Mujahedin Khalq Declining

Fakharzadeh, MKO members left the group after 20 years

Mehdi Fakharzadeh escaped Temporary Transit Location (Camp Liberty) and surrendered himself to Iraqi forces. Fakharzadeh, MKO members left the group after 20 years

After twenty years of membership in the Cult of Rajavi, Mr. Fakharzadeh stated at UN mission office in Iraq that he has defected the group and did not intend to stay in the MKO anymore.

He was handed to Iraqi authorities after he passed legal process in UNAMI and UNHCR. It is worth to mention that MKO leaders usually hold 3 to 4 hours meetings to manipulate members before they go to UN office to fill out asylum seeking forms and then they will let them go there, because they fear their defection.

Mr. Fakhar Zadeh is the second person who has escaped the Cult since last week. The other defector was Mr. Houshang Mirzaqorbani who last week escaped the Cult after two decades.

Translated by Nejat Society

October 30, 2012 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

Camp Ashraf after evacuation

Photos recently released after evacuation of Ashraf residents:

Salvage Equipments. A number of MKO members remained in the Camp in order to sell them

Guard Station, currently abandoned and ruined

MKO members set all documents and photos on fire before their departure

Dissident members to revenge the group leaders

Lion Statues, at Ashraf gates, stolen from a Park in Kermanshah (a city in the West of Iran)

The MKO leaders had dig a ditch around the Camp to prevent members’ escape

Members who remain in the Camp

Stones used by deceived members to throw at families picketing in front of Ashraf gates.

Conex where families were picketing, damaged by rocks thrown by group members

A metal piece, residents used to throw under vehicles to tear their wheels

Group members guarding at the Camp entry

The area in front of torturing room, the word “HARRASMENT” is seen on the ground.

Torture Room

Torture Room, closed circuit Cameras installed on the ceiling

Coffins

Camp Ashraf now

White board used for the group working schedule and priorities. Syria is circled s a crucial case for the group agenda

An example of MKO organizational structure:
Each Clothes rope is divided and named for individuals.

October 28, 2012 0 comments

Iraq

Iraqis react over the removal of the MKO from the terrorism list

Ending the presence of the MKO in Iraq and the consequences of their remaining in the country are among the main topics discussed in Iraq’s political circles.

A number of Iraqis have come together to discuss the consequences of the removal of the MKO from the international terrorist Organizations list and its reflections on the country’s future.

In a conference organized by the Iraqi Center for Media Development, a number of Iraqi officials and ordinary people came together in the capital Baghdad to talk about the efforts of the US government to remove the MKO from the international terrorist organization’s list.

The tribal leaders criticized the silence of the United Nation’s towards this act and said that such step is raising doubts about the US intentions in the region and reveals the US future plans especially against Iran.

The organizers showed frustration toward the intervention of the US government in this issue, saying that the US is putting pressures on the Iraqi officials to keep the MKO in Iraq.

They said the main motive is to use MKO to launch attacks against the neighboring country.

Political observers say that the Iraqi government should take some serious steps toward the expulsion of the MKO.

The group is especially notorious in Iran for having sided with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

The attendees have condemned the efforts of the US government’s efforts in removing the MKO from the international terrorist Organization’s list and criticized the response of the United Nations towards such behavior, moreover many political observers have warned of the consequences of the remaining of the MKO in Iraq saying that the step has been taken to keep them in the country.

0Wisam al-Bayati, Baghdad

October 25, 2012 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

100 more MEK moved out of Camp Ashraf

On Thursday morning, 11th October, just after midnight, one hundred MEK were taken from Camp Ashraf and transferred to Camp Liberty. The group comprised 92 men and 8 women.

On the afternoon of the previous day MEK combatants had launched an unprovoked attack on the families who are waiting outside the camp to find news of their loved ones. The MEK used catapults and slingshots to launch rocks and stones at the defenseless families, injuring some. Iraqi security forces intervened to protect them and pushed the MEK back inside the camp.

After the successful transfer of 100 more MEK to Camp Liberty, the Chief of Police of Diyala Province told reporters that tens of MEK still remain in Camp Ashraf and will be transferred as soon as is possible. He said that the people of Diyala Province want the MEK problem to be cleared up and the camp closed, emphasising that the MEK is a terrorist group and should be removed from the country.

Over the past few days many other Iraqi officials have spoken on this issue to emphasise that the Americans should take their favoured group out of the country. They stressed that Iraq cannot accept America’s terrorists to remain as guests indefinitely and be in a position to help the insurgency and interfere in the internal affairs of the country.

October 14, 2012 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

MKO burning documents at Camp Ashraf

The Dideban Strategic Institute says the remaining members of the Mojahadin Khalq MKO burning documents at Camp Ashraf Organization in Camp Ashraf are destroying documents related to the group’s terrorist activities.
According to a person who has staged a sit-in in front of the camp, the smell of burnt papers has been filling the air over the last nights which shows a huge amount of papers are being burnt out, the institute said in a report.

These people are also selling the property to customers at a discount of 40 percent, the institute’s correspondent in Iraq says.

The properties were given to the terrorist group during the Saddam regime as a reward for their mercenary acts.

The last big batch of the MKO left Camp Ashraf in northeast Iraq and arrived at Camp Liberty on Baghdad’s outskirts on September 16.

The MKO have carried out assassinations and bombings in Iran. Several thousand of its members were given sanctuary in Iraq by Saddam Hussein.

Camp Liberty was designed as a compromise way-station for the UN to speed the MKO members out of Iraq.

On September 28, the U.S. State Department formally removed the MKO from its official list of terrorist organizations, a move which prompted angry response from Iran.

The U.S. made the decision under the claim that the group has renounced violence.

Iranian Majlis speaker Ali Larijani recently said that the MKO is an accomplice in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists. He also said the decision showed that Washington is paying lip service to the campaign against terrorism.

In a commentary published in the Tehran Times on October 8, the former Iranian Ambassador to Iraq Hassan Kazemi Qomi said that the United States’ decision will have no impact on the public perception of the group as a notorious terrorist entity.

He stated that the move was a carbon copy of what the European Union did several years ago. He also said it is a clear example of the double standards the U.S. government applies in dealing with the issue of terrorism.

October 14, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

A strategic analysis for the MeK status

Hereinafter, what the MeK puts on agenda is stimulating West to increase economic pressure and set off an all-out political war against Iran. This is the reason behind the group’s campaign in the US in favor of Mitt Romney or their effort to trace the companies who deal with Iran or some European countries’ trading with this country in order to put them under pressure to cut off these exchanges.

The MeK removal from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations has determinant role in future direction of the group.

The US motivations for delisting of the MeK and providing conditions for this terrorist group to conduct free political – commercial activities is a topic that should be investigated separately, but, to put briefly, one can say that the US has placed them at the beginning of a path that if proceeds as it is designed, then America can employ them in feuding over Iran.

The MeK strategy shift

As the consequence of getting out of the terrorist list, The MeK needs to shift its strategy for confronting the Islamic Republic and pursue this goal with a different program and mechanism.

The fact is that the strategy of "fall through armed struggle", which the MeK past three decades has persuaded it through tactics of large operations, urban warfare and terror, alignment with Saddam in the war against Iran, and even triggering a military invasion by the US and the Zionist Regime to Iran, is totally defeated and will never find a chance to reoccur. Public emergence of Masood Rajavi (something that sooner or later will happen) and likely congratulations on his gang’s delisting, really is official announcement of this failure.

Then what happens?

Effort to put "immediate Regime Change" on the US agenda and shifting policy from investment on domestic opponents toward the opposition abroad is among the changes in the MeK strategy. overall viewing, one can account that this shift will approximate the MeK to western countries. But the gap is much larger than it looks.

In this regard, we should notice that the US and European countries are focused on Iran’s internal developments and managing it to their benefits and so- called gradual decay from within; this means complete elimination of the opposition abroad.

About the opposition abroad, Rajavi probably offer suggestions concerning alliance and coalition with Iranian opposition groups that merely could lead to theoretical arguments and reactions, because, given the MeK’s ideology and record, It is unlikely that they be willing to attend in Joint meetings and negotiate with the others.

It is very important issue that the MeK are suffered from inversion of thinking and view. The most effects of this inversion are represented in their analysis of situation inside Iran and of Iranian people, the capabilities of Iranian government, their own organizational capabilities, and their misunderstanding of Western policy. Of course, the MeK’s leadership neither is able to understand this fact, nor he would accept it. So, he draws his gang on a Path of no return.

October 13, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Iranians see Mujahedin as traitors rather than opponents

The return of People’s Mujahedin, unpopular opponents in Iran
Washington withdrew the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran led by Maryam Rajavi, from their list of "terrorist". A decision denounced by Tehran, which required collaboration between the group and Washington.

"Old forefronts of the opposition against the Shah, but also the Islamic Republic of ayatollah Khomeini, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) was listed in 1997 as terrorist organization by the United States. Since the Iranian opposition group has renounced violence long time ago, Washington finally decided on September 28 to remove them from the list. But according to Thierry Coville, Iran’s researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), the overdue recognition is futile, because the organization suffers its image within its own country.

The opposition has lost much of its aura in Iran. "The People’s Mojahedin are opponents in exile and have lost all legitimacy in Iran since the episode of the war with Iraq, where they conducted operations against the Iranian army," explains Thierry Coville. The "Iranian public opinion far from considering them as opponents see them as traitors. They no longer enjoy any popularity among the Iranians, whether in the country or among the diasporas," he insists.

Founded in 1965 in opposition to the Shah, PMOI, with obedience to Marxism, conducted urban guerrilla actions to undermine the regime. After the 1979 Islamic revolution and the advent of ayatollah Khomeini, the organization becomes the most aggressive opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 1981, Massoud Rajavi, leader of mujahedin, founded with other opponents, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which reflected the forces opposed to the dictatorship of the Shah and ayatollah Khomeini’s government.

During the Iran / Iraq war (1980-1988), the Mujahedin settled in Iraq where they create the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA) in 1986 and launched operations against their country. In 1988, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering the execution of members of the organization. Based in France, PMOI is directed by Maryam Rajavi, the wife of Massoud Rajavi.

In announcing the news of his removal from the list of terrorist organizations, the group, which is headquartered in the Auvers-sur-Oise in suburb of Paris, in a statement hailed a "correct decision".

"Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance for the period of the transfer of sovereignty to the Iranian people, welcomed" the decision of the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "the statement said." we hope to better introduce ourselves and our goals to international community and the American people. "

Lobbying and working with American Secret Service

According to Thierry Coville, several factors explain the change in U.S. position. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran over its nuclear program are no strangers. "The fact that the United States declares the Mujahedin accessible now, is not trivial at a time when Washington and Israel raise Iran as the greatest enemy in the planet," noted the researcher.

In addition, it has been long time that PMOI seeks to improve its image. Designated in 1997 as a "terrorist" organization in the United States, it has, for several years, renounced violence and actively collaborated with the U.S. Secret Service.

"The Mujahedin have worked effectively with the U.S. Secret Service in providing information gleaned from their contacts in the country on the Iranian nuclear program, but still on the Iranian aid to Bashar al-Assad", explains the researcher.
Thierry Coville also noted that the decision of the U.S. administration is the result of a genuine communication by the Iranian opposition organization. "The Mujahedin have been lobbying and in a less conventional way: they paid services responsible for American security to testify in their favor. Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, for example, who was present at the last Congress in Paris, was paid to speak at the forum, "reveals Thierry Coville.
The decision of the U.S. State Department to remove the PMOI from the list of terrorist organizations finally coincide with the evacuation ,nearly complete and demanded by the UN and the United States, of Camp Ashraf, North of Baghdad, where the Mujahedin had occupied for years.

France24 – Translated By Nejat Society

October 10, 2012 0 comments

Iraq

MEK’s crimes should be submitted to Iraqi courts’ ‎

President of the IHRS in the United States says Iraq has the right to close Camp Ashraf, ‎Mujahedin-e Khalq’s paramilitary base in Iraq, and the U.N. is responsible for finding third ‎ Hamid Murad, president of the Iraqi Human Rights Society in the U.S countries for MEK members’ resettlement. ‎

Hamid Murad, president of the Iraqi Human Rights Society in the U.S., told Habilian reporter ‎on Monday that the United States suggested that all the parties and relevant organizations ‎gather data on the Mujahedin-e Khalq terrorists group’s crimes and illegal activities inside ‎Iraq in order to be delivered to the Iraqi courts.‎

‎"After an agreement signed between Iraq and the United Nations, this country has the right ‎to close down Ashraf garrison,” he said.‎

So far, roughly ‎‏3000‏‎ MEK members have been expelled from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty, ‎but still some ‎‏200‏‎ members are remaining there to “address former residual issues.” ‎

Murad added that the United Nations has to find a third country in order for the MEK ‎members to be resettled there. ‎

September 27, 2012 0 comments

Iran

Iran files complaints against MKO leaders

Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq Hassan Danaeifard says Tehran has filed lawsuits with Iraqi courts against the leaders of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).

More than 145 complaints have been filed in Iraq against the MKO terrorist group and they all must be dealt with in the courts, Danaeifard said on Saturday.

He added that the MKO had been residing in Camp Ashraf for 27 years and used the base to carry out terrorist attacks and kill nearly 12000 innocent Iranian people.

“Many legal complaints have been filed against the MKO within Iraq as well,” the Iranian ambassador added.

“The MKO members along with the forces of [former Iraqi dictator] Saddam [Hussein] massacred the Iraqi people and now the victims’ families want their complaints addressed,” Danaeifard said.

The MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up its camp near the Iranian border.

In December 2011, the United Nations and Baghdad agreed to relocate some 3,000 MKO members from Camp New Iraq, formerly known as Camp Ashraf, in Diyala Province to Camp Liberty, a former US military base near Baghdad International Airport.

The group is also known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and carrying out the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.

The MKO has carried out numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.

September 17, 2012 0 comments

Iraq

Iraqi government opens refugee camp to diplomats

Iraqi government opens refugee camp to diplomats, hoping to resettle Iranian exiles elsewhere

Iraq offered foreign diplomats on Tuesday a rare glimpse at a camp that is the new temporary Iraqi government opens refugee camp to diplomats home of an Iranian exile opposition group that has a long-running feud with Baghdad, winning from the envoys cautious praise of the conditions there.

The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq opposed the move to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. base on the outskirts of Baghdad, from another camp in Iraq. They say it is an intolerable prison. Iraq says that it is up to international standards.

The back-and-forth bickering feeds into a wider, decade-long dispute between the MEK and Iraq over the fate of the former guerrilla movement. Iraq considers the MEK to be terrorists and wants them to leave the country. The MEK, also called the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, wants to move back to their old home at Camp Ashraf northeast of the capital.

Foreign diplomats who visited the dusty complex of former U.S housing containers described the conditions as acceptable. Some said the conditions there looked good compared to other refugee camps.

“I wouldn’t choose to live here, but when we talk about refugees … and what their living conditions are all over the world, this should be considered exceptional,” said Ramon Molina, the Spanish Embassy’s deputy chief of mission.

“It is not very good, but it is not bad also, said Pakistani diplomat Saif Khwaja. “The people who are living here are not from Iraq, and the Iraqi government is bearing the burden of these people.”

The MEK complains they are not allowed to leave and they live without reliable electricity, air condition or water supplies.

“This is not a place to live in. This is not a camp. This is only a prison,” said Liberty resident Homa Roboby, 28. “They are trying to make a life here that is intolerable.”

The MEK is an opposition group to Tehran’s clerical regime. Several thousand of its members were given sanctuary in Iraq by dictator Saddam Hussein. But the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, which is bolstering its ties with Iran, says its members are living in Iraq illegally.

The group is also designated as a terrorist organization by the United States but Washington is currently weighing whether to take them off the list — a decision that will be made in upcoming weeks.

Camp Liberty was designed as a compromise way-station for the U.N. to speed the exiles out of Iraq peacefully. Iraqi security forces have launched two deadly raids since 2009 on the MEK’s longtime home at Camp Ashraf, an inclusive mini-city that the exiles never wanted to leave.

At Liberty, the exiles live in cramped portable housing units left behind by the U.S. military, which occupied the base until it withdrew its troops from Iraq last December. They receive medical attention in a former first aid station. And they eat in a former U.S. dining hall complete with flat-screen TVs that looks very much like how the military left it — with the addition of fresh flowers on tables.

A small patch of yellow sunflowers was planted outside the dining hall, and twinkly lights were strung around posts and from the ceilings in an attempt to brighten up an area that has been dingy if sufficient for inhabitants long before the MEK arrived.

Most of the exiles wore loose clothes in khaki and other muted solid colors, and swarmed the visitors with their grievances. “Message fully understood,” one British diplomat said repeatedly.

The Associated Press and Iraq’s state-run TV were also on the tour in the first time the government has allowed journalists inside Liberty since the MEK began moving there earlier this year.

The exiles’ local leader, Abbas Davari, called the camp “dilapidated” and complained that the Iraqi government has delayed the MEK from moving generators to Liberty from Ashraf, and stymied construction of a new water treatment system.

Gorges Bakoos, who is overseeing the issue for the government, said officials are trying to solve both problems. In the meantime, he said, each exile receives at least 200 liters of water every day, above the U.N. standard of 120 daily liters per refugee. And he said residents already get electricity around the clock — unlike most Iraqis who only get a few hours each day.

The exiles denied that. “In front of you, they say one thing, but once you go — no way,” said Youssef Mahoozi, 51, who lived at Ashraf for 25 years before moving to Liberty six months ago.

The next group of exiles will move within days from Ashraf to Liberty, where U.N. will process their refugee applications and try to find counties to accept them. After that, an estimated 200 will remain at Ashraf for a few more weeks as they try to sell property left behind to traders.

The U.N. has interviewed about 90 Liberty residents but has yet to find any countries that will take them. “We are in dire need of countries coming forward to offer their help,” Gyorgy Busztin, deputy U.N. envoy to Iraq, told the diplomats.

BY Lara Jakes of AP

September 13, 2012 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts