A large number of Iranians gathered in front of France embassy in Tehran to show protest against Paris support for Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group.
Representatives of Iranian Families of terror victims called for the European Parliament not to permit terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) to carry out any action in Europe.
The representatives also expressed their readiness to provide evidence showing the MKO crimes.
Mersad was God’s ambush for MKO
Masood Rajavi left France on a private plane for Iraq on June 7th, 1986. An Iraqi delegation headed by "Taha Yasin Ramadan" the vice prime minister welcomed Rajavi at the airport on behalf of the Iraqi president. Mujahedin-e Khalq believed in this move as follow: in a situation where different imperialism conspiracies are taking place against the armed resistance of the people of Iran, and fears of the shaken and dying regime of Iran is reaching at its climax of Masood Rajavi and his new revolution, moving from France to the borders of Iran which is the last step for Rajavi to take before entering the country, is congratulated to all his followers. A day before his flight, Rajavi stated on a video tape:
If I don’t go tomorrow, the day after tomorrow might be too late. Not only for myself but for the people resistance, people in chain and incarcerated in the country.
After settling where he was supposed to be staying, he started meeting Iraqi officials. 8 days later on June 15, 1986 he met Saddam Hossei. At this time terrorist activities of MKO continued in border cities of Iran.
The Liberation Army
On July 8th, 1987, Rajavi met the Iraqi dictator again; at this meeting Saddam congratulated Rajavi the foundation of the national liberation army. Reciprocally Rajavi congratulated Sadaam the national day of Iraq and celebrations of the July 30th day.
At this time once a while we heard a meeting taking place between Rajavi and Saddam.
The liberation army was founded on June 20th, 1987 after receiving huge support either in form of cash or military assistants from the Iraqi government. In a short time the alleged army started attacking Iranian border cities in large scale.
On Monday July 18th, 1988 at 2 p.m. the radio of the Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasted news as follows:
The Islamic Republic of Iran has officially accepted the resolution # 598 in a message delivered to the general secretary of the United Nations in order to establish peace and security in the region.
Two days after this news, Imam Khomeini (peace be upon him) in a detailed statement on the anniversary day of the massacre of the Iranian pilgrims in Mecca appreciated all those who fought to defend this country. He continued his remarks by saying that at this time, I see accepting the resolution in the interest of the revolution and the country.
Accepting the resolution, had wide spread reactions, domestically and internationally. Some countries, like Iraq regarded this event as a new tactic. When the cease fire was accepted by Iran, a very serious situation was created for MKO. They had a very good understanding of Saddam, they knew that Saddam might make a deal on them any moment and turn them in to the government of Iran; in other hand, MKO had planned all their politic and their existence upon the continuation of the war, and they never anticipated a cease fire.
Therefore they did not see any other way except to intensify the war or at least keep the war going on. After our Islamic country was attacked by the Iraqis and temporary withdrawal of our fighters, MKOs thought that accepting the U.N resolution was due to the separation of the government and people. They were trying to take advantage of the situation to achieve their ugly goals.
By gathering some people from the counter revolutionary groups in different parts of Europe, and by all military equipments that they received as gift from Saddam, the MKO put a force of 15000 people together. They started their attacks from strait of Patagh in the west of the country against the Islamic Republic if Iran.
Members of this group, who up to now had a comfortable life in the west, were drawn into the war because of the MKO propaganda and excessive financial aids from the U.S. and Iraqi government and in the hope of conquering Tehran in 3 days. Saddam ordered the Iraqi army to provide the most modern military equipments which were recently purchased, at their disposal. Therefore, they attacked Iran by using new and the most modern equipments.
The Iraqi air force, by providing preliminary supports encouraged them to enter deep into Iran and ultimately conquer Tehran. By this doom alliance, a wide section of our Islamic country was attacked.
MKO were able to conquer the city of krend in early stages of their advancement. So happy of this victory, they tried to reach city of Islam Abad, they faced little resistance and finally conquered Islam Abad as well. 4 days after accepting the United Resolution # 598 by Iran, on Friday July 23rd, 1988, Iraqis started wide spread attacks against Iranian positions in the south and advanced to a point, 30 km away from Khoramshahr. Their intention was to capture more territory and prisoners from Iran so they could use them as a bargaining tool with Iran in future.
Khoramshahr was about to fall again, because in light of accepting the U.N resolution, all forces were evacuated and the city was in fact defenseless. At this time Imam Khomeini (PBU) sent a message to all military commanders, asking them to prevent the enemy from taking over the city at any price.
Following the broadcast of the message, a huge number of volunteer militias, who were dismayed by accepting the Resolution, made themselves available at Khoramshahr and forced the enemy to withdraw back to the border lines.
On July 25th, 1988 at 2:30 pm, few members of the MKO who had fled to Iraq and with the supports that they received from Saddam and heavy & light equipments that they received from the United States started invading Kermanshah in the west. This happened when the army was busy in the south and neglected the west. In a short time they passed strait of Patagh and entered into Iranian territory.
They conquered the cities of "Sare Pole Zahab" and west Karand.
They stayed in Islam Shahr for the first night and killed a lot of inhabitants of that city. They even killed people who were injured in hospitals, it is interesting to know that they killed even their own relatives, Masood Rajavi, while riding in a Bulett Proof car, accompanied the group which consisted of 15000 men, women and children.
MKO commanders believed that Iran’s military is disintegrated and is very vulnerable, and only one shock will topple the Islamic Republic. MKO prepared their military plan in 24 hours, unveiled their plan in a meeting on July 22nd, 1988 and called their operation "Forough – E – Javidan" which means an immortal light. Masood Rajavi concluded in that meeting that the internal situation of the country was very fragile and will have his next meeting in the Azadi square in Tehran.
MKO were very happy of their preliminary victories and in a hurried decision they decided to move toward Kermanshah In form of a column from Islamshahr. They thought that people would join them on the way towards Tehran. They thought that they could form new regiments of people and each of their members could lead the regiment. They thought that they could prepare the foundation for the regime to topple. Radio MKO started sending messages to the people of Kermanshah, asking them to join them and prepare the city for their arrival.
In the morning of July 27th, 1988, the Iranian army started the operation of Mersad with the code name of "Ya Ali – Ebne – Abitaleb" (AS).
MKO, who were happy of not facing any resistance on their way, suddenly faced themselves in an Inferno of bombs which were falling on them from air and land. It did not take a long time to see the Kermanshah – Islamabad road piled up by burned equipments which were given to the MKO by the west as gift. Few people who succeeded to save their lives, escaped to the villages nearby, some other decided to take their lives by taking cyanide tablets. When the operation ended, both sides of the road were piled up with bodies of thousands of men and women whom their hands were stained with the blood of their own countrymen.
The Islamic fighters suddenly closed the road 34 km away from Islam Abad. A heavy fighting took place on that artery.
The anti tank division of the military in an outrageous action, destroyed many tanks of the MKO. The Islam Abad, Kermanshah artery was filled with many burned equipments at early stages.
The actions of the Islamic fighters shattered all dreams of MKOs. MKOs had no choice but to withdraw and pull back to Islamshahr. The city was surrounded by following the enemy.
MKO had no choice but to escape the city in order to save their lives. The Islamic fighters, by using air force and helicopter, blocked the roads on MKOs on Karand and strait of Pathgh and cut their communications. On July 28th, 1988 the Islamic fighters advanced towards predetermined targets. The air force sharp flyers and heavy bombardment left no opportunity for the Iraqi air force to get engaged… As the result, in the same afternoon, the city of Islam Abad was cleared of the MKO.
One of the particular characteristic of this operation was that, not only the Iranian people didn’t welcome MKO, but also resisted against their invasion as well. In addition, all political parties, groups, figures who are in opposition to the government of Iran and are based outside Iran, condemned the action of Masood Rajavi and other leaders of MKO in sending thousands of people to be killed in Forough Javidan Operation.
London Kayhan, an opposition News paper in London in an article from a reader wrote;
I watched the BBC news, I am so angry, my message is this that we should not keep quiet in dealing with traitors like MKOs, and MKO in collaboration with Iraqis invaded our country. We are sitting and watching.
Summary of the Operation
What was destroyed from the enemy?
Over 120 tanks
400 transporters
90 cannons 80 mm
150 cannons 60 mm
30 cannons 106 mm
Regiments of the Enemy
Over 20 units of joint cooperation of Iraqis and MKO
Spoils of War
1000 RPG
700 Kalashnikov
Tens of Tanks and Transporter
Tens of Automobile
Advanced communication equipments
Electronic Equipments and Internal documents
MKO listed 1274 people killed in the Forough Javidan Operation. Among them were 5 members of executive group who each led one military regiment, and 11 members of the executive group of the organization.
According to these findings, 1100, of MKO got injured in the operation as well.
The damage sustained by the MKO based on their own assertion was as follow:
72 tanks
612 different types of vehicles
21 cannons 122 mm
51 rifles 106 mm
52 U.S. senators, few days before this operation, wrote a letter to the U.S. secretary of state, at the time, George Schultz, telling him that the United States must support MKO who are based in Iraq and use them at maximum to overthrow the government in Tehran.
Senator Mervin Daimly who strongly insisted on overthrowing the Islamic Republic government took part in MKO meetings and took a very heated position in favor of them on June 27th, 1988, senator Daimly took part in the MKO demonstration in Washington D.C. as well.
He told the audience that “We should not give up, we will be marching from Mehran to Tehran very soon if we try a little harder”
In this operation, Rajavi ordered to kill Ali Zarkash one of the persons in charge in the organization who recently had disobeyed his orders.
He was killed from behind by one of the officers of Rajavi. It was portrayed as he was killed by government army. They even arranged special seven day traditional mourning services for him.
MKO lost quite a few of those good members in that operation. Among people who got killed in the MKO side, were few foreign nationals – mostly because they married Iranians and accompanied their spouse in the operation.
After Imam Khomeini (PBU), passed away, Rajavi performed few combat maneuvers in Iraq. He tried to keep his members busy. He wanted to get permission from Saddam to attack Tehran.
Few Iraqi generals, who were always present during those military maneuvers, said that those maneuvers did not have enough military values to topple the government of Iran. Some fake scenes of those shows made them to laugh.
As already predicted, triumphalism was the order of MKO media and propaganda machine for nearly two weeks since the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the State Department review designation of Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCR, NLA)
as a foreign terrorist organization. This was not MKO displaying itself as the winner of a petition but a terrorist organization shaking its fist at the world. However, now the cloud of the triumph subsided and anything returning to normal, it is time to have a review of the ruling to dig out the facts MKO were trying to bury under the heavy cloud of disturbing the usual pattern of events. Although improbable to be removed from the terror list, as the ruling has nothing to do with the issue, there are points in the ruling indicating that the State Department insists on the accuracy of its decision makings.
It has to be pointed out that the case in the question is not the first but the fourth through which MKO is challenging its designation as a FTO and bringing it before the court. And the State Department’s response in all the last threes has been nothing but to re-designate it, as it will be probably with this last one. Let’s see what remarkable points the organization has noticed specified in the ruling that may signify a triumph for it.
1. Stated in per curiam, it affirms that “This case is the fifth in a series of related actions challenging the United States Secretary of State’s designation of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) and its aliases as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The MEK, also called the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), has challenged its FTO status before this court three times”. Accordingly, the organizations attempts so far has proved unproductive against the State Department’s reasonable evidences.
2. MKO’s provided evidences to defend itself against the charges have been piles of letters of recommendations from its lobby in the Congress and other European parliamentarians. Asserted in the ruling, the State Department’s decision to keep MKO on the list as a FTO relies on sound classified and unclassified information. “The PMOI also thrice supplemented its petition with additional information and letters in support from members of the U.S. Congress, members of the UK and European parliaments and retired members of the U.S. military, among others. After reviewing an administrative record consisting of both classified and unclassified information, the Secretary denied the PMOI’s petition and published its denial in the Federal Register on January 12, 2009. She also provided the PMOI with a heavily redacted 20-page administrative summary of State’s review of the record, which summary referred to 33 exhibits, many of which were also heavily or entirely redacted.”
3. The court upholds that the Secretary resolved to designate MKO based on sound records and evidences. “We are to uphold the Secretary’s determination unless it “lack[s] substantial support in the administrative record taken as a whole or in classified information submitted to the court.”
4. The court asserts that in all his/her previous responses, the Secretary has shown no satisfaction that the organization has permanently renounced terrorism and that, it might resume such activities in future. “In my view, (Karen LeCraft Henderson, Circuit Judge) the classified portion of the administrative record provides “substantial support” for her determination that the PMOI either continues to engage in terrorism or terrorist activity or retains the capability and intent to do so and, consequently, for her denial of the PMOI’s revocation petition.”
5. The State Department in its explanations for keeping MKO on the list argues that there is no evidence to confirm that the organization has permanently renounced terrorism since its present circumstances are the same as the previous. The State Department relies on sound facts rather than claims. “To seek revocation, an FTO “must provide evidence in that petition that the relevant circumstances . . . are sufficiently different from the circumstances that were the basis for the designation such that a revocation with respect to the organization is warranted.”
It adds that “While the Secretary may revoke a designation at any time, the statute directs that she shall revoke a designation if she finds that either “the circumstances that were the basis for the designation have changed in such a manner as to warrant revocation,” or “the national security of the United States warrants a revocation,” She wrote that “in considering the evidence as a whole, the MEK has not shown that the relevant circumstances are sufficiently different from the circumstances that were the basis for the 2003re-designation,” and that “[a]s a consequence, the MEK continues to be a foreign organization that engages in terrorist activity . . . or terrorism . . . or retains the capability and intent to” do so.
Accordingly, America has concluded that in spite of the cease of open military operations and the voluntary surrender of arsenal and weapons to the occupying forces in Iraq, MKO does not seem to have adopted a total non-aggressive attitude. The militarism potentiality submits that the continued proscription of MKO has not been unjustified.
6. The ruling admits that “although the Secretary must give the PMOI an opportunity to rebut the unclassified material on which she relies, AEDPA does not allow access to the classified record as it makes clear that classified material “shall not be subject to disclosure for such time as it remains classified, except that such information may be disclosed to a court ex parte and in camera for purposes of judicial review.”
It indicates that the US has a comprehensive understanding of MKO compared to other designated organizations. Naturally, classified information include sensitive compartmented information and special access data and are to be used by government departments and agencies if deemed necessary. Disclosure of these information in the presence of an ineligible terrorist organization increases the risk of an unauthorized disclosure of classified information that puts terrorists in full alert.
However, the court requires that MKO be notified of only unclassified information: “In short, we have held due process requires that the PMOI be notified of the unclassified material on which the Secretary proposes to rely and an opportunity to respond to that material before its redesignation; nothing in the amended statute suggests that this protection is any less necessary in the revocation context.”
MKO is well aware that the only probable, granted chance before it is to refute unclassified information or to ask for further opportunity to provide justifications to prolong the process. “And even though the PMOI was given the opportunity to include in the record its own evidence supporting delisting, it had no opportunity to rebut the unclassified portion of the record the Secretary was compiling—an omission, the PMOI argues, that deprived it of the due process protections detailed in our previous decisions.”
The ruling concludes that because of the foreign policy and national security concerns it leaves the designation in place: “As we noted in NCRI I, “[w]e recognize that a strict and immediate application of the principles of law which we have set forth herein could be taken to require a revocation of the designation[] before us[, but] . . . we also recognize the realities of the foreign policy and national security concerns asserted by the Secretary in support of th[e] designation.” 251 F.3d at 209. We thus leave the designation in place but remand with instructions to the Secretary to provide the PMOI the opportunity to review and rebut the unclassified portions of the record on which she relied.”
Consequently, what MKO is trumpeting as a ruling of being removed from the terrorist list is nothing but an urge by the court requiring the State Department to grant MKO an opportunity to defend itself against unclassified information, an opportunity already granted. The court has judicial responsibilities to fulfill, as it will be also held accountable for the consequences of unleashing a terrorist organization. It is complying with all regulations that struggle to diminish the nightmare of terrorist threats that has jeopardized the national security since 9/11.
On 25 July 1988, only days after Iran-Iraq governments accepted the UN Security Council Resolution 598 that called for a cease fire in the eight-year long war, Mojahedin Khalq 
Organization (MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCR, NLA) launched its major military invasion onto the Iranian borders. Supported by Iraqi army and its air cover, Rajavi dispatched his estimated 7000 forces National Liberation Army (NLA) to demonstrate his organization’s military potentiality in a four-day lasted operation, the great ”Operation Eternal Light” as the organization called it and the organization’s irreversible suicide operation as many critics referred to it. Although presumed to be a part of Iran-Iraq war, the operation was the most disastrous venture by an organization whose strategy of struggle was mainly built on militarism and terrorism.
In its unclassified 1992 report on the organization, the State Department refers to the operation as an explicit evidence of MKO’s armed struggle and close collaboration with Saddam’s regime.
The group launched its most significant incursion in June and July 1988, when they coordinated an advance into Iran with Iraqi forces. During the same offensive, Iraqi units in other sectors of the front used chemical weapons against Iran. NLA units briefly seized the Iranian border towns of Mehran, Karand, and Islamabad-e Gharb. The Mojahedin claimed to have killed 40,000 Iranians, but other military observers said the, NLA "just got wiped out" when Iranian reinforcements arrived.
MKO’s Eternal Light withstood nothing more than a short, four-day lasted spark. The operation on which MKO had heavily invested turned to be a total military failure and a proven suicide operation that led 1304 forces, according to the organization’s own report, to their sacrifice. In fact, MKO hurried to take advantage of a no-war no-peace situation created after the ceasefire in limbo, a golden opportunity for Rajavi to take his last chance totally disregarding the high cost it would impose. Of course, Rajavi knew beforehand what the result could be when he decided to pass over the borders of a country that had survived eight years a war that had wore out Saddam’s army. But he was desperately in need of and search for an outlet out of an inevitable cul-de-sac rather than to accomplish a strategic necessity. An analysis of the operation from the political and tactical point of view and Rajavi’s rationalization of the operation indicates that the move was the outcome of a desperate situation that had completely immobilized Mojahedin both in political and military fronts.
It was a fact many of group’s sympathizers, advocates and even critics and other opposition were well aware, but they were all shocked to see that a group that had once concentrated all its campaign marrow in a form of militia warfare and had already suffered great loss, suddenly and unbelievably had shifted to a classic military tack to start a big cross-border operation.
The failure of the operation Eternal Light initiated challenges against Rajavi’s egocentric decision-making that had led hundreds of recruits, many of them arrived in Iraq only a few days prior to the operation with the list military training, to their death. Most of his critics believe that the operation was in no way correspondent with the organization’s line of strategy and that, Rajavi’s uncertain analysis of the post cease-fire situation compelled him to make a hasty decision to create a ‘turning point’ to attract the attention of those in the West to be relied as a potential tool to be utilized against the Iranian regime. As stated in its later analyses, MKO claimed that “What distinguishes the Eternal Light Operation, making it a "turning point," is not its unique military achievements alone, but more importantly, its strategic political and historic significance”.
In spite of MKO’s widespread terrorist operations of bombing and assassination inside Iran and its later out-of-the-border organized hit and run operations perpetrated in the last three decades as well as its broadly launched military operation like that of the Eternal Light, it seems that the organization has never been considered a serious threat for the Iranian regime. But the consequence of such irrefutable charges of militarism and terrorist atrocities for MKO was to be globally recognized as a terrorist group. However, the good part is that the history and the recorded facts can never be distorted. But some Western countries tried to when they made a sudden U-turn and decided to declare that MKO was no more a terrorist organization; they still continue their negligence and unclear position takings toward Mojahedin due to political considerations. People have eyes to see and minds to think even if some so-called court of justice proceeds inexpertly to discolor the spots of a leopard.
Last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Washington ruled that the U.S. State Department should review designation of Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCR, NLA) as a foreign terrorist organization. The ruling is the last of a quintuple series of petitions by MKO, out of which only two have been ruled by the U.S. Court of Appeals to remand the case for further proceedings.
In the first of the two, decided on June 8, 2001, the ruling stated: “While we determine that the designation was in compliance with the statute, we further determine that the designation does violate the due process rights of the petitioners under the Fifth Amendment, and we therefore remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion”. In the other three cases, however, the court denied the petitions for review.
MKO claims that the decision represents a victory for it and it may give them enough time to convince the Secretary of State that it has long since 2001 abandoned any commitment to violence. But the State Department has since designation of MKO as a foreign terrorist organization been relying on its own classified and unclassified data and has absolutely ignored the organization’s assertions of abandoning terrorism. To know the State Department’s reasoning, as the case required that the Secretary provide a meaningful opportunity for MKO to review the unclassified record on which she relied, one does not need to look for classified information; there are periodically published reports and researches that release up to date information on MKO.
In a research analysis, commissioned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Status Determination and Protection Information Section, mainly prepared on the basis of publicly available information, you can easily fathom the structure and the true nature of MKO regardless of its claims. The CORI research published on 21 September 2009 publicized Information on the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) based on the fact that “Every effort has been taken to ensure accuracy and comprehensive coverage of the research issue”. Far from any propaganda, the research delves into the group’s past and current activities covered and made available by the media and authentic sources of information. Interestingly, the bulk of information released in the report concerns the military operations of the organization under NLA alias.
On re-designation of MKO as a FTO, the State Department’s Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism in itsApril 30, 2009 report once more asserted MKO’s terrorist activities done against America: “The group’s worldwide campaign against the Iranian government uses propaganda and terrorism to achieve its objectives and has been supported by reprehensible regimes, including that of Saddam Hussein. During the 1970s, the MEK assassinated several U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians working on defense projects in Tehran and supported the violent takeover in 1979 of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran”.
And there is the latest one published by Congressional Research Service dated June 11, 2010 entitledIran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses in which the reason for the designation of the group is referred to. It has a reference to MKO’s made petition against its designation in 2008 and the State Department determination to keep it on the list: “The FTO designation was up for formal review in October 2008, and, in July 2008, the PMOI formally petitioned to the State Department that its designation be revoked, on the grounds that it renounced any use of terrorism in 2001. However, the State Department announced in mid-January 2009 that the group would remain listed. The group remained on the FTO list when the list was reviewed and reissued in October 2009”.
And there are lot more evidences to corroborate the group’s unchanged terrorist disposition regardless of any court’s judgment. How can an organization with proven notorious, bloody history claim that it has been designated unjustifiably and in the absence of due process of law? Being removed from any list or not, however, is a test for the countries on whose lists it was labeled to prove their seriousness in war against terrorism. For Iranian people, it remains a terrorist group as terrorism and militarism is innate in its ideology.
The MKO insists that the US should delist it as a terrorist organization, a demand which has been rejected so far by Washington.
An appeals court in the US has ruled that the State Department should review the terror status of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO).
The MKO had filed a petition against the US blacklisting in 2008.
The Bush administration, however, rejected the request in its final days in 2009, after examining material submitted by the group and US intelligence community, including classified information.
Reuters reported on Friday that a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals in Washington said in a 22-page decision on Friday that the US government failed to give the group a fair chance to rebut unclassified information that claimed the group supported terrorist activities.
The government was obligated under a 1996 antiterrorism law and 2004 revisions to give the group the chance to rebut unclassified information, the appeals court said, adding that the group was "permitted access to the unclassified portion of the record only after the decision was final."
In a statement, the State Department said it would study the decision, but added that the US government continues to view the group as a terrorist organization.
The European Union (EU) took MKO off its blacklist in January, 2009.
Following EU’s move to delist the MKO, Washington announced that labeling the outlawed group as a terrorist group was an appropriate act and that the MKO had to remain on the US blacklist.
The Iraq-based group is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and is responsible for numerous acts of terror and violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.
The MKO is also known to have cooperated with Iraq’s notorious dictator Saddam Hussein in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.
According to Fars news, the Mojahedin Khalq organisation could have had a hand in the murder of ‘Hassan Ali’ a Judge of the Supreme Criminal Court of Iraq. Judge Hassan Ali had earlier given the order for the arrest of the gang leaders and some other members of this organisation.
In early July, Hassan Ali had issued the order for the arrest of Massoud Rajavi the gang leader of the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (aka MKO, MEK, NCRI, PMOI, Rajavi cult, Saddam’s private army), and about 40 other members. He had asked Interpol to place Rajavi on the international list of wanted criminals.
Maryam Rajavi and Amir Kazemi who are believed to be the political and military heads of the organisation are among the list of people with international arrest warrants. According to unverified information, Rajavi, his wife and his deputy Kazemi are now living in France.
According to the report, Hassan Ali was killed in front of his house in Baghdad in a terrorist operation carried out last Wednesday.
Hossein Ali, a member of Iraqi parliament and expert in terrorist organisations operating in the region said the murder of the Judge of the Supreme Criminal Court was carried out only a week after he issued the arrest warrants against the leaders of this group. The organisation should be investigated and some of the individuals have to be interrogated.
It is worth mentioning that the Mojahedin Khalq started in 1965 as a group opposing the regime of the Shah. Their aim was to create a Socialist Islamic Republic in Iran. The Mojahedin Khalq welcomed the Islamic revolution in 1979 but soon moved into opposition and moved back to the same terrorist activities they had started in the early 70s.
Facing the effective security forces in Iran, the leaders of the Mojahedin Khalq were forced to go to France and from there in 1986 to Iraq. In Iraq, the Mojahedin Khalq organised an armed group, well equipped with armoured vehicle and helicopters. They frequently attacked Iran from Iraq.
After the defeat of Iraq in the war, Iran became the only remaining enemy of the Americans and British in the region. This is when the Mojahedin were used. The Americans did not dismantle their camp in Iraq even though it managed to disarm them.
It was an obvious calculation. In the case that the situation would deteriorate, the Americans were planning to use the Mojahedin Khalq in their fight against Tehran. From the other side, they had officially (ostensibly) placed the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation on their terrorism list for their cooperation with Saddam Hussein. European countries had also followed the same line.
In this way, America and its European partners kept the Mojahedin Khalq for a rainy day and made sure that they have an open hand. It would be the case that either they would be used against Iran or would be handed over to Iran (for a price).
With the passage of time it became clear that the first choice has been taken (by Americans). Until 2005 Neo conservatives in America and some British politicians who were following American Neo conservatives for regime change in Iran supported the Mojahedin Khalq. Then in 2006 a European court decided that keeping the Mojahedin in the list of terrorist organisations and freezing their bank accounts was not right. In 2007 Britain was the first country which, according to a court ruling, took the MKO off its list of terrorist organisations. The European Union followed Britain shortly and in 2008 a European court ruled that keeping MKO on the list was not just.
Family members of the Iranian victims of terrorism in a statement issued on Monday blasted France for its support for the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), and asked for the trial of the group leaders in a tribunal.
"In addition to condemning the western countries’ support for the MKO which indicates their double-standard and selective approach towards terrorism, the families of terror victims in Iran urge these countries and the international organizations to work on the trial of the MKO leaders for killing thousands of innocent people," the statement said.
The statement was issued at the end of a gathering in front of the French embassy in Tehran by a large crowd who protested at France’s support for the terrorist MKO.
The statement also called on the French government and other European countries to implement the UN Security Council’s resolution 1373 in which any financial and human support for terrorists is recognized as crime.
The family members of the terror victims also in their statement asked the European governments if providing support for the terrorist MKO is not an obvious violation of the resolution 1373.
The gathering took place on the anniversary of a bomb attack on the central office of Jomhuri Eslami party (Islamic Republic party) in Tehran in 1981 by the terrorist MKO in which 72 of party members, including senior Iranian political and religious officials, were martyred.
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.
Some other members of the MKO who have had a role in the assassination of a large number of Iranian citizens and officials are currently living in France.
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 armed struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In recent months, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world in the hope of acknowledgement as a legitimate opposition group.
The 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 2009 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.
As Mujahedin-e-Khalq’s propaganda campaigns and lobbies in the United States government make efforts to gain American politicmen’s support in order to remove the name of their notorious organization from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) of Department of State, Keneth Timmerman ,a contributing editor for Newsmax Media wrote an article "Timmerman: who are the terrorists?" on The Washington Times enlightening his fellowmen on terrorist nature of Mujahedin Khalq, Timmerman suggests that MEK should never be removed from the FTO list ,accusing MEK of committing terrorist activities against American military personnel and Iranian civilians. While Timmerman presents evidences on MEK’s terrorist nature, he believes that MEK is a more dangerous group than PJAK, another terrorist designated Iranian opposition.
Here is an extract of Timmerman’s article:
By Kenneth R. Timmerman – Washington Times – Tuesday, June 22, 2010
PJAK is a danger only to the Islamic regime
A bipartisan group of House members last week unveiled a resolution in support of the Iranian
"resistance," a code word for an opposition group known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) that has been on the State Department’s list of international terrorist organizations since its inception in the late 1980s.
The MEK has a long record of carrying out violent attacks inside Iran. During the period leading up to the 1979 revolution, the group proudly murdered U.S. military officers and civilians working in Iran. And while the group’s current leadership and its apologists claim that those attacks were carried out by a splinter group no longer associated with the MEK, eyewitnesses tell me that the MEK continued to celebrate the anniversary of those murders in ceremonies and song in their training camps inside Iraq all through the 1980s.
In the power struggle that followed the 1979 revolution, the MEK actively promoted the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and planted a bomb that wiped out the leadership of the Islamic Republican Party led by Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, arguably the last of the "moderate" leaders of the revolution.
More recently, MEK operatives inside Iran have carried out hit-and-run terrorist attacks on regime officials and have planted bombs in urban areas that have randomly killed civilians. The MEK and its supporters call these attacks acts of "resistance" against the regime.
Senior State Department officials have stated that their condemnation of the MEK’s use of random violence against civilians stems from a desire not to use a "double standard" when it comes to terrorism. The MEK and its supporters claim that keeping the MEK on the State Department’s list of international terrorist organizations benefits the Iranian regime. Some even argue, incorrectly, that the group was placed on the list in 1994 by the Clinton administration as a sop to the regime. (While the Clinton folks kept the MEK on the list in hopes it would encourage a rapprochement with Tehran, the MEK was placed on the list years earlier).
Contrast the MEK’s record of random violence against civilians with the use of violence by the Free Life Party of Iranian Kurdistan, PJAK, a group that was designated by the Treasury Department as a terrorist organization in February 2009.
PJAK guerrillas operate inside Iran in trained groups. Their primary mission is political: That is, they seek to spread a message that Iranian Kurds must abandon tribalism and traditional politics if they want to aspire to democratic self-governance.
Indeed, at PJAK camps I visited in northern Iraq in October 2007, the emphasis was on the political indoctrination of new members, not military training. PJAK prides itself on its inclusiveness: More than 30 percent of its guerrilla fighters and leadership are women.
PJAK makes no bones about its use of violence. Indeed, a Google search of the terms "PJAK attack" results in dozens of incidents in which PJAK guerrillas have attacked Iranian military targets and bases inside Iran. Almost all of these attacks have targeted the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
But PJAK uses violence in defense of the Kurdish population, not as an instrument of terror against civilians. In contrast to the MEK, PJAK has never planted bombs in public areas or targeted regime officials for assassination.
By Mazda Parsi
Families of terror victims’ response to the claims made by one of Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) members in American website
Last week one of the well-known American news websites (Huffington Post) aiming to put more pressure on Iranians published an article written by one of the MKO so-called Parliament 
members, Ali Safavi. The writer of this text has tried his best in order to distort the realities and to acquit Mojahedin-e Khalq from its terrorist background.
This MKO members not only introduces his organization in this paper as a democratic organization, but also claims that the terrorist designation of MKO by European countries and EU as well as United states of America is the result of US deal with Islamic Republic of Iran.
In this regard Justice Supporters Association, comprising the families of 16000 victims of terrorism wrote a letter to the president of the above-mentioned news website in order to reject all the claims made by the MKO member and to reveal all the facts and realities.
This society mentions its positions on this issue as follows: "Iran’s Justice Supporters Association comprising the families of 16000 terrorism victims of Iran, considering the article written by Mr. Ali Safavi published on April 3, 2010 in your news website, decided to write this letter to you to clarify the facts, which have been concealed and deviated by the writer.
Our Association hopes that your sense of equitability in running the Huffington Post news website and your intrinsic attachment as a journalist to reveal and discover the realities, would lead to the publishing of this letter in your website. It would be up to the discerning readers to judge.
First, we would like to ask Mr. Safavi and other parliament members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq 
Organization that when did you attend in a parliamentary election and how have you been selected? Has your organization ever had an election that now you call yourselves the representatives or the members of this parliament?
Mulling over weird fancies and having an approach resulted from illusion of conspiracy, Mr. Safavi has completely changed and distorted the background of his organization in a way that makes any wise man completely amazed and wondered.
Forgetting all the activities of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization in the past 40 years, he still tries to prove that there is not any document or evidence on the world and every one suffers Alzheimer regarding with the viewpoints and activities of MKO. Although he believes that, the terrorist designation by EU members and US was just an accusation and all this has happened due to a political game, but in fact there are too many evidences and documents proving that this organization has committed many terrorist crimes in the past forty years.
The documents related to the assassination of 12000 Iranian citizens, who the leaders of organization call them betrayers, traitors, clergymen…, still remain and their families do not suffer from Alzheimer. Mr. Safavi and MKO organization leaders perceived all their victims political or military men. It must be mentioned that the number of political and military men who have been assassinated by this organization like Iranian president, Prime Minister and Iran’s Judiciary Chief is also considerable. In order to remind some of these realities, we rely on the 2007 report by the US Department of State:
"In 1981, MKO leadership attempted to overthrow the newly installed Islamic regime; The MKO instigated a bombing campaign, including an attack against the head office of the Islamic Republic Party and the Prime Minister’s office, which killed some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar."
It’s worth to mention that seeking a way to acquit itself from the terrorist activities, Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization presently attempts to distort the history. However, anyone knows that under the reign of Pahlavi and before 1979 revolution, having a leftist-imperialist ideology, the organization had assassinated several American and Iranian counselors and citizens in Iran. In this regard we would invoke the report presented by US Department of State and National Defense Research Institute (RAND) on the activities of the organization before 1979 revolution:
" In 1960s, Mojahedin-e Khalq was one of the most violent political movements opposing Pahlavi regime. During 1970s, MKO assassinated American military and non- military personnel working on the defensive projects and supported the 1979 US embassy seizure."
In addition, the report adds:
"At the outset of US invasion on Iraq the MKO was listed as a hostile target. This decision was based primarily on the MKO’s history of working with Saddam’s military, including its alleged participation in the suppression of the Shia and Kurdish uprisings of 1991, as well as the many violent attacks that it had conducted against Iranian targets in recent years."
Definitely Mr. safavi has already read these various reports and his leaders also are aware of them. In fact, maybe their awareness of these reports has forced them to distort the history and try to accuse Iran of political game. Mr. Safavi knows better than every one else that the terrorist background and activities of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization and its attached organizations like "National Council of Resistance" or "National Liberation Army of Iran" are such dark and abominable that other Iranian foreign opposition groups consider them terrorist organizations just like Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Just before the terrible attacks of September 11, 2001 by Al Qaeda operatives, which was followed by the celebrations of Masoud and Maryam Rajavi and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, they were acting as Saddam’s especial army for killing Iranian and Iraqi children. How is it possible that the same group and the same leaders today are talking about the rights of Iranian people, democracy or women’s rights?
Mr. Safavi, don’t you think that now you have to explain what you mean by ‘democracy’?
Is your democracy the same as what Stalin and Hitler spoke about?
Stating the German intelligence report from the Federal Office we leave the judgment to the readers:" MKO is a repressive, sect-like and Stalinist authoritarian organization, which centres around the personality cult of [MKO leaders] Maryam and Masoud Rajavi. According to the orders of the leader, all the members of the organization are bound to complete obedience. This is done by some sort of brain washing and psychological processes that make the members to forget their past and follow the order of the leader without hesitation."
Well, what do the leaders of MKO mean by the rights of women, Mr. Safavi? Is the definition of women rights something like the definition of democracy? One more time let’s refer to the German Federal Office report:
" the members of the organization had to divorce their wives and become isolated from their families in order that they could obey the orders without any excuse. Their children also after being divided according to their age and gender were sent to Europe to be kept in orphanages."
Mr. Safavi, himself, was among the 100 persons who had to get divorced after the ideological revolution of Masoud Rajavi.
Has this German governmental organization really had some collusion with Islamic Republic of Iran for issuing the report?
Is it possible to claim that any organization that reveals the facts about your previous or current thoughts or activities has some sort of blackmailing relations with Iran and its government?
Committing illegal acts like money laundering, human trafficking, self-immolation, having cultic approaches along with terror and terrorism are all the realities, which have been published in the US and some European countries’ reports. Some of them are included here:
The report presented by US Department of State and National Defense Research Institute (RAND) in this regard asserts:
"MKO has always been considered as an organization with closed relations inside and an inward-looking cult but by the time its leaders and most of the members moved to Paris it turned to a more wicked issue. In Paris, Rajavi instituted what he termed an “ideological revolution” in 1985, which, over time, imbued the MKO with many of the typical
characteristics of a cult, such as authoritarian control, confiscation of assets, sexual control (including mandatory divorce and celibacy), emotional isolation, forced labor, sleep deprivation, physical abuse, and limited exit options."
For coalition forces, the MKO’s cult behavior and questionable recruiting practices are significant insofar as they affect both the daily operations at the camp and the strategic disposition options available to the group. The leadership is unlikely to cooperate with policies that would undermine its ability to exert direct control over its members. Indeed, Human Rights Watch reports that the MKO long ago instituted a complicated process to retain members who expressed a desire to leave, which included a “trial,” forced confessions of disloyalty, and even torture.
According to U.S. law, providing any type of support—political, financial, or otherwise—for an FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organization) is a federal crime. Moreover, many of the MKO’s fundraising activities have been proven to be fraudulent (for example, claiming to be soliciting funds on behalf of Iranian refugees, child welfare, or medical services for children). The MKO has also been linked with a range of money-laundering activities."
In the same line, the German intelligence report from the Federal Office explains:
" due to the past illegal money-laundering activities of the Council, Mojahedin-e Khalq is under prosecution in most European countries and Germany."
The German High Court closed several MKO safe houses, “foster” homes, and compounds after an investigation revealed that the MKO fraudulently collected money in social welfare benefits for MKO children sent to Europe.
These are just some paragraphs of the official reliable reports on MKO. Notwithstanding Mr. Safavi considers all of them a big deal in favor of Iran.
He tries to distort the history and show off an innocent image of an organization, which has a long history of terrorism and violence. In the past 30 years according to Masoud Rajavi’s own confessions and statements, this terrorist group has assassinated about 12000 innocent Iranian people from whom more than 80 percent were civilians. Nevertheless, the history would always keep the realities and truths and the MKO leaders can never distort them.
