Membership in the MEK as a cult

Cult victims arrested in Finland need psychological help

Two leading Mojahedin-e Khalq members, Hadi Roshanravani (62) and Mohammad-Ali Jaberzadeh Ansari (60) have been arrested by Interpol on entering Finland some days ago.

The Iranian government has asked for their extradition to face criminal charges.

At this moment Iran-Interlink believes that extradition of the men to Iran will not serve anybody’s interests. However, we do believe that as members of a destructive cult (the Mojahedin-e Khalq) they must not be handed back to the MKO on their release. We urge the Finnish authorities to put aside the political rhetoric which surrounds the arrest of these victims and look at the evidence of psychological manipulation used by the cult to coerce and control its membership.

Before any criminal charges are considered against them, the two men need to be given urgent psychological and medical attention. It is necessary to establish whether their past actions came of their own free will or whether they have been acting under the influence of mind control imposed by the Rajavi cult.

We urge the Finnish authorities to allow these men some time without any interference from outside influences, that is, visits by the cult’s operatives.

Past experience has shown that spending only a short time outside the direct influence of cult manipulation allows victims to regain some normal perspective. Once the ability to think critically returns, cult victims are able to make informed decisions about their involvement in the destructive practices of their organisation.

December 7, 2008 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Unsaid stories on a castle called Ashraf

Memories of Batoul Soltani – Part Four

SFF: Mrs. Soltani, we would like your mind to get back to Ashraf where you had difficulty to escape from. We would like you describe the internal relations in MEK that caused you run away?

Batould Soltani: I was actually in the MEK for two decades so I know about the MEK’s internal relations very well. When in 1986 I entered the organization, The Mujahedin Khalq OrganizationThey used any practice to bring the people to the cult in Iraq. For example they managed to send smugglers, financing them, to take the people out of their families and bring them to Iraq. the most convenient houses and hotel were dedicated to the families. It was the time when Masud and Maryam Rajavi came to Iraq from France. The MEK had used all its strength to recruit members and all IRI opponents from all over the world. There was a tension among supporters in abroad. Rajavi was using his entire wisdom to get the supporters out of their normal life and bring them to the organization and of-course the prison of Ashraf. They used any practice to bring the people to the cult in Iraq. For example they managed to send smugglers, financing them, to take the people out of their families and bring them to Iraq.

The other activity they were also busy of, was to found National Liberation Army and the deals with Iraqi Regime like the meetings with Iraqi ministries or deputies and then with Saddam Hussein who offered them bases, weapons, military trainings. The focus was on recruiting members for the so called NLA. At that time the Iraqi military organs were launching intelligence operations together with the MEK elements to succeed their attacks against Iran. The MEK was taking care of such affairs. Everyday there was a new crisis, a new adventure. So the supporters were busy enough.

After some time they spoke of NLA and military uniform and boots and things like that. Later in 1989 the second phase of Ideological Revolution (after the first phase which was operated in 1985 when the couples were forced to divorce.) was started by MEK that claimed that the first phase was not completed and the divorces should be perfect for ever; this time the divorces should be real and there is no return and anyone who wants to enter the organization must divorce. Since that time divorce became a condition for membership in the MKO.

They named this revolution as “whirl-wind” in which they filtered the devotees from the opponents. Several meetings were arranged by Masud and Maryam Rajavi who brought members group by group there; where they set the situation so artificially that the members became obliged to take out their wedding rings and divorce their spouses. I was in the last group of MKO members who divorced.

They held the meeting for a group of members. From the beginning moments the members were so worried of being called, then they called a person who went to deliver all his responsibilities… then we saw Maryam and Masud cheering made an atmosphere and asked the person:” Ok, now what must you give?” Or “what have you hidden?” they pressured the member mentally and at the end he was prepared for divorce. The person had to write and sign the feature of his dependence on his spouse, his problems and thoughts. Then he had continual meetings so as he can ideologically divorce the marriage in his mind. Thus the leaders could have a better control on the members’ emotions and feelings. The next step was to cut the remaining emotional point: children.

They sent the children to places, they know themselves, and for example they sent my son to a country and my daughter to another one and I had no idea of where they were. I remember they used the opportunity of war in 1991 and said: “Due to the war, we can not keep the kids here”, so they arranged another chantage and separated the children from their families. That was a treacherous plan that was executed. They even said themselves:” That’s a good pretext to get rid of children.”

The evil Masud had calculated everything; he knew that the presence of children would take a lot of energy. Now they had members who were completely and professionally at Masud‘s service. They sent the children to places, they know themselves, and for example they sent my son to a country and my daughter to another one and I had no idea of where they were.

I couldn’t ask, in any case, where my kids are. They would punish me using their manipulation techniques …

Then, they determined a criterion which was ‘’Maryam ‘’who divorced from her husband for Masud’s sake, married him ideologically and her whole existence has become Masud! In a new scenario, she came said:” I leave all my organizational duties” and Masud said the same thing and introduced Maryam as the first authority of the organization because she was the only one who was joined to Masud and all the others had to be dissolved in and dedicated to Maryam, if not they were called anti-woman, non-revolutionary … this was their new story to seize the members soles and minds.

The bottom line of the story is that Masud is only the ideological leader. If you want to analyze the MEK, you should work one two dimensions; one: the strategic and military dimension and two: the ideological and organizational dimension. The strategic aspect included the departure from France and arrival to Iraq to from NLA. The ideological aspect began with the ideological revolution in 1984. Following the defeat in the “Eternal Light” operation, they concluded that the failure happened because the ideological revolution hasn’t performed perfectly so the fighters haven’t fought well. The discussions on the ideological revolution ended with the divorces saying that the emotions are illegal.

After Maryam Rajavi became the first authority of MEK, Masud left all his organizational responsibilities. They wanted to open their way to European countries, so they established “Presidential Offices” in European countries. A new series of stories began with the name of “President Elect” ( Maryam Rajavi),calling for opposition groups to come under MEK’s hegemony and form National Council of Resistance to abuse them.

Then they continued with equipping their NLA by Saddam Hussein’s aid. Rajavi always was proud of the gifts granted to him by Saddam Hussein. For any operation they launched inside Iran, Saddam praised them with his offered weapons and tanks.

Translation: Nejat Society

November 23, 2008 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Mujahedin Organizational Contradictions

Mrs. Sho’le Shadram, former member of MKO, who is now residing is Sweden, had an interview with Nejat Society during her trip to Iran. The following is an extract of her speech at Tehran branch of Nejat Society:

Mrs. Sho'le Shadram, former member of MKO, who is now residing is Sweden, had an interview with Nejat Society during her trip to Iran I am Sho’le Shadram. I was born in 1966 in Lahijan, Gilan. In 1985, when I wanted to join MKO I went to Turkey from where I was sent to Iraq. When I fled Iran, I was in age of 17 and I was a MKO supporter. After I arrived in Iraq, Camp Ashraf, gradually I began to doubt what the organization was saying. I couldn’t trust them. When I was in Iran I was very sympathic and serious supporter of MKO but when I got in to a close relationship with them, I felt that they have another face which never looks like what they say.

The peak of the internal contradiction was that my first marriage was organizational [dictated by the organization] and my first husband was killed in the group’s attack to Iran [Eternal Light Operation]. My second marriage was also organizational which ended to the mandatory divorce dictated after the ideological revolution!

How do the cult leaders allow themselves to enter the individuals’ private personal space and manipulate them by psychological methods? I didn’t agree the divorce and marriage of Maryam Rajavi (the basic contradiction that everyone has question on but no one dares to express)

They wanted to convince me and the others to accept it.Under their hysteric peer pressure we had no way except accepting the controversial divorce and marriage of Maryam Azdanlou[Rajavi].

Basically I didn’t believe in going to Iraq and cooperating with Saddam Hussein, considering it treason against Iran and Iranians (this was the second basic contradiction, contrary to the principals) but the ruling atmosphere was so controlling that I didn’t have the courage to express my idea. No one had the courage to even think about defection because they had made it a taboo: the highest treason. I never accepted a responsibility so I was all the time reproached. I was ready to suffer the worst condition to find a possibility to leave the camp and never get back.

In 1990, when I was in Camp Ashraf I stated my defection from MKO, so I was immediately taken to the group’s prison in Debes in Northern Iraq. After two and a half years of living in refugee camp in Turkey, I was granted refugee status by Sweden where I got married and became the mother of three children After a year, they sent me to the refugee camp in Romadi where the condition was very bad but of-course better than that of MKO. Once I escaped from the camp to go to Jordan but the Jordanian police arrested me and handed me to Iraq. The news of my escape was published, so the organization became obliged to send me to another country. First they transferred me to Baghdad and then in 1991 Turkey where I went to the UN’s High Commission of Refugees. After two and a half years of living in refugee camp in Turkey, I was granted refugee status by Sweden where I got married and became the mother of three children.

As soon as I got to Sweden, the MKO agents came to me continuously asking me to do fundraising activities in the streets. I resisted firmly and didn’t obey them. Finally, they stopped bothering me.

For along time, after my residence in Sweden, I had terrible nightmares. I had the feeling that I was still captured in the organization. I wondered how I was deceived by the cult and how I could waist my life in a cult. At nights I had nightmares of Ashraf Camp, I shouted in sleep. A few years passed and I could find a normal status.

In Sweden there was a group that helped the people who had gone to the war and had mental problems. They also helped the defectors of MKO psychologically to return them to the society. They had experts who aided the survivors of the cult. In Sweden, I had financial problem, I was homesick and I had problem with the language but I was never willing to have the least contact with MKO.

After some time, I contacted my family who were unaware of my condition for years. I wanted to go to Iran to visit them. I got married. I got three kids and I came to Iran to make my disagreement with MKO concrete. For the time being, I have no concern except my concern for those who are still captive of Camp Ashraf and I know them.

I appreciate the efforts of Nejat Society that tries to link the captured ones of the cult of Rajavi with their families in Iran. I hope that the entire captives of Camp Ashraf and Auver Sur d’Oise can soon get back to their families and society.

November 5, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Enforced internal intelligence activities in MKO

Mojahedin-e Khalq organization (a cultist group also known as MKO, MEK, PMOI) resorts to brainwashing and controlling techniques as well as engaging in other blameful activities such as training spies in a way different from other political and security systems. Normally, espionage is considered to be a profession by itself. However, in most cases it emerges as a result of ignorance, unfounded demands, and an ever-increasing phobia on the part of those involved in it. Although it means gathering, transmitting, or losing, of information by those who pretend to be part of a system or group, Mojahedin relate it to ideological and religious issues as a valued activity.

Cultist groups make psychological use of such a phenomenon. Eric Hoffer refers to it as a marvelous slime to cement the embittered and disaffected into one compact whole, a unifying agent. He writes:

The awareness of their individual blemishes and shortcomings inclines the frustrated to detect ill will and meanness in their fellow men. Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves. Thus when the frustrated congregate in a mass movement, the air is heavy-laden with suspicion. There is prying and spying, tense watching and a tense awareness of being watched. The surprising thing is that this pathological mistrust within the ranks leads not to dissension but to strict conformity. Knowing themselves continually watched, the faithful strive to escape suspicion by adhering zealously to prescribed behavior and opinion. Strict orthodoxy is as much the result of mutual suspicion as of ardent faith (1).

Then he refers to some examples in right Fascist parties and expounds on such an assumed sacred process as follows:

Mass movements make extensive use of suspicion in their machinery of domination. The rank-and-file within the Nazi party were made to feel that they were continually under observation and were kept in a permanent state of uneasy conscience and fear. Fear of one’s neighbors, one’s friends and even ones relatives seems to be the rule within all mass movements. Now and then innocent people are deliberately accused and sacrificed in order to keep suspicion alive. Suspicion is given a sharp edge by associating all opposition within the ranks with the enemy threatening the movement from without. This enemy-the indispensable devil of every mass movement-is omnipresent. He plots both outside and inside the ranks of the faithful. It is his voice that speaks through the mouth of the dissenter, and the deviationists are his stooges. If anything goes wrong within the movement, it is his doing. It is the sacred duty of the true believer to be suspicious. He must be constantly on the lookout for saboteurs, spies and traitors (2).

Such a deep theoretical consideration within the cultist relations of MKO constitutes what we call ideological sacredness which paves the way for the application of espionage activities. Subornation is used in order to convince members of being engaged in espionage in MKO, a common approach in the world of politics practiced by Mojahedin as well. One of the Mojahedin former members expands on such a controlling procedure and writes:

One of the undemocratic and even un-revolutionary relations is that of training spies. Spy is a person communicating with others in a friendly manner and then reporting his/her actions and speeches to the leader of the organization. This approach has penetrated within the families too. Wife spies against her husband, sister spies against her brother and vice versa giving the report to the officials which debilitates the marital relations resulting in suspicion and hatred in the families. Even in one or two hours allowed to be with each other, no one dares to talk to or consult with her/his spouse since it may end in giving secret information or criticizing the organization both of which are forbidden (3).

Hadi Shams Haeri describes such a process as follows:

Spying was another means for the mental reformation of members. The organization asked members to make daily reports of their family members and give it to their person in charge to control the affairs. Even talking in a specific dialect was forbidden not to disclose information in this way. As a result, distrust was spreading among the members and every one considered other members as security agents. Also the reporting person was affected negatively turning to a double-faced person (4).

Saeed Shahsavandi, former member of Mojahedin’s central democratic cadre, in his letter to Masoud Rajavi (MKO ideological leader) refers to one of the doctrines of the ideological revolution of Mojahedin, writing:

Members’ espionage and even that of couples is done as report writing. It was initiated after the development of the ideological revolution and nowadays is ever-increasingly practicing (5).

In a nutshell, espionage turned to be a kind of organizational advancement after the initiation of ideological revolution. In most ideological sessions of Mojahedin especially that of the so-called ‘article c’, members were told to be involved in espionage in order to get promotion. It is very interesting that this approach has no red line and all members were obligated ideologically to write reports. For example, European members returning to Camp Ashraf were accused of being secret agents too. In this regard, Masoud Banisadr writes:

By now not only we had to give reports about ourselves, and our thought, but as we were told that we have to be safeguard of each other, and report back misbehaviour of each other. God knows how many people gave such reports about us from abroad that didn’t know about this new situation. Some times I could not believe my ear when I could hear some facts people were giving about themselves or others. In a meeting, a brother was accusing another brother who sat on a seat occupied before be a sister. He was accused of wanting to touch a seat, already touched by a woman (6).

According to some detached members, sometimes even the common recollection of members they chat over turned to a means for their own indictment. However, although such exchange of information in no way aimed at giving reports, the internal relations of MKO made it inevitable to end the ordinary and day-to-day chitchats of members in giving reports against one another.

The most pitiful event was that of family members’ spy against each other done under the pretext of ideological and religious considerations. Making all members indebted to the leader is one of the most important phases of the ideological revolution without which organizational membership and advancement is impossible. This principle affected common emotional relations between relatives and made members mostly concerned about organizational upgrading and contentment of the leadership.

Some members had to divorce their spouse just because of losing their organizational status. The family turned into a place of mistrust and spying within MKO. Every one was obligated to report all events happened in his/her family to the organization. There was no freedom at home. Every one with a higher organizational status had hegemony over others and more facilities and welfare (7).

Taking members under control by means of spying is one of the appalling mechanisms practiced within MKO. According to some MKO ex-members, some members ignored all ethical principles accusing their fellow warriors falsely in order to satisfy the leadership. One of the most famous gatherings of Mojahedin in which a member was condemned harshly and sometimes beaten by others was called ‘pot’. It was like being put in a pot and boiled on fire as members were put under heavy, inescapable psychological pressures and reproach. Such sessions were formed based on the reports given to the officials about members.

The process of espionage in MKO is different from other systems and organizations; in the latter it is preferred to hide the identity of spies while in MKO it is respected because it is a duty to prove loyalty to the leadership. The value given to surveillance results from the fact that MKO leadership has theorized it ideologically. As Hoffer refers to psychological aspects of this issue, Mojahedin make use of the same aspect as well as ideological considerations thus making it an ordinary daily activity.

The study of such controlling mechanisms in MKO is of special significance since they make members do self-censorship due to the fact that no one can distinct spies from ordinary members. As a result, all members control each other automatically preventing the occurrence of any tension within the organization. There are many evidences provided by separated members proving this fact. The cases discussed above well illustrate the quality and quantity of such an unethical phenomenon in the internal relations of Mojahedin many of which are not mentioned here.

References:

1. Hoffer, Eric, The true believer, p.114

2. ibid, p.115

3. Shams Haeri, Hadi, The impasse of deviations, p.26

4. Shams Haeri, Hadi, The swamp

5. Shahsavandi, Saeed, Documents of my letters to Masoud Rajavi

6. Banisadr, Masoud, The memoirs of an Iranian rebel, p.376

7 Shams Haeri, Hadi, The swamp

September 18, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

The inside and outside members of the Mujahedin Cult

Cult of Mojahedin, the inside and outside members

Cults generally tend to function in isolation and are usually remote from the society and keep away to have direct contact with people. However, for some purposes cults need to make contact with the outside world, that is, recruiting new members, fundraising and more. Sending the members to live among the free society is even more crucial when the cult comes to be a hypocritically political one that needs the society as the wheels to push the cult forth.

Although cults cut members off from easy and tete-a-tete contact with outsiders, there are a number of members in certain cults that live out of the cult among the ordinary people to fulfill the mentioned purposes. It does not mean that these outside members can escape tense, thought reform processes executed within the cult. These members seemingly living separate from the cult are also under the severe cult control and undergo the same mechanisms that are used against the insiders to changing their behavior. Explaining the mechanism in her book entitled Cults in Our Midst, Thaler Singer states that:

In most live-in cults, every detail of life comes under group scrutiny. For example, there are dress codes, food restrictions, and enforced marriages or relationships. In such cults, the members generally live together at the headquarters or at specified locations around the country or over, seas and work for cult-owned enterprises. However, there are also cults whose devotees appear to remain active in quite a few major aspects of the outside world, earning a living outside the cult. But for all practical purposes these individuals also live under rules governing such crucial features of their personal life as the people with whom they associate, what happens to their money, whether they raise their own children, and where they live. (p. 11)

At the present, Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK/PMOI), or Mojahedin Cult as it is notoriously referred to, may be the sole political cult of personality that avails big number of live-in and live-out members. The group’s main bastion being located in Camp Ashraf in Iraq, its headquarters are situated in Auvers-Sur-Oise in Paris with countless aliases aiding the cult in fundraising activities, recruitment, propaganda blitz, organizing rallies and so forth. Thus, it is of great importance to know:

– Under what aliases the cult is running its illegal activities

– How the members and sympathizers in these affiliated groups are controlled and receive cult instructions

– How essential are these cult relations to the cult

– What is the difference between the mechanisms applied against the Camp Ashraf live-ins and those living in the Western countries

– How crucial is the role of Camp Ashraf to establish contact with the outside world and the live-out members

As released by the State Department Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism on April 30, 2007 MKO is active under a variety of pseudonyms known as MKO; Mujahedin-e Khalq; Muslim Iranian Students’ Society; National Council of Resistance; National Council of Resistance (NCR); Organization of the People’s Holy Warriors of Iran; The National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA); The People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI); National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI); Sazeman-e Mujahedin-e Khalq-e Iran.

However, these are not all aliases but those officially announced. To the list can be added numerous political, social, charity, art and much more groups and societies wherein hardly you can trace them back to the mother group. They all function according to the taste and culture of the societies among whom they live and mostly propagate under democratic standards. For instance, the women and girls officially active as MKO insiders are forced to wear outfits covering all their body parts and the head. Even Maryam Rajavi herself in spite of dressing in colorful non-transparent outfit never shows in the public bareheaded. But there are many occasions in which women sympathizers and activists assemble in extravagant western fashions in favor of MKO.

It has to be also mentioned that many of these sympathizers are unaware of the real nature of MKO and work as propaganda tools to beguile the Westerners. As soon as they are recruited as the formal members, they have to consent to cult principles that includes the clothing as well. And Camp Ashraf is the very same remote bastion of the cult housing the live-in members and where the cult standards are outlined and demarcated for the active outsiders in the West.

August 30, 2008 0 comments

Zeinab Taleb Jedi

N.Y. Judge Green-Lights Trial for Terrorism Case

N.Y. Judge Green-Lights Trial for Terrorism Case Involving Group Working With U.S. Military

A federal judge in Brooklyn has upheld a terrorism prosecution against a U.S. citizen working for a group violently opposed to the Iranian government.

Zeinab Taleb-Jedi had argued that her indictment for providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization was outrageous because the group to which she belongs, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), has been working with the U.S. military in Iraq.

But such are the fortunes of war, Eastern District of New York Judge Brian M. Cogan ruled in United States v. Taleb-Jedi, 06 cr. 652.

"Foreign relations generally and specifically during a time of war are not black and white, and the PMOI need not be viewed as a monolithic entity," the judge wrote. "It is perfectly permissible for the military to forge alliances with those in the PMOI with whom it wants to deal, while the Government deters through prosecution other individuals, particularly United States citizens, from rendering material support to the organization on their own."

Cogan observed that war itself is an "outrageous, but as determined by other branches of government, sometimes necessary undertaking."

Taleb-Jedi, who was born in Iran, came to the United States in 1978 and became a citizen in 1996. She worked for PMOI in America, then went to Iraq in 1999 to work at the group’s base. Among her activities were teaching English, translating documents and serving as a member of PMOI’s political department.

The U.S. State Department designated PMOI a foreign terrorist organization (listed as "Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization") in 1997, based on its involvement with assassinations and other activities targeting the Iranian government. Questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Taleb-Jedi was arrested and charged with providing material support to the group on her return to the United States in 2006.

In addition to arguing that the prosecution should be thrown out, Taleb-Jedi also challenged her indictment on First Amendment grounds, claiming PMOI is not a terrorist organization and that she is entitled to be a member of it.

The judge said any claim that PMOI was not a terrorist organization was complicated by the group’s own acknowledgement of its involvement in assassinations and other violent activities. Moreover, he said, the group’s designation by the State Department fell within the discretion accorded the executive branch in matters of national security.

The rest of her First Amendment challenge failed because, according to the prosecution, she was an employee of PMOI rather than a mere supporter, the judge said. Freedom of speech and association, he said, did not extend to actively working on a terrorist group’s behalf, even if her duties were nonviolent.

The judge noted that many terrorist groups simultaneously engaged in education and social welfare programs. But he said, even if Taleb-Jedi’s work was in a benign area, "she may be freeing up or enabling another person to take part in something far more nefarious."

However, Cogan added, if Taleb-Jedi could advance evidence at trial showing that her participation in PMOI was more passive or explicitly nonviolent in nature, an acquittal might be warranted. For instance, he noted, if her English lessons were solely to help the group advocate before the United Nations, such conduct might not constitute material support.

Taleb-Jedi was represented by Justine Harris of Federal Defenders. In a statement, Harris said she and her client were eager to take the case before a jury.

"Ultimate resolution of many of the legal issues will depend on whether the government can sustain its allegations at trial," said Harris. "At the close of the evidence, we will all have to revisit the substantial First Amendment and Due Process issues at stake."

The government was represented by Eileen M. Decker, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, as well as Eastern District of New York Assistant U.S. Attorney Kellie T. Currie.

Anthony Lin – New York Law Journal

August 11, 2008 0 comments

Canada

Crown makes its case against Iranian refugee

Crown makes its case against Iranian refugee; Longtime city resident alleged former leader with Mujahedin-e-Khalq group

VANCOUVER – A longtime Vancouver resident who has been denied Canadian citizenship for 14 years may have downplayed his involvement with Iran’s Mujahedin-e-Khalq terrorist group, Crown counsel alleged Wednesday.

But his lawyer said Morteza Momenzadeh Tameh was trapped in limbo after 9/11.

Helen Park presented the government’s reasoning behind its recommendation that Tameh be declared inadmissible for permanent residency status in Canada at an appeal hearing in Federal Court.

"Mr. Tameh rose to leadership [in the group]. He had responsibility. This was more than a minimal effort in this organization," Park told Justice Anne Mactavish.

She said Tameh was a cell leader in the Mujahedin-e-Khalq group (MEK) when he lived in his native Iran from 1979 to 1982. Even as late as 1993, after he was imprisoned for his support, Tameh was warning its members that the police were after them, she said.

Park said Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day had to assess both Tameh’s minimizing of his involvement in the MEK and the fact that he had "aided an organization geared toward violent purposes."

Tameh’s lawyer, Shane Molyneaux, told the court Tameh had had a low-level, minimal involvement with the MEK as a youth. In 1979, Tameh, then a teenager, passed out political pamphlets and wrote graffiti on walls when the MEK was a legitimate, peaceful political presence in Iran. Only after mass arrests of MEK supporters in Iran did the group strike back with violence. When Tameh learned of the MEK’s turn to violence, he renounced the group, Molyneaux said.

"He was caught up in it because many young people were interested in it. … He had no involvement in, or witness to, violent acts," said Molyneaux.

As a supporter of the MEK, Tameh was imprisoned in Iran for four years and tortured on two occasions. He was granted convention refugee status in 1993.

Canada Immigration and Citizenship officer Karen Gordon interviewed Tameh in August 2001, just a month before 9/11, and concluded he was no threat to Canadian society. A Canadian Security and Intelligence Services report also determined Tameh posed no risk.

Molyneaux said Day didn’t consider that Tameh has long been emphatic against the MEK and its violent tactics, and that when the group tried to recruit Tameh again in 1991, he rejected them.

Park acknowledged Tameh has established himself in Canada, renounced the MEK, and showed no evidence he is a danger to Canadian society. "There’s no suggestion that he’s not being truthful when he’s disavowing the MEK. … It was taken at face value that he had renounced it," she said.

As a convention refugee still waiting for permanent residency status, Tameh must apply every year for a permit to work at his restaurant. He can’t vote, apply for student loans or travel outside Canada. He has worked in a cleaning business and for the last year as co-owner of Canteen Mitra, a popular Main Street take-out restaurant serving Middle Eastern specialties.

Molyneaux said Tameh was caught in a limbo between refugee and permanent residency status when processes dealing with applications changed after 9/11.

Canadian Council of Refugees executive director Janet Dench said hundreds of convention refugees — those at risk of human rights abuses in their native countries and protected by Canada — are caught in similar binds, due to the broad definition of security risk in Canada. "Timing can make it complicated. You could be a member of an organization that is non-violent. You leave it, it becomes violent, and you’re inadmissible," Dench said. "Then you often end up with unjustified refusals for permanent residency."

Mary Frances Hill, Vancouver Sun, July 17, 2008

July 28, 2008 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Mojahedin Khalq Leader on trial in USA

In a largely overlooked case that has outraged some, Iranian widow faces terror charges in US

NEW YORK (AP) – In March 2003, Zeinab Taleb-Jedi was a middle-aged widow who found herself trapped in a cold, dusty bunker in Iraq as invading U.S. forces began blowing up buildings and inflicting casualties all around her.

"The noise was overwhelming and frightening," the Iran-born U.S. citizen said in a statement recounting the air raids around Camp Ashraf, a stronghold for Iranian exiles about 60 miles (96 kilometers) north of Baghdad. "The attacks terrified me."

Taleb-Jedi, 52, escaped serious harm. But more than five years later, she remains stuck in legal limbo in New York, facing federal terrorism charges labeling her a leader of a militant group advocating the violent overthrow of the Iranian government.

Her largely overlooked arrest and protracted prosecution has outraged civil rights advocates, who accuse federal authorities of trampling free speech by overzealously enforcing laws against providing material support to terrorist groups.

Defense attorney Justine Harris has questioned why "the government would want to put this woman in jail for associating with a group whose goal is regime change in Iran, arguably a central tenant of our own foreign policy."

Taleb-Jedi has been linked to the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, a group designated a terrorist organization by the State Department in 1997. Prosecutors say she became an English teacher in 1999 at the organization’s Iraq headquarters, Camp Ashraf, and that two informants have since identified her as a member of a leadership council.

In a pending motion to dismiss the case, Harris claims the government has never specified how her client purportedly supported terrorism, "other than teaching English — itself an entirely innocuous act."

Prosecutors counter that "teaching English to other terrorists is not protected First Amendment activity."

A federal judge in Brooklyn has said he will soon decide whether to let the case go forward. If convicted, Taleb-Jedi faces up to 15 years in prison.

Meanwhile, Taleb-Jedi is free on $500,000 bond and living in a homeless shelter in Manhattan.

Originally a Marxist-Islamist group, the People’s Mujahedeen formed in the mid-1960s to oppose the U.S.-backed dictatorship of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. During the 1970s, it killed U.S. citizens working in Tehran, supported the 1979 takeover of the American Embassy there and participated in Iran’s Islamic Revolution, according to the State Department.

After a falling out with the ruling clerics, the group launched a campaign of assassinations and bombings in an attempt to topple them. The group moved to Iraq in the early 1980s to fight Iran’s rulers from there.

The group insists it no longer engages in armed struggle, and it won a court decision last year in Britain removing it from that government’s terror list. It also won the support of some U.S. lawmakers by providing intelligence on Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles, who sought the indictment against Taleb-Jedi amid a broader investigation of the People’s Mujahedeen, had no comment.

A frail-looking Taleb-Jedi declined to talk about her case when she left a recent court hearing.

"Life has been very difficult for her," her lawyer said.

FBI reports about interviews with Taleb-Jedi in 2004 — questioning her lawyer claims was done under duress — and the widow’s own sworn statement tell a story more sorrowful than sinister.

Born in Tehran, Taleb-Jedi came to the United States on a student visa in 1978 and earned a master’s degree in political science. Around the same time, her first marriage fell apart because her husband was "very cruel" and "became a Khomeini supporter," FBI agents said she told them.

She said she was granted political asylum in the mid-1980s, the FBI said. She remarried and moved to New York City with her husband in 1983.

Her second husband left the U.S. a few years later to join the People’s Mujahedeen at Camp Ashraf. She stayed behind to work odd jobs and raise the couple’s son.

According to the FBI reports, Taleb-Jedi said she visited her husband at Camp Ashraf in 1987. Records show that year she also became a registered press officer for the group.

The FBI claims she told them that she knew that the group had been designated as a terrorist organization and considered the decision "unconstitutional and unfair."

In 1996, Taleb-Jedi became a U.S. citizen. A year later, she learned her husband had died in a bus bombing on a road between Camp Ashraf and Baghdad.

Taleb-Jedi "described herself as being extremely distraught about her husband’s assassination," the FBI reports said. "Because she wanted to be close to his grave, she decided to come to Camp Ashraf."

She told agents she taught English in the camp and believed in the group’s cause, but never became an official member.

U.S. officials say that at Camp Ashraf they seized tanks, anti-aircraft weapons, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and more than 420,000 pounds of plastic explosives. Despite the stockpile, no one there was expected to be charged, according to news accounts in 2004.

That changed for Taleb-Jedi in March 2006 when, after waiting for more than a year to receive a renewed U.S. passport, she flew from Jordan to New York to see her adult son and seek medical treatment for malnutrition and other ailments, her lawyer said.

FBI agents who were waiting at John F. Kennedy International Airport arrested her.

By TOM HAYS,

June 19, 2008 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

compliance with ethical obligations

The Cult of Mojahedin: compliance with ethical obligations

Many believe that the US will use Machiavelli MKO until it is usable and until tensions exist between the two countries, otherwise Americans consider the organization as a mob of war criminals and terrorists that have to be tried for different charges such as killing thousands of Iranian civilians. Of course, MKO has nothing to lose as an opposition group that hardly respects political ethics in its struggle. It is much a new challenge for the US for having put any trust in a proscribed terrorist group that is heavily built on the structure of a cult of personality.

MKO’s inherent tendency toward Machiavellianism frustrates having any trust in its promises and Americans are well aware of the fact that even the group’s surrendering of weapons following the invasion of the coalition forces to Iraq was a tactic to prevent its complete demise. Completely disregarding to respect any codes of ethics in its political conducts with the world outside, MKO is among the rare political and the so-called revolutionary organizations that from its very formation preferably adopted a stealthy policy so as not to bring its strategic and ideological rudiments into view.

As a terrorist group, MKO considered violence and aggressive actions as ethical and legitimate for the accomplishment of the cause since the Machiavellian motto of “the end justifies the means” permitted it to take advantage of any unconventional and violent means in the power struggle. As Walter Reich explains; “A terrorist if considers something ethical, according to his understanding of ideology, it turns to be accepted ethics by all members. Thus, according to that same ideology, the killing of anybody as enemy would be justifiable and necessary”. 1

The group’s duality of conducts took a turn for the worse when it transformed into a cult of personality and mingled terrorism with cultism. Explaining on the inherent double set of ethics in the cults Thaler Singer sates:

Cults tend to have a double set of ethics. Members are urged to be open and honest within the group and to confess all to the leader. At the same time, members are encouraged to deceive and manipulate nonmembers. In contrast, established religions and ethical groups teach members to be honest and truthful to all and to abide by one set of ethics. The overriding philosophy in cults, however, is that the ends justify the means, a view that allows cults to establish their own brand of morality, outside normal social bounds. 2

The most unequivocal reason behind the cults’ duality seems to be the created rift that splits the members from the world outside. In fact, under the influence of the cult’s dogmatism, a member, even if he wills, can hardly swing to any other transcendental belief than what the cult has convinced him to have belief in. Thus, a cult fanatic sees no need to undergo any conversion but to assume a false identity for some time. Eric Hoffer states that:

The fanatic cannot be weaned away from his cause by an appeal to his reason or moral sense. He fears Compromise and cannot be persuaded to qualify the certitude and righteousness of his holy cause. But he lings no difficulty in swinging suddenly and wildly from one holy cause to another. He cannot be convinced but only converted. His passionate attachment is more vital than the I quality of the cause to which he is attached. 3

In the same way, what forces MKO to get closer to the US in spite of its totally ideological contradiction with the imperialism is the need. MKO respects no political principles unless they could be of any instrumental use:

The fanatic is not really a stickler to principle. He embraces a cause not primarily because of its justness and holiness but because of his desperate need of something to hold on to. 4

Regardless of all these views, the main focus is on the supposition that Mojahedin’s dual character and contradictory conducts in its political dealings with the West and the US in particular endorse its untruthful cult feature. Developing cult methodology, MKO gave especial trainings to selected members working in foreign affairs offices of the organization. Massoud Bani-sadr, an ex-member, in his memorial well expounds on the duality of his chosen cult and the instructions he received to perform on the political scene:

Soon I learned we have to act in meetings as Liberal and as Bourgeois as possible. Those were my own characters that for past seven years I was running from them, for changing myself into a Mojahed. In this type of work, I had to have double character, double life and double behaviour, a character, which I hated most. Within the organisation we had to be, straight, simple, honest, humble, and very modest in dressing ourselves. While in work we had to be very careful in what we were going to say. Honesty didn’t have any meaning, nobody was advising us to lie, but we had to be very careful in not saying the whole truth in any subject, which we were talking about it. Only that part of truth had to be said and magnified which were beneficial for us. At this point, we had to give a lot of useless information, as much as making the listener tired of asking any question, especially questions related to those things, which we were not keen in talking about them. Our wording had to be as complex as possible to make it more sophisticated, and difficult to find the existed holes among our arguments. 5

The remarks made by a Western born and raised ex-member can also well explain MKO’s double face when attempting to craft viaduct to pass over the crisis and challenges:

A further look at the controversy of Rajavi’s political history shows an unprincipled avoidance of risk. The Mojahedin is an anti-imperialist group with a history of killing Americans, now happily having petitions signed by American Senators in 1991 while they stayed in Iraq. These Senators quickly withdrew their signatures when they discovered what they had been hoodwinked into supporting. The Mojahedin is a Muslim group with historical ties with the PLO, seeking the support of the Jewish lobby in the United States against the Iranian regime, and at the same time holding meetings with Yassir Arafat. The Mojahedin fought for Saddam in the Gulf War and at the same time took money from Saudi Arabia. Both the Jewish lobby and Saudi Arabia have now stopped any support. The Mojahedin have their main base in Paris, but at the same time threatened the French during the Gabon crisis with suicide bombings. 6

Well acquainted with MKO’s double set of ethics in political conducts, the US is reluctant to risk singling out MKO as a reliable alternative. MKO’s present claim of being the sole democratic alternative is nothing beyond pointless advertisements following the cultivated hope in it by some Western advocates and which is listened to only by a trivial number of misled sympathizers.

References:

Reich Walter; Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of Mind (Woodrow Wilson Center Press).

2. Thaler Singer, Margaret; Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace, p. 9.

3. Eric Hoffer; The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, New York: First Perennial Classics 2002, p. 62.

4. Ibid. 61.

5. Massoud Bani-sadr’s memories of an Iranian rebel.

6. Iran-Interlink; Anne Singleton’s Saddam Private Army.

Mojahedin.ws, Research Bureau,

May 27, 2008 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

The victims of terrorism never cheer for terrorists’ victory

Is it ever important for Over 3000 MKO members confined in Camp Ashraf whether the organization’s terrorist tag is removed? As reported by MKO’s official website, the Iraqi News Agency in an article entitled ‘Ashraf people win again’ stated “the skies of London, Paris and Ashraf embraced the new victorious and jubilant cheers for removing the terrorist tag from the PMOI. The new victory was not only the victory of Ashraf residents and the Resistance inside and outside Iran, but it was also the victory for all supporters of this steely resistance across the world”.

No doubt, Camp Ashraf is more than a strategic base for the cult of Mojahedin, Ashraf Base namely, the ideological fortress of the cult that must be maintained at all costs. There is no need to say that living conditions in this camp are below any reasonable standard and any humanitarian move is appreciated for a smooth outlet out of a hell of anguish and agony to a world wherein they could live as human beings.

The members’ avalanche-like drift to TIPF indicates their desperate attempt to be relieved of the painful misery there. To stop them, the organization initiated a new move to resurrect its cult-like control over the dissatisfied members and put them under enormous physical and psychological pressure and brainwashing methods. A few have also committed suicide because they could not bear the imposed pressure and failed to join others in TIPF.

How do Mojahedin and their advocates define terrorism? Is the world fully informed of the condition of Ashraf’s residents? In fact, the reported celebrations in Camp Ashraf in nature mean opposition demonstration. A question torments the camp residents that if the organization has really foresworn militarism making it liable to be removed from the terrorist list, then, for what reason they are still wearing the uniforms of the so-called Liberation Army and are held as captives? Many wonder that how can the captives in Ashraf, many of them women, ever chant jubilant cheers for removing the terrorist tag from the group while they are the ostensible victims of terrorism themselves! Mojahedin.ws, May 14, 2008

http://www.mojahedin.ws/news/text_news_en.php?id=1671

May 15, 2008 0 comments

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