The conference was organized by the Free Media Institute in Tirana, because the country has increasingly become the new focus for violent extremism and terrorism experts in recent months, primarily in security circles, which see it as a “gathering center” for extremists who are either returning or sent to the Balkans from armed conflicts in the Middle East.

It is known that Edi Rama’s government has long been working in direct cooperation with the US military and security structures – working on the establishment of specialized “deradicalization centers” in Albania, about which Sputnik has written on several occasions in the last three years.

It appears that Rama’s “hard work” paid off. An article published in the Huffington Post in early December, says that there are already about three thousand members of MEK, Iranian Mojahedin (the Rajavi cult), who are violent opponents of Iran.

They were transferred to Albania from Iraq by the end of 2016, with a cash injection by the US authorities to the Rama government, and, according to the Huffington Post, under the cover of “humanitarian intervention”, ie, with the supervision of the UNHCR. The payment, according to the US outlet, was at least twenty million dollars.

Well-informed circles in Albania claim that there are already strong indications that the next group, which will also be moved to the country for “humanitarian reasons”, will be the families – widows and children – of DAESH fighters who have either left Iraq and Syria, or have been killed in fighting over the past few years.

Sputnik’s interviewee, British Anne Khodabandeh, is an expert in anti-terrorist activities and a long-standing activist in the field of deradicalization of extremists. She has written several articles and books on this subject, along with her husband, who is of Iranian origin. For years they have been working with radicalized individuals, helping them to leave terrorist organizations and reintegrate into society.

Anne is well acquainted with the situation in Albania and the movement of members of the Mojahedin, and some time ago, she reportedly received information that members of the MEK, stationed in the former building of the University of Tirana, started actively recruiting the Albanian youth into their movement – and she decided to react.

[The rest of this interview is provided below as unedited Google Translation]

For starters, it might not be a bad idea to explain to Sputnik’s readers from what kind of life and family environment these “radicalized individuals” with whom you are working come.

– They come from all layers of society. It is a mistake to assume that only some uneducated people have gone to Syria – most foreign fighters of DAES are from the middle class – mostly students, educated people … Terrorism is a global phenomenon today – there is no person whom he cannot guess. But it’s pure politics. Going to jihad is a political act. In addition, everyone has a personal reason why it becomes extremist, there is no formula, no recipes … Otherwise, it’s hard to radicalize people who have some goal in life; The escape in the extreme is the easiest thing for poor people, without a target, “casual”, “lost cases” … Their best-quality members of the extremists, they say, are recruited among violent football fans. My job today is to go around and explain to people how “radical” works. I keep repeating – no one is born as a terrorist. It’s not a talent, it’s not a career, it’s not a conscious choice. I think that I, personally, is a great example that anyone, at any time, can be radicalized, if he finds himself at the wrong time in the wrong place.

Can you explain it a bit? How is this “you, personally” example?

– When I enrolled in college, at the end of the seventies, I met an interesting group of people at the University of Manchester. There were many foreigners among students, we would all be sitting in a student club and talking mostly about politics. The Iranians then came in large numbers in England. They were friendly, different from my surroundings, they attracted me … They kept occasional meetings, I went to one of them out of curiosity, with their then boyfriend, and it turned out they were actually the mujahedin – MEK – what we call today the Raji cult . I did not understand much at that time, but I remember that they had a wonderful attitude towards me. Today, I would say that the techniques they used to attract me were, at the very least, interesting (laughing). I did not know their language, but I felt the energy. They were active, they not only sat down and talked about politics, and that attracted me. The revolution began in Iran, and I, thanks to them, had a “seat in the first place”! I was 19 years old, the boy was also in that, I was a great idealist. I was not a girl who was interested in shopping. I wanted to change the world! And this has not changed, to this day. Radicalization affects the psyche, but does not affect the type of personality. If you enter an organization as a certain person, the same will be, essentially, out of it and you go out.

Wait, you shocked me with that story … And what happened next? How long did it take?

– Twenty years. The first ten, until 1989, I practically lived a double life. I worked, I had a job, a house, a car, my normal everyday “English” life, but I spent all my free time working – for the mujahedeen. I dealt with what we call pi-ar activities today, but all friends thought that something was wrong with me. I did not want to hear anyone. I thought I was smarter than all of them. It’s part of the tactic – we are the smartest, we have others that have an incomprehensible vision, a higher goal. Separation from the family is crucial. Each radical group is organizing it with its members. At one point, my boyfriend then became violent, our relationship changed, and I turned to them. They became practically my only family. I was a computer programmer with a great salary, but I left it all because of them. I was first in the office in London – I was watching the news, writing the press … And then I went to the Middle East. Imagine !? An English woman twenty years old, from a middle class. Who would say?

Incredibly. How did that happen to you? And how is it possible that you did not have any problems with the British authorities? Still, it was an extreme group …

– Well, first and foremost, I did not choose in whom I will fall in love (laughter), it all just happened … It began with my beginning that their ideology is like “Islamic Marxism.” They began with activities during the Iranian Revolution, fought shah, they wanted to carry out a coup after the revolution; that plan failed, and they were expelled. They represented us as fighters for democracy, even as advanced, feminists – but essentially, the only “business” of ordinary members of us was to respect the leader. We should not have thought, to ask questions – you just do what they tell you. It can hardly be understood by someone who has not experienced it. You asked me about the problems with the British authorities? Well, MEK has always had the support of Western governments because we were working against Iran. That’s why they left us alone. I knew they were violent, but it did not prevent me – even though I am by the nature of the pacifist, I am very calm, I do not like violence … It only shows how they can “gain” you no longer think your head. Today, of course, I would say to them that they are a criminal organization. Only one single government ever officially recognized them – it was the government of Saddam Hussein. All others helped them “black” – politically, financially, yes, but never officially. If you would ask the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or German or French service, everyone would just be crazy – they would say they do not know what you’re talking about.

(continued tomorrow)

EXCLUSIVE charm offensive: Slave jihadists reveals the plan of the Islamic invasion of the Balkans

British En Kodabande is an expert in anti-terrorist activities and a longtime activist in the field of deradicization of extremists, for years before it was a pier of the terrorist movement, worked with the mujahedin, and barely, she says, pulled out of their claws.

We wrote about this part of the life of En Kodabande yesterday, and today we will give that part of the conversation that explains her life as a fighter against jihad.

You say that you spent 20 years with them. How did you go?

– My current husband was the bodyguard. We fell in love with one another, but we were forbidden to have a relationship. We started slowly to understand where we are. We believed that we were fighting against dictatorship and human rights in Iran. I worked in the office. I contacted the media, with the politicians, we called in all those talks on the UN declaration on human rights … This document, otherwise, has 16 members. When I, as we say, “lighted the light bulb”, after many years I read the Declaration, all 16 members, and realized that none of the only ones has anything to do with my work, life, position at that time. I did not have a passport, I did not have my own money, I did not dare to marry. I was their slave. Gladiator. Then I decided to withdraw. I told my husband he would have to seek asylum in Britain. And we did it. We are back. We live in Leeds, north of England. But I knew well that, if we do not oppose them publicly as soon as we go, we will flee from them all our lives. That’s why I went straight to the police. I told them who we are, what we did – of course, they sent people … they were questioning us, they wanted to know who we were, where we were … But soon they left us alone. And we decided not to hide. We have published all of our information on the Internet so that anyone who wants to make us any problems or threatens us can easily find out where we are. In some cases, the fact that you are not hiding can save your head.

Then what happened?

– My husband and I quickly decided to start working with families of members who want to leave MEK. We made a foundation, I went to Iraq, we asked for donors … I spoke with the Maliki family. We had meetings with NGOs, with government officials in Britain … And we realized very early in this process that the problem will not be solved by politics or human rights, but that we have to work on the ground, practically – but for that there was no political will, No money. Or the mujahedin was too small an organization to try the state around them, or the authorities did not have a strong desire to “settle them”.

You did not think about quitting?

– Not. After a while we infiltrated them, we began to submerge them from within. We found a way to get into all the “pores” of that group. In the meantime, I have become a “engaged activist” in Britain, as it is now known – I started publicly speaking about my experiences. We have managed to get, up to now, over a thousand people from MEK. Among other things, I also deal with prevention – by preventing extremists from recruiting new members. Not only in terrorist organizations, but also in sects … The methodology is completely the same, and the process of radicalization, through which I myself went through, almost certainly does not differ. The biggest problem is that MEK, mujahedins still exist. They regrouped. Now they are a new, reformed extreme group that operates on several levels – and that’s why I came to Albania – because they were transferred here! They have already been paid by some deputies, they have joined the Albanian mafia, and now, here in this country, they want to go to their “offensive charm” – to try to gain new supporters. According to information I have, over US $ 20 million the Americans paid to the Albanian government to transfer this group of several thousand mujahedin from Iraq here.

What do you think is the intention of the US government and the Albanian authorities? What are the possible consequences?

– Unfortunately, these people can not just “descend” to Albania just like that. They simply have to be deradicalized, otherwise the damage will be immeasurable. The public only sees the so-called. the concrete result of terrorist attacks – explosions, casualties and material damage … But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Below is a lot of things. The main activities are recruiting and collecting money. In the recruitment process, the logic is – the more people, the better. It is very dangerous when you place one such group in any country, in any environment, because they soon begin to “naturally” radicalize their environment.

This program that you are applying in the process of derading … How does it work?

– You can not deradicalize someone if you do not know how it is radicalized. These people are literally “brainwashed”. The whole process begins with a deep understanding of their position. A functional primary or secondary family is one of the basic conditions for successful deradicization. We made a foundation and we managed to pull out about a thousand people from MEK so far. But the key was that these people had already intend to leave. They themselves wanted to leave the mujahedeen – without it, nothing would make sense. So – to get back to the thesis from the beginning of the conversation – “how you enter, such a way out” – I am in the depths of the soul and still the most active activist (laughter), only now with another goal. I’ll be, I hope, such for the rest of my life.

And what are the concrete results? Let’s say, in what number of cases does the process of deradicization work?

– Many people returned to normal life. The process of “removing” someone can be very short or very long, no rules. When people leave the extremist group, they should first understand what was happening to them. Some of them, but remain radicalized for years – remain what they were while they were with extremists. Certainly, specialist help is needed. If you leave the group because you have “turned on the light bulb”, if you “woke up”, as it happened to me and my husband, only in that case do not have much effort to make you understand what happened to you, that you lied and exploited. But almost always help is needed.

You mentioned “recruiting staff”. Tell us more about them. Who are these people?

– I think everything starts and ends with some kind of attraction. Examples are groups that fight for animal rights; first organize a public protest. Then someone suggests something radical, let’s say, let’s call them individually. You can easily “slip” it into an extreme version of belief. Extremes are attractive. Those people, those who do not think like you, actually need to – die. There, say, all those who torture animals … Let them die! Then the real plan is to put a bomb under the car? From the idea, through firm belief, to concrete action. Through this process, this “recruitment staff” is guided by you – but it is an emotional journey, you pass it together, and you’re getting closer. The real “recruitment officers” are people who absolutely believe in the idea of ​​leadership, think that this idea should attract as many followers; they are convincing; they know how to instill people into something that they would not otherwise be at the edge of their minds. Let’s say – to travel to Syria or Iraq to join the jihadists. The key is intuition. Questions about you. The problems that you have – they signal what the target is, where the man is “thin”, where he can be “pressed” harder. They like to use what we call “car sales techniques” – the so-called “lifestyle sails”. “You have to think about this, imagine how cool it would be to drive this car!” But, with the car, there’s always the option to change your mind – but the belief system is sold so you do not even know that they sold you. I like to say that the extremist group as an arc – many layers, a very clear, closed structure, within which everything is under absolute control. And every bow is very different from the outside, as every extreme organization is very different, but from within, they all have, in essence, the same structure.

Part One https://rs-lat.sputniknews.com/intervju/201712101113756669-bila-sam-pi-ar-terorista-/

Part Two https://rs-lat.sputniknews.com/intervju/201712111113766247-En-Kodabande/

The post Sputnik interview with Anne Khodabandeh about MEK in Albania appeared first on Nejat Society.

to download the video file click here

Anne Khodabandeh explains how she was radicalised and turned into a terrorist by the Iranian Mojahedin and how the process of radicalisation takes place.

[The presentation was given at the conference: CONFLICTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: IDEOLOGIES AND RADICAL GROUPS, organised by the Free Media Institute on 28 November 2017 in Tirana]

Gazeta Impakt, Tirana, Albania,

The post How I was radicalized appeared first on Nejat Society.

In May 2013, the first opposition group in Iran, the so-called Mojahedin, arrived in Albania. Today, more than 3,000 Mojahedin are being protected in Albania. Their arrival in Albania was accompanied by great debates due to poor public knowledge about their activities and after allegations of their designation as terrorists. But with the United States mediation, Albania accepted an agreement to shelter them. Anne Singleton, a British activist and human rights consultant, arrived in Albania to raise concerns about this group. Anne says she was part of this group and separated after having realized that their intention to oppose the Iranian regime democratically was deceptive. Singleton said the Mojahedin are currently recruiting young Albanians to use for their purposes. On the other hand, the representatives of the Mojahedin in Albania call her an Iranian agent who is trying to demonize the democratic opposition to the Iranian regime. According to the Mojahedin in Albania, Anne Singleton, and her husband Massoud Khodabandeh, are two agents of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry (MOIS), who are based in London. According to the Mojahedin, the Pentagon has also called them agents of the Iranian intelligence services who were recruited by the Mojahedin group and who were used as anti-opposition activists.

Interview for Ora-News

What is the purpose of your visit to Albania?

I came to Albania because of the scandal, if we can call it this, caused by the presence of the Mojahedin in Albania. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on and trying to help members who want to leave this organization to do so safely.

What is this organization to you?

I was a member of this organization for 20 years. I was recruited as a student. My visit is about a terrorist group which believes in the violent overthrow of the Iranian government and for 40 years has a history of violence. For the past 15 years I have been trying to expose the true nature of this group and to help members who want to leave.

Why did they come to Albania?

The Mojahedin have come to Albania because they have been expelled from Iraq. After 2003 they lost Saddam Hussein’s protection and therefore had to leave. The Iraqi government thought the group should be broken up, however the Americans thought the Mojahedin were in favor of their anti-Iran agenda and apparently found a third country to host them, which was Albania.

Why Albania?

Because no one else was prepared to accept them. Your government has received money from the Americans to shelter a former terrorist group in your capital.

We do not know much about the agreement Albania has made with the United States. Why are they so mysterious? Why do we not know much about them?

The first thing that goes through my mind is to say that whatever they do is illegal. Originally, they came from Iraq to Albania under a secret deal between the US, Albanian government, and the Mojahedin. Nobody knows what this agreement is or if it exists. What we are concerned about is that the Mojahedin have come, through this agreement, as a group, which means they do not have individual status and in fact they have no status in Albania. A piece of paper said they were brought on humanitarian grounds, but that does not mean anything. You cannot work with it, you cannot access anywhere, you cannot have a passport with it. If we follow this logic, they were brought to this country illegally as if they were trafficked. They were trafficked as a group without any status through this deal about which no one knows anything. And the Mojahedin themselves are a secret organization because of the cultic nature of the group – what you call in Albanian a sect.

Then why are they living in bad conditions? Are they funded and by whom?

The Mojahedin have never been an independent group. They were funded by Saddam Hussein. He paid for them, supplied arms, they were under Saddam Hussein’s patronage. But in addition, Saudi princes have always funded the group. There have been funds from anti-Iran elements, from America, Israel, support from the anti-Iran front, but I can assure you that this money never goes to the members. They are not paid, they are somehow, modern slaves, gladiators.

What is the risk that Albania is taking by protecting them?

The risk that Albania is taking is greater than you understand, or even what your government understands. At superficial levels, the Mojahedin present themselves as democrats, as human rights defenders, and want to introduce themselves as an alternative to the Iranian regime about which they tell many lies, about how repressive it is. I am not saying that the Iranian regime does not use repressive methods but not to the extent that the Mojahedin say. The reality is very different. The Mojahedin have never given up on their belief, and it is the blind belief of the entire organization, in violent regime change. How can you say they are democratic if they believe in changing the regime by force? Within the organization, their structure is hierarchical. They have the leader who is there for life. This is a criminal organization. Their expertise, apart from terrorism, assassinations – because they were involved in the killings of nuclear scientists in Iran, and their history of American assassinations before the revolution – this expertise has been used by ISIS, AL Qaeda, and it facilitates terrorism. Although they are not now in a position to undertake terrorist acts in Albania, they are experts in human trafficking, money laundering. They have the expertise to teach organizations how to manipulate their members, to use suicides, which they were the first to invent. In addition, as a result of its cultic nature, this group poses a risk to society. You may ask how? Why? We look at them in the streets and they do nothing to anyone… But they are recruiting your youth, young Albanians, to join this organization, as I did years ago, and work for them for nothing in return.

What do you suggest? To drive them out?

The Mojahedin leadership is very close to the Americans, and the Americans are very close to your government, so… The European Union is very concerned about the Mojahedin in Albania for two reasons, one because Albania has applied to join the EU, which will not will happen for as long as this group is in Albania. But besides this, they know the Mojahedin well. They know this group is dangerous, they know it represents a threat to parliamentary democracy and to society, and they want to see it dismantled, or not in Albania.

Sonil Frashëri, Ora News, Tirana, Albania ,Translated by Iran Interlink

The post Exclusive for Ora News, Anne Singleton: Mojahedin Khalq are recruiting Albanian youth appeared first on Nejat Society.

It is thought that up to 200 MEK members loyal to Massoud Rajavi took part in the violence. It is not known how many of the 3400 residents at the camp continue as members of the terrorist group.

Human Rights organisations have called for an independent investigation into events at the camp.

Singleton visited the camp at the start of a week of meetings with Iraqi officials to demand that the organisational infrastructure of the group be dismantled, and that the leaders are prosecuted under Iraqi and international law. The remaining residents should be enabled to determine their own futures without pressure from the MEK leaders. Their families should be involved to help in this process. Over 1000 Camp New Iraq (Formerly Ashraf) residents have residency or citizenship rights in Europe and North America. The embassies of these countries can facilitate their return.

Detailed reports will follow soon

Large metal missiles pre-manufactured by MEK in readiness for violent clashes with Iraqi military

MEK used different coloured headgear to coordinate place and timing of pre-planned actions

Small metal missiles catapulted at soldiers and observers from inside the camp by Rajavi loyalists

The post Singleton visits Camp Ashraf in wake of violence by Rajavi cult loyalists appeared first on Nejat Society.

Anne Singleton on the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MeK/MKO): Mark Dankof’s America on RBN Radio

… Anne Singleton covers the history and ideology of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MeK) for two hours on Mark Dankof’s America on the Republic Broadcasting Network…

Download Anne Singleton covers the history of MEK on Mark Dankof’s RBN

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We’re joined now by Anne Singleton she’s a married mum from Leeds. Who was actually brainwashed by extremists at one point but now campaigns to warn others. Good Morning Anne.

 AS: Good morning.

 P: Is brainwashed the right word to use? What actually happened to you Anne?

 AS: It is a word which resonates with people. More familiarly I would call it ‘mind control techniques. These are well-known, well-documented. For years and years destructive cults have been using them. The way that they work in essence is that they will take a perfectly ordinary person and strip that person of their values using specific psychological manipulation.

 P: What got you into this position in the first place?

 AS: I was involved with Iranian students at the time of the Iranian revolution in 1979. I was at Manchester University. I was young and innocent, looking for something to fulfill my ambition to ‘change the world’. I was very idealistic and I got involved with those people. They seemed to me very sincere, very genuine and committed to making change in their country. I hadn’t grasped that the path which they were leading me along led to extreme violence.

  P: So this was happening in this country, it wasn’t happening in a foreign environment where you would maybe be more susceptible to someone else’s culture.

  AS: I was recruited at Manchester University. Having said that, ten years down the line – I was just supporting the group from a distance, I had a job and ostensibly a normal life. But ten years down the line I took part in a hunger strike and that’s really what tipped the balance for me and sent me over the edge into total commitment to this group. After about five days of eating nothing I was on a complete high and I felt as though I was moving at a different speed to the rest of humanity.

  P: What was it they encouraged you to support?

 AS: The Mojahedin even today present themselves as an alternative to the islamic regime in Iran. They say that they want to overthrow the whole regime in its entirety and replace that regime with themselves. They frame this in the context of human rights. They say we will protect human rights by overthrowing the mullahs. What I came to realize was that they were committing just as much abuse of human rights inside their organization as Amnesty International was ‘clocking-up’ in other countries throughout the world.

 P: Anne, what do you think of the stories today? The front page of the Yorkshire Post says ‘University Launches Review after Conviction of Student Terror Ring’. How do you feel when you feel when you hear about these students, about what they were doing – substituting their faces with the faces of the 9/11 highjackers – after what you have been through.

  AS: What comes to mind first of all is that terrorism is such a complex issue. Yes, it sounds horrific on the surface when you hear of people having extremely radical views like this. And people are frightened because they know that such views can lead to violence. But what I have understood from my experience is that to tip somebody over the line between radical ideas and actually perpetrating violence needs psychological manipulation. Words don’t kill people, they never have. Words are how societies move forward, through discussion, debate and progress. There have been lots of radical ideas throughout history – the world is round was quite a radical thought at one point. So we must pull back a little bit and say that OK there are extremist views but if we remember a few years back – 1993 – the Admiral Duncan pub was bombed, a gay pub in Soho. If you start looking only at the so-called ideology of these people then you are going to miss a whole lot of clues that lead you to understand how a person goes from thinking extremely to acting extremely.

 P: You mentioned the hunger strike thing and that really strikes a chord with me. When I was going through my divorce I literally couldn’t eat a thing. And it absolutely does your mind no good. If you are not eating properly you think in a totally irrational way. That’s my experience. So, when you say your hunger strike was the one that led you up to that kind of high, moving and thinking differently from everyone else, that must be part and parcel of it.

  AS: This is a fundamental technique for psychological manipulation. These techniques are used by all destructive cults – whether they present themselves as religious, therapeutic, or like the Jonestown cult of the 1980s. They each present themselves differently but they all use the same techniques. These techniques are very effective, you can actually recruit and convert somebody into a cult member within three or four days. That’s how effective they are.

  P: This was happening to you at Manchester University. Now we hear about these students at Bradford University. There are some interesting issues about how this radical thought, idealistic thought can tip over the edge into violent action, but in terms of the universities what is the best plan for them in your experience in combating this, I mean tipping over into violent action.

 AS: I think that young people generally need to be educated in the danger of destructive cults. You should start at high school even. I am surprised that in schools you may be given sex education, you are educated about how to keep your PIN number safe and not get robbed, But where is the education to tell people how to look out for somebody who is going to come along, take you out of your normal environment and convert you into either a terrorist or at least a cult member.

 P: But will that education be enough? I think one of the things Bradford University is looking at as well is the idea of surveillance and looking at what people are looking at on the Internet and monitoring the traffic that’s coming through.

 AS: I am not a security expert so I couldn’t say how effective that would be.

 P: Would education have stopped you?

 AS: Certainly it would have opened my eyes a lot sooner to looking for signs that people were trying to influence me in ways that I wasn’t aware of actually happening. I think university students are quite vulnerable because they are away from home usually, they are in a vibrant atmosphere. They are intelligent, idealistic and are looking for new experience and new ideas.

  P: You are a mum, Anne. How many kids have you got?

 AS: I’ve just got the one.

  P: And how old is your child?

  AS: My child is seven.

 P: Right, so a long way to go in terms of university. How do you feel about your life now and your fears for your child?

  AS: I have to add here is that the reason I have one child is that we started rather late. I was involved with a terrorist cult, the Mojahedin Khalq, which denied its members marriage and children. Those are the levels of intrusion that these organisations have on ordinary members. So, they would not allow anyone to be married, they forced people to divorce and took their children away from them. It was only after I left and met my husband that I was able to have a family. And I realise now that being in one of these organisations deprives you of all your basic, fundamental human rights, even freedom of thought. Because a person who is brought around to thinking as terrorists do in order to give their own life to this other person – because it is someone else who will be persuading them to do that – your basic freedoms are taken away from you without you realising. Now, if you are aware, first of all, of your basic freedoms – what are the basic human rights that everyone is entitled to – that is a starting point from which you can say, I do have the right to have a family, to have children. These are certainly the things I will be teaching my child as he grows up and certainly I will be teaching him to think and to question and not to accept anything at face value, ever.

 People can be very persuasive. I think we’ve all been sold something we didn’t really want by somebody who was very persuasive. The same techniques will persuade you to act in ways that you don’t mean to, let alone buy things.

  P: Anne, thank you very much for coming in. She’s a wife and mum and she was involved with the Mojahedin in West Yorkshire.

BBC Yorkshire, Radio Leeds, July 26, 2007

http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds

    Download Anne Singleton Interview with BBC Yorkshire Radio Leeds

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when I switched on the TV and saw the suicide message of one of the London bombers, a chill went down my spine. It was like deja vu. I recognised the young man’s language and behaviour, because there was a time when that could have been me. I too was once prepared to give up my life for a terrorist cell.

growning up in Leeds in the 1970s, life was ordinary and uneventful, but I wannted to change the world for the better. At university, I started going to meetings of a group called the People’s Mujaheddin, who were fighting to overthrow the Ayatollah in Iran…. To read more click here

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“I was in the desert wearing a military uniform and I had no passport and no money,” she says. 

“I had never felt so free in my life. But the irony was that I was in a state of modern slavery. I was mentally chained to the Mujahedin.” Sitting in her Leeds home 15 years later, the 48-year-old wants to make her past public in the hope it acts as a warning that recruitment to an organisation proscribed as a terrorist movement by the European Union, America and Canada is something that could happen to anyone. In the present climate, with radical terrorist cells and cults active in the UK, Singleton is campaigning to raise awareness of how extremist groups and cults manipulate people. Her life now, living in a three bedroom semi as a computer programmer and being a mother to a six-year-old-son, could not be further removed from a previous existence where she prepared for war and accepted the deaths of innocent people as a justifiable means to an end. “I thought I was a savior of the world and would have done anything for the Mujahedin.

I worshipped those people,” says Singleton, whose involvement with fanatical extremists began when she moved from Yorkshire to study English at Manchester University. Her boyfriend at that time, an Iranian called Ali, was interested in the Mujahedin, and Singleton became intrigued by the movement’s opposition to the regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini after the 1979 revolution. “Manchester Uni was very political and I went along to Mujahedin meetings,” she says. “In truth, I could not even understand what the leader was saying in the videos but I was utterly transfixed.”

The Mujahedin was formed in 1965 to free Iran from “capitalism, imperialism, reactionary Islamic forces and despotism” and by the early 1970s; it had embarked on an armed struggle and later sought refuge in Iraq, fighting with Saddam Hussein against the Iranian government. Singleton’s indoctrination, conversion and submission to the organization was something that happened gradually over a period of about 10 years, the subtle influence of her Mujahedin peers eventually leading her away from her job, friends and family.

She views the Mujahedin now as a cult and says their methods of psychological manipulation are tried and tested and used by many other groups around the world, even similar to some tactics employed by salesmen to sell timeshares. “It takes a long time and they are very clever and use peer pressure. They implement subliminal messages. They use mind control techniques.

“They got me to submit to a higher order, their leader. They got me to make financial commitments. I used to ask friends and family to donate money to causes that were blatant lies. They replace your family, your relationships and get you to reject all your old values.” In 1985, Massoud Rajavi became the Mujahedin leader, transforming the movement, Singleton says, from being a political group into a cult. He married a woman called Maryam, whose role was to encourage women to break away from male control, and Singleton began spending all of her spare time looking after members’ children, cooking, listening to their poetry and revolutionary music. “I thought they were people of a higher order,” says Singleton, who was utterly convinced she was part of a noble, armed struggle. She even had posters of martyrs, suicide bombers and women with guns adorning her walls.

In 1989, Singleton split with Ali, who wanted nothing more to do with the movement, and she moved to London to become more involved in Mujahedin activities. During this period, she got involved with activists at a safe house in Finchley and, when the Unite Nations human rights rapporteur visited Iran in l990, they all went on hunger strike to apply pressure on him to question the Iranian government about the nation’s Mujahedin prisoners.

“I was as high as a kite on hunger strike and I felt superhuman, as if I had transcended normal humanity. Shortly afterwards I walked out on my job and went full-time with the movement. “I didn’t question anything. I was shown a film of a female suicide bomber blowing up an ayatollah in Iran. It was horrific and very shocking at first but I was shown the film many times, and each time I was less distressed. Eventually, I didn’t bat an eyelid.” By this time Singleton barely saw her parents and she had ditched all her friends. She had even publicly burned the diaries she had kept since childhood, as a symbolic rejection of her past. “If the leader had said ‘kill yourself’, I would have killed myself.” In l992, Singleton was asked to go to Iraq for military training. As a member of an armed struggle, she knew this might be required and did not resist, even relinquishing her passport to the Mujahedin when she arrived in the desert.

“You have no human rights, no nationality, you are simply a Mujahed. I loved the camp and it felt liberating to obey orders, because you lose all responsibility for yourself. I felt like a child and thought if I put all my trust in their hands, I would be OK.”

But in 1993 Singleton started to have doubts about the movement after all members were told that marriage was banned and all couples must get divorced. At this time she met her current husband, Massoud, another disillusioned member, and in 1996 they made the decision to leave. With the Mujahedin in constant contact, initially it was extremely difficult for them to adapt back into society and it took three years to make a complete break and fully recover from their ordeal. “We are both Muslims, and we were like little kids doing things like going to the supermarket and choosing our own food.” In 1999, Singleton and Massoud discovered literature from the Cult Information Centre and discovered that the psychological coercion techniques used by the Mujahedin were methods all recognised and listed, and together they now campaign to warn others that anyone is vulnerable to these groups.

“Look at the young men in West Yorkshire who are being targeted by the terrorist organisations. People across the UK must be asking what is wrong with the people in West Yorkshire. There is nothing wrong with the people here, it is just that the extremists are out there recruiting in the locality, using the same tried and tested methods used by the Mujahedin and the many other disparate cults and movements active around the world. “Psychological manipulation can happen to anyone, any time. If you’re lucky, you end up with a timeshare. If you’re unlucky you end up blowing yourself and innocent people up on the Tube.” An interview by Billy Briggs – Big Issue Magazine (UK), May 2007

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