MKO was founded
in September 1965, by three graduates of
Tehran University involved in religious-nationalist
political activism, namely: Mohammad Hanifnezhad,
Saied Mohsen and Asghar Badizadegan.
The central ideology of
MKO was based on revolutionary armed struggle
as being the only viable opposition against
the the U.S. backed and supported government
of the Shah in Iran. Their ideology relied
heavily on an interpretation of Islam as
a revolutionary message compatible with
modern revolutionary ideologies of Marxism.
The Mojahedin-e
Khalq (also known as
MEK inside Iran) means People's Advocates,
yet more than 90% of their intended targets
and almost 95% of their casualties have
been Iranian civilians.
After completing its primarily
efforts on developing a revolutionary ideology
and training its members in urban guerilla
warfare, thirteen MKO members traveled to
Jordan and Lebanon in 1970, and received
4 months of military training inside Palestinian
Liberation Organization camps.
Prior to carrying out any
armed activities, the MKO planned to develop
its ideology further and built an infrastructure
and train new recruits. However, this strategy
was thwarted by the emergence of a competing
Marxist guerilla group, the Fadaian Khalq
Organization.
On February 8, 1971, members
of the Fadaian launched their first operation
by attacking a police station in the village
of Siahkal in the northern province of Gilan.
This incident marked the emergence of armed
struggle against the Shah’s government.
The MKO’s leadership,
surprised by the Siahkal incident, decided
to expedite their plans for armed operations
by organizing a spectacular bombing attack
against the electric power grids in Tehran.
At this time, the government was in the
midst of promoting a large-scale celebration
marking 2500 years of Persian monarchy in
Iran.
During their efforts to
acquire explosives, the MKO were infiltrated
by the SAVAK security forces who tracked
their activities and arrested thirty-five
members of the MKO on August 23, 1971, just
days before the scheduled onset of their
first operation.
MKO's remaining members
who escaped detection by the security forces
continued to recruit new members as well
as carrying out a number of armed operations
against Iranian government and, in particular,
targeted American personnel and tourists
in Iran since they regarded the U.S. support
for the Shah as his Achilles Heal.
There were about 40,000
American citizens and military personnel
living and working in Iran. MKO assumed
that if they could stop U.S. support for
the Shah, his control over the country would
collapse. During these attacks against Americans
many more Iranian civilians also died (a
ratio of 25 to 1).
There
is no doubt that the MKO is a terrorist
organization and has long been on U.S. government's
terrorist list. European countries have
detailed records of countless numbers of
terrorist activities, planning, and funding
initiated in Europe (although not targeting
European citizens) against Iranian government
officials and citizens including a bombing
that maimed current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
However, MKO states
that they target civilians because that
is the only way to overthrow governments
in Iran by putting pressure on the people.
When Nixon was supposed
to visit Iran in 1972, MKO launched time
bombs in more than ten Iran-U.S. centers
in Tehran where Americans and Iranians would
be gathered to welcome Nixon during his
visit. These centers included: Association
of Iran-US, Office of US Information, Iran-U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, Offices of Pepsi Cola
and General Motors in Tehran.
From 1972 to 1975, Mujahedin
Khalq Organization continued bombings and
damaged some targets like the offices of
Pan-American Airlines, Shell, Du Pont, and
EDS.
In 1975, U.S. State Department
concluded that 4 American citizens were
murdered by MKO to pressure the U.S. to
stop its support for the Shah of Iran and
leave the country. During the same year,
there were more than 40 attacks against
American tourists in Iran. There were many
American casualties in Iran directly contributed
to MKO and they promptly claimed credit
for all at the time.
Lt. Col. Lewis L. Hawkins,
Col. Pal Shiffer, Lt. Col. Jack Turner,
Donald J. Smith, Robert R. Grengrad and
William C. Catrel from Rockwell International
were victims of MKO attacks against U.S.
interests in Iran.
It was shocking for the
U.S. to lose six of its senior officers
in a country which had closest ties with
the U.S. in the Middle East. MKO's deliberately
targeted and planned sabotaging operations
against US personnel and interests in Iran.
The Shah of Iran and his
Israeli trained security forces (SAVAK)
conduced a sweeping operation and many of
MKO leaders and planners were arrested and
imprisoned. The list included: Masoud Rajavi
(the current leader of MKO), Hadi Roshanravani
(top Intelligence official) , Mohammad-Ali
Jaberzadeh Ansari (high ranking theorist),
and the frequent FOX News guest, Alireza
Jafarzadeh, the group's spokesperson. The
other key figures arrested included of:
Reza Qaremi, Saied Mohsen, Mohammad Hanif-nezhad,
Abdelreza Nikkbin called Abdi, Ali Asghar
Badi Zadegan, Mahmoud Asgarizadeh, Rasoul
Meshkinfam and Ahmad Rezaim and Lotfollah
Meisami. All had taken part in assassinations,
bombings, and planning operations against
U.S. personnel.
One of the consequences
of the Islamic Revolution was the freedom
of all political prisoners, including Masoud
Rajavi, and all the other senior operatives
and senior members. Although the revolution
was Islamic in nature, Marxist members of
Leftist groups and also Marxist-Islamist
members of MKO were also among the freed
and subsequently merged.
Once regrouped
the MKO was stronger than ever before. In
November 1979, MKO officials asked for interrogating
embassy staff. Thankfully, it was refused
by "Revolution council".
After the overthrow of the
Shah in 1979, MKO claimed that all the violence
and 'muscle' against the Shah was
directly attributed to the MKO and hence
it deserves (it claimed) that it should
be given political and economic control
of Iran. When the new government of the
Islamic Republic refused, MKO launched terrorist
operations against Iran and joined Saddam
Hussein during the Iraq-Iran war (1980-88).
The group is also known to have carried
out order by the former dictator Saddam
Hussein in suppressing the 1991 uprisings
in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi
Kurds.
Masoud
Rajavi meeting Saddam Hussein
After leaving his wife Ashraf
Rabii, who was later killed in an armed
clash by the Iranian security forces in
the company of Moussa Khiabani the head
of the MKO inside Iran, Masoud Rajavi remarried
his current wife, Maryam Uzdanlu, now known
as Maryam Rajavi who is now the co-leader
of the MKO.
Her first decision was to
change the name from MKO to National Council
for Resistance (or NCR) which was Maryam
Rajavi’s most important contribution
to the MKO in decades. This allowed the
MKO to stay on the political scene in Europe
and America and not be treated as a terrorist
organization. Its main use was to deceive
the Americans and Europeans against thinking
that this is the same Mujahedin responsible
for assassinating American citizens in Iran.
Once the NCR started campaigning
for money and influence in Washington for
assistance against the Iranian Islamic government,
the U.S. politicians and the Israeli lobbyist
ignored their origins and their past activities
against American civilians. The new face
and spokesperson of the NCR became Alireza
Jafarzadeh, the frequent
FOX News "Iran Analyst".
Mr. Jafarzadeh was comfortable in Washington's
power corridors, much like Ahmed Chalabi,
the exiled Iraqi who provided much of the
now-discredited information on Iraq's weapons
program.
Alireza Jafarzadeh,
Spokesperson for MKO/MEK (now called NCR)
on Fox News
Fox News now introduces
Jafarzadeh as either their employee, or
Iran Analyst, or as the head of a consultancy
company. But as recently as 2002 the same
man was interviewed by Fox News as the MKO's
representative in the US Congress. And,
it doesn't help the U.S. image overseas
or the cause to unite against terrorism
when Gen. McInerney publicly called for
the U.S. government to support MMKO terrorist
organization to carry out deadly bombings
in Iran.
“This group loves
the United States. They’re assisting
us in the war on terrorism; they’re
pro-U.S.,” said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
(R-Fla.) in an interview. But not everybody
agrees.
Middle East scholars widely
dispute the assessment that the MKO is a
legitimate democratic alternative to the
Iranian regime. “That’s patently
nonsense,” said the Neo
Conservative Michael Ledeen of the American
Enterprise Institute, who is often against
Iran and supports military actions against
the Islamic government.
“I know about support
on Capitol Hill for this group, and I think
it’s atrocious,” said Dan Brumberg
of the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace. I think it’s due to total ignorance
and political manipulation. There’s
not much debate [about the MKO] in the academic
circles of those who know and understand
Iran and Iraq.”
Elahe Hicks of Human Rights
Watch said that “many, many Iranians
resent” the MKO/MEK. “Because
this group is so extremely resented inside
Iran, the Iranian government actually benefits
from having an opposition group like this,”
she said. The families of those civilians
that lost their lives as a result of MKO
bombing are staunch opponents of the MKO
in Iran.
James Phillips of the Heritage
Foundation agreed. “When they sided
with Iraq against Iran in the [1980-88]
war, that was the kiss of death for their
political future. Even Iranians who might
have sympathized with them were enraged
that they became the junior partner of their
longstanding rival,” he said.
“Some of their representatives
are very articulate,” Phillips continued,
“but they are a terrorist group. They
had a longstanding alliance with Saddam
Hussein, and they went after some of the
Kurds at the behest of Saddam Hussein and
performed with precision brutality and catastrophic
results. Many Kurdish people died and many
others maimed for life. They regularly performed
torture on behalf of Saddam. ”
Now MKO's once 30,000 strong
members are living with their families throughout
Europe and some here in United States, almost
all on refugee status collecting benefits
paid by taxpayers to live outside Iran and
avoid being prosecuted for bombing civilians
to achieve political goals.
While the MKO and Fox News
and their friends
are weaving a web of deceit, Richard
Perle is giving aid and comfort to MKO
terrorist, the same terrorists who wanted
to interrogate our people being held as
hostage. MKO has blood on their hands from
their wanton acts of violence. Now the “Conservative”
TV network (FOX) takes a MKO spokesman and
pays him to consult with us on Iran. It
is indeed tragic.
I don’t know if I’m
disgusted or saddened or heart-broken by
our government's indifference to the presence
of this terrorist organization in our country
despite being on U.S. State Department terrorist
list.
As an American who served
in Gulf War I, whose father served in Vietnam,
and grandfather had served in the Second
World War, I am bewildered that these individuals
are allowed to stay near our families and
live in our cities and towns. |
(last 30 days) 
