Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 91

++ An hour before the announcement from Lausanne on the result of the nuclear negotiations, Ramin Fakhari, an Iranian analyst, published an article analysing the situation. He concluded that irrelevant of the outcome – whether there is agreement or not and who names who to be the winner or loser – ensuring that there is one less nuclear bomb in the world, and reducing the savage effects of sanctions on the ordinary citizens of Iran is a victory for all the people of the world. The real winners are the people and the losers are Israel, the Saudis and the MEK.

++ Maryam Rajavi and the NCRI websites published statements in support of bombing Yemen, accusing the victims of these bombs of being “agents of the Iranian regime”. The critical Farsi Commentariat have denounced Rajavi for taking this cruel position at a time that the UN says this action is in violation of international law and has expressed deep concern for the lives of ordinary citizens there. Critics say that this is not the first time Rajavi has taken such an anti-human stance, and remind us of the MEK’s collusion with Saddam Hussein to kill their own people and their begging the Neocons to bomb their mothers’ and sisters’ homes in Iran. This is normal, they say, for Rajavi and the MEK.

++ This week the MEK has again asked to be armed in Iraq. Many critics ridiculed this, reminding the MEK that they are in the process of being expelled by the UN. Ehsan Bidi, who is in Tirana, goes into more detail about what is really in Massoud Rajavi’s mind. Bidi suggests that Rajavi is desperate to stop people being transferred to third countries – Albania, the US, Europe; he produces evidence of the ways the MEK is trying to prevent the UN from taking people to America. When Rajavi says “Iran wants to kill us, that’s why we need arms”, what he really wants, Bidi says, is a way to legitimize killing the residents of Camp Liberty. Rajavi even has people who will do this killing – bands related to the Saddamists and ISIS. Bidi then reflects on MEK history in this respect; whenever Rajavi announces that “Khamenei wants to kill us”, some weeks later a disaster strikes and several MEK are killed. This only happens to disaffected members not the commanders. There is clear danger that this will happen again soon. Bidi appeals to everyone to inform the authorities in their own countries and help prevent a tragedy from happening again.

++ The MEK published a video on its satellite and websites in reaction to an open letter by 80 ex members and critics addressed to the President of France asking him – as her host – to put pressure on Maryam Rajavi to release the people in Camp Liberty. The letter also emphasised the MEK’s threats to kill critics all over Europe, saying that the French should take action to stop this, not the potential victims. Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad has examined the MEK’s video message and come to an interesting conclusion. He points out that Rajavi has not only backed down from his threats to kill his critics, but has now apologised for this. Hossein Nejad explains that this is clearly the result of France’s security services having a word with the leaders and telling them that incitement to murder is illegal in Europe. Rajavi has had to take his words back because clearly Europe is not Iraq.

In English:

++ In the week leading up to the historic Lausanne announcement, Paul Mulshine has written two articles in NJ.com about the MEK and America. The first ‘More on Senator Menendez’s favorite (ex?) terrorist group and the insanity of neocon policy in the Mideast’ criticizes efforts to push America into a war with Iran. He mentions Menendez and Bolton as paid advocates of the MEK position, saying “As part of that propaganda, we’re supposed to think it’s just peachy to support the MEK in its efforts to topple the Iranian government. Or in other words, we’re supposed to support a terrorist effort in the midst of a War on terrorism.” His second article, ‘The week the neocons jumped the shark’ attacks Bolton and the neocon agenda as a distraction saying “Then there was the piece by former UN ambassador John Bolton headlined “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.” It contained the usual cliches about weapons of mass destruction and the need to stop terrorism along with this proposition: “Such action should be combined with vigorous American support for Iran’s opposition, aimed at regime change in Tehran. In the past Bolton has identified the “opposition” as called Mojahedin-e-Khalq. This is a shadowy cult that makes the Scientologists look transparent by comparison. In the past MEK members have killed Americans in terror attacks. More recently they are seen as the likely suspects in the car-bombing of nuclear scientists in Tehran.”

++ In a bad week for the MEK, Jim Newell for Salon, also writes about another MEK paid advocate, this time on the Democrat side. In his article “Howard Dean’s Iran secret: “Famously dovish” Dem is paid shill for Iranian regime change group”, Newell says “Dean, along with the likes of John Bolton, Rudy Giuliani, Ed Rendell and other notables, has given paid speeches at MEK rallies. In the first term of the Obama administration, MEK’s allies launched a expensive P.R. effort to get the State Department to de-list MEK as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. (Anyone who lived in the D.C. metropolitan area between 2010 and 2012 will be familiar with a seemingly endless cycle of television ads calling for this.) The effort was successful: in September 2012, just before the election, the State Department de-listed MEK. It was a heavy, cynical lobbying effort that offered a real education in the how subjectively the government applies the term “terrorism” to suit its interests.” Newell comments sarcastically “Dean takes the same approach as Benjamin Netanyahu: suggesting that there is a “better deal” out there in which Iran eliminates every last trace of its nuclear infrastructure, reforms itself into the world’s number one protector of human rights, and abandons all of its regional interests. Perhaps, if John Kerry had the courage to twist a few more arms, he could even get Ayatollah Khameini and his regime to self-abdicate and put in place an American puppet government. How about… the MEK?”

April 3, 2015

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

More on Senator Menendez’s favorite (ex?) terrorist group and the insanity of neocon policy in the Mideast

Even at this late date a lot of people claim not to know the difference between us true conservatives and the so-called “neo” conservatives.

Hint: “Neo” means new. And if you have new beliefs, then by definition you’re not a conservative. We stick to the tried and true. Plato’s fine but that Aristotle guy was getting a little ahead of himself.

Another hint: If you’re a true conservative, then people will call you an “isolationist.”

They mean it as an insult. But the way they define the term it’s really a compliment. To the neocons, an isolationist is anyone who doesn’t believe the Beltway crowd should micro-manage every event everywhere on Earth.

In that regard, you might have seen that piece I did recently showing our senior senator’s ties to a shadowy Iranian cult called Mojahedin e Khalq.

The more I look into these characters, the more I realize how nutty the so-called “War on Terror” being carried out by the so-called “neo” conservatives has become.

And now we’ve reached the point where we’re supposed to take the side of the terrorists in the War on terror.

As I noted in a prior post, the neocons and their hired mouthpieces have been trying to sell the American public in the proposition that we should support Saudi Arabia in its efforts to impose the extremist Wahabbi form of Islam on the people of neighboring Yemen.

This is absurd on its face, as is the idea that the U.S. should support the Islamic Republic’s side in the current dust-up in the Mideast.

Yet that’s what we’re being told. Our wonderful allies the Saudis – you know, the folks who brought us the 9/11 attacks – are tacitly backing ISIS in an effort to score points against Iran.

Do you think Iran is a greater threat, with a tenth of the world’s Muslims, is a greater threat to the U.S. than the Saudis, who present the nine-tenths of Muslims who are Sunni?

If so, you have been taken for a ride. Doing the driving are neocons like John Bolton, the Captain Kangaroo clone who has been pushing the neocon line harder than anyone else inside the Beltway.

If you wish to begin your deprogramming I suggest starting with this piece by Daniel Larison of the American Conservative on Republican Bolton’s connection with Democrat Bob Menendez’s favorite Iranian cult. Here’s a passage that reminds us that the Saudis have done a good job of buying support from both parties:

Bolton is hardly the only former official, retired officer, or ex-politician to do this, but for the last several years he has been a vocal cheerleader of the Mujahideen-e Khalq cult (and “former” terrorist group) and its political organization. He has been consistently misrepresenting a totalitarian cult as a “democratic” Iranian opposition group. When Bolton or someone else with this record talks about “vigorous American support for Iran’s opposition,” we can be fairly sure that he means that the U.S. should be backing the MEK in its quest for seizing power in Iran. This confirms Bolton’s extremely poor judgment and underscores how truly crazy his overall argument for war with Iran is. It also reminds us how oblivious Iran hawks such as Bolton are to the political realities inside Iran. Once again we have a hawkish demand for U.S. support for an exile group that has absolutely no support in its own country in order to achieve regime change.

The effort to push the U.S. into war with Iran is, as Larison notes, truly crazy – especially when you consider Iran is our only useful ally in the fight against ISIS. Our other supposed “allies,” the Saudis, the Turks and the Israelis, are in full appeasement mode as regards ISIS – even though they could crush it in a week.

This is absolutely nuts, and only one in a thousand Americans knows how nuts it is. That’s because they don’t get to talk to the experts I get to talk to, ex-CIA guys, ex-grunts and others who actually understand the Mideast. Among them is ex-CIA man Larry Johnson with this piece about the misguided effort to convince Americans to take the Saudi side:

The American public are being saturated with propaganda intended to convince them that Iran is the greatest evil in the world today and must be stopped at all costs. While I harbor no illusions that Iran is a harmless, impotent nation, it also is not the Shia Muslim reincarnation of Nazi Germany or Stalin’s Soviet Union. Here’s a simple test – if you had a daughter and she had to work in Saudi Arabia or Iran, where would she have more freedom? Simple answer – Iran. Which nation allows Jewish synagogues to still function? Iran.

We need a new consensus in the United States regarding our policy in the Middle East. As I noted in an earlier piece, we have been the bitch of the Saudis for the last 35 years. Ever since the Shah was dumped and the Ayatollah took the reins of power in Iran, we have been cozying up to carry the Saudis’ chamber pot.

But times have changed and the old policy has collapsed and the United States bears sole responsibility for setting in motion the emergence of Iran’s growing influence in the region. A lot of smart people in the United States still do not understand that our decision to dump Saddam and replace him with Shia Iraqis that had close ties to Iran flung wide open the door for Tehran to enter Iraq and build out intelligence networks. This is on us.

As part of that propaganda, we’re supposed to think it’s just peachy to support the MEK in its efforts to topple the Iranian government. Or in other words, we’re supposed to support a terrorist effort in the midst of a War on terrorism.

That sure seems to describe MEK if this 2012 report by Richard Engel and Robert Windrem is any indication:

Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran’s leaders. The group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, has long been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, accused of killing American servicemen and contractors in the 1970s and supporting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran before breaking with the Iranian mullahs in 1980.

The attacks, which have killed five Iranian nuclear scientists since 2007 and may have destroyed a missile research and development site, have been carried out in dramatic fashion, with motorcycle-borne assailants often attaching small magnetic bombs to the exterior of the victims’ cars.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign but has no direct involvement.

The report contains the usual denials, but few Mideast insiders believe these attacks could be anything other than an MEK operation. That of course would mean our side is supporting terrorism, since putting magnetic bombs on cars is quite obviously an act of terrorism.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, by the way. Anyone who understands terrorism understands that one man’s terrorist really is another man’s freedom fighter. At least that was the case in every war zone I’ve ever visited.

In Nicaragua, for example, the Marxist Sandinista government persisted in calling the Contra rebels “terrorists.” Ronald Reagan called them freedom fighters. Reagan was vindicated when the government made the mistake of holding an election and the Contra side won.

But “terrorism” remains in the eye of the beholder. That’s why we should have called this post-9/11 enterprise the “War on Al Qaeda” rather than the “War on Terrorism.”

Which brings up the current dust-up in Yemen.

The people the neocons are opposing, the Houthis, are a tough Shia mountain tribe openly hostile to the Sunni Saudis and – how did you guess – Al Qaeda, which is also Sunni.

You read that right. The neocons want to target the enemies of Al Qaeda.

Does that make any sense to you? It doesn’t make any to Pat Lang, the former Vietnam Green Beret and Mideast expert who spent several years in Yemen. In this post, Lang enjoys a hearty laugh at the notion that the Houthis are “Iran’s puppet.”

There are certain peoples who are instinctively good at fighting. The Pushtuns, Somalis, Sikhs and Yemeni Zaidi tribesmen are among them. Others are not so good at fighting or joyful at the prospect of combat; Saudi hirelings of the Al-Saud “country” of Saudi Arabia, Egyptian peasant conscripts, and Sunni Yemenis of the south. The Zaidi mountain tribesmen defeated the Egyptian Army fifty years ago. There is a large Egyptian military cemetery in San’a. The road down from the mountains to the port of Hodeida is still littered with destroyed Egyptian Army vehicles that were “killed” in guerrilla ambushes.

Lang goes on to debunk any idea that the Houthis are part of an Iranian axis. In fact they don’t even share the same form of Shia Muslim.

The Zaidi scholars profess no allegiance to the 12er Shia scholarship of the Iranian teachers. In theology the Zaidis follow the methodology in analysis of the mu’tazila , the “rationalist” school of theology exterminated in the rest of Islam (including Iran) 1200 years ago.

Do you ever hear such details from any of the neocons who assert there is some sort of monolithic Iranian axis at work here?

No. They’re idiots I use that term not as an insult but a useful description. Look at the etymology of the word “idiot.” “From Greek idiotes “layman, person lacking professional skill” (opposed to writer, soldier, skilled workman).”

There’s a lot of that going around. But thanks to the efforts of conservatives like Pat Buchanan and libertarians like Ron Paul, people are finally starting to realize they’ve been duped for all these years.

Here’s Pat holding forth on the current effort to get us bogged down in the Mideast:

Some mullahs may be fanatics, but Iran is not run by fools. Yet even if we have a mutual interest in avoiding a war, where is the common ground between us?

Let us begin with the Sunni terrorists of al-Qaida who brought down the twin towers, and the Islamic State that is beheading Christians, apostates, and nonbelievers, and intends to establish a Middle East caliphate where there are no Americans, no Christians, and no Shiites.

Americans and Iranians have a common goal of degrading and defeating them.

In the Syrian civil war, Iran and its Shiite allies in Hezbollah have prevented the fall of the Alawite regime of Bashar Assad.

For years, Iran has helped to keep the al-Nusra Front and ISIL out of Damascus.

Why do the neocons want to see Assad out of control in Damascus?

As it happens, I had a very humorous back-and-forth with Menendez on that very point.

I say “humorous” because Menendez was, as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, perhaps the loudest voice calling for the U.S. to depose Assad.

That led directly to the rise of ISIS. His excuse?

He argued that everyone else was making the same mistake:

Mulshine criticizes me for pushing the U.S. “to take an active role in supporting the rebels fighting to oust Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.” But that exact position is the administration’s policy, arguing that “Assad must go” and supporting the training and equipping of the Syrian opposition. President Barack Obama over Labor Day 2013 even came within minutes of approving air strikes against Assad for gassing Syrians and crossing his self-imposed red line.

It is also the position of Senators from liberal Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to conservative Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) who voted with me in September 2013 to provide lethal and non-lethal assistance to vetted Syrian opposition groups

This is obvious nonsense. Menendez acts as if there weren’t voices pointing out that the effort to depose Assad would bring Muslim fundamentalists to the fore. But all he had to do back then was read my columns. I cited expert after expert who predicted exactly that.

Among them was former CIA agent Bob Baer, who asked this of one proponent of deposing Assad:

“Who does he propose supporting in Syria? Anyone with any common sense knows it’s the Muslim Brotherhood that would take over. There are no white hats in Syria.”

What, no “vetted moderate rebels?”

Anyone who could ever use such a term without laughing should shut up forever as regards the Mideast. That would shut up just about every neocon, including a certain senator who supports the MEK.

(Paul Mulshine, NJ.com,

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Pictorial – Sabet Rostami family deeply concerned about the fate of their son

Sabet Rostami family attended the NejatNGO office,Mazandaran branch  to ask Mr. Khatami- a recently defected member of the MKO Cult, about the fate and well-being of their son;Mohammad Mehdi.

Mohammad Mehdi was a POW of Iran-Iraq 1997 war when the Mujahedin deceived him into joining the Cult and transferred him to the notorious Camp Ashraf. Since then the family have had no contact, no news of Mohammad Mehdi.

They went to Camp Ashraf several times but the Rajavi didn’t allow them to visit their son even for seconds.

Sabet Rostami family concerned about the fate of Mohammad Mehdi

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MKO Terrorist leader praise the Saudi-led coalition bloodshed in Yemen

The MEK and its affiliated fronts – the NCRI, Maryam Rajavi etc – have gone all out to praise Saudi Arabia for attacking Yemen.

It is not the first time they have praised Saudi Arabia for just about anything at all [an indication of the needy relationship Rajavi has with the country].

Fars News reproduced the MEK praise alongside praise from Israeli media such as the Jerusalem Times, showing they are carbon copies of each other’s’ position.

Iraninterlink Weekly Digest

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Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 90

++ The MEK and its affiliated fronts – the NCRI, Maryam Rajavi etc – have gone all out to praise Saudi Arabia for attacking Yemen. It is not the first time they have praised Saudi Arabia for just about anything at all [an indication of the needy relationship Rajavi has with the country]. Fars News reproduced the MEK praise alongside praise from Israeli media such as the Jerusalem Times, showing they are carbon copies of each others’ position.

++ This week Maryam Rajavi has issued a New Year Message; she does this every year as though she is the Queen of Iran. This year, as for the past thirty years, she promises this will be the last one and this coming year ‘we’ will topple the Iranian regime. Mohammad Razaghi has collated each of these messages along with a picture of Rajavi posing with her Haftsin table. One of the seven ‘S’s is the word Sarneguni [overthrow]. Razaghi says this is the best joke he has heard all year – that she simply doesn’t give up. Others have pointed out that her message is directed at Israel and the Neocons rather than any other group of people. Her message is actually a plea: “why don’t you attack Iran?”

++ The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) held its annual fake meeting last week. Various commentators say that ‘putting aside the usual lies and irrelevant issues, the whole discussion is reduced to demanding that the US re-arms the people in Camp Liberty’. This has provoked a reaction among internal critics of the MEK. They ask ‘why do you want to kill these poor pensioners by arming them in Iraq and making them into targets?’ Commentators also say that it is apparent that for Rajavi the NCRI presents more problems than it is worth. There are predictions the NCRI will be abolished before long.

++ Several people have written to President Holland asking him as the head of the MEK’s host country to put pressure on Maryam Rajavi to allow the hostages in Camp Liberty to leave and to allow international agencies to take them out of Iraq.

In English:

++ The extreme right Israeli Settlers news outlet Beritbart, in an article titled ‘A Complete Timeline of Obama’s Anti-Israel Hatred’, reveals that the MEK lined up with Israel behind the back of the American Administration to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists.

++ Iran Interlink reports that fifteen young Iranians have now arrived in America following their escape from the pernicious hold of the Rajavi cult… The fifteen individuals have been accepted as refugees by the United States and were flown to Los Angeles on 21 March. This group is part of a quota of 80 from the 3,000+ MEK members which the US agreed to accept from the temporary transit camp Liberty (aka Hurriyeh) in Iraq. The government of Iraq and the United Nations are coordinating efforts to have all the residents transferred to third countries as soon as possible. Only the cult leader Massoud Rajavi is obstructing and resisting this inevitable process.

 March 27, 2015

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Albania

Congratulations to the first fifteen Rajavi cult escapees arriving in LA

Iran Interlink congratulates fifteen young Iranians who have now arrived in America following their escape from the pernicious hold of the Rajavi cult; aka Mojahedin Khalq organisation (MEK).

The fifteen individuals have been accepted as refugees by the United States and were flown to Los Angeles on 21 March. This group is part of a quota of 80 from the 3,000+ MEK members which the US agreed to accept from the temporary transit camp Liberty (aka Hurriyeh) in Iraq. The government of Iraq and the United Nations are coordinating efforts to have all the residents transferred to third countries as soon as possible. Only the cult leader Massoud Rajavi is obstructing and resisting this inevitable process.

The group of fifteen comprises ten men and three women. All of them are young. They were previously moved to Albania, where over 400 MEK were transferred over the past two years. The MEK were forced to concede to pressure from the UN to allow these people to leave Camp Liberty and be given refugee status in Albania. Rajavi chose those residents who were of least use to him; many are old or sick. Some, like these young people, had been deceived into joining the MEK quite recently and had been able to resist the full cult indoctrination process which older, long term members have been subjected to for years.

Even so, Rajavi has tried to re-impose cult conditions in Albania, sending top commanders from Paris to threaten and blackmail and bribe the new arrivals. All those who arrived in Tirana did so on condition they sign all kinds of documents and statements written by the MEK to say that they are agents of the Iranian regime and have committed any number of ‘sins’ and ‘crimes’ as defined by the cult. This is done in an attempt to prevent people from leaving the MEK, or if they do, preventing them from speaking out about conditions inside the group.

In Albania the MEK has instructed these transferees that they must un-register with the UNHCR and not to attend interviews or accept any help from the UN. The MEK have ‘replaced’ the UN’s grant of $300 pm with a bigger payment of $500 pm as a bribe so that individuals will not break away from their control. The MEK has issued false information about these individuals, saying that the UN has evicted them from its accommodation and forced them to group together to pay for alternative accommodation. This is untrue, it is the MEK which is providing other accommodation on the condition that individuals do not speak out against them. The MEK use intimidation and coercion, telling the refugees their power comes from the Pentagon – they show cards purporting to be ID cards issued by the Pentagon- and that they must obey and take back their applications for refugee status. (Remember, these are people who have been held incommunicado in MEK camps in Iraq for many, many years and have no idea what is happening in the real world.)

America has agreed to take 80 of the residents of Camp Liberty. The MEK have lied to those in Albania, whom the US immigration officials have interviewed and cleared for acceptance, telling them they should not accept to go because the quota only applies to those in Camp Liberty. Of course, these fifteen young people have seen through this deception, pointing out that they came from Camp Liberty and are therefore legitimately part of that group.

After arriving in Los Angeles several of the young people contacted former MEK members who offered their support and advice. The MEK, of course, are trying to re-recruit them again over there and have again offered financial assistance on condition that they do not register with the UN, that they only live in MEK accommodation, that they do not speak out against the MEK and that they sometimes come and work with them – doing Facebook clicks for example. The young people have firmly rejected this, and some have already begun to write against the MEK in blogs and websites.

Former MEK members have been able to reassure them that if they stay clear of the cult, even if they have to struggle in the short term, their lives will be transformed and they will be successful in regaining normality and progressing in all areas of life – family relations, work and social status.

Now that America has taken these fifteen the message to everybody is clear: the MEK’s pretence of being supported by America, Israel and Europe is absolutely untrue. America is not run by Rudi Giuliani or John Bolton. America does not support the MEK. Instead, America fully supports the efforts of the government of Iraq and the UN to remove the MEK from Iraq. These young people have clearly been fooled by the MEK and taken to Iraq under duress. They are demonstrable victims of cultic deception. America is happy to support their reintegration back into normal life, and will help another sixty five individuals as soon as possible. It remains now for the European countries, Canada and Australia to take their share of these victims and set them back on the path to recovery and a normal life.

  1. Babak Shajari
  2. Davoud Ghorab
  3. Bahram Farashi
  4. Jamshid Farashi
  5. Yousof Mayeli
  6. Hanif daroudian
  7. Somayeh Majidi
  8. Kazem Samadi
  9. Hanif Golmaryami
  10. Alireza Golmaryami
  11. Naser Saeedi
  12. Shirin Madoomi
  13. Nastaran Rastegarpour
  14. Massoud Salami
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Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 89

++ This week Iranians joyfully celebrated Chahar Shanbe Suri with their families, with friends and in their communities. Nothing of much note happened apart from the usual needless, unfortunate firework injuries. Not a sign of the uprising that Maryam Rajavi’s ordered last week. Mohammad Karami exposed the MEK’s delusions on his weblog with an article titled ‘False Pictures, False News and False Identity’. He explains that the MEK have taken a single photograph from BBC Farsi showing that a police car was set ablaze outside a stadium in Ahwaz during a local clash. The MEK misleadingly claimed this is what happened “in Iran”. The MEK website also distorted an AP news article by adding bits to it themselves. Karami provided screenshots of the original AP article alongside the MEK version which clearly shows what they have added. Karami reminds us that they did the same thing last week with AP coverage of Maryam Rajavi’s Berlin Women’s Day show, in which the MEK edited out AP reporting that the audience was mostly made up of Polish and Czech students. He reminds us also of the ‘nuclear safe door’ debacle, pointing out that the MEK couldn’t even find a graphic obscure enough to avoid instant exposure. Karami reviews several years of photoshopped pictures of audiences, demonstrations and other events and concludes that the MEK has long ago become nothing more than image makers.

++ This week seven people moved out of Hotel Mohajer in Baghdad to resume normal life. The hotel is where ex members reside when they escape from Camp Liberty. This is good news because for many months conditions in Baghdad meant that there were not appropriate nor sufficient resources and facilities to allow them to move out. Now the situation in Iraq has eased the hotel has gone back to being a transit hotel.

++ Parviz Khazai, the MEK’s nefarious NCRI representative in Norway, has written a sixteen page report by order of Rajavi with title ‘Up to date report to the people of Iran’. Ebrahim Khodabandeh has unpicked it in an article, not, as he says because of the issues it contains but because this shows what the MEK’s problems are, where they are stuck and what they are trying to sort out with this report.

Khazai’s report has three subtitles: 1. About the Iranian regime. 2. About outside Iran and 3. About the people of Iran. Ironically, says Khodabandeh, Khazai explains that the MEK’s success are that it prevented Iran from taking over Iraq – during the eight year war [by siding with Iraq], during the 1991 Gulf war [by crushing the Kurdish uprising] and after the 2003 invasion [by siding with the Saddamists and insurgents] – and that it prevented Iran from building a bomb [as the source of nuclear exposures]. Although these are not things to be proud of says Khodabandeh, that is not the point; we didn’t think it was the MEK’s job to do these things. This is not opposition activity, in fact it is something quite different, and these are not questions of the Iranian people.

Khodabandeh says he is in contact with various people including current and former MEK members and they confirm that everybody’s questions are: 1. Where is Massoud Rajavi, the leader? 2. Why is it you are part and parcel of the Neocon/Zionist alliance and have nothing to do with Iran but everything to do with Israel? And 3. Where is all the money coming from to pay for all this? These are the questions of your own people let alone everyone else. Therefore this is not a report aimed at the people of Iran, nor is it aimed at the MEK’s own people. This report is for Israel because Rajavi is afraid of being dumped. It is an advertisement and justification of what the MEK has done for Israel in the hope of continued support.

In English:

++ TEHRAN (Tasnim) – ‘Mojahedin Khalq Has Strong Ties with ISIL: Former Member’

A former member of the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) revealed the group’s close relations with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group. Ghorban Ali Hosseinnejad said the leaders of MKO (also known as MEK) maintain strong ties with the ISIL Takfiri group in Iraq and Syria. “The MKO leaders had pinned hope in ISIL to seize control of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad after the northern city of Mosul fell to ISIL forces last summer”, Hosseinnejad was quoted by Iraqi Al-Masalah website as saying.

++ Michael Knights, Foreign Affairs, (The Council On Foreign Relations) ‘After Tikrit What to Do With Iraq’s Shia Popular Mobilization Units’

“Eastern Iraq has also been a literal and figurative battlefield between Iranian-backed Iraqi militants and the Iraqi state. Ravaged by the Iran-Iraq War, the borderlands soon after the cease-fire became sites of tit-for-tat border raids. Baghdad sent in the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MeK), Shiite opponents of the Iranian theocracy classified as a terrorist organization by the United States. Tehran sent in the Badr Corps, an Iraqi Shiite force recruited by Iran. In the 1990s, Iran also periodically sent its air force into Iraq to hit the MeK. It even fired salvos of Scud-like missiles into Diyala as late as 2001.”

++ Justin Raymondo, Antiwar.com ‘Bin Laden and Bibi, Together At Last, Israel’s alliance with al-Qaeda’: “Israel has never hesitated to ally with the worst elements on earth in order to advance what its leaders regard as the Jewish state’s interests. From South Africa’s apartheid regime to the death squads of Central and South America, to the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) – an Iranian exile group of Marxist terrorists – Israel has always given a helping hand to whoever merits it according to their amoral calculus. And as Israeli and American interests began to radically diverge – a process that has been ongoing since the demise of the Soviet Union – it makes perfect sense that they should align with our worst enemies.”

++ Nejat Bloggers: ‘Mr Rahmani – former MKO member – joined his family after 27 years’

“Mr. Mahmoud Rahmani who was a POW of Iran-Iraq war in 1987, was deceived into joining the Cult of Mujahedin-e Khalq. Mr. Rahmani who was forced to stay with the group for 27 years, transferred to Albania from Temporary Transit Location, Iraq. In Tirana far from the Cult boundaries and strict manipulation practices, Mr. Rahmani managed to release himself from the cult. Now, he is with his family after about a quarter of a century. When he left his family, his son was a 3 year old child. Now he is a 30 year old married young man. Within the mind manipulating cult of MKO, having contact with the family members both within and outside the Cult Camps is forbidden.”

++ Fars News: ‘Senior Iraqi MP: ISIL Continuing Mojahedin Khalq’s Terrorist Ideology’.

“Iraqi MP Hunain Al-Qado said the importance of reminding MKO’s crimes stems from the fact that some people try to keep these crimes under wraps.

He said the terrorist groups all pursue a shared objective, and added, “There is no difference between the ISIL’s terrorist acts in Iraq and Syria and Mojahedin-e Khalq’s terrorist acts.” “These groups use the same methods and have similar purposes which is creating fear and terrorizing civilians. So, what is going on now in Iraq is the continuation of MKO’s ideology.”

Emphasizing the need for cooperation among the regional countries that have been targeted by terrorist groups, al-Qado said, “On account of the arrogant powers’ struggles against Iran as well as their efforts in sowing the seeds of chaos in the Axis of Resistance, which is made up of Syria, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and most probably Yemen in the future, it is vital to set up strategies in order to encourage integrated efforts in these countries and other countries which are a victim of terrorism.””

++ Iran Interlink, March 20 2015:… On the occasion of Norooz, Iran Interlink is posting this article titled ‘Uncertain Future for MKO’ which was first published by Knight Ridder in March 2005. Our thoughts and hopes are with the victims of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, and their families, who are still held in incommunicado captivity in Camp Liberty …

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Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Breaking the Resistance with US Sponsored Terrorism and Proxy Wars

With the situation in the Middle East seemingly spinning out of control, many political observers are left wondering what it all means. The war in Syria has been at the forefront of the news since 2011, and rightly so, as Syria has become the epicenter of a larger regional conflict, particularly with the ascendance of ISIS in the last year.

Undoubtedly, the mainstream acceptance of the ISIS threat has changed the strategic calculus vis-à-vis Syria, as the US prepares to launch yetanother open-ended war, ostensibly to defeat it. And, while many in the West are willing to buy the ISIS narrative and pretext for war, they do so with little understanding or recognition of the larger geopolitical contours of this conflict. Essentially, almost everyone ignores the fact that ISIS and Syria-Iraq is only one theater of conflict in the broader regional war being waged by the US-NATO-GCC-Israel axis. Also of vital importance is an understanding of the proxy war against Iran (and all Shia in the region), being fomented by the very same terror and finance networks that have spread the ISIS disease in Syria.

In attempting to unravel the complex web of relations between the terror groups operating throughout the region, important commonalities begin to emerge. Not only are many of these groups directly or tangentially related to each other, their shadowy connections to western intelligence bring into stark relief an intricate mosaic of terror that is part of a broader strategy of sectarianism designed to destroy the “Axis of Resistance” which unites Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah. In so doing, these terror groups and their patrons hope to internationalize the war in Syria, and its destructive consequences.

Terrorism as a Weapon in Syria and Iraq

In order to understand how these seemingly disparate groups fit into the regional destabilization, one must first recognize how they are connected both in terms of ideology and shared relationships. On the one hand you have the well known terror outfits operating in the Syria-Iraq theater of this conflict. These would include the ubiquitous ISIS, along with its Al Qaeda-affiliated ally Jabhat Al-Nusra.

However, often left out of the western narrative is the fact that the so called “moderate rebels,” such as the Al Farouq Brigade and other similar groups affiliated with the “Free Syrian Army,” are also linked through various associations with a number of jihadi organizations in Syria and beyond. These alleged “moderates” have been documented as having committed a number of egregious war crimes including mutilation of their victims, and cross-border indiscriminate shelling. And these are the same “moderates” that the Obama Administration spent the last three years touting as allies, as groups worthy of US weapons, to say nothing of the recent revelations of cooperation with US air power. But of course US cooperation with these extremist elements is only the tip of the iceberg.

A recent UN report further corroborated the allegations that Israeli military and/or Mossad is cooperating with, and likely helping to organize, the Jabhat al-Nusra organization in and around the Golan Heights. Such claims of course dovetail with the reports from Israeli media that militant extremists fighting the Syrian government have been treated in Israeli medical facilities. Naturally, these clandestine activities carried out by Israel should be combined with the overt attacks on Syria carried out by Tel Aviv, including recent airstrikes, which despite the inaction of the UN and international community, undeniably constitute a war crime.

Beyond the US and Israel however, other key regional actors have taken part in the destabilization and war on Syria. Turkey has provided safe haven for terrorists streaming into Syria to wage war against the legally recognized government of President Assad. In cooperation with the CIA and other agencies, Turkey has worked diligently to foment civil war in Syria in hopes of toppling the Assad government, thereby allowing Ankara to elevate itself to a regional hegemon, or so the thinking of Erdogan and Davutoglu goes. Likewise, Jordan has provided training facilities for terrorists under the guidance and tutelage of “instructors” from the US, UK, and France.

But why rehash all these well-documented aspects of the destabilization and war on Syria? Simple. In order to fully grasp the regional dimension and global implications of this conflict, one must place the Syria war in its broader geopolitical context, and understand it as one part of a broader war on the “Axis of Resistance.” For, while Hezbollah and certain Iranian elements have been involved in the fighting and logistical support in Syria, another insidious threat has emerged – a renewed terror war against Iran in its Sistan and Baluchestan province in the east.

Rekindling the Proxy War against Iran

As the world’s attention has been understandably fixed upon the horrors of Syria, Iraq, and Libya, a new theater in the regional conflict has come to the forefront – Iran; specifically, Iran’s eastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, long a hotbed of separatism and anti-Shia terror, where a variety of terror groups have operated with the covert, and often overt, backing of western and Israeli intelligence agencies.

Just in the last year, there have been numerous attacks on Iranian military and non-military targets in the Sistan and Baluchestan region, attacks carried out by a variety of groups. Perhaps the most well known instance occurred in March 2014 when five Iranian border guards were kidnapped – one was later executed – by Jaish al-Adl which, according to the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium is:

an extremist Salafi group that has since its foundation claimed responsibility for a series of operations against Iran’s domestic security forces and Revolutionary Guards operating in Sistan and Balochistan province, including the detonation of mines [link added] against Revolutionary Guards vehicles and convoys, kidnapping of Iranian border guards and attacks against military bases… Jaish al-Adl is also opposed to the Iranian Government’s active support of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which they regard as an attack on Sunni muslims…Jaish ul-Adl executes cross border operations between the border of Iran and Pakistan and is based in the Baluchistan province in Pakistan.

It is important to note the centrality of Iran’s support for Syria and the Syrian Arab Army (and of course Hezbollah) in the ideological framework of a group like Jaish al-Adl. Essentially, this terror group sees their war against the Iranian government as an adjunct of the war against Assad and Syria – a new front in a larger war. Of course, the sectarian aspect should not be diminished as this group, like its many terrorist cousins, makes no distinction between political and religious/sectarian divisions. A war on Iran is a war on Shia, and both are just, both are legitimate.

Similarly, the last 18 months have seen the establishment of yet another terror group known as Ansar al-Furqan – a fusion of the Balochi Harakat Ansar and Pashto Hizb al-Furqan, both of which had been operating along Iran’s eastern border with Pakistan. According to the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium:

They characterize themselves as Mujahideen aginst [sic] the Shia government in Iran and are linked to Katibat al Asad Al ‘Ilamiya; Al-Farooq activists; al Nursra Front (JN), Nosrat Deen Allah, Jaysh Muhammad, Jaysh al ‘Adal; and though it was denied for some time, appears to have at least personal relationships with Jundallah…The stated mission of Ansar al Furqan is ” to topple the Iranian regime…”

Like its terrorist cousin Jaish al-Adl, Ansar al-Furqan has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks against the Iranian Government, including a May 2014 IED attack on a freight train belonging to government forces. While such attacks may not make a major splash in terms of international attention, they undoubtedly send a message heard loud and clear in Tehran: these terrorists and their sponsors will stop at nothing to destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Two inescapable facts immediately come to the fore when examining these groups. On the one hand, they are Sunni extremists whose ultimate goal is the destruction of the Iranian state and all vestiges of Shia dominance, political, military or otherwise. On the other hand, these groups see their war against Iran as part and parcel of the terror wars on Syria and Iraq.

And then of course there’s Jundallah, the notorious terror organization lead for decades by the Rigi family. Anyone with even cursory knowledge of the group is undoubtedly aware of its long-standing ties to both US and Israeli intelligence. As Foreign Policy magazine reported in 2012, Israeli Mossad and US CIA operatives essentially competed with one another for control of the Jundallah network for years. This information of course directly links these agencies with the covert war against Iran going back years, to say nothing of the now well-known role of Israeli intelligence in everything from assassinations of Iranian scientists to the use of cyberweapons such as Stuxnet and Flame. These and other attacks by Israel and the US against Iranian interests constitute a major part of the dirty war against Iran – a war in which terror groups figure prominently.

It should be noted that a number of other terror outfits have been used through the decades in the ongoing “low-intensity” war against Iran, including the infamous Mujahideen-e-Khalq, a terrorist group hailed as heroes by the US neocon establishment. Thanks to Wikileaks, it also now documented fact that Israel has long since attempted to use Kurdish groups such as PJAK (Iraqi Kurdish terror group) to wage continued terror war against Iran for the purposes of destabilization of the government. Additionally, there was a decades-long campaign of Arab separatism in Iran’s western Khuzestan region spearheaded by British intelligence. As Dr. Kaveh Farrokh and Mahan Abedin wrote in 2005, “there is a mass of evidence that connects the British secret state to Arab separatism in Iran.”

These and other groups, too numerous to name here, represent a part of the voluminous history of subversion against Iran. But why now? What is the ultimate strategy behind these seemingly disparate geopolitical machinations?

Encircling the Resistance in Order to Break It

To see the obvious strategic gambit by the US-NATO-GCC-Israel axis, one need only look at a map of the major conflicts mentioned above. Syria has been infiltrated by countless terrorist groups that have waged a brutal war against the Syrian government and people. They have used Turkey in the North, Jordan in the South, and to a lesser degree Lebanon and, indirectly, Israel in the West. Working in tandem with the ISIS forces originating in Iraq, Syria has been squeezed from all sides in hopes that military defeat and/or the internal collapse of the Syrian government would be enough to destroy the country.

Naturally, this strategy has necessarily drawn Hezbollah into the war as it is allied with Syria and, for more practical reasons, cannot allow a defeated and broken Syria to come to fruition as Hezbollah would then be cut off from their allies in Iran. And so, Hezbollah and Syria have been forced to fight on no less than two fronts, fighting for the survival of the Resistance in the Levant.

Simultaneously, the regional power Iran has made itself into a central player in the war in Syria, recognizing correctly that the war could prove disastrous to its own security and regional ambitions. However, Tehran cannot simply put all its energy into supporting and defending Syria and Hezbollah as it faces its own terror threat in the East. The groups seeking to topple the Iranian government may not be able to compete militarily with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, but they can certainly create enough destabilization through terrorism to make it more difficult for Tehran to effectively aid in the fight in Syria.

The US-NATO-GCC-Israel alliance has not needed to put its own boots on the ground to achieve its strategic objectives. Instead, it is relying on irregular warfare, proxy terror wars, and small-scale destabilizations to achieve by stealth what it cannot achieve with military might alone.

But it remains paramount for all those interested in peace to make these connections, to understand the broad outlines of this vast covert war taking place. To see a war in Syria in isolation is to misunderstand its very nature. To see ISIS alone as the problem is to completely misread the essence of the conflict. This is a battle for regional hegemony, and in order to attain it, the Empire is employing every tool in the imperial toolkit, with terrorism being one of the most effective.

Eric Draitser is an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City, he is the founder of StopImperialism.org and OP-ed columnist for RT, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

Eric Draitser,

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