Mujahedin Khalq Declining

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

June23, Where are Iranians?

Purple flags and purple vests were waiting for people to take them in Villepinte, a hall in Parisian suburbs. Who is supposed to take these “Maryam & Massoud” – printed purple flags and vests? The Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) says “tens of thousands of Iranian”! A look at several pictures taken by some of the attendees verifies that the hall was –not fully– crammed by travelers of countries around Europe. Not a single photo shows a large group of Iranian exiles but one can see groups of black people, Afghans, Arabs, etc… The gathering was held after a long-term multi-million propaganda campaign publicized it. The MKO’s propaganda arm, National Council of Resistance called it “the largest Iranian pro-democracy gathering”! Organizers of the rally said that more than a thousand buses arrived bringing Iranians from all over Europe. But, the buses brought people not Iranians.

The MKO spokesman wrote a report of his organization’s so-called gathering .He presents a list of guest speakers who spoke at the event to call Secretary Clinton to remove the group from the FTO list of the State Department.It doesn’t seem odd that dozens of former Western politicians accepted a free first-class flight to Paris with a luxurious hotel room and tens of thousands of dollars for a 10 minute speech in a Parisian outskirt. For ordinary Afghan Arab or polish citizens a free bus-trip to French capital seems enough to wear those purple vests and wave those purple flags.

The world media should be careful about how to deal with the MKO and even how to name it. They should never call them Iranian dissidents or opposition group or exiles. Do they ever call Cambodia extremist followers of Pol Pot, “dissidents” or “activists”? Mujahedin e khalq are at best a group of zealous members of the cult around Massoud Rajavi’s personality who betrayed their countrymen to one of the most notorious dictators of the history, Saddam Hossein and unsurprisingly, lost the majority of its supporters.

The group propaganda machine had to work hard to magnify Villepinte gathering. Days before the event they publicized for the rally spending huge amounts of money to bring rented crowds to Paris. A week after the event held you can find on the group’s websites very few photos and highly edited videos of the gathering. You may see the 1300 buses the MKO propaganda claimed of but you never see who got off the buses, Iranian exiles or hired Arabs and black Africans.

The MKO’s last rally proves that the group’s impact and credibility has dwindled to a trickle and it is totally far from a pro-democracy popular political organization. Regardless of its prominent powerful western supporters, the MKO has no base among Iranians whether inside or outside Iran.

By Mazda Parsi

June 30, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Mojahedine Khalq terrorist group propaganda

Time for a reality check

For years Massoud Rajavi – that supreme egocentric – has tried to bend reality to suit his own Mojahedine Khalq terrorist group propaganda version of how the world should be, and when actual manipulation of events has failed, has created myths to invent a reality more suited to his cultic agenda. Nowhere has this been more obvious than in the MEK’s grand vision of itself as the ‘only alternative’ or the ‘main opposition’ and the mythical tale that the MEK will ‘overthrow the Iranian regime in its entirety’. Year after year Rajavi has perpetually pretended, whether to himself or to his followers, that this is a reality. And the myth has depended on the willing suspension of disbelief of world public opinion – or at least a few political pundits – who enjoy such hatred of Iran and Iranians that they are happy to participate in the game; though not without financial recompense of course.

In the eighties the MEK used to organise mass demonstrations in Western countries to celebrate its armed struggle. The main event was the anniversary of 30 Khordad (21 June) 1981 when the MEK abandoned its ambition to lead the revolutionary forces and began to oppose the new constitutional government under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini using terrorist tactics. The mass demonstrations in Western countries were popularly supported. But as time passed by and reality impinged on Rajavi’s dream of taking over Iran, instead of bending to reality and adjusting his group’s activities accordingly, he tried to bend reality to reflect his egotistical view of himself in the world. As the MEK’s violence became more and more futile and hence more savage, the demonstrations attracted fewer and fewer actual supporters and instead became more gaudy and showy. As western governments cracked down on the MEK’s illegal and undemocratic activities they were forced to downsize – while inflating advertised attendee figures by the power of ten – and hire (ironically) exhibition halls rather than take to the streets in public.

The latest event at Villepinte in Paris on June 23 was such a spectacle. But it was a spectacle of spectacular failure. Probably the most embarrassing event the MEK has yet had to outlive (and Maryam Rajavi has a series of embarrassing public and private gaffes to her name). Most of the VIPs, who had been rounded up to promote the MEK under the false ‘democratic change’ front groups, called in sick after being briefed by government officials where the money was really coming from and that the support was for a terrorist cult. (For future reference, where the word ‘appeasement’ is used, the article/speech/policy was most probably written by the MEK and is shorthand for ‘let’s declare war on Iran’.)

The VIPs who did turn up could, quite reasonably, have been expecting to address the ‘tens of thousands of Iranian exiles’ who, the MEK declared, had arrived in a ‘thousand buses from all over Europe’. Pictures from the event, which was held in a salon with a capacity of 10,000 standing, show a very different story. No wonder the MEK has been unable to publish film or photographs from inside the salon.

The linked photographs and film were taken by former members who had slipped in unnoticed among the crowd. Several minutes into the film Maryam Rajavi is heard addressing the crowd who are still milling around and clearly disinterested in the performance on the stage. The fervent cheering comes from the actual MEK loyalists ranged in the front few rows. Behind them no one is listening or even sitting down in the places where flags have been placed on every seat for them to wave to create a spectacle to film. The MEK have paid millions of Euros to create the crowd but couldn’t organise them when they arrived. The majority ‘rent-a-crowd’ element of the audience didn’t care much where the money came from or what the event was as long as they enjoyed a free weekend trip to Paris. Even the ever-supportive anti-Iran media could only realistically describe the event as ‘Iranian led’ to disguise the fact that right minded Iranians, inside and outside Iran, actively shun the MEK.

Now, how must it have felt for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and former US Senator Robert Torricelli to address this crowd about regime change in Iran. How much is their dignity worth?

If the MEK had not held this event it would have been better for them. Even to have a small gathering of their own members and supporters would have looked better, less desperate, less like the failing cult the MEK have become. Rajavi could have spent his money on many more effective means to plead his case for removal of the MEK from the US terrorism list. But although external reality has dramatically impacted on Rajavi’s fortunes, it is the leaking evidence of desperation in the MEK’s internal situation that is the most significant.

Unusually this year the MEK’s Photoshopped pictures of the meeting have been sloppily, shoddily perhaps hastily put together; several wide angle pictures concatenated to show a mass audience. But with the blurred join lines obvious on the pictures, the cracks in the MEK’s vision are exposed. And there are more fault lines in the MEK world.

Over the past few weeks the MEK has issued several frantic press releases related to the slow, inevitable demise of Camp Ashraf (where Rajavi has defiantly stopped cooperating with the UN and US like a truculent teenager). The significant aspect of these missives is their dire English style and grammatical mistakes. Clearly, just as with the Photoshopped pictures, Rajavi has lost some key personnel inside his organisation and has had to make do with sub-standard replacements to create the means to perpetuate his myths.

Markedly Rajavi recently lost two of his main Western stalwarts in the UK, Lord Corbett of Castle Vale who died on 19 February this year, and Lord Archer of Sandwell who died on 14 June. Such supporters have, for years, facilitated the MEK’s political lobbying in the House of Lords and of course provided other practical services and support; particularly editing English language documents. Their loss is irreplaceable. And with other Peers creaking with age and MPs subject to the vagaries of elections, Rajavi can only be staring into the well of loneliness.

Increasingly lonely too are those who have, for money, positioned themselves as MEK advocates. Anyone who looks beyond the political hype and anti-Iran propaganda will see an increasing disconnect with reality. Due to the internal demand for constant indoctrination the MEK cannot hold back from advertising its ‘martyrs’ – people who die for Rajavi. This week the MEK announced the deaths of two more people in Iraq. More than anything else it is their ages – 55 and 59 – which exposes the age group of MEK residents in Iraq. Those MEK advocates – including those addressing the Paris crowd – who continue to claim that the MEK is an essential force for change in Iran really ought to save their blushes. World public opinion is not blind or stupid. Accept reality and move on.

June 28, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

The War of Words Against Iran’s MEK

For the last several months, articles about the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian dissident group, have spread like wildfire through the mainstream U.S. press. The firestorm began in early February 2012 after anonymous White House officials accused the group of assassinating several Iranian nuclear scientists with the help of the Israeli government. Media coverage gained further traction after reports surfaced about alleged payments made by the MEK to former, high-ranking U.S. officials in exchange for their work in lobbying to remove the group from the The War of Words Against Iran’s MEK State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.

While focused mainly on these issues, the MEK media frenzy has also reflected several notable tendencies. First, the coverage has overwhelmingly depicted the group as a cultish, terrorist organization. Second, with its single-minded focus on the group’s “terrorist” pedigree, reporting on the MEK has made short shrift of the its long, complex, and controversial history. Little background has been provided on the group’s origins as a popular political organization and transformation into a resistance movement in exile, and even less insight has been given about its current status as a cult-like group.

In order to evaluate competing claims about the MEK’s terrorist credentials and its current position vis a vis the United States, Iran, and Israel, an understanding of this history is critical.

The Political Organization

The MEK was established in 1965 by three young university-educated professionals, Mohammed Hanifnejad, who would become the group’s first leader, Saied Mohsen, and Ali Asghar Badi’zadegan. From its inception, the organization dedicated itself to the overthrow of Iran’s then-ruler, Reza Shah Pahlavi. While committed to armed struggle, the MEK’s work remained largely non-violent and focused on spreading its anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist message to students and factory workers, among others.

The MEK espoused a political ideology described as “Eslame Vaghee” or “True Islam,” which combined Islamic concepts with principles of social justice. While religious practices, like daily prayer, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and zakat (alms giving to the poor), formed an important part of its political philosophy, the MEK was far from a militant Islamic organization. Eschewing regressive and reactionary forms of Islam, the MEK’s religious philosophy developed out of a commitment to the progressive, liberating power of Islam and reflected Iranian society’s strong Islamic identity.

Over time, the MEK gained substantial support, particularly among students, religious clerics, and “bazaaris,” Iran’s powerful merchant class. In response to this growing popularity, the MEK’s leadership and many of its supporters were arrested in 1971 by the SAVAK, Iran’s notorious secret police. While the organization’s founders along with most of its leadership were executed in April-May 1972, a handful of MEK leaders were spared execution and sentenced to life imprisonment. Among this small group was Massoud Rajavi, who would go on to become the MEK’s primary leader in the decades to come.

After the Iranian Revolution began and MEK leaders were released from prison, the group formally joined forces with various organizations, including the followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Living as an exile in Paris during the lead up to the revolution, Khomeini had appreciated the value of working with the MEK, which enjoyed a strong support base inside the country.

This collaborative relationship substantially changed after the Ayatollah’s triumphant return to Iran in February 1979, following the ouster of Iran’s shah. Shortly after his arrival, the Ayatollah’s followers presented the MEK with an ultimatum – either unconditionally support Khomeini as Iran’s next ruler or face political isolation. Refusing to accept these terms, the group began publicly opposing Khomeini’s bid for power.

An outright war quickly developed between the two sides, with the new government arresting and killing countless MEK followers. The group responded with armed attacks against government installations and officials. By mid to late 1981, most MEK members who had not been arrested or killed fled the country, in what would become permanent exile for most.

Armed Resistance in Exile

Now focused on toppling the Islamic Republic, the MEK continued its work abroad. It established political headquarters in Paris and operated a series of “kanoons”, or community centers, around the world, including in several U.S. cities. A kanoon, which was typically an apartment or house owned or rented by a MEK supporter, served as a gathering place, center for grassroots organizing, and venue for community celebrations. In the early 1980s, most MEK members living outside of Iran were overwhelmingly young, recent émigrés. For these displaced individuals, the kanoons represented a safe haven, where they could live rent-free, speak Farsi, socialize, and meet other like-minded individuals.

Despite the civic and political work happening in these venues, armed resistance was at the heart of the MEK’s struggle against the Islamic Republic. In 1986, with the blessing of Saddam Hussein, the group established Camp Ashraf, a military base in Iraq near the Iran-Iraq border. Here, the MEK transformed its most committed supporters, both male and female, into a conventional fighting force. Periodically, this small but fervent group of soldiers would stage incursions into Iran [and only Iran], the most notable coming after the 1988 ceasefire ending the Iran-Iraq war.

While Saddam had provided the MEK with the vast majority of its arms, by the end of the 1991 Gulf War, this financial and logistical support had started to dwindle, an unintended victim of UN sanctions against Iraq. While the MEK continued to stage minor assaults into Iran, armed incursions became less and less feasible, and less and less frequent throughout the 1990s.

To add insult to injury, the MEK was also becoming increasingly irrelevant as an opposition group, having lost substantial support among the Iranian public. Many MEK supporters still inside Iran had been executed in 1988, in an infamous purge of the notorious Evin Prison. The decision to center MEK operations in Iraq was, however, the most damaging to the group’s reputation. Despite the clear practical and strategic reasons for this move, many Iranians saw the establishment of Camp Ashraf as an act of national betrayal, coming as it did during the height of the Iran-Iraq war.

The Cult

With prospects of toppling the Islamic Republic increasingly slim, the MEK focused on perpetuating its ideology and maintaining the devotion of its remaining members. Massoud Rajavi was presented as the organization’s god-like ideological father, while his wife, Maryam Rajavi, became the figurehead and public face of MEK leadership. Despite an avowed commitment to democratic ideals, the MEK intensified its already regimented system of internal governance, quashing dissent and rewarding only those blindly obedient to the group’s leadership.

Although these tendencies had existed before the post-Gulf War period, panic and desperation took these practices into overdrive. In the hopes of developing a devoted cadre of followers, the MEK divided families, separating husbands from wives and parents from children. Many of the organization’s most fervent members, who had willingly given up family and career, became wholly dependent upon the MEK. For these individuals, daily life was largely restricted to the confines of Camp Ashraf, the Paris headquarters, or the kanoons. These institutions functioned as echo chambers in which the organization’s philosophy was repeatedly emphasized. To feed this propaganda machine, the MEK, which already published its own books and newspaper, created a satellite television network, began producing its own music, and, eventually, had its own boy band to boot.

While this strategy helped forge a deeply committed, though small, group of MEK supporters, for many the intolerance and subjugation was unbearable. Unsurprisingly, throughout the 1990s, the group lost scores of supporters.

The United States, Israel, and Iran

With its armed activities curtailed, its support within Iran virtually non-existent, and its membership abroad dwindling, in the 1990s, the MEK increased efforts to build support among Western government officials. While the results were tepid at best, the Presidency of George W. Bush, September 11, 2011, and the 2003 Iraq invasion changed the rules of the game. Suddenly, prominent American politicians of the neo-conservative strain were ready to speak with the MEK. And the MEK was more willing than ever to join these conversations.

In 1997, the group had been placed on the State Department’s terrorism list, in response to pressure from Iranian President Mahmoud Khatami. In the hopes that Khatami, a reformer, would soften Iran’s stance towards the United States, the Clinton Administration acquiesced to the request. Although the State Department designation initially had little affect on the MEK, after September 11th, the group’s activities in the United States were significantly curtailed, coming to a near standstill.

Desperation makes strange bedfellows. Facing virtual annihilation, in 2002-2003, the MEK solidified its now notorious relationship with certain neo-conservative elements of the Bush Administration, as well as with the Israeli government. In the short-term, the MEK focused on removing its name from the State Department list and protecting its military base in Iraq, which was threatened by talks of an impending U.S. invasion of the country. In the long-term, the group saw its dreams of toppling the Iranian government align perfectly (for the first time) with the goals of a sitting U.S. President. Israeli support for the MEK was welcomed for similar reasons, although the assistance was deeper both ideologically and logistically. The MEK’s leadership threw itself head on into cultivating these relationships and the rest, as they say, is history.

Conclusion

As it stands today, the MEK is a broken and largely irrelevant group. Concerned only with generating support among a narrow segment of the U.S. political elite, it has engaged in a bitter rivalry with a number of Iranian-American leaders and groups, such as the National Iranian American Council. While this bad blood partly explains the recent negative publicity about the MEK, at base, the group remains very insular and secretive, with little interest in cultivating public opinion within Iran or the diaspora.

Given its past relationships and strategic-interests, rumors about the MEK’s role in assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists may be true, and, if so, raise serious concerns about removing the group from the State Department’s list. Putting these allegations aside, however, the MEK’s reach and impact, whether inside or outside Iran, has dwindled to a trickle. With its Iraqi military base virtually lost and its credibility with most Iranians permanently destroyed, the group has come far from its roots as a popular political organization. Regardless of the power and influence of its new friends, the MEK stands little chance of ever coming to power in Iran.

Muftah.org

June 27, 2012 0 comments

Iraqi Authorities' stance on the MEK

Iraq unanimously resolved to expel MKO

A senior Iraqi lawmaker says the MKO’s being supported by a number of al-Iraqiya bloc members is not so important to be discussed in the Parliament of Iraq, as the national consensus is to expel Mujahedin-e Khalq group from Iraq.

“There is a national consensus in this regard, and there is also an article in the Constitution dedicated to the subject that the Iraqi soil is not a place for aggressors to the neighboring countries,” Iraqi Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Dr. Humam Hamoudi told Habilian.

Hamoudi went on to say that the terrorist group has “spilt the blood of many Iraqi people, and violated the Iraq’s sovereignty by refusing the entrance of Iraqi security forces (to Camp Ashraf) and involving in a conflict with them.”

“Iraqis have unanimously resolved (to expel MKO) which is approved and supported by the cabinet and Parliament,” he added.

“People have been called to file a lawsuit before international courts in order to force MKO to pay the damages they have imposed on the Iraqis.”

Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Iraqi Parliament described the presence of MKO in the Iraqi soil as a “resolved and finished issue”, because “their continued presence on Iraqi soil is “against the country’s Constitution.”

June 27, 2012 0 comments

UN High Commissioner for Refugees

UNHCR: States consider MKO security threat

A senior UN official says the main reason behind the reluctance of certain countries to give refuge to members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) is that they consider the UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Erika Feller them a threat to their national security.

During a recent meeting with Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abawi at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office in the Swiss city of Geneva, the UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Erika Feller said the UNHCR will make utmost efforts to convince world states to shelter MKO members, the Habilian Association reported on Saturday.

The Habilian Association is an Iranian human rights NGO comprising a group of families that have lost their loved ones in terrorist acts during the early years following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iraq’s deputy foreign minister, for his part, reiterated his country’s call for the immediate expulsion of terrorist MKO group from Iraqi soil.

Abawi also pointed to Baghdad’s resolve to close down Camp New Iraq, formerly known as Camp Ashraf which is situated about 120 kilometers (74 miles) west of the border with Iran, stressing that MKO’s presence in Iraq violates the country’s constitution and poses a threat to Iraq’s national security.

The remaining MKO members at Camp Ashraf are refusing to leave the site on the account that no country has so far adhered to the obligations enshrined in the agreement signed in December 2011, the Iraqi diplomat pointed out.

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

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

June 25, 2012 0 comments

Iraq

Confiscated property at Camp Ashraf to be allocated to MKO victims

Uday al Khaddran: Funds from confiscated property at Camp Ashraf to be allocated to victims of Mojahedin Khalq .

While former members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist cult are pursuing a class action against Massoud and Maryam Rajavi’s assets to claim compensation for the victims of the group, the mayor of Khalis in Iraq is pursuing a similar action in his province.

Once the UN have successfully moved the MEK from Camp Ashraf to the temporary transit camp, Camp Liberty, property confiscated from the terrorist group by the Iraqi authorities will be sold and the money used to help the victims of MEK terrorism in Iraq and to recompense local farmers for the land and property stolen from them by the MEK over the past three decades.

The mayor of Khalis, Uday al Khaddran, told media, "the property at the camp includes types of saloon cars and transport, buses and tanks as well as engineering equipment and generators of different sizes and large private halls, as well as electrical appliances and cooking utensils and the types of audio devices, photography, types of medical devices for hospitals".

The mechanism for the sale must take into account recompense for the Iraqi people who suffered under the former regime he stressed.

June 23, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

What is the MKO dreaming of?

After the relocation of about 2000 people of camp Ashraf to the new Temporary Transit Location (Camp Liberty /Hurriya) the relocation process has been seemingly ceased by the MKO. The What the MKO is dreaming of? leaders of the group do not cooperate with Iraqi government , the UN and the US State Department any more.

The group leaders –apparently mad with the attorney for the US State Department who said that the US army has never been able to inspect Camp Ashraf to make sure it was disarmed — issued a statement and “invited” the State Department to inspect the camp.[1]

Besides, the MKO took a strong stance against the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative in Iraq, Martin Kobler. As usual, the group accused him of serving Islamic Republic of Iran and the government of Nouri al-Maliki.[2]

In its turn the US State Department issued a statement on June18, urging “immediate cooperation of Mujahidin Khalq with the Iraqi Government and UN”. The statement reads that the DOS remains concerned about the situation at camp Ashraf. Victoria Nuland, the spokesperson of the DOS, about the MKO’s recent “invitation for inspection”, said:”Constructive offers must be met with constructive spirit, and not with refusals or preconditions to engage in Dialogue.”She calls the group’s new pretext to stay in Ashraf as “an unnecessary distraction”.[3]

Why such reluctance again by the side of the MKO?

While the State Department believes that the Camp residents and their leadership – both in Iraq and in Paris – should recognize this path as a safe and humane resolution to this situation, the MKO leaders seem to oppose the complete closure of Ashraf and eventually their expulsion from Iraq. And, while the US Secretary of State has said that the camp closure is “a key factor in determining whether the organization remains invested in its violent past” [3] the MKO shows no sign of cooperation in order to comply with Iraqi government’s legal right — that is to sweep foreign forces off its territory.

Since the last convoy of Ashraf residents on May 5th there has been no convoy, according to senior US administration officials who attended a Special Briefing on June18, 2012. “Since that time, the MEK has curtailed its contacts both with the Iraqi Government but even with the UN, refusing to meet with Ambassador Martin Kobler, the head of the UN mission in Iraq.”[4]

The official believes that two probable reasons may have led the MKO to slow down its cooperation with the UN and the Iraq Government. “…there are two issues that have occurred to us. One, the MEK may have over-interpreted Iraqi politics and the possibility of a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Maliki. That vote appears to be receding,.” he said.” A second reason is it may be an MEK over-interpretation and misunderstanding of the recent D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling with respect to delisting.”[5]

However, the other official clarifies that the court has not told Secretary Clinton to delist the group and its leaders are “quite plainly, wrong”. the official concludes,” So it is time for the MEK to recognize that Ashraf is not going to remain an MEK base in Iraq.”[6]

What does the MKO propaganda do to fulfill the dream?

A delegation of Iraqi senior officials traveled to Europe to mobilize support for Camp Ashraf evacuation and secure transfer of the residents to Camp Liberty [TTL]. The delegation attended the meeting of the Relationship with Iraq Committee at the European Parliament. [7]
Iraqi Foreign Minister Undersecretary, Labid Abbawi proposed a statement about the meeting.”The meeting focused on the efforts made by the Iraqi Government in order to secure the transfer of Camp Ashraf residents to Camp Liberty in a peaceful manner and in accordance with international standards and in respect to human rights and international humanitarian law,” the statement said.[8]

Meanwhile the MKO’s propaganda arm, National Council of Resistance broadcasts the same event in a completely opposite way, claiming that the delegation is charged “to justify inhumane and suppressive behavior towards residents of Ashraf and Liberty.”[9]

The US administration official denounces the group’s propaganda by saying “We support the government considering people for refugee or otherwise bringing them in. Now, the United States is prepared to do its part. We take this obligation seriously. [10]

The MKO propaganda is all the time complaining of the “terrible “conditions of life at TTL. American officials, on the other hand, say that they follow condition at camp liberty in detail: ” We follow conditions at Camp Liberty in detail. We receive daily reports from the United Nations. We have an exact notion of the daily water supply. We know that it is – that each resident now receives about 200 liters per person per day of water. We follow the issues – we follow issues of electricity generation, problems with air conditioners, problems with sewage, that sort of thing. Medical treatment is available. The residents who need it are escorted to Baghdad hospitals. They’re allowed back. They’re given treatment. We follow this in great detail. “[11]

About complexities of MKO leaders’ approach towards the relocation issue, a US senior Official said,” We do not understand why, for example, they consider it in their interest to refuse contact with Martin Kobler, the head of the UN mission in Iraq, who, more than any other person, has – is responsible for the relative success of these relocations so far.” Of-course the official seems to find the answer- which is originated in the cult-like substance of the MKO. “They seem to be concerned with their organizational integrity”, he says.[12]

In order to maintain their integrity, the MKO resort to any probable pretext. The current political situation of Iraq appears to be a very little hope for the group to stay in its Iraqi headquarters Camp Ashraf where the forces are totally isolated from the world, obedient to their leaders. In response to a question posed by National Journal correspondent about the MKO’s possible strategy for the time being, the official said,” there is some evidence, and we – I would say that as an informed speculation, we believe the MEK may indeed calculate that a change of government in Iraq could rebound to their advantage, and they may be able – and they might be able to stay.

They do have some support among the Sunni politicians, but we believe that they are gravely mistaken to think that any Iraq – conceivable Iraqi government would, in fact, allow them to remain as a paramilitary organization in Iraq. We think that their time in Iraq is over.” [13]

By Mazda Parsi

References:
[1]The MKO Website. Nejat bloggers are either former MKO members or have a family member who is currently held in Camp Ashraf. They have suffered deeply because of Massoud Rajavi’s crimes. While the Nejat Bloggers recognize that citing sources of information is essential ,we, as a society feel so strongly against the MKO that we have agreed to not include the group’s websites or links in our articles because we consider it as kind of publicity for the cult.
[2]ibid
[3] US State Department, State Department urges immediate full cooperation of MEK, June18,2012
[4] US State Department, Press Release, Senior Administration officials on Camp Ashraf,June19,2012
[5]ibid
[6]ibid
[7] allIraqnews.com, FM Undersecretary participates in European Parliament session, June 2o, 2012
[8]ibid
[9] The MKO Website. Nejat bloggers are either former MKO members or have a family member who is currently held in Camp Ashraf. They have suffered deeply because of Massoud Rajavi’s crimes. While the Nejat Bloggers recognize that citing sources of information is essential ,we, as a society feel so strongly against the MKO that we have agreed to not include the group’s websites or links in our articles because we consider it as kind of publicity for the cult.
[10] US State Department, Press Release, Senior Administration officials on Camp Ashraf, June19, 2012
[11]ibid
[12]ibid
[13]ibid

June 21, 2012 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

A Negative Response to Terrorists’ Incessant Preconditions

The State Department is warning MKO not to bargain over the humanitarian issue of relocation

No doubt, terrorism is a common problem and all measures have to be undertaken to lower the level of its threat with a focus on preventive measures. But to see a terrorist group setting precondition for the continuation of its cooperation in a process to fulfill another unconventionally reached agreement with it is a new phenomenon. It appears that even all parties engaged in the process of relocating MKO’s members from its military camp, Camp Ashraf, to the Temporary Transit Location TTL near Baghdad have grabbed the truth that the group is contriving a serious battle against them. That is because so far all efforts to peacefully resolve the standoff are being rebuffed by MKO’s strict set of conditions to resume a negotiation to comply with the already agreed transfer process.

All the parties involved are unanimous that the issue of relocation of the residents in Camp Ashraf is a purely humanitarian issue that should be made as easy and peaceful as possible to accomplish, notwithstanding MKO is blacklisted a FTO. In December 2011, Ambassador Daniel Fried, Special Advisor for Camp Ashraf for the State Department, made the cause clear and promised to monitor the process of the transfer: “Embassy Baghdad will visit former Camp Liberty on a frequent basis to provide robust observation. The US seeks a safe, secure, humane resolution. Our interest is humanitarian”. But MKO is grabbing at the issue as an opportunity to force the State Department to remove it from its terrorist blacklist.

The process has reached a stalemate since MKO stopped convoys of Camp Ashraf residents to TTL after the relocation of the fifth group in early May. Since then, it has minimized its contact with the Iraqi government and other involved parties and has focused on widespread propaganda warfare to impose its set six preconditions to resume the transfer. Amongst these publicly-declared conditions is a call for the State Department to inspect Camp Ashraf, “U.S. will inspect Camp Ashraf as soon as possible”, a task the US has announced to carry out following the complete evacuation of Camp Ashraf in a two month-long span. The result will be instrumental in convincing the State Department to review MKO’s re-designation.

Apparently fed up with MKO’s procrastination and enraged by its sets of preconditions, particularly the one calling for the inspection of Camp Ashraf, Victoria Nuland, the Department Spokesperson, in a statement released on June 18 urged MKO “to resume full cooperation immediately with the Iraqi Government and United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI)”. The statement adds, “Constructive offers must be met with a constructive spirit, and not with refusals or preconditions to engage in dialogue. Recent publicly-declared conditions for cooperation, including calls for the Department to inspect Camp Ashraf as a precondition for further relocations to Camp Hurriya, are an unnecessary distraction.”

MKO considers the court ruling giving the State Department four months to announce its final decision over the group’s terrorist tag as a gained victory to have the upper hand in any dealing. The illusion fostered mostly when some European high-profile personalities congratulated the halfway, unpromising court ruling, as a decisively issued ruling. However, an American official believes that “the group’s leaders may have overinterpreted the U.S. court ruling as a guarantee that it would escape the terrorist list”. In fact, the State Department is delivering a message to MKO forewarning that it is gravely mistaken to strike any bargain with the Iraqi government and the US over the humanitarian issue of the residents; it is warned that it has no other option but to follow through on plans to resume the process of relocation as planned.

June 21, 2012 0 comments

The MEK Expulsion from Iraq

No Hope for MKO in Internal Political Conflicts

MKO is mistaken that a change of government in Iraq could rebound to its advantage

The Iraqi government is absolutely conclusive to close the military bastion of the ousted Saddam’s mercenaries, Mojahedin Khalq Organization MKO, and expel its members altogether from its soil by July 20, the beginning of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The preliminary phase to carry the job through is to relocate them, under United Nations and Iraqi government auspices, to a transit camp near Baghdad airport to undergo refugee process processed and be eventually re-settled to countries in Europe and other countries that will receive them. Some 2,000 MEK members have been transferred from Camp Ashraf since the process began, but none have moved since May 5. Although the chief impediment to have halted relocation is reported to be implausible excuses invented by MKO, frequent change of demands and asking too much, but there are other possibilities as well.

Following the reports of the possibility of a no-confidence vote against Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, MKO might have concluded that a change of government in Iraq could rebound to its advantage. As a result, the group halted its cooperation in the relocation process waiting to witness a possible collapse of Maliki’s government. However, so far all those who thought Maliki would be subject to a no-confidence vote have been disappointed.

Whatever will be the outcome of the political conflict in Iraq is an internal issue. But one thing is for certain that MKO is gravely mistaken to think that any Iraqi government, be it Maliki’s or another’s, will allow it to remain on Iraqi soil. Decisiveness to expel the group is a national demand and a constitutional decision rather than personal. The Iraq’s constitution prohibits presence of any terrorist organization on its soil (Article 7 of the constitution). The Iraqi government recognizes MKO as a terrorist organization, as it is on the US terror list and some other countries.

June 21, 2012 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

U.S. Official: MEK are plainly wrong

Iranian dissident group warned delisting from US terror not guaranteed

The United States warned an Iranian dissident group that it may have "over-interpreted" recent events, and should not presume its removal from the U.S. terror list is guaranteed.

The Obama administration has told Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) an orderly departure from its base Camp Ashraf inside Iraq will be a central condition to any decision regarding the group’s removal from the list.

From Camp Ashraf, the residents travel by convoy under United Nations and Iraqi government auspices to a former U.S. base in Iraq where they can be processed and eventually re-settled to countries in Europe and elsewhere.

Some 2,000 MEK members have left Camp Ashraf since the process began, but none have moved since May 5. Some 1,200 to 1,400 still remain at Camp Ashraf.

"Constructive offers must be met with a constructive spirit, and not with refusals or preconditions to engage in dialogue," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a written statement. "Recent publicly declared conditions for cooperation, including calls for the Department to inspect Camp Ashraf as a precondition for further relocations to Camp Hurriya, are an unnecessary distraction."

Nuland also called on the Iraqi government to "intensify its efforts to fulfill its commitment to provide for the safety, security, and humanitarian treatment" of Camp Ashraf residents.

MEK has waged a widespread, well-publicized campaign for enforcement of a 2010 ruling by a federal court ordering the State Department to review the group’s status on the terror list.

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court ordered Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to make a decision by October 1, or the court would issue a so-called writ of mandamus to set aside the designation. The State Department has said it will comply with the ruling.

On a conference call with reporters Monday, a senior administration official said MEK may have "over-interpreted" the court ruling, and may believe that Clinton has no choice now but to de-list the group. The official said that belief would be "quite plainly, wrong."

Clinton "retains complete discretion on this matter," the official said. "The court has told her to deliver a decision one way or the other. They have not told her to de-list."

The administration says it is incumbent for MEK to realize that Camp Ashraf’s existence is coming to a rapid close.

"The Iraqi government is committed to closing it," the official said on the call with reporters, "and any plan to wait out the government in the hope that something will change it – change its mind – is really quite dangerous."

The Iraqi government has said it would like to see Camp Ashraf closed by July 20, the beginning of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

A second senior administration official on the same call said that MEK may also have "over-interpreted" Iraqi politics and the possibility of a no-confidence vote against Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as a reason to cease cooperating in the eventual closure of Camp Ashraf.

"We believe the MEK may indeed calculate that a change of government in Iraq could rebound to their advantage, and they may be able – and they might be able to stay," the second official told reporters. MEK are "gravely mistaken" to think any Iraqi government "would, in fact, allow them to remain as a paramilitary organization in Iraq," the official said. "We think that their time in Iraq is over."

The official said the push for a no-confidence vote on Maliki appears to be receding.

MEK was placed on the terror list in 1997 because of the deaths of Americans during attacks in the 1970s against the U.S.-backed shah of Iran.

The U.S. says MEK engaged for years in terrorist activities in Iran, launched from bases in Iraq, including assassinations of high-level Iranian officials and attacks in Iran with heavy weaponry. The group was granted refuge in Iraq by Saddam Hussein during and after the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.

MEK supports the overthrow of the Iranian regime.

The terrorist designation prohibits Americans from providing material support to the organization, but a number of high-profile former U.S. officials have taken up the cause of the MEK and called for it to be de-listed. Some of them have received speaking fees for that support.

The Treasury Department currently is issuing subpoenas to some speakers bureaus for information on the source of those funds.

By Jamie Crawford

June 20, 2012 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts