Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

McCain palling around with MKO terrorists

Weeks after Senator John McCains’s visit to the newly established base of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) in Albania, the ripple effects still continue. McCain’s support for a cult-like group with a dark history of violence and terror causes a wave of reactions that do not seem to end soon. The most recent has been by the side of an opposition figure against the Islamic Republic, Mehrdad Khonsari. He writes an open letter to the Senator criticizing his act of sponsoring the terrorist cult of Rajavi. He asserts, “It was quite a shock noting that a personality of your background and status had emulated the feat carried out by others much less informed about Iran and generally motivated by greed.” [1]

Following Senator John McCains’s trip to the Balkans (courtesy to US taxpayers), he was received by Maryam Rajavi in the newly established base of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) in Tirana, Albania. Rajavi offered McCain bouquet with a wide smile on her face in a luxurious hall full of so called cheerful audience – perhaps McCain did not expect such a warm reception.

The leader of the MKO cult who was so enthusiastically motivated by the presence of an American hawkish figure could not conceal her happiness. She seemed to have found the savior of her declining organization. “The Iranian people and the resistance are more determined and prepared than ever to overthrow the ruling theocracy and to establish democracy and national sovereignty in Iran”, she claimed.

As a matter of fact the leaders of the MKO cult put their anti-American, anti-imperialism past behind and eagerly count on the United States new administration to change the Iranian government. However, the issues are not as simple as the naïve MKO leaders have always supposed. Their alliance with the enemies of the Iranian nation has not been so productive for them that they can prevent the collapse of their organization.

Besides, the MKO cult is notoriously known among the majority of American scholars, journalists and politicians, even those who are known as anti-Iran figures. Michael Rubin who is a critic of the Islamic Republic’s policies wonders: “what is John McCain thinking?” Reviewing the violent and cult-like background of the MKO, he affirms that the American advocates of the MKO are not supporting the enemy of the Iranian government but they are assisting the enemy of the Iranian people. [2]

Dr. Munr Kazmir of the Huffington Post states, “The enemy of my enemy is NOT always my friend”. He explains that the act of John Mccain and his hawkish colleagues to sponsor the MKO is the exact definition of “insanity”. He refers to other similar experiences of the US: “There was a group in Afghanistan led by a fellow named Osama Bin Laden whom we armed during the cold war. There are rebels in Syria to whom we have given arms. These are just two examples of many instances where the strategy of backing the “enemy of my enemy” blew up in our faces.” [3]

Dr. Kazmir challenges Rajavi-Republican agenda for regime change in Iran: “Regime change. Just like Nicaragua. Or Afghanistan. Or Iraq. Or Libya. Or countless other nations we made unquestionably worse with our involvement.” [4]

Furthermore, as Kazmir and Rubin warn about the destructive consequences of supporting the MKO cult for both the United States and the Iranian people, former member of the MKO, Arash Sametipour believes that both McCain and the MKO are not favorable entities in the world so their alliance does not work for them. Moreover, the MKO is hated in Iran. “It can be argued that MKO gains nothing by organizing meetings with warlords, right-wing activists, and Saudis,” He concludes. “A group which is unpopular in Iran has proven that will not be accepted as a player in Iran.”

By Mazda Parsi

Sources:

[1] https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/6903

[2]Rubin, Michael, What is John McCain thinking? , IAE.org, April 17, 2017

[3] Kazmir, Munr, The Enemy of My Enemy is NOT Always My Friend….., The Huffington Post, April 18, 2017

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The cult of Rajavi

Open letter to Archbishop of Tirana-Durrës, George Anthony Frendo

Your Excellency, Archbishop of Tirana-Durrës, George Anthony Frendo,

I, Edward Termado, am an Iranian and Armenian Christian, who now lives with his family in Germany. In 1980, when the Iran-Iraq War began, I was a soldier in the Iranian army in the fight in Iraq where I was wounded and captured by the Iraqi troops. Until the end of the war I was in captivity in Iraq.

After the armistice between Iran and Iraq, I unfortunately decided not to return to my country, because I thought I could use other means for the freedom of the people and democracy, and I joined the PMOI (Peoples Mojahedin of Iran) . For 12 years, I was in the grip of this sectarian organization, but fifteen years ago I managed to escape the pressure of this organization and live in the free world again today.

In its propaganda, the PMOI had always expressed its opinion on freedom and democracy for the Iranian people, calling on equal rights for women all over the world. The call for freedom, equality and religious freedom was very loud in their propaganda. With their slogans, the PMOI has deceived many Iranian war prisoners in Iraq and lured them into their catches. They also deceived me.

But when I was a member of the PMOI for a while, Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the Mujahideen, who lives in a hiding-place since the fall of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, has given the unbelievable order to compel all marriages with the Mujahideen. All the families who have lived in Camp Ahsraf under many restrictions have been torn apart and the children have been torn from their parents on the pretext that the situation in Iraq is too dangerous for them.

These approximately 800 children were sent to Europe and America by the PMOI. At first sight this seemed to be a humanitarian act, but when the children grew older after a few years, and were engaged in schooling, education or studying, they returned to Camp Ashraf, on the pretext of meeting their parents again In Iraq. There they were denied to return to Europe or the USA. Some were subjected to brainwashing and later sent to military operations in Iran, where they were killed.

Your Excellency:

Last week I learned, that in March 2017 you participated in the Organizations Nowruz Festival in Albania. So I have the concern that you too can be blinded by the propaganda allies of the PMOI and I would like to warn you not to get pressed into service by the Mojaheddin without knowing their true face.

The MKO presents itself as “the Iranian resistance” or the “opposition in exile”, but it is pursuing its own objectives independently of all opposition movements in Iran itself. They suggest to advocate democracy, equality of the sexes and separation of church and state. However, they use other institutions to spread their propaganda. But as a former MKO-member, I know better:

As early as August 2009, the TAZ reported that the MKO had tried, under the pretext of engaging in persecuted Christians, to harness the church for its propaganda. In the Heilig-Kreuz church in Berlin, the MKO activists had to leave the church after a short while, after they had abused the church asylum for a hunger strike for Camp Ahsraf. Pastor Dagmar Apel decided: “… we cannot support this radical means of protest in which people endanger their health.”

Behind the wall, the MKO is a cultish organization with no support among the most Iranians (exiles as well as those living in Iran). The majority of the Iranians despise the MKO for their alliance with Saddam Hussein in the 80s and for their position against the nuclear program (by most of the Iranian population the program is seen as a legitimate right).

At least there is the occult and even messianic image, which has been arranged to Maryam Rajavi “President-elect” and “Sun of the Revolution” and the cultish structure of the organization, which raises questions of democracy within the organization itself because Maryam Rajavi remainedthe President of the organization since her “election” in 1993 without any sign of political pluralism.

Several officials, who had to deal more closely with the MKO, have also recognized this:

The former chairman of the Working Group on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid of the CDU / CSU Bundestag Fraction, Erika Steinbach, has described MKO as follows: “The organization (MEK / MKO / PMOI) is not trustworthy against the background of its history and its actions against dropouts and critics. The MEK is a sect-like, repressive movement with a distinct person cult around the leaders, without great credibility in the Iranian population. “

A speaker of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs told in June 27th 2014:  “France has no contact with the “People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran” which is known for its use of violence. It has no legal existence in France as an organization. Its violent and undemocratic Ideology has been exposed by several human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International who have reported on the organization’s cultic practices and its refusal to formally renounce violence. We also warn about the intense campaign of disinformation and influence it leads”.

Daniel Benjamin, the former U.S. State Department’s counterterror coordinator,,told the FP-Website 2015: “Being delisted as a Foreign Terrorist Organization — a decision I took part in — doesn’t mean that this group … has suddenly … become trustworthy or worthy of engagement.”

It was not until December 2016 that CIA Director John Brennan warned Tirana of the potentially great danger that the terrorist group Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) represents for Albania by their presence in the capital.

Your Excellency:

As an Armenian Christian, who lost 12 years of his life through the false slogans of the Mujahideen, I would like to describe to you in a short meeting, which I have seen and experienced during the period of the organization of the People’s Mojahedin.

Good luck to you and best wishes for peace in the

Edward Termado, Aawa Association, Germany, 

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Mehrdad Khonsari: Dear Senator McCain!

“Dear Senator McCain,

I have intentionally waited several weeks before writing this letter in order to eradicate any notion that my objection to you giving validation to cult figures such as Mrs. Maryam Rajavi and hailing her and her followers as promoters of democratic ideals and values, is merely a knee jerk reaction to a behavior I have found reprehensible.

As a former Iranian diplomat who has been injected into political activism as a consequence of the Iranian revolution, I have had the misfortune of watching my country’s decline over the years as it has shifted from one crisis into another. I have repeatedly witnessed the emergence and disappearance or decline of numerous political figures – mostly honorable and well intentioned individuals with democratic agendas – whose well intentioned and noble efforts have simply fallen short of what is required for making any kind of meaningful impact with our people at home or loosening the foundations of the regime that has presided over them since 1979. Over the years, despite a constant plethora of perhaps justified but mainly self serving ranting aimed at the Iranian ruling establishment, I do not recall witnessing personalities of your caliber ever make public appearances or deliver any kind of meaningful messages in support of these true proponents of democratic values in my country.

At the same time, we have sadly witnessed a number of ‘has been’ and inconsequential political figures in your country as well as some in other places compromise their reputations for unusually generous fees and associated perks – totally incompatible with their status as public speakers, in a futile endeavor to bestow legitimacy to what is otherwise a much hated and bloodstained cult organization.

Having said all this, it was quite a shock noting that a personality of your background and status had emulated the feat carried out by others much less informed about Iran and generally motivated by greed.

Given the respect I have had for you over the years, I write not to condemn you but to ask you to consider your future actions more thoroughly. I am of no doubt that you did not receive sound advice in accepting the invitation advanced to you by Mrs. Rajavi, just as I am sure you would never accept an invitation by the KKK or ever contemplate labeling followers of the late ‘Reverend Jim Jones’ and fascists as proponents of democracy.

I will end by urging you to give due consideration to the points I have raised. I seek nothing from you, as our own people irrespective of what anyone says will decide the future of Iran. But to help bring Iran into the community of peaceful nations and restore sanity and prudence in its behavior, your prescription can only aggravate matters and offer an alternative which is by far worse than the worse we have seen from Iran’s present rulers in the last 38 years…….

Mehrdad Khonsari, Facebook,

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The cult of Rajavi

Open letter to Valerie CROVA the top journalist of “Culture Radio” France

Open letter to Valerie CROVA the top journalist of “Culture Radio” France: (You didn’t ask Maryam Rajavi?

Mrs. Valerie CROVA the top journalist of the culture radio in France I saw in different sites that last year you carried out an interview with Mrs. Maryam Rajavi . The topic of this interview was the resistance voice which its leader is a woman and this interview was about the veil and the women freedom in Iran. You as a media ,how did you carry out such an interview with this cult without having enough knowlege of their terrorist essence ?

I ,Zahra MOEINI , am an Iranian – German who lives in Germany . I joined them for freedom and better future for my own people but i found out that i wasted my life in there, even i lost my health . I am a witness of this notorious cult and i am ready to share my experiences with you whenever and wherever you want. The pmoi leaders with lie and deception took me and my husband to Iraq and we became stuck like a captive in there. We lost all communications with outside world while we were in Ashraf . We tried our best to convince them that we do not want to stay in Iraq and we asked them to send us out of Iraq , but the operatives of this cult told us that you have entered to Iraq without passport and Iraq is a country which is fighting with Iran and if someone wants to separate from us , we have to hand them over to Iraqi intelligence agents and anything happens to them is their fault !!!

All the people who were brought to Iraq by lie and deception , had to work for this cult forcibly , i would better say that we were living in forced labor camp, Ashraf camp . We could not comment on anything in there and we had to do whatever they asked us to do, for instance the forced divorce , separation of children from their parents and sending them out of Iraq to unknown future . Those kids were between 6 months of age to 11 years old and there was around 900 of them . Some of them were sent to Europe and USA and a number of them were sent to Iran . Some of those kids were sexually abused and a number of them were abandoned in subways and metro,s .

I would like to ask you , as a free media , this question that , why did not you ask Mrs. Maryam Rajavi that in Iran where the women and men ‘s rights are supressed , but why in pmoi or Rajavi cult which shows itself as the only alternative for Iran , the women and men’s rights have been supressed? , the men and women who lived in this cult in a dream of freedom and better life for Iranian people, but their fundamental rights have been supressed . Why all those men and women who spent years and decades in that cult can not get in touch with their loved ones? why in this notorious cult , those men and women can not have access to internet and cell phone? Why all those married couples had to get divorced and the divorced women had to go to bed with Massoud Rajavi , the Husband of Maryam Rajavi, to melt in his so called ideological revolution ?! and if someone disobeyed this order, was sentenced to death.

Why in this cult, Rajavi cult, all the women who were forced to get married to Massoud Rajavi and go to bed with him , had to go under surgical operation to take out their wombs to become sterile? As a free journalist and free media , where have you seen or read in this world that a political party or a group for the sake of struggle for freedom and democracy force their members to get divorced and the divorced women have to get married and go to bed with the leader of that party or group? As a free media , where have you seen or read in this world that the family and the loved ones of a party members become the worst and bloody enemy of that party or group? In Iran under the clergymen rules , people are deprived of freedom, and there is no doubt about that , but women in Iran in comparison with the women in Mojahedin have more freedom in their veil , in Mojahedin can women have freedom in their veil like women in Iran? in Mojahedin the veil is compulsory and the rules are tougher . In Mojahedin the members can not get married and they are deprived of getting married and have children for decades . I am urging all the free medias to scrutinize the human rights situation inside the Rajavi cult in Tirana , Albania where all the members of this cult are deprived of having any communication with their families and loved ones and they have been cut off from the free world .

I am urging all the free medias to put pressure on the cult leaders in Tirana to allow the families and the loved ones of those stranded and stuck members to visit them freely and the members of this cult have access to internet and telephone freely to get in touch and communicate with the free world . You, as a free media, owe an apology to Iranian people because your interview with her is like you have interviewed with the leader of Daesh , this cult is as dangerous and notorious as Daesh for Iranian people . I am urging you to be vigilant about this cult and their fake propaganda for freedom and democracy. All the best to you and your media

Zahra Moeini, Iran Zanan, Germany

–

Lettre ouverte de Mme Zahra MOEINI à Mme Valerie CROVA, la principale journaliste de Culture Radio en France

Mme Valerie CROVA, la principale journaliste de la radio culturelle en France J’ai vu dans différents sites que l’année dernière, vous avez eu une entrevue avec Mme Maryam Rajavi. Le sujet de cette interview était la voix de la résistance dont le leader est une femme et cette interview portait sur le voile et la liberté des femmes en Iran. Vous en tant que média, comment avez-vous effectué une telle entrevue avec ce culte sans avoir suffisamment de connaissance de leur essence terroriste? Moi, Zahra MOEINI, je suis un Iranien-Allemand qui habite en Allemagne. Je les ai rejoints pour la liberté et un meilleur avenir pour mon propre peuple, mais j’ai découvert que j’avais perdu ma vie là-bas, même si je perdais ma santé. Je suis témoin de ce culte notoire et je suis prêt à partager mes expériences avec vous. Les leaders pmoi avec le mensonge et la déception m’ont emmené et mon mari en Irak et nous nous sommes retrouvés comme un captif là-bas. Nous avons perdu toute communication avec le monde extérieur pendant que nous étions à Achraf. Nous avons essayé de notre mieux pour les convaincre que nous ne voulons pas rester en Irak et nous leur avons demandé de nous envoyer en Irak, mais les agents de ce culte nous ont dit que vous êtes entré en Irak sans passeport et que l’Irak est un pays qui est En combattant avec l’Iran et si quelqu’un veut se séparer de nous, nous devons les remettre aux agents de renseignement irakiens et tout ce qui leur arrive est leur faute! Toutes les personnes qui ont été amenées en Irak par le mensonge et la déception ont dû travailler pour ce culte avec force, je ferais mieux de dire que nous vivions dans un camp de travaux forcés. Nous ne pouvions pas commenter quoi que ce soit là-bas et nous devions faire tout ce qu’ils nous ont demandé de faire, par exemple le divorce forcé, la séparation des enfants de leurs parents et l’envoi de l’Irak à un avenir inconnu. Ces enfants avaient entre 6 mois et 11 ans et environ 900 d’entre eux. Certaines d’entre elles ont été envoyées en Europe et aux États-Unis et plusieurs d’entre elles ont été envoyées en Iran. Certains de ces enfants ont été victimes de violence sexuelle et un certain nombre d’entre eux ont été abondonnés dans les métros et les métros. Je voudrais vous demander, en tant que média gratuit, cette question, pourquoi n’avez-vous pas demandé à Mme Maryam Rajavi qu’en Iran, où les droits des femmes et des hommes sont supprimés, Mais pourquoi dans le pmoi ou le culte Rajavi qui se révèle la seule alternative pour l’Iran, les droits des femmes et des hommes ont été supprimés? , Les hommes et les femmes qui vivaient dans ce culte dans un rêve de liberté et une vie meilleure pour les Iraniens, mais leurs droits fondamentaux ont été supprimés. Pourquoi tous ces hommes et ces femmes qui ont passé des années et des décennies dans ce culte ne peuvent pas entrer en contact avec leurs proches? Pourquoi dans ce culte notoire, ces hommes et ces femmes ne peuvent pas avoir accès à Internet et au téléphone portable? Pourquoi tous ces couples mariés devaient-ils divorcer et les femmes divorcées devaient se coucher avec Massoud Rajavi, époux de Maryam Rajavi, pour fondre dans sa soi-disant révolution idéologique? Et si quelqu’un a désobéi à cet ordre, a été condamné à mort. Pourquoi, dans ce culte, le culte Rajavi, toutes les femmes qui ont été forcées de se marier avec Massoud Rajavi et de se coucher avec lui ont dû faire l’objet d’une opération chirurgicale pour sortir leur ventre pour devenir stérile? En tant que journaliste libre et médias gratuits, où avez-vous vu ou lu dans ce monde qu’un parti politique ou un groupe pour lutter pour la liberté et la démocratie forcent leurs membres à divorcer et les femmes divorcées doivent se marier et aller à Coucher avec le chef de cette fête ou groupe? En tant que média gratuit, où avez-vous vu ou lu dans ce monde que la famille et les proches des membres du parti deviennent l’ennemi le plus mauvais et le plus sanglant de cette fête ou groupe? En Iran, selon les règles du clergé, les gens sont privés de liberté, et il n’y a pas de doute à ce sujet, mais les femmes en Iran par rapport aux femmes en Moudjahidine ont plus de liberté dans leur voile, aux Moudjahidine, les femmes peuvent-elles avoir la liberté dans leurs voiles comme des femmes en Iran? En Mojahedin, le voile est compliqué et les règles sont plus sévères. En Mojahedin, les membres ne peuvent pas se marier et ils sont privés de mariage et ont des enfants depuis des décennies. Je demande instamment à tous les médias gratuits d’examiner la situation des droits de l’homme dans le culte de Rajavi à Tirana, en Albanie, où tous les membres de ce culte sont privés de toute communication avec leurs familles et leurs proches et ont été exclus du monde libre . Je demande instamment à tous les médias gratuits de faire pression sur les chefs de culte à Tirana pour permettre aux familles et aux proches de ceux qui sont bloqués et bloqués de les visiter librement et les membres de ce culte ont accès à internet et à téléphone pour entrer librement Toucher et communiquer avec le monde libre. Vous, en tant que média gratuit, devez des excuses aux Iraniens, car votre entrevue avec elle est comme si vous avez interviewé le chef de Daesh, ce culte est aussi dangereux et célèbre que Daesh pour les Iraniens. Je vous exhorte à être vigilant à propos de ce culte et de leur fausse propagande pour la liberté et la démocratie. Tout le meilleur pour vous et vos médias Zahra MOEINI Allemagne

(END)

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

International Workers’ Day and MeK’s propaganda efforts

In the first place, I have to mention that there is a principle dominating the MeK that none of the members must never be seen idle and they have to work from dawn to dusk. The principle is being applied the MeK from top to bottom. Of course the principle becomes more and more severe in the rank and files. Maryam Rajavi used to say that the members should be engaged either in the war or training. Thus when there is no war and the trainings become repetitive, they will be engaged in forced labor. Rajavi held the belief that the members should be forced to work overtime so that they become so tired that they fall asleep as soon as their heads touch their pillows.

The purpose was to keep them working, no matter what kind of job they were doing or in which part of the organization they were involved. It had two advantages at the time: 1. The members do not notice the passage of time. 2. They will not be distracted by other issues, particularly sexual feelings, which was regarded as a “red line” in the organization.

So all the occasions, either the self-described events such as the June 20th and historic flight or the national and international ones such as International Women’s Day or May Day holds a special place in the MeK and plays the best role in solving organizational problems and entertaining the members.

I’ve wrote all these to show the importance of the MeK’s propaganda efforts in each and every events.

Now the MeK has May Day 2016 ahead to entertain its political and organizational members until the next event.

The MeK released its first statement on the occasion of the International Workers’ Day on April 7, 2016. Referring to the “heavy burden of economic recession and crises” in Iran and a bunch of workers’ economic problems, the statement call on the Iranian workers to “rise up to support this great right of people with 1000 Ashraf and Liberation Army.”http://wwwbahayazadi.blogspot.com/2016/04/blog-post_79.html

Given the many years of experience and a good understanding of the MeK, I should say that their propaganda is merely an internal matter and has no effect on the Iranian people. In other words, the propaganda starts and ends with the MeK. This is the MeK’s strategy, sending out statements, telling lies about widespread protests of the workers and their support for the MeK’s statements. The next step is showing the supports on their outlets and their coverage should be as big as the statement lest the MeK’s reputation is further smeared.

However, there has always been a great contradiction in the MeK’s propaganda in these events. The final product is never in accordance with what the MeK blows in its own horn.

Even if we assume the most optimistic scenario according to the MeK’s official website (below) that protests have erupted in Iran by workers under the influence of MeK’s propaganda in less than 6 days, then we should expect hundreds of Iranian workers protesting across the Iranian streets in support of the MeK.

April 12, 2016: Two workers in Tehran, Mazandaran filed lawsuit to the ILO against Iran regime

April 11, 2016: Statement of students from Islamic Azad University on the occasion of International Workers’ Day

April 10, 2016: Call on the workers and students for International Workers’ Day in Tehran, Pakdasht and Kermanshah

April 10, 2016: International Workers’ Day, Supporting statements in Tehran, Boroujerd and Khoramdarreh

April 7, 2016: Statement of the Workers, Students in Tehran, Boroujerd and Kermanshah on the Occasion of International Workers’ Day

April 6, 2016: Miners at Qom Manganese Mine Call for Protest the Occasion of the International Workers’ Day

April 6, 2016: Workers of the Qouchan Tous Porcelain Call for Protest against Iran regime on the Occasion International Workers’ Day

April 3, 2016: Statement of Scores of Workers at Appliance Manufacturing Factories in West Tehran on the Occasion of International Workers’ Day

April 3, 2016: Statement of a group of Workers of Southern Tehran Companies on the Occasion of International Workers’ Day

March 30, 2016: Statement of a group of Employees and Retired Workers of Azmayesh Manufacturing Co. on the Occasion of International Workers’ Day

March 30, 2016: A Group of Retired Workers of Manufacturing Factories in Tehran Calls for Massive Protests on April 30, 2016

March 29, 2016: Workers of Bella and Melli Shoe Co. Call for Mass Protests on the International Workers’ Day

By Seyed Hojjat Seyed-Ismaeili , Former member of MeK leadership council,

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MKO Terrorists Working in Collusion with CIA: US Commentator

An American political commentator said the anti-Iran Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO also known as MEK) is in league with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), noting that the terror group has been an agent for Washington since the late 1970s.

“The MEK has been an agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and represents the single most expensive US covert foreign operation since the inception of the CIA at the close of World War II. From 1979 to 1989, the US, UK, and Saudi Arabia provided at least $3 billion dollars in funding to the MEK for the purpose of destabilizing Afghanistan subsequent to the Russian invasion. It is from this history that observers today should consider claims made by the MEK as lacking in credibility,” Mark Mason told the Tasnim news agency.

Dr. Mason offers analyses of United States domestic and foreign policies for the international news media. He was trained as a biological anthropologist educated at the University of California, Berkeley. Mason has appeared on Al-Etejah TV, Russia Today, Voice of Russia radio, as well as on Life News Russia, AcTVism Munich News, Nuestra Tele Noticias NTN24 Colombia, The Real News Network, and Radio 786 Capetown, South Africa, and KQED Forum in San Francisco, California.

Following is the full text of the interview:

Tasnim: The terrorist group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) recently claimed that the Islamic Republic is violating the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers by secretly conducting research on nuclear weapons components at the Parchin military site in Iran. The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) strongly dismissed the allegations by the terrorist group against Tehran’s nuclear program, saying the claims are of no value for the Islamic Republic. What is your take on this? What is behind such bogus claims?

Mason: Examining what the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) is, and is not, will assist in understanding claims made by the MEK. Some observers have characterized the MEK as a Leftist political organization, even a Marxist revolutionary group. Much could be written about how Leftist political ideology, and particularly Marxism, has come to have almost no meaning in modern usage. As Leftist politics applies to the MEK, such labeling is a diversion from facts. The MEK has been an agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and represents the single most expensive US covert foreign operation since the inception of the CIA at the close of World War II. From 1979 to 1989, the US, UK, and Saudi Arabia provided at least $3 billion dollars in funding to the MEK for the purpose of destabilizing Afghanistan subsequent to the Russian invasion. It is from this history that observers today should consider claims made by the MEK as lacking in credibility.

As for the question regarding Iranian nuclear technology programs, world peace and security would best be facilitated by all nations in the Middle East and South Asia convening under the auspices of the UN for the purpose of creating a regional nuclear-free zone. Focusing on the activities of one nation is not means to develop regional cooperation. Regional efforts to reduce tensions through diplomacy is the rational and effective approach to conflict resolution. Keep in mind that the USA thrives on creating conflicts and chaos, and thus the USA should not be expected to promote regional peace. Regional and global cooperation and security would be fostered by a regional agreement to remove all nuclear weapons and for all nations to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). To question Iranian nuclear programs while it is known that Israel, Pakistan, India, and the USA have nuclear weapons is not a means to produce regional cooperation. Respect for decentralized, popular, community direct democracy will enhance regional cooperation. An arms embargo will enhance regional cooperation. Unfortunately, regional and global peace and security cannot be achieved as long as the US military and US money dominate the region. An effective strategy for reducing regional violence perpetrated and funded by the USA though such organizations as the MEK would be to revive the formal Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The NAM is comprised of nations committed to diplomatic conflict resolution while avoiding efforts by the USA to drag the Middle East into a revived Cold War between the US-NATO and Russia-China.

Tasnim: It seems that the new US administration has breathed new life into the terrorist group. Republican US Senator John McCain praised the head of the MKO, in a recent meeting in the Albanian capital, Tirana. What do you think? What is terror group looking for under Trump?

Mason: US Senator John McCain should be in prison for war crimes committed in Vietnam. Through his actions in the US Senate, Senator McCain has lent monetary support for ISIS in Syria, and additional support for other US foreign criminal operations since the illegal invasion of Vietnam. Senator McCain supports US military violence and proxy terrorists throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East. The US government, with or without President Trump, is the successor to the British Empire since the collapse of British colonialism following World War II. The British Empire was bad. The American Empire is bad. Human suffering created by Euro-American colonialism achieves planetary proportions. Release from imperialism is promoted by examining what it is about Euro-American culture that drives their brutality and denial of human rights. The problem of empire goes far deeper than the frightening, open belligerence of President Trump. To resolve the problems presented by the MEK and other violent organizations, let us examine the social and economic factors that drive modern violence. We have a problem that goes deep beyond the MEK, and McCain, and Trump, and the CIA. If we want a decent planet for our children, we would be wise to examine our acceptance of the fictitious global money system: paper money, computer money, chasing dollars, funding the MEK with dollars, the Petrodollar, and our belief in money, profits, and private wealth, instead of people. The MEK would have no money, and the US would have no power to terrorize the Middle East without this fictitious thing called money. Money does not exist in the real world. It is a product of the human imagination that destroys human social relations. The problem is not the MEK, nor even the USA. The problem is the belief in the power of concentrated wealth, and the denial of human social relations outside of money. Without money, we are left with diplomacy, and diplomacy is a fancy word for mutual aid and mutual respect.

Tasnim: As you know, more than 17,000 Iranians, many of them civilians, have been killed at the hands of the MKO in different acts of terrorism including bombings in public places, and targeted killings. Why do Saudi Arabia, US, and certain European countries continue to support the anti-Iran terror group despite its heinous crimes?

Mason: One answer: money. The US, Western Europe, and the criminal client operation in Arabia called “Saudi Arabia” are chasing dollars. Dollars means wealth. Wealth means power. Power means more chasing dollars. To chase dollars begins with state violence used to steal natural resources and to steal human labor. All wealth arises out of human labor as applied toward converting the Earth biosphere and lithosphere into raw materials, and to convert raw materials into commodities that can be converted into dollars. Dollars is domination. The dollar is the means by which the US and all centralized powers dominate and control others. Continued worship of the Almighty Dollar, and the dollar chasers and dollar collectors, the USA, the MEK, Saudi Arabia, and Western Europe will continue their colonial theft of natural resources and their subjugation of other human populations to enslavement. We are enslaved by a fiction: the money system.

If these ideas seem unknown or impractical, I think it is true that the Middle East can be a more humane and cooperative region. To move towards peace and cooperation will require thinking and acting outside of conventional thinking and conventional action. New ideas—not new military weapons, new border fences, or new presidents—are needed.

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Iran

Atomic Energy Organisation Spokesman: Mojahedin Khalq claims worthless

Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi said the recent baseless claims by the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) against Tehran’s nuclear program are of no value for the Islamic Republic.

“In the past, the International Atomic Energy Agency once examined unfounded accusations of a military nuclear program in Iran. The MKO is a treacherous group, whose strings are being pulled by certain powers. These allegations are not being made by the MKO itself. They are the demands by major powers for propaganda purposes,” Kamalvandi told Press TV on Monday.

The remarks by Kamalvandi came after the terrorist group claimed recently that the Islamic Republic is not complying with its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, also known the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), between Tehran and world powers by secretly conducting research on nuclear weapons components at the Parchin military site.

He added, “Currently, the group thinks the timing is good for it to level new allegations as they believe the new administration in the United States is interested in such matters. We do not believe the allegations are of any value. We think this is not an issue to be addressed in Iran, at the international level and even at the IAEA.”

Earlier, on April 15, US Senator John McCain met with the MKO members in Albania, talking about his opposition to the Islamic Republic and pledging continued support for the group.

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

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

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

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

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Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 188

++ The MEK tried to revive the role of ‘nuclear secrets revealers’ against Iran, but it didn’t pick up. In the end, John Bolton had to send out the message. But it still didn’t attract any media or political attention. The best use of it was made by Iran which said that if all the Americans can do is to lay down the John Bolton, John McCain and MEK cards, they are playing with a very weak hand. Because nobody picked up this false news story this means the MEK are completely off the map. Indeed, this week in a meeting of the 5+1 and Iran, the American negotiating team themselves said they were fully committed to the nuclear agreement.

++ Reactions to McCain’s visit to the MEK in Albania continued from various places. Iran indicated that ‘this is not new but it shows the Americans don’t have more than that, this is the best they can do.’ Many formers said ‘giving the martyrs book to McCain is fine, but we thank God we are alive and not among your dead mercenaries’. Members have been almost rioting because no explanation has been given for this. Sahar Family Foundation published articles this week scorning Rajavi’s laughable reaction; her website is now declaring that McCain’s visit wasn’t pre-arranged and he in fact just suddenly appeared. This explanation for the members brought about an even worse reaction. How, members are asking, does a special meeting and formally handing over the book of martyrs fit in with an unexpected visit? Commentators say, ‘No wonder Maryam is bogged down in Albania, she can’t impose control and will not be able to go back to Paris because the MEK is collapsing’.

++ From yesterday Rajavi’s sites say this disaffection is all the fault of the ex-members who are ‘agents of the Iranian regime’ and that’s why we are in so much trouble.

In English:

++ Press TV and other Iranian media used their English language outlets to denounce Washington’s reliance on the MEK as a source of false information or help of any kind. Tasnim News quoted the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi, who said “In the past, the International Atomic Energy Agency once examined unfounded accusations of a military nuclear program in Iran. The MKO is a treacherous group, whose strings are being pulled by certain powers. These allegations are not being made by the MKO itself. They are the demands by major powers for propaganda purposes…” He added, “Currently, the group thinks the timing is good for it to level new allegations as they believe the new administration in the United States is interested in such matters. We do not believe the allegations are of any value. We think this is not an issue to be addressed in Iran, at the international level and even at the IAEA.”

++ Iran Interlink wrote a short note saying ‘Mojahed Khalq Brother John Bolton has a memory lapse’. Anti-Iran pundits have begun to resurrect the MEK as the go-to group for ‘nuclear revelations’. (A role which had become redundant following the 2015 P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran.) However, this has already backfired as the MEK are notorious for fabrication and lies. According to MEK websites, in an appearance on Fox News, John Bolton claimed that the MEK had “long known a lot about the inside of the nuclear weapons program in Iran,” and had “been right in every material respect.”

Unfortunately he has either a short memory or no memory for facts, or both, as this article from two years ago reveals: Article from February 2015 which exposes fake information disseminated by the MEK.

April 28, 2017

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Iran

Iran’s people care about elections. Pahlavi/Rajavi doesn’t

Iran’s people care about elections. The so-called democratic fringe doesn’t

Trump’s hard talk has buoyed Iran’s exiled opposition, like the son of the late Shah and the shadowy MEK. But these intemperate voices are not to be trusted

In Donald Trump, opponents of the Iranian establishment bent on regime change have identified a new hope. The US administration, which often talks tough on Iran, has rejuvenated fringe exiled Iranian opposition groups who are irrelevant to modern Iran, yet appeal to gullible Americans.

One such group is led by Reza Pahlavi, who gets attention mainly because he is the son of the late Shah, who was exiled during the revolution in 1979. An “advocate of secularism, human rights, and parliamentary democracy in Iran” as he puts it on his Twitter profile, he reached out to Trump to congratulate him when he won the election, asking him to to engage “with the ‎secular and democratic forces” to defeat “political Islam”.

In his letter, he wrote that the Islamic Republic was promoting a “regressive ideology [that] has spread like a ‎cancer across the globe: from the Middle East to Asia and Africa, and even to Europe and the ‎Americas”. With such overblown rhetoric, Pahlavi sounds like war-mongering Republicans and Israeli hardliners who seek to portray Iran as a bigger threat than Isis.

“Iran’s exiled crown prince wants a revolution,” is how AP began its interview with Pahlavi in April, in which he says “this regime is simply irreformable because the nature of it, its DNA, is such that it cannot”.

“My focus right now is on liberating Iran, and I will find any means that I can, without compromising the national interests and independence, with anyone who is willing to give us a hand, whether it is the US or the Saudis or the Israelis or whomever it is,” he told AP.

In February, Pahlavi told Deutsche Welle that “the Iranian regime from the very beginning has been the root cause of practically every problem we see emanating from that region … The majority of the Iranian people, I would say easily 90% of Iran’s society, is against this regime and wants this regime to go.”

The other group calling for a revolution is the MEK (the People’s Mujahedin of Iran), a shadowy group characterised by many observers – including former members – as cult-like. Earlier this month, Senator John McCain travelled to a conference in Albania to meet with the group’s leader, Maryam Rajavi. Speaking in a packed room of MEK supporters, many wearing identical clothes, McCain praised the group and said: “This is an example of the support you are able to get in the United States of America, in the world, to get you to get to freedom.”

Rajavi, who has led the group for almost as long as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been the supreme leader of Iran, said during the conference that “experience has shown that this regime is incapable of changing its behaviour. Thus, regime change in Iran is necessary for peace and stability in the region and for global peace and security.” 

Contrary to what you might expect, these two opposition forces do not get along. “It’s pretty much a cult-type structure,” Pahlavi said of MEK in his AP interview. He’s absolutely right.

It’s not long ago that the MEK, described by US thinktank Rand as a “skilled manipulators of public opinion”, was listed by the US and the EU as a terrorist organisation. (When it was delisted by the US in 2012, the US government acknowledged that the organisation had renounced violence and had committed no terrorist acts for more than a decade. It was also delisted by the EU in 2009). The group fought alongside Saddam Hussein against Iran in the eight-year war in the 1980s. That itself should explain its immense unpopularity inside Iran. According to state department and FBI assessments, the MEK was behind the killing of Americans in Iran in the 1970s, though the current MEK leadership disavows those killings. Rajavi has also been barred from entering the UK.

In recent years, the MEK has paid many senior American officials to speak at their events, including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Elaine Chao, Trump’s secretary of transportation, who received a $50,000 honorarium to speak at an MEK event.

A strong supporter of the MEK is Saudi Arabia. In July 2016, Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former Saudi intelligence chief, spoke at MEK’s rally in Paris.

In a not-so-subtle reference to Saudi Arabia, the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad-Javad Zarif, said: “In most countries in our region election is a dream … You are talking about a region where people don’t have a constitution for God’s sake.”

Zarif has a point. In a few week’s time, Iranians yet again go to the polls to choose their next government. Groups such as MEK have portrayed Iranian elections as futile. In reality, elections do matter in Iran. While they are far from being fair, given the extent of the vetting of candidates, they are still competitive and are taken seriously by the electorate.

There’s a constant battle in Iran between the elected faction of the establishment, and the unelected faction. In 2013, Iran’s majority pro-reform population threw its weight behind Hassan Rouhani. Iran has indeed drastically changed under the moderate cleric.  

 […]

Nevertheless, the Iranian people by and large still believe in gradual change, however slow the pace of reform might be. Huge turnouts for elections represent a rejection of the sort of things that Pahlavi and Rajavi have to offer.

In their constant mission to demonise Iran, the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia have heavily relied on groups such as MEK. The fact of the matter is that they remain out of touch with the realities on the ground. Both groups have used human rights as a casus belli, and have simplified the complexities of politics on the ground to suit the foreign audience. So long as reform-minded Iranians are working hard to generate change from within, the intemperate voices of Pahlavi and Rajavi, and their attempts to build political capital in the west, should be dismissed.

By Saeed Kamali Dehghan

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