Mujahedin Khalq Terror group

Iraqi MP: Presence of PMOI in Iraq is causing many problems

The Iraqi Kurdistan Alliance MP Mahmoud Othman, asserted on the Expulsion of Mujahedeen Khalq, an Iranian opposition to leave Camp Ashraf in Iraqi territory.

"the presence of the PMOI’s Camp Ashraf in Diyala province is causing many problems, adding that it is best for Mujahedin to leave the Iraqi territory to end the tensions and complexities between the Iraqi government and the Mujahedin Khalq Organization,..” Othman said
in an interview with an Iraqi News Agency.

Othman stressed that the events that took place in the camp was predictable because the organization is opposed to the Iranian regime and the Iraqi government has established a friendly relationship with Iran, and Tehran demands the government of Baghdad constantly to make MKO leave the Iraqi soil.

September 2, 2009 0 comments

Iran

Mojahedin neither migrants nor refugees

Underlining that members of MKO terrorist cult in Iraq are never counted as migrants or refugees, Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq said: Even in the era of Saddam in power that MKO served the Iraqi dictator as mercenaries against Iran, they were denied form asylum.

Speaking to IRINN database Hassan Kazemi Qomi referred to the proven evil terrorist nature of MKO group and said: the MKO criminal leaders who are wanted by Interpol and courts of justice should be tried.

He added: MKO terrorists have so far committed numerous anti-human crimes inside and outside Iraq; so the Iraqi government and parliament as well as people of Iraq demand unanimously MKO expulsion from their country.

In response to a question about whether or not MKO has requested the Iraqi government for political asylum, the envoy also said: The Iraqi government will no way grant MKO terrorists political asylum.

Kazemi Qomi asserted: According to the Iraqi constitution, members of terrorist MKO cult can either go to a third country or voluntarily return to Iran under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross; but they won’t be allowed by the Iraqi government to stay in Iraq.

Iranian ambassador to Iraq draw attention to the fact that MKO members in Iraq are never accepted as immigrants or refugees and stated: Even Saddam which used MKO against the Iranian nation refrained from granting them refugee status in Iraq.

August 31, 2009 0 comments

Iraqi Authorities' stance on the MEK

MKO terrorists have put Iraq’s security at risk

Ayatollah Hani al-Tamimi: Iraqis have suffered a lot from MKO (Rajavi cult)

Secretary General of Habilian Association said: It’s been more than six years ago that Americans entered Iraq, but the people have not yet been able to see the peace in this country because of lack of security due to the presence of Americans and terrorists in this country.

According to the database of Habilian Association (terror victims family) in a meeting with a group of over 30 tribal leaders, doctors and teachers from the eastern Iraqi province of Diyali Seyyed Mohammad Javad Hashemi Nezhad also stated: Americans invaded Iraq on the pretext of bringing democracy to this country but after such a long time of over six years of their presence in Iraq, Iraqi people still have not seen peace and security

Ayatollah Hani al-Tamimi: Iraqis have suffered a lot from MKO

Over a million deaths outcome of America’s presence in Iraq

He expressed that: After the occupation of Iraq, Americans called themselves the security trustee in this country, but this presence has so far resulted in the killing of more than one million Iraqis. Now the question is that aren’t Americans really able to establish security in Iraq?

He also added: "Obviously a country like America that has a high capability could well react against terrorist threats in Iraq and return security to this country but the American officials preferred to link all the problems in Iraq to Iran, but the Iraqi people and government never accepted such a lie.

Hashemi Nezhad continued: Americans are well aware of the mass entrance and presence of terrorists in Iraq, but they need the existence of such terrorists to establish unrest and instability in Iraq and therefore justify their presence in this country and also to accuse Iran for the problems in Iraq.

America openly supports terrorists

Secretary General of Habilian Association went on and said: Supporting terrorists would have benefits for America. He said: The fact that MKO terrorists have so far killed over 12000 innocent people in Iran is undoubtedly of no importance for Americans or even the crimes Al Qaeda has committed will not make them stop supporting terrorists; the only thing which matters to them is supporting terrorist groups such as MKO and Al Qaeda. Such a support for terrorism would be of their first priorities in making the region insecure and to continue their presence in Iraq.

Hashemi Nezhad evaluated a good future for Iraq and clarified: certainly the Iraqi people will build a clear future for this country and we hope Iraqi people could reconstruct and develop their country using their own forces. We also hope that as the MKO headquarter of camp Ashraf is being closed in Iraq, this issue be followed up to the end and make happy the people of Iran and Iraq which had received numerous damages from this terrorist cult.

The most deserving action is to follow the way of martyrs

Another speaker to the meeting was Ayatollah Sistani’s representative who expressed his pleasure from being in Iran and praised martyr Hashemi Nezhad’s son and said: I’m so happy to see you’re following your father’s way and I hope other martyrs’ children continue the way of their fathers too. I think this would be the most deserving act.

Ayatollah Hani al- Tamimi added: "Resorting to Islam is the only way we could stand against colonialism and imperialism. We should be aware that colonialism always appears with a mask and uses the weapons of hypocrisy.

He said: We have received several damages from MKO terrorist cult too and our people have suffered a lot from their parasitic presence in Iraq.

He called Iranians a great nation and continued: Your country is the Islam’ land while the Iraqi people have also learned to resist the enemies and to achieve their causes with resistance.

MKO must be expelled from Iraq

Ayatollah al-Tamimi said: I have been living in Diyali province since 1970s and I know how the Islamic traditions are observed in this province.
He pointed to the representatives of Diyali who attended the meeting and said: The representatives of Diyali have repeatedly asked the Iraqi government to expel MKO from Iraq. We also staged a big rally in protest to MKO presence in Iraq.

Representative of Ayatollah Sistani then notified: We recently held a big celebration in the city of Khalis in which scholars and elders of this city demanded MKO to be expelled from Iraq.

Then he referred to the imperialism plots for interference in the internal affairs of the countries and creation of disunion and dissension and added: We must stand against our common enemies through unity and under the instructions of our religious scholars.

Sheikh Ghays Hassan Abd al-Amir was another speaker of the meeting. He said: In Diyali terrorists were on to stand against God but the people of Diyali stood against them and demanded their expulsion from Iraq.

He continued: We are happy to see the Iraqi government has granted our desire and that the Iraqi security forces have taken control over camp Ashraf.
At the end of the meeting Secretary General of Habilian association expressed once again his happiness from hosting the Iraqi delegation in the holy city of Mashahd and said:

MKO which has a long history of atrocities and crimes in both Iran and Iraq are now tying to fight against the domination of Iraqi army over Camp Ashraf by propagating as if they are being oppressed. This is while they have killed a number of Iraqi forces and have wounded some others during the recent takeover of the camp by Iraqi forces

August 30, 2009 0 comments

Iran

Iran condemns US double standards on terrorism

TEHRAN (Xinhua) — Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Tuesday that the US administration has taken double-standard stance on terrorism, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Referring to the United States’ approach to the anti-Iran "terror group," the Mojahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO), Larijani said that "it was obvious to us that the US (on one hand) has been using the group as a tool… and (on the other hand) Americans said that they have nothing to do with MKO because it is a terrorist organization."

"A recent report about the US policy on the MKO, released by a research center affiliated to the US Defense Ministry, declared that Washington has not treated the group as a terrorist organization… it is a political scandal for Washington," Larijani was quoted as saying.

The Mojahedeen, a self-claimed Marxist and Islamic movement, was founded in 1965 in opposition to the shah of Iran and has subsequently fought to oust the Islamic regime which took power in the 1979 revolution.

In 1980s, when former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was at war with Iran, the group set up Camp Ashraf in northeast Iraqi town of Khalis about 120 kilometers west of the Iranian border and 60 kilometers north of Baghdad as a base to operate against the Tehran government.

Earlier this year, Iraqi National Security Adviser Muwafaq Al-Rubaie underlined his country’s decisiveness to implement an earlier decision for closing the headquarters of the anti-Iran terrorist group in Diyala Province.

Iranian government says the MKO is "an organized group which has never denied using weapons and arms." It is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the United States.

August 26, 2009 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

A clash at Camp Ashraf left 11 MEK members Camp Ashraf dead

In a letter to a British parliamentarian last month, a senior State Department official insisted that the United States was “doing its utmost” to ensure that Iraq’s government would treat 3,400 Iranian exiles living at Camp Ashraf in eastern Iraq “humanely.” Two weeks later, a clash The Iraqi government claims the exiles threw stones and Molotov cocktails when Iraqi forces entered the camp, ostensibly to establish a police post. The exiles have video showing Iraqi forces beating people between the exiles and Iraqi police left 11 Iranians dead, and 36 were taken into custody by Iraqi forces.

Americans troops had guarded the camp since 2003, but recently handed over responsibility to Iraqi forces. Baghdad promised that the exiles would be protected.

There is no authoritative version of events, but it does not look as if that promise is being kept. The Iraqi government claims the exiles threw stones and Molotov cocktails when Iraqi forces entered the camp, ostensibly to establish a police post. The exiles have video showing Iraqi forces beating people with clubs and charging them with vehicles. The administration’s response has been weak. Officials say they will press Iraq to fulfill its promises but can only do so much now that Iraq is in charge.

The camp’s residents are members of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK), which is committed to overthrowing Tehran’s government. Saddam Hussein welcomed them to Iraq during the Iraq-Iran war and they have lived at the camp ever since.

Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government now has good relations with Iran and little enthusiasm for the MEK. The Americans are at best ambivalent. The group, which some consider a cult, is on the American terrorism list for attacks against the United States (in the distant past) and more recently against Iran. In 2004, the United States — seeking to stabilize Iraq — recognized the camp’s residents as “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention, after they signed statements renouncing terrorism and gave up their weapons.

Residents say that Washington has now betrayed that commitment. They have a legitimate complaint. But the MEK has also made no effort to reduce tensions with the Iraqis.

The United States should not retake control of Camp Ashraf. But it must warn Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki that it will more closely monitor how the exiles are treated. Iraq’s government must formally charge those arrested, give them a fair trial and take steps to avoid a repeat of last month’s bloodshed. If Iraq is determined to close the camp, Washington, Baghdad and the United Nations should develop a process.

Residents are barred from resettling in many third countries because of the group’s terrorist designation. Finding a solution will not be easy, but none of the exiles should be forcibly returned to Iran.

August 23, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MEK: The Peril of Paradox in American Middle East Policy

One thing is abundantly clear about American policy in the Middle East–it is based on a series of paradoxical, internally contradictory goals and alliances which typically end in tragic results for friend and foe alike.

Nowhere is this conundrum clearer than in the present U. S. quandary over the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), or People’s Holy Wvarriors, as chronicled by Ed Blanche, Beirut correspondent for The Middle East, in that publication’s June 2009 issue.

As Blanche capably summarizes what is known of the MEK, the organization was formed in Iran in 1965 by leftist students, subsequently adopting a “bizarre ideology that embraced by Islam and Marxism.” The ideology soon became linked to urban revolutionary guerrilla violence. In the final years of Pahlavi Iran, the MEK conducted a series of attacks and assassinations on American military and diplomatic personnel, as it sought the overthrow of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

The MEK joined forces with Khomeini’s revolutionaries in this ultimately successful effort, only to be expelled by the IRI regime itself in Tehran once its usefulness had expired after the Shah’s departure. The MEK began to conduct guerrilla operations against the Islamic Regime as they had against the monarchy previously, with considerable success. But the IRI applied a level of retaliatory force the “Islamic-Marxists” could not endure. They fled to France, and later joined forces with Saddam Hussein against Iran in the 1980-1988 war between the Gulf rivals.

The shifting paradoxes would continue, as the MEK established a headquarters at Camp Ashraf in Iraq, largely under American and Israeli protection. The one-time adversaries of both Persian monarchy and its American military and intelligence allies, had now become a tool of the United States and the Europeans against the Islamic theocratic regime they helped to usher in 3 decades ago.

And the ultimate paradoxes are these: First, Mr. Bush’s Operation Iraqi Freedom has resulted in the installation of a central government in Baghdad largely sympathetic to the IRI regime in Tehran, and with identical animosity to the MEK’s presence within its borders.

Second, while Ed Blanche notes that it “was the MEK that disclosed the existence of Iran’s nuclear program in August 2002, stunning the U. S. intelligence and military establishments,” he fails to note credible information provided by Barry O’Connell and IPS’s Gareth Porter that the MEK’s role in “disclosing the existence of Iran’s nuclear program,” has been to serve as a clandestine conduit of information on the subject supplied by the Israeli intelligence community.

Hello, Mossad, meet your new allies in the “Islamic-Marxist” network worldwide.

There you have it. The Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), or People’s Holy Warriors, is an “Islamic-Marxist” terror organization, which assisted in implementing the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979; was subsequently involved in guerrilla warfare operations against the very Iranian Islamic Regime they helped to bring to power; fought on the side of Saddam Hussein for 8 years in the Iran-Iraq war between 1980-1988; and now, according to Barry O’Connell and Gareth Porter, is working with Jewish neo-conservatives and Israeli intelligence in planting false “intelligence” on Iran’s nuclear program with the American National Security State and Western news media, itching for a confrontation between Tehran and Tel Aviv—even as it now possesses an adversarial role with the very regime in Baghdad installed by Mr. Bush’s War. Confused?

You should be. The global international establishment can’t figure out what its position on the MEK is supposed to be, either. Hence, according to Blanche, Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Directorate is trying to find the organization a new place to live; the U. S. State Department continues to maintain a place for the MEK on its terrorism blacklist, as does the European Union; American and Jewish neo-conservatives in the defense and intelligence communities of the United States advocate an alliance with the MEK against Tehran; even as Britain’s Court of Appeal ruled in May of 2008 that the MEK “should not be deemed a terrorist organization.”

Oh, yes. One other thing. Even as Israeli intelligence and the Pentagon pursue an anti-Tehran alliance with the MEK, Tehran, according to Blanche, offered the United States in December of 2003 several senior Al Qaeda operatives in exchange for MEK commanders under U. S. control at Camp Ashraf. The U. S. could have had Saif Al Adel and Mahfouz Ould Walid (Abu Hafs the Mauritanian), even as it avenged the deaths of murdered American personnel from the days of Pahlavi Iran in the 1970s.

Why was there no deal?

Better ask the Mossad, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Kenneth R. Timmerman, and the Project for the New American Century crowd.

Isn’t paradox wonderful?

August 22, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

Iraq ready to receive Iran’s complaints about MKO

The Iraqi ambassador to Iran says his country is ready to receive Iran’s complaints against the Iraqi ambassador to Iran Mohammad Majid al-Sheikh Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO).

"Should there be evidence implicating the members of the terrorist group in operations against the Iraqi nation, the members in question would be prosecuted according to international regulations," Mohammad Majid al-Sheikh said in an interview with the Mehr news agency.

The comments followed reports that the Baghdad government would try 36 MKO members responsible for the recent unrest in Camp Ashraf, which resulted in an Iraqi crackdown on the base.

"The Iranian government may also present their complaints against the [MKO] criminals to us," the Iraqi envoy added.

Al-Sheikh stated that the Iraqi cabinet has urged the MKO members to leave the Iraqi soil, but they are free to go back to Iran or to a third country of their choosing.

"We have discussed the issue with the UN [officials] and they have also acknowledged that the MKO presence in Iraq is not a possibility anymore," the Iraqi official said.

Talks with the UN about the issue continue but so far, no country has accepted to host the terrorist group, Al-Sheikh said

On 28 July, Iraqi security forces stormed the base of the anti-Iranian terrorist group, Camp Ashraf, and seized its control.

The MKO was founded in Iran in the 1960s, but its top leadership and members fled the country in the 1980s after carrying out a series of assassinations and bombings inside the country.

August 19, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

A report of purges within MKO- part two

Once in a letter addressed to Christopher George of Human Rights Watch/Middle East entitled Human Rights Abuse in Rajavi’s cult, Nowrooz Ali Rezvani, a disaffected and former member of MKO, presented documented reports of many physical and psychological mistreatments of the members by the leaders within the organization.

The following is a detailed and proven list of engineering operations plotted in years 1981 to 1994 in an attempt to purge some members for certain organizational reasons. The confessions by Mr. Rezvani well indicates the potentiality of the organization in subjecting the life of those in Camp Ashraf to severe jeopardy through a preplanned scenario and under the cover of defending the camp against the lawful interference of the Iraqi police to take the control in its hands.

It was a detailed account of human rights violation and now let’s point to some indications of Mojahedin’s inter-organizational relations to develop a better understanding of its anti-human nature and to what degree it respects the principles of democracy and human rights.

In winter 1982, Mojahedin Khalq forces stationed in the northern Kurdistan executed three POWs, one of them underage. The commander on the scene were Mr. Mesbah, a member of the central cadre, Mr. Assad, a deputy of the organization’s leadership from Tabriz. The commander of the firing squad was Qudrat-allah Heidari and the firing party was constituted of Mr. Karim Turk and a woman whose son had been executed by the Iranian regime.

In Spring 1984, four more POWs were executed in Kurdistan border zone, the jungles of Shah Nosqeh region just in the vicinity of Pazhveh Village. The executioners were Morteza, working in armory, from Hamada, Naser Turk known as Naser Gestapo, Karim Turk from Tabriz known as Karim fascist, Mr. Assad from Tabriz, Mahdi from Hamadan, and Reza Karam-Ali also known as Yaqub from Tehran.

In 1984, six dissidents were executed in the jungles of Shah Nosqeh region in Kurdistan as they were opposed to Rajavi’s announced imamate. The executed were pseudonymously called Saeed from Tabriz, Qasim from Zanjan, Naser from Shiraz, Rasoul from Kermanshah, Qulam from the northern Iran, and Suhrab from Tehran. The executioners were Karam from Hamadan, Reza Karam-Ali from Tehran, Naser Turk, Karim Turk and Ibrahim Zakeri, the commander of the execution.

In 1985, more than 700 members of the organization were imprisoned in the Iraqi Kurdistan region in jails located in suburb Saveh, Kahrizeh, and Camp Ghayur. Other imprisoned were some members of political bureau and central council including Ali Zarkesh along with other 117. They were all condemned to death and following their preliminary investigations they were sent to prisons in Suleymanieh.

In 1985, more than 50 recalcitrant members of the organization were imprisoned in the Iraqi Kurdistan city of Suleymanieh and built jails in camps Mesbah ans Ghayur. Some were also imprisoned within the safe houses in Kirkuk.

In 1990, more than 500 recalcitrant members of the organization were imprisoned in the castle-like Debs Prison in the vicinity of Kirkuk. The prisoners’ seven day-long hunger strike is an indication of their protest to drastic shortages and harsh prison condition.

In 1991, there were numerous jails and cells inside Camp Ashraf, some of them were the prison of the municipal building, the prison of college, the prison behind the rifle range, the residential prison, and prison H which was one of the most horrible solitary confinements with cell cages in size of graves, there were other prisons in headquarters and army regiments as well.
In 1992, there were prisons and safe-houses set up around Baghdad including prison Muhammad zabeti, prison Saadati, prison Seifi, prison Akbarzadegan, prison Malik Marzban, a prison known as the camp of the members of the National Council of Resistance close to American Embassy, prison Mirzai, prison Dr. Muhammad Tabatabai, prison Rezai, and more.
Pakistan, 1987. Asghar Mirzai working in the Voice of Mojahed from the northern Iran was sent to Pakistan after engaging in some inter-organizational friction. After a while the organization announced that he had broken with the organization and had reported information about the camps of the National Liberation Army and headquarters of leadership to Iranian regime. Still the members were digesting the story that there came the news of his assassination by the regime. His wife was in a state of mental imbalance since it remained an unsolved question why her husband was killed soon after his separation.

Explanation: Asghar had been long working in Rajavi’s private bastion known as Camp Badi-zadegan located 45 km. west of Baghdad in Abu-Ghurib region where he made programs for the Voice of Mojahed. Thus, he had proven information concerning Mojahedin’s implication in Haj massacre and he was also the link between the Voice of Mojahed’s broadcasts and the Iraqi regime.

Of other obliterated members to name was Bahram Turk from Tabriz who worked in Rajavi’s private bastion known as Camp Badi-zadegan located 45 km. west of Baghdad. He knew anything about Rajavi’s residential and its secrets. Later, he was identified as a troublemaker and was degraded to work as a simple gardener in Rajavi’s private courtyard. It did not take long to be announced that he had been found drowned in the camp’s pool. He was reported to have fallen into the pool and drowned as he could not swim and there was nobody around to help him. Bahram was a real source of information and knew things about the organization’s association in Haj massacre. His wife was six month pregnant when he died and the baby was named Bahram after him.

Explanation: Reza Asadi was once a pilot in IR Air Force who had his hand in the escape of Dr. Banisadr and Masoud Rajavi from Iran. He was a comrade working close with Bahram and knew him well. A detached member, now he is living in Netherlands. In a letter to a friend, he gave some details about Bahram’s skill in swimming.

On the day we met, we talked about the article you penned for the Nimrooz. Now I try to give some details. For two years I was working with Bahram in a garage in Baghdad. He was one of those who lacked the proficiency to be invested with responsibility but was enthusiastically devoted to Maryam (Rajavi) and was ready to dive through a window hearing her name. The devotion branded him an ideological element with consequent conferred responsibilities. They say he was drowned in an ordinary pool. Your article in the Nimrooz made me recollect a joint travel I had with Bahram. We were en route to Kirkuk from Baghdad on a hot summer day in month Ramazan. We stopped the car on the bank of river Takrit, a big, rapid and raging torrent, to swim. I am a good swimmer and can swim in any condition.

But Bahram was many times better and swam easily in the deepest part of the river where hardly anybody, and even me, could swim. He swam so comfortably as if he was lying on a soft, flat mattress enjoying himself.

August 18, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

History and fate of Mojahedin Khalq if expelled from Iraq

Text of report by Majid Mehrabi-Delju entitled "Last house of discord" published in Iranian newspaper Hamshahri website on 9 August

Recently Iraq’s military forces were ordered by the country’s government to attack and take over History and fate of Mojahedin Khalq if expelled from Iraq Camp Ashraf, which had been at the disposal of the hypocrites [Monafeqin in Persian, reference to Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization] since the time of Saddam Hussein.

Reports and images of the attack were given extensive coverage by the world’s media. The Iraqi government denied it had been violent with the camp’s residents, though it was said the attack killed more than 10 and injured 200 people. The Iraqi government had been talking to the heads of this little group for two years so they would recognize Iraq’s national right to exercise sovereignty over this parcel of Iraqi soil. But the MKO’ leaders – it is not clear with which argument – negated this right of sovereignty and refused the Iraqi government entry into the camp.

They believe Iraq is under occupation and wanted Iraq to implement the Iraqi agreement with America concerning the camp, which would be considered a negation of Iraq’s sovereign rights over its territory.

"Among the MKO’ group in Camp Ashraf, there are people whose hands are stained with the blood of Iraqis. We shall refer these people to competent Iraqi courts for trial. Likewise some of these people have their hands stained with the blood of the people of Iran, and we shall deal with them in line with the security agreement. Most of them of course have stated an interest in returning voluntarily to Iran, so we intend to make preparations for that." These were comments made in Bahman 1387 [January-February 2009] by Muwaffaq al-Rubay’i, the Iraqi national security adviser, at a press conference during a trip to Tehran.

A day after the anniversary of the Mersad operation, or the Eternal Shining [Forugh-e javedani] as it is ordinarily referred to in the MKO language, and a day before the anniversary date of Abolhasan Banisadr’s flight from Iran with [Mas’ud Rajavi] the head of the MKO (seventh Mordad 1360) [29 July 1981], the Iraqi army surrounded Camp Ashraf to begin the countdown to the end of the MKO’ 23-year residence at the base. After this certain media sought to find a link between visits made to Iran in recent months by Iraqi officials and the Iraqi army’s attack on Camp Ashraf.
But as the head of the Iran-Iraq parliamentary friendship group, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, has said, the attack was an internal Iraqi affair and, contrary to rumors, Iraq did not do this for Iran’s sake. It seems that one of the most important reasons for the attack was the MKO’ collaboration with Saddam Hussein in attacks on areas including Khalisiya and killing of various innocent Iraqi Kurds and Shi’a.

The camp, as the Christian Science Monitor has described, has risen like weed, and with elegant gardens and wide avenues, is a memento of [previous] intense differences between Iraq and its neighbour Iran. The Mojahedin became armed and wealthy under Saddam Hussein, launching numerous attacks on Iran from Iraqi territory, the review wrote at the time of the Iraqi army’s attack on Camp Ashraf. Wikipedia writes about the camp that it is a complex of buildings and streets, and includes educational, social and sporting facilities. It has four Olympic-size pools, a shopping centre, a zoo, a park, a university, and a standard-size football ground. The website stated that Camp Ashraf had given its size and to function effectively, services like a shop, bakery, petrol station and even traffic police.

Dictator’s green light
The camp was founded in 1986 with the green light from Saddam Hussein; the 3,400 people based in the camp have committed crimes in the past 23 years, including against other camp residents. During the Iraqi army’s attack on the camp, a mass grave was discovered inside the camp.

Wolf’s tracks
The MKO’ little group, following the calamity of the seventh Tir that martyred more than 70 members of the Islamic Republic Party, fled the country with Banisadr and preferred to pursue its counter-revolutionary manoeuvres from abroad, initially from France. In 1986 the French government forced the MKO to leave Paris, after which their base became Baghdad (the capital of Iraq). The group proceeded then to found a city north of Baghdad in the Diyala province, 80 kilometres from the Iran-Iraq frontier.

In addition to the terrorist actions the MKO carried out in Iran, the group also carried out military operations on the frontline against Iran during the imposed war [1980-88]. If we overlook the operations known as Aftab [Sun] and Chelcheragh [Chandelier] on Iran’s southern frontier, respectively taking place at midnight on the seventh Farvardin 1367 [27 March 1988] and midnight of 28 Khordad 1367 [18 June 1988], the operation Forugh-e Javidan [Eternal shining] was the best-known attack made on Iranian soil by the MKO.

Rajavi sought in this operation to do what Saddam failed to over eight years. He wanted to conquer Tehran in 33 hours. When the MKO entered Iran’s frontier towns and villages, they began to kill innocent people. They did not hesitate to decapitate patients and the injured in hospitals. The Mersad operations take place to repel this operation and the soldiers of Islam created a hell for the MKO in the Chaharzir district [in Kermanshah].

After that the MKO left their tracks on a number of terrorist acts inside Iran. The European Union and America kept the little group on their blacklist of terrorist groups for a number of years. But events concerning the sect led the European Union, led by the UK, to seek some way of opening their passage to Europe, as their the expulsion from Iraq seemed imminent.

Europe’s green light to the MKO

With the overthrow of the Iraqi regime in 2003, the MKO were disarmed by American troops. On the basis of the first phase of the security agreement between Iraq and America, signed on 26 Aban last year [16 November 2008], the country’s armed forces would take charge of Iraq’s security and American forces must return to specified bases. Camp Ashraf was not one of the camps placed under American control, but under the authority and influence of the Iraqis. The MKO should not have been pleased with the signature of the agreement.

They celebrated America’s national day for the Americans in Iraq and were happy with the presence of American troops in Iraq. About two months after the signing of the security agreement between Iraq and America (seventh Bahman) the EU removed the MKO from its list of terrorists. This could only mean one thing. At the same time various experts said the MKO’ removal from the terrorist list was a calculated response to the move due to take place in six months later in Iraq. Still, about 55 members of the MKO group in the camp (New Iraq Camp) are wanted by the international police.

Nobody will accept them

Iraq wants the MKO to leave the country or return to Iran or go to a third country. The Christian Science Monitor writes on Iraq’s decision to expel the MKO that the head of the Iraqi National Security Council believes that the members have been "brainwashed" and are potentially dangerous. It adds that it has been a difficult deal to persuade other countries to accept more than a few members of the group. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has so far given refugee status to 250 former members of the Mojahedin though officials say only some have been accepted by third countries [the Christian Science Monitor wrote].

In fact days after the Iraqi army’s attack on the MKO’ camp in Diyala, Abd-al-Husayn al-Shammari, the police chief of the Diyala governorate north-east of Baghdad, said residents of the camp now called New Iraq Camp, have no choice but to leave Iraqi territory. "The high commission dealing with the New Iraq Camp dossier has given members a month to leave Iraqi territory and they must decide in this time to return to their country Iran, which has issued a general amnesty for them, or go to a third country. They no longer have the option of remaining in Iraq," he said. A Western official has said Camp Ashraf is the last place left to the MKO, and asked, what are they without it?

Source: Hamshahri, Tehran in Persian – Translated by:BBC Monitoring Middle East

August 18, 2009 0 comments

The MEK and Jundullah

Jundullah Threatens to Attack Iraqi Gov’t in Support of MKO

The Jundullah terrorist group warned Baghdad government that it would retaliate against the closure of a main camp of the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) by the Iraqi forces.

"…the Iraqi government should know that its hostile measures against the residents of Camp Ashraf who are Iranian immigrants in this city are not and will not be in the interest of the Iraqi government," Jundullah said in statement.

The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, has been in the country’s Diyala province since the 1980s.

Six years after toppling Saddam government in 2003, the country’s security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad recently and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.

The Iraqi authority also changed the name of the military center from Camp Ashraf to the Camp of New Iraq.

Jundullah also in its statement urged the international organizations and opposition groups to stand against the measure and act for the urgent stop of the assaults on Camp Ashraf.
The ringleader of the Jundullah terrorist gang Abdulmalik Rigi on June 2 admitted receiving assistance from the MKO.

In a significant admission, Rigi told a US-based satellite TV station, that "They (MKO) have had good intelligence collaborations with us and have provided us with much information about the activities of the Iranian regime."

"They (MKO) inform us about the regime’s activities in our areas of operations and let us know of the regime’s forces in these districts and send us most of the intelligence of our interest by email and messages," Rigi told the station.

Rigi, a well-known gang leader whose group has already staged several terrorist operations in southeastern Iran, has long been chased by Iranian troops. In one of the worst cases, his group killed 22 citizens and abducted 7 more in Tasouki region on a road linking Zahedan – the capital city of the southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan – to another provincial town.

Rigi, who like his fellow al-Qaeda fanatics, has a penchant for videotaped decapitation of hostages, boasted in the interview, "We have treaties of friendship with all groups who act against Iran, and, among these, the MKO can do some things for us and we too can transit their members. But, I guess that they have certain limitations and are in countries where they cannot carry out their intended actions the way they want."

The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).

The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.

The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.

August 11, 2009 0 comments

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