++ Several people have continued to write about the resignation of Ghassim and Rowhani from the NCRI, concluding that the MEK’s reaction toward them and toward Esmael Yaghmai and Iraj Mesdaghi only proves what the ex-members have been saying for the past twenty years about the cult nature of the Mojahedin Khalq.
++ Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad has written in Arabic to Dr Valid Saleh to explain to him who the MEK are. The MEK claimed Dr Saleh would attend their Villipinte ceremony in Paris in June. Dr Saleh replied to the letter thanking Hossein Nejad for the information provided. But saying that in reality he has no relation with the MEK and will never attend any of their programmes, meetings or ceremonies. He did, however, acknowledge that the MEK have tried through many channels to persuade him to participate in their meetings and that he has always clearly rejected them.
++ Tens of articles continue to be written about the Forough Javidan (Eternal Light) operation looking at it from different angles; many try to get into the head of a cult leader and examine why he would start such a thing. Many of those who actually participated say they had not choice but to go to war, there was nothing they could have done to resist or refuse.
++ This week’s guests on Mardom TV were Nasrin Ebrahimi from Setarehgan website in Switzerland who talked about the situation of women in the MEK camps and also about the prison, and Batul Soltani from Zanan Iran in Germany who introduced Mrs Zahra Moini to talk about her involvement in the MEK.
++ Mohammad B expands on the argument between Karim Ghassim and Mohammad Reza Rowhani and the MEK, basically saying they are right to say Rajavi is not against the Iranian regime and that ‘toppling the regime’ is just an excuse for him. Whoever Rajavi’s first enemy is, he says, it is not the regime.
++ In Iraq, Al Maliki’s advisor Ali Al Mousavi reiterated in a TV interview there is no alternative for the MEK except that Iraq throw them out and emphasised that all parties have signed up for this including the UN, and there is no going back. He said that although many western governments support this group, the bottom line is none of them want to accept them on their soil, but Iraq has no other way except expelling them.
++In the second and third parts of his interview with the Reporters’ Club in Tehran, Ebrahim Khodabandeh talked about Massoud Rajavi and says that contrary to rumours he is alive and is being protected by some powers. Khodabandeh also talked about Maryam Rajavi’s hypocrisy over issues like wearing Hijab and shaking hands with members of the opposite sex. He says that when she attended court in France she went without Hijab. He says that one of the reasons he is confident Massoud Rajavi is still alive is because from personal experience he knows Maryam Rajavi is next to useless and cannot take responsibility even for herself and is incapable of doing anything even though it is a cult.
++ Mohammad Karami has written about two more cases of suspicious deaths in the MEK. One was Karim Pedram whom he knew personally and the other was Massoumeh Gheibipour about whom he recounts from the memoirs of Batul Soltani. Both died suspiciously in the MEK.
++ Iraqi parliamentarian Mohammad Reza Al Khaffaaji from Al Ahrar faction was interviewed by Central Iraqi News Agency. He claims the MEK is one of most dangerous terrorist organisations in the world. Another MP, Qayda Kambash from Al Araghieh coalition, emphasised again that there is no alternative to the expulsion of the MEK from Iraq.
++The Diyali Province Chief of Police announced this week ‘we have received orders to forcefully evacuate Camp Ashraf of the remaining 100 people within the next two weeks if they don’t leave voluntarily’.
++ Mohammad Alavi from Aryia Iran published an article in response to Ted Poe’s claim that the MEK works for US Intelligence. The article is titled ‘Mojahedin Khalq – People’s Warriors or Jihadists for the Intelligence Services?’
++ Parts five and six of Hanif Heydar Nejat’s account of his own experience of Forough Javidan was published in Pejvak Iran.
++ Esmail Yaghmai has published one of the MEK’s own propaganda rants on his weblog under the title ‘Believe you me, members and supporters of the MEK are not sheep’. The article features a photo-shopped picture conflating himself, Iraj Mesdaghi , Massoud Khodabandeh and Sa’id Shahsavandi together claiming they are all agents of the regime and hinting that they are working together. Many experts believe that the next big fear of the MEK and Rajavi after the collapse from within that we are now witnessing is that these individuals start to talk and get together, so the MEK’s next tactic is to try to make them afraid of talking to one another.
++ In another article, Mohammad B, writes about the clear silence of NCRI member Hezarkhani. He says he has reliable information from inside Auvers sur Oise that he has been put under serious pressure to swear at those who have left but that up to now he has resisted doing so.
++ Zanan Iran has announced a plea for help to free Mrs Shirin Moini from the MEK. She is now in Albania. Her father Mohammad Moini and her sisters in Iran are asking for help to be able to meet her. Another sister Alnaz Moini has asked for help. Her cousin is Zahra Moini, now in Germany, who had been in the MEK herself.
++ Said Soltanpour from Kaanun Bayan in Canada held a video interview as part of the oral history of recent events in Iran. He interviewed ‘Siamak’, one of the commanders in Forough Javidan about how it started, how it proceeded and how it ended going through the various meetings, preparations and orders etc.
++ Mahnaz Ghezlou, who last week accused Rajavi of living in a dream and shaking hands with his own ignorance, has come under internet attack and was called ‘a mercenary of the regime’. One of those who attacked her is a notorious lumpen of the MEK called Mansour Ghadarkhah. Ghezlou writes ‘Mr Rajavi I am not a mercenary but Mansour Ghadarkhal is!’ Apparently Ghadarkhah had mistakenly sent an email to her which was intended for his commander in Paris who also has the name Mahnaz. The email lays out his expenses for his trip to Paris and his month’s salary for October which he asks Mahnaz Salimian, Secretary of the NCRI, to pay him. Ghezlou goes on to say that when she started with the MEK she was a girl in Tehran and that at that time the Hizbollahis would taunt them saying they only like the MEK because they fancied sleeping with Massoud Rajavi. Now it has been revealed that Rajavi really has been sleeping with many of the women in Camp Ashraf.
++ In Iraq the parliamentarian Mashregh Naaji from Al Ahrar gave an interview to Fars News in which he claims Iraq has overwhelming proof that the continued existence of MEK in Iraq is only due to the severe pressure on Iraq from America. He says however that ‘we have told them no and we will not give in and they must take them home. We have no intention of using our land against our neighbours any more.’
++ Rassoul Taghinejad has written his fourth letter to Massoud Rajavi asking to allow him meet his brother Rashid Taghinejad whom he has not seen for the last 33 years. The family are wondering, he says, why human rights organisations have gone mum over this and why the MEK won’t even answer him.
++ Mohammad Razaghi sent an open letter to the Prime Minister of Albania presenting some documents and witness statements that the MEK are now trying to create a replica of Camp Ashraf Albania. The letter warns that Albania’s humanitarian efforts should not be hijacked by a terrorist cult.
++ Mehdi Khoshhaal has started new series of articles in Fanous website. His first article goes through some famous quotes from Massoud Rajavi, one of which is, ‘at the end of a horse race they don’t ask the winner how he won’. Khoshhaal reminds us that this may be true, but at the end of the race they give the prize to the rider not to the horse.
++ Zahra Moini in the third part of her interview with Zanan Iran recounts the burning to death of Homa Bashar Doust. Along with a picture of Homa’s grave in Camp Ashraf, Moini claims that herself and everyone else had serious doubts about the cause of this fire, which apparently happened when some petrol caught fire as Homa was cleaning her weapon.
Iran Interlink, August 09 2013
