Mujahedin Khalq as a Destructive Cult

Ancient Iran Association Letter to Mr. Vidal Quadras Roca

MR. Alejo Vidal Quadras Roca, The honorable Vice President of European Parliament

The Ancient Iran, Glorious Future which comprises of separated members and oppressed victims of notorious Rajavi’s cult , knows its humane task to notify all European parliamentarians and you in particular who are a humanitarian parliamentarian, of deception and trickery which this inhumane cult use to magnetize honorable European politicians with a glamorous slogans such as freedom, democracy ,peace and the like, because this religious cult had been at Saddam Hussein (dictator of Iraq) disposal for decades in suppression and slaying of Iraqi Kurd citizens in 1990-1991 uprisings thus , on the one hand the Iraqi people hate and loathe them because of their atrocities and savagery against Iraqi people and on the other hand as a result of violent and armed deeds and blind terrorism on Iran’s soil, are subjected to hatred and blame of Iranian people so they have been isolated and secluded in Iranian community and society.

This cult has even had no mercy upon its own members and these members for variety of reasons are imposed and coerced to set themselves on fire or hunger strike to death to safeguard and preserve the cult’s interests and its leaders. MR. Alejo Vidal Quadras Roca, The honorable Vice President of European Parliament

This cult fundamentally does not believe in democracy and freedom so that the slightest criticism to this inhumane cult causes outpour and flowing out a variety of labels and scandals and even in some cases it has led to beating of dissident members who dared to criticize them.

Mr. Quadras, as you are informed that Mr. Paulo Casaca , former Portuguese politician from Portugal socialist party in European parliament who was backing and supporting this notorious cult up for years lost his seat in the European parliament as well as being defeated in his struggle to become the Mayer of Ponta Delgada in the Azores vis a vis his rival Mrs. Berta Maria Cabral in municipality election in Ponta Delgada so that he lost his popularity among his own people for his support of PMOI which led him to egregious defeat and fiasco vis a vis his rival.

We the victims of this cult , urge all the European politicians specially the politicians who have been deceived and fallen in pmoi’s ambush by their glamorous slogans which are devoid of any real content to revise their support of this notorious and dishonorable cult( Rajavi’s cult) and instead , question and inquire them for the numerous crimes which are perpetrated and carried out by them against the people of Iraq and Iran and suppression and slaying of its own dissidents .

Best Regard

Ancient Iran, Glorious Future Association, Paris

November 2, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Series of Batool Soltani interviews on MKO self-immolations

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations
In a new round of interviews with Batool Soltani, she discloses new facts on self-burning operations in MKO

A précis of parts 35-36 – Preparedness for suicide, a prerequisite for MKO operations

A précis of parts 33-34 – Camp Ashraf, MKO’s political excuse in the West

A précis of parts 31-32 –Urgency of safeguarding Camp Ashraf at any price

Part 30 – Hierarchical administration of information within MKO

Part 29 – Primacy of death and violence in the ideology of MKO

A précis of parts 27-28 – Human shield in defense of Ashraf

Part 26 – Neda had been tutored from the childhood

Part 25 – Defining an organizational jargon

Part 24 – The members were coerced into dedicating themselves to Massoud and Maryam

Part 23 – Neda’s family feeling obligated to the organization

Part 22 – 17 June immolations, orchestrated or willful acts

Part 21 – 17 June immolations and the test of commitment

Parts 19-20 – MKO Abuse of Neda and Sedigheh’s death

Part 18 – Rajavi; self-burnings were not enough, you should have sacrificed more

Part 17 – Rajavi; the operations have higher potentialities to utilize

Part 16 – Rajavi; you were derelict in performance of your duty to save Maryam

Part 15 – The manipulated approach to spur immolations

Part 14 – Rajavi, self-immolations forces French authorities to withdraw

Part 13 – Rajavi’s interpretation of the holy and foul suicide

Part 12 – Weekly sessions, a process to secure obedience to Rajavi

Part 11 – Rajav’s leadership, the criterion to legitimize the ideology

Part 10 – Execution, the approach to repel dissenters

Part 9 – Rajavi; set your body on fire to defend Ashraf

Part 8 – Human tragedy in prospect; Mojgan Parsai the first volunteer

Part 7 – Suicide operation, a lever to defend Camp Ashraf

Part 6 – The red-line discriminating between word and action in suicide operation

Part 5 – Suicide, the ideal means to safeguard information

Part 4 – Suicide operation, an ultimate solution to security dilemma

Part 3 – No suicide operation unless commanded by the organization

Part 2 – Suicide operation; a solution or sidestepping it

Part 1 – A Definition of suicide operations

November 1, 2009 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

The enslaved in Ashraf have the right to live free

The propaganda machine of MKO never ceases to advertize the expressed concerns of its European advocates over the situation of human rights in Iran and especially its members in Anybody who claims to be a defender of human rights, oppressed people and women in particular should have the issue of Camp Ashraf on his conscience Camp Ashraf, in Iraq. It seems that these advocates are totally unaware of the fact that the group they are backing was formed as an armed opposition and which is long despised by Iranians and expelled because of its many bloody, brutal terrorist activities against Iranian authorities and civilians. Or the reports that it has been designated a terrorist group since 1997 by the US as well as being, a few years later, recognized a cult of personality for its cultic practices like committing self-immolations and systematic application of brainwashing techniques as well as subjecting members to intense physical and psychological pressures.

Regardless of all this truth, I want to take the opportunity to tell them that we are also concerned about the members not living but enslaved and held in Camp Ashraf against their own will. If they cannot, we can see how the organization is exploiting them as human shields to safeguard its own entity rather than being the least concerned about the members themselves. No member has ever been forced to return to Iran, though a number have already returned and are now safely living with their families. They can be sent to any country that accepts them but it is the organization’s strict cultic rules and pressures that has so far impeded the process of releasing the members from the bonds of the cult. The most authentic sources are the detached members of the organization whose views are released regularly through a number of their personally run-websites and whom are labeled by the organization with many names.

Anybody who claims to be a defender of human rights, oppressed people and women in particular should have the issue of Camp Ashraf on his conscience, not in the way the organization wants it but rather as a real issue of humanity and to put an end to their sufferings and exploitations. Considering that a remarkable number of the victimized members held in Camp Ashraf are women who have long been abused as sexual slaves, instruments to advance the cult and group’s objectives, and in general, servitudes of a masculine hegemony. The predicament of these insiders, who under the hollow slogans of being the pioneers and heroines of freedom and democracy suffer crushing physical and psychological pressures, is even worse than those enslaved in the outside world. They are under severe physical and psychological cult bounds of the organization and deprived of free will, thought, and as we have recently witnessed, forced onto the frontline of defenders of Ashraf to confront the entrance of the Iraqi police into the camp.

Many of them mothers and wives now detached from their families and each running a life in isolation because of the strict cultic regulations, they are all victims of most inhuman practices carried out within the MKO terrorist cut. For the outsiders it is hard to believe, as they might have read it in the books or seen on the screens, that just in a real piece of land in a neighbor or far country a terrorist cult is misusing modern science against women, that is, to make them infertile. Publically admitted by Batoul Soltani, an experienced rank of the organization’s leadership council who managed to escape the cult:

“The women members who have dedicated their family life, children and husbands to the cult leaders are totally separated from the outside world by the removal of their womb. In the organization, the hysterectomy surgery is considered as reaching the peak.” (Presstv)

In two phases, at least to mention, women suffered under the extreme exploitation exercised by MKO. In the first phase, on pretext of removing obstacles for the advancement of the struggle, the leaders ordered compulsory inter-organizational marriages. These marriages didn’t take place according to the members’ tastes or ages. This was closely related with rising and degrees of merit. The couples thus married were forbidden to have children and their conjugal duties and meetings were under strict control. In fact, the marriage was an ideological practice; the couples were the property of the organization and their marriage had to be channeled for the advancement of organizational ends rather than to secure familial and emotional relations. The target was not love, emotion, sexual pleasure or continuation of the generations but the control of the forces and maintenance of the organization. Women were utilized as the objects of controlling the male insiders and motivating them onward.

The second phase began with the ideological divorces after MKO’s failure in the military operation called Eternal Light. To justify the failure, Massoud Rajavi in 1991 completed his philosophy of ideological revolution by the decree of ideological divorcing. He gave the command of general divorcing of all married members. Thereafter, women, suffering grave humiliation, had to succumb to the wills of the leaders. In 2003, the world was shocked to see members of MKO setting themselves on fire to protest Maryam Rajavi’s arrest by French police. Two women members, Marzieh Babakhani and Neda Hassani, died of the injuries. They had the order to sacrifice themselves for the leader.

Many of women members are crushed under heavy physical and psychological pressures at the present. They suffer humiliation by regular confessions of the sins they have never committed before other members and have to write and report about their dreams and fancies. Where in the world women are treated as they are? Confined within the walls of a heavily guarded military camp in Iraq, these women are susceptible to any form of assault and harassment and we think the Iraqi government has taken a sound and wise decision to close Camp Ashraf at least because all enslaved insiders, and particularly women, will possibly achieve the freedom they never dream.

It is a duty on all humanitarian, international bodies and defenders of human rights to seek eliminate violence against the members of MKO, a proven case of exploitation and violence that lies before their eyes. If they are determined, they can easily hear the help cries of these men and women who do not wish for much; they want to live like other free people in the world as it is their right and any move that may hinder the process is criticized as siding with the cult leaders whose false, pro-democratic visage has duped many so far.

October 31, 2009 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

MKO leaders are afraid of the truths that detainees found out

Behind the bars of a mind control cult, like Rajavi’s destructive cult, the leaders never want the internal affairs of the cult to be revealed. They are well aware that if their manipulative practices are externalized, the cult existence will be endangered since the human rights bodies and the international community never ignores such abusive acts. That’s why Rajavi is terrified by the testimonies of former members who externalize the internal affairs of the cult and always tries to label them as the agents of Islamic Republic’s intelligence ministry. Behind the bars of a mind control cult, like Rajavi’s destructive cult, the leaders never want the internal affairs of the cult to be revealed

On the other hand, the isolated members of the cult who are brainwashed through complex manipulation sessions and other cult jargons are not able to have any access to outside world. They are never informed of the true events taking place outside Camp Ashraf. All news and incidents are filtered and censured by cult leaders and then published for cult’s captured members. In fact, the Rajavis are also terrified by the truths that might be internalized by external elements.

As it was published in the media, the 36 Ashraf residents who were arrested by Iraqi police after the raid on Camp Ashraf in July 28th,were released on Wednesday October 7th , the detainees who were on hunger strike (that was ordered by cult leaders) while they were in Iraqi prison were taken to hospital due to their crucial health problem according to MKO’s spokesperson and now they are in a kind of medical quarantine ! After about 5 days since their release there have been no special news or interviews on MKO’s websites although its propaganda system has always been ready to hunt an opportunity for a big show-off. Even the cult’s TV channel, Simaye Azadi, which is its non-stop working propaganda machine has not published further news or interviews with liberated members.

As usual the cult should have taken the most use of the so-called atrocities against its detained members but in fact it prefers to keep silent.

One might suppose that these 36 individuals, who were far from the cult’s indoctrinations for more than 70 days, could find an occasion to be alone by themselves. They could face their individuality without the controlling regulations of the cult which had dominated all aspects of their life and their soul.

They might have had enough time to contemplate or meet other people with different ideas. They might have found new facts about the outside world which may oppose to what the cult had made them believe. In such a condition, the old terrifying case might have happened: the external facts have been internalized in the members’ minds.

Therefore, the leaders have to keep them in a mental quarantine too because their mind should be reorganized according to cult’ indoctrinations. But how late could the cult leaders stop the truth coming to the camp? This is an unavoidable fact.

By Mazda Parsi

October 25, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Neglected points in RAND’s report on MEK

RAND National Defense Research Institute Corporation has published a comprehensive report on MEK in 2009. It may be considered the official position taking of the US toward MKO as a supplement to the statements of the US state department in 1997 as well as that of April 2009. All these reports focus on terrorist nature of the organization as a cult of personality. RAND National Defense Research Institute Corporation has published a comprehensive report on MEK in 2009

MEK leader Maryam Rajavi has established a "cult of personality." 1

The fact is that the US has failed to refer to a novel point regarding the organization in these statements yet has reiterated the analyses and viewpoints of separated members as well as political opposition trends that have managed to reveal some facts on the organization for more than two decades. However, the efforts made by the US to develop a realistic comprehension of NKO imply the well-intentioned inclination of the US in investigating the true nature of Mojahedin.

This article aims to elaborate on some ambiguities found in RAND report including the offered solution of repatriating MKO members to Iran. First of all it has to be pointed out that according to international bodies Mojahedin are an unknown group whose understanding depends on learning lessons from past experiences to avert the danger arising from MKO and other similar groups. According to the statements made by the US:

MEK leadership and members across the world maintain the capacity and will to commit terrorist acts in Europe, the Middle East, the United State, Canada, and beyond. 2

Therefore, finding solutions for avoiding the threat of such a terrorist group needs a full investigation. The more unknown an issue, the more study is necessary for its understanding.

Likewise, solutions proposed for escaping the danger of Mojahedin have to be of novel and unique nature. The solutions offered in RAND report are rarely feasible and also some result in the development of the organization. Surprisingly enough, it seems that the authors of the report aim mainly at shifting their own responsibility for providing a clear explanation of the reality onto other organs and bodies; as it was done by the US in neglecting its responsibility for eliminating the risk posed by Mojahedin in Iraqi soil and further putting the responsibility of making the final decision for the organization on the Iraqi government. However, it seems that Americans care not about the illegal actions of Mojahedin in Iraq.

Despite the focus of RAND report on the necessity of prosecuting and trying MKO leaders, it refrains to refer to this issue in its conclusions. It is not clear why the position taking of Iraqi government against MKO has been questioned in this report in spite of the fact that according to the constitution and sovereignty of Iraq, Iraqi government is rightful to maintain the interests of its citizens by fighting against those breaking its national rules. Another point to be noted is the issue of repatriating MKO members to Iran. According to the report:

Each MEK member who has been granted amnesty by the IRI should be repatriated to Iran. 3
A point confirmed by the following statement:

To date, however, there is no evidence that Iran has failed to honor its offer of amnesty for the former MEK members who have already returned to the country.4

However, the authors refuse to refer to the individual, voluntary and willful nature of the repatriation of a number of MKO members to Iran. This claim is made in a condition when the US has already acknowledged to the lack of public support and legitimacy for Mojahedin in Iran:

Following its participation in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the group rapidly fell out of favor with the Iranian. 5

It is not clear if RAND report has taken a realistic and practical viewpoint when referring to Iran as the main alternative for giving refuge to MKO members. As it is put into words:

All evidence indicates that no country other than Iran will accept the group. 6

The question is that how a group failing to win the support of even one country in taking its members as political refugees suffering a lack of social support may be repatriated to Iran where according to the same report:

However, once it settled in Iraq and fought against Iranian forces in alliance with Saddam, the group incurred the ire of the Iranian people. 7

It is evident that the US is far from developing a realistic viewpoint and a clear position toward MKO failing to grasp its true nature and consequently resort to conservative policies in dealing with the organization. The solutions given in RAND report fail to solve the challenges met by Mojahedin and also refrain to decrease the potential fear of Mojahedin felt by the US.

The best way for ending the present crises is taking appropriate and feasible procedures for overcoming a group that according to the US is unreliable, incredible, unknown, deceptive and perverse. However, the US has never made an attempt to make Mojahedin submit to international rules and conventions nor withdraw its illegal claims against Iraqi government and its sovereignty.

References:
1. The US State Department’s statement, April 2007.
2. ibid.
3. The report made by RAND National Defense Research Institute on MKO, www.rand.org.
4. ibid.
5. The US State Department’s statement, April 2007.
6. The report made by RAND National Defense Research Institute on MKO, www.rand.org.
7. ibid.

October 25, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Urgency of safeguarding Camp Ashraf at any price

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – a précis of parts 31-32

Sahar Family Foundation: Ms. Soltani, it is of great significance that the organization stresses on defending Camp Ashraf to impede its fall even through a mass suicide or an organized human tragedy. Regardless of the camp’s magnitude in preserving the whole structure of the organization, there must be other strategic factors that necessitate preservation of Ashraf. I think your elucidations can help reach alertness to hamper a human tragedy.

Batool Soltani: it can be observed from a variety of angles, but I believe that the organization is entirely depended on Ashraf for a range of pivotal political, strategic, social, propaganda and even fundraising concerns. For the insiders, Ashraf would be depicted as a strategic bastion where resistance could be fully interpreted, not because it below life into the organization but as it was located in the proximity of Iran’s soil.

SFF: Or to restate it, to continue the very same strategy of liberation war to topple Iranian regime.

BS: Exactly. What they meant at the end was that the fall of Ashraf presaged demise of the liberation army, that meant backsliding to a beginning stage when the organization was desperate what to do and where to begin from. It would cost a lot and could even lead to a crisis that could seriously challenge the permanence of the organization. The stability of Ashraf meant that the liberation army was still alive with a spirit of fighting that legitimized its existence.

So the organization needed a stronghold in the vicinity of Iran’s soil for other reasons as well. It could help fundraising. The organization would say Ashraf had been the cause for many sympathizers abroad to donate. Ashraf denoted that the organization was still alive and active and needed support of the sympathizers to live on. No sooner had the organization suffered its disgraceful defeat in the operation Eternal Light than it plotted the assassination of Sayyad Shirazi and Lajevardi and launched a series of mortar attacks just to advertize and display its military potentiality. It could help drawing sums of money and recruiting new forces from among the sympathizers in abroad. And all these came out of Ashraf, so it was vital both for the organization and the sympathizers and advocates to help reinforce Ashraf and its fighters to keep the military strength going.

The organization was also counting on the regional fluctuations and calculating that a disturbed region could grant it the opportunity of plotting assaults against Iranian borders to lead Iran into a real crisis, or it could collaborate with the US forces if they had any military plans against Iran. It all depended on the existence of Ashraf and its military dynamic.

The significance of Ashraf can be looked from a different angle, too; it is its very context and the fabric of its structure. Natural enough, those who have not seen Ashraf from the close can hardly perceive what I say. But for me who have been there for years it is easy to realize its vitality for the organization. It had long strived and spent money to revive a piece of dead desert and to establish many facilities of a city there; relocation of Ashraf means forcing the people of a city to evacuate their home.

Suppose Iraq has no intention of evicting Mojahedin from Camp Ashraf and they have to be relocated for certain protective measures. Do you think it is easy to abandon a piece of land that it has revived and had helped it recuperate many of its losses? It will cost the organization a lot to reestablish a similar bastion anywhere with all facilities designed for short and long term ends as it has set up in Ahraf. Now you may fathom the preciousness of Ashraf for the organization to safeguard it even through persuaded mass suicides and human tragedies. Of course, evacuation of Ashraf may not be considered the total demise of the organization but, for sure, it will burden it with heavy costs and weigh down the scope of its activity for some time. So, as the most worthless thing for the organization is the life of its members, it costs the organization much less if it could keep Ashraf by sacrificing the prepared, ready scapegoats. However, it is not all the thing said concerning the significance of preserving Ashraf.

Sahar Family Foundation: Ms. Soltani, you have already elucidated on the strategic significance of Ashraf for the organization, I mean, its need to preserve a spot on Iraqi soil because of its strategic vitality to confront Iran. But you know best that it was all founded on the patronage of Saddam that had helped the organization to make a shift in its strategy of struggle to open a new war front vis-à-vis Iran and to start a new phase of collaboration with him that tied their destiny together. But now it is different and for a variety of reasons Iraqis cannot tolerate the presence of the organization on their soil or even accepting them as refugees. Now, the question is why the organization insists to safeguard a bastion that deprives it of any chance of utilizing it as a strategic opportunity?

Batool Soltani: It is true from your point of view, meaning that it is better for the organization to leave Iraq today rather than tomorrow. As you pointed, the fall of Saddam blurred the role of Ashraf as a pivotal strategic bastion to a great degree. But immediately, the organization began to calculate how it could both stay and to maintain its already bolstered potentiality. That is true that leaving Iraq benefits the organization in accelerating the accomplishment of the ends sparked within Ashraf, but where can it go? None of the neighbors bordering Iran, regardless of any existing tense of relations with Iran, have problems with Mojahedin themselves and are aware of the consequences of accepting them in. As a result, the organization, also knowing the truth, prefers to accept the risk of staying in Iraq at any price.

SFF: Sorry, why, then, the organization insists to stay in Iraq knowing the very consequences of staying or leaving?

BS: I have already underlined that its existence is tied to the survival of Ashraf. The prospect you pointed to is all guaranteed by the permanence of Ashraf. Consequently, the organization has no other choice but to move alongside the tactic of preserving the camp where its future destiny may shape. To tell you the last word, it is not at all an issue of strategic importance but to survive and it is possible only through the resistance of Ashraf. Then, where can it go when it lacks the needed political footstep all invested within its bastion? The one who is drowning grabs at any stick to survive rather than thinking about his future. That is the case with the organization and it is thinking of the present than the future.

To survive, it appeals to anybody, even to the adversaries. To get the least results, the organization pays the highest prices, that is the life of members through mass suicides. It still believes that the hope to topple the regime originates from Ashraf; the only thing it follows is to be permitted to stay disarmed on Iraqi soil close to Iranian borders. If the circumstance fails to be ripe to overthrow the regime, no problem, maybe future grants it the opportunity it has been after. So long it has been promising its members and fostering hope in them to victoriously assume the power, let them wait some more time! Surprisingly enough, the organization reckons on and hopes for unexpected circumstances that can change the course of events it can well exploit.

Unlike its claims, the unexpected have always worked as parameters that have hampered the materialization of the overthrow and have worked as excuses that the organization manipulates to justify its strategic defeats. It is out of these unexpected factors that the future is determined and the organization takes the next step. Its forward motion relies on a chain of events that keeps each ring waiting to connect it to an unpredicted one. Once, for instance, it deployed its forces to Iranian western borders of Kurdistan province after suffering failure in its announced tactic of armed struggle. But it soon fell out with the Kurdish Democrat Party and had to move to Europe where it was offered to unite with Saddam and to establish its bastion on Iraqi soil. None of these events were already calculated and expected for and the organization encountered the opportunities as it moved forward. Thus, the organization draws on its past experiences of coming across opportunities to pass over the crises.

To be continued

October 24, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

How ‘Terrorists’ Become ‘Freedom Fighters’

How ‘Terrorists’ Become ‘Freedom Fighters’?: Tom Tancredo and the Iranian Mujahedin

Over past few months neoconservatives in Denver, Colorado, have been exploiting a political How'Terrorists' Become'Freedom Fighters'?: Tom Tancredo and the Iranian Mujahedin window of opportunity opened by two unrelated events, one in Iran and the other in Iraq, using the publicity surrounding the events to subtly reiterate their hawkish call for war against Iran.

Americans Against Terrorism (AAT), the organization that held demonstrations in Denver to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, has joined with a little-known charity called Colorado’s Iranian-American Community (CIAC), a former congressional representative and current chair of the conservative Rocky Mountain Foundation think tank, Tom Tancredo (R-CO), and a number of other pro-Israel hardliners and neo-cons alike.

Their aim has been to use the unrest following the June elections in Iran and the July 28 police crackdown on Camp Ashraf, Iraq, as propaganda to support a group the State Department calls terrorists.

The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), also known as the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), among several aliases, has been the subject of desire by neoconservative lawmakers in the West, in recent years, to use as a proxy army for a "regime change" in Iran, developing another angle of pressure on US President Barack Obama. The MEK has been listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the US State Department since 1997.

The group, at first, appeared to be demonstrating for "Democracy For Iran," as their signs read at the Colorado State Capitol building on Saturday, August 8, the “International Day of Solidarity with Camp Ashraf,” as AAT representative Ana Sami called it. The group has been holding these demonstrations at the State Capitol "regularly, as [they] see fit," she said.

They claim that the Iraqi police crackdown on Ashraf, during which 36 people were arrested and 12 allegedly killed, with hundreds injured, was in compliance with the government of Iran, however, they consistently over-emphasize the protests against the results of the last Iranian election, which is not related to the crackdown on Ashraf.

"Iranian Americans and Americans, of course, have gathered here today to show our support and solidarity for what’s been happening in Iran since the elections took place in June," Sami said at the August 8 demonstration.

She made that statement while standing near a large poster displaying images of the faces of MEK members allegedly killed during the July 28 police raid in Iraq.

However, the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq has been noted by news reports dating before the June Iranian election as being keen on expelling the MEK.

The groups also held a panel on August 30 under the title; "The New Iranian Revolution: Done or Just Begun?" Sami sat on the panel for AAT, and it was headed by Rabbi Daniel Zucker of the group Americans for Democracy in the Middle East.

Tom Tancredo also sat on the panel and next to him was a little-known but highly active chair of CIAC and owner of the Lone Tree/Denver-based Alborz Real Estate Company, Tim Mehdi Ghaemi.

Again, just as the demonstrations hook an observer out of compassion for human rights, the panel speakers blurred the two events, and the bulk of the discussion focused on neither, rather, instead on scenarios of an Iranian nuclear threat, and the notion that the MEK should be supported by the United States as a military asset against Iran, all culminating into repetitive calls for ‘regime change’.

Zucker headed the panel with an over-the-top claim about Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions.

"One missile sent from a, uh, rogue freighter out in the Atlantic, exploding a nuclear warhead, no larger than the size of that of Hiroshima" could theoretically be used by Iran, or for that matter anyone, to cause "magnetic resonance" by detonating the warhead in the atmosphere, Zucker explained.

Tancredo further illustrated Zucker’s imagination by asserting that in the event of a ‘magnetic resonance’ attack "200,000 people would fall out of the skies immediately," due to the effect on computer chips in airplanes.

"Then a dark age descends upon that area affected by it," Tancredo hyperbolized, putting the icing on the cake of this bourgeoning false dilemma presented by the panel.

Tancredo and Zucker gave credit to the MEK for being a valued source of intelligence on Iranian nuclear weapons programs, claiming they had proven their credibility with reports of a clandestine weapons program in Iran in 2003, which did prompt an investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but has turned up no violations of any weapons treaty or nuclear non-proliferation treaty, thus Iran’s nuclear facilities are perfectly legal.

According to Gareth Porter’s article "Iran nuclear leaks ‘linked to Israel’," for Inter Press Service (IPS), dated June 5, 2009, the "alleged studies" documents that the IAEA has been investigating ever since may very well be as fake as the evidence of Saddam Hussein’s desire for uranium from Africa, used as a justification for invading Iraq in 2003. The IAEA accepted evidence from the MEK, allegedly fabricated by their allies in Israel, with whom they have had relations since the early 1990s, according to Porter’s article.

A more recent article by Porter, also for IPS, dated September 14, titled “IAEA Conceals Evidence Iran Documents Were Forged,” explains that the IAEA has been ignoring evidence, brought to the agency’s attention by Iran, that the documents were fabricated, which appears in the press as though Iran has not been fully cooperative, but how cooperative should they be when they have evidence that the premise is bogus?

Pressed with this question the panel speakers would have simply accused Iran of misinformation because it’s Iran, a fallacy they consistently recommitted on August 30.
The panel framed Iran as a miniature evil empire. For example, Mehdi Ghaemi claimed that mass graves were recently found near Tehran.

The overall focus was ‘regime change’ in Iran and not human rights.

The part that focused on Camp Ashraf was a presentation of Youtube videos of the July 28 police raid. The footage showed crowds of people being beaten by riot police in a variety of uniforms, wielding large, 2-x-4 wooden sticks as batons, and wrecking fences and buildings with bulldozers. They also showed several enlarged, and full-color, photographs of the bodies of 11 members of the MEK who they say were killed by the Iraqi police.

They also mentioned a hunger strike underway in Washington DC to pressure the Obama administration, and have lately been claiming online that some of the hunger strikers have died in the midst of the strike, although I could find no independent support for that information.

At both the rallies and the panel it quickly became very clear that the victims of violence in both Iran and Iraq, to the hosts of these events, are nothing more than propaganda.

At the August 8 rally Sami shamelessly evoked the identity of Neda Soltan, a young woman shot in the chest during the election unrest in Iran, and whose death the world witnessed via social networking websites. Sami spun her death into propaganda for the MEK within but a few words.

"The Iranian government is, uh, an incredibly oppressive government and there’s been a lot of bloodshed since that time. I think the world has gotten to know the image of Neda, who was the female who got shot by a sniper in the chest … and I think the world was so touched, and I think the voice of Iranians really [is] what’s symbolized by Neda’s … death," Sami said, shortly before saying, "since the election the unrest has not been able to be silenced … and in addition to that you have an opposition that has been fighting for 30 years. It’s time we support them."

By ‘them’ she is obviously referring to the MEK, which is not part of the democracy movement popular among the youth of Iran today, and there is no relationship between the two even ideologically.

However, when one so bravely questions whether or not the Iranian people, even those who protested against the election results in Iran, who are average Iranian’s like Neda herself was, would support the MEK, the panelists of this estranged bed-fellowship claim that anyone who believes otherwise has somehow fallen under the spell of the Iranian government.

Responding to a comment by one very skeptical audience member, Zucker said, "I think that the image of the MEK being unpopular in Iran is part of the Iranian regime’s very successful disinformation campaign."

The audience member shook his head in rejection.

Tancredo responded to the comment as well.

"You may have a different [opinion], and certainly then if you do then I would think … that I can totally understand your unwillingness to have the United States do anything that would, that would cause the present regime [of Iran] some degree of heartburn, and this would, taking them off the list would certainly do that," said Tancredo.

Tancredo also mentioned that when he signed a letter to have the MEK removed from the terrorist list it provoked a critical response from the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News. He stopped just short of accusing the Rocky of being influenced by the Iranian government.

"I do not know the extent to which the influence of the regime in Tehran, um, actually extends, but I know it’s, it is enormous … they’ve used the money that they have; oil revenues; to influence politicians throughout the world," he said.

Tancredo went on to explain that whether or not the MEK is popular does not concern him.

Tancredo said that he is "mostly concerned right now with Ashraf."

"That’s [his] immediate concern, trying to do something to protect these people who are truly being held hostage."

However, he also said; "I’m really not concerned with whether or not they win the vote in Iran."

"It’s a murky world out there," he said, "but I am convinced that these people are who they say they are. They are dedicated to the overthrow … of this Islamic Republic."
"To me [the MEK] are allies."

The truth of Tancredo’s view finally peeked out from behind the façade of concern:

"I believe that our interests, the interests of the United States of America; by the way, I think Western Civilization, to tell you the truth; are advanced, by, by using the advantage, by using the things that are available to us in the fight against radical Islam."

According to Dokhi Fassihian, an expert on Iranian-American affairs, with the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), the notion that the MEK is supported by anyone inside Iran is not even realistic. Most Iranians around the world detest the MEK, and in the case of dissidents inside Iran it is even likely that they hate the MEK more than the Ayatollah.

Part of the reason it would be in error of international law to allow the repatriation of the MEK to Iran is that not only would the government persecute them but they could face mobs and lynching among the population as well.

According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Amnesty International (AI) has reported that Neda’s fiancé was just released from prison in Iran, and allegedly the Iranian authorities attempted to coerce him into signing a statement blaming the MEK for her death.

Fassihian explained to me almost a week prior to that AI report that in the face of the threat posed by the MEK, among average Iranians, feelings of support for the leadership and patriotism ensue, just as in any society. To blame the MEK for Neda’s death would, therefore, be Iran’s attempt to preserve what popular support it still has. The government may be repressive but it has defended the country since the revolution against such threats for 30 years.

World-renowned critic of US foreign policy and host of the popular syndicated radio program Alternative Radio, David Barsamian, also said that the MEK is far from popular in Iran and is commonly misconstrued as being so only by hardliners while beating the drums for further ventures of US imperialism. In fact Barsamian explained that when such advocates of these types of policies use terms like "democracy," or "freedom," they often mean just the opposite.

The way Sami used the terms ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ at the August 8 demonstration certainly implies that this is the case.

"The way freedom and democracy works in America is not necessarily the way it might look in Iran, but still, there are some very, very basic, core elements that exist everywhere that we deem to be a free or democratic … society," she said.

The term ‘regime change’ was repeated again and again on August 30, overemphasized to say the least.

The MEK formed during the 1960s and 70s as a Marxist-Islamic and feminist militant student group that took up arms and participated significantly in the revolution against the Shah, Reza Pahlavi. The US sponsored a coup d’état against the popular secular leader, Mohammad Mosaddeq, in 1953 and reinstalled the Shah who was ousted in 1979 by the Iranian revolution that ushered in the power of the Ayatollah, expelling the US from country with a dramatic hostage crisis played out on Western television from the US embassy in Tehran. The first Ayatollah, Khomeini, purged the leftist factions after the revolution, and honed in especially on the MEK, persecuting and killing many members.

In the Early 1980s the MEK was exiled to Iraq and France where they established a military and political wing respectively, at the invitation of Saddam Hussein. As the Iran-Iraq war (1981-1988) flared up the MEK worked directly for Saddam against Iran, and were involved in campaigns of repression against the Kurds and Shiite communities in Iraq.

In 1997, while the MEK was still working for Saddam, the US State Department put the MEK and its political wing in France, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) on the list of FTOs. The listing was upheld again in 2001 and 2003, under the Presidency of George W. Bush, and they remain on the list today. The US Treasury Department listed the NCRI as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) organization under Executive Order 13224 in August of 2003, and their assets were subsequently frozen by the US Treasury Department.

In March of 2003 the US military carried out Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and occupied Iraq, ending the rule Saddam, and during this operation engaged in combat with the MEK when they approached Camp Ashraf, bombing the camp and leaving several MEK members dead.

The Department of Defense (DOD) was ordered to have the group disarmed and failed to do so at the time. The MEK signed a disarmament agreement after repeated attempts for DOD compliance by the State Department, finally, once they were guaranteed status as "protected persons" under Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Conventions, even though they remain on the State Department’s FTO list.

The DOD declined to respond to my inquiry for this report.

After the US installed the government of the current Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and began withdrawing troops from Iraqi cities, the responsibility for protection of the residents of Ashraf was handed over to the Maliki government.

The Maliki government is dominated by Shiites like himself and is thought by many to be friendly with Iran. In a July 31 press release Human Rights Watch (HRW), Joe Stork, deputy director of the HRW Middle East and North Africa division said the MEK "has made lots of enemies among Iraqis with their support for Saddam Hussein." Stork’s comment was part of a call on Iraq to conduct "an independent investigation into the deaths of at least seven Iranians during [the] police raid on Camp Ashraf" on July 28.

However, the status of ‘protected persons’ does not legitimize aiding covert terrorist activities.

According to a May 2005 report by Human Rights Watch called No Exit: Human Rights Abuses Inside the Mojahedin Khalq Camps, the MEK has a history of human rights violations against its own membership. The RAND Corporation said in a 2009 report, The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq: A Policy Conundrum, that many of the MEK’s members were people who fled Iran not expecting to be smuggled to an MEK camp in Iraq, and the report implied that the group’s popularity even among Iranian dissidents fleeing the country is highly questionable.

"Although the exact figure is not known, it is estimated that approximately 70 percent of [MEK] members now in Iraq joined the group after its relocation there and subsequent decline in popularity. Many of them were victims of these fraudulent recruiting practices," (original emphasis) the report reads (RAND, 2009, p. xvi).

The loyalty of the membership to the leaders of the MEK, Maryam Rajavi and her at-large husband Massoud, last seen in Iraq, is merely a result of the group’s cultish practices, far from its roots in popular and rational ideologies like Marxism, Political Islam and feminism. This implies that there is cause to protect the MEK membership from the MEK leadership.

In the January 17, 2007, broadcast of BBC Newsnight, Tim Whewell aired interviews with former MEK members who described the organization as a deceptive group that uses "psychological manipulation" to enforce a "system of control," Whewell narrated.

The MEK is largely made up of women and the freedom of women in this group amounts to a rigid obligation against any sexual pleasure or relationship, regular arbitrarily enforced disclosures of everything in their personal lives, and the group even issued a "decree" forcing all married members to divorce. Equality of men and women in the MEK is merely equality of total devotion to the leader, Maryam Rajavi, who lives in France and heads the NCRI.

In a March 30, 2007, report on an AhlulBayt Islamic Mission (AIM) TV program called Dateline, entitled "US Intelligence on Iran & the MEK," which can be viewed on the AIM website, two former MEK members explained that the group’s internal practices are "like a cult."

Tom Tancredo has apparently fallen under their sway, enough to argue that they are nice and friendly people, supporting this notion with an alarming, and somewhat incriminating anecdote in which he admitted to having traveled to France and meeting Maryam Rajavi on two occasions in Auvers-sur-Oise, a little town just north of Paris.

However, Mr. Tancredo is not alone.

According to the November 8, 2007, report, "Breaking Stories: Paris Sojourn" by Matt Potter, for the San Diego Weekly Reader, Tancredo’s former colleague and co-chair of the US Congressional Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus (IHRDC), Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), had also traveled to France to make a speech to the NCRI, and his travel expenses of almost $8,000, were covered by Ghaemi’s charity, CIAC.

A March 15, 2005 report compiled for the Center for Policing Terrorism (CPT), Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) Dossier, by Nicole Cafarella, reveals on page 11 that the MEK demonstrably uses front groups to raise money and support. Among these groups, according to the CPT report, is the Iranian-American Community of Northern Virginia (IAC-NV), which held a fraudulent fundraiser for the victims of the Bam Earthquake in Iran, but was a fundraiser for the MEK, and the quake victims never saw a penny. According to the report several agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) attended the fundraiser and the US Treasury Department has since frozen the IAC-NV’s assets.

The FBI press agent for the Denver branch office took my questions regarding their possible concerns about similar front groups in Colorado but they have thus far not responded.
The MEK description on the State Department website, regarding their funding, agrees with the CPT report that they have increasingly resorted to front groups for fundraising following the 2003 occupation of Iraq, and before that relying mostly on material support from Saddam (MEK description, "External Aid," in "Country Reports on Terrorism 2006" on the US State Department website).

An article in National Journal, dated January 19, 2008 (Vol. 40, Issue 3), titled "Touting ‘Terrorists’," by Julie Kosterlitz, raised the notion that CIAC may well be one of those front organizations for the MEK.

The Colorado Secretary of State’s office told me that they had no record of even the existence of CIAC, and a search on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) online listing of businesses and charities revealed nothing as well.

Possibly the organization operates on a budget under $25,000, making them exempt from disclosures or registration at the Secretary of States office, the representative explained, but the fact that the IRS has no information either is suspicious.

AAT is also an organization with a spotty record to say the least. The group was originally founded in Colorado by a Boulder Real Estate lawyer Boulder, Matt Finberg, whom according to a DC Journalism Collective report, "Not All Politics Is Local: A Colorado Race And the International Kahanist Network" (August, 2008), is a staunch follower of the right-wing fringe ideology of Meir Kahane, and in 2007 moved to Israel to live in an "illegal settlement" in the Palestinian West Bank. The report said that AAT disbanded in September of 2004.

The current chair of AAT is Finberg’s former AAT director and co-founder, Dr. Neil Dobro.

According to the DC Journalism Collective article AAT, implicated in an attack ad campaign against a Republican legislative candidate, Rima Sinclair; attacking Sinclair using anti-Islamic defamation (she is Palestinian American); in favor of her Republican competitor Joshua Sharf; the alleged Kahanist founder of AAT is tied to another organization whose name appears on the very same State Department FTO list, and on a similar Israeli government list, the extremist Israeli Kahanist group known as Kach, or Kahane Chai. Kach was the subject of a 2005 Frontline documentary on PBS called "Israel’s Next War?"

Dobro said AAT is a 501c3 non-profit organization, however, the person I spoke with at the Colorado Secretary of State’s office said that if they are operating on a budget at or above $25,000 then "they are out of compliance with our office."

Upon formal request of IRS Form 990 from AAT I have thus far not received any response. AAT was collecting donations at a table during the panel.
Current co-chair of the IHRDC, who took Tancredo’s position, Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), has also been an outspoken supporter of the MEK, and along with Filner, signed a letter from the IHRDC to President Obama to demand that Ashraf residents be protected.

Rohrabacher’s career has long been funded by billionaire Charles Koch, according to his profile on SourceWatch, a website of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), and during his career he has been known to cuddle with some of the world’s most dubious names, including the Afghan Mujahedin (no relation to the MEK) that fought the Soviet Union, and bore the notorious Al Qaeda, which allegedly carried out the most extreme terrorist attack ever in history on September 11, 2001. Rorhabacher was no supporter of Al Qaeda at that point, however, his knack for fraternizing with such groups over the years is nothing new.

The Koch family is known to be funding the anti-Obama town hall-meeting disruptors and anti-tax rallies via FreedomWorks, a think tank now headed by another long-time supporter of the MEK, former US House Majority Leader, and former policy adviser to the Bush administration,…

by Evanherzoff

October 21, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Sarkozy proposed transport to MKO terrorists

Sarkozy proposed transport and political asylum to MKO terrorists

Recently, during their monthly meeting, the 27 foreign ministers of EU decided to remove Mujahedin Khalq Organization from the list of terrorist groups. It is the first time that the EU derives a group from its terror list and allows the cult to develop its terror activities in Europe, increasing tensions between EU and Iran. Iran, according to the head of National Security Committee of Parliament, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, has already warned that this “mistake” will result in retaliation. “In this case, there is no reason that Iran continues to spend tens of billions in economic activity and trade with the EU” he said. The Iranian parliament has passed a law permitting the government and judiciary to seek all those MEK members who have committed crimes to be tried.

Founded originally to fight the Shah of Iran, MEK was an organization with a mixed ideology of both Marxism and Islam. It was military organized and turned into a cult. It was first sided with Islamic Revolution in 1979 but then went into hiding in Iraq to fight against IRI. MKO organized attacks in Iran, of which the most famous is the one that cost lives of Minister of Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti and 71 of other Iranian officials,in 1981. Mujahedin helped Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) launched by Saddam Hussein with the support of Western countries and also participated in the massacre of thousands of Iraqi civilians during Operation Morvarid against Kurds of Iraq.

The armed wing of the cult found refuge in Iraq, while some of its members took refuge in Europe including France where they are headed by Maryam Rajavi as both the guru and chief agitator. Some NGOs on human rights defense like HRW accused the cult of torture against its dissident members and also of submitting them to long-term solitary confinement.

On June 15, 2004, in a room of seventh reunion of Paris, the four former members of Mujahedin Khalq addressed the press:

Hadi Shams Haeri, ex-member of central committee, left the organization in 1991.
Ali Akbar Rastgou; charged by MKO to gain the support of influential politicians in Germany.
Mohammad Sobhani who resigned in 1997 was MKO’s security official. He was imprisoned for over two years when he announced his intension to leave the group.
Massoud Khodabande, security official close to Maryam and Massoud Rajavi, benefited a trip to Europe to escape from the cult in 1995.

For two hours, recounting their experiences, they immersed the audience in horror. They described the detention torture and inhuman treatments toward those dissident members who wanted to resign, a universe dominated by a dictatorial couple, the Rajavis. They discussed the forced recruitment of Iranian war prisoners that were then sent to fight against their own country. They explained how Massoud Rajavi had broken the families of Mujahedin, forcing the couples to divorce, sending their children thousands of miles away to adaptive families.

They also accused their former comrades of carrying out terrorist acts in the strictest scene of term by launching indiscriminate attacks in which civilians were the victims.
Massoud Khodabande who is currently working as an analyst at French Center for Terrorism Studies and is also advisor to Iraqi government, described MEK as a cult based on its leaders’ personality and obsessed by celibacy. “I have witnessed forced divorces within cries and tears.

I witnessed how 150 children under 7 years old – the youngest was only two months – were separated from their mothers and sent to other countries because the leader of MKO has said that “ (children) disrupt my relationship with you”.

Other testimonies were made by Mustafa Muhammadi, father of a girl with dual Canadian – Iranian nationality. He tried, unsuccessfully, to contact his daughter who disappeared after an offer to stay two months at Camp Ashraf, proposed by one of the recruiters. He explained how the cult forced families of recruits to attend the demonstrations in European countries, threatening them to kill their dear ones. MKO, which has neither root nor public support in Iran, recruits young Iranian teenagers living in exile, often a little flustered, to indoctrinate them and then force them to join the cult.

You can ask yourself whether the decision made in Brussels is really going in the direction of its so-called commitment to fight for human rights and combat terrorism. It seems that there are double standards in EU policies. Hamas, democratically elected by the majority of Palestinians in 2006 legislative election which was recognized as free; still remains on the list and continues to be accused of “terrorism”.

This delisting will allow the cult to raise money in Europe but also to recover the 9 $ million of the frozen assets in France while it also has several tens of millions of frozen assets in other European Countries. The MEK is still considered as a terrorist organization in the US although some of its supporters have worked with the CIA and Mossad in filtration operations and attacks in Iran. It is this organization that in 2002 made some revelations on Iranian nuclear program from the information transmitted to them by the Mossad.
Currently, there are about 3000 members of the cult based at Camp Ashraf in Iraq under the leadership of Massoud Rajavi guru. The responsibility of the Camp which was previously under US occupation troops – Washington had given its members the status of “protected Persons” under the Geneva Convention –transferred to Iraqi government last month.

The Iraqi authorities has clearly declared that the group was “not wanted” on their territory. About 1000 of them had previously lived in Europe where some of their family members live.

According to some sources, Sarkozi has volunteered to airlift members of MKO to get them in France. Israel has also offered to recruit members of MKO to use their intelligence.
The treasury of the state is empty. Until when the taxpayers’ money should be used to transport members of a violent cult that violates the most basic human rights, and to grant them political asylum?

Mireille Delamare
Translated by Nejat Society

October 20, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Hierarchical administration of information within MKO

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part 30

none of the information would be circulated among the rank and file and there was a strict hierarchical discipline with no leak Sahar Family Foundation: Ms. Soltani, you have put your finger on an issue worthy of note, that is, victimizing insiders and sending them to their death. Did they really theorize such issues for the insiders with concretized exemplars from the outside?

Batool Soltani: As for the subjects I mentioned, I have to underline that none of the information would be circulated among the rank and file and there was a strict hierarchical discipline with no leak to the lower ranks. The reactions concerning Zamani’s execution that I mentioned were limited to the members of the Leadership Council. On the surface and among the rank and file you could see what was commonly seen outside of the organization; they were in tears and mourned his death. Massoud and Maryam always insisted on the exigent priority of the Leadership Council and were of the opinion that information had to be restrained within the council. The lower ranks had to only carry out the orders of the top even if the day came when a mass suicide was inevitable.

Rajavi believed there was no need to let the lower body be enlightened about the matters discussed in top levels which could mount unnecessary tensions. It was enough to move on a slow path or effusive acts like that of the June 17 immolations. What was of the significance and vital for the organization was to keep rank and file in readiness and ripe for suicide operations through justifications that could be embedded in them from the top. I tell you for sure that if the subordinate members knew the truth and what they plotted at top layers, half of them would detach from the organization; their role was to materialize the chimeras of the leaders. In contrast to them, the higher echelons had the responsibility of constantly testing the inferiors’ loyalty and readiness and lay the groundwork. Even they would be equipped with the prerequisite means of suicide in a practical test to calculate reactions.

SFF: At the present, what means they have ready at hand in Camp Ashraf for committing mass suicides?

BS: I do not now just now, but when I was there any member of the Leadership Council carried at least two cyanide capsules. Wherever they were present, you could find equal quantity of cyanides. Or there were always supplies of fuel, the alcohols reserved for medical uses, and incendiary substances and devices mainly used in celebrations which could all be utilized easily for self-immolations. In general, the organization is potential enough to access to any type of substance and means needed for suicide and immolation operations. Even if you could detect noting kept by the organization, you will be surprised to see how ready they would be when the right time came.

SFF: Does it mean that the organization has still amounts of weapons secretly stored for a day to come?

BS: As far as I was involved, there was no possession of stored weapons because Americans were so sensitive and had sophisticated instruments that could easily detect hidden arms. Besides, the organization had no intention to give any excuse to Americans which could make them suspect the organization in other grounds that required a reciprocal trust following the disarmament. The organization tried to show straightforward which could ease the way to achieve a comprehensive collaboration. Possession of arms completely spoiled the martyred expression the organization tried to wear.

To be continued

October 19, 2009 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Cultic backlash against a legal intervention

The survival of cults, and the political-terrorist groups like MKO in particular, depends mainly on their organizational as well as a dominant iron discipline that are the cause of numerous human tragedies and cultic practices that that risks the lives of the cult victims. The main factors resulting in total obedience and submission to cult leaders are convincing systems and brainwashing techniques as well as some other levers including intimidation and coercion of the members.

Therefore, the main consideration in dealing with cults and averting their danger is organizational split of cults through separating the leaders from the rank and files in order to break down the inter-twined and steel-like discipline exerted on the latter.

However, this issue has been ignored by the US forces while taking the control of camp Ashraf, the cultic bastion of the notorious terrorist cult of Mojahedin. Surprisingly enough, the Americans’ negligence in this regard not only led to the stability of organizational relations of Mojahedin but also resulted in a number of negative consequences like illegal resistance of Ashraf residents against the legal demands of Iraqi government.

The statements made after the process of transitions in Iraq resulting in Iraqi forces’ taking control of camp Ashraf imply that the American forces have behaved passively toward Mojahedin taking no preventive measure against them. In fact, since the fall of Saddam up to the deployment of Iraqi police in camp Ashraf, no effort has been made for the organizational dissolution of Mojahedin. Seemingly, this is the reason why Mojahedin disagreed to let the Iraqi police in.

Considerable evidences indicate that the coalition forces and the Americans were so indifferent and passive toward Mojahedin that they never cared about the authoritarian approaches of MKO’s leaders exerted on MKO Ashraf residents and also failed to prevent the exit of opposition forces from Ashraf based on some hidden agreements made between Ashraf leaders and the US commanders.

In fact, there was no control and surveillance on the internal and external relations of Mojahedin. There are many reports that verify the active cooperation between the US commanders and Ashraf leaders. There are numerous evidences indicating that American forces were obliged to classify organizational and military forces of Mojahedin based on their rank and control them separately but they refrained to do so and in some points it seemed that Mojahedin had the upper hand compared to the invading forces.

What is of great importance is that Mojahedin have been aware that the presence of Iraqi police in camp Ashraf will not be limited a physical presence. The reason of the violent reactions of Mojahedin and victimizing Ashraf residents in the course of June events is in this regard.

According to the statements of Iraqi officials, the palisades inside camp Ashraf are mainly used for controlling Ashraf residents, their movements, and relations and imply the complexity and organizational hierarchy of MKO. While the control of camp Ashraf was in the hands of the US forces, Mojahedin felt safe; however, the presence of Iraqi police in Ashraf as well as removing the palisades poses a threat to MKO leaders loosing the control of their bastion. In fact, the measures had to be implemented on Mojahedin seven years ago are just on the agenda of Iraqi officials. These are the primary steps for setting MKO rank and files free from cultic relations of Mojahedin.

Footages of the human shield of MKO members in complaint to the removal of palisades by Iraqi police shown in Mojahedin TV indicate the importance of these fences as a symbol of the internal and closed relations of Mojahedin. This action as well as separating MKO leaders from the rank and files may pave the way for dissidents to leave camp Ashraf and find the chance to govern their own destiny free from the cultic bonds of the organization. The demolishing of the strategic and ideological container of Mojahedin, camp Ashraf, should have been accomplished right after the invasion of coalition and American forces. Now, the presence of Iraqi forces in camp Ashraf is a step forward to fulfill the objective; the harsh backlash of Mojahedin leaders was not unexpected since it challenged its cultic sovereignty.

October 18, 2009 0 comments

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