Veteran MEK member Mohammad Ali Jaberzadeh Ansari (aka Ghasem) died in Paris last week. He was famous in the MEK for writing the speeches and communications of Massoud Rajavi, and was in charge of all the Mojahedin’s publications. While doing that he is also accused by many formers of acts of brutality, beatings and torture. Several writers responded to his death with their memories of what he had done to them while they were members of the MEK.
An official in U.S. President Donald Trump’s cupboard and no less than considered one of his advisers gave paid speeches for an Iranian exile group that killed Individuals earlier than the 1979 Islamic Revolution, ran donation scams and noticed its members set themselves on fireplace over the arrest of their chief.
Elaine Chao, confirmed this week as Trump’s transportation secretary, obtained $50,000 in 2015 for a five-minute speech to the political wing of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, beforehand known as a “cult-like” terrorist group by the U.S. State Division.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani additionally was paid an unknown sum to speak to the group, generally known as the MEK.
Greater than two dozen former U.S. officers, each Republican and Democratic, have spoken earlier than the MEK, together with former Home Speaker and Trump adviser Newt Gingrich. Some have publicly acknowledged being paid, however others haven’t.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence seems over at Elaine Chao shortly earlier than her swearing-in as transportation secretary on Jan. 31. Chao obtained $50,000 in 2015 for a five-minute speech to the political wing of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, categorised within the U.S. as a terrorist group till 2012. (Susan Walsh/Related Press)
Whereas nothing would have prohibited the paid speeches, they elevate questions on what affect the exiles could have within the new administration.
Already, a gaggle of former U.S. officers, together with Giuliani, wrote a letter to Trump final month encouraging him to “set up a dialogue” with the MEK’s political arm. With Trump’s ban on Iranians getting into the U.S., his administration’s name this week to place Iran “on discover” and the imposition of latest sanctions on Friday, the exile group could discover his administration extra welcoming than any earlier than.
Uncovered particulars of Iran nuclear program
A possible alliance with the MEK would hyperlink the U.S. to a gaggle with a controversial historical past that has gone in opposition to American pursuits up to now by supporting Iran’s Islamic Revolution and the U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran. After fleeing Iran, the MEK joined forces with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It later uncovered particulars of the clandestine nuclear program run by Iran, which views the MEK as its sworn enemy.
“The Mujahedeen have backed the profitable horse. They’re going to have some no less than entree into the administration,” mentioned Ervand Abrahamian, a professor on the Metropolis College of New York who wrote a ebook on the MEK. “I believe it weakens the U.S. as a result of the extra they’ve entry to the administration, the extra individuals in Iran are going to be petrified of something the U.S. does.”
The MEK lengthy has cultivated a roster of former U.S. and European officers to attend its occasions opposing Iran’s clerically run authorities. It pays for the looks of many.
Chao, the spouse of Senate Majority Chief Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, spoke earlier than an MEK convention in 2015 in Paris. She additionally had a seat subsequent to Maryam Rajavi, the “president-elect” of the Nationwide Council of Resistance of Iran, the political arm of the MEK.
Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani speaks at a pro-democracy rally on Sept. 24, 2013 in entrance of portraits of deceased members of the Iranian dissident group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq. The group blamed Iraqi safety forces for killing 52 of its members on Sept. 1, 2013 in Camp Ashraf, Iraq. (Mariko Tama/Getty Pictures)
Chao obtained a $50,000 honorarium from the MEK-associated Alliance for Public Consciousness, in keeping with a report she filed with the U.S. Workplace of Authorities Ethics. Chao obtained one other $17,500 honorarium for March 2016 speech she gave to the Iranian-American Cultural Affiliation of Missouri, which MEK opponents additionally hyperlink to the exile group.
The Division of Transportation mentioned in a press release that Chao has a “robust document of talking out in help of democracy and girls’s rights within the Center East,” however “has not spoken to MEK occasions.”
It added that her speeches have been delivered alongside bipartisan members of Congress, governors, prime ministers, ambassadors, generals, former FBI Administrators and “many different influential voices.”
Giuliani has acknowledged being paid for his appearances at MEK occasions. Nonetheless, he hasn’t filed a authorities disclosure type since his failed 2008 Republican presidential bid, so it is unclear how a lot the MEK has paid him in whole. Giuliani didn’t reply to an AP request for remark despatched by way of his aides.
Gingrich has additionally spoken to the MEK earlier than, together with at a gala in 2016, though it isn’t clear whether or not or how a lot he was paid. Gingrich couldn’t be reached for remark. The White Home additionally didn’t remark.
‘The core of the coverage that we’re advocating is to be powerful with the Iranian regime, to not ignore its crimes in opposition to the Iranian individuals.’ – Mohammad Mohaddessin of MEK political wing
The MEK welcomes the incoming Trump authorities, as “some individuals inside this administration” plan to alter American insurance policies towards Iran, mentioned Mohammad Mohaddessin, the chairman of the international affairs committee of its political arm.
“The core of the coverage that we’re advocating is to be powerful with the Iranian regime, to not ignore its crimes in opposition to the Iranian individuals,” he mentioned.
The White Home had no remark.
The MEK shaped in 1965. They embraced each Marxism and the concept of an Islamic authorities after the violent overthrow of the American-backed shah who dominated Iran on the time. Their title, Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, means “the Folks’s Holy Warriors.”
Marxist splinter faction blamed for U.S. deaths
They carried out a string of focused assassinations hitting Iranian officers, in addition to Individuals. Nonetheless, the MEK at this time blames a Marxist splinter faction of the group for killing the Individuals.
The MEK fled Iran and later discovered refuge from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Closely armed by Saddam, MEK forces launched cross-border raids into Iran throughout its with battle with Iraq, additional alienating the group from common Iranians. The MEK says it renounced violence in 2001.
The U.s. State Division has described the MEK as having “cult-like traits.” When French police arrested Rajavi in 2003 as a part of a terrorism investigation, MEK members responded by lighting themselves. A minimum of two individuals died.
Through the years, the MEK has mentioned their group receives cash from Iranians to fund their operations. Nonetheless, the group has been focused by a collection of investigations around the globe for operating charity scams.
Mohaddessin blames the investigations on a concerted misinformation marketing campaign carried out by Iran.
MEK despatched letter to Trump for dialogue
The MEK’s success in getting former U.S. officers behind them might be seen in a letter dated Jan. 9 despatched to Trump simply earlier than his inauguration.
“We repeat the decision for the U.S. authorities to determine a dialogue with Iran’s exile resistance,” learn the letter signed by Giuliani and others.
Whether or not Trump’s administration kinds nearer ties to the MEK is but to be seen. Nonetheless, exile teams have not at all times been confirmed to be dependable American allies within the Center East. Exiled politician Ahmad Chalabi closely lobbied the administration of President George W. Bush to invade Iraq by pushing false allegations of weapons of mass destruction and hyperlinks to al-Qaeda.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations didn’t reply to a request for remark.
However whereas the MEK continues to pay former U.S. officers for his or her time, the household of the American lieutenant colonel killed in Iran in 1975 has filed a $35-million federal lawsuit in Colorado in opposition to the group and Iran.
The explanation for the lawsuit, Jack Turner’s household says, is easy: “In contrast to the U.S. hostages, our father by no means had the prospect to come back residence.”
The delegation consisted of Mr. Ali Akbar Rastgoo, Ghorbanali Hosseinnejad, Isa Azadeh and Reza Jebelli who once had been of veteran, high ranking members of the MKO Cult.
The meeting took place at Ms. Gomes office in the EU Parliament, Brussels.
MKO ex-members iterated the situation of some 2000 members of the cult in Albania who have no access to the outside world, esp. their families. Mr. Hosseinenjad as an example described the situation of her daughter within the cult who is prevented by the cult leaders to visit her father and her only sister (The two sisters have not been able to see or have any contact with each other during their lifetime due to the enforced separation of families within the Cult of Mujahedin-e Khalq.).
The former members also defined: the financial sources of the Cult during Saddam Hussein era and afterwards, the oppressive and repressive affairs within the cult Camps in Iraq and now in Albania, ban of marriage, the cult leaders’ efforts for lobbying in the EU parliament and to whitewash their history and nature of violence and terror.
Ms. Gomes welcomed the MKO ex-member’s delegation. The MEP expressed regret over the appalling situation under which the cult members live. She also announced her readiness for the next visits.
The MEP emphasized she will inform the President of the European Parliament and other MEPs, of the MKO Cult members situation.
TEHRAN – A film recollecting the wave of assassinations and bombings by Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization in Iran in the early 1980s was screened at the 35th Fajr Film Festival on Thursday.
The film titled “The Midday Event” has received public acclaim at the event as it is among the people’s top 10 favorites.
The organizers of the festival arranged additional screenings for the film by popular demand.
It has been directed by Mohammad-Hossein Mahdavian, whose debut film “Standing in the Dust” on Iranian commander Ahmad Motevasselian who was kidnapped by the Zionist regime in 1982 in Lebanon was named best film at the festival last year.
Speaking with the Tehran Times, producer Seyyed Mahmud Razavi said the film gives the audience a new insight into the subject.
“It is great that the film has been warmly received by people,” Razavi stated, “However, we should wait until the end of the festival.”
The film, which is based on a real-life story, features the MKO’s activities leading to the assassinations of numerous high-ranking Iranian officials in 1981.
The MKO is an Iranian political–militant organization in exile that carried out many terrorist operations during the 1980s to overthrow the Iranian government,
Close ties between a number of former U.S. officials and an Iranian exile group the U.S. government once deemed a terrorist organization are likely to complicate the selection process for key Trump administration posts.
Two of the officials said to be under consideration for secretary of state, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, traveled to Europe to speak to followers of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, while the group was still on the terrorist watch list.
A third, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, also has been an ardent supporter of the group, but he announced Thursday that he would not be a member of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton removed the group, known as the MEK, from the terrorist list in 2012 after a campaign by a broad coalition that included both Democratic and Republican politicians, some of whom received sizable fees to speak to the exile group’s annual gatherings.
In an interview, Giuliani acknowledged that he’d been paid him for some of his speeches, though not all. He also said he had given the group free legal advice and assisted the group in its negotiations with the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
“I think my advocacy of MEK was one of the best things I’ve ever done,” he said. “I’m proud of it and happy to defend it anywhere.”
Giuliani, a close adviser to Trump during the campaign and frequent television surrogate, said the MEK never paid him directly, but that payment came through third parties including “Iranian citizens, Iranian Jews, dissidents living in the U.S., England, Germany; none of whom belonged to MEK.”
Bolton received a standing ovation at a conference in Brussels in early 2011 when he told the group’s followers that he “unequivocally” supported their quest for the overthrow of the government in Tehran.
Bolton did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Putting an open supporter of the MEK in charge of U.S. diplomacy would provoke a backlash in Iran, even among moderates, said Ariane M. Tabatabai, a professor of security studies at Georgetown University.
“If they see the United States helping a group that sided with Iraq and perpetrated terrorist attacks, this would not be seen positively,” Tabatabai said.
She said the MEK has minimal support in Iran, although the group had a rumored role in the assassination of four Iranian nuclear scientists between 2010 and 2012.
The group’s supporters and detractors offer starkly different assessments of the group. Some critics voice astonishment that a group implicated in the assassinations of U.S. military personnel in Iran in the 1970s would have advocates in a Trump administration.
It’s basically a cult organization. It’s like the Moonies. Ervand Abrahamian, professor at Baruch College
“It’s mind boggling,” said Ervand Abrahamian, a professor of Iranian history and politics at Baruch College, part of the City University of New York. “I can’t believe that people like … Bolton and Giuliani don’t know what the nature of the Mujahedin is. It’s basically a cult organization. It’s like the Moonies” – a reference to the followers of the Unification Church of South Korean preacher, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
The MEK has an office a little more than a block from the White House, but no representative returned calls requesting comment.
Sayeed Sajadi, a suburban Kansas City, Mo., physician and expatriate Iranian who has been working on behalf of MEK for many years, defended the group against claims that it is a “cult.” He labeled the claim propaganda manufactured by the Tehran regime, and noted the roster of former U.S. government officials who’ve spoken on the group’s behalf. Some of that support triggered a Treasury Department investigation into whether the speaking fees violated U.S. laws against doing business with terrorist groups.
Giuliani said he feels “very misrepresented” by the way his and others’ involvement with MEK has been portrayed.
“We did nothing wrong,” he said. “We violated no law.”
He said his actions were vindicated by the U.S. decision to remove the MEK from its list of terrorist organizations and that the Treasury Department dropped its inquiry. The Treasury Department declined to comment.
The group was founded a half century ago by leftist students opposed to the U.S.-backed monarchy that then ruled Iran. Embracing elements of both Marxism and Islam, its fighters were blamed for the murder of several U.S. citizens, including the deputy chief of the U.S. military mission in Tehran in 1973, two other U.S. military officers in 1975, and an American Texaco executive in 1979.
A 2011 State Department report on the group’s activities says some MEK members took part in the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and later argued against the release of U.S. hostages.
In the early 1980s, the group broke with Iran’s mullahs and fled to neighboring Iraq, joining Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s bloody 1980-88 war with Iran. The State Department report said the group took part in the Iraqi Republican Guard’s bloody crackdown on Iraqi Shiites and Kurds who rose up against Saddam Hussein’s regime at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991.
The State Department put the Mujahedin on its terror list in 1997, partly because of its collaboration with Saddam. Following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, American military forces disarmed the group’s thousands of combatants, confining them to a camp near the Iraqi border with Iran, later moving them to another camp.
Years after the U.S. invasion, the MEK started gaining traction among U.S. politicians, arguing that it was the only group that actively opposed the regime in Tehran. Other notable public officials who took the group’s side included Democratic former Govs. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Howard Dean of Vermont, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, Hugh Shelton, who chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff, former Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and former CIA directors Porter Goss and James Woolsey.
A Huffington Post investigation in 2011 found at least 33 former top officials who had given speeches on behalf of the MEK over an eight-month period.
By Tim Johnson and David Goldstein,
As someone living in France, a country subjected to multiple Islamic terrorist attacks over the past couple of years, I’d be the last to criticize the spirit of President Trump’s initiative to secure American borders through extreme vetting. I’ve witnessed firsthand the result of creeping insecurity and cultural disintegration directly attributable to Europe’s insistence on treating its borders as mere suggestions rather than enforceable boundaries. If Trump fails to get a handle on the situation, America will look a lot like Europe.
The problem isn’t limited to dangerous radicals who might commit terrorist atrocities — it also expands to include those communities hiding these individuals from authorities, protecting them, harboring them via a code of silence. Police sources have told me that these areas are, in essence, no-go zones where the police are at high risk of attack. This is the endgame of a national immigration policy that fails to take into account security and cultural compatibility.
Entering America is a privilege, not a right. Every country that has succeeded in maintaining its cultural identity has a selective system in place that rejects or approves entrants based on country of origin.
The civil rights crowd that whines about arbitrary screening should welcome reliable vetting. Anything less would subject immigrants to ongoing suspicion. The problem for civil rights advocates, however, is that proper government vetting requires intelligence work, which these proponents typically reject in favor of personal privacy protections.
Proper vetting is also impossible without reforming the intelligence community. We’re talking about the same intelligence community that issued student visas to dead terrorists in the wake of the September 11 attacks; the same intelligence community that can’t confirm or deny when a key terror suspect is reportedly killed via drone strike. If they can’t confirm whether the terrorists they’re pursuing are alive or dead, how can they reliably vet the average joe coming into the U.S. from the same region?
Finally, Trump should keep in mind the lesson of Napoleon Bonaparte. A grand strategist, Napoleon nonetheless failed in 1812 to pay attention to the logistics of forcing his foot soldiers to rely on the sparse Russian landscape for food and water (rather than supply wagons) during the attempted conquest of the country. This defeat was instrumental in his downfall and eventual exile. As the old adage goes, amateurs talk about strategy, professionals talk about logistics.
And talking about logistics, whoever implemented Trump’s order to temporarily ban "immigrants and nonimmigrants" from seven Muslim-majority countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — from entering the U.S., should be drop-kicked into a black hole. The logistical implementation of Trump’s executive order was just about as effective as Napoleon’s Russian Campaign, minus the frostbite and starvation.
On Saturday morning, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told Fox News: "(Trump) said put a commission together, show me the right way to do it legally. I put a commission together … and what we did was we focused on, instead of religion, danger — the areas of the world that create danger for us."
If we’re talking about terror-sponsoring nations, why are Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Pakistan and other nations omitted? Moreover, what act of terrorism has Iran committed or sponsored against the United States?
The selection of the seven countries is interesting unto itself. So is the fact that Giuliani attended the 2012 Paris rally of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian dissident group that was on the U.S. State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. The MEK and the Islamic State share a common sponsor — Saudi Arabia. In 2007, the Associated Press reported that Saudi Arabia was one of "Giuliani’s law and lobbying clients…" Is that why they were not targeted?
The ban has caused needless chaos for law-abiding travelers worldwide. Legal permanent residents of the United States were detained at airports, not sure if they would be allowed to return home, dual passport holders were confused as to whether the directive applied to them and international airlines employing foreign cabin crew, already vetted six ways from Sunday, scrambled mid-flight. There’s no excuse for this. It smacks of a Keystone-Kop-style bumbling.
To put it in terms that Trump the real estate magnate might understand: You asked someone to build you a sleek new skyscraper and provided them the overall vision. But someone didn’t check the angles, and what you got back was the Leaning Tower of Pisa. That leaning monstrosity, like this administration, now has your name on it.
And the buck stops with you.
Rachel Marsden,Townhall.com
Mr. Rajabi was in Turkey when the Mujahedin-e Khalq agents deceived him into joining the group under the false promises of better life and work opportunities in Europe.
Mr. Rajabi was then transferred to MKO Camps in Iraq. He lost 15 years of his life within the Mujahedin-e Khalq Cult camps. In 2016 he was relocated to Albania along with other MKO members.
In Tirana, Mr. Rajabi managed to liberate himself from the clutches of the Rajavis Cult.
Majid’s brother who is an active member of Nejat Society and tried a lot to save Majid says:
“We haven’t seen our younger brother in more than a decade due to the manipulation practices of a criminal cult. Majid is now 41. I am really happy for my brother. He finally managed to find his way and released himself from the anti-Iranian Cult of MKO …”
Mrs. Abdi is an active member of Nejat Society – Tehran Branch. She is a suffering mother whose dear son; Ahmad is enslaved behind the bars of the Rajavis’ Cult.
Enduring much hardship and sufferings, Mrs. Abdi has done her utmost efforts to liberate Ahmad. She several times traveled to the war-torn country of Iraq. She picketed in front of MKO Camps in Iraq along with other families asking to visit their beloved ones.
Mrs. Abdi Says:” the only thing I wish is that I meet Ahmad and embrace him tightly…”
Mr. Mansour fadaei managed to liberate himself from the destructive cult of MKO in Tirana, Albania.
Mansour’s parents wrote a letter to their son on the occasion of his birthday which was published on Nejat Society Website. Hearing about the letter, Mansour became more determined to release himself from the mental and physical captivity of the group.
Mansour contacted his parent as soon as he defected the MKO Cult.
While shedding tears of joy; Mansour’s parent went to the Nejat Society office and announced their dear son’s release from the terrorist, destructive cult of Mujahedin-e Khalq.
A letter signed by some former US officials urging the incoming president to support the MEK was first given publicity by Fox News. When this elicited no response from Iran they tried the Farsi outlets – VOA, Radio Farda, BBC etc. But still no response from Iran.
Of itself this lack of response should be enough to clarify that a bunch of sick and deviant pensioners in Albania does not count as a credible or viable tool in anybody’s book. America can’t expect Iran to pay a price for a heap of rotting rubbish. Indeed, this letter only shows Iran how empty the anti-Iran toolbox is.
Sources close to the MEK have revealed that Maryam Rajavi has promised the Saudis that if she gets paid enough, the MEK, NCRI (whatever they call themselves), will be able to gather all the Iranian opposition under their wing and be the voice of all these various groups – whether based in London and Washington writing and talking, or in Kurdistan and Baluchistan carrying out terrorist acts, or any of the others. Whether this absurd claim has been bought by the Saudis we don’t know. What we do know is that the MEK’s expenditure in London and Washington has increased.
All the Americans need to know is that this is an impossible promise and the MEK are simply milking whatever resources they can.
As far as Iran is concerned, there has been no response to this. And why would you expect any – this is a letter signed by paid lobbyists and former officials.
Most definitely Iran is waiting to see if this gains substance in the new Trump administration. If it does, Iran will be delighted. What better for Iran than to have ex-Saddamists, supporters of Daesh and terrorists as the ‘only opposition’! Iran would dearly love to have that card on the table in any future 5+1 negotiations.
