Iran Interlink Website

++ Maryam Rajavi announced to Camp Liberty residents that Zohreh Akhiani has been ‘elected’ as head of the MEK. Maryam claimed that the Central Council – which consists of nearly everyone – has chosen her. This came as a surprise since the Central Council was abolished two decades previously and was replaced by the 12 member women only Leadership Council. Many people are asking why it has been resurrected now. Ebrahim Khodabandeh, Zahra Mirbagheri and many other prominent ex members who know the mentality of Rajavi gave their analyses of this move. Khodabandeh wrote: Putting aside the ridiculous aspects of this issue, like Massoud Rajavi pretending to be shocked when everyone knows he is in charge of everything that happens in the MEK, there are two significant aspects to it. One is that Rajavi is under extreme pressure for being undemocratic and so he is trying to prove that there is such a thing as a council. The second thing is that so many of the Leadership Council have escaped the MEK and run away. Rajavi can’t answer for this and he wants to dilute the importance of what he created in order to hide its failure. According to people inside the MEK the Leadership Council women have been chastised and told, ‘you are not leaders, only Massoud and Maryam are leaders, this has gone to your heads and you need to put yourselves back in your places again’. Other commentators say this has been done to buy time and keep people busy and diverted from the real problems in Camp Liberty where the atmosphere is wild and chaotic with a lot of fighting and arguments breaking out. They ridicule the idea of a council in a camp 1km by 1km in which nearly all the 3000 old and sick residents are made members.

++ Several people have commented on Senator John McCain’s support for the MEK. They point to the evidence that he supports ISIS, including the much publicised photograph with ISIS leaders. McCain is the link between the MEK and ISIS. They are on the same side and McCain supports both these terrorist entities.

++ This week an inter-parliamentary group from Iran visited the French Senate. At the same time some manufactured committees invited Maryam Rajavi into the building to make speeches to parliamentarians. Several Farsi writers point to the efforts of Israel to prevent any positive engagement between France and Iran, but say that using the MEK will not hinder it. Both France and Iran are wise to this ploy and the French government has already said it considers the MEK to be a terrorist group. Iranians treat this as a laughing matter. Fars News simply translated Maryam Rajavi’s speech in which she claims that Iran is behind ISIS and she demands that the Americans take the side of Israel against Iran.

++ A couple of officials from Iraq have commented that although 210 places have been ready for some months to take residents from Camp Liberty, and the US is willing to take 80 of them, the major obstacle is still the MEK which is trying to delay the process as much as possible, hoping, presumably that some more of the camp’s residents will be killed or die in Iraq. [The MEK submitted its own list of potential transferees, half of whom are disabled or seriously or terminally ill]. Meanwhile IRNA reported that the names of people pardoned by Iran have been passed to the UNHCR, which says they are now free to go back home. IRNA says UN sources admit that if the residents could choose themselves, many would want to go back, the problem is that the MEK don’t give the UN free and unfettered access to these people.

++ There were a few reactions to Rajavi jumping on the acid attack bandwagon. Articles and comments compare this with what the MEK do to their own people, like the hysterectomies and self-immolations, etc. Some mention Nafiseh Badamchi, the so-called doctor in the MEK camp who performed the hysterectomies. Some witnesses named the victims like Minoo Fathali who was killed by the MEK in Camp Ashraf because she refused to be part of Rajavi’s harem and was trying to expose them.

++ From last week when Iraqi Prime Minister al-Abadi went to Iran, the MEK’s sites have been silent, pretending it never happened. Before this they had claimed to have been instrumental in the change from al-Maliki to al-Abadi.

++ Mohammad Sahimi, a prominent professor in the US, has begun a collection of articles in Farsi (he normally writes in English). The title of his first is ‘The cause of the rise of ISIS’. In the article he goes into detail about the MEK as an example of a mercenary force which is being used wrongly for short-term purposes.

In English:

++ Following Massoud Khodabandeh’s visit to Iraq in October, Iran Interlink published the Fourth Report from Baghdad about the Mojahedin Khalq and Camp Liberty. The report uncovers the positions and actions of the various parties involved in the process of removing the terrorist MEK from Iraq. The report concludes that the families of Camp Liberty residents and former members of the group have been successful in disabling the MEK’s peripheral support network and are now dealing with the central core of the group, the loyal members and the hostages. The report says that the MEK’s political, financial and logistical support must be dealt with at governmental level. The group’s criminal activities are, likewise, a matter for law enforcement agencies.

++ Mazda Parsi of Nejat Bloggers ridicules Maryam Rajavi’s latest masquerade to entertain the individuals inside the group, particularly the female members. Maryam’s love letter to Zohreh Akhyani assigns her head of the MEK and orders her to make a Central Council of “one thousand heroic women”. Parsi points out that in the past decade there have not been more than 900 women MEK members and many of these have been killed, died or run away.

++ Nejat Bloggers reported on a visit by Ebrahim Khodabandeh to Baghdad. Khodabandeh, formerly a high ranking official in the MKO’s international relations department, visited several Iraqi officials including two MPs, Adnan Seraj and Adnan Shahmari. He also met the Iranian Ambassador in Baghdad Hassan Danaieefar. During his to Baghdad, he was interviewed by Iraqi media and newspapers including Al-Masar TV and Kul Al-akhbar Newspaper. During these meetings, he described the grief suffered by families of members of the cult of Rajavi who are taken as hostages by the cult leaders in Camp Liberty, near Baghdad.

++ Ehsan Roshanzamir of Iranian Pen Club (Ghalam), has written an Open Letter to Senator John McCain. The letter points out that the MEK were part of the reason America invaded Iraq in 2003. Roshanzamir talks about the dire conditions suffered my MEK members and about the MEK’s collaboration with ISIS, and warns McCain not to allow himself to be humiliated by association with either group.

October 31, 2014

++ An article by Mojtabah Rashidi explains why Rajavi now knows that the new government of Iraq is no different from the previous one as far as the MEK is concerned. Rashidi says it is ridiculous that Rajavi believes he can create a new Vatican by having Camp Liberty guarded by UN blue helmet peacekeepers as though that would automatically make it an independent enclave. Shortly after this article was published, the Head of UNAMI, Nickolay Mladenov, announced that the new Iraqi government has introduced a plan to speed up deportation of the MEK. Some days later, the MEK published some pdf files – which it claims are from inside the Iraqi government – purporting to show that Iran and Iraq are eavesdropping on MEK conversations and phone calls, etc. A couple of analysis about this situation demonstrate why the pdf files are clearly false. Three documents allegedly from the same office all have different logos and page headings and there are no signatures or stamps on them, which is not what government documents look like. One of them is also half in Farsi. Website Mojahedin.com commented that ‘as a terrorist organisation, did Rajavi expect the Iraqis wouldn’t follow what you are doing, or did you imagine in your dreams that the MEK is the government of Iraq and the government of Iraq is a terrorist organisation?!’ And that ‘after all his cries of victory when it was formed, Rajavi has now given up on the new government being any different. [Editor: Had Rajavi been reassured by agencies trying to manipulate the make-up of the new government, but whose plans failed?]

++ Shahpour Bastansiah, an orchestral conductor, announced his defection from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI aka MEK) last week. J. Saalvar found and exposed the names of two other NCRI members who have left but who didn’t make their decision public; they are Morteza Barjasteh and Mohammad Shams, both artists. After these three defections, Rajavi and the MEK held a new session with remaining NCRI members during which they were both placated and reprimanded. The NCRI proclaimed ‘there is a difference between those who leave legitimately and mercenaries. The NCRI accepts that people leave if they do it legitimately. We will not conduct character assassination if, firstly, you leave without saying anything at all about anyone or anything. (A hint to Bastansiah to keep quiet.) Secondly, only leave according to a programme made for you by the MEK which will tell you the right time and place and will coach you how and when to leave. Several reactions in Farsi commentary say this lowering of expectation is an indication of the collapse of the NCRI, that it doesn’t matter who is in or out of it, what matters is no one should expose the internal situation.

++ Hanif Heydar Nejad, an internal critic of the MEK, wrote a short article questioning ‘now that Daesh is only 10 km from Baghdad airport, what is Rajavi’s policy and what action will he take, or is he keeping his fingers crossed that the MEK all get killed by Daesh?’ Massoud Khodabandeh is visiting Baghdad and will publish a full report after concluding his meetings this week. In the meantime, he posted on his Facebook that with two car bombs in Baghdad and Daesh so close to the airport where Camp Liberty is situated, it is interesting that Massoud Rajavi has sent a message to MEK commanders at the camp saying that he has been reassured (he didn’t say by whom), that ‘Daesh will not interfere with our camp when they overrun the area’. It is surprising because no one in Baghdad has any doubt that Rajavi’s endgame is to kill all the residents of Camp Liberty.

++ Fars News reporting from the Frankfurt Book Fair, in which the IRI participated, published pictures of the MEK placing anti-Iran pickets in tents outside. The report says, ‘this time there were no logos of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi’. Fars commented that this was probably the first time the MEK have accepted to do this, and we hope it is just the start of them getting rid of the leadership and their logos and becoming a normal organisation.

++ Zahra Sadat Mirbagheri and Hamed Sarrafpour, former leading MEK members, were married in Iran last week. A week before, another famous defector, Ali Khatami, got married. People congratulated them and say these marriages are Rajavi’s worst nightmare because they contradict his rotten ideology.

++Iraq based Sahar Family Foundation published a short article about Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad. Since the time he left and owing to the vicious character assassination conducted against him by Massoud Rajavi there has been a growing awareness inside Camp Liberty of the mismatch between the person they knew and these attacks, which has led many to reject them. Rajavi has been forced to perform some damage limitation. He has now issued several messages which, while still attacking Hossein Nejad, backtrack on the more vicious lies.

In English:

++ IRNA reports: A professor in Rome University and Chairman of World Study Institute Nicola Pedde, who has written a book about the activities of MKO terrorist group, says the group will never have a place in Iran. The Italian author in his book ‘MEK’ has, in detail, underlined the terrorist nature of MKO and has written about their historical background and development of the group since 1965.

++ Ehsan Roshanzamir, Iraian Pen club (Ghalam), wrote an Open Letter to UK MEP Emma McClarkin alerting her to the true face of the Mojahidin, and warning, “please don’t let your political consciousness be humiliated by them”.

++ Mazda Parsi in Nejat bloggers identifies the MEK as one of several proxy forces used by America and the West against Iran and in other arenas. Listing various scenarios and collating reports about these events, Parsi’s article demonstrates this, but warns, “US support for the MKO does not seem to be productive for both the MKO and the US because of the group’s lack of popular backing in Iran. [Antony] Cartalucci asserts that the West’s “mystery gunmen” are found in Iraqi Camp liberty, Libya and Syria, Egypt, Ukraine, Thailand and now Hong Kong. As a matter of fact, he should notice that the same pattern probably cannot be operative in case of the MKO because the majority of Iranian nation do not care about the MKO if they do not detest it.”

++ Writing in RT, Caleb Maupin, a political analyst from New York City and an activist with the International Action Center and Workers World Party, critiques an article published ealier in October by The Associated Press entitled “Iran Dissident: Tehran Continues Nuke Arms Work”. According to Maupin, “The forgotten history of a group of “Iranian dissidents” being promoted in Western media shows the hypocrisy of the so-called “War on Terror.”… the piece quoted Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK) members, who insist that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Maupin identified other media such as FOX News in which the MEK are being promoted in spite of their past and that they are universally hated by Iranians.

++ Former MEK member Mohammad Karami, resident in Paris, writes an Open Letter to Polish MEP, EyszarCzarnecki, asking why he would have solidarity with a terrorist cult? “You are aware of the Great Purge conducted by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s. Massoud and Maryam Rajavi have turned the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation into a destructive cult. The existing organisation is exactly like the NKD of Stalin. Massoud Rajavi in his internal meetings has over and over referred to the crimes of Stalin as «revolutionary actions». I can tell you clearly that Stalin is a role model for the Mojahedin Khalq leaders and Massoud and Maryam Rajavi themselves. Many disaffected members have been arrested, imprisoned and interrogated on the direct order of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.”

October 17, 2014

++ Shapour Bastansiar (a musician) has published a copy of his resignation letter from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), on his Facebook status, which is dated about two weeks ago. The MEK (aka NCRI) have not only ignored it up to now but have been trying to coerce him into retracting it. As far as internal news is concerned, Iran-Interlink has the names of two more members of the NCRI who have resigned but will not publish their names unless they decide to go public themselves. Experts say that the MEK cannot accept the resignation of Bastansiar, and would normally swear at him and label him an agent of the regime. But in this case, they cannot do this because he has not yet said anything about his reasons for resigning. The MEK are therefore simply ignoring this issue for the time being. However, past evidence suggests that if he does not retract, they will soon have to start labelling him to reinforce internal morale.

++ Iraj Mesdaghi has published an in-depth review of MEK support for ISIL before they were told by their masters to change course in their outlets in the West. He reveals over ten cases of clear support through public announcements and publications – from Struan Stevenson to the MEK’s official websites and articles from members of the MEK and NCRI. [Editor: Suggesting that a long-term plan involving ISIL has been in place for some time, but that several outlets have been precipitate in their support and have had to retract to await further developments.]

++ Fars News Agency has ridiculed yet another revelation by the MEK about Iran’s nuclear programme because this time no one has taken any notice of it; to the point that even the usual suspects and paid writers have refused to cover it.

In English:

++ Mazda Parsi in Nejat Bloggers writes about the ‘adventures of the Mojahedin and the warmongers’. In the article Parsi draws conclusions from reviewing several sources concerning the MEK, its sponsors and their sponsorship of sectarian violence in the whole region. Parsi argues that

“The fraudulent policy of the West to run its empire in the Middle East is very clearly seen in a recent Henry Kissinger comment about ISIS which MKO propaganda website proudly republishes it. The former US Secretary of State who is famous for his warmonger policies, expressed in an interview with NPR that he considers ”Iran a bigger problem than ISIS”. He sounds to be making this audience ready for another war in the region—which is a dream for Maryam Rajavi.”

++ Tony Cartalucci in Global Research uses the precedent of the MEK to argue that Hong Kong’s current “Occupy Central” protests are US-sponsored. Using further examples, Cartalucci argues that the American backed protestors may soon attempt to provoke the authorities into a violent response, and warns against such manipulation.

++ Pepe Escobar published a thoughtful and very interesting piece in Asia Times about his recent visit to Iran as a roving correspondent. Among personal observations about his visit he talks about the New Horizon conference he attended which, he says, “could not but be about information war. The overall theme was the fight against the Zionist lobby. Everyone knows what the lobby means and how it operates, especially in the US. And yet, in my short interventions, at the Foreign Ministry and at the conference, I preferred to focus on its global financial/economic reach. Follow the money. That’s the only way to pierce the lobby’s seemingly invincible armory.”

His article continues: “Another face of information war. Everywhere I went, I had the pleasure to see how Gareth Porter’s book – Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iranian Nuclear Scare – was received as a blessing. The book was translated into Farsi by the Fars News Agency, in only two months, with meticulous care, and launched in a simple ceremony. It’s bound to become a best seller – as it conclusively proves, for instance, how the Iranian “plot” to equip missiles with nuclear warheads was entirely fabricated by the terrorist outfit Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and then handed over to the International Atomic Energy Agency by the Mossad. Contrast the respect shown to Gareth in Tehran to the wall of silence of its US reception – just another reflection of the 35-year-old “wilderness of mirrors” opposing Washington to Tehran.”

++ Mazda Parsi in Nejat Bloggers tells us that reports and documents published about the MKO camps, demonstrate that morality has been deleted from the group’s internal relations. Describing morals as the rules of society, he demonstrates – through examples like the forced divorces – how the MEK’s internal relations have not only abandoned normal morality but turned it on its head so that immorality has become the cult’s value.

++Iranian Pen Club (Iran Ghalam) has written an Open Letter to the judges in Maryam Rajavi’s French court case, Jean Duye and Marc Trevidic. The letter criticises the French judiciary saying “a great historic mistake has taken place by closing her file. This is because the Mujahidin have been transformed from a so called revolutionary-political organization to a dangerous Cult by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi in the recent years. But this new face is hidden so while they are out of reach in the west by the law, they can proceed with their ominous activities to reach their political and military goals. This is why giving them an open hand in Europe is a very dangerous decision, and we hope you will realize it.”

October 10, 2014

++ Maryam Rajavi has launched a campaign to threaten ex members through their various websites. Nader Naderi an outspoken ex member has riposted that “if we were going to stop exposing your crimes we would have stopped when you had the power of Saddam behind you in Iraq, not now that we are living in Europe. Live with it, your benefactor is dead!”

++ Ali Ardalan a recent ex member, was married today. Many of his friends and other ex members have congratulated the happy couple. Ehsan Bidi (in Albenia) congratulated them, saying this is like spitting in the face of Rajavi.

++ In Iraq, Shakhvan Abdollah MP announced that the Mojahedin are lying and he has never supported them. A Rajavi affiliated website had apparently claimed that he has supported them.

++ In Iraq, Faraj Al Saedi, one of the high political leaders with the Hakim faction, announced that the presence of the MEK in Iraq is against the Iraqi interest and they must be expelled asap.

++ Jasem Mohammad Shankali MP, from the Kurdish faction, said that the expulsion of the MEK is in accord with an International agreement and has to be done asap.

++ Nejat has published an article titled ’33 years of deception by Rajavi’. The article is a thorough examination of the history of the Rajavi cult.

In English:

++ Mazda Parsi of Nejat Bloggers analyses the MEK’s claim of a legal victory in France. In 2003, France’s counterintelligence chief at the time, Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, said the crackdown was aimed at preventing attacks on Iranian diplomatic missions in Europe and elsewhere. He said that the MKO was transforming their compound in Auvers-sur-Oise, Paris, into “an operational center for terrorism,” after losing firepower in Iraq when the US disarmed them. Pointing to the seizure of 9m dollars in Maryam Rajavi’s compound, Parsi says that a “trial that begins with terrorism, money laundering and spying accusations, and which ends in acquittal of those who are charged with the crimes, cannot be so credible”.

++ In a lengthy analytical article titled ‘ Iran and Israel vie in Kurdistan’ in Asia Times, Brian M Downing, says, “Israel, in conjunction with the Iranian exile group Mujahideen-e-Khalq, has been assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists for several years now and Israel may have plans of taking advantage of rising Kurdish nationalism across the region and inciting Iranian Kurds …”

++ Nejat Bloggers revealed that six residents have escaped from Camp Liberty in the past few weeks.++ Le Figaro reported that a widow discovered the flower pots she had placed on her husband’s grave had been stolen and taken to the Mojahedin Khalq base at Auvers-sur-Oise.

++ Iran Interlink revealed that UNAMI and the UNHCR have managed to find a place for 210 residents of Camp Liberty in Tirana, Albania, where they would join another 210 who have previously been given refuge there. The Mojahedin Khalq, however, will not allow anyone to leave Camp Liberty.

October 3, 2014

++ Reactions to the Paris court case continue. Rajavi is on overdrive to shout “victory, victory”. But critics asked “what victory?” Ali Jahani has written listing all the so-called victories Rajavi has announced, with this as the latest one. He asks “as what part of your non-existent strategy or tactic does this so-called victory have a place, how is this a victory?” Irandidban has reacted to the court case saying that this is not something worth Iran even thinking about, but certainly France lost face when the judge accepted the word of Maryam Rajavi saying she had nothing to do with the Mojahedin Khalq organisation and was therefore not answerable for any crimes. It goes without saying that Massoud Rajavi has suffered the biggest loss here because all his excuses have gone – similarly being removed from the terrorism lists and similarly the change of government in Iraq. Now we must wait and see what Rajavi’s next excuse is for not doing anything useful. Using the same argument, Maryam Sanjabi’s article asks “what is Massoud Rajavi’s excuse for not coming out? With all these victories why is he still hiding.”

++ Rajavi has published an extensive article (in Farsi) claiming that the Paris judge has said ‘the MEK are a legitimate political force and have not undertaken any wrongdoing whatsoever, and are a respectable group, etc, (basically repeating what the MEK’s hired lobbyists say). It is interesting that the court of around 9 affiliated people have nothing to do with the MEK at all. As usual, there is no source given for this claim, and it its becoming a trend for the MEK to simply make things up on their sites. Their hope is that by repeating these lies they will be made to look like facts. They have increasingly opened new outlets under pseudonyms in London and Brussels, and now manufacture document-like pdf files about all sorts of issues and then link them all together. The MEK are also using these made-up networks against the Khodabandehs and Iran Interlink (as their main exposer and main enemy according to a pronouncement of Rajavi). As usual the outpourings are a mish-mash of everything to hide their true faces and, as usual, they are trying to show themselves as anti-fundamentalist but at the same time attack Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne and anti-war MPs and personalities, (and placing the Khodabandehs in the centre of these). An example is the website standforpeace.org.uk.

++ An article on Sahar reports that Rajavi has a new audio message for Camp Liberty residents in which the story of the “Moon or the Well (Mah va Chahr)” is explained. He says that some see me at the bottom of the well and some see me in the moon. He says that people who blame me for everything from 30 khordad (1981) to the situation in Iraq, don’t know what they are talking about! He says “I am in the moon”, and declares “you and the people of Iran should be grateful because I saved the MEK, (he doesn’t say for what purpose), and that was the biggest achievement of its history, and it has been its utmost aim and its highest aim ever. He does not explain what happened to ‘toppling the regime’ etc. Sahar reports that the situation inside the camp is explosive and trouble can be triggered any day, and the situation is becoming more and more dangerous as members resist orders and fights break out.

++ Nejat has a briefing article about the members of the so-called Friends of a Free Iran in the European Parliament which had its first meeting on 17th September as announced by the MEK. The article talks about the MEK undertaking damage limitation after the loss of Struan Stevenson and Alejo Vidal Quadras in the EP. “The new group comprises the same people who denounced Iraq – which did not take off – the same disrepute people who have been recruited as the MEK’s paid lobbyists”. Nejat concludes the article describing this as “Too little. Too late”. The new group is described as a mirror for Netanyahu’s policy against any deal between Iran and the West and as advocates for war and bombing.

++ Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad has written a letter to the French president saying that “now the country of France (where I live) has accepted that the Mojahedin have done no wrong, could you please ask your friends to let me see my daughter for five minutes after all these years, and arrange for my other daughter, who has never seen her sister, to be allowed to have a short visit? After all you now have a responsibility in this as the head of the Mojahedin Khalq, who have my daughter in the unacceptable camp in Iraq, is operating from this county as your guest.”

++ Parsian Youth site has posted a new article further exposing a number of MEK torturers. Their names are Mortezaee (aka Javad Khorasan), and Abdolvahab Faraji Nejad (aka Afshin), both trained interrogators and torturers of Saddam’s Private Army. They have now been sent to Tirana, Albania, to control the members and ex members there. Both carry ‘Pentagon ID cards’ to show and they claim thereby to have ‘full immunity from the law’.

In English:

++ In Geneva the Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism (ADVT), an Iranian non-governmental organization for people who have lost loved ones to terrorism, hosted a panel in the 27th meeting of the UN Human Rights Council. Speakers from Iran, Britain and the United States attended – Shia, Sunni and Christian. In the meeting Iranian victims of terrorism were able to tell their story.

++ Razak Abdul A’imma al-Haidari, Iraqi MP, from the Badr Parliamentary bloc said that the Mujahedin Khalq Terrorist Organization was counting on the ISIL in Iraq to collude with them to keep its members at Camp Liberty (Temporary Transit Location) and then to take them back to Camp Ashraf. “The MEK is ready to cooperate with any terrorist party hostile to the Iraqi government and the people”, the MP Al-Haidari told Ashraf News reporter.

++ News Analysis, Xinhua News: DAMASCUS, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) — Washington’s recent decision to arm and train the Syrian rebels, who will supposedly fight the Islamic State (IS) terror group, will only exacerbate and prolong the Syrian crisis in what analysts said would be like “casting oil on a smoldering fire.”

++ An article by Massoud Khodabandeh published in Huffington Post and Iranian.com says ‘America Must Make Its Underlying Intentions Toward Iran Clear’. “If America’s Iran policy was designed to weaken and isolate the country, it has failed. Iran certainly feels itself in a much stronger position moving forward. Ultimately, the real leverage behind a sanctions regime is that it stops short of, but still depends on the ability to follow through with the ultimate threat, war. It is, however, now possible to state that if Israel, with or without the backing of the United States, could have launched a pre-emptive air strike to take out Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, then it would have done so by now.”

++ TEHRAN (FNA)- Yuram Abdullah Weiler, a Colorado-based writer and political critic, believes that the broad international coalition against ISIL is a massive media event to justify direct US intervention in Syria, underscoring that last year’s false-flag chemical attacks were not sufficient, but this year’s beheadings of western journalists seem to have sold intervention in Syria to the West.

“The Washington regime has a history of using covert action to attain its geo-political goals. From the Philippines to Latin America to the Middle East, the US has intervened in so many countries that it is difficult to count them. And what some would call covert action, I would call state-sponsored terrorism, so in that sense, the US is the world’s leader in its support of terrorism,” he said in an interview with Fars News Agency.

++ Open Letter of 57 victims of the Iranian Mujahedin-e Khalq Terrorist Cult to Barak Obama, President of the United States of America. “We believe there are a tremendous amount of similarities between the ISIS that was described in your speech, and the Iranian terrorist Mujahidin-e Khalq. Indeed, many experts on Iraq and Iran share the view that the Mujahidin in Iraq provide media and logistics support for ISIS. Some of the common characteristics of the Mujahidin and ISIS are as follows: 1. The Mujahidin hide their anti-western and anti-democratic thinking from the general public. While they believe in religious lifelong leadership and Islamic Caliphate and have been practicing it within their cult for years, they pretend publicly to believe in democracy and free elections…”

++ Expert in cultic abuse and terrorism in the MEK, Anne Khodabandeh, speaks in a London charity meeting. “A lively discussion followed. In particular the issue of Muslim dress code was raised in terms of the adoption of the Niqab by western middle class educated Muslim women. Anne Khodabandeh explained the structure of terrorist organisation by using the ‘onion’ analogy. At the core of the onion are the suicide bombers and beheaders, these are surrounded by financiers, logistics and arms suppliers, but beyond that are layers and layers of people not identified as terrorists but who support and hide the innermost activities. Some do this by creating diversionary issues like provocative dress.”

++ Fars News published a piece by Gareth Porter titled: The False Intelligence Behind the “Manufactured Crisis” over Iran’s Nuclear Activities. Extract: “Someone leaked to David Sanger of the New York Times that those documents had come from the laptop computer of an Iranian scientist involved in the alleged program who later feared that he had been discovered and managed to get the computer out through his wife. US officials told senior IAEA officials that they feared the “third party” that had brought out the documents was now dead, according to former Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei. But that was a crudely constructed cover story to hide the real source of the documents. In fact, the German intelligence agency, BND got those documents from a member of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK, also known as MKO, NCRI and PMOI), the Iranian terrorist organization that had become a client of Israel. The MEK member was a sometime source for the agency, but senior BND officials regarded the source as “doubtful,” according to former senior German official Karsten Voigt, who told me the whole story of his November 2004 conversation with his BND contacts on the record a year ago.”

++ Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya writes for Global Research: The March to War: Fighting ISIL is a Smokescreen for US Mobilization against Syria, Iran. Extract: “Like Syria, Al-Malaki government’s cardinal sins were tied to blocking the pathway to Tehran. Firstly, the Iraqi government evicted the Pentagon from Iraq at the end of 2011, which removed US troops stationed directly on Iran’s western border. Secondly, the Iraqi federal government was working to expel anti-government Iranian militants from Iraq and to close Camp Ashraf, which could be used in a war or regime change operations against Iran. Ashraf was a base for the military wing of the Iraqi-based Mujahidin-e-Khalq (MEK/MOK/MKO). The MEK is an anti-government Iranian organization that is bent on regime change in Tehran. It has even openly endorsed US-led attacks on Iran and Syria.”

September 26, 2014

++ As the UN Human Rights Council meets in Geneva, former MEK members have written to alert officers and attendees to the presence of Behzad Naziri. They say Behzad Naziri has donned a suit and tie and poses as a human rights activist to infiltrate the buildings and meetings of the UN. However, as a commander of Saddam’s Private Army he is a wanted man in Iraq where there are also cases pending accusing him of torture of MEK members. Many individuals have written personal testimonies against him in addition to their objection letters to the UN.

++ On the occasion of the anniversary of September 11, many people have written their personal memories about Massoud Rajavi’s reaction and the celebrations he ordered in support of Al Qaida. Rajavi said, “if they represent Reactionary Islam, we are Revolutionary Islam, and we can do ten times more”. Writers remind us that Rajavi changed his tune when America invaded Iraq and the MEK suddenly acted as if they had been American since birth. Rajavi was able to change sides in a matter of months because he leads a mercenary force.

++ The MEK held a celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the organisation. As usual this became a laughing stock. Writers pointed out that whatever the MEK originally was it is irrelevant to what it is now, it is a completely different organisation. Some said this was pitched to hold onto their older members. Even though the MEK rub shoulders with the likes of arch neoconservative John Bolton, they try to pretend to be the original anti-Imperialist MEK. Others say the MEK now have no real identity and their Zionist supporters are tying to buy them one. The irony is that they want to identify themselves as an anti-imperialist force, but to celebrate it they have to invite Zionists and Imperialists. Critics refer to Maryam Rajavi’s speech – her asking in every way possible for the Americans to help them stay in Iraq. The new Iraqi govt has made it impossible for them or ISIS to remain in Iraq since the Iraqi govt is now united as never before. While insisting on staying, in same speech Rajavi claims that the ‘blood of the 52′ has won their place in Iraq. Critics interpret this as wanting to kill the others too. In the celebration one of retired US generals has demanded that the US go and take over Camp Liberty and announce it as a ‘free zone’ protected by air jets and that the UN must be forced to give the mandate to take control of the place. He also said the MEK have the same rights as the Yazidis as residents of Iraq. Critics deride this, saying the MEK have now changed their nationality and are claiming to be Iraqis. While publishing reports about their activities on their own sites the MEK have, as usual, added a few lies of their own. The biggest lie this year was a made up, non-existent announcement by Ayatollah Sistani pronouncing value judgements for or against the new Iraqi politicians.

++ A third article from Ebrahim Khodabandeh in Tehran has been published in which he talks about the contact he has from both current members and former members of the Mojahedin Khalq. He relates what these various people say to him along with his own opinion about their issues. Khodabandeh says the people in Auvers sur Oise are very confused. The MEK claims to be secular, but when members ask about continued gender apartheid and enforced hijab, the commanders give no answer. According to the article, there are three major issues troubling the cult. One is the issue of religious identity and secularism. Another is about the continued ‘Presidency’ of Maryam Rajavi after two decades. One member had asked about this and was told that Maryam is “President of the Resistance”, to which he innocently replied that “we all know that by ‘Resistance’ you mean ‘Massoud Rajavi’, so does that mean he has appointed her as his President?” Apparently the man was severely punished for this. The third contentious issue is circulating in Camp Liberty. People are asking why, when high up members like Massoud Khodabandeh, Masoud Banisadr or Mesdaghi left the MEK, Rajavi didn’t start attacking them as ‘agents of the Iranian regime’ until they started speaking out against him and the MEK, yet when his Arabic translator Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejat left, Rajavi immediately denounced him as a homosexual. The members in Camp Liberty say they have no problem with his sexuality even if it were true, but they cannot understand Rajavi’s sensitivity toward him and this uncharacteristic response. One of the groups who were undergoing an indoctrination session with Abbas Davari (a veteran member of 40+ years), asked him about this. When pressed, Davari himself discovered that he had the same question, and he too had no answer. Finding this out, the MEK forced Davari to write against Nejat Association to be published on MEK websites. However, Davari is semi-literate (he was recruited as a railway worker before the 1979 revolution), yet in other cases, he has apparently written a book in English denouncing former MEK members and was named as the author of the ‘Pentagon Report’.

In English:

++ Mazda Parsi of Nejat Bloggers writes about ‘Modern Slavery in the Cult under Rajavi’s Program for Women’. Stating that the treatment of women is an indicator in understanding a civilized country, the article identifies the example of the Rajavi cult “which is governed by kind of modern slavery system [that] deprives female members from their fundamental freedoms and rights. Nevertheless, the MKO propaganda tries to demonstrate a modern democratic portrait of a viable alternative for the Iranian Government while in reality it practices discrimination and violence against its female members. The new documentary published by Press TV proves just the opposite of what their propaganda claims. “Comrades in Arms” unfolds the story of those women who fell for deceptive slogans of the MKO. Looking for a brighter future these women ended up in Camp Ashraf, where they faced a gloomy fate.”

++ Setaregan Association in Switzerland have written an Open letter to Pandeli Majko ( Albanian Prime Minister 1999 – 2002). The letter warns him of the deceptive methods the MEK uses to trap people like himself into giving their support. “The Rajavi cult (Massoud and Maryam Rajavi) has two completely different faces. In the EU and US they are behaving like a chameleon and hide their true nature. For example, Mrs Rajavi pretends that she is leading a struggle against dictatorship. In reality, we have experienced ourselves that Massoud and Maryam Rajavi are nothing other than brutal dictators themselves. Someone who does not allow the smallest basic freedoms inside their organisation cannot claim to be struggling for freedom, can they?”

++ Tehran Times reported remarks made by Ayatollah Rafsanjani, head of Iran’s Expediency Council, in a meeting with Danish Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard in Tehran. “The condition for serious and effective fight against the ‘virus of terror and terrorism’ is sincerity, bravery, and avoidance from double standard policy,” Rafsanjani noted. Rafsanjani, a veteran politician, also said how one can believe the claims by Westerners, especially Americans, that they are fighting against terrorism while they still support some terrorist groups like the Mojahedin Khalq Organization. For example, Rafsanjani said, the U.S. is fighting ISIL terrorists in Iraq while it supported the terrorist group in Syria.”

++ The Financial Times exposed a financial corruption allegation involving Zalmay Khalilzad, a former US ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq. Khalilzad, who now runs his own consultancy firm in Washington, has lobbied for the Kurdish regional administration in northern Iraq in the past and also represented foreign businesses in Iraq. He has also lobbied for the MEK.

++ Justin Raimondo’s article for Anti-War ‘Hoaxes, Hype, and Hysteria – The War Party never takes a holiday’, says “While Americans were barbecuing over the Labor Day weekend, the Usual Suspects were busy cooking up new wars, from Iraq to Ukraine. While this is nothing new – after all, evil never sleeps – one thing I did notice: the stunning lack of imagination on their part. It was, in effect, the equivalent of a bunch of summer reruns: tired formulaic retreads that weren’t all that convincing in the first place… the neocons came up with a not-so-new one [threat]: they claim a laptop computer ostensibly captured from ISIS by the “good” jihadists – the so-called Free Syrian Army, which is armed and trained by the US – contains plans for constructing “weapons of mass destruction,” i.e. biological weapons. They’re even calling it the “laptop of death” – a phrase that ought to ring a bell for those who follow these sorts of things. That’s the same phrase used to describe yet another purloined laptop, this one supplied by the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, an Iranian terrorist group that, for years, has been feeding the War Party bogus “intelligence” about Tehran’s nonexistent nuclear weapons program. That tall tale was debunked in 2011 – yet another case of MEK cobbling together old outdated data, adding a dash of forgery, and shaking well enough to fool the credulous.”

++ Iranian Pen Association writes an Open Letter to Dr Ahmed Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, warning him of the lies fed to him by agents of the MEK. The letter reminds Dr Shaheed of the cult nature of the MEK and details some of the MEK’s abuses of human rights inside the organisation.

12 September 2014