++This week’s guest on Mardom TV was Mohammad Hossein Sobhani. Among other issues he went into some detail about what it is that the Mojahedin Khalq do for MOSSAD. Expanding on this he reminded us of what various former CIA officials have said about the MEK – ‘they are useful because they do things we are ashamed to do ourselves’.

++ Hamed Sarrafpour’s Facebook this week mentioned the discovery of plutonium in the body of Yaser Arafat. He says that although 95% of the MEK’s websites praise Israel, this week Rajavi couldn’t resist re-publishing the picture of his wife posing with Arafat, but while claiming they are in grief over his death they still were very careful not to make any mention of Israel in this respect.

++ In reaction to the support which some European parliamentarians have given to the MEK and Al Hashemi (the fugitive from Iraq) in Brussels, there have been many reactions from Baghdad. Among them Karim Alivi a prominent MP for the Badr parliamentary bloc who said that in order to continue supporting the MEK, European countries must move them to their own countries and not foist them on Iraq. He said ‘we refuse to keep them in Iraq under any name, refugee or other, because they have killed our children and our people during the era of the tyrant Saddam’. Another is the head of the Commission for Foreign Affairs in Iraq who has issued a statement saying that ‘we have discussed the MEK with our foreign counterparts. The ambassador of the European Union assured us that the MEK had not been invited by parliament, but only by a media representation which has no relation with the EP or EC and that what Al Hashemi and MEK have been claiming about being invited by the EP is simply a lie’.

++ Irandidban website has published an article listing some of the MEK’s western supporters and some of their Iranian supporters in the west and asks, why is it the most disreputable people are gathered under one roof?

++ The saga of the hunger strike is continuing. Nejat Association in Tehran has published a short article explaining how Rajavi is trying to use this to force a response from western governments who are ignoring him and his demands – Rajavi’s theory is that he can open his way with other people’s blood. It is clear they can read his hand and so refuse to answer. But many critics within the sphere of influence of the MEK including Hadi Afshar and Saeed Jamaali address their fellow supporters and remind them that if anyone dies during this so-called hunger strike then their hands are dipped in their blood as well because they are the people who should get Rajavi to spare their lives rather than inciting them to carry on to their deaths.

++ Javad Firouzmand from Ariya Iran in Paris has written an Open Letter to Maryam Rajavi endorsing the claims of Hadi Afshar and his ongoing memoir. Firouzmand refers to the many women who have claimed Rajavi raped them in front of Maryam and says that with so many high ranking disaffected members making these claims and comparing this with what the MEK have themselves said about the relation of women to Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, it is necessary, once and for all for the Rajavis to come clean and either deny or confirm the accusations. This will not go away says Firouzmand, and ‘although I have my own doubts about these events, if you don’t answer we can only assume they are true’.

++ Atefeh Eghbal writes on the subject of the hunger strike. She says it is clear that in the near future the so-called president elect (for the past 16 years) will emerge to save the lives of the hunger strikers by giving a speech the same way she came out after the murder of 52 members in Camp Ashraf who were apparently there to protect her belongings. Everyone will be a winner except those who have genuinely starved who will suffer the ill effects for the rest of their lives.

++ Mohammad Reza Rowhani has published the fifth part of ‘The Smell of Joseph’s Shirt’. He examines specific concepts published under the name of Massoud Rajavi himself and relates these to the attacks against himself. Rowhani concludes that from this comparison it is clear that the attack on him was done by order and was not spontaneous. He also refers to incidents from before he had left, during and after, when the MEK’s intelligence operatives had been pretending to be his friend to investigate and try to gather information about his life in order to later fabricate lies about him.

++ Irandidban carries an article under the title, ‘Anti-Iranian policies and the future of Rajavi’. The article says that Israel, Saudi Arabia and their backing systems in the west have tried using terrorism in various ways, from Al Qaida to Jundullah to Jaish Al Adl even though they know that this doesn’t help but only brings hatred against them from among Iranians who know who is behind these things. Clearly after they failed in every other way they have had to resort to terrorism. But Rajavi knows, and his masters know, that the MEK has even lost the capacity for terrorism and is no longer of much use to the point that the MEK have become a rent-a-crowd carnival service. The MEK have become mere cheerleaders for terrorism so far have they been demoted in Washington and elsewhere.

++ Behzad Alishahi, from the Community of Independent Bloggers, has made a short video producing documents from throughout Rajavi and the MEK’s history. This demonstrates how the MEK have been betraying their country and their own members. How, from the start, they have been working as a mercenary force from initial collaboration with the Soviet Union and then inside Iran working for different factions, then helping western intelligence from France and then openly joining forces with Saddam up to now when they are openly working for Israel and western forces against Iran. They have no history when they were not mercenaries.

++ In English, Press TV has linked the recent position taken by France in the Geneva talks with the uncompromising stance of Israel and also the MEK. According to the article France snubbed Zarif during an official visit, the first such high-level meeting since 2009, The article claims that for years France has been the most anti-Iranian nation in the EU, and perhaps even more so than the US. It exposes France’s position, pointing out that “openly imperialist Zionists, on the other hand, occupy nearly all the top positions in Hollande’s cabinet: the interior, finance and, of course, the foreign minister. The prime minister and defense minister are the only two among the government’s top jobs who probably don’t have Israeli citizenship. … And the lack of pro-Iranian counterpoints in French society does not stop there: France is the second home of the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), a group of fifth columnists who have absolutely no legitimacy to any Iranian for reasons it takes only seconds to comprehend: they fought with Saddam Hussein against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. But a poster of the ringleader of this bizarre cult, Marjane [sic] Rajavi, was recently all over Paris to advertise her new book. And they are supported by the French government to the extent that they have been mistakenly removed from the EU’s terrorist list. This is who has influence in France’s corridors of power – groups which care little for the average Iranian’s well-being, or for international justice that contradicts French interests. when you combine Iran’s economic rise and their opposition to France’s support for dozens of imperialist projects and illegitimate dictators, it’s no wonder that France and Iran are fighting tooth and nail.”

++ Politico reported that a contribution of $2,600 made by MEK supporter Masood Abooali in August to Sen. Lindsey Graham’s reelection campaign was refunded the following month with ‘a terse explanation: The campaign was “uncomfortable” with some of his associations and had rejected his contribution’.

November 15, 2013