The formerly terrorist designated Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) eat cake in the opening ceremony of their “sleek” office in Washington, just a hundred meter from the White House. The event was celebrated with a bunch of American outstanding figures who been greatly paid by the MKO to lobby the US congress and administration to get the group removed from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations of the US State Department."The former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton removed the MEK from its terrorist list last September after an intense lobbying Campaign that included millions of dollars paid to prominent lawmakers and former government officials", the Hill reported.[1]
US politicians who attended the fete included Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I) who had recently traveled to Sweden to speak at the group’s demonstration in Stockholm. Previous to the Stockholm gathering, Kennedy and his other comrades had been offered trips to Paris and other on first class fights and luxury hotels to speak on behalf of the group. Various reports on the large amounts of money paid to the MKO supporters point out that "Money" really "Talks".
Besides, the event indicated that the MKO propaganda has been roughly successful to whitewash its violent past and even the image it had as the assassin of the 6 US citizens in the 1970s. Haward LA Franchi of the Christian Science Monitor suggests, “From prominent former members of Congress to former national security officials and high-profile diplomats, the caliber of the American advocates on hand for the ribbon-cutting demonstrated how effective the Iranian opposition organization has been at transforming its image – from that of a fringe group with a violent past to one in which it is the embodiment of the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people.”[2]
The news of the opening on the website of the MKO propaganda arm the NCRI comes with the 10point plan Maryam Rajavi had declared for “ a future Iran” in April 2006.
The first item of the alleged plan claims to consider the ballot box as “the only criterion for legitimacy “. The claim by a cult-like group sounds ridiculous. Even in the media note the office of the spokesperson of the State department released on delisting of the MKO in September 2012, the Department expresses " serious concerns “about the group,” particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members” [3]. The reports on human rights abuses committed in the MKO published by HRW and RAND institution based on testimonies of former member of the group and eye-witnesses who visited the group camps might be the origin of the DOS’s concerns.
The title “President Elect of the Iranian Resistance” referring to Maryam Rajavi never symbolizes her claim of “the ballot box”. Who elected Maryam Rajavi as the President Elect?
As Maryam Rajavi calls the upcoming Iranian election a “sham”, videos and documents indicate that as her "ideological" leader – read Cult Guru- Massoud Rajavi ordered her to become the so-called President of the Resistance. A quick search in Youtube on the election of Maryam Rajavi provides you with no "ballot box".
The leaders of the MKO are widely accused of running a notorious cult of personality. Elizabeth Rubin of the New York Times Magazine who visited Camp Ashraf in 2003 and whose famous article “The Cult of Rajavi” is still considered as one of the most reliable sources on the MKO, again in 2011 advised Secretary Clinton to ignore the group’s propaganda. she suggested,” Mujahedin Khalq is not only irrelevant to the cause of Iran’s democratic activists, but a totalitarian cult that will come back to haunt us.”[4]
By the way, Mrs. Clinton ignored the advises of the MKO critics and delisted it in September 2012. However, Daniel Larison of the American Conservative asserts that the “delisting of the MEK was mostly a quid pro que to get most of the group members in Iraq to relocate from its old base at Camp Ashraf.”[5]
Regarding the MKO undemocratic cult-like substance Larison writes,” many of the people at Camp Ashraf were being held there against their will “and “it remains on its own organization a totalitarian quasi Marxist cult”.[6]
Comparing the fifth item of Mrs. Rajavi’s Ten-Point plan for the Future of Iran with what Elizabeth Rubin eye witnessed in Camp Ashraf, expresses the fraudulent PR of the MKO. “When I arrived at Camp Ashraf, the base of the group’s operations, in April 2003, I thought I’d entered a fictional world of female worker bees. Everywhere I saw women dressed exactly alike, in Khaki uniforms and mud-colored scarves…“Rubin writes. [7]
This is “the right to choose their clothing” Maryam Rajavi promises Iranian women! And about the “freedom of marriage, divorce, education and employment” that Maryam Rajavi claims, Rubin reports,” Members were even forced to divorce and take avow of lifelong celibacy of ensure that all their energy and love would be directed toward Maryam and Massoud.”[8]
As the Hill reports the group PR admits that the opening of its office is “consistent with” its “ expanding efforts inside and outside Iran aimed at bringing democratic change to Iran and the timing could not be better with the failure of the nuclear talks and the upcoming Presidential election in Iran.” The MKO boasts of warm relationship with US policymakers saying that the opening of its office “sends the strong political message to Tehran that the real Iranian opposition is back in business. And it is just across from the White House.[9]
Ostensibly according to the MKO leaders to bring democracy to Iran, you need to have the support of the US not the Iranian people. The MKO have been “in business” with the enemies of their people since their expulsion from Iran –once sheltered by Saddam Hussein and now under the umbrella of Israel and the U.S. “The MEK is an awful group all on its own” and "hated in Iran for its long period of collusion with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war and afterwards “,Daniel Larison states.[10]
The MKO is probably the most hated political group among Iranians. The upcoming Iranian election is not the first one which is boycotted by the MKO. After the early elections in the Islamic Republic in which Maryam and Massoud Rajavi were not support by the Iranian public and government, the elections in Iran have been boycotted by the MKO!
Regarding the aggressive lobbying campaign the MKO has launched since a decade in western capitals particularly Washington DC, opening of the MKO office in downtown Washington appears to have no significant impact on the Iran-U.S. relations, let alone on Iranian internal affairs including the June elections. Nevertheless as Rubin says the group may happen to "haunt” the West.
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] Pacquet, Julian, Iran’s MEK to open Washington office, the Hill, April9, 2013
[2]La Franchi, Howard, For former Iranian ‘terrorists’ a warm Washington welcome, The Christian Science Monitor, April 11, 2013
[3]U.S. Department of State, delisting of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, Office of the spokesperson, September28,2012
[4] Rubin, Elizabeth, An Iranian Cult and its American friends ,the New York Times, August13, 2011
[5] Larison, Daniel, The “Rehabilitation” of the MEK, the American Conservative ,April16, 2013
[6]ibid
[7] Rubin, Elizabeth, An Iranian Cult and its American friends ,the New York Times, August13, 2011
[8]ibid
[9] Pacquet, Julian, Iran’s MEK to open Washington office, the Hill, April9, 2013
[10] Larison, Daniel, The “Rehabilitation” of the MEK, the American Conservative ,April16, 2013