UP TO DATE NO.

42 APRIL 2012

PUBLICATION OF AAWA-ASSOCIATION

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/04/mek.html

Our Men in Iran?

From the air, the terrain of the Department of Energys Nevada National Security Site, with its arid high plains and remote mountain peaks, has the look of northwest Iran. The site, some sixty-five miles northwest of Las Vegas, was once used for nuclear testing, and now includes a counterintelligence training facility and a private airport capable of handling Boeing 737 aircraft. Its a restricted area, and inhospitablein certain sections, the curious are warned that the sites security personnel are authorized to use deadly force, if necessary, against intruders.
Posted by Seymour M. Hersh, April 6, 2012 It was here that the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) conducted training, beginning in 2005, for members of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, a dissident Iranian opposition group known in the West as the M.E.K. The M.E.K. had its beginnings as a Marxist-Islamist student-led group and, in the nineteen-seventies, it was linked to the assassination of six American citizens. It was initially part of the broad-based revolution that led to the 1979 overthrow of the Shah of Iran. But, within a few years, the group was waging a bloody internal war with the ruling clerics, and, in 1997, it was listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department. In 2002, the M.E.K. earned some international credibility by publicly revealingaccuratelythat Iran had begun enriching uranium at a secret underground location. Mohamed ElBaradei, who at the time was the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear monitoring agency, told me later that he had been informed that the information was supplied by the Mossad. The M.E.K.s ties with Western intelligence deepened after the fall of the Iraqi regime in 2003, and JSOC began operating inside Iran in an effort to substantiate the Bush Administrations fears that Iran was building the bomb at one or more secret underground locations. Funds were covertly passed to a number of dissident organizations, for intelligence collection and, ultimately, for anti-regime terrorist activities. Directly, or indirectly, the M.E.K. ended up with resources like arms and intelligence. Some Americansupported covert operations continue in Iran today, according to past and present intelligence officials and military consultants. Despite the growing ties, and a much-intensified lobbying effort organized by its advocates, M.E.K. has remained on the State Departments list of foreign terrorist organizationswhich meant that secrecy was essential in the Nevada training. We did train them here, and washed them through the Energy Department because the D.O.E. owns all this land in southern Nevada, a former senior American intelligence official told me. We were deploying them over long distances in the desert and mountains, and building their capacity in communicationscordinating commo is a big deal. (A spokesman for J.S.O.C. said that U.S. Special Operations Forces were neither aware of nor involved in the training of M.E.K. members.) The training ended sometime before President Obama took office, the former official said. In
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Is the US Lobbying for the Settlement of MKO?

American is lobbying for the transfer of MKOs elements to five Arab allies Mojahedin.ws, April 23, 2012 It is not exactly clear why certain MKO-run websites are making sorts of suppositions about an ongoing American lobbying for the transfer of MKOs terrorist elements to five friendly nations and allies of America in the Middle East, namely Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Azerbaijan, Qatar and Pakistan. Although not verified, these countries are claimed to have agreed to a series of security and intelligence agreements with America. The remarkable point to refer is that almost all these countries share borders with Iran. Azerbaijan and Pakistan have common land borders with Iran while Saudi Arabia and Qatar share maritime borders. Jordan is also a country that has a common border with Syria. Regardless of the accuracy of such suppositions, the bare truth is that, for certain reasons and a mutually reached security agreement, the US is doing its best to locate the members of MKO in third countries. The Western countries have already disagreed to accept a quota for these terrorist elements although the group is removed from the EU terrorist list. No other country members of the United Nation have so far have accepted to receive them on their soil. In his briefing to the UN Security Council on 10 April, Martin Kobler, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, said that: I reiterate my call to Members States to accept the residents of the Camp [Ashraf] in their countries. Now that UNHCR has begun its work, it is high time for the international community to accept eligible candidates and fund the relocation process. The support of the international community is urgently needed. I welcomed the joint UNHCR-UNAMI resettlement conference which took place in Geneva on 23 March. More than 30 Member States participated. However, no country, has committed to accept residents. A donors appeal meeting also took place the same day seeking to raise 39 million USD fund for the Ashraf project. Only one Member State made a concrete pledge and this falls far behind what we had hoped. Without international support, the process cannot succeed. Then the undisputed fact is that no country in the West risks to receive bunches of terrorists on their soil under any humanitarian or other causes. The only choice remained are some middle-Eastern countries over whom the US has a hegemonic influence as his allies. And of course, if any of them might ever welcome such an imposed offer, it would be because of the promises and guarantees that the US will have to fulfill. However, Rajavi is not unwilling to leave Iraq as well since he has no other choice but to submit to the decisiveness of the Iraqi government to expel the group. But for some reasons he prefers to be settled in one of the countries in the region rather than moving to a Western country. In general, in the West there exists no promising future for the political-organizational survival of the group. Rajavi knows well that his organization is regarded in the West as a group that still carries potential and active threats. He has the previous experience of a short span settlement in France; soon he came to understanding that he could not parry the blows of a capitalist and bourgeois society and found that the sole alternative was to move to Iraq to survive. The settlement in Ashraf was like the injection of a new life into the group. There in Iraq, Ashraf was turned into a cult bastion with all potentialities of a dangerous cult of personality run by the Rajavi couples. The formation of a Liberation Army added to the threatening might of the group through which a new wave of terrorist operations raged through Iran. In the eyes of a Western country the Ashraf residents are just the same members of the army that carry the very same threatening potentialities and for sure, none of them welcomes these ready to launch missiles as Rajavi refers to his forces. Resettlement in any of the
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http://www.iran-interlink.org/index.php?mod=view&id=12223

Human Rights Minster confirms the removal of 100 MEK from Iraq
Wafaa Amer, Al Sabah Newspaper, Baghdad, April 26 2012 (Translated by Iran Interlink) Link to the original news (Arabic) http://www.alsabaah.com/ArticleShow.aspx?ID=25973

Iraq's Human Rights Minister, Mohamed Shaya Sudani, said on Wednesday that one hundred members of the Mojahedine Khalq had been removed from Iraq at their own request. On the sidelines of a joint press conference with Martin Kobler, Sudani told Al Sabah, "The winding up of the agreement between the ministry and the United Nations includes the removal of members of the MEK from the country. They are being moved gradually from Diyala to Baghdad, in order to keep this agreement on track... Sudani pointed out that "the transfer process was being interspersed with interviews of individual members by the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in order to ascertain their choice to voluntary return to their country of origin or to apply for asylum for any country in the world; this resulted in the transfer of some 100 of them to other countries". Sudani warned that "the transfer of MEK members from one place to another part of the country is not a final solution to the problem and is not compatible with human rights standards. Because they are not accepted by the international community their stay in Iraq is being prolonged, which is incompatible with the laws in force and the new policy in the country and the government's decision to expel them from Iraq." He explained that "no organization or party has accurate statistics on the number present in the camp, either before the transfer or now. This is the responsibility of the international community, as members of the organization prevented entry of any party, whether government or non-governmental, to the camp to undertake an accurate count of the numbers either when they were under the American administration or the government of Iraq..."

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mentioned five countries much pleases Rajavi because proximity to Iranian borders is a precious advantage; still the group remains a military and espionage threat. Besides, it lingers as a ready-to-use tool in the case of any American or Israeli military option against Iran. It should be reminded that despite claims of denouncing terrorism, MKO through the past decade has been trying to win Americans favor by displaying its military and espionage potentiality. But regardless of this willingness, it is the other side of the coin that is of any importance, the Americans themselves. It means that the US under no condition accepts to take the organization to the West since it is aware of the possible consequences of such a transfer. Still it needs MKO and prefers to shelter and watch over it in lands far away but enough close at hand for the day to come. Both America and MKO have come to realize that the group is actually useless and passive on Iraqi soil. The new Iraq is no more a tool in the hands of America, like Saddam, to be used against Iran. However, the US seems to be still under the illusion that MKO can be a bargaining chip in dealing with Iran and that is because it may have failed to have a proper analysis of a bankrupt group whose main struggle is to survive. The disadvantages of accepting MKO overweighs the advantages and hardly any country accepts the risk of housing it. Will any of the five mentioned countries let a terrorist group on its soil when another neighbor has menaced it with immediate expulsion? It is a question of logic and politics.

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http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/18/ex-federal-officials-investigated-after-advocating-for-terrorist-group/

Ex-federal officials investigated after advocating for terrorist group

Dailly Caller, April 18 2012 Matt Potter, Suniego reader, July 27, 2011 Companies representing former FBI Director Louis Freeh and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Hugh Shelton have received federal subpoenas as part of a Treasury Department investigation into the source of payments to ex-federal officials who openly advocated for removing an Iranian dissident group from the State Departments terror list, sources told NBC News. The Treasury Department also sent a subpoena to a speaking company for former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, an MSNBC contributor, who made $160,000 throughout 2011 for appearing at conferences and rallies in places like Paris, Brussels and Geneva. Federal investigators are looking to see if these officials took payments from the Peoples Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), a designated terrorist group, and thereby violating federal law barring financial dealings with terrorist groups, NBCs Michael Isikoff reported. Speakers often charged $30,000 or more per talk and took first-class flights. According to NBCs anonymous sources, the speaking fees totalled hundreds of thousands of dollars. The former officials under investigation, however, say that they were told the payments came from wealthy American and foreign supporters of the MEK, not
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the group itself. They also say they resent any suggestion they are assisting a terrorist group.

Gov. Ed Rendell,

Shelton argued that the MEK is a legitimate resistance group, working to overthrow the Iranian government, which he called Americas number one enemy. John Sullivan, a spokesman for the Treasury Department, said in an email to Isikoff: The MEK is a designated terrorist group, therefore U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with or providing services to this group. The Treasury Department takes sanctions enforcement seriously and routinely investigates potential violations of sanctions law. But why did the Treasury Department decide to investigate now? NBC News believes that one possible clue was an email sent by a small Pennsylvania-based firm called Speakers Access, inviting a Washington-based national security expert to speak at a conference in Geneva on behalf of our client, National Council of Resistance of Iran, Foreign Affairs Committee which is considered by the Treasury Department to be an alias of the MEK.

new wave of terrorist operations raged through Iran. In the eyes of a Western country the Ashraf residents are just the same members of the army that carry the very same threatening potentialities and for sure, none of them welcomes these ready to launch missiles as Rajavi refers to his forces. Resettlement in any of the mentioned five countries much pleases Rajavi because proximity to Iranian borders is a precious advantage; still the group remains a military and espionage threat. Besides, it lingers as a ready-to-use tool in the case of any American or Israeli military option against Iran. It should be reminded that despite claims of denouncing terrorism, MKO through the past decade has been trying to win Americans favor by displaying its military and espionage potentiality. But regardless of this willingness, it is the other side of the coin that is of any importance, the Americans themselves. It means that the US under no condition accepts to take the organization to the West since it is aware of the possible consequences of such a transfer. Still it needs MKO and prefers to shelter and watch over it in lands far away but enough close at hand for the day to come. Both America and MKO have come to realize that the group is actually useless and passive on Iraqi soil. The new Iraq is no more a tool in the hands of America, like Saddam, to be used against Iran. However, the US seems to be still under the illusion that MKO can be a bargaining chip in dealing with Iran and that is because it may have failed to have a proper analysis of a bankrupt group whose main struggle is to survive. The disadvantages of accepting MKO overweighs the advantages and hardly any country accepts the risk of housing it. Will any of the five mentioned countries let a terrorist group on its soil when another neighbor has menaced it with immediate expulsion? It is a question of logic and politics.

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a separate interview, a retired four-star general, who has advised the Bush and Obama Administrations on nationalsecurity issues, said that he had been privately briefed in 2005 about the training of Iranians associated with the M.E.K. in Nevada by an American involved in the program. They got the standard training, he said, in commo, crypto [cryptography], small-unit tactics, and weaponrythat went on for six months, the retired general said. They were kept in little pods. He also was told, he said, that the men doing the training were from JSOC, which, by 2005, had become a major instrument in the Bush Administrations global war on terror. The JSOC trainers were not front-line guys who had been in the field, but second- and third-tier guystrainers and the likeand they started going off the reservation. If were going to teach you tactics, let me show you some really sexy stuff

to continue to maintain the M.E.K. on the terrorist list. How can the U.S. train those on States foreign terrorist list, when others face criminal penalties for providing a nickel to the same organization? Robert Baer, a retired C.I.A. agent who is fluent in Arabic and had worked under cover in Kurdistan and throughout the Middle East in his career, initially had told me in early 2004 of being recruited by a private American companyworking, so he believed, on behalf of the Bush Administrationto return to Iraq. They wanted me to help the M.E.K. collect intelligence on Irans nuclear program, Baer recalled. They thought I knew Farsi, which I did not. I said Id get back to them, but never did. Baer, now living in California, recalled that it was made clear to him at the time that the operation was a long-term thingnot just a one-shot deal. Massoud Khodabandeh, an I.T. expert now living in England who consults for the Iraqi government, was an official with the M.E.K. before defecting in 1996. In a telephone interview, he acknowledged that he is an avowed enemy of the M.E.K., and has advocated against the group. Khodabandeh said that he had been with the group since before the fall of the Shah and, as a computer expert, was deeply involved in intelligence activities as well as providing security for the M.E.K. leadership. For the past decade, he and his English wife have run a support program for other defectors. Khodabandeh told me that he had heard from more recent defectors about the training in Nevada. He was told that the communications training in Nevada involved more than teaching how to keep in contact during attacksit also involved communication intercepts. The United States, he said, at one point found a way to penetrate some major Iranian communications systems. At the time, he said, the U.S. provided M.E.K. operatives with the ability to intercept telephone calls and text messages inside Iranwhich M.E.K. operatives translated and shared with American signals intelligence experts. He does not know whether this activity is ongoing. Five Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated since 2007. M.E.K. spokesmen have denied any involvement in the killings, but early last month NBC News quoted two senior Obama Administration officials as confirming that the attacks were carried out by M.E.K. units that were financed and trained by Mossad, the Israeli secret service. NBC further quoted the Administration officials as

It was the ad-hoc training that provoked the worried telephone calls to him, the former general said. I told one of the guys who called me that they were all in over their heads, and all of them could end up trouble unless they got something in writing. The Iranians are very, very good at counterintelligence, and stuff like this is just too hard to contain. The site in Nevada was being utilized at the same time, he said, for advanced training of lite Iraqi combat units. (The retired general said he only knew of the one M.E.K.-affiliated group that went though the training course; the former senior intelligence official said that he was aware of training that went on through 2007.) Allan Gerson, a Washington attorney for the M.E.K., notes that the M.E.K. has publicly and repeatedly renounced terror. Gerson said he would not comment on the alleged training in Nevada. But such training, if true, he said, would be especially incongruent with the State Departments decision

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http://iran-yaran.fr/middle/1010-kohzadi.HTM

Open letter to the President of USA , Mr. Barack Obama

Homayoon Kahzadi, Yaran Association, Paris, April 24 2012 Honorable President of USA , Mr. Barack Obama Greetings I , Homayoon Kahzadi , am the separated member of pmoi , Rajavis cult who had spent 15 years of my life in this cult (mko,pmoi,Rajavis cult). Today I am very happy and joyful that I can write such a letter to you in the free world in support of my friends who are still in Rajavis cultic captivity . Mr. President An Iranian proverb says, when a member of a body is hurt by time ,the other members will react. Since I have experienced a very harsh and terrifying ordeal in Ashraf garrison and since I have tolerated many severe tortures and prisons in Rajavis cult and since I have seen and observed many cruelty and bloodshed by Rajavis cult so I as a reliable witness would like to draw your attention to the following subjects: Any delay in the trial of pmoi leadership is inappropriate and unacceptable because the presence of this cult in European countries is much more dangerous than explosion of an atomic bomb and I urge you not to allow them to expand their terrorist activities in your country as well as European countries . Being silent in front of such terrorist and cutthroat cult which is not committed to any international regulations and rules of law, is considered as humane behavior? Closing eyes upon their terrorist past and the breach of human rights by them (by invoking to the human rights watch report) is not like training and breeding a deadly and poisonous snake by our hands? Have you thought seriously about the consequences of mujahedin terrorist cult and their activities? The leadership of mujahedins cult has perpetrated awful deeds ranging from terrorism and assassination to money laundering and schismatizing among parties and interfering in other countries affaires , for instance; Fake and false propaganda and flashy vote of a court of law in Spain against the Iraq prime minister which does not have any lawful prestige among other countries for instance: The Ashraf scuffles which has been carried out by the direct order of Rajavi , they pretend that those scuffles are US fault. I draw your attention to the following topics which the pmoi leadership have issued them in their Media: Maryam Rajavis speech ( after the representatives speech in the US congress hearing session) From now on the responsibility of any blood which is shed in Ashraf , is on USA and the Iranian resistance is no longer ready to negotiate about the relocation of Ashraf residents inside Iraq. The Rajavis cult site , the article written by Manochehr Hezarkhani by the title An intermediate for US plan: I do not know when the European representatives see this badger ambassador, how they feel The Rajavis cult site has published an article by the title Ashraf camp the criteria of sincerity in US idiotic policy which is written by Sanabargh Zahedi one of the cult members . Mr. President This cult which has not left Iraq yet , has begun straggling with principals and policies of other countries , wait and see while they reach to European and American countries ,what they will do ! The ringleaders of this cult have issued the death decree and harassment of all separated members and their dissidents and opponents throughout the world and they threaten the family of those captives who want to see their loved ones and they insult the Iraqi government by calling them names such as mercenary and traitor. Yes there is no trust on wolves , so I urge you to confine this terrorist cult by all means and stop all their activities which ends up to violence and bloodshed and surrender the cult ringleaders to the justice . Respectfully Homayoon Kahzadi 23-4-2012/ paris

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Hoshyar Zebari calls for European countries to resettle residents of Camp Ashraf
Al Sumerian News, Baghdad, April 27 2012 Translated by Iran Interlink Link to the original report (Arabic) http://www.alsumarianews.com/ar/1/40514/newsdetails-Iraq%20politics%20news.html five Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed since 2007 denying any American involvement in the M.E.K. activities. The former senior intelligence official I spoke with seconded the NBC report that the Israelis were working with the M.E.K., adding that the operations benefitted from American intelligence. He said that the targets were not Einsteins; The goal is to affect Iranian psychology and morale, he said, and to demoralize the whole systemnuclear delivery vehicles, nuclear enrichment facilities, power plants. Attacks have also been carried out on pipelines. He added that the operations are primarily being done by M.E.K. through liaison with the Israelis, but the United States is now providing the intelligence. An adviser to the special-operations community told me that the links between the United States and M.E.K. activities inside Iran had been long-standing. Everything being done inside Iran now is being done with surrogates, he said. The sources I spoke to were unable to say whether the people trained in Nevada were now involved in operations in Iran or elsewhere. But they pointed to the general benefit of American support. The M.E.K. was a total joke, the senior Pentagon consultant said, and now its a real network inside Iran. How did the M.E.K. get so much more efficient? he asked rhetorically. Part of it is the training in Nevada. Part of it is logistical support in Kurdistan, and part of it is inside Iran. M.E.K. now has a capacity for efficient operations that it never had before. In mid-January, a few days after an assassination by car bomb of an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, at a town-hall meeting of soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas, acknowledged that the U.S. government has some ideas as to who might be involved, but we dont know exactly who was involved. He added, But I can tell you one thing: the United States was not involved in that kind of effort. Thats not what the United States does. Illustration by Guy Billout.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, on Thursday, asked European countries to resettle residents of Camp Ashraf in their countries, saying that without this the process of transfer to Camp Liberty is threatened with failure. A Foreign Ministry statement received by Alsumaria News, reported that "Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari discussed today with the President of the United Nations Mission in Iraq Martin Kobler the issue of Camp Ashraf and ways that Iraq would meet its humanitarian and international obligations," indicating that "Iraq has demanded that European states accept to resettle them, and without this the ongoing process between Iraq and UNAMI to move them [MEK] to Camp Liberty is threatened with failure." ...On February 17th the Iraqi government, in coordination with the United Nations, moved 400 residents of Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty in western Baghdad in the first transfer of MEK members outside Diyala province since April 2003. The United Nations mission (UNAMI) said in a statement issued at the end of January that the infrastructure and facilities in camp Liberty comply with international humanitarian standards set forth in a memorandum of understanding signed between the Iraqi government and the United Nations...

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Is the US Lobbying for the Settlement of MKO?

American is lobbying for the transfer of MKOs elements to five Arab allies Mojahedin.ws, April 23, 2012 It is not exactly clear why certain MKO-run websites are making sorts of suppositions about an ongoing American lobbying for the transfer of MKOs terrorist elements to five friendly nations and allies of America in the Middle East, namely Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Azerbaijan, Qatar and Pakistan. Although not verified, these countries are claimed to have agreed to a series of security and intelligence agreements with America. The remarkable point to refer is that almost all these countries share borders with Iran. Azerbaijan and Pakistan have common land borders with Iran while Saudi Arabia and Qatar share maritime borders. Jordan is also a country that has a common border with Syria. Regardless of the accuracy of such suppositions, the bare truth is that, for certain reasons and a mutually reached security agreement, the US is doing its best to locate the members of MKO in third countries. The Western countries have already disagreed to accept a quota for these terrorist elements although the group is removed from the EU terrorist list. No other country members of the United Nation have so far have accepted to receive them on their soil. In his briefing to the UN Security Council on 10 April, Martin Kobler, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, said that: I reiterate my call to Members States to accept the residents of the Camp [Ashraf] in their countries. Now that UNHCR has begun its work, it is high time for the international community to accept eligible candidates and fund the relocation process. The support of the international community is urgently needed. I welcomed the joint UNHCR-UNAMI resettlement conference which took place in Geneva on 23 March. More than 30 Member States participated. However, no country, has committed to accept residents. A donors appeal meeting also took place the same day seeking to raise 39 million USD fund for the Ashraf project. Only one Member State made a concrete pledge and this falls far behind what we had hoped. Without international support, the process cannot succeed. Then the undisputed fact is that no country in the West risks to receive bunches of terrorists on their soil under any humanitarian or other causes. The only choice remained are some middle-Eastern countries over whom the US has a hegemonic influence as his allies. And of course, if any of them might ever welcome such an imposed offer, it would be because of the promises and guarantees that the US will have to fulfill. However, Rajavi is not unwilling to leave Iraq as well since he has no other choice but to submit to the decisiveness of the Iraqi government to expel the group. But for some reasons he prefers to be settled in

one of the countries in the region rather than moving to a Western country. In general, in the West there exists no promising future for the political-organizational survival of the group. Rajavi knows well that his organization is regarded in the West as a group that still carries potential and active threats. He has the previous experience of a short span settlement in France; soon he came to understanding that he could not parry the blows of a capitalist and bourgeois society and found that the sole alternative was to move to Iraq to survive. The settlement in Ashraf was like the injection of a new life into the group. There in Iraq, Ashraf was turned into a cult bastion with all potentialities of a dangerous cult of personality run by the Rajavi couples. The formation of a Liberation Army added to the threatening might of the group through which a
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