Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

J. Raimondo threatened over anti-MEK articles

The editorial director of Antiwar.com says he has been threatened from Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK, a.k.a. MKO and PMOI) supporters over his articles about the terrorist group. J. Raimondo threatened over anti-MEK articles

According to a Thursday report from Habilian Foundation website, in an article published on Antiwar.com on Wednesday, Justin Raimondo, American author and the editorial director of Antiwar.com, wrote that although MKO claims to have “renounced” terrorism, “exists in an atmosphere seething with violence, and my own experience with them has borne this out.”

“Whenever I have written about them I have invariably received emails from MEK supporters laden with explicit threats of violence,” he added.

He noted that it is to be expected from members of a “psycho cult”, adding “but in the case of the MEK it’s not like they’ve never killed any Americans before.” “Just ask the families of Paul Shaffer, Jack Turner, Louis Lee Hawkins, William Cottrell, Donald Smith, and Robert Krongard.”

May 17, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

No third country to host terrorist MKO members

A top Iranian lawmaker says the recent claims over relocating members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) to a third country after they were expelled from Iraq are only meant for propaganda purposes.

Head of Iran Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi noted on Tuesday that due to the terrorist nature of the MKO, no country is willing to shelter its members.

“Experience has shown that wherever the MKO goes, due to its terrorist nature, it will foster insecurity and crisis in the host country. Therefore, the plan to relocate the group in a third country is only meant for propaganda purposes,” he added.

Boroujerdi noted that none of Iran’s neighboring countries is ready to accept the terrorist group and the Republic of Azerbaijan will certainly not make such a mistake due to its neighborly relations with Iran.

On May 3, Press TV reported that Israel is seeking to relocate the MKO members to the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The report said Israeli lobbyists are pressuring Azerbaijani authorities to allow in the MKO terrorists and station them in bases and deserted air fields.

Referring to the recent escape of three MKO members from their new residence, Camp Liberty, near the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the lawmaker said the MKO is run by a dictatorial system which has put its members under the worst psychological conditions.

He added this is why the MKO members are looking for their first opportunity to flee the group.

Following the Iraqi government’s decision to expel the MKO terrorist group from its soil, the White House has been in talks with senior officials from Azerbaijan, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia in a bid to coax them into sheltering the MKO members in their countries.

The MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up its camp, known as Ashraf, near the Iranian border.

The group is also known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and carrying out the massacre of the Iraqi Kurds. The group has, as well, conducted numerous acts of violence against the Iranian civilians and government officials.

May 16, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO terrorists receive funds from Saudi Arabia, Israel

A Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization defector says the terrorist group receives funding from Saudi Maryam Sanjabi,MKO defector Arabia and Israel, emphasizing MKO’s role in the suppression and massacre of Iraqis under the former Baath regime.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Ashraf News website in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Saturday, Maryam Sanjabi said there is evidence about the relations and cooperation between the MKO and the Saudi kingdom.

She added that the group has used the tactic of establishing relations with Jordanian lawmakers in order to expand their activities in Jordan with the help of Riyadh.

She also called on the remaining MKO members in camp Liberty in Iraq to think rationally and take advantage of the Iraqi government and UN decisions about their re-settlement in another country.

MKO members have now a better chance of escaping in the wake of their transfer from Camp New Iraq, formerly known as Camp Ashraf, situated about 120 kilometers (74 miles) west of the border with Iran, to the Camp Liberty, the former MKO leadership council member said.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up its camp near the Iranian border.

The organization is known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and carrying out the massacre of Iraqi Kurds. The group has also carried out numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.

May 14, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

The US never conducted a comprehensive search of Camp Ashraf

Research by RAND confirms that not all spots in Camp Ashraf were fully inspected

The remarks by the attorney for the U.S. Department of State, Robert Loeb, have provoked backlashes from MKO. During a May 8 hearing before the US Court of Appeal for the District of Columbia, Mr. Loeb stipulated that a decision on MKO’s status could be made within 60 days after the group’s main base, Camp Ashraf, is completely evacuated. He said that said the lack of total unfettered access to the MKO’s base inside Iraq demands more deliberation and time be given to the decision. Loeb argued questions still remain whether “hard core” elements of the group harbor weapons inside the base and thus retain the “capacity” to launch attacks.

Reported by the U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents (USCCAR), MKO-run active committees in the US, Mr. Loeb’s remarks are “absurd”: “Allegations by the State Department lawyer on lack of access to, and suspicion of existence of weapons and ammunition at Camp Ashraf, are absurd and insult the professionalism and integrity of U.S. troops who served at Camp Ashraf”.

Mr. Loeb in the court remarked that the U.S. military had “never been able to inspect it [Camp Ashraf].” He also stated that the residents of Camp Ashraf did not permit the U.S. military to inspect the camp. “The MEK did not permit it at that time, and the military was unable at the time” to inspect Camp Ashraf, and “the MEK did not permit an inspection. . . . They did not permit a sort of door-to-door inspection of looking for [caches] of weapons or to actually disarm them door-to-door.” He also claimed that the U.S. military had been unable to verify that the MEK had disarmed.

Quoting some US military commanders, MKO disputes the claims by the State Department lawyer by saying that “Having served at Ashraf during several tours of duty in Iraq, we repeatedly inspected the entire camp without any hindrance and found no sign of weapons or ammunition, nor any plans or intentions to acquire weapons or use violence. These inspections were undertaken impromptu and without prior notice. At all times and during every inspection, the leaders and residents of Ashraf cooperated fully with the U.S. commanders and forces”.

But the research already done by RAND Corporation is much more reliable to decide which party is on a right path of the facts. In a part of RAND’s A Policy Conundrum it is well confirmed that there are still spots and buildings in Camp Ashraf never fully inspected by the US forces in contrast to the group’s claims.

Lack of manpower has also meant that MNF-I has never conducted a comprehensive search of Camp Ashraf. The MeK would not allow it, and MNF-I was unwilling to divert manpower at FOB Grizzly from regular regional security missions to force a search upon the group. As a result, there are buildings at Camp Ashraf that no American has ever searched. Former JIATF staff believe that weapons, personnel files, and possibly even MeK members detained by the leadership would likely be discovered in some of these buildings. At the very least, on the basis of rumors that the MeK were storing WMD for Saddam, the Iraq Survey Group, an international team organized by the Pentagon and the CIA to hunt for Iraq’s alleged WMD stockpiles, should have secured access to every building.

May 13, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Why delisting the MKO is a threat for peace?

To illuminate the minds of those who wonder why supporting Mujahedin Khalq Organization Why delisting the MKO is a threat for peace? cause danger to the world, we should have a look at various records on the history and current practices of the group. There have been various documented reports on the MKO including reports by RAND Corporation, 2009 and HRW’s “No Exit”, 2005 but recent analysis on the group and its supporters in the West sheds light on the potential threat of harboring a terrorist designated cult.

After the last enlightening article by Seymour Hersh on the American financial and military support for the group a large number of analysts and journalists commented on the issue criticizing the US government for their double standards towards terrorists.

Members of the MKO are so notoriously famous that no country is willing to accept them. Their fate in Iraq is uncertain. Martin kobler, the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) warns that finding a place for the group members after they leave Iraq “is the most difficult part of the story”. No country is willing to accept a number of brainwashed, isolated military trained cult-like insurgents. Josh Rogin of the cable also suggests that part of the difficulty of dealing with the MEK is that they have been cut off from the world for years and little is known about their individual histories.[1]
Having been isolated in a Camp in Iraqi deserts, under sever mind control techniques, the MKO have turned into a cult of personality that Jeremiah Goulka truly describes:

“I studied the MEK for the U.S. military and visited Camp Ashraf, the MEK facility 40 miles north of Baghdad. I also interviewed former MEK members. As Human Rights Watch also concluded, I saw that the MEK is a cult. It uses brainwashing, sleep deprivation, and forced labor to indoctrinate members. It segregates men from women, mandates celibacy, forces married members to divorce (except for its leaders), and separates families and friends who must seek permission just to converse.

MEK members must report their private sexual thoughts at group meetings and endure public shaming. In a Catch-22, those who deny having sexual thoughts are accused of hiding them and shamed, too. The cult has but one purpose: to put itself in charge in Iran.”[2]

Goulka concludes that an MEK regime in Iran will bring neither liberty nor justice.

The MKO is often described by as a “cult-like organization” with “totalitarian tendencies”. Former members of the group interviewed by various human rights bodies and journalists explain how they were victims of the totalitarian cult like organization. Owen Benett Jones in recent article on BBC “An Iranian Mystery: just who are the MEK” clarifies the two sides of positions towards the group. He himself wonders who to believe, former members who are either” embittered “or “broken”; or western supporters of the group who are either financially “motivated” or just “naïve”. However, he comes to a conclusion with his dilemma:” in over 25 years of reporting .I’ve been lied to often enough but, as successive former MEK members told what they had been through, their tears seemed real enough to me.”[3]

The MKO has also a four-decade history of violence, assassination and espionage against the Iranian people and authorities, as well as targeting American military and civilians living in Iran in the 1970’s. Tony Cartalucci also strongly criticizes Western support for the MKO as “treason and overt criminality”. He writes about the group’s terrorist acts:

"Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK), has carried out decades of brutal terrorist attacks, assassinations, and espionage against the Iranian government and its people, as well as targeting Americans including the attempted kidnapping of US Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II, the attempted assassination of USAF Brigadier General Harold Price, the successful assassination of Lieutenant Colonel Louis Lee Hawkins, the double assassinations of Colonel Paul Shaffer and Lieutenant Colonel Jack Turner, and the successful ambush and killing of American Rockwell International employees William Cottrell, Donald Smith, and Robert Krongard.

"Admissions to the deaths of the Rockwell International employees can be found within a report written by former US State Department and Department of Defense official Lincoln Bloomfield Jr. on behalf of the lobbying firm Akin Gump in an attempt to dismiss concerns over MEK’s violent past and how it connects to its current campaign of armed terror – a testament to the depths of depravity from which Washington and London lobbyists operate."[4]

But why is that the MKO can gain such a support from the West although it is literally a cult-like terrorist organization?

Actually, the MKO foists itself as a democratic freedom lover organization. Goulka writes about the MKO’s propaganda and how western figures are trapped by it:

"The MEK presents itself well and is good at running “Astroturf” campaigns. Its NCRI is a self-proclaimed “parliament in exile,” dedicated to the principles of western liberal democracy. Over the years, lots of American civilian and military officials have failed to do their homework and fallen for the MEK’s sales spiel, excited as they were to hear what they wanted to hear. (If something sounds too good to be true…)"[5]

What is the potential danger of harboring a terrorist cult?

As it is widely known by different reports, the MKO is more than a terrorist group, it is a cult of personality, around a disappeared leader, Massoud Rajavi very similar to that of Al-Qaida around Osama bin Ladan, maybe more dangerous. Giving financial and military support to members of a cult of personality with a history of numerous terrorist attacks may hardly endanger the Iranian National security because the cult of Rajavi barely has supporters inside Iran. Most Iranians view them as traitors. But, it will risk the US national security. Removing the MKO from US list of Foreign Terrorist Organization will allow the MKO to act –even more freely– in the US society. Members who are totally obedient to their leaders will not hesitate to run their cause in a western free environment –where they can accelerate the leaders ambitions for power achievement in Tehran. To gain such a goal war with Iran would be inevitable and more American soldiers would go to endless battles and more taxpayers’ dollars would d be spent for the so-called US national security – which is already threatened by the cult of Rajavi. The MKO is a key for war and insecurity not only for Iran and the region but for the US national security.

By Mazda Parsi

References:
[1]Rogin, Josh, U.N. Iraq chief:the countries of the world must take MEK ‘refugees’, The Cable, April26,2012
[2]Goulka, Jeremia, THE IRAN HAWKS FAVORITE TERROR GROUP, Salon.com, March 28, 2012
[3] Benett Jones, Owen, An Iranian mystery: just who are the MEK?, BBC, April16,2012
[4]Cartalucci, Tony, US State Department Hands Terror Cult US Base in Iraq, Infowars.com, March 9, 2012
[5]Goulka, Jeremia, INVESTIGATINS BEGIN INTO MEK SUPPORTERS, Salon.com, March28, 2012

May 3, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

WAIS member: MEK always remain a tool for terrorism

A member of the World Association of International Studies at Stanford University describes terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, a.k.a. MEK and PMOI) as a cult which “will always WAIS member: MEK always remain a tool for terrorism remain a tool for terrorism.”

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, member of the World Association of International Studies, told Habilian on Tuesday that undoubtedly “the cult (Mujahedin-e Khalq) will always remain a tool for terrorism.”

She went on to say, “The one thing the Empire (the U.S.) and its boss, Israel, does not want, is stability”, since “a stable country can be unified against outside enemies.”

Referring to terrorist acts perpetrated by MKO in both Iran and Iraq, Sepahpour-Ulrich added, “The MEK have proven themselves as ruthless killers be it in Iraq, Iran, or elsewhere.”

Over 12000 of Iranians, including some 70 high-ranking officials have been brutally killed in MKO terrorist operations since the early years of Islamic Revolution. They have also slaughtered over 25000 Iraqi civilians in return for receiving money and arms from Iraqi executed dictator.

“They are even more useful now than before – any terrorist act carried out by them, will easily be pinned on Iranians,” she added.

April 26, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Open letter to judge Michael Mukasey

Sound reasons verify that Mojahedin Khalq (MEK, MKO, Rajavi cult) does qualify as a terrorist group

Mr. Michael Mukasey, former Attorney General
Open letter to judge Michael Mukasey
Your speech on April 6 in Washington, regardless of any political or apolitical urge, contained points open to debate mainly because of your unsound reasoning as one who holds a sensitive professional position. But here is one that suffices to challenge your professional position. In a part of your speech we read:

The FBI went into Camp Ashraf to vet each of the people there, found in each case that none had any terrorist connections.

Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) has been designated a terrorist organization by the US State Department for 15 years. It is not important at all if by these words you mean to conclude MKO does not qualify as a terrorist group, but since you give no further explanation, we assume you mean it and deem it necessary to remark a few self-evident points.

Was the State Department’s designation of MKO, mainly for the group’s involvement in the assassination of six American citizens in 1970s, merely because of the assassins’ organizational or individual identity? None of the evidences in the State Department’s statement in which MKO is found responsible for tens of bombings and assassination of many civilian and official individuals is bond to the name of individual perpetrators. And was the decision to put MKO on the list the result of a merely political calculation or a collection of irrefutable evidences from MKO’s own sources? For sure you should know the answers better than the others.

It is said that White House interest in establishing political relations with Iranian government led to the inclusion of MKO on the terrorist list. If that is the case, does not it question the legitimacy of many American institutional and academic research and investigations all trusted for relying on leading and prominent experts and researchers? Then, will you ever trust any similar study and analysis of the kind for any other alleged group?

Believe it or not, it is odd and unconventional to place a group on the terror list simply for some individual members regardless of its political, ideological and struggle manifesto and infrastructures. According to your logic, then, none of the members of a terrorist group like al-Qaeda or MKO can be arrested and investigated for their membership. You cannot split members from an organization. It is under the influence and teachings of a violent organization that a recruit perpetrates violence and carries out the orders of assassinations, bombings and killings of civilians.

Furthermore, as a judge, you may have access to many filled terrorist charges against at least sixty Ashraf residents whose involvement in terrorist activities has been already verified. It is enough to refer to many published sources and military statements issued by MKO itself to be convinced that it has boldly and proudly accepted the responsibility for more than 12 thousand cases of assassination. Then, what will happen to your professional prestige if the informed people begin to suspect your legal authority when your words sound so naïve in dealing with such irrefutable and evident facts?

It is hard to believe that you, as a man of the law, may err in your judgment about terrorism in general unless we accept that you were reading from ready and pre-dictated passages handed to you by MKO only to act as its mouthpiece with no added personal judgment. And it is a proven fact since the group’s typically used language and unfounded allegations and claims are evident in your speech. For instance, you claim that “In 2003 when coalition forces invaded Iraq and encountered the residents of Ashraf, they willingly surrendered any means of self-defense they had.” Do you really believe in these words or is it a claim dictated by MKO?

There are hard facts to challenge the claim as does the RAND research done in 2009 when it refers to the event as a cease-fire rather than to surrender the arms. As the research remarks: “The April 15 “Local Ceasefire Agreement of Mutual Understanding and Co-Ordination” was simply a truce. Like any truce, it provided the “suspension of military operations to the extent agreed upon by the parties.”

A raised question that is really disappointing is that what are the reasons behind the support of people like you for a terrorist group with no political and social weight and support. The fact is that MKO is a terrorist cult for certain, whether it is on any terrorist list or not, and none of the struggles of people like you can change its notorious reputation and image. An important point to add, not only MKO assassinates people physically but also creeps up on the unenlightened to draw them either into its line or otherwise assassinate their character and prestige. Of course, you have not been an exception.

April 16, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Final batch of MKO members to set Camp Ashraf on fire

An Iraqi official stated that the final group of Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK, MKO, PMOI) terrorists is looking to set Camp Ashraf on fire.

Uday Khadran, the governor of Khalis, stated that “the next stage of MKO expulsion will be done next week”, said a Thursday report published by Habilian database.

“According to information received from within Camp Ashraf, the last group of MKO members are looking to set the camp on fire”, al-Esteqama newspaper quoted him as saying.

Referring to the remaining 2000 MKO elements at Camp Ashraf, Khadran said that they will be ousted after the Arab summit (in Baghdad).

To date, almost 1200 Mujahedin-e Khalq terrorist group’s elements were transferred to Camp Liberty which lies northeast of Baghdad International Airport, in three groups of 400 each, February 18, 8, and March 20.

April 2, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Three mass graves unearthed in former MKO camp in Iraq

Iraqi officials say they have unearthed three mass graves inside the Camp New Iraq, which once hosted members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) in eastern Diyala Odai al-Khadran, mayor of Khalis province.

Odai al-Khadran, mayor of Khalis, a town about 75 kilometers (47 miles) north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, said on Friday that the grisly find was recently discovered in the notorious camp, Mehr News Agency reported.

Khadran highlighted that the Iraqi government plans to evacuate the third batch of MKO terrorists from Camp New Iraq, formerly known as Camp Ashraf and located about 120 kilometers (74 miles) west of the border with Iran, within the next few days.

On March 9, Iraqi officials transferred the second batch of nearly 400 members of MKO terrorist outfit to Camp Liberty [TTL] – a former US military base near Baghdad International Airport.

On February 18, the initial group of 400 MKO members was moved to Camp Liberty[Temporary Transit Location].

The relocation of the terrorist MKO group is part of an agreement reached between the United Nations and the Iraqi government in December 2011.

The MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up its camp near the Iranian border.

The group is also known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds. The group has carried out numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.

Iran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the group, but the US has attempted to block the expulsion by mounting pressure on the Iraqi government.

March 18, 2012 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Speaking Fees From MEK Come Under Government Scrutiny

The Washington Times reported Friday that the counterterrorism arm of the Treasury Department is probing speaking fees paid to Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) by supporters of the Iranian opposition group Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), which the U.S. government considers a terrorist organization.

But Rendell is far from the only former government official who has publicly acknowledged accepting speaking fees from supporters of the MEK, which has been lobbying to get the group off the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The Huffington Post put together a list of 33 speakers at various MEK related meetings and conferences, though not all of them had accepted payments.

MEK supporters include a former director of the FBI, the former U.S. Attorney General, former military leaders and former high-ranking elected officials of both political parties, many of whom were paid thousands of dollars for short public speeches. The list of officials advocating for MEK to be taken off the list — which the group often helpfully provides in media packets at MEK rallies — includes Michael Mukasey, Patrick Kennedy, Rudy Giuliani, Andy Card, Howard Dean, Lee Hamilton, Bill Richardson, Tom Ridge, Wesley Clark, Fran Townsend and John Bolton.

As Glenn Greenwald points out, it may not even matter if every speaker at an event was paid since a 2010 Supreme Court decision upheld a law which banned advocacy that was “performed in coordination with, or at the direction of, a foreign terrorist organization.”

A State Department spokesman wouldn’t confirm that a subpoena had been issued to the office of an attorney for William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, which handles Rendell’s speaking engagements. “But the MEK is a designated terrorist group; therefore, U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with or providing services to this group,” the spokesman told the Washington Times.

NBC News reported that MEK was involved in the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists.

TPM sat down with a former spokesman for the MEK last year, who defended the group from charges that it has encouraged a cult of personality around MEK leader Maryam Rajavi and her husband, has supported violence in the past.

Ryan J. Reilly

March 13, 2012 0 comments

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