Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

++ Most of this week’s Farsi posts, comments and articles have been about the events in Iraq. The MEK has been on overdrive producing anti-Maliki and anti-Iraqi government propaganda to the point that their internal critics have raised the alarm claiming they are putting the lives of the people in Camp Liberty in danger by siding with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and thereby legitimising the killing of them by opposing Kurdish and Shiite militias etc.

++ Newspapers and analysts in Iraq are saying that the Baath Party and ISIL are the same thing, and are working together; ISIL forces are carrying the Baath Party and ISIL flags together. Many are from Saddam’s army and this explains why there are personnel able to fly helicopters and aircraft. Many writers highlight the US’s insistence on keeping the MEK in Iraq. Now the Iraqi press and analysts are joining up the dots, they say it is clear the US have been trying hard to keep as many Saddamists as possible along with Sunnis sympathetic to the West in the Iraqi government. They identify the MEK as a small part of the larger plot against Iraq and its elected government – which encompasses Saudis, Baathists, Western intelligence directors and mercenaries with financial and military support, and Neoconservatives. The aim, allegedly, is to punish Iraqis for freely electing a government which refuses to be a puppet for the Americans, and they are hoping to engineer a coup d’état as they did in Cairo to install such a regime.

++ Reports from Tirana reveal that the MEK’s suppressive system is on the verge of breaking down completely and they can hardly control the people there anymore. MEK commanders Hassan Nayebagha and Esmail Mortezai (aka Javad Khorrasan) will one day come and plead with them to sign papers to say they’ll stay, then the next day they will scream and shout and threaten them, demanding to know who has been leaking information about what is happening there. The MEK clearly don’t know what to do any more. The reaction of these former Camp Liberty residents is to laugh at them and make jokes. Certainly they don’t feel constrained to listen to or fear them any more.

++ There were a couple of articles about the executed Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani referring to Massoud and Maryam Rajavi’s reaction to this execution. The MEK leaders are publishing as much information as possible about other prisoners linked with the MEK, such as letters of intent to commit acts of terrorism (letters offering their martyrdom). Their aim is to provide incriminating documents for the Iranian government with the hope that more executions will follow.

++ The number of internal critics in the MEK’s circle of influence is growing very fast and their complaints are becoming more serious. They are now criticising Maryam Rajavi for her planned rally on the 27th June. Many are asking her to stop this partying and carnival show while the people in Camp Liberty are under threat due to the precarious situation in Iraq. They are asking her to spend MEK money to bring people out of Iraq rather than paying lobbyists to pose for pictures with her.

++ Hoshiar Zibari, Iraq’s Foreign Minister, has said in a statement that ISIL and ex Saddamists are now working together as one. The Baathist element are called Naghsh Bandieh which is the military section belonging to the Ezzat Ebrahim branch of Saddamists.

In English:

++ Anne Khodabandeh responded to the MEK’s furious attack on Baroness Emma Nicholson who was appointed by PM David Cameron as the UK’s Trade Envoy to Iraq. The MEK naively accuse her of working for Iranian interests. The article, however, highlights the MEK’s failure to make good its thirty year promise of regime change in Iran, and how its current role in the events in Iraq expose its destructive role. Conversely, the role of trade envoy will not only bring economic benefits to the UK, but the greater contact and better relations this entails will act as a catalyst for improving the human rights situation for Iraqi citizens.

++ Mazda Parsi from Nejat Bloggers exposes the debacle engendered by the meeting between Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Jarba and Maryam Rajavi in Paris last week. Jarba is reported to regret the meeting. After he discovered that the MEK is “a terrorist cult with a dark background of terror acts, violence and cult-like behaviour”, Jarba said, “the MEK deceived us”. Parsi concludes: “Ultimately, the whole story demonstrates the opportunistic substance of terrorists in any form. However, as we know, the meeting was held at the request of MKO representatives who had visited the Syrian opposition figures a few days earlier. While both sides expected a beneficial mutual relationship, the final meeting between the two self-proclaimed presidents sounds like a lose-lose game.”

++ Habilian Association in Iran writes, “In his latest statement, the ringleader of Mujahedin-e Khalq terrorist group expressed his solidarity with the Jaish-ul-Adl terrorist group. Referring to the execution of 16 men affiliated to Jaish-ul-Adl terrorist group, Masoud Rajavi, whose whereabouts are unknown since the US invasion of Iraq, described them as their “brothers”. Earlier in October 2013, Maryam Rajavi, the co-leader of the MKO, also released a statement condemning the execution of terrorists, while a group of Iranian border guards were killed in cold blood close to the Iranian border with Pakistan.”

++ Iran-Interlink has published a screen shot of the MEK’s official website which hails the actions of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), calling them “revolutionary forces”. Along with Saddam’s daughter in Jordan, the MEK appear to be the only people in the world publicly supporting the group.

++ Last week Mohammad Eghbal,a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) wrote an article which was posted on MEK websites. The article was a rant and swearing badly against his two sisters in France who are running a campaign to help the people in Camp Liberty. This attracted a reaction from many Iranians outside Iran. Among them is Ghorbanali Hossein Nejad who worked with Eghbal in the MEK’s Arabic section for decades. He has explained why someone like this, an old man in his sixties from a highly respected and educated family, has written like a lumpen in the MEK system and has been so vulgar and offensive against his own sisters that he has even called them prostitutes.

++ Massoud Khodabandeh Facebooked a short note about Mohammad Eghbal and his sisters. Khodabandeh points out that the sisters are not against the MEK, rather they are internal critics. Form this it is clear that the problem for Rajavi is not criticism or critics or any other issue, his problem is how to keep Mohammad Eghbal inside the MEK. Eghbal was brought to Paris recently from Camp Liberty. This is the price he had to pay. He has had to estrange his sisters to ensure that he has no other physical or mental place to escape to, not even to them. Khodabandeh says, “Irrelevant of our different ideas and beliefs, I advise his sisters not to close the doors on him and to accept that this writing is from Rajavi himself and has nothing to do with their brother. And in whatever way they can they should pass this message to their brother, that they don’t disown him and he will be welcomed by them any time he comes out.”

++ The execution in Iran of MEK member Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani attracted various responses. Khosravi admitted that he was in direct contact with the MEK and had worked for them in the past. He provided intelligence from inside Iran to the MEK to give to MOSSAD. The IRI made public some of the documents he had passed, including military and other sensitive sites in Iran. The IRI clarified that he was not executed because he supported the MEK – pointing out that there are thousands of former MEK living freely in Iran who have not changed their beliefs and that Iran has no problem accommodating those beliefs – Khosravi was sentenced and executed for activities against the state on behalf of the MEK, including spying for Israel. Human rights organisations in the West have condemned the execution of Khosravi on the grounds of due legal process and opposing the death penalty. The US Department of State has also come out and condemned it. Prominent human rights activist Abdul Karim Lahiji, however, has gone further claiming he was clearly executed for his political beliefs. (He does not even say his political activities, but he does not offer any explanation of this.) Ironically he is a lawyer. Ironically none of these entities have ever condemned the even worse things that happen to members inside the MEK itself.

++ This week was the anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Khomeini. Referencing the execution of Khosravi, a part of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s speech was devoted to the West’s support for terrorism under the guise of human rights. He ended by saying the real enemy is not the brainwashed terrorists but those who feed them physically and mentally. Iran’s spokesman for the Foreign Ministry responded to the US State Department’s concern about the number of executions in Iran, pointing out that the US doesn’t have a leg to stand on while they kill people by drones and kill prisoners in places like Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Europe without trial. The spokesman said Khosaravi had undergone due process in a court of law, and according to our laws this is the punishment for spying. Observers and analysts inside Iran have written that the importance those in the West are placing on this specific execution is exactly because he was a spy for the MEK and MOSSAD and they are worried that this will increase the market price of agents sent to Iran because the danger has become more palpable. They point out that after the assassinations of several Iranian nuclear scientists they have not succeeded in killing anyone else because their agents have all been tracked down and apprehended.

++ Farsi sites have been buzzing with exposures of the MEK’s agents who are actively trawling travel agencies and refugee camps in Europe to recruit the paid audience for the MEK’s June 20th rally in Paris. The speakers, as many point out, are already known creatures. In an article titled ‘Gholamreza Khosravi, victim of the Rajavi gang’s agenda’, Mohammad Alavi from Aryia Association in Paris has explained how the MEK have used this execution against Iran, but goes on to describe its specific use by Maryam Rajavi. In Paris the MEK are preparing large bill boards depicting Khosravi for the MEK’s annual rally on 20 June. This is so that Maryam Rajavi can sit underneath his image and claim him as her martyr as she did with the victims of self-immolation in 2003. She badly needs more blood. In addition, the MEK are desperate to pay any agent they can in Iran to find the family of Khosravi and convince someone from the family to be smuggled out of Iran to attend the rally in Paris as an MEK supporter. Alavi says that no one can condone execution for any reason, but using the issues of human rights and anti-death penalty to feed a terrorist organisation which itself claims to have killed 25,000 Iraqis and 17,000 Iranians is not something which will be washed away from the people who support it, and cannot be excused by saying “I’m getting paid”. You can’t claim fair exchange between blood for money.

In English:

++ Ahmed Qobadi in Mehr News writes about the MEK’s track record as a terrorist group and about the human rights abuses against its own members.

++ Press TV reports on the execution of Gholamreza Khosravi Savadjani who was “sentenced to death for providing documents and photos of Iran’s important centers including military sites as well as giving financial aid to the MKO and the media affiliated to the terror group. He had also tried to recruit for the terrorist organization. Khosravi Savadjani’s death sentence was approved by Iran’s Supreme Court after he was tried and sentenced at a Tehran branch of Islamic Revolution Court in the presence of his lawyer and the representative of the country’s prosecutor general.”

++ In a long analytical article for Middle East Eye, ‘Iran ponders its future in Syria – Iran’s support for the Syrian government is unflinching, but victory for its ally may not create the perfect regional outcome for Tehran’ Mahan Abedin writes about the MEK’s association with the issue of Syria. ““Jarba does not know who to meet in his foreign meetings”, that was the dismissive reaction by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to news of a meeting last week between Ahmad Jarba, the head of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, and Maryam Rajavi, the leader of a notorious Iranian opposition group… Jarba’s meeting with Rajavi is being widely seen in Tehran as a vindication of Iran’s Syria policy. By meeting Rajavi, whose group has killed over 17,000 Iranians since 1981, the Syrian opposition has sent an unmistakeable message of ill-will and hostility to Tehran. The meeting is also being interpreted as a sign of desperation on the part of the Syrian opposition who have been reduced to engaging with a discredited and exiled Iranian organisation.”

++ Mazda Parsi from Nejat Bloggers writes that the ‘MKO’s Irresponsible Fear-mongering Goes on’. “The Israeli backed MKO cult is determined to manipulate US policy. Claims about an Iranian “breakout” on the nuclear agreements are falsified. The MKO propaganda –led by Israel– repeats its fabrications with disturbing regularity. Neocon warmonger sponsors of the group also repeat after the MKO.”

++ Gareth Porter, author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of Iran Nuclear Scare told a Press TV interview that “he has evidence of MKO’s submission of documents to the German intelligence in 2004, claiming that Iran has been seeking to develop nuclear weapons. “And the MKO undoubtedly got them from Israel – A document that connects the MKO and Israel that the MKO had been laundering intelligence for the Israelis for years,” he said. Porter said there is “absolutely convincing evidence” that the MKO documents were “fabricated.” He said Israel and the United States started in 1983 fabricating documents against the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program by raising claims that Iran is running a “covert nuclear weapons program.””

June 06 2014

++ Behzad Alishahi’s wife has responded to the saga involving a threatening article in Iran Global. She says although she doesn’t usually look at anything from either the MEK or IRI, because this involves her husband she is obliged to set a few facts right. She explains that Behzad Alishahi has not been charged or criminalised. Instead, in June 2013 he was refused permission to stay in the Netherlands and in February 2014 was detained by the Immigration service for overstaying. He is not in prison but is being held in an immigration service camp for his own safety. He doesn’t have a case against him and there is no question about his going or not going to Iran; he has not left the Netherlands at any time since he arrived. He has never been questioned by either the police or the intelligence services. The problem is that he admitted to once being a member of the MEK and taking part in armed struggle and he has been refused permission to remain on these grounds. It is ironic, says Mrs Alishahi, that the MEK should be so excited and pleased about his situation instead of decently trying to help someone who had been involved with their armed struggle. She continues, “Having said this, I wish the MEK would go to Iran and understand more about the real situation there – how a series of pictures of women who took their scarf off, or young people who danced, has a much greater effect on the situation there than the MEK’s thirty years of so-called fighting Iran”. In conclusion she says that Alishahi has no complaint against him in his file let alone a 150 strong petition. These are fictions created by the MEK to divert from their own failures – the things they say they can do, but never have. The second reason is to terrify the stranded people inside the organisation with the fear that the same thing might happen to them. Thirdly, it is an attempt to intimidate MEK critics by claiming to be so powerful that they can make these things happen to them. But the allegation of ‘spying for Iran’ that the MEK banks on so much is entirely invalid because as long as Iran has an enemy like the MEK it doesn’t need to do any spying; the MEK can destroy any opposition much better than any spy could do. She concludes, “our problem has a solution, but the MEK’s problems will have no solution until, as my husband has always said, they sit down and see what it is they are doing and change.”

++ Sahar Family Association translated some Iraqi papers this week. In one example, Dr Adnan Al Seraj’s article in Al Mizan goes into detail about events of the last few yeas and how Rajavi has tried everything possible to hinder and prevent the UN from giving help to the people in Camp Liberty, whether to get them out or simply to give them help inside the camp itself. Quite a few items in the Iraqi media after the election cover many MPs speaking out and demanding that the situation with the MEK has to end. One is Vaheb MP, who clearly states that the UN has failed to live up to its agreement with the government of Iraq and that this needs to be looked at again and reworked. This failure means, he says, that although the MEK are under the protection of the Americans and the UN, they should be treated like the rest of the Saddamists and put on trial.

++ There has been a vast amount of writing from every side – from inside Iran, from ex members and from other opposition groups and personalities – about the new initiative to try to pass Maryam Rajavi off as a human rights advocate. Several point out that this is an insult to the intelligence of people across the globe. One witty writer observes, “This is like trying to paint a pigeon and sell it as a Volkswagen!”

In English

++ According to the Tehran Times, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, told a gathering of Revolutionary Guards, that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was standing strong against the Europeans in the nuclear talks in Vienna. He said that Iran has adopted a win-win approach in nuclear talks and will not grant any concessions to the West. He said that the Zionist, Arab and Mojahedeen Khalq lobbyists are campaigning hard against the Geneva deal in the U.S. Congress. Adding that if nuclear talks fail, no one can blame Iran.

++ The Canadian Iranian Coalition for Peace have asked Justin Trudeau, leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, to rein in one of his MPs Reza Moridi who “knowingly or unknowingly, has supported an infamous ex terrorist group in Iran (Mojahedin Khalq) MEK and their lobbyist in Canada which have kept a few young Canadians in Camp Ashraf against their will. MEK is promoting hate and violence in Iraq and Iran which is totally against Canadian values and principles… MPP Moridi also supported the closure of Iranian consulate in Ottawa, which has caused a tremendous amount of inconvenience for all Canadian-Iranians in our country Canada. He is simply following the Conservative Party mandates. Supporting sanction and war, this is against the Liberal party’s policy and philosophy. Therefore our community cannot distinguish between the Liberals and the conservatives… We request that you as the leader of the Liberal party of Canada to guide some of the party members to follow the Liberal path, rather than their own personal agenda!”

++ Iran’s Fars News agency reported a meeting between Head of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SCO) Ahmad Jarba and Maryam Rajavi in Paris. One former MEK member Mohammad Razzaqi said the MEK has been training some militant groups fighting the Syrian government, including the FSA, on bomb manufacturing, planting and detonation methods, assassination and street war. He noted that some MEK leaders have had a series of meetings with the Syrian opposition leaders in France and Jordan and discussed help and assistance to the FSA and a number of other extremist Salafi groups in Syria. In late 2012, deputy commander of the FSA Malek al-Kurdi said the MEK acted as a role model for Syrian insurgents. “Mojahedin-e Khalq is our role model, and we inform them that all doors of our houses are open to them.”

++ In a televised speech, Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Seyed Hassan Nasrallah congratulated his forces saying they had pushed back the Syrian opposition forces so far that they have been reduced to sitting and talking with the MEK in Paris which is nothing more than a defeated enemy, a dead horse.

++ An article by Mazda Parsi of Nejat bloggers begins with details of the MEK’s record of human rights abuses inside its own organisation. From this context, which explains more fully why UN Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed cancelled his speech at the Spotlight on Iran in the Canadian Parliament, Parsi says the decision looks less bizarre. Dr. Shaheed’s assistant explained that Shaheed felt the event’s framing “made it feel less like a briefing and more of something that encroached upon what he believes is his independence on the issue” of human rights in Iran.”

++ Iran Pen Association congratulates the people and prime minister of Iraq and wishes Iraq peace, stability and tranquillity. “We condemn the interventionist and divisive policies of MEK/PMOI and demand the leadership of MEK Cult, Mr. Massoud Rajavi and Mrs. Maryam Rajavi , that instead of plotting such desperate attempts and insisting on remaining in Iraq at any cost and victimizing the captive members in your Cult; try for once to be rational and stop persisting on your gross blunders and transfer these victims from Iraq.”

++ Iran Interlink interprets the result of the European Parliament election for the MEK in a short piece titled, ‘Rajavi/Saddamists stranded by European Parliament losses’. “The MEK and Saddamists have lost two key lobbyists in the new session of the European Parliament. Struan Stevenson (UK) threw in the towel and didn’t stand again. Alejo Vidal-Quadras (Spain) tried to garner the far right vote by creating the new Vox Party – which took less than 2% of the vote. Vidal-Quadras was exposed in the Spanish media before the election for supporting terrorism and being greedy for money. Both MEPs had previously worked in the Iraq Delegation for a bloc of anti-Maliki groups and MPs in Iraq which included the MEK.Rajavi will, of course, not be able to further influence the situation in Iraq where Maliki’s coalition was a clear winner. But the MEK will no doubt declare a ‘basij’ (gathering of forces) in the European Parliament to actively hunt, recruit and corrupt new MEPs to keep its terrorist-logo flag flying there!”

++ According to Press TV Iran’s diplomatic mission at the United Nations condemned a report in The Wall Street Journal as a fabrication. The US newspaper cited a report by the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) as saying that Iran “has kept active and intact its core team of weaponization researchers.” The statement added “that Tehran expects the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain — plus Germany to abide by their commitments concerning Iran’s nuclear rights, regardless of the “uproar” by anti-Iran lobby groups.”

++ On the same subject, Eli Clifton writes in The Nation, ‘What the ‘Wall Street Journal’ and the MEK Get Very Wrong About Iran’s Nuclear Program’. “Even while uncritically reporting on the allegations, the article contained one major factual error… But perhaps more surprisingly, the WSJ editorial board apparently felt no compunction to inform readers about the source of this “plausible new report.” This, despite the fact that the Journal’s editorial team even includes one outspoken critic of the MEK, Sohrab Ahmari, an editorial page writer based in Europe.” “Noticeably, the WSJ did not claim to have verified the MEK’s allegations that Tehran has continued to pursue nuclear weaponization research.” Clifton concludes, “The MEK may be onto something with its contention that Iran continued with its nuclear weapons work (the IAEA’s reporting about the “possible military dimensions” of Iran’s nuclear program only covers the period before 2003). But relying almost exclusively on the organization is, to borrow a word, problematic, and raises a question: Why did the MEK approach the ideologues of the Journal’s opinion pages instead of its newsroom staff with its exclusive report? Perhaps the paper’s veteran foreign affairs reporters, who have no doubt had many interactions with the MEK, are more skeptical of the group’s claim.”

30 May 2014

++ Writers reacting to last week’s news about Amrollah Ebrahimi’s intimidation article in Global Iran say it is ironic that he managed to escape the MEK in Iraq and take refuge in TIPF, but now in Europe he has been re-recruited and is probably paid to spread this information in the media. Ghorban Ali Hossien Nejad’s article is titled ‘About Amrollah Ebrahimi, Massoud Rajavi and Goebbels’. He writes about the system of misinformation in the MEK and says that because of his good Arabic language skills he spent 20 out of 30 years of his membership in the kind of activity they are doing now in the Netherlands. Other people comment that Ebrahimi’s claim to be working with Dutch Intelligence needs to be investigated. Irrelevant to whether this is true or not the Dutch need to be careful of their reputation.

++ The controversy caused by Maryam Rajavi’s inclusion Accountability Week in the Canadian parliament resulted in quite a few reactions. Said Soltanpour, a Canadian journalist, posted on Facebook and Twitter what a Conservative MP divulged to him; Maryam Rajavi had applied for visa but was rejected. Even though an MP can invite an individual and ask for a visa apparently the far right members weren’t successful. The MP also said, ‘This has been a disastrous event and looking back we wish it hadn’t happened’. Other comments complain that Maryam Rajavi bends over backward to answer questions by Canadian MPs but doesn’t even talk to Iranians. Massoud Khodabandeh on Facebook: Canada has another problem as the Iraqi embassy has complained to Canada’s Foreign Ministry that the aim of inviting this woman, with the lies she says about Iraq, to your parliament, has apparently been to demonise the GOI, UNAMI and all those who are trying to sort out the situation of the MEK there. Canada, instead of helping, has acted to create problems instead.

++ Reports from Albania reveal that the MEK are attempting to re-impose its brainwashing system. There are three kinds of people in Tirana. First the MEK and their loyalists. Men and women are separated with the men occupying a 12 storey building called Italia House. The women have been moved a kilometre distant. Apparently Maryam Rajavi is very concerned to restrict their contact with the outside world to prevent any of them running away. Everyone has been instructed, in addition to their daily tasks of cooking and cleaning, to learn English, French or German. Brainwashing sessions are held three times a day. Since Maryam Rajavi is worried about information coming out of Albania she has given direct instructions for everyone to watch each other, to stay inside the building as much as possible and those who need to go shopping should go in groups of at least three and watch each others’ activity. On their return they have a debriefing session. The second group are those who have separated but are still dependent on the MEK for legal and/or financial reasons. They are paid $250 per month plus food, but they have to work for the MEK in return and it is also conditional on them not having contact with others. They are more free than the loyalists, don’t have to participate in meetings, but are required to listen to Maryam Rajavi’s proclamations and watch videos. The third group are those who have separated completely from the MEK are getting no money or food from the MEK, but little by little they are using their freedom to stand on their own feet and get back to a normal life.

++ After Iran made a formal request to Iraq for the extradition of several MEK members, internal critics of the MEK have published warnings. They fear that Rajavi’s silence over this issue means he wants this to provide more blood and sacrifice. Atefeh Eghbal denounces this and trusts her criticisms will help the MEK. Esmail Yaghmai’s article ‘For Deaf Ears’, acknowledges the MEK leaders won’t listen to anyone but pleads for them to treat this as a humanitarian issue and to get them out rather than making political gain from it.

++ Representatives of Setaregan Association in Switzerland had meetings in the Swiss Parliament where they briefed MPs about the situation in Iraq and the MEK in general.

++ Maryam Rajavi met with leaders of the Syrian opposition in France to try to coordinate what kind of help the MEK can give them. Many writers remembered that this is the same as what happened with Iraq in the 1980s, but question whether the MEK can be any use now.

++ The Head of Iran’s Commission of Councils of Parliament gave an interview after he returned from Iraq. He discusses the MEK saying, “I don’t think there is any use for the MEK in Syria or elsewhere. They have no arms, no energy, and live in abandoned American containers. They are a burden. Their average age is 53 and many have terminal illnesses. Iraq is trying to send them to Europe and North America to live out the rest of their lives, but no one is worried about them as a threat, we just need to move them on.”

++ Hadi Afshar (aka Said Jamali) one of the longest serving members of the MEK to have escaped writes a short note in Pejvak Iran titled ‘For the gentlemen Abrishamchi, Jaberzadeh, Mohaddessin, Towhidi, Darvari, Barai, and …’. He directs his comments to these who know him from the time of the Shah: “knowing you all, you all know what Rajavi is up to – I am not talking about politics, or differences in our views or about Iran or Iraq. I mean 3000 lives in Camp Liberty, and you all know he wants to kill them. We witnessed for years how he operates so we all know. I beg you for once and for all to get together and save these people. Sit and find a bit of courage in yourselves to talk, and once you do talk things will move forward. If you think your hearts are so dead you can’t understand me, just remember when we would sit together and read the Qoran, and turn to God. Your hearts will soften again.”

++ Several articles again expose the MEK’s efforts to gather a ‘rent-a-crowd’ audience for their annual June 20th celebration by touting in travel and tour agencies as well as refugee camps. Mojahadin.org in Tehran interviewed Jahanshah Seyed Mohammadi, who had been given by Saddam to the MEK as a POW. He explains how the POWs suffered in Saddam’s prisons and at the hands of the MEK. He says, “at least the audience in Europe have a better time than us, they have a free trip and even money. We worked 24/7 and were beaten. We received no pay, we were no better than slaves. At least in Europe they get paid.”

++ Ali Khatami, a recent escapee from Camp Liberty, currently resides in Hotel Mohajer in Baghdad. He has been an outspoken critic and has exposed the MEK’s mistreatment of residents in the camp during his interviews with UN officials. This week the MEK found he was the source of this information and have tried to discredit him. In an hour long video the MEK mash Khatami together with other escapees and accuse him of having ‘always been an agent of the Iranian regime’. Khatami writes to say, “You, who sit in Camp Liberty, think this is against me. But when you sit outside Liberty, and you see the list of all the others who have escaped like me, you are bound to ask, why? Why have so many people run away from them?”

++ Many places have treated as a joke pictures of the MEK demonstration against Iran in Vienna this week. Some comment that the MEK failed in the US then Canada and are now trying this. But point out that it is ironic that the total number of demonstrators is three, who are surrounded by banners and flags on sticks because there is no one to hold them. This, they say, clearly shows the collapse of the MEK from within. It doesn’t even have enough people to do this.

++ Dr Alireza Nourizadeh’s weekly TV programme this week was devoted to the situation of the MEK. A video of the one hour programme has been widely published on the internet as ‘a history of the MEK and Massoud Rajavi’. Nourizadeh began by recounting what he knew of them at the time of the Shah, particularly the history of Massoud Rajavi, starting when he was a young boy. Nourizadeh’s main point, as someone who has known Rajavi for so many years, is that Rajavi is trying to play the role of Imam Zaman and is hoping that one day the dust will settle and he can come back – though probably during this time he will have some plastic surgery! He says, “As a normal person, Rajavi could have apologised years ago, said, ‘I am not capable of doing this and I will hand over to my wife Maryam who can continue’. This is the normal behaviour of human beings. But because Rajavi really believes his Imamat he can’t hand over control to anyone else. Just as Jesus couldn’t give his place to anyone else, so Rajavi can’t hand over to his wife and has to wait until its safe to come out again so he can run the show!”

In English:

++ Following on from Ali Gharib’s exposure in The Nation of the gaffe in the Canadian Parliament when it invited Maryam Rajavi as a ‘human rights advocate’, Anne Khodabandeh wrote ‘Introducing Maryam Rajavi as a human rights activist is the wrong tool for the wrong job. On the same subject Saeed Kamali Dehghan writes in The Guardian, ‘Why Canada is getting it wrong on Iran’, “This week’s Iran human rights event at Canada’s parliament embodied what is wrong with Ottawa’s approach. A key speaker at a programme studying violations of human rights in Iran was Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the radical exiled group MEK, which was listed as terrorist organisation by the US and the UK until recently. The MEK, charactrised [sic] by many observers as a cult-like group, has been repeatedly slammed by the United Nation because of mistreating its own members. The MEK appearance at the programme reportedly made the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, to withdraw from the event.”

++ Mazda Parsi’s article in Nejat Bloggers, ‘The MKO and the mirage of Alternative for the IRI’ brings together several strands and articles written about the MEK’s recent activities and the mistaken belief in some political circles that they are a viable group. Parsi brings critical voices to answer this and concludes, “The MKO’s large-scale effort to gain the West’s support does not seem to be efficient. “The dominant EU line now clearly favors diplomacy with Iran, which will, hopefully, lead to a final deal over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program,” suggests Mamedov.” The more the chances of success for diplomacy increase, the more irrelevant the MEK will become.””

++ In an interview with Al Jazeera, investigative journalist Dr Gareth Porter again asks ‘ How did a false Iran nuclear narrative come to dominate global politics?’ and says, “Israel is the only country in the world that had actually created an office in its foreign intelligence agency responsible for influencing foreign perceptions of the Iranian nuclear programme, as revealed by the book The Nuclear Jihadist, by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins. Furthermore, as ElBaradei observed in his own memoirs, Israel had openly provided the IAEA an entirely new series of intelligence reports and purported documents on alleged Iranian nuclear weapons work while ElBaradei was still Director General. The dossier that the IAEA published in November 2011 was based entirely on those documents, although the source was never mentioned by the agency.”

++ Nejat Society has published a Letter to António Guterres UNHCR from Nejat Society families of Yazd Province. They ask for his help saying ” Removing the cultish and organizational limitations is regarded as the basis for the freedom of the captured members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization of Iran in Iraq”, before pointing out that “We are deeply concerned for the fate of our children. We are entitled to see our children and we are sorry that the international human rights bodies haven’t paid the least attention to us.”

May 23 2014

++ Iraj Shokri, a famous writer who left the MEK some time ago, has blogged to reject some of the quotes used by the MEK when they wrote about Kamal Rafatsafai (a poet who recently died who also left the MEK and became very critical over their human rights record). Shokri says that although he doesn’t usually answer the MEK, this time they sneakily used his name and he has had to refute their misuse of his quotes.

++ Nejat Association reports about the situation inside Camp Liberty. Apparently, runaways have become a serious problem for the MEK and they have added more sentry posts around the residential blocks in an attempt to prevent this. The MEK says its last hope is its commanders keeping control of the rank and file. Also, the MEK have expressed disappointment with the Iraqi election result. They had already acknowledged that if the elections in Iraq don’t work out for them with the return of some Baathists they are finished.

++ Reports from Albania show pictures of around eight people who were among the children evacuated from Camp Ashraf in 1991 to Europe, before being sent back to Iraq again for military training. Because they all have residential history in European countries, the reports say, the MEK have deliberately sent them to Albania in order to delay their arrival in these European countries and to prevent them from talking. To keep them quiet in Albania, the MEK henchmen Ismael Mortezai and Hassan Nayebagha from Paris, are threatening them from one side – we will kill you if you act without our approval – and on the other side promising that if they get refugee status from the UNHCR in Tirana the MEK itself will transfer them elsewhere in Europe.

++ Mohammad Alavi on Aryia Iran website has written an article titled: ‘One thousand Ashraf camps in Europe and toppling the regime with photoshop’. He says everyone is aware the MEK are busy touring refugee camps to buy people for their 30 June event to celebrate the start of their armed struggle. This year the event is to be held on 27 June in Villepinte in north Paris. Alavi details the history of these events over the last few years and provides links to coverage in Le Monde, France 24 and Radio Farda which have all exposed the pretence. The article also has links to other media items in which people have admitted they were paid either to speak or to attend. Some other ex members write on same subject revealing that the MEK visit travel agencies as well as refugee camps and offer free trips to Paris and a hand-out of money in exchange for two hours attendance in their meeting. They reveal that this year the meeting will include performances of singing and dancing as well as speeches in order to attract people and fool them about the true nature of the event.

++ The Iraqi election is finished and the official result will be out next week, and it is already clear that Maliki’s coalition has come out on top and is widely supported. There will now follow negotiations between the various factions to agree roles and responsibilities. But it is clear the new government, whatever its configuration, contains many fewer Saddamists, Danesh and other MEK sympathisers.

++ Homayoun Kohzadi has published a short note in Yaran Association website saying that several people who have escaped from Camp Liberty have contacted him. They say that Massoud Rajavi has again made an announcement declaring that these are the last days of the Iranian regime. He has ordered an alert to be ready. Rajavi says, while Maryam is doing the last bits of toppling by creating one thousand Camp Ashrafs in Europe, the combatants in Camp Liberty have to be ready for the last attack toward Iran. Kohzadi begs the question, ‘why does Rajavi not look at himself in the mirror?’ “Your audience” he tells Rajavi, “has no weaponry, the government of Iraq is in charge so you won’t even get to border. But putting even these obstacles aside, how can these old and sick people go to war? They would die on the way.” He finishes by saying, “Rajavi has gone mad.”

++ Mojahadin.com reported a meeting at the University of Semnan in which Ebrahim Khodabandeh gave a speech to the students and staff about cults. Khodabandeh said, “I have been in the MEK’s camps and I have been in Evin prison. With reference to the problems in Section 350, one thing I am certain of is that the amount of contact the Evin prisoners have with the outside world is not comparable with the contact MEK members have with the outside because the MEK have none!” He also announced that through research he can now say that the number of ex members is well over the number of current MEK members. He concluded that although we don’t have the power to rescue the people who have fallen into this trap, my friends and I will make sure they can’t drag new people into their trap.

++ Mohammad Karami from Paris and some others have responded to an article in Iran Global written under pseudonyms. The writers claim they are a group working with the Intelligence Service of the Netherlands who are responsible for trapping ex MEK member Behzad Alishahi through various sting scenarios so that he would be arrested under national security laws. The group uses this article to threaten every other critic of the MEK that “if you don’t stop this criticism of the MEK we have the power to deal with you the same way we did Alishahi”. This threat follows previous reports, particularly from Albania where MEK henchmen carry Pentagon ID cards, of MEK intimidation and threats in the West. Karami and others have exposed this ‘group’ as a man called Amrollah Ebrahimi, an ex member from TIPF who was bought by the MEK and who is working directly under the supervision of Hadi Roshanravan (a commanders in the MEK’s Intelligence Section who has been highly trained by Saddam’s Mokhaberat). Karami and other writers question what is behind publishing this on Iran Global website in particular, and conclude that since the MEK has been exposed to be behind the intimidation of ex members through their own websites, they have outsourced this to Iran Global so it doesn’t look like the MEK are behind it.

++ Razieh Kermanshahi has died from a heart attack in Albania. She was 57. Rajavi has been quick to add her to the list of martyrs from the Leadership Council. But many who knew her say that she had heart problems for many years which the MEK deliberately neglected. Essentially they sent her to Albania to die. In this respect Javad FIrouzmand wrote an article for Aryia Iran naming several other people who suffered neglect or have been denied medical attention by the MEK. He reveals how they have been eliminated in this way from the time of Saddam up until the present.

++ This week Maryam Rajavi has put on a show for internal purposes. She was photographed strolling around a display of pictures of the MEK’s so called martyrs from the time of the revolution until now. This was published on their Farsi websites. Edalaat Association wrote an analysis about why Maryam has done this while 99% of her time is spent with the Israeli lobby and the like. The article says there is an identity crisis inside the MEK among members and unpaid supporters who cannot understand what is the MEK’s relation to Israel, Al Qaida, Syria, Nigeria, and etc. Rajavi has taken these pictures to prevent the internal forces from collapsing.

In English:

++ Fox News published a reply by Hamid Babaei, counselor and head of the Press Office for the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations in New York, to an op-ed by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Babaei described Guiliani’s “warm embrace of the MEK terrorist organization” as “shocking and deplorable”, describing it as “a repressive cult despised by most Iranians and Iraqis.”

++ Elsa S. Vejo Destrella Digital (Digital Star) spoke with Alejo Vidal- Quadras MEP as the key man in Spanish political relations with the Iranian People’s Mujahedeen. She writes the question of where the MEK gets its money? “The question still remains unresolved and the experts bring to the fore the question of where does the MEK get all the money it costs to maintain this important network of contacts and support . According to Vidal-Quadras, solely from the Iranians in the diaspora, “some of them are very wealthy”. Although other politicians we consulted doubt this. “I am not so naive to think that the contributions of all Iranians in exile are sufficient to maintain that infrastructure. I do not rule out that there may be powers that are instrumental in acting in their favor”, admits Gari Duran Sen. PP Baleares, and one of the Mojahedin’s greatest defenders in Spain. The USA , Israel and Saudi Arabia are among the possible hidden funders. Duran, however, says she does not care about that; “I have seen people on hunger strike, I have seen the pictures of the dead and have heard their mothers talk, and unless you have to conclude that this is a giant deception, to me it is real.””

++ Nejat Association wrote an open letter to Ms Laura Boldrini, President of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy, asking to meet with her during her visit to Iran with a 10-member delegation, headed by co-chairman of Iran-Italy parliamentary friendship group Ettore Rosato. Nejat said it wanted to meet to find a way to rescue the members in Iraq and try to put them in contact with their families in Iran.

++ Ali Gharib writing ‘Controversial Iranian Exile Shakes up Canadian Parliament’s Human Rights Program’ in The Nation, exposed the damage caused by the inclusion of Maryam Rajavi by Skype in the event. According to Gharib, “Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Shaheed requested to withdraw from the official Iran Accountability Week proceedings. He agreed, an assistant said, to brief lawmakers “in a different context than Accountability Week.” Asked why, Shaheed’s representative responded, “He just didn’t think it was appropriate.” The assistant explained that Shaheed felt the event’s framing “made it feel less like a briefing and more of something that encroached upon what he believes is his independence on the issue” of human rights in Iran.” “…Another human rights advocate working on Iran, who asked not to be named, raised the issue of other advocates sharing a platform with the head of the MEK, which the activist called “toxic and irrelevant”—a view widely held among Iranians of all political stripes, save members of the MEK itself.”

16 May 2014

++ Both Iran Setaregan in Zurich and Iran Ava Association in Cologne staged information pickets and leaflet distributions to inform the public about the deceptive practices of the MEK and how they raise funds through false information and conning people. Both groups have asked the respective mayors in their cities to step in to stop the MEK’s illegal activities.

++ Many open letters by Farsi speakers congratulated the new Mayor of Auvers-sur-Oise, Isabelle Mézières, expressing their pleasure and hopes following her election. The new mayor herself has criticised the support which the previous mayor gave to the MEK, and says this did not work for the benefit of the people of the town.

++ Mohammad Razaghi reported information coming from inside Camp Liberty. The MEK commanders there have made an announcement to residents on behalf of Maryam Rajavi. The commanders have been given orders that if they have any doubts at all about whether someone wants to run away, they should be stopped, imprisoned and if necessary killed. Rajavi says, don’t worry about the political consequences, you do your job and we will sort out the consequences in France. She referred specifically to Massoud Dalili – who was killed in Camp Ashraf – saying that when he left, this endangered the life of Massoud Rajavi, therefore we cannot afford another like this so, you are allowed to kill them.

++ Mojahadin.com published an article on claims that the raid on Section 350 in Evin prison resulted in the discovery of several SIM cards and mobile phones, etc. One individual has been named as Gholam Reza Khosravi from Abadan who has a history of several arrests for working for the MEK. The authorities claim that he has been the main contact from prison to the MEK. Farsi writers have reacted to the MEK’s claim that the prisoners of Evin support them. They say there is no evidence that any prisoners support the MEK and the only people claiming this are the MEK themselves and Iran’s hardliners because both want to crush them and use their blood.

++ Mohammad Babai died in Camp Liberty this week. The MEK as usual issued a quick statement blaming his death on the conditions of the camp, claims which have been frequently and unequivocally refuted by the UN and ICRC etc. Gilan branch of Nejat Association published the MEK’s official picture of Babai (in a suit and tie) who was under fifty years old. They question why he looks to be over sixty-five year old, and ask, is this because of conditions in Camp Liberty as well? Many others who knew him witness that Babai tried to escape from the camp several times, and write that “we don’t believe he died of natural causes, but was eliminated like many others in the MEK”.

++ Irandidban has an article titled, ‘the situation of MEK after the election in Iraq’. This says that although the MEK shout against Nouri al Maliki, if you look at the actual situation in Iraq they should have been praying to God that he be re-elected – anyone else would have got rid of them years ago. No other leader, says Irandidan, would have been as patient as al Maliki or as willing to cooperate with the UN, etc.

++ Ghorbanali Hosseinnejad has written an extensive article exposing the MEK’s activities in support of the Saddamists. In his article he has named some Arabic speaking people in Europe who are working for the MEK and the Saddamists. One is called Saffi Al Yasseri, an Iraqi writer. Half his job appears to be to support Saddamists and the other is writing against ex-MEK members, specifically Hosseinnejad himself who writes in Arabic. He also has exposed many other names along with websites run by the MEK for Saddamists. One of these is Iraq4all.dk, an MEK site used for supporting Saddamists in Arabic and which ironically uses the old flag of Iraq with Saddam’s handwriting on it under its logo. Most of the site is devoted to praising Maryam Rajavi and other Saddamists and the rest is used to attack Maliki and others of their enemies. Another site run by the MEK is the Arabic-Islamic Committee in Defence of Ashraf and Prevention of the Expansion of Fundamentalism, which is in Arabic, French and English but not in Farsi. Hosseinnejad says it is obvious that the expansion of MEK activities in these three languages is to give support to Saddamists, but the main targets are ex-MEK members. He points out that the MEK may make ten sites and use twenty bought writers to attack one person who writes in Arabic, or make tens of sites in English to attack those handful of ex-members who write in English, but they never create Farsi sites to respond to the thousands of critics who write in Farsi. Clearly the MEK only feels the need to whitewash its image in other languages, not for Farsi speakers.

++ Mohammad Ali Malek Andi has a short note in his weblog listing the names of 120 of the people who have left Camp Liberty in the past few months. This includes 104 in Tirana, 10 in Germany, 1 in Norway, 1 in America and 1 in France, and others. He has promised he will publish the names of others as and when he gets them. He also questions the MEK’s fear that these names be made public saying “this is what the organisation should have done itself. It is only because of my friends and I looking out for one another and trying to make contact that I have been able to make this list. Obviously this is what the MEK are afraid of, that we help and support each other without them.”

++ Iran Fanous carried the story of Abdulkarim Ebrahimi who was recruited into the MEK in 1989. He says he was imprisoned by the MEK in 1994 “because they didn’t trust him”, and only managed to escape in 2012 when the residents were being moved from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty. “I rushed at the Iraqi police station while MEK operatives were chasing me. I managed to lose them and take refuge with the Iraqis”, he writes.

++ Iraqi Ambassador to Tehran Mohammad Majid Al-Sheikh told Fars News Agency that “many defected members of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization are willing to surrender themselves to the Tehran government to return to Iran… If the grounds are paved to facilitate their (MKO members) repatriation to Iran, this can persuade other MKO members to do the same.”

++ Fars News also reported that in a meeting with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz in Tehran, Mohammad Javad Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Human Rights Council criticised European countries for double-standards while campaigning against drugs and terrorism. “Today, we are witnessing that the most infamous terrorists, including Monafeq [MEK] and PJAK (Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan) and other groups whose hands are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent Iranian people, are freely visiting the European countries and are warmly hosted in those capitals,” he added.

++ Michael Rubin writing in Commentary questioned why the Clarion Group endorses the MEK, saying “it is neither progressive nor is it non-violent. Progressive movements tend not to dictate to women who to marry and who to divorce… To accept the Mujahedin al-Khalq as a moderate organization is analytically shallow given the group’s record of behavior, its dishonesty in its written work, its past targeting of Americans, and the fact that its rhetoric about democracy does not match its practice… to lump the Mujahedin al-Khalq in with progressive Muslim organizations not only erodes the credibility of Clarion, but tars legitimate progressive Muslim organizations that already have an uphill battle.”

++ Iran Pen Association published an open letter to the newly elected mayor of Auvers-sur-oise, Isabelle Mézières, by Ali Jahani, a twenty year veteran of the MEK who recently managed to escape and who is currently living in Europe. Like many other writers he congratulates her and the town on ousting the previous mayor who was in the pocket of the MEK, which led to the neglect of the townspeople. Jahani hopes the new mayor will prevent the MEK transforming the town into a military barracks [when more people are transferred from Camp Liberty].

++ IRNA reported that Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said American “claims regarding Iranˈs support for terrorism is politically motivated… Presence and free activities of terrorists in the United States who assassinated over 15,000 Iranian civilians including senior officials as well as use of drones in massacring innocent regional people and Washingtonˈs inaction towards Zionists crimes against defenseless Palestinians pose serious questions about the US claims of campaign against terrorism.”

++ Anne Khodabandeh in Iran Interlink writes ‘Rajavi’s visa application challenges America’s stance on terrorism’ which exposes Maryam Rajavi’s ‘encouragement’ to apply for a US visa. The move would be part of a wider campaign by neoconservatives and pro-Israeli politicians to prevent rapprochement between Iran and the west, says Khodabandeh. The visa failed to materialize to coincide with the P5+1 talks in New York next week, but, says, Khodabandeh, “On the heels of the controversy over denial of a visa to Iran’s appointed head of mission at the United Nations in New York, this would indeed have been a poke in the eye to goad Iran with. But whatever incentives have been offered by Ros-Lehtinen to John Kerry to nod through this visa application, the US Secretary of State will no doubt have lent an ear to the voices of the other members of the P5+1 group. It would mean that, after Saddam Hussein, the United States would be the only government in the world which has directly supported the MEK. It would mean that the other members of this group would drift further and further away from the US agenda, and it would mean that Iran would make a net gain rather than the US.”

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 02 May 2014

++ This week news emerged of a disturbance in Section 305 of Evin prison. Prisoners resisted when prison guards began searching the Section and a fight broke out in which several prisoners were bruised and injured. The guards claim to have found communication equipment and other devices during the search. Some prisoners staged a hunger strike in protest and some of their families have picketed to demand an investigation. The Mojahedin which is, as usual, desperate to link itself to anything to do with Iran has inevitably tried to connect itself to this event. Over the last few days, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has issued over 20 statements – which have more to do with ‘Google wars’ and getting its name out in public rather than any actual reporting. The NCRI has been inactive for many years now; its head (Massoud Rajavi) went underground ten years ago and the NCRI has therefore not been able to hold its annual meetings. Analysts suggest that the NCRI is reacting to a new line imposed on the MEK (aka NCRI) by its paymasters which shifts from the nuclear issue to criticism of Iran’s human rights situation. But more importantly it is an accepted fact that the MEK will soon be pushed out of Iraq and will not be able to interfere there anymore, therefore they need another raison d’être. The MEK has now had to return to the issue of human rights in Iran. But this change of line of the paymasters and also of the MEK contains a dilemma. Previously the MEK were used as violent mercenaries or for information laundry and propaganda. But using a cult as a human rights advocate has provoked a natural backlash. During the prison disturbance, all of the Iranian opposition inside and outside Iran, including the prisoners and their families, objected to the MEK and Rajavi’s support for them. Some have gone so far as to describe the MEK’s fallacious support for the prison disturbance as a devious plot by Iranian government hardliners to dismiss the situation and not have to investigate it by simply claiming it as the work of the terrorist MEK.

++ On the same subject of the prison disturbance, former MEK members and critics write that whatever happens in Evin is not 1% of what happened in Camp Ashraf and what is still happening in Camp Liberty. They say “How dare you talk about human rights when your own human rights situation is worse than both Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay”. The website Mojahadin.com from inside Iran has listed a catalogue of human rights abuses which is still continued by Rajavi in the MEK. The site mentions the recent UN report which clearly states that there was and is abuse inside the MEK in both Ashraf and Liberty camps. The site quotes a source within the International Committee of the Red Cross, as saying “we can hand over letters to anyone, even to Guantanamo Bay prisoners, but we are unable to hand over the letters from their families to the people in Camp Liberty”. Apparently, Camp Liberty and the MEK bases are the only places in the civilized world that the Red Cross has no access to.

++ People reacted to Rudi Giuliani and his paid speech for Maryam Rajavi last week. In particular they ridicule the way that he has been promising the “toppling of the Iranian regime”; ironically using the cult jargon of the MEK throughout his speech. Mohammad Razaghi writes that “in the Azeri language we say, if you put two horses together they won’t become the same colour, but will certainly adapt the same behaviour”. He goes through the changes that Rudi Giuliani has undergone as he has been paid year after year for giving speeches, and in the end calls him ‘Mojahed Brother Rudi Giuliani’! Other writers conclude that if you pay Americans money they will talk any rubbish you want them to.

++ Milad Ariyaie from Iran Pen Association (Ghalam Association) writes briefly to note the MEK getting over excited over Israel’s launch of a new satellite to spy on Iran’s military. He says it is “as if Israel is doing that to give the information to the MEK”. Ariyaie says “anything that gives hope to the members, whether news about Israel, Syria, Albania, Russia or anything else, is used to distract the members and delay them running away. In the same line, many others have written articles analysing recent MEK behaviour to say that the MEK are deliberately trying to claim dirty credentials and pretend they really are mercenaries. “The MEK pretends to have a new sponsor as a replacement for Saddam. Obviously this is not true.” Morad from Nejat Association has said “what is annoying about the MEK is not their ability or mercenary work, it is just the smell of them rotting which is annoying for everyone who gets near them”.

++ News emerged alleging that the Americans have helped the MEK to open an office in Yemen. Some of the MEK’s Baath affiliated high ranking people have been moved there. Apparently Washington is trying to establish bases for the MEK wherever they can so that the group will not break up and dissolve. The aim is to preserve the MEK somewhere other than Iraq so that it will maintain a presence.

++ With the election of a new mayor, Isabelle Mézière, for Auvers sur Oise in France – home of the MEK’s western headquarters – the MEK has lost one of its trusted supporters. The previous mayor, Jean Pierre Becquet, was a known advocate for the MEK. The new mayor campaigned on a platform of taking Auvers out of the control of the MEK and giving it back to the citizens of the town. An Open Letter by Ariya Assocation in Paris outlined the benefits of the new mayor’s position for the town’s citizens. In Farsi writers have pointed out how the MEK’s lobbyists come along, get paid and then disappear. One mentioned that the old ones die, such as Lord Corbett, and this fragile French mayor Becquet, has now gone, but Maryam Rajavi still, in her dreams, claims to be the rightful president of Iran.

++ This week, as the Iraqi election looms, there have been quite a few reports from Iraq that the MEK have either been paying candidates or have been the channel for others to pay candidates to stand as MPs on condition that they will support the Baath Party and Saddamists if elected in an attempt to gain a foothold in parliament.

++ The site Fergheha (the Cults) in Iran published a long article this week about the MEK, placing the rise of their European shows alongside the growing exodus of cult members from the group. The more people run away, says the article, the more shows the MEK puts on, with paid lobbyists in place of members. The article lists the recent weekly and sometimes daily shows in Brussels and Paris, along with the fees charged by Giuliani and John Bolton, etc. In the European Parliament, it is claimed, MEPs like Stevenson and Vidal Quadras devote 90% of their time to working on behalf of the MEK rather than actually being MEPs and doing work related to that. The article goes through a list of the so-called Committees which have been established in every parliament and how the Israeli lobby has pushed things to make something to support the MEK. In the UK Lord Carlisle has replaced Corbett in the Friends of Free a Iran. In Europe Struan Stevenson uses the Delegation for Iraq to advocate openly for the MEK. In the Romanian parliament another Friends of a Free Iran Committee is run by one of the MEK’s MPs. Pouya. A similar set up exists in Germany and Vidal-Quadras head yet another Friends of a Free Iran. All have been groomed to promote the MEK to prevent them from falling apart and at the back of them is the Israeli lobby. The aim is to stop any solution to the West’s Iran issue and to spread hatred; acceptance of Iran is a nightmare for the Israelis. One by one the article lists the lobbyists fees for speaking rubbish to Maryam Rajavi. It goes through the fabricated associations that MEK claim are affiliated to it. One MEK member has 25 associations listed under his name, of which he is the only member! The MEK don’t even have enough trusted people to give them one association each. The article balances the loss of members and its social base with the increase in Israeli support for the MEK, offering statistics on the number of those who have run away, people who are vocal critics, the number of MEK attacks on their own members and critics and the injuries sustained. The article identifies the MEK’s efforts to silence its critics in social networks as a typical Israeli tactic, and how this has not worked for the MEK in spite of the massive resources and backing behind the group.

++ Last week, while swearing wildly at everyone, the MEK claim the Iraqis want to kill them. Habilian published an article ridiculing the MEK, saying “the MEK again accuse the Iraqi government of stealing their wood glue”, a reference to the MEK’s own propaganda in which they claim the Iraqi’s “don’t let us expand the camp, or build walls and are stealing our wood glue”.

++ A few sites have reported from Rajavi’s own websites which have been announcing that it is not just 12,000 (civilians) we have killed, we killed 55,000 in Forough Javidan (operation Eternal Light in 1988) as well. Many say this brings shame on the Americans and Israelis who support them and claim they are not terrorists.

++ Reports emerged from Albania that a man called Mirza Agha Pakniat has been transferred to hospital. He is apparently around 90 years old. People who know him say that for at least the past 20 years he has tried to leave MEK, but has been denied and kept in the camp and because of his age he couldn’t do anything. Pakniat says they would put him in the criticism meetings and accuse him of being a dissenter and would agree and ask to leave and get in touch with his family before it became too late. But they never allowed him to contact his family. Clearly now he is in hospital and may die, the MEK are readying a glowing biography to use his death to benefit Rajavi.

++ Fanous Iran this week issued a statement from Abdul Karim Ebrahimi declaring his freedom after he managed to run away from Camp Liberty and take refuge with the Iraqi police, He briefly explained the situation he faced and promised to say more when his personal situation is improved.

++ In English language, Press TV reported that Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says it will not allow terrorist groups and foreign-sponsored mercenaries to carry out acts of terror in the country… The statement also condemned the biased silence of the international organizations claiming to advocate human rights concerning the crimes perpetrated by the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) and other terrorist groups against Iranians. “It is a matter of great regret that some European and Western governments and circles have picked the despised and criminal mercenaries of the MKO terrorist group as advisors on Iran issues, and have adopted cheap positions and formal statements against the respected Iranian nation on the basis of their (MKO terrorists’) wrong, distorted and biased information,” the IRGC statement pointed out.

++ Zahra Moeini from Nejat Association reporting from Ashraf news, says “Massoud Rajavi has ordered the officials of the Camp to intensify the limitations against women especially after the revelations by Batoul Soltani and other dispatched members who bravely exposed the internal affairs especially the sexual scandals of the cult leader such as ‘Salvation dancing’. It is said that they may enclose the quarters of women in TTL by barbed wires and fences as it was the case in Camp Ashraf in order to control members more and to prevent more defections and escapes from the Cult.”

++ Hawaii based academic Farideh Farhi conducted an interview for Lobelog with Eldar Mamedov, Political Advisor for the Social-Democratic Group in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament following the April 3 EP resolution on EU Strategy towards Iran. In the interview Mamedov said “Interestingly, conservative group members (some of them with links to the exiled Iranian opposition group, the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK), such as Spanish EPP member Alejo Vidal-Quadras and British ECR member Struan Stevenson) proposed amendments deleting the call for an opening of the EU office in Tehran, fully in line with the position of their supposed enemies — Iranian hardliners.”

++ Brenda Gazzar in the Los Angeles Daily News exposes the injustice meted out to four Iranian brothers who “were detained on allegations that they were affiliated with a terrorist organization, though the men argued they had just attended a rally in Denver opposing the Iranian government and they have no terrorist involvement.” The MEK rally was also attended by several members of the U.S. Congress who have not been accused of affiliation with a terrorist organisation, even though the MEK were on the US terrorism list at that time.

++ An article by A. Sepinoud for Nejat Bloggers examines the MEK’s role in the massacre of Iraqi Kurds. “After the Swedish Parliament in a majority vote formally recognized the Anfal Operation as genocide and crimes against humanity in early December 2012, some defected members of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization voiced their preparedness to give a testimony before the Swedish parliament about MKO’s key role in the massacre of Iraqi Kurds… The United States Department of State and the Foreign Affairs group of the Parliament of Australia also asserted the MKO’s assistance to Baath regime brutal suppression of the uprisings… Iraqi authorities have issued 148 arrest warrants for MEK members for crimes against Iraqis since 1991 but none have been arrested, according to officials. Maryam Rajavi was also included in the warrants. Maryam Rajavi has been reported by former MKO members as having said, “Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards”.”

++ According to Fars News Agency “A senior Iranian lawmaker cautioned that the parliament would allow a French parliamentary delegation which has filed a request for visiting Iran to take the trip since one of the group members is a supporter of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCRI or PMOI). “The time for the visit has not been specified and it has just been under discussion,” member of Iran-France Parliamentary Friendship Group Amir Khojasteh told FNA on Wednesday.”

++ Tasnim News reports that Senator Philippe Marini, Head of the French parliamentary delegation which hopes to visit Tehran “rejected reports about a member of the delegation, Senator Philippe Dallier’s support for the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), saying that Dallier had unwittingly attended an MKO meeting in Paris. “I suppose Dallier fell in MKO trap like many others,” he said, adding “we are well aware … how unpopular this group can be in Iran.” On his participation in an MKO gathering in France a long time ago, Senator Dallier told Tasnim that he had no idea it was a rally staged by the terrorist group. He said he once was invited to a rally in his constituency, a city near Paris, along with some other elected officials. “All of a sudden, I realized I am sitting next to individuals from other countries. Actually, that day I went there, a general gathering, without any specific plans… At the end of the program I left and have had no contacts with the group ever since,” he said.”

++ Mazda Parsi from Nejat Bloggers examines the denial of a visa to Iranian UN Ambassador Hamid Abutalebi against the backdrop of the MEK’s role in the hostage crisis. “As a matter of fact, the 52 American hostages were finally released after 444 days by the Iranian government – the move was harshly opposed by the MKO that at the time considered itself as “vanguard of struggle against the US Imperialism”. It is worth to notice that the Islamic Republic did not kill or injure the US hostages but the MKO is the only Iranian group that has the blood of Americans in its hands. According to the U.S. Department of State the group conducted several assassinations of U.S. military personnel and civilians working in Iran during the 1970s. Thus it was not bizarre when they opposed the release of the hostages in 1981 by the Iranian state, and called for their execution instead. As a result they staged a large demonstration, based on the presentation of the MEK by the Foreign Affairs group of the Australian Parliament.” MEK members are currently active lobbyists in Washington D.C.

 25 April 2014

++ News has been continuously filtering out from Albania. One report suggests that commanders from the MEK have approached various people with the promise that Maryam Rajavi asked them to compile a list of useful people so they can be smuggled into Britain with false passports. One high ranking person commander who has been selected for this process is Hooshang Doodkani, from Khoy in Western Azerbaijan province. Considering that the process of refugee status has started and that it is likely that most of these people will be granted refugee status in Albania after the interviews, this is seen as an attempt to prevent people from having straightforward refugee status and instead create dependency on the MEK which will provide the false identity and passports and so trap them in the cult. Commander Farzaneh Maidanshahi is Rajavi’s contact in Albania for these activities.

++ Other news from Albania is that a high ranking member called Mansour Sha’bani has defected from the MEK and joined with the other former members. This defection has resulted in greater efforts at control by MEK commanders in Tirana who are now checking on people who want to go out on their own as they are worried more will leave. There are other credible reports that the MEK is reshuffling its system in Tirana. Maidanshahi has been retained as main commander, but Ismael Moretezai (aka Javad Khorrasan) has been replaced by another known henchman, Abdulvahab Najafinejad Jahromi (aka Afshin). Although the MEK don’t regard Albania as a place for their activities, the cult has decided to expend much more energy to sort the place out; more people have been dispatched there to help keep control. Other news suggests that out of seventeen residents of Camp Liberty who had previous residency in the UK and whose applications for asylum are currently under review by the UK immigration service, three are currently in Albania.

++ A few short comments have been posted about Maryam Rajavi’s gathering for ‘Iranian Youth of Europe and America’. Pictures published by the MEK mostly feature Maryam Rajavi with her bunch of lobbyists who are neither ‘youth’ nor ‘Iranian’, and this has become a joke among the MEK’s own supporters. Many articles pick on Rudi Giuliani who according to MEK websites claims that the overthrow is imminent. He has given a message to the residents of Liberty and Ashraf (!?): “I know you are having a hard time… but the day of freedom of Iran is near, I pray for your sacrifices and support you. Because of the leadership of Mrs Rajavi the new Iran will be built on the back of the martyrs of freedom very soon, and soon you will destroy the murderous dictators and replace them with a government of your own.” Many articles ridicule Rajavi and the rest of them, calling him ‘brother Rudi Giuliani’.

++ Mojahadin.com website in Iran carries a brief note on the appearance of Maryam Rajavi in the European Parliament. The organization has dismissed the European Parliament’s recent statement against Iran on human rights. Under the title, ‘The murderer of 17,000 Iranians appears in the gathering of so-called human rights advocates’, the organization criticizes Rajavi’s speech in which she insists that the west should stop talking and confront Iran.

++ Many people have analyzed Struan Stevenson MEP’s invitation to Maryam Rajavi to appear inside the European Parliament as symptomatic of a desperate Israeli reaction to Catherine Ashton’s visit to Tehran. In particular, they say, it was Ashton’s meetings with human rights and opposition activists in Iran that has made the MEK and Israel shiver. Stevenson used his gathering of the usual paid MEPs and officials, they claim, as a platform to harshly attack Ashton and the previous European Parliament delegation on behalf of his paymaster Maryam Rajavi, to the point of swearing at Ashton calling her ‘ignorant’. The writers highlight the intense shakiness of Stevenson and the rest to the lobbyists with the conclusion that they are reaching the end of the road.

++ Nabil Saeb al A’raji, Secretary General of the Free Iraq Party announced in an interview that the MEK is a terrorist and murderous organization affiliated with the remains of Saddam, and which has killed scores of innocent Iraqis, irrespective of what its western supporters believe of it. At the same time Aliyeh Nassif, MP, had a lengthy interview with Al Rai news agency in which she described the MEK as “a cancerous tumour which the enemies of Iraq have implanted in the body of Iraq and which will be removed surgically as soon as possible”. In addition, Hayedeh Al Ameri, a famous Iraqi writer who was working very closely with Saleh Motlaq (now one of the deputy prime ministers and a supporter of the MEK and Saddam), revealed that Motlaq used to receive 200,000 dollars though the MEK, but that now he is directly being paid millions of dollars he is not so keen on them. Al Ameri revealed that Motalq used to spend 50,000 dollars on advertising for the MEK and pocket the rest of it himself.

++ Nejat Association made a short comment that the MEK is screaming even louder than the Israelis over the oil deal of 500,000 bpd between Iran and Russia. Nejat says that while a business deal is not a crime, the torture and murder of your own people, however, is.

++ Edaalat (Victims of MEK Terrorism in Iran), published a short article among those from many others about the MEK’s shift from the nuclear issue to the human rights issue. Edaalat reminds Israel and its allies that “you may use MEK for information laundry for a while, but don’t you think it is ridiculous to use them to attack Iran over human rights with their dirty past”.

++ Amir Hossein Panahi from Ariya Association in Paris wrote a short article titled ‘Struggle Against the Regime as a Money Spinner’. He examines the role of MEK lobbyists who make money out of speaking in MEK rallies and identifies regulars such as Patrick Kennedy, Lee Hamilton, Rudi Giuliani, David Phillips and etc. who get paid between 25 to 160,000 dollars to come and let Maryam Rajavi flirt with them. The obvious thing is that this has nothing to do with any struggle or even lobbying as work. A lobbyist, Panahi points out, works to make changes. These are simply crooks charging money just to stand and speak to no end.

++ Nejat Association wrote an open letter to the UNHCR office in Tirana in appreciation of a New Year party it held for the former residents of Camp Liberty. The event was enjoyed by those who have separated from the MEK and who refused to attend a party held by the MEK which, according to Nejat, fears the decline of its cult hegemony. The letter thanked the UNCHR saying the party “reinforced our friends in their effort to distance themselves from the cult indoctrination system”.

++ There have been several articles about the MEK’s angry reaction to the release of the four Iranian border soldiers last week who had been abducted by terrorists. This reaction came alongside Maryam Rajavi’s efforts to send her condolences to the families of four high Sunni leaders who had reportedly been killed by Iranian security forces in Balouchestan. Embarrassingly for Rajavi this report proved to be completely false.

++ Comments were made about the MEK’s deafening silence as the anniversary of the re-opening of their office in Washington passed by this week. Some commentators reminded the MEK about the amount of jumping up and down and shouting ‘victory, victory’, which accompanied the re-opening and the MEK’s claim that America would definitely take Iran and give it to Rajavi.

++ There were a few reactions to Rajavi’s announcement to her usual lobbyist audience that the US should not give a visa to Iran’s UN ambassador, Hamid Abutalebi. Many referred to existing documents about the MEK which show that when the US hostages were released the MEK criticized Khomeini’s government for not executing them. They also refer to some of the MEK’s activists in the US – Ali Reza Jafarzadeh, Sona Samsoni and Ali Safavi – who are part and parcel of the Pentagon of America but who have all published their suicide notes whenever MEK asked them to. They also remind us that the MEK killed Americans in Iran as part of its anti-Imperialist struggle.

 18 April 2014

++ Mohammad Karami in Paris has received two reports from the people in Albania. One concerns the disastrous Nowruz celebration organized by MEK henchmen Farzaneh Meidanshah and Esmail Mortezai. Even though the MEK paid people to attend, many refused, and those who did attend either left before the food was served or started arguing and shouting at the MEK representatives berating them for what the MEK did to them in Iraq. Meidanshahi and Mortezai from the MEK at the start were paying people and trying to persuade them to take part in filming. But by the end of the evening resorted to threatening everyone and saying they would deal with them later for their treachery against the MEK. The second report is about a letter from UNHCR given to all the individuals which refutes the denials of help and succour which were made verbally to them last week by a UN representative. The official UN letter, published alongside the article says, “This is not our stance, you will be provided for while under our protection, not evicted from your accommodation, interviews will be held one by one, individually, for refugee status.” The people in Albania believe that what they were told verbally, which was immediately followed by the MEK’s own attempt at re-recruitment, was a stunt set up by the MEK to threaten them and force them to submit to MEK hegemony.

++ Mohammad Alavi from Ariya Association published a short article about Rajavi’s Nowruz celebration in Paris along with a couple of pictures calling it ‘Rajavi’s Show for Retired American Lobbyists’. The pictures reveal the non-Iranian nature of both audience and speakers. Alavi quotes from the infamous General Phillips, who allegedly made life very difficult for potential escapees when he was in charge of Camp Ashraf and TIPF. Phillips apparently complained, ‘Everyone is asking me why are you doing this, you have no connection with Iranians, nor seen the country, you have no relation with it. But my answer is, unfortunately I am not Iranian, but my hope is that Iranians will change their regime and I will be able to celebrate Nowruz next year alongside the Mojahedin in Iran.’ Alavi says, if you love Iranians so much why don’t you have an Iranian audience when you speak. He then tells Phillips, “Topping up the shortfall in your small military pension with Rajavi’s money is one thing, but you are talking more than you are paid for. Insulting Iranians with your rubbish talk is unacceptable and thank God you will never wake up from your delusion and be able to do anything against Iran and Iranians. Get your money and go home.”

++ Several more open letters have been written to Ben Emmerson, QC asking for his help in his role with the UN to help the people in Liberty.

++ News in English language again this week placed a lot of focus on Gareth Porter’s revelation that the MEK were the front line of an information laundry campaign by Israel which tried to pass off false information about Iran’s nuclear programme to the IAEA and the world community. Porter had several more interviews this week to talk about his book, Manufactured Crisis, which was reviewed by Edward S. Herman in The Real News. One such interview resulted in an article by Johannes Hautaviita,columnist for the Helsinki Times. The article points out, “There is a set of myths about Iran, including its foreign policy and nuclear program, that dominate the Western narrative of the nuclear issue. It is the responsibility of Western journalists to do their job and set the record straight on Iran in order alleviate the threat of yet another US/Israeli-initiated war in the Middle East. One troubling media omission in the saga of the Iranian nuclear dispute is that there has never been credible and hard evidence presented to support the claims of an Iranian nuclear weapons program…”

++ Mazda Parsi from Nejat Bloggers critiqued Maryam Rajavi’s Nowruz speech from her luxurious surrounding just outside Paris, ironically pointing out, “…For over three decades the Nowruz speeches of the cult leaders have included one unique message: “The new year is the year of the overthrow of the Iranian government”! However, Maryam Rajavi’s this year Nowruz message has one new point: “the regime is in the final stage of being overthrown.”(!) When did the Islamic Republic pass the primary stages of being overthrown that this year is the “final stage”?”

++ Nasrin Ebrahimi from Setaregan Association, Switzerland, writes an open letter to French erotic author Régine Deforge warning of Maryam Rajavi’s deception and asking not to allow her humanitaran feelings be exploited. Ebrahimi who spent ten years with the MEK describes in moving detail the real situation of women inside the MEK, and contrasts this with Maryam Rajavi’s comfortable lifestyle and the false image she presents as a feminist and humanitarian person.

++ An open letter addressed to Nouri al Maliki was published by Iran Zanan Association in Germany. It highlights the letter smuggled out of Camp Liberty warning of a humanitarian disaster after Rajavi ordered compulsory self-immolations should the residents be moved from the camp. Asking for Maliki’s intervention, Iran Zanan points out that some of them have family members still trapped inside Camp Liberty whose lives are in danger.

04 April 2014