“Iran-Interlink” is one of the most active websites launched by the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence (VEVAK/MOIS) in Farsi and English, with the sole objective of demonizing the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The directors of this website are an Iranian man by the name of Massoud Khodabandeh and his British wife Anne Singleton. The Sunday Mail wrote on 17 February 2013:
“A British housewife and her husband have been accused of spying for Iran in a leaked US government report. Anne Singleton, 53, is alleged to have been blackmailed into training with the Iranian secret service during a visit to Tehran in 2002. The Pentagon-commissioned report claims that Mrs. Singleton and her Iranian husband, Massoud Khodabandeh, 56, agreed to work for the regime in return for saving the life of his jailed brother…‘In 2002 Singleton met in Tehran with Ministry of Intelligence and National Security of the Islamic Republic of Iran [MOIS] agents who were interested in her background… Afterwards, she made many trips to Iran and Singapore – the country where the agency contacts its foreign agents.”
The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom issued a report on this individual and said according to a witness statement filed with a British Court in 2003 by his own brother Massoud Khodabandeh is an agent of the Ministry of Intelligence who operates in Britain. Massoud Khodabandeh was born in Tehran in 1956 and left Iran for Britain in 1974. In 1981 he joined the Muslim Iranian Students Society, an organization that was supportive of the PMOI/MEK. In 1986, at his own request, he travelled to PMOI/MEK camps on the Iran-Iraq border. However, during the Gulf War in 1990 he wrote to the PMOI/MEK and admitted taking drugs and saying he had lost his motivation to continue opposing the regime. Although the PMOI/MEK played no part in the Gulf War, they were nevertheless in a country that was heavily bombed and so conditions were difficult. The PMOI/MEK facilitated his return to Europe.
In 1998, using the cover of attending the International Labour Confederation, he went to Singapore where, according to the witness statement produced by his brother, he met secretly with representatives of the Ministry of Intelligence. It was then that Massoud Khodabandeh was recruited and began to act as an agent of the Ministry of Intelligence. His instructions were to act against the Iranian opposition and refugees living in Britain and other parts of Europe.
Massoud Khodabandeh is married to Anne Khodabandeh (nee Singleton). During the 1980s, Anne Singleton had assisted an association (MISS) that supported the PMOI/MEK. However, the MISS realized that she was not a morally decent person and dismissed her. Again, according to the witness statement filed by Massoud Khodabandeh’s brother, after their marriage Anne Singleton travelled to Iran regularly. On one occasion in 2001, she stayed in Iran for a couple of months, which is when she received instructions to set up the ‘Iran-Interlink’ website.”
The Iranian regime has no credibility whatsoever and so it uses these individuals as a cover for its activities against the opposition and refugees.
The Iranian regime has no credibility whatsoever and so it uses these individuals as a cover for its activities against the opposition and refugees.
In June 2004 then British MP Win Griffiths had gone to Iran see the brother of Massoud Khodabandeh, meaning Ibrahim Khodabandeh. He was amazed to see Anne Singlteon in the mullahs’ notorious Evin Prison. Ibrahim Khodabandeh and another National Council of Resistance of Iran member were abducted in 2004 in Syria. They were sent to Iran and this speaks much about the relations between the two countries. A wave of abhorrence rises in the UK yet the Iranian regime shows no response.
Mr. Griffiths added, “I was surprised to see Anne Singleton in Evin Prison. She even had her young son with her. She was moving around freely and was in direct contact with Iranian officials in the prison.”
Ibrahim Khodabandeh had written a letter before his arrest that the VEVAK/MOIS had come in contact with his mother about recruiting Massoud Khodabandeh. In 2005, through Massoud Khodabandeh and Anne Singleton, the Iranian regime attempted to hold a meeting in Parliament to spread misinformation against the PMOI/MEK. They were not ultimately permitted to hold the meeting and moved the meeting to a hotel.
It is worth noting that throughout the past fifty years hundreds of supporters and former members from various ranks have left the PMOI/MEK, yet most have continued their care by taking part in various gatherings and providing financial support. However, Khodabandeh decided to place himself at the VEVA/MOIS’ disposal. He has a very tight scheduled agenda, traveling around the world in order to spread propaganda and demonize the PMOI/MEK, describing them as murderers and torturers. However, he never says anything about the Iranian regime itself and its assassinations.
Khodabandeh and his wife have travelled to Iraq many times, and while taking part in various shows prepared by the VEVAK/MOIS outside of Camp Ashraf along with other agents of this ministry under the pretext of “PMOI/MEK families”, they have been cooperating on a widespread basis with the Iranian regime to pave the grounds for the massacre of Ashraf, and now Liberty, residents. Their cooperation with the Iranian regime, including its English-language “Press TV” channel has reached a point that there is no need for any revelations in this regard. Finally, it is worth noting that the Sahar Foundation established by Massoud Khodabandeh is aimed at identifying and hiring new agents for the VEVAK/MOIS, and he is very active in this regard.
When Massoud Khodabandeh had come to Iraq, independent Iraqi organs and media outlets in this country and the region not associated to the Iranian regime all began reporting and shedding light on his activities and demanding his apprehension.
Massoud Khodabandeh was also used in demonizing the PMOI/MEK before the British authorities in the 1980s. Although the VEVAK/MOIS vigorously misinformed the British Home Secretay through Khodabandeh and likes to keep the PMOI/MEK in the UK terrorist listing, on 30 November 2007, the Proscribed Organizations Appeals Commission (POAC) in Britain ruled that the PMOI/MEK, is not concerned in terrorism. After this ruling by POAC, in anticipation of further disinformation activities by the VEVAK/MOIS, late Lord Corbett, chairman of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom sent out a letter to his colleagues informing, ” Having been dealt a devastating blow by this Court judgment, the Iranian regime can do no better than regurgitate spent and unfounded allegations against the PMOI/MEK, most of which were considered by POAC. You might therefore hear from the likes of ‘Anne Khodabandeh (nee Singleton)’, her husband ‘Massoud Khodabandeh’ or ‘Mohammad Hossein Sobhani’, telling you how POAC has got it all wrong. They are agents of the regime.” Lord Corbett wrote further, ” POAC rejected the assertions of the Home Secretary, including the oral evidence of the Foreign Office official, as well as the misinformation of the regime. In its conclusions, it stated: “…the Iranian authorities (and its supporters) have been active in disseminating information designed to undermine the PMOI/MEK”. POAC added that it has “…to analyse information that may have come from, or been influenced by the Iranian authorities, with considerable care in order to assess its likely reliability and the weight to be attached to it”.
Seven months after the April 8, 2011 massacre in camp Ashraf that led to 36 residents shot dead the VEVAK/MOIS dispatched its agent Khodabandeh (second left) to Iraq as the head of like agents to thank General Abdol Amir Al-Zeidi one of the al Maliki’s most brutal military commanders leading the massacre and cover the facts and ironically accuse PMOI/MEK and the residents as if they have killed each other, while a UN team visit the camp several days later investigated the attack and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned Iraq for this covert lethal operation. Khodabandeh wrote in Iran-Interlink: “… Massoud Khodabandeh heading the delegation thanked the Government of Iraq and asked the Governor of Diyala and the General to help inform the people trapped inside about their rights and to counter the lies given to them by the hostage takers and cult leaders. Ms Abdollahi on behalf of the families asked for help and for care to be taken when dismantling the camp to institute particular safeguards to protect the relatives of the picketing families…. The General said that in the event they receive the order to evacuate the camp, they will try their utmost to stop the leaders killing the hostages and the disaffected members as they did before. According to the General most of the people who were killed in April 2011 were in opposition to the leadership and had been shot in the heart or in the head. But the leaders tried to cover up such facts even though the evidence is unequivocal.
The pictures below show Anne Singleton in the control room of loudspeakers (used to impose psychological warfare on the Ashraf residents) at the place where the VEVAK/MOIS agents were accommodated outside Ashraf. The VEVAK/MOIS brought the couple backed by Iraqi forces to Ashraf only 11 days after the slaughter of Ashraf residents on April 8 2011 in order to whitewash the massacre.
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