Dialogues

MKO Protects Israel Against Hizballah

A number of Lebanese officials, who are members of March 14 forces, in Beirut and Washington revealed US’s plan to transfer thousands of MKO members to Lebanon.

These officials said in an interview with Lebanon-based newspaper Al-Siasat said that, "American officials in Pentagon and State Department have told the leaders of March 14 forces that they like to deploy MKO members to certain parts of Lebanon in order to encounter Hizballah, supported by Iran."

MKO is an Iranian opposition group that settled in Iraq during 80s.

According to contacts made by US officials from Pentagon and State Department, A member of Lebanese lobby in Washington believes that: "American diplomats in Iraq have asked Maliki’s government to issue the order of MKO’s expulsion from Iraq so that Americans could use them against Hizballah. Currently, the US doesn’t support MKO’s presence in Iraq because Iraqi people and government are strongly opposed to the presence of this group in their country."

Another leader of "March 14 forces" in Beirut said to Al-Siasat newspaper that: "There have been unofficial talks with our officials. Americans are waiting for our answer but we aren’t sure yet about the issue because we hope we could be able to solve problems without war and bloodshed."

"In the following weeks and in Riyadh, we would announce the results and if the situation moved towards war, we would welcome the Satan," he added.

He also went on to say that: "The activities of Hizballah and other groups supporting it are all controlled by the international community, government and us and we know that they have some logistical movements. We also continue our military preparedness to prevent any possible war but accepting strange forces like MKO should be discussed deeply and for the time being we don’t need them."

Hamid Gharyafi/London – 2007/03/12

March 19, 2007 0 comment

I am a trained Islamic terrorist

In her neat home nestling in a quiet suburban street, mum Anne Singleton peers out from her cottage-style windows.

Her Audi sits in the driveway and beyond it she sees a neat row of cedar trees leading to a church in an open field.

It is a typical English scene . . . and a lifetime away from the hostile deserts of Iraq and the military training camps of the People’s Mujahidin of Iran. Though Anne also once called these home.

She was in the clutches of the terrorist organisation and ready to give her life ” and sacrifice the lives of the innocent ” in the name of a bloodthirsty war

Little more than a decade ago, Anne was learning how to fire rifles and gearing up to fight for the group backed by Saddam Hussein.

Then, she believed her comrades were fighting for freedom in Iran ” and that the deaths of innocent people were a justifiable means to an end.

But now the 48-year-old recognises the group for what it is ” a deadly, extremist terrorist organisation.

With growing numbers of British youngsters being recruited into terror cells, Anne hopes her story will act as a warning.

At her home in Leeds, she tells The Sun: “What happened to me could happen to anyone.

“These groups entice concerned activists then persuade them to commit terrorist atrocities.

“They convinced me to give up my life to follow them. Now I see their methods were identical to the ones cults use to brainwash people.”

Anne became involved with the extremists while studying English at Manchester University in 1979.

Her boyfriend at the time, an Iranian called Ali, was interested in the Mujahidin” a group formed in 1965 to free Iran from â€œcapitalism, imperialism, reactionary Islamic forces and despotism”.

Anne says:” I went along to Mujahidin meetings held in Manchester. In truth, I could not understand what the leader was saying in the videos we saw but I was transfixed.

“It all seemed so exciting. I thought, “I want to help them and do some good” so I decided to convert to being Muslim.”

Anne did not realise she was being psychologically manipulated.

She says now: â€œThey flatter you in a way that you don’t even realise they are doing it.

“They really put themselves on a pedestal so that when they want you to join them, you feel special.

“I thought I was a saviour of the world and would have done anything for the Mujahidin.”

In 1989 Anne moved to London to become more involved in Mujahidin activities, working in computing and PR for them.

The computer programmer says: “They told me I should dedicate myself totally to them and that they needed me.

“The following year, during a hunger strike, I succumbed fully.

“I took two weeks off work and by day three of not eating I felt like I was on a complete high.

“We were given tea and sugar to keep us going and I had entered a completely different state of mind.

“I was adamant that this was what I should do for the rest of my life.”

Anne has since discovered that hunger and sleep deprivation are classic cult recruiting techniques.

She says: “I didn’t question anything. I was shown a film of a female suicide bomber blowing up an ayatollah in Iran. It was horrific and very shocking at first.

“But they showed me the film so many times that I got less and less distressed. Eventually I didn’t bat an eyelid. Of course, I heard politicians and journalists describing the group as extreme but I dismissed it and assumed they didn’t understand.

“There were 30 or 40 of us living in a safe house and I was the only white person. I never left unless it was for fund-raising or a demo.

“We had no possessions and any money we earned or benefits we received had to be handed straight over to the group.

“We were discouraged from keeping in contact with any family or friends.”

Anne’s parents, an office administrator and a painter and decorator, insisted she gave them her address and they wrote to her regularly, but letters were often confiscated.

In 1992 Anne was asked to go to the Iraqi desert for military training.

She says: “I loved the camp. It felt liberating to obey orders because then you lose all responsibility for yourself. I had a uniform, did assault courses, learned how to drive trucks and did firearms training.

“When I signed up to the Mujahidin I never imagined I would do that, but once I was there it seemed totally normal.”

After three months Anne was sent to Sweden to carry on with the PR work. But she became depressed after the group introduced a new rule banning marriages and families.

Anne says: “That rule seemed too final. I knew a family was the one other thing I wanted from life.

“To try to make me pull myself together they demoted me, sent me back to London and gave me less responsibility.

“It was reverse psychology, but I was so depressed that even that didn’t work.

“I’d lost all motivation. They tried to make me feel guilty, saying I was letting them and God down.

“By 1993 I knew I wanted to distance myself from the group so I began to work part-time again as a college administrator.”

Anne was finally ready to leave ” but the Mujahidin wouldn’t let her go easily. She says: â€œThey tried to make me frightened of the outside world, saying it was dangerous. They said I’d end up living an immoral life or get sucked into drugs or crime if I abandoned the values of the Mujahidin.”

Around this time Anne met Massoud Khodabandeh, a senior and disillusioned member of the group who had also decided to leave.

They went their separate ways but met again and married in 1997. Three years later they had a son.

Anne says: “We are both Muslim but after we left the Mujahidin we would go out and get drunk just to be “normal”. Being able to think for yourself was amazing.

“We were like little kids doing things like going to the supermarket and choosing our own food. We discussed what we’d been through and I had no doubt we were psychologically manipulated. We’re fortunate we have each other to lean on.”

Anne feels it is only since the birth of son Babak, now six, that she truly feels like her old self.

“His birth made me pull myself together and we moved to Leeds shortly afterwards,” she says. “My family live there and after years apart it was great to be close again.”

The couple are now in a group called Iran Interlink, which campaigns AGAINST terrorist cells.

Anne says: “When I joined the Mujahidin I never had any intention of fighting. But by the end I thought it was OK to kill and assassinate.

â€œI thought it was right that people would die on suicide missions. I’m appalled at that now.

“France and Germany have ministers for cults and I think we need the same here.

“People are free to do what they like virtually until they reach the point of blowing someone up.

“The Government needs to look at terrorism from the angle of recruitment. People have a civilian mind where they know it is wrong to fire a gun and hurt someone. You have to be trained to kill and that is what’s happening in these groups.

“Psychological manipulation can happen to anyone at any time.

“If you’re lucky, you end up with a timeshare. If you’re unlucky you end up blowing yourself and innocent people up on the Tube.”

The Sun

By SAMANTHA WOSTEAR

March 02, 2007

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,11000-2007100090,00.html

March 12, 2007 0 comment

Update on Mojahedin Khalq Organisation in Europe

A number of British MPs in the House of Commons discussed the issue of Iran’s nuclear program.

In the meeting, the report of which was published by British Parliament’s website, UK Foreign Office minister Kim Howells responded to some MPs’ request for lifting MKO from terror list: "On the proscription of Mojahedin-e Khalq, the Home Office rejected an application for de-proscription last year and that is, strictly speaking, a matter for the Home Office."

"The MEK is proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000 and its involvement in violence means that it has little support in Iran. The MEK claims to support human rights and democracy, but it is hard to square that with its authoritarian structure and claims by respected human rights non-governmental organisations of serious violations of the rights of its own members," he added.

In response to protests on terrorist designation of MKO, Mark Pritchard said:

"All solutions on Iran, whether by the international community or Iranian exiles, should be peaceful. They shouldn’t be aimed at weakening the position of current regime."

"I believe that we should respect Foreign Office’s decision to band the MKO".

"Mojahedin-e Khalq organization remains on EU’s terror list," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said.

In an interview with Iranian reporters in Paris, he added: "In France, this organization is still under prosecution."

"Prosecution began in 2000 and led to the detention of 165 members of MKO in 2003 and the trial of Maryam Rajavi," he said.

"French officials act in the framework of law and there’s no flexibility in dealing with the MKO."

In response to a question on France’s instance towards Hizballah and whether it was on EU’s terror list, Blazy said: "No, Hizballah is not on EU’s terror list."

"In our view, Hizballah has members in Lebanon’s Parliament. We like it to turn to a political movement from an armed one."

The European Parliament, in a meeting Tuesday, clarified that a European court ruling on the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) in December referred to procedural matters and in no way changes the status of the MKO as a terrorist group.

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht has reportedly said that he will use his veto power in the EU Council to stop any attempt to remove the MKO from the EU’s terror list.

The EP’s Committee for Relations with Iran held a meeting on "the MKO and consequences of the judgment of the European Court of First Instance of 12 December’ to unfreeze the assets of the MKO. EU put the MKO on its terror list and ordered continued freezing of its funds in 2002.

"It is not a ruling on substance. It is a procedural decision stating that the EU Council did not provide the right to a hearing.

So it is a procedural shortcoming," German MEP Michael Gahler, who is also vice-president of the EP’s Foreign Relations Committee, told the meeting.

He said that the EU had sent a letter to the MKO stating the reasons why the group should be kept on the terror list.

"So it’s not correct to believe that there was any other reason.

The problem lies in a procedural error. The MKO will try again and appeal against a final decision, but I am quite sure that the Council will not go along with the ruling (of the court) at the end of the day," said Gahler.

A legal advisor to the EU Council also explained that the European court ruling had reference to procedural matters relating to the obligations to justify the reasons and give the MKO the right to a hearing, but it does not affect the common EU position to maintain the MKO in its terror list.

Josy Dubie, Belgian senator and a former war correspondent for a Belgian TV channel, condemned the MKO as a terrorist organization.

Dubie told the meeting that he covered the eight-year imposed war in the 1980s from both sides, that is, Iran and Iraq, and witnessed MKO fighters launching attacks against their own country (Iran).

"What I discovered was a sect, a group of men and women completely and irrationally devoted to their leader, Masoud Rajavi, which shocked me deeply. I had a feeling that I was among a group of fanatics who followed the orders of their leader blindly," he added.

Dubie, since 1999, has been a member of the Belgian Senate and vice-chair of its Foreign Relations committee. He said he has been recently visited by some MKO members.

"They target people they consider to be important and try to influence them. They try to convince these people that they are a democratic movement fighting for their country. But that is the opposite of what I saw," said the Belgian senator, who also clarified that he had no sympathy for the current regime of President Ahmadinejad.

"So when I received them in my office, I told them what I had seen and they did not contact me again because when they `realize it is not going to work they abandon you and look for somebody else,’" he said.

When Maryam Rajavi was invited by certain members of the Belgian Senate, they (MKO) claimed they had been officially invited to the senate.

"I deny this propaganda. The Belgian Senate itself refused to receive Maryam Rajavi," he said.

Some individual members of the Belgian Senate, including its President Anne-Marie Lizin, received Rajavi, who lives in Paris, last October. "A large number of senators protested, including myself," said Dubie.

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht asked the senate about this matter and said he was very sore about this meeting and regretted that she had been invited by some senators.

De Gucht reportedly told the senate that the MKO had been responsible for hundreds of attacks in Iran and elsewhere, practiced torture and used emotional blackmail.

Dubie said he asked De Gucht in the senate about the court ruling on the MKO and whether the minister was in favor of removing the MKO from the list of terrorist groups.

According to Dubie, the Belgian foreign minister’s answer was:

"My answer to your question is very simple. I am in favor of keeping the PMOI on the European list and any decision to lift them or not to lift them requires the decision of all of the EU member states.

Belgium has a veto here and is prepared to use it."

"I can reassure you that the council has no intention of taking the MKO off the list," said the minister.

Mohammad Hossein Sobhani, a repentant MKO member and an author, related his long and bitter experience with the terror group in Iraq — how he was arrested and kept in solitary confinement for eight years in Asharf Camp and then in Abu Ghraib.

He asked the European parliamentarians not to use the "violations of human rights in Iran" as an excuse to support criminal terror groups such as the MKO.

Portugese MEP Paul Casaca, who organized the pro-MKO group ‘Friends of a Free Iran’ in the EP, had objected that since no MKO member was invited to speak, Sobhani should also not be allowed to talk in the meeting.

German MEP Michael Gahler said the agenda should not be changed.

"A voting of MEPs took place and the agenda was approved as it was." The chair of the EP’s delegation from its Committee for Relations with Iran, Angelika Beer, said she decided not to invite the MKO "because the information provided to me told me that the MKO has not been deleted from the list of terrorist organizations and therefore I did not find it correct to invite them."

March 11, 2007 0 comment

Britain Keeps MKO on Black List

A number of British MPs in the House of Commons discussed the issue of Iran’s nuclear program.

In response to protests on terrorist designation of MKO, Mark Pritchard said:

"All solutions on Iran, whether by the international community or Iranian exiles, should be peaceful. They shouldn’t be aimed at weakening the position of current regime."

"I believe that we should respect Foreign Office’s decision to band the MKO".

IRNA – 2007/03/01

March 11, 2007 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

Commemoration of 8th of March, The International Women’s Day

Paying tribute to the women’s roll in the society, and examining the situation of women in Rajavi’s cult

The former women members of Mojehedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO) participated in a commemorative meeting which was organised by the Nejat Society in Isfahan on the anniversary of the International Women’s Day. They presented a conclusion about their experiences from the cultic relationships within the MKO to the concerned families of the MKO members. The atmosphere dominating the cult was also explained and they described how women, even more than men, are mentally abused in the organisation.

The meeting was opened by Ms Rabii. She explained how women have been victims of various cults including the MKO particularly as mothers. The meeting was followed by a panel to discuss the situation of women in cults and two vital questions about women in MKO were discussed. The two queries are as follows:

1. Why women have been given higher positions in the MKO?

2. Why less women defect from the MKO compared to the men?

In this panel Ms Shalchi, Ms Qorsi, and Ms Sadri spoke about their experiences within the MKO. They discussed that despite Rajavi as the leader of the MKO is a man but he has given all key responsibilities to women. This is of course due to the fact that he does not trust men and finds women more reliant.

They illustrated how Rajavi suppressed the natural emotions, passions and feelings of women and forced them to divorce their husbands and abandon their children. Rajavi knows well that this suppression would absorb them to his cause and make them all dependent on him.

The ladies provided many examples and facts about the misdeeds occurring inside the organisation. For instance Ms Sadri explained how she was suggested to give her one year old child a bottle of milk containing cyanide and how she was made to slap her husband into his face. Ms Qorsi declared that she was threatened that she would be sent to Abu-Ghuraib Prison if she would not submit to the demands of the organisation. Ms Shalchi testified that the organisation believes family is the nest of corruption and made the followers to have the same thought.

The conclusion at the end of the panel was the answer to the above mentioned questions that although men and women are equal by creation, but the society has imposed them certain eminent roles. Women, particularly in eastern societies like Iran are more reluctant and dependent to someone else than men. They generally feel the need of being supported. On the other hand women are the core of the family and very dependant to them, therefore the organisation, like many cults, tries to turn their love to the family into hatred. Women would be totally vulnerable to be dependent to the cult and its leader once a woman is made to hate her family and would be much harder for her to break ties with the cult and leave the organisation.

Finally the families who had participated in the meeting raised their questions to be answered by the panel. They mainly wanted to know that how they can help their beloved ones out of the terrorist cult of Rajavi.

March 5, 2007 0 comment

Europe

The European Parliament Held an Assembly, Considering the MKO’s Present Situation

On Tuesday February 27, 2007, an assembly holds in EU Parliament in Bruxelle to consider the present situation of the MKO and sustaining the group name in the EU terrorist list.

More than 70 EU parliamentary members who were mostly Green party attending the assembly. Angelika Beer, the representative of the “Dialogue in” of the European Parliament, was the director of the assembly. Also, there were many journalists and analyst expertise in terrorism. Some former members of the MKO and their representatives were also invited to this assembly whose names are :

1- Michael Matison the General Secretary of Common Security in European Parliament Council

2- Senator Josie Doubiee from

3- Mohammad Hussien Sobhanie , Human rights activist and Expert on MKO’s Situation from

Angelika Beer briefly explained the reason why MKO is absent. She said that " since MKO are known as a terrorist group and their name is among EU terrorist list therefore , they are prevented for attending the assembly."

Followed by Angelika Beer, Michael Matison read a report on legal rights in EU Parliament. Then Senator Josie Doubie shared his personal experience visiting the Camp Ashraf . He mentioned MKO is a cult group by the definition of the cult.

Mohammad Hussien Sobhanie talked his personal experience when he was jailed about the systematic violation of human rights, the danger of cultish believes and terror policy in MKO. Sobhanie told the assembly that removing MKO’s from EU terror list will be against Human Rights principal and the democratic values that EU is based on those values..

The representatives of the Associations who participated and supported the assembly are:

1- Pars-Iran Association

2- Rahai Society

3- Family Rescue Net

4- Iran-Sabz Association

5- Iran-Interlink

6- New View

7- Iran-Ghalam Society

Feb.27, 2007

March 1, 2007 0 comment

Europe

Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MKO) to remain in EU’s terror list, say European parliamentarians