Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Last ‘non-MEK’ members of the NCRI resign

Mohammad Reza Rowhani and Karim Ghassim, two heads of the so-called Commissions of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) published a joint resignation statement. Last ‘non-MEK’ members of the NCRI resign

They say they do not want to go into detail; however they have listed a long list of human rights abuses and political mistakes – which are already well documented everywhere else.

Apparently they do not want to bring internal affairs into the open but felt compelled to mention a few things they simply couldn’t bear any more.

Commentators responded by pointing out that these two individuals represented the last remaining ‘non-MEK’ members of the NCRI and that now there is no way for the MEK’s Washington lobby office to pretend that it does not belong to the MEK.

Several articles welcomed the resignation of Rowhani and Ghassim from the NCRI but say they have not explained enough about what is going on inside the cult.

In particular Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejat (Rajavi’s former translator, now in France) has said they need to become more involved in rescuing others who they now acknowledge are hostages in Iraq.

June 8, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

MKO is falling apart: Habilian Association SG

In an interview with Javan daily, Persian language Iran-based newspaper, Mohammad Javad Hasheminejad reiterated that the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, also known as MKO and NCRI) has been limited and the US and the European countries are interacting with the terrorist group and providing them with unsparing supports.

What follows is a rough translation of the interview:

Javan: After MKO’s relocation to Camp Liberty and the way the group was treated during the transfer procedure, Mohammad Javad Hasheminejad it seems the United States government has somehow agreed with more limitation of the group. On the other side we see the MKO is delisted in the United States and practically, provided with a series of new services! So a contradictory behavior is witnessed here. Recently, countries like Albania have received a number of the MKO members and this is also in contrast with the initial signs of the terrorist group’s limitation. What’s your evaluation of the situation?

Hasheminejad: We should consider many facts here. The MKO was first listed in 1997, but we know that the group’s social activities were never limited by the US or the European countries. For example, while the MKO was still on the list of terrorist organizations, the leaders of the group used to gather some poor and helpless people who were desperate for some money, and organized meetings and gatherings in the Paris suburbs on the anniversary of their armed conflict with the Islamic republic by paying huge amounts of money. There were also some American and European figures who used to participate in those meetings and supported the very same group they had placed on the list of terrorist organizations! They also used to provide the MKO with a lot of financial resources.

This is a fact that has been confirmed by many American and European jurists. The MKO has faced no limits since 1997 whether during or after the Saddam era. I have personally witnessed their activities in some European countries. Their activities are well coordinated in the United States and Europe. Such a situation has been continued from the day they escaped the country, up to right no without any changes.

Javan: What was the reason of MKO’s listing?

Hasheminejad: Listing of the MKO in a specific period of time, was mentioned as a good will gesture towards Iran by the U.S. politicians, which was practically useless. So the MKO was delisted in a similar procedure. Nothing especial took place neither when the group was listed nor when it was delisted. A review on the reports published by FBI, the U.S intelligence agencies and also the French Police, could prove the MKO’s record is filled with various violations of law in the European countries, while not even a single member of the MKO was arrested. I mean the European countries and the United States had provided the MKO exactly the same social freedom that Saddam had provided them to let them continue their criminal acts. The MKO members would easily go into the European Parliament and recruited people to lobby for them. As it was mentioned in the RAND report, I think the US government tried to keep the MKO in Iraq for specific situations and also for acts of sabotage in the country. Even the US Defense Department had released a report before the MKO was delisted, in which the group’s horrible crimes were listed. These documents reveal that MKO has been listed or delisted just to benefit the US interests. The US government doesn’t want to receive the MKO for two reasons: first one is to be able to use the MKO’s terrorist potential in Iraq and the second is that the Americans are well aware that the MKO members are dangerous.

Javan: What is the reason behind the fact that some western governments suddenly changed their minds and started to receive the MKO members in their countries?

Hasheminejad: The United States and the West had no other ways but to act legally following the Iraqi government’s legal pressures during a several year long procedure. So the United Nations was forced to sign an agreement with the Iraqi government and the Europeans let the MKO members in their countries. The informal relocation of MKO members to the European countries had started since their announcement of armed conflict and they have offices in most of those countries. FBI has even announced the MKO has 36 specific places for its activities in the United States. But for being formally relocated, the group needed a legal procedure to be delisted. From one point of view, this is a good thing but from other points of view it is a negative measure. If the plan is to disintegrate the MKO, it should not be delisted. The relocation has got a special legal process. The UN Commissioner for Refugees has defined the relocation process: the terrorist person or organization should be delisted with enough guarantees and the Red Crescent must also guarantee that they won’t return to their terrorist activities and after that, a third country is negotiated to receive them. It is not even necessary to completely delist the whole terrorist group. It is a positive measure since it leads to the MKO’s disintegration but we also condemn their illegal works.

Javan: Don’t you think the MKO was delisted in order to be spread all over the world and have more freedom to do their works?

Hasheminejad:The MKO is free to do anything even right now and this decision is not going to have much impact. Mrs. Clinton cleared this point out in her recent announcement and practically showed how much freedom the MKO has got. She said: From now on, the MKO can transfer their money freely! This show that the MKO was limited only regarding to its money transferring. Of course the MKO used to transfer its money before, too. But it was mainly under money laundering efforts.

Javan: At the moment, how unified do you think the MKO is?

Hasheminejad: It seems they are disintegrating. Some 100 persons have escaped the MKO since 2 or 3 years ago. These defections are moving from the body of the MKO to its leadership level. Out of the 70 women who were members of the MKO’s leadership council and Rajavi deeply trusted them, 3 have defected. Massoud Rajavi’s main translator has also escaped. All of these show that the MKO is on the verge of collapse and its disintegration has accelerated. It was clear from the beginning that this would be their end.

June 2, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

MKO ex-Supporter Criticizes the Leader

Iraj Mesdaaghi, who has worked in support of the MEK for many years in Europe, published a 230 page open letter to Massoud Rajavi. He asks Rajavi to address this issue of internal dissatisfaction. He has gone into detail about many specific reactions Rajavi has had against current members as well as ex-members like Batul Soltani, Zahra Mir Bagheri and Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad. Rajavi has threatened current members that he has embarrassing information about them and will expose them. Although this 230 page letter falls short of understanding a cult leader, and is still written by someone who is trying to save the soul of Rajavi, but it represents a significant development as the dissent from within is expanding.

After this letter, Rajavi issued a statement in name of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). After swearing at Mesdaaghi and linking him with the ‘agents of the Iranian regime’, Rajavi has banned every member from talking to any media or site which has made any criticism of him (he means independent mainstream media such as the BBC). It is clear to everyone that Rajavi wants to cut such people off and stop the spread of the ‘disease’ of dissent which is already rampant in the MEK and has got out of his control.

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

May 14, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Desperate Struggle to Stop Dispersion

MKO fabricates to stop any final solution for resettlement out of Iraq (aka Mojahedin Khalq MEK Rajavi cult)

When Albanian Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, made the humanitarian offer to take about 210 members of MKO residing in a transit camp near Baghdad, many began to consider it a promising sign that could be the beginning of an end to the residents’ sufferings and torments and a miraculous escape from the thralldom of the Rajavis cult. It could be the beginning to promote cooperation of other countries and to pave the way to take more refugees. Alas! No soon had it been announced than was rejected by the Rajavies. In an attempt to provide compelling justification, the group announced it could not accept an offer of asylum for only a small portion of the group. A direct rejection would seem more acceptable than such flimsy excuse as such a transfer is more a mirage than near to reality. The rejection well indicates that MKO never aims to leave Iraq nor is looking for a final solution for resettlement of the members long enslaved physically and psychologically. It seems more a tactic to buy time to impede the gradual dissociation of the organization.

Taken as a typical of MKO, the group did not hesitate to put the blame of a deliberate rejection on others. In a statement issued by MKO in March under ‘Martin Kobler’s disgraceful lies in Security Council’, MKO accused Martin Kobler of deflecting attentions from the main issue, the security of the residents to say, and brazenly claimed to have been the first to come up with the transfer of its members to Albania more than a year ago:

“Kobler misused the humanitarian act of the Albanian government in accepting 210 of the residents for his own propaganda purposes in order to avoid the urgent security crisis and to divert attention from his own destructive role in forcefully evicting the residents and transferring them from Ashraf to the Liberty killing field. This is while the issue of residents’ transfer to Albania has been on the table for more than a year, and the government of Albania had agreed on the transfer of 210 residents in November 2012. At that time, the residents gave the government, the UNHCR and the United States a number 1 priority list of patients and residents who should be transferred first, and have been waiting and are still waiting for their rapid transfer. On March 21, on yet another occasion, the residents’ representative sent the same number 1 priority list to the UNHCR for transfer to Albania. In January, envoys of the Iranian resistance met with senior officials of Albania in Tirana, accepted all the expenses and urged their government to increase the number of residents going to Albania.”

However, it did not take long to see MKO’s lies being exposed. After ending his trip to Iraq, the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, made remarks concerning the outright refusal of MKO to accept the offer of resettlement in Albania:

“We had worked out an arrangement with the Albanians to take about 250 people, but then the people in the camp themselves declined to go. So we’re trapped in a kind of round robin.”

However, MKO waged a total media blackout on such disclosures when covering John Kerry’s trip. MKO’s duplicitous behavior is not unknown to those familiar with the rooted hypocrisy in the group. The conduction of disinformation campaign, even if it works on the insiders, undermines public trust in its truthfulness of claiming a democratic resistance. Although it has abused freedom, democracy and its insiders’ devotion for a total organizational hegemony, it will have no other way but to submit under a universal pressure and when it feels it has failed to shape public opinion in its own favor.

May 4, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Survey: Only 5% of Iranian Americans support MKO

A recent survey of Iranian Americans found that only 5 percent support the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq organization (MKO, a.k.a. MEK and NCRI).

According to Habilian Association, the survey released late last week by the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA), reveals that only 5 percent of a total of 15 percent of Iranian Americans who support opposition groups or figures in Iran support MKO.

The results of this survey truly represent the lack of support for the terrorist MKO group among Iranian patriots who are aware of the MKO’s treasonable acts against the Iranian people and the government of Islamic Republic, including siding with the invader of Iran, Saddam Hussein, during the 1980s and killing and injuring thousands of Iranian innocent civilians.

The extremely long list of MKO’s treasons did not finish in the past decades, but they are actively engaged in anti-Iran struggles.

As Paul Sheldon Foote, Professor at California state university, put it in an interview with Habilian Association, terrorist MKO group is a useful tool for the Israelis “by promoting hatred of Iran, by telling lies about Iran, and by conducting terrorist operations in Iran.”

April 22, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Albania offer for asylum to MKO rejected

Rajavi: Camp Ashraf Safer than Albania!!!!!

An Iranian opposition group on Saturday turned down Albania’s offer of asylum to 210 of its members who are Rajavi: Camp Ashraf Safer than Albania!!!!! living at a former U.S. military base near Baghdad.

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha made the offer after meeting with U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf, U.N. envoy in Iraq Martin Kobler, and other officials. He said the offer of asylum for the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq members was made for “humanitarian reasons.”

“We really appreciate the Tirana government’s helping hand,” Shahin Gobadi of the National Council of Resistance of Iran told The Associated Press from Paris in an interview conducted by telephone and e-mail.

Gobadi said the group, which oversees the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, could not accept an offer of asylum for only a small portion of the group. The U.N. says more than 3,000 MEK members live at the former U.S. base.

Iraq’s government is eager to have Mujahedeen-e-Khalq out of the country. The group opposes Iran’s clerical regime and carried out assassinations and bombings in Iran until renouncing violence in 2001. It fought in the 1980s alongside Saddam Hussein’s forces in the Iran-Iraq war.

The refugee camp is located on a former American military base known as Camp Liberty. It is meant to be a temporary way station while the United Nations works to relocate the exiles abroad.

MEK members reluctantly began moving to Camp Liberty last year. They previously lived in a compound known as Camp Ashraf in northeastern Iraq. It was twice raided by Iraqi security forces, leaving more than three dozen people dead.

Their move to the new camp has not guaranteed their security. A strike at the camp with rockets and mortar shells on Feb. 9 left 8 dead and about 100 injured.

Two weeks later the head of a new Shiite militant group in Iraq threatened to carry out more attacks against the camp.

“The idea that Liberty residents refuse leaving Iraq is a lie that (U.N. envoy) Kobler propagates,” said Gobadi. “Quite the contrary, the Iranian resistance has done its utmost in the past two years to find host countries for former Ashraf residents.”

He said that camp residents had contacted Tirana and had guaranteed that the Iranian resistance would bear all costs regarding relocation and sought to increase the number of people offered asylum.

“Following the February 9 rocket attack on Camp Liberty and in light of the fact that all the Camp Liberty residents are in danger of similar attacks, transferring small groups of Liberty residents outside of Iraq would simply increase the danger for the majority who would stay behind,” Gobadi said in an e-mail

Gobadi said there are two options: “The first option is the immediate, even temporary transfer of all the residents to the U.S. or to a European country and permanent resettlement from there or the return of all of the residents to Camp Ashraf and the continuation of resettlement process from Ashraf, including transfer to Albania from Ashraf.”

By Llazar Semini ,

March 18, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Sham report exposes MEK’s isolation in Washington

Massoud Rajavi is in danger of losing everything he ever had. The devastating significance for him of losing Camp Ashraf should not be underestimated. A 40km square piece of land Sham report exposes MEK’s isolation in Washington containing a nuclear bunker, arms caches, a satellite communications system, its own water and power supplies, dormitories, refectories, meeting rooms and leisure facilities, has been replaced for the residents by a 1km square area with prefab huts for living quarters. And their marching orders to leave Iraq ASAP.

Worst of all is that Rajavi has lost the ability to completely isolate his people from the outside world. As hard as the MEK leaders try to keep it closed, Camp Liberty is porous to external access as Camp Ashraf never was. It is regularly visited by representatives from the UN, EU, US and various NGOs and security at the camp is taken care of by Iraq’s security forces. The Iraqi authorities have even kept open a hotel in Baghdad, hired during the transfer process, to house any residents who do not wish to live in the basic conditions of Camp Liberty.

All this has made it possible for people to leave the MEK. It is a slow and difficult process of attrition because the cult maintains an iron grip on the residents through its psychologically coercive, high-pressure indoctrination process which is characterised by a daily confession and punishment regime for every single person from rank and file to leadership. The danger that is absolutely paramount in Rajavi’s mind is that sooner or later the cult will be dismantled, its membership dispersed and he will be left alone.

It is in this context that the controversial US Library of Congress report which asserts that Iran’s Intelligence agency has 30,000 employees should be placed for meaningful analysis and assessment.

The leaked report has been quickly and decisively exposed as a sham. And it should be clear to careful readers that the (privately commissioned and paid) report hasn’t been written for the MEK but has been written by the MEK; it contains much MEK cult jargon and many second language-user errors. Beyond this, the sources for much of the content can be traced directly to MEK websites which are, unsurprisingly, no longer functioning.

Why would the MEK risk publicising this easily refuted piece of nonsense?

Educated observation of its behaviours and statements will reveal that the MEK is not an actual player in the political scene, and that much of what the cult does publicly is really designed for internal consumption rather than as part of a policy platform to confront Iran. (Anyone who has direct dealings with MEK members will know that expecting transparency or consistency from them is like asking a drunk to walk in a straight line.

By commissioning this report Rajavi has created a fraudulent narrative with which to deceive his followers. His intention is to persuade as many as possible to remain in Camp Liberty, rather than be transferred to third countries by the UNHCR, by giving them false hope and expectations for the future of the MEK.

What Rajavi is saying through this report is that in spite of being incarcerated in Camp Ashraf and then Camp Liberty for ten years doing nothing, the MEK is in fact engaged in a serious head to head fight with the Islamic Republic of Iran in the shape of the Khodabandeh family. The Khodabandehs are libellously depicted in the report as “agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence”. According to Rajavi’s narrative the Khodabandehs are at the forefront of a massive spy network spread throughout the world and tasked to destroy the MEK. He has chosen to ‘promote’ the Khodabandeh family to this position because they are the most prolific and effective English language critics of his cult. He can motivate the residents of Camp Liberty to stay on in order to fight this enemy.

Rajavi has bigged up the Khodabandeh family and the hundreds of former MEK members who are vociferous in their criticisms because he is being defeated by their exposures. He has created the excuse that they are the face of the Iranian regime and extremely powerful and that is why it is so difficult to defeat them. (Interestingly only days ago Rajavi told the residents inside the camp that if they hear anything bad about him -he means the allegations of sexual abuse against women members -they should ignore such talk. Their only task is to accept his leadership and be confident that, in good time, he will answer his enemies. In other words he is instructing the MEK not to think, only to unquestioningly obey.)

But Rajavi’s deceptive narrative continues: do not be concerned about this fight with the regime, do not run away from it, because the MEK has the backing of the most powerful people in the American political establishment, the Israeli lobby and the Neoconservatives. Rajavi promised that the report would receive massive coverage in the American media and be supported at the highest levels in the American establishment as evidence that the only way to confront Iran is military action; that is, war.
His intention is to convince the MEK that he has found a replacement for Saddam’s regime in the Israeli lobby and Neoconservatives in Europe and the US. (In other times he has been prepared to fake mercenary status for the MEK to imply such support.)

The problem for Rajavi is that this didn’t happen. The report was leaked to the press as planned, but there was no media fest. Instead the report was pulled back "for revision" when the Library of Congress realised the shoddy piece of work was ripe for investigation: how was it possible for a group like the MEK to infiltrate its disinformation into the ‘Irregular Warfare Support’ office of the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office in the Pentagon? The investigation has even gone as far as Brussels where Members of the European Parliament are now being questioned about their use of this unpublished, un-attributed report to interfere in the asylum process for Iranian refugees.

Rajavi has exposed his weakness not only in Iraq where the residents of Camp Liberty are drifting away from his control, but in the heart of Washington. Exposure of the lies and distortions in the report mean that Rajavi is not being protected and promoted as he has said by powerful people in the capital. Not only that, the defeat he is facing really is at the hands of former members and not the powerful Iranian Ministry of Intelligence.

Perhaps now a line can be drawn under this issue and the focus of attention placed back where it belongs; Camp Liberty and the 3000+ cult hostages – and their families – whose future still remains uncertain.

Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton), Middle East Strategy Consultants

January 26, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

MEK is stuck in a Stalemate

MEK is stuck in a Stalemate
MEK is stuck in a Cul De Sac

January 23, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

The Fortune of MKO Can Fall in Iraq

MKO is afraid of no front but the one wherein the front-line combatants are the ex-members

Presently highlighted in MKO’s media, the group has started an all-out campaign aimed to MKO is afraid of no front but the one wherein the front-line combatants are the ex-members prolong its stay in Iraq. Now, after a lengthy process of transferring the members in Camp Ashraf to a Temporary Transit Location and since its settlement there, MKO has kept caviling at the camp’s conditions and now presses to be returned to Ashraf complaining that the recent rainfalls have inundated the whole camp. The call is made after the vain attempt to enforce recognition of the transit location as a refugee camp. However, as the possibility of returning to Ashraf is out of question and a transit location fails to be an appropriate location for a refugee camp, MKO is changing expectations for a third location that could guarantee a few years stay in Iraq; “UNHCR has another refugee camp in Iraq and on the UNHCR Web site it is stipulated that its residents have the right to ownership of land and vehicles and to revenue generating activities”.

Everything is actually ready for the residents’ transfer to EU member states and any third country that will offer to receive them as refugees. Reportedly, up to this point, 2600 residents have gone through identity verification process by the UNHCR and close to 1750 have been privately interviewed outside the camp. But the problem is that so far no country has shown a willingness to accept them and the best option for MKO to survive is to prolong its stay through any flimsy excuses and accusations made against people like the head of UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) or Prime Minister Maliki’s government. And of course, all blames as usual are on Iranian regime as behind-the-curtain hand for whom all the mentioned as well as other opponents and the defected members are accused to be working as the agents.

It is a taboo making any allusion to Iranian regime inside MKO and it is an unforgivable sin to defect from the group. MKO tags any defected member an Iranian agent, particularly if the defected engage in counter-MKO activities, in an attempt to besmirch what it highly values as the acquired reputation of a resistance fighter. In fact, in the black and white world of MKO anyone siding with Iran against it is regarded an enemy of the group and nobody is more threatening and harmful than a defected member since the exposed information makes the closed group vulnerable to the adversaries outside.

Unfortunately, the key role these defected members can play to frustrate plots and anti-human activities of MKO go unnoticed. Majority of these defected members volunteer to have an active role to rescue their comrades if the responsible organizations demand their aids as some do. But it is not enough as the activities lack the needed cohesion. If MKO insists to stay in Iraq, no problem, let it be there as it might be the land where it is doomed to crumble by dissociating its enslaved members. And it can be done by the lantern of those who survived after being lost on a dark path that was not straight. Ex-members of a terrorist cult know how to fight fire with fire and MKO is afraid of no front but the one wherein the front-line combatants are the ex-members. The fortune of MKO might decline in Iraq, a land that once fulfilled its wishes can now crush it by refusing them.

January 16, 2013 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

MKO & KGB Deals

Another dimension of Rajavi’s anti- national relations

Muajhedin-e-Khalq Organization’s history is replete with treasonous acts.
Another dimension of Rajavi’s anti- national relations
Regarding various reports on the MKO’s relationship with Western intelligence bodies including CIA and Mossad, it is not surprising to figure out about the group’s deals with KGB almost at the same time it was harbored in Iraq where Saddam Hussein granted it logistical and financial support.

According to the archives of the Soviet State microfilm collection, the MKO leader hadn’t found Saddam Hussein’s support sufficient so he sought support from Russian Committee for State Security (KGB):

Reel 1.993, File 24

Resolution of the TsK KPSS Secretariat approving a response to a letter from M. Rajavi, leader of the Mujahedin [Holy Warriors] Organization of the Iranian People, to M. Gorbachev, and to a request submitted by the organization; two copies of instructions to the Soviet Embassy in Bulgaria to be delivered in ciphered form by the Committee for State Security (KGB); extract from the minutes of the TsK KPSS Secretariat; memorandum to the TsK KPSS from R. Ulianovskii, Deputy Chief of the International Department; letter to Gorbachev from Rajavi (translated into Russian) and the original letter in Persian; statement with information about the collection of documents attached to the letter from Rajavi; memorandum (translated into Russian) to the TsK KPSS from F. Olfat, member of the Politburo of the Mujahedin Organization, and the original letter in Persian requesting that the TsK KPSS lend any amount of money (up to US$300,000,000) to the Mujahedin Organization; memorandum to the TsK KPSS from Olfat, (translated into Russian) and the original letter in Persian requesting that the supporters of the Mujahedin Organization be allowed to cross the Soviet-Iranian border and be granted a temporary asylum in the Soviet Union 1985 December – 1986 February

Source : oac.cdlib.org

January 1, 2013 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts