Open letter to Alejo Vidal-Quadras
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Reza Sadeghi, Paris, August 27, 2009
I am responding to your recent speeches in the European Parliament in relation to Iran in which you express support for the Mojahedin-e Khalq organization led by Massoud Rajavi. As a former member, I have known this group since 1979. Because of them I spent five years of my youth in Iranian prisons; including two years in solitary confinement in Gohar Dasht in Karaj. I also spent the years from 1997 to 2006 as a prisoner of the MKO in Camp Ashraf, Iraq.
I was sent to Camp Ashraf after several years of fundraising work for the MKO in Canada. I was originally sent for a six month military training stint, but in fact they never allowed me to leave. (As you know, none of the people at Camp Ashraf have any legal status in Iraq and their passports and personal documents are confiscated by the MKO leadership to prevent them leaving. Ref. RAND report.)
After considering your support for this military cult, I just want to ask you, and give you the benefit of the doubt, if you honestly and purely, as the freedom lover you make claim to be, believe in your own use of the term 'democratic' in relation to the MKO. How do you know that? By visiting Camp Ashraf?
I should remind you and your colleagues that these are visits carefully pre-arranged and organized by the MKO leadership. Where did you go while you were at Camp Ashraf, to whom did you speak? I was there while so many people like yourself and like Paulo Casaca visited. We saw by whom you were escorted and of course we were not allowed to approach you and talk to you. All those people around you were MKO intelligence and security personnel, the same people who are responsible for the suppression and mistreatment of rank and file members.
Did it ever occur to you that everybody you were introduced to and allowed to speak with was saying exactly the same things like a broken record. Maybe you didn't think of this because when it comes to it the MKO are expert at manipulating and deceiving people with their red carpet treatment and their provision of gifts like Perisan rugs and fancy goods.
In your speech you used the words 'pressure' and 'harrasment'. Do you have any idea what your Rajavi has done to us? The beatings, humiliation, swearing and constant mental pressure aimed at anyone who wants to leave, or even to say anything critical of what Rajavi has ever said. Where you then? Why has no one asked any international human rights organization to come and visit Ashraf independently?
Many tragedies have taken place within the confines of Camp Ashraf. But no more, not for the rank and file members like myself. On the contrary, with the takeover by the Government of Iraq in January 2009, and the recent publication of the RAND report, they see some light at the end of the tunnel at last.
But as for Rajavi and his high rank killing machine, of course you said that you recently visited Camp Ashraf and that such allegations are absolutely unfounded. Are you a man of your word? Are you prepared to return to Camp Ashraf with a different, non-MKO organized delegation to see if you are right or not? I make only one suggestion; that I be permitted to come along with that delegation and show you the real Camp Ashraf and take you to places so that you could freely talk to the rank and file members. What do you say about that? Since your speech is presumably not political and is purely humanitarian, so you should not have any objection to this suggestion. In fact, I am sure you will be happy to prove your words, especially as you think that everybody in Camp Ashraf is there voluntarily.
In the end however I have so many things to say and explain to you and your colleagues. But for now I just wanted to ask how you can be so sure of what you say? How many former members, or even ordinary Iranians have you spoken to before you came to your conclusions? I myself am ready to come and talk about freedom and democracy and voluntary action and anything else that you and your colleagues want to discuss.
Don't you think for one moment how strange it is that everyone who backs the MKO repeats exactly and precisely what Rajavi himself says? But that when it comes to listening to what former members say both MKO backers and leaders alike scream their hearts out that they are all agents of the Iranian Intelligence ministry?
Why is that? Could it be that Rajavi doesn't want people like yourself – western, liberal, democratic, freely elected representatives - to talk to people like me?
Rajavi knows that if you talk to us you will have to think twice before you repeat whatever they want you to.
If you are truly a freedom lover, I think it's only fair, not for me, or even for the Iranian people, but first for yourself to take these steps. Because I believe that if you are a humanitarian person then one day, maybe not long from now, as events unfold, you will see the truth and you will think back to this day and wish that you had taken a different stand. I just want you and other purely humanitarian people to remember that, along with my fellow brothers and sisters, victims of the Rajavi cult, I would remind you that little streams will, at last, join the ocean.
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Also read:
http://www.iran-interlink.org/index.php?mod=view&id=6665
Case against Casaca Express, court of Ponta Delgada has not recognized the right of MEP
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... The decision of the court of Ponta Delgada recognizes that Casaca felt enxovalhado, killed and humiliated by the news. The Express newspaper said in its title: "Mr Portuguese friend of terrorists", "Casaca hired as his assistant a member of the political wing of the Mojahedin. According to the Judge the title is purely metaphorical, appealing, with some sensational nature, but it is not defamatory or libelous ...
RTP TV, Portugal, July 15, 2009
http://ww1.rtp.pt/acores/index.php?article=9074&visual=3&layout=10&tm=7
(Paolo Casaca, Alejo Vidal-Quadras - Rajavi and Saddam)
The court of Ponta Delgada acquitted the former director of the weekly Expresso, José António Saraiva, and journalist Daniel Carlos do Rosario, accused of defamation by Casaca
The case concerned a story published in 2005 that exposed the MEP’s links to members of the Iranian resistance, an organization which at the time, was among the organizations considered as terrorist by the European Union.
Casaca accused the journalists of defamation and that he has suffered retaliation because of political news.
The court held that it was the Socialist Party which gave the news to divert Casaca.
It was the end of Casaca’s international political career in Parliament.
Casaca himself admitted [his links] to the Socialist Party [and they] rejected his remaining as a candidate [for MEP] after news of the Express.
But according to the judge the responsibility for this decision cannot be attributed to journalists but to the PS, "perhaps, the political discomfort of having in their ranks, an MEP from the Azores who wanted Bojador move beyond" is the sentence in which it reads.
The decision of the court of Ponta Delgada recognizes that Casaca felt enxovalhado, killed and humiliated by the news.
The Express newspaper said in its title: "Mr Portuguese friend of terrorists", "Casaca hired as his assistant a member of the political wing of the Mojahedin.
According to the Judge the title is purely metaphorical, appealing, with some sensational nature, but it is not defamatory or libelous.
It is appropriate to the content of the news, referring to the political sphere of the MEP and not his personal honesty.
In addition to Judge Ana Luísa Moreira, journalists have had a constitutionally recognized right: freedom of expression, criticism and opinion.
They are also freed from paying the compensation claimed by Casaca.
The policy is to free them not to pay the legal costs of proceedings.
Casaca should make that decision.
Berta Tavares / António Gil
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Caso de Paulo Casaca contra o Expresso, tribunal de Ponta Delgada não reconheceu razão ao eurodeputado
Publicado: 2009-06-18 18:46:35 | Actualizado: 2009-06-18 18:58:05
Por: António Gil
http://ww1.rtp.pt/acores/index.php?article=9074&visual=3&layout=10&tm=7
O tribunal de Ponta Delgada absolveu o antigo director do semanário Expresso, José António Saraiva, e o jornalista Carlos Daniel do Rosário, acusados por Paulo Casaca de difamação
Em causa uma notícia publicada em 2005 que dava conta das ligações do eurodeputado com membros da resistência iraniana, organização que, na altura, constava entre as organizações consideradas terroristas pela União Europeia.
Casaca acusava os jornalistas de difamação e de ter sofrido represálias políticas por causa da notícia.
O tribunal entendeu que foi o Partido Socialista que se aproveitou da notícia para afastar Paulo Casaca.
Foi o fim político da carreira internacional de Paulo Casaca no Parlamento Europeu.
O próprio o admitiu, o Partido Socialista afastou a sua recandidatura depois da notícia do Expresso.
Mas segundo a juíza a responsabilidade desta decisão não pode ser atribuida aos jornalistas mas sim ao PS, "porventura, pelo incómodo político de ter nas suas fileiras, um eurodeputado dos Açores que quis passar além do bojador", é o que se lê na sentença.
A decisão do tribunal de Ponta Delgada reconhece que Paulo Casaca se sentiu enxovalhado, abatido e humilhado com a notícia.
O jornal Expresso escreveu em título: "Deputado português com amigos terroristas", "Paulo Casaca contratou para assistente um membro do braço político dos mujhaidines".
Segundo a juíza o título é meramente metafórico, apelativo, com algum cunho sensacionalista, mas não é difamatório nem calunioso.
Está adequado ao teor da notícia, reporta-se à esfera política do eurodeputado e não à sua honradez pessoal.
Além disso, para a juíza Ana Luísa Moreira, os jornalistas exerceram um direito constitucionalmente reconhecido: a liberdade de expressão, de crítica e de opinião.
Ficam livres também de pagar a indemnização pedida por Paulo Casaca.
O político é que não se livra de pagar as custas judiciais do processo.
Paulo Casaca deve recorrer desta decisão.
Berta Tavares / António Gil
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Also read:
Paulo Casaca, dances with wolves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnk2UUz0-54
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Also read:
http://www.iran-interlink.org/files/News4/eucitizen2006.htm
Euro-Citizen exposes activities of the terrorist Mojahedin in European political centres
National Resistance Council of Iran revealed as terrorist front organisation
08-10-2005
There is a TV campaign running in the UK at the moment for a well known firm of paint manufacturers which uses the catch line “IT DOES WHAT IT SAYS ON THE TIN”
If only life was so simple!
SMEs in the European Union are bound hand and foot by legislation which prevents them from telling lies about their product, ingredients or additives. Tobacco manufacturers are forced to add disclaimers on packets of cigarettes which state “Smoking can be dangerous to your health” yet on the streets of European cities dangerous practices far more lethal than the contents of a tin, the ingredients of a food product or the effects of tobacco on newborn babies abound.
In the temporary entrance to the European Parliament in Brussels a dishevelled lady begs for money, her small child by her side. If you give her a few coins are you providing food for her child, or funding arms for a terrorist organisation?
In the European Parliament, well meaning MEPs host delegates from ostensibly respectable movements which claim to be “freedom fighters”, “resistance movements” or “opposition in exile”.
Should you ask yourself, do they do what they say on the tin?
For instance: the National Resistance Council of Iran, respectable organisation or front for the MKO, the Mojahedin Khalgh Organisation, an illegal terrorist cult listed as a banned terrorist organization by the EU?
Well meaning MEPs support it through the seemingly respectable “Friends of Iran”, even hosting members of this organization at meetings within the Parliament.
Not only are they banned by the COTERR, the EU’s committee on Counter terrorism, but also by the UK government and the US State Department.
It is time MEPs awoke to the situation, and asked themselves, “Do they do what they say on the tin”? and do so before its too late?
By IAN LAKOMEX
Ian lakomex is writer in justice, security and terrorism,
Outlawed terrorist organisation operates freely on the streets of Brussels
08-11-2005
Just as European governments attempt to put in place tougher anti-terrorism laws, a banned terrorist organisation has held protest demonstration in the centre of Brussels unchallenged by the Belgian police or security services.
In the Place Schumann on Monday, directly in front of the European Institutions, members of the Iranian Mujahedin Khalq Organisation (also known as the National Council of Resistance or NCRI), a banned organisation on the EU’s list of terrorist organisations, demonstrated in an attempt to get their name removed from the list.
Members of the MKO/NCRI, for which there are 72 outstanding Interpol arrest warrants, freely engaged in a display of adoration of their leader, Maryam Rajavi, throwing roses at her feet.
In scenes which invoke comparisons with the days in Paris preceding the return of the Ayatollah Khomeini to Iran, a cult of personality worship spilled freely onto the streets of Brussels unchecked.
Those with memories of the fire which was fanned by the personality cult of Khomeini will also remember back draft of the 444 days imprisonment which followed for the hostages.
If European leaders are serious about protecting the public from acts of terrorism on the streets of our cities, they should instruct the authorities to put a stop to these cynical displays, and also ensure that organisations such as the MKO are not only banned in name but also in reality. They should also ensure that they cannot re-emerge under a different name, such as the National Council for Resistance (NCRI) and operate freely.
A businessman in Brussels who is convicted of illegal activity cannot just change the name of his business and open up for business again unchecked. However, it appears that a dangerous terrorist cult on the EU list of banned organisations can operate on the streets of European capitals unchallenged, and by changing its name even be welcomed inside the European institutions.
EU concern at terrorist front organisations
25-11-2005
There is growing concern within the European Commission at the open access being granted to front organisations acting on behalf of terrorist groups.
The EU’s Committee on Terrorism has placed over 40 organisations and individuals on its list of banned terrorist organisations, but by changing its name an organisation can operate without impunity.
For example, The Iraqi based MKO – Mojahedin Khalgh Organisation – an Iranian opposition terror group is on the EU’s list of banned terrorist groups. Its front organisation – the National Council of Resistance for Iran – is not banned and operates throughout European cities.
The leadership of both organisations is the same, with a common membership list. There are 72 Interpol arrest warrants outstanding against MKO members, but the NCRI is openly welcomed into the European Institutions, even taking part in TV discussion programmes within the Parliament.
Officials at the European Parliament are deeply worried that NCRI members who may have had terrorist training in Iraq can wander freely throughout the Parliament as guests of well meaning but naive MEPs.
Terrorism and security experts from member states are calling for the NCRI to be placed on the list of banned terrorist groups as soon as possible
NGO or terrorist front?
14-12-2005
A report by the US State Department Office of Counterterrorism has recently named a range of foreign organisations it believes are terrorists or fronts for terrorist organisations.
The list includes, amongst others, the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO), Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA), Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Real IRA, the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
In total 33 organisations are on the list, including al-Qa’ida
The full list, published in Washington, DC on October 11, 2005, can be accessed on http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/37191.htm
Of particular interest to European citizens will be the Iranian terror group the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO or MEK), also known as the PMOI, NLA, NCR and NCRI. All the same name for one dangerous terrorist cult.
The MKO is also on the EU’s list of banned terrorist organisations, but operates freely in Brussels and other European cities under its front organisation, the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
Why the NCRI should escape the EU’s ban is either the worst form of administrative oversights or a victory for the handful of misguided MEPs and others within European institutions who seek to paint the NCRI as a genuine political movement.
That it is just a terrorist front can be in no doubt. An executive order by the US Secretary of State, published on 15 August 2003 blocked the assets of “the Mujahedin-e Khalq, known as the MEK, to add its aliases National Council of Resistance (NCR) and National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)”.
This executive order can be accessed on http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/23311.htm
Sources close to the State Department also stated that they suspect five NGOs in Belgium and eleven NGOs in the United Kingdom as being fronts for the MKO.
These are alleged to collect money under the fake names of charities, claiming to help Iranian children and refugees and the establishment of peace, democracy, etc. but in reality generate funds for the terrorist MKO.
As the EU comes together to agree a common policy on terrorism, it must address the issue of front organisations in general and the MKO/NCRI in particular whilst there is still time. Not to do so allows known terrorists to operate freely among law abiding citizens on the streets of Europe unchecked. A disaster waiting to happen.
MEP employs known terrorist as research assistant
07-02-2006
Concern is being express within the European Parliament at the employment of a member of a banned Iranian terror organisation as a research assistant by an MEP.
Firouz Mahvi , a member of the banned Iranian terrorist groups the Mojahedin Khalgh Organisation - MKO – and National Liberation Army – NLA- is employed as an assistant within the European Parliament by Portuguese MEP Paulo Casaca
According to sources within the French intelligence service, Firouz Mahvi has quiet a record:
1- In 1983 he joined the MKO in England.
2- During 1983-91 he worked for the MKO in England.
3- In 1991, the MKO transferred him to Iraq to be engaged in NLA terrorist bases.
4- In 1991 he worked in the NLA intelligence section and was active in spying along Iran- Iraq border against the people of Iran.
5- In 2000 joining the NLA operations, he accompanied MKO terrorist teams, as NLA squad commander, with the purpose of reconnaissance and infiltration into borders of Iran.
6- His last position was commanding NLA mechanized fighting squad of military personal carrier in one of NLA bases in Iraq.
Many within the Parliament are now asking if it is safe to have a known terrorist such as Mahvi enjoying unfettered access in Brussels and Strasbourg
Pro MKO / NCRI Members of the European Parliament attack Euro-Citizen
13-02-2006
Euro-Citizen has been the subject of an attack by MEPs Paulo Casaca and Struan Stevenson in a recent issue of the Brussels based EU Reporter newspaper.
Far from being a front organisation for the Iranian secret police as they accuse, we at Euro-Citizen are a group of concerned citizens born, educated, living and working in the EU who are deeply worried about the actions of banned terrorist groups within Europe and in particularly EU institutions.
We have been contacted by the family and friends of those who are subjected to the horrors of the MKO’s terrorist training camp at Ashraf in Iraq.
We invite Mr Casaca and Mr Stevenson to answer the following questions:
Do they accept that the MKO - Mojahedin Khalgh Organisation – is a banned terrorist organization as defined by the EU?
Do they accept that the NCRI - National Council for Resistance in Iran – is a front organization for the MKO and have common aims?
Do they accept that the NCRI and the MKO have common membership and common leadership – ie Masoud Rajavi and his wife Maryam Rajavi ?
The public will then be able to make up their own minds on Mr. Casaca's and Mr. Stevenson's support for a dangerous banned terrorist organization as defined by the EU Council and the US State Department.
Europe and US urged to harmonise terrorism legislation
08-03-2006
A report by the US State Department Office of Counter-terrorism has recently named a range of foreign organisations it believes are terrorist, or fronts for terrorist organisations. In total 33 organisations are in the list published in Washington DC on October 11, 2005,
(which can be accessed on http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/37191.htm)
These organisations are also designated as banned terrorist organisations by the Council of the European Union in their Council decision of 17th October 2005, published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 18th October 2005.
Of particular interest to European citizens will be the Iranian terror group the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO or MEK), also known as the PMOI, NLA, NCR and NCRI. The true nature of this organisation is clearly revealed in a comprehensive report by Human Rights Watch which can be accessed on http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/05/18/iran10967.htm
An executive order by the US Secretary of State, published on 15 August 2003, blocked the assets of“the Mujahedin-e Khalq, known as the MEK and MKO, to add its aliases National Council of Resistance (NCR) and National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)”.
(This executive order can be accessed on http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/23311.htm)
As the EU comes together to agree a common policy on terrorism, it must address the issue of front organisations in general.
We are urge the EU to harmonise differences between the EU and the US lists of terrorist organisations.’
Terrorism alive and well in Europe, the case against the MKO and NCRI
24-03-2006
The MKO, or Mujahedeen Kalq Organisation is a notorious terrorist and violent group formed in 1965 in Iran. Its ideological basis is a mixture of Islamic ideas mixed with Marxism, which has evolved into a cult like following of its two charismatic leaders, the husband and wife team of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.
The organisation is anti the government of Iran. Firstly it was against the Shah’s regime, and now is anti the current Islamic government in Tehran. Until the United States and coalition forces invaded Iraq in 2003, the MKO enjoyed the patronage of Saddam Hussein. He used it as his private army and gave the group money, weapons, vehicles and military bases along the Iran-Iraq border as a launching ground for attacks against the Iranian government.
When United States and Coalition forces toppled Saddam’s regime, some 5000 MKO fighters, many of them women, were interned in their Ashraf Camp base, where they are still held under the protection of the Coalition forces. Many members of the group were sent by Rajavi to Europe and elsewhere in the world, to build networks of support for future activity. They engaged upon a violent campaign against Iranian embassies around the world, with particularly vicious attacks on diplomatic personal and staff in the Iranian embassy in Australia. Followers of the cult set themselves alight with petrol on the streets of Europe in attempts to get European policy changed towards the group.
The US and Coalition governments gave MKO members the opportunity to leave the camp and return to their homes and families under an amnesty from the Iranian government. They were treated as escapees from this dangerous cult which used the entire typical cult like methods of separation, isolation and brainwashing to exert control over them. A damning report by HumanRights Watch exposed deprivation, family separation, forced marriages and forced divorces, beatings and mistreatment of cult members. Many of these ex-members formed themselves into groups to campaign against the MKO, such as the “Survivors of Ashraf”.
But Massoud and Maryam Rajavi still harbour ambitions to become the leaders of Iran, and maintain their cult and powerbase inside Ashraf Camp, as well as having a sophisticated network of lobbying organisations, fundraising organisations and front organisations throughout the world, particularly in Europe.
The MKO was placed on the US State Department’s and European Council’s lists of banned terrorist organisations. European governments, led by the French, are deeply concerned at the activities of the group. In particular they are fearful of having known members of this dangerous cult organisation, who are trained in terrorist and conventional warfare, operating freely on the streets of the capitals of Europe.
The group has many aliases and front organisations, in particular the National Council of Resistance of Iran or NCRI. This group is also classed as a banned terrorist organisation by the US State Department, but not for some reason by the EU. It uses this loophole to operate freely in the corridors of European government, lobbing and fundraising. Although it seems to be operating lawfully, further investigation shows that funds raised go towards their armed struggle and are supporting he terrorist MKO activities.
In the European institutions concerned politicians, civil servants and experts on terrorism are now seeking to have the NCRI placed on the European Council’s list of banned terrorist organisations and have its activities outlawed. There is also growing concern over the support for the NCRI and MKO by a small group of European politicians who either sympathise with the group or see it as a legitimate weapon against the Islamic regime in Iran.
THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH HAS BEEN REMOVED DUE TO A LEGAL CHALLENGE.
In the United Kingdom the NCRI publishes a newspaper, the Mojahed Weekly, and an online website of the same name, which openly supports the MKO activities, uses the MKO logo of a Kalashnikov rifle, and seeks funding from readers to support the armed struggle against Iran. Evidence has been presented to the authorities which clearly shows this publication’s activities are unlawful and in breach of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005.
It also broadcasts a television channel on satellite and over the internet from the United Kingdom – Sima TV – which glorifies the terrorist activities of the MKO and seeks financial donations to support it. Once again clear evidence has been presented to the authorities which show that this TV channel is broadcasting unlawfully and is in breach of both the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 and the OFCOM broadcasting code.
Concerned citizens in the United Kingdom are actively seeking the UK authorities to prosecute those MKO and NCRI members who are operating this TV channel, newspaper and website. They also seek to make the activities of this dangerous terrorist cult known to the British public through the press and media, so that they will be aware of the activities of known terrorists operating freely within British society.
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Also read: Letter of a number of former members of the MKO in Iraq to the President of the EP concerning the deeds of the proxies of the Rajavi terrorist cult in parliament . ... The aim of the leaders of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), which Mr Vidal-Quadras is pursuing in the European Parliament very determinedly, is to keep the people in Ashraf cult garrison isolated from the outside world since only in this case could they be trained to execute sabotage activities inside Iraq ... Sahar Foundation, Baghdad, May 25, 2009 President of the European Parliament, Mr Hans-Gert Pöttering, Brussels May 14, 2009 – Baghdad On Thursday April 23, 2009, a motion for resolution was tabled in the European Parliament by a number of advocates of the Rajavi terrorist cult including Mr Alejo Vidal-Quadras who has recently been an exceptional guest of the MKO destructive cult in Ashraf garrison in Iraq. In that motion the situation that has been described is quite contrary to the actual facts as well as baselessly accusing the Iraqi government. The text of the speech delivered in the Chamber of the EP by Mr Alejo Vidal-Quadras to defend such a motion and ruling out the other proposed amendments which in reality defended the inhabitants trapped in the Ashraf cult garrison is brought below as a reminder: Friday, 24 April 2009 - Strasbourg As you are well aware, the proposed amendments which Mr Vidal-Quadras so strongly opposes are based on the testimonies given by many rescued former members of the Rajavi terrorist cult. They describe the situation of human rights inside Ashraf garrison as disastrous and remind us that visits by international human rights organizations to this cult garrison, which lacks the minimum individual rights, were sought. According to Mr Vidal-Quadras this just demand would provide the Iraqi government with the excuse to massacre all of them! It is worth mentioning that the speech delivered by Mr Vidal-Quadras as well as the contents of his motion for amendment to the resolution is exactly coordinated with the bizarre stances of the leaders of the MKO. For instance nobody in the whole world claims that a faction of the Iraqi government is a proxy of the Iranian regime which is determined to massacre the inhabitants of Ashraf. The aim of the leaders of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), which Mr Vidal-Quadras is pursuing in the European Parliament very determinedly, is to keep the people in Ashraf cult garrison isolated from the outside world since only in this case could they be trained to execute sabotage activities inside Iraq. We wish to ask Mr Vidal-Quadras through you, why he and the MKO leaders are so severely against the visits of international human rights organizations and direct interviews with the people over there without the presence of the MKO officials and also their free contact and visit with their families, and why he just repeats the MKO leaders' excuses. We of course do agree with him that a disaster is about to happen and also the fact that the issue of the Ashraf cult garrison is not a political matter but a human rights one. But those who have lost many years of their lives being captive in that garrison would also like to alert international public opinion to the threats against the innocents in that garrison from the MKO leaders. We do fear that the end of the Rajavi terrorist cult will be like many other cults such as that of Jim Jones in Guyana. Individuals such as Mr Vidal-Quadras are certainly responsible for the continuation of the mental and physical captivity of the inhabitants of the Ashraf cult garrison and all the consequences resulted against these people from the cult leaders. With regards ----------- Also read: Maryam Rajavi’s cult representative in European Parliament . ... Unfortunately, those who know the MKO best, particularly its victims in Iraq, when they see the orchestrated and vigorous insistence on lies and deception cannot be blamed for believing in the corruptibility of parliament and that these MPs must be being paid for their activities ... Anne Singleton, Iran-Interlink, May 11, 2009 . With the withdrawal from European politics of Portugal’s Paulo Casaca, Maryam Rajavi – who is following a Zionist-style regime change agenda - has apparently selected a replacement in the shape of Spanish MEP Alejo Vidal-Quadras from the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats. Vidal-Quadras has already scurriously attacked ‘a faction’ of the Iraqi government in the European Parliament alleging them ready to commit a “second Srebrenica in Iraq” in relation to MKO cult members in Camp Ashraf. http://www.iran-interlink.org/files/News4/eucitizen2006.htm ---------- Also read: MEP lines up with remains of Saddam against Iraqi government Open Letter to Mr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras . ... Of course, as Vice-President of the European Parliament, I was surprised that I did not hear of your visit from Iraqi government officials. Perhaps you did not see the need to discuss your concerns about this foreign terrorist entity with the legitimate government of the country you were visiting. Unfortunately, the unofficial nature of your visit to this terrorist group aligns you with the remains of the Saddam regime in Iraq... Massoud Khodabandeh, November 2008 Parlement européen . ------- Also Read: Open letter of the Sahar Family Foundation to Dr Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca, Vice President of the European Parliament regarding the members of the European Parliament visiting the base of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) in Iraq called the Ashraf garrison. . . Sahar Foundation, Baghdad, November 2008 Dr Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca ------------- Also read: Hysterectomy, latest MKO cult strategy . . Press TV, Oct 21, 2008 Of the most inhuman practices carried out within the MKO terrorist organization is the misuse of modern science to make women infertile. -------- Also read: (FAO: Alejo Vidal-Quadras) Misgivings about Undeniable Facts Mojahedin WS, June 01, 2007 Reported by the Associated Press, supporters of MKO have claimed that the European Union has failed to adequately explain why it refused to take the group off its list of terrorist organizations despite an EU court ruling. The claims emerge at a time when the EU is decisive to keep MKO on its list of terror and will announce it in a few days. The EU has argued that the court's ruling focused on procedural problems and did not imply that the group had to be removed from the list. State Department Report on Mojahedin Khalq Orgainsation. Rajavi cult headed by Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi World wide condemnation of Mojahedin Khalq - Rajavi cult headed by Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi Massoud Rajavi, Maryam Rajavi, Mohammad Mohaddessin, Mehdi Abrishamchi, Mojahedin Khalq leaders ------------- Also read: Statement on Responses to Human Rights Watch Report on Abuses by Human Rights Watch, February 2006 In May 2005, Human Rights Watch issued a report on alleged human rights abuses committed by an Iranian opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK),1 inside its military camps in Iraq from 1991 to February 2003, prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein?s government. The report, No Exit: Human Rights Abuses Inside the MKO Camps, detailed allegations by twelve former members of the MKO who told Human Rights Watch of a range of physical and psychological abuses they had suffered and witnessed.2 In addition, the report made use of the published memoir of the MKO?s former chief diplomatic representative in Europe and North America, Masoud Banisadr.3 Following publication of this Human Rights Watch report, individuals associated with the MKO and others, in communications to Human Rights Watch as well as publicly on Web sites connected with the MKO, raised objections to the findings of the report. We have investigated with care the criticisms we received concerning the substance and methodology of the report, and find those criticisms to be unwarranted. Download PDF No Exit: Human Rights Abuses Inside the Mojahedin Khalq Camps More Information on Human Rights in Iran ----------- Also read: The Iranian Pen Club letter to the leaders of the main political Parties of Spain . . Iranian Pen Club, May 24, 2009 Mr. Mariano Rajoy, Leadre of People's Party (Spain) As you are aware, when Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was removed, some terrorist Cults with regional and international activities lost their only godfather and benefactor. One of them is the Mojahedin-e Khalq organisation. Postfach 90 06 63 Cc: --------- Also read: Open letter of Mr. Sobhani to Mr. Rodriges Zapatero Prime Minister of Spain . . Iran Ghalam, May 19, 2009 Honorable President of the Government of Spain -------- Also Read: Discussion of the Mojahedin-e Khalq/National Council of Resistance and its activities in the EU Parliament . . . . ... Ms Ebrahimi said she saw Mr Paulo Casaca when he visited Camp Ashraf. We were not allowed to approach him and speak to him, she explained to delegates. If they had somewhere to go, she told delegates, without doubt ninety-nine percent of the people in Camp Ashraf would leave the camp and the MKO... Reported from EU Parliament, Sep. 09, 2008 On Tuesday 9 September a meeting was held by the Delegation for Relations with Iran in the European Parliament. The meeting focused on ‘Discussion of the Mojahedin-e Khalq/National Council of Resistance and its activities in an exchange of views with: Ms Anne Singleton expert on the MKO Ms Angelika Beer, President of the Iran Delegation (Greens/EFA), began by describing the MKO and its activities up to the present time. Anne Singleton briefly described her own involvement with the MKO for over twenty years. Asserting that the MKO will not give up the use of violence to achieve its aims, Ms Singleton went on to explain why, in spite of that, she believes that the MKO has currently little to do with the Iranian political scene, but that precisely because it is a cult, its danger is that it interferes in parliamentary democracy in western countries in ways that may even involve criminal activity. Whilst agreeing that the MKO’s platform of ‘total regime change’ in Iran could be attractive to some politicians in the west, Ms Singleton challenged the delegates to consider whether the MKO would be able to achieve its stated aim – ‘will it do what it says on the tin’? Since its last major offensive against Iran in 1988, the MKO has achieved little to further its aims. She told delegates that they should also consider the possibility that, even if they believe the MKO has changed tactic and intends to pursue its aims only through political opposition, the MKO may not actually be ‘fit for purpose’ She urged them to consider the evidence of the three former residents of Camp Ashraf who have arrived in Europe from Iraq only in the past few weeks, and who would speak later in the meeting about conditions inside the MKO. Ms Singleton asserted that Iranian people – as those delegates who have visited Iran are aware – are not waiting to be rescued by the MKO and are capable of opposing their own government. Iranian women are not waiting to be taught about feminism by Maryam Rajavi who leads an organisation which – as Batul Ebrahimi will testify - badly abuses women members. Then Ms Singleton described the current situation of the MKO in Iraq. Control of Camp Ashraf, the MKO’s headquarters, has been transferred from the American military to the Iraqi military. Ms Singleton said that Iraqi government officials are angry at reports which suggest that the MKO would be ‘massacred’ if the Americans handed over Camp Ashraf. Instead, the people inside the camp are facing a humanitarian crisis because they are not allowed even basic freedoms such as the right to enjoy contact and visits from their families. A rumour has arisen that the Americans have removed around 300 of those captive in Camp Ashraf and left the others. Ms Singleton said that if this is the case then she would consider the remaining 3000 individuals in Camp Ashraf to be ex-members of the MKO. They should be brought to western countries as soon as possible. Finally, Ms Singleton presented delegates with one solution to the crisis at Camp Ashraf, remove the MKO from the European terrorist list and bring ALL 3,300 residents to Europe where those who are mentally, physically and emotionally sick would be able to receive help. Ms Singleton finished by reminding delegates that continuing support for the MKO would, of course, mean that the European Parliament accepted to have a cult operating in its midst and continuing to interfere in parliamentary democracy. However, if that is the decision to be made, then so be it. Ms Ebrahimi (speaking in Farsi) told delegates that she had gone to Camp Ashraf when she was sixteen years old and although she quickly realised she wanted to leave, she was captive there for another ten years. She described conditions for women in the camp. Not only does the MKO not allow women to marry, women are made to work in the scorching sun for hours at a time so their complexions are ruined and they become ugly. This is so they do not develop the vanity to think they could be attractive to a man, she told delegates. In order to remove hope from the women of ever having a family, they are being sent under surgery for spurious medical conditions to have their wombs removed [hysterectomy] and around ten percent of women in Camp Ashraf have now undergone this surgery. When they tried to impose it on her, Ms Ebrahimi ran away. She begged delegates to take doctors to Camp Ashraf to check the veracity of what she was telling them. The MKO told her that if she left the camp and went with the American soldiers, they would rape her. For this reason it took two years before she was able to have the courage to escape. Ms Ebrahimi said she saw Mr Paulo Casaca when he visited Camp Ashraf. We were not allowed to approach him and speak to him, she explained to delegates. If they had somewhere to go, she told delegates, without doubt ninety-nine percent of the people in Camp Ashraf would leave the camp and the MKO. Mr Hamid Siah Mansoori (speaking English) told delegates he had been in the MKO for over twenty five years. He described how he had gone to Iraq from Canada. He had a good education, and a good life in Canada and had his own business before leaving everything behind in the mid 1980s to go to Iraq. He then described the MKO’s attitude to family. He said no one is allowed to contact their family, except in a few cases where people were told to contact their family to get money from them. He said the MKO told his family he was dead. They came to look for him five years ago – at the beginning of the American occupation – but were told he was dead. Mr Hamid Siah Mansoori said he had arrived only a week ago, but had lost any contact details for his family. Nevertheless, his first priority now was to make contact with his parents and the rest of his family. Ms Beer asked delegates if they had questions. One delegate asked how the MKO continued to be financed which allowed them to continue to undertake such expensive campaigns in parliament and elsewhere. Another delegate asked for more detail about the role of the Americans in supporting Camp Ashraf when the US State Department so strongly describes them as a terrorist group. Anne Singleton answered these questions, pointing out that during the reign of Saddam Hussein the MKO had received almost unlimited finance from Saddam Hussein, as well as from Saudi Arabia and some western governments from behind the scene. Now, however, although it is clear that MKO finances are dwindling somewhat, it was unclear how the MKO could continue to spend so much money, and the only people to answer that are the MKO themselves. Ms Singleton pointed out a five year rift in policy toward the MKO between the US State Department – which has a very thorough knowledge of the MKO – and the US Defense Department under Donald Rumsfeld. Some in the US Administration wanted to use the MKO in confronting Iran and therefore Camp Ashraf has been protected by the US military in Iraq for five years. Ms Singleton conceded that this protection was beneficial in keeping the MKO out of danger in the midst of a war zone. But that the Americans had also flouted the UN Fourth Geneva protocol by not allowing MKO to meet their families and not enabling them to leave the situation. Ms Beer then introduced Mr Mohammad Sobhani who had previously addressed the Delegation. Following that meeting he had been the subject of unfounded accusations of having attacked MKO members in Paris. Instead, Mr Sobhani was the victim of a violent attack when some fifty MKO supporters ambushed a meeting at which Mr Sobhani was a speaker. Following this, Mr Hadi Shams Haeri briefly pleaded with delegates to help him have contact with his children whom he has not been allowed to see for eighteen years. He asked that Mr Paulo Casaca accompany him to Camp Ashraf and help him meet with them again. At the end of the meeting Ms Beer expressed her appreciation for the speakers and said it had been a valuable meeting. One which, given the ongoing situation at Camp Ashraf, might soon be repeated. After the meeting, several of the attendees stopped to talk to the visitors – in particular the three who had just arrived from Iraq - and asked them to keep them informed of developments.
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=6441
http://www.saharngo.com/en-index.html
(Alejo Vidal-Quadras - Mojahedin Khalq Terrorists logo - Rajavi and Saddam)
Alejo Vidal-Quadras, - Mr President, this morning we will be voting on a joint motion for a resolution co-signed by four political groups on the situation of the Ashraf refugee camp in Iraq. Three thousand five hundred Iranian men and women, members of the democratic opposition to the fundamentalist regime in Iran, live there completely defenceless. In the last few weeks they have been under pressure and harassment by the faction of the Iraqi Government under the influence of the Iranian regime, and there is a high probability that at any moment a tragedy could happen that would parallel the ones we witnessed in the Balkans not so long ago.
We all remember Srebrenica, and I have no doubt that no Member in this Chamber wants a second Srebrenica in Iraq. Our motion for a resolution is a call to alert public opinion all over the world before a disaster takes place. Unfortunately, some colleagues have tabled amendments that could increase the danger for the residents in Camp Ashraf and provide the Iranian regime and its proxies in Iraq with arguments to massacre them.
I recently visited the camp myself and I assure you that the allegations included in the amendments tabled are absolutely unfounded. People in Ashraf are there on a volunteer basis. They are free to leave whenever they want and they live in the best friendly relations with the Iraqi population of the region. The intention of our motion is to protect these people. Nobody would understand – but if these amendments are adopted the result of the motion would be exactly the opposite.
This is not a political issue, colleagues: it is purely humanitarian and it is very urgent. I beg you to vote against all amendments tabled to this joint motion supported by these four groups and support the motion as it has been agreed by these four groups that are of very different political stances. The lives of many innocent and harmless people depend on your vote. Please do not let them down.
A number of rescued former members of the Rajavi terrorist cult in Iraq
http://www.iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=6369
(Alejo Vidal-Quadras - Mojahedin Khalq Terrorists logo - Rajavi and Saddam)
Previously Maryam Rajavi posted her cult representative Firouz Mahvi in Casaca’s office. We await with interest to see if he is moved to the office of Vidal-Quadras, if he is changed with another of Rajavi’s cult members, or if another of Rajavi’s MEP’s has her cult representative based in their office.
Some western observers may still be wondering whether the MKO’s supporters in various parliaments are acting out of ignorance or stupidity or sheer wickedness. Unfortunately, those who know the MKO best, particularly its victims in Iraq, when they see the orchestrated and vigorous insistence on lies and deception cannot be blamed for believing in the corruptibility of parliament and that these MPs must be being paid for their activities.
Sadly the failure of western governments to challenge the undemocratic activities of the MKO is not a new story.
http://iran-interlink.org/index.php?mod=view&id=5367
(Alejo Vidal-Quadras - Mojahedin Khalq Terrorists logo - Rajavi and Saddam)
Bât. Altiero Spinelli
11E205
60, rue Wiertz / Wiertzstraat 60
B-1047 Bruxelles/Brussel
Dear Sir,
I read about your recent unofficial trip to the infamous Camp Ashraf garrison which houses the remains of the Mojahedin Khalq terrorist organisation.
Of course, as Vice-President of the European Parliament, I was surprised that I did not hear of your visit from Iraqi government officials. Perhaps you did not see the need to discuss your concerns about this foreign terrorist entity with the legitimate government of the country you were visiting. Unfortunately, the unofficial nature of your visit to this terrorist group aligns you with the remains of the Saddam regime in Iraq.
I also read the open letter sent to your good self from Sahar Foundation in Baghdad - I have the honour to have been involved in its creation in Iraq earlier this year to save the victims of this terrorist cult.
Dear Sir,
The letter sent to you by Sahar Foundation needs no further elaboration but it is worth reminding your good self that the government of Iraq (with which I am now in regular contact and consultation) regards the group in which you have such an interest as part and parcel of Saddam's repressive army and therefore is adamant to expel them from their country. The Iraqi government sees no benefit or in fact obligation to assist a part of Saddam's private army who are neither Iraqis nor civilians. You must surely agree that these people cannot remain in Iraq. The American army will soon hand over the security of Diyali province to the Iraqi government which has pledged to remove the group from the country.
You visited the camp without any human rights organisation representative accompanying your good self. You visited the camp without any official from the government of Iraq and you visited the camp without even investigating the allegations as to what is really going on behind its closed doors. Whatever your intention, yours was certainly not a visit to investigate allegations of widespread, unnecessary hysterectomies performed on women in the camp, otherwise you would have taken the trouble of asking a couple of physicians to accompany you. You even failed to take an independent translator with you (or did the cult leaders deny entry to independent people?)
Dear Sir,
The least you could have done was to take with you a couple of the many hundreds of parents who have not been allowed to see their children for the last 25 years. Or, you could have asked for telephone lines to be installed to contact the people inside the camp.
Dear Mr Vidal-Quadras,
Did you not notice that the camp has no children inside? Did you not think that this is because the cult leader has banned marriage and family relations? Did you not notice that the citizens of "Ashraf City" wear uniforms and do not see "Rejection of Violence" as contradictory with "military training"? Did you not notice that all the people who were allowed to get near you were saying the same thing and acting the same way? Dear Sir, you are a politician. Surely you know better than anyone that if you have 10 people who wear the same uniform, say the same thing, laugh at the same time and shout at the same time, there must be a dictating force behind them.
And did you not see that the "city" you visited had no nursery, no shops, no school, no cinema, no marriage registry office, no public phone box, no post office, no….
Dear Sir, I really think you should visit the camp again, and this time I offer my services to accompany your good self. After all, I don't think that they have taken you to see the anti-nuclear Leadership compound which was built as a gift to Massoud Rajavi by Saddam Hussein, I am sure they have not let you visit the "Exit" section of the camp where over 300 people who refuse to take military orders are imprisoned by the cult.
Dear Sir,
Immediately after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Massoud Rajavi, guru of the Mojahedin Khalq cult, went into hiding. After three years incommunicado, a statement was issued in 2006 in his name. In it Rajavi announced his timescale for toppling the Iranian regime: "in the next two years". Little attention was given at the time. Rajavi has made this kind of claim frequently over the past 30 years without effect.
Information from inside the cult, however, indicates that the specific deadline of January 2009 is part of a more sinister plan by the cult leaders. Following the announcement of this date, every member was required to sign a piece of paper giving their oath that they will not leave the cult until January 2009 – by which time, according to Rajavi, the regime must be toppled.
Rajavi's message states that when the deadline of January 2009 arrives: ‘anyone who wants to can leave, and I will myself throw out all the useless ones. I will keep the rest who are pure, and I will tell them then what they have to do for me'. Experts on the MKO's cult jargon interpret this as Rajavi's intention to have his followers 'wreak havoc'; the most predictable scenarios being mass suicide in Camp Ashraf and/or attacks on external interests with suicidal intensity in other parts of the world where the MKO cult has bases. That is, the ‘pure’ MKO operatives will kill all Rajavi’s opponents in Europe and then kill themselves.
The 2006 US State Department Country Reports on Terrorism, which describes the Mojahedin as a terrorist entity with cult-like characteristics, warned: "Many MEK leaders and operatives, however, remain at large, and the number of at-large MEK operatives who received weapons and bomb-making instruction from Saddam Hussein's regime remains a source of significant concern."
Our friends who have managed to escape for the camp during the last 5 years are deeply worried about yet another series of self-immolations or even suicide operations like the ones carried out by order of the cult leaders as recently as 2003.
We are deeply concerned that with the elapse of the deadline of January 2009 as Massoud Rajavi has promised, the remaining people will be forced into mass suicide and or mass murder of the ones who do not obey Rajavi anymore.
Sir, as someone who has access to the cult leaders, as someone who now has access to the inside of the camp, and as someone who has the ability and the power to make a difference, I urge you to help us to:
1- Open the gates of this camp ASAP to human rights organization representatives, in particular to independent physicians and psychologists.
2- Open the gates of this camp to the immediate families of people inside, some of whom have not seen their loved ones for over two decades.
3- Arrange a place of refuge (to replace the TIPF) for the ones who do not wish to continue serving the leaders of a terrorist cult so that they could run away from the hands of the Camp leaders.
4- Facilitate the transfer of all the people in the camp from Iraq to the safety of European countries where they can be rehabilitated and re integrated into normal societies.
Preliminary to a return visit, I would like to meet with you and bring to your attention some basic facts and information concerning Camp Ashraf and to discuss with you the Iraqi government’s position toward the group which you apparently failed to ascertain whilst visiting their country.
Attached documents:
Iran Interlink Special Report from Baghdad
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=4095
Report of a meeting on the MKO in the European Parliament
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=5097
Report "No Exit" by Human Rights Watch
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=797
Report of the US State Department 2007
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=818
Letter of SAHAR Foundation from Baghdad
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=5350
.
Yours
Massoud Khdabandeh
Cc:
- Office of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maleki
- Office of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
- Office of Javier Solana, Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union
- Office of Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the UN
- Human Rights Watch (New York)
- Amnesty international (London)
- UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- US State Department
- Embassies of France, Germany, Russia and China in London
- Relevant MEPs
http://iran-interlink.org/index.php?mod=view&id=5350
http://www.saharngo.com/en-index.html
Vice President of the European Parliament
Brussels, Belgium
Sahar Family Foundation
Baghdad
November 2008
Dear Sir
Please accept our warmest regards as well as those of the families of the members captured in the terrorist cult of Rajavi called the Mojahiden-e Khalq Organization (MKO) in Iraq.
According to the news released by the websites of the MKO, some MEPs as a delegation headed by you visited the base of the organization called "Ashraf" and expressed some opinions relating the garrison of the terrorist cult of Rajavi in Iraq.
The Sahar Family Foundation which consists of the former members of this organization and the families of mental and physical captives in the Ashraf garrison in Iraq would welcome such actions provided they are not one-sided and they do not intend political purposes. We do hope that such visits would continue and would also end to the savior of the captives in that cult and rejoin them with their families who are anxiously waiting to see their beloved ones for over two decades.
Referring to your expressions as well as those of other MEPs reflected in the MKO sites; obviously this visit was aimed for fact-findings about the cult garrison of the MKO in Iraq. Such action is of course welcomed; but we would like to ask you that: shouldn't a representative of those separated from the organization and those who have been subject to abuses or a representative of the families of those confined in that garrison and have no way to the outside world be present in such a visit?
Recently in a meeting in the European Parliament, Ms Nassrin Ebrahimi a former member of the MKO, talked about hysterectomy and castration of women. Surely this has drawn the attention of yours and that of the delegation that companied you in Ashraf. Also Ms Batool Soltani a former member of the leadership council of the MKO who is based in Baghdad and is the spokesperson of our foundation has listed the names of nearly 150 individuals (%10 of the total number of women in the organization) who have been castrated in the cult of Rajavi. Shouldn't a physician be present in your delegation to examine these miserable women for fact-finding? It is worth mentioning that Ms Soltani in Baghdad has announced several times that she is ready to visit the Ashraf garrison along with any international delegation in order to find the truth about the MKO.
Your visit and that of the delegation along with you from the Ashraf garrison in Iraq is merely used as a propaganda tool in the hands of a cult to further manipulate its captive followers, since no representative from the opponents, critiques or defectors of the organization were present. Cults do need to justify their inhumane actions and that is why they try to whitewash their faces using well-known people. Our expectation from European politicians was that they act more rational and more reasonable.
For your information it is worth mentioning that the garrison that the MKO calls the "Ashraf city" has the following characteristics:
1. Lacks any families or offspring. Children do not exist there. Women and men live on two opposite sides of this so called city separately and have no contacts with each other what so ever. That is sex apartheid is imposed severely in there. Even gas stations are separated for men and women.
2. The inhabitants of this garrison do not have the right to love anyone but the spiritual leader i.e. Massoud Rajavi. Any kind of expressing love or emotions towards any other person is prohibited and is considered as committing a sin.
3. Followers must regard the members of their families as their main enemies and therefore hate them. Reminding of spouses, offspring or parents is considered as treason to the cult. This cult regards family as the "nest of corruption".
4. Those based in this cult garrison are deprived from facilities such as telephone, cell phone, post, radio, television, internet, satellite, daily papers, gazettes or any form of connection with the outside world and do not have the least of ideas to what is happening outside the garrison. They are only fed with the information provided by the MKO media. It is interesting to know that the organization is even showing its own television programs with delay and after being censored for these practically hostages in the Ashraf garrison. This is done for preventing pictures of the normal life be shown to the captives in order to avoid the awakening effects on them.
5. Members have no right to criticize the actions and the policies of the leader of the cult and the followers have no right to even doubt the political and strategic lines of the organization.
6. Individuals have to attend inhumane sessions called "current operations" and be damned for their deeds and thoughts and even their night dreams. In these sessions which are the most immoral methods of psychological pressures over people, the natural mental and emotional defense of one is shattered in such a way that one submits oneself to any unsound demand and has not the power to say "no".
7. Finally the MKO under the leadership of Massoud Rajavi and his wife Maryam is an established cult according to modern scientific psychological and sociological definitions which utilizes mind manipulation methods in order to recruit, preserve and control its forces. This organization is using brainwashing techniques to restore a kind of modern slavery where individuals are both mentally and physically captives. Cults do need an isolated remote place in order to impose their mental methods over their followers and the Ashraf garrison in Iraq has provided such facilities for over two decades for the MKO first under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship and then under the protection of the US forces. In other hands the isolated European garrison of the MKO called the Maryam garrison in a suburban area in the north of Paris called Auvers-sur-Oise is used to theorize new mental implementation methods and is used to produce human robots.
If the politicians visiting the Ashraf garrison in Iraq have the least knowledge about the actions of a cult, they definitely know that what they did is to help a destructive terrorist cult to gain justification against its members which are its prime victims in order to brainwash them more and exploit them more.
We urge all MEPs who visited the Ashraf garrison in Iraq to ask the MKO leaders that why they do not allow free and without intervention visits of families with their beloved ones in the Ashraf garrison to take place and why they prevent them using all sorts of excuses.
Best regards
Sahar Family Foudation
Baghdad, Iraq
Copy to:
The European Parliament's Presidential Committee
A number of MEPs
The public media
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=5286
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.aspx?id=72764§ionid=351020101Batoul Soltani, who was a Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) member for 20 years and was promoted to the rank of the leadership council of the terrorist organization, told Press TV that individuals in the Mojahedin-e Khalq cult should reach what the organization sees as a peak by cutting all their links with the outside world.
“The women members who have dedicated their family life, children and husbands to the cult leaders are totally separated from the outside world by the removal of their womb. In the organization, the hysterectomy surgery is considered as reaching the peak.”
The former authority of camp Ashraf in Iraq, noted that some of the women even didn't have an idea of the operation done on their body since they were told that the operations are done for curing their sickness. Soltani also mentioned the leaders of the cult concluded that the removal of sexual parts of the body is even physically necessary.
Mojahedin-e Khalq which has undergone a so called ideological revolution has paved the way for a number of cultic practices within the organization. To name them, they are compulsory divorces, victimizing children, separating children from their families, trying to eliminate biological differences between men and women by forcing female members to carry out hard work, and now resorting to hysterectomy. 
It appears that the ideological revolution of Mojahedin-e Khalq not only led the organization to transform into a notorious cult, but also brought about countless negative consequences, most of which have so far remained unknown to the outside world.
News about MKO's recent scandal has leaked out while Maryam Rajavi, wife of MKO leader Masoud Rajavi, seeks to introduce herself a radical feminist and the true defender of women rights.
Furthermore, she refers to the achievements of the ideological revolution of Mojahedin-e Khalq as a solution for the challenges concerning women rights.
The group is responsible for bombings, killings, and attacks against Iranian government officials and civilians over the past 25 years, including the assassination of the late president Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, prime minister Bahonar and judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti.
The MKO is also known to have cooperated with Iraq's former dictator Saddam Hussein to suppress the Iraqi people.
http://iran-interlink.org/index.php?mod=view&id=2471
http://www.mojahedin.ws/news/text_news_en.php?id=1237
Alejo Vidal-Quadras, vice president of the European Parliament and a supporter of MKO told a news conference that "We have come across no evidence whatsoever which would justify maintaining the PMOI on the terrorist list". It seems that these advocates talking on behalf of MKO have not yet come across the well justified evidences of the State Department that re-designated MKO as a terrorist organization on April 30.
http://iran-interlink.org/index.php?mod=view&id=1185
the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO)
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/02/15/iran12678.htm
A number of critics of the report claimed that Human Rights Watch was calling on the United States, Canada, and the European Union not to remove the MKO from their respective lists of groups identified as perpetrating or advocating acts of terrorism, in the face of a campaign by the MKO to have itself removed from such lists. Human Rights Watch in fact at no point, either in the report or in responses to media and other queries, took any position whatsoever on whether the MKO should be on such lists or removed from them. Rather, we did no more than report what we believed to be credible testimonies alleging serious abuses perpetrated by MKO officials against dissident members of the group, including prolonged deprivation of liberty and torture.
A group known as Friends of a Free Iran (FOFI), comprising four Members of the European Parliament ? Alejo Vidal Quadras, Paulo Casaca, Andre Brie, and Struan Stevenson ? presented the most extensive of the critiques of the No Exit report on September 21, 2005.4 The FOFI document disputed the testimonies and challenged the credibility of the witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch, saying, among other things, that their allegations were ?widely believed to be orchestrated by Iran?s Ministry of Intelligence.?5 The MKO has similarly alleged that Human Rights Watch?s witnesses, and dissident former members generally, are in fact agents of Iranian intelligence. Neither FOFI nor any of the other critics of the Human Rights Watch report have provided any credible evidence to support this charge.
The FOFI document followed a five-day visit by a delegation of FOFI members to the MKO?s main base in Iraq, Camp Ashraf, in July 2005. The FOFI delegation reportedly interviewed 19 MKO members inside Camp Ashraf. According to the FOFI document, these present MKO members disputed testimonies given by the former MKO members to Human Rights Watch. The FOFI delegation did
not interview any of the individuals who gave testimonies to Human Rights
Watch.
Because Human Rights Watch places a high premium on the accuracy of our reporting and public statements, the organization took these allegations seriously. We went back to our sources to review and reevaluate the credibility of their allegations.In October 2005 Human Rights Watch researchers met in person with all twelve witnesses quoted in the No Exit report. The researchers conducted interviews lasting several hours with each witness, individually and privately. All interviews were conducted in Germany and the Netherlands, where the witnesses now live.
All of the witnesses recounted in extensive detail their experiences inside the MKO camps from the 1991-2003 period, and how MKO officials subjected them to various forms of physical and psychological abuses once they made known their wishes to leave the organization. Human Rights Watch researchers questioned the witnesses at great length about the circumstances under which these abuses allegedly took place. The researchers also asked the witnesses to respond to the specific issues raised in the FOFI document with regard to their testimonies. The witnesses provided detailed and credible responses to these challenges that were consistent with their earlier testimony as recounted in No Exit and are detailed in the appendix to this statement.
The only piece of information that emerged during these detailed face-to-face interviews that differed from the account in No Exit concerned the period of Mohammad Hussein Sobhani?s detention by the MKO. In No Exit, Human Rights Watch reported that MKO officials had held Sobhani in solitary confinement for eight-and-a-half years, from September 1992 to January 2001. The FOFI document stated that ?upon his own request, he [Sobhani] lived in an apartment furnished with all living commodities of a comfortable life. Despite PMOI?s insistence that he must leave the organization, he was not willing to do so...?6
In his testimony in October 2005, Sobhani told Human Rights Watch that MKO officials held him continuously in solitary confinement from September 1992 until February 1998 inside Camp Ashraf, a period of five-and-a-half years. He said that in February 1998 the MKO leadership offered to transfer him to a better location and then to facilitate his transfer to Europe, where his daughter was living. Subsequently, the MKO moved Sobhani to another MKO camp near Baghdad, called Camp Parsian. He said he stayed there until June 1999, under circumstances that he described as ?house arrest.? He said he was free to leave his apartment in Camp Parsian but could not leave the camp unless accompanied by MKO guards, and could not leave for Europe. In June 1999, during a visit to Baghdad, he escaped and attempted to reach the United Nations office there. He was captured by the Iraqi police and turned over to MKO officials. From June 1999 until January 2001, Sobhani said, the MKO again held him in a prison inside Camp Ashraf, once again in solitary confinement. In January 2001, the MKO transferred Sobhani to Iraqi custody. The Iraqi authorities imprisoned him in Abu Ghraib until January 21, 2002.7
As reported by the witnesses interviewed for No Exit, the MKO transferred scores of dissident members from MKO detention into Iraqi custody. Iraqi authorities then incarcerated the men in Abu Ghraib prison. Five of the twelve individuals interviewed by Human Rights Watch for No Exit said theyended up in Abu Ghraib as a result of such transfers, and they told Human Rights Watch that former MKO members were being held there when they arrived. The FOFI document fails to address the MKO?s transfer of the
dissidents to Iraqi custody or their subsequent detention in Abu Ghraib.
The FOFI document also raised two other objections to the Human Rights Watch report. Firstly, the FOFI document questioned Human Rights Watch?s methodology of conducting interviews with witnesses by phone. Human Rights Watch, like other organizations that conduct research and report on current affairs, sometimes relies on telephone interviews to gather information. Telephone interviews are a recognized and appropriate method of information gathering. Human Rights Watch has no reason to believe that any of the witnesses misidentified or (misrepresented) themselves in any way whatsoever. They reaffirmed their credibility in face to face interviews in October 2005.
Secondly, the FOFI document challenged Human Rights Watch?s report by stating that, during their visit to Camp Ashraf, the FOFI delegation did not find any indications of abuse or ill-treatment of MKO members. The Human Rights Watch report, as was made clear in that text, covered allegations of abuse inside the MKO camps prior to the overthrow of the government of Saddam Hussein in April 2003. The testimonies by witnesses who recounted allegations of detention and physical abuse cover the period from 1991 to February 2003. After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, U.S. forces interviewed MKO members inside the MKO camps. The U.S. military set up a separate camp for those members who indicated that they wished to leave the organization. At least 300 members (out of a total of nearly 4000) chose to leave the organization. The Human Rights Watch report did not include any testimonies or allegations of witnesses as to whether there were ongoing abuses inside Camp Ashraf after the invasion of Iraq. Thus, the findings of FOFI with respect to current conditions in the MKO camp have no relevance to the Human Rights Watch report of testimonies about conditions in the camp from 1991 to February 2003.
Appendix
MKO members inside Camp Ashraf who the FOFI delegation interviewed disputed certain statements by the witnesses whose accounts appeared in the Human Rights Watch report. Human Rights Watch researchers questioned the witnesses at length concerning the allegations contained in the FOFI document.
Their responses, in the view of Human Rights Watch, confirm the credibility and reliability of their original testimonies in No Exit. The Human Rights Watch report contained allegations by witnesses that two MKO members, Ghorbanali Torabi and Parviz Ahmadi, died as a result of abuse suffered in MKO detention. The FOFI document challenged these testimonies.
Alireza Mir Asgari corroborated the fact of Torabi?s detention and ill-treatment at the hands of the MKO, based on his own direct experience. Mir Asgari told Human Rights Watch that the MKO also detained him at the time Torabi was detained. He said that he knew Torabi well as a child in Iran, and that Torabi had recruited him in Tehran at the age of seventeen to join the MKO ranks in Iraq. Mir Asgari told Human Rights Watch that during his detention in 1995, he encountered Torabi face-to-face during an interrogation session. He said that the interrogators questioned them both about Torabi?s motivation for recruiting Mir Asgari to the MKO camps in Iraq and accused them of working for the Iranian government. Mir Asgari said that when he met Torabi during this interrogation, Torabi?s body showed signs of beatings and physical abuse.10
Mir Asgari told Human Rights Watch that when he raised the subject of Torabi?s
death with MKO leader Massoud Rajavi, Rajavi alternately responded that Torabi had committed suicide and that Mir Asgari and other prisoners had themselves killed Torabi because they suspected him of being an informant. He said Rajavi at no point claimed that Torabi had died from a heart attack.
Watch that he went to the Iranian border on his own. Yasser Ezati said that during his stay in Iran, the Iranian local police arrested him three times for ?moral offenses.? Yasser decided that because he had never lived in Iran previously he could not stay there and left for Germany.15
Human Rights Watch questioned Mohammad Reza Eskandari, Tahereh Eskandari, and Habib Khorrami separately regarding these allegations by Leila Ghanbari and the unnamed MKO officials. The Eskandaris and Khorrami separately told Human Rights Watch that Tahereh Eskandari, Habib Khorrami, and Leila Ghanbari left Iran together in March 1988 to go to Iraq, crossing the Turkish border and using their passports to do so. They said the MKO confiscated their passports and never returned them. Mohammad Reza Eskandari was the only member of this family who escaped Iran without a passport across the Iraqi border. All three also noted in separate individual interviews that Leila Ghanbari was pregnant when she left Iran for Turkey, and that her and Habib Khorrami?s son was born in Turkey. Habib Khorrami,
Ghanbari?s former husband and the boy?s father, showed Human Rights Watch a copy of their son?s birth certificate issued in Istanbul in April 1994 and stating the date of birth as June 13, 1988.
Leila Ghanbari also disputed the statements by these witnesses that the MKO had confined them in various MKO detention centers. Mohammad Reza Eskandari, Tahereh Eskandari, and Habib Khorrami, in separate face-to-face interviews again provided Human Rights Watch with detailed and consistent accounts of their confinement in various MKO detention centers.18
[1] Alsoknown as People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).
[2] http://Human RightsWatch.org/backgrounder/mena/iran0505/index.htm
[3] MasoudBanisadr, Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel (London: Saqi Books, 2004).
[4] Thereport was presented on September 21 at a meeting in Brussels sponsored by theFOFI, according to a September 23 press release on the website of the NationalCouncil of Resistance of Iran, an MKO-related group The text of the FOFIdocument later became available on the same website: Many of the points raised in the FOFI document also were raised separately incorrespondence addressed to Human Rights Watch by Lars Rise, a member of theNorwegian Parliament, and two members of the U.K. House of Lords, Lord EricAvebury and Lord Gordon Slynn.
[5] FOFI document, pg. 6.
[6] FOFI document, pg. 65.
[7] HumanRights Watch interview with Mohammad Hussein Sobhani, Germany, October 4, 2005.
[8] LordAvebury email to Human Rights Watch, June 15, 2005.
[9] HumanRights Watch interview with Abbas Sedeghinejad, Germany, October 2, 2005.
[10] HumanRights Watch interview with Alireza Mir Asgari, Germany, October 2, 2005.
[11] FOFIdocument, pgs. 60-62.
[12] http://hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/iran0505/4.htm#_Toc103593132:: ?? the MKO's publication Mojahed of March 2, 1998, lists Parviz Ahmadias an MKO 'martyr' killed by Iranian intelligence agents.?
[13] HumanRights Watch interview with Abbas Sedeghinejad, Germany, October 2, 2005. HumanRights Watch interview with Alireza Mir Asgari, Germany, October 2, 2005. HumanRights Watch interview with Ali Ghashghavi, Germany, October 3, 2005. Theirtestimonies regarding Ahmadi?s death appeared in No Exit, Pgs. 16-17.
[14] FOFIdocument, p. 69.
[15] HumanRights Watch interview with Yasser Ezati, Germany, October 3, 2005.
[16] FOFI document, p. 78.
[17] FOFI document, p. 78.
[18] HumanRights Watch interview with Tahereh Eskandari, The Netherlands, October 6,2005. Human Rights Watch interview with Mohammad Reza eskandari, TheNetherlands, October 6, 2005. Human Rights Watch interview with Habib Khorrami,The Netherlands, October 6, 2005.
Related Material
Memorandum, February 15, 2006
Background Briefing, May 19, 2005
Country Page, February 15, 2006
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=6437
http://www.iran-ghalam.de/2Haupt/3775-
Name%20IranGhalam%20be%20rahbarane
%20Ahzab%20Spain23.5.09.HTM
Mr. Jose Luis Rodrigues Zapatero,Leader of Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
Mr.José Montilla Aguilera, General Secretary of Socialists' Party of Catalonia
Mr. Cayo Lara, Leader of United Left (Spain)
Mr. Artur Mas i Gavarró, Leader of Convergence and Union
Respectfully, we would like to acknowledge that the Iranian Pen Club is consisted of those ex-members of the MKO who managed to free themselves from the mental and even physical barriers of the Organisation. The main object of the Association is of course to try to help the previous comrades in such way that they be able to free themselves too and start a decent normal life again along with their families and beloved ones.
(Alejo Vidal-Quadras - Mojahedin Khalq Terrorists logo - Rajavi and Saddam)
Also the Mojahedin have alienated their own members and supporters who dare to speak about these realities. The organization imprisoned them so the others would understand the price of criticism. There are many who have had to undergo imprisonment and torture ordered directly by
Mr and Mrs Rajavi. Above and beyond that, was the exposure of the plans of the so called National Council of Resistance to eliminate disaffected members and critics.
Of course is it years now that the people of Iran have knowingly and deliberately turned their back on the Mujahidin Organization, which shows their political understanding, like the people and all political groups of the Spain that consider “ ETA “ as a terrorist organisation.
But we would like to inform that Mr. Vidal Quadrass, Member of The People's Party ( Spain ) and Member of the European Parliament from Spain is supporting and backing up the Mojahedin Khalgh Terrorist Cult European parliament. Unfortunately, he is Rajavi’s cult representative in European Parliament now. Is it certainly a justly able position for a Spanish member of parliament to support a terrorist cult? What is difference between Terrorist Organization “ETA “and Mojahedin Khalgh Terrorist Cult?
we would like to ask from Mr. Vidal Quadrass many questions.
Has Mr. Vidal Quadrass ever asked Mojahedin Khalgh Terrorist Cult to explain about the forced separation of families and spouses?
Has Mr. Vidal Quadrass ever asked the leaders of Mojahedin Cult about the strategy of ‘war and Terror in the cities’ and the murder of thousands of people in Iran?
Has Mr. Vidal Quadrass ever asked for an explanation about the role of Masoud Rajavi and maryam Rajavi as the ideological leaders who have never made a mistake and never will? Why members of Cult have to attend brainwashing sessions in Ashraf garrison in Iraq and Auvers-Sur-Oise garrison in France that called "current operations" and be damned for their deeds and thoughts and even their night dreams. Why in these brainwashing sessions which are the most immoral methods of psychological pressures over people, the natural mental and emotional defense of one is shattered in such a way that one submits oneself to any unsound demand.
Also, I would like to remained you that cults do need an isolated remote place with tall walls in order to impose their brainwashing techniques over their followers and the Ashraf garrison in Iraq and Auvers-Sur-Oise garrison in France have provided such facilities for many years for the MKO.
In conclusion, we request from yourself and your colleagues as leaders of the political parties of Spain, in particular Mr. Mariano Rajoy leader of the Spanish People's Party, that considering the local and internernational threat posed by the terrorist cult Mojahedin-e Khalq as described above, that you bring the complaints of the Pen Association and likeminded people to the attention of Mr Vidal Quadras over his cooperation and support for the terrorist cult Mojahedin-e Khalq.
With many thanks and regards
The Iranian Pen Club
22.05.2009
51116 Köln
Germany
00491756391365
info@iran-ghalam.de
kanoon-ghalam@hotmail.de
- Embassies of Spain in Germany and France
- Relevant MEPs
- Office of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maleki
- US State Department
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=6411
http://www.iran-ghalam.de/2Haupt/3765-
name%20Sobhani%20be%20nokhost
%20vazie%20Spain19.05.09.HTM
(Alejo Vidal-Quadras - Mojahedin Khalq Terrorists logo - Rajavi and Saddam)
“Mr. Jose Luis Rodrigers Zapatero”
Respectfully, I would like to introduce myself before anything else. I am an ex member of the Central Committee of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MKO). This can be verified from their own propaganda outlets including Mojahed Publication (Special Edition, Autumn 1992) which mentions my name as a Deputy Executive Committee member.
In 1992 I became an outspoken critic of what is know as the "forced divorces" and of what is known as "armed struggle". More than that, I criticised what was apparent about the special relations between the organisation and Saddam Hussein, the ousted dictator of Iraq. I was imprisoned for a few months in solitary confinement inside Ashraf camp and over all spent about 8 years in different prisons.
In January 2001, after 8 years of imprisonment and physical and mental torture, they turned me over to Abu Ghraib prison where I was held for more than a year.
I would like to inform your Excellency that MR. VIDAL QUADRASS, Member oft he European Parliament from Spain is supporting and backing up the leaders of MKO, MRS. MARYAM RAJAVI and MASOUD RAJAVI and their terrorist cult in European parliament.
MR. VIDAL QUADRASS visited from Camp of Ashraf in Iraq for more help to this terorist cult last year. But without any human rights Organisation representative accompanying his good self., He visited the camp without even investigating the allegations as to what is really going on behind its closed doors. MR. VIDAL QUADRASS visited from Camp of Ashraf in Iraq, but he did not notice that the camp has no children inside and he did not think that this is because the cult leader has banned marriage and family relations?
I would like to remained you that self-immolations done by some members in European capitals after the arrest of their leader Maryam Rajavi in Paris on 17 June 2003, is one obvious example of the kind. Like all cults, this organisation needs a remote site to be able to isolate the members from the outside world. The residents of Ashraf Camp in Iraq and Auvers-Sur-Oise Camp in France have no contact with the real world, not even with their relatives.
At the end, I would like to remained you that the Mojahedin Khalgh Terorist Cult has a similar place as the terrorist organization “ ETA “ in the hearts and minds of people of Iran. Is it certainly a justlyable position for a Spanish member of parliament to support a terrorist cult?
Sincerely
Mohammad Sobhani
19.05.2009
Postfach 90 06 63
51116 Köln - Deutschland
Telefon: +49 (0) 1774829905
Email: sobhani_m_h@hotmail.com
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=5097
MEPs intrigued by accounts of newly arrived escapees from Camp Ashraf 
Representative of the NCR (declined invitation)
Three Residents of Ashraf Refugee Camp who arrived from Iraq in the last couple of weeks: Ms. Ebrahimi, Mr. Hassan Piransar and Mr. Hamid Siah Mansoori.
Also present were former MKO members Karim Haggi, Mohammad Sobhani, Hadi Shams Haeri and Ali Ghashghavi, who accompanied the new arrivals to provide support to these vulnerable people. 
Ms Beer thanked Anne Singleton for her contribution and asked the three recently arrived, former Camp Ashraf residents to speak. 
