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Update: September 12, 2016
The four-and-a-half-year-long process of relocating members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK) to countries of safety was successfully completed on September 9, 2016 when the last 280 Camp Liberty residents left Iraq for Albania.
NCRI. “MEK resettlement from Iraq marks another blow for the Iranian regime.” September 10, 2016.
Displacement is not a “win”, but give the “People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran” its due: it appears to BackChannels as one of very few organizations that have moved from U.S. status as a terrorist organization to de-listing on that score. In the years tracked here, it has consistently spoken a democratic-egalitarian and peace line, so here it may be considered good that the people involved have found a less contentious and more secure home.
Posted to YouTube December 16, 2014.
Khamenei, Ahmadinejad, and Rouhani do not represent our nation Iran. The Iranian regime holds the record in the number of executions. It holds and is a symbol of bankrupt terrorism. It must be overthrown. This the verdict of history. This is what 120,000 martyrs of freedom have called for. This is the message of our gathering today: religious fascism must be overthrown.
Posted to YouTube June 27, 2014
And even though I want to believe that no Judiciary seeks to execute innocent people, the Iranian system makes the likelihood of unfair trials and arbitrary killings unacceptably high. Iranians are routinely subject to arbitrary detentions, beating and interrogations without the presence of a lawyer, vaguely worded national security laws, and prejudiced institutions that fail to protect them.
http://blog.iranrights.org/no-more-talk-its-time-for-iran-to-act-roya-boroumand/ – 10/16/2014.
HRANA News Agency – After seven months of Saeed Shirzad’s arrest, he is still kept as detainee and under uncertain condition. His attorneys are not permitted to review his case.
https://hra-news.org/en/saeed-shirzad-seven-months-evin-prison-without-trial – 1/13/2015.
An informed source regarding Nahid Gorji’s condition, told HRANA’s reporter, “She used to have contact with her daughter every week, but since three weeks ago she has not been allowed to make a phone call and has had no visit with her family which has made her family and relatives worried.”
https://hra-news.org/en/nahid-gorji-contact-family-since-3-weeks-ago – 1/13/2015.
HRANA News Agency – Atena Dayemi, civil rights and children’s rights activist, is still being kept in solitary confinement after nearly three months.
According to Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Atena Dayemi who was arrested on October 21, 2014 in her house and transferred to ward 2-A in Evin Prison which is controlled by IRGC, is still being kept in solitary confinement although the interrogation process has been finished.
https://hra-news.org/en/atena-dayemi-still-kept-solitary-confinement – 1/10/2015.
This abominable crime has a special character: the savage assassination of writers and journalists under the name of Islam. For this reason, on behalf of the Iranian people and Resistance, I condemned this crime in strongest possible terms and state as a Muslim woman that the religion of Islam and the conduct of its great Prophet reject such acts of barbarism.
Today, the people of France hold a great gathering of solidarity, which we also participated, and we express our solidarity with them.
Eric Shawn: You mentioned the nuclear issue and of course, July 20th is a deadline for the nuclear agreement. Do you think Tehran can be trusted?
Maryam Rajavi: Certainly not. The mu↑llahs are masters of deception, duplicity and charlatanism. For this reason they can in no way be trusted. You know full well that Rouhani, himself, acknowledged during the election campaign that he had deceived the West in order to continue the nuclear activities inside Iran while the West being misled that thee regime has engaged in negotiations in order to halt their nuclear program. Therefore, they cannot be trusted.
“Interview with Maryam Rajavi with Fox New,” July 4, 2014.
Where is the parade?
Am I standing where I am waiting for it?
Or has it already passed, and I am watching the stragglers?
I don’t think I am watching the stragglers, but I have been watching this parade for a while.
Additional Reference
My ears have been seduced, for Rajavi speaks well. However, the MEK past and perhaps her own present online behavior or encouragement of behavior carries forward a whiff of “KGB-itis” in the malignantly narcissistic signal of faith and investment in control of constituent perception through unsavory manipulations in information space.
___
Of course, when on the internet, like-minded people, especially those who strongly support parties or causes, will naturally act in a like-minded way; changing their pictures to similar ones, using similar backgrounds and slogans, etc.
But these accounts are literally identical in almost every respect. Similar pictures, similar slogans, similar lack of any personal touch whatsoever, and all devoted to either retweeting or paraphrasing Mrs Rajavi’s every word.
https://unfetteredfreedom.wordpress.com/2014/12/02/rajavis-cyber-army-the-meks-twitter-legions/ – 12/2/2014.
Throughout the decade, the MEK orchestrated terrorist attacks against the state that killed several Americans working in Iran, including military officers and civilian contractors, according to the U.S. State Department. (By 1978, some 45,000 of the 60,000 foreigners working in Iran were Americans.) The MEK denies any involvement with these incidents, asserting that they were the work of a breakaway Marxist-Leninist faction, known as Peykar, which hijacked the movement after the arrest of Rajavi.
Some analysts support this. “Rajavi, upon release from prison during the revolution, had to rebuild the organization, which had been badly battered by the Peykar experience,” said Patrick Clawson, director of research at the Washington Institute, in a CFR interview.
http://www.cfr.org/iran/mujahadeen-e-khalq-mek/p9158 – 7/28/2014.
Reprints
Iran – References to the Serial Murders and Related – From April 22, 2009
Note: Website Human Rights & Democracy for Iran is located today at the following address:
* * *
Yesterday, I listed a few names, most from Morteza Abolalian’s list, and here, reporting and commenting in reverse, I’ve started to get to know them better–who they were, how they lived–if possible.
So far, I’ve found web material scant.
There’s something wrong, of course, when my page comes up top on a Google search for any of the persons murdered allegedly, an appropriate term one must use even if reluctantly, by the Iranian state.
Politically, each name affords a window into the history and machinery of the Islamic revolution in Iran, most past, some nearly present.
From an empathic standpoint, one would wish to know them better, and that whether they were bad in some way or remarkably good. Such work has been undertaken by Human Rights & Democracy for Iran (http://www.iranrights.org/english/) through its undertaking “Omid”, in translation from Persian, “Hope”:
“Omid’s citizens were of varying social origins, nationalities, and religions; they held diverse, and often opposing, opinions and ideologies. Despite the differences in their personality, spirit and moral fiber, they are all united in Omid by their natural rights and their humanity. What makes them fellow citizens is the fact that one day each of them was unfairly and arbitrarily deprived of his or her life. At that moment, while the world watched the unspeakable happen, an individual destiny was shattered, a family was destroyed, and an indescribable suffering was inflicted.”
Source: “Omid, a memorial in defense of human rights in Iran”: http://www.iranrights.org/english/memorial.php
Our World Wide Web becomes memory for all humanity.
A week or two back I added this from writer Milan Kundera to my blog (bottom of the column on the right):
“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
I may perhaps owe my own some work, but I don’t wish to dwell too much on that.
At the level of mind, we are a rapidly evolving species, cross-communicating, sorting, crystallizing, and we know injustice in one place is felt and has meaning in other places.
I’ve started working down the list I’ve got, but I can see that in the way of the web or human-to-web-to-human interaction, I’ve obligated myself to spend some time at Omid and appreciate the stories there.
The common denominator for all listed in relation to state repression is all were cheated of their lives, their works, and their voices in their greater potential.
This morning started out as quest for references, but even on the web and reading swiftly, one may travel only so far in two or three hours.
Reference
Abdolalian, Morteza. List of those believed murdered by the Iranian government as part of “Ghtlhaye Zanjirehei” or “chain murders”. Iran Watch Canada, November 26, 2006: http://moriab.blogspot.com/2006/11/these-are-people-who-have-_116460629705367011.html
Absolute Astronomy. “Ahmad Tafazzoli”: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Ahmad_Tafazzoli
Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf. “Aristoo and Bahram, Martyrs.” Circa 2008:http://www.cypgulf.org/Prayer/January-June%202008/Aristoo-Bahram.htm
FarsiDictionary.com. Promotion or review of _The Spirit of Wisdom: Menog I Xrad: Essays in Memory of Ahmad Tafazzoli_ by Mahmoud Omidsalar, A. Tafazzoli, Touraj Daryaee, Mazda Publishers, 2003:http://www.farsidictionary.com/reviews-books-11568-1568591462-1-The_Spirit_of_Wisdom_Menog_I_Xrad_Essays_in_Memory_of_Ahmad_Tafazzoli.html . The review may be both telling and chilling:
“The book in essence is a memorial volume in honour of Professor Ahmad Tafazzoli (1937-1996), containing nineteen articles by prominent scholars in the fields of Iranology, Ancient Persian Studies and Onomastics, on topics of Zoroastrianism, Ancient Iranian Religions, History of Ancient Persia, Studies in Middle Persian, Pazand and Sogdian texts. Prof. Tafazzoli himself contributed scholarly works in Middle Persian and Classical Persian Studies. The book contains a frontispiece of Prof. Tafazzoli and a bibliography of his published works and it is indeed unfortunate that the editors have opted to omit his works in the Persian language from that bibliography.”
Forein Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran: http://ncr-iran.org/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
Hatley, Karen. “Biography of Haik Hovsepian-Mehr.” Truett Journal of Church and Mission. Baylor University, Waco, Texas. January 24, 2005: http://www.baylor.edu/Truett/journal/index.php?id=20622
Iran Terror Database: “Partial List of Victims of the Mullahs’ Regime Terrorist Activity Abroad 1979 – 1999”. July 19, 2005: http://www.iranterror.com/content/view/37/55/
National Council of Resistance of Iran. “Brief on Iran, No. 545.” November 22, 1996: http://www.iran-e-azad.org/english/boi/05451122.96
OMID: A Memorial in Defense of Human Rights. “Mr. Amir Ghafuri”: http://www.iranrights.org/english/memorial-case-29321.php
Rafizadeh, Shahram. “A Caricature of Justice: Contradictions and Inconsistences in the Cases of the Political Serial Murders.” Gozaar – A Forum on Human Rights and Democracy in Iran, November 20, 2007:http://www.gozaar.org/template1.php?id=866&language=english
Rafizadeh, Shahram. “The Mystery of the Serial Murders.” CyrusNews.com, November 29, 2005:http://www.cyrusnews.com/news/print/?l=en&mi=1&ni=370
Wikipedia. “Alireza Noori”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alireza_Noori
Wikipedia. “Hassan Dehqani-Tafti”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Dehqani-Tafti
Wikipedia: “Ahmad Tafazzoli”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Tafazzoli
* * *
From April 21, 2009 —
Iran – The Mute
Abdolaziz Bajd
Abdolaziz Kazemi-Vajd
Afkham Sadeghi
Afshin Shabanian
Ahmad Miralaei
Ahmad Mirin Sayad
Ahmad Tafazzoli
Amir Ghafuri
Anvar Samadian
Aristoo Sayyeh
Bahman Totonchi
Bahram Dehqani-Tafti
Bishop Husepian Mehr
Dariush Frouhar and Parvaneh Eskandari
Ebrahim Zalzadeh
Falah Yazdi
Fakhrosadat Borgheei
Farough Farsad
Farzin Maghsudiou
Fatemeh Ghaem-maghami
Father Michallian
Father Mohammad Bagher Yusefi
Firouz Nima
Foroud Burbur
Freidoon Frouhari
Gholam Ali Pishehkolah
Ghafar Hosaini
Hadi Taghizadeh
Haj Ghasem Shafiei
Haj Hossain Fatahpoor
Hamed Masiha
Hamid Hajizadeh
Hossein Barazandeh
Hossain Sarshar
Hossain Shahjamali
Hossain Sharifi
Jalal Mobinizadeh
Jamshid Partovi
Javad Sarkhosh
Javad Emami and Sonia Alyasin
Javad Safar
Karim Jeli ad Fatemeh Emami
Karoon Hajizadeh
Kazem Sami
Khosro Besharati
Majid Sharif
Manuchehr Saneei
Maryam Motaghi
Masumeh Mosadegh
Mohammad Jafar Poyandeh
Masoud Tafazzoli
Mehdi Dibaj
Mehdi Khanipoor
Mohammad Mokhtari
Mohammad Reza Safaei
Mohammad Taghi Zehtabi
Mojtaba Mehrasbi
Mola Mohammad Rabiei
Morteza Alian Najafabadi
Parviz Khaksar
Pirouz Davani
Rahmatolah Dadashi
Reza Ziaeinia
Rostami Hamedanian
Said Gheidi
Said Sirjani
Seyed Ahmad Khomeini
Seyed Ebrahim Beizaei
Seyed Mahmoud Maydani
Seyed Mahmoud Taleghani
Shabnam Hossaini
Shahpoor Zandnia
Shamsodin Amiralaei
Shamsodin Kiani
Sheikh Mohammad Ziaei
Siamak Sanjari
Zahra Eftekhari
Zahra Kazemi
Zohreh Izadi
—
Tell how they lived.
Tell how they are living.
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There are more resources online today than when the above list, culled from online, was compiled.
There are also more victims for the regime. In one of the above clips, Maryam Rajavi put the number of regime executed political martyrs at above 120,000, with 30,000 killed shortly after the taking of power in 1988.
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