Justice Ministry.”

March 1, 2014 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi

When and where did you sell your soul to the devil

An ex member of National Council of Resistance of Iran (a cover organization of MEK, AKA Mojahedin Khalq) mister Iradj Shokri has written a significant article about the leader of MEK and reviewing its When and where did you sell your soul to the devil notorious activities during the past few years.

The name of the article is: when and where did you sell your soul to the devil

In this article he has reviewed that how under Mr Rajavi the group violated human rights specialty its own members, how it has supported terrorism and sectarism in Iraq and how it has put the life of its members in danger. Therefore it is concluded that Rajavi`s activities are considered criminal.

The writer also explains how Mr Rajavi accuses all its critics as being spice in order to make them silent and stop them from reviewing MEK activities.

Writer believes that Mr Rajavi`s leadership has brought more hatered from Iranian people towards the group and explains how policies of the group has been against Iranian people. The group`s obvious supports and investment on war against Iran and trying to bring in more sanctions are actions which has discredit the group.

Mr Shokri also reviews how the group tried to interfere and effect Iraqi government. Obvious support for the Baath party and links and ties with supporters of terror groups were more than enough reasons for Iraqi people and officials to black list the MEK. The writer mentions that after fall of Saddam anybody could understand that MEK must leave Iraq. But Rajavi has childishly insisted that the group members stay in a country where they were not welcomed anymore and are seen as remnants of Saddam`s Regime.

As an example the mansions debt after fall off the former Iraqi dictator, Although disarmed, MEK organized a military parade and using their own propaganda machine tried to threaten Iraqi government.

After counting several huge mistakes done by the leadership of MEK The writer calls the members and supporters of MEK to study, ask and try to understand better of the situation.

February 25, 2014 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

The MeK New Front: messages, and consequences

Rajavi’s wrecked band goes into the abyss

The MeK New Front: messages, and consequences

Rajavi’s decision to apparent fighting with the dissidents and his entrance to stage of full-scale clash with protestors, whatever the reason, has important messages and consequences. Rajavi's wrecked band goes into the abyss

The most important message of Rajavi’s recent move is that despite the continuous efforts of his cult members for demonization of dissidents as poltroons and deserters, their revelations about Rajavi’s character and true nature of relationships in the MeK has had the desired effect. Dissidents’ disclosure has so shaken the pillars of Rajavi’s organization and challenged his fantasy grandeur that he has no choice but declaring fight against them.

In this regard, Rajavi has said openly: "By early 1392 (Persian Calendar), the regime has spent millions of dollars to employ mercenaries and political underdogs in order to scheme against the Mujahideen, the National Council of Resistance, and, especially, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, the MeK Leadership."

The fact is, In addition to the slander and character assassination of dissidents, Rajavi remnants were attempting to trade with anyone who has seceded from the group in order to silence him by allure and despite their relative achievement in previous years, Rajavi’s new approach reveals that the MeK has failed in this field, too.

The new statement of MeK’s leadership and the meeting they held recently indicates that the terrorist group has no choice but to fight against dissidents physically. Undoubtedly any adventure in this field will have immediate consequences for security of the MeK. Actually, any thuggish action in western countries is intolerable and they will be faced with overwhelming response!

This statement once again reveals that the MeK which one day used to claim overthrow of Iranian government, now is involved in internal conflicts and his main concern is survival of his organization at any price.

February 23, 2014 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 42

++ Mazda Parsi writing in English for Nejat Bloggers says “The MKO’s deep pocket is not enough”. Parsi starts his article by saying that in spite of “the well funded efforts by the Mujahedin Khalq Organization’s lobbyists in the US Congress, the pro Israel lobbying group, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) turned its back to the MKO. AIPAC gave up on pushing for a vote on an anti-Iran bill after top sponsor of new sanction bill — who is actually an MKO’s main advocate in the Congress– Senator Robert Menendez spoke against an immediate vote. The article concludes that “the MKO’s lavish parties for its high profile –corrupt– friends in the US Congress in order to run its hostile policies against the Iranian nation has not worked yet and it is unlikely to work in the future.”

++ Mojahedin Monitor website reports that families of the individuals killed in Camp Ashraf are negotiating with the Iraqi government for their bodies to be returned to Iran for proper burial. Around one hundred bodies are said to be left in the MEK graveyard and elsewhere. One family said, “We don’t know how our lovely brother was killed. We never received any official documents or truth about it. An MEK official called us and just told us that he was killed during the bombings of Iraq. Now we don’t want his remaining body to be in Iraq where before was camp Ashraf. We want the body to be returned to Iran and to be close to our family where we can visit him. I don’t think that he rests in peace in Iraq.”

++ In the Farsi websites many people are still responding to Maryam Rajavi’s convention for 300 associations which they say was completely irrelevant to anything that is happening in Iran. Mohammad Karami wrote that apparently for Rajavi what is happening in Syria is more important than even the lives of the people in Camp Liberty.

++ Also in Farsi, Massoud Rajavi’s Audio broadcast has continued to provoke scorn and ridicule. In the Audio Rajavi claims that all Iranian political refugees and opposition outside Iran owe their legitimacy to the MEK and their armed struggle. The widespread response has been that ‘refugee status was a right well before you were ever on the scene. You are a charlatan to claim it has anything to do with you.’

++ In Iran there was a gathering of families organised by Tabriz Nejat Association. Ebrahim Khodabandeh spoke at the event and a report talks of the need for the involvement of these families in order to rescue the people trapped in Iraq.

++ Massoud Khodabandeh had a lengthy interview with Maryam Sanjabi in Iran. The first part was published by Call of Truth website. The interview offers a personal view of Rajavi, his lifestyle and his cultish practices. In one part Khodabandeh answers a question about the extravagance and lifestyle of Rajavi. He says that Rajavi and his wife cannot be described as simply extravagant, it is like a sickness in them. Khodabandeh gives an example, “Suppose you consume too much food and drink, you can be said to be extravagant. But if you enjoy eating and drinking in front of hungry people, then that is sick.” Khodabandeh explained that when the French anti-terrorist police raided the MEK camp at Auvers sur Oise, they found hundreds of pairs of Maryam Rajavi’s shoes stuffed into her personal residence. That in itself was surprising for them. But then they discovered that with every other person in that place who underwent a body search, it was noticeable that their underwear was literally in tatters, and their clothing was old and worn.

++ Sa’ad al-Motallebi, an Iraqi political analyst and advisor to the country’s prime minister, denounced as dishonourable Western politicians who get paid by the Mojahedin Khalq. Referring to the delay in the MKO’s expulsion from Iraq, Sa’ad al-Motallebi told Habilian’s correspondent in Iraq that the reason for this delay is the lack of commitment of those countries who had previously expressed willingness to take them in their countries. He also made a reference to the politicians supporting the MKO and said, “Some politicians who have received money from the MKO not only support the group but they also act on their behalf.” The political expert said the reluctance of countries to accept these individuals in their countries may be due to the fact that these countries regard MKO members with suspicion…

++ Alsumaria News, Baghdad, reporting on a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry said that “Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari today received Jane Holl Lute, Special Adviser of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to resettle the residents of Camp Liberty outside Iraq, who was accompanied by Georgi Euston, Deputy Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations ( UNAMI ), in Baghdad. The statement noted that “during the meeting, the two sides reviewed the UN’s efforts through UNAMI to speed up the resettlement of the residents of Camp Liberty outside Iraq.” Zebari noted that “the government has fulfilled all its obligations towards the UN and recently made a financial contribution of half a million dollars to a trust fund proposed by the UN Secretary-General to cover costs relating to the transfer of the residents of the camp to third countries; a material declaration of the government’s position on the issue of removing all the camp residents from the country.”

21 February 2014

February 22, 2014 0 comments

Duplicity of the MEK nature

The MKO’s double standards over democracy and terrorism

Over the past weeks the Iranian society have been concerned over two different issues: The kidnapping of five Iranian border guards by Jaish-ul-Adl terrorist group and the alleged offensive dialogue in the TV serial that caused complaint of the Iranian Bakhtiari tribe. Departed from the authentic Iranian community, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) has taken a much different approach regarding these two facts.

The Sunni terrorist group Jaish ul-Adl of Iran (“Army of Justice of Iran”), the apparent successor to Jundullah, took responsibility for abducting the Iranian soldiers. Reportedly, the Takfiri group confirmed on its twitter account that it has kidnapped them. While the Iranian community all over the world condemned the Taliban-like kidnapping of the young Iranian hostages, the MKO has kept a tactical silence because it has always supported Al-Qaida-linked separatist groups. The MKO has been a supporter of the ex- leader of the terrorist Judullah, Abdulmalek Rigi openly calling him the leader of a democratic movement.

The MKO’s meaningful silence over the life of the Iranian soldiers who are at risk of being slaughtered by radical extremists evokes the violent anti-Iranian substance of the Cult of Rajavi. While online social networks are overwhelmed with waves of Iranians’ solidarity for kidnapped border guards, the MKO websites exaggeratedly focus on what they call "Bakhtiari Uprising" in Iran.

Using fake and true photos of Bakhtiari demonstrations in some Iranian provinces the MKO opportunists make efforts to trouble the waters of a democratic protest which may happen in any democratic society. The democratically stated demand of the Bakhtiari Iranians was met. The officials of the state-run Iranian TV stopped showing the TV serial. They also apologized to Bhakhtiari fellowmen for the alleged offensive language used in the serial. However the MKO propaganda tried to reflect the act of TV authorities as "retreat before Bakhtiari popular uprising"!

As a matter of fact, apology is a healing icon of democracy. The role of accountability, apology, and forgiveness in a democratic community is really helpful, very opposite to the uncivil discourse in the cult-like MKO which is based on hurling words at members, turning pain outward and projecting it on other people who are ideologically opposite–or at least perceived to be. When we reflect on our own behavior and apologize to those who we have hurt–even unintentionally– we create a space for light to break in. Space for a real conversation and for renewal and healing. A secure space that member trapped in the MKO structure absolutely lack.

According to numerous international reports and testimonies of former members of the MKO, inside the group, dissident voice is harshly suppressed by the leaders. Critics of the group are all labeled as "the agent of the Regime" so they are deserved to be extremely punished. No protest is allowed in the MKO. No space for light to break in.

By Mazda Parsi

February 20, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Diplomacy is underway; Domino of MKO failures has no end

“Give Diplomacy a Chance” was the title of a call circulated on Capitol Hill to sign a Letter to Barack Obama. The letter opposing new Iran sanctions legislation while talks underway was drafted by U.S. Diplomacy is underway; Domino of MKO failures has no end Reps. Lloyd Doggett and David Price have garnered the bipartisan support of over 100 members of House of Representatives. [1]

“At present, however, we believe that Congress must give diplomacy a chance. A bill or resolution that risks fracturing our international coalition or, worse yet, undermining our credibility in future negotiations and jeopardizing hard-won progress toward a verifiable final agreement, must be avoided.” said the letter sent to President Obama on Wednesday February12. [2]

The letter is bad news for the Mujahedin Khalq Organization who spent substantial sums of cash to rent paid advocates to organize a pressure campaign aimed at waging war against Iran and curtailing U.S. diplomatic efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear dispute.

The pro-diplomacy campaign came out when the White House criticized the sanctions supporters and promised to veto any bills calling for new sanctions since they clearly violate the interim P5+1 agreement.

"If certain members of Congress want the United States to take military action, they should be up front with the American public and say so," Bernadette Meehan, National Security Council spokeswoman, said in a statement.[3]

The MKO warmongering apparatus which is after violent regime change in Iran and works hard to push war against Iran got disappointed once more as AIPAC which for months had been lobbying lawmakers hard to push the Iran sanctions bill reversed course on the issue and retreated in the face of resistance from the White House and key Democratic Lawmakers.

Nonetheless serving as puppet of the Israeli regime and becoming tool of Israel and American Neo-Conservatives in launching acts of espionage and violence directed at Iran and unabashedly betraying their own nation — along with their deep pockets- brought nothing good for the group.

Nuclear talks between Iran and world powers move to the next level Tuesday with negotiators due to begin work on transforming an interim deal into an ambitious lasting accord.

MKO lost their old strategic Camp Ashraf. Nobody took serious their show of hunger strike – which the Cult leaders forced members to hold under the pretext of saving 7 allegedly missing Camp Ashraf residents after the September Camp Ashraf clashes – and the Cult leaders pressed to order its end allegedly because of a Spanish court’s ruling against the Iraqi Prime Minister’s Advisor. Iraq is serious in expelling them from the country. No country is willing to let in 3000+ former terrorists. The West prefers not to derail diplomacy with Iran engaging with a trivial terrorist Cult. Neither paid advocates, nor offering themselves as mercenaries of the Iranian nation enemies work anymore.

The MEK has no way to win or better to say to survive. The domino of MEK failures is continuing and the countdown for the group’s complete collapse has started.

By: A.Sepinoud

References:

[1]Algemeiner, Closed-Door Deals May Undermine Iran Sanctions Effort, February 12, 2014

[2] Win Without War, Over 100 Members of Congress Call for Diplomacy with Iran, February12, 2014

[3] Brown, Hayes, White House Challenges Congress: ‘Be Up Front With The American Public’ On War With Iran, Think Progress, January10, 2014

February 18, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

The MKO’s deep pocket is not enough

Despite the well funded efforts by the Mujahedin Khalq Organization’s lobbyists in the US Congress, the pro Israel lobbying group, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) turned its back to the MKO. AIPAC gave up on pushing for a vote on an anti-Iran bill after top sponsor of new sanction bill — who is actually an MKO’s main advocate in the Congress– Senator Robert Menendez spoke against an immediate vote. AIPAC said in an emailed statement, "that there should not be a vote at this time on the measure.”[1]

The New York Times’ Mark Landler suggests that there have been very few issues on which the AIPAC "lost showdown with the White House"."But now Aipac, as the group is known, once again finds itself in a very public standoff with the White House,” He writes. "Its top priority, a Senate bill to impose new sanctions on Iran, has stalled after stiff resistance from President Obama, and in what amounts to a tacit retreat, Aipac has stopped pressuring Senate Democrats to vote for the bill."[2]

US Lawmakers confirm that the political climate on Capitol Hill has changed since the bill’s sponsors and Aipac made their push to sign the new bill to increase sanctions against Iran in December. Apparently they plan "to give Mr. Obama breathing room for diplomacy".

Menendez and AIPAC’s change of course, however, came after the bill lost steam when several Democratic cosponsors of the legislation, including senators Joe Manchin (West Virginia), Kirsten Gillibrand (New York), Ben Cardin (Maryland), Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), and Chris Coons (Delaware), said they did not favor an immediate vote on the bill, according to Press TV.[3]

In December 2013 when the new anti Iran legislation was first brought to the Congress by Senator Menendez and his colleague Senator Kirk, Jim White of the Empty Wheel website gave the MKO too much credit to state that ” the work (and funding money) of MEK, which advocates for (in my opinion, violent) regime change in Iran, seems to be just as likely [AIPAC], if not more likely, to be behind this hideous piece of legislation ”.[4]However he was definitely right to accuse Menendez of being in the payroll of the MKO.

Earlier, in November, Austin Wright of Politico reported that an MKO activist in the US Masood Abooali contributed $2,600 in August to Sen. Lindsey Graham’s reelection campaign. In his investigative report he also revealed, "Earlier this year, Abooali contributed to two other Iran hawks, giving $2,600 to Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and $1,000 to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee."[5]

It is worth to know that Menendez is under criminal investigation by the FBI for his ties to two fugitive Ecuadorian bankers and his donors. Moreover, Ros- lehtinen is charged with the same crime. "While the fugitive brothers cannot donate directly because they are not US citizens, their American relatives can and have given generously to Ros-Lehtinen, Menendez and others," reported Brett Wilkins of Digital Journal. "In addition to Ros-Lehtinen, who received $20,000 from the family, and Menendez, who got $10,000 for his 2012 campaign." [6]

Although the two Senators deny any quid pro quo with the fugitive brothers the author of the piece adds more to the list of their mistakes. He criticizes Ros-lehtinen for publicly voicing "her support for Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK), a then-State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization of Iranian dissidents who once assassinated numerous US officials and carries out attacks inside Iran with US and Israeli assistance."[7]

By the way, the MKO’s lavish parties for its high profile –corrupt– friends in the US Congress in order to run its hostile policies against the Iranian nation has not worked yet and it is unlikely to work in the future.

By Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] Pecquet, Julian, AIPAC breaks with GOP on Iran sanctions, THE HILL, February 6, 2014

[2] Landler, Mark, Potent Pro-Israel Group Finds Its Momentum Blunted, New York Times, February 3, 2014

[3]Press TV, AIPAC gives up on anti-Iran bill vote, February 7, 2014

[4] White, Jim, MEK Purchases 27 US Senate Votes for War with Iran, emptywheel.net, December 20, 2013

[5] Wright, Austin, Lindsey Graham returns donations to Iranian exile group, Politico.com, November 13, 2013

[6] Wilkins, Brett, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) helped fugitive embezzlers, Digital Journal, February 6, 2014

[7] ibid

February 16, 2014 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 41

++ After French journalist Regis Debray, writing in Le Monde last week, criticised his government for keeping Maryam Rajavi in the country for so long, Rajavi’s lobbyists have been brought out for the usual campaign of character assassination. Alongside them Manouchehr Hezarkhani, one of the last few remaining NCR personalities, has been ‘taken out of storage’ after a long silence to swear at the journalist in Farsi. Hezarkhani has gone into overdrive praising the people who remain in Iraq and get killed, and repeating Rajavi’s lies which are intended to keep them in Iraq. Nader Naderi has responded to Hezarkhani’s articles with a memory from Camp Ashraf at the time of Saddam Hussein when Hezarkhani had come to visit along with his son. According to Naderi, whether intentionally or innocently, Hezarkhani’s son announced in front of several people that he wouldn’t mind staying and working with the MEK. Hezarkhani got angry with him and in front of the others told him straight, “Have I fed you donkey brains to come up with such a ridiculous idea!” His son answered that he didn’t mean to stay permanently, only for a few weeks. To which Hezarkhani shouted back and demanded, “Have they been talking to you that you have come up with such a ridiculous idea. You will leave either before me or with me in a few days time.” Naderi reminds Hezarkhani of this outburst and says “how disgusting it is that what you didn’t want for your son for a few weeks, even though there was no chance of being killed, you are now advocating on behalf of Rajavi for other people’s children to stay and be killed.”

++ This week Jaish Al Adl, one of the terrorist organisations supported by Saudi Arabia, has kidnapped five Iranian border guards. Since the MEK have always been fully supportive of the activities of Al Qaida connected groups, the Families of Victims of Terrorism in Iran has published an article which examines the links between Jaish Al Adl and the MEK, and how they work together.

++ There has been a huge response from ex members and others following Maryam Rajavi’s death threats issued in speech given at a meeting in Auvers sur Oise, and which were published by the MEK in their Farsi sites before quickly being removed as too incriminating. In English, Anne Singleton’s article unpicks Rajavi’s wording to extract the precise meaning of what she is saying; there can be no doubt she is asking her loyal followers to kill the people she defines as her enemies in Europe. In Farsi, writers warn western governments, and in particular the French government, about the threat. Most analyse this as a last ditch and desperate attempt by Rajavi to save herself, but even so, they say, there is now a serious physical threat of violence.

++ This week the MEK suddenly changed their tune. The MEK used to openly support the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Now suddenly they are saying they don’t support it and have removed all such material, past and present, from the MEK’s websites. More interestingly, after all these years of insisting that they stay in Iraq, they are now saying it is Iran which doesn’t allow us to leave. Judging from the responses in Farsi, nobody takes any of this seriously and treat it simply as propaganda. But Irandidban website has an interesting analysis. Placing this alongside the change of tune of Saddamists and Bathist remnants and Al Arabiyah network belonging to Saudi Arabia, they link this with the Americans’ ridiculous new claim that Iran is supporting Al Qaida. Irandidban concludes that they have all been pushed into this position because they have failed in their attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of Iraq and since then are trying to whitewash their efforts. The article traces this back to Bandar Bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief, whose covert plans in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon were exposed to such a point that he had to disappear from the scene. Now those behind these activities, including the MEK, are trying to distance themselves from it.

++ Nejat Association writes a critique of an article supporting the MEK from America: “The MKO’s million dollar campaign in the US Congress has always got the attention of Western media. Hannah Allam of the Miami Herald is one of many American journalists who report on the well funded MKO lobbying efforts in the Congress and its problematic situation as a foreign force in Iraq. The herald piece “Iran’s MEK has friends in Congress, but that hasn’t eased problems in Iraq” , quotes an MKO activist Shirin Nariman who admits that the group’s “deep pocket” and ” relentless lobbying” against Islamic Republic is the key to buy US high profiles…”

++ Mehdi Nikbakht has published article in Setaregan site in Switzerland comparing the life Rajavi and his wife were leading according to the newly published news about the nuclear bunkers etc, in Camp Ashraf, and how the ordinary members had to suffer without even the bare minimum for their needs – food, clothing, heating or cooling, etc – in the camps in Iraq.

++ There has been an enthusiastic response to the action taken by a group of French citizens calling themselves the Peace group who held a demonstration in Auvers sur Oise demanding the expulsion of the MEK cult from France. The MEK typically aggressive counter reaction similarly drew everyone’s attention. Many have connected this to Massoud Rajavi’s existential panic that now he has lost Iraq, he is going to lose France as well. So he ends up threatening anyone and everyone. Ariya Iran has published photographs taken by the group which show the MEK’s agents following the demonstrators as they made their way home after the demonstration and threatening them. One of them is a close bodyguard of Maryam Rajavi. There are also documents which reveal that a French woman who has been regularly featured alongside Maryam Rajavi at her dinners and parties, has been witnessed attacking demonstrators and trying to film their faces while threatening that they will be found and punished.

++ An article by Mahmoud Sepahi from Yaran Association in France is titled: ‘Run aground in Iraq, waiting to be put on trial in France, and Rajavi’s boring messages. Basically he lists the facts about Iraq, the MEK are being thrown out, and about France, Maryam Rajavi is waiting to be taken to court on terrorism charges, and yet she has closed her eyes as though nothing is happening and simply repeats the same boring nonsense she has done for the past three decades.

++ Homayoun Kohzadi in Paris has also been commenting on a different issue but with a similar conclusion. Kohzadi points to the repetitive and boring messages broadcast by Massoud Rajavi for over thirty years. ‘Starting from the time he came out of Iran and gave a 6 month timeline to overthrow the regime, then made it two years and now he extends it year by year but still expects people to sit and listen to him and his nonsense.’

++ Nejat Association published an article examining the MEK’s latest fraudulent activities on their websites using photoshop and other means to fabricate images purportedly showing unrest in Iran. Among such false MEK reports is that attached to a photograph of a queue for government rations for poor people. One report claims that an old man is the subject of the news, but in another report the subject is a young woman. The item has been duplicated with only the names changed; not even remembering it is they who have made the report up. After decades of this, says Nejat, nobody believes them.

++ M. Eftekhari sent an article to be published in Iran Interlink titled, ‘What convention? Which organisations? Which Iranians and what democracy?’ It is a response to Maryam Rajavi’s claim of holding a convention of Iranian associations for democracy. Addressing Rajavi directly he says none of these terms applied. Firstly, this was a speech not a discussion; everyone had to sit and listen to you. Then there were no associations, no names were published, no reports given out; this was only about you. They weren’t even Iranians; 95% were foreigners and the others were your own loyal members. Lastly, this had nothing to do with democracy because you have nothing to do with democracy. The whole thing was a sham.

++ Ali Jahani from Iran Pen association in Germany has posted reminder note titled ‘Why we should help the residents of Liberty’. He identifies the threats from Rajavi which loom over these people, and then shows that there are very, very few people who are trying to actually save them. He shows that nearly every site which mentions them wants to exploit them, whether American, Israeli, etc, they want to use their blood. Only their families and friends – former colleagues – are trying to save them.

++ Iran Interlink places two reports side by side for contrast. A group of French citizens calling themselves the Peace Association have asked for the expulsion of the MEK from Auvers sur Oise. While Press TV reports on President Obama’s use of executive powers to ease rules for potential asylum seekers in the US who support or fund of terrorist groups. This would, of course, allow the MEK to relocate there in future.

++ The MEK’s Farsi outlets continue to viciously attack recently separated members of the NCRI and and others who still consider themselves as internal critics of the MEK. In reaction to these, Esmail Yaghmai, the famous poet and ex member of the MEK and NCRI, who had been criticising them in good faith as a friend and suffered the inevitable backlash of swearing for his efforts, has posted a note which itemises the things the MEK says and concludes that they are so desperate that they don’t even check their own contradictions. In the end, he says, I welcome it because from outside you people can see your true face. Yaghmai says, “Now I take it as a credit to be sworn at by you”. He directs all this at Massoud and Maryam because nobody would do this without their order. He concludes, “I will doubt myself on the day, God forbid, that you begin to say a single positive word about me”.

14 February 2014

February 16, 2014 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

EU must reassess risk after Rajavi orders MEK loyalists to kill critics

Maryam Rajavi has used a meeting at her headquarters near Paris to incite her followers to go ahead and kill individuals that she identifies as her enemies. Speaking to Mojahedin Khalq loyalists on the eve of the thirty fifth anniversary of the Iranian revolution, Rajavi drew a red line between her supporters and everyone else; at one point she lashes out at Iranian opposition groups outside Iran, calling their criticism of the MEK “the struggle of Khamenei’s Pasdars’ satanic attacks against the resistance”, (i.e. Rajavi). Her red line has a very clear definition; you are either totally for us or totally against us.

According to the MEK’s NCRI website, three hundred associations – essentially sub-sects of the Mojahedin Khalq – were in attendance, although the pictures do not reflect these numbers and the associations are not named anywhere in the report. These represent the core supporters of the MEK who are paid to perform the activities which the majority of actual MEK members are incapable of doing. To the extent they are loyal to Rajavi, they are at her command.

Rajavi began to motivate them by first claiming, without providing even anecdotal evidence and in spite of the recent popular election of President Rohani that, “the Iranian society stands ready to change this regime”. She then went on to define her red line: “we highlight the demarcation with the regime in its entirety and we also stress solidarity with all those true defenders of overthrowing the regime”.

To be absolutely clear about what she means by drawing this red line between ‘us and them’, she says, “the struggle of the participant organisations and associations in this convention against the Mullah’s intelligence ministry at this time is the most needed part of the struggle to topple the Mullah’s regime and bring about democracy and the rule of people in Iran. We announce that countering the agents of religious fascist rulers of Iran who are targeting the leadership of the resistance (i.e. Rajavi), is a nationalistic duty of every freedom lover Iranian irrelevant to their political and ideological belief”. [my emphasis]

By “agents of the religious fascist rulers of Iran”, Maryam Rajavi means anyone who criticises the MEK and in particular former members of the MEK who are by default, and “according to the rules of armed struggle [war], condemned to death”.

Since the vast majority of these critics and former members are resident in Europe and North America, ‘countering the agents’ who are ‘condemned to death’ can only be interpreted as instructing her loyal followers to kill these people wherever they reside in the west.

Of course this is never expressed in English, only on the Farsi sites was the threat published. Realising that, as a resident of France, Rajavi would be held personally responsible for incitement to murder, the MEK quickly removed the incriminating Farsi sections of her speech from the hambastegi meli website (a copy is available), and instead an MEK spokesman in Iraq was quoted issuing the same threat. This time more directly as he said, “since we are at war with Iran we will treat anyone who leaves us as someone who has changed sides and we will execute them”. In this context the specific delineation of the red line becomes highly significant as Rajavi is now able to label anybody who does not bow down to her as her enemy , as an “agent of the Iranian regime”. Even those who have escaped Camp Liberty after thirty years in isolation, and threaten them with elimination.

Try as they might the leaders of the MEK cannot for long disguise their total dependence on violence as a means to pursue the very existence of their group. Although posing for Western consumption as a democratic opposition group, the MEK operates as a cult and relies absolutely on instilling fear and dependency on its members. It is imperative that the leaders maintain this atmosphere among the members in order to keep them ‘on message’. As a result, any criticism or protest aimed at exposing the true nature of the group provokes an immediate deployment of intimidation and aggression, sometimes leading to actual physical attacks, even in the streets of western countries. In this way, members (and backers) are graphically reminded of their real role as a group.

The question is, how far will the MEK go to counter the exposures made by former members who are increasing in number and who remain undeterred in their efforts to help rescue those former colleagues who remain trapped in conditions of isolation and suffering daily abuses inside all the MEK’s bases, whether in Iraq or in Europe and North America?

Informed people are beginning to ask what Maryam Rajavi will ask of the members being kept in Iraq against their will. The MEK are trained to violence, to kill and be killed. That has been the MEK’s raison d’être for five decades. It is the reason warmongers and anti-Iran pundits back the group. Loyal members who are trained for assassination are known to already be in Europe. Will they be unleashed soon in an attempt to silence the MEK’s most effective critics? (In her recent speech Maryam Rajavi emphasises that her real enemies – former MEK members – are no more than a handful in every western countries, but she does not name them.)

Judging by past behaviour, the answer to this question is a resounding yes. On many occasions since the MEK established bases in western capitals, it has used violent attacks on its rivals and enemies; tactics from character assassination campaigns to knifings and attempted kidnaps have frequently been reported by victims. Unfortunately, because the MEK has powerful backers, these low level criminal activities have seldom been investigated or prosecuted, leaving the victims vulnerable, though undeterred.

This threat however must be taken seriously. The gruesome death of a former MEK member who had become incarcerated in Camp Ashraf is a vivid reminder of what the MEK is capable of. Massoud Dalili’s disfigured body was discovered among 52 other victims of a violent attack on the Camp which occurred on September 1st 2013. The victims had mostly been subjected to execution style killing. But Dalili’s face had been burned with acid to render him unidentifiable. Although it is still unclear who launched the attack – Iraqi investigators are unable to interview the 42 eyewitness because the MEK are holding them incommunicado inside Camp Liberty – the fact that Dalili was a former high ranking member who disappeared unaccountably from a hotel in Baghdad two years before has led experts on MEK behaviour to conclude that he was killed by the MEK themselves after being kidnapped or deceived into returning to Camp Ashraf. The MEK have simply blamed Iran for his death.

There are further indications that the MEK are actively mobilising to counter the inevitable exposures of former members about human rights abuses committed systematically inside all MEK camps and bases. Two MEK intelligence and security officers of the Mojahedin Khalq have been tracked travelling between Paris and Tirana in Albania. Tirana is now home to some 210 individuals who were recently transferred there from Camp Liberty. The MEK has made every effort to contain them and keep them under cult control, sending minders along with them from Iraq to maintain the control.

Since their arrival, 70 have separated from the MEK and begun to speak out against their treatment in the Iraqi camps. Now, Esmail Mortezaee (Javad Khorasan) and Hassan Nayb Aghad, have been reported bringing suitcases of money (well over a million dollars in cash) with them from Paris out of which they pay $500 per month to each person on condition that they do not talk to anyone, not even their families, about their experiences in the MEK camps, that they do not talk to the UNHCR, which is responsible for the individuals but pays only around $200 per month, and that they work for the MEK by updating social networks to promote the group. Some of these refugees have been threatened with violence and physical elimination. Interestingly, Esmail Mortazaee carries a card or pass which identifies him as working from the Pentagon office in Tirana. He shows this to the ex members as proof of his backing and power over them.

Such activities are not new and have gone on unchallenged for many years in Europe and North America. Many former members who are outspoken critics of the MEK have been, over the years, subjected to mental and physical intimidation carried out with impunity by loyal MEK members trained in security, intelligence and military skills. But importantly, not one of these trained killers will act without the order of their cult leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. It is incumbent on western security services to understand this dynamic and also acquaint themselves with the current change in risk following the transfer of defected MEK members from Iraq to Europe and in particular Maryam Rajavi’s speech in France blatantly giving her ‘permission’ (read order) to go ahead and kill her opponents.

Middle East Strategy Consultants,Author of “Saddam’s Private Army” and “The life of Camp Ashraf”

February 12, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

MEK: deep pocket, relentless lobbying, still no progress

The MKO’s million dollar champagne in the US Congress has always got the attention of Western media. Hannah Allam of the Miami Herald is one of many American journalists who report on the

well funded MKO lobbying efforts in the Congress and its problematic situation as a foreign force in Iraq. The herald piece "Iran’s MEK has friends in Congress, but that hasn’t eased problems in Iraq" , quotes an MKO activist Shirin Nariman who admits that the group’s "deep pocket" and " relentless lobbying" against Islamic Republic is the key to buy US high profiles although she claims that the paid sponsors’ motivation is human :

“ The congressional hearing earlier this week was to have focused on al Qaida’s resurgence in Iraq, but lawmaker after lawmaker veered off topic to ask about another problem left from the U.S.-led war there: what to do with a group of Iranian dissidents stuck in a besieged camp in Baghdad.

The plight of the former militant group known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq dominated the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday. Critics of the group consider it a cult and note that only a year and a half ago it was still listed as a U.S.-designated terrorist group. They’re outraged at what they call the disproportionate amount of attention the group receives in Congress.

Yet despite all the powerful friends won by the MEK’s deep pockets and relentless lobbying, the group has seen relatively little progress in efforts to relocate the 2,500 or so members who remain in Iraq, where they’re vulnerable under the Iran-friendly government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. Since September, attacks on Camp Liberty, the former U.S. base where the group is housed under the watch of the Iraqi military, have killed more than 50 people and wounded many more.

American supporters of the group – including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich – say the United States has abandoned its pledge to protect the group, which was disarmed after the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. A few hundred MEK members were relocated recently to Albania and Germany, but there’s no word yet on a broader resettlement program in accordance with a 2011 agreement between the Iraqi government and the United Nations.

Eight members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee – six Republicans and two Democrats – lambasted the U.S. government for failing to do more to protect the virtual prisoners at Camp Liberty.

The most forceful was Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who called Maliki a “murderer” and said the United States had no business helping him on other issues, such as the fight against jihadists in western Iraq. Another Republican, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, complained that the residents “still have very little protection” and demanded “extra effort in saving lives there.”

Brett McGurk, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, had been called to testify about al Qaida but found himself answering as many if not more questions about the MEK. McGurk, who visited Camp Liberty on a trip to Baghdad this month, said talks were ongoing about resettling the residents and getting them more protections in the meantime.

“I told them I promise I would do everything I could,” McGurk said of his talks with MEK members in the camp.

An investigation by Britain’s Guardian newspaper found that Rohrabacher had received thousands of dollars in donations from MEK supporters in 2012 alone. The paper’s report added that Ros-Lehtinen has accepted at least $20,000 in campaign donations from Iranian-American groups, or their leaders, that support the MEK. Other members of Congress have been flown to France to address pro-MEK events, and a Washington lobbying firm received nearly $1 million to work on getting the MEK off the terrorist list, according to The Guardian.

Shirin Nariman, a Virginia-based MEK activist, acknowledged that some of its political allies had received money from MEK supporters. But Nariman said that more important than campaign donations and speaker fees was the time the group had spent knocking on the doors of politicians, making them aware of the MEK’s cause.

[…]

February 9, 2014 0 comments

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