Here's MEK: the Iranians the West likes are terrorists
A historical and political analysis of the Mojahedin (fighters) e-Khalq (people's) Organisation of Iran (MEK or MKO), on which the US is now banking for the transition they want in Tehran.
What follows is my English translation of a long article in three parts (1 and 2), originally in Italian, by Maria Morigi published on ComeDonChisciotte.org over the course of this year. (All emphasis mine, footnotes original).
The presence of some members and supporters of the Iranian Mojahedin- e- Khalq in Italian society with the solid support of numerous politicians - including Italian representatives and senators - has caused the nature and activities of the organisation to go unnoticed. Indeed, it stands in clear opposition and alternative to the current government of Iran. It is well known that different narratives exist on the nature and history of its more than five decades of activities inside and outside Iran (France, Iraq, Albania, etc.). Following several researches in this context, a collection of articles has been prepared with the preservation of neutrality and purely for information purposes, which will be published on this site [ComeDonChisciotte.org - I have translated a few of these articles on my substack and can be found by using the search function and looking for MEK].
Origins and nature of the organisation:
Mojahedin-e - Khalq (MKO) is an organisation with an ideological and paramilitary structure founded in 1963. During the Pahlavi monarchy,this organisation assassinated many Western and American officials and advisers in various armed actions, as well as senior officials of the then Iranian government. In fact, compared to other revolutionary organisations, the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation of Iran and the “People's Devoted Warriors” Organisation of Iran (with Marxist status) never renounced armed actions and military operations against the Pahlavi regime.
Military operations of the Khalq Mojahedin Organisation (1971-1979):
(attacks on diplomatic posts, diplomats, military advisers and Western companies based in Iran)
4th May 1972, British airline office explosion.
31st May 1972, attacks on the US intelligence agency, the Iran-US Association building and the Iran-UK Cultural Relations Association building in Tehran.
31st May 1972, explosion on the road where the car of General Price, US adviser in Tehran, was travelling.
24th January 1973, explosion at the Pan American Airlines building.
26th January 1973, explosion in the office of the Shell-Lavan oil company.
2nd June 1973, assassination of Colonel Lewis Lee Hawkins, US military adviser.
2nd March, 1974, bombing at the office of the British company Gary & Mackenzi, in the area outside the British embassy and at the office of the Pan American company.
25th May 1974, explosion at the General Company building, the British York Shire Insurance Company and the Jewish company Techno Vice.
21st May 1975, assassination of two American military advisers, Colonel John Turner and Paul Shepherd in Qaitarieh (a district of Tehran).
3rd July 1975, assassination attempt on the US Consul in Tehran (an Iranian employee of the US Embassy was killed in the incident).
21st July 1975, bomb explosion at the Iranian-American Association and the British Consulate in Mashhad.
28th August 1976, assassination of Donald J. Smith, Robert R. Krongard and William C. Cottrell, employees of the American company Rockwell International.
After the victory (1979) of the Iranian People's Revolution against the Pahlavi regime, the young leaders of the Mojahedin Khalq organisation took a different path from the other leaders of the revolution and separated themselves from the majority of the Iranian people, so much so that the leader Masoud Rajavi in the first years after the victory of the revolution openly defended the armed struggle against the regime of the newly created Islamic Republic of Iran. In an interview in March 1981, he clearly stated that “from now on, there will be no peaceful living situations”. The murders were mainly planned and carried out by the organisation's agents in the house-squads formed in the most remote parts of the vast country of Iran. The Mojahedin organisation took responsibility for most of the terrorist attacks in those years.
Major murders carried out after the victory of the revolution in Iran:
On 28th June 1981, while a meeting of the leaders of the Party of the Islamic Republic was being held in their headquarters, a powerful bomb exploded and killed more than seventy high-ranking government officials, including the party's secretary-general and supreme court chief Beheshti, four ministers, 23 members of parliament and several other officials.
Two months later, in another terrible explosion in the Prime Minister's office on 30th August 1981, President Mohammad Ali Rajaee and Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahnar were assassinated and killed [sic].
The Mojahedin were responsible for the assassinations of the Juma Imams1 of the cities of Tabriz, Kerman, Shiraz, Yazd and Kermanshah, a governor, the warden of Evin prison, several judges of the revolutionary courts, members of parliament, middle-ranking government officials and members of revolutionary organisations.
In August 1981, the Mojahedin organisation sent its armed supporters into the streets to protest and fight against the people and the government. On 5th October 1981, they used machine guns and RPG launchers against the Iranian people and revolutionary forces.
All these murders, civil guerrillas and blind killings of people in the streets and markets resulted in the death of more than 17,000 Iranian citizens.Many innocent people were killed just because they were religious or simply because they looked like religious people. Members of the Mojahedin Khalq organisation killed hundreds of thousands of Iranians and Iraqis during their stay in Iraq with the help of Saddam Hussein.
Relocation to Iraq at the height of Saddam's military aggression against Iran
In September 1980, part of the Mojahedin moved to Iraq and started to fight against Iran with the cooperation of the Iraqi Baath army. The Mujahidin built a base in northern Baghdad, in the province of Diyala. This base, called “Camp Ashraf”, was the centre of residence for the Mojahidin. It was from this centre that in September 1980 the group not only spied and provided news of the transfer of troops and military equipment from the Iranian war fronts to the enemy of the Iraqi Baathists, but also joined the Baathist Iraqi army. They killed a large number of imprisoned Iranian soldiers and officers in prison camps after terrible torture.
After the armed war and the impossibility of physically remaining in Iran, in the third year of Saddam Hussein's eight-year “imposed war”2 against Iran (1980-88) Masoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi, who led the organisation, went to Iraq together with members of the leadership. During their stay there, they entered into cooperation with Saddam's Baathist army by forming a military unit under the name “National Liberation Army”, and thus actively and seriously participated in the war against their own people and homeland, i.e. Iran.
With the support of Saddam Hussein's army, the Mojahedin Khalq formed a military force equipped with cannons, tanks and armoured vehicles that carried out more than a hundred military operations against Iranian soldiers during the Iran-Iraq war. In 1989, under the name “Forugh Javidan”, a major military operation was carried out that caused many casualties among the population living on Iran's south-western border, and many casualties among Iranian soldiers and military forces. However, Iran carried out a counter-attack and destroyed all of its military forces.
After the 1981 attacks, the Mojahedin leadership, including leader Masoud Rajavi, took refuge in Paris, where they founded the National Council of Iranian Resistance (NCIR), their “political umbrella”. In 1986, the French government, in the process of rapprochement with Iran, forced the members of the Mojahedin organisation to leave Paris.
After the occupation of Iraq by anti-terrorist coalition forces from 2003 to 1st January 2009, the residents of Camp Ashraf were protected by the Americans. On 1st January 2009, the Iraqi government took over the management of Camp Ashraf, which caused concern to the residents of this camp and their supporters because the MEK were largely involved in the massacre of Kurds in northern Iraq and Shia in southern and central Iraq during the Shabaniyah intifada (1991). The uprising of the Iraqi people had started with the end of Iraq's occupation of Kuwait and after the enactment of UN Security Council Resolution 670 (25th September 1990) on the air embargo against Iraq from north to south. As a result, control of most of the country fell into the hands of the popular forces. Of the eighteen provinces of Iraq, fourteen fell and only the northern and central provinces, including Mosul, Salah al-Din, Anbar and Baghdad, remained in the hands of the Baath regime. This revolt was severely suppressed by Saddam Hussein's military forces, in particular by forces loyal to the Iraqi presidential guard, as well as by the forces of the Iranian Mojahedin Khalq organisation. According to the US State Department and the Foreign Relations Group of the Australian Parliament, the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation, protected by Saddam Hussein in Iraq, had helped Saddam's Republican Guard to brutally suppress the Shabaniyah uprising.
Elizabeth Rubin in a New York Times article entitled “The Rajavi Cult” [link] refers to the role of this organisation in the repressions. In the article, former members of the Mojahedin Organisation report that Maryam Rajavi stated: “Take the Kurds under your tanks and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps”. In its report, the Rand Institute deals with the role of the Mujahedin in the repressions.
In an article on fugitives from the Khalq Mojahedin Organisation, presented in the Melbourne Journal of International Law at the University of Melbourne, Australia, attention is paid to the role of the Mojahedin Organisation. In the article, seven separate members of this organisation were interviewed, all of whom confirmed the participation of Mojahedin members in the Iraqi Baath army's military conflict with the people of Iraq. Camp Ashraf (the main headquarters in Iraq) was located exactly halfway for Saddam's opponents to reach Baghdad, the camp members supported Saddam and sided against the Iraqi people and murdered a large number of people.
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After the relocation of members of the People's Mojahedin Organisation from France, Iran and other parts of the world to Iraq, according to the order of the organisation's leadership, all couples of the organisation's members had to separate. This unusual action, due to ideological reasons, resulted not only in the separation of couples, but also in their children being forcibly separated from their parents and then, unbeknownst to the families, transferred to various European countries. In recent years, many of them have never seen their children.Many parents who did not know about the fate of their children, faced acute mental and emotional disorders over time.
A European visitor, who visited in person the Ashraf camp located in the Diyala province of Iraq, recounts: “About two decades ago, many families living in this camp were broken up; married couples were forcibly divorced and their children were sent abroad, and many of these children now live in western countries. Some of the guardians of these children are supporters of the organisation, committed to raising these children according to the beliefs of the Mojahedin Khalq. An impartial observer referred to these actions as a form of sectarianism”.
In reality, the ideological revolution was launched and implemented by Masoud Rajavi immediately after the failure of the military operation “Forugh Javidan” carried out on 26th July 1988 against the Islamic Republic of Iran. In this vast military operation, forces affiliated with the Mojahedin Khalq organisation, with the support of Saddam Hussein's army, attacked Iran after Iran and Iraq had accepted UN Security Council Resolution 598 and a ceasefire had been established. In that attack, a large number of border residents of the Iranian military and popular mobilisation forces were killed by the Mojahedin organisation with the support of the Iraqi army. Finally, the forces affiliated with the organisation, having suffered heavy blows and recorded many casualties, resigned themselves within a short period of time to no avail.
In the ideological revolution, members of the organisation were forced to divorce married members, send their children to Europe and hold confession sessions in the presence of the congregation. In the process, members of the organisation were assured that if they followed Rajavi, they would automatically shirk their responsibilities to God because Rajavi would take responsibility for his followers.
Ervand Abrahamian, an Iranian-American historian of Armenian origin, is of the opinion that at the beginning of 1987, the Mojahedin Khalq organisation had all the main characteristics of a politico-religious sect. The leader, who was officially considered the first person in charge, was informally called Imam. Rajavi dissolved the Central Council of the People's Mojahedin organisation and replaced it with a council of 500 people. For three decades, Rajavi created a strict hierarchy among the members of the Mojahedin sect, in which orders came from above and lower-ranking members only had the duty to obey without asking too many questions. The organisation had produced its own manuals, censorship lists and of course an ideology. The organisation's ideology was to combine the messages of the Shia religion with Marxist social science, and this ideology is still implemented by the leadership with seriousness and priority.
Dissatisfied members were removed from this imposed process in various ways. Detention and imprisonment were mainly applied towards dissatisfied members, critics or those who wanted to separate from the Mojahedin organisation. These people were always removed from their positions directly by the leader, some were tried and some were not, but all of them ended up in special prisons for rebellious members of the organisation and then later decided whether to lock them up in solitary cells or transfer them to special camps on the outskirts of Tirana. When the members of the organisation were in Iraq, the dissidents were mostly sent to the “Al-Ramadi” camp or the “Abu Ghraib” prison, which were the last arrival stations for the rebels.
Countries that recognise the People's Mujahideen as a terrorist organisation:
Iran
Iraq
Japan
Countries that previously recognised the People's Mujahedin as a terrorist organisation:
European Union, May 2002 - 27th January 2009
Canada, 24th May 2005 - 20th December 2012
United Kingdom, 28th March 2001 - 24th June 2008
United States of America, 8th July 1997 - 28th September 2012
From the political behaviour of the countries that previously recognised the Mujahedin as a terrorist organisation and now no longer consider it as such, one can clearly see an entirely dual and selective approach that these countries have to different international contexts. The nature of this terrorist organisation has not only not changed, but it is terrible and sectarian, involved in international organised crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and various types of crimes against humanity. For the EU, which is in line with the policy of good terrorism and bad terrorism, it is quite clear that in addition to the crimes committed by the People's Mojahedin Organisation in Iran and Iraq, this sectarian group is an integral part of the international terrorist flow that has blood on its hands for the murder of more than 17,000 innocent people.
Elizabeth Rubin pointed out in an article in the New York Times that removing this group from the terrorist organisations was a mistake. Here is her explanation: “As you know, they were a group of Marxist Shiites who in the time of Ayatollah Khomeini rebelled against Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Shah) in Iran. But after the victory of the Islamic revolution in 1979, they conducted their activities against the Iranian state. They were part of a group that took American diplomats hostage at the US Embassy in Tehran.They killed seven Americans. After the revolution they took refuge in France, but Paris expelled them in 1986, and so this group settled in Iraq and sided with Saddam Hussein against the Iranian people in the Iran-Iraq war. After that, I believe Maryam and Masoud Rajavi got married for religious reasons, but at the same time they urged everyone to divorce and not to have friendly relations in this organisation. The rules said that you cannot get married and in general all your energy and love should be given to Masoud and Maryam Rajavi, which will help them to change the regime in Iran”.
How they successfully got off the “terrorist groups” list
The People's Mojahedin Organisation tried to attract influential political figures through lobbying and planned campaigns and spent large sums of money to support the removal of this group's name from the list of “terrorist groups” in the European Union and the United States of America.
For example, the firm “Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld”, with more than 800 lawyers at its service, played an important role in the removal of the name of the Iranian Mojahedin Organisation from the EU list of terrorist groups. The New York Times estimated the cost incurred by this lobbying firm in lawsuits on behalf of the Mojahedin organisation at several million dollars.This sum of money is also a significant figure for many governments, the fact that how an organisation confined to a base in Iraq (Camp Ashraf) and now in Albania was able to provide this significant sum is a serious question that can be guessed by taking into consideration the systematic and regular smuggling and money laundering network and of course the large sums of money that are spent for retired politicians, members of parliaments and senators from European and Western countries to attend the organisation's events.
Furthermore, the New York Times newspaper wrote that some American citizens and politicians, including former CIA and FBI directors, accepted bribes from the People's Mojahedin to attend meetings, give speeches and provide political support. Former CIA chiefs “James Wolsey” and “Porto Goss” [sic - they should be James Woolsey and Porter Goss], “former FBI Director Louis J. Frey [sic - it should be Louis Freeh], the National Security Secretary of the George Bush administration Tom Rich [sic - it should be Tom Ridge], former Attorney General Michael B. Mokizi [sic - it should be Michael B. Mukasey], and General James Jones, Barack Obama's first National Security Adviser, are among these people”.
There are also a small number of people from Europe and Italy who support this terrorist, anti-human and sectarian organisation in exchange for large sums of money. We will write about this in future reports.
Edward Rendell, former governor of the state of Pennsylvania in the United States of America, who campaigned for the removal of this group's name from the list of “terrorist groups” in the United States of America and spoke at conferences of this organisation's supporters, confirmed that he received $150,000 as “speaking fees” in favour of this organisation.
Convictions of crimes against humanity in Iraq for 39 officials of the Mojahedin Organisation
On 11th July 2010, an Iraqi court issued an arrest warrant for 39 members of the People's Mojahedin Organisation, including Maryam and Masoud Rajavi, the leaders of this group, on charges of “crimes against humanity”. The accusation of having helped Saddam Hussein to repress the Shia majority and the Kurdish minority in this country forms the basis of this court ruling. In 1991, following the Persian Gulf War, anti-government Shabaniyah rebellions broke out in the south and north of Iraq, which Saddam Hussein suppressed with great violence.
Terrorist Organisation
The People's Mojahedin Organisation announced an armed struggle against the State of the Islamic Republic of Iran on 20th June 1981.Masoud Rajavi stated in a report that more than 12,000 people were killed in the first phase from 1981 to 1982, so this organisation is considered a terrorist organisation by the Islamic Republic of Iran for this reason. In addition to armed operations for which the organisation has taken responsibility, the organisation has also been credited with some murders and military operations.
Successful assassinations in Iran:
Mohammad Kachoui: 29th June 1989
Hassan Ayat: 5th August 1981
Asadullah Madani: 11th September 1981
Abdul Karim Hasheminejad: 29th September 1981
Seyyed Abdul Hossein Dastghaib and 12 others during Friday prayer: 11th December 1981
Mohammad Sadouqi: 2nd July 1982
Ataullah Ashrafi Isfahani: 15th October 1982
Asadullah Lajevardi: 23rd August 1998
Ali Sayad Shirazi: 10th April 1999
Islamic Republic Party office bombing, in which Seyyed Mohammad Beheshti and more than 70 members of the Islamic Republic Party were killed: 28th June 1981
The explosion in the office of the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in which Mohammad Ali Rajaee, Mohammad Javad Bahonar, Hoshang Vahid Dastjerdi and another person were killed: 30th August 1981
Unsuccessful assassinations:
Abbas Waez Tabasi in 1982
Sadiq Ehsanbakhsh Imam of Rasht in 1982
Seyyed Ahmad Khomeini: 15th June 1982
Seyyed Ali Khamenei, attempted assassination of the current leader of the Iranian Islamic Revolution in the Abuzar Mosque in Tehran, causing a wound to his right hand: 27th June 1981
Other activities
Disclosure of the Islamic Republic's covert nuclear activities since 2002, which led to the issuing of four resolutions by the UN Security Council and the imposition of various sanctions against the government of the Islamic Republic
Supporting and accompanying the hostage-taking of members of the US Embassy in Tehran in November 1979
Operations on 1st February 2000, during which 12 operations were carried out against Iran
Nearly simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies in 13 foreign countries in 1992
The killing of American civilian and military employees involved in Iran's defence projects in 1970
The murder of Iranian nuclear scientists
The Guardian newspaper in 2018, in an article, discusses the history of this group, and at the same time points to the evidence of this group's involvement in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists, as reasons to avoid calling the Mujahedin a non-terrorist group. Some influential American media, including NBC, The New York Times and The New Yorker magazine, in a 2012 report, citing two American officials, claimed that the Israeli government was involved in the assassination of nuclear scientists in Iran with the collaboration of the People's Mojahedin.
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Sectarian Nature of the Organisation
Many former members of the organisation and researchers believe that the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MEK) exhibits sectarian characteristics. Among these, the opposition to family formation, a rigid internal hierarchy and the adoption of persuasion and thought control practices are considered distinctive of a sect. In 1985, Massoud Rajavi declared the beginning of the first phase of what he called the “ideological revolution”. This period marked the beginning of the transformation of the People's Mojahedin from an organisation to a sect. In this context, Mahdi Abrishamchi, a senior leader of the organisation, was forced to divorce his wife Maryam Qajar Azdanlu (also known as Maryam Rajavi), and Maryam joined Massoud Rajavi in marriage in the presence of Abrishamchi and the other high-ranking members of the organisation.
In the next phase of Rajavi's “ideological revolution” in 1990, after the end of the Iran-Iraq war and the defeat of the organisation in a military operation against the Iranian army, all married members were forced to divorce. A year later, on Rajavi's orders, the members' children, some 800 children, were separated from their families and transferred from the Ashraf base in Iraq to Europe.
Terrorist Activities and Organised Crimes in Tirana and Paris in the Last Two Years
Albania: On Tuesday, 19th June 2024, news reported that the Albanian police had raided the headquarters of the Mojahedin Organisation in Albania. According to reports, the Albanian police, following a court order and due to the violation of established agreements, raided the headquarters and met resistance from members of the organisation. “Albania Daily News” reported that, on 29th June, the police made a second intervention at the headquarters of the Mojahedin group in the area of Manz, in the city of Durrës (Durazzo). During the operation, the police seized computers and other electronic devices. The Albanian Daily News website emphasised that the controls at the camp were aimed at countering cyber attacks and terrorist activities, as it suspected the presence of individuals involved in illegal activities within the camp.
France: French police, after raiding the Mojahedin headquarters in Paris and discovering documents related to money laundering, spy equipment, weapons and unauthorised members, issued an exit ban on the 70-year-old leader of the organisation in order to investigate the charges against him. On 23rd June [2024], French police conducted an operation at one of the Mojahedin headquarters in Paris, during which weapons were discovered and three members of the organisation were arrested. Maryam Rajavi, leader of the organisation, who is apparently in a serious condition and with her medical team having lost all hope of recovery, had previously been banned from leaving and entering the country by the Albanian authorities last year.
The Fate of the Defecting Members of the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran
More than five decades after its foundation, the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran has revealed that it has affinities with a militant sect of the Church of Scientology, having been involved in numerous attacks, sabotage and murders. Since its creation in 1963, the organisation has been accused of causing the deaths of thousands of Iranians. Despite the serious acts against the Iranian people, it is possible that the organisation's main victims were its own members. Interviews conducted with former members in Europe reveal that the Mojahedin detained, disappeared and tortured many of their adherents. In addition, many women were forced into sexual relations with Massoud Rajavi, and a number of them were subjected to sterilisation to ensure their complete obedience to the organisation. The organisation also collaborated with Saddam Hussein during the war against Iran, and Operation Mersad (Iranian forces carried out Operation Mersad on 27th July 1988 to counter an attack by the US- and Iraqi Baathist regime-backed Mojahedin-e-Khalq group) almost marked their destruction, leading to the issuing of an “ideological revolution” decree that established a climate of fear in Ashraf.
The first reports in English on the Iranian People's Mojahedin Organisation were published by the Human Rights Watch and the RAND Institute after the US invasion of Iraq. Interviews with six former members, who had held prominent positions within the organisation and are now in Europe, provide a detailed picture of life within the camp.
In this regard, in March 2020, the website “The Intercept” published a report based on interviews with six defectors from the Mojahedin. This account, the most in-depth on life inside Camp Ashraf to date, describes little-known aspects of the daily life of its inhabitants. The interviewees stated that only other members of the organisation could really understand their experiences; for more than two decades, they had had no contact with their families, as the organisation prevented them from communicating even with their closest relatives. These people were victims of physical and psychological slavery.
A former member, in an interview with The Intercept, expressed deep regret that he had not heard from his son for a long time. He recounted that he had joined the organisation while in Canada in 1986, and was in charge of raising funds for it. After a period in the United States, he was sent to Camp Ashraf in northern Iraq in 1996 for mandatory military training. According to his testimony, the leaders of the organisation promised him that his son would be taken back to his mother in Canada and that he would receive monthly financial support in exchange for his participation in operations in Iran. “They no longer allowed me to contact my family or communicate with the outside world”, he said. His only contact with the outside world came in 2003, when US military forces entered Ashraf. After a meeting with a friend in the Ashraf camp, this former member found out that his son was still in Iran, raised by his grandparents, while the Canadian police had accused him of kidnapping. His request to meet his son led to a violent arrest by the Mojahedin. He claimed that the organisation intended to make him disappear as part of their enforced disappearance practices. In an attempt to escape from a moving truck headed for Abu Ghraib, he managed to ask people along the road for help and escape.
Another former high-ranking member, who left the organisation in 2014 after 34 years, told The Intercept: “I didn't know whether I was dead or alive; when I first used the internet, I saw the truth. Then I looked up information about cults and realised that we were like robots”. After a lifetime of sacrifice for the organisation, he realised he had been trapped in a totalitarian system.
The Intercept, quoting dissident members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation, wrote: In the last year of the Iraqi Baathist regime's war against Iran, about 700 people were arrested in Ashraf and transferred to solitary confinement cells. However, the other members were told that they were sent for training or operations. This dissident member of the Mojahedin Organisation says that after protesting to Rajavi about this, he too became one of the disappeared; he was subjected to four months of beatings in solitary confinement. Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, after his release from the cell, told him: “even the death of a thousand of you is not worth as much as Maryam Rajavi's life, so pretend you saw nothing”; a few weeks later, one by one, the disappeared members were released; we understood that this was just an attempt by Rajavi to show his power.
The report, in another part, referring to the statements of two women who escaped and were separated from the Mojahedin-e Khalq, states that the organisation, contrary to its claims, does not value women. One of the dissident women in the organisation, who had joined the People's Mojahedin in the 1980s on the advice of her husband, pointed out: “Women were just tools to control men; they took my six-month-old and five-year-old children and brainwashed me like the other members; Maryam Rajavi used to push us to demand relations with Massoud Rajavi”.
Another of the dissident women from the Mojahedin Organisation stated, “You don't know the organisation and its psychological warfare; they destroy people's character in such a way that even your family no longer trusts you; in 2000 I was close to collapse; my escape plan was discovered by my closest friend and I was severely tortured; for almost 14 years afterwards I was practically imprisoned”. She recalled her sterilisation as a traumatic event and said: “Women were brought in groups of 20-30 to be sterilised; the operation was performed by a woman member of the organisation trained for this; after much resistance, eventually, I too was sterilised in 2011”. She continued: “After I escaped, when I saw my brother, I felt nothing for him; shopping with money was a strange experience; now I have no family; I live in asylum conditions; the organisation destroyed my life”. Another dissident of the Iranian People's Mojahedin Organisation said, “They destroyed our lives with false goals; I separated from the organisation in 2012; my daughter separated in 2018; we now live in France; my two daughters found each other after 37 years on social media”.
The Intercept, pointing out that most members of the Mojahedin organisation are now between 50 and 60 years old, wrote: The Mojahedin used Iraqi orphan children as new members. The Intercept also mentioned the lack of clarity about the sources of the organisation's funding, and spoke of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove its name from the list of US terrorist organisations. Quoting an official from Barack Obama's government's counter-terrorism office, he wrote: “They certainly do not have supporters in Iran; their history is very disturbing”.
According to the Intercept's report, while reports indicate Israeli support for the Iranian People's Mojahedin Organisation, dozens of American politicians, including John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani, have supported this organisation.
The Guardian, in a report on the multi-million dollar campaign that led to the removal of the Iranian People's Mojahedin Organisation's name from the US list of terrorist organisations, wrote: “The campaign to bury the Mojahedin's bloody history in attacks and assassinations that have claimed the lives of thousands of Iranians and to portray the US as a staunch ally has taken place through members of Congress, lobbying groups in Washington and influential officials in the country”. The report also addressed the issue of the sums received by American politicians and the instrumental use made by the United States of this organisation.
Human Rights Watch, in February 2006, published a report on the crimes of the Iranian People's Mojahedin Organisation, pointing out that in addition to crimes against the Iranian people, the organisation also committed crimes against its own members, including prolonged detention in solitary confinement cells, physical and sexual abuse and torture. Part of the report states that dissident members of the Mojahedin were transferred to Abu Ghraib prison and tortured there; in some cases, the torture led to the death of some members.
The FBI, in a report published on “https://www.aei.org” in March 2023, wrote that despite the MEK's criminal past, the US State Department removed this organisation from its list of terrorist organisations in 2012. This, while the FBI in 2004 had underlined and confirmed the US government's extensive concerns about this organisation.
According to the aforementioned report, investigations show that the Mojahedin Organisation is actively involved in the planning and execution of terrorist acts; there are audio recordings of the leaders' conversations for the execution of terrorist acts and attacks, confirmed by the joint investigations of Germany and France. According to the FBI report, the Mojahedin Organisation seeks to open an office in Washington and continues to lobby members of Congress under the guise of human rights; such lobbying activities may endanger the security of the United States.
CNN, in July 2023, referring to the repeated failures of the Iranian People's Mojahedin Organisation, wrote: “The organisation is criticised for its history of violence and support for Saddam's regime during the war against Iran”. According to this American media report, the organisation is close to collapse.
Fucking intense.