Page 233 – Nejat Society

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 231

++ Over the past few weeks, Rajavi has been stuck between the past and the present and can’t answer the members. In particular the older ones. She has started to appease them now by publishing articles about the MEK’s founders and in praise of Che Guevara. While doing that she attacks the ex-members, saying they have deviated from the path of the founders and of the revolutionaries, etc and have betrayed them. Commentators say: ‘From this we can see that you are stuck. Let us remind you, you are not Che! He didn’t betray his own country or side with the enemy as you have done.’ Others have commented: ‘You have to accept that you have changed. This is not the same organisation it was then. MEK has undergone a profound change and is now a mercenary force.’

++ As MEK members are escaping, Rajavi has tried to close Camp Ashraf Three. No visas are issued for leave. In spite of this, another person managed to run away this week. He is a well-known, high-ranking member whose name we will not put out now. He has been with MEK since the very beginning. In addition, we have two or three more escapees over the past few weeks who are also veteran members.

++ Farsi commentators remind the MEK: ‘You are staging the 30th Khordad event which is to commemorate the execution of the MEK founders who were arrested and tried for killing Americans. They were executed by a puppet of the Americans, the Shah. Now you invite American extremists like Rudi Giuliani and far right Zionists to your event and you expect the members not to run away! The members expect, after 40 years shouting about anti-Imperialism, that at least you take a stance over what is happening in Gaza, but Rajavi and the MEK remain silent.’

++ Netherlands media has reported on the trial of gangsters who murdered Mohammad Reza Kolahi, (aka Ali Motamed), in the Netherlands in 2015. It has been officially acknowledged that Kolahi is the MEK member who planted the bomb in the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party (Hezb Jomhouri) in 1981 which killed 72 leading officials. There is now speculation over who ordered the killing of this man. There are two suspects. One is Iran, which has obvious grievances. The other is Rajavi, who is desperate to whitewash the MEK’s past. She wants closure on the association with terrorism by eliminating those who are known perpetrators – especially people like Kolahi or Massoud Keshmiri and others. Massoud Khodabandeh commented: ‘These two never enjoyed their lives as they did not want to stay with MEK from the start but could not leave because of their past. They were always haunted; by Iran over what they did and by Rajavi for fear of their future. One is now dead. Let’s hope the others can go to the European authorities and they can save their lives and escape their miserable existence.’

In English:

++ Massoud Khodabandeh was interviewed on Richard Engel’s On Assignment for MSNBC. The segment, titled ‘The MEK’s Man inside the White House’ raised concerns over the influence of MEK advocates like Giuliani and Bolton who now occupy influential roles in the White House. Khodabandeh described the MEK as a ‘destructive cult’. MEK reacted by creating a plethora of new websites and social media accounts dedicated to denouncing Engel as ‘an agent of the Iranian regime’.

++ Gareth Smyth wrote ‘Iran’s Future: Hybrid Nationalism?’ for Lobelog in response to Mike Pompeo’s unfortunate speech viz a viz Iran. Smyth examines the cultural response to the current situation among Iranian citizens and how the rulers must navigate this.

++ Iran’s Tehran Times reported Iran’s Judiciary chief denouncing Trump’s “aggressive tone and actions against the Iranian nation”. Amoli Larijani “pointed to the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement, saying exiting an international treaty is ‘indigestible’ for every country, ‘but the U.S. does such thing through bullying’. He also pointed to the impact of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK), an anti-Iran terrorist group, on U.S. politicians, saying that with the help of the MKO the U.S. has been trying to disrupt the Iranian economy.

Trump’s new national security advisor John Bolton is in close contact with the MKO which has done numerous terrorist activities in Iran and joined Saddam Hussein’s army in the fight against Iran in the 1980s.

Amoli Larijani said the U.S. ‘has unfortunately fallen in this wrong direction by the illusions and fantasies of [such] terrorist groups’.”

++ A Conference of Iranian opposition groups and personalities will be held on 9th June in Washington. A petition to accompany the meeting says ‘The Honorable Donald Trump, We, the undersigned, respectfully petition you not to allow the terrorist Maryam Rajavi of the Mujaheddin Khlaq (aka MEK) to enter the USA.’

++ Nejat Society: ‘Former members of the MEK attended a conference in the EUP to discuss the legal and humanitarian situation of the refugees in Europe. It was headed by MEP Antonio Panzeri member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.’

++ Open Letter from the “Free Iran” Association to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Albania.

++ Dr. Massoumeh Torfeh, TRT World, ‘US failure to honour the Iran deal has dealt a blow to ordinary Iranians’. “During the nationwide protests in Iran in January, Trump’s series of tweets sounded like he was calling for regime change. The US National Security Advisor, John Bolton, has also spoken about regime change unashamedly hoping the US could ‘celebrate in Iran the toppling of the regime’.” MEK “has hardly any support inside Iran. Most Iranians have never forgiven MKO for siding with Iraq to fight against Iran. There are in fact several hashtags against them, such as #nomojahed or #shutupPompeo.

++ Hamid Dabashi, Aljazeera, June 06, 2018. “The next fantasy this open plot against Iran espouses is to have the discredited cult of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) traitors do the job for the US and its Saudi-Zionist alliance. In response to this fanciful proposition, Hartung rightly says, “to think that an organization that the New York Times has rightly described as a ‘fringe dissident group’ could overthrow the government…”

++ Iran Front Page News reports on Dutch media reporting: ‘Man behind Iran’s Worst Terrorist Attack Killed in 2015’.

++ Professor Bessma Momani, The Globe and Mail, ‘Bolton, Giuliani and Pompeo have been paid by Mojahedin Khalq terrorist organisation’. “Once listed as a terrorist organization by U.S. authorities, most Iranians regard the MEK as traitors aided by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in the Iraq-Iran war or, at best, a sadistic cult.”

++ Mazda Parsi in Nejat Bloggers examines ‘Three Decades After Rajavi’s Expulsion from France’. The piece concludes: “The Expulsion of Maryam Rajavi from France and her relocation in Albania seems to be a very vital solution for the threat of her destructive cult that endangers European citizens too. Eventually, the MKO’s camp in Albania should be supervised by the United Nations authorities in order to offer members of the group possibilities to choose for their future with their own free will.”

June 08, 2018

June 11, 2018 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

US Forces Albania To Take IS Fighters After Hosting MEK

“Albania will become a coordination center for fighters returning from ISIS to the Balkans,” announced Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov during a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama during a conference against violent extremism, which took place in Tirana this week.

Neither prime minister offered additional details, such as who is pushing this plan or with whom it is being negotiated. This vagueness generated criticism that Rama had not only failed to consult with parliament on this matter of grave importance to his country but perhaps he himself was not fully consulted.

Albania has been used before to host undesirables. In 2005, the United States sent five inmates from Guantanamo Bay there. Between 2013 and 2016, Washington also relocated 2,901 Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) extremists there from Iraq, which had been trying to expel them since 2003.

Now, the Trump administration is telling Albania to host and de-radicalize former Islamic State (ISIS or IS) fighters who originated from the Balkans region. According to Colonel Bardhyl Kollcaku, head of Albania’s Intelligence and Security Agency, “We have the appropriate experience to contribute in the study and addressing the phenomenon of foreign fighters.”

If the MEK had been de-radicalized, Kollcaku’s assertion would be credible. But they weren’t.

In 2013, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pragmatically removed the MEK from the US terrorism list to allow members to be sent to third countries so that Iraq could be rid of them. European countries would not take them because of their terrorist past. Instead, the Albanian government agreed to take them only on the promise that a de-radicalization institute be established to reintegrate the extremists back into society.

This did not happen. The allocated budget, lodged with the American embassy in Tirana, has not been touched. Instead, after Donald Trump became president and set about dismantling every detail of Barack Obama’s legacy, the MEK were “allowed” to regroup.

Regrouping meant that the MEK would continue to call for violent regime change against Iran, backed by US extremists like Rudi Giuliani and John Bolton who now occupy influential posts in the Trump administration. As a result, Albania has become a front-line enemy state in relation to Iran.

Regrouping also meant re-enslaving members, who are not paid and have no human rights. It also meant building a closed camp in a remote part of the country to which Albanian authorities and security services have no access. As though Albania wasn’t having a hard time already cracking down on criminal and mafia gangs, now the MEK are implicated in criminal activity. Among several individuals arrested for money laundering last month, two Israelis were found to be associated with FARA NGO. This is the same company involved in building the closed military training base in Manez to which rank-and-file MEK fighters were moved last autumn.

At the same time that was happening, word got out that the widows and orphans of killed IS fighters would soon be transferred to the MEK’s deserted buildings in the Albanian capital of Tirana. Such rumors were dismissed at the time. Now it appears that the truth is much worse. Actual IS fighters will be sent to Albania.

It’s possible, however, that the IS fighters will follow a similar trajectory as the MEK in Albania. Western powers have seen Syria and Iraq fall away from their influence. Hezbollah governs Lebanon, and a restive population wrapped up in the politics of Palestine is challenging the stability of Jordan. These are uncertain times in the Middle East. Some individuals in Western power structures have broached the possibility of creating a bespoke covert mercenary force to bring fresh chaos and violence into the mix. Although the MEK has been such a handy tool for aggravating Iran, former IS fighters could, with the right training, constitute a similar force against other countries.

And although John Bolton recently remarked that regime change against Iran is now off the Trump administration’s agenda, continued patronage of the MEK belies that claim. So, this is not just Albania’s problem. The West needs to urgently ask, “What use is the Islamic State now?”

Massoud Khodabandeh is the director of Middle East Strategy Consultants and has worked long-term with the authorities in Iraq to bring about a peaceful solution to the impasse at Camp Liberty and help rescue other victims of the Mojahedin-e Khalq cult. Among other publications, he co-authored the book “The Life of Camp Ashraf: Victims of Many Masters” with his wife Anne Singleton. They also published an academic paper on the MEK’s use of the Internet. Anne Khodabandeh is a UK expert in anti-terrorist activities and a long-standing activist in the field of deradicalization of extremists. She has written several articles and books on this subject, along with her husband, who is of Iranian origin.

by Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh

June 11, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

John Bolton’s ties to Iranian MEK make him more lobbyist than statesman

Comment: Bolton’s ties to the cult-like, violent, exiled Iranian group the MEK, are extremely alarming, write Behnam Gharagozli, Jon Roozenbeek and Adrià Salvador Palau.

When it comes to Iran, John Bolton has always been one of the most hawkish figures in the US foreign policy establishment.

In July 2017 for example, he told a group of Mujahedeen Khalq (MEK) supporters in Paris that “before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran!”. In that same speech, Bolton declared that the official policy of the United States should be regime change in Iran.

Bolton, a long-time proponent of American-sponsored regime change in Iran and new national security adviser to the Trump administration, is now better placed than ever to fulfill his long-standing dream of toppling the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is a dream, however, that would in fact be a nightmare for the United States, Iran and the rest of the region.

But recently we have learned that Bolton’s dream might have come with a price tag: MEK expert Joanne Stocker asserts that the MEK likely paid Bolton at least $180k in “speaker fees”, making him more a lobbyist than a statesman.

To appreciate the significance of Bolton’s ties with this shadowy group, it is important to understand the MEK’s history.

After its founding in 1965, the MEK morphed into an Islamist-Marxist organisation that sought to overthrow the Shah of Iran through armed conflict.

The MEK’s original alliance with Ayatollah Khomeini, who shared this goal of overthrowing the Shah, quickly fell apart after the Shah’s departure in 1979, as the two forces had sharply different visions for post-revolutionary Iran

The MEK and Khomeinists soon found themselves in open civil war in Iran from 1979-1983. The conflict came to an end when, as the result of a number of factors including greater popular support, the Khomeinists prevailed against the MEK and pushed the group into exile.

Subsequently, the MEK, in what is considered by most Iranians as an act of treason, sided with Saddam Hussein against Iran during the eight year war in the 1980s. Unfortunately for them, this alliance would merely lead to yet another military defeat for the MEK at the hands of the Iranian armed forces.

During Operation Mersad in 1988, Iranian forces defeated an invading MEK force that had support from Saddam Hussein. Not only did the MEK fail to make any military gains against the Iranian regime with this move, siding with Saddam Hussein during the war destroyed any widespread support the group had left in Iran.

Despite this string of military losses, the MEK never ended its quest to gain power in Iran. The group enjoyed continued support from Saddam even after 1988 as they were housed at Iraq’s Camp Ashraf.

The group continued to carry out assassination plots against Iranian officials and even supported Saddam Hussein’s violent suppression of Shia and Kurdish rebellions in Iraq. The group earned a reputation as a cult as its members would set themselves on fire, reportedly under orders from the leadership.

The MEK hasn’t exclusively targeted the Shah and the Islamic regime. Its bombing campaign against the Shah, which killed Americans, earned the group a terrorist organisation designation from 1997 to 2012.

This ghastly past however, has not stopped individuals such as John Bolton from reportedly receiving money from the group, despite MEK members and supporters facing criminal prosecution in the United States.

The group’s ideology has also shifted tremendously according to its political needs. Initially anti-Israeli and anti-American, the group now enjoys support from both states. What’s more, many reports indicate that the group gets funding from Saudi Arabia as part of the ongoing cold war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Academics and policymakers alike state that the MEK does not enjoy widespread support inside Iran. Indeed, most Iranians who do not support the current clerical regime also vehemently oppose the MEK.

Bolton cosying up to the group in his quest to overthrow the clerical regime in Iran is incredibly troublesome.

#JohnBolton 8 months ago among MEK supporters tells them they will overthrow #Iran’s regime and celebrate in #Tehran with Bolton himself present, “before 2019” pic.twitter.com/H7oaaU3faU

— Bahman Kalbasi (@BahmanKalbasi) March 22, 2018

Not only would regime change in Iran potentially cost the United States trillions of dollars, tasking a group such as the MEK to carry out such a goal is downright foolish.

Still, the light of hope flickers in my eyes

My dear Mohammad

I have missed you a lot.I can’t wait for the day that I can finally have you back.

June 10, 2018 0 comments

Albania

MKO sponsors in Albania charged with money laundry

Albanian Police arrested several people on money laundry charges, Sahar Family Foundation cited from Albanian media.

Money laundery of the MEK lobby in Albania

The arrested men including two Jewish Albanians, laundered thousands of euros by the aid of an NGO named FARA. The money was funneled to Albania from Israel.

The construction permit was issued by the Albanian National Territorial Council for the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) to construct their new Camp Ashraf 3 in Manze in Durres region in North of Albania. However, the permit was officially granted to FARA, (an extremely problematic issue for Albania and Albanians).

The relation between the arrestees and the confiscated money with the MKO and its third camp is under investigation.

June 10, 2018 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi

Three decades after Rajavi’s expulsion from France

Massoud Rajavi surfaced in Iraq, the country that was in war with Iran at that time. After he was expelled from France territory in June 1988, he was welcome by the then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as the fifth column agent who would aid Iraqi Baath regime in spying and military operations. However, Maryam Rajavi is still in France running the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) with its full potentials as a destructive terrorist cult.

At that time, Massoud Rajavi was in the first stages of establishing his cult of personality. His expulsion from France was a year after his marriage with Maryam Qajar Azdanlou, the wife of Abrishamchi another high ranking member of the group. The marriage was marked as the start of the “Ideological Revolution” that required members to divorce their spouses and to dedicate their entire existence to the group’s cause and its leader Massoud Rajavi.

Up to the Ideological Revolution, the MKO was a political group with a violent back ground of fighting against the Iranian government but after the Ideological Revolution was declared and started its rule, the MKO became a destructive cult with a terrorist extremist substance. It almost took two decades to fall Saddam Hussein and the MKO go disarmed by the US military. The fall of the landlord and the disarmament of the group led a large number of MKO members –who couldn`t justify their stay in the group anymore—to leave the group.

Once the rank and file defected the group, secrets of the Cult of Rajavi were revealed in the testimonies that former members made in different courts and media in order to bring Massoud Rajavi to trial. But Massoud got disappeared. He had not been seen since Maryam was arrested by the French Police in June 2003.

Maryam has been the only leader of the MKO since the disappearance of Massoud. She has made efforts to maintain the cult-like structure of the group whether in Iraq or Albania. The same as any other destructive cult, leaving the MKO is forbidden. Members are fed up and disappointed due to the suppressing atmosphere of the cult that controls all aspects of their life, bars them from contacting their family and friends. They were tortured mentally and physically by the order of its cruel leader. They can hardly ever leave the group normally; they have to escape.

Therefore, the rank and file of the MKO are definitely suffering a more threatening oppressive situation these days than in 1988 that Massoud joined them in Iraq. Today, the MKO members are taken as hostages in a remote camp outside the Albanian capital. The new camp is called Ashraf 3 by the group leaders who wish to maintain Rajavi’s cult-like structure the same as it was once formed in Camp Ashraf, Iraq.

The Expulsion of Maryam Rajavi from France and her relocation in Albania seems to be a very vital solution for the threat of her destructive cult that endangers European citizens too. Eventually, the MKO’s camp in Albania should be supervised by the United Nations authorities in order to offer members of the group possibilities to choose for their future with their own free will.

Mazda Parsi

June 7, 2018 0 comments

UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Open Letter to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Albania

Open Letter from the “Free Iran” Association to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Albania

We would like to inform you that the authors of this paper are human rights activists who have had a history of organizational co-operation with the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization under the leadership of Masood Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi in Iraq and Albania, but due to political differences and access terrorist and sectarian organizations of this organization have been separated from this organization.

We, besides appreciating the efforts of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Albania, we consider it necessary to further help and informing for the work of refugees and members of Mojahedin-e Khalq who wish to separate from this organization or those who have already been separated from this organization.

According to the close knowledge and experience of our long-standing cooperation (10-30 years) with the Mojahedin-Khalq organization and also the reports published by the police and the Albanian Interior Ministry and the new members who abandoned the Mojahedine organization, we believe that the process of brainwashing and the isolation of persons and arrestees within the organization goes further to the base of Mojahedin-e Khalq in Albania.

But in spite of inhuman and illegal conditions, members of Mojahedin-e Khalq have created the conditions for being separated from the mental and physical occupation of this cult. Unfortunately, UNHCR unlawfully and in violation of the fundamental human rights provisions has deviated from some of its responsibilities by entrusting the cult of Mojahedin-e Khalq and has allowed this organization to made inhumane pressures to its members who, according to international law, are recognized as refugees and have not paid attention to the problems that these people have reported to UNHCR’s offices in Albania, while not being able to exercise their fundamental rights.

Under the provisions of international law and the fundamental obligations of the UNHCR High Commissioner for the Protection of Refugee Rights, we have been waiting for you to help these refugees who have been separated from the cult of Mojahedin-e Khalq. But our reports show that this is not true and that the process of staying and legal issues in Albania are facing with serious obstacles.

The UNHCR High Commissioner should provide direct financial assistance to all refugees, regardless of this if, he has been disconnected from the Mojahedin-e Khalq organization in Albania or is still present there. According to you, can the UNHCR High Commissioner entrust his responsibilities to a terrorist cult who has committed thousands of terrorist operations and human rights violations in his story?

International human rights organizations have made various reports on the negative performance of the organization, as can be seen from the Human Rights Watch report on widespread human rights violations in the camps of this organization.

Currently, over 240 members of Mojahedin-e Khalq, who have been part of this organization, reside in Tirana, where police and the Interior Ministry of Albania are in contact with them, they have also confirmed the brainwashing of prisoners at the headquarters of Mojahedin-e Khalq in Albania, which are in line with the reports of international human rights organizations.

Now arises the question that, how UNHCR’s High Commissioner some parts of his formal and organizational responsibilities trusts to a sectarian and violent organization?

Are not UNHCR officials in Albania aware that the Mojahedin organization treats its members as slaves and does not allow them to meet and talk with their families?

We hope that UNHCR in Albania closely monitor the works and responsibilities of its staff, in order to provide better conditions for refugees separated from the Mojahedin-e Khalk Organization.

With respect,

Association “Free Iran-Mojahedin-e Khalq survivors in Albania”

Dedicated copies for:

– Interior Ministry of Albania

– Albanian representatives in the European Parliament in Albanian

Free Iran (Survivors of Rajavi cult in Albania)

June 3, 2018 0 comments

Europe

Former Members of the MKO in European Parliament

A delegation of Women Association and Ava association attended a conference by socialist democrats of the European Parliament on Thursday May 24, 2018.

The conference was held to discuss the legal and humanitarian situation of the refugees in Europe. It was headed by MEP Antonio Panzeri member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.

Former members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi), from Ava and Women Associations who attended the meeting included Batoul Soltani, Amir Movasaqhi, Reza Jebelli and Ali Akbar Rastgou.

Challenging the leadership of the MKO, Reza Jebeli addressed the audience:

“We were all members of the organization [that was] based in Iraq. We were there for many years. We were disconnected from the outside world. We had no relation with our families. Many of our loved ones died during the years. We had no way to contact them. We were with this organization called Mujahedin, Iranian Mujahedin.”

Mr jebeli went on to demand the president of the event to watch out Maryam Rajavi’s visits to the Parliament. “The next time Maryam Rajavi -which comes here to the parliament hall all the time and talk about human rights—ask them about this two thousand people that right now is in Abania [in a] refugee camp and they are segregated and they have no right to visit their family,” he stated. “So this is a question I will ask you please if you could investigated the situation in Albania.”

He also warned the European parliament and the UN on the relocation two thousand members of the MKO as an organization that was previously listed as a terrorist group in a European country.

Mr. Jebeli expressed his concerns about those who are still in the MKO military-like camp in Tirana because they have no way out. He described their situation as “dangerous”. “The enemy of your enemy is our nightmare”, he asserted.

Nejat Society

June 2, 2018 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

Petition to STOP TERRORIST RAJAVI ENTERING USA

WE THE PEOPLE ASK THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO TAKE OR EXPLAIN A POSITION ON AN ISSUE OR POLICY:

STOP TERRORIST RAJAVI ENTERING USA!

Link to the Petition page (Sign the Petition)

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/stop-terrorist-rajavi-entering-usa

The Honorable Donald Trump,

We, the undersigned, respectfully petition you not to allow the terrorist Maryam Rajavi of the Mujaheddin Khlaq (aka MEK) to enter the USA.

We remind you that MEK was responsible for the killing of American servicemen in Iran before the revolution. One of their victims was US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Turner who was an American Patriot that was murdered in front of his children in Tehran on May 21, 1975.

It is an insult to the late Colonel Turner and his family and the family of other brave US serviceman murdered by Terrorist Rajavi, if she is allowed to enter the USA.

Please do not desecrate the names of these brave souls by allowing the terrorist Rajavi into the United States.

Thank you and God Bless America

Coalition of Iranian Opposition Groups

(END)

June 2, 2018 1 comment

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