On 19 June 2010, a large hall in Paris was a place of a meeting of more than 200 former members of MKO (Rajavi cult), families of present members trapped inside the cult in Iraq, and a number of reporters and human rights activists.
In this meeting titled “rejecting violence, terrorism and cultic behavior, as well as aiding the families of the victims of Rajavi cult in Ashraf garrison in Iraq”, dozens of foreign personalities, reporters and camera men from various organizations and media were present.
The more we get inside Rajavi’s cult-like treasonous policies, the more we get to know about its alliance with Israel and American warmongers.
The most recent news on MKO’s servitude towards Israel and its interest for bloodshed was its fanfare on the opening of Bushehr Power Plant in Iran, citing from John Bolton, American controversial figure that it would be dangerous and military invasion to Iran would be necessary and hence the sanctions against Iran should be intensified.
Following the news of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the positions taken by Israeli authorities and American John Bolton are very similar to that of MKO. Their interests are all against what Iranian nation believe.
Israelis’ reaction to the news was published by Reuters:
"Israel says Iranian reactor use ‘totally acceptable’ "[1]
Publishing a statement, Israel foreign ministry’s spokesman said:
"It is totally unacceptable that a country that so blatantly violates resolutions of the (United Nations) Security Council […] should enjoy the limits of using nuclear energy."[2]
John Bolton who was Maryam Rajavi’s special guest at MKO meeting in Taverny went further and asked his Israelis friends to attack Iran.
According to Agence France Press, John Bolton said:
"it will be too late for Israel to launch military strike against the facility."[3]
"If Israel is going to do anything against Bushehr it has to move in the next eight days." He added.
Former ambassador of US in United Nations emphasized that in the absence of an Israeli attack, "Iran will achieve something that no other opponent of Israel, no other enemy of the United States in the Middle East really has and that is a functioning nuclear reactor."[4]
The traitor Massoud Rajavi who had to find a new master after the fall of his ex-one Saddam Hussein, in order to gain some trivial scores among his new Western masters, launched a large propaganda campaign on fueling Iran’s nuclear power plant. MKO’s website claims "International supervisors say that the regime’s objective to invest on this power plant is to create a cover to lead its plans to achieve nuclear weapon."
But, as usual, the group didn’t name any international supervisor for such a comment. And the fact is that even Western governments including US and Britain confessed that Bushehr reactor was designed for peaceful civilian nuclear power.
"The United States does not see the fueling of Iran’s nuclear power plant in Bushehr as a "proliferation risk" ,State Department spokesman Parby holladay said .[5]
But Rajavi’s warmongers didn’t hesitate to write on their so-called NCRI’s website that "while international sanctions intensify pressures on Iran,[…] the director of the regime’s Atomic Energy Agency Organization declared that the locations for 10 centers of uranium enrichment centers were found."
But MKO’s website failed to recall that IRI regime is going to fall – as what they always claim – and wrote:" Iranian Resistance calls for complete sanctions including oil industry, trade, technology and diplomacy against Iran as a necessary approach to prevent Iranian terrorist from reacting atomic Bomb, and warns on any dangerous consequences of delay on this case under any pretext.
I think that the above – mentioned instances of Rajavi’s commitment to Israel and warmongers’ policies, clarify despicable substance of his cult.
Rajavi and his group, under any form, any cover and any slogan, have an only desire: War, Bloodshed against Iranian people , treason and spying for their financial sponsors.
References:
[1]Reuters, August 21,2010, Israel says Iranian reactor use totally unacceptable.
[2] ibid
[3] AFP,Israel has ‘8 days’ to hit Iran nuclear site:Bolton
[4] August 17,2010,ibid
[5] Haaretz ,US: Iran’s nuclear power plant bears no proliferation risk,August 28,2010.
Ms. Batoul Soltani, the former member of PMOI’s Leadership Council – the highest organizational rank in PMOI – bravery and honesty revealed the horrifying and shocking facts which are proving justly that this organization has been changed to a very robust notorious cult.
The shocking and terrifying facts unveiled by Ms. Batoul Soltani are about the ‘Salvation Dance’ which was performed by the Leadership Council’s women in front of Massoud Rajavi, the leader and founder of the Rajavi cult?
In this so-called Salvation Dance (nude dancing), the women of the Leadership Council were indoctrinated through cultic-religious psychological manipulation to remove all their clothes in front of their guru, spiritual leader, Massoud Rajavi, who is responsible for sending them to heaven while they die for him, in order to show their devotion and allegiance to him.
In her recent interview with Iran-Ghalam Association, Ms. Soltani has been courageous enough to reveal some shocking facts on sexual abuse against women in leadership Council of MKO by Massoud Rajavi.
Here are some extracted paragraphs of the above mentioned interview:
[…]Iran-Ghalam :in the conference held in Paris you pointed out the existence of sexual abuse and corruption in MKO cult […]I’d like you to enlighten our visitors on sexual exploitation committed by the cult’s leader systematically.
Batoul Soltani: it’s awfully difficult for me to review those memoirs in my mind but I’m thankful to God who put me in a position now to denounce the hidden facts of Rajavi’s organization and I’m ready to swear to Quran in order to give testimony in any court of justice.[…]
Once we had become members of Leadership Council in the winter of 1997 the Rajavis held a meeting in Badi’ Zadegan Camp [in Iraq]. We were told to take a bath before the meeting and all our clothes had to be clean […]Maryam Rajavi told us that this meeting was "the pool of Leadership Council, and "Dance of Salvation" with Massoud.[…] I was really worried about what was going to happen in the meeting. […] after everyone took a shower and wore make up, we were told to enter hall X which was decorated beautifully in white. There were two sofas …. […]
Maryam told us:" since then you are Massoud’s wives"[…]
Then Massoud read the wedding sermon for all women one by one.[…] then they took the table and spread a large white meters on the floor. I was shocked to see some high-ranking women of leadership Council took off their clothes and went to Massoud. Massoud was saying "yes take off your clothes of heresy and ignorance and dive in the pool to unite yourself with me in order to be resistant enough in every moment of your struggle." […] Maryam also said, "Get close to Massoud and unite with him."
I noticed that Maryam and some other high ranking members were monitoring us and trying to convince those of us who hesitated to remove their underwear.[…]Maryam said that we were no more jealous to each other so we could fight together.[…]she tried to persuade us to look at the others having sex with Massoud Rajavi.[…]
The Mujahedin-eh Kalq Organization (MKO/MEK) since 1997 has been listed by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The designation was reaffirmed in January 2009 by then-secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The MKO has had a long history of 
terror and violence and has recently and eagerly tried to clean up its image—hoping the effort will help remove them from the FTO list. The MKO believes that if they are removed from the FTO list, they will have more credibility as an organization, and therefore gain more support from Western nations. The MKO currently argues that it had ceased its military campaign against the Iranian government in 2001, voluntarily handed over its arms to U.S. forces in 2003 and provided a flood of information to U.S. intelligence about Iran’s nuclear programs. [1] The MKO’s ultimate goal in this plan is to replace the Iranian government with their own, and they are seeking support from Western nations, never mind the fact that neither of the MKO leaders nor many members of this cult have stepped foot inside Iran for more than three decades. The MKO is out of touch with the pulse of the nation and the more they press for being removed from the FTO list, the more wary regular Iranians become—as it signifies that the MKO is becoming tighter with the very nations which impeded Iran’s natural political progress; Iranian citizens do not want a U.S. supported MKO—they simply see it as treacherous liaison, which if nurtured, will make an already tense relationship with Iran even worse.
The MKO believes they have made an advancement because now, by way of a heavy handed legal battle, they are celebrating a federal appeals court decision—argued January 12, 2010 and recently decided July 16, 2010—which orders the State Department to review its FTO designation of the MKO on the grounds that the MKO was not privy to classified information, and therefore could not establish an argument and rebuttal which they believe would generate a stronger case to get them removed from the list. The final order was not about lifting the MKO off the Foreign Terrorist Organization list, but about due process for the group. The court stated that the purpose of the remand was to afford the MKO “an opportunity to review and rebut the unclassified portions of the record.” [2] The court also stated in the order that the Secretary of State’s “denial of the People’s Mojahedin of Iran’s petition for revocation of its 2003 designation as a foreign terrorist organization is remanded to the Secretary for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.” [3] What this means, is that the petition will end up back on the Secretary’s desk and the Secretary will look at it again. The judge who preceded over the case made a note in the order which states that “none of the AEDPA (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) cases decides whether an administrative decision relying critically on undisclosed classified material would comport with due process because in none was the classified record essential to uphold an FTO designation.[4] This is an unfavorable comment—although the Secretary is obligated to reconsider, she is unlikely to lift the MKO from the FTO list.
Standard procedure for the MKO in a situation like this is to celebrate as if it was a huge victory. The celebration is meant to bolster morale among members and augment interest from anyone from the media who will listen and report on the MKO’s plight. In essence they have used this ruling to exaggerate the issue and create a positive hype. In celebrating, they also hope to reinforce support from agenda-pushing neoconservative politicians who believe that Iran cannot handle its own domestic affairs. In France, in Auver Sur d-Oise where Maryam Rajavi, the self-imposed leader of the MKO, who feels entitled to speak on behalf of Iranian citizens despite, as previously mentioned, not having set foot in Iran for more than three decades, spoke to her sympathizers after the ruling; her response to the court order was that "sanctions against this regime are necessary and very important, but not enough. A regime change materializes in the resistance of a nation. International peace and security can only be guaranteed when ruling religious fascism is gone. So barriers to change must be removed. The chains tying the hands of the organized resistance of people must be removed." [5]. The chains she speaks of is the designation of the MKO as an FTO, and the bottom line here is that the MKO has not been de-listed from the Foreign Terrorist List—a statement she wishes to twirl into a bondage metaphor.
Rajavi claims that the FTO designation of her cult is a barrier to gain international peace and security. This is fine to claim, but the logic is fuzzy because the information gleaned from the court proceedings suggests nothing about moving Iran towards peace and security. According to Glen Kessler’s report from the Washington Post, “During the court proceedings, some of that information was declassified. State asserted that the group has not ended its military operations, still intends to use violence to achieve its political goals, has trained females to be suicide bombers and that much of the information it has provided on Iran’s nuclear program has been wrong. But the court cast doubt on some of these assertions and said the group now must be given the opportunity to rebut these charges.” [6] Kessler asserts that the State Department said it would study the opinion ‘carefully’ and noted it continues to view the group as a terrorist organization.” [7] It’s clear that promptly, the court cast doubt not because they thought the MKO was really a peaceful and non-violent group, but because the MKO was denied access to classified information and therefore could not rebut.
It is important for Iranians to know that the people in the West are aware of the use of violence by the MKO against Iranian authorities and civilians. In fact, MKO terrorist activities are always mentioned in the United States’ description of the group. The following excerpt regarding the MKO’s activities is from the State Department’s “Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003”:
The group’s worldwide campaign against the Iranian Government stresses propaganda and occasionally uses terrorism. During the 1970s, the MEK killed U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians working on defense projects in Tehran and supported the takeover in 1979 of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. In 1981, the MEK detonated bombs in the head office of the Islamic Republic Party and the Premier’s office, killing some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Premier Mohammad-Javad Bahonar. Near the end of the 1980-1988 war with Iran, Baghdad armed the MEK with military equipment and sent it into action against Iranian forces. In 1991, the MEK reportedly assisted the Government of Iraq in suppressing the Shia uprisings in southern Iraq and the Kurdish uprisings in the north. In April 1992, the MEK conducted near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and installations in 13 countries, demonstrating the group’s ability to mount large-scale operations overseas. In April 1999, the MEK targeted key military officers and assassinated the deputy chief of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff. In April 2000, the MEK attempted to assassinate the commander of the Nasr Headquarters, Tehran’s interagency board responsible for coordinating policies on Iraq. The normal pace of anti-Iranian operations increased during "Operation Great Bahman" in February 2000, when the group launched a dozen attacks against Iran. One of those attacks included a mortar attack against the leadership complex in Tehran that housed the offices of the Supreme Leader and the President. In 2000 and 2001, the MEK was involved regularly in mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids on Iranian military and law enforcement units and government buildings near the Iran-Iraq border, although MEK terrorism in Iran declined toward the end of 2001. The MEK leadership ordered its members not to resist Coalition forces at the outset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and they surrendered their arms to Coalition forces in May 2003. [8]
In May 2005, Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball wrote an article about the hullabaloo of the MKO. They state that the MKO has long been controversial because of its history of violent attacks in Iran, its relationship with Saddam’s regime and its background as a quasi-religious, quasi-Marxist radical resistance group founded in the era of the late Iranian shah. They mention that in 1997, the Clinton administration put MKO on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist groups. They also put forward that the MKOs U.S. supporters, among whom at one point numbered dozens of members of Congress, charged that the Clinton administration only labeled MKO as a terrorist group as part of an ill-conceived attempt to improve relations with the ayatollahs who currently run Iran. They relate that the Bush administration added two alleged MKO front organizations to the State Department’s terrorist list in 2003. [9] Isikoff and Hosenball state that “despite the group’s notoriety, Bush himself cited purported intelligence gathered by [MKO] as evidence of the Iranian regime’s rapidly accelerating nuclear ambitions. At a March 16 press conference, Bush said Iran’s hidden nuclear program had been discovered not because of international inspections but ‘because a dissident group pointed it out to the world.’ White House aides acknowledged later that the dissident group cited by the president is the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), one of the [MKO] front groups added to the State Department list two years ago.”[10] Finally the Newsweek article reveals that “in an appearance before a House International Relations Subcommittee a year ago, John Bolton, the controversial State Department undersecretary who Bush has nominated to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was questioned by a Congressman sympathetic to [MKO] about whether it was appropriate for the U.S. government to pay attention to allegations about Iran supplied by the group. Bolton said he believed that [MKO] ‘qualifies as a terrorist organization according to our criteria.’ But he added that he did not think the official label had ‘prohibited us from getting information from them. And I certainly don’t have any inhibition about getting information about what’s going on in Iran from whatever source we can find that we deem reliable.’” [11]
Regardless of John Bolton’s—or any other official’s ambition for Iran, and regardless of the MKOs position or non-position on the FTO list, the MKO simply can not and should not be a trusted device. Following the 2005 report of Human Rights Watch on MKO atrocities against its own members titled "No Exit," various cases of human rights violations by the MKO was revealed through testimonies made by the group’s former members. Joe Stork, a Human Rights Watch expert on the Middle East, in a UN Refugee Agency report stated that “it would be a mistake to promote an opposition group that is responsible for serious human rights abuses". [12]
U.S. officials, especially those of the State Department should research and reflect deeply before making any decision about a group that owns all the criteria of a destructive terrorist cult. Western politicians should realize that their support for the MKO will never improve their standing among Iranians inside or outside the country and the reason why is articulated by Trita Parsi, an author who founded the National Iranian American Council (NIAC):
[The MKOs] involvement in terrorism is undisputed. It assassinated several Americans in Iran in the 1970s. It supported the taking of the U.S. Embassy in Iran and blasted Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini for releasing the American diplomats in 1981, arguing instead that the hostages should have been executed. It made a pact with Saddam Hussein in the 1980s and fought alongside his army against their Iranian countrymen. Later in the 1990s, they became Saddam’s most trusted henchmen, tasked with quelling Kurdish and Shiite uprisings against the Iraqi dictator.
According to defectors, Mujahedin members in Camp Ashraf celebrated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In 2003, French authorities descended upon the Mujahedin headquarters in France, arresting the leader of the cult, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi. Immediately, zealous Mojahedin members staged hunger strikes and several set themselves ablaze. Hardly the behavior of a democratically oriented opposition group. [13]
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose reputation would be tarnished should she allow a change of status for the MKO after the current court ordered remand, would be making an insouciant error. The removal of the MKO from the FTO list is a Pandora’s Box and both the U.S. and Iran would face a political nightmare over the next several years. In order to be fair, the U.S. should afford the MKO the right to a democratic process in which they can review the charges against them, but they should also be acutely conscious as to why they are on the Foreign Terrorist Organization list in the first place, and why they need to remain there.
References:
[1] United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit. Argued January 12, 2010. Decided July 16, 2010 No. 09-1059. PMOI v. Hillary Clinton. http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/common/opinions/201007/09-1059-1255582.pdf
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] Policy prevents this author from citing this source, which is readily available on the web.
[6]Kessler, Glenn. "Court tells State Dept. to reconsider terrorist label for Iran opposition group." Washington Post 17 July 2010, Print.
[7] Ibid
[8] http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2005/65275.htm
[9] Isikoff Michael & Hosenball Mark. "Consider the Source: The State Department says MEK is a terror group. Human Rights Watch says it’s a cult. For the White House,
MEK is a source of intelligence on Iran.
”MSNBC.com 20 May 2005: Web. 10 Aug 2010. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7902719/site/newsweek/>.
[10] Ibid
[11] Ibid
[12] Human Rights Watch, No Exit: Human Rights Abuses Inside the Mojahedin Khalq Camps, 18 May 2005. Web. 10 August 2010 http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/45d085002.html
[13] Parsi, Trita. "Deciding the Fate of the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation." Iran Press Service 10 October 2008: Web. 10 Aug 2010.
<http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2008/october-2008/
deciding-the-fate-of-the-mojahedin-khalq-organisat.shtml>.
By Mazda Parsi
In the 1960’s when the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) was founded by a handful of Iranian university students, its ideology encompassed a classless, monotheist society which denied all symbols of Western capitalism and Jewish Zionism. With this denial came a penchant for violence and systematic killing—killing which the State Department recognizes as terrorism. Michael Rubin, an independent scholar who in 2009, led a workshop at the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee—America’s pro-Israeli lobby) conference in Washington DC, wrote an article in 2006 titled “Monsters of the Left” in which he declares that the “MKO launched a wave of bomb attacks which targeted the Iran-American Society, the US Information office, the Hotel International, Pepsi Cola, General Motors, and the Marine Oil Company […] In a wave of bombings that continued into 1975, the MKO group attacked clubs, stores, police facilities, minority-owned businesses, factories it accused of having ‘Israeli connections,’ and symbols of state and capitalism.” [1] While carrying out these attacks, the MKO not only denounced Israel, but it supported the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and in fact, during the 1970’s, some of the MKO’s core members went to train in PLO military camps. [2] The MKO’s hostility towards Israel and Zionism was so strong that it led them to bomb the Jordanian Embassy in Tehran, “to revenge King Hussein’s September 1970 crackdown on their PLO patrons,”admits Rubin. [3] Israel may have been an enemy of the MKO at one time, but now they have warmed to them—because the ideology of the MKO has shifted, and Israel may be able to use them.
Now, the MKO could use a helping hand too because since the US-led invasion of Iraq, in the enclave of Camp Ashraf, a place the MKO has called home for over two decades, there is impending precariousness. The MKO fears for its future because they are no longer under the protection of Saddam Hussein, and there’s no telling what the shaky new Iraqi government will do. What’s more, the U.S. government no longer considers MKO members in Iraq to have the “protected-persons” status the U.S. gave them in 2003, and is privately supportive of Iraqi government efforts to encourage the residents to leave. [4] At present, the MKO’s biggest fear is Iranian reprisal. Even though they helped bring about the 1979 Islamic Revolution, killing Americans and ousting the Shah, in the years following, they simply proved to be too power hungry for the Iranian regime. In a move which was designed to distance them from the regime, and gain support, they changed their ideology, and in the 1980’s joined Saddam Hussein and moved to Camp Ashraf in Iraq (where many of them still remain). During the time in Iraq, they killed Kurds in exchange for arms, and then turned against the government they helped bring to power—killing Iranian officials and civilians. Support they needed from Iran shriveled, and the people of Iran now hold the MKO accountable for their deadly attacks on citizens and officials throughout the last four decades. For the MKO leaders, Maryam and Massoud Rajavi, a worst case scenario would be deportation back to Iran because they are viewed as fascist cultists, and worse, traitors. With this kind of track record, a relationship between the MKO and Israel is weirdly devious—and secret.
The MKO sees the West’s support as their only hope for continued existence. In order to formulate opportunity within the framework of hope, they no longer denounce imperialism and Zionism. And in a last ditch move to maintain their dying support among a small minority of Iranians, they have turned to President Ahmadinejad’s “Zionist” foes—credulous Western politicians and, yes, Israel. Despite the MKO’s past admonition of Zionism, Israel has been obliging, secretly working with the MKO in opposition to Iran. In order publicly unite with the West, the MKO came to the media in 2003 and announced that Iran had nuclear warheads—which according to the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), turned out to be wrong. Not only was the information incorrect, but it was fabricated by the Israeli government. In June 2009, Gareth Porter, an expert on U.S. national security policy, published an article on IPS, titled”Report Ties Dubious Iran Nuclear Docs to Israel Analysis.”Porter reveals that”Israeli intelligence was the source of the collection of intelligence documents which have been used to accuse Iran of hiding nuclear weapons research.” [5] Referring to various sources, Porter asserts that”the documents collection which the IAEA has called ‘alleged studies’ actually originated in Israel and in fact Israel intelligence assembled the documents.”[6] According to Porter, “German officials have said that the Mujahedin E Khalq or MEK, the Iranian resistance organization, brought the laptop documents collection to the attention of U.S. intelligence, as reported by IPS in February 2008.
Israeli ties with the political arm of the MEK, the National Committee of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), go back to the early 1990’s and include assistance to the organization in broadcasting into Iran from Paris.” [7] The Germans have long been wary of the MKO and Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution has noted that the MKO’s propaganda campaigns often include attempts to contact members of parliament to inform them of the MKO’s alleged goals, encourage political support, and influence parliamentary debate about Iran.
MKO’s secret ties with Israel do not begin or end with Iranian nuclear documents. They also unabashedly attend AIPAC functions. In fact, the MKO has intensive and very direct cooperation with the Iran Policy Committee, a spinoff of AIPAC. Mahan Abedin, a journalist for the Asia Times, reports that there are regular media reports which allude to direct Israel-MKO ties. [9] In an article that Abedin wrote in which he interviewed a former MKO member, Massoud Bani Sadr, BaniSadr disclosed that”the [MKO] is exclusively motivated by the interests of the cult, and as such it will cooperate with any constituency. If there is any hesitation in collaboration it stems from Israeli reluctance, since the Mujahedin because of its close relationship with the PLO, is not fully trusted by Israelis. On the other hand from an Israeli perspective, the [MKO] is the only viable tool against Iran.”[10] In 2006, Connie Bruck, a writer for New Yorker, spoke with an Israeli diplomat who declined to elaborate on the MKO-Israel relationship, but did at least say to Bruck that “Israel had found the [MKO] useful.”[11]
Richard Silverstein points out that the Israeli lobby in Washington advocates tougher U.S. policy against the Islamic Republic. [12] And the MKO is all for it. In their efforts for starting a war with Iran, or impose crippling sanctions on it, the Israel lobby and the neocons have been aided by two groups of Iranian exiles: the monarchists, and members and supporters of the MKO. [13] Silverstein notes that “Israel is in the midst of a massive diplomatic, political and intelligence campaign, both public and covert, that could lead – if those officials behind it have their way – towards a military strike on Iran. It is a war for the hearts and minds of Americans. Or you might call it the war before the war. In intelligence circles, this Israeli project is known as perception management and defined by the department of defense as:
Actions to convey and/or deny information … to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives and objective reasoning as well as to intelligence systems and leaders … ultimately resulting in foreign behaviors and official actions favorable to [US] objectives. In various ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception and psychological operations.” This is a parallel policy which is consistently held by the MKO, and its political arm, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). In hope that Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the MKO, will become the puppet of the United States—a shoe in the door in Iran, the NCRI’s website maintains a canopy of praise for the U.S. for anything which is against Iran and the Iranian people. (Recently the NCRI’s website ran a headline that states, “Maryam Rajavi, President elect of the Iranian Resistance, welcomed the imposition of new sanctions against the mullahs’ regime by the US and the European Union”) [14]. The relationship with the US, the sanctions, and the underlying reasons and ramifications for pressing sanctions should be seen as more complex for the Rajavi’s, as they deem themselves Iranians—because Iranians are simply too savvy, and they know that sanctions are just a simplistic reprisal. The Rajavi’s attitude and blind devotion to U.S. policy, along with their support for the Israeli lobby shows that they are out of touch with Iranian sentiment. Iran doesn’t like Israel’s attitude and blind devotion to itself and its expansion. For Iranians, Israel demonstrates a haughtiness that doesn’t chronicle nicely with the rest of the Middle East, and Israel’s policy towards Iran is to pressure the U.S. to do what Israel wants. After 9/11 Iran held sympathy for the U.S. and offered to exchange al-Qaida terrorists for MKO terrorists [15]. But the Bush administration neoconservatives declined after Israelis met with Manuchehr Ghorbanifar (an unreliable intelligence source for the U.S. who was involved in the Iran Contra scandal). The Jerusalem Post reveals that at least one of the meetings was quite specific with regard to an attempt to torpedo better US/Iran relations:
“The purpose of the meeting with Ghorbanifar was to undermine a pending deal that the White House had been negotiating with the Iranian government. At the time, Iran had considered turning over five al-Qaeda operatives in exchange for Washington dropping its support for Mujahadeen Khalq, an Iraq-based rebel Iranian group listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department.”[16]
According to Juan Cole, an expert on the Middle East, “The neoconservatives have some sort of shadowy relationship with the Mujahadeen-e Khalq Organization, or MEK [MKO]. Presumably its leaders have secretly promised to recognize Israel if they ever succeed in overthrowing the ayatollahs in Iran. When the U.S. recently categorized the MEK as a terrorist organization, there were howls of outrage from ‘scholars’ associated with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, such as ex-Trotskyite Patrick Clawson and Daniel Pipes.”[17]
MKO ties with US and Israel officials might offer short-term benefits to the group. But they will harm the fame of those who currently support them. Despite all effort made by the MKO propaganda campaign to win the support of AIPAC which “has a lot of weight” in U.S. congress according to Massoud Bani Sadr, the MKO”have not been able to pass a single substantial resolution in support of the organization in congress. Note also that the US government regards the Mujahedin as a terrorist organization and does not want to create another Al-Qaeda.”[18] For now these strange bedfellows must remain a secret.
References:
[1] Rubin, Michael.”Monsters of the Left.”Frontpagemagazine.com 13 January 2006: Web. 30 Jul 2010.
<http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=6036>.
[2] Abrahamian, Ervand. The Iranian Mojahedin. London, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. p 127.
[3] Rubin, Michael. Ibid
[4] McNaught, Anita.”Iranian Militant MeK Group Losing Fight to Stay in Iraq.”Fox News” 12 January 2009: Web. 30 Jul 2010.
<http://www.foxnews.com/story/0, 2933, 479404, 00.html>.
[5] Porter, Gareth.”Report Ties Dubious Iran Nuclear Docs to Israel.”IPS 3 June 2009: Web. 31 Jul 2010.
<http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47081>.
[6]Porter, Gareth. Ibid
[7]Porter, Gareth. Ibid
[8] According to Mahan Abedin, an Independent Iranian journalist for the Asia Times and an expert on Iran, Iraq, and Islamic movements and ideologies.
See Abedin, Mahan.”Dissent and Defection: An Iranian Confession.”Asia Times Online (18 may 2006): Web. 31 Jul 2010.
[9] Abedin, Mahan.”Dissent and Defection: An Iranian Confession.”Asia Times Online (18 may 2006): Web. 31 Jul 2010.
[10] Bruck, Connie.”A Reporter at Large: Exiles.”New Yorker 6 March 2006: 48.
[11] Silverstein, Richard.”AIPAC’s Hidden Persuaders.”Guardian 15 May 2009
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/may/13/aipac-iran-us-obama>.
[12] Sahimi, Muhammad.”The Israel Lobby, the Neocons, and the Iranian-American Community.”Antiwar.com 21 November 2009: Web. 2 Aug 2010.
[13] NCRI website
[14] Windrem, Robert.”Al-Qaida Finds Safe Haven in Iran.”MSNBC.com 24 June 2005: 2 Aug 2010.
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8330976/>.
[15] Cole, Juan.”AIPAC’s Overt and Covert Ops.”Antiwar.com 30 August 2004: 2 Aug 2010.
<http://www.antiwar.com/cole/?articleid=3467>.
The article Juan Cole cites, which is no longer available online, originally appeared in the Jerusalem Post.
[16] Cole, Juan. Ibid
[17] Sherwell, Philip.”Israel Launches Covert War Against Iran.”Telegraph 16 February 2009.
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4640052/
Israel-launches-covert-war-against-Iran.html>
[18] Bruck, Connie. Ibid
By: Mazda Parsi
1. Latest news from the families in Iraq
2. US govt continues to view MEK as a terrorist organization
3. Interior Ministry announces receipt of arrest warrants for 38 leaders and members of Mojahedin Khalq
4. Iraqi Criminal Court issues arrest warrant against Massoud and Maryam Rajavi
5. Iranian Families of MKO victims asks Europe to ban the group
6. Camp Ashraf residents prevented by Mojahedin Khalq (PMOI, MKO, MEK, NCRI, Rajavi cult)from meeting their families coming from Iran
7. Mojahedin Khalq Terror team instructed to deny European links As MKO leaders
8. dissociate from their operatives
9. Is the MEK/MKO/PMOI/NCRI a Terrorist Outfit?
Download Pars Brief – Issue No.54
Download Pars Brief – Issue No.54
Mr. Alamdar Shaygan, escaped the MKO terror group on 24th April, 2010 after 22 years, and joined the families behind the Ashraf gates.
Mr. Shaygan returned home and joined his family on 4th July,2010
A large number of Iranians gathered in front of France embassy in Tehran to show protest against Paris support for Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group.
Representatives of Iranian Families of terror victims called for the European Parliament not to permit terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) to carry out any action in Europe.
The representatives also expressed their readiness to provide evidence showing the MKO crimes.
Families of Iranians detained in Ashraf Camp of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization [MKO] have staged a sit-in in the Iraqi governorate of Diyala. The protesters called on the Iraqi government and the international community to free their relatives from the hell they are living in.
On Wednesday June 16th, PressTV reported that Iranian 
ecurity forces arrested two Mujahedin-eh Khalq (MKO) operatives in Iran. Members of the MKO, a terrorist group whose three-decade goal has been to take over the Iranian government, had planned to carry out a multi-stage attack, which included using bombs and setting police cars and motorcycles on fire at two undisclosed locations in Tehran. Iran’s Intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi announced the MKO’s scheme saying that the MKO had “planned to terrorize innocent citizens in some important and sensitive districts of Tehran” [1] but that the Ministry of Intelligence had foiled it. He also said the two operatives had received necessary training at Camp Ashraf, in Iraq, the MKO’s quasi-military base, which was funded by Saddam Hussein, and is now being guarded by the U.S. government. [2]
The Tehran Times published an article in reference to a televised confession by the two MEK members who were arrested. The article affirms that the two men “received instructions on bomb-making via email and were then directed by two female handlers, one based in London and the other based in Sweden, as to where and when to plant their explosives.” [3]
While the news of the MKO’s intention to plant bombs in Tehran were being relayed through the media, MKO officials were demanding action from the United States regarding their official status as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). In 1998, the MKO was designated this status by the US Department of State, and since 2008, with the aid of heavy lobbying, they have been trying to get themselves removed from the FTO list. In a Reuters’ article, posted June 16, journalist Charles Abbot wrote that the MKO, in 2008, “asked for removal of the designation, saying it ceased its military campaign against the Iranian government in 2001, handed over its weapons to U.S. forces in Iraq in 2003 and had provided information to U.S. officials about Iran’s nuclear program.” [4] Abbot also relayed that although the State Department must review the request of the MKO to remove them from the FTO list, the Department maintains that recently declassified information on the MKO “has not shown that the relevant circumstances are sufficiently different to warrant a change” in their status. [5] Abbot points out that the State Department’s report “contained allegations that [MKO] trained women in Iraq to be suicide bombers, had not ended military operations and that much of [the MKO’s] information about Iran’s nuclear program was wrong.” [6]
For nearly thirty years the MKO has been a terrorist group, and despite its fairly recent policy of not claiming violent acts such as bombings and self immolation, they remain a terrorist group. They began to get serious about cleaning up their reputation sometime around the mid eighties, when they went through an ideological transformation and emerged as a full blown cult around 1987. They took a serious blow in 1998 with the State Department’s freshly-minted terrorist label. But, with the explosion of the internet, they were able to broadcast a serious propaganda campaign in order to counter the status—but by this time, ex members were already publishing their own accounts of the abuses they suffered while associated with the group. The internet both helped and hindered them initially, but now, it just hinders them.
The MKO cannot survive legitimately as long as they remain on the FTO list. In fact, removal from this list is a vital necessity for the MKO—it is their last hope for being seen as non-terrorists among Westerners. But in Iran their hope is already lost. They are not welcome in Iran, and not just because of last week’s bombing plot. The MKO has had a long history of terror within Iran which the leaders have discussed with numerous high profile Western journalists, but for some reason the journalists’ fail to emphasize these points in their mainstream articles and TV programs, and this hurts Iran. What’s more, is the fact that the MKO presents itself to the West as an alternative to the present Iranian regime, and enough naïve Western politicians are buying into their aspirations for “peaceful overthrow,” “democracy” “freedom” and “liberation.” These ideas are good; but the MKO is not good. Iranians want a peaceful solution to their domestic and foreign problems, and the solution doesn’t lie within the MKO because the MKO is simply not a “for-the-people” entity, nor are they equipped to run a nation. They may be able to run a cult, or a terrorist group (outside of Iran), but not a nation of intelligent free thinkers—and that is what most Iranians consider themselves.
Presently the MKO’s existence depends on the West’s support. Without the West’s support they have no place to call home. Currently their headquarters is located in Paris. They own “safe houses” all over Europe and the US, and as long as they have this support, they can maintain their now secret and subversive violent exploits against Iran. As one anonymous ex-member, who fears retribution for using his name, puts it, “The MKO doesn’t offer democracy, and their nature is unchangeable. They cannot stop seeking to spark tension in Iran by using their usually [sic] violent strategy against innocent Iranian citizens.”
The arrest of MKO terrorists was a success for the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence because they prevented senseless deaths of perhaps hundreds of innocent people located in some of the busiest intersections in the nation—intersections which are typically entrances to crowded bazaars, bus, subway, taxi-stops, and active police stands—a sort of “safely crowded zone” among Iranians, especially women doing shopping. The targeted intersections were in fact a potential horrifying disaster, and would have been a bitter blow to Iran—and that is exactly what the MKO was counting on. An attack on Iran coupled with the fact that Iran has fragile diplomatic relations with the West, would have undoubtedly given the impression that internally, Iran is unstable and weak, and generally put the MKO in a better position than they are now. News of the plot revealed that the MKO’s systematic deceitful crusade has a twofold objective—it aims to weaken Iran while heightening its image in the West. In a Press TV news article, one of the terrorists interviewed noted that the two arrested were instructed just before they were to plant their bombs that in case they were caught, they should deny their affiliation with the MKO since the terror organization is making headways in getting off the terror list of the US and Europe. [7]
In conjunction with the MKO’s sentimental ways, which is aimed at creating meaning and purpose for the cults’ members, the planned bomb was in a way existential; it ties in with their three-decade-old penchant for martyrdom. As recent as 2007, several members set themselves on fire in a protest against French police arresting their leader, Maryam Rajavi. In response to this, and in adherence with the MKO’s image-reform campaign, Rajavi claimed that group members were not instructed to do this.
The two terrorists confessed that their planned date for planting explosives was sometime between June 10 and June 20. They aimed for June 12, which was the anniversary of Iran’s last contentious and riotous presidential election, in which several MKO members were arrested. This ten-day period was doubly momentous for the two arrested because in addition to the election anniversary, it also signifies the time leading up to the June 20 anniversary of the MKO’s demonstration in 1981, when they officially started their armed struggle against the Islamic Republic—a republic they “officially” supported up until that date. Its current stature is to commit violence against themselves and violence against civilians—for the sake of the cause—and it is not far from the group’s extremist beginnings
According to Iranian Intelligence Officials, Siamak Yaquti, who was one of the arrested terrorists, confessed that the MKO organization shifted operational activities from propagandistic to operational. Yaquti told authorities that his organizational authority (a female named Narges) told him that the MKO wanted to break the silent and passive atmosphere ruling Iran by having him detonate bombs and set fires on public properties. Narges told Yaquti that the MKO’s armed, radical activity on June 20th, 1981 succeeded to break the silence at that time and opened a new way to the organization’s leading activities. The other MKO agent, Mr. Behrang Sarkhosh arrested by Iranian Intelligence Forces and later interviewed on PressTV, described his superior’s reasoning for using violence against people. He said, “I was told that we would not make any progress unless we use weapons." [8] One former member of the MKO, Mr. Ebrahim Khodabande, also interviewed by PressTV, commented “a weapon is even part of their emblem—and they have never omitted it.” [9]
By Mazda Parsi
Press TV, Iran Today documentary program, June 30, 2010
http://www.presstv.ir/programs/detail.aspx?sectionid=3510506&id=132768#132768
[1] Documentary lashes western supporters of MKO terrorists. “Press TV, Iran Today documentary program”. Web. 20 Jul 2010. < http://www.presstv.ir/programs/detail.aspx?sectionid=3510506&id=132768#132768
>.
[2] ibid
[3] "Iran Summons British Ambassador Over Bomb Plots." Tehran Times 17 June 2010, Print.
[4] Abbot, Charles. "U.S. government told to review terrorist list decision." Rueters US Edition. Web. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66G0A520100717
[5] ibid
[6] ibid
[7]"MKO Terrorists Confess to Bombing Plots." PressTV 16 June 2010: Web. 20 Jul 2010. <http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=130667>.
[8] Documentary lashes western supporters of MKO terrorists. “Press TV, Iran Today documentary program”. Web. 20 Jul 2010. < http://www.presstv.ir/programs/detail.aspx?sectionid=3510506&id=132768#132768
>.
[9] ibid
By: Mazda Parsi