++ Many people have reacted to Massoud Rajavi’s audio tape in which he threatens to kill his critics. In sum they point to three main issues.
1. When Rajavi talks like this, which he has done before, it shows his desperation, and this is due to opening the gates of Camp Liberty.
2. For the attention of those advocates who say they are not a terrorist group, Rajavi clearly says in this tape that the MEK has killed and will kill people in Europe.
3. It is emphasised that any attack on people in Europe cannot be blamed on the head of a terrorist cult. It is the responsibility of the police and security services in the Western countries where these attacks take place. In particular France, which hosts the MEK, where many violent attacks take place. But no country can absolve itself of responsibility.
++ Iran Ghalam (Iranian Pen), interviewed Mohammad Hossein Sobhani about the threatening audio tape. Sobhani made the above points but goes into great detail about Rajavi’s personal history and the conclusions that can be drawn. He says that while Rajavi uses terrorism to push his way, the critics and former members will use the media to expose him and the law to bring him personally to justice. Sobhani lists the murders that Rajavi was personally responsible for during the time of the Shah, and then describes what Rajavi did in prison, how he plotted and schemed against his fellow prisoners. After the Revolution Rajavi took to killing people and blaming others. Sobhani talks about Abu Ghraib, and the regime of silencing internal critics, as well as Rajavi’s collaboration with the Israelis and Mossad. Sobhani lists the people that Rajavi tried to get rid of, like former President Abol Hassan Bani Sadr, and the character assassination of many others. Sobhani concludes that from the first day to this day, Rajavi had no other job except killing people he saw as rivals. He has never faced a direct enemy, only targeting his political and social rivals – including friends and family – who are named in the article. Sobhani says that Rajavi was, and is, main obstacle to progress toward democracy in Iran; the best gift to the hardliners of Iran.
++ A second group of Camp Liberty residents have arrived in Albania taking the total this time to 233. According to the Iraqis and other sources in Albania, about 50 were so ill they were taken straight to hospital in Tirana. Another 50 are well known internal critics who didn’t want to stay with the MEK and who have been under pressure for a long time. These will soon separate from the MEK. People in Albania who recognise some of the new arrivals have made the names of 24 of them public. Other names will be made public in due course. Rajavi’s internal critics in the West are asking why Rajavi is so afraid of being made public, and ask why, if there is a valid reason, their families are not informed privately.
++ The MEK’s presence to protest the Vienna nuclear negotiation drew ridicule from inside Iran. A reporter with Jahan News simply published pictures of the MEK demo in Vienna, in which some three or four people are shown with around twenty flags planted in the ground. Another reporter writes: During my work I came across an Israeli man who was going about his business in the buildings. He asked me “Are you Iranian?” When I replied in the affirmative, he said “I am a Zionist, and I believe that you and Iran are my enemy, and I am sure you feel the same toward me. But having said that, as a patriotic Israeli I can’t stand the sight of these MEK people. Even as a mercenary force willing to act for us, we shouldn’t degrade ourselves by association with them.” Another Iranian newspaper article is titled, ‘The master accepts, but the servant is still shouting”. This refers to Maryam Rajavi’s pronouncements in favour of Israel and her complaint ‘why is war not an option?’ The paper translated her Western speeches into Farsi.
In English:
++ An Open Letter by Iran Ghalam (Iranian Pen Club) to major international bodies warns against Massoud Rajavi’s audio tape in which he threatens to kill his critics in Europe. The letter also explains that Rajavi doesn’t want to protect the lives of people in Camp Liberty in spite of the threat of ISIS in Iraq, and calls on international humanitarian bodies to do more to help the residents.
++ Reporting on the nuclear negotiations, Fars News writes that Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan “underlined that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has come to realize that the allegations raised by enemies and the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, PMOI and NCRI) against Tehran’s nuclear program have all been fake and wrong.” Dehqan continued, “It wasn’t the sanctions which pushed us to the negotiating table; rather we just wanted to prove that we don’t want anything but our rights, and that the westerners are bullying… The Islamic Republic also displayed to the world (through these talks) that its red lines cannot be threatened at all.”
++ Open Letter of 60 ex members of MEK to the Members of the European Parliament.
“The leaders of the MEK do not cooperate in any shape or form with the UNCHR and/or other UN bodies in charge of the transfer and resettling these Iranians from camp Liberty to other counties. The announcement of solidarity by a number of MEPs with the residents of camp Liberty and asking for assurance regarding their security and safety will have no effect in helping these individuals. On the contrary it only encourages the leaders of the Mojahedin Khalq more to try to keep them in Iraq and evade any cooperation with the UNHCR.
“No one is safe and no one has security in the current situation of war torn Iraq and as you are aware hundreds of people in Iraq get killed and/or injured on daily basis through bombings and similar atrocities in various parts of the country. Even the employees of the UN who were stationed near camp Liberty to carry out interviews and meetings with the individual members of the MEK have left their place due to the dangerous situation of the area – close to the airport – and the threat of ISIS.
“The leaders of the MEK emphasise only the need for protection and security for these Iranians in the camp and never promote or even mention the need to transfer them out of Iraq. Above that, the leadership of the MEK by demanding the transfer of the whole organisation (and not individuals) has put in place demands which in practice make it impossible to transfer people according to the laws and regulations of the UNCHR.”
November 28, 2014