… Iranian families who have been picketing in front of the military base Ashraf – home to the Mojahedin Khalq organisation in Diyala province – for the last 4 months, asked Christopher Hill, the US ambassador in Baghdad, for his help in negotiating with the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (aka Rajavi cult, MEK, MKO, PMOI, NCRI) to give visiting rights to the detainees in Camp Ashraf …
BAGHDAD – Iranian families, who travelled from Iran and other countries four months ago to sit in front of the headquarters of the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq in Diyala province (Camp Ashraf), called on the United States Ambassador in Iraq, Christopher Hill, to intervene and put pressure on the organization’s leaders to end their suffering and allow them to meet with their children, who have been detained within the camp since the 1980s.
In an Open Letter, a copy of which was also distributed to our agency in Iraq, the families demanded the U.S. ambassador in Iraq help with intervention and dialogue with leaders and officials of the [Mojahedin] organization, to allow the families free access to their children outside the walls of the camp in the same way that the three U.S. mothers were able to travel to Iran recently and meet their three children (Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal) who are detained there.
The body of the message addressing Mr Hill said, “Your government successfully arranged for the mothers of U.S. detainees in Iran to visit their children on compassionate grounds… But, if America can negotiate this with Iran, we certainly expect that you can negotiate with this small terrorist group so that its members can meet freely with their families. if America can negotiate this with Iran, we certainly expect that you can negotiate with this small terrorist group so that its members can meet freely with their families.”
The families expressed the hope that the involvement of Ambassador Hill and the U.S. government with leaders of the organization, would create a serious and positive end to their suffering and enable them to meet their children, detainees at Camp Ashraf.
Iraq Beituna Agency – translated by Iran Interilnk
"Cults In Our Midst" is a book written by professor Margaret Thaler Singer in 1995. Mrs. Singer is a Psychologist with over fifty years of research and clinical experience. Her book is a well-written text describing what cults are and how they work. The book explains how cults (Like Al Qaida or MKO) use motivational psychology to create closed controlling environments where cult members have little opportunity for free thinking.
Doctor Singer believes:
"A considerable number of different guided–imagery techniques are used by cult leaders and trainers to remove followers from their normal frames of reference […]. As a result, they enter a trancelike state in which they are more likely to heed the suggestions and absorb the content of what is being said than if they were listening in an evaluative, rational way." [1]
Professor Singer describes the role of cult leaders as:
"..Many cult leaders put great pressure on new members to leave their families, friends and jobs to become immersed in the group’s major purpose. They use manipulative techniques to make the members review their past and view their parents as evil and no loner trustworthy."[2]
During the few past days, MKO leaders had some of Camp Ashraf residents interviewed on the group’s TV channel. The show indicated the annoying systematic manipulative pressure on the group’s rank and file. Those who were interviewed on TV were mostly among those members whose families were waiting to visit them at Ashraf gates. The families were prevented from visiting their loved ones by MKO leaders.
It is stunning that the participants at the TV show view their awaiting and suffering parents as evils, and insult them!! They call their brother or sisters as traitors and spies of Iranian Intelligence!!
It sounds like MKO leaders are feeling distressed of the families constant presence at Ashraf gates, persisting on their legitimate demands.
The group’s leaders have never expected such a situation so they commit political suicide rather than behaving democratically and according to civil ethics.
The decline of cult-like thinking in MKO caused its leaders to perform these TV shows. They resort to these tactics since they realize how terribly they are discarded by public opinion which will end in their final cul-de-sac in future.
It is clear that the defection of experienced members following the presence of families at Ashraf gates, signifies the decline of the terrorist destructive cult of Rajavi.
Sources:
[1] ‘cults In Our midst: the continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace.", Professor Margaret Thaler Singer Ph.D, Page 157.
[2] Ibid page 88
By: Arash Rezaee
Iranian families called on U.S. officials in Baghdad to broker visitation rights to Iranian dissidents encamped in their Diyala province enclave.
Members of the dissident People’s Mujahedin of Iran are lodged in their Camp Ashraf enclave in Diyala province.
The PMOI opposes the clerical regime in Iran. Washington lists the group as a terrorist organization for its violent methods of opposition, though the group surrendered its weapons in 2003.
Iranian family members of Camp Ashraf residents called on U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill to award them the same rights that U.S. family members have with American hikers detained in Iran since July.
Family members of the hikers are expected Wednesday in Tehran.
The PMOI family members say their relatives are held captive in Camp Ashraf, adding if Washington can broker an agreement with Iran, similar arrangements are possible with the PMOI.
"If America can negotiate this with Iran, we certainly expect that you can negotiate with this small terrorist group so that its members can meet freely with their families," the families said.
The PMOI is included in the Iranian opposition movement the National Council of Resistance to Iran, a French-based group that considers itself the Iranian Parliament in exile. It denies the cult and terrorist categorization, claiming its policy is based on peaceful dissent.
Families of MEK Victims in Camp Ashraf, Iraq Want Same Visiting Rights as U.S. Detainee Families in Iran
A group of Iranian families today asked the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, for his help in negotiating with the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (aka Rajavi cult, MEK, MKO, PMOI, NCRI) to give visiting rights to the detainees in Camp Ashraf in Diyala province.
The parents of captives in Camp Ashraf were responding to news that the mothers of three young Americans detained in Iran, Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal, are on their way to visit their children in prison there.
They said, "We are so happy for these families that negotiations with Iran have resulted in allowing these visits on compassionate grounds. Everyone in the world knows the strength of the bond between parent and child. We hope they will achieve their wishes in Iran."
For nearly four months the families have been encamped outside the camp which houses members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist cult. The cult leaders refuse to allow ordinary members to have any contact with the outside world and will not negotiate with external bodies. Some members have been trapped inside the camp for over twenty years.
Although the Government of Iraq is responsible for the camp, officials say their hands are tied because the MEK have powerful backers in Washington, even though it is on the U.S.’s own terrorism list. The families told Mr. Hill, "We witnessed ourselves that American soldiers intervened on behalf of the MEK leaders when Iraqi soldiers tried to help us get inside the camp."
Urging Mr. Hill to intervene on their behalf with the leaders of the MEK the families said, "Your government successfully arranged for the mothers of U.S. detainees in Iran to visit their children on compassionate grounds… But, if America can negotiate this with Iran, we certainly expect that you can negotiate with this small terrorist group so that its members can meet freely with their families."
* * *
Open Letter to the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Mr Christopher R. Hill
Dear Ambassador,
We are Iranian families who have travelled to Iraq to find relatives enslaved by the Mojahedin-e Khalq organisation (aka Rajavi cult, MEK, MKO, PMOI, NCRI) in Camp Ashraf. We families have been encamped outside the gates of Camp Ashraf for nearly four months now, and still not been helped enough to meet with our relatives.
We now have news that the mothers of three young Americans, Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal, detained in Iran are flying over there to visit them in prison.
We are so happy for these families that negotiations with Iran have resulted in allowing these visits on compassionate grounds. Everyone in the world knows the strength of the bond between parent and child. We hope they will achieve their wishes in Iran. We share the same anguish as these three mothers, with the difference that our children have been held captive in Camp Ashraf for over twenty years, not by the Iraqi government but by the very leaders of the group they are with. And conditions inside Camp Ashraf are worse than any prison; our children are not allowed to telephone or even to write to their families, they have been enslaved.
Up until 2003 we could not approach the camp where our children live because the Mojahedin-e Khalq were armed. We became hopeful when U.S. Forces disarmed the group and rounded them up into one place. At last there was hope of visiting. But the U.S. Army failed to get the group to surrender, even though it is on the U.S.’s own terrorism list as well as being a foreign terrorist group in Iraq. Even when we travelled to Iraq to find our children, the U.S. Army did not help us. Those few members who were lucky enough to meet their families always had MKO minders with them to prevent them from escaping.
When the Government of Iraq took control of the camp in January 2009 we again had hope that we could visit our children. But the MEK leaders refuse to cooperate and have not only kept the gate locked but threatened us with violence if we don’t leave. Now the Iraqi government is doing what it can to help us, but for almost four months we are still stuck at the entrance gate without news.
Over these four months we have talked to everyone we can; UNAMI, the Red Cross, human rights groups, Diyala tribal leaders, Iraqi and foreign press, Iraqi government officials and the military personnel responsible for the camp. In private we have been told over and over again that the Iraqi government cannot do more to help us because the Mojahedin-e Khalq has powerful backing in America (where it is on the U.S. terrorism list). We witnessed ourselves that American soldiers intervened on behalf of the MEK leaders when Iraqi soldiers tried to help us get inside the camp.
Now we are finally convinced that no one but America has control over this group – and even then we see that the tail is wagging the dog.
Your government successfully arranged for the mothers of U.S. detainees in Iran to visit their children on compassionate grounds and we wish them every joy that such a meeting must bring. But, if America can negotiate this with Iran, we certainly expect that you can negotiate with this small terrorist group so that its members can meet freely with their families.
We ask you as a matter of urgency, as Ambassador of the USA to Iraq, to use the considerable influence that you have to force the Mojahedin-e Khalq in Camp Ashraf to allow, on compassionate grounds, for our children to meet freely with us
The families of MEK members in Camp Ashraf, Iraq
Since the gathering of the families of MKO victims and captives before Camp Ashraf, Mojahedin media as well as advocates have staged a new round of propagation and have repeatedly asked the mass media and reporters from all over the world to cover Camp Ashraf news for the world to 
be informed of what is happening therein. But is it really sincere in what is advertising? A review of BBC’s report in 26 April, basically in Persian, discredits all claims made by the organization as well as the truth of the statements made by the family of MKO members made in their nearly three months of gathering before the camp to let the world hear their cries of protest against the most blatant form of the modern slavery and to see and release their children and beloved ones from the clutches of the terrorist organization.
BBC report starts with a sight of a big lock on the gate of Ashraf and the starting point of the text is “No one is to open the doors; all cries are uttered in vain”. Then the father of an Ashraf resident tells the reporter “It is for 22 years that I’ve received no letter of my son”. Some MKO members managing to escape from Ashraf are quoted as saying “Mojahedin high rankings prevent members to leave camp by means of intimidation, threat, and coercive measures”. And BBC reporter expounds on the reaction of Ashraf officials, stating: The gates of the camp are closed on the reporters too and despite we have called Mojahedin authorities inside camp many times, there is no answer to our questions. Finally, BBC refers to the main challenge of Ashraf victims and its solution: ‘The US recognizes Mojahedin as a terrorist organization yet it has some advocators among American and European politicians and lawmakers who defend the survival of camp Ashraf in Iraq. Now the basic question is how long the few advocates of Mojahedin are to victimize thousands of innocents and their families for their own interests? There are some points to be mentioned on the BBC report.
The report approved the fact that despite the dissemination of Mojahedin and inviting mass media to camp Ashraf, the organization has so far refrained to welcome the reporters’ presence and answering their questions. Instead, it refers to the gathering before the camp as a propaganda show staged by the Iranian regime and calling people and reporters Intelligence Ministry agents swarming at the front gate of Ashraf by the collaboration of the Iraqi Prime Minister’s Office. The report has some shocking scenes illustrating the oppression and injustice of Ashraf high rankings imposed on MKO victims, their families and children and focuses on the gap separating Ashraf from the family of its residents as well as the baseless claims of Rajavi on the point that Ashraf residents have remained there at will and its doors are open for those willing to leave and other lies fabricated by him for killing time and victimizing more members. There is no need to interpret the tearful eyes of an eight-year-old girl who has never seen his father since she was born. The BBC report contains justifiable and significant points to convince the global community, international humanitarian institutions and mass media to be concerned about the blatant violations of human rights and international rules by the leaders of a blacklisted terrorist cult that respects no convention, law and domestic legislation. Here are some suggestions that may well help avert further violations of human rights by the organization and possible release of the enslaved members.
1. The international organizations are supposed to send their independent delegates to Iraq to be informed of the events inside and outside Camp Ashraf directly if they ever care for human rights and justice. It may prevent victimization of more MKO members used as human shields in Ashraf. Mojahedin advocates can make a descent visit of camp in order to get at the truth.
2. The Iraqi Government has done its best in order to prohibit any human disaster inside Ashraf. It is the best position taking on the part of the government after the bloody conflicts of June 2009 in proving its goodwill toward Ashraf residents. According to BBC report, the Iraqi police are just trying to preserve order in the region maintaining neutrality, yet Mojahedin leaders insist on developing a violent atmosphere by means of assaulting and battering the family of Ashraf residents located beside camp. The best solution at the time being seems to be the direct interference of international organs and bodies; otherwise, any negligence in this regard may result in negative consequences that in no way vindicate any concerned organization and body.
3. BBC report reveals that Mojahedin cannot bear the presence of mass media in the region in contrast to their claims. They are well aware that the disclosure of the truth may be a barrier in the way of their propaganda blitz and psychological warfare. Therefore, the continuous presence of the media in the region may foil Mojahedin’s plans.
4. The fact that a number of Ashraf residents escaped from the camp to join their family may reveal that the organization has kept MKO members inside camp by force. The presence of the concerned international institutions may facilitate the free exodus of the captives. Any delay in this regard may impose irreparable costs on the voluntary split of members and encouraging the leaders to continue with the human tragedy ultimatums.
5. The presence of a number of families before Camp Ashraf, that has emboldened some insiders to the escape and also disclose the true notorious nature of Mojahedin, may emphasize the necessity of the presence of other families to save their children. Undoubtedly, Ashraf officials cannot bear the existing conditions forever. As mentioned before, the first step for the dissolution of Camp Ashraf is by rendering the organization helpless through a striking split therein and this is the best time for breaking cultic relations of MKO to set the members free. The supports of the families may pave he way for releasing their children from the firm clutch of Rajavi.
6. The interaction of the families with the media is of a high significance. It may deprive Rajavi of his lever of fabrication and distortion of the truth as well as trying to win the sympathy of the world by putting the bargaining chip in the hands of the families as it was revealed in the blind and hysteric backlashes of Mojahedin against BBC report. In a nutshell, Rajavi and Ashraf high rankings have reached a stalemate and the persistence of the present conditions may lead to their full destruction in the near future.
The new, preposterous form of propaganda by MKO’s leaders aimed to frustrate the gathering of members’ families who insist to meet their children and relatives enslaved in Camp Ashraf is of great significance to consider. The families’ gathering has entered its fourth month and the organization has already started to get desperate as it has actually churned the internal relations and caused commotion and has made the organization vulnerable to many separations and escapes, as we have witnessed recently. Before, the organization would refer to the families’ gathering as propaganda show staged by the Iranian regime’s Intelligence Ministry, but now it has started a new form of offense against the families to damage their morale and to break their encampment in front of Ashraf.
The families’ adamant resistance against MKO’s systematic measures of waging psychological war indicates that, in spite of suffering great discomfort and distress before the gates of Ashraf, they will persist beyond every physical and psychological stunt and barrier plotted by the organization. MKO’s new psychological war has aimed at the families heart and emotions referring to them as step father and mothers rather than the real parents of the members.
In the newly staged show, a number of the ranking members are acting a scenario before the TV cameras as interviewees by claiming that those calling themselves their parents before the Ashraf gate are none but their step father and mothers provoked by the Iranian regime.
“They have brought some, including my mother, of course my step mother, before Ashraf to damage my morale”, one of the members said. “I told from the very beginning that whoever walks with regime’s intelligence will be a hireling. This stepfather of mine once came to Ashraf in 2003 and stayed for three days”, another member is heard to claim. And we can also see another one saying, “We Mojahedin announce that we have no father and mother nor children until the regime will collapse”.
How it is possible that some families became step parents overnight is a matter to ponder. In any struggle, the campaigners have families and attachments and nothing may break the pure, human emotional ties that sometimes act as factors of encouragement. It is only in a cultic milieu that these lofty and highly respected attachments and emotions are rendered valueless and Rajavi has already vacated the hearts of his followers from whatever attaches them to the outside world of free men. And the newly made shows are the last strikes by Rajavi’s apostles to square it all with the families and to demonstrate the organization’s inhuman potentialities to challenge them against the continuation of persisting in their demands.
But can cultic brainwashing actually overcome the parental and familial attachments that remain important to one’s emotional and identity development and the cause for life? For sure, nothing in the world, even psychological propaganda of a terrorist cult, can thoroughly cut the deeply rooted emotional and psychological attachments between parents and children and vice versa. What is actually separating them is an enforced barrier of intimidation as well as walls and bars. If Rajavi and his associates believe in the sincerity of their claims and that Mojahedin have cut all familial attachments for a greater cause, then, why are they afraid to let these veterans with such high morale meet with their families? It is really abominable to disregard rights of some old parents, wives and children who are tolerating all kinds of suffering to meet their sons, husbands and fathers enslaved, rather than being volunteer fighters, within a closed military camp. No doubt, what Rajavi losses in this inhuman form of blitz will be much more than what he has aimed to gain as the public opinion has well developed an understanding that such allegations are void of credibility.
The repeated demand of Iranian families to meet with their relatives who are held captive inside Camp Ashraf by the leaders of the Mojahedein-e Khalq cult has had devastating effects on the group. Unable to answer the families and unable to get support in the international community, the MKO leaders have resorted to their normal pattern of reaction to external problems – bloodshed; threatened and actual.
The group has no future in Iraq and is trying to turn a humanitarian issue – family meetings – into a security issue by invoking the bogeyman of Iran’s Intelligence services (forgetting, of course, that cult phobias only work on cult members). This will be the excuse to order MKO members to start shedding blood – whether their own or that of others. And, if they cannot do this in Iraq (which they cannot because the Iraqi government is fully in control of the situation), then they will do it in Europe – as they did in 2003.
Unfortunately, Western governments, because of their reluctance to take any action to curtail the activities of this terrorist cult in their own countries, are placing their citizens’ lives and their own reputations under threat.
The following statement issued by the MKO (aka NCRI) is indicative of this diversion from the real issue of having family members sitting outside the camp gates for over 100 days asking to meet with their children.
Iranian regime and Iraqi PM?s committee force defectors from Ashraf to return to Iran
Saturday, 15 May 2010
http://ncr-iran.org/content/view/8153/1/
"Iranian regime intelligence agents and Iraqi PM’s committee of suppression of Ashraf force defectors from Ashraf to return to Iran despite earlier promises of sending them to Europe
NCRI – According to credible reports obtained from inside the Iranian regime, after the 2008 closure of the Temporary International Presence Facility (TIPF), which was controlled by the American forces, and following the transfer of Camp Ashraf’s protection to the Iraqi forces in early 2009, the Iranian regime’s Intelligence Ministry is seriously pressuring those who defected from Ashraf with earlier promises of traveling to Europe to return to Iran instead.
….."
Honorable and Distinguished Director of Human Rights Watch
With our best regards to Human Rights Watch organization for their constant and steady endeavors toward human rights throughout the world,
As you are well informed that a number of elderly fathers and mothers of the cult’s captives who traveled to Iraq ,hoping to see their loved ones after many years of imposed and compelled distance in New Iraq Garrison(Former Ashraf) ,got astounded and shocked because the operatives and official of the cult do not allow them to meet their loved ones. They have waited since 3 months ago to see their relatives in that garrison , but instead of meeting their loved ones , they have been insulted and slandered by the cult’s operatives since their arrival .These families despite of bad weather and the lack of accommodation , are persisting to see their relatives . Despite of their age and bad weather , they are very determined to find a solution to see their loved ones.
We , the former members of PMOI who had been captives in this cult and its ideology for many years and we had experienced the cultic regulations and rules of law in this organization for decades urge you to intervene and help those elderly parents to see their loved ones, our request is as follows:
1.You should intervene and convince or force PMOI to accept the meeting of the families with their relatives. Meeting is the right of any human being .
2. The meeting should occur in a place without the presence of representatives and commanders of the cult, so the family can have a peaceful and convenient meeting with their loved ones.
It is good to know that all those captives in that cult have been under severe and harsh psychological tortures for many years and constantly they have been under brain washing methods and cultic- religious indoctrinations , so the meeting should occur without the presence of the cult’s operatives.
Hoping with your direct intervention those families meet their loved ones at last .
Respectfully
Ancient Iran, Glorious future
CC:
Honorable Iraq Prime minister’s office
Amnesty International
UNHCR office in Iraq
Please give your support
Support for parents who have not seen their children for more than twenty years
Three months now parents are waiting before the closed gates of camp Ahsraf of the Mujahedin sect in Irak, still it’s not possible to see their children. Most of the parents are old people now, they’re crying and shouting the names of their children, whom they didn’t see for over more than twenty years. Their children were recruited by the Mujahedin when they were young and were isolated in camp Ahsraf. Now they’re middle-aged and senior-aged men and women.
The leaders of the Mujahedin-sect have always forbidden every form of contact between members and family. Their members are kept in total isolation and it’s not allowed to have any contact outside the camp. Members who want to leave this sect are withhold by the leaders.
Up to now it has never been possible for their families to come near the camp of the armed Mujahedin. But after the fall of Saddam Hoessein the situation of Ahsraf changed. The camp came under the supervision of soldiers of the new government of Iraq. After more than twenty years the parents get new hope to see their children.
They travelled to the camp and lined up in front of the gates, where they are waiting for three months now, without any result. Although the Iraqian soldiers supervise the camp, they are afraid to let the parents enter the sect, because they cannot guarantee their safety. Inside the camp are over 3000 sect-members and even after the fall of Saddam Hoessein the Mujahedin-leaders want to keep their members in the same situation and forbid family-contact. They deceive their brainwashed members and scare them by telling them that the people at the gates are supporters of the Iranian Governement, a government that tortures and executes opponents. Some fanatic members started attacking the parents.
But these parents have nothing to do with the regime of Iran, which is rejected by everyone who respects the human rights. They just want to see their children, who they had to miss for so many years.
Every parent has the right to see his/her children and every child has the right to see his parents, no matter what kind of religion or vision they have. If this is withhold, it’s important that organisations can help to accomplish the contact. The words of Saadi, a Persian poet, should be in our minds:
“If one limb of the body suffers
All the others too will feel the pain…”
All human beings are connected with each other, like the organs in a body. We are responsible for those ones who cannot help themselves. That is why we ask you to sign this paper, so that we are able to bring these parents, under the protections of the Red Cross and Amnesty International, and in the presence of independent media, in contact with their children
More information you will find at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J96_IeD2bt0
On behalf of the parents: thank you very much
Names:
1- mohammad hossein sobhani
2- soheila behboudi
3-nasrin behboudi
4-kazem hoseini
5-batoul soltani
6- ali jahani
7- Batoul maleki
8- Mehrdad sagharchi
9- Mehdi sojoodi
10- Mehdi khoshal
11- Hadi shamshaeri
12-Farideh barati
13-Mahboube Brati
14-Zhra Mohammadi
15-Milaad Aryai
16-Aliakbar Rastgou
17- Masoud Djabani
18- Osmaan.Aboesaad
19-Javad Firozmand
20- gholaml Shirali
21- Behzad Alishahi
22- Hbib Khorami
23- Robabeh Shahrokhi
24- Batoul Ahmadi
25- Masoud Khodabandeh
26-n.Amiri
27- Mowasaghi amir
28- Ghashghavi ali
29- Termado dward
30- Charlangi jamshid
31- Marzeeh gonjeshki
32- Dijabani.Saeedeh
33- konaar Jasem Ali
34-Narmin Jasem Ali
35-hamid tavana
36-Ali shabani
37-mohammade Harati
38-bahmane Parsa
39-Tol mollavie
40-Jaan Benek
41-H.krigoriyaan
42-maals Tapel
43-Abdalghadir.Ghader
44- mohammad.Allami
45-khaled.zahra
46-Asma . zahra
47-mohammad. zahra
48-Emaad. zahra
49-Yeganeh.Barati
50-hsan Barati
51-Aazam Mohammadi
52-Akram mohammadi
53-Hamid.Balfal
54-Maryam.jahanfrd
55,Vartaan.Babakhani
56-zaghik.babakhani
57-Aroutin.Babakhani
To add you name, please contact
payamerahai@gmail.com
Payame Rahai, Netherlands, May 14, 2010
