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The MEK’s terrorist activities

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Iranian families participating in a gathering in Baghdad

A press meeting was arranged in the assembly hall of Kadhimyya in Baghdad on Saturday 25th of September 2010 from 10 till 12 am about the crimes committed by the Rajavi destructive cult.

A press meeting was arranged in the assembly hall of Kadhimyya in Baghdad

In this meeting a number of 15 individuals from the families of the members of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO – Rajavi cult) trapped in Ashraf garrison were invited. They answered the questions of the reporters and other participants. Many news agencies and public media including some television and satellite channels were present in this gathering.

The purpose of this meeting was to introduce the families of Iraqi victims who have been killed by the Rajavi cult.

The first person to speak was Ms. Ahlam Almaliki the organizer of the meeting

The first person to speak was Ms. Ahlam Almaliki the organizer of the meeting. She first welcomed the Iranian families who have come to Iraq to visit their relatives in Ashraf garrison but after 8 months they have not been able to do so. She announces the aim of the gathering to reveal the atrocities committed by the Rajavi cult against the Iraqi people and demand of the gathering to prosecute and to penalize the leaders of the cult who have shed the blood of the innocents. She also said that the cult must be moved from Iraq and its elements must be expelled from the country. She asked why the US administration supports this group and why they prevent their leaders to be tried and expelled from Iraq. She said that there are many evidences indicating that the American commanders in the US army in Iraq cooperated with this terrorist group and they still do so. She said that at least 150 individuals from the cult have lawsuits in the judiciary system of Iraq with piles of documents. There are many documents showing that the leader of MKO are responsible for the lives of many Iraqis as well as torturing and imprisoning their own members but the American influence in Iraq is preventing them to be prosecuted. She also said that the members of the cult in Iraq even damaged the historical sites and joined the looting after invasion and at the moment they are sponsoring terrorism in Iraq and back the elements of the previous toppled regime.

In this meeting a number of 15 individuals from the families of the members of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO – Rajavi cult) trapped in Ashraf garrison were invited

The families of Iraqi martyrs called the Iranian families on the scene and welcomed them and showed their sympathy towards them. The Iranian families whose relatives were members of MKO said that they feel ashamed to be at the side of the families of the victims of the MKO.

In this gathering Ms. Sorayya Abdullahi on behalf of all families picketing in front of Ashraf garrison delivered a speech for 15 minutes which draw the attention of the reporters and the participants particularly the television networks present inside the meeting. Her speech had good media coverage.

The families said that it is more than 8 months that they are present in front of Ashraf garrison and all they want is to see their loved ones for even a short time,

The Families present in the gathering then were interviewed by the media and answered their questions. The families said that it is more than 8 months that they are present in front of Ashraf garrison and all they want is to see their loved ones for even a short time, but the leaders of the MKO reject this which is an obvious example of violating basic human rights. They said to the reporters that the Rajavi terrorist cult has banned any sort of contact with the families for its members, they have basically have banned all contacts with the outside world, they have banned marriages and forming families, even thinking and dreaming has been banned. They asked why the Iraqi government does not take any action to preserve the rights of their loved ones. This is a question that has been left unanswered up to now.

In this meeting the letter of Ms. Abdullahi to the US secretary of states was distributed among the participants. The video coverage of the exhibition in the province of Diyala named “Black Plague” was shown for the audience.

In the end the families visited the shrine of Kadhimayn in Baghdad and returned to the gate of Ashraf garrison and joined the picketing families.
Some Iraqi officials delivered speeches as well.

The following reports would be coming soon.

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US Department of State report transfixed the laughter on MKO lips

Happiness and rejoice of the Mojahedin-e Khlaq members did not last for a long time and the laughter transfixed on their lips soon. After that the US federal court issued an order to the Department of State for reviewing the terrorist designation of the MKO, Leaders of this organization intended to pretend that they had nothing to do with arms and terrorism. Now following the Department of state’s report for keeping the name of this organization in the terrorist list of US, they are completely stupefied.

Mojahedin leaders along with some anti- Iran newspapers of the United States including Washington Post were considering the rule of the court as the victory of Justice (!!). They thought that it is done and they will not be kept anymore in the terrorist list. However the security issues and the classified information of the US government and department of state were more than the documents of the judges who had not any clear awareness of the terrorist nature and background of Mojahedin-e Khalq. The order issued by the judge in this court was mainly dependent upon the claims of some Mojahedin members and their faked documents.

In early 70s, Mojahedin members who were angry with the US support of Shah, attacked on Americans and killed many civilian and non-civilian Americans that were working on a defensive project in Iran.

After the Islamic Revolution, Mojahedin- e Khalq announced armed conflict against Islamic Republic and in short time Masoud Rajavi along with Bani sadr fled from Iran and took French refugee. In 1364 they began their cooperation with Saddam Hussein who was fighting against Iran at that moment. Until the collapse of Baath regime by American forces, they were working for Saddam and committing treason against Islamic Republic of Iran.

Some of the prominent attacks of Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist organization include: killing 12 thousand civilians who had mostly private jobs; the explosion of presidential office; the explosion of prime minister’s office; assassination of Assadollah Lajavardi, the head of Iran prisons; assassination of Ali Sayyad Shirazi, commander of armed forces; mortar attacks on president office in 2000 which led to the martyrdom of 1 civilian.

This terrorist group which once had strong anti-American ideology and called this country the Imperialism of the century now is under complete support of the US. However the terrorist background of this organization is as much that the US Department of State could not remove the name of MKO from it Foreign Terrorist Organization’s list.

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US Intelligence Assessments Warn about MKO’s Terrorist Activities

The recent US intelligence assessments said that the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) still retains the ability to stage terrorist operations.
US Intelligence Assessments Warn about MKO's Terrorist Activities
According to a Saturday report by the Habilian Association, an Iran-based human rights group, the US Department of State made the announcement in newly declassified documents for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia Circuit.

Among the disclosures in the declassified material was an August 2008 US Intelligence Community Terrorist Threat Assessment, which clearly states that "the MKO retains a limited capability to engage in terrorist activity or terrorism".

"The MKO publicly renounced violence in 2001, but limited intelligence reporting indicates that the group has not ended military operations, repudiated violence, or completely or voluntarily disarmed," the US intelligence report said.

"The intelligence community assesses that although there has not been a confirmed terrorist attack by the MKO since the organization surrendered to Coalition Forces in 2003, the MKO retains a limited capability and the intent to use violence to achieve its political goals," the document added, ignoring the several terrorist operations conducted by the MKO in Iran and Iraq since the US invasion of the country in 2003..

"UN inspectors say that much of the information provided to the UN by the MKO about Iran’s nuclear program has a political purpose and has been wrong," the document noted.
The US announced last month that the group will remain in the US list of terrorist groups and organizations.

The announcement came despite intense efforts by Zionist lobbies and a number of the US Congressmen to delist the group.

The US State Department announced in its recent annual report on terrorism that no change has been made in the MKO’s status.

The MKO insists that the US should delist it as a terrorist organization, a demand which has been rejected so far by Washington.
An appeals court in the US had earlier ruled that the State Department should review the terror status of the MKO.

The MKO had filed a petition against the US blacklisting in 2008.

The Bush administration, however, rejected the request in its final days in 2009, after examining the material submitted by the group and the US intelligence community, including classified information.

In July 2010, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals in Washington said in a 22-page decision that the US government failed to give the group a fair chance to rebut unclassified information that claimed the group supported terrorist activities.

The government was obligated under a 1996 antiterrorism law and 2004 revisions to give the group the chance to rebut unclassified information, the appeals court said, adding that the group was "permitted access to the unclassified portion of the record only after the decision was final."

In a statement, the State Department said it would study the decision, but added that the US government continues to view the group as a terrorist organization.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.

Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.

Some other members of the MKO who have had a role in the assassination of a large number of Iranian citizens and officials are currently living in France.

The group started assassination of Iranian citizens and officials after the Islamic 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.

Earlier this year, Iraqi security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad – and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.

The Iraqi authority also changed the name of the military center from Camp Ashraf to the Camp of New Iraq.

Many of the MKO members have 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 the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.

Numerous articles and letters posted on the Internet by family members of MKO recruits confirm reports of the horrific abuse that the group inflicts on its own members and the alluring recruitment methods it uses.

The most shocking of such stories includes accounts given by former British MKO member Ann Singleton and Mustafa Mohammadi — the father of an Iranian-Canadian girl who was drawn into the group during an MKO recruitment campaign in Canada.

Mohammadi recounts his desperate efforts to contact his daughter, who disappeared several years ago – a result of what the MKO called a ‘two-month tour’ of Camp Ashraf for teenagers.

He also explains how the group forces the families of its recruits to take part in pro-MKO demonstrations in the western countries by threatening to kill their loved ones.

Lacking a foothold in Iran, the terrorist group recruits ill-informed teens from Iranian immigrant communities in western states and blocks their departure afterwards.

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Court Order Doesn’t Mean MKOs Removal from U.S. FTO List

The Mujahedin-eh Kalq Organization (MKO/MEK) since 1997 has been listed by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The designation was reaffirmed in January 2009 by then-secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The MKO has had a long history of Court Order Doesn’t Mean MKOs Removal from U.S. FTO Listterror and violence and has recently and eagerly tried to clean up its image—hoping the effort will help remove them from the FTO list. The MKO believes that if they are removed from the FTO list, they will have more credibility as an organization, and therefore gain more support from Western nations. The MKO currently argues that it had ceased its military campaign against the Iranian government in 2001, voluntarily handed over its arms to U.S. forces in 2003 and provided a flood of information to U.S. intelligence about Iran’s nuclear programs. [1] The MKO’s ultimate goal in this plan is to replace the Iranian government with their own, and they are seeking support from Western nations, never mind the fact that neither of the MKO leaders nor many members of this cult have stepped foot inside Iran for more than three decades. The MKO is out of touch with the pulse of the nation and the more they press for being removed from the FTO list, the more wary regular Iranians become—as it signifies that the MKO is becoming tighter with the very nations which impeded Iran’s natural political progress; Iranian citizens do not want a U.S. supported MKO—they simply see it as treacherous liaison, which if nurtured, will make an already tense relationship with Iran even worse.

The MKO believes they have made an advancement because now, by way of a heavy handed legal battle, they are celebrating a federal appeals court decision—argued January 12, 2010 and recently decided July 16, 2010—which orders the State Department to review its FTO designation of the MKO on the grounds that the MKO was not privy to classified information, and therefore could not establish an argument and rebuttal which they believe would generate a stronger case to get them removed from the list. The final order was not about lifting the MKO off the Foreign Terrorist Organization list, but about due process for the group. The court stated that the purpose of the remand was to afford the MKO “an opportunity to review and rebut the unclassified portions of the record.” [2] The court also stated in the order that the Secretary of State’s “denial of the People’s Mojahedin of Iran’s petition for revocation of its 2003 designation as a foreign terrorist organization is remanded to the Secretary for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.” [3] What this means, is that the petition will end up back on the Secretary’s desk and the Secretary will look at it again. The judge who preceded over the case made a note in the order which states that “none of the AEDPA (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) cases decides whether an administrative decision relying critically on undisclosed classified material would comport with due process because in none was the classified record essential to uphold an FTO designation.[4] This is an unfavorable comment—although the Secretary is obligated to reconsider, she is unlikely to lift the MKO from the FTO list.

Standard procedure for the MKO in a situation like this is to celebrate as if it was a huge victory. The celebration is meant to bolster morale among members and augment interest from anyone from the media who will listen and report on the MKO’s plight. In essence they have used this ruling to exaggerate the issue and create a positive hype. In celebrating, they also hope to reinforce support from agenda-pushing neoconservative politicians who believe that Iran cannot handle its own domestic affairs. In France, in Auver Sur d-Oise where Maryam Rajavi, the self-imposed leader of the MKO, who feels entitled to speak on behalf of Iranian citizens despite, as previously mentioned, not having set foot in Iran for more than three decades, spoke to her sympathizers after the ruling; her response to the court order was that "sanctions against this regime are necessary and very important, but not enough. A regime change materializes in the resistance of a nation. International peace and security can only be guaranteed when ruling religious fascism is gone. So barriers to change must be removed. The chains tying the hands of the organized resistance of people must be removed." [5]. The chains she speaks of is the designation of the MKO as an FTO, and the bottom line here is that the MKO has not been de-listed from the Foreign Terrorist List—a statement she wishes to twirl into a bondage metaphor.

Rajavi claims that the FTO designation of her cult is a barrier to gain international peace and security. This is fine to claim, but the logic is fuzzy because the information gleaned from the court proceedings suggests nothing about moving Iran towards peace and security. According to Glen Kessler’s report from the Washington Post, “During the court proceedings, some of that information was declassified. State asserted that the group has not ended its military operations, still intends to use violence to achieve its political goals, has trained females to be suicide bombers and that much of the information it has provided on Iran’s nuclear program has been wrong. But the court cast doubt on some of these assertions and said the group now must be given the opportunity to rebut these charges.” [6] Kessler asserts that the State Department said it would study the opinion ‘carefully’ and noted it continues to view the group as a terrorist organization.” [7] It’s clear that promptly, the court cast doubt not because they thought the MKO was really a peaceful and non-violent group, but because the MKO was denied access to classified information and therefore could not rebut.

It is important for Iranians to know that the people in the West are aware of the use of violence by the MKO against Iranian authorities and civilians. In fact, MKO terrorist activities are always mentioned in the United States’ description of the group. The following excerpt regarding the MKO’s activities is from the State Department’s “Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003”:

The group’s worldwide campaign against the Iranian Government stresses propaganda and occasionally uses terrorism. During the 1970s, the MEK killed U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians working on defense projects in Tehran and supported the takeover in 1979 of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. In 1981, the MEK detonated bombs in the head office of the Islamic Republic Party and the Premier’s office, killing some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Premier Mohammad-Javad Bahonar. Near the end of the 1980-1988 war with Iran, Baghdad armed the MEK with military equipment and sent it into action against Iranian forces. In 1991, the MEK reportedly assisted the Government of Iraq in suppressing the Shia uprisings in southern Iraq and the Kurdish uprisings in the north. In April 1992, the MEK conducted near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and installations in 13 countries, demonstrating the group’s ability to mount large-scale operations overseas. In April 1999, the MEK targeted key military officers and assassinated the deputy chief of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff. In April 2000, the MEK attempted to assassinate the commander of the Nasr Headquarters, Tehran’s interagency board responsible for coordinating policies on Iraq. The normal pace of anti-Iranian operations increased during "Operation Great Bahman" in February 2000, when the group launched a dozen attacks against Iran. One of those attacks included a mortar attack against the leadership complex in Tehran that housed the offices of the Supreme Leader and the President. In 2000 and 2001, the MEK was involved regularly in mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids on Iranian military and law enforcement units and government buildings near the Iran-Iraq border, although MEK terrorism in Iran declined toward the end of 2001. The MEK leadership ordered its members not to resist Coalition forces at the outset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and they surrendered their arms to Coalition forces in May 2003. [8]

In May 2005, Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball wrote an article about the hullabaloo of the MKO. They state that the MKO has long been controversial because of its history of violent attacks in Iran, its relationship with Saddam’s regime and its background as a quasi-religious, quasi-Marxist radical resistance group founded in the era of the late Iranian shah. They mention that in 1997, the Clinton administration put MKO on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist groups. They also put forward that the MKOs U.S. supporters, among whom at one point numbered dozens of members of Congress, charged that the Clinton administration only labeled MKO as a terrorist group as part of an ill-conceived attempt to improve relations with the ayatollahs who currently run Iran. They relate that the Bush administration added two alleged MKO front organizations to the State Department’s terrorist list in 2003. [9] Isikoff and Hosenball state that “despite the group’s notoriety, Bush himself cited purported intelligence gathered by [MKO] as evidence of the Iranian regime’s rapidly accelerating nuclear ambitions. At a March 16 press conference, Bush said Iran’s hidden nuclear program had been discovered not because of international inspections but ‘because a dissident group pointed it out to the world.’ White House aides acknowledged later that the dissident group cited by the president is the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), one of the [MKO] front groups added to the State Department list two years ago.”[10] Finally the Newsweek article reveals that “in an appearance before a House International Relations Subcommittee a year ago, John Bolton, the controversial State Department undersecretary who Bush has nominated to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was questioned by a Congressman sympathetic to [MKO] about whether it was appropriate for the U.S. government to pay attention to allegations about Iran supplied by the group. Bolton said he believed that [MKO] ‘qualifies as a terrorist organization according to our criteria.’ But he added that he did not think the official label had ‘prohibited us from getting information from them. And I certainly don’t have any inhibition about getting information about what’s going on in Iran from whatever source we can find that we deem reliable.’” [11]

Regardless of John Bolton’s—or any other official’s ambition for Iran, and regardless of the MKOs position or non-position on the FTO list, the MKO simply can not and should not be a trusted device. Following the 2005 report of Human Rights Watch on MKO atrocities against its own members titled "No Exit," various cases of human rights violations by the MKO was revealed through testimonies made by the group’s former members. Joe Stork, a Human Rights Watch expert on the Middle East, in a UN Refugee Agency report stated that “it would be a mistake to promote an opposition group that is responsible for serious human rights abuses". [12]

U.S. officials, especially those of the State Department should research and reflect deeply before making any decision about a group that owns all the criteria of a destructive terrorist cult. Western politicians should realize that their support for the MKO will never improve their standing among Iranians inside or outside the country and the reason why is articulated by Trita Parsi, an author who founded the National Iranian American Council (NIAC):

[The MKOs] involvement in terrorism is undisputed. It assassinated several Americans in Iran in the 1970s. It supported the taking of the U.S. Embassy in Iran and blasted Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini for releasing the American diplomats in 1981, arguing instead that the hostages should have been executed. It made a pact with Saddam Hussein in the 1980s and fought alongside his army against their Iranian countrymen. Later in the 1990s, they became Saddam’s most trusted henchmen, tasked with quelling Kurdish and Shiite uprisings against the Iraqi dictator.

According to defectors, Mujahedin members in Camp Ashraf celebrated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In 2003, French authorities descended upon the Mujahedin headquarters in France, arresting the leader of the cult, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi. Immediately, zealous Mojahedin members staged hunger strikes and several set themselves ablaze. Hardly the behavior of a democratically oriented opposition group. [13]

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose reputation would be tarnished should she allow a change of status for the MKO after the current court ordered remand, would be making an insouciant error. The removal of the MKO from the FTO list is a Pandora’s Box and both the U.S. and Iran would face a political nightmare over the next several years. In order to be fair, the U.S. should afford the MKO the right to a democratic process in which they can review the charges against them, but they should also be acutely conscious as to why they are on the Foreign Terrorist Organization list in the first place, and why they need to remain there.

References:
[1] United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit. Argued January 12, 2010. Decided July 16, 2010 No. 09-1059. PMOI v. Hillary Clinton. http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/common/opinions/201007/09-1059-1255582.pdf
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] Policy prevents this author from citing this source, which is readily available on the web.
[6]Kessler, Glenn. "Court tells State Dept. to reconsider terrorist label for Iran opposition group." Washington Post 17 July 2010, Print.
[7] Ibid
[8] http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2005/65275.htm
[9] Isikoff Michael & Hosenball Mark. "Consider the Source: The State Department says MEK is a terror group. Human Rights Watch says it’s a cult. For the White House,
MEK is a source of intelligence on Iran.
”MSNBC.com 20 May 2005: Web. 10 Aug 2010. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7902719/site/newsweek/>.
[10] Ibid
[11] Ibid
[12] Human Rights Watch, No Exit: Human Rights Abuses Inside the Mojahedin Khalq Camps, 18 May 2005. Web. 10 August 2010 http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/45d085002.html
[13] Parsi, Trita. "Deciding the Fate of the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation." Iran Press Service 10 October 2008: Web. 10 Aug 2010.
<http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2008/october-2008/
deciding-the-fate-of-the-mojahedin-khalq-organisat.shtml>.

By Mazda Parsi

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Israel’s Secret Relationship with MKO

In the 1960’s when the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) was founded by a handful of Iranian university students, its ideology encompassed a classless, monotheist society which blankdenied all symbols of Western capitalism and Jewish Zionism. With this denial came a penchant for violence and systematic killing—killing which the State Department recognizes as terrorism. Michael Rubin, an independent scholar who in 2009, led a workshop at the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee—America’s pro-Israeli lobby) conference in Washington DC, wrote an article in 2006 titled “Monsters of the Left” in which he declares that the “MKO launched a wave of bomb attacks which targeted the Iran-American Society, the US Information office, the Hotel International, Pepsi Cola, General Motors, and the Marine Oil Company […] In a wave of bombings that continued into 1975, the MKO group attacked clubs, stores, police facilities, minority-owned businesses, factories it accused of having ‘Israeli connections,’ and symbols of state and capitalism.” [1] While carrying out these attacks, the MKO not only denounced Israel, but it supported the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and in fact, during the 1970’s, some of the MKO’s core members went to train in PLO military camps. [2] The MKO’s hostility towards Israel and Zionism was so strong that it led them to bomb the Jordanian Embassy in Tehran, “to revenge King Hussein’s September 1970 crackdown on their PLO patrons,”admits Rubin. [3] Israel may have been an enemy of the MKO at one time, but now they have warmed to them—because the ideology of the MKO has shifted, and Israel may be able to use them.

Now, the MKO could use a helping hand too because since the US-led invasion of Iraq, in the enclave of Camp Ashraf, a place the MKO has called home for over two decades, there is impending precariousness. The MKO fears for its future because they are no longer under the protection of Saddam Hussein, and there’s no telling what the shaky new Iraqi government will do. What’s more, the U.S. government no longer considers MKO members in Iraq to have the “protected-persons” status the U.S. gave them in 2003, and is privately supportive of Iraqi government efforts to encourage the residents to leave. [4] At present, the MKO’s biggest fear is Iranian reprisal. Even though they helped bring about the 1979 Islamic Revolution, killing Americans and ousting the Shah, in the years following, they simply proved to be too power hungry for the Iranian regime. In a move which was designed to distance them from the regime, and gain support, they changed their ideology, and in the 1980’s joined Saddam Hussein and moved to Camp Ashraf in Iraq (where many of them still remain). During the time in Iraq, they killed Kurds in exchange for arms, and then turned against the government they helped bring to power—killing Iranian officials and civilians. Support they needed from Iran shriveled, and the people of Iran now hold the MKO accountable for their deadly attacks on citizens and officials throughout the last four decades. For the MKO leaders, Maryam and Massoud Rajavi, a worst case scenario would be deportation back to Iran because they are viewed as fascist cultists, and worse, traitors. With this kind of track record, a relationship between the MKO and Israel is weirdly devious—and secret.

The MKO sees the West’s support as their only hope for continued existence. In order to formulate opportunity within the framework of hope, they no longer denounce imperialism and Zionism. And in a last ditch move to maintain their dying support among a small minority of Iranians, they have turned to President Ahmadinejad’s “Zionist” foes—credulous Western politicians and, yes, Israel. Despite the MKO’s past admonition of Zionism, Israel has been obliging, secretly working with the MKO in opposition to Iran. In order publicly unite with the West, the MKO came to the media in 2003 and announced that Iran had nuclear warheads—which according to the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), turned out to be wrong. Not only was the information incorrect, but it was fabricated by the Israeli government. In June 2009, Gareth Porter, an expert on U.S. national security policy, published an article on IPS, titled”Report Ties Dubious Iran Nuclear Docs to Israel Analysis.”Porter reveals that”Israeli intelligence was the source of the collection of intelligence documents which have been used to accuse Iran of hiding nuclear weapons research.” [5] Referring to various sources, Porter asserts that”the documents collection which the IAEA has called ‘alleged studies’ actually originated in Israel and in fact Israel intelligence assembled the documents.”[6] According to Porter, “German officials have said that the Mujahedin E Khalq or MEK, the Iranian resistance organization, brought the laptop documents collection to the attention of U.S. intelligence, as reported by IPS in February 2008.

Israeli ties with the political arm of the MEK, the National Committee of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), go back to the early 1990’s and include assistance to the organization in broadcasting into Iran from Paris.” [7] The Germans have long been wary of the MKO and Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution has noted that the MKO’s propaganda campaigns often include attempts to contact members of parliament to inform them of the MKO’s alleged goals, encourage political support, and influence parliamentary debate about Iran.

MKO’s secret ties with Israel do not begin or end with Iranian nuclear documents. They also unabashedly attend AIPAC functions. In fact, the MKO has intensive and very direct cooperation with the Iran Policy Committee, a spinoff of AIPAC. Mahan Abedin, a journalist for the Asia Times, reports that there are regular media reports which allude to direct Israel-MKO ties. [9] In an article that Abedin wrote in which he interviewed a former MKO member, Massoud Bani Sadr, BaniSadr disclosed that”the [MKO] is exclusively motivated by the interests of the cult, and as such it will cooperate with any constituency. If there is any hesitation in collaboration it stems from Israeli reluctance, since the Mujahedin because of its close relationship with the PLO, is not fully trusted by Israelis. On the other hand from an Israeli perspective, the [MKO] is the only viable tool against Iran.”[10] In 2006, Connie Bruck, a writer for New Yorker, spoke with an Israeli diplomat who declined to elaborate on the MKO-Israel relationship, but did at least say to Bruck that “Israel had found the [MKO] useful.”[11]

Richard Silverstein points out that the Israeli lobby in Washington advocates tougher U.S. policy against the Islamic Republic. [12] And the MKO is all for it. In their efforts for starting a war with Iran, or impose crippling sanctions on it, the Israel lobby and the neocons have been aided by two groups of Iranian exiles: the monarchists, and members and supporters of the MKO. [13] Silverstein notes that “Israel is in the midst of a massive diplomatic, political and intelligence campaign, both public and covert, that could lead – if those officials behind it have their way – towards a military strike on Iran. It is a war for the hearts and minds of Americans. Or you might call it the war before the war. In intelligence circles, this Israeli project is known as perception management and defined by the department of defense as:

Actions to convey and/or deny information … to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives and objective reasoning as well as to intelligence systems and leaders … ultimately resulting in foreign behaviors and official actions favorable to [US] objectives. In various ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception and psychological operations.” This is a parallel policy which is consistently held by the MKO, and its political arm, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). In hope that Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the MKO, will become the puppet of the United States—a shoe in the door in Iran, the NCRI’s website maintains a canopy of praise for the U.S. for anything which is against Iran and the Iranian people. (Recently the NCRI’s website ran a headline that states, “Maryam Rajavi, President elect of the Iranian Resistance, welcomed the imposition of new sanctions against the mullahs’ regime by the US and the European Union”) [14]. The relationship with the US, the sanctions, and the underlying reasons and ramifications for pressing sanctions should be seen as more complex for the Rajavi’s, as they deem themselves Iranians—because Iranians are simply too savvy, and they know that sanctions are just a simplistic reprisal. The Rajavi’s attitude and blind devotion to U.S. policy, along with their support for the Israeli lobby shows that they are out of touch with Iranian sentiment. Iran doesn’t like Israel’s attitude and blind devotion to itself and its expansion. For Iranians, Israel demonstrates a haughtiness that doesn’t chronicle nicely with the rest of the Middle East, and Israel’s policy towards Iran is to pressure the U.S. to do what Israel wants. After 9/11 Iran held sympathy for the U.S. and offered to exchange al-Qaida terrorists for MKO terrorists [15]. But the Bush administration neoconservatives declined after Israelis met with Manuchehr Ghorbanifar (an unreliable intelligence source for the U.S. who was involved in the Iran Contra scandal). The Jerusalem Post reveals that at least one of the meetings was quite specific with regard to an attempt to torpedo better US/Iran relations:

“The purpose of the meeting with Ghorbanifar was to undermine a pending deal that the White House had been negotiating with the Iranian government. At the time, Iran had considered turning over five al-Qaeda operatives in exchange for Washington dropping its support for Mujahadeen Khalq, an Iraq-based rebel Iranian group listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department.”[16]

According to Juan Cole, an expert on the Middle East, “The neoconservatives have some sort of shadowy relationship with the Mujahadeen-e Khalq Organization, or MEK [MKO]. Presumably its leaders have secretly promised to recognize Israel if they ever succeed in overthrowing the ayatollahs in Iran. When the U.S. recently categorized the MEK as a terrorist organization, there were howls of outrage from ‘scholars’ associated with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, such as ex-Trotskyite Patrick Clawson and Daniel Pipes.”[17]
MKO ties with US and Israel officials might offer short-term benefits to the group. But they will harm the fame of those who currently support them. Despite all effort made by the MKO propaganda campaign to win the support of AIPAC which “has a lot of weight” in U.S. congress according to Massoud Bani Sadr, the MKO”have not been able to pass a single substantial resolution in support of the organization in congress. Note also that the US government regards the Mujahedin as a terrorist organization and does not want to create another Al-Qaeda.”[18] For now these strange bedfellows must remain a secret.

References:
[1] Rubin, Michael.”Monsters of the Left.”Frontpagemagazine.com 13 January 2006: Web. 30 Jul 2010.
<http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=6036>.
[2] Abrahamian, Ervand. The Iranian Mojahedin. London, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. p 127.
[3] Rubin, Michael. Ibid
[4] McNaught, Anita.”Iranian Militant MeK Group Losing Fight to Stay in Iraq.”Fox News” 12 January 2009: Web. 30 Jul 2010.
<http://www.foxnews.com/story/0, 2933, 479404, 00.html>.
[5] Porter, Gareth.”Report Ties Dubious Iran Nuclear Docs to Israel.”IPS 3 June 2009: Web. 31 Jul 2010.
<http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47081>.
[6]Porter, Gareth. Ibid
[7]Porter, Gareth. Ibid
[8] According to Mahan Abedin, an Independent Iranian journalist for the Asia Times and an expert on Iran, Iraq, and Islamic movements and ideologies.
See Abedin, Mahan.”Dissent and Defection: An Iranian Confession.”Asia Times Online (18 may 2006): Web. 31 Jul 2010.
[9] Abedin, Mahan.”Dissent and Defection: An Iranian Confession.”Asia Times Online (18 may 2006): Web. 31 Jul 2010.
[10] Bruck, Connie.”A Reporter at Large: Exiles.”New Yorker 6 March 2006: 48.
[11] Silverstein, Richard.”AIPAC’s Hidden Persuaders.”Guardian 15 May 2009
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/may/13/aipac-iran-us-obama>.
[12] Sahimi, Muhammad.”The Israel Lobby, the Neocons, and the Iranian-American Community.”Antiwar.com 21 November 2009: Web. 2 Aug 2010.
[13] NCRI website
[14] Windrem, Robert.”Al-Qaida Finds Safe Haven in Iran.”MSNBC.com 24 June 2005: 2 Aug 2010.
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8330976/>.
[15] Cole, Juan.”AIPAC’s Overt and Covert Ops.”Antiwar.com 30 August 2004: 2 Aug 2010.
<http://www.antiwar.com/cole/?articleid=3467>.
The article Juan Cole cites, which is no longer available online, originally appeared in the Jerusalem Post.
[16] Cole, Juan. Ibid
[17] Sherwell, Philip.”Israel Launches Covert War Against Iran.”Telegraph 16 February 2009.
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4640052/
Israel-launches-covert-war-against-Iran.html>
[18] Bruck, Connie. Ibid

By: Mazda Parsi

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USA

The MEK remained in US terror list

The MEK remained in US terror listDespite all the vast propaganda campaign and pulling any lobbying string, while leaving no stone unturned, for taking the name of MEK out of the US State Department terror list, once again this terrorist group was designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

In a new report by the US Department of State office of the coordination for counterterrorism which was released on August 5, 2010, Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization was referred to as a terrorist organization.

MUJAHADIN-E KHALQ ORGANIZATION
aka MEK; MKO; Mujahadin-e Khalq (Iranian government name for group); Muslim Iranian Students’ Society; National Council of Resistance; NCR; Organization of the People’s Holy Warriors of Iran; the National Liberation Army of Iran; NLA; People’s Mujahadin Organization of Iran; PMOI; National Council of Resistance of Iran; NCRI; Sazeman-e Mujahadin-e Khalq-e Iran
Description:

The MEK was originally designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on October 8, 1997. The MEK is a Marxist-Islamic Organization that seeks the overthrow of the Iranian regime through its military wing, the National Liberation Army (NLA), and its political front, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

The MEK was founded in 1963 by a group of college-educated Iranian Marxists who opposed the country’s pro-western ruler, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The group participated in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that replaced the Shah with a Shiite Islamist regime led by Ayatollah Khomeini. However, the MEK’s ideology – a blend of Marxism, feminism, and Islamism – was at odds with the post-revolutionary government and its original leadership was soon executed by the Khomeini regime. In 1981, the group was driven from its bases on the Iran-Iraq border and resettled in Paris, where it began supporting Iraq in its eight year war against Khomeini’s Iran. In 1986, after France recognized the Iranian regime, the MEK moved its headquarters to Iraq, which facilitated its terrorist activities in Iran. Since 2003, roughly 3,400 MEK members have been encamped at Camp Ashraf in Iraq.

Activities:
The group’s worldwide campaign against the Iranian government uses propaganda and terrorism to achieve its objectives. During the 1970s, the MEK staged terrorist attacks inside Iran and killed several U.S. military personnel and civilians working on defense projects in Tehran. In 1972, the MEK set off bombs in Tehran at the U.S. Information Service office, a U.S. diplomatic facility staffed by internationally protected persons, the Iran-American Society, and the offices of several U.S. companies to protest the visit of President Nixon to Iran. In 1973, the MEK assassinated the deputy chief of the U.S. Military Mission in Tehran and bombed several businesses, including Shell Oil. In 1974, the MEK set off bombs in Tehran at the offices of U.S. companies to protest the visit of then U.S. Secretary of State Kissinger. In 1975, the MEK assassinated two U.S. military officers who were members of the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group in Tehran. In 1976, the MEK assassinated two U.S. citizens who were employees of Rockwell International in Tehran. In 1979, the group claimed responsibility for the murder of an American Texaco executive.

In 1981, MEK leadership attempted to overthrow the newly installed Islamic regime; Iranian security forces subsequently initiated a crackdown on the group. The MEK instigated a bombing campaign, including an attack against the head office of the Islamic Republic Party and the Prime Minister’s office, which killed some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar. These attacks resulted in a popular uprising against the MEK and an expanded Iranian government crackdown that forced MEK leaders to flee to France. For five years, the MEK continued to wage its terrorist campaign from its Paris headquarters. Expelled by France in 1986, MEK leaders turned to Saddam Hussein’s regime for basing, financial support, and training. Near the end of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, Baghdad armed the MEK with heavy military equipment and deployed thousands of MEK fighters in suicidal, mass wave attacks against Iranian forces.

The MEK’s relationship with the former Iraqi regime continued through the 1990s. In 1991, the group reportedly assisted the Iraqi Republican Guard’s bloody crackdown on Iraqi Shia and Kurds who rose up against Saddam Hussein’s regime. In April 1992, the MEK conducted near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and installations in 13 countries, demonstrating the group’s ability to mount large-scale operations overseas. In June 1998, the MEK was implicated in a series of bombing and mortar attacks in Iran that killed at least 15 and injured several others. In April 1999, the MEK targeted key Iranian military officers and assassinated the deputy chief of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff, Brigadier General Ali Sayyaad Shirazi.
In April 2000, the MEK attempted to assassinate the commander of the Nasr Headquarters, Tehran’s interagency board responsible for coordinating policies on Iraq. The pace of anti-Iranian operations increased during “Operation Great Bahman” in February 2000, when the group launched a dozen attacks against Iran. One attack included a mortar attack against a major Iranian leadership complex in Tehran that housed the offices of the Supreme Leader and the President. In 2000 and 2001, the MEK was involved in regular mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids against Iranian military and law enforcement personnel, as well as government buildings near the Iran-Iraq border. Also in 2001, the FBI arrested seven Iranians in the United States who funneled US$ 400,000 to an MEK-affiliated organization in the UAE, which used the funds to purchase weapons. Following an initial Coalition bombardment of the MEK’s facilities in Iraq at the outset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, MEK leadership negotiated a cease-fire with Coalition Forces and surrendered their heavy-arms to Coalition control. Since 2003, roughly 3,400 MEK members have been encamped at Ashraf in Iraq.

In 2003, French authorities arrested 160 MEK members at operational bases they believed the MEK was using to coordinate financing and planning for terrorist attacks. Upon the arrest of MEK leader Maryam Rajavi, MEK members took to Paris’ streets and engaged in self-immolation. French authorities eventually released Rajavi. Although currently in hiding, Rajavi has made “motivational” appearances via video-satellite to MEK-sponsored conferences across the globe.
According to evidence which became available after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the MEK received millions of dollars in Oil-for-Food program subsidies from Saddam Hussein from 1999 through 2003. In addition to discovering 13 lists of recipients of such vouchers on which the MEK appeared, evidence linking the MEK to the former Iraqi regime includes lists, as well as video footage of both Saddam Hussein handing over suitcases of money to known MEK leaders, and of MEK operatives receiving training from the Iraqi military.

Strength:
Estimates place MEK’s worldwide membership at between 5,000 and 10,000 members, with large pockets in Paris and other major European capitals. In Iraq, roughly 3,400 MEK members are gathered at Camp Ashraf, the MEK’s main compound north of Baghdad. As a condition of the 2003 cease-fire agreement, the MEK relinquished more than 2,000 tanks, armored personnel carriers, and heavy artillery. Between 2003 and 2006, a significant number of MEK personnel voluntarily left Ashraf, and an additional several hundred individuals renounced ties to the MEK and been voluntarily repatriated to Iran.

Location/Area of Operation:
The MEK’s global support structure remains in place, with associates and supporters scattered throughout Europe and North America. Operations target Iranian government elements across the globe, including in Europe and Iran. The MEK’s political arm, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, has a global support network with active lobbying and propaganda efforts in major Western capitals. NCRI also has a well-developed media communications strategy.

External Aid:
Before Operation Iraqi Freedom began in 2003, the MEK received all of its military assistance and most of its financial support from Saddam Hussein. The fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime has led the MEK increasingly to rely on front organizations to solicit contributions from expatriate Iranian communities.
http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2009/140900.htm

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization

The Mujahedin-e Khalq: Who are they really?

So for all of you who have spent an extended period of time working in the European Parliament, you cannot have failed to notice members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq or the People’s Mujahiden. They are easy to spot because they are by far the most active Iranian lobby in the Parliament. Or rather, the lobby most active in its opposition to the regime in Tehran. They have strong ties with numerous deputies, and regularly attend and speak at committee meetings. Its members are well-spoken and extremely articulate. However, the question of how and why they have managed to work their way into the corridors of European power remains a mystery to many. Just who are these people?

First of all, the story is long and quite complicated. The organization was the brain child of a group of disgruntled Tehrani students, who during the mid-60s, wanted to end the Shah’s rule, but do so in accordance with Marxist and Islamic principles. They advocated violent protest; something akin to a Persian Baader Meinhof . The name “Mujahedin-e Khalq” means “The People’s Holy Warriors”. In 1971 they tried to target electric power grids in Tehran, but were stopped by the Shah’s forces. However they succeeded in killing a number of civilian contractors and a U.S. Army officer.

Change was coming

The group was one amongst many who had grown tired of the Shah and his western-oriented policies. The Islamic Revolution gave them all a chance to shake things up, and the MeK’s leader Masoud Rajavi, allied himself with Ayatollah Khomeini, thinking that he would have a position in the post-Revolutionary government. This was not to be, and instead, Khomeini prevented him from running for office, and all other political groups–with the exception of the Islamic Republican Party (IRP)–were outlawed.

In 1981, the MeK launched an attack against the headquarters of the IRP, which killed seventy high-ranking officials; making the organization persona non grata in the eyes of Ayatollah Khomeini. Its leadership fled to Paris, where they set up the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Their goal was to bring an end to the Islamic Republic, and they adopted the kind of rhetoric that would appeal to a western audience. They discussed democracy, free speech, women’s rights and the rule of law. Other MeK members settled in Iraq and Kurdistan, and in 1986, Saddam Hussein promised them military support if they were willing to support his campaign against the Iranians. Seven thousand took up the offer, and formed Masoud Rajavi’s National Liberation Army. They provided intelligence, translation services and helped suppress Shia and Kurdish rebels in order to curry favor with the Iraqi leader. Needless to say that the group’s popularity within Iran dwindled.

A political group or a cult?

During the mid-80s, the MeK’s leaders in Paris decided to instigate their own “ideological revolution”, which has characterized the group to this very day. Masoud Rajavi and his wife wanted members to increase their commitment to the cause, since their alliance with Saddam had seen the group’s popularity fall by the wayside. Cultic practices were introduced such as confiscating members’ assets; limiting their exit options and imposing social control. Human Rights Watch reported that the MeK instituted a complicated process to retain members who expressed a desire to leave. They were pressured to change their minds and were subjected to indoctrination. The Rajavis demanded quasi-religious devotion. The MeK’s newspaper Mojahed once declared: ” To understand this great revolution…is to understand and gain a deep insight into the greatness of our new leadership, meaning leadership of Masoud and Maryam. It is to believe in them as well as to show ideological and revolutionary obedience to them [sic]“.

The MeK strongly refutes the charge that they exhibit cult-like behavior and claim such notions are put out by forces loyal to the Islamic Republic.

There is no doubt that the group has mastered the art of effective propaganda. They project an image that is compatible with liberal western values. However they have been accused of using devious recruitment methods by promising Iranian economic migrants employment and asylum assistance. Many recruits brought to Iraq have had their passports confiscated, and more seriously, the group has been linked to money laundering activities.

Post-Saddam Iraq

From the outset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the MeK were viewed as forming part of Saddam’s own private army. When US troops stumbled upon Camp Ashraf–the MeK’s militia camp located 60 km north of Baghdad– they did not know who they were dealing with. The MeK and US troops agreed to a cease-fire, and the Americans were taken by the friendly and cooperative nature of the camp’s leaders. They were prepared to show leniency in exchange for intelligence sharing and other practical services.
At present, the Iraqi government wants to expel the MeK from the country. However following Iraq’s occupation, the MeK were designated under the fourth Geneva Convention which forbids the forcible transfer of any individual to a country where their life may be in danger. In 2009, the camp fell under the control of the Iraqi government, and the MeK are working hard to avoid forced repatriation.

Back to Europe

Iran’s disastrous presidential elections of July 2009, gave the MeK a unique opportunity to push for greater recognition of their plight and the plight of other opposition movements outside Iran. Their public diplomacy has had an extraordinary effect on European and US policy makers. They are accepted as a legitimate opposition group, without having their credibility questioned. They have barely a handful of supporters in Iran.

They are still deeply attached to Islamic principles and endorse an anachronistic approach to politics that no longer holds sway for most Iranians. The MeK has little understanding of modern Iran.

The leadership has not set foot in Iran for almost thirty years, and yet still feel entitled to speak on behalf of Iranian citizens. Do they really know what the people want? Why so many MEPs, MPs and other policy makers cannot see this as a problem is difficult to understand. It cannot be for a lack of information, because the group has been extensively written about, and many Iranian opposition groups have voiced their concern over the close ties that exist between western governments and the NCRI. For instance, Maryam Rajavi has been welcomed into the European Parliament and is embraced as an open-minded reformer, whose interests are to fight for a free and democratic Iran. But her own background and those of her close associates are highly suspect.

We can only wait and see what happens. Hopefully in the future, politicians will be a little more wise before they decide to embrace individuals who invoke terminology that is seductive to western ears. The MeK has a history which should ring some alarm bells: their former allegiance to Saddam Hussein; their Marxist/Islamist roots and militant training are at odds with the EU’s own principles and more importantly, at odds with legions of educated and secular-oriented Iranians.

MEPs in the European Parliament–and there are quite a few–are fooling themselves if think that by lending their support to the MeK and the NCRI , they will improve their standing amongst members of the Iranian diaspora, who want Europe to toughen its stance against Islamic Republic.

They will be left truly disappointed.

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Brushing the Dust off a Court Ruling

As already predicted, triumphalism was the order of MKO media and propaganda machine for nearly two weeks since the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the State Department review designation of Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCR, NLA)the State Department’s response in all the last threes has been nothing but to re-designate it, as it will be probably with this last one. as a foreign terrorist organization. This was not MKO displaying itself as the winner of a petition but a terrorist organization shaking its fist at the world. However, now the cloud of the triumph subsided and anything returning to normal, it is time to have a review of the ruling to dig out the facts MKO were trying to bury under the heavy cloud of disturbing the usual pattern of events. Although improbable to be removed from the terror list, as the ruling has nothing to do with the issue, there are points in the ruling indicating that the State Department insists on the accuracy of its decision makings.

It has to be pointed out that the case in the question is not the first but the fourth through which MKO is challenging its designation as a FTO and bringing it before the court. And the State Department’s response in all the last threes has been nothing but to re-designate it, as it will be probably with this last one. Let’s see what remarkable points the organization has noticed specified in the ruling that may signify a triumph for it.

1. Stated in per curiam, it affirms that “This case is the fifth in a series of related actions challenging the United States Secretary of State’s designation of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) and its aliases as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The MEK, also called the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), has challenged its FTO status before this court three times”. Accordingly, the organizations attempts so far has proved unproductive against the State Department’s reasonable evidences.

2. MKO’s provided evidences to defend itself against the charges have been piles of letters of recommendations from its lobby in the Congress and other European parliamentarians. Asserted in the ruling, the State Department’s decision to keep MKO on the list as a FTO relies on sound classified and unclassified information. “The PMOI also thrice supplemented its petition with additional information and letters in support from members of the U.S. Congress, members of the UK and European parliaments and retired members of the U.S. military, among others. After reviewing an administrative record consisting of both classified and unclassified information, the Secretary denied the PMOI’s petition and published its denial in the Federal Register on January 12, 2009. She also provided the PMOI with a heavily redacted 20-page administrative summary of State’s review of the record, which summary referred to 33 exhibits, many of which were also heavily or entirely redacted.”

3. The court upholds that the Secretary resolved to designate MKO based on sound records and evidences. “We are to uphold the Secretary’s determination unless it “lack[s] substantial support in the administrative record taken as a whole or in classified information submitted to the court.”
4. The court asserts that in all his/her previous responses, the Secretary has shown no satisfaction that the organization has permanently renounced terrorism and that, it might resume such activities in future. “In my view, (Karen LeCraft Henderson, Circuit Judge) the classified portion of the administrative record provides “substantial support” for her determination that the PMOI either continues to engage in terrorism or terrorist activity or retains the capability and intent to do so and, consequently, for her denial of the PMOI’s revocation petition.”

5. The State Department in its explanations for keeping MKO on the list argues that there is no evidence to confirm that the organization has permanently renounced terrorism since its present circumstances are the same as the previous. The State Department relies on sound facts rather than claims. “To seek revocation, an FTO “must provide evidence in that petition that the relevant circumstances . . . are sufficiently different from the circumstances that were the basis for the designation such that a revocation with respect to the organization is warranted.”

It adds that “While the Secretary may revoke a designation at any time, the statute directs that she shall revoke a designation if she finds that either “the circumstances that were the basis for the designation have changed in such a manner as to warrant revocation,” or “the national security of the United States warrants a revocation,” She wrote that “in considering the evidence as a whole, the MEK has not shown that the relevant circumstances are sufficiently different from the circumstances that were the basis for the 2003re-designation,” and that “[a]s a consequence, the MEK continues to be a foreign organization that engages in terrorist activity . . . or terrorism . . . or retains the capability and intent to” do so.

Accordingly, America has concluded that in spite of the cease of open military operations and the voluntary surrender of arsenal and weapons to the occupying forces in Iraq, MKO does not seem to have adopted a total non-aggressive attitude. The militarism potentiality submits that the continued proscription of MKO has not been unjustified.

6. The ruling admits that “although the Secretary must give the PMOI an opportunity to rebut the unclassified material on which she relies, AEDPA does not allow access to the classified record as it makes clear that classified material “shall not be subject to disclosure for such time as it remains classified, except that such information may be disclosed to a court ex parte and in camera for purposes of judicial review.”

It indicates that the US has a comprehensive understanding of MKO compared to other designated organizations. Naturally, classified information include sensitive compartmented information and special access data and are to be used by government departments and agencies if deemed necessary. Disclosure of these information in the presence of an ineligible terrorist organization increases the risk of an unauthorized disclosure of classified information that puts terrorists in full alert.

However, the court requires that MKO be notified of only unclassified information: “In short, we have held due process requires that the PMOI be notified of the unclassified material on which the Secretary proposes to rely and an opportunity to respond to that material before its redesignation; nothing in the amended statute suggests that this protection is any less necessary in the revocation context.”

MKO is well aware that the only probable, granted chance before it is to refute unclassified information or to ask for further opportunity to provide justifications to prolong the process. “And even though the PMOI was given the opportunity to include in the record its own evidence supporting delisting, it had no opportunity to rebut the unclassified portion of the record the Secretary was compiling—an omission, the PMOI argues, that deprived it of the due process protections detailed in our previous decisions.”

The ruling concludes that because of the foreign policy and national security concerns it leaves the designation in place: “As we noted in NCRI I, “[w]e recognize that a strict and immediate application of the principles of law which we have set forth herein could be taken to require a revocation of the designation[] before us[, but] . . . we also recognize the realities of the foreign policy and national security concerns asserted by the Secretary in support of th[e] designation.” 251 F.3d at 209. We thus leave the designation in place but remand with instructions to the Secretary to provide the PMOI the opportunity to review and rebut the unclassified portions of the record on which she relied.”

Consequently, what MKO is trumpeting as a ruling of being removed from the terrorist list is nothing but an urge by the court requiring the State Department to grant MKO an opportunity to defend itself against unclassified information, an opportunity already granted. The court has judicial responsibilities to fulfill, as it will be also held accountable for the consequences of unleashing a terrorist organization. It is complying with all regulations that struggle to diminish the nightmare of terrorist threats that has jeopardized the national security since 9/11.

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO’s disastrous military venture

On 25 July 1988, only days after Iran-Iraq governments accepted the UN Security Council Resolution 598 that called for a cease fire in the eight-year long war, Mojahedin Khalq On 25 July 1988, only days after Iran-Iraq governments accepted the UN Security Council Resolution Mojahedin Khalq Organization launched its major military invasion onto the Iranian bordersOrganization (MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCR, NLA) launched its major military invasion onto the Iranian borders. Supported by Iraqi army and its air cover, Rajavi dispatched his estimated 7000 forces National Liberation Army (NLA) to demonstrate his organization’s military potentiality in a four-day lasted operation, the great ”Operation Eternal Light” as the organization called it and the organization’s irreversible suicide operation as many critics referred to it. Although presumed to be a part of Iran-Iraq war, the operation was the most disastrous venture by an organization whose strategy of struggle was mainly built on militarism and terrorism.

In its unclassified 1992 report on the organization, the State Department refers to the operation as an explicit evidence of MKO’s armed struggle and close collaboration with Saddam’s regime.

The group launched its most significant incursion in June and July 1988, when they coordinated an advance into Iran with Iraqi forces. During the same offensive, Iraqi units in other sectors of the front used chemical weapons against Iran. NLA units briefly seized the Iranian border towns of Mehran, Karand, and Islamabad-e Gharb. The Mojahedin claimed to have killed 40,000 Iranians, but other military observers said the, NLA "just got wiped out" when Iranian reinforcements arrived.

MKO’s Eternal Light withstood nothing more than a short, four-day lasted spark. The operation on which MKO had heavily invested turned to be a total military failure and a proven suicide operation that led 1304 forces, according to the organization’s own report, to their sacrifice. In fact, MKO hurried to take advantage of a no-war no-peace situation created after the ceasefire in limbo, a golden opportunity for Rajavi to take his last chance totally disregarding the high cost it would impose. Of course, Rajavi knew beforehand what the result could be when he decided to pass over the borders of a country that had survived eight years a war that had wore out Saddam’s army. But he was desperately in need of and search for an outlet out of an inevitable cul-de-sac rather than to accomplish a strategic necessity. An analysis of the operation from the political and tactical point of view and Rajavi’s rationalization of the operation indicates that the move was the outcome of a desperate situation that had completely immobilized Mojahedin both in political and military fronts.
It was a fact many of group’s sympathizers, advocates and even critics and other opposition were well aware, but they were all shocked to see that a group that had once concentrated all its campaign marrow in a form of militia warfare and had already suffered great loss, suddenly and unbelievably had shifted to a classic military tack to start a big cross-border operation.

The failure of the operation Eternal Light initiated challenges against Rajavi’s egocentric decision-making that had led hundreds of recruits, many of them arrived in Iraq only a few days prior to the operation with the list military training, to their death. Most of his critics believe that the operation was in no way correspondent with the organization’s line of strategy and that, Rajavi’s uncertain analysis of the post cease-fire situation compelled him to make a hasty decision to create a ‘turning point’ to attract the attention of those in the West to be relied as a potential tool to be utilized against the Iranian regime. As stated in its later analyses, MKO claimed that “What distinguishes the Eternal Light Operation, making it a "turning point," is not its unique military achievements alone, but more importantly, its strategic political and historic significance”.

In spite of MKO’s widespread terrorist operations of bombing and assassination inside Iran and its later out-of-the-border organized hit and run operations perpetrated in the last three decades as well as its broadly launched military operation like that of the Eternal Light, it seems that the organization has never been considered a serious threat for the Iranian regime. But the consequence of such irrefutable charges of militarism and terrorist atrocities for MKO was to be globally recognized as a terrorist group. However, the good part is that the history and the recorded facts can never be distorted. But some Western countries tried to when they made a sudden U-turn and decided to declare that MKO was no more a terrorist organization; they still continue their negligence and unclear position takings toward Mojahedin due to political considerations. People have eyes to see and minds to think even if some so-called court of justice proceeds inexpertly to discolor the spots of a leopard.

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The MEK to launch Armed Struggle

The Unchangeable Terrorist Nature of the MKO

On Wednesday June 16th, PressTV reported that Iranian The Unchangeable Terrorist Nature of the MKOecurity forces arrested two Mujahedin-eh Khalq (MKO) operatives in Iran. Members of the MKO, a terrorist group whose three-decade goal has been to take over the Iranian government, had planned to carry out a multi-stage attack, which included using bombs and setting police cars and motorcycles on fire at two undisclosed locations in Tehran. Iran’s Intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi announced the MKO’s scheme saying that the MKO had “planned to terrorize innocent citizens in some important and sensitive districts of Tehran” [1] but that the Ministry of Intelligence had foiled it. He also said the two operatives had received necessary training at Camp Ashraf, in Iraq, the MKO’s quasi-military base, which was funded by Saddam Hussein, and is now being guarded by the U.S. government. [2]

The Tehran Times published an article in reference to a televised confession by the two MEK members who were arrested. The article affirms that the two men “received instructions on bomb-making via email and were then directed by two female handlers, one based in London and the other based in Sweden, as to where and when to plant their explosives.” [3]

While the news of the MKO’s intention to plant bombs in Tehran were being relayed through the media, MKO officials were demanding action from the United States regarding their official status as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). In 1998, the MKO was designated this status by the US Department of State, and since 2008, with the aid of heavy lobbying, they have been trying to get themselves removed from the FTO list. In a Reuters’ article, posted June 16, journalist Charles Abbot wrote that the MKO, in 2008, “asked for removal of the designation, saying it ceased its military campaign against the Iranian government in 2001, handed over its weapons to U.S. forces in Iraq in 2003 and had provided information to U.S. officials about Iran’s nuclear program.” [4] Abbot also relayed that although the State Department must review the request of the MKO to remove them from the FTO list, the Department maintains that recently declassified information on the MKO “has not shown that the relevant circumstances are sufficiently different to warrant a change” in their status. [5] Abbot points out that the State Department’s report “contained allegations that [MKO] trained women in Iraq to be suicide bombers, had not ended military operations and that much of [the MKO’s] information about Iran’s nuclear program was wrong.” [6]

For nearly thirty years the MKO has been a terrorist group, and despite its fairly recent policy of not claiming violent acts such as bombings and self immolation, they remain a terrorist group. They began to get serious about cleaning up their reputation sometime around the mid eighties, when they went through an ideological transformation and emerged as a full blown cult around 1987. They took a serious blow in 1998 with the State Department’s freshly-minted terrorist label. But, with the explosion of the internet, they were able to broadcast a serious propaganda campaign in order to counter the status—but by this time, ex members were already publishing their own accounts of the abuses they suffered while associated with the group. The internet both helped and hindered them initially, but now, it just hinders them.

The MKO cannot survive legitimately as long as they remain on the FTO list. In fact, removal from this list is a vital necessity for the MKO—it is their last hope for being seen as non-terrorists among Westerners. But in Iran their hope is already lost. They are not welcome in Iran, and not just because of last week’s bombing plot. The MKO has had a long history of terror within Iran which the leaders have discussed with numerous high profile Western journalists, but for some reason the journalists’ fail to emphasize these points in their mainstream articles and TV programs, and this hurts Iran. What’s more, is the fact that the MKO presents itself to the West as an alternative to the present Iranian regime, and enough naïve Western politicians are buying into their aspirations for “peaceful overthrow,” “democracy” “freedom” and “liberation.” These ideas are good; but the MKO is not good. Iranians want a peaceful solution to their domestic and foreign problems, and the solution doesn’t lie within the MKO because the MKO is simply not a “for-the-people” entity, nor are they equipped to run a nation. They may be able to run a cult, or a terrorist group (outside of Iran), but not a nation of intelligent free thinkers—and that is what most Iranians consider themselves.

Presently the MKO’s existence depends on the West’s support. Without the West’s support they have no place to call home. Currently their headquarters is located in Paris. They own “safe houses” all over Europe and the US, and as long as they have this support, they can maintain their now secret and subversive violent exploits against Iran. As one anonymous ex-member, who fears retribution for using his name, puts it, “The MKO doesn’t offer democracy, and their nature is unchangeable. They cannot stop seeking to spark tension in Iran by using their usually [sic] violent strategy against innocent Iranian citizens.”

The arrest of MKO terrorists was a success for the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence because they prevented senseless deaths of perhaps hundreds of innocent people located in some of the busiest intersections in the nation—intersections which are typically entrances to crowded bazaars, bus, subway, taxi-stops, and active police stands—a sort of “safely crowded zone” among Iranians, especially women doing shopping. The targeted intersections were in fact a potential horrifying disaster, and would have been a bitter blow to Iran—and that is exactly what the MKO was counting on. An attack on Iran coupled with the fact that Iran has fragile diplomatic relations with the West, would have undoubtedly given the impression that internally, Iran is unstable and weak, and generally put the MKO in a better position than they are now. News of the plot revealed that the MKO’s systematic deceitful crusade has a twofold objective—it aims to weaken Iran while heightening its image in the West. In a Press TV news article, one of the terrorists interviewed noted that the two arrested were instructed just before they were to plant their bombs that in case they were caught, they should deny their affiliation with the MKO since the terror organization is making headways in getting off the terror list of the US and Europe. [7]

In conjunction with the MKO’s sentimental ways, which is aimed at creating meaning and purpose for the cults’ members, the planned bomb was in a way existential; it ties in with their three-decade-old penchant for martyrdom. As recent as 2007, several members set themselves on fire in a protest against French police arresting their leader, Maryam Rajavi. In response to this, and in adherence with the MKO’s image-reform campaign, Rajavi claimed that group members were not instructed to do this.

The two terrorists confessed that their planned date for planting explosives was sometime between June 10 and June 20. They aimed for June 12, which was the anniversary of Iran’s last contentious and riotous presidential election, in which several MKO members were arrested. This ten-day period was doubly momentous for the two arrested because in addition to the election anniversary, it also signifies the time leading up to the June 20 anniversary of the MKO’s demonstration in 1981, when they officially started their armed struggle against the Islamic Republic—a republic they “officially” supported up until that date. Its current stature is to commit violence against themselves and violence against civilians—for the sake of the cause—and it is not far from the group’s extremist beginnings

According to Iranian Intelligence Officials, Siamak Yaquti, who was one of the arrested terrorists, confessed that the MKO organization shifted operational activities from propagandistic to operational. Yaquti told authorities that his organizational authority (a female named Narges) told him that the MKO wanted to break the silent and passive atmosphere ruling Iran by having him detonate bombs and set fires on public properties. Narges told Yaquti that the MKO’s armed, radical activity on June 20th, 1981 succeeded to break the silence at that time and opened a new way to the organization’s leading activities. The other MKO agent, Mr. Behrang Sarkhosh arrested by Iranian Intelligence Forces and later interviewed on PressTV, described his superior’s reasoning for using violence against people. He said, “I was told that we would not make any progress unless we use weapons." [8] One former member of the MKO, Mr. Ebrahim Khodabande, also interviewed by PressTV, commented “a weapon is even part of their emblem—and they have never omitted it.” [9]

By Mazda Parsi
Press TV, Iran Today documentary program, June 30, 2010
http://www.presstv.ir/programs/detail.aspx?sectionid=3510506&id=132768#132768

[1] Documentary lashes western supporters of MKO terrorists. “Press TV, Iran Today documentary program”. Web. 20 Jul 2010. < http://www.presstv.ir/programs/detail.aspx?sectionid=3510506&id=132768#132768
>.
[2] ibid
[3] "Iran Summons British Ambassador Over Bomb Plots." Tehran Times 17 June 2010, Print.
[4] Abbot, Charles. "U.S. government told to review terrorist list decision." Rueters US Edition. Web. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66G0A520100717
[5] ibid
[6] ibid
[7]"MKO Terrorists Confess to Bombing Plots." PressTV 16 June 2010: Web. 20 Jul 2010. <http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=130667>.
[8] Documentary lashes western supporters of MKO terrorists. “Press TV, Iran Today documentary program”. Web. 20 Jul 2010. < http://www.presstv.ir/programs/detail.aspx?sectionid=3510506&id=132768#132768
>.
[9] ibid

By: Mazda Parsi

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