People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran

You know, the regime started executing political prisoners since March of this year in the middle of the war.

And most of those prisoners belong to the main Iranian opposition movement, the MEK, which is the same movement that exposed the nuclear sites of Iran that is now fighting the regime as acting as an engine for change in Iran.

No matter what the regime does, the people remain committed to change.

there are all kinds of protests going on across the country so everything is driven by the people inside iran and those things that oh you know this country or that country are arming people are doing this and that is nonsense because you know arms are there the people have access if they want them you know they can confront the revolutionary guards as they have been doing They've been trying to, the people have been trying to disarm the revolutionary guards, confront them, fight them during the protests.

that is very young, it's all over the country.

You have these resistance units.

These are mostly young people that are organized by the main Iranian opposition, the MEK, in all 31 provinces.

Now, things could be, you know, start very small.

That was interesting.

We got trained up to do detainee ops, and then when we landed in Kuwait, we got the word that we were being switched over to a place called Ashraf, and that was actually a FOB that held the People's Mujahideen of Iran, the PMOI, and they fought with Saddam against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, so Our main job was to take care of those that had defected from that organization, which were not detainees.

They were UN-recognized refugees.

So the National Guard unit, I think, was better equipped to deal with each of those individuals because they came from all around the world, as well as protect them and do runs into bigger cities to do banking things and stuff like that that the organization still needed to do before they all left, I believe, in like 2010, I believe.

Um, Katuzian was, was really contemptuous of the, um, the writing of the constitution, like who, who was brought in.

I mean, he used this term of like, um, like the backwoods imams or something like, you know, he seemed to be saying like, um, that there was um too much popular participation because of a of a lack of um expertise and um so you know i think that um one of the things that um he focused on as as one of the um sort of the lines of the left that um at first participated in the revolution but then um you know, through, especially in the war where groups like the MEK actually supported Iraq, you know, really disastrous decisions.

But that, you know, I think that there's so many strands.

I found that so fascinating.

It does have an organized force which has been fighting the regime, trying to undermine it.

There are what they call resistance units inside Iran that operated all 31 provinces belonging to the main Iranian opposition known as the MEK.

By the way, today is the 61st anniversary of the foundation of this organization that fought against the Shah's repression and also have been fighting against the theocracy in Iran.

They're gaining a lot of momentum inside Iran.

Uh, the US was directly involved in the war in funneling weapons and logistical support to the Iraqis.

And the MEK, Mujahidi- Mujahideen-e-Khalq, is known now, widely recognized as a US-backed, US-sponsored mercenary force.

Uh, an article was published by Seymour Hersh in the early two thousands about this, I think in The New Yorker, Our Men in Iran, where, where the Mujahideen, where he outlines that the Mujahideen was ac- is actually trained.

Their fighters, their mercenaries, were actually trained in the US, I think in Colorado.

Well, there's only one armed resistance group inside of Iran right now executing IRGC generals.

It's the MEK.

We spoke to Ali Safavi, a member of the MEK, about possibly working with Reza Pavlavi on the leadership of Iran.

Here was his answer.

As to Reza Pavlavi, to be honest with you, when it comes to any game plan for the future of Iran, Reza Pahlavi and his clique don't even have a seat on the bench.

And the thing is that they're talking about what, in 1988, mass executions.

My God, uh- We're talking about the MEK.

The MEK was allied with Saddam.

They invaded the country, and they lost.

Look up Operation Mersad, okay? Operation Mersad was the last land battle between Iraqi and Iranian forces.

And one of...

And they produce a ton of films and whatever, culture that Canadian state pays for.

One of them is this movie, I remember it to this day, called The Tree That Remembers, and it's basically this kind of morose, sad story of this guy who commits suicide, you know, and he was connected to the MEK stuff in the '80s and stuff.