+ One article by M. Eftekhari is about Massoud Rajavi. He compares Rajavi with Don Quixote; how, as much as people tell him he is living in a dream world, he is still fighting windmills. He says the difference between the fictional and real character is that Rajavi is forcing others to go to their deaths for his madness.
++ This week’s guests on Mardom TV were Massoud Jabani and Mohammad Razaghi. They explained in detail various aspects of how the MEK deceive and con people on the internet and in real time to get money out of them. They also talked about how the MEK treated their own members in their prisons and their relations with the Israeli right wing. Massoud Jabani has described the MEK as ‘living as a wedge in the gap’, meaning they find a gap and jump into it. Their whole existence is and has been to work against peace and to live on war.
++ The MEK announcement this week that they had discovered a new nuclear site in Iran was ignored by news outlets. Many critics have written about why the MEK has done this and why they chose a notorious torturer in Saddam’s prisons, Mehdi Abrishamchi, to front this. Some say the MEK is ‘more Catholic than Netanyahu’. So that while Netanyahu at least works hard to save face in his own country to survive the criticism that he is torpedoing the nuclear talks, Rajavi has become a liability for all his backers by jumping in and declaring ‘I am a western mercenary’, and he won’t go away. Others refer to the past history of the MEK and how they pretended to be anti-Israeli just a decade ago. On the subject of Abrishamchi, many have pointed out the fact that although he is a dirty face, he has been chosen because he is the first husband of Maryam Rajavi and ever since he was forced to be the first to congratulate his wife on divorcing him and marrying his closest friend he has been kept as part of this threesome.
++ The bombing at Iran’s embassy in Lebanon was so horrifying that it was condemned by every side, US, Russia, Europe etc. The MEK were the only so-called opposition which did not condemn it, and this led some people to the interpretation that they were involved; evidenced by their support for Jaish Al Adl and other groups just a week before. These critics believe the MEK are not capable of being used as a terrorist group and are now being used as cheerleaders for terrorism.
++ In Iraq, Valid Alhelli MP, from the governing coalition, referred in an interview to the MEK’s massacre of many Iraqis in the north and south on the order of Saddam Hussein. He reiterated that their presence in Iraq violates the Iraqi constitution.
++ Abbas Albayati MP, from Iraq’s Security and Defence Committee also mentioned the MEK in an interview, saying, ‘we see no difference between this group, Al Qaida and the terrorist groups working in Syria. Therefore we have to dismantle their system and throw them out.’
++ Five hundred participants attended a Seminar at Baghdad University on November 16 on the subject of terrorism and specifically the Mojahedin Khalq. The Seminar was organised by Dr. Nafeh Isa and included several NGOs, many members of parliament and other officials who attended and gave speeches. Adnan Alshahmani, member of the Security and Defence Committee responsible for overseeing the expulsion of the MEK from the country, referred to the European Union and its responsibility to be active in taking in these people as soon as possible. He said, ‘the EU told us clearly they would remove the MEK from the terrorism list in order to allow them to come to Europe. But although they did the first part, they have not done the latter’. He said, ‘I can understand they have the same problem we have with this group and they are afraid of accepting them on their own soil, but they have promised something and they have not done it’.
Adnan Seraj head of the Information Centre of Iraq gave a speech and referred to documents which show the MEK are still part of the security problem of Iraq and should therefore be dealt with as criminals under the law. He reminded participants that 50 MEK leaders are wanted by international courts and Interpol, and 126 are fugitives wanted by Iraqi courts. Mazhar Abbas head of the Bani Tamin tribe spoke on behalf of all the tribes who have come together to unanimously demand the expulsion of the MEK from Iraq. An exhibition of pictures, documents and books was also on display. Among the prominent speakers was Dr Mowafaq Al Rubai, former national security advisor to the government. He emphasised that it is unfortunate that there is still some support within some circles for this terrorist group. He said they should not be in any doubt that this mistake will, sooner or later, bear a heavy price as the MEK are trained by Saddam’s Republican Guard and have no respect for the life of anyone. Many of the MEK have moved to these camps because they were fugitives in either European, North American or other countries.
The MEK reacted not after the event but the day before under then pseudonym of the NCRI, threatening that anyone who attends tomorrow will be known as an agent of the intelligence ministry of Iran.
++ In the ongoing saga of the hunger strike, it has now passed the 80th day and since it has become ridiculous the MEK announced that a few individuals have been transferred to hospital just before they nearly died. The MEK are under severe criticism by their own supporters. They say that the deaths of 36 and then 52 in Camp Ashraf are not enough for Rajavi and he still needs more blood by trying to kill them under the pretext of hunger strike. Many criticise Rajavi saying that although he claims to know that the seven missing people are being held by Iraq, he never shows any evidence to say how. Hadi Afshar (Saeed Jamali) has addressed Rajavi directly with the challenge that ‘Maryam Rajavi’s latest show in Paris last week was attended by what she calls 600 VIPs. Couldn’t these 600 help the remaining people get out of Iraq or could they not be helpful in presenting your documents – which you claim to have – in a court in the West.’
++ In America, in answer to Ros Lehtinan – the MEK’s main benefactor in the Senate and Head of the Middle East sub-committee of the Foreign Affairs Committee – the State Department representative who recently visited Camp Liberty said he has evidence that the seven missing people are not in the hands of Iraq.
++Irandidban has published an article with bullet points demonstrating that Rajavi is trying to somehow eliminate the seven missing people, For example, Rajavi claims that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard have been working with the Iraqi government to kidnap only seven people. He then announces that every day they are under torture and will be killed soon. When on 13th November a representative from the US Department of State answered that there is evidence they are not in the hands of Iraq, the MEK give no reaction but pretended nothing had been said and instead asked President Obama to intervene on their behalf with the government of Iraq. It can be read from these actions that Rajavi wants to kill them and blame Iran and Iraq.
++ An article on Irandidban website describes Rajavi as swinging from one benefactor to another after the fall of Saddam and refers to the latest speech by Maryam Rajavi who claims that all terrorist activity, from Al Qaida to Hizbollah, and what happens in Yemen and Syria, are all part of a network of terrorism run from Tehran. And on top of all this the nuclear bomb which Iran has is no longer aimed at Europe but is now aimed at Saudi Arabia. Her solution is that because Iran is anti-Arab therefore all the Arab countries should unite – presumably under the umbrella of Rajavi – to fight Iran. Maryam Rajavi has forgotten that she was thrown out of Iraq and is being kept in France for a rainy day and that her so-called backing of Syrian terrorists has backfired and neither the West nor Arab countries would want the MEK to be part of any of their activities let alone gather under her umbrella. Basically she is talking nonsense.
++ Hamed Sarafpoour has responded to an article by Esmail Vafa Yaghmai who writes in detail about the mentality of a member of the MEK; basically, short of naming it a cult, describes exactly how a cult operates. Sarafpour has welcomed his progress, that he can see that much, but reminds him that those who have previously gone through this know he has not gone halfway yet to understand how he and others have been affected. He encourages Yaghmai to continue undergoing this difficult process of understanding in order to help himself and others.
++Many refer to Rajavi’s advertising that the hunger strikers are going to die, including Maryam Sanjabi who has published some facts about Rajavi’s use of his followers’ blood over the history of the organisation. She concludes that nobody but Rajavi himself is responsible for this.
++ Mohammad Rahbar, a famous green movement leader, noted on Ruzonline where Mehdi Abrishamchi, who announced the so-called nuclear discovery earlier this week, has come from; how he became a member of Saddam’s Security Services, how he stayed alive during Operation Eternal Light by staying well behind the lines and how he survived the bombardment of Iraq and ended up with Maryam Rajavi in Paris. Rahbar says to Abrishamchi, ‘instead of finding ridiculous ‘sites’ and telling stories to the rest of the world, you should come clean and explain, among other things, how your wife suddenly became your sister and married your friend.”
++ Hadi Afshar published an article about the hunger strike called ‘removing all trace’. He points out that many people don’t really know who Rajavi is unless they have lived with him. When the Americans invaded Iraq in 2003 Rajavi ordered that everybody’s cupboard, every supporter’s house and every archive of the MEK be searched to remove the history of the MEK so they wouldn’t find anything anti-American. Afshar says Rajavi and the world know that four witnesses are better than two in a court of law and therefore the hunger strike is aimed at killing as many as possible who are witness to his activities. “Rajavi claims that 7 members were taken hostage by Iraqis and Iranians, I’m not sure about that but I clearly see that the rest of the 3000 have been taken hostage by Rajavi himself and he will do his utmost to kill every one of them to remove any trace of his crimes.”
++ Adel Azami wrote a short article directed at Massoud Rajavi in which he refers to some of the letters which had been forcefully obtained from members and which the MEK publish. One of them published this week had been supposedly written by Ismael Yaghmai 30 years ago, and judged against his current position the MEK now claim he has betrayed the organisation. Azami says, “Rajavi. Your corrupt ideology and your criminal activities can only be considered as betrayal since 30 years ago our agreement with you was not that you sell us to Saddam Hussein, nor that you give information about Iranian people to the army of Iran’s enemy during the eight year war, nor that against every interest of the people of Iran who are suffering under sanctions and hardship you go hand in hand with Netanyahu and push for war against the Iranian people. We agreed that you be our leader, not go into hiding for ten years. If, in your opinion, that letter shows the progress of Yaghmai’s betrayal, then what can we call what you have done over thirty years. You have changed your word, not Yaghmai.”
November 22, 2013