Khalq-e-Mujahedin

The People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI, also MEK, MKO) (Persian: سازمان مجاهدين خلق ايران sāzmān-e mojāhedin-e khalq-e irān) is a militant Islamic Socialist organization that advocates the overthrow of Iran's current government.

Founded in 1965, the PMOI was originally devoted to armed struggle against the Shah of Iran, capitalism, and Western imperialism.^[1] The group officially renounced violence in 2001^[2] and today is it the main organization in the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an "umbrella coalition" parliament-in-exile that claims to be dedicated to a democratic, secular and coalition government in Iran. The group has had thousands of its members for many years in bases in Iraq, but "they were disarmed in the wake" of the 2003 US-led invasion and "are said to have adhered to a ceasefire."^[3]

Considerable controversy surrounds the issues of whether the NCRI is merely a front group for the PMOI^[4]^[5]; whether the NCRI is involved in terrorism, or if it is a "a legitimate dissident organization fighting for democracy in Iran"^[6] whose Western accusers are attempting to use as a bargaining chip in negotiation with its enemy the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The PMOI's armed wing is, or was, called the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA). The Iranian government officially refers to the organization as the Monafeqin (literally, "Hypocrites"), maintaining that PMOI is not truly Islamic.^[7]

The PMOI and the NCRI have provided intelligence on the Islamic Republics's clandestine nuclear activities in 2002, and 2008, which has turned to be a major concern of the international community.^[13] ^[14]

Other names

Note: MEK is often used when the PMOI is referenced in the media, or by national governments around the world. The term MEK and PMOI are therefore interchangeable throughout this article.

Membership

The PMOI was believed to have a 30,000 – 50,000 strong armed guerrilla force, based in Iraq before the 2003 war, but a membership of between 15,000 – 20,000 is considered more likely.^[15] In 2005 the US think-tank, Council on Foreign Relations, believed that the PMOI had 10,000 members, one-third to one-half of whom were fighters. The think-tank claims PMOI membership has dwindled, the organization has had little success attracting new recruits.^[16] According to a 2003 article by the New York Times, the PMOI would be composed of 5,000 — many of them female — fighters based in Iraq.^[17] A recent census of Ashraf shows little more than 3500 members with less than 900 women there.^{citation needed}

History

Before the Islamic Revolution

The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran was founded in 1965 by six former members of the Liberation or Freedom Movement of Iran, middle-class students at Tehran University, including Mohammad Hanifnejad, Saied Mohsen and Ali-Asghar Badizadegan. The PMOI opposed the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, considering him corrupt and oppressive and considered the Liberation Movement too moderate.^[18] In its first five years, the group primarily engaged in ideological work, combining their interpretation of Islam and the experiences of Marxist philosophy.

Its first military activities, a bombing of the Tehran electrical works and unsuccessful airplane hijacking, were in August 1971 in protest against the Pahlavi's extravagant 2,500 year celebration of Iran's monarchy. Nine mujahedin were arrested and under torture one member gave out information leading to the arrests of another 66 members. With in a few months SAVAK, had eliminated "the whole of its original leadership through executions or street battles." Other members remained incarcerated for many years, with the last group, including Massoud Rajavi, being released just before Khomeini arrived in Tehran in January 1979. However, in the mean time, the group survived and continued to carry out violent attacks on the regime.^[19]

In May 1975 the PMOI had an ideological split. The majority of PMOI leaders who had not been imprisoned voted to accept Marxism and declare the organization Marxist-Leninist. This was expressed in a pamphlet entitled Manifesto on Ideological Issues, were the central leadership declared "that after ten years of secret existence, four years of armed struggle, and two years of intense ideological rethinking, they had reached the conclusion that Marxism, not Islam, was the true revolutionary philosophy." Mujtabi Taleqani, son of Ayatallah Taleqani was one of these converts to Marxism. Thus after May 1975 there were two rival Mujahedins, each with its own publication, its own organization, and its own activities. ^[20] Immediately after the Iranian Revolution the marxist Mujahedin renamed itself "Peykar".^[21]

Leading up to the Islamic Revolution the PMOI conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets. ^[9] According to the U.S. Department of State and the presentation of the PMOI by the Foreign Affairs group of the Australian Parliament, the group conducted several assassinations of U.S. military personnel and civilians working in Iran during the 1970s. After the revolution the group actively supported the U.S. embassy takeover in Tehran in 1979.^[15] The organization now claims the assassinations were carried out and conducted by a group which staged a coup inside the organization and killed some members of the PMOI.^{citation needed}

Ideology: before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution

Original

The PMOI's ideology of revolutionary Shiaism is based on an interpretation of Islam so similar to that of Ali Shariati that "many concluded" they were inspired by him. According to historian Ervand Abrahamian, it's clear that "in later years Shariati indirectly helped the Mujahedin with his prolific works."^[22] According to the U.S. Department of State' presentation of the PMOI, the philosophy of the PMOI is a combination of Marxism, Nationalism and Islam.^[9]

In the group's "first major ideological work," Nahzat-i Husseini or Hussein's Movement, authored by one of the groups founders, Ahmad Reza'i, it was argued that Nezam-i Towhid (monotheistic order) sought by the prophet Muhammad, was a commonwealth fully united not only in its worship of one God but in a classless society that stives for the common good. "Shiism, particularly Hussein's historic act of martyrdom and resistance, has both a revolutionary message and a special place in our popular culture."^[19]

After the revolution

In more recent years under the guidance of Maryam Rajavi the organization has adopted strong principles in favor of women. Women have now been forced to assume some senior positions of responsibility within the ranks of the PMOI and although women make up only a third of fighters, two-thirds of its commanders are women. Rajavi ultimately believes that women should enjoy equal rights with men.^[23]

In 1981, the PMOI formed the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) with the stated goal of uniting the opposition to the Iranian government under one umbrella organization. The PMOI claims that in the past 25 years, the NCRI has evolved into a 540-member parliament-in-exile, with a specific platform that emphasizes free elections, gender equality and equal rights for ethnic and religious minorities. The PMOI claims that it also advocates a free-market economy and supports peace in the Middle East. However, the FBI claims that the NCRI "is not a separate organization, but is instead, and has been, an integral part of the [PMOI] at all relevant times" and that the NCRI is "the political branch" of the PMOI, rather than vice versa. Although the PMOI is today the main organization of the NCRI, the latter previously hosted other organizations, such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran.^[4]

According to the publicly stated ideology of the PMI, elections and public suffrage are the sole indicators of political legitimacy. According to their publications, the Word of God and Islam are meaningless without freedom and respect for individual volition and choice. Their interpretation of Islam the Quran says that the most important characteristic distinguishing man from animals is his free will. It is on this basis that human beings are held accountable. Without freedom, no society can develop or progress. Although its leaders presents themselves as Muslims, the PMOI describes itself as a secular organization: "The National Council of Resistance believes in the separation of Church and State."^[24]

Repression under the Islamic government

The newly established theocratic government of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran began to feel threatened by the PMOI and launched a fierce campaign to crush it. Hundreds of PMOI supporters and members were killed from 1979 to 1981, and some 3,000 were arrested.^[25] Ultimately, the organization called for a massive demonstration on June 20, 1981, to protest against the new leadership under the banner of Islam. At this demonstration, the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guards) opened fire on the demonstrators and several hundred were killed.PMOI called this event a turning point in Iran’s contemporary history.

On 28 June 1981, two years after the Islamic Revolution of Iran, bombs were detonated at the headquarters of the since-dissolved Islamic Republic Party. Around 70 high-ranking officials, including Chief Justice Mohammad Beheshti (who was the second most powerful figure in the revolution after Ayatollah Khomeini at the time), cabinet members, and members of parliament, were killed. The Mujahedin never publicly confirmed or denied any responsibility for the deed, but only stated the attack was `a natural and necessary reaction to the regime's atrocities.` Khomeini did accuse them of responsibility and, according to BBC journalist Baqer Moin, the Mujahedin were "generally perceived as the culprits" for it in Iran.^[26] Two months later on August 30, another bomb was detonated killing President Rajai and Premier Mohammad Javad Bahonar. A member of the Mujahedin, Mas'ud Kashmiri, was announced as the perpetrator, and according to regime reports came close to killing the entire government including Khomeini.^[27] The reaction following both bombings was intense with many arrests and executions of Mujahedin and other leftist groups, but "assassinations of leading officials and active supporters of the regime by the Mujahedin were to continue for the next year or two."^[28]

Eventually, the PMOI relocated to France, where it operated until 1986, when tension arose between Paris and Tehran over the Eurodif nuclear stake and the French citizens kidnapped in the Lebanon hostage crisis. After Rajavi flew to Baghdad, French hostages were released. The PMOI disclosed a tape of conversation by some Iranian official in the Iranian embassy in Paris showing the plot of repatriation of Massoud Rajavi to Iran. From then on, the PMOI resided in Iraq, protected by Saddam Hussein who had been at war with Tehran since 1980.

A large number of prisoners from the PMOI, and a lesser number from other leftist opposition groups (somewhere between 1,400 and 30,000),^[29] were executed in 1988, following Operation Eternal Light.^[30]^[31]^[32]^[33]^[34] Dissident Ayatollah Montazeri has written in his memoirs that this massacre, deemed a crime against humanity, was ordered by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and carried out by several high-ranking members of Iran's current government. Ahmad Khomeini son of Ayatollah Khomeini, whom Montazeri accused of collaboration in the killings,^{citation needed} died of heart failure in 1995, but according to the reported confession of rouge intelligence officer Saeed Emam he died of poisoning after his medication was tampered with and was one of the victims of the Chain Murders of Iran.^{citation needed}

Relations with France in the mid-1980s

In 1986, after French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac struck a deal with Tehran for the release of French hostages held prisoners by the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the PMOI was forced to leave France and relocated in Iraq. Investigative journalist Dominique Lorentz has related the 1986 capture of French hostages to an alleged blackmail of France by Tehran concerning the nuclear program.^[35]

Relations with Iraq under Saddam Hussein and the Iranian government

The PMOI transferred its headquarters to Iraq in 1986, during the Iran–Iraq War. According to the US State Department, the PMOI received all of its military support and most of its financial assistance from Saddam's government until the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. But the PMOI denies these accusations and insists that it had always remained independent of Iraq. PMOI declared its impartiality in Gulf wars in 1991 and 2003. The PMOI also has used front organizations to solicit contributions from expatriate Iranian communities.

The PMOI's decision to move its headquarters to Iraq in the middle of the war, caused the PMOI to lose most of its supporters in Iran, regardless of their views towards the Iranian government.^[36] A report by the Foreign Affairs group of the Australian Parliament states "[The PMOI] is believed to have lost much of its popular support within Iran since siding with Iraq".^[15] The PMOI claims it has always maintained its independence from its Iraqi host and denies "siding with Iraq" during the Iran–Iraq War.^{citation needed}

National Liberation Army of Iran

Near the end of the 1980-1988 war with Iran, a military force of 7000 members of the PMOI, armed and equipped by Saddam's Iraq and calling itself the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA), went into action. On July 26, 1988, six days after the Ayatollah Khomeini had announced his acceptance of the UN brokered ceasefire resolution, the NLA advanced under heavy Iraqi air cover, crossing the Iranian border from Iraq. It seized and razed to the ground the Iranian town of Islamabad-e Gharb. As it advanced further into Iran, Iraq ceased its air support and Iranian forces cut off NLA supply lines and counterattacked under cover of fighter planes and helicopter gunships. On July 29 the NLA announced a voluntary withdrawal back to Iraq. The PMOI claims it lost 1400 dead or missing and the Islamic Republic sustained 55,000 casualties (either IRGC, Basij forces, or the army). The Islamic Republic claims to have killed 4500 NLA and Iraqi troops during the operation.^[37] The operation was called Foroughe Javidan (Eternal Light) by the PMOI and the counterattack Operation Mersad by the Iranian forces.

Post-war

According to presentations of the PMOI by the U.S. Department of State and the Foreign Affairs group of the Australian Parliament, the PMOI are also accused of having assisted the Iraqi Republican Guard in suppressing the Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.^[15] Maryam Rajavi, who assumed the leadership role of the PMOI after a series of years as co-leader alongside her husband Massoud Rajavi, has been reported by former members of the PMOI as having said: "Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards."^[17] This has been formally denied by the PMOI.^{citation needed}

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, PMOI camps were bombed by coalition forces because of its alliance with Saddam Hussein. On April 15, U.S. Special Forces brokered a ceasefire agreement with the leaders of the PMOI and entered into a ceasefire agreement with the coalition after the attack. Each compound surrendered without hostilities.^[38]^[39]^[40] In the operation, the US reportedly captured 6,000 PMOI fighters and over 2,000 pieces of military equipment.^[41]^[42] This was a controversial agreement both in the public sphere and privately among the Bush administration due to the MEK's designation as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.^[43]

In the operation, the US reportedly captured 6000 MEK soldiers and over 2000 pieces of military equipment, including 19 British-made Chieftain tanks.^[44]^[42] The MEK compound outside Fallujah became known as Camp Fallujah and sits adjacent to the other major base in Fallujah, Forward Operating Base Dreamland. Captured MEK members were kept at Camp Ashraf, about 100 kilometers west of the Iranian border and 60 kilometers north of Baghdad.^[45]

After a four-month investigation by several U.S. agencies, including the State Department, only a handful of charges under U.S. criminal law were brought against PMOI members, all American citizens. The PMOI remains listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the Department of State.^[46] Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared PMOI personnel in Ashraf protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention. They are currently under the guard of US Military. Defectors from this group are housed separately in a refugee camp within Camp Ashraf, and protected by U.S. Army military police (2003-current), U.S. Marines (2005-2007), and the Bulgarian Army(2006-current).^[47]^[48]

2003 French raid

In June 2003 French police raided the PMOI's properties, including its base in Auvers-sur-Oise, under the orders of anti-terrorist magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière, after suspicions that it was trying to shift its base of operations there. 160 suspected PMOI members were then arrested. In response, 40 supporters began hunger strikes to protest the arrests, and ten immolated themselves in various European capitals. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy (Union for a Popular Movement) declared that the PMOI "recently wanted to make France its support base, notably after the intervention in Iraq", while Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, head of France's domestic intelligence service, claimed that the group was "transforming its Val d'Oise centre [near Paris]... into an international terrorist base".^[49]

U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas and chairman of the Foreign Relations subcommittee on South Asia, then accused the French of doing "the Iranian government's dirty work". Along with other members of Congress, he wrote a letter of protest to President Jacques Chirac, while longtime PMOI supporters such as Sheila Jackson-Lee, Democrat of Texas, criticized Maryam Radjavi's arrest.^[17] However, the PMOI members were quickly released.

A "bargaining chip" between Tehran and Washington?

The same year that the French police raided the PMOI's properties in France, Tehran attempted to negotiate with Washington DC, proposing to withdraw military backing for Hamas and Hezbollah as well as give open access to their nuclear facilities in return for Western action in disbanding the PMOI, which was revealed by Newsnight, a BBC current affairs program, in 2007. The BBC uncovered a letter written after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 where Tehran made this offer^[50] The proposition was done in a secret letter given to Washington through Switzerland's help. According to the BBC and to what had been understood by the US State Department, the letter had received authorization from the highest levels of the Iranian government. According to Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff of State secretary Colin Powell, interviewed by the BBC, the State Dept would first have positively considered the offer. But it would ultimately have been rejected by the office of Vice-President Dick Cheney.^[51]

Nuclear intelligence

The PMOI and the NCRI claim to be the first entities that revealed Iran's nuclear activities in 2002, which has turned to be a major concern of the international community today.^[13] Recently on Feb 20, 08, the NCRI revealed another nuclear site of Islamic Republic.^[14]

Designation as a terrorist organization

The PMOI was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States (since 1997), Canada, and Iran.^[8]^[9] The PMOI was legalized in the United Kingdom on 24 June 2008, six months after winning a court battle over its legality.^[3] According to Wall Street Journal^[52] "senior diplomats in the Clinton administration say the PMOI figured prominently as a bargaining chip in a bridge-building effort with Tehran." The PMOI is also on the European Union's blacklist of terrorist organizations, which lists 28 organizations, since 2002.^[53] The enlistments included: Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States in 1997 under the Immigration and Nationality Act, and again in 2001 pursuant to section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224; as well as by the European Union (EU) in 2002.^[54] Its bank accounts were frozen in 2002 after the September 11 attacks and a call by the EU to block terrorist organizations' funding. However, the European Court of Justice has overturned this in December 2006 and has criticized the lack of "transparency" with which the blacklist is composed.^[10] However, the Council of the EU declared on 30 January 2007 that it would maintain the organization on the blacklist.^[55]^[56] The EU-freezing of funds was lifted on December 12, 2006 by the European Court of First Instance.^[57] In 2003 the US State Department included the NCRI on the blacklist, under Executive Order 13224.^[58]

According to a 2003 article by the New York Times, the US 1997 proscription of the group on the terrorist blacklist was done as "a goodwill gesture toward Iran's newly elected reform-minded president, Mohammad Khatami" (succeeded in 2005 by more conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad).^[17] In 2002, 150 members of the United States Congress signed a letter calling for the lifting of this designation.^[59] The PMOI have also tried to have the designation removed through several court cases in the U.S. The PMOI has now lost three appeals (1999, 2001 and 2003) to the US government to be removed from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and its terrorist status was reaffirmed each time. The PMOI has continued to protest worldwide against its listing, with the overt support of some US political figures.^[15]^[60]

Past supporters have included Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Rep. Bob Filner, (D-CA), and Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO), and former Attorney General John Ashcroft, "who became involved with the [PMOI] while a Republican senator from Missouri."^[61]^[62] In 2000, 200 U.S. Congress members signed a statement endorsing the organization's cause.^[63]

PMOI is legally - or at least well tolerated – active in Germany, Denmark and many other countries of the European Union. The NCRI maintained an Information Office in Washington DC, USA until August 2002, when US Secretary of State Colin Powell issued an order to shut down the offices.^[64] Recently, Dick Marty, Swiss investigator working for the human rights body the Council of Europe, called this designation a violation of human rights.^[65]

In April 2007, CNN reported that the US military and the International Committee of the Red Cross was continuing to protect the group, with the US army regularly escorting PMOI supply runs between Baghdad and its base, Camp Ashraf.^[66]

On Nov 30, 2007 the British Court, The Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission (POAC) ruled to the annulment of the terrorist designation and ordered the British government to remove PMOI off the terrorist list.^[67]^[68] The judgment was implemented in the United Kingdom six months later.^[3]

A number of British Lords and MPs have campaigned for PMOI to be taken off the terrorist list.^[69]^[70]^[71]

On Jan. 23, 2008, the European Council's Parliamentary Assembly, meeting in Strasbourg, backed a report attacking the methods used by the UN Security Council and the EU to blacklist individuals and groups suspected of having terrorist connections abuse basic rights and are "completely arbitrary". This issue covers the case of the PMOI too. ^[72]

Alleged human rights abuses

In May 2005, Human Rights Watch claimed the PMOI were running prison camps within Iraq and were committing severe human rights violations.^[73] The report described the PMOI as a cult held under the tight control of Maryam Rajavi. The report prompted a response by the PMOI and friendly MEPs (European MPs), who published a counter-report in September 2005.^[74] They noted that HRW had "relied only on 12 hours interviews with 12 suspicious individuals", and stated that "a delegation of MEPs visited Camp Ashraf in Iraq" and "conducted impromptu inspections of the sites of alleged abuses." Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca (PP), one of the Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament, alleged that Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) was the source of the evidence against the PMOI.^[74]

Prompted by the FOFI document, Human Rights Watch re-interviewed all 12 of the original witnesses, conducting private and personal interviews lasting several hours with each of them in Germany and the Netherlands, where the witnesses now live. All of the witnesses restated their claims about the PMOI camps from the 1991-2003 period, saying PMOI officials subjected them to various forms of physical and psychological abuses once they made known their wishes to leave the organization.^[75]

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