Ms. Judith Neurink, Dutch journalist, held a press conference in Amsterdam to introduce her new book ‘Misled Martyrs’ ….The Mojahedin thought that they could disrupt the conference by registering too many names and leaving no room for others
..the People’s Mujahideen Organisationaka PMOI/NCR/MEK and its political co-leader, Maryam Rajavi, are given leeway in the US as they campaign to have the”terrorist”tag removed and to become eligible for US funding of Iranian opposition groups…the group led by Mrs Rajavi and her husband Massoud, was outlawed by the US for its killing of Americans before the 1979 Iranian revolution; alleged collaboration with Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaigns against Iraqi Kurds; and attacks on civilians inside Iran.
It coincided with the MKO, which is already a proscribed terrorist group in the UK, being allowed holding its latest campaign meeting in London under its so-called front group, the National Council of Resistance.
The main message of “Recognizing Sectarian Terrorism Seminar”, expressed briefly in its final statement, is that “The mafia-like inhuman organizational structure- established by a number of MKO ringleaders- is the only obstacle in the way of those members who want to choose freely and leave the group, ….MKO’s propaganda system revealed reasoning and cases reserved for the time after the confirmation of Iraqi constitution
Human Rights Watch reasserted claims of abuses by an Iranian dissident group Wednesday even after a report compiled by a European Parliament delegation denounced its initial report as”devoid of any truth.”… the global watchdog group published a report alleging serial abuses at Camp Ashraf, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq headquarters, six miles north of Baghdad. The report described the MeK as an extremist sect, whose leaders had exerted a manipulative psychological influence on their followers
Anne Singleton became involved with the Iranian Mojahedin when she was at University in the late 1970s. Initially offering practical and political support she eventually became so immersed in the group she went to a military training camp in Iraq for 3 months. Eventually she became disillusioned and struggled to leave.
So how did a girl from Sheffield get involved in a radical group from Iran? Anne talks to Jenni about her experiences.
President George W. Bush employed two major pretexts to dupe Americans into supporting the Iraq War: (1) extend the war on terror to Iraq, a major sponsor of terrorist organizations such as the MEK (2) find and destroy weapons of mass destruction….The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune have published claims contrary to American government reports.
One side of the opposition spectrum is represented by the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO or MEK) which the U.S. State Department designated a”foreign terrorist organization”in 1997. Still identified as a terrorist organization, …From its Iraqi exile the MKO attacked the Iranian regime’s leadership: a 1981 bombing killed President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, in 1992 it attacked 13 Iranian embassies, and it is behind other mortar attacks and assassination attempts in Iran. Former President Saddam Hussein granted the MKO refuge in Iraq,
A controversial exile movement cited by President George W. Bush as a source of information on Iran’s nuclear ambitions is condemned for psychologically and physically abusing its own members in a new report by Human Rights Watch….former MEK/PMOI members told Human Rights Watch that when they protested MEK policies or tried to leave the organization, they were arrested, in some cases violently abused and in other instances imprisoned.
The group, based at Camp Ashraf, near Baghdad, was under the protection of Saddam Hussein, and is under US guard while Washington decides on its strategy….The MEK aka PMOI has been declared a terrorist group by the state department, but a former Farsi-speaking CIA officer said he had been asked by neo-conservatives in the Pentagon to travel to Iraq to oversee ‘MEK cross-border operations’.