Mujahedin Khalq as a Destructive Cult

Rajavis’ Cult and the Risk of Terrorism in France

In the neighborhood of Islamic Radicals in Northern Paris, a large area of French territory is under the unofficial mandate of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization. About one month ago, few Rajavis’ Cult and the Risk of Terrorism in France people could imagine that members of Muslim Rap band would bomb a Jewish super market, just a few kilometers further.

Besides, a radical Muslim, Muhammad Marah, from Toulouse, cruelly murdered a Jewish Rabi and his two children. Since last month, French news agencies have several times reported of the arrest of terrorist radicals in cities including Niece, Marseille, Toulouse, Paris and Strasbourg – according to the reports, arrested suspects are mostly France-born youngsters who have joined terrorist networks, or Christians who have converted to Salafi Islam. In other words, the origin of this terrorism pattern is undefined stemming from a spontaneous generation.

Some believe that such phenomenon is the outcome of Arabic Spring and Anarchistic tendencies running in Northern and Central Africa. Some others think of ancient reasons that are found in families and their not-so-adapted cultures. Anyway, today French people are facing the increasing threat of internal terrorism of terrorists who see themselves as Muslims like Ben Laden and their belief is very similar to that of religious people of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Al-Qaida.

But Salafis, whether related to Al-Qaida or Saudi- are not the only violent group in France. Mujahedin Khalq also consider themselves true Muslims and real opposition against Iranian government. They have the very volatile potential and motivation, according to those who lived with them. They have been living in large region in the North of Paris, running large scale propaganda to influence French community and personalities.

Iranians see the cult of Rajavi (the MKO) much more radical than Salafis of France and Europe. A look at the MKO activities indicates dangers threating European society’s particularly French Society.

In 1965 the main core of the MKO was formed by a number of religious people who advocated armed struggle against Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, America and Israel. Their major operations were the killing of 6 American citizens in which Massoud Rajavi, currently disappeared leader of the group, was direct instructor and theoricain of terror teams!

The group’s first terrorist acts were launched in the 1970’s eventually; a large majority of members and leaders of the cult were arrested. Founders and central members of the group were executed and Massoud Rajavi, the only survivor of core members, was sentenced to long-life imprisonment.

According to the recently-published memoirs of Parviz Sabeti, a high-ranking official of Shah’s Savak (Shah’s security and intelligence Service), Rajavi’s death sentence was abated to life imprisonment because of Sabeti’s interference, not because of his brother’s efforts in Europe. Sabeti reveals that Massoud’s brother Kazem Rajavi was Savak’s spy in Switzerland and directly in connection with him, he was working for shah’s Intelligence and Security organization. In the book, he reveals that Massoud Rajavi betrayed founders and central members of the group and he widely cooperated with Savak when he was imprisoned so his punishment was reduced.

A few years later, Massoud Raajvi, Mehdi Abrishamchi [ex-husband of Maryam Rajavi] and other leaders of the group who are now living in Ouver Sur d’Oise, Paris, were released following the Iranian people’s Revolution[in 1978].

The group found a new success thanks to huge waves of the revolution. It started organizing itself in Tehran and other cities of Iran ….

To be continued

By Mohammad Alavi,Translated by Nejat Society

October 23, 2012 0 comments

Open letter of SFF to the UN Secretary General

Sahar Family Foundation has written an open letter to Mr Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General, and has sent the copies to the international media and the appropriate authorities.

The text of the letter is as follows:

Mr Ban Ki Moon,
UN Secretary General
With Regards

As the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) has eventually left Ashraf garrison and moved to Liberty transit camp, and the process of UN asylum registration has begun,

As the name of the MKO had been removed from the list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTO) in the US, Europe and Britain, and as Western countries no longer regard the MKO as a terrorist entity,

And as the suffering families of the members are still waiting in Iraq after almost three years to visit their loved ones and have not only not received any positive answer but have been insulted and accused and even harassed by the MKO elements,

We as the representative of the families of the members of the MKO in Iraq urge you to use your international capacity and:

Arrange for the meeting of the families with their loved ones in order to end their sufferings.

The news received from Camp Liberty indicates that the cultic relationships and standards are still imposed at their most intense. The members are told that they are bound to stay in Iraq and no one is allowed to leave. The members are also frightened about what the consequences would be if they leave the organization or seek to visit their families. The phobia of ‘extradition to Iran and facing torture and execution’ is systematically cultivated in the minds of the members.
The MKO authorities have clearly told the members that the National Liberation Army (Saddam Hussein’s private army of Rajavi) is the MKO’s sole capital investment and will never, under any circumstances, be given up. The leaders have emphasized that arms and weapons are not detachable from the MKO’s struggle.

As the obstacle of the FTO list has been removed and access by UN officials to the MKO members is much easier in Camp Liberty, there is no excuse for not arranging family meetings for the members. The families are eager to independently make sure about the physical and mental wellbeing of their loved ones.

The MKO is claiming that the members have chosen their destiny willingly and knowingly and that they have no desire to visit their families. There are many documents however which prove these individuals are systemically mind manipulated and their willpower has been psychologically robbed from them.

UN officials have the capacity to arrange these meetings without the interference of the MKO authorities. The same thing has been arranged in other parts of the world in the past. This excuse that the MKO leaders do not cooperate can no longer be acceptable and it is the duty of the UN officials to demand that the MKO leaders give the members their most basic human rights. If the leaders are refusing to do so, it is surely right for the UN to announce it publicly and not just in private meetings.

We wish to thank you in advance on behalf of the families.

Sahar Family Foundation
Baghdad, October 10, 2012

Copies to:
Mr Martin Kobler and the UNAMI
Iraqi ministry of human rights
ICRC in Iraq
US Ambassador to Iraq
International and Iraqi media

October 13, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Five Points About Removal Of MeK From US Terror Blacklist

The recent announcement by the United States Department of State about removing the notorious Mujahedin-e Khalq (MeK) Organization from its blacklist of terrorist organizations on September 28, 2012, has been followed by many analytical accounts. They ranged from many media analyses provided by the Western and Iranian experts who were opposed to the decision, to admiring accounts by former American politicians. The proponents of the move among former US politicians were mostly those whose palms had been greased by the MeK through accepting hefty financial contributions from the organization. They had, therefore, organized extensive campaigns and lobbies across the United States in order to take the name of the organization out of the list of terrorist organizations.

Iran
This article does not actually mean to put renewed emphasis on this grave mistake which has been committed by the US government. It is already too late and the United States has provided the group with considerable maneuvering room. (A secondary point here: given the behavior of the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and its government in the past years, especially in the past few months, it is almost certain that Ottawa will soon remove the MeK from its list of terrorist organizations in order not to lag behind the United States and the European countries in this regard!)

This paper only means to remind Western politicians of a few characteristics of this terrorist organization as defined by firsthand Western sources. Let’s hope that this would help the Americans to realize that delisting the MeK is not just a simple delisting of an organization from the long list of 52 organizations designated as terrorist entities by the US Department of State. This delisting, however, will have consequences and implications which may prove to be quite different from what they may seem at a first glance.

1. The issue of weird and cult-like conduct of the leaders of this organization and their bizarre treatment of other members has been acknowledged by many Western sources. A special case was a report released by RAND (Research and Development) Corporation in 2009, entitled “The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq: A Policy Conundrum,” (1) in which a special part had been dedicated to “Cultic Characteristics of the MeK.” Under that title, the report says, “… [MeK’s] subsequent exile undermined its optimism and openness. In France, Masoud Rajavi dramatically changed the nature of the organization. In 1985, he announced that Maryam Azodanlu, the wife of his close associate Mehdi Abrishamchi and the younger sister of a senior MeK member, would assume the position of MeK co-leader. Rajavi divorced his second wife, the daughter of former Iranian president, Abol-Hasan Banisadr, Rajavi’s ally, and announced that Maryam would divorce her husband and marry him. These actions would advance a new “ideological revolution.”

The Rajavis claimed that their new revolution was meant to highlight the equality of women, an idea that the IRI [Islamic Republic of Iran] found threatening. Although the MeK did promote women to leadership positions, which constituted a reversal of tradition in Iranian society, the marriage and the subsequent aggrandizement of Masoud Rajavi’s leadership role marked the beginning of an organizational transformation into a cult of personality. Initial changes included increased mandated study, enforced communal living arrangements, and imposed supervision of the group’s membership in exile throughout Europe.”

Elsewhere in the same document, it says, “After the MeK moved to Iraq in 1986, the Rajavis created the NLA [National Liberation Army], which included nearly the entire MeK contingent in Iraq, and they used its militaristic structure to consolidate their control.

Following the failure of Operation Eternal Light, the Rajavis initiated a series of policy changes that continued the transformation of the increasingly insular organization into a cult. While rarely admitting total failure, Rajavi implied in his speeches that the operation had not achieved its goals due to insufficient devotion to the overthrow of the IRI among the MeK rank and file, who were instead distracted by sexual interests as a result of their coeducational housing. To enforce a new “military” discipline, rank-and-file members were instructed not just to move into gender-segregated housing but also to divorce their spouses, maintain complete celibacy, and even cut off communication with friends and family, both within and beyond MeK compounds. Love for the Rajavis was to replace love for spouses and family. In addition, the Rajavis used funding provided by Saddam to construct self-sufficient camps that included schools, medical clinics, training centers, and prisons (often called “reeducation centers”) so that the population had little need for contact with the society beyond its walls.”

Three years after the RAND report was released, that behavior still continues within the ranks of the organization. Many examples of it can be found in the weblogs run by ex-members who have succeeded to escape the clutches of this organization. The authors of the RAND report have also noted in the conclusion part of their report that, “MeK leaders and supporters … allege that former MeK members and critics of the MeK are either Iranian agents or their dupes. However, interviews with US military and civilian officials, information voluntarily furnished by former MeK members at the ARC, and visits to Camp Ashraf suggest that these denials are not credible.”

2. The MeK is also no favorite with major human rights organizations. A great number of documents on frequent instances of human rights violations within the ranks of this cultic organization can be found here: Human Rights Watch, No Exit: Human Rights Abuses inside the MKO Camps, New York, May 2005.

3. The United States, put the MeK, or as better known in Iran as ‘Monafeqin (hypocrites)’, on its list of terrorist organizations in 1997 and delisted them in 2012. The Council of Europe also listed the MeK as a terrorist organization in 2001 and delisted it in 2009. Britain, likewise, put the MeK on its terror list in 2001 and delisted it in 2008. Such periods of being “listed” and “delisted” have been seldom repeated for any other terrorist organization. Many such organizations have stayed on the terrors lists of the United States, the UK, or the European Union for many long years. It would be very ridiculous to assume that this development followed a decision by members of this group to really give up terrorism, regret their past deeds and try to go for more democratic approaches. Therefore no other explanation for this measure may occur to an analyst, except for the direct role of political decisions and expediencies, topped by the decision to use the MeK as a means of exerting pressure on Iran. The independent observers have, as such, considered this issue as a proof to the fact that the United States’ judiciary is not a truly independent power.

4. Last year, the UN special rapporteur on human rights for Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, submitted his first report to the UN Human Rights Council in which had had pointed to 17,000 names given to him by an Iranian nongovernmental organization in writing as the names of those killed in terrorist operations by the MeK. The Iranian nation will never forget two facts about this group. The first fact is countless cases of blind assassinations carried out by MeK members in early post-revolution years which were mostly carried out by members of this group in desolate streets and places and targeted people who were only suspected of being connected in some way to the nascent establishment of the Islamic Republic. They included many shoemakers, workers, bakers, teachers and civil servants. The second fact is their unbridled cooperation with the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during his imposed war against Iran. Without a doubt, it will be impossible for the Iranian nation, regardless of their political tendencies for or against the Islamic establishment, to imagine that the United States does not consider this group as a terrorist group anymore.

5. From 2003 onward and after this terrorist group lost its support from Saddam, its members lived in limbo at Camp Ashraf. The internal cult-like rules of the organization considered escaping to Iran by its members as a great treachery which was punishable by death. However, since 2005, many of them have returned to Iran voluntarily and through mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Perhaps, removing the MeK from the US Department of State’s list of terrorist organizations will make it possible for its members to interact more freely with the ICRC, or return to their families in Iran with more ease. In that case and if the MeK actually decided to stop its overt activities as well as covert terrorist operations against Iran and accept a more democratic structure in order not to be listed as a terrorist organization again, it would perhaps die in a few years. The reason is that the MeK owes its identity to its strange, clichéd, cultic, and inflexible rules and any kind of compromise in that regard will totally change its identity. There is a Persian proverb which says that “at times a remedy works just the opposite of what it is intended to do.”

By Mahmoud Reza Golshanpazhooh Executive Editor of Iran Review , Eurasia Review

Notes:

(1) http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG871.html

October 6, 2012 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

The MEK Is Bad News, But Delisting Them Was A Good Decision

Members of the Iranian dissident group known as the Mujahedin e-Khalq, or MEK, really don’t like me. I don’t trust them, either. I’ve been reporting on the MEK for the Huffington Post since last The MEK Is Bad News, But Delisting Them Was A Good Decision summer, and members of the group have threatened my house and hacked my email.

Still, I believe the State Department’s decision Friday to remove the MEK from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations was a good one.

Like many people who’ve researched how the MEK actually works, I don’t believe that they’re freedom fighters in exile as they claim to be. Nor do I believe their values are democratic, as they claim they are.

I believe the MEK is a militant cult of personality, whose leaders, Maryam and Massoud Rajavi, figured out in the 1980’s that they could survive by doing mercenary work on behalf of governments that hate Iran. Saddam Hussein was their first patron, and he granted them land in Iraq to build a walled, military compound, Camp Ashraf, where until a few months ago, more than 3,000 members lived.

There, they would wake up every day and worship images of Maryam Rajavi before commencing with the day’s Army base-type tasks. The MEK claims to subsist on foreign contributions, but that’s only partly true.

In America, their well-paid U.S. advocates, men like former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, wax on about how the MEK renounced violence a decade ago and just needs U.S. backing in order to topple the Iranian regime and seize power. I’ve watched these guys earn $40,000 for an eight-minute speech.

But the debate over whether or not the MEK is a terrorist group doesn’t matter. It never really did. After dozens of conversations and background briefings over the past year, I don’t believe Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided to delist the MEK how and when she did because the secretary suddenly changed her mind on the question of whether or not they are terrorists.

I think the reason the MEK was delisted on Friday is, more importantly, because Clinton understands that they’re a dangerous cult, and that all the other potential outcomes of the 30-year standoff between the MEK and the outside world would have likely been much, much worse.

Near the top of that list was mass suicide, a possibility that kept more than a few U.S. diplomats up at night. After that, it was that the MEK’s leaders would deliberately provoke a confrontation with Iraqi security forces, many of whom would be happy to avenge the ethnic cleansing raids MEK soldiers carried out for Hussein back in the day. In France, where Maryam Rajavi lives, officials considered the unwelcome possibility of public self-immolations — a tactic the MEK has used there before.

Truth is, most of the world doesn’t really care what happens to the 3,200 people who used to live at Camp Ashraf.

But Secretary Clinton cares, despite years of daily MEK protests outside her office on C Street, N.W., where I’ve watched the same dozen or so people, all dressed in identical Maryam Rajavi t-shirts, banging drums and accusing Clinton of violating human rights, breaking international law, and callously leaving them to die at the hands of Iraqi soldiers.

Ironically, while they cursed the secretary from the sidewalk, inside the State Department, Clinton and her aides were quietly working on a plan to save thousands of brainwashed MEK foot soldiers in Camp Ashraf from their own leaders and from the Iraqi military.

The only way to do this is to split the 3,200 into small groups and transfer them out of Iraq a few at a time, as refugees. This being a cult, however, the leaders initially refused to let anyone leave Ashraf unless they all left as a group. But as one former U.S. diplomat said to me, "What the hell kind of country is going to agree to take in 3,000 militant cult members?"

Clinton only had one major bargaining chip. In exchange for leaving Camp Ashraf, the secretary agreed to delist the group from the U.S. list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, which she officially did on Friday. That afternoon, State Department officials presented us reporters with three reasons they said the decision was merited. None of the official reasons holds up to scrutiny, but the eventual outcome, the delisting, does.

Therein lies the difference between politics and diplomacy. The "reasons" given here didn’t win anybody over. They were more of a gesture meant to placate people like me, who have reported what everyone at the State Department already accepts, namely, that the MEK is dangerous and untrustworthy and capable of future violence.

But the question facing Secretary Clinton wasn’t whether the MEK could be trusted. Or even if the MEK’s members were still dangerous. Privately, U.S. officials don’t pretend to know the answer to either one.

The question at the heart of the MEK decision was whether Clinton would be willing to quietly save 3,200 lives. She was.

I may not trust the MEK or their tactics, but the year-long negotiation that culminated on Friday represents a bright point for U.S. diplomacy and humanitarianism.

By Christina Wilkie

October 3, 2012 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Now Focus Attention Back On Rajavi’s Hostages In Camp Liberty

Among humanitarian organisations and the estranged families of MEK members there is a sense of relief now that the US sideshow of speculation over MEK terrorist listing and who the MEK’s financial backers are has blown over. It means that attention can now properly be returned to the situation of the MEK in Iraq where the urgent problem is how to restore basic human rights to the former MEK fighters trapped in Camp Liberty. Because although UN inspectors and Diplomatic representatives have attested to the more than acceptable living conditions in the temporary transit camp, the residents continue to be denied their basic human rights by the MEK leadership. Since 2003 the Americans have been complicit in allowing the MEK to mistreat the membership. Unfortunately this situation has continued at Camp Liberty to where all but a handful of the former Camp Ashraf residents have been relocated.

Massoud and Maryam Rajavi run a personality cult which dictates to the members that only they should be worshipped and adored. There is no room for other relations, even friendships. In the MEK, members are not even permitted to maintain a relationship with other family members inside the group, such as siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins. Relations between individuals is severely restricted and constantly monitored for infringements. This state of affairs is maintained through a harsh, unremitting regime of daily confessions with infringements – or sins – punished by an escalating system of public humiliation, beatings and isolation. In Camp Liberty residents are billeted six to a bungalow even though enough space has been allocated to allow for two per housing unit. The cult leaders insist on more than two people sharing as a means to prevent dissenting views from being discussed behind closed doors.

In Iraq the estranged families of MEK members have maintained a vigil outside both Camp Ashraf – and now Camp Liberty – for nearly three years. These families have travelled to Iraq to try and get news of and contact with their loved ones who are being held hostage by the Rajavi cult. Massoud and Maryam Rajavi have imposed cruel conditions on their followers in which nobody is allowed to have contact with their families outside the cult without the permission of the leaders.

The Americans in Iraq have done nothing to help these families reach their loved ones. Instead they have apparently done everything possible to prevent the dissolution of the MEK as a single entity, in spite of being informed of the cult nature of the group.

However, because the US terrorism list has no relevance in Iraq, the Government of Iraq will not change its stance because of this action. Indeed, no government of any colour would be able or willing to keep any MEK in Iraq because of its history of violence against Iraqi citizens.

Since the US government no longer regards the MEK as terrorists the Americans should now make a real effort to remove them from Iraq for their own wellbeing. The State Department claims that the MEK has publicly renounced violence – even though there is no evidence that the MEK leader Massoud Rajavi has made any verbal or documented declaration to this effect. (Who do the State Department thinks actually runs the MEK? Lawyers?) As such the MEK should be expected to fully decommission its military personnel and reconfigure its internal structure to allow it to pursue exclusively peaceful and democratic opposition activities against the governments of Iran and Iraq, and possibly Syria.

The burning question then is what the MEK will do with its redundant former fighters in Camp Liberty in Iraq? As avowed enemies of the Iranian government they must presumably take refuge in the West. To qualify as refugees they must renounce their membership of the MEK as a political entity. Logically this should not present any difficulty as they are no longer needed as fighters. (Because the MEK is now a peaceful organisation with no need for any personnel trained in violence or military/terrorist style activity.)

The first step is to open up Camp Liberty to the outside world, to the families and humanitarian NGOs which are waiting to offer help to the residents. The residents must be given access to external information sources, internet, television, telephones, print media, etc. Conditions must prevail such that each resident is able to enjoy freedom of movement in the camp, freedom of association in the camp, including between the genders, and freedom to contact their families. This would represent a first, yet vital, step toward solving the problem of the MEK in Iraq.

October 2, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

48 Years After Formation of MKO

MKO lacks the least political support among the Iranian people and opposition

This September, Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCR, NLA) commemorates 48th anniversary of its formation. Now on the list of designated terrorist organizations, there is no denying that it shares many characteristics and similar terrorist and violent tactics employed by any of the same groups and entities on the list. However, hardly any of other terrorist groups can be identified even close to it in utilizing tactics in pursuit of overall strategies that have oftentimes changed in degree and frequency; a make-believe shift from an absolute violent to a presumably pro-democracy group, an opportunistic and ambivalent shift from the ultra-left to ultra-right, and turning into an enthusiastic pro-imperialist after being initially and inherently recognized an ardent anti-imperialist.

As an opposition lasting for nearly half a century in Iranian temporary history, MKO is known to have had the most destructive impact on other campaigning freedom-seeking and ideological groups. In contrast to genuine sincerity and righteous causes of the early founders of the organization, as many believe, the subsequent unsavory assumption of power as the leader by Massoud Rajavi actually led the organization to a different path of deviation that so far has challenged it. It does not mean that the early founders like Muhammad Hanifnejad were totally free from mistakes and errors in decision makings that were somehow a natural impact of other active political, ideological and mainly Marxist groups’ activities, but Rajavi’s persistence to walk on a more tortuous path of mistakes led many to doubt the honesty and veracity of the early founders in their claimed campaign.

Benefiting a wide range of public support for its ideological and religious believes MKO was holding at the beginning, it did not take long, only a decade later, for the group to be totally divested of majority of its publically reputed figures who were superseded by pro-leftists. In fact, MKO has failed to remain an un-diverted group and has often been realigning itself with leftist ideologies and has undergone a thorough change both in its membership make up and political interaction with the world outside. Now nearly after five decades of its formation, MKO is facing strong opposition from a variety of other opposition groups that are drawing firm lines of demarcation between genuine and sham ideological, political and strategic policies practiced by MKO and themselves. Here are some examples of these oppositions’ perception of MKO.

– A front of opposition believes that the formation of MKO was engineered by under-the-curtain hands to carry through imperialist, freemason and capitalist ends and to confront genuine Islamic movements. Based on questionable, historical analyses and evidences, this front argues that the formation of MKO followed a tactic of forming a trend at the expense of Islamic movements but at the service of imperialism interests.

– There are others who are of the opinion that MKO was principally a devoted Islamic group but the strong impact of Marxist movements on Iranian campaigning intelligentsia at the time impelled the leaders to nest fallacies in reasoning to make impetuous decisions. These seriously made miscalculations are known to be the root of the consequent organizational and eclectic deviations lasted so far.

– Another group believes that surviving intellectuals of the early Mojahedin like Taqi Shahram and Bahram Aram, who had concealed their Marxist inclination as they joined the organization, were the subset to lead the organization to a full derailment. They are said to have established close collaboration with SAVAK, Pahlavi’s Intelligence Agency, and CIA to deflect the organization from its main path by open declaration of conversion to Marxism when the top leaders were arrested and executed.

– A fourth group observes that transformation of MKO into a deviated terrorist cult is the result of Massoud Rajavi’s hegemonic and ideological leadership. Rajavi’s plotted ideological revolution was in itself a result of the organization’s failures during 1981-1985 and a process that turned to be the major cause behind all deviations and failures of organization.

– The end of the bipolar order is generally associated with the collapse of the USSR that had its great impact on revolutionary Marxism. As a result, majority of left-oriented groups building their struggle on revolutionary and violent underground militarism encountered shocking failed strategies. The claiming revolutionary MKO was not an exception; compelled to undergo a change, MKO is presumed a pro-democratic, non-violent group with no actual reformation of its old infrastructure.

– And a last group of commentators conclude that MKO is considered a good case for historical studies concerning idealist, revolutionary and militant groups turning into non-democratic cults acting under a pro-democratic guise.

Frankly speaking, no campaigning group can be found in Iranian contemporary history so controversial as MKO. The group’s blind assassinations and bloody terrorist operations under a false flag of freedom and democracy repelled Iranian people and made MKO disappointed of availing itself of the determinative public element inside the country to face absolute public rejection. The supporters of a once claiming revolutionary group at the moment are neither the internal or the external oppositions but state-sponsored warmonger Western parties and a few retired and former Western personalities in need of MKO’s money.

September 15, 2012 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Eyewitness: condition at Liberty was one hundred percent better than Ashraf

SFF interviews Hassan Sharqi

Mr. Hassan Sharqi who could release himself from Camp Liberty (Temporary Transit Location) SFF interviews Hassan Sharqi on August 22nd, 2012 was interviewed by Sahar Family Foundation a few days after his defection. The following is the interview which was translated by Nejat Society.

SFF: Please introduce yourself.

Hassan Sharqi: I am Hassan Sharqi. I was taken as a War Prisoner by Iraqi forces in 1980 and I was in Iraq POW’s camps for 9 years. I joined the MKO in 1981 because of the difficult conditions in Iraqi camps. After a while, I found out that I was detained in a worse situation. I still had to stay imprisoned but this time in the cult of Rajavi. I asked to leave the organization twice, in 2008 and in 2012 but they didn’t accept my demand. Instead, they held long-time meetings to punish me. Since Camp Liberty belongs to the United Nations, I decided to announce my defection during the interview and not to get back to the organization.

SFF: During the years you were in the MKO, how many times did you contact with your family?

HS: Except the nine years of my imprisonment in Iraqi prison that I used to write letter, I had no contact with my family during the 24 years that I was in Camp Ashraf. About one and a half years ago, my brother called to me via loudspeakers from the eastern side of the Camp. He wanted to visit me but I wasn’t allowed to meet him because of the severe controlling
conditions in the group and the way the officials treated us. My brother is back in Iran now.

SFF: how influential was the families’ presence at the camp?

HS: it was extra ordinarily influential. When their voice was heard in the camp, it was very motivating. Members are stuck there, they are waiting the day they can join their family. Some could risk and escape the camp to set themselves free. After each escape, supervision and guarding was enhanced so it became harder and harder for others to leave the Camp.

SFF: what kind of communication facilities did you have in the Camp?

HS: I, myself had no access to communication tools like cell phone, telephone or the Internet. These tools were only accessible for high ranking members.

SFF: why doesn’t the MKO allow members to contact their families?

HS: mainly because they fear the collapse of the cult. They fear that members be absorbed by the families. That’s why Massoud Rajavi, the cult leader, calls the families as mercenary and enemy. He is afraid of them. He says that the Iranian regime wants to stop you by wife and life and eventually to stop you from struggling.

SFF: In which phase were you transferred to TTL?

HS: I was moved in the third convoy.

SFF: can you describe the condition at Camp Liberty?

HS: about water, electricity, food and settlement facilities, I believe that the condition at Liberty was one hundred percent better than Camp Ashraf. American forces have previously been in TTL, they’ve left their equipments there and now the MKO is using them. About kitchen and preservation equipments, Camp Ashraf has never had such amenities.
About living conditions, if the authorities housed the members according to what the UNHCR had assigned, the place would be the best. The beds and closets are very good. Each Conex has three air conditioners. But out of 40 Conexes the authorities allocated only 20 ones to members’ accommodation and the rest were allocated to offices and working place.

SFF: the MKO says that it had no possibility for planting trees? What does it mean?

HS: in my idea, there is no need for planting trees or building side walks and streets if the site is a temporary one, there is no need for asphalted streets. They want to make a new base because they’re losing Ashraf. What they do has nothing to do with a Temporary Transit Location. Secondly, everyone knows that planting trees in this hot season is a vain work. The trees will go dry. This is just to keep members busy so that they cannot think of anything else.

SFF: did the MKO conserve its organizational structure at Camp Liberty?

HS: yes, it did . They accepted to move to liberty because Iraqi forces were not involved. Camp Ashraf consist three parts. They moved them all to Liberty. They didn’t want the organizational structure to be understood. They divided the forces in 40 quarters that were given to them. They separated each part from the others using curtains because they didn’t want forces of each unit communicate with the other one. You may not believe that in the world of satellites and the Internet, we weren’t able to communicate with the person next to us. They disagree with any form of communication devices. Brainwashing sessions including Current Operation, Weekly Cleansing and Organizational meetings were held more severely and more frequently than the ones that were held at camp Ashraf.

SFF: where was your interview with UNAMI?

HS: on August22, I was interviewed by UNAMI representatives who were installed in camp Liberty together with 15 other members.

SFF: did they hold any meeting for you before the interview?

HS: yes, on August 21, I was told to be at the commandant’s office at 9 O’clock. Two officials, Rasoul and Mohammad Bakhshayee tried to manipulate our minds about the following day’s interview. The meeting took three and a half hours long. They told us that we should claim that the conditions of life were not good at liberty and we had problems with water and electricity. We had to say that we had had contacts with our families before coming to liberty and we had no meetings except Current Operation. They asked us to say that food supplies were very little and Iraqi forces didn’t let us reach food easily. They told us to tell lies.

SFF: why did you decide to leave the group?

HS: I spent 33 years of my life in camp Rumadia (9 years) and Camp Ashraf (24 years) as a prisoner. I found out that the MKO was a liar and just wanted to maintain its establishment from collapse. Thus, I asked to leave the group twice but they refused my demand. On the interview day, I used the opportunity and said everything to the authorities of HCR. I told them about the reality of the organization and that I didn’t want to get back any more. I was serious in my decision.

SFF: do you think there are other people in the group who are willing to leave it?

HS: during the years of imprisonment, the MKO has manipulated members by brainwashing sessions and deceitful words of leaders so no one is able to make a serious decision until he is helped from the outside world. They have no idea of the world they would enter after defection.

SFF: what do you want to do after your release?

HS: First of all, I want to hire an attorney to sue the MKO leaders in Iraqi judiciary in order to reveal the atrocities they committed against me in those 24 years. Then, I’m determined to return to my country even if I am alive for a few days. I am an Iranian; I shouldn’t be far from my territory.

SFF: Thanks for your time.

HS: thank you, I know that SFF has played a major role to denounce the Cult of Rajavi. I want to continue denouncing Massoud Rajavi and the crimes he committed.

September 9, 2012 0 comments

Letter of Mr. Ali Hussien-Nezhad to Mr. Martin Kobler

Mr. Ali Hussein-Nezhad, the former veteran member of the MKO who has recently managed to escape form Camp Liberty and gain his freedom, has written a letter to Mr. Martin Kobler. Letter of Mr. Ali Hussien-Nezhad to Mr. Martin Kobler

The full text of the letter comes below:

Mr. Martin Kobler

Special Representative of the UN General Secretary for Iraq and
Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI),

Around three months ago, immediately after walking out of Camp Liberty, I met you and Mr. Nicola, head of the UNAMI human rights delegation in Baghdad. Two months ago I wrote my first letter to you.

In our meeting I described the suppression and repression and the cultic behavior and relationships inside Ashraf and Liberty, and how the members are kept unaware about the outside world and about their families. I defined how the followers of the Rajavi cult are forced to divorce their spouses and abandon their children and suppress all feelings but those towards the leadership.

I emphasized that all means of contact and communication with the outside world including internet, mobile phone, telephone, radio, television, newspaper, and etc. are forbidden. Even reading books is considered out of the question by the leaders of the MKO. Both in our meeting and in my first letter I declared that the cult has killed all normal human feelings inside the mind and soul of the members. Any kind of contact with the outside world, particularly with family and friends is forbidden. One must not even think about family relations inside the cult and any such thoughts must be reported as ‘mal thinking’.

I informed you that even inside Camp Ashraf they prevented me from visiting my daughter who is also a member of the organization and residing in the same camp. In previous years we were able to meet once a year on the Persian New Year for about one or two hours, a meeting which was under the total supervision of the superiors. But this year they announced there would be no family visits inside the camp. It is almost one and a half years that I have not seen my daughter Zeinab.

When I was being transferred to Camp Liberty in the fourth group, I was told that my daughter would be sent soon after me. But I learned from the Iraqi officials that she is still in Camp Ashraf. In fact they have kept my daughter as a hostage to make me keep quiet. They also do not wish my daughter to learn that I have left the organization.

My daughter is registered on the list of UNHCR asylum seekers, the number is 350 and my registration number is 920. We were both granted French travel documents in 1988 following our arrival in France in 1986. My daughter called her younger sister in Iran at the request of the organization around 6 years ago and never called again.

I am worried about her since no one, even in a prison, would reject family contacts. These people are deprived of any sort of outside communication. I am sure that there is a lot of pressure on my daughter and that they will not let her go to Camp Liberty and I should say that her life is really in danger.

Therefore I urge you to put pressure on the officials of the MKO in Camp Ashraf and persuade them to allow me and my younger daughter to meet with my 34 year old daughter Zeinab.

Dear Sir,

The leader of the MKO has turned the organization into a destructive mind control cult and has no aim but saving himself by sacrificing the innocent people who are his captives in Ashraf and in Liberty. He intends to provoke clashes with the Iraqi government and forces and this is the reason behind creating obstacles in the process of transition and creating unreasonable conditions. He aims to buy time and is waiting for some delusional political conditions in his favor which will enable him to stay in Iraq. This is why he does not wish to leave Ashraf and give it away. He knows full well that by leaving Ashraf the pressure on his cult will be enormous and this could result in his cult being dissolved.

Rajavi has even rejected Iraq’s humane proposal of moving the residents of Ashraf into hotels, a proposal which you backed. This exposed the real aim of the leaders of the cult; that all they are intending is to keep the cultic relationship and save the cult intact. The MKO in its statement called Iraq’s proposal gruesome and a plot against the organization and your dirty souvenir from Tehran. The MKO leaders have insulted you on many occasions in its propaganda since you did not accept all their unjust demands. Everyone knows about your humanitarian efforts to solve the problem and praise your exertions but Rajavi is not happy with the problem being solved peacefully and has asked for a UN representative appointed for Ashraf. They are playing the same game they played against Mr. Butler, the former representative of the USA in the negotiations with the MKO to move the residents of Ashraf elsewhere. When Mr. Butler finally announced that the leaders of the MKO do not intend to solve the problem peacefully they denounced him, but finally they had to accept leaving Ashraf.

All conditions announced by the MKO would be achieved by transferring the residents to hotels except conditions such as creating a green environment and manual work which are intended only to create conditions to remain in Iraq and not be transferred to a third country. They became so angered by this proposal from the Iraqi government that they wanted to leave the meeting. This clearly shows that moving into a hotel means that the hostages and the victims would have a chance to free themselves from this inhuman cult. This rejection shows how the leaders of the cult are afraid of their Stalinist organization being dismantled. The reason is that in a hotel they would not be able to force the members to perform hard labor and they would not be able to keep the members inside the boundaries of control and systematically brainwash them. In this case they would not be able to use the members as human shields to protect the leaders.

The two conditions that the MKO have put forward are having permission to sell their belongings and freedom of movement. Firstly I should say that the leader of the MKO has no rights over these so-called belongings since they are the property of the people and the government of Iraq. When I was the senior interpreter for Rajavi in the Foreign Relations Department since the year 2000 (the part which deals with the affairs with Iraq both before and after the fall of Saddam Hussein), I witnessed that at least 3 million barrels of oil a day was received from the Iraqi ministry of oil (equivalent to 90 million dollars according to the price of oil in those days), in line with the UN policy of oil for food and medicine. They used to sell this oil on the international market and have money for their necessities. In this way they were able to buy cars and other goods.

Secondly I must emphasize that they want freedom of movement only for their top officials. The ordinary members have always been deprived of free movement, even inside the camps, since they are afraid they might escape. In the past both in Ashraf and in Liberty the leaders of the cult have prevented the members from moving freely even within the camps, let alone letting them leave the camps. All sorts of posts and checkpoints have been established to limit the movement of ordinary members. They did not even allow those sick and injured people about whom they had doubts about their loyalty to go outside the camp for further medical treatment. Only recently they allowed some of those with severe illness out of the camp, but only after it were too late and they only dismissed them in order to let them die outside the camp and evade the consequences. It is hypocrisy for the leaders to complain about the conditions of Camp Liberty and compare it with a prison when they have kept the members captive for more than 30 years. The one who has turned Ashraf, and now Liberty, into a prison is Massoud Rajavi. A unique prison with no rights of access to their families, no letters, no telephone, no email, and of course no meetings. In any prison in any place in the world, even in the harshest dictatorships, prisoners have the right to contact their families and even have the right to go on leave to visit them. Recently the UN has issued a statement and declared that the residents of Camp Liberty have no access to the outside world and called for freedom of contact with their families.

To clarify this matter further and in order to reveal Rajavi’s aim behind such demands, I propose that the government of Iraq declares its readiness to allow MKO members to go for pilgrimage to the holy cities of Kerbela and Najaf in groups. In this case the leaders of the MKO would certainly reject the offer and as in previous cases would call it a conspiracy to destroy the “Iranian Resistance!” which means their only concern is the freedom of the captive residents and that they might escape. It would be a nightmare for Rajavi if the families would also go with them on this pilgrimage. According to the atmosphere I was witnessed inside the organization, the vast majority of the members, particularly the veterans, would leave the cult provided they find a suitable moment. I can give you the names and details of many of my colleagues inside both Ashraf and Liberty who are under severe pressure and they really wish to leave and I have informed Mr. Nicola the head of the UN human rights monitoring group about them.

The leaders of the MKO prevent the members from even thinking about going to a third country and force them to give reports if they have such so-called evil thoughts and to be ready to be denounced and humiliated and be accused of betraying the struggle. Maryam Rajavi declared in her last statement in March before the move to Liberty that we must turn Liberty the most beautiful city in the world and make it just like Ashraf. Abbas Davari in a meeting inside the Americans’ church in Liberty said that ‘they say this is a transit and interim camp, I say the whole world is temporary and it is seventy years that I am in transit. We will stay here to the end of our lives’. Massoumeh Malek-Mohammadi also said in another meeting that this is not a transit camp, but another Ashraf for us. Massoud Rajavi in a call-conference for our group (the forth one) before leaving Ashraf said that ‘we wish to have two Ashraf garrisons and you will see how the Iranian regime will condemn Maleki because he was meant to get rid of us and now we have two bases’. This was followed by the crowd cheering.

If you see the MKO propaganda in Europe and in America and follow their lobbying activities you will notice that their aim is to remain in Iraq and they have no intention of leaving Iraq for another country. You rightly asked everyone to be active toward the MKO to force the leaders to cooperate with the UN to move the residents of Liberty to another country.
As far as I have been in touch with the ex-members, all are eager for a peaceful solution for the MKO in order to be moved to a safer place. They must have the right to be informed about the outside world and choose their own destiny. The excuses Rajavi invents to keep them inside Iraq for his evil purposes should be condemned.

Dear Mr. Kobler

I fully back your efforts for a peaceful solution to the dilemma of the MKO in Iraq and I urge you not to be influenced by the MKO lobby which is active in the western countries and be firm in demanding the MKO leaders to allow the captives to be free. The best thing to do is to permit the families to stay nearby Camp Liberty and provide facilities for them to meet their beloved ones and negate the negative atmosphere created against the families by the MKO and stop the brainwashing of members and creating phobia inside their minds against the outside world and ensure they have full and free access to telephone and internet and radio and television and publications.

I sincerely thank you and wish you every success in your good work.

Ali Hussien-Nezhad ,Baghdad

September 5, 2012 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

What’s new at Camp Liberty in Baghdad?

Liberty base is a huge military facility near Baghdad International Airport, which was originally created as part of a bigger base called Victory, to house American troops in Iraq. Formerly named Victory North, after September 2004 it was renamed Liberty. Over the current year some 2000 inhabitants of Camp Ashraf of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, Rajavi cult), were moved to this base as a United Nations Temporary Transit Camp from where they are to be eventually transferred out of Iraq. In May the MKO stopped cooperating with the relocation process and at the present time around 1200 members of the MKO have remained stuck in Camp Ashraf.

Information received from inside both Ashraf and Liberty relates that all other tasks can be stopped inside the MKO so that the process of mind manipulation and brainwashing sessions are not stopped. These reports state that each member attends 3 to 5 meetings of this kind each day. In these meetings – under the label of opportunism – the issue of escaping from the cult is discussed and everyone is continuously told that leaving the cult is the most severe sin that a follower can commit. The MKO argues that leaving the cult undermines the resistance against Iran and damages their struggle. By doing this they intend to create mental barriers for the members to keep them captive inside the organization.

Comparing
These reports from inside the MKO indicate that there is an ideological argument within the Organization which forbids the members to compare themselves with others.

Since the relocation process began in February several members who have been transferred to Camp Liberty have had routine interviews with UN officials in Iraq. These people were put forward by the MKO and the process is still ongoing. Others were puzzled as to why some people have been sent for the interviews and they haven’t. They have been asked to report to their superiors if they have such sinful thoughts.

The same argument has been introduced in Camp Ashraf. Some are wondering why they have not been sent to Camp Liberty and are made to remain in Ashraf. They also have to report that they are comparing themselves and their situation to that of others.

Possibility of going abroad
Another argument amongst the residents of the Liberty is about the possibility of their being sent abroad. Since the camp is located near to the airport, most inhabitants watch the airplanes taking off with sorrow and regret.

The cult leaders have asked the members to report such sinful desires to their superiors as a cultic practice. These kinds of thoughts are severely denounced and are considered as ideological weakness.

Keeping the members busy
One method of manipulation used by destructive mind control cults is to keep their followers busy with useless tasks all the time in order to prevent them from thinking freely. This method is used systematically inside the Rajavi cult to render the members so exhausted that their minds cannot function properly.

When members were transferred from Ashraf to Liberty they were only permitted to take personal possessions. But the MKO managed to also take some stretchers as medical equipment. These stretchers are now used to shift sand. They have the members move sand which is stored in one place and which is meant to be used to pave the passageways between the bungalows. The members are forced to relocate this sand from one place to another using the stretchers, and they keep doing this using various excuses. They are also asked to separate out large pebbles from the sand with the excuse that when they pave the pathways these would hurt the elderly residents.

The exhaustion caused by this kind of hard work prevents the members from thinking about their uncertain future and the deadlock they are in.

Conflicts
The reports from Camp Liberty also indicate that there is constant conflict between the members and their superiors. Such conflicts are due to the tense situation inside the camp caused by the uncertainty of almost everything and manifest in swearing and name calling. The extent of this conflict is at a stage that one can predict they will soon turn into physical conflict.

Guests
Further information reveals that some members who insist on leaving the cult are being coerced to stay as guests. Since they have been made afraid of the outside world and they believe they have nowhere to go, they have accepted this. This has been Rajavi’s latest technique to keep his followers inside the cult and prevent them from leaving. These people are also asked to participate in the meetings but they refuse and say that they are only guests.

Sahar Family Foundation, Baghdad

August 16, 2012 0 comments

Germany

Do not condone Mojahedin Khalq’s forced divorces

Do not condone Mojahedin Khalq’s forced divorces and separation of Children

Open letter of Mrs. Soltani to Mrs. Rita Sussmuth Chairman of the Advisory Council on Mrs. Soltani, MKO former member

Immigration and Integration,2002-2004 In Germany

¨In the mujahedin’s cult all the women and men are separated from each other and they must get divorce from their spouses. ¨

Honorable Mrs. Rita Sussmuth the former chairman of the German Assembly

with greetings and respect ,

I , Batul Soltani , am a political activist and critic and the former member of the mujahedin’s leadership council who had been in this organization for twenty years and I could escape from this organization in December, 2006.

Recently , I found out that you had been invited by this organization for the annual gathering of this organization in Villepint. I listened to your speech in that gathering and I am terribly sorry that such organization is still trying its best to deceive the public-opinion and the prominent political-figures.

This organization holds such gatherings and meetings through spending huge amount of money which has been gained and inherited through Saddam Hussein and looting of the Iraqi people .

This organization advertises a lot about itself but the truth is that its deeds are completely in contradiction with its slogans . this organization even does not give any freedom to its own members , then how can it claim the democracy and freedom for the people?

The leaders of this organization , Massoud and Maryam Rajavi ,have perpetrated many crimes during their twenty five years of stay in Iraq , now through holding such gatherings and deceiving people and bringing the afghans and the uninformed people to these gatherings , they want to claim and pretend that they are the real Iranian opposition group .

Is the people’s mujahedin organization counted as an opposition group for Iran?

If they are as an opposition , so why do the Iranian people know them as traitor, betrayer, and count them as the mercenaries of Saddam Hussein and other foreigners ?

The truth is that the people’s mujahedin organization does not have any place in Iran’s society whatsoever and nobody likes them . they had perpetrated many blind acts of terrorism inside Iran and they had detonated many bombs and explosives in places where the ordinary people were living and working there so , many innocent people had been killed .

They had participated in the Iraq-war against Iranian people and they planned and organized the assassination of top Iranian officials . In 2003, during the arrest and imprisonment of Maryam Rajavi in France they organized the self-immolations and persuaded and encouraged their members to set themselves on fire for the release of Maryam Rajavi. This organization is a symbol of the violence and terrorism and it can not represent the freedom for the Iranian people.

The following issues are the mujahedin’s leadership orders which is the overt and clear strangulation and the breach and violation of human rights inside the mujahedin’s relations :

*The veil in this organization is compulsory and obligatory.

*The women and the men are separated from each other and they must get divorce from their spouses by the direct order of the cult leadership .

*Any connection facility with the free-world like the internet and mobile is completely forbidden for the members and as a result of that , the members have been living in a closed environment .

*The members must confess to their sins daily and they must talk about everything which comes to their minds and they should wait for the punishment and suppression and insult for their thoughts in the gatherings comprise of the other members and the cult operatives . the medieval cultic methods which this organization utilizes is infra-humane.

*This organization destroy and ruin the prestige and the personality of its critics through framing , bedevilment and file-building against them and through labeling their critics as the Iranian intelligence service agents , because these critics reveal and disclose the real essence and content of this organization . This organization even inside its relations has issued the execution and killing of its critics . This organization even attacks and physically assaults its critics in European countries and it shows that they have not abdicate from the medieval methods of violence and suppression.

I would like to have a meeting with you to inform and clarify you more about the real content of this organization .

Respectfully
Batul Soltani, Iran Ghalam,

July 31, 2012 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts