Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The US, MKO, and the Global War on Terrorism

In a research report by Margaret D. Stock published in Refugee Council USA (RCUSA) in 2006, she has explored one of the stranger and more embarrassing legal conundrums arising out of efforts by the US Congress to tighten the immigration and criminal laws relating to terrorism. The case she delved into is the terrorist organization (MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCR, NLA) that since 1997 the Secretary of State Madeleine Albright designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), a group that has since remained on the list.

As The Department of Justice has been prosecuting and deporting persons who provide material support to MKO, at the same time, the Department of Defense has designated Iraq-based members of the group as “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention, and is maintaining its members at Camp Ashraf in Iraq, where in full awareness of its designation as a FTO the U.S. military personnel provide “material support” to the group.

Although four years old, the research report gives especial attention to the existing internal conflict in the administration wherein some party equivocate about the nature and the status of the organization for certain political interests. And MKO has long survived in Washington policy crevices and has been rallying support from conflicting factions to challenge its designation on the list. Cunning seizers of opportunity as MKO is, it knows when to take advantage of a created political gap between the administration and the group’s adversary in the political arena. As Ervand Abrahamian, a history professor at Baruch College in New York asserts about MKO,”They have a lot of money. They have spokesmen who know how to deal with congressmen and the press. But people who sign their petitions don’t know anything about the mujahedeen. […] It’s hypocritical. If we are running a war against terrorism and one day we define a group as terrorists and the next day they cease to be terrorists, that undermines U.S. credibility.”

Link to the main text (pdf)

July 20, 2010 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MKO: Sophisticated Extremists who Lack Legitimacy

In order for any political group to be successful in achieving a political agenda, the group must have national, public support. And yet, in order to gain public support, the group must—in the public’s view—be legitimate. The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) aka MKO,PMOI is such a group that has little national, public support, and in turn lacks legitimacy. By and far, most Iranians will assert that the group is neither an authentic nor viable opposition group and it must be examined more closely by foreign nations, particularly Western foreign nations.

Political figures, particularly in the US and Europe, are largely uninformed of the MKO’s enduring and ugly strategy due to heavy and sneaky lobbying by MKO officials who have scarily managed to gain an ear among some politicians and neoconservative think-tank activists. Journalist, Abigail Hauslohner, who writes for Time asserts that, “despite its position on the U.S. terrorist list since 1997, and reports by former members of abusive and cult-like practices at Ashraf, the MEK has gathered support from some surprising places abroad — especially since the U.S. invasion — by pitching itself as a viable opposition to the mullahs in Tehran.” Hauslohner interviewed Gary Sick, a Persian Gulf expert at Columbia University’s Middle East Institute and the author of All Fall Down: America’s Tragic Encounter With Iran. Sick describes that “the MKO have been extremely clever and very, very effective in their propaganda and lobbying of members of Congress." Sick says, "They get all sorts of people to sign their petitions. Many times the Congressmen don’t know what they’re signing." [1]

Raymond Tanter, a professor at Georgetown University is among those who have “sided” with the MKO, but his pledge to them involves a lot more than just a careless signatures. The Georgetown Voice, Georgetown University’s weekly news magazine since 1969, published an article by Will Sommer, on Tanter’s ties to the MKO which among other findings, exposes Tanter’s influence among congress members in the U.S. and parliament members in Europe. Sommer points out that Tanter uses his own pro-MKO books in class, and many students wonder what makes him loyal to the MKO. One student he interviewed concluded that Tanter sounded like he was “a lobbyist for the MEK.” [2]

Sommer furthers that “as the president of the Iran Policy Committee, a non-profit organization that promotes using Iranian oppositionists against Iran, Tanter is a tireless booster for the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK/[MKO]), an armed group of Iranian exiles that seeks to overthrow the Iranian government. Its efforts are hampered by its placement on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, a classification Tanter says should be reversed so the MEK can counter Iran […] Tanter does not consider himself a lobbyist—because the MEK is considered a terrorist group, advocacy on their behalf is illegal.” [3] And yet, as of 7/12/2010, the MKO shows a photograph of Raymond Tanter at its “Grand Gathering” in Paris.

Since 1979, the Iranian government has had little or limited and fragile support from Western nations; it struggles diplomatically as it tries to establish respect among its own population. Meanwhile, the leaders of the MKO have a lofty plan to save Iran, while peddling the idea that the situation Iran will improve if they themselves replace the Iranian government. While this is a noble and exciting cause, and may appear to naive Westerners to be the solution to the “Iran problem”, in fact it is not. The reason why is because, even in the name of peace and democracy, they lack legitimacy and support both abroad and at home—from which they have been exiled.

The MKO evolved from radical beginnings in 1963 to a full blown cult by 1987. By 2006 in order to boost its image and divert the public from its affinity as a cult, (on behalf of the Israeli government) provided dubious information to U.S. officials regarding Iran’s nuclear program. [4] Currently they are focusing on hard lobbying and a massive propaganda campaign which aims to wipe out its cult-image and ugly terrorist activities, with their main goal of being removed from the U.S. State Department’s terrorist list. In order to do this they broadcast their own cable TV program. They publish their own news magazines. Their website epitomizes their effort to glorify themselves while selling the idea that they are the only option for a “free” Iran despite their brutal and dubious past—a past which includes numerous bloody incidents. The Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank which publishes Foreign Affairs, defines the MEK/MKO as having “targeted Iranian government officials and government facilities in Iran and abroad, and during the 1970s, it attacked Americans in Iran. While the group says it does not intentionally target civilians, it has often risked civilian casualties. It routinely aims its attacks at government buildings in crowded cities. MEK terrorism has declined since late 2001. [Some specific] incidents linked to the group include:

– The series of mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids during 2000 and 2001 against Iranian government buildings; one of these killed Iran’s chief of staff;
– The 2000 mortar attack on President Mohammed Khatami’s palace in Tehran;
– The February 2000 “Operation Great Bahman,” during which MEK launched twelve attacks against Iran;
– The 1999 assassination of the deputy chief of Iran’s armed forces general staff, Ali Sayyad Shirazi;
– The 1998 assassination of the director of Iran’s prison system, Asadollah Lajevardi;
– The 1992 near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and institutions in thirteen countries;
– Saddam Hussein’s suppression of the 1991 Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish uprisings;
– The 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party and of Premier Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, which killed some seventy high-ranking Iranian officials, including
President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei and Bahonar;
– The 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by Iranian revolutionaries;
– The killings of U.S. military personnel and civilians working on defense projects in Tehran in the 1970’s. "[5]

For years MKO operatives inside and outside Iran have committed premeditated murder against civilians and government officials, and the murders stem from a terrorist substance, taking place boldly and randomly. The MKO and its supporters call these attacks acts "resistance against the regime," writes Washington Times journalist Kenneth Timmerman. [6]
After the Rajavis’ fled from Iran to France in 1985, France became their sponsor. And then following the rapprochement between France and Iran, the leaders were expelled to Iraq where they became Saddam Hussein’s proxy force against Iranians, Iraqi Kurds and Iraqi Shiites. Following the collapse of Saddam Hussein, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wanted them to be expelled from Iraq. In 2009, Abigail Hauslohner documented for Time that, al-Maliki “warned that an Iranian resistance group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), would no longer be able to have a base on Iraqi territory.” [7]

Recently, as the MKO focuses on cleaning up their image, their violence against civilians has dwindled—and so has their ability to influence Western politicians and intellectuals, especially the U.S. figures who view MKO’s terrorist acts against their fellowmen unpardonable. In his June article, Timmerman, with a sense of urgency, addresses American readers, that “the MEK has a long record of carrying out violent attacks inside Iran. During the period leading up to the 1979 revolution, the group proudly murdered U.S. military officers and civilians working in Iran. And while the group’s current leadership and its apologists claim that those attacks were carried out by a splinter group no longer associated with the MEK, eyewitnesses tell me that the MEK continued to celebrate the anniversary of those murders in ceremonies and song in their training camps inside Iraq all through the 1980s.” [8]

As Timmerman and other journalists continue to outline the MKO’s history of aggression and eccentricity, perhaps Westerners will become aware that the MKO is counting on the West’s gullibility. In their homeland however, support from foreign aggressors—particularly Iraq and the United States—works against them. Daniel Byman, the author of Deadly Connections: States That Sponsor Terrorism theorizes that “many terrorist groups fight in the name of liberation, whether national or religious. If a group is perceived as being controlled by a foreign power, however its credibility as a liberation force diminishes […] The Mujahedin-e-Kalq (MEK), a terrorist group that opposes the clerical regime in Tehran, lost any legitimacy it had when it began to conduct operations out of Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war.” [9]

The MKO should never replace any form of government in Iran simply because they are not a legitimate group. They are terrorists.

Sources:
[1] Hauslohner, Abigail. "Iranian Group a Source of Contention in Iraq." Time 5 January 2009: Web. 13 Jul 2010.
[2] Sommer, Will. "Foreign Policy Maverick." Georgetown Voice 28 February 2008: Web. 13 Jul 2010.
[3] Ibid
[4] Porter, Gareth. "Iran Nuke Laptop Data Came from Terror Group." Anitwar.com 1 March 2008: Web. 14 Jul 2010.
[5] Fletcher, Holly. "Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK) (aka People’s Mujahedin of Iran or PMOI)." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 18 April 2008. Web. 14 Jul 2010.
[6] Timmerman, Kenneth R. "IRANIAN OPPOSITION: Who are the terrorists? PJAK is a danger only to the Islamic regime.”Washington Times 22 June 2010. Web. 14 Jul 2010.
[7] Hauslohner, Abigail. "Iranian Group a Source of Contention in Iraq." Time 5 January 2009: Web. 13 Jul 2010.
[8] Timmerman, Kenneth R. "IRANIAN OPPOSITION: Who are the terrorists? PJAK is a danger only to the Islamic regime.”Washington Times 22 June 2010. Web. 14 Jul 2010.
[9] Byman, Daniel. Deadly Connections: States That Sponsor Terrorism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 76. Print.

By Mazda Parsi

July 19, 2010 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Is the MEK a Terrorist Outfit?

Bomb Blasts in Iran and The Raymond/Constance Tanter DC Divorce Case: Is the MEK/MKO/PMOI/NCRI a Terrorist Outfit?

Mark Dankof: The MEK/MKO/PMOI terror organization. Does it have the fingerprints of the CIA, Mossad, and MI6?

Mark Dankof My radio partner, Mark Glenn, sent me the Agency France Presse (AFP) release today containing the tragic-comedic news that a Washington, D. C.-based 3 judge panel on the U. S. Appeals Court has declared that the U. S. State Department “failed to accord the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran [PMOI]/Mujahideen-e-Khalq [MEK/MKO] the due process protections” necessary for the latter to appeal its classification as a terrorist organization.

The 3 judge panel has apparently not been let in on the history of the MEK/MKO/PMOI in killing Americans working in Pahlavi Iran a generation ago. The preferred method of assassination was to block off an unsuspecting American defense contractor or Embassy official in Tehran vehicular traffic, and then to spray the car with automatic weapons fire. What were the “due process protections” accorded people like American Air Force Colonel Jack Turner of Dayton, Ohio, just one of the victims of the MEK/MKO/PMOI?

My past article on the MEK/MKO/PMOI will serve as an initiation for the uninitiated. So will Ed Blanche’s research on this organization for The Middle East magazine, in June of 2009.

In my past op-ed on the MEK/MKO/PMOI, I noted the following:

And the ultimate paradoxes are these: First, Mr. Bush’s Operation Iraqi Freedom has resulted in the installation of a central government in Baghdad largely sympathetic to the IRI regime in Tehran, and with identical animosity to the MEK’s presence within its borders. Second, while Ed Blanche notes that it “was the MEK that disclosed the existence of Iran’s nuclear program in August 2002, stunning the U. S. intelligence and military establishments,” he fails to note credible information provided by Barry O’Connell and IPS’s Gareth Porter that the MEK’s role in “disclosing the existence of Iran’s nuclear program,” has been to serve as a clandestine conduit of information on the subject supplied by the Israeli intelligence community. Hello, Mossad, meet your new allies in the ‘Islamic-Marxist’ network worldwide.

There you have it. The Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), or People’s Holy Warriors, is an “Islamic-Marxist” terror organization, which assisted in implementing the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979; was subsequently involved in guerrilla warfare operations against the very Iranian Mullahs they helped to bring to power; fought on the side of Saddam Hussein for 8 years in the Iran-Iraq war between 1980-1988; and now, according to Barry O’Connell and Gareth Porter, is working with Jewish neo-conservatives and Israeli intelligence in planting false “intelligence” on Iran’s nuclear program with the American National Security State and Western news media, itching for a confrontation between Tehran and Tel Aviv—even as it now possesses an adversarial role with the very regime in Baghdad installed by Mr. Bush’s War. Confused? . . .

Apparently, the 3 judge panel on the U. S. Court of Appeals in Washington also failed to consult the web sites of the Habilian Association , the Nejat Society , and Survivors’ Report.org. Turn off the Israeli propaganda beamed on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, and see the reports on these web sites. One will learn that the MEK/MKO/PMOI has killed approximately 16,000 in Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, along with many other things concealed from the American public by a Zionist-controlled media and national security establishment.

For this trio of black-robed boobs on the U.S. Court of Appeals in the Nation’s Capital (along with the rest of us), two recent developments bear closer watching in the days ahead. The first is Chris Floyd’s post on the Jundallah-sponsored suicide bombing in Zahedan, Iran this past week, which is especially suggestive. Not one American in 100 could tell you that Jundallah has a reported working relationship with both United States and Israeli intelligence. What are the implications of this link, and Jundallah’s criminal activities in Iran? Are the CIA and Mossad brokering murder and terror in that country?

Floyd, excellent as his writing and research are, missed one essential fact in this week’s analysis, a fact brought to international attention by Dr. Paul Sheldon Foote of Cal State Fullerton in a radio conversation with yours truly.

Foote, a Ron Paul Republican, American Army veteran in Vietnam, and past denizen of the American Embassy in Tehran in olden days, tells us in that conversation that Jundallah has a working relationship with the MEK/MKO/PMOI in criminal acts of terror taking place in Iran with the full connivance of the United States government and Israel.

What in the world is going on here? Are we forced to conclude that terror and murder are only defined as such when perpetrated by adversaries of the American and Israeli governments, but rationalized as “freedom fighting” when accomplished by our “allies?” Do once-governing concepts of international law and civilized conduct not apply to the Central Intelligence Agency and Mossad? And is there a relationship between the American government’s ongoing support for Israel’s lawless, immoral conduct in Iran, Gaza, and Palestine, and the disappearance of a Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branch committed to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution at home?

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison understood that an American government mired in constant foreign interventionism and militarism abroad, was a threat to the liberties and happiness of its own citizens. What would they have said about the United States government’s service to the Israeli Lobby, and the linkage to the criminals in organizations like the MEK/MKO/PMOI/NCRI?

Development number two involves a divorce case currently being litigated in Washington, D. C., involving Georgetown University professor Raymond Tanter and his estranged wife, Constance.

Dr. Raymond Tanter: The Intersection of Georgetown University, the MEK/MKO/PMOI/NCRI, and the Israeli-influenced WINEP

Tanter’s profile at Right Web makes for interesting reading. The biography of the professor states that:

Raymond Tanter is an adjunct scholar at the “pro-Israel” Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a visiting professor at Georgetown University, and founder of the Iran Policy Committee (IPC), which was established in January 2005 to promote regime-change strategies in Iran. Tanter’s experience also includes serving on the National Security Council during the first Ronald Reagan administration and as a Pentagon arms control advisor.

Tanter has been a key advocate for U.S. support of the People’s Mujahedin Organization (MEK), which has been on the State Department’s list of international terrorist organizations since 1997, after it assassinated six U.S. citizens involved in selling weapons to the Shah. Shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Tanter vociferously pushed this argument, claiming that supporting the MEK could replace a U.S. invasion of Iran. He said, “I think that regime change ought to be the policy of the Bush administration. But regime change doesn’t mean that you need the 4th Infantry Division to come in from the north and meet up in the south with the 3rd Infantry Division coming in from the south and the Marines coming in from the West. That is, Iran is not Iraq.” Instead, said Tanter, the United States could support the Iraq-based MEK so that it could launch a cross-border insurgency against Iranian targets. Tanter revived these arguments in a February 2010 IPC press release…."

Both NCRI and the MEK also figured prominently during a 2005 IPC National Press Club briefing. Tanter said: “One military option is the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, which may have the capability to destroy hardened deeply-buried targets. That is, bunker-busting bombs could destroy tunnels and other underground facilities. But the Pentagon’s 2001 Nuclear Posture Review states that over 70 countries employ underground facilities for military purposes, while the United States lacks sufficient means to destroy these facilities. In addition, the Non-Proliferation Treaty bans use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states, such as Iran. Such a prohibition might not apply as much to Israel. In this respect, the United States has sold Israel bunker-busting bombs, which keeps the military option on the table. . . .

“Empowerment requires working with Iranian opposition groups in general and with the main opposition in particular. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) are not only the best source for intelligence on Iran’s potential violations of the nonproliferation regime. The NCRI and MEK are also a possible ally of the West in bringing about regime change in Tehran. . . .

Into this labyrinth maze of American think-tanks, neo-conservatives, the Israeli lobby, an impending Third World War, and the MEK/MKO/PMOI/NCRI, steps one Mrs. Constance Tanter.

Constance Tanter: Targeted by Raymond Tanter and the MEK/MKO/PMOI in divorce settlement proceedings?

Mrs. Tanter publicly alleges in Washington, D. C.-based Divorce Court proceedings, and to many journalistic contacts, that Raymond Tanter utilized agents of the MEK/MKO/PMOI to terrorize her into signing a capitulationist divorce settlement in Paris, France, home to MEK/MKO/PMOI leaders-in-exile Masoud and Miryam Rajavi. She also alleges that Tanter directly, or indirectly, threatened her with “elimination.”

These allegations will presumably be examined by the Court. While ushering at Washington’s National Cathedral recently, Mrs. Tanner claims that amidst the throngs of hundreds there, she was approached by a Middle Eastern man, who handed her a napkin. Her story to Paul Sheldon Foote, a bishop at the Cathedral, and yours truly, is that the napkin contained a simple message: Drop it, or die.

Alleged Napkin of Greeting for Constance Tanter at Washington Cathedral: Drop It or Die

Are the allegations in this divorce case anger-driven fiction straight out of a Hollywood script for an Edward Woodward episode of The Equalizer? Or are they a terrifying microcosm of a cosmic tragedy playing itself out in a clandestine battle of governments, intelligence agencies, hoodlums, and terrorists?

One thing is not in doubt. Netanyahu’s globally public utterances, along with those of the Israeli lobby and American neo-conservative stooges like John McCain and Joseph Lieberman, underscore that war with Iran and the mass murder of Iranians, is the desired outcome for these constituencies, no matter how many thousands of innocents are killed or how far afield of true American national security interests this Zionist-driven madness really is.

You heard it all first from Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

And as for Constance Tanter, she plans on telling her story to Mark Glenn and Mark Dankof in a future broadcast of The Ugly Truth. Stay tuned.

July 18, 2010 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Western supporters of MKO must be cautious!

It is now more than 5 months since some families of the members of Mujahedin-e Khalq

Families picketing in front of Ashraf camp for more than 5 months

Organization (MKO – Rajavi cult) based in Ashraf camp in Iraq are protesting in front of the camp and their only wish is to visit their loved ones whom they have not seen in some cases for more than two decades. The leaders of MKO cult have of course denied their plea and on the contrary have called their move a conspiracy plotted by the enemies.

Massoud Rajavi the leader of MKO terrorist cult, who was allied with Saddam Hussein, and is on the run since the invasion of Iraq, has called the appeal a circus show and has compared the families to circus animals. These comments were broadcasted in the cult’s satellite television. During this time some mind manipulated elements of the cult residing inside Ashraf camp have tried to intimidate the families and insulted them in several occasions. These actions of course had no impact on the families and did not make them to pull back and on the contrary have made them more decisive to insist on their demands and carry on their picketing until they manage to see their relatives.

The cultic behaviors of MKO and its leaders are quite exposed to those who have even little knowledge about the deeds of this terrorist destructive cult. Several researchers, experts and international bodies do recognize MKO as a cult of personality. MKO is a destructive cult which is

Manipulated elements of MKO cult threatening the families

threatening its own confined members more than anyone else and has the capacity of creating a human tragedy.

The families of captive members inside cultic camp of Ashraf have every right to be concerned about their loved ones there. Circus show is exactly what Rajavi has set up in Iraq and innocent people have been moved away from their human nature and have become robots and machines who could be run in any way their desire, and of course the audience of this miserable and sad circus show are the supporters of MKO in the west who try to keep them alive against humanity for their short term benefits.

Rajavi and its associates are undoubtedly the enemies of Iranian people and their positions are clear. But to respond to those who try to keep MKO active and add to the misery and pains of the

Families of MKO cult members call for help

families and the members in Iraq we just quote Dr. Massoud Banisadr from a website in Britain which has recently been published and we hope it finds its wise addressees:

“I wished Mr. Bolton could remember the advice of his Neo Cons friends to President Reagan in arming Taliban and Terrorists of Bin Laden against the Soviet Union, and could understand how unwise it is to use terrorists and cults against those who one might consider as enemies.

Maryam Rajavi is the cult leader of MEK labeled as Terrorists in US and till recently in EU. Being cult means that they can say anything and pretend to be anybody in hope of reaching to power, and when they do so, they will show their real color. Unfortunately then it is too late for people like Mr. Bolton to compensate for their mistakes as catastrophe of cult leaders in power cannot be erased without loss of lives of millions of innocent people. Don’t’ forget that even Hitler came to power using the same democracy that it seems nowadays to be the slogan of Rajavis. Then, there were some Americans and British who were thinking that they can use Hitler against communists and the Soviet Union, but in power Hitler and his cult of personality did what they did. Then it was too late for free world to realize that they cannot trust cult leaders. To reverse their mistakes millions of lives had to be sacrificed. Recent report of American Think Thank RAND for US defense department pointed out very clearly that NCR or MEK under Rajavi is a destructive cult that can change color at any minute to advance its goals. Not long ago their main slogan was death to the US and calling ‘Human Rights’ and ‘liberal democracy’ as ploy of Imperialism against oppressed people, and now they are using the same slogans to gain support of western politicians against Iranian regime. Do we really want friends like this and support cult leaders that soon can change into new enemies like Bin Laden?”

Sahar Family Foundation in Iraq once again calls the world community, international organizations, human rights activists, public media, and all humanitarian individuals particularly supporters of MKO in the west, who have just seen its misleading appearance and do not know about its wicked nature, to do whatever in their capacity to satisfy the request of the suffering families.

July 15, 2010 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

US training Iran-bound MKO spies

A sign at reads "welcome to Camp Taji" at the US base’s new passenger terminal, file photo
The US military forces in Iraq are training 150 members of a terrorist organization at a military base in the war-ravaged country, informed sources say.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Press TV that the select group of terrorists, all longtime members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), has been moved from their base in Camp Ashraf near Baghdad to a US base in central Iraq.

The trainings are taking place at Camp Taji, a military installation used by the coalition forces. The base is located near the central town of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province.

The US plans to dispatch the trained MKO members as secret agents across the border and into Iran, with plans to carry out terror acts, according to the sources.

The Iraq-based group is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and aside from conducting numerous acts of terror in Iran, is also known for its full-fledged support for former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in suppressing the 1991 Shia uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.

July 13, 2010 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Documentary lashes western supporters of MKO terrorists

… Bolton and Aznar were there to represent a transatlantic coalition of neoconservative pro-Israeli interests who seem to wish to promote the PMOI as the legitimate opposition to Iran’s clerical regime. Bolton’s credentials need no rehearsal here, but let’s not forget that Aznar has recently signed on as a founding member of a European Friends of Israel, in the face of the disastrous repercussions of the Gaza Freedom floatilla raid. The reason for this is fairly clear: on the issues of Israel and on Iran’s nuclear program the Green Movement is dedicated to …
Download Documentary lashes western supporters of MKO terrorists used against Iranians and Iraqis

July 3, 2010 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Israel’s Iranian Opposition?

(Representatives of Pro-Israili interests rully to promote Mojahedin Khalq terrorists)

Representatives of Pro-Israili interests rully to promote Mojahedin Khalq terrorists Two days ago, I found it curious to learn of a large rally held in Paris by the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI, also known as MEK or MKO) by reading the headlines on Ynet and on Ha’aretz. I usually follow Iranian opposition events via various other Iranian websites, where the rally was not mentioned. And while the Israeli press can be counted upon to have nearly daily entries in its hysterical campaign towards a military confrontation with Iran, it still seemed curious to find this rally by a relatively discredited Iranian opposition group featured so prominently on these Israeli websites. But then reading closely the matter was clarified somewhat (from Ha’aretz):
The rally by the PMOI, which Washington considers to be a terrorist organisation, was attended by former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton and Jose Maria Aznar, the former prime minister of Spain.
Bolton and Aznar were there to represent a transatlantic coalition of neoconservative pro-Israeli interests who seem to wish to promote the PMOI as the legitimate opposition to Iran’s clerical regime. Bolton’s credentials need no rehearsal here, but let’s not forget that Aznar has recently signed on as a founding member of a European Friends of Israel, in the face of the disastrous repercussions of the Gaza Freedom flotilla raid. The reason for this is fairly clear: on the issues of Israel and on Iran’s nuclear program the current movement is dedicated to promoting an independent policy for the country. While it is likely they would take a very different tone and approach to both issues, the current movement will likely do little to satisfy the interests of the Israel Lobby and neoconservatives for a pro-Israeli and subservient Iran. With the PMOI as the only reasonably well-established alternative, these groups have thrown their lot in with them. If the confrontation with Iran becomes military in nature, it seems likely that the PMOI will be (again) touted by these interests as the “leadership in exile” for any regime-change scenario.
This is not entirely new. During the Bush years, the PMOI sought alliances with the neoconservatives in the US, with a number of bipartisan congressmen acting as intermediaries to call for their removal from the terrorist list, and to advocate for their recognition as a legitimate Iranian opposition group. They are now at it again, with a new move to give legitimacy to the group launched just days ago, with a number of congressmen signed on. In the past, highly-placed neoconservatives such as Richard Perle have attended PMOI-related events and spoke positively of the group. And the group has done much to complement the interests of these allies: they were instrumental in building up the case for Iran’s nuclear program, and have supplied intelligence they claim to have gathered from inside Iran to bolster the case for an arms program — it’s unclear how accurate or legitimate this intelligence may be, but there are certainly shades of the famous WMD intelligence relating to Iraq in all of this.
Among most prominent activists in the Iranian opposition, the PMOI is rarely remembered kindly, when they are bothered to be remembered at all. Already discredited among most Iranians for their alliance with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war, and despised by Kurds everywhere for willfully participating in Hussein’s genocidal campaigns against them, the Mojahedin have come to be seen by most Iranians as an embarrassing aberration in the political landscape. While the Islamic Republic has a virulent hostility towards the group, most secular left or reformist Iranians also will have nothing to do with the group and reject its inclusion in any coalitions to oppose the regime. In Europe and the US, during anti-regime demonstrations supporting the current movement, the appearance of PMOI flags or leaflets often led to standoffs and even fights among the demonstrators, with PMOI agents far outnumbered. They now stand all alone in the Iranian scene, with their only true supporters drawn from the Israel Lobby and the margins of US and European politics.
What is so strange is that there they had once acted as the vanguard of revolutionary activity and as a synthesis of leftist and Islamist idealism in the first years of the post-revolutionary period. However, in exile they have been transformed into a political irrelevancy, made worse by their adoption of cult-like policies to maintain discipline in their ranks. The group demands of the rank-and-file a troubling adoration of the figure of Maryam Rajavi, the nominal leader of the group, relying on systems of regular debriefing and self-criticism which are mandatory for all members. Furthermore the group exerts control of many aspects of members’ personal lives, including in matters of marriage, divorce and parenting. Given what they have become, any idea of their resurgence as a valid player in Iranian politics strikes me as one of the most terrifying possibilities for Iran’s future. Their placement on the US terrorism list was clearly a political gesture during Clinton’s administration, but many Iranians find them more troubling for reasons other than the terrorist acts they have carried out.
Rather than hear me describe these, I think it’s better to let the PMOI represent themselves — in videos they have produced. Also, here, and here and here (and you can find many more just by clicking on the related videos or googling the group’s other videos). It baffles the mind that the PMOI are so blind as to how out-of-touch their fascistic aesthetics are with the ideals of Iran’s democratic opposition and their supporters. Check out the videos linked above, produced by the PMOI to publicize "celebrations" and other group events held in their base in Iraq, and tell me if you don’t find a chill creeping down your spine… Echoes of Triumph of the Will, or the Dear Leader…
Bizarrely, the PMOI continues to enjoy support even among some on the US left. The Huffington Post, for example, offers a forum to two of the group’s more active US propagandists, Ali Safavi and Alireza Jafarzadeh. It seems likely that we’ll be hearing more about them once again as the talk of a military confrontation grows. It’s no surprise that the neocons and Israel’s most steadfast supporters are also now openly backing the PMOI.

Mondoweiss.net By Kamran

July 1, 2010 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Aznar and Bolton in a sect gathering in Paris

(Aznar and Bolton joined forced to found the Friends of Israel Initiative)

On 26 June 2010, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (Mujahideen-e-Khalq) convened a gathering of their members at Taverney, near Paris.

This military sect is commanded by Massoud and Myriam Rajavi, although it is not known whether Massoud is still alive since he hasn’t been seen in public since 2003.

While the Pentagon and the Obama Administration have detached themselves from this organisation, the Mujahedin continue to enjoy the support of the neo-conservatives, Israel and France, which hosts its headquarters.

Approximately 30 000 people from all over Europe listened to speeches by former Spanish Prime Minister José-Maria Aznar and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton – who recently joined forces to found the Friends of Israel Initiative- calling on the State Department to stop considering the People’s Mujahedin as a terrorist organisation and on the European Union to unilaterally reinforce the sanctions against Iran.

Voltairenet, June 28, 2010

June 29, 2010 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Israeli lobby has Dropped the Dead Donkey

Israeli lobby – European Parliament branch – has ‘dropped the dead donkey’

In a new development, Struan Stevenson and Vidal Qadras have stopped their support for the Rajavis, leaders of the Mojahedin-e Khalq cult.
the rush to get back to issues involving Iran, they have abandoned the MKO. As they say in the newsroom, they have ‘dropped the dead donkey’.
The former advocates of the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MKO, MEK, NCRI, Rajavi cult) moved to the Iraq Delegation to make best use of the cult when the MKO issue became defunct in relation to Iran and became a more useful tool in support of the Saddamists in Iraq.

But the MKO failed to do anything for them in Iraq, and the Israeli lobby has decided to get involved again in demonizing Iran.

It is particularly pertinent at precisely the time when Israeli soldiers killed several aid workers on a ship in international waters – what it described as a ‘PR disaster’! which fed into the hands of Iran.

In a protest, MEPs Stevenson and Vidal-Qadras, from the Iraq Delegation, heckled the Iranian Foreign Minister during his visit to the European Parliament.

The significance of this is that in the rush to get back to issues involving Iran, they have abandoned the MKO. As they say in the newsroom, they have ‘dropped the dead donkey’.

June 3, 2010 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Secrets of the Tea Party

The troubling history of Tea Party leader Dick Armey

As the Tea Party movement has gained momentum during the last 12 months, it seems few Tea Partiers have caught on to the troubling past of the man at the center of their movement: FreedomWorks chairman, former House Majority Leader and recently-retired lobbyist extraordinaire, Dick Armey.

As chairman of FreedomWorks, the group credited with mobilizing the Tea Party movement, Armey is the movement’s de facto leader. Yet Armey’s years spent lobbying for a group recognized by the State Department as being a terrorist organization—should give Tea Partiers pause.

In the weeks before April 15, 2009, local newspapers began reporting that groups calling themselves TEA, or Taxed Enough Already, were planning rallies to protest wasteful government spending. By the time Tax Day rolled around, over 300 protests were under way in all 50 states. More than 100,000 people took to the streets, gathered in parks and city centers with signs, slogans and costumes evoking America’s revolutionary past.

The protests have continued. On Sept. 12, 2009, Tea Partiers marched on Washington, D.C. From a podium at the base the Capitol Building, Armey addressed the crowd with his wife Susan by his side. They were standing there together, he said, for the future of their grandchildren.

At which point the crowd burst into the collective chant: “You lie! You lie! You lie,” echoing Rep. Joe Wilson’s (D-S.C.) outburst during Obama’s address to Congress two days earlier.
Armey went on to lead the masses in the chant: “Freedom works! Freedom works! Freedom works!”

The man behind the movement
Only one month before that populist moment on Capitol Hill, Armey was employed as a lobbyist by leading international “consulting firm” DLA Piper. In that capacity, from 2005 to 2009, Armey promoted the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, otherwise known as Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), which the State Department has branded a terrorist group. Armey lobbied his former colleagues on behalf of legislation that would have provided taxpayer support to the MEK.

Armey’s work as a lobbyist—during which time he also served as chairman of FreedomWorks and organized Tea Party protests—is not mentioned in his FreedomWorks biography. This omission can perhaps be explained by the anti-lobbyist sentiments held by so many Tea Partiers. At the first national Tea Party Convention held in Nashville in February, former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin spouted off on the Obama administration’s failure to eliminate lobbyists and cronyism in D.C. during her keynote speech and the crowd burst into loud applause.

As a lobbyist, Armey has not let his stated ideology stand in the way of his paycheck. In 2008, as corporations and banks across the nation were being bailed out with billions of tax dollars, Armey was lobbying on provisions of the TARP Reform and Accountability Act of 2009 for CarMax, a Fortune 500 company that went on to issue $1.5 billion in asset-backed securities eligible for investor loans under the TARP and Federal Reserve-subsidized Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).

However, the most interesting set of clients Armey represented during his career as a lobbyist were two Iranian-American businessmen: Akbar Nikooie and Saied Ghaemi.
From 2005 to 2008, Ghaemi paid out $910,000 to DLA Piper for the service of Armey, his former staffer Jean Campbell, and a handful of other lobbyists to bring issues relating to Iranian “foreign relations” and “human rights” to the attention of Congress, the Department of Defense, the State Department, the White House, the National Security Council and the Department of the Treasury.

2007 was a banner year for Armey’s work on U.S./Iran relations. Ghaemi shelled out $400,000 for Armey and his team of Capitol Hill lobbyists. There were two bills before Congress that year that would have had a profound effect on U.S.-Iran foreign policy and could have potentially benefited a group of exiled Iranians greatly—namely MEK. Armey, during his time as Ghaemi’s voice on the Hill, became the outspoken proponent of MEK, repeatedly urging Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to remove the group’s terrorist designation.

In a 2007 article written by Armey in The Hill, he said the Bush administration would be wise to utilize MEK, which is violently opposed to the current Islamic regime. “Supporting the democratic opposition holds great promise for promoting the cause of freedom and democracy in Iran, particularly the group feared most by the regime (MEK),” wrote Armey, who concluded by saying “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” This statement had never before been so true.

According to the State Department, MEK, a group that blends Marxist and Islamist tenets, was founded for the purpose of overthrowing the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran. In 1975 and 1976, MEK allegedly killed seven American defense advisors to the Shah.

MEK’s initial purpose was realized in 1979 when the group, along with followers of Ayatollah Khomeini, successfully staged the Islamic revolution, seizing the Tehran U.S. Embassy and sending the Shah into exile. Following the revolution, MEK was sent into exile by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Over the following two decades MEK allied itself with Saddam Hussein to undermine the Islamic government of Iran. During the onset of the Iraq War in 2003, U.S. troops captured and detained 4,000 MEK soldiers near the Iran/Iraq border.

One of the bills Armey was lobbying for in 2007 would have directed the State Department to place the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on its list of foreign terrorist organizations, because the IRGC was involved in both surveillance and combat against U.S. forces in Iraq. The bill (HR 1324) quoted an article published in Sobh-e Sadeq, an Iranian state-run publication produced for the IRGC, that advocated the capture of “blue-eyed blonde soldiers, who would become grain to be fed to hungry gamecocks that are waiting for our signal.” In effect, the bill would have in effect justified U.S. military action against Iran.

The second bill, the Iran Human Rights Act of 2007, asked Congress to “hold the current regime in Iran accountable for its human rights record and to support a transition to democracy in Iran.”

One of the bill’s several provisions, custom tailored for MEK, called for an amendment to the Iran Freedom Support Act of 2006 that would have endorsed U.S. support for groups dedicated to overthrowing the Ahmadinejad regime, both within (as the law then provided for), as well as outside Iran (as in the case of MEK).

Critics note that the proposed legislation was strikingly similar to the Clinton administration’s use of the Iraq Liberation Act to employ and fund the Iraq National Congress and its less-than-reputable leader, Ahmed Chalabi, in a failed attempt to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Despite the fact that neither bill passed in the 110th Congress (though the State Department did designate the IRGC as a foreign sponsor of terror in October, 2007), Ghaemi continued to employ Armey until July 2008. After that, Armey did not drop the banner; that same month Nikooie began to patronize DLA Piper and Armey lobbying on issues of “Iranian human rights.” To date, Nikooie has paid the firm $210,000.

Neither Ghaemi nor Nikooie could be reached for comment.

A common refrain
Armey hasn’t been alone in his support of MEK. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) led a concerted effort during the Bush administration to have the State Department remove MEK from its list of terrorist organizations.

Ironically, given his support of a socialist group, Tancredo delivered an acerbic opening address at the National Tea Party Convention. “People who could not even spell the word ‘vote,’ or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House,” he said. “His name is Barack Hussein Obama.”

Palin seemed to agree with Armey and Tancredo on their stance toward Iran in her

Tea Party convention speech in February.
“Around the world people seeking freedom from oppressive regimes wonder if Alaska [sic] is still that beacon of hope for their cause,” Palin said. “The administration has cut support for democracy programs, and where the president has not been clear, I ask: Where is his strong voice of support for the Iranians who are risking all in their opposition to Ahmadinejad?”

Beau Hodai, inthesetimes.com, March 22, 2010

March 28, 2010 0 comments

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