Terrorist group s supporters throw party in U.S. Congress (Mojahedin Khalq aka; MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult)
Terrorist group’s supporters throw party in U.S. Congress
(Mojahedin Khalq aka; MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult)
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... The U.N. and the State Department are working to move them to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near the Baghdad airport, but the MEK is resisting that move, and has enlisted its many supporters in the United States to decry the conditions at the former military base. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani even went so far as to call Camp Liberty a "concentration camp."House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) spoke at the event and discussed human rights in Iran, but did not mention the MEK by name. Former Homeland Security secretary and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, a paid advocate of the MEK, also spoke ...
It's not every day that groups supporting a State Department-listed foreign terrorist organization hold a party in the U.S. Congress, but that's exactly what happened today when the friends of the Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK) threw their Nowruz party in the hearing room of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"Members of Congress will join Iranian Americans in wishing the Iranian people a Happy Nowrouz and address the humanitarian rights of Iran's main opposition in Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty, in Iraq," reads the flyer for the party, which was held Thursday at the Rayburn building in room 2172, where the foreign affairs committee holds all of its public events.
The flyer says that the event is sponsored by "Iranian American communities" from around the United States, but the mention of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty is a clear reference to the MEK, a group designated by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization that has about 3,000 members living in the secretive Ashraf compound in Iraq.
The U.N. and the State Department are working to move them to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near the Baghdad airport, but the MEK is resisting that move, and has enlisted its many supporters in the United States to decry the conditions at the former military base. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani even went so far as to call Camp Liberty a "concentration camp."
House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) spoke at the event and discussed human rights in Iran, but did not mention the MEK by name. Former Homeland Security secretary and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, a paid advocate of the MEK,also spoke.
"The event was not sponsored by the MEK," Ros-Lehtinen's spokesperson Brad Goehner told The Cable. "The room was requested by the Iranian-American Society of South Florida and sponsored by the Iranian-American communities of 39 cities for an event commemorating the Iranian New Year. Space in Congressional office buildings is routinely made available to organizations wishing to hold events on issues important to members of Congress."
The flyer doesn't say the party is being thrown by or for the MEK, and aides who attended told The Cable that there were no MEK signs or banners at the event, as one usually sees wherever the MEK is camped out.
That could be a result of the revelation that the Treasury Department's counterterrorism unit has issued a subpoena to former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell for records related to his paid advocacy of the MEK, as part of an investigation into the web of organizations that support the terrorist group.
There is a long list of Iranian-American organizations that fund pro-MEK events and pay speakers fees to MEK supporters. Many of these organizations - such as the "Global Initiative for Democracy, whose homepage is entirely devoted to the MEK's concerns and who hosted an MEK conference in January -- seem to have no other function other than to advocate for the MEK, and the actual sources of their money is unclear.
Receiving funding from a terrorist organization or even providing it with "material support," which could include advocacy, is a crime.
The campaign by the MEK's supporters to disparage Camp Liberty and lobby for the MEK's removal from the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations has included huge rallies outside the State Department, massive sit-ins at Congressional hearings, and an ongoing vigil outside the State Department's C Street entrance.
Those supporters, many of them paid, include Giuliani, Rendell, Vermont Governor Howard Dean, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz.John Lewis (D-GA), former FBI Director Louis Freeh, former Sen. Robert Torricelli, former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, former National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers, former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, former CIA Director Porter Goss, senior advisor to the Romney campaign Mitchell Reiss, retired Gen. Anthony Zinni, and former Sen. Evan Bayh.
Congressional aides attended the event on Thursday in the hearing room both out of curiosity and hunger for free food. But multiple aides told The Cable the event was bizarre, even by Congressional standards.
"Looks like you just have to be the ‘right' terrorist organization to hold a fancy party in the halls and hearing rooms of Congress," one House aide told The Cable. "Hope everyone who ate their kabobs doesn't get hit with material support subpoenas."
Assassinations Joint work of Israel and Mojahedin Khalq
(aka;MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult)
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... Anyone in Israel, the United States, or anywhere else hoping for a salubrious regime change in Iran would be foolish to have anything to do with the MEK. Even more important than what is foolish is what is immoral. Terrorism denies the high ground to anyone who uses it, including the use of it in disagreements with Iran. It also hastens the slide through mutually reinforcing hostility into what may be a far more destructive form of violence (i.e., a war). Although the United States has not been involved in the assassinations, the nature of its relationship with Israel, both real andperceived means that Israel's actions suck the United States farther down the slide ...
Although the assassinations of Iranian scientists have until now been followed by no indication of responsibility other than smug comments of satisfaction from officials of the most likely foreign state perpetrator, now NBC offers something more specific. According to a report by Richard Engel and Robert Windrem, the assassinations have been the joint work of Israel and the Iranian cult-cum-terrorist group Mujahedin-e Khalq. According to the report, the partnership has involved Israel providing financing, training and arms to the MEK to accomplish the hits, as well as to commit other acts of violent sabotage inside Iran. The story tracks with accusations from officials of the Iranian government, who say they base most of what they know on interrogations and captured materials from a failed assassination attempt in 2010. Such accusations by themselves would be easy to dismiss, of course, as more of the regime’s propaganda. But the NBC story cites two senior U.S. officials, speaking anonymously, as confirming the story. A third official said “it hasn’t been clearly confirmed yet,” although like the others he denied any U.S. involvement. The Israeli foreign ministry declined comment; the MEK denied the story.
With or without confirmation of details of this story, the assassinations are terrorism. (The official U.S. government definition of terrorism for reporting and statistic-keeping purposes is “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.”) The extra twist in this new report is the use by Israel—already widely believed to have been responsible for the murders—of the MEK, a group with a long track record of terrorism that has included American victims. Other parts of that record, including the MEK having been an arm of Saddam Hussein's security forces, have meant the group has almost no popular support within Iran. Anyone in Israel, the United States, or anywhere else hoping for a salubrious regime change in Iran would be foolish to have anything to do with the MEK.
Even more important than what is foolish is what is immoral. Terrorism denies the high ground to anyone who uses it, including the use of it in disagreements with Iran. It also hastens the slide through mutually reinforcing hostility into what may be a far more destructive form of violence (i.e., a war). Although the United States has not been involved in the assassinations, the nature of its relationship with Israel, both real and perceived (President Obama commented the other day about staying in “lockstep” with Israel on Iran), means that Israel's actions suck the United States farther down the slide.
Amid all the reasons for dismay and outrage over this, there is also an irony. One of the oft-repeated rationales for the conventional wisdom that an Iranian nuclear weapon would be unacceptable is that it would somehow turn Iran into a regional marauder that would recklessly throw its weight around the Middle East in damaging ways. Well, there is an example of a Middle Eastern state that behaves in such a way, but it isn't Iran. This state invades neighboring countries, ruthlessly inflicting destruction on civilian populations, and seizes and colonizes territory through military force. It also uses terrorist group proxies as well as its own agents to conduct assassinations in other countries in the region.
Besides terrorism, there also is, as with any prototypical rogue state, a nuclear weapons angle. This state, unlike Iran, has never signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty or admitted an international inspector to any of its nuclear facilities. Even though it has had a sizable arsenal of nuclear weapons for decades, it has kept its nuclear weapons program completely out of reach of any international scrutiny or arms control regime and does not even acknowledge the program's existence. It also is so intent on maintaining its regional nuclear weapons monopoly that it is using terrorism to strike at the nuclear program of a country that doesn't even have one nuclear weapon and probably hasn't made a decision to make one.
One could almost argue that this record of behavior supports that conventional wisdom about what an Iranian nuke would do to Iran's behavior. But actually it doesn't. The behavior of the state in question is made possible not by nuclear weapons but instead by its conventional military superiority over its neighbors and by the cover provided by a subservient, protective great power whose policies it is able to manipulate.
The United States needs to distance itself as much as possible from this ugliness, for the sake of adhering to its own principles as well as trying to avoid sliding any further toward catastrophe. It was good that Secretary of State Clinton quickly disavowed the most recent assassination, but distancing requires something more. Forget the lockstep business. Israel is out of step with American policy because it evidently is out of step with American values and American interests. Washington needs to proclaim loudly and repeatedly that the sort of terrorism that the NBC report describes is the antithesis of how differences with Iran ought to be settled, and that those differences need to be settled through diplomacy. Then negotiate like we really mean it. Two distinguished retired U.S. diplomats, William Luers and Thomas Pickering, have recently provided some excellent instruction on how to do that.
Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) terrorists in Iraq battle using press releases targetting UNAMI
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... But soon after, the group began complaining about conditions in Camp Liberty and accusing the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), which in January said Liberty met "international humanitarian standards," of misrepresenting conditions there. The PMOI's focus on public relations campaigns marked by frequent statements to the media and cultivating well-known western politicians to speak on its behalf differs dramatically from its past activities. The leftwing group was founded in the 1960s to oppose the shah of Iran, but took up arms against the country's new clerical rulers after the 1979 Islamic revolution ...
Iran exiles in Iraq do battle using press releases
An Iraq-based Iranian opposition group that is fixated on conspiracy theories allegedly carried out attacks in Iran and elsewhere for decades, but now relies on a different weapon: the press release.
The United Nations mission here, which has been attempting to facilitate the exit of some 3,400 members of the opposition People's Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) from Iraq, where they have been based for decades, has been the latest target of the group's statement-issuing ire.
Iraq wants the PMOI out of its territory, and signed an agreement with the UN in December to that end.
On February 18, the first group of 397 exiles moved from their longtime base of Camp Ashraf in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad to Camp Liberty, a former US military base near the Iraqi capital, as part of that process.
But soon after, the group began complaining about conditions in Camp Liberty and accusing the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), which in January said Liberty met "international humanitarian standards," of misrepresenting conditions there.
The PMOI's focus on public relations campaigns marked by frequent statements to the media and cultivating well-known western politicians to speak on its behalf differs dramatically from its past activities.
The leftwing group was founded in the 1960s to oppose the shah of Iran, but took up arms against the country's new clerical rulers after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The US State Department, which blacklists the PMOI as a terrorist organisation, says it has carried out attacks that killed Iranians, as well as American soldiers and civilians, from the 1970s into 2001.
Now-executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein allowed the PMOI to establish Camp Ashraf in Iraq after he launched the 1980-88 war with Iran in which the group reportedly fought alongside his forces, and provided financial backing to the group.
But the PMOI said it renounced violence in 2001 and its members in Iraq were disarmed following the 2003 US-led invasion, leaving it in need of other tactics.
It successfully campaigned to be delisted as a terrorist organisation in Europe and is working to do the same in the US too.
A day after the first group of the exiles moved to Liberty, PMOI spokesman Shahriar Kia sent a statement by email alleging a UN expert who assessed the camp told "lies" and apparently "was compelled to file an unrealistic report," with "necessary modifications" made by "political authorities" from UNAMI.
"The bungalows and toilet facilities" were "dirty and unusable," and "there is serious water shortage and electricity is cut off, as in prisons, after 10.30 pm."
A statement emailed the next day described Camp Liberty as "a highly controlled prison," referring to the presence of Iraqi security forces.
Iraqi forces carried out two deadly raids on Camp Ashraf in 2009 and 2011, leaving dozens of people dead.
It continued: "Everything shows that at the behest of the Iranian regime, the Iraqi government has turned this camp into a prison and regretfully, UNAMI and (UN envoy) Mr Martin Kobler himself ... assist in this prison-making by confirming it as a refugee camp."
Another email from Kia on February 27 referred to the "lies that Martin Kobler made to the residents of Camp Ashraf for a forcible relocation to Camp Liberty."
When asked about the PMOI statements, Kobler told AFP that Camp Liberty "was host of 5,000 American soldiers, so it should be possible to have the infrastructure ready also for these 400 persons who are now living there."
"I do not think that the infrastructure problem is the problem," he said.
"If there is garbage, the garbage can be removed and should be removed, and the government of Iraq stands ready ... to have garbage trucks available, but they have to enter the camp to remove the garbage," he said.
"The aim of the whole exercise is to have the ... refugee status determination moving," he said, referring to a process which must be completed before the exiles can be resettled.
The PMOI meanwhile says it is facing "conspiracies."
"The whole plan for the relocation of the residents of Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty is an Iranian plan, and the mullah?s regime?s plan, and nobody else," Kia said in an interview with AFP, referring to the cleric-led government in Tehran.
He referred to the new camp as "Prison Liberty," saying that "their plan is to destroy the Iranian opposition" there.
Kia also said that "espionage cameras and ... eavesdropping devices" in Liberty give information "to the Iranian embassy and to the agents of the Iranian regime."
When asked about the purpose of the flurry of statements on the UN, Kia referred to demands over Camp Liberty.
These include the removal of Iraqi armed forces from Liberty and freedom of movement for residents, but also, despite numerous statements accusing the UN of lying about conditions there, a demand for around-the-clock UN monitoring.
... There are talks about Ashraf inhabitants. Who is their representative? Is the self-appointed totalitarian leader of a mind control destructive cult recognized to talk on their behalf? Why there are always talks about terrorism but not about mind control? You know well that the latter is the base of the former. Is the US administration making the same mistake as was mentioned in the RAND report and is preserving a cult with terrorist application? The Sahar Family Foundation (SFF) has always emphasized that without involving the families there would be no solution for the dilemma, and unfortunately the US administration ...
With regards, on behalf of the ex-members and families picketing outside the Ashraf garrison in Iraq we wish to draw your attention to the following:
We were informed that you have stated: “M.E.K. cooperation in the successful and peaceful closure of Camp Ashraf” will be “a key factor in any decision” on its longstanding request that the State Department lift its terrorist designation.
We have no argument on lifting its terrorist designation or not, since it is not our concern and has no effect on our tasks. This is up to the US administration which will of course act on national and political interests. As far as we are concerned, we are seeking a humanitarian goal to which no government (including Iraq and the US) and no international organization has paid any proper attention.
The MEK led by Massoud Rajavi is a destructive mind control cult which is manipulating its members using psychological techniques in order to keep them captive. The families of the members have been sitting outside the Ashraf garrison for more than two years with the request of just visiting their loved ones freely. This request has been completely denied by Rajavi. He is afraid that once these people meet their families and have the smallest access to the outside world their minds would break free and they would no longer stay in the cult. Only once Rajavi accepts this request we can say that he has cooperated.
Moving from 'Ashraf' to 'Liberty' would not be good for anyone as long as its cultic structure is kept intact. It is just like moving an armed mine from one place to another. If the mine is defused (the cult’s structure is changed) and left where it is, it would be much more beneficial than moving it to another place without defusing it. Merely moving the cult physically without changing its cultic relationship which is the basis of its terrorist characteristic will have no effect whatsoever.
The Rajavi cult has claimed that since the invasion of Iraq by the allied forces it has abandoned its weapons and was not involved in any terrorist activities. But you know well that this cult was forced to be disarmed by the American Forces and had no means to get engaged in military actions. Rajavi then said that “we want the owner of the weapon rather than the weapon itself” and vowed to his followers that they would be given modern weapons by the Americans. Rajvai gave the weapons to keep the cultic structure of the MEK. Now, Rajavi is prepared to give up the Ashraf garrison in order to keep its inhabitants and his organization intact. By doing so he would be able to establish another “Ashraf” elsewhere. This by no means is considered as “cooperation” since when being unarmed, Rajavi gave up his weapons but as soon as the cult was de-proscribed by the EU, he issued a statement and claimed his weapons back.
As far as the suffering families are concerned, there are 3400 captives in the hand of Rajavi who have no access whatsoever with the outside world no matter being in Ashraf or in Liberty. Rajavi is prepared to pull back provided he is able to keep his cultic structure and rule over his followers. So long as he is keeping his cult as it is he is able to conduct terrorism. Unfortunately the western governments as well as the international organizations in the past 9 years have played Saddam Hussein’s role for the MEK and have restored Rajavi’s physical and psychological rule and influence over his captive members.
There are talks about Ashraf inhabitants. Who is their representative? Is the self-appointed totalitarian leader of a mind control destructive cult recognized to talk on their behalf? Why there are always talks about terrorism but not about mind control? You know well that the latter is the base of the former. Is the US administration making the same mistake as was mentioned in the RAND report and is preserving a cult with terrorist application?
The Sahar Family Foundation (SFF) has always emphasized that without involving the families there would be no solution for the dilemma, and unfortunately the US administration that plays a vital role in the case pays no attention to this key factor and sill tries to solve the problem without engaging the true representatives of Ashraf inhabitants. We are afraid that in this case this difficulty will remain unsolved.
Sahar Family Foundation Baghdad – March, 1st, 2012
Falling victim to the Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult)
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... Part one of a two part documentary about an Iranian refugee family's mistake when they fell victim to the deceitful recruitment activities of the Mojahedin-e Khalq. The Mohammadis lost their thirteen year old daughter into captivity in Camp Ashraf. They almost lost their son too, but were able to rescue him from Iraq before the 2003 US invasion closed the camp for the next nine years ...
Falling victim to the Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult)
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... Part two of a two part documentary about an Iranian refugee family's mistake when they fell victim to the deceitful recruitment activities of the Mojahedin-e Khalq. The Mohammadis lost their thirteen year old daughter into captivity in Camp Ashraf. They almost lost their son too, but were able to rescue him from Iraq before the 2003 US invasion closed the camp for the next nine years ...
The achievements of two years of picketing by the families
(Rajavi is a hostage taker, Rajavi is nobody's representative)
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... Today it is clear to everyone that the leaders of the Rajavi cult like all similar cults anywhere in the world which use destructive mind control methods do not see themselves bound by their words or their signatures. It is now clear that they are more than anything else afraid that their forces (hostages) would run away during this transfer. Sooner or later, Rajavi will have to give up Ashraf garrison - which is situated on land illegally and forcefully confiscated by his benefactor Saddam Hussein where he built a military base which he later gifted to the Mojahedin Khalq. Sooner or later he will have to face the fact that the members will be deported from Iraq ...
As you know, an agreement has been struck between UNAMI, the Iraqi Government and the leaders of the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation according to which the camp should be evacuated by the end of year 2011.
Also, according to this agreement the deportation of Mojahedin Khalq will be delayed by another 6 months in which time the UNHCR would be able to register the residents and carry out individual interviews in preparation to transfer them to other countries.
According to the Memorandum of Understanding, an initial 400 of the residents of Camp Ashraf are to be transferred to the former American Camp Liberty adjacent to Baghdad Airport, but to this day, 30th December 2011, the leaders of the Rajavi cult have rejected the planned transfer by bringing all sorts of reasons and excuses, clearly against the agreements accepted by the other two parties involved (UNAMI and the GOI).
Today it is clear to everyone that the leaders of the Rajavi cult like all similar cults anywhere in the world which use destructive mind control methods do not see themselves bound by their words or their signatures. It is now clear that they are more than anything else afraid that their forces (hostages) would run away during this transfer. Sooner or later, Rajavi will have to give up Ashraf garrison - which is situated on land illegally and forcefully confiscated by his benefactor Saddam Hussein where he built a military base which he later gifted to the Mojahedin Khalq. Sooner or later he will have to face the fact that the members will be deported from Iraq.
It is worth mentioning the continuous hard work of the families of the people trapped inside the camp who have stayed by the camp for the last two years and demanded their human rights from their base, which they call Freedom City, built adjacent to Camp Ashraf. They exposed the lies of Rajavi and they proved that the leader of the Mojahedin Khalq cult has no respect whatsoever for the people and the loved ones taken hostage inside the camp.
It is now clear to everyone that it is the fathers, mothers, children and spouses of the trapped people who represent the best interest of the hostages and not the leaders of the cult.
The agreement between all parties to sort out the problem of Camp Ashraf could not have been achieved without the hard work and the suffering of these families, especially during the last two years. They have worked flat out for the last two years in Freedom City, adjacent to Camp Ashraf for two years and intend to do so for as long as it takes. It is clear that even after the transfer of Rajavi's hostages to a new location, the families will not rest until they achieve their minimum demand of private visits with their loved ones. The hope of reaching this goal is now greater and nearer than ever and the number of families is continually increasing in number. They have all decided to finish the quest that began two years ago and to not give up until they have achieved their simple humanitarian demand of 'Right of Visits' with their captured relatives.
SFF on behalf of the picketing families would like to extend its appreciation to all the survivors and ex-members, as well as human rights activists in Iraq, Iran and other countries who have been aiding and supporting the families and helping their voices be heard in the world.
With the hope that one day soon the goal of the freedom of every one of our loved ones takes the tiredness of all these years off our bodies.
(Maryam Rajavi directly ordered the massacre of Kurdish people)
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