Page 281 – Nejat Society

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

April 29, 2017 0 comments

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

April 29, 2017 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Daniel McAdams on how the Mojahedin-e Khalq bribed its way off the US terrorism list

Daniel McAdams, Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, discusses the bipartisan coalition of top US politicians, including John McCain, who accepted money from the MEK to lobby for their removal from the State Department’s terrorism list; and Rand Paul’s assertion that the US should stay out of the Syrian civil war, in direct contradiction to warmongers McCain and Lindsey Graham.

Scott Horton is Managing Director of The Libertarian Institute, host of Antiwar Radio for Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles and KUCR 88.3 in Riverside, podcasts the Scott Horton Show from scotthorton.org, and is the Opinion Editor of Antiwar.com. He’s conducted more than 4,000 interviews since 2003. He is a fan of, but no relation to the lawyer from Harper’s. Scott lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, investigative reporter Larisa Alexandrovna.

April 27, 2017 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

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:

BREAKING:

Amateur hour at the pro-war media, latest allegations by Mojahedin Khalq (Rajavi cult) FABRICATED.

April 26, 2017 0 comments

Iran

Iran Not to Retreat from Plans to Boost Missile Power: Defense Minister

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan underlined that the Islamic Republic will never hesitate to boost its missile power in the face of foreign threats against the country’s defense program.

Addressing a gathering of commanders of the Law Enforcement Force in Tehran on Sunday, Brigadier General Dehqan rejected recent US allegations against Iran and said they have their roots in the false claims made by the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).

“We have many times responded to the Americans and therefore, they should be certain that the Iranian nation will never accept any humiliation or imposition (of will) by any power,” he noted.

The country will never retreat from its plans to boost its defense and missile power, the defense minister added.

He made the remarks in reference to recent MKO allegations that Iran is violating the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) by “secretly conducting research into nuclear weapons components” at the Parchin military site in Iran.

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 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.

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.

April 24, 2017 0 comments

Iran

Falling for MKO turns out badly for US every time: Iran official

A senior Iranian official has warned the US against being misled by the anti-Iran propaganda campaign of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization’s (MKO), saying Washington has suffered every time it has trusted the notorious group.

“The US government must not fall into the trap of the false signals and misleading incrimination by the terrorists and their regional allies for spreading Iranophobia,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi said on Saturday.

“The previous US governments have tested this path multiple times and have taken a knock every time,” he added.

Araqchi made the remarks in reaction to recent MKO allegations claiming that the Islamic Republic is violating the historical nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the US, by secretly conducting research into nuclear weapons components at the Parchin military site in Iran.

Araqchi dismissed the MKO claim about secret nuclear activity at the site and said, “The repetition of these outdated allegations by the aforementioned group is ridiculous and a repeat of a failed scenario whose fallacy has already been proven by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).”

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia – plus Germany signed the JCPOA on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

Under the agreement, limits were put on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related bans against the Islamic Republic.

The IAEA has on multiple occasions confirmed Iran’s adherence to its commitments under the JCPOA.

The nuclear deal helped nullify the six anti-Iran resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, and fully closed the case of the so-called possible military dimensions (PMD) of Iran’s nuclear program.

The Iranian official also said the fact that the MKO terrorists have once again resorted to such a “defeated scenario shows the extent of their ideological and political retardation and their desperate efforts for complaisance before the new US ruling administration and preparing fodder for the extremists of that country who are hopelessly seeking a way to walk away from the JCPOA.”

Araqchi added that the terrorist and notorious MKO group has never had any place among the Iranian nation and the international community no longer pays any heed to the claims made by the terrorist group either.

He also stressed that the Islamic Republic will not accept any excuses by any of the parties to the nuclear deal, particularly the US, to live up to their commitments and will outline all of the cases of Washington’s foot-dragging and non-performance in the implementation of the agreement in a meeting of the Iran-P5+1 Joint Commission, which monitors the execution of the accord, next week.

April 24, 2017 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 187

++ News this week was dominated by the meeting between US Senator John McCain and MEK leader Maryam Rajavi in Tirana, Albania. Sahar Family Foundation reports from Tirana reveal that there has been a serious wave of backlash among the members following this meeting. In particular, senior MEK members are angry that Rajavi presented McCain with the MEK’s famous ‘book of martyrs’ (a list of people the MEK claims died on its behalf, some genuine, some not). The members say that the martyrs on this list gave their lives waging genuine anti-Imperialist, anti-American armed struggle. Now, Rajavi has presented the book to America’s chief warmonger!

++ In other reports from Albania, Maryam Rajavi is ridiculed for her instruction that the upcoming election in Iran signals the downfall of the regime, so therefore people should not think of leaving the MEK at this time.

++ Ismael Vafa Yaghmai, a poet and former NCRI member, wrote an article titled ‘Anger Sorrow and Surprise – the problem is not Rajavi, the problem is us’. Yaghmai explains that Massoud Rajavi was first linked to Russia, then Iraq and now America. We should accept that he has always shown this inconsistency and it is us who haven’t seen or accepted this reality. ‘We like to believe that Rajavi should act on principle and have always been shocked when this doesn’t happen and the MEK acts in a mercenary way.’

++ Reza Taghizadeh writes in Kayhan London an article titled ‘Rendezvous in Tirana’. The article explains how the MEK has moved from killing Americans to now singing in front of the American flag and applauding the leading warmonger of the Americans. Taghizadeh concludes his article by accepting that the time has long passed that Rajavi’s aim has anything to do with Iran and that the only aim now is to do whatever is necessary or available to retain the old and dying members in Albania to keep the MEK name alive.

In English:

++ Various points of view and analyses concerning the meeting between McCain and Rajavi.

++ Nejat Society reports the story of Ameneh Haqiqat and Akbar Rabiei who joined the MEK in the mid-1980s along with their young child. They joined the group to make a better life. However as soon as they entered the MEK camps they understood that the Mojahedin Khalq is a destructive cult rather than a political organization. Rajavi insisted that families be disbanded through divorce and the separation of children. The daughter was sent to an MEK camp in Europe. Now grown up she travelled to Albania to contact her parents in the MEK. As a result, they decided to leave the cult and will shortly leave Albania.

April 21, 2017

April 24, 2017 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

McCain does not help the MKO

A Dutch friend of mine who has recently returned from a business trip to Iran, asked me, “Why many taxi drivers in Tehran are interested in international politics?” In fact, after asking him where he is from, some drivers who could speak English began discussing issues such as the rise of right-wing in Europe, Syrian war, and Trump.

I tried to explain to him that Iranians, in general, are interested in political issues which are probably because of the important geopolitical location of the country. However, we should not ignore the impact of too many media which broadcast politics in a daily basis. He was long enough in Iran and had contact with diplomatic community Iran which provided him with a clear image about the country. So I asked him about the people`s interest in opposition abroad. He glanced and said, No chance at all. Any reform would begin from inside.

I agree. The groups like MKO (aka Mojahedin Khalq of Iran) are never forgiven by Iranian people for their betrayal to the motherland and supporting Saddam Hossein during Iran-Iraq war. It is well known that the group consists of a bunch of older fanatics and a few younger robots. A long time ago they lost their respect and support. But can Senator John McCain help them to change their poor image?

Recently in a trip to Albania, which also hosts MKO members as refugees now, he paid a visit to them and to the group’s leader Maryam Rajavi. However, I have reasons to believe that McCain`s visit to MKO does not bring popularity or credit for the group with a notorious terrorist background.

1- McCain and people like him who visit MKO and attend their events (like the Saudis or other retired American officials) are not popular people themselves. They do not support human right, pluralism or political development. Even worst, among these types of MKO supporters, many have clearly demanded a war on Iran! So how this gang of politically incorrect people can add value to MKO?

2- People like McCain consider MKO as a tool to pressure Tehran, in favor of the rival Saudis. They are fully aware that the group is unpopular in Iran. Thus despite what MKO wants to show in its propaganda, McCain uses them to send a message to Tehran. MKO is only a channel of communication! Therefore it can be concluded that the American and Saudis who participate in MKO meetings are not supporting the group but opposing Tehran. Personally, I think that they have been making the same old dumb mistake.

3- Iranian people have historically shown that they are not in favor of changes from abroad, nor from foreign powers getting involved in their issues. This is a fact that has been confirmed by the more rationale employees of the state department. Therefore such lobby programs are not appreciated by Iranian people and reformist opposition. As a consequence, these types of meetings do not accredit MKO.

In conclusion, it can be argued that MKO gains nothing by organizing meetings with warlords, right-wing activists, and Saudis. A group which is unpopular in Iran has proven that will not be accepted as a player in Iran. My Dutch friend also agreed and added: “Iranians hebben een hekel aan MKO. Which means Iranians hate MKO.”

Arash Sameti Pour

http://www.Irangids.nl

April 22, 2017 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

The Enemy of My Enemy is NOT Always My Friend

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

I’m starting to think John McCain may fit that definition.

All due respect to the Senator from Arizona, whose military service during Vietnam was both brave and heroic, but it completely escapes me why he continues to support “rebel” organizations who many times end up being just as dangerous as the despotic regimes.

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.

McCain recently held a meeting with the head of MKO – a rebel faction opposed to the current Iranian regime – where he sang the group’s praises.

While I understand McCain’s dislike and distrust of the Iranian regime and Assad, MKO may not be quite so innocent, either, as they stand accused of thousands of deaths.

In fact, as recently as 2012, MKO was listed as a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union. There are many questions about what they may or may not have done, but there is no question about what they want.

“Today, there is a consensus in the Middle East about the clerical regime’s destructive role and that the religious fascism ruling Iran is the primary source of war, terrorism and crisis in the region,” said Maryam Rajavi, MKO’s leader.

“Regime change is not only indispensable to ending the egregious violations of human rights in Iran but also to establishing peace and tranquility in the region. As long as the clerical regime is in power, it will not abandon the export of terrorism and fundamentalism.”

Regime change. Just like Nicaragua. Or Afghanistan. Or Iraq. Or Libya. Or countless other nations we made unquestionably worse with our involvement.

Of course, McCain is by no means alone in his insanity.

According to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, U.S. intelligence has been working with MKO for quite some time. Bin Laden had worked with U.S. intelligence for quite a while as well, when we were fighting the Soviets and saw him and his group as an asset.

If you aren’t sure how that turned out, go ahead and read about what happened on 9/11.

And that’s really the point here: The “enemy of my enemy is my friend” philosophy simply does not work. We have been slapped in the face with this fact over and over again, but like a battered wife who keeps returning to her abusive husband, we keep thinking that next time will be different.

But as we know all too well by now, this always plays out the same in the end. Today’s ally is tomorrow enemy. Today’s freedom fighters are tomorrow’s terrorists. And vice versa.

You would think we would have learned our lesson by now, but apparently, we still haven’t. I don’t know what it is going to take, but through their constant repeating of the same mistake, I’m pretty sure that if the government were a person, they would be wearing a strait jacket at this point.

Dr. Munr Kazmir, Contributor Doctor, businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist

April 22, 2017 0 comments

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