Chapter 10
The terror of good and evil
The day after September 11, 2001 the Mujahedin Khalq was celebrating, says Yasser Ezati. ‘I have seen the planes fly into those towers a thousand times.’ That day Massoud Rajavi showed his real face. ‘Look what a conservative man from the mountains can do against the United States,’ he said to his army, ‘and we, with all of our equipment cannot do anything against Iran!’ This chapter looks at terrorism; are the Mujahedin Khalq a terrorist group, how do they compare with the groups in the Al-Qaida network, why do people think they need violence and terror to assist their case, how can believers, obsessed with good and evil, become murderers?
And also: how can Rajavi, after showing his joy at the attack on the United States, still agree to work with the Americans after they conquered Iraq and the Mujahedin camps? Was he working with them, while he served Saddam? How can the American neo-conservatives believe they can use the blatantly anti-American Mujahedin towards a regime change in Iran?
Final
The enemy of my enemy is my friend
Yasser Ezati remembers how months before the American invasion in Iraq Massoud
Rajavi spoke to his people. When the Americans conquer Iraq, most of the region will be under their command, except for Iran, he said. Ezati understood from this meeting that the Americans would help the Mujahedin to free the Iranian people.
Looking at what happened after the invasion, it seems the Americans went easy on the
Mujahedin Khalq. They controlled the entrance to Ashraf Camp, protecting hundreds of members who wanted to leave, but left Rajavi’s command in place. Mujahedin could still travel, and the contact between Europe and the camp was close.
American journalists report about CIA-plans for missions inside Iran to find nuclear sites and destroy them and so it will became clear the Mujahedin were meant to be involved in this. Rajavi, who has been silent in Ashraf Camp since the invasion, seems to have found a new friend- or to be more precise: an enemy of Iran whom he found to be a useful friend.