Page 229 – Nejat Society

Rudy Giuliani’s Foreign Lobbying

His work for a member of a pro-Russian political party is drawing scrutiny.

September 1, 2018 – Washington, District of Columbia, U.S. – Lawyer for United States President Donald J. Trump, Rudy Giuliani, right, greets Ukrainian politician and Mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitschko as they arrive for the funeral service for late United States Senator John McCain (Republican of Arizona) at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC on September 1, 2018. .Credit: Alex Edelman / CNP (Credit Image: � Alex Edelman/CNP via ZUMA Wire)

Senate Democrats have asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, is violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act by lobbying for foreign interests without registering with the agency.

Seven Democrats wrote Thursday to John Demers, assistant attorney general for the department’s national security division, following news that Giuliani sent a letter in August to Romania’s president attacking an anti-corruption campaign there. Giuliani has acknowledged he was paid to send the letter by a firm run by former FBI director Louis Freeh, who represents one or more wealthy Romanians investigated under the campaign. (Freeh is not registered as a foreign agent.) The former New York mayor’s letter, which contradicts official US policy and drew a rebuke from the State Department, drew attention to what the Democratic senators describe as Giuliani’s “numerous foreign clients and ongoing communications with senior U.S. government officials,” including President Trump. Giuliani has not ended his work for foreign governments, nor has he fully disclosed his client list, even as he advises the president.

The senators note that Giuliani also lobbied to help the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, an Iranian opposition group, win removal from a State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, and has advocated for regime change in Iran, one of the group’s top goals. His recent clients include the government of Qatar, which is aggressively working to influence Trump, and he has referenced unnamed clients in Colombia and Brazil. Giuliani’s firm, Giuliani Security & Safety, has touted work for governments in Serbia, Ukraine, Chile, Dominica, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador. Neither the firm nor any of its employees has registered under with the Justice Department. The firm did not respond to requests for comment.

The senators’ letter says Giuliani’s work for the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, whose mayor is a member of Ukraine’s Party of Regions, is especially concerning. That party, known for a pro-Russia stance, is the organization that employed former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as an advisor and lobbyist between 2006 and 2014. Manafort, convicted last month of tax fraud in connection with that work, and for bank fraud, faces another trial later this month for charges that include failing to register as a lobbyist for the party.

“Mr. Giuliani’s financial connection to the organization, the organization’s close ties with the Russian government, and Mr. Giuliani’s ongoing public advocacy against Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election raises further questions that warrant review,” the senators write.

Giuliani has said he does not believe he is required to register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent because he does not directly lobby Trump or the US government. But the FARA law generally requires anyone attempting to influence US policy on behalf of a foreign entity to register with the Justice Department regardless of whether they lobby directly. The senators urged Demers to scrutinize Giuliani’s claims that he does not advocate for clients in private communications with Trump and top White House aides. “Without further review, it is impossible to know whether Mr. Giuliani is lobbying U.S. government officials on behalf of his foreign clients,” they write.

The senators who signed onto the letter are Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).

Read the letter here:

Rudy_Giuliani_Criminal_MEK_MKO_Rajavi_Cult_Mercenary

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Dan Friedman is a reporter in Mother Jones‘ DC bureau. Reach him at dfriedman@motherjones.com.

Mother Jones.com, Dan Friedman,

September 8, 2018 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 242

++ Channel 4 News broadcast a segment about the MEK in its 7 o’clock news programme on Thursday, ‘The shadowy cult Trump advisors tout as an alternative to the Iranian government’. The piece focused on MEK in Albania as a secretive, ageing cult which pays Americans to make them appear popular. It was clear that MEK has been reduced to a role as a propaganda outlet for western regime change pundits. One former member described how his job was to create Twitter and Facebook accounts to make it appear that MEK was popular among Iranians. (Presenter Lindsay Hilsum – International Editor – did not ask how much he was paid for this work, but the answer is ‘nothing’ because MEK are modern slaves.) The in-depth news segment concluded that MEK members in Albania will die of old age or disease without having seen their families for many years.

++ MEK’s response to the Channel 4 programme was predictable. A flurry of copy/paste denouncements implying that C4 collusion with Iran would lead to the killing of MEK in Albania. Some good responses to this were:

@gthanku Puns N’ Roses, who Tweeted: “The replies from MeK trolls are hilarious; they’re oblivious to the fact that they’re bolstering this expose by illustrating the kind of trolling the MeK defector describes in it.”

@WeAreManyEU We Are Many, who Tweeted: “Funny how all these MEK trolls are saying the same thing at the same time. Seems they are all sitting next to each other and have created a production line of trolling.”

++ The C4 report mentioned a damning report by Albanian police and security services which says: “In Iraq some former members of this organisation were murdered [by the MEK]… there are reasonable suspicions that the situation here is similar to the one in Iraq.”

++ In Albania, the popular satirical comedy programme Fiks Fare on Top Channel TV tore the MEK apart by ridiculing the group. The programme is titled ‘Canadian family asks Top Channel’s “Fiks Fare for help: “MEK mujahedeens took our daughter’. In one scene a Top Channel journalist visits the MEK Manza camp to ask if Somayeh Mohammadi could verify if a handwritten document was actually hers. The reception was similar to the one given Channel 4 Presenter Lindsay Hilsum. A gun toting Albanian security guard aggressively tries to send her away but is soon out of his depth and has to call on MEK members to try to get rid of the journalist. MEK claimed that Fiks Fare had threatened Somayeh. Unfortunately for MEK the journalists had recorded the entire conversation.

++ Gazeta Shqiptare published a piece ‘Answering the defamations of Margarita Kola and the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) cult’ which exposes the politicised agenda of the MEK lawyer.

++ Somayeh was again brought in front of a camera inside the Manes camp to nervously read a pre-written statement. She was accompanied by MEK Commander Farid Toutonchi, whose real name is Mahoutchi. In a Balkans Web piece titled ‘Letter / Somayeh’s Iranian Father Calls on MEK member in Tirana: Let me meet my daughter’, Mostafa Mohammadi exposes this former tank driver who has blood on his hands from Iraq. In his letter, Mostafa makes the same demand as he has always made: bring my daughter to a public place where I and her mother can meet with her away from MEK minders and controllers. MEK’s only reply is to label everyone – from Mostafa to Lindsey Hilsum – ‘an agent of the Iranian regime’.

September 8, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The shadowy cult Trump advisors tout as an alternative to the Iranian government

President Trump sees the Iran as America’s biggest enemy. And before assuming office, his National Security Advisor John Bolton said US policy should be regime change in Iran.

He and other Trump advisers have long touted a shadowy exiled cult as an alternative to the Iranian government. The Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) has had a very active propaganda wing for years, but now they have influence at the highest level. They also have a secretive camp in Albania, 30km from the capital, Tirana.

Trump sees Iran’s regime as America’s biggest enemy – and his advisers have long touted a shadowy exiled cult as an alternative to the Iranian government. LindseyHilsum has been to their secretive camp in Albania to investigate. https://t.co/4npOdh5obE

Channel 4 News, Lindsey Hilsum – International Editor

September 8, 2018 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

Canadian family asks Top Channel’s “Fiks Fare for help: “MEK mujahedeens took our daughter”

For the past 20 years, an Iranian family of Canadian citizenship have been trying to meet with their daughter, who joined the MEK when she was 16.

Today she is 38, but the parents still cannot meet her, although they have tried very hard and went through a lot of dangers to find her.

Mustafa Mohamadi and his wife addressed Fiks Fare for help regarding the situation that they are facing for the past two decades. They think that their daughter has been forced to become part of the organization.

“I and my family we haven’t been able to see Somaieh for the past 20 years. We have been living in Canada and our daughter lived with us until she was 16”, he said.

“We immigrated to Canada in 1994. The mujahedeens brainwashed her. She went to the Ashraf camp to fight the Iranian government. The mujahedeens had told us that my wife’s sister had been executed. My daughter had a very special connection to her aunt. When we were in Canada we used to help the Mujahedeen. We used to collect money for them every weekend. We knocked on doors asking for money to help them. Two years later, when my daughter was 16, a woman came to us in Canada. She was a member of MEK. She spoke to my daughter and told her she had met her aunt. She said she knew about the special relation they had. My daughter had tears in her eyes. She was invited to go to Iraq, to see where her aunt was staying. The mujahedeen member bought two tickets for two weeks. I agreed that she could go for two weeks”, says her father, Mustafa Mohammadi.

According to him, his daughter never came back after this. He and his wife have been asking for help for the past years, but no state institution has helped them.

They even say they received letters, signed by their daughter, asking US troops to intervene in Iraq and let her join her family. Those letters were sent to the Canadian embassy in Jordan, which sent them to Canada.

After this report, Fiks Fare made an inquiry at the MEK organization through an official e-mail. They asked information if Somaihe was at the Manza camp, in Albania. They also requested a meeting with the girl.

The journalists didn’t receive any official answer. They went to the Manza camp to try and meet the MEK representatives. After many attempts, MEK finally responded with an open letter, declaring that Fiks Fare had threatened Somaihe and the members of the Manza Camp. But Fiks Fare has recorded the entire conversation, which makes it clear that the journalists are asking for official information, based on the law.

Fiks Fare asked for an interview, after obtaining the letters signed by Somaihe Mohammadi, who has demanded to meet with her family in Canada on October 17th, 2014.

Today, in a press release, Somaihe refused to meet her parents and called them agents of the Iranian regime. She also confirmed that she was staying with MEK on her free will.

Albania Top Channel TV

September 6, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Let me meet my daughter

Farid Totounchi (Real name: Mahoutchi) Commander of Saddam’s Private army forcing Somayeh Mohammadi to do a “Forced confession” session in Terror camp in Albania

A day after 38-year-old Somayeh Mohammadi, a member of the MEK group which opposes the so-called Iranian regime and who publicly accused her father of being a Tehran spy, the father reacted. Through a letter to Balkanweb’s editorial office, Mostafa Mohammadi states that his daughter is held hostage by the MEK group leaders in Tirana. He points to one of the members of the MEK group in Tirana, who is called Farid Toutonchi. Among other things he writes:

“I call you the name you registered with in Albania, but your original name is Farid Mahoutchi. In Albania you are known as one of the top executives of the Mojahedin propaganda office, while in Iraq you were the commander of Tank Division 4, otherwise known as the Karun Division whose task was fighting against Iran, Arabs and rebels Kurds who opposed the regime of Saddam Hussein. In Iraq you are wanted for crimes against humanity, but in Albania with the new name and the new identity you have taken, you appear as a media man.

Through this letter we want to thank you for the show that you made of our daughter Somayeh yesterday in the News 24 media. We want to thank you for finally not using Mr Namik Kopliku and not the lawyer Margarita Kola to show our daughter to the media. Fortunately, now that Somayeh’s hostage issue is becoming international, you finally decided to remove the mask and come out in front of the television cameras.

LETTER

In your recent statement that your organization made against the British Channel 4 television company, among other things you attacked the UK government. You attacked the British Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Alistair Burt, as well as attacking many journalists, lawyers, and other people who are interested in the issue of Somayeh. With the follies that only you know how to fabricate, you implicate the British government along with the Iranian government in a conspiracy against your terrorist cult. After you have beaten and threatened journalists and lawyers, cried for the Albanian government to protect you from Iran’s “terrorists”, after you have persuaded the Albanian government to close the borders to Iranian families who want to meet and save their children from your jihad, after you paid Albanians to distribute your tracts and scams in the media, finally you have come out yourself in front of the television. This is a great achievement.

In the media statement that our daughter Somayeh read in your presence, she reiterated the allegations and defamations you have made against our family for several years. Our fearful and radicalized daughter accused us of being Iranian agents sent to Albania by Iran and other idiocy that only the sick minds of Maryam Rajavi’s terrorists know to create. You made this shameful parade with our daughter whom you’ve kept hostage for 21 years. You deceived our daughter to leave Canada and left her without a family, no husband or child, no education and no future, and keep her in reserve as a terrorist for Maryam Rajavi and her war against Iran.

Commander Farid Mahoutchi, with the appearance before the media of our radicalized daughter, brainwashed and scared, and the media who have agreed to play your game and do not ask the questions that need to be asked, you have proven once again that our daughter is held hostage by your defunct terrorist organization. According not only to international human rights organization experts, but also Canadian media, there are several hundred people in your organization like Somayeh who are being held hostage. Those people at whom you chant and tell them that their parents are enemies and Iranian agents to be killed, are living in total isolation. They are not allowed to communicate with their families and are muddled by ideas of radical jihad and violent extremism.

Our daughter, reading the text written by the Mujahideen command, which was performed under your supervision, made the situation sound very frightening. Our daughter’s confession that her parents are Iranian agents and because of that she will not talk to us is similar to the confessions that ISIS hostages made in front of cameras in the presence of jihadist commanders who killed and executed those hostages. You did this too Mahoutchi / Toutonchi. In Syria there were many radicalized ISIS people who killed their parents. This is what you also intend to do Mahoutchi / Toutonchi. You have radicalized and alienated our daughter from her family and made her see us as enemies. You have removed our daughter from Canadian civilization and democracy and kept her as a soldier in your jihadist camp in Manza waiting to perform jihad against Iran. With your radical and violent extremist ideas, you have turned our daughter into a controlled and fearful robot who cannot love her mother and father, who rejects Canada and democracy and agrees to live as a suicide bomber for Maryam Rajavi to make war and jihad against Iran.

Commander Farid Mahoutchi, because you are the main hostage holder of our daughter and together with the fearsome commander and torturer Behzad Saffari, you are the two key persons who control our daughter in Albania and who threaten and violate journalists and who beat me in Tirana a few weeks ago, I’m boldly looking for a favor.

Is it possible for you to bring our daughter for just an hour to meet her mother, Mahbubeh, who is in Tirana, since I, according to you, am an Iranian agent and I have to be killed by MEK? All the enmity you are creating by attacking and threatening Albanian journalists, lawyers, beating me and accusing us of being Iranian agents, inventing agents and alienation between Albania and Iran, accusing the British government of conspiracy against you with Iran, blackmailing Albanian public opinion that Iran wants to kill you, etc., can be solved very simply.

Bring Somayeh into a public space. Let Somayeh meet for an hour alone with her mother, without your presence and the other jihadists who surround her. Trust Somayeh to live for an hour without the presence of your jihadist commanders, so that she, like all other children in the world, can meet her parents. We will not eat Somayeh. We will not take Somayeh to Iran. We will not turn her against MEK. We will simply appeal to our daughter to abandon jihad and terrorism and come with us to Canada. We know that this means one fewer self-sacrificing fighter for you, but you must let this happen if you want the democratic world to respect and see you as a democratic opposition rather than jihadist hijackers.

Can Commander Farid Mahoutchi do this little thing? We know that our daughter, who was kidnapped as a minor from Toronto, is kept as a sleeping suicide-bomber for the terrible jihad that you dream of performing against Iran one day. You as a tank commander, you have blood-stained hands, and Somayeh looks to you like a suicide bomber for the war you dream of one day.

But we, as her parents, who have been in Albania since July 5, 2018, who are going to the police and taking you to court, who you are beating and reviling as agents and terrorists, we only want one thing: to meet our daughter.

Commander Farid Mahoutchi, you should know that while the Albanian state tolerates you keeping hundreds of isolated and radicalized hostages in your camp in Manza, beating and threatening journalists and lawyers, blaming and defaming foreign governments etc, the international community sooner or later will condemn what you are doing. Somayeh is a hurricane that will severely damage you in the eyes of the world. You cannot keep hostages in Europe. Albania is not Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and you cannot behave like tank drivers and terrorists here. The threats you and Commander Behzad Saffari and others are making against Albanian and foreign journalists will not easily be forgotten. Europe cannot be intimidated by your terrorism and threats, and in no way accepts hostages and jihad.

We, Somayehs’ parents, that you have held hostage for 21 years, we have only one request. Let us meet our daughter! If you understand the minimum of civilization and democracy you have to do this! Do not behave like jihadists and criminals!

Mostafa Mohammadi and Mahbubeh Hamza

BalkanWeb, Translated by Iranintelink

September 6, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MEK agents mourning an advocate of war and violence

There is no surprise to see the agents of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) participating in the memorial of Senator John McCain. The group’s propagandists in the United States, Alireza Jafarzadeh and Sona Samsami attended Senator John McCain’s memorial. As he tweeted, Jafarzadeh was “honored” to pay tribute to the deceased senator for what he calls “standing on the side of freedom fighters of Iran as they seek a free Iran and global peace”.

What Jafarzaed calls “freedom fighters” of Iran is the lexical equivalent of “Mujahedin_e khalq_e Iran”. Yes, senator McCain was standing by the side of them. He met the leader of the group Maryam Rajavi in Albania in April 2017.

The American journalist Michael Rubin who is a longstanding critic of the Iranian Government and an admirer of US warmongers against Iran , criticized senator McCain for the visit. “With this meeting, McCain has embraced the enemy of our enemy in the Tehran regime, but he has also embraced the enemy of the Iranian people,” he wrote at AEIdeas on April, 17th, 2017. [1]

Earlier in June2015, McCain attended the MKO annual gathering in Paris –that regularly features speeches and appearances of dozens of current and former officials from the U.S., Europe and the Middle East, all of whom join in the call for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. This was McCain’s first appearance by the side of the formerly terrorist designated MKO. “John McCain continues his long tradition of embracing horrible foreign groups,” asserted Daniel Larison of the American Conservative. “He frequently endorses dubious and disreputable groups when they happen to share his dangerous foreign policy goals.” [2]

“McCain has been a leading advocate for a policy that has sent weapons into Syria when they have been seized by Jabhat al-Nusra or ISIS,” Larison added. “Those are just the most obvious examples of McCain’s terrible judgment. McCain doesn’t discriminate when it comes to choosing allies of convenience in pursuing unwise and reckless goals, so it was probably just a matter of time before he started associating with the MEK.” [3]

After the death of Senator McCain, Larison cultivates his legacy as a Vietnam veteran and along-time Congressman. “He specialized in matters of national security and foreign policy, and yet he had a remarkable knack for misjudging practically every major foreign policy issue of the last three decades,” he writes. [4]

“McCain distinguished himself as a consistent proponent of unnecessary foreign wars in the name of American “leadership,” and the country was always worse off when the president heeded his recommendations,” Larison states. “He was a leading cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq and intervention in Libya, and he was wrong about both. He was also a Kosovo war supporter and has been a steadfast defender of U.S. support for the Saudi war on Yemen. When Georgia escalated a conflict with Russia, he insanely proclaimed, “We are all Georgians” and gave the impression that he was willing to risk WWIII over a dispute that had nothing to do with us. Despite his constant demands for more “action,” the U.S. did not intervene in Syria as forcefully or as soon as he wanted. He was even once quoted praising the Saudis for their role in Syria. “Thank God for the Saudis,” he said. He was famously hawkish on Iran (“bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran,” he sang), and in recent years went so far as to jump on the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) bandwagon. This is a record of horrible judgment and even more horrible costs for the people in the countries affected by the policies he supported.” [5]

Markha Valenta of Open Democracy describes senator McCain’s political characteristics as “a public man who made two runs at leading the most powerful war machine this world has known” but he believes that McCain’s bitter experiences in Vietnam justifies his violence-based strategies. “The nearly six years he spent in jail in Hanoi ravaged McCain physically and mentally,” Valenta writes. “His survival of them would come to establish his character and undergird his political career.”

The correspondent of Open Democracy notifies McCain’s desire to bomb Iran. “McCain fought the Iranian nuclear deal tooth and nail, and hailed Trump’s evisceration of it,” he suggests. “When it came to Iran, all of McCain’s readiness to reach across the aisle vanished. “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran”McCain once notoriously sang to the tune of the Beach Boys tune Barbara Ann.” [6]

McCain’s double standards for human Rights and terrorism is also discussed in Valenta’s article. “On the one hand, McCain’s close friendship with Israel and unrelenting enmity against Iran also meant enmity towards those Iran supported, from Hamas to Yemeni Houthis to Assad,” he write. “Even as McCain decried Assad’s violation of Syrians’ human rights and supported those rising in protest, he had absolutely nothing to say about the human rights of Palestinians and Houthis as they faced blockades, bombing, and incursions. Indeed, McCain loudly supported not only Israel but also the extravagantly undemocratic regime of Saudi Arabia (“thank God for the Saudis”), along with the Iranian dissident group Mujahideen-e Khalq (MeK).” [7]

He offers a short but enlightening description of the MKO as terrorist undemocratic cult: “MeK was notorious for a string of political murders in 1981 (including Americans), for joining Saddam Hussain in the war against Iran, and more recently for indulging in a host of aggressive cultish practices. Those who have left the group accuse it of ending romantic relationships, forcing others into arranged marriages, brainwashing, sexual abuse and torture. In short, going against all principles of social and political relation for which McCain stood. All this McCain was willing to ignore in publicly speaking with and on behalf of MeK: given the choice between democratic principles and undemocratic alliances against Iran, he chose the latter.” [8]

Therefore, a McCain-MKO alliance did not seem to have anything to do with “freedom” and “global peace”. Regarding the MKO’s violent past and its cult-like nature, it is definitely considered as a threat to freedom and welfare of its-own members and peace for the citizens of any society they live in. The first victims would be MEK members and the next targets could be Albanian, write the group’s former members and cult expert, Ann and Massoud Khodabandeh. [9]

Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] Rubin, Michael, What is John McCain thinking?, AEIdeas, April 12th, 2017.

[2]Larison, Daniel, McCain Is the MEK’s Newest Fan, The American Conservative, June 15th, 2015.

[3] ibid

[4] Larison, Daniel, McCain’s Foreign Policy Record, The American Conservative, August 27th, 2018.

[5] ibid

[6]Valenta, Markha, John McCain: on mourning a principled man … of violence, Open Democracy

29th, August 2018.

[7] ibid

[8] ibid

[9] Khodabandh, Massoud & Ann, False Flag Op In Albania Would Drive A Wedge Between The EU And Iran, Lobelog, August 30th, 2018.

September 5, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Answering the defamations of Margarita Kola and the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq cult

Mostafa Mohammadi and Mahbubeh Hamza

In a letter that Margarita Kola, the lawyer of the defunct terrorist Mojahedin group, has published in the Albanian media, Kola has repeated the slander and lies that the Mojahedin cult casts against me and my daughter whom they hold hostage. For this reason, we the parents of Somayeh wrote this answer to Mrs. Margarita Kola:

First, we say that Mrs Margarita Kola, in her letter written on behalf of a so-called phantom group called ‘The Committee of Lawyers for the PMOI in Albania (CJPA)’, repeats the lies that the Mojahedin terrorists throw at me and the hundreds of other parents of the members they hold hostage in Albania. She says that I, Mostafa Mohammadi, came to Albania to mislead public opinion and conduct a campaign to denigrate the defunct MEK terrorist organization.

Secondly, she claims that I am an agent of the Iranian government who exerts psychological pressure on my daughter to surrender; ie to abandon jihad and terrorism and become a normal person and have a civilized life away from violent extremism and radicalisation.

Third, she claims that Somayeh stands by her wish to remain in the MEK military camp and voluntarily refuses Canada and a free life.

Fourth, she repeats the idiotic propaganda slogans of MEK, which claims that MEK is a democratic and revolutionary organization, while the Iranian regime plans attacks against the elderly MEK members and that I am part of these attacks. In an illegal way, she asks the Albanian government to expel me from Albania so that the MEK terrorists and hostage takers will not have to face me in court.

In relation to the above, as Somayeh’s family, we say to Mrs Kola:

Be ashamed of the slander you fling at me and my family and for becoming party to a defunct terrorist gang that has held my daughter hostage for 21 years. If you were a real lawyer, you would not play with the card that you are a former US Embassy employee and would not blackmail people left and right with the slogan: “You know who I am, if you know you will save your job!” A real lawyer respects the law and does not write slander in the media. Because you – as a lawyer – know very well what is the sequence of criminal offenses; lack of free will, freedom of the person, deprivation of the right to free movement, the presumption of innocence, what is the difference between arrest and accompanying the police, what is a final decision or right to appeal.

I am not in Albania to attack MEK, I am here to release my daughter from the MEK’s terrorist-jihadist cult. I want to save my daughter from violent extremism and radicalisation. I want to save Somayeh from Manzas’ hell and take her to Canada’s freedom. At no time did I want to take my daughter to Iran, nor do I care what you do politically. I have left Iran as an asylum-seeker. If you look at my Canadian passport that MEK has copied, my country of birth exists alongside my Canadian nationality. Obtaining a visa from Iran to enter Iraq for a while does not make me anything, it does not make me less of a parent, nor take away the right to be the father of Somayeh. You as a lawyer should know that a visa does not show anything, but you have become a party to the defunct terrorists and slander me along with this group. As a lawyer, can you explain legally what is this radical group to my daughter? Why should the group interfere with our parental relationship and keep my daughter hostage? Why should I communicate through the media with my daughter? What guarantee do I have that my daughter is not being tortured or psychologically abused by this group, as the former Mojahedin members tell me? Why in any case did you not tell why I, a MEK supporter, wanted to remove my children from this group? You as a lawyer should know that my son stayed in MEK for five years and is witness to all the suffering there.

The Jihadist commanders Behzad Saffari, Jila Deyhim, Ahmad Taba etc., who hold my daughter hostage, led the gangs that beat me in Tirana in July and have their hands stained with blood and murder in Iraq, Iran, etc, one day, sooner or later will face justice just as Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic did. If they do not face justice in Albania, they will face justice in the European courts.

Commander Behzad Saffari, a jihadist who probably wrote for you the propaganda letter you have signed against me, is one of the key people in the kidnapping, abuse and psychological pressure of my daughter. He will one day face the law for his pressure and blackmail against my daughter as proven by Canadian sources. Behzad Saffari, who runs the MEK offensive in Albania and coerces the media not to publish the charges against the MEK under the justification of “if you do this, Iran will kill us”, is the person who tortured my son Mohamad in Iraq, holding me prisoner in a container in the desert, and he is the key person holding my daughter in Manza.

My daughter Somayeh Mohammadi is hostage to the terrorist MEK organization. The letters she writes are not written by her but by Mojahedin commanders holding her hostage in the Manza camp. The MEK jihadist command does not allow my daughter to go free but keeps her locked inside the camp. Why?

They are afraid that if Somayeh meets her parents and leaves of her own free will, she will publicise the crimes that MEK has comitted against her. The letters MEK publishes on her behalf are letters that the MEK itself writes. The MEK and jihadists like Behzad Saffari are so scared of my daughter that they do not want her to leave the Manzas jihadist camp and meet with her parents or journalists. They do not trust Somayeh to be free. For this reason, in recent weeks MEK has attacked and beaten and insulted Albanian media and journalists, Britons etc. who went to Manza camp to meet Somayeh. MEK does not dare at any time to let Somayeh go free. For this reason, they have probably written the letter you signed against us for you. They want to frighten public opinion and justify not allowing anyone to have access to a free Somayeh who does not live under the constant pressure of MEK jihadists. Somayeh is as free as the ISIS hostages who were free when they came out in front of the cameras and praised ISIS with a pistol at their heads. And you Mrs. Kola know this very well.

Commander Behzad Saffari has never forgiven Somayeh and never leaves her alone to be free because in 2004 when she was interviewed by Canadian authorities she expressed the desire to leave MEK. But as shown in reports from Canada (read Stewart Bell’s writings in Albanian.com), she was blackmailed by Behzad Saffari in the presence of Canadian officials and she lives in psychological terror of this terror Mojahed.

Mrs Margarita Kola. We, Somayeh’s parents, want our daughter to live as freely as you. To dress as she pleases. Go for a coffee like you. If she wants, to use a marital agency like you. Marry, have a family, a companion and have companionship like you. If you think our daughter is happy with the life she has, we suggest that you change roles with our daughter. Go to Manzas and become a jihadist, dress in a military uniform, and live in the middle of the heat at the MEK military camp and pray for jihad against Iran. As a witness to this, convince Behzad Saffari to release our daughter and let her enjoy a free life like you do in Tirana.

Understandably, the MEK command will never allow such a thing. Behzad Saffari would not accept you as a jihadist in Manza, as you do not meet their standards.

We ask the Albanian authorities to secure the life of our daughter who is held hostage by MEK, as we know that if one day our daughter is at liberty, the MEK will do everything they can to ensure she does not live anymore.

Somayeh knows many secrets of the MEK. That is why she is kept in isolation at the Manzas jihadist camp.

But we her parents promise we will never stop our legal battle to liberate our daughter from the defunct MEK terrorist organization.

Gazeta Shqiptare, Tirana, Albania,

September 3, 2018 1 comment

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 241

++ A few people have written in response to the death of Senator John McCain, a long-term supporter of MEK and other violent groups. Most derided the MEK sending condolences to one another for the ‘martyrdom’ of Brother Mojahed John McCain. Another commented on the change from MEK’s anti-Imperialist beginnings to now, saying that Hanif Nejad was put in the mincer of Capitalism and the product churned out was Maryam Rajavi, a tool for the neoconservative agenda led by the likes of McCain.

++ In Albania, the harassment of reporters and media owners has continued and even increased. MEK operatives Behzad Saffari and Totounchi are those doing the harassing, they tell everyone that ‘the Americans are with us and the CIA will destroy you’.

++ From Paris, Homayoun Kohzadi wrote that ‘the consequence of supporting a terrorist cult like MEK is not confined to Iran’. Kohdazi examines the effects of MEK on other countries. MEK’s interference in the internal affairs of Iraq and its support for the insurgency contributed to delaying the establishment of a stable government in that country, claims Kohdazi. He mentions MEK’s involvement in Syria and siding with Daesh. He looks at MEK’s history of taking sides in regional conflict from killing Kurds for Saddam to siding with Saudi Arabia in its war against Yemen. Kohdazi also brings up Europe and America, where MEK has, for example, launched an attack on a former MEP as well as its ongoing corruption of political systems and individuals through payments, bribes and intimidation.

In English:

++ Ivan Kesic, writing in the American Herald Tribune ‘Worse than ISIL: The Dark Past of Mujahedin-e Khalq Terrorist Group’, says that looking at “their crimes and massacres, number of victims and the operational coverage”, not ISIS, Al Qaida Boko Haram nor any similar groups match the MEK led by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. Recalling the number of those killed by MEK over the years in Iran, Iraq and elsewhere, Kesic gives an account of MEK acts, from the killing of six Americans in the 1970s to bombings, assassinations and terrorist attacks in Iran and Northern American and Western European countries. He reminds us “During the [Iran-Iraq] war and later in the 1991 uprisings in Iraq, the Mujahedin-e Khalq assisted Iraqi Ba’athist government in a series of systematic attacks against the Kurdish fighters (Iran’s allies) in northern Iraq. The result of their action was a genocide that killed between around 100,000 Kurdish civilians. Former Mujahedin members remember Maryam Rajavi’s infamous command at the time: ‘Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’. Regardless of their share in a committed genocide, it is higher than all the Daesh’s massacres committed against Yazidis, Christians, and Shias combined.”

++ Mazda Parsi in Nejat Bloggers examines the MEK’s role in America’s new ‘Action Group’ led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Parsi uses quotes from an article by Caitlin Johnstone, That Time Hillary Clinton Removed John Bolton’s Favorite Terror Cult from the Terrorist List’, The Medium, and the aforementioned article by Ivan Kesic, to illustrate why Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was so confident in his Tweet: “’65 years ago today, the US overthrew the popularly elected democratic government of Dr. Mossadegh, restoring the dictatorship and subjugating Iranians for the next 25 years’, Zarif said. ‘Now an ‘Action Group’ dreams of doing the same through pressure, misinformation &demagoguery. Never again.’”

++ Euro Timers posted a short video on YouTube titled ‘The Most Dangerous Cult in Albania’. As the title suggests, the film shows why hosting a closed, terrorist cult in a small culturally open country like Albania is a disastrous mistake.

++ Iran Interlink republished a series of articles, first published in Canada in 2006, which follow the story of Mostafa Mohammadi and his quest to rescue his daughter Somayeh from the hands of the MEK. These articles have now been translated into Albanian and are being published in Shqiptarja.com, Albania’s leading print newspaper. The post includes hand written letters by Somayeh Mohammadi to her family and the Canadian authorities, asking for help to be brought out of the MEK camp in Iraq and taken to Canada.

++ Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh, write in Lobelog ‘False Flag Op In Albania Would Drive A Wedge Between The EU And Iran’. They warn that Pompeo’s Iran Action Group is looking for ways to engineer regime change against Iran and that the groundwork for a False Flag Op in Albania or Europe has already been done by the MEK.

August 31, 2018

September 2, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

McCain’s Foreign Policy Record

Sen. John McCain died from brain cancer over the weekend:

John S. McCain, the proud naval aviator who climbed from depths of despair as a prisoner of war in Vietnam to pinnacles of power as a Republican congressman and senator from Arizona and a two-time contender for the presidency, died on Saturday at his home in Arizona. He was 81.

McCain served in Congress for more than thirty years. In that time, he went from the Vietnam veteran who warned against an unwise entanglement in Lebanon to becoming the most vocal and predictable advocate for every bad military intervention under the sun. The longer he stayed in Washington, the worse he became. His career is nothing if not a cautionary tale to other would-be legislators. He specialized in matters of national security and foreign policy, and yet he had a remarkable knack for misjudging practically every major foreign policy issue of the last three decades.

McCain distinguished himself as a consistent proponent of unnecessary foreign wars in the name of American “leadership,” and the country was always worse off when the president heeded his recommendations. He was a leading cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq and intervention in Libya, and he was wrong about both. He was also a Kosovo war supporter and has been a steadfast defender of U.S. support for the Saudi war on Yemen. When Georgia escalated a conflict with Russia, he insanely proclaimed, “We are all Georgians” and gave the impression that he was willing to risk WWIII over a dispute that had nothing to do with us. Despite his constant demands for more “action,” the U.S. did not intervene in Syria as forcefully or as soon as he wanted. He was even once quoted praising the Saudis for their role in Syria. “Thank God for the Saudis,” he said. He was famously hawkish on Iran (“bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran,” he sang), and in recent years went so far as to jump on the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) bandwagon. This is a record of horrible judgment and even more horrible costs for the people in the countries affected by the policies he supported.

If McCain had his way, the U.S. would have been in even more wars for much longer than we already were, and even his admirers can’t deny that. For the last twenty years of his political career, McCain was an irrepressible champion of reckless U.S. meddling around the world. It was an enormous stroke of good fortune for the U.S. and the world that his 2008 presidential bid failed. If you believe that U.S. foreign policy is far too militarized, overreaching, and destructive, McCain did a great deal to make and keep it that way.

The one big thing that McCain got right in his Senate career was his opposition to torture. Because he had suffered from the use of torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he understandably had no patience for the euphemisms and rationalizations of his pro-torture colleagues. This was the most significant disagreement he had with his party, and in the end it is probably the only issue where his willingness to break with his party from time to time really mattered. McCain had the ability to put principle ahead of party on occasion. Unfortunately, he did not do so all that often, and when it came to foreign policy the principles he followed were usually very bad ones.

By Daniel Larison

September 2, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Albanian media Shqiptarja.com publishes Somayeh Mohammadi’s story

The following post republishes the story of Mostafa Mohammadi’s quest to free his daughter from the hands of MEK. The series of articles, originally published in 2006 by Stewart Bell in National Post, has now been translated into Albanian and published by one of the country’s leading newspapers, Shqiptarja.com. In 2006, MEK accused Stewart Bell of being ‘an agent of the Iranian regime’.

Somayeh Mohammadi

This summer, 2018, Mostafa travelled to Albania in another attempt to meet with his daughter away from MEK control. MEK responded aggressively, accusing Mostafa and his wife of being ‘agents of the Iranian regime’. MEK has also accused Albanian journalists, a Channel 4 film crew from the UK and another British journalist with The Guardian, of being ‘agents of the Iranian regime’. However, at no time did MEK allow Somayeh Mohammadi to leave the camp to meet independently with her family or anyone else. This has scandalized Albanian public opinion.

Following this is a document in Farsi giving background to this story, including hand written letters by Somayeh Mohammadi to her family and the Canadian authorities, asking for help to be brought out of the MEK camp in Iraq and taken to Canada. The post includes family photographs.

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Children Of ‘The Resistance’

September 1, 2018 0 comments

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