Following the de-proscription of Mujahedin Khalq from the UK’s terrorist list and open support of that country for MEK terrorists, more than 10 thousands citizens of Shiraz signed a letter for British Embassy, Tehran.
Another chapter in their history is no less than a permanent stain on the reputation of Massoud Rajavi’s People’s Mojahedin. They lost respectability from this. Having participated actively in the repression of the Iraqi Kurds, the PMOI can hardly win the confidence of Iran’s Kurds whom that often cite as supporters.
It happened in 1991 right in the aftermath of Gulf War while Saddam Hussein ordered Rajavi to help him with suppressing Kurds’ uprising in the north of Iraq.”
To cover their crimes against Kurds, Mujahedin claimed that they repelled the attack of Iranian forces to their bases and called the alleged anti – attack,”Pearl Operation”.
Following the de-proscription of MEK from the UK’s terrorist list and open support of that country for MEK terrorists, more than 10 thousands citizens of Shiraz signed a letter for British Embassy, Tehran. The text of the statement includes:
British Embassy – Tehran
The Terrorist Hypocrites group (Muajhedin Khalq) was removed from the list of terrorist organizations by British government although it has had a long history of a thousand crimes, treasons, terrors ,assassinations and cooperation with the enemy of Iran during the “ Imposed War” ,spying and even torture against its own members forcing them to commit suicide operations and self – immolation …
It is obvious that the traitor leaders of the terrorist cult are the main criminals who killed the best educated people of Iran and also the innocent civilians, declaring the armed struggle.
These traitor mercenaries who were Saddam Hussein’s accomplice during the eight years of Iran – Iraq war, launched dozens of operations along Iran- Iraq borders killing hundreds of our countrymen with the weapons donated by the enemy.
The criminal grouplet of hypocrites plans and operates suicide operations and self-immolations causing its own members to be killed. They also torture the dissidents physically and mentally. They even have no pity for their old mercenaries.
The terrorist are removed from the list and the British parliament members have become their spokesmen but the terrorists still maintain the strategy of armed struggle in their agenda and cry the slogan of “war against war” everyday, keeping the organization of their army in Iraq.
The below –named signatories who have witnessed the terrorist acts of MKO and bloodshed against our compatriots for three decades, announce our betrayal against the anti- human and illegal decision made by the British Government that de-proscribed the notorious cult of Rajavi and condemn this decision since it violates the international laws.
We are sure that the group that has done a thousand crimes against people (those same people’s of Muajhedin of Iran) in its black file. It has no sympathy for its own members or supporters. It will become a trouble for you someday.
The act done by your government will have no influence on Iranians’ will. The terrorists have no place in our country . De-proscription of the group by British government added another black page to the long history of hostility against Iranians.
Lawmaker: Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) to be put in UK terrorist list once again
An Iranian lawmaker said here Friday that the terrorist Mujahideen Khalq
Organization (MKO) will be put in the UK terrorist list once again.
Member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Javad Karimi said a number of the UK parliamentarians had in a meeting with several members of his Commission said the UK parliament and government will follow the European Union in putting the MKO in their terrorist list once again soon.
The `Habilian Center’, which groups bereaved families of those martyred in terrorist incidents, quoted Karimi as saying that current term of Majlis has become more diplomatically active than its predecessors and intends to make maximum use its potential.
He hoped that London will soon rectify its past mistake so that suitable bilateral relations are built.
As for Iran’s parliamentary diplomacy to secure the MKO expulsion from Iraq, Karimi said on Iraqi people’s request, the issue of MKO expulsion from Iraq has become an axis of the Iran-Iraq diplomacy over the past years and this is the point on which Iraqi resident, prime minister and lawmakers have repeatedly laid emphasis.
He said Americans try to prevent materialization of the goal but judicially speaking, they are not in a much influential position and not much time remains until MKO expulsion from Iraq.
After the MKO members’ expulsion from Iraq, Iran will follow up the issue of the grouplet leaders’ hand over to Iranian judicial authorities and if necessary, they should be tried at the Hague as war criminals.
On the MKO activities in Jordan, he said since they know they will be expelled from Iraq, the MKO try to go to Jordan.
Despite a few number of Jordanian policy makers’ support for the MKO, the Jordanian government and nation are not willing to keep a number of notorious terrorists, he concluded.
I think that we don’t have the benefit of an accurate measure of terrorism to stop its threats. The existing gap in the laws grants terrorists the opportunity of propagating their violent policies just in the heart of the modern and democratic world. It well indicates that the world lacks the needed seriousness to combat terrorism. If we are really serious about fighting terrorism, we also have to start getting serious about accurately measuring its threats and take precautionary measures rather than awarding them with more than adequate accommodations to gather together or roam in the lobbies of the Western countries parliaments as Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) is doing.
I wonder that while it is a blacklisted terrorist group on many countries lists, including the US and the EU, and its terrorist as well as cult charges are still open and investigated in France, it has the freedom of organizing a claimed gathering of 70,000 in northern Paris to demand removal of terrorist tag. Isn’t it legally prohibited to engage in any form of activity in the countries where it is blacklisted?
There is a much more surprising case concerning MEK I draw your attention to. Once in October 2006 the present UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, then the Chancellor, gave a speech to the Chatham House think-tank on "Meeting the Terrorist Challenge". The first words went as: “There should be no safe haven anywhere in the world for terrorists. Equally there should be no hiding place anywhere for those who finance terrorism”.
Nice words said and many felt relieved because hopes were fostered that at last the terrorism was beginning to face a real challenge. The next expressed ideas were even more promising. Here is a part:
And today I want to announce the framework of a new regime we are developing nationally and internationally for rooting out terrorist finance. In the last century, the main province of foreign policy was that nations had to guard against threats from other nations. And these threats still remain – demonstrated clearly yesterday by North Korea’s irresponsible action, which our Government and the whole world condemn completely.
But now also we see how small groups of terrorists can cause carnage:
enemies who do not need great armies nor, in practise, large amounts of money, weapons, or technology to put lives at risk; enemies without even a recognised formal chain of command, but enemies who can inspire imitators in the heart of our communities.
And so in addressing these new threats for whom there is no real precedent we are forced to consider every means, every necessary resource – all methods of diplomacy, all means of intelligence, all tools of law, policing and our security and military forces – in order to discharge our first duty: to protect our citizens.
Alas! His ideas and the new measure showed wide differences with that spectrum soon after he was elected the Prime Minister. Now we see he has taken the first step to make England a safe haven for MEK by bringing it out from the terror list. The move is encouraging other proscribed groups, and Al-Qaeda of course, to start defending their rights! I in my turn congratulate Prime Minister for his initiative measure and seriousness to discharge his first duty, as he has said, to protect British citizens.
Rajavi and his cult in the newly released list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, Foreign Terrorist Organisations,…
Rules and Regulations Alphabetical Listing of Blocked Persons, Specially Designated Nationals, Specially Designated Terrorists, Specially Designated Global Terrorists, Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers – Part 3 of 4 Federal Register, 1 July 2008 Vol. 73, No. 127 Daily publication of the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration, listing all public regulations and legal notices issued by all U.S. federal agencies. Country of origin:
United States http://www.find-inc.com …
MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ ORGANIZATION (a.k.a. MEK; a.k.a. MKO; a.k.a. MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ; a.k.a. MUSLIM IRANIAN STUDENT’S SOCIETY; a.k.a. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE; a.k.a. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE (NCR); a.k.a. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE OF IRAN; a.k.a. NCRI; a.k.a. NLA; a.k.a. ORGANIZATION OF THE PEOPLE’S HOLY WARRIORS OF IRAN; a.k.a. PEOPLE’S MUJAHEDIN ORGANIZATION OF IRAN; a.k.a. PMOI; a.k.a. SAZEMAN-E MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ-E IRAN; a.k.a. THE NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY OF IRAN) [FTO] [SDGT] … NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE (NCR) (a.k.a. MEK; a.k.a. MKO; a.k.a. MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ; a.k.a. MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ ORGANIZATION; a.k.a. MUSLIM IRANIAN STUDENT’S SOCIETY; a.k.a. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE; a.k.a. NLA; a.k.a.[Page Number 37609] … ORGANIZATION OF THE PEOPLE’S HOLY WARRIORS OF IRAN; a.k.a. PEOPLE’S MUJAHEDIN ORGANIZATION OF IRAN; a.k.a. PMOI; a.k.a. SAZEMAN-E MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ-E IRAN; a.k.a. THE NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY OF IRAN); including its U.S. representative offices and all other offices worldwide [FTO] [SDGT] … PEOPLE’S MUJAHEDIN ORGANIZATION OF IRAN (a.k.a. MEK; a.k.a. MKO; a.k.a. MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ; a.k.a. MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ ORGANIZATION; a.k.a. MUSLIM IRANIAN STUDENT’S SOCIETY; a.k.a. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE; a.k.a. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE (NCR); a.k.a. NLA; a.k.a. ORGANIZATION OF THE PEOPLE’S HOLY WARRIORS OF IRAN; a.k.a. PMOI; a.k.a. SAZEMAN-E MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ-E IRAN; a.k.a. THE NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY OF IRAN); including its U.S. press office and all other offices worldwide [FTO] [SDGT] .. PMOI (a.k.a. MEK; a.k.a. MKO; a.k.a. MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ; a.k.a. MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ ORGANIZATION; a.k.a. MUSLIM IRANIAN STUDENT’S SOCIETY; a.k.a. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE; a.k.a. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE (NCR); a.k.a. NLA; a.k.a. ORGANIZATION OF THE PEOPLE’S HOLY WARRIORS OF IRAN; a.k.a. PEOPLE’S MUJAHEDIN ORGANIZATION OF IRAN; a.k.a. SAZEMAN-E MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ-E IRAN; a.k.a. THE NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY OF IRAN); including its U.S. press office and all other offices worldwide [FTO] [SDGT]
Federal Register
The controversial People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (PMOI) held a grand assembly in the Paris suburbs Saturday. It used the opportunity to call for removal from the European list of terrorist organizations.(Report: C.Westerheide) Since Monday, the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (PMOI) is no longer considered a terrorist organization in Great Britain. The group would like the European Union to do the same. That is the message they hoped to get across at their annual assembly, held Saturday in the city of Villepinte, in the Paris region. “The Iranians, who will be coming from across France, Europe and North America will call on Europe to adopt a new and decisive policy towards the
Iranian regime”, explains Afchine Alavi of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the public face of the PMOI.
The movement, which claims to have welcomed 50,000 people last year, had some 60,000 guests this year. Figures which journalist Alain Chevalerias doubts. The author of Brûlé Vif (Burned Alive) spent one year observing the Mujahedeen and their leaders Maryam and Massoud Radjavi. “In their meetings, there are usually more chairs than guests. They boost their numbers by recruiting Afghani extras who are paid for the day.” This was confirmed by Karim Hakiki, a FRANCE 24 journalist who was on the scene and noticed the presence of 3,000 Polish people. 
The PMOI is a very controversial organization in France and in the world. The movement, also know as Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MeK), started in 1969 in Iran. According to one of its former members, it was originally founded on “an eclectic mixture of Shiism and Marxism”, to fight against the politics of Shah. Saddam Hussein’s Support In 1979, the organization took part in the overthrowing of the monarchy but ended up being pushed aside by the Ayatollah Khomeini in the upheaval. In 1981, the movement was considered outlaw and its members were forced to leave the territory. Their leader, Massoud Radjavi, moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, in France, where he was able to obtain political refugee status. During the war between Iran and Iraq, PMOI forces, financially supported by Saddam Hussein, attack from France and Iraq Iranian troops along the border. “At this time, the Mujahedeen took refuge in Iraq” explains Alain Chevalérias. In 1997, after the election of President Mohammad Khatami in Iran, the countries of the European Union opt for a policy of moderate reconciliation with Iran in economic and political areas. At Tehran’s demand, PMOI is placed on the United State’s list of terrorist organizations. Great Britain and the EU follow suit in 2002. After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the American army signed a cease-fire with the PMOI, who maintained bases on Iraqi soil, the most famous of which was the Achraf, north of Bagdad. Suspicion of cult practices The same year, in France as Nicolas Sarkozy became Interior minister, the French authorities search the headquarters of the PMOI in Auvers-sur-Oise, suspected of cult practices. Maryam Radjavi is arrested. As a protest, several members of the PMOI set themselves on fire. “They are using psychological manipulation, the same method used in cults,” said Alain Chevalérias. The PMOI defends itself with weighty support: Alain Vivien, Minister of state of Foreign Affairs, known for having directed the inter-ministerial mission fighting against cults. In 2005, a new document against them further burdens the PMOI. A report published by Human Rights Watch denounces poor treatment by the organization of dissident members in its camps in Iraq. This report is later strongly criticized several months later by an investigatory mission composed of European parliament deputies who traveled to the Iraqi base in Ashraf. “HRW made the mistake of not questioning people directly,” Chevalérias acknowledged . A new report would be published one year later to repair these errors. The PMOI continually tries to improve its image and in particular remove this terrorist organization label that has been hung around its neck. “To do that, it’s knocking on a lot of doors, particularly at the National Assembly,” says Chevalérias. The association boasts about the number of supporters it has, people like Daniel Mitterrand [former French first lady], but also many parliamentary deputies in Europe. “We are waiting for an evolution in relations with France” The British decision to remove it from their blacklist followed seven years of legal battles between the PMOI and the EU. This act was undertaken by 15 English lords, sympathizers of the cause. “It must be pointed out that there was never any proof to justify the accusation of terrorism,” says Alain Vivien. For his part, Chevalérias notes that « the movement used terrorist methods, in particular using mortars in Iran. This was information that the People’s Mujahedeen claimed in its publications.” “This inscription on the British blacklist formed the legal base for the inscription of the PMOI on the European list. Today, keeping the PMOI on this list has no place,” notes Afchine Alavi. Unless another member state decided to put it on its blacklist. The responsibility of this choice will come back to France, which will take over the rotating presidency of the EU beginning July 1st. Relations between the government and the association have been cut since the events of 2003. “We expect an evolution of our contacts with France, hopes Alavi.
WASHINGTON (AP)–A cult to some and freedom fighters to others, the National Council of Resistance of Iran and its affiliate groups typify the gray areas in the often black-and-white world of the war on terror. While they’ve been designated foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department, the groups’ members still maneuver between the restrictions aimed at disabling them.
The organization’s former U.S. representative freely walks the streets and has a contract with Fox News as a foreign affairs analyst. Lawmakers write letters on the group’s behalf. And former intelligence officials say the group maintains contacts in defense circles, although the Pentagon denies it.
The former U.S. representative for the council, Alireza Jafarzadeh, says the U.S. government listed his organization as terrorists to appease moderate elements within the Iranian government. He’s hoping the Bush administration will lift the terrorist designation…
The mission of the National Council and its military wing – the Mujahedin-e-Khalq or MEK – is to overthrow the Iranian regime, an aim increasingly in line with the Bush administration. Yet the administration has stopped short of calling for regime change.
Yet the MEK is far from a U.S. ally.
As soon as the State Department created a list of terror organizations in 1997, it named the MEK, putting it in a club that includes al-Qaida and barring anyone in the United States from providing material support. By 1999, the department designated the MEK’s political arm, the National Council of Resistance, and related affiliates.
The State Department says the MEK groups were funded by Saddam Hussein, supported the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and are responsible for the deaths of Americans in the 1970s.
Despite the listing, the council and a related offshoot continued to file foreign agent registration documents with the Justice Department, cataloging meetings with dozens of members of Congress, media interviews, rallies and speeches.
It saw successes. In 2002, 150 members of Congress wrote a letter to the State Department advocating the organization be removed from the terror list.
But 2003 was a rocky year. After Saddam was toppled, the administration struggled with how to handle MEK fighters detained at training camps in eastern Iraq. They were eventually disarmed, but remain in limbo today at the camps.
In August of that year, the State and Treasury departments also froze the council’s assets and shut down their Washington offices, blocks from the White House.
A State Department official said U.S. policy toward the MEK and its affiliates has not changed. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the group is still considered a threat because of its history of launching terrorist attacks.
But others find the sometimes soft approach to the MEK alarming. Further complicating the issue, the report from the top U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq said the group received oil as part of the scandal-tainted oil-for-food program, earning it millions of dollars in profits.
The MEK calls the appearance of its name in seized documents a smear campaign.
As U.S. focus on Iran increases, some wonder whether the MEK will play a role. A former senior intelligence official said some in the Pentagon see the MEK as a potential ally in their efforts against the Iranian regime.
But a defense official denied contacts with the MEK are occurring. Michael Rubin, who used to handle Iran issues at the Pentagon, said those he knew there hated the group.
"Even if they are not terrorists, although I believe they are, any group that tells its members who to marry and when to divorce, the United States should not be doing business with. They are very cult-like," Rubin said.
Rubin notes that, while council officials revealed the existence of two secret Iranian nuclear sites in 2002, they nevertheless have an inconsistent intelligence record, often getting information "dead wrong."
Yet the council’s former U.S. representative, Jafarzadeh, highlights the intelligence successes as evidence that the U.S. should support the Iranian opposition and advocate a policy of regime change in Iran. In an hour-long presentation this month, he laid out details of Iran’s nuclear program at an intellgence conference in Northern Virginia.
"There is a lot of serious searching, to find the best options in dealing with Iran," he said. "I can sense it in different government agencies. I can sense it among the think tanks. I sense it among the U.S. Congress."
USEFUL IDIOT? ISN’T that the phrase we use for well-meaning enthusiasts who get duped into supporting front-groups for bad-acting causes?
As you’ve probably seen already, The Washington Post today has a piece about how Richard Perle gave a speech last weekend to a group that US law enforcement and intelligence suspects is actually a front for a terrorist group, Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). According to the Post, US law enforcement had debated whether they had the authority to shut the fundraiser down. And on Monday the Treasury Department froze the assets of the event’s main sponsor, Iranian-American Community of Northern Virginia.
Perle told the Post that he wasn’t aware of the MEK’s involvement in the event, believing instead that it was intended to help the victims of the Bam earthquake. He also said his speaking fee was going to the Red Cross. When the Post reporter told him that the Red Cross had already ruled out receiving any monies from the event, he said he didn’t know that either.
Perle says he didn’t know about any of this. But, as this fella points out, the capitol hill newspaper The Hill reported last Wednesday (“Terrorists plan D.C. fundraiser,” Jan.21st) that House Administration Chairman Robert Ney (R-Ohio) asked John Ashcroft to investigate the fundraiser for its ties to terrorists.
Now, as it happens, I’m not sure that Perle was just another in that long line of wide-eyed do-gooders whose humanitarian impulses are darkly preyed upon by the dregs of the world’s dustbin-bound ideologies.
The MEK is a terrorist organization (recognized as such by the US government since 1997) fighting the Iranian government. For years it’s worked out of an enclave in Iraq with most of its support coming from Saddam Hussein. Other than these facts the group is best known for violence and its mélange of bizarre beliefs.
Since the war there’s been an-going battle within the administration over whether to root out the MEK or, if not quite sponsor them, then at least tolerate their continued battle against the regime of Iran.
Perle and his faction, not surprisingly, have been on the side pushing for sorta-kinda sponsorship.
Despite many clear evidence pointing to the contrary, there are still some who when they hear about a hideous act of terror, they naturally think that the person or the group who committed it is in one way or another lunatic. Well, this may be true in some cases, but it is not in most other situations. Indeed, the terrorists of our time have proven to be smart, sophisticated, and well capable to highjack even our own democratic judicial and executive systems and turn them against us before our eyes. This leads me to say that to effectively combat terrorism, we need a shift in our view about terrorists and their tactics. For as long as we continue hanging to our old thinking, they (the terrorists) can easily manipulate our very system that is supposed to shield us from their acts. A recent UK court ruling in favor of de-listing an Iranian terror group speaks volumes about how easily our legal systems can be manipulated.
A common deceptive tactic that has been overlooked by EU officials is that terror groups operate under various aliases and mantles. This is an effective tactic that enables them to continue their operation on our soil even when they are banned. For example, the PMOI has many aliases such as MeK, MKO, NCRI, NLA, to name a few. But all refer to the same group, the Mojahdeen-e Khalgh (MeK). When the group was listed in the EU terror list, its members continued their activities under the façade of NCRI. The US State Department discovered this manipulative tactic by MeK and added the NCRI to the terror list in 2004. A judicial decision in Washington DC also concluded that NCRI is just an alias of the MeK, effectively rejecting the group’s claim that the two are two separate entities. 362 U.S. App. D.C. 143; 373 F.3d 152
Now the question is how long it would take for EU to realise the NCRI is the same as PMOI, and PMOI is just another name for NLA, and NLA just another alias for MKO?
Another devastating flaw in our current thinking of terrorism is even more serious when we tend to downplay or ignore terror acts perpetrated on other people or nations, and frown only when we or our interests are targeted. Thus giving terrorists another false pretext to argue that since we are not directly targeted by their acts, we cannot call them terrorists! In this distorted view and interpretation of terrorism, we seem to be content when others are targeted by the same terrorists. Terror groups like PMOI want us to be indifferent to the life and death of their victims only because these victims live outside of EU boundaries. We should not play into their hands, and we need to be aware of such manipulative tactics. The current US Secretary of State, Dr. Rice, once said that a terrorist is a terrorist, is a terrorist. Alas! This seems to have fallen on deaf ears with some EU officials.
To protect our citizens and those of other nations, we need to outsmart the terror groups, and to foil their deceptive tactics. When a terror organization like PMOI is banned, it is imperative to list all other aliases used by the group, or else expect them to be at your door the next day, albeit under a different name.
Ahmad Baaraan
Paris-France
ABaaraan@yahoo.fr
Ahmad Baaraan, Paris, June 27, 2008
ABaaraan@yahoo.fr