Page 237 – Nejat Society

Open letters to Albanian Government

Mr. Davood Arshad’s letter to the Albanian Government handed over to Albanian embassy officials in Germany on the participation of the Minister of Immigration of Albania Mr. Pandeli Mijko in Mujahidin-e-Khagq’s (Mek) gathering in Villepin-Paris

Dear Albanian Government

I am Mr. Davood Baghervand Arshad a senior and high ranking officials of the Mek (Rajavi Sect) and members of the National Council for Resistance who has been defected from this sect because of its totalitarianism and terrorism.

I was deeply saddened by the news of Mr. Pandeli Mijko, the Minister of immigration affairs of Albania taking part in Mek’s gathering show in Paris.

It is most unfortunate that a terrorist group with well-known mafia tricks can deceive a Minister of a European Government to participate in the showcase of diverse population of refugees gathered from different refugee camps in Europe plus homeless Eastern Europeans, which have been bussed in return for an all-inclusive free three day trip to Paris plus pocket money in order to pretend to have Iranians supporting their gathering with the aim of deceiving and influencing their audience and some already deceived politicians in the gathering as a strongly supported Iranian opposition.

It is also unfortunate to see the extent that Mek if prepared to deceive the Iranians and their audience by insulting their conscience. This is despite the fact that Mek’s dirty trick has been disclosed by the Western media for hundreds of times. One of the last but not least, was the Guardian newspaper Mon 2 Jul 2018, that wrote:

Many in the crowd of about 4,000 that Giuliani was addressing were eastern Europeans bussed in to attend the event in return for a weekend trip to Paris

I would like to add that Mr. Pandeli Mijko took part in its gathering, committed a terrorist act by beating up two of its critics in front of EU Parliament in Brussels in December 2017 during which Mr. Denis MacShane a former Labour MP was also beaten up by Maryam Rajavi’s agents.

The incident raised the EU Parliamentarian’s serious concerns to the point that MEP Ana Gomes raised the issue as a barbaric act and a treat to EU and EU MEP members and asked Ms. Mogerini to expel all the MEK’s agents from EU Parliament.

English Standard newspaper mentioned the incident as:

DON’T mess with Denis MacShane! The former Labor MP, author and Good Samaritan is in Brussels, and says that he stepped in to help a man in a street attack yesterday, only to get a beating himself. “Outside European Parliament thugs from People’s Mujahedin of Iran violently attacking elderly man, hitting with sticks, kicks etc,” he tweeted yesterday. “I told them to stop it, so they started attacking me with sticks, fists etc. And we weren’t even discussing Brexit!”

Evening Standard

With regards to the above case and the methods Mek deals with its dissident members in broad day light in front of EU Parliament, would it be difficult to imagine MEK’s reaction to the opposition of its members inside their close cult?

Let me also add that the situation of human right abuse in Mek is so grave that even the son of Masoud Rajavi, Mohammad Rajvi one of the victims of this organization having defected MEK announced that will disclose all his father’s atrocities.

Does this raise enough concern not to take part in the empty shows of strength of Mek?

If the above said is not enough, as an ex-high ranking member of Mek and it National Council of Resistance, may I bring to the attention of the honorable Minister of immigration Mr. Pandeli Majko that:

Masoud and Maryam Rajavi hired about 2000 young Iraqis and trained them militarily and ideologically to be utilized throughout Iraq to collect information about coalition forces movements resulting in many deathly attacks on them, also to destabilize Iraq in order to topple the Iraqi government, so the Ex-Baath party leaders active in ISIS could take power in Iraq again, giving Masoud and Maryam Rajavi a free hand as before at the Saddam’s time? Mek officers who have been involved in training the 2000 terrorists are present for testimony.

Furthermore Mek created false Arab-Iraqi organizations by paying some villagers anxious for money under total embargo and aftermath of Golf war, to issue and release support communiques about MEK. All these atrocities were of course later disclosed by Iraqi Government officials in the media.

In this regards may I also share with you some of the experience of only two governments that have been very closely dealing with Mek for four decades such as Saudi Arabia and Franc, may that prevent the future backlash of overlooking the nature of MEK in your country by their host country.

The first document is how Saudi Arabia that is a strong financial and political supporter of MEK evaluates Mek.

The translation of the Arabic WikiLiks document is as follows:

In the Name of God the Merciful

The Head Saudi Intelligence

Ref No. 2113/510-18/12/35

Date: Jan 9, 2012; 15/02/1433

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Head of Saudi Intelligence (101)

Confidential Letter

Subject: About Maryam Rajavi

His Royal Highness the Prince, the of Secretary of State

Peace, mercy and blessings be upon you

With regards to the letter of the Prince ref, 51173/2/7 , on 13/02/1433 AH 7/2/50173 (equivalent to the January 7, 2012 AD – Translator),with regards to the message you received from Dr. Amer al-Tamimi, which in that message, he suggested to arrange a private meeting with Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian head of MKO in Paris, and following that your Highness demanding the view point of the head of information Organization with regards to this request, we would like to inform His Highness as follows:

With regards to His Highness’s question and surprise in relation to the request letter of Dr. Amer Al Tamaimi stating that he is prepared to arrange a meeting with Maryam Rajavi apart from Dr. Saleh AL Motlaq and without his knowledge; the Head of Saudi Intelligence believes that, Dr. Al Tamimi’s request means that he is prepared to arrange an independent meeting without the knowledge of Dr. Al Motlaq, because he wishes to keep this meeting a secret and he also bears the responsibility for the meeting, also stating that Dr. Al Motlaq has no knowledge about it.

All the existing information tells us that, the Iranian Intelligence Services has infiltrated the Iranian Mojahedine Khalq Organization (MKO). Also this organization (MKO) has no role and effect in Iranian affairs and has no acceptance within Iran.

The second document is how French government considers Mek.

At the end my main concern are our family members and friends still enslaved by Mek in Tirana as the basic human rights to be facilitated the basic needs of free choice, free communications, and contact with parents and family members.

Sincerely yours

Davood Baghervand Arshad

Copy to:

Albanian Embassy

Albanian Embassy France,

Albanian Embassy Belgium

Albanian Embassy Holland

Albanian Embassy England

Albanian Embassy Italy

Albanian Embassy USA

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR Geneva

(End)

Baghervand Arshad, Ali Hossein Nejad and Homayoun Kohzadi

July 14, 2018 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

Bolton, MEK and Trump Iran Strategy

The MEK’s dirty past includes the anti-Imperialist inspired murder of six Americans in pre-revolution Iran which it later celebrated in songs and publications

Bolton, MEK and Trump Iran Strategy (aka Maryam Rajavi cult, MKO, NCRI, Saddam’s Private Army)

There are growing indications that the Trump administration plans to use the Mojahedin-e Khalq (People’s Mojahedin of Iran, or MEK) as a key element in its strategy to destabilize Iran preparatory to regime change.

On June 30 Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani told the group in Paris: “We are now realistically being able to see an end to the regime in Iran. Trump doesn’t turn his back on freedom fighters.”

On July 1, 2017 John Bolton, former State department official and Trump supporter, addressed a large gathering of MEK supporters in Paris.

“There is a viable opposition to the rule of the ayatollahs,” he told the enraptured crowd, “and that opposition is centered in this room today…I have said for over 10 years since coming to these events that the declared policy of the United States should be the overthrow of the 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!”

Yes, the man who has been U.S. National Security Advisor since April 9 predicted to MEK that he would celebrate with them the downfall of the Iranian regime by next year. On May 8 of this year Bolton’s boss withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

So it’s virtually official. MEK freedom fighters will be chief U.S. proxy in the coming confrontation, or rather the ongoing confrontation renewed when Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Iran deal, threatening all countries with sanctions if they so much as buy Iranian oil. They are comparable to the peshmerga of Syria, or the Northern Alliance warlords in Afghanistan, or the motley array of militia that overthrew Gaddafi in Libya with U.S.-NATO support—willing accomplices in a regime-change effort directed from Washington.

Who are these people? MEK was founded in Iran in 1965 as a revolutionary anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist organization dedicated to the violent overthrow of the U.S.-backed regime of the Shah. It sought to produce a synthesis of Shiite Islam and Marxism, an inherently problematic project that has been more or less abandoned, especially as MEK has in recent years courted U.S. officials like Bolton. (A huge number of prominent U.S. officials and former officials have spoken in recent years, often for large fees, at MEK events. They include Howard Dean. Gen. Wesley Clark, Rudolph Giuliani, Porter Goss, Gen. Michael Hayden, Gen. Richard Myers, Bill Richardson, and Gen. Anthony Zinni.)

Embracing urban guerrilla warfare tactics in the 1970s, MEK targeted the regime and the U.S. military presence, conducting many attacks on U.S. personnel and gunning down Lt. Col. Louis Lee Hawkins, a U.S. Army comptroller, in 1973. Its members trained with the PLO and al-Fateh and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman.

During the revolution of 1979 that toppled the Shah, MEK was the largest of the radical left parties (if we exclude the Tudeh or Communist Party founded in 1941, dismissed by MEK as “revisionist”). It worked with smaller communist groups, notably Sardedaran (Union of Iranian Communists) founded in the U.S. by Iranian students in 1976 under the strong influence of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.

Initially, MEK aligned itself with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, whose triumphant return from French exile had met with a rapturous response. They perceived him as a popular nationalist leader. But when he denied its leaders input into the writing of a constitution, and forbade them from running for political office, they revolted. Results of their uprising were disastrous; about 10,000 perished and thousands of its members including the leadership fled to Iraq or France. Hosted by Saddam Hussein, they fought alongside the Iraqi Army against their countrymen throughout the 1980s. This is one reason they are generally, according to plausible reports, despised in Iran even by those who chafe under the mullah’s rule.

Camp Ashraf in Iraq was created by the MEK to accommodate its 3500 soldiers in the country. This camp was taken over by the U.S. following the 2003 invasion. Indeed the U.S. protected MEK from the Iraqis’ intention to deport them and indeed housed them at Camp Fallujah and arranged for some to be relocated to Albania.

In 1975 MEK split into its component parts; that is, a faction arguing rather simply that Marxism, not Islam, is the revolutionary path, and the dominant faction arguing the opposite. This is the MEK that hosts the most reactionary U.S. officials and—after inveighing against Zionism for decades—now cultivates ties with Israeli intelligence. In 1997 it was listed as a “terrorist” organization by the U.S. State Department. The UK and EU soon followed suite. But MEK was delisted as terrorist by Britain in 2008, the EU in 2009, and the U.S. in 2012.

Why? Hillary Clinton determined that MEK had changed its ways and given up terrorism. Plus, MEK was so useful, cooperating as it was and is with U.S. and Israeli intelligence, smuggling intelligence out of Iran, abetting U.S.-Israeli disinformation schemes, maintaining an underground presence in Iran that will be useful (some suppose) when the regime-change moment comes.

Analysts agree that MEK is a very unusual organization. Led by a married couple, Massoud Rajavi and his wife Maryam Rajavi, it imposes strict discipline including life-long celibacy on its members. It forbids them to entertain sexual thoughts. It punishes rules infractions with public shaming and sleep deprivation. It is often termed a cult.

That this group should become a key U.S. ally—as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo virtually declares war on Iran—is truly perplexing. Surely U.S. officials know that MEK is hated in Iran, and that its tactics in Iran have not produced mass support. Other underground opposition parties, such as the National Front of Iran, founded by Mohammed Mossadegh (toppled by the CIA in 1953), will not likely cooperate with them in producing a second regime change. The idea is as wild as Bolton’s idea that Cuba’s pharmaceutical plants are producing biological weapons.

Can it be that Pompeo does not understand the enduring outrage felt among Iranians about that 1953 coup? The U.S. didn’t just “interfere” in somebody else’s election, it toppled a democratically elected prime minister because he had the temerity to try to nationalize the nation’s petroleum industry. The world knows the U.S. interferes in other nations’ politics and electoral processes habitually, and that the “bi-partisan” National Endowment for Democracy “NGO” funnels billions into pro-U.S. forces in countries targeted for “color revolutions.” Onl the cable anchors on CNN, MSNBC and Fox seem clueless, wide-eyed, indignant and outraged at the thought that “Russia interfered in OUR election!” As though we, as a people, ever had a real election in 2016.)

Bolton resembles his boss in that he cares nothing for the truth; lies boldly with angry, smug confidence, daring his audience to differ; is a loud bully with an ego and an agenda to which he hopes to commit the president. His main project is the Iranian regime change, much as Iraqi regime was Paul Wolfowitz’s preoccupation from 9/11/2001 to March 2003 when the plot to conduct a war-based-on-lies was finally consummated. (Bolton continues to say: “I still think the decision to overthrow Saddam was correct,” and that the U.S. has the right to overthrow sovereign states at will.)

Bolton has told reporters (who note his changing stance on war with North Korea) that anything he may have said in print or on television in the past is irrelevant now since he is in the service of the president and committed to his policies. But he happily realizes his boss is an air-head, ignorant and impressionable, generally Islamophobic, committed to a hawkish anti-Iran policy because (1) he wants to reverse any Obama policy; (2) he made a campaign promise; (3) he’s slavishly deferential to Binyamin Netanyahu, who wants the U.S. to bomb Iran; and (4) hostility towards Iran invites little opposition in Netanyahu’s fan club, Congress. Bolton has lots to work with there.

Congressional attitudes could change if U.S. secondary sanctions applied on European allied nations further strain the Atlantic Alliance already stressed by the trade wars Trump has unleashed. The EU, Russia and China all need to unite in demanding that the U.S. not only end its threats to attack Iran but respect other nations’ rights to trade with that great, large, relatively wealthy nation. (The IMF ranks Iran as 27th of 191 nations in terms of GDP; that is, it’s among the world’s top 15%. China, UAE, Germany and India are main trade partners.)

As U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo provokes Iran with his arrogant demands—“preconditions” for a U.S. return to the deal, which essentially demand that it grovel at America’s feet—the U.S. provokes the rest of the world too, for multiple reasons. Its demand for allies’ cooperation in its efforts to undermine Tehran conflict with their efforts to improve both diplomatic and trade relations, to say nothing of their hopes for more stability in the region flooding Europe with refugees.

Thus Trump chooses the re-designated terrorist group MEK over Paris; Israel over Europe; Saudi Arabia and its anti-Iran Arab coalition against Russia and China. It demands that Japan (once Iran’s largest oil purchaser, now the sixth largest) and South Korea (currently the third largest, after China and India) end imports to abet regime-change efforts. These demands are outrageous, especially spouted by mouths that the whole world knows routinely spew lies without shame.

So it’s Trump, Bolton, Pompeo, Netanyahu, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the Rajavis—-versus Iran and the world which, while it may not be terribly fond of Iran, are becoming even less fond of Trump’s U.S.A.

Oh, and now Pompeo comes back from Pyongyang boasting of “progress” while the Koreans call the visit “regrettable.” The whole world is hoping that the U.S. work methodically with the DPRK to achieve the denuclearization goal. That will take time and require a schedule of coordinated steps, like the Iran deal that Pompeo has been trying to sabotage since 2015, as Kansas congressman, CIA director, and in his present post, required.

One should not suppose Pompeo more predisposed to promote peace with North Korea than peace with Iran. Imagine the DPRK rapprochement collapsing just as the joint U.S.-Saudi-U.S. missile barrage strikes Iran. There are sober people in Washington thinking carefully about multiple scenarios, amorally planning for all contingencies.

One of these might be a general Manichaean apocalypse in which the issue is not Good versus Evil (which would have been the case under George W. Bush) but Trump and His Base versus the World.

The latter he attacks by trade policy, a diplomacy of irrational insults, an almost impish desire to undermine existing international agreements and institutions (not so much to the objective advantage of U.S. imperialism so much as the advantage of his own frozen prepubescent ego), missile strikes at his generals’ discretion, and shameless voicing of racist, bigoted, uneducated views. The former he pleases by such policies and bombast. The U.S. mainstream media and the bulk of the political class deplore Trump in favor of the world, or at least criticize Trump’s “America First” populist nationalism as threatening to the postwar international order which has hitherto been very good to the imperialist U.S.A. They look askance at MEK and, to the extent they engage the issue, they question the wisdom an alliance with it.

Still, Trump proceeds on a confrontational course with Iran, and with any having deals with Iran, joining in the process with the most unsavory henchmen from the Saudis to the Likudists to these Iranian cultists. One hopes this strategy will only further isolate the U.S. from its allies and unintentionally help produce a more multi-polar world.

Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Religion. He is the author of Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan; Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan; and Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, (AK Press). He can be reached at: gleupp@tufts.edu

Professor Gary Leupp, Counter Punch

July 14, 2018 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 235

++ The MEK’s Villepinte event has been their most costly to date by provoking a severely negative reaction from just about everyone. Practically every opposition head and personality has condemned the MEK for working as mercenaries for the Americans. Since Trump boasted that Iran will come to ask me to negotiate, most critics are pointing out that ‘even Trump himself is saying he’s only using the MEK to bring Iran to the negotiating table’. A few comments compare the MEK with Chalabi. Well-known Iranian personalities, musicians and film stars, etc., say although they are not political, they condemn this open mercenary work against Iran. The main theme is that Villepinte was a gathering of a coalition of Iran’s enemies.

++ In Albania, Hassan Heyrani has announced his separation from MEK. This has prompted fear in MEK. They worry when people publicize their leaving. According to ex members who are not ‘out’ MEK is asking them to swear against Heyrani, even paying some. MEK threatens them by saying both they and the CIA are in charge of the country so they must not publish their names. If they do, they will disappear, and their body will not be found (a clear reference to Malik Shara’i).

++ Ex-members in Albania published an article titled ‘Mossad-Mojahedin coalition in Albania’. The article raises the alarm that Mossad has opened another office in Tirana and Israel is moving into Albania. Israel announced two extra flights per day from Tel Aviv to Tirana. Albania’s PM also boasted that Albania is now the first holiday destination for Israelis. Ex-members are raising the alarm that Mossad is openly in charge of Albania and MEK are openly able to threaten ‘we’ll kill you and Mossad will protect us’.

++ MEK claimed that the body of Malek Shara’i has been found. But the Albanian authorities are not able to confirm or deny this. They are not in control of their own country.

In English:

++ The MEK attracted reports and articles from a diverse range of English language media over the past week – NBC News, Capitol Hill Outsider, Middle East Eye, Lobe Log Bahrain News, Washington Post, Alberta Politics, The Real News Network, Counter Punch. None of it did the MEK any favours. Some raised questions about the bomb plot aimed against the MEK, was it a ‘red flag’ operation to besmirch Iran. Others examined why former politicians give support to the MEK, aside from the financial reward. The conclusion of many was that MEK do play a role in the coalition of Iran’s enemies, but are never really taken seriously.

++ Eldar Mamedov in Lobe Log exposed MEP Gerard Deprez (ALDE) attempting to disrupt European efforts to safeguard Europe’s relations with Iran after Trump pulled out of the JCPOA, revealing that “Deprez acted on behalf of MEK rather than his political faction”. In spite of this, “MEK and other anti-Iranian lobbies, like the right-wing pro-Israeli groups and their Saudi and Emirati allies, did not manage even to table an objection, let alone win it. Mamedov puts this down to the fact that “The clout of MEK has been on the wane in recent years. It has lost some influential backers. More MPs are willing to speak up against MEK abuses, as evidenced by hearings recently held in the EP. Overall, the group has been reduced to obstructing and delaying the normalization of ties between the EU and Iran, rather than shaping outcomes. When it truly mattered, the vote on the EIB exposed its real weight.”

++ Reporting on MEK, English language media have reiterated the facts, MEK is a cult, MEK is widely regarded as a terrorist group, MEK killed Americans and 12,000 Iranians – mostly civilians, MEK have virtually no support inside Iran and none outside among exiles, MEK pay both speakers and audience to attend their rallies, MEK exaggerate attendance – The Guardian reported under 4,000 at Villepinte while MEK claim 100,000, MEK are being used by Western regime change pundits but will be side-lined should this ever come about.

July 13, 2018

July 14, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

The MKO’s “political acrobatic circus” is a failure

Besides, American hawks such as Rudy Giuliani – Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and former New York mayor- a number of other former US officials, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and those rented crowd from all over Europe, seemingly there were some luminaries who were not duped by the luxurious well-organized event.

Anwar Abdulrahman, a renowned publisher, journalist and expert in politics and history had been invited to the so-called Free Iran gathering of the MKO. However, his presence at the meeting was not as a supporter for the group but as an eyewitness for the shallowness of the event.

In an article he posted on Bahrain News, he confirms that the high profile invitees are definitely paid for all the expenses of their trip to Paris.

“We all know that such personalities never pay a penny from their own pockets, but are invited, hosted and ticketed,” Abdulrahman asserts. “Every single word they uttered had also been paid for well in advance. Because to them, such an occasion was a retirement outing!” And not only himself but everyone in the gathering was asking “Who Financed it?”.

The Villepinte show was previously denounced by the guardian report as a weekend trip for “groups of bored-looking Poles, Czechs, Slovakians, Germans and Syrians” who “responded to a Facebook campaign promising travel, food and accommodation to Paris for a mere €25” and did not Know anything about the MKO. However, as a scholar and expert and a critic of the Iranian government, Abdulrahman knew the MKO and viewed the gathering with his critical thinking:

“Speeches were inflammatory, but without any speck of substance. Threats and warnings, but no pragmatic solutions. In fact they were almost convincing themselves that the Iran regime would collapse during the conference!”

Pointing to the MKO leader’s unawareness about the realities of the Iranian society, he notifies that the Iranian nation even those who have recently protested against the Islamic Republic, “had never mentioned the MEK as their representative”.

The superficiality of the lavishly organized MKO rally is voiced in a comment that Abdulrahman heard from a western participant: “What a political acrobatic circus!”

“After three hours I left in frustration at listening to a barrage of empty rhetoric and hollow words”, he writes. “Two of their leading men noticed my departure, and the very next day rang me to arrange a meeting to explain their thoughts. This took place in my hotel over more than two-and-a-half hours.”

This is his account of discussing with the MKO agents in the hotel:

“I initially asked one important question. Where is Masood Rajavi (founder of the MEK)? Is he dead or alive? I had deliberately asked this to test their honesty and plausibility.

The shocking answer was “he is alive, but cannot appear in public because of assassination threats”.

We all know that after the invasion of Baghdad, Masood Rajavi disappeared. Since then no one has seen or heard anything of him.

In fact, during their annual gathering of 2016, July 22, while Mariam Rajavi praised her husband Masood as the leader of the organisation, a very, very distinguished Arab politician twice in his speech, mentioned the name of Masood Rajavi as the LATE leader of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, and precisely pronounced the word ‘marhoom’, clearly meaning ‘late’.

When Mariam Rajavi heard the word, her face shrank, but she did not comment. Because the word ‘marhoom’ is an expression of condolence in Arabic. Interestingly, the translator also ignored the word.

I mention this to suggest to readers that such suspicious hiding of facts does nothing to promote their goal. And from that moment I was convinced of the aimlessness of this discussion.”

Mazda Parsi

Reference:

Abdulrahman, Anwar, A political puzzle in Paris…, Bahrain News, July 10 2018

July 12, 2018 0 comments

France

France rejects supporting Mujahedeen-e-Khalq

In a reaction to summons of its ambassador in Tehran, French government announced that it didn’t backed the activities of People’s Mujahedin of Iran or Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) but the opposition group can carry out, like any other association, its activities.

France on Thursday rejected Iranian accusations that it backs an exiled opposition group that was the possible target of a bomb plot near Paris last week, saying an investigation would determine the real sponsors of the planned attack.

Iran’s foreign ministry on Tuesday summoned envoys from France, Germany and Belgium in protest at the arrest of an Iranian diplomat in Germany in connection with the alleged plan to bomb the annual National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), political wing for MEK, rally on the outskirts of Paris on June 30.

It also accused France of supporting the group, which is classified by Tehran as a terrorist organization.

The French foreign ministry confirmed on Thursday that its ambassador had been summoned on July 3 following the rally, but dismissed any suggestion that it supported the NCRI.

Iranian authorities “were reminded that France supports neither the ideology, objectives nor activities of the MEK. However, having been removed from the European list of terrorist organizations, this organization can carry out, like any other association, activities, as long as they do not undermine public order”, a French diplomatic source told Reuters.

French judicial sources said on Wednesday they had received a request from Belgium to extradite a man of Iranian origin who was arrested in Paris on suspicion of links to the plot.

Belgium is investigating two Belgians of Iranian origin arrested on Saturday. Five hundred grams of the homemade explosive TATP and a detonation device were found in their car, according to Belgian investigators.

An Austria-based Iranian diplomat is also being held in Germany in connection with the alleged bomb plot.

“On the planned attack at Villepinte (just outside Paris), an investigation is in progress. It will have to determine the real sponsors of this projected attack,” the French diplomatic source said.

Iran has said it had nothing to do with the plot, which it called as a “false flag” operation staged by figures within the NCRI.

July 12, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Rudy Giuliani advises foreign clients while working for Trump

Rudy Giuliani is working with foreign clients as he continues to advise President Donald Trump on the Russia investigation, which raises conflict of interest and federal ethics issues, according to a new report.

Giuliani told The Washington Post in interviews that he maintains clients in Ukraine, Brazil and Colombia, as well as delivers paid speeches for Mujahedin-e-Khalq, a controversial Iranian exile organization that was formerly listed as a terrorist group by the US State Department.

Lobbying experts told the Post that some of Giuliani’s work for foreign clients is likely to require disclosure under the Foreign Agent Registration Act.

According to the Post, Giuliani has not registered with the Department of Justice for his work, arguing that it’s not necessary because Trump isn’t paying him for his counsel and he does not directly lobby the US government.

“I don’t represent foreign governments in front of the US government. I’ve never registered to lobby,”he told the Post.

Two spokespeople with the White House declined to comment to the Post about Giuliani or whether his overseas work poses a conflict of interest for Trump.

Giuliani told the Post that he’s never lobbied Trump for anything and he never mentions his other clients to the President.

White House officials told the Post they cannot be sure of Giuliani’s claim that he never discusses his clients with Trump.

Giuliani was hired in April to represent Trump in the special counsel’s Russia investigation.

By Veronica Stracqualursi

July 12, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The Politics Behind The Sabotage Of The Iran Deal In Europe

As the EU scrambles to offer a viable package of economic incentives to convince Iran to stay in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) after the US withdrawal, some forces are attempting to undermine this effort and fully align the bloc’s policies with the Trump administration’s strategy of isolating Iran.

A case in point was an attempt in the European Parliament to block one of the key measures that EU governments proposed to preserve the JCPOA: to give a mandate to the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support financing investment projects in Iran. As of June 4, when the proposal was made, the Parliament had two months to object by issuing a resolution blocking the measure.

The first such attempt was undertaken on June 28 in the Budget committee (BUDG). A resolution was drafted by Gerard Deprez, a Belgian politician and the spokesman in BUDG for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats of Europe (ALDE). It included some genuine concerns expressed by the senior management of the EIB about the bank’s exposure to US sanctions if it engaged in Iran.

But there were also some blatantly political statements, unrelated to either the JCPOA or the measure at hand, namely, that Iran is a “significant state sponsor of terrorism” and a “theocratic, centralized state” where “power is invested with unelected institutions” and human rights violations are “still rampant and systematic.” It also accused Iran of “consistently violating its international obligations regarding its nuclear deterrent” and, bizarrely, “preparing for the failure of the JCPOA”—despite Iran’s certified record of compliance with the agreement. The resolution was roundly defeated in the committee.

Why would a mainstream, pro-European political group like ALDE, led by former Belgian prime minister and passionate Euro-federalist Guy Verhofstadt move to undermine the JCPOA, a singular diplomatic achievement of the EU? The reason is that Deprez is the chair of an informal “Friends of Free Iran” caucus in the EP. The sole purpose of this group is to act as a mouthpiece for the violent, exiled Iranian cult Mojaheddeen-e Khalk (MEK), on the EU terrorist list until 2012 and bitterly opposed to any thaw between the EU and Islamic Republic.

Not to be deterred by their defeat in BUDG, the promoters of the blocking motion pushed for a full floor vote. A different vehicle was found this time: the far-right Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group that includes euroskeptics from UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) and other populists. The group copy-pasted the same resolution defeated in the committee. It was duly rejected in the EP plenary as well, by a whopping 573 votes to 93, with 11 abstentions.

The main political blocs in the house—the center-right conservatives and center-left social democrats, joined by smaller groups like the Greens and the Left—backed the EIB mandate to work in Iran. But an overwhelming majority of ALDE MPs voted against as well, thus confirming that Deprez acted on behalf of MEK rather than his political faction. In the end, only the far right and assorted MEK supporters, including Deprez himself, voted to support the blocking motion.

In truth, there was never a realistic chance that the motion would pass. The clout of MEK has been on the wane in recent years. It has lost some influential backers. More MPs are willing to speak up against MEK abuses, as evidenced by hearings recently held in the EP. Overall, the group has been reduced to obstructing and delaying the normalization of ties between the EU and Iran, rather than shaping outcomes. When it truly mattered, the vote on the EIB exposed its real weight.

On the other measure to preserve the JCPOA—the reactivation of the Blocking Statutes to protect EU companies from US secondary sanctions—MEK and other anti-Iranian lobbies, like the right-wing pro-Israeli groups and their Saudi and Emirati allies, did not manage even to table an objection, let alone win it. This means that the Parliament has decisively backed both measures to enter into force as of August 5, the day before the re-imposed US sanctions kick in.

The fight, however, is not over. In theory, the national governments could still block the measure before it enters into force. The US is already reaching out to weaker members of the EU, such as the Baltic states, Poland, and Hungary, to force them to take Washington’s, rather than Brussels’s side when it comes to Iran. As the vote in the EP revealed, these efforts are matched by those on the far right in Western Europe who synchronize their agenda with Trump’s.

Given this context, the vote in the European Parliament gave a significant political boost to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini as she gears up to present, together with the EU trio of France, Germany, and UK, a package of economic incentives to Iran. Ultimately, for the EU the fight to preserve the JCPOA has become about something bigger than just a non-proliferation agreement with Iran. It’s a battle to save the rules-based, multilateral world order from an assault by those who seek to dismantle it.

This article reflects the personal views of the author and not necessarily the opinions of the European Parliament.

By ELDAR MAMEDOV

Eldar Mamedov has degrees from the University of Latvia and the Diplomatic School in Madrid, Spain. He has worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia and as a diplomat in Latvian embassies in Washington D.C. and Madrid. Since 2007, Mamedov has served as a political adviser for the social-democrats in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) and is in charge of the EP delegations for inter-parliamentary relations with Iran, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula, and Mashreq.

July 11, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

British MPs should be ashamed of supporting Mojahedin Khalq

The backing inside the Tory party for the MEK, once on the US’s terrorist list, is a sign of a party that has taken leave of its senses

Britain’s prime minister has been fighting a valiant, losing battle to rescue British relations with Iran in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s reckless attempts to wreck them.

But last week Theresa May was dealt a devastating blow to her authority after several Tory MPs defied her by going to Paris for a meeting designed to promote regime change inside Iran. This event is the latest sign that the prime minister and her foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, are facing a mutiny over Iran.

No regime change

Former cabinet minister Theresa Villiers was among senior Tories who travelled to Paris last week to hear Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York and Trump’s highly influential lawyer, call for the downfall of the Iranian government.

This meeting was a direct defiance of British government policy, which aims to save the Iran nuclear deal intact, and is against engineering a change of government in Iran. Indeed, Johnson assured Parliament in May that “I do not believe that regime change in Tehran is the objective that we should be seeking.”

Three Tory MPs – along with one Labour MP – travelled to the event, organised by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a front organisation for Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organisation (MEK), once listed by the US as a terror organisation.

There is no question that these reflect a powerful and vocal body of sentiment inside the Conservative Party.

This has been clear ever since the House of Commons debate on Iran on 9 May. The overwhelming majority of Conservative MPs favoured Trump’s policy of dismantling the JCPOA – and condemned May’s policy of keeping it. The overwhelming majority of speakers (I calculate 19) in the debate spoke out against the JCPOA, and only five were explicitly in favour.

Those opposing the JCPOA included former defence secretary Michael Fallon and former cabinet minister Stephen Crabb. Former leader Iain Duncan Smith also spoke out against the deal in a Commons debate later in May.

Troubling questions

These interventions raise troubling questions about the judgment and the allegiance of Tory backbenchers. So yesterday I approached the three Tory MPs who attended last weekend’s conference in Paris with a series of questions.

I asked them: who paid for and authorised their attendance at the MEK conference? Why as a signatory for the JCPOA are members of the current government pushing for the toppling of a signatory nation? Is it the government’s policy to pursue regime change in Iran? Do they think the MEK actually have popular legitimacy in Iran?

There was no reply from any of them. Tory MP Matthew Offord’s office even hung up the phone on MEE rather than answer legitimate questions.

Then I asked the Conservative Party’s central office if they knew about and had given permission for the Tory MPs to attend. Once again – no response. A wall of silence from all involved. The support inside the Tory party for the MEK looks like a sign of a party that has taken leave of its senses.

Here is an organisation with a proven history of terrorism, including against Western interests. Though founded by the husband and wife team of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, the MEK reportedly forces members to divorce and give up their children to foster care so as to avoid the distraction of familial love.

It has other characteristics of a cult.

For instance, former members also describe participating in regular public confessions of their sexual fantasies. The clear ambition of last week’s meeting was to use the MEK as a vehicle to bring down the current government in Iran.

No coherent plan

This conference in Paris comes against a menacing international background. The Trump administration is working flat out to destabilise Iran through the installation of brutal economic sanctions. Some observers believe the conduct of the US is very similar to the CIA destabilisation campaign aimed at Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953.

The CIA then at least had a clear alternative future in mind for Iran – restoration of the shah under American tutelage. In American terms, this policy was a success for the next two decades. Trump’s people have no coherent plan for Iran.

The cultivation of the MEK – an opposition group based outside Iran and thought to be supported by a rackety coalition of international backers including Saudi Arabia – has strong echoes of Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress in the run-up the Iraq invasion in 2003.

Chalabi was hugely influential in convincing the neo-conservative backers of the Iraq invasion that he had strong support inside Iraq and could turn the country into a model state. He was proved wrong.

Giuliani boasted how Trump had “turned his back on that very dangerous nuclear agreement with Iran”. He further boasted that recent popular protests inside Iran have been orchestrated from outside the country, insisting that they “are not happening spontaneously”.

And he ended his speech exclaiming: “Next year, at this time, I want us to have this convention in Tehran!”

Ominously, last year’s chief speaker at the Paris conference was John Bolton, one of the most eloquent advocates of the Iraq invasion, who has now become Trump’s national security adviser. This means that Trump has decided to repeat – in a larger and more dangerous country – all the errors of American policy in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He intends to hand over Iran to politicians with no democratic legitimacy – and no more loyalty to the United States and Western values than America’s former protégés, the Taliban and al-Qaeda. British MPs should be ashamed of helping him.

– Peter Oborne won best commentary/blogging in 2017 and was named freelancer of the year in 2016 at the Online Media Awards for articles he wrote for Middle East Eye. He also was British Press Awards Columnist of the Year 2013. He resigned as chief political columnist of the Daily Telegraph in 2015. His books include The Triumph of the Political Class, The Rise of Political Lying, and Why the West is Wrong about Nuclear Iran.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Additional reporting by Florence Ward

Peter Oborne, Middle East Eye,

July 11, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Giuliani works for foreign clients while serving as Trump’s attorney

Rudolph W. Giuliani continues to work on behalf of foreign clients both personally and through his namesake security firm while serving as President Trump’s personal attorney — an arrangement experts say raises conflict of interest concerns and could run afoul of federal ethics laws.

Giuliani said in recent interviews with The Washington Post that he is working with clients in Brazil and Colombia, among other countries, as well as delivering paid speeches for a controversial Iranian dissident group. He has never registered with the Justice Department on behalf of his overseas clients, asserting it is not necessary because he does not directly lobby the U.S. government and is not charging Trump for his services.

His decision to continue representing foreign entities also departs from standard practice for presidential attorneys, who in the past have generally sought to sever any ties that could create conflicts with their client in the White House.

“I’ve never lobbied him on anything,” Giuliani said, referring to Trump. “I don’t represent foreign government in front of the U.S. government. I’ve never registered to lobby.”

Carrie Menkel-Meadow, a legal ethics professor at University of California-Irvine, said it is generally unwise for the president’s lawyer to have foreign business clients because of the high likelihood they will have competing interests.

“I think Rudy believes because he is doing the job pro bono the rules do not apply to him, but they do,” Menkel-Meadow said.

Since Trump hired him in April, Giuliani has repeatedly crossed the lines traditionally followed by presidential lawyers. He has regularly opined on Iran, North Korea and other policy issues outside his purview, while also publicly revealing details about his discussions with his client and with the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, which is investigating whether the Trump campaign assisted Russia in interfering with the 2016 election.

Among the clients represented by Giuliani’s consulting firm is the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, whose mayor was a leading figure in Party of Regions, the Russia-friendly political party at the center of the federal conspiracy prosecution of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. His firm worked for the mayor in 2018 and is expected to work for him again later this year, Giuliani said in an interview.

Kharkiv has contracted with a subsidiary of Giuliani’s consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, to help set up a new office of emergency management there, according to Giuliani and others involved in arranging the deal. Giuliani traveled to Ukraine last November to meet with Kharkiv officials and then hosted a delegation from the city in New York in March, about three weeks before he was hired as Trump’s attorney, according to officials and Ukrainian news reports.

Another current Giuliani client is the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian resistance group operating in exile that was listed as a terrorist group by the State Department as recently as 2012. Giuliani said he has regularly received payments from MEK over the past 10 years; he declined to disclose his fees.

Giuliani acknowledges giving a paid speech to the group in May in Washington, and he delivered another speech at an MEK gathering outside Paris on Saturday advocating regime change in Tehran. He said before the conference he planned to spend “three or four days” in Paris helping the group.

His consulting firm has also been hired by cities in Brazil and Colombia looking for new policing strategies and for ways to reduce crime, Giuliani said. He recently returned from a trip to Brazil to meet with clients before leaving for the MEK conference.

Lobbying experts said some of Giuliani’s work for overseas clients is likely to require registration under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), which mandates disclosure to the Justice Department of attempts “to influence U.S. public opinion, policy, and laws” on behalf of foreign entities or individuals. Although violations are punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, the Justice Department has prosecuted only a handful of cases in recent decades.

Joshua Ian Rosenstein, a partner at the Sandler Reiff law firm, which specializes in FARA and other lobbying registration questions, pointed to Giuliani’s MEK speech in Washington in May as an example of political activity requiring registration.

“Political activity is a broad term,” Rosenstein said. “It includes any actions — including speeches, PR work and media outreach — that are intended to or anticipated to influence the U.S. government or the U.S. public with regard to the formulation, adoption, or modification of the policies of the U.S., or with regard to the political or public interests, policies, or relations of a foreign political party.”

Two White House spokespeople declined to comment on Giuliani or whether his work for foreign entities posed any conflict of interests for the president.

But Giuliani’s talkative and freewheeling style has irritated many White House officials, who say his frequent pronouncements are unhelpful and have often put the president in difficult positions. Giuliani often gives Trump personnel advice, White House aides said, and he said in a recent Post interview it would be good for Trump to have a more “political” chief of staff than John F. Kelly ahead of the 2018 midterms.

“He seems to be blending the services of a lawyer with the services of policy in the White House,” said William Jeffress Jr., a lawyer who represented Richard B. Cheney’s chief of staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby. “If you begin to stray to seek to influence the president or the White House that could be a problem. If you are seeking to influence the government in representing a foreign power, then you have a duty to register.”

Giuliani has also lobbied the president to promote his son, Andrew, a low-level White House aide who has clashed with Kelly and others in the West Wing. The elder Giuliani said that before becoming Trump’s attorney, he asked about a promotion he believed Trump had promised his son, and the president responded in the affirmative. He said he has not talked to the president about the issue since becoming his lawyer.

But three White House officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Giuliani continued to lobby Trump for his son’s promotion after he became the president’s lawyer.

Andrew Giuliani, who works in the White House Public Liaison Office, often arranges sports team visits to the White House and has been a regular Trump golfing partner for years. He suggested in an interview with The Post that some at the White House have bristled at his efforts to root out leaks.

“I’ve been lucky enough to know the president for close to 30 years and known him well for 20 years,” Andrew Giuliani said. “I find him to be similar to an uncle, and I’m lucky enough to be very close to his family.”

Trump remains pleased with Giuliani, lunching with him in New Jersey this weekend ahead of his Supreme Court nomination, praising his attacks on the special counsel and telling others that his situation has improved because of the former mayor, White House officials said.

After leaving the New York mayor’s office following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, Rudolph W. Giuliani built a lucrative career soliciting well-heeled clients for Giuliani Partners. He also worked with two law firms while accepting speaking fees on his own. He has since severed ties with the law firms but retains his security firm while representing Trump.

Giuliani said he is not as involved at the consulting company as he was before taking over as the president’s lawyer. The firm did not respond to a request for comment.

Giuliani said he never brings up his other clients with the president. He also said he has turned down some potential clients who have approached him recently, including a Russian business; he declined to identify the company.

“I really don’t think he does,” Giuliani said, when asked if the president knew who his clients were. “He knows I do a lot of security work all over the world.”

White House officials say they cannot be sure if Giuliani’s claim about not discussing clients with the president is true or not. The two men often talk late at night and early in the morning, and the conversations are frequently wide-ranging.

Giuliani also defended his work with Kharkiv Mayor Gennady “Gepa” Kernes, who was close to deposed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych before he fled to Russia and who has since sought to align himself with the new government in Kiev. Kernes uses a wheelchair after nearly being killed by an unidentified gunman in 2014. His allies have blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the attack, an allegation the Russian government has denied.

“I wasn’t concerned about them because he just got his legs blown off by Putin,” Giuliani said, referring to alleged links between Moscow and Kernes. “Maybe those ties were before.”

Representatives for TriGlobal Strategic Ventures, a New York consulting firm involved in arranging the meetings between Kharkiv officials and Giuliani, did not respond to requests for comment.

On Giuliani’s MEK relationship, a spokesman for the group, Shahin Gobadi, did not respond to a question about payments to Giuliani for speeches but said his appearances were not the same as working for the group.

“Mayor Giuliani’s advocacy for the human rights and democracy in Iran has been consistent with his long-held views,” Gobadi wrote in an email to The Post. “He has never worked for the MEK in any shape or form. He has never done any lobbying on behalf of the MEK.”

He added later, “Of course, he has relation with the MEK and has publicly said to have worked with them in line with his views but he has not worked for them.”

MEK was formally listed as a terrorist group by the State Department until the Obama administration dropped the designation in 2012 amid a sustained lobbying campaign. Members of the group have been implicated in the deaths of Americans and thousands of Iranians, primarily in the 1980s when the neo-Marxist group was allied with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the war between Baghdad and Tehran.

MEK supporters, including many U.S. conservatives, say the group has changed since then and is a valuable bulwark against the theocratic Iranian regime.

Daniel Benjamin, a State Department counterterrorism coordinator during the Obama administration, criticized Giuliani’s advocacy for the MEK and suggested he and others may have violated the law. Benjamin said the Treasury Department was so concerned about an MEK lobbying and public relations program featuring Giuliani and other notables in 2012 that it opened a preliminary inquiry into the issue.

“Plenty of us working in counterterrorism found just the appearance of support for a listed organization that had American blood on its hands to be outrageous,” said Benjamin, now a scholar at Dartmouth College. “An unfortunate consequence of the decision to delist was that this investigation got shelved.”

MEK officials deny any inappropriate lobbying and said the Treasury review cited no violations by the group. They also say allegations of terrorism and of responsibility for the death of Americans are unfounded and distributed as part of a propaganda campaign on behalf of the Iranian government.

Carol D. Leonnig in Washington contributed to this report.

by Josh Dawsey, Tom Hamburger and Ashley Parker,

July 11, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Trump admin. plotting to use MKO terrorists against Iran

The administration of United States President Donald Trump is plotting to use a terrorist outfit called the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO) to promote regime-change in Iran, according to a former long-time MKO member.

MKO, which was listed as a terrorist organization in the US and Europe, had collaborated with the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during his imposed war on Iran in the 1980s in addition to killing as many as 12,000 Iranians in a violent campaign of terrorist bombings and assassination across the Islamic Republic and Iraq, is strongly despised by the Iranian nation.

The collaboration between the Trump administration and MKO leadership to overthrow the government in Iran is based on false pretenses and will be a futile attempt, former MKO member Ebrahim Khodabandeh told Press TV on Saturday.

Recently, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and 33 senior US officials and military brass recently took part in an event organized by the notorious outfit in the French capital city, Paris.

Khodabandeh said the anti-Iran members of the Trump administration aim to use MKO as a mouthpiece or speaker for the dissidents to promote anti-Iran sanctions and regime-change in the country.

The Trump administration pretends that Iranian dissidents want regime-change in Iran which is not true, Khodabandeh said. The Trump administration’s show of support for the MKO terrorist organization, which has as well Iranian and Iraqi blood American blood on their hands, is based on the terrorist outfit’s anti-Iran stance, Khodabandeh told Press TV in an exclusive interview on Saturday.

Trump’s administration “cannot openly talk about imposing sanctions against the Iranian people. They do it under the cover of Iranian dissidents’ gatherings,”he said.

The gatherings promoting regime-change in Iran are”organized by the [MKO] terrorist organization which has claimed many lives inside Iran,” he noted.

The MKO terrorist outfit “is very much hated by Iranian people. It is the only Iranian opposition group that supports sanctions against the Iranian people, “according to Khodabandeh, who was a member of the terrorist organization for 23 years.

July 10, 2018 0 comments

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