News

33 residents of Camp Liberty relocated in Germany

An official of Iraqi Foreign Ministry declared that 33 members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) were received as refugees by German government, according to news reports. 33 residents of Camp Liberty relocated in Germany

The Iraqi official stated that the German government, on Saturday, October 12th, received 33 residents of Camp Liberty.”We hope that we manage to accomplish the relocation process of Liberty residents in near future resettling them in third countries,” he said.

He also noted that some of these individuals, who were interviewed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, suffer from distressed mental state and fear their stay in Iraq.

Germany had previously announced its preparation to accept 100 members of the Mujahedin Khalq terrorist organization.By the first convoy seven residents of Camp Liberty transfered to Germany in July 2013.

October 15, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Washington denies intention to cut aid over Mojahedin Khalq

Iraq has dismissed as propaganda the claims of the Mojahedin Khalq terrorist group that it was involved in the September 1st attack on Camp Ashraf and the alleged kidnap of seven MEK members who are allegedly still missing. Preliminary investigation into the incident points to it being an internal issue within the Mojahedin camp.

But, before the investigations being conducted by the Government of Iraq and UN officials have been concluded, some members of the US Congress, under the influence of the Israeli lobby (backers of the MEK terrorist group) have demanded not only that the US government cut aid and arms sales to Iraq but also to ensure that Iraq gives succour to the terrorist group in Iraq and allow them a free hand to carry out their activities there.

During the last week many MPs and officials, including the spokesman for Prime Minister Al Maliki’s State of Law coalition, have announced that should the US decide to interfere in the internal affairs of Iraq and interfere in the investigations already being carried out by Iraq and the UN in favour of the Israeli backed MEK, then the consequences will be immediately seen in a severance of ties between Iraq and the US; retaliation will be immediate and commensurate.

Al Maliki himself, in a visit to an anti-terrorism exhibition in Baghdad, in answer to press questions about the issue replied that if Washington is so in love with this terrorist group then they can open their borders to them immediately instead of asking us to keep them and cutting off aid.

To ease the effect of the influence of Israel in the American Congress, the US ambassador in Baghdad had to go public in order to separate the official US government line from that of the lobbyists and to try to promote the interests of America in Iraq rather than those of Israel.

In an interview with Al Mada Press, Stephen Beecroft said, “the United States has an agreement to help Iraq in all fields and to act as a partner to Iraq”. He noted that “there is chatter being fired from here and there about cutting aid to Iraq because of a failure to provide protection for some of the MEK, but we can assure the government of Iraq that we will not cut off their assistance.”

Washington called on the Iraqi government to continue to provide protection for the remainder of the MEK in Camp Liberty until, in cooperation with UNAMI, they could be transferred out of the country.

October 14, 2013 0 comments

Iran

Iranian Government Fires Back at MEK on Nuclear Site Claims

Fars News Agency, the Iranian government’s appropriately named mouthpiece news organization, reports today that the regime rejects its most vocal exiled opponent’s claims of evidence of a hidden nuclear site north of Tehran.

The Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK, MKO) is just, like, totally full of crap, is basically what Iran’s foreign ministry flack said in the report. So full of crap, in fact, that he barely wastes any breath refuting them:

Speaking to FNA on Friday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Araqchi strongly rejected the MKO’s claim, calling it continuation of the story-tellings of a desperate group.

“This story-telling is not worth responding [sic],” Araqchi said.

Zing?

Apparently, in an earlier report, Araqchi also called the MEK’s latest release just one more cog in the giant Zionist system to disrupt the Shiite status quo or whatever. Awkward…

The MEK claimed Thursday to have evidence of a nuclear site existing in tunnels beneath the town of Damavand. The AFP story got picked up by a bunch of news sites, including Fox News. Nevertheless, the claim is unsubstantiated by any evidence so far.

By Julie Ershadi.

Julie Ershadi is a freelance writer and producer based in Washington, D.C. She covers Iran–U.S. relations, civil liberties, and politics

October 13, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Who paid for Mojahedin Khalq Terrorists Ad in Washington?

Controversial Iranian Group Attempts To Take Out Washington Post Ad, Accidentally Sends Invoice To Opponent

Whoops

The M.E.K, short for the Mujahedeen-e Khalq or People’s Mujahideen of Iran, is an exiled Iranian opposition group that was previously designated a “foreign terrorist organization” by the State Department until its removal in Sept. 2012.

The M.E.K has a number of high profile backers in the U.S. Here’s former House Speaker Newt Gingrich bowing to M.E.K. leader Maryam Rajavi in 2012. At the time the M.E.K was still labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S.

The National Association of Iranian Academics in Britain took out a Washington Post ad in 2011, writing an open letter to President Obama asking him to take the M.E.K. off the list of terrorist organizations.

Via thinkprogress.org

The letter was signed by a number of prominent Democrats and Republicans, including former members of the Bush And Obama Administrations.

Via thinkprogress.org

The State Department labeled the M.E.K. a terrorist organization for a number of reasons, among other things, they staged terrorist attacks killing U.S. military personnel and civilians. They were also funded by Saddam Hussein.

From the State Department’s website:

The group’s worldwide campaign against the Iranian government uses propaganda and terrorism to achieve its objectives. During the 1970s, the MEK staged terrorist attacks inside Iran and killed several U.S. military personnel and civilians working on defense projects in Tehran. In 1972, the MEK set off bombs in Tehran at the U.S. Information Service office (part of the U.S. Embassy), the Iran-American Society, and the offices of several U.S. companies to protest the visit of President Nixon to Iran. In 1973, the MEK assassinated the deputy chief of the U.S. Military Mission in Tehran and bombed several businesses, including Shell Oil. In 1974, the MEK set off bombs in Tehran at the offices of U.S. companies to protest the visit of then U.S. Secretary of State Kissinger. In 1975, the MEK assassinated two U.S. military officers who were members of the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group in Tehran. In 1976, the MEK assassinated two U.S. citizens who were employees of Rockwell International in Tehran. In 1979, the group claimed responsibility for the murder of an American Texaco executive. Though denied by the MEK, analysis based on eyewitness accounts and MEK documents demonstrates that MEK members participated in and supported the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and that the MEK later argued against the early release the American hostages.

Before Operation Iraqi Freedom began in 2003, the MEK received all of its military assistance and most of its financial support from Saddam Hussein. The fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime has led the MEK increasingly to rely on front organizations to solicit contributions from expatriate Iranian communities.

Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the group was disarmed and has said they have renounced terrorism. They started lobbying to get their name removed from the list of foreign terrorist organizations. The group managed to achieve this in Europe in 2009, and eventually, the U.S. in September 2012.

Via state.gov

One of the M.E.K.’s supporters, The National Association of Iranian Academics in Britain, recently attempted to take out an ad in The Washington Post.

Here’s the invoice:

Even though the National Association of Iranian Academics in Britain was supposedly an independent group of M.E.K. supporters, the recent ad invoice is signed by Shahin Gobadi, a Paris-based spokesman for the M.E.K.’s parent organization.

The signed-copy of the invoice is also addressed to the wrong place. The address listed is the office of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), who OPPOSES the M.E.K. and ran a campaign to stop them from being delisted as a terror organization.

The NIAC still has an entire section of their website devoted to opposition to the M.E.K. So accidentally signing a copy of contract addressed to them is particularly embarrassing.

Via niacouncil.org

By accidentally signing this invoice and somehow failing to notice that it was addressed to their opposition, the M.E.K. outed itself as the ones pulling the strings at the National Association of Iranian Academics in Britain.

Andrew Kaczynski,Buzz Feed

October 12, 2013 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

UK Govt: Iraq will publish findings of investigations into Camp Ashraf deaths

The Bishop of Coventry (Bishop)

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what response they have received from the government of Iraq to their representation requesting an investigation into the violence at Camp Ashraf on 1 September.

Baroness Warsi (Conservative)

The Government of Iraq has told our Embassy in Baghdad that a committee will conduct a full and open investigation into the attack on Camp Ashraf on 1 September, and that its findings will be made public.

October 12, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq 's Terrorism

MKO Source of Terrorist Attacks in Iraq

Secretary General of Habilian Association – an NGO formed of the families of 17,000 victims of terrorism in Iran – said the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCRI or PMOI) is the primary trainer of terrorists in Iraq.

Speaking in a meeting with members of Iraq’s Youth Parliament and a number of Ministry of Youth and Sports members, Seyed Mohammad Javad Hasheminejad said that Iran and Iraq share a common civilization heritage, adding that the convergence between the two nations, after the fall of Saddam, is very positive.

“The forty year gap between the two nations of Iran and Iraq was very bothersome,” he added. “The gap was due to an authoritarian government before the Islamic Revolution in Iran and a dictatorial government during the Ba’ath regime in Iraq.”

Son of late AbdolKarim Hasheminejad added that Saddam’s support for terrorist groups, including the MKO, was one of the excuses of the US for attacking Iran.

“But after the fall of Saddam we saw that not only this terrorist group was not destroyed, but it was placed under the direct support of the US government.” “This grouplet enjoyed the best conveniences, while most Iraqi people were deprived of many facilities.”

Hasheminejad went on to explain the role of the MKO in terrorist acts in Iraq and said, “This grouplet has trained suicide bombers at its military headquarters, which were under the protection of US troops, and the initial core of the terrorist operations in Iraq was created by this grouplet.”

October 12, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

MEK Makes Desperate New Iran Nuclear Accusation, Reuters Yawns

With the world anticipating real progress at the next round of P5+1 talks set to start next week in Geneva, the MEK is getting desperate. Because they appear to only want a violent regime change in Iran, talk of actual diplomacy is their worst nightmare. Today, Reuters reports on the latest wild accusation tossed out by the MEK using the “umbrella” organization of the National Council of Resistance of Iran:

An exiled Iranian opposition group said on Thursday it had information about what it said was a center for nuclear weaponisation research in Tehran that the government was moving to avoid detection ahead of negotiations with world powers.

Reuters clearly was unmoved by the accusation, as they immediately pointed out that NCRI is biased and politically motivated. However, even in pointing out the bias of NCRI, Reuters perpetuates a myth that has been disproven:

The dissident National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) exposed Iran’s uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy water facility at Arak in 2002. But analysts say it has a chequered track record and a clear political agenda.

Uhm, yes. Having your major group spend decades on the list of terrorist organizations (before eventually buying their way off the list and registering as a lobbying group) would indeed qualify as “a chequered track record”. But Reuters insists on repeating the falsehood that the NCRI and MEK were responsible for exposing the underground enrichment site at Natanz. That myth has been thoroughly debunked by Jeffrey Lewis:

The debate about whether Iran has constructed a clandestine centrifuge program drives me nuts.

You mean other than the one we already found?

And by we, I mean the United States—or at least its intelligence community. As I understand the sequence of events, the United States—knowing full well that Iran had a clandestine centrifuge program—watched Iran dig two MASSIVE HOLES near Natanz (see the big picture), then ratted the Iranians out to the IAEA. About the same time, someone leaked that information to an Iranian dissident group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which then released the second-hand dope in a press conference where they got the details wrong.

Lewis goes on to cite multiple independent sources to confirm that the intelligence community, not the NCRI, was responsible for discovering the Natanz facility. [It is also instructive to note the role ISIS played in the charade of promoting NCRI responsibility.]

Aside from that major error on attribution of the discovery of Natanz, Reuters was so unmoved by the newest ploy from NCRI that they didn’t even rewrite today’s article very much from the last wild NCRI accusation in July (the link here is to CBC carrying the Reuters story):

But analysts say it has a mixed track record and a clear political agenda.

But in that July story, Reuters went further in linking that accusation to a desire to derail diplomacy:

The latest allegation comes less than a month after the election of a relative moderate, Hassan Rouhani, as Iran’s new president raised hopes for a resolution of the nuclear dispute with the West, and might be timed to discredit such optimism.

Yes, the MEK clearly sees diplomacy as the real enemy. That article also rehashed the abject failure of an accusation NCRI and MEK made in 2010:

In 2010, when the group said it had evidence of another new nuclear facility, west of the capital Tehran, U.S. officials said they had known about the site for years and had no reason to believe it was nuclear.

It would appear that NCRI and MEK need to step up their acts. They have reached a level of incompetence that is barely worthy of rewriting the standard dismissal that Reuters keeps on file.

by Jim White , EmptyWheel

October 12, 2013 0 comments

USA

MEK leader in Paris obstructing the process to resettle members

State Department Advises Senate to Hold Off Iran Sanctions Until After Negotiations

Washington, DC – The top U.S. nuclear negotiator in UN Security Council negotiations with Iran urged the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday to hold off on further sanctions until new negotiations commence. Wendy Sherman, the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, said delaying sanctions ahead of talks scheduled for October 15 and 16 in Geneva would give Iran the opportunity to to take “real actions” at the Geneva meeting.

Many on the committee appeared skeptical and indicated they planned to consider new crippling sanctions despite positive signals from Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani. Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) was largely dismissive of Rouhani’s gestures, though he indicated he hopes concrete action will take place in Geneva. As for further sanctions, Menendez maintained that “as long as Iran is actively pursuing its nuclear program, we must actively work to increase the pressure.”

However, while the House passed a sanctions bill ahead of Rouhani’s inauguration in August, the Senate has yet to introduce its own version of the bill. It is all but certain that, given the government shutdown, new sanctions will not be introduced or considered before the Geneva talks.

Some Senators were dismissive of any new negotiations. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) told Sherman that the U.S. must not negotiate with “evil liars.” He challenged Sherman on what a deal with Iran would look like and whether the U.S. could “ever agree to ease sanctions in any negotiation that does not require Iran to abandon its enrichment and reprocessing capabilities.” Sherman refused to rule out a deal in which Iran retains enrichment—a point that many experts believe will be key to securing a verifiable solution but which is notably opposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The position of the U.S. on enrichment is unclear—under President Bush, the U.S. refused to negotiate directly with Iran unless the enrichment program was first suspended. Secretary of State John Kerry, as a Senator in 2009, called the Bush position requiring zero enrichment, “ridiculous” and said Iran has “a right to peaceful nuclear power and to enrichment in that purpose.” In 2011, then Secretary of State , Hillary Clinton signaled a shift from the Bush approach when she stated “[Iranians] can enrich uranium at some future date once they have demonstrated that they can do so in a responsible manner in accordance with international obligations.”

According to Sherman, a deal with Iran would realistically include limitations on the “pace and scope” of enrichment and greater transparency with regard to Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium. If Iran does not pass the “Geneva test”, she said, they should expect harsher sanctions—something Sherman says she and Secretary of State Kerry made clear to the Iranians following the U.N. general assembly. In terms of what a deal would look like, Sherman said that “the onus is on Iran” to clarify how far they are willing to go.

At least two dozen supporters of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq (MEK) filled the hearing room, sitting behind the panel in matching yellow jackets emblazoned with pro-MEK slogans. Senator John McCain advocated for the MEK’s safety in Iraq, criticizing the U.S. for not protecting MEK members from deadly attacks that occurred in Iraq’s Camp Ashraf. Sherman expressed concern but also noted that the MEK’s leadership in Paris was obstructing the process to resettle MEK members. A key demand of the MEK’s leadership is that the group’s members be allowed to relocate together as a single unit, rather than to be relocated individually to different countries. Menendez interjected and told Sherman that the MEK should be invited to relocate to the United States.

October 6, 2013 0 comments

Iraqi Authorities' stance on the MEK

MEK terrorists found Saddam as their true patron

An Iraqi politician said Baghdad lacks proper security structure to identify terrorist ploys, but added that Iraqi Majed Qamas authorities can refer to the neighboring Iran as a role model to fight terrorist groups, like Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).

“Lack of an intelligence structure on the basis of scientific principles, as well as lack of benefitting from popular forces to detect terrorist operations are among the weak points of the Iraqi security apparatus,” Majed Qamas, the representative of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) in Tehran, told Tasnim on Friday.

The Iraqi lawmaker, however, added that Iraqi security forces can learn from Iran’s valuable experience in taking advantage of grass roots support to tackle and eradicate the MKO terrorists years ago.

“In that time (during MKO activities in Iran), (Iranian) people and mosques had a very active role in identifying and thwarting the MKO’s terrorist measures,” Qamas explained.

MKO members were involved in many terrorist activities in Iran before they went to Iraq in 1986, where they found a true patron in Iraq’s deposed dictator Saddam Hussein who gave them shelter and arms.

They fought along Saddam forces in the war it had imposed on Iran (1980-1988) and later turned their guns against the Iraqi citizens who had revolted against the ruthless dictator in 1991.

In relevant remarks on September 26, Commander of Iraqi Army First Lieutenant General Ali Ghaidan, during a visit to Iran at the head of a military delegation, announced that Baghdad is determined to expel the remaining members of the MKO terrorist organization.

On September 1 some 52 MKO members were killed in clashes at Camp Ashraf, which the Iraqi authorities blamed on infighting among the camp’s 100 residents.

The notorious camp, which in its heyday housed thousands of MKO terrorists, was fully evacuated by the Iraqi authorities from its much-hated residents on September 11.

Camp Ashraf’s residents have been relocated to Camp Liberty, near Baghdad’s international airport, under a United Nations-brokered deal that wants them resettled in other countries. A total of 162 MKO members have been resettled abroad so far, mostly in Albania.

October 6, 2013 0 comments

Germany

German authorities protest over MKO relocation in Koln

German media reported of an order issued to relocate a number of members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization from Iraqi Camp Liberty to Germany. The United Nation representatives and German government agreed to transfer 97 resident of Camp Liberty.

German newspaper, Kolner Stadt –Anzeiger published in Cologne reported that German government has ordered the city officials to receive 77 people of the refugees.

The 97 Liberty residents are among those who have already had refuge files in Germany. They had been sent to Iraq by the group during Saddam’s regime, according to the German daily.

The report adds that the city officials including Mr. Guido Kahlen the director of Cologne city council seriously protested the decision. They consider the presence of those people with records of military, terrorist and cult-like activities as a risk security of Koln citizens.

Based on the agreement signed by Iraqi government and the UN, members of the MKO who are currently residing in Camp Liberty near Baghdad, are supposed to be received by third countries as refugees. So far Albania has agreed on the relocation of 210 members of the group. About 80 of these residents have been already transferred to Albania.

October 2, 2013 0 comments

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