Terrorist groups and the MEK

Kurds Boycotted UANI MEK Gathering

Pompeo to speak at Iran opposition event snubbed by Kurds

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran’s Kurdish parties say they will not take part in a conference allegedly organized by the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) on the fringes of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday because the Kurdish question in Iran is not a key part of the agenda.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to speak at the event fronted by Iran hawk and former diplomat Mark Wallace, according to The Washington Post.

The US State Department considered MEK a terrorist organization until it was de-listed in 2012.
With the help of a powerful lobby in the US establishment, MEK has sought to present itself as the official opposition to the Iranian regime.
Confusion over who actually organized the event, and the belief that Kurdish issues have been left off the agenda, led Kurdish parties in Iran to decline invitations.

“The Cooperation Center of Iranian Kurdistan Political Parties is informing the public that after subjective interpretations from all the parties, we agreed not to take part in the conference set be held on September 24 under ‘The Future Iran’ in New York,” a joint statement from the parties read.
The cooperation centre was formed by five Iranian Kurdish parties to better coordinate their activities. The Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran (PDK-I), Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), and two branches of the left-wing Komala party are among its members.
Salih Sharifi, spokesperson of the cooperation center, told Rudaw: “The Kurdish movement has its weight among the Iranian oppositions and it should be the case when it comes to taking part in such conferences.”
“But in the agenda of the New York conference, the weight and position of Kurds is unclear to us,” he said.
According to the official organizers of the conference, invitations were sent to Kurdish opposition groups a few months ago.
“It is even unclear which side sent the invitations, nor did it say which parties were to attend,” he added.
According to media reports, the controversial MEK group is said to be the main organizer of the conference.

“Not all the opposition parties of Islamic Republic are attending the conference either,” Sharifi said.
MEK, which Tehran considers a terrorist organization, is an opposition party headquartered in Albania, with a presence in France and the US. The party advocates for regime change in Iran.
In 1981 the MEK formed an alliance with the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI). However, the KDPI left the alliance in April 1985 when its then-leader pursued talks with the regime regarding Kurdish autonomy. MEK said there should be no negotiation with the regime.
The group was listed as a terrorist organization for its role in the overthrow of the Western-backed government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and for its ties to the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
It has since been rehabilitated as an acceptable opposition movement, although critics have likened it to a cult.
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former senator Joseph I. Lieberman, and former Vermont governor Howard Dean have all spoken it its events.
Pompeo’s decision to speak at Tuesday’s gathering is another sign of establishment endorsement.
Tensions between Tehran and Washington have been increasingly fraught since May 2018 when US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the landmark 2015 nuclear accord and reimposed crippling economic sanctions.
Although Iranian Kurdish parties were not invited to a mid-February US-Poland conference in Warsaw, they called for unity among the Iranian opposition and urged the world to work with them if they want to contain the Islamic Republic’s destabilizing activities.
Kurdish groups such as the PDKI and PDK-I, Komala, and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)-affiliated Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) have been based in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region since 1992 and often engaging in sporadic military confrontations with Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the border areas.
Iran is worried the US, Israel, and their regional allies are using the Kurds against the regime in Tehran. However, Kurds have categorically rejected the claims, saying they fight for greater rights for their nation in the western part of the country, known as Rojhalat.

Zhelwan Z. Wali, Rudaw,

September 28, 2019 0 comment

Terrorist groups and the MEK

The Undeniable Potentials of the MKO to Commit Terrorism

Last week’s terrorist attack in Ahvaz again revealed the true history and terrorist background of MKO. The terrorist attack against innocent civilians killing 25 people including a four-year-old boy, was compared with the MKO-run mortar attacks and bombings in Iranian cities –the most recent one was launched by the MKO in Amanieh neighborhood in Ahvaz in 2001.

Although Alahvazieh and ISIS claimed responsibility for the last week attack, numerous reports assert that the MKO has coordinated the attack. The fact that the MKO has the capacity to commit terror acts was previously warned by the US State Department in 2012 just after it delisted the group from FTO list.

In the US State Department’s official statement published in September 2012, the reasoning for delisting the MKO was as follows:

“With today’s actions, the Department does not overlook or forget the MEK’s past acts of terrorism, including its involvement in the killing of U.S. citizens in Iran in the 1970s and an attack on U.S. soil in 1992. The Department also has serious concerns about the MEK as an organization, particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members.” [1]

However, certain US politicians have been the most passionate supporters of the MKO since they lost their Iraqi financial and military sponsor Saddam Hussein in 2003. Ty Joplin of Albawaba website argues the reasons for such an extensive support by western politicians. “The MEK, with its generous funding sources, has funneled millions of dollars to politicians since 2003, giving John Bolton at least $180,000 in one year alone, the man now in charge of forming Trump’s foreign policy doctrine,” he asserts. “They pay politicians as much as $50,000 to speak at its conferences, and give to both Democrats and Republicans; anyone who will publicly support them in exchange for donations.” [2]

According to Ty Joplin the money comes back to the MKO in a devil circulation between the US and Saudi Arabia who see the group as the enemy of their enemy Iran. “In return as well, the MEK has received tens of millions from the U.S. to build and maintain its current facility in Tirana via a donation to the U.N. Refugee Agency, and likely continues to enjoy support from Saudi Arabia,” he adds. [3]

Joplin cites the historian Ervand Abrahamian that the support for the MEK from countries like Saudi Arabia is just “Anything to needle Iran”. [4]

The Labenese journalist of Alahednews confirms Juplin’s hypotheses. Marwa Osman writes about Ahvaz terrorist attack, “The aggressors are a terrorist organization backed by Washington and Tel Aviv and funded by Saudi Arabia under the name of “Ahwazia”, an extremist ethnic terrorist organization that claims to defend the rights of Arab Iranians.” [5]

She quotes an Iranian researcher Dr. Mohamed Sadiq al-Husseini as writing that according to Iranian intelligence sources revealed that “the terrorist attack of Ahvaz city was conducted in coordination between the “People’s Mojahedin Organization” of Iran or the “Mojahedin-e Khalq” [MEK] and the “Ahwazia” an Arab-Iranian separatist group with alleged connections to Saudi Arabia, also known as the “Ahvaz National Resistance”. [6]

Marwa Osman denounces the US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about supporting the Iranian people as “void” and “devious” regarding his adviser Bolton’s support for the MKO. “These cultists are the people he’s talking about”, she write about the MKO. “When he talks about regime change in Iran, he thinks these are the people should take over.” [7]

Osman suggest that “Al-Saud Pay MEK’s Terrorism Bill”. According to Dr. Mohamed Sadiq al-Husseini:

1) The elements carrying out the armed terrorist attack on the military parade were trained in a Saudi camp southeast of Riyadh specialized for training members of the People’s Mujahideen MEK and other Iranian opposition groups.

2) The training is conducted by Jordanian and Saudi officers under the supervision of US Central Intelligence generals and “Israeli” generals.

3) All camp operations and needs are funded through the Saudi Ministry of Defense. The funding includes the transfer of Iranian elements from European countries, especially from Albania to the Saudi run camp.

4) CIA and Mossad elements manage operational tasks, such as moving terrorists and weapons into Iran through commercial companies and non-governmental organizations located in Iraq’s Al-Basra city.

5) The CIA and Mossad assets in Al-Basra have nothing to do with training and their responsibilities are limited to logistics. [8]

On October 2nd, Saeed Kamali Dehghan of the Guardian reported on the Persian speaking TV channel Iran International and revealed that it is funded by Saudi Arabia. Iran International received the spokesman of Alahvazieh terrorists immediately after Ahvaz terrorist attack and had previously covered the MKO’s annual gathering live in Paris in July 2018. [9]

Therefore, it seems that the MKO is the very tool for the Israel-US-Saudi alliance that aides them with destabilizing the Iranian Government because it definitely has the essential skills for committing riots, violence and terror acts.

By Mazda Parsi

Sources:

[1]Cartalucci, Tony, US-delisted MEK terrorists still openly committed to violence, New Eastern Outlook, September 29, 2018.

[2] Joplin, Ty, A Tiny Group on a Compound in Albania are Being Groomed to Destabilize Iran, Albawaba, October 1, 2018.

[3] ibid

[4] ibid

[5] Osman, Marwa, Ahvaz Terrorist Attack Exposes US’s New Chapter of Regime Change Wars, Alahednews, October 3, 2018.

[6] ibid

[7] ibid

[8] ibid

[9] Kamali Dehghan, Saeed, Ofcom examining TV network over interview praising attack in Iran, the Guardian, October 2, 2018.

October 7, 2018 0 comment

Terrorist groups and the MEK

Is MEK/Jundullah The ISIS Of Tomorrow? – OpEd

One would think that the United States would have learned by now, that it is never a good idea to arm terrorist groups in different parts of the world, due to the inevitable “blowback” which eventually ensues after these violent groups determine that the USA is no longer in support of them, or when the USA wants to deny that they have any relationship with them.

We have seen this paradigm unfold countless times before, over the past few decades, with groups like Al Qaeda, Al Nusra, La Fenice, Avanguardia Nazionale, Ordine Nuovo, the Contras, Cuban Exiles, Colombian Paramilitary Organizations, Los Pepes, Kosovo Liberation Army, Jundullah, Mujahedin-e Khalq (“MEK”), and countless others designed to engage in United States sponsored terrorist activities against sovereign governments and nations that the US doesn’t like for whatever reason.

In the wake of the abject failure of the US using ISIS to destabilize, disrupt and disorient various governments throughout the Middle East, such as Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and others, followed quickly by various ISIS-attributed terrorist attacks against the US and Europe by ISIS, President Donald Trump was swept into office in large part because the American and European people discovered this via the veritable “sieve” known as social media and the internet.

But rather than change US foreign policy to ban or cease using violent thugs to carry out US policy overseas, instead it appears that the US Government through the CIA have now adopted a smaller more surgically precise approach by supporting, through its proxy nations Israel and Saudi Arabia, smaller groups such as MEK and Jundullah, who operate primarily in tiny regions of the world, such as in and around Iran, without much of a global presence.

But like cancer, these groups have a tendency to grow uncontrollably, and then later turn on the US and Europe, when and if the latter starts to pull funding or divorce themselves from the court of public opinion through plausible denial.

This is exactly how ISIS grew into a formidable fighting force, and eventually turned on its creators, much like the Frankenstein monster in the Mary Shelley novels.

All of this must be an abject nightmare for the US FBI, DHS, ICE and DEA pull their proverbial hair out, because they must often clean up/explain the horrific domestic messes of terrorist blowback occurring on US soil when these groups inevitably turn on their paymasters, just like they are the chief law enforcement/preventative bodies that deal with the drug war, also in large part caused by the CIA’s open and clandestine support of massive drug producing/trafficking regimes in Afghanistan, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico.

The news lately has revealed that the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia are openly funding, supporting, arming, training and providing logistical support to Jundullah and MEK in order to take down the current sovereign government of Iran.

Even though the USA, Saudi Arabia and Israel may not like the current government there, what right do they have to engage in this type of state sponsored terrorist behavior?

There is a reason why various governments throughout the world have stood the test of time, and exist in their present states.

Perhaps their people wanted it, or perhaps there was need for that specific type of ideology or mode of governance, but unless and until those governments actively target or harm Americans, the US has absolutely no business getting involved with those groups, and indeed, has invariably and inevitably lived to regret it countless times, in nearly 100% of all cases.

By Rahul Manchanda,Eurasia Reveiw

May 23, 2018 0 comment

Terrorist groups and the MEK

ISIS Drew On MEK Expertise For Terror Attacks On Tehran

The following piece has been written by somebody I know well. He does not want his real name to be used because that would jeopardize the sensitive nature of his current work in counter terrorism in Europe – Massoud Khodabandeh.

As a former member of the Mojahedin Khalq terrorist organization (MEK), I followed the news of terrorist attacks on Tehran with shame, guilt and anger.

My shame and guilt stem from having been involved in such attacks in the past as a member of the MEK. My anger springs from what I see as th MEK’s ongoing influence in these current attacks. Based on my inside knowledge of the MEK I believe this organization has now helped the most notorious terror organization in the world to attack our country and our people.

As I followed news of the attacks I was forced to remember my own role in a similar mission and how my membership of the MEK had almost cost me my life. While analyzing the details of the ISIS attack as they emerged, it was easy to see that these operations in Tehran had been based on the expertise of MEK operations in several ways. I have identified some of these similarities which I have given in outline below.

Planning

The targets selected by ISIS were sites constantly targeted by the MEK. The Iranian Parliament and its members had always been primary targets for the MEK since the 1980s. The group had managed to assassinate several members of the Parliament and tried to plant a bomb there at one point. They were unsuccessful and some members were killed by security forces while other terrorist teams were arrested. Similarly, after Ayatollah Khomeini’s shrine was created, Massoud Rajavi, the late MEK leader, announced that “Khomeini’s grave must be exploded”. It became a mantra among MEK members which they would chant in indoctrination sessions. The MEK tried unsuccessfully to send terrorist teams there in 1991 and 2002.

While ISIS and the MEK have the same interests in attacking Iran, ISIS could have caused much greater anti-government fear and hatred among the civilian population in line with its regime change agenda if they had bombed a civilian target like transport infrastructure or a shopping mall. They could have done more damage by targeting the Revolutionary Guards whose forces are in Syria. Instead, the ISIS targets matched those which had been constantly under attack by the MEK for thirty years.

Logistics

ISIS used locally recruited Iranians for this attack. Their main challenge was to get their weaponry to Tehran without being detected by Iranian security forces. This had always been the main challenge for MEK terrorists. They used different methods to get their weapons to Tehran. For example, hiding the weapons in a small truck loaded with food or inside an empty computer case. The MEK experiences were helpful to the ISIS attackers. They paid a female acquaintance to join them to go to Tehran, pretending it is a family visit. This was to raise less suspicion. Between 2000-2003, the MEK used the same approach to get their terrorists from Iraq to Tehran. The first suicide bomber in Iran was a female MEK member. Since then, the MEK used women in suicide operations to ‘normalize’ their terrorist teams.

The suicide mission

An important similarity is the human factor. Just like the MEK, ISIS terrorists selected and trained for suicide missions are thoroughly brainwashed first. They undergo intensive indoctrination and psychological manipulation sessions and afterwards they are not allowed to think of anything else but their mission; terror. From the videos and reports, it is clear that the terrorists are numbed and fearful people who are prepared to use weapons as a first resort against innocent unprepared people. The ISIS terrorists exploded their vests in their first moments of contact with security forces. A couple of them even exploded their vests as soon as they just saw the security forces. This is similar to MKO terrorists who were brainwashed to assassinate unarmed civilians or perform a mortar attack in a large city like Tehran. They were also armed with cyanide pills and a hand grenade and ordered that rather than risk capture they must commit suicide and hurt as many of the people around them as possible.

Governmental backing

It has been widely reported that, just like the MEK, ISIS also gets support from inside Saudi Arabia. After the Tehran terrorist attacks neither Saudi Arabia nor the MEK condemned the events. This echoes MEK behaviour under the Saddam regime. The MEK could not and would not condemn any action of Saddam or the Saudis because they were being paid and supported by them.

The MEK needed governmental level backing to move across national borders. Saddam arranged for MEK operatives to get inside Iran from Pakistan and Turkey rather than cross the Iraqi border which was under international scrutiny. ISIS has also been able to cross borders and move weapons and fund its activities in a way that indicates governmental level of support.

There is no indication that the MEK were directly involved in the Tehran attacks. But from my inside knowledge and based on having performed a similar style of suicide attack in Tehran myself some years ago, there is little doubt in my mind that ISIS have been able to use MEK expertise to pursue this modern terrorist attack.

Massoud Khodabandeh, Iranian.com,

June 21, 2017 0 comment

Terrorist groups and the MEK

The legacy of the MKO in ISIS attacks in Tehran

The twin terrorist attacks at Iran’s parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini’s shrine committed by ISIS recalls the very similar attacks that were frequently committed by the te Mujahedin Khalq Organization about three decades ago. Actually, Iranian citizens were the first ones to witness suicide attacks in the early years of the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Today the legacy of the MKO is reproduced by the ISIS.

While Maryam Rajavi the co-leader of Rajavi’s cult of personality (the MKO) condemns the attacks in Tehran, last Wednesday’s terrorist attacks took Iranians back to the first decade after the Islamic Revolution, when her group’s terror operatives slayed many citizens and officials in the streets, residential areas, public and governmental buildings in various cities all over Iran.

,“The principal perpetrator of terrorism in Iran over the past four decades has been the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), the Marxist/Islamist cult/terrorist group that prior to the revolution had claimed Americans among its victims,” Paul R.Pillar of the Strategic Culture website accurately asserts. “Thanks largely to the MEK’s activity, Iran necessarily has had much experience in countering terrorism.”

The role of the MKO terrorists in the bloody parts of the Iranian modern history is so highlighted that no journalist could conceal the fact. Any news report that covered the recent terrorist acts in Tehran had to name the MKO as the first suicide terrorists to launch massive acts of violence against Iranian civilians and authorities.

Ironically, there are only a few days left to the anniversary of the MKO’s iconic date, June 20th 1981 (Khordad 30th) which signals the official start of the group’s armed struggle against the Islamic Republic. At the time, the so-called protest of the MKO agents turned into a bloodbath. The group followers floated in the streets with any type of arms such as cutter, knife, colt and Kalashnikov… opening fire on innocent people. Since then the group committed numerous terrorist acts against the Iranian civilians and officials killing thousands of people.

A lot of MKO operations were suicidal. Firing grenades in public places, throwing fire into public places and other violent acts by the MKO agents were the shocking scenes that the Iranian citizens eye-witnessed repeatedly during the 1980s. In case the MKO operatives were at risk of being arrested by the security forces they would swallow cyanide capsules. And now after four decades the MKO methods is exactly used by the ISIS terrorists in Tehran assaults.

Today, Maryam and Massoud Rajavi should be brought to justice for “shedding blood of innocent people”. They should answer this very question that under which pretext they shed the blood of Leila Nourbahksh, the three-year-old girl who burned alive in a bus the MKO agents set on fire in Shiraz, a city in the South of Iran.

This is the first time the ISIS could manage to launch a terror act in Iran, although it has tried several times in the recent past. ISIS should know that its God father, the MKO, was once eradicated in this country, so there will be no place left of its successors.

By Mazda Parsi

June 14, 2017 0 comment

Terrorist groups and the MEK

Human Shield, Useful tool for the MKO and ISIS

While the world-wide news media are focusing on the operation against ISIS in Mosul the propaganda websites of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) keeps on its deadly silence about any news on the battle of coalition forces against terrorists of Islamic State. As ISIS extremist terrorists have been already called as “Iraqi revolutionary tribes” by the MKO propaganda, meaningful ignorance of the group regarding the atrocities of ISIS confirms their sympathy for them.

The latest news on Mosul indicated huge aspects of atrocities of the ISIS radical Islamists. Islamic State fighters have taken “tens of thousands” of people hostage and are herding them towards the city of Mosul for use as human shields as the battle for the militant group’s last major Iraqi stronghold intensifies, the United Nations has told the Guardian.

Considering the massacre of Yemeni civilians, the same position is taken by the MKO. Yemeni children are forgotten in the MKO propaganda while children of Aleppo have become an icon in the group website. The former are victims of the enemy of Iran, Saudi Arabian forces and the later are said to be victims of the friends of Iran, Syrian and Russian forces.

A glance on the group’s propaganda media demonstrates its eagerness to be the voice of Saudi Arabia against Iran. Definitely, ISIS and Syrian rebels are considered friends of MKO as well. Actually, the long-life policy of the leaders of the MKO has always gotten in line with policies of enemies of the Iranian Government, regardless of ethics and moralities and justice. Double standard is the tool for hypocrites.

Moreover, atrocities of the ISIS terrorists might seem so natural to the MKO that they cannot take position against it. Victimizing people by using them as human shields is a very common tactic which has been used by the MKO leaders several times. The MKO-provoked clashes with Iraqi forces are significant examples of such deceitful tactic.

After the Iraqi Government took control of Camp Ashraf in 2008, the group leaders made efforts to create problems for Iraqi government to prevent them from performing its obligations. On July 29, 2009 there was a report of deadly clashes between hundreds of Iraqi police forces who wanted to settle a police station in Camp Ashraf and the residents of the camp. The clashes left 11 members dead and scores injured from both side. While the reasons for the clash was said to be unclear at first, it was then became clear that it was a pre-organized plan indoctrinated by group leaders. Devotees of Massoud Rajavi were converged to provoke Iraqi forces to trigger the clash by forming a human shield. That was well videotaped and broadcasted by the organization itself. While the Iraqi Police had the obligation to protect residents of the camp, the MKO leaders used the opportunity to fuel their propaganda machine.

There are a lot of individuals out there including ex-members of the MKO, Journalists and experts who have tried to tell the world of the concerns about the members not living but enslaved by MKO against their own will. They have always warned the international community to beware how the Cult-like ruling system of the MKO exploits insiders as human shields to safeguard its own entity.

Having been relocated in Albania hostages of the MKO are still being exploited by the Cult leaders. As Iran-Interlink reports, the organization is buying several fast food restaurants in the city in order to use them for its members to work there.

It is absolutely wrong to conclude that leaders of the group are thinking of entrepreneurship. The leaders of the group are the ones who benefit from this. The members are being abused. The absolute truth is that the Cult of Rajavi does not value the lives of its members but it wants to make the most profit out of them. “The businesses belong to the MEK and are not part of a rehabilitation scheme”, according to Iran-Interlink. “MEK members exist in a state of modern slavery and have never benefitted from pay or worker rights during their decades of membership of the cult.”

Living their luxurious life in Paris, leaders of the Cult of Rajavi do not have any regard for humanity. They have proved to care only for their own survival. They keep violating human rights continuously in the camp while they pretend they care for humanity. They only care for themselves and the members are served as playthings in the hands of their corrupt leaders.

Mazda Parsi

November 5, 2016 0 comment

Terrorist groups and the MEK

The Godfather of terror: anti-Iran terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization cooperate with ISIS

Iraqi media disclosed MKO’s role in Saudi-led campaign in tarnishing Mobilization Forces’ image.

(Baghdad, Iraq)— According to well-informed security sources, today morning Iraqi Federal Police foiled a suicide attack by a group of MKO terrorists who attempt to target a gathering of prominent Sunni clerics.

Although Iraqi Police spokesman was reluctant to go into further details, but the previous confessions made by arrested ISIS members show the great degree to which MKO is cooperating with the so-called Islamic State. Maryam Rajavi, the self-styled president of People’s Mujahedin of Iran, has ordered her clique to develop close relation with ISIS field commanders.

Observers believe due to MKO’s military acumen in guerrilla wars and committing myriad of terror operations against civilians, the remnants of this terrorist group serve as valuable tools for ISIS in murdering key Iraqi figures.

Qatari and Saudi-funded media stepped up their vicious attack against Iraqi Army and Popular Forces amid increasing speculations of a major terror attack by MKO.

Frustrated with recent military setbacks, Riyadh seeks to stoke ethnic fire in Iraq by carrying out terror attacks –By using ISIS and MKO–liquidating the leading Sunni leaders and then pointing fingers at Army and Iraqi resistance.

Awdnews.com

March 7, 2016 0 comment

Terrorist groups and the MEK

Ebrahim Khodabande: Daesh, MKO fed by same sources

A former member of terrorist group Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) said on Monday financial sponsors of both terrorist groups, the MKO and Daesh are the same.

Ebrahim Khodabandeh said that if the Iranian people had not resisted to the MKO, which receives its financial support from the same source as Daesh, and the Iranian intelligence officers and security forces were not mighty enough, Iran’s western provinces were the scene of similar events what happened in Syria and Iraq.

Speaking in a panel discussion titled ‘From the MKO to Daesh’ at Iran Press and Cultural Institute, the former MKO member said that such clans as the two brainwash their supporters and destroy their sound reasoning capability.

He said that the other similarity between the MKO and Daesh is that they both take advantage of religious beliefs of the people aimed at securing their horrendous hegemony.

Meanwhile, Khodamabdeh ridiculed the terrorist MKO group’s anti-imperialist slogans and that they were the one and only one such group in Iran, accusing the Islamic Republic that it will eventually roll to the Imperialists camp.

‘The heads of the terrorist MKO groupe in Paris hold meetings with the most brutal branches of imperialists, ignoring all their initial anti-imperialist slogans,’ he said.

He said that the similarity of MKO and Daesh in this regard is that the latter publicized Shiaphobia to attract the fanatic Sunni people and then they control their minds and isolate them.

June 30, 2015 0 comment

Terrorist groups and the MEK

Mojahedin Khalq and Al-Qaida affiliated groups are alike

Dr. Jang Ji-Hyang, policy advisor on Middle East issues to South Korean foreign minister and director of the Center for Regional Studies at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, pointed out the similarity between Mujahedin-e Khalq organization (MKO, MEK, NCRI,) and Al-Qaida affiliated groups like ISIS in an interview with the 2nd International Congress of 17000 Iranian Terror Victims’ correspondent.

Regarding the fact that thousands of people in the Middle East have fallen victim to terrorist operations mainly conducted by terrorist groups such as MKO and Al-Qaida affiliated groups like ISIS, Dr. Jang Ji-Hyang said: “Mujahedin-e Khalq organization and Al-Qaida affiliated groups are similar in the sense that they try to gain publicity and international attention trying to maximize the demonstrative effects.” She also pointed out that both Shia and Sunni Muslims are victims of such terrorist incidents.

Referring to ISIS’s killing of both Shia and Sunni Muslims in the region and that the whole Muslim community in general is the victim of the so called “Islamic terrorist groups”, she went on to say that ordinary people in Eastern communities such as South Korea are not keenly aware of the fact that Muslims in general are also the very victims of those terrorist groups.

She continued: “The public sentiment [among South Korean people] might be that the radical terrorists are Muslims, and their main targets are foreigners, non-Muslims, or Westerners. The reason behind this partial knowledge is that 1) ordinary people do not follow the international politics 2) the Middle East is far away from the North East Asia 3) we are so busy dealing with a trouble maker in North Korea that it is a luxury to catch up the international politics of terrorism.”

About the role that International organization such as the United Nations can play in the fight against terrorism, Dr. Ji-Hyang reiterated: “UN by nature does not implement a decisive unitary action toward many urgent international issues.”

At the end, referring to the role popular movements and non-governmental organizations can play in the combat against terrorism and extremism, she added: “The 2nd International Congress of 17000 Iranian terror victims can play a significant role in raising public awareness targeting the global community. It brings about a definitely significant impact given that the movement is initiated in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

June 10, 2015 0 comment

Terrorist groups and the MEK

The MKO campaign in the Congress boosted ISIS

Those who follow the news of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) would hardly ever forget the group’s early reactions regarding the progress of the forces of the Islamic State extremists in Iraqi territory. They remember the MKO’s delighted comments on the victory of what they called “Iraqi revolutionary forces and tribes”!
The phrase “Iraqi revolutionary forces and tribes” was clearly condemned by the group’s critics. That is why a few weeks later the group leader, Maryam Rajavi, tried to whitewash the pro violence and anti-human face of her cult by pretending the the group’s disapproval of the IS.
Meanwhile, the MKO supporters in the US Congress who are also opponents to both Iraqi and Iranian regime called IS invasion to Iraqi soil as “Part of popular uprising”. However, they started taking position against ISIS after the world witnessed the group’s atrocious acts against civilians. Both the MKO and its supporters had to wear masks to distance themselves from IS terrorists.
Furthermore, the truth was revealed about the real intentions of the MKO and its advocates. Ali Gharib and Eli Clifton’s observations show how MKO’S manipulation over certain members of the congress helped the ISIS to seize parts of Iraqi territory.
According to the investigations made by Gharib and Clifton of the Intercept, Senator Robert Menedez –who is on top of the list of recipients of the MKO’s funds—played a key role to block the sale of Apache Helicopters to Iraq. The authors of the article conclude that his opposition to aid Iraqi government against the threat of ISIS was motivated by the MKO’s well-funded lobbying campaign in the Congress.
Ali and Eli’s account of the MKO’s influence over Menendez is clear in their account of a SENATE Foreign Relations Committee hearing where MKO agents in yellow rain jackets were looking in the eyes of their paid speaker. [1]
“During the hearing, the powerful then-Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, spoke out for the Mojahedin. About an hour and a half into the proceedings, Menendez issued an explicit threat to Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman over attacks against the group’s members in Iraq’’ they write. [2]
Accusing the Iraqi and Iranian governments for the attacks against MKO camps, Menendez provided his reasoning as to why selling the weapons and helicopters to Iraq would endanger the MKO.
“The threat sounded like a hypothetical, but it wasn’t: as Menendez spoke, he was blocking a major weapons deal with Iraq — a sale that would eventually be worth more than $6 billion in Apache helicopters and associated equipment and support, marking, perhaps, the first major Capitol Hill achievement for the Mojahedin since being removed from the U.S. list of designated terrorist organizations the year before,” according to Ali and Eli. [3]
Menendez just lifted his objections of the Apaches on January 25, after ISIS succeeded to take control of large parts of Iraqi soil and committed a lot of distressing violent acts.
“Although it would be unfair to conclude that Menendez was motivated only by his sympathy for the MeK, sources quoted by Ali and Eli suggest pretty strongly that the issue played a role,” suggested Jim Lobe of the lobelog. “As Iraq’s ambassador to the United States Lukman Faily told Ali in relation to his efforts to release the hold on the Apaches, “The issue of the MEK came up in most of my meetings with the House and Senate, especially the Foreign [Relations Committee].” [4]
“According to the article, Menendez accepted more than $25,000 from donors with ties to the MEK, making him the largest recipient from 2012, when the MeK was delisted that September, to the present. That’s not much compared to the well over $300,000 Menendez received from pro-Israel groups during the 2012 election cycle, but it was more than twice what was provided to the next biggest recipients, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA).” [5]
Thus, the MKO and its Western sponsors see one common enemy, the Islamic Republic of Iran. And this determines their entire policies and approaches. It’s a pity that saving the lives of Iraqi civilians and the security of the whole region depends on the fanatical ideas of a cult-like terrorist group, the Mujahedin khalq Organization.
Mazda Parsi
Sources:
[1] Gharib, Ali & Clifton, Eli, Long March of the Yellow Jackets: How a One-Time Terrorist Group Prevailed on Capitol Hill, The Intercept, February 27, 2015
[2] ibid
[3] ibid
[4] Lobe, Jim, Sen. Menendez Top Recipient of MEK-Related Campaign Funding, Lobelog , February 26, 2015
[5] ibid

March 18, 2015 0 comment

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