News

Countdown for MKO departure

Iraq has warned that the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) has outstayed its welcome in the country and is obliged to pack its bags.

Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said at a Friday news conference that the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) had to leave Iraq soon but did not give any time-frame for the relocation.

“The residents should understand … that their days in Iraq are numbered and we are literally counting down,”al-Rubaie told reporters.

He, however, said that the Iraqi government would not appeal to force if the group obides by the departure regulations in a non-forcible way.

“We will not use force … unless the residents use force against the Iraqi security forces. This whole process will be pain-free if they cooperate.”

Baghdad holds the anti-Iran MKO responsible for destabilizing Iraq through its terror attacks.

The Iraqi government took control of the group’s military training grounds in Camp Ashraf from the US in January.

The official on Friday did not identify where the group would be moved to but the al-Bayyina al-Jadida daily reported that Iraq was in talks with Australia to find an alternative place for the group.

Iraqi sources revealed in February that several countries were considering granting entry permission to certain members of the terrorist group.

Egypt, they said, had agreed with a request by MKO leaders to establish a camp in the country.

In a Saturday statement, the MKO members reacted angrily to plans by Baghdad for their resettlement and called the demand”absolutely illegal”.

The MKO, blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many international entities and countries, including the US, is responsible for numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials as well as Iraqis during the rein of former dictator Saddam Hussein.

The group was exiled from Iran after the Islamic Revolution and settled in Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of Saddam.

Tehran has long called for the expulsion of MKO members from Iraq. Tehran says the members of the group who have not participated in terrorist activities can return home but others will need to stand trial.

Some MKO members have defected from the organization and have returned to Iran.

March 30, 2009 0 comments

Europe

Europe begins transfer of MKO terrorists

The first group of MKO terrorists has reportedly been transferred to Europe after their training ground in Iraq came under threat.

The group, comprised of 64 senior members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, were transferred from Jordan to an unknown European state by two military planes, the Tabnak website reported.

The report quoted Arab correspondents in Jordan as saying that the Iraqi government had not been informed on the”quite confidential”move.

Reports suggest that the MKO terrorists were moved to Romania, but no official has given information about the case.

Iraqi soldiers, under orders from Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffak Al-Rubaie, have surrounded MKO’s Camp Ashraf since Thursday, after Baghdad vowed to shut down the training ground and end the group’s presence in the country.

After the finalization of a security agreement between Baghdad and Washington, the Iraqi government took over the country’s national security issues. Under the interim agreement, Iraq now has control over Camp Ashraf in Diyala province.

The Iraqi government has vowed to expel the members of the terrorist group from the country, saying their presence”in Iraq is not an option”.

The anti-Iran MKO, which defines itself as a Marxist-Islamist guerilla army, has carried out acts of terrorism against Iranian nationals and officials.

Outlawed in Iran, the group was relocated in France before its armed wing was expelled at the order of the then-prime minister Jacques Chirac.

The organization eventually moved to Iraq, where it assisted former dictator Saddam Hussein in the massacre of thousands of Iraqi civilians in the 1990s.

Many countries, including the US, have blacklisted the MKO as a ‘terrorist’ organization. The US State Department says that the MKO assassinated at least six US citizens in Iran, prior to the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

In January, the 27-nation European Union ruled to remove the MKO from its blacklist after a seven year presence. The ruling is believed to be politically motivated, the result of legal developments combined with intense lobbying by the cult-like group.

March 29, 2009 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Iraq closes Camp Ashraf by the end of the month

Maliki says Iraq no place for PKK, Iranian rebels

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has promised to help Turkey fight Kurdish separatists who use northern Iraq as a base from which to launch attacks.

Maliki gave the promise in a recorded interview on Iraqiya state TV on Wednesday after a visit to Iraq by Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who asked Iraq on Tuesday to help quell more than two decades of rebellion by the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK).

Turkey has accused Iraq in the past of not doing enough to crack down on the outlawed PKK, considered terrorists by Washington and the European Union.

“The PKK is a terrorist organization and it has caused a crisis (between Iraq and) … Turkey,” Maliki said. “This matter must be ended. Our will is decisive … (Here) there is no place for terrorist organizations.”

On Monday Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, told the PKK to disarm or leave Iraq, in some of the toughest comments to date by any Iraqi leader against the rebels, whose use of Iraq as a base has strained ties between Baghdad and Ankara.

Maliki’s comments were a further sign of a thaw in relations between the two major trading partners, starting with a trip to Iraq by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan last year.

In the same interview Maliki also warned the Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI), that they must leave Iraq, reiterating a pledge by National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie to close down Camp Ashraf on the Iranian border, where the PMOI are currently based.

“We have informed this terrorist organization that Iraq can be no place for you… Search for another place,” he said.

The camp’s 3,500 residents have been in limbo since Iraq took it over from U.S. forces this year. Iraq’s Shi’ite Muslim leaders are friendly with Tehran, which wants the camp closed and PMOI members on a wanted list handed over for trial. Human rights groups say that would violate international law.

Iraq has appealed to other foreign countries to accept residents when it closes Camp Ashraf at the end of this month.

Reporting by Tim Cocks

March 29, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

MKO Members Bribe Iraqi Politicians

"Available intelligence reports, which are very accurate, indicate that several political figures and groups have taken bribes from the MKO in exchange for their support," Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, said in remarks translated from Arabic.

"From a legal perspective, these briberies have reached a stage where they can be considered criminal activity," Rubaie told reporters following a Saturday meeting with top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, press tv reported.

However, the senior Iraqi advisor refrained from implicating any particular individual.

Rubaie said that Baghdad does not recognize the MKO cult to be a legal group nor is it allowed to carry out its activities in Iraq.

"Those 3,418 individuals who are currently residing at Camp Ashraf in the Diyala province are there as Iranian nationals," he explained.

Rubaie pointed out that although Iraq will not force occupants of Camp Ashraf to return to Iran, many of them are willing to go back to their homeland voluntarily.

The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.

Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.

The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).

Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.

A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.

The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.

Leaders of the group have been fighting to shed its terrorist tag after a series of bloody anti-Western attacks in the 1970s, and nearly 30 years of violent struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In recent months, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world in the hope of acknowledgement as a legitimate opposition group.

The UK initiative, however, prompted the European Union to establish relations with the exiled organization now based in Paris. The European Court of First Instance threw its weight behind the MKO in December and annulled its previous decision to freeze its funds.

The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.

Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s.

In August 2008, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution setting a six-month deadline for all MKO members to leave the country or face possible expulsion.

Tehran has pardoned several former MKO members who have expressed remorse, allowing them to return to the country.

March 26, 2009 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Iraqi official to warn over violations in Camp Ashraf

In a Sunday statement, Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffaq al-Rubaie asked MKO leaders to stop using "torture tactics" against members who want to leave the organization.

In a Sunday statement, Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffaq al-Rubaie asked MKO leaders to stop using "torture tactics" against members who want to leave the organization."The MKO violates the freedom of speech in all possible ways. It does not even follow human rights when dealing with its own members," the statement said. "The MKO violates the freedom of speech in all possible ways. It does not even follow human rights when dealing with its own members," the statement said.

"It deprives of them [MKO members] from the right to determine their own fate," the statement added.

Although the European Union has recently outraged the victims of MKO violence by removing the group from its list of terrorist organizations, the group is still blacklisted in Iran, Iraq, Canada, and the United States.

The group, exiled from Iran, has claimed responsibility for bombings, killings and attacks against Iranian government officials and civilians over the past 30 years.

The attacks include the assassination of the late president Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, prime minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar and judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti.

The MKO is also known to have cooperated with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hossein in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.

The Iraqi government has recently given MKO members a deadline to leave their Camp Ashraf military training ground in Diyala Province.

MKO is notorious for using cult-like tactics within the group and for torturing and murdering its defectors.

Iranian officials say that many MKO members have contacted Iran in an attempt to flee the camp but have eventually been entrapped by the group.

Numerous articles and letters posted on the Internet by family members of MKO recruits confirm reports of the horrific abuse that the group inflicts on its own members and the alluring recruitment methods it uses.

The most shocking of such stories includes accounts given by former British MKO member Ann Singleton and Mustafa Mohammadi — the father of an Iranian-Canadian girl who was drawn into the group during an MKO recruitment campaign in Canada.

Mohammadi recounts his desperate efforts to contact his daughter, who disappeared several years ago — a result of what the MKO called a ‘two-month tour’ of Camp Ashraf for teenagers.

He also explains how the group forces the families of its recruits to take part in pro-MKO demonstrations in Western countries by threatening to kill their loved ones.

Lacking a foothold in Iran, the terrorist group recruits ill-informed teens from Iranian immigrant communities in Western states and blocks their departure afterwards.

March 26, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

Iraq urges foreign states to accept Iranian rebels

Iraq has appealed to foreign countries to accept members of an Iranian opposition group, which has been based in Iraq for about two decades but which Baghdad sees as a terrorist group and a diplomatic liability.

Iraqi officials and the People’s Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI) have been at loggerheads for years. The PMOI has run a high-profile campaign alleging abuses by the Iraqi government, and Iraq has labelled its members terrorists and liars.

The PMOI began as a group of Islamist leftists opposed to Iran’s shah but fell out with Shi’ite clerics who took power after the 1979 revolution.

Allowed to operate in Iraq by Saddam Hussein, who waged war with Iran in the 1980s, the group has been less welcome under the new Shi’ite-led government, which has mostly warm ties with neighboring Shi’ite Iran.

"We do not wish to take responsibility for the sin of the presence of a terrorist organisation in Iraq, which causes us domestic problems and problems with countries of the region," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters.

"We ask the international community … to find another place for them other than Iraq," he added.

No country has yet come forward, Dabbagh said. The United States views the PMOI as a terrorist group, but the European Union agreed to take the group off its list of terrorist organisations following a protracted legal battle.

Human rights groups say forcing the 3,500 PMOI members out of their base at Camp Ashraf in northeastern Iraq would violate international law. The PMOI says Iraqi forces have beaten them, blocked aid and besieged their camp, charges Iraq denies.

There has been speculation that an unmanned Iranian aircraft that U.S. forces say they shot down over Iraq in February may have been monitoring PMOI activity.

Dabbagh did not confirm whether the downed aircraft was a drone or where it came from, but said Iraq placed high importance on maintaining good ties with Iran.

"With have joint concerns, problems, and want to develop our relationship and remove the fuse from any crisis that may happen," he said when questioned about the drone. (Additional reporting by Missy Ryan, Writing by Mohammed Abbas: Editing by Richard Balmforth)

March 26, 2009 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

MKO Camp Comes under Iraqi Siege after Torturing of Members

Confessions by two members of the anti-Iran terror group, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization, about torturing and mistreatment of members by MKO officials and commanders led to a siege of the group’s headquarters, Camp Ashraf, by Iraqi forces.

Camp Ashraf has acted as the MKO’s headquarters and training base in Iraq’s Diyala Province for the past two decades. Baghdad had earlier vowed to shut down the camp and end the group’s presence in the country.

The move by Iraqi forces came after two members of the group disclosed top secret information to the Iraqi officials about psychological pressures and abuse of the members in the camp.

There are 3,416 people in Camp Ashraf, all fingerprinted and eye-scanned by the Iraqi officials.

The Iraqi government has vowed to expel the members of the terrorist group from the country, maintaining that their presence "in Iraq is not an option".

The US troops transferred control of the camp to Iraqi officials after Baghdad and Washington concluded an interim security agreement to take over the country’s national security issues.

The group, founded in the 1960s, started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who was killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.

The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

March 18, 2009 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Mojahedin Khalq had taken over a building belonging to the Iraqi army

.. An Iranian opposition group said Monday that Iraqi troops tightened their siege of a camp north of Baghdad where about 3,500 of their members have been based for about 20 years.

The People’s Mujahedeen said Iraqi troops have prevented food and fuel from reaching Camp Ashraf for the past six days — despite written guarantees by the Iraqi government that it would guarantee human rights of the residents.

But Iraqi national security adviser Mouwaffak al-Rubaie branded the allegations "totally baseless." He said People’s Mujahedeen members had taken over a building belonging to the Iraqi army and were preventing soldiers from entering it.

"They have a huge propaganda machine all over the world and are known to exaggerate things," added al-Rubaie, whom the People’s Mujahedeen said was behind the alleged crackdown.

Iran and the United States consider the People’s Mujahedeen a terrorist group and Tehran has stepped up pressure on the Iraqis to close the camp. Iraq took over security for the camp from the U.S. on Jan. 1.

But the Iraqi government promised the U.S. that it would not force the group’s members to leave against their will.

The People’s Mujahedeen opposed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi during the 1979 revolution but fell out with the clerical regime that replaced him. Saddam Hussein allowed the group to set up a camp during the Iran-Iraq war for staging raids across the border inside Iran.

U.S. troops disarmed the fighters and confined them to Camp Ashraf after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam.

Also Monday, residents of the Kurdish town of Halabja marked the 21st anniversary of the March 16-17 poison gas attack by Saddam’s forces against Kurdish separatists.

The 1988 attack killed thousands of people and was the biggest use of chemical weapons against a civilian populated area in history.

Local officials and victims’ relatives placed wreaths on a monument to the dead.

"The anniversary has become etched in the memory of many people," said Aras Abbadi, who lost 21 relatives in the attack. "Every year, we wait for the anniversary and condemn that deplorable attack committed by a dictatorial regime against its own people."

Another participant, Mariam Saleh, 59, pointed to a photograph on display that shows a truck full of victims.

http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=16091

March 18, 2009 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Iraqi Forces Blockading Iranian Opposition Camp

An Iranian opposition group based in Iraq said Iraqi forces are preventing passage of basic supplies to its compound north of Baghdad.

The Mojahedin-e Khalq, or People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, said the blockade of Camp Ashraf began Thursday.

In late January, Iraq’s National Security Advisor Mouwaffak al-Rubaie said the group must leave Iraq within two months. He added the decision to close the camp, home to about 3,500 people, was irreversible.

The group originated in Iran decades ago in opposition to the Shah. Many members of the group fled to Iraq after a falling out with supporters of Ayatollah Ruhhollah Khomeini, and fought fellow Iranians during Iraq’s war with Iran.

The Iraqi government promised the U.S. government, which vouched for the safety of the group when it disarmed, that its members would not be returned to Iran.

Supporters of Mujahedin e-Khalq rally across from the White House in Washington,

A Spokesman for the group expressed fears that members could face prison or death if they are sent to Iran, although some who have returned, were eventually allowed to settle in other countries.

The Mojahedin-e Khalq has also been accused of carrying out campaigns against Iraqis who opposed Saddam Hussein, earning the hatred of some in the current Iraqi government.

Iraq, Iran and the U.S, despite its support of the disarmed members, consider the group a terrorist organization…

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

March 18, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin-e-khalq Organization Members

MKO Operatives Secretly Transferred To Europe

The Iranian website Tabnak reports that 64 operatives from the Iranian opposition Mojahedeen-e Khalq organization have been secretly transferred from Iraq to a European country, on Jordanian aircraft, without the Iraqi government’s knowledge.

March 18, 2009 0 comments

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