Page 214 – Nejat Society

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

The Proof of US Cold Shoulder for Rajavi

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Iranian women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad

Masoumeh (Masih) Alinejad-Ghomi, an Iranian American journalist, author and activist who currently works as a presenter at VOA Persian Service, met with Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo in the White House on February 4, 2019.

I am not sure about the significance of this meeting – there have been different and even opposite points of views expressed in the Iranian communities both inside and outside Iran.

But something I am quite sure of is that Maryam Rajavi, the so-called leader of the Iranian Resistance and self-proclaimed President of Iran in exile, has been dreaming for many years to get a visa to visit the United States. But let alone not even getting near to the White House or the Secretary of State she has had no luck whatsoever with getting her visa.

Rajavi tries to give the false impression that her so-called alternative to the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO, NCR, or the Rajavi Cult), has close ties with the US and has the support of the west, but her well paid lobbyists such as Rudi Giuliani and John Bolton did not even manage to get a visa for her to enter the States despite their extensive and expensive efforts.

I also know that for many years her well known British lawyers and parliamentary lobbyists in London didn’t succeed in getting a visa for her to visit the UK despite opening a lawsuit in the Judiciary and spend a lot of money on it.

The open meeting of Masih Alinejand and Mike Pompeo clearly proves the cold shoulder the US officials have always shown to the MEK and its leaders through the years. But why?

The answer is quite simple. For the very fact that everyone in the west and especially the United States clearly knows how this cult is hated by Iranians. Personalities such as the Secretary of State are well aware that getting near to this notorious cult will not only bring them no credit, but on the contrary would cost their own credibility.

The Trump administration might not mind using the MEK covertly for various purposes against the Islamic Republic of Iran, but surely not at the cost of losing its international reputation.

Ebrahim Khodabandeh

February 13, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

More than $180,000 to speak in favor of MKO terrorists

Twitter Removes Leader’s Anti-Trump Remarks

Twitter removed a post on the Arabic account of Iran’s Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei where the Leader had said that chants against the US are aimed at Washington’s officials like Donald Trump, John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo.
Twitter has removed one of the Friday’s tweets of Ayatollah Khamenei’s Arabic account which was aimed at US top officials, including its President Donald Trump.
The tweet was addressed to US President Donald Trump and two other American top officials, reading “Down with USA means down with Donald Trump, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo,” and not the American nation.
The tweet had tagged Donald Trump’s Twitter account, as well as the other two American officials’ mentioned in the tweet.
The Leader had made the remarks yesterday in a meeting with Army Air Force commanders and staff in Tehran.
The tweet, meanwhile, is still available in the English version of Leader’s Twitter account.
This is not the first time the social network platform of Twitter is behaving in a biased maaner against Tehran, as earlier on September, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif strongly blasted the social network for blocking the accounts of Iranians while overlooking the”regime change”propaganda fueled by the US.

“Twitter has blocked the accounts of real Iranians, but overlooks the ‘regime change’ propaganda spewing out of Washington,”the Iranian foreign minister wrote on his Twitter account while addressing co-founder and CEO of Twitter Jack Patrick Dorsey.

He said the accounts of real Iranians, including TV presenters and students, have been shuttered for allegedly being part of an”influence operation”.
“How about looking at actual bots in Tirana used to prop up ‘regime change’ propaganda spewed out of DC?”Zarif asked while alluding to the anti-Iran Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as the MEK, PMOI and NCRI) terrorist group whose members are currently based in Albanian capital city.
Iranian Ambassador to UK Hamid Baeedinejad also took to Twitter noting that according to news outlets, there are 1,500 members of the MKO in Camp Ashraf in Albania, who produce millions of fake messages over online social media all of which seek regime change in Iran.
The Iranian diplomat noted that as demanded by Zarif, Twitter must take action to shutter these fake accounts as well.
In a relevant development in August, Google removed 39 YouTube channels linked to the Iranian state broadcaster. Google terminated those accounts, along with six blogs on its Blogger service and 13 Google+ accounts linked with Iran. The move came after Twitter and Facebook also blocked hundreds of accounts on suspicion of possible ties with Iran.
Google and Facebook claimed those social media channels and accounts were tied to Iran and Russia and disseminated “disinformation.”
The MKO (MEK), founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and western targets.
The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly-established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by the MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who argued for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in September 2012, one week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent the US Congress a classified communication about the move. The decision made by Clinton enabled the group to have its assets under the US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with the American entities, the State Department said in a statement at the time.
In September 2012, the last groups of the MKO terrorists left Camp Ashraf, their main training center in Iraq’s Diyala province. They have been transferred to Camp Liberty. Hundreds of the MKO terrorists have now been sent to Europe, where their names were taken off the blacklist even two years before the US.
The MKO has assassinated over 12,000 Iranians in the last 4 decades. The terrorist group had even killed large numbers of Americans and Europeans in several terror attacks before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Some 17,000 Iranians have lost their lives in terror attacks in the 35 years after the Revolution.

Rumors were confirmed in September 2016 about the death of MKO ringleader, Massoud Rajavi, as a former top Saudi intelligence official disclosed in a gaffe during an address to his followers.
Rajavi’s death was revealed after Turki al-Faisal who was attending the MKO annual gathering in Paris made a gaffe and spoke of the terrorist group’s ringleader as the”late Rajavi”twice.

Faced with Faisal’s surprising gaffe, Rajavi’s wife, Maryam, changed her happy face with a complaining gesture and cued the interpreter to be watchful of translation words and exclude the gaffe from the Persian translation.
After the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, the MKO was exiled first to Iraq and then to Albania. Albania houses 3,000 MKO members.
Since last year, a slew of US politicians have visited the MKO in Albania, often without any public announcement, or under cover of meeting some Albanian politicians. These include former FBI director Louis J. Freeh, US Senator John McCain (who addressed a MKO conference), and a delegation of US Senators Thom Tillis, Roy Blunt, and John Cornyn.
A few months later, US Congressman Ted Poe introduced a bill in the House of Representatives calling upon the government of Iraq “to compensate the former residents of Camp Ashraf (the former MKO camp) for their assets seized by groups affiliated with the Government of Iraq.”
Media reports said in June 2018 that US National Security Adviser John Bolton received $40,000 to participate and address the audience in a gathering of the MKO terrorist group in Paris in July 2017.

According to documents released by al-Monitor news website, the US Public Financial Disclosure Report in January 2018 for Bolton indicated that he has received $40,000 from the MKO as speaking fee in Paris gathering.
The date of speaking is July 1, 2017, and the event was titled ‘Globe Events–European Iranian Events’.

Bolton had in the same date attended the MKO gathering in Paris, stressing during his address that the Islamic Republic should not be allowed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Revolution in Iran.
During his address, he said that new US President Donald Trump is fully opposed to the”regime in Tehran”.
“The outcome of the president’s policy review should be to determine that the Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 revolution will not last until its 40th birthday,” Bolton said.

Recently, Joanne Stocker, of the US portal Defense Post, told NBC that Bolton had received more than $180,000 from the MKO to speak in their favor. Bolton’s office has so far refused to comment on it.

February 12, 2019 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Maryam Rajavi just doesn’t get it does she

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has invited several of what are known as Iran’s ‘fake opposition’ to his Middle East summit in Warsaw on 13-14 February. (A thinly disguised Iran bashing fest!). But Rajavi is being kept at arms’ length, a barge pole’s length even. She has not been invited.

To be clear, Maryam Rajavi is notorious inside the MEK to be jealous and throw tyrannical temper tantrums. No doubt she reacted similarly to the photograph of Pompeo posing alongside the much younger controversial ‘activist’ Masih Alinejad circulating in social media.

Though, apparently, these days just about anybody except Rajavi can have their picture taken with Pompeo.

Rajavi’s actions indicate that she really doesn’t understand why this is. Her desperate efforts to stay visible – parading on stage in glamorous outfits before paid speakers and audience – expose her ego rather than her leadership. As de facto leader of the MEK, Rajavi has successfully carved out a niche for the mercenary MEK in the anti-Iran front – acting out the silent wishes of America, Israel and Saudi Arabia, who might proclaim an interest in regime change against Iran, but who cannot necessarily do the dirty deeds.

By continually insisting on her propaganda events she is overstepping her mandate: the MEK’s role is to get paid, do the work, then disappear.

Rajavi is not invited to Warsaw because, quite frankly, she and her organization stink. The smell of terrorism, murder, crime and corruption cling to the MEK in spite of all the group’s efforts to whitewash, re-write, lobby and otherwise hide their past and present. No other fake opposition is as dirty and untrustworthy as the MEK. No other fake opposition keeps its members as slaves and kills dissenters. No other fake opposition commits false flag ops to blame on Iran and destroy trust.

So, while western media is reluctant to delve deeper into what the MEK are actually capable of, the security services which advise those governments who turn a blind eye to this activity are fully aware of Maryam Rajavi’s weaknesses. The fact she is prepared to sell her homeland for dollars means she is just as easily capable of selling another country for Rials when the time comes!

February 12, 2019 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Maryam Rajavi’s protest is more about being left in the cold by Pompeo in Warsaw

Maryam Rajavi headed a ‘protest’ in Paris yesterday using paid participants to promote her regime change agenda against Iran. Rajavi is afraid of being overlooked by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Iran Action Group run from inside the State Department. Pompeo will hold a summit in Warsaw next week where it is predicted Iranian opposition groups will feature. Sadly for Rajavi, she has not been invited. Wonder why? Here’s a timely reminder of just who the Mojahedin-e Khalq are. In 2012, Owen Bennett-Jones from the BBC conducted an in-depth investigation into the group, including interviews with top MEK members, as well as critics and victims. This is his reporting.

US-Iran relations

February 10, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Latest testimony on the murder of an MKO member

A former member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/MEK/PMOI/Cult of Rajavi) Nabi Ahmadi states new dimensions on the death of Malik Sharaei in the group’s camp in Albania.
Malik Sharaei, 47, was one of the few remaining witnesses of the mysterious death of 53 MKO members in Camp Ashraf, Iraq.
Nabi Ahmadi asserts that Malik was on of his intimate friends when he was in the MKO.

“Before my departure we used to talk a lot, “Nabi writes. “Malik said he wanted to leave the group but he didn’t know how he would be able to do that.”

According to Nabi, Malik had two problems. One was his fear of the outside world and the second was his involvement in the clashes of Camp Ashraf.
Nabi tried to convince him that the world outside the MKO is not a problem but he could not help him with his concerns on his presence in the clashes in Camp Ashraf. Malik was concerned about all the information he had about the last days in Camp Ashraf.

“After my escape from the MKO, Malik could not tolerate the group anymore,” Nabi states. “He asked to leave the group but in response he was jailed in a quarantine and then he was physically eliminated by the MKO leaders.”

Malik’s death was declared by the MKO news media as he was drowned in the irrigation channel after he got into it to help a comrade who was at risk of drowning. “Malik was a professional swimmer.” Nabi wonders. ”it’s not logical that he was drowned after he rescued another person!”

February 10, 2019 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 252

++ Much Farsi writing this week concerned Pompeo’s Warsaw summit. Some highlighted Pompeo’s meeting with the controversial Masih Alinejad. Comments relevant to MEK point out that America has dumped Maryam Rajavi. Faramarz Dadras, a security analyst, commented that nowadays everybody can take photos with Pompeo except Maryam Rajavi. Therefore, those who paid MEK have wasted their money. When it comes to it, she cannot be touched. Other comments say that no wonder Iranians are laughing at America when ex-CIA chief Pompeo has become the leader of the Iranian opposition. As long as people like Pompeo exist, even the hard-core regime change Iranians inside Iran would hesitate to take action in case the Americans impose something like Maryam Rajavi on the country.

++ Maryam Rajavi’s MEK event in Paris is today. Over the past week and beyond, many people have written open letters to the authorities in Germany, France, Albania and Poland to report that MEK, which pays people to attend as the audience, are even taking under age kids to Paris. They should be stopped.

++ The mother of Ali Hajeri who has left MEK in Albania, wrote an open letter published by Nejat Society addressed directly to Maryam Rajavi. The mother lists her grievances. “‘For so many years you held him captive. When he came out and we Skyped, I told my son ‘change your clothes and anything else you have brought from in there, just throw it away!’ I can’t stand to see such things.” She tells Rajavi “you spend so much money on your events and your clothes and cosmetic surgery and dentistry. But, one of your guys, my son, who has worked for free for decades, couldn’t even buy some decent clothes, so he wouldn’t have to sit in front of his mother wearing these scruffy clothes.” She continues, “Now he is out, you are filling your sites and loudspeakers saying he is an ‘agent of the regime’. By ‘regime’ you mean his country Iran. I thank God that my son is no longer a second-hand agent of Saddam, Mossad, Saudi and the Americans and anyone else who pays you. He is not an enslaved agent for them anymore, he is a free man.”

++ Massoud Khodabandeh wrote a Farsi blog titled ‘Why is nobody questioning Maryam Rajavi about the murder of Mohammad Reza Kolahi?’ Khodabandeh says, “As somebody who knew him personally – the MEK member who bombed the Republican Party HQ in Tehran in 1981 – I can say that Maryam Rajavi knew exactly who he was, where he was and what he was doing right up to his death. MEK would not allow someone like him to leave and just do what he wanted. The ironic aspect of this is that everyone in the West is knocking at the door of the Iranian embassy in the Netherlands for answers, but nobody is making enquiries from Maryam Rajavi who was his master and knew everything about him. Why is nobody asking: ‘How did he end up in Holland. Was he still doing work for MEK. Had MEK allowed someone with his background to just leave and get out of Iraq unsupervised. As a potential target for Iranian revenge, why didn’t MEK let the secret services in Holland know about his past. Or did you let them know but they were too afraid of Mossad and the CIA to protect him?’ Khodabandeh concludes: “To my mind, the only person who benefitted from his murder was Rajavi. Kolahi was eliminated like Malek Sharai and Massoud Dalili and many others because of what he knew. The benefits are that, one, you get paid to kill someone which is then blamed on Iran. And two, you get rid of another witness to your crimes and terrorism as you try to change into a new propaganda tool for the Saudis.”

In English:

++ Robert Azzi in Concord Monitor warns that the neo-conservatives who “invaded Iraq in 2003 with disastrous consequences… are back in power today”. Azzi identifies John Bolton (“a longtime supporter of the Mujahedeen Khalq”), Mike Pompeo (“a well-known Islamophobe and supporter of ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques”) and Elliott Abrams (“convicted of lying to Congress during the Iran-Contra affair”) as the “unreconstructed cheerleaders and apologists” who are “advancing regime change in Iran and Venezuela” today. Azzi asserts, “The truth is that the true evangelical calling of such rapacious men is not to serve God but to serve Mammon, to serve the narrow, imperialist and hegemonic interests of selfish and ignorant men.”

++ Borzou Daraghi writing in The Independent examines the evidence behind the alleged terror plot against the MEK in Paris last year. Daraghi at least avoids the usual western journalists’ script of reflexively blaming Iran: “European countries have tabled evidence that cannot easily be dismissed, although they cannot easily prove it either”, the article quotes from Iran’s former ambassador to Germany. But although Daraghi acknowledges that “… European anger over alleged Iranian clandestine operations targeting dissidents and its missile programme threaten to diminish support for the nuclear deal”, the article does not question what motive Iran might have to conduct such alleged terrorism in Europe when it is working with Europe to maintain the JCPOA and to use a trading system, Instex, to “that bypasses US controls on the global financial system”. Daraghi, like other western journalists, accepts uncritically the MEK’s pose as ‘victims’ and fails to examine the MEK’s long history of false flag ops and murders of dissidents that might point to their involvement in this alleged plot.

++ Behnam Gharagozli in Iranian dot com seeks to untangle the web of the Saudi-Israeli-US propaganda war on Iran and cannot do so without reference to the role of the MEK. Identifying groups that would benefit from regime change “quickly harmonizes the disparity between facts and reporting”, says Gharagzoli. He points to the fact that the mainstream media belongs to only a handful of large corporate entities to demonstrate that although “there are few commonalities between a Zionist, Saudi royalist, Iranian monarchist, MEK member and a Neocon … Nevertheless, many of these various groupings have found a loose yet committed confederation in their quest for regime change… One manifestation of this trend is witnessing how the MEK was somehow transformed from a terrorist organization to a dissident Iranian organization after only a short time. This transformation from terrorist to dissident just so happened to occur after the MEK’s base in Iraq was sacked (the MEK had been an ally of Saddam Hussein) and the calls for regime change in Iran grew louder.”

++ Mazda Parsi in Nejat Bloggers warns that the MEK’s ability to pay large sums to American lobbyists also poses a threat to Europe. The recent revelation that the MEK channelled hundreds of thousands of Euros to the electoral fund of the extreme right-wing Spanish political party Vox. France is also criticised for harbouring the MEK; “the French government is following the American hypocrisy”, writes Parsi. Many western analysts acknowledge that allowing the MEK to interfere in relations between Europe and Iran creates problems. According to Parsi, this is a reckless policy since “European countries may be haunted by the cells of terrorist extremists of the MKO someday.”

++ Muhammad Sahimi in Lobelog exposes the flaws behind Pompeo and Bolton’s support for Iran’s “fake opposition”. After clarifying that “the true opposition that includes the reformists, religious-nationalists, secular leftists, various labor groups, human rights activists, and others, believes that it is up to the Iranian people living in Iran how to change the political system in their country”, Sahimi examines and trounces the kind of artificial opposition groups touted by America, Israel and Saudi Arabia. He dismisses the MEK thus: “All Iranians despise the MEK for collaborating with Saddam Hussein and Iraq during the war with Iran in the 1980s, for revealing information on Iran’s nuclear program and facilities, for working with Saudi Arabia, and for collaborating with Israel in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists.”
February 08, 2019

February 10, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Watch out the Problematic Case of the MKO in Europe!

During the past decade, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) has been notoriously known for its deep pockets to donate the US high profiles for their lobbying campaign to advocate the group against the Iranian government. However, the group’s multi-million dollar contributions are not restricted to the US. The Spanish political party, Vox has recently been in the limelight for receiving donations from the MKO. In addition, the group has paid hefty sums to Spanish politicians for speaking on behalf of the group in its gatherings.

“The so-called National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), is under the spotlight for having financed the campaign of Vox in the European elections of 2014,” El Confidencial reported. “This Iranian sect, whose members live confined in a camp in Albania, it also counted on the participation of other former Spanish high-ranking officials in its conferences.” [1]

However, El Confidencial asserts that the US politicians have been the favorite political figures to receive MKO’s money.

“Rudolph Giuliani, former mayor of New York, still charged 150,000 euros or 200,000 more expenses. Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico, between 75,000 and 100,000 euros, ”El Confidencial cites a person who has collaborated in the organization. “The cache of Spanish politicians is lower, perhaps 50,000 euros or less, for a former president, according to industry sources.” [2]

The MKO’s lavish funding of Western politicians is their unfailing tactic to cultivate sponsors. As they could manage to gain the support of John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani. The Spanish journalist explains how the tactic works in his country. “For Iranian dissident it was a way to make high-level contacts,” he suggests.

“They say that they did not supervise the speech and did ask for a previous meeting in Madrid to explain their plans and their movement. The ex-politicians converted into lecturers accepted without asking much about the origin of the funds, which, according to most specialists, come largely from Saudi Arabia, in addition to the donations of their followers and other sources of support.” [3]

Robert Fantina of the Counter Punch sees the threat of the MKO’s presence in another part of Europe: France. “At present, there are two groups active in France,” he asserts.

“One is known as the ‘Yellow Vests’ an informal organization that started to protest an increase in fuel taxes, and expanded to oppose a wide range of practices of the government of president Emmanuel Macron that are seen as detrimental to the public. There was no well-established plan and no recognized leader. The second organization is the MEK (Mujahideen-e Khalq), a terrorist organization that seeks the overthrow of the Iranian government. MEK members have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people.” [4]

Fantina believes that by sheltering the MKO, the French government is following the American hypocrisy.

“France, one of the signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, condemned the U.S. withdrawal from this international agreement, and French government officials are looking for a means to circumvent the threatened US sanctions if its corporations continue to do business with Iran,” he writes. “Yet they support a terrorist organization whose sole purpose is the overthrow of the Iranian government.” [5]

Fantina advises the French government to be clear on its stance towards Iran emphasizing on the decline of US’s power and influence in the international politics. He points out that the many nations are seeking ways to continue trading with Iran despite the US sanctions.

“The fact that several nations are looking for ways around his threatened sanctions is in itself a good sign, one that is indicative of dwindling US power and influence,” he writes. “While France praises the terrorist MEK, it also seeks ways of continuing to trade with Iran.” [6]

Today, 40 years after the Iranian Revolution, It is not hard to understand the root and legacy of Iranian hatred towards the West. Even, Thamar E.Gindin, the pro-Israel activist confirms that the MKO is one of the reasons of the Iranians’ concern over the Western interference in their country. She investigates the roots of such a resentment. In his recent article titled “Understanding ‘Nofuzophobia”, he correctly accomplishes that most Iranians embrace Western culture but

“they do remain apprehensive about foreign political involvement and interference”. “One of the fears expressed by many Iranians, people who detest the current regime but do not take active measures to overthrow it, is that because there is no clear alternative, they are afraid the West would interfere again and impose a regime they don’t want, such as the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK)—the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, an Iranian opposition group favored by the West,” he writes. [7]

Thus, Western governments should take it into consideration that the Iranians want to stop their reckless policies regarding the terrorist cult-like MKO. Otherwise, the European countries may be haunted by the cells of terrorist extremists of the MKO someday.
By Mazda Parsi

References:
[1] El Confidencial, Aznar, Zapatero … The other politicians financed by terrorists, January 16, 2019.
[2] ibid
[3] ibid
[4] Fantina, Robert, France, Yellow Vests and the MEK, Counter Punch, January 25, 2019.
[5] ibid
[6] ibid
[7]E. Gindin, Thamar, Understanding ‘Nofuzophobia’, The roots and legacy of Iranian resentment of the West, part of a weeklong look at 40 years of the revolution, Tabletmag.com, January 17, 2019.

February 7, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

An Unholy Alliance: The Use of Terrorism According to John Bolton

John Bolton is carefully uniting an unholy alliance of terrorist groups who all share one goal: opposition to Iran

In 1978, President Carter’s National Security Advisor, Zbignew Brzezinski, decided to use the Muslim Brotherhood against the Soviets, and sent Arab combatants to support the Afghan opposition against the Communist regime. Responding to a call for help from the Afghan government, the Red Army became bogged down in an unwinnable conflict.
In Afghanistan, the Muslim Brotherhood was not armed by the CIA, who were unable to obtain the authorization from Congress for an operation of that magnitude, but by Israel. In view of their success, the Arab-Afghans were later mobilized in many other theatres of operation. It followed, amongst other things, that the Brotherhood, armed both by Israel and Iraq, took a shot at the Syrian Arab Republic, in 1978-82. One thing leading to another, a representative of the Brotherhood was incorporated into the staff of NATO during the attack in Kosovo against Yugoslavia.
The position of the Muslim Brotherhood as auxiliary troops for NATO was canceled at the end of the Clinton presidency, but the collaboration of the Brotherhood with the CIA has never been terminated. It was clearly re-instated with the attack on Libya under the Obama presidency, where it furnished almost all of the ground troops for the Atlantic Alliance. One of their representatives was even incorporated into the U.S. National Security Council. Then, during the attack on Syria, NATO’s LandCom, situated in Izmir, coordinated the jihadist troops.
Since the Trump administration opposes on principle the use of terrorist groups by U.S. military, the moment arrived for the White House to redefine the role of the Muslim Brotherhood.
We do not yet know the new strategy defined by National Security Advisor John Bolton. However, several elements enable us to guess its general form.

Daesh

At the beginning of 2018, U.S. Special Forces illegally stationed in Syria exfiltrated thousands of Daesh (ISIS) combatants overseas. In May 2018, General Yahya Rahim Safavi, military advisor to Ayatollah Khamenei, accused the U.S. of organizing the transfer of Daesh combatants to Afghanistan.
Currently, approximately 7,000 of them are still on Afghani soil. Contrary to their past position, they do not support the Taliban, who are currently opposed to all foreign presence, but now oppose them.
According to the spokesman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (in other words the Taliban), Qari Muhammad Yousuf Ahmadi,
The American invaders and their lackeys carried out a raid last night [12 January 2019] against a Mujahedin camp where members of Daesh were being held, situated in Pani Bus in the district of Jwand, Bâdghîs province. The joint enemy forces martyred two guards and left with 40 Daesh-affiliated prisoners. Apparently, the American invaders and their henchmen from the Kabul administration launched this raid in order to help the Daesh prisoners. Every time the Mujahedin of the Islamic Emirate [the Taliban] have fought Daesh, the American invaders have assisted Daesh and bombed Mujahedin positions. Exactly the same way that when Daesh was uprooted by the Mujahedin of Darzab, in the district of Jowzjan, and was about to be destroyed [last August], the American invaders and the Kabul administration jointly assisted 200 members of Daesh by helicopter.”
It was at this moment that the Combating Terrorism Center of the Military Academy of West Point published a historical study of the divergences between the Mujahedin during the war against the Soviets. This document noted that in 1989, during the retreat of the Red Army, and when Osama Bin Laden had returned to Saudi Arabia, certain young members of the Muslim Brotherhood questioned the laxism of their senior officers. They created the “Jalalabad School”, which was much more strict, and began to accuse various people of impiety and excommunicated them (takfir). This, they say, is the conflict that blew up again in 2014, provoking the split between al-Qaida and Daesh.
This flashback should not blind us to the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood continued to welcome not only the Taliban but all Afghani resistants, until the assassination of Ahmed Chah Massoud (himself an ex-member of the Muslim Brotherhood), on September 9, 2001 (two days before the attacks of New York and the Pentagon). For two decades, Afghanistan became the training ground for jihadists from all over the world, particularly the combatants from the Russian Caucasus. Today the Taliban are much more careful with their choice of allies and their friends. It is true that today they control 60 % of the territory. They no longer base themselves on theological grounds, but on nationalist criteria.
During the war against the Soviets, the Muslim Brotherhood were mainly aligned with ex-Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who was their representative in the country. On 22 September 2016, with the support of the Obama administration, he was awarded the pardon of the new Afghan state and was removed from the UN list of terrorists.
The arrival of Daesh in Afghanistan occurred at the time when the Trump administration had been trying – since July 2018 – to negotiate with the Taliban. Preliminary contacts took place in Qatar with ambassador Alice Wells, assistant to Mike Pompeo for Central Asia. The negotiations were headed by ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad in September and October, despite the anxiety of the Afghan government, which sent a representative but were not admitted. Khalilzad had fought alongside the Talibans, Pachtuns like himself, against the Soviets, before taking US citizenship. He was trained in neoconservatism and became ambassador to the UNO in 2007, when the Senate opposed the nomination of John Bolton.

The People’s Mujaheddin

Last week, the head of the People’s Mujaheddin (MEK) of Iran, Maryam Radjavi, traveled to Kabul on an official visit, from Tirana, where she lives. She met specifically with the President of the National Security Council and ex-ambassador to the United States, Hamdullah Mohib. Within the next few days, she should be traveling to Herat, in the district of Shindand, to establish a military base for her organization. According to the Pakistani newspaper Ummat, the Pentagon has already trained 2,000 of the People’s Mujahedin there, in October 2012.
Despite their apparent similarity in name, there is no connection between the Mujahedin (with one d) of the Muslim Brotherhood (who are Arabs and Sunnis) and the Mujaheddin (with two d’s) of the MEK (who are Persian). The only objective link between the two groups is that they have both been used by the United States and both practice terrorism.
As from 2013, the MEK has been transferred from Iraq to Albania with the support of the United States. A small town has been built for them by Israeli companies. However, on 23 June 2014, Maryam Radjavi, in a long speech given before 80,000 members of the sect and 600 Western personalities, spoke of her satisfaction that Iraq had been conquered by Daesh. We should remember that this victory had been organized with the help of General Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri, ex-right-hand man for President Saddam Hussein, and as such, protector of the People’s Mujahedin.
John Bolton’s links with the MEK date back to the Bush administration. They were strengthened by his presence – for a price of 40,000 dollars – during their annual meetings at Villepinte (France), in 2010 and 2017. Having become the National Security Advisor, he now unites the jihadists from Daesh and the loyal followers of Maryam Radjavi against their common objective.
The most immediate of the targets of this terrorist is Iran, with whom Afghanistan shares a long frontier, hard to defend.
Thierry Meyssan is a political consultant, President-founder of the Réseau Voltaire (Voltaire Network). His latest work in French is Sous nos Yeux. Du 11-Septembre à Donald Trump (Right Before our Eyes. From 9/11 to Donald Trump).
Thierry Meyssan, Mint Press News

February 6, 2019 0 comments

Mr. Akbari Kohnesari at Nejat Society office

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

My brother is among dissents

Mr. Kohnesari visited Nejat Society office of Gilan Branch. He says:” My dear bro, Valireza was a POW of Iran-Iraq war when he was deceived by the MKO recruiters. Now he lives in MKO Camp at Manez,Albania. He has been deprived from a free life and having contact with his family for more than three decades by the MKO Cult leaders. “

Mr. Akbari Kohnesari at Nejat Society office

Kohnesari family are active members of Nejat Society. They do their utmost efforts to liberate Valireza from the claws of the Cult. They several times went to Camp Ashraf asking the MKO leaders to let them visit their beloved brother. They are now serious to travel to Albania and make Valireza free.
“I have news that my brother is among the dissident members of the MKO at Manez,Albania” Mr. Kohnesari says.

February 5, 2019 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

Handling Of Iran Is Juvenile. MEK the darling of Trump Admin

While we have been focused on domestic politics, some of what this Administration has been doing abroad poses serious risks. The Administration has been trying to make Iran the devil behind everything we don’t like and threats have been flying back and forth. That has many of us concerned about where we are going.

The MEK has been the darling of the Administration as a potential successor to the mullahs because they both dislike the Iranian regime. Never mind that the MEK objected when Khomeini decided to release the hostages, that it has been a terrorist organization and killed Americans. Never mind that it has no support in Iran because it backed Iraq against Iran in a war that left 300,000 Iranians dead, and never mind that human rights organizations have documented its abuses. Never mind that Iranians despise the MEK’s version of Islam because it is “worse than the current mullahs.” But it is apparently enough that it dislikes the mullahs regardless of what might happen if they actually tried to take power in Iran, mirroring the tragedy of the second Bush war with Iraq.

Our handling of Iran is both juvenile and dangerous.
We, in this country, are very upset that Russia may have interfered in our elections. Yet we behave dismissively about the American engineered coup d’etat that removed the democratically selected prime minister of Iran and brought the Shah back.
That was a while ago but it led directly to the taking of hostages 26 years later. Everyone in Iran knew that American staff inside the Embassy had reorganized a failed coup d’etat, ended democratic government and brought monarchy back. So yes, the Iranians violated international norms by storming and seizing the Embassy, but would we do less if we believed that Russia was organizing a coup in their Washington embassy? Or would it have been our patriotic duty to stop it by any means necessary?
Yet all the enmity between Iran and the US stems from those two events and we don’t seem to be able to get past it. Iran tried on several occasions to reestablish a decent relationship with the US. It offered to negotiate the full panoply of differences between us. But no president before Obama was willing to deal with them. It was considered unpatriotic even to talk with Iran.
We changed the balance of power in the Middle East by defeating Iraq, leaving Iran the sole major local power and target because power in the region had become unbalanced. This country then worked to complete their local isolation, refusing to include them in regional meetings and arrangements. Their relationship with Israel had been fine and productive until we tried to squeeze them out. Like Germany in NATO, Iran could easily have been included in regional security arrangements. It could and would have become a much better friend than the likes of the Saudis.
But we got furious at every step, shaking fists, making threats, even threatening war, instead of using our heads to create a peaceful Middle East. It’s been much like a fight between kids in a sandbox except that all the kids have powerful weapons. Some presidents need to grow up, for the sake of our fellow citizens.
Tyrants want enemies to vilify in order to unite the country behind them instead of against them. It’s also a distraction from the embarrassments of domestic politics. But warlike behavior can get out of hand, leading some young men to their deaths and families to become refugees. Getting people to unite behind an unpopular president is a sick reason for people to go to their deaths.

Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.
Stephen Gottlieb, WAMC, Morning Edition,

January 31, 2019 0 comments

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