in Mojahedin Khalq Organisation, Rajavi cult
The interviewer: my next guest is a married mother, she comes from Leeds and she is from a white middle class British family. She probably is not somebody who in the first view is expected to have gone to a military base to receive military training that’s exactly what happened to Ann Singleton after being brainwashed by an extremist group and she joins me today. It’s really good to see you, Ann. I can’t believe how your life has changed so much that you left the life you liked and the road you were supposed to travel and now you have again a different life. Its extraordinary, isn’t it? How did you get involved with the group at the first place?
Singleton: in the late 1970’s I went to a college in Manchester University to study English. I had an Iranian boy friend. It was just after the revolution. There were a lot of activities going on. In fact, 1979 was completely a political year and Margaret Tacher has just been elected. So I joined the students’ union in the university and there were groups of students from every corner of the world almost talking politics. But the only group that really seemed to be active, actually doing things like calling for demonstrations and meetings were the Mujahedin. I guess because I had already an introduction through my boy friend, I joined them.
Interviewer: And thus it was the beginning but they were apparently a sinister group, almost it was a cult. Wasn’t it? They did brainwash you? Didn’t they?
Singleton: It was really a cult. Something I didn’t find out until I left the group.
Interviewer: Right. You do know in such groups the process happens so gradually and slowly. They are very clever. They became manipulative people.
Singleton: exactly, very manipulative. The individuals were completely unaware of what the cult did with him or her. At first you think they are very sincere and self scarifying people but actually they model a kind of special behavior to you which you get drawn into that kind of behavior that you start to mirror and take it on yourself.
Interviewer: you told me before that you became active here and showed some videos to me, by the way you entered the group but according to what you said you went abroad for their work? How did you do that?
Singleton: they took me to a stage that I voluntarily, with pure eagerness prepared myself to go to their military training camps in Iraq.
Interviewer: what was their training program? I mean what did they teach you?
Singleton (while her photo with military uniform is shown): in fact we were about 50 people went to Iraq. Men and women were separated. We went to a place where was clearly obvious that was an Iraqi military base. They started to train us with basic, normal military training including collective system, individual attack and defense, driving trucks and getting familiar with Kalashnikov.
Interviewer: did they tell you for what purpose or objective all these trainings were? You told that they showed videos on people who were receiving military training in Iraq, however what was their purpose, had they ever declared this purpose?
Singleton: it’s now unbelievable even for myself. By the way it was clear to me that the final stage is a military invasion to Iran. This was something that was determined. At that time I was so inspired by their inspirations that I was completely delivered myself to them and followed them, I was ready to fight for them.
Interviewer: how did you leave the group? Because many people can’t do this.
Singleton: it was extremely difficult. It was the most difficult work I have ever done. In 1993, I escaped from their safe house in London because I couldn’t respond their illogic demands any more.
They told that a member of the group should never marry and they forced the married members to divorce their spouses. At that time I was single and had no kids but I thought that I couldn’t accept this idea. I left them in 1993 but it lasted three more years until I could cut all my psychological and affectional relations with them and they always tried to get me back. But even when I had no contact with, it lasted three or four years with research I did on cults and getting familiar with mind control methods and manipulative work on individualists I found out that I was quiet under their control.
Interviewer: it’s very curious and extraordinary. The problem is that you were a normal, educated person, you might have been a little naive but if they could have such a control over you, I suppose we have to be concerned about everyone in the world, who may be even more vulnerable than you. It’s so horrible, isn’t it?
Singleton: yes, absolutely it is. I hope that my experience works as a warning for any other person. Every body, in a point of time during the life may be vulnerable from an aspect. In case of rights, for example about business there are rules that support the customer against the deceiving salesperson, but there is no support for those who are deceived by people like Mujahedin and are recruited by a destructive cult.
Interviewer: yes that’s right and even some people substantially fear doing anything and getting involved in quarrel. They are afraid of some issues for example being accused to supporting racism. By the way, it should be considered that such people do anything to achieve their goal. Now that you have a little boy, isn’t there any danger from their part because you talk against them? since you got married and rebuilt your life. Don’t you fear to talk about them so openly and prevent people from joining them?
Singleton: I personally don’t feel dangerous from MKO but they have tried a lot, by various ways to stop me. Many of former members of the cults don’t set out for describing their stories in the cult and the reason is that they’re very afraid of their threat and intimidation.
Interviewer: by the way you could really rebuild your life. You are definitely very concerned bout those who couldn’t do this.
Singleton: I am at present time, managing a website and my objective to launch this website is that I can denounce the reality of the organization and what its real nature is. This organization has got a modern pro-western gesture that is apparently very democratic and advocating human rights. But I know that the members of the organization don’t enjoy even the least of human rights. The global statement of human rights includes 30 articles. Even one of those articles isn’t applied for members of a cult like Mujahedin. I’m really interested in rescuing the members of MKO and taking them out of the cult and also I’d like to prevent new individuals from being recruited by the cult.
Interviewer: its exactly so since unfortunately now the situation is much worse than the time you were recruited by them. I appreciate you because you shared such information us with. And also it is very important that this information with more details be reflected in your website since they’re very crucial.
TRANSCRIPTION: NEJAT SOCIETY
The presence of Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) in the run of Islamic Republic Referendum in 1979 and its support of the move is an underlying matter of dispute between the Iranian opposition groups, and in some respects the US State Department, and MKO. The group has constantly reiterated that from the very beginning of the Islamic revolution in 1978 has taken an opponent position against the move and its leadership. To justify its congenial attitude in some phases based on existing and unquestioned evidences, MKO claim it was a force of circumstance to follow a conciliatory attitude towards the revolution and the leadership. Mojahedin say they could well have been liquidated unless they moved on a front of accommodation.
No doubt, both in the issue of referendum and the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran, Mojahedin were very critical, mostly not of the moves but of the contents. In fact, their dismay was the result of the group’s political and ideological teachings that did not evaluate the two moves coinciding with their strategic ends, that is to say, to escalate a gross military tension with the US. In general, their main objective was aimed at heating up the created tension between the US and Iran to a point that lead to a military face-off according to Mojahedin’s antagonistic ideology. In other words, more than any thing else Mojahedin were focusing on the counter-imperialistic aspect of the Islamic Republic, as they said:
The main issue is not what the form and the name of the regime should be, the most important goal and the attempt of the imperialism is directed at keeping our society fundamentally unchanged and non-reformed so the move could be totally shifted towards the imperialism and bolstering up the bastion of non-revolutionary elements and links. [1]
Somewhere else, in an attempt to intensify the challenging attitude, they said:
From now on, Shah is no more a protector of the imperialism’s interests but, in respect to your [Khomeini] decisive leadership, more known as a nemesis and a cause for a greater, violent anti-imperialism revolution. [2]
Addressing Ayatollah Khomeini, they also said:
The imperialism well understood that further confrontation with people and you would lead to a deliberately aggravated public rage. [3]
Indeed, Mojahedin position at the time, in contrast to their present claims of willing to establish freedom and democracy, persisted in political standstill and anarchism, which they called revolution, and establishing a form of conductible democracy or, according to Mojahedin’s ideological trend, a revolutionary democracy modeled in Stalinism. It was the absolute form of the democracy they deemed for the Islamic Republic. In a statement they said:
Our congratulation carries the hope that in future the flaws and errors of this prime democracy in its revolutionary concept are corrected, so there would be no dispute in the form in the coming elections. [4]
Based on their ideological trends, Mojahedin had the same Marxist-based interpretations of other issues in Iran including the human rights. They believed that the issue of human rights in Iran was an instrument for the Shah’s regime to prevent any revolution. In a statement congratulating the initiation of the Islamic Republic they said:
No doubt, the traitor Shah was the most servile puppet of imperialism. So it was impossible for the colonialists to anticipate totally ignoring so anti-national a puppet. Thus, by scheming a totally imperialistic plot called the human rights, imperialism tried to lessen the burden pressing on the proxy regimes to prevent possible burst of revolutions in those societies. [5]
Such views work as a good yardstick to have an analysis of Mojahedin’s antagonistic positions against the Islamic Republic and its principles with the exception that today, because of the grave political situation they are entwined with, their views are tainted with a liberal and American culture. No body is in the doubt that Mojahedin from the very beginning were challenging the Iranian revolution. However, as mentioned, their today’s position is completely different with their past in respect to the issues of imperialism, liberalism and bourgeoisie which indicate that Mojahedin, following an ideologically opportunistic policy, seize the opportunity in any position taking.
Mojahedin’s earlier confession of their perforce coincidence with the Islamic Republic at its early days and their present adaptation with the West in general and the US in particular carries the message that zigzagging position taking [6] is an innate feature of hypocrite Mojahedin. Moreover, Mojahedin, besides zigzagging tactics, never retreat from their ideological and cult-funded teachings. Now the question is that how much are the Americans convinced, being aware of Mojahedin’s opportunistic nature, [7] to manipulate Mojahedin as an instrument against Iran? Although not exposed before the eyes of the world, the evidences tell a possibility of the US maintaining contacts with Mojahedin.
Notes
[1]. A collection of MKO’s statements and announcements, vol. 1, MKO Publications, Bahman 1358.
[2]. ibid.
[3]. ibid.
[4]. ibid.
[5]. ibid.
[6]. Radio Farda interview with Saeed Shahsavandi.
[7]. In a part of the US State Department Announcement about Mojahedin we read “It is difficult to accept at face value promises of future conduct when an organization fails to acknowledge its past”. 1994.
Bahar Irani – April 7, 2007 – Mojahedin.ws
Anne Singleton said ordinary British Muslims were increasingly vulnerable to recruitment by extremists
A white British woman who was sucked into an extremist Muslim terror group warned yesterday of the dangers of”brainwashing”by radical groups operating in the .
Anne Singleton said ordinary British Muslims were increasingly vulnerable to recruitment by extremists, who use psychological tricks to turn them into unquestioning followers prepared to carry out atrocities for their cause.
The 48-year-old mother of one, who lives in Leeds, became involved with fanatics while studying at Manchester University in the 1970s.
Her boyfriend at the time, an Iranian called Ali, was interested in a radical group known as the People’s Mujahideen of Iran, or MKO, which was formed a decade earlier and aimed to free from “capitalism, imperialism, reactionary Islamic forces and despotism.
Today Miss Singleton recalls with horror how the group, which is based in Iraq and wants to overthrow Iran’s current regime, was able to convince her to give up her life in the UK and travel abroad with them as a brainwashed slave.
Her indoctrination, conversion and submission to the MKO happened gradually over a period of ten years.
She now regards the group “ known as the”tank girls”because there are so many women in its ranks “ as a dangerous cult which uses psychological manipulation.
“I thought I was a saviour of the world and would have done anything for the Mujahideen. I worshipped those people. I thought they were of a higher order.”
In 1992, Miss Singleton was asked to go to for military training.
“I loved the camp and it felt liberating to obey orders, because you lose all responsibility for yourself,”she said.
But a year later she began to have doubts.
At this point she met her husband Massoud, another disillusioned MKO member, and in 1996 they made the decision to leave. It took them a further three years to break free.
Miss Singleton and her husband are involved in the campaign group Iran Interlink highlighting the dangers of groups such as the MKO.
She works as a computer programmer while raising her six-year-old son.
Yesterday, she warned that many British Muslims are at risk of suffering the same brainwashing as she did.
“Look at the young men in West Yorkshire who are being targeted by the terrorist organisations.
“Psychological manipulation can happen to anyone, any time. If you’re lucky you end up with a timeshare. If you’re unlucky you end up blowing up yourself and innocent people on the Tube.”
Anne Singleton grew up in an unremarkable Yorkshire family, but by her early 20s she was a member of a terrorist organisation recruiting suicide bombers in Iraq. Billy Briggs reports.
IN 1992, Anne Singleton was in the Iraqi desert being trained to fire a Kalashnikov rifle by the People’s Mujahedin of Iran. It was a year after the first Gulf War and Anne was a member of an organisation intent on overthrowing the Iranian government by force.
"I was in the desert wearing a military uniform and I had no passport and no money," she says. "I had never felt so free in my life. But the irony was that I was in a state of modern slavery. I was mentally chained to the Mujahedin."
Sitting in her Leeds home 15 years later, the 48-year-old wants to make her past public in the hope it acts as a stark warning that recruitment to an organisation proscribed as a terrorist movement by the European Union, America and Canada, is something that could happen to anyone.
In the present climate, with radical terrorist cells and cults active in the UK, Anne is campaigning to raise awareness of how extremist groups manipulate people.
Her life now, living in a three-bedroom semi as a computer programmer and being a mother to a six-year-old-son, could not be further removed from a previous existence where she prepared for war and accepted the deaths of innocent people as a justifiable means to an end.
"I thought I was a saviour of the world and would have done anything for the Mujahedin. I worshipped those people," says Anne, whose involvement with fanatical extremists began when she moved from Yorkshire to study English at Manchester University.
Her boyfriend at that time, an Iranian called Ali, was interested in the Mujahedin, and Anne became intrigued by the movement’s opposition to the regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini after the 1979 revolution.
"Manchester Uni was very political and I went along to Mujahedin meetings," she says. "In truth, I could not even understand what the leader was saying in the videos but I was utterly transfixed."
The Mujahedin was formed in 1965 to free Iran from "capitalism, imperialism, reactionary Islamic forces and despotism" and by the early 1970s, it had embarked on an armed struggle and later sought refuge in Iraq, fighting with Saddam Hussein against the Iranian government.
Anne’s indoctrination, conversion and submission to the organisation was something that happened gradually over a period of about 10 years, the subtle influence of Anne’s Mujahedin peers eventually leading her away from her job, friends and family.
She views the Mujahedin now as a cult and says their methods of psychological manipulation are tried and tested and used by many other groups around the world, even similar to some tactics employed by salesmen to sell timeshares.
"It takes a long time and they are very clever and use peer pressure," she says. "They implement subliminal messages. They use mind control techniques. They got me to submit to a higher order, their leader.
"They got me to make financial commitments. I used to ask all my friends and family to donate money to various causes that were all blatant lies.
"They replace your family, your relationships and get you to reject all your old values."
In 1985, Massoud Rajavi became the Mujahedin leader, transforming the movement, Anne says, from a being a political group into a cult.
He married a woman called Maryam, whose role was to encourage women to break away from male control, and Anne began spending all of her spare time looking after members’ children, cooking, listening to their poetry and revolutionary music.
"I thought they were people of a higher order," says Anne, who was utterly convinced she was part of a noble, armed struggle. She even had posters of martyrs, suicide bombers and women with guns adorning her walls.
In 1989, Anne split with Ali, who wanted nothing more to do with the movement, and she moved to London to become more involved in Mujahedin activities.
During this period, she got involved with activists at a safe house in Finchley and, when the UN Human Rights Rapporteur visited Iran in l990, they all went on hunger strike to apply pressure on him to question the Iranian government about the nation’s Mujahedin prisoners.
"I was as high as a kite on hunger strike and I felt superhuman as if I had transcended normal humanity," she says. "Shortly afterwards I walked out on my job and went full-time with the movement.
"I didn’t question anything. I was shown a film of a female suicide bomber blowing up an ayatollah in Iran. It was horrific, and very shocking, at first, but I was shown the film many times, and each time I was less distressed. Eventually, I didn’t bat an eyelid,"
By this time Anne barely saw her parents and she had ditched all her friends. She had even publicly burned the diaries she had kept since childhood, as a symbolic rejection of her past.
"If the leader had said ‘kill yourself’, I would have killed myself," she says.
In l992, Anne was asked to go to Iraq for some military training. As a member of an armed struggle, she knew this might be required and did not resist, even relinquishing her passport to the Mujahedin when she arrived in the desert.
"You have no human rights, no nationality, you are simply a Mujahed," she says.
"I loved the camp and it felt liberating to obey orders, because you lose all responsibility for yourself. I felt like a child and thought if I put all my trust in their hands, I would be okay," Anne says.
But in 1993 Anne started to have doubts about the movement after all members were told that marriage was banned and all couples must get divorced. At this time she met her current husband Massoud, another disillusioned member, and in 1996 they made the decision to leave.
With the Mujahedin in constant contact, initially it was extremely difficult for them to adapt back into society and it took three years to make a complete break and fully recover from their ordeal.
"We are both Muslims, but after we left, we would even go out and get drunk just to be ‘normal’," she says. "Being able to think for yourself again was amazing, and we were like little kids doing things like going to the supermarket and choosing our own food."
In 1999, Anne and Massoud discovered literature from the Cult Information Centre and discovered that the psychological coercion techniques used by the Mujahedin were methods all recognised and listed, and together, they now campaign to warn others that anyone is vulnerable to these groups
"Look at the young men in West Yorkshire who are being targeted by the terrorist organisations," she says.
"People across the UK must be asking what is wrong with the people in West Yorkshire. There is nothing wrong with the people here, it is just that the extremists are out there recruiting in the locality, using the same tried and tested methods used by the Mujahedin and the many other disparate cults and movements active around the world.
"Psychological manipulation can happen to anyone, any time. If you’re lucky, you end up with a timeshare.
"If you’re unlucky you end up blowing yourself and innocent people up on the Tube."
Yorkshire post, January 31 2007
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=105&ArticleID=2009152
Personal Column: The former Islamic militant
Anne Singleton, 48, was recruited into the mujahedin at university, and was active for seven years. She left the organisation in 1996 and now campaigns to warn others
Interview by Lynne Wallis
Published: 01 October 2006
Manchester University in the early 1980s was very political. My then boyfriend Ali, an Iranian, was interested in the mujahedin, and I became interested in them and Islam. I have never been religious, but the structured life Islam offered made sense to me.
The mujahedin seemed to be the only group who were doing anything, fighting the regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran after the revolution. I went to so many meetings that I neglected my studies and flunked my exams (I completed my degree at Sheffield poly). Their religious role-modelling was intense, and their behaviour so righteous. They were willing to sacrifice their own interests for that of their society. I worshipped them. 
In l985 the mujahedin leader Massoud Rajavi took over and married a woman called Maryam whose role was to encourage women to break away from male control. As a feminist, this appealed to me. They had used bombers from the early 1980s. They said they wanted to break the atmosphere of terror by killing their oppressors, and it seemed noble.
I spent all my spare time with the movement, caring for members’ children, cooking and monitoring media reports. If they asked me for a £l0 donation I’d give £l00 to impress them with my commitment. They flattered me, and then would make me feel guilty, pushing for more so I’d feel worthy enough to be recruited. I got totally hooked.
I did temporary jobs and lived frugally in bedsits, my walls covered with posters of their martyrs – suicide bombers and women with guns. I felt part of something very right. Everyone else had posters of Che Guevara who was part of an armed struggle. I was just supporting a different revolution. We saw fighting films and listened to heroic poetry and revolutionary music. I had had such a boring childhood, this was what I had been looking for. My working-class family was quite political but never did anything except watch telly. There wasn’t much debate, so I grew up seeing life as black and white.
I moved to London in 1989 and found some activists at a safe house in Finchley who treated me as a trusted supporter. The UN Human Rights Rapporteur visited Iran in l990 and we wanted to put pressure on him to ask about all the mujahedin prisoners so we went on hunger strike.
After five days I felt high as a kite. My perceptions changed, and I felt I had transcended normal humanity. I had so much energy and felt as if I were walking in a bubble. Food deprivation is a classic recruitment technique used to weaken resistance.
I quit my job as a computer programmer and became a full-time worker for the mujahedin. I didn’t question a thing, even the violence, which they inure people to so cleverly. I was shown a film of a female suicide bomber blowing up an ayatollah in Iran. It was horrific, and very shocking, at first, but I was shown the film many times, and each time was less distressed. Then they put it on over dinner and I didn’t bat an eyelid. I believed she had a duty to perform, this brave, wonderful martyr.
I barely saw my parents, I’d ditched all my friends, and I’d publicly burnt the diaries I’d kept since childhood, insisting”my past means nothing”, but it wasn’t enough. I still wasn’t seen as 100 per cent obedient.
In l992 they asked me if I’d like to go to Iraq for some military training. I knew as a member of an”armed struggle”this might be required, so I didn’t resist, although I knew I could never kill anyone. I learned how to drive a truck, march and shoot a gun, but I clearly wasn’t soldier material. I loved the camp and the irresponsibility – I obeyed orders and it felt liberating. I had this childlike feeling that if I put myself in their hands, I’d be OK.
Then they decided marriage was banned. I couldn’t agree as I wanted marriage and kids. I was punished and they put huge pressure on me to conform. I returned to London, telling myself I’d sort my head out then return refreshed to the movement, but it wasn’t to be.
In l993 I met my husband, another disillusioned member, and we were drawn to each other. I resisted constant pressure to be re-recruited and we broke away for good in l996. We acted as counsellors to each other, de-programming ourselves from the horrific abuse we had endured. But we didn’t recover properly until 1999, when we read literature from the Cult Information Centre. I was furious when I learned that everything we’d been through was on a”recruitment techniques”list! The anger and betrayal I felt was enormous, but I felt relief that it wasn’t my fault, and I could put a name to it – psychological coercion. It didn’t mean you were weak, evil or stupid.
We believed we had reached the pinnacle of human existence, that the worst thing in life was to be ordinary. Well, we’re ordinary now and it’s wonderful. We had a son in 2000 and live in a three-bedroom semi in Leeds. A life where we make our own decisions is amazing.
I still think of myself as Muslim, I still think it is a good belief system, but I eat pork and drink like a fish.
Spreading the word about the dangers of cults is my new cause. When people are recruited into these groups they have no critical ability. It can happen to anyone, any time. If you’re lucky you end up with a timeshare. If you’re unlucky you end up blowing people up on the Tube.
For more information contact: iran-interlink.org or khodabandeh.org; cultinformation.org.uk
The Independent, October1, 2006
The Independent, U.K.
"The police surrounded us. As my weapon jammed, I swallowed the cyanide capsule, but the poison had perhaps expired since it had no effect", remembers Arash Sametipour. The instructions were clear: "That they do not take you alive".
The terrorist, who was then 25 years old, released the safety lock of his last grenade and exploded it. Five years later and after several operations, Sametipour now has an artificial arm, but he is content with being alive and talks of brainwashing by a group that took to him close to death, the Mujahidin-e khalq.
He is not the only one who talks. The disappearance of Saddam Hussein’s regime has led to the discovery of horror hidden behind the walls of this Iranian armed opposition group.
In its report “No Exit”, published in May, Human Rights Watch revealed the abuses and violations of human rights in the camps of this organization during the last two decades. The testimonies gathered by Human Rights Watch in Iran corroborate the descriptions of solitary confinement, forced confessions, execution threats, beatings and torture of those who tried to leave the group.
To Iran’s surprise and disappointment, Iraqi occupation by the US didn’t lead to dismantling of this military group, considered terrorist by Iran, the US and the EU. Members of this group (3,534, according to data gathered last March) remain disarmed in Camp Ashraf (a hundred kilometers to the northeast of Baghdad), since April of 2003.
Washington has granted them the status of “protected people under the Fourth Geneva Convention”. This agreement brought up the distrust of the Iranian regime – which issued a public pardon last year for all members of this group.
Since then, at least 273 militants have returned to Iran. Ali Moradi, 45, is one of them. He has returned to Iran five months ago. "Iraqi captured me as prisoner at the beginning of the war and I spent nine years in their jails", he says. There he was caught by the Mujahidin. "They visited us with very negative information on what happened in Iran and offered us freedom from jail only if we joined them; we were under heavy pressure given the circumstances. Eventually, about 150 of us joined them”, he adds.
Bad years
“Our joining the Organization was immediately made public by them and it made it impossible for us to return to Iran", remembers Moradi, convinced that the 15 years that followed were as bad as the nine previous ones. “I was married and I was in touch with my wife through the Red Cross when I was in jail, but after joining the Mujahidin I could no longer do it. My family thought that I had died and my wife married another man. That isolation was part of the ideological revolution promoted by the leaders of the group.”
"They didn’t let us have feelings towards women, mothers, children, or even to speak about it with friends. We had to write daily reports on the weaknesses of our friends. According to Moradi, there were two meetings of that type: “Current, daily critical meeting which tortured the spirit, and the weekly. In weekly meetings, we were forced to write down our feelings towards the women we had imagined during the week, and we had to talk about it in public, and this is really difficult regarding our Iranian culture”.
Moradi had Marxist ideas and paid for it. “They separated me from the rest and did not let me participate in their meetings and religious ceremonies because the ideology of Mujahidin was based, at least initially, on an interpretation of Islam as a revolutionary message. I felt to be under pressure”.
Finally, five years ago he was expelled from the Organization, and according to HRW’s report, was put into internal jail of the MKO (iskan). “We were 13; a Christian, a member of an ethnic minority, and the rest were all Marxists”.
Without documentation, without contact with the outside world, the only alternative was Abu Ghraib, the notorious Iraqi prison. The most prominent MKO dissidents finished there. They were the first ones to reveal the techniques of brainwashing and arresting dissidents inside the organization. Even the arrival of the US Army couldn’t halt the leaders of the group.
"They neither had arms nor could they maintain the pressure in their prisons, so I requested to leave them; after several meetings – in which they threatened me like a prisoner – one of my friends helped me pass a message to an American officer and explain the situation for him. They transferred me to their camp and I was able to return to Iran with the assistance of the Red Cross.”
Mujahidin-e Khalq was formed 1965 as an anti-Shah group. Nevertheless, after the Islamic revolution, it did not find a place in the new order and continued to fight against the clergymen who led the revolution. A rebellion 1981 ended with its ringleaders in jail and many of its members in exile. They settled in France until 1986, when the French Government started to improve its relations with Tehran and the leadership of the group – controlled by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi – was transferred to Iraq. In the war against Iran which started in 1980, the regime of Saddam provided the group with all types of facilities, including camps and training the military forces.
Since 1988 (when the war ended) their activities were reduced, although they continued to count on the help of Baghdad for infiltration in Iran and attempting to assassinate senior Iranian authorities or official buildings. On the eve of the presidential elections in 2001, several commandos crossed the (Iraqi) border and entered Iran and tried to create chaos and also to prevent the re-election of Mohamed Khatami. For instance, they fired mortars at Police Headquarters in Vozara street. There were no dead, but it angered the authorities.
The Story of Babak Amin
The person in charge of the attacks on Vosarat street, Babak Amin, now 40, has returned to continue his studies in the field of communication that he had left in 80s. "I studied at the University of Vienna and there I made contact with the members of the group (hypocrites); I was looking for an organization which fought to bring democracy and freedom to my country, and this group’s propaganda on Iranian regime’s human rights violation attracted me.” Along with some friends, without informing their families , they went to Iraq. They received two months of military training in Jalilieh Camp in Iraq’s Kurdistan and then became members of the Organization.
The beginning of their work in MKO coincided with the arrival of the Rajavis in Baghdad and the formation of the National Liberation Army, the guerilla army and the military arm of the organization. “Camp Ashraf was established and we began to receive professional military training from Saddam’s Republican Guard", remembers Amin. Then he points to several operations against his country in which he participated, while he adds that heavy military trainings came after the end of the war.
"In 1990, the organization initiated another ideological revolution: “the married members had to divorce; the fiancés had to break up, and all members had to accept the supreme leadership of Rajavi and his wife.
Amin relates these stories while his hands are empty; he lost the best years of his life in a useless persistence. His leaders allowed their members to act as the soldiers of Saddam and during the Iraqi invasion to Kuwait, Mujahidin were sent to Khanequin to suppress the Kurds. As the situation worsened, the Rajavis deepened their ideological revolution. In 1993, the turn came for “the positive discrimination, a step in which the army took the nickname of a character of American novels.
“The military leaders had to yield their posts to women, and thus I became number two in my company”, explains Amin. Amin was also the director of attacking Tehran, which led to his arrest.
In 2000, Maryam Rajavi, new leader of the militants, deployed several operational teams to Iran to foment chaos before the presidential elections of 2001. But military commanders never crossed the Iranian borders. “10 operations directed by me in Tehran were successful. Soon, the arrival of provisions from Iraq came to a halt and we had to interrupt the work. Khatami won the elections and we received orders to return, but the janitor of the house where we lived exposed us”, Amin recalls.
After settling accounts with the Iranian judiciary, Amin has returned to university and counts on the support of his parents to live, although he has resorted to the aid of a psychologist in order to start a normal life.
Moradi is also trying to remake his life in his hometown, Khorramabad. But he’s unemployed. “After 25 years of life, I have nothing except these clothes”.
the young Sametipour, has not forgotten Elham yet, the young daughter of a MKO activist. He had fallen in love with her but he never saw her again after joining MKO Iraqi camps in 1999. Now, he dedicates himself and his time to an NGO [Nejat Society] which supports the families of those MKO militants who have not returned yet.
EL PAIS
Older Posts