Former members of the MEK

MKO former members

UK parliamentary delegation’s visit to Edalat Society

UK parliamentary delegation’s visit to Edalat Society(Victims of Mojahedin Khalq terrorism)

British Ambassador to Tehran, Geoffrey Adams, along with members and the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons have met and talked with several families of victims of terrorism at Edalat (justice) Society in order to become familiar with terrorist nature and deeds of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO).

The British parliamentarians visited Iran recently on the invitation of the Iranian parliament (Majlis).

Ms Sepehri, a member of the society whose father (a 45-year-old tailor) was martyred by the MKO’s terror teams in 1984, while referring to the memoirs from his father, said that the MKO has assassinated over 12000 individuals in Iran besides cooperating with Saddam Hussein in killings of many Kurds and Shiite Moslems in Iraq.

Mr Mike Gapes, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons who was present in the meeting said,”MKO are quite known to us; we do know them through Amnesty International and the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations.”

Then Ms Sobhani whose father (a 46-year-old shopkeeper) was martyred by the MKO’s terror teams in 1982 said:”Utilizing terror is not a tactic or a strategy for the MKO. It is part of their ideology and that is why they could never give in using violence; and this is an important and crucial point for those foreign supporters of the MKO who are aiming to use them as a tool.

“The leaders of this organisation are not trustworthy even for their friends.”

The visit of the UK parliamentarians to Tehran and their meeting with the society of the families of victims of terrorism took place while the MKO is claiming that they are enjoying the support of UK peers.

The MKO is currently in the list of designated terrorist groups in the UK, and the FCO has warned the statesmen not to have any contact with the members of this organisation.

During the one-hour meeting, Ms Sepehri addressed the members of the delegation and said,”Those who have sold their nation and their country to the aliens could never claim to be the advocate of the interests of the other nations and countries. This is a historic lesson that tells us one should avoid those opportunist groups who are terrorists and easily change color and tell lies.”

The chairman of the UK delegation, Mike Gapes, said after receiving some documents indicating the violation of human rights and terror by the MKO,”This documentation and other reports published by the international bodies about the MKO show that there is no doubt about their violent backgrounds. We are victims of terrorism too and the British people are also severely suffering from this phenomenon.”Some documentation about the terrorist activities of the MKO was handed over by the Edalat Society to the UK delegation.

Finally, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons emphasised,”We have issued a joint statement between the governments of France, Germany, and the UK with the Islamic Republic of Iran in Paris. In this statement we reached an agreement that one article of it indicates that three European countries and Iran are decisively willing to tackle against terrorism and they are determined to do so. These groups include Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups such as the MKO.”

November 25, 2007 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Aawa publication No: 25 in English and German, September 2007

In this issue:

– Open letter to King Abdullah of Jordan

– 11th of September 2001 and the MKO

– 11 September and MKO’s Tactic of Duplicity

– Why the US granted ‘protected’ status to Iranian terrorists

– MKO Behind Karbala Massacre?

– The highest pitch of stupidity!

(Mojahedin Khalq Organsation vow to continue violance and terrorism)

– many Iranians conclude the U.S. is supporting a terrorist organization

– EXCLUSIVE US TRIP PAID FOR BY IRANIAN ORGANISATION

Midland MP (Mr. Binley) lobbies for terrorist group

– France to Probe Killing of Iranian

———-

Publikation des AAWA-Vereins e.V.

Verantwortlich:

Dipl.-Ing. Ali-A. Rastgou

Postfach 90 31 73

D-51124 KÃ¶ln

Phone: +49-163-18 49 145

E-mail: info@iran-aawa.com

Awaa Association, September 2007

http://www.iran-aawa.com/arch-pub/arch-aatuell/aawa-akt-25.PDF

October 2, 2007 0 comments

Anne Singleton Interview with BBC Yorkshire Radio Leeds

P: We’re joined now by Anne Singleton she’s a married mum from Leeds. Who was actually brainwashed by extremists at one point but now campaigns to warn others. Good Morning Anne.

AS: Good morning.

P: Is brainwashed the right word to use? What actually happened to you Anne?

AS: It is a word which resonates with people. More familiarly I would call it ‘mind control techniques. These are well-known, well-documented. For years and years destructive cults have been using them. The way that they work in essence is that they will take a perfectly ordinary person and strip that person of their values using specific psychological manipulation.

P: What got you into this position in the first place?

AS: I was involved with Iranian students at the time of the Iranian revolution in 1979. I was at Manchester University. I was young and innocent, looking for something to fulfill my ambition to ‘change the world’. I was very idealistic and I got involved with those people. They seemed to me very sincere, very genuine and committed to making change in their country. I hadn’t grasped that the path which they were leading me along led to extreme violence.

P: So this was happening in this country, it wasn’t happening in a foreign environment where you would maybe be more susceptible to someone else’s culture.

AS: I was recruited at Manchester University. Having said that, ten years down the line – I was just supporting the group from a distance, I had a job and ostensibly a normal life. But ten years down the line I took part in a hunger strike and that’s really what tipped the balance for me and sent me over the edge into total commitment to this group. After about five days of eating nothing I was on a complete high and I felt as though I was moving at a different speed to the rest of humanity.

P: What was it they encouraged you to support?

AS: The Mojahedin even today present themselves as an alternative to the islamic regime in Iran. They say that they want to overthrow the whole regime in its entirety and replace that regime with themselves. They frame this in the context of human rights. They say we will protect human rights by overthrowing the mullahs. What I came to realize was that they were committing just as much abuse of human rights inside their organization as Amnesty International was ‘clocking-up’ in other countries throughout the world.

P: Anne, what do you think of the stories today? The front page of the Yorkshire Post says ‘University Launches Review after Conviction of Student Terror Ring’. How do you feel when you feel when you hear about these students, about what they were doing – substituting their faces with the faces of the 9/11 highjackers – after what you have been through.

AS: What comes to mind first of all is that terrorism is such a complex issue. Yes, it sounds horrific on the surface when you hear of people having extremely radical views like this. And people are frightened because they know that such views can lead to violence. But what I have understood from my experience is that to tip somebody over the line between radical ideas and actually perpetrating violence needs psychological manipulation. Words don’t kill people, they never have. Words are how societies move forward, through discussion, debate and progress. There have been lots of radical ideas throughout history – the world is round was quite a radical thought at one point. So we must pull back a little bit and say that OK there are extremist views but if we remember a few years back – 1993 – the Admiral Duncan pub was bombed, a gay pub in Soho. If you start looking only at the so-called ideology of these people then you are going to miss a whole lot of clues that lead you to understand how a person goes from thinking extremely to acting extremely.

P: You mentioned the hunger strike thing and that really strikes a chord with me. When I was going through my divorce I literally couldn’t eat a thing. And it absolutely does your mind no good. If you are not eating properly you think in a totally irrational way. That’s my experience. So, when you say your hunger strike was the one that led you up to that kind of high, moving and thinking differently from everyone else, that must be part and parcel of it.

AS: This is a fundamental technique for psychological manipulation. These techniques are used by all destructive cults – whether they present themselves as religious, therapeutic, or like the Jonestown cult of the 1980s. They each present themselves differently but they all use the same techniques. These techniques are very effective, you can actually recruit and convert somebody into a cult member within three or four days. That’s how effective they are.

P: This was happening to you at Manchester University. Now we hear about these students at Bradford University. There are some interesting issues about how this radical thought, idealistic thought can tip over the edge into violent action, but in terms of the universities what is the best plan for them in your experience in combating this, I mean tipping over into violent action.

AS: I think that young people generally need to be educated in the danger of destructive cults. You should start at high school even. I am surprised that in schools you may be given sex education, you are educated about how to keep your PIN number safe and not get robbed, But where is the education to tell people how to look out for somebody who is going to come along, take you out of your normal environment and convert you into either a terrorist or at least a cult member.

P: But will that education be enough? I think one of the things Bradford University is looking at as well is the idea of surveillance and looking at what people are looking at on the Internet and monitoring the traffic that’s coming through.

AS: I am not a security expert so I couldn’t say how effective that would be.

P: Would education have stopped you?

AS: Certainly it would have opened my eyes a lot sooner to looking for signs that people were trying to influence me in ways that I wasn’t aware of actually happening. I think university students are quite vulnerable because they are away from home usually, they are in a vibrant atmosphere. They are intelligent, idealistic and are looking for new experience and new ideas.

P: You are a mum, Anne. How many kids have you got?

AS: I’ve just got the one.

P: And how old is your child?

AS: My child is seven.

P: Right, so a long way to go in terms of university. How do you feel about your life now and your fears for your child?

AS: I have to add here is that the reason I have one child is that we started rather late. I was involved with a terrorist cult, the Mojahedin Khalq, which denied its members marriage and children. Those are the levels of intrusion that these organisations have on ordinary members. So, they would not allow anyone to be married, they forced people to divorce and took their children away from them. It was only after I left and met my husband that I was able to have a family. And I realise now that being in one of these organisations deprives you of all your basic, fundamental human rights, even freedom of thought. Because a person who is brought around to thinking as terrorists do in order to give their own life to this other person – because it is someone else who will be persuading them to do that – your basic freedoms are taken away from you without you realising. Now, if you are aware, first of all, of your basic freedoms – what are the basic human rights that everyone is entitled to – that is a starting point from which you can say, I do have the right to have a family, to have children. These are certainly the things I will be teaching my child as he grows up and certainly I will be teaching him to think and to question and not to accept anything at face value, ever.

People can be very persuasive. I think we’ve all been sold something we didn’t really want by somebody who was very persuasive. The same techniques will persuade you to act in ways that you don’t mean to, let alone buy things.

P: Anne, thank you very much for coming in. She’s a wife and mum and she was involved with the Mojahedin in West Yorkshire.

BBC Yorkshire, Radio Leeds, July 26, 2007

http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds

August 1, 2007 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Four more defectors of Rajavis’ Cult repatriated

According to Nejat Society correspondent, four other people defected MKO and repatriated. The four defectors, who were MKO members for a long time, spent a few weeks in TIPF Camp and finally could return Iran with Red Cross cooperation.

The defectors’ names:

Ahmad Rostamian

GholamReza Shirdom

Jamil Abdollahzade

AliReza Naghashzade

The above-named people will consequently state their comments on the disruptive atmosphere in Camp Ashraf.

Nejat Society

Tehran-July 30th 2007

August 1, 2007 0 comments

Ann Singleton Former members of the MEK

BBC Yorkshire Radio Leeds interviews Anne Singleton

P: We’re joined now by Anne Singleton she’s a married mum from Leeds. Who was actually brainwashed by extremists at one point but now campaigns to warn others. Good Morning Anne.

AS: Good morning.

P: Is brainwashed the right word to use? What actually happened to you Anne?

P: What got you into this position in the first place?

P: So this was happening in this country, it wasn’t happening in a foreign environment where you would maybe be more susceptible to someone else’s culture.

P: What was it they encouraged you to support?

AS: I am not a security expert so I couldn’t say how effective that would be.

P: Would education have stopped you?

P: You are a mum, Anne. How many kids have you got?

AS: I’ve just got the one.

P: And how old is your child?

AS: My child is seven.

P: Right, so a long way to go in terms of university. How do you feel about your life now and your fears for your child?

P: Anne, thank you very much for coming in. She’s a wife and mum and she was involved with the Mojahedin in West Yorkshire.

BBC Yorkshire, Radio Leeds, July 26, 2007

http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds

Download Anne Singleton Interview with BBC Yorkshire Radio Leeds

July 26, 2007 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Masoud: Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel

REVIEW: Masoud Banisadr, Masoud: Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel (London: Saqi Books, 2004).

The Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), or the People’s Combatants Organization, was established in 1965 as an armed, underground group opposed to the Pahlavi regime and seeking to establish a "monotheistic classless society." Fusing aspects of Marxism-Leninism and political Islam, the MKO played an important role in mobilizing urban, educated Iranians during the Islamic Revolution, yet quickly fell out with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his inner circle in the post-revolutionary period. Driven out of Iran, Masoud Rajavi and the Central Committee moved the MKO’s headquarters to Western Europe and then after 1986 to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Aside from its official history, little has been written in English about the inner workings of this highly secretive group.

The memoir of Masoud Banisadr, until 1996 a US and European representative of the National Council for Resistance (NCR), the MKO’s nominally independent political wing, helps present a picture of the organization as it functioned from the late 1970s. Masoud is especially timely, since the MKO, though deemed a "terrorist organization" by the State Department and several European governments, has been identified by neo-conservatives Daniel Pipes and Patrick Clawson as a candidate to bring "the tide of freedom" to Iran. The book seriously challenges such assumptions. In fact, Banisadr’s detailed life story corroborates a recent Human Rights Watch report, which describes the MKO’s systematic abuse and torture of members who challenge the Central Committee or seek to defect.

Banisadr, a cousin of the first popularly elected president of the Islamic Republic, and his wife were postgraduate students in Britain during the 1979 revolution. They became involved with the MKO and its affiliates after the fall of the Shah. A self-described "social democrat" at the time of the revolution, Banisadr was attracted to an ideology that "seemed indistinguishable from [Ali] Shariati’s," the thinker he had read and admired while still in Iran. Interestingly, he acknowledges that many MKO supporters did not "know much about the Mojahedin ideology, especially as it differed from that of other Muslims and Marxists." For him, "it was enough to know that they supported democracy, independence and progress."

At almost 500 pages, Masoud is a meticulous, but often meandering and disjointed, book. Yet, for the patient reader, it is crammed with poignant details of how the MKO has maintained organizational unity despite external hostility and the many unsavory practices described by Banisadr. He tells us how the various "bases" scattered across Europe created a combination of complex, opaque hierarchy and communal living arrangements, how songs and military drills were used as rituals to develop a sense of solidarity among middle-class college graduates, and how in order to raise funds the MKO established businesses, such as a stand that "introduced the joys of kebabs" to Durham.

But what will receive the most attention are the disturbing psychological techniques employed to force members to relinquish all sense of individual identity, to monitor each other and to disavow feelings for all people other than the married couple who make up the ideological and spiritual leadership of the MKO, Masoud and Maryam Rajavi. From the outset, the MKO encouraged members to distance themselves from their families, unless they could support the cause monetarily or through activities in Iran. The detachment from greater society, however, reached new levels after 1985 when the Rajavis announced various stages of the "ideological revolution," whereby the MKO sought to reposition itself against the more consolidated regime in Iran. This "revolution" was initiated by the "marriage of the century," in which Rajavi wed Maryam Azodanlu, who had been married to another leading member until shortly beforehand. All MKO members were expected to go through their own "ideological revolutions" in order to become true Mojahedin and demonstrate their loyalty. This was done at regular group confessionals ("cooking pots") in which Mojahedin would admonish themselves and each other, as well as through writing reports on one’s weaknesses, burning "bourgeois" luxury items, limiting and even ending relations between the sexes, and divorcing one’s spouse to prevent "contradictions." The latter step was said to remove the main "buffer" preventing true understanding of the revolution, embodied in "the ideological mother" Maryam Rajavi, the only bridge to her husband. The meetings, taped sermons by the Rajavis and limits on outside sources of information created what Banisadr calls the "mystical efficacy of drip-fed propaganda."

This politico-theological apparatus surely helped to create some devoted followers, as demonstrated when several Mojahedin set themselves on fire when France briefly arrested Maryam Rajavi in 2003. Yet Banisadr describes how this psychologically abusive atmosphere, combined with growing doubts about the MKO’s military capability and political skill, led many other members to question the leadership and eventually quit. Banisadr’s suggestions and criticisms were met with indifference and public personal condemnation, so much so that he began to doubt his own character. Unlike others who ended up attempting suicide or in Abu Ghraib prison for their criticisms, Banisadr was able to leave with relative ease, because he spent much of his time abroad and still had an extended family, including his ex-wife, living in Britain.

Masoud does not fully explain why Banisadr joined the MKO, as opposed to another political party, or why he left when he did. Nor does it offer an alternative politics to the one offered by the MKO. Like many autobiographies, it is too self-reflective to take these analytical steps or challenge the teleology of the narrative. Instead, Banisadr paints a picture of an organization that, over time, corrupted its members’ idealistic vigor and organizing acumen into a means for self-abnegation with the only relationship of any significance being that between the individual member and the two-headed Rajavi beloved. After reading Masoud, it is difficult to imagine, as Pipes and Clawson apparently do, that the MKO will be able to mobilize its small, psychologically fragile membership or recruit more Iranians in order to overthrow the Islamic Republic, let alone establish a transparent political regime and foster a pluralistic society.

Reviewed by Arang Keshavarzian

MIDDLE EAST REPORT No:237

http://www.banisadr.info/MER.htm

Download Masoud: Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel
Download Masoud: Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel

July 24, 2007 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Status of Mojahedin Khalq (Rajavi cult) Members Held in Iraq Prompts Debate

SCOTT SIMON, host:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I’m Scott Simon.

Coming up, climate change comes to the Sky Islands. But first, the next round of talks in Baghdad between the U.S. and Iran is expected to take place before the end of July. One issue of particular interest to Iran is the presence in Iraq of more than 3,000 militants of the Mujahideen cult of the People’s Mujahideen.

Until the U.S. invasion of Iraq, this group carried out cross-border attacks against the government in Tehran aided by Saddam Hussein. Since the invasion, the MEK, as it’s known, has been confined to a base in Iraq under the control of U.S. forces. In Tehran, an effort has emerged to persuade MEK members to return home.

NPR’s Mike Shuster has more from Tehran.

MIKE SHUSTER: Arash Semitapur(ph) is a fresh-faced young man with unkempt black hair. Eager to police, he doesn’t look like a terrorist or an assassin. Only his false right hand suggests something may have been amiss in his past.

Semitapur is one of the leaders of the Najat Society here in Iran. Najat means salvation and its goal is to bring the Iranians of the MEK home. Semitapur joined the MEK in the 1990s, recruited as a naive college student in Virginia. Eventually, he made his way to a training base in Iraq. And in 2001, he was sent over the border with automatic rifles, ammunition, grenades and two cyanide pills in his mouth.

Mr. ARASH SEMITAPUR (Leader, Najat Society, Iran; MEK Member): That was like the street order we had that when you entered in Iranian territory, you have to have the cyanide pills in your mouth. We were convinced that if we get arrested here by the securities, we will be tortured to death. And we were told that the easiest way is just to have the cyanide pills and chew them if you are getting arrested. Then you will be a hero. You will be a martyr.

SHUSTER: Semitapur’s mission was to assassinate an Iranian general in Tehran, but everything went wrong and he was arrested. Even the cyanide pills did not kill him.

Mr. SEMITAPUR: Of course, my handgun was jammed and it didn’t work. And I was taken to the police station. There they didn’t search me. I had a hand grenade, like a small grenade in my pocket. Again, with the street orders of the organization, I tried to commit a suicide again so I exploded the grenade in my hand, but fortunately didn’t kill me.

SHUSTER: Because Semitapur didn’t kill anyone he served just four years in prison. When he got out, he joined the Najat Society to try to convince others of what he calls the MEK cult to return to Iran. The Najat Society also helps the families of MEK members to visit Iraq and try to persuade their loved ones to come home.

After the U.S. invasion, Masumai Rasahid(ph) tried to bring her son Sayed(ph) home. So far, she has not been successful.

Ms. MASUMAI RASAHID (Resident, Iran): (Through Translator) They’re completely brainwashed and even they don’t trust us. When my son accuses me as his mother that you got money from the Islamic government to come here, to persuade me and convince me to go back. And she says I’m your mother, how can I cheat you? And this is the way they taught you and they do not trust and believe nobody.

SHUSTER: The MEK is confined to Camp Ashraf, about a hundred miles north of Baghdad. When U.S. forces seized the camp, they disarmed the MEK and took possession of hundreds of tanks, artillery pieces and other military hardware. The State Department considers the MEK a terrorist group.

The U.S. has permitted family members to visit Camp Ashraf. Masumai Rasahid has been there to see her son four times.

Ms. RASAHID: (Through Translator) When he met me, he had a very bad reaction in front of everybody. He screamed at me and yelled at me. His friends told me that he was forced to do that. The last time that we met, it was much better. They let us stay for the night in the camp with him, and he was a little better than the previous time.

SHUSTER: The last time Masumai Rasahid saw her son was in 2004. Since then, it’s been far too dangerous to make the trip. The U.S. has been unable to decide just what to do with the MEK. The Iranian government has reportedly offered to exchange some al-Qaida members it says it is holding for the leaders of the MEK, permitting the rank and file to return to Iran to be reunited with their families.

Some U.S. officials have suggested sending the MEK to a third country. Others have argued that the U.S. should continue to hold the MEK as a bargaining chip and even use them for covert operations against Iran in retaliation for attacks that the U.S. says Iran is behind in Iraq.

Arash Semitapur(ph) urges Washington not to be tempted to use the group against the Iranian government.

Mr. SEMITAPUR: Maybe there are some people in U.S. government who would think that they are useful for them, but I don’t think that they are so naive that they can trust these guys.

SHUSTER: Semitapur argues for a more humanitarian solution to the problem – helping the families to spend more time in Baghdad or in bordertowns with MEK members. That way, he says, many will decide to come home. So far, according to the Najat Society, since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, about 300 MEK members have returned to Iran and are now living with their families.

Mike Shuster, NPR News, Tehran.

National Public Radio, Weekend Edition – Saturday, July 21, 2007

listen to the program:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12144968

July 24, 2007 0 comments

Ann Singleton Former members of the MEK

I escaped a terrorist cult

Interview with Anne Singleton, Woman Magazine, July 03, 2007

when I switched on the TV and saw the suicide message of one of the London bombers, a chill went down my spine. It was like deja vu. I recognised the young man’s language and behaviour, because there was a time when that could have been me. I too was once prepared to give up my life for a terrorist cell.

I escaped a terrorist Cult

growning up in Leeds in the 1970s, life was ordinary and uneventful, but I wannted to change the world for the better. At university, I started going to meetings of a group called the People’s Mujaheddin, who were fighting to overthrow the Ayatollah in Iran…. To read more click here

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July 4, 2007 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Awareness to Canadian on MKO attacks

Requesting Minster of Canada Public safety for immediate action

Awareness to Canadian on MKO attacks We are informed that some human rights activists were attacked by the Mojahedin-e- Khalq (MEK)-MKO_ members during a panel on Refugees and Humane Rights issues in Paris, France on Sunday June 17, 2007. We, ex-members of MEK, are not surprise by the actions to terrorize the critic but the Paris attack warning that MEK is shifting the violent from Iraq to EU cities against the political opponents. Mohammad Hayati The violence action in Paris on June 17, 2007, was orchestrated by Mr. Mohammad Hayati who is a top aide to Mr. and Mrs. Rajavi, who recently left MKO Military base in Iraq , Ashraf , Mr. Mohammad Hayati was one of the top commander of National Liberation Army who are responsible for many human tragedy during Iraq and Iran war . As Canadian citizenship we are concern on the safety of our families.

We expect Canadian government fully implement the restriction against MEK as long as they have not denounced violence. MEK must stop violation of Human Rights in the organization and respect freedom of speech for their opponents. We urge Canada to take the treat of MEK against Canadian principal seriously.

Pars – Iran June 22, 2007 Press Release June 22, 2007

Canada, June 22, 2007

June 25, 2007 0 comments