The MKO is responsible for numerous acts of violence 
against Iranian civilians and government officials as well as Iraqis
A senior Iranian dignitary describes the EU-led decision to remove the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from the terror blacklist as a ‘strategic mistake’.
A senior member of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Javad Jahangirzadeh said the EU move to exempt the MKO from the killings of thousands of Iranians was a political disgrace, Fars News Agency reported Sunday.
“It is the European Union’s strategic mistake to hold hope on the MKO because the terrorist group has no social or popular base in Iran,”he added.
The lawmaker said the mistake by European countries would be in Iran’s favor because the”West has no concrete information and analysis about the MKO.”
The Mujahedin Khalq Organization, which identifies itself as a Marxist-Islamist guerilla army, was founded in Iran in the 1960s, but was exiled some twenty years later for performing numerous acts of terrorism in the country.
The terrorists are especially notorious for taking sides with former dictator Saddam Hussein during the war Iraq imposed on Iran (1980-1988).
Anne Singleton, an expert on the MKO and author of Saddam’s Private Army explains that the West aims to keep the group afloat in order to use it in efforts to destabilize Iran and possibly attempt to stage a regime change.
“With a new Administration in the White House a pre-emptive strike on Iran looks unlikely. Instead the MKO’s backers have put together a coalition of small extremists groups, the known minority and separatist groups, along with the MKO. These groups will be garrisoned around the border of Iran and their task is to launch terrorist attacks inside Iran over the next few years to turn up the heat,”she explains.
“The role of the MKO is to train and manage these groups using the expertise they acquired from Saddam’s Republican Guard,”Singleton added.
A 2007 German intelligence report from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has identified the MKO as a”repressive, sect-like and Stalinist authoritarian organization which centers around the personality cult of [MKO leaders] Maryam and Masoud Rajavi.”
Dr. Abdalzahra Mohye: Iraqis have suffered from crimes committed by MKO
Iraqi intellectuals meet Habilian Secretary General
Mashhad- A number of Iraqi elites and intellectuals met and exchanged ideas with Secretary General of Habilian Association over the current status of Iraq and also the presence of terrorist cult of Mojahedin-e Khalq within this country. After welcoming the arrival of the delegation in the holy city of Mashhad at the beginning of the meeting, Mohammad Javad Hashemi Nejad expressed his happiness to host his Iraqi brothers and said: We are very much pleased of the ongoing relations between the people of two brotherly nations of Iran and Iraq and also the strong ties between the authorities of the two countries. No one could possibly find any other two nations around the world closer to each other than Iran and Iraq.
Hashemi Nejad notified the demise of dictatorship systems in the region and the support of colonial powers to them and said: considering the events that have occurred during past three or four decades one can easily find out that the use of force would not work and an instance of that is what we witnessed in Iran. The Shah of Iran which was supported and appointed the Gendarme of the region by Americans was easily brought down by the Islamic revolution.
At the same time, we saw the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Then we saw how the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled. We would also witness how American forces who occupied Iraq for their own interests become involved in the fate of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
Secretary-General of the Organization representing the families of the martyrs of terrorism in Iran then referred to the attempts of Americans in order to sow discord among the peoples of Iraq and Iran and said: the United States of America was up to follow the policy of divide and rule in he region ; but we are still friends and there exist very strong relations between us. The colonial powers have always sought for a way to influence the viewpoints of the peoples of the two nations and this is why the responsibilities and pledges of the elites and intellectuals of the two countries is now more difficult than ever and any mistake would have irreparable consequences.
Martyr Hashemi Nejad’s son then spoke about the elections in Iraq and said: we have seen how Americans attempts to influence the Iraqi elections and their efforts to change the results failed.
The expert in the issues related to Iraq condemned America’s double standards in facing the issue of terrorism and said: The arrival of United States in Iraq was concurrent with the entrance of terrorists to Iraq. Now after the handover of the security issues to the Iraqi government the security situation has improved and terrorist operations have reduced to a high extent. In fact, the U.S has provided support for terrorist groups such as MKO (Mojahedin-e Khalq) which is designated as terrorist by America itself. This is an indication to the fact that not only America doesn’t want to fight with terrorism but also it tries to take advantage from terrorist groups.
Hashemi Nejad also said: Americans support MKO terrorist group to pressure against the Iraqi people and government .We must be careful because MKO is a very deceitful group and master of manipulation. All statements they post in the internet on behalf of the Iraqi people and authorities are false. They are professional in giving out false statistics. For example, they announced that five million two hundred thousand of the Iraqi people are on their side and support their presence in Iraq. Then they declare that three million Iraqi Shiites also demand their survival in Iraq; but until this moment none of these so called three million Shiite supporters have asked the government not to expel the group from Iraq.
Then Hashemi Nejad referred to MKO false propagations in the media over the interference of Iran in the internal affairs of Iraq and said: they have staged a large wave of false allegations in the media with the help of Americans against Iran while accusing Iran of having role in destabilizing Iraq; but they haven’t so far presented any document which proves these allegations. This is while America has kept this terrorist group in Iraq and has provided them with unlimited support exactly for the same reason of creating insecurity and sabotage inside Iraq so as to justify the presence of American forces in Iraq. There is also a second reason for the support America decided to provide the group with and that’s their presumptions based on which the attack on Iran will come after the invasion of Iraq, and in this sense terrorist cult of MKO would be useful for them as a source of espionage.
Another reason why MKO is still in Iraq is the refrainment by all nations of the world to give asylum to the group because they consider it a terrorist organization.
Here I should notify that the Islamic Republic of Iran has offered amnesty to those MKO members in camp Ashraf whose hands are not stained with the blood of the innocent people but as the existence of these deceived elements in Ashraf would guarantee the future of the MKO gang leaders and the fact that the leadership looks at them as human shields, therefore it’s ready to sacrifice them for its own survival and that way there would happen a human catastrophe in Ashraf.
Dr. Abdalzahra Mohye who is a university professor enumerated a part of MKO crimes in Iraq and said: I would like to talk about one of our common concerns which is the presence of MKO terrorist organization in Iraq. We know very well that the United States brought up MKO terrorist gang in order to implement criminal schemes against the peoples of Iran and Iraq in the past and even now. I want to tell you that many and Iraqi families have suffered from crimes committed by MKO. As the private army of Saddam Hussein, this little group assisted former regime to massacre Iraqi Kurds and suppress Shiites Intifada.
I saw it with my own eyes how they killed innocent people in a mosque in Baghdad’s Sadr district.
Dr. Abdalzahra Mohye also said: The Iraqi people will not support this criminal gang and will never bear their presence in Iraq.
Dr Ne’me Shihab was another speaker to the meeting who asked Secretary General of Habilian if he believes MKO claims about gathering over five million signatures from Iraqi Shiites whom the group says will support MKO presence in Iraq.
In response to this question Hashemi Nejad said: what is clear is that nobody believes these claims and none of the Iraqi officials confirm such claims. If they have so many
supporters in Iraq why don’t they even stage a rally against MKO expulsion from Iraq? We believe that Al Qaeda was not familiar Iraq and it was MKO which made Al Qaeda familiar with this country. We have talked to many Iraqi tribal leaders and they unanimously said that MKO deceives people and after gathering signatures use them for their own ambitions. We have witnessed the same situation in England, where they follow their terrorist activities and fundraisings under the name of 23 font organizations for human rights.
He also added: All the Iraqi authorities and groups we have met demanded the expulsion of MKO from their country. They believe that MKO receives support from the remnant of Baathis and some notorious figures like Salih al-Mutlak and Khalaf al-Ayan that prefer their personal interests to their national interests.
Dr. Mothanna al-Fadhli was another speaker of the meeting who said: Mr. Hashemi Nejad mentioned that MKO interferes in the Iraqi affairs indirectly; but I should say that they directly meddle in our internal affairs. They come out of camp Ashraf and declare they are Iranians. Then start killing Iraqi people. What I should remind you of is that Shiites never support such a terrorist organization and MKO and its supporters are quite notorious for the Iraqis.
After removing an anti-Iranian terror group from their blacklist, European Union lawmakers are now urging President Barack Obama to follow suit.
More than 100 members of the European Parliament have tried to persuade the US president to lift an American ban on the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), AFP reported on Thursday.
The MKO, which identifies itself as a Marxist-Islamist guerilla army, was founded in Iran in the 1960s but was exiled some twenty years later for carrying out numerous acts of terrorism inside the country.
The group is especially notorious for the help it extended to former dictator Saddam Hussein during the war Iraq imposed on Iran (1980-1988) and helped him in the massacre of thousands of innocent Iraqis.
The group masterminded a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, one of which was the 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party, in which more than 72 Iranian officials were killed, including the then Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti.
The report adds that the lawmakers feel the group’s removal from the US list of terror is necessary as it has”clearly demonstrated”its commitment to the West and its opposition to religious fundamentalism.
The organization, known as the”Rajavi cult”after its leader Masoud Rajavi, was placed on Washington’s list of banned organizations in 1997.
The European Union had also initially banned the group, but later gave in to the intense lobbying of Rajavi’s wife Maryam and removed it from the terrorist list in January.
Renowned journalist Elizabeth Rubin of the New York Times brands the group as a cult, operating like”any other military dictatorship.”
“No one can criticize Rajavi. And everyone must go through routine self-criticism sessions…If there’s a sign of resistance, you are considered not revolutionary enough, and you need more ideological training. Either people breakaway or succumb,”she wrote in 2003.
The group’s cult-like activities include psychological coercion techniques, physical abuse and ‘forced sterilization’ to prevent members from leaving the group.
The MKO is responsible for several acts of terror in Iran including the 1994 bombing of a revered Shia shrine in Mashhad in eastern Iran.
In 2003, French anti-terrorist police arrested 165 members in Paris, including Maryam Rajavi, for ‘associating with wrongdoers in relation with a terrorist undertaking.’
More recently, around 10 members of the notorious organization were arrested in France and Switzerland on charges of money laundering on September 29, 2008.
Iraqi PM, Noori Al Maliki in London: Mojahedin Khalq will never operate from Iraq 
According to the London based Al Sharq Al Aawsat newspaper, concerning the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, Noori Almaliki the Iraqi prime minister said: we have been participating with the British and coalition forces during these times and the British forces have successfully brought to an end their military mission.
…
Concerning the Mojahedin Khalq presence in Iraq he said: Under no circumstances would their presence in Iraq be acceptable. Irrespective of some speculation that this may be due to pressure from Iranians or non Iranians, I should emphasise clearly that even if Iran asks us to keep them in Iraq, we will not allow this. This is a terrorist organisation present in various lists of terrorist entities across the globe which of course concerns many, including Iran, the United Nations and other countries.
From our point of view, this is an organisation which has committed many crimes against the people of Iraq, being Kurds, Shiites or Sunnis, hand-in-hand with the last regime (Saddam Hussein) and even right now they are meddling in the internal affairs of our country and there are allegations of their active involvement in the present insurgencies in Iraq. Therefore we cannot allow their presence in the new Iraq. According to the constitution of Iraq, the country will not be used as a base for any terrorist organisation and no one is allowed to use our soil to act against other countries.
Maliki added: I clearly emphasise to the members of this group that although we will not hand them over to Iran, they should not for a moment think that Iraq can be a base for them.
Translated by Iran Interlink
the original Interview(Arabic): http://www.aawsat.com/details.asp?section=4&article=517372&issueno=11112
Terrorists living among us: The Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) – Also called MEK by Iranians
MKO was founded in September 1965, by three graduates of Tehran University
involved in religious-nationalist political activism, namely: Mohammad Hanifnezhad, Saied Mohsen and Asghar Badizadegan.
The central ideology of MKO was based on revolutionary armed struggle as being the only viable opposition against the U.S. backed and supported government of the Shah in Iran. Their ideology relied heavily on an interpretation of Islam as a revolutionary message compatible with modern revolutionary ideologies of Marxism.
The Mojahedin-e Khalq (also known as MEK inside Iran) means People’s Advocates, yet more than 90% of their intended targets and almost 95% of their casualties have been Iranian civilians.
After completing its primarily efforts on developing a revolutionary ideology and training its members in urban guerilla warfare, thirteen MKO members traveled to Jordan and Lebanon in 1970, and received 4 months of military training inside Palestinian Liberation Organization camps.
Prior to carrying out any armed activities, the MKO planned to develop its ideology further and built an infrastructure and train new recruits. However, this strategy was thwarted by the emergence of a competing Marxist guerilla group, the Fadaian Khalq Organization.
On February 8, 1971, members of the Fadaian launched their first operation by attacking a police station in the village of Siahkal in the northern province of Gilan. This incident marked the emergence of armed struggle against the Shah’s government.
The MKO’s leadership, surprised by the Siahkal incident, decided to expedite their plans for armed operations by organizing a spectacular bombing attack against the electric power grids in Tehran. At this time, the government was in the midst of promoting a large-scale celebration marking 2500 years of Persian monarchy in Iran.
During their efforts to acquire explosives, the MKO were infiltrated by the SAVAK security forces who tracked their activities and arrested thirty-five members of the MKO on August 23, 1971, just days before the scheduled onset of their first operation.
MKO’s remaining members who escaped detection by the security forces continued to recruit new members as well as carrying out a number of armed operations against Iranian government and, in particular, targeted American personnel and tourists in Iran since they regarded the U.S. support for the Shah as his Achilles Heal.
There were about 40,000 American citizens and military personnel living and working in Iran. MKO assumed that if they could stop U.S. support for the Shah, his control over the country would collapse. During these attacks against Americans many more Iranian civilians also died (a ratio of 25 to 1).
There is no doubt that the MKO is a terrorist organization and has long been on U.S. government’s terrorist list. European countries have detailed records of countless numbers of terrorist activities, planning, and funding initiated in Europe (although not targeting European citizens) against Iranian government officials and citizens including a bombing that maimed current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. However, MKO states that they target civilians because that is the only way to overthrow governments in Iran by putting pressure on the people.
When Nixon was supposed to visit Iran in 1972, MKO launched time bombs in more than ten Iran-U.S. centers in Tehran where Americans and Iranians would be gathered to welcome Nixon during his visit. These centers included: Association of Iran-US, Office of US Information, Iran-U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Offices of Pepsi Cola and General Motors in Tehran.
From 1972 to 1975, Mujahedin Khalq Organization continued bombings and damaged some targets like the offices of Pan-American Airlines, Shell, Du Pont, and EDS.
In 1975, U.S. State Department concluded that 4 American citizens were murdered by MKO to pressure the U.S. to stop its support for the Shah of Iran and leave the country. During the same year, there were more than 40 attacks against American tourists in Iran. There were many American casualties in Iran directly contributed to MKO and they promptly claimed credit for all at the time.
Lt. Col. Lewis L. Hawkins, Col. Pal Shiffer, Lt. Col. Jack Turner, Donald J. Smith, Robert R. Grengrad and William C. Catrel from Rockwell International were victims of MKO attacks against U.S. interests in Iran.
It was shocking for the U.S. to lose six of its senior officers in a country which had closest ties with the U.S. in the Middle East. MKO’s deliberately targeted and planned sabotaging operations against US personnel and interests in Iran.
The Shah of Iran and his Israeli trained security forces (SAVAK) conduced a sweeping operation and many of MKO leaders and planners were arrested and imprisoned. The list included: Masoud Rajavi (the current leader of MKO), Hadi Roshanravani (top Intelligence official) , Mohammad-Ali Jaberzadeh Ansari (high ranking theorist), and the frequent FOX News guest, Alireza Jafarzadeh, the group’s spokesperson. The other key figures arrested included of: Reza Qaremi, Saied Mohsen, Mohammad Hanif-nezhad, Abdelreza Nikkbin called Abdi, Ali Asghar Badi Zadegan, Mahmoud Asgarizadeh, Rasoul Meshkinfam and Ahmad Rezaim and Lotfollah Meisami. All had taken part in assassinations, bombings, and planning operations against U.S. personnel.
One of the consequences of the Islamic Revolution was the freedom of all political prisoners, including Masoud Rajavi, and all the other senior operatives and senior members. Although the revolution was Islamic in nature, Marxist members of Leftist groups and also Marxist-Islamist members of MKO were also among the freed and subsequently merged.
Once regrouped the MKO was stronger than ever before. In November 1979, MKO officials asked for interrogating embassy staff. Thankfully, it was refused by "Revolution council".
After the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, MKO claimed that all the violence and ‘muscle’ against the Shah was directly attributed to the MKO and hence it deserves (it claimed) that it should be given political and economic control of Iran. When the new government of the Islamic Republic refused, MKO launched terrorist operations against Iran and joined Saddam Hussein during the Iraq-Iran war (1980-88). The group is also known to have carried out order by the former dictator Saddam Hussein in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.
After leaving his wife Ashraf Rabii, who was later killed in an armed clash by the Iranian security forces in the company of Moussa Khiabani the head of the MKO inside Iran, Masoud Rajavi remarried his current wife, Maryam Uzdanlu, now known as Maryam Rajavi who is now the co-leader of the MKO.
Her first decision was to change the name from MKO to National Council for Resistance (or NCR) which was Maryam Rajavi’s most important contribution to the MKO in decades. This allowed the MKO to stay on the political scene in Europe and America and not be treated as a terrorist organization. Its main use was to deceive the Americans and Europeans against thinking that this is the same Mujahedin responsible for assassinating American citizens in Iran.
Once the NCR started campaigning for money and influence in Washington for assistance against the Iranian Islamic government, the U.S. politicians and the Israeli lobbyist ignored their origins and their past activities against American civilians. The new face and spokesperson of the NCR became Alireza Jafarzadeh, the frequent FOX News "Iran Analyst". Mr. Jafarzadeh was comfortable in Washington’s power corridors, much like Ahmed Chalabi, the exiled Iraqi who provided much of the now-discredited information on Iraq’s weapons program.
Fox News now introduces Jafarzadeh as either their employee, or Iran Analyst, or as the head of a consultancy company. But as recently as 2002 the same man was interviewed by Fox News as the MKO’s representative in the US Congress. And, it doesn’t help the U.S. image overseas or the cause to unite against terrorism when Gen. McInerney publicly called for the U.S. government to support MMKO terrorist organization to carry out deadly bombings in Iran.
“This group loves the United States. They’re assisting us in the war on terrorism; they’re pro-U.S.,” said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) in an interview. But not everybody agrees.
Middle East scholars widely dispute the assessment that the MKO is a legitimate democratic alternative to the Iranian regime. “That’s patently nonsense,” said the Neo Conservative Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute, who is often against Iran and supports military actions against the Islamic government.
“I know about support on Capitol Hill for this group, and I think it’s atrocious,” said Dan Brumberg of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. I think it’s due to total ignorance and political manipulation. There’s not much debate [about the MKO] in the academic circles of those who know and understand Iran and Iraq.”
Elahe Hicks of Human Rights Watch said that “many, many Iranians resent” the MKO/MEK. “Because this group is so extremely resented inside Iran, the Iranian government actually benefits from having an opposition group like this,” she said. The families of those civilians that lost their lives as a result of MKO bombing are staunch opponents of the MKO in Iran.
James Phillips of the Heritage Foundation agreed. “When they sided with Iraq against Iran in the [1980-88] war, that was the kiss of death for their political future. Even Iranians who might have sympathized with them were enraged that they became the junior partner of their longstanding rival,” he said.
“Some of their representatives are very articulate,” Phillips continued, “but they are a terrorist group. They had a longstanding alliance with Saddam Hussein, and they went after some of the Kurds at the behest of Saddam Hussein and performed with precision brutality and catastrophic results. Many Kurdish people died and many others maimed for life. They regularly performed torture on behalf of Saddam. ”
Now MKO’s once 30,000 strong members are living with their families throughout Europe and some here in United States, almost all on refugee status collecting benefits paid by taxpayers to live outside Iran and avoid being prosecuted for bombing civilians to achieve political goals.
While the MKO and Fox News and their friends are weaving a web of deceit, Richard Perle is giving aid and comfort to MKO terrorist, the same terrorists who wanted to interrogate our people being held as hostage. MKO has blood on their hands from their wanton acts of violence. Now the “Conservative” TV network (FOX) takes a MKO spokesman and pays him to consult with us on Iran. It is indeed tragic.
I don’t know if I’m disgusted or saddened or heart-broken by our government’s indifference to the presence of this terrorist organization in our country despite being on U.S. State Department terrorist list.
As an American who served in Gulf War I, whose father served in Vietnam, and grandfather had served in the Second World War, I am bewildered that these individuals are allowed to stay near our families and live in our cities and towns.
Writers views.com By Charles Kent
There have been times everywhere in the world when some people, strongly adhering to some adopted political stratagem and ideology, feel responsible to rise and make sacrifices to redeem their peoples’ dignity and fundamental liberties from the shackles of bondage or revolted against oppression, against foreign aggression, against the usurpation of their land and more. Many of these groups had to get armed in their struggles; however, some lost the battle, some overcame the opponents, and some laid down the arms and abided by the rules that stood for a new order. It was much because they fought for the cause of their homeland and people and hardly their clamor was tainted with organizational or individual ambitions.
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), for instance, was a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland formed in 1966 as an armed group from the very beginning and declared war on the IRA, and made note of the fact that they were "heavily armed Protestants dedicated to this cause”.
In the course of its forty-year long armed activities, UVF had been reportedly responsible for the killing of some 550 people. Whatever the cause, it had created a nightmare of terrorism threat that led to its proscription as a terrorist group. Although the group had declared a ceasefire 13 years ago, but since then its members have been blamed for more than 20 murders. However, through an officially issued statement, UVF declared that “as of 12 midnight, Thursday 3 May 2007, the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando will assume a non-military, civilianized, role”.
Transformation from a terrorist to a civilian organization includes measures as stated in the statement: “All recruitment has ceased; military training has ceased; targeting has ceased and all intelligence rendered obsolete; all active service units have been de-activated; all ordinance has been put beyond reach and the IICD instructed accordingly”.
The statement seems to be a sensible recognition of a new political reality that the world is no more a place for armed or violent actions, rather any pro-democratic move is welcomed if the repentant armed groups really mean it.
It is true that the terrorist organizations that for national causes decide to forswear violent campaign and practice of terrorism may be granted the opportunity to accomplish their political demands through peaceful avenues. The groups and organizations that claim to have renounced armed campaign are mostly judged by their actions rather than the words. There are groups that indeed mean what they say and declare it publicly for the world to see and judge. On the contrary, there exist groups that their non-proclaimed but quoted claims of renouncing terrorism corroborate the intention of evading a just judgment rather than adhering to non-violent practices to fulfill the rightful objectives.
Good news as it may seem, MKO stresses that, if not publically and officially declared, it is no more adhering to an armed policy in its struggle against Iranian regime. But the organization totally disregards the fact that those who claim to be supporting the establishment of democracy in a country should first themselves hold onto the principles of democracy. Cunning claims, while the organization’s main military camp is still heavily run and guarded under the same unchanged military disciplines and practical cultic ideologies in Iraqi Camp Ashraf, make the public opinion laugh at the group clearly lying through its teeth. With some 3500 insiders held against their will, in no way the claims correspond with the tenets of democracy the group advertises in the European communities.
Once chanting revolutionary slogans when MKO started its struggle some forty years ago, its objective seemed to be achieved following the establishment of a non-monarchical regime in Iran. Refraining to lay down the arms and to abide by the rules that stood for the new order, the group formed a new front against the regime much because its leaders could hardly adhere to the adopted regulations that could at least temporarily restore order. Its views tainted with organizational and personal ambitions, MKO failed to win public support to live longer than a couple of years on the political scene and resorted to its aggressive way of campaign.
Actually, MKO is neither an armed group, as the circumstances permit it not and since it has been removed from some terrorist lists, nor a political weight inside nor outside of its homeland to defend masses’ rights; it has always been moving against the current in any field. Once only a domestic trouble that had jeopardized the Iranian internal, public security and had turned its own people’s daily life into nightmare, MKO is now a recognized global problem, a malignant tumor that has to be dealt with and removed. Closure of Camp Ashraf not only helps dismantling such a problematic group but also sets many enslaved members of the cult free. For sure, removal of a malignant tumor lets other parts survive.
Furthermore, it is a proven fact that the transfer of MKO to any other land faces that nation with a terrible predicament that consumes the energy as it is going on in Iraq at the present. Why Iraq has to lose so much energy to tackle with a problem that is the remnant of a collapsed regime while it has to encounter and overcome many of its own internal crises? It is a question that many of the group’s advocates have to answer that what is really the use of an organization that in none of the phases of its forty-year long history has gained a single success and victory neither in political nor in social stages? A history all packed with terror, murder, defiance, treason, espionage and much more.
Much approved and supported by the ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam, it was revealed that MKO was running prison camps within Iraq and were committing severe human rights violations; the only survived dissidents were those who could manage to escape while no humanitarian organization was permitted to monitor the organization. The Iraqi government’s decision to close MKO camp and to let the people living there leave for a secure and free destination is a sound decision to end their plights and the group resistance is another instance of violating human rights.
It is not bad to be an idealist provided the ideals do not risk people’s life or dispossess anyone of freedom. The least the organization can do to bring the chapter to an end is to apologize for all its crimes and misdeeds and stop enslaving the forces that could have been usefully employed for peaceful and social purposes. Sooner or later they will be freed but the ultimate end of those who did betray freedom for the cause of freedom will be simply a vague record in history.
by A. Kavehpur – Mojahedin.ws – April 20, 2009
Lord Slynn, the former senior judge in English courts and the European Court of Justice died 8th April.
During his long career as a judge, he was responsible for some of the most notorious decisions of the English judiciary in recent years, which made him a bogey-man of defenders of human rights.
In the 1970’s, in what became a cause célèbre of a class-influenced and sexist judgment, Judge Slynn, along with two other judges of the English Appeal Court, released a convicted violent child rapist from prison, ostensibly because serving a prison sentence would damage his “promising career” as a military officer.
The fact was that the rapist officer was from the magnificently aristocratic Coldstream Guards regiment and his victim was “only” a 16-year-old working class girl working as a waitress for some pocket money.
To the honorable judge, the well-bred Guardsman had an innate right to all that was possessed by the teenage waitress, including her body. True, the “little serf” had caused a fuss over the issue, and there was the slight inconvenience of the law that demanded equal protection against rape irrespective of class, but not enough to merit inconveniencing an esquire’s “promising career”. So, Judge Slynn felt that a suspended prison sentence would more than suffice as punishment for the gentleman-officer, at least for his offence of reaching out for a woman below his station.
This ruling understandably caused outrage in Britain, especially among women campaigning against rape, and led to widespread protests across the UK.
A number of Members of Parliament signed a petition calling on Judge Slynn to be sacked or to resign. But, the honorable judge rejected these calls, citing the independence of the judiciary.
Years later, when the former Chilean dictator and coup leader General Pinochet was arrested in the UK on a Spanish extradition request for crimes against humanity, (the then Lord) Slynn entered the arena again and did his bit for humanity by being the sole law lord in the House of Lords who ruled against the admissibility of his extradition. Lord Slynn had the unique distinction of declaring that the Chilean dictator was entitled to “state immunity” although he may have committed grave crimes against humanity, mainly torture and murder. A view rejected by other senior British judges and other legal experts.
Nevertheless, this bizarre position was inline with Lord Slynn’s personality and views about the function of law. His view was that laws were there to protect the status quo and to ensure that the representatives of the ruling classes – be they the dashing “gentlemen officers” of the Coldstream Guards or the brutal Chilean coup leader – were to be protected from the consequences of their crimes against their “inferiors”. By extension, it was the victims who had been the authors of their own misfortune; The teenage waitress in the UK should not have shown the temerity to resist the unwanted approaches of the dashing Guardsman and the defenders of freedom and justice in Chile should have known better than to resist the US-backed putsch by Pinochet.
It was, therefore, almost inevitable that he should have found sympathy, not only for the cause, but for the ill-gotten cash, of the anti-Iran terrorist Rajavi cult, sometimes known as the PMOI or MKO.
Throughout their ignominious existence since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the PMOI have stopped at no treachery or crime against their compatriots.
Random bombings and assassinations, murders of a popularly elected president and his prime minister, blowing up of elected members of the Iranian parliament (Majlis), spying for the defunct Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, while his troops were occupying Iran, setting up military camps in Saddam’s Iraq and mounting joint operations against Iran from these bases, and much much more. They have done it all.
With the defeat of Saddam Hussein, the PMOI were left without a sponsor. So, bewildered, brainwashes, despondent and defeated. Furthermore, being listed as a proscribed terrorist organization curtailed their fundraising efforts.
So, in an effort to be removed from the list, to whom could the PMOI turn but the trust old bullies’ warhorse: Lord Slynn of Hadley.
The defenders of British child rapists and Chilean torturers rose to the occasion and did his best to have the PMOI removed from the EU’s list of terrorist organizations.
Eventually, the PMOI were delisted in the European Union by the European Court of Justice, in a perverse ruling which merely accepted the PMOI’s claims that it had “stopped” terrorist activities. It left open the slight matter of their previous crimes, in a verdict that showed contempt for the Iranian lives that had been destroyed by PMOI’s violence in the past.
In order to satisfy himself that the PMOI violence was directed at Iran only and not the British and American occupiers of Iraq, Lord Slynn traveled to the PMOI’s terrorist training base in “Camp Ashraf” in the Iraqi desert, not far from Iranian border.
Lord Slynn did not live long after this legal “victory”. Upon hearing of his death, the PMOI co-leader Maryam Rajavi declared that as a member of the PMOI, Lord Slynn should be buried in Camp Ashraf.
The Rajavi cult have long since buried themselves alive in Camp Ashraf, and their hunt for new companions only rarely bears fruit these days. Saves for the likes of the late Lord Slynn
By Anna O’hara
Massoud Khodabandeh to the European Parliament in relation to a proposed resolution on Camp Ashraf
As you are aware, since December 2003 successive Iraqi governments (from the first interim government to the present elected government) have demanded that the American Army remove Camp Ashraf and the foreign terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) militants in it from their country. This is not a new demand and is based on the MEK’s historical enmity toward the Iraqi people for two decades as part of the suppressive apparatus of Saddam Hussein.
Only since the American Army handed over responsibility for Camp Ashraf in January this year has it been possible for the Government of Iraq (GOI) to take action toward removing the MEK and closing Camp Ashraf as a fundamental aspect of taking full, sovereign control of the country. The GOI’s first and basic demand is that the individuals resident in the camp obey Iraqi and international law. The MEK, in any country they reside, regard themselves as ‘outside the law’ of that country – true outlaws. How and why they escape justice in these countries of course requires explanation from the governments and judicial systems of those countries. But for now, the Iraqi Government appears to be the only entity which is prepared to challenge this situation and to its credit is being completely open about the process.
As you are aware, there are 25 American soldiers posted at Camp Ashraf. To date, they have not reported any activity by the Iraqi authorities in pursuit of this sovereign right to dismantle and remove a dangerous, destructive terrorist group from the country which has given rise to concern.
On the contrary, there is plentiful evidence that the leaders of the MEK, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, continue to preside over a situation inside Camp Ashraf in which the individual members are subjected to a harsh and unremitting regime involving daily violations of their basic human rights. An article in The Economist (April 8, 2009) stated: “the PMOI is widely reviled by human-rights groups for nurturing a messianic cult of personality around Mr Rajavi and his wife, Maryam, and for enforcing a totalitarian discipline on its adherents. Several defectors testify, in the words of one of them, to a “constant bombardment of indoctrination” and a requirement to submit utterly and unquestioningly to the cause. No sources of news are allowed without the PMOI’s [MEK’s] say-so.”
I believe it is abundantly clear that in relation to human rights violations of the individuals living inside Camp Ashraf, it is the MEK itself which has proven to be the perpetrators. The MEK has also been actively obstructive, indeed provocative, toward those wishing to investigate and alleviate this suffering. So plentiful is this evidence that, after becoming aware that a resolution is proposed in the European Parliament in relation to Camp Ashraf and the people in it, I have been surprised to find that no representatives of the European Parliament have been on an official visit to Baghdad or to Camp Ashraf to investigate the issue. Indeed, it appears that no official contact whatsoever has been made by the European Parliament with the Government of Iraq to discuss this highly sensitive issue.
I urge the European Parliament to redress this glaring omission at the earliest opportunity. The GOI has been commendably transparent in explaining its activities vis-à-vis
Camp Ashraf and has shown itself ready to answer any questions. The GOI should have no hesitation in providing full access to Camp Ashraf to officially organised investigative missions, whether by political entities or humanitarian agencies.
Indeed, I have no doubt that the GOI would welcome international oversight of its activities in relation to Camp Ashraf. Dr. Mowaffak al Rubaie, Iraq ‘s national security advisor’s plan for the difficult task of dismantling an extremist cult has revealed an enlightened, humanitarian approach which could become a blueprint for tackling similar organisations worldwide.
Dr. al Rubaie has stated: “This is an indoctrinated and tightly disciplined organization of extremist zealots who have employed terrorism and at times even self-immolation to secure their aims. In normal everyday language we can say that they have been “brainwashed”. He adds, “The Government of Iraq does not deal with the MEK as an organization. We deal with the residents as individuals.”
Under observation by the ICRC and the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights, Dr. al Rubaie has focused efforts to protect the individuals inside the camp following allegations that human rights abuses are being perpetrated by MEK leaders against the residents. To this end he has said, “We believe that if we can separate individuals from the all-encompassing domination by their leaders, we can allow them to begin to exercise their rights as individuals and make appropriate choices. That is, we hope to remove them from the toxic effects of their indoctrination and leaders.”
In response to the many obstacles thrown up by the MEK to their removal from Camp Ashraf, Dr. al Rubaie said, “The Iraqi Army unit posted to defend and secure
Camp Ashraf has exercised patience and extreme restraint in spite of the staged provocations and demonstrations that Ashraf’s self-appointed leaders have launched in defiance of the legitimate exercise by the Government of Iraq of its sovereignty.” “Ashraf is not above the law,” said Dr. al Rubaie.
The Iraqi government has given guarantees that none of the captives will be forced to return to Iran against their wishes. The most serious threat to those left in Camp Ashraf comes from the MEK cult’s leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. They will want to use their blood to extricate themselves from this crisis. American media has already quoted MEK officials threatening a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ at Camp Ashraf. Experts in cult activity and experts on the MEK have interpreted this as the threat of mass suicides of residents by order of the MEK leaders.
I urge European and international governments as well as humanitarian agencies to cooperate fully with the Iraqi authorities to help restore basic human rights to the people trapped in Camp Ashraf.
I urge the European Parliament to give its full support to the Government of Iraq. Any resolution should reflect the realities on the ground and give support to the humanitarian approach taken by the Government of Iraq to resolve this difficult problem.
The aim of a European Parliament resolution must be to prevent any further political abuse of Mojahedin-e Khalq members in Camp Ashraf held captive by their leaders, and guarantee the individual rights of those who renounce violence and are willing to return to society.
A resolution should, above all, reflect the responsibility of European countries toward the victims of the Rajavi cult. In particular, for individuals in Camp Ashraf with residency or asylum rights in European countries, provision should be made in the resolution to work with the GOI for their rapid transfer back to these countries.
A resolution should, as a minimum, include the demands that:
1. The GOI re-open a separate temporary camp adjacent to Camp Ashraf to which people can physically escape and not be forced to continue as members of a foreign terrorist group in Iraq against their will. (Sahar Family Foundation has a list of over 200 individuals who have expressed their desire to leave the MEK but who have no alternative place to go until their final destination is determined.)
2. The MEK should be required to allow free and unfettered access to all of the individual residents inside Camp Ashraf to the Iraqi authorities and to official humanitarian investigative agencies.
3. The MEK should be required to allow free and unfettered access to the immediate family members of all the individual residents inside Camp Ashraf without supervision by MEK operatives.
4. The MEK should be required to allow all residents of Camp Ashraf access to external information, internet, radio, television, books, newspapers and conversation. Gender integration must be reinstated.
5. The European Parliament should work with the UNHCR to find third countries to which the individuals in Camp Ashraf can be transferred. Those with residence and/or asylum rights in European countries should be helped to return and reintegrate into normal society.
6. Mojahedin leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, and other leading members who have escaped the camp should be arrested and brought to justice through international courts.
About the attacks against him by the terrorists and henchmen of the Mojahedin Khalq Cult in Cologne, Germany
(Mr. Sobhani in the European Parliament)
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi,
With regards.
Without the usual introductions, let me get to the point concerning the attack I suffered from your cult’s henchmen and terrorists in the city of Cologne.
I was walking down a street in Cologne, Germany, where I reside, when one of your henchmen – or rather a victim of your cult – started swearing at me and physically attacking me. It was evident that some other henchmen of yours were encouraging him while still others were engaged in surveillance of the situation from distance. He approached me and started kicking me while swearing and using words which could only be descriptions of you and your husband. He was, as you usually used to call it, trying to “punish” me or as Massoud Rajavi used to call it, trying to “eliminate” me. He was demanding that I stop writing and stop talking about what is going on inside your cult. He said that I should not have been talking against the Mojahedin Cult in the European Parliament or in other international communities and was adamant and emphatic that if I either write or talk publicly one more time, then the biggest part of my body would be my ear.
I tried my best to keep calm and remind myself that the henchman you have sent is himself a victim of your cult. I managed to stop myself from giving any reaction to your terrorist agent who had been sent by you to Germany. This henchman of yours was, of course, trying the same route that your other terrorists took in FIAP in June 2007 where they attacked me and severely injured me. Of course he tried his best to stop me calling the police on my mobile phone and took it from me. He then started swearing at me and my family when I appealed to the people in the street to call the police, saying, “I will get you where and when you will not be able to ask anyone for help or try to find witnesses and…”
I have of course reported the incident to the relevant authorities who have promised to follow this attack by your terrorists thoroughly. Therefore I am not going to get into detail for the time being.
Mrs. Rajavi,
The word with you and your husband as the joint commanders of the terrorist cult of Mojahedin Khalq and the ones who are desperately bringing the violent, trained terrorists of Saddam’s private army to the streets of European countries is this:
You remember of course when I wrote on the walls of my solitary confinement cell that “your armed struggle will not work” and do you now see that it did not work? You did not have the ear to listen that day did you?
And do you remember when I wrote to you from prison that cooperation with Saddam the Iraqi dictator is an historical act of treachery? And now who is the one who is left desperate in Iraq? What do you want in Iraq? What is the point of more and more imprisonment of the victims of the cult there? Are you not responsible for the lives of the men and women who gave everything they had for you and your husbands’ sick ambitions?
And now you are sending your henchmen to stop people talking about it, whether in June 2007 in Paris, or today in Cologne?
I finish this letter with a clear announcement to the authorities of Germany where I live. The responsibility for my life and the life of my family against such terrorist actions anywhere in Europe is with the leadership of the Mojahedin Khalq Cult (Maryam Rajavi and Massoud Rajavi) and the trained henchmen who they employ for such attacks.
Mohammad Hossein Sobhani
14.09.2009
Postfach 90 06 63
51116 Köln – Deutschland
Telefon: +49 (0) 1774829905
Email: sobhani_m_h@hotmail.com
Cc:
The Interior Ministers of European Union countries
The Foreign Ministers of European Union countries
Mohammad Hossein Sobhani, Iran Ghalam, Cologne, April 14, 2009
http://www.iran-ghalam.de/2Haupt/3650-Tahajom%20be%20Sobhani-Koln-Deutschland13.04.09.HTM
Invited by Saddam: Iranian opposition members refuse to leave Iraq outpost
(Marriage here is forbidden. There have been no children for years)
The isolated Camp Ashraf of MKO cult was visited by media workers after the
Iraqi authorities took control of the Camp. Jane Arraf Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor reported her visit including interviews with some Ashraf Residents. In her report she describes the isolated brainwashed members of Rajavi’s cult who allegedly “have left family life behind”.
Texas-born Elham Kiamanesh seems thoroughly American, but in the last decade she’s spent working to overthrow the Iranian regime, this military camp with its tree-lined avenues and flower-filled parks north of Baghdad is the only home she’s known.
"You can call me Ellie, that’s my nickname," says Ms. Kiamanesh as she explains why she gave up normal life and her love of children to try to topple the government of a country she’s never visited.
Kiamanesh is one of some 3,400 residents, including several hundred Westerners, in the middle of one of the strangest episodes in the dramatic shift in relations between Iran, Iraq, and the United States.
In the 1980s, in the midst of Iraq’s bitter eight-year-war with Iran, Saddam Hussein invited the Iranian opposition to set up military operations here. When Saddam’s regime was toppled, US forces disarmed the group. In January, Camp Ashraf reverted to control by the Iraqi government, which plans to close the base as a sign of goodwill toward Iran.
Its residents – members of the People’s Mujahadeen (Mujahadeen e- Khalq, known by the Farsi acronyms MEK or MKO) – are either to return to Iran or to the third countries where they have citizenship. But to the Iraqi government’s consternation, they are not going willingly.
Militarily irrelevant, but still symbolic
Disarmed, Camp Ashraf has become militarily irrelevant. But as an embarrassment to both the Iranian and Iraqi governments, it still has considerable symbolic value.
In the first media visit granted by Iraqi authorities since they took control of the camp this year, residents told The Christian Science Monitor they would not voluntarily leave.
"I’ve decided to stay here until there’s a free Iran," says Hassan Mohammad. Mr. Mohammad lived in the camp with his mother until the age of eight and then was sent to Canada where the family had refugee status during the 1991 war over Kuwait. He returned here at the age of 17 and spent the next several years with a MEK tank unit in the south of Iraq.
Now, he spends his time here in computer classes and the evenings occasionally watching movies on the Iranian opposition’s television channel. "The last one was "Slum Dog Millionaire,’ " he says.
The sprawling camp, one of the biggest military bases in Iraq, has its own university classrooms and hospital. Men and women live in separate dormitories and for the most part study or work in segregated classes. The MEK’s philosophy is a mix of Marxism and Islam teaching with a dose of feminism and a very large element of control.
Marriage here is forbidden. There have been no children for years.
"We have left family life behind," says Hossein Madani, an urbane former aerospace instructor in Virginia and a senior official at Camp Ashraf.
Iraq: ‘The party is over’
Mr. Madani and other MEK officials invite guests into a cool, white reception room and serve tea and cake while producing a wide variety of documents and letters that do little to alleviate the ambiguity over the camp’s legal status.
Madani dismisses the issue of Iraqi law, which authorities say makes the MEK residents illegal foreigners in the country. Instead he cites the Geneva Conventions, under which the US military had recognized the MEK as noncombatants in the war and pledged to protect them.
"This is purely an agenda forced by the Iranian regime. Why do we have to give in to such a thing?" he says of the Iraqi government’s plan to shut down the camp and move residents to a more remote location in Iraq as a prelude to leaving the country.
Iraqi National Security Advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie has a simple answer for them.
"They have to understand that the party is over for them," Mr. Rubaie told journalists recently, after refuting allegations from the MEK that their members were being mistreated. "They need to understand that they have to leave. This is not [the era of] Saddam Hussein using them against Iran. We will never use them against Iran."
Describing the residents as "brainwashed cult members from a high- trained terrorist organization," Rubaie says Iraq does not intend to forcibly deport them but "if they resist and carry out this engineered crisis there will be some pain."
The Iraqi government is pressuring other countries to take back about one-third of the camp residents with either foreign passports or travel documents. The rest will be given the Iranian passports they are entitled to and a plane ticket home.
Plenty of places to go, but this is home
The residents include Americans, Canadians, Swedes, and Dutch. Rubaei says another 309 could legally return to France, where the MEK is based. While the US lists the group as a terrorist organization, the European Union has dropped that designation. As individuals, MEK members are also free to return to the US unless there are specific arrest warrants for them.
After 2003, the US military seized the MEK’s tanks and other weapons and confined its residents to the isolated base. All of the camp residents renounced violence and underwent background screening by US authorities.
MEK members argue that their cooperation entitles them to stay.
"We used our own money to build this, to plant every single tree and plant in this place," Madani says bitterly, driving past parks and streets punctuated with giant sculptures of tulips and birds. "This is their home. There are cemeteries, people who have died here, they are buried here, they have lived here.’
Outside the museum dedicated to Iranian atrocities, Kiamanesh sits with her friend, Gohar Mohajeri, on a walkway planted with flowers. Ms. Mohajeri was born in New York but grew up in Germany. She has never been to Iran.
"For outsiders, when they don’t know what our goal and aim is, obviously our life is abnormal for them," says Mohajeri. Kiamanesh translates for her from Farsi.
Neither seem to realize how isolated they are at the camp. "I do believe this is the greenest place in all of Iraq," says Kiamanesh, a former law student who without a headscarf would look like the girl next door. "Why would anyone ever want to leave this place
Jane Arraf Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor