It was about 3 months ago that US Treasury department appeared to begin an investigation to figure out the sources of payments offered to prominent former American officials over their 
speeches in support of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization . Americans are prohibited by law from doing business with designated terrorist groups.[1]
Besides, Security Council of the United Nations on September 28, 2001, issued Resolution 1373 calling on “all states to combat international terrorism". By resolution 1373 the council established a committee of the council "to monitor the resolution’s implementation and called an all States to report on actions they had taken to that end.”[2]
“the council also decided that States should prohibited their nationals and persons or entities in their territories from making funds, financial assets, economic resources, financial or other related services available to persons commit or attempt to commit, facilitate or participate in the commission of terrorist acts”, according to the resolution." States should also refrain from providing any form of support to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts; take the necessary steps to prevent the commission of terrorist acts, deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support, commit terrorist acts and provide safe havens as well.”[3]
The resolution also calls on the states to intensify and accelerate the exchange of information regarding terror acts and forged or falsified documents made by terrorist groups. Thus, it doesn’t seem so difficult to figure out financial resources of the MKO if the US Treasury Department is truly concerned about them – and it must be concerned.
While the MKO’s spokesman Ali Safavi said the funds for the pro-MKO campaign come from Iranian Americans [4], there are various reports and testimonies on the group’s affluent resources.
According to the Guardian article, some US officials who suspect Safavi’s claim, say because of the amounts involved, money is coming from other sources, mostly likely Saudi Arabia and Israel.[5]
The report somehow confirms what former CIA official Philip Giraldi had previously revealed on the MKO-Israel relationship-both financial and military.”The group appear to have ample financial resources, and it is generally believed that at least some of the money comes from Mossad,” he writes.” the MEK is able to place full-page ads in major US newspapers and is also known to pay hefty speaker’s fees to major political figures who are willing to speak publicly on its behalf.”[6]
Justin Raimondo, the editor of antiwar.com finds it fair to ask where all this unaccounted for cash is coming from. "while the Rajavi-ites use the familiar methods employed by cults to strip their members of all their assets -see the AlJazeera video for a heart-rending account of how a major MEK spokesman ripped off his own elderly parents- it seems likely that, during their sojourn as Saddam Hussein’s favorite assassins, the MEK received compensation from the Iraqi dictator for slaughtering the Kurds and other regime opponents so efficiently and ruthlessly,” Raimondo asserts. He concludes that those former US officials are actually “recipients of Saddam’s gold.”[7]
It sounds that Saddam Hussein has been the group’s basic financial resource including funds illegally siphoned from the UN Oil-for-Food program until the fall of Iraqi dictator in 2003.[8] The report is confirmed by testimonies of former members of the group. Mrs. Maryam Sanjabi, a former member of the MKO’s elite council said that based on agreements held between MKO ringleaders and Iraq’s officials in 1987,saddam’s regime allocated the revenues gained from selling 50000 barrels per day of oil to the MEK in addition to arms and logistic, reported FNA.[9]
Sanjabi revealed that the group used to smuggle the Iraqi oil supplies to foreign markets after Kuwait war and the UN oil embargo against Saddam’s regime! the group used its front companies to sell Iraqi oil. Ali Hussein Nezhad who was Rajavi’s Private interpreter in the MKO, escaped the group in late April. Immediately after his defection, he published an announcement in which he denounces the “cult of Rajavi” . regarding the group’s financial resources, Hussein Nezhad writes:”As we see, Rajavi’s claims of Iranian’s financial support for the group and all his tricks in fundraising programs are shallow and just like a cover to hide the oil resources they plundered from Iraqi people; like a justification to whiten their multi-million operating cost.”[10]
He reveals facts of Saddam’s generosity towards Massoud Rajavi:”in his last visit with Saddam Hussein in August 2000, Rajavi asked Hussein to increase his oil share up to 100 thousand barrels a day (3 million barrels a month), according to documents and letters I translated or reports composed by his closest comrades that I could read.”
He explained how the MKO managed to turn Saddam’s gifts into dollars: ”Rajavi received his oil share in coupons which were then sent to Europe to be changed into dollars.”[11]
Rajavi’s quota from Iraqi oil also included other amounts of oil funneled to his cult by Saddam Hussein out of UN Oil for Food program, according to Hussein Nezhad.[12]
Naturally, the MKO revenue from oil resources was invested in European banks and industry, the former MKO member revealed.
Considering various reports and testimonies on the group’s financial resources, it actually seems simple to discover the origins of their funds. It won’t be so difficult to find the affiliated companies working with this terrorist designated group and definitely simple to prove the felony committed by their material supporters.
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] Shane, Scott, US Supporters of Iranian Group Face Scrutiny New York times,March13,2012
[2] Security Council, Press release SC/7158,4385th Meeting (night) Security Council unanimously Adopts Wide-ranging Anti-terrorism Resolution/September28,2001
[3] ibid
[4]McGreal, Chris, Banned Iranian Terror Group lobbies for legitimacy on capital Hill,Guardian,May22,2012
[5]ibid
[6]Giraldi, Philip. The MEK’s Useful Idiots, Antiwar.com, March 08,2012
[7]Raimondo, Justin, Hillary’s Terrorists, Antiwar.com , May16,2012.
[8]US Department of State, Country Reports on Terrorism 2009
[9]FNA, defected member unveils MKO’s major share in Saddam’s Oil Revenues, June5, 2012
[10] Sahar Family Foundation, Hidden sources of MKO funds revealed, Translated by Nejat Soceity,June02, 2012
[11]ibid
[12]ibid
