Rajavis and Cult Leadership

Unearthed Mass Graves Prove MKO-Al Qaeda Collaboration

The mass graves which have recently been unearthed near the main training camp of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization in Iraq’s Diyala province unveiled a strong bond between the MKO and the Al Qaeda terrorist group. Unearthed Mass Graves Prove MKO-Al Qaeda Collaboration

Speaking to FNA on Sunday, Udai al-Khadran, the governor of the city of Khalis in Diyala province, said Al Qadea and the MKO members cooperated to intensify unrests in Khalis.

He added that the MKO members are involved in Al Qaeda bombing plots and kidnappings in Diyala.

Khadran added that there exist documents substantiating that some Iraqi officials are collaborating with terrorists and have taken bribes to the very same end.

Earlier in January, an Iraqi official said several mass graves have been unearthed in Camp New Iraq, formerly known as Camp Ashraf, in Iraq’s Diyala Province, which was the headquarters of the terrorist MKO.

Sadeq al-Husseini, the deputy chairman of Diyala’s provincial council said that the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights was in charge of determining the identities of the bodies and whether they were Kurds, the residents of southern provinces or from the town of Khalis in Diyala Province.

He said that the bodies were being examined in medical laboratories in Arbil Province, adding that human rights violations in the camp did not seem improbable.

Later a report by the website of the Habilian Association, a human rights NGO formed of the families of 17000 Iranian terror victims, said that the MKO executed a number of disobedient members and buried them in a mass grave in Camp Ashraf before leaving the place.

The report added that Seyed Taleb Mohammad Hassan, the head of Diyala provincial council, was quoted by Iraqi Kurdistan Navkho news agency as saying that "relevant bodies have investigated the corpses in the mass grave and found out that some of those buried in there had been executed by the MKO".

Further investigations showed that these murdered individuals "have been killed for criticizing or opposing the MKO", he added.

January 14, 2013 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

MKO’s Ideological Revolution, an Absolute Deviation

The Cult of Mojahedin; A Modern Cult of Personality – 3

The internal ideological revolution was the turning point that paved the way for the transformation of MKO to a cult of personality. Rajavi needed to construct a plot, regardless of the large cost, similar to that of the ideological drift in 1975 drafted by Taghi Shahram, who broke the seemingly Islamic ideology of the organization and officially announced it to be Marxism. Consequently, Shahram suppressed any protest and opposition and even plotted assassinations to liquidate opponents or as a method of silencing them.

Now ten years later, in 1985, Rajavi had faced a more complicated situation worse than before. The announced armed warfare with the heavy cost imposed both on regime and the organization had proved totally unproductive. Rajavi had come under harsh criticism and disapproval and blamed for his countless errors that had led to discredit what was being advertised as a revolutionary movement because of excessive use of unnecessary terror. And Rajavi was in urgent need of exploiting the intact huge potentiality of female insiders as motivators in inter-organizational relations and a prototype of a campaigning modern woman for tradition-bond Iranian women. The big change started itself with another error and scandal and the Rajavis, Massoud and Maryam, were the firsts to publicly break with Islamic and Iranian tradition; a wife’s infidelity misrepresented a sacred act and was considered as a turning point in the campaigns of the organization as well as a shocking strike against Islamic Republic regime! Any logical mind could anticipate what would be the outcome of a change started by challenging established traditions that Rajavi judged as impediments in the path of spurring innovations. MKO was the first in Iranian contemporary history to publicly legitimizing the unconventional remarriage of a woman immediately after her divorce.

Maryam was known to be the fruit of the so-called “ideological revolution” and who, consequently, paved the way for the other details of the revolution and was built a prototype for Iranian women. Mehdi Abrishamchi, a ranking aid to Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi’s late husband, was himself the one to make the first sacrifice for the revolution! and among the firsts to justify his wife’s divorce and her remarriage to Rajavi:

Maryam had to be either unquestionably promoted to a high status in the organization free from any [conjugal] obligation, just like Massoud, and be totally devoted to revolution or had to give it up. 1

According to Abrishamchi, since Maryam had to be promoted to a leadership status and every decision in the organization had to be made by Maryam and Massoud together, the matrimonial obligations and restrictions prevented Maryam to be in Massoud’s company all the time. She had to deny all her obligations and tear whatever bonded her except to Massoud and the revolution. As such, her divorce and remarriage before anything was instilled to be the accomplishment of a revolutionary obligation. Thus, the marriage was hailed as a great sacrifice made by Masoud and Maryam and all the members had to follow the steps to undertake their own revolution not in a similar line with the leaders but by identifying their personal shortcomings in later arranged self-criticism sessions. Immediately following the Rajavi’s marriage, the military command of the MKO issued a directive stating:

In order to carry out your organizational duties under the present circumstances, there is an urgent need to strengthen and deepen this ideological revolution. You must pay the necessary price by allocating sufficient time and resources for absorbing related teachings…Thus in your daily routines give priority to listening to radio messages and explanations provided by your commanders. Believe in the central committee’s proclamation that “this ideological revolution will enhance the Mojahedin’s capacities enormously; it will ever more unify and cleanse our ranks.”…Be certain that your deep belief in the novel leadership of the new democratic revolution of the heroic Iranian people, meaning Masoud and Maryam Rajavi, and by making a direct connection with this leadership and setting it as your example….you will be able to correct your work habits and be able to deal with and resolve personal, organizational, and military difficulties. 2

It was followed by another directive issued by the Social Division commanding the members to prove their revolutionary obedience by submitting to the initiated self-criticism tradition within the organization:

To understand this great revolution…is to understand and gain a deep insight into the greatness of our new leadership, meaning the leadership of Masoud and Maryam. It is to believe in them as well as to show ideological and revolutionary obedience of them…By correcting your old work habits and by criticizing your individual as well as collective shortcomings, we shall gain much awareness in confronting our enemies…Report to your commanders and superiors in a comprehensive manner your progress, its results and outcomes that you gain from promoting and strengthening this ideological revolution. 3

Consequently, protests were aborted and a cult of personality was provided for the leader and his wife to the sanctuary of where nobody was permitted either to enter or violate it. The experience taught Rajavi to apply this tactic to remove any obstacle and save the organization and him when facing a challenge. His Machiavellian inclinations and his seizing any opportunity to achieve his goals made the impossible possible for him. The members` crushed identity had made them undergo an amazing metamorphosis to follow the orders. The exploited coercive mental and physical approaches against the insiders developed into a counteraction against the ever-increasing criticisms and protests.

According to many MKO’s ex-members, in this phase, under the pretext of security considerations, many dissident members and critics were either imprisoned or killed suspiciously and the first consequences of settlement in Iraq was establishing prisons and exercising mental and physical pressures on prisoners. The worst was despicable justification by zealous devotees of Rajavies for such maltreatment and offenses which they called the inevitable consequence of the ideological revolution which they believed to be necessary for assessing the loyalty of members to leadership. In their opinion, themselves enjoying the abundant luxury of the post-revolution, blind obedience and submission to imprisonment, as well as suffering physical and mental tortures were indications of expressing absolute devotion and loyalty to the leadership.

Resources:

1. The delivered lecture by Mehdi Abrishamchi on the internal ideological revolution within MKO, [1985].
2. Mojahed, No. 241, April 4, 1985.
3. Mojahed, No. 242, April 12, 1985.

January 14, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO and the Demonizing Campaign

Nobody is immune from the threatening, anti-human, cultic practices of MKO

Everybody is curious as to why any defected member and escapee from MKO happen to be an Nobody is immune from the threatening, anti-human, cultic practices of MKO agent of Iranian regime whenever the organization ever publicizes the news of some defection itself. The announcement does not appear just after the escape or defection but months and even years later and after the group fails to come to terms with the defected to stop him/her talking out. The stigma, MKO believes, on the one hand will possibly neutralize the disclosures and on the other, hand will boost a propaganda battle to talk big of its intelligence potentiality in detecting the infiltrated agents. Thus, it may appear to many as a never-ending battle between MKO and Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and security; and of course the more secretive and sophisticated the ministry is depicted the more capable its rival can be proclaimed.

But there are other reasons for MKO to enter a demonizing campaign against the regime’s security apparatus. Majority of the ranking members who leave MKO have been aware of hypocrisy and corruption within the group and majority are victims of cultic abuses themselves. However, as they have maintained an element of independence and some connection with their old values, they consider it a responsibility to become a volunteer to disclose facts long concealed from the public under a variety of pseudo social and democratic activities. Naturally, unable to provide justifiable responses to what MKO claims allegations against it, the group directs countless hateful attacks and attempts at character assassination of the defected members. The smear and character assassination campaign against dissidents further ensures that the exposé continues with full force.

That is why MKO was among the firsts to publicize the report by the Library of Congress report on Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security and to translate its parts, particularly those concerning MKO and ex-members, into other languages to be circulated in a variety of affiliated web-sites and blogs. Although the report itself blends fact and fiction, a look at the given references leaves no doubt that either MKO has been tasked with the responsibility to prepare the report or has acted as a close consultant in preparation. Typically, whenever a disclosure is made by some defected member, MKO call it a slander against the group and a work of individuals who officially work with the regime. To look at it through the eyes of MKO and its leaders, anybody who is against the group is an agent of Iranian regime, that is to say all Iranian people but the group’s members and sympathizers. They include even the families who insist to see their relatives and children held against their will by the group.

To have a real understanding of the intra-organizational behaviors and principles within MKO in relation with the defection of members, the split and runaway of a member, and the ranking members in particular, is considered an unforgivable sin since the escapes have always faced the group with serious challenges. That is mainly because they make the closed group vulnerable to outsiders’ scrutiny. As a rule, the members are organized into teams and units each headed and controlled by a loyal ranking who is directly responsible for the deeds of his subordinates and their defections and escapes since they impose considerable political costs on the organization due to the fact that it would be hard to figure how much information is disclosed by the defected and to whom. Even the rank-and-files are under tight control if they turn to be willing to leave. To tell the truth, neither the insiders nor the ex-members as the outsiders are immune from the threatening, anti-human, cultic practices of MKO. It is a global threat and problem to be dealt with.

January 13, 2013 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Who can interview with Maryam Rajavi ?

Maryam Rajavi’s recent interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais appears to be one her few interviews with mass media. As the so-called president elect of the National Council of Resistance and the leader of the most viable alternative- as she claims – to the Islamic Republic, it seems odd that she has experienced so few appearances in the media, and roughly no appearance in Persian media.

Maryam Rajavi, the self-assigned president of the NCR and the co-leader of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO),seems to be too reluctant to appear in front of her country fellow men and answer controversial questions on her cult-like organization and its disappeared leader, Massoud Rajavi.

About two years ago in August 2011, Nooshabeh Amiri, the Iranian journalist published an article titled”Interview with Maryam Rajavi” on Rooz Online. Amiri wrote of a failed effort to have an interview with the leader of the MKO, Maryam Rajavi:

“A few years ago, one of the producers of CBS’s 60 Minutes asked me to arrange for the networks interview with Maryam Rajavi, a leader of Iran’s Mujahidin Khalq Organization (MKO). I told him then that I thought it was not possible to do this, to which he replied, “If the interview is going to be with a non-Iranian network, the response will certainly be different.”

“I then recruited the assistance of a person affiliated with the MKO. A few days later he provided me with an email address to contact. When I did, I was given a telephone number to contact, which in all honesty made me feel embarrassed for my initial assumption which was based on hear say. Subsequent events however proved me right.

“When I made the first call, I was given another telephone number to call. This was repeated several times in the course of a few months that followed, until the American producer called me and said the issue was over and that there was no need to follow-up.

“I concluded that 60 Minutes must have decided to call off the pursuit because of how long it had taken to arrange for the interview. He surprised me when he said that a representative of the MKO had made arrangements with the program’s senior producer and had made a condition for the interview and had written up the questions to be asked….

“This was pathetic, something that still continues.”[1]

“Pathetic”! This is the term Ms. Amiri uses to describe the MKO’s propaganda system. However, the group’s approach regarding media is fraudulent.

The MKO’s propaganda decides what media to interview with its leader as well as what questions to be asked. Considering various reports on human rights violations committed inside the MKO as a cult of personality, the group’s propaganda runners know that all peace activists, freedom lovers and independent journalists would ask questions of which the answers are beyond the red lines of the group. Thus, they never risk the façade of a “democratic” opposition to Islamic Republic they are trying to build for their cult-like organization.

The Spanish daily, El Pais does not ask any question to trouble Rajavi but the questions are so simply and directly asked that could recall you a memorized dialogue in a screenplay. For an authentic unbiased interview with Maryam Rajavi the most crucial question which has never been answered since American invasion to Iraq in 2003 — the same year that Maryam Rajavi was arrested by French Police in her headquarters in the suburb of Paris—is this:”Where is Massoud Rajavi?”

There are many other important questions to be asked particularly regarding numerous testimonies of former members. For instance, recent testimonies of former female members on sexual abuse of women of elite council of the group by Massoud Rajavi must be explained by Maryam Rajvi who is according to evidences the main person to make women sleep with Massoud Rajavi.[2]

According to the 2005 Human Rights Watch report ” No Exit”, inside MKO camps there are ”abuses ranging from detention and persecution of ordinary members wishing to leave” to “lengthy solitary confinements, severe beatings, and torture of dissident members.”[3]

In Ms. Amiri’s article you can also find a list of questions that may obsess any independent journalist who is going to interview Rajavi. The followings are some of them:

“Does the MKO see itself responsible to respond to questions such as its cooperation with Saddam Hossein in attacking and invading Iran?

“Under what strategy and goal were inexperienced youth asked to respond to the Mersad Operation inside Iran?

“Is internal criticism allowed within MKO and can it be reflected outside the organization?

“Is it true that some MKO members have left the organization on the basis of such instructions by the group to take up the responsibility of attacking other opponents of the Islamic republic?”[4]

To our surprise, the biased report of EL Pais begins with this ludicrous statement by Maryam Rajavi: ”popular support inside Iran is a source of legitimacy for this resistance” (!)

This opening sentence clearly indicates that the interview was actually managed by the interviewee not the interviewer.

What does Maryam Rajavi mean by “popular support” inside Iran?!

One thing is sure; Rajavi’s claim is absolutely false. Although the MEK claims to be loved and respected inside Iran, the truth is that most Iranians view the terrorist organization as ruthless traitors who killed their own countrymen, according to many reports. For example Massoud Banisadr who is a former top official of the group say in an interview with Steve Hassan:”After Iranian revolution, late seventies and early eighties MEK could change from a guerrilla (or terrorist organization according to different people’s definition) into a popular political group attracting thousands of young people. But after moving back to terrorism, ignoring and violating people’s ethics, beliefs and principles, especially working with Iraq’s president, Saddam Hussein after the incursion of Iraq into Iran, they lost all their support inside Iran and as matter of fact in public view they changed into a traitor organization”. [5] Also, The Wall Street Journal writes of critical views on the group,”Critics of the MeK allege that the organization has no major support inside Iran and that its leaders, who are based outside Paris, run the group like a cult.”[6]

Based on Mrs. Rajavi’s own claim, the “source of legitimacy for the resistance”is definitely absent.

By Mazda Parsi

Reference:
[1] Amiri , Nooshabeh, Interview with Maryam Rajavi, Roozonline, August 22,2011
[2] https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/3261 ;

MKO Ringleaders Abuse Female Members Sexually

[3]Human Rights Watch, No Exit, 2005
[4] Amiri , Nooshabeh, Interview with Maryam Rajavi, Roozonline, August 22,2011
[5] http://freedomofmind.com/FormerMeKtopofficialanswersquestions
22February2012.php
[6]Solomon, Jay &Perez, Evan, Iran Exile Group Nears U.S. Rebirth, the Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2012

January 10, 2013 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Do not Disturb – Criminals at work in Camp Liberty

Massoud and Maryam Rajavi accused of sexual cruelty

When the US army captured the MEK and confined them to Camp Ashraf in April 2003, they registered 3,800 individuals. Of these, 800 were women.

Women "rewarded" with pendants and robes after sexual ordeal

The figure has remained mostly constant, with some members being trafficked in and out of the camp, and some escaping the cult altogether. (The actual figures are unknown because the Pentagon allowed the MEK to shut the door of the camp and operate Camp Ashraf independently of both national and international law.)

Understandably it is the women who escaped from Rajavi and his cultic abuses who are proving the most problematic. They are very angry and they are proving very difficult to silence.

In the Autumn of 2012 a number of these women, having courageously overcome the stigma attached to such issues, joined together to speak publicly about the sexual abuses they suffered in the MEK. They allege that Massoud Rajavi, the de facto leader of the Mojahedin-e Khalq, not only deceived them into having sex with him but had also instigated a programme of coerced hysterectomies for all women members in order to ‘neutralise their sexuality’. Out of the 800 women registered in Camp Ashraf, they gave the names of 100 who have already become victims of Rajavi’s hysterectomy programme.

The women (several of whom had been appointed to the highest level of the MEK hierarchy – the Leadership Council which directly serves Massoud Rajavi and his wife, Maryam), described a bizarre process of preparation for their sexual encounter with Rajavi which was facilitated by and presided over by Maryam Rajavi, who, they said, procured specific women from the membership for Massoud’s use. The women were made to believe that refusal to participate would result in demotion, humiliation and even worse punishments.

Maryam Rajavi invented rituals such as being washed by other women members so as to ‘spiritually purify’ them, followed by the instruction to dance naked before both the Rajavis to prove they had ‘broken the physical and mental barriers’ to their total submission to Massoud. After these coercive practices, he would choose a bedmate for sex. The women have said that they did not agree to sex with Rajavi out of free will but because they had been coerced through deception into submitting to what they later came to recognise as rape.

The women who spoke out all now live in Europe. Other former MEK women members living in Iran and currently in Iraq are also said to be willing to give their testimony. The women described how they were deceived into undergoing spurious hysterectomies in order to fulfill Rajavi’s demand that they ‘divorce from their sexuality’.

In response, former Colonel, Leo McCloskey, Commander of Forward Operation Base in Ashraf until 2008, was featured on the MEK’s websites and media, attempting to denigrate the women and dismiss their claims by labeling them as ‘agents of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence’. Based on what knowledge and expertise did he manage to come up with such a nonsensical counter argument?

What is most disturbing about these revelations is the response from the establishment. I’m sure that everyone reading this article will be at least curious to know whether such outrageous accusations might be true or not. Perhaps those who are more familiar with the MEK’s past known behaviour will be willing at least to give some credence to these allegations. But for responsible bodies like the UN and even human rights organisations, which, over thirty years, have compiled reams and reams of documented evidence of gross abuses committed by the Rajavi cult (let us not forget the MEK victims found in Abu Ghraib prison), to ignore these easily verifiable witness statements because the MEK says they are a ‘plot by the Iranian regime to discredit the opposition’ really beggars belief.

The facts are easily verifiable. The physical evidence of hysterectomy can be found in the women’s bodies. It is a matter of fact, not opinion. And if those who managed to escape the cult have evidence consistent with their accusations, does it not behove those people actually responsible for their welfare to conduct an investigation into the condition of the other named women in the MEK who are trapped incommunicado in (the ironically named) Camp Liberty.

Let us look more closely then at the ‘one size fits all’ label used to denigrate the victims: ‘agent of the Iranian regime’. It is not the first time the label has been used by the MEK, nor will it be the last. After all, in the current reckless Western culture of ferocious Iran-bashing, it is an easy formula to trot out for a willing audience. And what a willing audience!

The phrase arises from the cultic nature of the MEK and of course the concept of ‘thought-terminating clichés’ is familiar among experts in cultic abuse. It describes the technique used by cult leaders to prevent their followers (victims) from using their critical faculties. Whenever the cliché is mentioned, the cult member stops thinking. In this case, the phrase is also linked to another technique ‘cultic phobias’ which is to introduce irrational fears which when triggered arouse a phobic reaction in the victim.

For members of the Rajavi cult, the phrase ‘agent of the Iranian regime’ fulfils both these purposes; they stop thinking and experience an amorphous, pervasive fear. In some cases they can easily resort to violence in response to this reaction. The really despicable aspect of this use of the label is that it is directed at those victims of the cult who have only recently escaped the abuses. For them the phrase stinks of menace and threat; exactly why the Rajavi’s choose to use it.

But for outsiders, clearly many are unable or unwilling to use their minds to think through the absurdity of this phrase. Or, maybe they don’t need to. Leo McCloskey surely wasn’t acting out of the goodness of his heart when he quoted the MEK phrase. In such crass cases, are we wrong to assume that pecuniary benefits most probably apply?

With the deployment of this thought-terminating cliché, Rajavi has effectively hung a ‘Do not Disturb’ sign on the closed door of Camp Liberty, while an apparently awestruck (by Rajavi’s genius no doubt) Western world tiptoes outside, afraid it too will be accused of being an ‘agent of the Iranian regime’.

Anne Singleton, Middle East Strategy Consultants, Author of "Saddam’s Private Army" and "The life of Camp Ashraf"

January 6, 2013 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Ex-US Colonel Blasts MKO Leader

A former US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel said the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, also known as MKO, PMOI and NCR) knows nothing of democracy. Ex-US Colonel Blasts MKO Leader's Unfamiliarity with Democracy

Speaking in an interview with the Habilian Association, Dr. Karen Kwiatkowski said MKO is a group "dependent on outside money," adding that the too much outside support for the group indicates its "neoconservative agenda, a long-term program to interfere with and topple the political leadership and possibly the entire system in Iran".

"Maryam (Rajavi) has led the MKO since 1993, and it appears she inherited the position from her husband," Kwiatkowski, a former USAF colonel, said.

"That doesn’t sound very democratic, and I suspect that Rajavi knows little about, and cares little about, democracy."

Asked about Canada’s latest move to delist the MKO as a terrorist organization, Kwiatkowski said, "I’m sure Canadian politicians are as venal as the ones we have in the United States."

"There is a strong and growing tendency for both Canada and Mexican government to fall in line with Washington," she added.

"I am personally disgusted by the many years of political support for the MKO by neoconservative elements among the US political class," Kwiatkowski added, calling the US shifts regarding the group as one of several ongoing "means of war and provocation" against Iran.

She went on to say that the too much outside support for the terrorist MKO "indicates alternative agendas," which in this case, would be "a neoconservative agenda, a long-term program to interfere with and topple the political leadership and possibly the entire system in Iran".

Regarding the MKO’s request to be recognized by France and other European countries, Dr. Kwiatkowski pointed out that the desire of anyone or any organization today for recognition by the militaristic US empire-mongers, i.e. the neoconservative wing of the Washington political class, indicates a flawed concept of both democratic change and a certain weakness in the movement, in this case, the anti-Assad movement.

December 31, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

MKO Ringleaders Fear Mass-Defection of Members

News reports from Camp Liberty, the transient settlement facility of the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO also known as the MEK, PMOI and NCR) in Iraq, said that MKO Ringleaders Fear Mass-Defection of Members MKO ringleaders fear that members might defect and escape from the Camp en masse.

According to a report by the Iran-based human rights Didehban Center, during the last three weeks at least 9 members of the MKO have managed to escape from Camp Liberty.

Other reports revealed that the members of the terrorist group have disobeyed the orders of Massoud Rajavi, the MKO’s main ringleader, adding that disobedience among the MKO has been on the increase recently.

Also, 300 members of the MKO refrained from signing a written commitment ordered by Rajavi to accompany the terrorist group in any future event.

Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the group are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.

A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In September 2012, the last groups of the MKO terrorists left Camp Ashraf, their main training center in Iraq’s Diyala province. They have been transferred to Camp Liberty which lies Northeast of the Baghdad International Airport.

Camp Liberty is a transient settlement facility and a last station for the MKO in Iraq.

December 19, 2012 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

The Cult of Mojahedin; A Modern Cult of Personality – 2

The transformation of MKO to a pseudo-religious cult occurred through a lengthy process

For sure, as many experts on the subject believe, there are certain similarities between cults and The transformation of MKO to a pseudo-religious cult occurred through a lengthy process terrorist groups in the way each uses sophisticated psychological techniques to indoctrinate their devoted members. As a matter of fact, there exists a high potentiality in a terrorist group to actually change into a dangerous cult as it possesses cult features, because any group that challenges adopted norms that advocates moving against the current for sure it avails backdrop of a cult. In the same way, any cult has the potential to be a terrorist group. in the case of MKO it is not an exception.

But still there is a question to put that how and when it happened that MKO transformed from a Marxist-oriented political group with a fundamental ideology of advocating armed warfare to what is today known as a total cult of personality. Speculations fueled by a considerable bulk of studies as well as assertions by detached and former MKO members center on the fact that it was not an overnight transformation but a plot that hatched gradually through some lengthy process of guilefully outlined stages. Ali Akbar Rastgoo, an ex-member, firmly believes that MKO had some cult-like features even from the beginning but due to some reasons, they did not break the surface:

The transformation of MKO to a dangerous pseudo-religious cult occurred through a lengthy process. It has to be pointed out that it was a potentiality existing from the very beginning in the organization’s Islamic-Marxist eclectic ideology. If it failed to be manifested in those first years of its formation, it was because it was impossible to build up the current relations at that time. [1]

There are more than enough evidences to prove that Massoud Rajavi had a personal ambition of establishing a cult of personality after a complete failure in armed warfare and facing an overall political stalemate that led his group into total isolation from the masses. Even before the initiation of the military phase and declaring armed struggle against the regime in 1980, some eminent political figures well acquainted with MKO envisaged it would turn into a cult sooner or later. And Rajavi needed some information before taking the first step. Ali Ferasati, an ex-member, discloses that in 1984 while in Paris, Rajavi ordered the information bureau of umbrella groups and associations to do comprehensive studies about the structure of cults in the West:

In 1984, the information bureau of associations was asked to conduct a study into the Western religious cults. The reason was said to be since the imperialists were pushing policies ahead through religious cults, the organization needed to find out what the cults were doing and under what mechanism. … At the time I got to the bottom that Massoud [Rajavi] was aware of the fact that the organization was getting disintegrated and thus, he wanted to see how the western cults operated so he could follow their model. [2]

It may seem hard to believe that the first seeds of MKO’s transition to a cult of personality were sown in the heart of the Western democratic and free soil following the shocking initiation of a heretic inter-organizational revolution within MKO. In fact, before MKO relocation to Iraq to execute cultic relations in Camp Ashraf as its main cult bastion, the cult thought had passed beyond its embryo stage at Auvers-Sur-Oise in Paris. The four-year settlement of MKO in France and a great accumulation of members made them engaged in a routine bureaucracy that caused a staff crisis. Many other factors such as daily-life problems, lack of a clear strategy in 1981 to 1985, critical detachment and separation of members and lack of motivation as a result of long residence in France, attractions of life and beauties of European countries all and all caused the organization suffer acute crises. Besides, Rajavi was receiving formal messages and invitations from Saddam Hussein for a complete transfer of the organization to Iraq. The group had been caught in a difficult dilemma since Iraq was at war with Iran and Saddam was the most hated man in the eyes of Iranian. As a matter of fact, move to Iraq was equal to involving in an unforgivable conspiracy against a nation for whom the group had promised freedom and democracy.

Knowing the problem and hearing murmurs of protest from the ranking members against his goals and plans, Massoud Rajavi came to a conclusion to make a basic change in the already adopted conventional model of the Leadership Council for steering his group. On the other hand, the very existence of the Leadership Council had to be dissolved as it was an obstacle and threat to his authoritative leadership and he needed a plan to dissolve it. To find a way around all these problems and to pave the way to break any probable resistance, it required a very wise, deep plan which should also support a kind of revolutionary move. Besides, Rajavi was already embroiled in the scandal of having intimate and amorous relations with his office secretary, Maryam Qajar Azodanlu, the wife of Mehdi Abrishamchi at the time. The relation uncovered, it could cause a serious crash against the structure of the group that claimed to highly value moral principles in its campaign.

References:

1. Ra’isi and et al. Ravand-e Jodaee (originally in Persian) “The process of separation”. 1979. Samadie publication. p.164.
2. Massoud Jabani; Ravanshenasi Khoshunat va Terror (originally in Persian) “A psychology of aggression and terror” , Khavaran publication. p.127.

December 15, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Rajavi’s new army heralds a sinister new ‘mass suicide’ plot

Both the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and UNAMI chief Martin Kobler have appealed to Europe to help relocate the 3000+ former combatants of the MEK terrorist cult who are currently living in the Temporary Transit Camp Liberty near Baghdad.

Last week, four more residents escaped the cult to take refuge with the Iraqi authorities as the internal control strictures worsen. It is impossible for MEK leader Massoud Rajavi to keep the residents isolated as at Ashraf. They will receive information about the outside world and the possibilities for them. They will seek freedom.

The danger for Rajavi is that the cult will disintegrate suddenly into disobedience and anarchy.
But for Rajavi the answer does not lie in relocation to Europe. The only bargain he will agree to is to either stay in Camp Liberty or recreate Camp Ashraf in another country and transfer the MEK en masse.
In Europe there are many, many former MEK members who are outspoken about the horrific human rights violations imposed on them through cultic mind control practices. In Cologne women talked about coerced hysterectomies they underwent to satisfy Rajavi’s bizarre demand. About forty women were subjected to spurious surgery to remove their wombs as part of Rajavi’s cynical manipulation of gender, relationships and sexuality in the cult. (www.iran-zanan.de Persian)

But where Rajavi’s recent assertion, via an audio address, that he is the sole and rightful leader of the Iranian opposition, and his consequent invitation for all other groups and personalities to join him, is a risible example of the hubris, narcissism and self-delusion which typify his character, his latest announcement exposes a very sinister and vicious side to the man.
In an address to the MEK, Rajavi announced that the National Liberation Army (NLA) is now defunct and is to be replaced by the Iranian Free Army. Putting aside the embarrassing downgrading of the MEK’s armed personnel who for thirty years have promised to overthrow the Iranian regime in its entirety, and their replacement with a cheap copy of the western fabricated and opportunist Syrian Free Army, Rajavi’s motive for this announcement needs some explanation.

Since the MEK was removed from the US terrorism list, critics have reminded decision makers that the leader of the MEK, Massoud Rajavi, has reiterated the cult’s commitment to the use of violence to pursue its aims. Rajavi has done all he could, short of ordering a mass suicide, to prevent the break up of his fighting force in Iraq. So far he has succeeded in keeping them together, albeit in a new location. As he faces the prospect of a UN driven disbandment of these forces he has settled on a more lucrative form of ‘mass suicide’ for the cult members.

The moment Rajavi announces to the world that the people in Iraq are an army with the intention of aggressing against Iran with a view to forced regime change, he makes them a legitimate target for defensive counter attack by the Iranian army. It is clear which side has the superior power to destroy.

By thus inviting the Iranians to kill his forces, Rajavi is positioning himself on the far right of the hardliners of the Iranian government, who would like nothing better than to annihilate the MEK organisation in its entirety.

But this is not the total sum of Rajavi’s cynical disposal plan. The re-branding of the MEK’s fighters as the Iranian Free Army allows Rajavi to sell the brand to those who can best use it, namely the Israelis. No need to blame Israel for assassinating Iranian scientists when such heinous acts can be blamed on Rajavi’s new army. Rajavi benefits not only financially, but from the credit which would by default attach to the MEK as a dangerous presence in Iran. Again, Rajavi is positioning himself to the far right of the hardliners viz-a-viz the Iranian people and his own forces.

December 8, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Which one is more effective? Removal from the list orl from Ashraf?

The Mujahedin Khalq Organization was first placed in the list of “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” after the list was created in 1997 because of its alliance with Saddam Hussein and the Which one is more effective? Removal from the list or Removal from Ashraf? assassination campaign it launched against American civilians and military personnel working in Iran in the 1970s. Although designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, the MKO’s lobbying campaign was highly active in US Congress and Administration. [1]

There have been numerous reports on American support for the MKO during the years it was considered a terrorist group. The peak of US sponsorship for the group was revealed by Seymour Hersh’s piece on New Yorker,” Our Men in Iran”. The report exposed that the MKO militants were trained by the US Joint Special Operation Command in Nevada. [2]

Practically the MKO’s designation as a terrorist organization, did not affect its functions in the international community so much. Nor it affected the group’s internal Cult-like relations.
In September2012, the US State Department decided to remove the MKO from the FTO list. The delisting was announced while the State Department emphasized that it “doesn’t overlook or forget the MEK’s past acts of terrorism including its involvement in the killing of US citizens in Iran in the 1970s and an attack on US soil in 1992.” The statement read, “The Department also has serious concerns about the MEK as an organization, particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members". [3]

Actually, the DOS’s concerns about human rights violations committed by the leaders of the cult-like MKO have never prevented the group from its lobbying efforts in the US Congress whether it is listed or delisted. Furthermore, the group’s terrorist designation had no impact on its cult-like practices and its violent behavior against dissident members inside the group.

Once the MKO is delisted, its neo-con supporters will simply more freely support the group although the removal from the list will have no substantial impact on the group’s external functions.

The other crucial change for the MKO was its removal from Camp Ashraf its three-decade home — granted by Saddam Hussein– in Iraq. Following the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq and the Government of Iraq,[4]the MKO was supposed to evacuate Camp Ashraf by the end of 2012.The evacuation process was almost completely accomplished. The Camp residents were transferred to Camp Liberty, a former US base near Baghdad airport.

The removal from Camp Ashraf was an influential phase in the four-decade life of the organization. It significantly affected the group’s internal relations.

Temporary Transit Location (TTL/ Liberty) is guarded by Iraqi Police which has installed several stations in the base. The MKO’s base is no more an isolated, fenced and barbed piece of land in the desert. It is located in the neighborhood of Baghdad where a Shiite government, with friendly relationship with Islamic Republic is ruling.

The camp is also monitored by the UN representatives. Now, the leaders of the MKO have to work harder to maintain the integration of the cult. They have increased cult-like pressure and organizational control over members to prohibit the collapse of their establishment. Members, who have recently fled the TTL, described the severe mind control schedule imposed there right now. Majid Mohammadi is a former MKO member who left Liberty in May 2012. He believes that moving to the new camp has raised the members’ spirits. Therefore, ”the cult leaders had to increase their control over members so that they can maintain the cult relations and structures”, he said in an interview.”They seriously fear members talking to each other”. Moving to TTL has narrowed the leaders’ influence over the forces although they have extended their mind control meetings up to "12 hours a day". [4]

On the other hand, far from the Iranian border, the MKO operatives have almost lost the capacity to launch terrorist acts or to dispatch teams across Iran-Iraq border.
Following the removal of terrorist label from MKO members and also the removal of Ashraf bars from their bodies and minds, they are more likely to find a way out of the Cult of Rajavi on the grand of provided legal opportunities. They can seek asylum in third countries or return to Iran by the aid of UNHCR and the GOI. The eventual collapse of the cult is not so far. The impact of the MKO delisting on the group’s external functions is not really as much as the impact of Ashraf evacuation on the group’s internal functions.

By Mazda Parsi

References:
[1]Sahimi, Mohammad, Don’t Remove the MEK From the Terrorist List, Antiwar.com, July 6th 2011
[2]Hersh, Seymour, Our Men in Iran, the NewYorker, April 6th, 2012
[3]US Department of State, Delisting of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, Office of the Spokesperson, September 28, 2012
[4] https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/4898

December 3, 2012 0 comments

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