Iraqi government opens refugee camp to diplomats, hoping to resettle Mojahedin Khalq elsewhere (aka; MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult)
Iraqi government opens refugee camp to diplomats, hoping to resettle Mojahedin Khalq elsewhere
(aka; MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult)
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... Iraq’s government has given foreign diplomats a rare look inside a refugee camp housing Iranian exiles, as Baghdad seeks international help resettling them in another country. Baghdad’s Shiite-led government considers the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq a terrorist organization that is living in the country illegally. The government organized Tuesday’s visit to Camp Liberty outside the capital, where 2,300 members of the group live, to speed their departure. The MEK is an opposition group to Tehran’s clerical regime and cannot return to Iran. They were given sanctuary in Iraq by Saddam Hussein decades ago. Many say they consider Camp Liberty ...
(Rajavi, Saddam and the Mojahedin Khalq logo)
(Terrorist MEK, disarmed after the fall of Saddam)
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s government has given foreign diplomats a rare look inside a refugee camp housing Iranian exiles, as Baghdad seeks international help resettling them in another country.
Baghdad’s Shiite-led government considers the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq a terrorist organization that is living in the country illegally. The government organized Tuesday’s visit to Camp Liberty outside the capital, where 2,300 members of the group live, to speed their departure.
The MEK is an opposition group to Tehran’s clerical regime and cannot return to Iran. They were given sanctuary in Iraq by Saddam Hussein decades ago.
Many say they consider Camp Liberty a prison, and are reluctantly leaving their longtime residence in another Iraqi settlement, Camp Ashraf, a virtual mini-city with many amenities.
Several diplomats offered cautious support for Baghdad’s efforts to settle them outside Iraq.
Letter of Mr. Ali Hussien-Nezhad to Mr. Martin Kobler
(On Mojahedin Khalq, MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult)
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... I fully back your efforts for a peaceful solution to the dilemma of the MKO in Iraq and I urge you not to be influenced by the MKO lobby which is active in the western countries and be firm in demanding the MKO leaders to allow the captives to be free. The best thing to do is to permit the families to stay nearby Camp Liberty and provide facilities for them to meet their beloved ones and negate the negative atmosphere created against the families by the MKO and stop the brainwashing of members and creating phobia inside their minds against the outside world and ensure they have full and free access ...
Mr. Ali Hussein-Nezhad, the former veteran member of the MKO who has recently managed to escape form Camp Liberty and gain his freedom, has written a letter to Mr. Martin Kobler.
The full text of the letter comes below:
Mr. Martin Kobler
Special Representative of the UN General Secretary for Iraq and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI),
Around three months ago, immediately after walking out of Camp Liberty, I met you and Mr. Nicola, head of the UNAMI human rights delegation in Baghdad. Two months ago I wrote my first letter to you.
In our meeting I described the suppression and repression and the cultic behavior and relationships inside Ashraf and Liberty, and how the members are kept unaware about the outside world and about their families. I defined how the followers of the Rajavi cult are forced to divorce their spouses and abandon their children and suppress all feelings but those towards the leadership.
I emphasized that all means of contact and communication with the outside world including internet, mobile phone, telephone, radio, television, newspaper, and etc. are forbidden. Even reading books is considered out of the question by the leaders of the MKO. Both in our meeting and in my first letter I declared that the cult has killed all normal human feelings inside the mind and soul of the members. Any kind of contact with the outside world, particularly with family and friends is forbidden. One must not even think about family relations inside the cult and any such thoughts must be reported as 'mal thinking'.
I informed you that even inside Camp Ashraf they prevented me from visiting my daughter who is also a member of the organization and residing in the same camp. In previous years we were able to meet once a year on the Persian New Year for about one or two hours, a meeting which was under the total supervision of the superiors. But this year they announced there would be no family visits inside the camp. It is almost one and a half years that I have not seen my daughter Zeinab.
When I was being transferred to Camp Liberty in the fourth group, I was told that my daughter would be sent soon after me. But I learned from the Iraqi officials that she is still in Camp Ashraf. In fact they have kept my daughter as a hostage to make me keep quiet. They also do not wish my daughter to learn that I have left the organization.
My daughter is registered on the list of UNHCR asylum seekers, the number is 350 and my registration number is 920. We were both granted French travel documents in 1988 following our arrival in France in 1986. My daughter called her younger sister in Iran at the request of the organization around 6 years ago and never called again.
I am worried about her since no one, even in a prison, would reject family contacts. These people are deprived of any sort of outside communication. I am sure that there is a lot of pressure on my daughter and that they will not let her go to Camp Liberty and I should say that her life is really in danger.
Therefore I urge you to put pressure on the officials of the MKO in Camp Ashraf and persuade them to allow me and my younger daughter to meet with my 34 year old daughter Zeinab.
Dear Sir,
The leader of the MKO has turned the organization into a destructive mind control cult and has no aim but saving himself by sacrificing the innocent people who are his captives in Ashraf and in Liberty. He intends to provoke clashes with the Iraqi government and forces and this is the reason behind creating obstacles in the process of transition and creating unreasonable conditions. He aims to buy time and is waiting for some delusional political conditions in his favor which will enable him to stay in Iraq. This is why he does not wish to leave Ashraf and give it away. He knows full well that by leaving Ashraf the pressure on his cult will be enormous and this could result in his cult being dissolved.
Rajavi has even rejected Iraq’s humane proposal of moving the residents of Ashraf into hotels, a proposal which you backed. This exposed the real aim of the leaders of the cult; that all they are intending is to keep the cultic relationship and save the cult intact. The MKO in its statement called Iraq’s proposal gruesome and a plot against the organization and your dirty souvenir from Tehran. The MKO leaders have insulted you on many occasions in its propaganda since you did not accept all their unjust demands. Everyone knows about your humanitarian efforts to solve the problem and praise your exertions but Rajavi is not happy with the problem being solved peacefully and has asked for a UN representative appointed for Ashraf. They are playing the same game they played against Mr. Butler, the former representative of the USA in the negotiations with the MKO to move the residents of Ashraf elsewhere. When Mr. Butler finally announced that the leaders of the MKO do not intend to solve the problem peacefully they denounced him, but finally they had to accept leaving Ashraf.
All conditions announced by the MKO would be achieved by transferring the residents to hotels except conditions such as creating a green environment and manual work which are intended only to create conditions to remain in Iraq and not be transferred to a third country. They became so angered by this proposal from the Iraqi government that they wanted to leave the meeting. This clearly shows that moving into a hotel means that the hostages and the victims would have a chance to free themselves from this inhuman cult. This rejection shows how the leaders of the cult are afraid of their Stalinist organization being dismantled. The reason is that in a hotel they would not be able to force the members to perform hard labor and they would not be able to keep the members inside the boundaries of control and systematically brainwash them. In this case they would not be able to use the members as human shields to protect the leaders.
The two conditions that the MKO have put forward are having permission to sell their belongings and freedom of movement. Firstly I should say that the leader of the MKO has no rights over these so-called belongings since they are the property of the people and the government of Iraq. When I was the senior interpreter for Rajavi in the Foreign Relations Department since the year 2000 (the part which deals with the affairs with Iraq both before and after the fall of Saddam Hussein), I witnessed that at least 3 million barrels of oil a day was received from the Iraqi ministry of oil (equivalent to 90 million dollars according to the price of oil in those days), in line with the UN policy of oil for food and medicine. They used to sell this oil on the international market and have money for their necessities. In this way they were able to buy cars and other goods.
Secondly I must emphasize that they want freedom of movement only for their top officials. The ordinary members have always been deprived of free movement, even inside the camps, since they are afraid they might escape. In the past both in Ashraf and in Liberty the leaders of the cult have prevented the members from moving freely even within the camps, let alone letting them leave the camps. All sorts of posts and checkpoints have been established to limit the movement of ordinary members. They did not even allow those sick and injured people about whom they had doubts about their loyalty to go outside the camp for further medical treatment. Only recently they allowed some of those with severe illness out of the camp, but only after it were too late and they only dismissed them in order to let them die outside the camp and evade the consequences. It is hypocrisy for the leaders to complain about the conditions of Camp Liberty and compare it with a prison when they have kept the members captive for more than 30 years. The one who has turned Ashraf, and now Liberty, into a prison is Massoud Rajavi. A unique prison with no rights of access to their families, no letters, no telephone, no email, and of course no meetings. In any prison in any place in the world, even in the harshest dictatorships, prisoners have the right to contact their families and even have the right to go on leave to visit them. Recently the UN has issued a statement and declared that the residents of Camp Liberty have no access to the outside world and called for freedom of contact with their families.
To clarify this matter further and in order to reveal Rajavi’s aim behind such demands, I propose that the government of Iraq declares its readiness to allow MKO members to go for pilgrimage to the holy cities of Kerbela and Najaf in groups. In this case the leaders of the MKO would certainly reject the offer and as in previous cases would call it a conspiracy to destroy the “Iranian Resistance!” which means their only concern is the freedom of the captive residents and that they might escape. It would be a nightmare for Rajavi if the families would also go with them on this pilgrimage. According to the atmosphere I was witnessed inside the organization, the vast majority of the members, particularly the veterans, would leave the cult provided they find a suitable moment. I can give you the names and details of many of my colleagues inside both Ashraf and Liberty who are under severe pressure and they really wish to leave and I have informed Mr. Nicola the head of the UN human rights monitoring group about them.
The leaders of the MKO prevent the members from even thinking about going to a third country and force them to give reports if they have such so-called evil thoughts and to be ready to be denounced and humiliated and be accused of betraying the struggle. Maryam Rajavi declared in her last statement in March before the move to Liberty that we must turn Liberty the most beautiful city in the world and make it just like Ashraf. Abbas Davari in a meeting inside the Americans' church in Liberty said that 'they say this is a transit and interim camp, I say the whole world is temporary and it is seventy years that I am in transit. We will stay here to the end of our lives'. Massoumeh Malek-Mohammadi also said in another meeting that this is not a transit camp, but another Ashraf for us. Massoud Rajavi in a call-conference for our group (the forth one) before leaving Ashraf said that 'we wish to have two Ashraf garrisons and you will see how the Iranian regime will condemn Maleki because he was meant to get rid of us and now we have two bases'. This was followed by the crowd cheering.
If you see the MKO propaganda in Europe and in America and follow their lobbying activities you will notice that their aim is to remain in Iraq and they have no intention of leaving Iraq for another country. You rightly asked everyone to be active toward the MKO to force the leaders to cooperate with the UN to move the residents of Liberty to another country. As far as I have been in touch with the ex-members, all are eager for a peaceful solution for the MKO in order to be moved to a safer place. They must have the right to be informed about the outside world and choose their own destiny. The excuses Rajavi invents to keep them inside Iraq for his evil purposes should be condemned.
Dear Mr. Kobler
I fully back your efforts for a peaceful solution to the dilemma of the MKO in Iraq and I urge you not to be influenced by the MKO lobby which is active in the western countries and be firm in demanding the MKO leaders to allow the captives to be free. The best thing to do is to permit the families to stay nearby Camp Liberty and provide facilities for them to meet their beloved ones and negate the negative atmosphere created against the families by the MKO and stop the brainwashing of members and creating phobia inside their minds against the outside world and ensure they have full and free access to telephone and internet and radio and television and publications.
I sincerely thank you and wish you every success in your good work.
Defected Member: Mojahedin Khalq Seeking Bloody Battle with Iraqi Forces
(aka; MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult)
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... A defected member of the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO also known as the MEK, PMOI and NCR) disclosed that the terrorist group is seeking to spark a bloody conflict with the Iraqi government's security forces before leaving its main stronghold in Iraq, known as Camp Ashraf. "The MKO's (main) ringleader, Massoud Rajavi, intends to ignore the Iraqi government's warnings and the UN advice in a bid to pave the ground for the Iraqi government's military reaction and use of force to misuse the resulting events,"Rajavi had earlier in his remarks said neglecting the Iraqi ...
A defected member of the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO also known as the MEK, PMOI and NCR) disclosed that the terrorist group is seeking to spark a bloody conflict with the Iraqi government's security forces before leaving its main stronghold in Iraq, known as Camp Ashraf.
"The MKO's (main) ringleader, Massoud Rajavi, intends to ignore the Iraqi government's warnings and the UN advice in a bid to pave the ground for the Iraqi government's military reaction and use of force to misuse the resulting events," the defected member said, quoted by the Habilian Association - a human rights group formed of the families of 17,000 Iranian terror victims.
Rajavi had earlier in his remarks said neglecting the Iraqi government's ultimatum for leaving Camp Ashraf is an honor for him and his terrorist group.
The defected member said that Rajavi shows such defiance while he severely needs the blood of the Camp Ashraf residents to stabilize his conditions in Europe and attain his goals.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).
Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.
The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.
The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran's new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam's army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
Hassan Sharqi, former member of MKO left the group
(aka; Mojahedin Khalq, MEK, Rajavi cult)
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... Members were all the time humiliated, verbally abused and mentally tortured for talking to their peers or having ideas against the leaders’ interests. We were even physically abused. For example, I was severely beaten, under the order of Roqayeh Abbasi, by Iraj Taleshi, Alireza Qanbari, Massoud Assadi and Mohammad Moradi because I had talked to another person at the eastern side of Camp Ashraf, outside the camp. Besides, the cult forces members both female and male to write their thoughts and even their sexual dreams and read them to their peers in Rajavi-made sessions called “weekly Cleansing” ...
Mr. Hassan Sharqi, former member of Mujahedin Khalq Organization left the group on August 22nd after he was interviewed by UN authorities. He declared his defection from the cult giving an official statement to Sahar Family Foundation:
I am Hassan Sharqi. I was born in 1954 in the North of Iran. I could manage to release myself from the criminal cult of Rajavi after 24 years of imprisonment while I was being interviewed by UN High Commissioner for Refugees, on Saturday August 22nd.
I asked to leave the organization for the first time on December 22, 2008, writing a report to Mozhgan Parsaee [the then top fficial of the MKO] but my request was declined. A twelve-hour meeting was held for me in which Mozhgan, Mehri, Saeed Naqash, Samad Kalantari and Hekmat refused my demand. The second time, On July27, I signed a white paper and wrote on the foot that I confirmed my expulsion from the group. I submitted the paper to the official of my unit, Habibeh Tavoli, in order that they wrote on the top anything they wanted but this time together with Hooshang Doudkani she held a 4-hour long meeting to refuse my request for defection.
In 1989 after years of imprisonment as a war prisoner in Iraq, I thought that I would get rid of Saddam Hussein forces’ atrocities so I asked to be transferred to Rajavi’s Camp, but there I found myself imprisoned by an inhumane cult where the individuals had no right to think freely. Talking to each other was considered as a meeting so it was forbidden.
Members were all the time humiliated, verbally abused and mentally tortured for talking to their peers or having ideas against the leaders’ interests. We were even physically abused. For example, I was severely beaten, under the order of Roqayeh Abbasi, by Iraj Taleshi, Alireza Qanbari, Massoud Assadi and Mohammad Moradi because I had talked to another person at the eastern side of Camp Ashraf, outside the camp.
Besides, the cult forces members both female and male to write their thoughts and even their sexual dreams and read them to their peers in Rajavi-made sessions called “weekly Cleansing”. This way they get humiliated in front of others. Regarding forced divorces, mandatory celibacy and separation of genders in the MKO, these sessions are just a type of sexual torture.
Members of the group are deprived from any contact with the outside world including their family. Any contact with your family and any news from the outside world are forbidden. When I first entered the group in 1989, a person named Zahra Rajabi took all the money I had collected during my 9 years of imprisonment together with my wedding ring and my necklace that were a souvenir from my family and were so precious. She told me whenever it was needed they would give it to me but they never did.
Because of the above-mentioned reasons and other reasons that I will explain thoroughly in future, I decided to escape the cult after I was provided with the opportunity in Temporary Transit Location and the help of UNHCR.
I ask the authorities of the United Nations and families of people imprisoned in both camp Ashraf and Liberty to try their best for the release of my friends of whom the majority are willing to leave the cult. In my idea, family’s presence in Iraq is a necessity since it is a stimulant for them to leave the MKO.
... Tahar Boumedra was a well known character in Iraq during his tenure there. He enjoyed friendly relations with the MEK and was one of very few outsiders who were allowed inside Camp Ashraf. After leaving his post in Iraq, flights and accommodation have reportedly been paid by MEK supporter, R.Bruce McColm, President of Global Initiative for Democracy, as part of a campaign to advocate for the MEK. The second of Rajavi's demands is that the MEK must come off the US terrorism list. There are a host of reasons behind this demand. The most important of which is that Rajavi believes this to be key to the continued longevity of his group ...
Almostanserieh university, Baghdad
Paper on Mojahedin Khalq (Anne Singleton)2011
Anne Singleton, Middle East Strategy Consultants, August 25 2012 http://mesconsult.com
Author of the books "The Life of Camp Ashraf (Mojahedin-e Khalq – Victims of Many Masters)" and "Saddam's Private Army". http://camp-ashraf.com
Another date has come and gone after Massoud Rajavi - through his wife Maryam - agreed that the next group of MEK members would transfer to Camp Liberty on 23 August. Of course, welcome as such statements of intent are, there are many considerations which need to be taken into account before such a move can be undertaken. Not least of which is that there exists an accountable, humanitarian process for transferring these people which needs to be in place before they can be moved. This process is reliant on the scrupulously proper procedures detailed by the UN working in conjunction with the Iraqi authorities. Certainly there will be nothing to prevent the movement once these procedures are in place. It will only depend then on the MEK leaders being true to their word and allowing the individuals to be moved. The arrest of MEK spokesman Mohammad Eqbal for deliberately obstructing this process must send a clear message to the MEK leader Massoud Rajavi that he must comply the with legal requirement to allow these people to leave Camp Ashraf. Alas, so far the MEK continues to mire the process with unwarranted prevarication as the MEK leader persists in making his unreasonable demands; demands designed to cause confusion and frustration and to attempt to provoke disagreements and recriminations between the Iraqis, the UN and international observers.
The MEK leader says two things must happen before anyone else moves.
His first demand is a delaying tactic. Rajavi says that conditions in Camp Liberty must be improved - in spite of it being judged to meet internationally agreed standards. A Washington Times report quoting Mr Tahar Boumedra, the former human rights chief at the U.N. mission in Baghdad who resigned his post in May accused Martin Kobler the UN Special Representative for Iraq of deliberately covering up 'prison like conditions' at the camp.
Jared Kotler, New York-based spokesman for the U.N. Department of Political Affairs, which oversees the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq said, “It is regrettable that such a distorted picture is being presented of the efforts of the United Nations in Iraq to resolve peacefully the situation of Camp Ashraf”. Mr. Kotler said the U.N. mission under Mr. Kobler’s leadership had worked “diligently and impartially to facilitate a peaceful solution that respects the rights and concerns of both the residents and the government of Iraq.”
“These efforts are one of the main reasons why this very tense situation has not already spilled over into further violence,” he added.
Tahar Boumedra was a well known character in Iraq during his tenure there. He enjoyed friendly relations with the MEK and was one of very few outsiders who were allowed inside Camp Ashraf. After leaving his post in Iraq, flights and accommodation have reportedly been paid by MEK supporter, R.Bruce McColm, President of Global Initiative for Democracy, as part of a campaign to advocate for the MEK.
The second of Rajavi's demands is that the MEK must come off the US terrorism list. There are a host of reasons behind this demand. The most important of which is that Rajavi believes this to be key to the continued longevity of his group.
Rajavi's worst fear is the inevitable dissolution of his cult. This long term problem is still ongoing partly in the form of natural attrition of forces. As residents of Camp Ashraf have been moved to Camp Liberty, they are offered a glimpse of the normality of the outside world. Several have taken advantage of this and voluntarily walked away from the group to take refuge with the Iraqi authorities. A major problem for Rajavi is that during the UNHCR refugee determination interviews in which the residents of the camps are being assessed for refugee status, it is made clear that in order to qualify for refugee status the individual must renounce membership of the MEK. Rajavi is being advised wrongly if he believes that delisting the MEK as a terrorist entity will allow individuals to maintain membership of a political group and qualify for refugee status. He needs to ask for clarification of the legal requirements for assigning refugee status. Certainly delisting in the US will not affect the situation of individuals in Iraq.
More importantly however Iraq citizens demonstrated recently against the continued presence of the MEK in their country. The Iraqi government has reiterated their demand - the MEK cannot be regarded as anything except a terrorist organisation and they must all leave Iraq. Iraqis claim that the delays and game playing are all aimed at eventually taking the group off the US list and that this will lead to pressure on the Government of Iraq to keep the group there. The Iraqis argue that any such move would be irrelevant and that Iraq will always regard the MEK as terrorists because of its past history and its current behaviour. The MEK's current behaviour is a clear case of interference in the internal affairs of Iraq should not be tolerated by mediators like the UN or US or EU.
The Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said however that delisting the MEK in other countries would allow these countries to receive the former members as refugees.
... You would imagine that, when offered a (now retracted) deal like that from Hillary Clinton – give up Camp Ashraf to give us some grounds to take you off the US terror list – bearing in mind the concomitant Patriot Act funding that would surely follow - Massoud Rajavi would grab it with both hands, vacate the camp and make plans to move his army to a similar camp in another country neighbouring Iran. Instead, Rajavi, ungrateful cur that he is, has again completely misread the situation and lost the only opportunity he had of redeeming his organisation and giving it a future. His infantile inability to give up what he holds ...
(Anne Singleton Outside Camp Ashraf gates)
Anne Singleton, Middle East Strategy Consultants, Julu 20 2012 http://mesconsult.com
You would imagine that, when offered a (now retracted) deal like that from Hillary Clinton – give up Camp Ashraf to give us some grounds to take you off the US terror list – bearing in mind the concomitant Patriot Act funding that would surely follow - Massoud Rajavi would grab it with both hands, vacate the camp and make plans to move his army to a similar camp in another country neighbouring Iran.
Instead, Rajavi, ungrateful cur that he is, has again completely misread the situation and lost the only opportunity he had of redeeming his organisation and giving it a future. His infantile inability to give up what he holds in his hand on the promise of some greater gift held out to him is reminiscent of his reaction during the first Gulf War when he ignored covert attempts by the West to get him to leave Iraq and disassociate from Saddam Hussein’s regime. Instead, Rajavi stayed put and stained the MEK forever with the massacre of thousands of Kurdish and Shiite civilians in an effort to sustain his benefactor in power.
Blinded and dazzled by the smoke and mirrors of his own deceptive tricks, Rajavi simply cannot see what to the rest of the world is completely obvious. Now he has not only bitten the hand that could have fed him, but has gnawed and gnarled it to the point of leaving top US diplomat Daniel Fried reportedly “furious”. Perhaps he has spent so long sitting in his bunker in Camp Ashraf peering out at ants and lizards that he could not see the big picture, which was the rescue and resurrection of the MEK by Western power brokers, and has instead held out for some petty deals to do with the transfer of air-conditioning units and personal cars and planting trees at a temporary camp.
We know that his aim is to stay in Iraq as long as possible in the hope a new dawn will arise and the MEK will carry on as before. But we also know this is impossible and that the unspoken offer of a move to another country was his best, now missed, opportunity.
What Rajavi doesn’t appear to understand is that what he must think is his brilliant and sophisticated trick to save his cult is risibly exposed by its own stupidity.
Does it not occur to Rajavi at all that everyone else can see the totally bizarre and unhelpful contradictions in the campaign messages he has lodged in the three countries where his fate is being decided. Has he not heard of the internet or media scrutiny, or simple critical thinking?
In Iraq Rajavi has told his followers that when they arrive in Camp Liberty and they are taken for the UNHCR refugee determination interviews – in which they are alone with no MEK oversight – they must refuse to disavow their MEK membership otherwise the UN will send them out of Iraq where they will be hunted down by the Iranian regime and killed. As a result only a small number of those transferred to Camp Liberty have allowed themselves to be eligible for refugee status by renouncing their membership of the MEK.
Regardless of the motive, Rajavi’s message in Iraq is clear: ‘the MEK is an illegal but fully trained paramilitary (terrorist) group which must stay intact in order to continue its aim to violently overthrow the ruling system in Iran’.
In America however, the completely opposite message is being rolled out in a massively funded propaganda campaign which aims to convince the State Department, on no evidence except repeated lies, that the MEK has never been a terrorist entity, that the six Americans killed in Iran in the 1970s were killed by an offshoot of the real MEK, and the subsequent deaths of 16,000 Iranians and 25,000 Iraqis either never happened or were the work of a different MEK or was the result of legitimate freedom fighting and that the original terrorist designation in 1997 was made as a pragmatic gift to the Reformist Iranians by the Clinton administration and that the MEK’s real identity is as a democratic, feminist, popular opposition which will lead the Iranian nation in its desperate desire for regime change.
So, the message in America: ‘we have not ever been and are not now terrorists’.
Even more ludicrous then is that a third and different message is being touted in Europe.
Perhaps in anticipation of an unwanted influx of former residents of Camp Ashraf in their countries, the European Union has begun to crack down on MEK activity there. Significantly, the MEK has been evicted from its office inside the European Parliament and has had to establish lobbying offices outside the parliament for its keenest advocates, Struan Stevenson and Alejo Vidal-Quadras. Even this is not acceptable and Brussels is investigating ways to further curtail the MEK’s activities in the city. In the UK, the recent deaths of Lord Corbett and Lord Archer, ardent MEK advocates in the House of Lords, have left a huge hole in the MEK’s lobbying activities. This was reflected clearly in a spate of badly written hysterical press releases which had clearly not had the benefit even the minimum proof reading for style and logic.
Rajavi has had to seek a new narrative in Europe to confront this latest crisis, apparently forgetful or ignorant that those who don’t fall for his smoke and mirrors deception can clearly see what both his right hand and his left hand are doing when he performs his illusions.
With Lord Magginis of Drumglass a Crossbencher from Northern Ireland now advocating for the MEK in the House of Lords, Rajavi has hit upon what must have seemed to him a brilliant idea, which is to borrow from the successful transition of the IRA from terrorists to parliamentarians. Rajavi is now saying that, yes we once were terrorists (we did actually kill thousands and thousands of people), but we have renounced violence and are now peace loving democrats with a feminist face.
(He is forgetting that the IRA brokered their ceasefire and disarmament with their avowed enemy the British government. It is the British government which the IRA were fighting. In the same way, other terrorist entities, such as ETA, must declare and negotiate the terms of any ceasefire directly with their enemy, in this case the government of Spain. The MEK would find this impossible since they have not and cannot change their violent malignity toward the government and ruling system of Iran. Besides, the MEK have never announced to its own membership that it either has, or intends to, renounce violence, let alone made a public statement to this effect.)
So, in Europe the MEK’s third message is: ‘we were terrorists but we are now rehabilitated from terrorists to parliamentarians’. Is this what Maryam Rajavi means by the Third Way? Are we supposed to not notice that three different versions of the MEK identity are being promoted simultaneously in Iraq, America and Europe?
Mr Rajavi, just because you have your head in the sand, doesn’t mean we can’t see your bottom.
Mojahedine Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) terrorist group propaganda
Time for a reality check
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... The latest event at Villepinte in Paris on June 23 was such a spectacle. But it was a spectacle of spectacular failure. Probably the most embarrassing event the MEK has yet had to outlive (and Maryam Rajavi has a series of embarrassing public and private gaffes to her name). Most of the VIPs, who had been rounded up to promote the MEK under the false ‘democratic change’ front groups, called in sick after being briefed by government officials where the money was really coming from and that the support was for a terrorist cult. If the MEK had not held this event it would have been better for them. Even ...
Anne Singleton, Middle East Strategy Consultants, June 27 2012 http://mesconsult.com
For years Massoud Rajavi – that supreme egocentric – has tried to bend reality to suit his own version of how the world should be, and when actual manipulation of events has failed, has created myths to invent a reality more suited to his cultic agenda. Nowhere has this been more obvious than in the MEK’s grand vision of itself as the ‘only alternative’ or the ‘main opposition’ and the mythical tale that the MEK will ‘overthrow the Iranian regime in its entirety’. Year after year Rajavi has perpetually pretended, whether to himself or to his followers, that this is a reality. And the myth has depended on the willing suspension of disbelief of world public opinion – or at least a few political pundits – who enjoy such hatred of Iran and Iranians that they are happy to participate in the game; though not without financial recompense of course.
In the eighties the MEK used to organise mass demonstrations in Western countries to celebrate its armed struggle. The main event was the anniversary of 30 Khordad (21 June) 1981 when the MEK abandoned its ambition to lead the revolutionary forces and began to oppose the new constitutional government under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini using terrorist tactics. The mass demonstrations in Western countries were popularly supported. But as time passed by and reality impinged on Rajavi’s dream of taking over Iran, instead of bending to reality and adjusting his group’s activities accordingly, he tried to bend reality to reflect his egotistical view of himself in the world. As the MEK’s violence became more and more futile and hence more savage, the demonstrations attracted fewer and fewer actual supporters and instead became more gaudy and showy. As western governments cracked down on the MEK’s illegal and undemocratic activities they were forced to downsize – while inflating advertised attendee figures by the power of ten - and hire (ironically) exhibition halls rather than take to the streets in public.
The latest event at Villepinte in Paris on June 23 was such a spectacle. But it was a spectacle of spectacular failure. Probably the most embarrassing event the MEK has yet had to outlive (and Maryam Rajavi has a series of embarrassing public and private gaffes to her name). Most of the VIPs, who had been rounded up to promote the MEK under the false ‘democratic change’ front groups, called in sick after being briefed by government officials where the money was really coming from and that the support was for a terrorist cult. (For future reference, where the word ‘appeasement’ is used, the article/speech/policy was most probably written by the MEK and is shorthand for ‘let’s declare war on Iran’.)
The VIPs who did turn up could, quite reasonably, have been expecting to address the ‘tens of thousands of Iranian exiles’ who, the MEK declared, had arrived in a ‘thousand buses from all over Europe’. Pictures from the event, which was held in a salon with a capacity of 10,000 standing, show a very different story. No wonder the MEK has been unable to publish film or photographs from inside the salon.
The linked photographs and film were taken by former members who had slipped in unnoticed among the crowd. Several minutes into the film Maryam Rajavi is heard addressing the crowd who are still milling around and clearly disinterested in the performance on the stage. The fervent cheering comes from the actual MEK loyalists ranged in the front few rows. Behind them no one is listening or even sitting down in the places where flags have been placed on every seat for them to wave to create a spectacle to film. The MEK have paid millions of Euros to create the crowd but couldn’t organise them when they arrived. The majority ‘rent-a-crowd’ element of the audience didn’t care much where the money came from or what the event was as long as they enjoyed a free weekend trip to Paris. Even the ever-supportive anti-Iran media could only realistically describe the event as ‘Iranian led’ to disguise the fact that right minded Iranians, inside and outside Iran, actively shun the MEK.
Now, how must it have felt for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and former US Senator Robert Torricelli to address this crowd about regime change in Iran. How much is their dignity worth?
If the MEK had not held this event it would have been better for them. Even to have a small gathering of their own members and supporters would have looked better, less desperate, less like the failing cult the MEK have become. Rajavi could have spent his money on many more effective means to plead his case for removal of the MEK from the US terrorism list. But although external reality has dramatically impacted on Rajavi’s fortunes, it is the leaking evidence of desperation in the MEK’s internal situation that is the most significant.
Unusually this year the MEK’s Photoshopped pictures of the meeting have been sloppily, shoddily perhaps hastily put together; several wide angle pictures concatenated to show a mass audience. But with the blurred join lines obvious on the pictures, the cracks in the MEK’s vision are exposed. And there are more fault lines in the MEK world.
Over the past few weeks the MEK has issued several frantic press releases related to the slow, inevitable demise of Camp Ashraf (where Rajavi has defiantly stopped cooperating with the UN and US like a truculent teenager). The significant aspect of these missives is their dire English style and grammatical mistakes. Clearly, just as with the Photoshopped pictures, Rajavi has lost some key personnel inside his organisation and has had to make do with sub-standard replacements to create the means to perpetuate his myths.
Markedly Rajavi recently lost two of his main Western stalwarts in the UK, Lord Corbett of Castle Vale who died on 19 February this year, and Lord Archer of Sandwell who died on 14 June. Such supporters have, for years, facilitated the MEK’s political lobbying in the House of Lords and of course provided other practical services and support; particularly editing English language documents. Their loss is irreplaceable. And with other Peers creaking with age and MPs subject to the vagaries of elections, Rajavi can only be staring into the well of loneliness.
Increasingly lonely too are those who have, for money, positioned themselves as MEK advocates. Anyone who looks beyond the political hype and anti-Iran propaganda will see an increasing disconnect with reality. Due to the internal demand for constant indoctrination the MEK cannot hold back from advertising its ‘martyrs’ – people who die for Rajavi. This week the MEK announced the deaths of two more people in Iraq. More than anything else it is their ages - 55 and 59 – which exposes the age group of MEK residents in Iraq. Those MEK advocates – including those addressing the Paris crowd – who continue to claim that the MEK is an essential force for change in Iran really ought to save their blushes. World public opinion is not blind or stupid. Accept reality and move on.
Anne Singleton from Iran-Interlink visits Camp New Iraq (Formerly Ashraf) in wake of violence by loyalists of the Rajavi cult
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... It is thought that up to 200 MEK members loyal to Massoud Rajavi took part in the violence. It is not known how many of the 3400 residents at the camp continue as members of the terrorist group. Singleton visited the camp at the start of a week of meetings with Iraqi officials to demand that the organisational infrastructure of the group be dismantled, and that the leaders are prosecuted under Iraqi and international law. The remaining residents should be enabled to determine their own futures without pressure from the MEK leaders. Their families should be involved to help in this process. Over 1000 Camp New Iraq (Formerly Ashraf) residents have residency or citizenship rights in Europe and North America ...
Anne Singleton from Iran-Interlink visited Camp New Iraq (Formerly Ashraf) in the wake of violent clashes between MEK loyalists and Iraqi security forces. The Iraqi commander in charge of the camp showed some of the pre-manufactured missiles used by the MEK as they attacked Iraqi soldiers at the base.
It is thought that up to 200 MEK members loyal to Massoud Rajavi took part in the violence. It is not known how many of the 3400 residents at the camp continue as members of the terrorist group.
Human Rights organisations have called for an independent investigation into events at the camp.
Singleton visited the camp at the start of a week of meetings with Iraqi officials to demand that the organisational infrastructure of the group be dismantled, and that the leaders are prosecuted under Iraqi and international law. The remaining residents should be enabled to determine their own futures without pressure from the MEK leaders. Their families should be involved to help in this process. Over 1000 Camp New Iraq (Formerly Ashraf) residents have residency or citizenship rights in Europe and North America. The embassies of these countries can facilitate their return.
Detailed reports will follow soon Iran Interlink, Baghdad, April 17 2011
Large metal missiles pre-manufactured by MEK in readiness for violent clashes with Iraqi military
MEK used different coloured headgear to coordinate place and timing of pre-planned actions
Small metal missiles catapulted at soldiers and observers from inside the camp by Rajavi loyalists
MEK expert Anne Singleton outlines plan to close Camp Ashraf
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... Singleton explained that while there is no doubt in anybody’s mind that the MEK must be removed from Iraq by the end of 2011 - as three successive democratically elected governments have demanded since December 2003, as the Iraqi constitution demands and as the status of forces agreement (SOFA) dictates - it is becoming clear that the MEK is a unique phenomenon which cannot be treated as a normal political or military entity and therefore its removal will not be a straightforward mission. Evidence of this has already been seen in the violent resistance to attempts by Iraqi security forces to bring the MEK into line with Iraqi law both in July 2009 and on April 8 this year ...
Anne Singleton visited Iraq as representative of Iran-Interlink at the invitation of the Baladiyeh Foundation, a human rights NGO based in Baghdad. The Baladiyeh Foundation, headed by Mrs Ahlam al-Maliki, provides humanitarian assistance to a wide range of deprived sectors of Iraqi society arising directly from the invasion and occupation of Iraq by allied forces in 2003.
Baladiyeh Foundation is concerned by the humanitarian crisis at Camp Ashraf caused by the group’s leaders who are refusing to allow access to human rights organisations to verify the wellbeing of all of the camp’s residents.
Anne Singleton, a leading expert on the Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist cult, was invited to speak at al-Mostanserieh University in Baghdad to address the problem of removing the group from Iraq.
Singleton outlined the problem which the Government of Iraq faces, telling the audience that the MEK has been used, particularly by neoconservatives and Zionists in the west, to interfere in the internal affairs of Iraq since 2003 when the group mistakenly came under the protection of US forces (the MEK is listed as a terrorist entity in the USA). Since that time, Camp Ashraf has remained the only part of the repressive infrastructure of the former dictator Saddam Hussein which has not been dismantled. In this respect, explained Singleton, the camp has been the locus for training and facilitating violent insurrectionists determined to derail the democratisation process of Iraq. The aim of the violence has been to create sectarian, tribal and religious divisions in Iraqi society which would prevent the unification and progression of the country under a freely elected government. The MEK have acted in conjunction with various Saddamists (Iraqis loyal to the beliefs of the former dictator) and elements in the west in this respect.
Since 2009 when the government of Iraq took over responsibility for protecting the camp from the US military, it has been possible to clamp down on this activity and the result has been a dramatic reduction in the amount of violent activity in the country. However, efforts to remove the group from Iraq as demanded by the Iraqi constitution have been hampered for several reasons.
Singleton explained that while there is no doubt in anybody’s mind that the MEK must be removed from Iraq by the end of 2011 - as three successive democratically elected governments have demanded since December 2003, as the Iraqi constitution demands and as the status of forces agreement (SOFA) dictates - it is becoming clear that the MEK is a unique phenomenon which cannot be treated as a normal political or military entity and therefore its removal will not be a straightforward mission. Evidence of this has already been seen in the violent resistance to attempts by Iraqi security forces to bring the MEK into line with Iraqi law both in July 2009 and on April 8 this year.
Negotiations with the MEK will not resolve the problem explained Singleton, since these talks only address the interests of one person, that is, the MEK leader Massoud Rajavi who is still in hiding in Camp Ashraf. Although he has ordered his loyal followers to violently resist any attempts by the government of Iraq to impose Iraqi law on the camp, it has become clear that only a small number of the camp’s residents are involved in these violent activities. Tens of individuals who have escaped the camp since the 2009 handover all report that most of the camp’s residents are no longer willing or able to continue as members of the terrorist group. It is vital therefore, said Singleton, for an independent agency such as the United Nations Human Rights Commission, to be able to enter the camp without interference, and to conduct a survey of the camp’s residents. This can only be achieved if the MEK leaders are separated from the rank and file and each individual is given the freedom to choose their own future. In this way, the residents of the camp can be removed from Iraqi territory without the violence and bloodshed which is being threatened by Massoud Rajavi.
Iraq is a sovereign country and is capable of resolving this issue in a humanitarian way which will reflect well on this new democracy. The involvement of human rights groups like Baladiyeh Foundation, said Singleton, is a sure sign that the country of Iraq has the confidence and competence to deal with the problem of the MEK effectively and peacefully. The sticking point will be the reaction of western governments which can either help or hinder this process. Above all, it is vital that the UN and other international human rights agencies fully comprehend that the only legitimate human rights position in relation to Camp Ashraf and its residents it to demand the immediate and unconditional organisational disbandment of the group, and to deal with each of the residents as a separate person and not as a slave belonging to Rajavi’s terrorist group.
Almostanserieh paper on Mojahedin Khalq (Anne Singleton)2011
Anne Singleton visits camp New Iraq (formerly Ashraf) of Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) April 2011
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... Anne Singleton of Iran-Interlink, representing the individual members inside Camp Ashraf, visits the camp in a fact-finding mission in the wake of violent conflict between Iraqi military tasked with protecting the camp from external attack and ensuring Iraqi law is obeyed inside the camp, and loyalists of Massoud Rajavi. The residents are hostages to Rajavi's cult activities. Singleton is speaking with former members of the cult who have come to rescue victims who are still trapped inside the MEK headquarters, held incommunicado by Rajavi and his 200 loyalists ...
... Mrs Ahlam Al-Maliki Head of Iraq's Baladiyeh Foundation NGO and Anne Singleton from the UK Iran-Interlink discuss the humanitarian issues involved in removing the Rajavi cult from Iraq. Iran-Interlink represents the views of the disaffected MEK members trapped inside the camp by leader Massoud Rajavi. Singleton explains the only legitimate human rights position is to demand the organisational disbandment of the MEK ...
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