The main goal of producing a new identity in cults is to make insiders dependant on the cult and to be obedient. The mechanisms the cults exploit to achieve the goal are interrelated but each can be discussed separately since they are all prerequisites for insiders’ persuasion and control and the final transformation of the recruits into real cultists. It will not be wrong to say that whatever the cults do is to cut the members off from the outside world to produce a new identity and belief totally different from what the members previously held as right and dear. The process finished, the insiders will adopt a new and reborn personality as Singer states: 
As part of the intense influence and change process in many cults, people take on a new social identity, which may or may not be obvious to an outsider. When groups refer to this new identity, they speak of members who are transformed, reborn, enlightened, empowered, rebirthed, or cleared. The group’ approved behavior is reinforced and reinterpreted as demonstrating the emergence of "the new person." Members are expected to display this new identity. 1 The new personality totally split from the outside world is manipulated for a variety of group tasks based on the objectives of the group and cult that consider the outsiders as the enemies who have to be confronted: The conflicts a mass movement seek and incites serve not only to down its enemies but also to strip its followers of their distinct individuality and render them more soluble in the collective medium. 2 As Hoffer asserts, a cultist personality is formed to be submissive to the inner-cultic relations that have priority to outwardly demonstrated ambitions and goals. The members undergoing overall identity change easily consent to any means of changing behaviour and conduct. Thus, cults can successfully accomplish their goal of binding new members to the group. Considering the stages people will go through as their attitudes are changed by the group environment and the thought reform processes, Singer points to psychologist Edgar Schein’s second stages of three: During this second stage, you sense that the solutions offered by the group provide a path to follow. You feel that anxiety, uncertainty, and self-doubt can be reduced by adopting the concepts put forth by the group or leader. Additionally, you observe the behavior of the longer, term members, and you begin to emulate their ways. As social psychology experiments and observations have found for decades, once a person makes an open commitment before others to an idea, his or her subsequent behavior generally supports and reinforces the stated commitment. That is, if you say in front of others that you are making a commitment to be "pure," then you will feel pressured to follow what others define as the path of purity. 3 There are also the eight psychological themes that psychiatrist Robert Lifton has identified as central to totalistic environments and cults invoke these themes for the purpose of promoting behavioral and attitudinal changes in the members. The third theme, demand for purity, depicts two opposite world of black and white; the cult being an absolutely white and clean world versus the black and evil world of outside. Of course, the members with a new personality have no other choice but to think and act according to cult’s ideology and drawn strategy: An us-versus-them orientation is promoted by the all-or-nothing belief system of the group: we are right; they (outsiders, nonmembers) are wrong, evil, unenlightened, and so forth. Each idea or act is good or bad, pure or evil. Recruits gradually take in, or internalize, the critical, shaming essence of the cult environment, which builds up lots of guilt and shame. Most groups put forth that there is only one way to think, respond, or act in any given situation. There is no in between, and members are expected to judge themselves and others by this all-or-nothing standard. 4 The process of producing identity within MKO follows the same mechanism in the cults and its orientation began with the start of the internal ideological revolution. All the members undergoing the revolution process admitted their identity change, that there does exist a long distance between their organizational and personal identities. It was instilled into them that their identity would be prompted based on the extent of adherence to the ideological system of the group and denial of any personal identity. In a text written by a member of MKO in self-denial we read: Personality, egocentrism, self-reliance and individualism are all souvenirs of the bourgeoisie’s worthless humanism that distanced me from the organization as far as its degree of its impact on me. It was like a chaff that barred me to drink the pure, life-giving instructions of the organization and was leaving me alone in a desolate waste-land with no way out. I was enslaved by dominant ambiguities within me. When I failed to overcome the ongoing struggle inside me, I was even more vulnerable to the outside misfortunes and could not even face them. 5 The member’s confession well depicts his identity destabilization and what psychologists call an identity crisis. He looks back at his own world and values to find out that he has been wrong in the past. This process makes him uncertain about what is right, what to do, and which choices to make and of course, as he admits, only the cult-like instructions of the organization can lead him to what is inspired to be the right path. Consequently, he takes on a new organizational identity which he considers a change for the better. In the process, he, as the member of a cult, detaches from his most dear ideas and attachments which he discovers to have been nothing beyond a barren waste-land for the identity reborn, a utopia in the horizon he fails to dismiss easily. Masoud Banisadr, another separated member of MKO, in his memoir relates of the time when sat tearing whatever attached him to the past under the commands of the organization: This time I attacked my old photographs from my own childhood till marriage and up to then, my parents photographs as I wanted to deny all of them, my father who was perhaps responsible for my bourgeois tendencies and my mother who was responsible of my own ‘mild’ and ‘gentle’ behaviour known as liberal ones. Anna seeing me taking all those photographs and albums, with anger, was quietly crying, then when I attacked our marriage Album she start crying louder, and asked me to stop it. She said those are not just yours . . . but I was not listening to her and took everything and put them in a rubbish bag. 6 Quoting Lifton’s forth theme, through a cult’s instructions, members are told whatever connects them to their former lives is wrong and has to be avoided, a fact well affirmed by MKO’s ex-members: Through the confession process and by instruction in the group’s teachings, members learn that everything about their former lives, including friends, family, and nonmembers, is wrong and to be avoided. Outsiders will put you at risk of not attaining the purported goal: they will lessen your psychological awareness, hinder the group’s political advancement, obstruct your path toward ultimate knowledge, or allow you to become stuck in your past life and incorrect thinking. 7 That is why MKO refer to members’ solubility in the organizational identity as a “reborn” or “identity salvation”. The organization, being transformed into a cult, pursues the same cult mechanism of altering the members’ personal identity to produce a new identity. References: 1. Margaret Thaler Singer; Cults in Our Midst, JOSSEY-BASS, 2003, p. 78. 2. Eric Hoffer; The true believer, Harper &. Row, Publishers, New York, 1966, p. 112. 3. Margaret Thaler Singer; Cults in Our Midst, JOSSEY-BASS, 2003, p. 76. 4. Ibid, 71. 5. Mojahed, no. 252; Abdol-ali Maasoumi’s letter to the ideological revolution. 6. Masoud Banisadr; Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel. 7. Margaret Thaler Singer; Cults in Our Midst, JOSSEY-BASS, 2003, p. 72.
Researchers and the scientists of humanities have identified similar features in all contemporary cults one of which is application of mental and psychological control techniques mainly aimed at persuading cult members, and making them more and more obedient and passive. Considering the significance of the matter, finding out the nature and extent of members’ obedience in cults is one
of the major issues in internal cultist relations. The reasons why a person submits to be subjected to mental, physical , psychological, and financial misuse to the extent that he/she gives up job, family, and the individual freedom are very important issues for those interested in investigating cultist mechanisms and levers. In simple words, those outside cults, out of curiosity, strive for public awareness and preventing people’s deviation as well as discovering how in an age of scientific development and communication there people who easily fall in the cults’ trap and are are hoodwinked by their tricks. In order to understand such an issue we must look at the social and psychological techniques used by cults and cultic groups. This process of planned, convert coordinated influence-popularly called brainwashing or mind control or, more technically, thought reform-is the means by which the cult leader subjugates the followers.
The fact is that at first such mechanisms are raw materials based on psychological theories and assumptions and are to be put into action. Our discussion is around the brief study of such mechanisms by which people undergo full obedience and control and also comparing the programs exercised in cults like that of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) initially blacklisted as a terrorist organization. Mojahedin stand opposed to the allegations of being a cultist group abusing sophisticated scientific procedures to expand its hegemonic domination over the members. However, such a position taken by them does not affect theoretical and academic challenges put against them. What is of importance is the extent to which their relations and techniques are adaptable to that of other cults. First we’d better develop an understanding of through what mechanisms cults manage to survive.
Cults aim at creating drastic mental and psychological changes in all aspects of members’ life. They insist on saying that cultist values are significantly above those admired in the society and the first step to enter a cult is cutting all those values repelled by the cult. That is the prerequisite to prepare members to easily consent to cultist teachings that implant a completely different life-style. As Margaret Singer explains:
Cults tend to require members to undergo a major disruption or change in lifestyle. Many cults put great pressure on new members to leave their families, mends, and jobs to become immersed in the group’s major purpose. This isolation tactic is one of the cults’ most common mechanisms of control and enforced dependency. (1)
For the techniques to be accomplished in internal relation of Mojahedin, three stages has to be met; cleansing the mind of any non-organizational mental drifts, taking the individual mental, behavioral, and psychological functions under the control, and finally impose it on the individuals to be in a constant conflict of facing permanent contradiction between his/her personal values and the organization’s ideal world. The finally process results in full metamorphosis of members and molded as desired by the cult. They are under a never-ceasing watch to be found with the flaws they had hardly noticed in themselves for which they will be reproached in the presence of other members whom will have no escape from the strict criticism. They all try to adapt themselves to the new conditions to find a new identity and gain organizational legitimacy. Such procedures opted for as the mechanism of overcoming non-revolutionary features result in a total dependence of the individuals to cult. The main theme of all cults is mind control and gradual self-alteration, a factor that is explicitly observable in internal relations of Mojahedin under different pretexts as organizational discipline. Cults are known to dictate what members have to wear and eat and when and where they work, sleep, and bathe as well as what they should believe in, think, and say and even dream. Although such factors comprise the primary cultist instructions, they may set the ground for further destructive direction.
Most former MKO members as well as Mojahedin themselves acknowledge the implementation of these mind-control techniques. The main difference between Mojahedin and other cults is that the techniques are phased that are vehemently glorified and celebrated as unmatched turning points. Mojahedin’s internal ideological revolution is the best example. It is most likely that Mojahedin, because of feeling close strategic and ideological affinities, have been influenced by Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China. However, according to Singer, Mao resorted to thought-reform programs under the influence of cultist relations:
Then in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the world witnessed personnel at Chinese revolutionary universities implement a thought-reform program that changed the beliefs and behaviors of the citizens of the largest nation in the world. This program, which Mao Tse-tung wrote about as early as the 1920s, was put into place when the Communist regime took power in China on October 1, 1949. Chairman Mao had long planned how to change people’s political selves-to achieve "ideological remolding," as he called it-through the use of a coordinated program of psychological, social, and political coercion. As a result, millions of Chinese citizens were induced to espouse new philosophies and exhibit new conduct (2).
Mao’s "Red Book" refers openly to the significance of such procedures for achieving what he calls revolution. Mehdi Abrishamchi defines it as adaptation and mental and conceptual balance. the mechanisms aim at reforming the basic values of a person distancing him from individual identity, persuasion and also absolute submission to organizational commands. In this regard, Eric Hofer writes:
To ripen a person for self-sacrifice he must be stripped of his individual identity and distinctness. He must cease to be George, Hans, van, or Tadao- a human atom with an existence bounded by birth and death. The most drastic way to achieve this end is by the complete assimilation of the individual into a collective body. The fully assimilated individual does not see himself and others as human beings. When asked who he is, his automatic response is that he is a German, a Russian, a Japanese, a Christian, a Moslem, a member of a certain tribe or family, He has no purpose, worth and destiny apart from his collective body; and as long as that body lives he cannot really die. (3)
Mojahedin identify the individual identity to sealed boxes and believe that the main theme of the ideological revolution is to unlock these boxes:
To unlock the boxes (minds of members) is the main theme and the first stage of ideological revolution. (4)
By opening these boxes the first step is taken to change members’ attitudes and standpoints to adapt them to organizationally adopted values and principles that are in contradiction with the outside world.
References:
1. Singer, M. Cults in our midst. Coordinated programs of persuasion.
2. ibid.
3. Hofer, E. The True believer.
4. Niyabati, B; A different look at the internal ideological revolution within MKO, p.36
Research Bureau-Mojahedin.ws-February 22, 2008
Researchers and the scientists of humanities have identified similar features in all contemporary cults one of which is application of mental and psychological control techniques mainly aimed at persuading cult members, and making them
more and more obedient and passive. Considering the significance of the matter, finding out the nature and extent of members’ obedience in cults is one of the major issues in internal cultist relations. The reasons why a person submits to be subjected to mental, physical , psychological, and financial misuse to the extent that he/she gives up job, family, and the individual freedom are very important issues for those interested in investigating cultist mechanisms and levers. In simple words, those outside cults, out of curiosity, strive for public awareness and preventing people’s deviation as well as discovering how in an age of scientific development and communication there people who easily fall in the cults’ trap and are are hoodwinked by their tricks. In order to understand such an issue we must look at the social and psychological techniques used by cults and cultic groups. This process of planned, convert coordinated influence-popularly called brainwashing or mind control or, more technically, thought reform-is the means by which the cult leader subjugates the followers.
The fact is that at first such mechanisms are raw materials based on psychological theories and assumptions and are to be put into action. Our discussion is around the brief study of such mechanisms by which people undergo full obedience and control and also comparing the programs exercised in cults like that of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) initially blacklisted as a terrorist organization. Mojahedin stand opposed to the allegations of being a cultist group abusing sophisticated scientific procedures to expand its hegemonic domination over the members. However, such a position taken by them does not affect theoretical and academic challenges put against them. What is of importance is the extent to which their relations and techniques are adaptable to that of other cults. First we’d better develop an understanding of through what mechanisms cults manage to survive.
Cults aim at creating drastic mental and psychological changes in all aspects of members’ life. They insist on saying that cultist values are significantly above those admired in the society and the first step to enter a cult is cutting all those values repelled by the cult. That is the prerequisite to prepare members to easily consent to cultist teachings that implant a completely different life-style. As Margaret Singer explains:
Cults tend to require members to undergo a major disruption or change in lifestyle. Many cults put great pressure on new members to leave their families, mends, and jobs to become immersed in the group’s major purpose. This isolation tactic is one of the cults’ most common mechanisms of control and enforced dependency. (1)
For the techniques to be accomplished in internal relation of Mojahedin, three stages has to be met; cleansing the mind of any non-organizational mental drifts, taking the individual mental, behavioral, and psychological functions under the control, and finally impose it on the individuals to be in a constant conflict of facing permanent contradiction between his/her personal values and the organization’s ideal world. The finally process results in full metamorphosis of members and molded as desired by the cult. They are under a never-ceasing watch to be found with the flaws they had hardly noticed in themselves for which they will be reproached in the presence of other members whom will have no escape from the strict criticism. They all try to adapt themselves to the new conditions to find a new identity and gain organizational legitimacy. Such procedures opted for as the mechanism of overcoming non-revolutionary features result in a total dependence of the individuals to cult. The main theme of all cults is mind control and gradual self-alteration, a factor that is explicitly observable in internal relations of Mojahedin under different pretexts as organizational discipline. Cults are known to dictate what members have to wear and eat and when and where they work, sleep, and bathe as well as what they should believe in, think, and say and even dream. Although such factors comprise the primary cultist instructions, they may set the ground for further destructive direction.
Most former MKO members as well as Mojahedin themselves acknowledge the implementation of these mind-control techniques. The main difference between Mojahedin and other cults is that the techniques are phased that are vehemently glorified and celebrated as unmatched turning points. Mojahedin’s internal ideological revolution is the best example. It is most likely that Mojahedin, because of feeling close strategic and ideological affinities, have been influenced by Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China. However, according to Singer, Mao resorted to thought-reform programs under the influence of cultist relations:
Then in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the world witnessed personnel at Chinese revolutionary universities implement a thought-reform program that changed the beliefs and behaviors of the citizens of the largest nation in the world. This program, which Mao Tse-tung wrote about as early as the 1920s, was put into place when the Communist regime took power in China on October 1, 1949. Chairman Mao had long planned how to change people’s political selves-to achieve”ideological remolding,”as he called it-through the use of a coordinated program of psychological, social, and political coercion. As a result, millions of Chinese citizens were induced to espouse new philosophies and exhibit new conduct (2).
Mao’s”Red Book”refers openly to the significance of such procedures for achieving what he calls revolution. Mehdi Abrishamchi defines it as adaptation and mental and conceptual balance. the mechanisms aim at reforming the basic values of a person distancing him from individual identity, persuasion and also absolute submission to organizational commands. In this regard, Eric Hofer writes:
To ripen a person for self-sacrifice he must be stripped of his individual identity and distinctness. He must cease to be George, Hans, van, or Tadao- a human atom with an existence bounded by birth and death. The most drastic way to achieve this end is by the complete assimilation of the individual into a collective body. The fully assimilated individual does not see himself and others as human beings. When asked who he is, his automatic response is that he is a German, a Russian, a Japanese, a Christian, a Moslem, a member of a certain tribe or family, He has no purpose, worth and destiny apart from his collective body; and as long as that body lives he cannot really die. (3)
Mojahedin identify the individual identity to sealed boxes and believe that the main theme of the ideological revolution is to unlock these boxes:
To unlock the boxes (minds of members) is the main theme and the first stage of ideological revolution. (4)
By opening these boxes the first step is taken to change members’ attitudes and standpoints to adapt them to organizationally adopted values and principles that are in contradiction with the outside world. References: 1. Singer, M. Cults in our midst. Coordinated programs of persuasion. 2. ibid. 3. Hofer, E. The True believer. 4. Niyabati, B; A different look at the internal ideological revolution within MKO, p.36
Research Bureau-Mojahedin.ws-February 22, 2008
The ruling of the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission (POAC) to remove the ban on MKO’s activities remains a serious challenge failing to convince the UK government that the organisation has really foresworn the terrorist tactics which continue to be a potential threat to civilians. Far beyond being an internal threat, terrorism stages a global threat that has to be fought by all the means. A globally proscribed terrorist organization, MKO may appeal to a variety of lawful judiciary bodies and take advantage of proficient lawyers and proponent parliamentarians to divert governments and international bodies from the potential terrorist threat of the organization. The advocates of MKO should be notified that to win a judicial decision in appeals process to de-proscribe a terrorist organization never implies that its terrorist threats have ever been curbed. It has to be noted that it is a tactic commonly exploited by MKO to alter its serious ideological and cultic challenges from an internal issue to a globally concerned judicial case, a ploy manipulated by majority of cults. A comparative study of some current cults reveals amazing results that never excludes MKO as an exception. The tactics employed by cults and a number of political groups to influence public perception and debate are considerable. I spite of countless suppressive measures to extend their hegemonic domination over the insiders, they escape any scrutiny and controls from the outside world. As Margaret Thaler Singer discusses in her Cults in Our Midst, “Despite a rather grim record of atrocious behavior, time and again cults escape the scrutiny and controls bestowed upon other organizations and activities”. To find out how cults benefit from legal leverages and influential individuals and authorities to circumvent law enforcement is possible only through a careful study of the approaches utilized by certain cults and groups. For instance, involving in lawsuits against respondents are generally costly affairs and time consuming but cults utilize a variety of approaches to overcome the problem. Explained by Thaler Singer, “Legal suits are costly affairs. But some cults have developed large in-house legal staffs, including huge numbers of paralegals to help the resident lawyers. Thus legal actions are not very costly for the cults to pursue, whereas the people who must defend themselves can easily go broke battling against such tactics”. It has also to be pointed out that not all advocates and supporters of a cult and political group are in total agreement with ideological tenets and objectives of the target group. A variety of factors like political and party interests as well as personal interests and financial concerns may involve. Brought to attention by Thaler Singer, “Some people committed to cultic groups become downright illogical in their support. For example, there is a small claque of social scientists who have become procult apologists. Some have been given trips to exotic places by large, wealthy cults; some fear revealing critical findings because certain cults have paid for research and underwritten trips to professional meetings”. As noted, in some cases, the laws not only fail to deter the threat of cults but also work as legal buffers defending them against opponents. The question is, are the learned Westerners who support MKO really unacquainted with the tactics employed by the cults? As many of them assert, they have been well acquainted with MKO activities since long and besides, English intelligence systems have long been monitoring the terrorist activities of the group and have already filled exactly recorded details which can help reaching a logical resolution about MKO. There are suppositions why the English fail to reach a consensus about MKO. A doubtful inference is that the group’s English advocates are initially kept in dark about the real nature and the past history of MKO. As mentioned, British intelligence bureaus as well as news agencies, BBC in particular, have a valuable record of MKO’s terrorist operations and atrocities perpetrated inside Iran against American personnel, British interests, regime’s authorities and innocent civilians since its formation. Then, it is doubtful that they have been uninformed of vital facts concerning the national security as people’s representatives. Looking it from a different angle, the English might be dealing with MKO as a psychotherapy case. That is to say, regarding the organization as a destructive cult that has enforced a variety of cult and mind control techniques on the members, they have to be treated with outmost care and caution. That is much because the English have learned any suppressive measure to repel cults may backfire seriously and cause irreparable social damages; they may be in some way following American’s paradoxical approach in dealing with MKO since they have once paid the price of MKO’s ideological hostility against the imperialism. Finally, the English may have concluded that MKO, as a political organization with a military infrastructure, has reached the end of its political life and must run a peaceful life of retirement. For sure, it takes time to instil the truth into old veterans, a responsibility some British factions have assumed on themselves. However, precautionary measures deem necessary concerning MKO; as a globally proscribed terrorist organization and a destructive cult, it has to be under constant, strict surveillance. Bahar Irani,Mojahedin.ws-February 11, 2008
Self-delusion is most apparent in those politicians who least consider their supporters and their people in the policies and strategies which they pursue. These are the kind of leaders who do not see the fear in the faces of the people under their autocracy. Rather they relate all such signs of disfavour to the external enemy. When they do find their internal opponents standing opposed to them, they become astonished and fail to analyse the situation realistically.
Self-delusion is the scourge of power that has no popular support. Self-delusion is the illness of those who are unable to evaluate their power and do not understand their true position in either the international or internal political scene. This inability means there is always a vast divergence between the minds of such politicians and real life. On the one hand they are arrogant of their growing power, and on the other hand pass their lives in fear of their enemies; and finally they become the victims of their own phobia. Their self-delusion directs them to only refer to their self-created fantasy. Disaster occurs when the realities of the outside world threaten to destroy their misinterpretation.
Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO) of Iran, is an example of an idealistic leader whose absolute power over his followers in the organisation has both shattered his ideals and increased his self-delusion. As Rajavi discovered his power over the organisation to be unlimited, he distanced himself from the realities of life in both his sayings and in his actions. To this end the picture of the social and political life of the people of Iran today is totally different from what he sees or talks about. He is miles away from today’s world.
Massoud Rajavi is so certain about the outcome of the manipulation of the members of his organisation with his ideas that he does not see the rows of people tired of his "ideological revolution" and those who are trying to escape the boundaries of Camp Ashraf in Iraq. He is, of course, not worried about the increasing critics and opponents to his policies and ideas. According to his so-called revolutionary criteria, those who leave him or turn against him are traitors who will sooner or later destroy themselves by their own hands.
Rajavi is a charismatic leader who enjoys the natural supremacy of all such leaders over his followers. He has managed to instil his own fear and paranoia in the minds of his followers so that they are also unable to see the truth of the outside world. Currently the world is deeply concerned about the outbreak of further wars and conflict here and there, and people are working hard everywhere to prevent this. But living in his own self-deluded world Massoud Rajavi is strongly disturbed that there is no war and that the US does not quickly launch a militarily attack on Iran.
Today Massoud Rajavi has gone into hiding and does not give public appearances – apparently for reasons of security. But he is in fact living in his own dream world of self-delusion and the nightmare of fear as all totalitarians of his kind must do.
Ebrahim Khodabandeh, 15 November 2007
ebrahim_khodabandeh_2006@yahoo.com
Cults’ Methodology
"Just as most soldiers believe bullets will hit only others, not themselves, most citizens like to think that their own minds and thought processes are invulnerable. ‘Other people can be manipulated, but not me,’ they declare." — Margaret Singer, Ph.D.
Many groups use unethical persuasion tactics in recruiting and retaining members. These methods can range from love bombing to scare tactics (imposing high exit costs, e.g. convincing a person that leaving the group means losing one’s salvation).
According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, brainwashing, also known as thought reform or re-education, is the application of persuasive techniques to change the belief or behavior of one or more people usually for political or religious purposes. Whether any techniques at all exist that will actually work to change thought and behavior to the degree that the term "brainwashing" connotes is a controversial and at times hotly debated question.
In F.A.C.T.net (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network) you can consider mind control or brainwashing is defined as all coercive psychological systems, such as brainwashing, thought reform, and coercive persuasion. Mind control is the shaping of a person’s attitudes, beliefs, and personality without the person’s knowledge or consent. Mind control employs deceptive and surreptitious manipulation, usually in a group setting, for the financial or political profit of the manipulator. Mind control works by gradually exerting increasing control over individuals through a variety of techniques, such as excessive repetition of routine activities, intense humiliation, or sleep deprivation.
Coercion is defined as, "to restrain or constrain by force…" Legally it often implies the use of PHYSICAL FORCE or physical or legal threat. This traditional concept of coercion is far better understood than the technological concepts of "coercive persuasion" which are effective restraining, impairing, or compelling through the gradual application of PSYCHOLOGICAL FORCES.
A coercive persuasion program is a behavioral change technology applied to cause the "learning" and "adoption" of a set of behaviors or an ideology under certain conditions. It is distinguished from other forms of benign social learning or peaceful persuasion by the conditions under which it is conducted and by the techniques of environmental and interpersonal manipulation employed to suppress particular behaviors and to train others. Over time, coercive persuasion, a psychological force akin in some ways to our legal concepts of undue influence, can be even MORE effective than pain, torture, drugs, and use of physical force and legal threats.
On June 23, 2003 Steven Halley in his article titled “Brainwashing and thought control in the news but far from new’’ mentions an excellent book by William Sargant entitled "Battle for the Mind." In this book, Sargant explains clearly that we all are capable of falling victim to alterations in our thinking through specific techniques …
Sargant is clear that brainwashing and thought control occur in many arenas. Sure it can occur in the religious world, but it also can occur in the political world. For example, a political prisoner is not allowed to sleep or eat much for a lengthy period of time. During this time, he is being intensely confronted with the "evils of democracy." Finally, as the stress grows to an intolerant level, the prisoner becomes willing to denounce democracy, and accept his captors’ point of view. A dramatic, but genuine thought shift occurs.
Dick Sutphen has also his own interpretation of how a cult is build through brainwashing in his book “The Battle for Your Mind: Persuasion and Brainwashing Techniques Being Used On The Public Today” : Conversion is a “nice” word for brainwashing…and any study of brainwashing has to begin with a study of Christian revivalism in eighteenth century America. Apparently, Jonathan Edwards accidentally discovered the techniques during a religious crusade in 1735 in Northampton, Massachusetts. By inducing guilt and acute apprehension and by increasing the tension, the “sinners” attending his revival meetings would break down and completely submit. Technically, what Edwards was doing was creating conditions that wipe the brain slate clean so that the mind accepts new programming. The problem was that the new input was negative. He would tell them, “You’re a sinner! You’re destined for hell!”
… I want to state the most basic of all facts about brainwashing: In the entire history of man, no one has ever been brainwashed and realized, or believed, that he had been brainwashed. Those who have been brainwashed will usually passionately defend their manipulators, claiming they have simply been "shown the light" …or have been transformed in miraculous ways.
The way to achieve conversion are many and varied, but the usual first step in religious or political brainwashing is to work on the emotions of an individual or group until they reach an abnormal level of anger, fear, excitement, or nervous tension.
The progressive result of this mental condition is to impair judgment and increase suggestibility. The more this condition can be maintained or intensified, the more it compounds. Once catharsis, or the first brain phase, is reached, the complete mental takeover becomes easier. Existing mental programming can be replaced with new patterns of thinking and behavior.
Brainwashing is a system of befogging the brain so a person can be seduced into acceptance of what otherwise would be abhorrent to him. He loses touch with reality. Facts and fancy whirl round and change places…. However, in order to prevent people from recognizing the inherent evils in brainwashing, the Reds pretend that it is only another name for something already very familiar and of unquestioned respect, such as education or reform." Edward Hunter, Brainwashing (New York: Pyramid Books, 1956).
What this means is that an organized entity which, for any stated reason, attempts to physically eliminate its opponents (as opposed to engaging with them in any other way) will be assumed to be employing mind control techniques (often referred to in common parlance as "brainwashing") in order to attract, recruit and maintain its recruits and to exert power over every aspect of their lives. Again, many scientists of human and social studies who have extensively studied this phenomenon agree that any cult, because of its unique characteristics, is potentially capable of using violence and physically eliminating not only its own members but also its opponents if it deems this necessary. Any cult will, in theory at least, believe this to be an absolute right.
Many relatively well-educated and affluent young people have been involved with new religious movements-sometimes pejoratively called "cults"—over the past two or three decades in America and other Western countries. Controversy has erupted about the meaning of this participation, as parents, friends, political leaders, and others have attempted to understand why this has occurred. An example of these well-educated people captured in a cult was “Ann Singleton” who got involved with one of the religious cults using psychological manipulation and mind control: MKO (Mojahedin Khalq Organization), the Iranian opposition group which is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by US ,EU and Canada.
“Ann Singleton” is a British woman who spent twenty years in MKO, cites her experiences with them. She was recruited by MEK when she was studying at Manchester University. She left the group when the leaders forced the married members to divorce and prevented the single ones from marriage. She defines the way she was influenced by the recruiters:’’ What happened to me could happen to anyone. These groups entice concerned activists then persuade them to commit terrorist atrocities. They convinced me to give up my life to follow them. Now I see their methods were identical to the ones cults use to brainwash people… They flatter you in a way that
you don’t even realize they are doing it. They really put themselves on a pedestal so that when they want you to join them, you feel special. I thought I was a savior of the world and would have done anything for the Mujahidin.”
In her book Saddam’s Private army Ann Singleton writes:
By the time he [Masud Rajavi] announced the Ideological Revolution, he had already transformed his supporters into a highly disciplined force, ready to act on his command. Now he had to set about changing their minds, or rather, numbing their minds, so those small matters such as politics, ideology or principle would not hinder or interfere with this discipline. He shifted the benchmark for devotion from discipline to obedience, a subtle, but highly significant change. It became necessary for anyone joining the Mojahedin to first accept that they were entering a pyramid system, in which all the decisions came from the very top…Meetings are the mainstays for Rajavi as his means of indoctrination. Through the means of meetings, he is able to send his ideological messages into the hearts of all the members. First he starts by speaking personally to three or four hand picked people and gives them hints on what he expects from them. He then sends them away to think. He brings them back into these small, discrete meetings, again and again until they come back with matching stories. Then in a bigger meeting of ten or twenty people, he does the same thing using the first three or four people to speak and create the example, while requiring that the others catch up with them. This works because for the second group of people, the first people seem to be more ideologically aware and tuned in since they are talking about things that the others have no clue about and have never heard of.
These secondary meetings go on as the first, until these further twenty people are ‘cooked’. Rajavi notes the contribution of these individuals and their stories, plus all the reports that they have been made to write. This pattern is repeated and grows up to the big meeting. By this time, some more hints have been given out through these twenty people to all the ordinary members, who after the big general meeting, are then expected to come out with their own stories of how they have understood the new ideological development. After that comes the time for a reshuffle in the organization so that those who have shown themselves most loyal are promoted – until the next time.
The meetings after Forouq-e Javidan (Rajavi’s failed military coup of 1988, and his second bid for power) were no different, except that after suffering such losses and emotional damage, the members were more willingly looking for some justification which would allow them to be forgiven by their ideological leader. This was in the hope that if they could get past this phase, the next time would give them a victory. It is taboo to even think about blaming the ideological leader, even in your mind.
Parvin Haji is another ex-member of MKO. She explains: ‘’as a former member of the Mojahedin cult, I wonder why the public does not know more about destructive cults and the warped motives of their leaders.
While experts may argue the finer points about what actually makes a cult or whether or not mind control or brainwashing keeps members in thrall, former members like me struggle to put their lives back together. But, it certainly isn’t easy: being in a cult is not something you walk away from and forget, it is like a disease and needs a long term cure.
There is no doubt that the Mojahedin-e Khalq is a destructive cult. But, when the claim of such an entity to be a democratic, freedom-loving political force which respects human rights, is not subjected to real scrutiny based on the evidence of former members, then I believe the tolerance of such destructive cults will be far more detrimental to society than anyone can imagine they are.’’
According to their methods of brainwashing or in other words mind control all the cults use the same techniques. Since you know Al-Qaida is another group working with mind control methods very similar to what MKO uses on its members.
Masud khodabande an ex-member of MKO describes the similarity comparing the two organization (in his interview with Alen Chevalrias the writer of a book on MKO titled Burned Alive):’’ The both organizations use the same system of psychological training to recruit their members and send them to death. This is their weak point and strength point at the same time. The strength point; since in this way they have individuals who follow them to the death. The weak point; because they must keep the members, isolated, in a definite situation for a long time. Therefore they need a territory. In the case of Al Qaida this territory was Afghanistan and for Mujahedin it was Iraq. Nor this one and neither that one could train their members in a free country with regulations and morals restrictions and organize their operations… None of them have principals. They consider themselves over rules…Al-Qaida also uses Islam as a means to lead its goals, just like Mujahedin. Ben Ladeen and Masud Rajavi claim that they are Muslims but they often don’t follow Islam. When they send people to death, it’s not for religion but it’s for their avidity for power. Do you think that all Muslims are convinced with Masud Rajavi and Osama Ben Laden declarations? …
Bahar Irani also compares the two organizations in an article on Mujahedin.ws:
“…The view point induces that unpredicted parameters and catalysts work as aspects of influential material laws and thus, it is required to advance according to these laws. The practical and fundamental difference between al-Qaeda and Mojahedi-e Khalq is exactly the same difference between a rebel and a revolutionary, that is, to best control, organize and conduct terrorist operations. Parallel to these precepts, Mojahedin, in regulation of their relations with the members, strive to infuse them with ideological teachings rather than engaging them in practical orders. Accordingly, it might be a rightly made claim by Mojahedin that the organization never enforced orders on the members to commit self-immolations in June 2003 following the arrest of Maryam Rajavi in France and they were deliberate actions.
The people who commit these loathsome acts are no doubt the byproducts of MKO’s adopted ideology. Explicitly putting in the words, they are slaves of a deeply imbued ideology that can be put into practice even in the absence of the leaders. “
Masud’s brother Ebrahim Khodabande who is also a former member of MKO and is spending his imprisonment period in Iranian Evin prison describes the mind control system as ‘’Development of mental prison’’ and writes: In the new phase of the organization’s history, under the phenomenon of the Internal Ideological Revolution, not only had people to leave their homes and families but they also had to consider their parents, spouses and even children as enemies; obstacles on the path to reach understanding of the noble position of the leadership. Members, even in the west, had to avoid the internet or satellite television and be fed information by the organization only. Iraqi territory provided a perfect opportunity to establish a huge safe-house with no opening to the free world so that members could have their brainwashing performed step by step without any interference. Members in the west would also spend some time there to acquaint themselves with the internal atmosphere of the organization and become pure and obedient elements… if a person leaves the MKO, and the ‘Current Operation’ [brainwashing] sessions are stopped, that person can be reconstructed and sent back into society. It means that these persons have not been terrorists and criminals but they have been in a situation that has forced them to be so."
The “sacrifice” required of the members was articulated in a series of “ideological revolutions” promoted by the leadership. The leadership asked the members to divorce themselves from all physical and emotional attachments in order to enhance their “capacity for struggle.” In case of married couples, this phase of the “ideological revolution” required them to renounce their emotional ties to their spouses through divorce. Masoud Banisadr reports how this process unfolded during an “ideological meeting for ‘executive and high ranking members’” following MKO’s defeat in Iran:
The first thing I was required to do in Baghdad was watch a videotape of an ideological meeting for “executive and high-ranking members.” The meeting, called “Imam Zaman,” started with a simple question: “To whom do we owe all our achievements and everything that we have?”… Rajavi did not claim, as I thought he might, to be the Imam of our times, but merely said we owed everything to Imam Zaman… The object was to show that we could reach Tehran if we were more united with our leader, as he was with Imam Zaman and God. He was ready to sacrifice everything he had (which in fact meant all of us!) for God, asserting that the only thing on his mind was doing the will of God,….we were expected to draw the conclusion that no “buffer” existed between Rajavi and Imam Zaman; yet there was a buffer between ourselves and him [Rajavi] … which prevented us from seeing him clearly. This “buffer” was our weakness. If we could recognize that, we would see why and how we had failed in Operation Forogh [Eternal Light] and elsewhere. Masoud and Maryam [Rajavi] had no doubt that the buffer was in all our cases our existing spouse.
In its annual report on terrorist entities in1994, the State Department has clarified that “ Those who monitor Mojahedin activities have also found evidence of controlled behavior. A Wall Street Journal reporter interviewed former members of the MKO this summer who described an authoritarian environment. These individuals, who refused to give their names for fear of retribution, claimed that the Mojahedin jailed or beat dissidents at MKO basses in Iraq. They also said that the Mojahedin forced couples living at MKO bases in Iraq to divorce, and, sent their children to live in MKO member homes in Europe. The NLA reportedly prohibits physical contact between the men and women stationed in Iraq. Another journalist who has reported on the Mojahedin described similar conduct. "Members living in the West are sometimes said to reside in communal houses, permitted little money of their own and kept on tightly controlled schedules. At Ashraf camp (in Iraq), one official identified himself as a "political officer" responsible for training "the cadres”…
And also DOS added some parts to its documentation on mujahedin in 2007as what follows: “Upon entry into the group, new members are indoctrinated in MEK ideology and revisionist Iranian history. Members are also required to undertake a vow of "eternal divorce" and participate in weekly "ideological cleansings." Additionally, children are reportedly separated from parents at a young age. MEK leader Maryam Rajavi has established a "cult of personality." She claims to emulate the Prophet Muhammad and is viewed by members as the "Iranian President in exile." “
Human rights abuses carried out by MKO leaders against dissident members ranged from prolonged incommunicado and solitary confinement to beatings, verbal and psychological abuse, coerced confessions, threats of execution, and torture that in two cases led to death.
The testimonies of the former MKO members indicate that the organization used three types of detention facilities inside its camps in Iraq. The interviewees described one type as small residential units, referred to as guesthouses (mihmansara), inside the camps. The MKO members who requested to leave the organization were held in these units during much of which time they were kept incommunicado. They were not allowed to leave the premises of their unit, to meet or talk with anyone else in the camp, or to contact their relatives and friends in the outside world.
Karim Haqi, a former high ranking MKO member who served as the head of security for Masoud Rajavi, told Human Rights Watch:
I was the head of security for Masoud Rajavi in 1991. They could not believe that I wanted to separate from the organization. I was confined inside a building called Iskan together with my wife and our six month old child. Iskan was the site of a series of residential units that used to house married couples before ideological divorces were mandated. The organization had raised a tall wall around this area. Its interior perimeter was protected by barbed wire, and guards kept it under surveillance from observation towers. While we were under detention, the organization reduced our food rations, subjected us to beatings and verbal abuses and also intimidated us by making threats of executions.
Ali Zadeh a former member of MKO describes his status while living in Ashraf: “… I found myself cut off from the rest of the world. I had no more contact with my family. My letters, which I gave to the camp’s office, never reached them. We were forbidden any friendships. You were not even pinnate to like animals. All of our feelings had to focus on brother Rajavi. Our daily meetings were psychodramas. People had to bare their inmost selves. They were made vulnerable and disoriented. I was personally insulted, beaten and jailed…”
As what Mehdi Khoshhal mentions in his book Control of Power MKO’s leadership controls every aspect of the members’ lives:’’ …Masud Rajavi closed the doors of Paradise and made it impossible for the ones who didn’t obey him. After 1987 he made the conditions more severe to deserve the Paradise. Now carrying the title Mojahed, giving blood, fighting and dying for the sake of the country and people were not enough. The key to Paradise was to love the leader passionately. Everybody who loved him would exactly go to Paradise. So, Rajavi could manage to overcome the problems and control the forces in this way. Rajavi works on the forces by the help of his knowledge about human psychology and community.’’
Young people are attracted by underground activities. They are easily seduced by them. Once they have joined, the young are completely exploited. They have to clean rooms, wash dishes, do the laundry, etc. They have ideological training sessions. They are permitted no time to think deeply or ask themselves any questions about the organization’s aims. They have no access to their normal news media. They have no right to read newspapers, magazines or books… They are limited to the movement’s own publications. Anyone who dares to break these rules is punished. Only members of the Political Bureau have the right to read everything, analyze the situation and order the others to think in a given way. This is how they kill their critical capacities, their uniqueness and their individual identities. They become completely submissive, obedient and vulnerable at will".
They mostly use teenagers, because they are able to brainwash them and work ideologically and emotionally with them, so they can succeed in their plan. Not everyone with a political belief is able to perform suicide operation. For instance on December 10th 1981 a twenty-one year old woman, supporter of MKO, killed ayatollah Dastgheib a spiritual leader in a suicide operation in the city of Shiraz. After about two decades of committing terrorist suicide operations, in January 2003, when Maryam Rajavi was arrested by French police many members were brainwashed to burn themselves including Neda Hasani a 25 year old girl who died after the self-immolation.
To prepare the individual to carry out orders without any discussion, the Mojahedin are methodical in their training techniques. First, they cut him off from the outside world. Then, they browbeat and humiliate him into a deep sense of guilt. In this way they destroy his moral sensibilities so that he becomes prepared to get indoctrinations.
Related Links:
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwashing
2.http://www.factnet.org
3.Article “Brainwashing and thought control in the news but far from new”
By STEVEN HALLEY who is a contributor to factnet.org
4.Book The Battle for Your Mind: Persuasion and Brainwashing Techniques Being Used On The Public Today by Dick Sutphen who is a bestselling author of 19 New Age books. He offers hundreds of mind-programming CDs to improve people’s life or manifest psychic experiences. http://www.dicksutphen.com/index.html
5.Brainwashing by Edward Hunter (New York Pyramid Books,1956,pages 185-186)
6.Cults in Our Midst (Paperback)
by Margaret Thaler Singer (Author), Janja Lalich (Author), Robert Jay Lifton (Author)
7.Ann Singleton interview with BBC on
8.Saddam’s Private Army by Ann Singleton
9. Women Lured by Mojahedin-e Khalq, the Religious Cult by Parvin Haji Canada, March 06, 2007 published at iran-interlink.org
10.Brule vif by Alain Chevalrias page 242
11.Why Brainwashing? Recruitment to New Religions by James T. Richardson http://www.thefamily.org/dossier/books/book3/chapter1.htm
12.Mojahedin.ws Bahar Irani “Inconspicuous Affinity between Al-Qaeda and MKO”
13.A Personal View from Evin by Ebrahim Khodabandeh http://www.survivorsreport.org
14.”NO EXIT” Human Rights Watch report on MKO http://hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/iran0505/
15.Book:”Control of Power” by Mehdi Khoshal
16. US State Department Terrorism Report 2007 http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2007
Nejat Society
Gathering and Speeches in the city of Tabriz in Iran
On Tuesday 4th of December 2007, a meeting was held in the Law Department of Tabriz Islamic Free University. The topic was "Brainwashing: Crime against Humanity".
The meeting started at 1600 hours with the attendance of hundreds of students and scholars. Dr Samad Azizi the head of the Law Department opened the meeting and welcomed the students and participants. He introduces the presenters and discussed the importance of the topic in the world today.
Then Dr Hassan Movassaqi a senior lecturer in the Law Department started his speech. He gave a background of brainwashing in the history and discussed its consequences on human life in details. He went through many past examples of brainwashing and showed how it abuses human rights and why it must be considered as a crime against humanity. He scientifically showed the psychological aspects of brainwashing and explained how someone could hold control over other people’s minds and change their thoughts and persuade them to do deeds against their own will. He referred to the Davidian Cult lead by David Koresh in Waco in Texas and their final fate and called upon the International community to adopt serious measures to tackle this global difficulty urgently.
The next presenter was Mr Ebrahim Khodabandeh a former member of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO) lead by the cult leader Mas’ud Rajavi. He spoke about his experiences of 20 years membership in the MKO and gave many examples of how a person could practically be brainwashed.
He mentioned that he has been studying about cults and their common techniques of thought reforms since he left the organisation in 2003 and returned to Iran. He went into details of the process used by the MKO and many other cults to manipulate their members using psychological methods in order to recruit, preserve and control their followers.
He concluded that the leader of a cult is the only person responsible for the crimes committed by the cult and all followers are themselves the prime victims of the brainwashing practiced inside the cult. He explained how followers of a cult are mentally captivated and why they see no way out of their misery. He therefore concluded that the followers must be helped and the leaders of all destructive cults must legally and internationally be prosecuted and brought against justice.
Then Mr Arash Sametipur another former member of the MKO started his speech. He too explained his own experiences within the Rajavi’s Cult. He mentioned that many former members of MKO have organised themselves into an NGO called Nejat (Salvation) Society and their aim is to free the present members held captive in the Ashraf Camp in Iraq.
He emphasised that many families of members who are brainwashed by the MKO are extremely worried about the destiny of their beloved ones and they need urgent help.
In the end Mr Khodabandeh and Mr Sametipur answered the students’ numerous questions. Apparently the topic of the meeting and the speeches had extremely drawn the attention of the students. They demanded that more of such sessions be held in the future. This meeting finished at 1830 hours.
The students were ever so eager to learn more about the methods of brainwashing utilised inside the MKO and hours after the termination of the meeting they had circled around the two former members and asked them various questions. Some students showed interest to be in contact with the Nejat Society. Some reporters and photographers from the media were present in the meeting too.
Nejat Society
The revolutionary seizure of some members and sympathizers’ properties by the agents of MKO has long been justified in the organization as one of the approaches to raise funds for the group’s budget. Even before the Islamic revolution of 1978 in Iran, MKO and some active armed militia advocated bank robberies and similar ransacking acts as revolutionary deeds to support the struggle. As confessed by Ali Mihandust, a member of MKO tried in Pahlavi’s reign, such acts were justified as part of urban warfare:
A look over the course of struggle during the past year and the extension of blasts, confiscation of the banks, assassinations, kidnapping and similar acts are all evidences of ongoing urban warfare in our society. [1]
The reasoning for involving in these illegal and criminal fundraising activities is more a result of the ideological influences of Marxism and modelling on some other terrorist and militia groups. The majority of the groups that MKO modelled after justifiably followed Machiavellianism in their line of struggle. Of course, the deeds are rationale according to ideological infrastructures, and as Walter Reich explain:
The cause, as codified in the group’s ideology, according to its line of reasoning, becomes the rationale for acts the terrorists are driven to commit. [2]
Believing to be a forerunner in an anti-capitalism struggle, MKO rationalized their illegal accumulation of revenues. They believed that what they did was an inconspicuous and undeclared war against the domination of capitalism. Permitted by MKO’s leadership, a number of members employed by some private and state-owned European firms and factories purloined sums of money and properties both to meet their running expenses and to accomplish the struggle. Ali-akbar Rastgou, an ex-member, quotes Massoud Rajavi justifying theft and purloin:
Through these deeds [theft] we recover our violated rights from the dominant capitalism in the West. It is also lawful according to Islamic laws since the Prophet himself before the reign of Islam 1400 years ago looted the mercantile caravans, being at war with them, and seized their properties to solve his military financial problems. They called it revolutionary seizure. [3]
An important point to mention is that Mojahedin’s leadership had banned the top cadres to be engaged in such activities because of their key role in diplomatic relations. As Rastgou explains:
The outcome of some meetings was Rajavi’s order, except for the members of diplomatic bodies, to all allied associations and sympathizers to take advantage of revolutionary seizure for financial autarky. Consequently, the associations initiated special departments to organize for these crooking deeds. [4]
These are the most common activities among some cults and particularly in MKO as fundraising operations. Another technique manipulated by MKO to raise fund is involving in sophistically organized financial activities.
The organized financial activities
It is the most common technique manipulated by MKO to accumulate big revenues. To involve in illegal financial activities, MKO needs to indirectly register and initiate commercial institutions as well as taking part in private shareholding and investment business under different alias because of the imposed bans following its acknowledgment as a terrorist group. Stealthy and underground financial activities have so far remained as undiscovered. Nobody can believe that accumulation of big sums of money in the organization, as discovered by the French police in its raid into MKO’s headquarters in Paris, come from donations of sympathizers. In this respect, Antoine Gessler believes:
Money remains one of the big unknowns in PMOI’s financing. Must we believe Maryam Rajavi when she flatly claims that the money all comes from fundraising among the Mojahedin and their supporters? This was notably the case in explaining the millions of dollars uncovered during”Operation Theo”. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The PMOI has a lot more at its disposal. [5]
Maryam Rajavi’s claim is in total contradiction with the police investigation that is dubious about the source of the found money:
This statement is in serious contradiction with the police investigators who all note that large amounts of PMOI money circulate around the world through”dirty”networks. [6]
Implicitly stated, it is proven that the organization is involved in a variety of widespread illegal and clandestine activities. According to released information by DST, French Counter-intelligence, certain members on behalf of the organization are involved in dubious, financial activities:
The study of the accounts of certain members of the organisation shows this complexity. The large sums involved and managed by these individuals far exceed their own professional income. They are, in fact, usually without any real profession, or business activity, at least as far as the tax authorities and social institutions are concerned. [7]
Antoine Gessler further points out to the complexity of the organization’s financial networks:
The identification of the financial networks of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran is anything but easy. The organisation has set up international financial circuits that are very complex. Their opaqueness is such that they are very difficult to ‘read’. The source and destination of the funds are often unknown. [8]
The extension of the fund network makes it a hard task to discover the gathering and channelling of revenues. No credited person can be traced for deposits and redeposits that easily flow in different countries unnoticed:
Information from many sources about the flow of these funds between networks of bank accounts shows a closed circle, difficult to penetrate and evaluate. For example, an account receives deposits from Jordan, Belgium, Germany, etc. and is then debited for new redeposits in France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Italy, Great Britain, Switzerland, Luxemburg, the United States and so on. [9]
Unproved presence of members and sympathizers in the circle of financial activities in the Western countries complicates identification of fund collection. But, there is no doubt that none of these activities are legal since the organization well justifies the means to achieve the end.
Sources:
[1]. The Last Defense of Martyred Mojahed Ali Mihandust; Published by MKO.
[2]. Walter Reich and Walter Laqueur; Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of Mind, 35.
[3]. Ali-akbar Rastgou; Mojahedin mirrored in the history.
[4]. Ibid.
[5]. Antoine Gessler; Autopsy of an Ideological Drift, translated byThomas R. Forstenzer, chapter 15.
[6]. Ibid.
[7]. Ibid, chapter 14.
[8]. Ibid.
[9]. Ibid.
The excerpt from chapter 14 of Antoine Gessler’s “Autopsy of an Ideological Drift” exclusively discussing MKO’s illegal fundraising and financial activities.
Finance
The PMOI needs a big budget to support its activities. These include managing its real estate, its communications system, the travel of its militants and the maintenance of its Anny in Iraq. According to our information, the organisation does not use illegally obtained funds. On the other hand, the PMOI and some of its members are under indictment or civil action for misallocation of funds. This is notably the case in Germany, where significant sums of German private donations and State subsidies were used, in fact, for the purchase of arms for PMOI terrorists and militants in Iraq.
Part of their finances comes from fund raising among individuals and groups of Iranian expatriates. This is done by the PMOI representatives in Europe, North America and the Middle East. Another part comes from its own members dues. They are required to pay regular”tithes”to the organisation. Finally, there was Saddam Hussein. He was the main funder, providing sums estimated at several hundred million dollars.
The identification of the financial networks of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran is anything but easy. The organisation has set up international financial circuits that are very complex. Their opaqueness is such that they are very difficult to ‘read’. The source and destination of the funds are often unknown. There is a clear policy of hiding the organisation’s financial operations, a source of pride to a membership tempered in clandestine operations.
The financial assets of the People’s Mojahedin of Iran travel through a complicated web of bank accounts in France, throughout Europe, in North America and in the Middle East. The legal holders of these accounts are either real people or private groups, many domiciled in France.
As to the private groups, the Iran Aid Association has as its official humanitarian and social aim the collection of funds in French territory from private donors. They place the vast majority of these monies in foreign personal ban~ accounts, largely in Turkey and the Arab Emirates. These are countries in which all trace of the funds is lost, especially their final destination. Strongly suspected of financing the PMOI’s terrorist war against Iran, as well as its terrorist operations inside the country, the Association succeeds in violating its private, non-governmental status in France, by flouting its statutes and humanitarian basis in law…
Information from many sources about the flow of these funds between a network of bank accounts shows a closed circle, difficult to penetrate and evaluate. For example, an account receives deposits from Jordan, Belgium, Germany, etc. and is then debited for new redeposits in France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Italy, Great Britain, Switzerland, Luxemburg, the United States and so on.
The study of the accounts of certain members of the organisation shows this complexity. The large sums involved and managed by these individuals far exceed their own professional income. They are, in fact, usually without any real profession, or business activity, at least as far as the tax authorities and social institutions are concerned. The account holders are, thus, very difficult, almost impossible to find. They are all housed at ‘convenience’ addresses of”convenience”, where they most certainly do not reside.
Failing in its military phase, although never denouncing its armed strategy, Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) has adopted a diplomatic phase mainly stressing on a prodemocracy campaign in the Western countries as an appropriate means to survive. The new phase, in contrast to its previous aggressive phase, relies less on the human forces and more on abundant financial sources that play a crucial role in the life and demise of the organization. The ever-increasing propaganda and political expenses in the West, modern lifestyle privileges, as seen in the leaders and the members of the National Council of resistance, as well as the running daily expenses of the forces residing in Camp Ashraf and those scattered in other countries require tremendous financial resources. A simple calculation reveals that the organization does have to avail unlimited financial resources to meet its surging financial expenses. Even the organization itself implicitly denies its total rely on sympathizers’ financial aids especially when nobody knows how long they have to sit waiting for the regime’s overthrow. The curious paradox is so disturbing that it makes leaders give some justifying explanations from time to time. In his message delivered on July 3, Massoud Rajavi stated:
Only the Iranian people and history are qualified to make any judgment on the veracity and independency of this resistance. We have reiterated that we are ready to give a detailed record of what we have done through a forty-two year long struggle and any spent penny to Iranian people living in any region from the north to the south. [1]
That is nothing more than a tactic to evade giving justifiable explanations. To escape imposed allegations the organization had to react by periodically calling for donations and financial aides, as advertised in its media and press, in the past two years.
The released documents after the fall of Saddam and also admissions made by the ex-members all indicate that Mojahedin had received abundant sums of dollars from the Iraqi agents as a bounty for espionage collaboration. Only in one of these sessions, due to reported information by Abbas Davari, the Iraqi agents granted the organization a remarkable sum of 50 million in dollars.
No doubt, from the day Mojahedin settled in Iraq till Saddam’s fall, the organization fully benefitted Saddam’s bountiful financial aids. But Saddam’s fall and the regional and political fluctuations led Mojahedin into a financial vacuum and they had to look for new resources to cover their huge expenses. But Mojahedin suffered no financial shortages since they have been commonly indulged in a variety of cult-like techniques to raise funds. Besides, they have promoted much developed and sophisticated techniques. The techniques can be classified and separately discussed as follows:
– Internal techniques of financial abuse
– Organized techniques of fundraising
– Political and social techniques of abuse
Internal techniques of financial abuse
The techniques mainly rely on members, sympathizers and their families’ financial potentialities. Being under political and psychological impact of the organization, they are more open to persuasion of the group and suggestible to offer what they are demanded. Politically, socially and ideologically convinced that the group draws the boundary between two worlds of absolute white and black, they are ready to offer whatever they own in addition to persuade friends and relatives to make remarkable donations. Here are the processes.
Persuading individuals to turn over their properties
It is not too hard to prove that under influential cult mechanisms the individuals willingly surrender whatever property they have gathered all through their career. When they easily consent to do whatever they are demanded to prove their loyalty and devotion to the cult and leader, it is much easier a task to relinquish property and savings unquestionably. To achieve the cause is deemed above anything and the worldly things have to be sacrificed for the greater achievement. That is the point where the individual is persuaded to close his eyes over whatever he owns as worthless unless spent for the accomplishment of the cause. The majority of the recruits in MKO who owned properties or savings rendered them up to the organization retaining not a penny.
Persuading individuals to earn incomes
It seems common in many cults to persuade individuals to travail in fitted professions to earn money for the cult. As the active members of a cult and organization, it is a part of their struggle for the cause to raise funds for the group’s expenses. Far above a duty, it is an organizational command to load the group’s treasure. At the present, many of Mojahedin’s cadres and members, based on their education and professional abilities, are engaged in a variety of profitable businesses and jobs to channel the incomes into the organization’s accounts. Explained by Anne Singleton, fundraising activities marked the degree of loyalty to Rajavi:
As regards membership, Rajavi has at his disposal, a totally loyal and self-sacrificing force of up to three thousand people who are willing to perform any task or deed he requires without question. One of the most important of these tasks has been a concerted and prolonged fund-raising campaign. For nearly two decades, the Mojahedin have been collecting money under the disguise of charity work for victims of Iranian repression, earthquakes and floods. Everyone who becomes involved with the Mojahedin is required to take part in fund-raising activities. This means standing in the street in all weathers, all day and asking the public for money. In the evening, a door to door collection is also employed. Collectors are urged to make up any deficit in their daytime amount in these evenings by working even harder. So important has this fund-raising become that classes are held to teach newcomers how best to manipulate the ‘subject’. Fund-raising very early on became a litmus test for support. Only those prepared to undergo the hardship and difficulty of this activity, were regarded as ready to move on to the next stage of involvement. [2]
Persuading individuals to engage in extortion and charity activities
As part of the organization activities’ duty in Western countries, they resort to a variety of alms gathering and charity activities in the streets. Through deceitful ways, they try to win the sympathy from European citizens under different pretexts of raising funds for homeless Iranian children, political refugees, the families of political prisoners, jobless and needy people and the like. Referring to bullying tactics of fundraising in Western streets, Anne Singleton writes:
When Maryam came to Europe in 1993, she brought with her a totally dedicated force who undertook any task required. They set about taking over from the supporters’ role of fundraising. With their bullying tactics, their productivity far exceeded anything seen before. Some were able to return up to 1500 pounds sterling, per day. But even before this, in one year alone, Iran Aid charity in the UK had a declared income of 5 million pounds. Its undeclared income has been estimated at over twice this, making a total of over 15 million pounds in one year. If this amount is multiplied for just ten countries: UK, USA, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, then an annual amount of 150 million pounds can be estimated to have made its way to the Mojahedin organisation. If this is multiplied over ten years, then the figure of 1.5 billion pounds gives a rough estimate of the resources which Massoud Rajavi has amassed through the efforts of his devoted followers only in the streets of the West. [3]
Anne Singleton also states that the organization even exploited elderly members and sent them into the streets to collect money:
The Mojahedin have also brought to Europe some of their more elderly members who can no longer cope with the harsh conditions in Iraq. These people are also used in fund-raising. That is, standing in the streets from morning until night collecting money under the guise of Iran Aid. These elderly people have little other choice considering the pressures on them. [4]
Persuading individuals to extort money from the families
The individuals are persuaded to conceptualize a black and evil picture of whoever stays out of the context of the cult or organization. Thus the members are convinced that any action to deceive people in general and their parents and relatives in particular are acknowledged as right and ethical. As explained by Margaret Singer:
Psychotherapy and self, improvement cults are particularly known for getting members to produce revised personal histories and, especially, to view their parents as evil and no longer trustworthy. Similarly, as I have mentioned, the religious cults train members to regard outsiders, even blood relatives, as of Satan and to be avoided at all costs. [5]
The individuals, who have left their parents when they needed to have them along, as it is the case with members of Mojahedin, can readily plot to extort money from them. Many MKO’s ex-members confess that under the group’s instructions, they pried big sums of money out of their parents.
Cults also turn members against their families, using a plethora of rationales made to fit the group’s ideology. One political cult, for example, "tests" young recruits by having them deliberately lie to their parents while someone in leadership stands next to them when they make the call. This is a first step in both separating recruits from their families and teaching them to follow irrational orders. [6]
Revolutionary seizure
Admitted by a number of the ex-members, the properties of some members and sympathizers in European cities were confiscated by the agents of the organization under the direct command of the Rajavies. The process will be discussed in detail.
Sources:
[1]. Massoud Rajavi’s delivered message on July.
[2]. Anne Singleton’s Saddam’s Private Army.
[3]. Ibid.
[4]. Ibid.
[5]. Thaler Singer, Margaret; Cults in Our Midst, p. 89.
[6]. Ibid.
Bahar Irani – Mojahedin.ws – October 27, 2007