Discovery and seizure of advanced telecom devices in MEK food convoy entering Camp Ashraf – Khalis Mayor calls for investigation
Mayor of Khalis in Diyala province, Uday Al Khadran, called on the Iraqi government to open an urgent investigation after advanced telecom devices were seized in Camp Ashraf which is home to a number of the Mojahedin Khalq terrorist group.
In a press statement Al Khadran said that the security services had found 80 phones hidden in a suspicious manner inside a shipment carrying food. The shipment came from one of the Arab companies which had bid to secure the needs of the MEK members in the camp.
Al Khadran said that the way the devices had been hidden demonstrates an intention to use them in a non-legal framework that is unlawful activities. He said, “these devices and the sophisticated way they were hidden show the MEK’s intention to use them illegally”.
Mohammad Reza Rowhani and Karim Ghassim, two heads of the so-called Commissions of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) published a joint resignation statement.
They say they do not want to go into detail; however they have listed a long list of human rights abuses and political mistakes – which are already well documented everywhere else.
Apparently they do not want to bring internal affairs into the open but felt compelled to mention a few things they simply couldn’t bear any more.
Commentators responded by pointing out that these two individuals represented the last remaining ‘non-MEK’ members of the NCRI and that now there is no way for the MEK’s Washington lobby office to pretend that it does not belong to the MEK.
Several articles welcomed the resignation of Rowhani and Ghassim from the NCRI but say they have not explained enough about what is going on inside the cult.
In particular Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejat (Rajavi’s former translator, now in France) has said they need to become more involved in rescuing others who they now acknowledge are hostages in Iraq.
One of the most common myths about cult leaders is that” they are infallible”. Leaders, particularly cult leaders 
do make mistakes like all humans do. Actually they are at risk of making more mistakes than ordinary people and their followers because they take more decisions than others do. However what makes difference between a good leader and a cult leader is that good leaders honestly admit their mistakes and view them as experiences to be learned from. Contrarily, cult leaders never let others criticize them; they are divinely infallible people who should be followed blindly. Anyone who dares to criticize them will face excessive response and abusive attitude by the side of the cult.
Although the Mujahedin Khalq Organization denies its cult-like substance and claims that labeling it as a “cult” is “the parroting of the repeated propaganda” by the Islamic Republic, its overreaction regarding the US government critics demonstrates the group’s hypersensitivity about its leadership.
Once more, the Los Angeles Times piece on the MKO caused the group to burst out words in an angry rush. It was just a week earlier that , despite the risks to the members’ lives in Iraq.”[1]
The LA Times piece asserts that the group’s “leadership seems reluctant to move the group members from Iraq.” The author quotes from Beth Jones acting assistant secretary of State for Near East Affair –who addressed a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee –that ”although US officials have worked hard to persuade the group’ leadership to cooperate in the departures very few have been allowed to move."[2]
On May 15th, 2013, just fourteen individuals were allowed to officially leave the group after ten years since the collapse of Saddam’s regime in 2003. During the decade, the Iraqi government has always called on the MKO expulsion from Iraqi territory. This is while the MKO propaganda arm (the NCR) claims that its representatives have actively worked writing letters to authorities of UN and US for the relocation of all members to the US or Europe! The group propaganda proudly says that it is running the line of “return to Ashraf” in all its websites; it does say that it is collecting –paid– signatories to run petitions for return to their former equipped base near Iranian border, Camp Ashraf. The MKO exaggeratedly boasts of the resolution its lobby could pass in the US congress to get the “bipartisan support of nearly 100 members” –who are actually well paid by the group—for the return to Ashraf. So which one to believe? The leadership alleged efforts for the relocation of members in the West or the large scale propaganda for getting back to Ashraf? Of course, the second one is more likely because at least you could see the proof on the group’s websites.
The group claims that return to Ashraf is "for better protection of the residents". It sounds that the MKO leaders have forgotten that the attack on Camp Ashraf in July 2009 and April 2011 resulted in much more casualties than the attack on Camp Liberty in February 2013. Anyway Camp Ashraf is not a safer place than Liberty." American and UN officials believe the group needs to leave Iraq as soon as possible because of hostility from several Iraqi groups and the limited patience of the Iraqi government, which is protecting it,” reported LA Times. [3]
The LA article accurately condemned the “group’s leadership in Paris” who controlled subordinates to cooperate with the UN screening required before resettlement can be arranged”.[4]In response, the MKO propaganda – characteristically – blames the Iranian intelligence for recruiting people claiming to be former members of the MKO. They base their claim on the discredited report of the Library of Congress for the Pentagon that was dismissed a few days after its publication. However, there are a lot more reports and articles on the cult–like nature of the MKO and human rights abuses committed by its leaders based on the testimonies of dozens of its former members. It sounds ridiculous that in the view of the MKO propaganda so many human rights institutions and journalists and even governmental bodies like RAND have been fooled by the agents recruited by the Islamic Republic to play the role of former members!
The extreme anger by the MKO towards the US administration sounds to be kind of rejoinder to purify its leadership particularly in the eyes of the US Congressmen because it is one of rare occasions that an administration official tries to illuminate the US congressmen about the group danger. This move instigated the MKO lobbying campaign to take serious action for imposing more influence in the Congress. After opening their office in Washington DC, they officially registered to lobby the US government. The NCR has hired former New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Torricelli to represent it, the Hill reported on May24, 2013. “Speaking fees paid by MEK supporters to former government officials – including ex – Pennsylvanian Gov. Ed Rendell and Gen. Hugh Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – reportedly attracted the attention of federal investigators”, added the Hill.[5] Delisted from the State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organization the MKO is recharged to pay Torricelli to register as a foreign agent. Why not? Torricelli and his friends have long risked their reputation for financial benefits and this time he is officially receiving money for advocacy for a formerly designated terrorist group. Speeches by high-profile Washington figures like Torricelli played heavily in the campaign to delist the MEK, according to the Hill piece. [6] The delisting of the MKO was more or less the result of such a lobbying by individuals like Torricelli who had received large amounts of money from the group. Utter Corruption!
The MKO multimillion-dollar campaign that lavishly spends money to buy supporters doesn’t bear any US official question its leaders. The group’s propaganda machine is working awfully hard to whitewash its history and leaders, taking the gesture of a democratic peaceful alternative to the Islamic Republic.
The Goebbels–style propaganda of the NCRI for the Rajavis find them as “victims“and “innocents”. Practically the same as the MKO, the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels always predicted the victory of “Our Hitler”. This was what gave Hitler power for an era but his power in all media that tried to instill in the Germans the concept of their leader as a veritable god, ultimately ended in the collapse of Nazism. The MKO’s three-decade propaganda has definitely no better destiny.
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1]Richter, Paul, US plans to move Iranian exile group out of Iraq hit snag, the Los Angeles Times, May24, 2013
[2]ibid
[3]ibid
[4]ibid
[5]Bogardus, Kevin, Wiped from terrorist list, Iranian group hires former senator as lobbyist, The hill’s Global Affairs, April12, 2012
[6]ibid
Your Excellency,
It was a pleasure to hear of the relocation of 14 residents of Camp Liberty, Iraq to your country. These individuals were the first group of the 210 who are supposed to be received as refugees in your territory after they could manage to leave Camp Liberty.
Appreciating the generous humanitarian act of your state, we should be pleased to inform you that over a year after signing a memorandum of understanding between the UN, the US and the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, physical and mental condition of liberty residents is deteriorating every day. As an NGO that has been merely founded to help the families of the MKO members in order to contact their loved ones, we find it our duty to work for soothing the worries of these suffering families whose beloved children have been away from their mother land for years. We might be able to ease the pains they bore during these years of separation. Their demand is the minimum basic right of a human.
Mr. Ambassador
Members of the cult of Rajavi (the MKO) have been not only physically deprived from the standard living convenience and their lives have always been at risk of dangers, but also they have been mentally exposed to a guru-centered totalitarian leadership.
We earnestly ask you to provide a situation so that families of the fourteen refugees could be able to contact them by phone or letter. To facilitate such humanitarian contacts, Nejat society is ready for tight cooperation with you by every means.
Sincerely,
Nejat Society
Members of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as the MEK, PMOI and NCRI) are 
running away from the group’s transient settlement facility, Camp Liberty, before they are sent by their leaders to other countries, an informed source disclosed on Saturday.
According to a report by Ashraf News website, an informed source in the committee supervising the Camp Liberty affairs said that five MKO members had fled the Camp two days ago.
The informed source named the defectors as Arshad Shekarzehi and Hassan Sha’bani as well as three other members who were not named.
They surrendered to the Iraqi security forces and were transferred to the UN mission in Baghdad, the source added.
Many of the MKO members have abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the group are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.
A recent Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.
According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.
The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly-established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who argued for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in early September 2012, one week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent the US Congress a classified communication about the move. The decision made by Clinton enabled the group to have its assets under US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with American entities, the State Department said in a statement at the time.
In September 2012, the last groups of the MKO terrorists left Camp Ashraf, their main training center in Iraq’s Diyala province. They have been transferred to Camp Liberty which lies Northeast of the Baghdad International Airport.
Camp Liberty is a transient settlement facility and a last station for the MKO in Iraq.
Serious concerns over heightened level of violence in Iraq – UN Envoy tells European Parliament
Baghdad, 30 May 2013 – On 29 May, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for 
Iraq (SRSG), Mr. Martin Kobler, briefed the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (AFET) on the current developments in Iraq.
In his exchange of views with the parliamentarians, Mr. Kobler expressed serious concerns over the heightened level of violence in Iraq and the danger that the country falls back into sectarian strife, if decisive action is not taken by its political leaders. “The country stands at a crossroads,” the UN Envoy said, calling for a stronger EU role in dealing with the developments unfolding in the country, and for increased interaction with the Iraqi Council of Representatives.
Mr. Kobler also briefed AFET on UNAMI’s efforts to resettle the former residents of Camp Ashraf to third countries. He deplored the lack of cooperation of the residents and of their leadership with the UNHCR and UN monitors, and urged them to accept concrete resettlement offers. Stressing that “resettlement to safe countries is the only durable option”, he called again on European Union member states to accept former Camp Ashraf residents into their countries.
unami.unmissions.org
Mr. Hassan Shaabani, another dissident member of the Mujahedin –e Khalq Organization managed to flee Camp
Liberty (Temporary Transit Location).
Following the evacuation of camp Ashraf and transfer of MKO members to the Camp Liberty- former US military base near Baghdad International Airport – a growing number of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization members are leaving the terrorist group as MKO ringleaders are using all types of physical and mental tortures against members to prevent their mass defection.
Rajavi has announced a rally in Paris on 22 June to celebrate the anniversary of the start of armed struggle.
The MEK is vigorously recruiting attendees from refugee camps with the promise of a three day holiday with flight and hotel paid in exchange for a few hours attendance at the rally.
According to some refugees, this year the MEK tell Afghanis that ‘on top of the pay, by attending this meeting you will be siding with the western backed MEK therefore you will be separated from Al Qaida, etc in Afghanistan and therefore the security services will look favorably on you because they back us’.
To Iraqis the MEK have been saying that ‘by coming to our meeting it is possible to take pictures with prominent people like John Bolton and Patrick Kennedy which will put you in a safe place in the Iraqi community and show how near you are to the Americans’.
They even take pictures of Maryam Rajavi’s photos meeting with ex-officials of Germany in Berlin to the camp and say to refugees in Germany that ‘these people will attend and if you take a picture and put it in your file you will definitely get your refugee status’.
To distant supporters they have said that ‘if you do not participate in this event it is obvious you are on side of Iraj Mesdaghi and the agents of Iran’.
According to other sources they have also gone on to hire acting extras as they normally do.
Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – Friday May 24, 2013
Four former residents of camp Ashraf who were held in Camp Liberty near Baghdad could manage to leave the 
Mujahedin Khalq Organization although the organizational pressure including brainwashing and self-criticism sessions are practiced in a much larger and more severe scale.
Nejat Society office of Sistan and Balouchestan reported that one of the recently defected members is Mr. Arshad Shokrzehi of Saravan who succeeded to leave Liberty together with the three others.
A delegation from Nejat Society including Mrs. Abdollahi, Mrs. Beheshti,Mr. Atabay and Mr. Akbarzadeh attended the meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Despite the aggressive humiliating attitude of the henchmen of Rajavi’s gang towards the representatives of Nejat Society, denouncing the cult-like substance of the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization ,they made the attendees concerned with their grieves. A number of representatives of NGOs and human Rights organizations of various countries offered sympathy to Nejat family members and asked for visit with other families and trip to Iran.
Nejat Society delegation attended
Human Rights Panel of the United Nations Organization
Women’s Human Rights Panel of United Nations Organization together with Ahmed Shahid (the UN special Rapportear for Human Rights in Iran)
Anti Green Revolution Faction
Panel of families of terror in Iran
Moroccan Human Rights Panel
Nejat representatives revealed the crimes of the MKO describing the crucial situation of their children and family members held in the MKO Camps. They called on human rights bodies to help Iranian families visit their beloved ones who are held as hostages by Rajavi in Camp Liberty and help them release from the atmosphere of horror and pressure in the MKO so that they can personally decide for their future.
Nejat delegation had a thirty-minute private meeting with Ahmed Shaheed. The delegation submitted the demand of families from International Community and Dr. Shaheed.
These family members of Liberty prisoners had also a private meeting with Ms. Mara Steccazzini, the UN Human Rights Representative.
Nejat Society Family members called on Human Rights bodies and the international Community to facilitate as soon as possible the departure of residents from camp Liberty in order to pave the way for families to make phone calls, visits and to have access to news of their loved ones.
Families can contact Dr. Ahmed Shaheed via this email address:
Sr_Iran@ohchr.org
The honorable families can send their requests to the UN Special Rappearteur in English or Persian.