Ms. Shahi is the suffering mother of Abbas Shahi. Abbas is taken hostage by the Mujahedin-e Khalq now for years.
The aged mother says:” we raised our children with difficulty and adversity. Rajavi deceived them. Rajavi will have no good future. I am sure that my dear son will come back to me …”
Abbas’s brother said:” we will do our utmost efforts to release my brother from this terrorist cult. Rajavi has no place in Iran. ..”
With respect,
We have been informed that you have travelled to Albania intending to meet with Maryam Rajavi the wife of Massoud Rajavi, leader of the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (aka MEK, NCRI). We have also discovered that, in an interview with Albanian media and to the question of the reporter about your views about the Mojahedin 
Khalq (Rajavi cult), you have responded: “I have not yet met them [MEK] but I have heard they don’t have any problems in Albania”.
Dear Dr Shaheed,
We are a group of ex-members of the MEK in Albania who are residing in Tirana. We have all sorts of problems caused by the group. We are amazed that a person like you has not heard about all these problems here.
How can you accept that a political refugee in Albania instead of receiving his/her benefits (housing, payment, medical care, etc.) from the UNHCR and the local authorities and national government of Albania, is forced to get it as a hand-out from the leadership of the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation? And how is it not obvious to you that the MEK uses this arrangement to take all sorts of advantages whether political, social, personal and even extending it to the misuse of our families?
Why don’t you and the UNHCR arrange a situation so that the ex-members and members alike could receive their benefits directly from the UNHCR according to the UN’s own clear laws? Don’t you think that the refusal of the UNHCR office in Tirana to apply the UN laws and the help it gives to the MEK to put pressure on the ex-members and members alike is a breach of UN laws pertaining to refugees and their fundamental human rights?
Don’t you think it would be better that you, instead of only arranging to meet with Maryam Rajavi, would also perhaps visit a few of the ex-members trapped in Tirana? Or even visit a few members inside the Mojahedin Khalq and have private conversations with them without the presence of MEK minders?
Dr Shaheed,
Unfortunately, Iran over the past years has been the main beneficiary of your clandestine and deeply suspicious and corrupt relationship with the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation and its criminal leaders. And unfortunately you alongside the MEK have been the biggest obstacle in pushing forward the issue of human rights in Iran.
Your honor, are you aware of the violation of Human Rights in this Cult like Organization?
Amongst them:
-Prevention of the members from outside world even their children and families.
-Military use of the children.
-Suppression of the dissident members, imprisonment, torture, and killing them at the time of Sadam Hossein the late Iraqi dictator.
-Force divorcing the members from their spouse and separating the children from their parents.
-Running systematic mind manipulation and inquisition sessions, against the members.
Your honor
At the end we would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to your honor and thank you again for all your humanitarian activities.
With best regards
“Azadi Associaition”, the survivors in Albania
Cc:
– UN Secretary General
– Mr Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees
– Ministers of Affairs of the EU
– Relevant MEPs
Iran Azadi,
Dear Honorable Minister,
My name is Reza Jebelli. I am a former member of Rajavi cult, who had been for most of my life in captivity both physically and mentally in Iraq in Ashraf Garrison for many years.
I have learned through my friends that Maryam Rajavi is scheduled on July first to celebrate the anniversary of armed conflict, terror and killing people, to overthrow Iranian government and to establish an Islamic caliphate in Iran.
Dear Minister,
At the time that terrorism and the ideology of hatred have targeted our innocent children in Europe, I would like to bring your urgent attention to the history of Rajaiv’s cult and terrorism so you would be able to see that Rajavi was the creator of such operations 36 years ago in different cities in Iran.
Rajavi started the killing of innocent children precisely like ISIS with seven suicide bombing in the public places but only 36 years ago. As a former member of this cult, I will assure you that cowardly terrorist operations, such as the killing of children in Manchester Concert by Isis has been exactly copied from Rajavi’s operations and those operations inspired ISIS to do the same suicide attacks decade later, and today they are everywhere, including Europe.
These refugees are mostly undocumented and are therefore not allowed to travel due to the threat of ISIS agents among them, but the cult falsely tells them that this trip will be authorized by the authorities. In this respect, the relevant specifications and documents were delivered to the Belgian authorities.
Your Excellency,
While Isis is carrying out terrorist operations throughout Europe and looking for ways to travel between cities and countries in Europe, I would like urgently to draw your attention to the possibility of using this opportunity to travel easily to France.
As a European citizen, it is my duty to warn against this threat and I hope that you and your new government take a firm stance against this terrorist and once for all say a big NO to terrorism especially to Rajavi.
Given my years of experience, all the terrorist groups follow closely and precisely the traces of their ideological brothers in other groups and this method of smuggling would certainly be monitored by ISIS.
Policy of appeasing the terrorist will make them grow bigger, faster and more and more powerful.
Sincerely,
Reza Jebelli
Brussels
3/6/2017
Transcript to:
President office
Department of Justice
President of National Assembly
Reza Jebelli, “Payvand Rahahee” Association,
The latest article written and published by the Sahar Family Foundation titled
‘For the attention of former MEK members in Albania: What is to be done? Where does the UNHCR refugee allowance of individual MEK members go?’
was fully translated and published in the Albanian paper GAZETA IMPAKT under the title of
‘Çfarë duhet bërë me Muxhahedinët në Shqipëri? Ku shkon ndihma financiare për refugjatët e UNHCR-së për anëtarët individualë të “MEK-ut?’
A link to the above mentioned coverage can be reached below:
Çfarë duhet bërë me Muxhahedinët në Shqipëri?[http://gazetaimpakt.com/cfare-duhet-bere-muxhahedinet-ne-shqiperi/ ]
The original English text is shown in the link below:
John McCain, member of the US Senate;
John Bolton, former US Ambassador to the UN;
Robert Torricelli, former member of the US Senate;
We learned that you, prominent US politicians, have been invited by Maryam Rajavi to participate in the Mojahedin-e Khalq’s gatherings in Tirana, Albania on different occasions.
But we, the suffering families of the members of the MEK in Albania, are deprived of any contact with our loved ones. You are supporting an organization whose members do not have the right to any contact with the outside world, in particular their families.
The MEK is a destructive mind control cult which utilizes mind manipulation techniques to control its followers, and like any other cult, is strongly against any family relations. Behind the apparent democratic face of the cult, there is a notorious thought control system which denies the most basic human rights to members.
We urge you to ask the organization that you support to allow its members to benefit from the minimum right of contact with their families, many of whom have had no news from their loved ones for more than 30 years.
Families of the MEK members in Albania
June, 1st 2017
Jihad 2.0: the Making of the Next Nightmare
You are about to enter the ultimate minefield.
Let’s start with 28 EU leaders discussing the Western Balkans at a recent summit and blaming – what else – “Russian aggression” in the EU’s backyard.
Cue to a Montenegro prosecutor raging that “Russian state bodies” staged a coup attempt during the October 2016 elections to stop the country from joining NATO.
And cue to President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker warning that Donald Trump’s anti-EU rhetoric could lead to war in the Balkans. Juncker, condescending as ever, maintains that, “If we leave them to themselves — Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, Macedonia, Albania, all of these countries — we will have a war again.”
The Balkans may be about to explode – all over again. Yet with a twist; unlike 1999, NATO won’t get away with bombing a defenseless Belgrade for 78 days. A new generation of Russian missiles would easily prevent it.
The 1999 tragedy in the Balkans was essentially stirred up by fake massacres in Kosovo set up by the BND – German intelligence — using local Albanians and BND agent provocateurs, who shot both sides to stir up a war and break up Yugoslavia.
All Eyes on Albania
What’s evolving at the current geopolitical juncture is even murkier.
The usual suspects do what they usually do; blame Russia, and damn any evidence.
So let a knowledgeable insider, Dr. Olsi Jazexhi, director of the Free Media Institute in Tirana, Albania, be our guide.
As Dr. Jazexhi explains, “after Brennan left Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania, a close friend of George Soros, gathered all Albanian political parties in Macedonia and ordered them to support Zoran Zaev against Nikola Gruevski. Gruevski is seen as filo-Russian and anti-NATO, while Zaev is a lapdog of Soros. As a result, Gruevski was boycotted by Albanians and Zaev had their support to form a government. The promise of Zaev to Albanians is that Macedonia will adapt Albanian as an official language and create a third (half) Albanian state in the Balkans. Macedonians are resisting, but Tirana and Edi Rama are orchestrating Albanian political parties against Gruevski. The end game is to make Macedonia a NATO member.”
Jazexhi also details how, “in Albania, we have two major terrorist organizations being protected by the Americans and the Europeans.”
The first is what Ankara describes as the Fetullah Gulen Terror organization (FETO), allegedly instrumentalized by German intelligence; “Turkey is protesting why Albania hosts the FETO group but the Americans host them against Erdogan.”
The second is Mojahedin-e Khalq (MKO), which fights against Tehran; “Albania is being turned into the center of MKO. John Bolton was recently in Tirana, with other international supporters of MKO, and they are attacking Iran and calling for regime change.”
The MKO’s wacky Marjam Rajavi has also visited Tirana, developing plans to “topple the Ayatollahs” in Iran.
The key issue, as Jazexhi emphasizes, is that “after turning the Balkans into a recruiting center for ISIS/Daesh during the Syria war, now the Americans are turning Albania into a jihad 2.0 state.”
Meanwhile, the European Union and the Americans, who want to de-radicalize the Wahhabi Muslims of Europe, keep mum about the Iranian jihadis.”
The “Invisible” Enemy
But then there is the “invisible” enemy that really matters.
In late March, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic went to Beijing in his last official visit before the April 2 elections. Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed that economic cooperation with Serbia – and the Balkans at large – is a priority for China.
No question. In 2014, Beijing created a fund that will invest 10 billion euros in Central and Eastern Europe. Last year, China Everbright bought Tirana’s airport in Albania. China Exim Bank is financing highway construction in both Macedonia and Montenegro.
In Serbia, China Road and Bridge Corporation built the 170 million euro Pupin bridge over the Danube in Belgrade – a.k.a. the “Sino-Serbian Friendship Bridge”, inaugurated in 2014 and 85% financed by a China Exim Bank loan.
And the cherry in the (infrastructure development) cake is the 350 km, $2.89 billion high-speed rail line between Athens and Budapest, via Macedonia and Belgrade.
The EU has set off alarm bells on the flagship $1.8 billion Budapest-Belgrade stretch, investigating whether the Hungarian section violated strict EU laws according to which public tenders are a must for large transportation projects.
Inbuilt is the proverbial Western haughtiness, ruling that the Chinese could not possibly be capable of building high-speed rail infrastructure as well if not better – and for a lower cost – than in Europe.
Budapest-Belgrade happens to be the crucial stretch of the Land Sea Express Route that Beijing pledged to build, way back in 2014, with Hungary, Serbia and Macedonia. That’s the crux of the Southeastern Europe node of the New Silk Roads, now Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); a trade corridor between the container port of Pireus, in the Mediterranean – co-owned by China Ocean Shipping Company since 2010 – all the way to Central Europe.
NATO’s official spin is that it must be planted in the Balkans to fight the “threat of terrorism.” According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, “I recently visited Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo, and I’m encouraged to see how focused they are on countering the threat of foreign fighters.”
Jihad 2.0 may be directed against Slavs in Macedonia, against Iran and against Turkey. Not to mention against the Russian underbelly. The invisible angle is that they can always be deployed to jeopardize China’s drive to integrate southeast Europe as a key node of the New Silk Roads.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.
Pepe Escobar, Sputnik news,
A meeting in the European Parliament on 30 May discussed the problems associated with the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MEK) both inside the Parliament and across Europe and the wider world.
The meeting, which was attended by MEPs, researchers and analysts along with representatives of agencies outside the parliament such as security personnel, was organised by Ana Gomes, SND (Portugal) and seconded by Marietje Schaake, ALDE (Netherlands) and Michael Gahler, Christian Democrats (Germany).
All three have a clear record as outspoken critics of Iran’s human rights record and are concerned about the impact of MEK activity on this issue.
Two expert speakers were invited to address the meeting: Nicola Pedde, Director Institute for Global Studies, Italy and Massoud Khodabandeh, Director Middle East Strategy Consultants, UK.
Since all the participants have seen first-hand that the MEK spends enormous amounts of money for publicity and lobbying, the first issue to be discussed was ‘who funds the MEK and what is their agenda?’ It soon became apparent that the MEPs are fully aware that the MEK has never existed as an independent group and has benefitted over three decades from funding streams from specific circles which are trying to engineer regime change in the Middle East. The question then became whether these sponsors understand that the cost benefit of supporting the MEK is not giving positive returns but in fact has a negative result for them in their regime change agendas.
Further discussion by representatives revealed that the MEK has been shunned by almost every Parliament across Europe.
In spite of this, MEK members can still gain access to the European Parliament because it is an open institution. The problem this presents is the bullying tactics used by the MEK to intimidate MEPs and their staff. Several delegates at the meeting gave first-hand evidence of this. One MEP said that within ten minutes of taking one particular stance he was bombarded by mass emails some of which contained swearing and threats. Delegates agreed that this is incompatible with the fundamental principles of any Parliament in which representatives must be able to speak and act free from any pressure or intimidation.
Nicola Pedde described to delegates his work in the Italian Parliament where MPs are persuaded to sign petitions by bogus human rights campaigners. Pedde said that when he asked, many of the signatories were unaware that the MEK was behind the petition and didn’t realise that various sentences or paragraphs were added afterwards to give support for Maryam Rajavi and her agenda. Pedde said some MPs were even strongly against the MEK and were very angry about being deceived in this way. They had thought they were condemning human rights abuses in Iran, but their names were then misused to depict them as supporters of terrorists in Albania.
The discussion moved on to the problem of accepting the MEK as advocates of human rights for Iran. Ana Gomes said that when Iranian Nobel Human Rights Prize winner Shirin Ebadi visited the European Parliament, she was unequivocal in saying that the MEK do not have the right to be described as human rights activists. Quite the opposite, they are abusers themselves, she said. Massoud Khodabandeh reminded delegates that in a recent interview with AP, Reza Pahlavi – who wants to restore the monarchy to Iran – dismissed the MEK as a cult. In addition, every Iranian opposition group from the Greens to the Nationalists has rejected the MEK as human rights advocates and as a political entity.
More concerning for delegates is that the government of Iran is quick to use the MEK’s advocacy for human rights as a means to dismiss the issue, pointing out that the terrorist group murdered thousands of Iranian citizens and still commits human rights abuse against its own members. Massoud Khodabandeh gave an example from the UK House of Lords in which Haleh Afshar – a prominent Iranian feminist and academic who now sits in the House as Baroness Afshar – hosted a parliamentary debate about human rights in Iran. The challenging discussion, with valuable contributions from several informed members, was completely undermined by one of the MEK’s supporters who asserted that only Maryam Rajavi and her group could bring freedom and human rights to Iran. The government of Iran cannot be expected to even respond to such a debate said Khodabandeh.
Nicola Pedde made an interesting comment when he said that the MEK cannot be considered as a viable force because, as a result of its cultish behaviour, the MEK do not have a second generation. They have effectively killed themselves, he told delegates, because marriage and family are banned for all members.
The third issue to be discussed was the MEK presence in Albania. Delegates heard how the MEK had been forced to leave Iraq and how the Americans arranged for the UN to be able to transfer them to Albania. The government of Iraq was relieved to be rid of three thousand MEK who had been part of Saddam Hussein’s repressive forces, but the problem has now simply been moved to Albania. The Americans promised help to de-radicalise the MEK members. But, as Massoud Khodabandeh pointed out, this did not happen and the group was allowed to re-group as a terrorist cult and treat its members as modern slaves.
Delegates discussed Albania’s candidature to join the European Union in light of this situation and agreed that this is not just incompatible but that having trained terrorists on the doorstep of Europe is already a security threat to Europe. Delegates stressed that European security services need to take this threat seriously from now.
Reports also described the human rights abuses inflicted on MEK members by their own leaders. They are living in conditions of modern slavery because the UNHCR is acting illegally by paying refugee allowances to the organisation instead of to the individual members. This means members are forced into dependency on the group and cannot leave. Members are also prevented from contacting their families or even other former members so they do not have any recourse to external help or support.
As the two speakers gave their expert analysis throughout the meeting, they also offered suggestions for solutions. Khodabandeh urged delegates to put pressure on the Albanian authorities and the UNHCR to resolve the hostage condition of MEK members in Albania.
Pedde said MEPs should be briefed about the danger of supporting human rights through using groups like the MEK.
At the end the meeting was also opened to the audience for discussion. Former MEK members, Ali Akbar Rastgou, Batoul Soltani, Reza Sadeghi and Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad were able to join the discussion at this time.
In conclusion delegates discussed various solutions which are open to them. It was important, they said, to find ways to tackle these problems because parliament cannot be held hostage to bullies. A package of activities was agreed in order to curtail the MEK’s deceptive and intimidating activities in Parliament. Other solutions to the wider problems were also agreed and will be put in place throughout the rest of the year.
Right-wing, anti-Iranian figures and media in the United States have begun circulating claims that Iran had 
violated the JCPOA that resulted from the P5+1 nuclear negotiations, and indeed has a nuclear weapons program. Various pro-Israeli and anti-Iranian voices in the US echoed this claim. Mark Toner was even asked about the allegations during a press briefing in April. The source for this allegation was the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a front group for the Mujahadeen E-Khalq (People’s Holy Warriors). Putting aside the group’s shady history, terrorism, and bizarre cultish practices, the claims should have immediately been discredited. Why? These exact same forces were caught lying back in 2015, with similar claims. In 2015, as the nuclear negotiations were nearing their completion, the NCIR published photos of a safe, claiming it was in Iran and contained materials related to a secret nuclear weapons program. The photo the NCIR released was proven to have been taken from a French website selling safes. The group was caught in an obvious lie.
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Iran’s nuclear energy program has never been proven to have any military uses. The International Atomic Energy Agency has watched over all of Iran’s nuclear activities, and following the negotiations in 2015, almost all of the peaceful nuclear energy program has been shut down.
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A Bizarre “Islamo-Marxist” Terrorist Cult
The 2015 photo flub was not the first time the MEK has been caught lying about Iran. Over the last ten years they have continued to make claims that they have proof of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. None of their claims have ever been verified. MEK did, however, cooperate with Israel’s Mossad to assassinate peaceful nuclear scientists teaching at Iranian Universities. Who is the source of all these fraudulent claims that continue to be treated with credibility in the US media? So, who is the MEK?The Mujahadeen E-Khalq is a religious/political cult formed in Iran during the 1970s. At the time Iran was led by a US backed dictator, the Shah. While various groups organized resistance to the Shah in the form of guerrilla warfare, strikes, and protests, the MEK conducted adventurist acts of violence and terrorism. In addition to Iranians, Americans were also victims of MEK’s terrorism prior to the Iranian revolution of 1979.
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The Mujahadeen E-Khalq calls its belief system “Islamo-Marxism.” The founder, Masoud Rajavi, claims to be a prophet brought to earth by God in order to usher in some kind of Islamic Communist revolution. MEK’s beliefs could almost be described as an Islamic version of Reverend Jim Jones “People’s Temple,” which reached its peak during the same time period. Like Rajavi, Jones also claimed to be some kind of prophet who could spiritually combine the world’s religions with soviet-style Marxism in order to foment global revolution. Also like the People’s Temple, many people have died as a result of Rajavi’s fanatical and violent organization.
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A History of Terrorism & War Crimes
After Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the MEK (also called People’s Mujaheddin) briefly aligned with [Ayatollah] Khomeini, hoping they could influence the Iranian revolution from within. After one of their allied clerics was deposed, the MEK launched a bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic. In 1981, the MEK bombed a meeting of Iran’s Islamic Republican Party, killing 72 people.
During the Iraq-Iran war, Saddam Hussein began funding and arming the MEK. The MEK formed an armed body called the Iranian National Liberation Army. In 1988, MEK fighters were airdropped into Iran by Iraqi aircraft. Its members proceeded to raze villages, slaughtering, men, women, and children, before ultimately being defeated by the Iranian military. It is estimated that tens of thousands of civilians were killed by MEK fighters during the Iraq-Iran war.
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After the war, MEK set-up shop in Iraq, being coddled by Saddam Hussein’s government. Hussein used the MEK as shock troops to suppress the Kurds and other uprisings against him during the 1990s.
MEK is now headquartered in France, with Maryam Rajavi, the wife of the cult’s founder, claiming to be Iran’s President in exile. During the 1990s, the cult ordered all members to divorce their spouses, as marriage was considered a distraction from achieving the cult’s goal of toppling the Iranian government. MEK’s base of operation, Camp Ashraf in Iraq, has been operated as a kind of mini-police state. According to Human Rights Watch, within Camp Ashraf, the death penalty and torture is frequently used against residents. Reports described individuals being dragged by ropes around their necks, among other routine atrocities.
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The Spirit of the Agreement
Throughout his presidency, the Tea Party and Republicans frequently accused Barack Obama of being a “Muslim” and a “Communist.” Ironically, however, the Mujahadeen E-Khalq is a favored group of the Republican Party, despite being self-described as “Islamo-Marxists.”With the support of Hillary Clinton, the MEK was removed from the list of designated foreign terrorist organization in 2012 by the US State Department. The decision was based on claims that MEK had “renounced violence.” However, at the very time the process of delisting was in the works, MEK assassinated Iranian Nuclear Scientists.The fact that the group was caught intentionally using a fake photograph against Iran in 2015, in addition to all of its terrorism and war crimes, should discredit its recent statements about Iran in the US media. However, despite their previous lies and horrendous record, certain US media outfits remain so biased and hostile to Iran, that they still repeat their claims.
While no evidence exists that Iran has violated the JCPOA, Donald Trump recently stated to the press that Iran had violated “the spirit of the agreement.” How does one define “the spirit?” Will Iran be punished for such a subjective crime, despite fulfilling all of its written obligations? Only time will tell.
Grean Villepost.com
An American political commentator in Madison said the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO also known as MEK) is making baseless allegations against Tehran’s nuclear program at the request of its “paymasters” in Washington and Tel Aviv.
“…when the MKO makes allegations against Iran’s nuclear program, it is undoubtedly doing so at the behest of its paymasters in Washington, DC and Tel Aviv, who want to put their false charges against Iran into the mouth of a supposedly ‘Iranian’ source,” Kevin Barret told the Tasnim news agency.
Dr. Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist, is one of America’s best-known critics of the War on Terror. Dr. Barrett has appeared many times on Fox, CNN, PBS and other broadcast outlets, and has inspired feature stories and op-eds in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and other leading publications. Dr. Barrett has taught at colleges and universities in San Francisco, Paris, and Wisconsin, where he ran for Congress in 2008. He is the co-founder of the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Alliance, and author of the books Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle Against the 9/11 Big Lie (2007) and Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters (2009). His website is www.truthjihad.com.
The 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 allegations?
Basirat: The MKO is one of the world’s craziest terrorist groups. Its combination of fanatical leftist extremism and irrational strategy and tactics is reminiscent of groups like the Red Brigades and the Baader-Meinhof gang, which we now know were run by the Pentagon’s Operation Gladio during the Cold War.
Like the Red Brigades and the Baader-Meinhof gang, the MKO has no popular support whatsoever. Iranians of all political stripes hate them, largely because MKO operators have murdered thousands of Iranians in terror attacks dating back to the 1980s, when the MKO was an ally of Saddam Hussein in the Imposed War against the Islamic Republic.
How can a group with no popular support continue to operate and garner attention? By serving as a front for Iran’s external enemies, led by the US and Israel. So when the MKO makes allegations against Iran’s nuclear program, it is undoubtedly doing so at the behest of its paymasters in Washington, DC and Tel Aviv, who want to put their false charges against Iran into the mouth of a supposedly “Iranian” source.
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?
Barret: The mercenaries who run MKO undoubtedly want to extract as much money from the US government as they possibly can. And Trump and McCain, despite their personal differences, both take a very hostile anti-Iran line. So this is a marriage made in hell between the terrorist mercenaries and the anti-Iran extremists in the US. The Trump Administration, dominated as it is by Jared Kushner and other followers of Netanyahu, will probably waste more money on the MKO than the Obama Administration did. Strategically, this is a stupid move, because it will harden the resolve of the Iranian people. But Trump’s and Bibi’s people are not very intelligent strategists. They probably imagine they can destabilize Iran using the MKO in the same way the US and its regional “allies” destabilized Libya and Syria using proxies from those countries. What they seemingly don’t realize is that the forces of destabilization did have some support within Libya and Syria, but the MKO has zero support inside Iran. So the only accomplishment of this anti-Iran campaign will be to unite Iranians against the MKO and its backers.
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?
Barret: That is a good question. Why do these backers continue to prop up a failed, fanatical communist terrorist group that all Iranians hate? As I said, the MKO is a strategically counterproductive tool in the hands of Washington and Tel Aviv. Why would Iran’s enemies keep shooting themselves in the foot? I suppose the answer is that the MKO’s backers are deceiving themselves. They get their information about Iran mainly from Iranian exiles in Los Angeles, especially the wealthy, well-connected ones who were often close to the Shah’s ruling circles. Some of these wealthy exiles harbor fanatical hatred for the Islamic Republic. They want to hurt it. And their instinctive hatred leads them to think and act irrationally and to give bad advice to their American and Zionist masters.
A former military intelligence officer with the CIA said MKO works closely with the Israeli spy agency Mossad, noting that the terror group is seeking to create a “false narrative” about Tehran’s nuclear program in a bid to provoke the US to attack Iran.
“MKO (Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, also known as MEK) works closely with the Israeli intelligence service Mossad and is also supported by many pro-Israel American former and current officials as well as congressmen. It has frequently surfaced documents, laptops and false information produced by the Israelis to convince the public that Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon and is cheating on the agreement to limit its nuclear research program. Its ultimate objective is to create a false narrative that would encourage the United States to attack Iran, killing Americans and Iranians but serving Israeli foreign policy objectives…,” Philip Giraldi told the Tasnim news agency.
Philip Giraldi is a former counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a columnist and television commentator who is the Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a group that advocates for more even handed policies by the US government in the Middle East.
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 allegations?
Giraldi: MKO works closely with the Israeli intelligence service Mossad and is also supported by many pro-Israel American former and current officials as well as congressmen. It has frequently surfaced documents, laptops and false information produced by the Israelis to convince the public that Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon and is cheating on the agreement to limit its nuclear research program. Its ultimate objective is to create a false narrative that would encourage the United States to attack Iran, killing Americans and Iranians but serving Israeli foreign policy objectives. Iran does not, in fact, threaten either Israel or the United States.
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?
Giraldi: I fear that the Trump administration, which has already warned Iran several times and is currently undertaking a policy review, will prove to be extremely hostile to Iran. Some congressmen like McCain and Lindsey Graham will be part of this process, using fabricated information provided by MKO to make a case that Iran must be treated as an enemy and dealt with accordingly. This propaganda is also coming directly to Washington from Saudi Arabia as well as Israel.
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?
Giraldi: MKO has also killed Americans and was until four years ago on the list of US recognized terrorist organizations. That MKO has killed many thousands of innocent Iranians is not reported in the western media, so no one knows about it. Those who support MKO do so because they believe it to be a legitimate opposition group to the Iranian government, which is a cause that they support. They fail to recognize that it continues to use terror as a weapon and that it operates as a cult that actually brainwashes and even kills its followers when they step out of line. It is a useful tool for the Iran haters.
