Page 387 – Nejat Society

The MKO and the mirage of Alternative for IRI

The likely successful nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West have pushed the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) to face more challenges in order to impede a normalized Iran-West relationship. The group’s heavy scale well-funded lobbying campaign to derail diplomacy with Iran has come up with new dimensions.

For years, the MKO’s propaganda had focused on the Iranian nuclear program, spreading misinformation about it but once the nuclear talks started in Geneva, the group found itself empty handed. While the Cult of Rajavi has always claimed to be the alternative to the Iranian Government, the ongoing diplomacy process between Iran and the West has wiped out its slightest hope for achieving power in Iran. Furthermore, today the MKO is more concerned for its own survival, let alone governing Iran –Where it hardly ever enjoys public support.

That’s why the MKO is awfully nervous about the recent visits to Iran by the European politicians. For instance, the group, denounced a trip last month to Tehran by Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz. The denunciation came two weeks after the so-called Friends of Free Iran (FoFi), an informal network of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) closely allied to the NCRI, organized a conference calling for regime change in Iran and lauding the NCRI-MEK as the democratic alternative, according to Edar Mamedov who is a political adviser for the social-democrats in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) and is in charge of the delegation for inter-parliamentary relations between the EP and Iran. [1]

After the election of Rouhani as the Iranian president, the significant progress in the Nuclear negotiations pushed the MKO propaganda to actively run the new agenda of Human Rights. As an official who witnesses the MKO’s lobbying efforts in the European Parliament, Mamedov suggests, “So, the MEK, which detests the notion of rapprochement between Iran and the West, has shifted gears and chosen human rights as its casus belli against the Iranian regime.”[2]

Although Mamedov does not disregard “the capacity of the MEK to poison the present atmosphere of European-Iranian relations”, he clarifies, “The good news is that MEK lobbying efforts against diplomacy with Iran are unlikely to succeed.” [3]

“Even with the extravagant funds the MEK has spent on endorsements by political elites, the group’s prominence in the EU is confined only to one part of the EP,” writes Mamedov.” The foreign policy decision-making bodies of the EU — the Council of the EU and the External Action Service (EEAS) — do not consider the MEK a serious alternative to the current government in Tehran, as it has virtually no support among the Iranian population. ” [4]

Among the few European parliament members who favor Maryam Rajavi and her cult-like organization, Alejo Vidal-Quadras the Spanish EU Parliament member is “the key man in Spanish political relations with the Iranian People’s Mujahedeen”, according to Elsa S. Vejo of the Spanish News Website Esterella Digital. [] The Spanish journalist criticizes their 13-years working politician for the “astonishing” cause of the MKO. According to official versions, the MEK was “voluntarily disarmed”.” According to the unofficial version, the CIA and the Israeli Mossad is training the Mojahedin for their own benefit,” He writes. “So much so, that in January 2012, Ilan Mizrahi, former head of the secret Israeli intelligence service, disclosed the involvement of the Mojahedin in the “secret war” against Iran that had already cost the lives of four Iranian nuclear scientists.” [5]

In addition, the support for the group in the US Congress is not so noteworthy. There are also a few retired American officials who embrace the MKO in response to large amounts of donation the group pays them. Rudy Guiliani former New York mayor is one of the well-paid ardent sponsors of the group whose “warm embrace of the MEK terrorist organization is shocking and deplorable.”

Hamid Babaei counselor and head of Press Office for the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations in New York wrote a response to an op-ed by Rudolph Giuliani , “Team Obama keeps miscalculating Iran — ‘change’ under Rouhani is a mirage” that appeared in Fox News Opinion. Babaei states, ” Journalists and think tanks across the world have sounded the alarm regarding the “cult-like” practices of the MEK, such as forcing members to give up their children in order to dedicate more time to the cause, and their decades long reign of terror and brutality has been well established by many including the U.S. Department of State when it designated it as terrorist organization in 1997 while describing it as a “repressive cult despised by most Iranians and Iraqis.” Babaei also refers to the 2009 report by the Rand Corp. in which the authors denounce the MKO for its “cultic practices and its deceptive recruitment and public relations strategies”.[6]

The MKO’s large-scale effort to gain the West’s support does not seem to be efficient. “The dominant EU line now clearly favors diplomacy with Iran, which will, hopefully, lead to a final deal over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program,” suggests Mamedov.” The more the chances of success for diplomacy increase, the more irrelevant the MEK will become.” [7]

By Mazda Parsi

Sources:

[] Mamedov, Eldar, The MEK’s Influence in EU Politics Matters, Loblog FP, May 10, 2014

[]ibid

[5] S. Vejo, Elsa , SPAINISH POLITICIAN’S DANGEROUS RELATION, Esterella Digital, May 6, 2014 (Translated by Iran Interlink)

[6] Babaei, Hamid, Embrace of Mojahedin Khalq shocking, deplorable, Fox News, May 7, 2014

[7] Mamedov, Eldar, The MEK’s Influence in EU Politics Matters, Loblog FP, May 10, 2014

May 18, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Controversial Iranian Exile Shakes up Canadian Parliament’s HR Program

A weeklong series of events in Canadian parliament on Iran’s human rights record caused worry among some human rights advocates who fear that the activities could harm their efforts. The controversy centers around Iran Accountability Week, a program of hearings at the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Human Rights and other events organized by members of parliament from the three major parties, with Liberal MP Irwin Cotler taking the lead. The program runs through Thursday.

A human rights lawyer and pro-Israel figure, Cotler has organized three Iran Accountability Weeks. In the past, the events included testimonies highlighting Iranian political prisoners and other victims of Iranian human rights abuses. This year’s lineup, however, was different: Maryam Rajavi, the leader of a controversial exiled Iranian opposition group called the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), appeared in the program along with a UN rights official and pundits from a hawkish American think-tank.

One human rights advocate working on Iran, who asked not to be named, raised the issue of other advocates sharing a platform with the head of the MEK, which the activist called “toxic and irrelevant”—a view widely held among Iranians of all political stripes, save members of the MEK itself.

The MEK, which until two years ago was listed as terrorist organization by the United States and Canada, has a tortuous history that carried it from its founding in the mid-1960s as an Islamo-Marxist anti-Shah group to its current position as a vocal opponent of the Islamic Republic. Many critics say the group exhibits cult-like behavior. In addition to its history of violence, the MEK has, notably, been accused of its own human rights abuses.

In a phone interview, Cotler, the Canadian MP whose office spearheaded the multiparty Iran Accountability Week, said the invitation to Rajavi was only to give “issue-specific testimony”—specifically the alleged killings of MEK members by Iraqi security forces.

The MEK moved its operations to Iraq in the 1980s, to fight alongside Saddam Hussein in the bloody Iran-Iraq war, taking up in a desert military base called Camp Ashraf. In September 2012, nine years after the fighters had been disarmed following the US invasion, Iraqi forces evacuated Ashraf. Those MEK members and fighters who remained in country moved into Camp Liberty—an erstwhile American military installation. At various points since Hussein’s overthrow, both Liberty and Ashraf had come under attack, mostly by Iraqi security forces, and disarmed MEK members have been killed.

When asked why a notice for the event sent around by his office, obtained by The Nation, said Rajavi would discuss more broad “violations of the rights of the Iranian people”—a category that expands beyond the Ashraf/Liberty incidents—Cotler repeated that the invitation was “issue-specific,” though he noted Rajavi may speak on or be asked about other matters. (In 2012, Colter reportedly joined a campaign to get the MEK removed from terror rolls in the United States and Canada.)

The association with the MEK, however, raised red flags for another participant, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran. Since 2011, when his mandate was initiated, the Maldivian diplomat has been a main address for credible information about Iran’s alleged human rights abuses. Shaheed was scheduled to address the subcommittee on Thursday, May 8 by video link in an open hearing.

According to his office, however, Shaheed requested to withdraw from the official Iran Accountability Week proceedings. He agreed, an assistant said, to brief lawmakers “in a different context than Accountability Week.” Asked why, Shaheed’s representative responded, “He just didn’t think it was appropriate.”

The assistant explained that Shaheed felt the event’s framing “made it feel less like a briefing and more of something that encroached upon what he believes is his independence on the issue” of human rights in Iran.

Cotler confirmed that, fifty minutes before he was set to go on, Shaheed phoned and requested his testimony be delivered on camera, or in a closed-door session. But the Canadian parliamentarian denied Shaheed withdrew from Iran Accountability Week: “He was not taken off the program. His appearance was in camera,” Cotler said, adding that Shaheed did not request in their phone call to withdraw.

Divining whether Shaheed was indeed withdrawn from the program proved difficult. Cotler’s office referred The Nation to the bureaucrats who run the subcommittee, but none would comment on whether Shaheed remained part of Iran Accountability Week. Asked if Shaheed was on the public program, Miriam Burke, the subcommittee clerk, said, “I can’t tell you.” Shaheed’s name did not appear in a May 8 press release on Cotler’s official website.

Several sources said the MEK’s involvement spurred Shaheed’s request to be removed from the program. One source with knowledge of the decision said several human rights groups reached out to Shaheed’s office, “and it didn’t take long for them to make this decision.” Two other sources confirmed the account. “From our understanding he was unaware he was part of this broader program,” said a rights activist. “Once it was discovered, the MEK issue was a critical concern.”

The issue is particularly fraught because Shaheed has, over the years of his UN mandate, attempted to negotiate with the Iranian government for access to the country. The Islamic Republic rejected Shaheed’s latest report in March. One Iranian MP remarked that “the intelligence sources for Ahmed Shaheed’s reports are the hypocrites”—the way Iran refers to the MEK—”and the Islamic Republic of Iran’s opposition.”

Cotler said he would explicitly renounce any connections made between various witnesses at hearings in a press conference marking Iran Accountability Week’s closing. “We will not make any association between Dr. Shaheed and the MEK,” he said. “The last thing any of us would want to do would be to hurt Dr. Shaheed’s work or testimony. Not that [the Iranians] need any excuse to do that.”

May 17, 2014 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 52

++ Iraj Shokri, a famous writer who left the MEK some time ago, has blogged to reject some of the quotes used by the MEK when they wrote about Kamal Rafatsafai (a poet who recently died who also left the MEK and became very critical over their human rights record). Shokri says that although he doesn’t usually answer the MEK, this time they sneakily used his name and he has had to refute their misuse of his quotes.

++ Nejat Association reports about the situation inside Camp Liberty. Apparently, runaways have become a serious problem for the MEK and they have added more sentry posts around the residential blocks in an attempt to prevent this. The MEK says its last hope is its commanders keeping control of the rank and file. Also, the MEK have expressed disappointment with the Iraqi election result. They had already acknowledged that if the elections in Iraq don’t work out for them with the return of some Baathists they are finished.

++ Reports from Albania show pictures of around eight people who were among the children evacuated from Camp Ashraf in 1991 to Europe, before being sent back to Iraq again for military training. Because they all have residential history in European countries, the reports say, the MEK have deliberately sent them to Albania in order to delay their arrival in these European countries and to prevent them from talking. To keep them quiet in Albania, the MEK henchmen Ismael Mortezai and Hassan Nayebagha from Paris, are threatening them from one side – we will kill you if you act without our approval – and on the other side promising that if they get refugee status from the UNHCR in Tirana the MEK itself will transfer them elsewhere in Europe.

++ Mohammad Alavi on Aryia Iran website has written an article titled: ‘One thousand Ashraf camps in Europe and toppling the regime with photoshop’. He says everyone is aware the MEK are busy touring refugee camps to buy people for their 30 June event to celebrate the start of their armed struggle. This year the event is to be held on 27 June in Villepinte in north Paris. Alavi details the history of these events over the last few years and provides links to coverage in Le Monde, France 24 and Radio Farda which have all exposed the pretence. The article also has links to other media items in which people have admitted they were paid either to speak or to attend. Some other ex members write on same subject revealing that the MEK visit travel agencies as well as refugee camps and offer free trips to Paris and a hand-out of money in exchange for two hours attendance in their meeting. They reveal that this year the meeting will include performances of singing and dancing as well as speeches in order to attract people and fool them about the true nature of the event.

++ The Iraqi election is finished and the official result will be out next week, and it is already clear that Maliki’s coalition has come out on top and is widely supported. There will now follow negotiations between the various factions to agree roles and responsibilities. But it is clear the new government, whatever its configuration, contains many fewer Saddamists, Danesh and other MEK sympathisers.

++ Homayoun Kohzadi has published a short note in Yaran Association website saying that several people who have escaped from Camp Liberty have contacted him. They say that Massoud Rajavi has again made an announcement declaring that these are the last days of the Iranian regime. He has ordered an alert to be ready. Rajavi says, while Maryam is doing the last bits of toppling by creating one thousand Camp Ashrafs in Europe, the combatants in Camp Liberty have to be ready for the last attack toward Iran. Kohzadi begs the question, ‘why does Rajavi not look at himself in the mirror?’ “Your audience” he tells Rajavi, “has no weaponry, the government of Iraq is in charge so you won’t even get to border. But putting even these obstacles aside, how can these old and sick people go to war? They would die on the way.” He finishes by saying, “Rajavi has gone mad.”

++ Mojahadin.com reported a meeting at the University of Semnan in which Ebrahim Khodabandeh gave a speech to the students and staff about cults. Khodabandeh said, “I have been in the MEK’s camps and I have been in Evin prison. With reference to the problems in Section 350, one thing I am certain of is that the amount of contact the Evin prisoners have with the outside world is not comparable with the contact MEK members have with the outside because the MEK have none!” He also announced that through research he can now say that the number of ex members is well over the number of current MEK members. He concluded that although we don’t have the power to rescue the people who have fallen into this trap, my friends and I will make sure they can’t drag new people into their trap.

++ Mohammad Karami from Paris and some others have responded to an article in Iran Global written under pseudonyms. The writers claim they are a group working with the Intelligence Service of the Netherlands who are responsible for trapping ex MEK member Behzad Alishahi through various sting scenarios so that he would be arrested under national security laws. The group uses this article to threaten every other critic of the MEK that “if you don’t stop this criticism of the MEK we have the power to deal with you the same way we did Alishahi”. This threat follows previous reports, particularly from Albania where MEK henchmen carry Pentagon ID cards, of MEK intimidation and threats in the West. Karami and others have exposed this ‘group’ as a man called Amrollah Ebrahimi, an ex member from TIPF who was bought by the MEK and who is working directly under the supervision of Hadi Roshanravan (a commanders in the MEK’s Intelligence Section who has been highly trained by Saddam’s Mokhaberat). Karami and other writers question what is behind publishing this on Iran Global website in particular, and conclude that since the MEK has been exposed to be behind the intimidation of ex members through their own websites, they have outsourced this to Iran Global so it doesn’t look like the MEK are behind it.

++ Razieh Kermanshahi has died from a heart attack in Albania. She was 57. Rajavi has been quick to add her to the list of martyrs from the Leadership Council. But many who knew her say that she had heart problems for many years which the MEK deliberately neglected. Essentially they sent her to Albania to die. In this respect Javad FIrouzmand wrote an article for Aryia Iran naming several other people who suffered neglect or have been denied medical attention by the MEK. He reveals how they have been eliminated in this way from the time of Saddam up until the present.

++ This week Maryam Rajavi has put on a show for internal purposes. She was photographed strolling around a display of pictures of the MEK’s so called martyrs from the time of the revolution until now. This was published on their Farsi websites. Edalaat Association wrote an analysis about why Maryam has done this while 99% of her time is spent with the Israeli lobby and the like. The article says there is an identity crisis inside the MEK among members and unpaid supporters who cannot understand what is the MEK’s relation to Israel, Al Qaida, Syria, Nigeria, and etc. Rajavi has taken these pictures to prevent the internal forces from collapsing.

In English:

++ Fox News published a reply by Hamid Babaei, counselor and head of the Press Office for the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations in New York, to an op-ed by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Babaei described Guiliani’s “warm embrace of the MEK terrorist organization” as “shocking and deplorable”, describing it as “a repressive cult despised by most Iranians and Iraqis.”

++ Elsa S. Vejo Destrella Digital (Digital Star) spoke with Alejo Vidal- Quadras MEP as the key man in Spanish political relations with the Iranian People’s Mujahedeen. She writes the question of where the MEK gets its money? “The question still remains unresolved and the experts bring to the fore the question of where does the MEK get all the money it costs to maintain this important network of contacts and support . According to Vidal-Quadras, solely from the Iranians in the diaspora, “some of them are very wealthy”. Although other politicians we consulted doubt this. “I am not so naive to think that the contributions of all Iranians in exile are sufficient to maintain that infrastructure. I do not rule out that there may be powers that are instrumental in acting in their favor”, admits Gari Duran Sen. PP Baleares, and one of the Mojahedin’s greatest defenders in Spain. The USA , Israel and Saudi Arabia are among the possible hidden funders. Duran, however, says she does not care about that; “I have seen people on hunger strike, I have seen the pictures of the dead and have heard their mothers talk, and unless you have to conclude that this is a giant deception, to me it is real.””

++ Nejat Association wrote an open letter to Ms Laura Boldrini, President of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy, asking to meet with her during her visit to Iran with a 10-member delegation, headed by co-chairman of Iran-Italy parliamentary friendship group Ettore Rosato. Nejat said it wanted to meet to find a way to rescue the members in Iraq and try to put them in contact with their families in Iran.

++ Ali Gharib writing ‘Controversial Iranian Exile Shakes up Canadian Parliament’s Human Rights Program’ in The Nation, exposed the damage caused by the inclusion of Maryam Rajavi by Skype in the event. According to Gharib, “Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Shaheed requested to withdraw from the official Iran Accountability Week proceedings. He agreed, an assistant said, to brief lawmakers “in a different context than Accountability Week.” Asked why, Shaheed’s representative responded, “He just didn’t think it was appropriate.” The assistant explained that Shaheed felt the event’s framing “made it feel less like a briefing and more of something that encroached upon what he believes is his independence on the issue” of human rights in Iran.” “…Another human rights advocate working on Iran, who asked not to be named, raised the issue of other advocates sharing a platform with the head of the MEK, which the activist called “toxic and irrelevant”—a view widely held among Iranians of all political stripes, save members of the MEK itself.”

16 May 2014

May 17, 2014 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Introducing Maryam Rajavi as a human rights activist is the wrong tool for the wrong job

Although Canada is not party to the P5+1 nuclear negotiations, the Canadian parliament’s all-party Iran Accountability Week aimed to put pressure on Iran over its human rights record. Instead, it degenerated

Introducing Maryam Rajavi as a human rights activist is the wrong tool for the wrong job into another crude attempt to fuel enmity and hatred and prevent any rapprochement between Iran and western powers, even a clumsy attempt to create conditions which would derail the negotiating process. The weeklong series of events backfired badly as Ali Gharib writing in The Nation revealed.

The inclusion of the Mojahedin Khalq’s notorious second in command, Maryam Rajavi, who describes herself as the ‘president-elect’ of a future Iran, was guaranteed to create controversy. The MEK itself has a well documented history of human rights violations. The group is hated by Iranians inside and outside the country.

Predictably, several participants pulled out of the event. Most notably Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran.

Among the others there were divisions. Some indicated that the inclusion of Maryam Rajavi is not in the benefit of Israel, others clearly scorned her presence, as Ali Gharib reported: “One human rights advocate working on Iran, who asked not to be named, raised the issue of other advocates’ sharing a platform with the head of the MEK, which the activist called “toxic and irrelevant”—a view widely held among Iranians of all political stripes, save members of the MEK itself.”

The result was that Maryam Rajavi’s backers were forced to get her to water down her speech, to narrow it down to talking about the MEK’s camps in Iraq and what is happening there and not to use the event as a platform for wider anti-Iranian attacks. Even then Rajavi had nothing but MEK propaganda, riddled with lies and misinformation, to tell the assembly.

The Skype appearance followed a failed attempt to get Rajavi a US visa during the P5+1 negotiations on May 8. It was known that Rajavi had also applied to visit Canada, but apparently she wasn’t welcome there either, and in the end Rajavi’s speech from her headquarters outside Paris had to be censored to render it bearable if not credible for real human rights advocates and activists who attended. Even then they felt they had been deceived and tricked into listening to someone contemptible.

The presence of Maryam Rajavi – an advocate of the Saddamists, Al Qaida and ISIS in Iraq – exposes the real agenda behind the so-called human rights advocates who invited her. While it is understandable that MOSSAD may use the MEK as a mercenary force to assassinate Iranian scientists or for information laundry, nobody will accept the MEK as humanitarian. This is simply the wrong tool for the wrong job.

Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), Middle East Strategy Consultants,

May 17, 2014 0 comments

European Union

Open Letter of Iran Pen Association to Mr. Struan Stevenson MEP

To The Honorable Mr. Struan Stevenson MEP and President of the European Parliament’s Delegation for

Relations with Iraq,

Recently in MEK / PMOI related websites there was a statement published in your name in which you expressed concern about the situation of Iraqi people as well as the undemocratic Iraqi Elections and the interference of Iranian Regime in that country.

Iran Pen Association consists of former MEK/PMOI cadres each with more than 20 years of membership in MEK, who have been critical of this organization and also campaign as human rights activists in western countries. In regards to the related statement to you, we would like to bring the following to your attention:

1. You express concern for the elections in Iraq and lack of democracy in that country, while you have been lobbying for and supporting an undemocratic cult, i.e. MEK/PMOI and repetitively relay the dictated rhetorics of this cult in your statement published in MEK websites.

2. In a grave contradiction to your concerns about democracy in Iraq, you ask the US Government to step in and interfere in the Iraqi elections and its outcome.

Dear Mr. Stevenson,

We believe that whatever the result of the Iraqi elections may be, it is the internal affair and destiny of the Iraqi people and Iraqi political parties to decide for themselves. How, in your mind, the US interference in another country and specifically in the elections of another country can result in democracy in that country that you want US to meddle in the Iraqi elections?

Mr. President,

In our opinion your statement has been word by word and directly dictated by the MEK/PMOI cult. It has been written with specific political objectives that represent MEK/PMOI’s intensions to meddle further more in political arena of Iraq. The MEK/PMOI plans for a pro-MEK government in Iraq to take office so that this Cult can remain in Iraqi soil and at the same time continue the rule of suppression on its forces in Camp Liberty in Baghdad.

Dear Sir,

While you have been even more fanatic and radical to support this Cult than its members and keep relaying MEK’s rehtorics against Iraq and the government of Nuri Al-Maleki, we challenge you to answer our questions below in a written statement:

a. Are you aware of the grave violations of human rights committed by MEK/PMOI leaders inside the MEK/PMOI, including in Camp Liberty? Do you know that children under the age of 18 have been recruited and used in military operations by MEK/PMOI? Have you heard that MEK/PMOI members are forbidden to contact or meet their families for many years? Haven’t you heard and read reports of the abuse of women members in MEK/PMOI, including sexual harassments, women being forced to divorce their husbands, children being forcibly separated from their parents?

b. Are you not aware that there is absolutely no democracy in MEK/PMOI and that there is systematic suppression of members with a widespread censorship throughout this Cult?

c. Don’t you know of MEK/PMOI’s money laundering network in the west?

d. Have you no knowledge that MEK/PMOI were mercenaries of Saddam Husain and that its forces participated in many operations against the Iraqi Kurds and against the Shiie in south of Iraq in the 1990’s and against the Iranian soldiers during Iran-Iraq war?

e. Do you not know anything about MEK/PMOI terrorist activities inside Iran during Saddam Husain’s era, including mortar attacks on civilian targets in Iran which resulted in the loss of many civilian’s lives?

f. Are you not aware of MEK/PMOI interference and meddling in internal affairs of Iraqis and the political arena of the country in post-Saddam Iraq? Do you know that one of the main reasons for attacks against Camps Ashraf and Liberty in Iraq which have resulted in many deaths and casualties is due to the meddling and agitation by MEK/PMOI in Iraq?

g. Have you no knowledge of the systematic brain wash and mind manipulation practices that the members of the Cult are subjected to and have you never read reports of such practices by the leaders? Do you not know of horrific limitations imposed on the members of this Cult and that no one has the right to decide his or her destiny in MEK/PMOI?

And finally, Mr. Stevenson; while you are so concerned about democracy in Iraq, we ask you to use your conscience and also be worried about the abolition of democracy and human rights in this Cult of MEK/PMOI and stop supporting and lobbying for such a decadent cult. Instead we urge you to worry for the destiny and plight of the captive people in Camp Liberty and try hard for their liberty and exit from the insecure and volatile circumstances in Iraq.

Regards,

Iran Pen Association

May 15, 2014 0 comments

Nejat Publications

Pars Brief – Issue No. 79

Inside this issue:

Five Camp Liberty residents fled the Cult
Embrace of Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, NCRI, Rajavi cult) shocking, deplorable
The MEK’s Influence in EU Politics Matters
SPAINISH POLITICIAN’S DANGEROUS RELATION
Progressive MeK, what an absurd idea!
Current Iran “Crisis” Began With Overthrow of Democratically Elected Government in 1953

Download Pars Brief – Issue No. 79
Download Pars Brief – Issue No. 79

May 15, 2014 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

Nejat Society holds meeting in Semnan

Former members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization attended press conference in Semnan.

The meeting titled “Metamorphosis of the MKO” organized by Nejat Society on Saturday May3rd, 2014. The four former members of the MKO who addressed the audience described the current condition of the group in Iraq.

Ronak Dashti, Ibrahim Khodabandeh, Ali Ekrami and Iraj salehi spoke of the support of US and Israel for the MKO terrorist cult.

Ebrahim Khodabandeh, former official of the MKO’s international relations and former member of the so-called National Council of Resistance ,declared that over 500 MKO members have returned to Iran,” Today 3000 people are residing in Camp Liberty,” he added.

Ebrahim Khodabandeh who was a member of the group for 23 years said:”Nejat Society’s objective is to get humanitarian aid to rescue the 3000 individuals who are taken as hostages by MKO.”

“Considering that the MKO is not a political , social or security issue right now but it is a humanitarian issue, we should do our best to help them release and to relieve their families,” said Mr. Khodabandeh.

He added:”The main victims of the cult are always their members.”

Regarding Israel and the American warmongers as the only supporters of the MKO, Khodabandeh revealed that the group’s financial resources actually come from Israel, Saudi Arabia and its fraudulent charity works.

Iraj Salehi, former member of the MKO’s Central Council stated that Camp Ashraf has been shut down and the MKO members are residing in a 25000 square meter area. A few dozen of Liberty residents have been relocated in European countries including Germany and Albania where a number of these asylum seekers defected the group.

Ronak Dashti, another former member addressed the conference:”The situation of female members of the group is much worse than male members.”

“While I was never affiliated with the group, I was kidnapped by its recruiters,” she said. She described how she was deceived to join the group, “I had gone to Turkey to continue my studies but my uncle who was the group’s member took me to Iraq where I was imprisoned in the cult structure for several years.”

Ali Einakian, former member of the group Foreign Relations and its central Council told reporters,” The US and Zionists view the MKO worse and more despised than monarchists but their interests and policies make them support the group.”

Noting the alleged list of global terrorists that the US provides every year, Einakian said,” This list is the list of terrorists but it is the list that clarifies the US’s enemies and friends. Those who kill people in Syria are not in the list but a half of Lebanon’s parliament members or Palestine statesmen are in the list. Those who slaughter people are not in the list because they want to be independent.”

The MKO former members representing Nejat Society organize series of meeting title “Metamorphosis “of the MKO to enlighten the Iranian youth and students in Semnan province. The first meeting was held in shahroud.

May 12, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

SPAINISH POLITICIAN’S DANGEROUS RELATION

Alejo Vidal-Quadras , the best friend of the Mojahedin Khalq

The President of Vox admits to 13-years working for an astonishing cause: remove the Iranian Mojahedin Khalq from the terrorism list and rehabilitate the group. He says Spanish politicians should support this organization, which is an ” ally ” of the CIA.

Alejo Vidal- Quadras is the key man in Spanish political relations with the Iranian People’s Mujahedeen. The ‘ ex-popular ‘ and current president of Vox was the first Spanish politician to begin having a liking for the “Iranian democratic opposition in exile.” This is how he defines it: “The year was 2000 and I had just been elected to the European Parliament. I was soon to be in Brussels when I met a socialist Portuguese MEP, Paulo Casaca. He had spent a few years working with the Iranian democratic opposition and asked me to receive some representatives of this movement. We had a long conversation and I was provided with documents and they explained to me the circumstances of Iran and the Mojahedin’s history. Here began our relationship…

Since then, he gave his full support to this cause. Since being in the European Parliament, he has “13 years” working for the Iranian National Resistance Council – according to many experts, the political arm of the Iranian People’s Mujahedeen – to achieve its objectives. First, get them off the list of terrorist organizations, in which the group was included in 1997 in the U.S. and 2002 in the EU, being accused of the murder of several Americans in the 1970s and the attempted attack in 1992 against the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York. And second, to have it recognized as the “legitimate alternative” opposition in the eyes of the international community. To do this, the ‘lobbying activity’ performed for more than 20 years by the organization has been fundamental. And the support of the Spanish politician – a leading member of the group Friends of Free Iran, consisting of around 70 MEPs – has been essential to take the message into international institutions.

The first objective has already been met. In 2009 the Council of the European Union withdrew the terrorist designation. “But it was a strictly judicial procedure,” Vidal-Quadras quickly justified . “It’s been the courts that have ruled that they are not terrorists,” insists the ex-popular, referring to the judgment issued in 2008 by the Court of Justice in Luxembourg, claiming that no evidence was found of the MEK terrorist threat. After this victory in the EU, the Mojahedin also began their specific crusade in Washington. “I lived very close to this process. I had a long meeting with lawyers to raise the issue in the U.S.. We explained how the dispute had been worked out in Europe”. The result? In 2012, the U.S. State Department also stopped considering them terrorists.

What could motivate the U.S. to take them off the blacklist?

Academic researchers, however, rule out that the only reason to get them out of the blacklist was legal. Hillary Clinton warned that the department she headed would not “ignore” or “forget ” past events ” including the MEK’s involvement in the murder of U.S. citizens in Iran in the 1970s and an attack on U.S. soil in 1992 “, but in the opinion of the experts we consulted there are several reasons that led the U.S. government to take this decision.

First, in 2002 the Iranian People’s Mojahedin allegedly discovered Iran ‘s nuclear program and enabled the U.S. to declare ‘war’ on the regime of the ayatollahs. Second, when the U.S. invaded Iraq, after the Mojahedin were captured as prisoners of war, the U.S. granted them the status of “protected persons”. According to official versions, the MEK was “voluntarily disarmed”. According to the unofficial version, the CIA and the Israeli Mossad is training the Mojahedin for their own benefit. So much so, that in January 2012, Ilan Mizrahi, former head of the secret Israeli intelligence service, disclosed the involvement of the Mojahedin in the “secret war” against Iran that had already cost the lives of four Iranian nuclear scientists. And thirdly, for years, U.S. politicians supported the Mojahedin cause as an instrument of pressure against the Iranian regime. “They speak Farsi and still maintain important contacts within the regime. Useful for the USA, justify the experts we consulted.

Of course what these experts do not believe is that this support is selfless. In the U.S. there are precedents. The New York Times reported years ago on the Mojahedin’s alleged bribery of influential politicians to support its cause. Then there was talk of fees of between 15,000 and 30,000 dollars; and even the former governor of Pennsylvania, Edward G. Rendell, had to face an investigation by the Department of Treasury of the United States for having taken more than 150,000 dollars from this group which was still included in the terrorism list at the time. And in the case of the European Union it is the same. DIGITAL STAR has unveiled two Spanish presidents attended meetings in Paris annually in June to take payments. “But other politicians who support them do not charge a euro”, Alejo Vidal- Quadras hastens to clarify. “In the world there are still regimes that crush human rights, such as Cuba , North Korea and Iran. I believe it is the duty of any democrat to help transform Iran into a democracy”, concludes the current president of Vox.

Who funds the Mojahedin?

The question still remains unresolved and the experts bring to the fore the question of where does the MEK get all the money it costs to maintain this important network of contacts and support . According to Vidal-Quadras, solely from the Iranians in the diaspora, “some of them are very wealthy”. Although other politicians we consulted doubt this. “I am not so naive to think that the contributions of all Iranians in exile are sufficient to maintain that infrastructure. I do not rule out that there may be powers that are instrumental in acting in their favor”, admits Gari Duran Sen. PP Baleares, and one of the Mojahedin’s greatest defenders in Spain. The USA , Israel and Saudi Arabia are among the possible hidden funders. Duran, however, says she does not care about that; “I have seen people on hunger strike, I have seen the pictures of the dead and have heard their mothers talk, and unless you have to conclude that this is a giant deception, to me it is real.”

The deaths of 40,000 Iranians during the Iraq- Iran war are attributed to the Mojahedin, as are the assassination of the Iranian president Ali Rajaei and Prime Minister Javad Bohanar and many Kurds, and the Mojahedin is now active in supporting the Syrian opposition. And in some reports by the UNHCR it confirms that this is a movement which does not respect human rights. But Vidal- Quadras does not give credence to any of these charges and insists it is Iranian propaganda. A message that its leader, Maryam Rajavi, constantly repeats in all the parliaments that she visits. She does so in Europe two times a year when she visits and has done so in Spain in December 2012 during a flying visit to Madrid where she also took the opportunity to meet with the mayor, Ana Botella – interestingly the wife of one of the politicians the Mojahedin paid in exchange for public support.

Elsa S. Vejo Destrella Digital (Digital Star), Translated by Iran Interlink

May 11, 2014 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Embrace of MEK shocking, deplorable

Editor’s note: The following is a response to an op-ed by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, "Team Obama keeps miscalculating Iran — ‘change’ under Rouhani is a mirage" that appeared in Fox News Opinion on May 7.

Mr. Guiliani’s warm embrace of the MEK terrorist organization is shocking and deplorable.

Journalists and think tanks across the world have sounded the alarm regarding the "cult-like" practices of the MEK, such as forcing members to give up their children in order to dedicate more time to the cause, and their decades long reign of terror and brutality has been well established by many including the U.S. Department of State when it designated it as terrorist organization in 1997 while describing it as a "repressive cult despised by most Iranians and Iraqis."

But through what the RAND Corp. called "cultic practices and its deceptive recruitment and public relations strategies" as well as giving millions of dollars to politicians and lobbyists in Washington — where it seems everyone has a price tag as campaign donation or "speakers fees," the MEK managed to get itself removed from the list.

It also should be noted that this group supported Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war and played a major role in the violent crackdown on the civilian uprising in the early 90s while living in Iraq as a private militia for Saddam Hussein.

The people of Iraq despise them and want them out, as well they should.

Hamid Babaei is counselor and head of the Press Office for the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations in New York.

By Hamid Babaei,

May 11, 2014 0 comments

Italy

Open letter of Nejat Society to Ms. Laura Boldrini,

The President of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy

Dear Madam,

Nejat Society is an NGO consisting of the former members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, MEK) and the families of present members trapped in Iraq in the hands of Massoud Rajavi.

As you are aware a 10-member delegation, headed by co-chairman of Iran-Italy parliamentary friendship group Ettore Rosato, arrived in Tehran on Saturday morning for a four-day visit.

Amongst the members of the delegation were some who signed petitions in favor of MKO to condemn the Islamic Republic of Iran and to support Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.

We requested the members of the delegation to visit the members of our society and the victims of this mind control destructive cult, but they refused to do so.

If these parliamentarians claim that they work for Human Rights, Freedom and Justice, and yet openly support the MKO; it would have been a fare policy to listen to the victims of the MKO who have suffered from the violation of Human Rights inside the organization.

The aim of Nejat Society to request visiting the Italian members of parliament was merely to find a way to rescue the members in Iraq and try to put them in contact with their families in Iran.

Surprisingly, they support a terrorist organization under the name of defending human rights, but they refuse to listen to the victims of this terrorist organization.

Yours faithfully

Nejat Society

Copy to:

President of the Italian Senate

The Head of the Italian delegation to Tehran

May 11, 2014 0 comments

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