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Profile: Voice of the Mojahed
December 12, 2003
The Voice of the Mojahed has been broadcasting for much of the last 22 years. Until April 2003 the station was believed to be located in Iraq. Since the overthrow of the Saddam Husayn regime by US-led coalition forces in April 2003, during which the station temporarily ceased broadcasting, Voice of the Mojahed has continued to be observed on shortwave frequencies, via satellite and the Internet.
First observed by BBC Monitoring in 1981, the Voice of the Mojahed (Seday-e Mojahed) advocates the overthrow of the government of Iran, which the radio describes as a "regime of Iranian clerics." Programmes are produced by the Iranian opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO). This is the largest group committed to the overthrow of the Tehran government. Formed in 1965 to oppose the Shah of Iran, the movement has developed its own philosophy combining Marxism and Islam, and advocates a secular government for Iran.
The group reportedly broadcast as "Patriotic Radio" via Libyan transmitters in the 1970s with programming aimed against the Shah, and the Voice of the Mojahed originally broadcast from the transmitters of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kordestan radio station.
In 1993 the MKO was subordinated to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCR). In 1997 the MKO, and in 1999 the NCR, were both classified as "terrorist" organizations by the US State Department. Besides postal addresses in Washington DC, London, Cologne and Baghdad, the Voice of the Mojahed for many years has had an address at Mojahedines du People d'Iran, 17 rue des Gords, F-95430 Auvers-sur Oise, France, some 40 kilometres north of Paris. French police arrested several people at that address in July 2003, accusing them of involvement in terrorism.
Programme content
The station announces at the start of transmissions: "The Voice of the Mojahed. The Voice of the Mojahedin-e Khalq of Iran. The Voice of Iran's National Liberation Army. The Voice of the Iranian people's new revolution." The station typically continues with more opening announcements and details of programmes contents: "Greetings to you dear listeners of the Voice of the Mojahed. We begin today's programme of the Voice of the Mojahed with conviction that the oppressive regime of the clerics will be overthrown, and the luminous light of freedom will be cast over our beloved homeland Iran."
News content is entirely critical of the Tehran government. Other programmes and themes of the station reflect the philosophy of MKO leaders. Readings from the writing of Mas'ud Rajavi, or profiles of personalities with communist/Marxist beliefs from the pre-revolutionary period in Iran predominate.
The Voice of the Mojahed is disliked by many Iranians. This is due to the clandestine support the MKO received from Iraq, and the direct military assistance given by the MKO to Iraqi forces during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
Transmission characteristics
Since 1981 the Voice of the Mojahed has used up to 16 shortwave transmitters, broadcasting the political message of the MKO on a wide range of frequencies, designed to reach Iran and the Iranian-speaking diaspora, in Europe and the Middle East. The broadcasts have always been jammed by Iran, and are well known for their characteristic "hopping" of frequencies, in steps of 5 or 10 kHz, in order to avoid the jamming. These frequency changes are followed within minutes by the jamming transmitters that also jump in 5 or 10 kHz steps. Several frequencies are used in parallel at any given time.
Unconfirmed location
The location of the studios and transmission facilities of the Voice of the Mojahed have not been publicly revealed. Political and broadcast observations indicate that the country of location has been Iraq. The Voice of the Mojahed suspended its operations following the normalization of relations between Iran and Iraq in August 1990. According to the "Tehran Times" newspaper, transmissions resumed on 3 May 1991. The station was reportedly closed again by the Iraqi government in November 2000, but was observed to have resumed broadcasting, again after a deterioration of political relations between the two governments, during 2002.
Audio from Radio Iraq International was observed being transmitted over Voice of the Mojahed frequencies when the station encountered technical difficulties in December 1999 and April 2000, indicating that the transmitters were in Iraq.
It has been widely reported in "hobbyist" publications that shortwave broadcasts originate from one of the five main Mojahedin camps in Iraq. These camps house several thousand MKO fighters and the largest camp, Ashraf, is close to Tikrit. It was reported during the 2003 Gulf war that the shortwave transmitters were located near Tikrit, and were bombed by US-led forces. This remains unconfirmed by BBC Monitoring, however, since the reported bombing there has been a reduction in the number of transmitters broadcasting the programmes of the Voice of Mojahed. From a reported maximum of 16 active transmitters in 1981, the number of active transmitters observed in December 2003 by BBC Monitoring is eight.
Broadcast behaviour and regime-change timeline
The station ceased broadcasting via all transmission platforms at the end of March 2003. It recommenced with 24-hour programming via satellite in mid-April after the fall of the Saddam Husayn regime on 9 April, with a further brief stoppage of satellite transmissions in June. Transmissions via shortwave recommenced in late May 2003, initially using as few as four transmitters at any one time. In April there was a political rapprochement between the MKO and the United States. On 15 April the United States signed a cease-fire agreement with the MKO. Unidentified officials with the US Army's 5 Corps in Iraq told AP (Associated Press) on 10 May that the MKO, based some 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, would now be "protected by American forces." The political arm of the MKO had long sought the support of Washington.
By mid-June 2003 the station and its attendant jammers had returned to shortwave, using the old characteristics: a number of frequency-agile "hopping" transmitters, wide frequency ranges and two transmissions a day. This suggests that shortwave transmissions continue from the same site that operated during the Saddam Husayn regime. The station continued its 24-hour broadcasts via satellite with live or repeated programming and via the Internet, with live or archive programming from August.
Voice of the Mojahed studios were reportedly located in Baghdad prior to the fall of the Saddam Husayn regime in April 2003. In June 2003 AFP (Agence France Presse) reported that an Iranian man, Nader Adbul al-Barki, who had "run a Baghdad-based radio station opposed to the Tehran regime since 1988," was abducted by four armed men in front of his house in Baghdad.
Satellite conundrum
Voice of the Mojahed programmes have been broadcast via satellite, from Telstar 12 located at 15 degrees west for 24 hours a day, both before and after the regime change in Iraq. Prior to April 2003 programming from the shortwave transmitters were in parallel both with the Internet and satellite transmissions. If the studios were located in Baghdad earlier than April 2003 then, despite UN sanctions, a programme feed from the studio was leaving Iraq. If the studios are now located outside of Iraq, the shortwave transmitters in Iraq are relaying the satellite signal during the morning and evening transmissions. The downlink from Telstar, a satellite located over the Atlantic ocean, is specifically configured to provide a strong signal into Europe, Iraq and Iran, despite these countries being on the edge of the beam.
MKO Vision of Resistance
The MKO television station, "Vision of Resistance TV" (Sima-ye Moqavemat) was previously relayed by the former Republic of Iraq Television. The current MKO television station "Simaye Azaidi Iran National TV" (Vision of Freedom National Iran TV) is only available via satellite. It has been reported, but remains unconfirmed by BBC Monitoring, that the studios were in Ashraf and have subsequently relocated to Paris since the regime change in Iraq. The satellite and frequency is the same as that used by the Voice of the Mojahed, the trans-Atlantic Telstar 12 at 15 degrees west on 12588 MHz, vertical polarization, in digital format.
The MKO/Voice of the Mojahed website is at: http://www.iran.mojahedin.org
The Simaye Azaidi Iran National TV website is at: http://www.iranntv.com
In December 2003 the Iraqi Governing council announced that the MKO will
be expelled from Iraq.
Source: BBC Monitoring research 12 Dec 03 (BBCM Dec 12, 2003)
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INTEL SNAPSHOT |
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| Voice of Mojahed | | | | | The Voice of Mojahed was a lasting symbol of the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980's, playing a cat and mouse game with Iranian jammer transmitters across the radio dial. Supporting the Mojahedin e-Khalq guerilla group it received tremendous support from Saddam Hussein's intelligence services. Following the liberation of Iraq in April 2003 the group negotiated an informal alliance with the U.S. military and the Voice of Mojahed was reportedly back on the airwaves. | | |
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