Pentagon must release the key to the UN investigation
One of the more curious aspects of the September 1 attack on Camp Ashraf was that the MEK filmed so much of what happened that day, not only the aftermath but also some film of balaclava clad assailants creeping into the camp to attack. Unless the MEK are routinely filming the perimeter of the camp it is almost as though they were forewarned and had the cameras ready. These pictures are in the public domain because within hours of the attack the MEK had contacted every western media outlet to present their version of what happened and attribute blame to the Iraqi government and call themselves victims. This is so typical of MEK behaviour that it warrants no further comment.
At that time, the MEK announced that 52 of its members had been killed. They published photographs of the victims along with their biographies and claimed that Iran had given the order to attack the camp and that Iraq had carried it out. Both governments denied any involvement and no evidence has been offered to contradict this. Weeks later Iraq announced that the death toll was 53, not 52 as previously claimed by the MEK. The revised figure was due to the fact that the 53rd victim had had his face so badly burned that it took a while to identify him as one of the MEK and not one of the attackers and to discover his true identity. Following this revelation the MEK published a documentary about the 53 in which a picture of Massoud Dalili was shown along with a sample of his handwriting in which he declares that he will never surrender to the enemy, the Iranian regime. In this documentary the MEK refer to them as martyrs.
Since every person who remained in Camp Ashraf after the main body of residents were transferred to Camp Liberty was registered with the office of the United Nations in Iraq, this raises the question why the MEK had not announced that 53 members had been killed immediately after the attack, especially since they had so carefully documented the whole scenario?
Then from yesterday, after the Iraqi authorities named the 53rd victim as Massoud Dalili, the MEK suddenly changed their tune and embarked on the line that Dalili was an Iranian agent and as a person who knew what is where inside Camp Ashraf, the IRI and Iraqis had used him to plan and launch the September 1st attack, and when they finished the job they have killed him there and then burned his face so he would not be recognised. (As a adjunct to this new position toward Dalili it is significant that the MEK propaganda machine is on overdrive to say that Massoud Rajavi has been too lenient with the ex members and that the MEK commanders are complaining he hasn’t allowed them to kill these traitors, and now this is the price they have had to pay. If we had killed ex members, they claim, we would not have all these casualties. In answer Rajavi has used the new version of how Dalili died to introduce a new explanation; that the regime is killing its own agents. In this way Rajavi is giving permission for his followers to kill ex members and blame Iran.)
At this point it is necessary to explain a little about Massoud Dalili’s background. Dalili escaped from the MEK more than a year ago. He took refuge with the Iraqi authorities who took him to Hotel Mohajer in Baghdad. He stayed there for some time and was registered by UN officials and interviewed by several agencies including various UNAMI officials and the ICRC. After some time Dalili said he didn’t want to stay in the same hotel as the other ex members and requested a change of place. The Iraqi authorities obliged and he was given a room in another hotel, Hotel Mansour. Some time later he went out and didn’t return. He was announced missing and the Iraqi authorities assumed he had returned to the MEK. However, during the period of time that he was missing Massoud Rajavi announced in an audio message to his followers that Dalili had run away from the MEK and was denounced as a traitor.
How Dalili ended up back in Camp Ashraf is open to question. Did he return willingly or was he abducted and taken by force? Certainly in every other case when a defector has willingly returned to the MEK, the group has made a big propaganda show of their victory. In the case of Dalili nothing was said of his return or his whereabouts after he disappeared from Hotel Mansour. This suggests that he had been abducted in Baghdad and imprisoned in Camp Ashraf clandestinely and that when the majority of MEK were transferred to Camp Liberty (aka camp Hurriya) Dalili was kept there with around one hundred others, but without the knowledge of the UN officials.
It is critical at this point to explain the significance of Massoud Dalili for the MEK. He had been one of the highest ranking members and was one of the personal security personnel for Massoud Rajavi. He had undergone training with Saddam’s Republican Guards and the MEK’s own specialist training. He not only had a lot of information about Rajavi but was one of only a small handful of people in the MEK who knew of the existence of Rajavi’s underground nuclear bunker which was his hideout. Certainly he was an individual who could have done a lot of damage to the MEK had he been allowed to leave Iraq.
This bunker and the probability that Rajavi was still hiding there explains why the MEK refused to fully evacuate Camp Ashraf when the majority were transferred to Camp Liberty. The MEK made the excuse that they were protecting and selling off their assets, and were assisted in this sham by announcing that a British company was willing to buy the stuff. But this never came about and local Iraqi officials in the Diyala province went through court procedures to have the land returned to the rightful owners. This in itself distracted from the MEK’s own position and provided a welcome battle to wills to justify their continued presence at the camp. The real reason was that Rajavi was still there right up to September 1st when he was forced to escape with seven of his loyal bodyguards through a tunnel leading to the outskirts of the camp.
What happened on that day is still not known. Who killed Dalili and then tried to destroy his identity is not known. Why did the MEK suddenly after the Iraqi authorities named him last week reverse their announcement that he was one of their martyrs and now claim that he entered the camp with the attackers and led them to the various places in the camp to capture and kill the MEK residents. In the fourth part of the MEK’s documentary series on the attacks Dalili’s mangled and disfigured body is shown for the first time with Iranian money strewn over it. The MEK say he was an Iranian agent and that when the attack was completed his handlers killed him there and then. But why then, since they had taken the film on September 1st had the MEK not said anything before now, and had in fact said he was one of their martyrs? If Dalili had been an agent surely he would have been much more valuable for the MEK’s enemies if he were alive, especially since he had so much sensitive information. Also why would they kill and maim him in the camp and not take him elsewhere to kill him clandestinely?
The investigation into this event is far from over. Indeed this new revelation only points to how important it is for the investigators to have access to the forty two survivors of the attack who are currently being held incommunicado by the MEK in Camp Liberty. Even residents of the camp have not had sight or word of them since their arrival on September 11.
It is impossible to discount their testimony. As a matter of urgency they must be brought forward and removed from the camp to a place of safety where each one can be cross examined to establish what they witnessed that day.
Unfortunately the Iraqi authorities who have been tasked by the UN to investigate this incident are obliged to rely on the UN to facilitate access to these forty two people. The UN in turn is beholden to the Pentagon in its treatment of the MEK. The Pentagon of course has a ten year history of supporting and protecting the MEK in Iraq, starting with then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s personal granting of Fourth Geneva Convention Protection which made a complete nonsense of the previously declared position that the US had invaded Iraq partly because Saddam Hussein harboured terrorist groups such as the MEK. Since then the Pentagon has blocked any attempt to dismantle the group or rescue its members. American soldiers refused to help those families who had tried to contact their loved ones inside Camp Ashraf and in cooperation with orders from MEK commanders turned them away. Those who escaped the MEK and were housed in the TIPF adjacent to Camp Ashraf informed the American soldiers of widespread abuses taking place behind closed doors. They said that the MEK commanders were armed with small arms and kept control through fear and threats. One ex member says that he saw Afsaneh Vatankhah, the bodyguard of Mojgan Parsai, openly wearing a holster with a colt and magazine clip. He believes that it is not unlikely that what happened in Camp Ashraf was the result of an internal fight. He reminds us that during the last two decades we have regularly heard about people getting shot in the camp and it being announced as a suicide or that people died under the American bombardment or that unintentional shootings had occurred, etc. None of this was investigated or stopped by the UN army in the six years they were in charge of the camp.
Currently the Pentagon does not allow the UN or the authorities of the sovereign state of Iraq to enter Camp Liberty and offer succour to the residents there. The Iraqi investigators as well as government officials widely acknowledge that their hands are tied by the UN and ultimately by the Americans who have deliberately foisted the MEK on them without giving them any chance to remove them or bring the criminal elements to justice.
Unless the UN discovers the courage and ability to stand up to the Americans over this issue, it is clear that more and more residents of Camp Liberty will be killed.
An Interview with a former member of Mojahedin-e-Khalq, Massoud Banisadr
Masoud Banisadr was an active member of the controversial Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalq 
(MEK, PMOI) for twenty years, serving as the organizations representative to the United Nations and to the United States during his tenure. The group is largely obscured from public discourse, or more recently veiled in headlines describing them as political dissidents or refugees. To those more familiar with the group the debate tends to focus primarily on their nature. For many MEK is a dangerous terrorist organization, yet for others they are freedom fighters and the only legitimate alternative to the Iranian Government. They’ve been subject to several pieces suggesting they work as assassins for the United States and Israel. Masoud has published a book called Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel about his experience in the organization, which he very candidly describes in detail as a cult, and one that has long lost its strength and vibrance. He now focuses much of his work on the research and understanding of cults, terrorism, and cult behavior within those structures.
Richard Potter: How long were you active in MEK?
Masoud Banisadr: I left MEK 1996. Before that I was the representative in the United States and the United Nations.
You were only in the political arm?
Yes.
You would have joined in 1976 when it was a more political guerilla movement?
Yes at the time I joined them I was a PhD student in UK in New Castle University. I was married and I had a little daughter. Of course I married young, so everything was very fast. We married in UK far from Iran, but the only source of news we had during the Iranian revolution was from MEK. So because of the past history and the number of martyrs the MEK had against the Shah we trusted them. The slogans they gave were about freedom and democracy and equal rights, women’s rights, minority rights. All destructive cults are like some lizards and can change colors very rapidly to their surroundings.
How did this change?
What happened in 1981 is that Massoud Rajavi (The head of MEK until 2003. Currently believed dead or in hiding) saw that he had attracted so many students and he thought he could repeat the Bolshevik revolution of Russia in Iran. So what he did was he suddenly on 20 June 1981 asked all members and supporters to come to the streets of Tehran and overthrow the new establishment. MEK says that 500,000 people came to the streets. They failed. They failed and they couldn’t do anything and from the next day they changed into a clandestine organization. Between the summer of 1981 the MEK went through many terrorist actions. They bombed the Islamic revolution party buildings. They killed the new President and Premier of Iran, and then they killed at Friday prayers in different cities through suicide operation, they killed different imams through suicide operations. They themselves claim that within one year that they killed almost 1400 people, high officials and supporters of the new establishment in Iran. At the same time they claimed 2000 of their members were killed in street clashes with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. In Iran what they were doing was what they called “heroic terrorism operations” later they thought the word terrorism had a bad connotation, especially in the west and they changed it to heroic actions. Most of their supporters in Iran were those who joined this group because of its peaceful nature. For the democratic liberal and pro social justice nature, so they were not ready to change into terrorist or even guerrillas. People are ready to vote for a party, but not to fight for that party.
You refer to MEK as a destructive cult, when do you believe they transformed from a political group or a guerilla group to a cult?
What happened was within Iran they were left losing 99% of their member. Only 2,000 to 3000 members left in Iran. Most of them were gone because of change of policy from peaceful demonstration to terrorist activities and street fighting. Even those who could become radicals were either killed in street clashes or by execution by the government. They lost the battle in Iran. Outside of Iran they were portraying themselves as the democratic alternative to the Iranian government. Two of the most important allies of theirs were ex Iranian President Banisadr and the Kurdish democratic party of Kurdish Iran. These two left the National Council of Resistance in 1984, suddenly this coalition of Rajavi and others turned into the pseudonym MEK. In 1983 they could get support from the labor party of UK and the socialist party of France, but after this they did not have it anymore. MEK was on the verge of disintegration, so he had to do something, which is why I think he did what was called the ideological revolution, which is when it became a destructive cult.
You’ve written about the organization forcing you to divorce your wife at this point, can you elaborate?
At this time they were telling me that my wife was what they called “revoluted”- meaning that she had accepted the ideological revolution and she was now a disciple of Mr. and Mrs. Rajavi and if I wanted to leave the group I had to leave my wife and my children as well. This was my main problem. It wasn’t just leaving the group it was leaving my children and the love of my life. I tried to rationalize it and I tried to stay in the group. Then there was some time later when they asked me to divorce my wife, again it was the same problem. Then I was in the United States and everything was wrong and slogans were wrong and meaningless, everything they said was meaningless.
How did you rationalize all of this?
There is an experiment where they put a live frog in a pot and they turn the heat up degree by degree. Outside the pot is cold, inside the pot is warm. The frog won’t jump out of the pot. It can but it won’t. It’s because the outside is cold. But when it’s realized that it is boiling and it is cooking the opportunity is gone because all of his muscles have been cooked. This is what happened to us. When the ideological revolution changed and we could see the pot was boiling, all of our muscles were cooked. All our self confidence or individuality that would help us jump out of the pot were gone.
MEK was originally aligned with some of the Kurdish groups but later on there was a great deal of fighting between MEK and Kurdish groups. What caused this change?
After the gulf war when Saddam lost the war the Kurds in the north and Shia in south thought they could revolt against Saddam Hussein and get rid of him. Unfortunately the US didn’t help and this is why they lost. Since Saddam’s army wasn’t in good shape after the war they asked MEK to attack some of the Kurdish guerillas in the north and MEK committed many atrocities. Of course then I was outside of Iraq and I couldn’t believe that we did this. After I left the group and I met other who left I realized it was true. What we were told was we were fighting Iranian revolutionary guards who had Kurdish guards, and this is what I was believed. When the accusation was brought up at the UN or anyone I would deny it vehemently, but when I left the group and met ex MEK from that war I realized this wasn’t an accusation, but a fact. They say they even killed women and children.
Saddam was probably one of the only allies in the Middle East MEK had at that time, no?
No. At this time Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were helping as well. As a matter of fact, Rajavi at one juncture traveled to Saudi Arabia and met the king. In MEK they showed us a video of him meeting the king. It was secret, the KSA and UAE support. Everyone knew about Saddam, but even within the group they didn’t speak about KSA or UAE. I saw the video when I reached the highest rank men could go in MEK. When MEK had their last battle, Forough Javidan, which means eternal light, the plan was that MEK, with the help of Saddam Hussein, would take part of Iran and announce the government order over it, calling it the democratic Islamic government of Iran- They’d go and capture western Iran and establish a government and immediately Saddam Hussein would recognize it and Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates would support it, and there were others. They were hoping Kuwait would join and the United States could be pressured to acknowledge them and they could create a situation of pressure on Iran like North and South Vietnam, or Korea. This was their tactic.
This one of the bloodiest incidents during this period, no?
They failed. They lost a third of the members. As a matter of fact I was in that battle. I lost some of the muscles in my right soldier because I was shot. Of course, we were not trained, not for that battle. They said everyone had to attend, even representatives who weren’t in Iraq. So I had to go back to fight. I had no military training but I had to go. Rajavi wanted everyone to attend but himself and his wife.
I’m sorry to hear about this
It was very horrible. There were 15 students who were from the United States, they were supporters. They were brought to Iraq and in the same night they were moved to the battle field. Because of my political rank I was a commander even though I had no military background. I didn’t know anything about fighting. Only a few days before for the first time I saw a machine gun, and I only shot it once. So in the first battle I almost lost my life, I was shot and went unconscious and was take back to the hospital. Unfortunately I learned all 15 died because they didn’t have any training, and because it was done so quickly no one asked them their names and nothing was recorded. I didn’t even know their names. It was horrible
How did you eventually get out?
In 1996 Maryam Rajavi (Wife of Massoud Rajavi and current head of MEK) was speaking in London and they asked me to come and mobilize supporters, and talk to British politicians and arrange meetings for Mrs. Rajavi, including Margaret Thatcher. So in London after five or six years I met my daughter. Before that she was 13 and now she was 18. I was faced with a lady. Emotions and feelings are very important in destructive cults. They isolate you from your loved ones, so you don’t turn your emotions to your loved ones. In London I could see my daughter and my sister and my old friends. From early morning to midnight I had to see old friends, ex-supporters of MEK, and answering thousands of questions which internally I had no rational answer for any of them. So these things, my feelings between my friends and family helped me change. And also luck. I had an accident and back problems, and I was so active in London that I had to go to the hospital. My back gave out. Fortunately for me MEK was very busy then for Maryam Rajavi with different meetings, so they didn’t care about me. If it was another juncture they’d make sure someone was with me, because MEK never leaves a member without a chaperone, always at least two with each other they watch and look after each other. So in the hospital I was alone for the almost a month and I could see normal relationships of people with each other. There was a guy beside who had an accident and I was helping him to shave his beard, or to feed him and so on, and this revived my individuality and my humanity and self confidence. All gradually it came back. When it came that I left the hospital I left MEK. I didn’t reject them fully yet, but I realized I couldn’t be with them anymore.
There are many who believe MEK serves as proxy for the West and that they are allied, do you believe this?
I don’t think so. Another problem MEK has is that Americans and Europeans know MEK has no support. In the early eighties there was an illusion of support but it was realized there was no support. There are no demonstrations for MEK and no one comes to support them. Even in Iran anyone who hates the government, even the old supporters, if you ask them they’ll say MEK is worse than the Mullahs. Western governments know this. Would the US repeat the same mistake they made in Afghanistan by supporting MEK where in Afghanistan they supported the Taliban but now they fight them. All of this aside it isn’t said that they don’t use MEK, because they do. As long as there is a bad relation with the United States and Iran they will use MEK. The Israelis, they also use MEK very much. But it doesn’t mean that even the Israelis trust them.
There was an accusation that the US was training MEK in Nevada to be used as assassins. Do you believe this?
No I don’t believe this. What is the average age of MEK members now/ I think it is about eighty. What do you want to do with people this old? I don’t think so. Probably not even spying. The only use they might have for them may be in relation to some terrorist activities in Thailand and in Europe where they say Iran or Hezbollah are committing terrorist attacks against Israeli embassy or the personnel of the Israeli embassy. Probably they could use MEK to discredit the Iranian government or even Hezbollah because Politically I don’t believe they use these tactics at this point, it would be political suicide for them. There was a story in the United States that came to the media and vanished about someone who was going to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in the United States. It’s possible they can create this news with MEK members to work against the Iranian government, but no real action.
Richard Potter, Mondoweiss
More Information on:
Link to Research Institute on Destructive Cults (RIDC)
About Richard Potter
Richard Potter is a 27 year old Social Worker and writer from Pittsburgh, PA. His work has been featured in Vice, Your Middle East, and Rohingya Blogger.
September 1th Camp Ashraf clashes resulted in the killing of 52 Ashraf residents and the allegedly missing of 7 other.
After the tragic events at Camp Ashraf all the eyes turned to MKO leaders to see what they do to save the remaining members. Everybody in concern of Liberty residents to whom the danger is now nearer and more tangible would expect the Cult leaders to try their utmost to accelerate the process of relocation.
However the Rajavi’s eyes were looking somewhere else, as he enjoys the smell of blood. He tried to benefit from the blood of the victims as much as possible.
After the incident the Organization’s propaganda system tried to distribute the films and photos related to the clashes to the international media demanding the protection of Liberty residents and the presence of blue helmet UN soldiers.
Maryam Rajavi also gave speeches in different occasions asking for help to safe their stay in Iraq rather than accelerating their relocation to third countries.
The leaders and high ranking members of the organization, all residing in safe places do not care about the safety and well being of the rank and file members being trapped in a temporary residence in Iraq .
The reality is that the leaders of the organization attempts is to keep members in Iraq rather than transferring them to other countries as no country accept to house terrorists in group and they have the bitter experience in Albania .
The reports suggest the defection of about 70 out of 159 members of the organization who have been transferred to Albania.
The leaders prefer to use or better to say misuse members’ lives in Iraq as much as they can, rather than letting them out of the organizational boundaries and indoctrinations where they can break with the cult and make free choices about their future.
After the death of 52 Camp Ashraf residents who stayed there under the pretext of protecting the organization’s property the leaders called it a victory for MKO. And this story will repeat again regardless of the lives it may cost, as it is now more than a month that Liberty residents have gone on hunger strike based on an organizational decree.
Using this strategy, Rajavi tries to convince the international world to help him stay in Iraq as a last resort to keep his cult and to prevent the rank and file from defecting.
By: A. Sepinoud
I went to Camp Ashraf from America
Arash sametipour was living in the United States when he first heard of Camp Ashraf. He went there, he was trained and finally, one morning he entered Iran crossing Southern border. “The first thing to attract my attention 
in Ahwaz [ a city near border] were children who were playing soccer, chasing each other and speaking Persian. I noticed children’s playing in other cities too. I was really impressed … I thought when I was at their age I was experiencing war. Those days, most nights we were awaken by air raid siren and had to go to shelters. We had only two TV channels and a lot of passionate revolutionary slogans… basically I don’t think my generation can claim to have had a childhood.”
My interview with Arash Sametipour was on the phone. He lives in Netherlands so we were not able to look in to each other’s eyes. It was too difficult for me to ask questions without knowing enough about his mental conditions. I knew I had to call him a “terrorist” some time during the interview but I didn’t know that he who is now trying his best to “fight violence”, regarded such an attribute as “fair”.
“In the morning you crossed the Southern border to enter Iran; did you know that you were officially going on a mission that would turn you in to a terrorist?” I asked him. He replied,”
Arash was not willing to speak of details of the mission he had been trained for but he didn’t disagree my hypothesis when I said,”let me suppose that you were going to Iran to kill someone or technically to hit someone."
“On that day I was in the place I was supposed to be just like previous days. But that day was different from other days. I was terribly tired. My country-fellow men may not understand what I mean. It may be a little hard for them to accept that there was no motivation, there was only tiredness. I just wanted it to finish… I remember the exact words I told God:”Finish it. Please finish it.”
Arash says that an hour after saying the “prayer”, he is arrested by the Iranian Police. The cops fail to search his body completely so at the Police station, he manages to get the grenade he has with him and eventually releases the trigger.
“The moment I released the safety lock, I wondered what was going to happen. Was it the end? Would everything go dark? Or would I be born like a baby once again? Right away, my mother’s image emerged before my eyes.”
I asked him if he had talked to his mother about the path he had chosen, before joining the MKO.
“My mother was seriously against it. My family had immigrated to the United States in 1995. We all had Green Cards and soon we were qualified to receive American citizenship. I was a student and a pretty good future was waiting for me… The moment I released the trigger the image of my mother was so real to me that I forget to take the grenade near my chest – we were trained to keep the triggered grenade before our chest – but I was struck dumb by my Mum’s image , so I survived the explosion.”
Arash Sametipour was taken to hospital after he exploded the grenade in his hand. He lost a hand but doctors succeeded to keep his seriously wounded leg.
“Did the medical team of the hospital treat you with discrimination or hatred”?, I asked him.
“Well, it was and is natural. Iranian people have not forgiven the MKO yet but my medical team did their job well without any discrimination. After I was discharged from the hospital I was nearly sure that I would be sentenced to death but the then administration was reformist and the state was willing to show a moderate image. I heard that the MKO members were granted amnesty at that time. I was lucky that I was sentenced to life imprisonment. It was later reduced to 8 years and according to the law if you commit a crime for the first time you will be forgiven after you serve half of your conviction.”
“I Become a Teacher”. Arash sametipour has two important occupations now; he is awaiting the birth of his baby and meanwhile he is writing the book of his memoirs. He has his own weblog where he frequently writes of his memoirs and his daily routine.
I asked him who joined the MKO at the age of 21, “if 21 years later, your son come to you saying he has reasons to take gun and fight a government that he feels it should be reformed, what you tell him?”
“I’ve thought about it a lot. I guess if I am able to convey what I endured in the past, firstly to my child and secondly to the coming generation, they will be unlikely to repeat my experience.”
He says that if he were able to get back to the past, he would become a teacher rather than “an armed fighter against a government."
“I was not a person to change the history. I remember the words by Samad [the Iranian writer] ‘we thought everyone was in danger there but we went saw that only we were in danger!’ If I get back to Iran someday, I will become a teacher maybe I could pass my experience and the story of my life to the future generation in order to make them aware of this part of the history in which my generation and I lived our life.”
MKO cultivates homicidal tendencies with an emphasis on suicidal ones
Showing a disposition towards violence is known to be the supporting one among many fundamental pillars of Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCR, NLA). In fact, violence and death is a working strategy, either killing others or committing self-annihilation. The group’s early booklets explicitly chart the worldview as a basic ideological mentality which is repeatedly referred to in group’s ideological instructions. The members are encouraged to either kill or be killed, and in contrast to the mainstream of similar opposition groups, MKO does not seem the least concerned for the safety of its members that frame the main upholders of its structure.
MKO cultivates homicidal tendencies with an emphasis on suicidal ones in a struggle to counter its adversaries and exclusively invest on the tactics that highly risk the lives of the insiders. Whenever MKO plots to make a stand against some adversary to advance with a heavy hand, the first priority is an aggressive militarism. However, it recoils to typical forms of self-destruction and self-slaughter when some bottleneck blocks its advance. The most common forms recorded are self-immolation and using members as human shields.
Being a product of Rajavi’s own mind-set, the use of unconventional terrorist and violent tactics are what Rajavi concludes his organization has the potentiality to carry out to achieve certain goals. Thus, the member of such organization can easily sacrifice his life when he receives the order. The recruited members are taught from the very beginning to make no distinction between killing others and being killed when they receive an order for an operation. Just in the same way that operators exploit the vulnerability of the victims, they themselves are being made victims.
Before the US invasion against Iraq and when threats were nearing the action, Rajavi was sensitive on two things; defending Ashraf against external threats including closing the camp and expulsion from Iraq and second, adopting an appropriate means to defend Ashraf and resist. He specifically reiterated that Ashraf had to be defended tooth and nail. But the premise developed into more objective form of defense when Saddam collapsed and the suggestion of human shield to protect Ashraf as the beating heart of the organization turned to be a serious option on Rajavi’s table.
In one of his messages to Mozhgan (Parsai), a ranking commanding member in Ashraf, Rajavi recapitulated that the members had to stay, die and bury in Ashraf but never succumb to the threats of being moved. It was a question of resisting or dying if the Iraqis ever decided to transfer members from Ashraf to another location. The human shield was one of the opted options; mass suicides could effectively frustrate any effort that aimed at dismantling the integrity of Ashraf. It included any other threat like forced entry of American or coalition forces to temporarily close or deactivate the camp. The first orders were using non-firing weapons; needless to say that the organization actually made no resistance against the American forces and succeeded to take the control and hegemony of the camp in its own hands. The question of suicide operations and human shield were all directed at safeguarding the entity of the organization and its hierarchical order; it was the red line that could not be crossed and all members had to preserve.
On occasion, MKO has issued statements warning the outbreak of human tragedy in the case of any attack against the camp. The statements conveyed a different meaning for the insiders; they implied that the real human tragedy happens when members began to display their self-annihilation potentialities for defending Ashraf. The transfer of the control of Camp Ashraf to Iraqi forces since 2008 and the Iraqi government’s determination to make a decisive decision about the residents of Ashraf enraged the group’s leaders and soon MKO propaganda machine initiated an intensive campaign against the Iraqi government. MKO’s first reaction was arranging a series of suicidal operations. On July 29, 2009 there was a report of deadly clashes between hundreds of Iraqi police forces and the members of MKO residing in Camp Ashraf that left 11 members dead and scores injured from the both side. While the reasons for the clash was said to be unclear at first, few knew that it was a pre-organized self-destruction plan by a number of Rajavi’s devotees to provoke Iraqi forces to trigger the clash that was well videotaped and broadcasted by the organization itself. The clash, however, was not the last but the beginning.
At least through the past three years and since the implementation of decision by the Iraqi government to relocate members from Camp Ashraf, MKO has proved to be determined to preserve the insiders as human shields to construct a secure bulwark against a national and global decisiveness. And through a few clashes, leaving many casualties from the both sides, with the Iraqi forces who had the responsibility of controlling Camp Ashraf, MKO proved it really means what it says. The recent clash that broke out on September 1, is known to be the most tragic one and a real demonstration of a terrorist cult’s potentiality of causing a human tragedy. 52 out of the 100 remaining members of MKO have been killed in Camp Ashraf.
The bloodshed is condemned but the responsibility is mainly on MKO’s leaders. The provoked clashes never stop unless practical measures are adopted to rescue members from the instilled cult mentality of self-sacrifice and dying for the cause of organization. Nearing the end of its life in Iraq, what MKO needs at the present to fuel its propaganda machine for a full move is sacrifice and multitude of martyrs. Where else can MKO leaders find a better slaughter house than Camp Ashraf or Liberty to make as high as about 3000 martyrs? To condemn this and that and to put all responsibility on the Iraqi authorities, grappling with the intensified wave of internal terrorism, provide no solution. The only way to stop similar human tragedies is a global decisiveness to help MKO members to survive and recover from the cult’s mentality.
By Sattar Orangi, September 11, 2013
http://www.officialwire.com/news/self-annihilation-an-ideological-drift-in-mko/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=self-annihilation-an-ideological-drift-in-mko
Since yesterday the MEK propaganda machine and its related resources have been on overdrive to claim that 
the seven people who the MEK claim are missing from Camp Ashraf are in the custody of the Iraqis. Before this they had been on overdrive to claim that the 1st September attack on Camp Ashraf had been carried out by the government of Iraq. Both allegations have been repeatedly dismissed as completely unfounded by Iraq, but this has not silenced the MEK’s propaganda machine.
There is strong evidence that the aim of the attack on Camp Ashraf was to capture or kill Massoud Rajavi on the understanding he has been in hiding there. If that is the case, then the seven missing people, who have been identified as Rajavi’s close inner circle, have been part of a pre-planned manoeuvre to rescue him in the event of such an attack. The other members have been there to resist any incursion to allow Rajavi and his protectors time to run away.
Apparently inside the MEK there is currently an internal indoctrination message which compares the dead in this situation to the circumstances when Prophet Mohammad moved from Mecca to Medina and used Imam Ali who slept in his place as a decoy so that when they came to kill him they found Ali there instead. If this scenario is right then after Rajavi has saved his own skin from Ashraf, the last thing he wants is to be in the presence these seven known people. But he can’t let them go either because of the information they carry. The untenable MEK claim that these seven missing people were in Baghdad and have now been transferred by helicopter by the Prime Minister’s office to the south of Iraq indicates that there is some kind of plan behind it – governments do not work like this. The strongest possibility is that these seven people will be eliminated and the government of Iraq will be blamed. This is a typical MEK ploy to disguise the mysterious deaths of unwanted people, something they have done frequently.
In this case it is entirely possible that following this build up, these seven are discovered dead in the next few days, perhaps handcuffed and executed as the others were.
Certainly, for a man who basically can’t stop talking, the silence from Rajavi since the attack on Camp Ashraf makes it all the more likely that he is on the run and heading for a safe residence out of the country.
An Iraqi source revealed that a large number of victims in a recent attack on the camp of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) were killed by their own colleagues, namely members of the terrorist group.
A well-informed Iraqi source, which spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Tasnim on Wednesday that the released video of recent clashes in the MKO’s training camp reveal that “most of the dead were actually killed by their own fellows at the camp.”
The terrorist group said that dozens of its members died in a raid on September 1 and blamed the Iraqi security forces for the deaths. Iraqi officials, however, strongly denied the allegations, and said that a preliminary investigation suggested they died as a result of infighting among camp residents.
“In the released video of the recent clashes in Camp Ashraf, footages of the victims of the group showed that most of them had been killed execution style,” the source added.
“Given its track record in liquidating certain members, MKO took advantage of the incident for more bloodshed and killed its members for propaganda purposes and to play the victim,” the source said.
On September 1, 52 MKO terrorists, including some top commanders, were killed in clashes in MKO’s Camp Ashraf in Iraq’s eastern Diyala province.
The MKO is considered a terrorist group since it has been behind many cases of bombings and assassinations against the Iranian officials and people.
The group also fought alongside the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the 8-year Iraqi-imposed war on Iran in 1980s.
It appears there are two ways to respond to the September 1st attack at Camp Ashraf. One is the normal approach taken by the United Nations and Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, the governments of America and Europe, the European Union, and Amnesty International ; condemnation of the killings, condolences for the
victims’ families and demands that the government of Iraq conduct an investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki set up an inquiry into the deaths, and on Monday 2nd a UN team visited the camp to try to establish what happened.
Then there is the approach of the Mojahedin Khalq (aka MKO, MEK, NCRI), sympathetic media and lobbyists; immediately blame your enemies (in this case the host country) and build a strong verbal and pictorial narrative to support that assertion. Less than a few hours after the event strident press releases and graphic photographs of handcuffed, executed bodies were being sent to media and political circles claiming that the government of Iraq had massacred the camp residents. Iraq’s security forces denied having entered the camp.
But, after a day or two of drip-feeding such images it began to resemble a Hollywood film; initial shocking pictures of the dead, then a back-flash to the moment the ill-equipped but masked attackers covertly crept up on the camp. (Carefully filmed by the victims themselves; if you saw this would you not run away or at least grab a gun rather than a camera!) This also begs the obvious question, ‘why would the Iraqi forces brutally murder half the residents then leave the remainder free to film the victims, send the films to the MEK HQ and allow these pictures to be distributed to the world?’ What possible motivation would they have?
No, the mystery surrounding these killings can begin to be unlocked by looking at some facts behind the MEK’s propaganda campaign, and by examining Massoud Rajavi’s disgusting, inhuman and sickening behaviour. Firstly Rajavi reneged on his agreement with the UN and insisted on retaining 100 people in Camp Ashraf while the remainder were transferred to temporary transit camp Liberty. This meant hundreds of Iraqi security forces were unnecessarily tied up in ‘protecting’ people illegally squatting the land and who are regarded in Iraq as terrorists, while Iraq’s civilian population are under constant threat of bombing and shooting in the rest of the country. While there they refused to allow anyone to enter the camp, declaring it an extra-judicial enclave to which not even the UN was granted access. And they endlessly whinged about the poor conditions while demanding that they stay put. They also refused to deal with the so-called possessions which they had supposedly remained there to sell. Certainly if the MEK were in any way immersed in normal society, even if the families of residents had been allowed to remain outside the camp to make contact with their loved ones, this kind of covert attack would not have been possible.
So, why were they really there and who was behind this attack? Although Iranian rightwingers and Revolutionary Guards hailed it as a victory for the Iraqi people, whoever was behind this tragedy was certainly an enemy of the government of Iraq.
There has been speculation that the MEK left behind in Camp Ashraf were there to protect Rajavi who was hiding in the camp, although it is also highly doubtful that he would risk remaining in the camp after he saw what happened to his benefactor Saddam Hussein. Since the MEK released the names of the recent victims it has emerged that nearly all of the 100 people who remained at Camp Ashraf had been indicted for various terrorist crimes. Most of those killed were old and disaffected members but were unable to leave the MEK as they were marked for arrest by law enforcement agencies. They were, in effect, Rajavi’s hostages to do with what he wanted. Interestingly, the people who are missing are all members of Rajavi’s personal security team, including the head of his security team Mahboubeh Jamshidi. How did it happen that they were not among those killed and where are they now? More to the point, where is Massoud Rajavi?
In August this year Rajavi surprised everyone when he announced that he had washed his hands of the MEK members who for thirty years have devoted their lives to him. He told them, “I am only in charge of your Day of Judgment and no one knows the date of the collapse of the regime”.
But if Rajavi wants to reduce or discontinue the MEK’s activities, give up his political ambition for regime change, then retire and attend to his personal life, he will have two essential needs. One is that he must somehow convince the United States to provide a safe retirement residence somewhere in Europe or the Middle East, and the second need is to get rid of the 3000+ people in Iraq. In this respect Rajavi could cut a deal to offer these 3000 people as mercenary forces to push the western agenda in Iraq and Syria; for example chemicals, bombing, poison or similar activities. His best case scenario would be that they die in situ through mortar attack or similar so that he could blame the Iraqi government for killing them. The Iraqi government would probably then be forced to offer some kind of compensation to the Americans and in return the Americans could be persuaded to give him, Rajavi, a place in Europe where he can be kept pickled for a day when he may be useful again.
Although it may seem far fetched to imagine the MEK itself or some collaborative group arranged to kill these individuals and leave some alive to film the events, Rajavi’s own track record for exploiting the blood of his followers, whether in war, assassinations, self-immolations, suicide missions, etc, sadly speaks for itself. Did Rajavi offer up the unwanted residents of Camp Ashraf as irresistible bait?
From early morning on Sunday 1st September, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the western shop front of the Rajavi cult in Paris, started issuing statements one after another claiming that armed Iraqi forces had carried out an attack, killing some of the remaining people in Camp Ashraf while they have been handcuffed. international media started broadcasting this news and a flood of condemnation and sympathy resulted. It is unfortunate that the original source of this news has been the Mojahedin Khalq (aka MKO, MEK, NCRI), the dangerous, destructive Rajavi cult. The Mojahedin Khalq also distributed pictures which have also been broadcast worldwide, eliciting even more sympathy from various quarters. The speed at which this self-reporting was carried out and the wide circles to which it was distributed clearly shows some amount of readiness in this respect.
The Iraqi government denied any military involvement in Camp Ashraf, and various Iraqi officials condemned this attack no matter how and by whom it was carried out. They have all asked for the intervention of the United Nations and a thorough investigation into this issue. But apparently the Rajavi cult’s side of the story was a more desirable and acceptable one for the western media. Among these western media, the Associated Press coverage is most interesting as it reports on the contradictions among the statements by different Iraqi authorities. When you read the report, it is obvious that all the officials interviewed who have been named by AP have condemned the attack and have asked for international organisations to intervene. But an “unnamed” local police officer has apparently claimed that the Iraqi forces were involved! Later on we find that the so-called “unnamed local police officer” is of course the Rajavi cult itself which has pushed this claim through their connections and friends inside the Associated Press.
We have recently written about Massoud Rajavi answering the question “when will the regime be toppled?” by saying “I am only in charge of your Day of Judgment and no one knows the date of the collapse of the regime”. We put this reply to an expert on Iraq and the Mojahedin Khalq and asked for his opinion. His analytical reply on September 24, 2013 (by emails which can be made available) was that:
“If true, and if he (Rajavi) wants to reduce the [MEK’s] activities, discontinue the [group’s] current situation and give up political activities to retire and attend to his personal life, then he will have two essential needs. One is that he has to somehow convince the United States to sort him out and keep him safe somewhere in Europe and the second need is to get rid of these 3000+ people (in Iraq). As far as I know Rajavi, he is probably planning to expend the lives of these 3000 people for the American secret services to somehow push forward the American agenda in Iraq with their lives; for example chemicals, bombing, poison or similar activities. At the end of the day he would need to get rid of them for good and blame the Iraqi government so that the Iraqi government would be forced to offer some kind of compensation to the Americans and in return the Americans would accept to give him, Rajavi, a place in Europe where he can be kept pickled for a day when he may be useful again”.
Since responsibility for Camp Ashraf was transferred from the American forces to the Iraqis, the Mojahedin Khalq’s line of action has consistently been to engage in violence with whatever means possible face to face with the Iraqi forces in charge of the security of the camp. The Iraqi government has for years tried to pursue the peaceful transfer of this destructive cult from the country with the utmost care and patience. The transfer of Rajavi’s forces from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty, a transit camp, only started after the intervention of the United Nations and Hilary Clinton, then US Secretary of State, who at that time promised the MEK that if they accepted to be transferred peacefully, the United States would remove them from its list of terrorist groups. This was the first step toward transferring them to 3rd countries according to the agreements drawn up between the UN, the Iraqi Government and the MEK. But Rajavi, acting against all that he had accepted, kept some of the forces in Camp Ashraf with the excuse that they should remain to sell any MEK belongings which remained in the camp. At the same time Rajavi every day rejected all and every proposition from potential buyers and then started demanding that his forces be brought back from the transit camp to Camp Ashraf. It is noteworthy that this camp was originally call “Khalis Garrison” and belonged to the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein, who had illegally given it to Rajavi who later on forcefully confiscated the agricultural lands adjacent to the camp and added them to the garrison.
The Iraqi government has tried to resolve the problem of Camp Ashraf peacefully and according to the agreements made and according to court judgements which specify that the land of the garrison should repossessed, but the leaders of cult have prevented Iraqi officials from entering the camp and declared it to be their property in spite of the court rulings. It is worth mentioning that Camp Ashraf is the only place in Iraq that after 10 years still belongs to Saddam Hussein and has not been entered and investigated and is not under the control of the Iraqi government. It is also worth mentioning that Rajavi has forbidden his forces from using the words “transit” and/or “3rd countries” even though these were part of his own agreement with the UN and its representative Martin Kobler. Rajavi later accused Mr Kobler of being an agent of the Iranian regime.
As the negotiations between the Iraqi government and the leaders of the Mojahedin Khalq were continuing, we at Sahar Family Foundation warned repeatedly that many people have been affected by the crimes committed by this cult, that many people have lost their land and many have lost families and children and are after revenge. We have repeatedly emphasised that Iraq is not a safe place for the members of this cult and they should be cooperating with the United Nations to be taken out of Iraq. Rajavi knows all this but deliberately wanted to keep them in Iraq and especially in Camp Ashraf, which is of course much more unsafe than Camp Liberty. He needed their blood.
The Mojahedin Khalq leaders have repeatedly emphasized that in order to keep Camp Ashraf they need blood. In the April 8, 2011 incident, when Iraqi forces entered the north part of the camp, the leaders had told the members that they should not worry or be afraid and they should go forward and attack the soldiers with whatever they could because the army had not brought any live bullets with them and the bullets they do use are blanks. They deliberately wanted the number of casualties to increase. Survivors of the cult can testify that the leaders of Mojahedin Khalq constantly emphasize that they need blood and constantly encouraged members to create conflict.
What should we expect from a cult and its leader who deliberately sends his follower to their deaths, looks upon them as disposable soldiers, gives them orders to burn themselves and sends them to war without training and arms? In July 17th 2003 when they gave the order for self-immolations , they had promised the victims that they would intervene and extinguish the fire once it was started. But they didn’t, they stood aside and took films. According to many who have managed to escape the cult, they killed many of their own disaffected members by shooting them from the back and then registered them as martyrs from during the bombardment of the coalition forces.
Pictures of this latest incident distributed by the Rajavi cult show how the residents have been handcuffed from behind and then murdered. If it was the Iraqi government, would it not make sense that they would finish it all and not leave someone to take pictures to send to the H.Q. of the cult so that they would broadcast it within such a short time all over the world? Is it not the case that the picture taking and other facilities were prepared in advance?
The reasons behind this can be deduced from recent events in Iraq’s political situation and the Iraqi government’s stand in front of the Americans’ aggressive policies in Syria. That the Mojahedin Khalq leaders kill the members is not a new phenomenon. Killing disaffected members and adding them to the list of martyrs is not new.
The Iraqi government had notified the Rajavi cult that they are running out of patience and will have to take back the camp but Rajavi has acted in advance and this massacre is with no doubt his work and the work of those on his payroll. To place the Iraqi government under international pressure was a favour to the Americans and he also now has fresh new blood to feed his propaganda machine.
If Rajavi dies and comes back to this world a thousand times, it is not enough to pay back what he has done. The first victims of any cult are its own members; individuals who have wasted the last 3 decades of their lives for Massoud Rajavi now have become the victims of a joint cultish and imperialistic game.
We again ask all international organisations to intervene to save the lives of the hostages taken by Rajavi and prevent more bloodshed in future.
Translated by Iran Interlink
Massoud Rajavi said: “whoever doesn’t like it can get lost”
I read in Sahar Family Foundation’s website that Massoud Rajavi, the leader of Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), has 
said in his latest speech to his followers in Camp Liberty in Iraq: “whoever doesn’t like to stay can get lost and go away”. He then denounced as traitors all those who choose to leave him, including those who do not give him their absolute obedience.
This obscene level of language and speech towards those who spent about three decades of the best years of their lives and sacrificed whatever they had can only be expected from the leader of a destructive mind control cult who tries to play the role of God on earth for his followers. Who has ever said that a leader’s permission is needed to leave a political organization, and who allows him to call them traitors?
I recall before the revolution that the deposed Shah once said: “if someone does not like the look of the Shah there is no problem, he or she can get a passport and leave the country.” Of course the people of Iran showed in their heroic uprising who should go and who was to remain.
But the extent of Rajavi’s rudeness is beyond imagining. He used his vicious tongue to lash those who are the most loyal and supportive of his followers. The Shah at least did not call those who want to leave traitors and did not insult them and was, in any case, talking to those who were against him from the beginning, and not those who had given everything for him.
My addressee here is not Rajavi since he is a well-known character and he can never be considered a reasonable person to deal with. I am addressing the Iranians and non-Iranians who support him, who have gone along with him up to this point. The more you support Rajavi, the more you make him aggressive and damaging. If this support is withdrawn one day, the supporter would immediately be labelled a traitor and mercenary and the hostile attitude against him or her would begin. The examples are numerous.
Rajavi’s supporters should observe how he deals with his most self-sacrificing followers and how he rewards them after years of loyalty. What would have happened if Rajavi had real power, how would he have dealt with his opponents? Wouldn’t he be worse than any dictator in the world? And so I must ask: “isn’t it time for those who continue to support Rajavi to recognise their mistake and keep their distance from him?”