Former members of the MEK

MKO former members

Iraqi Envoy: Defected MKO Members Willing to Return to Iran

Many defected members of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCRI or PMOI) are willing to surrender themselves to the Tehran government to return to Iran, a senior Iraqi diplomat said.

"If the grounds are paved to facilitate their (MKO members) repatriation to Iran this can persuade other MKO members to do the same," Iraqi Ambassador to Tehran Mohammad Majid Al-Sheikh told FNA on Saturday.

He explained that 10 MKO members are currently settled in a hotel in Baghdad waiting to return to Iran, and said, "The representative of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has asked me to talk to the Iranian officials to facilitate the return of these MKO members to Iran."

The Iraqi ambassador pointed to an agreement between Iran and Iraq on extradition of criminals, and said, "This agreement will be implemented in the next several weeks and we are doing our best to implement it."

He reiterated that if Iran files a lawsuit against the MKO at the Interpol, the Interpol can take action and arrest the MKO members and hand them over to Iran according to the universally accepted laws on the extradition of criminals.

The last group of MKO terrorists at Camp Ashraf, now called Camp New Iraq, was evicted by the Iraqi government on September 11, 2012 to join other members of the terrorist group in the former US-held Camp Liberty, now called Camp Hurriya, near Baghdad International Airport where they are awaiting relocation to other countries.

The MKO, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and western targets.

The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly-established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by the MKO members in 1981.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.

The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who eventually took the MKO off the US terror list.

The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in early September 2012, one week after the then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, sent the US Congress a classified communication about the move. The decision made by Clinton enabled the group to have its assets under the US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with the American entities, the State Department said in a statement at the time.

April 28, 2014 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Memoirs of Abdulkarim Ebrahimi, MKO defector

I am Abdulkarim Ebrahimi, 47, from Ilam, Iran. I left the Mujahedin Khalq Organization in 2012, after 24 years of imprisonment behind the bars of the anti-Iranian cult. I could manage to escape the MKO after

Memoirs of Abdulkarim Ebrahimi, MKO defector the relocation of the second convoy in Camp Liberty. I rushed to Iraqi Police station while MKO guards were chasing me. Finally, leaving the MKO security forces behind, I thrived to reach Iraqis.

Before my escape, when I was in Camp Ashraf, I had several times asked for permission to leave the organization but not only the MKO leaders refused my request, but also they verbally abused me, humiliated and mentally tortured me.

In 1994, after 5 years of membership in the group, together with a large number of other members, I was imprisoned by the cult authorities, under the pretext that they didn’t trust us. We were jailed in a prison in Camp Ashraf where we were physically and mentally tortured. I recall one of my fellow prisoners whose head had been entirely swelled due to severe beatings.

I entered the MKO in 1989 after I was deceived by the phony promises of the group. As soon as I arrived in the MKO, I found myself as a hostage in a inhumane cult where I even didn’t have the right to think freely. Any kind of socializing with others was forbidden as a “plot”. Members were under a 24-7 controlling system that forced them to attend daily and weekly sessions of inquisition. During these sessions members had to confess their thought and dreams, even sexual ones, in front of others. I myself was humiliated and verbally abused in these meetings several times.

The leaders of the MKO – who all the time claim that Camp Liberty is like a prison – are the main people who turned the MKO Camps into a prison. The MKO prison is so exceptional that its prisoners – the same members – are not allowed to contact their families, either by phone of by letter. They have no access to the Internet and other mass-media. They are forbidden to visit their loved ones. They have no news of the outside world but prisoners in the whole world, even under the worst dictatorships, at least are allowed to visit their families or even take a few days off to go home.

The MKO camps have been turned into a horrible jail because: relations and conditions are very oppressive, and tyranical, under cult-like practices members are manipulated, they are kept in an absolute ignorance, celibacy is obligatory, children are separated from their parents, emotional relations are forbidden as well as sexual relations, there is no access to mobile, Radio, TV, newspapers and the Internet. News, books and films are filtered by the cult authorities.

Therefore, I ask the United Nations Organization and the families of Liberty residents to try their best for salvation of my former friends who are still taken as hostages in the cult of Rajavi. In order to release them, the presence of residents’ families in Iraq is vital.

By Iran Fanous

April 27, 2014 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Breaking borders into insanity

Massoud Khodabandeh is chartered engineer of electronics from Leeds University, UK. While he was studying in Newcastle to gain engineering diploma, joined groups of students opposing the Shah’s regime. In 1978, Mr. Khodabandeh co-founded the Society for Iranian Muslim Students in Newcastle Polytechnic, which included MeK members and sympathizers. He notes that nearly all persons who joined the MeK after the revolution were either pupils or technical students.

“I was first introduced to politics in Iran, but became more interested in the various opposition groups while a student in Newcastle. I joined groups of students opposing the Shah’s regime, and in the last years of my stay in Newcastle became more and more interested in the so-called ‘revolutionary groups’, one of which was the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization of Iran (MKO).” Massoud Khodabandeh describes that period. “In those days the Mojahedin comprised no more than a group of martyred or imprisoned young people who were [considered] as followers of Ayatollah Khomeini.”

In 1981, Mr. Khodabandeh in Paris joined Massoud Rajavi and the other Mojahedin, who had fled Iran following the MeK failed revolt on June 20. With fluent English and a little French, Massoud Khodabandeh was assigned to a team specifically taking care of Rajavi’s personal affairs. He travelled to Baghdad a few weeks before the arrival of Massoud Rajavi from Paris.

During the years of staying in Iraq, Mr. Khodabandeh participated in many joint projects with the Iraqi army. These included electrical and Telecom training to the Republican Guards of Saddam Hussein. During these years, he also escorted Maryam Rajavi on her holidays to European as well as Arab countries across the world.

Up to 1996, Massoud Khodabandeh was a high ranking commander of the National Liberation Army in charge of the security of the leadership. He was also member of the Executive Committee of the MeK a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the so called political wing of the Mojahedin. On that year, he seceded from the Rajavi’s clult. According to Mr. Khodabandeh, from year before, he was disagree with “un-diplomatic, un-political, and in many cases inhumane conducts” of Rajavis. In 1996, he left the organization to London and presented himself to the British authorities (and later the French authorities. )

Currently, Massoud Khodabandeh is director of Middle East Strategy Consultants and engages in helping the authorities in Iraq to bring about a peaceful solution to the impasse at Camp Liberty and help rescue other victims of the MeK cult.

Maryam Sanjabi of Call of Truth has interviewed Massoud Khodabandeh about untold story of the MeK. What follows is an excerpt of the interview:

• The MeK ideology which is mixture of Marxism and Islam could not hide its contradictions within itself forever. On the other, only a person with abilities, motivations, and psycho complexes of Rajavi could bring the MeK to the current point.

• There would be disputation over causes of this disaster (the MeK), but no one doubts that it is a real disaster. Today, all agree that this group has all the specifications of a cult. But a cult that pretend being an organization.

• “Organization” has distinctive feature, as “cult” has. It is not possible that a group for 30 years has a self-styled leader at the head, and his wife, with repugnant obscenity, calls herself “president”, at the same time has not one page of Statutes, regulations, laws, and methods. Furthermore, which organization every day shifts its policy and strategy and tactics?

• The MeK has all the features of a cult. The Cult Information Center, based in London, provides a definition for cults that most specialists and psychiatrists verify it. It says that a cult or sect is a group that has all five characters below:

1. Apply psychological coercion to recruit, retain and control members.

(In case of Rajavi’s cult, it is enough to refer to brainwashing sessions, ideological revolution, the so-called boiler meetings and daily reports)

2. Constitutes a totalitarian society.

3. The founder or leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, unpredictable, and charismatic.

4. Believes that “the ends justify the means”.

5. Cult’s wealth does not benefit its members or society.

• Under Saddam, Rajavi used to receive capita per the number of members. The higher the numbers, the more earnings. That is why he gets people into Iraq and keeps them there.

• Since 1382 (2003), more than 1,000 members have defected Rajavi’s gang.

• Out of 210 members who entered Albania, 75 of them upon arrival announced defection and even refused to stay with the others one night.

• Rajavi, best of all, knows that the main threat to his organization neither is IRIG nor is Iraqi army. His threats are those who have been deceived for three decades to work without pay. Masoud and Maryam have repeatedly said that someday one of those people will kill them.

• This week ago in Paris, Maryam Rajavi explicitly ordered physical elimination of survivors and dissidents of the cult…. Rajavis have announced that overthrow of the Islamic Republic requires elimination of critics and dissidents.”

• Preparing food and other daily necessities of Maryam and Masoud Rajavi was at the hand of Hosein Dalili, brother of Bijan Rahimi (Khosro Itelaat). As you know, Hosein Dalili recently died in Iraq due to cancer and Rajavi until the last day refused to send him out.

• Masoud Dalili, senior commander of Rajavi’s escort team, two years ago escaped from the MeK. But they could kidnap him from the Baghdad Hotel, and return to the Camp Ashraf. There, after two years of torture, they killed Dalili and burned his face so maybe the Iraqi forces not discover his identity.

• In meetings with the chief of Iraqi intelligence, Dr. Barak, Rajavi used to obligate me to buy a special Cuban cigar that its maintenance needed to a box made in Cuba that with its special equipment kept constant temperature and humidity. Similarly, when Baghdad was under bombardment of US army, I was required to purchase several dozen types of specific French cheeses for Tariq Aziz who was stationed on the last floor of Rashid Hotel (the site was partially protected from air attack due to the presence of reporters).

• Rajavi is not a normal man. He is a different person and knowing him is a different job. Rajavi’s illness is odd and very dangerous. For myself, I’ve seen different persons at all levels but I dare to say that I’ve never seen anyone like him who has no boundaries in no field except self-preservation. I think that anybody has a boundary that eventually stops over it. Ordinary persons no way can break boundaries into infinity. It requires madness; an exceptional madness that Rajavi has it. He is the only one who still hunts for new boundaries to burst it and be satisfied.

• Maryam Rajavi has another type of madness. But even she is motivated by Masoud. Maryam Rajavi’s pugnacity, tyranny, ignorance and crime are engine by her husband.

March 6, 2014 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Former MKO member: They armed me by my Mom’s fake will

Yaser Ezzati, a former member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization was interviewed by Mehr News Agency. Below is an excerpt of the interview.

Yaser was considered as a member of the MKO militia because his parents were also old members of the group; Yaser grew up in the MKO camps in Iraq.

Yaser was sent to Canada under the pretext of the group’s so-called policy to save children.

Yaser was returned to the MKO in Germany where he attended fundraising gatherings.”In 1997 the MKO gave me a fake will allegedly of my mother who was killed in Mersad Operation [Eternal Light],” Yaser said.”It was written:”You must take gun and follow my path”. I was impressed.” Thus, he was sent to Iraq where the group was rebuilding its forces after the horrific failure of the Eternal Light.

…Yaser Ezzati was mobilized to Iranian border to launch cross border mortar attacks.

“After I attended four operations, I declared that I gave up because I had no idea of what and who we were attacking,” he said. “I was told that I was a child of the group and I shouldn’t have disgraced the group.”

Ultimately, the MKO officials accepted his defection on the condition that he went on a six-month solitary confinement and then he would be sent to Iran.

Yaser who was so scared of getting back to Iran – that was terribly demonized by the MKO – stayed in Camp Ashraf until he was fed up with the brainwashing meetings that he had to attend every week.”Weekly Cleansing” was a cult jargon in which members had to confess all their private thoughts and dreams.” I could no more tolerate the condition”. Therefore, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement. He was brought on trial and accused of being the agent of Iranian Intelligence Ministry!

“Again they brought in my Mother’s will; I had no way out.”

The former member of the MKO Cult states that his father is known to be a torturer in the MKO.”He even beat me several times after I declared defection.”!

. Whenever I missed my parents my father would receive me by beating and kicking me.”

He continued,”some children in the MKO went crazy. I remember a person who committed suicide.”

He notifies that the militias are kept in the organization by recruiting them and paying them. They are offered free trips to attend the group rallies.

“I have not forgotten my past yet because an important part of my life, my childhood, my adolescence were lost for the misguided goal of the MKO”, he uttered.

January 30, 2014 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

A group of former members condemn hunger strike in Camp Liberty

A number of former members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization issued a statement to seriously condemn “forced and useless hunger strike” in Temporary Transit Location; Camp Liberty. They considerMaryam and Massoud Rajavi- leaders of the group as responsible for the lives of imprisoned residents of the Camp.

Former members of the MKO notify that in the MKO no activity is done unless it is ordered by the group leaders. “In fact, all political and propaganda affairs including self immolations and hunger strikes are basically organized acts and actually under the order of the leadership and members are due to execute them,” the signatories of the statement reveal.

These defectors of the cult of Rajavi who base their allegation on what they witnessed and experienced in the MKO warned about the seriously poisonous atmosphere of the organization where members are deprived from their basic rights and even their power of thought and freewill.

They emphasized that the forced hunger strike in the MKO is “a significant example of violation of human rights” thus; they urged the international community to take action against the authorities of the MKO in order to prevent a human disaster in Camp Liberty. They also asked political activists and Iranian nation to condemn the atrocities of the MKO leaders asking,” Why Massoud and Maryam Rajavi do not go on hunger strike?”

Nejat Society

December 1, 2013 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Mujahedin Khalq Cult in the Shadow War

An Interview with a former member of Mojahedin-e-Khalq, Massoud Banisadr

Masoud Banisadr was an active member of the controversial Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK, PMOI) for twenty years, serving as the organizations representative to the United Nations and to the United States during his tenure. The group is largely obscured from public discourse, or more recently veiled in headlines describing them as political dissidents or refugees. To those more familiar with the group the debate tends to focus primarily on their nature. For many MEK is a dangerous terrorist organization, yet for others they are freedom fighters and the only legitimate alternative to the Iranian Government. They’ve been subject to several pieces suggesting they work as assassins for the United States and Israel. Masoud has published a book called Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel about his experience in the organization, which he very candidly describes in detail as a cult, and one that has long lost its strength and vibrance. He now focuses much of his work on the research and understanding of cults, terrorism, and cult behavior within those structures.

Richard Potter: How long were you active in MEK?

Masoud Banisadr: I left MEK 1996. Before that I was the representative in the United States and the United Nations.

You were only in the political arm?

Yes.

You would have joined in 1976 when it was a more political guerilla movement?

Yes at the time I joined them I was a PhD student in UK in New Castle University. I was married and I had a little daughter. Of course I married young, so everything was very fast. We married in UK far from Iran, but the only source of news we had during the Iranian revolution was from MEK. So because of the past history and the number of martyrs the MEK had against the Shah we trusted them. The slogans they gave were about freedom and democracy and equal rights, women’s rights, minority rights. All destructive cults are like some lizards and can change colors very rapidly to their surroundings.

How did this change?

What happened in 1981 is that Massoud Rajavi (The head of MEK until 2003. Currently believed dead or in hiding) saw that he had attracted so many students and he thought he could repeat the Bolshevik revolution of Russia in Iran. So what he did was he suddenly on 20 June 1981 asked all members and supporters to come to the streets of Tehran and overthrow the new establishment. MEK says that 500,000 people came to the streets. They failed. They failed and they couldn’t do anything and from the next day they changed into a clandestine organization. Between the summer of 1981 the MEK went through many terrorist actions. They bombed the Islamic revolution party buildings. They killed the new President and Premier of Iran, and then they killed at Friday prayers in different cities through suicide operation, they killed different imams through suicide operations. They themselves claim that within one year that they killed almost 1400 people, high officials and supporters of the new establishment in Iran. At the same time they claimed 2000 of their members were killed in street clashes with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. In Iran what they were doing was what they called “heroic terrorism operations” later they thought the word terrorism had a bad connotation, especially in the west and they changed it to heroic actions. Most of their supporters in Iran were those who joined this group because of its peaceful nature. For the democratic liberal and pro social justice nature, so they were not ready to change into terrorist or even guerrillas. People are ready to vote for a party, but not to fight for that party.

You refer to MEK as a destructive cult, when do you believe they transformed from a political group or a guerilla group to a cult?

What happened was within Iran they were left losing 99% of their member. Only 2,000 to 3000 members left in Iran. Most of them were gone because of change of policy from peaceful demonstration to terrorist activities and street fighting. Even those who could become radicals were either killed in street clashes or by execution by the government. They lost the battle in Iran. Outside of Iran they were portraying themselves as the democratic alternative to the Iranian government. Two of the most important allies of theirs were ex Iranian President Banisadr and the Kurdish democratic party of Kurdish Iran. These two left the National Council of Resistance in 1984, suddenly this coalition of Rajavi and others turned into the pseudonym MEK. In 1983 they could get support from the labor party of UK and the socialist party of France, but after this they did not have it anymore. MEK was on the verge of disintegration, so he had to do something, which is why I think he did what was called the ideological revolution, which is when it became a destructive cult.

You’ve written about the organization forcing you to divorce your wife at this point, can you elaborate?

At this time they were telling me that my wife was what they called “revoluted”- meaning that she had accepted the ideological revolution and she was now a disciple of Mr. and Mrs. Rajavi and if I wanted to leave the group I had to leave my wife and my children as well. This was my main problem. It wasn’t just leaving the group it was leaving my children and the love of my life. I tried to rationalize it and I tried to stay in the group. Then there was some time later when they asked me to divorce my wife, again it was the same problem. Then I was in the United States and everything was wrong and slogans were wrong and meaningless, everything they said was meaningless.

How did you rationalize all of this?

There is an experiment where they put a live frog in a pot and they turn the heat up degree by degree. Outside the pot is cold, inside the pot is warm. The frog won’t jump out of the pot. It can but it won’t. It’s because the outside is cold. But when it’s realized that it is boiling and it is cooking the opportunity is gone because all of his muscles have been cooked. This is what happened to us. When the ideological revolution changed and we could see the pot was boiling, all of our muscles were cooked. All our self confidence or individuality that would help us jump out of the pot were gone.

MEK was originally aligned with some of the Kurdish groups but later on there was a great deal of fighting between MEK and Kurdish groups. What caused this change?

After the gulf war when Saddam lost the war the Kurds in the north and Shia in south thought they could revolt against Saddam Hussein and get rid of him. Unfortunately the US didn’t help and this is why they lost. Since Saddam’s army wasn’t in good shape after the war they asked MEK to attack some of the Kurdish guerillas in the north and MEK committed many atrocities. Of course then I was outside of Iraq and I couldn’t believe that we did this. After I left the group and I met other who left I realized it was true. What we were told was we were fighting Iranian revolutionary guards who had Kurdish guards, and this is what I was believed. When the accusation was brought up at the UN or anyone I would deny it vehemently, but when I left the group and met ex MEK from that war I realized this wasn’t an accusation, but a fact. They say they even killed women and children.

Saddam was probably one of the only allies in the Middle East MEK had at that time, no?

No. At this time Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were helping as well. As a matter of fact, Rajavi at one juncture traveled to Saudi Arabia and met the king. In MEK they showed us a video of him meeting the king. It was secret, the KSA and UAE support. Everyone knew about Saddam, but even within the group they didn’t speak about KSA or UAE. I saw the video when I reached the highest rank men could go in MEK. When MEK had their last battle, Forough Javidan, which means eternal light, the plan was that MEK, with the help of Saddam Hussein, would take part of Iran and announce the government order over it, calling it the democratic Islamic government of Iran- They’d go and capture western Iran and establish a government and immediately Saddam Hussein would recognize it and Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates would support it, and there were others. They were hoping Kuwait would join and the United States could be pressured to acknowledge them and they could create a situation of pressure on Iran like North and South Vietnam, or Korea. This was their tactic.

This one of the bloodiest incidents during this period, no?

They failed. They lost a third of the members. As a matter of fact I was in that battle. I lost some of the muscles in my right soldier because I was shot. Of course, we were not trained, not for that battle. They said everyone had to attend, even representatives who weren’t in Iraq. So I had to go back to fight. I had no military training but I had to go. Rajavi wanted everyone to attend but himself and his wife.

I’m sorry to hear about this

It was very horrible. There were 15 students who were from the United States, they were supporters. They were brought to Iraq and in the same night they were moved to the battle field. Because of my political rank I was a commander even though I had no military background. I didn’t know anything about fighting. Only a few days before for the first time I saw a machine gun, and I only shot it once. So in the first battle I almost lost my life, I was shot and went unconscious and was take back to the hospital. Unfortunately I learned all 15 died because they didn’t have any training, and because it was done so quickly no one asked them their names and nothing was recorded. I didn’t even know their names. It was horrible

How did you eventually get out?

In 1996 Maryam Rajavi (Wife of Massoud Rajavi and current head of MEK) was speaking in London and they asked me to come and mobilize supporters, and talk to British politicians and arrange meetings for Mrs. Rajavi, including Margaret Thatcher. So in London after five or six years I met my daughter. Before that she was 13 and now she was 18. I was faced with a lady. Emotions and feelings are very important in destructive cults. They isolate you from your loved ones, so you don’t turn your emotions to your loved ones. In London I could see my daughter and my sister and my old friends. From early morning to midnight I had to see old friends, ex-supporters of MEK, and answering thousands of questions which internally I had no rational answer for any of them. So these things, my feelings between my friends and family helped me change. And also luck. I had an accident and back problems, and I was so active in London that I had to go to the hospital. My back gave out. Fortunately for me MEK was very busy then for Maryam Rajavi with different meetings, so they didn’t care about me. If it was another juncture they’d make sure someone was with me, because MEK never leaves a member without a chaperone, always at least two with each other they watch and look after each other. So in the hospital I was alone for the almost a month and I could see normal relationships of people with each other. There was a guy beside who had an accident and I was helping him to shave his beard, or to feed him and so on, and this revived my individuality and my humanity and self confidence. All gradually it came back. When it came that I left the hospital I left MEK. I didn’t reject them fully yet, but I realized I couldn’t be with them anymore.

There are many who believe MEK serves as proxy for the West and that they are allied, do you believe this?

I don’t think so. Another problem MEK has is that Americans and Europeans know MEK has no support. In the early eighties there was an illusion of support but it was realized there was no support. There are no demonstrations for MEK and no one comes to support them. Even in Iran anyone who hates the government, even the old supporters, if you ask them they’ll say MEK is worse than the Mullahs. Western governments know this. Would the US repeat the same mistake they made in Afghanistan by supporting MEK where in Afghanistan they supported the Taliban but now they fight them. All of this aside it isn’t said that they don’t use MEK, because they do. As long as there is a bad relation with the United States and Iran they will use MEK. The Israelis, they also use MEK very much. But it doesn’t mean that even the Israelis trust them.

There was an accusation that the US was training MEK in Nevada to be used as assassins. Do you believe this?

No I don’t believe this. What is the average age of MEK members now/ I think it is about eighty. What do you want to do with people this old? I don’t think so. Probably not even spying. The only use they might have for them may be in relation to some terrorist activities in Thailand and in Europe where they say Iran or Hezbollah are committing terrorist attacks against Israeli embassy or the personnel of the Israeli embassy. Probably they could use MEK to discredit the Iranian government or even Hezbollah because Politically I don’t believe they use these tactics at this point, it would be political suicide for them. There was a story in the United States that came to the media and vanished about someone who was going to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in the United States. It’s possible they can create this news with MEK members to work against the Iranian government, but no real action.

Richard Potter, Mondoweiss

More Information on:

Link to Research Institute on Destructive Cults (RIDC)

About Richard Potter

Richard Potter is a 27 year old Social Worker and writer from Pittsburgh, PA. His work has been featured in Vice, Your Middle East, and Rohingya Blogger.

November 28, 2013 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

MKO survival dependent on creating crisis

Discussing the role of the Mujahedin-e-Khalgh Organization in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran;

Four former members of the Muhajedin-e-Khalgh Organization known as MKO in a press conference in Tehran shed light on the role of the MKO in eight years of Iraqi war against Iran in the 1980s. The former MKO members said that since the beginning, the leaders of the organization were looking for a source of support for the group and the Iraqi-imposed war provided them with the chance.

The press conference has been held as Iran is marking the sacred defense week which commemorates the 33rd anniversary of the beginning of the Iraqi imposed war on Iran back in 1980.

The group is notorious for carrying out numerous acts of terror against Iranian civilians and officials, involvement in the 1991 bloody repression of Shia Muslims in southern Iraq, and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds in the country’s north under Saddam.

The last group of MKO terrorists at Camp Ashraf was evicted by the Iraqi government on September 11 to join other members of the terrorist group in the former US-held Camp Liberty, now called Camp Hurriya, near Baghdad International Airport where they are awaiting relocation to other countries.

September 26, 2013 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

BBC interviews Arash Sametipour;MKO ex-member

I went to Camp Ashraf from America

Arash sametipour was living in the United States when he first heard of Camp Ashraf. He went there, he was trained and finally, one morning he entered Iran crossing Southern border. “The first thing to attract my attention in Ahwaz [ a city near border] were children who were playing soccer, chasing each other and speaking Persian. I noticed children’s playing in other cities too. I was really impressed … I thought when I was at their age I was experiencing war. Those days, most nights we were awaken by air raid siren and had to go to shelters. We had only two TV channels and a lot of passionate revolutionary slogans… basically I don’t think my generation can claim to have had a childhood.”

My interview with Arash Sametipour was on the phone. He lives in Netherlands so we were not able to look in to each other’s eyes. It was too difficult for me to ask questions without knowing enough about his mental conditions. I knew I had to call him a “terrorist” some time during the interview but I didn’t know that he who is now trying his best to “fight violence”, regarded such an attribute as “fair”.

“In the morning you crossed the Southern border to enter Iran; did you know that you were officially going on a mission that would turn you in to a terrorist?” I asked him. He replied,”

Arash was not willing to speak of details of the mission he had been trained for but he didn’t disagree my hypothesis when I said,”let me suppose that you were going to Iran to kill someone or technically to hit someone."

“On that day I was in the place I was supposed to be just like previous days. But that day was different from other days. I was terribly tired. My country-fellow men may not understand what I mean. It may be a little hard for them to accept that there was no motivation, there was only tiredness. I just wanted it to finish… I remember the exact words I told God:”Finish it. Please finish it.”

Arash says that an hour after saying the “prayer”, he is arrested by the Iranian Police. The cops fail to search his body completely so at the Police station, he manages to get the grenade he has with him and eventually releases the trigger.

“The moment I released the safety lock, I wondered what was going to happen. Was it the end? Would everything go dark? Or would I be born like a baby once again? Right away, my mother’s image emerged before my eyes.”

I asked him if he had talked to his mother about the path he had chosen, before joining the MKO.

“My mother was seriously against it. My family had immigrated to the United States in 1995. We all had Green Cards and soon we were qualified to receive American citizenship. I was a student and a pretty good future was waiting for me… The moment I released the trigger the image of my mother was so real to me that I forget to take the grenade near my chest – we were trained to keep the triggered grenade before our chest – but I was struck dumb by my Mum’s image , so I survived the explosion.”

Arash Sametipour was taken to hospital after he exploded the grenade in his hand. He lost a hand but doctors succeeded to keep his seriously wounded leg.

“Did the medical team of the hospital treat you with discrimination or hatred”?, I asked him.

“Well, it was and is natural. Iranian people have not forgiven the MKO yet but my medical team did their job well without any discrimination. After I was discharged from the hospital I was nearly sure that I would be sentenced to death but the then administration was reformist and the state was willing to show a moderate image. I heard that the MKO members were granted amnesty at that time. I was lucky that I was sentenced to life imprisonment. It was later reduced to 8 years and according to the law if you commit a crime for the first time you will be forgiven after you serve half of your conviction.”

“I Become a Teacher”. Arash sametipour has two important occupations now; he is awaiting the birth of his baby and meanwhile he is writing the book of his memoirs. He has his own weblog where he frequently writes of his memoirs and his daily routine.

I asked him who joined the MKO at the age of 21, “if 21 years later, your son come to you saying he has reasons to take gun and fight a government that he feels it should be reformed, what you tell him?”

“I’ve thought about it a lot. I guess if I am able to convey what I endured in the past, firstly to my child and secondly to the coming generation, they will be unlikely to repeat my experience.”

He says that if he were able to get back to the past, he would become a teacher rather than “an armed fighter against a government."

“I was not a person to change the history. I remember the words by Samad [the Iranian writer] ‘we thought everyone was in danger there but we went saw that only we were in danger!’ If I get back to Iran someday, I will become a teacher maybe I could pass my experience and the story of my life to the future generation in order to make them aware of this part of the history in which my generation and I lived our life.”

September 26, 2013 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Shedding light on the terrorist nature of the MKO

Iran; prime victim of terrorism

Shedding light on the terrorist nature of the Mujahedin-e-Khalgh Organization;

Two former members of the terrorist MKO at a press conference in Tehran have elaborated on the terrorist nature of the group which has a long history of hostility and terrorist attacks against the Iranian nation. Ebrahim Khodabandeh and Maryam Sanjabi had been working for the MKO for over 20 years before escaping from the group’s camp in Iraq almost 10 years ago.

The press conference comes only days before the anniversary of the 1981 bombing in Tehran which killed scores of Iranian officials including then Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar and President Mohammad Ali Rajaei who had been elected only three months before. The MKO claimed responsibility for the attack.

The MKO – which the US removed from the list of its terrorist organizations last year- fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up its camp near the Iranian border. The group is notorious for carrying out numerous terrorist acts against Iranian civilians and officials, involvement in the bloody repression of the 1991 Shia Muslims in southern Iraq, and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds in the country’s north under Saddam.

Even after the execution of Saddam Hossein the terrorist group still continues its acts of terror against the Iranians under the support of certain western powers; Iranian security sources say the assassination of a number of Iranian scientists is the result of the direct cooperation between MKO and the US-Israeli intelligence services. Last year the US and Canada joined the EU in removing the MKO from their list of terrorist groups. Iranians were shocked by the decision, as was anyone who favors peace in the Middle East.

Since its establishment, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been targeted by different terrorist groups inside the country that according to experts has made it the prime victim of terrorism in the world.

August 28, 2013 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

I was trapped by the MKO for the love of Europe

The mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) is a political organization with paramilitary structure. It was founded by Muhammad Hanif Nezhad in 1965. The MKO launched armed struggle against the Shah of Iran. However, it was harshly oppressed by the then Security and Intelligence Organization of Iran (Savak). The group leaders were sentenced to death under the order of Shah’s military court. They were accused of committing acts against national security and assassination of Iranian and American nationals. Some were executed and the others were imprisoned.

After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the MKO could manage to recruit large number of people from different levels of society, under the leadership of Massoud Rajavi and Musa Khiabani. Many people were deceived to join the group and then they were not allowed to leave the organization any more. After the American invasion to Iraq in 2003 the group was disarmed and some of its member’s could endure ruthless efforts to escape the cult.

Ronak was tricked into the MKO when she was 15 years old and after bearing tough circumstance she could manage to escape the group’s camp and join the Red Cross. We briefly interviewed Ronak while she was visiting the 26the International Book Fair in Tehran.

Dreaming of Europe

– When and how did you join the MKO?

– After I finished middle school, I and my brother traveled to Turkey illegally. I was fifteen dreaming of going to European universities and my brother was seeking a job. My uncle who was an MKO supporter lived in Turkey. We left Iran in hope of going to Europe by the help of our uncle. My uncle said that we should have had passports in order to travel to Europe. We couldn’t go there illegally. He promised me that I would be sent to an Arabic country with a group and from there they would facilitate my trip to Europe. They sent me to Camp Ashraf before my brother was sent. When my brother found that I was sent to Iraq, he came to find me.

– In which year?

– In 2002 we entered the camp and in 2006 we escaped.

– Is your uncle still in MKO camp?

– My uncle distanced from the MKO and returned to Iran after he found out that all the organization had said was a conspiracy.

– How did you see Camp Ashraf when you arrived there?

– When I arrived in Camp Ashraf, I was shocked I got temporary dementia for four months.

– What did you think of Camp Ashraf as a military camp?

– I had left Iran in the love for Europe but I entered a military atmosphere. I was shocked due to extreme fear and anxiety. I was so heavily under pressure that I forgot everything. When I wanted to fill my biography form, I could not even remember my brother’s name until I gradually got familiar with the system rulling Ashraf and recalled my past.

– Did you have any contact with your family during that period of time?

– No, I had no contact with my family although I missed them a lot. This worsened my illness.

– And what about your brother?

– I was allowed to visit my brother every six months under the supervision of commanders and my superiors.

– Tell us about your life in camp Ashraf what classes were you supposed to take?

– The new comers were taught the history and the activities of the MKO. There were also some classes for brainwashing; they emptied all we had in our mind, instead they indoctrinated their own ideas in our minds. We also received military training in Camp Ashraf.

After the American invasion to Iraq, some gaps had appeared in the MKO relations so the leaders held English, Arabic and music classes. Before that, classes were only ideological and political.

They said: if you get back to Iran, you’ll be killed

– Did the classes have any impact on you?

– No, it was all fear and panic. They tried to make us forget our family and free life but Iwe never quit, I never kept calm.

I was all the time busy fighting. They intimidated us that if we got back, we would be hurt or killed or imprisoned. We were told that no one would believe that we hadn’t go there with our own free will. I was really terrified.

– Were there many new recruits?

– During the time I was there, there were not so many new recruits. Not many women were recruited but the few people who were deceived were brought there from Turkey or Europe.

– How about your living conditions?

– Everything was like a military camp. Uniforms, not so pleasant food and extreme fatigue that did not let members think of anything else. When you went to bed you just fell asleep.

They told my mother: come get your daughter’s body

– How did you escape?

– After the Americans arrived, Camp Ashraf was disarmed and some of prisoners [members] ran away. My brother went to American Camp from where he tried to help me get released. When the MKO saw I was determined to leave the camp, they told my mother that I committed suicide so she had to come get my dead body. When my mother came, she asked to visit my brother and after they met, they couldn’t leave each other. I was so scared that my Mom would get into trouble. They were likely to take my Mom as hostage in order to keep me in the group…

– Tell us about your feelings when you got back to home. What was your family’s reaction?

– I was so happy. It was like a dream. I could never get along with living in Camp Ashraf where I missed my loved ones and had no contact with them. [When I returned], I was under severe mental pressure because relatives used to ask me about what had happened to me in my trip to Europe. Most of them do not know about my experience in Iraq. They think that I went abroad to study but I couldn’t finish my studies because I missed my family!

– Didn’t you face any legal problem after your return to Iran?

– There is no legal problem. I just shouldn’t take jobs in security organizations.

– Do you still live with your love for Europe?

– No, when I got back to Iran, I continued my studies and I no more dreamed of Europe. My brother works with his car.

– Do you follow the news of the MKO?

– I used to watch their satellite TV with feeling of hatred and anger. I felt pity for those people who were imprisoned there.

Friendly chatting was forbidden in the MKO

-Did you have friends there?

– It was Unimaginable. In the MKO, it was forbidden to chat with your friends. They held meetings in which we were allowed to talk but not together.

– How was the meeting?

– They treated in a way that we felt guilty. They questioned us. they told us words like:” You are the regime’s mercenary”!

– How was your relationship with commanders?

– Terrible. I was a problem for them because I thought about my family. They put me under severe pressure in order to obey them. I was emotionally injured while that time could be best time of my life. Now, I’m happy because I could get released from their prison. Of course I still suffer the emotional injuries of that period of time.

– Did they torture you?

– I was not tortured physically but I was tortured psychologically. Sometimes, you were kept in Bangal. It was like solitary confinement. The life in Bangals was terribly hard.

– What is a Bangal?

– It was a place located far away in the Camp. You were imprisoned in a Conex which was so terrifying. You always panicked that they would harm you there.

There were no marriages in Camp Ashraf? How about sexual problems?

Men and women were separated but women in the high ranks were made Rajavi’s wives. Others had no right.

Translated by Nejat Society

August 1, 2013 0 comments

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