Articles

+ One article by M. Eftekhari is about Massoud Rajavi. He compares Rajavi with Don Quixote; how, as much as people tell him he is living in a dream world, he is still fighting windmills. He says the difference between the fictional and real character is that Rajavi is forcing others to go to their deaths for his madness.

++ This week’s guests on Mardom TV were Massoud Jabani and Mohammad Razaghi. They explained in detail various aspects of how the MEK deceive and con people on the internet and in real time to get money out of them. They also talked about how the MEK treated their own members in their prisons and their relations with the Israeli right wing. Massoud Jabani has described the MEK as ‘living as a wedge in the gap’, meaning they find a gap and jump into it. Their whole existence is and has been to work against peace and to live on war.

++ The MEK announcement this week that they had discovered a new nuclear site in Iran was ignored by news outlets. Many critics have written about why the MEK has done this and why they chose a notorious torturer in Saddam’s prisons, Mehdi Abrishamchi, to front this. Some say the MEK is ‘more Catholic than Netanyahu’. So that while Netanyahu at least works hard to save face in his own country to survive the criticism that he is torpedoing the nuclear talks, Rajavi has become a liability for all his backers by jumping in and declaring ‘I am a western mercenary’, and he won’t go away. Others refer to the past history of the MEK and how they pretended to be anti-Israeli just a decade ago. On the subject of Abrishamchi, many have pointed out the fact that although he is a dirty face, he has been chosen because he is the first husband of Maryam Rajavi and ever since he was forced to be the first to congratulate his wife on divorcing him and marrying his closest friend he has been kept as part of this threesome.

++ The bombing at Iran’s embassy in Lebanon was so horrifying that it was condemned by every side, US, Russia, Europe etc. The MEK were the only so-called opposition which did not condemn it, and this led some people to the interpretation that they were involved; evidenced by their support for Jaish Al Adl and other groups just a week before. These critics believe the MEK are not capable of being used as a terrorist group and are now being used as cheerleaders for terrorism.

++ In Iraq, Valid Alhelli MP, from the governing coalition, referred in an interview to the MEK’s massacre of many Iraqis in the north and south on the order of Saddam Hussein. He reiterated that their presence in Iraq violates the Iraqi constitution.

++ Abbas Albayati MP, from Iraq’s Security and Defence Committee also mentioned the MEK in an interview, saying, ‘we see no difference between this group, Al Qaida and the terrorist groups working in Syria. Therefore we have to dismantle their system and throw them out.’

++ Five hundred participants attended a Seminar at Baghdad University on November 16 on the subject of terrorism and specifically the Mojahedin Khalq. The Seminar was organised by Dr. Nafeh Isa and included several NGOs, many members of parliament and other officials who attended and gave speeches. Adnan Alshahmani, member of the Security and Defence Committee responsible for overseeing the expulsion of the MEK from the country, referred to the European Union and its responsibility to be active in taking in these people as soon as possible. He said, ‘the EU told us clearly they would remove the MEK from the terrorism list in order to allow them to come to Europe. But although they did the first part, they have not done the latter’. He said, ‘I can understand they have the same problem we have with this group and they are afraid of accepting them on their own soil, but they have promised something and they have not done it’.

Adnan Seraj head of the Information Centre of Iraq gave a speech and referred to documents which show the MEK are still part of the security problem of Iraq and should therefore be dealt with as criminals under the law. He reminded participants that 50 MEK leaders are wanted by international courts and Interpol, and 126 are fugitives wanted by Iraqi courts. Mazhar Abbas head of the Bani Tamin tribe spoke on behalf of all the tribes who have come together to unanimously demand the expulsion of the MEK from Iraq. An exhibition of pictures, documents and books was also on display. Among the prominent speakers was Dr Mowafaq Al Rubai, former national security advisor to the government. He emphasised that it is unfortunate that there is still some support within some circles for this terrorist group. He said they should not be in any doubt that this mistake will, sooner or later, bear a heavy price as the MEK are trained by Saddam’s Republican Guard and have no respect for the life of anyone. Many of the MEK have moved to these camps because they were fugitives in either European, North American or other countries.

The MEK reacted not after the event but the day before under then pseudonym of the NCRI, threatening that anyone who attends tomorrow will be known as an agent of the intelligence ministry of Iran.

++ In the ongoing saga of the hunger strike, it has now passed the 80th day and since it has become ridiculous the MEK announced that a few individuals have been transferred to hospital just before they nearly died. The MEK are under severe criticism by their own supporters. They say that the deaths of 36 and then 52 in Camp Ashraf are not enough for Rajavi and he still needs more blood by trying to kill them under the pretext of hunger strike. Many criticise Rajavi saying that although he claims to know that the seven missing people are being held by Iraq, he never shows any evidence to say how. Hadi Afshar (Saeed Jamali) has addressed Rajavi directly with the challenge that ‘Maryam Rajavi’s latest show in Paris last week was attended by what she calls 600 VIPs. Couldn’t these 600 help the remaining people get out of Iraq or could they not be helpful in presenting your documents – which you claim to have – in a court in the West.’

++ In America, in answer to Ros Lehtinan – the MEK’s main benefactor in the Senate and Head of the Middle East sub-committee of the Foreign Affairs Committee – the State Department representative who recently visited Camp Liberty said he has evidence that the seven missing people are not in the hands of Iraq.

++Irandidban has published an article with bullet points demonstrating that Rajavi is trying to somehow eliminate the seven missing people, For example, Rajavi claims that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard have been working with the Iraqi government to kidnap only seven people. He then announces that every day they are under torture and will be killed soon. When on 13th November a representative from the US Department of State answered that there is evidence they are not in the hands of Iraq, the MEK give no reaction but pretended nothing had been said and instead asked President Obama to intervene on their behalf with the government of Iraq. It can be read from these actions that Rajavi wants to kill them and blame Iran and Iraq.

++ An article on Irandidban website describes Rajavi as swinging from one benefactor to another after the fall of Saddam and refers to the latest speech by Maryam Rajavi who claims that all terrorist activity, from Al Qaida to Hizbollah, and what happens in Yemen and Syria, are all part of a network of terrorism run from Tehran. And on top of all this the nuclear bomb which Iran has is no longer aimed at Europe but is now aimed at Saudi Arabia. Her solution is that because Iran is anti-Arab therefore all the Arab countries should unite – presumably under the umbrella of Rajavi – to fight Iran. Maryam Rajavi has forgotten that she was thrown out of Iraq and is being kept in France for a rainy day and that her so-called backing of Syrian terrorists has backfired and neither the West nor Arab countries would want the MEK to be part of any of their activities let alone gather under her umbrella. Basically she is talking nonsense.

++ Hamed Sarafpoour has responded to an article by Esmail Vafa Yaghmai who writes in detail about the mentality of a member of the MEK; basically, short of naming it a cult, describes exactly how a cult operates. Sarafpour has welcomed his progress, that he can see that much, but reminds him that those who have previously gone through this know he has not gone halfway yet to understand how he and others have been affected. He encourages Yaghmai to continue undergoing this difficult process of understanding in order to help himself and others.

++Many refer to Rajavi’s advertising that the hunger strikers are going to die, including Maryam Sanjabi who has published some facts about Rajavi’s use of his followers’ blood over the history of the organisation. She concludes that nobody but Rajavi himself is responsible for this.

++ Mohammad Rahbar, a famous green movement leader, noted on Ruzonline where Mehdi Abrishamchi, who announced the so-called nuclear discovery earlier this week, has come from; how he became a member of Saddam’s Security Services, how he stayed alive during Operation Eternal Light by staying well behind the lines and how he survived the bombardment of Iraq and ended up with Maryam Rajavi in Paris. Rahbar says to Abrishamchi, ‘instead of finding ridiculous ‘sites’ and telling stories to the rest of the world, you should come clean and explain, among other things, how your wife suddenly became your sister and married your friend.”

++ Hadi Afshar published an article about the hunger strike called ‘removing all trace’. He points out that many people don’t really know who Rajavi is unless they have lived with him. When the Americans invaded Iraq in 2003 Rajavi ordered that everybody’s cupboard, every supporter’s house and every archive of the MEK be searched to remove the history of the MEK so they wouldn’t find anything anti-American. Afshar says Rajavi and the world know that four witnesses are better than two in a court of law and therefore the hunger strike is aimed at killing as many as possible who are witness to his activities. “Rajavi claims that 7 members were taken hostage by Iraqis and Iranians, I’m not sure about that but I clearly see that the rest of the 3000 have been taken hostage by Rajavi himself and he will do his utmost to kill every one of them to remove any trace of his crimes.”

++ Adel Azami wrote a short article directed at Massoud Rajavi in which he refers to some of the letters which had been forcefully obtained from members and which the MEK publish. One of them published this week had been supposedly written by Ismael Yaghmai 30 years ago, and judged against his current position the MEK now claim he has betrayed the organisation. Azami says, “Rajavi. Your corrupt ideology and your criminal activities can only be considered as betrayal since 30 years ago our agreement with you was not that you sell us to Saddam Hussein, nor that you give information about Iranian people to the army of Iran’s enemy during the eight year war, nor that against every interest of the people of Iran who are suffering under sanctions and hardship you go hand in hand with Netanyahu and push for war against the Iranian people. We agreed that you be our leader, not go into hiding for ten years. If, in your opinion, that letter shows the progress of Yaghmai’s betrayal, then what can we call what you have done over thirty years. You have changed your word, not Yaghmai.”

November 22, 2013

++This week’s guest on Mardom TV was Mohammad Hossein Sobhani. Among other issues he went into some detail about what it is that the Mojahedin Khalq do for MOSSAD. Expanding on this he reminded us of what various former CIA officials have said about the MEK – ‘they are useful because they do things we are ashamed to do ourselves’.

++ Hamed Sarrafpour’s Facebook this week mentioned the discovery of plutonium in the body of Yaser Arafat. He says that although 95% of the MEK’s websites praise Israel, this week Rajavi couldn’t resist re-publishing the picture of his wife posing with Arafat, but while claiming they are in grief over his death they still were very careful not to make any mention of Israel in this respect.

++ In reaction to the support which some European parliamentarians have given to the MEK and Al Hashemi (the fugitive from Iraq) in Brussels, there have been many reactions from Baghdad. Among them Karim Alivi a prominent MP for the Badr parliamentary bloc who said that in order to continue supporting the MEK, European countries must move them to their own countries and not foist them on Iraq. He said ‘we refuse to keep them in Iraq under any name, refugee or other, because they have killed our children and our people during the era of the tyrant Saddam’. Another is the head of the Commission for Foreign Affairs in Iraq who has issued a statement saying that ‘we have discussed the MEK with our foreign counterparts. The ambassador of the European Union assured us that the MEK had not been invited by parliament, but only by a media representation which has no relation with the EP or EC and that what Al Hashemi and MEK have been claiming about being invited by the EP is simply a lie’.

++ Irandidban website has published an article listing some of the MEK’s western supporters and some of their Iranian supporters in the west and asks, why is it the most disreputable people are gathered under one roof?

++ The saga of the hunger strike is continuing. Nejat Association in Tehran has published a short article explaining how Rajavi is trying to use this to force a response from western governments who are ignoring him and his demands – Rajavi’s theory is that he can open his way with other people’s blood. It is clear they can read his hand and so refuse to answer. But many critics within the sphere of influence of the MEK including Hadi Afshar and Saeed Jamaali address their fellow supporters and remind them that if anyone dies during this so-called hunger strike then their hands are dipped in their blood as well because they are the people who should get Rajavi to spare their lives rather than inciting them to carry on to their deaths.

++ Javad Firouzmand from Ariya Iran in Paris has written an Open Letter to Maryam Rajavi endorsing the claims of Hadi Afshar and his ongoing memoir. Firouzmand refers to the many women who have claimed Rajavi raped them in front of Maryam and says that with so many high ranking disaffected members making these claims and comparing this with what the MEK have themselves said about the relation of women to Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, it is necessary, once and for all for the Rajavis to come clean and either deny or confirm the accusations. This will not go away says Firouzmand, and ‘although I have my own doubts about these events, if you don’t answer we can only assume they are true’.

++ Atefeh Eghbal writes on the subject of the hunger strike. She says it is clear that in the near future the so-called president elect (for the past 16 years) will emerge to save the lives of the hunger strikers by giving a speech the same way she came out after the murder of 52 members in Camp Ashraf who were apparently there to protect her belongings. Everyone will be a winner except those who have genuinely starved who will suffer the ill effects for the rest of their lives.

++ Mohammad Reza Rowhani has published the fifth part of ‘The Smell of Joseph’s Shirt’. He examines specific concepts published under the name of Massoud Rajavi himself and relates these to the attacks against himself. Rowhani concludes that from this comparison it is clear that the attack on him was done by order and was not spontaneous. He also refers to incidents from before he had left, during and after, when the MEK’s intelligence operatives had been pretending to be his friend to investigate and try to gather information about his life in order to later fabricate lies about him.

++ Irandidban carries an article under the title, ‘Anti-Iranian policies and the future of Rajavi’. The article says that Israel, Saudi Arabia and their backing systems in the west have tried using terrorism in various ways, from Al Qaida to Jundullah to Jaish Al Adl even though they know that this doesn’t help but only brings hatred against them from among Iranians who know who is behind these things. Clearly after they failed in every other way they have had to resort to terrorism. But Rajavi knows, and his masters know, that the MEK has even lost the capacity for terrorism and is no longer of much use to the point that the MEK have become a rent-a-crowd carnival service. The MEK have become mere cheerleaders for terrorism so far have they been demoted in Washington and elsewhere.

++ Behzad Alishahi, from the Community of Independent Bloggers, has made a short video producing documents from throughout Rajavi and the MEK’s history. This demonstrates how the MEK have been betraying their country and their own members. How, from the start, they have been working as a mercenary force from initial collaboration with the Soviet Union and then inside Iran working for different factions, then helping western intelligence from France and then openly joining forces with Saddam up to now when they are openly working for Israel and western forces against Iran. They have no history when they were not mercenaries.

++ In English, Press TV has linked the recent position taken by France in the Geneva talks with the uncompromising stance of Israel and also the MEK. According to the article France snubbed Zarif during an official visit, the first such high-level meeting since 2009, The article claims that for years France has been the most anti-Iranian nation in the EU, and perhaps even more so than the US. It exposes France’s position, pointing out that “openly imperialist Zionists, on the other hand, occupy nearly all the top positions in Hollande’s cabinet: the interior, finance and, of course, the foreign minister. The prime minister and defense minister are the only two among the government’s top jobs who probably don’t have Israeli citizenship. … And the lack of pro-Iranian counterpoints in French society does not stop there: France is the second home of the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), a group of fifth columnists who have absolutely no legitimacy to any Iranian for reasons it takes only seconds to comprehend: they fought with Saddam Hussein against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. But a poster of the ringleader of this bizarre cult, Marjane [sic] Rajavi, was recently all over Paris to advertise her new book. And they are supported by the French government to the extent that they have been mistakenly removed from the EU’s terrorist list. This is who has influence in France’s corridors of power – groups which care little for the average Iranian’s well-being, or for international justice that contradicts French interests. when you combine Iran’s economic rise and their opposition to France’s support for dozens of imperialist projects and illegitimate dictators, it’s no wonder that France and Iran are fighting tooth and nail.”

++ Politico reported that a contribution of $2,600 made by MEK supporter Masood Abooali in August to Sen. Lindsey Graham’s reelection campaign was refunded the following month with ‘a terse explanation: The campaign was “uncomfortable” with some of his associations and had rejected his contribution’.

November 15, 2013