++ Among ex members’ online activity this week is a memoir of MEK life in Iraq. The writer talks about how the MEK used and abused the members until they have become exhausted and almost disabled. He says that now the MEK has swapped the desert for a city but the abuse is the same; overwork until we cannot think properly any more. Another writer talking about Albania describes the difference between the standard of living enjoyed by the leadership elite and the struggles of the rank and file who do not have proper food or clothing. Maryam Rajavi spends whatever money the MEK has in order to promote herself, says the writer, but nobody in the MEK dares to raise their voice. If they do, they will be labelled an ‘agent of the Iranian regime’ and put on trial to explain themselves – why did you think of that, what is wrong with you – rather than it being acknowledged as just a statement of fact.
++ Ex member Ehsan Bidi in Tirana this week wrote a short article referring to an item on the MEK’s website which is titled ‘the punishment for being a lion is to be caged’. Bidi says ‘you have written this to wring out tears for Massoud Rajavi, but I believe that it’s because you can’t give proof that he’s alive and now you are trying to say he is alive in this way’ – by claiming he is not making himself known because he is in some way constrained. Bidi also adds that Maryam has tried to use this time of absence to replace him but she can’t. She is bogged down in Albania and can’t keep the MEK going.
++ Ex member Davoud Baghervand Arshad attended a meeting in the European Parliament about Yemen. He exposed MEK-Saudi Arabia collusion in relation to Yemen. Arshad explained that this goes back to the time of Saddam Hussein when Massoud Rajavi clandestinely visited Saudi Arabia and met with Turki Al Faisal, who was head of Saudi intelligence at that time. From that time, they worked together on different issues in the Middle East, including Yemen. Two other ex members, Batoul Soltani and Reza Sadeghi, attended a different meeting in the European Parliament.
In English:
++ Albanian Pa Rrena website writes a short opinion piece exhorting people to remember, as they worry about various destabilizing scenarios involving Russia or Serbia, the MEK are already in Albania as a destabilizing factor.
++ Massoud Khodabandeh published a piece in Top Topic exposing Maryam Rajavi’s plots to blackmail the Albanian government into replacing the role played by Saddam Hussein; in Iraq any dissident members could be sent to a political prison. Rajavi has used the forced confessions of dissenting members to threaten her group that in Albania she has even more power than in Iraq. She published letters of support by US personalities to underline her message that she is directly backed by the CIA and Pentagon.
++ Press TV reports that Iranian anti-terror activists met with the Swiss Ambassador to Iran, Giulio Haas, who represents American interests in Iran. They told him about MEK terrorist activity in Iran and said, “All the families of the victims of terrorism are shocked by how [US] senators and officials are linked with and support the MKO leaders and consider it as a blatant support for terrorism in the international arena”.
++ In an interesting article Mazda Parsi of Nejat Society contrasts the MEK’s propaganda against the Iranian elections with the extremely undemocratic behaviour of the group itself. “A look at the history of the MKO and the Iranian government demonstrates the dimensions of democracy that are observed in each establishment. While the MKO cult leaders accuse the Iranian authorities of being fundamentalist, dictator and undemocratic there have never recorded a fair election in the whole history of the group. The above-mentioned type of undemocratic elections are exactly the only ones that were held in the MKO. No matter the person is supposed to be selected for what rank, there is always one candidate and members are supposed to vote for this only one without any opposition. In the voting process, there is no polling station, no ballot box. No one’s vote is secret. Members of the Cult of Rajavi have to raise their hands in a public ceremony to indicate their agreement with the selected person. There is no alternative choice and there is no option to dissent the selected person.”
May 12, 2017
neighbours for the first time in two decades and the loss of their leader Massoud Rajavi have all profoundly affected the members. They now have the ‘luxury’ to think and their changed environment and circumstances have led them to challenge the leadership.
‘humanitarian aid’.
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]
r I was in captivity in Iraq.
promoters of democratic ideals and values, is merely a knee jerk reaction to a behavior I have found reprehensible.