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Great gathering of Mujahedin-e Khalq Cult critics in Paris

Former members of MKO Cult and the group leaders’ critics staged rally in Paris

Defectors and critics of Mujahedin-e Khalq Cult held the protest gathering in Paris Chatelet square on Saturday, July9th, Yaran-e Iran Website reported.

The protest gathering lasted from 11 AM to 4 PM. Defectors of the group who had lost many years of their lives within the cult affairs revealed the group’s true face.

Recounting their ordeals, ex-members exposed the deceptive, inhumane and cultic nature of the MKO. The action welcomed by French citizens as well as Iranians residing there.

Ms. Batoul Soltani, Ms. Homeira Mohammadnejad, Ms. Zahra Moeini and Mr. Issa Azadeh as first hand witnesses, shared their experiences within the cult with the spectators.

Besides, Human rights activists, defectors and critics of Mujahedin-e Khalq cult gathered together at evening of the same day in order to shed light on the true face of Rajavis’ Cult.

Mr. Mostafa Mohammadi whose daughter is held hostage by the MKO, Ms. Batoul Soltani, Ms. Homeria Mohammadnejad, MS. Zahra Moeini, Mr. Aliakbar Rastgou, Mr. Mohammadhussein Sobhani and Mr. Gholam husseinnejad addressed the audiences.

The event took place the same day the MKO Cult held its anniversary propaganda show.

July 14, 2016 0 comments

Massoud Rajavi

Grand Controversy as MEK can’t prove leader Massoud Rajavi is dead or alive

Maryam Rajavi’s Grand Gathering in Paris on 9 July was billed as her promise of imminent regime change at her behest. Instead it turned into a Grand Controversy of a different kind. This annual propaganda show advertises Rajavi’s propaganda skills in order to secure continued funding from regime change pundits. This year was dramatically different due to the unannounced presence of Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi ambassador to the UK and US. Certainly not a person you invite from a list in a speakers’ agency.

This year, Prince Turki’s involvement changed everything for the MEK. Not least because of public perception of Saudi Arabia as a repressive regime, particularly toward women. Turki insisted the venue be moved from Villepinte to Bourges for reasons of security. He then ordered changes to the layout of the stage and the speakers panel. Suddenly someone else was in charge of the event. Undaunted, perhaps even pleased to have such a prestigious guest, Maryam Rajavi opened the rally by praising her husband Massoud Rajavi. “May God protect the everlastingly vigilant lion” she announced while gesturing to his picture posted large around the arena. This was only to be expected. Even though he disappeared just before allied forces attacked Iraq in 2003, Massoud Rajavi is known to be the actual leader of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK – NCRI is a front name for the MEK), his wife being second-in-command.

When it was the turn of the Saudi Prince to speak, he gestured for Maryam Rajavi to sit down with the rest of the audience and listen, ensuring at the same time that she was not photographed with him in any capacity. Turki, former head of Saudi intelligence with which he is still involved, is a notoriously shrewd operator. As Ambassador to Washington he famously convinced some Americans that the backing for 9/11 came not from Saudi but from Iran. He is known to never talk off script. Therefore, there can be no doubt that when he twice announced Massoud Rajavi’s death it was not a mistake. The word ‘marhoum’ – which is understood by Arabic speakers as an expression of condolence – appeared clumsily, and thereby deliberately, inserted into his sentence.

Until that moment Maryam Rajavi had been blissfully unaware. Her lack of reaction the first time he turned to look directly at her and said ‘marhoum Massoud Rajavi’, shows that she didn’t catch what had been said. The second time the penny dropped, as did her smile. Clearly Turki had not consulted the MEK in advance on the content of his speech. And if he had made a mistake there was plenty of time afterwards to correct it. He didn’t.

So, what does this mean? Is Massoud Rajavi dead? And if so, why doesn’t his wife know, or if she does, why not say so? More importantly, why did Prince Tuki make this announcement in public during the most important event of the MEK?

Although Saudi support for the MEK goes back to the time of Saddam Hussein, the relationship was never made public. (Indicatively, the MEK have used Al Arabiya as their mouthpiece for years and much more in recent months.) Analysts have surmised that Prince Turki attended the MEK rally in order to publicly announce himself the new owner of the group.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the MEK needed new backers. Massoud Rajavi sold the services of his group to the Israelis, the neoconservatives and of course to Saudi Arabia. This is why we saw the MEK used during the P5+1 nuclear negotiations with Iran. Once agreement was reached their anti-Iran rhetoric shifted towards human rights abuses. Unfortunately for MEK backers the group has history in this respect, with Human Rights Watch and the RAND Corporation revealing human rights and cultic abuses taking place inside the MEK. As a fake opposition, the group is so reviled by Iranians that it has even attracted its own opposition!

With the rise of Daesh and other violent gangs and groups in Syria and Iraq, the MEK found new opportunities. Maryam Rajavi made overtures to the Syrian Free Army. It looked for a while as though the MEK would be able to use a new base in Albania – to which its ageing, but deeply radicalised fighting force in Camp Liberty, Iraq are currently being transferred – as a facilitating camp. The idea was to provide training and logistics to newer terrorist groups from a country on the edge of Europe but close to the Middle East. This was blocked when Albanian experts exposed it on national television.

Events in the Middle East have shifted. Saudi Arabia has come to the fore and covert threats of military conflict against Iran are an open secret in the region. But after being left in the cold by the United States, the Saudis have had to search for other allies in this venture. While Turki knows very well the MEK is nothing more than a propaganda machine and irritant for Iran, this is apparently better than nothing.

Turki’s appearance at the rally signals that whoever was handling Rajavi previously – presumably western intel services – have handed him over to the Saudis as they did in 1986 when Rajavi was expelled from France and handed over to Saddam Hussein to help his war effort against Iran.

Massoud Rajavi, being as naïve as he is, thought he would retain the old masters and work on new projects for the Saudis. Instead, MEK experts believe that Maraym Rajavi will have understood Turki’s message as this: ‘There are no old masters, they are all gone. It is only me. And Saudi intel will not treat you like Saddam did. At that time you had a fighting force in Iraq ready to attack Iran. Now your only use is as a propaganda outlet. Nor will we treat you with the leniency that the Israelis or UK or US have shown. And so that you understand your position as our slave I have just announced your husband’s death. Now, forget about disobeying my commands. His actual death can easily be arranged at any time’.

Whether Rajavi is already dead or now killable is not known – only he can answer this – but he and his whole organisation are certainly now, body and soul, in the capable hands of the Saudi Prince. If he is still alive, Rajavi’s only role is to act as go-between to instruct his wife what she must do on behalf of the Saudis. If he is dead, some other operative will easily do instead. The Saudis, like Saddam Hussein, regard women of equal importance to goats and sheep. It would, therefore, be inconceivable they deal directly with her as the so-called feminist leader of a group whose services they are paying for.

Days have now passed since this Grand Controversy erupted. The MEK reaction following the rally was near hysterical. They issued messages in places they would never normally talk to – VOA and BBC Persian – to emphasise beyond doubt that Rajavi is still alive. In spite of this, the MEK has still not been able to actually prove this to be true. Somebody therefore is lying.

The fact is, nobody outside the MEK really cares whether Rajavi is alive or dead. But for his followers the grim reality of their future must by now have sunk in. If the MEK cannot prove – by voice or appearance – that their leader is alive, or proclaim instead that he is actually dead, it means the whole organisation has died. For if they cannot accomplish this simple task, how can they promise regime change?

By Massoud Khodabandeh Director at Middle East Strategy Consultants., huffingtonpost.com

Co-authored by Anne Khodabandeh

July 14, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Former MKO lobbyist denounce Paris gathering

Lebanese journalist and researcher Mr. Nafez Ali Almora’bi who previously was the main Arab lobbyist for the Mujahedin Khalq Organization to mobilize Arab citizens for the group’s gatherings in Europe, refused to attend this year’s MKO gathering in Paris.

The MKO’s annual gathering was held at Bourget-Paris Air show, on Saturday July 9th. Whlie a number of former authorities of the West and the Arab world attended the meeting Mr. Almora’bi denied to attend it because of the group’s ties with Israeli lobbies. He also denounced the group’s masquerade show at Bourget in his Facebook status under the title “Points on the MKO’s conference in Paris”. He tried to illuminate unaware audience about the reality of the MKO propaganda.

Mr. Almora’bi who has several times visited certain former members of the MKO, warns about the MKO’s exaggerated propaganda about the gathering that the group claims to have been attended by over a hundred thousand people. “It is absolutely wrong. In the entire Paris and its suburb there is no such a hall that fits such a population”, he writes. “As I know, the “Stade de France” is the biggest stadium in France which doesn’t have such a capacity. “

Mr. Almora’bi clarifies that political figures who attend the MKO gathering have personal motivations and reasons which is not associated with the real cause of the gathering at all.

The fact that the “rented crowd” are bused to the Paris gathering is also confirmed by Mr. Almora’bi. “The so- called public support which is shown in the group’s media are actually dozens (not hundreds) of Arab refugees particularly Syrians who are brought from all over Europe for a “Free trip to Paris” and were “paid “to attend the celebration”, he states.

Ali Nafez Almora’bi who was once a link between the MKO and Arab political figures, denounces the group’s increasing efforts to associate with Western lobbies and even anti- Arab lobbies.

The Lebanese journalist notifies that the MKO’s lavish gathering is not effective as it has never been in previous decades, although the group was once widely supported by Iraqi former dictator Saddam Hussein.

July 13, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Newt Gingrich Pals Around With Terrorists Saddam Hussein Once Armed

Newt Gingrich, who is being vetted to be Donald Trump’s running mate and appeared with the candidate in Cincinnati on Wednesday, left the campaign trail this weekend for an unusual reason. The former speaker of the House had to fly to Paris to appear at a gala celebration for the Mojahedin-e Khalq, or People’s Mujahedin, an Iranian exile group that wants Washington’s backing for regime change in Iran.

In his remarks, Gingrich heaped praise on the MEK’s efforts and congratulated the group on the presence of another dignitary, Prince Turki al-Faisal, a senior member of the Saudi royal family and former head of that nation’s intelligence service.

What Gingrich failed to mention in his enthusiastic endorsement of the MEK, however, is that the Iranian dissidents previously spent three decades trying to achieve their aim through terrorist attacks, and some of their first victims were Americans. He also avoided talking about the fact that the group’s terrorist cell was once based in Iraq, where it was armed and protected by Saddam Hussein.

The timing of Gingrich’s appearance at the MEK gala was awkward for Trump, since the candidate had spent part of the previous week arguing that the late Iraqi dictator, while being “a really bad guy,” deserved some credit because “he killed terrorists.”

“He did that so good,” Trump told supporters in North Carolina on Tuesday. “They didn’t read them the rights; they didn’t talk; they were a terrorist, it was over.”

Four days later, Gingrich reminded the world that Saddam, in fact, had a history of support for terrorist groups like the MEK, whose members helped foment the 1979 revolution, in part by killing American civilians working in Tehran, and then lost a bitter struggle for power to the Islamists. After they were forced to flee Iran in 1981, the MEK’s members set up a government-in-exile in France and established a military base in Iraq, where they were given arms and training by Saddam as part of a strategy to destabilize the theocratic government in Tehran that he was at war with.

In recent years, as The Intercept has reported, the MEK has poured millions of dollars into reinventing itself as a moderate political group ready to take power in Iran if Western-backed regime change ever takes place. To that end, it lobbied successfully to be removed from the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2012. The Iranian exiles achieved this over the apparent opposition of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in part by paying a long list of former United States officials hefty speaking fees of between $10,000 to $50,000 for hymns of praise like the one Gingrich delivered on Saturday in Paris, where the MEK’s political wing held its annual “Free Iran” gala.

But, according to Ariane Tabatabai, a Georgetown University scholar, the “cult-like dissident group,” whose married members were reportedly forced to divorce and take a vow of lifelong celibacy, “has no viable chance of seizing power in Iran”:

If the current government is not Iranians’ first choice for a government, the MEK is not even their last — and for good reason. The MEK supported Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War. The people’s discontent with the Iranian government at that time did not translate into their supporting an external enemy that was firing Scuds into Tehran, using chemical weapons and killing hundreds of thousands of Iranians, including many civilians. Today, the MEK is viewed negatively by most Iranians, who would prefer to maintain the status quo than rush to the arms of what they consider a corrupt, criminal cult.

Despite how little reality there is behind the claim that the MEK’s political wing, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, is a force for democratic change, Gingrich was joined at the group’s gala in Paris by a bipartisan group of former U.S. officials, including former U.N. ambassadors John Bolton and Bill Richardson, a former attorney general, Michael Mukasey, the former State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley, the former Homeland Security Adviser Frances Townsend, the former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, and the former Vermont governor Howard Dean. The gala was even hosted by Linda Chavez, a former Reagan administration official who has loudly opposed Donald Trump’s nomination.

As Gingrich noted, however, perhaps the most important speaker at the MEK gathering this year was the Saudi royal, Prince Turki al-Faisal.

Although the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran is not new, Prince Turki’s speech to the dissident group seemed like a departure to many Iranians, not least because it was marked by the bizarre spectacle of the Iranian exiles interrupting his address to chant, in Arabic: “Al Shaab Yureed Isqat al-Nitham!” — “The People Demand the Fall of the Regime!”

Video of this moment, broadcast on Al-Arabiya, the Saudi-owned satellite news channel, showed Prince Turki respond: “I, too, want the fall of the regime.”

The comment, an open call for regime change in Tehran from a Saudi royal, struck Iranian journalists and activists as a turning point. It was also deeply ironic, given that the chant was used in the pro-democracy protests across the Middle East in 2011 that Saudi Arabia fought so hard to repress.

By Robert Mackey – the Intercept

July 13, 2016 0 comments

Iran

Iran: Faisal’s attendance at Mojahedin Khalq meeting signifies Saudi stupidity

An informed source at the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia uses terrorism against the Muslim countries in the Middle East as an “instrument” to achieve its objectives.

The comments by the Foreign Ministry source came as Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former spy chief, attended an annual meeting of the MKO terrorist group in Paris on Saturday during which he pledged to back the group.

The Foreign Ministry source said that Faisal’s attendance at the meeting is new example of the Saudi government’s “stupidity, indecency and political frustration”.

Political analysts unanimously believe that Faisal is the ideological mentor of terrorist groups.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, an advisor to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Sunday that there is no doubt about the Saudi security bodies’ relations with the MKO.

Financial supports for terrorism are on the agenda of Riyadh, he said.

“Riyadh’s strategic mistake in using terrorism in regional developments will cause us irreparable harms in the region,” Amir-Abdollahian remarked.

The veteran diplomat added that Saudi Arabia should change its “military and security approach” in the region.

He urged the Saudi government to stop supporting terrorism and play “constructive” role in the region.

‘Saudi and foreign media efforts to revive MKO are doomed to failure’

Also, General Ramezan Sharif, head of the IRGC public relations office, said, “Efforts by Saudi and foreign media to revive MKO are doomed to failure.”

He said that presence of the former Saudi official at the MKO meeting proves the “old link” between the terrorist group and Saudis.

It has become obvious for the public opinion that Saudi Arabia backs terrorist movements in the region, he said.

Hamid Reza Asefi, the former ambassador of Iran to France, said on Saturday the Iranian people consider the MKO and its secretary general Massoud Rajavi dead.

He said that the French government’s action in permitting the MKO to hold a meeting is “reproachable”.

He also described Faisal’s attendance at the gathering as a “hostile action” and said that the Saudis should become aware of the fact that they are “playing with fire”.

Hamidreza Moghadamfar, an advisor to the IRGC commander, said on Sunday that Faisal’s attendance at the MKO gathering reveals “terrorist nature” of the Saudi government.

He added that the former Saudi official’s participation at the meeting can link the MKO with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

July 12, 2016 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Love is forbidden and ground for punishment in the Cult of Rajavi

Since the so called “ideological revolution” in the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO) in the 1980s, relationships and emotions have been destroyed. Rajavi’s “ideological revolution” forced members to divorce their spouses and eventually to forget their families. A few years later, Rajavi sent all children outside the group’s camps.

Thus, in the isolated camps of the group, children were no more with the parents, ex- couples could no more think of each other, brothers and sisters could no more visit each other except for a short time in the new year celebration and under the supervision of the group authorities.

Love is unheard of in the cult of Rajavi. The only kind of love that is not only permitted but also obligatory is the love for leader. All members should kill the love of their children, family and ex-spouses in their hearts, instead they should grow the love of their leader in their mind. Female members should consider Massoud Rajavi as their only love, their only husband!

As the individuals who are taken as hostages in the Cult of Rajavi do not have any access to the outside world, they are not able to contact their families outside the group.

Despite the efforts made by families of the MKO’s hostages to visit their loved ones in the group’s camp, the group authorities use all types of tactics to keep members far from families demonizing families as spies of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry!

Love is a variety of different feelings, states and attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection to pleasure. The hostages in the MKO Cult are deprived from all of these interpersonal affections, feelings and pleasures. They are just indoctrinated to idolize their leader, Massoud Rajavi.

Love is one of the most profound emotions known to human beings and this deep relationship is one of the meaningful elements in the life of human beings. Love provides people with a source of deep fulfilment. The MKO leader has tried hard to shallow this source of fulfilment and to alternate it with an absolute obedience to himself.

Therefore, living in the cult of Rajavi requires denial of the love for your spouse, children, relatives and friends. Besides, caring about love make the cult member accountable for punishment. The punishment in the MKO ranges from self-criticism report writing, peer pressure, being humiliates by superior members and peers, psychological and even physical torture.

In case that family of an MKO hostage try too much to contact their loved one in the MKO camp, the hostage is indoctrinated to write a statement against his or her family. This might be the harshest punishment for a person who thinks of love!

Mazda Parsi

July 11, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

The late Iraqi dictator did kill many thousands of people—but very few were terrorists

(Benjamin served as Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department 2009-2012. He is director of The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College)

Donald Trump is, by his own admission, “like, a really smart person,” and someone who has “a very good brain,”

Trump, roughly: Saddam Hussein was thiiiiiiiiis good at killing terrorists.

but he don’t know much about history. His remarks this week—and on multiple other occasions—about Saddam Hussein’s skill at counterterrorism are a reminder of this.

“He was a bad guy—really bad guy,” Trump opined during a rally in North Carolina. “But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn’t read them the rights. They didn’t talk. They were terrorists. Over.”

Hussein, it is true, killed a lot of people. The estimates run into the hundreds of thousands, and he murdered in a variety of appalling ways: He had his victims shot, gassed, blown up, beheaded and even torn apart by wild animals. And while all of his victims had excellent reasons for not liking life under the longtime Iraqi dictator, almost none were terrorists. On the contrary, terrorists in Iraq were mostly honored guests and worked at the regime’s behest.

Thousands of terrorists called Iraq home, and their organizations had the blood of Israelis, Turks, Iranians and Europeans from numerous countries on their hands. Among the killers were members of the Palestine Liberation Front, the Arab Liberation Front, the Kurdish PKK, the Iranian Mujahidin e-Khalq and the Abu Nidal Organization. Saddam promised to pay the families of suicide bombers who killed Israelis for their deeds. It is true that he despised jihadists and had nothing to do with al Qaeda, but that hardly diminishes his record. Not for nothing, Iraq was among the first batch of countries designated by Washington as state sponsors of terror in 1979.

Perhaps Trump has information that is not widely available, but only one case of a terrorist being killed in Iraq comes readily to mind: the death of Abu Nidal. Before Osama bin Laden came along, Nidal—also known as Sabry al Banna—was widely considered the most vicious terrorist alive. He worked, by turns, for the Syrians, the Libyans and the Iraqis, engineered notorious airport massacres in 1985 in Rome and Vienna, and ultimately was credited with some 900 deaths and injuries.

Nidal was a particular favorite of Hussein, who employed him for assassinations and other wet-work from the beginning of his career in the 1970s. But as rumors of an approaching war with the United States swirled in the August of 2002, Hussein is said to have worried that Nidal, who lived in Baghdad, might be working for the U.S. Though Hussein might also have decided that as Washington was making its case for action against Iraq, Nidal was a non-essential burden. Iraqi press accounts afterward that said Nidal committed suicide and that he had multiple gunshot wounds. Perhaps that was what Trump was thinking when he applauded Hussein for killing terrorists “so good.” But the bigger picture of Iraq’s ties with Abu Nidal begs the question of whether the end was the most important part of this relationship.

It also seems to have slipped by Trump that the Iraqi dictator often used his own intelligence service to stage terrorist attacks. The best known case got more than a little press because it involved an effort to kill a former American president. In April 1993, shortly after leaving office, George H.W. Bush visited Kuwait, the country his administration liberated from Iraqi occupation. Hussein sought retribution through a car bombing arranged by his intelligence service.

The Kuwaitis uncovered the plot before Bush arrived. Two months later, after the suspects confessed and the full picture of the operation was clear, President Bill Clinton sent 23 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Iraqi intelligence headquarters. It was his administration’s first use of military force.

This was not exactly a hidden chapter in history. Indeed, President George W. Bush reminded everyone in late 2002 that Saddam was “the guy who tried to kill my dad”—a remark that launched countless conjectures about the motivation behind the American march to war in Iraq.

It is odd that Trump seems to have no memory of the incident and odder still that he holds up Hussein as being on the right side of the terrorism issue. Unimpeachable ignorance and no moral compass. Trump does that so good. Over.

By Daniel Benjamin,

July 10, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Newt Gingrich Attends Meeting Of Controversial Iranian Dissident Group MEK

Gingrich, who is being considered for VP by the Trump campaign, spoke at the annual gathering of the MEK in Paris.

WASHINGTON — Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is attending the annual conference of a controversial Iranian dissident group that was until 2012 on the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Conservative activist Ken Blackwell tweeted a photo of himself and Gingrich at the gathering on Saturday:

The Mujahadeen-e-Khalq, commonly known as MEK, holds a gathering near Paris every year, where its leader Maryam Rajavi lives, under the aegis of the umbrella group National Council of Resistance of Iran. The MEK, who want to overthrow the current regime in Iran, were exiled from Iran in 1981. The group were for years allied with Saddam Hussein, backing him in the Iran-Iraq War. Saddam gave them arms and allowed them to settle on bases in Iraq. (Donald Trump, who is considering Gingrich as a top-level candidate to be his running mate, has repeatedly praised Saddam for supposedly cracking down on terrorism.)

The State Department designated the MEK as a terrorist group in 1997. The group has since undertaken an extensive campaign to build an image as peaceful opponents of the regime, enlisting various American figures such as Howard Dean and Rudy Giuliani as supporters, and in 2012 they were removed from the list of foreign terrorist organizations. The MEK has been known to pay its Western supporters speaking fees for attending its events.

According to other photos on Blackwell’s Twitter, Dean is also at the conference this year as well as former attorney general Michael Mukasey.

Gingrich has attended the conference in the past; video from 2012 shows him speaking there. Gingrich has emerged this year as a top candidate for Trump’s VP slot; he confirmed this week that he is being vetted for the position.

Video obtained by BuzzFeed News shows Gingrich speaking to the conference on Saturday:

Video available at: https://buzzfeed-video1.s3.amazonaws.com/video/2016/07/09/GingrichMEK-212×376.mp4

buzzfeed-video1.s3.amazonaws.com

A spokesperson for Gingrich didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rosie Gray is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, D.C. Gray reports on politics and foreign policy.

Rosie Gray, BuzzFeed News,

July 10, 2016 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Maryam Rajavi — MEK Propaganda Queen — Advertises Her Services For Iran’s Enemies

The Middle East is in turmoil. Deaths and destruction are a daily occurrence throughout the region. Families flee their homes in fear, forced into an uncertain future. No end is in sight. Yet into this calamitous scenario a slick, sophisticated terrorist recruiter’s advert has popped up which ISIS itself could learn from.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) website carries a glamorous advertising campaign for a Grand Gathering. Surrounded by glitzy pictures of flag-waving youth, the central focus of this gathering is ‘Our pledge: regime change’.

Well, we all know what that means. Don’t we? Apparently not. Because this advertising doesn’t reflect the destruction wrought in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen. Here is no promise of jihad and the caliphate. It looks very much like a carnival. Which is exactly what it is – a show. So, what is meant by the promise of regime change?

The first port of call is to understand that the NCRI is just another name for the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) which was also known as the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA).

Back in 1994, MEK leader Massoud Rajavi tasked his wife Maryam to leave Iraq for America in order to regain political recognition of the Mojahedin Khalq as ‘the’ Iranian opposition which had been lost when he refused to abandon Saddam Hussein during the First Gulf war.

Refused entry to the USA as the leader of a terrorist entity Maryam instead took up residence in France as a refugee. But instead of meeting politicians to talk about how the MEK could overthrow the Iranian regime, she discovered she could simply create the illusion of support by paying both audience and speakers. She discovered a talent for dressing up, holding fancy dinner parties and talking about her cult ideology.

To create the appearance of a willing audience for her views, she recruited a rag-tag following of Iranian economic refugees who would happily turn up when paid for their services. She paid for feminists from North America, Europe and Scandinavia to visit Auvers-sur-Oise and attend dinner parties. She posed in her hijab to speak about her version of feminism to these western women; carefully spelling it out for them that they would never really understand what feminism is until they understood her husband Massoud Rajavi.

When Massoud recalled her to Iraq in 1997 she had spent a third of the total MEK budget and had no political support to show for it. She had lost around half the loyal MEK members who had defected whilst in Europe. With morale at an all-time low, Maryam was forced to retreat to Iraq with what remained of her personnel and leave the western bases in the hands of largely uneducated paid ‘supporters’.

When allied forces next invaded Iraq in 2003 Maryam Rajavi again fled to France. This time, as luck would have it, western politics was focused on curtailing Iran’s nuclear programme which it insisted was aimed at creating a nuclear weapon. The MEK’s services as propaganda experts were just what was needed, ensuring the MEK’s ostensible survival as an opposition group.

But in reality the MEK was already in terminal decline. Its fighting forces, disarmed in 2003, are currently being transferred from Iraq to Albania by the UNHCR to begin a process of de-radicalisation and reintegration back into normal society. Nobody expects veterans with an average age of sixty to wage the terrorism of thirty years ago. Disarmament also allowed American experts to investigate years of complaints about human rights and cultic abuses inside the MEK. As long as the MEK was being used to muddy the waters of the nuclear negotiations, such details could be glossed over. But since last year when agreement was reached, the MEK’s murky past can no longer be dismissed.

The main reason, of course, is that the new theme for challenging Iran in the international community is based on the country’s dismal human rights record. But Maryam Rajavi has her own well documented human rights abuse dossier to answer for. The MEK, under whatever name it is used, is simply the wrong tool to use to demonise Iran.

Beyond this, the MEK is not the popular opposition its own advertising claims it to be. The group is almost universally despised among Iranians both inside the country and in the diaspora. Not only did the MEK fight alongside Saddam Hussein’s army during the devastating eight-year Iran-Iraq war, but the MEK’s anti-Iran role in the nuclear negotiations hit a nerve with most ordinary Iranians who regarded support for their country’s right to nuclear technology as an issue of nationalism rather than politics.

Maryam Rajavi cannot get support from Iranians unless it is paid for. Nor can Maryam Rajavi deign to share a platform with any other Iranian opposition personality. So this year Maryam Rajavi will again do what she does best; pay audience and speakers alike to give the illusion of support.

So, back to the recent advertising campaign. Any publicity campaign will be successful if it is newsworthy. Maryam, however, simply churns out the same scenario ad infinitum. Starting with describing a terrible situation in Iran – based on news items that can be gleaned from any serious reporting outlet – she then proposes a ten-point plan for Iran, approved this year by Italian parliamentarians. And then she promises regime change.

Clearly this message is not aimed at Iranians. The clamour for regime change in Iran does not emanate from inside the country in spite of its many social, civic and political problems. Who then is Maryam Rajavi’s constituency? From whom is she hoping to garner support?

Many constituencies outside Iran wish fervently for its destruction. It is enlightening that Maryam Rajavi’s websites are home to a bizarre mixture of anti-Shia, anti-Iran, anti-Syria, items which reflect very closely the views of neocons, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Maryam Rajavi is not promising regime change, she is advertising her services as a propaganda queen.

Follow Massoud Khodabandeh on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ma_khodabandeh

Huffington Post,Massoud Khodabandeh, Co-authored by Anne Khodabandeh

July 9, 2016 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran-Interlink Weekly Digest – 151

++ In the lead up to Maryam Rajavi’s propaganda event on Saturday, many MEK formers have gathered together in Paris to alert both the public and participants about the MEK’s deceptive practices. Every day over the past week they have been distributing leaflets and holding pickets in various locations around Paris, including in Auvers-sur-Oise. This was particularly welcomed by neighbours of the closed MEK base in that village. The residents complained to the formers that “we are as sick of them as you are. They constantly interfere in our local affairs and use money to bribe and mollify various people”. At the same time as this activism, many people have written open letters addressed to the MEK’s advocates asking them not to participate just because of money. There is a moral responsibility too. The MEK are glorifying terrorism.

++ Nejat Society has published the fourth interview for the Mothers: The Forgotten Victims series. This time Mrs Mahmonir Jalali, whose son Shahab Firouzmandeh is in Camp Liberty, talked about her son and how he has no contact with his family because it is forbidden by the MEK.

++ The Mojahedin, predictably, embarked on a burst of anti-former propaganda last week. One example is the paid Youtube TV channel called Rang-a Rang. The person they have brought to character assassinate formers is called Abedin Janbaz. Majid Rouhi has written an article published in Iran-Interlink exposing this person using documentary evidence. He says “while in the MEK this man was known to everyone as a torturer and enforcer. He ‘escaped’ from Camp Ashraf and took up residence in the American TIPF. But while there he went on working as a spy for the MEK, reporting on the ex-members. When he got to Europe he continued doing the same thing.” Janbaz is used in a really nasty way. Rouhi says “the fact that the MEK would rather use even this notorious character to attack the formers than use their own outlets which are much more widespread, serves to demonstrate just how dirty their own outlets are.”

++ Following the recent attack on Camp Liberty in Iraq, 103 formers and human rights activists and families wrote open letters of condemnation. Families in particular expressed worry about their loved ones. Fortunately this time there were no casualties. Nevertheless the concern is justified. All those writing have one thing in common. They are suspicious that this attack, like all the others, occurred at a time advantageous for the MEK – this time just before the Paris meeting. Other attacks were similarly significantly linked to other MEK events. The writers believe the attacks create food for the MEK propaganda machine (in other words, they are done by the MEK themselves). All the writers also acknowledge that while asking the Iraqis to try their best, in war-torn Iraq it is impossible to fully secure this place. The point is that the only person who insists they stay there in Camp Liberty is Rajavi. If it wasn’t for him, all the residents would have left Iraq before now.

In English:

++ Nejat Society reported that 40 more Camp Liberty residents have been successfully transferred to Tirana in Albania. The names of the two groups of twenty each were published for the benefit of their families. A total number of 294 Camp Liberty residents have been transferred to Albania in the last 16 groups of relocations since January 2016.

++ Jason Ditz in AntiWar.com wrote about the attack on Camp Liberty in Iraq. “At least 40 people were wounded today when rocket fire landed at Camp Liberty, a base of operations of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MeK), with the attacks causing considerable destruction and leaving several large craters in the camp.” The report concludes “The UN has been trying to relocate the MeK out of Iraq, but has only managed to remove about a third of them as of the most recent reports. That leaves nearly 2,000 still stuck at Camp Liberty.”

++ Several articles and letters focus on Maryam Rajavis ‘grand gathering’ on 9 July. Some ask the MEK paid advocates to think again about what it is they are involved in. An article by Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh exposes the shallow extent of Maryam Rajavi’s ‘offer’. She is merely a propaganda queen who has discovered a talent for dressing up and putting on events to give the illusion of support.

July 8, 2016

July 9, 2016 0 comments

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