Defectors of Mujahedin khalq

True facts behind June 17th events

On Friday June, Nejat Society, Khuzestan branch held a meeting together with a number of families of Nejat NGO and a few defectors who have just returned home. During the 4 hour meeting, different aspects of June 17 events were discussed.

First of all, Mr. Dehdar Hassani revealed some facts on the arrest of Maryam Rajavi by French Police and warned about the way MKO abuses such an event in its propaganda.

Then, Mr. Ali Ekrami noticed the active role of the cult’s leaders in intriguing and persuading the member to commit self-immolation, he described his observations of what he witnessed in Camp Ashraf at that time. Revealing the real goals of MKO in holding ceremonies for the anniversary of June 17th, 2003, he asked the families to make a more active relation with Nejat Society in order to pursue the situation of their children in Camp Ashraf, Iraq and to stop MKO vicious leaders prolonging the stay of their beloveds in the notorious Ashraf Base.

During the meeting, there were also some defectors of the cult who told their memoirs on June 17th in Ashraf Base, they especially emphasized on the motivating role of MKO leaders to make members commit suicide.
At the end they issued a statement.

June 25, 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

Former members of the MEK

Suicide operation; a solution or sidestepping it

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

Sahar Family Foundation: Our greetings Mrs. Soltani. We are ready to continue the issue of suicide operation if you will. I will pose the first question unless you have some preliminary remarks to add.

Batool Soltani: before we continue with your question, I deem it necessary to add explanations on the previous session’s discourse. First, what motivates an operator to commit suicide when he happens to come face to face with the security forces and the police? Does it mean that there is absolutely no other way? Is it not really possible for a militiaman to strengthen himself physically and psychologically to bear pressures of probable tortures, prison and investigations instead of committing suicide as the last solution? It might be the easiest way to protect some information but for sure it fails to be equal to the value of a man’s life. Another point is that it may be regarded an act of bravery in itself, but can it not be considered an act of the ultimate weakness and a sense of inferiority? These questions may seem illogical in an obsessive atmosphere where anything is routinely scrutinized from a security point of view that may threaten the existence of the organization. But it does not mean that in no condition there is a logical and rational solution to any issue. Although a conjecture, I think it can be confirmed if discussed in detail with the wise and elite.

But how the organization justifies the suicide operation as the first and the last solution? What are its good reasons for exchanging such an easiest and simple way for a man’s life? Within the organization they say the capacity of enduring interrogational torture varies from person to person. I think I have read things in the organization’s sources about the applied inconceivable measures to assess the members’ resistance and response to the tortures by exposing them to a diversity of physical pressures like flogging, depriving them of sleeping, suspending them handcuffed from the ceiling in a variety of conditions and the like. Then they would conclude that in spite of varying degrees of resistance, it could be measured but the exact degree would always remain a matter of obscurity. In fact, nobody could stand the tortures that could continue to no definite degree. Of course, they knew that not all members would be put under the same tortures; it depended on the ranks and the extent of the information they held. Thus, an arrested key element and cadre to whom the survival of the organization depended would break in some point under the tortures, so suicide would be much more guaranteed than making a risk. It is instilled into him that suffering and torture are inevitably awaiting him and nothing is known to what degree he can hold out the arbitrary tortures that warrant the agents’ access to the concealed information. This is the angle of the organization’s look at the issue that needs to be studied in depth in itself.

As I pointed out earlier, the organization’s standards are absolutely different. The organization unrelentingly persisted that the ultimate solution to any problem was to offer a sacrifice. Somebody had to be sacrificed for the cause of the organization, which has been regarded more precious than the life of a militiaman, through suicide, self-harming operations or other similar acts. In one instance, as I remember, Rajavi in justification of the failure of the Operation Eternal Light stated that he had known from the very beginning that it was a futile operation from a military viewpoint, but he did it as it was tied to the survival of the organization that required so many lives. So worthless are evaluated the lives of the members that he sends them to their death in swarms to prove that the organization and the Rajavis are still breathing.

In a message he stated that if anybody set himself on fire in Camp Ashraf, it would be a cost paid to minimize the limitations imposed on the camp by the US forces. I mean the suicide case by Yaser Askari who was said to have committed suicide because of the imposed pressures on Camp Ashraf. The act is no more a countermeasure to protect the organization against any threat of annihilation but rather a means to further certain organizational, and even personal, ambitious objectives. Here the intention is no more measuring a member’s resistance degree in case of undergoing torture, rather suicide turns to be an imposed means to serve the survival of the organization, a purpose he, the member, has been destined from the very beginning to sacrifice himself for. I mean to say that the organization’s innovated self-burnings like that of 17 June and that of Yaser Askari in Camp Ashraf have been the easiest chosen solutions to overcome the crises. Even beyond that, the act is sanctified and glorified as a model for others to follow fervently instead of criticizing its exploitation for vague and hollow purposes. And as an alternative, the organization looks for belligerently innovated means that devour more sacrifices; crushed, scorched, crumbled bodies with no identity.

To be continued
Translated by Mojahedin.ws

June 22, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

One more defector of Rajavi’s Cult joined his family

Mr. Hamid Hajipur who has experienced the bitterness of being captive in exile for more than 20 years, managed to release himself from the bars of Rajavis’ Cult and returned home and joined his family in Nejat Society office, Gilan Branch.

Declaring his separation from MKO and expressing his hatred towards the organization’s compulsory work camp; Camp Ashraf, Mr. Hajipur returned to his homeland and to his warm family center to shape his own life as he wishes.

Nejat Society, Gilan Branch welcomes Mr. Hajipur and congratulates his family on the return of their beloved son.

Nejat Society looks forward for the release of all captives of Rajavis’ Cult in near future.

June 21, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

A definition of suicide operations

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part one
In the course of many separations, for the most part during the past two years, Mrs. Batool Soltani is known to be the highest ranking cadre detached from Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO). A definition of suicide operations She was a member of the leadership council and the closest to the organization’s power hegemony and, consequently, she can be regarded the most reliable source of information compared to other separated rank and file. The best evidence is the statements and disclosures she has made, and is still making, on multitudes of issues concerning the organization.

However, with respect to the complex, interlocking body of the organization’s cultic relations and techniques, it does not seem that what she is uncovering for the public is all she knows and can reveal. But her immediate and close contact with the Rajavis as well as her high potentiality for precise analysis that puts forward new discussions based on her personal observations can possibly open a new window for a further analysis and study of the untold about the organization. To accomplish the goal, we decided to take a new turn just along the currently running interviews, that is, to focus on specific issues of the importance. The themes of the priority have been classified which we prefer not to mention in whole at the present since they will be prepared and released according to the circumstances and particular incidents. The first of these themed interviews is on the issue of organizational self-immolations as we are on the threshold of the June 17 anniversary, when, following the detention of Maryam Rajavi by the French police, a number of members set themselves on fire.

It has to be pointed out that these statements contain some dramatic, first-hand details so far disclosed by a ranking member of the leadership council. The interview starts with a prefatory emphasis on the history of suicidal operations and continues up to the June 17 self-burnings. Of the importance in the issue at hand is the materialization of the suicidal operations as a working means in the organization, an adopted means committed in a variety of forms from the past to the present cultic form. The narrative by Mrs. Soltani presents an explicitly further account of what we have so far heard or read about the shocking incident. Looking at an issue from many different angles, her look seems to be novel in itself.
Part one: A definition of suicide operations

Sahar Family Foundation: Mrs. Soltani, our best wishes and compliments and we also thank you for accepting to continue a new series of interviews. In fact, we never thought the interviews would take for so long but it was much because of your own interest and your precise and analytical details you provided for each question and the issues in question. As a result, we came face to face with new ideas that could be well classified into different categories to be discussed in detail separately. We knew there would be problems but when you showed how interested you were, I decided that no problem could hinder. So as not to bother you with further problems, I have arranged not to prolong the interviews but to focus on themed issues besides the routinely conducted interviews. Once more I express my thanks for your remarkable endurance and we hope that your exposé will solve many problems on the way of social movements and expose an outlet for the victimized generation, still enslaved physically and psychologically, to take a sound decision for the future.

First, I need to explain about the subject before going into further details. Of the troubles and challenges the contemporary armed movements encounter with irreparable costs is a commitment to suicide operations. Of course, as you know, the phenomenon is not a working means adhered to by the Iranian guerrillas but imported into our country as the idea of the guerrilla warfare itself. I have to point out that the main motive behind all this is the detention of Maryam Rajavi in June 2003 and the consequent self-burnings, but I deemed it necessary to start a preliminary discussion before we involve in the main issue. I beg your pardon, but I think you got what I mean and so I demand you to feel easy to talk about the phenomenon to whatever extent you wish, that is, how you define suicide operations, what its forms are and in what circumstances they are plotted and carried out.

Batool Soltani: As I come to understand from your explanations and introductory words, the subject proves to require a lengthy discussion. I hope our discourse on the issue will be of use somewhere. Let’s first give a comprehensive definition of the term suicide operation from an organizational point of view and explain its difference with other kinds of armed operations. In every perpetrated operation possibly there are some percentages of killings and in suicide operation there is a possibility leading to the death of people. But the nature of suicide operations is totally different as defined by the current political and militia terminology. It is called suicide because here the perpetrator puts the priority on self-annihilation regardless of any consequent outcome, that is, he makes an attempt to guarantee the accomplishment of the end by his own life while in other forms of operations the death is always a fifty to fifty possibility. Suicide operations are mainly motivated under one of the two incentives, defensive or aggressive.

Before any further explanation let me point out that some people may say that it was Mojahedin Khalq who first engaged in armed and guerrilla warfare in Iran. Regardless of to what extent the claim is true but one thing is clear that the organization is the innovator of a third kind of suicide operation; sending ablaze human-torches onto the streets following the June 2003 detentions. I will give details on the operations. Now let’s see what is the difference between the two mentioned kinds of operations. I have to point that it is a personal categorization of the types and I do not know if there are such definitions in any reference and, thus, they may be prone to mistake.

The first type is the defensive one, that is to say, the main cause for this suicide operation is to safeguard the organizational secrets and information. When the operator faces a serious situation that may lead to his detention by the police or the enemy’s forces and which may consequently lead to extraction of his information he commits suicide as the organizational orders require. This is the point where one has to risk his life to safeguard and protect the information and secrets. By his life, he breaks the possibility of any access to the information that may jeopardize the life of the organization. During the past five decades of struggle in the contemporary history you may encounter many examples of such operations among both religious and non-religious, Marxist organizations and in Mojahedin particularly. Ahmad Rezai (an earlier member in Mojahedin’s central cadre) for example killed himself along with a number of SAVAK’s agent with a hand grenade to avert falling in SAVAK’s clutches alive. There are members like Mahmood Shamekhi and more others whose name I fail to remember who did the same. However, there are a few examples in Mojahedin who have committed this kind to defend the organization against the threats of the regime that had tried to uproot the militia and their movement in any possible way.

There is always a red-line in such organizations where the members have no other choice but to commit suicide. It does not mean that the self-annihilation is the first choice when a member happens to confront the enemy. The red-line means a reaction defined for certain circumstances when the arrest of a certain operator is a question of exposing the organization, information and cadres to irreparable damages. The defined parameter, however, is deliberately overlooked in the years of the organization’s strife with the Islamic Republic. A quantitative and qualitative comparison between the present forces of the organization and those active in Pahlavi’s regime indicate that such suicide operation naturally had to be more common since at that time the slightest leak of information meant a big strike against the entity of the organization and the cadres. But the amount of these operations is beyond of comparison with those of the past regime although there is a remarkable difference between the potentiality and capability of the present and the former forces.

At the present when the organization dispatches its operation teams from Iraqi soil to Iran, the red-line is a mere sense of danger and possibility of arrest while neither the organization has any establishment inside Iran nor its leader reside there and it has no legitimacy there at all. The red-line becomes the sense of danger and the operator has the orders to swallow the cyanide capsule as soon as he/she feels there is a likelihood of arrestment. That is in absolute contrast with the phase of struggle in Pahlavi’s reign when 90 percent of the members and the leaders got arrested and most of them had the opportunity to commit suicide and to swallow the cyanide capsules. Even inside the prison they could but did not.

I apologize for distancing from the main issue but I feel it is necessary to give further explanation to make things clear. Of course, it is a long organizational issue developed following a gained extensive struggle experience and the members easily consent to the instructions for they are organizationally and ideologically justified. Let me also explain about the red-line out of Iran. The organization had strict instruction that if the members with secret and classified information happened to be arrested by the police in the European countries, they had to commit suicide before they could speak under the investigations. I mean the red-line is completely redefined compared to the past and the members’ life as a veteran is assessed much cheaper.

Another form of the suicide operation is the aggressive one. Here the operator’s act of self-annihilation is not a spontaneous act but preplanned. There are some fundamental characteristics distinguishing it from the former one. First, it is a preplanned operation far from being restricted to a final choice in facing unexpected circumstances. Second, it is aimed to fulfill certain end/s, political, economic, ideological, or more, motivated according to the perpetrator’s intention. It might be a part of an organizational analysis of the circumstances or in line with a tactic of struggle. The third factor is that there is a volunteer who knows well there would be no return. In some cases, it is an organizational order rather than requiring a volunteer. In either of the cases, there need to be some psychological and ideological preparation before sending the operator on the mission and if any suspicion of unpreparedness is traced, as it may inflict irreparable costs on the organization, the mission is either cancelled or another prepared alternative is substituted.

In the former kind, there always arises a doubt in the operator and he may not be prepared thoroughly when he faces an unexpected situation when he has the orders to commit suicide. To speak about the examples of the latter form in the organization, it generally happens in the second phase of its armed struggle after the victory of the Islamic Republic. They took the form of suicide terrorism to assassinate the leaders of the ritual Friday prayer. An explicit example is al-Qaeda’s attack against the Twin Towers in 9/11 terrorist operation. There are much more examples of these suicide operations against European economic and political centers all plotted by al-Qaeda and other similar terrorist groups. These were the two types of suicide operations.

There is a third kind which can be referred to as countermeasure, threatening or protesting. I think Mojahedin can be named as the innovators of this form of operation although we have its instances in other parts of the world like protests made against the war in Vietnam just in front of the UN office and the US Embassies. But what happens in Mojahedin is absolutely different and unique in its own. This form guarantees the media coverage and its effect on the public opinion is so high as the protesters of the Vietnam War did; their protest was against an anti-human, aggressive and colonial war and because they could not demonstrate their protest in any other legal form or conduct through any humanitarian body.

An analytical study of this third kind of operation in the organization and its psychological aspects indicates how exclusively it is utilized by the organization as a systematically working means. The purpose here is neither defensive nor aggressive although some aspects of the both may be embraced. To talk about the intended objective of this kind of suicide operation, we have to develop a good understanding of the outcomes in different circumstances and how beneficial and worthwhile they can be for the organization. I believe this is a tactic utilized by an armed, non-democratic organization challenging a democratic society in general. I mean utilization of a primitively violent, aggressive manner where you have the opportunity and the right of defending yourself through legal systems; but of course neither you have the potentiality of abiding by the law nor do you ever think it is to your advantage.

As a result, you make an attempt to force the challenger retreat from the fulfillment of legal actions through threateningly non-democratic reactions. A look at the setting of these operations, the European countries and France in particular, and the standing of the organization there well indicate that these operations are the result of the dire situation the organization has faced there under a false pretense; naturally no other backlash can be expected of an organization with respect to its complicated internal relations, ideology and armed strategy of struggle. That is why I make the claim to say that this kind of operation is innovated by the organization and hardly can you find any parallel in other political or armed establishments in the world; it has to be recorded exclusively in the name of Mojahedin. I prefer not to explain any more until the right time when I am giving details on self-burnings that is the objective of our interview. I think I have answered your question to the extent of my information, that is, the definition and classification of suicide operation.
SFF: Sure you have done. But your answer breeds more questions which I will pose in next sessions.

BS: As you wish.

Translated by Mojahedin.ws

June 20, 2009 0 comments

France

Nejat Society Letter to France Ambassador

Dear France Ambassador in Tehran,
Six years ago, French Police, under the order of interior ministry, attacked Mujahedin khalq’s base; in a village Parisian suburbs called “Auver Sur Oise” and could infiltrate the camp using explosives they discovered about one hundred satellite dishes; millions of Euros, and various documents. This operation was launched by one thousand and two hundred (1200) security agents and eight hundred (80) counter terrorism squad members. At that time the then interior minister of France announced that MKO’s base had been established for Logistical, organizational and financial objectives. And this reached its summit after Saddam was over thrown and Masoud Rajavi was disappeared and his wife Maryam Rajavi ran away and also when the group was disarmed by US army in Ashraf base, Iraq.

Therefore the group moved its base to France to find another way to carry out its terrorist, spying, sabotage acts under the cover of Refugee’s Rights. As the officials of your interior ministry stated “since 2001, one hundred and ninety-five various operations of the group had been guided from Auver Sur Oise. And all this resulted in arrest of Maryam Rajavi by French Police. After a few days, Maryam Rajavi was released but her juridical file remained open. And now, as we are near the sixth anniversary of this clamorous day; we expect your country to work on this file again and not to let the leaders of this terrorist group stay free.

As the result of recent terrorist acts in Zahedan – a city in west-south of Iran- that caused a lot of innocent people’s death or being injured. And as you know the group of “Jundullah” under the leadership of a man named “ Rigi “, claimed that he had used the information given to them by MKO; and this had become clear ;we expect your country to notice the matter. As a former member of the group I witnessed all inhuman actions of the leaders for ten years and I am ready to take part in any court to reveal their crimes. I expect you, dear ambassador, to let your officials hear my voice and not to witness the growth of such version of Al-Qaida in the world.

Sincerely Yours,
Mohammad Reza Pirnazari

June 20, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Masud Rajavi is the fixed axis of the organization

Memoirs of Ms. Batoul Soltani – part 15
The key approach to know a political or an ideological movement is to know its leaders in the first place. Masud Rajavi, the leader of MKO is 59 years old. He was born in the city of Tabas, in the north-eastern province of Khorasan. He finished his primary school there and later he moved to Mashhad to continue his high school education. He was accepted as a law student at Tehran University where he was linked with the newly established organization founded by Hanif Nezhad, Badi’ Zadegan, Saeed Mohsen. In 1970, he was arrested along with a large number of his comrades in the group. Consequently, all MKO leaders were executed except Masud Rajavi who was released during the first days of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Soon he declared his opposition to the Islamic Republic. I think he had some desires and he knew that he was not able to achieve them at that situation.

I don’t have much information about him or his political ideas as a youngster. I just know that he was born in a religious middle-class family. He had a sister named Monireh who was executed in Iran years ago. He also had two brothers, Kazem who was assassinated in Switzerland and Saleh who is living in France now. I have no idea about his other brothers and sisters. I don’t know if his parents are still alive or not.

When I joined the organization, I was not attracted by Rajavi himself since I was too young when he entered the political scene of Iran. I didn’t know much about him, so he was not a key factor for my involvement with MKO in the first place. I was actually motivated by the social and military situation I faced at that time. I felt that all the ways for my progress were closed or limited so I joined the organization. Besides, the main influential factor for my involvement with MKO was my husband since he had been recruited earlier by the group.

When I went to Pakistan and then to Iraq, I found out that Rajavi is worshipped as an idol or perhaps just like the God. In a safe house in Pakistan where I had to stay, I had enough time to think about the issue. In Iraq I received some training called HS based on the role of leadership in the organization. I gradually got curious about Rajavi’s personality. "Who is he in fact? What are his differences with other people? Why is he so respected?” I thought.

In fact, Rajavi was the core of power in the group. I tried to adapt myself with the new situation. However, I heard many things about him, his predictions, and his political and theoretical intelligence. In fact, I didn’t think about it too much but I just convinced myself. Sometimes Maryam spoke about him and his leadership. I wondered if he was really deserved so much admirations.

Masud Rajavi is the fixed axis of the organization where the leadership is very important. Every individual who enters the organization is under close observation all the time and the person’s actions or reactions are watched. When the video cassettes of leaders’ speeches are played, the members’ reactions are monitored. They inspect how deep the member is listening to the tape or on the contrary he is just day dreaming. They even care about the way the members encounter the arguments. They hold meetings to get the feedbacks. Even, in the Reception period, the first question they ask after listening to the tape is that: ”well, what did you understand of it?”

Basically, all these practices are functions to find the contradictions in the members’ minds. They called it “mental contradictions” which could matter in future relations and functions of the members. I tried to adapt myself. I mean I persuaded myself with the situation rather than focusing on my contradictions. I tried to finish with it and get along with the situation.
If the majority had reached a result, I would follow them. I didn’t talk of my doubts and contradictions. But, it is very important for them to know the members’ special problems about the leadership. They want to know their positions, their reactions and their understandings towards the leadership, following the trainings they had received. They told us the reason later.

When we took positions in higher ranks of the leadership council, we were told that a member who had a very tiny doubt about being melted in the leadership would surely have problems in higher levels and the leaders’ further commands. Since these members would train their minor ranks, in turn, their “mental contradictions" should be solved soon.

As a matter of fact they want to know if the members would stay in or leave the group. Once an individual is recruited by MKO, all his abilities and qualifications are acknowledged and categorized mentally and psychologically. They even matter the quality of his motivations, emotions and interests. They have a slogan saying that “Your art as a major member is that you never neglect your minor members. It means that you shouldn’t face a member who is out of the organization’s relations regularly. Rajavi even warned that members might physically be in line but not mentally. He seriously cares about how the superior members look after their minors. He always insisted that it is crucial for the majors to know the minors under their responsibility. In a meeting where some commanders had attended, he said: ”I don’t care how many people you keep in the organization. I just care if there is a person in your relations whom you haven’t known completely.

He meant that you should have enough information about your members’ minds that you can prevent them escaping. The leaders of MKO are very severe about what’s going on in the minds and hearts of their members.

They would rather have 10 defectors who have already been known than 1 defector who had not been known before. In each unit they look for the members who are hesitant. They’d rather have only four members in a unit but four qualified ones. They say: ”quality is more important than quantity” this is the goal. This is what they base these practices on. They want to know the so-called internal or hidden moments and words of a person.

The first time I visited Masud Rajavi, I was just promoted. I was moved to the rank S from the rank H. I was shifted from being a supporter of MKO to a sympathizer. In our meeting with Rajavi, he stated some arguments about supporters and sympathizers. Then, as I was promoting to higher ranks, meetings with Rajavi were increasing as well.

It took me three months since my first days in MKO until I met Masud Rajavi for the first time. During those months, while I was getting my trainings, whenever they argued about our contradictions, they spoke of Masud and Maryam Rajavi. Masud is the unique criterion to evaluate the extent of devotion of the members. Typically, when someone from a free society attends the meetings of Maryam or Masud, they are so eager to know about the contradictions one has brought from the outside world. They recognize the problems one has in one’s mind and then they arrange their relationships accordingly.

As I said, Masud is the criterion for everything. They want to know what the person’s motive for struggle according to this criterion is. Everything is evaluated to in accordance with this criterion. Everything is clarified by Masud as the core value which shows the measures of a person’s devotion to MKO.
Before the first visit, I didn’t know much about Masud .So I just wanted to listen to his words to understand what he cares about. In the first meeting, he mostly spoke of how professional the organization was. Maryam was also there. I don’t remember how I felt or I’d just say I didn’t have any particular feeling. I was mostly curious to know about his desires, his ideology and his thoughts.

Until my first visit I didn’t know that Masud had married Maryam. You may be surprised to know that I didn’t know Maryam Rajavi at all, let alone knowing that she was Mehdi Abrishamchi’s ex-wife.

After I entered the organizational relations I gradually realized that she had been Mehdi Abrishamchi’s wife before. When Mehdi spoke about divorce and marriage arguments, he said that it was not a normal divorce or marriage and this was the first time I learned about their relations. The leaders of MKO tried to make the new-comers to consider and judge the affairs in the way the leaders wanted to. They led the affairs to proceed in the direction they wanted to, and to conclude with the exact results they had planed for. So I always tried to cope with their way in order not to be punished. Even though I had problems or questions, I never exposed them; I wondered in my mind asking about the contradictions I had faced with. I wondered what important issue made Maryam divorce her husband and marry Masud Rajavi; how this phenomenon should be interpreted.

There were various storms going on in my mind. I thought about the probability of how dissolute could Rajavi be based on his marriage with Firouzeh Banisadr (the young daughter of former president Banisadr) immediately after his first wife was killed in Iran.

I wondered about the social, moral or age factors that had linked Masud Rajavi with Firouzeh Banisadr. I had a lot of ambiguity and questions in my mind and of course MKO never was willing to answer and clarify such problems. I couldn’t understand why they called Masud Rajavi’s Marriage an “Ideological” one.

It is worth knowing that I was surprised to see in the meetings that all queries in my mind were discussed. For instance the person in charge of the meeting presented the arguments around the ideological marriage. I saw that Masud Rajavi apparently tried to put himself under moral accusations to clarify the case. In fact they categorized everything that might occur to the minds of the members. I was eager to know how they answer the questions I had in my mind. I supposed that it was really an accusation, how would they defend themselves.

Translated by Nejat Society

June 18, 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

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

James Longley on his ‘MEK and US Relations’

An Interview with filmmaker James Longley – about his Special Report ‘MEK and US Relations’

We were honored when filmmaker James Longley offered LinkTV an exclusive window to bring you his special report about The MEK (AKA the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq). James’s award-winning film ‘Iraq in Fragments’ made a profound impression on me so I was fascinated to see his Special report about this little-known organization and very proud to be able to bring it to you. You can watch the premiere of the report streamed here on LinkTV.org and it will also be airing on the channel on 25th September at 9pm Pacific/12 Eastern, and October 30 at 4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, ‘The U.S. State Department lists the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq as a terrorist organization for its association with Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime until the dictator’s ouster by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.’ It also states that ‘the MEK was blamed for Western targets in the 1970s and for supporting the 1979 American embassy takeover in Tehran. Over the last two decades, however, the group’s continued presence on the U.S. terrorist group list primarily involves its activities directed from Iraqi territory against Iran. After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the MEK was disarmed and confined by American forces to the grounds of a former Iraqi military base. Still, the 2007 State Department report says that MEK maintains “the capacity and will” to attack “Europe, the Middle East, the United States, Canada, and beyond.”
We talked to James earlier today about his film:

Why did you make the film?

First of all, I don’t really look at this project as a “film” per se — this is more like a special report, made exclusively for TV broadcast and Internet. I made the decision to put this report together because I think the subject matter is important; it has a strong impact on US-Iran relations although it’s a subject of which few in the United States are aware.
Are these former MEK members who gave interviews in any danger?

I was able to make contact with the former members of the MEK through an NGO in Tehran called the Nejat Society, which is an officially-sanctioned organization that helps the families of MEK members currently in Iraq and also provides support to former MEK members who have returned to Iran. Though I am sure the MEK itself might pose a danger to former members who speak about their experiences inside that organization, it’s important to recognize that I made these interviews with the blessing of an official organization in Iran, and not in secret. None of the participants in my report expressed any fear about giving interviews, since the Iranian government is already fully aware of their identities and history.

From what I can gather, it is now the position of the Iranian government to allow former MEK members to return to Iran without charging them with any crime, except for those who were in leadership positions inside the MEK or personally carried out terrorist acts – and there are relatively few of these people. In this way, the Iranian government hopes to dissolve the organization by allowing most people to leave it easily, and making it more feasible to shut down the main MEK Ashraf base in Iraq.
How did you come across the characters?

I contacted most of the former MEK members through the Nejat Society in Tehran. The journalists and historians I interviewed because of their published work on the MEK. People like Hans von Sponeck, who had been working for the UN in Iraq in the 1990s, I was able to interview just by chance. I was also able to interview the FBI agent in charge of investigating the MEK in the United States during the 1980s, though it took a long time to arrange this interview. I also contacted pro-MEK organizations such as the Iran Policy Committee, but after initially agreeing to an interview they eventually refused to go on the record. I also contacted Ali Reza Jafarzadeh – the former spokesperson for the MEK who now works for Fox News – to request an interview, but he never responded.

What are the characters in the film up to now?

Arash Sametipour, the main character in the report, finished his prison sentence and has been married for several years, living in Tehran where he works in a private company that teaches English to Iranians. Ronak, who was held against her will by the MEK in Ashraf base from the age of 14, is now in her early twenties and lives with her mother in the Kurdish area of Iran. Babak Amin, who carried out a number of terrorist operations in Iran including firing an RPG at the Ministry of Defense building, served a prison sentence and is now pursuing an engineering degree in Tehran. Yavar, the former MEK member who killed a young security guard in Esfahan after the 1979 revolution, served a long prison sentence and was saved from the death penalty by clemency granted by the guard’s mother, according to the Iranian legal system which allows family members of murder victims to pardon the murderer. Yavar adopted two young girls orphaned during the Iran-Iraq war and raised them as his own.

Have the MEK acted on any recent threats to the Iranian government?

During the 1980s and 90s the MEK carried out a number of terrorist operations against Iran, and even launched a land invasion in 1988, at the end of the Iran-Iraq War. However, since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the MEK has been largely disarmed and is no longer in a position to carry out large operations against Iran. Instead, they have been lobbying the US government to take military action against Iran, hoping to inspire a “regime change” that would allow themselves to come to power.

Has the U.S. government’s policy changed at all concerning the MEK?

My understanding is that there are deep divisions of opinion inside the US government regarding the MEK. On the one hand, the State Department, CIA and FBI all seem to regard the MEK and its lobbying efforts with a great deal of skepticism, because they understand the history and nature of the organization. After all, the MEK remains on the State Department list of designated foreign terrorist organizations, and they continue to be investigated by the FBI up to the present day. However, it is also clear that the MEK has managed to gain some favor both inside the White House and the Pentagon. Because of this overt and less-overt support, the MEK – a terrorist organization, according to the US government – is able to continue operating a base in Iraq under US military protection, and is able to continue fund-raising and lobbying efforts in the United States. So the MEK has come to represent a kind of hypocrisy on the part of the US government, because of their inconsistent enforcement of US anti-terrorism laws when it comes to the MEK.

Is the MEK an Islamic fundamentalist group like the Taliban?

No. The MEK can not really be compared to the Taliban – they are very different. Prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the MEK was a pro-revolutionary group that used many methods, including bombings and assassinations, to advance their goals. They espoused a philosophy which they called “Revolutionary Islam” which combined Marxist ideology with Islam. After the revolution when the the MEK was forced into exile, they became a personality cult under the leadership of Massoud and Mariam Rajavi, the husband and wife duo that has led the MEK since the 1980s. At that point, the actual political ideology of the group became secondary to the personality cult of the Rajavis.

Why isn’t the MEK well known in the United States, especially in the press?

Though the MEK has maintained an organized presence in the US since the 1980s and been under almost constant investigation by the FBI, they are not well known in this country since most of their activity has been focused inside their base in Iraq and their operations into Iran. The face they have presented in the United States is one of a democratic opposition group fighting for human rights in Iran, and they have been able to sell this image successfully among many members of Congress. The MEK has received some occasional press attention, but I think they are generally ignored because their story is quite complex and requires a great deal of explanation and background to tell properly, and US journalism tends to shy away from stories that cannot be told in sound-bites.

Why is it important for our viewers to see your film now?

Right now the US is faced with two vastly divergent paths that it can follow in terms of policy toward Iran. We can either go down the road of diplomacy and negotiations with Iran, or continue to build up a policy of sanctions and threats, and possibly war. The MEK is very much bound up in this choice, since if we choose to go down the diplomatic road with Iran then clear decisions have to be made to end all support for the MEK, whose main goal is the overthrow of the Iranian government, and to continue tacit support for the MEK clearly worsens relations with Iran and makes diplomatic efforts more difficult. To take a clear position to end US support for the MEK would ameliorate US-Iran relations and make negotiations on other issues far easier.

From an interview with James Longely, September 23rd, 2008. LinkTV.

For additional information on the subject of the film, the MEK, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PMOI
Also, James has put up additional video and audio about the group here: http://www.daylightfactory.com/MEK/

James Longley Biography

James Longley was born in Oregon in 1972. He studied Film and Russian at the University of Rochester and Wesleyan University in the United States, and the All-Russian Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow. His student documentary, Portrait of Boy with Dog, about a boy in a Moscow orphanage, received the Student Academy Award in 1994 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

After working as a film projectionist in Washington State, an English teacher in Siberia, a newspaper copy editor in Moscow, and a web designer in New York City, James traveled to Palestine in 2001 to make his first feature documentary, Gaza Strip. The film, which takes an intimate look at the lives and views of ordinary Palestinians in Israeli-occupied Gaza, screened to critical acclaim in film festivals and U.S. theaters.

In 2002, James traveled to Iraq to begin pre-production work on his second documentary feature, Iraq in Fragments, which was completed in January 2006 and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was awarded prizes for Best Documentary Directing, Best Documentary Editing, and Best Documentary Cinematography – the first time in Sundance history a documentary has received three jury awards. Iraq in Fragments went on to win the Nestor Almendros Award at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, the Nesnady + Schwartz Documentary Film Competition at the Cleveland Intl Film Festival, the FIPRESCI International Critics Award at Thessaloniki, and the Grand Jury Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2007.

James Longley’s short film, Sari’s Mother, premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2008.

James is currently working on projects in Iran.
Posted September 24, 2008 by Lorraine Hess with contributions from Deepak Unnikrishnan

June 7, 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

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