Page 236 – Nejat Society

State Secretary delisted the group, reportedly to use MEK for US purposes.

Will EU be able to sustain the Nuclear Deal?

The United States President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal was the wrong decision at the wrong time. The decision is likely to compound global political, economic and security risks. Now the European Union must sustain the nuclear deal, along with Russia and China.

For three years, the comprehensive nuclear accord (J.C.P.O.A.) has offered Iran relief from US, United Nations and multilateral sanctions on energy, financial, shipping, automotive and other sectors. However, a shift in the US policy began in late 2016, when the Senate and the House of Representatives unanimously extended the Iran Sanctions Act for a decade.

Not just most Republicans but many Democrats who supported the J.C.P.O.A. in the Obama era reversed their positions surprisingly quickly. This emboldened Trump’s far more muscular – and illicit – policy against Iran.

Effort to destabilize Iran to win the Middle East

Regionally, Trump’s stance leans on Saudi Arabia for economic and geopolitical support, as evidenced by the $110 billion arms deal with Riyadh signed a year ago. This is further reinforced by security ties with Israel, as reflected by U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel – a fatal policy mistake denounced by the international community in the UN and one that reversed almost seven decades of US foreign policy.

The increasing convergence of the US, Saudi and Israeli interests in the Middle East reflects an escalating quest for regional primacy. Last October, the Trump administration designated sanctions on additional missile and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-related entities, while threatening to cease implementing the J.C.P.O.A. By weakening Iran’s “moderates,” the White House hoped to incite “hawks” into strategic moves that could be used as a pretext for a regime change.

Supported by Republican neoconservatives and Democrats’ liberal interventionists, the plan relies on discontented Iranian exiles and Shah loyalists in the West, while Saudi Arabia and Israel try to soften Iran in military and covert operations in ongoing proxy wars.

Along with economic pressures, Trump seized covert operations after naming the controversial Michael D’Andrea, who was deeply involved with the US interrogation program after 9/11 attacks, the head of CIA’s Iran operations. At the same time, the ultraconservative hawk Mike Pompeo replaced Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. Both D’Andrea and Pompeo favour a regime change in Iran.

Trump also made the neoconservative John Bolton his national security adviser and Gina Haspel the new head of CIA. While Bolton contributed to the “weapons of mass destruction” pretence that led to the war in Iraq, Haspel served as chief of a CIA black site torture prison and played a role in the destruction of some 100 interrogation videotapes.

In 2003, Bolton relied on false data from U.S.-based Iraqi exiles and now he is reliant on flawed information from Iraqi exiles. In November 2017, Bolton urged the US to have a contingency plan for a “Shah of Iran scenario.” Four months before, he had advocated Trump’s withdrawal from the deal, pledging a regime change before February 2019 – the 50th anniversary of the Iranian revolution.

Withdrawing from the Iran #NuclearDeal should be a top @realDonaldTrump administration priority.

— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) July 17, 2017

#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

After Bolton replaced Trump’s national security adviser H.R. McMaster in early April, he is now positioned to execute the regime change plan.

Regime change, terror, puppets, and hot money

Bolton supports Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian opposition group on which he relies for information(and speaking fees). MEK advocates a violent overthrow of Iran’s democratically-elected government. Until the early 2010s, the UK, EU and the US considered MEK a cultist terrorist organization but State Secretary Hillary Clinton de-listed the group, reportedly to use MEK for US purposes.

former CIA Directors R. James Woolsey and Porter Goss, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, FBI Director Louis Freeh, Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Chair of the House Intelligence Committee Mike Rogers, as well as some democrats, such as former Pennsylvania and Vermont Governors Ed Rendell and Howard Dean, and National Security Adviser to President Obama Jim Jones, to mention just a few.

On the MEK side, the demands for regime change in Iran were orchestrated largely by its leader Maryam Rajavi, the “President-elect” of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), who has been investigated for terrorism in and expelled from France (her husband is wanted by Iraq for crimes against humanity), and Alireza Jafarzadeh, the NCRI’s public face, who has fed US and international agencies information about Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions since the early 2000s.

Some of the MEK funds were accrued during the Iraq-Iran War (1980-88) when the MEK was hosted by Saddam Hussein to fight against Iran, reportedly in exchange for millions of dollars. From the ‘90s to early 2000s, MEK coordinated terror raids against Iranian diplomatic missions internationally.

As reported by the NBC the MEK financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service – has assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists since 2007. Even before de-listing, the US provided training and funding for the MEK on the US soil and in covert operations in Iran, according to prominent author Seymour Hersh writing in the New Yorker.

When MEK uses substantial funds to attract prominent Americans, these funds originate from money-laundering organizations in Europe, US and the Middle East, according to FBI and State Department. The case of the MEK, argues constitutional lawyer Glen Greenwald, indicates that the “US government is not opposed to terrorism; it favours it.”

Along with the former Shah’s supporters in the U.S. and elsewhere, the regime change planners rely on these shady figures, and their quasi-legal organizations, just as they did with Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress (NC) in 2003. That’s when sanctions led to the War in Iraq – which is their role now in Iran as well.

From old sanctions to new ones

Last week, the US once again acting unilaterally, moved towards cutting Iran off from the global economy as the Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on several Iranian companies, individuals and officials presumably for an illegal currency-exchange network in the UAE. Throughout his 2016 campaign, Trump described the Iran nuclear deal as a “disaster.” Aggressive rhetoric followed by a redefinition of terms are key elements in his deal-making. These unilateral efforts rest first on economic pressure, followed by political intimidation and when necessary, military force.

Following the J.C.P.O.A., primary sanctions on energy, financial, shipping, automotive and other sectors were lifted after International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) certification in January 2016 that Iran had complied with the agreement. Yet, secondary sanctions on firms remained in place, along with sanctions applying to US companies, including banks.

The White House will seek to strengthen the secondary sanctions while seeking to restore the primary sanctions. Last October, Trump demanded the J.C.P.O.A. to limit Iranian ballistic missile development and regional activities. Accordingly, the administration has imposed sanctions on additional entities related to Iran’s missile program, Navy operations in the Persian Gulf, and other activities in the region.

The spotlight is back on Iran sanctions enacted or under consideration in the Congress, such as the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act of 2017 (CAATSA), plus pending legislation relating to Iran’s ballistic missiles, the assets of Iranian leaders, stricter oversight on Iran’s access to finance, the re-imposition of waived U.S. sanctions, and possible multilateral international sanctions.

Since Russia and China will stay solidly behind the Iran nuclear deal, the real question is whether the key European powers – Germany, France, the UK, and the EU itself – will defend it.

Effort to undermine EU-Iran ties

Prior to Trump’s decision, EU leaders stressed the importance of the full implementation of the J.C.P.O.A. French President Emmanuel Macron warned that “the nuclear non-proliferation regime is at stake.” Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas argued that theJ.C.P.O.A. “makes the world safer.” UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that the “UK remains strongly committed to the J.C.P.O.A..” Top EU diplomat Federica Mogherini pledged the EU will remain committed to the deal.

Deeply regret US decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. UK remains strongly committed to the JCPoA, and will work with E3 partners and the other parties to the deal to maintain it. Await more detail on US plan.

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) May 8, 2018

However, about a week ago Macron tweeted saying that “we will work collectively on a broader framework, covering nuclear activity, the post-2025 period, ballistic activity, and stability in the Middle East, notably Syria, Yemen and Iraq.” Such statements suggest that some EU leaders may try to redefine the EU approach by leaving the J.C.P.O.A. intact, but couple the deal with new and broader conditions, which would undermine the deal.

We will work collectively on a broader framework, covering nuclear activity, the post-2025 period, ballistic activity, and stability in the Middle-East, notably Syria, Yemen, and Iraq.

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 8, 2018

The Trump administration is likely to target European businesses that have done business in and with Iran since the Iran nuclear deal. It may extend sanctions over to companies that represent other J.C.P.O.A. parties – that is, China, France, Russia, UK, Germany and the EU – thus raising risks for their U.S. access. As Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently put it, European-Iran business agreements will be voided as “the existing licenses will be revoked.”

Along with Renault, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Sanofi have huge stakes in the deal due to the Airbus contract to provide Iran Air 100 aeroplanes for $21 billion and the oil giant Total’s $2 billion deal to develop the South Pars oil field. Over 120 German companies, including Volkswagen and Siemens, operate in Iran and another 10,000 do business with Iran. Economic pressure could harm Iran’s oil industry significantly, the largest single buyers of which include China, South Korea, Turkey, Japan, Italy and India.

The White House’s message seems loud and clear, “Get out of Iran if you want to stay in the U.S.” It is an effort at regime change but without international legitimacy since Iran has fully adhered to conditions of the J.C.P.O.A. The very credibility of the EU powers is on the line now.

Dr. Dan Steinbock is an internationally recognized strategist of the multipolar world and the founder of Difference Group. He has served as research director at the India, China and America Institute (USA) and visiting fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (China) and the EU Center (Singapore).

US withdrawal from the Iran deal: a ploy to force a regime change

May 17, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Bolton’s Push for Regime Change in Iran

Trump’s decision to renege on the nuclear deal was a terrible unforced error, and the process that led to that decision is no less worrisome:

Even if Mr. Mattis had wanted to fight for the deal, it is not clear how much he would have been heard. Mr. Bolton, officials said, never convened a high-level meeting of the National Security Council to air the debate [bold mine-DL]. He advised Mr. Trump in smaller sessions, otherwise keeping the door to his West Wing office closed. Mr. Bolton has forged a comfortable relationship with the president, several people said, channeling his “America First” vocabulary.

Bolton’s handling of the run-up to Trump’s decision on the nuclear deal shows that he isn’t interested in presenting a range of opposing views to the president and the president is content to let Bolton limit the information he receives. One of the reasons to be worried about having Bolton as National Security Advisor is that he will not be an honest broker when it comes to presenting the president with all the facts. That worry was obviously well-founded. Because Bolton is an ideologue and has extremely hard-line views on Iran in particular, he isn’t going to allow the president to hear views that contradict his own, and that means that Iran policy in particular and U.S. foreign policy in general is going to become more aggressive and ideologically-driven than they already were.

This is all the more disturbing because of reports that Bolton’s NSC is circulating plans to foment regime change in Iran:

The plan, authored by the Security Studies Group, or SSG, a national security think-tank that has close ties to senior White House national security officials, including National Security Adviser John Bolton, seeks to reshape longstanding American foreign policy toward Iran by emphasizing an explicit policy of regime change, something the Obama administration opposed when popular protests gripped Iran in 2009.

The regime change plan seeks to fundamentally shift U.S. policy towards Iran and has found a receptive audience in the Trump administration, which has been moving in this direction since Bolton—a longtime and vocal supporter of regime change—entered the White House.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that talk of regime change in Iran has increased since Bolton took office. Bolton is a longtime advocate for the Mujahideen-e Khalq, a deranged totalitarian cult that he would like to install as the next government of Iran, and he has made no secret of his desire to topple the Iranian government. It was just a matter of time before he started trying to make this official policy.

Daniel Larison

May 16, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Giuliani Takes Cash to Speak to Terrorist Cult

As FAIR (1/11/18) has noted before, US media—in an effort to find images of Iranian “dissidents”—routinely normalize the fringe group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), despite the fact that it has virtually no support or legitimacy in Iran. This was seen again this past week when a number of major outlets reported on a speech Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani gave at an MEK conference; the outlets failed to note that the group is widely loathed inside Iran, and seen as an illegitimate cult by experts across ideological lines.

Rudy Giuliani

The MEK has next to no support in Iran itself, where it’s hated for working with Israeli intelligence and fighting alongside Saddam Hussein in Iraq’s war against Iran in the 1980s that killed roughly 500,000 Iranians. The group—which was formerly disowned by the last major protest movement inside Iran, the Green Movement—has carried out several terrorist bombings in Iran, and was officially listed by the US State Department as a foreign terrorist organization for 16 years, until it was removed by then–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2012, after a lobbying effort by pro–regime change groups inside the United States.

Members of the MEK cult cannot have sex. Nor, according to former member Masoud Banisadr, can they have “sexual thoughts.” “The idea was that we were in a war to take back Iran, so you cannot have a family until the war is won,” the ex–PR person for the MEK told Vice (9/2/14) in 2014:

This was the excuse the outside world would hear, but inside we were told your spouses are a barrier between you and the leadership. We were ordered to surrender our soul, heart and mind to [MEK leader Massoud] Rajavi and his wife.

Several outlets, apparently unfamiliar with the MEK or its assortment of front groups, like the “Organization of Iranian-American Communities,” casually referred to it as some type of generic dissident group:

“The speech was hosted by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities, a group that aims to promote democracy in the Islamic Republic and was supportive of the December protests there.” —Politico (5/5/18)

“Rudy Giuliani delivers the keynote speech at the annual Iran Freedom Convention.” —Fox News (5/5/18)

“The 2018 Iran Freedom Convention for Democracy and Human Rights is meant to voice support for the Iranian citizens who protested against their leadership in December.” —CBS News (5/5/18)

“At an Iranian freedom event in DC, Giuliani, citing NSA Bolton, made the motion of ripping up a paper when talking about what the Trump administration will do with the Iran nuclear deal.” —ABC News reporter Tara Palmeri (5/5/18)

Politico: Giuliani Took Money From a Group That Killed Americans. Does Trump Care?

Two years ago, Politico‘s coverage (11/23/16) of MEK had a quite different tone.

None of the above outlets bothered to mention the MEK’s cult-like nature when reporting on the so-called “Freedom Convention,” or the fact that Giuliani has been paid thousands of dollars by the group. According to Politico (in another article, from 2016):

The MEK has paid Giuliani handsomely for years—$20,000 or more, and possibly a lot more—for brief appearances before the group and for lobbying to have it removed from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO), which occurred in 2012.

Shouldn’t this be mentioned? Isn’t this relevant to what purpose the “conference” serves, and why its voice is legitimized and boosted by Western media and Trump flacks?

Part of what makes the MEK’s strategy so effective is their rebranding themselves as benign-sounding, Western-friendly democrats just fighting for “freedom.” That media play along with this fiction is evidence of 1) widespread ignorance of the most basic facts of Iranian politics, even among nominal foreign reporters, and 2) how desperate Western media are for images of pro-US, pro-Israel regime-change advocates—a cohort that is close to nonexistent in non-cult form.

Though it wasn’t in reference to Giuliani’s speech, HBO’s John Oliver (Last Week Tonight, 4/22/18) committed a similar oversight two weeks ago, describing footage of an MEK crowd as “a group of Iranian dissidents.” That’s true, in a very narrow, technical sense—in the same way the Westboro Baptist Church could be referred to as “US dissidents,” which would be equally misleading in terms of the impression conveyed.

One notable exception was the Washington Post’s Ishaan Tharoor (5/7/18), who pointed out the MEK’s cult status, as well as their payoffs to Giuliani, in his breakdown of the event.

The fact that almost no one else brought up the cult-like nature of Giuliani’s associates indicates that most in US media are entirely uninterested in conveying fundamental facts about what’s going on in Iran. A troubling gap in its own right, but doubly so when the present administration is mounting a well-documented and deliberate effort to undermine and overthrow that country’s government.

Adam Johnson is a contributing analyst for FAIR.org.

May 16, 2018 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

That Time John Bolton Promised Regime Change In Iran Before 2019

In July of last year neoconservative death cultist John Bolton, now the National Security Advisor of the United States, gave a speech at the Grand Gathering of Iranians for Free Iran in which he openly called for regime change in Tehran.

Jhon Bolton - warmonger - terrorist lobbist

Bolton, who is so stupid, crazy and evil that he remains one of the only high-profile individuals on this planet who still insists that the Iraq invasion was a great idea, spoke about the need to prevent the Iranian government from achieving “an arc of control” through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. He decried the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), claiming that Iran was still a nuclear threat under the existing agreement, and spoke glowingly of aggressive sanctions against Tehran. He concluded his speech with the following statement:

“There is a viable opposition to the rule of the ayatollahs, and that opposition is centered in this room today. I had said for over 10 years since coming to these events, that the declared policy of the United States of America should be the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime in Tehran. The behavior and the objectives of the regime are not going to change, and therefore the only solution is to change the regime itself. And that’s why, before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran!”

Whoa there, Grandpa Clusterbomb. Back up a bit.

“There is a viable opposition to the rule of the ayatollahs, and that opposition is centered in this room today.”

Who was that in that room? Who were those people applauding so enthusiastically to Bolton’s regime change rhetoric? Who are these people Mustache Satan sees as a “viable opposition to the rule of the ayatollahs”?

Well that’s actually where it gets even more freaky, believe it or not.

These Grand Gatherings of Iranians events are actually put on by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, also known as the Mojahedin-e Khalq or MEK, a group of a few thousand members who vocally oppose the Iranian government. The MEK is widely considered a cult, using very cult-like methods of indoctrination including exerting control over the personal and sex lives of its members and forcing them to go through weekly “ideological cleansings”.

Previously listed as a terrorist organization by the US government because it has killed Americans and has an extensive history of committing acts of terrorism, in 2012 the MEK was taken off the State Department’s terrorist list by Secretary of State and virulent Iran hawk Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s job, incidentally, is currently occupied by another notorious Iran hawk in Mike Pompeo.

As noted in 2012 by the New York Times, a bizarre amount of lobbying went into getting MEK taken off the terror list, the provocative nature of which was justified by the claim that “United States-Iran relations are already at such a low point that it is unlikely to make them much worse.” Among those lobbying for the move was former CIA Director James “Ha ha, of course we meddle in foreign democracies” Woolsey and other CIA affiliates.

This would be the same CIA, by the way, which recently ramped up covert operations in Iran under the guidance of aggressive Iran hawk “Ayatollah Mike” D’Andrea.

The MEK reportedly has weirdly deep pockets which have enabled it to spend millions of dollars rehabilitating its image in recent years, and to pay out sizable fees for panelists and speeches by experts willing to advocate in favor of its regime change agenda. Rudy Giuliani, currently one of President Trump’s attorneys, led a “regime change” chant at another MEK event in March.

So the US president has just authorized aggressive sanctions against Iran after a highly dishonest speech to the American people, and now there’s a well-funded extremist group all set and groomed to become the “viable opposition” to the government of that country with the blessings of the CIA and the president’s bloodthirsty National Security Advisor.

Sound familiar? Maybe sorta kinda exactly the same as what we’ve seen in the buildups to staged coups on Syria, Libya and Ukraine?

Americans have been reluctant to consent to boots on the ground in the Middle East since Iraq, which is why the US war machine has been switching its emphasis to psyops, armed regional militant groups, and airstrikes/drone warfare. But just because there are no flag-draped coffins flying home doesn’t mean that America will be any less culpable if violence erupts in Iran in the wake of crushing, destabilizing Iran sanctions. It will have been deliberate, and the bloodshed, suffering and chaos caused will be on this administration’s hands.

Caitlin Johnstone ,medium.com

Rogue journalist. Bogan socialist. Anarcho-psychonaut. Guerilla poet. Utopia prepper.

May 15, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

M.E.K.: The Group John Bolton Wants to Rule Iran

As talks with North Korea approach, the new national security adviser, John Bolton, has long pushed for regime change in another country with nuclear ambitions: Iran. One of his chosen replacements is the dissident group Mujahedeen Khalq, known as M.E.K.

President Trump has never been a fan of the Iran nuclear deal. Now, he’s told Britain, France and Germany to fix three key points by May 12 — or he’ll pull the U.S. out.

In the backdrop to these delicate negotiations? His new national security adviser, John Bolton.

Mr. Bolton has been vocal about killing the nuclear deal and supporting the Mujahedeen Khalq, or the M.E.K. It’s a fringe dissident group that calls for regime change in Iran. Mr. Bolton has said he has supported the controversial group for over a decade.

What is the M.E.K.?

The M.E.K. was one of the first organizations added to the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations in 1997 (it was removed from the list in 2012). During the 1970s, it was suspected of being behind the assassination of six Americans and the bombings of American companies in Iran. The group’s aim is to the overthrow the current regime in Iran.

Why does Mr. Bolton support this fringe group and what does that mean now that he’s the president’s national security adviser? Our video traces his past statements and breaks down what’s at stake.

Nilo Tabrizy,

May 14, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

John Bolton Promises Room Full of ‘Former Terrorists’

John Bolton Promises Room Full of ‘Former Terrorists’ the US Would ‘Overthrow’ Iran by 2019

The National Security Advisor, John Bolton, was recorded on video telling a known extremist group that the US promises to help overthrow the current regime in Iran.

For those who may not be paying attention, the plan to overthrow Iran has long been in the works. In fact, in April 2012, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Seymour Hersh reported that the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command had trained (Mojahedin-e Khalq) MEK operatives at a secret site in Nevada from 2005 to 2009 for this very purpose. MEK is the Iranian political-militant organization that advocates for the violent overthrow of the current Iranian regime. They are hardly quiet about it.

Coincidentally, MEK was classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and its allies—during this training period—until none other than Hillary Clinton suddenly removed them from the list in 2012.

According to Hersh, MEK members were trained in intercepting communications, cryptography, weaponry and small unit tactics at the Nevada site until President Barack Obama took office in 2009.

It was widely reported that the MEK was behind the anti-government violence that errupted in Iran in January which snowballed into the situation today.

Hersh also reported additional names of former U.S. officials paid to speak in support of MEK, including former CIA directors James Woolsey and Porter Goss; New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani; former Vermont Governor Howard Dean; former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Louis Freeh and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.

For over a decade, Bolton has been calling for regime change in Iran. Now, he’s the National Security Advisor.

It just so happens that at least one of these calls for regime change in Iran was caught on video last year as Bolton gave a speech at the Grand Gathering of Iranians for Free Iran.

“There is a viable opposition to the rule of the ayatollahs, and that opposition is centered in this room today.

I had said for over 10 years since coming to these events, that the declared policy of the United States of America should be the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime in Tehran. The behavior and the objectives of the regime are not going to change, and therefore the only solution is to change the regime itself.

And that’s why, before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran!”

Pay attention to the first line in that quote above in which Bolton notes that the opposition needed to overthrow Iran’s current regime “is centered in this room today.” Who was in that room? Well, the entire event was actually put on by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, also known as the Mojahedin-e Khalq or MEK.

As Politico pointed out in a 2016 article, despite the neocon attempts to rewrite history, MEK have killed Americans and committed multiple acts of terrorism.

For decades, and based on U.S. intelligence, the United States government has blamed the MEK for killing three U.S. Army colonels and three U.S. contractors, bombing the facilities of numerous U.S. companies and killing innocent Iranians.

To recap, the formerly terrorist-classified organization MEK, trained in the US and granted special privilege status by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2012—which has since been heavily funded to refine their image by having famous US neoconservative war hawks from both sides of the isle actually chant for “regime change” on their behalf—is now the darling child of the neocon agenda and the impetus behind what could kick of World War 3.

While the current Iranian regime is certainly no bastion of freedom, the idea that US intervention or a violent revolution would be beneficial for the people of Iran or American citizens is outright insane. To see what US intervention—through military support and the support of opposition groups—does to countries, one need only look at Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya to see the horrific death tolls and war-ravaged dystopias left in America’s wake.

To those paying attention over the years, Trump’s desire to intervene in Iran, and his subsequent support in the media and from all sides of the political spectrum should come as no surprise as it has been the plan since Bill Clinton was in office and was documented in the neoconservative PNAC report. This was even admitted by General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, that the U.S. planned on going to war with Iran, according to a 2001 memo from the U.S. Secretary of Defense.

“This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years,” Clark said. “Starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finishing off with Iran.”

All presidents since Clinton have crossed countries off this list. Now it’s Trump’s turn.

By Matt Agorist, the free thought project

Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Facebook.

May 14, 2018 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 229

++ Among the many reactions to the MEK asking the US to bomb Iran, the main one came from known analyst Professor Mohammad Sahimi. He wrote a note in his Twitter and Facebook about the MEK event in Washington and the MEK chanting for Giuliani to symbolically tear up the paper he had in his hand. Sahimi says, ‘after fighting against the US, then joining with Khomeini and then Saddam and then Israel and Saudi, the latest stance is that they demand the US bomb the homes of their own mothers and daughters in Iran. In my job I am familiar with a lot of terrorist and rebel groups – this is my expertise. But frankly I cannot find any group which comes even close to this mercenary group for being so nasty and totally without conscience.’ Others wrote notes comparing Giuliani with a clown who got paid to jump up and down for the MEK. Some have also noted that all these things they do are basically to distract from their internal deadlock and turmoil in Albania. Some commentators say, ‘this event came and went and again added nothing to the MEK. They are back to square one dealing with people inside who have been lied to. There is no war, no bombing. Now Rajavi will have to find a new issue to fool members with.

++ While this was happening, ex-members in Albania met with church leaders in Albania who were shocked at the way they have been treated and promised to help. They also had a visit from doctors at RAMSA. They were also shocked at the condition of the ex-members health. One doctor told them, ‘Some of these chronic diseases you have could have been resisted or cured years ago if you had been given medical attention.’ The dentist who checked their teeth said ‘I have never seen anything like this anywhere, including African countries I have worked in. There is not much that can be done, but I will do my best. Again, if you had been given dental care at the right time this would not be so bad.’

In English:

++ Rudi Giuliani’s speech for the MEK in Washington drew criticism from all sides. Media outlets focused on Trump’s rejection of the JCPOA and Giuliani’s role as one of a group of viciously anti-Iran neoconservatives who are now back in power, gathered round the President, who does not necessarily share their views.

++ Anne Khodabandeh in Balkans Post said that Giuliani’s open calls for regime change starting from the MEK camp in Albania show that America is exploiting Albania as a failed state. Prime Minister Edi Rama has not taken a position or objected in any way. He is clearly not in control of the country.

++ The residents of Manzas in Durres protested when the MEK buried one of their dead in their cemetery. The residents refused to accept the burial so that the body had to be exhumed and taken elsewhere. The residents expressed anger over several issues. One was that their families have lived there for over five hundred years, but there is hardly enough room to bury their own loved ones in the cemetery. Some were angry that as town residents they do not have sufficient or constant water or electricity supply, but the MEK have been guaranteed a 24 service in Camp Ashraf Three. More importantly, one resident said ‘we are not afraid of their dead, we are afraid of the living. They do not want to integrate with us and their behaviours are strange. We don’t want them here.’

May 11, 2018

May 13, 2018 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

War plans of the MKO and its sponsors

While former New York mayor and the current attorney of the US president Rudy Giuliani was performing–symbolically tearing the Iran deal– on the scene of the Mujahedin Khalq’s event in Washington, most people could expect Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran deal on Tuesday. The cheering MKO-led audience praised him for his call for “regime change” in Iran but Giuliani was widely questioned for his financial ties with the strange cult with the blood of American citizens in its hands.

Jonathan Vankin of the INQUISITR website writes about MKO-Giuliani connections, ”Specifically,“America’s Mayor” has long-standing financial ties to a shadowy anti-government and anti-American Iranian group that spent 15 years on the United States government list of “foreign terrorist organizations,” and is known to be responsible for numerous attacks on Americans — including the murders of three U.S. military officers and three independent civilian U.S. contractors. The same group, known as the MEK, supported and may have even taken part in the seizure of American hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979.” [1]

Vankin details the financial dealings between the MKO and its supporters in the United States quoting the Politico. “The MEK, or Mujahidin e-Khalq, paid Giuliani an annual fee of at least $20,000 for many years, for what a report by Politico magazine called “brief appearances before the group and for lobbying to have it removed from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations,” he writes. “But in addition to its long history of anti-American violence, the MEK is generally considered a cult, with members fanatically devoted to the group’s leader, Massoud Rajavi, and his wife, Maryam Rajavi.” [2]

The MKO is very welcomed by the US warmongers like John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani. This mostly seems to be the issue of money. Once designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US state Department and currently considered as a violent Cult of personality by various American or international bodies the MKO would not be embraced so warmly in Washington unless there is a beneficial deal.

”When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, the MEK was designated as a “hostile force,” due to its support for then-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.” asserts the INQUISITR’s contributor. “The group also took part in Saddam’s bloody suppression of a Kurdish uprising after the first Gulf War in 1991, according to the RAND study.” [3]

Besides, as a successful businessman Donald Trump has indicated that profitable financial deals with wealthy Saudi Arabians is worth risking the international peace. More wars in the Middle East results in more weapon deals with the Saudis. According to a last year’s report on the Independent, “Donald Trump has signed the largest arms deal in history with Saudi Arabia despite warnings he could be accused of being complicit in war crimes and after blaming Saudi Arabia himself for producing the terrorists behind 9/11.” [4]

Thus, terrorists are good as long as when they help you make more money no matter how dangerous they are. As Vankin accurately puts, “The MEK took Iraq’s side in the bloody, eight-year Iran-Iraq War that dragged on from 1980 to 1988, fighting against the military of its own home country. As a result,the group is said to be widely despised even today inside Iran.” [5]

He cites the RAND report describing the “cultic practices” of the MKO, “which had Giuliani on its payroll” and saying that MKO members must recite “an oath of devotion to the Rajavis on the Koran,” and pledge themselves to a practice of “mandatory divorce and celibacy” with “love for the Rajavis to replace love for spouses and family.” [6]

“But the Rajavis themselves were exempt from these strict rules governing their followers’ loyalty and sexual behavior,” he adds. [7]

Josh Marshal of the TPM website also write, “Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) is a notorious cult-like group of Iranian exiles which appears to have close to literally zero support inside Iran but has for years cultivated significant ties to DC Iran “regime change” advocates as well as a bipartisan list of shills willing to take their money (of which they have quite a lot).” [8]

It’s been many years that a large number of US journalists and foreign policy experts have warned about the MKO-US deals. Daniel Larison of the American Conservative has always been one of the critics of the American promoters of the MKO. “It bears repeating that the MEK is widely hated in Iran because the group fought against Iran in the Iran-Iraq war, and the vast majority of Iranians wants nothing to do with them,” he states. “Treating this group or any of its fronts as a legitimate or serious Iranian opposition movement is a horrible mistake, and the former and current officials that support the MEK should be held accountable for helping to promote an awful group in the service of a bad cause that most Iranians don’t support.” [9]

However, the American sponsors of the MKO ignore the facts that about the MKO’s true violent nature. They prefer to use the group as a means for their war plans. Preferring to see the group as a tool for their war plans. In response the MKO is so excited and happy to see it is being used as a proxy force for US war plan in the Middle East. This is because its leaders are aware that they do not have any base in Iran and they are not wanted and welcome by Iranians. The MKO in its turn is so excited that it is used as a proxy force in the US war plans in the Middle East because its leaders are certainly disillusioned when they find out that they are not welcome by the Iranian people at all. Instead, they have to totally depend on the US in order to get on the US-led war machine to achieve what they oddly call “peaceful regime change”. Of course they are disillusioned about this achievement.

By Mazda Parsi

Sources:

[1] VankinJohnathan, The Rudy Giuliani Iran Connection: Trump Lawyer’s Ties To Shadowy Iranian ‘Cult-Like’ Group Now In Question, INQUISITR, May 6, 2018

[2] ibid

[3] ibid

[4] Revesz, Rachael, Donald Trump signs $110 billion arms deal with nation he accused of masterminding 9/11 Arms deal with a country accused of repeatedly violating international law is set to be worth $380 billion within a decade, The Independent.co.uk, May 21, 2017

[5] ibid

[6] ibid

[7] ibid

[8]Marshall, Josh, Rudy Went to Albania to Hang Out with A Iran Regime Change Cult(Really), Talking Points Memo, May 5, 2018

[9]Larison,Daniel, Giuliani’s MEK Pandering and Trump’s Iran Obsession, The AmericanConservative, May 5, 2018

May 13, 2018 0 comments

Members of the MEK

Who is Mehdi Abrishamchi?

Mehdi Abrishamchi is a senior member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/MEK/ the PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi. He was born into a merchant family in Tehran, in 1947. He studied chemistry at the University of Tehran. He joined the MKO in 1969. He was imprisoned by the shah forces in 1972 for his involvement with the MKO that was an anti-shah and anti-imperialism movement at the time. He was in jail until the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Mehdi Abrishamchi

After the Revolution, Abrishamchi became one of the senior members of the organization. Soon after, the MKO broke out with the Iranian government, he along the MKO and fled to Iraq finding a safe haven near the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who was at war with the Iran.

During the Iran-Iraq war, Abrishamchi was a unit commander in the ‘National Liberation Army of Iran’, the military wing of the MKO –Saddam’s Private Army—fighting against Iranians. After the collapse of Saddam and the consequent disarmament of the NLA and the disappearance of Massoud Rajavi, Abrishamchi was evolved to be a top an official of the group’s political wing ‘National Council of Resistance’.

Abrishamchi was married to Maryam Qajar Azdanlou, the younger sister of a veteran member of the group until January 1985. In 1985 that the leader of the MKO Massoud Rajavi decided to marry Maryam. Thus Abrishamchi divorced Maryam in order to pave the way for Massoud and Maryam’s marriage that would be then called the ‘ideological revolution’. He congratulated Massoud and Maryam in the big celebration that the group held in Paris. Whatever the true reasons behind the marriage, the results were crystal clear. The marriage ended to more isolation of the rank and file. Shortly after, he married to Mousa Khiabani’s younger sister Azar who was only 17 years old at the time.

Mehdi Abrishamchi has been one of the top authorities of the MKO to run Massoud Rajavi’s rule over the rank and file. He believes that “Brother Massoud” is a prophet and a representative of God on the Earth.

After the 9/11 disaster in the US territory, Abrishamchi congratulated the group Massoud and Maryam in a gathering that was held in the group’s camp in Iraq in order to celebrate the catastrophic incident. “The collapse of the Twin Towers is a big sign of decomposition and annihilation of the USA,” he addressed the audience.

Abrishamchi is currently living in France acting as one of the key figures of the MKO’s propaganda against the Iranian nuclear program and is engaged in other disinformation campaigns against Iran. After the relocation of the MKO’s members from Iraq to Tirana, Albania, he was charged with a new responsibility.

Once the group had been resettled in a European country, the increasing rate of defection of the group made Maryam Rajavi to seek a solution to prevent more members from leaving the group. Make a proper decision to stop more departure from the group. Rajavi sent two top level to mend this problem. Fixers –Mehdi Abrishamchi and Zohreh Merikhi – to intervene to stop the rapid dissolution of the MKO.

Former members of the MKO recount horrible testimonies of how Abrishamchi treats the dissents in the group. He is a hated figure for ex-members of the group who call him a” torturer” and the “guardian of the Maryam Rajavi’s prison”.

May 12, 2018 0 comments

Albania

Trump Administration exploits Albania as a failed state, Rama is silent

Since receiving EU candidate status in 2014, Albania has muddled along keeping up the pretence that, with whichever government is in power, it is capable of completing the internal reforms needed for EU membership. After troubled elections in June 2017, governing Prime Minister Edi Rama and opposition party leader Lulzim Basha pledged to work for the benefit of Albania. Ordinary Albanians, however, concerned about unemployment and low wages, alongside other domestic problems, are still leaving the country rather than wait for better times. But Albania’s problems are much bigger than this.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Albania’s relationship with the Trump administration in its current manifestation. A speech last week by Trump’s legal advisor Rudy Giuliani in Washington demonstrates fully that he, John Bolton, John McCain and the Trump administration hawks are able, without reservation, to exploit Albania as a failed nation state.

Yes, Albania is a failed state. How else is it possible for it to host a terrorist organisation – the Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) – which calls for violent regime change against Iran and has brought the enmity between Israel and Iran to Tirana, yet its government has failed object or even take any position on this scandal?

In November 2013, Prime Minister Edi Rama rejected the US’s request to allow chemical weapons from Syria to be destroyed on Albanian territory due to popular protests. But after the Americans dumped 3000 terrorists and subsequently reneged on their agreement to establish a de-radicalisation institute to rehabilitate them, Prime Minister Rama has remained mute. Perhaps due to the MEK’s ability to manipulate the Albanian media; paying outlets to publish article portraying the group as victims.

There should be no doubt in anybody’s mind. The MEK is a terrorist group. Albania cannot host a terrorist group without consequences. This is not Afghanistan or Iraq or Syria in which groups hide in the chaos and violence. This is a peaceful, democratic country which wishes to join the European Union.

Rudy Giuliani says “they are building a beautiful city right on the outskirts of Tirana” from which they will launch a campaign for regime change in Iran. The MEK’s Camp Ashraf Three is a closed and isolated military training camp, not a “beautiful city”. The MEK is a cult and just over 2,000 members live there in a state of modern slavery, not “freedom”. Giuliani does let slip, however, why this mercenary group is useful to America when he enthuses over “how much information they can get for us”. Essentially, MEK is a spy organisation.

Giuliani is not alone in his claims that supporting the MEK has “speeded up dramatically our ability to bring freedom to Iran”. Donald Trump’s recent appointment of John Bolton was controversial exactly because he also supports this group and has spent much of the past decade advocating bombing Iran and calling on the US government to help overthrow the Iranian government and install the MEK as a puppet regime instead.

The US (and Israeli) position toward Iran is known. Hatred toward Iran is endemic and institutionalised throughout the US political establishment. But what has this got to do with Albania? Before the MEK were foisted on the country by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Albania’s relations with Iran were friendly and peaceful, focused on close cultural and traditional ties rather than scant economic or political benefits.

Now, suddenly, due to the complete apathy of Prime Minister Rama and his ‘head in the sand’ approach to the European Union accession process, Albania has been plunged into a war footing with Iran.

Giuliani did not take MEK leader Maryam Rajavi to Washington to make his announcement because he and his cohort of warmongers know the consequences. They don’t even trust her enough to arrange a two-day visit to London, Washington or Tel Aviv because she would claim asylum there. They want the toxic effect of the MEK but not in their own land.

That toxic effect was revealed in a round table debate in the European Parliament last month. Experts gathered with political representatives to give evidence about the MEK’s unwanted influence on parliamentary relations in whichever country they are based. Delegates agreed that the fundamental problem with the MEK is that the group is not accountable to anybody, not even its American supporters. Consequently, it acts with impunity in Albania as though it were above the law.

When Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn next consider Albania’s status as an EU candidate country, will they see evidence of reforms and progress or the sad reality that Albania has become a failed state exploited by America, Israel and the MEK for warmongering against Iran.

ANNE KHODABANDEH

Anne Khodabandeh, is an 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.

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May 10, 2018 0 comments

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