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Who is behind Iran-Interlink? |
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Wednesday, 09 November 2005 |
 "Iran-Interlink" identifies itself as:
Iran Interlink is a pressure group / support organisation which
provides a point of contact for families and friends of members of the
Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq. It informs about the real nature of the
Mojahedin as a religious/personality cult; exposes the Mojahedin’s
abuse of its members’ fundamental human rights; pinpoints
responsibility for the terrorist actions and human rights abuses of the
Mojahedin on leader, Massoud Rajavi; helps individuals who wish to
leave the Mojahedin to find refuge; assists those who leave the
Mojahedin come to terms with their experiences within and re-establish
themselves in the wider community; and reunites people who leave the
Mojahedin with their family and friends. Iran Interlink is based in
Leeds.
Massoud Khodabandeh and his British wife Ann Singleton run the site
from their home in Leeds. Both were formerly associated with the
dissident Iranian Mojahedin. Singleton was never a member it seems. She
became affiliated with Mojahedin supporters in London in the late 80’s
and eventually tagged along with some supporters to go to Iraq to visit
the Iranian opposition’s National Liberation Army camp for a two month
period in the early 90’s. The NLA was in Iraq since 1986 for the
purpose of offering viable resistance to the Iranian regime from the
only neighbouring state that was possible. Singleton left Iraq after
finding herself out of place in a struggle she really didn’t believe
in. Khodabandeh was with the Mojahedin until 1996 when he decided to
quit the struggle of his own free will and associated with supporters
for a brief period after that. Both had disassociated themselves from
the organisation quite freely after finding that a life of struggle
against the mullahs in Tehran was too difficult. The two married
sometime after that. Little was it known that the Iranian MOIS would
make an offer that they couldn’t refuse.
A short period after leaving the Mojahedin, Khodabandeh was recruited
by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) in a covert
operation run by the Elteghat (Eclectic) directorate of the MOIS in
Tehran. The aim of this operation was to entice, cajole, and bribe
former members of the resistance who had quit the struggle to turn
against their former comrades-in-arms. They would initially provide
intelligence for assassination attempts on resistance activists on
European soil and would later lead a vast disinformation campaign to
demonise the Mojahedin and ostracise them within Europe and the US
where they had a large following. It should be noted that possibly
hundreds of former members and supporters have left the ranks of the
Mojahedin in its 40 year history for personal reasons. But most still
continue to support the Mojahedin by attending protest actions,
providing financial support, and participating in grass-roots
activities to raise awareness about the issue of democracy in Iran. The
Khodabandehs however decided, like a handful of former members, to cast
their lot with the Iranian regime and get involved in the MOIS covert
operation.
Khodabandeh has a busy schedule making expensive trips to France,
Netherlands, Belgium, Malaysia and other places. He uses the trips to
militate against his former colleagues and present them as terrorists,
brainwashers, murderers, torturers, and a host of other unproven
allegations. In the political struggle between the Iranian opposition
and the Iranian regime of the ayatollahs, Khodabandeh likes to strike a
neutral tone, never offering any criticism of his government’s support
for terrorism, its support of fundamentalist groups, its irresponsible
policy of pursuing nuclear weapons, nor of the regime’s human rights
violations in Iran. Most would however say that his fervent attacks on
the Mojahedin belie his skewed political sympathies and question his
expensive lifestyle of jetting to various countries to attack a group
which in the general balance of power offsets the mullahs' murderous
rule over Iran.
The motive behind Iran-Interlink is even more suspect to Iranian
dissidents when it is learnt that Singleton travelled to Tehran in
winter 2002, prior to launching the website. On arrival at Tehran’s
Mehrabad airport, she met with Intelligence Ministry agents who were
interested in her background. It seems Singleton volunteered to help
save her new brother-in-law, Mr. Ebrahim Khodabandeh, who was later
arrested and extradited to Iran by Syrian authorities while in Syria on
the eve of the Gulf War. Ebrahim Khodabandeh has since recanted and is
actively engaged in a propaganda war against the PMOI. During her
month-long visit to Iran, Ms. Singleton met her mother-in-law and asked
her to exert pressure on her son (Ebrahim) to leave the Mojahedin.
Ebrahim’s mother later admitted to him that the regime allowed her to
leave Iran for a visit to the UK to see Ebrahim the previous year on
condition that she would “help” him leave the resistance and return to
Iran. Ebrahim Khodabandeh had while in London filed an affidavit in
court proceedings confirming that Ann Singleton and his brother had
setup Iran-Interlink at the behest of MOIS. |
