Page 262 – Nejat Society

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 201

++ This week saw the anniversary of the 1981 assassination of Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar and President Mohammad Ali Rajai by the MEK in Iran. Iran calls it ‘the day of fighting terrorism’. One of the events to mark this assassination was held in the old parliament building in Tehran. The event was titled ‘Terrorism – from Mojahedin to Daesh’. A statement from the Head of Parliament was read out as he could not attend. In his speech, the Deputy Head of Parliament said, “it is a sad joke that after sending the MEK and Daesh to commit acts of terrorism in Iran over three decades, ironically ‘they’ still accuse us of supporting terrorism”.

++ A gathering of Nejat Society members was held in Yazd this week. The invited speakers were Ebrahim Khodabandeh, Zahra Mir Bagheri and Abbas Mohammadpour. The explained in some detail to the families what is happening with the MEK and the ex-members in Tirana and how Nejat is talking with the government of Albania to arrange family meetings and help those who have separated from the MEK.

++ In Albania, Gazeta Impakt YouTube channel broadcast an hour and a half interview with Ehsan Bidi and Manuchehr Abdi. Both are ex-members there. They detailed how they were treated before coming to Albania and now by the MEK. Their main complaint concerns their current situation in Tirana. They are coming under pressure from the MEK and its backers in the Albanian government to stop them speaking out and exposing the realities of the MEK. This has reached the point that because of speaking out about the MEK, the UNHCR, the interior ministry of Albania and the refugee camps have thrown them out into the streets and cut their social benefits. When they went on hunger strike outside the UNHCR office they were threatened by staff there with ‘disappearance’ or prison. They complain that “the Pentagon and the CIA have brought their fight with Iran to Albania, but in this war, they are sacrificing people who don’t want to be terrorists”.

++ Other reports from Albania indicate that Maryam Rajavi has started a new round of oath taking, this time getting members to sign up to stay with the MEK until the end of the Trump administration. Rajavi tells them that ‘President Trump will go to war with Iran and we will go back to Iran’. Commentators ridicule this saying even Trump himself is not clear whether he’ll reach end of his term as President.

++ Other reports from Albania say that MEK members are trying to sneak into internet cafés and talk with their families. In response, the MEK has increased its surveillance tactics. On top of the previous system of only being allowed to go out in groups and compulsory reporting on each other, the MEK has now created a dedicated group of people just to follow those who have to go out for any reason. For example, for medical reasons. This group must clandestinely follow, take photos and report the activities of any MEK member outside the base.

++ Today it was reported that the MEK leaders have gathered all the disaffected members who still receive their weekly UN refugee allowance from them on condition of compliance with various restrictions – do not contact your family, do not contact other ex-members, do not talk about the MEK with anyone. These people have been told that after this month they will no longer receive their UNHCR financial allowance from the MEK. When they complained, insisting that they had abided by the rules, the MEK told them ‘the UNHCR informed us that the lease for the building we are using has ended and it must be evacuated’. The disaffected members objected ‘what’s that to do with us, we don’t live in that building’. The MEK answer was that ‘if we suffer you must too’. The UNHCR ironically still pays its money to the MEK organisation not individual refugees. Farsi commentary says, ‘this is what Saddam would do – pay per head of members as a lump sum to Massoud Rajavi’.

++ A government source in Albania has informed Iran-Interlink that the MEK is pushing hard for permission to move the members to a camp in an isolated town at the edge of Albania, 300 miles from the capital. This is to avoid any interference from any external body but mostly to make it extremely difficult for the MEK families to go there. The government has refused this saying it is not acceptable.

++ Sahar site was down for three days last week. Sahar explained why this happened. It appears that some MEK lobbyists in America had approached the service provider in the US claiming that the Sahar website belongs to the intelligence ministry of Iran and that hosting it is against the sanctions regime and threatening that legal action will be taken. In addition, several lawyers have written to the service provider saying the same thing. According to Sahar’s investigations, a considerable amount of money has been spent on this. Sahar has contacted the service provider with documents to show who is behind Sahar. The provider thereby discovered that they had been set up and have apologised to Sahar and reinstated the site. Khodabandeh posted on Facebook – if you can’t deal with a few ex members and some families even outside the country, what is that ‘we will overthrow the regime’ slogan all about?

In English:

++ Sahar Family Foundation met with some officials in the Albanian ministry of internal affairs whose department is responsible for monitoring and looking after around 240 separated MEK members. One official gave a wide-ranging account of what is happening, in particular mentioning the MEK’s “hostile attitude towards the families trying to visit their loved ones inside the group” and said the government is aware that the MEK leaders are “trying to establish a government like system similar to what they practiced in Iraq, which is not acceptable”.

++ Habilian Association which represents victims of MEK terrorism inside Iran reported on a speech by former MEK member Ebrahim Khodabandeh to scholars of Astan Qods Razavi Endowment in Mashhad. Khodabandeh said the main focus of MEK international activity was to stoke ‘Iranophobia’. He talked about the criminal record of the group. He concluded by describing Iran’s attitude toward the MEK and its members. “…Do a research in a country like the U.S. and see what the sentence of high treason is. The Islamic Republic has shown the maximum mercy to an enemy group. I know more than 700 MEK members like myself who are freely living their lives. Many journalists who encountered us were surprised and wondered if it is possible.”

++ Mazda Parsi in Nejat Society calls the MEK ‘Masters of Propaganda’. He says, “There is a big mistake often made by certain American politicians: They allegedly are concerned about freedom of Iranian people but fail to understand the nature of a group which, in public, says good things about freedom and democracy but, actually it is committed to violence, human rights abuse and cult-like practices… The MEK are ‘masters of propaganda’. Many of its supporters are unaware of its dark history and also what is going on inside the group now.”

++ Tehran Times and Mehr News, Tehran, both ran pieces about the MEK assassination of President Mohammad Ali Rajaei and Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar in 1981.

++ Nejat Society published an open letter written by families of MEK members trapped in Albania to the UNHCR and the Albanian interior ministry. The families again raise the issue of family visits not being a crime and asking for help to allow MEK members to benefit from their international and financial rights so that they can make informed decisions about their futures.

September 01, 2017

September 2, 2017 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Iran remembers Rajaei and Bahonar Murdered by American backed MEK

This time some 36 years ago, the lives of President Mohammad Ali Rajaei and Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar were cut short in an explosion set by Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, also known as MKO.

The bomb went off at the office of Islamic Republican Party in Tehran where a meeting was held. It also claimed lives of other officials.

Survivors said the bomb was set off when one of the victims opened a briefcase which was carried inside by Massoud Keshmiri, a security official at the Islamic Republican Party, to the meeting. The blast killed Rajaei, Bahonar and three other members of the Islamic Republican Party.

Subsequent investigations revealed that Massoud Kashmiri, who had brought the briefcase into the conference room, was an operative of the MKO disguised as a state security official.

39 days earlier, Rajaei had gained the votes of the majority of Iranians in an early election and had become the second president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, after Abol-Hasan Bani-Sadr, who had fled to Europe after being removed from his post by the parliament. Rajaei served as the prime minister under Bani-Sadr.

“Rajaei’s simple life-style, his popular policies, and his authority and effectiveness provoked the envy of the West-oriented President (Bani-Sadr) to the point where the latter would openly malign his prime minister on numerous occasions in an effort to drive him away from the government,” according to Kevin Barrett, a Arabist-Islamologist.

Rajaei and Bahonar, who knew each other for 20 years and were very active in the anti-Shah campaign, stood shoulder to shoulder after the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

The assassination took place when the government of Rajaei was only in office for 29 days and ever since the Government Week is observed in memory of those men beginning on August 23.

August 31, 2017 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Iran has shown maximum mercy to MEK members

Ebrahim Khodabandeh, a former senior member of Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization who defected from the group in 2003, provided details of some less known aspects of the MEK in a speech delivered to scholars of Astan Qods Razavi endowment in Mashhad.

In the first part of his speech, Ebrahim Khodabandeh referred to the cultish nature of MEK and said cults like the MEK highlight real-life problems of people and recruit their members by presenting themselves as the solution to those problems.

He then stated that the MEK which once claimed to be fighting for independence from the United States, now invites and hosts the most extremist American warmongers, who are rejected even by liberals in the West, in its events and gatherings.

Khodabandeh went on to say that the main focus of MEK’s international activities was on Iranophobia. “This approach was in line with Western governments’ desires. We used to demonize Iran to terrify Western people. When they were terrified of Iran, we used to present ourselves as the alternative and asked for their support. This is how the MEK recruited some people and brought them into the group.” He said.

He then pointed out the criminal record of the group and stated: “As confessed in its own documents, the MEK has killed 12000 Iranians. We shall never allow these crimes to be forgotten. One of their best-known betrayals against Iranian people is their cooperation and siding with Iraq in their war against Iran. As Saddam was bombing Iranian cities, Rajavi and his group encouraged him and advised the Iraqi army on the location of their targets. Rajavi ordered MEK members to contact their families in Iran and gather intel about the hit targets under the pretext of greeting their family members.”

Khodabandeh also referred to Iran’s attitude towards MEK members and reiterated: “Nothing in the world is more important to humans than security. Let’s look at Iran’s situation back in the 80s. On one hand, a foreign country has invaded the Iranian soil. And on the other hand an Iranian group is conducting high treason by siding with the enemy in this invasion. Mersad operation is a clear example of MEK’s betrayal to Iran. During WWII in Britain, the sentence of robbery was execution. They used to justify it by saying as all security and Police forces are focused on an ongoing war, robbery is an act against the national security and in favor of the enemy at war. And the sentence of cooperation with the enemy during war is execution. Now going back to Iran in the 80s, all military and security forces of the country are engaged in war. Imam Khomeini issued the right Fatwa and saved the security of people. Many of those MEK members who were not executed in 1988 and release later, moved to Iraq and rejoined the MEK and participated in a direct military operation against the country (Mersad operation). After Mersad operation, MEK members who were still in prison were asked about their ties with the group, and some would still insist on supporting MEK’s activities. It has nothing to do with Islam. Do a research in a country like the U.S. and see what the sentence of high treason is. The Islamic Republic has shown the maximum mercy to an enemy group. I know more than 700 MEK members like myself who are freely living their lives. Many journalists who encountered us were surprised and wondered if it is possible.”

August 30, 2017 0 comments

Albania Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Letter of the families of MEK members residing in Albania

To the UNHCR, and the Albanian Ministry of the Interior

With regards

As you are aware, we have waited for many years for the opportunity to visit our loved ones who are held captive inside the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO, Rajavi cult). We have communicated many, many times with various national and international organizations. But so far, we have had not received any reply indicating that we do have the right to meet with our relatives. Many fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters who desired to visit their loved ones have passed away without being able to do so.

With reference to the abusive nature of the Rajavi cult, as evidenced by many former members, and the fact that the members are subject to psychological manipulation, we urge you to respect our basic humanitarian rights and let us visit our loved ones. We also urge you to let our loved ones, held captive inside the cult, know about and benefit from their international and financial rights. You already know that these individuals, who are victims of a destructive mind-control cult, are deprived of their basic rights.

Over the past few years, many members of the Rajavi cult have been able to break through the mental as well as physical boundaries and step back into the normal world and are now living freely in Iran or other countries. These individuals have exposed the brutal relationship inside the cult and have met with international bodies and have written to the press and been active on the internet to talk about this.

This includes members of the Rajavi cult who had been sent into Iran to conduct violent terrorist operations but who changed their minds after being arrested and learned about the nature of their deeds. They have spoken out against the MEK and condemned the group for brainwashing its followers in order to get them to commit crimes. These former members enjoyed amnesty afterwards and went back to normal life.

Officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran have stated on many occasions that: “those who did not participate in armed struggle and did not commit murder can freely come back to Iran provided they have rejected the cult”. Over the years, many individuals have left the group and returned to Iran and resumed a normal life and were not prosecuted unless they had committed ordinary small offenses.

The attitude of the Islamic Republic towards the MEK members is that they have been deceived by the cult leaders and are therefore themselves victims, needing help from outside. According to Islamic teachings they must be treated in such a way that they are able to return to normal life with their families.

We, the families of the members captured mentally and physically inside the Rajavi cult, urge you prepare the grounds for our loved ones to be able to have access to their families and to the outside world and to be able to know what is going on in the world and decide freely what they would like to do and to choose their own futures.

Kind Regards,

Families of MEK members

August 29, 2017 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

The MEK: Masters of Propaganda

There is a big mistake often made by certain American politicians: They allegedly are concerned about freedom of Iranian people but fail to understand the nature of a group which, in public, says good things about freedom and democracy but, actually it is committed to violence, human rights abuse and cult-like practices. Mujahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, the Cult of Rajavi) are “skilled manipulators of public opinion”. In fact, the organization over which Maryam Rajavi and his disappeared husband have control avoids democracy and cuddles terrorism, dictatorship, and Maoism.

All the way in the corridors of the Capitol Hill, MKO agents tell Congressmen, their employees, and other officials what they want to hear: the MKO is the only opposition movement capable of changing the Iranian government and replacing it with a secular democratic government. They are hard workers to draw the attention of their targets to the so-called cause of their group; they are very sociable to lawmakers giving out Persian food, Christmas presents and their booklets and posters of misinformation about the life in Iran. Dressed up well, agents of MKO’s lobbying campaign get close to American journalists, politicians, and critics of the Islamic Republic.

Maryam Rajavi has increased totalitarian control over its members, particularly after the relocation of the group in Albania –where defection from the group is on the rise. While members reside in the West, the so-called cradle of democracy, the Cult authorities forbid the rank and file from access to any information from the outside world but its own TV channel and publications.

The MEK are “masters of propaganda”. Many of its supporters are unaware of its dark history and also what is going on inside the group now.

Warmonger think-tanks and conspiracy theorists have accelerated their run against Iranian government enabling the group to project a false image of popular support in Iran where none exist. Biased journalists such as Washington Post correspondents, repeat the fake story of the MKO as the viable alternative of the Islamic Republic, replacing their theories for fact. None of them can present the slightest evidence to prove that the MKO is a popular opposition group in Iran and none can assure the audience that the future Iran under the rule of the MKO is a democratic, non-nuclear one.

Yet, while the MKO has the support of a number of congressmen and a small number of analysts, it has no support in the power centers of Washington. Nevertheless, the group endeavors to demonstrate its claim of Western support by spending large amounts for luxurious trips of congressmen like John McCain to Europe.

Over a hundred years after the establishment of Iran’s Constitutional Revolution, to advocate for the undemocratic Cult o Rajavi and to feed Rajavi’s hunger for power sounds improper. However, many “monsters of the left” use the pro-democracy slogans to achieve their ambitions. Maryam Rajavi, and her cult of personality are not exception.

By Mazda Parsi

August 28, 2017 0 comments

Albania Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Meeting an official in the Albanian Ministry of Internal Affairs

An official in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tirana meeting with Sahar Family Foundation spoke about the situation of the families of members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) and the former members of the group. He said that currently there are around 240 separated MEK members living outside the organization in Tirana. They are known persons and are in contact with the Ministry and the Police. Since their number is growing rapidly there is growing concern in the current Albanian administration what to do with them.

He said that Albania had been very much against the MEK being transferred from Iraq to Albania as the government was aware that no other country would accept them. At that time, the US administration gave guarantees that their presence in Albania would not cause any problems or difficulties whatsoever. However, it seems that there is now trouble on the way.

This official stated that the MEK has prepared a facility outside Tirana with high walls and strong gates and has urged government officials seven or eight times to move all the members there. This has been rejected. The organization must understand that the situation it imposed on members in Iraq cannot be restored in this country and indeed international observers are quite worried about the internal relations of the group and are eager to learn more about this.

The official emphasized that so far, 15 letters from the families who traveled to Albania to visit their loved ones inside the organization have been delivered to them. But in all these cases the MEK replied that the individuals do not wish to receive the letters. This matter of course raises some concern about what is going on inside the group.

He said that the authorities know the group has adopted a hostile attitude towards the families trying to visit their loved ones inside the group and he has read reports by the police in this regard. He mentioned that the MEK leaders appear to be trying to establish a government-like system, similar to what they practiced in Iraq, which is not acceptable.

The official expressed his hope that the MEK would arrange appointments for the members to visit with their families. He also stated that it was possible that the organization would move to the newly prepared facilities within months, but under conditions that the government has outlined. Their unnatural presence inside the city has raised some trepidation amongst the citizens.

About those former members who tried to leave the country illegally and are now held in custody in neighboring countries such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, he expressed his regret and said that unfortunately it is very difficult to help them since they have committed offenses.

August 27, 2017 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

My dear son will return

Nejat Society members met the suffering mother of Abbas Shahi who is taken hostage by the Mujahedin-e Khalq cult for long years.

She says:” we raised our children with great difficulty and hardship. Why did the Rajavis’ cult deceived our children?! I am sure that the MKO Cult will fail and my dear son will return home. I am waiting to see him again…

August 27, 2017 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 200

++ Sahar Family Foundation (SFF) along with some families of MEK members met with Albanian officials in the Interior Ministry of Albania. Officials told SFF that there are now around 240 former members who have left the MEK. One official said that in addition, tens of families have come to Albania and that his department has tried to put them in contact with their loved ones. ‘Some we could, others not’, he told SFF. He also said that the MEK has insisted on moving its members to a closed camp outside Tirana. ‘In one way, this is good for the Albanian people. They don’t like to see them on their streets because their behaviour is weird and anti-social and they are afraid of them. On the other hand, there are official reservations about the creation of a new closed camp which is inaccessible and operates outside the law. We don’t want that’, he stressed. He assured the families that on the issue of formers, relations between Sahar Family Foundation and Albania’s government are ongoing.

++ Reports from inside the MEK say that Maryam Rajavi has finished extracting signatures from members to promise they will stay with the organisation. A phase is now underway to separate those who did sign from those who refused and will not be taken to the new camp. Some members have already been sent to the new camp which, like Camp Ashraf in Iraq, is isolated and closed. The members are given an ultimatum that ‘if you don’t go to the camp you will no longer be considered a member of the MEK’. [This is not the same as being expelled from the MEK polity, these people will still be under MEK jurisdiction but treated as sympathisers not members.] This is the same situation which pertained to the TIPF in Iraq which ran parallel to Camp Ashraf. The TIPF was created to get rid of people who might ‘infect’ the others with their disaffection and complaints. The TIPF allowed the Americans to remove 800 dissidents from Camp Ashraf and then drip, drip them out to get rid of them. This was so they wouldn’t all leave together and talk publicly as a group. The MEK need this arrangement again because of growing disaffection. The person in charge of making this happen is the former head of the Albanian Intelligence services, Fatos Klosi. He has been placed by the CIA to do this. As a notorious gang leader who has allegedly killed in the past, the government and their officials are afraid of him. He is reportedly putting direct pressure on the Interior Ministry to do his bidding and they can’t say no. The people who report this have said that for MEK members who manage to stay in Tirana and not go to the new camp, even though their life in the short term will be difficult, there is a glimmer of hope that one day they will be able to escape the MEK. But for anyone who goes to the new camp there is no hope. It is not like Camp Ashraf, this is controlled by the CIA and is inaccessible. They will never get out.

In English:

++ Breitbart reported that Iran’s parliament voted almost unanimously to increase spending on its missile programme and the Revolutionary Guard. “The Iranian parliament also bans visas for American officials who have met with an Iranian dissident group called Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK)… Contacts between American officials and the group, which has been listed and de-listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government over the years, have long been controversial.”

++ Guido Fawkes in the UK exposes a British MP who declared that his trip to Paris was “was paid for by an Iranian exile group which has been described as the front organisation for a ‘bizarre cult’. Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins accepted £800 worth of accommodation, meals and transport from the France-based National Council for Resistance (NCRI) in Iran for a two-day trip in July.”

++ Laura Rozen of Al Monitor’s report that several of Steve Bannon’s allies have been removed from the National Security Council indicates (without saying so) that the MEK’s chances of White House sponsorship are severely diminished.

++ Habilian Association writes an article criticising Senator John McCain as “called ‘hawkish’ even by his [own] party”. “McCain has a long record of backing unsavory and vicious people that happen to support regime change or that share his hostility to certain other governments. He was a cheerleader for the KLA during the Kosovo intervention, he was a fan of the rebellion in Libya from the start despite the presence of jihadists in their ranks, and he has been one of the most outspoken advocates of sending weapons to rebels in Syria on the pretense that they were ‘moderates’. In addition to misjudging the ‘moderate’ rebels, McCain has been a leading advocate for a policy that has sent weapons into Syria when they have been seized by Jabhat al-Nusra or ISIS. Those are just the most obvious examples of McCain’s terrible judgment. McCain doesn’t discriminate when it comes to choosing allies of convenience in pursuing unwise and reckless goals, so it was probably just a matter of time before he started associating with the MEK.” The article then describes McCain’s relations with the MEK and links this with an unprecedented move by a 23-member bi-partisan group of senior former US officials who “signed a critical letter and delivered it to President Donald Trump. The letter suggested new policy options regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran and the need for the US to open up a meaningful channel of communication with the Iranian opposition, namely the coalition, National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).”

++ Nejat Society says that the North Korea/America stand-off reminds us that the MEK was founded on an intensely anti-American platform. The group went on to murder several Americans. “However, American supporters of the MKO rarely mention the group’s violent and anti-American past, and portray the group not as terrorists but as freedom fighters with values just like them, as republicans and warmongers of Trump administration are ready to serve as vanguards of regime-change in Iran. In addition, some of them acknowledge that they know little about the group before they were invited to its events or to their trips to France or Albania but the fee the MKO pays them is good enough to forget or ignore the entire anti-American and violent background of the group.

“Definitely, American friends of Maryam Rajavi should be concerned about her as if they are concerned about Kim Jong Un. Camps of the MKO are run by an authoritarian cult-like system very similar to the one ruling North Korea. MKO members just like North Koreans are ‘raised to be soldiers’ with the sole purpose of serving their great leader.”

++ In an interview with Habilian Association, Dr Seyed Hossein Mousavian spoke of the MEK’s nature as a terrorist cult. After describing the erroneous thinking of real and potential patrons of the MEK among anti-Iran elements, Mousavian concludes that “France is playing a hypocritical and destabilizing game by hosting the MEK, a group that has no place in any democratic or civilized society. If France wants to signal to Iran that it is serious about its intention to improve its political and economic relations with Iran, it must stop allowing the group to operate on French soil.”

++ An article by Belen Fernandez in Middle East Eye ‘Does Albania have an America problem?’ describes the problems for the country as a client state of America. The MEK is apparently just one of the many destabilising problems foisted on the country by the USA.

Iran Interlink, August 25 2017

August 26, 2017 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

US using MKO terrorists as anti-Iran leverage

Pye ian, an independent political and economic researcher, has advised iranian officials to watch out for potential terrorist attacks in the wake of a recent meeting between several senior us senators and the head of anti-iran terrorist mujahedin-e khalq organization (mko) maryam rajavi.

US using MKO terrorists as anti-Iran leverage

Since “Washington and its allies have nothing otherwise to be able to have any sense of leverage within Iran or with Iranians,” the American politicians are “utilizing this terrorist group for terrorism,” Ian warned in an interview with Press TV on Monday.

The delegation of Republican Senators Roy Blunt, John Cornyn, and Thom Tillis had a meeting with Rajavi in Tirana, the capital of Albania, on Saturday.

“This latest meeting in Albania is yet another tactical one and thus Iranian security forces can expect another terrorist incident or incidents within Iran’s borders or on Iranian interests anywhere in the world,” because the June terrorist attacks in Tehran came right on the heels of a meeting between Maryam Rajavi and a group of American neo-cons.

Back in June, Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) and the Mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, became the target of coordinated attacks. 18 people lost their lives and nearly 50 others sustained injuries in shootings and blasts for which Daesh claimed responsibility.

August 22, 2017 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

The MKO, the essence of North Korea

The tensions between North Korea and the United States have escalated in the past days. The United States is preparing for all options, including a “preemptive war,” to stop North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. President Trump has stated that the US will not tolerate “North Korea being able to threaten the United States.” On the other side, North Korea says it will not give up on its nuclear deterrence unless Washington ends its hostile policy toward Pyongyang and dissolves the US-led UN command in South Korea. Thousands of US soldiers are stationed in South Korea and Japan. This preventative actions by the US government were taking place while some of its Congress senators were visiting with the leader of the Mujahedin Khalq (the MKO, MEK, the Cult of Rajavi) that is a small North Korea, itself.

The MKO, the essence of North Korea

The delegation, Senators Roy Blunt, Vice President of the Republican Conference, and member of the Appropriation, Select Intelligence, Rules and Administration, and Commerce, Science, and Transportation committees; John Cornyn, the Majority Whip, and a member of the Judiciary, Select Intelligence, and Finance committees; and Thom Tillis, a member of the Armed Services, Judiciary, Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and Veterans’ Affairs committees held a meeting with the head of the MKO cult, Maryam Rajavi, in the Albanian capital, Tirana.

As a matter of fact, the MKO was first established on an intensely anti-American platform. The group has murdered several Americans and is considered by certain human rights and international bodies such as Human Rights Watch to be an anti-democratic cult. After joining Saddam in his war against Iran during the 1980s, what Iranians almost universally regard as an act of treason, the group lost essentially all its popular support. [1]

However, American supporters of the MKO rarely mention the group’s violent and anti-American past, and portray the group not as terrorists but as freedom fighters with values just like them, as republicans and warmongers of Trump administration are ready to serve as a vanguards of regime change in Iran. In addition, some of them acknowledge that they know little about the group before they were invited to its events or to their trips to France or Albania but the fee the MKO pays them is good enough to forget or ignore the entire anti-American and violent background of the group.

Definitely, American friends of Maryam Rajavi should be concerned about her as if they are concerned about Kim Jong Un. Camps of the MKO are run by an authoritarian cult-like system very similar to the one ruling North Korea. MKO members just like North Koreans are”raised to be soldiers”with the sole purpose of serving their great leader.

“Their lives were completely mapped out according to the great leader,”the journalist, Suki Kim — who spent six months undercover in North Korea in 2011– told CNN.”Any information from outside is forbidden and not shown to them in any way. It’s really a system of absolute control.”[2]

According to the CNN, Kim described how computer majors in the university didn’t even know the Internet existed and how her students had to attend weekly meetings to report on each other,”so there’s a surveillance system.”[3]

Actually, Suki Kim’s account of the life in North Korea recalls two articles authored by the New York Times journalist Elizabeth Rubin in July 2003 and August 2011 in which she describes her first-hand account of visiting Camp Ashraf, the MKO’s then headquarters in Iraq.

“When I arrived at Camp Ashraf, the base of the group’s operations, in April 2003, I thought I’d entered a fictional world of female worker bees,” Rubin writes. “Everywhere I saw women dressed exactly alike, in khaki uniforms and mud-colored head scarves, driving back and forth in white pickup trucks, staring ahead in a daze as if they were working at a factory in Maoist China. I met dozens of young women buried in the mouths of tanks, busily tinkering with the engines. One by one, the girls bounded up to me and my two minders to recite their transformations from human beings to acolytes of Ms. Rajavi. One said she had been suicidal in Iran until she found Ms. Rajavi on the Internet.” [4]

As Suki Kim describes North Korea as “a system set up solely to serve the country’s leader, in which citizens have access to only one newspaper and one television station dedicated to teaching them about their leader”, [5] Elizabeth Rubin describes the parallel system ruling Camp Ashraf where “3,400 members of the militant group reside in total isolation on a 14-square-mile tract of harsh desert land. Access to the Internet, phones and information about the outside world is prohibited. Posters of Ms. Rajavi and her smiling green eyes abound. Meanwhile, she lives in luxury in France; her husband has remained in hiding since the United States occupied Iraq in 2003.” [6]

Suki Kim believes that North Korea is “the saddest place in the world”. She asserts,”The country is nothing like we’ve seen before. It’s a nuclear power that is also absolutely enslaving its citizens for the sake of this really one-man nation.”[7]

It seems that Kim has not heard of the Cult of Rajavi, before; eventually she does not know that this cult advocates regime change in Iran and claims to be the alternative of the current Iranian government. The saddest place in the world is also seen in the world inside the MKO. “Friendships and all emotional relationships are forbidden,” reveals Rubin. “From the time they are toddlers, boys and girls are not allowed to speak to each other. Each day at Camp Ashraf you had to report your dreams and thoughts. If a man was turned on by the scent of a woman or a whiff of perfume, he had to confess. Members had to attend weekly ideological cleansings in which they publicly confessed their sexual desires. Members were even forced to divorce and take a vow of lifelong celibacy to ensure that all their energy and love would be directed toward Maryam and Massoud.” [8]

Therefore, who can promise that a future Iran ruled by Maryam Rajavi would not turn into a nuclear power? The existence of communities like the Cult of Rajavi and North Korea is indeed “devastating problem”. As North Korea is considered a threat by the US politic men, Rubin warns the MKO sponsors: “Mujahedeen Khalq is not only irrelevant to the cause of Iran’s democratic activists, but a totalitarian cult that will come back to haunt us.” [9]

Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] Human Right Watch, “No Exit”

[2] Mahtani, Melissa, North Korea is ‘a cult’ to Kim Jong Un, undercover reporter says, CNN,

August 12, 2017

[3] ibid

[4]Rubin, Elizabeth, An Iranian Cult and Its American Friends, The New York Times, August 13, 2017

[5] Mahtani, Melissa, North Korea is ‘a cult’ to Kim Jong Un, undercover reporter says, CNN,

August 12, 2017

[6] Rubin, Elizabeth, An Iranian Cult and Its American Friends, The New York Times, August 13, 2017

[7] Mahtani, Melissa, North Korea is ‘a cult’ to Kim Jong Un, undercover reporter says, CNN,

August 12, 2017

[8] Rubin, Elizabeth, An Iranian Cult and Its American Friends, The New York Times, August 13, 2017

[9]ibid

August 21, 2017 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts