Families of terror victims' response to the claims made by MKO

By: Edalat Society

April 15 2010
Families of terror victims' response to the claims made by one of Mojahedin Khalq (MKO,
MEK, Rajavi cult) members in American website

Last week one of the well-known American news websites (Huffington Post) aiming to put
more pressure on Iranians published an article written
by one of the MKO so-called Parliament members, Ali
Safavi. The writer of this text has tried his best in
order to distort the realities and to acquit Mojahedin-e
Khalq from its terrorist background.
This MKO members not only introduces his
organization in this paper as a democratic
organization, but also claims that the terrorist
designation of MKO by European countries and EU as
well as United states of America is the result of US
deal with Islamic Republic of Iran.

In this regard Justice Supporters Association,

comprising the families of 16000 victims of terrorism wrote a letter to the president of the
above-mentioned news website in order to reject all the claims made by the MKO member
and to reveal all the facts and realities.

This society mentions its positions on this issue as follows: "Iran's Justice Supporters
Association comprising the families of 16000 terrorism victims of Iran, considering the
article written by Mr. Ali Safavi published on April 3, 2010 in your news website, decided to
write this letter to you to clarify the facts, which have been concealed and deviated by the
writer.
Our Association hopes that your sense of equitability in
running the Huffington Post news website and your
intrinsic attachment as a journalist to reveal and
discover the realities, would lead to the publishing of
this letter in your website. It would be up to the
discerning readers to judge.

First, we would like to ask Mr. Safavi and other

parliament members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq
Organization that when did you attend in a
parliamentary election and how have you been
selected? Has your organization ever had an election
that now you call yourselves the representatives or the
members of this parliament?

Mulling over weird fancies and having an approach resulted from illusion of conspiracy, Mr.
Safavi has completely changed and distorted the background of his organization in a way
that makes any wise man completely amazed and wondered.

Forgetting all the activities of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization in the past 40 years, he
still tries to prove that there is not any document or evidence on the world and every one
suffers Alzheimer regarding with the viewpoints and activities of MKO. Although he believes
that, the terrorist designation by EU members and US was just an accusation and all this
has happened due to a political game, but in fact there are too many evidences and
documents proving that this organization has committed many terrorist crimes in the past
forty years.

The documents related to the assassination of 12000 Iranian citizens, who the leaders of
organization call them betrayers, traitors, clergymen…, still remain and their families do not
suffer from Alzheimer. Mr. Safavi and MKO organization leaders perceived all their victims
political or military men. It must be mentioned that the number of political and military men
who have been assassinated by this organization like Iranian president, Prime Minister and
Iran's Judiciary Chief is also considerable. In order to remind some of these realities, we
rely on the 2007 report by the US Department of State:
"In 1981, MKO leadership attempted to overthrow the newly installed Islamic regime; The
MKO instigated a bombing campaign, including an attack against the head office of the
Islamic Republic Party and the Prime Minister's office, which killed some 70 high-ranking
Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President
Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar."
It's worth to mention that seeking a way to acquit itself from the terrorist activities,
Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization presently attempts to distort the history. However, anyone
knows that under the reign of Pahlavi and before 1979 revolution, having a leftist-
imperialist ideology, the organization had assassinated several American and Iranian
counselors and citizens in Iran. In this regard we would invoke the report presented by US
Department of State and National Defense Research Institute (RAND) on the activities of the
organization before 1979 revolution:
" In 1960s, Mojahedin-e Khalq was one of the most violent political movements opposing
Pahlavi regime. During 1970s, MKO assassinated American military and non- military
personnel working on the defensive projects and supported the 1979 US embassy seizure."
In addition, the report adds:
"At the outset of US invasion on Iraq the MKO was listed as a hostile target. This decision
was based primarily on the MKO’s history of working with Saddam’s military, including its
alleged participation in the suppression of the Shia and Kurdish uprisings of 1991, as well as
the many violent attacks that it had conducted against Iranian targets in recent years."

Definitely Mr. safavi has already read these various reports and his leaders also are aware
of them. In fact, maybe their awareness of these reports has forced them to distort the
history and try to accuse Iran of political game. Mr. Safavi knows better than every one else
that the terrorist background and activities of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization and its
attached organizations like "National Council of Resistance" or "National Liberation Army of
Iran" are such dark and abominable that other Iranian foreign opposition groups consider
them terrorist organizations just like Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Just before the terrible attacks of September 11, 2001 by Al Qaeda operatives, which was
followed by the celebrations of Masoud and Maryam Rajavi and Saddam Hussein in Iraq,
they were acting as Saddam's especial army for killing Iranian and Iraqi children. How is it
possible that the same group and the same leaders today are talking about the rights of
Iranian people, democracy or women's rights?

Mr. Safavi, don't you think that now you have to explain what you mean by 'democracy'?
Is your democracy the same as what Stalin and Hitler spoke about?

Stating the German intelligence report from the Federal Office we leave the judgment to the
readers:" MKO is a repressive, sect-like and Stalinist authoritarian organization, which
centres around the personality cult of [MKO leaders] Maryam and Masoud Rajavi. According
to the orders of the leader, all the members of the organization are bound to complete
obedience. This is done by some sort of brain washing and psychological processes that
make the members to forget their past and follow the order of the leader without
hesitation."
Well, what do the leaders of MKO mean by the rights of women, Mr. Safavi? Is the definition
of women rights something like the definition of democracy? One more time let's refer to
the German Federal Office report:
" the members of the organization had to divorce their wives and become isolated from
their families in order that they could obey the orders without any excuse. Their children
also after being divided according to their age and gender were sent to Europe to be kept in
orphanages."
Mr. Safavi, himself, was among the 100 persons who had to get divorced after the
ideological revolution of Masoud Rajavi.

Has this German governmental organization really had some collusion with Islamic Republic
of Iran for issuing the report?

Is it possible to claim that any organization that reveals the facts about your previous or
current thoughts or activities has some sort of blackmailing relations with Iran and its
government?

Committing illegal acts like money laundering, human trafficking, self-immolation, having
cultic approaches along with terror and terrorism are all the realities, which have been
published in the US and some European countries' reports. Some of them are included here:

The report presented by US Department of State and National Defense Research Institute
(RAND) in this regard asserts:
"MKO has always been considered as an organization with closed relations inside and an
inward-looking cult but by the time its leaders and most of the members moved to Paris it
turned to a more wicked issue. In Paris, Rajavi instituted what he termed an “ideological
revolution” in 1985, which, over time, imbued the MKO with many of the typical
characteristics of a cult, such as authoritarian control, confiscation of assets, sexual control
(including mandatory divorce and celibacy), emotional isolation, forced labor, sleep
deprivation, physical abuse, and limited exit options."
For coalition forces, the MKO’s cult behavior and questionable recruiting practices are
significant insofar as they affect both the daily operations at the camp and the strategic
disposition options available to the group. The leadership is unlikely to cooperate with
policies that would undermine its ability to exert direct control over its members. Indeed,
Human Rights Watch reports that the MKO long ago instituted a complicated process to
retain members who expressed a desire to leave, which included a “trial,” forced
confessions of disloyalty, and even torture.

According to U.S. law, providing any type of support—political, financial, or otherwise—for

an FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organization) is a federal crime. Moreover, many of the MKO’s
fundraising activities have been proven to be fraudulent (for example, claiming to be
soliciting funds on behalf of Iranian refugees, child welfare, or medical services for children).
The MKO has also been linked with a range of money-laundering activities."

In the same line, the German intelligence report from the Federal Office explains:
" due to the past illegal money-laundering activities of the Council, Mojahedin-e Khalq is
under prosecution in most European countries and Germany."
The German High Court closed several MKO safe houses, “foster” homes, and compounds
after an investigation revealed that the MKO fraudulently collected money in social welfare
benefits for MKO children sent to Europe.

These are just some paragraphs of the official reliable reports on MKO. Notwithstanding Mr.
Safavi considers all of them a big deal in favor of Iran.

He tries to distort the history and show off an innocent image of an organization, which has
a long history of terrorism and violence. In the past 30 years according to Masoud Rajavi's
own confessions and statements, this terrorist group has assassinated about 12000
innocent Iranian people from whom more than 80 percent were civilians. Nevertheless, the
history would always keep the realities and truths and the MKO leaders can never distort
them
 
Reality Check: MKO Suppressive Pearl Operation
By: Nejat Bloggers

April 14 2010

[MKO’s extensive propaganda campaign for spreading faked information about the true nature of its
terrorist destructive cult had set for a new purification project in order to remove dirty stains of terrorist
activities and atrocities of their cult from the historical memory of public opinion. To achieve such an
unlikely goal, Ali safavi, the group’s henchman, does too much effort to write a series of posts denying the
crimes committed by his organization.
Nejat Society, in turn, views it as essential to enlighten the minds about the claims made by MKO
remnants.]

Among the long list of Mujahedin Khalq Organization’s terrorist activities, one may find Iraqi
Kurd’s suppression by MKO due to its absolute obedience to its former financial and military
sponsor Saddam Hussein.

In his serial postings ,Rajavi’s remnant, Ali Safavi has tried hard to deny MKO’s role in
suppressing Iraqi Kurds’ uprising in 1991 and in order to cover their crimes against Kurds,
Mujahedin claimed that they repelled the attack of Iranian forces to their bases and called
the alleged anti-attack, ”Pearl Operation”.

Pearl (Morvarid in persain) is the name of a

chain of mountains in the border of Iranian
Kermanshah province and Kurdistan of Iraq,
where the massacre of Kurds took place.
In 1991, there was the risk from the side of
Iraqi opponents to Baath regime: Kurds in the
North and Shiites in the South. The only force
to oppose the oppositions in that region was
MKO who was present in the absence of
Saddam Hussein’s forces. MEK leaders knew
that falling of Saddam Hussein; their main
financial and logistic sponsor equals Rajavi’s removal. Through a radio message, Saddam
Hussein asked the people in Northern areas to cooperate with Rajavi’s forces as well as
Baath army and their disobedience would lead them to death. [1]

Rajavi in his turn promised Saddam that his group would fight the Kurds with their entire
power. Then, through a message he declared:”Iranian soldiers, in Kurds clothes, are
supposed to attack Mujahedin“ But when the members started to hesitate he stated:”IRI’s
Pasdaran and YKT’s have allied to attack Mujahedin.[2]

In addition to various testimonies made by former members of the cult, Iraqi authorities,
moved by their hatred towards MKO as Saddam Hussein’s mercenary force, have repeatedly
asked for their expulsion from Iraqi territory. Mohammad Tofiq Rahim, an official of the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan told Radio Liberty that his organization has documented
evidence of Rajavi’s role [in suppression of Kurds]. He said that when the Kurds seized
control of Northern region of Iraq with US assistance at the end of Gulf War in 1991, MEK
cooperated with Iraqi army in retaking control of the city Kirkuk. Hundreds of the city’s
residents were killed by MEK. “Every one in Iraqi Kurdistan knows that Massoud Rajavi
cooperated with Mukhaberat [Intelligence Ministry ] and security forces of the regime of
Saddam”, Rahim said .[3]

Mohammad Javad Al-Dorkhi, Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq in Belgium and the
European Union, clarifies that new Iraq has inherited a heavy legacy from the former
dictatorship, which not only suppressed and crushed the Iraqi people and made hundreds of
mass graves launched wars and invasions but left on the ground in Iraq a camp inhabited
by a group of terrorists, mercenaries , who make up the military wing of MKO terrorists who
were allied with the former regime and participated with his security forces in the brutal
suppression and liquidation of Iraqi, Arabs and Kurds, during the popular uprising in 1991
after the failure of Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait.[4]

Ali Safavi pretended to have a huge support for MKO among Iraqi authorities and juridical
officials; Once again he tries to accelerate his propaganda machine claiming to enjoy the
support of thousands of Iraqi lawyers. The truth is that in September 2009 Iraq’s Supreme
criminal court assigned to review crimes done by the former Iraqi Baath regime during the
1991 uprising and announced that it has received 5000 complaints filed against the regime
and anti-Iran terrorist group, Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO).[5]

MEK’s vain effort to purify their dark history leads Ali Safavi to the claim that “it had never
harbored the slightest bit of hostility toward Iraqi Kurds”.[6] As Al-Dorkhi states :” the Iraqi
people are familiar with the strong relationship between MKO and the elements of the
former regime and the coalition between them and the fateful military support and material
submitted to it by the former system and they will never forget the blood of Iraqi children
bas been lost at the hands of these terrorists and now the Iraqis insist on their right to bring
them to trial and justice.[7]

There are many living eye-witnesses among Iraqi Kurds. Mr. Alimardan, the head of
Workers’ Union in Iraqi province of Kirkuk said:” I and my family are the victims of MKO’s
terrorist activities.” offering his sympathy for other victims of MKO, he expressed his hatred
for these terrorists and Saddam Hussein. ”they committed numerous crimes against Iraqis
so that many in Northern and Southern Iraq were killed and wounded by this group,” he
said.[8]

In a meeting with Habilian Association, Iraqi tribal Sheikhs from Bagdad, Maysan and Babil
insisted that “MKO’s propaganda that they are supported by Iraqi tribal leaders is totally a
lie.”Sheikh Abu-hussein Ghadhban told Habilian that “Saddam Hussein used the group
intentionally to suppress Iraqi nation”.[9]

Ali Safavi’s disinformation on Jalal Talebani, President of Iraq is the outcome of MKO’s
declining situation in Iraq. He tried to demonize Jalal Talebani using faked allegations, since
he knows that as the first official of Iraqi government Jalal Talebani is determined to expel
MKO from Iraqi soil. “According to the Iraqi Constitution there is no place for terrorist
groups in Iraq” Talebani said.[10]in fact one of the major pressure on the United States to
round up the MEK[in 2003] and put them in a camp did not come from Iran; it came from
Jalal Talebani [11]

According to Qobad Talebani,son of Jalal Talebani “Up until the fall of the regime, they
[MEK] were part of and parcel of Iraqi military . And they were heavily involved in
suppressing the Kurdish uprising of 1991.”[12]

Ordered by Saddam and carried out by Massoud Rajavi, the role of MEK in repressing the
Kurdish revolt must have created serious problems within the organization. Many members
have Kurdish roots. In addition, the PMOI clashed with Kurdish groups within the Iranian
opposition, leading to more defectors and the further isolation of Massoud Rajavi.[13]

And finally the large-scale support for MEK by former Iraqi dictatorship for two decades only
leaves a bad fame for these terrorists and proves that MKO is really a terrorist organization.
The US Department of State boosts its credibility by labeling MEK as a foreign terrorist
organization based on credible evidences.

By: Mazda Parsi

Reality Check: Understanding a terrorist organization, MEK

By: Nejat Bloggers April 11 2010

[MKO’s extensive pr opaganda campaign for spreading faked information about the true nature of its
terrorist destructive cult had set for a new purification project in order to remove dirty stains of terrorist
activities and atrocities of their cult from the historical memory of public opinion. To achieve such an
unlikely goal, Ali safavi, the group’s henchman, does too much effort to write a series of posts denying
the crimes committed by his organization.
Nejat Society, in turn, views it as essential to enlighten the minds about the claims made by MKO
remnants.]

In another effort to purify MEK’s record, the group’s remnants published another article
allegedly to “shed light on the provenance of MEK’s designation [1] as a terrorist
organization. As always, the so-called article includes list of allegations, accusations to
attack Islamic Republic and Western politic men, accusing former for alleged
disinformation against MEK or the latter for appeasement policy towards Iran. However,
the writer never tries to defend his organization for its terrorist label. He doesn’t present
the least evidence to prove that his organization has not committed terrorist activities
except in one place.

Thorough introductory paragraphs he claims that “MEK’s resorting to armed actions

against military targets in Iran until summer of 2001 has been cited by some Western
government agencies, including the US Department of State, as evidence to invite the
designation of the group as terrorist”[2], although in fact more than 90% of their
 intended targets and almost 95% of their casualties have been Iranian civilians.[3]In
1972 MEK’s first terrorist operation took place in Tehran where they launched a bombing
attack against an electricity factory which was not a military target. Since then, the group
launched a countless number of terrorist operations against Iranian civilians especially
after the Islamic Revolution. The list of MEK’s mortar attacks, bombings and
assassinations has been already published in numerous occasions by various
international, governmental or private institutes including defectors’ websites, US
Department of state, RAND (National Defense
Research Institute)...

Among MEK’s terrorist acts against civilians, the

most crucial ones are “Attack on offices of
General Motors in 1972, Bombing of offices of
Oman Bank and Pan-American Oil and of gates
of British embassy in 1974,suicide attacks
targeting senior clerics in Tabriz, Khorasan,
Shiraz and Rasht in 1981 and
1982,simultaneous raids on Iranian embassies
in 13 countries in 1922,bombing of Imam Reza
Shrine in 1994,Assassination of two former MEK
members in 1996,bombing of Tehran
Revolution Court in 1998,mortar attack at
Chamran University of Ahwaz 2000, mortar
attack on President Khatami’s palace in Tehran
in 2000,mortar attack on residential housing
complex in Tehran in 2000.[4]

In his effort to portrait his notorious organization

as an important figure in Iran-West relations,
Safavi calls his group “the biggest enemy” of
Islamic Republic. He fails to consider that MEK’s
deliberately targeted and planned sabotage operations against civilians and its bad fame
due to collaboration with Saddam Hussein during the eight years of Iran-Iraq war, ends in
the hatred of the majority of Iranians. Elaheh Hicks of Human Rights Watch says:” many,
many Iranians inside Iran resent the MEK, the Iranian government actually benefits from
having an opposition like this.”[5]

According to what criteria an organization will be considered “terrorist”?

“Terrorism “is in the most general sense, the systematic use of terror especially as a means
of coercion. since 1994, the Unite Nations General Assembly has repeatedly condemned
terrorist acts using the following political description of terrorism:” criminal acts intended or
calculated to provoke state of terror in the general public or persons or particular persons
for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a
political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be
involved to justify them”[6]

Therefore, MEK’s use of violence against civilian targets should never be justified by its
weird cult-like ideology. This is what Ali Safavi fears to discuss. He daren’t to deal with
terrorism designation in nature because he and his ideological leader Massoud Rajavi have
nothing, no evidence to defend their terrorist destructive cult for its numerous acts of
terrorism. They are not able to prove that their terror label is invalid so they try to accuse
the Islamic Republic instead of defending their group.

Also a less politically and emotionally charged, and more easily definable term for terrorism
is “violent non-state actor”[7] this term covers the whole MEK’s activities since its
foundation. The group has been always engaged in armed struggle and violent overthrow of
Iranian regime, it has never been a governmental entity and its background had been
blended a countless number of violent attacks against military or civilian targets (about
12000 deaths).

After Massoud Rajavi fled to France in 1981, his first decision was to change the name of
notorious MEK (Mujahedin –e- Khalq) to NCRI (National Council of Resistance of Iran) which
allowed the MEK to stay in Western political scene and not to be threatened as a terrorist
organization. However, NCR was also added to Foreign terrorist organization list of
Department of state in August 2003 and its office in Washington DC was closed and its
assets were blocked.

Rajavi’s crimes against humanity do not end in Iran and against Iranian civilians, according
to many documents, MEK had a longstanding alliance with former Iraqi dictator. They
cooperated with Baath regime to suppress Kurds’ uprisings in Iraq in 1991. A lot of former
members offered testimonies of Kurds suppression operation (Morvarid Operation) where
Maryam Rajavi ordered members to “take Kurds under the tank and save bullets for Iranian
soldiers”.[8]

Along with his deceitful propaganda campaign, Ali Safavi claims that Western policy toward
Iran has failed and it is time for Obama administration to unite with his terrorist cult of
personality. He fails to understand that the reality is that the world community especially
Iranians, Iraqis and even Americans never forget the atrocities of MEK terrorist Organization
and the threat of that destructive cult.

Endnotes:

[1]: Ali Safavi,Reality Check, Huffington Post,March31,2010.

[2]Ibid
[3]Charles Kent, Terrorist living among us, June 5,2009
[4]the Mujahedin khalq in Iraq,apolicy conundrum,RAND,August 2009.
[5] Charles Kent, Terrorist living among us, June 5,2009
[6]Wikipedia
[7] Ibid
[8]Kurds Suppression, Nejat Publications

By: Mazda Parsi

Reality Check: MKO Terrorist, Marxist
By: Nejat Bloggers
March 17 2010

In the early March, 2010, Ali Safavi (MKO spokesman) wrote an article on Huffington Post in
an effort to purify his terrorist Marxist designated organization’s background. He claimed
that the purpose of his forum is “to dispense with some
of the myths originally propagated by Tehran’s
intelligence service against MEK”.

This is the first time MEK authorities are trying to

“respond to various questions regarding the
organization and its actions”. Ali Safavi initially deals
with the Marxist label on MEK. He claims that MEK was
founded as a “Muslim organization ... and its founders
sought a secular republic and establishment of a
democracy in Iran.”(!)

A quick search on MEK ideology, history and the official

reports by international bodies, gives you the connotation that the group has not been
founded on secular basis and its founders had not been inspired by a secular doctrine.

Ali Akbar Rastgou, former member of MEK, in his book “Mujahedin Khalq in the mirror of
history “, writes:”the ideology of the organization can be evaluated as a blend of Marxist
and Islam”. He notes that the group’s leaders had focused on rhetorical work on the
methodology of their organization particularly before 1970’s. He lists a number of books
which were usually studied by Hanif Nejad ( A main founder of the group) in order to
establish a firm, complete ideology for MEK. The books include: Mao’s Little Red Book,
“Against Liberalism” of Mao, “Four philosophical Articles of Stalin”, “What is to be done?” of
Lenin, ”On contradiction “ of Mao …. Then Saeed Mohsen (a founder of MKO) wrote a book
titled “ An Introduction on Marxist studies” which was published in 1970’s.

The US State Department also describes MKO as an organization that was “formed in the
1960’s by the college-educated children of Iranian merchants, following a philosophy that
mixes Marxism and Islam.”

“The escapees from this weird political sect, which combines Marxism ,elements of Islam
and the Rajavi cult of Personality describe a harrowing experience, including torture,
imprisonment and enforced brainwashing techniques.” writes Jusitn Raimondo in his article
”Assassins of Peace” published on Anti-war.com in 2008.

In contrast to what Ali Safavi propagandizes on the separation of religion and state, MEK
principally believes in an ideological system rooted in the religion. That’s the huge
contradiction in Safavi and his comrades’ claims. He claims to be a member of a Muslim
organization; he quotes Masud Rajavi as saying that “believing in Muhammad is
incompatible with the philosophy of Marxims.” and on the other side, he claims that MKO
“founders sought a secular republic in Iran”

MEK might be able to deceive a part of public opinion by its fake slogans but in nature the
only difference between its ideology and Marxism is the substitution of the term Marxism
with new ones. The organizational system is based on individuality denial, censorship,
violation of freedom, civil laws. A glance at the Marxism-based governments (socialists,
communists like Mao and Stalin) shows up a lot of similarities between MKO’ s
organizational system and those of Stalin or Mao.

Professor Paul Sheldon Foote of California State University calls Massoud Rajavi as Polpot of
Iran. He thinks that the history of Polpot, the communist terrorist leader of Cambodia is
very similar to that of MEK.

Another reason for labeling MEK as a Marxist group is its commitment to guerilla Warfare
that caused them to commit numerous terrorist activities against civilians. Marx was an
expert on military history and noted many cases of the use of armed struggle to achieve
political power.

In the early 21th century, when Marxism is viewed as an old, abolished, rejected ideology,
MEK ashamed of its scandalous background and along with its deceitful propaganda
campaign, makes too much effort to purify its past. That’s why Massoud Rajavi and his
accomplices like Ali Safavi view themselves forced to respond the numerous questions
surrounding their ambiguous cult of personality.

By Mazda Parsi