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What US expects from MEK’s walking corpse

Tehran, Oct 12, IRNA – In the recent months, there have been some reports in social media and news outlets with regards to MEK’s leader Massoud Rajavi, which once again drew attention to the unknown fate of the terrorist.

Rajavi disappeared in 2003. Ever since, the news about his death has been published by news outlets, but it was never confirmed.

The MEK, aka MKO, was founded in September 1965 to counter the US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi but made a complete about-face on their causes after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. They changed into a puppet terrorist group controlled by the anti-Revolution World Arrogance.

After their three forefathers and leading core members were executed six years before the Revolution by SAVAK, the Shah’s intelligence service, Rajavi who was in prison became the leader of the group. When freed after the Revolution in 1979, he became the leader of the MEK.

In 2003, Iraq was invaded by the US and Saddam was toppled. In the air raids, Camp Ashraf was mistakenly bombarded by the US and it was reported that Rajavi and 20 other terrorists had been killed. The news was denied soon afterwards.

Then, some news outlets said that he was severely injured and hurt on the face. He has never showed up in public since then. Just a couple of voice tracks were published to show he was still alive. The last track was broadcast on November 2, 2014.

In 2012, Camp Asharaf was evacuated and the MEK terrorists were taken to US Camp Liberty. Disguised as a woman, Rajavi was taken to Camp Liberty as well. They were eventually taken to Manez, western Albania.

There was no talk of Rajavi until four years ago when then-chief of Saudi intelligence Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, named the MEK standard-bearer as “Late” Rajavi in Paris. This made the media assume that he had died. The news was again not confirmed.

In its last year’s congregation, the terrorist group put on a billboard with pictures of some deceased Iranian figures. They had included Rajavi there as well.

The picture implied that Rajavi is dead. But still, some believe that he is still alive and leads the group from his unknown whereabouts.

The important point here is the new game MEK terrorists have started with the help of the CIA and Mossad. They publish the false news of Rajavi’s death, which is clearly part of a scenario.

In all likelihood, Rajavi is still breathing somewhere – most probably in the US camp in Albania – and leading what is left of the group.

It has been said that Rajavi’s appearance has changed: he has lost a lot of hair; his face is wrinkled; and now he wears glasses.

Another sign that heightens the probability of his being alive is that fact those that were always alongside him in Iraq are all in Albania.

The most important question is what is this cat-and-mouse game about his life and death for?

From all appearances, the US has preserved the terrorist for a rainy day, when they will bring him out in a mysterious way to strengthen the ideology of the group or even the masses.

The US has been repeatedly defeated by Iran in the past several years: their super-advanced drone was shot down in Iran; they were awfully defeated in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. The defeats have made the US extremists consider using the MEK as a tool against Iran – although they are well aware of the fact that the terrorists of MEK are old and feeble and have been quickly shrinking in the past few years.

Since May 2018, when US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that was an international UNSC-endorsed agreement, the MEK has encouraged Washington to attack Iran and has made them sure that if they do so, the MEK will be on the US side.

Of course, the last nail of the MEK’s coffin in Iran was hammered when they sided with Saddam in the Iran-Iraq war in 1980s.

So, what do the US extremists want with this walking corpse?

October 13, 2020 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Analysis of the psychological condition of the Mojahedin Khalq base on the theory of Erich Fromm

Different concepts and theories from a social and psychological perspective can explain the situation of the Mojahedin Khalq, but it seems that to understand the social world of this group, in the first place, it is necessary to focus on recognition of two complementary elements, namely “the leadership” and “members” of this group.

In fact, these two are inseparable elements, which feed on each other, are the key to answering the question of how in a modern era, according to Marshall Berman, everything that is hard and solid can smoke and blow into the air and a new type of slavery take shape in Europe? In this part, I will first explain the concepts related to the discussion, because to analyze any action of this group, we must first know who we are facing.

To download the video click here

There is a common characteristic between the followers and the leader in this group, and this characteristic is the existence of an”authoritarian personality”in both of them (although there is a difference between the authoritarian personality of the leader and the authoritarian personality of the follower, which I will discuss later).

First, what is the characteristic of an authoritarian personality? And what are the common points of these two (leader and follower of Mojahedin Khalq)?

This type of personality, is an immature person whose important characteristic feature is the inability to rely on himself, dependent and inability to tolerate freedom. Humans learn two important skills during maturity, lovemaking and wisdom, which the authoritarian personality lacks. In fact, love means feeling that a person has with the world while maintaining the independence and integrity of one’s identity, or in other words, love means knowing the world as an emotional and passionate experience.

Wisdom is also understanding the world and trying to reach the essence and principle of phenomena. An authoritarian character has neither love nor wisdom, so he remains immature and extremely lonely. Note that the meaning of loneliness in this situation explains the subsequent actions of the authoritarian personality.

This situation leads him to desperately need a bond that does not require love and wisdom. He destroys his identity, he must melt into another person; because he cannot stand loneliness. These are the features that are common between Massoud Rajavi and his followers. Both incapable of making love and reasoning, they melt into the other half and feel lonely without each other to the point of madness. This situation reflects the hysterical states of the members of this group in many cases, such as the strange behavior like self-immolation of these people or suicide attempts. So that even people who are separated from this group are confused for a long time and cannot make decisions.

Now the question may arise for the reader that the type of action of the leader is not different from the followers?

The answer is yes, and this is exactly where we divide the authoritarian personality into two categories:”active authoritarian personality”such as Massoud Rajavi and”passive authoritarian personality”such as members of the group.

We will first understand the situation of the members of this group, who were categorized as”passive authoritarian personalities”. These people are self-harm, under control and eager to be a small part of a”big”person, a”big”organization, or a”big”idea, Whether this is greatness be real or it only be in the minds and illusions of these people, what matters is that this person feels strong and great by feeling that he is part of this greatness, the paradox is that such a person by shrinking and humiliating himself, can actually become part of this delusional greatness. This is the point that the leadership of the organization (Massoud Rajavi) repeatedly mentions in different meetings that the members of the group must be connected to a point outside of themselves in order to release their energies and reach unity, and only this is the path to reach the peak of human perfection.

This part may sound strange to a reader unfamiliar with the ideology of the MKO, but one of the techniques used in this group, called self-criticism or self-criticism sessions, has the same function. At first, the forces of this group”threatening and insulting each other”, humiliating themselves and attributed the most vile insults and misdeeds to themselves, then when all the identity of the members were destroyed, according to the group’s leadership, that member has been cleansed and purified, because he has put all his sins on the shoulders of the leader!!! And now that he is clean, or rather, he has no identity left, he can melt into leadership.

The next step is that such a person desperately wants orders and accepts orders wholeheartedly, or as this group calls this mental state, an organized member! But the fact is that such a person is so eager to accept orders because he does not have to decide and be responsible, avoiding his freedom as a human being, he devotedly seeks to give meaning to his destroyed existence. This humiliated character, who is terrified and feels helpless and lonely, seeks a leader to command him and control this feeling in him. The passive authoritarian character, who is”under control”and dominated by the leader, fears, and this fear causes him to take refuge to his self-made idol and calm down.

A crowd of authoritarian figures gathered around an idol forms a”mass”that explains another scenario in this group. When they are inside a population, they acquire new characteristics that are different from the characteristics of each individual that makes up that population. In fact, their self-conscious personality disappears and they seem to find a common spirit that guides the members’ feelings, thoughts and behaviors. This is the point at which the intellectual abilities and personality of individuals fade into the general spirit of the masses, and being in the crowd gives them a sense of invincible power. This situation can explain the actions of the members of the Mojahedin Khalq Group in situations where they are especially asked to sing slogans and songs with great enthusiasm in the meetings, and of course there are leaders to watch out for people who does not participate in this mass show with passion and enthusiastic.

Female operators in ISIS and MEK, victims of destructive cults

Those who are familiar with the ideology of this group know that”gathering”is one of the situations for which the members of the organization have been harmed many times for that, and Rajavi and his gang wouldn’t tolerate any resistance in this mass to the leadership of the group. Because distancing oneself from the mass that is in the unconscious state and is only willing to do anything to kill itself in terms of indoctrination and contagion of other members, if it approaches the conscious state which is the domination of rationality, it realizes that all the members who shout the leader’s name with all their might are automatic beings who have lost their willpower. This is exactly the situation that many members of the Mojahedin Khalq Group have written in their biographies that they did not know what they were doing in that situation! It was like that they are not more themselves who were shouting, or even when they were about to commit suicide, it was as if someone else was leading them.

Now it is time to understand the status of leadership or the”active authoritarian personality.”This character, who is harming others, is very frightened and lonely, even though he looks like a confident and powerful person in the eyes of his followers; because he only feels empowered when he swallows others. He is heavily dependent on his followers, although his helplessness is manifested when he has lost power or is unable to swallow others. It is good to pay attention to the very brutal reactions that Rajavi and his associates have to members who make the slightest criticism of the group or the leadership. References to documents and individuals who have previously had experience in this group show that the slightest mercy did not exist even to those very close to Rajavi, and the slightest disagreement and critics dealt with severely punishment. This situation clearly shows how incompetent and lonely the leadership of this group is; because any kind of opposition frightens him greatly. He feels empowered and overcomes his deep loneliness by humiliating and enslaving the members of the group and seeing that the members of the group endure all the suffering of slavery without any resistance or disobedience.

With the explanation of these items, it is now clear why these two are the main parts of the Mojahedin Khalq Group and do not last without each other!

To understand this phenomenon more deeply, I ask a question that may have occupied the minds of many readers: If we accept these explanations, then what is the role of many leaders who have liberated and saved their society? What is the role of many patriots and martyrs who have sacrificed their whole existence for their nation? How can a sick authoritarian figure be distinguished from a true leader? What is the difference between real martyrs and national heroes and brainwashed masses? To answer this question, I return to the beginning of the discussion, where we defined the main characteristic of an authoritarian personality as his inability to make love and reason; what do we see in examining the real leader and the true patriot and the relationship between the leader and followers? The element of wisdom and the element of love. First, in this situation, followers are allowed to think, ponder, choose, critique, and decide freely; so they have reasoned, and if the forces stay with their leader, they will achieve their goals with love.

Compare this situation with the type of relationship Massoud Rajavi has with his followers; Those who for any other reason cannot or do not want to continue with this group, would be tortured, or killed, or if they can survive, they should suffer slanders, lies and conspiracies (as an example MKO attacks on critical journalists). To understand the difference between a true leader, a true patriot, and a thief of emotions, the only indicator that provides love is the one that brings freedom and independence to its people, not a sick man that Fearing for his loneliness, denies his freedom and his followers.

Finally, I call on all liberal and sociological institutions in Europe and the United States that are pursuing humanitarian goals to take a closer look at the situation of these individuals by being at the camp of Mojahedin Khalq members in Albania and consider the dimensions of this issue by further scientifically investigations.

By Alireza Niknam, geopolitica.ru

October 11, 2020 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Why don’t they laugh in the MEK?

“Cult Members never laugh. They don’t have humor. Humor is a human thing. They don’t have any natural creative ability to be funny just like AI.” Lauren Pritchard

The quote seems so familiar to those who were involved with the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (The MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi). Just a few days ago, a former member of the group told BBC Persian that “laughing was forbidden in the MEK”.

I was in the MEK for 12 years and I envied the Iraqi prisons thousands of times

The BBC report titled “Prison in Prison” was published on September 20. The BBC reporter Jiar Gol covered the fate of the Iranian soldiers who were taken as POW by Iraqi forces and then were recruited by the MEK. He interviewed two defectors who left the MEK after years of imprisonment in Iraqi jails and then in the MEK camps.

Edward Tromado was one of the interviewees. He, as any army soldier, was taken as a war prisoner in the early days of the Iran-Iraq war. Edward spent 9 years in Iraqi prisons, according to BBC. He was recruited by the MEK in 1989 and shortly after, he realized the bizarre conditions inside the group. “I was in the MEK for 12 years and I envied the Iraqi prisons thousands of times,” he tells Jiar Gol.

Why did he envy the violent and deficient life of war prisoners’ camps of Iraq?

His answer is revealing: “In Iraqi prison, we went through all pressures, restrictions and violence with jokes and laughter but in the MEK, laughter was totally forbidden, you were never allowed to laugh. If two people talked to each other, they would be told, “you have Mahfel”. (Mahfel is a Persian word referring to a group of people gathering together)

Leaders of the cults make efforts to manipulate the minds of their followers; they try to form the members’ minds as robots with Artificial Intelligence. However, most human beings instinctively resist coercion so leaders’ endeavors result in opposite, as the communist states experienced it in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Block.

Under the rule of communism, people used to indicate their protest by making jokes and cartoons of their political and social problems. It was kind of underground literature for the citizens of these countries who were deprived from freedom of expression. In the MEK, this underground literature is called Mahfel.

In a dictatorship, joke and laughter is a media in the hands of people all over the society. Actually, the dictatorship turns into a machine that produces comedy; their economic theories and their suppressive system cause a constantly ridiculous situation.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Report/TRT_MEK_Iran_Regime_201810.mp4

To download the video click here

In the absence of freedom of speech and unbiased journalism and media, jokes reflect the real reaction of the society to the system. The clandestine jokes or Mahfels –in the MEK- not only help cult members maintain their social relations in the closed ideological structure of the cult but also preserve happiness in the community of the cult and ultimately prevents members from getting brainwashed by the system.

The leaders of the Mujahedin Khalq need to prohibit anything that causes hilarity among members in order to keep them in the cult-like structure of the group. These mind-manipulated individuals, with demolished creativity simply obey the absolute power of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. Under the rule of the leaders they may deny every human feeling and emotion in their inner selves. They may even show up in front of the cameras of the MEK’s TV channel to deny their love for their family but what is really going on in the covert layers of human relations in the group (ie in the Mahfels) is more important. Mind of a human being is the freest place in the whole world.

Mazda Parsi

October 10, 2020 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Iranian MEK cult in Albania poses public health risk

With its small population of 2.8 million people, the Republic of Albania may appear to have a more manageable task (depending, of course, on the availability of health care resources) of testing and tracking contacts to halt the spread of the coronavirus, than countries with multiple millions of citizens living in large, sprawling cities and conurbations. But as Albania extends its lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the country faces a specific problem that some other countries also face — notably South Korea — the presence of a closed and secretive cult in the midst of the population.

Since its arrival in Albania in 2016, the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), also known as the Rajavi cult after its leaders Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, the group has caused problems for the authorities and citizens of their host country. Exploiting the unresolved problems of crime, corruption, and a weak state dependent on American approval, the MEK has manipulated, bribed, and intimidated its way into the political, media, and criminal elements of Alabania. According to well-known historian Olsi Jazexhi, the MEK has even perverted Albania’s foreign policy making it a hub for anti-Iran activities and creating a security nightmare for Albania’s police and security services.

Coronavirus in Albania and the Presence of Mojahedin-e Khalq in Tirana

Now the group poses another risk to the country — a public health risk that cannot be assessed or managed.

In 2017, both tacit support from the Trump administration, and overt support from neoconservative personalities, enabled MEK leaders to evade a planned de-radicalization program and instead build a closed secure camp in Manez — a remote town in the county of Durres — to house up to 2,000 cult members. Camp Ashraf 3 — as it is known — is guarded by private armed security personnel as well as MEK officials; only invited persons are allowed entry. Before this mass incarceration, dozens of members took advantage of the move to Albania to separate from the group. They reported terrible human rights abuses and conditions of modern slavery in the MEK. Journalists were refused entry to the camp to interview members locked up there.

For the majority of MEK members then, a lockdown may seem irrelevant since they were already in forced isolation from the outside world, but for Albania, the existence of the group in the country poses a real dilemma.

Although most cult members will not emerge in public, the group relies on regular supplies from outside, particularly food and medicine, and those who emerge to procure these supplies are part of a greater chain of contacts that stretch all the way to Italy. Not only are MEK members who move around Albania unaccountable and untraced, the MEK is notorious for trafficking its own members past national borders.

The MEK’s leading members made frequent trips to Italy in the early months of this year, exposing them to COVID-19. In this respect, it is important to acknowledge that the MEK members are not all based in the closed camp. Last year, MEK leader Maryam Rajavi was forced to leave her base in France and set up her new headquarters in Albania. Many leading members live in the capital Tirana and occupy a variety of premises — from business offices to an entire floor of the International Hotel in Skanderbeg Square in Tirana. Where are those people now? What contact did they have between Italy and the residents of Camp Ashraf 3? Durres county is the epicenter of the current coronavirus epidemic in Albania. Have MEK members inside been infected?

We don’t know and we may never know. The Albanian authorities, including the security services, do not have access to the camp. According to investigative journalist Gjergji Thanasi, who lives in Durres county near the MEK camp, the Health Ministry “deals with Camp Ashraf 3 as if it does not exist. There is not a single line in the Durres Municipality health officials’ paperwork written about the camp and its residents. No Albanian health official has ever entered the camp.”

This means that no matter how hard epidemiologists may be working to trace the contacts of positive cases throughout the country, the MEK will not submit to allow Health Ministry staff inside the camp to test the individuals there. Thanasi goes on to explain, “the MEK have their own doctors, nurses, and dentists. When they have seriously ill patients, they hire private ambulances to transport them to a public hospital in Tirana.”

What is deeply concerning in this crisis, however, are the messages emerging from the camp and covertly passed to those who are concerned with their welfare. Over a thousand families of these disappeared MEK members, who have been trying for two decades to gain contact with their loved ones, say these messages are alarming. They say that the MEK leaders have blocked every form of access to medical care and hospital visits have been cancelled. They also report that some people have gone missing and nobody knows where they are. Everyone inside the camp is worried about the virus and that they are getting no help. They say there is a general sense of dread about the spread of COVID-19.

According to Thanasi, employees of Durres Municipality who engaged in disinfecting streets, squares, flea markets, and agriculture produce markets had contacted the MEK camp via the local Manez council officials offering to disinfect the camp. “We were thanked profusely before our offer was very politely turned down. The commanders at the camp insisted they had already thoroughly disinfected the camp”, Thanasi was told. The Municipal workers however added there was “no evidence this had been done.”

Outside the camp, local residents have observed the MEK’s efforts to deal with the crisis. Speaking to Thanasi, one resident said, at the camp entrance, Albanian armed security guards and MEK members have been observed wearing masks and gloves, “but those on duty at a second gate do not always use protective gear.”

It appears that in public, MEK personnel will wear the masks and gloves, but a group of MEK members who work in a small facility outside the camp fence opposite the main entrance generally do not wear protection. It could be that a shortage of PPE means the MEK has to adopt a public relations exercise to be seen to observe distancing, isolation and protective measures. More cynically, the patchy distribution of protective gear could be linked to a hierarchy of privilege.

Without official oversight, it is not known how many MEK members will contract the virus and how many will die as a result. What is known is that since arriving in Albania, dozens of MEK members have died — reportedly from old age and illness — yet their reported cause of death cannot be relied upon.

MEK leaders mostly refuse post-mortem examinations. The MEK leaders are just as unlikely to report incidences of COVID-19 infections and deaths. MEK members are especially susceptible to the ravages of this virus. Their average age is around 65, with some members in their seventies and eighties. Many members have underlying health issues, and weakness brought on by the decades of overwork and harsh living conditions endured in Iraq. Rajavi herself is so frightened of succumbing to the virus that back in March she had one of her parliamentary lobbyists raise the possibility of travelling to the UK where even as a visitor she could access world class medical facilities.

Clearly, even if the MEK does eventually allow sick members to be tested and gain access medical care, Albania is barely equipped to deal with a widespread outbreak of the coronavirus among the indigenous population. If this troublesome group consumes badly needed resources, the finger of blame will surely go to Albania’s corrupt politicians who allow this group to flout the country’s laws and national interests and pursue its own agenda. That finger of blame must as well point directly at the Trump administration too. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is happy to use MEK propaganda churned out by the troll farm in Camp Ashraf 3 by enslaved members to attack Iran and justify the continuation of extreme sanctions. What responsibility will he take for the health and wellbeing of these people and the people of Albania.

Responsible Statecraft

October 6, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Judge Barrett Mujahedin-e-Khalq Ties

Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s nominee to join the Supreme Court, once represented an affiliate of an Iranian exile group as it challenged its State Department designation as a foreign terrorist organization.

“With today’s actions, the Department does not overlook or forget the MEK’s past acts of terrorism, including its involvement in the killing of U.S. citizens in Iran in the 1970s and an attack on U.S. soil in 1992,” the State Department said upon delisting the group. “The Department also has serious concerns about the MEK as an organization, particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members.”

Barrett disclosed her legal work for the group, which she undertook while employed at a law firm in Washington, in the Senate questionnaire she submitted during her 2017 confirmation process to join the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. The work did not come up in her confirmation hearing.
Barrett wrote that she was one of five lawyers on a team that represented the National Council of Resistance of Iran and its U.S. representative office from 2000 to 2001 in their petition to review the State Department’s foreign-terrorist-organization designation.

The NCRI is affiliated with the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), a onetime militant group comprising Iranian exiles who oppose Iran’s clerical regime. The Obama administration removed the group from the U.S. government’s list of terrorist organizations in 2012. The MEK has faced accusations of cultlike practices, which the organization has disputed as smears.

Barrett wrote that she “assisted with legal research and briefing” for the Iranian exile group’s case while she worked for Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin LLP, a law firm that merged with Baker Botts LLP in 2001 during her employment there. In her questionnaire, Barrett said the counsel of record on the case was Martin D. Minsker, signaling that she was a junior lawyer on the case.
Minsker didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Baker Botts declined to comment.

The MEK formed as a militant group in opposition to Iran’s monarchy but was forced into exile after the 1979 revolution that toppled the shah. The State Department designated the MEK as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, citing its involvement in the killing of Americans in Iran during the 1970s. The department, which also cited a 1992 incident in which five men with knives invaded the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York, said the NCRI “functioned as part of the MEK” and “supported the MEK’s acts of terrorism.”

Shahin Gobadi, a spokesman for the MEK, said the State Department designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization unfairly in 1997 for political reasons, to curry favor with Iran.
“What’s important is the designation, to begin with, wasn’t established and was politically motivated,” Gobadi said, citing statements by Clinton administration officials involved in the decision.

Barrett played a small role in the MEK’s years-long effort to remove its terrorist designation in the United States.
In the case she worked on before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the NCRI argued that because it maintained a U.S. affiliate office and bank account, and was seen as an alias of the MEK by the U.S. government, the exile group should have been afforded due process rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution when the State Department deemed the organization a terrorist group.

The court agreed, ordering the State Department to provide due process by disclosing certain information it used to make the determination and affording the designee a right of rebuttal. The U.S. government maintained the terrorist-group designation until 2012, when a D.C. Circuit judge set a deadline for the State Department to grant or deny the group’s petition.

Days before the deadline, the department revoked the designation, citing the group’s public renunciation of violence and the absence of confirmed acts of terrorism for more than a decade. The decision came as the MEK agreed to leave a base in Iraq that Saddam Hussein had allowed its members to occupy for years. The U.S. military had been providing protection for the group at that base.
“With today’s actions, the Department does not overlook or forget the MEK’s past acts of terrorism, including its involvement in the killing of U.S. citizens in Iran in the 1970s and an attack on U.S. soil in 1992,” the State Department said upon delisting the group. “The Department also has serious concerns about the MEK as an organization, particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members.”

Gobadi, the MEK spokesman, said the terrorist-group designation was “thrown out the window by the courts.” He called the department’s citation of abuse allegations “preposterous remarks” that “were made as a face-saving measure on the day.”

White House spokesman Judd Deere emphasized Barrett’s junior role in the case, noting that she was not the counsel of record and “assisted with legal research and briefing.”
Arthur Hellman, a professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and an expert on the U.S. federal courts, said Barrett, as a junior associate at a law firm, probably would not have had permission to choose her clients — and in any case shouldn’t be judged by them. He said the Supreme Court could use judges with more experience in private practice.
“If we think it’s desirable, as I and a lot of others do, that you have justices on the Supreme Court who have gotten their hands dirty with real-world litigation — some of that is probably going to be on behalf of clients that are not terribly admirable,” Hellman said.

Barrett worked in private practice for two years after clerking for Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia and before entering academia.

The MEK has long sought legitimacy in the United States, in part by paying former government officials from both major parties to speak at its annual rallies, and has presented itself as a secular, democratic alternative to Iran’s theocratic regime. The dissidents also revealed the existence of secret Iranian nuclear sites, aiding U.S. efforts to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Former New York mayor and Trump ally Rudolph W. Giuliani and former Trump national security adviser John Bolton have both been outspoken proponents of the group, as have Democrats like former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell and former Vermont governor Howard Dean.

The group, however, has also been dogged by accusations of human rights abuses, after some former members described cultlike practices by the organization designed to control its members.

“I call them basically a cult,” said Ervand Abrahamian, a professor emeritus of Iranian and Middle Eastern history and politics at Baruch College in New York.
Gobadi, the MEK spokesman, disputed those accusations, describing them as part of a long-standing disinformation campaign against the group by the Iranian regime and its intelligence apparatus.
He said the allegations had been proved “time and again to be totally baseless.”

Julie Tate contributed to this report.

By Paul Sonne and Yeganeh Torbati

October 3, 2020 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

The Mek and Children – Hanif Bali

He has been a member of Sweden Parliament since 2010 but he was born in Kermanshah, Iran in 1987. Three years later in Camp Ashraf, his Mujahed parents left him in the hands of the agents of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO, MEK, PMOI, Cult of Rajavi) to take Hanif to Europe together with hundreds of other children of the MEK members.

Hanif is a successful Swedish citizen now because he is one of those few lucky MEK children who was not returned to Camp Ashraf, Iraq, to receive military training. However, in an interview with Manoto TV in 2016, he recounted heartbreaking stories of his childhood as an orphan in a foreign country. This is what he said about his biological parents: “Mothers were allowed to call their children only once a year. My father has called me only twice in my entire life.”

Hanif Bali as a child vitim of MEK

Hanif arraived in Sweden when he was three years old and moved between eight different families until he turned 18. He spoke of his several moms, “When I was told “your mom”, I had to ask “Which mom?” because I had several moms. “

Today, you can find out a few new details of Hanif’s challenging childhood among his diverse parents and families. On May 2017, he wrote a short caption for a photo of himself by the side of his biological father on his Instagram account: “I met my biological father at 13:30. I do not think DNA test is necessary” (referring to their high resemblance).

Another significant photo shows baby Hanif next to another man. The clarifying caption explains his controversial life far from his biological parents:

“In my entire childhood, I had a lot of fathers. Father is not always biologic or the one who you lived with more or the one who was kinder or more violent than others. Sometimes your dad can be the one who you had the most challenging relationship with but he was the same person who you knew profoundly and loved the most. I have portraits of several fathers in my mind but I had only one dad. I miss him every day.”

October 1, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

MEK, the Most Hated Among Iranians — From Terror to Propaganda

Iranian forces carried out Defensive Operation Mersad on July 26, 1988, the last major military operation of the Iraqi imposed war in the western province of Kermanshah to successfully counterattack against the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) terrorist group backed by the US and Saddam Hussein.[1] Two days before the operation, MEK, who had gathered their forces on the Iranian-Iraqi border and were equipped with heavy weapons provided by Saddam, began invading Iranian territory. The MEK advanced under heavy Iraqi air cover, violating UNSCR 598, accepted by both Iran and Iraq, which would end the war on 8 August 1988.[2] Simultaneously with Operation Forough Javidan by the MEK, the Iraqi army bombed several Iranian villages around Kermanshah with Mustard and Nerve chemical weapons of mass destruction killing hundreds of Iranian civilians and injuring 2,300.[3] Not to mention that during the eight years of Iran-Iraq war more than 350 large-scale gas attacks were reported in the border areas,[4] and there is not even a single United Nation Security Council Resolution to condemn the use of chemical weapons; in fact, there could be one, but the United States vetoed the condemnation. Of course, MEK’s offensive failed, leaving thousands of martyrs. After the war, however, the organization continued its attacks against Iranian civilians and government officials. Out of nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks over the past four decades, about 16,000 have fallen victim to MEK’s acts of terror.[5] The cult, despite its dark history, however, nowadays is being heavily funded by the US regime and Saudis to keep on moving by spreading fake news and propaganda through disinformation campaigns for the sole purpose of manipulating and provoking public opinion.

In February 2020, the New York Times interviewed 10 ex-MEK members who said that the MEK’s Albania camp had a troll farm.[6] A troll farm is an institutionalized group of internet trolls aimed to interfere in political opinions and decision-making. According to the Cambridge dictionary, a troll is someone who leaves an intentionally annoying or offensive message on the internet, in order to upset someone or to get attention or cause trouble. MEK’s Albania troll factory or troll farm promoted the opinions of MEK supporters under specific guidelines for specific reasons, spread fake news, and devoted itself to manipulate and provoke the public for rebellion and violence. Certain analysts such as Kenneth R. Timmerman and Paul R. Pillar also believe that the group hires protesters to shape public opinion in exile.[7] In an article published by The Intercept on 9 June 2019, two former MEK members claimed that “Heshmat Alavi” is not a real person, and that the articles published under that name were actually written by a team of people at the political wing of the MEK.[8] Alavi contributed to several media outlets including Forbes, The Diplomat, The Hill, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, and the English edition of Al Arabiya’s website. According to The Intercept, one of Alavi’s articles published by Forbes was used by the White House to justify Donald Trump Administration’s sanctions against Iran.
An Iranian Activist Wrote Dozens of Articles for Right-Wing Outlets. But Is He a Real Person?
In 2018, President Donald Trump was seeking to jettison the landmark nuclear deal that his predecessor had signed with…
theintercept.com

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Report/Aljazeera_Alavi_MEK.mp4

“We were always active in making false news stories to spread to the foreign press and in Iran,” Reza Sadeghi — a member of the MEK until 2008, involved in lobbying activities in the United States, as well as operations at the MEK’s former base at Camp Ashraf in Iraq — reveals in the interview. “At Camp Ashraf, there were computers set up to do online information operations. Over the years, this activity got more intense with the introduction of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.”

There are dozens, or maybe hundreds, of other networks in step with peremptory demands of some warmongering regime change advocates. Their objectives are to occupy minds and to distort histories, to disturb and to call forth the public, to use people as artillery support under a constant bombardment of provoking and fake news.
Iran International Network, Saudis’ Black Propaganda Machine
Iran International, launched in May 2017 shortly before presidential elections in Iran, is another London-based…
medium.com

[1] Kaveh Farrokh, “Iran at War: 1500–1988,” Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2011.

[2] United Nations, “Search engine for the United Nations Security Council Resolutions,” http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/598

[3] Eric A. Croddy, James J. Wirtz, and Jeffrey A. Larsen, “Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Encyclopedia of Worldwide Policy, Technology, and History,” 2004. The actual casualties may be much higher, as the latency period is as long as 40 years. See Robin Wright, “Iran Still Haunted and Influenced By Chemical Weapons Attacks,” January 2014.

[4] Ali Karami, “Long Legacy,” cbrneworld, 2012, http://www.cbrneworld.com/_uploads/download_magazines/Long_legacy.pdf

[5] Hamid Reza Qasemi, 2016, “Chapter 12: Iran and Its Policy Against Terrorism” in Alexander R. Dawoody, “Eradicating Terrorism from the Middle East. Policy and Administrative Approaches,” Springer International Publishing Switzerland.

[6] Patrick Kingsley, “Highly Secretive Iranian Rebels Are Holed Up in Albania. They Gave Us a Tour,” The New York Times, 16 February 2020.

[7] Zaid Jilani, “Attendees Bused Into MEK Rally, Some Of Whom Don’t Really Understand What The MEK Is,” ThinkProgress, 26 August 2011.

[8] Murtaza Hussain, “An Iranian Activist Wrote Dozens of Articles for Right-Wing Outlets. But Is He a Real Person?” The Intercept, 9 June 2019.

by Mehrdad Torabi – medium.com

September 29, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Hope is their only weapon against Rajavi

Ali was a 22 year-old Iranian soldier when he was taken as a hostage by Kurdish guerilla fighters in Iran-Iraq borders. He was then sold to Iraqi forces as a war prisoner. However, he was not officially a war prisoner under the regulations of the international Red Cross. So he was kept under torture and abuse by Iraqi forces in a camp in Mosul. Fed up with daily physical torture, Ali was deceived by recruiters of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MEKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) to join the group.

This was the start of a long-life imprisonment for Mohammad Ali Sasani. He is 55 years old now. Having lost 33 years of his life inside the MEK camps, he is not allowed to leave the cult-like structure of the group yet. After years of futile effort in order to visit Ali, his parents are still looking forward to meet him some day.

Mahnaz Akafian, Ali’s mother still hopes to see her beloved son. His elderly father is still a caring father, determined to support Ali in any case.

“Where ever Ali is, I pray for him to be prosperous and healthy,”Mrs. Akafian tells Mardom TV.

“I have not seen him for 33 years. He lost his youngness in the MEK. What did Ali achieve in his life…What was the result for Massoud and Maryam Rajavi? Maybe, they think they have gained a lot but they have not gained anything. How do they think that they were able to destroy emotions in the heart of our children and their parents?”

ali sasani's family in front of Camp Liberty-iraq

Ali’s parents are one example of many families who are awaiting the release of their loved ones from the Mujahedin Khalq these days. There are a large number of MEK members’ families whose endeavors and sufferings are not taken serious by the media but their efforts are taken as the attacks of a sworn enemy by the MEK propaganda.

It seems that today the struggle for the MEK leaders is limited to fight the families of their members. Families are considered agents of the Iranian government and members have to fight them. Mr. Sasani, Ali’s father even predicts the day that Ali might show up on the MEK’s TV channel to take action against his family, insulting them and accusing them of being the Iranian agent. However, he promises his son to stay a supportive father for him and to love him forever.”If they force you to show up in TV to insult us, we will whole-heartedly receive you because at least we will see you healthy,”he says in Mardom TV.

Mrs. Akafian warns the MEK leaders about the fruitless struggle they have led against the families. She says:”I warn Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. Change your plan. You cannot cut off the children from their families. They are the beloved children of these families under any circumstance.”

Hope is the key point in the words of parents like Mr. and Mrs. Sasani. They hope that their letters and video messages will somehow reach Ali. They are actually planting the seed of hope to defeat the Rajavis’ plan for the fate of their son.

Mazda Parsi

September 26, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Rajavi is the Main Culprit for the Death of My Sister

Following the publication of the news of Shahin Qasemi’s death by the news media of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi), her brother Siavash Qasemi contacted the office of Nejat Society in Ahvaz, Khuzestan and asked to publish the message of his family’s grief for the loss of his sister:
It is necessary to make our voices heard by the public

Shahin Qasemi who died in MEK camp in Albania because of Corona

My family and I have not had any news about my sister for 40 years. During the past years, my brother died and Shahin did not call to offer condolences. At first, I was not familiar with the atmosphere ruling the MEK and I did not know that the leaders of the group do not allow the members to contact their families. Hence, I thought that my sister had lost her feelings and emotions for her family.

When I got to know about the relations inside the MEK, I found out that she was not allowed to contact the outside world. I got assured that Massoud Rajavi is the main culprit for the ruined relationship between Shahin and us. He did not even let her know about the death of our brother. My family and I consider Rajavi as the main criminal to be charged for the death of my sister.

Why didn’t Maryam Rajavi –who weeps crocodile tears for Shahin’s passing—think of us as her family during those 40 years? Why didn’t she inform Shahin of the death of her brother? Is it humanitarian that the group leaders just gave us the news of her death after 40 years of separation and unawareness of her conditions? Why didn’t they tell us that she was sick, maybe we could help her with her treatment?

Therefore, I announce that Rajavi is the main culprit for the death of my sister. I regard her death as a murder. God damn Rajavi who victimized my sister and other people like her, and broke the hearts of their families.
This is the fate of some sincere and naïve youth who were abused by the Rajavis and were finally buries under the soil with their wasted wished to see their loved ones.

Siavash Qasemi
Nejat Society Khuzestan office

September 24, 2020 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

Who Are the Offspring of the Liberation Movement of Iran?

“Mojahedin-e Khalq! You are the offspring of the Liberation Movement, you were born in 1964 while we were in prison and you went your own way, without running away from home or being expelled.”This is one of the most well-known statements of Mahdi Bazargan in May 1981 addressing Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO); a statement that was intended to pacify them.

Even though this quotation from Bazargan is generally used to pinpoint the origin of Mojahedin-e Khalq i.e., the Liberation Movement, inspection of history demonstrates that the relationship between the two groups had many ups and downs.

Who Are the Offspring of the Liberation Movement of Iran

Accordingly, in this article, we seek to examine the relationship between the MKO and the Liberation Movement before the Islamic Revolution.

The MKO was founded in September 1965 by three members of the Liberation Movement of Iran namely Mohammad Hanifnejad, Saeed Mohsen and Abdolreza Nikbin.

Hanifnejad was born in 1938 in Tabriz and belonged to a middle-class family. Saeed Mohsen was born in 1318 in a religious family in Zanjan. In the Technical College from 1339 to 1342, he was active in the National Front and the Liberation Movement.

Badiezadegan was born in 1317 in Isfahan and studied chemistry at the Technical College. He was in contact with the Liberation Movement as well as the Second National Front during its activity (1).

According to the MKO members’ memoirs, at the time of their establishment, written works of the Liberation Movement members such as Bazargan, Ayatollah Taleghani and Sahabi were among the most important sources of their studies.

Hossein Ahmadi Rouhani, one of the early members of the MKO, regarding the sources that defined this group’s identity, says: “Generally, the books studied were: The Path Taken, God in Society, Love and Worship, The Issue of Revelation, Islam: the School of Fight and Generation by Bazargan; Jihad and Martyrdom, and A Shining Ray from Quran by Ayatollah Taleghani; and Creation of Man and Quran and Evolution by Dr. Yadollah Sahabi” (2).

Mohsen Nejat Hosseini also says: “Educational books in the field of ideology include Quran and Nahj al-Balaghah; A Shining Ray from Quran by Ayatollah Taleghani; Quran and Evolution by Dr. Sahabi; and God in Society, The Infinitesimals, Love and worship and Work and Islam by Bazargan” (3).

Given that the books written by the members of the Liberation Movement were among the important sources of the MKO, this question is raised as to what effect these sources had on Mojahedin’s way of thought. One of the most significant impacts of Bazargan on the founders of the MKO is his idea regarding compatibility of religion and science.

Bazargan points out in his book The Path Taken that contrary to the beliefs many people hold, either religious or non-religious, human beings from the beginning have never taken a path other than that of the prophets. He believes that the prophet’s path and the path that man is following through secularism will eventually reach the same endpoint (4).

Although Bazargan put forward this theory in response to non-religious people who did not consider religion to meet the needs of the day while emphasizing that what man learns through science does not contradict the teachings of the prophets and that eventually human scientific achievements reach a point where they realize what prophets said was accurate, the early members of the MKO made use of this theory to study non-religious texts to establish their identity and therefore began to study Marxist sources.

Posing the question ‘Why are the Marxists far ahead of Muslims in terms of fighting?’, founder of the MKO Mohammad Hanifnejad replied that science is the main reason for the progress of the fighting Marxists.

Hanifnejad believed that as westerners are superior in natural sciences, they have the upper hand in social sciences too. He used to cite a Hadith by the Prophet about the importance of seeking knowledge even from the farthest places such as China, to explain why Mojahedin should obtain the knowledge of fighting from Marxists (5).

Yadollah Sahabi, another member of the Liberation Movement, also greatly influenced the early members of the MKO by promoting an idea on the compatibility of religion and evolution. Sahabi, to reconcile Darwin’s theory of evolution with religion, brought a great shock to popular beliefs at the time by stating that Adam was not the first man. He said, “Human life has two eras: a primitive era belonging to millions of years ago and an era that began by the assignment of Adam”. From the commencement of this era, human got involved in evolution and gradually the thoughtful human emerged (6).

Acceptance of the theory of evolution by Mojahedin made them attempt to clarify this issue in their book entitled Cognition. Discussing the creation of man and universe, the book explains that all changes, even those that look qualitative on the surface, are in fact a part of quantitative changes and they will gradually set the grounds for immense qualitative changes i.e., resurrection.

It is emphasized in this book that the world is dynamic and the assumption that phenomena are still signifies their non-existence. (7) Following Cognition, the book Evolution was compiled by Ali Mihandust, which was based on Dr. Sahabi’s book of Creation of Man. In the book, Sahabi does not consider the theory of evolution to be contrary to religious teachings. Consequently, the MKO accepted the principle of evolution (8).

The Liberation Movement’s support of Mojahedin was not only intellectual, but also political and to some extent financial. Bazargan was always worried about his former disciples and would never hesitate to help them. Sahabi described this concern, quoting that: “One night, Bazargan said that he was worried that MKO members might become exposed and that they would not be able to continue their fight and if necessary, he was going to sell his house and give them the money.”

Although at first, members of the MKO had a strong intellectual connection with the Liberation Movement, but it gradually faded away as their Marxist thoughts became more prominent. For instance, Mojahedin thought of Ayatollah Taleghani as a progressive cleric with a petty-bourgeois base who, by accepting private property and criticizing Marxists, was part of the petty-bourgeois strata of society. Therefore, in their view, Ayatollah Taleghani was theoretically behind Mao and Ho Chi Minh (11).

Bazargan also wrote the book”Scientific Nature of Marxism”after members of the MKO had converted to Marxism in 1975. In this book, he describes the return to a communal society as a kind of regression and negation of evolution. He also explicitly defends property and believes that property is so old that it is seen in animals earlier than humans. This way, Bazargan has denied, in his book, what Mojahedin call a classless monotheistic society.

Overall, a review of the relationship between the MKO and the Liberation Movement indicates that although Mojahedin had intellectual roots in the Liberation Movement, their affiliation with them gradually diminished as the secular aspects of the organization gained prominence. They became a closed independent Stalinist organization and started criticizing leaders of the Liberation Movement leaders which eventually led to removing from their educational sources all the doctrines of the Liberation Movement.

References
(1) Twenty-five-year Political History of Iran (from coup to revolution), Gholamreza Nejati, 1998, pp 393-394
(2) Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), Hossein Ahmadi Rouhani, 2011, p 43
(3) Over the Persian Gulf, Mohsen Nejat Hosseini, 2011, p 419
(4) Collection of Works Vol 1, Mahdi Bazargan, 2012, pp 125-130
(5) Talks, Memoirs and Analytical Articles about the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, Bahman Bazargani, p 116
(6) Talks, Memoirs and Analytical Articles about the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, Bahman Bazargani, p 112
(7) People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, 1972, pp 28 & 85
(8) Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization Arising & the End (1965-2005(, A group of authors, p 323
(9) Iran’s Liberation Movement from its Establishment to its Split, Abbas Ali Gholi Tayefe Abbas, p126
(10) Memories and Reflections in Shah Prison, Mohammad Mohammadi Gorgani, 2017, p 361
(11) Iran’s Liberation Movement from its Establishment to its Split, Abbas Ali Gholi Tayefe Abbas, p 136

September 23, 2020 0 comments

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