nejat newsletter - issue 3

8/14/2019 Nejat Newsletter - ISSUE 3

1/8

October 12,2006

BBC reports thatBritish ForeignSecretary Mar-garet Beckett, inher first exclu-sive meetingwith the for-eign press inthe UK, re-

sponded to aquestion onthe MKO and,about why thegroup was stillactive in Iraqsaid: "Britainconsiders MKO aterrorist organi-zation and op-

p o s e s t h i s

group. However,banning the ac-tivities of thisgroup in Iraq isup to the Iraqigovernment andthe US as thecommander ofcoalition forcesin Iraq."

BBC also re-ported that Brit-ish Foreign Sec-retary MargaretBeckett said onWednesday in

London that the

Beckett: MKO is a Terrorist Group

NEJAT SOCIETY

Nejat Society is aiming torescue the members of the

MKO who are still captive

in Ashraf Camp in Iraq.

Nejat Society is in con-stant contact with the

families of members of

MKO, trying to connectthem to their beloved

ones.

Nejat Society is trying to

build a good international

support for its cause tosave the MKO members

from cultic relationships.

Nejat Society is organis-

ing meetings and confer-ences for the members

and the families in order

to bring them together

and ease their grieves.

Nejat Society is willing to

use all means possible toreach its goals and there-

fore seeks and needs your

support

2006-10-01

Mojahedin took me

to Iraq and taught

me to kill.

In l992 they asked

me if I'd like to go to

Iraq for some mili-

tary training. I knewas a member of an

"armed struggle"

this might be re-

quired, so I didn't

resist, although I

knew I could

never kill any-

one. I learnedhow to drive a

truck, march andshoot a gun, but I

clearly wasn't sol-

dier material. I loved

the camp and the

irresponsibility - I

obeyed orders and it

felt liberating. I

had this childlike

feeling that if Iput myself in

their hand, Id beOK, . . .

(Full article on

pages 4 and 5)

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3

OCTOBER 15, 2006

MKO is a TerroristGroup

1

Anne Singleton talksto the Independent

1

MKO Human RightsVictims

2

Interview in Paris 3

Press Conference inParis

3

Interview with theIndependent

4&5

Kids sent to MKOCamps in Iraq

8

US Citizen helped

the Terrorist MKO7

British House of

Lords Debate6

MKO supporter

helps Al-Qaeda

6

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Nejat Newsletter

BRIEFING PERIODICAL OF NEJAT SOCIETY

UK governmentstill believes theMKO is a terror-ist organization.

"This group isbanned andthere have beenno changes inits status," she

said.

She addedthat there wasno relationship

between Lon-don and thisterrorist or-ganization, de-

claring that thefinal fate of theMKO elementsin Iraq shouldbe determinedby the Iraqi

government.

Anne Singleton talks tothe Independent


2/8

NEJAT NEWSLETTER PAG E 2

PARIS, Sept. 19 /U.S.

Newswire/ -- Followingis a statement of IranInterlink on captives inIraq:

For three years U.S. forceshave protected a terroristgroup in Iraq even thoughmost of them want to re-turn home totheir families.

M o j a h e d i nKhalq combat-ants are beingheld againsttheir will inCamp Ashrafsay former members whohave returned home in thepast two years.

Now, a sevenmember dele-

gation from theIranian NGO,Nejat Associa-tion, has ar-rived in Paris toalert publicopinion to thesituation of 3,000 men andwomen held against theirwill in an Iraqi base of theIranian Moja-hedin Khalq

under the lead-e r s h i p o f Maryam Rajavi.

U.S. forces saythey cannotintervene in-side the camp,leaving residents unable toaccess humanitarian helpfrom the ICRC and theUNHCR.

Several cases of retentionby force have been con-firmed by personal testi-

mony from former captivesin the MKO camp who saythat basic human rights arebeing violated daily. Signifi-

cant amongthese cases areIranian prison-

ers of war(POWs) cap-tured by theIraqi forcesduring theeight yearIran-Iraq war

and who were then deliv-ered by Saddam Hussein to

the Mojahedinto boost num-bers.

Nejat Associa-tion comprisesformer mem-bers and fami-lies of theCamp Ashrafcaptives. They

demand the immediate andfull implementation of UNProtected Persons status so

that they can

have free andunfettered con-tact with theirrelatives insidethe camp.

Arash Sameti-pour, a former

combatant of the MKO whospent several years in Evinprison says: "We know thatthe majority of people

Captives of Maryam Rajavi's Mojahedin Khalq in I raqAre Human Rights Victims

trapped inside Camp

Ashraf would like toleave. We hear this fromthose who have recentlyescaped the group. Whatwe are asking is for the

international community toimplement all the condi-tions of the Fourth GenevaConvention so that the resi-dents of Camp Ashraf canget help from their fami-lies."

Nejat Association says thisis a grave humanitarian cri-sis and that Camp Ashraf

residents should not beused as pawns in politicalwrangles between westerngovernments and Iran.

The Iraqi government hasannounced that Camp Ash-raf must be dismantled andthe residents removed fromIraqi territory. Responsibil-ity for the safety and well-being of these individuals

now rests with westerngovernments and interna-tional humanitarian agen-cies.

Captive in Ashraf Camp


3/8


Interview by Massoud

Khodabandeh.

Paris, September 27, 2006

Participating:

Mr. Babak Amin, head ofthe Nejat delegation inParis. Amin was recruitedby the MKO while a studentin Austria and trained in itsterrorist camps in Iraq. He

carried out over 10 terroristoperations in Iran beforebeing arrested by the Ira-nian securityforces. He wassentenced to tenyears imprison-ment in Evinprison. He served 5years and was re-leased after serv-ing half his sen-

tence. Amin is nowcontinuing his ITdegree in the University ofTehran and working parttime in an IT consultancy

company.

Mr. Arash Sametipour,recruited as a teenager bythe MKO inWashington DCthrough theiragent in the USA,Alireza Jafar-zadeh. Sameti-pour was trainedin the MKO's ter-rorist camps inIraq before beingsent to perform an armedoperation in Tehran. He

tried to kill himselfat the time of hisarrest by takinghis cyanide pilland exploding agrenade. He sur-vived but lost hisright hand. Heserved 4.5 yearsof his sentence in

Evin prison and isnow continuing his

study as well as working asa language teacher.Sametipour was recently

etys activities towards help-

ing the families of the vic-

tims of Rajavis Terrorist

Cult. He also explained theweek long ac-

tivities of the

delegation in

Paris including

official meet-

i n g s w i t hFrench govern-

mental and non-

governmental authorities as

well as visiting human rights

bodies and the media.Gentlemen Arash Sameti-

pour, Ali Moradi, Ali Asghar

Nejat Press Release Sept. 23

Nejat Society hold a Press

Conference in Paris on Fri-

day Sept. 22 at 10am.The seven member delega-

tion sent to Paris by the Soci-

ety described the situation of

those captured in MKO

camp in Iraq.

The Press Conference was

opened by Mr AlainChevalerias the Director of

French Anti-terrorism Re-

search Institute. Then MrBabak Amin, head of the

delegation, gave a brief

background about the Soci-

Nejat Association Interview in Paris

Press Conference in Paris on Friday Sept. 22

Torabi, and ladies Zahra Bo-

zorganfar, Massoumeh Rezai

and Nasrin Dadkhah por-

trayed to the audience theobstacles on the

way of rescuing

the captives held

in Ashraf Camp.

The representa-

tives of Nejat So-

ciety in this con-

ference emphasized that their

international official trip was

regarded successful and the

Society intends to occasion-ally send more delegations to

Western countries.

married.

Mr. Ali Moradi, a sergeantin the Iranian military, he

was captured byIraqi forces at thestart of the Iran-Iraq war. Givento the MKO bySaddam afterserving 9 yearsas a POW, Moradinever acceptedthe MKO and

eventually took refuge fromthe MKO with the Americanarmy after the invasion ofIraq. He was recently mar-ried and is self-employedas a trader and cab driver.Moradi is also the head ofNejat Association in Lore-stan province.

The interview was carriedout in Bastille, Paris as thedelegation emerged fromone meeting on their wayto catch the next one at thestart of their intensive twoweek schedule.

Babak Amin (right) and

Arash Sametipour (left)

Ali Moradi


4/8


Excerpt from The British

daily The Independent:

Published: 01 October 2006

Anne Singleton, 48,

was recruited into

the mujahedin at

university, and was

active for seven

years. She left theorganisation in 1996

and now campaigns

to warn others

Interview by Lynne Wallis

Manchester University in the

early 1980s was very politi-

cal. My then boyfriend Ali,an Iranian, was interested inthe mujahedin, and I became

interested in them and Islam.

I have never been religious,

but the structured life Islam

offered made sense to me.

The mujahedin seemed to be

the only group who were do-

ing anything, fighting theregime of the Ayatollah

Khomeini in Iran after the

revolution. I went to so manymeetings that I neglected my

studies and flunked my ex-

ams (I completed my degree

at Sheffield poly). Their reli-

gious role-modelling was

intense, and their behaviour

so righteous. They were will-

ing to sacrifice their own in-terests for that of their soci-

ety. I worshipped them.

In l985 the mujahedin leader

Massoud Rajavi took over

and married a woman called

Maryam whose role was toencourage women to break

away from male control. As

a feminist, this appealed to

me. They

had used

bombers

from theearly 1980s. They said they

wanted to break the atmos-

phere of terror by killingtheir oppressors, and it

seemed noble.

I spent allmy spare

time with

the move-ment, car-ing for

members'

children,

cooking

and moni-

toring me-

dia re-

ports. Ifthey asked

me for al0 dona-

tion I'd give l00 to impress

them with my commitment.

They flattered me, and then

would make me feel guilty,

pushing for more so I'd feel

worthy enough to be re-

cruited. I got totally hooked.

I did temporary jobs and

lived frugally in bedsits, mywalls covered with posters of

their martyrs - suicide bomb-

Personal Column: The former Islamic militant

ers and women with guns. I

felt part of something veryright. Everyone else had

posters of Che Guevara who

was part of an armed strug-

gle. I was just supporting a

different revolution. We saw

fighting films and listened toheroic po-

etry and

revolution-

ary music.

I had had

such a boring childhood, this

was what I had been looking

for. My working-class family

was quite political but never

did anything except watchtelly.

There was-

n't much

debate, so I

grew upseeing lifeas black

and white.

I moved to

London in

1989 and

f o u n d

some ac-

tivists at asafe house

in Finchley

who treated me as a trustedsupporter. The UN Human

Rights Rapporteur visited

Iran in l990 and we wanted

to put pressure on him to ask

about all the mujahedin pris-

oners so we went on hunger

strike.

After five days I felt high as

a kite. My perceptions

changed, and I felt I had


5/8


transcended normal human-

ity. I had so much energyand felt as if I were walking

in a bubble. Food depriva-

tion is a classic recruitment

technique used to weaken

resistance.

I quit my job as a computer

programmer and became afull-time worker for the mu-

jahedin. I didn't question athing, even the violence,

which they inure people to

so cleverly. I was shown a

film of a female suicide

bomber blowing up an aya-

tollah in Iran. It was horrific,

and very shocking, at first,

but I was shown the filmmany times, and each time

was less distressed. Then

they put it on over dinnerand I didn't bat an eyelid. Ibelieved she had a duty to

perform, this brave, wonder-

ful martyr.

I barely saw my parents, I'd

ditched all my friends, and

I'd publicly burnt the diaries

I'd kept since childhood, in-

sisting "my past means noth-ing", but it wasn't enough. I

still wasn't seen as 100 per

cent obedient.

In l992 they asked me if I'd

like to go to Iraq for some

military training. I knew as a

member of an "armed strug-

gle" this might be required,

so I didn't resist, although I

knew I could never kill any-one. I learned how to drive a

truck, march and shoot a

gun, but I clearly wasn't sol-

dier material. I loved the

camp and the irresponsibility- I obeyed orders and it felt

liberating. I had this child-

like feeling that if I put my-

self in their hands, I'd be

OK.

Then they decided marriage

was banned. I couldn't agreeas I wanted marriage and

kids. I was punished andthey put huge pressure on me

to conform. I returned to

London, telling myself I'd

sort my head out then returnrefreshed to the movement,

but it wasn't to be.

In l993 I met my husband,another disillusioned mem-

ber, and we were drawn to

each other. I resisted con-

stant pressure to be re-

recruited and we broke away

for good in l996. We actedas counsellors to each other,

de-programming ourselves

from the horrific abuse we

Personal Column: The former Islamic militant (cont.)

had endured. But we didn't

recover properly until 1999,when we read literature from

the Cult Information Centre.

I was furious when I learned

that everything we'd been

t h r o u g h w a s o n a

"recruitment techniques" list!The anger and betrayal I felt

was enormous, but I felt re-

lief that it wasn't my fault,

and I could put a name to it -

psychological coercion. It

didn't mean you were weak,

evil or stupid.

We believed we had reached

the pinnacle of human exis-

tence, that the worst thing in

life was to be ordinary. Well,we're ordinary now and it's

wonderful. We had a son in

2000 and live in a three-bedroom semi in Leeds. Alife where we make our own

decisions is amazing.

I still think of myself as

Muslim, I still think it is agood belief system, but I eat

pork and drink like a fish.

Spreading the word about the

dangers of cults is my newcause. When people are re-

cruited into these groups

they have no critical ability.

It can happen to anyone, any

time. If you're lucky you end

up with a timeshare. If you're

unlucky you end up blowing

people up on the Tube.

For more information con-tact: iran-interlink.org orkhodabandeh.org; cultinfor-

mation.org.uk


6/8


Date: 2006-10-03

Friday afternoon,Iraqi and US jointforces rushed tothe house of Ad-nan Al-Dulaimi,one of MKO's bigsupporters whohas wide secretties with thisgroup and hasbeen elected due to the finan-

cial aids of the group, andfound a number of bombedcars and a large cache of explo-sives in his house.

In this regard, Baha al-Din Al- A'raji, senior member of Iraqiparliament, said: "Baathists andterrorist had plotted for a coupin the past two days."

"Those behind the issue werewell aware that they couldn't

change the current situation

with a coup. With the formationof the govern-ment and theMinistry of De-fence, a coup isnot and won'tbe possible inIraq," he added.

Referring to thebombed carsand the explo-

sives found in Dulaimi's house,

Al-A'raji said: "it's not possibleto execute the proposal of Na-tional Reconcilia-tion unless thegovernment itselfand the parlia-ment are cleanedof terrorists,Baathists andtheir agents."

He also asked forthe removal oflegal immunity of

Government:

What is their responseto the declaration con-

cerning the recognitionof the legal and politi-cal status of the Peo-ple's Mujahedin of Iranagreed at the congressof Iraqi people held inAshraf City on 17 June.

Lord Triesman

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign &Commonwealth Office)Hansard source

H O U S E O FL O R D S

I R A N : P E O P L E ' SM U J A H E D I N

Hansard: Written An-swers

Monday, October 9,2006

Baroness Gould ofPotternewton

(Labour) Hansard

source

asked Her Majesty's

Revealed: MKO Political Supporter Helps Al-Qaeda

MEK STATUS IN IRAQ FOR IRAQI GOVERNMENT TO DECIDE -LORD TRIESMAN (UK)

Any statements ordeclarations made byIraqi nationals in Iraqabout the legal and

political status of the"People's MojahedinOrganisation of Iran",also known as the Mo- jahedin-e Khalq (MEK)inside Iraq, are a mat-ter for the Governmentof Iraq.

The MEK is proscribed

in the United Kingdomunder the TerrorismAct 2000.

MPs involved in the issue and

said: "Some of the MPs takeadvantage of this immunity forterrorist operations".

It should be noted that Adnan Al-Dulaim has had close tieswith the MKO in Iraq. Also,Iraqi PM's earlier comments onthe MKO's interferences in Iraqiaffairs proved that MKO was intouch with the head of Iraqi Accord Front and that thegroup tried, through propagan-

distic and financialsupport, to sendhim to the parlia-ment.

Al-Dulaimi is theonly one who sup-ports the illegalpresence of ter-rorist MKO in Iraq,

which is alongwith Saddam poli-cies against Iran.

Al-Dulaimi is the only

one who supports the

illegal presence of

terrorist MKO in Iraq.

Saddam-Rajavi embracing


7/8


NBC, Los Angeles,Oct 1, 2006

LOS ANGELES -- A natu-ralized U.S. citizen fromIran who was found in Iraqwas indicted Friday oncharges of providing sup-port to a terrorist organiza-tion that seeks to over-throw the current Iranian

regime, federal prosecutorssaid.

Zeinab Taleb-Jedi, 51, thena resident of Herndon, Va.,went to Iraq in 1999 to at-tend a trainingcamp run bythe Mujahedin-e Khalq, orMEK, the U.S.attorney's of-fice in Los An-geles said in astatement.

"During Operation IraqiFreedom, Taleb-Jedi wasdiscovered by coalitionforces in an MEK trainingcamp called Ashraf Base,"about 40 miles northwestof Baghdad, the statementsaid.

She was among severalMEK members who werecaught and detained bythe military, said ThomMrozek, a spokesman forthe U.S. attorney's office.He said she was in Iraqfrom August 1999 untilthis past March, but hedid not know when shewas caught.

Taleb-Jedi was indicted bya federal grand jury inBrooklyn, N.Y., on one

count of providing materialsupport to a foreign terror-ist organization. She facesup to 15 yearsi n f e d e r a lprison if con-victed.

An arraignmentdate has notbeen set, Mro-zek said. She

was assigned afederal public defender inNew York and was releasedon bond

Taleb-Jedi was being prose-cuted in NewYork becauseher planelanded at JohnF. KennedyInternational

Airport onMarch 31upon her re-turn from

Iraq. The case was beinghandled by Los Angeles-based prosecutors whohave been involved in MEK-related investigations sincethe 1990s.

Taleb-Jedi immigrated tothe United States from Iranin 1978 and became a

naturalizedU.S. citizen in1996, thegovernmentsaid. Her ali-ases includeNayer Taleb-Jedi or NireT a l e b - J e d i ,according to

the two-page indictment.

The U.S. attorney's officedid not release any infor-mation on the woman's oc-cupation.

MEK, also known as thePeople's Mujahedin of Iran,and its affiliates weredeemed foreign terrorist

organizations by the U.S.State Department in 1997when it created a list of ter-ror groups that included al-Qaida. The designations baranyone in the United Statesfrom providing materialsupport.

The State Department saysthe MEK groups werefunded by Saddam Hus-

sein, supported the sei-zure of the U.S. Embassyin Tehran in 1979 and areresponsible for the deathsof Americans in the 1970s.

But there have been at-tempts in recent years bysome members of Con-gress advocating thegroup's removal from thelist because of its stanceagainst the Iranian regimeand because it doesn'tpose a direct threat to theU.S.

" D u r i n g O p e r at i o n

I raq i Freedom , Ta leb -

Jed i w as d i scovered by

coa l i t i on f o rces i n an

MEK t ra i n i ng camp

ca l led Ashraf Base,"

MEK, also know n as

the Peop le ' s Mu jahed in

o f I r an , and i t s a f f i l ia tes

w e re deem ed fo re i gn

te r ro r i s t o rgan i za t i ons

by t he U.S.

Former Va. Resident Found In Iraq Accused Of HelpingTerrorist Mojahedin Khlaq Organisation


8/8

network raised money,

staged protests against

Iran and lobbied poli-

ticians, but it also re-cruited underage

youths to travel to a

desolate guerrilla out-post near the Iran-Iraqborder called Camp

Ashraf.

Former MEK activists

said the Canadian base

worked closely with a

similar U.S. outfit in

Sleepy Hollow, Va.,

called the Pirayesh.

The Post was able to

view videos of recruit-ing sessions conductedthere.

A Toronto man who

spent five years at

Camp Ashraf, begin-ning when he was 16,

said in an interview he

underwent military

training but was im-

prisoned when he

asked to return home.The account is consis-

tent with a recent re-

port by New York-

based Human RightsWatch, which said the

MEK had detained,

tortured and killed

"defectors" who had

tried to leave the

camp.

A Toronto human

rights group, the Cen-

tre for Thought, Dia-

logue and HumanRights in Iran, says ithas documented nine

other cases in which

Saturday,

September 23, 2006

Stewart Bell

CanWest News Ser-

vice

CREDIT:

National Post

Somayeh Moham-

mady, shown in 1998,the year she dropped

out of Grade 10 and

left Canada for a guer-

rilla training camp in

Iraq.

TORONTO - An Ira-nian terrorist group

recruited teenaged

children out of Canada

and sent them to a

guerrilla camp in Iraq,

an investigation by the

National Post has

found.

The Mujahedin-e

Khalq sent recruiters

to Toronto to enticeyouths of Iranian heri-

tage into joining an

armed resistance cam-

paign aimed at over-

throwing the Iranian

government.A banned terrorist or-

ganization under Ca-

nadian law since 2005,

the MEK worked outof a base in residential

homes in Toronto,former members of

the group said in inter-

views.

While the bases

looked like ordinary

households from the

outside, inside every-

one wore military uni-

forms and the wallswere decorated with

MEK flags and por-

traits of guerrilla lead-

ers, they said.

The Canadian MEK

children under the age

of 18 were sent to

Ashraf from Canada.

They include youthsfrom Toronto, Mont-

real and Ottawa.

Among them isSomayeh Moham-mady, who was a 17-

year-old Grade 10 stu-

dent at Etobicoke Col-

legiate Institute when

she was recruited into

the MEK in 1998.

In a letter sent to the

Canadian embassy in

Jordan, she asked for

the government's helpgetting back to To-ronto but she has since

said she wants to stay

with her fellow "holy

warriors".

An immigration tribu-

nal that looked into

Mohamaddy case

ruled this week that

she had gone to the

guerrilla camp "with

her parents' consent"

and that she is a

"committed member."

The family's story is

told in a five-part se-

ries that begins today

in the National Post.

Camp Ashraf was cap-tured and disarmed by

the U.S. military fol-

lowing the 2003 inva-

sion of Iraq. But mostof the "children of the

resistance" remain

there, either unwillingor unable to leave.

Of the roughly 4,000

MEK guerrillas at the

camp, about 300 have

returned to Iran and

200 have "defected" to

an American-run

camp called the Tem-

porary InternationalPresence Facility.

[email protected]

Iranian-Canadian kids sent to guerrilla camps in Iraq

N ejat Society

AddressE.mail: [email protected]

P.O.Box 14395/679, TehranFax: 88 96 10 31

Briefing Periodical ofNejat Society

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nejat newsletter - issue 3

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