Mujahedin Khalq Terror group

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Report: MEK to join terrorists in Aleppo

Sources revealed that some members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq group (MEK, a.k.a. MKO and PMOI) are going to leave Iraq to join the anti-Assad terrorists through Syria’s northern borders.

“A number of U.S. and Turkish officers accompanied by several commanders of Kurdish Peshmerga forces had a meeting with some high ranking members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization in Erbil, Iraq,” well-informed Iraqi security sources told the Arabic language Top News TV channel.

The sources added that the meeting decreed that Peshmerga forces transfer a number of MKO elements from Iraq to Turkey and then to the northern parts of Syria in order for these anti-Iran terrorists to join the so-called Free Syrian Army.

Directed by Nasser Qandil, Lebanese politician and former Member of Parliament, the news channel added that U.S. and Turkish officials have told the MKO that “Saudi Arabia and Qatar are committed to jointly pay the costs of relocation and resettlement, expected to be roughly $ 250 million,” as well as $ 100 million per month for the militias.

On the other hand, the Americans guaranteed to facilitate the MKO’s secret withdrawal from Iraq to Turkey.

A few days ago, the sources added, Nouri al-Maliki caught Americans off guard by telling them that Iran is aware of the plot of temporary relocation of MKO members to Erbil and they have warned against the move.

“Opposed by the Iraqi Prime Minister, the plan will be done gradually and secretly,” informed sources predicted.

August 7, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

An Attorney Serving as Advocate forTerrorists

Dr. Gerson questions impartiality and humanitarian intention of the UN to defend MKO

It is argued that material support laws could properly be used to prosecute lawyers who act and talk on behalf of groups designated foreign terrorist organizations. But the problem is that majority of attorneys who serve terrorists escape prosecution mainly because they are either too experienced in their job or hardly any of them acknowledges that he might indeed have found himself on the wrong side of the line. Oddly enough, some of these terrorist advocates are notable attorneys and professionals known to observe traditional, anti-terrorist ethical guidelines who have often won battles against terrorists.

Dr. Allan Gerson is recognized as the first attorney to have engineered a practical basis for suing foreign governments for acts of terrorism. After the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, he initiated the first civil suit against a foreign state (Libya) on behalf of families of the victims. In 1996, his efforts were instrumental in the passage of the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. However, although an expert in his own profession, Dr. Gerson is walking in the same path with a designated terrorist group, Mojahedin Khalq Organization MKO/MEK/NCR, and repeating its very same baseless claims. At least nobody expected him to slam a humanitarian guideline set by the United Nations so hard in favor of a terrorist group that is waging a psychological war against international institutions.

The United Nations issued a press release on July 24 stating that its mission in Iraq, UNAMI, has presented a “roadmap” to the Government of Iraq in dealing with the temporary relocation of the Camp Ashraf residents, members of the terrorist MKO, to Camp Liberty, a temporary transit facility near Baghdad airport. Some two-thirds of the residents, or 2,000 people, were relocated to the transit camp but MKO refused to transfer the remaining residents, some 1300 people, on a variety of invented excuses some of which are natural to meet because of the regional and poor living conditions that have long impacted the local people’s lives.

It took only four days following the released roadmap to see a published article under the name of Dr. Gerson in which he slammed the UN for a pure humanitarian cause to end the stalemate in the relocation process. As MKO has repeatedly done, he questions impartiality and humanitarian intention of the UN concerning the issue. For two reasons, Dr. Gerson disputes that the UN effort is humanitarian because “effort comes at the point of a gun. It is aimed at the MEK residents of Camp Ashraf who have been understandably reluctant to move to Camp Liberty until the basic humanitarian needs of food, water, electricity, shelter and facilities for the disabled are met”.

Then, he claims that “If the UN commitment were ‘strictly humanitarian,’ it would never have supported the move of the residents from the Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty. No purpose is served by such a move. For decades, the MEK lived peacefully at their home of Camp Ashraf, a small city that they built by themselves”.

Dr. Gerson seems to be uninformed of historically plain facts. MKO has never stated a willingness to leave Camp Ashraf known to be its ideological and military bastion allocated by Saddam. It is a legal demand by the Iraqi government and the local people, to whom the land belongs, to close the camp and return the lands to their real owners. For sure, occupiers are reluctant to return what they have seized. It is not a mere dispute over a simple matter of relocation from a camp to another; the problem is MKO’s reluctance to leave rather than the existing common shortages it claims. The ideal solution MKO appreciates is the one that disapproves any relocation from Ashraf.

The group is well aware of the fact that relocation from Ashraf means a permanent expulsion from Iraq sooner or later. But staying at the “small city that they built” even if seemingly in limbo means a permanent or decades long stay until they will be delisted from the State Department Foreign Terrorist Organization list since, as Dr. Gerson explicitly points out, “No country will be eager to take people who remain on that list. And indeed, no country has stepped forward despite the fact that some 300 residents have already been given refugee status by the UNHCR”. What is really bothering MKO is losing the lifelong opportunity of maintaining Camp Ashraf after a unanimous decisiveness for relocation of its members. And Dr. Gerson in his defense of a terrorist group has sold his principles; he tries to look sympathetic as well as promising because he is presently involved with other attorneys in representing MKO to be removed from the State Department List of FTO.

By N. Morgan

August 1, 2012 0 comments

Germany

Do not condone Mojahedin Khalq’s forced divorces

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

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

Immigration and Integration,2002-2004 In Germany

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

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

with greetings and respect ,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*The veil in this organization is compulsory and obligatory.

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

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

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

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

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

Respectfully
Batul Soltani, Iran Ghalam,

July 31, 2012 0 comments

Germany

MKO Cult against the women’s rights

Mojahedin Khalq is a cult, an inhumane organization, against Iranian people and against the women’s rights

Open letter of Mrs. Ebrahimi to Mrs. Rita Sussmuth Chairman of the Advisory Council on Immigration and Integration,2002-2004 In Germany

I , Nasrin Ebrahimi , one of the former members of the people’s mujahedin organization with 10 years record of service of close cooperation with the people’s mujahedin organization , would like summarily inform you of some issues about the people’s mujahedin organization according to your recent speech and support of this group in Villepint in Paris.

First , I must declare my deepest regret that it is unbelievable for me such prominent political figure like you who had been the chairman of the advisory council on immigration and integration , 2002-2004, in Germany , had supported the people’s mujahedin organization .

I must inform you that the people’s mujahedin organization is known as an inhumane organization , against Iranian people , and against the women’s rights among the Iranian people who have been the victims of pmoi terrorism as well as the dissidents of this organization who had worked closely with this organization for years . This organization as Saddam’s private army , had served the dictator of Iraq a lot in killing the Kurds and suppression of the Saddam’s opponents in Iraq .

You are maybe surprised that why I am calling this organization as ¨¨against the women’s rights¨¨ .

Probably you have no idea that Massoud Rajavi , the spiritual leader of this organization , has been using the women in this organization as tools to preserve his leadership power and keep his ideological supremacy and hegemony upon the members of this organization consecutively and forever.

Do you know that a great number of women have forcibly taken out their wombs by the direct order of Rajavi ?

Do you know that Massoud Rajavi has sexually raped a number of women who are the members of the pmoi leadership council?
It is worth knowing that the majority of the members of this organization ,who have been under severe psychological pressures , haven been kept forcibly and misused by the leadership of the organization.

Do you know that the people’s mujahedin organization besides that has done hundreds of terrorist operations , has formally and officially supported the Al-Qaida terrorist organization.

The world will never forget the human catastrophe on 9/11 which took the life of thousands innocent people but Massoud Rajavi ordered directly to celebrate this catastrophic event through different banquets and gatherings and we have never forgotten that Massoud Rajavi said, quote¨¨ this is the fundamentalist Islam which has created such event (9/11) , let wait for the revolutionary Islam when it will emerge like a typhoon.¨¨

The people’s mujahedin organization which its anti-American and anti- Iranian content and essence has not been covert and hidden for anyone , after the US-Iraq war and the downfall of Saddam Hussein ,who was the pmoi’s most powerful supporter and backer , the people’s mujahedin organization began utilizing a new wave of deception by using a new policy. The mujahedin who were chanting anti-American slogans such as ¨¨ Down with USA¨¨ ,and they had different kind of anti -US books and archives and …………etc in Ashraf garrison before the US invasion of Iraq, the pmoi leadership ordered burning and annihilating all those anti-US books and archives, consequently after that there was not any sign of those books and films and ……….etc in AShraf anymore .they began showing themselves as modern organization and pro-USA to whitewash their past and even the killing and assassinating of the US -military advisers in 70,s in American minds. Then they began spending the huge amount of money and making different lobbies to delist themselves from the terrorist list .

They began attracting and bringing the refugees and refugee seekers in European countries to their meetings and gatherings by spending money to show that the Iranian people are still supporting them whereas it is very easy to find out through the internet that the Iranian people know this terrorist organization as the factors and the elements of killings and crime and they have not supported pmoi in the past or in the present whatsoever.

These shows that Mrs. Rajavi establishes in Paris is to deceive the American politicians and to pretend that as if they have the support of the Iranian people.
The people’s mujahedin organization has not renounced and denounced its violent record yet and for this reason every year they commemorate the anniversaries of its different killings and the violence through celebration and banquet .

They are still threatening and intimidating their opponents throughout the world and they suppress any kind of criticism severely and violently either inside or outside of the organization.

This organization has kept its own members as slave and has not ended the misusing of them and their slavery in Ashraf and Liberty yet. This organization plays with the members’ lives and sacrifice them for the sake of its leadership ominous requests. this organization utilizes its own members for the blackmail vis a vis USA and the Iraqi government…..

The actions of this organization clearly show that they have equipped themselves just with the deceptive looks and just because they have been disarmed and they do not have any access to the arms , temporarily they do not carry out any terrorist operations but in future they will use any chance and opportunity to carry out their terrorist assassinations and violent deeds. Rajavi was always saying that quote¨¨ Finding arms for this organization is a very easy task¨¨, and they are just waiting to come out of the terrorist list to begin the killings much easier and by less limitation .

Delisting this organization from the terrorist list is a treason against the Iranian people and it will pave the way for this organization for more terror , violence and threat against the Iranian and the American people.

At the end , I would like to inform you that my friends and I are ready to submit to you more information regarding to the people’s mujahedin organization by more evidence , and documents through face to face meetings or by the mail.

All the best
Nasrin Ebrahimi, Iran Pen

July 29, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO Still Glorifies Violence and Militarism

Glorification of a military operation indicates violence is still boiling inside MKO

To many who have met with the large-scale struggle of Mojahedin Khalq Organization MKO/MEK MKO Still Glorifies Violence and Militarism to be removed from the US the State Department’s list of FTO, it is a great shock to see it taking a fierce pride in glorifying its past perpetrated terrorist deeds. Glorification of terrorism is tantamount to engaging in terrorism itself and hardly anybody expects a terrorist group insisting to have abandoned terrorism in favor of a liberal democracy, although there is no written or public record to verify the claim, publically eulogize a military offense.

On 25 July 1988, only days after Iran-Iraq governments accepted the UN Security Council Resolution 598 that called for a cease fire in the eight-year long war, MKO launched its major military invasion onto the Iranian borders. Supported by Iraqi army and its air cover, Rajavi dispatched his estimated 7000 forces National Liberation Army (NLA) to demonstrate his organization’s military potentiality in a four-day lasted operation, namely ”Operation Eternal Light”. In its unclassified 1992 report on MKO, the State Department refers to the operation as an explicit evidence of MKO’s armed struggle and close collaboration with Saddam’s regime.

“The group launched its most significant incursion in June and July 1988, when they coordinated an advance into Iran with Iraqi forces. During the same offensive, Iraqi units in other sectors of the front used chemical weapons against Iran. NLA units briefly seized the Iranian border towns of Mehran, Karand, and Islamabad-e Gharb. The Mojahedin claimed to have killed 40,000 Iranians, but other military observers said the, NLA “just got wiped out” when Iranian reinforcements arrived.”

The operation on which MKO had heavily invested turned to be a total military failure and a proven suicide operation that led nearly 1300 forces, according to the organization’s own report, to their sacrifice. In fact, MKO hurried to take advantage of a no-war no-peace situation created after the ceasefire in limbo, a golden opportunity for Rajavi to take his last chance totally disregarding the high cost it would impose. In fact, he was desperately in need of and search for an outlet out of an inevitable cul-de-sac rather than to accomplish a strategic necessity.

The consequence of MKO’s widespread terrorist operations of bombing and assassination inside Iran and its later out-of-the-border organized hit and run operations perpetrated in the last three decades as well as its broadly launched military operation like that of the Eternal Light was to be globally recognized as a terrorist group. However, the good part is that the history and the recorded facts can never be distorted. And MKO does not seem to have any interest in renouncing its spectacular military venture as it has been condoned by some Western countries when they made a sudden U-turn and decided to delist the group.

Under the Terrorism Act passed in 2006, glorification of terrorism is outlawed in the UK; it was overlooked when a British court ordered removal of MKO from the country’s list of terrorist groups in 2008. However, a state’s decision that meets political interests differs with a nation’s opinion that can easily judge by evident discrepancy between claims and facts. Commemorating the anniversary of a terrorist military offense like the operation Eternal Light is an evident example of the glorification of violence and death-seeking attitude still boiling inside MKO.

July 28, 2012 0 comments

Iraq

Complaints filed against MKO in Germany, Spain & Turkey

The Committee for the Defense of Iraqi victims of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) has reportedly lodged 114 complaints against the group in German, Spanish and Turkish courts of law.

In an exclusive interview with AKnews agency on Monday, chairman of the committee Nafee Issa said his agency, thanks to the assistance of five lawyers, has filed complaints on behalf of Iraqi victims particularly those living in Tuz Khormato town — located 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad – against MKO in German, Spanish, and Turkish courts.

He added that his committee plans to take legal action against MKO in French law courts.

“As many as 275 court cases have already been filed against the MKO. Out of the total number, 114 have been lodged by farmers in Diyala province whose crop lands have been occupied by the terrorist group,” Issa pointed out.

Martin Kobler, the UN Special Representative for Iraq, told the UN Security Council on July 19 that the Iraqi government’s patience is "wearing thin" with the MKO members, who are refusing to leave Camp New Iraq — formerly known as Camp Ashraf and situated about 120 kilometers (74 miles) west of the border with Iran.

“Time is running out to find a sustainable solution. The government’s patience is wearing thin,” said Kobler, who heads the UN mission in Iraq (UNAMI).

“Recent weeks have witnessed difficulties in maintaining dialogue between UNAMI and the residents, and between the residents and the government of Iraq, reinforcing a perception that the residents lack a genuine will to move,” he added.

The MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up its camp near the Iranian border.

The group is also known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and carrying out the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.

The MKO has carried out numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.

July 25, 2012 0 comments

Iraq

Iraqi Rights Group Files Lawsuit Against MKO Terrorists

Families of Iraqi victims of terrorist attacks by the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, a.k.a. MKO and PMOI) along with a group of Iraqi lawyers have filed a lawsuit in various European courts against the terrorist group. Iraqi Rights Group Files Lawsuit Against MKO Terrorists

According to a report published by Habilian Foundation website, head of the Association of Justice to Defend Iraqi Victims of MKO, Dr. Nafe al-Isa, told AKnews that the human rights group along with five lawyers have filed lawsuits in the courts of Turkey, Germany, and Spain against MKO terror group for its crimes against the Iraqi people, particularly people of the Tuz Khormato in northern Iraq.

“If we overcome financial problems, we will do the job in the French Court too,” said Dr. Isa.

The Association of Justice to Defend Iraqi Victims of MKO is a human rights group comprising a number of lawyers and human rights activists aim to defend the rights of the Iraqi terror victims assassinated by terrorist MKO group.

“The courts welcomed the lawsuits,” he said regarding the reaction of the courts to the complaints.

He went on to say that they are going to bring Iraqi politicians and members of the Parliament who are in contact with the terrorist group to trial.

July 24, 2012 0 comments

Iran

US seeks to keep MKO in eastern Iraq: Iran lawmaker

An Iranian lawmaker says the US and certain political factions in Iraq seek to keep the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) near the country’s eastern borders with Iran.

“The US and certain Iraqi political factions are trying to keep the MKO near the country (Iraq)’s eastern borders in order to use them to pursue their own interests,” Mohammad Saleh Jowkar said on Sunday.

The US plans to use this group against the Iraqi nation and Iran, he added.

“The Baghdad government must firmly stand against the US and insist on the demand of the Iraqi nation for the MKO to leave the country,” the Iranian lawmaker said.

The MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of the country’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up its camp near the Iranian border.

..in 1991, and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds in the country’s north under Saddam’s dictatorship.

In December 2011, the United Nations and Baghdad agreed to relocate some 3,000 MKO members from Camp New Iraq, formerly known as Camp Ashraf, in Diyala province to Camp Liberty – a former US military base near Baghdad International Airport.

Tehran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the terrorist group, but the US has been blocking the expulsion by pressuring the Iraqi government.

July 24, 2012 0 comments

Iran

Iranian MP condemns US support for MKO terrorists

An Iranian lawmaker says US support for the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) emboldens the group to carry out acts of terror, stressing that they should be expelled from Iraq.

“This group, backed by the United States, is seeking to win concessions from the Iraqi government to continue its terrorist and spy operations in the region,” ICANA quoted Seyyed Ramezan Shojaei Kiasari as saying on Friday.

Kiasari pointed to MKO crimes against the Iraqi and Iranian nations and called on Baghdad to meet the demands of both countries’ people by immediately deporting the terrorists group’s leaders to Iran.

“By relying on its constitution which bans activities of terrorist groups [in Iraq], the Baghdad government must strongly resist behind-the-scene pressure from world powers and deliver these criminals to the Islamic Republic of Iran in line with the interests of the Iraqi nation and its neighbors,” he urged.

Kiasari criticized international human rights organizations for their "paradoxical silence" on the MKO’s crimes, saying that such behavior is in line with "the authoritarian approach and policies of the United States and arrogant powers."

The MKO — listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community — is notorious for carrying out numerous acts of terror against Iranian civilians and officials, involvement in the bloody repression of the 1991 Shia Muslims in southern Iraq, and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds in the country’s north under executed dictator Saddam Hussein.

In December 2011, the United Nations and Baghdad agreed to relocate some 3,000 MKO members from Camp New Iraq, formerly known as Camp Ashraf, in Diyala province to Camp Liberty — a former US military base near Baghdad International Airport.

Tehran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the terrorist group, but the US has been blocking the expulsion by pressuring the Iraqi government.
Fri Jul 20, 2012
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/07/20/251897/iran-mp-condemns-us-support-for-mko/

July 22, 2012 0 comments

MEK Camp Ashraf

MKO terror group members refuse to relocate

WASHINGTON // Hundreds of members of an Iranian opposition militant group exiled in Iraq defied yesterday’s deadline to vacate their camp, a move that may jeopardise the group’s removal from a US terror list. Iranian terror group members refuse to relocate

Nearly 2,000 members of MEK have relocated from the land they were granted by Saddam Hussein in 1986 at Camp Ashraf in north-west Iraq to Camp Hurriya, a former US military base on the outskirts of Baghdad.

About 1,300 resisted the deadline set by an Iraqi government eager to improve relations with Iran. Tehran wants Ashraf closed: under Saddam Hussein, the MEK conducted military operations from there across the border. The group has also been implicated in the recent assassinations of Iranian scientists

The MEK members who are holding out say conditions at Camp Hurriya are inhumane and refuse to be relocated. But Iraq’s government, the United Nations and the US State Department say the claims are just stalling tactics.

This month, Daniel Benjamin, the US State Department’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism, urged the group to cooperate.

"It is past time for the MEK to recognise that Ashraf is not going to remain an MEK base in Iraq," Mr Benjamin told reporters during a briefing on July 6.

"The Iraqi government is committed to closing it, and any plan to wait out the government in the hope that something will change is irresponsible and dangerous."

State Department exasperation with the MEK’s demands – which according to US officials range from the reasonable, more air conditioners, to the absurd, private cars – comes in the middle of an unprecedented lobbying effort in the US to see the group removed from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations, a designation it has had since 1997.

Over the past year, advertisements in support of the group have appeared at Washington bus stops, in newspapers and on network news channels.

A prominent cast of current and former US politicians and officials – including the former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations and Howard Dean, a former Democratic presidential candidate – have been involved in the campaign.

The effort culminated with a Washington district court ruling on June 1 that imposed a four-month deadline on Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, to reach a decision on the group’s designation.

The campaign has been "highly effective", said Trita Parsi, the head of the National Iranian-American Council, a Washington-based community interest group,

It might also be illegal, he said. Under US law, receiving money from a designated terrorist organisation is considered as material support. In March, the US Treasury Department opened an investigation into the source of the considerable amounts of money being paid to speakers and lobbyists on behalf of the MEK.

The Treasury is investigating whether the source of the money is the MEK, in which case it would be material support but MEK supporters say the money comes from the Iranian American community.

A department spokesman declined to comment on the investigation other than to say that as a designated terrorist group, "US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with or providing services to this group".

Without the lobbying effort, Mr. Parsi said, the group’s designation would not be an issue. There was no controversy relisting the MEK under the Bush administration, and the group is still engaged in military operations, he said.

In March, NBC quoted unnamed US officials who said the MEK played a role in the assassinations of Iranian scientists. Tehran blames Israel’s Mossad spy agency for organising the operations.

To delist the MEK, said Mr Parsi, would not only "make a mockery" of the terrorism list, it would "send shock waves" through America’s Iranian community, which, he said, was fearful of a group described as a "cult" in a 2011 Rand Institute report.

"They terrorise people, they threaten people, they intimidate people."

Nevertheless, the State Department has indicated that should the MEK agree to a peaceful transfer from Camp Ashraf, it would delist the group. The European Union removed the MEK from its list of terror organisations in 2009, and Mr Benjamin on July 7 suggested the group’s conduct during the evacuation of Camp Ashraf was crucial.

"This is the MEK’s moment to show that it has taken on a fundamentally different character."

Supporters of the MEK say the US should delist the group whether or not it leaves the camp.

There is a lack of "unclassified evidence" of any MEK terrorist activity since 2001, said Raymond Tanter, a member of the National Security Council during the Reagan-Bush administration and now a professor at Georgetown University. Mr Tanter rejected suggestions that the MEK could have been involved in the assassination of Iranian scientists.

"How can a group that is confined, monitored and protected by US forces in Iraq for over half a decade and now under siege and searched regularly by the Iraqi military have a capability to conduct terrorist activities or commit terrorism?"

Ultimately, the decision is likely to be political, said Wayne White, a former high-ranking State Department intelligence official.

The MEK was designated a terrorist group long after it had carried out attacks on Americans during the Iranian revolution, Mr White said, and as part of an outreach campaign to then Iranian president, Mohamed Khatami.

Now the political figures pushing for the delisting are those who also want to take the hardest line on Iran, he said.

"It’s just a political football, this time being bounced in another direction."

By Omar Karmi

July 21, 2012 0 comments

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