Page 314 – Nejat Society

The West’s Terrorist “Catch and Release” Program

Virtually every suspect involved in recent Brussels bombing had been tracked, arrested, in custody – either by European security agencies or the agencies of their allies – but inexplicably released and allowed to carry out both the Brussels attack as well as the Paris attack that preceded it.

So obvious is this fact, that the Western media itself admits it, but simply dismisses the obvious and deeper implications such facts pose by claiming it is merely systemic incompetence.

The Wall Street Journal would admit that the recently arrested “man in the hat” also known as Mohamed Abrini, was also arrested for suspected terrorist activity – allegedly scoping out potential targets in the UK – but also – like his collaborators – inexplicably released. His brother had been to Syria where he fought and died alongside the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS), and Abrini himself too appears to have been in Syria.

The Wall Street Journal’s article, “Brussels Suspect Mohamed Abrini: What We Know,” reports that:

After the U.K., Mr. Abrini traveled to Paris and then Brussels, where he was arrested but then released, according to the two people. But Belgian authorities passed the information about his U.K. trip, including images found on his phone, to the British, the sources said.

Abrini’s case of “catch and release” before carrying out a successful string of deadly attacks across Europe, is just the latest.

West’s ISIS Catch & Release Program

Germany’s largest press agency, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, reported in their article, “Reports: Brothers known to police were among Brussels suicide bombers,” that:

Two Brussels brothers who were known to police are among the suicide bombers who carried out deadly terrorist attacks on the international airport and subway in the Belgian capital, local media reported Wednesday.

And that:

[Khalid El Bakraoui] had been sentenced in early 2011 to five years in prison for carjackings, after having been arrested in possession of Kalashnikov rifles, according to the Belga news agency.

His brother, 30-year-old Brahim, had been sentenced in 2010 to nine years in prison for having shot at police with a Kalashnikov rifle during a hold-up, Belga said.

The New York Times, in their article, “Brussels Attack Lapses Acknowledged by Belgian Officials,” would report regarding another Brussels bombing suspect, Brahim El Bakraoui, and his arrest and deportation from Turkey that:

The Belgian justice and interior ministers acknowledged that their departments should have acted on a Turkish alert about a convicted Belgian criminal briefly arrested in Turkey last year on suspicion of terrorist activity, who turned out to be one of the suicide bombers. And the Belgian prosecutor’s office said that person’s brother — another suicide bomber — had been wanted since December in connection with the Paris attacks.

That makes 4 suspects who were known to European security agencies for violent crimes and/or terrorism, with each and every one of them in custody before the attacks unfolded.

For fisheries around the world, the concept of “catch and release” allows anglers to enjoy the fishing experience while preserving the numbers and health of fish populations. The concept of “catch and release” for Western security and intelligence agencies appears very similar – to maintain the illusion of counterterrorism operations, while maintaining the numbers and health of terrorist organizations around the world.

Answering “to what end” the West is allowing terrorists to successfully carry out attacks against Western targets, the answer is quite simple. It allows for the expansion of power and control at home while justifying endless and profitable wars abroad.

The creation and perpetuation of terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and ISIS by the West and its allies serve another, admitted purpose. In the 1980′s it was admitted that Al Qaeda was created to wage proxy war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. In 2011, the US and its NATO and Persian Gulf allies used terrorists linked to Al Qaeda in Libya and Syria in an attempt to overthrow their respective governments.

Today, ISIS serves both as an armed proxy waging full-scale war on the governments of Syria, Iraq, and more indirectly Iran and Russia, as well as a means to threaten and coerce nations around the world.

Political impasses in Southeast Asia revolving around America’s waning influence in the region have been met with the sudden and otherwise inexplicable appearance of ISIS. In one case, Indonesia signed a large rail deal while pursuing other economic and military partnerships with Beijing, before suffering its fist ISIS attack in its capital, Jakarta.

Thailand was likewise threatened by the US of an imminent ISIS attack, amid attempts by Bangkok to uproot the political networks of US-backed political proxy, Thaksin Shinawatra. Bangkok has also shown hesitation to sign the unpopular US-sponsored Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement.

Bangkok was already hit by terrorism last year after returning suspected terrorists to China to face justice against America’s repeated protests. Just months later, groups tied to NATO terrorist front, the Turkish Grey Wolves, carried out a bombing in the center of Bangkok.

ISIS, its counterparts, and peripheral groups like NATO’s Grey Wolves, serve multiple roles for the West. They are a pretext to invade and occupy foreign nations, a proxy army to wage war against its enemies with, and a means of maintaining fear and obedience at home under the auspices of an increasing police state. It is difficult to believe the West could maintain its current foreign and domestic policy without this menace – it has become an integral part of Western geopolitical strategy.

Would a Signed Confession Convince You?

Many are quick to dismiss evidence of Western special interests’ use of terrorists and terrorism to project geopolitical power abroad and maintain control at home. This is despite the admitted nature of the West’s role in the creation and utilization of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan during the 1980s, and signed and dated policy papers like the Brookings Institution’s 2009 “Which Path to Persia?” document which openly advocated using listed-terrorist organization, Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), to wage a proxy campaign of violence against the Iranian people and their government.

MEK, it should be noted, is guilty of killing American civilians and military personnel, as well as continuing a campaign of terrorism against civilian and political targets in Iran. Brookings in fact, admits this while proposing the US’ use of the terrorist organization to carry out US foreign policy objectives. If MEK is a suitable candidate for Western sponsorship, why not ISIS?

Considering this, and the “coincidental” arming and funding of “rebels” in Libya by the US and its allies in 2011 who are now verifiably members of listed terrorist organizations, revelations of US involvement behind the rise of ISIS should come as little surprise.

And beyond mere speculation, a 2012 US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report leaked to the public, admits that the US and its allies sought the creation of a “Salafist” (Islamic) “principality” (State) in eastern Syria, precisely where ISIS now resides.

The US DIA admitted:

If the situation unravels there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran).

The DIA document then explains exactly who this “Salafist principality’s” supporters are (and who its true enemies are):

The West, Gulf countries, and Turkey support the opposition; while Russia, China, and Iran support the regime.

All that’s left is for the Pentagon to perhaps, disclose payslips for ISIS leaders or logistical documents regarding US-NATO resupply operations for ISIS along the Turkish-Syrian border – and perhaps even such a disclosure would still not be enough to convince some in the West that the special interests posing as their leaders are complicit in creating not only ISIS, but organizing and ensuring the chaos they cause unfolding at home and abroad wherever and whenever needed.The fact that literally ever Brussels and Paris attack suspect was known to and in many cases detained by Western security agencies before the attacks, yet were released before being allowed to carry out their attacks successfully, proves that the West is enjoying the “experience” of maintaining a war on terror, but like good fishery conservationists, is ensuring the populations of their quarry remain healthy and numerous.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine“New Eastern Outlook”.

The original source of this article is New Eastern Outlook

Tony Cartalucci,

April 16, 2016 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 141

++ The tenth and last article written by Mohammad Karami about human rights abuses inside the MEK, including murders and torture which he personally witnessed, has been published today. The whole series forms a book length exposure.

++ Mahmonir Iranpour has visited Camp Liberty several times in search of her two brothers. Two weeks ago she wrote an open letter to the Iraqi Prime Minister asking for his help to find out whether they are being held against their will. Reaction to this letter, which was published in Sout Aliraq, picked up to the point that Rajavi had to call on one of his paid people called Saafi Al Yasseri to put the MEK case. Yasseri wrote an MEK rant that “they are all agents of the Iranian regime and have come to kill people”. This week Sout Aliraq published a reply from Mohammad Mohammadi, whose daughter Somayeh remains trapped in the MEK, putting the facts right. Mohammadi says to Al Yasseri “in your letter you say my daughter is 36 years old. This is true. But you didn’t say that she was kidnapped when she was under 18 years old. You say ‘she wants to stay there and not see her family’. But you failed to say that she has never been able to sit without an MEK minder and say this to a UN official or to any other body. You claim that Mahmonir Iranpour is an Iranian agent who has been sent to kill her own brother whom she hasn’t seen for over two decades. But you fail to say how she can do that if she only talks to her brother over the phone which is what she is asking for. You have failed to explain that she is a teacher who has taken time off work and paid from her salary to come to Iraq each time.” Mohammadi continues, “you are not the first nor the last ever to write for money, but there should be some limits in that as well. How do you take money to provide for your own dear children while writing this nonsense about other families?” Mohammadi challenges Yasseri to sort this out by accompanying him to Camp Liberty to ask Somayeh directly himself if she wants to stay.

++ There have been a few translations and comments about disgraced former US House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who is alleged to have paid hush money to cover up sex abuse. Hastert has spoken on several occasions at MEK rallies in support of Maryam Rajavi. Comments say that Hastert and Massoud Rajavi – who is accused of sexual abuse of women in the MEK – match each other and that ‘like finds like’.

++ In Tirana, Ehsan Bidi and Siavosh Rastar – who have no accommodation or money because this is supposed to be provided by the MEK which they left – continue to picket outside the UNHRC office. They have now started a hunger strike. This week police harassed them removing their placards and confiscating all their papers. Although they have no place to go, the police say they cannot protest in public and must move on. There are many statements and signatures in support of these two on Farsi sites and blogs. Some have claimed that for this level of illegal and inhumane treatment of MEK defectors there must be collusion between Tirana, the local office of the UNHCR and security services like MOSSAD who are protecting their asset the MEK.

++ Edvard Termador has responded to an ongoing propaganda campaign by the MEK in which they publish letters claiming they were written by prisoners inside Iran and sent to the MEK. At first there were up to one per week but lately this has escalated to a ridiculous number of such letters. Termador selected the latest one and says “here is a political prisoner who writes to the Prime Minister of Italy because he went to Iran this week”. Termador quotes a few sentences and says “this cannot have been written from inside Iran let alone from inside prison. From its style and language, it is obviously written by someone living in the West. Anyway, why has it been CC’d to the Italian Foreign Ministry rather than the Italian embassy in Iran. It is also CC’d to places in America. By end of letter you [MEK] have forgotten you are supposed to be writing as a prisoner in Iran and you have also forgotten that you are also claiming to be under torture.

In English:

++ Associated Press reports that German prosecutors have filed a case against two Iranians accusing them of “spying on exiled opposition members for Iranian intelligence”. Why would anyone have struggled so desperately to leave the cult as they did if they wanted to spy on them?

++ Nejat Society – Ali Ardalani left the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) in 2013 after 25 years of membership in the group. He is an eyewitness of the deadly clashes in Camp Ashraf on April 8th, 2011. He writes his memoires of that specific day:

++ Showing that some people will do anything for money, two of the MEK’s American advocates were mentioned this week. Habilian Association ran an exposure article about Michael Mukasey, a lawyer and former judge who served as the 81st Attorney General of the United States and his financial deals with the MEK. The BBC reported that Prosecutors are seeking a six-month jail sentence for disgraced former US House Speaker Dennis Hastert – one of Maryam Rajavi’s paid speakers – who is alleged to have paid hush money to cover up sex abuse.

++ Ali Gharib reviews a book ‘Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran’ by Laura Secor which traces the embattled history of the Islamic Left in Iran. “If the Islamic Left—those revolutionary mollahs, intellectuals and politicians who became the reform movement—had wanted to know what was in store for them, they might have glanced further to their own left. At the time of the revolution, a Shariati-inspired group of lay radicals espoused a militant blend of Marxism and Islamism. The Mojahedin-e Khalq (Holy Warriors of the People) organized lower- and middle-class university students into fighters and, despite the Shah’s crackdown, maintained enough force to be a factor in fighting at the vanguard of the Islamic Revolution. But the alliance with Khomeini was tenuous, at best, and the Mojahedin suffered from its own eccentricities; by that time, the Mojahedin had coalesced around a charismatic leader named Massoud Rajavi, who would later lead the group into being little more than an armed cult of personality. When it became clear that Khomeini had no intention of sharing too much power with these lay, Marx-inspired radicals, Rajavi bristled, and Khomeini cracked down with violent force, sending many of the group’s members to prison, to exile or to their graves.”

++ Al Monitor, reporting from Tehran asks ‘Why did Rouhani pull out of Austria visit?’ Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani claimed it was because Austria refused to ban the MEK from protesting. But other voices in Iran claimed different reasons. For Al Monitor the real answer apparently was ‘any excuse will do’.

++ Iran Didban in ‘An Impossible Dream’ analyses the Rajavi leadership’s latest ideas: “Using a mixture of stupidity and imagination for analyzing political issues, the MeK leadership resorts to militarism to gain power, or rather, to help release its organization from a deadlock. Hence, the MeK leadership views the regional developments as in Syria and Yemen not as they really are, but as he wishes them to be. In their calculations, the international players are the winner and Iran will be the loser.”

++ Mazda Parsi, Nejat Society, writes about gender segregation throughout the MEK. “MKO propaganda accuses the Islamic Republic of continuing ‘to implement gender segregation across the country’ while its own record on gender segregation is notoriously known to the world. The MKO’s abusive structure has been discussed by various bodies. Independent reports from Human Rights Watch and from the RAND Corporation have gathered facts on the group’s cult-like control over members, which according to RAND, include ‘a near-religious devotion to the Rajavis … public self-deprecation sessions, mandatory divorce, celibacy, enforced separation from family and friends and gender segregation’.”

++ A brief analytical article by Iran Didban looks into why the MEK keeps on making the promise to overthrow Iran’s government. “The truth is that the disillusioned members of MeK need a beacon of hope. They need to know that they will be released from that miserable condition one day and that they can take their revenge on the Iranian people after Rajavi’s gaining power.”

++ In an article titled ‘The West’s Terrorist “Catch and Release” Program’ Tony Cartalucci, writing for Global Research, uses the MEK as an example to examine the West’s ambiguous relationship with terrorism.

April 15, 2016

April 16, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

An impossible dream

The desire for a military invasion against Iran and destroying the country has turned to a terrible nightmare haunting the MeK all the time. The ongoing crisis in the Middle East particularly in Iran’s neighboring countries during the past two decades have increased the desire and made the MeK leadership drowned in vain desires.

Once using violence on the Iranian streets to topple the Islamic Republic, the MeK is now looking for allies in the region. MeK’s efforts in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen suggests that they are hoping to break the axis of resistance and bring the war to the Iranian frontlines. It shows that the MeK knows no enemy except the Islamic Republic of Iran and their enmity with other states and groups is because of their animosity with Iran. Simply put, they are against the Islamic Republic’s strategy. A strategy which is accepted by the US and European powers. After 3 decades they found out that force is not the solution and thus they sat at the negotiation table.

Using a mixture of stupidity and imagination for analyzing political issues, the MeK leadership resorts to militarism to gain power, or rather, to help release its organization from a deadlock.

Hence, the MeK leadership views the regional developments as in Syria and Yemen not as they really are, but as he wishes them to be. In their calculations, the international players are the winner and Iran will be the loser.

Their foolish understanding is that Iran’s regional power is connected to Assad’s fate. Iran wanted to keep Assad in power 5 years ago when its regional and international enemies intended to topple Assad in less than a month. Having flexed their muscles, they saw fit to negotiate with Iran. The MeK leadership’s assumption that the Islamic Republic consented Assad’s removal (if there is such a consent) again suggests the mixture of stupidity and imagination of their analyzing political issues. That is why they are misrepresenting the regional developments and define them as they wish.

For example, in an article published on the MeK website titled Prospects for Syria and its Loser and Winner an unidentified author asserts:

“addressing a press conference in his recent official visit to Pakistan, Hassan Rouhani said, “negotiations are a basis to achieve a solution and a transitional period in order to determine the future of Syria.” His remarks were so eye catching as the Iranian regime has always been backing Syria’s murderous dictator. As the Syrian opposition and regional countries as well as the western parties emphasized, the transition period means removal of Bashar Assad from power. Thus Hassan Rouhani’s remarks are a step towards going through the motions of the region.”

Finally, the author concludes that, “the confession shows the starting point of an inevitable ending to the Islamic Republic’s strategy.” However, the author censors Rouhani’s remarks during a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart.

President Rouhani reiterated that more cooperation and coordination between Tehran and Moscow contributes to peace and stability in Syria.

He also maintained that ceasefire is necessary to be preserved simultaneously with keeping talks between oppositions.

The Syrian nation is the only authority to decide over the destiny of Syria, highlighted Rouhani in his dialogue with Mr. Putin while insisting upon the principle approaches of the Islamic Republic of Iran toward the crisis in Syria.

During the same dialogue, President Putin of Russia pledged his country’s commitment to peaceful resolution of the Syrian crisis and reiterated that the Russian Federation shares the same approach to the issue.

He also underlined the need for the practice of full control over the Syrian borders to prevent the re-arming of terrorists or dispatch of financial and logistical aid to them,” he added.

The conversation clearly shows that who has provided the Syrian oppositionists with the opportunity of negotiation and what the political future of Syria will be. But the MeK leadership still hopes that the Saudi Arabia gains the victory in the battle.

April 14, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

A Lobbyist for terrorism; Michael Mukasey

Born on July 28, 1941, Michael Bernard Mukasey is a lawyer and former judge who served as the 81st Attorney General of the United States. He was appointed following the resignation of Alberto Gonzales. Mukasey also served for 18 years as a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, six of those years as Chief Judge. He was the second Jewish U.S. Attorney General and currently he is a partner at the international law firm Debevoise & Plimpton.

On November 8, 2007, After two months of controversy, and a round of sporadically contentious Senate confirmation hearings, former judge Michael Mukasey narrowly won the Senate’s approval to become the next attorney general, by an almost-party line 53-40 vote. Musakey replaced Alberto Gonzales, who resigned under fire in September 2007. Many Democrats voted against Mukasey because of his refusal to categorize the interrogation technique of waterboarding as torture, and his refusal to say that he would oppose President Bush’s insistence on eavesdropping on US citizens. [CNN, 11/8/2007]

Notable issues and comments

Support for the MeK

Alireza Jafarzadeh, counseled former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey prior to his testimony

Mukasey is among the former high profile political officials who were apparently investigated over their financial transactions with the terrorists in the Mujahidin e Khalq aka “MEK” and paid advocacy on behalf of them. (Top Democrat’s speeches for terrorist group probed; The Washington Times – Friday, March 9, 2012)

Mukasey has admitted being paid by MEK and admitted he and his friends have helped the terrorist group by advocating for their removal from the FTO list. This admission by Mukasey contradicted his support for the 2009 Holder v Humanitarian Law Project Supreme Court Decision which held that such advice and assistance as he has admittedly provided in coordination with a designated foreign terrorist organization falls within “material support of terrorism” even if it is nothing but speech.

Mukasey has admitted he was paid handsomely by the MEK to advocate for them. He didn’t deny that his “expert advice and assistance” to MEK was coordinated, only that the designated terrorist group did not dictate what he said. He insisted that as long as the MEK did not write his speech, his acceptance of the terrorist organization’s money and his meetings with MEK members to coordinate his appearances and advocacy are not enough to get him into trouble.

Further, Mukasey accused the Treasury of improperly targeting him and his political friends by looking into the handsome amounts of money they have all been paid by the MEK. He claimed that the Treasury’s subpoenas looking into his and other high-level former politicians’ payments from MEK stemmed from the filing of their amicus brief arguing for MEK to be removed from the terrorist organization list.

What is worse is that Mukasey and his MEK-paid friends scoff at the laws and government terrorist designations they insist on applying to others. As Attorney General, Mukasey undoubtedly ordered prosecutions of many Muslims for financial transactions with FTOs involving far less money than he has been paid.

In their January 2011 opinion piece “MEK Is Not a Terrorist Group,” Mukasey’s group disclosed the perhaps bigger reason for their support of MEK than the thousands of dollars they were each paid, claiming that MEK “has provided valuable intelligence to the United States on Iranian nuclear plans.”

(Dear Department of Justice: Please Investigate Your Old Boss for Material Support of Terrorism! Coleen Rowley Former FBI Special Agent. Huffingtonpost, 03/20/2012 Updated May 20, 2012)

Eavesdropping

On December 12, 2007, Michael Mukasey, the new Attorney General, wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times pushing for Congressional immunity for US telecommunications firms over their cooperation with the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program. Mukasey supported the NSA program, echoing the administration’s long insistence that the surveillance program is “crucial” in protecting the country against terrorist attacks. He also reiterated the administration’s criticism of the “outdated” Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which he said hampers the government’s ability to collect needed intelligence and does little to protect the privacy of US citizens. Mukasey called for Congress to pass a Senate bill that would grant the telecommunications firms retroactive immunity to civil lawsuits and criminal charges surrounding their cooperation with the NSA, and would no longer require court orders for the government to “direct surveillance at foreign targets overseas”—surveillance that would target US citizens. Mukasey also asked for full cooperation of private companies in intelligence activities and strongly opposed another Senate bill that would grant no immunity and would continue to require the government to obtain FISA Court warrants before wiretapping domestic communications. [LOS ANGELES TIMES, 12/12/2007]

Relationship with Giuliani

Mukasey and Giuliani have been friends since working at the same law firm in the early 1970s. [46] In 1985, when Rudolph W. Giuliani, the then U.S. ?????????, was coming under intense criticism for his aggressive tactics in prosecuting organized crime in attorney for the Southern District of New York, his former colleague, Michael B. Mukasey sprang to his defense. Mukasey wrote a strongly worded opinion piece in New York Times arguing that Giuliani’s tough tactics were justified to defeat “dangerous and powerful enemies”. Alec MacGillis, a senior editor at The New Republic magazine and former Washington Post staff writer, had described Mukasey’s public defense of Giuliani as “one example of the strong and lasting bond between President Bush’s nominee for attorney general and the man leading in the GOP polls to replace Bush.” In 1994, Giuliani selected Mukasey, then a federal judge, to preside over his inauguration as mayor. The ties only strengthened after Giuliani left City Hall. Mukasey’s son, Marc, a former assistant U.S. attorney himself, works as a partner at Giuliani’s consulting firm, and Giuliani named Mukasey and his son to one of his presidential campaign advisory committees. Dov Hikind, Democratic New York State Assemblyman has said about Mukasey and Giuliani that they “are two people who are extremely close — extremely, extremely close — and everybody knows that.” ]Washington Post [September 18, 2007

Waterboarding

On December 11, 2014, Mukasey publicly stated on CNN that he believed waterboarding could not be called torture. [ “Mukasey: Waterboarding is not torture”. YouTube. December 11, 2014.] In a 2008 hearing, he said waterboarding would feel like torture if he were subjected to it. [ “At Senate Hearing, Attorney General Michael Mukasey Refuses to Say if Waterboarding is Torture, Illegal”. Democracy Now!] In a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy on January 29, 2008, Mukasey said he finished a review of Justice Department memos about the CIA’s current methods of interrogating terror suspects and finds them to be lawful. He claimed waterboarding currently is not used by the CIA. ]Chicago Tribune, January 30, 2008 [ Attorney General Mukasey on February 7, 2008 said he will Not investigate US government’s use of waterboarding [MOTHER JONES, 2/7/2008].

Remarks about pre-9/11 terrorist phone call

Speaking in San Francisco to the California Commonwealth Club on March 27, 2008, Mukasey defended President Bush’s program of wiretapping calls between Americans and suspected foreign terrorists without court authorization, and implied that the government might have been able to prevent the attacks of September 11, 2001, if it had been able to wiretap a specific call to the U.S. from Afghanistan. Before September 11, 2001, Mukasey said, “We knew that there had been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan, and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn’t know precisely where it went.” He paused, seemed to stifle tears or at least suppress emotion, then continued, “You’ve got 3,000 people who went to work that day, and didn’t come home, to show for that.” In a subsequent letter to Mukasey, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers questioned whether any such phone call had ever actually occurred and, if so, why the government hadn’t been able to use its then-existing legal authority and technological capabilities to monitor it. Also, Some media outlets pick up on the Mukasey’s claim. For example, the San Francisco Chronicle notes that Mukasey “did not explain why the government, if it knew of telephone calls from suspected foreign terrorists, hadn’t sought a wiretapping warrant from a court established by Congress to authorize terrorist surveillance, or hadn’t monitored all such calls without a warrant for 72 hours as allowed by law.” [SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, 3/28/2008].

Boston College Law School Won’t Honor Mukasey

John Garvey, the dean of Boston College Law School announced on March 28, 2008 that the school will not award its highest honor to US Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey at its May commencement amid sharp criticism from some students, faculty, and alumni over his invitation as graduation speaker. The move reflects broad discontent with Mukasey’s controversial refusal to declare that a prison-interrogation technique known as waterboarding constitutes torture. [Huffington Post, 03/28/2008[

Violations of the law are not always crimes

On August 12, 2008, Mukasey told American Bar Association annual meeting delegates that “not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime,” with “only violations of the civil service laws” being found among hiring practices during Gonzales’ tenure as Attorney General.

April 13, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Maryam Rajavi’s lobbyist convicted for child sexual abuse

Dennis Hastert ‘paid hush money to cover up sex abuse’

Dennis Hastert alongside other American paid speakers in Mojahedin Khalq terrorists gathering in Paris

Prosecutors are seeking a six-month jail sentence for disgraced former US House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who is alleged to have paid hush money to cover up sex abuse.

Court documents say Hastert agreed to pay $3.5m (£2.5m) to a person he sexually abused when the victim was aged 14 and Hastert was working as a teacher and wrestling coach.

Prosecutors allege he abused five boys.

The 74-year-old has admitted lying and breaking financial laws.

The plea represents a dramatic fall for the former senior Republican politician, who has had his portrait removed from the House of Representatives in the US Congress.

The alleged abuse happened while Hastert was working in Yorkville, a suburb of Chicago, between 1965 and 1981. Three of the victims were wrestlers on a team he coached.

He cannot be charged with sexual abuse as the statute of limitations has expired in the cases.

One of the victims – referred to in court documents as Individual A – said Hastert had stayed with him in a motel room on the way back from a trip to a wrestling camp and touched him inappropriately.

Two of the others, aged 14 and 17, said Hastert had performed sex acts on them in the locker room at the high school in Yorkville.

All the victims “struggled and are still struggling” with what Hastert did to them, prosecutors argue. Hastert made them feel “alone, ashamed, guilty and devoid of dignity”, they say.

Hastert, who retired in 2007 after serving as House Speaker for eight years, will be sentenced later this month for concealing the large sums of money he paid to Individual A to buy his silence.

Between 2010 and 2012 he withdrew $750,000 in lump sums of $50,000 before learning of rules requiring banks to report large transactions.

After that he withdrew a further $952,000 in lump sums of less than $10,000 between 2012 and 2014.

He was able to pay Individual A $1.7m in payments of $100,000 before being questioned by the FBI in 2014 about his withdrawals.

One of the reasons he gave for the large withdrawals was that he was being blackmailed by someone making a false claim of sex abuse.

He agreed to let investigators record phone conversations he had with Individual A, but prosecutors said the “tone and comments” of Individual A in the conversations were “inconsistent with someone committing extortion”.

In a deal with prosecutors, he admitted the charge of “structuring and assisting in structuring currency transactions” by removing small sums of money to avoid the transactions being reported.

However, the charge of lying to FBI investigators is set to be dropped.

Defence lawyers want Hastert to be spared jail because they say he is suffering from ill health.

He is due to be sentenced on 27 April.

April 12, 2016 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Gender Segregation Everywhere in the MKO Cult

Gender segregation has always been a controversial issue depending on social, religious and legal structure. Critics of gender segregation argue that it is a violation of human rights and denial of capabilities of a specific sex. This phenomenon is a very iconic aspect of the life inside the Mujahedin Khalq Organizatin (the MKO) as a cult-like group. However, the group makes efforts to launch pro-democracy propaganda, chanting slogans of human rights, gender equality and feminism and condemning the Iranian Government for human rights violation and gender segregation.

A short news on the MKO propaganda website reports what it calls “a religious decree issued for segregation of sexes in transport systems.” The alleged report quotes from the state source website ‘hamshahrionline.ir that ”according to the train company schedule, and in cooperation with the Islamic republic’s train service, a special section has been assigned to women for traveling between Tehran and Mashhad on Nour Railways’ for the first time.”

The MKO propaganda accuses the Islamic Republic of continuing “to implement gender segregation across the country” while its own record on gender segregation is notoriously known to the world. The MKO’s abusive structure has been discussed by various bodies. Independent reports from Human Rights Watch and from the RAND Corporation have gathered facts on the group’s cult-like control over members, which according to RAND, include “a near-religious devotion to the Rajavis … public self-deprecation sessions, mandatory divorce, celibacy, enforced separation from family and friends and gender segregation.” [1]

The women only passenger wagons in widely customary across the world. In many countries like, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and Indonesia gender segregated transport system is used to create a more relaxing and peaceful journey for women. A recent report says that, a central German regional railway is also launching a special women and children only area for their trains “. [2] Regardless the controversial arguments that gender segregated carriages on trains are effective to prevent sexual harassments against women or not, the MKO –also known as the Cult of Rajavi—lacks the least competency to argue about such issues.

The freelance British journalist Owen Bennet Jones in his book, “Terrorists? Us?” defines how the MKO destructive cult turned in to the “Cherished ally” of the West. He accurately describes the development of Rajavi’s cult-like control system in the MKO after the disastrous failure in his Saddam-backed military operation against Iran called “Eternal Light”. “Rajavi had to come up with an explanation for the defeat,” he writes.” His unorthodox solution was to tell his fighters they had lost because they had been distracted by love and sex. He commanded members to divorce, become celibate and live in communal, single-sex accommodation, just like soldiers in a regular army. Filled with ideas of self-sacrifice and martyrdom, they did as they were told. (The celibacy rule is to this day so tightly enforced that there are separate times for men and women to use Camp Ashraf’s petrol station.) Members were urged to transfer their passions from their former spouses to their leaders, the Rajavis. Aware that people were becoming sexually frustrated, meetings were organized where members were obliged to confess their sexual fantasies in public. If you did confess to something, other members spat at you. Friendships were also discouraged at Camp Ashraf, and so were children. From the mid-1980s, citing safety concerns, the leadership ordered that several hundred children living in the camp be moved to pro-MEK foster families in Europe and Canada. Some parents have not seen their children for more than twenty years.” [3]

Gender segregation in the MKO is mandatory. It is neither permissive –ordered by law— nor voluntary. Inside Camp Ashraf eating places, dormitories, gas stations and even streets were sex-segregated. The couple, both defectors of the MKO, Ann Singleton and Massoud Khodabandeh described the violations committed against members of the MKO cult in their book “The Life of Camp Ashraf Mojahedin-e Khalq – Victims of Many Masters” :

“Over the years former members who escaped from Camp Ashraf have told their stories to a world unwilling or unable to listen. Thousands of them consistently and courageously described the conditions of the internal revolutions and Rajavi’s bizarre requirements for members to divorce and to remove all the children from the camp; to undergo the daily humiliations of public self-confessions which enforce the celibacy and gender apartheid; to suffer micro-management of their every waking moment which imposed deliberately exhausting work schedules and disorienting indoctrination sessions; to be deprived of any information from and contact with the outside world and their families. Rajavi did all this to keep his members from leaving. When this failed, he imprisoned them.”[4]

Rania Abouzeid of the Time also provides a comprehensive account on the MKO’s hypocrisy: “Camp Ashraf, with its gender-segregated dormitories, manicured lawns, flower beds and tree-lined streets, is the only home many of the residents have known. The MEK maintains firm control over its members, preventing them from marrying and restricting or preventing contact with family elsewhere.” [5]

Constant human rights violation and gender segregation are in the essence of the MKO as terrorist destructive cult even if it is relocated in Europe in the heart of democracy; and even if its propaganda resorts to each and every means possible.

Mazda Parsi

Sources:

1] Goulka, Jeremiah, Hansell, Lydia, Wilke, Elizabeth, Larson, Judith, The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq, A Policy Conundrum, RAND, 2009

[2] Lane, JJ, Oliver, German Railway Launches Gender Segregated Carriages In Wake Of Sex Attacks, breitbart.com, March26, 2016

[3] Jones, Owen Bennett, Terrorists? Us?, Vol. 34 No. 11 · 7 ,London Review of Books, June 2012

[4] Khodabandeh, Anne, Khodabandeh, Massoud, The Life of Camp Ashraf Mojahedin-e Khalq – Victims of Many Masters, IRAN-INTERLINK, September 2011

[5] Abouzeid, Rania, Why Is the Iraqi Military Cracking Down on an Iranian Camp?, The Time, April 15, 2011

April 12, 2016 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 140

++ When President Rohani visited Europe in January this year, the MEK had invited some Arab lobbyists to their demonstrations. Very soon afterwards these lobbyists distanced themselves, explaining that they hadn’t known how bad the MEK are. Some even met with former MEK members instead. This week, in typical propaganda mode, the MEK announced that this distancing was all because of pressure exerted by the former members. However, one such Arab lobbyist answered back. He exposed that an article published in Al-Basra newspaper against him, ostensibly written by an Arab MEK supporter, was actually originally written in Farsi by the MEK and as evidence he pointed out that the Farsi script was still embedded in the piece about halfway through. The lobbyist wrote to Al-Basra newspaper demanding that the MEK’s piece be withdrawn. Which it was. He explained that he distanced from them well before he met the former members. But more importantly, his main reason was that one of the MEK’s Arab speakers is heavily involved with several Israeli ministers. Al-Basra apologised fully to him for printing the MEK’s defamatory lies about him.

++ Ehsan Bidi and Siavosh Rastar are still picketing outside the UNHCR office in Tirana and suffering the resulting harassment and pressures. They say that, contrary to its own rules and regulations, the UNHCR claims it has no money to help them and the only way is to go back to the MEK. Bidi and others say “we will die rather than go back to become terrorists with the MEK”. According to various sources an agreement was signed between America, the UNHCR, Albania and the MEK which states that the MEK is responsible to pay for the expenses of those transferred from Iraq. That’s why the UN is trying to force the ex-members to go back to the MEK. On the other hand, the MEK say unequivocally, “if we find them we’ll kill them”. This is certainly not a legally defensible document or agreement. The former members are political refugees not members of a terrorist group and cannot be forced to return to the terrorist group to beg for financial assistance. Many people have written letters of protest, in particular to the President of Albania, about the two former members, saying they should not be forced for their survival to agree to become terrorists again.

++ Several former members have written accounts of their activities and memories to mark the anniversary of the MEK’s massacre of the Kurds in March 1991.

++ Atefeh Eghbal, an MEK internal critic, wrote about her humanitarian concerns on her weblog. The MEK response was to have her brother Mohammad Eghbal write all over the MEK sites swearing at his sister, calling her a prostitute and worse – using words not usually found in normal writing. Some commentators noted their disgust at the MEK‘s reaction. One is Hojjat Esmaili – formerly a long serving intelligence officer in the MEK – who wrote an interesting note explaining what this writing reveals about Mohammad Eghbal’s mentality. Esmaili comes to the conclusion that this person, who comes from an educated and cultured family of publishers, has been turned by the MEK into a lumpen. This being a clear example of Rajavi’s ideology.

++ On the anniversary of the Iraqi attack on Camp Ashraf on April 8, 2011, Iraj Shokri a well-known writer who was formerly with the NCRI, published an article examining the situation. He says now that several years have passed we can see what Massoud Rajavi was after and what he got out of it. Essentially, after agreeing with then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to allow the transfer of the MEK from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty in exchange for removing the MEK from the US terrorism list, Rajavi refused to honour his side of the bargain and dragged his feet to get more money. His staged intransigence provoked a deadly confrontation with the Iraqi army. Rajavi even falsely promised the MEK members that the Iraqis would not possibly shoot them if they resisted unarmed. Instead Rajavi trapped them into a massacre. Rajavi wanted to show that he would not leave the camp without being paid more than just getting off a terrorism list. As a hint, a few days after this tragic event he placed adverts in the Iraqi papers offering to sell the contents of the camp and putting a price on everything in the camp. As time passed however, Rajavi was forced to allow the MEK to be removed from Camp Ashraf. Though he tried to keep 100 there, they were eventually forced out. Shokri’s article concludes that the only language Rajavi understands is force. Unfortunately, this is never directed against him personally. It is the members who are forced to pay the price for his nasty ideas.

In English:

++ In Nejat Bloggers, Mazda Parsi analyses the MEK’s relation with Zionist lobbies. “…Dr. Fayazmanesh determines when a ‘cult centered around an individual’ with a dark history of violence and cult-like practices, becomes a convenient tool in the hands of strange bedfellows like Saddam Hussein, The US and Israel. It means that the MKO is not taking benefits from using its ‘various patrons’ to meet its aims but ‘the opposite is usually the case’. The US and Israel as well as Saddam Hussein have just a ‘temporary use’ for them.”

++ Tehran Times reported that “Iran has confirmed that the visit of President Hassan Rouhani to Austria, which was scheduled for March 30, was cancelled due to a rally by the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) in Vienna. Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani said Rouhani cancelled his trip because Austria paid no attention to Iran’s request to revoke permission for the rally of the MKO, ISNA news agency reported on Saturday.”

++ Iran’s Tasnim News reported that “The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) forces have smashed a terror ring linked with the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as, MEK) in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, an IRGC commander announced…

“…Both Sunni and Shiite Muslims of the region helped the IRGC forces in hunting down the terrorist ring, [Brigadier General Mohammad] Marani said, noting that five militants, including the band’s leader Ahmad Sahouei, have been killed.

“Complicity with the MKO terrorist group as well as murder and armed robberies were among the crimes committed by the ring, the Iranian general said, stressing that the militants had long been monitored by security forces.”

April 08, 2016

April 11, 2016 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi

Massoud Rajavi deprived me of my father

Alireza was a one-year old toddler when he saw his father for the last time.

Alireza Beheshti’s father; Mr. Morteza Beheshti and his uncle Mostafa was deceived by the Mujahedin-e Khalq recruiters in Turkey into joining the Cult in 2001.

Alireza is now 16. His father victimized by the MKO Cult leaders at camp Ashraf in 2011. His uncle;Morteza is still hold hostage by the MKO.

Beheshti family have several times gone in front of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty to visit their beloved Morteza or even get a news of him.

They do their utmost efforts in accompany with other suffering families of MKO destructive Cult to liberate their loved ones.

Alireza Writes:

With greeting, I am Alireza Beheshti and it is 16 years that I spend days and nights with this hope that I can see my father whose name is Morteza Beheshti. I, ve kept all my handwritings from my childhood to show them to my father.

My father and my uncle Morteza and Mostafa Beheshti were fallen in the traps of Rajavi band in Turkey. They were hunted by them. I am a child who has not seen his father from a time I was just one year old. Now, I am 16 years old. My dear father was killed in 2011 in Ashraf jail. I burn in the pain of separation for years. Rajavi band killed my father and I became an orphan. Now, I search my uncle whose meeting makes me glad as if I see my father. I am a child and I speak with my own language. I call those who speak from human rights. I could not see my father, at least provide a condition for me to see my uncle. I could not take part at my father’s funeral. I wait to see my dear uncle even for many years like my aunts Nargess, Laila and my uncle Mohammad who are waiting for many years. You Rajavi! You deprived me from meeting my father, but I will get my uncle from you. My dear uncle! Please, say to me what did my father do in the pain of my separation. Come to give my handwritings. I want to give them you as a gift.

April 10, 2016 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Defector of the MKO reopen the black Box of Camp Ashraf Massacre

Ali Ardalani left the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) in 2013 after 25 years of membership in the group. He is an eyewitness of the deadly clashes in Camp Ashraf on April 8th, 2011. He writes his memoires of that specific day:

Before April 8th, the Iraqi Government had several times warned the MKO to allow Iraqi security forces to enter Camp Ashraf in order to settle a police station there but the MKO did not cooperate with the police at all.

In the morning of April 8th, Iraqi security forces began their run to penetrate the camp. During the first clashes some of male members of the group were killed but no female was killed until noon.

Women had formed a human wall against the base “forty nine” to resist Iraqi forces. (Base 49 was Rajavi’s headquarters where his high ranking commandants were located. Formerly, the base was Massoud Rajavi’s safe house. Of course on that day, Rajavi was not there. It was just a symbolic act to pretend the importance of the base.)

The human wall was formed by young women. They wanted to pretend that Rajavi was in the base ignoring his disappearance since years ago. They cried so badly that the poor rank and file would believe that Massoud Rajavi was really there. This was another fraudulent show by Rajavi to give the false impression that he was in Iraq together with his rank and file!

Among these women, certain men were placed. They had archeries and Molotov cocktails. Surprisingly, the archeries and Molotov cocktails had been prepared two days ago. They targeted Iraqi soldiers out of the female human wall. They had been previously told that Iraqi forces would not attack women so they could simply throw their fire bombs against Iraqi forces.

This way, an Iraqi young soldier was killed. The forces who had so far avoided clash with females, began attacking them…therefore, at noon of several female members of the MKO were killed. The women’s names – mostly youngsters who were newcomers or problematic members- are Saba Haftbaradaran, Marziyeh Pourtaqi, Fatemeh Masih, Mahdiyeh Madadzadeh , Ensieh Rakhshaei, Shahnaz Pahlavani, Faezeh Rajabi and Nastaran Azimi. No high-ranking member was among the killed ones.

Male members were then interrogated in the meetings that were held in the following days. They were asked why they did not resist Iraqi forces, why they escaped the clashes. When the commandants were replied that the rank and file were empty-handed, they blamed them,” you should have resisted, more people should have been killed,” I even heard that they said: “Even if 500 people had been killed on April 8th, we would have won the battle. It was worth. The martyrs we offered on April8th helped us achieve the insurance card for Camp Ashraf. Not the Iraqi State nor any other person can look down on us at Ashraf. “

However, the world witnessed the shutdown of Camp Ashraf about a year and a half later. Members were expelled from the camp, humiliated and despised. Fifty-four members including high ranking members and commandants were killed after the closure of Camp Ashraf. Consequently, Camp Ashraf turned into the dustbin of history…

April 9, 2016 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Pictorial – MKO cult ex-member got married

Mr. Fereydoun Ebrahimi; MKO Cult defector meets his mother after 15 years MKO former members

Mr. Fereydoun Ebrahimi who had been enforced to stay within the Camps of Mujahedin- e Khalq Cult for 15 years managed to escape the Cult Camp in 2014. He escaped Camp Liberty, reached UN stand in the Camp and asked for help.

Fereydoun had no contact with his family from the time when he was recruited by the cult. He called his family as soon as he stepped back into the free world in 2014. Then he went to Turkey. In Turkey he succeeded to meet his mother and other family members after 15 years, though unfortunately his father was passed away.

Mr. Ebrahimi resided in Germany for a short time and then repatriated to his homeland to join his family. He has just got married and enjoys a free life within his family.

Mr. Feeydoun Ebrahimi enjoys a free life in his homeland

April 6, 2016 0 comments

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