++ Somayeh Mohammadi was again made to publicly swear at her family by the MEK. From this week the whole Mohammadi family are trying to push the issue; Somayeh’s father Mostafa, Mahboubeh her mother and her sister Houriyeh and brother Mohammad. They have written heartbreakingly about their long quest to rescue Somayeh from captivity by the Rajavis in the hope these missives would somehow reach her. Mahboubeh wrote ‘Tired of Not Seeing You’ and ‘Houriyeh is Impatient’. Mostafa wrote a long article titled ‘Tell a story to wake your children up, not to send them to sleep!’
++ J Salvar’s article compares Massoud Rajavi’s Harem with that of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and concludes that Rajavi had more wives. Salvar says the MEK’s shared mentality about women is shown by their excessive praise for Abduallah.
++ Reactions to last week’s news of the MEK’s publication of receipts showing payments to members of the NCRI attracted both ridicule and serious comments: ‘if this is true then their support is based on buying people, if not they are simply liars’. Others remind existing members of the NCRI that they are paid with the bloody money from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq which is soiled with the deaths of children. Those who were named on the receipts – Mohammad Reza Rowhani and Karim Ghassim – have also spoken out. Ghassim says he believes the reason the MEK published his name is because he exposed the price paid to Patrick Kennedy and the source of the agency which the MEK hires from. This counts as retaliation by the MEK; how ridiculous.
++ Two more people died, one in Iraq, one in Albania. This is becoming a weekly feature. Hanif Mohahmmad Nejad an internal critic has pointed out in an open letter to Rajavi that “whenever anyone dies, you [Rajavi] embark on a story of how Iraq didn’t help and the US didn’t help and the UN people stopped him or her from visiting the doctor, and this and that agent of the regime stopped the medicine. I have never seen these people dying from any other reason. The more I think about it the more I can’t believe you expect us to believe that the whole world – the US embassy, the Red Cross, the UN, etc – are all working together to kill people in the camp. It would be interesting if you would give a reason why you expect people to believe this.”
++ Sahar Family Foundation addresses people in Europe. The article says that in Baghdad there is clear evidence that Camp Liberty is in chaos with infighting and disobedience. The MEK have turned some parts of the camp into prisons and hold people there for up to two weeks if they have not obeyed orders or have said something leaders didn’t like. Victims have to apologise and beg for mercy. The worst crime is to approach the Iraqi posts, which is punished by beatings.
On other hand MEK leaders are on overdrive in name calling all the agencies. The UN says that when they go in the MEK pretend to use wood to cook their food and claim they are denied fuel. The latest delivery of fuel was immediately emptied into a tank at the back of the Camp and the MEK claimed they didn’t receive it. Similarly medicine, which is freely available on request and paid for by the UN, is signed for but the next day the MEK claim they don’t have it. Medicine is being used as a weapon to make people obey. The camp residents see the UN coming and going and although they are forbidden from approaching them, this has given them courage. There is now a power struggle as people are beginning to shout back at the commanders and refuse to obey orders.
Sahar asks people in Europe and Iraq, including ex members, as well as the MEK’s internal critics like Rowhani, Ghassim and Mesdaghi who perhaps have some leverage, to do more. Sahar says they should put pressure on the MEK and its backers in the West to end this humanitarian disaster. Sahar invites everyone to visit Baghdad and see the situation for themselves if they think we are lying.
++ Several letters have been written to the people in Albania encouraging them to keep their spirits up and not to be afraid. They say, your situation is now different from what you left behind. For the sake of those still in Camp Liberty and those who died, stay strong and don’t give in for the MEK’s 500 dollars, that won’t last long.
In English:
++ A review authored by Massoud khodabandeh and Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton) from Middle East Strategy Consultants has been published in Asian Politics and Policy, Media Reviews. (Volume 7, Issue 1, January 2015). The article titled ‘The Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and Its Media Strategy: Methods of Information Manufacture’ looks at the MEK’s historical manipulation of various media over thirty years. Other terrorist entities such as Al Qaida and ISIS have only recently shown themselves media savvy and have been able to create artificial reputations through exploiting both media and internet communications. In this review the authors demonstrate that the MEK has long pursued this propaganda strategy.
++ Mohammad Razaghi in France writes to Ambassador Dritan Tola of Albania to bring his attention to the desperate plight of those refugees from Camp Liberty who are now still in MEK hands in Iraq. “I thank you and the government of Albania for your humanitarian efforts in accepting some of the members of this organisation which has removed these people away from the dangers of remaining in Iraq. You government has demonstrated its commitment to human rights by taking this important step to save to lives of these unfortunate people.
“But what we hear from Tirana is somehow disturbing. We hear that that Maryam Rajavi is sending her top known agents from Paris and these agents, who are from her ‘Leadership Council’, are now trying to control the lives of the recently arrived people as they did in the Iraqi camps. The pressure on these survivors of Camp Liberty camp who are now in your country is constant.”
++ Mazda Parsi writing in Nejat Bloggers says the MEK leader colludes with Israel when she calls the murdered Argentinean special prosecutor Alberto Nisman a “martyr to peace and freedom”. Parsi examines Gareth Porter’s allegations about the MEK’s involvement in blaming Iran for the bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994.
“As well as Al Jazeera, Porter believes that the repetitious claims and unfounded testimonies of MKO affiliated witnesses in Nisman’s arrest warrant just help the propaganda against Iranian government continue. Porter writes, “Nisman’s rambling and repetitious report cites statements by four members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which is the political arm of the MEK, as the sources for the charge that Iran decided on the AMIA bombing in August 1993… Although Nisman called his MKO witnesses as “completely truthful”, Gareth Porter criticizes his arrest warrant for lacking any evidence or reason to believe that any of the MKO members were in a position to have known about the high-level meeting between Iranian officials for the so-called plot against AMIA… Considering Nisman as “pro-Israel, anti-Iran” political figure, Porter believed that the special prosecutor’s “readiness to base the crucial accusation against Iran in the AMIA case solely on MEK sources and his denial of their obvious unreliability highlights the fact that he has been playing a political role on behalf of certain powerful interests rather than uncovering the facts.””
++ In an open letter to François Hollande, 78 signatories say the Mojahedin Khalq are threatening to kill them in France and other countries.
“These former members who are subjected to death threats, reside legally in France, Europe and elsewhere. The wife of Massoud Rajavi, and other PMOI commanders who reside in France, have been tasked with executing this order. The message itself violates French national sovereignty and constitutes incitement to commit murder… Unfortunately, the headquarters of this dangerous cult is in France, in the department of Val d’Oise, not far from the capital. For three decades the headquarters of the PMOI has been protected by the French government. Enforced segregation, with no contact with the outside world, has allowed the PMOI to conduct sectarian indoctrination and terrorist training in this headquarters, just as in its military bases in Iraq. The self-immolation of several PMOI members following the arrest on 17 June 2003 of their leader (Maryam Rajavi) and a dozen of their senior commanders on terrorism and money laundering charges is just one example of the violence of this organization. Through these acts of violence in the streets of Paris and other European capitals, the PMOI tried to intimidate the French Judiciary to abandon its investigations. An indication of the PMOI’s ongoing violent beliefs is their support for other terrorist groups, even Islamic State which Maryam Rajavi hails as “nomadic and revolutionary Iraqi people.””
February 6, 2015
