Articles

++ Nejat Association wrote an open letter to the Albanian embassy in Tehran thanking their government for taking the initiative to accept 14 refugees from Camp Liberty in Iraq. Nejat Association describes this move as the first step to connecting these individuals to their families and to greater society and asks the Albanian government to help further in this respect.

++ This week four people escaped from Camp Liberty in one day. The following day another individual named as Hassan Shaabani managed to run away and surrender to Iraqi police. The names of the other four will be made public if and when they choose.

++ A group of ex-MEK members met with representatives of the UNHCR in Paris to discuss the situation of the captives in Camp Liberty, and how to break the deadlock after the MEK leader has given the order to stop the UN interviews and to not meet with anyone from outside agencies. The report emphasises the legal aspect as there are 950 individuals who hold documents from western counties and who therefore do not need refugee status and should be immediately transferred. The report concludes that the real solution is to allow the families into the camp to visit their loved ones.

++ More has been written about the first 14 MEK who have gone to Albania and Rajavi’s reaction which is to try to stop this continuing. People have written about their hopes that this is a real breakthrough and signals breaking the taboo of leaving Iraq and marks the eventual freedom of all the hostages. Among these articles are reports that one of the people in Albania called Nastaran Rastegaarpour has gone there with a false name and documents. The claim is that this particular woman was moved from Ashraf to Liberty with this false Identity and then from Liberty to Albania. The real Nastaran Rastegaarpour is an MEK commander resident in London and in charge of the Nirooi (personnel) section. She frequently travels around Europe to organise the membership. The analysis is that her documents have been used to move a particular female from Iraq because the MEK do not want her real identity to be revealed. There are many precedents for this kind of action, including the covert transfer of the Rajavis’ son and daughter back to Europe.

++ A US State Department official told Congress that the MEK’s leadership was not cooperating in the departures from Camp Liberty  despite risks to the members’ lives in Iraq. Beth Jones, acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that although US officials have worked hard to persuade the group’s leadership to cooperate in the departures, “very few have been allowed to move.” She appealed for cooperation.

++ Martin Kobler has visited the European Parliament to brief MEPs. He deplored the lack of cooperation from the MEK leader and other MEK leaders with the UN. In response Stevenson and Quadras attacked Kobler as an ‘agent of the Iranian regime’ and said that he has come to say this to appease Iran and Iraq.

++ A prominent Iranian MP, Agha Mohammadi, told the Majlis news agency that the Americans’ use of the MEK by opening an MEK lobbying office in Washington shows clearly that America is putting Zionism before the interests of the American people. What this move shows is how desperate the US has become that they do not even try to hide their use of terrorism whether in Iran, Syria, Chechnya or other parts of the world.

++ This week marks the anniversary of the death of Hadi Shams Haeri who had been a prisoner under the Shah. Years later, after leaving the MEK, he continued to campaign indefatigably to free his children. Sadly neither his son, Amir, nor his daughter, Nosrat, saw him before he died as they are still being held captive in Iraq.

++ An article by Massoud Jaabani warns asylum seekers in Europe not to fall for the MEK’s propaganda in which every year they pay for a three day holiday in Paris in exchange for two hours’ attendance at the MEK’s 20th June celebration. Jaabani points out that for someone who has not yet been granted refugee status, crossing national borders is illegal and can result in a long delay in getting recognition. Every year at this time the MEK celebrate armed struggle. Ironically, even though the Americans claim they are not terrorists, they still celebrate their adherence to violence.

++ Esmaeil Vafa Yaghmai the poet, who left the MEK a long time ago but who still had reservations about public criticism, has published his first article in his weblog entitled ‘Is Akram Habib Khaani alive?’ He claims that he and his son Amir have received condolences from MEK sources over his ex- wife’s mysterious death in Camp Liberty – something the MEK refused to acknowledge when he contacted them. His long article describes how they got engaged and married and also how they were impacted by the forced divorces and separation of children. He says ‘it is time for me to come out and talk, and I don’t care anymore that the MEK will call me an “agent of the regime” or that the IRI will misuse what I have to say’.

++ After examining evidence, a court in Khales province of Iraq has fined the MEK around half a million (US) dollars for illegally taking over land belonging to local villagers. The MEK and its supporters (lobbyists) have vociferously rejected this finding and claim that the land was taken over by the Iraqi government after the Americans left and that any issue should be taken up with Iraq’s Ministry of Defence.

Behzad Ali Shahi published an article examining the original boundaries of Camp Ashraf and where the MEK added a munitions dump outside the camp followed by a huge area beyond that which reached civilian areas which the MEK themselves forcefully confiscated to use for military manoeuvres and training. In part one of its claim the MEK says that since the government of Iraq does not recognise the MEK as a whole entity the court should claim this money from the individuals (who do not have any money of their own). In another part the MEK claim that Iraq’s defence ministry is in charge and they should answer to the court. Alishahi says that with this kind of logic the MEK could have easily represented Saddam Hussein himself and have him freed with compensation. He says that using the same reasoning in the court of Saddam it could be said that now Saddam is not in charge, any punishment for Saddam should be the burden of the new Iraqi government. Alishahi says that clearly the MEK do not want to remember how much money they stole from Iraq and how much money they removed from Iraq.

++ This week it has been revealed that the MEK applied for and have been registered under the name of the NCRI as a lobby group in Washington. The MEK have not yet announced it. But everywhere else this news has been published Iranians from all sides have shown their disgust and have not been shy of saying that through this action the MEK has openly become a mercenary of the Israeli side of the US system against their motherland. In US media however there has been much criticism of the US administration for its open support and use of terrorism, and many have warned that the US has not learned from its past mistakes of using and supporting terrorism.

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – Friday May 31, 2013

++ On 16th May, a delegation from Faryad-e Azadi (Cry of Freedom) Association participated in a conference of journalists in the French Senate. The head of the delegation, Jafaar Ebrahimi, explained who the Mojahedin Khalq are and described the current situation of the two camps – Ashraf and Liberty – in Iraq.

++ The transfer of 14 residents of Camp Liberty to Albania as refugees was not only welcomed by the US, EU UN and Iraq, but was widely welcomed by the campaigning families and the ex-members. Many articles were published celebrating this as the beginning of the dismantlement of Camp Liberty.

++ The MEK remained silent about Albania until two days ago and many people have given their analysis as to why this was the case: either Rajavi has given up and had to let these 14 people go, or he has sent the sick and needy to get rid of them, or he has sent 14 loyal members to prepare the ground to establish the cult in Albania. A few days ago the names of the fourteen individuals were announced on ex-member websites. The NCRI quickly issued a statement condemning Al Maliki, Martin Kobler and Iran for working together against the MEK, claiming that Iraq and the UN have passed the names of the 14 to Iran’s intelligence services and they have published them to endanger the lives of their families. This was met by derision among ex-member sites which asked why would Iran publish the names to endanger the families when they could do such a thing behind closed doors if this was the intention. They pointed out that Rajavi’s real fear is the people coming to Europe and exposing human rights abuses.

A few hours after the NCRI statement, several ex-members sites and Facebook accounts took responsibility for publishing the 14 names. Their information came from two former MEK members in Germany who had previously been in Albania. They were contacted by the 14 soon after they arrived in Tirana. According to the ex-members, 13 people have been identified as from Rajavi’s ‘third solution’ which means they have not accepted to sign allegiance to Rajavi and had been kept in Camp Liberty as ‘non-MEK under surveillance’ under Rajavi’s terms of “don’t leave, we’ll send you out ourselves” which he started in Camp Ashraf. The 14th person is a 70 year old, very sick, man.

++ The saga of Iraj Mesdaghi is ongoing. Massoud Rajavi has now lined up the more distant NCRI members to one by one swear at him and take sides with the MEK and to denounce him as an ‘agent of the Iranian regime’. Ebrahim Khodabandeh wrote a short article saying he read the whole of Mesdaghi’s ‘book’ and as he knew him from before, his is a character of very logical thinking. But although he welcomes the activation of Mesdaghi’s critical mind, he asks him to go deeper and see why he hoping for critical dialogue with the head of a cult. Khodabandeh says ‘if you still have any doubt that this is an organisation which cannot be reasoned with, if you still don’t see that Rajavi, with all his past, has no limit to what he will do, if you still think Rajavi is a normal person, then of course you will deal with him like this’. Khodabandeh concludes that what Rajavi wants, whether people are for or against him, is that they accept him as a normal person, anything except as head of a cult. Medsdaghi and others need to get beyond this point and see Rajavi for what he really is.

++ Letters have been written to the UN and elsewhere about a specific person called Farideh Araki. She is one of the paid MEK supporters and has started a campaign in English language demanding that the MEK be kept in Iraq and not expelled. She is an addition to the MEK’s other lobbyists but is introducing herself as part of the ‘opposition to Iran’ and pretending not to be with the MEK. Many articles refer to her financial problems and how the MEK have exploited this. The MEK have allocated a large budget per month to pay her travel expenses in western countries. Araki is constantly on the move, going to New York to lobby the UN, going around Europe and Scandinavia, etc.

++ Mehdi Khoshhal finished the last part of his article ‘the book that was never written’. This refers to the book allegedly written by Maryam Rajavi, and talks about what should have been said rather than what she has said.

++ As for the election and Rajavi’s declaration for Rafsanjani, after the internal backlash which we wrote about in last digest in which members asked ‘who should we vote for?’, the MEK has damped the issue down in the hope everyone will forget about this gaffe.

++ Rajavi has announced a rally in Paris on 22 June to celebrate the anniversary of the start of armed stuggle. The MEK is vigorously recruiting attendees from refugee camps with the promise of a three day holiday with flight and hotel paid in exchange for a few hours attendance at the rally. According to some refugees, this year the MEK tell Afghanis that ‘on top of the pay, by attending this meeting you will be siding with the western backed MEK therefore you will be separated from Al Qaida, etc in Afghanistan and therefore the security services will look favourably on you because they back us’. To Iraqis the MEK have been saying that ‘by coming to our meeting it is possible to take pictures with prominent people like John Bolton and Patrick Kennedy which will put you in a safe place in the Iraqi community and show how near you are to the Americans’. They even take pictures of Maryam Rajavi’s photos meeting with ex-officials of Germany in Berlin to the camp and say to refugees in Germany that ‘these people will attend and if you take a picture and put it in your file you will definitely get your refugee status’. To distant supporters they have said that ‘if you do not participate in this event it is obvious you are on side of Iraj Mesdaghi and the agents of Iran’. According to other sources they have also gone on to hire acting extras as they normally do.

++ This week Al Maleki and Martin Kobler had a meeting in Baghdad to discuss the next steps to dismantle Camp Liberty and expel the MEK from Iraq.

++ The Iranian news agency Fars News reported that the MEK have been “hatching different plots to prepare their members to infiltrate Iranian borders to create tension during the election time in June…” because, “the MKO ringleaders, believe that killing people will increase the differences and radicalizes the Iranian society on the threshold of the June 14 presidential election”.

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – Friday May 24, 2013

++ UN Special Representative for the Secretary-General and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), Martin Kobler announced on 16 May that 14 residents of Camp Liberty have been permanently relocated to Albania as part of an agreement in which the Albanian government has pledged to accept 210 individuals as refugees. The UN report also added that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he “unequivocally supports” Mr. Kobler’s efforts “to courageously and creatively, in exceptionally difficult circumstances, help resolve this situation.”

++ Under pressure from neocons and Israel, the US State Department continues to protect the interests of the Mojahedin’s leaders. In a statement on the relocation of 14 individuals to Albania, the State Department accepts the rule of the hostage takers over the hostages by addressing them as legitimate leaders of people who are in fact hostages not followers. Instead of demanding that the MEK leaders stand aside to allow the UN to conduct its work without hindrance the State Department says, “It is the responsibility of the MEK leadership to facilitate for the residents of Camp Hurriya free and unfettered access to UN human rights monitors.” This appears to be an attempt to revive the MEK at the expense of the rights of the hostages and their families.

++ Several people have written in Farsi and in English to congratulate those involved for their continuing efforts to open the way for these people’s freedom.

++ Rajavi came out again this week. In an audio broadcast in the MEK media he directly addressed Rafsanjani and asked him to become a candidate for president in Iran. The MEK leader later on claimed that this direct appeal to Rafsanjani was part of a plot to widen the gap between different factions in Iran. Nobody involved in Iranian politics took notice of this but the reaction of the MEK’s members and supporters was vociferous. Many wrote openly in Farsi blogs and sites, ‘does our leader mean that if we have the chance we should participate in the election and vote for Rafsanjani, and if so, what happened to his selected president, Maryam Rajavi, who has been appointed and groomed as president for the past 16 years?’ Retreating into silence, the MEK’s reaction to these internal critics has been to post photo-shopped pictures on its sites, claiming them to be from inside Iran, with the graffiti slogan – ‘the only president is Maryam Rajavi’.

++ Ex-members Mohammad Karami and Batul Soltani took part in a long discussion on Mardom TV. Ms Soltani talked about the naked dancing sessions women had to perform for Massoud Rajavi and about the general abuses of women’s rights in the MEK from the past up until the present. Karami explained how many claims of suicide in MEK from the past until now have been exposed as false; the individuals were actually murdered by the MEK. Both produced irrefutable documents and pictures backing their claims.

++ Several people wrote about an incident in Syria in which the Wahabbi Al Qaida attacked a sacred graveyard and exhumed the body of Hajar ebn Oday, a revered Shia. The MEK’s silence on this issue alongside their engagement in fighting in Syria, which they have announced themselves, raised many questions and reminded us that when the twin towers in New York were attacked, the MEK celebrated it. Interestingly the MEK claim they are the true Shias.

++ A few people wrote about the MEK’s violent history from Iran, Iraq and now Syria and emphasised that this is the group the US now take as allies rather than terrorists; basically identifying them as mercenaries.

++ Last week a several Iraqi officials openly criticised the support of the west to keep the MEK intact in Iraq. One of them, Abdul Jabbaar Al Obeidi, head of the Council of Al Azim in Diyali province, criticised the government for delaying the handover of Camp Ashraf and expelling the MEK terrorists. He accused the government of bowing to US pressure and stressed that the land was needed for investment. The Council has approved a project to build residential housing and a university but the work has been delayed as the land is not empty.

++ The saga of Iraj Mesdaghi and other MEK supporters turned critical of Massoud Rajavi, and the violent reaction of the MEK against these critics, has continued through this week with more attacks and swearing by the MEK in their sites and media.

++ Iraj Shokri, who had been with the NCRI and has left, posted an article in his blog about Rajavi and the MEK’s attacks on Iraj Mesdaghi. He reminds us that this started in 2003 after the fall of Saddam when, little by little, people began running away and being sworn at by the MEK according to how vocal they had been. He goes into a detailed analysis of all the things Rajavi has said during these years, and puts it down to Rajavi’s arrogance, his empty talk, his ranting, his bad temper and his delusion which has led to all the wrong analyses that he has come up with over the years. Shokri entitles his article ‘criticism of his majesty the head’ because Rajavi has labelled all the internal criticism he has suffered as the words of ‘agents of the regime who want to separate the head from the body. Shokri says that the head itself is the problem rather than that anyone wants to separate it from the body.

++ Rajavi and the MEK have been swearing at UNAMI and the International Committee of the Red Cross more than other weeks. For observers it is clear that it is because he has failed to insinuate his lobbyists into these institutions and indeed, the only one they had has been expelled and is working full time now for the MEK. His failure to prevent the transfer of the 14 individuals to Albania in this way has burned Rajavi.

++ Jamil Bassam from Nejat Association in Tehran published article titled ‘how near is Rajavi going to get to the Americans?’ He echoes the ideas published last week by Ebrahim Khodabandeh of Sahar Family Association; that members did not join the Mojahedin to be mercenaries of Saddam or the US and it is not us who have changed direction it is the MEK leader who every day changes. Bassam turns the spotlight on the US and quotes Americans both for and against use of the MEK. He points out this is not the first time the Americans have embraced mercenaries who have previously been fighting against them, even though they always see they are later bitten by the same dog. In the end he hopes that the major issue will continue to be the release of the hostages from Liberty so they can choose for themselves whether to be mercenaries of the US or not.

++ Ali Al Khadran the mayor of Khales again directly asks the Government of Iraq to take the hundred remaining MEK out of Camp Ashraf and Diyali province as soon as possible, and says ‘we are under pressure from the people, who do not understand why we are keeping terrorists who have killed their families in our province’. Many other Iraqis have criticised the authorities for not taking the MEK leaders to court and just settling for removing them from the country.

++ Nejat Association has published an article describing the situation in Camp Liberty, describing what has happened from time families started visiting Iraq in 2003 up to the present. The article talks of the efforts of the families, ex-members, the Iraqi authorities, Martin Kobler, the ICRC and others which have borne fruit so that with the minimum of casualties they have brought most of them to Camp Liberty. But, it goes on, from the outside we can see there is more pressure on the individuals now because they are more closely confined in their accommodation. There is more beating, harassment and brainwashing to keep them submissive. Nejat demands that the UN and the international community break this atmosphere with a few simple steps – as Sahar Family Foundation outlined previously – as follows: let there be communication whether face to face, written or by telephone with families, let Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have access to the camp without restriction from MEK leaders, let residents have free access to satellite, TV, books, newspapers etc., let the sick and needy be transferred to hospitals inside Iraq, let the doors be open to allow reporters free access to people inside the camp, take the leaders to court to stand trial against the allegations of human rights abuses and war crimes which have been submitted by the Iraqis. This, as overseen by UNAMI, should be made public. The UN should publish reports about all that is happening inside and at the camp.

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest -Friday May 17, 2013