a former terrorist

an introduction by Massoud Khodabandeh

2008-06-01T09:08:00.002+04:30

Mr. Arash Sametipour, recruited as a teenager by the MKO in Washington DC through their agent in the USA, Alireza Jafarzadeh. Sametipour was trained in the MKO's terrorist camps in Iraq before being sent to perform an armed operation in Tehran. He tried to kill himself at the time of his arrest by taking his cyanide pill and exploding a grenade. He survived but lost his right hand. He served 4.5 years of his sentence in Evin prison and is now continuing his study as well as working as a language teacher. Sametipour was recently married.

NPR

2008-06-01T08:54:00.000+04:30

Efforts to Return Exiles to Iran Problematic
(Mike Shuster reporting from Tehran)
NPR: Morning Edition, April 28, 2008
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89990562
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iran's government has regarded Camp Ashraf warily, but some Iranians are helping MEK members get back home. NPR's Mike Shuster reports from Tehran.
MIKE SHUSTER: Like Batul Soltani and thousands of others, Arash Sametipour could've been trapped in Camp Ashraf all these years. He joined the MEK in the 1990s, and in 2001 he was sent from Iraq into Iran to assassinate an Iranian general. The plot failed, he lost his right hand in a grenade explosion and was imprisoned in Iran.
Now he runs the Nejat Society in Tehran, a non-governmental group that helps former members of the MEK who want to get out of the organization. Recently Sametipour was in Baghdad to meet with some of them, who he agrees are in an impossible situation.
Mr. ARASH SAMETIPOUR: Since these people, they did not have any legal documents and the situation in Iraq was really critical for them, we decided to provide them any humanitarian help that we could, and I think we were successful in that point.
SHUSTER: Of the MEK militants in Camp Ashraf, more than 200 have left the camp on their own and have been living in the transitional camp the U.S. set up nearby. These people, Sametipour says, want to leave the MEK but don't necessarily want to return to Iran.
Iran's government still views the MEK as a threat and wants to see the group disbanded, according to Ali Resaid(ph), the director of the North America department of Iran's foreign ministry.
Mr. ALI RESAID (Iranian Foreign Ministry): They are a very serious and very dangerous terrorist group and it is recognized by European and even the U.S. government.
SHUSTER: Iran's government would like to take custody of the leaders of the MEK and put them on trial, says Sametipour.
Mr. SAMETIPOUR: They were involved in brainwashing process and terrorist operations inside Iran. Iranian authorities have announced that these people must be prosecuted in Iran. I think a list of 50 to 60 people are there who Iranians want them. They want them to be prosecuted.
SHUSTER: But it is the position of the Iranian government that the vast majority of those who live in Camp Ashraf are free to return to Iran without punishment, says Ali Resaid.
Mr. RESAID: For those of them who have repentance of their activities, also those of them who are not seriously involved with any assassination or these sort of things, we have amnesty for them.
SHUSTER: The Nejat Society has tested Iran's offer of amnesty. Arash Sametipour says his group has helped repatriate several hundred former MEK members, and he says they are now living normal lives in Iran.
Mr. SAMETIPOUR: Right after fall of Saddam Hussein, Iranian government had announced officially that there is an amnesty for those who are willing to return home. We have talked to many authorities over here and this is a truth that, you know, when they come back over here to Iran there won't be any prison waiting for them. They can just live like any other citizen.
SHUSTER: When Sametipour was in Iraq recently he concluded that the U.S. is not really sure what it wants to do with those in Camp Ashraf. Some in the U.S. government, he fears, may still be tempted to use them as a bargaining chip with Iran.
That may also be the case between the government of Iran and Iraq. The issue was on the agenda when Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, traveled to Baghdad in early March for talks with Iraq's president, Jalal Talibani. Iraq's government may simply take custody of these people if they are released by the U.S. In that case their fate may figure significantly in the future of relations between Iraq and Iran.
Mike Shuster, NPR News.

report

2008-06-01T08:50:00.001+04:30

Familiar Faces: Staff writer Scott Peterson has written several stories about Iran's largest opposition group in exile, the Mujahideen-e Khalq (the MKO or MEK). But this time when he checked up on those who had been trickling back to Iran from Iraq , he found a surprise at the offices of the Nejat or Rescue group that helps former MKO members reintegrate into civilian life in Iran.
Nejat is run by former MKO militants. Among them, Scott recognized Arash Sametipour, an English-speaker who had conducted a failed assassination attempt and then blown off his right hand while trying to kill himself to avoid capture.
"The last time I saw him, he was wearing a prison uniform in a Tehran jail," says Scott, who had interviewed Mr. Sametipour along with several other MKO prisoners. "Today he is the main liaison between Nejat and the Red Cross. He is now trying to find a home for those 100 or so MKO members who recently left Camp Ashraf in Iraq."
– David Clark Scott
World editor

who is MKO

2008-06-01T08:20:00.002+04:30

MKO was founded in 60s by some Islamic - leftist students. some were sympetizers of Iranian communist party (Tudeh) and others were extreme muslims.
most of the leaders were executed by the Shah`s Savak, while Mr Masoud Rajavi, the recent leader of MKO survived due to cooperating with Shah`s secret services.
After revoloution in Iran, Rajavi became the first and only leader of MKO.He Started armed struggle to obtain power in Iran. He gradually turned MKO to a cult of personality. He made a deal with Saddam and transfered his forces to Iraq (where 3200 MKO terrorists are kept in a military base called Ashraf)
Rajavi was lost after US attack to Iraq. while many believe that he is with the CIA; US policy towards this group is a confusion.
Good terrorists or bad terrorists...that is the question!

i was a terrorist

2008-05-29T11:32:00.000+04:30

i was a terrorist