Rajavis and Cult Leadership

Rajavi panic families picketing at Camp Liberty!

A number of family members of the residents of Camp Liberty gathered in front of the camp demanding the visit of their beloved ones.

On June 9th, 2015 several family members of Mujahedin-e Khalq hostages – who are kept in Camp Liberty, Iraq having no access to the outside world and under the severe brainwashing practices – established a permanent stake in front of the Camp entrance. The families’ only demand is to meet their beloved ones whom they have not visited for long years. The leaders of the Cult of Rajavi do not allow members to have any contact including visits or phone calls or even letters with their families.

The families say they would insist on their legitimate demand and won’t leave the Camp unless they would meet their loved ones.

The MKO leaders who consider the families as their cult’s arc enemy has reacted to the families’ legitimate demand by swearing at them.

The Cult leaders definitely remember the bitter experience of the rise of defection within their cult after the families four years of picketing in front of Camp Ashraf before its shutdown.

Therefore, the cult’s propaganda machine under the order of Massoud Rajavi propagate that these families of Liberty residents have come to kill them and to destroy the Camp!

The cult claims that elderly parents The Mehdifards and Shabanpours, the grieving brother of Parviz Heidar zade and the suffering daughter of Abdulhassan Ahangari are agents of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry and Quds Force!

June 13, 2015 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi

Corrupt Leadership led to MKO decline

Half a century after the foundation of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization ( the MKO/MEK), as an armed militant group against the Shah of Iran, the group’s critics including its defectors analyze the path that ended in the decline of the group and its transformation from an armed political organization to a cult of personality.

Mr. Sirous Ghazanfari, an ex- member of the MKO describes how Massoud Rajavi’s leadership brought about the collapse of the group. Ghazanfari was interviewed by Nejat Society, Eastern Azarbayjan office.

Mr. Ghazanfari divides the MKO’s history in to three parts. The first includes the foundation of the organization as an enormous step that was very crucial in the struggle to overthrow the Shah. The main founders were honest and devoted, according to Ghazanfari.

The second part of the group’s history was a turning point. First founders were executed by the regime of Shah. The absence of great leaders opened the way for deviated members and violent elimination of critics inside the organization.

Lack of noble leaders left the organization in the hands of Massoud Rajavi who according to Ghazanfari did not succeed to manage the group because of his ambitions and narcissist personality.

Ghazanfari suggests that Rajavi’s absolute power over the organization was a terrible coup against members; it was impossible to run such an organization under the dictatorship of Rajavi.

Rajavi’s despotic approach led him to declaration of armed struggle against Islamic Republic, even though his group was among the first who congratulated Ayatollah Khomeini after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. So third phase of the MKO history began.

Ghazanfari stresses that Rajavi‘s statement to declare armed struggle against the newly established Iranian government was an axe to the root of the group. “The decision imposed heavy expenses on the group”, he says. It caused a separation between the group members and the average Iranian society and the collapse of the organization.

In 1981, Massoud Rajavi was sheltered by the enemy in war with Iran, Saddam Hussein. ”Rajavi who was not able to respond criticism,” says Ghazanfari,” proposed the ridiculous idea of “Maryam “as “Symbol of Salvation”! Since then the primarily Mujahedin Khalq Organization turned into a cult.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein, members of the Cult of Rajavi began questioning the leader’s strategy and attitude towards US forces who had disarmed the group and had signed an agreement with group leaders. Members who had once joined an anti-US organization based on armed struggle doubted the cult leaders.

“After the fall of Saddam”, Ghazanfari explained,”Rajavi was no more able to force members to stay in the cult but he was able to deceive them and he deceived them.”

He admitted that the organization was no more the one its founders founded. “It is Maryam’s organization and you should admit Maryam’s ideology,” Ghazanfari cites from Rajavi.

According to the Ghazanfari, in order to maintain his cult in Iraq instead of relocating it outside Iraq, Massoud Rajavi resorted to various means including hostility against families of cult members – who have been suffering a lot in their unsuccessful efforts to visit or contact with their beloved ones taken as hostages in the Cult or Rajavi.

Ghazanfari accurately suggests,” in my opinion, the MKO leader could not lead the group toward a stable secured situation. He was not skillful enough to save his organization in the political currents of Iraq.”

“The cult of Rajavi is drowning”, he says. “The crisis in the MKO is so deep that its leaders cannot find a way out. They always claim that they won but they never explain how!”

June 8, 2015 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Maryam Rajavi ready to commit any atrocities for the survival of the Cult

Frustrated by the newly established relations between the West and the Iranian Government, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization is seeking new tactics to run its hostile policies against the Islamic Republic or in better words to prolong its survival.

While 14 years of launching disinformation campaign by the MKO against the Iranian nuclear program, failed to win the world’s attention, this time the group crisis makers are endeavoring to trigger the tensions between Tehran and Riyadh.

MKO Leader Maryam Rajavi in a meeting with Saudi Ambassador to Paris, Mohammad Al Sheikh, said that the group is willing to cooperate with Riyadh to carry out its attacks against the Yemen, reported FNA. [1]

Rajavi and Al Sheikh have met several times in Paris so far and Rajavi has thanked the Al Saud regime for its support and financial assistance over the past years, according to the report. [2]

Saudi-led coalition began air strikes in Yemen in March in a campaign to restore Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power. He was forced to flee in March and consequently the Shiite Houthis took control over Sanaa in September and then thrust into central and south Yemen. A large number of civilians have been killed and wounded in the conflict since March 19.

The leader of the MKO offers help to Saudi Arabia despite the fact that Human Rights Watch said in a report on Sunday that three bombings it had investigated in the northern province of Saada used cluster bombs, which are banned by most countries, adding that it suspected the munitions were fired by Saudi-led forces. [3]

"These weapons can’t distinguish military targets from civilians, and their unexploded submunitions threaten civilians, especially children, even long after the fighting," said Ole Solvang, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. [4]

Furthermore, mutual cooperation between the Cult of Rajavi and Saudis have been reported several times over the past decades. However, such cooperation become more visible since the downfall of the cult’s former sponsor, Saddam Hussein.

According to the Middle East Press, “Rajavi further added to Saudi ambassador in France that they appreciate Saudi kingdom for its financial support to this organization in recent years and announced their readiness to do missionaries for Saudi Arabia for getting rid of financial problems that have been caught in 4 past years and also to release of Iraqi government’s pressure to leave the country and asked Saudis to provide them a suitable base, anywhere in Saudi Arabia, to settle there.” [5]

The news had been somehow confirmed by the MKO’s propaganda websites too. According to them,” Maryam Rajavi on Thursday described the joint action by Arab countries against the Iranian regime’s occupation and aggression in Yemen as an extremely essential and inevitable united action.”

The MKO’s alleged statement ends with expressing pleasure over “several airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen, destroying most of an airbase used by the militia in Sanaa “, although the airstrikes used cluster bombs that targeted innocent civilians including Children.

Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] Fars News Agency, MKO Voices Readiness to Help Saudi Arabia in Yemen, May 30 2015

[2] ibid

[3] Aboudi, Sami & Browning, Noah, Arab war planes bomb Yemen; exiles report U.S.-Houthi talks, Rueters, May 31, 2015, Reuters

[4] ibid

[5] Middle East Press, MKO Ready to help for all Sorts of Assistance to KSA, May 30 2015

June 2, 2015 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Mrs. Rajavi! Your Propaganda Just doesn’t work well!

The Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) has apparently had only one goal since the Islamic revolution in Iran, in 1979: the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. Regardless of its real capacity to achieve such an aim or Mrs. Rajavi! Your Propaganda Just doesn’t work well! not, for decades, the group has strained to take opportunities of regional and political ups and downs into its aim, even though in most cases there is no true relation between what is going on in the region and what the group is trying benefit from. It seems the group is confused.

An instance of the group’s opportunistic nature was recently seen in the so-called testimony given by Maryam Rajavi in the US Congress where she presents the overthrow of the Iranian government as the main solution to fight ISIS!

Daniel Larison of the American conservative Magazine writes about Rajavi’s weird recommendation to the West: “The plan to bring down ISIS by toppling Iran’s government, then, is little more than the latest chapter of group’s 50-year history of monomaniacally trying to install itself atop the Iranian government.” [1]

He adds, ”This obviously has nothing to do with combating or understanding ISIS, and allowing her to speak at such a meeting just lends a totalitarian cult a platform from which it can promote its own warped agenda. Inviting Rajavi demonstrates exceptionally poor judgment, and her testimony will make a farce of the proceedings tomorrow.’’ [2]

“It sounds counter-intuitive—Iran’s aid to the Iraqi government and various Iraqi militias, after all, is widely credited with stopping ISIS’s advances there—but not when you know about the MEK’s tortuous past,’ suggests Ali Gharib of the Nation. “Over the years, the MEK has been nothing if not opportunistic; animated by the twisted logic that the enemy of its enemy is its friend, the group seizes whatever political angle is fashionable at the moment to bring them relevance (Congress is happy to oblige).” [3]

engage in diplomacy with Islamic Republic.

Eldar Mamedov who has served as a political adviser for the social-democrats in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) and is in charge of the delegation for inter-parliamentary relations between the EP and Iran, analyzes the MKO’s part to obstruct diplomacy with Iran. He refers to the Cult’s large-scale efforts to demonize the Iranian Government and to derail any relation between the EP and Iran. Nonetheless, he asserts the group’s lobbying efforts to accomplish its aim has so far failed. On the contrary to the group wishes, Islamic Republic has become an important ally for the Europe in fighting ISIS.

“A growing realization of the converging interests between the EU and Iran accounts for this dramatic change,’’ Eldar Mamedov submits.” This time, the discussions in Brussels were not so much focused on traditional European concerns, such as Iran´s nuclear program and human rights, as on the situation in the Middle East.” [4]

Mamedov concludes, “In a scenario of rapidly disintegrating states and spreading terrorist threats, European officials are discovering that Iran is among the most stable and predictable state actors in the region.” [5]

In his opinion, the EU´s foreign policy supremo Federica Mogherini mentions the advantages of engaging with Iran because she “definitely doesn´t share the Saudi narrative of Iran being the root of all tumult in the Middle East. In fact, she sees the nuclear deal with Iran as a gate opener for engaging Iran on the regional issues, including in Syria and Yemen, which is an anathema to Saudis."

The MKO leaders, namely Maryam Rajavi would be disappointed to know that “officials from the Mogherini-led European External Action Service (EEAS) now discuss the possibility of a regional dialogue with Iran, which is a sharp departure from her predecessor Catherine Ashton, who approached Iran as an exclusively nuclear problem.” [6]

Despite the MKO’s harsh opposition against the visits of the Iranian Parliamentary delegation to EP, the visits took place anyway. The visit of the Iranian MPs to Brussels is considered by Mamedov as “another sign of changing times in the Middle East.”

Mamedov notifies, “Although a wholesale rapprochement between the EU and Iran may still be some way off, inter-parliamentary diplomacy has the potential to build trust, bridge differences, and eventually make a re-alignment possible,” inviting US Congressmen to join such peaceful policy.[7]

It seems that Maryam Rajavi and her supporters should work harder to survive the new geopolitical and regional undercurrents.

Mazda Parsi

Sources:

[1] Larison, Daniel, The Backlash Against the MEK’s Fans in Congress, The American conservative Magazine, May 05 2015

[2] ibid

[3] Gharib, Ali, Cult Leader Will Tell Congress: Fight ISIS by Regime Change in Iran, The Nation, April 28, 2015

[4] Mamedov, Eldar, Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) Lobby in European Parliament fails to deliver, Lobelog,

May 19 2015

[5] ibid

[6] ibid

[7] ibid

May 26, 2015 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The MeK – Washington’s Favourite Communist Terrorist Cult

I considered posting on the MeK, but now Richard Sale beat me to it with his excellent article on what they do and what they did.

I’ll try to complement his piece by providing some additional background on what they are. The group has some quite outlandish characteristics that make it rather unique, and US support for it all the more surprising. It is, in a nutshell, Washington’s (and Israel’s) favourite terrorist cult.

A few days back they staged a protest at the White House, in order to plead for dear leader Maryam Rajavi being allowed to testify before congress on ISIS, and naturally, Iran’s evils. I invite readers to have a close look at the image, in particular the mug of their dear leader, Maryam Rajavi (iirc "the true president of Iran", in one of her unofficial titles), on placards.

After the US invasion or Iraq in 2003, the MeK were based in Camp Ashraf and ‘liberated’ by US troops. In fact, it was pretty soon that the US had to protect them from the Iraqis who held unfond memories of them, for aiding Saddam Hussein’s efforts to suppress Kurds and Shia. After Saddam’s demise, the MeK however quickly found a new sponsor in sympathetic neocons, who felt they could put the group to good use against Iran.

The RAND corporation wrote a rather thorough and damning report on the MeK in 2009 which can be found here:

It is absolutely worth to be read in full. It should be required reading for everyone dealing with the group.

I will quote at length from the chapter (p.37 f) introducing the MeK’s cult characteristics and especially from Appendix B (p.69 ff), which goes into greater detail.

♦ A Cult … – p. 37 f of the PDF

Coalition Forces Were Not Prepared to Deal with an Unfamiliar Culture or the MeK’s Atypical Characteristics

… JIATF’s commanders had few or no opportunities to discuss the difficulties inherent in dealing with the MeK, to share knowledge, or to compare strategies. This deficit had particularly profound consequences once it became apparent to JIATF [ed: Joint Inter-Agency Task Force] officers through their early interrogations of MeK members that the organization was not just an FTO [ed: Foreign Terrorist Organisation]; it was also a cult.

The MeK as a Cult

From its earliest days, the MeK had had tight social bonds, but these began to be transformed into something more sinister during the mid-1980s after the group’s leaders and many of its members had relocated to Paris. There, Masoud Rajavi began to undertake what he called an “ideological revolution,” requiring a new regimen of activities—at first demanding increased study and devotion to the cause but soon expanding into near-religious devotion to the Rajavis (Masoud and his wife, Maryam), public self-deprecation sessions, mandatory divorce, celibacy, enforced separation from family and friends, and gender segregation. Prior to establishing an alliance with Saddam, the MeK had been a popular organization. However, once it settled in Iraq and fought against Iranian forces in alliance with Saddam, the group incurred the ire of the Iranian people and, as a result, faced a shortfall in volunteers. Thus began a campaign of disingenuous recruiting. The MeK naturally sought out Iranian dissidents, but it also approached Iranian economic migrants in such countries as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates with false promises of employment, land, aid in applying for asylum in Western countries, and even marriage, to attract them to Iraq. Relatives of members were given free trips to visit the MeK’s camps. Most of these “recruits” were brought into Iraq illegally and then required to hand over their identity documents for “safekeeping.” Thus, they were effectively trapped.

Another recruiting tactic was arranged with the assistance of Saddam’s government. Iranian prisoners from the Iran-Iraq War were offered the choice of going to MeK camps and being repatriated or remaining in Iraqi prison camps. Hundreds of prisoners went to MeK camps, where they languished. No repatriation efforts were made. For coalition forces, the MeK’s cult behavior and questionable recruiting practices are significant insofar as they affect both the daily operations at the camp and the strategic disposition options available to the group. The leadership is unlikely to cooperate with policies that would undermine its ability to exert direct control over its members. Indeed, Human Rights Watch reports that the MeK long ago instituted a complicated process to retain members who expressed a desire to leave, which included a “trial,” forced confessions of disloyalty, and even torture. Although this process has been modified since the group was consolidated at Camp Ashraf, would-be walkaways are still “debriefed” for days or even weeks while held in some form of solitary confinement, during which they are encouraged to change their minds. Conversely, the long-term indoctrination and isolation experi- enced by MeK members are likely to have instilled an exaggerated sense of loyalty, causing them to reject offers to separate themselves from their leaders. This would apply in particular to repatriation to Iran, where the expectation of persecution has been dramatically instilled in their minds.

The MeK as Skilled Manipulators of Public Opinion

During the more than four decades since its founding, the MeK has become increasingly adept at crafting and promoting its image as a democratic organization that seeks to bring down Iranian tyrants, both secular and religious. This profile has been especially effective in the United States and Europe, where, until recently, the MeK’s extensive fundraising activities have been very successful. But despite the MeK’s ongoing attempts to build political support from the West through a multifaceted public-relations campaign, it was not enough to prevent the group from being designated an FTO by the United States as well as by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and the European Union. According to U.S. law, providing any type of support—political, financial, or otherwise—for an FTO is a federal crime. Moreover, many of the MeK’s fundraising activities have been proven to be fraudulent (for example, claiming to be soliciting funds on behalf of Iranian refugees, child welfare, or medical services for children). The MeK has also been linked with a range of money-laundering activities. If coalition forces, and particularly those involved in any type of negotiations with the MeK, had been apprised of the group’s long history of deception, they would have been far less likely to have made the kinds of concessions that proved so troublesome later on. However, they found MeK representatives to be friendly, appealing, and knowledgeable about the United States. Thus, they were susceptible to the MeK’s assertions of neutrality; its apparent willingness to help further coalition goals; its professions of support for democratic ideals, both within and outside its own organization; and its insistence that it had broad political support in the international community. Had the U.S. military, in particular, been more wary, it is unlikely that the MeK would have been able to avoid the surrender demanded by USCENTCOM, and even less probable that it could have elicited a request for review of its FTO status from General Odierno.

…

♦ Appendix B – p.69 ff of the PDF:

Appendix B: Cultic Characteristics of the MeK

The MeK is frequently described as a “cultish” group, but to date, there has been no examination of how its practices relate to cult characteristics defined by experts in the field. This appendix places credible reports about MeK practices into the context of cult theory

The MeK’s Transition from Popular Organization to Exiled Cult

…

Application of Cult Theory to the MeK

MeK leaders and supporters vigorously deny that the MeK is a cult. They allege that former MeK members and critics of the MeK are either Iranian agents or their dupes. However, interviews with U.S. military and civilian officials, information voluntarily furnished by former MeK members at the ARC, and visits to Camp Ashraf suggest that these denials are not credible.The cult characteristics described in this appendix have been widely reported by former MeK members and by Human Rights Watch. They have also been substantiated, at least in part, by interviews with JIATF-Ashraf officers and by information volunteered by former MeK members at the ARC.

Authoritarian, Charismatic Leadership

"Masoud Rajavi appointed himself and Maryam leader and co-leader of the MeK (and, by extension, of Iran) for life, though the NCRI asserts that it would quickly mount elections upon taking control of Iran. This concept of perpetual leadership is reflected in the MeK chant “Iran-Rajavi, Rajavi-Iran” that has been used since the MeK began its transformation into a cult. Equally reflective of the absolute authority wielded by Rajavi is his informal title Imam-e Hal (the present Imam) used by MeK membership. The egocentric character of Masoud Rajavi’s leadership is also illustrated by his willingness to compare his own marriage to that of the Prophet Muhammad. In addition, the MeK membership ceremony involves swearing an oath of devotion to the Rajavis on the Koran. Pictures of the Rajavis adorn all MeK buildings; banners with their portraits hang in the streets of Camp Ashraf. Criticism of the Rajavi leadership is not allowed. …

Intense Ideological Exploitation and Isolation

The MeK leadership requires members to study MeK ideology and to participate in indoctrination sessions that are characterized by a mix of propaganda and fear tactics. Group members are required to watch films of the Rajavis’ speeches and footage of various street demonstrations throughout Europe. The MeK broadcasts from its own radio and television stations. MeK leaders permit group members to listen only to these stations and to read only internal reports and bulletins, such as the MeK-produced Mojahed newspaper and other approved texts. Violators are punished. To reduce the appearance of brainwashing, MeK leaders describe these restricted activities as opposition to the IRI or as exercises in military theory. …

Sexual Control

As a part of the “ideological revolution,” the Rajavis mandated divorce and celibacy. Compulsory divorce required couples to place their wedding rings in a bowl and renounce their affections for one another. (The rules did not apply to the Rajavi marriage, however, nor were MeK leaders required to be celibate.) The MeK denies that these acts were anything but spontaneous and voluntary, claiming, “The reality is that the Mujahideen is based in the territory of a country where . . . family life became impossible” and that every MeK member made the individual, noncompulsory decision to “forgo family life.” This denial is not credible, particularly when taking into account the MeK’s strict limitations on gender interaction, as described next. …

Emotional Isolation

In addition to their geographic and ideological isolation, MeK members in Iraq are severely socially and emotionally isolated, even within their communal living arrangements. Relatives and former spouses are placed in different compounds and are not allowed to see each other. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 1991, children were sent to live with foster families in Europe, ostensibly to protect them from the impending invasion, though some returned to Iraq years later. Close friendships are considered “liberal relations” and are strictly forbidden. Members may freely communicate only with their unit commanders, and a commander’s permission is required for any other type of communication. Informants monitor conversations among members. In many cases, MeK members’ families in Iran have been told that their relatives had died or been killed. …

Extreme, Degrading Peer Pressure

The MeK holds daily, weekly, and monthly “sessions” that involve forced public confessions aimed at expelling deviant thoughts and behaviors that are believed to undermine group coherence. MeK members are required to keep daily records of their thoughts and nighttime dreams, particularly sexual thoughts and desires (which are, of course, forbidden), as well as observations about their fellow members. They must submit their journals to their supervisors. During large meetings, members often are forced to read their reports aloud and to make self-critical statements. MeK members are often required to admit to sexual thoughts. In a true Catch-22 situation, if they do not, they will be considered to have been caught in a lie because such thoughts are considered inevitable.

Deceptive Recruitment

Prior to its exile, the MeK was the largest group to oppose the IRI. The organization enjoyed significant support among the young and educated middle class. At the peak of its popularity, it could call hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets of cities across Iran on minimal notice. Prospective members were attracted to the MeK’s mission, its Marxist-Islamic ideology, and the opportunity to live in coeducational housing and enjoy social debates. However, its ability to recruit was greatly reduced by the IRI’s brutal treatment of MeK members; the group’s departure from Iran, first to France and then to Iraq; and the MeK’s alliance with Saddam, the instigator of the devastating Iran-Iraq War. … These findings suggest that many MeK recruits since 1986 were not true volunteers and have been kept at MeK camps in Iraq under duress. As of June 2004, JIATF estimated that, of the MeK population at Camp Ashraf, only 5 percent had joined prior to the Iranian Revolution and 25 percent had joined at the time of the revolution. A full quarter (approximately 1,500 to 1,800) had been POWs, and 45 percent had arrived at Camp Ashraf after the 1988 move to Iraq. Thus, it is possible that nearly 70 percent of the MeK population may have been recruited through deception and kept at Camp Ashraf against their will.

Forced Labor and Sleep Deprivation

Cults often use long work hours and sleep deprivation as ways to wear down their members and prevent them from identifying with anything other than the group. MeK members often work 16- to 17-hour days and are limited to a few hours’ sleep per night, plus an hour-long nap. To maintain this pace, the MeK leadership mandates continual “make-work” construction and beautification projects and, until OIF, ongoing military training. The results are evident at Camp Ashraf. Built out of the desert, the camp has grand avenues lined with trees and is adorned with an exceptional number of parks, fountains, meeting halls, and monuments, many of which glorify MeK martyrs.

Physical Abuse, Imprisonment, and Lack of Exit Options

Former MeK members claim that punishment was frequently meted out for such offenses as

•expressing or fomenting disagreement with the political/military strategy of the MeK

•listening to foreign radio stations

•sharing individual political views with other members

•failing to attend mandatory meetings

•making personal phone calls

•avoiding participation in military drills

•refusing to participate in the compulsory “ideological divorce”

•having sexual thoughts

•communicating with friends or family

•smoking

•asking to leave the MeK

Recent accounts recall that punishment for disagreeing with MeK policies ranged from forced written confessions of disloyalty to incarceration in special facilities at Camp Ashraf. Former members report torture and long periods of solitary confinement as punishment for disloyalty. To prevent MeK members from departing the camps, almost all MeK recruits were obliged to turn over their identity documents to the MeK for “safekeeping.” The MeK now claims that these documents were securely held until they were destroyed by coalition bombs. Although the group was invited into Iraq and given the use of land by Saddam, the MeK never sought legal residence there. When recruits were brought into the country, Iraqi rules regarding alien visits or immigration were intentionally not observed. With Saddam’s complicity, the MeK leadership was then able to threaten recalcitrant members with prosecution for their illegal presence in Iraq, which would mean incarceration in an Iraqi prison for several years, followed by deportation to Iran, where, members were told, they would face certain persecution. By bringing its members into Iraq illegally and then confiscating their identity documents, the MeK was able to trap them.

Patterns of Suicide

The MeK extols suicide but, unlike jihadist groups, has not used it in attacks since 1981. Prior to their capture in 2003, all MeK members carried cyanide tablets in leather pouches tied around their necks. MeK assassins were instructed to swallow the cyanide if captured during a mission. Masoud Rajavi reputedly has called all MeK members “living martyrs,” and self-immolation is a popular form of MeK suicide. For example, in 2003, there were approximately 10 self-immolations (which killed two) in protest of Maryam Rajavi’s arrest in Paris. The MeK has also used the threat of immolation as a negotiating tool with the JIATF, with British investigators, and with France. Former members indicate that a small number of MeK members committed suicide because they were prevented from leaving the organization and that suicide was also claimed as the cause of death for recalcitrant members who were tortured to death.

Denial of Cultic Tendencies

The MeK and its apologists deny that the MeK is a cult, instead contending that it is a “deeply democratic organization whose guiding principle on all issues is referendum and discussion until a consensus is reached.” The MeK admits to certain practices—such as divorce and celibacy—but justifies them as necessary for effective military operations and claims that they are voluntarily adopted by the membership. However, the MeK denies many other practices attributed to it by it former members, such as intense indoctrination techniques like “thought reform” (commonly referred to as brainwashing) and limiting exit options. As with all criticism aimed at the group, the MeK blames IRI propaganda for characterizing it as a cult. Certainly, the IRI seeks to discredit the MeK, and this includes publicizing the MeK’s cultic characteristics. It is reasonable to assume that some of the IRI’s allegations are inaccurate. But the fact that the IRI seeks to discredit the MeK does notimply that all of its criticisms are inherently untrustworthy. The IRI’s campaign has contributed to weakened support for the MeK in Iran. Although it is not currently possible to conduct a scientific survey of Iranians to gauge their opinions about the MeK—and, in the absence of diplomatic or cultural ties, information regarding Iranian perceptions is extremely limited—anecdotal evidence suggests that the MeK’s cultic characteristics have contributed to its decline in popularity since 1981. An American journalist reports that Iranians whom she interviewed likened the MeK to the Khmer Rouge and the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas, comparisons that have also been made by current and former U.S. officials. Of course, as noted earlier, the MeK’s decision to align itself with Saddam against the IRI and to kill Iranian conscripts during the brutal Iran-Iraq War greatly eroded its popular support in Iran. Although the MeK repeatedly claims to be the most influential opposition group in that country, in reality it appears that this once-prominent dissident group can now validly claim only to be highly organized and well (albeit illegally) funded. Indeed, many Iranians observe that, since the MeK’s move to Iraq, the group is the only entity less popular in Iran than the IRI itself.

…

There isn’t much to add. The MeK and the US are obviously a match made in heaven, a union based on shared values.

Given the choice between joining the MeK or the North Korean Army, to me it’d really be a toss up.

~ by confusedponderer

Links:

•The RAND study on the MeK:

http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2009

/RAND_MG871.pdf

•Human Rights Watch Report on the MeK "No Exit":

http://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/mena/iran0505/

•HRW’s response to critics to the report:

http://www.hrw.org/news/2006/02/14/statement-responses-human-rights-watch

-report-abuses-mojahedin-e-khalq-organization-

•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Ashraf

•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryam_Rajavi

•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Mujahedin_of_Iran

•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mersad

Turcopolier.typepad.com

May 17, 2015 0 comments

Camp Liberty

Rajavi preparing to battle the families: Killing two birds with one stone

News received from within Camp Liberty, base of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, MeK, Rajavi cult) forces in Iraq, indicates that the MKO is training its members to make Molotov Cocktails and that subsequently some of these hand make bombs have been produced and stored underneath their residential containers.
The individuals are briefed that there is a danger that Iranian forces will attack the base under the cover of the families of the residents. Therefore they must be ready to defend themselves. Thus the members of the MKO have been mentally prepared to violently oppose the families.
The truth is that the Rajavi cult was alarmed when some families of members trapped in Camp Liberty approached the camp to visit their loved ones and that is why they react like this. Rajavi, like any other cult leader, considers the families as the major threat to its mind manipulation techniques and control over the members.
When the families’ showed their presence at the gates of Camp Liberty, the Rajavi cult started its widespread propaganda against them as though they are organized armed forces who have planned to attack the base and abolish it! This is while the families, who are all empty-handed and without any propaganda tools, approached the camp to hear from their loved ones.
Sahar Family Foundation, which was aware of the families visit to Iraq beforehand, kept its promise to the Iraqi and UN officials by not mentioning anything publicly and kept a low profile in order not to give the MKO leaders any excuses. But the MKO announced the news with extreme propaganda and fabricated lies since it had no intention of allowing the families to visit their loved ones quietly, and made up excuses that there are conspiracies against the camp by the Iranian regime.
Everyone remembers that in the past the families were stationed outside the gates of Ashraf Garrison for about 4 years where they peacefully demanded to visit their relatives. In return the MKO members, indoctrinated by the cult leaders, pelted them with stones and metal pieces which cut their arms and heads and called them all kinds of names and accused them of being the spies of the Iranian regime. But the families patiently tolerated the situation and simply repeated their demands of the leaders peacefully that they just want to know about their loved ones.
The Rajavi cult claimed in the past that they would allow the families to visit their relatives provided it takes place inside the camp with the presence of the MKO officials. The families accepted this condition, but the cult leaders, who are frightened of any contact of their followers with the outside world, in particular with their relatives, broke their promises and did not allow any visits.
Massoud Rajavi, like all cult leaders, considers the presence of the families outside the camp as a threat to his cult and like all dictators is against any information reaching the followers.
There is also another fact that some considerable numbers of members are old or sick or discontented and are not of any use to the cult. If they are dismissed or they defect in large numbers there would be a political damage to the organization. Therefore the best option for Rajavi is to get them killed as he planned in the past in the Ashraf Garrison in order to use them for propaganda purposes. In this way he would be able to kill two birds with one stone.
Rajavi is preparing his forces and arming them with Molotov Cocktails to wage battle against the Iraqis. He is using the excuse of the families’ presence at the camp gates in order for those who he considers no longer have any use for him to be killed.

May 13, 2015 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Congress cannot rely on Rajavi’s testimony

Camp Liberty residents must be taken to safety now

Al-Monitor’s Congressional Correspondent Julian Pecquet writes that the “leader” of the controversial Mojahedin Khalq is going to testify before Congress next week. The subject of the House Foreign Affairs terrorism panel is “ISIS: Defining the Enemy”.

A careful reading of this informative article reveals just how wrong it is for anyone in the American political establishment to be associated with the Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) – masquerading here as the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) – in any way and for any reason.

Firstly, for the record, the MEK is still led by fugitive leader Massoud Rajavi who is the cultic mastermind behind the group. Maryam Rajavi, his wife, is not particularly clever or politically minded and has acted essentially as her husband’s public mouthpiece in the west since she arrived back in France in 1993. She will now testify to Congress by videoconference rather than in person. After trying for two decades to obtain a visa to visit the USA and/or the UK, wise people in those countries still refuse her entry, for good reason.

The fundamental contradiction the article exposes is the assumption of the House Foreign Affairs terrorism panel that “Maryam Rajavi will discuss the threat the Islamic State poses to members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) at Camp Liberty.” She won’t. She can’t. Because the MEK are friends of the Islamic State (IS), they support the Islamic State. Maryam Rajavi has spoken in Farsi in favour of the Islamic State. The Islamic State do not pose any danger to the MEK in Camp Liberty. In fact, before the Iraqi army and militias drove IS back from its encroachment, it was clear to all those who know the MEK that the leaders were hoping that when IS reached Baghdad, the MEK would be liberated from Camp Liberty and join the terrorist forces.

Instead of condemning the Islamic State, Maryam Rajavi will speak about how the Iranian government wants to kill the people in Camp Liberty and is plotting every day to find ways to massacre them all. This is an old script. It has been the MEK script for thirty years. Does Ted Poe think the MEK has suddenly flipped sides and will line up with Iran against the Islamic State?

Whatever threats are faced by the residents of Camp Liberty, one thing is certain. The reason they cannot leave is because the MEK leaders refuse to allow them to leave. Members of Congress should robustly question Maryam Rajavi about that. They need to ask why the UN is unable to progress its work with these vulnerable people. Why, if they are in such direct danger, she doesn’t allow the Iraqi authorities to remove them to separate accommodation. The Iraqis have offered to place the MEK in various secure hotels and apartments in order to make life safer and more comfortable for them. The MEK have refused. Congress needs to ask Maryam Rajavi why the residents of Camp Liberty are not able to make contact with their relatives. Hundreds of families have travelled to Iraq since 2003 attempting to make contact with their loved ones. The MEK have accused them all of being ‘agents of the Iranian regime sent to kill them’. Is this plausible? Most of the family members are old people; the parents and siblings and in some cases the children of people trapped in Camp Liberty. Are they really desirous of massacring their loved ones?

If this is not enough to convince members of Congress that this is a group which lies and deceives, and only follows its own agenda, then there is plenty more evidence to help convince them. It is easy to debunk the myths.

Certainly the MEK has never made a public statement in English or in Farsi that it has renounced violence. If anyone knows of such a public statement, they should urgently produce it. Indeed, Maryam Rajavi’s speeches all revolve around the need for ‘regime change’. Nobody in the American political establishment is naïve enough to believe that this would not involve a violent intervention. Nor can they interpret Rajavi’s speech as other than an advertisement for her own group to undertake that violent intervention.

Sadly, for Rajavi and her supporters, happily for the rest of us, the MEK is incapable of undertaking any such task. Massoud Rajavi is, however, and this is where the danger lies, not only capable of training and advising groups like Al Qaida and IS on manipulating their own forces in terrorism, but is expert in how to spin this through deceptive media and internet campaigns to manipulate and eventually win grudging western support. He is an expert cult manipulator.

The Rajavis’ agenda may coincide today with efforts by some in America and Israel to derail the nuclear negotiations, but investigative journalist Gareth Porter has already revealed that most of what the MEK said against Iran was simply fabricated. Knowing that the Rajavis will obey no other needs except their own for their own survival, this must surely signal that any reliance on Rajavi’s evidence is profoundly misguided.

Let’s hope that Congress does its job and asks searching questions rather than acting as cheerleaders for a deeply unpopular and totally unrepresentative terrorist cult.

Anne Khodabandeh and Massoud Khodabandeh,

April 26, 2015 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

A humanitarian plea for the visit of two sisters

Mr. Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad ,defector of MKO who was a veteran translator of the group leader has repeatedly asked the International Human Rights bodies to help his two daughters have a visit.

He has two daughters, one in Iran [Mona,33] and one in Camp Liberty [ Zeinab, 37]. The two sisters have not been able to see or have any contact with each other during their lifetime due to the enforced separation of families within the Cult of Mujahedin-e Khalq.

Mr. Hussennejad says even during his reside in MKO Camps he couldn’t manage to visit his daughter; Zeinab for twenty years.

Last week Mona Hussennejad for the second time traveled to Iraq, Camp Liberty to visit her dear sister. However the MKO leaders refused the visit because they fear Zeinab would defect the cult.

April 23, 2015 0 comments

Albania

High ranking MKO members in Albania

List of several high ranking MEK in Tirana gathered together from various places.

Some are from the leadership ranks, most are top level intelligence and military commanders of the MEK. Among them is Mahmoud Atai who signed the treaty of surrender with the American army in Camp Ashraf on behalf of Massoud Rajavi. Most have false passports and documents which Iran Interlink has listed along with their real identities.

One of the missions is to buy large amounts of land and real estate in order to create a new cult camp. But the main and immediate objective is to silence or eliminate the former members who no longer obey the MEK commanders by whatever means possible.

The sources of this information – who are known to Iran Interlink- are afraid for their lives; these are highly trained and ruthless intelligence operatives from the time of Saddam Hussein.

Some are known to be Massoud Rajavi’s personal bodyguards. Rumours circulating among those in Tirana anticipate that this combination of activities – buying land, removing disaffected members – indicates that they are preparing a place to bring Rajavi. This matches with the new situation in Iraq; the defeat of ISIS and the killing of Al Douri in Tikrit have signalled the loss of hope in the Saddamists.

Iraninterlink provided the list and Nejat Society members of Mazandaran Branch provided the photos.

April 21, 2015 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Open Letter to Nancy Pelosi: Don’t allow the MEK to hijack your name

Dear Ms Pelosi,

Following the long awaited announcement in Lausanne on the Iran nuclear agreement, your strong opposition to Senator Corker’s legislation has been welcomed by peaceable Iranians and Americans who, like you, support President Obama’s push to resolve the nuclear issue through diplomatic means.

It will come as some surprise to you therefore, that a group of Iranian war-mongering regime change proponents, the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq (MEK), claim to have your support.

In an astounding act of hubris, the MEK has not only appropriated your good name and attached it to a stance which is in contradiction to what you have always stated, but the group has also apparently fooled many of your opponents in Congress whose presence in this event has also been misrepresented as specific support for the MEK.

The MEK’s website Iran News Online reported as a news item a celebration held in Congress on March 17 to mark the Iranian New Year or Norouz. According to this news item, the event was attended by several advocates and lobbyists of the MEK – those named include Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Ted Poe and Jackson Lee, all of whom advocate the MEK’s regime change stance. As well as around 300 Congressional staff, many, but not all, of the attendees have been Neoconservatives whose anti-diplomacy stance is overtly expressed by people like John Bolton who so recently exhorted America to ‘bomb Iran’.

This is not company in which we would expect to find your name, let alone your endorsement. Yet, the duplicity and deceit and treachery of the Mojahedin is so bold as to allow them to do exactly this.

In this reporting of the event in Iran News Online – written in Farsi, not in English – the MEK have quoted a letter purported to have been written by yourself especially for the event on the occasion of the Iranian New Year. This letter states simply that you “congratulate the people of Iran on their New Year”.

This of course is a natural and commendable expression of support. But the context in which this letter is used makes it appear as though you are in agreement with the other participants. The event was attended by Sona Samsami, a long-term MEK member who represents the MEK’s front organization the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in the United States. This group promotes itself as the agent of violent regime change in Iran – even though it has no support among Iranians and no capacity to undertake any such activity.

The MEK have misreported and manipulated this event so that it looks as though it has been held specifically to promote the MEK and its regime change agenda. I am sure that most of the attendees had no such awareness or intention.

Screenshot from MEK site

But this is not all. The MEK’s public site Mojahedin.org actually puts words into your mouth as though you were at the event and reports that Nancy Pelosi “Congratulates the people of Iran and the residents of Camp Liberty”. This, of course, is preposterous. These residents, the old and sick remnants of the MEK’s army, are awaiting expulsion from Camp Liberty and Iraq because of the MEK’s thirty year history of terrorism and treachery in that country. The UN mandate is to find them third countries to be transferred to for their safety. (Unfortunately this process has stalled because the MEK leader Massoud Rajavi refuses to cooperate and is holding the residents incommunicado inside Camp Liberty without any access to their families or the outside world. And in addition, most countries shun the MEK as a terrorist outfit and are very reluctant to accept them even as individual refugees.)

The report also quotes you from 2007 when you mentioned the situation of these Iranians in Iraq and said ‘something must be done about them’ in a way to sound as though you supported the MEK. But it is simply amazing that the MEK could think anybody except their own brainwashed members would believe you support such a group except on humanitarian grounds, in which case your support would take a very different form.

Screen shot from MEK site

I write to you as an expert on the MEK who has been campaigning for over a decade to help free the residents of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty, and to expose the lies and deceit of the MEK’s leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. I would urge you to investigate the matter of your name and reputation being hijacked by this group. But further, I would urge you also to alert your colleagues in Congress – including those who are your political opponents – to the duplicitous methods of this group. The MEK’s unchallenged interference in the political process of America is not only very much against your country’s national interests, it is a slap in the face of those peaceful Iranians and Americans who, like yourself and President Obama have invested so much time and energy into allowing diplomacy to work.

About Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton):

Middle East Strategy Consultants,

http://www.mesconsult.com

Autor of “Saddam’s Private Army” and “The life of Camp Ashraf”

http://www.camp-ashraf.com

April 15, 2015 0 comments

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