Downing Street still considers the anti-Iran Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) as a terrorist group, says the British justice secretary.
British Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw said on Wednesday that his country firmly believes in the terrorist nature of the MKO group, despite a controversial decision last year to remove the dissidents from the UK terror list.
Straw said he sorely regrets the British court ruling which de-proscribed the grouplet from the country’s terror blacklist.
"When I was the home secretary, I said it was a terrorist group and the parliament agreed. The difficulty is that there is an independent kind of court which can make the final decisions out of the law. And it decided that the evidence do not support what the government was saying," Straw told IRNA in an exclusive interview.
Following a UK court ruling in 2008, the British parliament lifted the terror ban on MKO — irrespective of the abundance of evidence pointing to the group’s 40-year history of performing terrorist operations in Iran.
The group masterminded a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, one of which was the 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party, in which more than 72 Iranian officials were killed, including then Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti.
Earlier in January, the European Union decided to follow in Britain’s footsteps and moved to redefine the group as a non-terrorist organization, annulling its previous decision to freeze MKO funds.
The Mujahedin Khalq Organization, which blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism, was founded in Iran in the 1960s but was exiled some twenty years later for performing acts of terrorism in the country.
A 2007 German intelligence report from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has identified the MKO as a "repressive, sect-like and Stalinist authoritarian organization which centers around the personality cult of [MKO leaders] Maryam and Masoud Rajavi".
High-ranking MKO members have camped-out in most of Europe’s parliaments for the past two years and have managed to gain scattered support from various high-ranking circles in the West.
Anne Singleton, an expert on the MKO and author of ‘Saddam’s Private Army’ explains that the West aims to keep the group afloat in order to use it in efforts to stage a regime change in Iran.
"With a new Administration in the White House a pre-emptive strike on Iran looks unlikely. Instead the MKO’s backers have put together a coalition of small irritant groups, the known minority and separatist groups, along with the MKO. These groups will be garrisoned around the border with Iran and their task is to launch terrorist attacks into Iran over the next few years to keep the fire hot," she explains.
"The role of the MKO is to train and manage these groups using the expertise they acquired from Saddam’s Republican Guard," Singleton added.
The MEK’s terrorist activities
MKO’s violent acts and atrocities are originated in its theory structure
The presence of the organization [MEK] in Iraqi territory has nothing to the Iraqi nation except danger.
The recent annual report of the Department of State might not have anything new on the status of the Iranian Mujahedin Khalq Organization which has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since years ago. But the speech made by Condoleeza Rice following the publication of the new list, which called the group as substantially terrorist, should be taken as serious.
The MKO tries to pretend that it has denounced terrorism and represents a peaceful struggle because they claim to have abandoned violence for years. But, the investigations by the State Department’s experts did not include its recent acts but the terrorist nature of MKO of which its ideology and strategy completely originates and will never get separated. MKO is a destructive cult with a terrorist potential, according to the experts, and will not lose such potentiality without arm and camp and will never miss its real nature.
Therefore from a technical viewpoint – if one doesn’t want to work on political interests and benefits – the investigation on the nature of a group is prior to its short-term functions. If we don’t evaluate the nature correctly, we will make mistake in viewing its short–term function, as many unprofessional people made the same mistake.
Terrorist designation of the groups or entities by various countries is primarily done due to the national security (although sometimes the lists get a political flavor) and its objective is to determine the organization with terrorist potentiality and take them under direct supervision.
However, the designation of the terrorist nature of a group is based on the interests and acts of the group through its background and many other criteria, so it requires a deep and multilateral investigation.
We do not intend to punish before the commitment but we want to investigate this case more deeply trying not to view MKO’s short-term claims as a base.
The nature we are discussing includes long-term functions and we would like to confirm that the potential capacity of MKO will be definitely actualized if the condition is appropriate and when the facilities are provided eventually the previous status will be revived.
In the recent report on MKO published by German federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, there is no difference between MKO and NCRI and also it is mentioned that there is no evidence to approve that the organization has denounced its violent acts. The report also notes that the organization is a cult, the fact that many experts agree.
The cult-like and terrorist nature of MKO requires it to commit terror acts in case of necessity, because it has theorized the engagement in violence in its theory system. Therefore such an organization is always dangerous for its environment. It is a destructive risk for the security of every society and could be considered as a substantial threat. Thus it must be restricted and neutralized.
Unfortunately, today the main body of MKO is located in our country. Saddam Hussein brought them to our territory due to his own benefits as well as other disasters he left for us. The west that has once used the group against the Islamic Republic, now doesn’t want to accept them in its soil. This is exactly like they want to get rid of their nuclear garbage that they have used it and now that it is a threat they want to get rid of it. The presence of MKO in our territory brings nothing except danger and threat to Iraqi nation who has no reason to suffer the risks of this nuclear garbage. The west should keep them in its own territory since they are well aware of their threats.
Al Mo’tamar Newspaper
Iran has condemned the removal of the MKO terrorist group from the European Union’s terror list.
Earlier today, Iran’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan Naser Hamidi Zare’ said that exclusion of the group from the list was a new Western trap for the Islamic state, accusing the West of operating a policy of double-standards in dealing with terrorist groups.
The Ambassador claimed that EU politicians made the decision to leave the group, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, off the list was because of intense lobbying from the ‘Zionist’ lobby.
The decision to leave the group off the list is a sensitive for Iran, because the MKO has been blamed for the mass killings of Iranians over the last 30 years.
Tehran has now complained at the EU decision to the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.
Zare’ said that the removal of the terrorist organization from the EU terror list had happened after the Iraqi government decided to expel members of the criminal cult who were stationed in Iraq by former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi government announced in early February that Baghdad would soon close the file of the terrorist organization and expel them from the country.
According to Zare’, the EU made the move when Baghdad had confirmed its decision to expel MKO members from Iraq.
Religious Intelligence By Nick Mackenzie
David Lidington (Shadow Minister, Foreign Affairs; Aylesbury, Conservative) To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the Government’s policy towards the People’s Mojahedin of Iran is in the light of the recent judgment by the European Court of First Instance.
Bill Rammell (Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Harlow, Labour) | Hansard source
On 26 January 2009, taking account of the judgment by the Court of First Instance on 4 December 2008, the General Affairs and External Relations Council adopted a list which did not include the MeK (Mojahedin-e-Khalq, also known as the People’s Mojaheddin of Iran).
However, we remain mindful of the MeK’s history as an organisation responsible for a number of serious terrorist attacks—it claimed responsibility for large numbers of violent attacks inside Iran for a number of years, including 96 in a three-month period in early 2001. We do not agree with its claim that it represents a credible democratic opposition in exile.
10 Feb 2009 : Column 1846W
Written answers | Hansard source
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
A front man for the MKO has protested against Iraq’s decision to bring to trial the leaders of the terrorist group, calling it ‘illegal’.
Alireza Jafarzadeh, a top member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, appeared on the Fox news TV channel after the Iraqi government promised prosecution for certain leaders of the group.
Jafarzadeh said Baghdad made the decision as it was under pressure from the government in Tehran.
In a Press TV program aired on Tuesday, Iraq’s National security Advisor, Muwaffaq al-Rubaie said the members of the MKO who had committed crimes against Iraqi civilians had to stand trial in Iraqi courts.
“Iran is prepared to provide legal evidence against these people and is prepared for their trial in Iraq by the Iraqi judicial system,” the Iraqi official said.
“We are going to do this in a humane way. We are going to stick and adhere to all international laws and regulations,” he said, adding that Iran was prepared to respect the court order on the MKO members.
The Iraqi government has vowed to expel the members of the group to their country Iran or send them to a third country, maintaining ‘staying in Iraq is not an option for them’.
Iran has long called for the expulsion of MKO members from their headquarters and training center, Camp Ashraf, in Iraq.
Tehran says the members of the group who have not participated in the organization’s terrorist activities are allowed to return home but others have to stand trial in Iran or outside the country.
Several members of the group have now defected from the organization and returned to Iran.
The MKO, blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many international entities and countries including the US, is responsible for numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials as well as Iraqi people at the time of former dictator Saddam Hussein.
Terrorists and assassins of all ideological bases often use the same method when they understand that the violent side of their actions can serve their policy and to miss their objectives: they create a political wing.
ETA Basque party Herri Batasuna, the IRA was Sinn Fein, the Corsican FLNC took A Cuncolta Naziunalista, the CCC had the Belgian collective Red Line, etc …
Officially, there are independent terrorist groups and parties, but in reality the funding, objectives and even some leaders have in common. We think the No. 2 Sinn Fein it was known he was at one time the military leader of the IRA.
Despite these links, and connivance, it is rare that a terrorist group and its political wing are as mixed as are the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (known in French OMPI) and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (the NCRI in French CNRI ). So much so that in this case, one can hardly speak of a single organization that changes its name in public or objectives of the moment.
We invite you to this radioscopy two Siamese twins of terror: PMOI / NCRI.
The NCRI: an empty shell
At its inception in 1981, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) includes around PMOI, its main component, other movements of the Iranian opposition, such as the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) , the independence movement led by Ghasem Loo, the National Democratic Front (NDF), the Hoviyat (a branch of the Fedayeen), the Union of Communists of Iran (UCI), the Workers’ Party (PT), the Union for liberation of workers (ULT), the Council of the unified left for Democracy and Independence (CGUDI) and other leftist groups.
Mujahidin however refuse the support of other opposition movements, such as the Liberation Movement of Iran (MLI) or the Freedom Party (PL), Mehdi Bazargan, the first president of the Islamic Republic of Iran and former right arm of Khomeini, the People’s Fedayeen, the Tudeh Party (Iranian Communist Party or) and the Monarchists, especially the Iranian constitutionalists (IC) and the Organization of the flag of freedom of Iran (ODLI). As for the National Front Nationalist Party of former Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, which rejects the very concept of Islamic government, he himself refused to join this forum.
Political coalition of democratic forces in Iran, which according to the so called parliament in exile, NCRI is supposed to act as a provisional government after the overthrow of the current Iranian government. Soon, its members drawn from the ranks of the Mujahidin stumble against the authoritarian style of Massoud Rajavi, whose unilateral decision to link the Council on Iraq raises a public outcry. This alliance, which is regarded by some as an act of treason, has been formally negotiated by the head of the Mujahidin Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz during a meeting in January 1983 in France. Abolhassan Bani Sadr, the most important member of NCRI, protested against this alliance . Two groups coexisted in the NCRI. The first called for the overthrow of the Islamic regime by all means, even if it means accepting help from abroad. While seeking the same goal, the second was opposed, in principle, to any foreign aid. PMOI was one of the first and will run in collaboration with Saddam Hussein during the war between Iran and Iraq.
The NCRI began a slow process of disintegration. To protest against the dictatorial methods of Massoud Rajavi (leader of PMOI), most groups that make up their deck one after another. The leader of Mujahidin which tries to control of that body, opposes any form of democratic debate within it. Mujahidin determined who could join them, which deserved the right to vote. Critics have rejected the National Council or silenced.
The Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), which officially left NCRI in 1986, explained the reasons for its departure, eight years later, in these terms:”We consider the Mujahidin, in the light of our own experience with them between 1981 and 1986, and their attitude vis-à-vis other formations of the Iranian democratic opposition, as a sectarian and undemocratic. We can not, therefore, trust their loyalty to the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people.”
Asked about the reasons for his departure from NCRI, Baba Khan Tehrani, a militant left-wing former member of the Confederation of Iranian Students (CIS), who currently lives in Hamburg, Germany, said:”The Mujahidin have not played the federating and unifying role that was supposed to be theirs. They have always sought, instead, to impose their domination and were not embarrassed to drive a wedge among the other forces of the Iranian opposition.”
Become an empty shell, the NCRI is now composed of hundreds of members (between 200 and 300 according to versions), most of the leaders of the PMOI, entirely controlled by Rajavi. Associated groups, which bear different names (Muslim Students Association, Association of Teachers and professionals Iranian .Association of Iranian women, etc..), There are only dummy. They are supposed to give the appearance of NCRI a forum bringing together”all political forces fighting the religious, dictatorship in Iran and who represent various social strata of the Iranian people,”according to the phraseology of the movement.
In this council, where individual members have voting rights equal to those groups, the membership criteria are not clearly defined. In fact, the PMOI membership that decides what he wants, which empty the instance of any legitimacy and credibility and is an additional instrument of control in the hands of a small sectarian group.
Frameworks
There are more than 110 NCRI executives also have functions within PMOI. The self-proclaimed president and official spokesman is no one other than Massoud Rajavi, grand guru of PMOI. Besides the best known figure of NCRI, is no one other than his wife Maryan Rajavi, designated (by a vote of who, for what it promises to give more freedom to Iranians …) as the future president of Iran. As a token of independence of NCRI compared to PMOI, it is bad strikeout.
In addition to the cut”divine”of Rajavi, here are 3 examples among hundreds of others that demonstrate not only the connections between PMOI and the NCRI but also prove that the NCRI has called political wing but is is a gathering of terrorists having learned just temporarily, to put a costume tie.
Mahmoud Attaei Karizi
– Member of PMOI since 1969. Responsible in 1979 of refueling para-military units of PMOI. In 1987, he became chief of the National Liberation Army (NLA), which was composed of members of PMOI and to serve as a supplementary force to the troops of Saddam Hussein in the war against Iran. It is wanted by Interpol for murder. He is responsible for the study of strategy and defense of NCRI
Fereshteh Yeganeh
– Militants in the first hours of PMOI. In 1982, she became a member of the state major terrorist operations in urban areas, responsible for numerous attacks in Iran. She was later responsible for the logistics of training camps in Iraq PMOI in 1988 and became a member Executive Committee of PMOI and eventually lead the Ashraf camp in Iraq that was the main camp of PMOI. It will eventually be the second in command of the NLA and is as such a responsibility in the massacre of Kurds who rebelled against Saddam in 1991. It is also sought by Interpol. The Democrat in the soul of NCRI is a member since 1992 and was responsible for the Committee for Research and Education.
Mahmoud Azedanlou
– Began its activities in PMOI before the Iranian Revolution. After the failure of a coup against Khomeini, he is one of the most ardent advocates of armed struggle. He became in 1985, central committee member of PMOI and come finally to the leadership of the Movement. It will also have responsibilities within the NLA and, as such, is wanted by Interpol for murder. He was in charge of the NCRI to economic issues.
In event
In essence, the”Siamese twins”terrorists do not hide their proximity. Thus on these exclusive pictures of a demonstration which took place in Brussels in November 2005 and where we see distinctly the flags of NCRI and PMOI coast to coast. Note that there is no other flag Iranian opposition organization.
For experts on terrorism also …
… There is no doubt that PMOI and the NCRI are one and the same organization. Thus in the annual report published by the U.S. State Department on terrorism, the NCRI is regarded as just another name for the People’s Mujahideen
Mujahedin-eKhalq Organization (MEK) aka MKO; Mujahedin-e Khalq, Muslim Iranian Students’ Society, National Council of Resistance, National Council of Resistance (NCR), Organization of the People’s Holy Warriors of Iran, The Army of National Liberation Iran (NLA), The People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI); Sazeman-e Mujahedin-e Khalq-e Iran (from the Country Reports on Terrorism of the U.S. Department of State )
Conclusion
PMOI / NCRI have the same leaders, the same framework, the same structure, the same practices and sectarian violence. The uniform and the Islamic veil, the insignia of paramilitary type, this shows that PMOI is the NCRI and that, whatever the name used, they are of a single sectarian and terrorist organization: the Mujahideen of the People.
The whole is that the EU does not fall into the trap of these Siamese of terror and continue to regard them as a single criminal group.
Posted by geostratos in French
Berlin, Feb 8 – British Foreign Secretary David Miliband made clear his country’s position on the terrorist nature of the MKO grouplet had not changed, despite the European Union’s controversial decision to remove the MKO from the terror list, IRNA reported.
Meeting with Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani on the sidelines of the 45th Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Miliband said, the position of the British government on the terrorist group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization, remains unchanged.
Miliband’s latest comments on the MKO came in the wake of earlier statements by Larijani who in his address to the Munich security confab on Friday voiced outrage over the West’s harboring of known terrorist groups, alluding to European countries providing safe haven to the MKO.
The MKO has been involved in the mass killings of thousands of innocent Iranians over the past 30 years.
Furthermore, the Israeli-backed MKO terror grouplet had also collaborated with the former Saddam regime, massacring tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds and Shias.
Official: Baghdad soon to close MKO file
Iraqi National Security Advisor Muvafaq al-Rubai said here Friday that Iraqi government will in next few months close dossier of the terrorist Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO).
“The MKO is a terrorist group and a cancerous tumor in Iraq; The crimes and sins the group has committed are evident and well-documented. Several thousand Iraqi citizens have fallen victims of the terrorist organization and we have provable evidence, that we will submit them to Iraqi courts,” said al-Rubai in an exclusive interview with IRNA.
He said the MKO was stationed in Iraq by former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein and contrary to then regulations in Iraq, getting involved in suppression of Iraqi people’s Intifadha in 1991 and massacre of Kurds and Shiites.
He added that after formation of popular government of Iraq, the MKO has taken provocative moves against legal government of the country over recent years.
He went on to say that Iraqi courts have issued arrest warrants for 14 MKO members.
On removal of the MKO from Europe’s list of terrorist organizations, he said the MKO case is complicated and the European courts have thus far removed the outfit from the terrorism list and re-entered them into the list three times.
He said that the MKO will soon be put in the EU terrorist list.
“We have asked the EU to contribute to settlement of problem with the MKO and their exit from Iraq; we have recently discussed the issue with ambassadors of the countries and they have vowed to cooperate.”
Iran: EU countries responsible for the outcome
Iran summons ambassadors of the EU countries to protest against their decision to remove the MKO from the list of terrorist organizations.
Earlier in January, the foreign ministers of the European Union countries approved a decision to remove the Mujahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO) from the blacklist.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the move, saying, “It came despite the fact that the organization has not altered its trigger-happy ideology.”
The MKO has claimed responsibility for carrying out numerous terror attacks against Iranian nationals and officials, and has also been accused of assisting former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the slaughter of thousands of Iraqi civilians in the 1990s.
The US State Department has said that the MKO assassinated at least six US citizens in Iran, prior to the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
The US government has designated the MKO a “terrorist” organization.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari told the summoned EU ambassadors on Wednesday that the removal of the MKO from the list of banned terrorist groups was “a political and unacceptable move.”
The ruling by the 27-nation EU against the MKO’s seven-year inclusion in the blacklist results from recent legal developments combined with intense lobbying by the terrorist group. Safari went on to warn about the consequences of giving in to the terrorist group’s demands, adding that the EU countries involved in making this decision would be responsible for its outcome.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for European Affairs Mahdi Safari has lamented the European Union’s “double-standard and hypocritical” approach toward terrorism and warned about dire consequences of compromise with terrorists.
The comments by Safari came as foreign ministers of the 27-nation EU removed the name of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from its terror list on January 26.
The behavior of certain European countries toward terrorism is “politically motivated”, Safari said as he summoned EU ambassadors to protest against the decision on Wednesday.
Pointing to the EU’s international and domestic commitments to combating terrorism, he called the decision “political and unacceptable”.
Safari bewailed the fact that some European countries are interacting with terrorists to achieve their “illegitimate and temporary purposes”.
The MKO was given “carte blanche” after the EU removed its name from terror list, he said, adding that the EU itself will be responsible for the consequences of its decision.
Pointing to the sensitive situation in the region, he pointed out that terrorists are trying to destabilize the region.
Any cooperation with these groups will help intensify their destructive activities and give rise to regional insecurity, he explained.
The Czech diplomat whose country chairs the EU rotating presidency vowed to notify the block of Iran’s views as soon as possible.
The official also underscored the importance of campaign against terrorism and expressed hope that Iran-EU cooperation will continue in this regard and produce positive results.
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=188584