The members who reside in Camp Ashraf are just like babies who are in their mothers’ womb and have no idea of the outside world to which they have no contact. They listen to no news except that of the Resistance TV or Freedom TV [MKO channels]. They have been banished from visiting their families.
Renee C. Behinfar in an article for a daily internet publication presented such descriptions for hostages in Camp Ashraf as Cult-like, Brainwashed, Victims of mind control.
Camp Ashraf is a prison where marriages have been banned and male members have been ordered to suppress their attraction to women, all by the orders of the camp’s absentee leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.
The declared purpose of Camp Ashraf — to serve as a headquarters for the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), a militant group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., and to start another revolution — came as a welcome opportunity for Rajavi’s suggestible supporters.
The price Rajavi charged for admission to Camp Ashraf was a complete surrender to the cause. Members had to relinquish their pasts, their current lives, and whatever hold they had on their tenuous futures. And now, after enduring 25 years of manipulative tactics to keep their minds and hearts suppressed, the residents of Camp Ashraf face imminent difficulties. In 2003, U.S. troops were able to force them to relinquish their weapons in exchange for U.S. protection.
Now the Iraqi government has given a deadline of December 2011 for the residents to evacuate. With the downfall of Saddam Hussein, who provided Rajavi with financial and military support, they are no longer welcome. Nor can it be believed that they are any longer relevant to their original cause.
The Rajavis, meanwhile, have left the residents to the camp. Maryam resides comfortably in Paris, and Massoud is in hiding. What reason, then, for the continued existence of Camp Ashraf? Why do the Rajavis hang onto their followers in their prison-like enclave, even with the deadline fast approaching? They understand well that without the camp, the MEK would lose its legitimacy, and so, therefore, would the Rajavis.
According to a report by Fars News Agency, the MKO ringleaders have prevented the members of the group from meeting their relatives for the last two years in a bid to prevent their defection and escape from the camp.
The Rajavis have collected millions of dollars from supporters, yet none of their money has been used to free the people in Camp Ashraf. They have spent millions on legal fees to fight the foreign terrorist designation and on advertisements in major U.S. newspapers naming several U.S. figures as supporters of their delisting, even hiring a top lobbying firm in the U.S. to help them in their efforts. And yet, where are the ads to promote the freeing of the people in Camp Ashraf?
Camp Ashraf is their bargaining tool. They falsely claim that they must be delisted in order to free the camp residents, despite the fact that they were offered several opportunities over the years to be relocated to safe locations outside of Iraq. Rajavi halted such actions, as he would no longer be able to use the human rights issue as a scapegoat to elicit sympathy. It is in his best interests to keep the residents in harm’s way, as this is his key to accessing and manipulating U.S. politicians and the American public.
Recently, Maryam Rajavi, issued the execution orders personally and condemns to death all the dissidents who refrain from obeying her orders and all those who plan to defect from the MKO, reported FNA.
The international community must defy the wishes of Massoud Rajavi to keep his hostages there for his own self-interest.
