Articles

++ Fars News reported that tens of Mojahedin members have defected the group after arriving in Albania. Several are high ranking members, including the informant who asked to remain anonymous for fear of his life. He told Fars News that MEK commanders including Farzaneh Meidan Shahi and Esmayeel Mortezayee also known as Javad Khorassan, do not allow other members to leave their residence and contact their families.

++ An analytical article by Nejat Bloggers questions whether the MEK are simply struggling to survive or are they really able to topple the IRI. The article expounds on various recent difficulties faced by the MEK and concludes: “It seems that the sequence of the MKO failed tactics and its futile efforts to wipe them off have no end. The Mujahedin-e Khalq is a broken group that is reaching its expiry date.”

++ Ban Ki Moon announced that the UN is committed to resolving situation of former residents of Iraq camp. The US has pledged financial support to the UN Trust Fund for Resettlement of Camp Hurriya Residents in order to help deal with this issue.

++ Ghorbanali Hossein Nejad was the guest on Mardom TV this week.

++ On his website, Ghorbanali Hossein Nejad has published the correspondence he has had with an Iraqi personality, Zaafer Alaani, in which the correspondent asks why he is still supporting the MEK. It became clear from this that the MEK was still using Hossein Nejad’s name in Iraq without his knowledge and claiming he was supporting them.

++ There has been a lot of writing in both English and Farsi about the arrest of Ali Mansouri by various people who knew him as a veteran member working for the MEK for thirty years. Now that he has been arrested as an Iranian spy in Israel there are many interpretations as to how this happened. Many say that in line with how the MEK usually behave they believe the MEK had a problem with him. They have sent him to Israel – where he has been a long term collaborator with Mossad – to prevent him running away and they lose him, so that once again, they have sacrificed another dissenting member.

++ The so-called hunger strike continues and the MEK are on overdrive to publicise it. But not many people are convinced because none of those participating look ill or weak. But, given the MEK’s past history many are predicting that they will kill one or two of them – for example by not giving medication to a diabetic, etc – to claim they died from hunger. As the MEK never surrender the bodies of the dead for autopsy they can do what they like. There are many disaffected members now so any one of them can be killed.

++Fars News has published an informative article about Hassan Dai (aka Daioleslam), which goes into detail about when he joined the MEK, about his family – a brother and sister in Camp Liberty – and how he was moved by the MEK from Germany to Washington. The article introduces him as the MEK’s contact with the neoconservatives in Washington (there are some accompanying pictures of him in recent demonstrations, etc). Fars News has exposed Dai because he is trying to claim he is not with the MEK, even though people in America know that he is.

++ Mohammad Razaghi published an article remembering Ahmad Rezapour who committed suicide whilst with the MEK. HE describes in detail how the MEK abused him to the point that he became really ill, but the MEK wouldn’t allow him to remain in the dormitory with the accusation that ‘if you stay you might masturbate’. In public humiliation meetings the MEK accused him of sexual deviancy and subjected him to mass spitting and swearing, and this continued abuse led to him killing himself. Razaghi says that even though they had themselves brought all this on his head, the MEK later criticised his commander for not realising he would commit suicide, not because he was dead but because his suicide was ‘against the leadership’; that is, damaging to the reputation of Rajavi.

++ Razaghi had an interview with Iranian website ‘Rajavis’. The interviewer, among other informative issues, asks Razaghi why he doesn’t come back to Iran. Razaghi admits that after thirty years in opposition, there is always the fear that you might be prosecuted. But, he says, that can be overcome as we have seen others return and nothing happens to them. My main problem, he continues, is that Rajavi has left nothing for us to support ourselves with. “As a pensioner and a sick man, if I come to Iran what do I eat, where do I live. I love the people of Iran but I have real problems which are being sorted out in the western countries. The interview is titled: ‘I have nothing to lean on to live in Iran, Rajavi has taken everything from me’.

++ This week was the anniversary of the death of the singer Marzieh, who was widely criticised after she left Iran to join with the MEK. Many writers say what a shame it is that for such a famous star only ten or so MEK terrorists gathered around her grave and nobody else. This doesn’t show hatred of her they say, but is because nobody wants to go near the MEK. Otherwise, there would be hundreds of people who would have liked to go and show their respects. Iraj Shokri, an ex NCRI member has short article on his site remembering Marzieh and exposing some of the problems they created for her and describes how she was under pressure but had nowhere else to go. He claims that she wouldn’t have stayed if she’s found the opportunity but she became dependent on them after she left Iran.

++ This week, Jordanian parliament announced that no MP will participate in Maryam Rajavi’s meetings in Paris in future. In the past a couple of MPs had attended on a personal level paid by the MEK. The parliamentarians pointed to the presence of Syrian terrorists next to Rajavi and said they can’t go and sit alongside representatives of Syrian terrorism.

++ Tareq Al Hashemi, the fugitive Iraqi former vice prime minister, who has been charged with terrorism and was famous for his connection with the Saddamists, turned up next to Maryam Rajavi in Brussels this week. It is believed by many commentators that he had been brought by the MEK and the Israeli lobby such as Stevenson and others in order to sit next to Rajavi in public and to boost her message. Ironically, Al Hashemi only spoke a sentence or two to condemn the killings at Camp Ashraf and blame Prime Minister Maliki before pushing his own anti-Iraq, anti-Al Maliki agenda. Some pointed out that his whole speech could be summed up in one sentence: ‘Me, Ezzat Ebrahim, Saddam Hussein, Rajavi…. are all innocent’.

++ Several articles have been published in Iran and outside in Farsi and in English about what forces are against the reduction of American sanctions. Practically all start with the MEK and Israel and neoconservatives in the west, and follow with the hardliners in Iran, and others who have financial interests and connections with Russia and China in Iran.

++ Hojjat Seyed Ismaeli – an ex MEK intelligence commander – has an article in Irandidban going into detail about what Rajavi called his ‘strategy’. The title ‘The strategy that was left behind in Iraq’ is self explanatory. Ismaeli says that even though, from the start, the MEK were mercenaries for Iraq, they have now abandoned that path and are looking for a new strategy.

++ Hadi Afshar – known as Said Jamaali in the MEK – has published number six in a series of articles recounting his years with the MEK until he managed to run away. He had been a high ranking member serving in MEK operations and intelligence for thirty years. This week’s article is called, ‘Don’t be mistaken, I am not talking about the intelligence services of Iran’. HE describes what he has seen inside the MEK in terms of torture and murder and also names some of those who, other witnesses have said, were killed under torture in MEK prisons.

++ Sahar Family Foundation website has an article titled, ‘Warnings of MEK commanders in Liberty and Maryam Rajavi’s video conference’ . The leaders in Camp Liberty are warning that everything is on the verge of collapse, and even high ranking members are dissenting. This all goes back to the unanswered questions hanging over the deaths at Camp Ashraf. Rajavi has replied in a video conference that ‘giving up Ashraf was the price we had to pay to be removed from the US terrorism list, but that we have been more successful by delaying it for a year. We deliberately kept Giti and Zohreh (top women military and intelligence commanders who were killed) there and it was because of them that we were able to keep Ashraf for another year, otherwise we couldn’t have done it’. She goes on in the usual cult jargon to claim that ‘giving these martyrs was worth it as we got back much more than we paid for’. She then paints a picture of the rosy future of the MEK now it is off the US list of terrorist entities. She claims that now Camp Liberty is the ‘beacon of the arrow of evolution and struggle’ and replaces Ashraf, and should be kept at any price. In this video she instructs the commanders that everyone has to forget about leaving Iraq. Instead they have to think and work towards making Liberty into Ashraf. She has instructed the top leaders that questions are forbidden and ordered them to suppress anyone who starts questioning anything. She also ordered them to show more videos of her speeches as well as getting the members involved in more sport and exercise, and to interest them in the European football leagues in order to pull them towards football and other such distractions etc, to keep them busy. In addition to this situation, Sahar says there is clear evidence that the MEK do not allow people to visit hospitals outside the camp unless the MEK are 100 per cent sure they will stay with them and return to the camp. For example, the MEK transferred Hossein Shakeri, born in Amol and a graduate of Architecture in Italy, to Baghdad hospital so late that he died on arrival. According to hospital staff he could have easily been saved if he had arrived sooner. Sahar says many letters have been sent to and they have talked several times with UNAMI representatives in Baghdad clearly demonstrating that the humanitarian disaster at Camp Liberty is caused by Rajavi and his commanders, and it is they who do not allow things to be sorted out and the residents sent to safe places. Sahar asks everyone, specifically UNAMI, to intervene in the situation of Camp Liberty which, ten years after the fall of Saddam is still being run with impunity by the head of a terrorist cult.

October 25, 2013

++ The MEK’s nuclear revelations failed to bring it much needed media coverage apart from a tired report by Reuters which was subsequently dissected by Jim White in Empty Wheel with the title, ‘MEK Makes Desperate New Iran Nuclear Accusation, Reuters Yawns’. White concludes that “the MEK clearly sees diplomacy as the real enemy …”, but that “they have reached a level of incompetence that is barely worthy of rewriting the standard dismissal that Reuters keeps on file.”

++ On the same issue, the MEK’s supporters and those who have just left have been extremely critical in the Farsi language websites. The general argument is that even if you, the MEK, want to be a mercenary force and be known as traitors to your own country, you can’t impose yourself on others where you are not accepted, it makes you look ridiculous. The writers refer to the many western people, including those in the IAEA, who are responsible for the nuclear issue who have pointed out that if there is something that the MEK know then there can be no doubt that the Americans would have known about it long before them. The writers, from inside the MEK’s Iranian support base, refer to the killings at and closure of Camp Ashraf and say this nuclear revelation will not divert attention from that; you have to explain why these people stayed, why the survivors left only after the others were killed and not before this happened, and why are the investigators not allowed access to these 42 people who have been transferred to Camp Liberty.

++ Massoud Jabaani comments on something Parviz Khazai – an MEK supporter – has written about the current situation of the MEK in which he praises the fact that they stayed in Camp Ashraf and got killed. Jabaani reminds Khazai that ‘as somebody who has been working for the Iranian government as an ambassador then changing sides to be a representative of Rajavi in Scandinavian countries, you should obviously know that people getting killed without their own informed consent or free choice does not constitute martyrdom’. Jabaani details other abuses of human rights including forced divorces and the naked dances etc, and says that ‘in a disgusting career which includes working for the Shah, for Khomeini and then Rajavi, for which you have been paid without believing any of it, the worst part of all is praising Rajavi as an opposition leader’.

++ Minoo Sepeher has published the second part of her article which goes into the details of where Camp Ashraf started and where it finished. At the end of it she refers to a preliminary finding by the investigators into the Camp Ashraf killings of September 1st. In ten paragraphs the report criticises the Mojahedin for preventing the investigation from being conducted fully so that it can come to a conclusion. Criticisms of the MEK include: explosions targeted at destroying evidence, not allowing investigators into the camp before destroying things, claiming they have been attacked by RPG and mortar whereas no evidence of that has been found, the bullets found at the scene are not anything like the bullets carried by the Iraqi army, the MEK have been moving bodies far distances inside the camp before letting anyone get in to see them. There is clear evidence of attempts to clear up and set a scene after the killings took place. There is even a paragraph which says that on the following day, in the presence of UNAMI representatives, the Iraqi forces managed to stop one of the MEK members from exploding a homemade bomb which he had in his possession. Another obstacle is that the MEK refuse to hand over the films and pictures they have taken to the investigators. There is clear evidence that the killings had been pre-planned and the MEK had knowledge about it. Minoo Sepeher concludes that although we have to wait for the full report by the Iraqis, these killings must have been carried out by the MEK themselves.

++ Nejat Association reported that an official of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry announced that 33 members of the Mojahedin Khalq were received as refugees by the German government. He also noted that some of these individuals, who were interviewed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, “suffer from distressed mental states and fear staying in Iraq”. Germany has agreed to accept a total of 100 residents of Camp Liberty.

++ In an Open Letter to Catherine Ashton, Massoud Khodabandeh warned that the MEK were set to take aggressive or violent action to disrupt the 5+1 talks in Geneva with the Iranian delegation. Khodabandeh describes how Ashton had been unknowingly set up to perpetuate MEK lies about events at Camp Ashraf which the European Parliament’s Iraq Delegation exploited to pursue an anti-Iraq agenda. The letter concludes, “It is important to put the MEK where it belongs – it has no place in the political process. The group is purely a brand and a tool. Once a group is named as a tool in the hands of paying masters then it loses its potency. The MEK has no independent existence. You must look to the people who issue the orders to find out how to counter its influence.”

++ In Farsi sites and media there is much criticism over the continuation of the hunger strike (last week it was exposed that the participants have been denied food and are therefore forced to be on hunger strike). Critics pose the question: ‘what crime have these people committed that they must be killed by hunger strike? Why is it that every time someone has to burn themselves or starve to death or whatever, we never see the leaders involved? They point out that what Rajavi is doing to these people in Camp Liberty is against every human rights law and the only reason he does it is to get more blood.

++ In separate articles, Iran Interlink and Mohammad Razaghi exposed Ali Mansouri – who was arrested in Israel as a spy – as a long serving member of the Mojahedin Khalq cult. A statement issued by the MEK tried to claim that Mansouri was an infiltrator, an agent of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Instead the articles describe him as a covert agent working for the MEK and Mossad, who used to visit Iran and bring back information. His arrest was either a mistake in which case the MEK and Mossad need to coordinate better, or the MEK saw him as a liability and set him up to get rid of him.

++ Inside supporters of the MEK have criticised the European Parliament and its resolution for not being directed at saving lives, but rather at prolonging the situation to help Rajavi. Otherwise, instead of crying crocodile tears for the camp, the EP would help to get the people out of Iraq.

++ Quite a few reports and articles showed how the MEK failed to disrupt the 5+1 meeting in Geneva. One is from a reporter for Mehr News who wrote a short piece about fringe activity at the meetings. He explains that as the press conferences of Ashton and Zarif got underway, officials identified three people from the MEK who tried to attend. Swiss police intervened to throw them out and thus prevented any disruption. The reporter says the three were obviously given press passes to get in the building by someone, that they had backers and asks who were they? He also says that there were MEK activists in the area outside the venue but they were not allowed to hinder or halt proceedings. Instead they went been trawling round the building looking for people to harass or attack. Failing in this too they could only daub graffiti around the city centre.

Iran Interlink, October 18 2013

++ Nejat Society wrote in response to Massoud Rajavi’s narrated message in which he implies that the victims of Camp Ashraf were all there to get killed for him and that they died saving his life. Nejat points out that if this is true it is truly shocking because Rajavi had deceptively kept them there under the pretext they were to sell the MEK’s remaining possessions. This shows, says Nejat that in order to save his skin, Rajavi is willing to kill every one of his followers.

++ Faleh Fayaz, Iraq’s National Security Advisor, met with the ambassadors of various countries in Baghdad. In the meeting he announced that the Mojahedin Khalq has until the end of the year to leave the country. He advised that any embassy which thinks it has any relation with the MEK should take them out as soon as they can.

++ In Tirana those who have deserted the MEK have started talking. One individual wrote a letter explaining how the MEK are putting pressure on them. He asks ‘where are the human rights organisations that he and his friends believed would be concerned over their plight’. He describes the MEK’s threats, one of which is that if they take money from the UN refugee organisation and register as refugees then the MEK will treat them as agents of the Iranian regime in which case they can do what they like with them – [in MEK jargon being an agent of the Iranian regime carries a de facto death sentence under made-up MEK law]. The dissidents in Tirana are now desperate. The MEK promised them money so they wouldn’t go to the UN, but this has been withheld and now they fear for their lives if they do take UN money. They are asking for help from anyone, anywhere.

++ Edaalat Association translated into Farsi an article by journalist Daniel Solis from the Czech Republic which exposes an MP, Daniel Herman, who has been taking money to work as a lobbyist for the MEK. He is now under judicial scrutiny and there have been a variety of critical radio reports and newspaper articles alleging that he has been bought by a terrorist organisation.

++ Mohammad Al-Seyhood from Nouri Al-Maliki’s coalition party speaking with Al Madi press on behalf of the coalition says that Iraq is neither a servant nor a colony of America and if Washington is worried about the mercenaries – MEK – they should take them out as soon as they can rather than interfere in the internal affairs of our country. He was speaking in response to those in America who are demanding a ‘sharp cut in US aid to Iraq’ over the alleged missing seven MEK from Camp Ashraf.

++ There were many articles in Farsi about what is behind the MEK’s so-called hunger strike. Some treat it as a joke as the strikers have not given up dying their hair and trimming their moustaches over the past six weeks. Others are concerned that Rajavi will start killing them one way or another to have something for the papers to write about. Some write, including Mohammad Razaghi, that we never see the MEK leaders burn themselves or go on hunger strike. Some articles refer to MEK propaganda outlets in Farsi pointing out that more than half is devoted Syria and support for terrorist organisations. One of these terrorists got killed last week – the contact with the MEK from the Free Syrian Army.

++ Yaran Association has published an open letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon specifying that we have information from people inside Camp Liberty that Rajavi has ordered that food be actually withheld. This means that many of those on hunger strike are not doing so willingly, they have no choice as their food has been removed. Contrary to every human right the MEK are deliberately starving people to death. The letter demands intervention to save these people.

++ The MEK claimed today that it had discovered something about Iran’s nuclear programme. The claim was not repeated by media outlets except a very few which took it with a pinch of salt and ridiculed them.

++ Sahar Family Foundation in Baghdad published an article which highlights the news that residents of Camp Liberty are being forced to be on hunger strike because they are given no food. Although this is supposed to be related to the seven missing MEK, the reality is that the overwhelming number of people in Liberty and among the MEK’s west based Iranian supporters blame Massoud Rajavi for the killings in Camp Ashraf. They are all asking’ why didn’t we leave before this happened because Rajavi in his statement said he was expecting this’. They point to the contradiction that if people have been detained and tortured by the MEK’s enemies then what good is a hunger strike to put pressure on such people to release the seven. In addition, news has reached Camp Liberty that well over half of those transferred to Albania have rejected Rajavi and become ex-members. They are also aware that the surviving 42 transferred from Camp Ashraf are still being held incommunicado and have no contact with the other residents of Liberty. After weeks the MEK leaders are still working on them and they are still not able to have contact with anyone. Rajavi is still claiming that whoever in the world condemns the killings and kidnappings of Camp Ashraf, this proves they support Rajavi so their blood has not gone to waste. But for the old, sick and injured on hunger strike none of this means anything as they are being deliberately denied food. Apparently Rajavi thinks this is a good idea; he can get rid of them and claim their blood for himself. Sahar concludes that if no intervention is forthcoming from the international community, then disaster is imminent.

++ In English and Farsi there have been many articles exposing the MEK’s disreputable role in attempts to disrupt any US-Iran negotiations and rapprochement.

++ In the UK, in response to a parliamentary question from the Bishop of Coventry; “To ask Her Majesty’s Government what response they have received from the government of Iraq to their representation requesting an investigation into the violence at Camp Ashraf on 1 September.” Government spokesperson Baroness Warsi (Conservative) replied, “The Government of Iraq has told our Embassy in Baghdad that a committee will conduct a full and open investigation into the attack on Camp Ashraf on 1 September, and that its findings will be made public.”

Iran Interlink, October 11 2013