Iraq

Cult survivors visit Iraqi embassy in Paris

Dear Honourable Prime Minister of Iraq, Mr. Nori Maleki,

With our best greetings to you , your government and the people of IRAQ .We , as a delegation of the separated people from PMOI ( PEOPLE MOJAHEDINS’ ORGANIZATION OF IRAN ) who submitted a letter on behalf of thousands innocent people in NOTORIOUS ASHRAF GARRISON, which was addressed to you, to IRAQ -Embassy in PARIS few months ago , and in this letter we urged you ,as the prime minister – elect of IRAQ to help the innocent people who have been stranded and stuck and treated like captives in RAJAVI’S cult in notorious ASHRAF GARRISON In IRAQ for decades to find an opportunity to separate from the RAJAVI’S cult and start over their new life in free world.

TODAY, fortunately we found out that an honorable IRAQI delegation with honorable MR. MOVAFAGH ALRABIEE, as the head of this delegation, entered ASHRAF GARRISON in IRAQ and officially declared the shutting down of this notorious garrison in the near future.

We, as the victims of this notorious and nefarious cult, would like to thank you and your honorable delegation that carried out such a humanitarian act which is the most fundamental and substantial step to help those who are stranded and captivated in this cult to breathe the fresh air of freedom after decades . We believe shutting down of this notorious garrison (ASHRAF) will help our friends who are captives in it, to rescue themselves from their captors and decide for their own life in free atmosphere without the intervention of the cult’s cruel leaders, operatives and governing council of this inhumane cult.

We would like to thank you again for your endeavors to shut down ASHRAF GARRISON. We hope all the innocent people who are stranded in this terrorist cult will be released from the RAJAVI’s cult clutch in very near future and start over their normal life in free and democratic countries, which have been deprived of it for decades.

SIGNATORIES

1. MR .NADER NADERI

2. MR.MOHAMMAD RAZAGHI

3. MR.MANSOUR NAZARI

4. MR.MOHAMMAD BAZIYARPOUR

5. MR. HAMID SIAHMANSOURI

6. MR. HASSAN PIRANSAR

7. MR. HAMED SARAFPOUR

December 29, 2008 0 comment

Iraq

Iraq rejects security guarantees for MKO

The Iraqi government has refuted recent US claims that it has granted immunity to members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO).

A senior Iraqi official said Saturday that, contrary to Washington contentions, Baghdad has not provided security guarantees to the MKO dissidents.

"The Iraqi government is determined to abide by a parliamentary verdict to extradite members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization," IRIB quoted the high-ranking official as saying on condition of anonymity.

Baghdad announced in a statement on Dec. 22 that MKO members at Camp Ashraf must close their training ground and leave the country no later than six months.

Iraq has also drawn up a list of MKO members who must stand trial for the operations they carried out in the war-torn country. The organization is notorious for the help it extended to former dictator Saddam Hussein in the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.

"Remaining in Iraq is not an option for them," read the statement, which came amid stepped-up Iranian calls for Iraq to expel MKO members.

White House spokesman Benjamin Chang, however, claimed on the following day that Washington had received guarantees from Baghdad that the MKO members residing in Iraq would not be "forcibly transferred" from the country.

The guarantees were claimed by the US to have been provided by the interim Iraq-US security pact recently reached between the two countries.

The Iraqi official disputed the claims, indicating that no country has so far agreed to provide sanctuary to the terrorist organization.

The Mujahedin Khalq Organization, which identifies itself as a Marxist-Islamist guerilla army, was exiled from Iran in 1986 for its many acts of terrorism against Iranian civilians and officials.

Washington has declared the MKO as a terrorist organization but has used the group as a proxy-army to promote espionage activities in the region and to support its campaign against the Iranian nuclear program.

Former CIA agents revealed in 2006 that MKO members received widespread support from upper Washington echelons, such as former attorney general John Ashcroft, Vice President Dick Cheney and former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld.

The group masterminded a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, one of which was the 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party, in which more than 72 Iranian officials were killed, including then Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=79634&sectionid=351020201

December 28, 2008 0 comment

Iraq

Baghdad not willing to give shelter to MKO

Accompanied with a smuggler, having 3000$ in his pocket, several Kalashnikovs and two satellite cell-phones, Babak and another Mojahed tried to infiltrate the Iranian border during the night. A few weeks later, he succeeded to launch grenade attacks against the Defence Ministry in Tehran to show the world that the Islamic Republic can be destabilized internally before the presidential election of 2001.

“Then we had to recruit the Iranians and wait for the supplementary forces and munitions that were sent from Mujahedin’s base, Camp Ashraf, in Iraq” Babak remembers. Neither forces, nor munitions arrived to help Babak who had received the order to return to Iraq. But, one night, the Iranian police arrested him in a shopping center in Tehran. Sentenced to ten years of imprisonment of which he is now spending the ending years.

Today this former member seeks for the return of the last soldiers disappeared from Ashraf where 3300 Mujahedins have been settled for almost twenty years.

On January first, the US army will hand over the control of Ashraf to Iraqi government. But Baghdad is willing to close the camp. ‘’They have no passport any more; Most of them want to go to Europe to get status of political refugee.”, believes Arash who is another defector of MKO. He left Camp Ashraf in 2004 and is now working in an NGO in Tehran.

Under the pressure of its Iranian allies, Baghdad is likely to decide to send some of them to Iran. Even the Iraqi government has declared that choosing the receiving country could not be “voluntarily”. To escape from an obligatory return to Iran, some of Mujahedin members having no other choice, despite going to Europe, escape to France where more than 300 to 400 members of MKO are seriously supervised by DST but also infiltrated by the Iranian agents. However, a French expert on security issues says that “we do not like them to arrive in our territory.”

The actual problem is that no one is willing to receive them. However, during the recent years, Americans several times solicited France and Jordan to shelter the members but every time, all of them refused to grant refugee to their leader, Masud Rajavi and his militants in Ashraf.

In 2003 when they arrived in Baghdad, the Americans disarmed MKO. “Since the American invasion, they are killing the time as much as they can in Ashraf,” Arash says.”If they had the possibility, Most of the Mujahedin would leave Ashraf” he adds. The Americans consider MKO as a terrorist organization but this doesn’t prevent them from having an ambiguous relationship with MKO.”CIA doesn’t trust them but the Pentagon uses some of them for espionage in Iran “, confess a former member. Using the Americans’ welcome, 600 have left Camp Ashraf for Iran in recent years. ‘Tehran works on this file so intelligently, seeking to hire these defectors rather than eliminating them,” a European diplomat in Iran says. Since the time of the reformist president of Iran, Mohammad Khatami; ” we haven’t considered them as a political organization any more but as a dangerous cult of which the members are the prisoners of their leaders”, an Iranian official states.

Their capacity of action in Iran was almost zero. The opponents of regime also include the sympathizers inside Iran. “Mujahedin used the opportunity under the presidency of Khatami to recruit the Iranians who were more easily traveling abroad.” explains the foreign diplomat.

With the money that Saddam gave them and the funds they laundered, Mujahedin have launched an intensive lobbying activity among Western Medias and political authorities. With some success: recently 290 French representatives have asked for the removal of MKO from the list of terrorist organizations. And lately in London and Luxemburg, some similar decisions have been made.

George Malbrunot, special Le Figaro correspondent, Tehran

to view the original text in French click here

December 24, 2008 0 comment

Iraq

Iraq calls for international MKO tribunal

A top Iraqi judge has reportedly called on The Hague to probe into the terrorist activities of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO).

Addressing family members of terrorism victims in Mashhad, an Iraqi judge tasked with investigating war crimes in oil-rich Iraq, suggested that The Hague launch an investigation into human rights abuses and terrorist activities conducted by the MKO, Fars news agency reported.

“The war on terror has a long way to go and to that end governments and nations need to be united,”said Jom’eh Abdul Davoud.

The MKO is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many countries — including the United States and most EU member states — for launching terror attacks inside Iran and Iraq.

According to the judge, some 150 MKO operatives are wanted in Iraq but any other members of the organization are permitted to leave the country.

Under the leadership of Massoud Rajavi, the MKO helped the Baath regime of Saddam in the suppression of the Iraqi Kurds in ‘Operation Morvarid’. Thousands of Iraqi civilians were brutally massacred in the operation.

Iraq believes the MKO plays a significant role in fueling violence and insecurity in the country. Officials in Baghdad plan to take legal action against the group and have repeatedly called for its expulsion from the war-torn country.

After the invasion of Iraq, Baghdad sought to take control of the main MKO military training area — Camp Ashraf — and banned any Iraqi dealings with the terrorist group.

The United States responded by bringing MKO members under its protection, fueling speculation that Washington had long employed the group for espionage and violence-related activities.

Following the US intervention, an informed source at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry exposed US plans to relocate selected members of the organization.

Defectors accuse the group of resorting to mind control in an effort to brainwash supporters and establishing a cult mindset among members. Most MKO members stationed at the camp now suffer from physical and mental ailments.

Defectors have also called on the British parliament, Amnesty International and human rights organizations to visit Camp Ashraf and liberate members who wish to leave the organization.

December 24, 2008 0 comment

Iraq

Iraq wants departure of MKO terrorists

The Iraqi government has ordered main members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) currently residing in Iraq to leave the country.

Baghdad announced in a statement on Sunday that MKO members at Camp Ashraf must close their training ground and leave in a”non-forcible”manner.

“Staying in Iraq is not an option for them,”the statement said.

The Iraqi government intends to take charge of the security of the terrorist training camp.

The MKO has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union. It was involved in terrorist operations against Iranian and Iraqi nationals following the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and during the Iraq-Iran war from 1980-88.

After the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, reports surfaced that Washington had long employed the MKO in launching espionage and violence-related activities in the region. The US fueled speculation on the issue by bringing the camp under its umbrella of protection.

[IMG] In recent months, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world in the hope of acknowledgement as a legitimate opposition group. The White House disarmed members of the camp and seized more than 2,000 MKO tanks, armored personnel carriers and other weaponry. The MKO and anti-Iran lobbyists have been using claims that the group has been disarmed to demand the removal of the group from blacklists worldwide.

Iraqi government officials believe the terrorist group is playing a significant role in fueling violence and insecurity in their country. They have banned dealing with members of the MKO and have called on the US to end its support for the group.

Among the various terrorist activities carried out by the MKO is their massacre of Iraqi Kurds for their opposition to the last dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein — from whom the organization received financial support.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has long called for the expulsion of the MKO from Iraq.

In its recent statement, the Iraqi government warned MKO members residing in Camp Ashraf against carrying out activities whether legal or illegal”against any neighboring country”.

“Iraq will treat those in the camp in accordance with Iraqi law, Islamic values and international order,”the statement, issued by a delegation headed by Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, concluded.

December 24, 2008 0 comment

Iraq

Iraq Threatens to Expel Iranian Rebels

Iraq Threatens to Expel Iranian Rebels; Exile Group Has Protected Status Under Soon-to-Expire U.N. Mandate

Iraqi officials say they intend to expel members of an Iranian exile group living in a camp north of Baghdad that is protected by the U.S. military. The expulsion, which the Shiite-led government has long sought, is expected to become feasible once the U.N. mandate that regulates the presence of U.S. troops — and which gave the Iranian opposition group protected status — expires at the end of the year.

Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie on Saturday traveled to the camp with several other government officials to deliver the message to members of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian opposition group that was closely aligned with deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein but has been under U.S. military protection since shortly after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

The government informed the group that it would soon assume responsibility for security at Camp Ashraf and that residents would be repatriated unless they find a third country willing to take them. The U.S. military currently protects Camp Ashraf, which is 40 miles north of Baghdad.

“Staying in Iraq is not an option for them,”the government said in a statement issued Sunday. The Iranian government has long called for the group’s expulsion.

The statement did not set a deadline for removing the MEK. Iraqi officials have pledged to treat the group’s members humanely but have made their disdain for the MEK clear. The delegation that visited the camp included officials of the Defense and Interior ministries as well as Iraqi intelligence officials.

The statement also said the group is barred from participating in political activities and ordered it to cease media campaigns.

The Shiite-led Iraqi government, which has close ties to Iran, has for years threatened to shut down Camp Ashraf because it regards the MEK, also known as the People’s Mujaheddin Organization of Iran, as a terrorist organization.

The European Union and the U.S. State Department have also labeled the group a terrorist organization.

The MEK, which has about 3,500 members in Iraq, has strongly resisted the Iraqi government’s expulsion efforts, saying members could be executed if they are forced to return to Iran. The group has aggressively lobbied U.S. and European lawmakers and has relentlessly sought sympathetic coverage in the Western news media.

The MEK was founded in the 1960s as an opponent of the late shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It was accused of carrying out several attacks in Iran, including some targeting U.S. officials.

The MEK moved its headquarters to Iraq during the 1980s, when Iraq and Iran were at war. Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein embraced the group, providing them weapons and financial support.

Kurds and Shiites have long reviled the MEK because they say the group helped suppress the failed Kurdish and Shiite uprisings that followed the Persian Gulf War.

Shortly after the 2003 invasion, the U.S. military persuaded the MEK to disarm and offered to protect the group. The arrangement was awkward because it tasked the U.S. military with sheltering a group that remains on the State Department’s terrorism list.

The group’s charismatic leader, Maryam Rajavi, is based in Paris, but France and many other countries have been reluctant to resettle the group’s members.

Also Sunday, Iraq’s Interior Ministry issued a statement calling the recent detention of ministry officials by a special unit that reports directly to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki”a brazen act of political retribution.”

Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani had dismissed reports that the roughly two dozen detained officials were plotting to reconstitute Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, possibly to stage a coup. The statement makes clear Bolani was deeply unsettled by the detentions. Bolani, an independent, secular Shiite, has not previously criticized the Maliki government in such stark terms. With provincial elections a few weeks away, competition among Shiite parties has intensified. Bolani recently created his own party, and the statement appears to indicate he believes that the prime minister ordered the raid to undermine him.

Under Bolani’s stewardship, the ministry has fired or criminally charged tens of thousands of employees accused of corruption. The raid occurred last week while Bolani was out of the country. He said any concerns about misdeeds by ministry officials should be brought to his attention and not handled”Saddam-like under cover of the night under dubious threats of an imminent coup.”

“The Minister was outraged that anyone would interfere in the administration of the Ministry he is sworn to lead,”the statement said.”He alone is responsible for this Ministry and he is accountable only to the Iraqi people.”

The statement, signed by Rafae Munahe, an adviser to Bolani, was e-mailed to reporters late Sunday by a representative of Brown Lloyd James, a public relations firm.

Special correspondent Qais Mizher contributed to this report.

Washington Post, Ernesto Londono,

December 23, 2008 0 comment

Iraq

Iraq says Iranian opposition exiles must leave

BAGHDAD- The Shi’ite-led Iraqi government told nearly 3,500 opposition Iranians living in exile in Iraq on Sunday that it planned to close their camp and they had to leave the country. The Iraqi government "...is keen to execute its plans to close the camp and send its inhabitants to their countries or other countries

A delegation headed by National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told the Iranians, who have lived for two decades at Camp Ashraf north of Baghdad, that the government was taking over responsibility for their security from U.S. troops.

They told the Iranians the government "…is keen to execute its plans to close the camp and send its inhabitants to their countries or other countries in a non-forcible manner, and that staying in Iraq is not an option for them," the government said in a statement.

The Iranians, who include members of the exiled opposition People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), have lived in the sprawling township 70 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad for around 20 years.

The Iraqi government, which is friendly toward Shi’ite Iran, regards the Iranians as terrorists. The PMOI is also listed as a terrorist group in the United States and in Europe.

U.S. forces have protected the exiles since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 after persuading the Iranian group, also known as the Mujahideen e-Khalq, to disarm.

The U.S. military seized and destroyed more than 2,000 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other weaponry at the time. The group had been protected by Saddam Hussein, who welcomed them as fellow enemies of the Iranian ayatollahs.

The PMOI began as a leftist-Islamist opposition to the late shah of Iran but fell out with Shi’ite clerics who took power after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Its leaders fear many of them will be executed if they are forced to go back to Iran. Tehran has long demanded they be expelled from Iraq.

The United Nations has had trouble finding other countries to accept the Iranian exiles as refugees because of their militant background but has urged Iraq to respect their rights.

In the statement released on Sunday, the Iraqi government said people in the camp had been told that carrying out activities whether legal or illegal "against any neighbouring country, is a dangerous issue."

Iraq will treat those in the camp "in accordance with Iraqi law, Islamic values and international order," the statement said.

Amnesty International has urged Iraq and the United States to regard members of the rebel group as "protected persons" under the Fourth Geneva Convention. (Editing by Tim Pearce)

By Michael Christie

December 22, 2008 0 comment

Iraq

MKO interference in Iraq election unbearable

Iraqi official: We will cut off the hands of MKO terrorist gang if it wants to intervene in Baghdad elections.

Deputy Iraqi Interior Minister Gen. Hussein Kamal said the country would cut off the hands of the terrorist group of Mujahedin-e Khalq if it wants to intervene in the affairs of the Iraqi elections. General Hussein expressed his hope for the upcoming elections to be held in a safe heaven adding that his country will not allow the MKO or any other terrorist group to interfere in electoral matters.

He also said: Iraq is a free country and people of Iraq want to determine their fate themselves and without any interference.

He added that the Iraqi official confirmed that the position of his government and the Iraqi people in this regard was very clear and that this terrorist group had to leave Iraqi territory.

General Hussein Ali stressed that Iraq is currently coordinating with a third country to deport the rebel group to that country, which declares its readiness to accommodate the group which has committed many crimes against the Iraqi and Iranian peoples.

November 22, 2008 0 comment

Iraq

No country ready to accept MKO

No country ready to accept MKO: Iraqi ambassador

TEHRAN – Iraq’s ambassador to Tehran, Mohammad Majid Al-Shaikh, has said that no country is ready to accept the terrorist Mojahadin Khalq Organization (MKO).

“We believe that the presence of Mojahadin group in Iraq is illegal, but no country is ready to accept the members of this group,” Al-Shaikh told the Mehr News Agency published on Monday.

He said the MKO has committed many crimes against the Iraqi people during the Saddam regime and therefore they should leave Iraq.

Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf said late August that the Iraqi government has given the MKO a six-month deadline to leave the country.

Al-Shaikh said if a country agrees to accept the group Iraq will immediately expel them.

He added that Iraq will not allow the MKO to do terrorist acts against Iran from Iraqi soil.

The MKO launched a campaign of assassinations and bombings in Iran soon after the 1979 Islamic revolution. It then fled to Iraq and joined Saddam’s army in its invasion of the Iranian territory. Saddam also used the group in his brutal suppression of Kurdish and Shiite dissidents in northern and southern Iraq…

November 11, 2008 0 comment

Iraq

PMOI creates sedition among Iraqis

MKO terrorist organization plays an active role in provoking sectarian conflicts between Iraqi people. The group with some terrorist entities has set up headquarters in Camp Ashraf northeast of Baghdad and provides material support to terrorists in Diyala province in addition to holding seminars with some Iraqi tribes and Clan elders in the province. The terrorist group is also engaged in broadcasting news that make the country unstable, when the news say that the United Iraqi Alliance party carried out widespread fraud in Baghdad previous vote and that the party has prevented Alfeli Kurds from voting. MKO at the same time attacks Iraqi national government elected by the people of Iraq. They accuse the police forces and Interior Ministry with putting obstacles before the Alfelian Kurds voting and underline these events will occur in every coming election.

Considerable is how come this terrorist organization finds interest in defending the voting rights of certain categories of the Iraqi people despite the fact that the history of this organization is known for hitting the Iraqi people in the north of Iraq and their bloody hands in massacre of Kurds and beating Iraqi citizens merely because they were passing by the door of their former headquarters based in Andalusia Square and at the same time trying to create a crisis between Iraq and the neighboring countries with false charges especially in the election, when propagating that Iran has sent trucks loaded with forged voting papers to the south of Iraq and Diyala province. However there is no evidence of where these trucks are and why they did not appear in the Iraqi TV channels and why the claimed arrested truck drivers are not shown to public.

These false propagandas MKO makes against the Iraqi elected government is based on nothing but evil terrorist intentions of this terrorist cult and they must be prosecuted for the following reasons:

1- Interfering in Iraq’s affairs, meetings and conferences with terrorist entities within Iraq and support for terrorists, causing the deterioration of the security situation in Iraq.

2- Involvement with the war crimes of the former tyrant, striking the Iraqi people in northern and southern Iraq and hit neighboring countries as Kuwait, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

3- Dissemination of information against the Iraqi people and try to create sectarian strife and sedition between the sons of one people.

4- Discredit the elected government and its Ministry.

5- Issuing newspaper without the consent of the prime minister in Iraq and the Iraqi parliament’s approval.

6- Recruiting some Iraqi journalists, athletes and some tribal elders in Iraq to stand against Iraq and the Iraqi people.

We as Iraqis address the UN Security Council and the Organization for Human Rights and the neighboring countries and multinational forces in Iraq to issue a statement to the Iraqi government by taking out the terrorist organization from Iraq after the prosecution by the Criminal Court of Iraq.

And the Arab League to meddle! In this issue and address all the Arab countries not to accept this terrorist organization on its territory.

Al Najaf News

November 6, 2008 0 comment

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