Response to the claims made by Ali Safavi to purify MKO black history

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Families of terror victims’ response to the claims made by MKO

Families of terror victims’ response to the claims made by one of Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) members in American website

Last week one of the well-known American news websites (Huffington Post) aiming to put more pressure on Iranians published an article written by one of the MKO so-called Parliament Families of terror victims' response to the claims made by one of Mojahedin Khalq members in American website members, Ali Safavi. The writer of this text has tried his best in order to distort the realities and to acquit Mojahedin-e Khalq from its terrorist background.
This MKO members not only introduces his organization in this paper as a democratic organization, but also claims that the terrorist designation of MKO by European countries and EU as well as United states of America is the result of US deal with Islamic Republic of Iran.

In this regard Justice Supporters Association, comprising the families of 16000 victims of terrorism wrote a letter to the president of the above-mentioned news website in order to reject all the claims made by the MKO member and to reveal all the facts and realities.

This society mentions its positions on this issue as follows: "Iran’s Justice Supporters Association comprising the families of 16000 terrorism victims of Iran, considering the article written by Mr. Ali Safavi published on April 3, 2010 in your news website, decided to write this letter to you to clarify the facts, which have been concealed and deviated by the writer.
Our Association hopes that your sense of equitability in running the Huffington Post news website and your intrinsic attachment as a journalist to reveal and discover the realities, would lead to the publishing of this letter in your website. It would be up to the discerning readers to judge.

First, we would like to ask Mr. Safavi and other parliament members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq The documents related to the assassination of 12000 Iranian citizens, who the leaders of organization call them betrayers, traitors, clergymen…, still remain and their families do not suffer from Alzheimer. Organization that when did you attend in a parliamentary election and how have you been selected? Has your organization ever had an election that now you call yourselves the representatives or the members of this parliament?

Mulling over weird fancies and having an approach resulted from illusion of conspiracy, Mr. Safavi has completely changed and distorted the background of his organization in a way that makes any wise man completely amazed and wondered.

Forgetting all the activities of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization in the past 40 years, he still tries to prove that there is not any document or evidence on the world and every one suffers Alzheimer regarding with the viewpoints and activities of MKO. Although he believes that, the terrorist designation by EU members and US was just an accusation and all this has happened due to a political game, but in fact there are too many evidences and documents proving that this organization has committed many terrorist crimes in the past forty years.

The documents related to the assassination of 12000 Iranian citizens, who the leaders of organization call them betrayers, traitors, clergymen…, still remain and their families do not suffer from Alzheimer. Mr. Safavi and MKO organization leaders perceived all their victims political or military men. It must be mentioned that the number of political and military men who have been assassinated by this organization like Iranian president, Prime Minister and Iran’s Judiciary Chief is also considerable. In order to remind some of these realities, we rely on the 2007 report by the US Department of State:

"In 1981, MKO leadership attempted to overthrow the newly installed Islamic regime; The MKO instigated a bombing campaign, including an attack against the head office of the Islamic Republic Party and the Prime Minister’s office, which killed some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar."

It’s worth to mention that seeking a way to acquit itself from the terrorist activities, Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization presently attempts to distort the history. However, anyone knows that under the reign of Pahlavi and before 1979 revolution, having a leftist-imperialist ideology, the organization had assassinated several American and Iranian counselors and citizens in Iran. In this regard we would invoke the report presented by US Department of State and National Defense Research Institute (RAND) on the activities of the organization before 1979 revolution:

" In 1960s, Mojahedin-e Khalq was one of the most violent political movements opposing Pahlavi regime. During 1970s, MKO assassinated American military and non- military personnel working on the defensive projects and supported the 1979 US embassy seizure."

In addition, the report adds:

"At the outset of US invasion on Iraq the MKO was listed as a hostile target. This decision was based primarily on the MKO’s history of working with Saddam’s military, including its alleged participation in the suppression of the Shia and Kurdish uprisings of 1991, as well as the many violent attacks that it had conducted against Iranian targets in recent years."

Definitely Mr. safavi has already read these various reports and his leaders also are aware of them. In fact, maybe their awareness of these reports has forced them to distort the history and try to accuse Iran of political game. Mr. Safavi knows better than every one else that the terrorist background and activities of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization and its attached organizations like "National Council of Resistance" or "National Liberation Army of Iran" are such dark and abominable that other Iranian foreign opposition groups consider them terrorist organizations just like Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Just before the terrible attacks of September 11, 2001 by Al Qaeda operatives, which was followed by the celebrations of Masoud and Maryam Rajavi and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, they were acting as Saddam’s especial army for killing Iranian and Iraqi children. How is it possible that the same group and the same leaders today are talking about the rights of Iranian people, democracy or women’s rights?

Mr. Safavi, don’t you think that now you have to explain what you mean by ‘democracy’?

Is your democracy the same as what Stalin and Hitler spoke about?

Stating the German intelligence report from the Federal Office we leave the judgment to the readers:" MKO is a repressive, sect-like and Stalinist authoritarian organization, which centres around the personality cult of [MKO leaders] Maryam and Masoud Rajavi. According to the orders of the leader, all the members of the organization are bound to complete obedience. This is done by some sort of brain washing and psychological processes that make the members to forget their past and follow the order of the leader without hesitation."
Well, what do the leaders of MKO mean by the rights of women, Mr. Safavi? Is the definition of women rights something like the definition of democracy? One more time let’s refer to the German Federal Office report:

" the members of the organization had to divorce their wives and become isolated from their families in order that they could obey the orders without any excuse. Their children also after being divided according to their age and gender were sent to Europe to be kept in orphanages."

Mr. Safavi, himself, was among the 100 persons who had to get divorced after the ideological revolution of Masoud Rajavi.

Has this German governmental organization really had some collusion with Islamic Republic of Iran for issuing the report?

Is it possible to claim that any organization that reveals the facts about your previous or current thoughts or activities has some sort of blackmailing relations with Iran and its government?

Committing illegal acts like money laundering, human trafficking, self-immolation, having cultic approaches along with terror and terrorism are all the realities, which have been published in the US and some European countries’ reports. Some of them are included here:

The report presented by US Department of State and National Defense Research Institute (RAND) in this regard asserts:

"MKO has always been considered as an organization with closed relations inside and an inward-looking cult but by the time its leaders and most of the members moved to Paris it turned to a more wicked issue. In Paris, Rajavi instituted what he termed an “ideological revolution” in 1985, which, over time, imbued the MKO with many of the typical
characteristics of a cult, such as authoritarian control, confiscation of assets, sexual control (including mandatory divorce and celibacy), emotional isolation, forced labor, sleep deprivation, physical abuse, and limited exit options."

For coalition forces, the MKO’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 MKO 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.

According to U.S. law, providing any type of support—political, financial, or otherwise—for an FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organization) is a federal crime. Moreover, many of the MKO’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 MKO has also been linked with a range of money-laundering activities."

In the same line, the German intelligence report from the Federal Office explains:

" due to the past illegal money-laundering activities of the Council, Mojahedin-e Khalq is under prosecution in most European countries and Germany."

The German High Court closed several MKO safe houses, “foster” homes, and compounds after an investigation revealed that the MKO fraudulently collected money in social welfare benefits for MKO children sent to Europe.

These are just some paragraphs of the official reliable reports on MKO. Notwithstanding Mr. Safavi considers all of them a big deal in favor of Iran.

He tries to distort the history and show off an innocent image of an organization, which has a long history of terrorism and violence. In the past 30 years according to Masoud Rajavi’s own confessions and statements, this terrorist group has assassinated about 12000 innocent Iranian people from whom more than 80 percent were civilians. Nevertheless, the history would always keep the realities and truths and the MKO leaders can never distort them.

April 15, 2010 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Reality Check: MKO Suppressive Pearl Operation

[MKO’s extensive propaganda campaign for spreading faked information about the true nature of its terrorist destructive cult had set for a new purification project in order to remove dirty stains of terrorist activities and atrocities of their cult from the historical memory of public opinion. To achieve such an unlikely goal, Ali safavi, the group’s henchman, does too much effort to write a series of posts denying the crimes committed by his organization.
Nejat Society, in turn, views it as essential to enlighten the minds about the claims made by MKO remnants.]

Among the long list of Mujahedin Khalq Organization’s terrorist activities, one may find Iraqi Kurd’s suppression by MKO due to its absolute obedience to its former financial and military sponsor Saddam Hussein.

In his serial postings ,Rajavi’s remnant, Ali Safavi has tried hard to deny MKO’s role in suppressing Iraqi Kurds’ uprising in 1991 and in order to cover their crimes against Kurds, Mujahedin claimed that they repelled the attack of Iranian forces to their bases and called the alleged anti-attack, ”Pearl Operation”.
Mr. Alimardan, the head of Workers’ Union in Iraqi province of Kirkuk said:” I and my family are the victims of MKO’s terrorist activities.”
Pearl (Morvarid in persain) is the name of a chain of mountains in the border of Iranian Kermanshah province and Kurdistan of Iraq, where the massacre of Kurds took place.
In 1991, there was the risk from the side of Iraqi opponents to Baath regime: Kurds in the North and Shiites in the South. The only force to oppose the oppositions in that region was MKO who was present in the absence of Saddam Hussein’s forces. MEK leaders knew that falling of Saddam Hussein; their main financial and logistic sponsor equals Rajavi’s removal. Through a radio message, Saddam Hussein asked the people in Northern areas to cooperate with Rajavi’s forces as well as Baath army and their disobedience would lead them to death. [1]

Rajavi in his turn promised Saddam that his group would fight the Kurds with their entire power. Then, through a message he declared:”Iranian soldiers, in Kurds clothes, are supposed to attack Mujahedin“ But when the members started to hesitate he stated:”IRI’s Pasdaran and YKT’s have allied to attack Mujahedin.[2]

In addition to various testimonies made by former members of the cult, Iraqi authorities, moved by their hatred towards MKO as Saddam Hussein’s mercenary force, have repeatedly asked for their expulsion from Iraqi territory. Mohammad Tofiq Rahim, an official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan told Radio Liberty that his organization has documented evidence of Rajavi’s role [in suppression of Kurds]. He said that when the Kurds seized control of Northern region of Iraq with US assistance at the end of Gulf War in 1991, MEK cooperated with Iraqi army in retaking control of the city Kirkuk. Hundreds of the city’s residents were killed by MEK. “Every one in Iraqi Kurdistan knows that Massoud Rajavi cooperated with Mukhaberat [Intelligence Ministry ] and security forces of the regime of Saddam”, Rahim said .[3]

Mohammad Javad Al-Dorkhi, Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq in Belgium and the European Union, clarifies that new Iraq has inherited a heavy legacy from the former dictatorship, which not only suppressed and crushed the Iraqi people and made hundreds of mass graves launched wars and invasions but left on the ground in Iraq a camp inhabited by a group of terrorists, mercenaries , who make up the military wing of MKO terrorists who were allied with the former regime and participated with his security forces in the brutal suppression and liquidation of Iraqi, Arabs and Kurds, during the popular uprising in 1991 after the failure of Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait.[4]

Ali Safavi pretended to have a huge support for MKO among Iraqi authorities and juridical officials; Once again he tries to accelerate his propaganda machine claiming to enjoy the support of thousands of Iraqi lawyers. The truth is that in September 2009 Iraq’s Supreme criminal court assigned to review crimes done by the former Iraqi Baath regime during the 1991 uprising and announced that it has received 5000 complaints filed against the regime and anti-Iran terrorist group, Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO).[5]

MEK’s vain effort to purify their dark history leads Ali Safavi to the claim that “it had never harbored the slightest bit of hostility toward Iraqi Kurds”.[6] As Al-Dorkhi states :” the Iraqi people are familiar with the strong relationship between MKO and the elements of the former regime and the coalition between them and the fateful military support and material submitted to it by the former system and they will never forget the blood of Iraqi children bas been lost at the hands of these terrorists and now the Iraqis insist on their right to bring them to trial and justice.[7]

There are many living eye-witnesses among Iraqi Kurds. Mr. Alimardan, the head of Workers’ Union in Iraqi province of Kirkuk said:” I and my family are the victims of MKO’s terrorist activities.” offering his sympathy for other victims of MKO, he expressed his hatred for these terrorists and Saddam Hussein. ”they committed numerous crimes against Iraqis so that many in Northern and Southern Iraq were killed and wounded by this group,” he said.[8]

In a meeting with Habilian Association, Iraqi tribal Sheikhs from Bagdad, Maysan and Babil insisted that “MKO’s propaganda that they are supported by Iraqi tribal leaders is totally a lie.”Sheikh Abu-hussein Ghadhban told Habilian that “Saddam Hussein used the group intentionally to suppress Iraqi nation”.[9]

Ali Safavi’s disinformation on Jalal Talebani, President of Iraq is the outcome of MKO’s declining situation in Iraq. He tried to demonize Jalal Talebani using faked allegations, since he knows that as the first official of Iraqi government Jalal Talebani is determined to expel MKO from Iraqi soil. “According to the Iraqi Constitution there is no place for terrorist groups in Iraq” Talebani said.[10]in fact one of the major pressure on the United States to round up the MEK[in 2003] and put them in a camp did not come from Iran; it came from Jalal Talebani [11]

According to Qobad Talebani,son of Jalal Talebani “Up until the fall of the regime, they [MEK] were part of and parcel of Iraqi military . And they were heavily involved in suppressing the Kurdish uprising of 1991.”[12]

Ordered by Saddam and carried out by Massoud Rajavi, the role of MEK in repressing the Kurdish revolt must have created serious problems within the organization. Many members have Kurdish roots. In addition, the PMOI clashed with Kurdish groups within the Iranian opposition, leading to more defectors and the further isolation of Massoud Rajavi.[13]

And finally the large-scale support for MEK by former Iraqi dictatorship for two decades only leaves a bad fame for these terrorists and proves that MKO is really a terrorist organization. The US Department of State boosts its credibility by labeling MEK as a foreign terrorist organization based on credible evidences.

By: Mazda Parsi

April 14, 2010 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Reality Check: Understanding a terrorist organization, MEK

In another effort to purify MEK’s record, the group’s remnants published another article allegedly to “shed light on the provenance of MEK’s designation [1] as a terrorist organization. As always, the so-called article includes list of allegations, accusations to attack Islamic Republic and Western politic men, accusing former for alleged disinformation against MEK or the latter for appeasement policy towards Iran. However, the writer never tries to defend his organization for its terrorist label. He doesn’t present the least evidence to prove that his organization has not committed terrorist activities except in one place.

Thorough introductory paragraphs he claims that “MEK’s resorting to armed actions against military targets in Iran until summer of 2001 has been cited by some Western government agencies, including the US Department of State, as evidence to invite the designation of the group as terrorist”[2], although in fact more than 90% of their intended targets and almost 95% of their casualties have been Iranian civilians.[3]In 1972 MEK’s first terrorist operation took place in Tehran where they launched a bombing attack against an electricity factory which was not a military target. Since then, the group launched a countless number of terrorist operations against Iranian civilians especially after the Islamic Revolution. The list of MEK’s mortar attacks, bombings and assassinations has been already published in numerous occasions by various international, governmental or private institutes including defectors’ websites, US Department of state, RAND (National Defense Research Institute)…

Among MEK’s terrorist acts against civilians, the most crucial ones are “Attack on offices of General Motors in 1972, Bombing of offices of Oman Bank and Pan-American Oil and of gates of British embassy in 1974,suicide attacks targeting senior clerics in Tabriz, Khorasan, Shiraz and Rasht in 1981 and 1982,simultaneous raids on Iranian embassies in 13 countries in 1922,bombing of Imam Reza Shrine in 1994,Assassination of two former MEK members in 1996,bombing of Tehran Revolution Court in 1998,mortar attack at Chamran University of Ahwaz 2000, mortar attack on President Khatami’s palace in Tehran in 2000,mortar attack on residential housing complex in Tehran in 2000.[4]

In his effort to portrait his notorious organization as an important figure in Iran-West relations, Safavi calls his group “the biggest enemy” of Islamic Republic. He fails to consider that MEK’s deliberately targeted and planned sabotage operations against civilians and its bad fame due to collaboration with Saddam Hussein during the eight years of Iran-Iraq war, ends in the hatred of the majority of Iranians. Elaheh Hicks of Human Rights Watch says:” many, many Iranians inside Iran resent the MEK, the Iranian government actually benefits from having an opposition like this.”[5]

According to what criteria an organization will be considered “terrorist”?

“Terrorism “is in the most general sense, the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. since 1994, the Unite Nations General Assembly has repeatedly condemned terrorist acts using the following political description of terrorism:” criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke state of terror in the general public or persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be involved to justify them”[6]

Therefore, MEK’s use of violence against civilian targets should never be justified by its weird cult-like ideology. This is what Ali Safavi fears to discuss. He daren’t to deal with terrorism designation in nature because he and his ideological leader Massoud Rajavi have nothing, no evidence to defend their terrorist destructive cult for its numerous acts of terrorism. They are not able to prove that their terror label is invalid so they try to accuse the Islamic Republic instead of defending their group.

Also a less politically and emotionally charged, and more easily definable term for terrorism is “violent non-state actor”[7] this term covers the whole MEK’s activities since its foundation. The group has been always engaged in armed struggle and violent overthrow of Iranian regime, it has never been a governmental entity and its background had been blended a countless number of violent attacks against military or civilian targets (about 12000 deaths).

After Massoud Rajavi fled to France in 1981, his first decision was to change the name of notorious MEK (Mujahedin –e- Khalq) to NCRI (National Council of Resistance of Iran) which allowed the MEK to stay in Western political scene and not to be threatened as a terrorist organization. However, NCR was also added to Foreign terrorist organization list of Department of state in August 2003 and its office in Washington DC was closed and its assets were blocked.

Rajavi’s crimes against humanity do not end in Iran and against Iranian civilians, according to many documents, MEK had a longstanding alliance with former Iraqi dictator. They cooperated with Baath regime to suppress Kurds’ uprisings in Iraq in 1991. A lot of former members offered testimonies of Kurds suppression operation (Morvarid Operation) where Maryam Rajavi ordered members to “take Kurds under the tank and save bullets for Iranian soldiers”.[8]

Along with his deceitful propaganda campaign, Ali Safavi claims that Western policy toward Iran has failed and it is time for Obama administration to unite with his terrorist cult of personality. He fails to understand that the reality is that the world community especially Iranians, Iraqis and even Americans never forget the atrocities of MEK terrorist Organization and the threat of that destructive cult.

Endnotes:

[1]: Ali Safavi,Reality Check, Huffington Post,March31,2010.
[2]Ibid
[3]Charles Kent, Terrorist living among us, June 5,2009
[4]the Mujahedin khalq in Iraq,apolicy conundrum,RAND,August 2009.
[5] Charles Kent, Terrorist living among us, June 5,2009
[6]Wikipedia
[7] Ibid
[8]Kurds Suppression, Nejat Publications

By: Mazda Parsi

April 11, 2010 0 comment

The Ideology of the MEK

Reality Check: MKO Terrorist, Marxist

In the early March, 2010, Ali Safavi (MKO spokesman) wrote an article on Huffington Post in an effort to purify his terrorist Marxist designated organization’s background. He claimed that the purpose of his forum is “to dispense with some of the myths originally propagated by Tehran’s intelligence service against MEK”. Ali Akbar Rastgou, former member of MEK:"the ideology of the organization can be evaluated as a blend of Marxist and Islam"

This is the first time MEK authorities are trying to “respond to various questions regarding the organization and its actions”. Ali Safavi initially deals with the Marxist label on MEK. He claims that MEK was founded as a “Muslim organization … and its founders sought a secular republic and establishment of a democracy in Iran.”(!)

A quick search on MEK ideology, history and the official reports by international bodies, gives you the connotation that the group has not been founded on secular basis and its founders had not been inspired by a secular doctrine.

Ali Akbar Rastgou, former member of MEK, in his book “Mujahedin Khalq in the mirror of history “, writes:”the ideology of the organization can be evaluated as a blend of Marxist and Islam”. He notes that the group’s leaders had focused on rhetorical work on the methodology of their organization particularly before 1970’s. He lists a number of books which were usually studied by Hanif Nejad ( A main founder of the group) in order to establish a firm, complete ideology for MEK. The books include: Mao’s Little Red Book, “Against Liberalism” of Mao, “Four philosophical Articles of Stalin”, “What is to be done?” of Lenin, ”On contradiction “ of Mao …. Then Saeed Mohsen (a founder of MKO) wrote a book titled “ An Introduction on Marxist studies” which was published in 1970’s.

The US State Department also describes MKO as an organization that was “formed in the 1960’s by the college-educated children of Iranian merchants, following a philosophy that mixes Marxism and Islam.”

“The escapees from this weird political sect, which combines Marxism ,elements of Islam and the Rajavi cult of Personality describe a harrowing experience, including torture, imprisonment and enforced brainwashing techniques.” writes Jusitn Raimondo in his article ”Assassins of Peace” published on Anti-war.com in 2008.

In contrast to what Ali Safavi propagandizes on the separation of religion and state, MEK principally believes in an ideological system rooted in the religion. That’s the huge contradiction in Safavi and his comrades’ claims. He claims to be a member of a Muslim organization; he quotes Masud Rajavi as saying that “believing in Muhammad is incompatible with the philosophy of Marxims.” and on the other side, he claims that MKO “founders sought a secular republic in Iran”

MEK might be able to deceive a part of public opinion by its fake slogans but in nature the only difference between its ideology and Marxism is the substitution of the term Marxism with new ones. The organizational system is based on individuality denial, censorship, violation of freedom, civil laws. A glance at the Marxism-based governments (socialists, communists like Mao and Stalin) shows up a lot of similarities between MKO’ s organizational system and those of Stalin or Mao.

Professor Paul Sheldon Foote of California State University calls Massoud Rajavi as Polpot of Iran. He thinks that the history of Polpot, the communist terrorist leader of Cambodia is very similar to that of MEK.

Another reason for labeling MEK as a Marxist group is its commitment to guerilla Warfare that caused them to commit numerous terrorist activities against civilians. Marx was an expert on military history and noted many cases of the use of armed struggle to achieve political power.

In the early 21th century, when Marxism is viewed as an old, abolished, rejected ideology, MEK ashamed of its scandalous background and along with its deceitful propaganda campaign, makes too much effort to purify its past. That’s why Massoud Rajavi and his accomplices like Ali Safavi view themselves forced to respond the numerous questions surrounding their ambiguous cult of personality.

By Mazda Parsi

March 17, 2010 0 comment