Mujahedin Khalq Terror group

Undue Credit for a Terrorist Cult

Opening of MKO’s bureau in US cannot be regarded a success for MKO

Reports for opening of MKO’s political bureau in the United States have garnered considerable attention from among the group’s opponents and sympathizers. But the pertinent question is if the opening, just a few hundred meters from the White House, can be regarded a successful achievement for MKO. The removal of the group from the US FTO’s blacklist implies endorsement of condoning MKO’s terrorist nature for the time being and for certain reasons. As MKO no more brags on radical ideological differences with the US and has since preferably concealed the delight of what it believes to be a victory against the enemy. It seems that MKO has revolutionized the concept of imperialism, ideologically insisting on a face-to-face combat with American imperialism, as it is skillful to create infrastructure about America as the US, even after its removal from the terrorists blacklist, has never expressed that MKO is excused for its past animosity and crimes.

America has never underestimated the appeal of anti-Americanism that ascends MKO’s worldview since its formation and which had a great impact on the opponents of the US to boost the strength of the organization in its claimed war against the imperialism. Although at the present any allusion to the past antagonism is removed from the sources of MKO, the US has still access to Massoud Rajavi’s last defenses made in Pahlavi’s regime military court when he attacked America saying:

“At the end of the war [World War II], another unjust imperialism emerged besides British. It was the United States of America that supported Kaoki in Vietnam and the reactionaries in other countries. In Iran, it even came to ask for its share. Mosaddeq’s mistake was his disregarding the US imperialism nature”.

There is no direct answer to the question that why MKO so eagerly attempts to garner the US attention but for certain it helps to better understanding of MKO’s opportunistic nature; it has always been looking for an alien element to rely on just as it did nearly three decades ago by moving to Iraq in agreement to operate under Saddam’s supporting umbrella. The ultimate outcome of alliance with Saddam was an ever-growing social hatred and antipathy towards MKO.

MKO has never cared for the people’s beliefs, opinions and objectives and Iranian people have never recognized MKO as their combating resistance in exile. The group’s press to be recognized the rightful resistance and democratic alternative is nothing more than a political gambit. If people really despised the current ruling regime and the difference among the authorities ruled as MKO claims, then, there would be no need for relying on an alien alliance to obtain alternative legitimacy! Massoud Rajavi, long arrogating the group’s leadership himself, has so far failed to explain why the positive publicity surrounds the ruling Islamic Republic and all MKO receives is an all-out unwelcome and negative share. Oddly enough, for decades he was accusing the US and other Western countries of compromising with Iran and completely forgetting the fact that they have been the old, tough adversaries. And he knows better than anybody that the US has arrived at a full understanding that MKO is not at all a political weight to be recognized a serious alternative.

Although at the present enjoying the support of the Hawks, MKO is said to be anticipating the Doves’ victory in the next presidential campaign that might promise an end to all oppositions and differences. However, it is hard to believe that MKO is shifting from an enthusiastic option of overthrowing the regime to a peaceful solution. It is doubtful that MKO might so easily sacrifice the little legitimacy garnered for its anti-Americanism sentiments which further reinforces the group’s hypocrisy and demonstrates it as non-trustable. Rajavi calls any investment in Iranian regime counter to democracy and human rights, but the West and the US are well aware that more absurd is to have the slightest investment, at least before the eyes of the public, in a terrorist cult that has neither any respect for the democracy nor for human rights. MKO rarely seems to get the credit it never deserves by being granted an active office near the White House. Although the official opening of the office seems a success that may reflect undue credit for MKO, but for certain it poses the US to challenging questions about such a decision.

April 29, 2013 0 comments

Terrorist groups and the MEK

Two Western based Mojahedin Khalq fighters killed in Syria

A defecting MEK member coming from Syria says two MEK members have been killed in the fighting there. They had gone from Denmark and Sweden via Turkey. They took a flight to Istanbul and travelled overland by Two Western based Mojahedin Khalq fighters killed in Syria cars into Syria.

We knew the MEK has an open presence in Syria and a camp called Hanif – the MEK calls this ‘the hospital’ as a code name. The source claims to have come across several fighters among the MEK personnel who do not speak either Arabic or Farsi, but only speak English. This is a new development. The MKO have been open about working with the Free Syrian Army but have never admitted to being engaged in military activity.

Up to this point their connection with the Free Syrian Army has been through Jordan alongside the Saddamists – Ezzat Ibrahim branch – who have always been based there but who have a much better relationship with the West than does the Iraqi government.

The leadership of the Mojahedin Khalq and the Free Syrian Army have been and do visit and meet in Paris and other Western capitals openly. (According to their own statements they are very close and strategic partners.) But the use of Turkey as a route and more than that, the use of European residents especially on the front lines (where these two have been killed by the Syrian Army) seems to be new.

It is not clear if this new development has been by the MEK’s own initiative or is a new strategy by their western backers and with their prior knowledge. (If their backers are in the know, why would they not use the usual way of Jordan instead of Turkey?)

We are, however, sure that the internal security authorities of Western countries would not be so happy to see their residents going for training and fighting alongside al Qaeda and MEK and come back to the EU or the US without their knowledge. My source is now travelling and I hope will be able to talk more when he is in a safer place.

April 29, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

American sponsors of terrorism back MEK and Chechens alike

Chechen Terrorists and the Neocons

American sponsors of terrorism back MEK and Chechens alike I almost choked on my coffee listening to neoconservative Rudy Giuliani pompously claim on national TV that he was surprised about any Chechens being responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings because he’s never seen any indication that Chechen extremists harbored animosity toward the U.S.; Guiliani thought they were only focused on Russia.

Giuliani knows full well how the Chechen “terrorists” proved useful to the U.S. in keeping pressure on the Russians, much as the Afghan mujahedeen were used in the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan from 1980 to 1989. In fact, many neocons signed up as Chechnya’s “friends,” including former CIA Director James Woolsey.

For instance, see this 2004 article in the UK Guardian, entitled, “The Chechens’ American friends: The Washington neocons’ commitment to the war on terror evaporates in Chechnya, whose cause they have made their own.”

Author John Laughland wrote: “the leading group which pleads the Chechen cause is the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC). The list of the self-styled ‘distinguished Americans’ who are its members is a roll call of the most prominent neoconservatives who so enthusiastically support the ‘war on terror.’

“They include Richard Perle, the notorious Pentagon adviser; Elliott Abrams of Iran-Contra fame; Kenneth Adelman, the former US ambassador to the UN who egged on the invasion of Iraq by predicting it would be ‘a cakewalk’; Midge Decter, biographer of Donald Rumsfeld and a director of the rightwing Heritage Foundation; Frank Gaffney of the militarist Centre for Security Policy; Bruce Jackson, former US military intelligence officer and one-time vice-president of Lockheed Martin, now president of the US Committee on Nato; Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute, a former admirer of Italian fascism and now a leading proponent of regime change in Iran; and R. James Woolsey, the former CIA director who is one of the leading cheerleaders behind George Bush’s plans to re-model the Muslim world along pro-US lines.”

The ACPC later sanitized “Chechnya” to “Caucasus” so it’s rebranded itself as the “American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus.”

Of course, Giuliani also just happens to be one of several neocons and corrupt politicians who took hundreds of thousands of dollars from MEK sources when that Iranian group was listed by the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The money paid for these American politicians to lobby (illegally under the Patriot Act) U.S. officials to get MEK off the FTO list.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Alice in Wonderland is an understatement if you understand the full reality of what’s going on. But if you can handle going down the rabbit hole even further, check out prominent former New York Times journalist (and author of The Commission book) Phil Shenon’s discovery of the incredible “Terrible Missed Chance” a couple of years ago.

Shenon’s discovery involved key information that the FBI and the entire “intelligence” community mishandled and covered up, not only before 9/11 but for a decade afterward. And it also related to the exact point of my 2002 “whistleblower memo” that led to the post 9/11 DOJ-Inspector General investigation about FBI failures and also partially helped launch the 9/11 Commission investigation.

But still the full truth did not come out, even after Shenon’s blockbuster discovery in 2011 of the April 2001 memo linking the main Chechen leader Ibn al Khattab to Osama bin Laden. The buried April 2001 memo had been addressed to FBI Director Louis Freeh (another illegal recipient of MEK money, by the way!) and also to eight of the FBI’s top counter-terrorism officials.

Similar memos must have been widely shared with all U.S. intelligence in April 2001. Within days of terrorist suspect Zaccarias Moussaoui’s arrest in Minnesota on Aug. 16, 2001, French intelligence confirmed that Moussaoui had been fighting under and recruiting for Ibn al-Khattab, raising concerns about Moussaoui’s flight training.

Yet FBI Headquarters officials balked at allowing a search of his laptop and other property, still refusing to recognize that: 1) the Chechen separatists were themselves a “terrorist group” for purposes of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA) legal requirement of acting “on behalf of a foreign power” and 2) that Moussaoui’s link to Ibn al Khattab inherently then linked him to bin Laden’s well-recognized Al Qaeda group for purposes of FISA (the point in my memo).

This all occurred during the same time that CIA Director George Tenet and other counter-terrorism officials — and don’t forget that Tenet was apprised of the information about Moussaoui’s arrest around Aug. 24, 2001 — told us their “hair was on fire” over the prospect of a major terrorist attack and “the system was blinking red.”

The post 9/11 investigations launched as a result of my 2002 “whistleblower memo” did conclude that a major mistake, which could have prevented or reduced 9/11, was the lack of recognition of al Khattab’s Chechen fighters as a “terrorist group” for purposes of FISA.

As far as I know, the several top FBI officials, who were the named recipients of the April 2001 intelligence memo entitled “Bin Laden/Ibn Khattab Threat Reporting” establishing how the two leaders were “heavily entwined,” brushed it off by mostly denying they had read the April 2001 memo (which explains why the memo had to be covered up as they attempted to cover up other embarrassing info).

There are other theories, of course, as to why U.S. officials could not understand or grasp this “terrorist link.” These involve the U.S.’s constant operating of “friendly terrorists,” perhaps even al Khattab himself (and/or those around him), on and off, opportunistically, for periods of time to go against “enemy” nations, i.e., the Soviet Union, and regimes we don’t’ like.

Shifting Lines

But officials can get confused when their former covert “assets” turn into enemies themselves. That’s what has happened with al-Qaeda-linked jihadists in Libya and Syria, fighters who the U.S. government favored in their efforts to topple the Qaddafi and Assad regimes, respectively. These extremists are prone to turn against their American arms suppliers and handlers once the common enemy is defeated.

The same MO exists with the U.S. and Israel currently collaborating with the Iranian MEK terrorists who have committed assassinations inside Iran. The U.S. government has recently shifted the MEK terrorists from the ranks of “bad” to “good” terrorists as part of a broader campaign to undermine the Iranian government. For details, see “Our (New) Terrorists, the MEK: Have We Seen This Movie Before?”

Giuliani and his ilk engage, behind the scenes, in all these insidious operations but then blithely turn to the cameras to spew their hypocritical propaganda fueling the counterproductive “war on terror” for public consumption, when that serves their interests. Maybe this explains Giuliani’s amazement (or feigned ignorance) on Friday morning after the discovery that the family of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers was from Chechnya.

My observations are not meant to be a direct comment about the motivations of the two Boston bombing suspects whose thinking remains unclear. It’s still very premature and counterproductive to speculate on their motives.

But the lies and disinformation that go into the confusing and ever-morphing notion of “terrorism” result from the U.S. Military Industrial Complex (and its little brother, the “National Security Surveillance Complex”) and their need to control the mainstream media’s framing of the story.

So, a simplistic narrative/myth is put forth to sustain U.S. wars. From time to time, those details need to be reworked and some of the facts “forgotten” to maintain the storyline about bad terrorists “who hate the U.S.” when, in reality, the U.S. Government may have nurtured the same forces as “freedom fighters” against various “enemies.”

The bottom line is to never forget that “a poor man’s war is terrorism while a rich man’s terrorism is war” – and sometimes those lines cross for the purposes of big-power politics. War and terrorism seem to work in sync that way.

Update: I wrote this “Chechens and Neocons” so fast yesterday and it’s not exactly polished. For instance I almost always put “terrorists” in quotes because it’s a term that doesn’t have a real definition or fixed meaning but is just used to manipulate people by pressing their emotional buttons (fear, hate, greed, false pride and blind loyalty). But yes, we HAVE seen this movie before! Our corrupt politicians and neocon-controlled national security-foreign policy connivers just keep running the same “Charlie Wilson War” script: “they might be terrorists but they are our terrorists!” Charlie Wilson’s War was hardly worth seeing the first time as you’ll recall it ended on a (falsely) high note without showing the blowback of 9-11. But only a few astute analysts and movie reviewers criticized that big omission.

The opportunistic neocons went on to use Iraqi ex-pat con-artist Ahmed Chalabi to gin up their war on Iraq and were SO surprised to discover him later turning on and spying on them. Years later we get Hillary feigning surprise – almost identical to Guiliani’s! – how could it be that our Libyan rebel “friends” whom we armed for our common goal of “regime change” turn against us so quickly and kill our Ambassador?! What a surprise that opportunism can run in both directions! In fact we have seen this movie so many times now that we all should be prepared for the same ending with Syria and Iran. It doesn’t take much “intelligence” to predict it will also not end well with arming the “Syrian Al-Qaeda linked rebels” or the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) groups we are using to commit assassinations and other covert destabilization in Iran. Former “foreign terrorist organization” MEK just opened an office a block from the White House, celebrated by half of Washington’s neocons, politicians and “security officials” (all with their pockets full of MEK money)! Can you spell OPPORTUNISM?!

You don’t have to observe US foreign policy – and its constant, reckless efforts to achieve “full spectrum dominance” – very long to realize that it’s based on a constant flip flopping between two modes: “whack a mole” military force on the “bad terrorists” and “enemy of my enemy is my friend” arming and opportunistic exploiting of “our good terrorists.” And the “bad terrorists” and the “good terrorists” frequently change spots. You’d think the public would get tired of the same plot and walk out, wouldn’t ya?!

Other very likely but terribly unfortunate outcomes of the Boston bombing will most likely be: 1) it will fuel continuation of the Authorization to Use Military Force along with drone assassinations on the “global battlefield” illegal stupidity; 2) surveillance cameras will be installed a thousand times over what they now exist in public places and 3) the FBI will argue that they need to redouble their “pre-emptive” targeting of suspects in their massive database for entrapment schemes. They will likely point to the Boston bombing as justification for continuing those wrongful, counterproductive tactics in order to “prevent” a future attack when the facts lead to precisely the opposite conclusion that should be drawn: that if the FBI, NSA, DHS etc were not wasting so much time collecting irrelevant data on innocents, they might have focused and followed up better on the Russian tip. The task of seeking a needle in the haystack is not helped by adding more hay but no one will dare whisper that.

Coleen Rowley is a retired FBI agent and former chief division counsel in Minneapolis. She’s now a dedicated peace and justice activist and board member of the Women Against Military Madness.

This article was originally published at Consortium News.

By Coleen Rowley

April 25, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

No use eating cake across from the White House

The formerly terrorist designated Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) eat cake in the opening ceremony of their “sleek” office in Washington, just a hundred meter from the White House. The event was celebrated with a bunch of American outstanding figures who been greatly paid by the MKO to lobby the US congress and administration to get the group removed from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations of the US State Department."The former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton removed the MEK from its terrorist list last September after an intense lobbying Campaign that included millions of dollars paid to prominent lawmakers and former government officials", the Hill reported.[1]

US politicians who attended the fete included Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I) who had recently traveled to Sweden to speak at the group’s demonstration in Stockholm. Previous to the Stockholm gathering, Kennedy and his other comrades had been offered trips to Paris and other on first class fights and luxury hotels to speak on behalf of the group. Various reports on the large amounts of money paid to the MKO supporters point out that "Money" really "Talks".

Besides, the event indicated that the MKO propaganda has been roughly successful to whitewash its violent past and even the image it had as the assassin of the 6 US citizens in the 1970s. Haward LA Franchi of the Christian Science Monitor suggests, “From prominent former members of Congress to former national security officials and high-profile diplomats, the caliber of the American advocates on hand for the ribbon-cutting demonstrated how effective the Iranian opposition organization has been at transforming its image – from that of a fringe group with a violent past to one in which it is the embodiment of the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people.”[2]

The news of the opening on the website of the MKO propaganda arm the NCRI comes with the 10point plan Maryam Rajavi had declared for “ a future Iran” in April 2006.

The first item of the alleged plan claims to consider the ballot box as “the only criterion for legitimacy “. The claim by a cult-like group sounds ridiculous. Even in the media note the office of the spokesperson of the State department released on delisting of the MKO in September 2012, the Department expresses " serious concerns “about the group,” particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members” [3]. The reports on human rights abuses committed in the MKO published by HRW and RAND institution based on testimonies of former member of the group and eye-witnesses who visited the group camps might be the origin of the DOS’s concerns.

The title “President Elect of the Iranian Resistance” referring to Maryam Rajavi never symbolizes her claim of “the ballot box”. Who elected Maryam Rajavi as the President Elect?

As Maryam Rajavi calls the upcoming Iranian election a “sham”, videos and documents indicate that as her "ideological" leader – read Cult Guru- Massoud Rajavi ordered her to become the so-called President of the Resistance. A quick search in Youtube on the election of Maryam Rajavi provides you with no "ballot box".

The leaders of the MKO are widely accused of running a notorious cult of personality. Elizabeth Rubin of the New York Times Magazine who visited Camp Ashraf in 2003 and whose famous article “The Cult of Rajavi” is still considered as one of the most reliable sources on the MKO, again in 2011 advised Secretary Clinton to ignore the group’s propaganda. she suggested,” Mujahedin Khalq is not only irrelevant to the cause of Iran’s democratic activists, but a totalitarian cult that will come back to haunt us.”[4]

By the way, Mrs. Clinton ignored the advises of the MKO critics and delisted it in September 2012. However, Daniel Larison of the American Conservative asserts that the “delisting of the MEK was mostly a quid pro que to get most of the group members in Iraq to relocate from its old base at Camp Ashraf.”[5]

Regarding the MKO undemocratic cult-like substance Larison writes,” many of the people at Camp Ashraf were being held there against their will “and “it remains on its own organization a totalitarian quasi Marxist cult”.[6]

Comparing the fifth item of Mrs. Rajavi’s Ten-Point plan for the Future of Iran with what Elizabeth Rubin eye witnessed in Camp Ashraf, expresses the fraudulent PR of the MKO. “When I arrived at Camp Ashraf, the base of the group’s operations, in April 2003, I thought I’d entered a fictional world of female worker bees. Everywhere I saw women dressed exactly alike, in Khaki uniforms and mud-colored scarves…“Rubin writes. [7]

This is “the right to choose their clothing” Maryam Rajavi promises Iranian women! And about the “freedom of marriage, divorce, education and employment” that Maryam Rajavi claims, Rubin reports,” Members were even forced to divorce and take avow of lifelong celibacy of ensure that all their energy and love would be directed toward Maryam and Massoud.”[8]

As the Hill reports the group PR admits that the opening of its office is “consistent with” its “ expanding efforts inside and outside Iran aimed at bringing democratic change to Iran and the timing could not be better with the failure of the nuclear talks and the upcoming Presidential election in Iran.” The MKO boasts of warm relationship with US policymakers saying that the opening of its office “sends the strong political message to Tehran that the real Iranian opposition is back in business. And it is just across from the White House.[9]

Ostensibly according to the MKO leaders to bring democracy to Iran, you need to have the support of the US not the Iranian people. The MKO have been “in business” with the enemies of their people since their expulsion from Iran –once sheltered by Saddam Hussein and now under the umbrella of Israel and the U.S. “The MEK is an awful group all on its own” and "hated in Iran for its long period of collusion with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war and afterwards “,Daniel Larison states.[10]

The MKO is probably the most hated political group among Iranians. The upcoming Iranian election is not the first one which is boycotted by the MKO. After the early elections in the Islamic Republic in which Maryam and Massoud Rajavi were not support by the Iranian public and government, the elections in Iran have been boycotted by the MKO!

Regarding the aggressive lobbying campaign the MKO has launched since a decade in western capitals particularly Washington DC, opening of the MKO office in downtown Washington appears to have no significant impact on the Iran-U.S. relations, let alone on Iranian internal affairs including the June elections. Nevertheless as Rubin says the group may happen to "haunt” the West.

By Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] Pacquet, Julian, Iran’s MEK to open Washington office, the Hill, April9, 2013

[2]La Franchi, Howard, For former Iranian ‘terrorists’ a warm Washington welcome, The Christian Science Monitor, April 11, 2013

[3]U.S. Department of State, delisting of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, Office of the spokesperson, September28,2012

[4] Rubin, Elizabeth, An Iranian Cult and its American friends ,the New York Times, August13, 2011

[5] Larison, Daniel, The “Rehabilitation” of the MEK, the American Conservative ,April16, 2013

[6]ibid

[7] Rubin, Elizabeth, An Iranian Cult and its American friends ,the New York Times, August13, 2011

[8]ibid

[9] Pacquet, Julian, Iran’s MEK to open Washington office, the Hill, April9, 2013

[10] Larison, Daniel, The “Rehabilitation” of the MEK, the American Conservative ,April16, 2013

April 24, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Former U.S. citizens’ assassins, new White House’s neighbors

Mujahedin e-Khalq organization(MKO, a.k.a MEK and NCRI) has got a long list of crimes recorded in its history including torture, murder and assassination of innocent people. Iranians are not their only victims, Iraqi nation has also suffered from MKO’s atrocities during the Intifada of Iraq in 1991.

Assassination of Am Former U.S. citizens’ assassins, new White House’s neighbors erican citizens is another one of MKO’s crimes when they were still in Iran. Despite MKO has formally taken responsibility for these assassinations, not only the Unites States government has not taken proper measures to confront the terrorist group, the Obama administration has also been openly supporting the MKO first by removing its name from the list of foreign terrorist organizations and then in a recent action, MKO’s office has been reopened in Washington D.C just a couple of blocks away from the White House. The United States government has failed to protect its citizens’ rights at least not as good as it claims. Forgetting the fact that MKO has assassinated a number of American citizens in Iran back in the 1970s, is a good proof for this claim.

There are exclusive documents that show the MKO has formally taken the responsibility of assassination of an American citizen named colonel Louis Lee Hawkins in its magazine called “the Mujahed”.

On June 2, 1976, an American colonel was assassinated and two days after that, the MKO took full responsibility of the attack on the issue No. 16 of “the Mujahed”. MKO republished the announcement in which it had taken the responsibility of the attack, on June 4, 1980.

Is the United States government unaware of these assassinations? Certainly the answer is negative. So now the question is how can the people of the United States be assured that these terrorist occurrences won’t take place again? Should the Americans feel safer with assassins of their compatriots living freely next to them?

Regardless of MKO’s status these days, it is clear that neither the basic American citizens’ rights nor the fight against terrorism which has been used by the U.S. government to justify killing thousands of innocent people, matters to Washington.

At the end it should be pointed out that the nature of terrorist organizations won’t be changed by delisting them or by providing them an office just a few blocks away from the White House. American people should always be careful about them.

April 22, 2013 0 comments

Iran

US to Pay Price for Supporting Terrorist MKO

Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces for Cultural Affairs and Defense Publicity Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri condemned Washington for opening an office for the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq near the White House, and said the US will pay the price for supporting the terrorist group.

“Despite their grandiose mottos, the Americans showed that they don’t care about the common human norms and values and human rights, and the human society will have no doubt that they will pay the price for this mistake both on the internal and international arena,” Jazayeri told FNA on Saturday.

“It is a ridiculous reality that Americans are eager to negotiate with Iran on one scene and concurrently, shelter the terrorists who are the murderers of the Iranian nation’s offspring and establish an office for them on another scene,” he added.

The US recently allowed the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MKO, also known as MEK, PMOI and NCRI) to open its Washington office just a block away from the White House.

The opening of the office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella group dominated by the MKO, was attended by several former US officials.

The US permission to the MKO to open its branch in Washington came as American officials have said that they “don’t consider the MKO a viable Iranian opposition group or believe it can promote democratic values in Iran”, Radio Free Europe said in a report.

Yet at the April 11 inauguration of the office, President Barack Obama’s former national security adviser, US General James Jones said the opening of the office was an “important moment” and “a step in the right direction.”

Former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, former US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P.J. Crowley, former US Representative Patrick Kennedy, and the former deputy director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, John Sano, were also in attendance.

In the past, former US officials have reportedly been paid large sums of money to speak at the MKO’s public events and lobby the State Department on its behalf.

Two former high-profile US officials acknowledged that they had been paid by the MKO to endorse de-listing the group from the US State Department’s list of terrorist groups, a report said two years ago.

The report released by the Inter Press Service in early March, 2011 said that for years now, supporters of the anti-Iran terrorist group have lobbied in vain to have the organization taken off the US terrorism list.

“A growing number of high-profile defense and foreign policy big-wigs – from former Central Command Chief Anthony Zinni to former Congressman and think tank head Lee Hamilton – have given paid speeches either endorsing de-listing or questioning why the group remains on the list when it has not committed a known terrorist act for many years,” Inter Press Service stated.

Ray Tanter, a National Security Council staffer under Ronald Reagan and founder of the Iran Policy Committee, a group that has sought MKO de-listing since 2005, said there have been six recent panels of high-profile individuals dealing with the topic: two in Paris, where the MKO’s political wing, the National Council of Resistance, is headquartered; one in Brussels, seat of the European Parliament; and three in Washington organized by a group called Executive Action LLC.

Executive Action head Neil Livingstone, a former member of the Iran Policy Committee, said another panel might be organized soon on Capitol Hill, the report by the Inter Press Service said.

“Iran-American cultural organizations” had approached him about doing the logistics for the meetings, he said, without giving specific names.

The report added that Zinni, who spoke before a Washington audience January 20, 2011 – along with a star-studded bipartisan cast that included former national security adviser Jim Jones, former FBI director Louis Freeh and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson – said in an interview that he was unaware of the group’s cultist aspects but still felt it should be taken off the State Department list if it disavowed terrorism.

He also said that the US was responsible for the fate of more than 3,000 MKO members still at the Camp Ashraf even though the camp is now under Iraqi sovereignty.

Zinni acknowledged that he had been paid his “standard fee” for speaking at the Iran event but would not say how much that was. He said he was never told what to say about the MKO, although he clearly knew the views of those sponsoring the event.

Hamilton, a former chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee who headed the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Center for 12 years until last fall, told IPS that he had also been paid “a substantial amount” to appear on a panel Feb. 19, 2011 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.

Hamilton appeared with Richardson, two former Joint Chiefs of Staff, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Walter Slocombe, former State Department counterterrorism coordinator Dell Dailey and ex-Senator Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, the report added.

At the event, while Hamilton did not call for removing the MKO from the list immediately, he said he was “puzzled” by why the group remained so designated.

In the subsequent interview, Hamilton – who once had access to classified information – said, “I haven’t seen any reasons that are current” for the MKO to be branded as terrorist.

He also conceded, however, that he was not aware of the cult-like nature of the group.

“They presented me with a platform that was thoroughly democratic,” Hamilton said. “Were they misleading me? You always can be misled.”

The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in early September, one week after the then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, sent the US Congress a classified communication about the move. The decision made by Clinton enabled the group to have its assets under US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with American entities, the State Department said in a statement at the time.

An aide to former US Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed deep regret over the removal of the terrorist group from the US blacklist, stressing that MKO is still a terrorist group.

“I think delisting the MKO was a terrible move in all aspects,” Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson said in an interview with Real News Network in November, 2012.

“A terrible move because it basically acknowledged a terrorist group is now not a terrorist group anymore, and they clearly certainly still are,” he added.

The MKO, 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.

The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who argued for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

In September 2012, the last groups of the MKO terrorists left Camp Ashraf, their main training center in Iraq’s Diyala province. They have been transferred to Camp Liberty transient facility near Baghdad.

April 21, 2013 0 comments

Iraqi Authorities' stance on the MEK

Saddam used MKO mercenaries to suppress Iraqi people

Iraqi Justice Minister: Saddam used MKO mercenaries to suppress Iraqi people but we don’t address them out of revenge

Iraq’s Minister of Justice and his Iranian counterpart sign four judicial memoranda of understanding in Tehran

Iraq’s Minister of Justice Hassan Shammari, and his Iranian counterpart Morteza Bakhtiari, signed four judicial memoranda of understanding in Tehran.

Iran’s Mehr news agency today reported that “the Minister of Justice Morteza Bakhtiari, announced during their meeting that four memoranda of understanding with the Iraqi side had been signed. The first three memoranda of understanding, on judicial cooperation in civil affairs and human rights, on judicial cooperation in criminal cases, and the extradition and transfer of convicts, as approved by parliament, and a fourth memorandum of understanding covering the transfer of convicts which remained, awaiting authentication by the Islamic Shura Council.”

Bakhtiari pointed out that during the past year, 40 memoranda of understanding and close cooperation have been agreed with the Iraqi government.

During the meeting, the Minister of Justice thanked the Iraqi government for having the measure of the members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) opposition. He said, “Iran has had 12 thousand victims of [MEK] terrorism during the past 30 years, and the Iraqi government’s decision gives satisfaction to the families of the victims of the terrorist acts committed by the ‘monafeqin’ (hypocrites) [Mojahedin]. Through our knowledge of the ‘monafeqin’ we know they deal deceitfully with the Iraqi government and the United Nations.”

For his part, the Iraqi Minister of Justice said, “We have a special view of the Mojahedin. Saddam used them to suppress the uprising of the Iraqi people, and after the fall of Saddam, the organization continued its provocative practices. Even so, we do not address them out of revenge, and our actions are completely legal.”

At the conclusion of the meeting, the Minister of Justice replied to a question from an Iraqi Mehr News Agency correspondent on the number of Iranian prisoners in Iraq, saying that there are “400 Iranian prisoners in Iraq and all of them were arrested on charges of illegal entry into Iraq.”

Translated by Iran Interlink

April 20, 2013 0 comments

Iran

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Warns About MEK

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Warns About MEK, Condemns Boston Marathon Bombing

Ramin Mehmanparast, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that the bombing that took place at the Boston marathon was “event that affects everyone.” He said that “I believe that all governments should work to establish peace and security for all people of the world. The roots of these extremist and terrorist acts must be dried, and by no means should any type of violence be justified.”

Mehmanparast also appears to have taken a swipe at US support for the Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MEK, sometimes referred to as MKO), which recently opened a lobbying office in Washington, DC, after being taken off the State Department’s terrorist list by former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Various former government officials have put their support behind the MEK, which supports confronting Iran under stricter terms.

Mehmanparast said that “Giving permission for terrorist groups to operate and removing them from the terrorist list under the excuse of freedom will ultimately lead to instability and will affect all of the people.” He said that “some political circles and some governments might feel that there are positive aspects to securing their own interests by supporting extremists groups.”

The Foreign Ministry spokesman said that “as we know, terrorists and extremists cause harm to everyone, and by no means should anyone justify supporting them whether in the Middle East, America or any point in the world.” He added, “We believe that the freedom to operate politically should not be a threat to innocent and ordinary lives.”

Iran and some Western media have accused the MEK of continuing terrorist activities, and in particular of having a role in the assassination of the country’s nuclear scientists. The MEK has denied any involvement in the assassinations.

by Arash Karami / iranpulse.al-monitor.com

April 18, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Obama, Neocons openly back terrorism

The tragic comedy of the phony War on Terror is being exposed as never before for the sham that it is. Press TV reported yesterday the opening of the MKO terrorist organization office a block away from the White House. Jim W.Dean What a message that sends to the world…that we look out for our terrorists and take good care of them, but it just might take a little time to do it.

This is the group who inflicted four 911’s on Iran by murdering 12,000 in terrorist attacks, much of it under Saddam, and then under US protection when we took over Iraq. Israel was involved, also…no surprise there.

We had no boots on the ground inside Iran for Intel collection so the War on Terror stopped at the border of the MKO Camp Ashraf. Terrorists who worked for us were given effect immunity while keeping them on the terrorist list, I assume until a day when maybe nobody would remember what they did. We did not forget, about MKO, or the others.

So the powers that we think they have slipped this one by on us. Here we have our Nobel Peace Prize winner President effectively pardoning the killing of four times the 911 victims when he has no authority to do so because the MKO are not American citizens. I did not mention aiding and abetting terrorism because that obviously was not a concern to his administration or the NeoCons.

We are all put at risk if terrorist groups with well connected big bad brothers can provide them with not only material support but protect them from prosecution. The status of a country doing so is lowered to that of a Mafia chief, Murder Incorporated. This is not a fitting robe to wear for America…or is it?

I was shocked, but not too much so, to find John Bolton and retired general Jim Jones, a Bush regime national security adviser, welcoming the MKO to Washington, DC. Does this mean that Jones was running a terror operation out of the White House? Aren’t there some big laws against that…where even a former government official can be prosecuted for crimes against humanity?

I can only think that they felt that with the public’s attention on the big terrorist training camp going up in the Middle East, the one also under US protection and allowed to train with live fire weapons and actually kill people that no one would notice. This training camp is Syria, of course. We have a repeat of the Afghanistan Mujahedin fiasco in the works going on here, but in a powder keg region.

Oh yes, we have reports that the only reason that the CIA is handling the arms shipments to the rebels is to try to make sure they do not fall into the hands of these extremist terrorists. But using the Saudi Arabia and Qatari terrorist regimes as proxies is a very thin veil indeed.

Americans know they are supporting these groups in Syria because they are good killers. They are even taking heads to prove it and bringing young teens into their ranks to use as future cannon fodder. Strategically, they know they cannot topple Assad without them so they are shedding crocodile tears over their false concerns about unleashing a new wave of terror on the regime.

Assad has not been an angel and might himself see the inside of a court room, but it would be a huge injustice if the dock did not contain at least a hundred others from the leadership of those we know who have been engaged in terrorism but claim diplomatic immunity. That did not work for the WWII Germans, the Serbians, nor any of the Africans.

If the world is going to give out free passes for terrorism, I would at least like to see some kind of vote so the rest of us can participate in playing God regarding who gets to kill and who does not. The reputation of Western jurisprudence, what is left of it, is squarely on the line.

This was a hot topic at the UN this week with the Thematic Debate on International Justice. This issue of certain countries issuing themselves free terrorism passes while seeking punishment for those doing the same was viewed as possibly needing a bit of reform. Imagine that. If the UN in its infinite non-wisdom would not mention who these countries were, but we all know.

Iran’s conference representative, Gholam Hossein Dehqani said, “Iran believes that the prosecution and punishment of aggressors and perpetrators of horrific international crimes will promote international peace and security and bring peace and tranquility to world nations.”

Dehqani is right of course. But our current international justice, or injustice system…depending on the case, which is corrupted and outdated, requires a complete overhaul.

Right off the bat the first improvement I would make is that any country giving itself a free pass from terrorism prosecution would go to the top of the list for being prosecuted. And you can forget the ICC. It moves at a snail’s pace where we will all be dead and buried before they finish. They can be used for the slow motion cases…maybe the older ones.

In America, we have a statute called the Speedy Trial Act that once you are arrested the government has to take you to trial within a reasonable period or in effect you are serving a conviction for a crime when you have not been found guilty. And no, Guantanamo does not have this.

Syria provides us a perfect example. The crime is happening now. We don’t want a trial initiated ten years down the road. We want investigators and prosecutors in the field collecting evidence while it is fresh so those aiding and abetting in terrorism can be quickly identified and arrested to stop the crimes in progress.

If such an entity were found to be a country, then they would be subject to sanctions, and something called asset confiscation, starting with all the hidden offshore accounts. When drug dealers are arrested all of their cash and property are seized so ill gotten gains cannot be used by the defense. In the US they will go to a drug dealer’s house and even collect up the children’s toys and clothes.

As always, some would say this could never be possible as those most guilty would not go along with it. But then that would just trigger a dual justice system development…the older corrupted one and then a new one that can…yes, issue arrest warrants, capture, detain, and put on trial those guilty of these crimes.

Let’s invent a new reason for having wars, a better one, to arrest and prosecute crimes against humanity people. War would be popular overnight. And all of those who protect the guilty would then become accessories after the fact. We have all these empty FEMA camps over here. Let’s use them toward a good purpose.

Oh, and one other thing. No multinational corp. has ever been brought into court for crimes against humanity…nor a single bank. Do you really think that not one ever committed these crimes? Of course they have. But they also have put themselves on the immunity list, other than fines that their stockholders pay. Financial crimes against humanity should warrant the death penalty for the lives they destroy.

So laugh all you want at my ideas, and don’t feel bad either. I am laughing at all of you who think you have some system of justice to punish mega crimes against humanity where those countries doing the judging give themselves immunity. I laugh not out of disrespect for their victims but at the silliness of it all for those who think they are involved in international justice when they are really providing cover for the bad guys.

Huge numbers of lives are at stake and Syria is going to be the big demonstrator. General Breedlove was going through his confirmation hearings yesterday as the new NATO cmdr. and said he supports giving lethal weapons to the rebels. Because we all know they already have them I suspect he meant heavy weapons.

His only concern was their not falling into the wrong hands. OK Mr. Breedlove, if you think that is such a cool idea, what if you, your family, grand kids and parents all had to die if you are wrong…just like the Syrians? Would you still think it was a cool idea?

Syria would become a wasteland of death and destruction if that happened and maybe some other places, also. There have already been enough crimes committed to keep the gallows going for a long time. Such crimes require an industrial scale justice system, not the slow motion shake and bake kind we have now.

We need to replace or convert General Breedlove’s command to a new ICC Justice NATO…called JATO, maybe. Let us save the heavy lethal weapons for them as we will all get a bigger bang for our buck. And rather than watching the innocent on TV die, let us watch the guilty ones for a change. It won’t be so sad.

By Jim W.Dean

April 18, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The “Rehabilitation” of the MEK

The Christian Science Monitor reported on the opening of the MEK’s office in Washington last week:

An Iranian dissident group that languished on the US list of terrorist organizations for more than a decade under both Democratic and Republican administrations marked its full rehabilitation Thursday when it opened sleek new offices – complete with floors covered by plush Persian carpets – within sight of the White House.

The article doesn’t explain that the de-listing of the MEK was mostly a quid pro quo to get most of the group’s members in Iraq to relocate from its old base at Camp Ashraf. It also fails to mention that many of the people at Camp Ashraf were being held there against their will. Taken together with the many disgraceful displays of support by members of Congress and various former officials, all of this creates the impression that the group’s “rehabilitation” is much more meaningful than it is.

The group remains hated in Iran for its long period of collusion with Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war and afterwards, and it remains in its own organization a totalitarian quasi-Marxist cult, so the idea that it represents the aspirations of most Iranians is absurd on its face. If reports on the assassinations of Iranian scientists are to be believed, the group continues to engage in acts of terrorism inside Iran, but as far as some Iran hawks are concerned this is “useful” terrorism and therefore not something that needs to worry us. Few things better express the hostility that some Iran hawks have for the country and people of Iran than the warm embrace they have given the MEK.

The MEK is an awful group all on its own, but what makes it potentially so dangerous is that it has been embraced by so many prominent foolish Americans that want to treat it as a leading opposition group. Of course, the de-listing campaign was always just the beginning of a lobbying effort to try to get U.S. support for the MEK in the future. One passage from the Monitor article reveals just how deluded the group’s American supporters can be:

Senator Torricelli compared the NCRI in 2013 to when the “Free French” opened an office in London in 1940. “Maybe a lot of people didn’t notice,” he said, but the French resistance would go on to play a crucial role in France’s liberation.

The NCRI, with a new office in Washington, can start down that same path, he said, adding, “I’m proud to be a soldier in that struggle.”

There’s something especially perverse about likening the MEK to the Free French. The MEK was a group that collaborated with the invader of their own country, and they wanted to impose themselves on Iran with the backing of that invader. If the MEK had succeeded in its goals in the 1980s, it would have been the puppet leadership installed by Hussein to replace the Iranian leadership of the time.

By Daniel Larison

April 17, 2013 0 comments

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