Camp Ashraf

Iraq’s PMF at former MEK Camp : What were messages?

Marking the seventh anniversary of their foundation, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) held a military parade for the first time on June 26. The parade was covered massively by regional and international media, with many of them suggesting that it marked the PMF entry to a new era of its life.

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Marking the seventh anniversary of their foundation, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) held a military parade for the first time on June 26. The parade was covered massively by regional and international media, with many of them suggesting that it marked the PMF entry to a new era of its life.

The ant-terror movement’s parade was held at a camp in Diyala that was once called Camp Ashraf and hosted anti-Iranian terrorist organization, Mujahideen Khalgh Organization (MKO) harbored by dictator Saddam Hussein. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Defense Minister Juma Anad, Interior Minister Othman al-Ghanemi, National Security Advisor Qassem al-A’araji, the Chief of General Staff Abdelamir Yarullah, and a number other senior army commanders.

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces military parade

As mentioned, this parade enjoyed a very wide coverage from media and political observers. But the question is about the political, security, and symbolic messages that this event sent.

The interesting point is that the military procession of the PMF was held at a time when this force has been widely attacked by the enemies of the Axis of Resistance especially the US and some Arab countries in recent years. But the PMF’s demonstration of force showed that the enemies plots have gone nowhere and the voluntary units have emerged even stronger than before and continue their march towards their ideals.

PMF established in Iraq’s security and political stability

The massive parade marks the establishment of this popular force in the country’s power structure. Following ISIS attack on Mosul, the grand Shiite Cleric Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa for taking up arms against terrorism on June 13, 2014, at which point Iraqi Shiites mobilized in various units within the PMF. The popular forces’ entry to the anti-ISIS war of was game-changing to the battlegrounds.

Over 40 units constituted the PMF, with their role undeniable in obliteration of ISIS on the ground. It has around 120,000 fighters and the PM is its top commander-in-chief. Faleh Al-Fayyad is its commander and Sadegh al-Saadawi is its chief of general staff. Hadi al-Amiri is the deputy and field commander of the popular forces. The Fatah coalition represents the PMF in the Iraqi parliament. Currently, the force focuses on expulsion of illegitimate American troops from Iraq, as this agenda has legal backing provided by the parliament’s bill for the government to expel the foreign forces. Amid the home and foreign conspiracies against the PMF, the military parade has much to tell and vindicates establishment in the country’s security structure.

Legal and political establishment

It should be taken into account that since its foundation, the PMF faced internal and external opposition. The opponents call for disbanding of these forces and prevention of their activities. They argue that the PMF are parallel to the regular army. The opponents are extremely afraid of the PMF closeness to Iran, a country that provided unwavering support to the anti-terror operations. A Sunni political community, led by the former parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, is the main opponent of the PMF existence. Another opponent is the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) led by Masoud Barzani.

In a wider range, part of secular politicians, from both Shiites and Sunnis, are opposed to these forces. Outside the country, the US is the top actor calling for their disbanding. Saudi Arabia, the Israeli regime, the UAE, and the European countries also take hostile stances against the groups. All this opposition comes while the PMF was recognized as part of Iraqi armed forces in November 2016. In March 2018, the ten PM Haider al-Abadi ordered their merger into the armed forces. The recent parade shattered the speculations about their disbandment. The presence of political and military leaders bore witness to establishment of the PMF in the nation’s political and legal establishment.

PMF, a trans-religious force in Iraq

The Parade also demonstrated that the PMF is a trans-religious and trans-sectarian force. The reality is that Iraq has been mired in sectarian tensions since 2003, but the Popular Mobilization Forces showed that it is possible to transcend religious and ethno-sectarian boundaries. In fact, although the Shiites were at the core of the PMF, Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Christians, and Yazidis also joined it, and they are still at the top of decision-making process.

By AhlulBayt News Agency

July 1, 2021 0 comment

Iraq

PMF’s parade in the MEK’s beloved Camp Ashraf

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), also called Hashd al-Shaabi, held a parade in Camp Ashraf, the longtime headquarters of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajvi) in Iraq.
Camp Ashraf in northwest of Baghdad was donated to MEK by Saddam Hussein the group’s major financial and military sponsor. It was the group’s main base in the eight years of the war Saddam Hussein imposed on Iran. And, it was there that Massoud Rajavi built his cult of personality, practiced cut-like activities, trained terrorist forces, launched attacks against Iranian country fellowmen and punished his own dissident members.

After the collapse of the Iraqi dictator in 2003, the US army surrounded the camp and disarmed MEK forces. The camp was officially closed after the last 280 residents were flown to Albania, in 2016.

Hashd al-Shaabi parade in Camp Ashraf

The parade that was held by Hashd al-Shaabi on Saturday morning to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the founding of PMF was in the presence of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Numerous PMF brigades marched in the parade, including Shiite, Christian, and Yazidi, according to images and video shared by the PMF-linked media sources. An image of Abu Madhi al-Muhandis, the PMF commander killed alongside Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020, was carried in the parade.
Camp Ashraf was a symbolic container for the ideology of MEK. The group leaders still glorify the name so as they named their headquarters in Albania as Camp Ashraf Three.

June 29, 2021 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

MEK efforts to hide disappointments under the constructions

The headquarters of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) is called Camp Ashraf 3. The thought-provoking point about the newly-built camp is that it is very similar to the group’s headquarters in Iraq, Camp Ashraf, which was located in Diyala Province, about 120 kilometers west of the Iranian border and 60 kilometers north of Baghdad. As the group’s new base in the heart of Europe, in north of Tirana, Camp Ashraf 3 is still under construction.

However, the headquarters of the MEK in Albania is much smaller than the notorious Camp Ashraf in Iraq, which covered an area of about 50 km from the Diyala deserts in Iraqi territory. But Camp Ashraf 3 is built precisely by copying the buildings and monuments of Camp Ashraf.

The organization’s instructions to build the new camp parallel to Camp Ashraf must be based on two reasons. Firstly, it connotes the same atmosphere to members of the group and may be able to stop the impressions of failure and frustration from expulsion from Iraq. Secondly, it may create this mental orientation for disappointed and dissident members –whose number is increasingly on the rise—- that nothing has changed and they should remain at service of the group and its cause. Actually, according to the leaders, members should not expect any change!

A member of Mujahedin-e Khalgh walks in a street at the Ashraf-3 camp. Photo:Gent shkullaku/AFP

According to members who managed to escape from the MEK’s camp in Albania, the buildings of the camp are apparently interior and exterior like what it was in Camp Ashraf, Iraq. The names of the streets, the number of the rooms and the way they use the rooms and buildings, exactly the same way they were used in Camp Ashraf, Iraq.
The shut down of Camp Ashraf and the eventual expulsion of the MEK from Iraq is considered to be the most disappointing blow in the history of the Cult of Rajavi, following the long years of promising to overthrow the government in Tehran. The closure of Camp Ashraf marks the failure of the Rajavis to meet their promises and more importantly annihilation of lives of thousands of their members.

June 1, 2021 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

Sexual Control in MEK, Separated streets for men and women

Modern Slavery in the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) includes various destructive practices which has lasted the four-decade history of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi’s ruling over the group. Discrimination, sexist ideas, emotional isolation, peer pressure and sexual control are certain measures of cultic characteristics of the MEK, that were listed by the RAND report on the MEK in 2009.

Defectors and some insiders of the MEK’s Camp Ashraf three in Albania assert that leaders of the group have issued a travel restrictions directive in a new move to impose more sexual control over male and female members. The action is aimed to prevent confrontation of men and women in the streets of Tirana in Albania.

According to the directive, some streets have been allocated to men and some routes have been defined for women’s travel to the city. According to the instructions, each member who has to enter the of Tirana, should travel according to this directive. In case of violating the so-called law, he or she will be subject to punishments. Thus, in a street allocated to women, any work or mission through that street will be given to women, and if a male member of the group is seen in that area, the female members should immediately report the matter to their superiors.

View of some members of the Iranian opposition resistance Mujahedeen-e- Khalq group, who have resettled in Albania from Iraq, in a street, in Tirana, Albania, Friday, May 17, 2013.

As the RAND institute documented, MEK’s sexual control over members is nothing new, Camp Ashraf was a notoriously Known container for Massoud Rajavi’s cult of Personality:
“Despite the MeK’s and NCRI’s claim to support gender equality and the placement of women in leadership roles, men and women are kept strictly apart in MeK camps. Housing is segregated by gender, and in other buildings, lines are painted down the middle of hallways, separating them into men’s and women’s sides. Men and women below the leadership level are prohibited from contact with one another unless they have obtained official case-by-case permission. Shaking hands is prohibited across genders. Even the gas station at Camp Ashraf has separate hours for men and women.”

May 26, 2021 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MEK in Albania, will it repeat the fate in Iraq?

When the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) was first relocated in Albanian territory in 2013, public opinion was instigated about the group. Rajavi’s cult was perhaps the first organization that had entered the country as a refugee, and was able to take up a place for the deployment of its members, from the very beginning. They had some special issues unrelated to normal refugees such as restrictions on cross-party visits to the city, restrictions on contacts with people outside their camps, uniformed clothing, the absence of any children among 2,000 men and women and etc…

By passing time, a number of members of the group left the group. The number of defectors has mounted to over 500 to this date. The disclosures on the human rights abuses inside the MEK that were made by former members and the fact that the group was listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the US Department of State, were was the reasons of the Albanian people’s cautiousness towards the Cult of Rajavi.
Besides, Americans’ support for the relocation of MEK members and the pressure on the Albanian government to receive members of the group, ultimately raised questions for the people of the country. Questions that were drawn to reports in Albanian newspapers and Internet websites, such as why these people were expelled from Iraq? Why does America act as a supporter of this group to resettle them? And if this group claims to fight against the Iranian regime, why they will not continue this fight in their country or around the Iranian borders?
The clashes of members of the MEK with defectors in the streets and daily news of the death of members of the group in the so-called Camp Ashraf three, increased the sense of danger regarding the group’s presence for the people Albania.

With the rise in the demands and questions by the people, which pushed the Albanian government to respond especially to the media, the group’s leaders began to take actions to reduce the concerns. These actions began with news and articles published in some Albanian media. Also, the group’s plans for communicating with Albanian people included the invitation of journalists and groups to have limited and controlled visit of their camp, free medical services to neighbors of the camp in Manez and providing a small financial assistance for certain people. This, of-course added other questions to the previous questions: What such refugee groups have such facilities or why and how do they provide such services?!

Under the orders of the leaders of the MEK, there were other activities to reduce the complication of the agenda, including the teaching of Albanian language to some members of the group in order to connect with people in the society as a direct advertising space to show off the group as an innocent entity to Albanian people.
However, with all the efforts of the MEK –which was like an operation for the group in Albania– a sense of distrust and danger was left for the people of this country about the presence of this formerly designated terrorist group with a dark background of terrorist acts and cult-like violence cult. They began to express concern at the stage of political demands to the Albanian government. In fact, today, the request for the expulsion of the members of the Cult of Rajavi from the country, along with demands such as political, economic and social problems of the people, are demanded from the government and the parliament of Albania.

In another words, the same fate that a decade after the collapse of Saddam Hussein happened to the MEK in Iraq, is waiting the group in Albania. The experience has shown that the awareness of people and then their demands to expel this intruder from their soil, as it happened in Iraq, will leave no other way for the Albanian government than the expulsion of the MEK

But this time, if the leaders of the organization are forced to relocate, it can be said with certainty that they will sign the decree of the complete collapse of their organization, because the experience of the other members will not allow them to once again decipher, deceive and resort to another grouping. This time we have to wait for the defection of the majority of the rank and file of the group in Albania, which means the loss of about two thousand forces of the cult of Rajavi.

Nejat Bloggers

May 22, 2021 0 comment

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Masoumeh was strangled by her scarf

Masoumeh Gheibi entered the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) as a non-Muslim when she was thirty years old. Although she had stated it to the commanders, she was always under pressure by the commanders to obey the religious law of Islam. She was mentally and verbally abused by her commanders and finally she was sexually abused by the division commander named MohammadReza.

Consequently, Masoumeh urged to leave the group but her demand was refused. She was not allowed to leave the Cult of Rajavi because the leaders knew that as soon as she left the organization, she would reveal the story of what had been done to her. Therefore, a female commander arranged to hold meeting for Masoumeh to resolve her problem with the organization and convince her to stay in the group.

But when they find out that Masoumeh is in no way willing to give up and will not trust the MEK anymore, the meetings got tense and oppressive where they punched and kicked Masoumeh in the face by her peers so severely that she passed out. According to some defectors’ testimony Masoumeh was strangled by her scarf around her neck.

Meanwhile, just at the same time that Massoumeh was under abuse and torture that led to her death, Massoud Rajavi was establishing his empire based on a female hegemony!

She was eventually buried in the Pearl Cemetery in Camp Ashraf. It was declare in the group and written on her grave that she died of an illness. All her comrades in Camp Ashraf were aware that she was healthy until the day before her death. However, like many other crimes of MEK leaders, all members remained silent for fear of death.
She was 35 when she was murdered in 1993. Her children had been separated from her and sent to Europe shortly after she had entered the cult., Masoumeh Gheibi was killed in the MEK while still hoping to see her children again after her defection.

May 9, 2021 0 comment

Albania

Albanian Authorities should be warned against the MEK

Following the years of the presence of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) in Iraq, in Saddam’s era, who fully supported the MEK and also after the American invasion to Iraq, the group leaders never imagined that they would have to leave Iraq one day.

But these events eventually took place and the will of the Iraqi people won all the lobbies and pressures of the supporters of the MEK. The destructive cult of Rajavi was ultimately forced to leave Iraq.

In the last months of the MEK’s presence in Iraq, the leaders of the group who did not want to admit this expulsion order, took several actions to prevent the Iraqi government from enforcing this legal decision. One of these actions was the display of the support of the Iraqi nation, including the minorities and tribes. But the fact is that the history of harassment, betrayal and the loss of financial resources on behalf of the MEK will never be erased from the memory of the Iraqi people.

However, the MEK leaders tried to demonstrate to the European authorities that Iraqi people have no problem with their presence in Iraq and even support their terrorist group. That was why, from time to time the MEK media used to show some Iraqis, members of the tribes living in the neighborhood of Camp Ashraf as guests of the groups in various occasions. They were allegedly there to express support for the continued presence of the MEK in Iraq.

Getting help from some corrupt officials in Iraq who talked about supporting this terrorist organization and their need to remain in the country was another part of the organization’s tricks in Iraq. They made efforts to link with other political authorities.

Among their other actions was the insertion of fake news in Iraqi newspapers and media of the so-called support of groups, including guilds, political organizations that, according to the MEK, they all wanted the remaining of MEKin Iraq. These adverts, which were published by some Iraqi newspapers as a result of MEK payment, eventually did not come to an end, and the deportation order of the MEK was signed and executed from Iraq, and the members of this terrorist group went to Albania.

In addition, MEK enters the individuals and media in channelized way to Ashraf Camp 3 to pursue the following objectives:

Decentralizing public opinion about the actions of the MEK and legitimizing the presence of a terrorist cult in Albania

Facilitate the general engagement of the MEK in Albania to release acts of malicious acts
Democratic and libertarian imaging of the terrorist cult of the MEK

There is, however, a question and a possibility that can be explained by the similarity of the behavior of the MEK in Albania today and the actions of their past years in Iraq.

The question is why the organization is acting in Albania like its late months in Iraq?

Is it not that the MEK afraid of the possibility of expulsion from their current location and the same fate as what happened in Iraq!

Indeed, the organization, with the experience gained in Iraq, is well aware that it may be fired from Albania again, and knows better that this fiasco may lead to a complete collapse and the loss of all members.

According to news and documents recorded in the late years of the presence of the MEK in Iraq, one of the mechanisms of the organization to stay in this country was to exclude their expulsion of the priorities of the Iraqi government.

To achieving this goal, the MEK tried to create a number of security challenges for Iraq, including the role they played in designing terrorist acts, including bombing, training the suicide bombers of Takfiri groups and creating religious differences.

According to documents and news released by the Iraqi police in several bombings in the country where its agents were arrested, the footprints of the MEK, and even the presence of members of the organization that directly participated in the operation, have been discovered and proven in many cases.

However, this costly measure for the oppressed and Muslim nation of Iraq was not effective for the MEK it points out that, as the Organization’s propaganda and political actions to stay in Albania with a pattern of their behavior in Iraq, the risk of choosing the options for security challenges and the terrorist acts can also be placed on the agenda of this organization, which has a history of crimes and assassinations.

May 8, 2021 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

MEK recruiters in Dubai to kidnap youth

As an Iranian Arab, Taleb Farhan left his home town in South of Iran for the United Arab Imarets, in 1999. Soon, he could find a job as a driver because he could speak Arabic fluently. He resided in the Iranians’ dormitory where his fate was ruined by the agents of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi).

Farhan had planned to immigrate to Europe and the MEK recruiters promised him to give him a political case as a member of the group in Iraq and then he would move to Europe through Iraq. They took him to their team house in Dubai.

All day long, videos of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi’s speeches and the MEK army in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, were shown to Farhan and other Iranian youth who wished to go to Europe via Iraq.

Farhan and the others were taken to an Iraq port by ship. They were then transferred to Baghdad by a few MEK representatives. The trip ended up by reaching Camp Ashraf. A few weeks after entering the camp, Farhan found out that exit is forbidden. He asked the MEK authorities why the do not keep their promise to take him to Europe. “There is no way out,” they answered. “As you came to Iraq illegally, we will deliver you to Iraqi forces and they will imprison you in Abu Quraib for at least ten years.

Farhan was stuck in the cult-like system of the MEK. He had to attend long brainwashing and self-criticism meetings. He was victim of forced labor in response to his passiveness in the organizational regulations.
He endured oppressions until 2003 when the US invaded Iraq and eventually disarmed the MEK. He moved to the camp that the American military built for MEK defectors, called TIPF. From there, he could finally manage to return to Iran.

He lives in Abadan, Khuzestan province, now. “Damn Rajavi and the authorities of his cult who ruined the life of a large number of Iranian youth,” he says.

April 29, 2021 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Why the Albanian gov. has left all our letters unanswered?!

Mr. Ali Asghar Rasekhi sent a complaint to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances:

United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances,

I respectfully inform you that we have been unaware of my brother Ali Rasekhi, who is a member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO), for 40 years. I only met him once in 2004 at Camp Ashraf in Iraq. But then once in 2015, I went to a camp near Baghdad airport, which was guarded by American forces, but the officials of the organization did not allow me to visit and talk to my brother.

Ali Rasekhi in his youth

I have been informed that the MEK has been transferred to a camp in Albania. Unfortunately, there is no possibility for families to contact this camp, and the Albanian government has left all our letters unanswered and does not grant Iranians visas to travel to that country and pursue the matter.

I ask that international organization to investigate our complaint and provide a means for us to contact Ali Rasekhi and find out about his condition.

Thanks
Ali Asghar Rasekhi
Iran – Qom

March 28, 2021 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Razavizade family complains to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances

United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland

We are the sister (Robabeh) and brother (Seyed Abbas) of Seyed Hossein Razavizadeh Bahabadi. We have not seen our brother for almost 37 years and now we want to file our complaint against the Albanian government under the UN International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, of which the Albanian government is a signatory.

Robab Razavizade

Seyyed Hossein Razavizadeh Bahabadi was captured in 1982 on the Iranian Defense Front against the invasion of Iraq. Until 1988, he was in various prisoner-of-war camps in Iraq and communicated with his family through letters during his captivity. Until in August of the same year, we learned through the International Committee of the Red Cross that he had left the POW camp and joined the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO) and had gone to Camp Ashraf, the headquarters of the MEK in Iraq.

Once in 2003, our father managed to meet him at Camp Ashraf in Iraq. We do not know anything about him from that date until today, and we are not even sure whether he was transferred to Albania after the transfer of MEK members.

Seyed Hossein Razavizadeh Bahabadi

We wrote many letters to the Prime Minister and other Albanian officials, as well as European officials, asking for information from our brother. We also signed a petition with other families addressed to the Albanian government and asked to contact our relatives in the MEK camp in Albania. This petition had more than 11,000 signatures. Unfortunately, there was no reaction from the Albanian government.

Abbas and Robab Razavizade

It should be noted that the Albanian government does not issue visas to Iranian citizens at the request of the MEK, and therefore we are not able to travel to Albania and pursue the matter through the judicial authorities of this country.

We request the relevant international body to address this issue. We want to get into this issue and find our brother Seyed Hossein Razavizadeh Bahabadi, who has been forcibly away from us for nearly four decades, to enable him to communicate with his only sister and brother.

Robabeh and Seyed Abbas, sister and brother of Seyed Hossein Razavizadeh Bahabadi

Iran – Yazd

March 28, 2021 0 comment

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