The Threat of Cults

Camp Auvers; a Bastion of Unpredictable Events

The French all over the world are proud to have been host to many political groups and freedom fighters. They also claim that many anti-colonial revolutions have been born in French and Parisian cafés even that of Algeria that was formed against the France itself. All these revolutions had great achievements at least at the early years after their formation under the effects of the great revolution of France. The presence of these revolutions may be considered to some extent an offshoot of this revolution developed almost three centuries ago.

There are some popular names like Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Frantz Fanon, André Malraux and many more that have been recorded in the history of France as having a key role in preparing the background for the development of these movements. In this regard, a lot of free nations are indebted to France government. The name of France is associated with concepts like democracy and freedom fighting except for some events like that of colonizing Algeria. The French have always been identified as supporters of leaders of legitimate revolutions and they have rarely been host to the enemies of a nation.

France has rarely made the opposition groups under pressure or made any decision to expel them from its soil. In turn, their guests are expected to be hewing to the rights of their host country rather than misusing its hospitality and democratic features. They are not expected to take illegal and blind measures against the French civil law and accuse its institutions and organs ethically and politically, make threat against their dissidents while claiming to be fighting for democracy and freedom or engage in illegal fundraising under the banner of refugee rights. All these have been exceptions that came true after the entrance of MKO to France.

It is almost three decades that MKO has settled in France and there has occurred numerous shocking and unexpected events every year since then and many more have been committed behind the scenes and out of sight of outsiders as acknowledged by the French officials. The establishment of a fortress in the suburbs of Paris is the symbol of these illegal and threatening activities. There, MKO has managed to turn Auvers-sur-Oise into a territory out of the control of French officials by means of its laundering activities in France and other European countries.

Their bastion in Auvers-sur-Oise has turned into a spot for this cult of personality and its leaders to further their terrorist and egocentric objectives from their headquarters in the heart of the Europe. France is now faced with a dilemma between their reputation for supporting opposition groups on the one hand and taking a severe position against the illegal and terrorist activities of a group of cultic members on the other hand. It seems that the France has never been so bewildered in dealing with an opposition trend up to now; a trend that despite its pro-democratic slogans, refrains to respect international rules and not coming to power yet, is after an opportunity to take revenge on its dissidents and critics.

Whatever the position taking of France toward this challenge, it is evident that giving refuge to a terrorist group would be a black mark on its brilliant history. If we regard the ultimate goal of France revolution as the revival of human rights and establishment of democracy and freedom, the act of France in supporting a reactionary trend will be in contrast to all principles and factors that the French have pride in. The expediency and negligence of France toward the cultic and terrorist bastion of MKO in Auvers-sur-Oise is contrary to its duty in keeping national rights and security of its citizens. It is evident that an organization that fails to bear the existence of other parallel opposition and fails to abide by any ethical, political, and democratic rule has nothing to do but manipulating the historical values of France.

July 21, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Suicide operation, a lever to defend Camp Ashraf

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part seven

Sahar Family Foundation: If you will, Mrs. Soltani, let’s have a talk over claimed challenges that presses the organization to react by suicide operations. I mean, what are the threats that concern the organization to prescribe suicide operation to confront? Is there actually any objective worth of concern or claims are merely grounded on propagation or a falsely intensified atmosphere?

Batool Soltani: It can be argued from many angles; one, the actual and objective backgrounds that lead to the possible perpetration of operations and second, operations merely planned to keep members in a status of readiness and to isolate them from passivity. Members have to be always kept busy doing something while raising in them a high morale of obedience and submission. Members in Camp Ashraf are on alert of committing mass suicide on the grounds that there are many blind spots round the camp through which outsiders might easily infiltrate to either kidnap the members of the Leadership Council and use them as hostages or kill them. The possible reaction to these threats could be a mass suicide of the insiders.

SFF: Were there just conjectures or there were some truth in what they claimed?

BS: Both of them. In some cases there were well grounded reasons but sometimes they fabricated things. Once, I remember, they distributed cyanides among the members of the Leadership Council after they had collected them all. No clear reason was presented but soon we came to know the cause. One of the members who had left for the American-run camps had informed that the organization had built secret jails just where our base was situated. So, one night American forces entered the camp in an attempt to discover the secret place. Of course, the report was one of many dubious ones already reported to Americans. But the organization had smelled a threat, a warning to something that could hit unexpectedly and thus, it distributed the cyanides to react immediately if needed.

SFF: You mean any entrance to Camp Ashraf for whatever reason is looked on as a threat against which the sole solution is suicide?

BS: Exactly. That is what, for instance, they mean by referring to the human tragedy in the issue of their expulsion from the Camp Ashraf and Iraq. By human tragedy they mean a mass protest through a mass-immolation. They are so resolute that they will deliberately set the reluctant ones on fire on pretence of willing actions since the dead never speak. What Rajavi stresses on as human tragedy should have broader dimensions but the least they can do and will impose on others can be nothing but the working means of a mass suicide.

That is what they exclusively argued on in the level of the Leadership Council. Among the rank and file it was deeply instilled that defense of Ashraf was a matter of life and death and all members had to become human shield to defend it. The issue of human shield was discussed with the members one by one in 2006. The protest against general relocation could be shown either by individual self-immolation or mass suicide. The question was first put forward by Rajavi himself that how members would react were the Iraqis to transfer Camp Ashraf altogether. The presented solution was human shield as a defensive measure since all knew about the Iraqis’ felt hatred towards Mojahedin because of their collaboration with Saddam and their effective role as his private army. Mojahedin were present wherever Saddam needed them to suppress his dissidents.

Therefore, Mojahedin have no other way but to think of a working means to confront any posed threat against their bastion by the Iraqi new government’s resolutions. The Fall of Saddam has led them to a dire situation with no authoritative protector and they have to think of a defensive vehicle for themselves. They even devised an organizational hierarchy entitled the organizational pyramid to protect Camp Ashraf. However, the foremost priority was to protect the members of the Leadership Council since it is the pivotal issue for Rajavi, that is to say, protection of the members of the Leadership Council equals to protection of Camp Ashraf. Here again, as you see, anything revolves round a strategic axis contrived by Rajavi and whatever he conjures is somehow entwined with this organizationally devised Leadership Council.

SFF: Then, Rajavi believes that protection of Camp Ashraf is strategically possible through suicide operation and human shield. Will you explain to what degree such lever can actually work as a protecting means?

BS: to understand to what extent it is working, we have to refer to already occurred instances. Following Maryam Rajavi’s arrest the organization proved its seriousness and persistence in carrying out such operations. So far it has proved that it can persuade or coerce insiders, willingly or unwillingly, into committing whatever it deems necessary to achieve its ends and the insiders’ will has actually no effect in the accomplishment of the organization’s demands. The sole way to avoid being an accomplice in the organization’s plots is to take your courage to escape by a well drawn plan, as I did. Now with the withdrawal of the American forces, the sole hope of easy escape to the TIPF has actually vanished and hardly members find an easy way out. Even in the time of Saddam it was impossible and, if anybody insisted, cost members a lot to get themselves out of the organization; it was only through the notorious Abo-Ghorib prison and other places that someone could manage to detach. That is why I insist on saying that members have no other choice but to consent to whatever the organization demands them to do and under no condition they follow a will of their own.

SFF: Then, you believe that any attempt by Iraq to expel or relocate Mojahedin will lead to such activities (suicide operation).

BS: Certainly.

SFF: What factors can you exclusively refer to now talking over human shield and tragedy?

BS: You know, following the incident of 17 June, we received piles of letters by rank and file volunteering for suicide. The act was later hallmarked as an indicative of devotion and they began to closely examine to see who among the ranks had dodged devotion. I was among those who had not volunteered for suicide but they reproached me as a ranking member and I volunteered reluctantly; otherwise I would be suspected to be at odds with the organization. However, the organization insisted that none of these volunteers had to engage in self-instigated suicides since no individual had the right to spill a drop of his/her blood unless approved by the organization. Any form of suicide or self-immolation uncoordinated by the organization is considered to be a useless, unproductive act. So sensitive is the organization about these suicide acts that they say commission of any suicide legitimizes only after we organize them and issue orders. So it becomes clear that self-immolations in France were all organized as a political lever. To make sure, I had an argue with Mojgan Parsai (in Camp Ashraf). I told her as I had volunteered for suicide, I wanted to set myself on fire before the American’s base there. Of course, it was only to see what her reaction could be. She took me to her office and talked to me for two hours saying that it was a useless act there while Sedigheh (Mojaveri) and Neda Hassani’s acts of self-immolation were politically worthwhile in France. She said if I committed suicide in the camp nothing changed but the organization lost a member of the Leadership Council, not even a slight report of my suicide would be published in the local papers let alone being mentioned in an international scale. The act could be exploited to the maximum degree for political and propaganda purposes in France or England. That is why I emphasis that Mojahedin encounter no obstacle in creating a human tragedy as it has already displayed its potentiality following the arrest of Maryam Rajavi; the organization has many volunteers who have signed to commit suicide whenever and wherever commanded.

To be continued

Translated by Mojahedin.ws

July 18, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

A definition of suicide operations

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part one
In the course of many separations, for the most part during the past two years, Mrs. Batool Soltani is known to be the highest ranking cadre detached from Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO). A definition of suicide operations She was a member of the leadership council and the closest to the organization’s power hegemony and, consequently, she can be regarded the most reliable source of information compared to other separated rank and file. The best evidence is the statements and disclosures she has made, and is still making, on multitudes of issues concerning the organization.

However, with respect to the complex, interlocking body of the organization’s cultic relations and techniques, it does not seem that what she is uncovering for the public is all she knows and can reveal. But her immediate and close contact with the Rajavis as well as her high potentiality for precise analysis that puts forward new discussions based on her personal observations can possibly open a new window for a further analysis and study of the untold about the organization. To accomplish the goal, we decided to take a new turn just along the currently running interviews, that is, to focus on specific issues of the importance. The themes of the priority have been classified which we prefer not to mention in whole at the present since they will be prepared and released according to the circumstances and particular incidents. The first of these themed interviews is on the issue of organizational self-immolations as we are on the threshold of the June 17 anniversary, when, following the detention of Maryam Rajavi by the French police, a number of members set themselves on fire.

It has to be pointed out that these statements contain some dramatic, first-hand details so far disclosed by a ranking member of the leadership council. The interview starts with a prefatory emphasis on the history of suicidal operations and continues up to the June 17 self-burnings. Of the importance in the issue at hand is the materialization of the suicidal operations as a working means in the organization, an adopted means committed in a variety of forms from the past to the present cultic form. The narrative by Mrs. Soltani presents an explicitly further account of what we have so far heard or read about the shocking incident. Looking at an issue from many different angles, her look seems to be novel in itself.
Part one: A definition of suicide operations

Sahar Family Foundation: Mrs. Soltani, our best wishes and compliments and we also thank you for accepting to continue a new series of interviews. In fact, we never thought the interviews would take for so long but it was much because of your own interest and your precise and analytical details you provided for each question and the issues in question. As a result, we came face to face with new ideas that could be well classified into different categories to be discussed in detail separately. We knew there would be problems but when you showed how interested you were, I decided that no problem could hinder. So as not to bother you with further problems, I have arranged not to prolong the interviews but to focus on themed issues besides the routinely conducted interviews. Once more I express my thanks for your remarkable endurance and we hope that your exposé will solve many problems on the way of social movements and expose an outlet for the victimized generation, still enslaved physically and psychologically, to take a sound decision for the future.

First, I need to explain about the subject before going into further details. Of the troubles and challenges the contemporary armed movements encounter with irreparable costs is a commitment to suicide operations. Of course, as you know, the phenomenon is not a working means adhered to by the Iranian guerrillas but imported into our country as the idea of the guerrilla warfare itself. I have to point out that the main motive behind all this is the detention of Maryam Rajavi in June 2003 and the consequent self-burnings, but I deemed it necessary to start a preliminary discussion before we involve in the main issue. I beg your pardon, but I think you got what I mean and so I demand you to feel easy to talk about the phenomenon to whatever extent you wish, that is, how you define suicide operations, what its forms are and in what circumstances they are plotted and carried out.

Batool Soltani: As I come to understand from your explanations and introductory words, the subject proves to require a lengthy discussion. I hope our discourse on the issue will be of use somewhere. Let’s first give a comprehensive definition of the term suicide operation from an organizational point of view and explain its difference with other kinds of armed operations. In every perpetrated operation possibly there are some percentages of killings and in suicide operation there is a possibility leading to the death of people. But the nature of suicide operations is totally different as defined by the current political and militia terminology. It is called suicide because here the perpetrator puts the priority on self-annihilation regardless of any consequent outcome, that is, he makes an attempt to guarantee the accomplishment of the end by his own life while in other forms of operations the death is always a fifty to fifty possibility. Suicide operations are mainly motivated under one of the two incentives, defensive or aggressive.

Before any further explanation let me point out that some people may say that it was Mojahedin Khalq who first engaged in armed and guerrilla warfare in Iran. Regardless of to what extent the claim is true but one thing is clear that the organization is the innovator of a third kind of suicide operation; sending ablaze human-torches onto the streets following the June 2003 detentions. I will give details on the operations. Now let’s see what is the difference between the two mentioned kinds of operations. I have to point that it is a personal categorization of the types and I do not know if there are such definitions in any reference and, thus, they may be prone to mistake.

The first type is the defensive one, that is to say, the main cause for this suicide operation is to safeguard the organizational secrets and information. When the operator faces a serious situation that may lead to his detention by the police or the enemy’s forces and which may consequently lead to extraction of his information he commits suicide as the organizational orders require. This is the point where one has to risk his life to safeguard and protect the information and secrets. By his life, he breaks the possibility of any access to the information that may jeopardize the life of the organization. During the past five decades of struggle in the contemporary history you may encounter many examples of such operations among both religious and non-religious, Marxist organizations and in Mojahedin particularly. Ahmad Rezai (an earlier member in Mojahedin’s central cadre) for example killed himself along with a number of SAVAK’s agent with a hand grenade to avert falling in SAVAK’s clutches alive. There are members like Mahmood Shamekhi and more others whose name I fail to remember who did the same. However, there are a few examples in Mojahedin who have committed this kind to defend the organization against the threats of the regime that had tried to uproot the militia and their movement in any possible way.

There is always a red-line in such organizations where the members have no other choice but to commit suicide. It does not mean that the self-annihilation is the first choice when a member happens to confront the enemy. The red-line means a reaction defined for certain circumstances when the arrest of a certain operator is a question of exposing the organization, information and cadres to irreparable damages. The defined parameter, however, is deliberately overlooked in the years of the organization’s strife with the Islamic Republic. A quantitative and qualitative comparison between the present forces of the organization and those active in Pahlavi’s regime indicate that such suicide operation naturally had to be more common since at that time the slightest leak of information meant a big strike against the entity of the organization and the cadres. But the amount of these operations is beyond of comparison with those of the past regime although there is a remarkable difference between the potentiality and capability of the present and the former forces.

At the present when the organization dispatches its operation teams from Iraqi soil to Iran, the red-line is a mere sense of danger and possibility of arrest while neither the organization has any establishment inside Iran nor its leader reside there and it has no legitimacy there at all. The red-line becomes the sense of danger and the operator has the orders to swallow the cyanide capsule as soon as he/she feels there is a likelihood of arrestment. That is in absolute contrast with the phase of struggle in Pahlavi’s reign when 90 percent of the members and the leaders got arrested and most of them had the opportunity to commit suicide and to swallow the cyanide capsules. Even inside the prison they could but did not.

I apologize for distancing from the main issue but I feel it is necessary to give further explanation to make things clear. Of course, it is a long organizational issue developed following a gained extensive struggle experience and the members easily consent to the instructions for they are organizationally and ideologically justified. Let me also explain about the red-line out of Iran. The organization had strict instruction that if the members with secret and classified information happened to be arrested by the police in the European countries, they had to commit suicide before they could speak under the investigations. I mean the red-line is completely redefined compared to the past and the members’ life as a veteran is assessed much cheaper.

Another form of the suicide operation is the aggressive one. Here the operator’s act of self-annihilation is not a spontaneous act but preplanned. There are some fundamental characteristics distinguishing it from the former one. First, it is a preplanned operation far from being restricted to a final choice in facing unexpected circumstances. Second, it is aimed to fulfill certain end/s, political, economic, ideological, or more, motivated according to the perpetrator’s intention. It might be a part of an organizational analysis of the circumstances or in line with a tactic of struggle. The third factor is that there is a volunteer who knows well there would be no return. In some cases, it is an organizational order rather than requiring a volunteer. In either of the cases, there need to be some psychological and ideological preparation before sending the operator on the mission and if any suspicion of unpreparedness is traced, as it may inflict irreparable costs on the organization, the mission is either cancelled or another prepared alternative is substituted.

In the former kind, there always arises a doubt in the operator and he may not be prepared thoroughly when he faces an unexpected situation when he has the orders to commit suicide. To speak about the examples of the latter form in the organization, it generally happens in the second phase of its armed struggle after the victory of the Islamic Republic. They took the form of suicide terrorism to assassinate the leaders of the ritual Friday prayer. An explicit example is al-Qaeda’s attack against the Twin Towers in 9/11 terrorist operation. There are much more examples of these suicide operations against European economic and political centers all plotted by al-Qaeda and other similar terrorist groups. These were the two types of suicide operations.

There is a third kind which can be referred to as countermeasure, threatening or protesting. I think Mojahedin can be named as the innovators of this form of operation although we have its instances in other parts of the world like protests made against the war in Vietnam just in front of the UN office and the US Embassies. But what happens in Mojahedin is absolutely different and unique in its own. This form guarantees the media coverage and its effect on the public opinion is so high as the protesters of the Vietnam War did; their protest was against an anti-human, aggressive and colonial war and because they could not demonstrate their protest in any other legal form or conduct through any humanitarian body.

An analytical study of this third kind of operation in the organization and its psychological aspects indicates how exclusively it is utilized by the organization as a systematically working means. The purpose here is neither defensive nor aggressive although some aspects of the both may be embraced. To talk about the intended objective of this kind of suicide operation, we have to develop a good understanding of the outcomes in different circumstances and how beneficial and worthwhile they can be for the organization. I believe this is a tactic utilized by an armed, non-democratic organization challenging a democratic society in general. I mean utilization of a primitively violent, aggressive manner where you have the opportunity and the right of defending yourself through legal systems; but of course neither you have the potentiality of abiding by the law nor do you ever think it is to your advantage.

As a result, you make an attempt to force the challenger retreat from the fulfillment of legal actions through threateningly non-democratic reactions. A look at the setting of these operations, the European countries and France in particular, and the standing of the organization there well indicate that these operations are the result of the dire situation the organization has faced there under a false pretense; naturally no other backlash can be expected of an organization with respect to its complicated internal relations, ideology and armed strategy of struggle. That is why I make the claim to say that this kind of operation is innovated by the organization and hardly can you find any parallel in other political or armed establishments in the world; it has to be recorded exclusively in the name of Mojahedin. I prefer not to explain any more until the right time when I am giving details on self-burnings that is the objective of our interview. I think I have answered your question to the extent of my information, that is, the definition and classification of suicide operation.
SFF: Sure you have done. But your answer breeds more questions which I will pose in next sessions.

BS: As you wish.

Translated by Mojahedin.ws

June 20, 2009 0 comments

Auver-sur-Oise

Formation of a cultic ashram in Auvers

The admirers of Vincent Van Gogh can hardly resist spending a few hours in the French village of Auvers-Sur-Oise where the great artist spent his last days. Describing the place in a letter addressed to his brother, the painter once wrote “Really, it’s seriously pretty; it’s open countryside, characteristic and picturesque”. He was right and it hasn’t changed so very much since then, except for the established headquarters of Mojahedin Khalq cult on Rue des Gords since early 1980’s. Known to be the residence of Maryam Rajavi, the cult’s vice-guru leading the organization in the absence of her husband, to many it seems like a castle of mystery that leaks no information of what is going on inside.

It was only on the morning of 17 June 2003 when French SWAT teams went over the walls and broke into its headquarters for the first time to discover what was going on therein. It was only a few months after Nicolas Sarkozy became Interior minister that the French authorities began to suspect cult practices and terrorist activities within the highly guarded headquarters. It was mostly because mobs of members were swarming back from Iraq to their French enclave following Saddam’s fall, a globally despised dictator to whom they were notoriously known to be serving as mercenary pawns. And the aroused suspicion in French authorities proved to be well justified.

The shocking finding was not many illegal instruments, communication devices and big sums of money discovered and seized, but the raid’s aftermath. Maryam Radjavi was arrested and as a protest, several members of the cult set themselves on fire. Parisian could not believe the human torches running right before their eyes in the broad daylight. The tragic scene is best depicted by the French reporter, Alain Chevalerias, in his Brûlé Vif (Burned Alive):

June 18, 2003, on Wednesday we were in Paris. Street Nelaton, in the 15th district, about ten individuals gathered in front of the offices of the ministry of the interior. They had the air of eastern people. Chanting vague slogans, they shook brandish flags and the big photos of a smiling woman in their hands. Without going to preoccupy building, the police officials ascended the markets of it to begin their operation. It was 9:25. It was hot.

Suddenly, a scream tore the air. A little further in front of the line of the aerial subway, the flames were flying in the air. A man ran in the scene. Policemen intervened. It was too late; In the dark a monstrous figure was standing on the restless ground of soubresaut. The victim was obvious. She was an Iranian. The same country as theirs, she was a 42 year old woman called Marzieh Babakhani. She wanted to sacrifice herself by the fire to obtain the liberation of the woman whose picture floated above the small assembled crowd, to some extent, in front of the ministry of the interior. Urgently transported to the hospital Cochin, the insured’s soul returned in the evening.

In the midday, having splashed gasoline on her another was transformed to the same place. She introduced herself Sedighieh Mohageri and said she was 38 years old. Later in the afternoon, Mohammad vakilifard, a man of 46 years repeated the fatal gesture. An epidemic of suicides by the fire seemed to win the planet: the very day, a man in Bern; the day before and the next day four in London; two again in Rome and another in Ottawa.

The human tragedy ended with two deaths. For Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, the director of the DST, the decision taken by authorities was justified, "There was a danger for our country and our fellow-countrymen”.

Now leading France as its President, Nicolas Sarkozy is counted on not to have forgotten about this very controversial organization in France and in the world and the dangerous bunch of cultists who are dominating Auvers-sur-Oise. Any cult needs to found its own ashram as did Franklin Jones in Lake County, California or that of David Koresh located in Mount Carmel near Waco, Texas. That is also the case with Mojahedin in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, a complex that is highly controlled. The residents are not free to go wherever they want in spite of having obtained political refugee status in France; no gate opens to let anybody in or out unless they carry a required written authorization.

It will not take long to turn this picturesque French village into a complete ashram for Mojahedin Khalq if their comrades in Camp Ashraf join them with a show of good-will from the French part. And, of course, the shining, smiling pictures of Maryam Rajavi will outdo those of Van Gogh if French MIVILUDES (Inter-ministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviances) fails to take precautionary measures to fully monitor the activities of the organization. Eyes are needed to watch it from the within before it is too late.

Rania Negargar

May 3, 2009 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

MKO Suicide bombers

The Use of the Philosophy of Martyrdom within Religious Cults for Acts of Terrorism

Martyrdom as an asset for a cult:

Martyrdom for the majority of people from different faiths and nationalities might be an honour, an example of people standing by their values and principals; and perhaps for some the promise of heaven. Some even might believe that their martyred friend or relative, can take seventy of their family and friends to heaven with themselves. But for a cult like Assassins in 11th century or Al-Qaeda or Mojahedin of Iran, martyrs are the greatest assets of all. They gain legitimacy for their goals and the rightness of their path by the number of their martyrs and how brave they were or how horribly they were killed.

Although one might say that the modern history of suicide attacks started with the Japanese Kamikazes. But I think the new phenomenon called suicide bombers started with the Mojahedin’s suicide attacks against Iranian authorities during 1980’s. Let me read part of the will of one of them mentioned in the publication of MKO 19th of June 1982, Gohar AdabAvaz. She killed the Friday Prayer Imam of Shiraz after praying with a few others who were present there. She writes in her will, “I don’t think my life belongs to me, it belongs to God and the people and the Mojahedin organization. If a new path can be opened with my life, then I will be very happy that I be small token in this path. I have chosen this path knowingly, and am waiting that moment of martyrdom, impatiently.”

Let me conclude that the use of the rich philosophy of martyrdom within a cult has given new meaning to martyrdom; it has changed it into new tools for materialization of the goals of the cult.

For example in 2003 when the co-leader of the Mojahedin; Maryam Rajavi was arrested for few days in France, eleven members of the organization set themselves on fire in front of the French embassies in several countries and two of them, one in London, were killed as a result.

Tom Spender, in new shoppers, writes about one of those who set himself on fire in London but survived. He writes:” Hamid, 21, of Lanacre Avenue, Grahame Park, was one of several Iranians across Europe to register the most extreme of protests at the arrest in France of about 160 members of the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI) – including the group’s leader Maryam Rajavi…. What followed stunned the Western world. Images of men and women silhouetted in flames on the streets of London and Paris dominated the television news. One Iranian in London, Neda Hassani, a 26-year-old Canadian computer science student, later died of her burns. Another woman in Paris also died.” When Hamid is asked why did he set himself on fire? He replies:” "I wanted to shock the world. Injustices are committed all over the world but most of them are not reported well.” And when he asked if he regret? He replies:” It was definitely worth it. I have not for one second thought that I shouldn’t have done it.”

If they can set themselves on fire over the arrest of their leader, what can stop them from using martyrdom as a means for any end?

A scene from ceremony of signing an oath with Mojahedin’s leader in Iraq.

Self burning of a Mojahedin’s member in Paris after arrest of Maryam Rajavi. 2003

April 5, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO’s violence originated in its theory Structure

MKO’s violent acts and atrocities are originated in its theory structure

The presence of the organization [MEK] in Iraqi territory has nothing to the Iraqi nation except danger.
MKO’s violent acts and atrocities are originated in its theory structure The recent annual report of the Department of State might not have anything new on the status of the Iranian Mujahedin Khalq Organization which has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since years ago. But the speech made by Condoleeza Rice following the publication of the new list, which called the group as substantially terrorist, should be taken as serious.

The MKO tries to pretend that it has denounced terrorism and represents a peaceful struggle because they claim to have abandoned violence for years. But, the investigations by the State Department’s experts did not include its recent acts but the terrorist nature of MKO of which its ideology and strategy completely originates and will never get separated. MKO is a destructive cult with a terrorist potential, according to the experts, and will not lose such potentiality without arm and camp and will never miss its real nature.

Therefore from a technical viewpoint – if one doesn’t want to work on political interests and benefits – the investigation on the nature of a group is prior to its short-term functions. If we don’t evaluate the nature correctly, we will make mistake in viewing its short–term function, as many unprofessional people made the same mistake.

Terrorist designation of the groups or entities by various countries is primarily done due to the national security (although sometimes the lists get a political flavor) and its objective is to determine the organization with terrorist potentiality and take them under direct supervision.

However, the designation of the terrorist nature of a group is based on the interests and acts of the group through its background and many other criteria, so it requires a deep and multilateral investigation.

We do not intend to punish before the commitment but we want to investigate this case more deeply trying not to view MKO’s short-term claims as a base.

The nature we are discussing includes long-term functions and we would like to confirm that the potential capacity of MKO will be definitely actualized if the condition is appropriate and when the facilities are provided eventually the previous status will be revived.

In the recent report on MKO published by German federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, there is no difference between MKO and NCRI and also it is mentioned that there is no evidence to approve that the organization has denounced its violent acts. The report also notes that the organization is a cult, the fact that many experts agree.

The cult-like and terrorist nature of MKO requires it to commit terror acts in case of necessity, because it has theorized the engagement in violence in its theory system. Therefore such an organization is always dangerous for its environment. It is a destructive risk for the security of every society and could be considered as a substantial threat. Thus it must be restricted and neutralized.

Unfortunately, today the main body of MKO is located in our country. Saddam Hussein brought them to our territory due to his own benefits as well as other disasters he left for us. The west that has once used the group against the Islamic Republic, now doesn’t want to accept them in its soil. This is exactly like they want to get rid of their nuclear garbage that they have used it and now that it is a threat they want to get rid of it. The presence of MKO in our territory brings nothing except danger and threat to Iraqi nation who has no reason to suffer the risks of this nuclear garbage. The west should keep them in its own territory since they are well aware of their threats.
Al Mo’tamar Newspaper

The presence of the organization [MEK] in Iraqi territory has nothing to the Iraqi nation except danger.

the investigations by the State Department’s experts did not include its recent acts but the terrorist nature of MKO of which its ideology and strategy completely originates

February 19, 2009 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi

Reiteration of Paris self-burning disaster in Ashraf

Alert and alert, the West states must be on the highest alert and feel moral and political responsibility to prevent more disastrous incidents in Ashraf garrison which can terrorize then jeopardize the local peace and security.
Maryam Rajavi (Iranian Ben Laden) has already tested the success of such an adventurous experience in Paris in June 2003 to achieve her terrorist aims and political blackmails. so that, she issued an ideological command to her cult innocent and deceived members to resort holy self-burning suicide with the intention of de-stabilizing the French political atmosphere to impose her illegitimate conditions on French govt. not to extradite her to Iran because of her terrorist committed crimes in Iran. The price of such an adventurous action was the destruction of two tempting women in France in June 2003. The more delay the heavy human losses in the Ashraf garrison as occurred in Paris in June 2003. Therefore, as a separated ex- member of the “People Mujahidin Organization of Iran” (PMOI) who have been under inhuman psychological and physical torture by this chaotic sect cal l for the urgent and press actions and efforts without any hesitation to salve the live of thousands incarcerated innocent victims in Ashraf garrison situated in Iraq. If the West public opinion and political elites consider the demoniac and inflamed message of Maryam Rajavi’s husband who is the ideological leader of this cult, they will find out that the history is going to be repeated again and create a new Paris self-burning disaster in Ashraf garrison with the highest dimensions of creature of the human catastrophe. Masood Rajavi stimulated and encouraged the caged victims of Ashraf garrison to upheaval against Iraqi elect govt. sovereignty and not to obey the rules and regulations, which has been passed by Iraq constitutional assembly. He intimidated Iraqi govt. to imply with his illegal demands not to impose Iraq dominion over his unlawful self-govt. in the territory of Iraq. Otherwise, he will openly goad and compel his deceived innocent victims in Ashraf garrison to start a hunger strike and if they cannot get their demands from Iraqi govt., they must resort self-holocaust solution to make the West public opinion to support his illegal demands. The authentic sources familiar to his violent nature and characteristics believe that Masood Rajavi’s message is too bloodthirsty and full of intimidations, desperations, and self-contradictions and he does not care how many people will be on fire and killed in his self-created holocaust. Now, I, as a survivor of this terrorist cult ask the West public opinion and responsible authorities to take Masood Rajavi’s message serious to avert Masood Rajavi’s latent holocaust in Ashraf garrison. According to an Iranian axiom, “when you push a wild cat on the ring or on the corner of the room; the cat will scrape and claw you.” It means that when there is an absolute impasse and no alternative to rescue the live and change the conditions, the reaction of such wild animals with violent natures towards such dead end conditions are unexpected, desperate, vague, and outrageous. As a result, the reaction of wildcat is adventurous and violent, it may invade you by any weapon, and way and bomb commit either suicide or self-burning. Based on the past Masood Rajavi’s terrorist adventures in the occasions of impasse conditions and political catch-22, the experience shows that, he is always endeavoring to theorize his cultic conspiracies to prepare the atmosphere for terrorist adventures. That is why he used the language of threat in his message vs. Iraq elect govt. several times in different ways and tried to place the responsibility of his future prepared terrorist activities on the shoulder of Iraq govt. and the rest of the world. That is why; the most significant part of his message is that “the world can not be in the peace and security without the establishment of security in the Ashraf garrison” where is his main and key base for preparing terrorist activities. The reality is that, if the West states are not determine to take necessary action regarding Masood Rajavi’s expressed threats today, thus, tomorrow will be too late. Moreover, the human beings will face the reiteration of Paris self-burning disaster in Ashraf garrison with the highest terrible dimensions. Therefore, the fenced in Ashraf garrison victims are expecting the human consciences and human rights organizations not to hesitate in rescuing them.
Iranpeyvand

February 17, 2009 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Exclusivism in the mind control system of the cults

The leaders of MKO cult, as well as ,all other cult leaders try to convince the members that their organization’s belief is the best of the world and eventually cult leaders will tell you can only be "saved" (or can only be successful) in their organization alone. they are superior to the other people because they are saved by their leaders and they can since then be the saviors of the world. Ann Singleton, the former member of the cult of Rajavi affirms this fact:” I though I was superior to the world .. I wanted to save the world.”
Howcultswork calls such phenomenon as the exclusivism in the mind control system of the cults. According to Howcultswork , the cults prevent the members from joining any other belief or ideology system. The membership in the cult matters.
cult leaders will tell you can only be "saved" (or can only be successful) in their organization alone. No other organization has the truth, all others miss the mark. So it is not the belief system that decides your future, but it the belief system AND your membership with that particular group.

ANY GROUP WHICH SAYS YOU MUST BELONG TO THEIR ORGANIZATION TO BE SAVED IS ALMOST CERTAINLY A CULT

The cult leaders need to make you believe that there is no where else you can go and still be saved, and if you ever leave the "one true church" then you are going to hell. This is a fear based control mechanism designed to keep you in the cult. It also gives the cult leaders tremendous power over you. If you really believe that leaving the group equals leaving God (or means you are leaving your only chance to succeed in life), then you will obey the cult leaders even when you disagree with them instead of risking being kicked out of the group. Exclusivism is used as a threat, it controls your behavior through fear.

Note
Be very suspicious of any group that claims to be better than all the others. A religious group may say that other groups following the same religion are OK, but they are the ones who have a better grasp of the truth and they are superior to the rest. This is often just a subtle version of exclusivism.

Note
This is one of the practices that cults are often very deceptive about. For example, first off they may give you the impression that they think you are a true Christian, Buddhist or Muslim and it’s not until later that their true position is revealed.
Reference: Howcultswork
By Mazdak Parsi

February 15, 2009 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi

Pseudo-Charismatic leader of the Cult of Mojahedin

Talking of the mechanisms the cults exploit to force members submit to the wills of the leaders, the charisma and techniques of persuasion are of the two important factors. The priority of the one over the other has always been the subject of studies and discussions but one thing is clear for certain that the charisma and charismatic features avoid making any negative value in general. However, made judgments indicate that the mentality of charisma plays a crucial role in the structure of a group itself, its pattern of recruitment, its ideology and its contradictions, the mechanisms used to gain commitment, and the maintenance and evolution of the group within a given social context.
Charisma on its own is not evil and does not necessarily breed a cult leader. The negative image of the charismatic context and process that is characteristic of most modern social theory is derived from the history of those charismatic leaders who are most feared because of their anti-human and atrocious activities that have risked many lives and intensified social antagonisms. To define charisma first, one dictionary definition of charisma is "a personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure (as a political leader or military commander); a special magnetic charm or appeal”. 1
Charisma was studied in depth by the German sociologist Max Weber, who defined it as "an exceptional quality in an individual who, through appearing to possess supernatural, providential, or extraordinary powers, succeeds in gathering disciples around him." 2
Thus, charisma is the first factor and the magnetic appeal that helps formation of a new cult by convincing recruits that the leader is giving them the ideal they had long been seeking for:
For the cult leader, having charisma is perhaps most useful during the stage of cult formation. It takes a strong-willed and persuasive leader to convince people of a new belief, then gather the newly converted around him as devoted followers. 3
It is actually true of political cults and their charismatic leader compared with other forms of cults. And again it is more typical of the leftist political cults than rightists since the formers basically claim to be relying on the support of the masses. However, the magnetism of a charismatic leader depends on a follower’s demands. Sometimes it happens that somebody’s love and devotion in a leader turns to be absolute aversion and hatred in another’s eye in the same way that the members of the Marxist camp can never live in harmony with those from the capitalist camp.

So we see that charisma is indeed a desirable trait for someone who wishes to attract a following. However, like beauty, charisma is in the eye of the beholder. Mary, for example, may be completely taken with a particular seminar leader, practically swooning at his every word, while her friend Susie doesn’t feel the slightest tingle. Certainly at the time a person is under the sway of charisma the effect is very real. Yet, in reality, charisma does nothing more than create a certain worshipful reaction to an idealized figure in the mind of the one who is smitten. 4
In fact, the magic of a cult leader is his/her ability to allure recruits and build statuses to which all devotedly bow down. But it has to be pointed out that it is not at all the product of an overnight process but skilful application of various techniques of persuasion and brainwashing. It is through these brainwashing techniques that a seemingly non-destructive cult overturns its peaceful codes of conduct and becomes a destructive and even a terrorist cult.
Once considered a charismatic political leader by the help of his organizational comrades, since he lacked the needed appealing characteristics of a charismatic leader, Massoud Rajavi took himself to the status of a deified cult leader for whom many were ready to sacrifice themselves. The process clearly depicts the effectiveness of cult techniques exploited by the falsely created magnetism of a cult leader. It was much because his close ranking cadres idolized him as a divinely inspired figure whose orders for operations, being them terrorist operations that shed many innocents’ blood or suicide and self-immolation operations, had to be blindly submitted to. Although one may wonder to learn about the horrible potentialities of Mojahedin Khalq with Rajavi at the lead, but it is a true example of an existing terrorist cult in the modern world:
Political cults include terrorist groups that resort to the killing of innocent citizens to promote their cause. Suicide bombers are often members of these extremist political groups. When you hear about a suicide bombing in the Middle East, for instance, you may wonder how someone could give his life in order to kill others. 5
It is hard to develop a deep understanding of Rajavi’s personality especially for the Western people and his advocates there. They will come to know his real nature only when it is too late and they have to pay a great deal for their false calculations. In a discourse on the unnoticed, terrible potentialities of Mojahedin Khalq we read:
As I know Mojahedin, they are too hard a wall to climb. I take the opportunity to inform the US and European states; as a theoretician to whom neither MKO nor NCRI have the least responsibility and to whom neither of them establishes any organizational link, I believe Mojahedin are benefitting a remarkably terrible potentiality which break the control, … . 6
It has to be pointed out that emergence of Rajavi as a propagated charismatic leader depended much on the circumstances that well approve the idea that a “charismatic leadership depends not only on personality but on circumstance: the leader must ride the zeitgeist. Chance and timing playa large part in determining whether a would-be cult leader, for example, ends up as Manson or Moses”.7
It was in the midst of a great revolution that Rajavi was released from the prison and found the opportunity of playing a militia leader especially for the zealous revolutionary Iranian youths who could easily follow a Che Guevara-like model. Hardly believing in what people willed, he would express a new mixture of radicalism and idealism and cleverly played the role of a revolutionary who pretended to respect demands of the rising people based on novel political, social and religious claims. In fact, Rajavi bore no charismatic appeal but it was his adventurous charm that allured inexperienced people to join him in his claimed combat against imperialism. But it did not take long to shock Iranian people and the world in general that the anti-imperialists turned to conduct many assassination and terror operations inside Iran and Iraq, claiming thousands of innocent lives.
Who knows, maybe it was the charismatic charm of the Rajavis that fascinated the Europeans to rub off the terrorist label long attached to their cult!

References:
1. Tobias, Madeleine and Janja Lalich; Captive Hearts, Captive Minds, Alameda, CA: Hunter House 1994.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Steven Hassan; Releasing the Bonds; Empowering People to Think for Themselves, Freedom of Mind Press Somerville, 2000, p. 8.
6. On Mojahedin’s future in Iraq, www.goftogoo.net.
7. Tobias, Madeleine and Janja Lalich; Captive Hearts, Captive Minds, Alameda, CA: Hunter House 1994.

January 31, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Threat of suicidal operations never ceases

In a letter released in POAC’s ruling on November 2007, the UK Secretary of State is quoted saying “Mere cessation of terrorist acts do not amount to MKO sent one of its members on a mission of suicide operation to target Iraqi national security forces in charge of the camp. renunciation of terrorism. Without a clear and publicly available renunciation of terrorism by the PMOI, I am entitled to fear that terrorist activity that has been suspended for pragmatic reasons will be resumed in the future”. And he is right since just on 17 June 2003, two years after the claimed date that MKO had conducted no military activity of any kind since August 2001, the group’s members launch a series of most appalling self-suicide operations.
It began when Jean-Louis Bruguière, France’s anti-terrorism investigative magistrate at the time, first targeted the terrorist cult of Mojahedin-e Khalq (MKO, MEK, NCRI, PMOI, NLA), officially designated as terrorists organization by the US and the European Union, in a European country since its settlement there and issued warrant for the arrest of Maryam Rajavi and a number of her accomplices for a multitude of terrorist charges. The officials in DST, French counter-intelligence, were well aware of the group’s terrorist nature when its HQs were raided. But hardly anybody expected that the group would engage in immediate cult-like reactions against the arrest of its she-guru.
Although the case is still under investigation by French justice system for a final judgment, those who are familiar with the nature of cults and their techniques of brainwashing were neither shocked nor surprised by the widespread self-burnings of MKO’s members, male and female, that left two deaths and others deformed. It was all done as a cult order to protest the arrest of the she-guru Maryam Rajavi who is steering the cult in the absence of her husband whose whereabouts is still unknown. And it worked well, since soon the French police surrendered to the wills of the protesters and set the leader free.
Not only has the group failed to present evidences to acquit itself of terrorist charges, distribution of new evidences such as reports of abusing its own insiders, repeated assertion of its re-designation in the US and the EU terror lists, its failed lobbying efforts to be removed from the terrorist lists, legal complaints of defectors and families to prosecute the organization for its anti-human activities against the members, and its glorification of terrorism are all proven facts that convince any country, where its members are settled, to take precautionary measures against any possible terrorist plots.
Intrinsically a terrorist organization, MKO has never denounced violence and terrorism publicly. In fact the group’s glorification of violence and terrorism remains as a major security threat and an appropriate means of accomplishing its cultic ends and safeguarding its HQs. In a few messages delivered from his hideout in the past recent years, Massoud Rajavi has particularly provoked continuation of suicidal operations as an emergency exit from the raised crisis. The self elected leader of Mojahedin has mainly focused on the preservation of two cult dynamics as the strategic guidelines in his messages, namely, Maryam Rajavi and Camp Ashraf. Rajavi in his message of March 25 stated:
At the present, it is a national duty on any Iranian and especially on our victorious opposition forces throughout the world to preserve two things which have turned to be two sides of the same coin. On one side rests a portrait of Maryam and on the other side, a perspective of Ashraf. I urge you one by one to struggle like Maryam and along with her day and night to mint the coin and achieve the end. 1
The expulsion of MKO from the Iraq and Nouri al-Maliki’s reiteration that the group is no longer welcome in Iraq following the expiration of the UN mandate for the international forces is of the greatest crisis the group has ever faced. It has to do something to come out and as usual, application of violence seems to be the best choice for the organization. In the past there came the order for the members to self-immolate for Maryam. Now it is Camp Ashraf that is under threat of being closed down and they already have the orders what to do.
According to an issued statement by the Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie, MKO sent one of its members on a mission of suicide operation to target Iraqi national security forces in charge of the camp. The operation came to absolute failure when the attacker turned himself in to Iraqi security forces and disclosed the details of his mission.
As it is typical of MKO, it denied claims stated by Iraqi officials that a member of the group was planning a suicide operation. But one thing is right for certain that the group has to leave willingly or unwillingly. It can no more beguile Iraqi government as it did with France through the push of its suicidal operations. For sure it is good news for the camp residents who have long been looking forward to being released from the bonds of the abusive cult.

January 22, 2009 0 comments

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