Articles

The 40-year-old MKO’s New Year Resolution: Regime Change!

It’s been near 4 decades that the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) embraces the Regime The 40-year-old MKO's New Year Resolution: Regime Change! Change Option against the Iranian government. The group names every New Year –whether according to Iranian calendar or the Christian calendar – as "the year of the overthrow of the regime".

In order to accomplish its so-called objective – the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran—the MKO has had various bed fellows including Saddam Hussein the deposed Iraqi dictator. The group was Iraqi Baath’s intelligence and military aid during the eight years of a destructive war between Iran and Iraq. They perpetrated countless random terror acts to assassinate Iranian officials and civilians.

Immediately after the cease fire was signed by Iran and Iraq, the MKO leaders launched the notorious "Eternal Light Operation" ( Forough e Javidan) across Iranian borders in the vain hope of reaching Tehran in three days– Massoud Rajavi the leader of the MKO had planned a three-day operation to seize Tehran and change the Regime!

The operation was like a mass suicide. A large number of the group members were killed. The group was harshly defeated and forced back in the arms of its Iraqi landlord Saddam Hussein. Then, in 1991, the MKO continued offering services to the land lord by aiding him with suppressing Kurdish uprising and Shiite Intifada in Iraq where most former members of the group recall the infamous Maryam Rajavi’s quote "Take the Kurds under the tanks and save your bullets for the Iranian soldiers."!

However, the MKO’s long time loyalty to the enemy of Iranian people did not accomplish anything at the end. Following the American led invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi dictator fell off power. The MKO was disarmed by the American army. The group leaders now had to answer a large number of questions in the mind of the rank and files who were promised an armed –violent— regime change in Iran.

Faced with an ambiguous dreadful fate in camps in Iraq members of "the cult of Rajavi" witnessed the collapse of the mirage –Regime Change in Iran– the Rajavis had painted for them in many years. Defection from the group was on the rise and Iraqi newly established government didn’t want Saddam’s mercenaries on its territory.

The leaders of the MKO strived to make new allies in the region ranging from Saudi Arabia to Israel. The new mutual teamwork included terrorist and spying operations against Iran in exchange for receiving financial, military, and intelligence support. Meanwhile the group’s propaganda played its leading part in derailing the West’s diplomatic efforts to engage in negotiations with the Iranian government.

Conversely, despite the MKO’s hard work to gain the world’s support for its so-called desire for regime change in Iran the situation of the group as a cult of personality deteriorated , day after day. The process of the group’s expulsion from Iraq has started and is ongoing although a bit slowly. There is an increasing growth in the number of defectors from the group’s cult-like structure. Therefore, today the main issue for the group leaders is to maintain the structure of the cult which guarantees its survival.

At least during the past decade, the MKO has resorted to different powers in the world not for the sake of regime change but for its own survival. "Regime Change" is not a promise anymore; it has been reduced to a New Year resolution on the MKO propaganda websites even if it is repeated three times.

By Mazda Parsi

January 9, 2014 0 comments

Camp Liberty

Who is to blame for the killing of Liberty residents ?

Iraq has experienced countless religiously or politically motivated attacks since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. The country has witnessed numerous bloody days. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) says that more than 5,200 people were killed between April and the end of September this year. The escalating violence caused Iraq to be an insecure region for the residents. The Mujahedin Khalq members as unwanted guests are no exception.
Camp Liberty, the temporary transit location of Mujahedin Khalq was hit by rockets on Thursday December 26, with three people dead and several others seriously injured, Reuters cited the camp’s spokesperson as saying.
This is the fourth rocket attack this year against the camp where 3000 members of Mujahedin reside.
Mujahedin Khalq is the Iraqi dictator’s accomplice in suppressing Shiite and Kurds uprisings who after the fall of Saddam continued its provocative practices. The Iraqi people have deep seated hatred towards the MKO since their hands stained with the blood of their countrymen and beloved ones. Iraqi authorities have issued 148 arrest warrants for MEK members for crimes against Iraqis since 1991 but none have been arrested, according to officials.
Reuters reports that Wathiq al-Batat, the commander of the al-Mukhtar Army militia, took responsibility for the attack on the MKO camp accusing the group of communicating with Sunni and Shi’ite politicians he said were linked to al Qaeda.Al-Batat said :” “We’ve asked (the government) to expel them from the country many times, but they are still here,”
So the Iraqi soil is no more safe for the Mujahedin members.
After the attack on Camp Liberty EU, US, UN and some other International bodies condemned the attack in strong terms as it claimed the lives of Camp residents and urged the Iraqi government to step up security measures around the Camp and called on Iraq to launch investigation into the incident.
The Iraqi authorities have repeatedly reiterated that they have problem in providing security for their own people let alone for the members of an unwanted terrorist organization.
This process has been the case after each attack on both Camps Ashraf and Liberty, bearing no fruit.
Every time Iraq reiterates its unwillingness to let MKO stay on their soil, International bodies’ duty seems to be just condemning the attacks. The cult leaders on their turn try to take advantage of the incidents and shedding of members’ bloods.
The leaders and high ranking members of the organization who are residing in safe places do not care about the safety and well being of the rank and file members being trapped in the cul de sac of Iraq.
The Cult leaders won’t put into danger their cultic structure by letting members out individually, rather they want to relocate members as a unit. They strive to survive their cult by putting its members under missiles and bullets. The power-thirsty leaders of the group just look at the members as tools to promote their ambitions.
Still the only voiceless victims of the incidents are Camp residents who are both ignored by international society as well as their own leaders. Liberty residents are the plaything of political equations between their leaders and the leaders’ masters .
Really, who is to be blamed and who is to be making accountable for the lives of the 3000+ trapped residents of the Temporary Transit Location ?!
A. Sepinoud

January 4, 2014 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 35

++ Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad has written an open letter to the Kuwaiti writer, supporter of the Mojahedin Khalq and remnant of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Zafer Al Ajami, criticising him for advocating using the MEK to stop Iran’s ambitions to enlarge its influence in the region. He reminds Ajami of Saddam’s attack on Kuwait as well as the many other crimes committed by the MEK. His letter is entitled “Dear Mr Al Ajami, MEK hostages, our friends and families, are not your playing cards”.

++ Anne Singleton wrote an article titled ‘MEK’s Western backers are complicit in their deaths’. After head of the Mukhtar Army Wathiq al-Battat claimed responsibility for another mortar attack on Camp Liberty, Singleton wrote, “In the past year over 8,000 people have died in violent incidents in Iraq. The problem is not that the MEK are being singled out for attack, the real problem is that nobody is allowed to get inside Camp Liberty to help rescue these people from their enforced captivity. Nobody is allowed to help them or to relocate them or save their lives. In spite of the diverse efforts of various parties, MEK leaders have refused to allow any party to help or rescue the residents first in Camp Ashraf and latterly in Camp Liberty.” The article pointed out that it cannot be possible for only Massoud and Maryam Rajavi to block all access to the MEK residents in Camp Liberty, and that the MEK’s powerful backers have an interest in keeping them trapped there. Singleton concludes that the Rajavis “will expend their [members’] blood in whatever way suits them to fulfil the agenda of their backers, but clearly they will end up killing all of them sooner or later. And those who use the MEK in any way and deny help to the individuals are complicit in this scenario.”

++ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Nickolay Mladenov called on the Government of Iraq to investigate the mortar attack on Camp Liberty and bring the perpetrators to justice. Both Mr. Mladenov and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) urged the international community to urgently intensify efforts to find resettlement opportunities. “This is the ultimate guarantee of the security and safety of Camp Hurriya (Liberty) residents,” he said. Since then Iraqi security forces have instigated further efforts to push back terrorists and insurgents throughout the country and as a result arrested Al Batatt at a checkpoint. In addition, Iraqi security forces and local tribesmen have started a sweeping operation against militants linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist group in the western province of Anbar. Al Batatt previously claimed responsibility for the mortar attacks from outside Camp Liberty. It is still not known which assailants attacked and killed 53 MEK members from inside Camp Ashraf.

++ Many people have written articles in Farsi about the suspicious death of the 53rd victim Massoud Dalili in Camp Ashraf. They have pieced together the known facts to debunk Rajavi’s claim that this was due to his defection and that he led the attackers to the site of Rajavi’s hideout before the attackers killed him and disfigured his corpse to hide his identity. Iran Interlink wrote an open letter to Ban Ki Moon under the title: ‘Who killed ex MEK member Massoud Dalili? Pentagon must release the key to the UN investigation’. The article identifies the continued protection and immunity given to the MEK in Iraq by the Pentagon as the reason Iraqi investigators are unable to get inside Camp Liberty to interview the 42 surviving eye witnesses to the deaths. Dalili’s death and the MEK’s strange reaction calls into question who exactly did commit the murders inside Camp Ashraf. Iran Interlink’s article concludes “Currently the Pentagon does not allow the UN or the authorities of the sovereign state of Iraq to enter Camp Liberty and offer succour to the residents there. The Iraqi investigators as well as government officials widely acknowledge that their hands are tied by the UN and ultimately by the Americans who have deliberately foisted the MEK on them without giving them any chance to remove them or bring the criminal elements to justice. Unless the UN discovers the courage and ability to stand up to the Americans over this issue, it is clear that more and more residents of Camp Liberty will be killed.”

++ There have been numerous warnings issued to western governments and security agencies, including from Sahar Family Foundation, that Rajavi is trying to incite his followers to attack, terrorize and eliminate the ex members and critics of the MEK in Europe and North America and blame this on the Iranian Government. This comes after exposure of the suspicious murder of the 53rd victim in Camp Ashraf, Massoud Dalili, which Rajavi likes to blame on Iraqi government forces. Following this claim, the MEK outlets have been on overdrive to say that ex members are a danger to the leadership and the cause and should therefore be eliminated before they can become part of the enemy force (in this case Iraqi government).

++ Arash Sametipour wrote for the BBC Persian website ‘Another missile attack on Camp Liberty’. He added more photos to the collection exposing Maryam Rajavi. Many commentators have criticised Rajavi during this week for not co-operating with the international agencies to take the remaining MEK and Ex MEK members out of Iraq.

++ Sahar Family Foundation published an article about Massoud Dalili, the ex member killed by the MEK in Camp Ashraf. (The MEK claims that Iraqi forces attacked Ashraf and killed Dalili after bringing him with themselves.) The article gives the details of his escape from the MEK, his registration with UNAMI and the ICRC and his refusal to stay under the protection of Iraqi security alongside 15 other ex members at that time in Hotel Mohajer, Baghdad. Dalili transferred to another hotel with less security and a few days later vanished. Now we know that he was abducted by the MEK and taken to Camp Ashraf. SFF clearly places responsibility for the murder of Massoud Dalili on the MEK and its leader Massoud Rajavi.

++ During an interview in Baghdad an Iraqi MP detailed the MEK’s role in suppressing the Iraqi people on the order of Saddam Hussein’s security services. He went on to explain how easy it would be for the European and American backers of the MEK to take them to their own countries. He explains that they don’t do so because they know the nature of what they have created. Their terrorist group is there to be used as a tool against the people in the Middle East region and they don’t want its potential danger in their own countries.

++ Many, including Hadi Afshar (Saeed Jamali), have again emphasised the fact that bringing the camp residents out of Iraq is very much possible and have even explained a variety of possible scenarios including the details of the movement of MEK leaders and commanders from Iraq to Europe as Maryam Rajavi and around 200 close people came to Paris through Jordan in 2003 during the fall of Saddam. Many have pointed out that Rajavi is getting paid by ex Saddamists to keep these hostages in Iraq as long as possible, a task which has no relevance to the stated goal of the organisation which is supposedly to oppose the Iranian government.

++ Ex members are reminding those groups and agencies who use every and any false excuse to attack Iran, that these kinds of action only help Iran to claim that all accusations of human rights abuses from outside the country are based on political hostility by the West and its agents and not on facts and reality.

++ Several ex members have been writing about an individual called Jafar Eghdami who is in prison in Iran. Some Facebook users and commentators have claimed that because he has been with the MEK he should be classed as a political prisoner or be released under the amnesty. Other ex members however have revealed their first hand knowledge of Jafar Eghdami’s terrorist operations using mortars and other military equipment on several occasions after having been trained in Camp Ashraf in Iraq during the era of Saddam Hussein. We are reminded by them that terrorists caught red handed in killing innocent people cannot and should not be portrayed as ‘political prisoners’ as this will jeopardise the struggles of real political prisoners who are neither criminals nor terrorists.

++ Mazda Parsi of Nejat Bloggers identifies the MEK and AIPAC as lobbying groups which promote endless wars in the Mideast. The article starts with the assertion that, “Very soon after the US administration was starting to admit that the military option could not be on the table any more, the MKO and AIPAC lobbies came up with a new Iran sanctions bill designed to frustrate the historic agreement reached by Iran and the West in Geneva. And, once that bill is passed, it provides automatic U.S military backing for Israel if its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decides to attack Iran.” Parsi continues, “Regarding the MKO as a cult-like group that had been on the FTO list until recently, the support it enjoys in the Congress is mostly linked to the financial donations it makes to its advocates rather than any deep loyalty to the group’s agenda. However, the support for the MKO agenda to violently overthrow the Islamic Republic is now paired with the long time efforts of AIPAC to drive the United States into a war with Iran.”

++ An article by Global Research implicates the MEK in the killings of Iranian scientists in the past four years. “Iran announced late June that its intelligence forces have identified and arrested all terrorist elements behind the assassination of the country’s nuclear scientists. All the elements involved in the assassinations of the country’s nuclear scientists have been identified and arrested,” Iran’s Intelligence Ministry announced in a statement at the time. A number of countries, whose territories and facilities had been misused by the Mossad-backed terrorist teams, have provided Iranian officials with relevant information, the statement added.

January 4, 2014 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi

UN must investigate Rajavi’s role in the deaths of 53 MEK victims

Open Letter to Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General

The impunity given to Rajavi by Western governments from the start of his stay in Iraq in 1986 until now

Door leading to Massoud Rajavi’s hideout in Camp Ashraf

has given him such latitude that he is able to kill his own people and blame the Iraqi authorities for it without any fear of investigation or recrimination.

The events which took place at Camp Ashraf on September 1st became controversial immediately following the attack by unknown assailants when the Mojahedin Khalq inundated Western media with their own films and pictures of the event. Why were the MEK filming these events if they had been taken by surprise?

Now a week after the Iraqi investigating team published the name of a 53rd victim, the MEK have hastily cobbled together a documentary made up of short, unconnected clips of film with the clear intention of creating a specific scenario. In this documentary the body of the 53rd victim, Massoud Dalili, is shown without a shirt and with Iranian money scattered around his body, which, it is claimed, was taken from his pocket. His face has been burned beyond recognition. The MEK explanation of this scenario is that because Massoud Dalili knew about the nuclear bunkers underneath Massoud Rajavi’s compound in Camp Ashraf he has led agents of the Iraqi government there to attack that specific place.

The nuclear bunker was built over three years; starting a year before the First Gulf War, continued during the war and finished a year after. It is a prototype of a Swedish anti-nuclear bunker. All the equipment, from additives to strengthen the concrete, the air conditioning, generators, doors and gaskets, shock absorber springs, anti-shatter toilets, mirrors etc were all imported through Orly and Frankfurt airports and then through Jordan, with the knowledge and consent of the Jordanian government (during the sanctions regime imposed on Iraq), and with the endorsement of the Pentagon. This was done by a joint team of purchasers headed by Ala’adin Touran who was the MEK’s representative in Jordan in those days and who worked from the MEK office in Amman. During the First Gulf War the Pentagon instructed the MEK through Mohammad Mohaddessin to place identifying flags and signs on top of this half completed building so they would not bomb it.

This bunker was visited by agents of the Pentagon and other US agencies when the US army first gained access to Camp Ashraf in 2003. It was then handed back to the leadership of the MEK with the promise that other MEK members would not be told about it. During the transfer of responsibility of Camp Ashraf to the Government of Iraq in 2009 information about this compound and the nuclear bunkers was given to the Iraqis. Of the two dozen or so MEK members who knew about the bunker because, like myself, they were involved in its construction, several have left the MEK and made this information public. Descriptions and satellite images of the exact location and configuration of the nuclear bunker can be found in two books: Saddam’s Private Army published in 2003 and The Life of Camp Ashraf published in 2011.

It is ludicrous to assert that an attacking force would need to rely on Dalili as a guide two years after he left the organisation when this information was already in the public domain, and ludicrous they would take him along as he was over 50 years old. It is ludicrous that an attacking force would take acid with them to deliberately burn the face of one of their party. It is ludicrous that the Iranian money scattered over his body is not enough to even pay for a taxi ride In Iran, never mind in Iraq. Why would anyone take this kind of foreign currency on a mission like this?

For me, and for anyone who has had any dealings with the MEK, it is absolutely clear that this person, who was registered with the UN in Baghdad as an escapee and who suddenly went missing one day has been forcefully or deceitfully taken back by the MEK to Camp Ashraf, (numerous ex members have complained about near kidnappings in Iraq and in Europe, including Massoud Banisadr in London and Batoul Soltani in Baquba, Iraq), and has been kept there clandestinely and when they realised they would have to get rid of him they tried to destroy the evidence of his presence there. As soon as the Iraqis identified him as someone the MEK had not admitted to being at the camp, they tried to create a Hollywood style film to whitewash their crime. Ironically the documentary’s narrator is Hassan Nezamalmolki who is a well known torturer of the time of Saddam and who is wanted by the Iraqi Judiciary to face criminal charges.

One mistake Dalili made was that after escaping the MEK he refused to remain in Hotel Mohajer with the other ex members under the protection of the Iraqi security forces. He ignored efforts to persuade him to make use of the protection offered by this circumstance, and insisted on being moved to a different hotel where he was in fact more vulnerable.

There is extremely strong evidence, not least the MEK’s own panicky and slipshod reaction, to indicate that Dalili has been killed by the MEK themselves. And the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the other 52 victims are so bizarre and inexplicable that it is highly likely that the MEK had a hand in those deaths also. It is imperative that this incident be thoroughly investigated as a matter of urgency.

UN officials tasked the Government of Iraq to carry out an investigation on its behalf and then denied them any opportunity to do this. The Iraqis know, and UNAMI knows that the Pentagon will not allow this to be investigated. There are 42 surviving members who were moved from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty who are eye witnesses to what happened that day. They would all have known Massoud Dalili. Nobody has seen or heard from them since the time they were handed back to the MEK commanders in Camp Liberty. The MEK’s past behaviour and the impunity Massoud Rajavi clearly enjoys to imprison and kill his own followers strongly suggests that many of them and others in the camp are being mistreated behind closed doors. How many more deaths will there be?

We – ex members and families of residents in Camp Liberty – earnestly request that you use your office as Secretary General of the United Nations to stand up to the Pentagon and force this investigation to move forward to conclusion by demanding access to these 42 survivors and others who can help get to the bottom of what actually happened in Camp Ashraf on 1st September 2013.

camp ashraf

Satellite image of Rajavi’s compound and explanations from the book “The Life of Camp Ashraf” published 2011

Iranian.com

January 4, 2014 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Who killed ex MEK member Massoud Dalili?

Pentagon must release the key to the UN investigation
One of the more curious aspects of the September 1 attack on Camp Ashraf was that the MEK filmed so much of what happened that day, not only the aftermath but also some film of balaclava clad assailants creeping into the camp to attack. Unless the MEK are routinely filming the perimeter of the camp it is almost as though they were forewarned and had the cameras ready. These pictures are in the public domain because within hours of the attack the MEK had contacted every western media outlet to present their version of what happened and attribute blame to the Iraqi government and call themselves victims. This is so typical of MEK behaviour that it warrants no further comment.
At that time, the MEK announced that 52 of its members had been killed. They published photographs of the victims along with their biographies and claimed that Iran had given the order to attack the camp and that Iraq had carried it out. Both governments denied any involvement and no evidence has been offered to contradict this. Weeks later Iraq announced that the death toll was 53, not 52 as previously claimed by the MEK. The revised figure was due to the fact that the 53rd victim had had his face so badly burned that it took a while to identify him as one of the MEK and not one of the attackers and to discover his true identity. Following this revelation the MEK published a documentary about the 53 in which a picture of Massoud Dalili was shown along with a sample of his handwriting in which he declares that he will never surrender to the enemy, the Iranian regime. In this documentary the MEK refer to them as martyrs.
Since every person who remained in Camp Ashraf after the main body of residents were transferred to Camp Liberty was registered with the office of the United Nations in Iraq, this raises the question why the MEK had not announced that 53 members had been killed immediately after the attack, especially since they had so carefully documented the whole scenario?
Then from yesterday, after the Iraqi authorities named the 53rd victim as Massoud Dalili, the MEK suddenly changed their tune and embarked on the line that Dalili was an Iranian agent and as a person who knew what is where inside Camp Ashraf, the IRI and Iraqis had used him to plan and launch the September 1st attack, and when they finished the job they have killed him there and then burned his face so he would not be recognised. (As a adjunct to this new position toward Dalili it is significant that the MEK propaganda machine is on overdrive to say that Massoud Rajavi has been too lenient with the ex members and that the MEK commanders are complaining he hasn’t allowed them to kill these traitors, and now this is the price they have had to pay. If we had killed ex members, they claim, we would not have all these casualties. In answer Rajavi has used the new version of how Dalili died to introduce a new explanation; that the regime is killing its own agents. In this way Rajavi is giving permission for his followers to kill ex members and blame Iran.)
At this point it is necessary to explain a little about Massoud Dalili’s background. Dalili escaped from the MEK more than a year ago. He took refuge with the Iraqi authorities who took him to Hotel Mohajer in Baghdad. He stayed there for some time and was registered by UN officials and interviewed by several agencies including various UNAMI officials and the ICRC. After some time Dalili said he didn’t want to stay in the same hotel as the other ex members and requested a change of place. The Iraqi authorities obliged and he was given a room in another hotel, Hotel Mansour. Some time later he went out and didn’t return. He was announced missing and the Iraqi authorities assumed he had returned to the MEK. However, during the period of time that he was missing Massoud Rajavi announced in an audio message to his followers that Dalili had run away from the MEK and was denounced as a traitor.
How Dalili ended up back in Camp Ashraf is open to question. Did he return willingly or was he abducted and taken by force? Certainly in every other case when a defector has willingly returned to the MEK, the group has made a big propaganda show of their victory. In the case of Dalili nothing was said of his return or his whereabouts after he disappeared from Hotel Mansour. This suggests that he had been abducted in Baghdad and imprisoned in Camp Ashraf clandestinely and that when the majority of MEK were transferred to Camp Liberty (aka camp Hurriya) Dalili was kept there with around one hundred others, but without the knowledge of the UN officials.
It is critical at this point to explain the significance of Massoud Dalili for the MEK. He had been one of the highest ranking members and was one of the personal security personnel for Massoud Rajavi. He had undergone training with Saddam’s Republican Guards and the MEK’s own specialist training. He not only had a lot of information about Rajavi but was one of only a small handful of people in the MEK who knew of the existence of Rajavi’s underground nuclear bunker which was his hideout. Certainly he was an individual who could have done a lot of damage to the MEK had he been allowed to leave Iraq.
This bunker and the probability that Rajavi was still hiding there explains why the MEK refused to fully evacuate Camp Ashraf when the majority were transferred to Camp Liberty. The MEK made the excuse that they were protecting and selling off their assets, and were assisted in this sham by announcing that a British company was willing to buy the stuff. But this never came about and local Iraqi officials in the Diyala province went through court procedures to have the land returned to the rightful owners. This in itself distracted from the MEK’s own position and provided a welcome battle to wills to justify their continued presence at the camp. The real reason was that Rajavi was still there right up to September 1st when he was forced to escape with seven of his loyal bodyguards through a tunnel leading to the outskirts of the camp.
What happened on that day is still not known. Who killed Dalili and then tried to destroy his identity is not known. Why did the MEK suddenly after the Iraqi authorities named him last week reverse their announcement that he was one of their martyrs and now claim that he entered the camp with the attackers and led them to the various places in the camp to capture and kill the MEK residents. In the fourth part of the MEK’s documentary series on the attacks Dalili’s mangled and disfigured body is shown for the first time with Iranian money strewn over it. The MEK say he was an Iranian agent and that when the attack was completed his handlers killed him there and then. But why then, since they had taken the film on September 1st had the MEK not said anything before now, and had in fact said he was one of their martyrs? If Dalili had been an agent surely he would have been much more valuable for the MEK’s enemies if he were alive, especially since he had so much sensitive information. Also why would they kill and maim him in the camp and not take him elsewhere to kill him clandestinely?
The investigation into this event is far from over. Indeed this new revelation only points to how important it is for the investigators to have access to the forty two survivors of the attack who are currently being held incommunicado by the MEK in Camp Liberty. Even residents of the camp have not had sight or word of them since their arrival on September 11.
It is impossible to discount their testimony. As a matter of urgency they must be brought forward and removed from the camp to a place of safety where each one can be cross examined to establish what they witnessed that day.
Unfortunately the Iraqi authorities who have been tasked by the UN to investigate this incident are obliged to rely on the UN to facilitate access to these forty two people. The UN in turn is beholden to the Pentagon in its treatment of the MEK. The Pentagon of course has a ten year history of supporting and protecting the MEK in Iraq, starting with then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s personal granting of Fourth Geneva Convention Protection which made a complete nonsense of the previously declared position that the US had invaded Iraq partly because Saddam Hussein harboured terrorist groups such as the MEK. Since then the Pentagon has blocked any attempt to dismantle the group or rescue its members. American soldiers refused to help those families who had tried to contact their loved ones inside Camp Ashraf and in cooperation with orders from MEK commanders turned them away. Those who escaped the MEK and were housed in the TIPF adjacent to Camp Ashraf informed the American soldiers of widespread abuses taking place behind closed doors. They said that the MEK commanders were armed with small arms and kept control through fear and threats. One ex member says that he saw Afsaneh Vatankhah, the bodyguard of Mojgan Parsai, openly wearing a holster with a colt and magazine clip. He believes that it is not unlikely that what happened in Camp Ashraf was the result of an internal fight. He reminds us that during the last two decades we have regularly heard about people getting shot in the camp and it being announced as a suicide or that people died under the American bombardment or that unintentional shootings had occurred, etc. None of this was investigated or stopped by the UN army in the six years they were in charge of the camp.
Currently the Pentagon does not allow the UN or the authorities of the sovereign state of Iraq to enter Camp Liberty and offer succour to the residents there. The Iraqi investigators as well as government officials widely acknowledge that their hands are tied by the UN and ultimately by the Americans who have deliberately foisted the MEK on them without giving them any chance to remove them or bring the criminal elements to justice.
Unless the UN discovers the courage and ability to stand up to the Americans over this issue, it is clear that more and more residents of Camp Liberty will be killed.

January 1, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MKO & AIPAC lobbies to promote endless wars in the Mideast

Very soon after the US administration was starting to admit that the military option could not be on the table any more, the MKO and AIPAC lobbies came up with a new Iran sanctions bill designed to frustrate MKO & AIPAC lobbies to promote endless wars in the Mideast the historic agreement reached by Iran and the West in Geneva. And, once that bill is passed, it provides automatic U.S military backing for Israel if its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decides to attack Iran.

Three top senators, including two Democrats, have begun circulating a draft of a new Iran sanctions bill that critics say could violate the terms of an agreement struck between Iran and the United States in Geneva last month, reported Ali Gharib of Foreign Policy. The resolution was introduced by Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Mark Kirk(R-IL) of which the goal is “the complete and verifiable termination of Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program”.[1]

Two of AIPAC’s favorite senators from both parties, Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk(R-IL), are at this moment actively working with AIPAC to push for new sanctions, notwithstanding the warnings by the Obama administration that additional sanctions will violate the interim accord and put the entire diplomatic process at risk. [2]Senator Robert Menendez is also an ardent advocate of the MKO in the US Congress.

Menhendez backs the MKO operatives to the extent that he told Wendy Sherman the US State Department’s third person that the MEK should be invited to relocate to the United States. [3]

Earlier this year the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Menendez, said there is still time for diplomacy, but the United States needs to look closely at enhancing “military pressure” on Iran. [4]Once the diplomatic solution started working in Geneva, Bob Menendez said a briefing by Secretary of State John Kerry and others Wednesday failed to convince him that a proposed deal with Iran to loosen sanctions in exchange for a temporary freeze of the country’s nuclear program was worth pursuing on November 15. [Cheered by the MKO that published it on its propaganda website by the title "Menendez joins GOP in slamming Iran briefing"]

Jim White of the Emptywheel website confirms AIPAC’s part to pass the legislation against Iran but he also notifies the part of the MKO in the "warmongering aspects" of the bill. He writes," the work (and funding money) of MEK, which advocates for (in my opinion, violent) regime change in Iran, seems to be just as likely, if not more likely, to be behind this hideous piece of legislation." [5]

Although White gives too much credit to the cult of Rajavi, he accurately warns about the MKO’s crisis mongering propaganda to obstruct the Geneva deal in which Iran insisted on its right to low level enrichment to produce fuel for nuclear power plants. " Since that is seen as a deal-breaker for Iran, it is precisely what the MEK now sets as the determinant of whether sanctions that will certainly lead to war are enacted", he states. "What they want is a war to change the regime in Iran, not a diplomatic solution that prevents nuclear weapons being developed by Iran."[6]

Regarding the MKO as a cult-like group that had been on the FTO list until recently, the support it enjoys in the Congress is mostly linked to the financial donations it makes to its advocates rather than any deep loyalty to the group’s agenda. However, the support for the MKO agenda to violently overthrow the Islamic Republic is now paired with the long time efforts of AIPAC to drive the United States into a war with Iran.

The true fact about the MKO and AIPAC is that both are well connected with the Israeli intelligence Mossad. "Recently declassified FBI files reveal how Israeli government officials first orchestrated public relations and policies through the U.S. lobby," reported Granth Smith of the Antiwar. "Counter-espionage investigations of proto-AIPAC’s first coordinating meetings with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the head of Mossad provide a timely and useful framework for understanding how AIPAC continues to localize and market Israeli government policies in America."[7]

Concerning the MKO the relation with Mossad is mostly operational rather than political. US officials told NBC News in 2012 that Mossad has recruited and trained MKO operative for sabotage operations in Iran. [8]

Despite the hard work by war mongers’ parties and lobbies to launch another war in the Middle East, the White House has assured to veto any bills calling for new sanctions since they clearly violate the P5+1 agreement. Let’s hope that diplomacy will win over war this time.

Mazda Parsi

[1]Gharib, Ali, Exclusive: Top Senate Democrats Break with White House and Circulate New Iran Sanctions Bill, Foreign Policy, December 18, 2013

[2]Payvand Iran News, Top Jewish Non-Profit Heads Leading Iran Sanctions Call, December 21, 2013

[3] NIAC Staff, State Department Advises Senate to Hold off Iran Sanctions Until After Negotiations, October 4, 2013

[4] NIAC Staff, Congress Debates War, Sanctions, Diplomacy and MEK with Top Obama Officials, May 16, 2013

[5] White, Jim, MEK Purchases 27 US Senate Votes for War with Iran, Emptywheel, December 20, 2013

[6] ibid

[7] Smith, Grant, The Mossad Has Long Given Marching Orders to AIPAC, Antiwar.com, February 28, 2012

[8] Engel, Richard & Windrem, Robert, Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News, NBC News, Feb 9, 2012

December 30, 2013 0 comments

Camp Liberty

MEK’s Western backers are complicit in their deaths

This is the second time head of the Mukhtar Army Wathiq al-Battat has claimed responsibility for attacks on the MEK. In February, in an interview with Al-Mada Press, al-Battat said he did not rule out the possibility of further attacks on Camp Liberty, and emphasized that they are waiting in MEK’s Western backers are complicit in their deaths ambush for the terrorist MEK until they leave Iraq. In a separate interview with the Associated Press, al-Battat said, “It is time for the people of the MEK to leave Iraq. We have demanded that the government kick the group out of the country, but the Iraqi government did not respond positively to our demand”.

In the past year over 8,000 people have died in violent incidents in Iraq. The problem is not that the MEK are being singled out for attack, the real problem is that nobody is allowed to get inside Camp Liberty to help rescue these people from their enforced captivity. Nobody is allowed to help them or to relocate them or save their lives. In spite of the diverse efforts of various parties, MEK leaders have refused to allow any party to help or rescue the residents first in Camp Ashraf and latterly in Camp Liberty.

Maryam Rajavi may be able to lie to and deceive the captive members and those supporters who have not the intellectual or moral capacity to question or challenge her script, but these are the facts:

· In 2003, the IRI offered an amnesty to rank and file members who renounced their membership of the terrorist group and other political activity can return home under the supervision of the Red Cross in Iran. To date this has been honoured.

· Iraq’s constitution, its polity and its judicial system will never allow the MEK terrorist organisation to remain in the country. To date the government and the security services have shown commendable restraint and compliance with international law, above the demands of national law, as embodied by the agency of UNAMI.

· Since 2009, America and European countries have offered to take several of the captives; initially those who have had previous connection with their countries or have family members there.

· The UN has instigated refugee determination interviews to assess the eligibility of all the captives. Some have been enabled to be transferred to Albania after such interviews.

· Individual families have travelled to Iraq on several occasions to try to reach their relatives. For three years families of residents held vigil outside Camp Ashraf demanding contact with their loved ones which the MEK leaders denied.

To date the Rajavis have refused to cooperate with all of these attempts to help and rescue the residents and take them to safety.

As a result, since 2003 there have been numerous deaths among the residents of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty: through rocket or missile attack (including this latest one), during interventions by the Iraqi military, untreated illness and disease, uninvestigated suicides or murders. Most of these could have been prevented. It is no longer acceptable that the Rajavis blame every other party to this crisis and refuse to acknowledge their part. Nobody will buy that any more. If there was even one iota of accountability in the totalitarian system of the MEK the leadership would have been expelled by now.

But is it ludicrous to imagine that one or even two people – whether Maryam and/or Massoud Rajavi – are capable of acting alone to prevent all this help from reaching the people in the camp. There are others who have a clear interest in keeping them locked away behind closed doors.

For years now the presence of the MEK in Iraq has had nothing to do with Iran. The MEK’s own policy of ‘regime change’ or ‘overthrow of the Iranian regime’ was abandoned several years ago, possibly as long ago as 2003. Since then the MEK has been taken up and used by western backers to interfere in the internal affairs of Iraq. This was made abundantly clear in the work of the European Parliament’s Iraq Delegation which shamelessly supported and promoted the MEK’s presence in Iraq in defiance of the government’s decision to expel the group and in spite of the constitutional requirement to remove them.

All the lobbying on behalf of the MEK is to do with preserving it as a terrorist organisation for its backers to use in pursuit of their anti-Iraq agenda. There is no intention on the part of those who use the group to have it dismantled, or to have the residents rescued. The group must either remain in Iraq or, if pushed, they must move altogether without anyone talking with them. Although it is glib to claim that MOSSAD and the CIA are the MEK’s main backers, we only have to look at a recent report from Sofia which reveals that during a visit to Romania, the US Secretary of State John Kerry and the Romanian Foreign Minister discussed the possibility of settling all 3000+ MEK members together near the city of Craiova. In other words, if this terrorist group must be moved, it must be moved as a whole. That such a discussion and plan could take place at this level is ample evidence that even at the highest levels of power there is no intention of dismantling the group and helping the individual members out of captivity. Instead there is a sense of ownership which clearly states ‘this is our terrorist group, we will do as we like with it and use it as we like’.

Such owners pay for the name of the MEK – and the 3000 members to pretend it is a viable group. They are playing with the lives of these people for their own agenda and as long as the MEK are useful in this way they won’t allow help to be given or anyone to go in to rescue them. While Maryam Rajavi lives with every convenience and comfort in Paris, the rest must remain in Iraq, targets for missile attacks. For the MEK leaders every one of them who dies is a martyr and every one of them who survives is a witness. It is clear what the outcome should be for the Rajavis. They will expend their blood in whatever way suits them to fulfil the agenda of their backers, but clearly they will end up killing all of them sooner or later. And those who use the MEK in any way and deny help to the individuals are complicit in this scenario.

Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), Middle East Strategy Consultants

December 29, 2013 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 34

++ Soraya Abdollahi has published the 3rd part of her recollections of her and her son Amir Aslan’s lives and what happened after he was abducted by the MEK from Turkey where he had gone to find work.

++ There have been many more articles about the way the MEK started its hunger strike and then how Rajavi abruptly ordered it to end without even mentioning what it was about or what they had achieved.

++ Mazda Parsi of Nejat Bloggers has written an article denouncing Maryam Rajavi’s attempts to link herself with the legacy of Nelson Mandela; posing as a peace loving and democratic person. Among other differences Parsi points out that “In his struggle against racism and discrimination, Mandela viewed Palestine with the same charitable ideas he had for the people of his own country. Nelson Mandela expressed his solidarity with the Palestinian struggle in simple but compelling terms.” Whereas “allied with Israel, today the MKO-run websites and officials do not even cover the news of the Palestinian sufferings. Serving their new sponsor the Israeli Mossad, the group is not going to risk its survival by advocating the Palestinians’ desire for freedom.”

++ Mir Bagher Sedaghi has published an article in Setaregan website in Switzerland remembering the time he spent in Camp Ashraf and revealing some of the criminal acts committed there including the death of Ali Abadian on the order of one of the MEK commanders Zohreh Ghaemi (who was also in charge of the assassination of General Shirazi on the orders of Saddam’s secret service). She was among the 52 killed on September 1st at Camp Ashraf.

++ For the first time reporters were able to enter Rajavi’s nuclear bunker in Camp Ashraf. Many survivors of the MEK have written to observe that although they knew something was going on there they had no idea about the extent of Rajavi/Saddam’s collaborative work. Some have pointed out that there are three separate suites, each with en-suite facilities, which clearly indicates that these are not part of the general accommodation and have been made specifically for the individuals (women) who Rajavi would choose even in the event of a nuclear attack. Mohammad Razaghi has written a similar article calling it “The Anti Nuclear Harem of Massoud Rajavi”.

++ Two separate reports speculate whether the MEK could be moved wholesale to Jordan or to Romania. A report from Sofia reveals that US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with his Romanian counterpart about plans to relocate all 3000+ residents of Camp Liberty together just outside the city of Craiova. The MEK have allegedly offered Jordan to pay its own relocation expenses if they have permission to establish a camp near the border [with Iraq].

++ There are several articles responding to the recent threats by the Mojahedin Khalq against survivors and critics. These point out Rajavi’s desperation to silence his victims. Hadi Afshar (Saeed Jamali) has written a short article in Pejvak Iran explaining Rajavi’s need to divert attention through swearing and attacking the survivors so that they will react to that, and the main issues like human rights abuse and rape and etc in the MEK would be sidelined.

++ Zahra Mir Bagheri (the most recent Leadership Council defector and survivor who now resides in Germany), has written an article exposing Rajavi’s mercenary work for anti Iranian circles (Israel and Zionists) to try to stop the nuclear negotiations and work instead towards war. She concludes that as much as Rajavi tries to portray the survivors of the cult as traitors, it is obvious to everyone, even supporters of the MEK that it is Massoud and Maryam Rajavi who have been betraying their country, their people and their members.

++ Press TV reported that two MEK members Massoud Kashmiri and Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi who masterminded the 1981 bombing of the Iranian prime minister’s office and the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party have been spotted in Germany. The two men were seen while dining out in the German city of Cologne and driving to Hamburg under fake identities.

++ Iraqi officials have announced this week that the bodies of the 53 dead are still there and no one has come to collect them. The official, speaking to IRNA, gave the exact names and explained that at least ten of them are from the highest levels of the Mojahedin’s ranks, and wondered why they have been left to rot and no one has come forward to claim the bodies?

++ Following the news of a missile attack on Camp Liberty today, many people have already written about it and the role of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi in preventing the individuals from leaving Iraq and thereby knowingly exposing them to this danger.

++ Reuters reported on the attack on Camp Liberty. “Iraqi authorities have repeatedly denied involvement in attacks on the group. In a rare claim of responsibility for attacks on the MEK, Wathiq al-Batat, commander of the al-Mukhtar Army militia, told Reuters his group had fired 20 Katyusha rockets and mortar rounds at the camp. “We’ve asked (the government) to expel them from the country many times, but they are still here,” he said, accusing the group of communicating with Sunni and Shi’ite politicians he said were linked to al Qaeda.”
December 27 2013

December 28, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

The legacy of Mandela is none of the MKO’s business

Nelson Mandela’s legacy is nobody’s exclusive property. The legacy of non-violence and forgiveness of the anti-apartheid South African President lives on in the hearts of all freedom loving human beings who desire to make a difference in the world of injustice and discrimination. His legacy is in no way living on in the cult-like terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization –even though the group’s leader Maryam Rajavi makes efforts to take the gesture of a freedom loving democratic charismatic leader.

This is Mayam Rajavi’s twit following the passing away of the honorable Mandela: My respects to Nelson Mandela who said: I am prepared to die for a free society with equal opportunities. She offers condolences to "people of South Africa who strive for freedom".

As an exiled opposition leader, Rajavi has always enjoyed a much better condition –tied with the interests of foreign countries that provided her with financial and military support– than a opposition leader at home like Nelson Mandela –who served 27 years in prison for his aspirations for freedom and equality. For leaders like Mandela, the task was to move people, to win the hearts of people, and to ultimately isolate the hard opposition. How about the MKO? To what extent did they win the hearts of the Iranian people?

As an Iranian living in Iran, I eyewitness that the people here hardly ever remember the MKO, even those who remember them, do not claim any significant support for them because of their horrific terrorist acts against the Iranian civilians and officials. This true fact is confirmed in many international documents and articles. Being embraced by more and more people in society Nelson Mandela enjoys a relevant advantage that Maryam Rajavi has never enjoyed.

In his struggle against racism and discrimination, Mandela viewed Palestine with the same charitable ideas he had for the people of his own country. Nelson Mandela expressed his solidarity with the Palestinian struggle in simple but compelling terms. In a letter to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in 2010, the former South African president wrote, “The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just an issue of military occupation and Israel is not a country that was established ‘normally’ and happened to occupy another country in 1967. Palestinians are not struggling for a ‘state’ but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa.”

Allied with Israel, today the MKO-run websites and officials do not even cover the news of the Palestinian sufferings. Serving their new sponsor the Israeli Mossad, the group is not going to risk its survival by advocating the Palestinians’ desire for freedom.

Today, Desmond Tutu the Archbishop of South Africa actively supports Palestinians. In the article he wrote in the Guardian in 2002 he expresses the deep pain he feels seeing the apartheid in the Holy Land. "I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa" he writes. "I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about."

The ironic point is that today Desmond Tutu’s Daughter Naomi Nontombi Tutu is seen among supporters of the MKO. Seemingly the MKO’s skilled manipulative propaganda system succeeded to gain the support of such a person by wearing the mask of Mandela loving. In the early December Naomi Tutu attended an event organized by the MKO in Paris where she visited Maryam Rajavi taking photos in front of a large image of Nelson Mandela –put there in his so-called memory . In this way the MKO is trying to link itself with Nelson Mandela. However, as Iran- Interlink puts, "Several writers have pointed out that until only a few weeks ago the MEK was vehement in its rants against Mandela, and contrast this with the sudden change of tune after his death." The MKO previously attacked him for visiting Iran including a visit with the then President Khatami.

The Noble Peace Prize winner, Nelson Mandela and his admirable history has nothing to do with the MKO cult of personality that deprives its own members of their most basic human rights. In a deep contrast with Mandela, when in June 2003 Mryam Rajavi was arrested and jailed by the French Police only for a few days the Cult officials ordered sympathizers and members to set themselves on fire in European capitals. The outcome was the death of two women and the paralyzing of others.

Mandela wanted the popular culture to embrace him but the MKO’s attitude during the three past decades has definitely made the popular culture detest them.

By Mazda Parsi

December 25, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MEK Purchases 27 US Senate Votes for War With Iran

On Tuesday, I posited that the threat of new sanctions kicking in if a final agreement on nuclear technology is not reached could serve as a strong incentive for Iran to bargain in good faith with the P5+1 MEK Purchases 27 US Senate Votes for War With Iran group of nations. But then, on Thursday, an actual sanctions bill was introduced. Ali Gharib took the time to read it (he got an advance copy and posted about it Wednesday) and what he found is profoundly disturbing (emphasis added):

The legislation would broaden the scope of the sanctions already imposed against Iran, expanding the restrictions on Iran’s energy sector to include all aspects of its petroleum trade and putting in place measures targeting Iran’s shipping and mining sectors. The bill allows Obama to waive the new sanctions during the current talks by certifying every 30 days that Iran is complying with the Geneva deal and negotiating in good faith on a final agreement, as well as meeting other conditions such as not sponsoring or carrying out acts of terrorism against U.S. targets.

In accordance with goals laid out frequently by hard-liners in Congress and the influential lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the bill sets tough conditions for a final deal, should one be reached with Iranian negotiators. Among those conditions is a provision that only allows Obama to waive new sanctions, even after a final deal has been struck, if that deal bars Iran from enriching any new uranium whatsoever. The bill states Obama may not waive sanctions unless the United States and its allies “reached a final and verifiable agreement or arrangement with Iran that will … dismantle Iran’s illicit nuclear infrastructure, including enrichment and reprocessing capabilities and facilities.” (Congress could also block Obama’s waivers by passing a “joint resolution of disapproval” against a final deal.)

Although Gharib ascribes the war mongering aspects of this bill to positions advocated by AIPAC, the work (and funding money) of MEK, which advocates for (in my opinion, violent) regime change in Iran, seems to be just as likely, if not more likely, to be behind this hideous piece of legislation. The chief architect of the bill is Robert Menendez (D-NJ). He lists his cosponsors (Menendez’s original release claimed 26 cosponsors and the news stories linked below also cite 26, but Corey Booker was added to the list this morning while this post was being written. The press release was changed to add Booker to the list without changing the 26 to 27. The press release at the old URL was wiped out so that an empty page is returned. The date of December 19 for the release was also retained.):

The legislation was co-sponsored by twenty-six senators [sic], including: Senators Menendez, Kirk, Schumer, Graham, Cardin, McCain, Casey, Rubio, Coons, Cornyn, Blumenthal, Ayotte, Begich, Corker, Pryor, Collins, Landrieu, Moran, Gillibrand, Roberts, Warner, Johanns, Hagan, Cruz, Donnelly, Blunt and Booker.

Perhaps the only encouraging aspect of this long list of bipartisan backers of war is that back in June of 2012 this group got 44 signatures on a Senate letter calling for all negotiations with Iran to cease unless three conditions were met:

The senators wrote that the “absolute minimum” Iran must do immediately to justify further talks is to shut down the Fordo uranium enrichment facility near Qom, freeze all uranium enrichment above 5 percent, and ship all uranium enriched above 5 percent out of the country.

Note that the current agreement does stop enrichment above 5%. It also calls for half of the 20% uranium to be diluted back down to 5% while the other half is converted to a chemical form for fuel that can’t easily be further enriched. Qom is not shut down, but the agreement does spell out specific numbers of centrifuges that can be used at the two enrichment sites.

But consider this for a moment. Most of what these war mongers were lobbying for last year actually appears in the interim agreement, and so they have been forced to move the goalposts in order to reach a point that they think won’t be part of the final agreement. What they want is a war to change the regime in Iran, not a diplomatic solution that prevents nuclear weapons being developed by Iran.

It became obvious during the final discussions that led to this interim agreement that Iran insists on its right to low level enrichment to produce fuel for nuclear power plants. Since that is seen as a deal-breaker for Iran, it is precisely what the MEK now sets as the determinant of whether sanctions that will certainly lead to war are enacted.

The intellectual dishonesty surrounding this move by MEK shills in the Senate is stunning. They claim, as stated in Menendez’s press release that their goal is “the complete and verifiable termination of Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program”. Low level enrichment is not part of a weapons program and yet this group insists that Iran also must abandon low level enrichment along with any aspects of a weapons program.

Even more disturbing is that stories today by both the New York Times and CNN mention the introduction of the bill but don’t get around to explaining that the bill calls for the extreme sanctions if all enrichment is not abandoned and that that condition is almost certainly a deal-breaker for Iran.

There is at least some push-back within the Senate. A letter signed by ten Democratic committee heads has been sent to Harry Reid strongly advocating against bringing the bill up for a vote. Sadly, the letter fails to point out the manner in which Menendez’s bill undercuts the ongoing negotiations by setting terms that almost certainly are not going to be a part of any final agreement with Iran. There also is an op-ed (in Politico!) by Carl Levin and Barbara Boxer lobbying against the bill. Significantly, Levin was one of the 44 signatories on the June, 2012 letter but now seems to have come around to favoring diplomacy over war. Failing all this, the White House has promised to veto any bills calling for new sanctions since they clearly violate the interim P5+1 agreement.

by Jim White, Emptywheel.net

December 22, 2013 0 comments

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