Iran Interlink Website

++ Since Soleimani’s assassination Albania has been on overdrive to prove its ass licking credentials to Pompeo; left, right and center are praising Pompeo and ranting against Iran. To date, Iran has ignored this. The more silent Iran is the more Albania is pushed by Pompeo – from ordering the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats, to the point of placing ads in various media, arresting former MEK members and closing the private school which was funded by Iran. In the midst of this MEK is always there, as though Iran is so bothered about their existence in Albania. The Americans use MEK there to provoke Iran, but Iran doesn’t react. In Farsi this is a well-known scenario. Everyone knows what is happening. For the MEK it is a dream come true. This is what they have asked from the CIA before – to be able to silence ex members. Some writers have exposed dealing between the MEK and the CIA which mean that MEK have agreed to obey the order to leave Europe because this would happen anyway. In exchange, the CIA promises to make Albania safe for MEK to do what they want. According to this deal, MEK will rule Albania, not Rama. MEK will have the last word, not the government. Writers over last two weeks remind us that Saddam attacked Iran on the order of America. It was America that backed Saddam, who hosted the MEK. But this is something that Albania cannot replicate. The country is not big enough. The maximum that can be achieved is a military base like Israel. Albania is not capable of doing anything and the Americans are wasting their time.

++ As far as MEK is concerned, last week they have another three deaths. They have already gone to plan B – just die.

++ Rajavi jumped up trying to pretend that he’s crying for the airplane victims. This has attracted a very bad backlash, even among those close to MEK. Critics point out that for years Rajavi was giving directions for the Iraqi military to bombard civilians in Iran. Rajavi even praised America for hitting the Iranian Air passenger Flight 655 in 1988. ‘With this history’, they say, ‘you have nothing to say’.

In English:

++ Former MEK who live in Albania have written an Open Letter to the Minister of Justice, Etilda Gjonaj, concerning the detention of Ehsan Bidi who is being held without access to a lawyer. Bidi, who has a ten-year residence permit, is being threatened with deportation. The letter asks for justice to be served so that he is freed.

++ Pompeo’s flip flop over contact with militant Iranian exile and opposition groups was reported in various media. After the first directive was made public, James M. Dorsey, Euro-Asia Times concluded that “Mr. Pompeo’s directive is unlikely to persuade Iran that Washington has had a change of heart. Indeed, it hasn’t. Mr. Trump maintains his campaign of maximum pressure and this week imposed additional sanctions on Iran.” After the directive was overturned, The Daily Beast piece summed up the situation by quoting Jarrett Blanc, a former Obama administration official who worked on Iran policy: “There are at least two problems with this reversal. The first is that the policy is wrong. U.S. diplomats should not be meeting with MEK or its affiliates. They represent a dangerous cult. We should avoid all the mistakes of the Iraq war including being hoodwinked by purported diaspora opposition with no links at home. The second problem is that it reflects the total incompetence and chaos of this administration’s policy making —to send out an instruction and less than a week later countermand it. They just don’t know what they are doing.”

++ As Pompeo flip flopped over contact with MEK, a significant amount of commentary focused on the MEK in Albania and that country’s relationship with America and Iran. Along with the UK, Israel and Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Rama came out strongly in support for the illegal assassination of general Qassem Soleimani. But Rama confessed that although Albania had accepted to host the MEK as a humanitarian gesture, the group now posed a national security issue. Elis Gjevori for TRT World reported in detail the problems caused by the MEK presence in that country. Dr Olsi Jazexhi, an Albanian academic and expert who has been tracking MEK activities in Albania, said “The reason for the MEK being brought to Albania is the general ignorance of Albanian politicians who do not understand the danger of international terrorism and the implications that this terrorism has on nation-states.” Adding, “MEK with its paramilitary camps that they have in Manza has created a state within a state.” The article concludes that “MEK actions in an impoverished country like Albania, which is still struggling to emerge from a communist dictatorship, doesn’t bode well for its long-term stability or rule of law. Iraq has become a battleground of influence between the US and Iran, a faraway conflict for many Albanians.”

++ Several pieces also focused on MEK’s role in online propaganda with the enslaved members in Camp Ashraf 3 used for cyber activity. In Mother Jones, Daniel Moattar interviewed Peyman Jafari, researcher and historian at Princeton University’s Center for Iran Persian Gulf Studies. Jafari mentioned the disinfo campaigns which emanate from Iran and the US. “Trump was bragging about his tweet in Persian being the most retweeted Persian-language tweet. But much of that retweeting happens by these bots, and through these online activist cyber armies like the MKO. Their activism, now, is basically tweeting. They have these halls of aging activists sitting behind computers and sending out tweets all day long… When Trump tweeted in Persian, a lot of Iranians’ reaction was just, ‘Shut up. You have instituted a travel ban. You have targeted our cultural sites. You have been sanctioning us.’ People are aware of that.”

++ Deutsche Welle reported on Albania’s involvement in the standoff between the US and Iran. But reporting MEK spokesman Behzad Safari crying wolf and Rama cringeworthily comparing MEK with persecuted Jews in WW2 does not have the effect they hope for. Instead, placing Albania in the crosshairs of Iran means that hosting the MEK is a disaster for the Albanian people. Mazda Parsi writing for Nejat Society which helps former MEK to rehabilitate, warns that the “Albanian government is definitely gaining advantages by offering safe haven to the MEK but they should be absolutely warned that a terrorist cult-like establishment like the MEK will come back to haunt their country someday. This is a serious warning.”
Jan. 24 , 2020

++ After the illegal assassination of general Qassem Soleimani, videos and audios in support of president Trump flooded Farsi social media. These all turned out to be fake. The only ones that were true were MEK outlets, which genuinely support Trump. Very quickly an audio emerged from Massoud Rajavi – presumed dead – as the only Iranian who officially and publicly supported Trump and endorsed the assassination. As usual in the audio he threatens the ex-members with death. But, his message and further statements by Maryam Rajavi say this assassination is not enough. ‘Now you have bombed the convoy in Iraq you should hit them and their places in Iran and Iraq and Syria’, scream the Rajavis. In the end Massoud and Maryam both ask the Americans to re-arm the MEK. Other MEK outlets ranted, using foul language against anyone who doesn’t praise Trump. Ironically that includes the poet laureate of Iran who says he feels sad they have killed Soleimani. All the MEK sites went on full on attack against Mahmoud Dolatabadi. ‘How dare you say you are sad; your hands are soaked in blood and etc’, they screamed. This ranting caused a serious backlash for Rajavi, especially after everything died down and Trump didn’t go to war with Iran. News from inside MEK says that members of the NCRI are really angry about Rajavi jumping on the bandwagon without thinking it through. One spoke to MEK supporters in London. They told him ‘we have a thousand questions after this. Not least is that we MEK are on our backs, Maryam Rajavi has been deported from EU to Albania, Massoud has not been seen for decades and the US government is saying nobody allowed to talk to you. Instead of working on this you are asking for arms in Albania. To do what? Where? How?’ Further questions spilled out: ‘Are we Iranian or not? If we are, didn’t we see the number of people who came out in support of Soleimani?’ The NCRI representative says that ‘we [in the NCRI] all say the same things, we also have the same questions, but nobody in MEK is answering. It is a self-inflicted wound. You didn’t have to do this. Even the US and Israel didn’t ask us to support the assassination like that. This is the madness of Maryam Rajavi.’ As for the audio being genuine or not. Most MEK supporters think not. Especially after it was pointed out that the voice is that of a 30-year-old man. Rajavi – if alive – is around 70. So, members don’t believe this is his voice. Javad Firouzmand from Arya Association in Paris put out a short note directed at Rajavi in which he reminds him he’s always been trying to jump on somebody’s bandwagon – Khomeini, Saddam, Pompeo. He ends it by saying ‘once again you smelled a barbeque and invited yourself to the feast. But you are mistaken, that is the smell of branding donkeys!’

In English:

++ Before the illegal assassination of general Soleimani, Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and those accompanying them, news about the MEK focused on their failure to influence the fuel protests in Iran and their continued efforts to use social media to create fake news and pervert the narrative on Iran toward their regime change agenda. Post-Soleimani, it became clear that the MEK are totally isolated on this issue as the only Iranians who praised Trump and condemned Soleimani. Massoud Khodabandeh pointed out, in an article published by The Iranian and Responsible Statecraft, that “the blinkered aim of the Trump administration’s foreign policy to manufacture regime change against Iran by any means possible including all-out war has in fact resulted in the opposite result. Regime change is now in its coffin and the assassination of general Soleimani is the last nail hammered in.” And concluded that “the unwanted assassination of Soleimani will result in tectonic shifts in the world order. No matter how hard mainstream media in the West works to normalize America’s actions, security and military experts the world over will have their own ideas about what the future holds.”

++ The MEK is also mentioned in some articles as having a negative influence on US foreign policy, acting through proxies like Giuliani, Bolton and Mukaskey. This led to Pompeo ordering American officials not to talk with them according to Nick Wadhams in Bloomberg. “’Direct U.S. government engagement with these groups could prove counterproductive to our policy goal of seeking a comprehensive deal with the Iranian regime that addresses its destabilizing behavior,’ the cable said. Exiled Iranian opposition groups ‘try to engage U.S. officials regularly to gain at least the appearance of tacit support and enhance their visibility and clout.’ Cut Ties With MEK – Pompeo Ordered Officials.”
2020/01/10

++ After the fuel demonstrations in Iran were quashed, Iran’s right wing claimed the MEK was behind the violent unrest. The MEK also claimed they were behind it. Genuine opposition groups and demonstrators said they need to have the right atmosphere and conditions so that people can demand their rights without the interference of MEK, Pompeo, bullets, burning buildings and vandalism. Commentators say that interference by MEK and such like in the protests has led to people supporting the current ruling regime or at least refusing to come out on the streets. Western support for MEK and the demonstrations at the same time is stopping the democratic processes and the struggle of the genuine human rights organisations.
++ The soul of Massoud Rajavi issued a statement in Farsi (which was not translated into English). In it he has been lashing the Saudis alongside Iranian media outlets in London (BBC Persian, Iran International, Man-o-To). Rajavi’s ghost specifically referred to Massoud Khodabandeh’s statements about gold and money being paid to MEK by the Saudis, saying these are all lies. He also verbally lashes the Saudis, telling them that they couldn’t even retaliate for the Yemeni drone attack (alleged to have been by Iran) on their oil facilities (he means they didn’t start a war against Iran) and that they are not capable of standing up to Iran.
++ The point that Massoud Rajavi’s rant has only been issued in Farsi (and from Massoud Rajavi who is presumed dead and not the current leader Maryam Rajavi) shows this has been done only to shut up the dissent inside the camp rather than being about biting the hands feeding them. Ebrahim Khodabandeh of Nejat Society wrote a short note of explanation saying that after losing Saddam, Rajavi found the Saudis as the MEK benefactor. Now that the Saudis have started talking with Iran Rajavi is in deep shit. Khodabandeh advised Rajavi to let the MEK hostages go free as it is unlikely that any other benefactor could be found to replace the Saudis.
++ After the earthquake in Albania and casualties were reported, MEK gave no response. Critics of the MEK say the MEK should publish the names of any victims to inform the families of the hostages in the camp. Instead, the MEK issued propaganda (only in Farsi) that they are helping the Albanian people – photos are published of the MEK giving glasses to a child inside a building in the camp. (Albanian news shows that the free glasses – given to the MEK by America as part of a medical care package – were distributed among the local population well before the earthquake.) In any case, MEK critics say, why not help the MEK members? What is this? Why are you helping the Albanians and not your own people?

In English:

++ Several articles identify MEK as an artificial and insidious force interfering in the fuel protests in Iran. It is acknowledged that ordinary Iranians are not seeking regime change but are protesting genuine grievances. When the violence started, ordinary Iranians went home. MEK are seen by analysts as an externally promoted force which wants to introduce extremism.
++ Following the earthquake in Albania, a report was published in Balkans Post claiming that many MEK members were killed and injured. Since the MEK has kept silent on the issue, there is no way of knowing what happened behind the closed doors of the camp.
++ Nora Doyle-Burr, Valley News reports on some MEK supporters. Maria Ryan, Cottage Hospital CEO and consort of Rudi Giuliani, has exposed herself – as many MEK fans do – as a fool for the taking. Apparently, she was moved by the plight of Iranian women only after hearing about them from Maryam Rajavi and the MEK. Since then Ryan has travelled around a bit promoting the MEK, with Giuliani. “The New York Times reported in 2011 that the group paid speakers of diverse political backgrounds between $10,000 and $50,000 per appearance”, writes Doyle-Burr. Enough said.

++ This week MEK were intending to visit the US Senate using the Organization of Iranian American Communities as a front. Ali Akbar Rastgu of Aawa Association wrote a letter to the head of the Senate warning that these people are in fact MEK, and enclosed documents showing MEK’s history of killing Americans, cheering for 9/11, support for Saddam and pointing out that the US attacked Iraq in 2003 partly because of them. Also, Davoud Baghervand Arshad in Germany published details of the things MEK has done against Americans and American interests, even while they were pretending to be on the side of America.

++ Massoud and Maryam Rajavi have become avid supporters of the uprising in Iraq – in fact the whole MEK system is backing the protests. Some comments joked about the fact that Massoud is dead and yet is still talking. Another said – ‘the MEK are excited that what they call “rebellion nucleuses” are using tuc tucs and claim this will topple the regime. Maryam, who used to stand on Saddam’s tanks, is now promoting the tuc tuc!’ Commentary says those who pay MEK to incite unrest in Iraq, obviously have no clue who they are paying. The Iraqis hate MEK more than anyone else ever. For them even the return of Saddamists would be better. If Iraqis don’t want the US or Iran to interfere, they certainly don’t want MEK to interfere.

++ MEK’s NCRI brand issued an official statement against Massoud Khodabandeh and Iran International TV. Khodabandeh was interviewed during the news segment for his opinion about the fake French tweets. He responded, “This news is not new. From last year the MEK was being curtailed and being sent to Albania. The two events that Maryam Rajavi was recently allowed in Brussels and Paris remind me of 1996 when she was being deported back to Iraq and she begged for two meetings in London and Paris in exchange for going quietly, which she did. The reasons why MEK is being curtailed are: 1. The JCPOA nuclear issue that France doesn’t want to collapse. Curtailing MEK is a good gesture to Iran; 2. France wants to mediate between US and Iran and MEK hinders that – MEK are tools of neocons who don’t want Iran to get close to Europe; 3. Most importantly, France received evidence that the alleged bomb plot against MEK’s Villepinte event in 2018 was a false flag op done by themselves to set up others and blame Iran. That’s why they were banned from holding the event in 2019. In response to Khodabandeh’s interview MEK being MEK are issuing statements saying that this TV channel is Saudi paid therefore it should work as Saddam did and should be totally in our hands and on our side.

In English:

++ Nejat Society has again published appeals by the families of MEK members trapped in the slave camp in Albania for help to free their loved ones.

++ Eldar Mamedov writing in Lobelog picked up the news of a fake Twitter account in the name of Alexis Kohler, chief of staff of President Macron of France. The account tweeted that Maryam Rajavi and MEK would be expelled from France and sent to Albania. It took a week for the fake account to be taken down. Mamedov says this could be because the news itself might not be fake. He reviews MEK’s history in France and its use by various political interests in their foreign relations with Iran. He concludes that although MEK shows remarkable resilience in the face of constant setbacks, this latest move to expel the group from Europe will definitely contribute to its decline.

++ Following MEK spokesman Ali Safavi’s spurious allegation that four former MEK members living in Albania are ‘agents of the Iranian regime’ who pose a terrorist threat, the Albanian media has woken up to its responsibilities. Several television channels have run interviews with the four formers, who describe their current civilian lives as enjoying the freedoms they were denied for decades while with MEK. They also talked about MEK’s terrorist past and the operations they were ordered to undertake, from killing civilians inside Iran to the massacre of Kurds just after the first Gulf War. The interviews have had an unsettling effect on their Albanian audiences, in particular when these former MEK describe how the organization is currently deceptively recruiting Albanian youth and urging Albanians to “look out for your children”.

++ The Organization of Iranian American Communities had two Twitter accounts suspended due to the involvement of MEK.

++ The BBC’s Linda Pressley and Albana Kasapi do an excellent job of impartial broadcasting as they invited several voices to talk about the MEK in Albania. From government officials, to MEK officials to former MEK members, everyone had a say. But like the media everywhere, the BBC is still reporting on MEK in the same ‘Creationists versus Evolutionists’ way; based on a false premise. When the media wake up to the fact that MEK is a cult and its members are modern slaves, then true reporting will begin.
 November 08, 2019

++ There have been several pieces in Farsi about the Giuliani affair and how after already losing John Bolton the MEK are now in a panic over losing Giuliani too.

++ An article answers Maryam Rajavi’s statement declaring that she is against the Turkish actions in Syria and is supporting the Kurds. This article points out that Rajavi killed more Kurds than anyone. That’s the reason the Kurdish council boycotted the UANI session in New York when you were invited. Other commentary points out that Rajavi enters into everything like a mosquito, except the real issues she needs to answer for and which she hasn’t answered for three decades – the families, supporting Saddam, internal abuses, etc. Every now and then the MEK make it clear they are proud mercenaries for any issue, but then they also claim all they are about is rescuing Iran. This is why even while talking about the Turkish actions in Syria, the MEK’s announcement is announcement is 80% swearing against Iran as though Iran is responsible for this.

++ Another example of this mercenary approach is that MEK appear to believe some executions are good executions while some executions are bad. One article in particular lists all the executions committed by the MEK themselves; from killing Americans in Iran, the executions of Kurds in Iraq, right up to recent executions in Albania like Malik Sharai. It notes that the MEK was silent about all the executions by Saddam. And how in all the past four decades they have not dared to mention the barbaric executions in Saudi Arabia. As if those are OK.

In English:

++ City News, Albania reported that journalist Gjergji Thanasi has sued MEK enforcer Behzad Saffari Dehkord for defamation. Saffari has several times labelled Thanasi ‘an agent of the Iranian regime’ – the standard epithet applied to all of MEK’s critics. But perhaps when your terrorist cult has been foisted on a small, struggling country and is intolerable to every citizen except those paid by the MEK or the US, such behaviour needs to be brought to book. The MEK sent one of Albania’s highest paid lawyers to the first hearing, but Saffari will be obliged to attend the next hearing in person.

++ Mazda Parsi, Nejat Bloggers, refers to the book ‘Gullible Superpower: U.S. Support For Bogus Foreign Democratic Movements’ by Ted Carpenter of the Cato Institute and reviews the chapter on the MEK. Parsi says that advocacy for the MEK is not limited to the U.S. and Israel but includes Saudi Arabia and now Albania. According to Reza Alghurabi of the Herald Tribune, Albania’s support was bought by the U.S. which paid $25m to the government and $20m to the UNHCR. The MEK has also generously paid “hefty sums of money for a ten-minute speech on behalf of the group”. Such payments have corrupted Albania’s approach to Iran. “In exchange the Albanian authorities serve them with hostile acts towards Iran”, says Parsi. However, no matter how much the MEK’s advocates try to pretend that the Iranian people do not loathe the MEK, this is an established fact.

++ A piece in the Tehran Times reviews the work of Iranian filmmaker Mohammad-Hossein Mahdavian. Mahdavian has made two films about the MEK’s history in Iran, Trace of Blood and The Midday Event. “The stories of “The Midday Event” and “Trace of Blood” were set in the 1980s when Mahdavian and Ebrahim Amini, with whom he co-wrote the screenplays for the films, were only children. However, in an interview with Mahdavian, veteran critic Hushang Golmakani, who works for the Persian monthly Film, called the details of the sets and dialogues of “Trace of Blood” perfect. ‘The film has the potential to be biased, but it has maintained its balance. The film has very good dialogues and perfect ending’, Golmakani noted. It appears that a perfect filmmaker who is genuinely skilled in transforming real political narratives into films has emerged.”

++ MEK advocate Rudi Giuliani was in the spotlight this week with several articles mentioning the MEK as one of many foreign groups who have paid him handsomely for his advocacy. In relation to the MEK, Politico reported that “Giuliani has claimed he’s only working ‘as a private citizen—thank God I can still do that’.” NBC News ran a lengthy detailed examination of Giuliani and other high-profile figures who have been happy to shill for the MEK over many years without registering as lobbyists for a foreign group. This may or may not be the beginning of Giuliani’s downfall. But it certainly is another nail in the coffin of the MEK.

++ Muhammad Sahimi in Lobelog describes UANI sponsored gatherings of so-called Iranian opposition groups as the U.S. far right’s efforts “ to exploit Iran’s diverse ethnic population in order to stir trouble in the country and advance its anti-Iran agenda”. Sahimi details the background of these groups and concludes: “The attempt by UANI, a group that reportedly receives a lot of its funding from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to provoke ethnic strife in Iran may well lead to more bloodshed, but it will likely ultimately fail. Iranians of diverse backgrounds have lived together side-by-side and have preserved their nation for thousands of years. Iran’s true opposition inside the country—the reformists, religious-nationalists, secular leftists, labor groups, human rights activists, and others—and its supporters in the diaspora reject discrimination against minorities, ethnic tensions, economic sanctions, military threats, and foreign intervention. In the democratic Iran that the true opposition will eventually achieve, all Iranians, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, or gender, will be equal.”
October 18, 2019

++ MEK former Ghorban Ali Hossein Nejad – an Arabic speaker and former translator for Massoud Rajavi – writes that he has specific news concerning the death of Massoud Rajavi. His Arab sources have confirmed that after disappearing in 2003, Massoud Rajavi was transferred to Saudi Arabia, but once he reached there he died. That’s why Prince Turki announced his death. Hossein Nejad expands on this news to say that although MEK accept he is dead by placing his picture among their martyrs, as a cult, the leaders don’t want to announce his death to the rank and file members. In response to this news, some Farsi and Arabic outlets have written biographies of Rajavi detailing what he did until he died.
++ Commentators’ reactions to the MEK’s anniversary celebration of the founders of the MEK say ‘how ridiculous it is to attach yourselves to the founders as they have nothing to do with what you are now. You are now mercenary force for Israel, Saudi and the US. The reason you can’t move beyond your own past is to do with internal problems not for commemorative reasons. Not a single thing you say has any correspondence with the past.’ Javad Firouzmand from Arya Association in Paris has broadcast an in-depth video which starts with the original ideology of the MEK and shows how year after year Rajavi changed it to suit his agenda, until it became what it is now, the false front of a mercenary force. According to Firouzmand this path charts how MEK’s obedience to orders from foreign sponsors compelled them to change.
++ Reactions to John Bolton’s removal have continued. One thread of news concerns the MEK hosting the President of Albania in Camp Ashraf 3 in Albania. This attracted little interest in spite of their over publicising it on their sites. This is because the President of Albania is essentially a nobody – the leader of the opposition with no powers. It was clear to observers that he had been tasked by the CIA to visit the camp to help change the mood inside among the members. The members are demoralised and want to leave. The people inside Camp Ashraf say they are forced to stay regardless of Bolton or not because they have no alternatives. They admit they are slaves.

In English:
++ Media mentions of the MEK mostly associate the group with the Trump administration’s extremist stance toward Iran. That is, the MEK constantly talk about regime change; which makes them ‘flavor of the month’ for all regime change pundits in the US, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the UK. Their presence in the Balkans is linked to Daesh and a possible war against Iran, which would result in the crowning of Maryam Rajavi as the country’s leader. This could be a miscalculation apparently. Nobody seems to know since America has no real expertise on Iran at all.
The MEK is said to have the ear of the White House. So, it was a devastating blow to Maryam Rajavi when her buddy John Bolton was removed from his position as national security advisor. She need not have worried since Mike Pompeo was happy to gather up the reins of mission impossible ‘maximum pressure’.
Now that the US and Iran are back to the brink of war Rajavi might feel she can breathe easy again. Not so fast. The disintegration of her political cult will come from within. The MEK in Albania are on the verge of mutiny. All those lies have come back to haunt. After all, didn’t John Bolton promise they would be celebrating in Tehran by April this year.
September 20, 2019

++ In Albania, a source inside MEK has informed Iran-Interlink that alongside the click farm work Rajavi has ordered some members to discover who leaked the incriminating photographs which we wrote about in Lobelog last week to the Iranian media. The way this is being done is through telephone calls. They change the way they speak so they can pass as officials in Iran who are ringing to congratulate reporters for their work and then ask who sent the photos. Technically, MEK uses double phone calls which divert between themselves, so they appear to be coming from inside Iran. Sometimes they use Iranian mobiles so although the call goes to Albania, it shows up as Iran. This work is not new for MEK. After they arrived in Paris in 1981 over 200 landlines were set up to make calls into Iran to conduct their terrorist campaigns from France. MEK have sold their expertise in this kind of undercover work to Saddam Hussein, the CIA, MOSSAD, etc.

++ Last week the MEK launched an all-out online attack against Zarif’s visit to Europe. During a demonstration in Sweden they attacked the police, and some of them were arrested. In Paris, the MEK were forced to gate-crash another Iranian group’s demonstration since they are banned from holding their own. The police were not happy about this misuse of the protest. Interestingly, in spite of this effort to be seen, the success of Zarif’s visit and his subsequent return to the fringes of the G7 had a bad backlash inside MEK as the members became demoralised and deflated again. They are questioning ‘what are we doing, it’s not about helping Iran, we have just become an anti-Iran force’. To counter this mood, Rajavi has ordered the leading members to talk about the MEK’s martyrs, to remind the rank and file that they died for ‘the cause’, particularly glorifying those who burned themselves in 2003. Unfortunately for Rajavi, this caused even more of a backlash and made matters worse because members don’t buy these narratives anymore. External to the MEK, critics write in Farsi about what happened. They point out that instead of the MEK affecting Zarif and his work. Iran’s top diplomat performed his job well and the result was that the MEK became wobbly and ended up fighting each other. Some say that the way Rajavi thinks diplomacy works is the diplomacy of slavery; that the MEK are slaves to the Saudis and to the U.S. etc. Inside the MEK they are waking up to this. Others say that contrary to what Rajavi says, that these martyrs burned themselves for love, no, they were slaves who died because you ordered it. You killed them. And now, gone are the days of keeping people in MEK with false narratives.

In English:

++ Costantino Ceoldo, Pravda, interviewed Richard Black of the Virginia State senate – the only Western politician to have spoken openly in defense of Syria and its people. Asked about the role of the MEK, Black said that because Iran is a patriotic, cohesive and unified nation, there was little chance of the MEK growing like ISIS. But Western support for MEK-led regime change would be problematic. Using terrorists against Western enemies has not produced good results. Indeed, the damage to the German and Scandinavian countries due to these disasters may cause permanent damage. The MEK’s role could be to continue its covert intelligence activities at the behest of the U.S. such as the tanker attacks earlier this summer.

++ Ebrahim Khodabandeh’s blog piece ‘How has the MEK resisted disintegration’ explains that the MEK has only survived this long because of the support of the Republicans in America over the past two decades. In particular, the Trump administration, which intervened directly to enable the MEK to build what is a de facto extra-territorial enclave in Albania.

++ A lengthy analysis by Jonathan Broder in Newsweek magazine examines the state of Iran’s opposition groups as political pundits variously predict the chances of war or regime change in Iran as the Trump administration sends out mixed messages on an almost daily basis. Iran, he acknowledges, is weakened by American sanctions, but by no means bowed. Broder’s take on the MEK’s ability to take advantage of such turmoil is not flattering. Realistically, the MEK is a bad group with a bad history. To paraphrase, it is paid to exist and yet only exists by paying for support from a roll call of shills drawn from the dregs of American politics. They have no support inside Iran and cannot work with any other opposition groups.

++ A Washington Post piece by Adam Taylor highlights the dilemma of the MEK. It is dependent on American political will. So, the Trump administration’s prevarication – is regime change a thing or is it not – is particularly problematic for the group. President Trump wants to meet with Iran (anyone). That would spell disaster. The MEK can only exist in war and chaos. Diplomacy is an anathema to Rajavi.

++ Iranian media reported President Rouhani declaring the unity of the country. Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani talked about the intelligence cooperation between Iran and Iraq. Both mentioned the MEK as the enemy of Iran and a potential danger imposed by the West.

++ A socialist perspective on Iran and the U.S. approach by Mazda Majidi in Liberation News, takes the view that Iran is not collapsing and that Trump’s desire to meet with the Iranians is a bitter disappointment for Maryam Rajavi who feeds off war and destruction and bloodshed.
August 30, 2019

++ This week marks the anniversary of the failed Mersad or Forough Javidan (Eternal Light) operation in 1988. MEK had nothing to say except to repeat archive material from people who don’t want to say these things anymore. For example, an article from many years ago written by Manouchehr Hezarkhaneh, an elderly man, trapped by poverty and isolation in the MEK system with nowhere else to go. Some commentators say, ‘never mind that they don’t want to say anything because it was a disaster, now they themselves are trying to water it down as if it didn’t happen’. Mehr News in Tehran conducted a long interview with Ebrahim Khodabandeh , who went into detail about how the operation came about, that it was the last military opportunity before the peace. Khodabandeh explained how MEK prepared and executed the operation and that Massoud Rajavi knew he was sending around 4000 people to their possible deaths. 2500 died and only around 1500 came back. It was Rajavi’s last gift to Saddam (which didn’t work out) and it was a present to himself to bank the blood of these people so as to keep the feelings of revenge alive in the members. Khodabandeh said, ‘from whatever angle you look at it, it is nothing except a deliberate war crime and crime against humanity to kill thousands of people from your own side for political and financial gain’.
++ There were various reactions to Rajavi’s MEK rally in London. Reports from inside the rally sent to Iran-Interlink explained that 33 paid rent-a-crowd young people had been given 11 green, 11 white and 11 red t-shirts (as the Iranian flag) to stand at the front and pretend MEK has the support of the youth. Behind them there were about 150 people mostly in their 50s and 60s. Around 100 had been flown into London from European countries and 50 were from the UK. The rest of the crowd was photoshopped in online to make the rally appear bigger. The usual speakers – long term Zionist supporters – didn’t attend. Ironically even David Ames their head lobbyist in London couldn’t bring himself to attend the rally. The result was that in a televised message, Maryam Rajavi had to mention the names of three deceased lobbyists who died some time ago, including Lord Corbett, and then ask the newly appointed UK Prime Minister to join the Americans to send ships to the Persian Gulf and attack Iran. Many commentators pointed out the irony that consecutive British governments and US governments have come and gone and they all totally refuse to give her a visa even for a day visit, even though she has spent millions in legal challenges which have all come to a dead end. The last one was in the UK a few years ago. The court rejected Lord Carlisle’s best attempts to get her a visa. This is the outcast who is demanding the UK and US attack Iran.

++ A few Iranian outlets have referred to the MEK cyber group and troll farm and the photos of them that were leaked and spread on social media. MEK’s internal propaganda shows them as loyal workers. Commentators point out that MEK might have started out as something to be paid for, but the reality is that since going to Albania over 400 people have left them. Some talk publicly, some don’t. Many of those who talk say that ‘In Iraq we didn’t have access to the internet. But here, even though we were being watched we managed to see the news about Iran and the rest of the world, and we have woken up to reality. The MEK have only told us lies.’
In English:
++ Iran-Interlink wrote a short comment on a report in Middle East Eye about the MEK rally in London criticising the lack of due diligence and fact checking by politicians and journalists alike. Such that “The most important of these facts is that the MEK is a cult which keeps its members in Albania in conditions of modern slavery. If the MEK’s supporters want to believe that after not being paid for three decades, they are just ‘volunteers’, then there is not much else they won’t believe”.
++ Tehran Times quotes several officials, military and political, who say that while they do not underestimate the threat posed by MEK’s phone led espionage activities into Iran, there is no evidence that the group has any support inside the country.
++ Not a week goes by without one or more media outlet in America wringing its hands over the meaning of MEK’s relationship with John Bolton and Rudi Giuliani, and their relationship with President Trump and Mike Pompeo. This time Melissa Etehad in the Los Angeles Times had a go at solving the conundrum – will there, wont’ there, be a war with Iran. Right away MEK spokesman Alireza Jafarzadeh shoots himself in the foot by admitting that year after year, administration after administration, its demand (violent regime change) has essentially been ignored. With good reason according to several commentators. “The MEK has American blood on its hands” says Daniel Benjamin, the State Department counter-terrorism coordinator under President Obama. Unfortunately, the article falls foul of the misinformation (“Two Iranian suspected of surveilling the Mujahedin Khalq were arrested in Albania in 2018, and an Iranian diplomat in Vienna was arrested on suspicion of plotting to bomb a Mujahedin Khalq rally outside Paris.”) which skews accurate reporting on MEK and Iran, and this leads to a nonsensical conclusion: That Iran is worried about close relations between MEK and the Trump administration.
++ On the principal that ‘reality intervenes’, Ted Snider’s Counter Punch article is spot on. Snider explains how government and media ‘perception shapers’ shape public opinion by isolating events from the causal contexts which explain and make sense of them. He gives examples of Brazil and Iran, which, for context, has been subjected to economic warfare, cyber warfare and assassinations by America and Israel. This latter activity of course, carried out by the MEK. Without this context, Iran’s shooting down of a US drone can be spun as “an unprovoked attack”.
++ With respect to the failed Eternal Light (Mersad) operation of 1988, Mehr News and the Tehran Times published statements by military and political leaders. Essentially, they see MEK now as “US soldiers without uniforms”, who now click instead of shoot guns.

++ Saudi reporting on an Israeli attack on the MEK’s former garrison Camp Ashraf can only be interpreted as rewarding MEK for something, some service rendered perhaps. This is something touched on in an analytical piece in Iran Front Page which links recent developments involving Iraq, Israel, Rajavi and the US. “It seems that a visit [to Israel] by Maryam Rajavi, leader of the MKO terrorist group, and the launch of the recent attack was not a coincidence. Above all, the MKO’s perfect familiarity with the region after 30 years of presence there could have been taken advantage of by Israel for carrying out the attack.”
++ Eli Lake in Bloomberg is also troubled by perceived cosying up between MEK and the Trump administration. Citing Abbas Milani, director of Iran studies at Stanford University, the article argues for supporting Iran’s indigenous opposition groups rather than maximum pressure. But he makes it very clear “Milani recommends for example that Trump make clear that the relationship between his personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, and the People’s Mujahedin, or the MEK, does not reflect U.S. government policy. This exiled opposition was once designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department and is largely reviled by Iranians because it sided with Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war.”
++ Robert Fantina for Counter Punch exposes elements of the MEK’s cyber warfare against Iran, saying that in addition to spreading misinformation, MEK uses false accounts to give the impression it has widespread support among Iranians. One of these false accounts is Heshmat Alavi which the MEK has unashamedly resurrected since it was outed by The Intercept. Which goes to show, it’s all just a game. Certainly, Fantina is not convinced by MEK’s cause. “When this writer visited Iran in the summer of 2017, he found a modern, vital and exciting nation. Illegal and immoral U.S. sanctions have certainly taken a toll on the economy, but as a friend of his from Iran commented, Iranians are accustomed to sanctions, and manage fine anyway. The MEK and its criminal members and leaders will not prevail; the Iranian people are proud of what they have accomplished, and will not allow a few disillusioned people, even those who have the support of the United States, to defeat them.”

August 02, 2019