Page 240 – Nejat Society

US’ Iran Regime-Change Plan: Hit Economy, Orchestrate Protests, Engage MEK Cult to Chant “Democracy”

While the hard-hit Iranian economy is likely to continue reeling, driving more protesters into the streets, one shouldn’t mistake their pain for a desire to subject themselves to a totalitarian cult with hardly a fraction of the support enjoyed by the Shia clergy helming the Islamic Republic.

WASHINGTON — Iran’s latest wave of protests against the suffering state of the economy and the plunging value of the rial appeared to have come and gone by Wednesday, as crowds dissipated and businesses opened up shop following a two-day strike. While clashes between security forces and protesters during the protests were far from widespread, the very fact that the protests broke out hints at the extreme duress Iran is undergoing thanks to President Donald Trump’s renewed economic war on the country.

Judging by the enthusiastic response to the demonstrations in the U.S., Saudi, and Israeli press, anti-Iranian forces are clearly banking on the possibility that the sanctions that will soon be reimposed in the next several months could dislodge the Islamic Republic, clearing the way for a regime friendly to the West.

Thus we have witnessed anti-Iran publications like the Israeli Jerusalem Post frothing over with excitement over scenes of alleged Iranian citizens chanting “Death to Palestine,” “Let go of Syria – think about us,” ..

While videos from Iran depict what could very well be an organic groundswell of social protest against government policies, photos published in papers like the Post show a different story: middle-aged Persian men gripping English-language signs and the flags of the toppled Iranian monarchy, along placards bearing the portrait of an unlikely figure: the moustached, mysterious and long-disappeared charismatic cult leader who is considered an outlawed terrorist and traitor to the nation — Massoud Rajavi.

Elliott Gabriel article on Mintpress

Rajavi was the leader of the group that lies at the center of the anti-Iran alliance’s “regime change” dreams: Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), or the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). A fanatical militant group whose title translates literally to the “The People’s Holy Warriors,” this eccentric left-nationalist, pseudo-religious cult has been led by Massoud’s wife, Maryam Rajavi, since the 1980s.

Formed in 1965, the group’s tortured history has seen it transformed from a movement of communist-influenced, Islamist-tinged anti-imperialists who carried out attacks on U.S. military officers in Iran into an authoritarian de facto mercenary army serving anyone opposed to the Islamic Republic – be it Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Israel, or the United States.

The group wields major PR clout and outsized influence in Western capitals through countless front groups like the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), through which it depicts itself as “a political coalition that represents all of Iran’s religious, ethnic, and political groups proportionately;” stresses feminist, Islamist, free-speech and pro-free-market values; and is firmly “committed to a secular, democratic, non-nuclear republic” in Iran.

The RAND Corporation described the group as “skilled manipulators of public opinion,” but a cursory look at its publications shows a rather ham-fisted and self-celebratory pile of cultish jargon. Throughout the past week, publications like Iran Focus or Iran News Update – the latter of which bills itself as “Insider News & Analysis in Iran” – have pumped out articles boosting NCRI as “the only viable alternative to the Iranian regime” and claiming:

As protests in Iran continue to multiply and intensify, the regime’s claim to power is looking more and more tenuous. If the people were to overthrow their tyrannical government, the only democratic organization in the position to take over governance would be the NCRI … The regime’s reign of terror is at its close.”

The MEK was one of the first groups to be named a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department, but its extreme opposition to the Islamic Republic of Iran and generous donations to politicians has led to its eventual delisting. The roster of politicians and influential figures tied to the MEK and its fronts spans much of the U.S. political spectrum, from the far right to the left-of-center.

Trump’s White House is a virtual all-star cast of MEK associates – explaining the administration’s frenzied push to scrap the nuclear deal and push to topple Tehran. Among the top supporters of MEK is White House National Security Advisor John Bolton, whose hatred of Iran’s government verges on the pathological.

A congressional foreign-policy aide who attended an Iranian New Year celebration hosted by an MEK front group told Foreign Policy magazine:

Bolton is positively predisposed to the MEK … they will have some access to this White House, [to say] the least.”

From revolutionary anti-imperialists to bizarre mercenary cult

The MEK once enjoyed a decently-sized support base within Iran and even played a role in the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew U.S.-loyal Shah Reza Pahlevi and opened up a new period of national independence for the nation. Following the revolution, the group’s political struggles with the faction led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and failure to secure widespread support led it to deploy its Shah-era “armed struggle,” or terrorist tactics, against officials and clergy loyal to [Ayatollah] Khomeini, claiming the lives of dozens of key figures in the newly-formed government.

The Mojahedin (jihadists), whom the Islamic Revolution’s leader regularly derided as monafeghin (hypocrites) – an allusion to those in the Quran who conspired against the Prophet while feigning loyalty – became the top enemies of the Islamic Republic.

Faced with the full brunt of the Islamic Republic’s retribution, the group fled to Iraq in the 1980s and became a virtual “Iranian Legion” for Saddam Hussein, who equipped the group with heavy armor, uniforms, and artillery so that it could fight alongside Iraqi forces during the Iran-Iraq war. Following the war, the self-styled “national liberation army” launched a series of cross-border raids against Iranian civilian and military targets, sacrificing nearly all of its remaining support among Iranians.

The drop in Iranian support led to a push to replenish MEK ranks by targeting family members, wealthy potential donors, and expatriate Iranians in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. True to their form as a cult, the group promised to connect prospective recruits with a lifeline of assistance as the trade-off for their enlisting in the group.

According to the RAND Corporation:

Many were enticed not with promises of an opportunity to fight the IRI, but rather through promises of paid employment as translators, assistance in processing asylum requests, free visits to family members, public-health volunteer opportunities, and even marriage. All ‘recruits’ were brought into Iraq illegally and then required to hand over their identity documents for ‘safekeeping,’ effectively trapping them at MeK compounds. These findings suggest that many MeK recruits since 1986 were not true volunteers and have been kept at MeK camps in Iraq under duress.”

Tens of thousands of the group’s members remained under the protection of the Iraqi dictator, even participating in the bloody massacres that followed the Shia Arab and Kurdish uprisings of 1991, until the fall of the Ba’athist regime in 2003 when the U.S.-led coalition bombed the Saddam loyalists’ camps.

Seeing continued use for the MEK for their own anti-Iran efforts, however, the U.S. placed 3,800 members of the group under protective custody at Camp Ashraf, the sprawling city-sized base built for them by Saddam. Those who escaped the group had to undergo cult deprogramming.

Watch | Introducing Camp Ashraf

According to RAND, the group – which claims to uphold women’s equality – ensured that lines were “painted down the middle of hallways separating them into men’s and women’s sides” at the camp, prior to their expulsion by Iraqi forces in 2013. Many were shipped by the U.S. to Albania, the only country willing to accept them.

Yet while a major portion of the group’s membership spent over three decades imprisoned in Ba’athist Iraqi camps near the border with Iran, a significant chunk of the group – such as leader Maryam Rajavi – nestled into the Iranian expatriate communities in Paris, Washington, and other capitals. The group spent decades relentlessly lobbying Western governments and lawmakers to support its attempts to bring “reform” to Iran, and has even furnished intelligence to U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies in hopes to provide a casus belli for hostile policies and even military actions versus Tehran.

The “Iranian Resistance” wags the dog in Washington

In the U.S. capital, the group was enormously successful in its efforts to recruit an auxiliary brigade of highly influential top politicians to its cause. Even the far-right Washington Times, owned at the time by charismatic cult leader Reverend Sun Myung-Moon, issued glossy “special report” inserts hailing the militaristic group as the bringers of “freedom” to Iran. The publication included words of praise from Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the late Saudi Prince Turki bin Faisal al-Saud, and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), among many, many, others.

A brief list of these MEK supporters in the Republican Party reads like a who’s-who of anti-Iran officials from the neoconservative administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump:

In 2000, future Bush administration attorney general and Republican then-Senator John Ashcroft intervened on behalf of MKO military commander Mahnaz Samadi, who has been detained by immigration authorities due to her failure to disclose past terrorist ties — hailing the former anti-Iran combatant as a “highly regarded human-rights activist” and a “powerful voice for democracy.”
Former Pennsylvania Governor and first U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge praised the National Council of Resistance in Iran as “the single most visible, most credible, and most effective democratic movement with a clear and specific program to bring a democratic Iran to existence,” led by the “steady hand and inspiring leadership” of cult leader Maryam Rajavi.
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami, Florida, who served as Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has been a major leader in legislation calling for regime-change measures against Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela, and even called for Fidel Castro’s assassination in 2006. In 2003, she came out in defense of MEK as a group that “loves the United States” and is an ally in the “war on terrorism.”
Tea Party leader, Bush confidante and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey promoted the MEK while working for lobbying firm DLA Piper. Armey also represented Saeid Ghaemi, an Iranian expatriate in the U.S. who paid almost $910,000 to the lobbying firm “for Armey’s services bringing issues relating to Iran to the attention of Congress, the State Department, the Department of Defense, the White House, the National Security Council and the Department of Treasury.”

Watch | Giuliani Leads MEK “Regime Change” Chant

And then we have the top luminaries from President Donald Trump’s circle, including:

Former New York City Mayor and top White House lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who co-signed a letter along with various bipartisan officials urging a newly-inaugurated Trump to “establish a dialogue” with NCRI, and was revealed to have been a paid advocate for the removal of MEK from the State Department terror group list. Giuliani has been an almost annual guest at MEK functions in Paris and a regular anti-Iranian voice on television. In 2015, Giuliani stood before a crowd of MEK supporters in Paris and shouted:

The ayatollah must go! Gone! Out! No more! I will not support anyone for president of the United States who isn’t clear on that slogan behind me. What does it say? It says regime change!”

Trump adviser and GOP elder Newt Gingrich, who ripped on former President Obama for bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia, but was caught on camera bowing to Maryam Rajavi – whom the conservative ultra-patriot sees as an Iranian version of U.S. founding father George Washington.
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, the elite Taiwanese-American wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has received honoraria in the amounts of $50,000 and $17,500 to speak for MEK front groups like the Iranian-American Cultural Association of Missouri and the NCRI. At the same Paris event attended by Giuliani, Chao sat as guest of honor alongside “president-elect” cult leader Rajavi before delivering a feminist-themed speech slamming Iran’s government.

And then, of course, there’s John Bolton, a ravening ultra-hawk with a nearly obsessive hatred of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Speaking to Foreign Policy magazine, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace senior fellow Karim Sadjadpour commented:

I suspect Bolton’s interactions with the MEK were above all motivated by financial interests … The MEK may be a backward cult with little to offer, but they are the enemy of his enemy. And they pay handsomely.”

The same can likely be said about the rest of the elected “representatives”-for-hire in Washington, whose belief in the MEK’s ability to lead a post-IRI Iranian state is no doubt on par with their trust in the late Rev. Moon’s claims to be the one and only messiah.

While the hard-hit Iranian economy is likely to continue reeling, driving more protesters into the streets, one shouldn’t mistake their social demands or financial pain for a desire to subject themselves to a totalitarian cult with hardly a fraction of the support enjoyed by the Shia clergy helming the Islamic Republic — no matter the extent to which Washington and the Saudis attempt to foist the Rajavi group on the Iranian nation.

Yet despite the group’s dearth of political legitimacy, the congressional aide who spoke to FP understands why they remain a mainstay in the U.S. Capitol:

They’re useful as provocation … They’re useful as a signal to the Iranian government that we’re coming to get you.”

Elliott Gabriel is a former staff writer for teleSUR English and a MintPress News contributor based in Quito, Ecuador. He has taken extensive part in advocacy and organizing in the pro-labor, migrant justice and police accountability movements of Southern California and the state’s Central Coast.

Stories published in our Daily Digests section are chosen based on the interest of our readers. They are republished from a number of sources, and are not produced by MintPress News. The views expressed in these articles are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect MintPress News editorial policy.

by Elliott Gabriel , Mintpressnews.com

June 30, 2018 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 233

++ Two topics dominated Farsi commentary and writing this week: Maryam Rajavi’s Villepinte show in France and the suspicious death of MEK member Malek Shara’I in Albania.

++ Thematically, Rajavi was condemned for spending huge amounts of money on her show, with exorbitant fees for speakers and a paid for audience, while at the same time the members in Albania live in conditions of modern slavery, without money and with frugal resources.

++ Rajavi was also condemned for trying to falsely link the MEK with the economic protests in Tehran.

++ The suspicious death of MEK member Malek Shara’i provoked comment about the MEK’s mercenary behaviour; they kill for money.

In Albanian / English:

++ Massoud Khodabandeh wrote about Shara’i in Balkans Post saying the MEK want to rebrand their image by killing off members who have a violent past or are witnesses to MEK crimes. The article lists other covert assassinations and internal killings over the history of the group. The piece concludes that the MEK “has become the pattern for how other defeated terrorist groupings can be reinvigorated, rebranded and reused”. This indicates that as ISIS members arrive in Albania, there will also be “mysterious murders, suicides, disappearances, bizarre interventions to prevent investigations”.

++ Gjergji Thanasi in Albania’s Gazeta Impakt (also translated into English for Iranian dot com) examines the mystery surrounding Shara’i’s death. The police report of clothes found at the water front conflicts with the MEK version that he jumped into the irrigation channel fully clothed. In spite of expert divers spending three days searching the small, shallow stretch of water, no body has been found. Thanasi accuses Prime Minister Edi Rama of treason because he has apparently granted the MEK extraterritoriality on Albanian soil, something even diplomats do not enjoy. The piece also raises the possibility that the victim is alive and has been trafficked to Europe. From here, argues Thanasi, he could be involved in terrorism.

++ Ebrahim Khodabandeh, Iran Interlink, reveals that MEK commander Mahnaz Salimian in Paris has been tasked to link MEK with Iran’s economic protests during the Villepinte event, writing it into Rajavi’s speech. She has told MEK members ‘this is an opportunity which we cannot afford to lose as it is imperative to show that we are alive inside Iran’. Khodabandeh points out however that “Clearly Maryam Rajavi’s cult has no relation whatsoever with the protests inside Iran and is only, as usual, trying to jump on the bandwagon and take advantage of, and derail if possible, the just demands of Iranian citizens. It is also clear that the demands of the demonstrators have never been, nor ever will be, to bring about support for the likes of Maryam Rajavi. The name of Maryam Rajavi or Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) was never heard in any part of any demonstrations as Iranians in general see Maryam Rajavi and the Mojahedin Khalq as an organisation which is proud of being part and parcel of the enemies of Iran and Iranians. Iranians see her as a cheap and sad mercenary who is trying to promote herself for her masters whatever the price.”

++ Elliott Gabriel, Mint Press News, deconstructs neocon efforts to promote and facilitate regime change against Iran, including engaging the MEK to chant ‘democracy’ at Villepinte.

June 29, 2018

June 30, 2018 0 comments

Albania

Iranian MEK “hero” of Manzas adds additional security threats to Albania

On June 19, 2018 Albanian police were officially informed by the Iranian Mojahedin (MEK), stationed at Camp Ashraf 3 in the Administrative Department of Manze, that a 47-year-old Mojahed named Malek Shara’i was drowned in the Rrotull village reservoir. According to the 4 Iranian Mojahedin who were with Malek, he got into the reservoir to help a friend of his who was at risk of drowning. Fortunately, the friend had escaped, but Malek was drowned in the irrigation channel. Albanian police sent divers of the special police unit RENEA as well as Durrës Port Authority divers to search for his body.

Malek Shara’i

This is a possible assassination which raises a series of questions that create reasonable suspicion of at least one extrajudicial murder and also possibly, terrorist acts in Europe. Police initially reported finding clothes belonging to the missing victim on the shore of the reservoir, while the Iranian MEK of Camp Ashraf 3 officially insist that Malek jumped into the water fully clothed to save his companion (Sic!). Though for a week the search for his body engaged 5 trained and experienced divers of European standards, the body was not found. The searches have already been called off and for the Albanian police, the Iranian is officially considered a missing person.

This lack of shame raises many questions. The reservoir in the village has a small surface area and its maximum depth when full does not exceed 3 meters. In such a reservoir, small, not deep, with few or no reeds along the shore, our divers would have already found the body. Divers at the Durres Port Authority on Wednesday, as they were carrying out training activities at the Port of Durmitor, confirmed to me that they had not found the body and had stopped searching the reservoir.

Another question is the haste with which the Iran MEK declared Malek Shara’i a martyr [without finding a body]. Just as the President of the Republic, Ilir Meta, might decide to decorate Naim Frashëri after his death with the decoration of the Golden Eagle, the Trimestral Order. There are also similar precedents, for example, when Haxhi Lleshi awarded the late Zeliha Allmetaj with the high prize of the heroine of Socialist Work.

Leaving aside sarcasm, let’s ask the question publicly: If the Iranian’s body was not found in the reservoir, what really happened to it? Due to previous cases in Iraq in Ashraf and Liberty camps, Malek’s “martyrdom” is likely to have been executed by Madam Rajavi’s organization itself. Such executions without a trial or “partisan” trials, or as the English say, “Kangaroo Courts”, have often occurred in the ranks of the MEK. If such dirty work is true, it would be a scandal for Albania and should attract the attention of international media. We do not know the secret agreement of Prime Minister Rama about the transfer of these three thousand Mujahideen MEK to Albania, but I, as an Albanian patriot, cannot believe that the Prime Minister of my country, who portrays himself as a descendant of our rebels, would grant to Madam Rajavi’s people the right to extraterritoriality on Albanian soil. The April 1961 Vienna Convention on Immunities and Diplomatic Privileges did not accord to foreign diplomatic missions such rights over the life and death of their staff as these Iranian Mojahedin MEK, were officially offered when they were given shelter for humanitarian reasons on Albanian soil…

…Albania, my homeland, a NATO member country, and a candidate for becoming a member of the EU, is failing by being labelled the “Sick man of the Adriatic”. If Madam Rajavi’s men in Manzas have been murdered without trial or after a “partisan trial”, it is up to the Albanian prosecutors to open a criminal case for deliberate murder (first-degree murder). If Prime Minister Rama, in the agreement he has signed, has also given the Iranian Mujahideen MEK the right to extraterritoriality, then we are dealing not only with a violation of the law by the Prime Minister, but with national treason which under the Albanian Penal Code carries a sentence of 15 years imprisonment to life imprisonment! We hope that the Prosecutor General’s Office and the President of the Republic will pay due attention to this case, which is the question of the sovereignty of the Republic of Albania in its national territory!

In the case that Malek is still alive, we are dealing with a series of offenses ranging from human trafficking (as a light criminal offense) to terrorism. For such criminal acts, Madam Rajavi’s organization has precedents in Iraq. Malek, if alive, could be equipped with a biometric Albanian passport falsely provided by the system. With such a passport, the holder enjoys visa-free travel in all EU countries and the Schengen area. As a minimum we have human trafficking in this case. If Malek, equipped with such a passport, is sent to Europe to commit terrorist acts, then my homeland is stained, due to the irresponsibility of the current government, with supporting terrorism. Even worse, if Malek is provided with an Italian identity card for between 600-800 pounds sterling, then human trafficking or terrorist infiltration can also be carried out in the United Kingdom; the cost of such a document is completely sufficient to enter the United Kingdom (England) as well. As revealed by an investigation by the UK’s Daily Mail, such counterfeit Italian ID cards are easily purchased on the black market in Albania. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5889915/Forged-EU-identity-cards-used-enter-UK-illegally-order-just-THREE-DAYS.html

The above assumptions are not an Agatha Christie style fantasy. Until the body of Mojahed Malek Shara’i has been found, they are quite probably a reality. It is the professional and patriotic duty of Albanian journalists, that Malek’s case is not passed over according to the ‘three-day wonder’ principle. Whether a case of extrajudicial murder, or a case of trafficking or, God forbid, a case of attempted terrorism, the consequences fall on Albania, its name, its nationals and not the Government Rama as a signatory to the mysterious agreement for transferring over 3000 Iranian MEK to Albania for humanitarian reasons.

Gazeta Impakt , By Gjergji Thanasi/ Impact Newspaper

June 30, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Maryam Rajavi’s show in Villepinte, France distracts from sinister death of Malek Shara’i in Albania

Malek Sharaee Killed by MEK Maryam Rajavi Cult in Albania

A paid advert by MEK (Maryam Rajavi cult) in Albanian media

As Maryam Rajavi in the absence of her husband Massoud Rajavi is preparing to receive likes of Rudi Giuliani and Newt Gingrich as paid speakers in her yearly event to glorify terrorism and self-immolations, another MEK member disappears in Albania. Malek Shara’i has vanished in mysterious circumstances, which brings to mind the fate of tens of hundreds of missing people in Mojahedin Khalq Organisation under the rule of Saddam Hussein.

Malik Shara’i was one of the few remaining witnesses to the mysterious death of 53 MEK members in Camp Ashraf Iraq. According to the people who knew him he was also trying to get himself out of the closed and inaccessible MEK camp in Iraq. He is probably the latest victim of rebranding MEK. According to this news, ISIS is the next guest terror group Albania must host.

Gjergji Thanasi, well known Albanian investigative journalist, thinks otherwise.

Massoud Khodabandeh, Iranian.com on Gjergji Thanasi, Gazeta Impakt, June 29 2018

June 30, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO’s substantial violence can not “ Free Iran”!

“Majid’s body was not the only thing that was buried in the flames of fire; our delusions and imaginations to build the utopia were burned and disappeared,” writes Mohamamd Mohammadi Gorgani, former member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi).

Who was Majid? Majid Sharif Vaghefi one of the high ranking members of the early MKO circle was the first person who was physically eliminated by his comrades inside the group.

The mechanism of elimination of peers in the MKO has been going on until today. The most recent example of elimination project in the MKO was the mysterious disappearance of a member of the group in Albania that has once again drawn attention to this controversial group. Malek Sharaee, 47, originally from Khuzestan Province in Iran, was reportedly drowned in the Rrotull village irrigation water reservoir. After three days, divers have not found his body even though the water channel is only 3.5 meters deep.

Massoud Khodabandeh the Director of Middle East Strategy Consultants and former MKO member, presents a list of MKO victims who have been killed inside the group.

As a matter of fact, the armed struggle in the MKO was not only a violent strategy to omit the enemies of the group but also natural substance of the group that could not tolerate any kind of dissent.

Targets of the MKO included a large range: the shah of Iran because he was the arm of US Imperialism in Iran, US military personnel and contractors as capitalists, officials of the Islamic Republic as reactionary islamists, Iraqi Kurds and Shiites as Saddam’s enemies, Iranian nuclear scientists as Israel targets and the group’s own members.

The above-mentioned targets look so different in nature but they demonstrate one fact about the MKO: violence is the key to any problem.

Gorgani cites from Massoud Rajavi saying that we are the point of the arrow to evolution, so we should not be criticized.

Revising the group’s ideology is impossible according to Massoud Rajavi. An essential question: How can such an organization free Iran?

As its annual tradition, the MKO is supposed to hold the so-called grand gathering on June 30. The group’s propaganda labels the gathering as “Free Iran” claiming that it is a call for democratic change in Iran.

The group’s propaganda presents Maryam Rajavi’s “10 point plan for future Iran” as a proof to consider the MKO as the alternative for the Islamic Republic.

Regardless of the MKO’s terrorist activities against its external opponents, its violent reaction towards internal dissidents indicates that democracy is of no sense for the leaders of the group.

Those who are eliminated inside the MKO might be critics, opponents, problem makers or those who know too much. Imagining the MKO as the government ruling Iran, brings a disastrous image to the mind. In the MKO’s ideal society human beings are tools to achieve the leaders’ ambitions. Whenever the tools do not work according to the leaders’ pre-conditions, they should be deleted.

Maryam Rajavi’s ten point plan might look based on democracy and justice but nice words and pleasant phrases cannot cover dirty practices of the group during fifty and so years of its history.

Mazda Parsi

June 28, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

The MKO and the terror of a nation

A conference was held in Tehran on the 38th anniversary of the ‘7-Tir’ terror attack in which tens of members of the Islamic Republic Party were killed. ‘7-Tir’ equals June 28 (6/28) in Persian calendar, the date when massive amounts of TNTs were detonated by a Mujahedin-e Khalq organization agent in the building of the Islamic Republic Party, led by the then chief of Iranian Justice system, late Ayatollah Beheshti.

Organized by Habilian Association, the key speaker of the conference was Ehsan Qazizade, member of Human Rights committee of the Iranian Parliament. He called for the trial of members and leaders of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq organization in international courts and emphasized that the MKO is a tool at the hands of Iran’s enemies to fulfill their plans against the Iranian nation.

conference held in Tehran on the 38th anniversary of the ‘7-Tir’ MKO terror attack on the building of the Islamic Republic Party

Mohammad Javad Hasheminejad, the Secretary General of Habilian Association, was another speaker of the conference.

Javad Hasheminejad

June 28, 2018 0 comments

Iran

US National Security Adviser on the payroll of Mojahedin Khalq terrorists

An Iranian lawmaker quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying that US National Security Adviser John R. Bolton is affiliated with the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) and is on the notorious group’s payroll.

In an interview with Tasnim, Hossein Naqavi Hosseini outlined the main topics discussed during Zarif’s Wednesday meeting with members of a parliamentary group at the Parliament.

The US enmity towards the Islamic Revolution and the Iranian administration will never end, the MP quoted Zarif as saying, noting that the top Iranian diplomat has said US Republicans and Democrats only use “different methods” to harm Iran.

The US notion that they can damage the Islamic Republic has been incited by Munafiqeen (MKO members), as John Bolton receives salary from the MKO terrorists and attends their gatherings, the lawmaker quoted Zarif as stating.

As regards the efforts to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal after the US withdrawal from the multilateral accord, Zarif gave an assurance that Iran will pursue a legal path that would fulfill the country’s interests and strengthen the push for saving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Naqavi Hosseini went on to say.

Bolton, who made his name as a belligerent member of George W. Bush’s State Department and a Fox News contributor, has advocated bombing Iran instead of commitment to JCPOA, which was achieved in Vienna in 2015 after years of negotiations among Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).

Bolton has repeatedly called for the US help for overthrowing the government in Iran and handing power to MKO terrorists.

At a Paris gathering in 2017, Bolton told members of the MKO terrorist group that US President Donald Trump’s administration should embrace the goal of immediate regime change in Iran and recognize their group as a “viable” alternative.

The MKO – listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community – fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq and was given a camp by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

They fought on the side of Saddam during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-88). They were also involved in the bloody repression of Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq in 1991 and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.

The notorious group is also responsible for killing thousands of Iranian civilians and officials after the victory of the Islamic revolution in 1979.

More than 17,000 Iranians, many of them civilians, have been killed at the hands of the MKO in different acts of terrorism including bombings in public places, and targeted killings.

June 28, 2018 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Maryam Rajavi, Mojahedin Khalq misusing Iranian people’s just demands in Villepinte Paris

This week, Maryam Rajavi is due to stage her yearly event in Villepinte, Paris, to glorify terror and war – an event which in recent years has become an advertisement platform for American/Israeli/Saudi rants against Iranians.

At this same time in Iran, Bazaar and shop traders have protested over the instability of foreign currencies and other economic grievances. In a few instances these protests resulted in some localised disturbances. It is clear that all the slogans, even the ones from the groups of provocateurs, were based purely on economic demands asking the government to intervene to sort out the problems.

The Rajavi cult, which is famous for opportunism and riding on each and every event that happens across the globe, is now trying to ride on the wave of the just demands of Iran’s traders – and clearly by the order of the Zionist benefactors attempt to change the nature of their demands into a political stunt.

According to information passed to me by credible sources, a meeting was held in Auvers sur Oise (MEK terrorist planning camp on the outskirts of Paris) to coordinate the Villlepinte event on Saturday under the command of Mahnaz Salimi. Her task is to do the utmost possible to take advantage of these demonstrations by pretending they were organised by and in support of the MEK!

In this meeting Mahnaz Salimi was assigned to create fake news and add this issue to the speech prepared for Maryam Rajavi at their meeting so as to falsely take advantage of these circumstances in Iran.

Other MEK commanders have been assigned to create placards, posters and banners for this plan and Salimi has emphasized that ‘this is an opportunity which we cannot afford to lose as it is imperative to show that we are alive inside Iran’.

Clearly Maryam Rajavi’s cult has no relation whatsoever with the protests inside Iran and is only, as usual, trying to jump on the bandwagon and take advantage of, and derail if possible, the just demands of Iranian citizens. It is also clear that the demands of the demonstrators have never been, nor ever will be, to bring about support for the likes of Maryam Rajavi. The name of Maryam Rajavi or Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) was never heard in any part of any demonstrations as Iranians in general see Maryam Rajavi and the Mojahedin Khalq as an organisation which is proud of being part and parcel of the enemies of Iran and Iranians. Iranians see her as a cheap and sad mercenary who is trying to promote herself for her masters whatever the price.

Iran Interlink

June 28, 2018 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

Albania: MEK rebrands by assassinating unwanted members

Massoud Keshmiri

The mysterious disappearance of a member of the Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) terrorist group in Albania has once again drawn attention to this controversial group. Malek Sharaee, 47, originally from Khuzestan Province in Iran, was reportedly drowned in the Rrotull village irrigation water reservoir. After three days, divers have not found his body even though the water channel is only 3.5 meters deep. However, a MEK representative and three MEK witnesses say his clothes were found at the water’s edge. Police are now investigating this as a possible criminal offense. Even so, unless they gain access to Camp Ashraf Three, the MEK’s purpose-built training camp in Manez, they are unlikely to unearth the truth – MEK impunity is far greater than this small country can deal with or penetrate.

MEK (aka Saddam’s Private Army) was unknown in Albania until they arrived after 2013. Their bizarre behavior and controversial activities soon became the focus of media attention.

But the MEK’s dark history began long before this. Along with well-publicised military-style terrorist attacks on Iran since the 1980s, the MEK was also trained by Saddam Hussein’s Mukhaberat (Secret Services) and later by Israel’s MOSSAD, in intelligence gathering and secret operations. As a result, MEK has also conducted many covert terror acts and assassinations over the years. Several of these were deliberately staged to make it look like Iran was involved. Such as the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. In spite of extensive investigation, the primary evidence linking Iran came from four high ranking intelligence officers from MEK. In 2011, a man connected to Mexican drug dealers was arrested for the attempted murder of the Saudi Ambassador to America. The US quickly accused Iran, but after two weeks the perpetrator was linked to MEK. In 2013, Israel arrested a Swedish Iranian man, Ali Mansouri, who ‘confessed’ to be spying for Iran in Tel Aviv. He turned out to be a MEK member.

The underlying pattern behind these events is of deception and callous, cynical murder. These examples are not unique. MEK has a long history of highly sophisticated and brutal undercover activity. However, the reported death of Malek Sharaee in Albania this week also points to a new phase in MEK covert activity. This time individual MEK members who were previously involved in known acts of violence are now themselves becoming victims of their own organization.

Internal assassinations are not new – Commander Ali Zarkesh was deliberately killed during a military operation in 1988 because he had become critical of the leadership. There have been hundreds of reports of suspicious deaths and actual murders over the last three decades committed against critics and rivals.

In 2013, former MEK member Massoud Dalili was identified as the 53rd victim of a massacre at Camp Ashraf in Iraq. MEK only acknowledged his death when the Iraqi authorities formally identified him via his DNA. Dalili’s body had been deliberately disfigured (his face and hands burned) to hide his identity. Massoud Dalili had been one of the personal security personnel for leader Massoud Rajavi. He had undergone training with Saddam’s Republican Guards and the MEK’s own specialist training. Before coming to Iraq, Dalili had headed a small MEK team in Gilan Province where he was responsible for scores of deaths, including civilians

Another victim killed during the same attack was Zohreh Ghaemi, She had commanded the assassination of General Sayad Shirazi in 1999. Of the other victims that day, at least ten are known to have participated in known acts of violence for MEK. No one claimed responsibility for the attack on Camp Ashraf.

In 2015, in the Netherlands, Mohamad Reza Kolahi was killed by a criminal gang on the order of MEK. Investigators confirmed that Kolahi was responsible for the 1981 bombing of the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party in Tehran in which 72 high-ranking politicians and party members were killed.

Another MEK member, Massoud Keshmiri, responsible for the bombing which killed PM Bahonar and President Rajai in 1981, was last seen with MEK in Germany some years ago. He has since vanished and could be dead. Although these deaths cannot be said to be directly linked, there is a common thread whose purpose becomes clear when we remember 2016 when Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi Intelligence chief, announced the death of MEK leader Massoud Rajavi. It is clear from this that MEK is being purged from top to bottom of all the individuals who have had involvement or are associated with its violent past – rebranding by assassination to make the group legally acceptable.

MEK has become the pattern for how other defeated terrorist groupings can be reinvigorated, rebranded and reused. The controversy following the Bulgarian PM’s announcement that “Albania will become a coordination center for fighters returning from ISIS to the Balkans” may die down soon – Prime Minister Rama later dismissed this as fantasy, but he is not convincing.

Instead, the history of the MEK in Albania indicates that the same scenario will be repeated. As ISIS fighters arrive and settle, the process will start just as it did with MEK. Expect more mysterious murders, suicides, disappearances, bizarre interventions to prevent investigations. And, of course, the involvement of Albanian citizens, politicians, and personalities for and against. Plus, not only abandoning any hope of joining the EU, but suffering more restrictions on the borders with the EU and Balkan countries.

Massoud and Anne Khodabandeh, Balkans Post,

Massoud Khodabandeh is the Director of Middle East Strategy Consultants and has worked long-term with the authorities in Iraq to bring about a peaceful solution to the impasse at Camp Liberty and help rescue other victims of the Mojahedin-e Khalq cult. Khodabandeh co-authored the book ‘The Life of Camp Ashraf – Victims of Many Masters’ with his wife Anne Singleton.

(END)

June 24, 2018 0 comments

The MEK; Baath Party Accomplice

Massoud Rajavi’s Move to Iraq in 1986

In june10th, 1986, the Associated Press reported, “After five years of French exile, Massoud Rajavi has taken his Iranian opposition movement to Iraq where he is expected to step up guerrilla action against the regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.” [1]

The report came after the French government issued an order for the expulsion of Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) from France on June 7, 1986. However, the Christian Science Monitor’s correspondent suggested, “French officials say Rajavi left voluntarily and was not expelled, but in recent weeks the French government had exerted quiet pressure and placed restraints on his activities.” [2]

“But information from Paris indicates that Rajavi strove hard until the last minute to be allowed to remain in France,” CSM added. “Though the French authorities never served an expulsion order on Rajavi, they made it clear to him that he was no more welcome.” [3]

Furthermore, the AP report truly predicted that relocation of the MKO near the Iranian border would shift the propaganda approach of the group which was based on the establishment of the National Council of Resistance to military force which had been the group’s original agenda from the early days of its foundation. “The leader of the Mujahedeen guerrillas focused on political opposition while in France, collected Western support and built a propaganda machine,” the AP asserted. “But now Rajavi risks the scorn of Iranians by operating out of Iraq, a country that is at war with his homeland”. [4]

However, Rajavi’s move to Iraq was then called by the group`s propaganda as “A Flight for Peace and Freedom”! As usual, the group had to justify its disgusting anti-national act using agreeable words like “Peace”, “Liberty” and “Freedom”. But, playing with words did not help Iranians` hatred towards the MKO after the group collaborated with Saddam Hussein, the arch enemy of Iran.

AP reported at the time, “Some experts believe that the move may have some short-term advantages, but that it will ultimately cost the Mujahedeen credibility with Iranians.” The experts cited by AP were absolutely right. [5]

An Iranian jurist who had once been Rajavi’s lawyer and lived in France at the time, told CSM, “When Rajavi came to France, he and his supporters quickly ran out of money. The Iraqi government offered him support and they accepted. In the long run, they became proxies of the Iraqi regime and lost much of their credibility within Iran.” [6]

It was only a few years later that the US State Department confirmed the MKO’s increasing unpopularity among the Iranian nation due to its collaboration with Saddam Hussein in the eight years of Iran-Iraq war.

Just like today, the MKO’s unpopularity was not restricted to the Iranian people. “The Mujahedeen are criticized by other opposition groups as responsible for thousands of deaths in the early days of the revolution,” suggested the AP. “And critics say the Mujahedeen are caught up in a cult-like reverence for Rajavi.” [7]

The AP wrote about the MKO’s armed struggle and terror acts against Iranians. “The Mujahedeen have maintained a separate military command in Iran, which claimed responsibility for occasional guerrilla attacks.” [8]

Rajavi’s move to Iraq was a new phase for the MKO’s violent approach. “Peace” and “freedom” was unheard of.

As the enemy of his enemy, the MKO was warmly welcome by Saddam Hussein and his right hand man, Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi deputy premier and foreign minister. AP quoted him as saying “the Mujahedeen plan to step up military action inside Iran.” And the MKO did it. It was shortly after Rajavi’s move to Baghdad that the so-called National Liberation Army was formed as Saddam’s private army. [9]

By Mazda Parsi

References:

[1] Associated Press, After five years of French exile, Massoud Rajavi has taken his Iranian opposition movement to Iraq, the AP, June 10, 1986

[2] van England, Claude, Iran, France gain from Iranian exile’s exit. Rajavi’s move to Iraq damages his credibility, The Christian Science Monitor, June 10, 1986

[3] ibid

[4] Associated Press, After five years of French exile, Massoud Rajavi has taken his Iranian opposition movement to Iraq, the AP, June 10, 1986

[5] ibid

[6] van England, Claude, Iran, France gain from Iranian exile’s exit. Rajavi’s move to Iraq damages his credibility, The Christian Science Monitor, June 10, 1986

[7] Associated Press, After five years of French exile, Massoud Rajavi has taken his Iranian opposition movement to Iraq, the AP, June 10, 1986

[8] ibid

[9[ ibid

June 20, 2018 0 comments

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