[R-G] "50,000" Morons in Paris for MEK, or So MEK Claims

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

MEK claims that "50,000" came to Paris to march for them.  Is it
possible that there are so many morons in Europe? -- Yoshie

<http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/01/asia/iran.php>
Rally in France protests EU stance on anti-Tehran group

The Associated Press
Sunday, July 1, 2007

VILLEPINTE, France: Thousands of people rallied near Paris over the
weekend to protest a recent European Union decision to keep an Iranian
opposition group on a terror blacklist.

Supporters of the People's Mujahedeen of Iran came to the rally from
around Europe on Saturday, many on buses. The group said that up to
50,000 people had taken part. Police figures were unavailable late
Sunday.

The People's Mujahedeen, which is also on a U.S. State Department's
list of terrorist groups, seeks the overthrow of Iran's Islamic
government.

The Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein allowed the group, also known as the
Mujahedeen Khalq, to operate camps there, from which it staged attacks
in Iran.

The group, whose leader is based in Auvers-sur-Oise, north of Paris,
asserts it is a peaceful movement of exiled opponents of the Iranian
government. It also says that its militants in Iraq have surrendered
to U.S.-led forces.

Maryam Rajavi, head of the National Council of Resistance, the
political wing of the group, denounced the EU decision. She also said
that recent unrest in Iran over a government fuel-rationing plan was "
the true picture of a discontented society on the verge of exploding."

Iranians broke shop windows last week and set fire to more than a
dozen gas stations in the capital, Tehran, and other cities amid
protests of the rationing, which took effect midnight Tuesday.

Rajavi said the refusal Thursday by the 27-nation EU to take her group
off its terror list was aimed at appeasing the clerical leadership of
Iran.

"EU, shame on you!" chanted the crowd, under a huge banner reading "A
free Iran with Maryam Rajavi."

The People's Mujahedeen asserts that the EU has refused to apply an
order last year by the European Court of Justice that annulled a 2002
decision to place the group on the terrorist blacklist and order its
assets frozen. The group is seeking more than $1.35 million in damages
from the European Union.

EU legal experts maintain that the Court of Justice ruling focused on
procedural problems and did not imply that the group must be taken off
the blacklist.

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela told his Iranian counterpart Sunday
that the two oil-producing states, which have forged close ties in
opposition to the United States, should cooperate to defeat
imperialism, news agencies reported.

Chávez and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who both regularly condemn
the U.S. government, met during an official visit by the Venezuelan
leader to the Islamic Republic. Chávez arrived in Iran on Saturday
after visiting Russia and Belarus.

The Venezuelan president, who wants to forge an alliance of leftist
states to counter U.S. policies, told Ahmadinejad, according to the
official Iranian news agency IRNA: "Cooperation of independent
countries such as Iran and Venezuela has an effective role in
defeating the policies of imperialism and saving nations."

Chávez, who is using his country's oil wealth to promote social
spending and nationalization of strategic industries in his country
and elsewhere in Latin America, backs of Iran's nuclear program, which
is under United Nations sanctions.

Ahmadinejad, whose country is embroiled in an standoff with the West
over that program, took a similar line.

"The pillars of the global arrogance have become shaky," he told
Chávez, adding that "victory" could be achieved "with resistance and
standing firm.

"Global arrogance" is a term Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials
use to refer to the United States and its allies, but like Chávez he
did not name America in comments published by IRNA.
--
Yoshie