{"id":2369,"date":"2009-03-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/2009\/03\/26\/mko-members-bribe-iraqi-politicians\/"},"modified":"2021-01-21T18:59:45","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T15:29:45","slug":"mko-members-bribe-iraqi-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/posts\/2369","title":{"rendered":"MKO Members Bribe Iraqi Politicians"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">&quot;Available intelligence reports, which are very accurate, indicate that several political figures and groups have taken bribes from the MKO in exchange for<img alt=\"\"hspace=\"10\"align=\"left\"vspace=\"10\"src=\"https:\/\/st.nejatngo.org\/Image\/Politician\/Iraq\/Al_Rubaie\/Al_Rubaie_2.jpg\"\/> their support,&quot; Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, said in remarks translated from Arabic. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">&quot;From a legal perspective, these briberies have reached a stage where they can be considered criminal activity,&quot; Rubaie told reporters following a Saturday meeting with top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, press tv reported. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">However, the senior Iraqi advisor refrained from implicating any particular individual. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">Rubaie said that Baghdad does not recognize the MKO cult to be a legal group nor is it allowed to carry out its activities in Iraq. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">&quot;Those 3,418 individuals who are currently residing at Camp Ashraf in the Diyala province are there as Iranian nationals,&quot; he explained. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">Rubaie pointed out that although Iraq will not force occupants of Camp Ashraf to return to Iran, many of them are willing to go back to their homeland voluntarily. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union&#8217;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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">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). <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">Leaders of the group have been fighting to shed its terrorist tag after a series of bloody anti-Western attacks in the 1970s, and nearly 30 years of violent struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">In recent months, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world in the hope of acknowledgement as a legitimate opposition group. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">The UK initiative, however, prompted the European Union to establish relations with the exiled organization now based in Paris. The European Court of First Instance threw its weight behind the MKO in December and annulled its previous decision to freeze its funds. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">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&#8217;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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">The terrorist group joined Saddam&#8217;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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">The MKO has been in Iraq&#8217;s Diyala province since the 1980s. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">In August 2008, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution setting a six-month deadline for all MKO members to leave the country or face possible expulsion. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\"style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: &quot;Verdana&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;\">Tehran has pardoned several former MKO members who have expressed remorse, allowing them to return to the country.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Available intelligence reports, which are very accurate, indicate that several political figures and groups have taken bribes from the MKO in exchange for their support,&#8221;Iraqi National Security Advisor.&#8221;From a legal perspective, these briberies have reached a stage where they can be considered criminal activity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":-1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[448,83,15],"module":[67],"ctype":[17],"blog":[235],"class_list":["post-2369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iraq","tag-countdown-mko-departure-iraq","tag-mko-news","tag-hypocrisy_mko","module-news","ctype-story","blog-fars-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2369"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=2369"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=2369"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=2369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}