The Third View on Mujahedin Khalq

Iran angry over EU exclusion of MKO from terror list

Iran has condemned the removal of the MKO terrorist group from the European Union’s terror list.
Earlier today, Iran’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan Naser Hamidi Zare’ said that exclusion of the group from the list was a new Western trap for the Islamic state, accusing the West of operating a policy of double-standards in dealing with terrorist groups.
The Ambassador claimed that EU politicians made the decision to leave the group, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, off the list was because of intense lobbying from the ‘Zionist’ lobby.
The decision to leave the group off the list is a sensitive for Iran, because the MKO has been blamed for the mass killings of Iranians over the last 30 years.
Tehran has now complained at the EU decision to the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.
Zare’ said that the removal of the terrorist organization from the EU terror list had happened after the Iraqi government decided to expel members of the criminal cult who were stationed in Iraq by former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi government announced in early February that Baghdad would soon close the file of the terrorist organization and expel them from the country.
According to Zare’, the EU made the move when Baghdad had confirmed its decision to expel MKO members from Iraq.

Religious Intelligence By Nick Mackenzie

February 15, 2009 0 comments

European Union

Russian expert: Europe using terrorism for political purposes

IRNA, Moscow- A Russian scholar said the European Union (EU) manipulated such issues as terrorism and human rights for its own political purposes.
Talking to IRNA here on Saturday, Ludmila Kulagina, as a top researcher in the Russian Institute of Oriental Studies, criticized the recent EU move in removing the terrorist Mojahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO) form its terrorism list.
She said the move was a clear example of the double-standard policy adopted by the west on the issue of terrorism and frankly undermined the EU claim of fighting terrorism.

She believed the west treated such issues as terrorism and human rights in a biased and fanatical manner based on the double-standard policies inspired by its political interests.
Saying that certain western countries labeled organizations as terrorists according to their own whims and wishes, she said such a policy was clearly manifested in their behavior towards Hamas which was rejected by the west as a terrorist movement despite the fact that it assumed power in Palestine following a democratic election.
Referring to countless terrorist operations carried out by the terrorist MKO in both Iran and Iraq during the past three decades that claimed numerous lives, she stressed the EU’s delisting of the terrorist MKO lacked any legal or rational justifications.
Kulagina noted that the EU’s move, who delisted the terrorist organization instead of punishing it for the crimes it has committed, served the merely political purpose of fueling the tension between Iran and the US and some European countries by strengthening Iran’s opponents.
She said such a decision by the EU would negatively affect Iran-Europe ties.

February 15, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

PMOI-NCRI: The Siamese twins of terror!

Terrorists and assassins of all ideological bases often use the same method when they understand that the violent side of their actions can serve their policy and to miss their objectives: they create a political wing.
ETA Basque party Herri Batasuna, the IRA was Sinn Fein, the Corsican FLNC took A Cuncolta Naziunalista, the CCC had the Belgian collective Red Line, etc …
Officially, there are independent terrorist groups and parties, but in reality the funding, objectives and even some leaders have in common. We think the No. 2 Sinn Fein it was known he was at one time the military leader of the IRA.
Despite these links, and connivance, it is rare that a terrorist group and its political wing are as mixed as are the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (known in French OMPI) and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (the NCRI in French CNRI ). So much so that in this case, one can hardly speak of a single organization that changes its name in public or objectives of the moment.
We invite you to this radioscopy two Siamese twins of terror: PMOI / NCRI.

The NCRI: an empty shell
At its inception in 1981, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) includes around PMOI, its main component, other movements of the Iranian opposition, such as the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) , the independence movement led by Ghasem Loo, the National Democratic Front (NDF), the Hoviyat (a branch of the Fedayeen), the Union of Communists of Iran (UCI), the Workers’ Party (PT), the Union for liberation of workers (ULT), the Council of the unified left for Democracy and Independence (CGUDI) and other leftist groups.
Mujahidin however refuse the support of other opposition movements, such as the Liberation Movement of Iran (MLI) or the Freedom Party (PL), Mehdi Bazargan, the first president of the Islamic Republic of Iran and former right arm of Khomeini, the People’s Fedayeen, the Tudeh Party (Iranian Communist Party or) and the Monarchists, especially the Iranian constitutionalists (IC) and the Organization of the flag of freedom of Iran (ODLI). As for the National Front Nationalist Party of former Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, which rejects the very concept of Islamic government, he himself refused to join this forum.

Political coalition of democratic forces in Iran, which according to the so called parliament in exile, NCRI is supposed to act as a provisional government after the overthrow of the current Iranian government. Soon, its members drawn from the ranks of the Mujahidin stumble against the authoritarian style of Massoud Rajavi, whose unilateral decision to link the Council on Iraq raises a public outcry. This alliance, which is regarded by some as an act of treason, has been formally negotiated by the head of the Mujahidin Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz during a meeting in January 1983 in France. Abolhassan Bani Sadr, the most important member of NCRI, protested against this alliance . Two groups coexisted in the NCRI. The first called for the overthrow of the Islamic regime by all means, even if it means accepting help from abroad. While seeking the same goal, the second was opposed, in principle, to any foreign aid. PMOI was one of the first and will run in collaboration with Saddam Hussein during the war between Iran and Iraq.
The NCRI began a slow process of disintegration. To protest against the dictatorial methods of Massoud Rajavi (leader of PMOI), most groups that make up their deck one after another. The leader of Mujahidin which tries to control of that body, opposes any form of democratic debate within it. Mujahidin determined who could join them, which deserved the right to vote. Critics have rejected the National Council or silenced.

The Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), which officially left NCRI in 1986, explained the reasons for its departure, eight years later, in these terms:”We consider the Mujahidin, in the light of our own experience with them between 1981 and 1986, and their attitude vis-à-vis other formations of the Iranian democratic opposition, as a sectarian and undemocratic. We can not, therefore, trust their loyalty to the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people.”

Asked about the reasons for his departure from NCRI, Baba Khan Tehrani, a militant left-wing former member of the Confederation of Iranian Students (CIS), who currently lives in Hamburg, Germany, said:”The Mujahidin have not played the federating and unifying role that was supposed to be theirs. They have always sought, instead, to impose their domination and were not embarrassed to drive a wedge among the other forces of the Iranian opposition.”
Become an empty shell, the NCRI is now composed of hundreds of members (between 200 and 300 according to versions), most of the leaders of the PMOI, entirely controlled by Rajavi. Associated groups, which bear different names (Muslim Students Association, Association of Teachers and professionals Iranian .Association of Iranian women, etc..), There are only dummy. They are supposed to give the appearance of NCRI a forum bringing together”all political forces fighting the religious, dictatorship in Iran and who represent various social strata of the Iranian people,”according to the phraseology of the movement.

In this council, where individual members have voting rights equal to those groups, the membership criteria are not clearly defined. In fact, the PMOI membership that decides what he wants, which empty the instance of any legitimacy and credibility and is an additional instrument of control in the hands of a small sectarian group.

Frameworks
There are more than 110 NCRI executives also have functions within PMOI. The self-proclaimed president and official spokesman is no one other than Massoud Rajavi, grand guru of PMOI. Besides the best known figure of NCRI, is no one other than his wife Maryan Rajavi, designated (by a vote of who, for what it promises to give more freedom to Iranians …) as the future president of Iran. As a token of independence of NCRI compared to PMOI, it is bad strikeout.

In addition to the cut”divine”of Rajavi, here are 3 examples among hundreds of others that demonstrate not only the connections between PMOI and the NCRI but also prove that the NCRI has called political wing but is is a gathering of terrorists having learned just temporarily, to put a costume tie.

Mahmoud Attaei Karizi

– Member of PMOI since 1969. Responsible in 1979 of refueling para-military units of PMOI. In 1987, he became chief of the National Liberation Army (NLA), which was composed of members of PMOI and to serve as a supplementary force to the troops of Saddam Hussein in the war against Iran. It is wanted by Interpol for murder. He is responsible for the study of strategy and defense of NCRI

Fereshteh Yeganeh

– Militants in the first hours of PMOI. In 1982, she became a member of the state major terrorist operations in urban areas, responsible for numerous attacks in Iran. She was later responsible for the logistics of training camps in Iraq PMOI in 1988 and became a member Executive Committee of PMOI and eventually lead the Ashraf camp in Iraq that was the main camp of PMOI. It will eventually be the second in command of the NLA and is as such a responsibility in the massacre of Kurds who rebelled against Saddam in 1991. It is also sought by Interpol. The Democrat in the soul of NCRI is a member since 1992 and was responsible for the Committee for Research and Education.

Mahmoud Azedanlou
– Began its activities in PMOI before the Iranian Revolution. After the failure of a coup against Khomeini, he is one of the most ardent advocates of armed struggle. He became in 1985, central committee member of PMOI and come finally to the leadership of the Movement. It will also have responsibilities within the NLA and, as such, is wanted by Interpol for murder. He was in charge of the NCRI to economic issues.

In event
In essence, the”Siamese twins”terrorists do not hide their proximity. Thus on these exclusive pictures of a demonstration which took place in Brussels in November 2005 and where we see distinctly the flags of NCRI and PMOI coast to coast. Note that there is no other flag Iranian opposition organization.

For experts on terrorism also …
… There is no doubt that PMOI and the NCRI are one and the same organization. Thus in the annual report published by the U.S. State Department on terrorism, the NCRI is regarded as just another name for the People’s Mujahideen
Mujahedin-eKhalq Organization (MEK) aka MKO; Mujahedin-e Khalq, Muslim Iranian Students’ Society, National Council of Resistance, National Council of Resistance (NCR), Organization of the People’s Holy Warriors of Iran, The Army of National Liberation Iran (NLA), The People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI); Sazeman-e Mujahedin-e Khalq-e Iran (from the Country Reports on Terrorism of the U.S. Department of State )

Conclusion
PMOI / NCRI have the same leaders, the same framework, the same structure, the same practices and sectarian violence. The uniform and the Islamic veil, the insignia of paramilitary type, this shows that PMOI is the NCRI and that, whatever the name used, they are of a single sectarian and terrorist organization: the Mujahideen of the People.
The whole is that the EU does not fall into the trap of these Siamese of terror and continue to regard them as a single criminal group.
Posted by geostratos in French

February 9, 2009 0 comments

UK still views MKO as terrorist group: Miliband

Berlin, Feb 8 – British Foreign Secretary David Miliband made clear his country’s position on the terrorist nature of the MKO grouplet had not changed, despite the European Union’s controversial decision to remove the MKO from the terror list, IRNA reported.
Meeting with Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani on the sidelines of the 45th Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Miliband said, the position of the British government on the terrorist group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization, remains unchanged.
Miliband’s latest comments on the MKO came in the wake of earlier statements by Larijani who in his address to the Munich security confab on Friday voiced outrage over the West’s harboring of known terrorist groups, alluding to European countries providing safe haven to the MKO.
The MKO has been involved in the mass killings of thousands of innocent Iranians over the past 30 years.
Furthermore, the Israeli-backed MKO terror grouplet had also collaborated with the former Saddam regime, massacring tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds and Shias.

February 9, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

PMOI crows … but probably not for long!

The People’s Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI alias, aka MKO, alias or NRCI) have been removed from the list of organizations considered terrorist by the European Union. Just when the U.S. confirmed on their own … who can understand.

It is true that the decision to withdraw from the European list is motivated solely on technical issues and form such aspects of rights of defense.

But now, France has appealed this decision and the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs reiterated that for it, PMOI did have its place on this list.

Moreover, the text that was adopted makes it clear that several countries among the 27 "are not convinced that the Mujahedin were away from terrorism". It will be recalled that the process of withdrawal, the Swiss and the French had launched new accusations against PMOI.

It is therefore likely that PMOI will return to this famous list in July. Unfortunately, in the meantime, it has had time to recover the many assets it owns and those it had received from Saddam Hussein as a salary for being executive of his dirty works …

February 7, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

The MKO movement is in decline

Response to Sergio D’Elia, secretary of Hands Off Cain”, the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (1)

Caro D’Elia,
Our group had no intention of continuing to write about Mujahedin-e Khalq (MKO), but encouraged by your recent e-mail we feel obliged to make a few points. In principle, we are not against the removal of MKO from the list of terrorists. Indeed, the movement is already in decline .Since the late nineties the internal dissent in Camp Ashraf is increasing and with the fall of the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein, the MKO will be deprived of their basic logistics. However, there are things that continue to preoccupancy.

First, we believe that the leadership of MKO should answer the killing of civilian Kurds. I’m sorry, in fact, contradicting, but under Saddam the MKO were involved directly in the massacre of the Kurdish population. We have received confirmation and documentation of what we are saying by the Kurdish Democratic Party and by independent Tolerancy International, based in Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan) and headed by a former minister of the autonomous Kurdish government, Hussein Sinjari.

Secondly, we are sure that the meetings in Europe with several supporters and / or members of MKO led you to find them available and courteous. The image that, in fact, the movement has manufactured in the West is a democratic organization. But the situation is different at Camp Ashraf. Some members of MKO have in fact discovered at their expense, the detention camps in which under the leadership of the movement they were subjected to torture, often led to death. Members of MKO are victims of their own cynical leadership. Shown below the records of known and authoritative organization Human Rights Watch on this topic.

The third point is that, as you say it, the movement does not have a libertarian government structure and in light of the facts that we have listed above and that we are committed to detail, are needed to reconstruct the truth about the movement. Surprisingly when Italian parliamentary delegations – and Sen. Perduca – go on a visit to Camp Ashraf and then write in the Italian media praises to movement who do not know at all.
Another point which we would highlight was well summarized by a message left to us by a supporter of MKO in Italy:”It is not far the day when Iran and the Iranians celebrate their freedom and democracy under the flag of the Mojahedin and their president Mrs. Maryam Rajavi.”This concerns us. We want a free Iran, celebrating their freedom under the flag of their country, not a movement, and having as president a leader elected by democratic elections.

For ease of reading we will share this letter / document into four parts. In this letter, write the abuses at Camp Ashraf (which will be divided into two parts), providing evidence. In the coming days, we will post additional material on the killing of Kurds and the armed forces and American civilian, take our information directly from the Department of State. The material here is, we were given by Human Rights Watch and the complete document in English of 28 pages is also available on-line.

Brief Background of MKO
The MKO was founded in 1965 by three student from the University of Tehran, Mohammad Hanifnezhad, Saeed Mohsen and Asghar Badizadegan. The three believed that a peaceful resistance against the Pahlavi government does not lead to any result, and that only armed struggle could fall to the monarchy. Their ideology, however, was based on an interpretation of Islam compatible with the Marxism. during 70s, thirteen members of MKO and Giodania go into Lebanon to be trained . The friendship with Yasser Arafat, remains over the years.
With the revolution of 1979, Massoud Rajavi emerged as a leader of the movement. Immediately after the revolution, MKO supported the revolution but after a while Khomeini excluded them from the division of power. It, therefore, led to an intense rivalry between the leadership of MKO and the regime of Iran. In 1981, members of MKO launched a campaign of armed attacks against the Iranian government. The same year, Massoud Rajavi moved to Paris. In 1986, France asked Rajavi to leave the country and find a new ally: the dictator Saddam Hussein. (In movies we are in possession of Rajavi called Saddam”the big boss”).

The “ideological revolution” of the MKO
In 1985, Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Azdanlu got married. Massoud and Maryam Rajavi became co-leader of the movement. They announced the marriage is an”ideological revolution”resulted from tremendous sacrifices made by both spouses. Maryam was first married to the deputy of Massoud, Mehdi Abrishamchi. The”ideological revolution”of Rajavi was imposed on the movement and required”sacrifice”. First, the leadership has asked its members to divorce by their husbands and wives, ordering”mass divorce.”

In the book “Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel,”the former member of MKO, Masoud Banisadr (not to be confused with the former president Abolhasan Banisadr) fled from the movement in 1996, recounts a meeting for senior officers of the movement page. 37 of the English version.

The first thing I was required to do in Baghdad was watch a videotape of an ideological meeting for “executive and high-ranking members.” The meeting, called “Imam Zaman,” (in the Shiite faith is the hidden Imam), started with a simple question: “To whom do we owe all our achievements and everything that we have?”… Rajavi did not claim, as I thought he might, to be the Imam of our times, but merely said we owed everything to Imam Zaman… The object was to show that we could reach Tehran if we were more united with our leader, as he was with Imam Zaman and God.
“He (Rajavi) was ready to sacrifice everything he had (which in fact meant all of us!) for God, asserting that the only thing on his mind was doing the will of God,….we were expected to draw the conclusion that no “buffer” existed between Rajavi and Imam Zaman; yet there was a buffer between ourselves and him [Rajavi] … which prevented us from seeing him clearly. This “buffer” was our weakness. If we could recognize that, we would see why and how we had failed in Operation Forogh [Eternal Light] and elsewhere. Massoud and Maryam [Rajavi] had no doubt that the buffer was in all our cases our existing spouse…

In the next letter, provide the following themes:
“Birth of dissent in Camp Ashraf”
“Violation and Abuse of Human Rights in Camp Ashraf”
“Testimonies collected by Human Rights Watch.”

Anticipation of the next letter:
Testimony of Sayed Amir Mowaseghi, collected by Human Rights Watch
Sayed Amir Mowaseghi entered a part of MKO in 1984 and was imprisoned by the Iranian government from 1984-1987. After his release, went to Pakistan, from where he could reach Iraq and join forces in the MK 1988.Nel in June 2001, had decided to leave the movement, but he was not allowed. A session of court”was agreed in September 2001 with the presence of Maryam and Masoud Rajavi, who have not granted permission to leave the MKO.

Immediately after it happened as testified:
“I was brought to a gathering of about 600 people. I was dragged into a crowd, I was taken to blows, kicked, verbally abused. I was then led in a caravan, which they called Bangala, I was confined in isolation until 2 June, 2002, and then I was handed over to Iraqi government forces (of Saddam Hussein). The Iraqi forces have put me in the prison of Abu Ghraib, I was then sent back to Iran on 18 March 2003.”

ANNA-MAHJAR of Barducci – Secretary of the”Arab Liberal Democrats

http://www.agenziaradicale.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7265&Itemid=52

Translated by Nejat Society

February 4, 2009 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Ex-member says MEK is like a cult

Ex-member says MEK ‘is like a cult’
Anne Khodabandeh, a former member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq organisation at her Leeds home. Lorne Campbell / The National
When the European Union removed a militant Iranian opposition group from its blacklist of terrorist organisations last month, it drew not only protestations from Iran but also the contempt of a former member who claims the group is little more than a cult.
The Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK, or the People’s Mujahideen of Iran, and sometimes known as MKO), a leftist Islamist organisation that has vehemently opposed the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979, was taken off the EU’s terrorism blacklist on Jan 26 at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, the culmination of intensive lobbying by the group and its European supporters.
But Anne Khodabandeh, née Singleton, a former member of the group for 20 years, was sceptical.
“Well, at least this shows the EU blacklist for what it really is – nothing more than a list of friend and foe,” she said.
“But realistically I don’t think it will make any difference to them in Europe. They will continue to carry on with their propaganda and fund-raising activities. They will continue to have their base in Paris where they hold their own members captive in isolation.”
Mrs Khodabandeh, 49, now a computer programmer, runs Iran-Interlink, an organisation that aims to inform the public about what she says is the reality of the MEK and provide assistance to former members, as well as current members who want to leave.
Mrs Khodabandeh said the group enforces strict segregation of men and women – even forcibly separating or divorcing couples – and employs psychological manipulation and mind control. She pointed to the practice of self-immolation at MEK demonstrations in Europe and the United States as further evidence of the group’s “cult-like” characteristics.
“The MEK is a cult, with every implication that has,” she said. “The leadership is unelected, unaccountable and perpetrates abuses against its own members.”
The MEK was established in the 1960s by a group of radical students in violent opposition to the US-backed shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and took part in the 1979 revolution.
But it soon fell out with Iran’s new ruler, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the the country’s religious establishment and many members were jailed and executed. Most fled the country for Europe and the United States while thousands of others set up a base in northern Iraq at Camp Ashraf, which is in the process of being closed down.
Various estimates put the group’s membership at anywhere between 5,000 and 20,000.
For its part, the MEK describes itself as a secular, democratic organisation that wants to bring democracy to Iran and enjoys significant support in Europe and the United States.
Brian Binley, a member of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom, hailed the decision to remove the MEK from the EU blacklist and said descriptions of the group as a cult were “completely untrue”.
“I am delighted the battle has been won,” Mr Binley, a Conservative member of parliament, said of the EU ruling. “This is a perfectly legitimate group that opposes the medieval theocracy of Iran.
“I have found them to be good people, to be democrats who want a free and democratic Iran.”
Mrs Khodabandeh first learnt about the MEK in the early 1980s through an Iranian boyfriend while studying at Manchester University.
An idealist “who wanted to change the world”, she began attending the group’s campus meetings and gradually became more involved with its fund-raising and awareness activities.
Before long she was a fully fledged member, espousing the group’s militant opposition to the theocratic regime in Iran and calling for its overthrow.
But the MEK’s demands on her grew and through such techniques as peer pressure and “psychological manipulation”, Mrs Khodabandeh said, she came ever more under control of the group.
By the age of 30 she had lost touch with most of her friends and family, given up her job as a computer programmer and handed over her house, car and savings.
She left her home in Leeds, Yorkshire, to live with other members at a number of “safe houses” belonging to the MEK, first in London and then in Sweden, and was put to work in the “diplomacy section”, monitoring the news and writing press releases for the group.
“We were like children. We took all our orders from the leaders – we wouldn’t so much as leave the building without their permission,” she said.
Since 1985 the MEK has been led by the husband and wife team of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi – the latter a leading figure in the recent campaign to have the MEK removed from the EU’s terrorist list – both of whom, according to Mrs Khodobandeh, embody all the traits of “cult leadership”. Their authority within the group is unquestionable, she said, and Massoud Rajavi is proficient in mind-control techniques.
A number of rights groups support Mrs Khodobandeh’s claims.
“We have documented serious human rights abuses that the MKO was inflicting on its own members in their camp in Iraq,” said Tom Porteous, the London director of Human Rights Watch. “The organisation … has shown that criticism of leadership is certainly not tolerated.”
It was in 1993, at the height of her devotion to the MEK – “I was willing to die for them,” she said – that Mrs Khodabandeh began to have doubts about the group.
The Rajavis and other leading members had begun introducing bizarre rules, including the banning of marriage and compulsory divorces so that members could dedicate themselves fully to the cause.
She walked out on the MEK, though it took her another three years to finally cut her mental and emotional ties to the group and return to normal life.
In 1996 she met Massoud Khodabandeh, another member who had doubts about the organisation and who left at the same time. They married soon after and moved to Mrs Khodabandeh’s native Yorkshire, where they have lived since.
As a former member and current director of a support group for former MEK members, Mrs Khodabandeh is concerned about the inhabitants of Camp Ashraf in Iraq who will be evicted when the camp is closed in the coming months.
The group has been used by the EU over the years, she said, for a number of purposes, including as a propaganda tool against Iran and as a bargaining chip in nuclear negotiations.
And now that the MEK has been removed from the blacklist, there is no barrier to giving them refuge in Europe.
“EU countries have benefited from their existence for years. If you use them, take responsibility for them,” Mrs Khodabandeh said.
Telephone calls and e-mails to the MEK for comment went unanswered.
Jonathan Spollen, Assistant Foreign Editor – February 03. 2009
jspollen@thenational.ae
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090203/

FOREIGN/119570883&SearchID=73344134565366

February 3, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Iran Group in Iraq Poses Thorny Issue for U.S.

many years, the roughly 3,500 members of the Iranian dissident group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) living quietly in Iraq drew little attention. But now the relatively obscure group is at the center of an increasingly contentious argument among leaders in Baghdad, Tehran and Washington, where decisions the new White House makes about the rebels will probably set the tone for U.S. relations with Iran in the near term.

The simmering issue of the MEK’s fate flashed into the open earlier this month when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki unexpectedly declared that the group would no longer be allowed to remain in Iraq. Shortly after that, Maliki’s national security adviser, Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, said the MEK’s camp roughly 40 miles north of Baghdad would be disbanded within two months, declaring during an appearance in Tehran that Iraq would not play host to threats toward its neighbor.

The issue grew more complicated on Jan. 26, when the European Union removed the MEK from its list of terrorist organizations, a roster that includes organizations such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The E.U. move, which came after a long lobbying campaign by the MEK’s supporters in Europe, sparked an outcry in Tehran. About 300 people were gathered around noon on Wednesday in front of the British Embassy in Tehran to protest the E.U. decision. Some in the crowd threw stones at the embassy, while others held up shoes on sticks in a show of deep disrespect in the Middle East.

"What people side with the enemy and kill their own people in a war?" said demonstrator Sina Zamanian, 17, referring to the MEK’s alliance with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war, which led them to settle in Iraq. "They are the worst kind of opportunistic terrorists and should be forever marked as such."

Nevertheless, some in Baghdad are calling for the group to be allowed to remain in Iraq, or at least to not be turned over to Iran, for political reasons. "We have to deal with this issue very delicately," says Ayad Jamal al-Deen, an Iraqi parliamentarian aligned with Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. "I’m not here to defend this organization. I have no interest in them. But I am looking out for the Iraqi national interest." Al-Deen and other Iraqi political figures see the group essentially as a bargaining chip with Iran, one of the few Iraq holds against its powerful neighbor. They argue that simply shuttering the MEK camp as Iran demands squanders what precious little leverage Iraq has against Iran. Al-Deen adds, "In my opinion, Iraq has only this card, MEK, to pressure Iran."

At the moment, however, the MEK’s ability to remain in Iraq depends on the will of the Americans. The Bush White House continued to use the military to protect the MEK at Camp Ashraf despite its current status as a terrorist organization on the U.S. list and periodic complaints by the emerging Iraqi government and Tehran, which says the group is still involved in subversive activity inside Iran. Outwardly, U.S. officials have said disbanding the camp would be in contravention of international humanitarian law because the group’s members are likely to face persecution in Iran or Iraq. But many Iraqis and Iranians suspect that the U.S. keeps the camp open for intelligence purposes, since the MEK’s spy network played a key role in uncovering Iran’s secret uranium-enrichment program in 2002.

Maliki appears intent on pressing the issue anew with the Obama Administration, which will have to decide soon whether to keep offering U.S. protection to the group or to yield to Iraqi demands to close Camp Ashraf. If the White House allows the Iraqi government to close the camp, the Iranian leadership is likely to see the move as a sign that the new Administration is eager to ease tensions between Washington and Tehran. A continuation of the status quo, however, could chill Obama’s early outreach efforts.

At Camp Ashraf, MEK members simply wait for word on what may happen to them as discussions continue in Baghdad, Tehran and Washington. Shahriar Kia, a spokesman for the group, says a closure of the camp would be a disaster for those living in what amounts to a protective quarantine for roughly the past seven years. "Closing down Camp Ashraf and the displacement of its residents, who are protected by the Geneva Conventions, against their will is a war crime," says Kia. "This will cause a humanitarian catastrophe."
— With reporting by Tariq Anmar in Baghdad
By Mark Kukis / Baghdad

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1875917,00.html

February 1, 2009 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Iranian asks France’s independence on MKO group

An Iranian lawmaker today urged France to relinquish any political pressure to remove name of the Iraq based – Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) out of the terrorist groups’ list and keep up its independent position. Iran considers the group to be terrorist.
Head of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Ala’eddin Boroujerdi said in a meeting with French parliamentary delegation that the decision to bring MKO out of the terrorist groups’ list runs counter to anti-terrorist claims of European states and will have negative impact on Iranian nation’s public opinion.
Boroujerdi briefed the delegation on chronology of terrorist activities of the MKO as its leaders have confessed to that and also assassination of hundreds of innocent women, children and people in Iran.
He said, “French government is expected to maintain its independent position in that connection.”
Head of MKO Maryam Rajavi is expected to remain excluded from the UK despite the EU dropping the previously outlawed group from its proscribed list.
British Foreign Office said that although it does not discuss individual cases of exclusion, the government continues to believe that the MKO or MeK, as it prefers to call it, was “responsible for vile acts of terrorism over a long period.”
“If an individual has made public statements in the past supporting or condoning terrorism, and has not publicly and unambiguously apologized and refuted such statements, then this would constitute grounds for not admitting an individual into the UK,” Foreign Office spokesman Barry Marston said.
“We are not satisfied that the MeK has done enough to distance itself from its past. There is no dispute about its previous terrorist activity: it claimed responsibility for a large number of violent attacks inside Iran for a number of years,” Marston told IRNA.
Rajavi was subject to an exclusion order back in October 1997, which banned her entry to the UK on the grounds that the organization contained a large faction of terrorists. The Foreign Office at the time said her presence was ‘not conducive to the public good’.
The British government insists that the deproscription of the MKO was ‘a judicial and not a political decision’ both in the EU as it was earlier in the UK and that it opposed its removal.
“We have made it clear that we were disappointed by the verdict of the Proscribed Organizations Appeal Commission and of the Court of Appeal, but we had to comply with their decisions,” Marston said about the British decision last July.
“Equally, given the clear judgment of the Court of First Instance on December 4, 2008, annulling the MeK’s listing in the EU, the EU had no choice but to observe and respect the court’s judgment,” he added.
Asked whether the UK government still considered the MKO as a terrorist organization, he said that there were still ‘serious reservations about the MeK’s assertion that it represents a democratic opposition in exile’.
“We see no evidence of popular support for the MeK in Iran, because of its responsibility for terrorist attacks which resulted in the deaths of many Iranian citizens, and because it fought alongside Iraqi forces against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war,” Marston said.
Regarding the potential that the controversial decision could have an adverse effect on Iran’s relations with the UK and the EU as a whole, he stressed that it should ‘not be seen as a political decision’.
“We would not hesitate to re-proscribe the MeK if circumstances changed and evidence emerged that it was concerned in terrorism,” the spokesman said.
He also quoted Home Office Minister Tony McNulty insisting last June during the debate on the MKO that the UK government have “no plans to meet its representatives.”
An Iraqi politician said the recent decision of the European Union to remove the terrorist Mojahedeen Khalq Organization from the list of terrorist groups benefits only European countries and as such did not concern Iraq.
In an exclusive interview with the Iranian news agency IRNA, Spokesman for Iraqi National Congress Mohammad Hassan al-Mousawi said both the Iraqi nation and government strictly considered the group as terrorists and were opposed their presence on their soil.
He pointed out that the Iraqi Constitution has banned engagement of any group in terrorist activities against one of nation’s neighbors.
He stressed that Iraq was strongly in favor of expelling the group from its soil.
Pointing out that his party, led by Ahmad Chalabi, was working on a plan to set up a strong regional union to include Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria, he said the presence of such terrorist groups as the MKO and the PKK in Iraq prevented materialization of the plan.
arabicnews.com

January 31, 2009 0 comments

USA

US not to follow EU on MKO

A State Department Spokesman says the US administration will not change the terrorist status of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO).

“We’ve already done a review and it was determined that there would not be a revocation of that status for the Mujahedin-e Khalq, so nothing has changed from our standpoint,” Robert Wood said at a briefing on Monday, when asked if Washington would follow the action taken by the European Union.

The EU removed the MKO from its list of terrorist organizations on Monday. The move outraged the Iranian Foreign Ministry, which in a statement, called the decision incomprehensible.

Wood added that there had not been ‘any change at this point’ in the status of the MKO, suggesting that the new administration was unlikely to alter its stance on the outlawed group.
The US announced on Jan. 12 that labeling the MKO as a terrorist group was an appropriate act and that the group had to remain on the blacklist.

The MKO, blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many international entities and countries including the US, is responsible for numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.
The group also attempted an unsuccessful invasion of Iran in the last days of the Iraq-Iran war in 1988.The MKO was involved in the massacre of Iraqis under former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

January 31, 2009 0 comments

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