An Iranian legislator lambasted the West for changing the definition of terrorism on the basis of its own policies, and regretted that the western world has no specific definition for terrorism.
Saying that the western countries follow no specific logic in their behaviors, member of Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Heshmatolah Falahat Pisheh told FNA on Sunday that if they had a certain definition for terrorism, they would not strike the name of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) off the list of terrorist groups.
Elsewhere, he referred to a letter from the European Parliament to the US administration demanding the White House to strike the name of the MKO off the list of terrorist groups, and said, "There is no doubt that the Monafeqin (the Hypocrites, as MKO is referred to in Iran) are the friends of the Europeans and they have now returned to the place where they are rooted."
After removing the anti-Iranian terror group from their blacklist, the EU lawmakers are now urging President Barack Obama to follow suit.
More than 100 members of the European Parliament have tried to persuade the US president to lift an American ban on the MKO.
"Before the event we had no doubt in the Monafeqin’s proximity with the West," Falahat Pisheh lamented, referring to the letter sent by EU Parliament to the US administration on MKO.
"The West has used the Monafeqin as a tool during the (Islamic) Revolution and after that," he added.
Asked if the West could use the MKO to make Iran to attend negotiations, the legislator stressed that if the West aims to attain a pressure lever in negotiations with Iran, the measure would lead to nowhere.
He pointed out that Iran’s hesitation for entering negotiations with the West is rooted in such moves by the western countries.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
In the past, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.
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 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.
Dr. Abdalzahra Mohye: Iraqis have suffered from crimes committed by MKO
Iraqi intellectuals meet Habilian Secretary General
Mashhad- A number of Iraqi elites and intellectuals met and exchanged ideas with Secretary General of Habilian Association over the current status of Iraq and also the presence of terrorist cult of Mojahedin-e Khalq within this country. After welcoming the arrival of the delegation in the holy city of Mashhad at the beginning of the meeting, Mohammad Javad Hashemi Nejad expressed his happiness to host his Iraqi brothers and said: We are very much pleased of the ongoing relations between the people of two brotherly nations of Iran and Iraq and also the strong ties between the authorities of the two countries. No one could possibly find any other two nations around the world closer to each other than Iran and Iraq.
Hashemi Nejad notified the demise of dictatorship systems in the region and the support of colonial powers to them and said: considering the events that have occurred during past three or four decades one can easily find out that the use of force would not work and an instance of that is what we witnessed in Iran. The Shah of Iran which was supported and appointed the Gendarme of the region by Americans was easily brought down by the Islamic revolution.
At the same time, we saw the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Then we saw how the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled. We would also witness how American forces who occupied Iraq for their own interests become involved in the fate of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
Secretary-General of the Organization representing the families of the martyrs of terrorism in Iran then referred to the attempts of Americans in order to sow discord among the peoples of Iraq and Iran and said: the United States of America was up to follow the policy of divide and rule in he region ; but we are still friends and there exist very strong relations between us. The colonial powers have always sought for a way to influence the viewpoints of the peoples of the two nations and this is why the responsibilities and pledges of the elites and intellectuals of the two countries is now more difficult than ever and any mistake would have irreparable consequences.
Martyr Hashemi Nejad’s son then spoke about the elections in Iraq and said: we have seen how Americans attempts to influence the Iraqi elections and their efforts to change the results failed.
The expert in the issues related to Iraq condemned America’s double standards in facing the issue of terrorism and said: The arrival of United States in Iraq was concurrent with the entrance of terrorists to Iraq. Now after the handover of the security issues to the Iraqi government the security situation has improved and terrorist operations have reduced to a high extent. In fact, the U.S has provided support for terrorist groups such as MKO (Mojahedin-e Khalq) which is designated as terrorist by America itself. This is an indication to the fact that not only America doesn’t want to fight with terrorism but also it tries to take advantage from terrorist groups.
Hashemi Nejad also said: Americans support MKO terrorist group to pressure against the Iraqi people and government .We must be careful because MKO is a very deceitful group and master of manipulation. All statements they post in the internet on behalf of the Iraqi people and authorities are false. They are professional in giving out false statistics. For example, they announced that five million two hundred thousand of the Iraqi people are on their side and support their presence in Iraq. Then they declare that three million Iraqi Shiites also demand their survival in Iraq; but until this moment none of these so called three million Shiite supporters have asked the government not to expel the group from Iraq.
Then Hashemi Nejad referred to MKO false propagations in the media over the interference of Iran in the internal affairs of Iraq and said: they have staged a large wave of false allegations in the media with the help of Americans against Iran while accusing Iran of having role in destabilizing Iraq; but they haven’t so far presented any document which proves these allegations. This is while America has kept this terrorist group in Iraq and has provided them with unlimited support exactly for the same reason of creating insecurity and sabotage inside Iraq so as to justify the presence of American forces in Iraq. There is also a second reason for the support America decided to provide the group with and that’s their presumptions based on which the attack on Iran will come after the invasion of Iraq, and in this sense terrorist cult of MKO would be useful for them as a source of espionage.
Another reason why MKO is still in Iraq is the refrainment by all nations of the world to give asylum to the group because they consider it a terrorist organization.
Here I should notify that the Islamic Republic of Iran has offered amnesty to those MKO members in camp Ashraf whose hands are not stained with the blood of the innocent people but as the existence of these deceived elements in Ashraf would guarantee the future of the MKO gang leaders and the fact that the leadership looks at them as human shields, therefore it’s ready to sacrifice them for its own survival and that way there would happen a human catastrophe in Ashraf.
Dr. Abdalzahra Mohye who is a university professor enumerated a part of MKO crimes in Iraq and said: I would like to talk about one of our common concerns which is the presence of MKO terrorist organization in Iraq. We know very well that the United States brought up MKO terrorist gang in order to implement criminal schemes against the peoples of Iran and Iraq in the past and even now. I want to tell you that many and Iraqi families have suffered from crimes committed by MKO. As the private army of Saddam Hussein, this little group assisted former regime to massacre Iraqi Kurds and suppress Shiites Intifada.
I saw it with my own eyes how they killed innocent people in a mosque in Baghdad’s Sadr district.
Dr. Abdalzahra Mohye also said: The Iraqi people will not support this criminal gang and will never bear their presence in Iraq.
Dr Ne’me Shihab was another speaker to the meeting who asked Secretary General of Habilian if he believes MKO claims about gathering over five million signatures from Iraqi Shiites whom the group says will support MKO presence in Iraq.
In response to this question Hashemi Nejad said: what is clear is that nobody believes these claims and none of the Iraqi officials confirm such claims. If they have so many
supporters in Iraq why don’t they even stage a rally against MKO expulsion from Iraq? We believe that Al Qaeda was not familiar Iraq and it was MKO which made Al Qaeda familiar with this country. We have talked to many Iraqi tribal leaders and they unanimously said that MKO deceives people and after gathering signatures use them for their own ambitions. We have witnessed the same situation in England, where they follow their terrorist activities and fundraisings under the name of 23 font organizations for human rights.
He also added: All the Iraqi authorities and groups we have met demanded the expulsion of MKO from their country. They believe that MKO receives support from the remnant of Baathis and some notorious figures like Salih al-Mutlak and Khalaf al-Ayan that prefer their personal interests to their national interests.
Dr. Mothanna al-Fadhli was another speaker of the meeting who said: Mr. Hashemi Nejad mentioned that MKO interferes in the Iraqi affairs indirectly; but I should say that they directly meddle in our internal affairs. They come out of camp Ashraf and declare they are Iranians. Then start killing Iraqi people. What I should remind you of is that Shiites never support such a terrorist organization and MKO and its supporters are quite notorious for the Iraqis.
After removing an anti-Iranian terror group from their blacklist, European Union lawmakers are now urging President Barack Obama to follow suit.
More than 100 members of the European Parliament have tried to persuade the US president to lift an American ban on the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), AFP reported on Thursday.
The MKO, which identifies itself as a Marxist-Islamist guerilla army, was founded in Iran in the 1960s but was exiled some twenty years later for carrying out numerous acts of terrorism inside the country.
The group is especially notorious for the help it extended to former dictator Saddam Hussein during the war Iraq imposed on Iran (1980-1988) and helped him in the massacre of thousands of innocent Iraqis.
The group masterminded a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, one of which was the 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party, in which more than 72 Iranian officials were killed, including the then Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti.
The report adds that the lawmakers feel the group’s removal from the US list of terror is necessary as it has”clearly demonstrated”its commitment to the West and its opposition to religious fundamentalism.
The organization, known as the”Rajavi cult”after its leader Masoud Rajavi, was placed on Washington’s list of banned organizations in 1997.
The European Union had also initially banned the group, but later gave in to the intense lobbying of Rajavi’s wife Maryam and removed it from the terrorist list in January.
Renowned journalist Elizabeth Rubin of the New York Times brands the group as a cult, operating like”any other military dictatorship.”
“No one can criticize Rajavi. And everyone must go through routine self-criticism sessions…If there’s a sign of resistance, you are considered not revolutionary enough, and you need more ideological training. Either people breakaway or succumb,”she wrote in 2003.
The group’s cult-like activities include psychological coercion techniques, physical abuse and ‘forced sterilization’ to prevent members from leaving the group.
The MKO is responsible for several acts of terror in Iran including the 1994 bombing of a revered Shia shrine in Mashhad in eastern Iran.
In 2003, French anti-terrorist police arrested 165 members in Paris, including Maryam Rajavi, for ‘associating with wrongdoers in relation with a terrorist undertaking.’
More recently, around 10 members of the notorious organization were arrested in France and Switzerland on charges of money laundering on September 29, 2008.
Following the AIPAC meeting, Senator John Kerry, a Democrat, said that Washington is not in a ‘regime change mode’.
"Our efforts must be reciprocated by the other side: Just as we abandon calls for regime change in Tehran and recognize a legitimate Iranian role in the region, Iran’s leaders must moderate their behavior and that of their proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas," said Kerry, who currently chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Irrelevant to any position taken, observers are aware that this is a government which has been happy to host the head of Jondolla terrorist group on a "Voice of America" programme in which Jondolla was presented as a democratic alternative to the Iranian government.
This is a government whose CIA is holding regular meetings in Soleimaniyeh to create and develop FTOs to target Iranian people.
This is a government which has established offices in London, Dubai and Frankfurt under the Patriot Act in order to recruit people who travel to Iran to meddle in the internal affairs of the country.
This is a government with a long and continuing history of support for Saddamists in Iraq in the hope that they can be paid to foment and maintain hostilities against Iran.
By far the most blatant example of this is that from 2003 until now the US has desperately tried to keep together what is left of the Mojahedin-e Khalq at Ashraf terrorist camp (the
MKO is on the US’s own list of terrorist entities) against the wishes of the Government and people of Iraq and against the human rights of the people inside the camp. The US has shown clear resistance in front of the Government of Iraq and the families of victims of this terrorist cult to the process of dismantling and disbanding it. The US has 25 soldiers stationed at the camp, plus five US citizens inside it. They have prevented families from freely visiting their relatives at the camp, they have interfered in the Iraqi process of dealing with individuals and imposing law and order in the camp and have interfered in the process of human rights organisations getting in and helping people individually.
Once the US stops these activities then it can claim it is not in ‘regime change mode’. If Senator Kerry or Nicholas Burns or any other ‘we have changed now it’s your turn’ pundits in the US have any doubt about the veracity of these activities or if they believe they are not perceived – particularly by Iraqis – as a continuation of ‘regime change policy’, then please feel free to contact me and I can appraise them further to this information.
Iran: As the Main victim of US backed terrorism, Iran has lost 16000 of its nationals to Mojahedin Khalq Orgaisation (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult)
US petrol embargo not to harm Iran’s will for nuclear rights: FM Spokesman Service: Foreign Policy
TEHRAN (ISNA)-Iran’s will to achieve its sacrosanct right of peaceful nuclear technology will not be harmed by US boycott of petrol supplies to the country, said Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman on Monday.
“The policy of threat and sanction has joined the history and has lost viability, those who show the byway (sanctions) to the new US administration should put this policy aside because it does not accord with their change policy,” Hassan Qashqavi said at his weekly press conference.
As the Oil Minister has announced Iran has considered mechanisms that will make the petrol embargo futile and it has no effect on Iran’s will to accomplish its lawful nuclear rights, he noted.
Also regarding US State Department recent report that has called Iran one of the main sponsors of terrorism, he said Iran has always been one of the “main victims of terrorism” and has lost 16,000 of its nationals in Mujahidin Khalq Organization (MKO) terror acts.
“The main emblematic of state terrorism is Israel and its main sponsor is the US, thus Iran can’t be labeled in this way, all and everybody should have the cause of fight against terrorism in a non-political atmosphere.”
Regarding the growing power of Taliban in Pakistan and Iran’s program and the possibility of negotiation with NATO and the US in this regard, he stressed on regional approaches to resolve the insecurity problem.
Asked about the impact of Iran’s upcoming presidential elections on Tehran-Washington rapprochement of ties, Qashqavi explained the country’s leading policies and strategies are not influenced by the elections.
Meanwhile, regarding the Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, sentenced to 8 years in jail for espionage for Washington he noted “Saberi’s case is not complicated, this Iranian woman has received a verdict and her case is now in the appeal court.”
Also over Israel’s expansion of Jewish settlements in Quds, Qashqavi said the move has made a wide reaction among Muslims as well as the Orthodox church of occupied territories of Palestine.
The move is against all international conventions and calls for serious response by UNESCO, Organization of Islamic Countries and the Arab league, he continued.
The Foreign Ministry Spokesman also played down US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s remarks on Iran’s growing influence in Latin American countries saying “she can have her comments but our ties with Latin America is a dynamic one and in favor of our interests in culture, politic and economy.”
Qashqavi, regarding some Arab countries demand from Iran to remove the tag of Persian Gulf from medals and brochures of Islamic Solidarity Games he said the name will not be dropped for any excuse because it is historical, international and approved by the UN and any other name is fabricated.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Media reports suggested Tuesday that officials from the United States and the United Arab Emirates are recruiting Iranian dissidents to spy on Iranians.
Iran’s Entekhab news agency points to accounts in the Arabic-language Nahrainnet news service in the United Arab Emirates that said the CIA has recruited members of the dissident People’s Mujahedin of Iran to spy on Iranian nationals in the region.
The reports said the CIA has brought PMOI members to Dubai from their Camp Ashraf enclave in Iraq’s Diyala province.
The Nahrainnet report specifically mentioned the CIA is looking to the PMOI to serve as agents conducting espionage against the Iranian Embassy and its staff in Dubai.
The PMOI is an Iranian opposition movement seeking regime change in Iran. It is considered a terrorist organization by several nations for its violent action against Iran in the 1980s, but the group claims to have abandoned its militant tactics in 2003.
The group has a notably bitter relationship with certain members of the Iraqi government, raising several objections to its treatment at Camp Ashraf.
Among those are claims that Ashraf residents were denied medical treatment by Iraqi authorities. The Voices of Iraq news agency reported Tuesday, however, that Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie offered health treatment to Ashraf residents at Iraqi hospitals.
About one hundred Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) members have entered the United Arab Emirates to spy on Iranian nationals, a report says.
The MKO members have arrived in the country and are working closely with the UAE Security Forces and the US Central intelligence Agency (CIA), Nahrainnet news website quoted informed sources.
The terrorist agents are stationed inside the UAE in a bid to carry espionage operations against the Iranian embassy staff, Iranian businessmen, laborers and tourists, Nahrainnet added.
Based on the report, the CIA officers who have already set up a regional center in Dubai have collaborated with UAE security forces to bring in the MKO agents.
It is not known when the MKO members launched the operation in the UAE, but it is understood that they have moved to the country from Iraq, Jordan and some European countries.
The Mujahedin Khalq Organization, which identifies itself as a Marxist-Islamist guerilla army, was founded in Iran in the 1960s.
The terror group was exiled twenty years later for carrying out numerous acts of terrorism in the country and targeting Iranian government officials and civilians within the country and abroad.
Outlawed in Iran, the group was relocated in France before being expelled at the order of the then-prime minister Jacques Chirac. The organization, eventually, moved to Iraq, where it allegedly assisted former dictator Saddam Hussein in the massacre of thousands of Iraqi civilians in the 1990s.
Many countries including the US have blacklisted the MKO as a”terrorist”organization. The US State Department says that the MKO assassinated at least six US citizens in Iran, prior to the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
This is while earlier in January, the 27-nation European Union ruled against the MKO’s seven-year inclusion in the blacklist. The ruling is widely believed to be politically motivated and the result of legal developments combined with intense lobbying by the terrorist group.
The Mujahedin Khalq Organization is blacklisted by many countries, including the United States as a terrorist organization. It relocated to Camp Ashraf from Iran after the Islamic Revolution.
The presence of Mujahedin Khalq Organization members at Camp Ashraf was not only due to the approval and support of Saddam; it was also welcomed by some leading Arab states, according to Nahrainnet.
The Iraqi parliament has called on the government to block the MKO’s main headquarter known as Camp Ashraf and expel its members from the Iraqi soil, but some members evade leaving the camp.
The Iraqi government says the MKO has played a significant role in destabilizing the war-torn country, blaming the group for terrorist attacks within Iraq.
Dire warnings are being issued in right wing western political circles that an American troop drawdown will leave Iran too influential in Iraq. The solution they are touting is to push for the reinstatement of Baathists into Iraq’s political establishment. This solution includes demands for the restoration of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq (aka Saddam’s private army), which is still holed up in Camp Ashraf for this very purpose, as an ‘opposition’ force. (Is anyone in any doubt that the American soldiers who have remained at Camp Ashraf after the handover to Iraqi authorities are there for any other purpose than to protect the group’s leader Massoud Rajavi who has been in hiding there since 2003?)
The MKO’s backers do not specify at this stage what is meant by ‘opposition’ in the context of Iraq. One scenario is that Baathists in the Government of Iraq would be hostile to Iran and could provide political cover for the MKO to launch military attacks against Iranian targets. Another, more likely scenario is that the MKO would undertake political lobbying inside Iraq on behalf of anti-Iran groups just as they do in western democracies.
Certainly, the recent U.S. drive to create dialogue with Iran has been a blow to the MKO. Massoud and Maryam’s promise of ‘regime change’ lent the group popularity with western anti-Iran lobbies under the last U.S. president. Now, as the threat of military action against Iran has diminished to a few crumbs on the negotiating table, the role of the MKO has similarly diminished. The MKO’s place has been reduced to that of a nagging irritant sponsored by anti-Iran regimes and interests in the region and the west. Even then, they do not expect to have to fight, but merely to have their presence in Iraq act as an annoyance to Iran.
In the pro-MKO hype that is part of this solution the usual lies and deception are being regurgitated as fact – such as that the group is protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention, a status which the UN never granted and which in any case could not apply after 2007. Doomsday prophesies that the Government of Iraq would forcibly expel the group to Iran and that Iran would actually accept this group of sick, ageing, disturbed and brainwashed exiles have proven unfounded.
Instead, the Government of Iraq has put into action a sophisticated humanitarian plan to slowly, carefully dismantle the terrorist infrastructure of the group and detoxify its brainwashed members and restore their humanity.
Iraq has called not on Iran but on western governments to help in this plan. So far, the response has been underwhelming. Since the legal de-proscription of the MKO in Europe and the UK came into force in 2008 this surely is the only logical destination for members of the group who have renounced violence but who wish to continue democratic opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Indeed, while the concept that a foreign terrorist mercenary group which belonged to Saddam Hussein and undertook the massacre of tens of hundreds of Iraqi Kurds in 1991 on his orders should be integrated into the new Iraqi political process must be treated with the withering contempt it deserves, the calls for removal of the MKO from America’s list of terrorism should be heeded. Allowing MKO members to take refuge in the U.S. is a minimum humanitarian gesture.
The Government of Iraq and the people of Iraq must make their own decisions about the political make-up of their country. But, the fate of the 3,400+ individuals in Camp Ashraf is of concern to the international community. Those lobbies intent on recruiting a fresh force to act against Iran must employ such people directly as mercenaries.
The existing MKO must not be ‘cut and pasted’ wholesale into this role. It is simply not acceptable to force people to be terrorists.
The Government of Iraq believes that every individual inside Camp Ashraf must be allowed to determine their own future. This freedom of choice is something the MKO leaders rigorously and even violently deny the members. The Government of Iraq is currently making efforts to facilitate the process of individual choice. Iraq’s national security advisor has explained that under his plan to “separate individuals from the all-encompassing domination by their leaders, we can allow them to begin to exercise their rights as individuals and make appropriate choices. That is, we hope to remove them from the toxic effects of their indoctrination and leaders.”
The MKO in turn have thrown up provocation, obstacles and staged demonstrations to delay this process. What is urgently needed is a temporary refuge for those who wish to leave Camp Ashraf but who because of western intransigence have no other place to go. The Government of Iraq must restore the temporary international protection facility (TIPF) adjacent to Camp Ashraf which was operated by the American army and which led to the successful rescue of around 800 former MKO members.
Groups campaigning to help the victims of MKO leaders have already helped many to escape the group. Sahar Family Foundation was established in Iraq to provide such help and most of those who left the TIPF when the American forces closed it precipitately in 2008, have been able to reach safety in Europe. The names of around two hundred more dissidents currently trapped inside Camp Ashraf are already known. Perhaps more want to leave. We will not know until someone gives them the freedom to choose.
Daily it is becoming clearer that the ordinary members of the MKO are being denied that freedom of choice and freedom of thought only because American soldiers have been tasked to protect Massoud Rajavi. The MKO leaders are threatening a ‘humanitarian disaster’ – which cult experts translate as acts of mass suicide – if the camp is opened up to external inspection and control. The Government of Iraq says that Camp Ashraf, its administration and its residents, must be subject to the rule of law.
The U.S. must withdraw its soldiers from the base – their presence is supporting the MKO’s outlandish resistance to the minimum exercise of control by Iraq’s elected government. The Government of Iraq must facilitate the establishment of a separate facility outside Camp Ashraf where individuals can initially take refuge before being transferred to third countries.
If President Obama’s promise of change is to have meaning beyond simply being words on the page, the standoff at Camp Ashraf is an ideal place to start putting words into action.
Anne Singleton, April 09, 2009
In the politics arena, the politic men come to the scene either to achieve power or to serve people. Naturally, if the politic men work for the profit of their own pockets or their own ambitions, their reputation will be damaged soon because the people will no more tolerate the abuse of their support or funding. The true use of politics is in fact to bring freedom to people.
Unfortunately, for MKO leaders the only definition for politics is the power over their victims including their cult members and Western politicians. Given the use of politics is only to achieve power; the means to reach such a goal is justified to be anything. The means could include resorting to deception and lie to deceive western powerful governments, so dependence has no place in such a policy, an organization like MKO, without any internal support in Iran, has only one way to not only gain power but also to survive. The deception policy has been a very useful trick to win western support for MKO.
But the west, especially the US government has had various groups on its payroll at one time. Now, they are funding MKO, a decade ago, they funded and trained Bin Laden to fight Russians and even further back, they worked with Ho Chi Minh to bring change in China. As it has been the fate of any group depended on US administration, the role of MKO for the US will also be expired finally, as well as what happened to AlQaida.
All the above-mentioned groups, as well as MKO, used politics to gain control over people to practice their extremist revolutionary ideas and eventually as soon as they lost their western support, they lost their existence. The history has always witnessed various examples of extremist movements’ attempts to gain the support of superpowers for their ambitions and their collapse after missing the external support.
As a matter of fact, if any movement regards the politics as a means to serve people and to bring about freedom and democracy for people, they will definitely win public support and any movement which enjoys the support of the masses is never concerned about its survival.
Mazda Parsi
Washington may court moderates within Iran rather than outside opposition
The change in tone from Washington toward Tehran is complicated not only by historic acrimony but also by a complex relationship with Iranian opposition
movements.
U.S. officials have made it clear that the Obama administration represents a possible opening for Iran.
"With respect to Iran, there is a clear opportunity for the Iranians … to demonstrate some willingness to engage meaningfully with the international community," in the words of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
This is in stark contrast to the previous administration and its policy of isolation. Gary Sick, a top White House aide on Iran during the Iranian hostage
crisis and now senior research scholar at Columbia University, says though the administration of George W. Bush had hoped for a better relationship with Iran in the wake of the conflict in Afghanistan, that policy was largely abandoned when the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.
Ali Safavi, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran — a Paris -based group calling itself the Iranian Parliament in exile — said the approach to the Iranian regime, as well as its opposition, would be a litmus test for the Obama administration.
"There has been no shortage of goodwill gestures from the Americans toward Iran with the goal of moderation, but so far this course has failed," he said.
The NCRI, which includes members of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, a dissident group based in Iraq’s Diyala province, has lobbied the international community to back a 16-point plan for regime change in Iran. It led a successful campaign in January to remove the PMOI from the terrorist list adopted by the European Union.
Maryam Rajavi, the controversial leader of the NCRI, hailed the decision as a victory for the Iranian resistance, saying the move paved the way for democratic change in Iran.
But the group’s image as a cult with a storied history of terrorist activity, both in Iran and across the globe, makes courting the opposition as a viable avenue for regime change in Iran tenuous at best.
The PMOI and the NCRI are both listed by the United States as terrorist organizations for their links to violent opposition to the Iranian regime.
President Bill Clinton in 1997 included the PMOI on the U.S. State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations following the election of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. Sick says that effort was part of a broader policy of appeasement toward the moderate Khatami, adding the State FTO list is a reflection of who Washington likes as much as who it doesn’t.
The PMOI arrived on the scene in the 1960s as a movement opposing the Western-backed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran, and supporting the Iranian Revolution in 1979 that brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power. The ideology of the PMOI, centered on Marxism, was in contradiction to the Revolution, however, and the group was exiled to Paris in 1981.
With France recognizing the Iranian regime in 1986, however, the group established itself in various camps throughout Iraq from which it ran a campaign of violence against Tehran. Though largely targeting Iranian government officials, its killing of American contractors in Tehran in the 1970s, participation alongside Saddam Hussein’s forces in suppressing Kurdish and Shiite rebellions in Iraq in 1991 and its later attacks on Iranian embassies in 1992 earned it a spot on the terrorist lists of several nations.
Its reputation for militancy, however, was not supported by recognition as a major fighting force. The PMOI surrendered its tanks and heavy artillery to U.S. forces following the 2003 invasion. Its members are now considered protected persons in Iraq under the Fourth Geneva Convention and claim to have abandoned their militant agenda in favor of peaceful opposition.
The PMOI, and its representatives in the NCRI, claim to hold valuable intelligence on Iranian operations, including Iran’s controversial nuclear program. The group often touts its unveiling of the nuclear program at the Natanz weapons facility in Iran, though several analysts note developments at Natanz were all but flaunted by the Iranian regime.
Massoud Khodabandeh, a former member of the PMOI, said those claims, and the intelligence value of reports from the NCRI/PMOI in general, are at best questionable, at worst useless.
"It is widely believed that intelligence given out by the PMOI about Iran’s nuclear facilities was given to them by Western intelligence contacts," he said.
Meanwhile, allegations have mounted that the U.S. intelligence community has funneled money to the PMOI for operations against the Iranian regime. An article in The New Yorker magazine in 2008 suggested the Bush administration had set aside some $400 million for covert operations against Iran, with a portion going to the PMOI.
The NCRI’s Safavi, however, called those allegations "completely bogus," and U.S. intelligence officers contacted for this story said there was no evidence to support those claims, though the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he "wouldn’t be surprised if the allegation turned out to be true."
Meanwhile, with Iraq emerging from U.S. occupation with a shaky democracy, the relationship between Baghdad and the PMOI remains tense.
With the PMOI widely reviled in Iraq for supporting the violent suppression of the Shiite and Kurdish rebellions, and in Iran for its historic assassination policy, the group has few friends outside its groups of supporters in Europe and the United States.
Though Iraq does not have an extradition treaty with Iran, several top Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, have said the group is no longer welcome in Iraq.
Both the NCRI and PMOI, through persuasive and astute campaigns aimed at generating sympathy both in the media and among world leaders, including those in the United States, have pushed for a delisting campaign with an effort to sever its ties to its terrorist past.
International lawyers in Washington, D.C., representing the PMOI filed a petition in July with the U.S. State Department seeking removal from the FTO list there, but U.S. officials say the FTO designation is appropriate.
Speaking to reporters following the Jan. 26 EU delisting, State Department deputy spokesman Robert A. Wood said "nothing has changed from our standpoint" concerning either group.
Meanwhile, the outcome of the January provincial elections in Iraq may indicate a subtle shift in Iraqi relations with Iran as the pro-Tehran Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council was trounced in the elections, largely by Maliki’s more secular State of Law slate.
Former Iranian President Khatami — widely seen as a moderate — has announced plans to run for president again in June, and though an appeal in the PMOI FTO listing case is expected to reach the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit this summer, with U.S. policy currently leaning toward courting moderates within Iran, rather than outside opposition groups, little seems likely to change in the future.
By DANIEL GRAEBER, UPI Correspondent,
http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2009/02/20/
Washington_may_court_moderates_within_Iran_rather_
than_outside_opposition/UPI-42961235157864/