Former members of the MEK

MKO former members

The speech delivered by Mr. Sobhani to the European Parliament

Transcription of the speech delivered by Mr. Sobhani to the European Parliament

Explanation:

In an assembly held on March 27, 2007 at the invitation of the European Parliament in Brussels, the topic of "maintaining the Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organisation (MKO) in the list of proscribed terrorist groups after the verdict of the Luxembourg Court" was discussed. The assembly was chaired by Ms Angelika Beer, the member of the European Parliament responsible on the Iranian affairs. In this Assembly more than 70 individuals including members of the EP, particularly from the Green Party, experts on the issue of terrorism, and journalists were present. Groups of former members of the MKO who represented some human rights and anti-cult and anti-terrorism societies and centres were also present in this assembly.

Mohammad Hossein Sobhani:

I salute the respected ladies and gentlemen here. I particularly wish to thank Ms Angelika Beer the respected chairperson of the assembly. I also thank Senator Josie Doubiee for his valuable speech on the MKO. I am most pleased to be present in your assembly and I will try to use the limited time that I have to describe my bitter experiences during three decades of my activities and cooperation with the MKO as well as my research on this religious cult. My past organisational position in the MKO is quite clear according to the organisation’s publications and documents. I was a member of the central council of the organisation; therefore I am presenting my own experiences of my close involvement inside the organisation. I have gained these bitter experiences through much suffering and pain. I spent more than eight years “ I emphasise more than eight years “ in the solitary confinement of the MKO in Ashraf Camp since I criticised the strategy of armed struggle and terrorism and cooperating with Saddam Hussein. The related documents have been published in Mojahed publication No. 592 dated August 2002; you can see the actual publication here. According to this document, the MKO has published my handwriting which they forced me to write under torture. This of course is my handwriting, but as I explained, I was forced to write it under torture. According to this letter in my handwriting which has been published in Mojahed, the weekly publication of the MKO, No. 592, page 3, I was jailed in solitary confinement in Ashraf Camp on September 1992. Then after eight years, by the order of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi the leaders of the religious sect, I was submitted to Saddam Hussein’s intelligence and security prison in Baghdad. I was in that prison for 35 days and then I was transferred to Abu-Ghraib prison in which I remained for one year. What I am unfolding now are not just my own experiences and are not just those which were imposed on me. There are a number of individuals in this assembly who were also subjected to violations of human rights and there are many others who could not appear in this session. Therefore I must declare that Ms Angelika Beer’s valuable speech based on the report given by Human Rights Watch is a drop in the ocean of the violation of human rights in the MKO religious sect. I have been invited to this assembly and I deliver my speech here as an expert and researcher on the MKO affairs. If there was a session to speak about the violation of human rights in Iran, I would naturally speak about that subject.

The point I wish to bring up is the fact that the MKO claims they have not attempted any armed or terrorist operation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The organisation has therefore presented this to the Luxembourg Court as evidence to require its name be extracted from the list of terrorist groups issued by the EU. Nevertheless it is well clear that when the former dictator of Iraq was toppled, the organisation had no backup of arms and ammunitions to carry on any sabotage activities. Therefore the matter brought forward by the MKO that they have not committed any terrorist activities since the invasion of Iraq, by no means proves that the organisation has ruled out the idea of armed struggle. The MKO is based on a deep cultic ideology which was well shown in the speech delivered by Senator Josie Doubiee and I along with my colleagues have witnessed these matters very closely. The position of the leader in the organisation is such that he must be totally praised. Several times a day, in the mornings at noon and in the afternoons, the slogan of salute to Rajavi must be shouted loudly in special ceremonies and this is repeated everyday. I would like to ask those who support the MKO, and I am glad that they are present here at the moment; would a liberal or democrat individual submit to the self invented rule of abandoning marriage? Why is the marriage of men and women forbidden in the organisation and why is the punishment for adultery the death sentence? Why was Ali-Naqi Haddadi executed on this charge? Why have many discontented members of the organisation been jailed in Abu-Ghraib prison? An organisation which violates human rights within its own establishment could not call for democracy and claim to be striving for it. The MKO, falsely, I emphasise falsely, claimed after the verdict given by the Luxembourg Court on 12th of December, particularly in Ashraf Camp, that the name of the organisation has been removed from the EU list of terrorist groups. Referring to the explanation given by Mr Passau as one of the legal counsellors of EP in this assembly, such claims are baseless and not true. I draw the attention of those who support the MKO (Mr Sobhani was referring to Mr Paulo Casaca MEP from Portugal) and other participant in this session to an interesting point. You are now seeing a publication which belongs to the MKO and it is its official organ. In the emblem of the MKO a Kalashnikov firearm appears as a symbol of armed struggle. If the MKO is serious about ruling out terrorism and the use of violence, why do they not change this emblem and remove the sign of violence and terror?

Since my time is very short and Ms Angelika Beer has already spoken relating to this matter, I wish to pay my gratitude to the Council of the Ministers of Economy and Finance of the EU which issued a declaration relating to the EU Court verdict and emphasized that the MKO is a terrorist group. I also wish to draw the attention of MEPs to the very fact that since the MKO is a terrorist group with deep cultic structure, we should not neglect them due to the problems with the Islamic Republic. This would be in contradiction with the primary principles of human rights and democracy. One should bear in mind that the MKO has a record of assassination of Americans in Iran in the era of Shah and has carried out hundreds of street clashes and assassinations during the rule of Islamic Republic. They have also killed many of their own discontented members both before and after the revolution. Therefore my colleagues and I, as persons who have illustrative experiences from this organisation could not easily accept that the MKO be removed from the list. Unless the leadership of the MKO, namely Mr Massoud Rajavi and Mrs Maryam Rajavi, bear their responsibility of more than two decades of bloodshed, armed struggle and terrorism which delayed the process of moving toward democracy in Iran. In this case there are International Courts which, naturally, would deal with the matter according to their own rules and regulations.

My time is over now, I am most grateful for your attention to my speech.

April 7, 2007 0 comments

I am a trained Islamic terrorist

In her neat home nestling in a quiet suburban street, mum Anne Singleton peers out from her cottage-style windows.

Her Audi sits in the driveway and beyond it she sees a neat row of cedar trees leading to a church in an open field.

It is a typical English scene . . . and a lifetime away from the hostile deserts of Iraq and the military training camps of the People’s Mujahidin of Iran. Though Anne also once called these home.

She was in the clutches of the terrorist organisation and ready to give her life ” and sacrifice the lives of the innocent ” in the name of a bloodthirsty war

Little more than a decade ago, Anne was learning how to fire rifles and gearing up to fight for the group backed by Saddam Hussein.

Then, she believed her comrades were fighting for freedom in Iran ” and that the deaths of innocent people were a justifiable means to an end.

But now the 48-year-old recognises the group for what it is ” a deadly, extremist terrorist organisation.

With growing numbers of British youngsters being recruited into terror cells, Anne hopes her story will act as a warning.

At her home in Leeds, she tells The Sun: “What happened to me could happen to anyone.

“These groups entice concerned activists then persuade them to commit terrorist atrocities.

“They convinced me to give up my life to follow them. Now I see their methods were identical to the ones cults use to brainwash people.”

Anne became involved with the extremists while studying English at Manchester University in 1979.

Her boyfriend at the time, an Iranian called Ali, was interested in the Mujahidin” a group formed in 1965 to free Iran from â€œcapitalism, imperialism, reactionary Islamic forces and despotism”.

Anne says:” I went along to Mujahidin meetings held in Manchester. In truth, I could not understand what the leader was saying in the videos we saw but I was transfixed.

“It all seemed so exciting. I thought, “I want to help them and do some good” so I decided to convert to being Muslim.”

Anne did not realise she was being psychologically manipulated.

She says now: â€œThey flatter you in a way that you don’t even realise they are doing it.

“They really put themselves on a pedestal so that when they want you to join them, you feel special.

“I thought I was a saviour of the world and would have done anything for the Mujahidin.”

In 1989 Anne moved to London to become more involved in Mujahidin activities, working in computing and PR for them.

The computer programmer says: “They told me I should dedicate myself totally to them and that they needed me.

“The following year, during a hunger strike, I succumbed fully.

“I took two weeks off work and by day three of not eating I felt like I was on a complete high.

“We were given tea and sugar to keep us going and I had entered a completely different state of mind.

“I was adamant that this was what I should do for the rest of my life.”

Anne has since discovered that hunger and sleep deprivation are classic cult recruiting techniques.

She says: “I didn’t question anything. I was shown a film of a female suicide bomber blowing up an ayatollah in Iran. It was horrific and very shocking at first.

“But they showed me the film so many times that I got less and less distressed. Eventually I didn’t bat an eyelid. Of course, I heard politicians and journalists describing the group as extreme but I dismissed it and assumed they didn’t understand.

“There were 30 or 40 of us living in a safe house and I was the only white person. I never left unless it was for fund-raising or a demo.

“We had no possessions and any money we earned or benefits we received had to be handed straight over to the group.

“We were discouraged from keeping in contact with any family or friends.”

Anne’s parents, an office administrator and a painter and decorator, insisted she gave them her address and they wrote to her regularly, but letters were often confiscated.

In 1992 Anne was asked to go to the Iraqi desert for military training.

She says: “I loved the camp. It felt liberating to obey orders because then you lose all responsibility for yourself. I had a uniform, did assault courses, learned how to drive trucks and did firearms training.

“When I signed up to the Mujahidin I never imagined I would do that, but once I was there it seemed totally normal.”

After three months Anne was sent to Sweden to carry on with the PR work. But she became depressed after the group introduced a new rule banning marriages and families.

Anne says: “That rule seemed too final. I knew a family was the one other thing I wanted from life.

“To try to make me pull myself together they demoted me, sent me back to London and gave me less responsibility.

“It was reverse psychology, but I was so depressed that even that didn’t work.

“I’d lost all motivation. They tried to make me feel guilty, saying I was letting them and God down.

“By 1993 I knew I wanted to distance myself from the group so I began to work part-time again as a college administrator.”

Anne was finally ready to leave ” but the Mujahidin wouldn’t let her go easily. She says: â€œThey tried to make me frightened of the outside world, saying it was dangerous. They said I’d end up living an immoral life or get sucked into drugs or crime if I abandoned the values of the Mujahidin.”

Around this time Anne met Massoud Khodabandeh, a senior and disillusioned member of the group who had also decided to leave.

They went their separate ways but met again and married in 1997. Three years later they had a son.

Anne says: “We are both Muslim but after we left the Mujahidin we would go out and get drunk just to be “normal”. Being able to think for yourself was amazing.

“We were like little kids doing things like going to the supermarket and choosing our own food. We discussed what we’d been through and I had no doubt we were psychologically manipulated. We’re fortunate we have each other to lean on.”

Anne feels it is only since the birth of son Babak, now six, that she truly feels like her old self.

“His birth made me pull myself together and we moved to Leeds shortly afterwards,” she says. “My family live there and after years apart it was great to be close again.”

The couple are now in a group called Iran Interlink, which campaigns AGAINST terrorist cells.

Anne says: “When I joined the Mujahidin I never had any intention of fighting. But by the end I thought it was OK to kill and assassinate.

â€œI thought it was right that people would die on suicide missions. I’m appalled at that now.

“France and Germany have ministers for cults and I think we need the same here.

“People are free to do what they like virtually until they reach the point of blowing someone up.

“The Government needs to look at terrorism from the angle of recruitment. People have a civilian mind where they know it is wrong to fire a gun and hurt someone. You have to be trained to kill and that is what’s happening in these groups.

“Psychological manipulation can happen to anyone at any time.

“If you’re lucky, you end up with a timeshare. If you’re unlucky you end up blowing yourself and innocent people up on the Tube.”

The Sun

By SAMANTHA WOSTEAR

March 02, 2007

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,11000-2007100090,00.html

March 12, 2007 0 comments

Ann Singleton Former members of the MEK

BBC world interview with Anne Singleton and Gordon Corera

BBC world interview with Anne Singleton and Gordon Corera about Mojahedin Khalq

Anne Singleton

Back in the early 1980s, Anne Singleton was a rebel with a romantic streak, entranced by the selflessness, as she saw it, of a group of Iranians who were trying to bring democracy and a secular government to their country. The People’s Mujahideen, as they were known, had helped to overthrow the Shah but had been rejected by Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers and were allowed to seek refuge in Irag by Saddam Hussein. Anne met some of their members through a boyfriend in the north of England where she lived, and eventually joined them. Only later did she realise their true nature and she spent the next three years trying to escape their clutches. She is now trying to help other members who want to escape. Outlook hears Anne’s story and Heather Payton also speaks to the BBC’s Security Correspondent, Gordon Corera.

Link to outlook/BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/outlook.shtml

Listen to the interview:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/worldservice/meta/tx/outlook_fri?nbram=1&nbwm=1&size=au&lang=en-ws&bgc=003399

February 7, 2007 0 comments

Ann Singleton Former members of the MEK

‘How I was brainwashed by the Tank Girls’

Anne Singleton said ordinary British Muslims were increasingly vulnerable to recruitment by extremists

A white British woman who was sucked into an extremist Muslim terror group warned yesterday of the dangers of”brainwashing”by radical groups operating in the .

Anne Singleton said ordinary British Muslims were increasingly vulnerable to recruitment by extremists, who use psychological tricks to turn them into unquestioning followers prepared to carry out atrocities for their cause.

The 48-year-old mother of one, who lives in Leeds, became involved with fanatics while studying at Manchester University in the 1970s.

Her boyfriend at the time, an Iranian called Ali, was interested in a radical group known as the People’s Mujahideen of Iran, or MKO, which was formed a decade earlier and aimed to free from “capitalism, imperialism, reactionary Islamic forces and despotism.

Today Miss Singleton recalls with horror how the group, which is based in Iraq and wants to overthrow Iran’s current regime, was able to convince her to give up her life in the UK and travel abroad with them as a brainwashed slave.

Her indoctrination, conversion and submission to the MKO happened gradually over a period of ten years.

She now regards the group “ known as the”tank girls”because there are so many women in its ranks “ as a dangerous cult which uses psychological manipulation.

“I thought I was a saviour of the world and would have done anything for the Mujahideen. I worshipped those people. I thought they were of a higher order.”

In 1992, Miss Singleton was asked to go to for military training.

“I loved the camp and it felt liberating to obey orders, because you lose all responsibility for yourself,”she said.

But a year later she began to have doubts.

At this point she met her husband Massoud, another disillusioned MKO member, and in 1996 they made the decision to leave. It took them a further three years to break free.

Miss Singleton and her husband are involved in the campaign group Iran Interlink highlighting the dangers of groups such as the MKO.

She works as a computer programmer while raising her six-year-old son.

Yesterday, she warned that many British Muslims are at risk of suffering the same brainwashing as she did.

“Look at the young men in West Yorkshire who are being targeted by the terrorist organisations.

“Psychological manipulation can happen to anyone, any time. If you’re lucky you end up with a timeshare. If you’re unlucky you end up blowing up yourself and innocent people on the Tube.”

February 5, 2007 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

People’s Mujahedin;Another Iranian Fanatism

After the Islamic revolution of Ayatollah Khomeiny Mujahedin Khalq Organization fled to Iraq. On the pretext of fighting for Democracy, they made a bizarre world controlled by the hatred for Islamic Republic. A narrative by the defectors of MKO.

While his arrest, Babak Amin couldn’t swallow his cyanide capsule. The Iranian police surprised him by catching his neck from behind so that he couldn’t swallow the capsule and a hand went into his mouth to get out the deadly poison while he was walking around Vanak Square in Tehran. The unit is specially trained for this kind of operation: catching the MKO members. However a medical team, who accompanied the police in such an operation, owns the necessary antitoxin. Therefore four of his comrades who succeeded to swallow the cyanide were also rescued.

Babak Amin was arrested in January 2001. He had arrived from Iraq and had operated some mortar attacks against security centers which were the last attempts of MKO, present all over the Europe, in Iran.

Horror and Science “Fiction

While his attempts, Babak Amin didn’t succeed to kill anyone which caused him be safe from death penalty. He was sentenced to a ten-year imprisonment of which he has passed five years and now he is enjoying the conditional freedom. This 40-year old defector who is studying Informatics at Tehran University narrates his 20-year experience of living in MKO as a commandant. A terrifying story which mixes horror and science fiction. Therefore one find a world, governed by an insane Utopia that, with hatred to Islamic Republic, inverse the values. An example of this inversion can be seen in their military branch (National Liberation Army) by the domination of women over men. The male fighters with some exceptions include the sub-officers or simple soldiers who have to wash the dished or do the laundry.

Al this doesn’t prevent the strict isolation which manages the Iraqi headquarters of MKO extremely. Definitely the restaurants are separated. There are distinctive gas stations for the men and women do not encounter – "if one has to talk to his female commandant ,four or five other people must also be present " Babak Says " only the men are allowed to swim in the pool but on the condition that they are totally dressed.

Babak entered the MKO in 1983 while living in Vienne. The Organization was formed in 1965 and played an active role in fighting against Shah who executed all the historical leader of MKO except Masud Rajavi. Professing an Islam without ayatollahs mixed with Marxism, MKO refused to submit to regime which cost them to be evaluated as apostate and insurgent by Imam Khomeini. Regarding the Western "Useful Idiots" MKO has a rusty message in which the promise of establishing democracy in Iran is included.

But what made Babak to step inside the Organization, he explains with a voice without passion;" were the photos of political prisoners tortured by Islamic regime shown to him”

With five other people, Babak set out for Iraq where MKO who was allied with Saddam Hussein fighting against Iran, had settled its bases.

Babak and 300 Iranian students who had come from all over the world received an intensive military training at Camp Jalil in Iraqi Kurdistan. The objective is to form the groups made of two or three fighters who then had to infiltrate into Iran border; then it was the time for a long time residency in Camp Ashraf, the central headquarter located at 60 kilometers from Baqdad. Ashraf itself is another world, a world outside the world that Babak found out. "A society completely closed in itself. Receiving letters or phone calls are forbidden, you don’t have the right to leave the base except for medical reasons or sometimes shopping."

The absolute control of thoughts

1989,the imprisonment became harder since the previous year was the final year of Iran-Iraq war and in the aftermath of the cease-fire MKO defeated in its vast invasion to Iran through Iraqi borders. The invasion was named "Eternal Light"; Mujahedin succeeded to enter Iran borders but they were forced to retreat with heavy damages and the promise made by Masud Rajavi and his wife Maryam ( who lives in Ouver-Sur-d’Oise, Paris) based on the uprising of the Iranian people, failed to occur.

"They told us: you didn’t fight hard, so you defeated"

The absolute control of thoughts started; marriage became forbidden and divorce obligatory even if the spouse lived in Iran. The rings should have gotten out of fingers. In your mind, you must forget the existence of women. Everyday, there were meetings in which we had to explain to our commandant, anything passed in our minds beginning with sexual things. All this was noted in a report which was used against you in case of necessity especially when you were willing to leave the MKO. This caused you to think that everyone is a sensualist. You weren’t anything anymore, even deep in your mind." The rare amusement included watching films of war." They were censured, of course, but after watching them, you also had to say anything you felt."

Behrouz Soltani, also aged 40 years, says the same thing and adds: "so as, when I arrived Iran, I had strange sexual thoughts even about my sister." He became a member of MKO due to Iran- Iraq war. He was old member of Basij who was captured by Iraqi forces in Basra in 1982. He was only 15. "In POW camp, they asked me if I want to be liberated I said yes, then they took me to Camp Ashraf. There they proposed to me to join Rajavi or spend eight years at Abu Qoraib prison (the terrifying prison of Saddam Hussein).In spring 2001, among Mujahedin Behrouz became a supply soldier of Iraqi Army especially against Kurds. Soltani is not pleased for what he did in Iran borders:" we killed a lot of Kurds, the officials told us that they were Iranians but because of their clothes, we could see that they were definitely lying".

I witnessed that our tanks passed over the dead bodies just for fun. We arrested the Kurdish families who with white flags came to Iraq and delivered them, men women and children, to Iraqi Intelligence Service." he continues:"It is normal to kill the armed combatant but not the innocent civilians. We just couldn’t say anything. To understand it, you should go interior the organization. Any individual, even in the prison, owns an identify but we were nothing, the Iraqis called us " Rajavi’s men". Personally, I hoped they would kill me so that I shouldn’t be obliged to attend the nightly inquiry meetings. In that condition there was no pity for no one. They don’t let you love anyone."

Hura Shalchi, 35, joined MKO when she was 24.Mujahedin forced her to divorce and separated her from her four”year old daughter. Hura succeeded in her first mission but while the second mission when she had to commit a mortar attack against a revolution guard’s base in Tehran, she was arrested." While returning to Iraq, the person who was supposed to guide her through the border handed her to police." He did this under the order of MKO leaders. I found out that they don’t want the ones who go for mission get back any more since they fear that anything is told about Iran’s today condition because there were no similarity between what we had seen and what they had told us." Hura who was sentenced to life imprisonment, only spent one and a half years in the prison and now she is free under the juridical control.

"When she was arrested, one of her comrades recalls, our chiefs made us believe that she has been killed and all Ashraf Campers celebrated her martyrdom." They prefer viewing her as a martyr because they can also exploit her blood." Behrouz Soltani adds.

Under American Protection

Today, Camp Ashraf incorporates 3000 men and women who are under the control of Mojgan Parsaiee. The difference from Saddam Hussein’s era is that now the camp is under the protection of Americans who have disarmed the group and defend it against the Shiite pro-Iranian groups. However the Department of State has listed MKO as a FTO, Pentagon is applying a flexible policy toward the organization, and making profit of their information on Iran doesn’t hesitate to use them against Islamic Regime. However, the Americans haven’t prevented the individuals coming out of the camp and going to Iran what Naser,49,did recently. He was a member of MKO for twenty years." Due to my political activities, he says, I passed four years in Iranian prison. When I came out, there was no place for me in the society. Therefore I joined them. With them, I wanted to liberate my people."

Once he was out of Ashraf, he passed three months at American Camp Tiff." The Americans knew everything about us. In that camp we were like refugees, but they treated us brutally. They don’t respect you except if you serve them. If we protested, they would beat us." He affirms.

For a long time, only membership of MKO could make you be executed, and thousand of fighters paid the price by their lives. Today, Regime has completely changed its policy and if a crime hasn’t been committed, they are welcomed by regime. They are even allowed to have a small association where they employ themselves in order to extract those who are still in Iraq. Today they learned about the suicide of Yasser Akbari Nasab, one of their friends at Camp Ashraf. The Organization is not any more the phantom that was in 1989’s for Iran. "If the Mujahedin leave Iraq, they will be finished for ever." says Babak. Waiting for that time, the organization stays rich and influential in Europe. It has also received an important victory in front of European justice that annulled the freezing of MKO’s funds estimated to be several million Euros, which were blocked since 2002. The defectors, who victimized their youth in MKO, didn’t join the Islamic regime though. Since then we detest any politic." says Hura Shalchi.

Liberation-France – Jean-Pierre Perrin – January 3rd, 2007

February 3, 2007 0 comments

Ann Singleton Former members of the MEK

My years of slavery with the terrorists

Anne Singleton grew up in an unremarkable Yorkshire family, but by her early 20s she was a member of a terrorist organisation recruiting suicide bombers in Iraq. Billy Briggs reports.

IN 1992, Anne Singleton was in the Iraqi desert being trained to fire a Kalashnikov rifle by the People’s Mujahedin of Iran. It was a year after the first Gulf War and Anne was a member of an organisation intent on overthrowing the Iranian government by force.

"I was in the desert wearing a military uniform and I had no passport and no money," she says. "I had never felt so free in my life. But the irony was that I was in a state of modern slavery. I was mentally chained to the Mujahedin."

Sitting in her Leeds home 15 years later, the 48-year-old wants to make her past public in the hope it acts as a stark warning that recruitment to an organisation proscribed as a terrorist movement by the European Union, America and Canada, is something that could happen to anyone.

In the present climate, with radical terrorist cells and cults active in the UK, Anne is campaigning to raise awareness of how extremist groups manipulate people.

Her life now, living in a three-bedroom semi as a computer programmer and being a mother to a six-year-old-son, could not be further removed from a previous existence where she prepared for war and accepted the deaths of innocent people as a justifiable means to an end.

"I thought I was a saviour of the world and would have done anything for the Mujahedin. I worshipped those people," says Anne, whose involvement with fanatical extremists began when she moved from Yorkshire to study English at Manchester University.

Her boyfriend at that time, an Iranian called Ali, was interested in the Mujahedin, and Anne became intrigued by the movement’s opposition to the regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini after the 1979 revolution.

"Manchester Uni was very political and I went along to Mujahedin meetings," she says. "In truth, I could not even understand what the leader was saying in the videos but I was utterly transfixed."

The Mujahedin was formed in 1965 to free Iran from "capitalism, imperialism, reactionary Islamic forces and despotism" and by the early 1970s, it had embarked on an armed struggle and later sought refuge in Iraq, fighting with Saddam Hussein against the Iranian government.

Anne’s indoctrination, conversion and submission to the organisation was something that happened gradually over a period of about 10 years, the subtle influence of Anne’s Mujahedin peers eventually leading her away from her job, friends and family.

She views the Mujahedin now as a cult and says their methods of psychological manipulation are tried and tested and used by many other groups around the world, even similar to some tactics employed by salesmen to sell timeshares.

"It takes a long time and they are very clever and use peer pressure," she says. "They implement subliminal messages. They use mind control techniques. They got me to submit to a higher order, their leader.

"They got me to make financial commitments. I used to ask all my friends and family to donate money to various causes that were all blatant lies.

"They replace your family, your relationships and get you to reject all your old values."

In 1985, Massoud Rajavi became the Mujahedin leader, transforming the movement, Anne says, from a being a political group into a cult.

He married a woman called Maryam, whose role was to encourage women to break away from male control, and Anne began spending all of her spare time looking after members’ children, cooking, listening to their poetry and revolutionary music.

"I thought they were people of a higher order," says Anne, who was utterly convinced she was part of a noble, armed struggle. She even had posters of martyrs, suicide bombers and women with guns adorning her walls.

In 1989, Anne split with Ali, who wanted nothing more to do with the movement, and she moved to London to become more involved in Mujahedin activities.

During this period, she got involved with activists at a safe house in Finchley and, when the UN Human Rights Rapporteur visited Iran in l990, they all went on hunger strike to apply pressure on him to question the Iranian government about the nation’s Mujahedin prisoners.

"I was as high as a kite on hunger strike and I felt superhuman as if I had transcended normal humanity," she says. "Shortly afterwards I walked out on my job and went full-time with the movement.

"I didn’t question anything. I was shown a film of a female suicide bomber blowing up an ayatollah in Iran. It was horrific, and very shocking, at first, but I was shown the film many times, and each time I was less distressed. Eventually, I didn’t bat an eyelid,"

By this time Anne barely saw her parents and she had ditched all her friends. She had even publicly burned the diaries she had kept since childhood, as a symbolic rejection of her past.

"If the leader had said ‘kill yourself’, I would have killed myself," she says.

In l992, Anne was asked to go to Iraq for some military training. As a member of an armed struggle, she knew this might be required and did not resist, even relinquishing her passport to the Mujahedin when she arrived in the desert.

"You have no human rights, no nationality, you are simply a Mujahed," she says.

"I loved the camp and it felt liberating to obey orders, because you lose all responsibility for yourself. I felt like a child and thought if I put all my trust in their hands, I would be okay," Anne says.

But in 1993 Anne started to have doubts about the movement after all members were told that marriage was banned and all couples must get divorced. At this time she met her current husband Massoud, another disillusioned member, and in 1996 they made the decision to leave.

With the Mujahedin in constant contact, initially it was extremely difficult for them to adapt back into society and it took three years to make a complete break and fully recover from their ordeal.

"We are both Muslims, but after we left, we would even go out and get drunk just to be ‘normal’," she says. "Being able to think for yourself again was amazing, and we were like little kids doing things like going to the supermarket and choosing our own food."

In 1999, Anne and Massoud discovered literature from the Cult Information Centre and discovered that the psychological coercion techniques used by the Mujahedin were methods all recognised and listed, and together, they now campaign to warn others that anyone is vulnerable to these groups

"Look at the young men in West Yorkshire who are being targeted by the terrorist organisations," she says.

"People across the UK must be asking what is wrong with the people in West Yorkshire. There is nothing wrong with the people here, it is just that the extremists are out there recruiting in the locality, using the same tried and tested methods used by the Mujahedin and the many other disparate cults and movements active around the world.

"Psychological manipulation can happen to anyone, any time. If you’re lucky, you end up with a timeshare.

"If you’re unlucky you end up blowing yourself and innocent people up on the Tube."

Yorkshire post, January 31 2007

http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=105&ArticleID=2009152

February 1, 2007 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Sunday Herald prints Mojahedin lies “ Jamshid Tafrishi responds

Below is a letter of complaint to the Sunday Herald newspaper by Jamshid Tafrishi. Tafrishi was once a member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq, and joined the National Liberation Army in . But soon rejected the organisation and became an outspoken critic.

Since he left, the Mojahedin have been misusing his name over the past years in every possible way, publishing articles on their websites (Iranfocus, Iranterror and PauloCasaca.net) which are their version of his views, but never publishing any direct response from him. In this way the MKO has variously claimed that Tafrishi ‘admitted’ working for the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, then ‘admitted’ to be working for the MKO and etc, without any direct word from Mr Tafrishi himself.

Recently, the Mojahedin told journalists that Tafrishi had written a letter to a court in the supporting their claims. For the first time an independent newspaper, the Sunday Herald, has printed the lies broadcast by the Mojahedin and Mr Tafrishi has taken the opportunity to clear his name by writing the following letter to the Editor, Mr Richard Walker.

Dear Sir,

It appears that the proscribed terrorist organisation, Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MKO) which is on the list of terrorist organisations in US, , European Union, and the rest of the free world has published an article in your weekly publication and repeated its contents throughout its various official and clandestine websites.

The Mojahedin Organisation has made false allegations against me and I would like you to publish my response to their lies in the same page and column according to the usual rights considered by publications. I reserve my right to pursue legal avenues in the against this proscribed terrorist organisation as well as any provider for them.

The terrorist Mojahedin Organisation has falsely claimed that I have written a letter to a court in the (of course without even mentioning what and where andâ€¦) and have made further comments on this.

I have been, and I am declaring again, that from 1991 when I left Mojahedin Khalq Organisation and exposed the true terrorist nature of this cult, I have been under attack by the Mojahedin Khalq wherever possible by them.

From 1991 I have tried to take the mask off the face of this organisation. I have written hundreds of letters to many officials including United Nations officials, sub-commissions of the UN, various humanitarian organisations and even the US State Department and the US Congress. I have been one of the witnesses testifying to the massacre of Iraqi Kurds by the Mojahedin Khalq under direct order of Saddam Hussein. I testified in the United Nations Minorities Rights Commission which resulted in the Commission’s acknowledgment and condemnation of their crimes.

My testimonies, together with tens of other testimonies from the people who had survived the cult, along with other documents presented to the world, resulted in worldwide condemnation of the Mojahedin Khalq, and the US, UK, European Union and Canada have entered its name â€“ and its aliases – in their lists of proscribed terrorist organisations.

Therefore, claiming that I have written such a letter as is referred to in your weekly publication in the words of a terrorist organisation is as ridiculous and false as their claim that they would have any minor support in the Iranian community inside or outside Iran, or representing themselves as an alternative to the ruling regime of Iran.

The charlatanism and mafia like tactics used by this terrorist cult are self-explanatory. It is not the first time they have used these criminal tactics to discredit their critics.

I have instructed my lawyers to investigate the false allegations published in your paper and the source of the claim that I have written a letter to a court. I will follow every legal avenue according to my lawyers’ advice. This is yet another fraud committed by the Rajavi cult (MKO) which should be exposed.

But it is worth mentioning the reasons behind such a desperate attempt by Rajavi and his terrorist cult. Is this not because of the panic after the death of their benefactor Saddam Hussein? Of course the other interpretation of this obvious lie in the middle of daylight would be that the Rajavis have lost their minds completely due to the heat after the fall of their benefactor.

It is clearly very regrettable to see that the Sunday Herald publication has mentioned the name of this proscribed terrorist cult which is hated by every Iranian inside and outside for their war crimes and crimes against humanity under Saddam Hussein, as a “Democratic Alternative”.

Finally, I would propose that I meet with your papers’ representatives so as to expose and refute all the lies which have been published in your paper under the influence of this terrorist organisation and deny publicly all the false quotes alleged on my behalf.

Jamshid Tafrishi,

E mail : jam_taf@hotmail.com

Jamshid Tafrishi, January 22, 2007

January 25, 2007 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

On the daring return of Fariba Hashtroudi to Iran

In his struggle to live on, man must preserve his honor; otherwise, he would be nothing more than a walking corpse.

The big words are not always uttered be great men. The anonymous and the less-known people can also, because of the experience they have gained, speak big words. That is the outcome of the past experiences of a man who has preserved his intellectual freedom and independence in the face of any sanctimony and quasi ideals and causes. I think the age of slavery, in any form, is nearing its last days. The few who unquestionably succumb to any title and motives of any purpose, could be possibly believing in things inferior to man’s reason and intellect and his historical experiences. These few fellows, I believe, have unknowingly been decomposed, while holding onto humanity, idealism and ideology, in the cycle of the modern slavery. So grave is the tragedy that I can hardly conceal my delight when someone in bond is unbound as a result of test and error. Moreover, this time the unbound is someone who I could hardly be convinced, from the very beginning, to be subject to entrapment. Now I am relieved of many suppositions surging inside me, and I feel relaxed to write happily.

Mrs. Hashtroudi, it might be hard for you to found somebody you hardly know talking so enthusiastically. The fact is that on account of your social status and familial background, it could not be so strange a thing. Your detachment from the NCRI, or better to say Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), as well as your unexpected return to Iran are two coincident daring acts that deserve appreciation. You deserve it first for renting asunder the bonds and then for courageous return to Iran, a quest not made to overcome the phobia the people’s quasi-opposition had inspired you with but to prevail over all the possible impeachments and accusations expected form the so-called democratic alternative called the NCRI and which you have to sustain patiently.

Instead of praising the victims that are readily led onto the cult of Mojahedinâ€™s abattoir and ridicule the death by self-immolation and deeply bruising people, I take my hat off to admire your courageous deed and the price you have to pay for your freedom and recognition of the truth.

I do not know, as a member of the opposition, how my claim is esteemed that the opposition insisting to be accounted as the Iranians popular and legitimate alternative is the most incognizant of Iran’s social and political ambience among all contemporary political oppositions. Your journey to Iran and close inspection of the current political atmosphere and people’s want on the one hand and people’s real stance about the claimed alternative on the other hand can at least lead us out of the possible disillusions we might be caught in and open a new window for a better recognition of the truth. The dark and desperate picture of Iran depicted in our minds in the Western countries and the charlatanism that propagates to demonize it has blurred our vision to see the truth. No Iranian in any position, critics or opponents, is invulnerable to the political and media offences of this charlatanism.

You are, for certain, aware that this democratic alternative, under the illusion that no opposition but itself has the right to breathe, caused a commotion over Shohre Aghdashloo, the Iranian actress residing in the US, who announced her willingness to return to Iran regardless of being compelled to wear veiled costume in her own country. She was offended and her patriotism was questioned and Mojahedin tried to instigate the Iranian artists in exile against her. Fortunately, to the group’s great disappointment, none but three associates of the NCRI signed an issued statement.

All these were plotted against a woman who had actually nothing to do with politics and the alternative. Her sole love was cinema and play as well as writing. Of course, there can be found many of her example whose repute was blemished by the democratic alternative on baseless accusations.

Your feat is much more courageous than that of those who commit self-immolation to sacrifice themselves before the imposters of political and propagandistic activities.

Mrs. Hashtroudi, no doubt, your presence in Iran would promote us here in the West, who knowingly or unknowingly are desperately entrapped among the political charlatans, to picture a clear and true image of Iran. We believe you, because of your political status, can ply a decisive role to disillusion the opposition. It is a shame on the masters of the great media and technological revolution that victimize the truth for the interest of political superiority. That is also true of this opposition that to assume political power, creeps deep to worsen the international rifts to give rise to another Iraq in the region.

I assume that one of the main causes of your detachment was that you were cognizant of the aftermath of possible militarism predominance in the region at the cost of millions of innocent lives. You know well that the NCRI and MKO attempt to silence voices of resisting any military offence against Iran and to isolate the aware consciences by the raised communicative club of labeling them the paid agents and mercenaries of Iran. Mojahedin believe that the antithesis of any phenomenon inevitably emerges out of the same phenomenon. If true, now you can act as Mojahedin’s antithesis and echo the true face of Iran as you see it. Once more I admire your courageous option of becoming the target of the Council and Mojahedin’s offences and hope that your honest evaluation based on reason and political intellect concerns the national interests. Wish you good days in Iran.

M. Taymorian, Germany

M_Taymorian@yahoo.com

Mojahedin.ws

January 18, 2007 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

An Unexpect Trip Disarrays the MEK Headquarters

The trip of Ms. Fariba Hashtroodi* to Iran and her meeting with the representatives of Habilian Association and Mr. Ibrahim Khodabandeh has overwhelmed MKO members and leaders in their headquarters in France.

People close the MKO report of disappointment of members of this organization, particularly the members of Council.

That’s why the MKO has made so much noise by its forces- through taking position against Ms. Hashtroodi.

In recent months, the cases on defection of several MKO supporters and old sympathizers as well as MKO members and their departure from Auvers have been on Maryam Rajavi’s desk.

The issue of the European-based MKO members’ differences with the group has forced the Gestapo of this terrorist organization to take measures to control the situation; however, Ms. Hashtroodi’s trip to Iran thwarted these measures and accelerated the process of defection so that some people have left the Camp in Auvers in recent days.

In the process of defection, most of focus is on the situation in Camp Ashraf, since the MKO officials there in the Camp are watching the members individually to prevent them from going to the US-run Camp (TIPF). However, the situation in Auvers is not better than that of Ashraf, especially now that MKO leaders are not able to send dissidents to Iraq to control them in better way.

————————————————————–

* Ms. Hashtroodi was formerly a senior member of NCRI

January 18, 2007 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Laur de Charette Interviewed Mr. Ali Moradi

“We even didn’t have the courage to think any more”

Ali Moradi, an Iranian aged 47, the ex-member of PMOI for 15 years, explains his tragic experiences.

Laure de Charette: How did you join the organization?

Ali Moradi: I spent nine years in Saddam Hussein’s prison. You can’t imagine how they treated me. I was captured as a war prisoner while I was fighting in Iran army. Mojahedin had a TV network which was broadcasted in prison. All day long they just said:”join us then we will send you to Europe in two years.”

The war was finished but I was still in prison. Therefore I delivered my self to MKO finally. Due to the terrible situation of the prison I joined MKO avidly.

– So you became an organization’s member heartily?

– Yes, but as soon as I arrived Camp Ashraf, I understood that their propaganda was nothing except pure lie.

They had the freedom flag in their hand but they revolted against freedom. They themselves violated the human rights. They said:”outside our camp the people are starving from hunger or addiction. The people are hung and their heads are hung of the trees”.

Any one who tried to escape the organization was delivered to Abu Qoraib in case of being arrested. The life there was evil.

– What was your routine program there?

-We were practicing physical training from 5 pm to 10 am; they scheduled every moment of our lives without consulting us. We were either receiving military training or operating recognition operation or patrolling in Iranian borders. The works were so superior to our power that we had no energy to even think about any thing.Now I am resorting to studying in order to forget that period.

– How was your relationship with other Mojahedins?

– We were allegedly friends but we even weren’t allowed to talk to each other. The report of our behavior was sent to our high ranking officials immediately, the system of the organization was very police-like.

-why did you wait 15 years for evasion?

– The visit I had with my family changed everything. After the fall of Saddam Hussein my brothers could come to Iraq to visit me. They brought me some pictures and gifts and told me that life outside is very different from here. My spirit evaluated gradually. The US forces encircled Camp Ashraf last year, so I used the opportunity and escaped.

20 minutes website

January 14, 2007 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts