Open Letter to U.S. Ambassador in Canada and Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
Dear David H. Wilkins, U.S. Ambassador in Canada The Embassy of the United States of America 490 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 1G8 Canada Dear Joe Volpe, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration 6th floor, 400 University Avenue Toronto, Ontario M7A 2R9
The Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK), who are in U.S. Department of State Foreign Terrorist Organization list group, are forming a protest on Thursday January 19, 2006 in Washington D.C. in front of the White House. They try to gather Iranians from all over the world. In some cases, some of the Mojahedin-e- Khalq’s members enter into U.S. illegally by using fake identification. The MEK also perform this protest gathering under different names titles for their deceiving political activity protection such as:
The National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA)
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI)
National Council of Resistance (NCR)
National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
Muslim Iranian Student’s Society (MISS)
Description:
The MEK philosophy mixes Marxism and Islam. Formed in the 1960s, the organization was expelled from after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and its primary support came from the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein starting in the late 1980s. The MEK conducted anti-Western attacks prior to the Islamic Revolution. Since then, it has conducted terrorist attacks against the interests of the clerical regime in and abroad. The MEK advocates the overthrow of the Iranian regime and its replacement with the group’s own leadership.
Activities:
Believing in violence and terrorist activities, the group’s worldwide campaign against the Iranian Government stresses propaganda and uses of terrorism. During the 1970s, the MEK killed US military personnel and civilians working on defense projects in Tehran and supported the takeover in 1979 of the American Embassy in Tehran. In 1981, the MEK detonated bombs in the head office of the Islamic Republic Party and the Premier’s office, killing some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Premier Mohammad-Javad Bahonar. Near the end of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, Baghdad armed the MEK with military equipment and sent it into action against Iranian forces. In 1991, the MEK assisted the Government of Iraq in suppressing the Shia uprisings in southern Iraq and the Kurdish uprisings in the north. In April 1992, the MEK conducted near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and installations in 13 countries, demonstrating the group’s ability to mount large-scale operations overseas. In April 1999, the MEK targeted key military officers and assassinated the deputy chief of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff. In April 2000, the MEK attempted to assassinate the commander of the Nasr Headquarters, Tehran’s interagency board responsible for coordinating policies. The normal pace of anti-Iranian operations increased during "Operation Great Bahman" in February 2000, when the group launched a dozen attacks against Iran. One of those attacks included a mortar attack against the leadership complex in Tehran that housed the offices of the Supreme Leader and the President. In 2000 and 2001, the MEK was involved regularly in mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids on Iranian military and law enforcement units and Government buildings near the Iran-Iraq border, although MEK terrorism in Iran declined toward the end of 2001. After Coalition aircraft bombed MEK bases at the outset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the MEK leadership ordered its members not to resist Coalition forces, and a formal cease-fire arrangement was reached in May 2003.
About 3,000 MEK members are currently confined to Camp Ashraf, the MEK’s main compound north of Baghdad , where they remain under the Geneva Convention’s "protected person" status and Coalition control. As a condition of the cease-fire agreement, the group relinquished its weapons, including tanks, armored vehicles, and heavy artillery. A significant number of MEK personnel have "defected" from the Ashraf group, and several dozen of them have been voluntarily repatriated to Iran.
Location/Area of Operation:
In the 1980s, the MEK’s leaders were forced by Iranian security forces to flee to France. On resettling in Iraq in 1987, almost all of its armed units were stationed in fortified bases near the border with Iran. Since Operation Iraqi Freedom, the bulk of the group is limited to Camp Ashraf, although an overseas support structure remains with associates and supporters scattered throughout Europe and North America.
External Aid:
Before Operation Iraqi Freedom, the group received all of its military assistance, and most of its financial support, from the former Iraqi regime. The MEK invested enough money during the present of Saddam’s regime, so they are still surviving on that investment.
Unfortunately, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) skip all the above crime and are active to gain power under different names and titles while they do not have support in Iran. We strongly believe that Mojahedin still believes in violence and terrorism and are not a good choice over the present regime in Iran. However, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq are taking an advantage of the present situation in Iran and with the support of neo conservatives in the U.S. are trying to make the Pentagon, Congressmen and the Senate believe that the only way to stop the regime from attaining nuclear weapons is to refer Iran’s nuclear file to the Security Council. We would like to stop and condemn this action because by referring the nuclear file to the Security Council, which means to put Iran into a economic sanction, is not the best way to change the regime in Iran because this choice (sanctions and/or military action) will make the regime in Iran even more violent and will help the regime stay in power even longer.
We, Iranians aboard, would like to ask the Secretary for State in the U.S. to stop the Mojahedin-e- Khalq’s misleading protest gathering on Thursday January, 19, 2006 in Washington D.C. in front of the White House, and also to support the youth of Iran to change the present situation from the inside of Iran.
Sincerely,
Victims of the Mojahedin-e- Khalq
Pars-Iran
Saeed Hazrati
January 16, 2006
Saeed Hazrati, Pars-Iran, January 16, 2006
