The MEK; the Hypocrites

Rajavi: from anti-Imperialism struggle to hanging onto America’s apron strings

Excerpt of Ebrahim Khodabandeh’s article published originally in Persian:

Mr. Khodabandeh says the only use of the MEK’s new Washington office near the White House is to keep the members trappe Rajavi: from anti-Imperialism struggle to hanging onto America’s apron strings d a bit longer. But that doesn’t seem to be working because they continue to run away whenever possible. He gives himself as an example of a typical member saying that he joined when the MEK believed in anti-Imperialism struggle. When they killed post-revolution government officials on 7th Tir, 1360 with a bomb, the MEK said it was ‘destroying America’s nest in Iran’ and Massoud Rajavi announced ‘we have rendered the regime without future and destroyed their contact with Imperialism by bombing this building and killing the people in it’.

The article says Rajavi lost his future when he turned his back on the people of Iran and sided with their enemy in Iraq, eventually changing sides completely and becoming a mercenary for the Americans. Khodabandeh says Rajavi will not survive by doing that. He concludes by saying that he worked for the MEK for 23 years and when he looks back now, anything else at all that he had done except that would have made him more proud.

Iran interlink weekly digest

May 12, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

A First Hand experience with the MKO

In September 2012, the steady flow of funds to US Congressmen ended with the removal of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK) from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations of the US State Department. The pro-MEK lobbying efforts in the congress have been operating for over a decade. There are numerous reports on the group’s extraordinary lobby and the large amounts of money they pay US politicians to run their cause in the US Congress.

Zahir JanMohamed is a senior foreign policy aid in US House of Representatives and the advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International. He presented his experience with the MKO propaganda immediately after the removal of the group. In his post on Open Democracy dated September 27, 2012, he finely describes the group’s manipulative lobbying campaign in the Congress. JanMohamed evidence on the MKO’s approaches to allure members of the Congress precisely demonstrates its deceitful propaganda.

He also notes the group’s violent behavior and its heavy advocacy for warmongers’ policy. As he puts, these “crazy people” have made it really hard in the congress “to have a rational discussion about Iran.”

My encounter with the MEK

Before I worked in Congress, I would have said that advocating for Palestine is the most challenging foreign policy topic on Capitol Hill. But after I worked in the House of Representatives, I realized it is harder to have a rational discussion about Iran.

The first time I encountered the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), the Iranian group recently removed by the State Department from its list of foreign terrorist organizations, was in Los Angeles in 2008. I was working for Amnesty International and I had organized an outreach event on human rights to the Iranian-American community.

When supporters of the MEK learned of the event, they objected to one of the speakers because he believed the best way to curb Iran’s human rights abuses is through engagement and interaction, not war. Supporters of the MEK proceeded to call my office line—and then my personal cell phone—so many times that I considered changing my number. Most of the messages were expletive-filled accusations that I was an “agent for the Iranian government,” “an apologist for the mullahs,” and “a terrible Iranian.

We proceeded with the event anyways.

Supporters of the MEK showed up early, filled up almost all of the seats and started shouting. One of the audience members, a former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience who had been tortured in Iran, stood up and said in Farsi that Amnesty had fought for his life and that they should be respectful of the speakers. But they continued to shout.

When they refused to lower their signs or stop yelling, over a dozen police officers intervened and insisted we cancel. The police feared the protesters would become violent. Before our first speaker could even say a word, I had to call it off.

The group intrigued me and I started to probe their history, wanting to learn more.

It was the MEK’s involvement in terror including the killing of six Americans in the 1970s that prompted President Bill Clinton to designate the group a foreign terrorist organization in 1992.

Violence has always been a part of the MEK. The group was founded in 1965 as an armed opposition to the Shah of Iran. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, it assassinated Iran’s first president and prime minister and later assisted Saddam Hussein in crushing the Kurdish uprising. In 2001 the MEK claimed that it renounced violence but its record showed otherwise. According to a report published by Human Rights Watch in May 2005, “The former (MEK) members reported abuses ranging from detention and persecution of ordinary members wishing to leave the organization, to lengthy solitary confinements, severe beatings, and torture of dissident members.”

I was appalled by what I learned about the MEK and I managed to steer clear of the group in Washington DC. That changed in 2009 when I began working as a foreign policy aide to a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The MEK has always been smart to play off other special interest groups. When I met with a prominent pro-Israeli lobby for the first time, a college age volunteer told me his group’s first priority was Iran, its second priority was Iran, and its third priority was Iran.

I realized in Congress that it was nearly impossible to speak about human rights in Iran or about the humanitarian effects of US sanctions without another member of Congress or a special interest group accusing you of being soft on terrorism.

I tried to avoid MEK supporters in Congress but it was difficult. Most days I found MEK supporters camped out in a basement room in the Rayburn House Office Building, passing out flyers with graphic photos of human rights abuses in Iran, serving kabobs and baghali polo. They understood that to attract and to sway staffers, the promise of exotic food could always draw a crowd. One time I received a text from a staffer that the “kabobs from this Iranian group are off the hook good” and that I should come by.

I never did. I knew that MEK supporters took photos at these events and that when a staffer or a Member of Congress showed up, they would post the photos online as a sign of their growing support.

When I refused to attend, MEK supporters often shouted at me, telling me I should be ashamed for calling myself Iranian. I always loved to see their reaction when I would tell them, “Dude…I am Indian.”

Slowly I saw their influence gaining. The MEK hired powerful lobbyists, paid journalists to give lectures in their favor, and hosted lavish campaign events.

Most of all, they stoked the anti-Iran rhetoric in Congress and told staffers that the MEK is a secular alternative, a voice of human rights that would be friends with Israel if it came to power. They told us they had a special message to deliver on “behalf” of the Iranian people: we want the government overthrown. I do not know what was more chilling—their message of regime change or the fact that my colleagues in Congress believed them.

After my botched outreach event for Amnesty International in 2008, I showed up the following Monday to my office in Washington DC and noticed a large cake with my name on it. I was confused. My birthday was months away.

My boss, a seasoned veteran of the White House and the Hill, told me that she was happy that Amnesty International did not cave in.

“No one likes crazy people,” she reassured me. “No one advances that way in this town.”

I liked that quote. I wrote it down and tacked it to my bulletin board. But as this week’s de-listing of the MEK shows, that is just not true. Sometimes bullies do advance in DC, especially if they are well heeled.

Zahir Janmohamed, Opendemocracy.net

May 11, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

No use eating cake across from the White House

The formerly terrorist designated Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) eat cake in the opening ceremony of their “sleek” office in Washington, just a hundred meter from the White House. The event was celebrated with a bunch of American outstanding figures who been greatly paid by the MKO to lobby the US congress and administration to get the group removed from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations of the US State Department."The former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton removed the MEK from its terrorist list last September after an intense lobbying Campaign that included millions of dollars paid to prominent lawmakers and former government officials", the Hill reported.[1]

US politicians who attended the fete included Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I) who had recently traveled to Sweden to speak at the group’s demonstration in Stockholm. Previous to the Stockholm gathering, Kennedy and his other comrades had been offered trips to Paris and other on first class fights and luxury hotels to speak on behalf of the group. Various reports on the large amounts of money paid to the MKO supporters point out that "Money" really "Talks".

Besides, the event indicated that the MKO propaganda has been roughly successful to whitewash its violent past and even the image it had as the assassin of the 6 US citizens in the 1970s. Haward LA Franchi of the Christian Science Monitor suggests, “From prominent former members of Congress to former national security officials and high-profile diplomats, the caliber of the American advocates on hand for the ribbon-cutting demonstrated how effective the Iranian opposition organization has been at transforming its image – from that of a fringe group with a violent past to one in which it is the embodiment of the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people.”[2]

The news of the opening on the website of the MKO propaganda arm the NCRI comes with the 10point plan Maryam Rajavi had declared for “ a future Iran” in April 2006.

The first item of the alleged plan claims to consider the ballot box as “the only criterion for legitimacy “. The claim by a cult-like group sounds ridiculous. Even in the media note the office of the spokesperson of the State department released on delisting of the MKO in September 2012, the Department expresses " serious concerns “about the group,” particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members” [3]. The reports on human rights abuses committed in the MKO published by HRW and RAND institution based on testimonies of former member of the group and eye-witnesses who visited the group camps might be the origin of the DOS’s concerns.

The title “President Elect of the Iranian Resistance” referring to Maryam Rajavi never symbolizes her claim of “the ballot box”. Who elected Maryam Rajavi as the President Elect?

As Maryam Rajavi calls the upcoming Iranian election a “sham”, videos and documents indicate that as her "ideological" leader – read Cult Guru- Massoud Rajavi ordered her to become the so-called President of the Resistance. A quick search in Youtube on the election of Maryam Rajavi provides you with no "ballot box".

The leaders of the MKO are widely accused of running a notorious cult of personality. Elizabeth Rubin of the New York Times Magazine who visited Camp Ashraf in 2003 and whose famous article “The Cult of Rajavi” is still considered as one of the most reliable sources on the MKO, again in 2011 advised Secretary Clinton to ignore the group’s propaganda. she suggested,” Mujahedin Khalq is not only irrelevant to the cause of Iran’s democratic activists, but a totalitarian cult that will come back to haunt us.”[4]

By the way, Mrs. Clinton ignored the advises of the MKO critics and delisted it in September 2012. However, Daniel Larison of the American Conservative asserts that the “delisting of the MEK was mostly a quid pro que to get most of the group members in Iraq to relocate from its old base at Camp Ashraf.”[5]

Regarding the MKO undemocratic cult-like substance Larison writes,” many of the people at Camp Ashraf were being held there against their will “and “it remains on its own organization a totalitarian quasi Marxist cult”.[6]

Comparing the fifth item of Mrs. Rajavi’s Ten-Point plan for the Future of Iran with what Elizabeth Rubin eye witnessed in Camp Ashraf, expresses the fraudulent PR of the MKO. “When I arrived at Camp Ashraf, the base of the group’s operations, in April 2003, I thought I’d entered a fictional world of female worker bees. Everywhere I saw women dressed exactly alike, in Khaki uniforms and mud-colored scarves…“Rubin writes. [7]

This is “the right to choose their clothing” Maryam Rajavi promises Iranian women! And about the “freedom of marriage, divorce, education and employment” that Maryam Rajavi claims, Rubin reports,” Members were even forced to divorce and take avow of lifelong celibacy of ensure that all their energy and love would be directed toward Maryam and Massoud.”[8]

As the Hill reports the group PR admits that the opening of its office is “consistent with” its “ expanding efforts inside and outside Iran aimed at bringing democratic change to Iran and the timing could not be better with the failure of the nuclear talks and the upcoming Presidential election in Iran.” The MKO boasts of warm relationship with US policymakers saying that the opening of its office “sends the strong political message to Tehran that the real Iranian opposition is back in business. And it is just across from the White House.[9]

Ostensibly according to the MKO leaders to bring democracy to Iran, you need to have the support of the US not the Iranian people. The MKO have been “in business” with the enemies of their people since their expulsion from Iran –once sheltered by Saddam Hussein and now under the umbrella of Israel and the U.S. “The MEK is an awful group all on its own” and "hated in Iran for its long period of collusion with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war and afterwards “,Daniel Larison states.[10]

The MKO is probably the most hated political group among Iranians. The upcoming Iranian election is not the first one which is boycotted by the MKO. After the early elections in the Islamic Republic in which Maryam and Massoud Rajavi were not support by the Iranian public and government, the elections in Iran have been boycotted by the MKO!

Regarding the aggressive lobbying campaign the MKO has launched since a decade in western capitals particularly Washington DC, opening of the MKO office in downtown Washington appears to have no significant impact on the Iran-U.S. relations, let alone on Iranian internal affairs including the June elections. Nevertheless as Rubin says the group may happen to "haunt” the West.

By Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] Pacquet, Julian, Iran’s MEK to open Washington office, the Hill, April9, 2013

[2]La Franchi, Howard, For former Iranian ‘terrorists’ a warm Washington welcome, The Christian Science Monitor, April 11, 2013

[3]U.S. Department of State, delisting of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, Office of the spokesperson, September28,2012

[4] Rubin, Elizabeth, An Iranian Cult and its American friends ,the New York Times, August13, 2011

[5] Larison, Daniel, The “Rehabilitation” of the MEK, the American Conservative ,April16, 2013

[6]ibid

[7] Rubin, Elizabeth, An Iranian Cult and its American friends ,the New York Times, August13, 2011

[8]ibid

[9] Pacquet, Julian, Iran’s MEK to open Washington office, the Hill, April9, 2013

[10] Larison, Daniel, The “Rehabilitation” of the MEK, the American Conservative ,April16, 2013

April 24, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO’s online fundraising; an approach to money laundering

Mujahedin-e Khalq organization (MK MKO's online fundraising; an approach to money laundering O, a.k.a. MEK and NCRI) has launched a page on its website recently, which is dedicated to receiving money from the website visitors titled as “donation”.

This seems to be a notable act since MKO’s traditional approaches of fundraising in the European countries still stand on place. These fundraisings are usually undertaken under the cover of charity works and titled as “social-financial” activities. The group’s TV channel also launches programs named “collaboration” to achieve the same goal.

Many former MKO members, who have defected from the cult, believe the money that the MKO receives from such activities, is not sufficient even for covering a small part of the group’s expenses; recruiting lobbyists from around the world, organizing various conferences on different occasions and the money spent on other activities to promote their goals, are just a portion of their costs. MKO's online fundraising; an approach to money laundering

On the other side, knowing the cult doesn’t enjoy the support of a lot of people who are willing to financially support it, and also that most of their supporters are living outside Iran and it has been a long time since they have been made to pay the group an amount of money monthly, a question is raised about the nature of such an activity at this moment.

There is an initial assumption which is mainly coming from the cult’s critics and its defected members, which is that after Saddam’s fall and the cessation of Ba’ath regime’s financial support, the MKO is now facing a financial crisis and is trying to compensate for it in every possible way including the online fundraising.

But as mentioned before, since the MKO doesn’t enjoy the public support, it won’t be able to raise much money through this means. Although it is a fact that the MKO is suffering from a financial crisis, it doesn’t seem the main reason behind the group’s online fundraising is dealing with the crisis.

On the other hand, since it is possible to create various virtual accounts using different IPs from several countries in the internet, and there are many complicated ways to make the donors look a lot, online fundraising is a good approach for covering the cult’s money laundering activities and also a good way to hide the real sources where the MKO is receiving its money from.

One of the most challenging problems the MKO is now facing, is that the group’s bank accounts and financial transactions are under constant surveillance in Europe and that is why the cult’s ringleaders are trying out all the possible ways to hide their sources of receiving money which are mainly composed of smuggling and illegal businesses.

April 10, 2013 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

High Priority for the MKO: Save the Cult or Save the Members’ lives?

On March 16, 2013, the Albanian government said the country was ready to take over 200 members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization who currently live in Camp Liberty near Baghdad, Iraq, reported the AP. "Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha made the offer after meeting with U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf, U.N. envoy in Iraq Martin Kobler, and other officials. He said the offer of asylum for the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq members was made for "humanitarian reasons."[1]

The move was in response to demands of both the US authorities and the United Nations but it was immediately rejected by the MKO leaders. The group spokesman Shahin Ghobadi who seemingly welcomed the offer claimed “it was nothing new and not enough”!

As the group has previously put accusations on the UN envoy in Iraq Martin Kobler, Ghobadi once more accused him of “pursuing the political objectives of the Iranian regime” and “Acting against the safety and security of the residents.” Ghobadi echoed the orders of his guru, Maryam Rajavi, claiming that the only viable options were to transfer all the residents to the US or Europe or their return to Camp Ashraf.[2]

On March 20, the European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton issued statement on the decision by Albania to offer asylum to the MKO members and welcomed the decision of the government. “I have followed this issue very closely, lending my full support to the work of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, and in particular the Secretary General’s Special Representative Martin Kobler, towards a peaceful and durable solution to this humanitarian issue.” Ms. Ashton said. “Permanent resettlement outside Iraq is the only such solution”. [3]

Ms. Ashton’s statement disappointed the MKO who assumed the EU as one of its sponsors to get rid of the terrorist label. Besides, the EU High Official for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy stated her “full support” for Martin Kobler who is always seriously criticized by the MKO propaganda machine.

Ms. Ashton called on “the group leadership and the residents to respond positively to the offer made by the Government of Albania and to cooperate constructively with the United Nations, including by resuming the interviews with the UNHCR.”[4] Perhaps she doesn’t expect the group leaders to respond negatively to the offer that would save the life and future of over 200 people.

Surprisingly, the spokesman of the MKO suggests an ironically strong reasoning for refusing the Albanian offer. Ghobadi hardly finds a justification for the refusal, playing with words and illogical reasons. His wise logic (!) coordinates the number of people in Camp Liberty with the danger of attack against them! “Following the February 9 rocket attack on Camp Liberty and in light of the fact that all the Camp Liberty residents are in danger of similar attacks, transferring small groups of Liberty residents outside of Iraq would simply increase the danger for the majority who would stay behind,” Gobadi said in an e-mail to AP.[5]

In order to maintain the cult-like hegemony of the group, the MKO has to resort to this “Everything or Nothing “tactic. The MKO propaganda tries to convince the world that its leadership is determined to save the lives of members but it is clearly indicated in their recent reaction to Albania offer, that the Rajavis are determined to save the Organization and its cult- like structure not its members.

Besides Mrs. Ashton, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the “generous offer by Albania of humanitarian admission for 210 residents from Camp Hurriya”, according to the UN News Centre. “He expects and urges the residents to positively respond to Albania’s offer and to cooperate with UNHCR to relocate in the coming days,” said a statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson.[6]

The statement added that Mr. Ban “unequivocally supports” the efforts of his especial representative for Iraq, Martin Kobler ,”to courageously and creatively , in exceptionally difficult circumstances, help resolve this situation.” [7]

The UN and EU’s act to welcome Albania offer were accompanied by the US. The State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland thanked Albania Prime Minister Sali Berisha “for the humanitarian gesture to provide a safe haven for these individuals.”[8]

Ms. Nuland urged the group leadership "to place the highest priority on the safety and security" of their members and “unconditional cooperation” with the resettlement process. The AP reported that the UN envoy in Iraq, Martin Kobler, and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf held talks Saturday [March16] with Albanian authorities over security measures and housing conditions.[9]

It seems that for the time being the highest priority for the MKO leaders is to save their hegemony over the group. They stall over the relocation of their members of whom a large number own European citizenship or asylum documents. Regarding at least three deadly attacks on MKO members in Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty, all right reasons are convinced that the group’s relocation both individually and publically should be in the “ highest priority “ for those who are concerned about humanitarian issues – of course not the MKO authorities.

One more thing, Mr. Ban, Ms. Ashton and Ms. Nuland would risk their reputation when they support Mr. Martin Kobler who is often called by the MKO propaganda as the "agent of Islamic Republic".

By Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] AP, Albania offer for asylum to MKO rejected, March16,2013

[2]ibid

[3] European Union, Office of Catherine Ashton, EU welcomes Albanian offer, Fully supports Kobler efforts, March 20, 2013

[4]ibid

[5] AP, Albania offer for asylum to MKO rejected, March16,2013

[6] UN News Centre, Ban urges dialogue amid increased tensions, welcomes offer to Iranian group, March18, 2013

[7]ibid

[8] AFP, US welcomes Albania offer to resettle Iran exiles, March18, 2013

[9]ibid

March 27, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Beware of Mojahedin Khalq

The terrorist MKO cult (Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization) continuously makes false claims that the families of

the members of the cult who are trapped in Ashraf or in Liberty camps have been holding a sit-in opposite the UN office in Geneva for more than two years demanding the safety of their loved ones.

This deception has been instigated because for more than three years the genuine families of these people have held a sit-in in Iraq, just outside Ashraf camp. Their demand is to be able to meet with their loved ones for even a short time. This request has been vehemently denied by the MKO authorities.

While the cult leader Massoud Rajavi calls the genuine families ‘spies of the Iranian services’, he has gathered some paid individuals outside the UN office in Geneva under the guise of families.

Rajavi claims that the so-called families in Geneva demand the rescue of their relatives in Iraq; whilst Rajavi is the sole body threatening their safety. He does not let them out to determine their own destiny. He is using the excuse of ‘going back to Ashraf camp’ to disguise their real plight as his hostages.

Nowadays the cult’s lobbyists approach politicians and even ordinary people and paint a dreadful picture of the situation in Iraq by showing materials and then demand funds for the following:

1. The cult claims that the cost of the sit-in demonstration in Geneva, which they say is organized to safeguard the presence of their followers in Iraq, is around 40 thousand Euros a day. One might ask what they spend so much money on and for what reason.

2. The cult also demands funds for the lawyers they have hired in Europe for their activities regarding the inhabitants of Liberty. The question would be what might the lawyers do in Europe?

3. The third demand is to fund the meetings and rallies they hold in Europe which they claim are directly to the advantage of the followers in Iraq. The query is why they need so much propaganda just to make Maryam Rajavi well-known.

The truth is that all the money collected is used for Maryam Rajavi’s cosmetic surgery and her other luxuries while living in a suburb of Paris. Like all cults, the followers do not benefit from the income. They just have to work hard day and night for no pay and play the role of hostages for Rajavi by which he makes his impossible demands in Iraq. This is why cults are known to practice new slavery.

At the moment, some genuine family members have gone to Geneva to raise their case against the MKO leaders who have trapped their relatives in Iraq. In advance the cult leaders have called them ‘agents of the Iranian regime’. The MKO has also named Sahar Family Foundation in Iraq as an NGO related to Iran.

As the investigation show, those who have been brought to Geneva by the MKO are not the families of those in Iraq; they are paid lobbyists who do not bother too much to participate regularly in the sit-in.

We have to warn everyone that the MKO is a destructive mind control cult using all means of fraud and deception to gain money, manpower, political support and propaganda.

March 16, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The true nature of the assault against Camp Liberty

Struan Stevenson, Conservative member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Scotland and lobbyist of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) in Europe, has recently addressed Ambassador György The true nature of the assault against Camp Liberty Busztin, Martin Kobler’s deputy in Iraq, and claimed that the missile and mortar attack against Camp Liberty on Saturday, February 9, 2013 was directed by the Iranian regime.

To prove his claim he has stated that the leader of Jaysh-Al-Mukhtar, i.e. Wathiq Al-Musawi Al-Batat, has accepted responsibility for the attack in an interview with the Al-Sharqiyya network and has emphasized that this sort of action will continue in future since the MKO is responsible for the massacre of the Iraqi people under Saddam Hussein. Stevenson has also made claims against the Iraqi Prime Minister Mr. Nuri Maliki and the Special Representative of the UN General Secretary to Iraq Mr. Martin Kobler and accused them of collaborating with the Iranian regime.

It is worth mentioning a few points in this regard:

1. While condemning the terrorist act, the Iraqi Prime Minister has ordered the leader of the terrorist organization to be arrested; Martin Kobler has also condemned this violent act and urged for a full investigation and for the criminals to be arrested and brought to justice.

2. Stevenson refers to the interview of Al-Batat with the Al-Sharqiyya network. This network is one of the most anti-Iranian media in Iraq which has close ties with the MKO. Reviewing the news and data produced by this network shows everything by itself.

3. There are documents showing that the network has given aid up to 100 thousand dollars to the Iraqi organization in the past. The source of the fund of course has been the MKO.

But the actual mission of the news network and the group claiming responsibility, whose hints are exposed gradually, is to create a fearful atmosphere amongst the Shiite Muslims in Iraq and connect all their activities to the Iranian regime. This is done with the cooperation of the Rajavi Cult and the remnants of the previous regime in Iraq. The purpose is of course to bring the toppled regime back to power in favor of the MKO. In this regard, anyone opposing their deeds will be accused of being the agent of the Iranian regime. This includes Nuri Maliki and Martin Kobler too.

At the present time, the idea of the Rajavi Cult being behind the missile and mortar attack against Camp Liberty is gaining support. What make the notion even more likely are the words of a former member of the cult who managed to escape from the camp after the attack. He is living in Baghdad now and is willing to bear witness anytime and anywhere necessary.

He has stated that: “Three days prior to the attack, they held a session for all the inhabitants of the camp titled ‘passive defense’. In this session alerts were given to all for the possibility of assaults against the camp and everyone was asked to follow the instructions given by the commanders in such a case and do exactly what they are told. In response to those who asked what sort of an assault they might face, the officials answered that there could be a missile and mortar attack. The night before the occurrence they broadcast one of Massoud Rajavi’s speeches on their satellite television and asked everyone to watch it. In his speech Rajavi clearly mentioned that in order to save Camp Ashraf they would need to make sacrifices and give their blood.”

Immediately after the attack at 5 am, Rajavi issued a statement addressed to the inhabitants of the camp where everyone was asked to follow the instructions given by the commanders and do exactly what they are told. Maryam Rajavi and the NCR in Paris simultaneously issued dozens of statements and demanded that the inhabitants of Camp Liberty be transported back to Ashraf. It seemed as though they were all ready for the attack. There was of course no statement asking for the inhabitants to be taken out of Iraq for their safety. While finding the Iranian regime responsible for the act, Maryam Rajavi urged that the members be moved from Baghdad to a place even nearer to the Iranian border and rejected any demands made for leaving Iraq, even those made by her American supporters.

Nevertheless what is clearer now is that this assault was made to the advantage of Rajavi in person and against the benefits of his victims and hostages in Camp Liberty. Surely neither the Iraqi government nor the UN in Iraq have gained anything from this, and only those who want to threaten the internal security of Iraq for their own particular benefits are willing to perform such acts.

March 13, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

MKO sends fake letters to International Organizations

According to anti Rajavi sources, MEK is trying to provide and send fake letters to UNHCR and other International Organizations

An Ex high ranking MEK member and human rights activist living in Europe, Mr. Behzad Alishahi has told MojahedinMonitor that MEK has been using identities of Iranians as well as non-Iranians to send fake letters and provide false information.

He mentioned, "MEK has been trying to approach families and friends of its hostages in Iraq and asks them to sign a letter.” He adds, “The MEK`s letter is nothing but the will of the cult leaders who are sitting in France and willing to keep their prisoners."

Alishahi Also described how MEK uses identities of different people to fake letters. He described that in the recent years the cult like organization has turned to asylum camps and labors to provide people for its gatherings in France and elsewhere. He says, “Iranians living abroad hate this group, therefore they gather people in need with a free trip to Paris and free food and accommodation.” He added that every individual has to provide MEK officials with his name, address, email and tell number in order to be qualified for the free tour. The information gathered in such way is later used for signing mass letters which are written by MEKs. In other words Rajavists write letters and just use name and information of those who have enjoyed from a free ride and tour of Paris.

MEK has a notorious reputation of violating human rights and terror. According to Human rights watch , members of MEK ( also known as Rajavi`s Organization) who are not willing to continue their cooperation with the group, have been imprisoned and tortured

March 10, 2013 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Ashamed of your Leader? Silencing the victims of MKO to promote Rajavi’s phoney feminism

International Women’s Day on 8 March is rooted in women’s demands for better working pay and conditions, and for voting rights, and has expanded to encompass women’s global struggle for equal rights and equal participation in social, political and economic processes.

In spite of considerable progress, continued vigilance and action are required to ensure that women’s equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of life all over the world.
In this context what are we to understand about Maryam Rajavi’s claim to feminist credentials?

Rather than take Maryam Rajavi’s words and image at face value, let us examine her actions and behaviour toward women in her own organisation. The best people to help in this respect are the women members of the Mojahedin. Understandably, current female MEK members cannot speak freely about their experience of being in this organisation because they must only iterate the MEK’s public stance.

However, those women who have recently left the MEK are certainly free to talk about the situation for women inside the MEK. Even so, their courage must be acknowledged. Not only is it difficult for women to break social taboos to talk about sexual abuse, but like whistleblowers everywhere, they are subjected to enormous pressure to keep quiet.

Indeed, just a glance at the difficulties faced by these women in recent months speaks volumes about the MEK’s real approach to women. Since making public statements in a conference held the Autumn of 2012 about sexual abuses committed by the MEK leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, against them and other women members, the following incidents have taken place against these women.

Batoul Soltani previously spoke out about the abuse of women in the MEK in both Baghdad and now in Europe where she lives. She was recently attacked in front of her house and her neighbours had to come to her rescue. The MEK have published indecipherable false documents on their websites alleging that while she was a member of the Mojahedin’s Leadership Council (the highest rank after the Rajavis), she was working for the Iranian Intelligence Ministry. Batoul joined the MEK with her husband and two month old baby when she was barely eighteen years old. She had been a member for over twenty years.

Nasrin Ebrahimi, who now lives in Switzerland, was fourteen years old when she was taken to the MEK’s Camp Ashraf in Iraq. She was only able to escape after the American army forced the MEK to disarm in 2003. Nasrin was invited to the European Parliament to testify about her experience as a woman in the Mojahedin. After that she suffered such severe harassment by the MEK that she changed country twice to escape them. Police have had to protect her for some time against the MEK. Recently she has again been approached and threatened in Switzerland for joining the group of women exposing the abuses.

Zahra Bagheri crawled combat-style over a kilometre for hours in the dark to escape Camp Ashraf. Her body was so lacerated and bleeding that the Iraqi soldiers who found her wept on seeing her injuries. She spent several weeks in hospital recovering from this ordeal. In addition she has had to undergo various operations in Germany because of neglect of her medical conditions while she was in Ashraf. She also joined the other women in the Autumn 2012 conference. The MEK are currently using her two sisters and her brother who remain in Camp Liberty to perform on their TV to swear at Zahra and their mother.

In the last two months, three more women have escaped from Camp Liberty. Seeing this treatment is it surprising that they are reluctant to talk to human rights investigators in Iraq even though privately they corroborate the experiences told by the women above.

They talk about Maryam Rajavi grooming young women and having them dance naked for her and Massoud. They say that after raping them Massoud gives them a medallion with his picture on it. There are 100 names, perhaps more, of women who have had hysterectomies; that is one in ten women in the MEK. They say this is done so that Rajavi can order them to sleep with him or any other man without fear of pregnancy.

It is public knowledge that the MEK instigated forced divorces long before the fall of Saddam so that for twenty years there have been no children in the MEK. In interviews with the BBC they proudly announced it and defended this policy. According to recent escapees, Rajavi has told the MEK the following: ‘According to Islamic rule, if a woman turns against her husband he has the right to kill her. According to the Internal Revolution you are all my wives. So if any of you betrays me and leaves the MEK I have the right to kill you under Islamic law.’ On the MEK websites they have published Massoud Rajavi’s threat: ‘I have evidence about everybody and if they leave I will expose them.’ It is thought he may have film of sexual acts.

(Women "rewarded" with pendants and robes after sexual ordeal)

The MEK have for decades used violence, intimidation and harassment to prevent former members from speaking publicly about the abuses taking place inside the organisation.

News of these activities is suppressed because some people think that terrorism is a useful tool. These women face a backlash of ‘power and money’ to stop them talking, while the same ‘power and money’ grooms the perpetrator, Maryam Rajavi, to talk about the rights of women and criticise marriage laws and say how they should be changed in the favour of women. ‘Power and money’ believe the MEK should not only be removed from terrorism lists but should be paraded in parliaments as exemplars of feminism. ‘Power and money’ are so dishonest that they cast the MEK in the role of victim while condemning the former women members as torturers, spies and agents.

No one expects ‘power and money’ to take the side of victims, but to turn the tables in this way is truly sickening.

Author of "Saddam’s Private Army" and "The life of Camp Ashraf"
http://www.camp-ashraf.com

March 7, 2013 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Memoirs of Nasrin Ebrahimi, MKO ex- member _ Part 2

Nasrin Ebrahimi is a former member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, who fled the group in 2006. She was one of the first survivors of the Cult-like MKO who dared to reveal the corruption of the leaders of the group. She was the first person to speak of the “Summit Operation” which was a cult jargon through which a large number of female members of the group became infertile by Hysterectomy surgery.
Nim Negah Website is publishing series of interviews with Ms. Ebrahimi. Nejat society translated excerpts of her memoirs of the sufferings of living in the MKO cult.

A Teenager in Prison!

After I entered the MKO base in Iraq the first word I was told was a warning about my hair that was seen from under my scarf! During the first two days I was being interrogated by 15 people. I had to sign a paper; It was an approval document based on which I had admitted to be executed by the MKO in case I escape an operation! Let’s not mention that Mrs. Rajavi now claims to oppose death penalty! By the way they feared the day we wouldn’t agree to launch attack against our country fellowmen.

During the first year I spent in Ashraf, I came to know that everything was like a mirage; the life in Ashraf was a big lie so I began complaining and criticizing the group on various subjects.

I told them:”I think I am in a prison. What you publicize is so different from what you really are.” I was too young to know that this would be dangerous and I would risk my life by criticizing the MKO…

..However, I couldn’t believe that I would be imprisoned. I didn’t guess that my criticisms would make Rajavi mad at me. As the result of criticizing the Rajavis, I was being humiliated…They treated me in such a way that my friends tried to stay away from me…In brainwashing sessions, they told me to condemn myself, this way I would pave the way for others to offense me…

If we said that we hadn’t done anything wrong during the day, it would have been much worse; we would have been verbally abused more….

After a year in Ashraf, one day they called to me. I was told that Mossoumeh Pirhadi wanted to see me. When I was going to her office, I really felt bad.

Having arrived in her room, she started shouting at me and insulting me … I was taken to a bus. I asked: what’s up?”They said:”Shut up! Just get on!” I got on the bus. I was shocked and terrified. Two people were guarding me in the dark bus. I was crying!

… They pushed me into the prison. I was so scared that I could hardly breathe. I couldn’t believe that the MKO –with those slogans and propaganda – have prisons! All of the sudden I recalled the first day of my arrival in the MKO base when the group officials told me,”Iranian regime jail the children under the legal age!” What a surprise!

After a week of imprisonment, a woman named Forough Pakdel came to my cell and said:”Get out”. There was another room next to my cell for interrogation! Another woman named Mahnaz Bazzazi started interrogating me,” who are you? Why did you join the oragnziation? " (suppose that Iran needed someone to infiltrate the MKO. Does the Iranian Intelligence Ministry – with that experience and power- need to send a 14-year-old girl into a complicated group like the MKO?)

Therefore, it was sure that they wanted to intimidate me. They wanted to stop criticism in its first phases.
Interrogation sessions went on .. I wasn’t physically tortured but I was under a constant terrible mental torture. All day long I was stressed. They knew I feared interrogation sessions so they always pretended that someone was going to come interrogate me…

The interrogation session included only shouting and screaming at me that lasted an hour or two.
Actually, the MKO knew that I was innocent but they just wanted to hurt me. They wanted to teach me that I didn’t have the right to criticize … they threatened me that they would deliver me to Iraqi intelligence service who would in turn execute me. They used various ways to torture me; they brought my food late, I was deprived from having doctor or medicine. Because of too much stress and pressure of interrogation sessions I was sick but they didn’t care…

After they found out that I was badly mentally hurt, they brought me a TV that only showed the group’s propaganda channel ”Simay-e Azady”

… During the entire year in jail, I never went for recess.. When I asked for a recess time, Mahnz Bazzazi refused my request and found a new pretext to verbally abuse me again!

The painful horrible condition continued. The group interrogators didn’t tell me what was wrong with me. They just insulted me saying,” You stand against Rajavi, you are a mercenary” and so on.

… After exactly a year of imprisonment, I could feel that something had changed around me. No one was there, the main door was open. A few hours later I heard someone calling. It was Forough Pakdel who always used to shout at me and use foul mouthed language against me. But this time was different, she called ”Dear Nasrin! Where are you?” I was confused!

She had become so friendly! I was doubtful like the first day they jailed me.. They kissed me! They told me” Get back to the base (Ashraf). Something had gone wrong and you should understand that we are here to struggle and the struggle has ups and downs so organization doesn’t owe you anything”…
By the way, I resisted against them.”Once I trusted the organization, I left my life and family because I thought you were right but I understand that you lie. So let me leave Ashraf. I won’t get back to the camp,” I told them. They tried to convince me to stay in the cult but when they saw I was serious about my decision they said:” Ok, you must stay two more years in the prison so that your information is outdated. According to the regulations of the organization, you will be submitted to Iraqis who will jail you in Abu Qoraib for ten years then Saddam Hussein will exchange you will Iraqi POWs in Iran”

This was the most painful thing I could hear. In fact, I had no way except staying in Ashraf. I was coerced to admit to stay with the MKO. Then I was told to sign some documents that were like confessions…
By the way, I got back to the base but it was not me, Nasrin, it was like a body with no sole. I couldn’t speak or criticize anymore. I just listened to others and kept silent. This was what Rajavi wanted. They told me that I was not allowed to speak about my imprisonment I had to say that I was in Baghdad!

.. a woman who was also a victim of Rajavi’s cult, told me: ”Nasrin … try to be rational otherwise you will be put out of their way. The prison was a small warning. The second time you will be put to death… “
Sometime later, when I saw Rajavi in a meeting, I calmly asked him why I was jailed but he pretended not to understand me and asked Shahrzad Sadr:”What is Nasrin talking about?” I told Rajavi,” The MKO is over in my mind”.

I remember Maryam Rajavi’s arrest in Paris in 2003. After she was jailed by French judiciary because of money laundry activities and conducting terrorist acts, she said:”I expected to be jailed by the Iranian Regime not by a freedom loving country like France.” I should tell Mrs. Rajavi:” Mrs. Rajavi, Me and other people like me expected to be in the prisons of the Islamic Republic not in the prisons of the Rajavis who claim and chant that much of slogans!”

March 2, 2013 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts