The Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie is said to have arrived to Iran on Monday June 19 to seek boosting ties between Tehran-Baghdad and
other regional countries and finalizing security victories in Iraq and the two countries agreements reached in Iraq. Upon his arrival, he is reported to have stated that “under no circumstances” can the Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) members stay in Iraq.
“The Iraqi government has made a serious decision to expel the residents of Camp Ashraf and has informed them that they have only two options: they can either return to Iran or go to another country,” he told reporters at Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran.
The Iraqi government took over the control of Camp Ashraf, home to 3,500 MKO members on January 1, as part of a bilateral security deal between the U.S. and Iraq. al-Rubaie reiterated that the MKO’s terrorist members must soon leave Iraq since Iraq could no longer be a haven for groups that could jeopardize the country’s security and peace.
MKO members, who had the support of the ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, are now temporally staying at Camp Ashraf in northern Dyala Province. The US forces transferred responsibility for guarding the camp to the Iraqi government at the start of this year. Iraq says it wants to close the camp but will not force residents to leave.
Both Iraq and the US consider the group to be a terrorist organization although MKO says it has renounced violence. The claim is made after it was disarmed by the coalition forces but the military nature and discipline have hardly left the camp and the residents are still living under harsh military commands in the absence of the leaders running an easy, luxurious life in France.
Mojahedin.ws – January 20, 2009
The office of Mr. Movafagh Al Rabiee, Iraq’s National Security Advisor, has issued a statement. 
The security forces of Iraq have arrested a member of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (aka: MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCRI, Rajavi cult) after he failed to carry out his suicide mission inside an Iraqi security base.
According to the source this resident of Ashraf camp (MKO base) gave himself up and is now being kept in secure and safe conditions.
According to the statement this member of Mojahedin Khalq has now complained about the severe exercise of torture and brainwashing techniques employed by the heads of the organisation.
According to his written statements, he claims that: “I was sent with a clear and precise plan to perform a suicide mission in this Iraqi base”.
According to the statement of the office of Iraq’s National Security Advisor, “the aim of this suicide attack has been to put pressure on the security forces of Iraq, to entangle them in this because it is this new force that has taken over the security of Ashraf camp from January 01, 2009”
The statement says it is believed that this was to be used in the media in the Arab world as well as the western media by MKO and its supporters. It also has the aim of making the disaffected members inside the camp afraid of giving themselves up to the Iraqi forces.
The statement adds that every effort is being made to either repatriate him voluntarily or find another country to transfer him. The Iraqi government wishes to announce that while the government of Iraq is committed to all its international obligations, including any promises made to the United State administration, that: “the security forces of Iraq are aware and conscious of the fruitless activities of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation in creating disturbances in Iraqi society and have been briefed to be able to carry out their duties”.
Buratha News in Baghdad, January 19, 2009
http://burathanews.net/news_article_58139.html
Muajhedin-e-Kahlq Iran was considered as the powerful armed opposition against Iran and its objectives was the evident overthrow of the Iranian
regime.
Until the fall of Saddam Hussein, the organization was in the spotlight by its National Liberation Army, the military wing of MKO that has launched many terrorist operations against Iran.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political arm of MKO which is active in Europe and North America, has got the attention of the world due to its large-scale propaganda and systematic fund raising activities.
MKO has repeatedly succeeded to have public attention using its professional propagandistic skills.
The most significant example on the case are the self-immolation acts in London, Paris, Rome, Bern, under the pretext of French Security Police’s raid on MKO bases due to their illegal fundraising activities and terrorist operations (The investigation on MKO headquarters in Paris and 12 other locations and the arrest of 150 members.)
In that raid 9 million US dollars in cash and highly advanced transmission facilities were found at MKO base.
The arrest warrant was issued for 11 of high-ranking officials and Maryam Rajavi, the wife of Masud Rajavi, the MKO leader. Maryam Rajavi, who is called the president – in exile of the organization, was released together with the other detainees.
This bulletin includes the clandestine activities of MKO and the process of their cooperation with Saddam Hussein, their current situation and importance. It also presents the totalitarian characteristic of the organization that has not denounced violence in its political struggle even after the disarmament of its military arm.
Once James Lukaszewski in The Media and the Terrorist stated that: “Media coverage and terrorism are soul mates – virtually inseparable. They feed off each other. They together create a dance of death – the one for political or ideological motives, the other for commercial success”.
MKO considers advantages of the effectiveness of the media in its cult-like activities so important that it uses a number of methods to manipulate the media. Exploited beyond their main purpose, the media are practical instruments to fulfill MKO’s ambitions. Besides their utilization to augment psychological warfare and propaganda blitz, the media are turned into the means of diffusing ideological teachings directly and indirectly.
MKO has proved that it is the master of propaganda and advertisement blitz and, of course, the successful advertiser is the master of a new art that converts the truth. The political advertising messages that MKO prepares to be released in some highly circulated papers may actually strengthen its information value to deceive readers especially those unfamiliar with its terrorist and cult nature concealed under a pro-democratic razzle-dazzle.
Here is a report by MKO’s official site giving details on an advertisement published by Washington Times’ Special Section on 111th Congress : “The January 14 issue of the Washington Times published the 10-point declaration announced by the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, for free Iran of future.”
The Washington Times’ Special Section has published nothing but a piece of advertisement for the money it has been paid. If the terrorist MKO think it works to be a highly valued purchase of legitimacy, so let them enjoy they illusion!
MKO is an exiled cult-like organization that resorts to armed attacks to destabilize the government in Tehran.
The US State Department has declared that the official designation of Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group is appropriate.
In a notice published Monday in the Federal Register, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that the MKO group should remain in its list of terrorist organizations.
The US announcement comes amid Iraqi government efforts to expel members of the terrorist group. Baghdad assumed control of the security of Camp Ashraf, the main MKO military base in Iraq’s Diyala province, on January 1, 2009.
The Mujahedin Khalq Organization is blacklisted by many countries, including EU member states and the United States as a terrorist organization. It relocated to Camp Ashraf from Iran after the Islamic Revolution.
Prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the MKO enjoyed the support of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain, who provided the group with arms and military equipment to launch attacks against the Islamic Republic during the Iraqi war against Iran (1980-88).
The Iraqi government says the MKO has played a significant role in destabilizing the war-torn country, blaming the group for terrorist attacks within Iraq.
The recent move provoked the group to file a petition in order to take the case to the court.”We will take the case to the court and we will win,” a Paris-based spokesman for the group, Shahin Gobadi, proclaimed.
The MKO has sought to have the group removed from the list of terrorist organizations, lobbying the European parliament and officials.
Baghdad urges the expulsion or relocation of the terrorist group, saying the MKO presence at Camp Ashraf may strain its diplomatic relations with Tehran.
In addition to terrorist attacks within Iran, which claimed the lives of 12,000 civilians, the MKO helped Saddam in suppressing Iraqi Kurds.
The U.S. State Department reaffirmed its designation of the anti-Iran Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization as a terrorist organization.
The presence in Iraq of the MKO has long been a source of friction between Washington and Baghdad, which intends to expel the terrorist group.
The MKO had filed a petition for revocation of its designation as a terrorist organization. But U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote in a notice published Monday in the Federal Register that after reviewing the case she determined that the designation is still valid and appropriate.
Iraq’s government has long sought to get rid of the MKO, but the issue took on new urgency when Iraq assumed greater sovereignty Jan. 1 under a new security agreement that gave the Iraqis responsibility for Camp Ashraf.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said on Jan. 1 that the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization can ""no longer operate in Iraq"".
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
The MKO is on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze, and has been designated by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visits Brussels and despite the ban enjoys full freedom in Europe.
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).
In recent months, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world in the hope of acknowledgement as a legitimate opposition group.
Mojahedin Khalq Organisation still designated a FTO in USA
In the Matter of the Review of the Designation of Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK), and All Designated Aliases, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization Upon Petition Filed Pursuant to Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as Amended
The MEK filed a petition for revocation of its designation as a foreign terrorist organization (the “Petition”). Based upon a review of the Administrative Record assembled in this matter, including the Petition and associated filings by the MEK, pursuant to Section 219(a)(4)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended (8 U.S.C. 1189(a)(4)(B)) (“INA”), and in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, I conclude that the circumstances that were the basis for the 2003 re-designation of the aforementioned organization as a foreign terrorist organization have not changed in such a manner as to warrant revocation of the designation and that the national security of the United States does not warrant a revocation.
Therefore, I hereby determine that the designation of the aforementioned organization as a foreign terrorist organization, pursuant to Section 219 of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1189), shall be maintained.
This determination shall be published in the Federal Register.
Dated: January 7, 2009.
Condoleezza Rice,
Secretary of State, Department of State.
Iraqi govt won’t forcibly evict Iranians
The Iraqi government has promised it won’t forcibly evict an Iranian opposition group based in Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s era, the U.S. ambassador said in a television interview broadcast Saturday.
The People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, also known as the Mujahedeen Khalq, fears Iran is pressuring Iraq to expel its members and force them back to Iran.
Iraq’s government has taken over national security from the Americans under a new agreement. But the U.S. Embassy has said American forces remain at the group’s base known as Camp Ashraf.
U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker pointed out the Americans have designated the People’s Mujahedeen as a terrorist organization, and he understands the Iraqi government wants the group removed from its territory.
But he said the Iraqis have promised to respect the human rights of the group’s members."We’ve discussed this issue intensively with the Iraqi government," he told the U.S.-funded Alhurra television station. "They have provided assurances that none of these individuals will be forcibly sent to a third country where they have reason to fear for their safety or well-being, and we know those assurances will be respected."
Iraq’s deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abbawi said the government has been working with international agencies to try to find an acceptable way to remove the group, perhaps by finding other countries willing to take them.
"The Iraqi government’s position is that members of the Mujahedeen Khalq are unwanted here and they should leave Iraq and their camp should be closed, but Iraq will not make them leave forcibly," he told The Associated Press.
"We do not want to put their lives at stake," Abbawi said. "Even for those who wish to return to Iran, we have already gained assurances from Iranian officials that they will face no danger and we have ongoing talks regarding this issue with Tehran."
The People’s Mujahedeen, which allied with Saddam during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, has about 3,500 people at Camp Ashraf. When U.S.-led troops overthrew the regime, they demilitarized the group and confined its fighters to the compound northeast of Baghdad, under the protection of the multinational forces.
"Clearly, Iraq would like to see an organization that they too consider a terrorist organization no longer on their soil," Crocker said. "At the same time, like a responsible democracy, they have recognized that these individuals have basic humans rights, and they have provided assurances to uphold them."
The U.S. Embassy said in December that American troops would remain at Camp Ashraf "to assist the government of Iraq in carrying out its assurances of humane treatment of the residents" after the transition to the new security agreement, which took effect on Jan. 1.
By SAMEER N. YACOUB
It is unfortunate to hear every few days a new story of terrorism and acts of extremism hits the news in which a number of innocent civilians are targeted and perished. It is not important to which country or race the victims belong; they are all humans and terrorism has to be condemned in any form. Of the most despised form is when instead of condemning the act itself, a party takes it an opportunity to blame another party to acquit itself of the deed, regardless of having played a role in the incident, or the main perpetrators to whom it has close affinity or glorifies their atrocity.
Reported by Iranian Fars News Agency originally in Persian, a man riding a bike hurled grenade toward a line of civilians who were moving as mourners of Ashura rituals in the Iranian eastern city of Torbat Jam on January 7, leaving a dead and a number of people wounded. The attacker was, however, arrested and awaits the trial and the punishment that he deserves regardless of to what group it belongs. But to hear a terrorist group that has shed the blood of hundreds of Iranian innocent people and has still escaped trial being sympathetic towards the attacking terrorist is absolutely intolerable.
Covering the report of the incident, the MKO-run media is taking the side of the attacker putting the blame on Iranian regime. It is not at all important that a man has been killed and many injured but what is of significance for them is that the regime is claimed to be “plotting to execute prisoners and dissidents”. Is it actually a granted permission to dissidents and opponents to kill people as a justified means to achieve their ends as MKO has followed the line itself? How can the group expect to be delisted from the terrorist lists when it still glorifies terrorism as an appropriate method to fight the opponent party? The Western advocates of the group who believe that MKO has denounced terrorism and violence are recommended to read between the lines of the reports delivered by MKO.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he has established a committee to develop the country’s relations with Iran.
Speaking to reporters in Tehran Monday after wrapping up meetings with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other officials, Maliki said his visit to Tehran has resulted in the formation of a supreme joint committee for bilateral relations development.
Maliki said an agreement was reached to form a reconstruction services company with Iran that would come into play after Iraq has gained more stability.
The prime minister said Iraq will also cooperate with other countries in the region, such as Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey, in bids to accelerate Iraq’s redevelopment.
Maliki also told Iranian state-run television that his government would not allow the use of Iraqi territory as a threat against its neighbors, alluding to the US troops deployed in Iraq and the anti-Iranian terrorist opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization.
Iraq has vowed to expel the MKO from the country in the near future.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
The MKO is on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze, and has been designated by the US government as a foreign terrorist organization. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visits Brussels and despite the ban enjoys full freedom in Europe.
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).
Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.
A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.
According to Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.
Leaders of the group have been fighting to shed its terrorist tag after a series of bloody anti-Western attacks in the 1970s, and nearly 30 years of violent struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In recent months, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world in the hope of acknowledgement as a legitimate opposition group.
The UK initiative, however, has prompted the European Union to establish relations with the exiled organization now based in Paris. The European Court of First Instance threw its weight behind the MKO in December and annulled its previous decision to freeze its funds.
The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s.