MKO MIGHT HAVE PLANNING ANTI-US OPERATION IN FRANCE

PARIS, 25 June (IPS) Amidst piles of documents, millions of US dollars and hundreds of thousands of Euros discovered by the French anti-terrorist experts at various houses of the members and offices of the Iranian Mojahedeen Khalq Organiation (MKO) across France, as well as in their international Head Quarters in the dormant village of Auvers-Sur-Oise near Paris that was stormed last week by more than 1.300 French police and gendarmes, an ordinary map of Paris might talk more than the eleven high-ranking members of the Organisation sent to jail la week, including Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the 51 years-old co-leader of the MKO, according to a classified report prepared by France's counterintelligence service two weeks before the spectacular crackdown.

"There is nothing extraordinary in the map except that some streets, like la Rue Royale and la Rue de Boissy-d’Anglois that are close to the American Embassy and Consulate are marked", the centrist "Le Figaro" newspaper that published excerpts of the report on Tuesday said, adding that for the Police, the document could credit the thesis that the group was "up to some reconnaissance".

Although the paper did not say whether the MKO was planning any operation against American interests in France, but some Iranian intelligence experts in the Diaspora said the MKO, on orders from its former boss Saddam Hoseyn, might have been preparing operations against American interests in France and attribute them to the Islamic Republic of Iran, Washington’s staunchest enemy.

French counter-espionage agents had also discovered lists of Iranian agents operating in France as well as names of the MKO members that had deserted the group and were on a "hunting list", Le Figaro said, quoting the DST (French internal security organisation) report.

An Association of former members of the MKO, based in Arnheim, Holland, confirmed that report, saying that Rajavi and his wife had issued orders for the physical elimination of all deserters.

The Association said in the past, the MKO carried several assassination attempts on its former members, but blamed them on Iranian agents.

The organisation, whose goal is to overthrow the Islamic Republic by force of arms, has operated in France for more than two decades.

According to the report, the Organisation pays for its operations through fund-raising efforts that, while complex, may not be illegal, however, its main financier used to be Iraq, which over the years gave the group several hundreds million dollars, according to the report.

The organisation, according to the report, also uses a complex banking network in France, Europe, North America and the Middle East, particularly in the Persian Gulf Sheykhdom of Abu Dhabi.

In France, the organisation conducts many activities that have a clandestine, sect-like and unlawful character, even criminal", the report said.

Ms. Rajavi's detention has prompted daily demonstrations by some 300 members of the group, converging to Auvers-Sur-Oise from all over Europe, several of whom observing a hunger strike while five set themselves on fire in Paris, London, Rome and Bern, with two of them reported dead in a Paris and London hospitals.

Ms. Rajavi holds permanent refugee status in France until 2006, the report said, adding that she had returned from Iraq in April with other senior operatives with the intention of making the Auvers-Sur-Oise the global headquarters for the group's activities, including possible terrorist operations.

The MKO has denied the accusations, claiming that France was giving in to trade advantages promised by the ruling Mollahs.

The report, prepared by France's domestic intelligence agency, provides the fullest official description of the Iranian exile movement since the crackdown ten days ago.

"According to recent information, in case of a British-American attack", the report said, the Mojahedeen planned to "organise operations against Iranian targets within Europe (embassies, consulates), and to physically eliminate former members of the Organisation collaborating with Iranian intelligence services", the report said.

The report said many MKO members in France had traveled regularly to Iraq, where they received military and political training. "They often use false documents and vary their itineraries to avoid surveillance of their travels", the report added.

Members of the organisation's "Liberation Army", based in Iraq, regularly travel to the Organisation's HQ in Auvers-sur-Oise, and some veterans have become "established in France", the report said. ENDS MKO FRANCE 25603