Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO not welcome in Switzerland despite US pressure

Pointing to MKO’s expulsion from Iraq before December 31, 2011 the French-language Swiss newspaper 20 Minutes wrote, "Despite US pressures, Federal Office for Migration in Switzerlandrejected the resettlement of 11 members of the MKO organization."

"These individuals pose a great threat to our national security," Federal Office for Migration in Switzerland explained that why they did not accept MKO members, IRNA quoted the newspaper as reporting.

"According to experts, members of this organization are really acting like groups of mafia, and they have committed numerous terrorist attacks in the past," the newspaper added.

Secretary-General of Swiss relief organizations also considered MKO as an aggressive and violent organization.

The newspaper asked the Swiss Middle East analyst Erich Gysling that whether the members of this organization use Switzerland as a base for terrorism? He said, "Yes, and the Swiss Federal Government is considering all these threats."

December 22, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Khalis police arrest MEK members on terrorism charges

Khalis police arrest gang of Saddamists, American contractors and Mojahedin-e Khalq members on terrorism charges

A source in the Iraqi security services said that the police arrested eleven people on Sunday 11 December in the Khalis district who were of different nationalities, all with fake IDs.

They were arrested while in vehicles which were masquerading as governmental vehicles coming out of Camp Ashraf. The source, who declined to be named at this point of time, said that two of the suspects where U.S. citizens and three of them were members of the Mojahedin Khalq, all speaking fluent Arabic. The remaining six were former (Saddamist) Iraqi army officers, all dressed in uniforms of the Iraqi army.

The source confirmed that the U.S. embassy had intervened and pulled its citizens out on the same day before the other nine were referred to judicial authorities for investigation. The U.S. citizens were revealed to be from a private American security company which has its HQ in Mansour Street. Major General Qassim Atta the official spokesman for Baghdad operations refused to give details of this incident.

Al- Bayyana, Baghdad, Translated by Iran Interlink

December 13, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Mossad killed my husband

Wife of the late Iranian nuclear scientist Massoud Mohammadi says Israeli agents were behind the assassination of her husband.

“An Israeli openly told me in an international congress on victims of terrorism in France…that ‘we have assassinated your husband and we have been at war with you for 30 years,’” Mansoureh Karami said on Monday.

She stated that although Israel is an occupying regime, it considers itself a victim of terrorism, Fars News Agency quoted Karami as saying.

“I am sorry that an Iranian young man sold himself for money…. The assassin admitted that Israelis had told him that Ali-Mohammadi was trying to build a [nuclear] bomb, but this was not true. Israel and terrorist organizations like the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) have [tried to] hurt our sacred establishment using assassination,” she said.

Karami added that if UN human rights rapporteur, Ahmed Shaheed, aims to protect justice and human rights, he should talk to the families of Iranian victims of terror.

“There are more than 17,000 victims of terrorism in Iran. Although this phenomenon has been denounced throughout the world, the US uses it as tool,” she noted.

Professor Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, a lecturer at Tehran University, was killed by a booby-trapped motorbike near his home in northern Tehran on January 12, 2010.

Ali Jamali-Fashi, the man who killed Ali-Mohammadi, admitted in court that he had made numerous visits to Turkey to meet Mossad agents prior to the assassination attempt.

Fashi confessed to having repeatedly met with enemy elements in parks in Tehran and receiving between USD 5,000 to 10,000 for each meeting.

November 5, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Former MEK Leader Confirms Terror Conspirator Affiliated with the group

You’ll recall that the U.S. claimed that the Iranian alleged conspirator in the terror plot against the Saudi ambassador, Gholam Shakuri, was a Revolutionary Guard (IRG) official. Though many Iranians have scoured every resource they could think of, none have found evidence of such a person with any IRG affiliation. If the U.S. has such evidence it ought to produce it if it Richard Silverstein wants to be believed. Yesterday, the well-placed Alef site, run by an Iranian majlis member who’s run for president twice, alleged that Shakuri is in fact a high level Mujahadeen al Khalq (MEK) leader. It offered evidence to support the charge.

Today, the official MEK leadership has denied that Shakuri is a member and the U.S. has also denied the charge. But in fact, a former high-ranking MEK leader, Massoud Khodabandeh (he has allowed me to use his name), writing in the Gulf2000 listserv, confirmed that Shakuri is in fact an MEK member. He cautions that there may be more than one Gholam Shakuri, and the one who is the MEK member may not be the same Shakuri the U.S. has named. While this may be true, this new development moves Shakuri a lot closer to being MEK than being IRG. And moves the entire U.S. account of this supposed crime closer to the trash heap.

In its story containing the U.S. denial, the NY Times quotes U.S. sources responding to the Iranian charge that Shakuri held or holds a U.S. passport:

Mr. Shakuri is not a United States citizen and does not have an American passport.
I have no doubt that Shakuri is not a U.S. citizen and also that he may not currently have a U.S. passport. But this statement, at least as portrayed by Scott Shane, does not say the U.S. never issued such a passport in his name. There are many ways and reasons a non-U.S. citizen may obtain a U.S. passport including fraud and the possibility that Shakuri was performing a task for the U.S. government or CIA and needed such a document. I am speculating, but in light of the paucity of evidence the U.S. has offered to support its claims, we must parse the information it has distributed to try to determine credibility and accuracy.

There is another intriguing element that the Alef story added to the mix. It claimed that Interpol had released information allowing confirmation of Shakuri as an MEK official. The NY Times says this:

An Interpol spokeswoman declined to comment. But an American official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Interpol had discovered no link to the opposition group, calling the Iranian news report “pure fiction.”

While I do not know the protocols that Interpol follows in making public statements, I’d think that if the organization had been portrayed falsely by Iran, that it would want to say so. I’d also think that the U.S. would be a far more important national partner to Interpol than Iran and that Interpol would also want to deny this story if it were false because the U.S. would benefit from this. The fact that it refuses to do so raises if not a red, then surely a yellow flag for me.

The fact that a U.S. official seeks to speak on behalf of Interpol and under the cloak of anonymity is highly dubious. If they want us to believe what they claim, then I’m afraid it will have to be Interpol speaking on its own behalf.

Tikun Olam

October 22, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Iran: Alleged Terror Conspirator MEK Leader

I’ve been able to confirm with enough certainty to feel comfortable publishing the report from Iranian media that Gholam Shakuri, the alleged Iranian Revolutionary Guard co-conspirator in the Iran terror plot, is a member of the Mujahadeen al-Khalq (MEK). This is the group which engages in acts of terror within Iran in order to overthrow the regime. It also collaborates with the Mossad in spreading disinformation about the Iranian nuclear program. MEK has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaker and consulting fees to U.S. political figures like Howard Dean, in a so far vain attempt to get the group removed from the Treasury Department list of recognized terror groups.

Yesterday, the NY Times published this report:

Iran injected a new twist on Tuesday into the week-old American accusation of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, asserting that one of the defendants really belongs to an outlawed and exiled opposition group.

The defendant, Gholam Shakuri, identified by the Justice Department as an operative of the élite Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, is actually a “key member” of the Mujahedeen Khalq, Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported.

The agency did not explain the group’s possible motive but left the implication that the plot was a bogus scheme meant to frame and ostracize Iran.

… “The person in question has been traveling to different countries under the names of Ali Shakuri/Gholam Shakuri/Gholam-Hussein Shakuri by using fake passports including forged Iranian passports,” Mehr said.

…Mehr said it had learned what it called the new information about Mr. Shakuri from Interpol but was not more specific.

Muhammad Sahimi, working directly from Iranian media sources reports:

Alef, the website published by Majles deputy Ahmad Tavakoli, claimed that the second person named in the U.S. Justice Deaprtment’s indictment of the alleged culprits in the plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Washington, D.C., is a member of the Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization (MKO, or MEK). According to Alef, Gholam Shakuri — who, the website claims, has used the aliases Ali Shakuri and Gholam-Hossein Shakuri — is a high-ranking MKO member who has used faked passports to travel to various countries over the years. One of those passports was issued on November 30, 2006, in Washington with the number K10295631. Alef asserted that its information was obtained through Interpol. The website’s claims cannot be independently verified.

As I noted above, MEK has a history of planting fraudulent “evidence” designed to support the claim that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon. It therefore is entirely possible that it cooked up this scheme to further tarnish Iran’s reputation and relations with western countries. My only question is wouldn’t they care if they hatched such a slipshod plot that it made Barack Obama end up looking like an utter fool?

For those wondering, Alef is a website published by a well-connected Iranian legislator who’s run for president twice.

This article appeared at Tikun Olam

About the author:
Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein is an author, journalist and blogger, with articles appearing in Haaretz, the Jewish Forward, Los Angeles Times, the Guardian’s Comment Is Free, Al Jazeera English, and Alternet. His work has also been in the Seattle Times, American Conservative Magazine, Beliefnet and Tikkun Magazine, where he is on the advisory board. Check out Silverstein’s blog at Tikun Olam, one of the earliest liberal Jewish blogs, which he has maintained since February, 2003.

Richard Silverstein

October 22, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Alleged Terror suspect is a member of MKO

Iran said one of the two suspects in a US alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington belongs to the outlawed and armed opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) – a terrorist group responsible for the death of thousands of Iranian, Iraqi and western people and officials during the last 5 decades.

Gholam Shakuri, who the US Justice Department claimed to be an operative of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force is actually a "key member" of the Mojahedin-e -Khalq Organization, MNA reported.

The agency did not explain the group’s possible motive but left the implication that the plot was a bogus scheme meant to frame and ostracize Iran.

It said Shakuri, who is at large, had last been seen in Washington and in MKO’s main training center in Iraq, Camp Ashraf.

"The person in question has been traveling to different countries under the names of Ali Shakuri/Gholam Shakuri/Gholam-Hussein Shakuri by using fake passports including forged Iranian passports," the report said.

The MKO, also known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and MEK, is regarded by Iran as a violent insurgent organization with a history of assassinations and sabotage aimed at overthrowing the Islamic government that took power in 1979. While the group claims to have renounced violence a decade ago, it is still classified as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department.

The report said it had learned what it called the new information about Shakuri from Interpol.

The revelation that Shakuri is in fact a member of the opposition group is viewed as an embarrassing turn for the United States, which announced the suspected plot with some fanfare a week ago in a televised news conference by Attorney General Eric. H. Holder Jr., who said American investigators believed high officials in Iran’s government were responsible.

The US Justice Department has accused Shakuri and Mansour J. Arbabsiar, a naturalized Iranian-American citizen from Corpus Christi, Tex., of conspiring to hire assassins from a Mexican drug gang for $1.5 million to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States.

American officials have acknowledged the suspected plot sounds hard to believe but asserted they have the evidence to back it up.

Different Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, have rejected the claim. Yet, to prove that the US allegations are baseless, Tehran has asked the Washington officials to present their case along with their proofs and allow a consular access to Arbabsiar who is now under detention in the US.

Tehran has accused the Obama administration of concocting the plot to divert attention from its internal problems and stir a rift between the regional and OPEC kingpins Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.

Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.

The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).

Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.

A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.

The group, 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.

Leaders of the group have been fighting to shed its terrorist tag after a series of bloody anti-Western attacks in the 1970s, and nearly 30 years of violent struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In recent years, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world in the hope of acknowledgement as a legitimate opposition group.

The UK initiative, however, prompted the European Union to establish relations with the exiled organization now based in Paris. The European Court of First Instance threw its weight behind the MKO in December and annulled its previous decision to freeze its funds.

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 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 also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s.

Iraqi security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad – in 2009 and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.

October 20, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO offers bribes to get off terror list

The assassination plot allegation against Iran attempts to divert attention from US and Israeli support of the Mujahedin-e Khalq and the activities of the organization inside Iran.

Press TV talks with Mark Dankof, former US Senate candidate in San Antonio, who names prominent Americans who have received money from the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and who push for the MEK to be removed from the list of international terrorist organizations. He also postulates Israeli intelligence and American neo-conservative involvement in an allegation of an attempt to assassinate a Saudi envoy.

Following is a transcript of the interview.

Press TV: In terms of the UN, the US has sent this alleged Iranian plot to the UN Security Council. But the UNSC is not a court. No court has substantiated the allegations. So what do you think is behind the move by the US?

Mark Dankof: I think what you have here is a clear cut case of Israeli intelligence and American intelligence being involved in trying to pin something phony on the Iranian government. No one who is a responsible international observer or commentator or intelligence expert believes that the President Ahmadinejad would be foolish enough to concoct a plot like this, much less to use as unstable a source as this Arbabsiar in terms of what his public profile is; and to do so with an unproven source allegedly tied to a Mexican drug cartel in Mexico.

And to be having open conversations with these people over open phone waves easily intercepted by the American National Security Agency and conducting bank transactions that would be totally traceable to the players – as I understand it the money that came from these banks that supposedly was used to pay these alleged criminal suspects is from non-Iranian banks.

Philip Geraldi of the Council of National Interests – a long time American CIA station chief – has branded this whole thing for what it is. Gareth Porter and Pepe Escobar of the Asian Times and others have clearly pointed to the phony character of this and the desperate character of the whole thing in terms of Barak Obama and Eric Holder [US Attorney General] working in conjunction with Israeli intelligence and with these American neo-conservatives in the United States government, they’ve been angling for an American Israeli war with Iran for a long time. They’re trying to create a casus belli here.

Press TV: The protests going on inside the US – Don’t they have to be worried about that? At the same time we look at what they’re doing overseas – these drone attacks that have killed many people in several countries from Pakistan to Somalia – there was a report that 27 civilians died in Southern Somalia from these drone attacks.

Again the UN has been silent. Why doesn’t the UN take Washington to account? Of course there is speculation – has the UN become part of the US war machine in this case?

Mark Dankof: Well I think that’s exactly right. In this particular case it’s pathetic that the UN has not taken a more definitive position on these drone attacks and so forth, which are not simply reprehensible, they’re counter productive.

One may presume for every civilian killed in these drone attacks that the United States is probably facilitating the recruitment of an additional 100 to 500 insurgents to oppose it around the world in the future.

The other thing that comes up in all of this of course is that we are seeing attention diverted from what the United States and Israel are clearly doing in conjunction with groups like the Iran Policy Committee; to work with the Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iran to facilitate the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists and to be involved in other black intelligence operations within Iran that are clearly both illegal and counterproductive.

Raymond Tanter who is the head of the Iran Policy Committee – Raymond Tanter of Georgetown University has all kinds of provable links with Israeli intelligence and Israeli think tanks. His colleague Clare Lopez is an agent for the CIA and they have been at the forefront of this attempt to have the Mujahedin-e Khalq removed from the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations in the United States.

And when you see the number of people who have been receiving money from the Mujahedin-e Khalq to engage in public relations work on behalf of the MEK in the US – this includes Tom Ridge, Rudolph Giuliani, several past members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a former FBI counter intelligence expert. And Rudolph Giuliani of course seems to be kind of spearheading these efforts – Patrick Kennedy the son of Ted Kennedy received 25,000 or 50,000 dollars from these folks.

It’s clear that the biggest player in this whole thing is the Israeli MOSSAD and again these American neo-conservatives who want a war with Iran. And whether it’s legitimizing the MEK in this country and having blind eyes and deaf ears turned to things that they’re doing that are terroristic in Iran with the full sponsorship of the US and Israel.

Or it’s a simple question of trying to concoct something phony against the Iranian government.
This is clearly what’s going on here.
And Americans left, right and center should stand opposed to something that is evil – that is immoral and that is not in the own country’s interests and that certainly is facilitating crimes against other people abroad.

Press TV: Maybe the US is not the one that is being proactive here – maybe as you mentioned Israel is pushing the US based on the visit Leon Panetta made to Israel? Or, is it Saudi Arabia doing this because Saudi Arabia has asked for this case to also go to the UN?

Mark Dankof: I think this is where the interests of Israel and the interests of the United States, or at least the elite that controls the United States let me put it that way, and the Saudi Arabians absolutely coincide.

This is why these are the three powers principally involved with the Mujahedin-e Khalq and funding them and their terrorist operations against the Iranian people and the present government in Iran.

And clearly when we look at this whole situation with the public statements that Netanyahu has made; the public statements that Avigdor Lieberman has made – the foreign minister of Israel – And again just look at this laundry list of American neo-conservative in the United States ranging from Kenneth R. Timmerman and Raymond Tanter and Clare Lopez over to Rudolph Giuliani and others, one begins to have a very clear picture as to what is going on here.

And that is that the project for the New American Century crowd – now know as the foreign policy initiative; the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee; and the Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs – JENSA – are in the forefront of manipulating these individuals and groups and events to try and produce what it is that Netanyahu wants; what it is the Israelis want; and what it is that many in the banking community and the military industrial complex want – and that is an American-Israeli war with Iran.

Innocent people will be killed. Untold numbers of innocent people will be killed on all sides if something like this were to take place. And I find it interesting that looking at where Sara Flounders sits on the political spectrum and there you have Jim Fetzer and I – presumably kind of at the other end of the political spectrum – agreeing on this. This poses a lot of questions for an American political and military and economic and media establishment that’s having increasing trouble selling this pack of lies not simply to the international community, but also to the America public.

October 19, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Pictorial- MKO’s specialized missile launcher to fire stones at the families

Rajavi’s special forces have manufactured a specialised missile launcher with which they fire stones at the families on the periphery of the Camp Ashraf,MKO HQ in Iraq

October 18, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

WikiLeaks Releases involving Mojahedin Khalq

U.S. government cables revealed by Wikileaks include numerous references to the Mujahaddin e-Khalq (MEK). Details include:

Wikileaks

•MEK threatens mass suicide as bargaining chip: “The group’s leadership at Camp Ashraf is prepared to order residents to kill themselves to protest any arrests of Ashraf residents…”
•Evidence of paramilitary activities: “They continue to practice small unit military tactics and maneuvers under cover of darkness.”
•Cases of forced detention at Ashraf: “The MEK was also violating human rights by holding residents at Ashraf against their will.”
•Examples of human rights abuses:”MEK defectors told stories of regular self-denunciations, intimidation, forced hysterectomies, brainwashing, and isolation from family members.”
•False public claims by MEK: “While publicly touting itself as a democratic alternative to the current regime in Tehran, the MEK’s cult-like pattern of psychological and physical abuse of its members suggests otherwise.”
•Repeated instances of cult-like practices: MEK is a”cult-like organization that thrives on maintaining control of its members and those lured to Ashraf under false pretenses.”
•Analsysis of policmakers being fooled by MEK disinformation: U.S. on MEK: “The most powerful myth the MEK has been able to lodge in the minds of most supporters is that they are the democratic alternative to the current regime in Tehran…The majority of Iranians do not regard the MEK as a legitimate force for democratic change in Iran.”
Below, are the relevant excerpts, including details of the 2009 reaffirmation of the MEK’s designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. All excerpts are direct quotes (emphases added):

MEK UPDATE: DEFECTOR CLAIMS MEK HAS CONTINGENCY PLAN FOR MASS SUICIDE (1/15/2009)

“A defector from Camp Ashraf, home to the Mujahedin e-Khalq (MeK) in Iraq, says the group’s leadership at Camp Ashraf is prepared to order residents to kill themselves to protest any arrests of Ashraf residents”

“They claim to have turned over all their arms to U.S. forces in 2003, and their camp 60 miles from Baghdad looks more like a relatively affluent Iraqi village than a military garrison. However, until the end of 2008, residents wore military-style uniforms and flew pre-revolution Iranian flags, and U.S. forces stationed at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Grizzly on the periphery of the camp report that they continue to practice small unit military tactics and maneuvers under cover of darkness.”

ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF NEA FELTMAN DISCUSSES MEK (12/15/2010)

“In a meeting on December 14 with NEA A/S Feltman, the Minister of Human Rights, Wijdan Selim…expressed frustration that she was caught in the middle of the GOI-MEK struggle because many in the GOI wanted to resettle the MEK regardless of the merits, but that the MEK was also violating human rights by holding residents at Ashraf against their will.” Ashraf residents “revealed psychological and physical harm experienced at the hands of MEK”, MEK is a“cult-like organization that thrives on maintaining control of its members and those lured to Ashraf under false pretenses”, they continue to practice small unit military tactics and maneuvers under cover of darkness”,

MEK DEFECTORS ON LIFE IN ASHRAF AND RESETTLEMENT (9/18/2009)

“Many revealed psychological and physical harm experienced at the hands of the MEK and reaffirmed existing perceptions of the MEK as a cult-like organization that thrives on maintaining control of its members and those lured to Ashraf under false pretenses.”

“In explaining their motivations for leaving Ashraf, nearly all the defectors felt betrayed by the MEK and dismayed by their psychological and physical degradation at the hands of the organization. One man asked for help in retrieving his confiscated papers and other personal documents, including passport and Iranian identification documents, including passport and Iranian identification cards, from Ashraf.”

“Many of the defectors alleged psychological and physical harm at the hands of the MEK, including solitary confinement in MEK jails in Ashraf. One man in a wheelchair spoke passionately about how the MEK”crushed our personalities”and threatened to turn them over to the Saddam regime if they refused to join the organization.”

“Twenty-year resident [of Ashraf]; self-declared freedom fighter opposed to Iran; left MEK after”their lies were revealed”; considers MEK”the most disgusting and devious organization in the world.”

MEK FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION (FTO) DESIGNATION MAINTAINED (1/8/2008)

“The Secretary [Rice] found that the MEK remains (1) a foreign organization, (2) that engages in terrorist activity or terrorism, or retains the capability and intent to engage in terrorist activity or terrorism, as those terms are defined under relevant statutes, and (3) the terrorist activity or terrorism of the group threatens U.S. national security or the security of U.S. nationals. Further, the Secretary concluded that U.S. national security does not on its own warrant revocation. She therefore determined that the MEK’s FTO designation will be maintained. The determination was effective upon signature on January 7, 2009.”

“We do not view the MEK as a credible advocate for either democracy or human rights in Iran, given its record of terrorism and the abuse suffered by many of its the MEK,s own members. While we have serious concerns about the policies of the Iranian government, we do not condone acts of terrorism under any circumstances.

It is important to keep in mind, however, that the MEK’s advocacy, and our view that such advocacy is not credible, is not germane to the Secretary’s determination”

“(C) While publicly touting itself as a democratic alternative to the current regime in Tehran, the MEK’s cult-like pattern of psychological and physical abuse of its members suggests otherwise. Under the leadership of the husband-wife team of Maryam and Masud Rajavi, the MEK is a largely female-driven organization that promotes equal rights for women but fails to respect the basic human rights of its members, female or male. While Maryam and Massoud are married, MEK rank and file are forced to divorce and are forbidden from having normal male-female relationships or personal friendships of any kind. No children reside at Camp Ashraf. MEK defectors tell stories of regular self-denunciations, intimidation, forced hysterectomies, brainwashing, and isolation from family members.”

“The most powerful myth the MEK has been able to lodge in the minds of most supporters is that they are the democratic alternative to the current regime in Tehran. While we have serious concerns about the policies of the Iranian government, the MEK’s four-decade-long record of terrorism and cult-like repression of its members demonstrates that the MEK is not a credible advocate for democracy or human rights. Furthermore, the majority of Iranians do not regard the MEK as a legitimate force for democratic change in Iran. The Secretary’s decision to maintain the MEK’s FTO designation sends a clear signal that the U.S. Government does not condone the organization’s terrorist activity.”

PM MALIKI, CODEL LEVIN DISCUSS FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN IRAQ, AUGUST 19 BOMBINGS (12/9/2010)

“Responding to Sen. Reed’s question about how the GOI would deal with the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK), Maliki said

“We wish they would go in peace to any other state to eliminate the excuse for intervention that their presence here affords Iran.”He stressed that the GOI does not want to force MEK members to return to Iran; however, he emphasized the threat the group posed and claimed an individual involved in the August 19 bombing of the Ministry of Finance was a MEK member.”

EU LIFTS MEK SANCTIONS; SECRETARIAT REQUESTS USG ASSISTANCE (1/27/2009)

“France has an active request for the EU to re-list on a strengthened domestic investigation basis and is appealing the December 4 EU court ruling. Belgium, normally an outspoken human rights advocate in these decision-making circles, has raised security concerns in support of re-listing; thus France will not stand alone despite misgivings of UK or other countries.”

“[EU Council Secretariat Director General Robert] Cooper then asserted that EU Member States actually do consider the MEK a terrorist group, but the EU still must refer to a decision by a”competent authority”to ground an EU designation of the MEK. Cooper proposed to USEU Charge that the USG request the EU to designate the MEK and relist it as a terrorist organization”

IRAN: MEK SUPPORTERS IN PLAN TO PRESS HMG, USG, ICJ ON BEHALF OF CAMP ASHRAF RESIDENTS (3/2/2009)

“As always, the positions of the MEK and its supporters are characterized by hyperbole and distortion. London Iran Watcher has not attempted to engage with MEK supporters (and still less with members), but has kept FCO briefed on current USG public guidance on Camp Ashraf. The MEK, however, remains an issue on which HMG senior levels are fatigued and jumpy, and only too glad to shelter behind the tough line the USG has maintained on the MEK (ref).”

GOI TO ASSUME REPONSIBILITY FOR CAMP ASHRAF JANUARY 1; SECURITY TRANSITION BEGINS (12/22/2008)

U.S. Baghdad embassy says:

“No Delisting of MEK

While Washington considers whether to keep the MEK organization on the U.S. FTO list, as the Embassy deals with the MEK at Camp Ashraf it is our view that for our dealings it is important that the organization remain listed. Delisting the MEK could hinder our cooperation with the GOI (which considers the MEK to be a terrorist organization) and would encourage the [Camp Ashraf residents] to continue to stall the determination of their legal status in Iraq.”

IRAN: UK GOVERNMENT APPEALS MEK DE-LISTING ORDER (12/4/2007)

“The suit had been brought by several of the MEK,s fervent sympathizers in Parliament seeking POAC’s review of the MEK listing. HMG: Leopard Has Not Changed Spots”

Delisting MEK “weakens UK counter terrorism efforts”

September 11, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Gambling with MKO terrorism

Some in U.S paving ground for another round of violence

If the ultimate goal of delisting the MEK is to create a political entity with military capacity that could come into play when push comes to shove with Iran, then we’re in for yet another foreign policy disaster.

If anything, the whole 9/11 ordeal revealed in a spectacular way that enhancing an extremist organization and tactically allying with it in order to gain strategic advantage over a bigger foe is not necessarily the best long-term policy. Terrorist groups and indoctrinated cults (regardless of how they’re designated) don’t make loyal friends. That’s now a historically proven fact. You could use them for short-term gains –just as you did with Afghanistan’s Mujahidin in early 1980s against the Soviet Union – but once they grow strong, they’ll go by their own twisted agenda.

Certainly, an unethical dogmatic cult like the MEK – which has the capacity of instructing its own members to self-immolate in support of their leaders – a cult that went as far as fighting alongside the troops of Saddam Hussein when he invaded its own country’s territorial integrity – is much less principled and predictable than some hawkish American politicians wish it to be. You may see a potential ally in the fiery group for the time being, but it’s utterly naïve to think that an ideological political formation that took up arms against its own people at a time of war would stay loyal to anyone or to any noble principle it pledges to uphold.

The truth is that enhancing the MEK from a ghostly Marxist-Islamist terrorist organization on the verge of dissolution to a dangerously consequential actor in the inflammable region of the Middle East would most likely be a risky decision that future U.S governments, along with moderate political and ideological forces in the region, will wholeheartedly regret. If left alone, the MEK would probably gradually fade away in the maze of history and spare future generations the hassle of combating yet another fanatical force. If boosted and unleashed however, there would be no guarantee that anyone – including the U.S – would be able to exercise any sort of moderating influence on it. The risk is for Hilary Clinton to take. She could play it safe, call the terrorist group what it is and contain it until it’s dissolved. Or she could boost it up, let it loose and watch it in action.

The Secretary of State should bear in mind though that in its present miserable form, the MEK is one of the staunchest forces against peace and non-violent resistance among all other Iranian political groups. Not yet delisted, the MEK is perhaps devoting as much time and resource combating and weakening the voices of non-violence within the Iranian opposition. It suffices to take a quick look at the MEK’s online media, TV programs and propaganda machine to see the level of hatred and resentment that this group spurs toward the very notion of “non-violence” and civility in political struggle (although the English version of its media productions aimed at a Western audience are much more “peaceful” than its Farsi ones).

So there should be no doubt in her mind that if the MEK’s capabilities and credibility are enhanced through recognition by the State Department, it would not hesitate to unleash all its newly gained impetus to suffocate all voices of rationality and plant the seeds of a new form of extremism that future generations of Iranians, Middle Easterns and Americans would have to deal with.

It is a pity to see that at a time where the Arab spring is promising a new era of rationality and prosperity in the tormented region of the Middle East, some forces within the U.S are yet again paving the ground for another round of violence to emerge.

By Reza Nasri

September 5, 2011 0 comments

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