Free Republic

The Mujahedin al Khalq, or MKO, is, after the Iranian regime itself, the most hated group inside Iran. It allied with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to enable the Islamic Revolution but, after a falling out, launched a terrorist campaign inside Iran. The MKO also cast its lot with Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Its leader, Maryam Rajavi, rules with an iron fist over the organization and insists upon the same head covering that Iranians risk their lives to shed. Far from supporting women’s rights, the group tells women whom they can marry and forcibly divorces them. In short, it is a cult

A former Republican Congressman said he has left the party after working for the committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol saying, 'what I've seen behind the scenes has pushed me further away.' Denver Riggleman, 52, appeared on CNN's 'State of the Union' Sunday Riggleman worked as a technical adviser for the House select committee that is investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. 'What I've seen behind the scenes has pushed me further away. That the party has moved away from conservative principles to this cult of personality that Liz Cheney is talking...

The Trump administration issued the designation in 2019 A top Iranian resistance group is warning that any move to take the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps off the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list will "heighten terrorism and mayhem" in the region, amid fears the Biden administration will make such a move as part of negotiations to bring Iran back into the 2015 nuclear deal. "A potential IRGC exclusion from the FTO list and taking these individuals off the terror blacklist, as requested by Iran’s ruling theocracy, will no doubt heighten terrorism and mayhem in the region," the report by the...

In July, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) hosted a three-day conference to discuss the future of the Islamic Republic and the prospects for a change of government facilitated by the domestic activist community. Those prospects already appeared substantial in the wake of the previous month’s boycott of the country’s presidential election, which reportedly caused voter turnout to be the lowest in the four-decade history of the clerical regime. The boycott inspired NCRI members and supporters to conclude that pressure on the regime had not been seriously alleviated over the past year in spite of the fact that...

On Thursday, October 28, supporters of the People's Mujahidin ‎Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the National Council of ‎Resistance of Iran (NCRI) held a large conference in Washington ‎DC. The conference, titled, "2021 Free Iran Summit: Holding ‎Ebrahim Raisi Accountable for Crimes Against Humanity, ‎Genocide, Regional Meddling, and Nuclear Defiance," ‎ This conference, however, was significantly different from similar ‎meetings that were previously held in the United States. In this ‎ever-important gathering, in addition to distinguished American ‎personalities such as Senator Joe Lieberman, US Vice President ‎candidate (2000), Senator Torricelli, U.S. Senator (1997-2003), ‎Honorable Judge Michael Mukasey, 81st U.S. Attorney...

Human rights usually feature prominently in America's political rhetoric but fade insignificance when it comes to concrete action. That trend can take a historic turn when it comes to Iran, where a genocidal madman has taken the presidency. That the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi in Iran hasn't galvanized governments in the West and in the U.S. in particular to pursue his prosecution is still a mystery. Human rights groups, UN experts, Nobel laureates, scores of elected officials, lawmakers, and journalists have already expressed outrage over Raisi's rise to power. And justifiably so. In 1988, Raisi was one of the members...

The MKO’s tendency to cry wolf hinder and obstruct the real fights against the Iranian regime, Iranian terrorism, and the Islamic Republic’s covert nuclear program. The Mujahedin al-Khalq (MKO) formed against the backdrop of the anti-shah opposition in the 1960s and evolved to become an important component of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s revolutionary coalition. But Khomeini turned on the MKO as he consolidated his dictatorship. Unlike others forced out of power, persecuted domestically, or sent into exile, the MKO fought back: They both sponsored a terror campaign targeting regime officials—killing many innocent bystanders in the process—and they accepted Iraqi dictator Saddam...

While working on terrorism-related issues during my congressional career, I soon understood not only that Iran had earned its reputation as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, but also that the country’s leadership considered terrorism a viable replacement for standard political and diplomatic statecraft. A recent criminal court ruling in Belgium reinforces this fact. Since the time of the 1979 revolution, the use of proxies in terror operations abroad afforded the regime some measure of plausible deniability and made it more difficult for the U.S. or its allies to hold Iranian officials directly accountable. Still, it was shocking when...

A new academic paper studying the rise of violent, far-left extremist networks warns of the possibility of “attacks on vital infrastructure” and even a potential “mass-casualty event.” The Network Contagion Research Institute’s report warns that militant anarcho-socialist networks are instigating violence in ways that parallel Islamist terrorists and white supremacist groups. The NCRI’s alerts have proved prescient in the past: the institute released a report warning of spikes in anti-Semitic extremism shortly before the October 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue mass shooting that left 11 people dead. The new report, which was released on Sept. 14 has received little media...

On April 11, citizens of Iran began returning to work after an inexcusably brief nationwide lockdown. The coronavirus outbreak in Iran is the worst in the Middle East and possibly the world. Yet the Iranian regime moved more slowly and took less action that most others. The official death toll has already exceeded 5,000, but credible sources like the main opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) have concluded that the actual number of COVID-19-related fatalities is between five and 10 times this number. The brief lockdown notwithstanding, these dramatic estimates reflect gross mismanagement of the crisis from its...

The Iranian regime will hold its so-called parliamentary elections next Friday amidst mounting crises. The "elections" this year unfold in a radically different setting, with growing popular discontent and uprisings exacerbating an already dire situation for the regime. Braving systematic suppression and human rights, people in Iran usually vote on the streets. In their massive protests in November, they voted to change the regime in its entirety. Elections in one of the most repressive states in the world are nothing but a farce. The regime has effectively monopolized power through the concept of velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule). The supreme...

On Sunday and Saturday, for two consecutive days people of Iran, and students at different universities took to the streets, protesting the downing of the Ukrainian passenger airplane by the IRGC. The protesters were targeting the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and calling for the overthrow of the regime by chanting, “Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, resign, resign,” They also were chanting, “death to the dictator,” “Death to this murderous regime,” “Death to the oppressor, whether the Shah or the Leader (Khamenei),” “Soleimani was a killer and so is his leader,” “Death to this theocracy, for crimes in all these...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is limiting U.S. diplomats' contact with Iranian opposition groups, according to a cable sent to all U.S. diplomatic outposts Tuesday. Pompeo’s order says diplomats should not meet with Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) or five other groups because it could damage the United States' chances to negotiate with Iran,... “Direct U.S. government engagement with these groups could prove counterproductive to our policy goal of seeking a comprehensive deal with the Iranian regime that addresses its destabilizing behavior,” the cable said, according to Bloomberg. It also added that these groups “try to engage U.S. officials regularly to gain at...

Iran unleashed its proxies in Iraq to attack the US Embassy in Baghdad on the last day of 2019.  That speaks volumes about the nature of Tehran rulers. President Trump correctly held them accountable. The ayatollahs’ conduct at home and abroad has been utterly malign. Period. They stand out as one of the most pressing challenges the international community faces as we enter 2020. In November, major protests broke out in Iran. The regime's response was unprecedentedly brutal. International rights group Amnesty International condemned “the frequency and persistence of lethal force” deployed against peaceful demonstrations. Astonishingly, the death toll has...

Demonstrations by angry people in flood-affected areas of Iran are on the rise, according to a statement by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which highlights the call by Maryam Rajavi, president of the NCRI, for army and IRGC facilities to be made available to the population to save victims of the floods. The statement refers to the demonstration of angry people in Malashiyeh, a suburb of Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, against the presence of a Revolutionary Guard Commander (IRGC), Mohammad Reza Naghdi, in the region. The people affected by the floods shouted: “Get out! Ahvaz will remain free,” forcing...

Recently Facebook and Twitter revealed they had removed a network of accounts linked to the Iranian government that attempted to launch online Disinformation campaign. Microsoft said it seized 99 websites used by Iranian hackers to steal sensitive information and launch other cyber attacks. The company said the group, which it has been tracking since 2013, has tried to snoop on activists, journalists, political dissidents, defense industry workers and others in the Middle East, including some who were “protesting oppressive regimes” in the region. Hackers did so by tricking people in those organizations to click on malicious links disguised to resemble...

The American Iranian diaspora that stands against the regime in Iran last month came to New York, my city, as the international community does during the annual United Nations General Assembly meetings. For the ninth time, I had the honor of addressing them. We have an obligation to listen to what the Iranian people have been saying over the past nine months in their continuous nationwide protests. I am one of a large bipartisan group of former governors, mayors, military leaders, senior administration officials and members of Congress, who agree on one critical foreign policy, as the Iranian people do:...

Celebrating #GraduationDay ? See how it's celebrated in an all-girls school in Tehran #Iran Agents of Iranian regime's Guidance Patrol attacked girls at their graduation for celebrating and dancing! They were beaten in front of their parents' eyes. (June 20, 2018) #FreeIran2018 Video: Iranian Girls Beaten for Dancing and Celebrating During Graduation

Full title: Leaked meeting notes show how panicked Iranian regime considered stopping deadly protests: 'God help us'EXCLUSIVE – A leaked report provided to Fox News shows how Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with political leaders and heads of the country's security forces to discuss how to tamp down on the deadly nationwide protests. The report covered several meetings up to December 31 and was provided to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) from what it said were high level sources from within the regime. The meeting notes, which have been translated into English from Farsi, said...

The end result of Iran’s presidential election has created further rifts and launched a more intense power struggle amongst the regime’s senior ranks. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, fearing a repeat of the 2009 scenario of nationwide uprisings, failed to “engineer” the election results with the aim of unifying his regime apparatus. Khamenei sought to prepare conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi as his heir by first placing him in the presidency, similar to the process he himself went through. The elections, however, failed to provide such a finale and in fact prompted all candidates to unveil corruption in the most senior ranks....