Page 259 – Nejat Society

MEK Terrorist Death Cult: Meet Washington’s ‘Iranian Opposition’

As hundreds of thousands of Iranians take to the streets in support of their government and against recent violent demonstrations in the country, the chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) reports that the rioting seen in several Iranian cities over the last week is now under control. Claiming that”the Iranian nation has been targeted due to its resistance against the US and its lackeys and for its support for oppressed nations worldwide,”Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari also reported that”a large number of the arrested trouble-makers at the center of the sedition had received training from counter-revolutionaries and the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization [MKO/MEK – People’s Mujahedin of Iran, aka National Council of Resistance of Iran].”

When President Rouhani spoke with French President Macron yesterday, he urged France to stop hosting the MEK, which has been based in Paris since its leaders fled Iran after the 1979 revolution. Macron didn’t acknowledge his country’s support for the MEK, but he did call on the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel to cool their aggressive rhetoric. Much as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights spoon-feeds Western media with fake intel about what is going on there, and just as Turkey has to worry about the US-based fifth columnist Gulen network, Iran has to contend with a dodgy expatriate organization that Hillary Clinton got de-listed from the US List of Terror Organizations in 2012.

Undeterred by the sheer fantasy that a ‘democratic revolution’ could occur in a country that holds regular elections, it’s all-systems go for the US media in its effort to ‘catapult the propaganda’ against the Iranian ‘Islamic regime’. Fox News yesterday gave a platform to Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the Washington office of the MEK, in which he urged the Trump government to impose crippling sanctions (additional, presumably, to the existing ones) and to recognize his organization as the new government of Iran.

The heroic story of a righteous underdog fighting for noble ideals against a tyrannical regime has galvanized the US polity – right and left, including some among the ostensibly anti-globalist ‘alt-media’ – to proclaim their impassioned support for ‘the Iranian opposition’, whom they portray as democratic white knights against the theocratic despots ruling Iran. But a closer look at the ‘better option’ certain Westerners have deigned the ‘saviors’ of Iran reveals quite a different tale.

What is the MEK?

The MEK has an unusual and bloody history. Like all revolutionary movements, it began with noble intentions to free a people from the yoke of imperialism, but underwent a series of metamorphoses. Today it is dominated by the cult of personality surrounding its leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, who have overseen its transition from an anti-Zionist, anti-imperialist, pseudo-Islamic, Marxist revolutionary movement to a bizarre terrorist suicide cult whose members believe its leaders are the divine rulers-of-Iran-in-waiting, a belief its leaders have successfully inculcated in Western policy-making circles. (Massoud Rajavi may in fact no longer be alive, but his wife still publicly leads the organization.)

The MEK partnered with Ayatollah Khomeini to overthrow the Shah but fell out out of favour with the Iranian clergy when the dust settled in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. [Ayatollah ]Khomeini blocked MEK leaders from running in the first post-revolution presidential elections. The MEK responded by staging anti-[ Ayatollah ]Khomeini demonstrations, which provoked a violent backlash from the new government and ignited a vicious cycle of attacks and reprisal that led to the imprisonment, torture and death of thousands of Iranians in the early 1980s, predominantly anyone of left-leaning persuasion.

All told, some 10,000 Iranians have been killed by the MEK in its war against the Mullahs. Among their high-profile victims in devastating bombings were top Iranian officials, including President Rajai and Premier Mohammad Javad Bahonar in 1981. A number of MEK leaders were arrested and executed. Rajavi and his supporters then fled into exile in France. While reconstituting the organization in Paris, Massoud Rajavi decided that he needed a partner to run things jointly with him. The story goes that Mayriam Rajavi became his wife when a deputy within the organization ‘voluntarily’ divorced her so that she could marry Massoud.

This bizarre move was echoed a series of extreme measures that transformed the organization into the cult it has become today. All married couples were told they must divorce. Their children were sent into foster care with MEK members in cells abroad. The sexes were physically kept apart, both in Iraq and in France, including all the children from birth. Eye contact between the sexes was forbidden. Daily and weekly sessions were organized at which members would confess their most intimate thoughts, including their feelings towards other members. All emotions were to be channelled towards adoration of their leaders, the Rajavis, and”the revolutionary struggle to free Iran.”Basically, Scientology for Muslims.

The MEK is vilified by most in Iran because of its collaboration with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, which cost Iran about 1 million deaths. Iranian officials refer to the movement as Munafiqeen, ‘hypocrites’, a pun on Mujahideen. The MEK has been positioning itself as the Opposition to the Iranian government, and Maryam Rajavi likes being referred to as The President of Iran. Yet even the Green Movement (an Iranian ‘color revolution’ outfit), which amassed significant support in Iran in the run-up to the 2009 presidential elections (albeit with the dubious support of Western intelligence agencies), has distanced itself from the cult. Zahra Rahnavard, wife of reformist presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, has stated categorically that”Mr. Mousavi, Mr. Khatami, Mr. Karroubi and all of us within the Green Movement do not consider the MEK a part of the Green Movement.”

By the late 1980s, the Rajavis had amassed a heavily-armed force, some 14,000 strong, which conducted raids into Iran. Towards the end of the Iran-Iraq War, on 26 July 1988, six days after Ayatollah Khomeini announced his acceptance of a UN-brokered ceasefire resolution, Massoud Rajavi ordered his forces to cross the border on a suicide mission they called Operation Eternal Light. Their convoy of tanks got as far as the Iranian town of Islamabad-e Gharb, which they razed to the ground, before being beaten back to Iraq by overwhelming Iranian firepower. The MEK’s last major offensive was conducted against Iraqi Kurds in 1991, when it joined Saddam Hussein’s brutal repression of the Kurdish rebellion. Maryam Rajavi reportedly told her loyal subjects to,”Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.”

With Saddam Hussein falling out of favor with the West in the First Gulf War, the Rajavis reconfigured their organization. They began to present a more benign image to the West, focusing their energy on the dissemination of propaganda and lobbying Western officials. At the same time, their military wing carried out violent attacks against Iranian targets in the West, the most spectacular of which was a wave of coordinated attacks on 5 April 1992 when MEK true-believers stormed Iranian diplomatic missions, took hostages and heavily vandalized premises in New York City, Canada, Germany, France, Britain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Australia.

Shortly after the US State Department placed MEK on its list of terrorist organizations in 1997, an illuminating report appeared in The Iran Brief, a private monthly publication read in Washington circles. The report describes some of the findings of Operation Suture, an FBI investigation of MEK activities in the US, which found that the organization had set up hundreds of front companies in the US through which it, among other things, was actively buying political favors.

photo: Maryam Rajavi with Rudolf Giuliani, who has said on numerous occasions:”The MEK is the only way to stop Iran.”

That US Congressmen were taking bribes isn’t anything out of the ordinary, but taking campaign contributions in cash from an officially-recognized terrorist organization that was extremely cosy with, and funded by, Saddam Hussein at a time when US media was painting Saddam as ‘The New Hitler’ is pretty extraordinary. Congressmen were apparently taken in by the Rajavis’ slick efforts to distance their bloody war against Iran from their ‘new-found mission’ to raise awareness of human rights violations in Iran. But not everyone was fooled.

According to an August 2002 FBI report sent to Francis Taylor, Coordinator for Counter-terrorism at the US State Dept, the FBI executed a warrant to search the premises of MEK’s converted offices in Falls Church, Virginia, 5 miles from the CIA’s Langley HQ. The FBI was investigating how the various fronts (MEK, PMOI, MKO, NLA, NCRI, etc) all linked together. The FBI report named the organization’s HQ as Rue des Gords 17, Auvers-sur-Oise, on the northwest outskirts of Paris, France. Among the interesting tidbits they unearthed was that all calls to the MEK’s office at the National Press Club in Washington, DC were forwarded to the Falls Church address and that the organization’s official newspaper (the Mojahed Weekly) was prepared there. The FBI also seized publications containing details of NLA military activities, training manuals, operations maps and signed blank cheques used to pay their representatives’ expenses and fund their activities. Contrary to what the MEK leadership was telling its gullible recruits and Washington dignitaries, the FBI concluded unequivocally that”the NRCI operates as an alias of the PMOI/MEK, despite whatever claims these entities make publicly that may fool outsiders and even some of those inside the entities.”

This mattered to the FBI because, 5 years previously, in 1997, despite having bribed then Vice-President Al Gore while he was on the campaign trail with the Clintons back in 1992, the MEK was officially listed as an ‘FTO’ (Foreign Terrorist Organization) by the US State Department because it had assassinated three US military officers and three defence contractors in Iran in the 1970s, was suspected of numerous other assassination attempts on American citizens and was attacking Iranian targets in the US and Europe. This prompted the FBI in 2004 to launch a criminal investigation (Operation Eastern Approach) into MEK activities in the US.

Through wiretaps, the FBI’s LA offices discovered that the MEK was planning bombing attacks from their Paris headquarters and that its fundraising activity had actually increased since being outlawed in 1997. Money coerced from wealthy Iranian expatriates in the US and through drug trafficking into the US was being”transferred overseas through a complex international money laundering operation that uses accounts in Turkey, France, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Jordan and the UAE.”Although just one MEK affiliate was sentenced in the case of US v. Tabatabai, hundreds of MEK members were arrested or questioned by the FBI in joint operations with German and French intelligence. The FBI concluded that”this organization [MEK] routinely lobbies unwitting members of Congress under the pretext of human rights issues in Iran.”

The FBI further found that the organization was procuring equipment and false passports throughout the US and Europe for fellow members to commit acts of terrorism in Iran. The organization designates military-style ranks to members based on their loyalty, uses complex communication methods designed to hide their traces and operates very much as elements of the US intelligence community claim Hezbollah does, with cells within cells and the resources to get things done. But unlike the substantially contrived ‘al Qaeda’ or ‘ISIS’ networks – which are largely entrapment schemes whereby the FBI infiltrates groups of unemployed Muslims, pays them large sums of money, gives them bomb-making equipment, then entraps them by suggesting they blow up public landmarks – the MEK terrorist network is real.

The MEK’s Parisian camp is essentially a series of buildings knocked into one complex, which is heavily guarded with armed security checkpoints. This is ostensibly to protect its members from ‘the Iranian threat’, but one suspects that it is in fact required to keep cult members from escaping. In an interview Massoud Rajavi gave to Corriere della Sera in 2002, the journalist described the level of security he witnessed there:

His [Rajavi’s] dwelling in Auver-sur-Oise, in the Parisian suburbs, is much like a fortress. There is a high wall keeping it concealed from suspicious eyes. There are high voltage barbed wires around as well as searchlights on the walls illuminating the surroundings. The road to Massoud Rajavi’s villa (leadership centre) is controlled by two French check-points equipped with machine guns. The only entrance to the villa is guarded by Mojahedin forces themselves.

In June 2003, when a French court ruled that the MEK and its numerous front groups constituted a terrorist organization, French anti-terrorist police raided various MEK offices in and around Paris, including its garrison at Auvers-sur-Oise, arresting 160 of its members and confiscating millions of euros. Nicolas Sarkozy, Interior Minister at the time, expressed concern that the MEK”wanted to make France its support base, notably after the intervention in Iraq,”while Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, head of France’s domestic intelligence service, warned that the group was”transforming its Val d’Oise centre into an international terrorist base.”(Their concerns were of course disingenuous given that this had already been the case for over a decade, but they speak to the mixed feelings of Western leaders about sheltering such a dangerous organization.)

MEK cells across North America and Europe whirled into action, busing their devotees to coordinated protests. 40 cult members went on hunger strike. Assisted by fellow devotees, another 16 set themselves on fire, two of them fatally. Maryam Rajavi and the rest of the French MEK leadership were immediately released. Whatever was said to French president Jacques Chirac, he backed down immediately. The MEK has since been left alone by successive French governments.

How the Myth of Iran’s Nukes Began

You get an idea of how instrumental the MEK is when you see its role in propagating Western narratives about Iran. Three months prior to the French court ruling and police raids, in March 2003, the US launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. While Bush was prancing around the USS Lincoln in a codpiece declaring ‘Mission Accomplished’ in Iraq, something very interesting was taking place in the background, something which was only revealed four years later in 2007, on a BBC Newsnight program. Let’s call it ‘the original Iran deal’.

Realizing that it was in its interest to prevent Iraq from sliding into all-out civil war, the Iranian government sent a letter to the White House offering the following:

Iran would use its influence to support stabilization in Iraq
Iran would open its civilian nuclear energy program to full international inspections
Iran would end its support of Hamas and Hezbollah

In return, Iran requested the following:

A halt to US hostile behavior
Abolition of all economic sanctions
Most specifically, the pursuit of the MEK leadership and the repatriation of their members

Then US Vice-President Dick Cheney turned down the offer.

It was all there; Iran was prepared to cooperate with the US in Iraq, cooperate with Israel and the US in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, and allow full transparency of its nuclear program… if only the US would desist from harboring MEK terrorists. The US State Department apparently wanted to pursue it, but certain Neocons torpedoed the deal.

photo: Mohammad Mohaddessin, now Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the NCRI (MEK), presenting ‘intelligence’ on Iran at one of hundreds of press conferences he has held in Brussels and Washington, DC.

Just think of the ramifications of this US refusal to accept what amounted to an extraordinary olive branch. America’s ‘mission accomplished’ devolved into a decade-long slaughterfest that spawned ISIS. The Israeli invasion of Lebanon would never have happened because Hezbollah would have been finished as a fighting force. And Operation Cast Lead would never have happened because Hamas would never have come to power in Gaza.

Then again, we cannot forget just how profitable war is for warmongers, how much Israel needs to be surrounded by hostile foes, and the lengths Saudi Arabia is willing to go to hold its undeserved position in the Middle East by sabotaging peaceable Iranian economic development.

But what is really twisted here is that the three specific offers made by Iran in 2003 later became the very same conditions the US said Iran must meet if it was to avoid increased sanctions and the threat of airstrikes on its nuclear installations by the US and allies, followed by certain all-out war.

So why didn’t the Iranians and Americans just revisit the original offer and shake on it?

Because since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, the duplicitous MEK has been busy selling the world the Iranian equivalent of the Big WMD Lie. It was the MEK who told the Bush White House that Iran was secretly building nuclear weapons. In fact, at least 20″startling revelations about Iran’s nuclear weapons program”all came from the MEK. That’s right, the incessant barrage of propaganda about Iran’s intentions vis a vis its nuclear program stems from false information provided to US administrations by a nutty personality cult that lobbies every US administration – Trump’s is just the latest – to overthrow the Iranian government on its behalf.

Our Kind of Terrorists

Former MEK member Anne Singleton has reported that when it became obvious to Massoud Rajavi that Saddam was history, he reached out to the Americans and promised full cooperation in exchange for protection. In April 2003, the US publicly announced that it had brokered an agreement with the Rajavis whereby the MEK switched allegiances from Saddam Hussein to the US government.

The US State Department apparently understood that cooperation with the MEK was bad news and wanted to dismantle its camps, but the Pentagon wanted to keep them operational because the CIA realized they would be useful as leverage over Iran. This schism was apparent in a 2007 Sunday Telegraph article which reported that”a faction in the US Defense Department wants to unleash the MEK.”This”faction”has kept the MEK alive since Saddam was removed from power. When a $400 million budget was passed by the US Congress in 2007 to orchestrate regime change in Iran, the”faction”made sure the MEK was the largest recipient of funds.

Seymour Hersh wrote in the New Yorker in 2012 that from 2005 to 2008 US Joint Special Operations Command conducted training for cult members of this then-designated FTO at a ‘counterintelligence training facility’ in the desert north of Las Vegas. Hersh’s source told him the purpose of disrupting Iran’s nuclear energy program was not to”take out Einsteins”but to”affect Iranian psychology and morale”by”demoralizing the whole system.”This extended to attacking oil and gas pipelines, oil refineries, transport infrastructure and targeting civilians through indiscriminate bombings. The operations were”primarily being done by MEK through liaison with the Israelis.”Even the Israeli Stuxnet virus which crippled Iranian IT systems was delivered by an MEK agent.

Now we can begin to understand how this relatively small player came to be the organization that broke the news that Iran had been ‘secretly hiding’ uranium enrichment facilities from the IAEA for two decades. Capitalizing on the issue of Iran’s purported nuclear weapons, the MEK network focused on telling the Necocon chicken-hawks in Washington exactly what the Israelis wanted them to hear. Taking outward form as either the NCRI or the PMOI, the cult has been freely holding press conferences at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, in London, New York, Paris and Brussels, where they cite their ‘unnamed sources’ (probably Mossad) and dish out the latest ‘intelligence’ on Iran.

Post-war Iraqi governments repeatedly stressed that they wanted the cult out of the country as soon as possible. Families of its remaining 3,000 or so brainwashed members in Iraq held daily vigils at the gates of the sprawling Camp Ashraf desert complex until their eventual removal from Iraq in 2016, when Reuters reported that the last batch of 280 MEK terrorists were relocated to Albania, in a move brokered by the US via the UN Refugee Agency. Another 2,000 or so had previously been disbursed to a dozen unnamed countries in the EU.

In August last year, a delegation of senior US Senators met with Maryam Rajavi and other MEK leaders in Tirana, Albania. What could they possibly have been planning?

MEK presents an interesting case study in how proxy forces – mercenaries, effectively – can be moved around on the global chessboard. In May 2013 Le Figaro reported that two members of the organization were found dead in Idlib, Syria, citing a”European parliamentarian in contact with the anti-government rebels.”In August that year, Qassem Al-Araji, a member of the Security Commission in the Iraqi Parliament, confirmed that MEK was engaged in the war to unseat Assad in Syria. While generally careful to adjust their propaganda to suit Western narratives, The Nation reported that when ISIS took Mosul in 2015,”one MEK website gave a triumphalist account of the conquest, referring to ISIS as ‘revolutionary forces.”

Maryam Rajavi has become the public face of the organization in the West, where for over a decade she has been hosting marathon conferences in Washington, Paris, Brussels and elsewhere. The MEK’s initial aim was to get itself ‘de-listed’ from the US terror list – which Hillary Clinton did for them in 2012. But now it is seeking nothing less than its triumphal return to Tehran as the new regime. Former CIA Director Porter Goss, while bemoaning the MEK’s predicament at a high-level conference in Paris in 2012, told a large crowd of flag-waving MEK supporters that”once we get through the Republican primaries, I think it’s a certainty that this issue [the MEK] will become a front and center issue because it symbolises all of the values that we want to address in this election on national security and human rights.”

Others who gave rousing speeches on the MEK’s behalf at that Paris conference in 2012 included former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani; François Colcombet, a senior French judge and founder of the French Committee for a Democratic Iran; Philippe Douste-Blazy, UN Deputy Secretary-General and former French Foreign Minister; US General Hugh Shelton, former chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff; Judge Michael Mukasey, former US Attorney General; Ingrid Betancourt, Columbian presidential candidate; Yves Bonnet, former head of French Counter-terrorism; John Sano, former CIA National Clandestine Service’s Deputy Director; General David Phillips, former Commander of US Military Police; Geir Haarde, former Icelandic Prime Minister; Aiham Samarrae, former Iraqi cabinet minister; Carlo Ciccioli, member of Italian parliament; Lord Ken Maginnis, member of UK House of Lords; André Glucksmann, member of New France Philosophers; and William Bourdon, a prominent French jurist.

That’s the list of speakers I found at just one conference; there have been many other rallies and conferences, year after year, countless videos of which are posted on YouTube. Unsurprisingly, the MEK has been paying each of these speakers huge speaking fees, with the money apparently coming through Saudi Arabia and Israel.

If the MEK represents the ‘democratic opposition’ the US and Israel would like to see take power in Iran, and assuming this organization and its powerful patrons are indeed currently involved in capitalizing on dissent within the country, then you will forgive me for not cheering on the demise of yet another Middle Eastern government in the face of deranged fanatics who would do literally anything to attain power.

Comment: For the inside scoop on the MEK and its activities in France, see this excellent Press TV documentary. https://vimeo.com/193506150

Niall Bradley, Sott.net

Niall Bradley

Niall Bradley has a background in political science and media consulting, and has been an editor and contributing writer at SOTT.net for 8 years. His articles are cross-posted on his personal blog, NiallBradley.net. Niall is co-host of the ‘Behind the Headlines’ radio show on the Sott Radio Network and co-authored Manufactured Terror: The Boston Marathon Bombings, Sandy Hook, Aurora Shooting and Other False-Flag Terror Attacks with Joe Quinn.

January 6, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq as an Opposition Group

Iran – Few Protests – Some Riots – U.S. Prepares The Next Phase

The riots and protests in Iran continue for a 6th day. While”western”media claim that the protests are growing I see no evidence for that in the various videos that appear online. The legitimate protests over price rises, failing private banks and against the new neoliberal austerity budget of President Rohani were hijacked early on by rioting gangs. These are obviously coordinated from the outside of the country through various internet applications, especially Telegram and Instagram:

Amad News, a channel on Telegram, appears to have played a pivotal role in the wave of protests. Reportedly administered by exiled journalist Rohollah Zam — a son of a senior Reformist cleric said to have escaped the country after being accused of having links with foreign intelligence agencies …

Blocking the specific control channels proved to be insufficient:

Special software used to circumvent the government filters could still be downloaded easily. And on Monday, as on other days, there were calls for protests online and on foreign-based Persian-language satellite channels.

The blockage of the internet applications was lifted today.

The original protests over economic issues seem to have died down after President Rouhani confirmed the right to protest, conceded economic problems and promised to take them on. Indeed there are only few new videos of genuine protest marches but an avalanche of videos of rioting, arson and tussling with police forces. The size of the protests are in a few hundred people or less. Counter demonstrations, expressing loyalty for the republic (not noted in”western”media), are bigger in size than the anti-government protests. Since December 28 protests and riots have occurred in a total of 66 cities by now, but only about 30 have been taking place each night. This might point to some planning behind the events. A daily switching of venues might be intended to prevent police preparations.

The groups of rioters are between 30 and 80 people in size with a some bystanders milling around. They seem to follow a flash mob strategy appearing here and there and to vanish again when police appears in force. In some cities rioters attacked police stations, military posts and were even stealing firetrucks. Some of the rioters are evidently trying to get their hands on weapons.

Altogether only a few thousand people, overwhelmingly male youth, seem to be involved. Thousands protest in Israel each week against the corruption of Prime Minister Netanyahoo. On New-Years-Eve more than 1,000 cars in France were set alight by arsonists. None of this is front page news but a few dozen riots in Iran get elevated to a”revolution”.

The total death toll of the”peaceful protests”is now some 21 of which (by my count) at least five were policemen killed in attacks by”protesters”and two unrelated civilians who were run over and killed by rioters driving a stolen firetruck. Six rioters were killed when they tried to attack a police station in the town of Qahderijan. The governor there claimed that the attackers were armed with guns.

The same faking of pictures of large demonstrations and”evidence”of government brutality that we have seen with regard to the war on Syria is taking place with Iran. Videos of demonstrations from Argentine and Bahrain are used to claim large demonstrations in Iran. A tweet with the Bahrain video by a”journalist”who claimed it was in Iran has received more than 17,000 re-tweets. Videos from Spain or even movie scenes are purported to show police violence in Iran. A video of a man lying on his back and being cared for is once claimed to show that he has been shot by police while at the same time another propagandists claims that the man had a cardiac arrest after police used a taser on him. There are no signs of wounds or other trauma. The dude probably just passed out.

The terrorist group MEK (NCRI, MKO)”leaked”fake protocols of an alleged government meeting which it claims shows panic over the protests. Allegedly the government fears the leader of the MEK, Marjam Rajavi. The MEK has paid large sums to get support from politicians, including John McCain in Washington and elsewhere. During the Iraq-Iran war it fought against Iran on the side of Iraq. After the U.S. invaded Iraq the MEK was held in special camps under U.S. control. According to a 2012 Seymour Hersh report the U.S. military trained MEK fighters in the U.S. in sabotage and insurgency technics. These people are deeply hated in Iran but feared they are not. Their early engagement in the”protests”via their website and propaganda ops in Iran may point to deeper role in the riots.

The usual neoconservatives in the U.S. media are arguing for”more help”for the”Iranian people”. The help they want to offer is designed to worsen their economic situation.

I earlier argued that the larger plan of the instigators of these riots is not aimed at winning a violent”regime change”conflict, but at causing a reaction by the Iranian government which can then be used to press especially Europeans to again isolate Iran. This plan is now confirmed by an op-ed in the Washington Post. Michael Singh of the Zionist lobby in Washington writes:

If the regime resorts to violence anyway, the international response should focus on diplomatic isolation. European and Asian states should reduce their diplomatic ties with Iran and downgrade Iran’s participation in international forums. Sanctions may also have a role …

Unsurprisingly the neoconned WaPo editors are fully in sync with the lobby:

European leaders, who have been far more cautious, should speak up. … On Sunday [President Rohani of Iran] recognized that the demonstrators had legitimate grievances and nominally accepted their right to protest. The Trump administration and other Western governments should aim to hold him to those words through diplomacy and the threat of sanctions in the event of more bloodshed.

The rioting at the current level is in no way endangering the Iranian republic. Should some rioters acquire weapons the intensity might change a bit. But unless they receive material and personal support from the outside, like it happened in Syria, the situation will soon calm down. The people of Iran are against such violence and the government has yet to use its manifold capabilities.

I had documented in earlier posts that the Trump administration, in tight co-operations with Israel, long prepared for an intensification of a conflict with Iran. Half a year ago the CIA set up a special office with a high level Iran hawk leading the charge. Last month Trump named another Iran hawk to lead the State Department Middle East section.

Since the Iranian people successfully achieved”regime change”in 1979 the U.S. and Britain have had an adversarial policy against Iran. It has ebbed and flowed in intensity but never changed. Under Trump we will see a rapid increase of hostile actions. The administration just called for a UN emergency session about the situation. That is a laughable move when one considers the size of daily murder the U.S. and its allies commit in Yemen, Syria and Palestine. But the operation that unfolds now is likely just a small part of a larger anti-Iran strategy that has yet to become visible.

Update (Jan 3, 01:00am EST)

I just checked various internet resources for two hours to find new videos of protests/riots of January 2 to 3. There were just a handful and none of them was remarkable. Some short clips of loud screaming of small crowds and light bashing with riot police. The protests and riots are obviously dying down.

Moonofalabama.org

January 4, 2018 0 comments

Iran

Rouhani calls on Macron to act over anti-Iran ‘terrorists’ in France

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani phoned his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday to demand action against a”terrorist”Iranian opposition group he accused of fomenting recent protests.

“We criticise the fact that a terrorist group has a base in France and acts against the Iranian people… and we await action from the French government against this terrorist group,”Rouhani told Macron, according to a report on Iranian state television.

He was referring to an exiled Iranian opposition group based in Paris and called the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.

Iranian authorities accuse the group, which the regime describes as”hypocrites”, of fuelling the unrest rocking the Islamic republic and of links with regional Sunni rival Saudi Arabia.

General Rassul Sanairad, a political deputy to the head of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, said Tuesday the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq had been instructed by the Saudi rulers and some European states to”create insecurity”in Iran, Tasnim news agency reported.

Nearly a week of unrest has seen 21 people killed and hundreds arrested in Iran, in the biggest test for the Islamic regime in years.

It began in second city Mashhad on Thursday and quickly spread to other towns and cities.

However, Tehran’s deputy mayor said the city, which had witnessed small protests the past three nights, was calm on Tuesday night and no incidents had been reported, ISNA news agency said.

January 3, 2018 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Maryam Rajavi imposing more pressure on former members

The Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO, PMOI, NCR, NLA, Rajavi Cult) has illegally agreed with the UN High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCR) in Geneva to pay the monthly refugee allowances of the former members in Albania to them in cash in person. Usually this amount should be paid by the UNHCR into refugees’ bank accounts.

This time when the individuals approached the MEK to receive their allowances, they found out that from the beginning of the year 2018, it would be reduced to two thirds of the actual amount. To get even this reduced money they now had to sign a document admitting that they owe this money to the cult and that they will repay their debt once they get money in future.

Some individuals protested against this illegal and inhuman act and were not prepared to sign the paper. The man in charge of the MEK office in Tirana, known as Abdullah Tehranchi, has oddly responded that: “so much the better, the organization welcomes this and the money will be refunded to us as your contribution.”

Now that the allowances has been reduced to 30,000 Albanian Leke from 45,000, these individuals will hardly be able to meet their basic necessities such as food and clothing and accommodation and will be under even greater hardship and pressure. The Rajavi cult encourages these people to unlawfully leave Albania. Everyone knows that the MEK has no financial problem and they are big spenders.

The Rajavi cult is imposing this pressure on the former members in order to force them to either go back to the organization or leave Albania. They are told that they would have much better opportunities in neighboring countries. The aim of the cult is to send them out of Albania where they act as role models for other discontented members who wish to gain their freedom.

Sahar Family Foundation once again condemns this act of putting pressure on refugees and the UNHCR and the Interior Ministry closing their eyes to it, and urges all humanitarian and international organizations to follow this case and deal with it.

The former MEK members in Albania are determined to resist the cult’s increasing pressures and to follow up their complaints with the authorities. They will not allow the cult to abuse their rights and will not surrender to their unjust demands.

January 3, 2018 0 comments

Missions of Nejat Society

Who Are the Leading State Sponsors of Terrorism?

As 2017 draws to a close, it is difficult to be optimistic about what will be coming in the new year. The American President, whose margin of victory was certainly based on his pledge to avoid unnecessary wars, has doubled down on Afghanistan, refuses to leave Syria even though ISIS has been defeated, and is playing serious brinksmanship with a psychopathic and unpredictable regime in Pyongyang. The White House has also bought into the prevailing largely fabricated narrative about a Russia and has decided to arm Ukraine with offensive weapons, which has already resulted in a sharp response from Moscow and will make détente of any kind between the two leading powers all but impossible in the upcoming year.

But, as I have observed before, the red hazard light that continues to be blinking most brightly relates to Washington’s relationship with Iran, which has unnecessarily deteriorated dramatically over the past year and which brings with it collateral problems with Russia and Turkey that could trigger a much wider conflict. I say unnecessarily because all the steps taken to poison the relationship have come out of Washington, not Tehran. The Trump administration refused to certify that the Iranians had been in compliance with the nuclear agreement negotiated in 2015 and has since escalated its verbal attacks, mostly at the United Nations, claiming that the regime in Tehran is the major source of terrorism in the world and that it is seeking hegemony over a broad arc of countries running westward from its borders to the Mediterranean Sea.

The only problem with the allegations being made is that none of them is true and, furthermore, Iran, with limited military resources, poses no serious threat to gain control over its neighbors, nor to attack the United States or Europe. The invective about Iran largely derives from Israel and Saudi Arabia, which themselves have hegemonic ambitions relating to their region. Israel’s friends in the US Congress, media and White House have not surprisingly picked up on the refrain and are pushing for military action. Israel has even threatened to bomb any Iranian permanent presence inside neighboring Syria.

A recent detailed analysis by former US intelligence officers has demonstrated just how the claim that Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism is almost completely fabricated. The analysis explains how these false narratives are contrived and how they become part of the Washington background noise. The White House’s recent National Security Strategy Report for 2018 stated that “Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, has taken advantage of instability to expand its influence through partners and proxies, weapon proliferation, and funding.” But another US government report, the annual Country Reports on Terrorism 2016 cites no actual terrorist incidents initiated by Iran in that year. In fact, the most recent terrorist incident attributed to Tehran was in 2012, and that was retaliatory against Israel, which was at the time assassinating its scientists and technicians and attacking its computer systems.

America’s UN Ambassador Nikki Haley’s has recently claimed that it is hard to find a “terrorist group in the Middle East that does not have Iran’s fingerprints all over it.” But in reality, the overwhelming majority of terrorist groups in the region, to include ISIS, Al-Qaeda and al-Nusra, are Sunni Muslims, who believe Iran’s Shi’ism is heretical, and are both tied to and funded by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) is indeed an ethnic Iranian terrorist group, but it has been funded and supported by Washington and Tel Aviv to carry out attacks inside Iran.

The reality is that terrorism, defined by the United Nations as “criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public,” is most employed at the state level by the United States and its allies Israel and Saudi Arabia, not by Iran. All have used violence directed against civilians in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon, and all three have supported organizations that fit the definition of terrorists. Iran may indeed be guilty of actions that much of the world disapproves of, but it is not the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism as has been alleged.

Philip Giraldi, Global research

January 2, 2018 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO terrorist leader urges spread of violence

Sources close to security bodies have said of over 500 people arrested during the disturbances in different cities in Iran, more than 80 percent have admitted receiving money and ordered from outside the country to misuse the people’s protest against price rises and high unemployment.

This comes against the backdrop of a declared scheme by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to bring unrest to the streets of Iran. The plot seems to have untraveled in the form of sporadic feats of sabotage by relatively professional men during the public protests over the last few days.

The premonition for this also came back in October by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who said Washington would seek regime change in Iran.

A recent anti-Iran plan by Saudis, Zionists, and the U.S. was put to force by funding the terrorist expatriate group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) to seize the moment and wreak chaos.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on Sunday that “enemies of the revolution have provoked the people and instigated the recent unrest”.

The senior MP expressed hope that the government would meet the people’s demands to prevent any abuse by anti-establishment elements.

MKO terrorist leader urges spread of violence in Iran

Maryam Rajavi, the MKO terrorist leader, has urged more violence and chaos in a twitter message.

State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert has tweeted, “Secretary Tillerson reiterates the United States’ deep respect for the Iranian people. We call on all nations to stand with us in demanding the regime respect their basic human rights.”

However, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said on Sunday that Iran trusts “power of the system” and “vigilance of the people” to prevent the misuse of the situation by the ill-wishers.

“Our tolerance comes from our trust on the power of the system and vigilance of the people. There are legal ways and no problem can be solved in chaos,” the minister said during a meeting of the supreme council of provinces.

Groups of protesters held rallies in several cities, including Tehran, Arak, Kermanshah, Khoramabad, on Thursday and Friday to voice their anger over the rising prices and unemployment.

Rahmani Fazli said, “We should talk to the people and there is no way but the people’s involvement in solving the problems.”

The interior minister also said if people want their living conditions to improve they will not be realized through violence and disorder.

Mohammad Hossein Moghimi, Tehran’s governor, told ISNA on Sunday that all the rallies are “illegal”, because no permission has been issued in this respect.

Meanwhile, Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, the spokesman for the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, has called on the Interior Ministry to specify certain places for the people to hold peaceful demonstrations.

Govt. vows to address concerns over price hikes

First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri said on Saturday that the government will work to solve economic problems and price hikes.

According to Press TV, he said that “the prices of several commodities may have seen a rise due to some incidents, and each case has its own reason”, adding that the government is duty-bound to revise them.

The parliament security committee plans to hold an emergency meeting on Monday to assess the situation, Kamal Dehghani Firouzabadi, the committee’s deputy chairman, said on Sunday.

Ill-wishers seeking to undermine people’s hope

Mohammad Reza Aref, chairman of the pro-reform Hope faction in the parliament, said on Sunday that the “ill-wishers” seek to poison the atmosphere and kill the people’s hope.

Habibollah Asgaroladi, the president of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce, said that the people’s protests have economic roots, however, the foreign elements link political issues to economic ones.

“Economic problems of the people who defend the Islamic revolution with all power should be solved,” he noted.

Moshen Hashemi, the chairman of the Tehran city council, said that protest should be expressed within the framework of law.

He attached importance to maintaining unity.

Hamidreza Jalayeepour, a professor of sociology at Tehran University, told IRNA that reformists “loudly” announce that they are “fiercely” against provoking unrest by MKO and monarchists who wish an overthrow of the Islamic Republic system.

Seyyed Reza Taqavi, a principlist cleric, said the Iranian nation have repeatedly proved that it has the “power to counter the greatest challenges”.

Ali Motahari, a vocal principlist lawmaker, said it is necessary to respect the rights of people for “civil protest” but those who do sabotage acts should be dealt with.

January 2, 2018 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 215

++ There were several reminders about the MEK’s Farsi language letter last week to President Abbas’s foreign relations advisor. Commentators point out that whether they gave permission or not, the Israeli lobby in London and Washington has lost the plot by continuing to support these mercenaries. The MEK think nobody will see what they are up to if they write only in Farsi. But clearly, they were forced to take this anti-Israeli, anti-American stance for internal purposes – with or without permission.

++ In Albania, news has emerged that the MEK is forcing members to undertake building work in Ashraf Three camp which they have got from the Americans. There has been resistance. The members complain that Maryam Rajavi pays huge amounts for lobbyists and for beauty treatments and yet demands that people in their fifties and sixties must do hard labour for free. This news also reveals that some members have been beaten and that the MEK has closed the camp doors as they did under CIA protection in Iraq. The government of Albania and its law enforcement services are treating Ashraf Three as a CIA camp over which they have no jurisdiction. The police cannot enter. As with other CIA bases in Albania there is no registration for tax or labour laws. They are considered as outside the law of the land.

++ Some of those who refused to go to Ashraf Three are considered as ‘ex-members’ but are having their basic needs met by the MEK and are also receiving payments on condition that they do not talk. They are instructed what to do by MEK commanders. Their job is to go on social media and click likes etc. But this week they have been given a list of names and told that every one of them must write against everyone who does not work for the MEK and who, indeed, speak out against the MEK. They must write, sign and put their fingerprint on the document. The ex-members have refused saying ‘we are being paid for not talking, but if we do this you will not pay us because we are talking about the MEK’.

In English:

++ A Huffington Post article by Kourosh Ziabari asks ‘Why has France become a safe haven for extremism in Europe?’ Ziabari says that groups like ISIS have grown in part because of “the faults, shortcomings, and negligent decision-making of many actors”. He identifies French secularism as a reason why religious extremism is overlooked and groups like the “militant cult in exile’, MEK have been enabled to operate with impunity in France. “The French system doesn’t seem to have frameworks that enable harsh and unconditional crackdown on extremists… When France wields its state secularism in such a way that faith minorities feel regularly excluded and snubbed, it’s no surprise that extremist cults like the Islamic State feel empowered.”

++ Mazda Parsi of Nejat Bloggers examines the events which led to an MEK former and a former British MP being beaten with sticks and fists just outside the doors of the European Parliament by the thugs of Maryam Rajavi. “This indicates how shamelessly the agents of the MKO traffic in the EU parliament spreading violence despite all democratic gestures they take in their lobbies. Eldar Mamedov explains the technics the MKO operatives use to manipulate members of the EU Parliament. Mamedov is a political adviser for the social-democrats in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) and is in charge of the delegation for inter-parliamentary relations between the EP and Iran.

‘On the operational level, the MEK is extremely persistent and aggressive,’ he writes. ‘MEK lobbyists maintain a constant presence in the coffee bars of EP buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg, or in front of the plenary room in Strasbourg. These are strategic locations from which to bombard MEPs and their staffers with requests to support the MEK.’

‘Sometimes, however, they overdo it – one MEP recounted to me about how she had to scream at an MEK activist until they exited the elevator she was using to get to her office,’ Mamedov states. ‘Even MEPs’ offices are targets: the MEK lobbyists have no qualms about entering them uninvited and distributing flyers against alleged “Islamo-fascist tyranny” in Tehran.’

The authorities of the European parliament should be wise to be wary about associating with any person or group that attempts to minimize the violent acts of a group so murderous and fanatical that even might endanger the health of the MEPs.”

++ Consortium News website ran a piece titled ‘Intel Vets Tell Trump Iran Is Not Top Terror Sponsor’. The Memorandum to the President from Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity examines both Iran and Saudi Arabia in terms of support for terrorism, citing American support for the MEK in spite of its history of killing Americans. While “Thirteen of the 14 Muslim Groups identified by the U.S. intelligence community as actively hostile to the US are Sunni, not Shia, and are not supported by Iran…” The Memorandum to the President concludes “You have presented yourself as someone willing to speak hard truths in the face of establishment pressure and not to accept the status quo. You spoke out during the campaign against the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq as a historic mistake of epic proportions. You also correctly captured the mood of many Americans fatigued from constant war in far- away lands. Yet the torrent of warnings from Washington about the dangers supposedly posed by Iran and the need to confront them are being widely perceived as steps toward reversing your pledge not to get embroiled in new wars.

We encourage you to reflect on the warning we raised with President George W. Bush almost 15 years ago, at a similar historic juncture:

‘after watching Secretary Powell today, we are convinced that you would be well served if you widened the discussion … beyond the circle of those advisers clearly bent on a war for which we see no compelling reason and from which we believe the unintended consequences are likely to be catastrophic.’”

++ Nejat Bloggers, Mazda Parsi wrote a short, punchy piece exposing the ‘Filthy Rule to Keep Members in The Cult of Rajavi – Keep all communication channels closed. “You usually can’t just rescue someone from a cult. The point is that once someone is in a cult, it is very difficult for him/her to leave. This is why it is considered a cult. Therefore, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization perfectly falls in to the category of being a cult.

Also by definition, the cult member doesn’t believe that he or she is in a cult. Instead, members have been brainwashed by believing that they have achieved a high status just by having the opportunity to be in the cult which ultimately brings them salvation, for instance members of the Cult of Rajavi are called “unique gems” (Goharan Bibadil). This status is the result of a manipulative system that prevents victims from thinking freely.

What most people don’t know is that mind control can be even more powerful than a gun to the head because the victim believes that the person doing the manipulation is actually a friend, or a lover, or a master, who seems to be caring and honest…”

December 29, 2017

January 2, 2018 0 comments

Ann Singleton Former members of the MEK

Sputnik interview with Anne Khodabandeh about MEK in Albania

In Tirana, the capital of Albania, an interesting workshop called “Conflicts in the Middle East – Radical Groups and Ideologies” was held at the end of November.

The conference was organized by the Free Media Institute in Tirana, because the country has increasingly become the new focus for violent extremism and terrorism experts in recent months, primarily in security circles, which see it as a “gathering center” for extremists who are either returning or sent to the Balkans from armed conflicts in the Middle East.

It is known that Edi Rama’s government has long been working in direct cooperation with the US military and security structures – working on the establishment of specialized “deradicalization centers” in Albania, about which Sputnik has written on several occasions in the last three years.

It appears that Rama’s “hard work” paid off. An article published in the Huffington Post in early December, says that there are already about three thousand members of MEK, Iranian Mojahedin (the Rajavi cult), who are violent opponents of Iran.

They were transferred to Albania from Iraq by the end of 2016, with a cash injection by the US authorities to the Rama government, and, according to the Huffington Post, under the cover of “humanitarian intervention”, ie, with the supervision of the UNHCR. The payment, according to the US outlet, was at least twenty million dollars.

Well-informed circles in Albania claim that there are already strong indications that the next group, which will also be moved to the country for “humanitarian reasons”, will be the families – widows and children – of DAESH fighters who have either left Iraq and Syria, or have been killed in fighting over the past few years.

Sputnik’s interviewee, British Anne Khodabandeh, is an expert in anti-terrorist activities and a long-standing activist in the field of deradicalization of extremists. She has written several articles and books on this subject, along with her husband, who is of Iranian origin. For years they have been working with radicalized individuals, helping them to leave terrorist organizations and reintegrate into society.

Anne is well acquainted with the situation in Albania and the movement of members of the Mojahedin, and some time ago, she reportedly received information that members of the MEK, stationed in the former building of the University of Tirana, started actively recruiting the Albanian youth into their movement – and she decided to react.

[The rest of this interview is provided below as unedited Google Translation]

For starters, it might not be a bad idea to explain to Sputnik’s readers from what kind of life and family environment these “radicalized individuals” with whom you are working come.

– They come from all layers of society. It is a mistake to assume that only some uneducated people have gone to Syria – most foreign fighters of DAES are from the middle class – mostly students, educated people … Terrorism is a global phenomenon today – there is no person whom he cannot guess. But it’s pure politics. Going to jihad is a political act. In addition, everyone has a personal reason why it becomes extremist, there is no formula, no recipes … Otherwise, it’s hard to radicalize people who have some goal in life; The escape in the extreme is the easiest thing for poor people, without a target, “casual”, “lost cases” … Their best-quality members of the extremists, they say, are recruited among violent football fans. My job today is to go around and explain to people how “radical” works. I keep repeating – no one is born as a terrorist. It’s not a talent, it’s not a career, it’s not a conscious choice. I think that I, personally, is a great example that anyone, at any time, can be radicalized, if he finds himself at the wrong time in the wrong place.

Can you explain it a bit? How is this “you, personally” example?

– When I enrolled in college, at the end of the seventies, I met an interesting group of people at the University of Manchester. There were many foreigners among students, we would all be sitting in a student club and talking mostly about politics. The Iranians then came in large numbers in England. They were friendly, different from my surroundings, they attracted me … They kept occasional meetings, I went to one of them out of curiosity, with their then boyfriend, and it turned out they were actually the mujahedin – MEK – what we call today the Raji cult . I did not understand much at that time, but I remember that they had a wonderful attitude towards me. Today, I would say that the techniques they used to attract me were, at the very least, interesting (laughing). I did not know their language, but I felt the energy. They were active, they not only sat down and talked about politics, and that attracted me. The revolution began in Iran, and I, thanks to them, had a “seat in the first place”! I was 19 years old, the boy was also in that, I was a great idealist. I was not a girl who was interested in shopping. I wanted to change the world! And this has not changed, to this day. Radicalization affects the psyche, but does not affect the type of personality. If you enter an organization as a certain person, the same will be, essentially, out of it and you go out.

Wait, you shocked me with that story … And what happened next? How long did it take?

– Twenty years. The first ten, until 1989, I practically lived a double life. I worked, I had a job, a house, a car, my normal everyday “English” life, but I spent all my free time working – for the mujahedeen. I dealt with what we call pi-ar activities today, but all friends thought that something was wrong with me. I did not want to hear anyone. I thought I was smarter than all of them. It’s part of the tactic – we are the smartest, we have others that have an incomprehensible vision, a higher goal. Separation from the family is crucial. Each radical group is organizing it with its members. At one point, my boyfriend then became violent, our relationship changed, and I turned to them. They became practically my only family. I was a computer programmer with a great salary, but I left it all because of them. I was first in the office in London – I was watching the news, writing the press … And then I went to the Middle East. Imagine !? An English woman twenty years old, from a middle class. Who would say?

Incredibly. How did that happen to you? And how is it possible that you did not have any problems with the British authorities? Still, it was an extreme group …

– Well, first and foremost, I did not choose in whom I will fall in love (laughter), it all just happened … It began with my beginning that their ideology is like “Islamic Marxism.” They began with activities during the Iranian Revolution, fought shah, they wanted to carry out a coup after the revolution; that plan failed, and they were expelled. They represented us as fighters for democracy, even as advanced, feminists – but essentially, the only “business” of ordinary members of us was to respect the leader. We should not have thought, to ask questions – you just do what they tell you. It can hardly be understood by someone who has not experienced it. You asked me about the problems with the British authorities? Well, MEK has always had the support of Western governments because we were working against Iran. That’s why they left us alone. I knew they were violent, but it did not prevent me – even though I am by the nature of the pacifist, I am very calm, I do not like violence … It only shows how they can “gain” you no longer think your head. Today, of course, I would say to them that they are a criminal organization. Only one single government ever officially recognized them – it was the government of Saddam Hussein. All others helped them “black” – politically, financially, yes, but never officially. If you would ask the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or German or French service, everyone would just be crazy – they would say they do not know what you’re talking about.

(continued tomorrow)

EXCLUSIVE charm offensive: Slave jihadists reveals the plan of the Islamic invasion of the Balkans

British En Kodabande is an expert in anti-terrorist activities and a longtime activist in the field of deradicization of extremists, for years before it was a pier of the terrorist movement, worked with the mujahedin, and barely, she says, pulled out of their claws.

We wrote about this part of the life of En Kodabande yesterday, and today we will give that part of the conversation that explains her life as a fighter against jihad.

You say that you spent 20 years with them. How did you go?

– My current husband was the bodyguard. We fell in love with one another, but we were forbidden to have a relationship. We started slowly to understand where we are. We believed that we were fighting against dictatorship and human rights in Iran. I worked in the office. I contacted the media, with the politicians, we called in all those talks on the UN declaration on human rights … This document, otherwise, has 16 members. When I, as we say, “lighted the light bulb”, after many years I read the Declaration, all 16 members, and realized that none of the only ones has anything to do with my work, life, position at that time. I did not have a passport, I did not have my own money, I did not dare to marry. I was their slave. Gladiator. Then I decided to withdraw. I told my husband he would have to seek asylum in Britain. And we did it. We are back. We live in Leeds, north of England. But I knew well that, if we do not oppose them publicly as soon as we go, we will flee from them all our lives. That’s why I went straight to the police. I told them who we are, what we did – of course, they sent people … they were questioning us, they wanted to know who we were, where we were … But soon they left us alone. And we decided not to hide. We have published all of our information on the Internet so that anyone who wants to make us any problems or threatens us can easily find out where we are. In some cases, the fact that you are not hiding can save your head.

Then what happened?

– My husband and I quickly decided to start working with families of members who want to leave MEK. We made a foundation, I went to Iraq, we asked for donors … I spoke with the Maliki family. We had meetings with NGOs, with government officials in Britain … And we realized very early in this process that the problem will not be solved by politics or human rights, but that we have to work on the ground, practically – but for that there was no political will, No money. Or the mujahedin was too small an organization to try the state around them, or the authorities did not have a strong desire to “settle them”.

You did not think about quitting?

– Not. After a while we infiltrated them, we began to submerge them from within. We found a way to get into all the “pores” of that group. In the meantime, I have become a “engaged activist” in Britain, as it is now known – I started publicly speaking about my experiences. We have managed to get, up to now, over a thousand people from MEK. Among other things, I also deal with prevention – by preventing extremists from recruiting new members. Not only in terrorist organizations, but also in sects … The methodology is completely the same, and the process of radicalization, through which I myself went through, almost certainly does not differ. The biggest problem is that MEK, mujahedins still exist. They regrouped. Now they are a new, reformed extreme group that operates on several levels – and that’s why I came to Albania – because they were transferred here! They have already been paid by some deputies, they have joined the Albanian mafia, and now, here in this country, they want to go to their “offensive charm” – to try to gain new supporters. According to information I have, over US $ 20 million the Americans paid to the Albanian government to transfer this group of several thousand mujahedin from Iraq here.

What do you think is the intention of the US government and the Albanian authorities? What are the possible consequences?

– Unfortunately, these people can not just “descend” to Albania just like that. They simply have to be deradicalized, otherwise the damage will be immeasurable. The public only sees the so-called. the concrete result of terrorist attacks – explosions, casualties and material damage … But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Below is a lot of things. The main activities are recruiting and collecting money. In the recruitment process, the logic is – the more people, the better. It is very dangerous when you place one such group in any country, in any environment, because they soon begin to “naturally” radicalize their environment.

This program that you are applying in the process of derading … How does it work?

– You can not deradicalize someone if you do not know how it is radicalized. These people are literally “brainwashed”. The whole process begins with a deep understanding of their position. A functional primary or secondary family is one of the basic conditions for successful deradicization. We made a foundation and we managed to pull out about a thousand people from MEK so far. But the key was that these people had already intend to leave. They themselves wanted to leave the mujahedeen – without it, nothing would make sense. So – to get back to the thesis from the beginning of the conversation – “how you enter, such a way out” – I am in the depths of the soul and still the most active activist (laughter), only now with another goal. I’ll be, I hope, such for the rest of my life.

And what are the concrete results? Let’s say, in what number of cases does the process of deradicization work?

– Many people returned to normal life. The process of “removing” someone can be very short or very long, no rules. When people leave the extremist group, they should first understand what was happening to them. Some of them, but remain radicalized for years – remain what they were while they were with extremists. Certainly, specialist help is needed. If you leave the group because you have “turned on the light bulb”, if you “woke up”, as it happened to me and my husband, only in that case do not have much effort to make you understand what happened to you, that you lied and exploited. But almost always help is needed.

You mentioned “recruiting staff”. Tell us more about them. Who are these people?

– I think everything starts and ends with some kind of attraction. Examples are groups that fight for animal rights; first organize a public protest. Then someone suggests something radical, let’s say, let’s call them individually. You can easily “slip” it into an extreme version of belief. Extremes are attractive. Those people, those who do not think like you, actually need to – die. There, say, all those who torture animals … Let them die! Then the real plan is to put a bomb under the car? From the idea, through firm belief, to concrete action. Through this process, this “recruitment staff” is guided by you – but it is an emotional journey, you pass it together, and you’re getting closer. The real “recruitment officers” are people who absolutely believe in the idea of leadership, think that this idea should attract as many followers; they are convincing; they know how to instill people into something that they would not otherwise be at the edge of their minds. Let’s say – to travel to Syria or Iraq to join the jihadists. The key is intuition. Questions about you. The problems that you have – they signal what the target is, where the man is “thin”, where he can be “pressed” harder. They like to use what we call “car sales techniques” – the so-called “lifestyle sails”. “You have to think about this, imagine how cool it would be to drive this car!” But, with the car, there’s always the option to change your mind – but the belief system is sold so you do not even know that they sold you. I like to say that the extremist group as an arc – many layers, a very clear, closed structure, within which everything is under absolute control. And every bow is very different from the outside, as every extreme organization is very different, but from within, they all have, in essence, the same structure.

Part One https://rs-lat.sputniknews.com/intervju/201712101113756669-bila-sam-pi-ar-terorista-/

Part Two https://rs-lat.sputniknews.com/intervju/201712111113766247-En-Kodabande/

January 1, 2018 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Filthy rule to keep members in the Cult of Rajavi

You usually can’t just rescue someone from a cult. The point is that once someone is in a cult, it is very difficult for him /her to leave. This is why it is considered a cult. Therefore, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ the MEK, Cult of Rajavi ) perfectly falls in to the category of being a cult.

Also by definition, a the cult member doesn’t believe that he or she is in a cult. Instead, members have been brainwashed by believing that they have achieved a high status just by having the opportunity to be in the cult which ultimately brings them salvation, for instance members of the Cult of Rajavi are called “unique gems” (Goharan Bibadil). This status is the result of a manipulative system that prevents victims from thinking freely.
What most people don’t know is that mind control can be even more powerful than a gun to the head because the victim believes that the person doing the manipulation is actually a friend, or a lover, or a master, who seems to be caring and honest.
Most of the rank and file of the Cult of Rajavi were deceived in to the establishment by their apparently loving caring recruiters who promised them a prosperous ideal life in a classless society. Once they were recruited they underwent the severe mind control techniques including self-criticism sessions in which peer pressure and suppression was the key tool to destroy their entire individuality.
Studying the survivors of the cult, the experts believe that the golden rule to save a loved one who is stuck in a cult is simple: Do whatever you can to keep the communication channels open with your loved one or friend. This is why the leaders of Rajavi`s Cult try to prevent members from seeing any outsiders. Leaders of the cult of Rajavi panic this rule. So, they establish their own filthy rule, looking for any reason to shut outsiders off their hostages.
The golden rule sounds simple but you can’t do anything later on if you can’t communicate with the one you’re trying to help and the MKO leaders know it well. These days, they are transferring members to the remote Camp Ashraf Three to close the least possibilities for them to have access to the outside world. Members are even forced to sign a commitment paper titled “irrevocable membership” that requires them to admit long life membership in the cult.
Living in an isolated residential camp means that cult members will not be able to have the slightest idea of what`s going on outside the camp and in the free world; they will not be able to see ordinary people on the beaches or to hear the cries of children playing in parks of Tirana. Isolation means total obedience to the absolute power of Rajavi and eventually more severe cases of human rights violations in the Cult of Rajavi.
Definitely, this will result in a human disaster. The Albanian government and the UNHCR should be warned that the MKO’s lobbying campaign in Washington and Europe is an attempt to falsely portray itself as the representative of the Iranian people and the democratic alternative to the Iranian government but the truth –based on many testimonies—is that the MKO is actually a political cult that is endeavoring to survive by maintaining its hegemony over its members with almost no popular support among Iranians. This dirty policy should be stopped.
By Mazda Parsi

December 27, 2017 0 comments

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