Word: rajavi
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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They were the two most wanted men in Iran, hunted for "high treason" by the vengeful mullahs around Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. When darkness fell on Tehran on July 28, Abolhassan Banisadr, the deposed President, and Massoud Rajavi, his ally and leader of the urban guerrillas known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (People's Crusaders), slipped on stolen military uniforms and sneaked from their hideout into a small army van. They were driven to a military airfield, passing unrecognized through security controls (Banisadr had shaved his familiar mustache), and boarded an Iranian air force Boeing...
...plan he had filed and headed west. The plane was actually over Turkey when it was caught by three Iranian Phantom jets. The fighter pilots radioed threats to shoot down the tanker but did not fire. One likely explanation: the fighter pilots' great respect for Moezi himself. Says Rajavi: "Had it been any other pilot than Moezi, we would have died...
...military airfield in Evreux, 55 miles west of Paris. After 43 days in hiding, Banisadr was free. But the entourage had to wait at the airport for four hours until French officials, fearing retaliation against some 100 French citizens still in Iran, extracted a written pledge from Banisadr and Rajavi forswearing any political activity involving their home country...
Today the Mujahedin are by far the best organized opposition to Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. Their leader, Massoud Rajavi, 33, commands a force of guerrillas estimated to be as large as 100,000, with several hundred thousand supporters among the intellectuals, workers, farmers and middle class. Says a Western intelligence analyst: "The Mujahedin have the capacity to make life miserable for the ruling clerics. They are a threat to Khomeini's people because to the common man both groups seem to be cut from the same cloth-both proclaim they will create a true Islamic state...