US move to delist Mojahedin Khalq as terror group worries Iran's opposition
(MEK, MKO, Rajavi cult)
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... Massoud Khodabandeh, a former senior high-ranking MEK member, said: "People aren't allowed to get married. Some there haven't heard or seen a child for 25 years. There are no phones, no internet, no postal services, nothing.." Mr Khodabandeh runs an organisation helping those trying to quit the MEK, and believes many at Camp Ashraf want to leave but are effectively held hostage by the Rajavis. "Those caught trying to run away get severely punished," he said in a ...
Michael Theodoulou, The National, July 26 2011
http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/middle-east/us-move-to-delist-mek-as-terror-group-worries-irans-opposition
It is a bizarre, exiled Iranian opposition group that has existed mostly on the fringes of history. But the cultish Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), or "people's holy warriors", will seize the international spotlight if the US State Department decides in coming weeks to remove the group from its list of foreign terrorist organisations.
The well-funded organisation, once allied to Saddam Hussein, has friends in high places in Washington.
Removing the MEK from the US's terrorism blacklist would make already frosty relations between Tehran and Washington even icier.
It also "would allow the Mujahedin to receive US funding and become a powerful force in support of war with Iran, just like the Iraqi exiles who deceived us into war with Iraq did," Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), warned last week.
Iran's domestic opposition meanwhile insists that lifting the MEK's terrorist designation would spell disaster for the Green Movement. [..]
The MEK, dedicated to overthrowing Iran's Islamic regime and considered a terrorist group by Iran as well as the US, is despised by ordinary Iranians because it fought alongside Saddam's forces in the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war.
In response to an MEK lawsuit, a US federal court last year ordered the State Department to review the group's terrorist designation.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, is due to announce her decision next month. The MEK was blacklisted as a terrorist organisation in 1997 by her husband's administration.
The group, however, has been taken off similar terrorism lists by the European Union after court decisions found no evidence of terrorist activity in recent years.
The MEK is led by the husband-and-wife team of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. The latter, touted by the MEK as Iran's "president-in-waiting", lives in suburban Paris.
Her spouse is a spectral figure who has not appeared in public for years. His whereabouts are unknown, although informed speculation suggests that he spends most of his time at Camp Ashraf, the MEK's main base, a sprawling, mini-state within a state 65 kilometres north of Baghdad.
The MEK was founded in 1965 as an urban guerilla movement opposed to the US-backed Shah and played a key role in the 1979 Islamic revolution. Its ideology was a blend of revolutionary Islam and Marxism.
The MEK vehemently opposed US involvement in Iran and the State Department links the organisation to the deaths of at least six Americans in Iran during the 1970s.
The MEK also backed the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran in November 1979. When the hostages were freed 444 days later, the MEK berated the regime for "capitulating to imperialism".
But the MEK soon broke with the late Ayatollah Khomeini in a violent power struggle and was forced underground in 1981 when thousands of MEK members were arrested and many hanged. Most of its senior leaders fled to France. Another wave of executions followed in 1988.
But the MEK also got in punishing blows, assassinating scores of regime officials. The right arm of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, remains partially paralysed from an MEK bomb attack in 1981.
In 1986, under pressure from France, the MEK relocated to Iraq, where Saddam armed and funded it. Its main base there was Camp Ashraf, conveniently located 50 miles from the Iranian border for attacks against the Islamic republic.
But in 2003 the MEK suffered a devastating blow when Saddam was toppled by the US-led invasion. American forces stripped the group of its tanks and heavy weaponry but accorded its members "protected person" status.
About 3,400 Iranian former rebel fighters, many of them women, have since lived a limbo-like and precarious existence at Camp Ashraf.
Their plight made headlines in early April when Iraqi troops raided the camp, leaving at least 34 residents dead, according to a UN investigation. The MEK is strongly disliked by Iraq's Shiite-led government, which is on good terms with Iran.
Many rights activists describe the MEK as a cult whose leaders have brainwashed members and dictate every aspect of their lives.
Former members paint a grim picture of life in Camp Ashraf, most of whose inhabitants are said to be middle-aged.
Massoud Khodabandeh, a former senior high-ranking MEK member, said: "People aren't allowed to get married. Some there haven't heard or seen a child for 25 years. There are no phones, no internet, no postal services, nothing.."
Mr Khodabandeh runs an organisation helping those trying to quit the MEK, and believes many at Camp Ashraf want to leave but are effectively held hostage by the Rajavis.
"Those caught trying to run away get severely punished," he said in a telephone interview from Leeds, England, on Sunday.
One of the most detailed studies of the MEK was conducted in 2005 by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the US-based watchdog.
Outlandish practices ordered by the Rajavis included "divorce by decree of married couples, regular writings of self-criticism reports, renunciation of sexuality, and absolute mental and physical dedication to the leadership," HRW said.
Its report focused on cases of would-be defectors being tortured at Camp Ashraf, including two who died under interrogation.
Yet the MEK has powerful supporters in Washington and European capitals.
Among the MEK's heavyweight cheerleaders in the US are Jim Jones, President Barack Obama's former national security adviser, Dennis Blair, the former director of national intelligence, and James Woolsey, who headed the Central Intelligence Agency.
Iran specialists are baffled by the vocal backing the MEK enjoys among some heavy-hitters in Washington. Gary Sick, an Iran expert at Columbia University in New York, said: "Their [the MEK's] support inside Iran is very, very limited.
"The fact that they're against the government in Iran doesn't make them good," he added in a recent telephone interview. "The only thing that I can think of that would be worse than the present government of Iran is a government of the MEK."
Michael Theodoulou (Foreign Correspondent)
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Also
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=10365
SIIC rep: Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) members should leave Iraq end of 2011
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... Members of Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) should completely leave Iraq by the end of 2011, said Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) representative in Tehran, Majed Ghamas. "MKO members should leave Iraq and Ashraf Camp based on Iraqi government's official stance and there should be no trace of them inside Iraq by the end of 2011. There are minority of people who are against withdrawal of the group from Iraq, but Kurds, Shiites and overwhelming majority of Sunnis are against presence of MKO members inside Iraq," he told ISNA. Ghamas then added, "the US forces took control of Ashraf Camp after Saddam's collapse and ...
Camp Ashraf.March 2011
(Mojahedin Khalq Rajavi cult)
ISNA, July 18, 2011
http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1808461&Lang=E
TEHRAN (ISNA)-Members of Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) should completely leave Iraq by the end of 2011, said Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) representative in Tehran, Majed Ghamas.
"MKO members should leave Iraq and Ashraf Camp based on Iraqi government's official stance and there should be no trace of them inside Iraq by the end of 2011. There are minority of people who are against withdrawal of the group from Iraq, but Kurds, Shiites and overwhelming majority of Sunnis are against presence of MKO members inside Iraq," he told ISNA.
Ghamas then added, "the US forces took control of Ashraf Camp after Saddam's collapse and prevented Iraqi forces to become close to the camp. This was not only a military but a political support as well."
Regarding failure in evacuation of the terrorist group from the camp, he said, "Iraq forces tried to take control of the camp after withdrawal of the US forces from Iraqi cities, but they faced MKO heads' swift reaction which led to killing and injury of 60 Iraqi forces."
He added the US pressures to block the move currently as well as third countries' refusal to host the MKO members are other reasons behind the issue.
As to formation of a trilateral committee of Iran, Iraq and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for expulsion of the group, he said, "the basis of formation of the committee is a positive measure and assists Iraq for expulsion of the group from its soil."
Regarding ways through which MKO members are supplied with military equipment, he said, "the organization has lacked military entity after occupation of Iraq by the US forces since Americans have taken large amount of their weapons. But MKO members are working closely with al-Qaeda and Baathist terrorists and they have particular bilateral intelligence cooperation."
Iraqi lawmakers slam US intervention
on US support for Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult)
Iraqis continue to protest MKO camp
US keeps Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) terrorists armed in Iraq
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Also
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=10292
New U.S. approach to Mojahedin-e Khalq (MKO, MEK) in Camp Ashraf overlooks the victims’ human rights
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... The problem is not the name of Camp Ashraf or the name MEK. The Rajavi’s cannot simply re-name, re-brand or even relocate their group for political expediency and expect the ‘members’ to continue as their slaves. To solve this problem (before the question of whether they want to work for or against anyone) the residents must be given access to the outside world, to their families, to media, communications, get paid for their work and have access to the post office, cinema, marriage registry, birth registry, police station, legal aid, courts and legal bodies of the country they are living in etc. Nine years after the fall of Saddam ...
Massoud Khodabandeh, MESConsultants, July 05 2011
http://mesconsult.com
Attitudes are slowly crystallising and shifting over what should be done about the MEK, with the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey introducing a new and positive approach in U.S. dealings with the group in Iraq. But the July 4 Miami Herald article ‘Iranian dissidents in Iraq want refuge in 3rd country’ , also highlights the danger that various elements are still trying to derive their own benefits from the MEK even though the demise of Camp Ashraf has become inevitable. Of course you would need to ask those involved what they each hope to get out of such a defunct group.
Ambassador James Jeffrey, addressing only MEK leaders, has urged them to “‘dissolve’ their paramilitary organization and become refugees someplace else in Iraq”. In its turn the MEK itself has already threatened to massacre its own members if any external body interferes in the camp. Jeffrey added that the group "really believe that the U.N. and the United States will protect them forever." Well, they have good reason to believe that to be so.
Trita Parsi’s timely article Washington's Favorite Terrorists exposed U.S. hypocrisy in dealing with the MEK in Washington. But we may very well see a similar level of support continuing in Iraq. The obvious way this would manifest would be for the MEK to be taken (en masse) inside a U.S. military base and held there until further notice. This would protect the group from Iraqi attempts to expel them from the country, and also obviate the need for the U.N. to enter Camp Ashraf and rescue the individual residents from their enforced imprisonment by the MEK leadership.
The wholesale transfer of the residents of Camp Ashraf would truly be a human rights disaster. The sooner it is acknowledged that Rajavi is nobody’s representative but his own, the sooner the victims of the MEK will be helped.
From the hardliners in Iran who want to keep their dangerous foreign backed enemy, to the neoconservatives in the U.S. who want to keep the hatred between Iran and the west (as the neocon version of Holocaust denial, the fact that the MEK has killed so many Iranians is what feeds this hatred), to Iraqi internal factions which want to use the MEK for attacking other factions, to Europeans who still believe the MEK are a useful bargaining chip with Iran or can be used to influence the internal affairs of Iraq. All these have an interest in keeping the MEK intact. None wants the dissolution of the camp or the organisation. They all want to stop the camp being disbanded because they are using the MEK for their own various agendas.
The problem is that without taking the necessary action to access the individual residents of the camp they are essentially being left in the ownership of the Rajavis and their backers. In this respect where are the human rights organisations which should be directly involved in helping these victims? What attempts have the U.N. made to actually get inside the camp and have free access to the residents? Human Rights Watch published its ‘No Exit’ report in 2005 which was laudable, but what have they done since then? Amnesty International still prefers to think of the MEK as an entity and ignore the existence of the individuals in the camp. What has AI said about the internal problems of the residents; the daily violations and abuses of their basic human rights?
The problem is not the name of Camp Ashraf or the name MEK. The Rajavi’s cannot simply re-name, re-brand or even relocate their group for political expediency and expect the ‘members’ to continue as their slaves. To solve this problem (before the question of whether they want to work for or against anyone) the residents must be given access to the outside world, to their families, to media, communications, get paid for their work and have access to the post office, cinema, marriage registry, birth registry, police station, legal aid, courts and legal bodies of the country they are living in etc.
Nine years after the fall of Saddam and the disappearance of the cult leader it is not acceptable for a U.S. official to simply try to move the group from one part of the world to the other part without the slightest concern about the human rights of the captives there.
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also
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=10235
Camp Ashraf and the Mojahedin Khalq
Iran Interlink Third Report from Baghdad
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... Iran-Interlink representative Anne Singleton travelled to Iraq mid April at the invitation of the Baghdad based human rights NGO Baladiyeh Foundation, officials of the Government of Iraq and other NGOs involved in the Camp Ashraf problem. 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 ...
Iran Interlink, April 2011
www.iran-interlink.org
Further information can be found at www.camp-ashraf.com .
First Report (February 2008) - (PDF version)
Second Report (September 2009) - (PDF version)
Third Report (April 2011) - (PDF version)
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Also
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=10255
Washington pressures Iraq to provide sancutary for Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) terrorists
Talabani: Iraq's patience has worn thin
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...Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, voiced his support for Iran's call to shut a military camp in central Iraq that has served as a base for an Iranian insurgent group, the Mujahedin e-Khalq, or MeK. Washington, while designating the MeK as an international terrorist organization, has pressured Iraq to continue to provide sanctuary to some 3,400 MeK fighters over fears they would be persecuted if they returned to Iran. Mr. Talabani said in a speech to the terrorism conference Saturday that his government's patience with the MeK had worn thin. The MeK camp "will be shut down by the end of the year," Mr. Talabani said ...
Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2011
http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/markets/newsfeeditem.aspx?id=148573656221514
Iran Woos US Allies As Troops Withdraw
Iran is moving to cement ties with the leaders of three key American allies -- Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq -- highlighting Tehran's efforts to take a greater role in the region as the U.S. military pulls out troops.
The Afghan and Pakistani presidents, visiting Tehran, discussed with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "many issues. . .that might come up after the NATO military force goes out of Afghanistan," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in an interview here Sunday.
"The three presidents were very forthcoming in carrying out the cooperation and contacts so as to make sure things will go as smoothly as it could," he said.
That was a jab at Washington, which is increasingly in competition with Tehran for influence in the region, particularly as popular rebellions have surged across the Middle East and North Africa since January.
The overtures by U.S. nemesis Iran come amid tensions between Washington and three governments that have each received billions of dollars in U.S. aid. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, before traveling to Tehran, welcomed President Barack Obama's announcement on Wednesday that the U.S. would withdraw 33,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan over 15 months.
The U.S. is also committed to withdrawing all of its remaining 45,000 troops from Iraq by year-end; some U.S. military officials want some troops to stay to serve as a check on Iran, but Iraqi hostility to the U.S. presence has been an obstacle.
In Pakistan, military and civilian leaders are under domestic pressure to curb U.S. ties, in a wave of anti-Americanism fueled by the U.S. raid in May that killed Osama bin Laden at his home in Pakistan.
Tehran has been pressing Afghanistan -- Iran's neighbor to the east -- and Pakistan to end their military alliances with Washington.
Officials at the White House and State Department declined to comment on Sunday on the Tehran meetings.
U.S. and European officials have said they believe Iran's regional ambitions are hampered by a stagnant economy and growing political infighting in Tehran that could cost Mr. Ahmadinejad his job.
There are also historical tensions between neighbors -- and in some cases, current conflicts. Afghan President Hamid Karzai told Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari that Pakistan must stop lobbing rockets into his country, according to a statement from Mr. Karzai's office. Mr. Zardari denied Pakistan's military was firing the rockets.
But Iran's government took every opportunity to play up its international ties during a weekend that also included a conference in Tehran attended by representatives from around 60 countries.
The Obama administration and European nations had lobbied countries against attending what Iran called an "International Conference on the Global Fight against Terrorism." The U.S. characterizes Tehran as the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism.
The event was also attended by diplomats from U.S.-friendly countries such as Mongolia, Oman and Indonesia. The United Nations and Organization of the Islamic Conference both sent representatives.
"Pakistan and Iran share an historic bond," Mr. Zardari told the conference on Saturday, when his late wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was honored by Iran's government.
For its part, the U.S. charges Tehran with fomenting instability by providing arms and training to insurgent groups, including the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Kata'ib Hezbollah militia in Iraq, that battle American forces. Tehran denies the charge.
For the most part, the conference followed a pattern many U.S. and European officials anticipated. Iranian, Cuban and Palestinian representatives -- mixing with North Korean, Zimbabwean and Myanmar diplomats -- branded Israel the world's largest terrorism threat.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, addressed the conference and said the definition of terrorism is abused internationally.
On Friday, after a three-way meeting between the Iranian, Afghan and Pakistani presidents, the three leaders pledged to intensify their joint efforts to fight militant groups and combat narcotics trafficking, while "rejecting foreign interference" in their countries, according to a statement. The three also agreed to meet next year in Islamabad.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, while in Tehran, voiced his support for Iran's call to shut a military camp in central Iraq that has served as a base for an Iranian insurgent group, the Mujahedin e-Khalq, or MeK.
Washington, while designating the MeK as an international terrorist organization, has pressured Iraq to continue to provide sanctuary to some 3,400 MeK fighters over fears they would be persecuted if they returned to Iran.
Mr. Talabani said in a speech to the terrorism conference Saturday that his government's patience with the MeK had worn thin. The MeK camp "will be shut down by the end of the year," Mr. Talabani said. "We intend to prevent any kind of invasion to be launched against any of our neighboring countries."
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Maria Abi-Habib in Kabul and Maya Jackson Randall in Washington contributed to this article.
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Also
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=10214
Iraq: Ashraf Camp will be closed, West should take Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) back home
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... The Iraqi government’s position towards the ‘terrorist’ Mojahedin E-Khalq Organization is very clear, and the Ashraf Camp, used by that group as its headquarters must close by the end of the current year, 2011,Baghdad had called on International Organizations to help it in this issue.We have proposed the formation of a special committee, to comprise representatives of the Iranian and Iraqi sides, along with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the Committee is scheduled to convene in the nearest possible time. the Western states must present help in this respect, including the acceptance of persons, belonging to ...
Aswat al-Iraq, Baghdad, June 23, 2011
http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default.aspx?page=article_page&c=slideshow&id=143317
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Hoshiar Zibary, has said during his current visit for Tehran, that Ashraf Camp, in northeast Iraq, inhabited by the anti-Tehran Mojahedin E-Khalq Organization, must close by the end of the current year.
“The Iraqi government’s position towards the ‘terrorist’ Mojahedin E-Khalq Organization is very clear, and the Ashraf Camp, used by that group as its headquarters must close by the end of the current year, 2011,” Zibary told a joint news conference with his Iranian Counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehy, in Tehran, carried by the Iranian Fars News Agency on Wednesday, adding that “Baghdad had called on International Organizations to help it in this issue.”
Zibary said that during his talks with his Iranian Counterpart in this respect: “We have proposed the formation of a special committee, to comprise representatives of the Iranian and Iraqi sides, along with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the Committee is scheduled to convene in the nearest possible time.”
The Iranian Al-Aalam Satellite TV Station had quoted Zibary as saying that “the Western states must present help in this respect, including the acceptance of persons, belonging to the said ‘clique,’ wishing to move to their countries, as well as preparing the suitable platform for the return of those of them, wishing to return to Iran.”
Answering a question about the dossier of the Iranians, detained in Iraq, he said: “The Iraqi government had released hundreds of Iranians, who were detained in Iraq due to the end of their official residence or ignoring Iraqi laws,” confirming that the Iraqi government was striving to release the remaining Iranians in the near future.
Regarding Iraq’s position towards the developments in Bahrain, Minister Zibary said: “We respect the sovereignty of Bahrain and believe that the Bahraini people must appoint their government and system, and define their fate by themselves,” reiterating Iraq’s rejection of atrocities against Bahraini demonstrators, “because today’s world does not allow such measures against demonstrators, demanding their rights.”
As regards to the future of the foreign forces in Iraq, the Iraqi Foreign Minister said that “the political forces in Iraq were coordinating their attitudes, in order to define a final position towards the future of the American forces in the country.”
Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Hoshiar Zibary, had began a visit for the Islamic Republic of Iran, leading a high-level delegation, representing his Ministry’s leading officials in the bilateral, legal and consular affairs, to carry out talks with the Iranian side and discuss Iraq’s relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
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Also
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=10195
Iraq - France relations strained over Washington backed terrorist group event in Paris
(aka;Mojahedin Khalq, MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult)
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... The Iraqi government summoned the French ambassador to Baghdad to protest at Paris for hosting a conference of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) where the terrorist group raised unfounded allegations against Baghdad. "To affect the international community and attract international support, the MKO has claimed that the Iraqi government has killed 35 members of the group and injured 350 others," the Iraqi government said on Monday. "But, this is a sheer lie and Baghdad has not carried out such an action," the statement added. The Iraqi people have announced their opposition to the presence of the MKO members ...
(Cult leader Massoud Rajavi)
Nakhel News, Baghdad, June 20, 2011
Translated by Fars News
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9003300943
link to the original report (Arabic)
http://nakhelnews.com/pages/news.php?nid=8981
Iraqi Gov't Summons French Envoy over MKO Accusations
The Iraqi government summoned the French ambassador to Baghdad to protest at Paris for hosting a conference of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) where the terrorist group raised unfounded allegations against Baghdad.
"To affect the international community and attract international support, the MKO has claimed that the Iraqi government has killed 35 members of the group and injured 350 others," the Iraqi government said on Monday.
"But, this is a sheer lie and Baghdad has not carried out such an action," the statement added.
The Iraqi people have announced their opposition to the presence of the MKO members in their country and have long staged protest rallies in front of the MKO's main training camp in the Northern Diyala province to condemn the US-backed presence of the terrorist group in their country.
In a most recent case, a group of Iraqi people gathered outside Camp Ashraf in May, and called for the expulsion of the terrorist group from the country's soil.
The Baghdad government has assured the Iraqi people that it is determined to expel the MKO from Iraq by the end of 2011.
The family members and relatives of the members of the MKO have also gathered outside the terrorist group's main training camp in Iraq for more than a year now.
The MKO ringleaders have already adopted numerous measures to confront those relatives who have camped outside the Camp of New Iraq (formerly known as Camp Ashraf) in Iraq's Northern province of Diyala.
The MKO ringleaders have not allowed a visit between the group's members and their families.
After MKO ringleaders saw the number of defectors were increasing, they resorted to harsher measures and tried to haunt down fugitives in violation of their agreement with the Baghdad government which bans any activity or trafficking of the group members beyond the camp boundaries.
And after the Baghdad government failed to persuade the terrorist group to respect the agreement terms, it ordered the Iraqi Army to tighten control on the camp to prevent any illegal trafficking or infiltration, but the MKO attacked the Iraqi guards and killed and wounded many of them.
An Iraqi commander who was present on the scene of clashes in early April revealed later that the MKO sparked the armed conflict with the Iraqi security forces responsible for guarding the camp in a move to kill its dissident members during the clashes.
According to a report published by the website of the Habilian association in mid April - a human rights group formed of the family members and relatives of the Iranian victims of terrorism - the Iraqi commander, who was speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the move by the MKO was not unprecedented since the group had previously forced its dissident members to start armed clashes with the Iraqi forces.
"The MKO's foremost front was formed of the dissident members of the group during the recent clash. They were forced to be there and be killed," the Iraqi commander reiterated.
But, in an astonishing move which substantiated the West's double-standard policies on human rights and terrorism, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called on Iraq to ignore the illegal activities of the MKO, including its armed clashes with the Iraqi soldiers.
The European Union has lately changed approach towards the terrorist MKO in a move to pressurize Iran to stop its progress in the civilian nuclear technology.
Some ranking members of the MKO who have had a role in the assassination of a large number of Iranian citizens and officials are currently living in France.
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.
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Also
http://iran-interlink.org/?mod=view&id=10148
Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) Violence against members' families
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... The images you see below show the eastern part of Ashraf Cultic garrison. Every day at this part, some of the brainwashed members of the “ destructive mind-control Cult of Rajavi”, covering their faces ; target the suffering families -who are awaiting their beloved ones’ visit eagerly – by strings and catapults. On these photos one can see the families trying to invite the brainwashed elements to talk friendly instead of throwing stones. Although the only way the MKO cultic system is acquainted with is: “violence” no matter against whom. It is said that some of these people are Iraqi mercenaries who are stationed inside the camp through ...
Rajavi deploys his Special Guard to attack families with catapults
Sahar Family Foundation, June 09, 2011
Translated by Nejat Society
http://www.nejatngo.org/en/post.aspx?id=3721
Link to the original report (Persian)
http://iran-interlink.org/fa/index.php?mod=view&id=10050
The images you see below show the eastern part of Ashraf Cultic garrison.
Every day at this part, some of the brainwashed members of the “ destructive mind-control Cult of Rajavi”, covering their faces ; target the suffering families -who are awaiting their beloved ones’ visit eagerly – by strings and catapults.
On these photos one can see the families trying to invite the brainwashed elements to talk friendly instead of throwing stones.
Although the only way the MKO cultic system is acquainted with is: “violence” no matter against whom.
It is said that some of these people are Iraqi mercenaries who are stationed inside the camp through whom the organization puts forward its sabotage and crisis mongering operations inside Iraq.
Families have lodged a complaint along with strong documents against the leadership of the MKO to the judiciary system of Iraq; although it may be blocked by US agents and other related elements, the same as other complaints and documents.
Daniel Zucker, Maryam Rajavi and ALi Safavi