Gazeta Impakt

American support for MEK in Albania alienates Iranian public opinion

Trump’s supposed policy of bullying Iran into begging for talks has stalled after his all-caps Twitter rant was batted back by General Qassem Soleimani’s kick-ass retort. Time for a re-think of the whole approach perhaps. Indeed, many of the tactics used by the US to bring Iran into line over the past forty years have actually enabled and strengthened the ruling establishment there. It’s not that Iran has got better, but the US has made avoidable blunders.

Not least of these is to threaten to bomb the country to destroy its (so-far peaceful) nuclear capabilities. Allied with cruel economic sanctions, the discriminatory Travel Ban and overt support for violent regime change, this aggressive approach only alienates Iranian people.

But while there is disagreement between the various organisations and factions who oppose the Iranian government on any number of issues, there is one thing which unites almost all Iranians and that is the unaccountable American support for the Mojahedin Khalq terrorist cult.

Since the 1980s, the MEK has been facilitated as a terrorist entity and propaganda outlet by the US establishment specifically because of its violent extremism and regime change agenda. These supporters have no illusions – MEK is unreliable and untrustworthy and has no support whatsoever among Iranians. However, intelligence agencies and the military are amoral institutions; they make no judgment about the ethical or moral value of an asset. So, as long as politicians find the ‘MEK threat’ useful to buttress their regime change agendas, the arrangements for MEK’s continued survival remain largely unchallenged.

Because of this complicity, US Secretary of State Pompeo’s claim that “the Trump administration dreams the same dreams for the people of Iran as you do” was met with derision among the Iranian diaspora. If the US at any time had wanted to help the Iranian people, it would have dismantled the MEK. For years, successive US administrations have squandered opportunities to remove MEK from the equation. This failure has contributed to the sterility of US policy toward Iran.

What looked like a genuine process to de-list, transfer and de-radicalize the MEK, initiated by Hillary Clinton in 2012, proved simply to be a pragmatic move which allowed continued US support for MEK in a third country after Iraq increased demands for its expulsion. A $9m deal struck with Albanian Prime Minister Berisha included American funding for a De-Radicalization Institute in Tirana. This was advertised to reassure the Albanian people; MEK members would be re-integrated into society and allowed to take up residence as ordinary citizens to live out their lives in peace and security.

Instead, the US facilitated the re-grouping of MEK in a closed terrorist training camp in rural Albania, where MEK leaders continue their horrible human rights abuses against the members. Apparently, neoconservatives find the group’s promise of regime changeirresistible, even in the face of such evidence. However, above all other considerations, the MEK members in Albania are living, breathing souls and it behoves us to pay attention to them as individuals.

The MEK is described as a destructive cult because it poses the greatest threat to its own members. Many hundreds have been killed and continue to be killed by the leaders. The latest example came only weeks ago with the unexplained death of MEK member Malek Sharaii. Sharaii’s family in Iran say that he had wanted to leave MEK but had incriminating information about the September 2013 massacre at Camp Ashraf which MEK didn’t want to be made public. The family allege that he was murdered because of his past. Due to MEK pressure, the police investigation was halted, Sharaii’s body was apparently ‘discovered’ after two weeks and buried without any post mortem because the MEK claimed this was against their religious practices. He joins a long list of disappeared and mysterious, unexplained deaths of MEK members.

Unsurprisingly then, over four hundred people have managed to escape the cultic clutches of MEK while they are in Albania. The latest escapee, Hassan Shahbazi, described his membership with MEK as “slavery”. There is no doubt, that MEK keeps all its members in a state of modern slavery. Former members confirm that many, many members would like to leave but are trapped and afraid. MEK has hired a private armed security group to keep members inside and everyone else, including the Albanian security services, out.

This enforced entrapment and isolation are compounded by the MEK’s refusal to allow families to be in contact with one another – this is as true for related people inside the camp as for the desperate families outside who, since 2003, have come searching for their loved ones in MEK, offering them help and succor.

One such family, Canadian citizens Mostafa and Mahboubeh Mohammadi, have recently come to Albania to try to rescue their 38-year-old daughter who is still unable to meet with her parents. MEK goons are experts in intimidation techniques including threats of physical and verbal violence, actual violence. More significantly, their claim to have CIA and MOSSAD backing has been enough to silence most Albanian media, who do not want their careers or businesses ruined for this group.

Since its arrival in the small Balkan country, MEK has caused nothing but controversy in Albania. Its citizens rightly fear them. Neither its politicians nor its police can control them. And families like the Mohammadi’s must bear the brunt of MEK violence.

So, while American politicians can feign ignorance, Iranians themselves know the truth. And they know that the Hardliners in Iran are the biggest benefactors of this situation. Not only was the terrorist MEK disarmed and imprisoned in Iraq for a decade at American expense, the group is still used as a bogeyman by Iran’s security services to quell protests and rebellion in the name of counter-terrorism. As a first principle, opposition activists in Iran are careful to distance themselves from MEK in every shape and form.

In this context, using the MEK name as lazy shorthand for ‘violent regime change’ can only be counter-productive; it is guaranteed to unite Iranians against you. If President Trump really seeks to change what his predecessors have done and to shake up politics, his most effective move would be to dismantle MEK. Such a move would be a radical departure from the sterile policies of the past. Trump would take the credit for something that should have been accomplished years ago.

ANNE KHODABANDEH

Anne Khodabandeh, is an expert in anti-terrorist activities and a long-standing activist in the field of deradicalization of extremists. She has written several articles and books on this subject, along with her husband, who is of Iranian origin.

August 2, 2018 0 comment

Missions of Nejat Society

Why did Iranian Mojahedin physically assault Mostafa Mohammadi?

Since July 5, 2018, two old Canadian citizens have wandered around Tirana; Mostafa Mohammedi and Mahboubeh Hamza. These two elderly people who have wandered the streets of Tirana for more than three weeks, desperately knock on the doors of Albanian institutions and ask for help. They want to meet their daughter, Somayeh Mohammadi, who was abducted when she was 17 years old by the Iranian Mojahedin terrorist organization.

The Mojahedin who kidnapped Somayeh from Canada 21 years ago in 1997, promised her a free visit to Iraq, but then didn’t allow her to return home. In 1999, when Somayeh’s brother Mohammad went to Iraq to rescue his sister, he was also abducted by the Mojahedin and was forced inside Camp Ashraf. Somayeh’s father, Mostafa Mohammadi, who has left no stone unturned in his efforts to rescue his children, finally, in 2004, with the help of the American marines, saved his son Mohammad from the jihadist camp. However, he failed to save Somayeh.

From 2004 until today, Mostafa and Mahboubeh have visited Iraq, Jordan, America and France to find their daughter, who, like a few hundred more young men and women, is held captive by a frightening terrorist organization.

When the Iranian Mojahedin arrived here in 2016, Mohammadi finally had an address where he could look for his daughter. For this reason, on 5 July 2018, after gathering money for his visit, he finally came to Tirana. He went to the UNHCR’s office, Ramsa, the Interior Ministry, the police, etc. and explained that he wanted to find and meet his daughter. While the Interior Ministry and the charity office headed by Sokol Sheti, said that his daughter does not exist, other organizations informed Mostafa that his daughter was alive in Albania and in Manëz. They showed him his daughter’s file but told him he could not access the file because that privilege was only for Sokol Sheti, who had lied. The fact that Somayeh was alive was marvellous for Mostafa and gave him hope.

But the Iranian jihadists who are protected by the Albanian state and who have many child soldiers – that is, soldiers who have been kidnapped as children and kept for years – when they learned that Mostafa had finally discovered that his daughter was alive, panicked. Three days after Mostafa arrived in Albania, ie on July 8, 2018, they wrote a letter on behalf of Somayeh – which they distributed to the media on July 22 only after Mostafa discovered his daughter was there. In the letter written on behalf of Somayeh, the Mojahedin portray Somayeh as their devotee who does not belong to her father. In the letter which the Mojahedin issued to the media on behalf of Somayeh, they write that Somayeh will not meet her father and mother because, the letter claims, they are agents of Iran.

Media from Anila Basha’s newsbomb to Lapsi have published the MEK leaflet which demands that Minister Xhafaj deport Mostafa and Somayeh’s mother. But Mostafa, who is not afraid of the MEK leaflet, responded to Minister Xhafaj by explaining that he is a Canadian citizen and construction worker who wants only for his daughter to be taken home – taken to Toronto and not to Tehran.

But even if Mostafa Mohammed was an Iranian agent, again, no son of a bitch has any right in this world to stop a mother and a father from having the right to meet their child. Maryam Rajavi and her terrorists sheltering in Manëz at the Ashraf 3 paramilitary camp are using every stone and tool to frighten Mostafa and Mahboubeh and not let them meet their daughter. They are using ‘foreign agents’ accusations, fake news, money, threats and their ties with the Albanian government to get Mostafa deported from Albania so as not to meet his daughter. Some media outlets that publish the copy-paste libel of the MEK jihadists – who label Mostafa as an Iranian agent – have also fallen into this propaganda trap.

But Mostafa is brave. He will not surrender and does not get frightened. On July 24, 2018, he talked about the MEK kidnapping and illegal detention of his daughter. The criminal proceeding that was issued in Durres has led the criminal police to enter the Manëz camp, find, identify and meet the girl. Although the meeting with Somayeh at the police station took place in the presence of the MEK Gestapo – who do not leave their members alone for even a moment and threaten them if they express any desire to leave the cult, sooner or later Somayeh will meet with her father and mother, on her own, free and without fear of MEK commanders, who, if Somayeh for even a moment now dares to say, “I want to meet my mom and dad”, will seriously condemn and possibly kill her!

Some former Mojahedin who have abandoned the MEK jihad and live in Tirana, and also some of Somayeh’s friends who are now Denmark and the US, testify that Somayeh loves her mother and father very much and dreams of living with them one day. She is not a devotee, like the devotees who created the Labor Party in Albania, who abandoned their mothers and fathers for the sake of the Party. Somayeh will meet her parents, but she is just scared and for now she cannot do this because she is isolated by MEK. For 24 hours a day under the MEK Gestapo Somayeh does not watch television, does not read the internet, does not have a phone, does not read the newspaper, is not allowed to leave the camp and has no idea what her mom and her dad are doing in Tirana. The only thing that the MEK commanders say to her, is that Iran has brought some agents who want to kill her and the holy Maryam Rajavi. Somayeh has been totally isolated for 20 years and has no idea of the outside world.

Hassan, a former Mojahed who lives in Tirana and has abandoned jihad, describes why Somayeh is afraid to leave the camp and meet her parents. ‘The Mojahedin threaten you and tell you, if you meet your mother and father, Iranian agents will kill you. On the other hand, the camp at Manëz is guarded by private armed police who are used as a threaten Somayeh and her friends who are thinking of abandoning jihad. The Mojahedin commanders say to those who they think want to escape from the camp, that if they do such a thing they will be hit and killed.’

Mostafa Mohammadi, who understands how his daughter is being held hostage, does not surrender. He is following legal remedy and hopes that one day when he does see his daughter – away from the Mojahedin Gestapo which threaten her all the time – Somayeh will fall on her parents’ neck and tell them: Mom and Dad, I want to go with you in Canada! Get me out of this disgusting terrorist camp that has held me hostage for 20 years. Mostafa and Mahboubeh have built Somayeh a new home in Toronto and are eagerly waiting for their daughter to abandon jihad, complete her college education and then go to university. For her to find a good job and then marry, as have her brothers and sisters living in Canada. Mohammad, her brother who lives and works in Ottawa, tells their father, please do whatever you can to save Somayeh.

Somayeh’s freedom terrifies the Mojahedin. If Somayeh abandons the MEK’s Manëz camp and goes to Canada she will be followed by several hundred other Mojahedin who have been isolated from their families for 20 years. Families who have lost their children in the MEK camp (and who the Albanian state prohibits from entering the country on the pretext that they are Iranian agents) will flood Albania and seek the freedom for their children without being afraid that MEK will accuse them of being Iranian agents.

Many witnesses who have left the MEK narrate horrific stories. Members there are not only kept in terrible conditions, but there are many women who have been raped by Massoud Rajavi, leader of the cult.

For this reason, the Mojahedin went crazy today and attacked Somayeh’s father in the streets of Tirana. They think they live in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and that by slandering and accusing the elderly Mostafa of being an Iranian agent, they will be able to frighten and deter Mostafa from his demand for justice.

Today, under the command of jihadist Commander Behzat Saffari, the Mojahedin attacked and beat Mostafa Mohammadi, striking him and calling him a terrorist. Later, after Tirana police escorted these Mojahedin to Police Commissariat No. 4, the Mojahedin surrounded the police station with 50 Mojahedin who protested against Mostafa and his lawyers, who they labelled terrorists.

Police at the Regional Commissariat No. 4, who were offended by the Mojahedin attack, finally saw with their own eyes the threat that violent jihadism constitutes for Albania. Although the Mojahedin thought that by beating Mostafa they would frighten him, things went differently. Tirana police acknowledged Mostafa’s denunciation of the violence against him and the case has already passed to the court. Mostafa is free and will continue with the prosecution against hostage-taking by the jihadist group in the serious crimes tribunal.

The Mojahedin’s beating of Mostafa has not scared him at all. Mostafa and his wife will continue the legal battle to the end. They will release Somayeh from the horrible Mojahedin cult and take her to Canada.

This fact terrifies the Mojahedin. And this is the reason they beat Mostafa on the streets of Tirana today.

May God not allow the Mojahedin to kill Mostafa, Somayeh, or the people who are working to release her!

Translated by Iran Interlink

July 29, 2018 0 comment

Missions of Nejat Society

PM Edwin (Edi Rama), tied to the Mojahedin Khalq

Prime Minister Edwin, advised by his boss and his mentor George Sorros, signed a secret agreement with former Secretary of State Kerry to transfer to Albania and to shelter the remaining 3000 Iranian Mojahedin (MEK) from Iraq. This agreement, which went much further than the agreement struck by former Prime Minister Berisha to shelter some tens of Mojahedin in Albania, was considered by Prime Minister Edwin as a miracle that would only bring profit. For the prime minister this was compensation for the gaffes and backsliding on the problem of dismantling Assad’s chemical weapons in Albania. The agreement placed the President Obama administration in debt to the Prime Minister of a small Balkan country. In Albania we would have over 3,000 “tourists” for 365 days a year. Criminal elements close to Edwin, on the back of the minimum accusation of negligence, would benefit from millions of petrodollars for housing, protection or transportation of Iranian Mojahedin, or even for building their paramilitary base in Manzas of Durres, the so-called Ashraf Camp 3. Bribes, only bribes is what you can say about such a deal. Actually, Prime Minister Edwin had forgotten the English saying that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The arrival of this organization, the clique, the cult led by Madam Rajavi in Albania began to have increasingly disturbing side effects. We recall the anti-Mojahedin protest of the inhabitants of Manza over the cemetery as well as a series of developments in the field of the judiciary.

So far, Albanian prosecutors have the files of four accusations (made by proxy Albanian lawyers) of the families of different individuals resident in Camp Ashraf 3 in Golan. All four criminal charges have the common charge: the unlawful deprivation of liberty of the person. These Iranian Mojahedin family members MEK accuse the organization, Madam Rajavi’s cult, of abducting their relatives (children, brothers, sisters) and holding them in the camp against their will. Strangely enough, the Albanian prosecution is investigating these 4 counts with the speed of a snail ….

Malek Sharaii’s brother, the Iranian Mojahed who reportedly drowned in a reservoir not far from Ashraf 3 camp, sent a letter of protest to Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees at the United Nations. Faryad Azadi, his brother on behalf of the whole family informs Filippo Grandi that the family is convinced that Malek Sharaii did not die accidentally but was killed by the Iranian Mojahedin (or MEK). The Sharaii family also protests strongly about the attitude of the Albanian police and prosecution, which has halted investigations into how the deceased really lost his life. The mother of the deceased, Masoumeh Torkamani and his sister, Zahra Sharaii, hope for the help of the UN to find his body. Prime Minister Edwin with his Iranian Mojahedin Renaissance is taking us back to the 1990s, when foreign diplomats and UN representatives pressed dictator Alia about the dead on the walls of the embassies in Tirana and the missing in unnamed tombs over in Macedonia. Thankfully this time the MEK’s hunting dogs are only killing Iranians not Albanians, thank God!

The couple, Mahboubeh and Mostafa Mohamadi, had not engaged a lawyer, but had come to Albania and are urgently trying to meet their daughter Somayeh Mohammadi, who according to the couple was abducted by the Iranian MEK and can be found in Camp Ashraf 3. The couple have not missed any Albanian institution without knocking on the door, including the offices of the UNCHR. These two parents have also written a letter to Minister Xhafa about the plight that has befallen them. On July 26, 2017 (I was present), they also filed criminal charges for the unlawful deprivation of liberty of the person at the Police Directorate of Durres District. On Friday, July 27, 2017, a group of Iranian MEK attacked the couple in question in the Medresea area in Tirana. The attack was not just verbal insults and threats, but also physical, with slaps, punches and kicks. Father Mostafa ended up in hospital – his hospital photos have now become viral on Albanian social networks. Then a bunch of MEKs with banners in their hands spent a few hours in the courtyard of the Police Commissariat no. 4 in Tirana, putting pressure on the Albanian police not continue with interrogation of their “friends” who attacked Mostafa, who only insists on meeting his daughter who is believed to be in Camp Ashraf 3 in Manza.

O Edwin, Prime Minister and Chief of the internal affairs of my country, chain up the hunting dogs! If you cannot control the hunting dogs because they have prior links to you, then please explain to them that they are in Albania for humanitarian reasons as persons protected by the Albanian state and not as a bunch of mercenaries that can put pressure on the Albanian police. My homeland Albania is not “the sick man” of the Adriatic with “the Bosphorus disease”, like the Turkey of Sultan Abdul Hamiti,. MEK cannot enjoy extraterritoriality because of your government Edwin; the Prime Minister of my country has not signed Sultan Abdul Hamiti’s capitulation for a meal!

[Oh Edwin, please God you do not lower today’s level to that of Fatmir Mehdi, Meta, Mehdihoxha of 10 years ago who, in order to avoid bribery with colonels and Albanian generals, told that for that medallion of Chinese pellets in Rinas and for those MANPADs and Gerdec cathedrals, Fatmir as Fatmir had not received any dollar, making a favor to those CIAs of the CIA. When Gerdec broke out with 26 people killed and 300 injured, none of the CIA’s “cunat” came to god. Albanian colonels and generals ended up in jail or asylum in the US (SIC!), While Fatmir became an environment minister! Do not lower the level with the CIA fairy tales that Manze’s MEK is throwing dance in Albania, that you are favoring those CIA’s “cunas”. Do not bother me at Mediu of Seed!]

O Edwin, with humility pay attention to the Albanian proverb: The dog, when freed from the chain, bites everyone in the area as well. If the MEK are freed from their chain, Lord knows whether they will stop biting until they reach the general secretary of the ministry or go to the ministers and prime minister. Beware, Prime Minister not to make a mistake in the name of my country with these MEK, there is no anti-rabies vaccine!

O Edwin do not provoke the Albanians who … demonstrated against Assad’s chemical weapons as the concession payment for the National Road, or for the failure of the mines in Bulqiza and so on. The MEK sat you in your place when some 50 citizens of Manza protested against the burial of Mojahedin in the Manza cemetery and you Edwin were lying to say that these Manzas MEKs will profit us?!?!?!?

GJERGJ THANASI, Translated by Iran Interlink

July 29, 2018 0 comment

Albania

Albanians angry that America dumps its terrorists on them

Iran-Interlink – The following article is a critique by Samet Vata of a summer school organized by the Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS) as part of the NATO Summit in London. The article is Google translated into English.

In relation to MEK, Vata criticises statements by interim American ambassador in Albania, David Muniz. Muniz first says that Iran was in breach of the JCPOA, which it wasn’t. He then blames Iran for ‘exporting radicalism which scares Europe and the Balkans’. Vata explains that US foreign policy “forced” Albania to host 3000 Mojahedin Khalq terrorist extremists, thus imposing a direct security risk on Albania. Thus, Albania should accept that MEK is a problem for Albania’s relations with Iran because MEK threatens the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Based on an announcement by National Coordinator of the Office for Violent Extremism, Agron Sojati, Vata believes this risk would be extended by the arrival in Albania of 6,000 ISIS terrorists from Syria. Participants in the summer school were confused when Sojati said the numbers were exaggerated but that Albania ‘should be prepared to shelter terrorists who come from the war in Syria’. Vata questions how they will be dealt with, asking ‘will they be left alone and given a camp as we have done with MEK?’

Gazeta Impakt

The Albanian Institute for International Studies is unilateral in the issue of radicalism

from Gazeta Impakt – By: Samet Vata – July 14, 2018

Within the NATO Summit in London, a summer school was organized by the Albanian Institute for International Studies, AIIS, regarding the security environment in the Western Balkans, part of which I was also. The purpose of the school was to inform the strategy that the Atlantic Alliance (NATO) has in the Balkans region, especially Albania, and to build a tense reality of the “danger” of violent extremism.

So things are fine. But when you look at the articulations of the referral characters in this summer school, two ideas are built on the head. First, because of the internal problems the Atlantic Alliance does not have a unified policy for dealing with the Western Balkans. Second, these internal issues require to motivate them with extreme radicalism, which is attempting to undermine the order in the Balkans. This is like dictatorship, which sometimes failed in its ideology, blame for capitalism, but in this case the danger comes from the “dictators” and “imperialists” of the Near, Middle, and Far East. Briefly, Albania and NATO are facing three concrete dangers: Russian economic expansion, Turkish neo-Ottomanism, and “radicalism” in the breeding countries.

At the opening session of the school was the former Defense Minister, Mimi Kodheli, who in her opinion stated that Russia was a real danger for Albania, as her offensive geo-politics also enabled the election result to be changed in favor of the current president Trump. So, if the US that is superpower is vulnerable to Russia, this should make us more alert and cautious to the Albanians in the reports that we are building on the state level, but also in the ideological framework with such countries. Being vigilant and caring will serve to preserve the current stability in the Balkans, she said. Kodheli. We can do this by talking to one another, sharing our thoughts, treating these things together. So united to withstand the risk. She closed her conversation with an expression of John Lennon “Give Peace a Chance”. But I have the impression that such a risk is more cluttered than real and all this story is nothing more than an excuse to justify the sanctions against Russia. The head of Russian diplomacy Lavrov recently said that Russia is not an enemy, but a friend of Europe, and the latter must leave the spirit that has remained since the Cold War. It is true that peace should be given an opportunity, but objectively treated who is hindering this.

Of particular importance in the summer school was the speech of the interim American ambassador in Albania, David Muniz, who replaces the ambassador to fleeing LU until the appointment of the new ambassador. Muniz said Trump’s coming to power has caused little fear because of statements and controversial behavior that the latter had on his domestic and foreign policies. He said that despite these strong statements that Trump has given about withdrawing US from NATO, it is certain that the role of the United States in the alliance is definitely unchanged and there is no discussion of a second case in Brex. Alongside this, the ambassador said that two of the factors that, apart from Russia, are extending their influence on the Balkans, are Turkey and Iran. Turkey, Muniz said, is pursuing a controversial policy with regard to the Alliance and its heart seems to be no longer beheaded by NATO. It has never happened that a NATO member country has bought sophisticated weapons from a non-member country and this has caused a major debate within member states that Turkey does not have to sell more NATO armaments. The case is about buying the Russian S-400 anti-tank system. But I think the ambassador’s word is somewhere else. The US finds it hard to accept Turkey as a self-determining factor in domestic politics and the region as Turkey has been knocking on EU gates for a long time and has been inferior to US supremacy in the region. I say this because another member of the alliance, Greece, has its anti-missile S-300 system in its arsenal, which is an older version of these weapons that Turkey wants to buy. Western powers find it difficult to admit that Turkey, which has always been used as a flesh in the Middle East conflicts, is fleeing from your hands and pursuing a policy that is in line with its domestic interests in the first place, but on the other hand increases the influence and dominance of the Muslim factor in the region.

With regard to Iran, Mr. Muniz said that the withdrawal of the Trump administration from the nuclear pact with Iran was a move to a certain extent, though the deal was very good. That is because Iran has repeatedly violated certain points of the deal by expanding its nuclear activity and producing dangerous weapons for the stability of the region. He also said that Iran is a country that is exporting radicalism and this scares much Europe, but also the Balkans, which are below its range of action. For this reason, Albanian politics and citizens must also give up relations with such dangerous places.

The ambassador is right when he says Iran is exporting radicalism, but not by his will. The ambassador must know very well that his country’s foreign policy “forced” the Albanian state to import over 3000 Iranian mujahideen of the terrorist organization MEK. So, Albania is really endangered by Iranian radicalism, but this is not to blame for the policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Balkans, but as a consequence of the US mid-term interests and as a consequence of the government of Albania’s handling of security issues. Perhaps we should be given a fair share of our country’s interest in the Islamic Republic of Iran, because this Albanian-dominated military group (MEK) directly risks the security of their country.

Seminars were also discussed about the Syrian refugee crisis. National Coordinator of the Office for Violent Extremism Agron Sojati launched his announcement saying that “a rumor is circulating as if 600,000 terrorists are expected to come alive in Albania” and immediately after that made the interpretation of this rumor saying that the numbers are in fact little hyperbolized, though their number will be reduced. According to Agron Soyati, we should be prepared to shelter terrorists who come from the war in Syria in our country that may be the cause of destabilization in the country. But this sentence of Mr. Sojate in some ways confused the participants in the summer school. On one side, Albania seeks to fight the violent radicalism, but on the other hand do we radical shelter? How will Albania behave with the radicals of ISIS going to Albania? Will we leave it in the camp as if we have left the MEK radicals?

Another element I would like to mention from the summer school discussions is the conversation of the executive director of the Albanian Media Institute, Remzi Lani. Among other things Lani said Russia is one of the third factors that are seeking influence in the Balkans not for geo-strategic purposes, but with the sole purpose of alerting and breaking the tranquility of the EU and NATO, while China has only economic intent on its part. He said that the EU’s last EU summit noted a weak will for further enlargement of the Union and that the Berlin process is nearing the end. Regarding Turkey, Lani used tougher and extremist tones. He said Turkey is not a country from which we should take the example of democracy or state leadership, as democracy has died in Turkey. Erdogan with his policy carries a dangerous Islamic agenda that affects the security of our country. However, Turkish investment and their success in the economy should welcome and take the lead – he says. In short, Mr. Lani says that the bread we eat is turkey, and the duet we have. I do not know why Mr. Lani says Turkey has no democracy when in the last election the turnout was much higher than in many EU countries or even the US. In addition, it has not been seen in any dictatorial country to become a democratic election, and the opposition mayor accepts the defeat and welts the winner, as Muharrem Ince did a month ago. In addition, Mr. Lani should be well aware that in the Western ambience there is a great debate about liberal democracy as a model of governance, as it has shown a lack of stability and security of its citizens. This is also noted in the electoral elections of EU countries, which are seeing an increase in left and right extremist electorates. Hungary and Austria are increasingly applying strong politics, the first refusing refugees because they are Muslims, and the second is closing the mosque with the justification that they endanger stability in the country. On the other hand, Trump raises walls with neighboring countries and forbids the entry of citizens of some Muslim countries and this is not seen as a violation of democratic principles, but as security issues. Also, Mr. Lani must bear in mind that we Albanians are a Muslim majority, and the stability that Turkey has shown in its model of regulating religious life should be taken as an example of us, which was also highlighted by Ergys Muzhaqi- expert on security in the country. The Albanian government and civil society must understand that religion (in this case Islam) is auxiliary and contributory to the secularity of the country and to give up once and for all from an atheistic mindset that sees religion as a danger.

Lastly, I would like to conclude with a critique linked to an AIIS study on religious radicalism. In the study that was presented at the seminar, it was noted that although the topic was related to the problems brought by extremist and religiously rooted radicalism, the study represented only “Islamic radicalism” and methods to prevent or cure it. After a replica made with the preparers of the study where I suggested that here the risks of Catholic extremists or other missionaries of the other religions are of a higher degree, I realized that the studies made a portion of their information hold confidential and only specific sections of the studies are presented.

I have also felt this problem in seminars organized by other institutes who are willing to present the risk of “Islamic radicalism” at all costs and present it as a present fact among our society. Europeans should have a standard of extremism and radicalism if they want to establish stability. When speaking of anti-extremism measures, all kinds of extremism must be taken into account, starting with the mass-propagating Catholic in Europe and all other types. When Turkey as a NATO member states that terrorist organizations like FETO operate in Albania, or when our government hosts the MEK, this should be looked at with seriousness and work to resolve these issues, unlike the way in which the word of the Turkish state has fallen into the deaf ears, believe that we have double standards. When Catholic radicalism violates the public sphere, serious measures must be taken to cure this problem. If double policies are to continue, balances will break down in the region and credibility with the international factor will come down.

I think that this policy will have a boomerang effect, which instead of solving it will create unresolved problems in our public sphere. Building a tense environment that feeds fear, xenophobia, Islamophobia and religious radicalism makes society feel less secure and more in panic. Albania is a European country with Ottoman culture and heritage and this should be taken into account in order to maintain the balance and the current fragile peace.

Iran Interlink reporting from Gazeta Impakt, Tirana Albania,

July 17, 2018 0 comment

Albania

Iranian MEK “hero” of Manzas adds additional security threats to Albania

On June 19, 2018 Albanian police were officially informed by the Iranian Mojahedin (MEK), stationed at Camp Ashraf 3 in the Administrative Department of Manze, that a 47-year-old Mojahed named Malek Shara’i was drowned in the Rrotull village reservoir. According to the 4 Iranian Mojahedin who were with Malek, he got into the reservoir to help a friend of his who was at risk of drowning. Fortunately, the friend had escaped, but Malek was drowned in the irrigation channel. Albanian police sent divers of the special police unit RENEA as well as Durrës Port Authority divers to search for his body.

Malek Shara’i

This is a possible assassination which raises a series of questions that create reasonable suspicion of at least one extrajudicial murder and also possibly, terrorist acts in Europe. Police initially reported finding clothes belonging to the missing victim on the shore of the reservoir, while the Iranian MEK of Camp Ashraf 3 officially insist that Malek jumped into the water fully clothed to save his companion (Sic!). Though for a week the search for his body engaged 5 trained and experienced divers of European standards, the body was not found. The searches have already been called off and for the Albanian police, the Iranian is officially considered a missing person.

This lack of shame raises many questions. The reservoir in the village has a small surface area and its maximum depth when full does not exceed 3 meters. In such a reservoir, small, not deep, with few or no reeds along the shore, our divers would have already found the body. Divers at the Durres Port Authority on Wednesday, as they were carrying out training activities at the Port of Durmitor, confirmed to me that they had not found the body and had stopped searching the reservoir.

Another question is the haste with which the Iran MEK declared Malek Shara’i a martyr [without finding a body]. Just as the President of the Republic, Ilir Meta, might decide to decorate Naim Frashëri after his death with the decoration of the Golden Eagle, the Trimestral Order. There are also similar precedents, for example, when Haxhi Lleshi awarded the late Zeliha Allmetaj with the high prize of the heroine of Socialist Work.

Leaving aside sarcasm, let’s ask the question publicly: If the Iranian’s body was not found in the reservoir, what really happened to it? Due to previous cases in Iraq in Ashraf and Liberty camps, Malek’s “martyrdom” is likely to have been executed by Madam Rajavi’s organization itself. Such executions without a trial or “partisan” trials, or as the English say, “Kangaroo Courts”, have often occurred in the ranks of the MEK. If such dirty work is true, it would be a scandal for Albania and should attract the attention of international media. We do not know the secret agreement of Prime Minister Rama about the transfer of these three thousand Mujahideen MEK to Albania, but I, as an Albanian patriot, cannot believe that the Prime Minister of my country, who portrays himself as a descendant of our rebels, would grant to Madam Rajavi’s people the right to extraterritoriality on Albanian soil. The April 1961 Vienna Convention on Immunities and Diplomatic Privileges did not accord to foreign diplomatic missions such rights over the life and death of their staff as these Iranian Mojahedin MEK, were officially offered when they were given shelter for humanitarian reasons on Albanian soil…

…Albania, my homeland, a NATO member country, and a candidate for becoming a member of the EU, is failing by being labelled the “Sick man of the Adriatic”. If Madam Rajavi’s men in Manzas have been murdered without trial or after a “partisan trial”, it is up to the Albanian prosecutors to open a criminal case for deliberate murder (first-degree murder). If Prime Minister Rama, in the agreement he has signed, has also given the Iranian Mujahideen MEK the right to extraterritoriality, then we are dealing not only with a violation of the law by the Prime Minister, but with national treason which under the Albanian Penal Code carries a sentence of 15 years imprisonment to life imprisonment! We hope that the Prosecutor General’s Office and the President of the Republic will pay due attention to this case, which is the question of the sovereignty of the Republic of Albania in its national territory!

In the case that Malek is still alive, we are dealing with a series of offenses ranging from human trafficking (as a light criminal offense) to terrorism. For such criminal acts, Madam Rajavi’s organization has precedents in Iraq. Malek, if alive, could be equipped with a biometric Albanian passport falsely provided by the system. With such a passport, the holder enjoys visa-free travel in all EU countries and the Schengen area. As a minimum we have human trafficking in this case. If Malek, equipped with such a passport, is sent to Europe to commit terrorist acts, then my homeland is stained, due to the irresponsibility of the current government, with supporting terrorism. Even worse, if Malek is provided with an Italian identity card for between 600-800 pounds sterling, then human trafficking or terrorist infiltration can also be carried out in the United Kingdom; the cost of such a document is completely sufficient to enter the United Kingdom (England) as well. As revealed by an investigation by the UK’s Daily Mail, such counterfeit Italian ID cards are easily purchased on the black market in Albania. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5889915/Forged-EU-identity-cards-used-enter-UK-illegally-order-just-THREE-DAYS.html

The above assumptions are not an Agatha Christie style fantasy. Until the body of Mojahed Malek Shara’i has been found, they are quite probably a reality. It is the professional and patriotic duty of Albanian journalists, that Malek’s case is not passed over according to the ‘three-day wonder’ principle. Whether a case of extrajudicial murder, or a case of trafficking or, God forbid, a case of attempted terrorism, the consequences fall on Albania, its name, its nationals and not the Government Rama as a signatory to the mysterious agreement for transferring over 3000 Iranian MEK to Albania for humanitarian reasons.

Gazeta Impakt , By Gjergji Thanasi/ Impact Newspaper

June 30, 2018 0 comment

Albania

Residents in Durres refuse to bury Iranian jihadists

Residents of Manzas in Durres were out today in protest. They oppose the burial of Iranian jihadists in their cemetery in Manzas.

The residents say that the Iranian Mojahedin should seek some space elsewhere, as the existing space is insufficient even for local residents.

Protesters said that while their families do not have drinking water, the Iranian Mojahedin have been guaranteed a 24-hour water supply.

“They have their own property which they have bought, let them build the cemetery there. We have mothers, fathers, the land is too restricted. Our graves do not mix with their graves. They are a community, let them have their own place”, one of the protesters said.

On the other hand, representatives of the Iranian jihadists have sought the help of ‘Fax News’ to resolve this issue.

Gazeta Impakt, Translated by Iran Interlink

May 10, 2018 0 comment

Albania

The Mojahedin Khalq Risk in Albania: This is what Arena said

The Arena show with journalist Dritan Hila this week also discussed the Iranian Mojahedin (MEK) organization. The speakers invited to discuss this issue were: Olsi Jazexhi – Historian, Ermir Gjinishi – Educator and former vice deputy of the Muslim Community of Albania, Ylli Zyla – former Director of Albania’s Military Intelligence Service, and Hajro Limaj – retired general and former Military Attaché of Albania in Turkey, currently he is Director of the National Security Institute of Albania.

The Iranian Mojahedin, the MEK organization, was discussed in the last part of the show. The following is the part of the show about the Iranian Mojahedin who have been living in Albania for some time as a refuge.

https://dld.nejatngo.org/Media/Interview/Arena-MEK-Albania-201804.mp4

Olsi Jazexhi: Yesterday I was speaking in the European Parliament, invited by two MEPs, Ana Gomes and Patricia Lalonde. We were a group of experts on the Mojahedin, the MEK situation. There were people from Britain as well as Dr Nicola Pedde from Italy. There were also some de-radicalized Mojahedin there. In the EU parliament there are Deputies who feel disturbed by the presence of the Iranian Mojahedin there. The Mojahedin have a history in Albania since 2013, the year when the government of Berisha brought the first group of them. In February 2016, we had a visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry, when he was announced that there will be about 3000 people. According to a recently published police report, there are about 2745 Mojahedin in Albania, out of which about 11 have died, 80 have left using regular documents and 65 have fled as illegals from Albania.

Dritan Hila: Will they stay here, will they be naturalized?

Olsi Jazexhi: Since 2014, with the encouragement of American partners, Albania has modified the penal code and Albanians in Albania have become very serious about terrorist organizations. In a debate with former deputy Foreign Minister Edit Harxhi in Top Channel, I asked why he brought these people here. What was said then was that these are war refugees and Albania will accommodate them. The problem with them is different from the war refugees coming from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine etc, who are assimilated, integrated and marry in our society. This is a paramilitary organization, listed as a terrorist organization by the EU and the US, and later because of American policy changes toward Iran they were removed from the list. But the problem is what is happening inside them? First, the organization itself is in crisis; about 200 members have abandoned the organization. I have followed their case and have met some of them. The problem is that the organization itself puts pressure on those who want to abandon jihad, accuses them of following an Iranian agenda, withholds their funds.

Dritan Hila: Where do they find support?

Olsi Jazexhi: “With regard to their funds, there was a secret agreement between the Albanian and American governments and the Mojahedin in Iraq, where it was agreed that these people would behave themselves, and the UNHCR would transfer the MEK, who would pay for their own people in cash. They are paid about 500-600 euros per month. But what happens? The ideology of this organization is that they must wage a violent war against Iran.

Dritan Hila: On arriving here, have they given up their war?

Ermir Gjinishi: This is the problem.

Ylli Zyla: They have renounced war.

Ermir Gjinishi: They have said that we will continue the war against Iran and this is one of the points where they break the agreement with Albania because Albania has put the condition: We keep you, but only provided you do not engage in problems and conflicts.

Olsi Jazexhi: One of the concerns that the MEPs I met in the European Parliament had was that here in Albania, under the influence of the American extremist senators, from John Bolton and John McCain, they are constantly urging them to declare themselves to be ready to do jihad.

Dritan Hila: It seems to me that there are some almost broken with age.

Ermir Gjinishi: Every day they do sports.

Olsi Jazexhi: Exercise and not sports.

Ermir Gjinishi: They are military.

Dritan Hila: Even the colonel, when I telephoned, was walking.

Olsi Jazexhi: 70 percent of them are elderly, but others are 30-40 years old. I’ve met some of these people. These were tank drivers, snipers, there are those who have prepared people for suicide attacks. This is a cultic organization. They are neither Muslim nor non-Muslim. Their leader Maryam Rajavi is something like Shen Eleonora we have had here in Tirana. She tells members that ‘I am the Imam Mahdi and I will deliver Iran’. It seems to me that our Diaspora Minister Pandeli Majko believes she is sacred, since occasionally he says she is a very good woman, he says that when he goes to Iran he will eat ice cream there. The problem is that in the speeches he makes when the US senators come or where Mr Majko goes, he says we will overthrow the Iranian regime and we will bring democracy. This was the problem we discussed in the European Parliament. Experts in the European Parliament explained. This organization is a dictatorial cultic group. Members of the organization were relocated to Manez in Durres because Maryam Rajavi and the Americans were worried that when they were in Tirana, members began leaving the organization. Those inside are not allowed to marry, do not have sex, they are forbidden. They do not have wives, children, they are soldiers who have sworn to die for Rajavi. They have no freedom of thought.

Dritan Hila: Can they cause problems for Albania?

Olsi Jazexhi: Their existence here turns Albania into what Afghanistan was at the time of [Osama] Bin Laden. Afghanistan at the time of Bin Laden hosted a terrorist organization that was Al Qaeda. What happened? The jihadists created September 11th from Afghanistan.

Dritan Hila: Are you comparing Edi Ramen to Mullah Omar now!?

Olsi Jazexhi: Exactly, I hope to make the news. The problem here is that during the revolts in Iran on December 31, Maryam Rajavi claimed that ‘we are the ones who stir up revolts’. In these revolts people were killed, soldiers were killed, officials killed, institutions burned down, and according to the Albanian penal code the calls made by Mrs. Rajavi are calls for terrorism.

Dritan Hila: The protests were also organized by Ahmed Nayat.

Olsi Jazexhi: A problem that the MEPs dealt with is that there are some pro-war circles in the EU who are encouraged by some US circles who want to promote these people as if they are democratic and will bring democracy. The people who know, such as Ana Gomes, who participated in the stabilization of Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein and knows the nature of the cult, says that democratic is the last thing that can be said about the MEK. They do not free their members, they’ve kept them imprisoned for 30 years. They do not let them talk to their families.

Dritan Hila: Mr. Zyla, you see them as a threat because they are recognized as a problem?

Ylli Zyla: I know it as a problem. It would be better not to have them in Albania, but of course there are agreements between states. They have a terrorist background. Their violence began with the Iraq-Iran war, where they participated in many terrorist actions against the Iranian army.

Olsi Jazexhi: They had killed Americans earlier on, at the time of the Shah.

Ylli Zyla: Their policy of violence continued until 2001-2002, when they renounced the policy of violence.

Olsi Jazexhi: They gave up after 2003 when the Americans bombed them. They Americans stopped them.

Ylli Zyla: An agreement was reached.

Dritan Hila: Did this American detention endure?

Olsi Jazexhi: Yes, these have been Saddam’s trustees, they have murdered the Kurds with chemical weapons.

Ylli Zyla: When the Iraqi authorities came to take control of Ashraf camp the MEK did not accept it. There was a clash and there were casualties. The MEK came to Albania on the basis of an agreement. They were not sent to countries like France or elsewhere because in those countries there are Iranian communities and in Albania they are easier to manage. They are in a camp and are easily verifiable by the security services.

Ylli Zyla: Do they not pose a risk in my view? I say there is no risk because they are over 50 years old. The problem may be the infiltration of Iranian intelligence services among these people and that they may become violent. I do not consider it a big risk compared to what we mentioned earlier as Gülenists or Wahhabi organizations. These are less dangerous – do not say they are not – if we keep it under control, Not only under control but also from the effects of the Middle East secret services, namely Iran.

Ermir Gjinishi: The issue, as Olsi said, is that all these kinds of organizations are a problem as cults. What he said about Gülen. The story of the cult led by the saint, what does it mean? History has shown that at certain moments, it is enough to match a thread and follow them because they enforce the orders.

Ylli Zyla: They do not target Albania and they have no support.

Ermir Gjinishi: Iraq did not target Iran, but MEK did target Iran, even in Iraq. Why, they are robots.

Dritan Hila: The problem of cultic organizations is the lack of public scrutiny. I would prefer a dictator over whom we have oversight than such organizations that are scary and have ideological convictions.

Ermir Gjinishi: The MEK should continue to be always under strict supervision. Stay in that enclave they have created. It’s just not the case that they are 50 years old, they daily climb Mount Dajti as a group. I see them. They are military. I don’t have the strength to exercise so much. They do exercise every day. They have to give that up when they go abroad or speak in the name of Albania and threaten the state of Iran. They should give up this idea that we will fight endlessly. We’ve taken refuge only to bring the conflict here.

Ylli Zyla: They cannot threaten Iran because they have no influence. Iranian society does not consider them as an opposition because in the years 1980-81 they turned against their state.

Dritan Hila: These people themselves, are they Iranians?

Ermir Gjinishi: For their whole existence, Iran has treated MEK as terrorists.

Dritan Hila: I thought these people were not opposed to the Ayatollahs.

Olsi Jazexhi: These are Islamist, revolutionary Marxists. These are like Gülen with Erdogan. They were together with the Iranian mullahs when they fought the Shah, then they fought against each other. The Mojahedin have their heroes. The first president and the prime minister of Iran after the Shah were killed by a suicide bomber who blew himself up. Today’s Ayatollah, Khamenei, has his left hand paralyzed because they tried to kill him with a bomb. Mossad of Israel uses them from time to time to kill scientists and kill intellectuals.

Why did America appreciate them? America appreciated them because they exposed the Natanz nuclear reactors that Iran was developing and for this they gave them many points.

Dritan Hila: I do not care about their activity in Iran.

Olsi Jazexhi: The Italian expert who clarified their activity in Europe.

Dritan Hila: I do not care about the Italians’ opinion or what they said, your opinion is of interest.

Dritan Hila: Colonel, you have three minutes, are you are able to score?

Hajro Limaj: America considers MEK as the opposition of the current government in Iran. If an overthrow occurs in Iran, it is determined that the MEK will go in as an opposition and be part of the country’s leadership. I have had the opportunity to meet some of them, stay in their new quarters. They seemed to me normal people. In these circumstances, America has found the most appropriate place for them. But they are under our full scrutiny and we are in control of Iranian agents here in Albania.

Ermir Gjinishi: And they can provoke a clash!?

Dritan Hila: Do you think it’s a little complex that even Bin Laden has been through here, it has become like socks.

Ermir Gjinishi: Albania has never had this number, and these are military.

Dritan Hila: These are additional.

Hajro Limaj: Albania should keep itself clean. It is better not to have them. Our government has no transparency in what it does.

Olsi Jazexhi: If they like them, America should take them to Texas, or lodge them in Saudi Arabia. They are a security risk.

Dritan Hila: However, I think that in some way, Albania became a playground where they can clash with Iranian security services.

Hajro Limaj: An Iranian came to Albania a year and a half ago and is today married to an Albanian, so they use all ways to have people here to follow their activities.

Dritan Hila: Do not forget that we share traditions. The surname Harasani means Khorasani.

Olsi Jazexhi: On the day of Sultan Nevruz – only a few media reported it – these Iranian Mojahedin caused chaos in the Bektashi World Headquarters. It seems that the Albanian police were prompted, and two Iranian journalists were arrested whom Father Mondi himself had invited to cover the ceremony. This was an incident that our media only reported a little. A few weeks ago, former Albanian President, Rexhep Meidani, went to Tehran for a conference celebrating Naim Frasher. MEK attacked our former president and said he had been recruited by Iran. A couple of weeks ago, Top Channel broadcast interviews with three defectors in the Fiks Fare show, showing how they are abused and threatened by this organization which puts pressure on them to continue jihad. The MEK attacked Top Channel and said Top Channel was bought by Iran. These MEK are threatening freedom of speech and thought in Albania. Albania brought them here, but that is very bad. They often exceed the limits of why they came to Albania. They are entering into and becoming part of our debate and are opening up hysteria against Iran. We must say this, put aside attacks on officials of the Iranian embassy and institutions, they are now also attacking religious sites and religious centers like the Bektashi Communist Party. This is a problem because they are meddling in our affairs. It’s not only the problem with Iran.

Ermir Gjinishi: The case of Sultan Nevruz is heavy, the worst of it is that the media did not cover it.

Olsi Jazexhi: They are now interfering in our politics. They are lobbying and trying to buy politicians to lobby for them.

Translated by Iran Interlink

April 16, 2018 0 comment

Albania

Mojahedin threat for Albania – debate in the European Parliament

Below is the debate that was organized at the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium on 10 April 2018, which has terrified the Iranian jihadists of Albania into attacking the participants of this debate in their outlets and their paid for published writing.

The debate below was organized by MEPs Ana Gomes and Patricia Lalonde. European MPs demanded that through this debate, the European Union’s political environment should be alerted to the cultic, terrorist, deceitful and deceptive nature of the Iranian terrorist organization which is sheltering in Albania. In the event, French MP Patricia Lalonde and Portuguese MP Ana Gomes talked about their experiences with this terrorist group in Iraq and Europe and the concern that they have about the penetration of this group into the offices of the European Union.

Dr. Nicola Pedde, director of the Institute for Global Studies in Italy, examined the deceptive and deceiful methods of the Mojahedin group and the Fake News it produces, and the pressures and threats that this group poses for Italy, Italian businesses, Albania and Europe’s relations with Iran.

Dr. Olsi Jazexhi, director of the Free Media Institute, presented the situation of the Iranian Mojahedin in Albania, the threat they pose for media freedom, intellectual freedom, and religious tolerance in Albania. Dr. Jazexhiu showed how the Mojahedin have launched a recruiting campaign of politicians and citizens in Albania, how they commit calls for terrorism, punishable by law in the Republic of Albania, and how they continuously produce Fake News to threaten and terrorize Albanian public opinion. He pointed out that the Mojahedin do not want to integrate into Albanian society as other migrants do, but live instead in paramilitary compounds for jihadist purposes.

Migena Balla, a lawyer based in Tirana, explained her experience with Mojahedin dissociates, people who want to abandon jihad and deradicalize, but who are, unfortunately, not supported by the Albanian state and are labelled and threatened as ‘Iranian agents’ by the MEK terrorist organization if they behave like free citizens or contact their family members in Iran. She showed the psychological pressure and slavery that Mujahideen force on their members who threaten them and keep them isolated from the wider world.

Anne Khodabandeh, director of Open Minds organization and consultant in the field of deradicalization in Great Britain, exposed the cultic and deceptive nature of the Mojahedin and the manipulative methods they are using in Albania and have used before in Iraq, and the threat that the Mojahedin pose for the Albanian public.

The debate was attended by some former Mojahedin who have abandoned jihad and deradicalized, several European journalists and security experts who also participated in the debate. The debate can be followed in the links below. This open debate was attacked by the Mojahedin in their outlets and in some media in Albania, accused of being a prelude to terrorist attacks against the Mojahedin in Albania. However, the Mojahedin failed to intimidate the participants in the debate and to stop their freedom to discuss the aggressive and terrorist nature of the Mojahedin organization:

Gazeta Impakt, Reporting from EU Parliament

April 15, 2018 0 comment

Albania

Rajavi resorts to bargain basement speakers in Albania

[Iran Interlink: The MEK used to be able to call on personalities such as John Bolton and Rudi Giuliani to make public statements of support. Apparently these supporters have suffered blow back from this advocacy so that Donald Trump has been unable to offer them meaningful positions in his administration. With no other persons willing to risk their reputation or future career by supporting the MEK, the group has resorted to enlisting people such as Ingrid Betancourt instead. The MEK has also trawled through history to find Linda Chavez who served for less than a year under the Ronald Reagan administration between 1985-6. Chavez also gave her support to the terrorists in Albania.]

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Ingrid Betancourt defends Iranian terrorists Mojahedin Khalq in Albania

The Telegraph: Ingrid Betancourt was ‘worse than guards’, claims a fellow hostage

Ingrid Betancourt, politician and activist for human rights was brought to Tirana to say thank you for the hospitality of our country for hosting more than 2 thousand Iranian terrorists, while more are expected to come. And to meet with them, some of whom are her friends.

One of the most popular personalities in the world, who had aimed to be the first woman president in Colombia, but became the first woman who was kidnapped for six years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Betancourt regards Albania with admiration for its agreement to harbour Iranian terrorists. Betancourt apparently suffers from Stockholm Syndrome since she was herself a hostage of the FARC terrorist organization, and she now defends the MEK terrorist organization.

Below is her comment:

I feel honored to be here. Governments of different political parties were the first to welcome the Iranian refugees when they were hunted and persecuted. Your country has become known internationally as an example for human rights.

As one of the supporters of this Iranian opposition, the return of democracy, gender equality and freedom in a country where (Ingrid Betancourt says) there are public executions [..,]. Albania is a model where bigotry does not find expression regardless of different political approaches.

MEK is the only opposition party in Iran. They are Muslims, but Democrats, who are killed, tortured and persecuted. Your country is predominantly Muslim, but here there is no bigotry. So this idea is another good example.

(To stop the violence, Betancourt has the recipe, getting tougher on terrorism.)

Understand that they are powerful at dispensing fears, such as about public executions. Don’t fall into despair, history tells us that the battles for democracy have gained, not split asunder and especially do not have doubts. We will be clear on our positions because it is something that makes good ISIS’s disinformation.

Impact newspaper

http://www.gazetaimpakt.com/lajm/19354/ingrid-betancourt-mbeshtet-terroristet-iraniane/

March 5, 2017 0 comment

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