Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

EU court upholds delisting Washington backed MKO terror group

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has upheld a decision to remove the notorious Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) from the EU’s list of terrorist organizations.

In 2008, the ECJ’s Court of First Instance ruled that the EU had been wrong in listing the MKO as a terrorist organization, since it had failed to provide the group with evidence that formed the basis of a decision to keep it on the terrorism list.

Following the court’s ruling, the European Union removed the MKO from its list of terrorist organizations in 2009.

France appealed against the decision, saying some of Paris’ closest allies still list the MKO as a terrorist organization. The ECJ, however, rejected the appeal.

MKO is designated as a terrorist organization under United States law, and has been described by State Department officials as a repressive cult.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up camp in Diyala Province, near the Iranian border.

MKO is known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.

The group has also carried out numerous acts of terrorism against Iranian civilians and government officials.

December 24, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

US backed MEK assassinated Iranian Scientists

Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi discusses his article “Washington’s Secret Wars;” Obama’s newly signed “findings,” authorizing covert operations to destabilize the Iranian and Syrian governments; how the US and Israel use the Baluch Jundallah, Kurdish PJAK and MEK groups to commit terrorism-by-proxy; the MEK’s energetic and well funded campaign to get de-listed as a terrorist group (in order to more easily commit terrorist acts); and how the 1996 neoconservative policy document “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm” is going according to plan.

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is a contributing editor to The American Conservative and executive director of the Council for the National Interest. He writes regularly for Antiwar.com.
Download US backed MEK assassinated Iranian Scientists

December 13, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

US, Israeli covert ops targeting Iran

The United States and the Israeli regime have been engaged in a full-fledged undercover war against Iran, political analyst Mark Dankof has told Press TV.

“The war has actually started. It is just the question of when the wider shooting war begins,” Dankof said in an interview with Press TV.

Dankof cited the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists by Israeli-backed agents, the violation of Iranian airspace by US surveillance drones, and the new US-led economic sanctions imposed on Iran as examples of this undercover war.

He said the Mossad and the CIA have conducted these covert operations in collusion with terrorist groups such as the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), and Jundallah militants.

Citing essays written by M.J. Rosenberg and Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, Dankof said the hostile policy of Israel and the US toward Iran has little or nothing to do with Tehran’s alleged nuclear program but is meant to help the Tel Aviv regime maintain its military supremacy in the Middle East.

Describing the Israel regime as a political and economic “liability” on US taxpayers, he said the United States is being dragged into a war with Iran by the influential Zionist lobby.

On November 12, during a debate among a number of Republican presidential hopefuls, calls ranging from executing covert operations such as terrorism and assassinations to launching a military strike on Iran to subvert Tehran’s nuclear program were made.

The calls for assassinations and terrorist acts directed at Iran are not idle threats as a number of Iranian scientists have been assassinated over the past few years, including Professor Majid Shahriari and Professor Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, who were both killed in 2010.

On Nov. 4, 2011, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, announced that Tehran has irrefutable evidence that proves the US government has been involved in anti-Iran conspiracies and has dispatched elements to carry out acts of sabotage and terrorism in Iran and other regional countries.

The United States, Israel, and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program and have used the false charge as as pretext to push for the imposition of sanctions on the country and to call for an attack on the country.

Iran argues that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology meant for peaceful purposes.

Iranian officials have promised a crushing response to any military strike against the country, warning that such a measure could spark a war that would spread beyond the Middle East.

December 8, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MKO, part of US-Israeli warmonger campaign

Iran and Iraq are close neighbors whose socio-religious-cultural ties are inextricably bound. Two issues that affect Iran and Iraq right now are the fate of the Mujahidin Khalq Organization (MKO), a group hanging in limbo in Iraq, and the US-Israeli plans to topple Iran’s government. The US-Israel relationship is tight, and it is likely that they share their illusion to overthrow Iran’s Islamic Republic. It is likely that they are planning conspiracy projects to start another war in the Middle East—all while US troops are still occupying both Iraq and Afghanistan.

What is the MKO’s part in the war mongers’ scenario for Iran? The Brookings Institution report, titled “Which Path to Persia?” published in 2009 speculates a role for the MKO. The report states that “clearly the more outrageous, the more deadly, and the more unprovoked the Iranian action,
the better off the United States to goad Iran into such a provocation without the rest of the world recognizing this game, which would then undermine it. (One method that would have some possibility of success would be a ratcheted up covert regime change effort in the hope that Tehran would retaliate overtly, or even semi-overtly, which could be portrayed as a provoked act of Iranian aggression).”[1]

The recent allegations on the so-called Iranian terror plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador announced by the US Attorney General implied that besides funding, arming and sheltering the terrorist group the MKO, the US is determined to entirely fabricate “such provocations.”

A few days after the attorney’s claim was broadcast, the Mehr News Agency speculated that the Iranian government revealed that Gholam Shakouri, who US officials claimed was a member of Quds Force and was linked to Mansour Arbabsiar in the terror plot – is actually a key member of the MKO.[2]

Mehr News Agency said that Interpol “has found new evidence that suggests Shakuri is associated with the MKO and was last seen in Washington and Camp Ashraf.”[3]
As expected, the MKO exploited the “terror plot” news. On October 22, the group held one of their regularly scheduled propaganda rallies in Washington, once again, calling on president Obama to remove them from the US list of terrorist organizations. The American advocates of the group include former Pennsylvania governor, Tom Ridge who spoke on behalf of the MKO. He also accused the Iranian government of being a terrorist government.[4]

The MKO’s extensive background on fabricating intelligence about the Islamic Republic and then exploiting the so-called intelligence in their propaganda is nothing new. Most journalists and experts know about the true nature of the MKO, but a lot of what the MKO does goes unreported. What is reported, however, in main stream media is mostly done by the group itself and the fancy right wing organizations they belong to. This time, however, the MKO’s link is too prickly to be ignored by serious journalists. The so-called terrorist plot on the Saudi ambassador is presented as follows:

Richard Silverstein a journalist and blogger whose articles appear in Haaretz, The LA Times and Al Jazeera, writes “I’ve been able to confirm with enough certainty to feel comfortable publishing the report from Iranian media that Gholam Shakuri, the alleged Iranian revolutionary Guard co-conspirator in the Iran terror plot, is a member of the Mujahedin al-Khalq (MEK/MKO). This is the group which engages in acts of terror within Iran in order to overthrow the regime. It also collaborates with the Mossad in spreading disinformation about the Iranian nuclear program.”[5]
Silverstein finds that according to the MKO’s history, it seems only natural that the group would fabricate evidence against the Islamic Republic. He points out that, “the MEK has a history of planting fraudulent evidence designed to support the claim that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon. It therefore is entirely possible that it cooked up this scheme to further tarnish Iran’s reputation and relations with Western countries. My only question is wouldn’t they care if they hatched such a slipshod plot that it made Barack Obama end up looking like an utter fool?”[6]
Moreover, Saeed Kamali Dehghan’s (The Guardian) comments on the plot summarize the predicament the US faces. He suggests that, “if the MEK alleged link turns out to be true, it would be a big embarrassment for Washington, which has already met widespread skepticism over its version of events of Iran’s’ involvement in the assassination plot.”[7] Dehghan adds, “little evidence has been provided by the US in support of its claim and the amateurish and sloppy nature of it have led to many analysts speculating that the alleged plot might have been the work of rogue elements.”[8]

Michael Rubin, the prominent journalist who criticized both the Islamic Republic and the MKO, shares the idea that US intelligence lacks enough information on the MKO. He writes, “certainly we can add a lack of information about Iranian MKO members to the list of our intelligence failure regarding Iran.” [9] Furthermore, he submits, “it will be interesting to see how this plays out. It would not be the first time the Mujahedin Khalq has forced intelligence agencies and the press to scramble with an elaborate hoax. And even if the evidence against the Islamic Republic is overwhelming, the fact that Iranian leaders can seize on past Mujahedin al-Khalq fabrications is ample reason not to trust anything the MKO says today either, no matter how many Americans and European officials are willing to embrace them.”[10]

Hillary Mann Leverett, a former American diplomat, and an advisor on Iran in George W. Bush’s administration, told CNN on October 12 that Iranian government involvement in the suspected plot “makes no sense.” She also mentions that “there is no benefit; there is no payoff from them pursuing this kind of hit against Al-Jubeiri.”[11] The only subjects who might benefit from a confrontation with Iran is the US itself, Israel, and of course the dissident cult, the Mujahedin Khalq. The cult, since 1978—since the early years of the Iranian Revolution—has always tried to find a pretext to engage in a war against those in charge of Iran. The group is notorious for its deadly stance against Islam and the Islamic Republic. In fact, they are the most hostile terrorist group against the Republic.

Simply put, they have little or no respect inside Iran; outside Iran, they have managed to fool masses of people under a loudmouth human rights disguise. Given this scenario, it’s entirely possible that the MKO, the CIA, and the Mossad managed to recruit someone assassinate the Saudi ambassador.

The warmongers in the US government and Israel are preoccupied with operations which would bring them closer to a military strike and topple the government of Iran. The Mujahedin Organization has a huge interest in cooperating with anyone who is against Iran because their sole interest is to step in to replace the current regime with their own government.

Previous acts of the group indicate that they never hesitate to cooperate with Iran’s enemies—as they formerly did by siding with Saddam Hussein during the 80’s and 90’s. It is clearly documented that the MKO will do anything to achieve power, even turn against their own countrymen.

Philip Giraldi, former CIA official, who wrote “How To Kill an Ambassador,” an article on Anti.War.com, analyzed the alleged plot as “not only completely implausible but also possibly the contrivance of an intelligence or security service other than that of Iran.” [12] Giraldi also suggests
that "another possibility is that it might have been an operation planned by Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or MEK.” He believes that “the MEK would not have the resources or technical expertise to carry out such a deception, unless it were working in cooperation with the CIA or the Mossad, which raises the possibility that this has been from the work of an intelligence agency rather than law enforcement.” [13]

By Mazda Pa

References:

[1] M.Pollack,Kenneth/L.Byman,Daniel/Indyk,Martin/Maloney, Suzanne
E.O’Hanlon Michael/Riede, Bruce. Which Path to Persia? Options for a New
American Strategy toward Iran, The Saban Center for Middle East policy at
the Brookings Institution, November 20, June 2009
[2]Mehr News Agency, Number Two Suspect in Plot Case is MKO Member, Oct.17,
2011
[3]ibid
[4]Associated press, Hundreds rally in support of Iranian opposition, Oct.
2011
[5]Silverstein, Richard, Iran: Alleged Terror Conspirator MEK leader,
Eurasia Preview, Oct. 22, 2011
[6]ibid
[7]Kamali Dehghan, Saeed, Iran Blames CIA’s Favorite pets, Mujahedin
e-Khalq (MEK),for Saudi Ambassador plot, Guardian.co.uk, Oct. 21,2011
[8]ibid
[9]Rubin Michael, Iran says plot was Mujahedin put-up job, commentary
Magazine, Oct.18, 2011
[10]ibid
[ 11]Ottens, Nick, Former Diplomat: Iran Plot ”Makes No Sense",
atlanticsentinel.com, Oct. 13, 2011
[12]Giraldi, Philip, How to Kill an Ambasador?,Antiwar.com, Oct.20, 2011

December 3, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Shahram Heidary, Declaration of Separation from the MKO

I am Shahram Heidary. I was born in Khuzestan, Iran in, 1966. I became an MKO sympathizer in 1987. I left Iran to join the MKO by the help of a human smuggler who was sent to me by the group. I arrived in Camp Ashraf in 2005. Shahram Heidary, Declaration of Separation from the MKO

I attempted to escape “Ashraf Prison” on September 15th, 2011 but I was arrested by the MKO guards. I was then tortured and interrogated severely. After a period of imprisonment, I went on hunger strike, which ultimately resulted in my release. They submitted me to the Iraqi Police.

When I was in Iran, I was manipulated by the MKO’s propaganda. I thought that it was every body’s desire to join the MKO in Ashraf but after a short while I found out that Ashraf was just a mirage. Once I realized the truth, I was captured in the cult and had no way back.

I scarified my wife and children for a deceitful organization. Although I lost everything, I could release myself from the terrifying hell of Rajavi.

I hope that my friends who are still under exploitation and imprisonment by the cult of Rajavi will be released from that nest of hypocrisy and deception with the help from the outside world as soon as possible.

Translated by Nejat Society

December 3, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Arrested Spy Confesses MKO’s Collaboration with Mossad

A Lebanese national, who was arrested earlier this year in Lebanon for spying for the Israeli spy agency, confessed that his agency, Mossad, and the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) have long had tight cooperation against Tehran.

According to a report published by the Habilian website, the official website of Iran’s Habilian Association – a human rights group formed by the families of 17,000 terror victims in Iran – the confessions were made by Mohamed Ali Lobnani, who spied for Israel under the cover of a Shiite cleric in Lebanon and was arrested this May by the Lebanese Army.

In a court hearing session, Lobnani said that he had phone contacts with Mohammad Alizadeh, an MKO ringleader, but he didn’t know that the number was a Mossad contact number.

Responding to a judge question about the link between MKO and Mossad, he noted, "As far as I know, the group (MKO) has been collaborating with Israel for several years and has massive interactions with Mossad."

Earlier this month, a senior American analyst underlined the Zionist regime’s all-out support for the MKO, and said the Israeli lobby is an octopus with many tentacles, of which MKO is merely one.
Justin Raimondo made the comments in an article in the Antiwar website, where he reminds MKO’s terrorist nature, and says that the group has even assassinated many US diplomats and agents throughout the region before the Iranian revolution.

The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.

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

The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

Meantime, earlier media report said that the US is trying to convince Iraqi officials to relocate MKO members within Iraq.
Under the US plan, the approximately 3,400 residents of Camp Ashraf would be temporarily relocated within Iraq, farther from the border with Iran, a US State Department official announced.

The relocation would be temporary, the official said, with final settlement of the inhabitants in other countries.
That would not include the United States, the official said, "Since US law bars anyone associated with a terrorist organization from settling there".

Since the beginning of this year, the Baghdad government has repeatedly assured Iranian officials and people that it is determined to expel the MKO from Iraq by the end of 2011.
"Expulsion of the MKO from Iraq’s soil and termination of its presence which has lasted for several years is a definite decision," Iraqi Government Spokesman Ali Al-Dabbaq told FNA in April, adding, "The MKO will be expelled from Iraq by the end of the current year."

"The only option for the members of the MKO is leaving Iraq and they have no other choice," he reiterated.

Reminding to the black record of the terrorist group and its crimes against the Iraqi people, Dabbaq said, "Collaboration with the former Iraqi dictator and massacre of thousands of our people is just part of their crimes".

Dabbaq announced in early April that the cabinet is determined to shut down Camp Ashraf located North of the capital, Baghdad, and disband the terrorist group.

"The council of ministers has committed to implement an earlier decision about disbanding the terrorist group by the end of this year at the latest, and the necessity of getting it out of Iraq," the official noted.

December 1, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Why Is Rudy Giuliani Lobbying for a Designated Terrorist Group?

Thanks to a loophole intended for human rights activists, political leaders are making big bucks advocating for Iran’s Mujahedeen Khalq.

What do the tax dodges of billionaires and the advocacy efforts of former high-ranking officials on behalf of a designated terrorist group have in common (aside from their exposure on the front page of the Sunday New York Times)? They exemplify the extraordinary legal privileges enjoyed by economic and political elites.

Ronald Lauder, a legacy member of the upper reaches of the top 1 percent, legally avoids paying millions of dollars in taxes through extravagant use of loopholes available only to the super-rich, according to the Times. Prominent politicos, from former Bush Administration officials to Howard Dean, engage in the lucrative business of lobbying for the Mujahedeen Khalqa (M.E.K.), a "fringe Iranian opposition group, long an ally of Saddam Hussein, that is designated as a terrorist organization under United States law," the Times reports.

In doing so they run no apparent risk of being prosecuted under material support provisions of federal anti-terrorism law, enjoying an extra-legal privilege the Times does not report: Last year the Supreme Court rejected a First Amendment challenge to material support bans, ruling that they may be used against human rights advocates who counsel designated terrorist groups in peaceful conflict resolution.

The gross inequities of federal taxation are frequently critiqued by mainstream pundits and politicians; the discriminatory use of vague and far-reaching federal anti-terror laws is targeted mostly by civil libertarians who exert tragically little influence on policy. David Cole exposed the arbitrary, inconsistent enforcement of material support laws in a January 2011 New York Times op-ed that highlighted the illegal but effectively immunized M.E.K. lobbying efforts of Michael Mukasey, Rudy Giuiliani, and other prominent, right wing anti-terror warriors.

Mukasey and Giuliani, et al, responded in the National Review, claiming un-persuasively that laws prohibiting peaceful human rights work by David’s Cole’s client (the Humanitarian Law Project) on behalf of one designated terrorist group simply did not apply to their work on behalf of another. They claimed additionally that the designation of M.E.K. as a terrorist group is inaccurate, but as they must know, the arguable inaccuracy of a designation is legally irrelevant: The law does not allow for lobbyists and other citizens to substitute their judgments for the judgments of State Department officials. That the State Department is sometimes wrong, that terrorist watch lists are arbitrary and inaccurate, is not a defense for violating the law; it’s a strong argument for amending it, which Mukasey and company oppose. Why should they support amending a law criminalizing political speech that their status allows them to evade, and perhaps apply to their political enemies?

It’s not fair to attribute this self-entered vision of justice to political and economic elites exclusively. Millions of middle class taxpayers as well as the very rich naturally tend to support tax laws that work to their advantage. Millions of politically unconnected voters offer general support for expansive anti-terror laws, partly out of ignorance about their contents and partly in the risky belief that the most repressive or intrusive provisions will not be applied to them. "How does the law serve me" is an understandable and useful question, but it’s a treacherous one for people concerned with redressing inequality. While we understand laws most viscerally by experiencing their effects on us, justice requires attending, as well, to their effects on others.

By Wendy Kaminer – the Atlantic

November 30, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MEK exile terrorist has bipartisan support in Washington

The New York Times reports: At a time of partisan gridlock in the capital, one obscure cause has drawn a stellar list of supporters from both parties and the last two administrations, including a dozen former top national security officials.
MEK exile terrorist group has bipartisan support in Washington
That alone would be unusual. What makes it astonishing is the object of their attention: a fringe Iranian opposition group, long an ally of Saddam Hussein, that is designated as a terrorist organization under United States law and described by State Department officials as a repressive cult despised by most Iranians and Iraqis.

The extraordinary lobbying effort to reverse the terrorist designation of the group, the Mujahedeen Khalq, or People’s Mujahedeen, has won the support of two former C.I.A. directors, R. James Woolsey and Porter J. Goss; a former F.B.I. director, Louis J. Freeh; a former attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey; President George W. Bush’s first homeland security chief, Tom Ridge; President Obama’s first national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones; big-name Republicans like the former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Democrats like the former Vermont governor Howard Dean; and even the former top counterterrorism official of the State Department, Dell L. Dailey, who argued unsuccessfully for ending the terrorist label while in office.

The American advocates have been well paid, hired through their speaking agencies and collecting fees of $10,000 to $50,000 for speeches on behalf of the Iranian group. Some have been flown to Paris, Berlin and Brussels for appearances.

Tom Ridge expresses the sentiment and rationale shared by most of the MEK’s Washington supporters: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. No doubt the MEK itself used the same reasoning when aligning itself with Saddam Hussein (as did the U.S.). For the MEK’s current allies in Washington it apparently matters little that the organization actually has a long history of befriending America’s enemies and opposing America’s friends — but maybe that says more about the capricious nature of American friendship than it says about the MEK.

Maybe the solution is not the removal of the MEK from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Instead, the U.S. government can simply start designating countries and organizations as “Enemies” and “Friends” and then at the beginning of the springtime awards season, before the Oscars, there can be a televised event where the president hands out awards and opprobrium to this year’s winners in each category.

As far as what might be the implications for Iran (apart from continuation of the current campaign of terrorism targeting Iranian scientists), there is one curious dimension to the support the MEK now enjoys in Washington: the defining event in modern US-Iranian relations — the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran — turns out not to have been so unforgivable as it is generally portrayed.

“MEK members participated in and supported the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and … the MEK later argued against the early release the American hostages,” says the State Department. But let’s not dwell on the past, says Woolsey, Ridge et al.

On the other hand, for those who retain an interest in the past and the State Department’s description of the MEK’s activities, here it is:

The group’s worldwide campaign against the Iranian government uses propaganda and terrorism to achieve its objectives. During the 1970s, the MEK staged terrorist attacks inside Iran and killed several U.S. military personnel and civilians working on defense projects in Tehran. In 1972, the MEK set off bombs in Tehran at the U.S. Information Service office (part of the U.S. Embassy), the Iran-American Society, and the offices of several U.S. companies to protest the visit of President Nixon to Iran. In 1973, the MEK assassinated the deputy chief of the U.S. Military Mission in Tehran and bombed several businesses, including Shell Oil. In 1974, the MEK set off bombs in Tehran at the offices of U.S. companies to protest the visit of then U.S. Secretary of State Kissinger. In 1975, the MEK assassinated two U.S. military officers who were members of the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group in Tehran. In 1976, the MEK assassinated two U.S. citizens who were employees of Rockwell International in Tehran. In 1979, the group claimed responsibility for the murder of an American Texaco executive. Though denied by the MEK, analysis based on eyewitness accounts and MEK documents demonstrates that MEK members participated in and supported the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and that the MEK later argued against the early release the American hostages. The MEK also provided personnel to guard and defend the site of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, following the takeover of the Embassy.

In 1981, MEK leadership attempted to overthrow the newly installed Islamic regime; Iranian security forces subsequently initiated a crackdown on the group. The MEK instigated a bombing campaign, including an attack against the head office of the Islamic Republic Party and the Prime Minister’s office, which killed some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar. These attacks resulted in an expanded Iranian government crackdown that forced MEK leaders to flee to France. For five years, the MEK continued to wage its terrorist campaign from its Paris headquarters. Expelled by France in 1986, MEK leaders turned to Saddam Hussein’s regime for basing, financial support, and training. Near the end of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, Baghdad armed the MEK with heavy military equipment and deployed thousands of MEK fighters in suicidal, mass wave attacks against Iranian forces.

The MEK’s relationship with the former Iraqi regime continued through the 1990s. In 1991, the group reportedly assisted the Iraqi Republican Guard’s bloody crackdown on Iraqi Shia and Kurds who rose up against Saddam Hussein’s regime. In April 1992, the MEK conducted near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and consular missions in 13 countries, including against the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York, demonstrating the group’s ability to mount large-scale operations overseas. In June 1998, the MEK was implicated in a series of bombing and mortar attacks in Iran that killed at least 15 and injured several others. The MEK also assassinated the former Iranian Minister of Prisons in 1998. In April 1999, the MEK targeted key Iranian military officers and assassinated the deputy chief of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff, Brigadier General Ali Sayyaad Shirazi.

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 pace of anti-Iranian operations increased during “Operation Great Bahman” in February 2000, when the group launched a dozen attacks against Iran. One attack included a mortar attack against a major Iranian leadership complex in Tehran that housed the offices of the Supreme Leader and the President. The attack killed one person and injured six other individuals. In March 2000, the MEK launched mortars into a residential district in Tehran, injuring four people and damaging property. In 2000 and 2001, the MEK was involved in regular mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids against Iranian military and law enforcement personnel, as well as government buildings near the Iran-Iraq border. Following an initial Coalition bombardment of the MEK’s facilities in Iraq at the outset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, MEK leadership negotiated a cease-fire with Coalition Forces and surrendered their heavy-arms to Coalition control. Since 2003, roughly 3,400 MEK members have been encamped at Ashraf in Iraq.

In 2003, French authorities arrested 160 MEK members at operational bases they believed the MEK was using to coordinate financing and planning for terrorist attacks. Upon the arrest of MEK leader Maryam Rajavi, MEK members took to Paris’ streets and engaged in self-immolation. French authorities eventually released Rajavi.

By Paul Woodward

November 30, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Arrested spy in Lebanon: MKO is spying for Israel

In his latest court session held recently, “Mohammad Ali Lobnani” (Husseini) who was arrested by Lebanese army on charge of spying for Israel, referred to other aspects of MKO spying for “Mussed” and said: ”It’s been for so many years that the MKO is collaborating with the Israeli intelligence services and I am aware of this collaboration.”

Below is the conversation between the court’s judge and the so called cleric:

Judge: “You were contacted via a specific number after returning from Belgium and this connection lasted for 4 months.

Mohammad Ali Husseini: “I have a certain agreement and a direct connection with the MKO and the chief of their political committee and this number belongs to him.”

Judge: "This number is from Belgium and belongs to Mussed, what is your explanation of this?”

Mohammad Ali Husseini: "I am in touch with Mohammad Alizade, one of the MKO officials, but it was not proven to me that the number belonged to Mussed.

Judge: "You were also contacted by a number from England in 2008 which belongs to Mussed.”

Mohammad Ali Husseini: "This number belongs to the MKO.”

Judge: "Do you think there is any connection between MKO and Mussed?”

Mohammad Ali Husseini: "Yes. This group has been working with Israel for years and it has had wide collaborations with Mussed.”

The spurious cleric’s records

Mohammad Ali Husseini is a hardliner supporter of MKO who was arrested last May after one year of investigations on charge of spying for Israel. He is widely popular in the western media because he usually takes a hard line against Hezbollah and Iran. He had declared that he had formed the “Arabic Islamic resistance” with 1500 armed forces to fight Israel but the pictures released from these forces in the internet show just 5 men in different figures!

During the Iraqi army presence in the Ashraf camp, Husseini referred to this presence as an assault. Condemning the so called assault, he named the killed people martyrs and also called for supporting the Khuzestan separatists!

As reported by Lebanese press, his multiple travels to European countries and his suspicious phone calls had alerted the Lebanese security organizations. He was under observation by the Lebanese security office, the army intelligence service and the Hezbollah’s intelligence service for one year. Ultimately the Lebanese army intelligence forces arrested him in his apartment last May.

November 29, 2011 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

US mulls harboring MEK terrorists

The United States is mulling over removing the anti-Iranian Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) from its terrorist watch list and giving refuge to its members, a move which indicates Washington’s support for terrorism.

Former CIA directors James Woolsey and Porter Goss together with former FBI director Louis Freeh are among those lobbying President Barack Obama to delist the MKO from the US terrorist list, The New York Times reported.

Others include former attorney general Michael Mukasey, President George W. Bush’s first homeland security chief Tom Ridge, President Obama’s first national security adviser General James Jones, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Vermont governor Howard Dean.

The MKO is designated as a terrorist organization under United States law, and has been described by State Department officials as a repressive cult.

The Iraqi government has made clear its plans to close down the notorious Camp Ashraf , located about 120 kilometers (74 miles) west of the border with Iran, which hosts about 3500 MKO terrorists, before US troops pull-out by the end of the year.

Members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization will be then moved elsewhere in Iraq in order to reassert Iraqi sovereignty over the land where Camp Ashraf is located.

The MKO has carried out numerous acts of terror and violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up camp in Diyala Province, near the Iranian border.

The organization is also known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.

Iran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the group, but the US has been blocking the expulsion by mounting pressure on the Iraqi government.

The extraordinary lobbying effort to reverse the terrorist designation of MKO comes as Washington is seeking to stop Iran’s nuclear program by means of maximum covert operations including the assassination of Iranian scientists.

Speaking at the Republican presidential debate in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on November 12, former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich openly advocated increased covert terrorism against Iran.

He suggested employing “maximum covert operations to block and disrupt the Iranian program including taking out their scientists, including breaking up their systems. All of it covertly, all of it deniable.”

Gingrich advocated “actively funding every dissident group in Iran.”

US Senator Rick Santorum explicitly advocated a preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities and said, “We would be working with Israel right now to do what they did in Syria, what they did in Iraq, which is take out that nuclear capability.”

Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor, also criticized the US president for not being pretty tough on Iran. “If we reelect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon.”

When asked whether he would choose to strike Iran militarily, Romney said “absolutely.”

The calls for assassination and terrorist acts come as Iran has lost a number of its scientists to terrorism in recent years.

On November 29, 2010, unidentified terrorists slapped adhesive bombs onto the vehicles of Iranian university professors Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi. Professor Shahriari was killed immediately, but Dr. Abbasi and his wife sustained minor injuries and were rushed to hospital.

On Nov. 4, 2011 Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili announced that Tehran has irrefutable evidence that proves the US government was involved in anti-Iran conspiracies as well as in dispatching elements to carry out acts of sabotage and terror in Iran and other regional countries.

Jalili said that the documents show Washington has been directing and funding terrorist rings to achieve its regional objectives, adding that Tehran would be passing on the evidence to the UN.

November 28, 2011 0 comments

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