Page 247 – Nejat Society

What is a destructive cult? How can we recognize it?

RIDC website published a three-part PDF survey by Massoud Banisadr on the destructive cults under the title:” What is a destructive cult? How can we recognize it?”

Massoud Banisadr

The writer examines the cult characteristics referring to the cult experts’ views and studies, to name some: Margaret Thaler Singer, Lifton , Dr. Olsson … .

In part two and three the writer gives us interesting examples of cults specifying part three entirely to the Mujahedin – e Khlaq cult.

Mr. Massoud Banisadr who spent 17 years within the MKO Cult says:” Although I was member of MEK for almost 17 years and in my memoirs[ Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel], I have described MEK in detail and in length; but at this point I prefer to cite their story from an independent expert; Professor Ervand Abrahamianii, especially as the material taken from his book has not been totally challenged by the organisation itself.”

What is a destructive cult? How can we recognize it? – Part one

What is a destructive cult? How can we recognize it? – Part two

What is a destructive cult? How can we recognize it? – Part three

January 30, 2018 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

MKO to make another prison in Albania

Malek Beit Mashaal is from Ahwaz. He spent 15 years within the affairs of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Cult. he left the group in Albania.

“ I defected the group due to the leaders’ lies.Through new rules they sought to make the new base Ashraf 3 in Albania a new prison as were the case in Camps Ashraf and Liberty. ..”

January 29, 2018 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 219

++ After the UNHCR said it will pay living allowances directly to individuals in Albania, several ex members reacted. They are celebrating this as their victory over the MEK. Comments say ‘Maryam Rajavi! You tried to take us hostage for the sake of a few hundred dollars a week. But you failed.’ Some of these formers have worked for decades without pay for the MEK. Now they are increasingly speaking out about this situation. One who spoke this week gave a long, detailed interview to Faryad Azadi.

++ Mohammad Hossein Sobhani wrote an article in Iran Pen Association remembering his experience as a prisoner in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. He talks about the celebration of the 50 MEK prisoners released from Abu Ghraib when Saddam fell. He was one of them. Sobhani reports, ‘They were kept there as Rajavi’s ‘deposits’. How thankful we were when suddenly we found out we were not going to die.’

++ An article by Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh published by LobeLog was translated into Farsi. The article ‘The Iran Protests, Regime Change, And MEK’ was widely distributed and praised. People for or against the regime alike agree that the MEK are a bad group. Some commentators mention that although there is a fight between various oppositions, that doesn’t mean that drug smugglers, mercenaries and such like the MEK can get involved in it as well.

In English:

++ Mohammad Hashemi, writing for the Tehran Times, says it is ‘Time for reflection on unrest in Iran’. The article starts by denouncing major foreign media outlets “from the U.S. to France and Germany seeking to hype the situation by disseminating sensational information, and assertions under the guise of news reporting.” What Hashemi attributes to “the ‘post-truth’ world which Oxford Dictionary defined as ‘circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’.” What defined the protests were their working class character and the fact that months earlier 41 million Iranians turned out to vote in an election.

Anti-Iran warmongers and the Monarchists and MEK sought to exploit the unrest for their own purposes. The author asserts however that Iranians are politically savvy and do not take the MEK or Monarchists or other external opposition or activists seriously.

++ In an article titled ‘MEK/NCRI, the Revolution Hijackers: Iran 2018’ published by Medium.com, the writer, Johnny, begins by pointing out vital differences between the recent protests in Iran and the previous Green Movement of 2009. He then talks about Maryam Rajavi’s attempts to hijack the unrest even though “The vast majority [of Iranians] have made it clear that ever since the 80s, the Mujahedin have no place in Iranian politics — even going as far as to label them as the ‘Khmer Rouge’ of Iran; after the Cambodian terror group headed by Pol Pot.” He goes on to describe Rajavi’s attempt to position herself as a leader and criticises western politicians for taking her seriously. This, he says, “seems eerily similar to the consensus determined by politicians in 2011 toward the FSA and ISIS”.

++ Albania’s TemaTV broadcast a short video report about “A training manual, which has already been used to train teachers in the country, will also be used in schools to educate children. The manual, published by the Center Against Violent Extremism, warns against the threat to society posed by Mojahedin Khalq organisation.” The MEK is described in the manual as a violent extremist group.

January 26, 2018

January 28, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

The Algiers Accords: Decades of Violations – And Silence

January 18, 2018″Information Clearing House”- This week marks the 37th anniversary of a pledge made by the United States in 1981:

“The United States pledges that it is and from now on will be the policy of the United States not to intervene, directly or indirectly, politically or militarily, in Iran’s internal affairs.”

This week also marks 37 continuous years of the United States failing to uphold its pledge: the 1981 Algiers Accords.

Just how many people have heard of the 1981 Algiers Accords, a bilateral treaty signed on January 19, 1981 between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran? Chances are, not many. Just as chances are that not many are fully aware of what actually led to the signing of this treaty.

Following the success of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew the Shah, America’s strongman in Iran, plans were made to topple the new government in Tehran. In 1980, under the Carter administration, the United States began clandestine radio broadcasts into Iran from Egypt. The broadcasts called for Khomeini’s overthrow and urged support for Shahpur Bakhtiar[i], the last prime minister under the Shah. Other plans included the failed Nojeh coup plot as well as plans for a possible American invasion of Iran using Turkish bases[ii].

The new Revolutionary government in Iran, with a look to the past and the 1953 British-CIA coup d’état that overthrew the Mossadegh government and reinstalled the Shah, had good reason to believe that the United States was planning to abort the revolution in its nascent stages. Fearful, enthusiastic students took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took the diplomats as hostages in order to prevent such plans from fruition.

These events led to the negotiation and conclusion the Algiers Accords, point 1 of which was the pledge by the United States not to intervene in Iran’s internal affairs in anyway. The Algiers Accords brought about the release of the American hostages and established the Iran–U.S. Claims Tribunal (“Tribunal”) at The Hague, the Netherlands. The Tribunal ruled consistently “the Declarations were to be interpreted in accordance with the process of interpretation set out in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.”[iii] ([*])

A pledge is only as valid and worthy as the person making it. From the onset, the United States failed to uphold its own pledge. For instance, starting in 1982, the CIA provided $100,000 a month to a group in Paris called the Front for the Liberation of Iran. The group headed by Ali Amini who had presided over the reversion of Iranian oil to foreign control after the CIA-backed coup in 1953[iv]. Additionally, America provided support to two Iranian paramilitary groups based in Turkey, one of them headed by General Bahram Aryana, the former Shah’s army chief with close ties to Bakhtiar[v].

In 1986, the CIA went so far as to pirate Iran’s national television network frequency to transmit an address by the Shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, over Iranian TV in which he vowed: “I will return,”[vi]. The support did not end there. Pahlavi had C.LA. funding for a number of years in the eighties which stopped with the Iran-Contra affair. He was successful at soliciting funds from the emir of Kuwait, the emir of Bahrain, the king of Morocco, and the royal family of Saudi Arabia, all staunch U.S. allies[vii].

In late 2002, Michael Ledeen joined Morris Amitay, vice-president of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs; ex-CIA head James Woolsey; former Reagan administration official Frank Gaffney; former senator Paul Simon; and oil consultant Rob Sobhani to set up a group called the Coalition for Democracy in Iran (CDI)[viii]. In spite of his lack of charisma as a leader, in May, 2003, Michael Ledeen wrote a policy brief for the American Enterprise Institute Web site arguing that Pahlavi would make a suitable leader for a transitional government, describing him as “widely admired inside Iran, despite his refreshing lack of avidity for power or wealth.”[ix] In August 2003, the Pentagon issued new guidelines – All meetings with Iranian dissidents had to be cleared with Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. Reza Pahlavis’ name was included in the list of contacts that had been meeting with Pentagon analysts[x].

Concurrent with this direct interference, and in the following decade, Washington concentrated its efforts into putting a chokehold on the Iranian economy. A provision of the Algiers Accords was that

“the United States will revoke all trade sanctions which were directed against Iran in the period November 4, 1979, to date.”

Embargoes and sanctions became the norm. Failing to interfere in Iran’s domestic affairs in order to topple the Islamic Republic through economic hardship, the United States once again turned up pressure through broadcasts and direct support for dissidents and terrorists – in conjunction with economic sanctions.

This stranglehold was taking place while concurrently, and in violation of the Algiers Accords, the CIA front National Endowment for Democracy was providing funds to various groups, namely “Iran Teachers Association” (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994,2001, 2002, 2003); The Foundation for Democracy in Iran (FDI founded in 1995 by Kenneth R. Timmerman, Peter Rodman, Joshua Muravchik, and American intelligence officials advocating regime change in Iran), National Iranian American Council (NIAC) 2002, 2005, 2006), and others[xi].

Funds from NED to interfere in Iran continued after the signing of the JCPOA. The 2016 funding stood at well over $1m.

In September 2000, Senators openly voiced support for the MEK Terror group Mojaheddin-e-khalgh. Writing for The New Yorker, Connie Bruck revealed that:

“Israel is said to have had a relationship with the M.E.K at least since the late nineties, and to have supplied a satellite signal for N.C.RI. broadcasts from Paris into Iran.”[xii].

Perhaps their relationship with Israel and their usefulness explains why President Bush accorded the group ‘special persons status’[xiii].

During the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, the terrorist group got protection from the U.S. troops in Iraq despite getting pressure from the Iraqi government to leave the country (CNN[xiv]). In 2005, “a Farsi-speaking former CIA officer says he was approached by neoconservatives in the Pentagon who asked him to go to Iran and oversee “MEK [Mujahedeen-e Khalq] cross-border operations” into Iran.”

Moreover, according to Pakistani Intelligence, the United States secretly used yet another terrorist group – the Jundallah, stage a series of deadly attacks against Iran. The United States seems to have a soft spot for terrorists.

In addition to CIA funding and covert operations with help from terrorists, the United States actively used radio broadcasts into Iran to stir up unrest including Radio Farda and VOA Persian. It comes as no surprise then that the recipient of NED funds, NIAC, should encourage such broadcasts. Also, the BBC “received significant” sum of money from the US government to help combat the blocking of TV and internet services in countries including Iran and China.”

It is crucial to note that while the United States was conducting secret negotiations with Iran which led to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA), the MEK were delisted as a foreign terror organization. This provides them with the legitimacy to write opinion pieces in leading American papers.

Also important to note that during the JCPOA negotiations in which the United States participated as a party to an agreement, it was busy flouting the Treaty with its broadcasts in to Iran – apparently, without objection. But the violation was not limited to broadcasts. Item B of the Treaty’s preamble states:

“Through the procedures provided in the declaration relating to the claims settlement agreement, the United States agrees to terminate all legal proceedings in United States courts involving claims of United States persons and institutions against Iran and its state enterprises, to nullify all attachments and judgments obtained therein, to prohibit all further litigation based on such claims, and to bring about the termination of such claims through binding arbitration. “

Unsurprisingly, the US again failed to keep its pledge and a partisan legislation allocated millions for the former hostages.

Clearly, the United States clearly felt bound by the Treaty for it recognized Point 2. Of the Algiers Accords when in January 2016 Iran received its funds frozen by America in a settlement at the Hague. Perhaps for no other reason that to pacify Iran post JCPOA while finding the means to re-route Iran’s money back into American hands.

It would require a great deal of time and verse to cite every instance and detail of United States of America’s violation of a Treaty, of its pledge, for the past 37 years. But never has its attitude been more brazen in refusing to uphold its pledge and its open violation of international law than when President Trump openly voiced his support for protests in Iran and called for regime change. The US then called an emergency UNSC meeting on January 5, 2018 to demand that the UN interfere in Iran’s internal affairs.

America’s history clearly demonstrates that it has no regard for international law and treaties. Its pledge is meaningless. International law is a tool for America that does not apply to itself. This is a well-documented fact – and perhaps none has realized this better than the North Korean leader – Kim Jong-un. But what is inexplicable is the failure of Iranians to address these violations.

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is an independent researcher and writer with a focus on US foreign policy.

Notes

[*] U.S. TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS

The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties defines a treaty “as an international agreement concluded between States in written form and governed by international law, whether embodied in a single instrument or in two or more related instruments and whatever its particular designation.”

Under United States law, however, there is a distinction made between the terms treaty and executive agreement. ” Generally, a treaty is a binding international agreement and an executive agreement applies in domestic law only. Under international law, however, both types of agreements are considered binding. Regardless of whether an international agreement is called a convention, agreement, protocol, accord, etc. https://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/dynamic/guide.php?id=65)

[i] David Binder, “U.S. Concedes It Is Behind Anti-Khomeini Broadcasts,” New York Times, 29 June 1980,

[ii] Mehmet Akif Okur, “The American Geopolitical Interests and Turkey on the Eve of the September 12, 1980 Coup”, CTAD, Vol.11, No.21, p. 210-211

[iii] Malintoppi, Loretta. World Arbitration Reporter (WAR) – 2nd edition, December 2010

https://arbitrationlaw.com/library/algiers-accord-and-iran-united-states-claims-tribunal-1981-algiers-world-arbitration. Downloaded January 14, 2018

https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%201155/volume-1155-i-18232-english.pdf

[iv] Bob Woodward, “Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981-1987”, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987, p. 480. (Cited by Stephen R. Shalom, “The United States and the Gulf War”, Feb. 1990).

[v] Leslie H. Gelb, “U.S. Said to Aid Iranian Exiles in Combat and Political Units,” New York Times, 7 Mar. 1982, pp. A1, A12.

[vi] Tower Commission, p. 398; Farhang, “Iran-Israel Connection,” p. 95. (Cited by Stephen R. Shalom, “The United States and the Gulf War”, Feb. 1990).

[vii] Connie Bruck, ibid

[viii] Andrew I Killgore. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Washington:Dec 2003. Vol. 22, Iss. 10, p. 17

[ix] Connie Bruck, ibid

[x] Eli Lake, New York Sun , Dec. 2, 2003

http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=NYS/2003/12/02&ID=Ar00100

[xi] International Democracy Development, Google Books, p. 59 https://books.google.com/books?id=ReTtEj6_myAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

[xii] Connie Bruck, “A reporter at large: Exiles; How Iran’s expatriates are gaming the nuclear threat”. The New Yorker, March 6, 2006

[xiii] US State Department Daily Briefing http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2004/34680.htm

[xiv] Michael Ware, “U.S. protects Iranian Opposition Group in Iraq” 6, April 2007 http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/04/05/protected.terrorists/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, Information Clearing House

January 27, 2018 0 comments

Albania

Iranian mujahideen are extremists

A training manual, which has already been used to train teachers in the country, will also be used in schools to educate children. The manual, published by the Center Against Violent Extremism, warns against the threat to society posed by Mojahedin Khalq organization.

Download the video

AlbanianTema TV, Albania

January 25, 2018 0 comments

Albania

Once you are in the MKO, you are no more self-sufficient

The resettlement of members of the mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) in Albania was accomplished in 2016 following an agreement between the US administration and the Albanian government in 2013. The relocation operation was managed by the UNHCR. [1] Therefore, members of the MKO should have been considered as the refugees under the international laws.

The U.S. assistance to the deal also included a donation of $20 million to the U.N. refugee agency to help resettle the MEK. The U.S. has also provided Albania with security and economic development assistance, to help the country build up its physical capacity to house the refugees. [2]

Cults are destructive

Based on the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees published on the UNHCR website, “Protecting refugees is the core mandate of UNHCR”. To protect refugees the UNHCR should work closely with the state that receives the refugees in its territory. [3]

“UNHCR’s main role in pursuing international protection is to ensure that states are aware of, and act on, their obligations to protect refugees and persons seeking asylum, ”according to the UNHCR website. “However, it is not a supranational organization and cannot be considered as a substitute for government responsibility.” [4]

Thus, in case of the MKO members, the Albanian government is supposed to have certain duties and the UNHCR is expected to ensure that the government is aware of its responsibility and acts properly to fulfill the rights of the MKO’s rank and file while they are required to respect the laws and regulations of the Albanian government in return. [5]

Under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Countries should ensure that refugees benefit from economic and social rights, at least to the same degree as other foreign residents of the country of asylum. The bottom line is that members of the Cult of Rajavi (the MKO) do not benefit from economic and social rights in Albanian territory because they do not enjoy a normal life on their own free will. MKO members are taken as hostages in the headquarters of the group.

“A refugee has the right to safe asylum,” reads the Convention. ”However, international protection comprises more than physical safety. Refugees should receive at least the same rights and basic help as any other foreigner who is a legal resident, including freedom of thought, of movement, and freedom from torture and degrading treatment.” [6]

“Freedom” is a precious gift which allows men to believe and live any way he chooses but it is unheard of in destructive cults such as the MKO. Meanwhile the UNHCR’s assistance “may include financial grants, food, tools and shelter and basic infrastructure such as schools and clinics. With projects such as income-generating activities and skill training programs, UNHCR makes every effort to ensure that refugees become self-sufficient as quickly as possible.”

Based on testimonies of defectors of the MKO in Tirana, the above mentioned facilities are limited to very basic needs such as food and shelter. The MKO’s rank and file have no access to the income-generating activities and skill training programs because they have to be dependent to the cult.

Once a person is stuck in a cult, he or she has to be totally dependent on the leader of the cult. Self-sufficiency is pointless to a cult member. In order to impose more isolation on their rank and file the MKO leaders took their recent action to relocate them to a remote headquarters in north of Tirana. The new base is surrounded by high walls and barbed wire to prevent the members from escaping.

The UNHCR and the Albanian government are highly responsible about the threat of 2500 radicalized cult members who are trained as robots in the Cult of Rajavi. They are potential ISIS-like forces that may turn back to trouble their housing society unless the MKO members are not considered as refugees under international laws. A Huffington Post article by Massoud Khodabandeh clarifies the vague status of the MKO hostages in Albania:

“A report by an Albanian lawyer (acting for MEK members who managed to separate from the group) after meeting with the UNHCR in Tirana reveals that under a secret agreement struck between the Americans, the government of Albania and the MEK leader, the UNHCR supervised the transfer of approximately 3,000 MEK from Iraq to Albania not as refugees but on a ‘humanitarian basis’. In other words, they have no official status in the country.

“According to this agreement, all the expenses for the MEK members are to be doled out by the MEK itself. This means that members are totally dependent on the MEK leadership for their subsistence. Those who have expressed their desire to separate from the group, for whatever reason, must continue to obey MEK rules and restrictions, they must accept MEK imposed conditions so that they are given accommodation and food.” [7]

This unfounded status of some thousand members of a fringe cult may give Albania a slap in the face. This is what Ebi Spahiu of Balkanalysis is concerned about. “Given Albania’s continued struggles with endemic corruption and organized crime, and the slow emergence of religious radicalization as a regional security threat, sectarian rifts may add to the list of challenges facing Albania’s political standing,” he writes. “One point of controversy that has already occurred domestically is that the agreement itself is very vague; there has thus been plenty of criticism domestically over a perceived lack of transparency on the terms agreed between Albania and the US.” [8]

Mazda Parsi

Sources:

[1] Dockins, Pamela, US Praises Albania for MEK Resettlement, VOA, February 14th, 2016

[2 ] ibid

[3] UNHCR website, Protecting Refugees: questions and answers, February 1st, 2002

[3] ibid

[5] ibid

[6] ibid

[7] Khodabendeh, Massoud, Albania’s Modern Slavery Problem Alienates Europe, Huffington Post, November 20th, 2017

[8] Spahiu, Ebi, The Iranian MEK in Albania: Implications and Possible Future Sectarian Divisions, Balkanalysis, January 29, 2017

January 24, 2018 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

The MKO cult doesn’t allow my sister to contact us

Mr. Jaafar Mansouri whose sister is taken hostage by the Cult of Mujahedin –e Khalq pens a letter to the human rights bodies appealing to meet his beloved sister.

Some part of the letter reads:

“I am Jaafar Mansouri. . . my sister- Marziyeh, is enslaved within the Rajavis’ cult for long years. The cult has not allowed her to contact us. I ask the human right bodies prevent the cult to move members to a remote area near Tirana and don’t allow the cult leaders to continue their brainwashing practices on members … “

January 23, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Time for reflection on unrest in Iran

It was after midnight on December 31 and I was checking the latest news about protests in Iran on twitter when one post attracted my attention. It claimed the “Iranian regime lost control of the central city of Kashan” –my hometown– and that “people have taken control of police stations and military installations in the city”. The writer of that post, who is the political editor of a very popular tabloid in Germany, further speculated in another post that this could be the beginning of “syrification of the conflict” in Iran!

By the time that gentleman decided to do some fact checking and deleted the fake news from his page, it was already retweeted nearly 600 times, allowing falsehood to proliferate in public discussion.

This was just one small example of distortion of reality regarding the unrest in Iran. But now that the dust of the protests has settled, it is time for some serious reflection on what happened.

The demonstrations began on December 28 in Iran’s second largest city, Mashhad, over alleged corruption, economic hardships and high unemployment and swept to other cities and towns. The number of people that were arrested in days of protests remains disputed. Iran’s judiciary spokesperson said “a total of 400 people were detained and 25 killed”. Other less official sources have given a higher number.

Post truth, information, and emotion

The news about the protests quickly spread on social media and in turn was picked up by foreign-based satellite channels. On the same outlets exiled journalists and activists living in their own bubble, urged people inside Iran to engage in civil disobedience with absurd actions which drew ridicule from many inside Iran.

In the midst of turmoil, the striking point was the coverage of major foreign media outlets from the U.S. to France and Germany seeking to hype the situation by disseminating sensational information, and assertions under the guise of news reporting. Their coverage was for most part one-sided comprising reports and interviews with foreign observers, exiled journalists and activists who were repeating the same old, emotional and gibberish narrative against the Iranian government.

This setting is a central part of the “post-truth” world which Oxford Dictionary defined as “circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”.

The “post-truth” concept is not a new phenomenon and has been around for a while. But its usage spiked in 2016 both with the populist Brexit movement, resulting in the UK’s vote to quit the European Union, and Trump’s rise to the presidency.

Author Ralph Keyes in his book, The Post-Truth Era: Dishonesty and Deception in Contemporary Life, defines post-truth era as a time when “borders blur between truth and lies, honesty and dishonesty, fiction and nonfiction. Deceiving others becomes a challenge, a game, and ultimately a habit.”

Of course trying to mislead the public is nothing new but in the case of Iran one can hardly think of any other country where the outbreak of protests leads observers to reach for their revolutionary theory and hyperbole and “the fall of regime”.

What was different this time?

The latest demonstrations in Iran were different from most protests that have previously roiled the country since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Firstly, despite the geographical scale, the number of demonstrators was small and limited. While mostly ordinary working class people with contradictory slogans were taking part in the protests, middle class in large population centers stayed at home because they were not sure about the outcome. Moreover, this was not an authentic civic movement for change because it lacked clear goals and leadership that naturally turned chaotic in several provinces and towns when thugs and mobs set fire to state-owned buildings and damaged public properties.

Secondly, let’s not forget, just seven months ago more than 41 million people turned out in the presidential election with over 57 percent of them voted to continue Hassan Rouhan’s government of “hope and prudence”. That’s why it was highly unlikely that such overwhelming show of support and hope suddenly disappear.

What comes after is important

The unrest was a convenient pretext for anti-Iran opposition warmongers in the U.S. and elsewhere to exploit it for their own purpose of promoting regime change and substitute Iranian exiles as representatives of people who were protesting in the streets. Foreign media outlets gave some coverage to the remnants of the old monarchist Pahlavi regime but it was the notorious Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist Organization (MKO) that received the most coverage on Fox News, Voice of America and other outlets.

Just as a side note, during a week of turmoil, the Voice of America Persian service “set an all-time traffic record with their coverage of the Iran protests with 5.5 million Facebook video views & nearly 3 million site visits,” Amanda Bennett, the head of VOA, wrote in a tweet on January 2.

Other major outlets misleadingly used propaganda pictures of rallies organized by MKO in the United States and Europe to distort perception of protests in Iran. MKO fought alongside the Iraqi army in Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. The group also carried out numerous bombings and assassinations after the Islamic revolution in 1979. The group was until 2012 on the U.S. terrorism list and now is pushing for sanctions against Iran. That’s why the group has no support among Iranians.

It is important to note that people of Iran are political savvy and while many may want a more liberal and Western like society, they hate U.S. antagonism and have reasons to distrust the United States. They have also seen the outcome of U.S. regime change policies in places such as Syria and Libya. Therefore, no sensible and intellectually honest Iranian takes MKO, monarchists, or other opposition groups and activists outside Iran as viable alternative to the current government.

Blindness to evidence

Gradual changes are taking place from Iran’s political development, social freedoms, human and minority rights, government accountability and transparency to even people’s style of living. One might argue for those changes in the merits but the truth is that foreign meddling in Iran has always adversely affected these developments.

Some people may not like history but they should be reminded that in 1953, the democratically-elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh was overthrown in a coup orchestrated by the CIA and British intelligence service. The U.S. and Britain backed Saddam Hussein in the war against Iran and over the past decades, Washington has imposed punishing economic sanctions on Iran, threatened it with war and funded anti-government opposition groups.

When Iran signed a landmark nuclear deal with six world powers in 2015, many Iranians had expectations that their economic situation would improve. Even part of Rouhani’s electoral appeal stemmed from expectations that the accord would bring foreign investment and jobs. Iran’s economy has recovered since, but because of U.S. sanctions such recovery was not enough to match the expectations or alleviate growing inequality.

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. has stepped up efforts to isolate Iran — adding the country’s handling of protests to its list of reasons. The Trump administration’s support for unrest, regime change and encouraging social unrest including political statements of condemnation and biased media coverage to undermine the legitimacy of the government is definitely an obstacle to Iran’s democratic progress.

Post-truth era is characterized by “willful blindness to evidence and appeal to emotionally based argument,” and when it comes to covering Iran, misrepresentation of facts can really be harmful.

Mohammad Hashemi,

January 22, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq as an Opposition Group

MEK/NCRI, the Revolution Hijackers: Iran 2018

There are a few key differences between the events we’re seeing unfold in today’s Iran and the “green movement” of 2009: firstly, the peoples anger stems not from rigged elections but from a much more worldly issue, economic disparity; students end up jobless, the price of food has almost tripled, and nepotism is rife ..

Secondly, this time it appears that the protests are leaderless. Now, in many ways this kind of anarchism could end up being a good thing; history has continuously taught us that figureheads become tyrannical a lot more easily than we’d care to admit, but I can’t help but feel a Mousavi would not go amiss right now.

Allow me to introduce you to Maryam Rajavi, leader of the “MEK” or the “People’s Mujahedin of Iran” — not that there’s anything communal about the organisation itself. A self proclaimed “Islamist Marxist” group, they vehemently supported the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, going as far as running bombing campaigns against The Shah and who ever they claimed to be “zionists” throughout the 1970s. Then, when they couldn’t get their way with the Mullah’s, they went on to support Saddam Hussein in the Iraq-Iran war, massacring thousands of innocent Iranian citizens in the process. It was all the way up until 2012, the United States had considered them to be an active terrorist organisation.

So, what changed? Nothing. Despite claiming to have renounced violence back in 2001, numerous reports have come out continuing to dispute this; the most recent of which was the 2017 Tehran parliament bombings. But as the United States are [most or less] at war with the current regime, the definition of terrorism has been warped to fit their own narrative. Of course, this isn’t to say the Iranian people support them. The vast majority have made it clear that ever since the 80s, the Mujahedin have no place in Iranian politics — even going as far as to label them as the “Khmer Rouge” of Iran; after the Cambodian terror group headed by Pol Pot.

I guess the question is now, why are we talking about them? Well, the problem with this being a leaderless revolution is that leadership is still currently up for grabs. And even though they’d never be accepted as legitimate in Iran, they’re a pretty loud voice when it comes to the rest of the world.

For the past few years, Maryam Rajavi has been running propaganda campaigns throughout Europe, Israel, and the United States under the name of an MEK subset group called the “National Council of Resistance of Iran”. Her attempts have been to try and legitimise herself as the only true opposition to the Islamist regime, the irony, of course, is that she herself is also a part of a budding extremist Islamist regime.

After glancing through their Twitter pages, it has become apparent that in the past few days she’s been using her new found influence as a way to attempt to commandeer this uprising from the protestors themselves.

More worrying is the number of politicians starting to accept this as fact.

Plus with the immediate response from Republican’s, including President Trump, on the protests, a growing worry appears to be that International support will end up falling into the wrong hands.

Not to be too pessimistic but the reality is, support for the MEK seems eerily similar to the consensus determined by politicians in 2011 toward the FSA and ISIS. Two groups that, in many ways, shared nothing in common with the original protestors yet single handedly created chaos within Syria in a matter of months — leading to problems and divisions now stretching decades ahead, and destroying the lives of millions.

It should be noted that support for Maryam Rajavi would be disastrous for not only a #FreeIran but the world in general. We’re still in the middle of refugee crisis’s in Libya and Syria; both of which were triggered by irresponsible, rash political decisions that now have had dire consequences.

If you’re going to support a known terrorist organisation in the hope that it’ll inflict change in a fragile nation, perhaps you should just be quiet instead.

medium.com, Johnny ,British Iranian • https://twitter.com/vanityduluoz

January 22, 2018 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 218

++ In Albania, ex-members claimed victory after Rajavi refused to pay them their living allowances. Now the government and the UNHCR have accepted that this situation cannot go on and they will pay money to them individually. The ex-members have been told to open a bank account with the documents they have and in the near future they will have money paid directly to them so that they are no longer dependent on Rajavi. The amount to be paid is less than the minimum needed to live on, but considering there are no jobs for them it is better than nothing. Many outlets published writing saying ‘we resisted and won, and Rajavi lost again. Get Lost Rajavi! You have no hold on us and we can say what we want’.

++ In Albania the MEK announced the death of three members – two men and one woman. According to the MEK they died from heart attack and cancer. Former MEK members wrote their memories of them. One in particular is said to have worked as a torturer inside the MEK. Some remember the woman. They say she was on the fringe of the organisation for years and didn’t want to work with them. But, because of her advanced age she was afraid of leaving as there was nowhere for her to go. She lived out her time in the MEK under severe pressure.

++ Many Iranian oppositionists living outside Iran have written angry pieces against Maryam Rajavi for destroying the potential uprising in Iran. They lay blame on Rajavi and the media for using false pictures and fake reports. They conclude, that if the MEK hadn’t been involved, a real protest movement might have developed.

In English:

++ The Albanian Center Against Terrorism lists the Mojahedin Khalq as a violent extremist organisation. The listing is reflected in a training manual for teachers which lists Daesh, Al Qaida and the MEK.

++ Zahra Moeini, a former MEK member, wrote an open letter published in Iran Zanan to two MEPs warning them against supporting the MEK. She gives an overview of MEK behaviour and activities which reveal the MEK’s hypocrisy and cruelty. The letter concludes “… if you are not able to help Iranian people in their uprising, at least stop supporting the enemies of Iranian people, and your excellencies should know that standing beside the leadership of this cult and the enemy of the Iranian people is like stabbing the Iranian people in the back”.

++ Several other articles in English focused on what is known about foreign interference in the recent protests in Iran. They name America, Israel and Saudi Arabia along with their proxy the MEK. These articles demonstrate that the only winners from involvement of the MEK – whether real or alleged – have been the hardliners in Iran. The protesters lost and the regime change pundits lost.

January 19, 2018

January 21, 2018 0 comments

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