Javad Firouzmand

AKA - Afshin Boroumand, Mohammed Javad Firoozmand

Javad Firouzmand was a member of the National Liberation Army when he was arrested in July 2001 by Iraqi authorities after leaving Camp Ashraf in a stolen vehicle.  Inside were weapons, communication gear, and money belonging to the PMOI.  The police wanted to prosecute Firouzmand.  He expressed remorse and pleaded with the PMOI to allow him to return to the compound.  They consented, intervened on his behalf, and brought him back to Camp Ashraf.1

In April 2004, Firouzmand tried to sneak out of the compound, which at the time was under the control of U.S. forces.  Why he tried to do so is unknown.  There was no restriction to leaving the facility and persons only had to complete a specified interview process before departure was granted.  Firouzmand was apprehended by guards and on March 9, 2005 he was repatriated to Iran.

Soon thereafter Firouzman appeared in Europe, claiming to have been a senior member of the PMOI.  In July 2005, Firouzman participated in a press conference in Paris with MOIS agent Karim Haqqi.  Firouzman alleged he had escaped from Camp Ashraf and had returned to Iran with the assistance of the International Red Cross.  He also claimed he had illegally escaped from Iran, traveled to Turkey, and finally made his way to Europe.

Stabbing

In June 2007, Firouzmand and other MOIS agents were scheduled to attend a meeting in Paris.  Several Iranian dissidents at the site were attacked and wounded.  The police arrested Hossein Sobhani and two other MOIS agents and the meeting was cancelled.

Also at the meeting were Jahangir Shadanlou, Masoud Khoddabandeh, Anne Singleton, Mehdi Khoshhal, Ali Qashqavi, Hossein Sobhini, and Hadi Shams Haeri. 

Anne Singleton

Anne Singleton says she was introduced to Iranian resistance groups through a boyhood friend named Ali, while she was studying English at Manchester University in 1979.  At the time "it all seemed so exciting," she said.  She wanted to help "do some good" so she "decided to convert to being Muslim."1 

Singleton joined the London branch of the Muslim Iranian Society (MISS), which supported the PMOI.2

After finishing her degree in English Language and Literature, she said she was employed in various jobs.  In 1989, she moved to London to work as a computer programmer and in public relations.3

Singleton said she traveled to Iraq in 1992 for military training and later was sent to Sweden to work in public relations for the PMOI.  She claimed she became disaffected with the PMOI in 1993 and took a part-time job as a college administrator.5

In 1996, Singleton left the MEK and the following year married Massoud Khodabandeh, who also had recently departed the organization.6

In 1998, Khadabandeh traveled to Singapore where he met representatives of the MOIS, according to his brother, Ebrahim, also a member of the PMOI. 

"It was then that Massoud Khodabandeh was recruited and began to act as an agent of the Ministry of Intelligence.  His instructions were to act against the Iranian opposition and refugees living in Britain and other parts of Europe."7

To force Massoud's cooperation, the MOIS reportedly threatened to confiscate the extensive property of his mother in Tehran.8

In 2001, Singleton travel to Tehran, where she met with MOIS agents.  She reportedly remained in the city for more than a month, at which time she was trained by the MOIS.  She returned to England and not long thereafter launched the Iran-Interlink website.  Ebrahim was astonished by her trip.

“I found that [her travel to Iran] surprising because, generally speaking, those Iranians (or their spouses) who are opponents of the regime, do not travel to Iran under any circumstances (for instance even to see dying relatives or to sort out property and other matters).”9

Ebraham said “any known opponents of the regime would be in danger if they traveled there for obvious reasons.”

“As someone who had been active in the PMOI (and thus an opponent of the regime), as well as the wife of someone who had been active in the PMOI, she would not have been safe (or indeed necessarily allowed to leave Iran) had she not received assurances frrom the regime.”10

In April 2003, Ebraham and Jamil Bassam, also a PMOI member, were arrested in Syria.  Both UK citizens, they were illegally extradited to Tehran two months later and imprisoned. 

In June 2004, Win Griffiths, a former Member of Parliament, traveled to Tehran to talk with Ebrahim and Jamil.  While at Evin prison, Griffiths ran into Anne Singleton.  In a witness statement he said:

"I was surprised to see Anne Singleton in Evin prison...She was moving around freely and was in direct contact with Iranian officials in the prison.  This is surprising when it is a known fact that the relatives of political prisoners find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to visit their relatives who are incarcerated."11

1) Iran-Interlink.org/?mod=view&id=1922

2) "About MOIS Publication 'Saddam's Private Army' and A Glance at Emma Nicholson's Activities Against Iranian Resistance."  Abbas Davari.  Amirkhiz Publishing - Ashraf.  July 2005.

3) Iran-Interlink.org/?mod=view&id=1922

4) Ibid.

5) Ibid.

6) Ibid.

7) "Witness Statement of Abrahim Khodabandeh."    Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission between The People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (Hossein Abedini) and Secretary of State for the Home Department.  November 12, 2002.

8) "Disinformation Campaign in Overdrive: Iran's VEVAK in High-Gear."  By Rabbi Dr. Daniel M. Zuker.  http://www.globalpolitician.com/print.asp?id=3386

9) "Witness Statement of Abrahim Khodabandeh."    Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission between The People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (Hossein Abedini) and Secretary of State for the Home Department.  November 12, 2002.

10) Ibid.

11) "Witness Statement of Winston James Griffiths."  Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission between Lord Alton of Liverpool & Others and Secretary of State for the Home Department.  July 4, 2007.

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Nowrouz-Ali Rezvani

AKA - Nooruz Ali Rezvani, Nasser Rezvani

Nowrouz-Ali Rezvani that was in the NLA bases for a few years was recruited by the MOIS and worked closely with Seed Emami and Nasseer Khajeh-Nouri, according to Jamshid Tafrishi, a former MOIS agent who defected.

Rezvani left the resistance organization in 1992, claiming he was disillusioned with the Iran-Iraq War.  He resettled in Germany and soon after began to make false allegations against the PMOI.  He claimed he had been imprisoned and tortured by the resistance group after objecting to the killing of ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq and Muslim rebels in the south.

Rezvani is best known for a fabricated story about the PMOI published by the Canadian Ottawa Citizen on November 17, 2001.

Ottawa Citizen Disinformation Article

A 4,000 word article by the Ottawa Citizen, based on false documents created by the MOIS, alleged the PMOI was “secretly harboring Saddam Hussein’s arsenal of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons."1

Rezvani, in an "exclusive interview," claimed he personally had witnessed “the transportation of chemical and atomic materials from the factory in the vicinity of the cities of Samara and Takrit to the Ashraf base near the city of Baghobeh, in the Alazim Region, and also the transportation of 17,000 chemical and nuclear ammunitions from Division 7 of the Iraqi Army to the Ashraf base.”

Rezvani said the PMOI was part of a massive effort to “gather weapons of mass destruction to annihilate North America and Europe.”  To bolster his story, he provided the newspaper with “hand-drawn maps detailing the top-secret locations of Saddam’s arsenal of mass destruction.”

Rezvani said “United Nations weapons inspectors have repeatedly been denied access to the mojahedin camps since April 1999, when the UN Security Council established the terms of the Gulf War ceasefire agreement.”

Rezvani confessed he “had kept his knowledge secret for years out of fear for his safety, and that of his family.  He said he was finally moved to make the information public in the interests of world peace”

Rezvani indicated many chemical weapons were stored in a cave south of a PMOI base in Iraq.  Rezvani said “Documents and computer files are said to be kept under heavy watch here.  The rest of the top-secret base is said to store nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.”

The Ottawa Citizen contacted the NCRI for a comment about the allegations and was told that Rezvani was a MOIS agent and his allegations were “a bunch of lies.”  Still the newspaper went ahead with the story.  The NCRI was vindicated several years later when U.S. authorities confirmed Saddam Husssein had never amassed a stockpile of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. UN weapons inspectors had not been denied access to the PMOI camps.  The United National Special Commission (UNSCOM) conducted numerous ground and aerial inspections of PMOI camps, finding nothing suspicious.  In fact, the inspections were welcomed by the NCRI to dispel MOIS charges that it was hiding WMDs.  

Human Rights Watch & Amnesty International

Rezvani later made contact with Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, according to Mahmoud Masoudi, a former MOIS agent to disclosed operations against the PMOI in a 2002 letter to Rudd Lubbers, then the UN High Commissioner for Refugees:

“One of the ringleaders of the meeting with Amnesty International’s representative was a man called Ali Rezvani, who was in constant contact with Khajeh-Nouri.  After 1995, Rezvani, under Intelligence Ministry’s instructions and the scenarios given to him by the Ministry, gave horrific, fabricated accounts of human rights violations by the Mojahedin to Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and other human rights organizations.”

Karim Haqqi Moni

 AKA – Karim Haqi, Karim Haqgi Moni, Karim Haqqi Moni, Karim Haghi Moni

Karim Haqqi was likely recruited by the MOIS in late 1994.  He had been a member of the National Liberation Army in Iraq before the Gulf War.  In 1991, Haqqi complained he no longer could remain at Camp Ashraf due to physical reasons and asked to be transferred to Baghdad.  The PMOI accommodated the request and helped him and his family resettle in the capital city and later provided assistance when they moved to France in January 1993.1

A short while afterward the family moved once again, this time to the Netherlands, where Haqqi applied for asylum.  His last communication with the PMOI was in May 1993.2

In early 1995, Haqqi began to make regular contact with a MOIS agent named Maghsoudi at the Iranian Embassy in the Netherlands.  Several months later - and three years after leaving the PMOI - Haqqi publicly claimed he had been imprisoned and tortured by the PMOI.  He also falsely stated he had been a member of the PMOI for 15 years and was the “former head of personal protection of Maryam Rajavi."3 

UN Meeting

In January 1996, Karim Haqqi helped gathered together former PMOI members who later became MOIS agents for a meeting in Geneva with Professor Maurice Danby Capithorne, UN Special Representative of Iran.  The meeting's objective, according to Jamshid Tafreshi, who later defected from the MOIS, was to "accuse the Mojahedin of having prisons and committing torture, execution and violation of human rights...."4

Payvand

Karim Haqqi worked for Payvard, a front organization for the MOIS in the Netherlands.  Jamshid Tafreshi said in April 1996 "Karim Haqqi met with Saeed Emami in Singapore and Payvard publications was used as a cover to receive money for members of the network."5

MOIS Network

On the afternoon on February 1, 2000, an agent from the Dutch Internal Security Service paid a visit to Karim Haqqi at his residence in Elst and demanded to talk with him. As explained in a Dear Colleagues letter by Paulo Casaca MEP, Co-Chair or Friends of a Free Iran, the Dutch Internal Security Service had previously "interrogated him on several occasions and warned him about his contacts with and receiving money from the MOIS."6  The agent read off a list of names and said Haqqi and the others were part of a large network in Europe that was in regular contact with the Iranian regime.  The agent also said the Service knew the MOIS funded Payvand.  The agent told Haqqi "It would suit you better to stop this kind of work and go after your normal business and think about the future of your children."7

Human Rights Watch Report

Karim Haqqi was interviewed for the 2005 report on the MeK by Human Rights Watch.  Haqqi fabricated the story that he, his wife, and their six-month old child were confined in a building for six months.  He makes no mention of his relocation to Baghdad or France and instead alleges he was sent to a refugee camp outside the city of Ramadi called al-Tash and eventually received refugee status from Holland.8  He also lied when claiming his wife, Mohtaram Babai, was tortured in a Mojahedin prison and died after her release. 

According to Jamshid Tafrishi, a friend of Haqqi, Babai committed suicide after a relationship Haqqi had with another woman became public.  She felt shamed and disgraced.  A few days later she was found hanging from the ceiling in the bathroom of her residence.9

World Trade Center Bombing

Haqqi falsely alleged the PMOI was involved in the 1993 bombing of the WTC in New York City in 1993.  He said "Ramzi Yusef, who bombed the WTC building in New York in 1993, seems to have also planted a bomb in Mashad on the orders of the PMOI to kill dozens of people.” Haqqi also is quoted in an article on the Mahdis website alleging Saddam Hussein had hidden Iraq’s WMDs in PMOI camps for seven years.  He said the WMDs were located on a base called Simorg, which he claimed UN inspectors had never been allowed to inspect.10

Iranian Agents in the US?

In October 2005, the Iran Policy Committee issued a warning that Iranian intelligence agents had entered the US to spread disinformation.  One of the main agents identified by IPC was Karim Haqqi, a "veteran Iranian intellence agent" who "succeeded in duping Human Rights Watch...into fronting as a mouthpiece for Iranian intelligence.11