Articles

Outcome of Rajavi’s Ambitions

In any cult-like culture, cult leaders generally seek their own ambitions by enslaving a group of individuals who have left their ordinary life behind to achieve the goals of the cult leader. These members are prepared by the cult leader to run his ambitions. That’s why today the world is very crucial about groups that represent cult culture, as what the world saw in September 11th The leaders of Rajavi’s cult always consider the list of their victims as their honor. disastrous act that was committed by cult ( Al Qaida ) members who were able to perform the most unthinkable act of suicide.

In the cult of Rajavi, Massoud Rajavi’s extreme ambition for power has already taken the lives of a large number of people including the organization’s members, Iraqi and Iranian civilians and authorities. The shameful part is that the leaders of Rajavi’s cult always consider the list of their victims as their honor.

More important is the danger linked with MKO which endangers today’s international community.

As an ambitious cult leader, Massoud Rajavi and his co-leader Maryam “make the members believe that Massoud is the only one who is always ready for change and revolution; the only one who sacrifices himself to solve other people’s problems; the only one who assumes every responsibility. Therefore he is not an ordinary man! This is what the organization makes us believe” according to Batoul Soltani, former member of MEK’s Leadership Council. The figure that the cult draws of Massoud presents him as the master and owner of members, so they just obey the internal dynamic that dominates the cult.

The position Massoud considers for himself is the one of a person who is “the bridge between people and God. Now from that position he can more or less order his followers to do anything” , says Ann Singleton an MKO ex-member. And this position is the one that convinces the members to set themselves on fire following the arrest of Maryam Rajavi in June 2003.

Marjan Malek, another defector of MKO who was arrested by Iranian Police when she was supposed to carry out a mortar attack in Tehran, says that “the MEK tells members that Massoud Rajavi is not only your leader, but also your husband, father and brother. He is the only one who should matter in your life and you shouldn’t think about any one else.”

Marjan Malek left her children, and husband after she joined MKO .she was trained in Camp Ashraf, sent to Iran where she launched mortar attacks against her own compatriots. She defected from the cult after her arrest and as one of the founders of Nejat Society, she could join her children in Sweden where they were kept by MKO supporters after they were separated from their mother. See how the ambitions of a cult leader change a mother to an assassin who leaves her family to kill the civilians of her own nation. And Massoud Rajavi is personally accountable for everything his cult members do.

Nowadays, while Camp Ashraf is completely going under the control of Iraqi Police, Massoud Rajavi is the only responsible for lives of those six members who were killed during riots at Ashraf gates. Those members are only some brainwashed manipulated individuals who were ordered by their leader to defend their Camp by rocks or knives.
By Mazda Parsi

August 6, 2009 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

U.S. seeks to protect Iran terror group

Iraqis urged to keep camp
The United States is quietly pressing Iraq not to close a camp that holds more than 3,000 members of an Iranian opposition group that served as Saddam Hussein’s shock troops in 1991 when he crushed rebellions after the Gulf War and now is vulnerable to Iraqi and Iranian reprisals.

Last week, Iraqi police stormed Camp Ashraf outside Baghdad, killing at least seven and injuring dozens during clashes with the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, or MEK. At the time, members of a U.S. unit known as Task Force 134, which deals with prisoners of war, were present outside the compound, said two U.S. officials — one in Washington, one in Iraq — who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

A day after the raid, officials at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad met with members of the Iraqi government to urge restraint. The next day, the U.S. Army helped medevac at least two dozen injured members of the MEK, the officials said.

Many Iranians despise the group for siding with Iraq during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Iraqi Shi’ites have grievances that grow out of the MEK’s participation in crushing an uprising in southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.

The U.S. has designated the MEK as a terrorist group for these actions and for the assassinations of six Americans in Iran before the 1979 Iranian revolution. But the U.S. nevertheless has sought to protect Camp Ashraf members — who include women and children — from Iraqi or Iranian attack and forced repatriation.

The camp had been under U.S. protection since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Iraq now seeks to reassert control under the provisions of the Status of Forces Agreement signed with Washington last year.

Iraqi media have reported that the government plans to close Camp Ashraf and disperse its residents to other locations in Iraq. Such a move could make the dissidents more vulnerable to Iranian intelligence and angry Iraqi Shi’ites who lost family members in 1991.

"Embassy officials met with representatives from the Government of Iraq [GOI] on July 29, to stress the importance of the GOI fulfilling its commitment to the United States Government to treat Ashraf’s residents humanely and to propose permitting an assessment of injuries and deaths by U.S. forces," one U.S. official wrote in an e-mail to The Washington Times. "The GOI allowed a U.S. medical assessment team to enter Ashraf and subsequently approved joint U.S.-Iraqi medical assistance to injured MEK Ashraf residents."

A spokesman for the Iraqi government, Ali al-Dabbagh, acknowledged that there had been meetings with Americans about the subject.

"There will be no plans to move [the MEK members] anywhere in the short term," he said, denying the Iraqi media reports. "We are thinking of their security about finding a safer place. But till now, this plan is not yet approved."
By Eli Lake

August 5, 2009 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Who is Responsible for the Bloodshed and Death in Camp Ashraf?

A legitimate and realistic question that everyone who is against violence and savagery should ask from those authorities who have information about the bloodshed in the Iraqi garrison I urge all humanitarian organizations to intervene and help those stranded people in that garrison to return back to their normal life named Ashraf. That question is: Who is really to blame?

Let me first review some important and substantial facts about this garrison before proceeding to the answer of this vital question.
This garrison, named Ashraf by the MKO, is an Iraqi base which was granted to Massoud Rajavi, the Supreme Leader and Commander in Chief of the Mojahedin-e Khalq organization (aka MEK, MKO, PMOI, Rajavi cult) by the late dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein.

This garrison had been utilized by the PMOI for decades to train its guerrillas for military incursions into Iran’s territory. These guerrillas had been trained by Iraq’s special and elite forces, such as Saddam’s Republican Guards, to become Special Forces who could operate either as a Classic Army or as Guerrilla Fighters in special military missions.

Several military attacks against the Iraqi people during their national uprising against the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein in 1991, were implemented and launched from this Iraqi garrison.

Many Iraqi citizens such as Kurds and Shias were killed or wounded in those attacks. Mr. Rajavi had a very robust and powerful relationship with the late dictator of Iraq. Little by little Saddam Hussein began granting more military garrisons to this organization throughout Iraq, but Ashraf, remained the main stronghold of this organization.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the PMOI had to surrender itself to Coalition Forces led by the USA. They handed over all their military means and were disarmed by the US Army. Massoud Rajavi fled Iraq and disappeared because he was involved in killing so many Iraqis during Saddam Hussein’s reign.

Maryam Ghajar Azdanloo also escaped from Iraq and went to Paris, France. She is Massoud Rajavi’s wife and his successor as a Commander in Chief as well. Many military incursions were launched against the Iraqi people and Iranians under her command.

The PMOI in Iraq is finished, especially after the fall of Saddam Hussein and his government. Its military wing, the NLA is completely dysfunctional and impaired because of disarmament. The PMOI’s military trained members who could implement military operations are now over 40 or 50 years old; obviously they cannot be useful in any mission any more. So we come to this conclusion that militarily the PMOI is disabled and disqualified.

The Iraqi Government wants to assert its sovereignty, regain its property, the garrison, and they do not want to keep those people on their soil who cooperated fully with Saddam Hussein against their people.

So now we should ask ‘why do the PMOI want to keep the garrison’? Logically, keeping that garrison is completely futile, especially as the new landlord wants it back.

The only answer I can think of is that the PMOI’s leaders do not want to deal with the destiny of 3500 personnel and members who have been stranded in that garrison for decades. The life of those stranded people in that garrison does not have any value for their leaders. Those people were worth something while they had tanks, artillery, and ammunition. Now they have become old and disarmed, so they are useless for their leaders.

As a result, many members have been wounded or killed during clashes with Iraqi police who legally and legitimately want to take back their garrison and impose Iraqi law over everyone in the camp.

Now Mrs. Maryam Ghajar Azdanloo (Rajavi) has ordered them to go on an unlimited hunger strike. God knows what is the next step that this lady wants to take to exterminate even more lives of those desperate people in that garrison.

She does not want to accept the reality that the PMOI’s military power is over for good, because her sham presidency is based only on the existence of those desperate people in that garrison. So they have to die just because she wants to show off as a sham president elect and they have to die for her ambition and power mongering.

So I, a victim of this organization, hold Mrs. Maryam Ghajar Azdanloo (Rajavi) responsible and accountable for the life and death of those stranded people in that Iraqi garrison. In my opinion no one is responsible for the deaths and wounds of those who were killed or injured in that garrison except her.

I urge all humanitarian organizations to intervene and help those stranded people in that garrison to return back to their normal life as a free person in free and democratic countries. Those people should be rescued from that hell hole, Ashraf, before is too late.
All the best,

A victim of PMOI
Hassan Piransar, Iran Peyvan, Paris

August 4, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

Iraq right to impose control over territory

The Iraqi government was right to take action against a People’s Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI) camp north of Baghdad, as it did not want to tolerate a group on Iraqi territory operating outside Iraqi Iraq right to impose control over territory control. The left-wing Iranian opposition group has been fighting the Islamic Republic of Iran from several bases in Iraq since the early 1980s, when they were encouraged by the then president Saddam Hussain, who was at war with Iran.

Until the American led invasion in 2001, the PMOI was well armed with a wide range of weaponry including tanks and armoured personnel carriers, and it conducted continual operations against Iran. The PMOI renounced the armed struggle in 2001 and handed over all its arms. Its members then benefited from loose American protection, which lapsed last year when the US handed security control back to Iraq earlier this year.

Once Iraqi control is re-imposed on the camp, it is important for humanitarian reasons that the residents of Camp Ashraf are not deported to Iran, where they would face death for their armed opposition to the regime, or imprisonment . The Iraqi government has made several statements since 2003 that the Mujahideen will be expelled from Iraq, since they see their presence in Iraq as a deep embarrassment and a real hindrance to any improvement of relations between Iraq and Iran.

Deep fears of deportation and concern at losing control of their political fate led the PMOI members to resist the Iraqi forces when they entered the camp to impose Iraqi authority, which led to serious clashes leaving seven of the Iranian dissidents dead. The Iraqi government should come forward with a clear statement on where it thinks these people should go, and make it their responsibility to bring this anomaly to an end.

August 4, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

Iraq’s obligation of protecting terrorists

In contrast to the United States long classification of MEK as a terrorist group, dating back to attacks by the group in the 1970’s that killed several US military personnel and civilians advising the government of the late Shah of Iran, it stands in full support of the group. MEK supported Iraq In an attempt to take the control of the group’s bastion, Camp Ashraf, Iraqi forces invaded the camp on Tuesday in its 1980’s war against Iran and enjoyed protected status under Saddam, but it has to leave the country as the new government in Baghdad tries to purge the country of any source of violence that endangers the country’s social security and order.

In an attempt to take the control of the group’s bastion, Camp Ashraf, Iraqi forces invaded the camp on Tuesday but protests from the side of MEK caused numerous casualties and according to reports by Iraqi officials, several deaths. Earlier Wednesday, a State Department spokesman said reports of casualties among camp residents are disturbing and said the United States is seeking more information from the Iraqi government.

Reported by Voanews, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday she deplored the reported raid and said the United States is urging restraint on both sides in a confrontation between Iraqi security forces and Iranian dissidents in a camp east of Baghdad occupied by the Iranian exiles since before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Soon after the fall of Saddam, the US troops had provided security for the camp but ceded control in February of this year with the transfer of full authority in the country from coalition forces to the Iraqi government. Clinton said Iraq must uphold commitments to the United States that the MEK members will not be mistreated.

"We are very clear that we expect that the Government of Iraq, now that it has assumed this security responsibility, will fulfill its obligations, to show restraint, will not forcibly transfer anyone to a country where such a transfer might result in the mistreatment or the death of that person based on their political affiliation and activities," she said. "But it is now the responsibility of the Government of Iraq."

If full authority in the country from coalition forces is transferred to the Iraqi government, then, it is up to the government to decide for the country’s security by curbing the danger of a terrorist group still recognized a FTO.

August 3, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

Who are the MKO and why did Iraqi forces storm their camp?

Iraq flexes its muscles at Camp Ashraf and shows military independence from America, as the Iranian exile group’s long strange trip draws to a close.

Iraqi security forces today violently wrested control of the sprawling compound of an exiled Iranian opposition movement, killing at least seven of its residents in the process.

The raid was the latest assertion of total military independence by Iraqi forces from US control. Video of the event, with Iraqi soldiers delivering severe beatings to unarmed residents, adds evidence of brutal tactics within the new Iraqi Army.

But it also may be the beginning of the end of the one the strangest sideshows of the entire Iraq war as the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki flexes its muscles and seeks closer ties with Tehran.

The raid came as Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who had long urged Iraq against a violent takeover of the camp, visited the country on Wednesday. Though the Iraqi government had repeatedly asked the Iranian exile group, the Mujahidin e Khalq (MKO, or People’s Mujahedin), to leave the country, US officials said the raid came as a surprise and the BBC quoted US Gen. Ray Odierno as saying the government had promised to deal with the MKO in a “humane fashion.” (The BBC article also has video of the beginning of the raid.)

Camp Ashraf, the object of the raid, has been the principal home of the MKO since the Iranian group allied itself with Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, receiving weapons and training from his regime. Hussein used them as shock-troops against Iraqi Kurds and Shiites who rose up against his regime in the 1990s.

The camp is currently home to about 3,500 Iranian exiles and a smattering of fellow travelers from the US and Europe who subscribe to the group’s secular blend of Islam, Marxism, and feminism and a “cult of personality” centered on the group’s leader, Maryam Rajavi, according to a 2007 State Department report.

On her website, Mrs. Rajavi called Wednesday’s clash at Camp Ashraf “a war crime, a crime against humanity, and a futile attempt by [Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei to compensate for his defeat in the face of the nationwide uprising.” She called for an international delegation to investigate.

They’ve abided in the camp for the past six years, largely under US protection. When the US invaded Iraq in 2003 it disarmed thousands of MKO fighters, but was left with a quandary. The group’s members are despised by mainstream Iraqi society as tools of Hussein’s repression and they were designated a terrorist organization by the US State Department for their murders of civilians. (American citizens have been among their victims.)

But they were also enemies of another American enemy, Iran, and some US politicians thought they could be a useful asset against the Iranian regime. When Iraq’s first post-Saddam government, appointed by the US, tried to kick the MKO out of the country, the US stepped in. The US even turned down Iranian overtures to trade Al Qaeda operatives in Iranian custody for MKO members in American hands.

The US administration eventually gave them protected status – something they enjoyed until the US handed the control of the camp over to Iraq in January.

Since then, Iraqi officials have redoubled their efforts to get rid of the group. MKO members inside Camp Ashraf have rejected Iraqi efforts to encourage them to return to Iran or find third countries to take them on. Iranian officials have promised amnesty to any members who voluntarily return and about 250 have taken them up on the offer so far. But the group has continued to behave semi-autonomously. On Tuesday, after Iraqi police sought to set up a post inside the camp, they were attacked by MKO members and two died, according to Agence France Press – setting up today’s confrontation.

Maliki’s Shiite-led government is seeking stronger relations with Iran, and many of its members remember how the MKO helped Hussein violently control their own community. When Maliki himself was an exile from Hussein’s regime and on the run from a death sentence at home, his Islamist political party received assistance from Iran.

Iraq’s national security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie has been warning for months that Iraqi patience with the group was wearing thin. He described them as “brainwashed cult members from a high-trained terrorist organization” in an April interview and added that “if they resist and carry out this engineered crisis there will be some pain.”

The groups members are noted for their fervor and devotion, something which probably contributed to today’s clashes, which also left dozens of Iraqi forces injured. Shortly after Ms. Rajavi was arrested by French police in 2003 on suspicions she was using MKO offices to plan terrorist attacks on Iranian diplomatic missions in Europe, a number of her followers in Paris set themselves on fire and some died from their burns.

A 2005 report by Human Rights Watch reported the use of torture and detention of MKO members who expressed criticism or wished to the leave the group at Camp Ashraf. It also details the demands made of members over the years based on the demands of Rajavi, who views herself as Iran’s president in waiting, and her husband Massoud Rajavi.

For instance, in the late 1980s after a series of military failures, Mr. Rajavi declared that they were failing to overthrow the Iranian regime because of insufficient commitment to the cause, and said that people’s attachment to their spouses were a distraction. He ordered all members of the organization immediately divorced, and personally collected their wedding rings. The Rajavis themselves remained married, however. Massoud has not been seen since the US invasion of Iraq and its not clear if he’s dead or in hiding.

The reclusive Maryam Rajavi is based in Paris.
By Dan Murphy

July 30, 2009 0 comments

Auver-sur-Oise

Camp Maryam: The Potential Danger

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‘ font-size: 10pt”>Auvers-sur-Oise, Camp Maryam: The Potential Danger

‘ font-size: 10pt”>Methodology of MKO has always been based on cult-like principals. Managing cult-like practices is not feasible except by isolating the members in a closed location as the most famous cults do throughout the world, like the castle of Alamut, in Iran which is the ancient version used by the Assassins (the followers of Hassan Sabbah, a Shiite extremist)and the FLDS church in Colorado city, US is the modern version.

Managing cult-like practices is not feasible except by isolating the members in a closed location as the most famous cults do throughout the world, like the castle of Alamut, in Iran

‘ font-size: 10pt”>For MKO this isolated corner of the world includes camp Ashraf in Iraq and Camp Maryam in France. As Saddam Hussein and his Baath regime was the only sponsor of MKO, the existence of Camp Ashraf in Iraq seems more tolerable regarding the existence of Camp Maryam in France in the Parisian suburb since the group is using cult-like practices in the heart of a modern democratic society!

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‘ font-size: 10pt”>Question is that: how the group’s leaders can convince the members to stay in the isolated camp Maryam? How, in Europe of the 21st century, in a liberal country ,there are some people who are convinced and even forced to stay in a closed camp of which the walls are topped by the barbed wire?

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‘ font-size: 10pt”>MKO leaders try to convince the members to avoid the bourgeoisie society and along with their struggle avoid any bourgeoisie thought that according to their doctrine, is equal to Capitalism because from the political view bourgeois is against communism and MKO is obviously a communist cult which claims to be Islamic, advocating a secular regime. Now the MKO wants to make the members accept this bizarre mixture of ideology. Therefore MKO takes its victims out of the so-called bourgeois atmosphere but it has no ideals to replace it because the MKO’s methodology is basically opposed to idealism. Thus the only way to keep the members in is to brainwash them inspiring the feeling of being superior to the public. To achieve this goal, the organization’s leaders haven’t failed to use any cult techniques. They have used any manipulation techniques and mind control methods to freeze the individuals’ minds.

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‘ font-size: 10pt”>As we can see now: in the cradle of civilized world, in Paris country-side the walls of Camp Maryam have bared wires on top. The people in the camp are wearing uniforms without any variety in colors and styles. The female members are forced to wear scarves. The members attend daily meetings of self-criticizing and they confess all their thoughts in their weekly meetings of “Current Operation” where consequently they are insulted or sometime beaten by their comrades. Their entire activities are scheduled by the officials of the cult and the individual has no right to plan or to make change in his schedule. They have no access to mass media.

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‘ font-size: 10pt”>All the above-mentioned rules make a freezer out of camp Maryam where the minds are frozen and turned into a machine that MKO uses to advance its objectives. These prepared machines are ready to commit suicide and homicide operations when ever the organization orders; as what they did in June 2003, following the arrest of Maryam Rajavi, the cult members set themselves on fire in European cities.

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‘ font-size: 10pt”>Today the terrorism of MKO is not only an Iranian problem but an international problem. Today Auver Sur d’Oise is a center to train victims who have not their individuality due to the manipulations made on their minds. The complex methods used by MKO turns this potential threat into an actual danger.

‘ font-size: 10pt”> This picture shows one of the tricks the MKO plays to inspire the members to commit self-immolations.

‘ font-size: 10pt”>This picture shows one of the tricks the MKO plays to inspire the members to commit self-immolations.

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‘ font-size: 10pt”>After Maryam Rajavi was arrested by French Police in 2003, they performed a Masud and Maryam Rajavi have several times noted that in case of their arrest the members should commit suicide dramatic piece of play to encourage the forces to commit suicide.

‘ font-size: 10pt”>According to the testimonies made by former members of MKO, Masud and Maryam Rajavi have several times noted that in case of their arrest the members should commit suicide and of course according to the organization’s methodology the leaders’ orders are considered as God’s rulings that members should obey.

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‘ font-size: 10pt”>The threat of the cults is a serious danger all over the world and the MKO is not only a cult but also an organization with a black file of terror and assassinations and also designated as a terrorist organization by US, EU and Canada. Any negligence towards this terrorist destructive cult will end up with irreparable damages for the West.
2008/12/27

July 27, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Iranians in No Mood to Forgive MKO

A small classified advertisement placed in the Hamshahri newspaper, which is affiliated to Tehran’s City Hall, in June 2007 might not initially have seemed like a big deal, but it turned out to be intriguing.

It was addressed to a young woman called Maryam and wished her the best of luck with her return, alongside a picture of her wearing a veil.
At first glance, this was nothing out of the ordinary. Most people would not have recognised her, but some of the newspaper’s readers – those who were alive 30 years ago – knew who she was.

It was the same picture that Maryam Rajavi had used while campaigning in the first parliamentary elections after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The ad was an attempt by the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, MKO, to revive – and rehabilitate – its name in the minds of the Iranian people after a long absence from public view.

Seven years ago, during the presidency of Mohamad Khatami, the European Union added the MKO to its list of terrorist groups. In June 2003, French police arrested Rajavi and some of her followers and Iranian television broadcast images of her in handcuffs.

For many young Iranians, this was the first time they had laid eyes on the disgraced opposition leaders.

However, on January 26 at a meeting in Brussels, the 27 EU member states decided to remove the MKO from its list, a decision that angered the Islamic Republic’s leaders.
Mohsen Torkaman, a 21-year-old student at Azad University, was also dismayed, "The Europeans showed that they use terrorism as an instrument. What matters to them is to confront countries that pose a threat to them. They do not care that a group like MKO carried out many terrorist operations in the 1980s in Iran and killed civilians."

The MKO was officially founded in 1966 after the Shah cracked down on Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers. Its goal was to overthrow the Pahlavi regime and establish an Islamic government, a mission that was supported by other Islamist militants close to Khomeini.

Families of MKO members protest in front of British Embassy in Tehran
July 2008

Massoud Rajavi –at the time a high-ranking MKO leader who later became Maryam Rajavi’s husband– was a victim of the Shah’s violent repression. He was arrested in 1971, along with 12 other MKO members, but was released after the revolution. He was the only one to survive – the rest had been executed.
After the downfall of the Shah, the MKO quarrelled with the clerical leadership of the revolution, both over ideology and how to run the country.
For example, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an influential revolutionary cleric, told the Keyhan newspaper in July 1980, "The MKO was based on Islam and Shi’ism in the beginning, but the MKO did not reach out to scholars and experts on Islamic studies nor did Islamic scholars pay any attention to them. Inevitably, the MKO fell into the hands of opportunists and immature people."

Some MKO members were the children of leading clerics, but found they could not accept the "Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists" – under which the work of government is overseen and guided by expert practitioners of Shia law. The late Ayatollah Taleghani, one of the two most important revolutionary leaders, Ayatollah Ali Janti, the head of Guardian Council, and Ayatollah Mohamadi Gilani, then attorney general, are among the best-known clerics whose offspring joined the MKO.
Although the MKO rejected the constitution that was approved by a referendum a few months after the revolution, Massoud Rajavi tried to run in the first parliamentary elections. However, he was disqualified because of his opposition to the constitution.

On June 18, 1981, after these disagreements had intensified, the MKO publicly announced it was going into opposition. Later that month, the offices of the Islamic Republic Party were bombed, killing more than 70 people. Many in Iran suspected this was the work of the MKO.
The MKO’s leaders then withdrew from politics altogether, left for Iraq and took up armed resistance. They were not alone; Saddam Hussein had already been waging war on Iran for a year.

This was seen as a betrayal of Iran and public opinion hardened against the MKO. But Reza, an MKO member who now has political asylum in Germany, says the leaders of the Islamic Republic gave them no choice, "Their exclusivist approach didn’t leave any room for the political participation of other groups."
After Iran accepted UN resolution 598 in June 1988 urging Iran and Iraq to accept a ceasefire, the MKO launched a military attack against Iran across the Iraqi border.
"This operation was our last chance, based on the MKO’s idea that we would either kill and win or die," said Hadi Shabani, a former member of the MKO who has since returned to Iran, according to Fars News Agency.

The MKO advanced into Kermanshah, a city in the west of Iran, but the Iranian army counter-attacked, and the MKO fighters were either killed or withdrew.
After this operation, it is claimed that many political prisoners affiliated to the MKO were executed in the summer of 1988. Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, Khomeini’s deputy, confirmed this in his memoirs, although there are no official statistics.
Now, after many years, the removal of the MKO from the EU’s list of terrorist groups is seen as a big victory for Maryam Rajavi and her followers throughout the world who are trying to keep their name alive in Iran.

But Reza, who kissed his political activities goodbye many years ago and now earns his living driving a cab, doesn’t think his former comrades stand a chance of coming to power any time soon.
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam (l) and MKO leader Rajavi
"The hardest job for the MKO’s leaders is to explain to the Iranian people why they stood alongside Saddam Hussein. Many people don’t understand the MKO’s situation," he said.
So although the EU may have enhanced the MKO’s international reputation, winning over Iranians might prove an impossible task.
Sara Shams is the pseudonym of a journalist in Tehran

About Mianeh: Mianeh is a new independent web-based initiative run as a project by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (iwpr.net) the award-winning non-profit media development organization that works across the globe to platform local voices and promote international learning and engagement. Mianeh aims to be an open space for ideas, news and debate where writers in Iran can reach out to each other as well as to those outside the country who are interested in learning more about the vibrant and dynamic society that is Iran today.
Payvand News – 03/02/09
By Sara Shams, Tehran (Source: Mianeh)

July 23, 2009 0 comments

Auver-sur-Oise

Camp Auvers; a Bastion of Unpredictable Events

The French all over the world are proud to have been host to many political groups and freedom fighters. They also claim that many anti-colonial revolutions have been born in French and Parisian cafés even that of Algeria that was formed against the France itself. All these revolutions had great achievements at least at the early years after their formation under the effects of the great revolution of France. The presence of these revolutions may be considered to some extent an offshoot of this revolution developed almost three centuries ago.

There are some popular names like Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Frantz Fanon, André Malraux and many more that have been recorded in the history of France as having a key role in preparing the background for the development of these movements. In this regard, a lot of free nations are indebted to France government. The name of France is associated with concepts like democracy and freedom fighting except for some events like that of colonizing Algeria. The French have always been identified as supporters of leaders of legitimate revolutions and they have rarely been host to the enemies of a nation.

France has rarely made the opposition groups under pressure or made any decision to expel them from its soil. In turn, their guests are expected to be hewing to the rights of their host country rather than misusing its hospitality and democratic features. They are not expected to take illegal and blind measures against the French civil law and accuse its institutions and organs ethically and politically, make threat against their dissidents while claiming to be fighting for democracy and freedom or engage in illegal fundraising under the banner of refugee rights. All these have been exceptions that came true after the entrance of MKO to France.

It is almost three decades that MKO has settled in France and there has occurred numerous shocking and unexpected events every year since then and many more have been committed behind the scenes and out of sight of outsiders as acknowledged by the French officials. The establishment of a fortress in the suburbs of Paris is the symbol of these illegal and threatening activities. There, MKO has managed to turn Auvers-sur-Oise into a territory out of the control of French officials by means of its laundering activities in France and other European countries.

Their bastion in Auvers-sur-Oise has turned into a spot for this cult of personality and its leaders to further their terrorist and egocentric objectives from their headquarters in the heart of the Europe. France is now faced with a dilemma between their reputation for supporting opposition groups on the one hand and taking a severe position against the illegal and terrorist activities of a group of cultic members on the other hand. It seems that the France has never been so bewildered in dealing with an opposition trend up to now; a trend that despite its pro-democratic slogans, refrains to respect international rules and not coming to power yet, is after an opportunity to take revenge on its dissidents and critics.

Whatever the position taking of France toward this challenge, it is evident that giving refuge to a terrorist group would be a black mark on its brilliant history. If we regard the ultimate goal of France revolution as the revival of human rights and establishment of democracy and freedom, the act of France in supporting a reactionary trend will be in contrast to all principles and factors that the French have pride in. The expediency and negligence of France toward the cultic and terrorist bastion of MKO in Auvers-sur-Oise is contrary to its duty in keeping national rights and security of its citizens. It is evident that an organization that fails to bear the existence of other parallel opposition and fails to abide by any ethical, political, and democratic rule has nothing to do but manipulating the historical values of France.

July 21, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MEK; traitors in the eyes of most Iranians

Somebody doesn’t like me

Readers of this blog may not be aware that I am an agent of the Iranian regime. But Rabbi Daniel Zucker, an adjunct professor at Long Island University and long-time apologist for the anti-Iran terrorist organization known as the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK), has a lengthy and hilarious denunciation of me as such because I had the temerity — and naiveté, apparently — to point out in a recent piece for AntiWar.com that his beloved MEK is widely considered a terrorist cult.

The back story: late last month two American congressmen, Reps. Bob Filner (D-CA) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), held a press conference in Washington, DC to call on the U.S. government to offer support to the MEK in an effort to overthrow the Iranian regime. As I wrote in my piece, the lawmakers’ call was rather astonishing given the fact that the U.S. State Department notes the MEK “was responsible for the assassination of several U.S. military personnel and civilians in the 1970’s. Further, as the Council on Foreign Relations observes, “Until 2003 the MEK received funds, arms, and state sponsorship from Saddam Hussein.” Indeed, during the eight year Iran-Iraq war, the MEK even allied itself with the Iraqi dictator’s regime to kill its fellow countrymen, a fact that I noted in the article likely did not endear them to the Iranian public.

And while the MEK’s defenders have claimed the group’s designation as a terrorist organization was a political gesture meant to appease the Iranian government, the Council on Foreign Relations suggests a less conspiratorial reason: "its attacks have often killed civilians." In fact, the more one reads about the MEK the clearer it becomes the group’s exclusion prior to 1997 from the list of groups considered terrorist organizations by the U.S. government was the actual politically motivated decision.

But according to Zucker, had I done my homework and not relied on “an old State Department report” — dated April 2007 — I’d have known that the MEK has “renounce[d] violence” since 2001 and is in fact innocent of all terrorism charges. To bolster his case, he cites the benign-sounding “Iran Policy Committee,” which the website Sourcewatch helpfully points out “is a pressure group meant to influence US government policy towards Iran . . . made up of former White House, State Department, Pentagon and CIA officials.” Many of its principals are also “affiliated to AIPAC and its related think tanks," which should give you a good idea of where Zucker is coming from.

Still, Zucker claims that while the MEK did “indeed receive Hussein’s support”, it came “in the form of asylum from the mullah regime in Tehran”, because Saddam was of course well known for protecting political dissidents (he was just that kind of guy). That the MEK was willing to murder their fellow Iranians — and helped suppress uprisings among Iraq’s Shia and Kurdish populations — I’m sure was just an afterthought.

“It would behoove Davis to study a little bit of Iranian history, at least of the last 30 years, before venturing to write about Iranians”, Zucker continues, taking me to task for following “the regime line that the [MEK] undermined its credibility with the Iranian masses by fighting against the regime in the Iran-Iraq War. However, he fails to explain how the [MEK] has so many supporters inside Iran that it can continually supply the West with revelations about Iran’s secret nuclear and missile programs, as well as extensive lists of Iranian agents in Iraq.”

That fighting against one’s own countrymen in a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people might undermine the MEK’s credibility within Iran is not something I feel needs citation, but what the hell. As the Jamestown Foundation notes — observing the obvious — “The [MEK’s] alliance with Iraq’s former Baathist regime during the Iran-Iraq war was a huge strategic blunder from which they could never hope to recover. The sight of [MEK] forces aiding the Iraqi war effort turned them into perennial traitors in the eyes of most Iranians. This perception of the [MEK] still persists, more than 15 year after the ending of the war.” Put another way, "the MEK is universally hated in Iran," as Mideast professor Juan Cole succinctly puts it.

As for the MEK’s ability to provide the West with “revelations about Iran’s secret nuclear and missile programs,” I’d just point out that the U.S. intelligence community doesn’t actually believe Iran has a secret nuclear program, as Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair testified to Congress in March and which I’ve pointed out ad nauseam ever since.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the MEK has thanked Zucker for his slavish devotion to the group by inviting him "to Paris to address the 2005 and 2006 President Maryam Rajavi Freedom Convocations," as he notes in his bio. Rajavi is the leader of the MEK and declares herself "Iran’s future president for the transitional period following the mullahs’ overthrow."

Charles Davis, Cult Watch
http://charliedavis.blogspot.com/search/label/Cult%20Watch

July 18, 2009 0 comments

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