nejat newsletter - issue 11

8/14/2019 Nejat Newsletter - ISSUE 11

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Part of Foaad Khos-mood's Interview withScott Ritter,

January 31, 2007

Zmag.com

FKh: Lets now turn toIran and your new bookTarget Iran. Who is theMEK?SR: MEK is the Mojahedin-e-Khalq [1]. Its an IranianMarxist organization thatcame into being in the1970s. It was a force thatwas opposed to the rule ofthe Shah of Iran. It wasprimarily a military opposi-tion group to the Shah and itcarried out a number ofattacks against the govern-mental institutions and themilitary and American mili-tary advisors in Iran.When the Islamic revolutiontook place in 1979, the MEKinitially allied with the Aya-

tollahs but soon fell out offavor with them. MEK wentinto exile and they took rootfirst in Europe and later inIraq where it became a verypowerful military wing of theIraqi Mukhaberat or theintelligence service. Todayits funded by the CIA intheir policy of using thisorganization to be a stick inthe side of Iran. Even now,the MEK continues to belisted by the State depart-ment as an internationalterrorist organization.FKh: OK, so this is a terror-ist organization that is re-sponsible for attacks againstAmerican civilians. Thereare many negative thingsagainst this group, espe-cially in this political climate.Yet it has managed to havefavorable public relations inWashington. Is this all be-cause of CIA backing or arethere other benefactors?SR: Well, if youre dealingwith a population that is pre-programmed to accept atface value anything that isput forth by the mainstream

media or other punditrywhich opposes the IslamicRepublic, as being good,then all these negatives goaway.The MEK also has the sup-port of the state of Israel. Ithas the support of the pow-erful pro-Israeli lobby herein the United States. It hasthe support of many mem-bers of congress, whetherthey have arrived at theirposition independently or asa result of intensive lobby-ing. The MEK does have abase of support among theanti-Tehran groups inWashington.FKh: In your new book,Target Iran you say thatIsraeli intelligence was thetrue source of the new infor-mation on Irans hiddennuclear facilities. You alsosay that Michael Ledeenand some Washington neo-cons arranged for MEK tobe the conduit of this infor-

mation. Why was it impor-tant for another organizationto be the deliverer of thisnews?SR: The answer is twofold.One, Israel has a PR prob-lem if it comes out as thelead element in tacklingIrans nuclear program.Two, if your goal is regimechange and one of the or-ganizations that yourebacking is the MEK youwould also like to As yousay, there are a number ofnegatives to this organiza-tion, so you would positionthe MEK as an organizationthat is capable of gettingquality information on Iran.This was the same strategythat was used with the IraqiNational Congress andAhmad Chalabi.FKh: You also write that thisinformation was known toGeorge Tenet ahead oftime. Does this mean Wash-ington is once again en-gaged in manipulation ofintelligence by withholdingand strategically releasinginformation?

SR: I dont think this waspremeditated by Washing-ton. I have written that theUnited States was almost100% focused on the Iraqiproblem and barely con-cerned about this particularissue. Tenet was aware ofthis information, as weremany other people con-cerned about the Iraniannuclear program, but he didnot treat this information ascredible.I dont think this is part of aconspiracy trying to manipu-late data. This was simplythe United States puttingthis information on the backburner and not giving it theattention it needed which iswhy the Israelis needed tofind more dramatic, publiclyaccessible means of givingthis data to the mainstreampress. This is one of thereasons they chose theMEK.FKh: So what happened to

these sites? Were thereinspections of the specificsites that were revealed bythe MEK?SR: These sites were in-spected by the InternationalAtomic Energy Agency.Some of the sites likeNatanz have emerges ashaving been involved in auranium enrichment pro-gram. None of the siteshave been found to havebeen involved in a nuclearweapons program. In factthere has been no evidencefound of a nuclear weaponsprogram existing in Iran, justa nuclear enrichment pro-gram for the peaceful use ofnuclear energy.Some of the information theMEK later put out turned outto be false. Basically therelease of this information -which was debunked - wasan effort to take control theheadlines and interpretationof whats going on to takeout voices other than thosewho detest Iran by providinginformation that is not accu-rate.

Scott Ritter's Views on MKO

V OLUME 2, I SSUE 11

11 A PRIL 2007Nejat NewsletterBRIEFING PUBLICATIO N OF NEJAT SOCIETY

Scott Ritters Viewson MKO

1

Operations couldwreck Americanpeace strategy

2

Can the Rajavi CultDupe Progressives?

2

British claim dis-credited by allowingMKO to act as its

spokesman

3

Mojahedin a bargain-ing chip in the Iran-US negotiations

4,7

Country that forgetsthe past creates an-other Bin Laden

8,9

The EU-wide assetfreeze against MeKis still in force

12

New Charges Addedto MKOs CriminalCase

10

MKO hired actorsfor demonstration in

Brussels

10

Iraqi Cleric: MKO tobe expelled soon

9

MKO supports theterrorists

11

Baqubah, Terrorismand MKO

11

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

This happened a lot when Iwas a weapons inspector.We dealt with Israel. Israelprovided outstanding infor-mation up front. But later on,as the investigation went on,the well dried up. No moreinformation could be pro-vided while the Israeli dataturned out to be inaccurate.


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Rajavi told them they wouldnot need to fire a single shot

because one million Iranianswould march with them to Te-hran. In 1991, the MEK com-mitted terrible atrocitiesagainst unarmed Kurd-ish civilians--including runningover them with tanks or witharmoured personnel carriers.

In April 2003, the Americanand coalition forces attackedthe MEK at Camp Ashraf,Iraq . Does the author dare toreveal where Massoud Rajaviis today? Is the Americanmilitary holding Massoud Ra-

javi as a prisoner at a camp inIraq or protecting him until theAmerican military invadesIran? This is the same groupof crazies who burned them-selves in front of televisioncameras in June 2003. While

N EJAT N EWSLETTER P AG E 2

By Paul Foote ,March 27, 2007

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_paul_foo_070324

_can_the_rajavi_cult_.htm (This response and the originalarticle were posted originallyunder: M a r c h 2 4 , 2 0 0 7 a t 0 0 : 0 1 : 4 7 Detente or Appeasement? by

Jubin Afshar ,http://www.opednews.com ,Jubin Afshar, is Director of theNear East Project at Near EastPolicy Research in Washington,D.C.)

Everyone should look at thecontent of the author's Website. The author's solution foris the totalitarian takeover of by the MEK (Rajavi Cult or PolPot of Iran). The MEK hasmurdered American militaryofficers and Rockwell Interna-tional employees. The MEKhas committed terrorist acts,even in New York City. TheState Departments of Presi-dents Bill Clinton and of George W. Bush have placedthe MEK on terrorist lists forgood reasons. At the end of the Iran-Iraq War, MassoudRajavi waved to 2,000 MEKfighters from the safety of Iraq while they invaded Iran .

Can the Rajavi Cult Dupe P rogressives? the American government hasclosed the office of the Na-

tional Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Washington,DC, the American govern-ment has not closed the op-erations of other supporters of America's terrorist enemies.Many of the neo-conservatives(neo-Trotskyites) have beenstrong supporters of the RajaviCult. See, for example, theWeb site of the Iran PolicyCommittee. While the IranPolicy Committee does dis-close that one of its employeesis a former employee of theCentral Intelligence Agency(CIA), the IPC does not dis-close its funding sources.Withthe help of the neo-c o n s e r v a t i v e s ( n e o -Trotskyites), this totalitarianterrorist organization has beenable to dupe many in the De-mocratic and Republican par-ties. Can the Rajavi Cult dupeprogressives? Professor PaulSheldon Foote

http://360.yahoo.com/paulsheldonfoote Professor, California State Uni-versity, Fullerton http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_paul_foo_070324

_can_the_rajavi_cult_.htm

Simon Tisdall in AnkaraThursday March 22, 2007Guardian Unlimited (excerpts from an article publishedin the British daily The Guardian )

. . . . .

US support for Iranian Kurds op-posed to the Tehran government is

adding to the agitation. "The US istrying to undermine the Iran re-gime, using the Kurds like it isusing the MEK [the anti-TehranPeople's Mujahideen]," said DrLogoglu. "Once you begin to dif-ferentiate between 'good' and 'bad'terrorist organisations, then youlose the war on terror." But he

warned that military interventionmight be ineffective and could be"disastrous" in destabilising theregion. A recent national securitycouncil assessment also suggestedthat senior Turkish commanderswere cautious about the prospectsof success.

Operations could wreck American peace strategy


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17 Jan 2007

The transcribed version of

BBC 2- News Night programon MKO

For two decades it was one of the oddest armies on the earth.Prevailed to overthrow the aya-tollahs in Iran, The widowMaryam Rajavi stuck amongstfanatical devotion. She is ac-cused by some of running acrew, a manipulative cult.The America which protects thenow-disarmed fighters in Iraqcant decide what to do aboutthem, it runs the people Muja-hedin, also known as MEK or

MKO as terrorists but accordingto some politicians it is still apotential ally.

Bob Filner (Democrat):I know the MEK supports asecular democratic, non nuclearIran. What's there to opposethem? We should be a help tothem in any way we can.The Mujahedin's position inIraq now is a desperate uncom-fortable one. Just north of Baqdad you find Ashraf in avast desert. This land wasgiven to them by Saddam Hus-sein but the new Iraqi govern-

ment wants them out. Andeven though President Bushhas so far rejected propose to

talk to Iran. American policymakers believe the Mujahedinwould actually have to be scari-fied for better relations withIran.

Keneth Pollak:Iran and the US need to work together to stabilize Iraq which

will be disastrous for bothcountries if it's led to civil war.We also have the nuclear nego-tiations which are very verydelicate and we dont want theMKO to make muddy those al-ready troubled waters. Theother matter is that the USdoes need to take chargesagainst the MKO that is a ter-rorist organization.We are in a house in the sub- urb of Leeds.

Ann Singleton and her husbandMasud also are ex-Mujahedinactivists who now campaignagainst the movement thatcommanded them absolute loy-alty for twenty years. She

joined MKO when she was astudent in Manchester Univer-sity in the late 1970's when thestudents believed that they canchange the world.

Mojahedin a bargaining chip in Iran - US negotiations

Ann Singleton :The only organization which Ihad access to directly and thatwould actually going out to do-ing something was the Mujahe-din. They would ask for dona-tions of course and that is how

they recruited the crew I guess.The process started with me.They would ask for money andI would give them more thanthat they asked for to showthem my commitment.

Mujahedin began as a guerrillagroup fighting the shah of Iran.

Along side the followers of Aya-tollah Khomeini, they suc-ceeded to overthrow the Pahla-vies in 1979.But afterwards ayatollahKhomeini was not willing toshare the power with them.Mujahedin rose to debate himbut they were defeated.From then on the organizationwas bored with the Islamic Re-public. Hundred of Iranian offi-cials were killed or wounded by


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Mujahedin's bombs. In one at-tack the country's current su-preme leader Ayatollah Khame-

neiee lost his right arm.In several times in the 1980'sthese fighters invaded Iranfrom Iraq. Meanwhile thou-sands of Mujahedin memberswere executed in Iranian jails.The leader of the organizationand many supporters fled tothe West.

Ali Safavi who works for Mua- jhedin's umbrella organization,NCRI, he has convinced manypoliticians that this movementwhich has left violence is a de-mocratic alternative to the Is-lamic Republic:" All accusationsagainst them" he says " areorganized by Iran".

Ali Safavi:"they view the people 's Muja-hedin as an existential threatbecause they know that theMujahedin has a large supportamong the Iranian people andthat is why they have spent noeffort in fight to illegalize theMujahedin by engaging in amassive expensive propagandaCampaign to demonize theMuajhedin.But there is no evidence that

Abbas Sadeqinejad relates toIranian intelligence. This formerMujahedin member who nowlives in Germany with his familythat he thought he had lost forever when he fled Iran. Theyears when he stayed in Camp

Ashraf he believed what theMujahedin had told him that hiswife and his new born daughterwere dead.

Sadeqi: "they told me that theyset two people to find my wifeand one of them was killed bythe Regime but they said thatthey persued my case with asecond and they found out thatmy wife had died when givingbirth to my daughter . Thatshow they cut my ties with myfamily. Same time, they told mywife that I was killed by theRegime as I was leaving thecountry."Psychological manipulation" asdescribed to Newsnight bymany interviewed former mem-bers. This part of the system of control by Masud Rajavi and hisnew wife Maryam was estab-lished in Iraq in the 80's and90's. They launched what theycalled "Ideological Revolution".The women got key jobs. Theannouncement of sexual feel-ings became forbidden and di-vorce became obligatory.Singlton: they decreed that every mem-ber should divorce. All yourthought and feeling and en-ergy, your whole being have tobe devoted to the Rajavis. Thatwas a forced system of report-ing, any erotic fantasy they hadfor example they have arousedby sister so so or by what's hisname brother. They were ex-pected to tell everything totallyopen, any thing was in yourmind or you feel with yourheart.Reporter: were all members forced todivorce?Safavi:

Mojahedin a bargaining chip in Iran - US negotiations No, every individual member of the Mojahedin decided on hisown to forget family life, those

who were married of course.Reporter: all of them?Safavi: yes. Yes. All of them.- So every single married mem-ber in Ashraf at that time madethe voluntary decision to di-vorce or forget the family life?-yes-How many people wherethere?

-I dont exactly know what thenumber was but hundreds peo-ple ,yes every member of thehundreds.- Hundreds?-yes-Hundreds. Every single onevoluntarily to divorce!- Yes.- Isn't it implausible to see thathundreds of members, all vol-untarily take a decision to di-vorce?

-Not at all.The level of devotion expendedto the members' squirm of sui-cide feared European citizens in2003. To protest the temporaryarrest of Maryam RajaviThe Newsnight has serious ac-counts that in the 1990's thosewho seemed less reliable weretortured in the confinement of the organization's Camp inIraq.Sadeqi: they hit my knees so hard. Hepulled my hair and said that hewould teach me a lesson Iwould never get. He put hand-cuff on me and hung me frommy right hand. I shouted whyyou are hitting a member of theorganization. But they hung melike that for twenty minutes. Mujahedin were the guests forSaddam Hussein in 1980's


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sounds like almost fiction. And the US army's instant in-fatuation with Muajhedin fullywere recruited a very pragmaticforce that was so loyal to Sad-dam, now apparently wanted toserve America in any way itcould.Military lawyer: we wanted to disband themessentially and that was whatwe had a problem with becausethey still wanted to work withus.Back in Washington the state of Department wasnt interestedWilkerson: everyday from Monday to Fri-day we had meetings at theState Department from 8:30and one of the questions thatcame up almost everyday waswhat we have to do with theMEK, the MEK were still won-dering around Iraq, still theyhad their arms .they are still acohesive body of people sayingwhat's happening?They're a terrorist organizationwe declare them ourselves. ThePresident, himself does agreethat we should do somethingabout the MEK but nothing ishappening. The Defense De-partment doesnt do any thing.By their actions, I must saythat Secretary of Defense andhis underlings and the VicePresident's Office must havethought that the MEK mightprove the fruitful instrument inthe future and therefore they

dont want to take any drasticaction against the MEK. Presi-dent Bush has now relinquishedthe services of the former De-fense Secretary Donald Rams-feld but Newsnight understandsthat still the strong pro-Mujahedin lobby within the ad-ministration, one of the possi-bilities ,apparently have beenconcerning is to use the groupas a go-between to help Ameri-

can forces reach outs to Sunniinsurgence.

Meanwhile in Europe the char-ismatic leader of the Iranianresistance Maryam Rajavi hasbeen rallying among her sup-porters with talking of victory.The Mujahedin have justwanted the Judgment of Euro-pean court of justice on freez-ing their assets that they be-lieve its the first step to remov-ing the terrorist tag, that stillhaunts them. Though their lastattack was in 1999 and theyhave since renounced any mili-tary role.

Ali Safavi: Instead of tying engaged withMullahs in Tehran the interna-tional community has to reachout to the democratic opposi-tion and the very oppositionwhich by the key reveal allega-tions on the Iran's nuclearweapons program. In somesense really the internationalcommunity and the Westerncountries owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Mujahedin.In fact there's no more muchsign of support for the Mujahe-din in Iran. Since they moved

to Iraq they've been widelyregarded as traitors. The dis-banding of the group plays asthe key goal for Tehran. In theshort term chances of the US-Iranian relations is very little.President Ahmadinejad andPresident Bush both talk withthe language of confrontationbut many in Washington regretthat.Wilkerson:

Mojahedin a bargaining chip in Iran - US negotiations I think the failure of the US tomake some sort of meaningfulovertures to Tehran has been a

terrible mistake that has putIran in a strategic position inthe Middle East that she could-nt have gained by her ownmagi. We have through ourinaptitude and our refusal of the talk, it is certainly givingIran the cat-bird seat in theregion.Published by the Mujahedin'slatest promotional material, the3500 remaining residents of

Ashraf deprived of their military

role enjoy a cultural life in themiddle of the Iraqi desert. Theyeven revived their own form of dance.

The organization believe thatthey can survive here under theprotection of Geneva and againone day play a big role in theIranian political scene but asTehran strengthens its influ-ence in Iraq and the US runs aneventual plan the Mujahedin'stime must have been runningout.

Mojahedin a bargain-ing chip in Iran - USnegotiations - ( tran-scribed version) Posted on 2007-03-27

By Nejat Society


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Country that forgets the past creates another Osama bin Laden


March 17, 2007

The CIA has been accused of as-

sisting separatist militants inside Iran, a course of action that would be baffling and dangerous, writes Waleed Aly

NASROLLAH Shanbe Zehi waspublicly hanged in Iran last month.He had detonated a bomb in thecity of Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchistan, killing 11 Revolution-ary Guards. This sequence ofevents is sadly unremarkable ontwo counts: first, executions of thiskind are common in Iran; second,there has been a marked increasein political violence in the countryi n t h e p a s t t w o y e a r s .Iran is host to a wide range of oftenpersecuted ethnic and religiousminorities. Many pursue militantseparatist causes. Kurds in thewest, Azeris in the northwest, Ah-wazi Arabs in the southwest, andBaluchis in the southeast have allbeen said to have perpetrated vio-lent acts against the Iranian regimein that time.

The question is, precisely what is

fuelling such a civil escalation?Tehran's explanation has longbeen clear: they are the beneficiar-ies of material support from the USand Britain. In the case of Zehi,one local official told the Fars newsagency that the bomber had usedBritish and US-made weaponry.

It is the kind of spectacular allega-tion we may expect to come fromTehran. It is the kind of news wemay expect to be picked up by theGreen Left Weekly. But recentlyThe Sunday Telegraph in London,Britain's most conservative broad-sheet, reported that it has beenconfirmed, on condition of anonym-ity, by a former high-ranking CIAofficial in Washington. According tothis source, it is "no great secret"any longer that the CIA is fundingthese separatist militants from itsclassified budget.

Fred Burton, a former counter-terrorism agent with the US De-

partment of State, appeared toagree: "The latest attacks insideIran fall in line with US efforts to

supply and train Iran's ethnic mi-norities to destabilise the Iranianregime," he said.

Other observers feel this is obvi-

ous. John Pike, head of Washing-ton's Global Security think tank,stated flatly that, having observedthe recent separatist escalation, "itwould be a scandal if that was notat least in part the result of CIAactivity".

If the reports are true - andWash-ington officially denies the allega-tions - the US is embarking on abafflingly foolish course. Theseseparatist militias are known forresorting to terrorist methods. One,the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, which hasa long history of anti-regime vio-lence, is listed by the US StateDepartment as a terrorist organisa-

tion. Yet Pike believes that "a fac-tion within the Defence Departmentwants to unleash them". There isan obvious philosophical incongru-ity in a nation proclaiming to theworld that it is fighting a war onterror while funding perpetrators ofit.

Any policy that seeks to exploitthem as proxy fighters against theIranian regime is necessarily oneof pure political convenience, notphilosophical conviction.

But beyond the philosophical, thispromises to be a strategic disaster.Here is an array of militant groupswith no ideological confluence.They share no aspirations beyondthe removal of Mahmoud Ahmadi-nejad's regime and certainly shareno philosophical alliance with theUS. Nothing is more predictablethan that such militias, at somepoint, will turn savagely against theUS after accepting its money. The

US has been here before, mostfamously in the 1980s. The enemyback then was the Soviet Union.

One beneficiary of US assistancewas a man by the name of Osamabin Laden.

Spanish philosopher George San-tayana's contention that "thosewho cannot remember the past arecondemned to repeat it" is as wiseas it is ignored. For all the obvioussense in Santayana's dictum, it is agreater challenge to identify thosewho have managed to avoid re-peating the blunders of their pastthan to name those who have not.It seems the one constant of his-tory is that we refuse its lessons.

But today our amnesia is becomingincreasingly extreme. These alle-gations, if true, reveal that, morethan forgetfulness of the past, weare even forgetting the present.The elements of Iran's politicalterrain noted above should soundfrighteningly familiar. Here we havean artificially created nation with ill-conceived post-colonial bordersthat have fostered a range of dis-parate militant factions. This is

precisely what prevails in Iraq. Tobankroll an escalation of this is tocourt yet another apparently intrac-table civil war. If Ahmadinejad'sregime is weakened, the resultantpower vacuum is likely only toheighten the violence. There ismuch about this that should troubleus, not the least of which is thethought that not only has the Bushadministration executed a monu-mental foreign policy blunder inIraq, it may be quite happy to re-peat it.

And what if Washington's denialsare true? The lessons of Iraq mustsurely still be heeded. True, asCondoleezza Rice reminds us, Iranis not Iraq. But the similarities aresufficiently concerning and thedifferences more so. A militaryinvasion - as Vice-President DickCheney quite openly mooted dur-ing his recent trip to Australia -particularly if it results in regimechange, also risks precipitatinganother civil war from which the US


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Country that forgets the past creates another Osama bin Laden (cont)

I raqi Cleric: MKO TO BE EXP ELLED SOON Ali Mohsen

Razi/Barasa news agency,

March 17 2007

Friday prayer leader of Ba-

rasa mosque in Iraq, Jalalal-Din Al-Saghir, said onFriday that, "MKO will beexpelled from Iraq in thenear future because it was

a terrorist organization in-volved in killing Iraq peopleduring Sha'banieh uprisingand also participated inother crimes of SaddamHussein. This organizationis repeating its crimes in

Diyalah province".

"Iraqi government will soon

submit a request to the UNaccording to which it couldexpel the MKO from Iraq toanother country."

He also added that he hadvisited Nuri Al-Maliki last

week to discuss the issueas well as the fact that Di-yalah has become a safehaven for terrorists.


will never satisfactorily disentangleitself, and from which whatever isleft of its goodwill in the region willbe comprehensively shredded.

It is worth remembering what thatmeans: providing another battle-ground and another rallying pointfor terrorist groups, and increasingthe terror risk accordingly, withoutany accompanying, foreseeablesolution.

Alternatively, the process of regimechange would be a much bloodierand costlier affair than that in Iraq.Iran is a proud nation with greatertechnological capacity than Sad-

dam Hussein's Iraq. Any differ-ences between the invasion of Iraqand an invasion of Iran are likelyonly to be negatively so.

If there is a time for the Bush ad-ministration to discover the ancientart of diplomacy, it is now. It hastaken four taxing years in Iraq forthe US to accept, finally, that it mayneed to begin talking with stake-holders in the region whom it haspreviously dismissed as evil,namely Iran and Syria. The an-nouncement this month that the USwill attend a ministerial-level meet-ing in April about the future of Iraqwith representatives from across

the Middle East and the UN Secu-rity Council powers is a welcomerelief. It is as yet unclear whetherthe talks will also encompass Iran'snuclear program, which is ostensi-bly prompting the US to consider amilitary response.

Still, we can only hope this repre-sents a new, more collaborativephase in US thinking on foreignpolicy in the region rather than anaberration. Sense and history arecalling.

Waleed Aly is the author of People Like Us (Picador), to be published later this year.


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Britain, House of Lords,

March13, 2007

L o r d Av e b u r y (Liberal Democrat) |

Hansard source

asked Her Majesty'sGovernment :

What action theyhave taken to com-ply with the rulingof the EuropeanCourt of First In-stance in the caseOrganisation desModjahedines duPeuple d'Iran vCouncil of the Euro-pean Union , annul-ling Council Deci-sion 2005/930/ EC of 21 December2005 freezing thefunds of the organi-sation; and in what

AddressE.mail: [email protected] 14395/679, Tehran

Fax: 88 96 10 31

BriefingPublicationof NeJatSociety

manner they willnow provide for thefull hearing of thecase against theorganisation.

Lord Triesman (Parliamentary Under-

Secretary, Foreign &

Commonwealth Office) |

Hansard source

On 12 December2006, the Court of First Instance (CFI )of the EuropeanCommunity an -nulled the Council

of the EuropeanUnion's decision toadd the Mujahedinne Khalq (MeK, alsoknown as OMPI orPMOI ) to its list of terrorist organisa-tions subject to anE U -wide as se tfreeze. The CFI

judgment focusedon issues of EUprocedure; theCourt did not ruleon the substantivequestion as towhether the MeK isa terrorist group.

The specific Councildecision of Decem-

ber 2005 annulledby the Court hasbeen replaced by asubsequent Councildecision of May2006. The EU-wide

asset freeze againstMeK is thereforestill in force. TheEU keeps its terror-ist asset freezingdecisions underregular review.

Following the CFIdecision on the MeKcase in December,the EU has re-viewed the listing,

using improvedprocedures, and on30 January reaf-firmed its decisionto include the MeKon its list of terror-ist organisations. Inline with theCourt's require-ments, it has writ-ten to the groupsetting out the rea-sons for the deci-sion, and explaininghow the group canexercise its right toprovide further in-formation relevantto the case and/orpetition for delist-ing.

The EU-wide asset freeze against MeK is thereforestill in force

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