Iraqi lawmakers slam US intervention

Reacting to US protection of Mujahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) terror group

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... The Iraqi lawmakers from Sadr Movement have condemned US intervention in their country's internal affairs. They believe the US is trying to keep these terrorists in Iraq to use them against neighbouring countries. The spokesperson of the Iraqi government said the Iraqi government cannot accept to be under such burden and urged the International community to help the Iraqi government in the process of MKO expulsion from Iraq. The members of the Iraqi national Alliance have also stressed on the importance of bringing an end to such interference. The members in the State of Law Coalition said such behavior will have negative effect on the political process in Iraq and ...

Wisam al-Bayati, Press TV, Baghdad, May 17, 2011
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/180221.html

Reacting to latest US government proposal to relocate the terrorist organization, MKO or Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization, to another place within Iraq's territory, Iraqi lawmakers have called it another US intervention in country's internal affairs.

The US government has proposed moving the camp of the MKO, known as Camp Ashraf, which is located in the Province of Diyala to another place inside the country.

The proposal comes only few days after the Iraqi government set a deadline of for MKO members to leave the country.

The Iraqi lawmakers from Sadr Movement have condemned US intervention in their country's internal affairs. They believe the US is trying to keep these terrorists in Iraq to use them against neighbouring countries.

The spokesperson of the Iraqi government said the Iraqi government cannot accept to be under such burden and urged the International community to help the Iraqi government in the process of MKO expulsion from Iraq.

The members of the Iraqi national Alliance have also stressed on the importance of bringing an end to such interference.

The members in the State of Law Coalition said such behavior will have negative effect on the political process in Iraq and these actions are in clear contradiction to US claims of trying to keep the region peaceful.

In many occasions, the Iraqi people have showed their opposition toward the presence of MKO members in their country and called on government to evacuate the camp and expel its members.

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Also
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=9993

Giuliani, Dean Paid To Advocate For Terrorist Group

(Mojahedin Khalq, aka; MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult)

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... Green movement spokesmen Mohsen Kadivar and Ahmad Sadri wrote in March that de-listing the MEK “promises to spell disaster for the pro-democracy movement in Iran, and will be a devastating setback in the country’s attempts to move forward.” As I noted at the time, members of the Green movement rarely comment on specific aspects of U.S. policy on Iran. The fact that Kadivar and Sadri chose to do so should indicate how serious an issue MEK is for Iran’s democratic opposition. The Washington Post ad was paid for by the National Association of Iranian Scholars in Britain, which is listed as one of a number of MEK aliases by the Iran Interlink website ...

(Rajavi from Saddam to AIPAC)

(Washington backed Maryam Rajavi in terrorist cult's HQ in Paris)

Matt Duss, The work room, May 13, 2011
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/05/13/here-comes-the-mek/

By Matt Duss on May 13th, 2011 at 3:05 pm

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal looks at the considerable support that the exiled Iranian Islamist-Marxist cult Mujahideen-e Khalq — which is designated by the U.S. State Department as as foreign terrorist organization — has been able to cultivate, both in European capitals and in DC, getting people like Rudy Giuliani and Howard Dean to speak at their events.

The article notes that these speakers “wouldn’t disclose their speaking fees, but many of them charge between $25,000 and $40,000 per appearance.” Dean also said that “he has made both paid and unpaid speeches for MeK.”

As I noted back in December, such activities skirt very close to violating U.S. law in regard to “material support” for terrorism. Responding to this charge when it was raised by attorney David Cole, Giuliani and his colleagues quoted the relevant law: “Individuals who act entirely independently of the [FTO] to advance its goals or objectives shall not be considered to be working under the [FTO]’s direction and control.”

“As a result,” Giuliani et al concluded, “we felt quite secure, thank you, in relying on the protection Congress placed in the statute, backed up by the First Amendment.”

But can Giuliani and others really be said to be “acting entirely independently” of the MEK if they’re getting paid explicitly to advocate on their behalf?

That question aside, the MEK is clearly ramping up its lobbying effort here in DC. Yesterday, the Washington Post ran a full page ad calling on State Department ed-list the MEK. The ad claims that the MEK is “Iran’s principal opposition movement,” which would surely come as a surprise to Iran’s actual opposition movement.

Green movement spokesmen Mohsen Kadivar and Ahmad Sadri wrote in March that de-listing the MEK “promises to spell disaster for the pro-democracy movement in Iran, and will be a devastating setback in the country’s attempts to move forward.” As I noted at the time, members of the Green movement rarely comment on specific aspects of U.S. policy on Iran. The fact that Kadivar and Sadri chose to do so should indicate how serious an issue MEK is for Iran’s democratic opposition.

The Washington Post ad was paid for by the National Association of Iranian Scholars in Britain, which is listed as one of a number of MEK aliases by the Iran Interlink website, run by former MEK members.

Also yesterday, the Washington Times ran a pro-MEK ad of a different sort, in the form of a ridiculously misleading op-ed by Daniel Pipes. “The MeK issue reveals Iraqi subservience to Iran with special clarity,” wrote Pipes, suggesting that that the Iraqi army’s recent violent entry into Camp Ashraf north of Baghdad — where MEK members have lived since 1986, protected first by Saddam, then by the U.S. — was done on Iran’s orders.

While I appreciate the fact that neocons like Pipes have awakened to the fact of Iranian influence in Iraq (enabled, of course, by the U.S. intervention), the idea that Iraqis should need special Iranian encouragement against the MEK is amusing. The MEK fought alongside Hussein’s forces after the 1991 Gulf War to put down the Shia uprising in Iraq’s south and the Kurdish uprising in the north, driven by MEK leader Maryam Rajavi’s infamous command to “Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.” Given the significant Shia and Kurdish presence in the new Iraqi government, it should come as no surprise that that government is not positively disposed toward the MEK.

The question of what to do with the residents of Camp Ashraf — which includes a number of children — is a tough one, but it should be separated out from whether they should be taken off the terrorism list. Barbara Slavin had a very good piece in March, looking at the delusion of some high-profile MEK supporters that the U.S. could support them as a credible Iranian political opposition force. It’s clear that some would like to treat the MEK as an Iranian version of Ahmad Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress. Responding to that comparison yesterday, Kombiz Lavasany wrote via Twitter, “In Chalabi’s defense, not sure Iraqis knew or cared about him. Everyone in Iran just hates the MEK

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Comment 1:
Here's the direct link for the New York Times article with the "take the Kurds under your tanks" quote: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07...

(Maryam Rajavi directly ordered the massacre of Kurdish people)

Mojahedin Khalq, MKO, MEK, NCRI, Rajavi cult terrorism in Iran and Iraq

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Also
http://iran-interlink.org/index.php?mod=view&id=9868

Will Giuliani invite MEK “freedom fighters” to relocate in Manhattan?

(aka; Mojahedin Khalq, MKO, Rajavi cult)

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... The MEK issued a statement late last week that not only casts serious doubt on their claims to have renounced terrorism but demands that they be allowed to come to the U.S. The group cites a disarmament deal they negotiated with the U.S. as the basis for the demand:The Ashraf residents, in their two-day negotiations with (former Commanding General of U.S. Forces in Iraq) General Odierno on 9 and 10 May 2003, announced that after their disarmament, upon conditions that the US is incapable of giving them protection in Iraq, they are ready to go to the US. The referenced deal, negotiated after the toppling of the MEK’s chief patron Saddam Hussein, apparently ...

NIAC Insight, April 25, 2011
http://niacinsight.com/2011/04/25/will-giuliani-invite-mek
-%e2%80%9cfreedom-fighters%e2%80%9d-to-relocate-in-manhattan/

Also at
http://www.globalpost.com/webblog/diplomacy/will-giuliani-invite-mek
-%E2%80%9Cfreedom-fighters%E2%80%9D-relocate-manhattan

The MEK issued a statement late last week that not only casts serious doubt on their claims to have renounced terrorism but demands that they be allowed to come to the U.S.

The group cites a disarmament deal they negotiated with the U.S. as the basis for the demand:

The Ashraf residents, in their two-day negotiations with (former Commanding General of U.S. Forces in Iraq) General Odierno on 9 and 10 May 2003, announced that after their disarmament, upon conditions that the US is incapable of giving them protection in Iraq, they are ready to go to the US.

The referenced deal, negotiated after the toppling of the MEK’s chief patron Saddam Hussein, apparently requires the United States to relocate MEK members in Iraq to the U.S. or E.U.:

…it is up to the US, in return to [sic] their disarmament and in accordance with the agreement signed with each of the residents, to transfer every one of them without exception to the US or European Union member States.

The fact that the MEK is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization would prevent them from legally coming to the U.S., but an assortment of prominent U.S. politicians, lobbyists, and consulting firms are working to reverse that terror designation. However, the MEK statement also raises new questions about whether the group has truly renounced terrorism as they have claimed:

Hence, if in the future similar to the past, the goal of establishing various committees in Iraq’s Prime Ministry is for the sole purpose of the residents’ repression, killing and closing down Ashraf, there will be no choice left for Iran’s freedom fighters other than resistance at any price.

So now that the MEK is threatening “resistance at any price” and demanding relocation to the U.S., the question is: will U.S. officials supporting MEK, some of whom have acknowledged receiving “substantial amount” of cash, invite these “freedom fighters” into their own backyards?

Perhaps Rudy Giuliani, who told an MEK conference in Paris last year that “the United States should not just be on your side…it should be enthusiastically on your side,” knows of a good place in Lower Manhattan to relocate the group. Never mind that MEK leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi reportedly celebrated September 11th by broadcasting the attacks at Camp Ashraf. Rudy apparently has no problem with the Rajavis’ declarations following September 11^th that, “if (Al Qaeda) could do such a sophisticated military operation we must be able to do so in a much better manner,” and, “wait and see the fruits of our revolutionary Islam!”

Or maybe Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX), the lead sponsor of a resolution calling for MEK to be removed from the U.S. terror list, could invite the group to Texas. I’m sure he would enjoy informing his constituents in Liberty County that 3,500 Marxist-Islamist “freedom fighters” will be moving in down the street.

Or who knows, maybe the MEK’s U.S. supporters will be given pause by these new revelations, not to mention previous findings of torture and cult-like practices at Camp Ashraf. Maybe they will be convinced to focus not on legitimizing the MEK’s leaders but instead on the estimated seventy percent of Camp Ashraf residents that RAND estimates were brought there against their will and would leave MEK if given the chance.

But don’t hold your breath. If officials are being paid “substantial” amounts of money to advocate on behalf of MEK and have a change of heart, they might have to give the money back.

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Also
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=9541

Ex-Officials Say They Were Paid To Attend Pro- Mojahedin Khalq (MEK, MKO, NCRI, Rajavi cult) Events

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... Hamilton, who once chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee and was a co-chair of the 9/11 Commission, told reporter Barbara Slavin he was paid "a substantial amount" to appear at a panel in Washington D.C. in February. Zinni, who spoke at a similar event in January, said he had been paid his "standard fee," without detailing what that is. According to Slavin, both men said they were unaware of the cultish elements attributed to the MEK. The State Department's 2008 Country Reports on Terrorism, for example, reported the following:In addition to its terrorist credentials, the MEK has also displayed cult-like characteristics. Upon entry into the group, new members are indoctrinated in MEK ideology and ...

Eric Lach, TPM, March 04, 2011
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03
/ex-officials_say_they_were_paid_to_attend_pro-mek_events.php

Former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-IN) and retired Gen. Anthony Zinni

Former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton (D) and former CENTCOM Commander Anthony Zinni told the Inter Press Service that they were paid to appear at recent events supporting the MEK, an Iranian opposition group currently considered a terrorist organization by the State Department.

Hamilton and Zinni are among the many big time former government officials and military leaders who have appeared at recent pro-MEK events sponsored by a group called Executive Action, LLC. (The events true organizers remain unclear, Executive Action's CEO Neil Livingstone would only tell TPM they included Iranian American groups.) Speakers at the events have portrayed the MEK as critical to any chance of regime change in Iran.

Hamilton, who once chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee and was a co-chair of the 9/11 Commission, told reporter Barbara Slavin he was paid "a substantial amount" to appear at a panel in Washington D.C. in February. Zinni, who spoke at a similar event in January, said he had been paid his "standard fee," without detailing what that is.

According to Slavin, both men said they were unaware of the cultish elements attributed to the MEK. The State Department's 2008 Country Reports on Terrorism, for example, reported the following:

In addition to its terrorist credentials, the MEK has also displayed cult-like characteristics.

Upon entry into the group, new members are indoctrinated in MEK ideology and revisionist Iranian history. Members are also required to undertake a vow of "eternal divorce" and participate in weekly "ideological cleansings." Additionally, children are reportedly separated from parents at a young age. MEK leader Maryam Rajavi has established a "cult of personality." She claims to emulate the Prophet Muhammad and is viewed by members as the "Iranian President in exile."

The MEK's cult tendencies have also been noted by The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Council On Foreign Relations.

"They presented me with a platform that was thoroughly democratic," Hamilton told Slavin. "Were they misleading me? You always can be misled."

Zinni was firmer:

"De-listing ought to be done much the way we handled the PLO and the IRA," Zinni said in an interview.

[...]

Zinni, who famously inveighed against the U.S. invasion of Iraq and was a fierce opponent of Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi, seemed to have no similar compunctions about Iranian exiles.

"The Iranian community outside Iran has much more influence inside than the Chalabis of the world that we ended up supporting in Iraq," he said.

Over the years, the Iranian government has arrested and executed thousands of MEK members. Still, experts say that the group actually has very little support in Iran, where people remember how it fought for Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war. Iranian studies scholar Ahmad Sadri told TPM in February that U.S. support for the MEK would anger ordinary Iranians.

Although it was put on the U.S. terror list in 1997, the MEK has a history of support in Congress. While it originally blended elements of Islam and Marxism, the group and its supporters say it has renounced violence and now advocates for a secular and democratic Iran. After the fall of Hussein, who armed and funded the group for many years, about 3,400 MEK members were consolidated at Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad. MEK backers also insist that U.S. forces should be permanently stationed at Ashraf, for protection. (Camp residents have been subject to attacks they blame on the Iraqi and Iranian governments.)

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where several lawmakers urged her to delist the MEK. Clinton said that the State Department is reviewing the MEK's designation in accordance with a Washington D.C. District Court of Appeal's recent ruling, after a suit brought by the MEK.

"You know it's proceeding," Clinton said. "These are very important considerations and reviews and you know as soon as we can we will make such a decision."

TPM reached out to both Zinni and Hamilton for comment.

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Also
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=9216

Wondering at those Americans who stand under the flag of Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, NCRI, Rajavi cult) only to LOBBY for the murderers of their servicemen

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... Massoud Rajavi was on the stage and while he had his hands on his waist he began a war cry against the USA, and in his admiration for Osama Ben Laden and his organization, Al Qaeda, he said, ”This was fanatical Islam which trembled and shacked the basis of US Imperialism and they destroyed the twin towers which were the symbol of their power, and successfully reduced it to rubble through their successful mission”. Then he (Massoud Rajavi) with a smile on his face continued his war cry and said, ”What will happen to the USA if revolutionary Islam with our Ideology and Maryam’s leadership comes to power, then this paper tiger (the USA) will be destroyed as a whole.” ...

(Alejo Vidal-Quadras , Mojahedin Khalq logo, Struan stevenson )

Iran Interlink, January 03, 2011
http://www.iran-interlink.org

A documentary about Washington backed Mojahedin Khalq terrorists

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Also read:
http://www.iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=7264

Silent Cry

Press TV, November 23, 2009
www.presstv.com

This documentary takes us beneath the surface of acts of terror against Iran and shows how Iranians have been targeted by various terrorist groups, some of which enjoying the support of human right organizations.

(part one)

(part two)