TEHRAN – Iraqi National Security advisor Muwafaq al-Rubaie said on Friday that Baghdad plans to close down the Ashaf military camp where the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) members are held under house arrest.
Iraq is also seeking to extradite the Mojahedin Khalq members who have taken refuge in Iraq since early 1980s, Rubaie told reporters in a joint news conference with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Saeed Jalili in Tehran.
The Mojahedin Khalq launched a campaign of assassinations and bombings in Iran immediately after the Islamic Revolution.
The group was supported by Saddam Hussein’s regime in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war but was disarmed after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Saddam also used the terror group in suppressing Shiite and Kurdish dissidents in southern and northern Iraq.
Rubaie said, “Among the members of this group, some have the blood of Iraqi innocents on their hands and we will hand them over to Iraqi justice, and some who have Iranian blood on their hands we can hand over to Iran.”
“The only choices open to members of this group are to return to Iran or to choose another country,” he stated.
The Iraqi envoy said “Some of the MKO members have expressed interest to return to Iran and we are making the arrangements for this.”
“We are acting under international humanitarian regulations and international laws. These people will themselves choose where they want to go.”
Rubaie said that 914 MKO members have a passport or residence of a third country and could leave Iraq for these countries.
He said on his return to Iraq he would discuss with the ambassadors of the United States and a dozen European countries to see if they would accept MKO members.
The top Iraqi security official stated that hundreds of MKO members have already returned to their families with the help of the Red Cross organization.
The Iraqi government announced on December 21 it planned to close the Ashraf camp north of Baghdad and close to the Iranian border.
On January 1, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki went further and said he would expel the MKO from the country.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Rubaie said Iraq is ready to take control of its domestic affairs even sooner than the 16-months deadline set by U.S. President Barak Obama.
Iraq and the United States have signed a security deal that calls for the U.S. troops to leave Iraq by the end of 2011. However, Obama, during his campaign for presidency vowed to withdraw combat forces from Iraq within 16 months from taking office.
Iraqi people and security forces are more than ever ready to take care of the country’s affairs and currently 95 percent of domestic issues are controlled by Iraqis, Rubaie said.
Jalili also stated that Iraq’s repeated announcements that it is ready to take control of the situation inside the county leaves no excuse for the continuation of occupation by foreign forces.
Turning to diplomatic relations with Iran, Rubaie said Iraq has signed a highly important agreement with the Islamic Republic after receiving “positive responses” from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“We are leaving Tehran by achieving a very important deal because we raised important issues in our negotiations and received positive, strong and documented responses,” he explained.
Rubaie, however, did not elaborate on the content of the agreement
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=187569
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The Iraqi government this week accused an Iranian opposition group of planning a suicide attack against Iraqi troops, a possible prelude to decisive government action to close the group’s camp in Iraq and expel its members.
The Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK, on Tuesday denied Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie’s allegation that it was planning an attack. Rubaie, who made the charge Monday during a visit to Tehran, offered no evidence to back up his assertion.
The fate of the MEK has long been an irritant in relations between the government of Iraq, which has built close ties with Iran, and the U.S. government. The MEK received support from Saddam Hussein’s government and has been designated a terrorist organization by the State Department, but the U.S. military has protected the group’s base in Iraq, known as Camp Ashraf, since the 2003 invasion. U.S. officials credit the MEK with providing information about Iran’s nuclear program.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants to expel the MEK. Iraqi officials have said the group’s continued presence has a destabilizing effect and hinders relations between Iran and Iraq.
The United States handed nominal control of the outer perimeter of the camp to the Iraqi government Jan. 1, when a new security agreement between the United States and Iraq came into effect. The agreement gives Iraq greater say in security matters, but U.S. officials said they intend to keep a military contingent at the camp to help the Iraqi government honor its commitments to treat the group’s members humanely.
In 2003, the U.S. military reached an agreement with the group that offered its members protection in exchange for their disarmament.
Rubaie told reporters Monday in the Iranian capital that”the Iraqi government has made a serious decision to expel”the 3,500 MEK members who remain at Camp Ashraf, according to a report on the Tehran Times Web site.
Rubaie’s statement said a member of the organization had turned himself in to Iraqi security forces and told them that group leaders had instructed him to detonate explosives at the headquarters of the Iraqi security forces. The goal of the reported attack was to embarrass the Iraqi government, the statement said.
Maj. Neal Fisher, a spokesman for the U.S. command that has soldiers stationed at Ashraf, referred questions about the alleged plot to the Iraqi government.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the MEK’s political wing, called the allegation a”blatant fabrication”that was part of a”conspiracy”between the Iranian and Iraqi governments to build a stronger case for the expulsion of the group.
Maliki reiterated his intension to shut down Camp Ashraf during a speech Jan. 1, saying the group’s continued presence is a violation of the Iraqi constitution and troubles Iraq’s neighbors.
The MEK was formed in the 1960s to oppose Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the autocratic ruler who fled a 1979 revolution led by Shiite clerics. In the 1980s, many MEK leaders moved to Iraq, where they were welcomed by Hussein, who mobilized them in his war with Iran.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, three Iraqis were killed and two U.S. soldiers wounded in an explosion in Mansour, a district in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement. An Iraqi police official said the explosion was caused by a car bomb that was detonated as U.S. soldiers were leaving a meeting at a government building. The U.S. military, citing”intelligence sources,”accused the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq of carrying out the attack.
Earlier in the day, two Iraqis were killed in Karrada, in southern Baghdad, after a roadside bomb exploded near a convoy transporting officials from the Education Ministry.
By Ernesto Londoño
The office of Mr. Movafagh Al Rabiee, Iraq’s National Security Advisor, has issued a statement.
The security forces of Iraq have arrested a member of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (aka: MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCRI, Rajavi cult) after he failed to carry out his suicide mission inside an Iraqi security base.
According to the source this resident of Ashraf camp (MKO base) gave himself up and is now being kept in secure and safe conditions.
According to the statement this member of Mojahedin Khalq has now complained about the severe exercise of torture and brainwashing techniques employed by the heads of the organisation.
According to his written statements, he claims that: “I was sent with a clear and precise plan to perform a suicide mission in this Iraqi base”.
According to the statement of the office of Iraq’s National Security Advisor, “the aim of this suicide attack has been to put pressure on the security forces of Iraq, to entangle them in this because it is this new force that has taken over the security of Ashraf camp from January 01, 2009”
The statement says it is believed that this was to be used in the media in the Arab world as well as the western media by MKO and its supporters. It also has the aim of making the disaffected members inside the camp afraid of giving themselves up to the Iraqi forces.
The statement adds that every effort is being made to either repatriate him voluntarily or find another country to transfer him. The Iraqi government wishes to announce that while the government of Iraq is committed to all its international obligations, including any promises made to the United State administration, that: “the security forces of Iraq are aware and conscious of the fruitless activities of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation in creating disturbances in Iraqi society and have been briefed to be able to carry out their duties”.
Buratha News in Baghdad, January 19, 2009
http://burathanews.net/news_article_58139.html
We are only half way through January and the EU terrorism list (from which the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation has been removed) has still not been announced but the MKO (aka the Rajavi cult, MEK, NCRI, NLA) has been unable to refrain from showing its true nature.
Iraq’s National Security Advisor has reported the arrest of an MKO member who is currently in custody after surrendering himself to an Iraqi security unit. The man, who is a resident of Camp Ashraf, was about to perform a suicide mission, but could not go through with it. According to a statement from the office of the National Security Advisor, the MKO member has claimed the MKO use severe torture and brainwashing on its members. He claims that: “I was sent with a clear and precise plan to perform a suicide mission in this Iraqi base”.
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=5720
This news will come as no surprise to those who know the MKO. Looking at Massoud Rajavi’s track record over thirty years, nothing more or less than this could be expected. While he was able to send over 2,000 civilians their deaths back in 1988 in the failed Eternal Light operation, he has since then sent numerous smaller groups to perform suicidal terrorist attacks in Iran with the added instruction that if captured the person should use their cyanide pill to kill themselves. More recently, MKO were instructed to set fire to themselves to protest the arrest of Maryam Rajavi on terrorism charges in Paris. Two died and several others sustained serious injury with their permanent disfigurement and disability a direct result of Rajavi’s order.
Massoud Rajavi who owns the MKO also owns the blood of the members and will spill it whenever he needs to. In this case to rescue himself from the mess he has made in Iraq. The MKO members are his capital which buys him power. They are expandable assets which have been used and reused shamelessly by western agencies who have found this a useful and cheap resource in their ‘regime change’ armoury. It is clear that the neoconservatives and Zionists are using the MKO against the Iraqis, and are helping them by facilitating the impunity enjoyed by MKO leaders at the cult’s headquarters in Europe.
This latest fiasco in the Rajavi saga is surely the result of negligence and apathy of the European Union toward the MKO which apparently couldn’t summon the energy or interest to properly investigate the MKO and deal with it accordingly. A feat which has been assiduously performed by successive US Governments since 1994 and which has resulted in the MKO retaining its terrorism designation to date with the added information that the group is a cult. However, the Bush Administration has also proved itself to be overly greedy in wanting to have their cake and eat it. The US army has ‘protected’ this ‘terrorist’ outfit for five and a half years in Iraq in spite of repeated demands by the Iraqis for removal of this known FTO, which collaborated with the former regime, from Iraqi territory.
It is surely time for the international community as represented by the UNHCR and UNCHR to to help the Iraqis ensure that all the individuals held captive in Camp Ashraf are accorded their basic human rights. Rajavi’s victims must be given the opportunity to renounce violence and to leave Camp Ashraf for third countries or to accept voluntary repatriation to Iran. Any delay in dismantling this notorious cult is to condemn the inhabitants to enforced membership of an illegal paramilitary terrorist group.
Noshin Bashiri was twelve years old when she learned that she had a mother in Iraq
She lives in the countryside outside Notodden center with her partner and cat. Noshin Bashiri (21) is free from the job that hjelpepleier the day Klassekampen will visit. She offers a treat of coffee and chocolate biscuits in the bright apartment, which is one of several in an old våningshus. We have a good time, for it is a long story she has to tell us. She has not told it to many, and never to journalists before. She seems a little surprised by our interest in it.
– Do you think that it will help? Do you think the mother will come back?
Noshin Bashiri’s mother is one of 3,400 members of the opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), or People’s Mujahedin, who live in Ashraf camp in Iraq. MEK operated under Saddam Hussein’s protection for many years. When his regime was toppled and Iraq was occupied by Americans, the camp was disarmed. MEK aims to overthrow the regime in Iran. But now maybe nearly 30 years of armed actions and terrorist are coming to the end. When Obama’s withdrawal plan from Iraq is set out in fact, the base will probably be left to the Iraqi authorities, who say they will shut down the base. Iranian Press TV reported on Tuesday of this week that Iraq had already taken over the responsibility. But what will happen to residents in the camp?
Bashiri hopes that her mother will come to Norway. But she has her doubts. She has been in Ashraf three times to try to get back her mother. Each time her mother remained in the base.
Bashiri thinks it is because she is brainwashed.
– First, you want her, but after talking with leaders in the camp, she ombestemmer him. They are in a way held there. If they had wanted to be there, it would be okay. But there are some who are forced to be there, and it is completely wrong”, said Bashiri and looks at the fresh snow that has fallen on the white fields outside
Three weeks earlier in an office in Teheran our curiosity was sparked when the name "Bashiri" was mentioned along with "Norway". Klassekampen was reporting from Tehran and the office of Islamic law, which follows the foreign journalists, said it would be happy that we met the Nejat non-governmental organization, composed of defectors from the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK).
Nejat means "salvation" and aims to help those who wish to get out of Ashraf-camp. In 2004, Iranian authorities gave amnesty to members of the organization who wanted to return to Iran. In cooperation with, among others, the Red Cross Nejat has now helped 800 to leave the camp and establish a new life. 500 have established themselves in Iran in spite of the many Iranians who regard them as traitors, because of cooperation with Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war and going on to attack Iran. They have also killed several civilians in acts of terrorism, including 26 pilgrims who were killed when MEK blew a bomb in the Imam Reza holy shrine of the 8th Imam in the holy city of Mashad.
Nejat is concerned with reconciliation and that those who come out of the camp get psychological follow-up. They also advise families in how they can be a support for ex-members. Since some have lived as long as 22 years in isolation, they have missed the important mental development and sense of community around them. According to the organization Human Rights Watch there has been serious human rights violations inside the Ashraf-camp. In a report from 2005, partly based on interviews with dissidents, HRW uncovered cases of total isolation, cruelty, verbal and psychological abuse, threats of execution and torture, which in two cases led to death. The report was met with sharp criticism of the Mujahedin when it was launched. Among other things because the interviews were conducted by telephone. As a result of the criticism Human Rights Watch carried out a further report, this time directly with the dissidents, and they came to the same conclusion.
Ebrahim Khodebandeh, spokesperson for Nejat, mentions Noshin Bashiri and her father as an example to illustrate that the MEK recently have been more reluctant when it comes to allowing their members to come in contact with the family. Nejat assisted the Bashiri-family and two other families from Iran and Canada in January 2007. They waited for several weeks in Baghdad before they had contact with the base, located near the town of al-Khalis, north of Baghdad. When they finally came into Ashraf, Noshin and Alireza Bashiri met members of the MEK, but they did not meet her mother and his former wife. Strains from the trip had been so tough that the young woman suffered a late miscarriage.
We are in Notodden to check the history of Nejat against Noshin Bashiris history, and the young woman confirming everything together. Also, about her miscarriage.
– I do not know if it was because of the strain, or whether it would have happened anyway. But to be taken care of by the Iraqi hospital was a terrible experience", said Bashiri.
An important additional piece of information she has, nevertheless, which Nejat did not have from her.
– I was talking to mom in five minutes. She saw me in the camp and pulled me into a tent where we were talking a little" said Bashiri.
Her mother had made it clear to Noshin that she would not join her in Norway. She had been agitated and had said that she did not have as much time to talk, because she had to work.
Repeatedly, there was a man who disturbed them and insisted they should take a picture together.
After this last trip to Ashraf was Noshin tired.
– I cannot be bothered to get there more. I get so tired. Also, it is not easy to take time off for five weeks as we had last time. It is not only just to travel in Iraq, "said Noshin.
She has much to tell, and wonder if we can take a break so she gathers herself together somewhat.
Noshin Bashiri was twelve years old when she learned that she had a mother in Iraq. It was his father’s new wife, who said that she was not her biological mother. She first came into the picture when Noshin was seven.
– Dad married again so that I would have a mother, "said Noshin.
But after Noshin was informed that she was not her biological mother, the relationship between them deteriorated. Today the father Alireza is divorced. It is only Noshin and her father Alireza Bashiri which represents the family in Norway, as it was when they were re-united when Noshin was four.
She remembers nothing from the first three years of life when she was with the mother. What she knows is primarily based on what her father told her.
– Mom and Dad were married when they lived in Iran, then they moved together to Germany where they had me. In Germany, they were familiar with some of the Mujahedin who advertised for the organization and urged them to travel to Iraq to join the resistance movement. They left when I was three months old. But after two years was dad regretted it. He knew that [the struggle] there was not serious. He insisted on leaving and came to Pakistan, and so my mum and I were left, "says Bashiri.
She says that the main reason why her father was upset was that he could not be with his family.
– When we got there, there were many who were married and had kids. But then all had to distinguish themselves, because they should be soldiers. That was when Dad did not accept anymore. He did not see me more than once a week. It seemed he was difficult. It was not why he had gone to Iraq. He quarrelled with the leaders of the camp to come home every night to where mom and I were so he could see me. Finally he accepted no more. He also hoped that I could come to a country where I could have a better life. Dad thought so, but not my mom. She thought that I could be OK there" said Noshin.
How was it not? When Saddam Hussain invaded Kuwait in 1990, it was decided that there would be no young children in Ashraf-camp.
– They sent out all the young kids because there was a war. Those who did not have family abroad, were sent to foster families. I came to a foster family in Syria first. When dad found me there, he contacted the Mujahedin in Oslo, and so I was sent to Norway" she says.
Thirteen years later, when the United States had occupied Iraq and taken control of the Ashraf base, Noshin’s father Alireza Bashiri travelled to Iraq to meet the woman he is still married to under Iranian law, but the MEK would not let him meet her. The year after, father and daughter travelled together. Alireza still cannot meet her, but Noshin got a foot in the camp. After fifteen years of separation the mother and daughter were together for five days.
– We got a room where we would share a double bed. We were almost never alone. The people came to us the whole time. We could not be alone much and talk together. Mom awoke early every day and went out and worked. They made food, arranged the garden, washed clothes. It was work from morning to evening, and at night they switched over to guard duty. For me, it seemed as if they had so much work so that they should not be alone much and think. If you think too much you’ll see that they have no life. There are so many who have been there for too long, so they almost do not know how it is to live outside of Ashraf" said Noshin.
Noshin tried from the beginning to get her mother to consider a life outside the camp.
– She said only that she could not go because she could not abandon the work for their country. She said she did it for me, and that Iran would become a free country and throughout the regulations where, say Noshin.
After two days of persuasion from her daughter, the mother began to slide.
– She began to say that maybe she should come to Norway and have contact with the Mujahedin from there, for she would not break with them. She would not have the reputation for that.
The third day the mother said that she would ask the leaders if she could go.
– She came back to let me know that it was okay. She would get the trip. She only had to complete some things first.
The agreement was that she would come after six months. But she didn’t turn up. When a year had passed Alireza Bashiri went there alone. He did meet her for ten tough minutes.
– She had surrendered herself to them completely. Now she would not travel at all. She stood and cursed at Dad and said he cooperated with Iran and that he was a shame for their country. After a long outpouring she just left without saying goodbye to him, said Noshin.
The following year they travelled down again. It was on this last trip they had assistance from the organization Nejat. After several weeks of waiting Noshin and her father and the other families as well as representative from Nejat managed to get into the camp. They sat in a small room for three hours and waiting for clearance from the leaders to meet their family members. Noshin felt sick with the heat in the room and went out to get fresh air. It was then that she saw her mother.
– She saw me and dragged me into a tent only a few meters away.
Noshin recounts the conversation with her mother for us. They could only speak for five minutes. The whole time the mother couldn’t concentrate and broke her thread of thought and was concerned about a man who repeatedly came in and nagged them to take pictures.
– Come here, so we take pictures together" she said.
– Can we not sit and talk a little, I have not seen you for so long. Why have you not come? You promised that the last time.
– No, I changed my mind. There is nothing for me to do in Norway.
– But I need my mother.
– No, you do not. You are an adult. You are 20 years old, so you do not need a mom" she says and starts to laugh.
– What are you doing here? Asked Noshin.
– Do you think you are the only kid without a mother? There are hundreds of thousands who have no mamma. You are not the only one here.
Noshin shakes his head.
– She was like so rude too.
– Are you mad at your mother?
– In a way I am. Nothing is more important than your kid, I think. But Mom said that her country was more important than me. She said that there were many kids who had it as hard as me. I was not the only one. So it was cool really. I should just be glad that I do not still live with a foster family, but that I lived with Dad" she said.
It has been impossible to determine how many children of Mujahedin members have grown up without their parents, but it is a known issue that women in Ashraf-camp sent their children away.
In 1999, a women’s magazine printed a report on Ashraf-camp by the British journalist Christine Aziz. Her approach was feminist and in the report, we meet the tough female soldiers who operate weapons training. The women also speak as victims of what they have done, that they have to live in seclusion, and that they have to give up children so that they don’t get hurt.
– I had to give up my kids, and they now live in the Netherlands, says Zahra in the report: "Her face is black with oil and sand, and her hands are red and sore after the effort to maneuver the heavy vehicle. She looks up at the gun during speaking:
– I love my tank, "she says, smiling and slapping it.
After Noshin and father had come back to Norway after this last visit to Ashraf base, the mother was put on a programme on the Mujahedin’s TV,(they also have a satellite channel).
– She said that Dad had fooled me so that I had been a shame, because I worked with Iran. She claimed that I had been deceived by my father and that it was unfortunate that some had a child like me.
Noshin shakes his head.
– I have also seen the film of members of the Mujahedin who set fire to themselves in response to the arrest of their leader. They are quite brainwashed" she says.
Noshin’s father should have told the mother that she has been subjected to threats.
– They have said that if she travels with me, they will get their people in Oslo to send someone to kill me. I do not think anything of it, but she is terrified, and dare not say anything against them" said Noshin.
She thinks it’s strange to think that she is now as old as the mother was when she went to Ashraf-camp. We’re shown a picture of her just before she left Iran.
The photographers want us to go outside to take their pictures of Noshin. After the photographer has finished, we ask:
– What do you think when you see the pictures?
– I think that it is my mother.
Åse brand vold, Klasse kampen, January 20, 2009
http://www.klassekampen.no/
Muajhedin-e-Kahlq Iran was considered as the powerful armed opposition against Iran and its objectives was the evident overthrow of the Iranian regime.
Until the fall of Saddam Hussein, the organization was in the spotlight by its National Liberation Army, the military wing of MKO that has launched many terrorist operations against Iran.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political arm of MKO which is active in Europe and North America, has got the attention of the world due to its large-scale propaganda and systematic fund raising activities.
MKO has repeatedly succeeded to have public attention using its professional propagandistic skills.
The most significant example on the case are the self-immolation acts in London, Paris, Rome, Bern, under the pretext of French Security Police’s raid on MKO bases due to their illegal fundraising activities and terrorist operations (The investigation on MKO headquarters in Paris and 12 other locations and the arrest of 150 members.)
In that raid 9 million US dollars in cash and highly advanced transmission facilities were found at MKO base.
The arrest warrant was issued for 11 of high-ranking officials and Maryam Rajavi, the wife of Masud Rajavi, the MKO leader. Maryam Rajavi, who is called the president – in exile of the organization, was released together with the other detainees.
This bulletin includes the clandestine activities of MKO and the process of their cooperation with Saddam Hussein, their current situation and importance. It also presents the totalitarian characteristic of the organization that has not denounced violence in its political struggle even after the disarmament of its military arm.
Once James Lukaszewski in The Media and the Terrorist stated that: “Media coverage and terrorism are soul mates – virtually inseparable. They feed off each other. They together create a dance of death – the one for political or ideological motives, the other for commercial success”.
MKO considers advantages of the effectiveness of the media in its cult-like activities so important that it uses a number of methods to manipulate the media. Exploited beyond their main purpose, the media are practical instruments to fulfill MKO’s ambitions. Besides their utilization to augment psychological warfare and propaganda blitz, the media are turned into the means of diffusing ideological teachings directly and indirectly.
MKO has proved that it is the master of propaganda and advertisement blitz and, of course, the successful advertiser is the master of a new art that converts the truth. The political advertising messages that MKO prepares to be released in some highly circulated papers may actually strengthen its information value to deceive readers especially those unfamiliar with its terrorist and cult nature concealed under a pro-democratic razzle-dazzle.
Here is a report by MKO’s official site giving details on an advertisement published by Washington Times’ Special Section on 111th Congress : “The January 14 issue of the Washington Times published the 10-point declaration announced by the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, for free Iran of future.”
The Washington Times’ Special Section has published nothing but a piece of advertisement for the money it has been paid. If the terrorist MKO think it works to be a highly valued purchase of legitimacy, so let them enjoy they illusion!
- The threat made by cults must be taken as serious because this methodology requires a large-scale complicated recruitment and manipulation process to which no one is immune. Ann Singleton the British woman who was once a member of Rajavi’s cult( MKO/PMOI) believes that “the irony was that I was in a state of modern slavery. I was mentally chained to the Mujahedin… Psychological manipulation can happen to anyone, any time. If you’re lucky, you end up with a timeshare”
Since all the cults function the same way, the website Howcultswork.com gives a very helpful definition of cults and their tricks to recruit and keep members:
Cults, wonderful on the outside but on the inside are very manipulating. Cult leaders are desperate to trick you into joining. They are after your obedience, your time and your money.
Cults use sophisticated mind control and recruitment techniques that have been refined over time. Beware of thinking that you are immune from cult involvement, the cults have millions of members around the world who once thought they were immune, and still don’t know they are in a cult! To spot a cult you need to know how they work and you need to understand the techniques they use. Teaching you these things is what this article is all about.
This article exposes the secret techniques cults will use to try and trick and control you. Cult leaders will not want you to read this, but read it anyway. Once you understand How Cults Work you will be better able to spot and avoid cult recruiters, and protect your family and friends.
The term cult seems strange to most people. They think that it is something far from their normal life, so they often have some misconceptions about the cults. In the second part of the article on howcultswork.com, the author clarifies some misunderstandings that are common among public about the cults:
Let’s eliminate some misconceptions about cults:
Cults are easy to spot, they wear strange clothes and live in communes.
Well some do. But most are everyday people like you and me. They live in houses. They wear the same clothes. They eat the same food. Cult leaders don’t want you to know that you are being recruited into a cult and so they order their recruiters to dress, talk and act in a way that will put you at ease. One cult has even invented a phrase to describe this, they call it”being relatable”.Since our focus here is the destructive cult of Rajavi, it should be said that “yes” some of MKO members are now living in castles like camp Ashraf or Camp Maryam but another large number who are mainly the recruiters and lobbying activists have apparently normal people who appear to be so good looking and friendly so it is very hard to spot them in the society due to their pleasant appearance.
Cults are full of the weak, weird and emotionally unstable.
Not true. Many cult members are very intelligent, attractive and skilled. The reality is that all sorts of people are involved in cults. One of the few common denominators is that they were often recruited at a low point in their life — more about that later.
Most of the members and ex-members of MKO are well educated people. Also the experts believe that the individuals with complicated minds who are eventually intelligent, talented people are more likely to be recruited by a cult because of their curiosity and interest in unknown adventures. The members and former members of MKO cult mostly master two or three languages. They have different skills such as computer work, arts, IT, political and technical science.
Cults are just a bunch of religious nut cases.
This is a common mistake people make thinking that cults are purely religious groups. The modern definition of a mind control cult refers to all groups that use mind control and the devious recruiting techniques that this article exposes. The belief system of a religion is often warped to become a container for these techniques, but it is the techniques themselves that make it a cult. In a free society people can believe what they want, but most people would agree that it is wrong for anyone to try to trick and control people.
About MKO, religion is only a mean to justify some of their activities. Relying on religion depends on their situation, for example to recruit a religious Iranian they claim to be a religious opposition but to deceive a Western politician they pretend to advocate a secular regime.
Refrence: Howcultswork.com
By Mazdak Parsi
An Iranian resistance group that has been living in exile in Iraq for decades is no longer a welcome guest in the country and may have no choice but to return to Iran, where some of its members fear they could be tortured and possibly executed as traitors.
Some 3,400 members of the militant group the Mujahedin-e-Khalq — the People’s Mujahadeen of Iran, or MeK — have lived at Camp Ashraf, a 14-square-mile base north of Baghdad, since Saddam Hussein invited them there in 1986.
But the current Iraqi government, which took control of national security on New Year’s Day, has made it clear that it wants the MeK out. The government is unmoved by a sustained international campaign by the group that has included demonstrations and sit-ins in Washington and Geneva, Switzerland.
The MeK was founded in Iran in the 1960s, when it organized as a group opposed to the rule of the Shah. For more than two decades, it carried out a campaign of bombing and sabotage against the Iranian government, including the killing of U.S. citizens working in Iran in the 1970s, which led it to be designated an international terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
The MeK cooperated briefly with the clerical regime that overthrew the Shah in the Islamic Revolution, but then it turned against the nation’s new religious leadership, as well.
Despite its history of violence and its official designation as a terrorist group, some U.S. officials have been sympathetic toward the MeK because of the potential that it could be used as a card against Iran. But now that the Iraqi government wants the MeK to leave Iraq, the group’s designation as a terrorist organization is preventing other countries from offering its members a new home, and they fear they may have no choice but to return to Iran.
On Jan. 1, during a visit to Iran, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki re-stated his government’s position:
"Iraq is determined to put an end to this organization because it is affecting relations between Iran and Iraq. This organization participated in many operations that harmed Iranian and Iraqi civilians under the Saddam regime."
Al-Maliki was referring to evidence that the MeK collaborated with the government of Saddam Hussein, particularly during the Kurdish uprising in 1991 when thousands of Kurds were massacred. The MeK denies involvement in the repression and cites supporting statements from, among others, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
Hopes had risen among MeK members and their overseas supporters that they had found a means of remaining in Iraq when the U.S. Embassy said on Dec. 27 that American forces would "maintain a presence at Camp Ashraf … to assist the government of Iraq in carrying out its assurances of humane treatment of the residents."
"It means the United States has recognized its responsibility to ensure the safety and security of our people in Ashraf," said Ali Safavi, an official of NCRI, political wing of the MeK.
But the U.S. government no longer considers MeK members in Iraq to have the protected-persons status the U.S. gave them in 2003, and is privately supportive of Iraqi government efforts to encourage the residents to leave.
The U.S. also doesn’t have the final say, as the Iraqi government assumed responsibility for all detainees on Jan. 1 under the terms of the Security Agreement.
The MeK once had the finest tank division in Iraq and harbored hopes of leading a resistance army back into Iran to topple the Tehran government. But it was disarmed in 2003 by Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, then of the 4th Infantry Division, who put U.S. guards on the gate.
By then, the MeK had many enemies in Iraq as well as in Iran.
Nabaz Rasheed Ahmed, 61, a commander of the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in 1991, said MeK forces attacked his battalion in Chiman, Kirkuk province, in 1991.
"Mujahideen fighters who were backed by Iraqi army helicopters and tanks attacked my battalion in March 29, 1991. They killed many of my Peshmergas and wounded a lot, including me," he said.
The military architect of that uprising was Neywshirwan Mustafa, 64, who now is chairman of the powerful Kurdish media group Wusha Corporation. When told that the MeK denied helping Saddam in his crackdown on the Kurds, Mustafa said:
"That is not true. They were working in cooperation with the Iraqi Army…. They attacked many bases belonging to the PUK.
"They occupied the road from Kanar to Kirkuk. They occupied a hospital in Kanar. They killed a doctor and many other civilian people. Saddam Hussein was protecting them in Iraq".
Abdullah Safir, 59, a Kurdish English teacher who lives in Kifri, in Kirkuk Province, says he was there when the MeK mobilized against his town in 1991.
"I knew they were opponents of the Iranian regime at the time. I did not expect them to intimidate people in a country in which they were guests, and to interfere in internal issues."
Safir recalled how the MeK shelled Kurdish towns "at random," took locals hostage, and in one incident attacked a busload of young people from Kifri, killing all 20. He remembers seeing some of the bodies when they were brought home and said that one or two had been run over by MeK tanks.
Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group, which analyzes the causes of conflict, has also investigated the MeK’s role in Iraq.
"The MEK has yet to own up to its intimate relationship with the Saddam regime, which protected it and deployed it against its enemies when this served its purpose," Hiltermann said. "It thus acquired its reputation as the ruthless tool of a thuggish regime."
Shorsh Haji, a researcher on Kurdish issues who lives in the United Kingdom, escaped from Iraq after the 1991 uprising with many Iraqi secret police documents and worked with New York-based Human Rights Watch to analyze the content. He said the mukhabarat — a branch of Saddam’s intelligence service — wrote in their reports that the MeK "heroically resisted the rebels and traitors who wanted to occupy Kirkuk."
The intelligence the MeK had on Iran made them most useful to Saddam — and later, to the United States, Haji said. And that, he said, accounts for the protection the U.S. gave them at Camp Ashraf.
One MeK member told FOX News that the group gave the U.S. the names of "32,000 Iranian agents working inside Iraq." She also mentioned MeK’s purported role in revealing the extent of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, though subsequent reports support the view that Israel actually provided the information for the MeK to release.
Iraq has told the residents of Camp Ashraf that they must be gone by March of this year. It has promised they will not be forcibly repatriated to Iran, but it is not clear where else they could go.
Sources told FOX News that the Iranian government has a list of 50 "most wanted" MeK members, around 20 of whom are believed to live at the camp.
In recent years Iran has made much of a new policy of humanely "readmitting" former MeK members into Iranian society, with the help of a group of ex-members called the Nejat Society, which means "Rescue."
Behzad Saffari, legal adviser for the MeK, told FOX News: "Anyone who repents or remorses the past are welcomed by the Iranian regime and can be used against the MeK. They are a useful commodity. But anyone who goes back to Iran and still keeps the ideas of the MeK — they will be executed."
Approximately half of the residents of Camp Ashraf are under 30 years old, too young to have been part of the MeK’s fighting past.
But this may partly explain why the MeK has outlived its usefulness. A Western diplomat told FOX News: "There’s nothing we lose from Camp Ashraf except a huge headache and taxpayer dollars."
Qassim Khidhir Hamad contributed to this report
By Anita McNaught
Mojahedin Khalq Organisation still designated a FTO in USA
In the Matter of the Review of the Designation of Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK), and All Designated Aliases, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization Upon Petition Filed Pursuant to Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as Amended
The MEK filed a petition for revocation of its designation as a foreign terrorist organization (the “Petition”). Based upon a review of the Administrative Record assembled in this matter, including the Petition and associated filings by the MEK, pursuant to Section 219(a)(4)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended (8 U.S.C. 1189(a)(4)(B)) (“INA”), and in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, I conclude that the circumstances that were the basis for the 2003 re-designation of the aforementioned organization as a foreign terrorist organization have not changed in such a manner as to warrant revocation of the designation and that the national security of the United States does not warrant a revocation.
Therefore, I hereby determine that the designation of the aforementioned organization as a foreign terrorist organization, pursuant to Section 219 of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1189), shall be maintained.
This determination shall be published in the Federal Register.
Dated: January 7, 2009.
Condoleezza Rice,
Secretary of State, Department of State.