++ In the week that Roya Daroudi, one of the second generation MEK members, died in Tirana, many Farsi writers questioned why a woman in her mid-30s died, and why the MEK remain silent on this issue. Mohammad Karami informs us through his weblog that her mother, two brothers, her uncle and his wife are among the ex-members who have left the MEK. This, and the fact she was kept in Iraq and then mysteriously died after arriving in Albania provokes unanswered questions.
++ Irandidban and many others, in both Farsi and English articles, have referred to MEK veteran Medi Abrishamchi. His past, his work as a torturer for Saddam, his giving his wife to Massoud Rajavi, all expose him as the most corrupt person in the MEK. The fact he is now trying to act as spokesman for the group has resulted in everyone laughing at him.
++ Among the paid speakers at Maryam Rajavi’s show in Paris last week was the daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Naomi Tutu. In this way the MEK are trying to link themselves with Nelson Mandela. Several writers have pointed out that until only a few weeks ago the MEK was vehement in its rants against Mandela, and contrast this with the sudden change of tune after his death. The MEK previously swore at him for visiting Iran three times, defending Palestinian rights and refusing to visit America or meet with an American president.
++ Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad was the guest of Mardom TV this week. He talked, among other things, about how the MEK manipulate people to take part in hunger strikes and other self-damaging acts.
++ Further articles in Farsi about Roya Daroudi’s death in Tirana point out that she was among the children evacuated from Camp Ashraf in 1991. As they grew older, some were able to escape the clutches of the MEK, but others like Daroudi were unfortunately taken back to Iraq and now she is dead.
++ The MEK issued a long statement in Farsi against one of those recently arrived in Tirana called Ehsan Bidi. The MEK accuse him of being an agent of the Iranian regime. The MEK name him alongside Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad whose photograph with Bidi’s family taken in a hotel in Baghdad two years ago, and taken from the Sahar website, is also published. Both Bidi and Hossein Nejad wrote about this allegation pointing to the fact that anything the MEK claim has already been said, whether by picture or text, and shows they have nothing to hide. Bidi says the MEK only started attacking him when they found out he is speaking out against them. He says they are worried that his friends in Tirana will talk to him and they will leave as well. Hossein Nejad has ridiculed Maryam Rajavi saying ironically, ‘Sorry, we didn’t know that even when we have escaped from Camp Liberty we are not allowed to meet with our families’. Bidi announced in his reply that there are 120 torturers and mercenaries among the members who are wanted by Iraqi courts. One of the reasons the MEK are after Bidi is because he has evidence which has given to the courts in Iraq and will now pass on to other countries. He says this is the reason Rajavi is trying to demonize him as an agent.
++ Arash Sametipour has started a new weblog. He had many interviews with BBC and other media after being released from prison in Iran once he had served a sentence for terrorism while an MEK member.
++ Many, including Kanon-e Iran Galam writing in English, continue to address open letters and articles to MEPs and parliamentary groups asking that they intervene and use their good relations with the Mojahedin Khalq to demand that Maryam Rajavi stop deliberately depriving the hunger strikers in Camp Liberty of food. Many remind the MEPs that they can help, and if they don’t and anyone dies then they must bear some responsibility. Most have pointed to the fact that this so-called hunger strike amounts to a further attempt to eliminate members and is aimed at reducing the number of live witnesses. Other articles protested against the presence of the terrorist MEK leader Maryam Rajavi in a session of the EP committee sessions. “Maryam Rajavi is a terrorist and there is no place for terrorists in the parliament,” one letter said, adding, “Some EP members who have close cooperation with MKO should rather spend their energy on transferring Camp Liberty residents to a third country and in this way prevent the MKO leaders from victimizing these people.” The letter reminded the European Parliament that the MKO has killed thousands of Iranian and Iraqi citizens as well as seven Americans.
++ Anne Singleton wrote an article for Iran Interlink titled ‘Maryam Rajavi holds her followers in contempt – where is her compassion?’ Focusing on the MEK tactic to demonize critics and the futility of the so-called hunger strike, the article asks people to “Think! Who, in the past ten years, has done more to harm the members than Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. The cruelty and corruption which govern the group’s internal relations are known intimately by those who suffered under that regime. Where is Maryam Rajavi’s compassion? Why does she show no sympathy or kindness toward her own people, yet lash out against those who do?”
++ In Farsi, many people, from MEK supporters to critics, have pointed out that it is many years since we saw any Iranian standing alongside Maryam Rajavi in her public shows, and it is years also since we have seen anyone standing there who does not admit to being paid.
++ Irandidban published an article about the Paris show, which attracted no media coverage, pointing out that the MEK believe they can survive with money and paid speakers. But to have the money and this support they have to offer themselves as mercenaries. Unfortunately they are discovering they are too old and out of touch even for this.
++ In Iraq, Emad Youkhenna MP, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, announced that there is a plan to deport the MEK faster and in bigger numbers and that the MEK know about is, so they must start packing. He also referred to the disaster they made for the country with Saddam Hussein.
++ In Iraq, Raad Al-Dehlaki, an MP from Al Iraqieh Coalition, announced this week that until the MEK leave Iraq, he is sympathetic to these hostages inside Camp Liberty and believes they should be kept safe. He and others in Al Iraqieh are regularly paid by the MEK.
++ Forat Al Shareh from the National Coalition emphasised again that Iraqis suffered greatly at the hands of these people at the time of Saddam, and because of this people are putting pressure on the government to take them to court, bring them to justice and deport them as quickly as possible.
++IRNA has referred to Al Jazeera as ridiculing the West for using Maryam Rajavi and reproducing her jargon. IRNA has published the whole of Maryam Rajavi’s speech in Paris for Iranians to read, in which she is basically asking western countries not to negotiate with Iran and to go only for regime change. IRNA quotes Rajavi and other Zionist media as claiming, ‘Iran will never give up trying to acquire an atomic bomb therefore American should go to war’.
++ Soraya Abdollahi has started a new series of open letters addressed to her son, Amir Aslan, in Camp Liberty. She has tried for four years without success to contact him and been rebuffed by the MEK who refuse to allow her any contact with him. Amir is now among the hunger strikers who are known to be deliberately denied food by MEK commanders.
++ The 100th day has been and gone! Some writers express concern for the health of the hunger strikers, saying they will never fully recover from the damage. Others ridicule it asking, ‘How come they are still alive? Everyone can see that Rajavi is stuck with it and doesn’t know how to proceed. We all know it is aimed at getting rid of people, but now this has been is exposed, Rajavi doesn’t know how to stop it.’
++ Abbas Moussavi from Habilian Association has written about the Paris show and Tutu’s daughter as a paid speaker. He points to the MEK’s sudden changes of direction and says it is a mark of desperation. The MEK know how the world sees them, but still can’t afford to stop doing it. Naomi Tutu said, ‘the swearing that all the world throws at you should not reduce your will, you should put your head down and continue what you are doing’. Moussavi says, ‘Even the MEK themselves know the whole world is swearing at them’. He says their new slogan is ‘the whole world is swearing at us, therefore we are’.
December 13 2013
