Oriental Rugs the O'Connell Notes

Notes on Mujahedin-e Khalq/MeK

Notes on Mujahedin-e Khalq return to Iran

The ability of MeK to influence events inside of Iran is greatly diminished. The acts of terror over the last two years attributed to MeK are likely the work of foreign countries. The intelligence regarding the Iranian Nuclear program is actually generated by Mossad and then filtered through the MeK apparatus to protect the identities of the Israeli agents. Time spent looking for MeK agents is time not spent looking for a web of people who further their own self interests by aiding Israel. Mossad has been able to filter dubious information to the American Congress and American Media in a way that inflates its meager credibility. I will not name her here but I believe that an Iranian/American telecom executive is the main conduit of information from Mossad to MeK. The information that Ali Reza Jafarzadeh presents to Congress as evidence smuggled out of Iran by MeK is actually fabrications supplied to him by a rapidly aging double agent. I do not publish her name here but I am always willing to disclose it to American Law Enforcement. So if the FBI team investigating MeK wants to talk, call me at 240-988-4866.

Best wishes,

Barry O'Connell

From http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB88/

MEK Headquarters Complex in Iraq

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 88

Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson

April 30, 2003

Mujahedin-e Khalq/MEK

The Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK as it is commonly called is a Marxist Terrorist organization with close links to Sadam Hussein, Fox News and Neocon close to the Bush White House.

Some of their crimes include.

Seizing the US Embassy in Tehran.
Killing some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar in coordinated bombings.
Terrorist attacks from bases in Iraq.
Supplying Bush White House with phony intelligence on Iran.

Terrorist leader Alireza Jafarzadeh is an analyst on Fox News and is close to such Bush pals as Richard Perle.

New French President Sarkozy Enemy of MeK

Mossad Mole inside of MEK

Congressman Ney says Fox News using Middle East consultant with Iranian terrorism link

Richard Perle speaks at terrorist (Mujahedin-e Khalq) fundraiser.

Notes on The Mirmehdi brothers

Notes on Miriam Rajavi

"Perhaps the most extreme views on whether Iran is meddling come from Iranian resistance leaders such as Alireza Jafarzadeh, who ran the Washington office of Iran's exiled opposition National Council of Resistance until the State Department closed it down last year for ties to anti-Iranian terrorists."SOUTHWEST ASIA: Wild claims from Alireza Jafarzadeh - Who is paying him?

Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO)

From: Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2002. United States Department of State, April 2003
Comments on the content of the material should be sent to the U.S. Department of State

Other Names
The National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA, the militant wing of the MEK)
The People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI)
National Council of Resistance (NCR)
Muslim Iranian Student's Society (front organization used to garner financial support)

Description
The MEK philosophy mixes Marxism and Islam. Formed in the 1960s, the organization was expelled from Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and its primary support now comes from the Iraqi regime. The MEK’s history is studded with anti-Western attacks as well as terrorist attacks on the interests of the clerical regime in Iran and abroad. The MEK now advocates a secular Iranian regime.
Activities
The worldwide campaign against the Iranian Government stresses propaganda and occasionally uses terrorist violence. During the 1970s, the MEK killed US military personnel and US civilians working on defense projects in Tehran and supported the takeover in 1979 of the US Embassy in Tehran. In 1981, the MEK detonated bombs in the head office of the Islamic Republic Party and the Premier’s office, killing some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Premier Mohammad-Javad Bahonar. Near the end of the 1980-88 war with Iran, Baghdad armed the MEK with military equipment and sent it into action against Iranian forces. In 1991, it assisted the Government of Iraq in suppressing the Shia and Kurdish uprisings in southern Iraq and the Kurdish uprisings in the north. Since then, the MEK has continued to perform internal security services for the Government of Iraq. In April 1992, the MEK conducted near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian Embassies and installations in 13 countries, demonstrating the group’s ability to mount large-scale operations overseas. In recent years, the MEK has targeted key military officers and assassinated the deputy chief of the Armed Forces General Staff in April 1999. In April 2000, the MEK attempted to assassinate the commander of the Nasr Headquarters—the interagency board responsible for coordinating policies on Iraq. The normal pace of anti-Iranian operations increased during the “Operation Great Bahman” in February 2000, when the group launched a dozen attacks against Iran. In 2000 and 2001, the MEK was involved regularly in mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids on Iranian military and law-enforcement units and government buildings near the Iran-Iraq border, although MEK terrorism in Iran declined throughout the remainder of 2001. Since the end of the Iran-Iraq war, the tactics along the border have garnered almost no military gains and have become commonplace. MEK insurgent activities in Tehran constitute the biggest security concern for the Iranian leadership. In February 2000, for example, the MEK launched a mortar attack against the leadership complex in Tehran that houses the offices of the Supreme Leader and the President. Assassinated the Iranian Chief of Staff.
Strength
Several thousand fighters are scattered throughout Iraq, and most are organized in the MEK’s National Liberation Army (NLA). Some NLA units possess tanks, armored vehicles, and heavy artillery. The MEK also has an overseas support structure.
Location/Area of Operation
In the 1980s, the MEK’s leaders were forced by Iranian security forces to flee to France. Since resettling in Iraq in 1987, almost all of its armed units are currently stationed in fortified bases near the border with Iran. In the mid-1980s, the group did not mount terrorist operations in Iran at a level similar to its activities in the 1970s, but by the 1990s the MEK had claimed credit for an increasing number of operations in Iran.
External Aid
Beyond receiving all of its military assistance, and most of its financial support, from the Iraqi regime, the MEK uses front organizations to solicit contributions from expatriate Iranian communities.

Press Statement
Tom Casey, Acting Spokesman
Washington, DC
August 15, 2003

Designation of National Council of Resistance and National Council of Resistance of Iran under Executive Order 13224

The Secretary of State has amended the designation, under Executive Order 13224 on terrorist financing, of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, known as the MEK, to add its aliases National Council of Resistance (NCR) and National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). That Executive Order blocks the assets of organizations and individuals linked to terrorism. The decision also clarifies that the designation includes the U.S. representative office of NCRI and all its other offices worldwide, and that the designation of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (“PMOI”) as an alias of the MEK includes the PMOI’s U.S. representative office and all other offices worldwide.

The Secretary of State designated the MEK as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997 under the Immigration and Nationality Act, and again in 2001 pursuant to section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224. That order (as amended) authorizes the Secretary to designate foreign entities and individuals that he determines – in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security – to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.

The action to amend the Executive Order 13224 designation of the MEK to include NCR and NCRI is based on information from a variety of sources that those entities functioned as part of the MEK and have supported the MEK's acts of terrorism.
[End]

Released on August 15, 2003

washingtonpost.com
The Iran Connection

By Richard Leiby

Thursday, January 29, 2004; Page C03

Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who helped put "Freedom Fries" on House restaurant menus in the run-up to the Iraq war, is championing a new patriotic cause. He wants Fox News to fess up about the controversial past of one of its commentators on Middle Eastern affairs.

In a letter last week to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Ney identified Alireza Jafarzadeh as the head of an Iranian exile group that the U.S. government lists as a terrorist organization. It's a Marxist Islamic outfit called the Mujahedin el-Khalq, once allied with Saddam Hussein. "The MEK has killed United States military and civilian personnel in the past, aided in the overthrow of the American Embassy in Tehran and targeted American civilians for murder," wrote Ney, who used to teach English in pre-revolutionary Iran.

"I watch Fox News, I like Fox News, but I was shocked to see him on there," the congressman told us. Ney demanded that the network inform viewers about Jafarzadeh's background, saying, "I don't think they're fair and balanced on this issue."

"This is old news," said Fox spokesman Paul Schur, declining to comment further."Absolutely false," Jafarzadeh said yesterday of Ney's claims. "The MEK is not headed by me. I've been in this country for 29 years and the MEK's headquarters is . . . in Iraq. It's ridiculous for somebody to say MEK is headed by me, sitting here in Washington."

In August, officials from Justice, Treasury and State shut Jafarzadeh's Washington office, where he had worked in recent years as the U.S. representative for the National Council of Resistance of Iran. According to State Department officials, that group is an alias for MEK. But Jafarzadeh says he worked there before it was designated as a terrorist front group.

He described himself as a supporter of bringing democracy to Iran. "The mullahs of Tehran have been trying to silence me," he said. "Who do you think revealed the major nuclear facilities of the Iranian regime in the past year and a half? It was me."

The Justice Department is reviewing Ney's letter.

Ney says Fox News using Middle East consultant with Iranian terrorism link

By GREG WRIGHT
Gazette Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Ohio Rep. Bob Ney says an expert on the Middle East who appears regularly on the Fox News Channel has ties to an Iranian terrorist organization.

Alireza Jafarzadeh said Friday his group's opposition to Iran's fundamentalist Muslim government doesn't make it a terrorist group.

The State Department added the National Council of Resistance of Iran to its terrorist list in 2002 because it had ties to Mujahedin-e Khalq, a terrorist organization that seeks to overthrow Iran's government.

Jafarzadeh was the Washington-based council's congressional representative until the State Department closed its offices in August 2002. Ney says Fox News using Middle East consultant with Iranian terrorism link - chillicothegazette.com

washingtonpost.com
Charity Event May Have Terrorist Link
Pentagon Adviser Who Spoke at Function Thought Money Was for Quake Victims

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 29, 2004; Page A08

Pentagon adviser Richard N. Perle, a strong advocate of war against Iraq, spoke last weekend at a charity event that U.S. officials say may have had ties to an alleged terrorist group seeking to topple the Iranian government and backed by Saddam Hussein.

The event, attended by more than 3,000 people Saturday at the Washington Convention Center, generated enough concerns within the administration that officials debated whether they had the legal authority to block the event, U.S. officials said yesterday. FBI agents attended it and, as part of a continuing investigation, the Treasury Department on Monday froze the assets of the event's prime organizer, the Iranian-American Community of Northern Virginia.

Perle, in an interview, said he was unaware of any involvement by the terrorist group, known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), and believed he was assisting the victims of the Bam earthquake when he delivered the paid speech.

"All of the proceeds will go to the Red Cross," Perle said. Informed that the Red Cross had announced before the event it would refuse any monies because of the event's "political nature," Perle said: "I was unaware of that." Perle declined to say how much he received.

The Web site for the $35-a-person event, billed as "a night of solidarity with Iran," flashed between references to support for "the Iran earthquake victims" and "a referendum for regime change in Iran." One administration official said that the FBI determined that at least three of the sponsoring organizations were associated with the MEK, while a senior Treasury official said "there were general indications the MEK may have an interest in the event," but it could not yet prove it.

The day before the function, Treasury sent a letter to the Convention Center warning that the "MEK may have an interest in this event or may attempt to use the event to raise funds." But the Treasury official said officials moved cautiously because in general they did not want to chill possible charitable acts. "This is what makes terrorist financing so complex," he said. "You often have a blending of purposes and interests."

No one answered the phone at the Iranian-American Community of Northern Virginia, and messages seeking comment were not returned.

The MEK, though listed on the State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations since 1997, in the past year has been the subject of an administration tug of war over its status. The group maintained for the past decade thousands of fighters armed with tanks, armored vehicles and artillery in three camps northeast of Baghdad along the Iraq-Iran border. U.S. analysts concluded its primary support came from Hussein's government, despite some financial backing from Iranian expatriates.

Nevertheless, some Pentagon officials considered the MEK as a possible vanguard against the Iranian government, which they viewed as a threat in the region. But in May President Bush ordered the group surrounded and disarmed. Even then, reports persisted of an easy-going relationship between the military and the MEK forces, leading the White House to clarify late last year that the MEK is "part of the global war on terrorism" and its members "are being screened for possible involvement in war crimes, terrorism and other criminal activities."

Jacki Flowers, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross, said the relief agency had been contacted by the sponsors about receiving funds raised at the event several weeks before it took place. But the Red Cross decided to reject the proceeds once it became aware that the event was "political in nature," specifically the promotion of regime change. She said accepting the funds would "compromise our fundamental principles of neutrality and impartiality."

Perle, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, said he was contacted by the Premiere Speakers Bureau in mid-January about giving the keynote speech. He asked for more information about the sponsoring organizations and received a letter saying aid would be coordinated though the Red Cross and describing the event as "solidarity with earthquake victims in Iran and an evening for Iranian Resistance."

The Iranian Resistance is often an alias for the MEK. In August, the State Department shut down the U.S. offices of the political arm of the MEK, known as National Council of Resistance of Iran.

In his speech, Perle said he made the case that the current Iranian government supports terrorism and said the fall of the Soviet empire foreshadowed the fate of the mullahs who he said control Iran. He said the hall was full of families and children and "it did not have an aura of an event with terrorist sponsorship."

Raymond Tanter, a University of Michigan professor who introduced Perle, has long maintained that the MEK does not belong on the list of foreign terrorist organizations. He said MEK was never mentioned in speeches, "but I did hear references to Camp Ashraf," which is where U.S. troops are holding MEK fighters.

Staff writer Robin Wright contributed to this report.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

Names of Terrorists and other associates of the Mujahedin-e Khalq

Fariba Hashtroudi, Donna M. Hughes, Richard Perle, Raymond Tanter