++ Mohammad Reza Rohani – formerly a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) – has begun a series of articles titled ‘The Smell of the Shirt of Joseph’. Parts 1 and 2 go into detail about why he resigned from the NCRI and the pressure the MEK exert on him now to keep quiet. He points out that he is writing as a person who is not against them and has done his best to bring them back to normality, nevertheless he details the difficult situation he was in and why he had to leave.
++ Dr Ghassim writing similarly as a former NCRI member describes why he felt he was no longer an effective or useful member of the Council. One specific example he gives is that over the last decade Maryam Rajavi has held around 60 or 70 conferences and meetings, but, even putting himself aside, not once during the past ten years has a single Iranian been on the panel. Instead the panellists were always American or European lobbyists. Ghassim points out that as a member of the Council he should surely have been able to represent it at least once in the past ten years, but this example shows why he felt unable to play a part and be helpful any more.
++ Several writers in Farsi have pointed out that over recent days Rajavi’s stance toward Iran is an exact copy of that of Benjamin Netanyahu, and that the word for word copying makes it clear the MEK is being paid to repeat what Netanyahu says. They point out that no one else in the world, not even the Neoconservatives, follow word for word what Netanyahu says except the MEK.
++ The office of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki issued a statement in English denying the MEK’s propaganda claims. The statement reads in part: “The Khalq Organization is accustomed to fabricating lies and disseminating them, in this regard they alleged that seven of its members had been missing in the recent events that took place in the New Iraq camp, and claimed that they were abducted by Iraqi troops. As we reject these allegations altogether we reiterate the fact that the Iraqi forces has never conducted any actions against members of this organization, whether in the camp of New Iraq or any other site, but the elements of this organization, which is still on the list of terrorist organizations refused to allow Iraqi forces, which were protecting the camp, entering the camp at the time of the accident and impeded investigation efforts.”
++ The US embassy in Iraq also issued a denial of MEK propaganda claims saying: “The U.S. Embassy in Iraq says it has no information on the whereabouts of seven Iranian dissidents allegedly missing following a deadly shooting on their compound north of Baghdad this month. The parent organization of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq dissident group says it has information that an American delegation has met the seven people held by Iraqi forces near Baghdad airport. U.S. Embassy spokesman Rodney Ford told The Associated Press by email Sunday that the claim of an American visit is “categorically untrue.” He says no one from the U.S. government has seen or visited those said to be missing.”
++ Several articles about Camp Ashraf have concluded that the MEK are trying to divert attention away from the UN’s efforts to remove them in order to keep themselves in Iraq. It is ironic that a couple of days ago another audio message from Massoud Rajavi was broadcast inside the MEK in which he viciously attacks everyone and says they have to get their ground back and fight to the last person. Rajavi says no one is allowed to leave Iraq. Many have written in response that it is clear he wants to get rid of the whole 3000. The 52 killed on September 1st have given him some blood and he is now prepared to kill them all.
++ Ashraf News and other Iraqi media report that some unnamed officials claim they believe Massoud Rajavi had been in Camp Ashraf but ran away shortly before the transfers to Camp Liberty began.
++ News from inside Camp Liberty is given by Mohammad Karami who has contact with an insider. He was informed that since the 42 survivors of the Camp Ashraf incident were transferred to Camp Ashraf, nobody has seen them or had contact with them. They have been held in quarantine so that it is clear they know things which Rajavi doesn’t want others to find out about.
++ In Iran, General Seyed Mohammad Baqerzadeh, commander of the search committee for the lost people at the Armed Forces Headquarters said his organisation had met with officials of the ICRC and representatives of the Iraqi defense and human rights ministries in the south western Iranian city of Ahvaz to discuss the search for missing war dead. General Baqerzadeh said that some Iranian POWs were handed over to MKO terrorists, who were based in camp Ashraf, by the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussain and that some of them “were martyred and buried there,” which is why the search committee wants permission to search the cemetery of Camp Ashraf for bodies.
++ During President Rohani’s visit to the UN General Assembly in New York the MEK held a demonstration in Manhatten. Not one serious media outlet covered it. Only one or two weblogs mentioned it and a few paid adverts tried to make something out of it. However a reporter for the Farsi section of Radio Free Europe (Radio Farda) posted a short note and a picture gallery titled, ‘Full of colour, full of people’. The pictures showed only a few white people including John Bolton with the rest – a few hundred – being mostly poor black people (apparently beggars) who had presumably been paid to attend.
++ Mehrdad Sagharchi from Germany was the guest on Mardom TV this week. He answered questions on a variety of subjects from his own experience of Ashraf and Liberty.
++ A few Iraqi MPs , officials and Tribal Leaders in Iraq have issued announcements asking the Government of Iraq to put more pressure on the UN and the US to take the remains of Saddam – as they call the MEK – out of the country as soon as possible. Many refer to the incident in Camp Ashraf and say that if this was done by the families of the victims of MEK terrorism in Iraq as is claimed, then it show that people’s patience is running thin and the Americans should take their mercenaries out and back home.
++ Mohammad Razaghi responded to Massoud Rajavi’s audio broadcast in an article that points out how Rajavi is inciting the members to resist to the death and follow the path of the 52 who were killed. From this approach Razaghi draws the conclusion that no one else was after the blood of these people and no one else benefited from it except Rajavi himself.
++ Iran’s President Hassan Rohani and Iraqi Vice President Khazir al-Khazai met in New York on September 25. During the meeting in which many regional issues were discussed, including the crisis in Syria, President Rohani expressed gratitude to the Iraqi government for its closure of Camp Ashraf… Stressing that the terrorist group had the blood of Iranians and Iraqis on its hands, the Iranian president expressed hope that the remaining MKO terrorists would leave Iraqi soil shortly.
September 27 2013
