Legal Measures to Combat Cult Violence: Taking advantage of security-information measures against the cults’ ploys It remains a matter of controversy to what extent security-information systems and measures can be productive against the cults’ threats and ploys. But, no doubt, it calls upon any country’s security apparatus to be alert to cults’ menacing activities and, in the government’s words, to smash them rigorously. It is only in these cases of destructive groups engaging in threatening social and national security that does the state security forces might have the permission to intervene. As not all the established cults are destructive and some are peacefully religious cults with regular religious rituals, the security apparatus can be advised to adopt measures against cults that might pose any harm under a peaceful guise. In the US, for example, the FBI agents trained to negotiate in hostage and armed standoff confrontations have rethought their tactics following the 1993 debacle at the Branch Davidian cult’s compound near Waco, Texas. The tragedy, a 51-day siege of followers of David Koresh, ended in the deaths of more than 80 people after cult members set fire to their fortress-like structure when federal agents tried to storm the building. Although freedom of religion is guaranteed in France by the constitutional rights set forth in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, however, in recent years, some legislation and government actions were taken against some groups and cults considered to be dangerous or criminal. Officials and associations fighting excesses of such groups justified these measures by the need to have appropriate legal tools and the need to fight criminal organizations masquerading as legitimate religious groups. With a little modification, it has been the same with active political groups particularly those with a history of violence and practice of terrorism. 
Taking refuge in France, the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization has shown its cult potentiality and to mobilize people for multiple protest demonstrations. In the course of Iran-US football match in Lyon in 1998, for example, and the visits of Iranian key officials to France, notably that of President Khatami in 1999 and Iranian members of parliament in February, 2001, the organization demonstrated the degree of its mass mobilizing threats that alarmed France. Reported by Associated Press, 21 June 1998, quoting some French authorities talking about some taken security measures before Iran-US football match, we read: Several Iranian opponents were not permitted to cross the Franco-Belgium border and prevented from entering French territory when the Iran-United States match was about to played Sunday night in Lyon, Interior Ministry sources stated. These Iranians, coming from Germany and the Netherlands, whose number was not given, are linked to the opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin, according to the same sources. They went on to point out that most of them had no tickets to the match and ‘did not meet the requirements for visiting France’. They were refused entry, because they represented a ‘threat to public order’. 1 The raid on MKO’s headquarters in Paris was also the result of intelligence and security preventive measures: The raid, carried out under a search warrant issued by the Paris-based anti-terrorism investigative magistrate, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, mobilised more than 1200 officials, including 80 members of the elite GIGN: France’s SWAT team. It was carried out by the Directorate for National Internal Security (DST or French counter-intelligence) with the support of the Central Command of the Judiciary Police and under the technical direction of the RAID (France’s specialised unit for hostage and terrorist incidents). Thirteen targets were surrounded in the Val d’Oise and Yvelines departments, with a particular focus on the Auvers-sur-Oise camp which was suspected to be a refuge for many active PMOI members. 2 Not only MKO in France were engaged in activities that disrupted the environment and injured public sentiments, but also severely confronted the critics and opponents as well as carrying out operations against Iranian objectives in Europe, that is to say, embassies, consulates and etc. They even considered the physical elimination of former members of movements working with Iranian intelligence (Vevak). 3 Similar preventive measures were taken in Germany in the course of the World-Cup 2006 and the German security system warned Mojahedin about any troublesome activity before the plays started. In another case, the German police raided and arrested a number of suspect MKO members: The police stated that they detained 50 persons for criminal enquiries and searched dozens of homes belonging to opposition members. The border guards prevented Iranians resident in other countries from entering Germany. Thirty Swiss members of the opposition had tried to enter Germany, according to the press release of the NCIR". 4 Long known as a globally blacklisted terrorist group, MKO is transformed into a destructive cult and a cult of personality as proscribed by the US state Department report in May 2007. In many cases, MKO is referred to as second to al-Qaeda for its globally threatening features and, in spite of being expelled from Iraq, majority of Western countries’ security apparatus are cautious about the entry of its members since they know they would have a hard task to deal with the organization if settled: In any case, there is no sanctuary for the PMOI and governments who do open their borders to them will have to exert a constant vigilance. If not, their national territory could become bases for action in violation of host countries. 5 The killing of a Brazilian man by armed plainclothes Metropolitan police who chased him into London’s Underground and killed him with shots to the head because they thought he might be a suicide bomber was only a preventive measure against further possible violent operations of al-Qaeda cult in England. It has to be taken into consideration that MKO is not an exception and security systems have to be necessarily more watchful of the organization since terrorism and cultism are interrelated features of the organization. Although its activities banned in Western countries, MKO has proved to carry destructive cult potentialities that ignore decrees of law and principles as it did in Self-immolation episodes. Unremitting surveillance of MKO as a destructive cult will be the best preventive measure to minimize its threats that jeopardizes the Western societies among whom it resides and plots cult-like activities. References: 1- Antoine Gessler; Autopsy of an Ideological Drift, “Des opposants iraniens empéchés de pénétrer en France”, Associated Press, 21 June 1998. 2- Antoine Gessler; Autopsy of an Ideological Drift, “Pierre de Bousquet: les Moudjahidin ont bascule dans une derive sectaire” interviewed by Le Figaro, 20 june 2003. 3- Antoine Gessler; Autopsy of an Ideological Drift, “Debut en Allemagne de Ia visite de Khatarni sous haute surveillance”, Reuters and Agence France-Presse, 10 July 2000 239.- Delphine Minoui, op. cit. 4- ibid. 5- Antoine Gessler; Autopsy of an Ideological Drift, p. 179. Research Bureau – Mojahedin.ws – April 24, 2008
It seems Hillary Clinton has sacrificed her conscience to ambition. Chinese proverb has it that “he who sacrifices his conscience to ambition, burns a picture to obtain the ashes”. She announced her readiness to reduce 70 million 
innocent Iranian lives to ashes so that she could imagine her picture in the White House. Her lust for ambition will never be satisfied; on the contrary, it seems to grow more inflamed with the prospect of mass murder. After all, this is nothing new to her.
Hillary knowingly supported the Iraq war to defend the “future of freedom”. In her drive for the Iraq war, she was supported by the Progressive Policy Institute, a self-described think-tank of the Democratic Leadership Council[i]. Perhaps no one describes the group better than former neoconservative Jacob Heilbrunn who wrote: “Don’t look now, but neoconservatism is making a comeback-and not among the Republicans who have made it famous, but in the Democratic Party,”[ii]. Indeed, many of them supported the war for the purpose of promoting democracy.
Her ideology has contributed to the nation’s moral bankruptcy, the loss of over one million lives, and the depletion of America’s treasury. These neoliberals who have driven us into a quagmire, elaborated it would serve America’s interest to promote the Democratic peace theory. Scholars, university professors, and neoliberal jurists presented the concept that sovereignty, as it stood in international law did not provide immunity from attack to states engaging in systematic human rights abuses or amassing weapons of mass destruction. These would be considered ‘pariah’ states to be attacked by democratic coalitions with a warrant to liberalize them.[iii] Candidate Hillary comes from this stock. It seems that the only thing which differentiates her from McCain is the conduct of the war in Iraq, not the immoral and illegal war itself.
One can see why she would oppose the Bush conduct in this war by understanding the PPI. A book entitled “With All Our Might: A Progressive Strategy for Defeating Jihadism and Defending Liberty” edited by Will Marshall (President of PPI) outlines the strategy difference the ‘progressives’ (neoliberals) and the Bush unilateralism. The war in Iraq is part of a strategy for”building a world safe for individual liberty and democracy.”[iv]. She has endorsed the illegal invasion of a sovereign nation based on her belief that she holds a superior ideology which must be imposed on others, regardless of the cost and the consequences.
No doubt a person’s character is never so well disclosed as when it is seen through the company he/she keeps. It appears that Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D -Texas), co-chair of Hillary’s presidential campaign, not only shares her friendship with America’s presidential hopeful, but she also promotes America’s terrorists[v]. The Mojaheden-e Khalgh (MEK) were put on the Foreign Terrorist Organization list by President Clinton for they were responsible for the assassination of Americans in Iran in the 1970’s, as well as for their role in the US embassy takeover[vi], yet their leader and Hillary have a common friend and promoter. Congresswoman Jackson Lee went as far as calling Rajavi “Sister Maryam,[vii]. Are Hillary and Maryam ‘sisters’ too? Is our presidential candidate ‘sister’ to a notorious cult leader?
Raymond Tanter, a former National Security Agency staffer who led the IPC, predicted that the MEK would be removed from the terrorist list and be used by the US against the regime.”I foresee a situation where Laura Bush, Condi Rice, Karen Hughes, and Maryam Rajavi are posing for a picture in the White House,”[viii]. Tanter was not far off. The MEK is certainly being used, and in all likelihood they will be moved from the terrorist list. However, Maryam Rajavi may have to wait for the photo op and take it with Sister Hillary.
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is an Iranian-American studying at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Her research focus is US foreign policy towards Iran, Iran’s nuclear program, and influence of lobby groups. She is a peace activist, essayist, radio commentator and public speaker.
Notes:
[i] Tony Smith, “A Pact with the Devil. Washington’s bid for world supremacy and the betrayal of the American promise’. Routledge 2007.
[ii] Jacob Heilbrunn,”Neocons in the Democratic Party,”Los Angeles Times, May 28, 2006.
[iii] Tony Smith. Ibid.
[iv] Will Marshall, editor, With All Our Might: A Progressive Strategy for Defeating Jihadism and Defending Liberty, PPI (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006).
[v] http://www.maryam-rajavi.com/content/view/168/66/
[vi] http://www.cfr.org/publication/9158/
[vii] Financial Times, October 6, 2005.
[viii] Connie Bruck, “A reporter at large: Exiles; How Iran’s expatriates are gaming the nuclear threat”. The New Yorker, March 6, 2006.
Middle-east-online – Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
April 24, 2008
A number of MKO-run sites have recently published an announcement entitled Deployment of previously used agents against Iranian Resistance depicts Clerical Regime’s extreme frustration in an attempt to justify landslide member splinter within the organization. During the past recent months, a number of
the detached members who had taken refuge in American-run TIPF returned to Iran; they were all called to be criminals, infiltrated agents, proxies of Ministry of Intelligence, expelled members and much more as it is MKO’s typical. The ever-growing demand of members held in Camp Ashraf to separate the organization has forced MKO to isolate about 200 dissatisfied members to stop further instigation in other members.
The announcement names the separated members one by one and accuses them with cliché allegations atop of which lies their affiliation to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. It also attacks “Sahar Family Foundation”, an NGO established to help MKO’s separated members exit from TIPF and Iraq and to defend their rights, and its founder Massoud Khodabandeh and accused him and his other colleagues of being the regime’s agents.
At the present, the splinter of members within MKO has turned to be the most critical challenge the organization is facing. Also, the intensified challenges among American parties following the released report by American intelligence agencies that Iran has halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 necessitates a logical and peaceful solution to an issue which have totally disappointed MKO. Through disclosing Iran’s nuclear threat, MKO anticipated instigation of a militarist conflict between Iran and the US; it was the supposition behind Rajavi’s fixing January 2009 as the deadline for the collapse of Iranian regime and Rajavi promised that if nothing happen at the end of the deadline, all the Ashraf residents were free to stay or leave. The countdown being already started, with the Bush nearing the end of his presidency, the Ashraf residents seem to be eager to leave sooner than the promised deadline.
Such deeds by MKO to accuse separated members of being the rival’s agents is an unusual deed looking it from the conventional approaches adopted by majority of campaigning political organizations. It is common among the active groups to recruit members and let them leave whenever they wish. The only organization that seems to have no dissatisfied member and the members have signed to stay to the end is MKO! And, of course, all those who have left, escaped and have appealed to leave are infiltrated agents and more. But there is one exception. The organization has so far taken no position to talk about the separation of Batul Soltani, a member of the Leadership Council of MKO, who two years ago escaped from Camp Ashraf and moved into TIPF. On 14 January 2008 she left the TIPF and moved to Baghdad in order to go abroad but she changed her mind to stay in Iraq and start a legal battle against the organization for all torments she had undergone and suffered.
The path to Camp Ashraf is a one-way path; entering it, nobody is permitted to leave and the organization presents legal excuses for not letting anybody to leave. As stated in item sixteen of the announcement “Since the MOIS insists on introducing its newly- recruited agents as the “former PMOI members”, it should be reminded that the Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran announced four years ago in its statement of August 3, 2004, on the legal status of the PMOI, “As the agreement of the legal status of the Ashraf Residents as protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention was signed, the leadership of the Resistance and the officials of the PMOI strongly emphasized on the need and importance of making the final choice at this turning point. Thus, all individuals were reminded that before signing the Agreement, they must once again think of their final choice freely and voluntarily. They can go after their desired life and pursue their desirable option. But if they want to stay in Ashraf and continue their struggle for freedom, they must consider all the probable risks”.
As implied, the Ashraf residents have no choice but to stay and those who escape are Iranian regime’s agents. But the question still exist that accusing minor members of many allegations, why MKO rejects to take any clear stance concerning high-ranking separated members? Mojahedin.ws, April 19, 2008
Mojahedin’s Khalgh’s foothold in U.S. Congress and the mass media
In recent months, there has been significant activity by a terrorist group lobbying Senators and Congressmen on Capitol Hill.
The Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an Islamic socialist organization listed on the State Department list of terrorists, has launched a widespread lobbying campaign to persuade US politicians to unfreeze bank accounts associated with the MEK and to promote war with Iran. In pursuit of these objectives, the MEK and its affiliate, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), have created numerous front groups, with the express aim to lobby prominent California members of Congress. Their targets include Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi—all individuals who urge high-level diplomacy with Iran.
The MEK identify themselves as representatives of the Iranian American community in order to persuade Congress that the Iranian Americans support a foreign invasion. As a result, the MEK have falsely represented the perspectives of the Iranian-American community. Iranian Americans have no association with the MEK have largely condemned the group’s activities. The MEK was formed in the 1960s as an opposition group to the Shah and, since then, has been responsible for killing numerous Iranians and Americans throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
Following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, members of the MEK assisted Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guards suppress the Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in Iraq, and are responsible for assassinating several political and military figures inside Iran.As a result of these actions, the MEK are widely condemned by all Iranians around the world as an extremist Islamist cult.
To the Iranian community, the MEK represent the same threatening extremism that al-Qaeda poses to the general American public. It is disturbing, to say the least, that such an organization is utilizing the name of Iranian Americans to justify its political ideology.
It is equally disturbing that a terrorist organization is being allowed a foothold in both Congress and the mass media.
In addition to lobbying Congress, the MEK have held themselves out as representatives of Iranian Americans on major news networks. For example, Alireza Jafarzadeh, a former spokesman for the MEK, currently works as a FOX News Channel Foreign Affairs Analyst.
Fox News has also invited MEK Secretary General, Mojgan Parsai, to discuss Iranian affairs as an expert. Nevertheless, Iranian-Americans throughout the United States, including California, do not subscribe to the political beliefs of the MEK.
In fact, according to a recent poll by the University of California at Berkeley on the political attitudes of Iranian Americans, over 66% of California Iranian-Americans believe that the US should establish diplomatic relations with Iran. In fact, only 13% maintain that the US should engage in strategic bombings of Iran’s nuclear targets; and only 8% favor the bombings of Iranian military and oil installations.
This stands in stark contrast with the perspectives of the MEK and its front organization. As part of its propaganda campaign, the MEK publish newspapers and websites like IranTerror.com and IranFocus.com. As an Iranian American, I am outraged that the MEK is attempting to hijack the perspectives of my community. The MEK do not represent Iranian-Americans in California – or anywhere else for that matter.
Our politicians and media officials should be wary that the MEK and its fringe organizations have their own political beliefs, and that these political beliefs do not reflect mainstream attitudes. The Iranian-American community wishes peace between Iran and the United States with an eye toward diplomacy, democracy, and human rights. by nmilaninia , Iranian.com, April 14, 2008 – http://www.iranian.com/main/2008/terrorists-among-us
There are many different types of destructive cults, and the diversity of cult beliefs and practices sometimes makes it hard for family members and friends to decide whether their loved one is in trouble or not. Although there are still groups whose followers cut their hair short and wear identical clothing, like the member of Heaven’s Gate, this is by no mean the case with most modern-day cults group. Today, for example, many cults require their members to wear business suits so that they blend in with their environment. All cult members may not look alike, but I have found that destructive cults follow specific behavior patterns that set them apart from other groups. By learning to identify the these patterns you will be better qualified to determine if someone you care about is actually involved with a cult. A group should not be considered a “cult” merely because of its unorthodox belief or practices. Instead, destructive cults are distinguished by their use of deception and mind control techniques to determine a person’s free will and make him dependent on the group’s leader. Authoritarian Leadership In essence a destructive cult is an authoritarian group that is headed by a
person or group of people that has near-complete control. Charismatic cult leaders often make extreme claims of divine or “otherworldly” power to exercise influence over their members. Many legitimate religions have had powerful figures who have inspired enormous dedication in people. Being a powerful leader is not inherently wrong , though it carries a high potential for abuse. A group becomes destructive when its leader actively uses such power to deceive members and to rob them of their individuality and free will. For example, I was told to surrender my free will (viewed as Satanic) to God’s representative, Moon, and his subleaders. Marshall Applewhite told followers that an alien entity was speaking through him, and used his message to justify his absolute control over their lives. Deception Destructive cults also use deception to recruit new members. When I was first approached by Moonie recruiters, they told me they were part f the “One World Crusade,” which I later learned was one of many front groups for the Unification Church . They claimed to be students who were involved with a small community of young people struggling to overcome cultural barriers. It was not until much later that I found what its members really believed, and what would be expected of me. What makes this all so insidious is that members often speak and act with the greatest sincerity because they have been subjected to the same mind control techniques that they used to recruit others. 
Destructive Mind Control Finally, destructive cults use mind control techniques to keep members dependent and obedient. You will learn the specific criteria that define mind control in later but, generally, speaking, cult mind control can be understood as a system of influence that is designed to disrupt a person’s authentic identity and replace it with a new identity. By immersing people in a tightly controlled, high pressure social environment, destructive cults gain control of their members’ behavior, thoughts, emotions and access to information. They take over their mind.
A cult, particularly a destructive one, is almost any kind of organization whose followers have been deceptively and unethically recruited and retained. They use manipulative techniques, which are imposed without the informed consent of the recruit and are designed to alter personality and behavior. These groups are only concerned about advancing the mission or business of the group, and not the well being of the individual members. They pose great dangers not only against the society among whom they live but also against their own followers. Our modern history contains records of cults’ threats and human tragedies that have shaken the world. Talking on the tragic end the followers of a destructive cult might be led to Margaret Thaler Singer has said: Twice in less than fifteen years we have been shown the deadly ends to which cult followers can be led. In 1978, aerial photos of 912 brightly clad followers of Jim Jones, dead by cyanidelaced drinks and gunshots in a steamy Guyanese jungle, were shown in magazines and on television, reappearing with each subsequent anniversary of the end of Jonestown. And in early 1993, television news programs showed the Koresh cult’s shoot-out, then several weeks later its flaming end on the Texas plains. 1 They are only an example of many countless instances. As reported recently, Texas police raided a gated compound outside the tiny Texas cattle town of Eldorado built and run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Reportedly, more than 400 children and teens had been rescued and taken into temporary state custody while the authorities continued investigating allegations that girls at the compound were being sexually abused by men. The number of active cults only in the US is estimated to range from 3,000 to 5,000. It is hard to get a precise number as cults change their names, splinter off into other groups, or shut down in one area only to open back up in another. Unfortunately, there are approximately 180,000 new cult recruits every year and the cults are developing more sophisticated techniques to form and establish new aliases. They originally start under religious and political covers and it is only after getting totally involved in the cults that the followers come to recognize the real intention of the cults. One way to avoid being entrapped by the cults is to learn to recognize common cult-recruitment tactics and situations. The people who have suffered tensions or are in search of Utopia are most vulnerable to be recruited by the cults. In general, cults follow nearly the same tactics for deception and misrepresentation to recruit, retain and achieve cult-related ends. Today, it is really a hard task to distinguish a cult from another legal group but in the past decades there have been attempts to help people in cult prevention. There are identical factors shared by majority of cults which can be of great help to recognize a cult. Referring to important characteristics of a cult Robert Jay Lifton observes: First, all cults have a charismatic leader, who himself or her- self increasingly becomes the object of worship, and in many cases, the dispenser of immortality. Spiritual ideas of a general kind give way to this deification of the leader. Second, in cults there occurs a series of psychological processes that can be associated with what has been called”coercive persuasion”or”thought reform,”as described in some detail in this book. And third, there is a pattern of manipulation and exploitation from above (by leaders and ruling coteries) and idealism from below (on the part of supplicants and recruits). 2 Thus, the characteristics to mark a cult are three: 1. Charismatic and self-appointed leader who claims divinity or special knowledge and demands his followers unquestioning and total loyalty and obedience. 2. An organized structure of totalitarian hegemony with the leader at the top
3. Planned thought reform and brainwashing techniques to induce a state of high suggestibility and dependency on the group and self-alienation.
To determine how dangerous a cult might be, Bonewits draws a Cult Danger Evaluation Frame which can be a good help to determine just how dangerous a cult or group might be in comparison with other groups. The factors indicated by Bonewits include:
1. INTERNAL CONTROL 2. WISDOM CLAIMED by leader(s3. WISDOM CREDITED to leader(s) by members 4. DOGMA 5. RECRUITING6. FRONT GROUPS 7. WEALTH 8. POLITICAL POWER 9. SEXUAL MANIPULATION 10. CENSORSHIP11. DROPOUT CONTROL 12. VIOLENCE13. PARANOIA 14. GRIMNESS 15. SURRENDER OF WILL16. HYPOCRISY 3
It seems that Bonewits has developed a good understanding of cults’ menace in the modern world which is shared with other researchers. A look at Dr. Robert Jay Lifton’s criteria for a destructive cult is a precise approbation:
1. Authoritarian pyramid structure with authority at the top
2. Charismatic or messianic leader(s) (Messianic meaning they either say they are God or that they alone can interpret the scriptures the way God intended.
3. Deception in recruitment and/or fund raising
4. Isolation from society — not necessarily physical isolation, but this can be psychological isolation.
5. Use of mind control (Mileu Control, Mystical Manipulation, Demand for Purity, Confession, Sacred Science, Loading the Language, Doctrine Over Person, Dispensing of Existence) 4
Considering signs that distinguish a destructive cult, a precise evaluation of MKO well crystallizes it as one of the most destructive and visible examples of a cult that jeopardizes the security and thought well-being of the people among whom it takes refuge under the cover of a pro-democratic, political group. Far beyond being recognized as an alternative to Iranian regime as MKO claims, it is an alternative to a destructive cult sharing their characteristics. For sure, no sensible people consent to a dangerous cult to steer the country.
References: 1- Thaler Singer, Margaret; Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace, p. 3.
2- Ibid, XII.
3- www.qed.net/bonewits/ABCDEF.HTML
4- www.refocus.org Research Bureau, Mojahedin.ws, April 9, 2008
may leave, and I will myself throw out all those who are worthless. I will keep the rest who are pure, and then, I will tell them what they can do for me”. Although Rajavi has index-linked his group to the fortunes of the American Administration for the past five years, cult experts understand that such deadlines and threats are essentially meaningless in terms of actual action. But they are part of a powerful armoury of tactics which cult leaders use in order to threaten, frighten and coerce members into staying in a cult and not facing the outside world. Members of the Rajavi cult will certainly have been galvanized by fear provoked by this deadline. The worst fear of a Rajavi cultist is to be expelled from the cult and labelled an agent of the Iranian regime. The main tactic which the Rajavi cult uses to inculcate artificial fear in members is to depict the world outside of the cult as peopled by ‘the enemy’. The Rajavi cult members are indoctrinated with the belief that they face an imminent, all-pervasive yet unspecified threat of annihilation from ‘agents of the Iranian regime’; a generic label which encompasses everyone who challenges the false reality which the members live by. In this way they see even close family members as enemies. It can produce such a climate of fear that cult members do not even trust one another any more. In this atmosphere of induced fear and paranoia, the clock on Massoud Rajavi’s deadline is ticking. The focal point of events which will determine the future of his cult is Camp Ashraf. The following diary describes events at the camp. December 2007
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=3737
TIPF clearance – US military police told the 209 Iranian dissidents who had taken refuge in the US run camp that they must leave. Just over 100 refused to leave claiming that US authorities must arrange safe passage for them through humanitarian agencies such as the UNHCR and ICRC to go to third countries. Those who accepted to leave were taken separately in small groups of up to five to a nearby highway. They were filmed to prove they were fit and healthy before being dismissed with American issued laissez-passer which they were told would facilitate their exit from Iraq. According to Scott Peterson of the Christian Science Monitor who followed their fate,
“No nation has taken the militants who left Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, some of them carrying US military letters for travel to Turkey. Documents of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees show that at one point in their saga nearly two weeks ago, 19 were turned back to Iraq by Turkey, dozens were picked up in Kurdish northern Iraq and some forced to return to the dangers of central Iraq, and 26 were missing.” (February 11, 2008)
Mohammad and Mabobeh Mohammady have been in Baghdad for three months – their eighth visit – in order to try to meet with their daughter Somayeh. On December 6 they arrive at Camp Ashraf. The following day Somayeh meets with her mother for 45 minutes. She refuses to speak to her father saying she is afraid because she has been told that he is ‘an agent of the Iranian regime’. The next day, American soldiers ask the parents to leave the camp since they have met with their daughter. As they began walking to the nearest highway three MKO members confronted the Mohammadys and American soldiers were forced to intervene to prevent further injury and abduction. The Baghdad Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against three leading members of the Rajavi cult following the incident.
January 2008
Mr. Massoud Khodabandeh of Iran-Interlink is invited to Iraq by Government officials to take part in various meetings addressing the problem of foreign terrorist entities in Iraq and how to deal with them.
31st Centre for International and Inter-governmental Studies in the University of Baghdad holds a Symposium on the problem of foreign terrorist entities in Iraq. Mr. Massoud Khodabandeh is consulted about the situation of the Mojahedin-e Khalq at Camp Ashraf. During the consultation process Mr. Khodabandeh met with various ministers and experts who all expressed the same view: the MKO is a foreign terrorist group and is a danger to Iraq’s national interests. Some of them must be prosecuted for crimes committed against Iraqi people and the remainder must be expelled in totality from the country. February 2008 Mr. Ali Bashiri and his daughter from Norway meet with the girl’s mother at Camp Ashraf. She is accompanied by MKO members. She stands at a distance of three metres and swears at her daughter before leaving. 10th The Baghdad Criminal Court issue arrest warrants for three leading members of the Mojahedin. They are Abbas Davari, the political liaison of MKO in Camp Ashraf, Mozhgan Parsaii, the Commander of Rajavi’s army in Iraq and Sediqeh Hoseini, the Secretary General of the MKO. 11th Mr. Reza Akbari Nasab travels to Camp Ashraf to visit his brother and nephew. His other nephew Yaser killed himself in 2006. Mr Akbari Nasab is hosted by American soldiers for some hours at Camp Ashraf before he meets his brother Morteza. His brother is accompanied by MKO members. He stands at around three metres distance and swears at his brother whom he has not seen for several years and says he is ‘an agent of the Iranian regime’. Then he leaves. Mr. Akbari Nasab’s nephew Musa has German citizenship and does not meet with his uncle. Mr. Akbar Nasab’s request to visit the grave of Yaser was refused. 15th The establishment of Sahar Family Foundation in Iraq, a humanitarian, non-governmental organisation is formally announced. Sahar was established in Iraq at the instigation of Massoud Khodabandeh in response to the crisis created by the expulsion of people from TIPF who had taken refuge there and who were now facing prison in Iraq or even risked being summarily shot as members of a foreign terrorist group. 23rd Mr. Teymur Khattar and Mrs. Khattar make an appeal to the Iraqi legal authorities to investigate the suspicious death of their son Soheyl Kattar in Camp Ashraf in 2003. The Khattar family have been given various explanations of the death by the MKO. They now want to know: ”Was he killed in a border clash by the Iranian guards as my brother told me? Was he killed under the US and its allies’ bombings as published in Mojahed weekly publication? Was he killed because of an accidental shot as we were told by the MKO officials in Camp Ashraf? Or did he commit suicide as one MKO commander mentioned? I would say none of these stories are right and they fabricate these lies to cover the truth which is my son was killed in Iraq by the MKO.” 26th Massoud Khodabandeh publishes a Special Report from Baghdad on Camp Ashraf and the Mojahedin-e Khalq. The report concludes that the American military must facilitate family visits under the terms of protected persons’ status which Camp Ashraf residents enjoy. The report also concludes that the MKO can be removed from Iraq to safety following de-proscription of the organisation in the UK and other western countries. De-proscription will allow the 3000 plus former fighters to be taken to safety and be granted refugee status in whichever countries no longer consider them as terrorists. So far no western country has been willing to de-proscribe the MKO. March 2008 2nd Nejat Society Gilan branch met in Rasht. Families of MKO members in Camp Ashraf state their determination to prevent Rajavi using their relatives as hostages. 6th Ms. Batul Soltani speaks from Baghdad about her escape from the Rajavi cult. Up to 2006 Ms Soltani was a member of the MKO’s Leadership Council (Massoud Rajavi’s appointed group of 12 women who ‘lead’ the organisation under his lieutenant Maryam Rajavi’s direction). Soltani escaped to TIPF where she remained until December 2007 when the US military police tried to empty the camp. She made her way to Baghdad and was helped by the Sahar Family Foundation. Soltani has pledged to stay in Iraq and help SFF, even though passage to a third country had been arranged for her by SFF. She said: “I will do anything in my power to help these families”. 6th A round-table meeting is held in Europe among Iranian human rights activists to discuss ways to help the people of both Camp Ashraf and TIPF. Batul Soltani talks to the group by telephone from Baghdad. 11th Batul Soltani visits Camp Ashraf to see her husband. 19th In its programme ‘Frankly Speaking’, Al-Arabiya TV, Dubai Eli Nakuzi in Amman interviews Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih. He says the Iraqi Government “is committed to preventing the presence of elements that harm neighbouring states…” Noting that the MKO have protected persons status he said, “We do not want this organization to operate in Iraq and thus spoil relations with Iran, and equally we do not want Iran to use any cards against us internally…” 25th Mr. Keyvan Radbin, former member of the MKO who escaped to Canada shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, writes to Sahar Family Foundation about his experience of Camp Ashraf. 31st NZZ Online in Switzerland interviews Mr. Hoshiar Esmail, a former refugee in that country. He is now among the tens of MKO defectors stuck in Iraq after being asked to leave TIPF by the American Army. The article explains: “…the leadership ranks of the Mojahedin-e Khalq handed their weapons to the Americans and offered them their services. [In 2003] The Americans interned the remaining Mojahedin-e Khalq in Camp Ashraf and put them under their protection. Two years later, about 200 ex-fighters applied to become UN Refugees (UNHCR). Walpurga Engelbrecht of the UNHCR in Baghdad said, with the recognition of political persecution the ex-fighters were given refugee status. But no country was prepared to take the refugees. In European diplomatic circles in Baghdad, it is assumed that the Americans’ Camp Ashraf [TIPF and FOB Grizzly] will soon close and that they want to get rid of the separated Mojahedin-e Khalq fighters as quickly as possible. Now Hoshiar and several dozen former Mojahedin-e Khalq have travel documents. Some 50 of them are stranded in Kurdistan. One of them, Mohammed Rostam, has twice tried to get to Turkey but each time he was re-arrested and deported to Iraq where the Kurds also briefly put him into jail. His attempt to get to Baghdad also ended in prison. The security chief of Erbil, Ismet Ergushi, confirmed the arrests and gave assurance that the Government is trying to achieve a lasting solution.” April 2008 3rd Mr. Gholam-Reza Sadeghi,travelled to Camp Ashraf to obtain evidence for his court case from the American military about his mistreatment by the Mojahedin-e Khalq while in the camp. The MKO falsely and maliciously told the Iraqi police he was an Afghan suicide bomber and he was arrested outside the camp. Intervention by an American colonel secured Mr. Sadeghi’s release and a full apology from the Iraqi police who “assured me that from now on he would brief his forces not to react immediately on misinformation received form the MKO. He said that such mistakes would not happen again and we would not be trapped within their conspiracy any more. He emphasised that now they are sure the MKO has deliberately misguided them and he is happy that his forces did not harm me when they were provoked by the MKO. . . " 4th Mr. Asghar Farzin, Mr. Reza Sadeghi, and Mr. Ali Biglary, former members of the MKO, plead for justice against the organisation to the Iraqi judicial authorities and urge them to deal with the situation in Ashraf camp. 6th BBC Persian reports on the first public appearance by seven of the series of survivors of Camp Ashraf who have now arrived in Europe with the help of the Sahar Family Foundation. At a press conference in Paris organised by the Association for the Protection of Iranian Refugees in France the former MKO members from TIPF described their experiences. Among them, Ms. Nasrin Ebrahimi, 26 years old, who served in the group for over 10 years explained how two years ago she used a military vehicle to escape the terrorist run camp and take sanctuary with the American Army. She alleged that Marjan Akbari, daughter of Bashir Akbari, was killed by the organisation about two years ago.
Children are the most vulnerable victims to cults’ abuses and even in this modern world and in the heart of countries enthusiastically battling for the revival of the human rights we witness instances of children’s abuses by cults freely acting before the eyes and even protection of the law. It was only yesterday that the news came out with the reports of the removal of an additional 85 children from a polygamist remote compound Ranch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect, bringing the total to 137 survivors. Officially released, State troopers, Texas Rangers and investigators from Child Protective Services raided the ranch on Thursday night to serve search and arrest warrants after a 16-year-old girl complained of sexual and physical abuse within the cult. It is not the first and will not be the last report of the children being abused by a cult. Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (a.k.a. MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCRI), a globally blacklisted terrorist cult, has long abused children and has separated them from their parents sending them to many countries far from their parents to live with foster-parents or in orphanages in an attempt to force their parents stay with the organization. In fact, in this form of manipulation, children were abused as hostages whose destiny is now unknown even to their parents. Batul Soltani, an ex-member, was a member of the Leadership Council of the MKO who left the organization in 2006. She is the mother of two children taken away from her long ago. In an interview with SFF, she briefly talked of what has happened to her and her children: My name is Batul Soltani daughter of Morteza. I was born in 1965 in Iran and at the moment I live in Baghdad. I married Mr Hosein Moradi in Iran in 1986 and then we moved to Pakistan the same year. There we were recruited into the MKO and the next year, which is 1987, we were ordered to go to Iraq. In 1991 we were separated by the order of the organisation and yet again by their order our children were taken away from us and sent to Europe. My husband and I initially resisted these orders and did not wish to either be separated from each other, nor to abandon our children, but we were put under enormous psychological pressure and we were forced to submit to their demands. My daughter Hajar Moradi was born in Pakistan in 1987 and my son Mi’ad was born in Iraq in 1991. In the year 1991 while Hajar was 5 years old and Mi’ad was 6 months old, they were separated from us – after we were forcibly separated from each other – and they were sent to Europe. They did not allow us to have any contact with them at all. I still remember my daughter crying hard as she was leaving me. And the innocent face of my six months’ old son is always before my eyes. Many years later I found out that my daughter had been given to a family in the south of Sweden with the fake name of Setareh Khabbazan, and she is now studying in a university in the north of that country. My son was taken to Holland by a family and later moved to another family and eventually was left in an orphanage and now he lives in a care centre for youth in Holland. I do not have any further trace of them and do not even know if they know me at all. The MKO would not give me any addresses and I have no means to contact my children. Has any child protective organization ever investigated MKO for countless instances of child abuses and unknown destiny and whereabouts of about 800 taken apart children? Not talking of many sons and girls whose parents are impatiently looking over the walls of Camp Ashraf, located in a remote desert in Iraq, to see them unbound. Being known as a destructive terrorist cult, MKO is a big threat for the global peace and its own insiders. It is a responsibility on humanitarian bodies to intervene before it is too late.
Mojahedin.ws,
Asghar Farzin, Reza Sadeghi, and Ali Biglary, former members of the MKO, plead for justice against the organisation to the Iraqi judicial authorities and urge them to deal with the situation in Ashraf camp
I Asghar Farzin was born on 1965 in Abadan, Iran. On 1987 I moved to Turkey to continue my studying in that country. I was acquainted with the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO) in the university. They spoke about freedom and justice and also Islam and recruited me into their organisation. The same year, that is December 1987, I was sent to Iraq for a short visit and I returned back to Turkey. The following year I was asked to go to Turkey for a short visit again and I accepted. But this time my passport was taken away from me and they did not let me go back to Turkey. I had to stay in Ashraf camp until the year 2003.
When the coalition and American forces occupied Iraq, I took refuge with the Americans and on February 2004 I moved to a camp called TIPF. On March 2005 I went to Iran to my family in Bushehr on my own request. Now I have come back to Iraq to file a lawsuit against the MKO in Iraqi judicial system.
Consequently 17 years of my life has been wasted and I was kept in Iraq against my will with no contact with my family and if the Americans had not occupied Iraq, God knows how long I had to stay in Ashraf camp. The leaders claim that the entry door of the organisation is closed but the exit is always open. They seduced me and it appeared that they take me to Iraq for a short period but then they said that the exit is only open to the Abu-Ghraib prison in Iraq. Many discontented members had been sent to Abu-Ghraib, therefore I chose to stay in the organisation.
During this period anytime I demanded to contact my family in Iran or I requested to leave the organisation they put me under severe psychological pressure to the point that I would withdraw my request.
The MKO has used seduction as well as compulsion to take away many years of my life when I was young and made me to do forced unpaid labour all through these years. Could a value be estimated for many years of my lost life and my poor heath state at the moment? I urge the Iraqi authorities to deal with the case of the inhabitants of Ashraf camp too who are subject to constant brainwashing and who have no contact with the outside world. I request that the leaders of the MKO face trial since they have abused the basic human rights of their own members.
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I Gholam-Reza Sadeqhi Jebeli was born on 1961 in Esfahan, Iran. On 1986 I left Iran to Pakistan and then to Canada and I stayed in Toronto. I married there and I have a son called Arian. After the first Gulf war I was recruited into the MKO and I used to participate in their meetings. On March 1994 I started to work with the organisation fulltime and I used to do street collection and recruiting other people. Then the organisation sent me to the USA and I was a fulltime member over there too. Then I was asked to go to Iraq for a short visit. I travelled to Iraq from New York on September 1997. But in Iraq they took my passport and did not let me go back to Canada again. So I had to stay there against my will until April 2006 when I left the organisation and moved to TIPF. There I realised that my son who had been taken to Iran by a friend when I was going to Iraq is still in Iran and his mother is badly missing me and her. She had gone through hard psychological experiences all through these years and she was hospitalised as the result of enormous mental pressure since she had no trace of either me or our son. The organisation never let me have any sort of contact with them.
Then I decided to go to Iran voluntarily since my son was there. I managed to send him back to Canada to his mother. Now although I can go to Canada myself but I decided to come to Iraq to file a lawsuit against the MKO for wasted many years of my life and my shattered family. The fact is that the organisation seduced me to go to Iraq and forced me to stay there and did not let me to have any contacts with my family in Canada or in Iran. I should also add that when I announced inside the organisation that I would definitely want to despatch from the MKO and the psychological pressure had no use, they assaulted me physically which left me a broken finger which is still noticeable.
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I Ali Biglari was born on 1969 in Kermanshah, Iran. During the Iran-Iraq war I was arrested by the Iraqi forces. On October 1989 the MKO people including Mehdi Abrishamchi came to the camp of the prisoners of war in Iraq and recruited me telling many lies and giving false promises. On the year 2000 I announced that I wanted to dispatch the organisation and consequently they put me in solitary confinement. The condition to get out of the jail was to announce that I regretted my previous request to leave the organisation. Eventually they handed me over to the Iraqi security forces and they took me strait to Abu-Ghraib prison under the charge of illegally passing the boarder. In the prison I requested to meet with the ICRC but they paid no attention and there was no trial either. I was a POW and I was registered with the Red Cross and had an ID number, so illegally passing the boarder had no significance with my case, but they used to say openly that I had to either go back to the MKO or stay in prison without any trial. I was in prison up to the second Gulf war when I was handed over to the Iranian officials and I went back to my family on March 2003. Now I have been married for three years and I have a two years old daughter. I have returned to Iraq to claim for 18 years of my life which was wasted in Iraq and the physical and psychological damages that I suffered both inside the organisation and inside Abu-Ghraib prison. Mehdi Abrishamchi and others who came to the camp of PWOs in Iraq seduced me and showed me a false image of the MKO. They first told me that I can leave anytime I wanted to but I ended up in Abu-Ghraib prison. They imprisoned me and tortured me inside the organisation merely because I wanted to depart and they left the rest of the work for Saddam’s security forces. The mental pressure on me was so high that I once committed suicide inside the organisation but fortunately I survived.
I have come to Iraq to urge the Iraqi judicial authorities to deal with many crimes of the MKO in Iraq against its own members and also deal with the situation of those mentally and physically captured in Ashraf camp and help them.
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Contact (Iraq):
saharfamily@yahoo.com
Tel: +964 – 7808481650 (Arabic and Farsi)
Contact (outside Iraq):
Sahar
BM 2632
London
WC1N 3XX
U.K.
Tel: +44 – 2076935044 (English only)
Mr Gholam-Reza Sadeghi a former member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO) who was in Ashraf Camp from 1997 until 2006 and stayed about 8 months in the camp controlled by the US Forces called TIPF had previously filed a lawsuit against the MKO in the French judicial system. He has complained the MKO for forcing him to stay in Iraq against his will, imposing psychological and physical pressure on him, and beating him so that his thumb was broken in two places. In this regard his French lawyer who is proceeding the case in the French court had asked him in a meeting to provide him his medical record registered in the American hospital in TIPF which proves that he was tortured when he left the Ashraf camp. Therefore Mr Reza Sadeghi travelled to Iraq and approached the camp to gain that medical record. There happened some events relating to his presence which has been described by him to the Sahar Family Foundation as below:
“. . . I approached the TIPF adjacent to the Ashraf Camp to gain my medical record from the American hospital. While I was waiting in the taxi some MKO guards in Ashraf camp in Iraq recognised me and started photographing me that I took no notice of them. Then as I learned later they informed the Iraqi police based outside Ashrf camp that an Afghan national wearing a blast belt is standing outside the America base and he is aiming to do a terrorist action. Thus some Iraqi police personnel took this warning serious and harassed me with arms and arrested me. The police took away all my belongings and started to take me towards their base. While passing the American check point I started to call them and when they saw us they asked the Iraqi police to take me to them. Meanwhile the MKO persons were busy taking photos. They left the place when the Americans warned them to stop it and asked them to go away.
The personnel in the American check point asked the Iraqi police about the case and they explained that the MKO guard has informed them that an Afghan terrorist wearing a blast belt is busy photographing the US Army facilities and is aiming to carry out a terrorist action, and then we took action to arrest him. I fully introduced myself to the US Forces officer based outside Ashraf camp and explained the reason I was there and told them that I do not posses any weapons or ammunition and I do not have a camera or any other device which might worry them. I told them that I had only approached the TIPF to gain my medical record which indicates that I was tortured when I entered there.
The American officer in charge recorded my particulars and after full investigation and taking orders from his superiors realised that they have been deceived by the MKO persons and I have been subject to a conspiracy where the Iraqi police was made to get involved. He asked the Iraqi police personnel to release me and after I finished my job to escort me back to my taxi that was still waiting for me, and do not let the MKO people bother me anymore or harm me. Meanwhile the American colonel talked to me on the line and assured me that there would be no problem for me and he expressed his wishes that I would make a safe return back to Baghdad.
The Iraqi police personnel took me to their base afterward and asked for my pardon. The higher rank officer said repeatedly after kind hospitality that the Ashraf camp persons misinformed us and we thought that a terrorist activity is in progress against the US Forces. This of course resulted to causing such discomfort for you. He pointed out that neither they nor the American forces have any problem with me or any former MKO member. He also expressed that the MKO is causing a lot of trouble in their province and they are really fed up with these sorts of acts as well as their presence in the area. They asked me to stay with them over the night and be escorted to Khalis in the morning and arrange for my return to Baghdad since it was getting dark and the roads were not safe. I did not accept their offer and decided to return after I finished my business there with the taxi which was waiting for me.
It is worth mentioning that Bizhan Qahremani a member of the MKO intelligence and also Farhang and three other individuals were involved in this case and although they managed to waste my time a little but they once again exposed their nature for the Iraqi police as well as the American forces. The Iraqi police assured me that from now on he would brief his forces not to react immediately on misinformation received form the MKO. He said that such mistakes would not happen again and we would not be trapped within their conspiracy any more. He emphasised that now they are sure the MKO has deliberately misguided them and he is happy that his forces did not harm me when they were provoked by the MKO. . .”
Contact (Iraq):
saharfamily@yahoo.com
Tel: +964 – 7808481650 (Arabic and Farsi)
Contact (outside Iraq):
Sahar
BM 2632
London
WC1N 3XX
U.K.
Tel: +44 – 2076935044 (English only)
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Sahar Foundation, Baghdad, April 03, 2008