The Mojahedin-e Khalq, or People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, said the blockade of Camp Ashraf began Thursday. In late January, Iraq’s National Security Advisor Mouwaffak al-Rubaie said the group must leave Iraq within two months. He added the decision to close the camp, home to about 3,500 people, was irreversible.
The Rajavis enjoy a fanatical cult-like following among MEK members and supporters [4]. The group’s cult-like character was displayed when 16 followers of the Rajavis staged dramatic public acts of self-immolation over a period of three days in June 2003 across major European and Canadian cities…The MEK will continue to capitalize on the ongoing tensions between the United States and Iran by enlisting the support of elements in Washington seeking a bargaining chip
The controversial Iranian exile organization MEK, which the United States calls a terrorist group, could soon see a windfall of tens of millions of dollars as the result of the European Union’s decision ..The MEK can use some of that cash to pay legal settlements with former members that they tortured, as well as the families of Iranians they killed when they fought on the side of Saddam against Iran
Baghdad announced that it planned to close the camp last December, the same month the US reaffirmed the MKO’s”terrorist”status…at least one high-ranking MKO/PMOI/MEK member forced back to Iran received prison time but relatively lenient treatment…The problem for the organization is they haven’t had a martyr for many years.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Monday that Iraq wanted to expel the Iranian rebel Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) that opposes the Islamic regime. Talabani made the remarks in a joint news conference with Iran’s former president and current Expediency Council head Ali Akbar Hashemi who arrived here earlier in the day for a visit.
The MEK is still on the list of terrorist groups of the United States, because its fundamental values are anti-western and violent…Are we talking about holy water or the devil itself? The Council on Foreign Relations has a detailed description of the MEK:”…Experts say that MEK has increasingly come to resemble a cult that is devoted to Massoud Rajavi’s secular interpretation of the Koran and is prone to sudden, dramatic ideological shifts.” The MEK, in fact, also has a political arm, called The National Council of Resistance of Iran headed by Maryam Rajavi’s husband, Massoud. No one really knows where Massoud Rajavi is living now..
The change in tone from Washington toward Tehran is complicated not only by historic acrimony but also by a complex relationship with Iranian opposition movements… the group’s image as a cult with a storied history of terrorist activity, both in Iran and across the globe, makes courting the opposition as a viable avenue for regime change in Iran tenuous at best. The PMOI and the NCRI are both listed by the United States as terrorist organizations for their links to violent opposition to the Iranian regime. President Bill Clinton in 1997 included the PMOI/mko/mek on the U.S. State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations
After the fall of Saddam there is no use from the cult-like militia, the U.S. is wary of them, because even killings of U.S. soldiers during the Shah’s time go to their account. ..The contradiction continues, because the EU states are divided in the assessment of the Iranian opposition movement. France wants to appeal the decision of the EU’s Court of appeal. States such as Austria, Ireland, Denmark and Luxembourg, however, argue that the Iranian opposition group after the decision of the EU judges could not stay on the terrorist list. This list, via a unanimous decision made by all 27 EU member states is renewed every six months.
London-Jack Straw, the British Justice Secretary, says the outlawed Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) is a terrorist group from the viewpoint of his government. Straw told IRNA the MKO is a terrorist organisation and the British government is at the same position that the government of the Islamic Republic is.
Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister Urdan Popov Wednesday called the anti-Iran group, Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization, a terrorist group despite European Union’s recent decision to strike the MKO off its terror list… The remark by popov whose country is an EU member came after a controversial decision by the 27- nation bloc’s foreign ministers in Brussels to drop the MKO from the blacklist. The MKO had been blacklisted as a terror organization by the EU since 2002.