US officials have for the first time acknowledged that the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), in collaboration with Israel’s Mossad have been behind the killings of Iranian scientists [1].
The most recent assassination was that of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, who was killed on January 11, 2012 when two riders on a motorbike drove by his car and placed onto it a magnetic bomb that resulted in a deadly explosion. Other attacks include the assassination of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, killed by a bomb outside his Tehran home in January 2010, and an explosion in November 2010 that took the life of Majid Shahriari and wounded Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, who is now the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. A fourth scientist, Daryush Rezaei-Nejad, was killed outside his home by shots fired from a motorcycle on July 23, 2011.
On Thursday of last week, two senior US officials confirmed to NBC News that the MKO has been collaborating with Israel’s Mossad in carrying out the assassination of Iranian professors and researchers. This development is very significant for the US has not only admitted that the MKO is involved in terrorist activities in Iran, but also acknowledged their collaboration with Israel’s Mossad.
Despite this acknowledgement and the fact that the MKO is designated by the United States as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, this organisation operates freely in the US, under various names such as NCRI, MEK and known front groups such as IranFocus and IranTerror, and leading members of US political establishment, such as former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton and former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani regularly give speeches at meetings organised by the MKO and its affiliated fronts.
The US government itself has been supporting the MKO to destabilise Iran. In 2008, the renowned investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh revealed that the US had invested 400 million dollars for regime change in Iran and that large portions of this money was given to the MKO. In 2010, the NY Times revealed that a secret directive signed by General David Petraeus “appears to authorize specific operations in Iran, most likely to gather intelligence about the country’s nuclear program or identify dissident groups that might be useful for a future military offensive.”
The European Union removed the MKO from its list of banned terrorist organisations in 2009. This decision was made after the United Kingdom removed the MKO from its list of terrorist organizations. At the same time, the EU has been reluctant to offer refuge to thousands of members of the MKO who were protected by the US in the Camp Asharf in Iraq until the recent departure of American troops from the country. This unwillingness too suggests that the EU is aware of the terrorist activities and violent nature of this organization.
One should ask to what extent the MI6 and thus the British Government have been aware of the terrorist activities of the MKO and yet have permitted them to operate freely in the UK. It is well known that US intelligence services maintain close working relations with their counterparts in the UK. Implicating the UK in the US covert operation to fund the MKO against Iran, Hersh asserted “most of the [MEK] leaders have been taking our money and cashing it in an awful lot of bank accounts in London”. The UK support for the covert war against Iran is undeniable: in October 2010, Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6 stated publically on the record that the west should support covert operations in Iran to block its nuclear programme.
Given the blatant violation of international law and human rights that the terrorist acts carried out by the MKO and Mossad pose for people of Iran as now admitted by the US officials, we urge all citizens of the US and the EU to address through their parliamentary representatives the terrorist activities of Mossad and MKO and the freedom given to the MKO to operate in the US and the EU.
References:
[1] http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/08/10354553-israel-teams-with-terror-group-to-kill-irans-nuclear-scientists-us-officials-tell-nbc-news
CASMII Statement – campaigniran.org
