| Brief 10 | ||
| Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, the National Council of Resistance of Iran and terrorism | ||
| Iran-Interlink’s previous brief revealed that Massoud and Maryam Rajavi
have brought their Fedayeen forces to Europe in an attempt to force their
way back into the western political arena as a viable alternative to the
present ruling system in Iran. In Europe however, infighting between the Mojahedin (MKO) hard-liners from Iraq, Rajavi’s Fedayeen, and those more liberal members already established in Europe, is intensifying. The European element is pushing to be rid of the past and wants to emerge with a new pro-western face. But the Fedayeen want to preserve the organisation as a revolutionary fighting force, and to do so they are prepared to perform terrorist acts in the west. The Rajavi's are trying to keep a lid on these explosive divisions until Maryam's situation is resolved in Paris and Massoud is able to go public again. Since Maryam Rajavi’s arrest in Paris, the Mojahedin have been implicated in terrorist acts in Australia and Germany. Five of their offices in London were searched by UK Police. The Mojahedin failed in their attempts to be removed from any country's list of terrorist entities, and failed to halt legal proceedings against Maryam Rajavi in Paris through repeated self-immolations. In addition, the Mojahedin continue to deny their membership even basic human rights. Families who travelled from Iran to Iraq were denied free access to visit their relatives within the Mojahedin there. The fate of dissident members of the Mojahedin who were incarcerated in Saddam Hussein's Abu Ghraib political prison is still unknown. The major problem faced by the Rajavi’s in resolving these problems is that they are leaders of both the Mojahedin and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCR or NCRI), and the personnel of both organisations is almost identical. As such they are unable to move beyond the terrorist label which now identifies them. In particular: Within hours of the September 11th terrorist act in the United States, everyone in the world, with a few notable exceptions, had condemned the action. Up to the present, neither the MKO/NCR/NCRI nor any of the people who claim to represent them has ever condemned the act or perpetrators of the September 11th terrorist act in the United States. Eye witnesses report that dancing and singing greeted the news at the MKO bases in Iraq. Right up to the moment that the regime of Saddam Hussein gave way to coalition forces, the MKO/NCR/NCRI were outspoken in their criticism of America. As soon as US forces began bombing their bases [as a designated terrorist organisation] the MKO/NCR/NCRI forces immediately began negotiating with the US military, stressing their usefulness to America as an anti-Iranian force. Upon the arrest of their leaders in Paris, the MKO/NCR/NCRI immediately resorted to violent protest to achieve their aims. From the start self-immolations were used in lieu of political protest, not as a desperate last resort after all other avenues of legitimate protest had failed. NCR/NCRI claims to 'democratic' thinking were not in evidence here. On August 15th the US State Department stated "The action to amend the Executive Order 13224 designation of the MEK [Mojahedin-e Khalq] to include NCR and NCRI is based on information from a variety of sources that those entities functioned as part of the MEK and have supported the MEK's acts of terrorism." Despite their propaganda messages to the west, the Rajavi’s, in their capacity as leaders of both the Mojahedin and the National Council of Resistance of Iran, as well as all their followers, remain unable to condemn terrorism under any definition, remain unable to condemn the regime of Saddam Hussein, and remain unable also to deny their own intention to continue the use of violence to achieve political ends. Iran-Interlink 30 August 2003
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