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Iran finds US-backed MKO fingermarks in riots

The terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) has reportedly played a major role in intensifying the recent wave of street violence in Iran.

Iranian security officials reported Saturday that they have identified and arrested a large number of MKO members who were involved in recent riots in Iran’s capital.

According to the security officials, the arrested members had confessed that they were extensively trained in Iraq’s camp Ashraf to create post-election mayhem in the country.
They had also revealed that they have been given directions by the MKO command post in Britain.

Street protests broke out after defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi rejected President Ahmadinejad’s decisive win in the June 12 election. His supporters have staged a series of illegal rallies ever since.

Iran’s deputy police commander, on Saturday, warned against the mass gatherings, asserting that those who engage in any such actions would be severely reprimanded.
Earlier on Saturday, MKO leader Maryam Rajavi had supported the recent wave of street violence in Iran during a Saturday address to supporters in Paris.

Rajavi had reportedly described the MKO terrorists as the real winners of the Iranian election.

The Mujahedin Khalq Organization is a Marxist guerilla group, which was founded in the 1960s.In the past two decades, MKO leaders have been resettled in the northern outskirts of Paris.

The terrorists are especially notorious for taking sides with former dictator Saddam Hussein during the war Iraq imposed on Iran (1980-1988).

The group masterminded a slew of terrorist operations in Iran and Iraq — one of which was the 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party, in which more than 72 Iranian officials were killed.

A 2007 German intelligence report from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has identified the MKO as a "repressive, sect-like and Stalinist authoritarian organization which centers around the personality cult of [MKO leaders] Maryam and Masoud Rajavi".

Anne Singleton, an expert on the MKO and author of ‘Saddam’s Private Army’ explains that the West aims to keep the group afloat in order to use it in efforts to stage a regime change in Iran.

"With a new Administration in the White House a pre-emptive strike on Iran looks unlikely. Instead the MKO’s backers have put together a coalition of small irritant groups, the known minority and separatist groups, along with the MKO. These groups will be garrisoned around the border with Iran and their task is to launch terrorist attacks into Iran over the next few years to keep the fire hot," she explains.

"The role of the MKO is to train and manage these groups using the expertise they acquired from Saddam’s Republican Guard," Singleton added.

A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report also condemns the MKO for running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations. According to report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.

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

France

June 17th sign of MKO illegality

On June 17th, 2003, immediately after the fall of Iraqi dictator following the invasion of coalition forces to Iraq, the French police raided on MKO’s Camp in Auver Sur d’Oise on Parisian country side where Maryam Rajavi (who had just escaped from Iraqi Camp Ashraf that was offered to MKO by their ex-supporter Saddam Hussein) was arrested together with 160 of other members of MKO. The raid showed the awareness of French government about the risk of transference of Camp Ashraf Iraq to Auvers Sur d’Oise after the collapse of Iraqi Baath government that had been financially and militarily supporting MKO for about 3 decades.

The act of French Police against MKO led the West to be enlightened of the illegitimate presence of MKO in Europe, signifying the ambiguity of the group’s activities for ever. As a reaction to the move of French Police, MKO leaders made their members set themselves ablaze, causing tragic impressive scenes in European capitals. The self-immolations just provided the accuracy of the accusation Police made against MKO.

Following the Police raid, DST (French Intelligence Service) issued a report in which it was declared that the Police succeeded in finding large amounts of money and some documents on MKO possible plans to launch terrorist operations from their bases in the West. The story didn’t end with the raid but the French government has been supervising Mujahedin Khalq that is still under juridical prosecution.

June 17th, 2003, is a historical chapter in the anti-terrorism challenges around the world and removed the mask of human right claims from the face of MEK as a notorious terrorist cult. That event announced that the group is still loyal to its violent strategy both in Iraq and in the West and it has always the potentiality to commit terrorist acts.

MEK cult has never had a positive background since it has always deprived its members from living a free life without the manipulative controlling system of the cult. Besides, MEK’s history is a bunch of violent activities. Considering the entire notorious story of MEK, today the world’s public opinion is the best judge to recognize the true nature of terrorist groups.

The way Mujahedin approaches the world has no use for them except their further isolation among Iranians as well as the world. MEK views its former members as an obstacle against their deceitful approach towards the world. Therefore, as its last resort, MKO doesn’t stop insulting the ex-members labeling them as the agents of IRI.

June 17, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

US combat help not needed after June 30

The last US army personnel protecting Rajavi in Camp Ashraf to leave

This pull-out includes the 25 US soldiers based at Camp Ashraf for the protection of Massoud Rajavi. The MKO is staging a carnival-rally in Paris on June 20 as a last ditch attempt to force American support for the cult. It is unlikely that PM al-Maliki will change his position based on such a rally (Iran Interlink).

Iraq PM says government would only request American logistical assistance after US pullout.
BAGHDAD – Iraq will not call on US forces to take part in combat operations after they pull out from urban centres in two weeks, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in remarks published on Tuesday.

Maliki told French daily Le Monde that his government would only request American logistical assistance, a day after the top US commander in Iraq said the American pullout was on schedule.

“We will not ask them to intervene in combat operations or in operations related to maintaining public order,”the Iraqi premier said.”It is finished.”

Maliki said Baghdad would only call on US forces”for transporting our troops when we need them because we don’t have any planes. That is why we are purchasing helicopters from France and the United States.”

He did not expect”an explosion in violence after June 30,”the date by which US troops must leave Iraq’s cities, towns and villages as part of a landmark security accord between Washington and Baghdad that will see American forces leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

“Regardless, reports from the Americans themselves say our forces are ready to take over,”Maliki added.”There will be no turning back, there is no question of reviewing the agreement on the American withdrawal.”

On Monday, US General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq, told reporters that the majority of his troops had already left Iraqi cities ahead of the June 30 pullout, and added that the withdrawal was on schedule.

June 17, 2009 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Rajavis cult is biggest loser in Iran election

Now the controversial results of Iran’s presidential election have been announced it is clear who the real losers are: the Rajavis and their cult.

It seems this the first year that we have not had a peep out of Maryam Rajavi before the election. In previous elections it has been customary for her to issue an imperious edict for Iranian people to boycott their elections. And every election time, totally oblivious to the existence of Madame Rajavi let alone her message, Iranians turn up to cast their vote and make their will known – no matter how little it is heeded by the country’s political elite.

This year is no exception. In fact it appears that this year’s presidential election has become so contentious that even more people than ever have voted. Maybe it has become too embarrassing to continually demand a boycott and be, well, ignored.

Maybe it has finally sunk in that, in spite of the obvious flaws (the candidates all have the approval of the Supreme Leader) and the infighting, or maybe because of this un-precedentedly open, vociferous and challenging campaign, the IRI is not on the verge of collapse and that regime change engineered by some kind of drastic internal revolution is not just around the corner ready for her to exploit. This may come as a surprise to Madame Rajavi, but Iranians love their country and are not about to trash it to suit her agenda.

Speaking of her ‘agenda’, Madame Rajavi, knows better than anyone that her only chance to return to her homeland and impose her husband’s cult onto the people of Iran is for the whole ruling system to collapse. She also knows better than anyone else what the subliminal message of this election is; the only way for her to go home is for her cult to continue to pursue its well-trod path of violence and try to remove the ruling regime by force – a course it has pursued without success for nearly thirty years.

Of course, this is what she has believed all the time, in spite of her phony posturing as a campaigner for democracy and human rights to her – let’s be honest – gullible political consumers and her self-serving western backers.

Looking at all the de-listing activity she has engaged in over the past few years I expect that in time Madame Rajavi would have liked to drop the pretence that she heads a peaceful political opposition group and re-invigorate the National Liberation Army of Iran.

Fortunately for the people of Iran this has become impossible as, thanks to the Government of Iraq, this defunct army is now being carefully and thoughtfully dismantled in order to extinguish it as a terrorist entity.

By Anne Singleton

June 14, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

USA support for MKO-Jundallah terrorism

Obama’s Doublespeak on Iran – USA support for MKO-Jundallah terrorism

Excerpt:
In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) on the occasion of the publication of his article in The New Yorker, titled “Preparing the Battlefield,” the renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed striking details of his findings on the goals of the $400 million budgeted by the US government for covert operations inside Iran. He provided valuable information on US military preparations to strike the country…and on the US support for the anti-Iran terrorist organizations Jundallah and MKO [4].

More evidence of the US involvement in the terrorist activities inside Iran came to light recently when the head of the Jundallah gang, Abdulmalik Rigi, “admitted receiving assistance from the terrorist group Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO),” a terrorist gang of Iranian expatriates under US protection in Iraq. There have been persistent intelligence reports of collaborations between the MKO and Jundallah in the past. But, in a significant admission, Rigi told a US-based satellite TV station…on June 2, "They [MKO] have had good intelligence collaborations with us and have provided us with much information about the activities of the Iranian regime” [5].

MKO, sheltered and armed by the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, have killed thousands of Iranians in their decades-old campaign of bombings and other terrorist activities against Iran. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the MKO came under the protection of the occupying US power in Iraq. Although the US State Department officially lists MKO on its list of terrorist organizations, it nonetheless refuses to turn them in to Iranian authorities, as frequently requested. Nor has the US, as the MKO custodian, put an end to its terrorist activities against Iran
.
That’s why it is safe to argue that the US is playing a crucial (though largely submerged) role in the terrorist collaboration between Jundallah and MKO against Iran.

It is not surprising, then, that Iranians are not thrilled by President Obama’s rhetoric of “peace and dialogue,” as they can easily see who is pulling the strings of the Jundallah-MKO terrorist activities from behind the scene. “What’s going on in Iran today – a sustained campaign of terrorism directed against civilians and government installations alike – is proof positive that nothing has really changed much in Washington, as far as U.S. policy toward Iran is concerned” [6].

Middle East Online, June 10, 2009
http://www.middle-east-online.com
/english/opinion/?id=32649

June 13, 2009 0 comments

Iraqi Authorities' stance on the MEK

Iraqi official denies MKO camp under siege

Al-Arabiya Television at 1327 gmt on 9 June reports the following: "The Iranian opposition group, Mojahedin-e Khalq, whose headquarters in Iraq are confined to Camp Ashraf in Diyala Staff Major General Abd-al-Karim Khalaf, chief of operations at the Iraqi Interior Ministry Governorate, has reported that the Iraqi Police’s Rapid Response Forces tightened their embargo on the camp’s occupants and banned the entry of goods and people to it.

The Iraqi Committee for the Defence of Camp Ashraf had issued a statement denouncing the tightening of the noose around the group by the Rapid Response Forces as well as threats to the camp’s occupants of murder and arrest, warning of a possible humanitarian disaster."

Eight minutes later, the channel interviews Staff Major General Abd-al-Karim Khalaf, chief of operations at the Iraqi Interior Ministry, via telephone from Baghdad.

Asked if the government is planning to close down Camp Ashraf, Staff Major General Khalaf says: "As an Interior Ministry, we are responsible for certain matters relating to the camp, such as providing protection for the camp and securing its outer perimeter; guaranteeing the entry of humanitarian goods as stipulated by international agreements – a matter that we handle in transparent fashion; and ensuring that the camp’s residents do not interact with security forces, and all three of these objectives are being met."

He adds: "Some of the security units were replaced – the brothers dispatched by the Interior Ministry left certain positions – and the Interior Ministry is bound by the constitution to provide protection – and is capable of doing so – but its work is hampered by these people [the Mojahedin-e Khalq], who are escalating the situation with certain positions and statements and are providing wrong and highly exaggerated accounts. Interior Ministry personnel have not interacted with them at all, and no siege has been laid around the camp. The camp has certain outlets through which some humanitarian goods and basic necessities are allowed to pass, and they remain operational."

Commenting on the accusations made by the Committee for the Defence of Camp Ashraf, the major general maintains that "there has been no interaction with the camp’s residents, and the protection forces are stationed around the camp’s perimeter, so how can there be a tightening of the noose? How can the noose be tightened when the camp has specific outlets and when more than one party – not just the Interior Ministry – are overseeing the camp? One of these outlets is located near a Multinational Forces position and these forces can see what is happening."

Asked if "you have any political or military orders to close the camp in the near future," Staff Major General Khalaf says: "No, not at all." He reiterates the role of the Interior Ministry in securing the camp and regulating the flow of goods into it.

Source: Al-Arabiya TV, Dubai, in Arabic 1327 gmt 9 Jun 09
Reported by: BBC Monitoring, June 9, 2009

June 11, 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

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