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Rajavi; set your body on fire to defend Ashraf

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part nine

Sahar Family Foundation: In our last talk you pointed out that the prerequisite for membership in Rajavi; set your body on fire to defend Ashraf the organization is to volunteer for self-immolation. Does it mean that the organization reacts against the reluctant and how does it deal with such instances?

Batool Soltani: The organization takes no clear position to directly confront in such instances. To answer the question, we need to conduct a deep analysis of a whole organizational reaction against already confronted cases. There was a female colleague who had refused to volunteer for self-immolation but the organization showed no antagonistic attitude towards her before others. It was not the end of the story and the organization commanded me to watch her closely since they believed that she was in trouble with herself and cared not the least for the organization. They would justify that now even ten days after the detention of Maryam in France, she had refrained to be an abstentious volunteer. In fact, the organization avoided to tackle with these members just before the eyes of others and pretended to overlook them. In this way, many others would be impressed to join the side of majority since the impartiality proved to be a working propaganda to attract more than to repel. Furthermore, nobody could accuse the organization of coercing members into acts of suicide and the acts would be propagated as personal outbursts of passion and consequent of strong devotion to the ideology, Maryam and Massoud. The process of indirect control of the disobedient would continue until through an excuse they would be seriously censured. There were some among the rankings of the Leadership Council who refused to volunteer for suicide operations but after a while were suddenly evanesced from the council. In my opinion, the use of clever mechanisms of control to undermine the dissidents functioned much better than exploiting levers of pressure and coercion. And so far it has succeeded to expand glorification of suicide operation as a token of devotion among the insiders.

SFF: You have already stated that self-immolation as a kind of suicide operation has been innovated by the organization. Can you say exactly when the organization selected it as a working lever, and who was the first to suggest it and for what reason?

BS: Well, I have already explained that the suicide operation is not new but was innate in An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations organization from its very formation.

SFF: I mean in its novel form of self-immolation.

BS: Well, it was first conducted to be committed in 17 June operations. We have never witnessed it before.
SFF: To make it more clear, when it was first suggested as a solution and by whom?

BS: It returns to Massoud Rajavi’s last meeting in Camp Ahraf before the fall of Saddam. It was a well known meeting called ‘the meeting of flag’. Of course, the issue was not explicitly mentioned there but it was later discussed in a meeting of the Leadership Council that what should have to be done to defend if Saddam collapsed and Camp Ashraf came under unexpected threat from the outside. For the first time Massoud suggested self-burning as a defensive advantage to safeguard Ashraf. He frankly stated that to repel any threat intended to dismantle Camp Ashraf all had to sacrifice and set themselves on fire. Of course, at the time the organization was not suffering the deteriorating condition of being disarmed and it was still equipped with a variety of heavy and light weapons that could defend itself to some extent. But it seemed that Rajavi was anticipating a near future of invasion that could seriously challenge the organization before it could use its arms. So the best defensive measure was resolved by Rajavi to be suicide through self-immolation. We never saw Massoud again till the manifestation of his novel suggestion in the incidents of 17 June.

SFF: To remind you, I have to point out that the issue of self-immolation emerged for the first time in the letters of the members who wrote them to Massoud Rajavi following his ideological revolution as an indication of devotion to him and his revolution. I remember a letter in Jafarzadeh’s handwriting published by a website in which he had volunteered to commit self-immolation to show his loyalty. These letters date back to 1985 and I mean to say that the issue was first proposed at that time as the letters indicate. Furthermore, even when France was expelling some members to Gabon, Maryam Rajavi is quoted to have said Massoud Rajavi had stopped remonstrant self-immolations as a raised objection against the decision taken by France. Your reference to the meeting dates back to 2002, then, can you remember any earlier occasion when the issue came under notice?

BS: To correct, I was not in the organization at the time you are referring to. I joined in mid 1980s and I have seen none of the things you say in the sources published by the organization.

SFF: All of the instances I stated you can find in the publications of the organization if you have access to them.

BS: It seems that my information as a member of the organization fails to surpass that of yours. I would be grateful if you could give me the address to these sources.

August 6, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

No suicide operation unless commanded by the organization

Sahar Family Foundation: Will you explain when for the first time you came to know about the suicide operation in the organization and how did they justify it and give trainings?

Batool Soltani: The first time I was notified about the sacrosanct suicide operation was when I was under political-ideological trainings to be accepted within, to be exact, when I was a trainee member studying the history of the organization. In the course of the discourses it happened to talk about Reza Rezai, as the first martyr of the organization and the first reverent suicide. The organization highly termed it the sacrosanct suicide operation and tried to inspire us with it.

They explained that when Reza was ringed by police, he detonated a hand grenade killing himself along with a number of SAVAK agents. Then they began to give reasons for his daring act saying not only he eluded being arrested alive but also destroyed his arms, information and his body to frustrate the agents’ attempt to have access to them. He was presented as an organizational archetype for the members to follow, a hero whose adherents could never be hindered to accomplish organizational ends. In fact, by the story they intended to mark some points. First, the aspiring members had to bear in mind that a devoted Mojahed disappointed the enemy even in obtaining access to his body.

Second, it was a daring act that needed ultimate bravery one could ever achieve; in the course of trainings, recruits thought it was the last stage a combatant could make it through the stages of the struggle and thus, the trainings seemed much valuable and we tried to comprehend and learn them as fully as we could. In many occasion, for instance, Massoud Rajavi reiterated that Reza deprived the enemy of accessing his information and even his arms and body. Of course, his words were much influential to create a sacramental atmosphere to halo the act and Reza, in this particular phase of trainings, became the sole archetype that could well inspire the trainees with courage, and he did indeed.

SFF: what was specific in Rezai that they made an archetype out of him?

BS: As I pointed out, he was displayed a paragon in some manners especially in his confrontation with police and an example of one with many potentialities that could be followed as a model. Maybe they had anticipated that they could successfully meet organizational ends through these suicide operations and the forces had to be prepared psychologically to carry out the mission. Besides, any training requires a certain model and there was no better match in the organization than Rezai to exemplify for others. Another point about him was his mental potentiality as well as his physical. He was illustrated to be much active in his clashes but he was also mentally competent in analytical and theoretical issues. Perhaps they meant that a combatant had to attain a high versatility but easily sacrifice himself. That is to say, even the mental potentialities of a formidably intellect member hat to in no way interfere with the commitment to the suicide act. These were all aspects of the illustrated archetype that could practically influence the trainees.

SFF: In what level of background did they arrange for this discourse?

BS: Everyone in the organization has to necessarily undergo these instructions, even if some had already passed them. It made no difference; any recruit had to pass through these discourses which the suicide operation was an inseparable part. Even I, a ranking member of the leadership Council, was constantly exposed to these discourses. It was an issue of high priority on the agenda before the leadership when the organization reached a critical stalemate. In the process of dispatching operation teams across the Iranian borders to carry out operations inside Iran, the prerequisite was a proclaimed preparedness for committing suicide. They were thoroughly checked and approved by higher ranks before they were assigned for the mission. The responsible ranks tested them to make sure they would break and swallow their cyanide capsules or did other self-annihilation actions when sensing danger. The interesting point in all these was that a second fellow had to give a pledge that his comrade committed self-annihilation and promised that his comrade would certainly destroy himself in face of danger and in any possible way.

In general, it is a responsibility all have to assume in the organization. Before the invasion of the US against Iraq, for instance, all members took the responsibility of committing suicide by chewing their cyanide capsules if Camp Ashraf would be invaded by the US forces or any threat of arrest, security inspection or else would foreshadow the camp. We had also preplanned arrangements for committing suicide by Cyanide and spilling petrol or ethanol over bodies. We were told to kill or set ourselves on fire if the US forces ventured to enter the camp to start a house by house inspection. Even later and in course of the US’s deployment of forces in the region, we were routinely checked to make sure we were in the state of readiness. Even among the cadres of the Leadership Council they were making a firm stand on self-annihilation if any threat would be posed against the camp by any forces being them Iraqis, Americans, Iranians and Kurds. It was discussed in details how to perpetrate the deed when the right time came: the members had taken the responsibility of reciprocally setting each other on fire by the means of petrol, ethanol and other flammable substances.

In the Leadership Council we were frequently notified that anybody had to be prepared for being killed or suicide. It has always been a key point in varying phases of the organization. In the phase of venture operations, the operatives’ priority was to commit suicide by chewing the carried cyanides, a commitment that the members had to be again checked for its performance in the phase of the US invasion. It was exactly what happened in the case of the 17 June self-immolations; everything was already provided for the operations and the volunteers were only ready for the signal to begin.

SFF: How they assessed and discussed the suicide operations in the Leadership Council? In how many possible ways could they be committed and under what literature they could be justified?

BS: There was a certain book in which an article especially focused on the suicide operation and definitely on the issue of arbitrary suicides. It mainly argued that an act of suicide could be appraised worthwhile and valuable only if committed under some organizational instruction and command; otherwise it was worthless and liable to criticism and belittled by the organization. It was even worse if it was a suicide done in objection to the organization; the perished body was then nothing but a corpse on the hands of the organization.

Even the bodies of these opponent suicides were buried in a different graveyard outside far from Camp Ashraf. The suicides had to be justified according to organizational line of ideology and principles as stated earlier and the cadres of the Leadership Council were not exceptional but on the front-line with the priority of using guns and cyanides. Soon after guns and cyanides were collected and confiscated, petrol and ethanol were replaced as the alternate means. None of the self-burnings done in France were arbitrary but justified organizationally; otherwise they failed to be glorified as they did. In one case, inside Camp Ashraf, a member called Rasoul, blinded in one of military operations, set himself on fire in protest against one of the articles of the ideological revolution called ”article D” (it was about superiority of women over men in all levels of organizational relations and activities). His commission infuriated Rajavi who stated that his act done in opposition to such an issue was denigrated and did not qualify a devoted member to be buried in Ashraf graveyard where the martyrs had been buried. The news of his suicide was heavily censored and they belittled it as a contemptuous act in the organization.

SFF: When they began to collect cyanides?

BS: Once Marjan Akbari snitched the cyanide belonging to her responsible rank and killed herself. Her suicide was masqueraded and reported to be a heart attack but all cadres of the Leadership Council knew the truth about her death and from then on they collected all cyanides. In one occasion, the American forces got suspicious of existing cyanides in Camp Ashraf and began to search for them but they had all been already collected and hidden in a secure place. Of course, at the same time all cadres of the Leadership Council carried capsules.

SFF: Did not Americans know that the organization had cyanides?

BS: It seems that at first they did not, but later on they began to suspect and search for them. As a result, all cyanides were collected and delivered to Zohreh Akhyani and the members were told to seek for alternative working means of suicide. However, it was resolved that in case of any threat against Camp Ashraf, the cyanides had to be distributed among the cadres of the Leadership Council.

SFF: What was the substitute for the cyanides?

BS: Both petrol and ethanol. There were even some places where they distributed the flammable liquids for the purpose of suicide.

To be continued

Translated by Mojahedin.ws – July 1, 2009

July 1, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Masud Rajavi’s Marriages

Memoirs of Ms. Batoul Soltani – Part 16
Before my involvement with MKO I had no indication of Masud’s marriages. I just knew that Rajavi had fled from Iran but I didn’t have any idea of what had happened after he left Iran along with Masud Rajavi got married with Firouzeh Banisadr Banisadr. I had no idea about the "ideological marriage"! In 1981, when the office of MKO in Iran was shutdown, I was studying at school and I was completely unaware of activities of the organization. At high school I expressed some sort of opposition. For Example I complained about inspecting students’ bags at schools or why they forced the students to take part in group prayers. These were my challenges against the regime. In fact, I didn’t have enough knowledge about MKO in the way that I could arrange my activities along with their goals. Basically, all the information I could get about MKO, Masud and Maryam Rajavi, and the Ideological Revolution was in 1985 and 1986 when I arrived into the organization. When I entered into the group, I started knowing about the elevations in their movements.

During the training process that I passed after I entered into MKO, they never dealt with Masud’s marriage with Firouzeh Banisadr in open organizational arguments. Later on, it was discussed in the higher levels of the Leadership Council. In 1994, we had a meeting in which the arguments about the MKO’s second founders were presented and Masud pointed out his marriage with Firouzeh. I don’t think the issue was transmitted to the meetings in lower levels of the group. Masud said that he was forced to marry her due to political affairs and this was the cost he had to pay to maintain the existence of the National Council of Resistance and Abul Hassan Banisadr as an ally in NCRI. Actually he claimed that he was not willing to marry her but he did it for political interests only. As he said, he wanted to make a family relationship with Banisadr in order to prevent him getting close to the Islamic Republic. He claimed that Banisadr’s position against the Islamic Republic was not clear and he was likely to return back to it. In fact, Rajavi wanted to say that his marriage was supposed to be an obstacle to stop Banisadr tending towards the Iranian Regime. He only spoke of such an issue in private meetings of the Leadership Council and never presented it in lower ranks.

When I entered into the organization, the members were not able to think of these questions at all, since the superiors assigned so many duties for the members that they never found time to think about such questions. They even were sensitive about what members were reading or were thinking about. I don’t remember that I made any questions on this issue during broader meetings. But since I left the organization, I have thought on it and I believe that they didn’t talk about it because they wanted to hide Rajavi’s immoral or sensual desires.

When I got to knew it for the first time, it was long after my involvement with MKO; I asked myself why they avoided talking about it while they discussed a lot of other unimportant cases for a long time. Deep in my mind, I guessed that it was to cover Rajavi’s sensuality. They had nothing to say about that marriage. On the other hand, they always voiced Masud’s marriage with Maryam Qajar Azdanlu discussing its outcome. ”This marriage is the path that leads you to be dissolved in the leadership. Members should abandon their spouses " they asserted. So how could they justify or theorize the marriage of Masud Rajavi with Firouzeh Banisadr. I suppose that they didn’t mention it because of the sensual motives behind that marriage.

Until four years after my involvement with MKO I had no idea of that marriage at all. Nothing could be found in the archive or media of the organization. You should find no news or analysis on this second marriage in MKO’s resources.

I even think that a large number of forces have no idea about it.

When I was aware of such a marriage, I wanted to learn more about her but I never asked a question. I remember a meeting where a woman stood up and asked: ”what was Firouzeh’s case?” Maryam immediately replied but she didn’t make it clear, she just said: ”Firouzeh is still in love with Masud and she’s not married since her divorce from Masud”. Actually, Maryam wanted to promote Masud’s personality. Also she noted that their marriage was in result of a public suggestion and due to an organizational decision so she explained that the marriage, as well as the divorce, was imposed to Masud Rajavi. She meant that Masud didn’t want to divorce Firouzeh because he didn’t find it moral but the public opinion forced him to do so.

It is worth knowing that she used the same justification for her own marriage with Masud. She clearly said:”I imposed myself to Masud and caused him to go under accusations but I wanted to put away all obstacles and to belong to the leader, not to any other man. I just wanted to walk along the leader.’ She said the fact that she didn’t want to be owned by another man is opposed to leadership’s ideal. She discussed it for both men and women inside the group.

Translated by Nejat Society

June 23, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq 's Function

Mujahedin and manipulation of religion

There are arguments that Mojahedin from the very beginning have put emphasis on having adopted a fundamentally religious ideology. It cannot be denied since at the time when the MKO and manipulation of religion organization started its activities, it was mainly due to the specific social, political and religious conditions of the society rather than sincere faith in religion that made the organization to make such claims. In fact, the early Mojahedin were very anxious to create an ideology that justifiably approved armed struggle according to Islamic decrees.

In fact, Ideology is a tool best utilized by Mojahedin leadership for the fulfillment of his political and cultic objectives and through which he has so far lured a remarkable amount of sympathizers. It has played a crucial role in the development of the organization up to now and has served a variety of historical, social, and political purposes. Mojahedin had well perceived that the emotional essence of religion rose out of spontaneous mass agitations and the collective passions these generated. It could draw masses into the streets, arm them with the smallest weapons to highest effectiveness, and could instigate a revolution as it could distract an already started one.

Basically having adopted an eclectic Islamic-Marxist ideology, the ideology of the organization, through its history and in any phase, depended much on the main objectives it pursued and functioned as a pretext for the fulfillment of its objectives. On the one hand, they looked at it instrumentally with regard to political and social conditions of the society; on the other hand, some others have extracted the necessity of struggle from religious doctrines. However, religion has been considered mainly as a means to achieve political goals.

The first ostensive move in this respect is the occurrence of the ideological schism of the organization into Islamic and Marxist wings due to the fact that some members came to believe that religion in itself was not capable to solve all social and political challenges of the society. Therefore, it was deemed necessary to replace the eclectic ideology of the organization with a clearly unveiled one that well defined their position in the path of the struggle they followed. Although the former wing claimed to have remained loyal to Islamic principles, it was nothing but a mere sham.

As Torab Haqshenas, an ex-Mojahedin member in states when giving details on dualistic views of Mojahedin on the form of religion and ideology they had to adhere to, “Mojahedin tried to confirm the fundamental concepts of their ideology by means of religion that was intermingled with the [Iranian] dominant and conventional culture. Therefore, they had to be cautious about whatever could be regarded as anti-religion and they justified whatever they told according to Quran. For example, if members theorized that working was of great value, they had to present evidences from the Quran.”

The following events, especially after the beginning of the Islamic regime in Iran, brought to surface what the organization had long masqueraded as Islamic ideology. As it was expelled from Iran and it had no more any hope of winning the Iranian people’s support, it had to search for the ways to preserve the remnant of its body to survive. Now the ideology had to be abused as an instrument to advance certain non-collective interests and to secure authoritarian hegemony of Rajavi. Considering the course of events after the beginning of ideological revolution within MKO well clarifies the organization’s real intention and how Rajavi in all these years had misused ideology and religion in order to justify his egocentrically made decisions.

His so-called ideological marriage with Maryam Azodanlu, considered to be a turning point in the history of the organization, was an evident example of misusing religion for his selfish, egocentric ends. Although Rajavi made justifications for this revolutionary move with a focus on religious values, nobody doubted that Rajavi was heretically misusing off course. In the amazement of the majority of the members neither Maryam Azodanlu’s divorce from her husband, Mehdi Abrishamchi, nor her immediate remarriage with Rajavi corresponded with Islamic conventions.

Rajavi exploited religion and the ideology that was intended to help advance a struggle for a certain cause; he abused it for the establishment of a most anti-social phenomenon that somehow makes people have a jaundiced view of religion that is a cult. He accredited himself a god-like and prophetic status whose mission was, and still is, to guide not only his followers but the world. The mere claim of being a cult’s maharishi with a developed eclectic ideology is enough to jeopardize the security and well-being of any society. The problem is even greater with MKO and the Rajavis at the lead; they have developed traits and characteristics of a notorious terrorist organization synthesized with that of a dangerous cult.

June 10, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

A phenomenon called the “Leadership Council”

Memoirs of Ms. Batoul Soltani – Part 14
I would like to discuss a phenomenon called the “Leadership Council” from its different aspects. After the foundation of his so called leadership Council, Rajavi found it useful. Then the organization launched a propaganda campaign for their new establishment called the “Leadership Council”
In fact, this body had several benefits for him. It’s most important advantage was that anything Rajavi wanted to be done was accomplished as soon as possible.

“If this operation had to be done before the formation of the Leadership Council, I would have had too much challenge to convince Mr. Hassan Nezam to prepare a unit for the operation, but now when I explain a plan for Ms. Roqayeh Abbasi or Ms. Mahvash sepehri, I don’t have to challenge them. I just tell them to do the plan and they go and operate it." Rajavi alleged in a meeting after an armed operation.

Rajavi didn’t care if Hassan Nezam or Abbas Davari have the knowledge and skills to carry out the task. Their qualifications are much higher than the women who have just taken their positions in the organization and have no idea about the necessities of an operation. In fact, he didn’t care what the result would be; he just wanted them to say “Yes”. He also said:”The main part of the operation is performed in my office”. Therefore, after a while,”No” became a forbidden word in MKO.

Masud Rajavi said: ”if an official says “Yes, it is possible” and goes to operate it ,it will be sufficient for me”. He also asked the leadership Council to make their men work so hard that “they become so thin” saying that:”I don’t want those who say “No, it is impossible”. The problem was that he couldn’t accept “No” as an answer.

Then the organization launched a propaganda campaign for their new establishment called the “Leadership Council” claiming that such a founding was the only one in the whole world and even a single man member could not be found in it, and this was a privilege for women and Masud Rajavi’s ideological revolution. They called it a masterpiece in the human history that their Leadership Council consisted of just women. This was a new pastime for the members in the Camp. They talked about their new phenomenon that was an innovation in the entire world. The pastime aspect of the leadership Council was used as a tool just inside MKO and not outside of it.

The other argument was about the male members who once had their own hegemony and now they had to allegedly divorce their positions and submit them to female members. Rajavi told the men that they should liberate themselves from individuality by divorcing their hegemony and giving it out to the women and they shouldn’t think of being the superior sex anymore. By these interpretations, Rajavi tried to deceive them to leave their positions. Thus every man who wrote reports confessing that he didn’t want to submit his hegemony to women was considered as a superior member by Rajavi. In his opinion such a person was more advanced within the organization and never had an untold story. Therefore, a new pastime occupation was made for male members.

After some time, Rajavi added new groups to his Leadership Council and began to specialize some of them. He made those people design the projects for specialization. So a group of people were busy with a new game! On the other side passion of promotion was flaming among female members. They were motivated to grow to go to the higher ranks but when they reached the higher levels there were contradictions before them and they had to allegedly solve their contradictions.

Every individual in any level of the organizational pyramid had to solve the contradictions around his responsibility. They have to write their Facts (how they encounter the phenomenon) so they are always busy working.

I remember when Maryam and Masud declared the most recent number of the Leadership Council’s members. They claimed that they wanted all women in MKO to be the members of the leadership Council. When I escaped the organization the number was over six hundred who had been tricked to become the members of the Leadership Council. Of course these people had a crucial contradiction: there are not enough responsibilities to assign all these people to. They sent a group of them to Europe along with Maryam. A group of them were specialized for certain duties. A number remained without any responsibility.

Therefore, even in the Leadership Council there was an irony calling the Council being shallow or formal. Some people were just tricked by Rajavi. They only attended weekly meetings to discuss the challenges in the leadership Council. He assigned Maryam Rajavi to solve the problems but she didn’t succeed. Then Faeze Mohabatkar was assumed as the official to provide hospitality and comfort for members of the council. It was too difficult to provide personal car, office, desk … for all of these numerous members. This caused the most pressure on the organization. To remove the trouble they defined “the member of Leadership Council” as a dog who barks for his owner”. During the special meetings in layers of leadership council, they manipulated the members under too much pressure to convince them to accept their definition of leadership council.
Translated by Nejat Society

June 9, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Why did Rajavi create his so-called Leadership Council?

Initially I should point out a key point: Rajavi’s goals and wishes are the only things which matter to the MKO cultic relations. Imagine Rajavi as a spider that everything in the organization forms around him, just like a spider’s web.

Looking at MKO’s background shows us that after the fall of Shah, the organization’s process was alienated by Rajavi’s personal desires. I mean, gathering every single supporter and member together, step by step, and then performing every single operation, one by one, followed by Rajavi’s demands.

Therefore when you say that MKO is a cult of personality around Masud Rajvi, although you need to discuss it in a separate session, it is not baseless or illogical.
Before he formed the Leadership Council, the problem was that the group’s affairs were not running in the way he wanted. Masud Rajavi liked his plans to be accomplished exactly as he intended to and exactly at the definite time he had planned for. But he didn’t hold proper members, bodies and systems to operate his plans. In his primary steps, when he assigned

Maryam Rajavi as a co-leader and married her, he thought he could solve the problem. Having such a viewpoint he declared Maryam as the highest responsible in MKO and himself as the ideological leader. But he found out that affairs were not meeting his objectives.

For instance, suppose that Masud Rajavi wanted a special operating team to go to Iran in a specific time in order to attempt against an Iranian authority. Following his order, Maryam Rajavi used to carry out the order, but in the operational process, those who realized the situation logically, I mean the brothers who held responsibilities including Mehdi Abrishamchi, Abbass Davari and Mehdi Baraiee ,knew that there were a lot of difficulties and problems in reality. Rajavi’s goals were stuck in a cult-de-sack. He was sure that with the existing tools and facilities his ambitions wouldn’t be accomplished.

Therefore he declared his decision on removing all high ranking male members and replacing them with some of the so-called reliable women who could fulfill his demands. He thought that the problem is that men don’t listen to him as much as women do. He thought that women would carry out his plans much better.

In fact he had enough reasons for his decision which was made due to his outmost charlatanism. His thinking was perfect since the women in MKO who had never held any key and high ranking positions and had always been considered as the second-degree members, would listen to the orders and would try their best to offer finest services to Masud Rajavi. The case of replacements was also a new phase that amused the members for some time. Rajavi used to make a new program adding an article to the ideological revolution time to time, in order to stop members thinking of anything other than the organization.

This time the new program was that the men should give up their hegemony to the women. It means that following their divorce, they had to submit their leadership roles to the women.
Rajavi had posed his ridiculous idea among high ranking members like Mohammad Ali Tohidi, Jabber Zade and Abrishamchi who had agreed with him saying: ”now that we have Maryam as a criterion, if we give the authority to women, they will be so successful.” Therefore, they selected 24 members as the primary Leadership Council among those women who were the most devoted, the most dissolved …

Then they announced these women as the leaders of the organization. However, a lot of fuss was made asking why even a single man is not among the members of the leadership council. Mr. Rajavi reacted to the protests saying that just because he has decided so. But there were still protestations to the values and criteria that gave the women – who had recently been in the lower ranks of the group – the authority of commanding a brigade or a unit.

But, by using manipulations, Rajavi stated that this was the product of Maryam’s revolution and she wanted to give women the opportunity to grow. He said that he wanted to give the whole organization to these women, implying that he would do it doubtlessly. Thus, the poor women of the Leadership council had to be at Rajavi’s disposal for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so as he could work on them. Masud Rajavi went on working on the leadership members and also married them all (according to the theory of the Ideological Revolution, a Mojahed female can never marry a Mojahed male but all Mojahed women should marry Masud Rajavi. In other words Mojahed men should divorce their wives with the intention of giving them to Masud so that he could marry them. Everyone in MKO should consider Rajavi as the husband of all women).

Accepting this rule is compulsory for membership in MKO. The women of the Leadership Council were working hard to accomplish Rajavi’s desires. They forced the minor members under their rule to execute Rajavi’s plans in every possible way. I remember some undeniable facts on this case and I will discuss them in an appropriate time. I will deal with the Rajavi’s illogical demands and the fact that he didn’t care how much time they had or how the members’ health condition was. He only cared about his plans. His desires had to be met at any cost. The members of the Leadership council just received the orders and then they came to the camp and ordered their forces to do them immediately. They didn’t care if the person is in the hospital or hadn’t slept for hours. They asked the members to work hard until their orders are fulfilled.
Translated by Nejat Society

June 6, 2009 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Transformation of a military camp into a city

The various definitions and indices of city from the viewpoint of sociologists, economists, Camp Ashraf was one of the military camps of Mojahedin and one of their instruments for pursuing armed struggle geographers, and demographers were elaborated on to prove or disapprove the statements of Mr.Hezarkhani in his report about Camp Ashraf. There are still other paradoxical points in his book that are to be expounded on and prove the fact that his statements are a kind of formalist description aiming at accomplishing his duty in pleasing MKO leaders and giving false information to outsiders and the fact that he hardly believes in his own statements. Some of these points are to be explained here.

1. As Mr.Hezarkhani puts into words:
Camp Ashraf was one of the numerous bases of NLA in armed struggle against the regime of Velayat-e Faqih and therefore was equipped with all kinds of light and heavy arms. However, Ashraf city is a non-military and disarmed city that the heart of the organized peoples of Iran still beat for it. How and when this transformation happened is a long story about a struggle for survival that was imposed on the movement since the invasion of Iraqi soil by coalition forces.

He acknowledges the fact that prior to its disarmament, Camp Ashraf was one of the military camps of Mojahedin and one of their instruments for pursuing armed struggle against the Iranian government. He further points out that it has been disarmed by the coalition forces, and the US in particular, and its existing conditions like turning its name from Camp Ashraf to Ashraf city has been an imposed issue and inevitable. In fact, this part is the only honest statements of Mr. Hezarkhani:

A. Ashraf is basically a military camp that has undergone disarmament. This point is repeated in other parts of this book too. Therefore, imputing the title city to it has been an inevitable act otherwise there was no rationale behind its survival.

B. In another part of this paragraph, Mr. Hezarkhani states that selecting the title city for Camp Ashraf is a vital issue that guarantees the existence of Mojahedin and Camp Ashraf. In other words, if Mojahedin failed to call it a city, its destiny would be unclear. He also implies that Mojahedin do not believe in urbanization in its conventional meaning since it denotes an open society that is one of the main enemies of Masoud Rajavi, his ideology and ideological revolution. If Rajavi believed in the conventional definitions of a society and city, he never forced MKO members to live in an isolated place far from other men and civility. Also, any mental inclination toward urbanization on the part of Mojahedin is considered an unforgivable sin.

Why Rajavi is so sensitive about Camp Ashraf to the extent that he ties his destiny with its existence is due to the fact that he is well aware that if ashraf turns to an ordinary society, its disintegration is likely. This is the rationale behind calling it a city that no one recognizes its legitimacy. All these facts are implied by Mr. Hezarkhani that dares not to express his ideas clearly. The same ideological and strategic situation comes true for the bastion of Mojahedin in Auver-sur-Oise. It is likely that they turn it into Auver-sur-Oise suburb as soon as they feel the danger of its closure on the part of France.

C. Mr.Hezarkhani makes use of the word transform for comparing the old and new conditions of Ashraf. What he means by this transform is not clear and is one of his double-edged terminologies. If he means transferring a fully armed military camp to a civilized and ordinary city that makes him so impressed, it may be considered a progressive step forward; however, our optimism is faced with his other contradictory statements that show even the use of this term is a kind of tactic for hiding the true nature of Camp Ashraf and is of no reliability. His words show that Mojahedin are very far from developing and undergoing civility and urbanization showing no sympathy to do this.

The facts behind all likings of Mr. Hezarkhani are numerous. For instance, he implies that if Mojahedin were not enforced to surrender to American and coalition forces, Ashraf was still one of the numerous bases of the so-called liberation army equipped with all kinds of light and heavy arms in the armed struggle against the Iranian government. A more interesting point is that upon entering Camp Ashraf, he is afraid lest he is given a false address and finds many changes therein compared to earlier years. However, his surprise is truly the result of visiting his old friends who welcome him with excitement after so many years in their ordinary uniform and then he believes that he has entered the same Camp Ashraf that he visited before in various occasions. He sees himself among militiamen that despite putting on military uniform are bare-handed and have no arm and considers this as a sign of urbanization of Camp Ashraf.

May 17, 2009 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi

Elevation of Rajavi from charismatic leadership to cult of personality

A common characteristic among all cult leaders is charisma which by itself is not evil but when the leader’s charisma is used as a tool to exploit members including their whole-hearted After his release, Rajavi tried to represent himself as a charismatic leader devotion to the charismatic leader and their fanatical submission to his orders. To achieve such an objective, the charisma should be combined with mind control techniques since the members would not submit to the leader automatically. So the charisma leader uses this powerful attribute together with manipulation practices. This mixture will end with the total devotion of members to the cult and its goal. The brainwashed members are always ready to run the cult’s objectives.

In the early years of the foundation of Mujahedin Khalq Organization, Masud Rajavi was not as experienced as most members including founders of the movement or those who were more related to the founders, but after the Islamic Revolution he could assume leadership in MKO despite he didn’t have qualifications of a leader since he was among those few people who were not executed by Shah’s Savak and there were allegations on his cooperation with Savak when he was interrogated by them. Therefore after his release he tried to represent himself as a charismatic leader because despite his expectations, he couldn’t achieve any powerful position in Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Republic.

As a good lecturer, he started holding meetings, publishing articles, attending interviews to elevate himself as a charisma personality and of course he succeeded to accomplish this goal and his success was actually originated in his ambitious, egotic characteristics. Thus he began to eliminate all his rivals in the organization by criticizing them. In 1980, when he fled Iran to France, he had partly achieved his primary goal: being accepted by his sympathizers as a charisma leader. In France he pursued his ambitions by establishing his so –called National Council of Resistance in which he and his group were the dominating elements. In 1986 after the settlement of the organization in Iraq, most of the way was paved to establish a cult of personality. Their landlord, Saddam Hussein offered them the very isolated Camp Ashraf to perform all cult-like practices Rajavi needed for his cult of personality.

During the Iran-Iraq war, due to Rajavi’s cooperation with the invading enemy, Saddam Hussein, MKO lost its little support among its Iranian compatriots, and also its supporters in other parts of the world.

Now, Rajavi had to launch a new trick to keep his cult of personality that was his ideological marriage with Maryam Qajar Azdanloo and then the so-called ideological revolution. It was firstly accepted by high-ranking members who were indoctrinated by himself. These members showed passionately their complete devotion to Masud Rajavi. Therefore, the others who still hesitated to agree with Ideological Revolution were convinced and even forced by their superior officials.

Rajavi, since then continued his egocentric activities in a more convenient situation. The public power had reached its least level and the atmosphere was prepared for Rajavi’s Megalomania.
By Mazda Parsi

May 14, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The terrorist challenge of MKO and the West

The present challenge posed on the west by MKO is a strategic one with idealism and self-interests as its two ends. It is almost two and half a decade that MKO has turned problematic for the west as an armed, ideological, cultic and radical opposition group. The recent regional transitions as well as invasion of Iraq by coalition forces followed by the fall of Saddam in particular have proved that this predicament is worsening ever-increasingly. In this regard, this challenge can be investigated in three different but interrelated fronts: Iran, Iraq, and West.

1. Iran
The west is still far from understanding that the reason why Iran attempts to prove the potential threat and danger of Mojahedin for social and political security of the world as well as national interests of nations is due to its familiarity with the true nature of the organization and is merely a warning and advice. Even if the west is to find an alternative for Iranian government, MKO is the worst one. It has to be noted that using Mojahedin as a playing card in political equations is nothing but killing time and losing opportunities. The reason may be found in the course of events pursued by Mojahedin after the victory of Iranian revolution. They have been a big looser in all phases of their activities, either at the time when they were of a relative organizational and military power in Iran, or when they were allied with Saddam and enjoyed a great amount of military and financial advantages along the borders of Iranian soil, or after their disarmament and entering their present so-called political phase.

Taking all the failures and frustration of Mojahedin in the last three decades into consideration, it seems that they have never been considered a serious threat for the Iranian government. In fact, the most they did was using their infiltrators in various strata of Iranian government. After the failure of the organization in 20 June 1981 events, MKO leaders made use of all their potentialities to infiltrate in the state to the point that it soon led to the bombing attack of 28 June, a terrorist attack of Mojahedin that is still denied by the organization. The low level of political and military awareness of Rajavi and Mojahedin in disregarding the military potential of Iran was proved when he issued the order of the Operation Eternal Light that turned into a total and costly failure and disaster for Mojahedin. Aware of these issues, the west continues its negligence and unclear position takings toward Mojahedin due to political considerations. There are many opposition groups including MKO that are misused and supported by the west to fulfill its interests and objectives all over the world. These groups are well aware of the motivation behind the supports of the west yet have no other option for their survival other than submitting to the will of foreigners.

Mojahedin are no except to this rule. Being aware of the misuse west makes of them they have to bear it hoping that a change in circumstances or conditions, make due ground for their coming to power. In fact, they crow about giving service to the enemies of their own nation as foreign mercenaries. However espionage activities have an expiration date and there comes a time when Mojahedin would have no further advantage for the superpowers since they have expended all their energy and efforts in pleasing their masters. As evident in leaking Iran’s nuclear projects claimed by Mojahedin, it not only failed to result in the political legitimacy of Mojahedin but also had adverse effects on their social support.

Therefore, investing on Mojahedin in the Iran-West conflict is a major error even when Mojahedin pretended to be of a high military potential and made false promises of overthrowing the Iranian government and western media made a wide intentional propaganda blitz on it let alone the time being when they have reached the political and military nadir of their history. After a while, France came to the conclusion that the presence of a terrorist group in its soil channeling its terrorist attacks therein would be detrimental for both the political repute of this country and also the national security of its citizens; thus, it expelled MKO from France and changed its policy toward Iran as well as Mojahedin.

Taking all these points into consideration, it seems that playing with the burnt card of Mojahedin is futile. Furthermore, the efforts of Iran in revealing the true terrorist nature of MKO are just for humanitarian causes far from political considerations since as it was said Mojahedin never pose a real threat for the Iranian government. France has paid the consequences of the cultic and terrorist activities of Mojahedin when a number of its members set themselves on fire in Paris streets in compliant to the arrest of Maryam Rajavi, the group’s she-guru in the absence of her husband. They still grab at the same lever for threatening French authorities and warn France that they would repeat these actions in case if they were prohibited to seek refuge therein. In fact, this is another trial for the west and France in particular to immunize their nations against the danger of a cult of personality.

2. Iraq
Taking a brief look at the primary motivations of France and Saddam in giving refuge to Rajavi (after the events of 28 June when seventy-five senior officials of the regime were killed in the organization bomb attack and France disregarding these events gave refuge to MKO leader), there could be found some similarities between the present situation of Mojahedin in Iraq and that of France. Now, it is assumed that France wanted to make Rajavi closer to Iranian borders. Also, it aimed to intensify the Iraqi threat against Iran (at a time when France had the most arms deal with Iraqi regime), thus expelled him of France and made the ground for his transfer to Iraq, more similarities can be found. In addition, since then Mojahedin have made frequent commutes between Iraq and France and Maryam Rajavi had two so-called strategic transfers from Iraq to France and vice versa. Therefore, it is proved that France and Saddam have had the same position toward Mojahedin. Now, after the fall of Saddam, as the strategic and ideological ally of Mojahedin, they are faced with a newly established Iraqi government that has made its mind to expel them as a terrorist group interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq and communicating with the terrorist and problematic trends therein. The Iraqi officials are well aware that the presence of Mojahedin in their soil cost them considerably with negative political consequences particularly due to their misusing of the critical conditions of Iraq and suffering from internal challenges in order to further their strategic objectives.

In this regard, Mojahedin claim that Iraq is to expel them under the pressure of Iranian government as they claimed when expelled from France. However, the Iraqi and French officials are well aware of the reasons from driving MKO out. Mojahedin have been so problematic for both governments and have committed various crimes and misdeeds recorded in the judiciary system of both countries. In fact, there are two factors leading to the decision of Iraq in expelling Mojahedin; the terrorist activities of Mojahedin in the reign of Saddam as well as the present and future national interests of Iraq. Now, the decision of Iraq seems to be parallel to the wish of Iranian government yet it has nothing to do with the interference of Iranian government in the internal affairs of Iraq. Iraq is well aware that even in case of ignoring the legal complaints of Iraqi people against MKO, their presence therein is too costly. In other words, the Iraqi government is to return the ball France kicked against their field years ago and for sure it would never reach the Iranian field. This issue is proven for the Europe and the US so they never bet on the dead horse of Mojahedin. The maneuvers of Masoud Rajavi on the possibility of their transfer to Iran are baseless and futile and aim to provoke the sympathy of the world and the west in particular.

3. West
The third front is the position of the west toward MKO as a radical and terrorist group. The recent move of the EU in removing the name of MKO from its terrorist list intensified the challenges of the west with Mojahedin and faced them with the negative consequences resulting from this decision. Disregarding the inevitable political feedbacks of this vote, the study of the theoretical aspects of this issue is of significance. Being an extreme radical trend, Mojahedin pretend to be a modernist one seeking peace and security in the world. In fact, MKO is an amalgamation of some apparent paradoxes. It is a designated terrorist group that adopts anti-terrorism slogans; It is an ideological cult that holds grab to liberalism for furthering its ideological objectives; Despite representing the most primitive signs of barbarism, Mojahedin pretend to be pioneers of knowledge and awareness; Using the most reactionary brainwashing techniques in depriving MKO members from their basic physical and mental freedom, Mojahedin propagate the principles of freedom and democracy. Evidently, getting to the deepest layers of this complex phenomenon and its mechanism is not an easy task to be done.

It has to be pointed out that the terrorist nature of Mojahedin has its roots in their radicalism as well as primary manifesto and organizational principles that consider the west and the US as their ideological enemies and symbols of bourgeoisie and imperialism. In fact, the concepts like democracy and liberalism that Mojahedin focus on as their ultimate end to win the attention and support of the superpowers are referred to as the main enemies of humanity in their principles and doctrines. Based on their ideological revolution in which one phase was called “the phase of detachment and worldly combat against the manifestations of bourgeoisie and liberalism”, Mojahedin proved that they are hew to their primary principles yet grab at some short-time changes in their policy for carrying on their struggle for their pre-determined objectives in removing all signs of imperialism, capitalism, and liberalism.

Disregarding the critical viewpoints of some western experts like Antoine Gessler, Ervand Abrahamian, and Alain Chevalerias as well as the detached members of MKO, the honesty and truth of these statements can be proved by means of historical evidences. In fact, there is no need to review the primary and basic organizational principles of MKO rather it suffices to take a look at the official websites of Mojahedin as well as their leaders’ messages to find the points of disagreement of the organization with the modern concepts of the west like democracy, freedom, human rights, etc. The US has a more realistic viewpoint toward MKO compared to that of the Europe as is evident from the statement of the state department of the US in April 2007 in designating it as a terrorist group and also the primary position takings of the US against Mojahedin. The reason why the Europe neglects the potential threat of MKO seems to be more a matter of political considerations and gestures of the Europe and France in particular in claiming to be the supporter of freedom fighters all over the world. Being aware of this, Masoud Rajavi has found the Europe more susceptible to deception and enticement and has misused this negligence praising the great revolution of France in different occasions.

An instance may be the measures taken by the US after the events of 11 September and the enforcement of Patriot Act. According to this Act, some constraints like phone-tapping, searching e-mails, interrogating the suspect individuals, letting security police to make long-time arrests and more were enacted in order to prohibit terrorist activities. However, the US was faced with the severe reaction of the European liberal theoreticians who considered these measures as contradictions to individual and social freedom and citizen rights. In addition, citizen rights of the US differ from that of the Europe. These differences are also apparent in how the US encountered Mojahedin in its soil compared to that of the Europe. It is an issue that has been misused by Mojahedin and they have managed to take advantage of citizen rights in the Europe as they have established their ideological bastion in Auver-sur-Oise in France in front of the eyes of French officials. Another reason may be the more optimism of the Europeans to their surrounding world compared to that of the US.

Another dimension of this issue is related to the pragmatist and provisional viewpoint of the US compared to the courteous and neat viewpoint of the Europe. Once in the past France tried to block the threat of the Algerian self-immolator women by removing their veil. The same women that once transported bomb and arms under the cover of their veil, when faced with the shakedown of French forces, followed French fashions voluntarily and moved their bombs to the farthest point in the European residents of Algeria with no annoyance.

Mojahedin have repeatedly claimed that they have borrowed many of their tactics from the Palestinian fighters. Now, it can be said that on deceiving the Europeans and French in particular, they have modeled the Algerian Mojahedin. Anyhow, delisting Mojahedin from the EU terrorist list may pave the way for their further misusing the western rules and laws. The Europeans and France have to do whatever they can to come to a deep understanding of the true nature and objectives of Mojahedin or postpone the activities of MKO by means of various levers until the time when they recognize the true and potential threat of Mojahedin for the peace and security all over the world.

May 13, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

MKO instrumental misuse of individuals

Memoirs of Ms. Batoul Soltani – Part 11-2
When Masud Rajavi fled to Paris from Iran, he managed to maintain some financial sources through different means. He could get some youth away from their homes. They were innocent young individuals whose natural right was to live a normal life, but MKO could deceive them to join the group. I remember that at the time each person needed 30 thousand Tomans (roughly 30 American Dollars) to flee from Iran. The organization recruited those who were out of job or those who had other problems and sent them out of the country through various ways. There were also individuals who were introduced to the organization. For instance my husband was introduced by a member who had already joined the group. Then the organization sent a guy to recruit him in Iran and sent him abroad. There were some smugglers who took the recruited ones passing the borders and the journey was very dangerous. But it didn’t matter to Rajavi. When the organization tricked my husband and me, we were supposed to join MKO’s courier. We got out of Iran on camels. We risked our lives so many times but finally we could survive. I remember a lot of young couples were killed in the way.

They took both financial and manpower resources via this way. The duty of manpower part was to recruit those who had social problems and to send them abroad. They tricked many people outside and inside the country. They manipulated them using long-term emotional methods or they tried to control their thoughts in order to recruit them. Hence Masud Rajavi could gather a number of them in France. I read about that period after I joined the organization. The Iran-Iraq war had already started. Saddam Hussein had imposed a war on Iranians. He later attacked Kuwait. And Masud Rajavi became the accomplice of such a person who had no respect for his neighbors.

I just don’t know how Masud Rajavi can justify his cooperation with Saddam and accept his so called peace agreement. Unfortunately Masud Rajavi visited Saddam Hussein under the pretext of his ridiculous peace treaty. He cooperated with the enemy of Iran and named it “struggle for peace and freedom”. He also made his supporters to believe in his second marriage with Firouzeh Banisadr and his third marriage with Maryam Qajar Azodanlou – his so-called ideological revolution – as “struggle”. He came to Iraq where the enemy of Iran was killing Iranian people every day. Then he brought all his supporters from Europe to Iraq for the so-called “struggle”. Indeed, he used all his tricks to achieve political power over the organization. This was a treason that Rajavi committed against the freedom movement of the Iranians.

When he wanted to come to Iraq from France, I was one of those supporters who were deceived by him because I was in Iran and I didn’t have enough knowledge about MKO. They even recruited unemployed and addicted young people promising them to find jobs for them out of Iran. Somehow, we all were the victims of MKO tricks, because we had some social problems. The deceitful recruitment techniques of MKO were completely opposite to what is called voluntarily acceptance. Once the MKO was founded, the recruitment methods were based on supreme human principals. Now there was a big difference.

MKO used any trick to deceive the depressed and dispirit youth of the society in order to take them to Iraq as its modern slaves. After they entered the organization, the officials of the group did everything to force them to stay in Iraq. These members were forces to fight against the Iranian soldiers who were defending their country.

Sometimes MKO fighters helped Iraqi battalions to win the battles. Then Rajavi used to go to Saddam to get his reward and of course money for the services MKO fighters offered the Iraqi Army. Rajavi could arrange and equip his so-called National Liberation Army by the funds Saddam Hussein offered to him. So the so-called National Liberation army was formed on the base of the blood of some innocent people.

He started his operations by sending his terror teams inside Iran. He organized some operations in cooperation with Iraqi Battalions. He also arranged his forces to assist Saddam’s army against Iranian soldiers. However he named this treason as struggle for freedom. This shows a big division between what the primary principals of MKO were and what Rajavi did.

No member could escape from MKO because if someone wanted to escape one would be arrested by Iraqi Intelligence services in a few hours time, and one would be punished by them and then sent back to MKO Camp again.

When the Iran-Iraq war ended, Rajavi found a new pretext to slaughter Iranian people and also his own supporters and sympathizers. He infiltrated his forces into Iran to launch mortar attacks in Iranians cities.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein, he used a new trick and dropped all his organizational responsibilities. He went to achieve what he was hysterically looking for. He defined a new position for himself to become an ultra-organizational leader. It was very surprising that Rajavi who chanted slogans against Imperialism, sat at the negotiation table with American generals. We saw the MKO authorities became US Army advisors. They began their collaboration with the Americans by launching intelligence operations over Iranian borders.

To gain the support of US officials, they arranged parties and meetings with them. They spent large amounts of money to collect signatures of the alleged 5 million Iraqis whom MKO claims to have their support. NOW, we can see what happened to the “struggle” I talked about. Today, MKO is resorting to every mean to gain the support of US administration. All the victims who are kept in Ashraf Castle work day and night to be used in favor of MKO leaders’ goals.
Translated by Nejat Society

May 12, 2009 0 comments

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