Michael Ware meets with high-level representatives of the MEK, a group that wants to overthrow the Iranian government.
Michael Ware, an Australian journalist from National Geographic, investigated the Mujahedin-e Khalq that he met during the Iraq War. He describes MEK as “the living epitome of the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
He met them in Iraq back in 2005 when he was a war correspondent. After the American invasion of Iraq, he went to the Camp Ashraf, the MEK’s headquarters, and shot a footage. There he interviewed some female members of the group and now after more than a decade he’s “chasing down the story of who and what the MEK is now. How many of the MEK are left? Where are they and who is supporting them today?” He adds that he also wants to find the girls he met back in 2005 at Camp Ashraf.
He started his journey from Paris, “chasing an Iranian spy ring across Western Europe.” He has tried a lot to “get in touch with someone, anyone inside the group who will talk” to him. After 6 days, he could finally arrange a meeting with Shahin Ghobadi, an MEK spokesman, and found his way into the MEK headquarters. He sat with MEK’s high-level representatives, Mohammad Mohaddesin, Shahin Ghobadi, Farzin Hashemi and Sarvenaz Chitsaz.
His main question from the MEK representatives was about the method they want to use to overthrow Iranian government. But they did not reveal too much and they’ve gone “a long way around to not answering my question.”
He asked for a meeting with the girls he met at Camp Ashraf and they said they are in Germany.
“A look I catch here or there lets me know they are still ready to fight for the revolution,” he concluded.
Ware and his crew flew to Berlin, hoping to meet with the girls. Shahin Ghobadi joined them in Berlin and took them to a symbolic hunger strike, which was “part of a broader MEK propaganda war to gain both new recruits and support for their cause.”
He believed that Germany was a diversion and the girls were not there.
Although the MEK had warned them, if they went to Albania, they’d be on their own, they set off for Albania, where some 3000 MEK members are settled.
They went to the MEK camp, outside Tirana. Surprisingly, Shahin Ghobadi followed them to Albania, “to make sure things go smoothly here in Albania.” There, he was only allowed to “see what Shahin wanted” him to see. “He opened one door and shut another.”
He finally met with two of the girls and sat with them, hearing their story.
In the end, Michael Ware said that certainly the MEK is “still very much devoted to its cause” and they will happily give their lives.
On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization ( the MKO) held a so-called conference “to advocate for better social and political treatment for women in Iran and across the world”, while the condition of women inside the MKO is disastrous.
The MKO considers “the political and cultural landscape for Iranian women as incredibly poor” while female defectors of the group everyday reveal new dimensions of women’s rights abuses committed in the cult-like system of the group.
Meanwhile, on another part of Europe, a meeting was held by former members of the group in Koln, Germany. They succeeded to organize the conference to criticize the destructive cult of Rajavi despite efforts made by the MKO’s agents to frustrate the event. According to the organizers of the meeting, the MKO agents had contacted the department that had rented the hall to the defectors, giving misinformation to obstruct their meeting. Ultimately their efforts were futile. Former members including Women Association succeeded to hold the meeting in which Ms. Batoul Soltani, Ms. Zahra Moeini and Ms. Homeyra Mohammad Nezhad denounced the Cult of Rajavi and warned the world about its threat of sectarianism and violence.
Conversely, the MKO authorities were not allowed to hold their alleged conference on women’s rights in public halls. The Albanian government cancelled the group’s event in the Central Orthodox Church of Tirana and the French authorities also did not allow the Cult to organize its conference in the Grand Arche’ La Defence which is a governmental building in the suburb of Paris.
This indicates that the MKO is not a reliable entity in Europe. Particularly in Albania, the mainstream media has turned against the group. Following the release of certain TV shows, news reports and an interview with the group’s defector Ehsan Bidi with the Abanian newspaper Dita, the Albanian government sounds to become more cautious about the threat of the Rajavi’s Cult.
France and Albanian states should be enough vigilant regarding the MKO in their territory. In both countries, the group has built its bases. More crucial issue is that Rajavi is trying to build a new Camp Ashraf in Tirana.
Today, the world is seeking new achievements for women in their way towards equality and freedom but the MKO has enslaved women. Women in the Cult of Rajavi are deprived from the most basic human rights. They can never love or be loved. They must be single forever; they cannot be mothers anymore; hysterectomy surgery is an order from leader. Those in the group who had children have been separated from children. They are not free to choose their clothes, they have to wear uniforms. Hijab is mandatory in the MKO.
Therefore, western audience of the MKO should get to know that female members of the MKO endure severe mental and physical tortures under the destructive mind control system of the cult. Maryam Rajavi’s “Ten Point Plan for Women’s Rights in tomorrow’s Iran” is absurd. It is only a well-furnished title to cover up the most horrific human rights violations against women in the cult of Rajavi.
By Mazda Parsi
International Women’s Day is annually held on March 8 to celebrate women’s achievements throughout history and across nations. It is also known as the United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace. However, this day is a time for certain opportunists who abuse the term “Women’s Rights” despite their long history of atrocities against women. Leaders of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization – who apparently seek equal rights for women- are actually huge abusers of women’s rights.
There are numerous reports and testimonies on human rights violations committed in the MKO. The most recent one is published in a book by Ms. Maryam Sanjabi. She writes her firsthand account on grieves of living in the Cult of Rajavi in her book “The Mirage of Freedom”.
Maryam Sanjabi joined the MKO in 1986 after her brother — also an MKO member – was executed by the Islamic Republic. Maryam was promoted to a high-ranking member in the MKO’s hierarchy until authorities suspected her of being the agent of the IR. “in 1994, after 8 years of working 18 hours a day for the organization, I could never imagine I was suspected by the leaders,” she writes.
When she was summoned to Camp Ashraf for interrogation, she was not worried because she thought that it was a misunderstanding and eventually it would be resolved but nothing went on as she expected.
“After the iron gates of Camp Ashraf was closed behind me, they took me off the car while beating me and insulting me,” she narrates her gloomy story.
They closed her eyes and tied her hands and threw her to a room where five other women were jailed. Maryam was shocked, she could not think of anything and do anything except crying. ”I could not believe that the organization that I had chosen with love as my ideal was treating me like this”, she writes.
She was then interrogated by Fatemeh Kheradmand who accused her of being the Iranian government’s agent. Sanjabi protested against the unjust accusation but she was punished physically. She was jailed in solitary confinement. She was lashed on her hands and feet until she passed out… She spent a dozen days under the harshest tortures.
“They made me bow in front of a wall for hours, until I felt nauseous, I vomited and again they forced me to bow”, she describes the tortures she endured in the MKO’s prison.
Maryam’s body was awfully wounded, blued and swollen when the MKO authorities took her to Baghdad. There, she was treated rather normally. This was the start of a new indoctrination process. They showed her new films of Maryam Rajavi’s speeches in Paris on a new devious titled “individuality”. Based on the new program, all members had to allegedly confess all their problems and secrets before joining the organization. They had to criticize themselves for their so-called dishonesty.
New meetings were held for the lately planned manipulation system. ”I realized that meetings were held in a violent atmosphere in which all members were humiliated by verbal and physical attacks from the peers,” she writes. Self–criticism meetings were planned to terrorize members’ individuality and personality.
By the way, Maryam Sanjabi was then taken to Massoud Rajavi’s residence. This was a trial for her. According to Massoud Rajavi, Maryam Sanjabi’s charge was spying for Iranian government. Following Sanjabi’s protest against the accusation, Massoud Rajavi told her, “You may be right but you might have been deceived by your brother so we will search to find out if you are a spy or not”!
After a few months, Rajavi talked to the accused member by phone and said,” Congratulations! We got sure that you were not a spy”!
This story was the story of human rights in the cult of Rajavi. In this destructive cuklt, the process of trial is vice versa. First you are punished, then you are sent to prison and torture, then you are charged with your accusation and then you are proved to be innocent!
It may seem ridiculous but it is definitely a dark comedy. According to Ms. Sanjabi at least 100 women and 500 men in the MKO suffered the same process she endured just under the false pretext of being Iranian agent. “During the days of my imprisonment in the first jail, I could always hear sisters’ [female comrades] cries of pain calling for help,” She reveals.
Therefore, the International Women’s Day is an opportunity to hear the calls of help from inside the camps of the Mujahedin Khalq, in Iraq, France and Albania. It’s time to bring Massoud Rajavi – the fugitive leader of the cult – and his wife Maryam Rajavi to justice for the crimes they committed against humanity particularly against their female members. The International Community should beware of Maryam Rajavi’s propaganda about women’s rights!
Mazda Parsi
Obsessed with the idea of regime change in Iran, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ Rajavi’s Cult) have always resorted to any tool. Today, as the final nuclear deal between Iran and the West is highly expected, the MKO cult is trying to sell its regime change agenda in the European Parliament running propaganda about the alleged human rights abuses committed by the Iranian government.
The MKO propaganda arm spends huge amounts of money and energy to organize hearing sessions in the US Congress or EU parliament. One of the recent events was the controversial hearing at the US Congress in which the so-called president of the MKO testified about the threat of ISIS in Iraq!
This is the account of Eldar Mamedov, political advisor of Committee on foreign affairs of Social Democrats in the European Parliament about Maryam Rajavi’s allegations in the hearing:
“In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-proliferation and Trade last month (delivered via videoconference from Paris), Maryam Rajavi, the self-proclaimed “president-elect” of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which serves as the MEK’s front office, suggested the best way for Western nations to combat the threat posed by ISIS is to oust the regime in Iran. Of course, no reference was made of the fact that Iran was one of the first countries to commit blood and treasure to the fight against ISIS. Nor did Rajavi mention that, when ISIS first overtook Mosul in the summer of 2014, the MEK hailed the militant group and its supporters as “part of a popular revolution against the Maliki regime” in Iraq, which the MEK views as an Iranian pawn. Once the U.S. military joined the fight against ISIS, however, it became politically untenable to defend or minimize its crimes. So, the MEK quickly changed its tune, suddenly portraying ISIS as Iran’s creation.”[]
MKO’s “Skilled manipulators of public opinion” –as described by RAND report authors— wear various masks based on the background in which they trap their victims. “Exploiting local political sensitivities in Europe, the MEK has chosen a different tactic to advocate for government overthrow”, Mamedov reveals. “To European audiences, the MEK has emphasized Iran’s human rights issues, such as the high number of executions in the country, as well as issues to do with women rights and infringements on religious liberty.”
The main goal of the MKO’s propaganda is to derail any interaction between EP and Iran. As Mamedov reports, the group launched a huge propaganda in Brussels to obstruct both the visit of Iranian parliamentary delegation to European Parliament and official visit of European parliamentarians to Tehran. Fortunately, both attempts failed despite several public hearings hold in the EP by the MKO that was trying to push its aggressive campaign on what it called freedom and human rights in Iran.
The propagandistic plans failed due to the undisputable, notoriously known history of the MKO on human rights abuse and violence.
The famous Human Rights Watch report on Human rights abuses inside the mujahedin khalq camps “No Exit” just interviewed a few cases of the group victims but it offers appropriate measures to get to know about the cult-like violent substance of the group. The RAND corporation also published a rather systematic report on the MKO in 2009.
Definitely, those politicians who naïvely let themselves become tools in the hands of the MKO’s destructive structures should read these two official reports. Still, there are numerous testimonies, documentaries, interviews and articles by the MKO’s former members –No matter how bellicosely they are labeled as agents of the Iranian Intelligence, by the MKO.
Mazda Parsi
Over the past weeks the Iranian society have been concerned over two different issues: The kidnapping of five Iranian border guards by Jaish-ul-Adl terrorist group and the alleged offensive dialogue in the TV serial that caused complaint of the Iranian Bakhtiari tribe. Departed from the authentic Iranian community, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) has taken a much different approach regarding these two facts.
The Sunni terrorist group Jaish ul-Adl of Iran (“Army of Justice of Iran”), the apparent successor to Jundullah, took responsibil
ity for abducting the Iranian soldiers. Reportedly, the Takfiri group confirmed on its twitter account that it has kidnapped them. While the Iranian community all over the world condemned the Taliban-like kidnapping of the young Iranian hostages, the MKO has kept a tactical silence because it has always supported Al-Qaida-linked separatist groups. The MKO has been a supporter of the ex- leader of the terrorist Judullah, Abdulmalek Rigi openly calling him the leader of a democratic movement.
The MKO’s meaningful silence over the life of the Iranian soldiers who are at risk of being slaughtered by radical extremists evokes the violent anti-Iranian substance of the Cult of Rajavi. While online social networks are overwhelmed with waves of Iranians’ solidarity for kidnapped border guards, the MKO websites exaggeratedly focus on what they call "Bakhtiari Uprising" in Iran.
Using fake and true photos of Bakhtiari demonstrations in some Iranian provinces the MKO opportunists make efforts to trouble the waters of a democratic protest which may happen in any democratic society. The democratically stated demand of the Bakhtiari Iranians was met. The officials of the state-run Iranian TV stopped showing the TV serial. They also apologized to Bhakhtiari fellowmen for the alleged offensive language used in the serial. However the MKO propaganda tried to reflect the act of TV authorities as "retreat before Bakhtiari popular uprising"!
As a matter of fact, apology is a healing icon of democracy. The role of accountability, apology, and forgiveness in a democratic community is really helpful, very opposite to the uncivil discourse in the cult-like MKO which is based on hurling words at members, turning pain outward and projecting it on other people who are ideologically opposite–or at least perceived to be. When we reflect on our own behavior and apologize to those who we have hurt–even unintentionally– we create a space for light to break in. Space for a real conversation and for renewal and healing. A secure space that member trapped in the MKO structure absolutely lack.
According to numerous international reports and testimonies of former members of the MKO, inside the group, dissident voice is harshly suppressed by the leaders. Critics of the group are all labeled as "the agent of the Regime" so they are deserved to be extremely punished. No protest is allowed in the MKO. No space for light to break in.
By Mazda Parsi
While Iran and the world six powers were negotiating the Iranian nuclear program, the Mujahedin Khalq propaganda arm the so-called National Council of Resistance was all the time launching their notorious disinformation campaign against Islamic Republic.
The MKO figure who is introduced as "chairman of the Peace Commission of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, is Mehdi Abrishamchi. He is the key PR runner who declares the alleged revelations on Iranian nuclear program in the press conferences organized by the group.
Mehdi Abrishamchi is actually the ex-husband of the group’s alleged president elect Maryam Rajavi who divorced his wife to grant her to the leader of the cult Massoud Rajavi. Massoud married Maryam immediately after she separated from Abrishamchi.
Once Abrishamchi became the MKO’s PR tribune under the misleading title "chairman of Peace Commission", former members of the group reminded his true nature as a malicious official of "the Cult of Rajavi".
Javad Firouzmand is an MKO ex-member and currently the spokesman of Iran Aria Association that was founded by former members of the group to aid release and relocation of the group members. Mr. Firouzmand is one of those defectors of the cult who published a detailed article on Mehdi Abrishamchi’s true face. He denounces Abrishamchi as an enemy of peace and freedom who used to ruthlessly suppress any opposite opinion in MKO camps in Iraq and now he despicably runs the MKO’s demonizing and misinformation campaign in Europe.
Nejat Society has translated certain parts of Javad Firouzmand’s enlightening article on the MKO dreadful senior member Mehdi Abrishamchi:
” Abrishamchi surely remembers the summer of 2001 when he was torturing me in prison of Camp Ashraf after I was arrested and jailed following an unsuccessful escape. He broke the bone of my chest by his foot. He together with Hassan Nezamalmaleki and Mahvash Sepehri tried to make me blind by shoving a pen into my eye. They tried to lift me by pulling me with my ears while my hands were coughed and my feet were chained, that ultimately ended with my ears bleeding and puncture.
Instead of cheating and chanting slogans of "freedom", Abrishamchi must answer me question: Did he respect my right for freedom when I decided to leave the MKO? I had spent the longest time of my life in the MKO, someday he has to state under what accusation he personally tortured me.
After several month of imprisonment he pulled me to Rajavi’s session called ‘To’meh’ [victim] in Camp Baqerzadeh where Massoud and Maryam Rajavi sentenced me to 8 years of hard labour and finally to death penalty. This way they wanted to threaten other dissident members of the cult. They signed my sentence before the eyes of 4000 members. Was it a crime to defect from the MKO Gestapo in the late years of Saddam Hussein’s ruling? Did it mean that I was a "regime mercenary" just because I wanted to leave the MKO?
I recall the days they hit me in the abandoned Camp Jalalzadeh. I was hand coughed beaten under their fists and feet. I do not forget Abrishamchi’s typical atrocity; he verbally abused my family while beating my chest, stomach and legs by his toes.
From early in the morning –when Saddam Hossein’s security forces submitted me to the MKO—Abrishamch and Hassan Nezamalmaleki started horrendously torturing me until noon. They were mad with Ba’th’s security guards who hadn’t shot me – Rajavi had previously ordered them to shoot any MKO defectors they come across. Beating me violently he was shouting," They should have killed this ‘henchman’. Why did they yield him alive?"
I could never forget the evil face of Abrishamchi, Nezamalmaleki, Mahvash Sepehri and many other women of the Elite Council who used to torture me every day while my hands and feet were chained and my eyes were closed.
He was the person who after constantly torturing me for 8 hours ordered the guard of the prison to take me to their jail in Ashraf in which as he said they would be able to make me speak!"
Last week Massoud Rajavi’s minions outdid themselves by raising over a million dollars at an event in Dallas with the help of John Bolton and other Neocons. This is the latest chapter in a lengthy history of partnership 
between the Mojahedeen (MEK) and Iran’s enemies.
John Bolton was invited as replacement for Rudy Giuliani who abruptly cancelled just before the event. The MEK organizers did not announce the venue for the event, likely in fear of potential backlash by the local Iranian community.
Articles and videos replete with statements by Bolton and Giuliani on the need to bomb Iran are easily available online, also expressed with equal zeal by Rajavi’s cult. While Bolton and Giuliani call for bombing Iran and "crippling sanctions", the MEK do just the same, only replacing "Iran" with "Mullah’s regime." But alas, the target in both cases remains the same–the people of Iran.
The issue with the MEK is not a philosophical one. It is simple. What these Islamist Marxian terrorists have done throughout their existence can be summed up in one word: treason.
From licking the backside of Soviet Russia, to bending over for their "Imam" Khomeini, to doing "Brother Saddam’s" bidding, and now prostituting themselves to Israel and its Neocons–theirs has been a history of constant betrayal–betrayal the likes of which has no equivalent in modern Persian history.
More than one million was raised by a group with a blood soaked past with the help of the Neocons, another group with hands drenched in blood. The target: Iran. And yet, America’s Iranians have yet to bat an eye. John Bolton and Rajavi’s minions may eventually sow the destruction they seek, and if they do, none other is to blame but our silence.
By Kourosh Ighani
A defected member of the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization revealed that MKO ringleaders have fabricated Quranic verses in a bid to deceive the members and justify their misbehaviors and the group’s terrorist nature.
According to a report by Nedaye Enghelab (Voice of Revolution) News Network, the defected member of the MKO wrote in a memo about his time in Camp Ashraf (MKO’s main training camp in Iraq) that the terrorist group has resorted to the falsification of the holy Quranic verses in a bid to justify its plans.
He said that in one case he and a member of the MKO had unsuccessfully tried to look up such verses in the holy Quran and then they referred the issue to the camp authorities and asked them for help.
"Thus, we went to the authorities with a holy Quran in our hand and asked them to show us the relevant verse. But because all their words were lies, they took away our Quran and told us that they would let us know later.
"The next day the camp authorities removed all the Qurans from our resting places in the camp in a bid to block the members’ access to the holy book," he continued.
News coming out of the camp is still more shocking. The MKO ringleaders are reportedly using torture and pressure on their own dissident members, barring the dissident members from leaving the organization and joining their families.
An Iraq-based right group unveiled in a December report that ringleaders of the MKO resorted to various forms of mass killing in a bid to bring the group out of the current impasse in Iraq.
According to a report by Iraqi daily Motamar, also published by Edalat (Justice) Society web site – an organ of the families of the Iranian victims of terrorism – the Iraqi right group has sent serious warnings to civil society and human rights bodies as well as the Iraqi government about the ongoing humanitarian disaster in the MKO’s main training camp in Northern Iraq.
The Sahar Family Foundation also said that the MKO’s ringleaders are forcing the dissident members of the group to commit suicide, and if they refuse to do so, the leaders massacre defectors themselves.
The right group called on the Iraqi judiciary system, international court of justice and all international human rights bodies as well as the Iraqi and international media to take urgent action to stop the human catastrophe in the camp which, they said, now looks more like a slaughterhouse.
Also in December, Makki Rafi’ee, another defected member of the MKO, had revealed that the ringleaders of the group have ordered their agents to torture dissidents in a bid to dissuade defection.
Rafi’ee disclosed that agents of the MKO resorted to various types of torture and pressure against him during the last 15 years, and that he had been jailed in the notorious Camp Ashraf in Northern Iraq all these years.
"After 15 years of imprisonment in Camp Ashraf and tolerating various tortures by the agents of the grouplet, I managed to escape from the Camp and surrender myself to the Iraqi security forces," he added.
Also, a November report by the Habilian Association, an Iran-based human rights group, said that under the direct order of MKO’s Ringleader Maryam Rajavi, leaders of the terrorist group in the Camp of New Iraq (formerly known as Camp Ashraf) allow their members to receive medical aids, healthcare and other services in return for given levels of cooperation.
Based on the order, dissident members are deprived of medicine and other medical services or, at least, face much hardship and difficulty in procuring their necessary medicines.
The right group added that the new measure came after protests remarkably increased inside the group, specially in the camp. Right groups are gravely concerned that a large number of MKO members may lose their lives soon if UN, human rights and Iraqi officials do not force the group leaders to end their tortures and pressures against the dissident members.
In relevant development, a report revealed in November that Ahmad Razzani, a veteran member of the MKO, had been killed inside the Camp.
According to an August report by the Habilian Association, the MKO leaders have increased their pressures and control over the members of the terrorist group to prevent possible defection and escape by unsatisfied members.
Reports also said that all exit and entry doors have been locked and none of the members, even those suffering from acute diseases and illnesses, are allowed to leave the camp.
MKO ringleaders have ordered the camp guards to stage snap inspections of the group’s members and their personal belongings under the pretext of finding the lost weapons.
Such behaviors have sparked discontent among a number of MKO members and made them escape the camp and return to their anguished families.
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a letter last year in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).
The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.
The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.
Following the disastrous earthquake in Haiti, Maryam Rajavi, self-assigned president of National Council of Resistance, offered her condolences to the people of Haiti. The message included a further command for MKO members which were to make use of the opportunity for fundraising activities for the organization.
Just a few days after Haiti disaster Swedish government published a list of institutes that had been considered as fraudulent because they lack the special account number the government had allocated to charity organizations.
The government of Sweden warned people about the deceitful nature of such organizations including a front organization linked to Mujahedin-e-Khalq under the name of Mojahedin Sympatisör Förening – MSF
The terrorist cult of MKO has a dark background of fraudulent fundraising campaign and money laundry. In 1998 the charity Commission of Britain closed the Iran Aid Charity Association because it could not prove that the funds were being used for the purpose for which they were raised.
The Bam earthquake charity event held in January 2005 demonstrated how MKO use their front organizations to raise funds for their own and their cause not for the poor survivors of the disaster. On January 26, 2005, the Iranian – American Community of Northern Virginia hosted a charity event in Washington DC to allegedly raise money for the survivors of Bam disaster, to support the so-called Iranian Resistance. Anyone to attend the event was supposed to charge 35$. Of the 23 organizations listed as sponsors of the event,17 are known MKO front groups or linked to prominent MKO members or activities, according to Sam Dealay who wrote in an article titled “Terrorists plan DC fundraiser”, on Jan.21,2005.
FBI agents were present at the event and two days after the event was held, the Treasury Department froze the assets of the Iranian-American Community of Northern Virginia, said Glenn Kessler in Washington Post on January 29th, 2005.
In May, 2009, Los Angeles Times published a report on an appeal court held to try seven MKO members who were guilty to raising funds for the group. In court the defendants admitted that they knowingly raised funds to support the activities of Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or MEK, by collecting money from MEK supporters and soliciting money from unwitting donors at public locations, including the airport, the report read. Donors were told they were supporting a charity called the Committee for Human Rights. The fundraising activities took place from 1997 to February 2001, the report quoted the authorities.
Working in groups and under the cover of humanitarian organizations and charity institutions they published some pictures of war-worn, orphan and homeless children to encourage people to help them. This invoked the reaction of security forces of France. In an effort to fight against money laundry, Maryam Rajavi was arrested along with some other officials of the group in June 2003.
In the fall of 2008, Reuters reported that about ten members of “a banned Iranian opposition group were arrested in France and Switzerland in connection with a money-laundry investigation”
Money laundry is a customary operational technique among criminal gangs and terrorist organizations. Using charity institutes they solicit people to donate funds. This way they could raise large sums of money. In June 2003, when the French Police attacked Mujahedin’s headquarters in Ouver Sur d’Oise ,Paris, they discovered about nine million dollars which were found in the MKO offices that were “operational, organizational and logistic bases for collecting suspicious money” said Jean Louis Bruguière, French antiterrorism judge, in charge of MKO file.
By Mazda Parsi
MKO’s opportunist attitude:
Shifting to opposite interests
In November and December 1978, the press and news agencies published and spoke of the letter written by Senator Edward Kenedy to Ayatollah Khomeini, along with US efforts to release American hostages in their Embassy in Tehran.
Following the news, MEK publish an article ironically titled “Kenedy becomes a supporter of Islam!!” in their official journal “Mojahed”, attacking the American politician by the sub title :”behind the curtains of all conspiracies against Iran, the hands of huge imperialist capitalists, Kartels, trackers and corporations are covered.” [ Mojahed No.16 – P.9 ]
The article included some paragraphs of Kenedy’s letter quoting that he was “perfectly supporting the Islamic Republic.” MEK called it “hypocritical policy” and wrote :”…isn’t it surprising and even funny that an imperialist senator pretends himself as a supporter of Islamic Republic?…” [Mojahed No.16- P.16 ]
The same journal of MEK speaks of Senator Edward Kenedy as MEK’s supporter, who sends a message to Iranians residing in Massachusetts to invite them to attend the group’s demonstration in April, 1991; Appreciating Senator’s efforts for democratic changes in Iran. [Mojahed No.294- P.41]
In 1994, when the US State Department published a report on MEK and its terrorist Marxist background, NCRI (MEK’s political wing) tried to cleanse the accusation in a rush act claiming that the organization has never been in anti-US front especially during its 28-month political phase between February 1978 and June 1979 and even it had been in opposition to anti American movements!
In its arguments, MEK tried to appease US by putting the blame on dead movements like “Tude Party”(Communist Party) as an anti American Marxist group.
Regarding MEK’s background and testimonies and documents on the group’s attitudes and acts, one may consider two suppositions:”first, MEK’s interests and position in 1978 were those that were declared by them and what they are now trying hard to deny had in fact been existed.
Second, MEK’s today declarations are “meanly true” and the group has never been a serious, true anti US movement.
The first supposition results in this conclusion that MEK is going on a path that separates it more and more from the Iranians and pushes it more and more to a cult-like group. It has shifted its positions from an anti-imperialism movement to a beggar to White House and Pentagon’s support.”
In case that the second supposition is true, there will be another evidence for the hypocritical attitude of MEK.
By Mazda Parsi