Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

The MEK and the Deal with Iran

AIPAC has been lobbying against the nuclear deal as one would expect, and this week they are touting the opposition of a handful of former military officers to the agreement. The first one that they cite is Hugh Shelton, who recently penned an op-ed objecting to the deal while praising the virtues of the “former” terrorist group Mujahideen-e Khalq’s political umbrella organization, the so-called National Council of Resistance of Iran. It is telling that they edited the quote to leave out his reference to the latter, since they probably know it would discredit what Shelton says.

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Shelton is a longtime MEK booster, and was cheering them on even before they were removed from the official list of foreign terrorist organizations. The MEK seeks to overthrow the Iranian government, as do the cult’s many American fans, so they are predictably opposed to any agreement with Tehran. Anyone that sides with this group is pushing a regime change agenda that is extremely unpopular among Iranians, and so shouldn’t be taken seriously on anything related to Iran.

As he has done before, Shelton presents the cult and its allies as Iran’s “main opposition,” but this is plainly false. The group is widely hated inside Iran and has almost no support in the Iranian diaspora. It is wildly unrepresentative of what most Iranians in Iran and elsewhere want for their country, and it is also at odds with what most Iranians think about the nuclear deal. Most Iranians support the deal, as do most dissidents inside Iran, so it is dishonest in the extreme to assert that the MEK’s rejection of the deal represents the wishes of “the Iranian people.” Shelton is recycling the propaganda of a fanatical exile group and trying to pass it off as something radically different in order to influence a major policy debate here in the U.S.

By Daniel Larison

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

UANI, Joe Lieberman and the MEK

I only have a few words to add to Jim’s post about United Against a Nuclear Iran naming Joe Lieberman as its new president. Those words are: Mojahedin-e Khalq. That’s the ex-terrorist Iranian opposition group, often known as the MEK, that has campaigned tirelessly for decades for regime change in Iran, and Joe Lieberman is one of their favorite advocates in Washington.

Here’s a bit of something I wrote in June about Lieberman’s positions on Iran and the MEK:

As far back as 2008, Lieberman was joking—yes, joking, as if this were a laughing matter—about the “appeal” of bombing Iran. In a 2010 speech to the Council on Foreign Relations that re-purposed many of the talking points Lieberman had used to push for the invasion of Iraq, he spoke of a six-month deadline—six months! in 2010!—for Iran to roll back its nuclear program before the U.S. had to seriously consider a military strike.

Lieberman’s been at it since then, too. In 2012, he said that a military strike could cause Iran’s nuclear program to “be delayed for enough years that we may hope and pray that there will be a regime change.” And that is the central point of Lieberman’s advocacy: he wants a U.S. policy of regime change. Just this month, he participated by video in a confab of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), the ex-terrorist Iranian opposition group that relentlessly pushes for regime change.

“Inevitably,” Lieberman addressed the MEK members directly, “as individuals you may ask yourself: Is it possible that we can bring about a change of regime in Iran? And I want to say to you that it is. I’m confident that it is and it will happen.” The US, he said, “should be working closely with your resistance group.” The event was even the subject of a “sponsored report“—whatever that means—from The Washington Times that helpfully categorized Lieberman’s statements as “American support for regime change and the Iranian opposition.”

I mention this because of the raft of deal opponents who just won’t stop insisting that actually they don’t want war with Iran, they just want a “better deal.” If that’s the case, they ought to stop naming Joe Lieberman to prominent positions in their organizations. As it stands now, the hawkish former Democrat holds positions in several major anti-deal groups in Washington. Jim noted his roles at theAIPAC anti-deal spin-off (which has also promoted MEK materials in its advertisements), the American Enterprise Institute, and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, adding to that now his elevation from advisory board member at UANI to being its leader.

Fellow board members who actually support the Iran nuclear deal, such as Graham Allison and its Lieberman’s immediate predecessor, Gary Samore, might take note.

But hawkishness on Iran is a matter apart from support for the MEK. The group is reviled in Iran; it has launched terrorist attacks there; many impartial analysts have described it as a cult. Eli and I have already written about UANI’s targeting of legal humanitarian trade with Iran, and how it belies its professed solidarity with the Iranian people. Now, we can add UANI’s promotion of a pro-MEK hawk to that score. What’s worse, though, is the group’s elevation of a man who has such a cavalier attitude toward war with Iran and who wants official US policy toward the Islamic Republic to be regime change.

We’ve seen this move before with the Iraq war, and UANI seems determined to have Joe Lieberman, who, as Jim noted, was Honorary Co-Chair of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, return to star in the sequel.

Ali Gharib,

About the Author

Ali Gharib is a New York-based journalist on U.S. foreign policy with a focus on the Middle East and Central Asia. His work has appeared at Inter Press Service, where he was the Deputy Washington Bureau Chief; the Buffalo Beast; Huffington Post; Mondoweiss; Right Web; and Alternet. He holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. A proud Iranian-American and fluent Farsi speaker, Ali was born in California and raised in D.C.

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Former members of the MEK

Ebrahim Khodabandeh: I was manipulated to tell lies

Ebrahim Khodabandeh the famous former member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) was arrested by the Syrian officials, in 2003. He was serving for the international relations committee of the MKO. After his arrest in Syria he was submitted to the Iranian government

In Iran, he was imprisoned in Evin prison where he began studying about cults. Khodabandeh has so far published articles and translated books and articles on the threat of destructive cults, particularly the MKO.

Esharat, an Iran-based journal is one of the numerous media that have interviewed him up to now. The following includes parts of the interview translated by Nejat Society.

–  Having been motivated by Islamic and anti-imperialistic ideas you joined the MKO but practically you observed another face of the group. As you stated you yourself used to work hard to portrait a secular pro-Western image of the group for your Western audience, wasn’t it provocative for you?

Good question! Yes, I have witnessed a 180-degree turn in the MKO’s positions and interests since the Islamic Revolution. For example, Rajavi who once offered gifts to Yaser Arafat and said that the only way to liberate the Palestinian nation is the armed struggle against Israel, today is proud of the Israeli company for his group.

… Cults have no unchangeable principal; they have only one fixed principal and that is: Everything must go around the leader’s interests and will. Maryam Rajavi told us:” You are not good enough unless you recognize Massoud’s interests and will and then you try to fulfill them”…

–  Does it mean that you officially told lies and deceived people?

In cults, lying and deceiving is formulated and indoctrinated by the system. Everything is based on lie and deception. The hierarchy tells lies from top to bottom.

I was deceived by the MKO so I was recruited by it. Then I was brainwashed under the mind-control system. I was manipulated to tell lies about the group’s cause as if it was a secular pro-western organization…

When you are a member of a destructive mind-control cult, you have no fixed and stable beliefs and thoughts. You are just asked to obey the absolute power of the leader. In a community where everyone thinks the same, in fact nobody thinks. The leaders thinks instead of everyone.

–  Didn’t you find it paradoxical or contradictory? For example, you joined the group with your anti-imperialistic ideas to fight the US, and now the MKO was acting the opposite?

Of course, Yes. I was faced with contradictions. Other members also had paradoxes in their minds but the cults have trickeries to encounter such contradictions that occur every day. Contradiction means that the data you were given does not seem logic. However, your contradiction would not be solved by debate or arguments but it was faced with psychological techniques or in better words, with peer pressure and mental suppression. Once you enter a destructive mind control cult, you are kept and controlled by psychological techniques.

–  If you were not arrested in Syria, would you stay in the MKO until now? And, didn’t you try to swallow a cyanide capsule after you were arrested?

Yes, I would have definitely been in the Cult of Rajavi in ignorance and under the mind-control manipulative system of the cult. I would have no way out to salvation…

In my mission to Syria, I didn’t have cyanide capsule. If I had one, I would eat it because being arrested alive and yeilded to the Iranian government was our red line.  

–  Do you really believe in the term salvation for your separation from the MKO?

Yes, exactly. Being released from the hands of a destructive mind control cult is in no way simple. This is possible if you are supported from outside of the cult, for example if you are aided by your family. That’s why the cult leaders forbid and control any contact with families.

–  What happened in Evin prison that your beliefs and thoughts changed?

I should notify that members of mind-control destructive cults have no determined ideas. They are dedicated to their leader. Massoud Rajavi was officially presented as the ideological leader. Our ideas were those of Massoud’s. If he changed his words every day we would change our words every day. Cults do not practice ideologies; they do practice psychological methodologies that control people’s minds…

When I arrived in Evin prison, I still saw myself as a devoted Mujahed-e Khalq under the order of Massoud Rajavi . I was ready for torture and execution but gradually I was faced with reality. I thought about the attitudes and interests of the cult of Rajavi so I increasingly faced contradictions. I simply found that I was not able to defend the MKO’s approaches even in my own mind. Logically I had no point to defend Massoud Rajavi whom I used to worship … 

About a year later, I started reading the book “Cults in our Midst” of Mrs. Margaret Tahler Singer. My brother Massoud Khodabandeh had sent it to me from England. It should be said that in the prison, I tried to keep myself behind the boundaries I allegedly had with the Islamic Republic. Even I did not want to read the Iranian books, newspapers and I avoided watching Iranian TV.

The book had nothing with the Iranian government nor the MKO but I was really moved by the book. Although, the writer had no idea of the MKO, the similarities between the MKO and the cults in the United States were so significant that you would think it was written about the MKO … For the first time after so many years, I let myself think freely and independently. Of-course, getting to this turning point took me two years in the prison.

–  Suppose that you are told that you submitted to the Islamic Republic and turned against the organization you embraced for 23 years due to the pressure of imprisonment or the risk of execution or for the sake your suffering mother, what is your answer?

This question seems rational. In response, I should say that one may regret his past or repent of his past under pressure, one may give information about his past organization and condemn it under pressure of the imprisonment but he is not able to argue, discuss and prove his arguments. All I say about the MKO is based on scientific arguments and reasons that are confirmed by other defectors of the cult. I am ready to argue it with everyone everywhere to prove that the most basic human rights are being violated in the Cult of Rajavi. The cult uses destructive fraudulent manipulation techniques to control members’ minds. It is not what it pretends.

It is not hung up to any principals. This is all I have said to this point. If a force wants to fight the Islamic Republic it doesn’t have the right to abuse its own members and to mentally suppress them…

–  Suppose that you are accused of having been brainwashed in Evin prison! What do you say?

I was liberated from the Cult of Rajavi over 12 years ago. During these years, I have been far from the atmosphere of the Cult and its indoctrination sessions and cult jargons. I have been studying the phenomenon known as “the threat of the third millennium”: Destructive Mind Control Cults. I have studied and translated and authored a lot of books and articles. In her book titled “Brainwashing”, Ms. Kathlyn Taylor specifically suggests that the main condition to become the target for brainwashing is to be unaware of its techniques. The MKO never permitted me to read something freely but in the Evin prison I read books. Regarding my studies and the information I got, there is no possibility to brainwash me now because I’m well aware of the techniques and tricks ….

Thus, it is very important to know about functions of destructive mind control cults…

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Corrupt Money circulating between the MKO and Iraqi parties

Iraqi politics is affected by financial corruption of certain political parties.

According to Iraqi parliamentarian sources quoted by the Iraqi Newspaper “alMuraqib alIraqia”, “Some politicians fund ISIS with money stolen from Iraqi nation.”

The report adds that the money is originally paid to opposition figures such as Ayad Alavi by the Mujahedin Khalq Organization. Ayad Alavi is the president of Alqaemia Alvatania party that criticizes the Iraqi Shiite government. He is a vocal supporter of the MKO in Iraq.

alMuraqib alIraqia refers to the testimony of a former member of the MKO, GorbanAli Husseinnezhad who served as the Arabic interpreter of the group leader, Massoud Rajavi: “Iraqi political figures and media received large amounts of money from the MKO directly or indirectly.”

According to Hosseinnezhad some of the Iraqi officials who cooperated with the MKO were: Tariq alHashemi, Saleh Matlak, Ashvaq Aljaf, Faezeh Alabidi and Ala Talibani.

The report states that the corrupt money has succeeded to buy the support of satellite TV channels in Baghdad in order to obstruct Iraqi political processes and to expand political party disputes. Iraqi parliament speaker warns that the expansion of political disputes is only in agreement with the interests of terrorist groups like ISIS and the MKO.

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Albania

MKO high rankings to be transferred to Albania

Mujahedin-e Khalq group is moving 203 high ranking members to Tirana.

According to Nejat Society reporter among the transferees are members of leadership council, commanders and headquarters ranks.

In March 2013 the Albanian government announced its agreement to accommodate in Tirana a number of MKO members residing in Camp Liberty, Iraq. Several groups of Camp Liberty (TTL) has relocated in Tirana since then.

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Italy

Ali Akbar Rastgou Open letter to Giulio Terzi

Open letter to Italian ex FM

Dear Mr. Terzi,

In your interview with “Il garantista” from 6/17/2015 the “National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)” is described as a “coalition of Iranian organizations, groups and Democrats residing abroad”.

Accurate would be to designate the NCRI as a political arm of the People’s Mojahedin “Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK / MKO / PMOI)”. Although after its foundation in 1981 in addition to Abulhassan Bani Sadr, a former president of the Islamic Republic, also the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (DPKI), followers of Mohammad Mosaddeq founded National Democratic Front and various Stalinist groups joined the NCRI, but in 1982 Bani Sadr already left the NCRI. Like him many other groups not being satisfied with the absolute leadership style of Rajavi and the dominance of the MEK in the NCRI, followed him till the 1984th.

Furthermore, it is said, the NCRI combines “representatives of ethnic and religious minorities, such as Kurds, Baluchis, Jews and Zoroastrians “.

Also in the Iranian parliament, according to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, there are reserved five seats for representatives of religious minorities. Even Article 13 of the Constitution recognizes Iranian citizens of Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian faith officially as religious minorities, who determine their personal status and religious education even after the corresponding own religious rules. Should we therefore call the Islamic Republic as a prime example of religious freedom and democracy?

What matters is how this apparent openness for minorities and other opinions and ways of life is implemented in reality.

Mr. Terzi, in the interview, you talk about the demand of young Iranians “… for more freedom in the school, in information, in everyday life …” But can such a claim at all to be implemented by an organization that keeps its members under strict supervision in the camps since decades, prohibiting them from access to information and independent media, controlling and directing all social contacts?

You point out, the fight against the Islamic State is “hopeless” when Islamic fundamentalism will further be “fueled by Tehran”. The “Shiite sectarianism” be the “trigger” for the “radicalization of large parts of the Sunni world.”

How can you seriously believe that an organization with such a strong personality cult around its leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi and such cultish structures based on a radical indoctrination of its members against all dissenters could make a contribution to the pacification of this regional and religious powder keg? An organization that has always been calling on Iranian people to rise up and overthrow the regime, only to take itself to power as a “transitional government”.

So worthy of support the demand for the inclusion of other refugees from Camp Liberty in Italy may be, you should look carefully whether the organization you designate “…The only solution for the future of Iran…”, can deliver what it promises, or whether the many dropouts and critics, human rights organizations and aid workers as well as nearly all those who have taken a critical look with the MEK apart, are right when they accuse the organizations cultish structures, the leader cult , indoctrination and oppression up to the ill-treatment of members, foreclosure of the world and reality, and a very idiosyncratic understanding of democracy.

You cannot fight the fact that you support an organization with a more radical and more fundamental ideology of fundamentalism and radicalism.

You cannot fight terrorism and bloodshed, by supporting an organization that has been practicing this for many years and still takes the view, “liberation” of Iran can only be possible through a (violent) overthrow of the government.

As nice as moderate and western-democratic the facade of the MEK may seem, viewing behind the facade reveals its true face fast!

Best regards,

AAWA Association e.V.

Dipl. Ing. Ali Akbar Rastgou (Chairman)

[2] http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/09/iran-s14.html.

[4] http://othes.univie.ac.at/18784/1/2012-02-29_0948167.pdf , S. 6.

[6]NCR

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Who is the Finance Director of the MKO?

Mohammad Tarighat Monfared alias Yaser is a high ranking member of Mujahedin-e Khalq who commutes within Europe under the alias Lolakiyan.

He is from Tehran. In 1982 he escaped Iran. He now resides in Berlin, Germany. Tarighat Monfared is a veteran member of the MKO. From 1979 he has been the financial director of the group.

As the financial supervisor of the group, one of his most important operations has been receiving financial aids from Saudi Arabia, Israel and Saddam Hussein.

The Iraqi collapsed dictator; Saddam Hussein had allocated 3 million oil barrels per month to the Mujahedin-e Khalq. The MKO received the oil share in coupons which then were sent to Europe to be changed in to dollars and to be invested.

Tarighat Monfared was tasked with operating as Rajavi’s representative in receiving the monthly 3 million oil barrels coupons and supervising the finances.  

In 2003 he left Iraq for Europe in accompany with Maryam Rajavi. From then on he lives in Germany and organizes the money laundering operations of the group.

Most recently three members of the MKO traveled to Germany from Albania under the command of Yaser (Tarighat Monfared). They were tasked with transferring a huge sum of money. The three members arrested by the Germany Police and imprisoned.

Based on the report of Hamidreza Bikas; former member of the group

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France

President Hollande should curtail violent activities of Mojahedin Khalq in France

My name is Zahra Moeni and I reside in Germany. I was a member of Maryam Rajavi’s security team and her personal Bodyguard. Later on when I became more familiar with their evil intentions I got separated from MEK. Currently, I am a human rights activist.

During the period of my involvement with this organisation I repeatedly witnessed theft and money laundering in the MEK bases. All documents related to relevant countries and organizations have been sent, but unfortunately no arrest has been made yet.

Mr. President,

Maryam Rajavi has her hand in the blood of so many Iranian and also many member of MEK. She even ordered the removal of the uterus of many women, and all of these under slogan of Human Rights

Massoud Rajavi whom is currently hidden has publicly called for the deaths of former members and other critics of the group and he order his wife Maryam Rajavi and other PMOI commanders who reside in France to executing this order.

There is information that with direct order of Maryam Rajavi, her trained terrorists attacked and beaten the former members who went to Rajavi’s residence in Auvers sur Oise. Police have all relevant documents but unfortunately, they have been no arrest yet.

Mr Mostafa Mohammadi a Canadian citizen and Mr Ali Hossein Nejad who was a veteran translator of Masoud Rajavi start a legal and Human Rights campaign in France in order to rescue their daughters from Rajavi’s cult and wishes that their voice be heard by you and relevant authorities.Unfortunately once again Maryam Rajavi sent out a gang of thugs to beat them up.

The question is how they can easily violate the sovereignty of France and its legal and civil system by threaten, chasing former members and making ridiculous and false claims against two father that objected to abduction of their daughters.

France has protected the Maryam Rajavi and gave her a free pass to threaten and beaten up people with no limitation and her husband Massoud Rajavi has broadcast a message to the MEK members whom live hidden lives in France and other European cities. In this message that reported on PMOI’s media and can be reached via internet and published in their website, Rajavi demands the assassination of former members of the MEK and other critics of the group.

Part of Franch translation of his message about the threats of dissidents and opponents of the cult is Annex to this letter.

Dear President of the French Republic,

As you focus on the firm commitment of your government to protect the lives of French citizens and to defend freedom of expression, we draw your attention to the danger posed by this cult training base in Auvers-sur-Oise and to consider taking a new stand against Maryam Rajavi and her terrorist gang before another humanitarian catastrophe happen in your country.

Please accept, Mr. President of the Republic, the assurance of my highest respect and consideration

Zahra Moeini, Iran Zanan Association

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Former members of the MEK

The Youngest defector of the MKO recounts his story

30 year-old Bayramali Mohammadi returned Iran from Albania.

Bayramali is from Karaj, Iran. He left his family in 2001 to find job in Europe. Initially, he went to Turkey where he was recruited by the agents of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO).

He recounts his adventures with the MKO for Nejat Society Alborz office,”In Turkey, I was working in a carwash when I got familiar with an Iranian named Behzad. He got to know about my intentions so he began promising me to solve my problems for immigration to Europe.”

The young Bayram is impressed by Behzad’s promises. ”He told me that to go to Europe I should go to Iraq first and from there I would be sent to Germany.”

Behzad’s daily visits with Bayram finally convince him to accept the Iraqi passport for flying to Baghdad.

“In Baghdad airport, a few people were waiting for me. They took me to Camp Ashraf”, he says. At Camp Ashraf the group commandants perform their brainwashing technics by showing him films of the group’s terror attacks against Iranian officials and civilians.

Bayram who is terrified by the MKO terrorist group, asks to leave the group’s cult-like bars but he is told that he should wait!

So, he waits as long as 14 years. ”Fourteen years of waiting, separation from family and society and having no access to the free world,” he says.

By the American invasion to Iraq, Bayram is shocked. He just wants to save his life. He wanders between the group’s camps near Iranian border. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, he is sent back to Camp Ashraf where he is kept as hostage under severe mental pressure, forced labor and manipulation sessions. He is forced to stay in Camp Ashraf for ten years and then in Camp Liberty for two years.

“During these long years, the cult leaders never allowed me to call or contact my family”, he tells Nejat NGO. ”Until I was relocated in Albania together with a group of my comrades.”

In Albania, he soon asks for defection. ”I did not let them control me anymore.” He states.

Under the supervision of the High Commissioner of the United Nations, he is permitted to travel all around Albania territory.” After 12 years of imprisonment and mental torture, I stepped in the free world, “he goes on his story. 

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The MEK to launch Armed Struggle

On the Anniversary of MKO leader’s escape from Iran

Terror In The Name Of Democracy: Initiation of Armed Revolt
 
The eruption of riots was actually MKO’s first organized armed revolt to steer the country to the verge of anarchy

The eruption of riots was actually MKO’s first organized armed revolt to steer the country to the verge of a chaotic atmosphere and anarchy and it was followed by daily scattered clashes, bombings and terrorist atrocities. The ousted Bani-Sadr himself used as the pretext to trigger MKO’s armed revolt, encouraged the group to precipitate the created crises by a wave of violent activities including assassination of high-ranking statesmen and personalities. In her confessions after her arrest, Sudabeh Sadifi, an adviser to Bani-Sadr, asserted that Bani-Sadr after his dismissal in a message to Massoud Rajavi, MKO’s leader, urged him to “Start striking their heads. There is no other way.”

Plots to assassinate the key, influential heads in charge hatched just after Bani-Sadr and Rajavi’s hiding in the organization’s secret hideouts. The first perpetrated terrorist act was an attempt to assassinate Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehran’s Friday prayers at the time, on 27 June, 1981; a bomb, concealed in a tape recorder, exploded beside him while he was delivering an address in Abu Dhar mosque south of Tehran. He escaped assassination but suffered serious injuries that left his right hand handicapped. The terrorist agent was identified to be a MKO’s central cadre, Javad Qadiri.

Tehran was still under the shock of the attempt assassination when MKO stroke the successive terrorist blow the day after on June 28. Reportedly, two blasts ripped through IRP building as the chief Ayatollah Beheshti was addressing his regular weekly meeting. The death toll rose to 74 including Ayatollah Beheshti, Cabinet ministers, deputy ministers and members of Parliament. The perpetrator was identified to be an infiltrated agent of MKO, Muhammad-Reza Kulahi. It was so heavy a strike for the newly formed regime and both MKO and Bani-Sadr expected complete destabilization and overthrow of the ruling authority. However, the public reaction to such violent, immoral deeds was nothing more than a strong feeling of repulsion towards MKO.

On July 27, 1981, Muhammad-Ali Rajai won a landslide victory in Iran’s second post-revolution presidential election. Deeply disappointed, the sole option before the two fugitives living in secret hideouts was to immediately leave the country. On 29 July, Bani-Sadr accompanied by Rajavi, in disguise and by having shaved off his customary mustache, were driven to a Tehran military base and got on board of a hijacked Iranian air force 707 jet tanker around 10 at night. It seemed unlikely that they could have gotten to the plane and aboard without the cooperation of other military personnel and particularly the pilot who flew the plane to land it at the military airfield of Evreux near Paris. The pilot, Col. Behzad Moesi, was the personal pilot of the ousted Muhammad-Reza Pahlavi whom, along with his family, he had flown out of Iran to Egypt and then to Morocco in December 1978. Unexpectedly, Moesi had returned Pahlavi’s plane, Shahin, to Iran and received a warm welcome as a hero and a revolutionary. He had succeeded to win the trust of authorities and had been appointed to sensitive military positions.

It is reasonable to assume that his return to Iran was a scenario outlined by the states antagonizing the Islamic regime and directed by intelligence agencies to establish a direct contact with the active opposition groups to arrive at an agreement for a variety of collaborative programs to advance political policies and interests inside Iran. And his return aroused nobody’s curiosity in Iran to question controversial aspects of such an easy return; how had he managed to refuel the plane and flew it out of a heavily guarded military base and pass over a few countries’ air borders to make a heroic return?

The Second Terrorist Tragedy

The fugitives’ escape to France postponed MKO’s second appalling terrorist operation scheduled to be perpetrated the month after the explosion at IRP building. Being granted political asylum just after his arrival in France, Bani-Sadr said “we must try to find a quicker way of overthrowing the absolutists”, and Rajavi vowed to “organize the resistance” against the Islamic Republic from France. There they were granted the opportunity of conveniently planning, by abundantly offered external aids, for more destructive and successful operations. The quick way to success had to be involved a variety of violent options including suicide bombing; MKO had enough devoted infiltrated agents as volunteers for these types of operation. Massoud Keshmiri, the agent who detonated the bomb in the Prime Minister’s office, had already volunteered to be a suicide bomber if necessary although he succeeded in his mission without endangering his life and managed to escape through a well-planned trick played by his fellow-mate accomplices.
On August 30, 1981, Mohammad Ali Rajai, the Iranian President, and Mohammad Javad Bahonar, the Prime Minister, were burned beyond recognition by an incendiary that set fire to the Prime Minister’s office. The victims’ bodies were identified only through dental records. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but there was speculation, proved later, that it was work of MKO. There still remains questions concerning the planted incendiary bomb that just burned the president and his prime minister but leaving others merely injured. The third victim, Abdolhussein Daftarian, the prime ministry’s authority, died of uncontrolled consequences of the blast. The fourth victim, Hushang Dastjerdi, the head of the national police, passed away 6 days later in hospital as a result of the injuries. The bomb was said to have been planted inside a briefcase that Keshmiri carried, but there was a different judgment that it had been planted inside a tape-recorder stationed before the victims. Col. Muhammad Mahdi Katibe, a member of the meeting who survived the blast, states that:
“I believe the appropriate container to plant the bomb inside was the tap-recorder that had a capacity for more than 10 pounds explosives. I think it was a hollow case inside which they had planted a TNT time bomb with alarm clock detonator. I doubt if there was a better vessel.”

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