Formers Reza Sadeghi and Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad attended a meeting of the Social Democrats in the European Parliament discussing the situation of refugees coming into Europe. They talked to MEPs and their staff about the MEK in Albania.
President Trump started his long-anticipated anti-Iran speech by complaining about the 1979 hostage situation. What followed was an increasingly fantastical and absurd accounting of Iran’s history, before finally announcing he is decertifying the nuclear deal for “violations,” and announcing new sanctions.
The allegations against Iran went from things that happened a generation ago to treating things like the specious “Iranian plot” to attack a DC restaurant as not only the government’s fault, but absolute established fact. Beyond that, he blamed Iran for the ISIS wars in Iraq and Syria, repeatedly accused them of supporting al-Qaeda, and claimed Iran was supporting the 9/11 attackers.
The allegations were so far-fetched by the end, that even President Trump appeared cognizant that many won’t be taken seriously. Later in his speech, he insisted that the claims were “factual.”
When addressing “violations” of the P5+1 nuclear deal, Trump similarly played fast and loose with the facts, citing heavy water claims that are really more the international community’s violation than Iran’s (Iran was guaranteed an international market for the water, but after Congress got mad the US has refused to buy any more, meaning Iran’s totally non-dangerous stock grew), and accusing them of “intimidating” inspectors, insinuating that was the reason there aren’t investigations at Iranian military sites.
In reality, Iranian military sites are only subject to investigation in the case of a substantiated suspicion of nuclear activities, and there simply are none. The IAEA has in recent days clarified multiple times that they don’t need or want to visit any military sites right now. The only allegations about the sites are from the Mujahedin-e Khalq, which has been the source of repeated false accusations in the past.
And while this was supposed to be a speech about the nuclear deal, Trump closed it off with comments that very much sound like his goal is regime change, saying Iran’s people want to be able to interact with their neighbors (despite Iran being on very good terms with most of its neighbors already), and suggesting that whatever he’s going to do will lead to “peace and stability” across the Middle East.
Jason Ditz, news.antiwar.com
While the Trumper gave a good teleprompter speech today on the topic of Iran and nukes, he demonstrated great ignorance on the reality that is Iran. He clearly is reflecting the Israeli right wing view on the matter, one that is enthusiastically embraced in the United States by the folks we now refer to as Neo Conservatives. (These are the same people that Phil Giraldi wrote about, America’s Jews Are Driving America’s Wars).
Trump’s speech was laughable. The following passages illustrate how delusional the Trump is when it comes to Iran:
Iran is under the control of a fanatical regime that seized power in 1979 and forced a proud people to submit to its extremist rule. This radical regime has raided the wealth of one of the world’s oldest and most vibrant nations, and spread death destruction and chaos all around the globe. . . .
The regime harbored high level terrorists in the wake of the 9/11 attacks including Osama bin Laden’s son. In Iraq and Afghanistan groups supported by Iran have killed hundreds of American military personnel. The Iranian dictatorship’s aggression continues to this day. The regime remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, and provides assistance to al-Qaida, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist networks. it develops, deploys and proliferates missiles that threaten American troops and our allies. It harasses American ships and threatens freedom of navigation in the Arabian Gulf and in the Red Sea. It imprisons Americans on false charges, and it launches cyber-attacks against our critical infrastructure, financial system and military.
The U.S is far from the only target of the Iranian dictatorship’s long campaign of bloodshed. The regime violently suppresses its own citizens it shot unarmed student protestors in the street during the green revolution. This regime has fueled sectarian violence in Iraq and vicious civil wars in Yemen and Syria. In Syria, the Iranian regime has supported the atrocities of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. And condone Assad’s use of chemical weapons against helpless civilians including many, many children.
Where does one begin to counter such lies and misrepresentations? Who has been the most destabilizing force in the Middle East over the last 27 years? I would suggest that the United States multiple invasions of Iraq, military action in Libya and our decision to help arm and train Islamic rebels keen on overthrowing Syria’s President Assad qualifies us as the biggest meddlers and chaos makers.
One of the recurring big lies being pushed in the media–by Republicans and Democrat as well as some of our allies–is that Iran is the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the World.
The chutzpah award on this point goes to Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister, Adel al-Jubeir, who declared in October 2015:
. . .that Iran “is the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world, and it is working on destabilizing the region. If it wants to build good relations with its neighbors, it ought to deal with them based on the good neighborliness principle and not to interfere in their affairs. We [would] welcome such a step.”
(Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2015/10/saudi-arabia-yemen-syria-crisis-relations-disputes-agreement.html#ixzz3yMmotxLV)
The Saudi Foreign Minister conveniently ignored the fact that 15 of the 19 terrorists who hijacked planes and attacked America on 11 September 2001 were Saudis not Iranians.
Iran is no innocent on the issue of terrorism. The Revolutionary Guard and their agents, following the ordres of the Mullahs, were responsbile for the deaths of thousands from hundreds of terrorist attacks since the early 1980s.
When Iran fell under the rule of the Ayatollah, it routinely relied on terrorism—bombings, hijackings and kidnapping—to pursue its goals. They were directly involved in the taking of U.S. hostages in Lebanon and the bombings of the US Embassy in Beirut and the Marine barracks. But Iran’s actions were not just blind hatred. There was a strategic context to Tehran’s use of terrorism. Iran was at war with Iraq, which had the full support of the United States and other western countries. For Iran terrorism was a way to punch back against a more powerful military foe. The pragmatism on the part of Iran was further evidenced by the fact that it had a secret arrangement with Israel in acquiring weapons to use against Iraq.
But it is wrong to insist that Iran continues to be the major force driving the terrorist violence seen in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and America. In contrast to the period 1982 thru 1989, which was the high water mark of Iran reliance on terrorism as a key component of its foreign policy, Iran has shifted towards more conventional political and military methods for achieving its national goals.
The terrorism that marked Iran twenty years ago is no longer its calling card. The role of chief terrorist has been taken over by a legion of radical Sunni groups. Starting with the Al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, DC in September of 2001, the identity of the terrorist attacks has shifted dramatically, with the vast majority of the violence attributable to radical Sunni Islamists. According to the latest edition of the Global Terrorism Index (http://economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Global-Terrorism-Index-2016.2.pdf) , a publication of the Institute for Economics and Peace, four groups accounted for 74% of all fatalities from terrorism in 2015—Boko Haram, Al-Qaida, the Taliban and ISIS.
Consider the list of Muslim Groups presently actively hostile to the US:
– The Islamic State (Sunni)
– The Al-Nusra Front (Sunni)
– Al-Qa’ida Central (Sunni)
– Al-Qa’ida in Magheb (Sunni)
– Al-Qa’ida in Arabian Peninsula (Sunni)
– Boku Haram (Sunni)
– Al-Shabbab (Sunni)
– Khorassan Group (Sunni)
– Society of the Muslim Brothers (Sunni)
– Sayyaf Group in the Philippines (Sunni)
– Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan (Sunni)
– Lashgar i Taiba (Sunni)
– Jemaa Islamiya (Sunni)
– Houthis (Shia)
Of the 14 groups, only the Houthis are tied to Iran.
The last significant terrorist attack that is believed to have been carried out with Iran’s support was the July 2012 bombing of the bus hauling Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. But that was not just gratuitous violence to kill Jews for the sake of killing Jews. It was classic retaliation for what Iran perceived as Israel’s backing of a terrorist campaign in Iran.
The attack on the bus followed an 18-month series of attacks in Iran resulting in the murder of engineers and scientists believed to be involved with Iran’s Nuclear program. Iran blamed Israel (and to a lesser degree the United States) for the following murders:
January 12, 2010 Masoud Alimohammadi Iranian Physicist
KILLED IN A CAR BOMB. MAJID JAMALI FASHI REPORTEDLY CONFESSED TO AN IRANIAN COURT HE HAD BEEN RECRUITED BY MOSSAD TO CARRY OUT THE EXECUTION
November 29, 2010 Majid Shahriari Iranian nuclear scientist
KILLED IN A CAR BOMB. ACCORDING TO THE GERMAN NEWSPAPER DER SPIEGEL ISRAEL WAS BEHIND THE KILLING.[223]
November 29, 2010 Attempted killing of Fereydoon Abbasi. Iranian nuclear scientist
WOUNDED IN A CAR BOMB.[224][225]
July 23, 2011 Darioush Rezaeinejad Iranian electrical engineer
KILLED BY UNKNOWN GUNMEN ON MOTORCYCLE. REZAEINEJAD WAS INVOLVED IN DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH-VOLTAGE SWITCHES, WHICH ARE USED IN A KEY COMPONENT OF NUCLEAR WARHEADS. SUCH SWITCHES MAY ALSO HAVE CIVILIAN SCIENTIFIC APPLICATIONS.[230] THE GERMAN NEWSPAPER DER SPIEGEL CLAIMED MOSSAD WAS BEHIND THE OPERATION. HE IS THE THIRD IRANIAN NUCLEAR SCIENTIST KILLED SINCE 2010.[231]
November 12, 2011 Major General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam
THE MAIN ARCHITECT OF THE IRANIAN MISSILE SYSTEM AND THE FOUNDER/FATHER OF IRAN’S DETERRENT POWER BALLISTIC MISSILE FORCES. HE WAS ALSO THE CHIEF OF THE “SELF-SUFFICIENCY” UNIT OF THE ARMY OF THE GUARDIANS OF THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION KILLED ALONG WITH 17 OTHER MEMBERS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS KNOWN AS BID KANEH EXPLOSION. THOSE WHO DIED ARE KNOWN AS THE “SHAHIDAN GHADIR”.
IRANIAN OFFI CIALS SAID THAT THE BLAST AT THE MISSILE BASE WAS AN ACCIDENT, AND RULED OUT ANY SABOTAGE ORGANIZED BY ISRAEL. AGIR SAID THAT THE EXPLOSION “HAD TAKEN PLACE IN AN ARMS DEPOT WHEN A NEW KIND OF MUNITIONS WERE BEING TESTED AND MOVED”. HOWEVER, TIME MAGAZINE CITED A “UNNAMED WESTERN INTELLIGENCE SOURCE” AS SAYING THAT MOSSAD WAS BEHIND THE BLAST. ISRAEL NEITHER CONFIRMED NOR DENIED ITS INVOLVEMENT.[233] [234] [235]
January 11, 2012 Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan Iranian nuclear scientist
THE BOMB THAT KILLED AHMADI-ROSHAN AT THE NATANZ URANIUM ENRICHMENT FACILITY, AND ANOTHER UNIDENTIFIED PERSON WAS A MAGNETIC ONE AND THE SAME AS THE ONES PREVIOUSLY USED FOR THE ASSASSINATION OF THE SCIENTISTS, AND THE “…WORK OF THE ZIONISTS [ISRAELIS],” DEPUTY TEHRAN GOVERNOR SAFARALI BARATLOO SAID.[236] [237][238]
One can easily imagine the outrage and demands for revenge that would sweep America if we believed that Iran was sending operatives into the United States to murder engineers and scientists working on projects, such as drones.
But these facts do not matter. The popular and persistent meme in the US media is that Iran is an unrepentant terrorist state. Iran, if you listen to the pundits, is using its special operations military forces to train and equip terrorists. But in an ironic twist, it is the United States that is implicated in attacks against Iran.
Author Sean Naylor, Relentless Strike, which details the history of operations and missions carried out by U.S. Joint Special Operations Command aka JSOC over the last 30 years, sheds light on an uncomfortable truth regarding our support to terrorists. To quote an old cartoon, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
“JSOC personnel also worked with the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK), a militant Iranian exile group that had based itself in Iraq after falling afoul of the ayatollahs’ regime in Tehran. The State Department had placed the MEK on its list of designated terrorist organizations, but that didn’t stop JSOC from taking an attitude of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” toward the group. “They were a group of folks that could transit the border, and they were willing to help us out on what we wanted to do with Iran,” said a special operations officer.”
The MEK were classified as a terrorist group until the United States decided that as long as the MEK would help kill Iranians rather than Americans that they were no longer terrorists. The MEK’s history of terrorism is quite clear:
During the 1970s, the MEK killed U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians working on defense projects in Tehran and supported the takeover in 1979 of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
In 1981, the MEK detonated bombs in the head office of the Islamic Republic Party and the Premier’s office, killing some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Premier Mohammad-Javad Bahonar.
Near the end of the 1980-1988 war with Iran, Baghdad armed the MEK with military equipment and sent it into action against Iranian forces.
In 1991, the MEK reportedly assisted the Government of Iraq in suppressing the Shia uprisings in southern Iraq and the Kurdish uprisings in the north.
In April 1992, the MEK conducted near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and installations in 13 countries, demonstrating the group’s ability to mount large-scale operations overseas.
In April 1999, the MEK targeted key military officers and assassinated the deputy chief of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff.
In April 2000, the MEK attempted to assassinate the commander of the Nasr Headquarters, Tehran’s interagency board responsible for coordinating policies on Iraq.
The normal pace of anti-Iranian operations increased during “Operation Great Bahman” in February 2000, when the group launched a dozen attacks against Iran. One of those attacks included a mortar attack against the leadership complex in Tehran that housed the offices of the Supreme Leader and the President.
In 2000 and 2001, the MEK was involved regularly in mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids on Iranian military and law enforcement units and government buildings near the Iran-Iraq border, although MEK terrorism in Iran declined toward the end of 2001.
Prominent U.S. political and military leaders from both parties have been quite willing to excuse the terrorism of the MEK
In 2011, several former senior U.S. officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, three former chairmen of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, two former directors of the CIA, former commander of NATO Wesley Clark, two former U.S. Ambassadors to the United Nations, the former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, a former White House Chief of Staff, a former commander of the United States Marine Corps, former U.S. National Security Advisor Frances Townsend, and U.S. President Barack Obama‘s retired National Security Adviser General James L. Jones called for the MEK to be removed from its official State Department foreign terrorist listing on the grounds that they constituted a viable opposition to the Iranian government.
As long as a group of terrorists will back the U.S. cause then we have seen the willingness of politicians to ignore their terrorist past. With respect to the MEK it was Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that ultimately gave the group with a record of killing Americans a pass.
The U.S. Iranian relationship is best described as that of couple trying to find common ground after a bitter divorce. The fall of the Shah in 1979 caused a rancorous, deadly split between Washington and Tehran, with each partner believing they had been betrayed and humilitated by the other.
Within Iran and the United States there are prominent people and groups who readily recite the litany of wrongs they have endured from the other to justify feelings of hatred and disgust. Yet, the focus should be on who is doing what now. It is on that point with respect to the issue of terrorism that Americans must acknowledge that the Iran of 2017 is not the Iran 0f 1986. The vast majority of terrorism that is shaking the world today is conceived and nutured by radical Sunnis bent on destroying Iran. That is a fact that is largely ignored in the United States.
Colonel W. Patrick Lang, Sic Semper Tyrannis, Turcopolier.typepad.com
++ In Albania this week, another four people announced their separation from the MEK. They all complain that they were made to sign papers by the MEK agreeing not to contact their families or talk about their situation. If they do, their UNHCR allowance is cut off and they are made homeless with no money. Lawyers have been pursuing the cases of people to whom this has happened who do not fall into the category of the agreement between the MEK and Pentagon. According to that agreement the Americans and the MEK have promised to provide for these people who have been brought from Iraq. But these separated people fall outside this category. Neither the Albanian Interior Ministry nor the UNHCR will answer the lawyers about the status of these people. Lawyers have said they will instigate a court case to clarify this. Both the Interior Ministry and UNHCR openly say that they will have to talk to the American embassy to get permission what to do and say in this case. While this is happening, the MEK and CIA are putting pressure on the Albanian government to accept that the MEK can create a new closed base outside the city – like Camp Ashraf in Iraq – to be run by the MEK with no interference from anyone outside (not even Albanian police or security forces). Up to now the Albanian government has resisted. However, the CIA and MEK pressure has been increased because they understand that if this is not done within weeks the whole MEK will collapse.
++ As far as MEK activity is concerned, all they have done last week is to swear at critics and ex members and praise Donald Trump saying he should reject the nuclear deal, bomb Iran and go to war with the country.
++ Former MEK members Davoud Baghervand and Issa Azade attended an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Maastricht Treaty. They talked with delegates about the MEK and the situation of people in Albania. Also this week, formers Reza Sadeghi and Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad attended a meeting in of the Social Democrats in the European Parliament discussing the situation of refugees coming into Europe. They talked to MEPs and their staff about the MEK in Albania.
In English:
++ Mazda Parsi writes for Nejat Society that Donald Trump’s determination to withdraw from the Iran nuclear has allowed the MEK “more room to move around the US government to launch its anti-Iran lobbying campaign more generously –pushing its paid advocates to run their ‘war on Iran’ agenda.”
Parsi focuses in particular on the lobbying efforts of John Bolton: “Probably the most troublesome part of Bolton and other neocons, in the eye of his country-men is his avowed support for regime change and his fondness for the Cult of Rajavi. When he talks about providing “vigorous support” to Iran’s opposition, he is talking about the MKO! Bolton should admit the bitter truth that no credible protesting party inside Iran wants anything to do with U.S. interference in their politics, and they absolutely aren’t interested in regime change. The so-called opposition that Bolton supports is the MKO, which is widely loathed in Iran and doesn’t speak for Iranian protesters of the Tehran government. However, Bolton seems to be blocked, regarding his own testimony in an op-ed where he confessed that he doesn’t have access to the White House.”
++ Aawa Association reported the meeting between MEK former Reza Jebelli with Ana Maria Gomes, MEP. Jebelli raised the issue of the MEK in Albania and the plight of separated members who are left destitute there. He suggested that European Parliament representatives seek to help the families of MEK hostages in any way possible.
++ An article titled ‘MEK, more like a Cult than an Opposition Group’ by Mazda Parsi of Nejat Society shows that whatever its name or stated purpose, every cult is destructive. Parsi compiles evidence of actual MEK behaviour and how it is perceived in relation to its own claims as human rights advocates and political opposition. In this piece, Mehdi Hassan is quoted: “Rather, the biggest problem with U.S. politicians backing the MEK is that the group has all the trappings of a totalitarian cult,” he states. “Don’t take my word for it: A 1994 State Department report documented how Massoud Rajavi ‘fostered a cult of personality around himself’ which had ‘alienated most Iranian expatriates, who assert they do not want to replace one objectionable regime for another.’”
October 13, 2017
++ Iran Interlink and Sahar Family Foundation are receiving many requests for help from individuals who have left the MEK in Albania. They tell us that nobody from the UNHCR or the Albanian authorities give them any answers. It is clear these bodies don’t know what to do with such people. Iran Interlink advises ex-members to be clear that it is illegal for the UNHCR or RAMSA or any other body to ask them to choose between the Iranian embassy and the MEK. They were brought to Albania as refugees so these officials are responsible for their welfare. Encouraging people to go back to Iran, even though it is backed by the Americans, is illegal. Twelve individuals have put their complaints in writing to the MEK leaders. We have advised them to approach the UN directly because the MEK is a terrorist group and they are not responsible for them. Nor is the CIA which backs the MEK. One complainant who approached the MEK to ask why they would not give him his money was beaten up because, they said, he had ‘contacted his mother by telephone’. In front of him, they paid double the allowance to another individual who is working for them while claiming to be an ex-member. The MEK said, ‘we recognise him as an ex-member because he listens to what we say’. Iran Interlink advised him to visit the UNHCR with a lawyer that we have found, and ask them what their conditions are for helping refugees. We advised him to remind the UNHCR that the deal between the Americans and the Albanian government does not apply to people like him because he is an individual refugee and not a member of the MEK terrorist group.
++ Mohammad Karami published an article called ‘The Most Hated Iranian Ever’. The piece comprises mostly self-explanatory pictures of Maryam Rajavi aligning herself during the last two decades with whoever in the world is anti-Iranian. Pictures of her with Saudis, the Syrian National Front, various Americans and etc., are an interesting display of her legacy as the MEK leader.
++ This week was Ashura. The MEK and Maryam Rajavi have been trying to align their brand with the Shia faith. Some Farsi commentators responded by linking her stance this week vis a vis Ashura with her previous act of gifting a book of MEK anti-imperialist martyrs to Senator John McCain. Rajavi sits down with the most anti-Shia people, but at the same time claims the MEK are Shias. In referring to this hypocrisy, some commentators claim ‘just this one contradiction makes it impossible for them to last another year’.
In English:
++ Muhammad Sahimi has written an article in Anti War ‘Deconstructing Neoconservatives’ Manifesto for War With Iran’. Starting with Donald Trump’s determination to supper the JCPOA, Sahimi outlines Neoconservative efforts to provoke a war with Iran, including a speech by US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley which was “replete with lies, exaggerations and innuendoes”. Sahimi identifies John Bolton as proposing “the most comprehensive plan of action for leaving the JCPOA and eventually going to war with Iran” while also being “a lobbyist for Mujahedin-e Khalgh Organization (MEK, also known as MOK), an Iranian opposition group that for years was listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization, and is universally despised by the Iranian people for its collaboration with the regime of Saddam Hussein during Iran-Iraq war, and working with Israel to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. Bolton also has very cozy relations with anti-Muslim hate groups, which only goes to show the depth of the man’s mental state.”
After a full and detailed examination of Bolton’s position toward Iran, the article concludes: “Why do Bolton and the neoconservatives hate Iran so unabashedly? They have made it clear that they believe the US should rule the world. They disguise this wish under the term ‘US leadership’. To them, international treaties and organizations are useful only to the extent that they protect and advance what they consider as the US interests, which are almost never the true national interests of the United States. Bolton and the neoconservative have never seen a war that they have not liked it. They see Iran not as a threat to the national security of the United States – which Iran is not – but as an impediment to US imperial ambitions for completely dominating the Middle East and its natural resources. This, and only this, is the reason for the neoconservatives constantly trying to provoke a war with Iran.”
++ ISNA (Tehran) reports on a delegation of female victims of MEK terrorism at the 36th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. “Representatives of the Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism attended the 36th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council under the motto “Empowering Women Victims of Terrorism as a Necessity for the Future of Human Beings”, and offered recommendations to UN mandate holders, representatives of states, human rights activists, and other NGOs… One of the prominent and impressive points raised at this side-event was the testimonies delivered by women victims of terrorism.”
October 06, 2017
MEK or KKK, Cults are destructive
For those familiar with the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ the Cult of Rajavi) the group’s efforts to represent itself as an opposition group who fights for freedom of Iranians is both absurd and ludicrous.
The MKO has notorious reputation in helping Saddam Hossein in the Iran—Iraq war during which many Iraqis along with Iranians were killed as a result. It goes without saying that MKO was funded and supported by Saddam. This is why almost all Iranians and Iraqis loathed the group.
Human Rights Watch has been clear on the MKO’s cult-like practices that include abuses which range “from detention and persecution of ordinary members wishing to leave the organization, to lengthy solitary confinements, severe beatings, and torture of dissident members.” [1]
Elizabeth Rubin a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, where her article”The Cult of Rajavi”appeared in July2003, warns American supporters of the MKO, “Mujahedeen Khalq is not only irrelevant to the cause of Iran’s democratic activists, but a totalitarian cult that will come back to haunt us.” [2]
“Friendships and all emotional relationships are forbidden,” Rubin writes about the atmosphere ruling the Cult of Rajavi. “From the time they are toddlers, boys and girls are not allowed to speak to each other. Each day at Camp Ashraf you had to report your dreams and thoughts.” [3]
Considering such reports and documents on violations of human rights inside the MKO camps, Jon Gambrell of the Associated Press states his concerns over the paid sponsorship for the group by the side of some factions of the Trump administration. “An official in U.S. President Donald Trump’s cabinet and at least one of his advisers gave paid speeches for an Iranian exile group that killed Americans before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, ran donation scams and saw its members set themselves on fire over the arrest of their leader,” he writes. “The U.S. State Department has described the MEK as having”cult-like characteristics.”When French police arrested Rajavi in 2003 as part of a terrorism investigation, MEK members responded by lighting themselves on fire. At least two people died.” [4]
Gambrell reveals the US newly-elected cabinet member for her paid support for the formerly terrorist designated MKO. “Elaine Chao, confirmed this week as Trump’s transportation secretary, received $50,000 in 2015 for a five-minute speech to the political wing of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, previously called a”cult-like”terrorist group by the U.S. State Department.” [5]
Paid advocacy for the MKO is actually a disgrace for its sponsors in Washington due to the MKO’s violent past and cult-like present. Mehdi Hassan of the Intercept states, ”These days, the organization — run by husband and wife Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, though the former’s whereabouts are unknown and he is rumored to be dead — claims to have renounced violence and sells itself to its new American friends as a 100 percent secular and democratic Iranian opposition group.” [6]
However, Hassan suggests that its terrorist background is not the biggest problem with the MKO. “Plenty of violent groups that were once seen as “terrorists” later abandoned their armed struggles and entered the corridors of power — think of the Irish Republican Army or Mandela’s African National Congress,” he writes. “Nor is it that the MEK lacks support inside of the Islamic Republic, where it has been disowned by the opposition Green Movement and is loathed by ordinary Iranians for having fought on Saddam Hussein’s side during the Iran-Iraq war.” [7]
He correctly ends his argument against the MKO by warning the US politicians about the group’s cult-like nature. “Rather, the biggest problem with U.S. politicians backing the MEK is that the group has all the trappings of a totalitarian cult,” he states. ”Don’t take my word for it: A 1994 State Department report documented how Massoud Rajavi “fostered a cult of personality around himself” which had “alienated most Iranian expatriates, who assert they do not want to replace one objectionable regime for another.” [8]
More tangible for the American audience is the argument by Sam Ghanchi the editor of Iranscope who compares the Cult of Rajavi with the notorious American cult, Ku Klux Klan (KKK)*. “In our eyes, PMOI is the Ku Klux Klan of 150 years ago and not Klan of today which at least acts civilized and does not lynch people. PMOI has agents harassing and threatening pro-democracy activists who oppose PMOI, on the Internet and elsewhere,” he states in his website. “We do not want the death of any human being but want the death of this *organization* which is a Shiite version of Daesh and goes by the names of Mojahedin khalgh organization, PMOI, MEK, MKO.” [9]
*The Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of violence, is the most infamous – and oldest – of American hate groups. Although black American shave typically been the Klan’s primary target, it also has attacked Jews, immigrants, gays and lesbians and, until recently, Catholics. Over the years since it was formed in December 1865, the Klan has typically seen itself as a Christian organization, although in modern times Klan groups are motivated by a variety of theological and political ideologies. The group has been an ardent supporter of Donald Trump during its presidential campaign.
By Mazda Parsi
Sources:
[1] Human Rights Watch, NO EXIT
[2] Rubin, Elizabeth, An Iranian Cult and Its American Friends, the New York Times, August 13, 2011
[2] ibid
[3] ibid
[4]Gambrell, Jon, Trump cabinet pick paid by ‘cult-like’ Iranian exile group, The Associated Press, February 05, 2017
[5] ibid
[6] Hassan, Mehdi, Here’s Why Washington Hawks Love This Cultish Iranian Exile Group, The Intercept,July 7, 2017
[7] Ghandchi, Sam, To France: Expel Maryam Rajavi, ghandchi.com, August 17, 2017
Mr. Reza Jebelli; Mujahedin-e Khalq former member met Ms. Maria Gomes, Aawa association reported.
Referring to the MKO Cult’s inhumane practices against the members in Albania, The MKO former member explained how members are kept under intense psychological pressure.
He also stated that the cult leaders put pressure on separated members threatening them that their refugee allowances would be cut.
Mr. Jebelli defined the Mujahedin-e Khalq cult efforts to disseminate false news and documents against the former members.
The MKO ex-member also informed the MEP of the separation of many dissatisfied members especially several veteran members, some with more than 30 years of membership within the group. Though Maryam Rajavi has travelled to Albania to save the MEK, the rate of disaffection is accelerating day by day.
Aawa association representative reiterated the MEK efforts to relocate the members to a closed camp in a rural area near Tirana in order to keep members within the cult providing a suitable environment to practice manipulation practices more freely.
Mr. Jebelli thanked Ms. Gomes for her invitation and conveyed the MKO hostages’ families appeal to facilitate their visit with their loved ones in MKO Camps. He also asked European Parliament representatives to help the MKO hostages in Albania in any possible way.
Rajavi married fellow MEK member Ashraf Rabiei in summer 1980. Rabiei was widow of another MEK member killed in 1976, Ali-Akbar Nabavi-Nuri, whom she married in 1975.
In February 1982, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard members attacked a hide out of Mujahedin Khalgh leaders. During the clashes Ashraf Rabiei the wife of the Paris-based MKO leader killed. The attack took place about six months after the Iranian PM’s office bombing by Mujahedin-e Khalq as well as several other terror activities such as bombing the headquarters of the Iran Islamic Republic Party (IRP).
Massoud Rajavi’s second wife was Abolhassan Banisadr’s daughter Firouzeh. Their marriage of state took place in October 1982 following their exile and the couple divorced in 1984.
Rajavi married to Maryam Qajar Azodanlu (later known as Maryam Rajavi) in 1985, who was already married to one of his close associates Mehdi Abrishamchi and divorced her husband in order to marry Rajavi.
Ann Singleton in his book” Saddam’s Private army” refers to the Rajavi’s marriages:
” Only months after Ashraf was killed, Rajavi had married Abol Hassan Bani Sadr’s daughter, Firouzeh. She was a student at a university in Paris at the time. She had no political inclination as far as is known and was largely regarded as being used as a pawn by Rajavi in the manipulation of her father. Ironically, this marriage did not cause any controversy. Members saw it for what it was; a political tactic. Ordinary Iranians saw it as both a convenient and a normal marriage. Rajavi’s wife was dead, so why shouldn’t he marry again, albeit indecently quickly? Yet this marriage really was cynical and exploitative. The young Firouzeh was naïve and innocent and had no real choice in the matter. Not a very good basis for marriage to a man who later promoted himself as the defender of women’s rights in the Mojahedin. In fact it was the next marriage, between two highly ambitious and fully aware people, that caused the outrage and continues to do so. Why? Because Rajavi married his best friend’s’ wife. (The relationship started long before Abrishamchi was ordered to divorce.) Looking at the marriage from a traditional point of view from Iranian culture, it was dishonourable, a betrayal of his friend. It was wrong, if not scandalous.”
With Trump’s apparent determination to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK/PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) has just found more room to move around the US government to launch its anti-Iran lobbying campaign more generously –pushing its paid advocates to run their “war on Iran” agenda.
Trump described the nuclear deal as an”embarrassment”to the United States. Meanwhile, John Bolton may be the most vocal Iran hawk who addressed the September 20 rally coordinated by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities (OIAC), and members of the MKO, against the visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in New York. “I think it was a disastrous agreement for the United States to make; harmful to the United States, harmful to its friends and allies, harmful to the people of Iran. The sooner we get out of it, the better,” Bolton told the AP reporter.[1]
Bolton is certainly a symbol of return to the Bush years, but he is such a hard-liner that he would think that Bush didn’t go nearly far enough in his foreign policy. He comes from the faction of the US government that wanted (and still wants) war with Iran, more confrontation with Russia and China, and a generally more aggressive approach to any threat (real or imagined). Like Trump, he is an alleged nationalist, but it is a nationalism defined by fulfilling their wish for U.S. “leadership” over the world. Muhammad Sahimi, a professor of the University of Southern California says, “They disguise this wish under the term”US leadership”. To them, international treaties and organizations are useful only to the extent that they protect and advance what they consider as the US interests, which are almost never the true national interests of the United States.” [2]
“For years Bolton has been advocating bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities, either by Israel, the US, or both,” Sahimi writes. “He is also a lobbyist for Mujahedin-e Khalgh Organization (MEK, also known as MKO), an Iranian opposition group that for years was listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization, and is universally despised by the Iranian people for its collaboration with the regime of Saddam Hussein during Iran-Iraq war, and working with Israel to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. Bolton also has very cozy relations with anti-Muslim hate groups, which only goes to show the depth of the man’s mental state.” [3]
Probably the most troublesome part of Bolton and other neocons, in the eye of his country-men is his avowed support for regime change and his fondness for the Cult of Rajavi. When he talks about providing “vigorous support” to Iran’s opposition, he is talking about the MKO! Bolton should admit the bitter truth that no credible protesting party inside Iran wants anything to do with U.S. interference in their politics, and they absolutely aren’t interested in regime change. The so-called opposition that Bolton supports is the MKO, which is widely loathed in Iran and doesn’t speak for Iranian protesters of the Tehran government. However, Bolton seems to be blocked, regarding his own testimony in an op-ed where he confessed that he doesn’t have access to the White House.
The huge contradiction is that the MKO authorities who invest too much on the role of Bolton-like warmongers, paying large amounts of money for the speaking fees in their rallies and even expenses of the luxurious trips to Paris and Tirana to appear in their propaganda shows, claim that they seek non-violent regime change in Iran!
“Bolton’s comprehensive plan of aggression (BCPOA) against Iran is built upon lies, exaggeration, warmongering, and twisting the truth,” states Muhammad Sahimi. It should be added that the MKO’s claim of non-violent regime change is also built upon lies, exaggeration and illusion. According to Dr. Sahimi, “Bolton’s plan is also crude and cruel” and the MKO is evidently supporting and propagating this plan in its propaganda machine. [4]
The MKO’s company with US warmongers demonstrates its utmost hypocrisy and corruption.
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] Nazarian, Adelle,EXCLUSIVE–John Bolton: Trump Should Decertify, Withdraw from Iran Nuclear DealEntirely, the Associated Press, September 24, 2017
[2]Sahimi, Muhammad, Deconstructing Neoconservatives’Manifesto for War with Iran, Antiwar.com, September 25, 2017
[3] ibid
[4] ibid
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was the first major organization to embrace the Mujahedin-e Khalq group and offer them military training and supplies in its camps in Lebanon and Syria. the MKO`s leader, Massoud Rajavi was trained by PLO in Lebanon and Jordan in the late 1960’s.
According to journal”Mojahed”of June 1979, it was Yasser Arafat who initially put the MKO in touch with the Soviet Union. Therefore when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the people’s Mojahedin were at front to praise the Soviet Union.