People's Mujahedin of Iran

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The People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI, also MEK, MKO) (Persian: سازمان مجاهدين خلق ايران sazmaan-e mujahedin-e khalq-e Iran) is a militant political party that advocates overthrowing the government in the Islamic Republic of Iran and replacing it with its own leadership.

PMOI is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, European Union, and Iran.^[1][2] Although the European Court of Justice has overturned this designation in December 2006,^[3] the Council of the EU declared on 30 January 2007 that it would maintain the organization on the blacklist. ^[4][5] (See: #Designation as a terrorist organization)

PMOI claims that it is the main organization in the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an "umbrella coalition". However this claim has been criticised by the FBI, ^[6] and individuals including Michael Axworthy, a senior public servant in the United Kingdom^[7] that believe NCRI is merely a front group for the PMOI. The PMOI's armed wing is called the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA). The Iranian government officially refers to the organization as the Monafeqin (i.e., "Hypocrites").^[8]

Contents 1 Other names 2 Membership 3 History 3.1 Ideology: before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution 3.2 Repression under the Islamic government 3.3 Relations with France in the mid-1980s 3.4 Relations with Iraq under Saddam Hussein and the Iranian government 3.5 After the 2003 invasion of Iraq 3.6 2003 French raid 3.7 A "bargaining chip" between Tehran and Washington? 3.8 Alleged MEK activity in Iran 4 Designation as a terrorist organization 5 Alleged human rights abuses 6 Videotape of Massoud Rajavi's secret meeting with Saddam Hussein 7 See also 8 References 9 External links 9.1 Official Mujahedin-e Khalq websites

[edit] Other names

The People's Mujahedin of Iran is known by a variety of names including

• Monafiqeen-e-Khalq (MEK) - the Iranian government consistently refers to the People's Mujahedin with this name, meaning "traitors of the people".
• Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO)
• The National Liberation Army of Iran
• (Disputed) National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) - the PMOI is the founding member of a wide coalition of organizations called the NCRI, while others including the FBI claim that the NCRI is either an "alias" for or a front group for the PMOI.^[6][7]

Note: the MEK alias is often used when the PMOI is referenced in the media, or by national governments around the world. The term MEK and PMOI are therefore interchangeable throughout this article.

[edit] Membership

The PMOI claims to have a 30,000 – 50,000 strong armed guerrilla force, based in Iraq, but a membership of between 3,000 – 4,000 is considered more likely.^[9] In 2005 the US think-tank, Council on Foreign Relations, believed that the PMOI had 10,000 members, one-third to one-half of whom were fighters. The think-tank claims PMOI membership has dwindled, the organization has had little success attracting new recruits.^[10] According to a 2003 article by the New York Times, the PMOI would be composed of 5,000 — many of them female — fighters based in Iraq ^[11]. A recent census of Ashraf, where the aging population is "fighters" is located, has a little more than 3500 member with less than 900 women there.

[edit] History

The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran was founded by middle-class students at Tehran University, Mohammad Hanifnejad, Saied Mohsen and Ali-Asghar Badizadegan in 1965. The PMOI opposed the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi because it considered it corrupt and oppressive. In its first five years, the group primarily engaged in ideological work, combining both fundamentalist interpretations of Islam and Marxist philosophy. Before carrying out any military operations against the Shah's regime, a raid by the Shah's secret police, SAVAK, arrested the entire leadership and 90 percent of its cadres. All but one of its leaders were executed. Other members remained incarcerated for many years, with the last group, including Massoud Rajavi, being released just before Khomeini arrived in Tehran in January 1979. The PMOI conducted anti-Western attacks prior to the Islamic Revolution. Since then, it has conducted militant attacks against the interests of the cleric-dominated governmental system in Iran and abroad. According to the presentation of the MEK by the Foreign Affairs group of the Australian Parliament, the group has been accused of conducting several assassinations of U.S. military personnel and civilians working in Iran during the 1970s and of having actively supported the U.S. embassy takover in Tehran in 1979.^[12]

[edit] Ideology: before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution

Ideologically, the MKO is difficult to describe. Originally being based on a syncretic amalgamation of Marxist and Islamic ideas, the MKO was subject to a number of rapid ideological shifts and has developed a strong sense of veneration for its leading couple, Masoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi, which some have described as a personality cult. Although its leaders presents themselves as Muslims, the MKO describes itself as a secular organization: "The National Council of Resistance believes in the separation of Church and State." ^[13]

According to the U.S. Department of State' presentation of the MEK, the philosophy of the MEK is a combination of Marxism, Nationalism and Islam.^[14]

In more recent years under the guidance of Maryam Rajavi the organisation has adopted strong feminist principles. Women have now assumed the most senior positions of responsibility within the ranks of the MKO and although women make up only a third of fighters, two-thirds of its commanders are women. Rajavi ultimately believes that women should exert hegemony and dominance over men.^[15]

To bring the opposition to the Iranian government under one umbrella organization, the PMOI formed the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The MEK claims that in the past 25 years, the NCRI has evolved into a 540-member parliament-in-exile, with a specific platform that emphasizes free elections, gender equality and equal rights for ethnic and religious minorities. The MEK claims that it also advocates a free-market economy and supported peace in the Middle East. The FBI claims that the NCRI "is not a separate organization, but is instead, and has been, an integral part of the MEK at all relevant times" and that the NCRI is "the political branch" of the MEK, rather than vice versa. Although the OMPI is today the main organization of the NCRI, the latter hosted before others organizations, such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran. ^[6]

[edit] Repression under the Islamic government

After playing a key role in the 1979 Iranian Revolution because of its Muslim identity and the ability to mobilize hundreds of thousands of workers, students, and most importantly, many younger army officers, the PMOI emerged as the largest opposition group in the country. Its daily publication, Mojahed, had a circulation of 600,000 copies.^{[citation needed]} The newly established regime of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran began to feel threatened by the PMOI militant activities and started to launch a fierce campaign to crush it. Hundreds of PMOI supporters and members were killed from 1979 to 1981, and some 3,000 were arrested [4]. Ultimately, the organization called for a massive demonstration on June 20, 1981, to protest against the new leadership under the banner of Islam. Khomeini ordered the guards to open fire on the protesters. Hundreds were killed and many more wounded.^{[citation needed]} That night, hundreds were summarily executed in Evin Prison and elsewhere, some without their identities ever being established. This was considered one of the most severe human-rights violations in the history of the Islamic Republic.

In 28 June 1981, two years after the Islamic Revolution of Iran, the MEK detonated bombs in the office of the Premier of Iran's newly established regime, during a meeting of the now dissolved Islamic Republic Party. Around 70 high ranking officials including President Rajai, Premier Mohammad Javad Bahonar and Chief Justice Mohammad Beheshti were killed.^[16] This is considered the most important attack in the history of the MEK against the Iranian government.

Eventually, PMOI relocated to France, where it operated until 1986, date of the problems arising between Paris and Tehran concerning the Eurodif nuclear stake and the French hostages crisis in Lebanon. From then on, the PMOI resided in Iraq, protected by Saddam Hussein who was in war against Tehran since 1981.

Between 1,400 to 30,000 political prisoners from the MEK, and also from the Tudeh Party of Iran ^[17], were assassinated during the 1988 massacre of Iranian prisoners, following Mersad.^{[18][19][20][21][22]}. Dissident Ayatollah Montazeri has written in his memoirs that this massacre, deemed a crime against humanity, was ordered by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and carried out by several high-ranking members of Iran's current government. Ahmad Khomeini, whom Montazeri accused of collaboration in the killings, has died mysteriously during the Chain Murders of Iran.

[edit] Relations with France in the mid-1980s

In 1986, after then French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac struck a deal with Tehran for the release of French hostages held prisoners by the Hezbollah in Lebanon, PMOI was forced to leave France and relocated in Iraq. Investigative journalist Dominique Lorentz has related the 1986 capture of French hostages to an alleged blackmail of France by Tehran concerning the nuclear program ^[23]

[edit] Relations with Iraq under Saddam Hussein and the Iranian government

The MKO transferred its headquarters to Iraq in 1986. According to the US State Department, the MEK received all of its military support and most of its financial assistance from Saddam's regime until the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. But the MEK denies these accusations and insists that it had always remained independent of Iraq. The MEK also has used front organizations to solicit contributions from expatriate Iranian communities.

Near the end of the 1980-1988 war with Iran, Baghdad armed the MEK with military equipment and sent it into action against Iranian forces. The MKO's decision to move its headquarters to Iraq in the middle of the war, caused the MKO to lose most of its supporters in Iran, regardless of their views towards the Iranian government.^[24] The National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which receives funds from the National Endowment for Democracy, claims that "as a result [of their alliance with Saddam Hussein during the war], they are viewed as traitors by the overwhelming majority of Iranians and Iranian Americans.".^[25] A report by the Foreign Affairs group of the Australian Parliament states "[The MEK] is believed to have lost much of its popular support within Iran since siding with Iraq".^[26] The MKO claims it has always maintained its independence from its Iraqi host and denies "siding with Iraq" during the Iran-Iraq War.^{[citation needed]}

According to presentations of the MEK by the U.S. Department of State and the Foreign Affairs group of the Australian Parliament, the MEK are accused of having assisted the Iraqi Republican Guard in suppressing the Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.^[12] Maryam Rajavi, who assumed the leadership role of the MEK after a series of years as co-leader alongside her husband Massoud Rajavi, had the following to say during a moral-boosting speech to an audience of MEK troops: "Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards."^[11] This has been formally denied by the OMPI.^{[citation needed]}

In the following years the MEK conducted several assassinations of political and military figures of the Islamic Republic, including deputy chief of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff, Brigadier General Ali Sayyaad Shirazi, who was assassinated on the doorsteps of his house on April 10, 1999.

[edit] After the 2003 invasion of Iraq

Main article: Monafiqeen-e-Khalq Surrender (2003)

After the 2003 American invasion of Iraq, MEK camps were bombed by coalition forces because of its alliance with Saddam Hussein. On April 15th, the leaders of the MEK entered into a ceasefire agreement with the coalition after the attack. On May 11th, 2003 the US launched simultaneous surprise attacks on MEK compounds across Iraq.^[27][28][29] Each compound surrendered without hostilities. In the operation, the US reportedly captured 6,000 MEK fighters and over 2,000 pieces of military equipment.^[30][31]

After a four-month investigation by several US agencies, including the State Department, only a handful of charges under U.S. criminal law were brought against MEK members, all American citizens. The MEK aka PMOI remains listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the Department of State. [5] Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared MEK personnel in Ashraf protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention. They are currently under the guard of US Military. Defectors from this group are housed separately in a refugee camp within Camp Ashraf, and protected by the Bulgarian Army. [6] [7]

[edit] 2003 French raid

Further information: Irano-French relations

In June 2003 French police raided the Mujahedin's properties, including its base in Auvers-sur-Oise, under the orders of anti-terrorist magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière, after suspicions that it was trying to shift its base of operations there. 160 suspected MEK members were then arrested, 40 went into a hunger strike to protest against the repression, and ten immolated themselves in various European capitals in protestation against the raids. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP) declared that the MEK "recently wanted to make France its support base, notably after the intervention in Iraq," while Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, head of France's domestic intelligence service, claimed that the group was "transforming its Val d'Oise centre [near Paris] ... into an international terrorist base".^[32]

US Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas and chairman of the Foreign Relations subcommittee on South Asia, then accused the French of doing "the Iranian government's dirty work". Along with other MPs, he wrote a letter of protest to President Jacques Chirac, while longtime OMPI supporters such as Sheila Jackson-Lee, Democrat of Texas, criticized Maryam Radjavi's arrest ^[11].

However, the MEK members were quickly released. The French action against the NCRI have been accused of being parts of negotiation between Paris and Tehran, concerning the nuclear program and maybe also some business deals. The MEK claims that after three years, there is nothing in the files that would implicate the NCRI and Mrs. Rajavi in any wrong doing and the case has essentially died.

[edit] A "bargaining chip" between Tehran and Washington?

The same year that the French police raided the OMPI's properties in France, Tehran attempted to negotiate with Washington DC, proposing to withdraw military backing for Hamas and Hezbollah as well as give open access to their nuclear facilities in return for Western action in disbanding the PMOI, which was revealed by Newsnight, a BBC current affairs programme, in 2007. The BBC uncovered a letter written after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 where Tehran made this offer ^[33][34] The proposition was done in a secret letter given to Washington through Switzerland's help. According to the BBC and to what had been understood by the US State Department, the letter had received authorization from the highest levels of the Iranian government. According to Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff of State secretary Colin Powell, interviewed by the BBC, the State Dept would first have positively considered the offer. But it would ultimately have been rejected by the office of Vice-President Dick Cheney ^[35].

[edit] Alleged MEK activity in Iran

In 2006 news reports linked the PMOI with US threats to attack Iran, specifically use of the PMOI to "prepare the battlefield" for US military action against Iran.^[36]

According to the news organisation Rawstory, an intelligence official said that following the invasion of Iraq, “We [the US] disarmed [the MEK] of major weapons, but not small arms. US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was pushing to use them as a military special ops team, but there was infighting between Rumsfeld's camp and then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, but she was able to fight them off for a while”.

According to another intelligence source, the policy infighting ended last year when Rumsfeld, under pressure from US Vice President Dick Cheney, came up with a plan to “convert” the MEK by having them simply quit their organization." “These guys are nuts,” the intelligence source said. "Stephen Cambone [ Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence ] and those guys made MEK members swear an oath to democracy and resign from the MEK and then our guys incorporated them into their unit and trained them” for action in Iran. A UN source close to the United Nations Security Council, again according to Rawstory, said in April 2006 that "the clandestine war had been going on for roughly a year".^[36]

According to a former Iranian ambassador and an intelligence correspondent of the UPI news agency, "The Iranian accusations are true, but it is being done on such a small scale - a series of pinpricks - it would seem to have no strategic value at all."^[37]

[edit] Designation as a terrorist organization

PMOI is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States since 1997, Canada, and Iran.^[1][2] According to Wall Street Journal ^[38] "senior diplomats in the Clinton administration say the PMOI figured prominently as a bargaining chip in a bridge-building effort with Tehran." The PMOI is also on the European Union's blacklist of terrorist organizations, which lists 28 organizations, since 2002. ^[39] The enlistments included: Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States in 1997 under the Immigration and Nationality Act, and again in 2001 pursuant to section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224 on terrorist financing; as well as by the European Union (EU) in 2002.^[40] Its bank accounts were frozen in 2002 after the September 11, 2001 attacks and a call by the EU to block terrorist organizations' funding. However, the European Court of Justice has overturned this in December 2006 and has criticized the lack of "transparency" with which the blacklist is composed. ^[41] However, the Council of the EU declared on 30 January 2007 that it would maintain the organization on the blacklist. ^[42][43]

EU-freezing of funds was lifted on December 12 2006 by the European Court of First Instance.^[44] In 2003 the US State Department included the NCRI on the blacklist, under Executive Order 13224 ^[45].

According to a 2003 article by the New York Times, the US 1997 inscription of the group on the terrorist blacklist was done as "a goodwill gesture toward Iran's newly elected reform-minded president, Mohammad Khatami" (succeeded in 2005 by more conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) ^[11]. In 2002, 150 members of the United States Congress signed a letter calling for the lifting of this designation. The MEK have also tried to have the designation removed through several court cases in the U.S. The MEK has now lost three appeals (1999, 2001 and 2003) to the US government to be removed from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and its terrorist status was reaffirmed each time. The MEK has continued to protest worldwide against its listing, with the overt support of some US political figures.^[12][46]

Another key source of support for the MKO has included members of the U.S. Congress, including Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL.), Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY), Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX),^[47] and former Attorney General John Ashcroft, "who became involved with the MKO while a Republican senator from Missouri."^[48] In 2000, 200 U.S. Congress members signed a statement endorsing the organization's cause.^[49]

PMOI operatives were and are – legally or at least well tolerated – active in Germany, Denmark and many other countries of the European Union. The NCRI maintained an Information Office in Washington DC, USA until August 2002, when US Secretary of State Colin Powell issued an order to shut down the offices.^[50]

In April 2007, CNN reported that the US military and the International Committee of the Red Cross was continuing to protect the group, with the US army regularly escorting MEK supply runs between Baghdad and its base, Camp Ashraf.^[51]

[edit] Alleged human rights abuses

In May 2005, Human Rights Watch reported the PMOI were running prison camps within Iraq and were committing severe human rights violations.^[52]

In July 2005 a delegation from a group known as Friends of a Free Iran (FOFI) visited Camp Ashraf for 5 days and interviewed 19 people. A heretofore unknown group, the "visitors" entered Iraq illegally and kept their visit to Ashraf secret from the Multi-National Forces who guard Ashraf. As a result, this alleged visit cannot be confirm through Iraqi or MNF-I sources and remains heresay. The delegation did not interview any of the individuals who originally gave testimonies to Human Rights Watch.^[53] As a result of these interviews FOFI issued a 132 page document on September 21, 2005 claiming the alleged abuses did not occur and calling for the People's Mujahedin of Iran to be removed from the list of terrorist organisations.^[54]

Prompted by the FOFI document Human Rights Watch re-interviewed all 12 of the original witnesses, conducting private and personal interviews lasting several hours with each of them in Germany and the Netherlands, where the witnesses now live. All of the witnesses recounted in extensive detail their experiences inside the MKO camps from the 1991-2003 period, and how MKO officials subjected them to various forms of physical and psychological abuses once they made known their wishes to leave the organization.^[53]

A 2005 Human Rights Watch (HRW) 28-page report, titled "No Exit:Human Rights Abuses Inside the Mojahedin Khalq Camps" ^[55], described the PMOI as a cult held under the tight control of Maryam Rajavi. The report prompted a response by the OMPI and friendly MEPs (European MPs), who published a counter-report in September 2005 ^[54]. They underlined that HRW had "relied only on 12 hours interviews with 12 suspicious individuals," and claimed that "a delegation of MEPs visited Camp Ashraf in Iraq" and "conducted impromptu inspections of the sites of alleged abuses." First Vice-President of the European Parliament, Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca (PP), thus introduced the report:

We came to the conclusion that HRW report was procedurally flawed and substantively inaccurate. Moreover, in the course of our study we became aware of an elaborate and complex misinformation campaign by Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) against PMOI.^[54]

So far no link has been established between Human Rights Watch and Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security.

[edit] Videotape of Massoud Rajavi's secret meeting with Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein used to secretly tape everything and this videotape was captured by the Americans after they took control of Saddam's possessions. The tape was later "leaked out" as evidence of Saddam's connections to terrorist groups.

• The video in Realaudio format.
• The video in Windows Media Player format.

[edit] See also

• 1988 Massacre of Iranian Prisoners
• Arms sales to Iraq 1973-1990
• Iran-Iraq War
• Massoud Rajavi
• Maryam Rajavi
• Masoud Banisadr
• MEK Compound (Fallujah, Iraq)
• Richard Perle
• Saddam's Trial and Iran-Iraq War

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Video of BBC Newsnight MKO program, Jan 2007 - Youtube
• Information on Mujahedin-e Khalg (MEK/MKO/NCR)
• (Persian)News and Information on Mujahedin-e Khalg (MEK/MKO/NCR
• U.S. Department of State: MEK Profile
• National Iranian American Council's report on the MKO (2006)
• Short article on the MEK/MKO
• Profile of MEK/MKO
• Israeli MOSSAD and Mujahedin-e Khalg
• The MEK propaganda machine
• Why the U.S. granted 'protected' status to Iranian terrorists
• Behind the Mujahideen-e-Khalq from Australian government
• Info on MKO from GlobalSecurity
• Article on the MKO on Iranian.com
• 'Autopsy' of the group's political drift
• “People's Mojahedin of Iran” - Mission Report
• Harry Dunphy. U.S. ordered the closure of two offices of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, The Associated Press, August 15 2003.
• Notes on Mujahedin-e Khalq/MEK By Barry O'Connell
• Mujahedin-e Khalgh at the crossroads by Bill Samii
• U.S. lists MEK's Alireza Jafarzadeh under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, [PDF-60KB]
• Terrorist organization profiles from the ICT database
• Notes on Mujahedin-e Khalq return to Iran
• Mujahedin-e Khalq training camp
• Justin Raimondo. Richard Perle supports the Mujahedin-e Khalq, Antiwar.com, January 28 2004.
• John Stanton. Iran Policy Committee (IPC): Pentagon mouthpiece, Israeli ally, MEK supporter, Online Journal, May 21 2005.
• U.S. Congress's support for Mujahedin-e Khalq, openDemocracy, July 15 2005.
• John Diamond. Secret U.S. military campaigns in the Middle East through 'proxies', USA Today, February 14 2006.
• Larisa Alexandrovna. U.S. outsourcing special ops to terror group, Raw Story, April 13 2006.
• Larisa Alexandrovna. U.S. Defense Department using Mujahedin-e Khalgh to conduct operations in Iran, Raw Story, April 20 2006.

[edit] Official Mujahedin-e Khalq websites

• Website of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK/MKO)
• Website of the National Council for Resistance (NCR)
• National Council of Resistance of Iran - Foreign Affairs Committee