Nejat Society participated in the 19th Tehran International Exhibition of Press, News Agencies on October 2012.
The February 9th mortar attack on the Temporary Transit Location (TTL) for the members of the Mujahedin 
Khalq Organization known as Camp Liberty, which left 7 dead and dozens injured, opened a new opportunity to the group leaders to run their new plot:”Return to Ashraf”.
The group said that more than 100 had been injured in the shelling and its demands to return to its previous location in Iraq, Camp Ashraf, had been ignored, New York Times reported.[1]
A few hours after the Liberty attack, the MKO websites launched largescale propaganda over the issue. They held an event where a number of their supporters including Howard Dean, Patrick Kennedy, and Strauan Stevenson, spoke on behalf of the group’s recently taken agenda; they all called for residents’ return to Camp Ashraf. Among the event speakers was Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York who condemned Martin Kobler and even former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton for not protecting Liberty residents. He went further and suggested the relocation of Liberty residents to the United States territory. Surprisingly, this part of his speech is no more available on YouTube or the MKO websites. It seems that Mr. Giuliani’s passionate speech was not completely in line with the group’s tactic.
The attack on Liberty that only victimized the suffering hostages held in the MKO’s cult-like structure provided more fuel for the group’s propaganda machine to condemn Iraqi government for its so-called violent act.
New York Times quoted Ali Al Mousavi, saying the accusation from the MEK "is not the first time when they blame us for everything.”[2]
Since the collapse of Iraqi Baath regime, in 2003 and the takeover of camp Ashraf by American military, the MKO was ordered by the new Iraqi government to leave Iraqi territory. Ultimately, in late December 2011, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the UN, Iraqi Government and the MKO in order to evacuate Camp Ashraf and the relocation of its resident in the former American Camp near Baghdad airport, Camp Liberty. But, the MOU didn’t work until the US government promised to remove the group from its list of Foreign Terrorist Organization. the NY Times clarifies:” The MEK had long resisted leaving Camp Ashraf, on land that had been set aside by Saddam Hussein, the toppled Iraqi dictator, and did so only because the United States made it a condition of dropping the group’s terrorist designation”. The report also notifies, “An American official said in August that the MEK had been using Camp Ashraf for paramilitary training.”[3]
The group was delisted in September 2011, only a few weeks after it almost completely evacuated Camp Ashraf. Getting removed from the US black list was a great victory for the MKO that had for years launched a well-funded active lobbying campaign in the US government including the Congress and the Pentagon.
Now that they are no more in the terrorist list they have shifted to the new agenda; return to Ashraf. The attack on TTL (Camp Liberty) provided them with the opportunity to insist on their rude demand but actually it was opposed by the US State Department.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Tuesday, ”The answer for the individuals at (Camp Liberty) is not to relocate back to Ashraf, in our view”, reported the AFP.[4]
“The only peaceful and durable solution for these individuals is resetteltment outside Iraq, and that should continue to be the focus of everything involved in this effort.”[5]
French Foreign Ministry Spokesman Phillipe Lalliot also expressed support over transferring the residents of Liberty underlined its readiness to take part in coordination with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).[6]
MKO is losing the last chances for maintaining its cult in Iraqi territory and this is good news for most Iraqi people. Head of Iraqi human rights group said that Iraq seeks to try absentia the members of the MKO. He said the people of Tuz Khurmato, (a Kurdish area in Iraq) who are victims of the MKO and the trial is going to be held in their city, expressed happiness and satisfaction over the issue. [7]
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] Ghaze, Yasir, Six killed in shelling of Iranian Refugee Camp in Iraq, the NewYork Times,February9,2013
[2]ibid
[3]ibid
[4] AFP, US rejects moving Iranian exiles back to old Camp, Febriary12, 2013
[5]ibid
[6]Aswat al-Iraq, France supports transferring MKO members outside Iraq,February13,2013
[7]ibid
We dont have security here!!!!!!
Following the campaign launched by the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO /MEK) on the alleged 
“inhumane condition” of Camp Liberty, the group leaders and supporters propagate “the necessity of returning residents to Ashraf”. Alejo Vida Quadras, the top MKO supporter in European Parliament suggested the new propaganda under the pretext of "lack of progress in relocation to third countries".
To our surprise, the group leaders do not call on their western supporters to aid facilitate their members’ relocation in European countries instead of returning to Camp Ashraf although a large number of Liberty residents have citizenship in various western countries. Earlier this month, speaking in their so-called international conference in Paris, Maryam Rajavi, the self-assigned president of the National Council of Resistance required the US government to relocate Liberty residents in Camp Ashraf. “Now the US must actively intervene as that the residents can return to Ashraf. Otherwise it would be responsible for what may henceforth happen in Liberty Prison” Rajavi addressed the conference. Fed by the large scale disinformation campaign of the MKO its supporters in Western states label Liberty as "Prison". They resort to the old pretext which has been flooding of storm and sewage at the camp. However, UN Mission in charge of the Camp believes that it complies with normal humanitarian standards as well as necessary infrastructure for residence of the group members. (View our previous post on Camp Liberty: Camp Liberty resembles a prison?)
On January21, 2013, in a debate in UK parliament House of Lords, a few number of Lords expressed their concerns over the situation of Liberty residents. Baroness Warsi, a conservative member of UK House of Lords convinced her coulleagues that heavy rainfall that flooded parts of Camp Liberty as well as many parts of Baghdad "did not affect residents’ accommodation blocks".
To respond her misinformed colleagues about the claims of ex-UNAMI chief Taher Boumedra and the alleged inefficiency of Martin Kobler over Camp Liberty issues, she noted:”Our own officials visited in July last year and the international community does not, at this stage, find any credible evidence to support the matters that have been raised by Mr. Tahar Boumedra.” Boumedra’s claims are still used as evidence by the MKO propaganda.
Lord Avebury who is one of the most loyal supporters of the MKO in UK parliament he pointed to allegations of “ill-treatment such as denial of access to urgently needed medical treatment”. In response Baroness Warsi mentioned that the situation of Liberty residents is “in many ways much better than that of residents in Baghdad.” She referred to the 24-hour electricity available in the Camp while Iraqi nationals enjoy power only three hours a day in some areas of Baghdad. She also noticed that enough water and medical facilities are available in the camp.
Baroness Warsi warned her peers in UK parliament that they “must be incredibly careful” about the MKO regarding its history and record.
The new tactic, the MKO has used to maintain the hegemony over its cult-like group seems to be an alternative to the previous agenda which was running petitions and lobbying efforts to make the UN grant the status of a refugee camp to camp Liberty. The failed tactic led the group to run the new one: return to Ashraf where they claim to own its properties.
In their most recent misinformation event in Paris, the “speakers condemned forcible eviction of Ashraf residents and their transfer to Liberty prison…”, according to NCRI website . They called for “the return of Ashraf residents to the modern town they built in 26 years.” Lord Dholakia’s asked about refugee status of Liberty while he confessed that he WAS misinformed by the MKO saying,”the information the Minister has is not the information that we receive from residents of those camps". Ordinary residents of liberty have no access to the outside world let alone contacting a UK Parliamentarian.
During the debate the conservative Baroness assured her colleagues that Liberty” is not a refugee camp as such: it is a place where individuals are being assessed as to the countries to which they could be relocated.”(View the debate here)
According to reports, almost all former members of the MKO who fled the group camps in Iraq could manage to resettle whether in Iran or in European countries. It sounds that leaving Iraq is not so difficult that the Rajavis could not relocate their members yet. Probably it’s not the matter of ability it’s the matter of will.
By Mazda Parsi
Inside this Issue:
· MKO Given New Deadline to Leave Camp Ashraf
· 17 MKO members defect from terrorist group, reports say
· Ex-MKO member slams UK terror support
· Canada’s delisting of MEK ‘dangerous’: Iran
· MEK seeks Syria-style recognition
· Iraqi Deputy FM: No Country Willing to Shelter MKO Terrorists
· Iraq; Several mass graves unearthed in former MKO camp, Camp Ashraf
· Martin Kobler: The Government of Iraq’s patience is wearing thin. Ashraf residents should cooperate
· 30,000 Iranian spies? Library of Congress withdraws report
Download Pars Brief – Issue No.70
Download Pars Brief – Issue No.70
MEK is stuck in a Stalemate
Cult leaders often tend to claim that they are so spiritually elevated that they know the “absolute 
truth” for the well-being of their followers. In this way, they apply various bizarre practices to blind the followers from observing the reality of maltreatments against them. In the cult, they are constantly kept under a sever mind control manipulative system that they cannot see their leaders abusive acts.
Once the member defects from the cult whether mentally or both mentally and physically, he realizes what has gone to him during the period of his engagement with the cult. He seriously gets motivated to denounce the cult and its leaders.
The majority of former members of the cult of Rajavi (the Mujahedin Khalq Organization/ the MKO/ MEK) are determined to reveal what they once thought as normal in the cult because of the responsibility they feel regarding the threat of the cult for both their former friends in the MKO and the humane community. Overwhelmed with feeling of anger and vengeance against Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, defectors of the MKO can help keeping silent over the human rights abuses they witnessed in the cult. Unsurprisingly, they are labeled by the cult as “agent of the Iranian regime” which is according to Mrs. Ann Singleton (a defector of the cult) a “one size fits all used to designate the victims” of the MKO [1]
Mrs. Singleton and his husband Massoud Khodabande and his brother-in-law Ebrahim are even mentioned as agents of the Iranian intelligence in the recent Pentagon report on Iranian intelligence. The misleading Pentagon report was noticeably run by the MKO’s agents in the US government. Iran Interlink offers evidences on the allegation:
The report is characterized by its mixture of allegation, assertion and allusion, much of which is not substantiated by evidence. The report blends fact and fiction in a manner intended to deceive and mislead. As such, this document is not an attack, it is a defensive act, it is a play on words intended to prevent informed discussion and stop important people being listened to. Indeed, the gratuitous mention of two specific individuals, Anne Singleton and Massoud Khodabandeh, who have consistently exposed the aspects of the Mojahedin Khalq which it most wants to hide – cult nature, human rights violations, mercenary relation to foreign agents – is the strongest possible indication of the provenance of this report.
The other indication is that the source of this specific misinformation is Rabbi Daniel M. Zucker. In a footnote the article “Disinformation Campaign in Overdrive: Iran’s VEVAK in High-Gear” is sourced at Global Politician, September 3, 2007, http://www.globalpolitician.com/23386-vevak-iran (accessed April 17, 2012). Interestingly, this website can no longer be accessed. [2]
However, the whole deceitful report –which was highly propagandized by the MKO – did not disturb the Khodabandehs. On January17, a few days after the report published Massoud Khodabandeh posted this status on his face book profile:
“I told my Mum that the Khodabandeh family was being attacked by the MEK in Washington and that she had been mentioned too. She said – I’m sure you three are more than enough for Rajavi and his cult, but if not, I’ll be happy to personally sort out Rajavi.”
For defectors denunciation of the violence committed in the MKO is kind of delightful job that helps enlighten the world community and release of their ex-comrades.
Ann singleton was among the first defectors to write about her experience with Rajavi’s Cult. She is the author of a book titled “Saddam’s Private Army”[3]. This is a sentence the review of the book published by Amazon.com:
”Told by a western woman who for twenty years had unique access to the secret inner world of the Mojahedin.”[4]
As you read on the book cover, "Saddam’s Private Army” gives a very detailed account and analysis on “How Rajavi changed Iran’s Mojahedin from armed revolutionaries to an armed cult."[5]
Regarding recently published testimonies of female former members about sexual abuse and women’s rights violations in the cult of Rajavi, Singleton’s book is perhaps the first document on the corrupt world created by Maryam and Massoud Rajavi. Singleton describes how Maryam’s ambitions lead her to promote herself in the MKO until she becomes Rajavi’s “personal assistant”. In 1984, Massoud who had been married to Firouzeh Banisadr – daughter of his then ally — divorced from her,” in this respect it is widely believed that she began a sexual relationship with Rajavi even before he divorced from Firouzeh in 1984. Singleton writes, ”She had been appointed head of Rajavi’s office and she worked closely with him in his office often not returning home at night for days. Before their marriage on 8th February 1985 Maryam hadn’t returned home to her husband Abrishamchi for several months. In this time. She had also attended a hospital in Paris for what is believed to have been a termination of pregnancy.”[6]
It took us just a few years more to learn about further violations of human rights in the MKO. Batoul Soltani, is a former member of the MKO’s so-called elite called “Leadership Council”. She bravely revealed horrifying facts about sexual abuse by Massoud Rajavi although she said that recalling those memoires is “awfully difficult” for her.[7]
Mrs. Soltani exposed a cultic ceremony in the MKO, called “Salvation Dance” (nude dancing) in which women of the “Leadership Council” were made remove their clothes in front of Massoud Rajavi and dance before him.”Get close to Massoud and unite with him”, Maryam said to dancing women.[8]
The former member of the Mojahedin Leadership Council added “They had portrayed the issue of having [sexual] relations with Massoud Rajavi in such a way that it appeared to us as the most sacred task. Mas’ud Rajavi also used verses from the Koran to justify his behavior.”[9]
A few months ago, Soltani together with two other former members, Zahra Mirbaqeri and Nasrin Ebrahimi once again denounced the MKO by receiving a list of 100 female members of the group who have gone under hysterectomy to be sexually abused by the Cult leader, Massoud Rajavi.[10]
Nasrin Ebrahimi had previously revealed that Rajavi had entitled the operation to remove women’s womb as “Summit”[11] referring to women’s extreme devotion to their leader. They lose their final sign of sexuality and motherhood, or as Mrs. Singleton says” to neutralize their sexuality”.[12]
Mir Baqeri said that the surgical operations were carried out to take out the victims’ wombs so that they would not be pregnant after being raped by Rajavi.[13]
Women of the Leadership Council were given a necklace on which Massoud’s portrait was graved earlier than they were made married with him. Zahra Mir Baqeri has one of the necklaces to show those who are concerned.
“Maryam Rajavi invented rituals such as being washed by other women members so as to ‘spiritually purify’ them, followed by the instruction to dance naked before both the Rajavis to prove they had ‘broken the physical and mental barriers’ to their total submission to Massoud. After these coercive practices, he would choose a bedmate for sex. The women have said that they did not agree to sex with Rajavi out of free will but because they had been coerced through deception into submitting to what they later came to recognize as rape.”, Ann singleton notifies.[14]
As she suggests:
“The facts are easily verifiable. The physical evidence of hysterectomy can be found in the women’s bodies. It is a matter of fact, not opinion. And if those who managed to escape the cult have evidence consistent with their accusations, does it not behove those people actually responsible for their welfare to conduct an investigation into the condition of the other named women in the MEK who are trapped incommunicado in (the ironically named) Camp Liberty.”[15]
There may be a much longer list of abuses committed in the Cult of Rajavi, as some of them were already reported by Human Rights Watch in 2005. This is what terribly disturbs the leaders of the MKO. To defend themselves they have no way except using their old tactic, labeling them “agent of regime”. Such reaction cheers defectors up as they see that they’ve been successful to bug the cult leaders.
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1]Singleton, Ann, Do not Disturb – Criminals at work in Camp Liberty, IranInterlink, January 5, 2013
[2]Iran Interlink, More smoke and mirror from the MEK propaganda factory, January &, 2013
[3]Singleton, A, SADDAM’S PRIVATE ARMY: How Rajavi Changed Iran’s Mojahedin from Armed Revolutionaries to an Armed Cult, IRAN INTERLINK, 2003, ISBN 0-9545009-0-3
[4]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Saddams-Private-Army-Mojahedin-Revolutionaries/dp/0954500903
[5] Singleton, A, SADDAM’S PRIVATE ARMY: How Rajavi Changed Iran’s Mojahedin from Armed Revolutionaries to an Armed Cult, IRAN INTERLINK, 2003, ISBN 0-9545009-0-3
[6]ibid. Page 57
[7] https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/3261
[8]ibid
[9] BBC Monitoring, Massoud Rajavi accused of "sexual exploitation" of women, September 22 2010
[10]Fars News Agency, MKO Ringleaders Abuse Female Memoires Sexually, December 25, 2012
[11]Fars News Agency, The Ideal Summit Mujahedin Khalq makes women unfertile, October 15, 2008
[12] Singleton, Ann, Do not Disturb – Criminals at work in Camp Liberty, IranInterlink, January 5, 2013
[13] Fars News Agency, MKO Ringleaders Abuse Female Memoires Sexually, December 25, 2012
[14] Singleton, Ann, Do not Disturb – Criminals at work in Camp Liberty, IranInterlink, January 5, 2013
[15]ibid
Maryam Rajavi’s recent interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais appears to be one her few interviews with mass media. As the so-called president elect of the National Council of 
Resistance and the leader of the most viable alternative- as she claims – to the Islamic Republic, it seems odd that she has experienced so few appearances in the media, and roughly no appearance in Persian media.
Maryam Rajavi, the self-assigned president of the NCR and the co-leader of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO),seems to be too reluctant to appear in front of her country fellow men and answer controversial questions on her cult-like organization and its disappeared leader, Massoud Rajavi.
About two years ago in August 2011, Nooshabeh Amiri, the Iranian journalist published an article titled”Interview with Maryam Rajavi” on Rooz Online. Amiri wrote of a failed effort to have an interview with the leader of the MKO, Maryam Rajavi:
“A few years ago, one of the producers of CBS’s 60 Minutes asked me to arrange for the networks interview with Maryam Rajavi, a leader of Iran’s Mujahidin Khalq Organization (MKO). I told him then that I thought it was not possible to do this, to which he replied, “If the interview is going to be with a non-Iranian network, the response will certainly be different.”
“I then recruited the assistance of a person affiliated with the MKO. A few days later he provided me with an email address to contact. When I did, I was given a telephone number to contact, which in all honesty made me feel embarrassed for my initial assumption which was based on hear say. Subsequent events however proved me right.
“When I made the first call, I was given another telephone number to call. This was repeated several times in the course of a few months that followed, until the American producer called me and said the issue was over and that there was no need to follow-up.
“I concluded that 60 Minutes must have decided to call off the pursuit because of how long it had taken to arrange for the interview. He surprised me when he said that a representative of the MKO had made arrangements with the program’s senior producer and had made a condition for the interview and had written up the questions to be asked….
“This was pathetic, something that still continues.”[1]
“Pathetic”! This is the term Ms. Amiri uses to describe the MKO’s propaganda system. However, the group’s approach regarding media is fraudulent.
The MKO’s propaganda decides what media to interview with its leader as well as what questions to be asked. Considering various reports on human rights violations committed inside the MKO as a cult of personality, the group’s propaganda runners know that all peace activists, freedom lovers and independent journalists would ask questions of which the answers are beyond the red lines of the group. Thus, they never risk the façade of a “democratic” opposition to Islamic Republic they are trying to build for their cult-like organization.
The Spanish daily, El Pais does not ask any question to trouble Rajavi but the questions are so simply and directly asked that could recall you a memorized dialogue in a screenplay. For an authentic unbiased interview with Maryam Rajavi the most crucial question which has never been answered since American invasion to Iraq in 2003 — the same year that Maryam Rajavi was arrested by French Police in her headquarters in the suburb of Paris—is this:”Where is Massoud Rajavi?”
There are many other important questions to be asked particularly regarding numerous testimonies of former members. For instance, recent testimonies of former female members on sexual abuse of women of elite council of the group by Massoud Rajavi must be explained by Maryam Rajvi who is according to evidences the main person to make women sleep with Massoud Rajavi.[2]
According to the 2005 Human Rights Watch report ” No Exit”, inside MKO camps there are ”abuses ranging from detention and persecution of ordinary members wishing to leave” to “lengthy solitary confinements, severe beatings, and torture of dissident members.”[3]
In Ms. Amiri’s article you can also find a list of questions that may obsess any independent journalist who is going to interview Rajavi. The followings are some of them:
“Does the MKO see itself responsible to respond to questions such as its cooperation with Saddam Hossein in attacking and invading Iran?
“Under what strategy and goal were inexperienced youth asked to respond to the Mersad Operation inside Iran?
“Is internal criticism allowed within MKO and can it be reflected outside the organization?
“Is it true that some MKO members have left the organization on the basis of such instructions by the group to take up the responsibility of attacking other opponents of the Islamic republic?”[4]
To our surprise, the biased report of EL Pais begins with this ludicrous statement by Maryam Rajavi: ”popular support inside Iran is a source of legitimacy for this resistance” (!)
This opening sentence clearly indicates that the interview was actually managed by the interviewee not the interviewer.
What does Maryam Rajavi mean by “popular support” inside Iran?!
One thing is sure; Rajavi’s claim is absolutely false. Although the MEK claims to be loved and respected inside Iran, the truth is that most Iranians view the terrorist organization as ruthless traitors who killed their own countrymen, according to many reports. For example Massoud Banisadr who is a former top official of the group say in an interview with Steve Hassan:”After Iranian revolution, late seventies and early eighties MEK could change from a guerrilla (or terrorist organization according to different people’s definition) into a popular political group attracting thousands of young people. But after moving back to terrorism, ignoring and violating people’s ethics, beliefs and principles, especially working with Iraq’s president, Saddam Hussein after the incursion of Iraq into Iran, they lost all their support inside Iran and as matter of fact in public view they changed into a traitor organization”. [5] Also, The Wall Street Journal writes of critical views on the group,”Critics of the MeK allege that the organization has no major support inside Iran and that its leaders, who are based outside Paris, run the group like a cult.”[6]
Based on Mrs. Rajavi’s own claim, the “source of legitimacy for the resistance”is definitely absent.
By Mazda Parsi
Reference:
[1] Amiri , Nooshabeh, Interview with Maryam Rajavi, Roozonline, August 22,2011
[2] https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/3261 ;
[3]Human Rights Watch, No Exit, 2005
[4] Amiri , Nooshabeh, Interview with Maryam Rajavi, Roozonline, August 22,2011
[5] http://freedomofmind.com/FormerMeKtopofficialanswersquestions
22February2012.php
[6]Solomon, Jay &Perez, Evan, Iran Exile Group Nears U.S. Rebirth, the Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2012
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