Terror In The Name Of Democracy The Initiation of Armed Revolt by MKO

Patriots always talk of dying for their country but never of killing for their country. (Bertrand Russell) Mojahedin.ws The number of the words presidents and prime ministers assassinated since the midtwentieth century reaches just about 50. Out of them, those assassinated by the use of the most violent and horrific methods, suicide or bomb blast, hardly outnumber a hands fingers. But the concurrent assassination of a president and his prime minister in a terrorist strike has a single record in its kind. And the untold about the event that may never repeat in the history is the key role of an ousted president as an accomplice to erase his successor. And the bare but shocking truth about the event is that almost all people being a high authority to investigate the complicated case or initiate prosecution for the terrorist offense turned to become the target and the victims of terrorism themselves. And it was just one of many shadows of terror that terrorists cast over Iran.

On August 30, 1981, a bomb explosion at a meeting of the National Security Council held at the Prime Ministers office led to three immediate deaths: Mohammad Ali Rajai, the Iranian President, Mohammad Javad Bahonar, the Prime Minister, and Abdolhussein Daftarian, the prime ministrys authority. Hushang Dastjerdi, the head of the national police, the fourth victim, passed away 6 days later as a result of the injuries. The terrorist plot, although incomparable with the preceding June 28 explosion quantitatively, the explosion in the Islamic Republic Party IRP killing at least 74 highprofile personalities, has its record as a bloody chapter in Iranian post-revolution history, a mysterious and complicated plot with many aspects still remaining ambiguous and many questions unanswered. No doubt, the perpetrators of such ruthless, violent plots fail to provide the slightest justification for proven terrorist acts that are tantamount to a declaration of war against a nation. The responsible group, Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK/PMOI/NCR), after tolerating ultimate failures in winning public trust in two preceding presidential and parliament elections, had already started inventing pretexts to declare its war. In

its military communiqu that implied a blatant declaration of a violent warfare against the Islamic Republic and was documented as a clear vindication of the groups perpetrated terrorist crimes, MKO complained of misbehavior and illegal and unlawful undertaking against the still in office president, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, whose conspiratorial collaboration with some opposition groups made the Iranian parliament to hold a debate on his presidency competence that finally led to his impeachment.

Sparks of Animosity The president Bani-Sadrs close connection and sympathy with a wide range of opposition groups, particularly his direct and strong support of MKO and giving the group a free hand in social and political affairs, as well as his incompetent function as the commander of the armed forces to confront the invaliding Saddams army made Ayatollah Khomeini to reclaim the power of Commander-in-Chief on 10 June 1981. Just 10 days later, Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the Parliament Speaker at the time, apprised Ayatollah Khomeini of deputies decision about stripping Bani-Sadr of his presidential power. The response was clear; as the leader with the constitutional authority, Ayatollah Khomeini signed dismissal of Bani-Sadr. In its first political-military issued communique No. 25 dated 17 June 1981, just three days prior to the first violent moves, MKO made references to events that motivated the organization to make a blatant decision to wage an armed warfare against the Islamic Republic: At the same time, we are witnessing illegal arrests of the members of the presidential office whose names and the news of their arrests are not announced in some instances. Of course, they [the regime] are preparing a comprehensive plan of arresting progressive-seeking characters and antagonists of monopoly in the country. Mojahedin Khalq Organization, while protesting such unlawful and counterrevolutionary actions, thereby obtains permission from the hero Iranian people, and by the help of God, to adopt the most decisive revolutionary resistance through any possible means for the preservation of its members, especially those central cadres of the organization that are in fact considered a pivotal part of the people and revolution.

On the evening of 20 June 1981, when the Parliament resumed its impeachment debate, MKO orchestrated a series of mass demonstrations that shook Tehran and some other Iranian provincial towns. Rioters had orders to carry small arms and cold weapons and soon the demonstrations turned into street battles that lasted more than three hours. The battles reportedly left heavy casualties and MKO rioters overturned buses and set the parked cars and motorcycles on fire. Although MKOs plot to cause a widespread civil disturbance to lead the country into a serious civil war faced a total failure, the group adopted a different violent tactic since the day after.

Initiation of Armed Revolt The eruption of riots was actually MKOs first organized armed revolt to steer the country to the verge of a chaotic atmosphere and anarchy and it was followed by daily scattered clashes, bombings and terrorist atrocities. The ousted Bani-Sadr himself used as the pretext to trigger MKOs armed revolt, encouraged the group to precipitate the created crises by a wave of violent activities including assassination of high-ranking statesmen and personalities. In her confessions after her arrest, Sudabeh Sadifi, an adviser to Bani-Sadr, asserted that Bani-Sadr after his dismissal in a message to Massoud Rajavi, MKOs leader, urged him to Start striking their heads. There is no other way. Plots to assassinate the key, influential heads in charge hatched just after BaniSadr and Rajavis hiding in the organizations secret hideouts. The first perpetrated terrorist act was an attempt to assassinate Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehrans Friday prayers at the time, on 27 June, 1981; a bomb, concealed in a tape recorder, exploded beside him while he was delivering an address in Abu Dhar mosque south of Tehran. He escaped assassination but suffered serious injuries that left his right hand handicapped. The terrorist agent was identified to be a MKOs central cadre, Javad Qadiri.

Tehran was still under the shock of the attempt assassination when MKO stroke the successive terrorist blow the day after on June 28. Reportedly, two blasts ripped through IRP building as the chief Ayatollah Beheshti was addressing his regular weekly meeting. The death toll rose to 74 including Ayatollah Beheshti, Cabinet ministers, deputy ministers and members of Parliament. The perpetrator was identified to be an infiltrated agent of MKO, Muhammad-Reza Kulahi. It was so heavy a strike for the newly formed regime and both MKO and Bani-Sadr expected complete destabilization and overthrow of the ruling authority. However, the public reaction to such violent, immoral deeds was nothing more than a strong feeling of repulsion towards MKO.

On July 27, 1981, Muhammad-Ali Rajai won a landslide victory in Irans second postrevolution presidential election. Deeply disappointed, the sole option before the two fugitives living in secret hideouts was to immediately leave the country. On 29 July, Bani-Sadr accompanied by Rajavi, in disguise and by having shaved off his customary mustache, were driven to a Tehran military base and got on board of a hijacked Iranian air force 707 jet tanker around 10 at night. It seemed unlikely that they could have gotten to the plane and aboard without the cooperation of other military personnel and particularly the pilot who flew the plane to land it at the military airfield of Evreux near Paris. The pilot, Col. Behzad Moesi, was the personal pilot of the ousted Muhammad-Reza Pahlavi whom, along with his family, he had flown out of Iran to Egypt and then to Morocco in December 1978. Unexpectedly, Moesi had returned Pahlavis plane, Shahin, to Iran and received a warm welcome as a hero and a revolutionary. He had succeeded to win the trust of authorities and had been appointed to sensitive military positions.

It is reasonable to assume that his return to Iran was a scenario outlined by the states antagonizing the Islamic regime and directed by intelligence agencies to establish a direct contact with the active opposition groups to arrive at an agreement for a variety of collaborative programs to advance political policies and interests inside Iran. And his return aroused nobodys curiosity in Iran to question controversial aspects of such an easy return; how had he managed to refuel the plane and flew it out of a heavily guarded military base and pass over a few countries air borders to make a heroic return?

The Second Terrorist Tragedy The fugitives escape to France postponed MKOs second appalling terrorist operation scheduled to be perpetrated the month after the explosion at IRP building. Being granted political asylum just after his arrival in France, Bani-Sadr said we must try to find a quicker way of overthrowing the absolutists, and Rajavi vowed to organize the resistance against the Islamic Republic from France. There they were granted the opportunity of conveniently planning, by abundantly offered external aids, for more destructive and successful operations. The quick way to success had to be involved a variety of violent options including suicide bombing; MKO had enough devoted infiltrated agents as volunteers for these types of operation. Massoud Keshmiri, the agent who detonated the bomb in the Prime Ministers office, had already volunteered to be a suicide bomber if necessary although he succeeded in his mission without endangering his life and managed to escape through a well-planned trick played by his fellow-mate accomplices. On August 30, 1981, Mohammad Ali Rajai, the Iranian President, and Mohammad Javad Bahonar, the Prime Minister, were burned beyond recognition by an incendiary that set fire to the Prime Ministers office. The victims bodies were identified only through dental records. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but there was speculation, proved later, that it was work of MKO. There still remains questions concerning the planted incendiary bomb that just burned the president and his prime minister but leaving others merely injured. The third victim, Abdolhussein Daftarian, the prime ministrys authority, died of uncontrolled consequences of the blast. The fourth victim, Hushang Dastjerdi, the head of the national police, passed away 6 days later in hospital

as a result of the injuries. The bomb was said to have been planted inside a briefcase that Keshmiri carried, but there was a different judgment that it had been planted inside a tape-recorder stationed before the victims. Col. Muhammad Mahdi Katibe, a member of the meeting who survived the blast, states that: I believe the appropriate container to plant the bomb inside was the tap-recorder that had a capacity for more than 10 pounds explosives. I think it was a hollow case inside which they had planted a TNT time bomb with alarm clock detonator. I doubt if there was a better vessel. Evidences talk In neither of the bombing incidents MKO accepted the responsibility for the tragic deeds although the latter was a reminiscent of its previous bombing in planning and employing infiltrated agents. The group cunningly followed a tactic of keeping silent as it could not anticipate what the public reaction and political consequences would be. In fact, after being faced with angry people that jammed the streets and chanted antiBani-Sadr slogans as well as demanding punishment of the perpetrators, MKO did not find it expedient to directly and officially claim responsibility for the two horrific, terrorist bombings, for it could be tantamount to accepting the social and political consequences that would possibly lead the organization to the precipice of an early demise. However, it has always referred to them under the classified term of special operations in its public and non-public sources and in its external dealings; there are also other officially asserted evidences that put the responsibility directly on MKO. In a letter attributed to a hero of special operations, namely Keshmiri, addressed to Massoud Rajavi following the ideological revolution, Keshmiri depicts in words a flashback to his direct role in planting the bomb as an infiltrated agent of MKO. In the preface to the letter published in Mojahed No. 250, we read:

The following letter is sent by a hero of Mojahedins special operations whose letter is published under anonymous signature for security reasons. The title the hero of Mojahed Khalq is granted by the leader to those brothers and sisters who have demonstrated extraordinary bravery and valor in courageous, special operations and feats.
In April 1981, my hero brother asked me to closely observe running affairs in the office of . I have been active in important posts in a variety of the regimes serious, key security organs. A number of them which I penetrated at the time and had the authoritative order were the countrys Security Council, different committees, the Guards Corps, Ministry of Education, Construction Jihad, University Jihad, Ministry of Islamic Guidance, Radio and TV Network. Long later, my brave brother came to my house. We were much delighted to see him in so repressed atmosphere that compelled us to live in isolation. I did not

know what precious present he had brought to offer. He said: if the organization decides to carry out the plan, what is your own suggestion? I had no better plan than suicide operation and immediately proposed it. Although the organization never consented to such a plan, I proposed it at the time. I was much exited. I had already thought of launching such an operation and considered it a priority atop of my responsibilities. As the spaces are intentionally left blank in the main text to avoid direct reference to names and places, an explanation deems necessary. Avowed by ex-members, and according to undeniable remarks in the letter itself, there is no doubt that the author is Keshmiri himself. Saeed Shahsavandi, a MKO ex-member well acquainted with Keshmiri and with whom he had lived in the groups safe-houses for some time in Turkey, in an interview asserted that the term plan stated in the letter is an equivalent to bombing the Prime Ministers office planned to be executed late in July but was postponed because of Bani-Sadr and Rajavis flight. Further explaining about the identity of the mentioned hero brother, he stated: Mehdi Eftekhari was at the head of the organizations military-security section. He was the person in charge of the members infiltrating different organs of the regime. Only those infiltrators of high ranking could see him since he was present in none of the public meetings of the organization and even used different entrances and exits closed on ordinary insiders. At the time he was the person in command of many forces including Massoud Keshmiri. Keshmiri was much trusted by the President, Muhammad-Ali Rajai, behind whom he even did his prayers. In a telephone interview briefed in a published piece of information, Massoud Rajavi said that the fatal bombing at the prime ministers office was carried out by the legitimate resistance movement. But his further explanation made it explicit who he meant by the resistance movement: I am not informed at this time exactly who planted the bomb, but it was the resistance movement and I do not deny that the Mujahedeen make up the majority of that movement In another instance, following Massoud Rajavis flight to Iraq and in the meetings held between the two sides to exchange information, Rajavi took any opportunity to exhibit his organization as a potential military group with terrorist, espionage talents. In a secret meeting with Gen. Tahir Jalil Habbush, head of Iraqi intelligence, Rajavi explicitly admitted the responsibility for the two bombing operations:

As you know, I was in Paris in years 1981-1986. In those years we were not so challenged and nobody called us terrorists. Although the White House and the Elysee Palace knew, as we had contacts with the Elysee Palace, who had conducted the operations against the Islamic Republic Party and Prime Ministers Office in Iran, and they knew well, still they did not call us terrorists.

And he was telling the truth because the groups Western supporters knew well who had conducted the bloody operations. However, none of them took any immediate position. As disclosed later in the US State Departments Report on the group in 1992, the responsibility of the two operations is unquestionably directed at MKO: The most spectacular attack occurred June 28, 1981, when two bombs tipped apart the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party (IRP, the party of the clerics), killing 74 members of the regimes top leadership, including the URPs leader, Ayatollah Beheshti,14 ministers, and 27 Majles deputies. On August 30, the Mojahedin reportedly bombed a meeting of the regimes National Security Council, killing the new president, Ali Rajai, and his new Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar. As the results of its profound studies on MKO, RAND Corporation published a report in 2009 entitled A Policy Conundrum in which it clearly mentions the two bombing incidents as well as providing a timeline of significant terrorist atrocities: The most ambitious attack attributed to the MeK was the bombing of the IRPs Tehran headquarters on June 28, 1981. This attack killed more than 71 members of the Iranian leadership, including cleric Ayatollah Beheshti, who was both secretarygeneral of the IRP and chief justice of the IRIs judicial system. While the MeK leadership was in exile, the underground network that remained in Iran continued to plan and conduct attacks aimed at destabilizing the Khomeini regime, such as the August 1981 bombing that killed the Iranian president and prime minister.

A Point to Underline

An overlooked point increasing the complexity of the terrorist bombing on August 30 is that majority of the authorities having a role in undertaking investigations into the case and seeking prosecution of the elements have become the victims of terrorism themselves. Just after the explosion, the presidential council comprising Hojjat-al-Islam Rafsanjani and the Chief Justice Abdolkarim Moussavi Ardebili appointed the Prosecutor General Ayatollah Rabbani Amlashi to investigate the case. A few days later, he announced the result; the terrorist perpetrator had been identified to be Massooud Keshmiri. An assassination attempt was conducted on Ayatollah Amlashi by MKO and although he escaped the death, he was later assassinated by another violent group. Ayatollah Ali Qodussi and Asaddullah Lajevardi were other involved authorities that were targeted by MKO. Ayatollah Ali Qodussi, the attorney general, was leading an investigation into the explosion at prime ministers office. Just 6 days after the explosion, on 5 September, an incendiary bomb blasted at his office that led to his death. Asaddullah Lajevardi, a former director of Tehrans Evin prison and public prosecutor, was assassinated at a time when he had been retired. But he was targeted by MKO because he was suggesting and engaged in a struggle to reopen the case of MKOs bombing atrocities.

A Brief Report of MKOs terrorist Operations in 1981 From the initiation of MKOs armed warfare in mid-1981 until the end of the same year, the death toll of its terrorist operations rose to 338 according to its own published reports. The operations can be classified under three categories: 1. Bomb attacks against official and public targets and assassinations of authorities, 2. Orchestrating violent and riotous demonstrations, 3. Targeting civilians. The followings are a record of MKOs major and significant terrorist and violent activities within a 6 month span.

1. Bomb attacks against official and public targets and assassinations of authorities June 1981: Bomb blast at Qom railway station left more than 50 casualties with 7 killed. June 1981: A bomb was blasted in an attempt to assassinate Ayatollah Khamenei, Tehrans leader of Friday Prayer at the time. June 28, 1981: Bomb explosion at IRP headquarters killed nearly 74 high-ranking officials including Ayatollah Beheshti, the leader. July 6, 1981: Assassination of chief prosecutor in Gilan Northern province. August 30, 1981: Bomb explosion at prime minister office, killed the new president, Ali Rajai, and his Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar. August 1981: Assassination of Hassan Ayat, a member of Assembly of Experts for Constitution and a Member of Parliament. September 1981: Bomb explosion at the central building of the Prosecutor General of the Revolution killed Ayatollah Ali Qodussi September 1981: Suicide attack targeted Ayatollah Seyyed Asadollah Madani, a senior cleric, in Tabriz. A suicide attack targeted seyyed Abdolkarim Hashemi Nejad, IRP leader, in Khorasan province. October 1981: A bomb blast on Nassir Khusrow Street in Tehran crashed down a hotel and many houses and shops and many civilians were killed. A bomb explosion on Khayyam Avenue in Tehran killed 20 residents and left many injured. November 1981: MKO detonated a bomb on Vali Asr Avenue in front of the Quds department store leading 4 people to their death. On November 24 two bombs exploded at Tehrans Railway Station killing three.

December 1981: A suicide attack targeted Ayatollah Abdul-Hussein Dastgheib, a senior cleric in Shiraz and a number of other civilians. 2. Orchestrating violent and riotous demonstrations June 20 1981: MKO demonstrators set cars on fire and attacked civilians in downtown Tehran. At least 30 were reported killed and 200 injured from the sides of the demonstrators. Similar demonstrations were reported from other Iranian cities. August and September 1981: - 30 Mhjahedin demonstrators set tires on fire in Gurgan St. in Tehran. - 25 Mhjahedin demonstrators set tires and a bus on fire and threw hand-grenades in Tehran-No St. in Tehran - Around 80 Mhjahedin demonstrators set tires on fire, threw Molotov and fired guns in Kamali St. in Tehran - Around 70 Mhjahedin demonstrators set two buses on fire and threw hand-grenades that left 10 casualties in Vali-Asr St. in Tehran - 60 Mhjahedin demonstrators disturbed the order and killed two civilians in Azarbayjan St. in Tehran - Around 60 Mhjahedin demonstrators threw Molotov at the banks and stores and exchanged fire guns in a clash with guards in Behnudi St. in Tehran - Around 40 Mhjahedin demonstrators set tires on fire and threw Molotov in Sina St. in Tehran - Around 40 Mhjahedin demonstrators fired guns at people and police forces in Behnudi St. in Tehran - Around 100 Mhjahedin demonstrators set two buses and some tires on fire and threw Molotov at a gas station in Vali-Asr St. in Tehran - 12 Mhjahedin demonstrators threw Molotov at a greengrocer in Behnudi St. in Tehran - 27 September: Many armed Mhjahedin demonstrators set a few buses on fire and machine-gunned civilians killing and injuring them in downtown Tehran. 3. Targeting civilians

The civilians who were targets of MKOs terrorist atrocities were of a variety of classes; teachers, merchants, drivers, workers and the like. Majority of them were targeted and attacked on charges of being a supporter of the Islamic Republic, having beard, and resisting against the perpetrators demands.