Table of contents
- Background After revolution
- After revolution
- Cooperation with Islamic Revolution,
- Confrontation with the Islamic Republic of Iran
3· Cooperation with Saddam
4· Relation with Western Countries
5· Financial Sources of Mujahedin
Even by the standards of Washington politics it was an unusual spectacle – the veiled leader of a Middle East group banned in the US as a terrorist organisation delivering a speech by live video-link to applauding members of Congress inside the Capitol itself.
But since the organisation is dedicated to the overthrow of Iran’s theocracy, the People’s Mujahideen Organisation and its political co-leader, Maryam Rajavi, are given leeway in the US as they campaign to have the "terrorist" tag removed and to become eligible for US funding of Iranian opposition groups.
In suit and matching headscarf, Mrs Rajavi spoke from France. She thanked six congressmen by name for their support, praised President George W. Bush and called for an end to western "appeasement" of the "engine of Islamic fundamentalism".
The audience – a mix of Iranian-Americans, politicians and staffers filling a conference room in the Capitol last Thursday – gave her a standing ovation. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat congresswoman from Texas, spoke warmly of "sister Maryam".
Known by its acronyms MKO and MEK, the group led by Mrs Rajavi and her husband Massoud, was outlawed by the US for its killing of Americans before the 1979 Iranian revolution; alleged collaboration with Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaigns against Iraqi Kurds; and attacks on civilians inside Iran.
The MKO denies the charges of terrorism, saying it was banned by then-president Bill Clinton in an attempt to engage the Iranian government.
Despite its attraction to the US – and particularly to some Pentagon planners – as an armed force inside Iraq ready in opposition, analysts in Washington doubt the group will regain legitimacy.
Nonetheless, its lobbying reflects the ferment inside the Bush administration as it grapples with producing a coherent policy towards Iran, working out – in the words of one European diplomat – whether to "engage, isolate or disrupt".
Stephen Hadley, national security adviser, commissioned 10 briefing papers exploring various options. A National Security Council meeting was cancelled this month after one of the papers, which proposed expanding diplomatic contacts with Iran, was leaked to the Wall Street Journal. Some officials suspect that someone senior wanted to sabotage the idea.
Diplomats and two US officials said the latest review was prompted by the conclusion reached by Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, and others that an effective sanctions option did not exist, and that they had been misled by the predictions of neoconservatives who saw the Iranian regime ripe for overthrow by a restless populace.
Recent statements by Ms Rice point to an effort to broaden diplomatic contacts with Iran.
Diplomats also say there is a new effort to find a settlement, negotiated through European allies, to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme. But officials say any such pragmatic tendencies would be tempered by the conviction that the Bush administration should do nothing that would be seen to confer legitimacy on the regime while actively supporting the democratic aspirations of Iranians.
Iranian-American sympathisers of the MKO, who are active donors to US politicians, remain hopeful their group will be de-listed
By Guy Dinmore in Washington
A news conference conducted by self-described Iranian dissidents descended into chaos on Monday as audience members and two journalists accused the speakers of spreading disinformation and being agents of Iranian intelligence.
As supporters of the rival dissident groups vied for media attention, one group accused the other of being imposters. An hour and a half into the National Press Club event in Washington, D.C., organizers halted it and Capitol police were called in to keep order.
Monday’s news conference, titled "Saddam and Terrorism," was sponsored by the Iran Peyvand Association and was supposed to focus on Iraq as it was. Speakers argued that after fleeing Iran, the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) operated out of Iraq as a terrorist group. For that reason, its leader, Massoud Rajavi, should be brought to justice just as Saddam Hussein was, the Iran Peyvand Association insisted.
The MEK was expelled from Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Starting in the late 1980s, its main support came from Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime. While it conducted terrorist attacks against the interests of the religious regime in Iran, it also mobilized to suppress the 1991 Shiite and Kurdish uprisings against Saddam, a point the presenters emphasized.
According to U.S. government terrorist group profiles, the MEK advocates the overthrow of the Iranian regime and its replacement with the group’s own leadership. Currently, over 3,000 MEK members live in Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, where they remain under the Geneva Convention’s "protected person" status.
A press release for Monday’s event promised that attendees would see a documentary film exposing the MEK’s role in the suppression of the 1991 Iraqi uprising and "video evidence, secretly filmed by Saddam’s own security services," showing the "financial, spying and terrorist relationship between the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization and Saddam’s regime."
Anti-war activist Carol Moore warned that if the U.S. attacked Iran, the result could be world-wide nuclear war.
A flier distributed by the organizers echoed the "catastrophic" repercussions of an American attack and argued that Iranian officials could deploy "millions of troops and enter Iraq," as well as attack Israel’s nuclear sites and cities, American bases and troops in Iraq and U.S. ships at sea.
"They could cut off much of the world’s oil, which comes through the Straight of Hormuz," read the flier, which was produced by StopTheWarNow.net, DawnDC.net and UnitedForPeace.org.
Karim Haqi, introduced as a former member of the MEK, followed Moore’s speech. After a video was shown, he addressed the meeting in Farsi while Marukh Haji translated.
Shortly into Haqi’s speech, audience members began interrupting, including one unidentified young woman who said she spoke Farsi and complained the translation being given to the audience was erroneous.
Another woman who refused to be identified except to say she was an immigration attorney, stood up and complained that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had allowed a former "terrorist" into the country.
A man who described himself as a "freelance journalist" asked Haqi whether it was true, as alleged, that he had worked with Iranian intelligence. He was escorted from the meeting by organizers. But the charge was echoed in questions by a British-Israeli journalist.
Haqi later denied any such ties to Iranian Intelligence, and through translator Marukh Haji, added that he and his supporters had spent years in Iranian prisons and were the "first ones" the government attacked.
"We put all our hopes in [the MEK]" said Haqi. "They betrayed us.
Two individuals carrying materials from the Committee Against Ahmadinejad (Iran’s new president) repeatedly interrupted Haqi and his translator. Later, members of the group gave reporters copies of a document accusing the organizers of Monday’s news conference of being in the employ of Iranian intelligence.
By Sherrie Gossett and Monisha Bansal
…Sending a letter to European countries, US and Canada, a group of former members of the MKO warned that the group is starting to harass them in western countries using its trained members. The letter said that a number of MKO members trained in security, intelligence and urban warfare courses had been deployed to Europe illegally.
I had an interview with Massoud Khodabandeh, former member of National Council of Resistance, who is among the letter’s signatories. I asked him about the reasons behind signing such a letter?
Massoud Khodabandeh: before the fall of Saddam, the MKO deployed 200-300 of its members along with Maryam Rajavi to Europe. Most of these people were trained in Saddam’s security systems and can be compared to Saddam’s Fedayeen.
It seems that this intelligence system has matured during the past 2 years and is now active. For the time being, this system is centered in Germany, with direct contact with the MKO’s headquarters in Auvers-sur-Oise in France. Its divisions are also active in the capitals of other democratic countries. They now have more than one hundred associations, companies and websites to cover-up their activities and they have come to a point, unfortunately, that their activities include kidnapping in Germany, beatings in Netherlands, harassing families and even schoolchildren whose parents are critics of the organization.
We sent this letter, signed by 80-90 people, to the Interior Ministries of European countries, the USA and Canada to be investigated seriously. But we should be careful about the process; the way it’s going now would turn the previous self-immolations into future murders and killings and we don’t want this to happen.
Interviewer: Mr. Khodabandeh, according to you, these attacks have intensified. What are the goals of such activities? Are they organized movements? In all countries?
Khodabandeh: yes, it’s organized by a trained system. Some of them have 20 to 25 year records in this. They were officially trained in Iraq. It means that we can’t ignore it. And, about the goals of such activities: they believe that their problems with being on the terror lists, or being prosecuted by the French Judiciary, are rooted in the revelations made by their critics and by former members. They’ve concluded that they will never relieved [from the terror label] while these people continue to disclose the organization’s realities. So, they spend a significant amount of their energy to suppress, or erase, those who criticize them.
Interviewer: What measures can the western countries take? What have they done?
Khodabandeh: For instance, a court in Germany is now hearing the complaints of a former Abu Ghraib prisoner who is a critic of the MKO. They [MKO] wanted to kidnap him in the street. The court is doing its work, and that’s a positive step. There have been cases of beatings in the Netherlands but it was not possible to investigate the cases because the MKO agents were able to flee the scene; that’s because, as I told you, they’re trained in this field. But it seems that there are some ways to stop such activities if western governments take this seriously. Anyway, such organized movements are not legal in these countries. Even the lawyers here say that surveillance is not legal. Making databases of opponents is not legal. Harassing people and their children is not legal. Apparently, such activities can be prevented. The only thing is that they should be paid attention to.
THE QUEST FOR IRAN’S DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT.
Testimony for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
One side of the opposition spectrum is represented by the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO or MEK) which the U.S. State Department designated a "foreign terrorist organization" in 1997. Still identified as a terrorist organization, the MKO also is known as the National Liberation Army of Iran (the militant wing of the MKO), the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, National Council of Resistance, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and Muslim Iranian Student’s Society (a front organization used to garner financial support). The EU designated the MKO’s military wing as a terrorist organization in May 2002.
The MKO was created in the 1960s and its ideology combines Islam and Marxism. It was involved with anti-U.S. terrorism in the 1970s, and it initially supported the 1978-79 revolution. In June 1981, it staged an unsuccessful uprising against the Islamic regime; many members were imprisoned while others fled the country. The MKO transitioned from being a "mass movement" in 1981 to having "all the main attributes of a cult" by mid-1987, Professor Ervand Abrahamian writes in his 1989 book, Radical Islam: The Iranian Mojahedin. The MKO refers to its head, Masud Rajavi, in religious terms, calling him the rahbar (leader) and imam-i hal (present imam).
From its Iraqi exile the MKO attacked the Iranian regime’s leadership: a 1981 bombing killed President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, in 1992 it attacked 13 Iranian embassies, and it is behind other mortar attacks and assassination attempts in Iran. Former President Saddam Hussein granted the MKO refuge in Iraq, and it helped Saddam Hussein suppress the 1991 uprisings of Shia in southern Iraq and Kurds in the north, so it is not very popular in Iraq. The MKO fought Iranian forces in the Iran-Iraq War, and this has discredited the organization among the Iranian public.
In May 2003, after Operation Iraqi Freedom, the MKO agreed to turn over its weapons to U.S. forces, and over time most of them have been restricted to one location, Camp Ashraf. In July 2004, MKO members in Iraq were granted "protected status" under the Geneva Conventions. The Iranian government has repeatedly offered an amnesty to rank-and-file members if they return to Iran, but the amnesty does not extend to the organization’s leadership. A reluctance to return is understandable: many MKO members who were imprisoned in the early 1980s were tortured into recanting, and for a few months in 1988-1989 thousands of MKO and leftist prisoners were executed. Iranian state media sporadically reports on groups of former MKO members who have returned, but it is not clear how they are treated.
Some U.S. commentators have recommended removing the MKO from the terrorist list and using it as an armed resistance movement against Iran. There also are suggestions that MKO personnel should be cultivated as intelligence assets that might re-energize the reform movement in Iran. It is unlikely that MKO members would be trusted, since some reformists fought MKO personnel in the war, others created the security institutions that hunted them down, and most are part of the current political system. Furthermore, information provided by the MKO, which does not have the same objectives as the U.S., is likely to be self-serving and unreliable. Using MKO personnel as a partisan force is appealing, but association with them will discredit the U.S. in Iranians’ eyes.
In conclusion, there are steps the U.S. can take to hasten Iran’s becoming a democracy. The belief that there is a pre-existing democratic movement or even an effective opposition group, however, is inaccurate. And although most Iranians undoubtedly favor independence and self-determination, assisting individuals rather than organizations without proper planning will be neither efficient nor effective.
"The police surrounded us. As my weapon jammed, I swallowed the cyanide capsule, but the poison had perhaps expired since it had no effect", remembers Arash Sametipour. The instructions were clear: "That they do not take you alive".
The terrorist, who was then 25 years old, released the safety lock of his last grenade and exploded it. Five years later and after several operations, Sametipour now has an artificial arm, but he is content with being alive and talks of brainwashing by a group that took to him close to death, the Mujahidin-e khalq.
He is not the only one who talks. The disappearance of Saddam Hussein’s regime has led to the discovery of horror hidden behind the walls of this Iranian armed opposition group.
In its report “No Exit”, published in May, Human Rights Watch revealed the abuses and violations of human rights in the camps of this organization during the last two decades. The testimonies gathered by Human Rights Watch in Iran corroborate the descriptions of solitary confinement, forced confessions, execution threats, beatings and torture of those who tried to leave the group.
To Iran’s surprise and disappointment, Iraqi occupation by the US didn’t lead to dismantling of this military group, considered terrorist by Iran, the US and the EU. Members of this group (3,534, according to data gathered last March) remain disarmed in Camp Ashraf (a hundred kilometers to the northeast of Baghdad), since April of 2003.
Washington has granted them the status of “protected people under the Fourth Geneva Convention”. This agreement brought up the distrust of the Iranian regime – which issued a public pardon last year for all members of this group.
Since then, at least 273 militants have returned to Iran. Ali Moradi, 45, is one of them. He has returned to Iran five months ago. "Iraqi captured me as prisoner at the beginning of the war and I spent nine years in their jails", he says. There he was caught by the Mujahidin. "They visited us with very negative information on what happened in Iran and offered us freedom from jail only if we joined them; we were under heavy pressure given the circumstances. Eventually, about 150 of us joined them”, he adds.
Bad years
“Our joining the Organization was immediately made public by them and it made it impossible for us to return to Iran", remembers Moradi, convinced that the 15 years that followed were as bad as the nine previous ones. “I was married and I was in touch with my wife through the Red Cross when I was in jail, but after joining the Mujahidin I could no longer do it. My family thought that I had died and my wife married another man. That isolation was part of the ideological revolution promoted by the leaders of the group.”
"They didn’t let us have feelings towards women, mothers, children, or even to speak about it with friends. We had to write daily reports on the weaknesses of our friends. According to Moradi, there were two meetings of that type: “Current, daily critical meeting which tortured the spirit, and the weekly. In weekly meetings, we were forced to write down our feelings towards the women we had imagined during the week, and we had to talk about it in public, and this is really difficult regarding our Iranian culture”.
Moradi had Marxist ideas and paid for it. “They separated me from the rest and did not let me participate in their meetings and religious ceremonies because the ideology of Mujahidin was based, at least initially, on an interpretation of Islam as a revolutionary message. I felt to be under pressure”.
Finally, five years ago he was expelled from the Organization, and according to HRW’s report, was put into internal jail of the MKO (iskan). “We were 13; a Christian, a member of an ethnic minority, and the rest were all Marxists”.
Without documentation, without contact with the outside world, the only alternative was Abu Ghraib, the notorious Iraqi prison. The most prominent MKO dissidents finished there. They were the first ones to reveal the techniques of brainwashing and arresting dissidents inside the organization. Even the arrival of the US Army couldn’t halt the leaders of the group.
"They neither had arms nor could they maintain the pressure in their prisons, so I requested to leave them; after several meetings – in which they threatened me like a prisoner – one of my friends helped me pass a message to an American officer and explain the situation for him. They transferred me to their camp and I was able to return to Iran with the assistance of the Red Cross.”
Mujahidin-e Khalq was formed 1965 as an anti-Shah group. Nevertheless, after the Islamic revolution, it did not find a place in the new order and continued to fight against the clergymen who led the revolution. A rebellion 1981 ended with its ringleaders in jail and many of its members in exile. They settled in France until 1986, when the French Government started to improve its relations with Tehran and the leadership of the group – controlled by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi – was transferred to Iraq. In the war against Iran which started in 1980, the regime of Saddam provided the group with all types of facilities, including camps and training the military forces.
Since 1988 (when the war ended) their activities were reduced, although they continued to count on the help of Baghdad for infiltration in Iran and attempting to assassinate senior Iranian authorities or official buildings. On the eve of the presidential elections in 2001, several commandos crossed the (Iraqi) border and entered Iran and tried to create chaos and also to prevent the re-election of Mohamed Khatami. For instance, they fired mortars at Police Headquarters in Vozara street. There were no dead, but it angered the authorities.
The Story of Babak Amin
The person in charge of the attacks on Vosarat street, Babak Amin, now 40, has returned to continue his studies in the field of communication that he had left in 80s. "I studied at the University of Vienna and there I made contact with the members of the group (hypocrites); I was looking for an organization which fought to bring democracy and freedom to my country, and this group’s propaganda on Iranian regime’s human rights violation attracted me.” Along with some friends, without informing their families , they went to Iraq. They received two months of military training in Jalilieh Camp in Iraq’s Kurdistan and then became members of the Organization.
The beginning of their work in MKO coincided with the arrival of the Rajavis in Baghdad and the formation of the National Liberation Army, the guerilla army and the military arm of the organization. “Camp Ashraf was established and we began to receive professional military training from Saddam’s Republican Guard", remembers Amin. Then he points to several operations against his country in which he participated, while he adds that heavy military trainings came after the end of the war.
"In 1990, the organization initiated another ideological revolution: “the married members had to divorce; the fiancés had to break up, and all members had to accept the supreme leadership of Rajavi and his wife.
Amin relates these stories while his hands are empty; he lost the best years of his life in a useless persistence. His leaders allowed their members to act as the soldiers of Saddam and during the Iraqi invasion to Kuwait, Mujahidin were sent to Khanequin to suppress the Kurds. As the situation worsened, the Rajavis deepened their ideological revolution. In 1993, the turn came for “the positive discrimination, a step in which the army took the nickname of a character of American novels.
“The military leaders had to yield their posts to women, and thus I became number two in my company”, explains Amin. Amin was also the director of attacking Tehran, which led to his arrest.
In 2000, Maryam Rajavi, new leader of the militants, deployed several operational teams to Iran to foment chaos before the presidential elections of 2001. But military commanders never crossed the Iranian borders. “10 operations directed by me in Tehran were successful. Soon, the arrival of provisions from Iraq came to a halt and we had to interrupt the work. Khatami won the elections and we received orders to return, but the janitor of the house where we lived exposed us”, Amin recalls.
After settling accounts with the Iranian judiciary, Amin has returned to university and counts on the support of his parents to live, although he has resorted to the aid of a psychologist in order to start a normal life.
Moradi is also trying to remake his life in his hometown, Khorramabad. But he’s unemployed. “After 25 years of life, I have nothing except these clothes”.
the young Sametipour, has not forgotten Elham yet, the young daughter of a MKO activist. He had fallen in love with her but he never saw her again after joining MKO Iraqi camps in 1999. Now, he dedicates himself and his time to an NGO [Nejat Society] which supports the families of those MKO militants who have not returned yet.
EL PAIS
DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Coordinator for Counter-terrorism [Public Notice 3795] Re-designation of Foreign Terrorist Organization AGENCY: Department of State. ACTION: Re-designation of foreign terrorist organizations. Pursuant to Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”), as added by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-132, Sec. 302, 110 Stat. 1214, 1248 (1996), and amended by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009 (1996), the Secretary of State hereby redesignates, effective October 5, 2001, the following organizations as foreign terrorist organizations: Abu Nidal Organization
Also known as ANO
Also known as Black September
Also known as the Fatah Revolutionary Council
Also known as the Arab Revolutionary Council
Also known as the Arab Revolutionary Brigades
Also known as the Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims
Abu Sayyaf Group
Also known as Al Harakat Al Islamiyya
Armed Islamic Group
Also known as GIA
Also known as Groupement Islamique Arme
Also known as Al-Jama’ah al-Islamiyah al-Musallah
[[Page 51089]]
Aum Shinrikyo
Also known as Aleph
Also known as Aum Supreme Truth
Also known as A.I.C. Sogo Kenkyusho
Also known as A.I.C. Comprehensive Research Institute
Basque Fatherland and Liberty
Also known as Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna
Also known as ETA
Gama’a al-Islamiyya
Also known as the Islamic Group
Also known as IG
Also known as al-Gama’at
Also known as Islamic Gama’at
Also known as Egyptian al-Gama’at al-Islamiyya
Also known as GI
Hamas
Also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement
Also known as Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya
Also known as Students of Ayyash
Also known as Students of the Engineer
Also known as Yahya Ayyash Units
Also known as Izz Al-Din Al-Qassim Brigades
Also known as Izz Al-Din Al-Qassim Forces
Also known as Izz Al-Din Al-Qassim Battalions
Also known as Izz al-Din Al Qassam Brigades
Also known as Izz al-Din Al Qassam Forces
Also known as Izz al-Din Al Qassam Battalions
Harakat ul-Mujahideen
Also known as HUM
Also known as Harakat ul-Ansar
Also known as HUA
Hizballah
Also known as the Party of God
Also known as Islamic Jihad
Also known as Islamic Jihad Organization
Also known as Revolutionary Justice Organization
Also known as Organization of the Oppressed on Earth
Also known as Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine
Also known as Organization of Right Against Wrong
Also known as Ansar Allah
Also known as Followers of the Prophet Muhammed
al-Jihad
Also known as Egyptian al-Jihad
Also known as New Jihad
Also known as Egyptian Islamic Jihad
Also known as Jihad Group
Kahane Chai
Also known as Kach
Also known as Kahane Lives
Also known as the Kfar Tapuah Fund
Also known as The Judean Voice
Also known as The Judean Legion
Also known as The Way of the Torah
Also known as The Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea
Also known as the Repression of Traitors
Also known as Dikuy Bogdim
Also known as DOV
Also known as the State of Judea
Also known as the Committee for the Safety of the Roads
Also known as the Sword of David
Also known as Judea Police
Also known as Forefront of the Idea
Also known as The Qomemiyut Movement
and
Also known as KOACH
Kurdistan Workers’ Party
Also known as the PKK
Also known as Partiya Karkeran Kurdistan
Also known as the People’s Defense Force
Also known as Halu Mesru Savunma Kuvveti (HSK)
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Also known as LTTE
Also known as Tamil Tigers
Also known as Ellalan Force
Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization
Also known as MEK
Also known as MKO
Also known as Mujahedin-e Khalq
Also known as People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran
Also known as PMOI
Also known as Organization of the People’s Holy Warriors of Iran
Also known as Sazeman-e Mujahedin-e Khalq-e Iran
Also known as National Council of Resistance
Also known as NCR
Also known as National Council of Resistance of Iran
Also known as NCRI
Also known as the National Liberation Army of Iran
Also known as NLA
National Liberation Army
Also known as the ELN,
Also known as Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional
Palestine Islamic Jihad-Shaqaqi Faction
Also known as PIJ-Shaqaqi Faction
Also known as PIJ-Shallah Faction
Also known as Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Also known as PIJ
Also known as Islamic Jihad of Palestine
Also known as Islamic Jihad in Palestine
Also known as Abu Ghunaym Squad of the Hizballah Bayt Al-Maqdis
Also known as the Al-Quds Squads
Also known as the Al-Quds Brigades
Also known as Saraya Al-Quds
Also known as Al-Awdah Brigades
Palestine Liberation Front-Abu Abbas Faction
Also known as the Palestine Liberation Front
Also known as the PLF
Also known as PLF-Abu Abbas
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Also known as the PFLP
Also known as the Red Eagles
Also known as the Red Eagle Group
Also known as the Red Eagle Gang
Also known as the Halhul Gang
Also known as the Halhul Squad
Also known as Palestinian Popular Resistance Forces
Also known as PPRF
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command
Also known as PFLP-GC
al Qa’ida
Also known as al Qaeda
Also known as “the Base”
Also known as the Islamic Army
Also known as the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and
Crusaders
Also known as the Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Places
Also known as the Usama Bin Laden Network
Also known as the Usama Bin Laden Organization
Also known as Islamic Salvation Foundation
Also known as The Group for the Preservation of the Holy Sites
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
Also known as FARC
Also known as Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia
Revolutionary Nuclei
Also known as the Revolutionary People’s Struggle
Also known as Epanastatikos Laikos Agonas
Also known as ELA
Also known as Revolutionary Popular Struggle
Also known as Popular Revolutionary Struggle
Also known as June 78
Also known as Organization of Revolutionary Internationalist Solidarity
Also known as Revolutionary Cells
Also known as Liberation Struggle
[[Page 51090]]
Revolutionary Organization 17 November
Also known as 17 November
Also known as Epanastatiki Organosi 17 Noemvri
Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front
Also known as Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Partisi-Cephesi
Also known as the DHKP/C
Also known as Devrimci Sol
Also known as Revolutionary Left
Also known as Dev Sol
Also known as Dev Sol Silahli Devrimci Birlikleri
Also known as Dev Sol SDB
Also known as Dev Sol Armed Revolutionary Units
Shining Path Also known in Spanish as Sendero Luminoso
Also known as SL
Also known as Partido Comunista del Peru en el Sendero Luminoso de Jose
Carlos Mariategui
Also known as Communist Party of Peru on the Shining Path of Jose
Carlos Mariategui
Also known as Partido Comunista del Peru
Also known as Communist Party of Peru
Also known as PCP
Also known as Socorro Popular del Peru
Also known as People’s Aid of Peru
Also known as SPP
Also known as Ejercito Guerrillero Popular
Also known as People’s Guerrilla Army
Also known as EGP
Also known as Ejercito Popular de Liberacion
Also known as People’s Liberation Army
Also known as the EPL.
Dated: September 28, 2001.
Francis X. Taylor,
Coordinator for Counter-terrorism, Department of State.
[FR Doc. 01-24911 Filed 10-4-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-10-P
immigration.com
Designations of Terrorists and Terrorist Organizations Pursuant to Executive Order 13224 of September 23, 2001 SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the designation by the Secretary of State of foreign persons whose property and interests in property have been blocked pursuant to Executive Order 13224 of September 23, 2001. These designations comprise 8 individuals and 29 organizations determined to meet the criteria set forth under subsection 1(b) of Executive Order 13224. DATES: These determinations were made by the Secretary of State on October 12, 2001, October 31, 2001, December 18, 2001, and December 31, 2001, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and Attorney General. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Frederick W. Axelgard, Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Department of State; telephone: (202) 647-9892; fax: (202) 647-0221. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background On September 23, 2001, President Bush issued Executive Order 13224 (the “Order”) imposing economic sanctions on persons (defined as including individuals or entities) who, inter alia, commit, threaten to commit, or support certain acts of terrorism. In an annex to the Order, President Bush identified 12 individuals and 15 entities whose assets are blocked pursuant to the Order (66 FR 49079, September 25, 2001). The property and interests in property of an additional 33 individuals and 6 entities were blocked pursuant to determinations by the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury (effective October 12, 2001), referenced in a Federal Register Notice published by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, Department of the Treasury (66 FR 54404, October 26, 2001). Further determinations made by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General, on November 7, 2001, and December 4, 2001, December 20, 2001, January 9, 2002, February 26, and March 11 are addressed in a separate notice published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register. Pursuant to subsection 1(b) of the Order, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General, has determined to date that 8 foreign individuals and 29 foreign organizations have been determined to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States. The Secretary of State’s etermination that each of these individuals and organizations meets the criteria set forth under subsection 1(b) of the Order subjects each of these individuals and organizations to sanctions. 23 of the organizations determined on October 31, 2001 and December 18, 2001 to meet the criteria set forth under subsection 1(b) of the Order are also subject to sanctions imposed pursuant to their designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, 8 U.S.C. 1189. Pursuant to the determination made by the Secretary of State under subsection 1(b) of the Order, all property and interests in property of any listed person that are in the United States, that come within the United States, or that come within the possession or control of United States persons, including their overseas branches, are blocked. All transactions or dealings by U.S. persons or within the United States in property or interests in property of any listed person are prohibited unless licensed by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of foreign Assets Control or exempted by statute.The determinations of the Secretary of State were effective on October 12, 2001, October 31, 2001, December 18, 2001, and December 31, 2001. In Section 10 of the Order, the President determined that because of the ability to transfer funds or assets instantaneously, prior notice to persons listed in the Annex to, or determined to be subject to, the Order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, would render ineffectual the blocking and other measures authorized in the Order. The President therefore determined that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in the Order, no prior notification of a listing or determination pursuant to the Order need be provided to any person who might have a constitutional presence in the United States. The property and interests of property of the following persons are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported,withdrawn or otherwise dealt in except as authorized by regulations,orders, directives, rulings, instructions, licenses or otherwise: Designations by the Secretary of State on October 12, 2001 ADBELKARIM HUSSEIN MOHAMMED AL-NASSER AHMAD IBRAHIM AL-MUGHASSIL ALI SAED BIN ALI EL-HOORIE IBRAHIM SALIH MOHAMMED AL-YACOUB ALI ATWA HASAN IZZ-AL-DIN IMAD FAYEZ MUGNIYAH KHALID SHAIKH MOHAMMED Designations by the Secretary of State on October 31, 2001 ABU NIDAL ORGANIZATION a.k.a. ANO; a.k.a. BLACK SEPTEMBER a.k.a. FATAH REVOLUTIONARY COUNCIL a.k.a. ARAB REVOLUTIONARY COUNCIL a.k.a. ARAB REVOLUTIONARY BRIGADES a.k.a. REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION OF SOCIALIST MUSLIMS AUM SHINRIKYO a.k.a. A.I.C. COMPREHENSIVE RESEARCH INSTITUTE a.k.a. A.I.C. SOGO KENKYUSHO a.k.a. ALEPH a.k.a. AUM SUPREME TRUTH BASQUE FATHERLAND AND LIBERTY a.k.a. ETA a.k.a. EUZKADI TA ASKATASUNA GAMA’A AL-ISLAMIYYA a.k.a. GI a.k.a. ISLAMIC GROUP a.k.a. IG a.k.a. AL-GAMA’AT a.k.a. ISLAMIC GAMA’A a.k.a. EGYPTIAN AL-GAMA’AT AL-ISLAMIYYA HAMAS a.k.a. ISLAMIC RESISTANCE MOVEMENT a.k.a. HARAKAT AL-MUQAWAMA AL-ISLAMIYA a.k.a. STUDENTS OF AYYASH a.k.a. STUDENT OF THE ENGINEER a.k.a. YAHYA AYYASH UNITS a.k.a. IZZ AL-DIN AL-QASSIM BRIGADES a.k.a. IZZ AL-DIN AL-QASSIM FORCES a.k.a. IZZ AL-DIN AL-QASSIM BATTALIONS a.k.a. IZZ AL-DIN AL QASSAM BRIGADES a.k.a. IZZ AL-DIN AL QASSAM FORCES a.k.a. IZZ AL-DIN AL QASSAM BATTALIONS HIZBALLAH a.k.a. PARTY OF GOD a.k.a. ISLAMIC JIHAD a.k.a. ISLAMIC JIHAD ORGANIZATION a.k.a. REVOLUTIONARY JUSTICE ORGANIZATION a.k.a. ORGANIZATION OF THE OPPRESSED ON EARTH a.k.a. ISLAMIC JIHAD FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE a.k.a. ORGANIZATION OF RIGHT AGAINST WRONG a.k.a. ANSAR ALLAH a.k.a. FOLLOWERS OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMED KAHANE CHAI a.k.a. COMMITTEE FOR THE SAFETY OF THE ROADS a.k.a. DIKUY BOGDIM a.k.a. DOV a.k.a. FOREFRONT OF THE IDEA a.k.a. JUDEA POLICE a.k.a. KACH a.k.a. KAHANE LIVES a.k.a. KFAR TAPUAH FUND a.k.a. KOACH a.k.a. REPRESSION OF TRAITORS a.k.a. STATE OF JUDEA a.k.a. SWORD OF DAVID a.k.a. THE JUDEAN LEGION a.k.a. THE JUDEAN VOICE a.k.a. THE QOMEMIYUT MOVEMENT a.k.a. THE WAY OF THE TORAH a.k.a. THE YESHIVA OF THE JEWISH IDEA KURDISTAN WORKERS’ PARTY a.k.a. HALU MESRU SAVUNMA KUVVETI (HSK) a.k.a. PARTIYA KARKERAN KURDISTAN a.k.a. PKK a.k.a. THE PEOPLE’S DEFENSE FORCE LIBERATION TIGERS OF TAMIL EELAM a.k.a. LTTE a.k.a. TAMIL TIGERS a.k.a. ELLALAN FORCE MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ a.k.a. MUJAHEDIN-E KHALQ ORGANIZATION a.k.a. MEK a.k.a. MKO 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 NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY a.k.a. ELN a.k.a. EJERCITO DE LIBERACION NACIONAL PALESTINE ISLAMIC JIHAD–SHAQAQI FACTION a.k.a. ABU GHUNAYM SQUAD OF THE HIZBALLAH BAYT AL-MAQDIS a.k.a. AL-AWDAH BRIGADES a.k.a. AL-QUDS BRIGADES a.k.a. AL-QUDS SQUADS a.k.a. ISLAMIC JIHAD IN PALESTINE a.k.a. ISLAMIC JIHAD OF PALESTINE a.k.a. PALESTINIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD a.k.a. PIJ a.k.a. PIJ-SHALLAH FACTION a.k.a. PIJ-SHAQAQI FACTION a.k.a. SAYARA AL-QUDS PALESTINE LIBERATION FRONT–ABU ABBAS FACTION a.k.a. PALESTINE LIBERATION FRONT a.k.a. PLF a.k.a. PLF-ABU ABBAS POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE–GENERAL COMMAND a.k.a. PFLP-GC REAL IRA a.k.a. 32 COUNTY SOVEREIGNTY COMMITTEE a.k.a. 32 COUNTY SOVEREIGNTY MOVEMENT a.k.a. IRISH REPUBLICAN PRISONERS WELFARE ASSOCIATION a.k.a. REAL IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY a.k.a. REAL OGLAIGH NA HEIREANN a.k.a. RIRA REVOLUTIONARY ARMED FORCES OF COLOMBIA a.k.a. FARC REVOLUTIONARY NUCLEI a.k.a. POPULAR REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE a.k.a. EPANASTATIKOS LAIKOS AGONAS a.k.a. REVOLUTIONARY POPULAR STRUGGLE a.k.a. REVOLUTIONARY PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE a.k.a. JUNE 78 a.k.a. ORGANIZATION OF REVOLUTIONARY INTERNATIONALIST SOLIDARITY a.k.a. ELA a.k.a. REVOLUTIONARY CELLS a.k.a. LIBERATION STRUGGLE REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION 17 NOVEMBER a.k.a. 17 NOVEMBER a.k.a. EPANASTATIKI ORGANOSI 17 NOEMVRI REVOLUTIONARY PEOPLE’S LIBERATION PARTY/FRONT a.k.a. DEVRIMCI HALK KURTULUS PARTISI-CEPHESI a.k.a. DHKP/C; [[Page 12635]] a.k.a. DEVRIMCI SOL a.k.a. REVOLUTIONARY LEFT a.k.a. DEV SOL a.k.a. DEV SOL SILAHLI DEVRIMCI BIRLIKLERI a.k.a. DEV SOL SDB a.k.a. DEV SOL ARMED REVOLUTIONARY UNITS SHINING PATH a.k.a. SENDERO LUMINOSO a.k.a. SL a.k.a. PARTIDO COMUNISTA DEL PERU EN EL SENDERO LUMINOSO DE JOSE CARLOS MARIATEGUI (COMMUNIST PARTY OF PERU ON THE SHINING PATH OF JOSE CARLOS MARIATEGUI) a.k.a. PARTIDO COMUNISTA DEL PERU (COMMUNIST PARTY OF PERU) a.k.a. PCP a.k.a. SOCORRO POPULAR DEL PERU (PEOPLE’S AID OF PERU) a.k.a. SPP a.k.a. EJERCITO GUERRILLERO POPULAR (PEOPLE’S GUERRILLA ARMY) a.k.a. EGP a.k.a. EJERCITO POPULAR DE LIBERACION (PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY) a.k.a. EPL UNITED SELF-DEFENSE FORCES OF COLOMBIA a.k.a. AUC a.k.a. AUTODEFENSAS UNIDAS DE COLOMBIA Designation by the Secretary of State on December 18, 2001 LASHKAR-E-TAIBA a.k.a. LASHKAR E-TAYYIBA a.k.a. LASKAR E-TOIBA a.k.a. ARMY OF THE RIGHTEOUS Designations by the Secretary of State on December 31, 2001 CONTINUITY IRA (CIRA) LOYALIST VOLUNTEER FORCE (LVF) ORANGE VOLUNTEERS (OV) RED HAND DEFENDERS (RHD) ULSTER DEFENCE ASSOCIATION/ULSTER FREEDOM FIGHTERS (UDA/UFF) FIRST OF OCTOBER ANTIFASCIST RESISTANCE GROUP (GRAPO) Dated: March 13, 2002. Francis X. Taylor, Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Department of State. [FR Doc. 02-6577 Filed 3-14-02; 3:48 pm] BILLING CODE 4710-10-P immigration.com
Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) From: Country Reports on Terrorism, 2004. United States Department of State, April 2005. ——————————————————————————– Other Names The National Liberation Army of Iran The People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) National Council of Resistance (NCR) National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Muslim Iranian Student’s Society Description The MEK philosophy mixes Marxism and Islam. Formed in the 1960s, the organization was expelled from Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and its primary support came from the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein starting in the late 1980s. The MEK conducted anti-West-ern attacks prior to the Islamic Revolution. Since then, it has conducted terrorist attacks against the interests of the clerical regime in Iran and abroad. The MEK advocates the overthrow of the Iranian regime and its replacement with the group’s own leadership. Activities The group’s worldwide campaign against the Iranian Government stresses propaganda and occasionally uses terrorism. During the 1970s, the MEK killed US military personnel and US civilians working on defense projects in Tehran and supported the takeover in 1979 of the US Embassy in Tehran. In 1981, the MEK detonated bombs in the head office of the Islamic Republic Party and the Premier’s office, killing some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Premier Mohammad-Javad Bahonar. Near the end of the 19801988 war with Iran, Baghdad armed the MEK with military equipment and sent it into action against Iranian forces. In 1991, the MEK assisted the Government of Iraq in suppressing the Shia and Kurdish uprisings in southern Iraq and the Kurdish uprisings in the north. In April 1992, the MEK conducted near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and installations in 13 countries, demonstrating the group’s ability to mount large-scale operations overseas. In April 1999, the MEK targeted key military officers and assassinated the deputy chief of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff. In April 2000, the MEK attempted to assassinate the commander of the Nasr Headquarters, Tehran’s interagency board responsible for coordinating policies on Iraq. The normal pace of anti-Iranian operations increased during "Operation Great Bahman" in February 2000, when the group launched a dozen attacks against Iran. One of those attacks included a mortar attack against the leadership complex in Tehran that housed the offices of the Supreme Leader and the President. In 2000 and 2001, the MEK was involved regularly in mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids on Iranian military and law enforcement units and Government buildings near the Iran-Iraq border, although MEK terrorism in Iran declined toward the end of 2001. After Coalition aircraft bombed MEK bases at the outset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the MEK leadership ordered its members not to resist Coalition forces, and a formal cease-fire arrangement was reached in May 2003. Strength Over 3,000 MEK members are currently confined to Camp Ashraf, the MEK’s main compound north of Baghdad, where they remain under the Geneva Convention’s "protected person" status and Coalition control. As a condition of the cease-fire agreement, the group relinquished its weapons, including tanks, armored vehicles, and heavy artillery. A significant number of MEK personnel have "defected" from the Ashraf group, and several dozen of them have been voluntarily repatriated to Iran. Location/Area of Operation In the 1980s, the MEK’s leaders were forced by Iranian security forces to flee to France. On resettling in Iraq in 1987, almost all of its armed units were stationed in fortified bases near the border with Iran. Since Operation Iraqi Freedom, the bulk of the group is limited to Camp Ashraf, although an overseas support structure remains with associates and supporters scattered throughout Europe and North America. External Aid Before Operation Iraqi Freedom, the group received all of its military assistance, and most of its financial support, from the former Iraqi regime. The MEK also has used front organizations to solicit contributions from expatriate Iranian communities. ——————————————————————————– This is an official U.S. Navy web site
Remember those terrorists Iraq was accused of harboring and training before the war? They’re on Washington’s side now.
One of the terrorist organizations that the U.S. accused Iraq of supporting during the run-up to the war, the Mujahedin Khalq (MEK) or the "People’s Combatants", has been lobbying House Republicans and Democrats.
More than 300 U.S. legislators from both parties have at one time or other signed petitions in support of the MEK since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, and MEK spokesmen say they have offered the sect’s services to the United States.
According to a Guardian story, "Now US ponders attack on Iran†(1/18/2005) "the Pentagon was recently contemplating the infiltration of members of the Iranian rebel group, Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) over the Iraq-Iran border, to collect intelligence. The group, based at Camp Ashraf, near Baghdad, was under the protection of Saddam Hussein, and is under US guard while Washington decides on its strategy. The MEK has been declared a terrorist group by the state department, but a former Farsi-speaking CIA officer said he had been asked by neo-conservatives in the Pentagon to travel to Iraq to oversee ‘MEK cross-border operations’.â€
The MEK started in Iran as an Islamic-Marxist group, and was expelled in 1979 by the Iranian Islamic Fundamentalist Party that took power. They fled to France where the French foreign minister, Claude Cheysson, convinced the MEK leader Massoud Rajavi to work with the Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz and the Iraqi government during the Iraq-Iran War during the 1980s.
Special U.S. Middle East Envoy, Donald Rumsfeld, frequently met with Tariq Aziz in the ’80s and sent biological and chemical weapons to Iraq to be used against the Iranians. Later, again with the knowledge and acceptance of the Bush government, these weapons were used by the Iraqi military against the the Iranian Army with logistical support from the CIA.
The MEK helped the revolutionary Khomeini regime to take power in 1979. Part of their assistance consisted in burning down restaurants and cinemas. The MEK initiated the idea of taking over the U.S. embassy and holding Americans hostage. Yet within a year, MEK leaders decided that the Khomeini regime wasn’t behaving in a "revolutionary" fashion and soon they were plotting to overthrow Khomeini and the Islamic Fundamentalist leaders of Iran.
In 1987, Jacques Chirac, then Prime Minister of France, allowed the MEK to operate outside Paris by signing an agreement with them that they would not kill any Iranians on French soil.
France intentionally dismantled the group in 2002 several months before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March of 2003."
These sleazy terrorists held a fundraiser for victims of Iran’s devastating December 26 earthquake in January 2004!! Members of congress were invited and many attended. They support a group that kills women and children .