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What happened to the America’s political morality and what seems to be wrong with it?

Kambiz Basetvat - 9/19/2011

There are obvious political morality discrepancies between domestic and foreign politics of American politicians’.

What brought this pen to this sad conclusion are the well known and respected politicians and decorated military leaders lobby for infamous Mojahedin-e Kaalgh Organization (MKO) delisting from the State Department’s terrorist organizations list. Seeing the respected former mayor of New York and presidential candidate sitting next to Mariam Rajavi, a serious Iranian political culprit, was jaw- dropping. According to Mr. Kenneth R. Timmerman, the MKO lobbing arm for its delisting endeavor from terrorist organizations enlisted support of former White House chief of staff Andy Card, former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark, former state department counter-terrorism coordinator Dell Dailey, and more in a pro-MKO event in Brussels on May 25. That is not all, Mr. Timmerman mentions other names of who is who of US government like president Obama’s former National Security Advise, Gen. Jim Jones, Rep. Michele Bachmann(R-MN), Mr. John Bolton former us ambassador to the United Nations.[1] One thing is clear here, it seems when one is not formally responsible for its political endorsement anything goes and being a former high profile US government official is a good license to be a sell-out in the form of a lobbyist.

Many of these American politicians and military people were liked by Iranians before they rendered support to MKO, the detested Islamist gorilla organization by Iranian secular democrats inside and outside Iran who worked very hard to bring to power Islamic Republic and criminalized politics in Iran since its inception. The MKO political and military history is well research and documented. One doesn’t have to go to extensive research to grasp the political dangers MKO poses to Iranians and America. The pressing question is what makes these talented former government officials support a well known ruthless political and Islamist organization? Is it their deep pocket or simply their opposition to Islamic Republic (IR) with a militaristic capacity? Do we consider opposing the IR a virtue disregard to the nature of opposing organization as we did in Afghanistan in 1980 and supported Islamist, an obvious political and human criminality? Do these American rehabilitees of MKO betraying Iranian secular democrats who are struggling against dictatorial regime of Islamic Republic and other dictatorial alternatives such as MKO? Do these well known Americans, when they promote MKO, harm their political credibility along us government among Iranians?

Let’s review the terrorist political nature of MKO and see what are the horrifying facts about its past and present. During sixties when urban and rural gorilla organizations were flourishing in every corner of the globe such as Che Guevara and others in Latin America, Red army in Japan, Baader Meinhof in Germany and others. In Iran, the younger generation offshoot of Todeh party, the Iranian communist party, organized a guerilla movement named Fadaeian khaalgh which launched an unsuccessful attack against a military post in the village of Siahkal; after its defeat they concentrated their activity in the cities limited to bank robbery, leftist political propaganda and assassinations. In competition with Fadaeian Khaalgh, the Islamist student political awakening in the fast expanding universities in Iran led to formation of Islamist urban guerilla organization called Mojahedin-e khaagh which assassinated American military officers stationed in Tehran. These two groups with capacity for political intimidation and murder ruled political life in Iranian universities; furthermore, autocratic rule of the Shah gave these two organizations a political legitimacy amid Iranian underground political activists.

For the Iranian people, the true political nature of MKO and FKO unmasked during and after establishment of Islamic republic. While cooperation and competition of Islamist MKO with the Islamic Republic lasted a little more than three years, the communist FKO collaborated with IR for decades and consequently lost many of its supporters and sympathizers. During and after revolution MKO attracted many young people as young as thirteen and fourteen years old. When the war broke out between Khomeinist and MKO militia it was wide spread and brutal. While Khomeinist would execute those MKO members or sympathizers who had been captured during or after the fight, the MKO killed good number of IR leadership. What distinguishes Masoud Rajavi, the MKO leader, who was in jail before revolution and escaped execution with the help of Soviet Union, in his first fight with Khomeinist is his disregard for his supporters’ life many of them very young boys and girls. It wasn’t too hard to grasp the fate of MKO in a war with Khomeinist who had at least two years to organize its military force and dismantle the Shah’s secular armed forces.

Masoud Rajavi, the MKO leader, to save himself from Khomeinist wraths, escaped to France while its urban terrorist activity against Islamic Republic continued. The MKO members’ Islamist devotion aspect made it hard for Khomeinist to discern MKO members among its ranks. This gave the MKO leadership the advantage and opportunities to strike IR leadership very hard while exposed many MKO supporters to summary executions by Khomeinist. The revolution gave the opportunity to MKO leadership to attract many young High school and university students with religious back ground, and the MKO leadership consumed them in a civil war among Islamist participant of revolution for its military victory. The middle class and democrats with sorrow witnessed this war of attrition between two groups of Islamist, another by product of Islamic revolution.

During these murderous years MKO leadership was transformed and became represented by two well known characters. The leader Masoud Rajavi and his wife Maryam Rajavi, called president elect, emerged as the sole decision makers or dictators of MKO organization. What are politically horrifying about MKO organization are its leaders and their disciples, who are as close to Manchurian Candidates as possible[2]. After their current leadership escaped from Iran and those stayed in Iran were killed, the MKO political treacherous political way demonstrates one of the saddest chapters of Iranian politics. The MKO leader, Masoud Rajavi turned to traditional safe haven of Iranian dictatorial government oppositions which was Iraq, as did Khomeini and others. Masoud arranged the MKO to join Iraq in the war with Iran and signed peace treaty in return for a military base for his disciples[3]. Having a military base in Iraq provided the opportunity to MKO to assemble its members in a close environment with military discipline to fight Iranian armed forces. From MKO disillusioned members, there are good number of reports of their mistreatment and being jailed in the camp[4]. At the end of Iraq-Iran war Masoud and Maryam commanded the bloodiest chapter of Camp Ashraf, the MKO military base in Iraq. Acceptance of disarmament by Khomeini, based on Masoud twisted reasoning, had provided great opportunity for MKO to enter Iran with expectation of Iranian uprising against Khomeinist. Masoud in a video with clannish movement, comparable to Hitler’s performance in his speeches, explains the operation; in reality around two thousands poor souls that trusted MKO leadership were killed. Moreover, after acceptance of peace treaty with Iraq, since Khomeini felt its regime was vulnerable and near collapse he ordered the execution of close to four thousands political prisoners. This episode of MKO history reveals the appetite Masoud and his wife have for consuming Iranians souls or facilitating the murderous capacity of Khomeinist to commit horrendous crimes.

The human cost of MKO political activities is eye caching. The MKO transforms itself according to political reality without impacting its core ideology which are Islamist, cultist and dictatorial. The story of Masoud and Maryam’s political marriage exposes cultic and dictatorial nature of MKO organization. Maryam was married to one of the leaders of MKO but apparently he was forced to divorce his wife in order she could get married to Masoud. The next chapter of MKO story takes us to invasion of Iraq by Americans to free Iraqis from dictatorial regime of Saddam Husain. MKO leader Masoud surrenders to Americans and gives up his arms in exchange for protection from Iraqis who have a grudge for being the henchman of Saddam. While MKO demilitarized camp stayed operational the leaders left Iraq Masoud moves to an unknown Arab country where probably the tremendous supply of money comes from and Maryam moved to France. In France one of the most horrendous episodes of cultic nature of MKO plays out. In 2003, police in France arrests Maryam Rajavi with one hundred fifty MKO members in Paris suburb and discovers nine million dollars from their compound. The MKO members who invested most of their life for MKO organized protest for Maryam’s arrest and for several days one or two of them put themselves afire. Eventually, authorities in France gave up and capitulate to such reaction and released Maryam with boned. In this MKO show of human fireworks two members die and several members are seriously injured[5]. One can observe the MKO leadership expectation from their disciples and the cost they should bear for several days that Maryam stayed in a jail in Paris.

Considering the tumultuous history of MKO, one would expect it would disintegrate and its members would disperse and melt in the countries of their residence and begin a regular life. Not a chance, MKO leadership like the Tude party strives to use freedom and opportunities in western countries to position itself for Iranian political future and spoil it as Iranian communist did in 1979 by collaborating with Khomeinist. The MKO leadership is hard at work to save MKO members from dispersing and free themselves from yoke of Masoud and Maryam Rajavi, case in point is the Camp Ashraf. After eight years Camp Ashraf with 3500 residence in Iraq still is up and running and the democratically elected Iraqi government can’t get rid of it. For Iraqi government or any government in the world it is not acceptable that part of its territory being out of its control as Camp Ashraf is for Iraqis. It is unclear with the orders Camp Ashraf commanders have to ignore Iraqi government authorities what calamity is in store. The last clash in Camp Ashraf between Iraqis and MKO members resulted death of several MKO members. The hysterical reaction and devotion of MKO members provides the opportunity to Masoud to challenge Iraqis authorities and keep Camp Ashraf intact, but for how long. The MKO leader, Masoud, resistance to close Camp Ashraf and the eventuality of Iraqi government authority exertion to part of its territory creates a certainty for a human tragedy. The paths the MKO leader has chosen to keep Camp Ashraf running and the episode in Paris after Maryam arrest must demonstrate what kind maniacs we are dealing with.

Considering the impediment the State Department terrorist listing creates for the MKO leaders to setup shops in the US and organizes its Islamist disciples or Manchurian Candidates provides a sense of appreciation. It is foreseeable what will happen in the US if terrorist delisting of MKO goes forward. The MKO compounds pops up in different parts of us with faithful Muslims recruited as paid supporters and full times employees. In time, these developments create a serious challenge for American law enforcement comparable to what Iraqi’s authorities going through with camp Ashraf. If these futuristic speculations became a reality, which is not farfetched; it would be interesting to hear current lobbyist for MKO explain their actions. They will probably claim ignorance or futile of their judgment. To brush away these kind of futuristic predictions one needs to ignore MKO history in France and Iraq, and their performance in Iran’s Islamic revolution. Rendering any support to MKO as a political and religious organization by US is playing with fire and has serious consequence down the road as did support of Islamist during Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan in 1980.

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[1] Kenneth R. Timmerman,



[2] A group of Americans sleeping cells brain washed by Chinese communist and ready to strike in a move with a same name.

[3] Muhammad Samie, “Who is Responsible for MKO Massacre at Camp Ashraf” www.latimes.com

[4]Kenneth R. Timmerman, same

[5] radiofarda.com, http://www.radiofarda.com/articleprintview/24099561.html