The MKO, which is totally different from what it claims, once had the following organization:
– Leadership, chief and different councils,
– President in exile (Maryam Rajavi, wife of Massoud Rajavi),
– Organized army (leader and chief of staff) which enjoyed heavy weapons and equipments including helicopter, tank, artillery, modern automatic guns, … besides thousands of trained soldiers with hundreds of female soldiers leading groups of men,
– Wide financial sources,
– Strong presence around the world, including Paris where Maryam Rajavi and a number of MKO leaders live,
– Lots of supporters across the world,
This group was very close to the former regime of Iraq for a long time so that Saddam Hussein gave them several camps. Former officials provided them with unlimited support for the group. All this was a result of believing in the old idea that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".
The army of MKO had several camps across Iraq with the support of Saddam Hussein. The MKO, an Iranian opposition group, has been listed as a terrorist group by the US and EU.
The ideology of MKO is a mixture of Marxism and Shiite Islam. They had bloody clashes with Shah of Iran in which many of the group’s members were killed.
The organization continued its terrorist attacks in Tehran after revolution and even after the election of Mohammed Khatami as president. One of the major terrorist operations by the MKO was the assassination of General Ali Sayyad Shirazi, a senior Iranian official, in 1999.
The MKO was found in 1965 and after going to exile in early 80s, NCRI was founded as its political branch. At first, other opposition groups like Iran’s Democratic party and former Iranian president Bani Sadr joined the council but they left it soon after.
After France expelled the group in 1986, Massoud Rajavi reached an agreement with Iraqi commanders and they settled in Iraq. They established National Liberation Army with the help of Saddam and according to the International Institute of London’s Strategic Researches, 15000, mostly women, joined the MKO at that time. They had 160 tanks and M8 helicopters.
MKO rebels were trained in a closed system so that the members had no personal lives and the leader of the group was considered a charisma. It’s amazing that no news has been published about Massoud Rajavi after the US invasion to Iraq.
Facts on the MKO
This organization was founded in 1960 by a group of university students. Being influential, the group gradually turned to the biggest Iranian opposition group. The history of the group is full of opposition to the West and operations against Iranian interest inside and outside the country.
During 70s, the MKO conducted many terrorist attacks and killed American civilians and military contractors in Iraq. It also backed take over of US embassy in Iran.
In 1986, the organization was expelled from France and it settled in Iraq. Backed financially and logistically by Saddam, the MKO took part in suppressing Kurds and other minorities in Iraq’s Kurdistan and served Saddam Hussein as a powerful army.
In April 1992, it conducted attacks against Iranian embassies in 13 countries and extended its attacks inside Iran, including 3 terrorist operation in January 1998, which led to the death of 3 civilians and former head of Evin prison, Assadollah Lajevardi.
In April 1999, Iran’s Army chief of Staff, General Sayyad Shirazi was assassinated by the group. Following this, European countries listed the MKO as a terrorist organization and froze its assets.
The organization claims to have stopped its terrorist operations since 2001 and that it no longer conducts terrorist attacks against Iran from Iraq. However, it’s still a terrorist organization in Britain and the US. Even after Europe’s court of First Instance issued ruling in the favor of the organization, the spokesman of the court warned about dangers of lifting the group’s name from the list.
Now the questions are:
What’s the purpose of changing policy toward the MKO? Isn’t it a terrorist group? Isn’t it that its properties have been frozen? So, why are some people supporting it?
No one knows, there may be new plots based on supporting the group! Everyone should be aware that supporting this terrorist group can have disastrous consequences.
Jalal Jarmka-Swiss