... This threat does not come from outside agencies, but arises directly from the cult nature of the organisation itself; hence the MKO leaders’ hysteria over eight family members knocking at the camp gate asking to see their relatives ...
Anne Singleton, November 2009
Foreword
The families in Iraq announced on Friday 6th that they had finally been able to meet with their relatives, but were far from satisfied with the circumstances. They said that when the MKO leaders discovered that they were coming to the camp accompanied by several Iraqi and American reporters, they accepted to negotiate. The MKO agreed that the families could meet with their relatives for a few hours on condition that they do not talk to the media. The families accepted and held meetings.
However the families also said that their loved ones told them not to pursue the issue any further and said they must cut all further contact with them otherwise they will come under severe pressure from the cult leaders.
The families have now decided to pursue the issue of the camp with the Human Rights Ministry of Iraq in private.
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Fear and Slavery in the Mojahedin-e Khalq cult
By Anne Singleton, November 2009
For those still interested enough to follow the dwindling fortunes of the foreign terrorist cult, Mojahedin-e Khalq, isn’t there something faintly ludicrous in the group’s desperate denunciation of anyone and everyone who does not fall on their side of a red line, drawn excruciatingly tightly around the organisation and its backers, as “agents of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry”? Is it really a case of ‘us few against the rest of the world’?
An examination of the current crisis the MKO is facing reveals that it is not involved in a pitched battle to overthrow the Iranian regime – or has that aim been abandoned without them telling anyone – but the arrival at the doors of its camp in Iraq of eight elderly Iranian folk seeking contact with close relatives – sons, daughters, husbands –inside the camp, who they have not seen for many, many years and with whom they wish to meet. All eight have been denounced by the MKO leaders as “agents of the Iranian secret services” who have been deliberately sent to dismantle the camp and take its residents back to Iran.
Really?
These eight – and the other small groups and individuals who have arrived at the camp over the past six years - are terrifying agents capable of destroying Rajavi’s dedicated, self-sacrificing, totally committed force of Mojaheds? Surprising then that they have not come armed with dynamite and bulldozers, but instead come with kindness, warmth and words filled with both love and sorrow. They come with news and messages from family and friends, about births, deaths, marriages and all the little minutiae of ordinary life.
How interesting. How revealing. What a sad admission of the fragility and nihilism of the Rajavi cult that they are truly terrified by this.
Are we to believe that Iran’s “main opposition” - to quote its own self-publicity – which purports to be able to overthrow the Iranian regime in its entirety and establish a democracy in its place, is full of individuals terrified that their Mum or Dad will come along and pull their ear and make them go home? (And we must not forget that these are individuals with an average age of around 50 years.) Is it really that easy to turn a dedicated individual away from their struggle?
Isn’t the only rational interpretation of the MKO’s current hysteria that Massoud and Maryam Rajavi can only keep hold of their followers through deception and coercion and that the visit of these families will threaten to undermine that.
The fundamental, unavoidable fact behind all this is that the MKO is a dangerous, destructive mind control cult which holds its members in a state of modern slavery.
And the significance of this is far greater than the story of these eight families and involves the geopolitical future of Iraq and the region.
In brief, the MKO is described as a dangerous cult because it believes in using violence to achieve its stated aims. It is destructive because it destroys the lives, minds and spirits of its membership. The majority of the members are held incommunicado, with no access at all to the outside world. Within this isolation they are subjected to a systematic daily regime of psychological manipulation and coercion.
One of the most potent tools used by cult leaders to control their members is through the inculcation of irrational fears, or phobias, in the minds of cult members. Every cult has its own version of phobia. But all will be focused on creating an irrational fear in a cult member of critics and opponents of the cult, especially former members and family members; who of course are best placed to understand the cult mindset and be able to penetrate it. The member will become fearful anytime the phobia is activated. In the case of the MKO, the ‘code’ which activates the phobia is the tag ‘agent of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry’. No empirical evidence is required as the phrase works exactly to arouse irrational, not real, fear.
Members of the MKO live in a state of almost perpetual fear. It is through fear that the MKO not only enthrals its members but deceives uninformed politicians and media persons. The use of the word terror in this article is not for the sake of exaggeration. It describes the employment of irrational fears to ‘terrorise’ the subject. Western parliaments, media and humanitarian agencies are being ‘terrorised’ by a sophisticated campaign of psychological manipulation in which MKO lobbyists arouse a subtle level of irrational fear of spurious, deceptive spectres (usually these will be tagged ‘agents of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence’) facing the “main Iranian opposition movement”, the MKO.
Ironically this unarmed ‘terrorist’ campaign is waged by the MKO to avoid exposure and activation of the real existential threat hanging over the group. This threat does not come from outside agencies, but arises directly from the cult nature of the organisation itself; hence the MKO leaders’ hysteria over eight family members knocking at the camp gate asking to see their relatives.
But, those still interested enough to keep on following the dwindling fortunes of the foreign terrorist cult Mojahedin-e Khalq, will already know that this is not the whole story. Not even the real story. And those who may squirm at seeing see the emperor’s nakedness should look away now.
For six years the American Army provided protection for the MKO in Iraq, a group which both the U.S. and Iraq designate as a foreign terrorist entity. The RAND National Defense Research Institute report ‘The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq – A Policy Conundrum’ published in August 2009 describes the U.S.’ failure to deal decisively with the group; to dismantle it as should have happened, as successive Iraqi governments since December 2003 required should happen. According to the report, “Approximately 14 U.S. soldiers were killed and 60 wounded as they provided security for convoys escorting MeK [MKO] members to Baghdad to purchase supplies. Thus, it was often unclear just who was in charge of Camp Ashraf”. According to the report, the order to protect this useful little mercenary terrorist cult came from the very top, from former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Why?
Just as the MKO leaders denied families access to their relatives inside the camp, the firmly closed doors of the camp against this existential threat proved an extremely convenient location to reassemble members of the former Saddam Hussein’s regime. Over six years the MKO has played host to supporters and officials of the former Iraqi dictator’s regime. Insurgent violence in the Diyala province has been coordinated from the MKO camp under U.S. protection.
So, when eight family members arrive at the gates of the MKO camp, it is not only the MKO leaders who fear the existential threat to the cult, but the group’s western backers. For over two decades, the Mojahedin-e Khalq has been promoted by western interests as Saddam Hussein’s private army. Since 2003, the group’s Zionist and neoconservative backers, fronted by Lord Corbett in the U.K., Struan Stevenson and Alejo Vidal-Quadras in the European Parliament, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in the U.S. Congress, and U.S. lobbyist Raymond Tanter, have not been supporting the MKO for humanitarian reasons (otherwise they would surely support these family visits). They are protecting and promoting the group as a proxy for reintroducing Saddamists into Iraqi politics.
Those terrorised into believing they support the MKO for humanitarian reasons to protect them from destruction by the Government of Iran need to summon a little energy and a little courage to look beyond this false, superficial reasoning and really examine the facts. In doing so they will be faced with a stark choice: support the MKO as a proxy for the re-emergence of pro-western Saddamists in Iraq, or support the elected Government of Iraq as an independent, sovereign government.
That is clearly a political choice. But in the meantime, remember, the real victims of the MKO’s terrorism are the cult’s own members who are enslaved by fear.
Why is Rajavi afraid of the aged meeting with their children?
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... can anybody doubt the pure feelings and emotions of the families who had suffered the pains of a long journey just to be disappointed to visit the loved ones they had longed to see? Naturally, families who care about their children and are eager to see them ...
According to the news coming from Camp Ashraf in Iraq, Leaders of Molahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) have refused to allow the reunions of Iranian families coming from Iran to meet with their children. It happened while the visits were to be conducted under the auspice of the international and human rights defender organizations as a humanitarian initiative that could well pave the way for the freedom of the residents of the camp. The banning is an explicit violation of the rights by the leaders and particularly by Maryam and Masoud Rajavi who are enthusiastically these days advertizing to be its defender and indicates that the leaders believe in the observation of human rights only as a political lever to delude public opinion and the advocates in the West to advance the organizational ends. Besides, there are other facts held responsible for the inhuman deed that needs to be considered in details.
1. It seems that the responsible officials in Camp Ashraf are justifying their deed by putting the blame all on Iranian regime of having intrigued against the Camp Ashraf. Suppose they are right, but can anybody doubt the pure feelings and emotions of the families who had suffered the pains of a long journey just to be disappointed to visit the loved ones they had longed to see? Naturally, families who care about their children and are eager to see them assent to the demands and surveillance of the Islamic Republic through the course of a journey arranged to reunion them with their beloved ones. Looking at it from this angle, it is in no way justifiable to deprive them of a most primal human right.
2. Furthermore, majority of these visitors are mostly aged, weak and some crippled father and mothers that need help of others rather than be the agents for others. Suppose there are agents amongst them, is not it possible to single out old fathers and mothers or sisters and brothers to grant them a last opportunity to see their beloved before they meet their death? How disappointing as there have been many parents who hit their last days failing to meet their children because of the ambitions of the organization’s leaders with the Rajavis at the head.
3. Above all, what all these claims mean when the meetings are run under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross and international human rights organization. A point to notice, the organization has repeatedly asserted that all the attempts of the Islamic Republic during the past years to abuse the emotions of the members’ families to agitate and perturb the Camp Ashraf had proved unproductive. But the assertions also prove that the organization’s manipulated cultic approaches have influentially acted beyond familial bonds and attachments. What is the organization really concerned about and what is possibly disturbing the leaders?
4. It happens just following the president elections in Iran during which Mojahedin advertised the presence of a strongly built bridge between Ashraf and the uprising Iranian mob. So confident were Mojahedin in their claims that they announced their readiness to return to Iran to join the uprising Iranians. Naturally, any visitor from Iran could be a precious opportunity to establish a direct contact with families as members of a greater society and whose children are on the frontline of the struggle. Why are the leaders of Ashraf banning such a direct contact that, according to Rajavi’s analysis, will in the first place avail the organization of the opportunity? However, they know well that none of such fraudulent claims but the visits of the families may play any effective role in the destiny of the camp residents kept in limbo. Subsequently, the leaders prefer not to risk anything since they believe the consequences of the banning is much easier to handle than undergoing irreparable damage that the visits will possibly impose.
5. Although an ongoing process after the fall of Saddam, the banning of visits and contacts between the members and their families, belonging to the outside world, has become an organizational decree in force so far implemented. Simultaneous with Iran’s post-election events that forced Rajavi into a strategic retreat in contrast to his previous daring position takings, the leaders of Ashraf are well aware of the fact that any visitor from Iran can broaden the vision of the members against the baseless claims of the imminent collapse of the regime. If Rajavi really believes in his analyses of inside Iran and accepts to return to Iran on any cause, naturally he has to be convinced that the return of Ashraf residents have to be motivated and persuaded enough.
6. Regardless of all, the refusal of the officials of the organization to allow families to meet with members of the organization indicates that the control of Camp Ashraf is still in the hands of the organization itself. It is actually in total contradiction with Mojahedin’s vociferated ado that American forces have completely surrendered the control of Ashraf to Iraqi Government that is fully exerting its influence on the camp.
(British Lord!! Corbett promoting terrorism under the Logo of MKO for the past 25 years)
(Leader of Washington backed Terrorist with Saddam Hussein)
(Massoud and Maryam Rajavi theMojahedin Khalq cult leaders)
Urgent Appeal to Wijdan Mikhail Salim, Minister of Human Rights of Iraq
From eight Iranian relatives of MKO captives in Camp New Iraq (Camp Ashraf)
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... Sadly, we have discovered that a terrorist cult is still calling the shots in your country and that it is because of them that we cannot see those dear relatives whom we have travelled so far, and waited so long to see. Really, what harm can the eight of us do? ...
Iranian relatives, Outside Camp "New Iraq", November 4, 2009
We have travelled a long way to Iraq to visit our family members. Some of us have not seen these close relatives – sons, daughters, husbands - for over twenty years. Now that we have arrived we have found that we have been banned from seeing our families by the Mojahedin-e Khalq leaders. Who is in charge of what happens in this country?
We came here because we believed that the Iraqi government had finally taken control of the camp and its inhabitants and would be able to help us. This is not so.
We are grateful for the support and accommodation provided by the Iraqi authorities at the checkpoint leading to the Camp of New Iraq which was renamed from Camp Ashraf. Even this re-naming led us to believe that the Iraqi government was in control of the camp.
Sadly, we have discovered that a terrorist cult is still calling the shots in your country and that it is because of them that we cannot see those dear relatives whom we have travelled so far, and waited so long to see. Really, what harm can the eight of us do?
As Minster of Human Rights we hold you responsible for the situation in which our relatives are kept captured. We do not believe that they are free to decide for themselves whether to meet with us or not. They are being held incommunicado and subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment which forces them to deny their natural feelings. The MKO is a cult and deliberately mistreats its members.
If they are really free to choose then why don’t the MKO leaders give them permission to come out of the camp and see us and then they can choose freely to return to their struggle without any further delay or comment from us.
Eight visiting Iranians are waiting for your answer; guests in your country. Although we are elderly and weak we have gone on hunger strike. We cannot do this for long. But we hope that you understand the strength of our feelings and the desperation of our actions and that our appeal to you to intervene on our behalf is answered by your kindest efforts to help us.
Families on hunger strike to protest American support for terrorist group which holds their loved ones hostage
American Army established a check point to prevent families release their loved ones from a terrorist cult
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... From November 2 the families began a hunger strike. They demand that the Iraqi government as the only responsible body in Iraq must take charge and allow the freedom of their children ...
Iran Interlink, Al Khalis, Iraq, November 04, 2009
November 4 - Eight families (named below) travelled to Iraq from Iran this week to find and meet with their relatives who are trapped in a terrorist cult. Once again American soldiers, apparently acting as lackeys for the MKO leaders in Camp Ashraf, have blocked all attempts of these families to meet their loved ones.
Efforts by the Iraqi authorities, U.N. representatives, the ICRC and others to facilitate the humanitarian move have been blocked by the Americans.
Although Iraqi police have established a base inside Camp Ashraf in an effort to enforce Iraqi law among the residents there, the American soldiers have established a further buffer checkpoint which effectively prevents them from carrying out this duty.
Families who arrived at the camp on Saturday 31 October were able to pass through the Iraqi checkpoints to the camp, but were blocked at the final checkpoint which is manned by U.S. military personnel.
The families are now staying at the first check point and an Iraqi officer is acting as liaison between them and the camp. The US army is apparently resisting the requests of the families and insists that the Iraqis should ask permission from the MKO leaders to let families see their loved ones. The MKO is not only an illegal foreign terrorist group in Iraq but has since 1997 been on the U.S. terrorism list.
The families are living in temporary container units. They say they are grateful to the Iraqi military for accommodating them at the first check point and providing security as well as attempting to organise meetings between the families and their loved ones. It is now four days that the families are living in the military check point with the obvious lack of facilities.
From November 2 the families began a hunger strike. They demand that the Iraqi government as the only responsible body in Iraq must take charge and allow the freedom of their children.
The Iraqi government’s attempts to dismantle the terrorist camp and release the victims has been facing strong resistance from the Israeli lobby and neocons who support the return of Saddamists to Iraq. The Mojahedin Khalq Organisation has acted as their proxy in Iraq with Camp Ashraf being used as the base for gathering and coordinating the Saddamists after the American Invasion of Iraq in 2003. By order of the Pentagon, the camp was protected and held together by the U.S. until their retreat in 2008. Americans left a unit at the camp to make sure the terrorist HQ is not dismantled by the new Iraqi government.
The MKO leaders, with the backing of the U.S. army, refuse to accept families meeting their children. They say the families are “agents of the Iranian secret services” and have refused even to hand over the letters the families have written to their children.
Names of the families currently visiting Camp Ashraf:
1- Mr. Jahanshir Sassani - looking for his son Mohammad Ali Sassani . Mohammad Ali was a P.O.W. during the time of Saddam’s war with Iran. He was handed over to the MKO during the war in defiance of international law. He has been in Iraq for 21 years. This is Mr. Sassani’s fourth visit to Iraq to try to meet with his son.
2- Mr. Reza Noroozi - looking for his son Abdolmajid Nooozi. Abdolmajid was a P.O.W. during the time of Saddam’s war with Iran. He was handed over to the MKO during the war in defiance of international law. He has been in Iraq for 22 years.
3- Mr. Akbar Moradi Rizi - looking for his brother Hossein Moradi Rizi. Hossien has been in cult isolation for the past 30 years.
4- Mrs. Nasreen Lotfizadeh - looking for her daughter Soosan Banihashemi. Soosan has been in cult isolation for the past 21 years.
5- Mrs. Parvin Saberi - looking for her brother Aghil Saberi. Aghil has been in cult isolation for the past 16 years.
6- Mrs. Giti Zartoshtnia - looking for her son Roozbeh Attaee (aka: Ali Mahdavi). Roozbeh has been in cult isolation for the past 10 years.
7- Mrs. Masoumeh Mahboob - looking for her husband Arzil Dialeh and sons Mohsen and Peyman Dialeh. They have been in cult isolation for the past 7 years.
... If the US allowed this to happen, it would not fit well with Washington's professed support for opposition activists in Iran. The issue is further complicated by the fact that the PMOI is still designated a terrorist organisation in the US ...
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Camp Ashraf groups vow to fight on
By Sebastian Usher BBC News
Supporters of the residents of a camp for Iranian dissidents in Iraq say they will continue their international protests demanding the US and the UN give them protection.
On Wednesday, dozens of supporters around the world ended a 72-day hunger strike after one of their main demands was met - the release of 36 Camp Ashraf inmates detained by the Iraqi authorities for the past two-and-a-half months.
They were seized during a raid on 28 and 29 July.
Video filmed by people in Camp Ashraf appears to show Iraqi police and soldiers shooting and beating camp residents.
Up to 11 inmates are reported to have been killed and hundreds wounded.
Camp Ashraf was handed over to Iraqi government control at the start of 2009 by the Americans. US forces had taken control of the camp after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
It had long been one of the main bases of the Iranian dissident group, the People's Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI).
A leftist group, they launched attacks not just on the clerical leaders of Iran but on their predecessor, the Shah.
In the 1980s, they were accused of a bombing campaign against new Islamist leadership - the most devastating in 1981 killing some 70 senior officials, including the Chief Justice Mohammed Beheshti and a number of MPs and members of the cabinet.
The PMOI later set up a camp in Ashraf. The exiles' presence was welcomed by the former president, Saddam Hussein, who was fighting a war against Iran at the time.
He funded and armed the PMOI's military wing, the National Liberation Army of Iran, which fought alongside Iraqi troops.
Health problems
Camp Ashraf is now home to more than 3,000 people. The Americans provided protection for them against outside threats from Iran and Iraq.
After the seizure of the 36 camp residents in July, an international campaign was mounted to to put pressure on Iraq to release them.
Hunger strikes were held in several major cities around the world to publicise the case. In London, 12 relatives and friends of people in the camp kept up their hunger strike outside the US embassy for 72 days.
Now the detainees have been released, they've ended their hunger strike, which consisted of taking only tea and sugar to keep them alive.
Their spokeswoman Laila Jazayeri says they now have serious health problems - and are under observation in hospital.
Ms Jazayeri says their action played a vital role in securing the detainees' freedom.
But she says the protests will continue, to demand that US forces resume control of the camp, that the UN supplies a monitoring team there - and that none of the inmates are sent to Iran.
Repatriation fear
Camp Ashraf presents the US with a difficult dilemma.
Its handover of control in January was part of its phased withdrawal from Iraq.
The Iraqi government gave assurances that the inmates would be treated humanely and not forcibly returned to Iran. The raid in July put this in question.
Camp residents say the Shia-led Iraqi government - which has close political ties with Tehran - is receptive to Iranian pressure to expel them. They fear that if they are repatriated, they could face torture, imprisonment or execution.
If the US allowed this to happen, it would not fit well with Washington's professed support for opposition activists in Iran.
The issue is further complicated by the fact that the PMOI is still designated a terrorist organisation in the US - a label the European Union lifted earlier this year.
But for now at least, the US seems likely to use its influence on the Iraqi government to make sure it keeps its word on Camp Ashraf.
(Camp Ashraf- Iraq)
(Mehdi Abrishamchi and Massoud Rajavi taking orders from Saddam's head of secret services)
(Maryam Rajavi directly ordered the massacre of Kurdish people)
(A cult session in Ashraf Camp Iraq - under the protection of Saddam)
Second Report on Camp Ashraf and Mojahedin-e Khalq in Iraq
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... The MKO is currently demanding that U.S. Army or the U.N. take control of Camp Ashraf from the GOI. Following publication of the RAND Report it should be the duty of the U.S. Army to help and facilitate in any way possible the immediate closure of Camp Ashraf and the removal of the MKO personnel from Iraq. The more help given by the U.S. to achieve this, the more ...
Iran-Interlink.org has published a second report on Camp Ashraf, Iraq and the situation of Mojahedin-e Khalq (aka MKO, MEK) cult members at the camp. After consultation with the Government of Iraq, Massoud Khodabandeh has described events since January 1, 2009.
According to the report, Iraq is determined to rid itself of the foreign terrorist cult led by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi as soon as possible, but is hampered by western intransigence over where these people should go.
The 3416 individuals inside Camp Ashraf have no legal status in Iraq. They are not entitled to 'protected persons' status under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Neither will they be granted political refugee status by Iraq. Nor will Iraq forcibly repatriate them. But, although the MKO has been de-proscribed, at its own behest, as a terrorist group in Europe, no western country is willing to offer asylum to the individuals -- even though 1015 MKO members have a passport or residence permit of a third country.
After months of fruitless negotiations with MKO leaders -- with U.S. observation -- a police post was established inside Camp Ashraf at the end of July. In spite of violent resistance by the MKO which led to 11 deaths, the camp residents are now subject to Iraqi law. Following evidence that MKO leaders were committing widespread and systematic human rights abuses inside the camp, the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry, in conjunction with international humanitarian agencies, is now set to properly monitor activity at the camp.
Massoud Khodabandeh made several recommendations in his report. The Government of Iraq should remove around seventy MKO leaders in order to protect the rank and file members from human rights abuses and coercion. The camp must be thoroughly searched -- something the U.S. Army failed to do since 2003.
Stressing that western governments bear a responsibility toward the MKO's victims trapped inside Camp Ashraf, Mr. Khodabandeh says that western politicians must prevent further political abuse of MKO members by the Rajavi leadership and guarantee the rights of those individuals who renounce violence and are willing to return to society. European governments should work with Iraq and the UN to find third countries to which other individuals in Camp Ashraf can be transferred.
For more information contact: Anne Singleton +44 (0) 113 278 0503
... A RAND study examined the evolution of this controversial decision, which has left the United States open to charges of hypocrisy in the war on terrorism. An examination of MeK activities establishes its cultic practices and its deceptive recruitment and public relations strategies. A series of coalition decisions served to facilitate the MeK leadership's control over its members. The government of Iraq wants to expel the group, but no country other than Iran will accept it. Thus, the RAND study concludes that the best course of action would be ...
At the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Coalition forces classified the Mujahedin-e Khalq, a militant organization from Iran with cult-like elements that advocates the overthrow of Iran's current government, as an enemy force.
The MeK had provided security services to Saddam Hussein from camps established in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War to fight Iran in collaboration with Saddam's forces and resources. A new study from the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, looks at how coalition forces handled this group following the invasion.
Although the MeK is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States, coalition forces never had a clear mission on how to deal with it.
After a ceasefire was signed between Coalition forces and the MeK, the U.S. Secretary of Defense designated this group's members as civilian "protected persons" rather than combatant prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. The coalition's treatment of the MeK leaves it – and the United States in particular – open to charges of hypocrisy, offering security to a terrorist group rather than breaking it up.
Research suggests that most of the MeK rank-and-file are neither terrorists nor freedom fighters, but trapped and brainwashed people who would be willing to return to Iran if they were separated from the MeK leadership. Many members were lured to Iraq from other countries with false promises, only to have their passports confiscated by the MeK leadership, which uses physical abuse, imprisonment, and other methods to keep them from leaving.
Iraq wants to expel the group, but no country other than Iran will accept it. The RAND study suggests the best course of action would have been to repatriate MeK rank-and-file members back to Iran, where they have been granted amnesty since 2003. To date, Iran appears to have upheld its commitment to MeK members in Iran. The study also concludes better guidelines be established for the possible detention of members of designated terrorist organizations.
For more information, or to arrange an interview with the authors, contact Lisa Sodders in the RAND Office of Media Relations at (310) 393-0411, ext. 7139, or lsodders@rand.org.
On June 20, 2009, the Fox News Channel devoted the entire day of live programming to coverage of the unrest in Iran. For supporters of the Iranian communist MEK (MKO, PMOI, NCRI, Rajavi Cult, or Pol Pot of Iran) terrorists, there was no need to watch their Sima Azadi television channel via satellite. Throughout the day, the Fox News Channel provided favorable coverage for the communist terrorists. Some examples were:
During the 11:00 – 11:30 AM (PST) segment, Fox News Channel showed MEK supporters in front of the White House waving their communist flags. The panelists for this segment, Charles Krauthammer and Courtney Kealy, failed to identify or to condemn the supporters of the communist terrorists. These terrorists have murdered American military officers, Rockwell International employees, and large numbers of Iranian and Iraqi civilians. In September 2002, former President George W. Bush’s White House published a background paper for Bush’s remarks at the United Nations listing the MEK as a pretext for the Iraq War. In 2003, American and coalition forces attacked and killed some of the MEK terrorists at Camp Ashraf, Iraq.
In a later segment, Congressman Darryl Issa (Republican—California) commented that empowerment of people has changed Communist China for the better!
During Shepard Smith’s segment, Smith showed a video of the MEK rally in Paris, France and identified them as the PMOI. The only negative reference to the MEK occurred when Amy Kellogg speculated that the MEK might be responsible for a possible suicide bombing at Ayatollah Khomeini’s shrine in Tehran. Shepard Smith neither responded nor indicated that PMOI and MEK are two names for the same communist terrorist organization.
During Geraldo Rivera’s segment, former Senator Rick Santorum, who was a strong supporter of the MEK in the United States Senate, noted that former Senator (and now Vice President) Biden had originally opposed the Iran Freedom Support Act.
Then, Geraldo Rivera showed video of Maryam Rajavi’s MEK rally in Paris, France and interviewed Fox News Channel Foreign Affairs Analyst, who headed the NCRI office in Washington, DC until the Federal Government closed the office.
In 2007, Fox News Channel viewers could claim to have been duped by relying upon the Fox News Channel for news. Now, Fox News Channel viewers have no excuses. Those who rely upon the Fox News Channel as a source of accurate news are traitors to all Americans who fought or died fighting communists. Americans do not need to look to Iran or to the Middle East in search for America’s worst enemies. America’s worst enemies are in America.
(Daniel Zucker, Maryam Rajavi and ALi Safavi)
(Ali Safavi as the commander of Saddam's Private Army in Iraq)
(Maryam Rajavi directly ordered the massacre of Kurdish people)